{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_71326/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_71326","id":"gutenberg_71326","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71326","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800","Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes\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 Pages 30 & 31 - Headings referred to \u201cCHAPTER\u201d, but all other\n sections are simply numbered. Format of these section headings\n was modified to match the rest of the chapters.\n\n Page 201 - Chapter XVIII heading \u201cAscertainment of the Example Or\n Major Proposition\u201d added to match table of contents.\n\n Page 353 - Chapter XXVI heading \u201cMeeting the Siddhas\u201d added to\n match table of contents.\n\n Page 403 - Section number changed from III to II, to match table\n of contents.\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\nlight editing of the text to insert missing words.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n THE\n\n YOGA-V\u00c1SISHTHA-MAH\u00c1R\u00c1M\u00c1YANA.\n\n VOL. I\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nPROSPECTUS.\n\n\nPlato advised the Athenians to betake themselves to the study of\nMathematics, in order to evade the pestilence incident to the\ninternational war which was raging in Greece; so it is the intention\nof this publication, to exhort our countrymen to the investigation\nof Metaphysics, in order to escape the contagion of Politics and\n_quasi_ politics, which has been spreading far and wide over this\ndevoted land.\n\n V. L. M.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n THE\n\n\n YOGA-V\u00c1SISHTHA MAH\u00c1R\u00c1M\u00c1YANA\n\n OF\n\n V\u00c1LM\u00cdKI\n\n in 4 vols. in 7 pts.\n (Bound in 4.)\n\n\n Vol. 1\n\n Containing\n The Vairagya, Mumukshu, Prakaranas and\n The Utpatti Khanda to Chapter L.\n\n\n _Translated from the original Sanskrit_\n _By_\n VIHARI-LALA MITRA\n\n\n =Distributed By:=\n =D K Publishers Distributors P Ltd.=\n 1, Ansari Road,\n Darya Ganj,\n New Delhi-110002\n Phones: 3278368, 3261465\n Fax: 3264368\n visit us at: www.dkpdindia.com\n e-mail: dkpd@del3.vsnl.net.in\n\n Reprinted in =LPP= 1999\n\n ISBN 81-7536-179-4 (set) ISBN 81-7536-180-8 (vol. 1)\n\n =Published By:=\n =Low Price Publications=\n B-2, Vardhaman Palace,\n Nimri Commercial Centre,\n Ashok Vihar Phase-IV,\n Delhi-110052\n Phone: 7401672\n visit us at: www.lppindia.com\n e-mail: lpp@nde.vsnl.net.in\n\n =Printed At:=\n D K Fine Art Press P Ltd.\n Delhi-110052\n\n =PRINTED IN INDIA=\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE.\n\n\nIn this age of the cultivation of universal learning and its\ninvestigation into the deep recesses of the dead languages of antiquity,\nwhen the literati of both continents are so sedulously employed in\nexploring the rich and almost inexhaustible mines of the ancient\nliterature of this country, it has given an impetus to the philanthropy\nof our wise and benign Government to the institution of a searching\nenquiry into the sacred language of this land. And when the restoration\nof the long lost works of its venerable sages and authors through the\ninstrumentality of the greatest bibliomaniac savants and linguists in\nthe several Presidencies,[1] has led the literary Asiatic Societies of\nthe East and West to the publication of the rarest and most valuable\nSanskrit Manuscripts, it cannot be deemed preposterous in me to presume,\nto lay before the Public a work of no less merit and sanctity than any\nhitherto published.\n\n\nThe Yoga Vasishtha is the earliest work on Yoga or Speculative and\nAbstruse philosophy delivered by the venerable Vedic sage Vasishtha\nto his royal pupil R\u00e1ma; the victor of R\u00e1vana, and hero of the first\nEpic R\u00e1m\u00e1yana, and written in the language of V\u00e1lmiki, the prime bard\nin pure Sanskrit, the author of that popular Epic, and Homer of India.\nIt embodies in itself the _Loci Communes_ or common places relating\nto the science of Ontology, the knowledge of _Sat_\u2014Real Entity, and\n_Asat_\u2014Unreal Non-entity; the principles of Psychology or doctrines\nof the Passions and Feelings; the speculations of Metaphysics in\ndwelling upon our cognition, volition and other faculties of the Mind\n(\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928, \u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f, \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924\u093e, \u0907\u091a\u094d\u091b\u093e, \u0926\u094d\u0935\u0947\u0937\u093e\u0926\u093f) and the tenets, of Ethics and practical morality\n(\u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e). Besides there are a great many precepts on Theology, and the\nnature of the Divinity (\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e \u0935\u093f\u0935\u0947\u0915), and discourses on Spirituality and\nTheosophy (\u091c\u0940\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928); all delivered in the form of Plato\u2019s Dialogues\nbetween the sages, and tending to the main enquiry concerning the true\nfelicity, final beatitude or _Summum bonum_ (\u092a\u0930\u092e \u0928\u093f\u0903\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0947\u092f\u0938\u094d) of all true\nphilosophy.\n\nThese topics have singly and jointly contributed to the structure of\nseveral separate Systems of Science and Philosophy in succeeding ages,\nand have formed the subjects of study both with the juvenile and senile\nclasses of people in former and present times, and I may say, almost\namong all nations in all countries throughout the civilized world.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIt is felt at present to be a matter of the highest importance by the\nnative community at large, to repress the growing ardour of our youth in\npolitical polemics and practical tactics, that are equally pernicious to\nand destructive of the felicity of their temporal and future lives, by a\nrevival of the humble instructions of their peaceful preceptors of old,\nand reclaiming them to the simple mode of life led by their forefathers,\nfrom the perverted course now gaining ground among them under the\ninfluence of Western refinement. Outward peace (\u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f) with\ninternal tranquility (\u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f) is the teaching of our Sastras, and\nthese united with contentment (\u0938\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094b\u0937) and indifference to\nworldly pleasures (\u0935\u0948\u0930\u093e\u0917\u094d\u092f), were believed according to the tenets\nof Yoga doctrines, to form the perfect man,\u2014a character which the Aryans\nhave invariably preserved amidst the revolutions of ages and empires. It\nis the degeneracy of the rising generation, however, owing to their\nadoption of foreign habits and manners from an utter ignorance of their\nown moral code, which the publication of the present work is intended to\nobviate.\n\nFrom the description of the Hindu mind given by Max M\u00fcller; in his\nHistory of the Ancient Literature of India (p. 18) it will appear, that\nthe esoteric faith of the Aryan Indian is of that realistic cast as the\nPlatonic, whose theory of ontology viewed all existence, even that of\nthe celestial bodies, with their movements among the _precepta_ of\nsense, and marked them among the unreal phantoms (\u092e\u093f\u0925\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0926\u0943\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f) or vain\nmirage, (\u092e\u0930\u0940\u091a\u093f\u0915\u093e) as the Hindu calls them, that are interesting in\nappearance but useless to observe. They may be the best of all\n_precepta_, but fall very short of that perfection, which the mental eye\ncontemplates in its meditation-yoga. The Hindu Yogi views the visible\nworld exactly in the same light as Plato has represented it in the\nsimile commencing the seventh book of his Republic. He compares mankind\nto prisoners in a cave, chained in one particular attitude, so as to\nbehold only an ever varying multiplicity of shadows, projected through\nthe opening of the cave upon the wall before them, by certain unseen\nrealities behind. The philosopher alone, who by training or inspiration\nis enabled to turn his face from these visions, and contemplate with his\nmind, that can see at-once the unchangeable reality amidst these\ntransient shadows.\n\nThe first record that we have of Vasishtha is, that he was the author of\nthe 7th _Mandala_ of the Rig Veda (Ashtaka v. 15-118). He is next\nmentioned as _Purohita_ or joint minister with Visw\u00e1mitra to king\nSud\u00e1sa, and to have a violent contest with his rival for the\n(\u092a\u094c\u0930\u094b\u0939\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f) or ministerial office (M\u00fcll. Hist. S. Lit. page 486,\nWeb. Id. p. 38). He is said to have accompanied the army of Sud\u00e1sa, when\nthat king is said to have conquered the ten invading chiefs who had\ncrossed over the river Parushni\u2014(Hydroates or Ravi) to his dominions\n(M\u00fcll. Id. p. 486). Visw\u00e1mitra accompanied Sud\u00e1sa himself beyond\nVip\u00e1sa,\u2014Hyphasis or Beah and Satadru\u2014Hisaudras-Sutlej (Max M\u00fcller,\nAncient Sanscrit literature page 486). These events are recorded to have\noccurred prior to Vasishtha\u2019s composition of the _Mandala_ which passes\nunder his name and in which they are recorded. (M\u00fcll. Id. p. 486).\n\nThe enmity and implacable hatred of the two families of Vasishthas and\nVisw\u00e1mitras for generations, form subjects prominent throughout the\nVedic antiquity, and preserved in the tradition of ages (M\u00fcll. Id. p.\n486, Web. Id. p. 37). Another cause of it was that, Harischandra, King\nof Ayodhy\u00e1, was cursed by Vasishtha, whereupon he made Visw\u00e1mitra his\npriest to the annoyance of Vasishtha, although the office of Br\u00e1hmana\nwas held by him (M\u00fcller Id. page 408 Web. pp. 31-37). In the Br\u00e1hmana\nperiod we find Vasishtha forming a family title for the whole Vasishtha\nrace still continuing as a _Gotra_ name, and that these Vasishthas\ncontinued as hereditary _Gurus_ and _purohitas_ to the kings of the\nsolar race from generation to generation under the same title. The\nVasishthas were always the Brahmanas or High priests in every ceremony,\nwhich could not be held by other Br\u00e1hmanas according to the S\u00e1ta patha\nBr\u00e1hmana (M\u00fcll. Id. page 92); and particularly the Indra ceremony had\nalways to be performed by a Vasishtha, because it was revealed to their\nancestor the sage Vasishtha only (Web. Ind. Lit. p. 123); and as the\n_S\u00e1tapatha Br\u00e1hmana-Taittiriya Sanhit\u00e1_ mentions it.\n\n \u090b\u0937\u092f\u094b \u0935\u093e \u0907\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u0902 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0902 \u0928\u093e\u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0902 \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937\u092e\u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964\n \u0938\u094b\u093d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0935\u0940\u0924\u094d \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0923\u0902 \u0924\u0947 \u0935\u0915\u094d\u0937\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092e\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u0925\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0924\u094d \u092a\u0941\u0930\u094b\u0939\u093f\u0924\u093e\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u093e\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u0928\u093f\u0937\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n\n\u201cThe Rishis do not see Indra clearly, but Vasishtha saw him. Indra said,\nI will tell you, O Br\u00e1hman, so that all men who are born, will have a\nVasishtha for his Purohita\u201d (Max M\u00fcll. Anc. Sans. Lit. p. 92. Web. Id.\np. 123). This will show that the Sloka works, which are attributed to\nVasishtha, Y\u00e1jnavalkya or any other Vedic Rishi, could not be the\ncomposition of the old Rishis, but of some one of their posterity;\nthough they might have been propounded by the eldest sages, and then put\nto writing by oral communication or successive tradition by a distant\ndescendant or disciple of the primitive Rishis. Thus we see the\n_Dr\u00e1hy\u00e1yana Sutras_ of the Sama Veda is also called the Vasishtha\nSutras, from the author\u2019s family name of Vasishtha (Web. Id. p. 79). The\n_\u00e1sval\u00e1yana Grihya Sutra_ assigns some other works to Vasishtha, viz.,\nthe Vasishtha _prag\u00e1th\u00e1_, probably Vashishtha Hymni of Bopp; the\n_Pavam\u00e1nya_, _Kshudra sukta_, _Mah\u00e1sukta_ &c. written in the vedic\nstyle. There are two other works attributed to Vasishtha, the Vasishtha\nSanhit\u00e1 on Astronomy (Web. Id. p. 258) and the Vasishtha Smriti on Law\n(Web. Id. p. 320), which from their compositions in Sanscrit slokas,\ncould not be the language or work of the Vedic Rishi, but of some one\nlate member of that family. Thus our work of Yoga Vasishtha has no claim\nor pretension to its being the composition of the Vedic sage; but as one\npropounded by the sage, and written by V\u00e1lmiki in his modern Sanskrit.\nHere the question is whether Vasishtha the preceptor of R\u00e1ma, was the\nVedic Vasishtha or one of his descendants, I must leave for others to\ndetermine.\n\nAgain in the later _\u00c1ranyaka_ period we have an account of a theologian\nVasishtha given in the _\u00c1rshikopanishad_, as holding a dialogue on the\nnature of _\u00e1tm\u00e1_ or soul between the sages, Visw\u00e1mitra, Jamadagni,\nBharadw\u00e1ja, Gautama and himself; when Vasishtha appealing to the opinion\nof Kapila obtained their assent (Weber Id. p. 162). This appears very\nprobably to be the theological author of our yoga, and eminent above his\ncontemporaries in his knowledge of the Kapila yoga s\u00e1stra which was then\ncurrent, from this sage\u2019s having been a contemporary with king Sagara, a\npredecessor of Rama.\n\nIn the latest S\u00fatra period we find a passage in the\n_Grihya-S\u00fatra-parisishta_, about the distinctive mark of the Vasishtha\nFamily from those of the other _parishads_ or classes of the priesthood.\nIt says;\n\n \u0926\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0923\u0915\u092a\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094b\u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u093e\u0903 \u0906\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0947\u092f\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0915\u092a\u0926\u094d\u0926\u093f\u0928\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u0906\u0919\u094d\u0917\u093f\u0930\u0938\u0903 \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u091a\u0942\u0921\u093e\u0903 \u092e\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u093e\u092d\u0943\u0917\u0935\u0903 \u0936\u093f\u0916\u093f\u0928\u094b\u093d\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0947\u00a0\u0965\n\n\u201cThe Vasishthas wear a braid (lock of hair) on the right side, the\n\u00c1treyas wear three braids, the Angiras have five braids, the Bhrigus\nare bald, and all others have a single crest,\u201d (M\u00fcller Id. p. 53). The\nKarma prad\u00edpa says, \u201cthe Vasishthas exclude meat from their sacrifice;\n\u0935\u0938\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0935\u093f\u0927\u093f\u0903 \u0915\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0938\u094d\u0928\u094b \u0926\u094d\u0930\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u0928\u093f\u0930\u093e\u092e\u093f\u0937\u0903\u00a0\u0964\u201d (M\u00fcller A. S. Lit. p. 54), and the colour\nof their dress was white (Id. p. 483). Many Vasishthas are named in\ndifferent works as; \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920 \u091a\u0947\u0915\u093f\u0924\u093e\u092f\u0928\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920 \u0906\u0930\u093f\u0939\u0923\u0940\u092f\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0935\u0930\u0923\u093f\u0903,\n\u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u0903 \u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u092f\u0923\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920 \u0932\u093e\u0920\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u0928\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920 \u0926\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u0928\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u0915\u094c\u0923\u094d\u0921\u093f\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u0907\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u092a\u094d\u0930\u092e\u0926\u0903, \u0935\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u0903 \u0906\u092d\u0930\u0926\u094d\u092c\u0938\u0941\u0903,\nand some others, bearing no other connection with our author, than that\nof their having been members of the same family (M\u00fcller\u2019s A. S. Lit. p.\n44).\n\nWithout dilating any longer with further accounts relating to the sage\nVasishtha of which many more might be gathered from various sastras, I\nshall add in the conclusion the following notice which is taken of this\nwork by Professor Monier Williams in his work on Indian Wisdom p. 370.\n\n\u201cThere is,\u201d says he, \u201ca remarkable work called Vasishtha R\u00e1m\u00e1yana or\nYoga V\u00e1sishtha or Vasishtha Mah\u00e1r\u00e1m\u00e1yana in the form of an exhortation,\nwith illustrative narratives addressed by Vasishtha to his pupil the\nyouthful R\u00e1ma, on the best means of attaining true happiness, and\nconsidered to have been composed as an appendage to the R\u00e1m\u00e1yana by\nV\u00e1lmiki himself. There is another work of the same nature called the\nAdhy\u00e1tma R\u00e1m\u00e1yana which is attributed to Vy\u00e1sa, and treat of the moral\nand theological subjects connected with the life and acts of that great\nhero of Indian history. Many other works are extant in the vernacular\ndialects having the same theme for their subject which it is needless to\nnotice in this place.\u201d\n\nVasishtha, known as the wisest of sages, like Solomon the wisest of men,\nand Aurelius the wisest of emperors, puts forth in the first part and in\nthe mouth of R\u00e1ma the great question of the vanity of the world, which\nis shown synthetically to a great length from the state of all living\nexistences, the instinct, inclinations, and passions of men, the nature\nof their aims and objects, with some discussions about destiny,\nnecessity, activity and the state of the soul and spirit. The second\npart embraces various directions for the union of the individual with\nthe universal Abstract Existence\u2014the Supreme Spirit\u2014the subjective and\nthe objective truth\u2014and the common topics of all speculative philosophy.\n\nThus says Milton; \u201cThe end of learning is to know God.\u201d\n\nSo the Persian adage, \u201cAkhiral ilm buad ilmi Khod\u00e1.\u201d\n\nSuch also the Sanskrit, \u201cS\u00e1vidy\u00e1 tan matir yay\u00e1.\u201d\n\nAnd the sruti says, \u201cYad jn\u00e1tw\u00e1 n\u00e1paran jn\u00e1nam.\u201d\n\n_i. e._ \u201cIt is that which being known, there is nothing else required to\nbe known.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n FOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1] Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra in Bengal, Benares and Orissa; Dr. Buhler in\nGuzrat; Dr. Kielhorn in the Central Provinces; Dr. Burnell and other\nCollectors of Sanskrit manuscripts in the Presidencies of Bombay,\nMadras and Oudh, whose notices and catalogues have highly contributed\nto bring the hidden treasures of the literature of this country to\nlight.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n OF\n THE FIRST VOLUME.\n\n\n PROLEGOMENA.\n\n PROL. PAGE.\n 1. The Yoga Philosophy \u201d 1\n\n 2. The Om Tat Sat \u201d 34\n\n\n VAIR\u00c1GYA KHANDA.\n BOOK I.\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n INTRODUCTION. Page\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Divine Adoration 1\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Narrative of Sut\u00edkshna 1\n\n SECTION III.\n\n Anecdote of K\u00e1runya 2\n\n SECTION IV.\n\n Story of Suruchi 3\n\n SECTION V.\n\n Account of Arishtanemi 3\n\n SECTION VI.\n\n History of R\u00e1ma 6\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n Reason of writing the R\u00e1m\u00e1yana 8\n\n SECTION I\n\n Persons entitled to its Perusal 8\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Brahm\u00e1\u2019s Behest 9\n\n SECTION III.\n\n Inquiry of Bharadw\u00e1ja 10\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n V\u00e1lm\u00edki\u2019s Admonition 12\n\n SECTION I.\n\n On True Knowledge 12\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Early History of R\u00e1ma 13\n\n SECTION III.\n\n R\u00e1ma\u2019s Pilgrimage 15\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n R\u00e1ma\u2019s Return from Pilgrimage 17\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n Of R\u00e1ma\u2019s Self-Dejection and its Cause 19\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n Advent of Visw\u00e1mitra to the Royal Court 21\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Address of King-Dasaratha 24\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n Visw\u00e1mitra\u2019s Request for R\u00e1ma 26\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n Dasaratha\u2019s Reply to Visw\u00e1mitra 29\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n Visw\u00e1mitra\u2019s Wrath and his Enraged\n Speech 33\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n Melancholy of R\u00e1ma 36\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n Consolation of R\u00e1ma 41\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n R\u00e1ma\u2019s Reply 45\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n Vituperation of Riches 48\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n Depreciation of Human Life 50\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n Obloquy of Egoism 53\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n The Ungovernableness of the Mind 56\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n On Cupidity 59\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n Obloquy of the Body 64\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n Blemishes of Boyhood 70\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n Vituperation of Youth 73\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n Vituperation of Women 77\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n Obloquy of Old Age 81\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n Vicissitudes of Times 85\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n Ravages of Time 90\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n Sports of Death 91\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n The Acts of Destiny 95\n\n CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n Vanity of the World 100\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n Mutability of the World 105\n\n CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n Unreliableness of Worldly Things 109\n\n CHAPTER XXX.\n\n Self-Disparagement 112\n\n CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n Queries of R\u00e1ma 115\n\n CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n Praises of R\u00e1ma\u2019s Speech 118\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII.\n\n Association of Aerial and Earthly Beings 121\n\n\n BOOK II.\n\n\n MUMUKSHU KHANDA.\n\n\n CHAPTER I. PAGE\n\n Liberation of Sukadeva 127\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n Speech of Visw\u00e1mitra 132\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n On the Repeated Creations of the World 135\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n Praise Of Acts and Exertions 139\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n Necessity of Activity 142\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n Refutation of Fatalism 145\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n On the Necessity of Activity 150\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n Invalidation of Destiny 154\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n Investigation of Acts 157\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n Descension of Knowledge 161\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n On the qualifications of the Inquirer\n and Lecturer 166\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n Greatness of True Knowledge 173\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n On Peace and Tranquility of mind 176\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n On the Ascertainment of an argument 184\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n On Contentment 189\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n On Good Conduct 191\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n On the Contents of the Work 195\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n Ascertainment of the Example or Major\n Proposition 201\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n Ascertainment of True Evidence 208\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n On Good Conduct 212\n\n\n BOOK III.\n\n\n UTPATTI KHANDA.\n\n\n EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD.\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n CAUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.\n\n SECTION I. Page\n\n Exordium 215\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Worldly Bondage 216\n\n SECTION III.\n\n Phases of The Spirit 216\n\n SECTION IV.\n\n Nature of Bondage 218\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST CAUSE.\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Narrative of the Air-born and Aeriform\n Br\u00e1hman 223\n\n SECTION II.\n\n State of the Soul 224\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n Causes of Bondage in the Body 229\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Description of the Night-Fall 234\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Nature of the Mind 237\n\n SECTION III.\n\n Kaivalya or Mental Abstraction 239\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n On the Original Cause 243\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n Admonition for attempt of Liberation 246\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n Recognition of the Nihility of the\n Phenomenal World 249\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n Nature of good S\u00e1stras 255\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n On the Supreme cause of All 257\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n Description of the Chaotic State 266\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n Spiritual View of Creation 273\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n The Idealistic Theo-Cosmogony of Ved\u00e1nta 277\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n On the Production of the Self-Born 281\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n Establishment of Brahma 288\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n Story of the Temple and its Prince 299\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n Joy and Grief of the Princess 303\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n Story of the Doubtful Realm or Reverie\n of L\u00edl\u00e1 309\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Description of the Court House and the\n Cortes 313\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n Exposure of the Errors of this World 315\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n Story of a Former Vasishtha and his Wife 319\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n SECTION I\n\n The Moral of the Tale of L\u00edl\u00e1 322\n\n SECTION II.\n\n State of The Human Soul after Death 325\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n Guide to Peace 328\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n Practice of Wisdom or Wisdom in Practice 336\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Abandonment of Desires 336\n\n SECTION II.\n\n On the Practice of Yoga 338\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n The Aerial Journey of Spiritual Bodies 340\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n The Aerial Journey (continued) 342\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Description of the Heavens 343\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n Description of the Earth 349\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n Meeting the Siddhas 353\n\n CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n Past lives of L\u00edl\u00e1 359\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Exposition of L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s Vision 365\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Description of the Mountainous\n Habitation 366\n\n CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n Account of the Previous Life of L\u00edl\u00e1 372\n\n CHAPTER XXX.\n\n Description of the Mundane Egg 378\n\n CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n SECTION I.\n\n Alighting of the Ladies on Earth 382\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Sight of a Battle Array in Earth and Air 383\n\n CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n Onset of the War 386\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII.\n\n Commingled Fighting 389\n\n CHAPTER XXXIV.\n\n Description of the Battle 392\n\n CHAPTER XXXV.\n\n Description of the Battlefield 398\n\n CHAPTER XXXVI.\n\n SECTION I.\n Collision of Equal Arms and Armigerents 401\n\n SECTION II.\n\n Catalogue of the Forces 403\n\n CHAPTER XXXVII.\n\n Catalogue of the Forces (continued) 408\n\n CHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\n Cessation of the War 414\n\n CHAPTER XXXIX.\n\n Description of The Battle Field Infested\n by\n\n Nocturnal Fiends 420\n\n CHAPTER XL.\n\n Reflections on Human Life and Mind 423\n\n CHAPTER XLI.\n\n Discrimination of Error 431\n\n CHAPTER XLII.\n\n Philosophy of Dreaming 438\n\n CHAPTER XLIII.\n\n Burning of the City 442\n\n CHAPTER XLIV.\n\n Spiritual Interpretation of the Vision 448\n\n CHAPTER XLV.\n\n Theism consisting in True Knowledge 454\n\n CHAPTER XLVI.\n\n Onslaught of Vid\u016bratha 457\n\n CHAPTER XLVII.\n\n Encounter of Sindhu and Vid\u016bratha 461\n\n CHAPTER XLVIII.\n\n Description of Daiv\u00e1stras or\n Supernatural Weapons 465\n\n CHAPTER XLIX.\n\n Description of other kinds of Weapons 473\n\n CHAPTER L.\n\n Death of Vid\u016bratha 477\n\n Conclusion 482\n\n Genealogy 485\n\n\n\n\n THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.\n\n\nThe Yoga or contemplative philosophy of the Hindus, is rich, exuberant,\ngrand and sublime, in as much as it comprehends within its ample sphere\nand deep recesses of meditation, all that is of the greatest value, best\ninterest and highest importance to mankind, as physical, moral,\nintellectual and spiritual beings\u2014a knowledge of the cosmos\u2014of the\nphysical and intellectual worlds.\n\nIt is rich in the almost exhaustless treasure of works existing on the\nsubject in the sacred and vernacular languages of the country both of\nancient and modern times. It is exuberant in the profusion of erudition\nand prolixity of ingenuity displayed in the Yoga philosophy of\nPatanjali, commensurate with the extraordinary calibre of the author in\nhis commentary of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1shya on P\u00e1nini (M\u00fcller\u2019s A. S. Lit. p.\n235). Its grandeur is exhibited in the abstract and abstruse reflections\nand investigations of philosophers in the intellectual and spiritual\nworlds as far as human penetration has been able to reach. And its\nsublimity is manifested in its aspiring disquisition into the nature of\nthe human and divine souls, which it aims to unite with the one\nself-same and all pervading spirit.\n\nIt has employed the minds of gods, sages, and saints, and even those of\nheroes and monarchs, to the exaltation of their natures above the rest\nof mankind, and elevation of their dignities to the rank of gods, as\nnothing less than a godly nature can approach and approximate that of\nthe All-perfect Divinity. So says Plato in his Phaedras; \u201cTo contemplate\nthese things is the privilege of the gods, and to do so is also the\naspiration of the immortal soul of man generally; though only in a few\ncases is such aspiration realized.\u201d\n\nThe principal gods Brahm\u00e1 and Siva are represented as Yogis, the chief\nsages Vy\u00e1sa, V\u00e1lmiki, Vasishtha and Y\u00e1jnavalkya were propounders of Yoga\nsystems; the saints one and all were adepts in Yoga; the heroes R\u00e1ma and\nKrishna were initiated in it, and the kings Dasaratha and Janaka and\ntheir fellow prince Buddha were both practitioners and preceptors of\nYoga. Mohammed held his nightly communions with God and his angels, and\nJesus often went over the hills\u2014there to pray and contemplate. Socrates\nhad his demon to communicate with, and in fact every man has his genius\nwith whom he communes on all matters. All this is Yoga, and so is all\nknowledge derived by intuition, inspiration and revelation, said to be\nthe result of Yoga.\n\n\n II. SCIENCES CONNECTED WITH YOGA\n\n\nThe yoga philosophy, while it treats of a variety of subjects, is\nnecessarily a congeries of many sciences in itself. It is the Hindu form\nof metaphysical argument for the existence of the \u2018One Eternal\u2019\u2014the\nPlatonic \u201cReality.\u201d It is ontology in as much as it teaches _a priori_\nthe being of God. It is psychology in its treatment of the doctrine of\nfeelings and passions, and it is morality in teaching us to keep them\nunder control as brutal propensities, for the sake of securing our final\nemancipation and ultimate restoration into the spirit of spirits. Thus\nit partakes of the nature of many sciences in treating of the particular\nsubject of divinity.\n\nThe Yoga in its widest sense of the application of the mind to any\nsubject is both practical, called _kriy\u00e1 Yoga_, as also theoretical,\nknown as _Jn\u00e1na Yoga_; and includes in itself the two processes of\nsynthesis and analysis alike, in its combination (_Yoga_) of things\ntogether, and discrimination (_Viveka_) of one from the other, in its\ninquiry into the nature of things (_Vastuvich\u00e1ra_), and investigation of\ntheir abstract essence called _Saty\u00e1nusandh\u00e1nn\u00e1_. It uses both the _a\npriori_ (_p\u00farvavat_) and _a posteriori_ (_paravat_) arguments to prove\nthe existence of the world from its Maker and the _vice versa_, as\nindicated in the two aphorisms of induction and deduction _Yatov\u00e1 imani_\nand _Janmadyasya yatah &c._ It views both subjectively and objectively\nthe one self in many and the many in one unto which all is to return, by\nthe two mysterious formulas of _So ham_ and _tat twam &c._\n\nIt is the reunion of detached souls with the Supreme that is the chief\nobject of the Yoga philosophy to effect by the aforesaid processes and\nother means, which we propose fully to elucidate in the following pages;\nand there is no soul we think so very reprobate, that will feel\ndisinclined to take a deep interest in them, in order to effect its\nreunion with the main source of its being and the only fountain of all\nblessings. On the contrary we are led to believe from the revival of the\nyoga-cult with the spiritualists and theosophists of the present day\nunder the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and the lectures of Col. Olcott,\nthat the Indian public are beginning to appreciate the efficacy of Yoga\nmeditation, and its practice gaining ground among the pious and educated\nmen in this country.\n\nNotwithstanding the various significations of Yoga and the different\nlights in which it is viewed by several schools, as we shall see\nafterwards, it is most commonly understood in the sense of the esoteric\nfaith of the Hindus, and the occult adoration of God by spiritual\nmeditation. This is considered on all hands as the only means of one\u2019s\nultimate liberation from the general doom of birth and death and the\nmiseries of this world, and the surest way towards the final absorption\nof one\u2019s-self in the Supreme,\u2014the highest state of perfection and the\n_Summum bonum_ of the Hindu. The subject of Yoga Vasishtha is no other\nthan the effecting of that union of the human with the Divine Soul,\namidst all the trials and tribulations of life.\n\n\n III. THE YOGA OF ENGLISH WRITERS.\n\n\nThe yoga considered merely as a mode or system of meditation is\nvariously described by European authors, as we shall see below.\n\nMonier Williams says \u201cAccording to Patanjali\u2014the founder of the system,\nthe word yoga is interpreted to mean the act of \u201cfixing or concentration\nof the mind in abstract meditation\u201d. Its aim is to teach the means by\nwhich the human soul may attain complete union with the Supreme Soul,\nand of effecting the complete fusion of the individual with the\nuniversal spirit even in the body\u201d, Indian Wisdom p. 102.\n\nWeber speaking of the yoga of the Atharvan Upanishads says; \u201cIt is the\nabsorption in _\u00e1tman_, the stages of this absorption and the external\nmeans of attaining it.\u201d Again says he; \u201cThe yoga in the sense of union\nwith the Supreme Being, is absorption therein by means of meditation. It\noccurs first in the latter Upanishads, especially the tenth book of the\nTaittir\u00edya and the Katha Upanishads, where the very doctrine is itself\nenunciated\u201d, Hist. Ind Lit p. 153-171.\n\nM\u00fcllins in his prize essay on Vedanta says, the Sankhya yoga is the\nunion of the body and mind, p. 183. In its Vedantic view, it is the\njoining of the individual with the Supreme Spirit by holy communion of\nthe one with the other through intermediate grades, whereby the limited\nsoul may be led to approach its unlimited fountain and lose itself in\nthe same.\n\n\n IV. YOGA-CHARACTERISTIC OF THE HINDUS.\n\n\nMax M\u00fcller characterises the Hindu as naturally disposed to _Yoga_ or a\ncontemplative turn of his mind for his final beatitude in the next life,\namidst all his cares, concerns and callings in this world, which he\nlooks upon with indifference as the transient shadows of passing clouds,\nthat serve but to dim for a moment but never shut out from his view the\nfull blaze of his luminous futurity. This description is so exactly\ngraphic of the Hindu mind, that we can not with-hold giving it entire as\na mirror of the Hindu mind to our readers on account of the scarcity of\nthe work in this country.\n\n\u201cThe Hindu\u201d says he \u201centers the world as a stranger; all his thoughts\nare directed to another world, he takes no part even where he is driven\nto act, and even when he sacrifices his life, it is but to be delivered\nfrom it.\u201d Again \u201cThey shut their eyes to this world of outward seeming\nactivity, to open them full on the world of thought and rest. Their life\nwas a yearning for eternity; their activity was a struggle to return to\nthat divine essence from which this life seemed to have severed them.\nBelieving as they did in a really existing and eternal Being _to\nontos-onton_ they could not believe in the existence of this passing\nworld.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf the one existed, the other could only seem to exist; if they lived\nin the one they could not live in the other. Their existence on earth\nwas to them a problem, their eternal life a certainty. The highest\nobject of their religion was to restore that bond by which their own\nself (_\u00e1tman_) was linked to the eternal self (_param\u00e1tman_); to recover\nthat unity which had been clouded and obscured by the magical illusions\nof reality, by the so-called _M\u00e1y\u00e1_ of creation.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt scarcely entered their mind to doubt or to affirm the immortality of\nthe soul (_pretya-bh\u00e1va_). Not only their religion and literature, but\ntheir very language reminded them daily of that relation between the\nreal and seeming world.\u201d (Hist A. S. Lit. p. 18). In the view of Max\nM\u00fcller as quoted above, the Hindu mind would seem to be of that\nrealistic cast as the Platonic, whose theory of Ontology viewed all\nexistence as mere phantoms and _precepta_ of sense, and very short of\nthat perfection, which the mind realizes in its meditation or _Yoga_\nreveries.\n\nThe Hindu Yogi views the visible world exactly in the same light as we\nhave said before, that Plato has represented it in the simile commencing\nthe seventh book of his Republic. \u201cHe compares mankind to prisoners in a\ncave, chained in one particular attitude, so as to behold only an\never-varying multiplicity of shadows, projected through the opening of\nthe cave upon the wall before them, by some unseen realities behind. The\nphilosopher alone, who by training or inspiration, is enabled to turn\nhis face from these visions, and contemplate with his mind, that can at\nonce see the unchangeable reality amidst these transient shadows\u201d, Baine\non Realism pp. 6 and 7.\n\n\n V. VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS OF YOGA.\n\n\nThe V\u00e1chaspati lexicon gives us about fifty different meanings of the\nword _Yoga_, according to the several branches of art or science to\nwhich it appertains, and the multifarious affairs of life in which the\nword is used either singly or in composition with others. We shall give\nsome of them below, in order to prevent our mistaking any one of these\nsenses for the special signification which the term is made to bear in\nour system of _Yoga_ meditation.\n\nThe word _Yoga_ from the root \u201c_jung_\u201d (Lat.) _Jungere_ means the joining\nof any two things or numbers together. Amara Kosha gives five different\nmeanings of it as, \u0938\u0902\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0947 \u092e\u0947\u0932\u0928\u0947 \u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u0947 \u0927\u093e\u0930\u0928\u0947 \u0909\u092a\u093e\u092f\u0947\u091a; the other Koshas give five\nothers, _viz._, \u092d\u0948\u0937\u091c\u094d\u092f\u0947 \u0926\u0947\u0939 \u0938\u094d\u0925\u0948\u0930\u094d\u092f\u0947 \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0915\u094c\u0936\u0932\u0947 \u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0938\u0918\u093e\u0924\u0915\u0947\u091a\u00a0\u0964\n\n1. In Arithmetic it is \u0905\u0919\u094d\u0915 \u092f\u094b\u0917 or addition, and \u092f\u094b\u0917 \u092c\u093f\u092d\u093e\u0917 is addition\nand subtraction. 2. In Astronomy the conjunction of planets and stars\n\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0939\u0928\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0926\u093f \u0938\u0902\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0903 3. In Grammar it is the joining of letters and words\n\u0938\u0928\u094d\u0927\u093f\u0903 \u0938\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0903\u00a0\u0964 4. In Ny\u00e1ya it means the power of the parts taken\ntogether \u0905\u092c\u092f\u092c \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903, \u0924\u0930\u094d\u0915 \u0926\u0940\u092a\u093f\u0915\u093e\u00a0\u0964 5. In M\u00edm\u00e1nsa it is defined to be\nthe force conveyed by the united members of a sentence.\n\nIn contemplative philosophy it means; 1. According to P\u00e1tanjali,\u2014the\nsuppression of mental functions \u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094b\u0927\u0903\u00a0\u0964 2. The Buddhists mean by\nit\u2014the abstraction of the mind from all objects. \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092c\u093f\u0937\u092f\u0947\u092d\u094d\u092f\u0903 \u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0928\u093f\u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094b\u0927\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n3. The Vedanta meaning of it is\u2014\u091c\u0940\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094b\u0930\u0948\u0915\u094d\u092f\u0902 the union of the human\nsoul with the Supreme spirit. 4. Its meaning in the _Yoga_ system is\nnearly the same, _i. e._, the joining of the vital spirit with the\nsoul; \u0938\u0902\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0902 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0941\u0930\u094d\u091c\u094d\u091c\u0940\u092c\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094b\u0930\u093f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 5. Every process of meditation is called also as\nYoga. \u092f\u094b\u0917\u093e\u0919\u094d\u0917 \u092f\u094b\u0917 \u0909\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n\nOthers again use it in senses adapted to their own views and subjects;\nsuch as the Vaiseshika philosophy uses it to mean, the fixing of the\nattention to only one subject by abstracting it from all others\n\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094b \u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u092e\u0928\u0938\u0903 \u0938\u0902\u092f\u094b\u0917\u094b \u092f\u094b\u0917 \u0909\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964 2. The R\u00e1m\u00e1nuja sect define it as the seeking of one\u2019s\nparticular Deity \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0938\u094d\u0935 \u0926\u0947\u0935\u0924\u093e\u0928\u0941 \u0938\u0928\u094d\u0927\u093e\u0928\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093f \u0930\u093e\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0941\u091c\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nIn this sense all sectarian cults are accounted as so many kinds of\nYogas by their respective votaries. 3. According to some Buddhists it is\nthe seeking of one\u2019s object of desire \u0905\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092a\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092f\u0947 \u092a\u0930\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u0941\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0903\u00a0\u0964 4. And with\nothers, it is a search after every desirable object. 5. In Rhetoric it\nmeans the union of lovers \u0915\u093e\u092e\u0941\u0915 \u0915\u093e\u092e\u093f\u0928\u0940 \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0932\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nIn Medicine it means the compounding of drugs under which head there are\nmany works that are at first sight mistaken for Yoga philosophy. Again\nthere are many compound words with _Yoga_ which mean only \u201ca treatise\u201d\non those subjects, such as, works on wisdom, on Acts, on Faith &c., are\ncalled \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928 \u092f\u094b\u0917, \u0915\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e \u092f\u094b\u0917, \u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092f\u094b\u0917 \u0907\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964 .\n\nMoreover the words _Yoga_ and _Viyoga_ are used to express the two\nprocesses of synthesis and analysis both in the abstract and practical\nsciences for the combination and disjoining of ideas and things.\n\n\n VI. THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF YOGA.\n\n\nThe constituent parts and progressive steps of Yoga, are composed of a\nseries of bodily, mental and spiritual practices, the proper exercise of\nwhich conduces to the making of a perfect man, as a moral, intellectual\nand spiritual being, to be united to his Maker in the present and future\nworlds. These are called the eight stages of _Yoga_ (\u0905\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093e\u0919\u094d\u0917 \u092f\u094b\u0917), of which\nsome are external (\u092c\u0939\u093f\u0930\u0919\u094d\u0917) and others internal (\u0905\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u0919\u094d\u0917\u093e\u0928\u093f). The external ones\nare:\n\n_1st._ _Yama_ (\u092f\u092e); Forbearance or restraint of passions, feelings &c.,\nincluding the best moral rules in all religions.\n\n_2nd._ _Niyama_ (\u0928\u093f\u092f\u092e ); Particular rules and vows for the observance of\nthe _Yogi_.\n\n_3rd._ _Asana_ (\u0906\u0938\u0928); sedate position of the body to help deep\nmeditation.\n\n_4th._ Pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u092f\u093e\u092e); Suppression and suspension of breath.\n\n_5th._ Praty\u00e1h\u00e1ra (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u093e\u0930), Restraint or control of senses and organs.\n\nAmong the internal practices are reckoned the following; _viz._;\n\n_6th._ _Dhy\u00e1na_ (\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928); Inward contemplation and meditation.\n\n_7th._ _Dh\u00e1ran\u00e1_ (\u0927\u093e\u0930\u0923\u093e); Steadiness of the mind in study.\n\n_8th._ _Sam\u00e1dhi_ (\u0938\u092e\u093e\u0927\u093f), Trance, the last stage of _Yoga_.\n\nThese again comprise some other acts under each of them, such as;\n\nI. _Yama_ (\u0938\u092e\u092f\u092e) Restraint includes five acts under it;\n\n_1st._ _Ahims\u00e1_ (\u0905\u0939\u093f\u0902\u0938\u093e); Universal innocence or hurting no animal\ncreature.\n\n_2nd._ _Asteyam_ (\u0905\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0947\u092f\u0902); Avoidance of theft or stealth.\n\n_3rd._ _Satyam_ (\u0938\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902); Observance of truth.\n\n_4th._ _Brahmacharyam_ (\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u091a\u0930\u094d\u092f\u0902); consisting in purity and chastity.\n\n_5th._ _Aparigraha_ (\u0905\u092a\u0930\u093f\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0939); Disinterestedness.\n\nII. _Niyama_ (\u0928\u093f\u092f\u092e \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u0927\u093e); Moral rules consisting of five-fold acts. _Viz._;\n\n_1st._ _Saucham_ (\u0936\u094c\u091a\u0902); Personal cleanliness.\n\n_2nd._ _Santosha_ (\u0938\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094b\u0937\u0903); contentment.\n\n_3rd._ _Tapas_ (\u0924\u092a\u0938\u094d); Devotion including self denial and self\nmortification.\n\n_4th._ _S\u00e1dhy\u00e1ya_ (\u0938\u093e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f); knowledge of all nature.\n\n_5th._ _Pranidh\u00e1na_ (\u0908\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0928\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u0902); Adoration of God.\n\nIII. _Asana_ (\u0906\u0938\u0928); Different modes of postures, tranquil posture\n(\u092a\u0926\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0928) &c.\n\nIV. _Pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma_ (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u092f\u093e\u092e\u0903); Rules of Respiration, three sorts,\nviz.;\n\n_1st._ _Rechaka_ (\u0930\u0947\u091a\u0915\u0902); Expiration or Exhalation.\n\n_2nd._ _P\u00faraka_ (\u092a\u0942\u0930\u0915\u0902); Inspiration or Inhalation.\n\n_3rd._ _Kumbhaka_ (\u0915\u0941\u092e\u094d\u092d\u0915\u0902 \u0905\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0927\u093e); Suppression of breathing, eight ways.\n\nV. _Praty\u00e1h\u00e1ra_ (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u093e\u0930\u0903 \u0907\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f \u0928\u093f\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0939\u0903) Restraining the senses from their\ngratifications in many ways.\n\nVI. _Dhy\u00e1na_ (\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928 \u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094b\u0927\u0903); Abstract contemplation, apart from the testimonies\nof:\u2014\n\n 1. Pratyaxa (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937); Perceptions.\n 2. Pram\u00e1na (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0923\u0902); Apprehensions.\n 3. Anum\u00e1na (\u0905\u0928\u0941\u092e\u093e\u0928); Inference.\n 4. Sabda (\u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u0903); Verbal testimony.\n\nVII. _Dh\u00e1ran\u00e1_ (\u0927\u093e\u0930\u0923\u093e); Retentiveness.\n\nVIII. _Sam\u00e1dhi_ (\u0938\u092e\u093e\u0927\u093f); Absorption in meditation, in two ways;\n 1. _Savikalpa_ (\u0938\u092c\u093f\u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a\u0903); With retention of self volition.\n 2. _Nirvikalpa_ (\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a\u0903); _With loss of volition._\n\nThe Up\u00e1yas (\u0909\u092a\u093e\u092f\u093e\u0903); Or the means spoken of before are;\n\n 1. _Uposhana_ (\u0909\u092a\u094b\u0937\u0923\u0902); Abstinence.\n 2. _Mit\u00e1sana_ (\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093e\u0936\u0928\u0902); Temperance.\n 3. _\u00c1srama_ (\u0906\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092e\u0903); Sheltered abodes.\n 4. _Visr\u00e1ma_ (\u092c\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092e\u0903) Rest and repose from labor.\n 5. _Avarodha_ (\u0905\u092c\u0930\u094b\u0927\u0903); Self confinement in closets.\n 6. _Asanam_ (\u0905\u0936\u0928\u0902); _Subsistence on light food._\n\nBeside these there are many vices called _Ap\u00e1yas_ or _d\u00f3shas_\n(\u0905\u092a\u093e\u092f\u093e\u0926\u094b\u0937\u093e\u0903) which are obstacles to meditation, and which we omit on\naccount of their prolixity.\n\n\nVII. NATURE OF THE SOUL.\n\n\nNow as the end and aim of _Yoga_ is the emancipation of the Soul, it is\nnecessary to give some account of the nature of the soul (_\u00e1tmatatwa_)\nas far as it was known to the sages of India, and formed the primary\nsubject of inquiry with the wise men of every country according to the\nsayings; \u201c_Gnothe seauton_,\u201d\n\n \u201c_Nosce teipsum_,\u201d \u201cKnow thyself\u201d, \u201c_Khodra bedan_,\u201d and Arabic\n \u201c_Taalam Nafsaka_,\u201d \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0941 \u0938\u0928\u094d\u0927\u0940\u092f\u0924\u093e\u092e\u094d &c.\n\n\u201cThe word Atman,\u201d says Max M\u00fcller, \u201cwhich in the Veda occurs as often as\n\u201c_twan_,\u201d meant life, particularly animal life\u201d (Vide Rig Veda I. 63, 8.)\n_Atm\u00e1_ in the sense of _self_ occurs also in the Rig Veda (I. 162. 20),\nin the passage \u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e-\u0924\u092a\u0924\u094d \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u092a\u093f\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0902. It is also found to be used\nin the higher sense of soul in the verse \u0938\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u094b \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u091c\u0917\u0924\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0942\u0937\u0936\u094d\u091a \u201cThe sun is the\nsoul of all that moves and rests (R. I. 115. 1). The highest soul is\ncalled _param\u00e1tman_ (\u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e) of which all other souls partake, from\nwhich all reality in this created world emanates, and into which every\nthing will return.\u201d\n\n_Atman_ originally meant air as the Greek _atmos_, Gothic _ahma_, Zend\n_tm\u00e1nam_, Sanscrit \u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0902 and \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0902, Cuniform _adam_, Persian _dam_,\nwhence we derive Sans. \u0905\u0939\u0902 Hindi \u0939\u092e\u094d Uria and Prakrit \u0905\u092e\u0942 and Bengali\n\u0906\u092e\u093f, \u092e\u0941\u0907 &c. The Greek and Latin _ego_ and German _ich_ are all derived\nfrom the same source. The Romance _je_ and Hindi _ji_ are corruptions\nof Sanskrit \u091c\u0940\u092c meaning life and spirit. Again the P\u00e1li \u0905\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e and the\nPrakrit \u0906\u092a\u094d\u092a\u093e is from the Sanscrit \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e, which is \u0906\u092a\u094d in Hindi, \u0906\u092a\u0928\nin Bengali and \u0905\u092a\u094d\u092a\u0928 in Uria &c. The Persian \u201c_man_\u201d is evidently the\n_S\u00e1tman_ by elision of the initial syllable.\n\nThese meanings of _\u00e1tman_ = the self and _ego_ form the basis of the\nknowledge of the Divine soul both of the Hindu as of any other people,\nwho from the consciousness of their own selves rise to that of the\nSupreme. Thus says Max M\u00fcller on the subject, \u201cA Hindu speaking of\nhimself \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094d spoke also, though unconsciously of the soul of the\nuniverse \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094d, and to know himself, was to him to know both his\nown self and the Universal soul, or to know himself in the Divine self.\u201d\n\nWe give below the different lights in which the Divine soul was viewed\nby the different schools of Hindu philosophy, and adopted accordingly in\ntheir respective modes of Yoga meditation. The Upanishads called it\nBrahma of eternal and infinite wisdom \u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Vedantists;\u2014A Being full of intelligence and blissfulness\n\u0938\u091a\u094d\u091a\u093f\u0926\u093e\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0926 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe S\u00e1nkaras;\u2014A continued consciousness of one self. \u0938\u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092a\u0932\u092c\u094d\u0927\u093f \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u094b\u093d\u0939\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964\nThe doctrine of Descartes and Malebranche.\n\nThe Materialists\u2014convert the soul to all material forms \u0926\u0947\u0939\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Lok\u00e1yatas\u2014take the body with intelligence to be the soul;\n\u091a\u0948\u0924\u0928\u094d\u092f\u092c\u093f\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0903 \u0926\u0947\u0939\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Ch\u00e1rv\u00e1kas\u2014call the organs and sensations as soul; \u0907\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\nDo. Another sect\u2014take the cognitive faculties as such; \u091a\u0947\u0924\u0928\u093e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u094d\u092f\u092a\u0930\u0947 \u091a\u093e\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nDo. Others\u2014Understand the mind as soul \u092e\u0928\u094b \u090f\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n\nDo. Others\u2014call the vital breath as soul \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923 \u090f\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n\nDo. Others\u2014understand the son as soul \u092a\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u090f\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Digambaras\u2014say, the complete human body is the soul \u0926\u0947\u0939\u092a\u0930\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe M\u00e1dhyamikas\u2014take the vacuum for their soul \u0936\u0942\u0928\u094d\u092f\u092e\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Yog\u00e1ch\u00e1ris\u2014understand the soul to be a transient flash of knowledge\nin the spirit in meditation. \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u0902 \u0935\u093f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0923\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Sautr\u00e1ntas\u2014call it a short inferior knowledge. \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u0941\u092e\u0947\u092f \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u093f\u0915 \u092c\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Vaibh\u00e1shikas\u2014take it to be a momentary perception \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u093f\u0915 \u092c\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093f \u0935\u0948\u092d\u093e\u0937\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Jainas\u2014take their preceptor to be their soul \u0905\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u0915 \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u0907\u0924\u093f \u091c\u0948\u0928\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Logicians\u2014A bodiless active and passive agency \u0926\u0947\u0939\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0915\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u0938\u0902\u0938\u093e\u0930\u0940 \u0915\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e \u092d\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0947\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Naiy\u00e1yikas\u2014understand the spirit to be self manifest \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0936\u094d\u092f \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0928\u0948\u092f\u093e\u092f\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe S\u00e1nkhyas,\u2014call the spirit to be passive, not active \u092d\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0947\u092c \u0928\u0915\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0947\u0924\u093f \u0938\u093e\u0902\u0916\u094d\u092f\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Yogis\u2014call Him a separate omnipotent Being \u0905\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0924\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0915\u094d\u0924 \u0908\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0903 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0903 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Saivas,\u2014designate the spirit as knowledge itself \u0905\u0928\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0926\u093f \u092a\u0926 \u092c\u0947\u0926\u0928\u0940\u092f \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0936\u0948\u092c\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe May\u00e1v\u00e1dis,\u2014style Brahma as the soul \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0948\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u093f \u092e\u093e\u092f\u093e\u092c\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0928\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Vaiseshikas,\u2014acknowledge two souls\u2014the Vital and Supreme\n\u091c\u0940\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u091a \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937 \u090f\u092c\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Nyay\u00e1 says\u2014because the soul is immortal there is a future state\n\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e \u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0947 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0924\u094d\u092f\u092d\u093e\u092c\u0938\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nAnd thus there are many other _theories_ about the nature of the soul.\n\nThe Atm\u00e1v\u00e1dis\u2014spiritualists, consider the existence of the body as\nunnecessary to the existence of the soul.\n\n\n VIII. FINAL EMANCIPATION OR BEATITUDE.\n\n\nThe object of _Yoga_, as already said, being the emancipation of the\nsoul from the miseries of the world, and its attainment to a state of\nhighest felicity, it is to be seen what this state of felicity is, which\nit is the concern of every man to know, and which the _Yogi_ takes so\nmuch pains to acquire. The Vedantic Yogi, as it is well known, aims at\nnothing less than in his absorption in the Supreme Spirit and loosing\nhimself in infinite bliss. But it is not so with others, who are averse\nto loose the sense of their personal identity, and look forward to a\nstate of self existence either in this life or next, in which they shall\nbe perfectly happy. The Yogis of India have various states of this bliss\nwhich they aim at according to the faith to which they belong, as we\nshall show below.\n\nThe Vedantic Yogi has two states of bliss in view; _viz._; the one\n_inferior_ which is attained in this life by means of knowledge\n\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092e\u0930\u0903 \u091c\u0940\u092c\u0928\u094d\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0932\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u0902 \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0935\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u092e\u0947\u0935, and the other _superior_, obtainable after many\nbirths of gradual advancement to perfection \u092a\u0930\u0902 \u0928\u093f\u0903\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0947\u092f\u0938\u0902 \u0915\u094d\u0930\u092e\u0947\u0923 \u092d\u092c\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Ch\u00e1rv\u00e1kas say, that it is either independence or death that is\nbliss. \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u092e\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e \u092e\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe M\u00e1dhyamikas say; it is extinction of self that is called liberation\n\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u094b\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0947\u0926\u094b \u092e\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Vijn\u00e1ni philosophers\u2014have it to be clear and elevated understanding\n\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092e\u0932\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u094b\u0926\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Arhatas have it in deliverance from all veil and covering\n\u0906\u092c\u0930\u0923 \u092c\u093f\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe M\u00e1y\u00e1v\u00e1dis say, that it is removal of the error of one\u2019s\nseparate existence as a particle of the Supreme spirit\n\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0902\u0936\u093f\u0915\u091c\u0940\u092c\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092e\u093f\u0925\u094d\u092f\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928 \u0928\u093f\u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe R\u00e1m\u00e1nujas called it to be the knowledge of V\u00e1sudeva as cause of all,\n\u092c\u093e\u0938\u0941\u0926\u0947\u092c \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe M\u00e1dhyamikas have it for the perfect bliss enjoyed by Vishnu\n\u092c\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u094b\u0930\u093e\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Ballabhis expect it in sporting with Krishna in heaven\n\u0915\u0943\u0937\u094d\u0923\u0947\u0923 \u0938\u0939 \u0917\u094b\u0932\u0915\u0947 \u0932\u0940\u0932\u093e\u0928\u0941\u092d\u093e\u092c\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe P\u00e1supatas and M\u00e1heswaras place it in the possession of all dignity\n\u092a\u0930\u092e\u0948\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe K\u00e1p\u00e1likas place it in the fond embraces of Hara and Durga\n\u0939\u0930\u092a\u093e\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0932\u093f\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Pratyabhijn\u00e1nis call it to be the perfection of the soul.\n\u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0932\u093e\u092d\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Raseswara V\u00e1dis have it in the health of body produced by mercury\n\u092a\u093e\u0930\u0926\u0947\u0928 \u0926\u0947\u0939\u0938\u094d\u0925\u0948\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Vaisesikas seek it in the extinction of all kinds of pain\n\u0926\u0941\u0903\u0916\u0903 \u0928\u093f\u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0924\u093f \u0915\u0923\u093e\u0926\u093e\u0926\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Mim\u00e1nsakas view their happiness in heavenly bliss\n\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0917\u093e\u0926\u093f \u0938\u0941\u0916 \u092d\u094b\u0917\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Sarvajnas say that, it is the continued feeling of highest felicity\n\u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u0924\u093f\u0936\u092f \u0938\u0941\u0916\u092c\u094b\u0927\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe P\u00e1nini philologers find it in the powers of speech\n\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0930\u0942\u092a\u093e\u092f\u093e \u092c\u093e\u0923\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0926\u0930\u094d\u0936\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe S\u00e1nkhyas find it in the union of force with matter\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u094c \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092c\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093e\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Ud\u00e1s\u00edna Atheists have it as consisting in the ignoring of self\nidentity \u0905\u0939\u0902\u0919\u094d\u0915\u0930 \u0928\u093f\u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe P\u00e1tanjalas view it in the unconnected unity of the soul\n\u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0932\u0947\u092a \u0915\u0948\u092c\u0932\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe Persian Sufis call it _\u00e1z\u00e1digi_ or unattachment of the soul to any\nworldly object.\n\n\n IX. ORIGIN OF YOGA IN THE VEDAS.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Not in the Vedic Period.]\n\nThe origin of yoga meditation is placed at a period comparatively less\nancient than the earliest Sanhita or hymnic period of vedic history,\nwhen the Rishis followed the elementary worship of the physical\nforces, or the Brahmanic age when they were employed in the ceremonial\nobservances.\n\n[Sidenote: Some _Traces_ of it.]\n\nThere are however some traces of abstract contemplation \u201cdhy\u00e1na yoga\u201d\nto be occasionally met with in the early Vedas, where the Rishis are\nmentioned to have indulged themselves in such reveries. Thus in the\nRig Veda\u2014129. 4. \u0938\u0924\u094b \u0935\u0928\u094d\u0927\u0941\u092e\u0938\u0924\u093f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u0935\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0928\u094d \u0939\u0943\u0926\u093f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u0940\u0937\u094d\u092f \u0915\u0935\u092f\u094b \u092e\u0928\u0940\u0937\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n\n\u201cThe poets discovered in their heart, through meditation, the bond of\nthe existing in the non-existing.\u201d M. M\u00fcller. A. S. Lit. (p. 19.)\n\n[Sidenote: The G\u00e1yatr\u00ed Meditation.]\n\nWe have it explicitly mentioned in the G\u00e1yatr\u00ed hymn of the Rig Veda,\nwhich is daily recited by every Brahman, and wherein its author\nVisw\u00e1mitra \u201cmeditated on the glory of the Lord for the illumination of\nhis understanding\u201d \u092d\u0930\u094d\u0917\u094b \u0926\u0947\u0935\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0927\u0940\u092e\u0939\u093f\u00a0\u0964 But this bespeaks a development of\nintellectual meditation \u201c_jnana yoga_\u201d only, and not spiritual as there\nis no prayer for (\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f) liberation.\n\n[Sidenote: \u00c1ranyaka Period.]\n\nIt was in the third or \u00c1ranyaka period, that the yoga came in vogue\nwith the second class of the Atharva Upanishads, presenting certain\nphases in its successive stages, as we find in the following analysis\nof them given by Professor Weber in his History of Ancient Sanskrit\nLiterature. This class of works, he says, is chiefly made up of\nsubjects relating to _yoga_, as consisting in divine meditation and\ngiving up all earthly connections. (Ibid p. 163).\n\n[Sidenote: Yoga Upanishads.]\n\nTo this class belong the J\u00e1b\u00e1la, Katha\u2014sruti, Bhallavi, Samvartasruti,\nSanny\u00e1sa, Hansa and Paramhansa Upanishads, Srimaddatta, the M\u00e1ndukya\nand Tarkopanishads, and a few others, (Ibid. p. 164). It will exceed\nour bounds to give an account of the mode of _yoga_ treated in these\ntreatises, which however may be easily gathered by the reader from a\nreference to the Fifty two Upanishads lately published in this city.\n\n[Sidenote: Their different modes of yoga.]\n\nBeside the above, we find mention of yoga and the various modes of\nconducting it in some other Upanishads, as given below by the same\nauthor and analyst. The Kathopanishad or Kathavall\u00ed of the Atharva\nVeda, treats of the first principles of Deistic Yoga. Ibid. p. 158.\n\nThe Garbhopanishad speaks of the S\u00e1nkhya and P\u00e1tanjali yoga systems as\nthe means of knowing N\u00e1r\u00e1yana. (Ibid. p. 160). The Brahmaopanishad,\nsays Weber, belongs more properly to the yoga Upanishads spoken of\nbefore. (Ibid. p. 161).\n\nThe Nir\u00e1lambopanishad exhibits essentially the yoga stand point\naccording to Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra (Notices of S. Mss. II 95. Weber\u2019s\nId. p. 162). The yoga tatwa and yoga sikh\u00e1 belong to yoga also, and\ndepict the majesty of _\u00c1tm\u00e1_. (Ibid. p. 165).\n\nAmong the Sectarian Upanishads will be found the N\u00e1r\u00e1yanopanishad,\nwhich is of special significance in relation to the S\u00e1nkhya and Yoga\ndoctrines (Ibid. p. 166).\n\n[Sidenote: S\u00e1nkhya and P\u00e1tanjala Yogas.]\n\nIt is plain from the recurrence of the word S\u00e1nkhya in the later\nUpanishads of the Taittir\u00edya and Atharva vedas and in the Nirukta and\nBhagavad G\u00edt\u00e1, that the S\u00e1nkhya Yoga was long known to the ancients,\nand the P\u00e1tanjala was a further development of it. (Ibid. p. 137).\n\n[Sidenote: Yoga Y\u00e1jnavalkya.]\n\nAlong with or prior to P\u00e1tanjali comes the Yoga S\u00e1stra of Yogi\nY\u00e1jnavalkya, the leading authority of the S\u00e1tapatha Br\u00e1hmana, who is\nalso regarded as a main originator of the yoga doctrine in his later\nwritings. (Ibid. p. 237). Y\u00e1jnavalkya speaks of his obtaining the Yoga\nS\u00e1stra from the sun, \u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f\u091e\u094d\u091a\u093e\u0930\u0923\u094d\u092f\u0915\u092e\u0939\u0902 \u092f\u0926\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u092c\u093e\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092c\u093e\u0928\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u0936\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092e\u0924\u094d \u092a\u094d\u0930\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f\u0902 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u092e\u092d\u0940\u092a\u094d\u0938\u0924\u093e\u00a0\u0965\n\n\u201cHe who wishes to attain yoga must know the \u00c1ranyaka which I have\nreceived from the sun, and the Yoga s\u00e1stra which I have taught.\u201d\n\n\n X. RISE OF THE HERETICAL YOGAS.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Buddhist and Jain Yogas.]\n\nBeside the Orthodox yoga systems of the Upanishads, we have the\nHeterodox Yoga Sastras of the Buddhists and Jains completely concordant\nwith those of Y\u00e1jnavalkya in the Brihad \u00e1ranyaka and Atharvan\nUpanishads, (Weber\u2019s Id. p. 285).\n\n[Sidenote: The concordance with the Vedantic.]\n\nThe points of coincidence of the ved\u00e1nta yoga with those of Buddhism\nand Jainism, consist in as much as both of them inculcate the doctrine\nof the interminable metempsychosis of the human soul, as a consequence\nof bodily acts, previous to its state of final absorption or utter\nannihilation, according to the difference in their respective views. Or\nto explain it more clearly they say that, \u201cThe state of humanity in its\npresent, past and future lives, is the necessary result of its own acts\n\u201cKarma\u201d in previous births.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: The weal or woe of mankind.]\n\nThat misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable sequence of\nconduct in former states of existence, and that our present actions\nwill determine our states to come; that is, their weal or woe depending\nsolely on the merit or demerit of acts. It is, therefore, one\u2019s\ncessation from action by confining himself to holy meditation, that\nsecures to him his final absorption in the supreme according to the\none; and by his nescience of himself that ensures his utter extinction\naccording to the other.\n\n[Sidenote: The Pur\u00e1nic yoga.]\n\nIn the Pur\u00e1nic period we get ample accounts of _yoga_ and _yogis_. The\nKurma purana gives a string of names of yoga teachers. The practice of\n_yoga_ is frequently alluded to in the Vana parva of Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata. The\nobservances of yoga are detailed at considerable length and strenuously\nenjoined in the Udyoga parva of the said epic. Besides in modern times\nwe have accounts of yogis in the Sakuntala of K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa (VII. 175) and\nin the M\u00e1dhava M\u00e1lati of Bhava-bh\u00fati (act V.). The R\u00e1mayana gives an\naccount of a S\u00fadra yogi, and the Bh\u00e1gavatg\u00edt\u00e1 treats also of yoga as\nnecessary to be practiced (chap. VI. V. 13).\n\n[Sidenote: The T\u00e1ntrika yoga.]\n\nThe Tantras or cabalistic works of modern times are all and every one\nof them no other than yoga sastras, containing directions and formulas\nfor the adoration of innumerable deities for the purpose of their\nvotaries\u2019 attainment of consummation \u201c_Yoga Siddhi_\u201d through them. It\nis the T\u00e1ntrika yoga which is chiefly current in Bengal, though the old\nforms may be in use in other parts of the country. It is reckoned with\nthe heretical systems, because the processes and practices of its yoga\nare mostly at variance with the spiritual yoga of old. It has invented\nmany _m\u00fadras_ or masonic signs, monograms and mysterious symbols, which\nare wholly unintelligible to the yogis of the old school, and has the\ncarnal rites of the _pancha-mak\u00e1ra_ for immediate consummation which a\nspiritualist will feel ashamed to learn (See Wilson. H. Religion).\n\n[Sidenote: The Hatha Yoga.]\n\nThis system, which as its name implies consists of the forced\ncontortions of the body in order to subdue the hardy boors to\nquiescence, is rather a training of the body than a mental or spiritual\ndiscipline of a moral and intelligent being for the benefit of the\nrational soul. The votaries of this system are mostly of a vagrant and\nmendicant order, and subject to the slander of foreigners, though they\ncommand veneration over the ignorant multitude.\n\n[Sidenote: The Sectarian yogas.]\n\nThe modern sectarians in upper Hindustan, namely the followers of\nR\u00e1m\u00e1nuja, Gorakhn\u00e1th, N\u00e1nak, Kabir and others, possess their respective\nmodes of yoga, written in the dialects of Hindi, for their practice in\nthe _maths_ or monasteries peculiar to their different orders.\n\n[Sidenote: Yoga an indigene of India.]\n\n_Lux-ab-oriens._ \u201cLight from the east:\u201d and India has given more light\nto the west than it has derived from that quarter. We see India in\nGreece in many things, but not Greece in India in any. And when we see\na correspondence of the Asiatic with the European, we have more reason\nto suppose its introduction to the west by its travellers to the east,\nsince the days of Alexander the Great, than the Indians\u2019 importation\nof any thing from Europe, by crossing the seas which they had neither\nthe means nor privilege to do by the laws of their country. Whatever,\ntherefore, the Indian has is the indigenous growth of the land, or else\nthey would be as refined as the productions of Europe are generally\nfound to be.\n\n[Sidenote: Its European forms &c.]\n\nProfessor Monier Williams speaking of the yoga philosophy says; \u201cThe\nvotaries of animal magnetism, clairvoyance and so called spiritualism,\nwill find most of their theories represented or far outdone by\ncorresponding notions existing in the _yoga_ system for more than two\nthousand years ago.\u201d In speaking of the Vedanta he declares; \u201cThe\nphilosophy of the Sufis, alleged to be developed out of the Koran,\nappears to be a kind of pantheism very similar to that of the Vedanta.\u201d\nHe has next shewn the correspondence of its doctrines with those of\nPlato. Again he says about the S\u00e1nkhya; \u201cIt may not be altogether\nunworthy of the attention of Darwinians\u201d (Ind. Wisdom).\n\n[Sidenote: The yoga &c. in Greece.]\n\nThe Dialectic Ny\u00e1ya in the opinion of Sir William Jones expressed in\nhis Discourse on Hindu philosophy, was taken up by the followers of\nAlexander and communicated by them to Aristotle: and that Pythagoras\nderived his doctrine of Metempsychosis from the Hindu _yoga_ in his\ntravels through India. His philosophy was of a contemplative cast from\nthe sensible to the immaterial Intelligibles.\n\n[Sidenote: The Gnostic yoga.]\n\nWeber says; \u201cThe most flourishing epoch of the S\u00e1nkhya-yoga, belongs\nmost probably to the first centuries of our eras, the influence it\nexercised upon the development of gnosticism in Asia Minor being\nunmistakable; while further both through that channel and afterwards\ndirectly also, it had an important influence upon the growth of\nSophi-philosophy\u201d (See Lassen I. A. K. & Gildemeister, Scrip.\nArab. de rebus indicis loci et opuscula.)\n\n[Sidenote: Yoga among Moslems.]\n\nIt was at the beginning of the 11th century that Albiruni translated\nP\u00e1tanjali\u2019s work (Yoga-S\u00fatra) into Arabic, and it would appear the\nS\u00e1nkhya S\u00fatras also; though the information we have of the contents of\nthese works, do not harmonize with the sanskrit originals. (Reinaud\nJournal Asiatique and H. M. Elliot Mahomedan History of India. Weber\u2019s\nInd. Lit. p. 239).\n\n[Sidenote: Buddhistic Yoga in Europe.]\n\nThe Gnostic doctrines derived especially from Buddhistic missions\nthrough Persia and Punjab, were spread over Europe, and embraced and\ncultivated particularly by Basilides, Valentinian, and Bardesanes as\nwell as Manes.\n\n[Sidenote: Manechian Doctrines.]\n\nIt is, however, a question as to the amount of influence to be ascribed\nto Indian philosophy generally, in shaping these gnostic doctrines of\nManes in particular, was a most important one, as has been shown by\nLassen III. 415. Beal. I. R. A. S. II. 424. Web. Ind. Lit. p. 309.\n\n[Sidenote: Buddhist and S\u00e1nkhya yogas.]\n\nIt must be remembered that Buddhism and its yoga are but offshoots of\nS\u00e1nkhya yoga, and sprung from the same place the _Kapila V\u00e1stu_.\n\n\n XII. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF YOGA.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Varieties of yoga.]\n\nThe Yoga system will be found, what Monier Williams says of Hinduism\nat large, \u201cto present its spiritual and material aspects, its esoteric\nand exoteric, its subjective and objective, its pure and impure sides\nto the observer.\u201d \u201cIt is,\u201d he says, \u201cat once vulgarly pantheistic,\nseverely monotheistic, grossly polytheistic and coldly atheistic. It\nhas a side for the practical and another for the devotional and another\nfor the speculative.\u201d Again says he; \u201cThose, who rest in ceremonial\nobservances, find it all satisfying; those, who deny the efficacy of\nworks and make faith the one thing needful, need not wander from its\npale; those, who delight in meditating on the nature of God and man,\nthe relation of matter and spirit, the mystery of separate existence\nand the origin of evil, may here indulge their love of speculation.\u201d\n(Introduction to Indian Wisdom p. xxvii.)\n\nWe shall treat of these _seriatim_, by way of notes to or\ninterpretation of the above, as applying to the different modes of yoga\npractised by these several orders of sectarians.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Spiritual yoga. \u0905\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e \u092f\u094b\u0917\u0903\u00a0\u0964 ]\n\nThat the earliest form of _yoga_ was purely spiritual, is evident from\nthe Upanishads, the Ved\u00e1nta doctrines of Vy\u00e1sa and all works on the\nknowledge of the _soul_ (adhy\u00e1tma Vidy\u00e1). \u201cAll the early Upanishads\u201d,\nsays Weber, \u201cteach the doctrine of _atm\u00e1_-spirit, and the later ones\ndeal with yoga meditation to attain complete union with _\u00e1tm\u00e1_ or the\nSupreme Spirit.\u201d Web. Ind. Lit. p. 156. \u201cThe _\u00e1tm\u00e1_ soul or self and\nthe supreme spirit (param\u00e1tm\u00e1) of which all other souls partake, is the\nspiritual object of meditation (yoga).\u201d Max M\u00fcller\u2019s A. S. Lit. p. 20.\nYajnavalkya says; \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u092c\u093e\u0930\u0947 \u0926\u094d\u0930\u0937\u094d\u091f\u092c\u094d\u092f \u0913\u0924\u092c\u094d\u092f \u092e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u092c\u094d\u092f \u0928\u093f\u0926\u093f\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0924\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n\u201cThe Divine Spirit is to be seen, heard, perceived and meditated\nupon &c.\u201d If we see, hear, perceive and know Him, then this whole\nuniverse is known to us. A. S. Lit. p. 23. Again, \u201cWhosoever looks for\nBrahmahood elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned.\nWhosoever looks for _Kshatra_ power elsewhere than in the Divine\nSpirit, should be abandoned. This Brahmahood, this Kshatra power,\nthis world, these gods, these beings, this universe, all is Divine\nSpirit.\u201d Ibid. The meaning of the last passage is evidently that, the\nspirit of God pervades the whole, and not that these are God; for\nthat would be pantheism and materialism; whereas the Sruti says that,\n\u201cGod is to be worshipped in spirit and not in any material object.\u201d\n\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u094b\u092a\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0924\u0935\u094d\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The Materialistic yoga. \u0938\u093e\u0902\u0916\u094d\u092f \u092c\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0915 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe materialistic side of the yoga, or what is called the _Pr\u00e1kritika_\nyoga, was propounded at first in the _S\u00e1nkhya yoga_ system, and thence\ntaken up in the Pur\u00e1nas and _Tantras_, which set up a primeval matter\nas the basis of the universe, and the _purusha_ or animal soul as\nevolved out of it, and subsisting in matter. Weber\u2019s Ind. Lit. p. 235.\n\n[Sidenote: Of Matter\u2014Prakriti.]\n\nHere, the _avyakta_\u2014matter is reckoned as prior to the _purusha_ or\nanimal soul; whereas in the Ved\u00e1nta the _purusha_ or primeval soul is\nconsidered as prior to the _avyakta_-matter. The S\u00e1nkhya, therefore,\nrecognizes the adoration of matter as its yoga, and its founder Kapila\nwas a yogi of this kind. Later materialists meditate on the material\nprinciples and agencies as the causes of all, as in the Vidyanmoda\nTarangin\u00ed; \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0947\u092e\u0939\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902 \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u092f\u0924\u0941\u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0926\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: Of Spirit\u2014Purusha.]\n\nThese agencies were first viewed as concentrated in a male form, as\nin the persons of Buddha, Jina and Siva, as described in the Kum\u00e1ra\nSambhava \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u092c\u0932\u094b\u0915\u0926\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0903; and when in the female figure of _Prakriti_ or\nnature personified, otherwise called _Saktirup\u00e1_ or the personification\nof energy, as in the Devi m\u00e1h\u00e1tmya; \u092f\u093e \u0926\u0947\u092c\u0940 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092d\u0942\u0924\u0947\u0937\u0941 \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0947\u0923 \u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0924\u093e\n&c. They were afterwards viewed in the five elements _panchabh\u00fata_,\nwhich formed the elemental worship of the ancients, either singly or\nconjointly as in the _pancha-bh\u00e1utik\u00e1 up\u00e1san\u00e1_, described in the _Sarva\ndarsana sangraha_.\n\n[Sidenote: Nature worship in eight forms.]\n\nThe materialistic or nature worship was at last diversified into eight\nforms called _ashta m\u00farti_, consisting of earth, water, fire, air,\nsky, sun, moon, and the sacrificial priest, which were believed to be\nso many forms of God _\u00cdsa_, and forming the objects of his meditation\nalso. The eight forms are summed up in the lines; \u091c\u0932\u0902 \u0938\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092e\u0939\u0940\u092c\u0939\u094d\u0923\u093f\u0903 \u092c\u093e\u092f\u0941\u0930\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0936\u092e\u0947\u092c\u091a\u00a0\u0964\n\u0926\u0940\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924\u094b\u092c\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u0903 \u0938\u094b\u092e\u0903 \u0907\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0937\u094d\u091f\u094c \u0924\u0928\u0935\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u092e\u0943\u0924\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 or as it is more commonly read in\nBengal, \u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924\u093f\u0930\u094d\u091c\u0932\u0902 \u0924\u0925\u093e \u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b \u0935\u093e\u092f\u0941\u0930\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0936\u092e\u0947\u0935 \u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0915\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0925\u093e \u091a\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u094b \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0937\u094d\u091f\u094c\u0939\u0930\u0938\u094d\u092f\u091a\u00a0\u0964 That they were\nforms of \u00cdsa is thus expressed by K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa in the Raghu-vansa;\n\u0905\u0935\u0947\u0939\u093f \u092e\u093e\u0902 \u0915\u093f\u0919\u094d\u0915\u0930\u092e\u0937\u094d\u091f \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u0947\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0915\u0941\u092e\u094d\u092d\u094b\u0926\u094d\u092d\u092c\u094b \u0928\u093e\u092e \u0928\u093f\u0915\u0941\u092e\u094d\u092d\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902; and that they were meditated upon\nby him as expressed by the same in his Kum\u00e1ra Sambhava;\n\n \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0927\u093e\u092f \u0938\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d \u0938\u092e\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u092e\u0947\u092c \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u092e\u0937\u094d\u091f \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0965\n\nThe prologue to the Sakuntal\u00e1 will at once prove this great poet to have\nbeen a materialist of this kind; thus;\n\n \u092f\u093e \u0938\u0943\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u0930\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0941 \u0930\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e \u092c\u0939\u0924\u093f \u092c\u093f\u0927\u093f \u0939\u0941\u0924\u0902 \u092f\u093e \u0939\u092c\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092f\u093e\u091a\u0939\u094b\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u00a0\u0964\n \u092f\u0947 \u0926\u094d\u0935\u0947\u0915\u093e\u0932\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0927\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0903 \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0941\u0924\u093f\u092c\u093f\u0937\u092f\u0917\u0941\u0923\u093e \u092f\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0924\u093e\u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u092e\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n \u092f\u093e \u092e\u093e\u0939\u0941\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0924\u093f \u092f\u092f\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u093f\u0928\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0938\u0928\u094d\u0928\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0928\u0941\u092d\u093f\u0930\u092c\u0924\u0941 \u092c\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093e\u092d\u093f\u0930\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093e\u092d\u093f\u0930\u0940\u0936\u0903\u00a0\u0965\n\n\u201cWater the first work of the creator, and Fire which receives the\noblations ordained by law &c. &c. May \u00cdsa, the God of Nature, apparent\nin these forms, bless and sustain you.\u201d\n\nBesides all this the Sivites of the present day, are found to be\nvotaries of this materialistic faith in their daily adoration of the\neight forms of Siva in the following formula of their ritual;\n\n\u0967 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e\u092f \u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924\u093f \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0968 \u092d\u092c\u093e\u092f \u091c\u0932 \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\u0969 \u0930\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u00a0\u0964\u092f \u0905\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u096a \u0909\u0917\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092f \u092c\u093e\u092f\u0941 \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\u096b \u092d\u0940\u092e\u093e\u092f \u0906\u0915\u093e\u0936 \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u096c \u092a\u0936\u0941\u092a\u0924\u092f\u0947 \u092f\u091c\u092e\u093e\u0928 \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\u096d \u092e\u0939\u093e\u0926\u0947\u092c\u093e\u092f \u0938\u094b\u092e \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u096e \u0908\u0936\u093e\u0928\u093e\u092f \u0938\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092f \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u092f\u0947 \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0965\n\nBoth the S\u00e1nkhya and Saiva materialism are deprecated in orthodox works\nas atheistic and heretical, like the impious doctrines of the modern\npositivists and materialists of Europe, on account of their disbelief in\nthe existence of a personal and spiritual God. Thus says, Kum\u00e1rila;\n\u0938\u093e\u0902\u0916\u094d\u092f\u092f\u094b\u0917 \u092a\u093e\u091e\u094d\u091a\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0928 \u092a\u093e\u0936\u0941\u092a\u0924 \u0936\u093e\u0916\u094d\u092f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0928\u094d\u0925\u092a\u0930\u093f\u0917\u0943\u0939\u0940\u0924 \u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u0928\u093f\u0935\u0928\u094d\u0927\u0928\u093e\u0928\u093f (Max M\u00fcller\u2019s A. S. Lit. p. 78.)\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Esoteric \u201c_Jn\u00e1na yoga_.\u201d]\n\nIt is the occult and mystic meditation of the Divinity, practised by\nreligious recluses after their retirement from the world in the deep\nrecesses of forests, according to the teachings of the \u00c1ranyakas of the\nVedas. In this sense it is called \u201c_Alaukika_\u201d or recluse, as opposed\nto the \u201c_laukika_\u201d or the popular form. It is as well practicable in\ndomestic circles by those that are qualified to practise the \u201c_Jn\u00e1na\nyoga_\u201d (\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u092f\u094b\u0917) or transcendental speculation at their leisure.\nOf the former kind were the Rishis S\u00faka deva, Y\u00e1jnavalkya and others,\nand of the latter sort were the royal personages Janaka and other kings\nand the sages Vasistha, Vy\u00e1sa and many more of the \u201c_munis_.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The Exoteric _R\u00e1ja yoga_.]\n\nThis is the \u201c_laukika_\u201d or popular form of devotion practised chiefly\nby the outward formulae\u2014_vahirangas_ of yoga, with observance of the\ncustomary rites and duties of religion. The former kind called _Vidy\u00e1_\n(\u0935\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e) and the latter _Avidy\u00e1_ (\u0905\u0935\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e), are enjoined\nto be performed together in the Veda, which says: \u092f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0935\u0947\u0926\u094b\u092d\u092f\u0902 \u0938\u0939 &c. The\nBhagavadgit\u00e1 says to the same effect, \u0928\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u0923\u093e\u092e\u0928\u093e\u0930\u092e\u094d\u092d\u094d\u092f\u0928\u0948\u0937\u094d\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0902 \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937\u094b\u0936\u094d\u0928\u0941\u0924\u0947.\nThe yoga V\u00e1sishtha inculcates the same doctrine in conformity with the\nSruti which says: \u0905\u0928\u094d\u0927\u0924\u092e\u092e\u094d\u092a\u094d\u0930\u092c\u093f\u0936\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092f\u0947\u0909\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u093e\u0902\u0930\u0924\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0924\u094b\u092d\u0942\u092f\u090f\u092c\u0924\u0947\u0924\u092e\u094b \u092f\u0947 \u0909\u0905\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u093e\u0902\u0930\u0924\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The Subjective or _Hansa yoga_.]\n\nThe _hansa_ or _paramahansa_ yoga is the subjective form, which\nconsists in the perception of one\u2019s identity with that of the supreme\nbeing, whereby men are elevated above life and death. (Weber\u2019s Ind.\nLit. p. 157.) The formula of meditation is \u201c_soham_, _hansah_\u201d\n(\u0938\u094b\u093d\u0939\u0902 \u0939\u0902\u0938\u0903) I am He, _Ego sum Is_, and the Arabic \u201c_Anal Haq_\u201d;\nwherein the Ego is identified with the _absolute_.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. The objective word _Tattwamasi_.]\n\nThe objective side of yoga is clearly seen in its formula of _tat twam\nasi_\u2014\u201cthou art He.\u201d Here \u201cthou\u201d the object of cognition\u2014a _non ego_, is\nmade the absolute subjective (Weber. Ind. Lit. p. 162). This formula\nis reduced to one word _tatwam_ \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902 denoting \u201ctruth,\u201d which\ncontained in viewing every thing as Himself, or having subordinated all\ncosmical speculations to the objective method.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. The Pure yoga-Suddha Brahmacharyam.]\n\nThe pure Yoga has two meanings viz.; the holy and unmixed forms\nof it. The former was practised by the celibate Brahmach\u00e1ris and\nBrahmach\u00e1rinis of yore, and is now in practice with the K\u00e1nphutta\n_yogis_ and _yoginis_ of Katiyawar in Guzerat and Bombay. Its unmixed\nform is found among the _Brahmav\u00e1dis_ and _V\u00e1dinis_, who practise\nthe pure contemplative yoga of Ved\u00e1nta without any intermixture of\nsectarian forms. It corresponds with the philosophical mysticism of\nsaint Bernard, and the mystic devotion of the Sufis of Persia. (See Sir\nWm. Jones. On the Mystic Poetry of the Hindus, Persians and Greeks.)\n\n[Sidenote: 8. The Impure or _Bhanda yoga_.]\n\nThe impure yoga in both its significations of unholiness and\nintermixture, is now largely in vogue with the followers of the\n_tantras_, the worshippers of Siva and Sakti, the modern Gosavis of\nDeccan, the Bullabh\u00e1ch\u00e1ris of Brindaban, the Gosains, Bhairavis and\nVaishnava sects in India, the Aghoris of Hindustan, and the Kart\u00e1bhaj\u00e1s\nand _Ner\u00e1-neris_ of Bengal.\n\n[Sidenote: 9. The Pantheistic or _Visv\u00e1tm\u00e1 yoga_.]\n\nThis is well known from the pantheistic doctrines of Ved\u00e1nta, to\nconsist in the meditation of every thing in God and God in every thing;\n\u201c_Sarvam khalvidam Brahama_\u201d \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902 \u0916\u0932\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0926\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964 \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0948\u0924\u0924; and that such contemplation\nalone leads to immortality. \u092d\u0942\u0924\u0947\u0937\u0941 \u092d\u0942\u0924\u0947\u0937\u0941 \u092c\u093f\u091a\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u092f \u0927\u0940\u0930\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0932\u094d\u0932\u094b\u0915\u093e\u0926\u092e\u0943\u0924\u093e \u092d\u092c\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 It corresponds\nwith the pantheism of Persian Sufis and those of Spinoza and Tindal in\nthe west. Even Sadi says; \u201c_Ham\u00e1n nestand unche hasti tui_,\u201d there is\nnothing else but thyself. So in Urdu, _Jo kuch hai ohi hai nahin aur\nkuchh_.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. The Monotheistic or _Adwaita Brahma yoga._]\n\nIt consists in the meditation of the creed \u0913\u0902 \u090f\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u092c\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902 of the\nBrahmans, like the \u201cWahed Ho\u201d of Moslems, and that God is one of\nUnitarian Christians. The monotheistic yoga is embodied in the\nSvet\u00e1swatara and other Upanishads (Weber p. 252 a). As for severe\nmonotheism the Mosaic and Moslem religions are unparalleled, whose\ntenet it is \u201c_la sharik laho_\u201d one without a partner; and, \u201cThou shalt\nhave no other God but Me.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 11. The Dualistic or _Dwaita yoga_.]\n\nThe dualistic yoga originated with Patanjali, substituting his\n_Isvara_ for the _Purusha_ of S\u00e1nkhya, and taking the _Prakriti_ as\nhis associate. \u201cFrom these,\u201d says Weber, \u201cthe doctrine seems to rest\nsubstantially upon a dualism of the _Purusha_ male and _avyakta_ or\nPrakriti\u2014the female.\u201d This has also given birth to the dualistic faith\nof the _androgyne_ divinity\u2014the Protogonus of the Greek mythology,\nthe _ardhan\u00e1riswara_ of Manu, the undivided Adam of the scriptures,\nthe Hara-Gauri and Um\u00e1-Maheswara of the Hindu S\u00e1ktas. But there is\nanother dualism of two male duties joined in one person of _Hari-hara_\nor _Hara-hari_; whose worshippers are called _dwaita-v\u00e1dis_, and among\nwhom the famous grammarian Vopadeva ranks the foremost.\n\n[Sidenote: 12. The Trialistic or _Traita-yoga_.]\n\nThe doctrines of the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and that\nof the Platonic triad and Christian Holy Trinity are well known to\ninculcate the worship and meditation of the three persons in one, so\nthat in adoring one of them, a man unknowingly worships all the three\ntogether.\n\n[Sidenote: 13. The Polytheistic yoga or _Sarva Devop\u00e1sana_.]\n\nThis consists of the adoration of a plurality of deities in the\nmythology by every Hindu, though every one has a special divinity\nof whom he is the votary for his particular meditation. The later\nupanishads have promulgated the worship of several forms of Vishnu and\nSiva (Web. I. Lit. p. 161); and the _Tantras_ have given the _dhy\u00e1nas_\nor forms of meditation of a vast member of deities in their various\nforms and images (Ibid. p. 236).\n\n[Sidenote: 14. The Atheistic or _Nir\u00edswara_ yoga.]\n\nThe Atheistic yoga is found in the _niriswara_ or hylo-theistic system\nof Kapila, who transmitted his faith \u201cin nothing\u201d to the Buddhists and\nJains, who having no God to adore, worship themselves, in sedate and\nsilent meditation. (Monier Williams, Hindu Wisdom p. 97).\n\n[Sidenote: 15. The Theistic or _\u00c1stikya yoga_.]\n\nThe Theistic yoga system of Patanjala: otherwise called the _seswara_\nyoga, was ingrafted on the old atheistic system of S\u00e1nkhya with\na belief in the Iswara. It is this system to which the name yoga\nspecially belongs. (Weber\u2019s Ind. Lit. pp. 238 and 252).\n\n[Sidenote: 16. The Practical _Yoga S\u00e1dhana_.]\n\n\u201cThe yoga system,\u201d says Weber, \u201cdeveloped itself in course of time in\noutward practices of penance and mortifications, whereby absorption\nin the Supreme Being was sought to be obtained. We discover its early\ntraces in the Epics and specially in the Atharva upanishads.\u201d (Ind.\nLit. p. 239). The practical _yoga S\u00e1dhana_ is now practised by every\ndevotee in the service of his respective divinity.\n\n[Sidenote: 17. The devotional or _Sanny\u00e1sa yoga_.]\n\nThe devotional side of the yoga is noticed in the instance of Janaka\nin the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, and of Y\u00e1jnavalkhya in the Brihad\u00e1ranyaka in the\npractice of their devotions in domestic life. These examples may have\ngiven a powerful impetus to the yogis in the succeeding ages, to the\npractice of secluded yoga in ascetism and abandonment of the world, and\nits concerns called Sanny\u00e1sa as in the case of Chaitanya and others.\n\n[Sidenote: 18. The Speculative _Dhy\u00e1na yoga_.]\n\nIt had its rise in the first or earliest class of Upanishads, when the\nminds of the Rishis were employed in speculations about their future\nstate and immortality, and about the nature and attributes of the\nSupreme Being.\n\n[Sidenote: 19. The Ceremonial or _Kriy\u00e1 yoga_.]\n\nThis commenced with the second class or medieval upanishads, which\ngave the means and stages, whereby men may even in this world attain\ncomplete union with the \u00c1tma (Web. I. Lit. p. 156). The yog\u00e1chara\nof Manu relates to the daily ceremonies of house-keepers, and the\nKriy\u00e1 yoga of the Pur\u00e1nas treats about pilgrimages and pious acts of\nreligion.\n\n[Sidenote: 20. The Pseudo or _Bh\u00e1kta yoga_.]\n\nThe pure yoga being perverted by the mimicry of false pretenders to\nsanctity and holiness, have assumed all those degenerate forms which\nare commonly to be seen in the mendicant Fakirs, strolling about with\nmock shows to earn a livelihood from the imposed vulgar. These being\nthe most conspicuous have infused a wrong notion of yoga into the minds\nof foreigners.\n\n[Sidenote: 21. The _Bhakti_ yoga.]\n\nThe Bhakti yoga first appears in the Swet\u00e1swatara Upanishad where the\nBhakti element of faith shoots forth to light (Web. Ind. Lit. pp. 252\nand 238). It indicates acquaintance with the corresponding doctrine of\nChristianity. The Bh\u00e1gavad G\u00edt\u00e1 lays special stress upon faith in the\nSupreme Being. It is the united opinion of the majority of European\nscholars, that the Hindu _Bhakti_ is derived from the faith (_fides_)\nof Christian Theology. It has taken the place of \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093e or belief among\nall sects, and has been introduced of late in the Brahma Sam\u00e1jas with\nother Vaishnava practices.\n\nThe other topics of Prof. Monier Williams being irrelevant to our\nsubject, are left out from being treated in the present dissertation.\n\n\n XIII. THE CONSUMMATION OF YOGA (SIDDHI).\n\n\n[Sidenote: 22. By assimilation to the object.]\n\nThe Yogi by continually meditating on the perfections of the All\nPerfect Being, becomes eventually a perfect being himself, just as a\nman that devotes his sole attention to the acquisition a particular\nscience, attains in time not only to a perfection in it, but becomes as\nit were identified with that science. Or to use a natural phenomenon\nin the metamorphoses of insects, the transformation of the cockroach\nto the conchfly, by its constant dread of the latter when caught by\nit, and the cameleon\u2019s changing its colour for those of the objects\nabout it, serve well to elucidate the Brahmahood \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u092d\u0942\u092f\u0903 of the\ncontemplative yogi.\n\nBut to illustrate this point more clearly we will cite the argument of\nPlotinus of the Neo-Platonic school, to prove the elevation of the\nmeditative yogi to the perfection of the Being he meditates upon. He\nsays, \u201cMan is a finite being, how can he comprehend the Infinite? But\nas soon as he comprehends the Infinite, he is infinite himself: that is\nto say; he is no longer himself, no longer that finite being having a\nconsciousness of his own separate existence; but is lost in and becomes\none with the Infinite.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: By identification with _the object_.]\n\nHere says Mr. Lewes, \u201cIf I attain to a knowledge of the Infinite, it\nis not by my reason which is finite, but by some higher faculty which\nidentifies itself with its object. Hence the identity of subject and\nobject, of the thought and the thing thought of \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u092f\u094b\u0930\u0948\u0915\u094d\u092f\u0902 is the\nonly possible ground of knowledge. Knowledge and Being are identical,\nand to know more is to be more\u201d. But says Plotinus; \u201cIf knowledge is\nthe same as the thing known, the finite as finite, can never know the\nInfinite, because he cannot be Infinite\u201d. Hist. Phil. I. p. 391.\n\n[Sidenote: By meditation of Divine attributes.]\n\nTherefore the yogi takes himself as his preliminary step, to the\nmeditations of some particular attribute or perfection of the deity,\nto which he is assimilated in thought, which is called his state of\nlower perfection; until he is prepared by his highest degree of ecstacy\nto lose the sense of his own personality, and become absorbed in the\nInfinite Intelligence called his ultimate consummation or _Sam\u00e1dhi_,\nwhich makes him one with the Infinite, and unites the knower and the\nknown together; \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f\u092f\u094b\u0930\u0948\u0915\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: The Sufi Perfection.]\n\nThe perfection of the _yogi_ bears a striking resemblance with\n_maarfat_ of the Sufis of Persia, and it is described at length by\nAl-Gazzali, a famous sophist, of which we have an English translation\ngiven by G. K. Lewes in his History of Philosophy. (Vol. II. p. 55).\n\u201cFrom the very first the Sufis have such astonishing revelations, that\nthey are enabled, while waking, to see visions of angels and the souls\nof prophets; they hear their voices and receive their favours.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: Ultimate consummation]\n\n\u201cAfterwards a transport exalts them beyond the mere perception of\nforms, to a degree which exceeds all expression, and concerning\nwhich one cannot speak without employing a language that would sound\nblasphemous. In fact some have gone so far as to imagine themselves\namalgamated with God, others identified with Him, and others to be\nassociated with Him.\u201d These states are called \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0930\u0941\u092a\u094d\u092f, \u0938\u093e\u092f\u0941\u091c\u094d\u092f &c., in\nHindu yoga as we shall presently see.\n\n\n XIV. THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF PERFECTION.\n\n\n[Sidenote: The Eight perfections. \u0905\u0937\u094d\u091f \u0938\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 ]\n\n\u201cThe supernatural faculties\u201d says Wilson, \u201care acquired in various\ndegrees according to the greater or lesser perfection of the adept.\u201d\nH. Rel. p. 131. These perfections are commonly enumerated as eight in\nnumber (\u0905\u0937\u094d\u091f \u0938\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964), and are said to be acquired by the particular\nmode in which the devotee concentrates himself in the Divine spirit or\ncontemplates it within himself.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Microcosm or _Anim\u00e1_.]\n\nThe specific property of the minuteness of the soul or universal\nspirit, that it is minuter than the minutest (\u0905\u0923 \u0930\u0923\u0940\u092f\u093e\u0928\u094d). By\nthinking himself as such, the yogi by a single expiration of air, makes\nhis whole body assume a lank and lean appearance, and penetrates his\nsoul into all bodies.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Macrocosm or _Mahim\u00e1_.]\n\nThis also is a special quality of the soul that it fills the\nbody, and extends through all space and encloses it within itself\n(\u092e\u0939\u0924\u094b \u092e\u0939\u0940\u092f\u093e\u0928\u094d); by thinking so, the yogi by a mere respiration of air\nmakes his body round and turgid as a frog, and comprehends the universe\nin himself.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Lightness or _Laghim\u00e1_.]\n\nFrom thinking on the lightness of the soul, the yogi produces a\ndiminution of his specific gravity by swallowing large draughts of air,\nand thereby keeps himself in an aerial posture both on sea and land.\nThis the Sruti says as (\u0932\u0918\u094b\u0930\u094d\u0932\u0918\u0940\u092f\u093e\u0928\u094d).\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Gravity or _Garim\u00e1_.]\n\nThis practice is opposed to the above, and it is by the same process\nof swallowing great draughts of air, and compressing them within the\nsystem, that the yogi acquires an increase of his specific gravity\nor _garim\u00e1_ (\u0917\u0941\u0930\u094b\u0917\u0930\u0940\u092f\u093e\u0928\u094d). Krishna is said to have assumed his \u092c\u093f\u0936\u094d\u092c\u092e\u094d\u092d\u0930 \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\nin this way, which preponderated all weights in the opposite scale.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Success or _Pr\u00e1pti_.]\n\nThis is the obtaining of desired objects and supernatural powers as\nby inspiration from above. The yogi in a state of trance acquires the\npower of predicting future events, of understanding unknown languages,\nof curing divers diseases, of hearing distant sounds, of divining\nunexpressed thoughts of others, of seeing distant objects, or smelling\nmystical fragrant odours, and of understanding the language of beasts\nand birds. Hence the prophets all dived into futurity, the oracles\ndeclared future events, Jina understood _pasubh\u00e1sh\u00e1_, and Christ healed\ndiseases and infirmities. So also Sanjaya saw the battles waged at\nKurukshetra from the palace of king Dhritar\u00e1shtra.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Overgain\u2014_PraK\u00e1mya_]\n\nPrak\u00e1mya is obtaining more than one\u2019s expectations, and consists in the\npower of casting the old skin and maintaining a youth-like appearance\nfor an unusual period of time, as it is recorded of king Yay\u00e1ti (Japhet\nor Jy\u00e1pati); and of Alcibiades who maintained an unfading youth to his\nlast. By some writers it is defined to be the property of entering\ninto the system of another person; as it is related of Sankar\u00e1ch\u00e1rya\u2019s\nentering the dead body of prince Amaru in the Sankara Vijaya.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Subjection _Vasitwam_.]\n\nThis is the power of taming living creatures and bringing them under\ncontrol. It is defined also to be the restraint of passions and\nemotions as \u0930\u093e\u0917\u093e\u0926\u093f \u092c\u0936\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902, and likewise the bringing of\nmen and women under subjection. This made Orpheus tame the wild animals\nand stop the course of rivers by the music of his lyre, and gave\nPythagoras (who derived it from India) the power of subduing a furious\nbear by the influence of his will or word, as also of preventing an\nox from eating his beans, and stopping an eagle in its flight. It\nwas by this that Prospero subdued the elements and aerial spirits\nwith his magic wand, and Draupadi and Mahommed obtained the powers of\nstopping the courses of the sun and moon. The Magis of Persia are said\nto have derived their magical powers from the M\u00e1yis of India who first\ncultivated the magical art.\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Dominion or _Ishitwam_.]\n\nIt is the obtaining of universal dominion either in this life or next\nby means of yoga, as it is recorded of R\u00e1vana, M\u00e1ndh\u00e1t\u00e1 and others in\nthe traditions. It is also said to be the attainment of divine powers,\nwhen the yogi finds himself in a blaze of light.\n\n\n\n\n XV. THE STATE OF A PERFECT YOGI.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Authority of H. H. Wilson]\n\nWhen the mystic union is effected, he (the yogi) can make himself\nlighter than the lightest substance, and heavier than the heaviest; can\nbecome as vast or as minute as he pleases; can traverse all space, can\nanimate any dead body by transferring his spirit into it from his own\nframe. He can render himself invisible, can attain all objects, become\nequally acquainted with the present, past and future, and is finally\nunited with Siva, and consequently exempted from being born again upon\nearth. (See Wilson\u2019s Hindu Religion p. 131).\n\n[Sidenote: Ditto of Plato.]\n\nWe find the same doctrine in Plato\u2019s Phaedrus where Socrates delivers\na highly poetical effusion respecting the partial intercourse or the\nhuman soul with eternal intellectual _Realia_. He says moreover that,\nall objects which are invisible can be apprehended only by cogitation\n(yoga); and that none but philosophers (yogis), and a few of them\ncan attain such mental energy during this life (\u091c\u0940\u092c\u0928\u094d\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f); nor\neven they fully and perfectly in the present state. But they will\nattain it fully after death; if their lives have been passed in sober\nphilosophical training (\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928). And that all souls enjoyed it\nbefore birth, before junction with the body, which are forgotten during\nchildhood, but recalled in the way of reminiscence by association.\nThe revival of the divine elements is an inspiration of the nature of\nmadness (trance or ecstasy of the yoga). The soul becoming insensible\nto ordinary pursuits, contracts a passionate tendency to the universal.\n(Baine on Realism. pp. 6 and 7).\n\n[Sidenote: Authority of Plotinus.]\n\n\u201cIt is ecstasy the faculty by which the soul divests itself of its\npersonality. In this state the soul becomes loosened from its material\nprison, separated from individual consciousness, and becomes absorbed\nin the Infinite Intelligence from which it emanated. In this ecstasy it\ncontemplates real existence; and identifies itself with that which it\ncontemplates.\u201d (Lewes. Hist. of Philosophy Vol. I. p. 389).\n\n\n\n\n XVI. CRITICISM ON YOGA PRACTICE.\n\n\n[Sidenote: Disbelief in yoga.]\n\nNotwithstanding all that we have said and the authorities we have\ncited in the preceding article on the efficacy of yoga, we find some\nscholars in Europe and many educated men in this country, are disposed\nto discredit the efficiency of yoga to effect supernatural results or\nto be good for any thing. We shall state some of these objections which\nwill be found to bear their own refutation on the grounds of their\nmisrepresentation and self-contradiction.\n\n[Sidenote: Its painful practices.]\n\nProfessor Monier Williams says that, \u201cyoga system appears, in fact,\nto be a mere contrivance of getting rid of all thought, or at least\nof concentrating the mind with the utmost intensity upon nothing in\nparticular. It is a strange compound of mental and bodily exercises\nconsisting of unnatural restraint, forced and painful postures,\ntwistings and contortions of the limbs, suppression of breath and\nutter absence of mind\u201d. (Indian wisdom p. 103) (so also Wilson\u2019s Hindu\nReligion p. 132).\n\n[Sidenote: Its questionable Features.]\n\nHe then starts the question, \u201cHow is it that faith in a false system\ncan operate with sufficient force upon the Hindu, to impel him to\nsubmit voluntarily to almost incredible restraints, mortifications of\nthe flesh and physical tortures? How is it that an amount of physical\nendurance may be exhibited by an apparently weakly and emaciated\nAsiatic, which would be impossible to a European, the climate and diet\nin one case tending to debilitate and in the other to invigorate?\u201d\n(Ibid p. 104).\n\n[Sidenote: Their Illegitimacy.]\n\nProfessor Monier\u2019s statement of the existence of the aforesaid self\nmortifications and voluntary contortions of the limbs of the yogis for\ntwo thousand years or since the invention of yoga philosophy, is open\nto refutation on the ground of there being no mention of them in the\nold systems of yoga inculcated either in the Ved\u00e1nta or Patanjali\u2019s\nphilosophy, or even in the yoga V\u00e1sishtha, as it is evident from the\npractices and processes of yoga we have already given before. Those\nprocesses are seen to be simply moral restraints, and no physical\ntorture of any kind, and such moral restraints must be acknowledged\non all hands, to be indispensable to the concentration of the mind\non any subject of far less importance than the contemplation of the\ninscrutable nature of the Divinity.\n\n[Sidenote: Abuses of Hatha yoga.]\n\nThe abuses he speaks of must be those of the arduous practices of\nthe Hatha yoga, which have been in vogue with pseudo yogis of the\nlater times, from their superstitious belief in bodily tortures as\ntheir best penance and only means, (as the author himself avows), \u201cof\ntheir fancied attainment of extraordinary sanctity and supernatural\npowers.\u201d (Ibid). But such practices as have degenerated to deceptive\ntricks in this country, and are carried on by the cheating and cheated\nfools under the false name of yoga, present their counterparts also\nin the trickeries of the fanatics and fakirs under every form of\nfaith on earth, without affecting the true religion or creating any\nmisconception of the yoga doctrine.\n\n[Sidenote: Sacrifice of the spirit.]\n\nIn vindication of our spiritual yoga we have to say that it is no\nexoteric religion, and requires no bodily mortification or sacrifice\nin any shape whatever, as it is the usual practice of all forms of\nreligion among mankind. The yoga is the speculative training of the\nhuman soul, and concerns the castigation of the spirit and not the\nmortification of flesh. It has nothing to do with the body which is of\nthis earth, and which we have to leave here behind us.\n\n[Sidenote: Sacrifice of the Body.]\n\nThe universal doom of death pronounced on the original guilt of man, is\nnot to be averted by physical death or any deadly torture of the body,\nas it is commonly believed by the bulk of mankind, to consist in bodily\nmortifications and sacrifices; but in the contrition and penitence\nof the spirit, and sacrifice of the soul as the only sin-offering\nfor the atonement of our original and actual transgressions. The\n_Purusha medha_ sacrifice of the Veda which is misunderstood for\nthe offering of a _male-being_, a man, a horse, a bull or a he-goat\nor male of any animal, meant originally the sacrifice of the human\nsoul, or self-immolation of the _purusha_ or embodied intelligence\nto the Supreme Spirit, by means of its concentration into the same\nthrough the instrumentality of yoga abstraction. Dr. K. M. Banerjia\u2019s\ninterpretation of the _Purusha medha_ as typical of the crucifixion of\nChrist, is more conformable with his Christian view of the mysticism,\nthan the spiritual sense of _self-sacrifice_, in which it is generally\nunderstood by the speculative Yogi and the philosophical Vedantist.\n\n\n\n\n THE OM TAT SAT.\n\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Preamble of Om tat sat.]\n\nAfter consideration of Yoga the title of our work, and all its\ncomponent parts tending to the exercise of meditation, together with an\ninvestigation into the nature of _\u00c1tman_ or soul, as the agent of the\nact of meditating and procuring its salvation, we are led by a natural\nand coherent train of thought to an inquiry into the nature of that\ngrand object of our holy and profound meditation, which is the only\nmeans of our emancipation, and which is presented at once to our view\nin the exordium of the work in the mystical characters of _Om Tat Sat =\nOn Id Est_.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Ambiguity of the word _Om_.]\n\nThe word _Om_ forming the initial of the said epigraph standing\nprominent at the top of the opening page of the work, and being more\nthan a multinymous term and ambiguous in its acceptations, requires\nto be treated at some length, in order to discover the hidden\nmeaning lying buried under that mystic emblem of the grand arcanum\nof Brahmanical and Universal religion, from amidst a variety of\nsignifications which are heaped upon it in the sacred writings and holy\nspeculations of the early sages of India.\n\n\nTHE SRUTI SAYS:\u2014\n\n[Sidenote: 3. In the beginning was the word _Om_.]\n\n\u0950\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0935\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0925\u092e \u092e\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u091a\u094d\u091a \u0928\u093f\u0903\u0938\u0943\u0924\u093e\u0903 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0947, \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0932\u0940\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947 \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0935\u0948\u00a0\u0964 So saith the\nHoly scripture:\u2014\n\n\u201cIn the beginning was the word, the _word_ was with God, and the _word_\nwas God. All this was made by him, and without him was not anything\nmade, that was made and\u201d St. John 1.1-3.\n\n[Sidenote: Om, the light of the world.]\n\nAnd again says the Sruti \u0926\u0940\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094b\u0901 \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b\u093d\u0928\u0947\u0928\u0948\u0935\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0935 \u0924\u0926\u0941\u0926\u094d\u092c\u0941\u0927\u094d\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0909\u092a \u096d\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u0967\n\n\u201cThat _Om_ shone forth as light, but they received it not, and hid it in\ndarkness.\u201d So the Scripture:\u2014\n\n\u201cThat was the light of the world, and the light shone upon the world,\nbut the world knew it not &c.\u201d St. John, Ch 1, V. 5. 9. 10.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Its Revelation to mankind.]\n\nAgain says the Scripture:\u2014\u201cGod sent one to bear witness of the\nlight, that all men through him might believe.\u201d Id 1.7. So Brahm\u00e1\nthe god revealed its meaning to his first begotten son _Atharvan_,\nand Atharvan, the Praj\u00e1pati, gave instruction on the subject to\n_Pippal\u00e1da_, _Sanatkum\u00e1ra_ and _Angira_ (Weber A. S. L., p. 164).\nAgain _Angiras_, who communicated it to _Saunaka_, had obtained it from\nBharadv\u00e1ja Satyav\u00e1ha, and the latter again from _\u00c1ngira_, the pupil of\n_Atharvan_, to whom it was revealed by _Brahm\u00e1_ himself (Weber A. S.\nL., p. 158).\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Works on its Disquisition.]\n\nHence it is the _Atharva Sikh\u00e1 Upanishad_ in which the investigation of\nthe sacred word _Om_ is principally conducted apart from those of the\n_M\u00e1ndukya_, _Maitr\u00ed_ and _T\u00e1raka_ Upanishads. (Web. Id., p. 164). These\ntogether with their Bh\u00e1shyas by Sankara, the K\u00e1rik\u00e1s of _Gaudap\u00e1da_,\nand the commentaries of _\u00c1nandagiri_ on them, are chiefly devoted to\nthe scrutiny of the sacred syllable, beside the partial disquisition\nof every other Upanishad and theological work into the hidden sense of\nthis mystic word. Weber points out the Saunaka and Pranava Upanishads\namong the number (A. S. L., p. 165).\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Mode of our Investigation.]\n\nWe shall proceed in this prolegomena first to investigate into the\northographical character and structure of this syllable, and then to\ninquire into the designations and etymological synonyms or the word,\nwith the lexical meanings that we can get of them, and lastly to treat\nof the many mystical interpretations which this single word is made to\nbear as a common emblem of them.\n\n\nII. ORTHOGRAPHY OF OM.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The letter \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0903]\n\nFirstly: Om with respect, to its name and utterance is called\nOnk\u00e1ra, that is, the nasal _On_ in combination with the adjunct k\u00e1ra\n(signifying a sound) and meaning the letter _On_. For all sounds\nwhether vocal (\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u092c\u0930\u094d\u0923) or sonant (\u0935\u094d\u092f\u091e\u094d\u091c\u0928), nasal (\u0938\u093e\u0928\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0915) or\nnot-nasal (\u0928\u093f\u0930\u0928\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0915), articulate (\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092b\u0941\u091f) or onomatopoeia\n(\u0905\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0938\u094d\u092b\u0941\u091f), are denominated letters; as the letters _a_ &c.\n(\u0905\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0926\u093f) are called vowels, the letters Ka &c. (\u0915\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0926\u093f) consonants;\nso the nasals _\u00c1n_, _in_ (\u0906\u0902 \u0907\u0901) &c., as also the inarticulate ones\n(\u092b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930) &c., are all letters; but the Onk\u00e1ra is the root of all; thus\n\u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0947\u0923 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d \u0938\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0923\u094b\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u093e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0941\u0915\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092a\u0928\u093f\u0937\u0926\u094d\u00a0\u0964 Manu calls it a letter in the\npassage:\u2014\u201cThis one letter is the emblem of the Most High\u201d. II.83.\n_Vide_ Dr. Mitra\u2019s Ch\u2019h\u00e1nd Up, p. 4.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. A conjunct Letter \u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0903]\n\nBut here a question is raised as to whether a conjunct vowel\nor consonant may with propriety be styled a single\nletter or not. To this says Dr. R. L. Mitra in a foot-note to his\ntranslation of the _Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya_ Upanishad that\u2014\u201cIt is true that this\nemblem conveys two sounds, that of _O_ and _m_, nevertheless it is\nheld to be one letter in the above sense; and we meet with instances\neven in the ancient and modern languages of Europe that can justify\nsuch privileges, such as _xi_ and _psi_, reckoned single letters in\nGreek, and Q. W. X. in English and others.\u201d (Ch 1. Sec. 1. p. 4). So\nis _l\u00e1m\u00e1lif_ in Persian &c. The Sanskrit conjunct _ksha_ (\u0915\u094d\u0937) is\nconsidered a single consonant, when they say, \u0915\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0926\u093f \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u092f\u091e\u094d\u091c\u0928\u0902 \u092a\u0930\u093f\u0915\u0940\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Syllable Om \u0913\u092e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\nIt is also like every other single or conjoint letter of the alphabet\n(\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924 \u092c\u0930\u094d\u0923) termed an _akshara_ (\u0905\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930) or syllable, which forms\neither a word by itself when standing alone, or part of a word followed\nby an adjunct as \u0950, \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930, \u0913\u092e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930 &c.; where the first is a word of one\nsyllable or monosyllabic term \u090f\u0915\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930, and the others as dissyllabic\nand trisyllabic words (\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930, \u0924\u094d\u0930\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926), according as they are\nuttered by the help of one or more articulations of the voice. _Om\nakshara_ apart from its other signification of the _Imperishable_ and\nthe like, and its symbolism of the Supreme Spirit, is also used in the\nsense of a syllable in the original writings and their translations.\nThus says the _Kathopanishad_; \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902\u092a\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0932\u094b\u0915\u0947\u092e\u0939\u0940\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n\n * * * * *\n\nManu says:\u2014\u201cThat which passeth not away is declared to be the syllable\nom, thence called _akshara_.\u201d He calls it also a triliteral\nmonosyllable. II. 84. So says Mon. Wm: \u201c_Om_ is a most sacred\nmonosyllable significant of the Supreme Being.\u201d (Indian Wisdom p. 103\nnote 1).\n\n * * * * *\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The character Om \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Omk\u00e1ra_ likewise indicates the written character _Om_, because the\nsuffix _K\u00e1ra_ like _\u00c1k\u00e1ra_ is used to signify its written form or\nsign (\u0906\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u091a\u093f\u0939\u094d\u0928), and in this sense the Bengali \u0993,\ncorresponds with Greek character w _omega_ the inverted \u0993,\nor the _Omikron_ = English O, and Oao Persian, and likens to the\nSanskrit _bindu_ O, which is but another name of _Om_ (\u0913\u0902\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0903 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903).\nBut the \u0993 is formed by the union of two dots or cyphers (O\nbindu) like Greek Omega of two omicrons and the English w of two u\u2019s.\nSo says the G\u00e1yatr\u00ed Tantra, \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0935\u092f \u092c\u093f\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0927\u094b\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0930\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964 And again:\n\u0938\u092e\u0928\u0941\u0903 \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0938\u0902\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0928\u093e. \u201cIt is the union of two circlets, one\nbeing the symbol of one\u2019s own divinity and the other that of Brahma.\u201d\nThis character by itself is regarded with high veneration as an emblem\nof the Infinite, independent of its meaning or utterance, and is marked\non the forehead of every devotee in the form of a spot or crescent.\n\n * * * * *\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The Symbol \u0950 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903\u00a0\u0964 ]\n\nThe symbolical _Om_ is represented by four cyphers as placed over\none another \u0905\u0927\u094b\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0937\u094d\u091f\u092f\u0902, and each designated by a different name\nin the aforesaid Tantra, and supposed to form the cavities of the\nheart and mouth of Brahm, \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0917 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u093e \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0938\u0926\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u0906\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0902\u0926\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\n\u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0902 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u092a\u0947\u0926\u094d\u0926\u093f\u091c\u00a0\u0964 \u092c\u093e\u092e\u093e\u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u093e \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0930\u094d\u091c\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0937\u094d\u0920\u093e \u0905\u0930\u094d\u0925 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u093e \u0924\u0925\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u0930\u094c\u0926\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0915\u093e\u092e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u093e\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903 \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903 \u092e\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0926\u093e\u092f\u093f\u0928\u0940\u00a0\u0965 \u092e\u0939\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\n\u092c\u0926\u0928\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903 \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092c\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u094b\u0903 \u0939\u0943\u0926\u092f\u0902\u0924\u0925\u093e\u00a0\u0965 \u092e\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0926\u093e\u0924\u093e\u091a \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903 \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0965 These _bindus_ or\ncyphers are differently named in the Ved\u00e1nta, as we shall shortly\ncome to see under the denominations of _omk\u00e1ra_. (No. IV).\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Symbolized as Jagann\u00e1tha.]\n\nThe best representation of _Om_ is the image of the god Jagann\u00e1tha,\nwhich is said to be an incarnation of the mystic syllable\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u093e\u092c\u0924\u093e\u0930, or made in the form of _Om_, and not in that of Buddha,\nas some of our antiquarians have erroneously supposed it to be. There\nis a learned dissertation on the subject of Jagann\u00e1tha\u2019s representation\nof _Onk\u00e1ra_ to be found in one of the early articles of the Asiatic\nSociety\u2019s Researches, where the reader will get much more light on this\nmysterious subject.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Comparison of _om_ and _on_.]\n\nIt will further be found on comparison that \u0950 bears not\nonly a great resemblance to the Greek _on_ written as \u0223 with\nthe nasal above the O, but their perfect agreement with each other\nin sense will leave no ground of suspecting their identity with one\nanother, as it will be fully treated of afterwards.\n\n\n III. THE ORTHEOPY OR ANALYSIS OF _Om_.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. A Monad.]\n\nWe have already seen that the circular form of the letter O in _Om_,\ncalled a _bindu_ dot or cypher, was used like a geometrical point\nto denote a monad without parts, and represent the Supreme Being\nsubsisting as the central point of the great circle of Universe,\nand filling the infinity of its circumference with his own life and\nlight. The Vedas and the early theology of the Upanishads invariably\nunderstood the _Om_ as synonymous with _One_, and expressive of the\nunity of the God-head; as in the motto \u0913\u092e\u0947\u0915\u092e\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964 \u0913\u092e\u0947\u0915\u093e\u092e\u0947\u0935\u0948\u0924\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 of\nthe Vedantists, corresponding with the monotheistic creed of Christians\nand Mahomedans \u201cGod is one\u201d and \u201cwithout an equal\u201d \u201c_Wahed Ho la Sharik\nlaho_\u201d \u201cThe unity of the God-head is the dictum of the Koran and\nVed\u00e1nta.\u201d (Mon. Wm\u2019s. Hindu Wisd. p. XLI. 1).\n\nThe Manduka and similar Upanishads describe the majesty of the one.\n(Weber, p. 161). \u201cThat _one_ breathed breathless by itself\u201d &c. Max\nM\u00fcller\u2019s A. S. Lit. p. 560.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Om a Duad.]\n\nFormerly the letter _O_ of _om_, _on_, and _One_ was considered a pure\nand simple sound, and made to represent a monad or Unity; but in course\nof time and with the progress of language it was found out to be a\ncompound letter (\u0938\u0928\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930), formed by the union of a + u = o (\u0905 + \u0909 =\n\u0913), and two _o\u2019s_ in w omega or two _u\u2019s_ in w. (See. S. Gr. & Baine\u2019s\ngrs). Then the perfect figure of the great circle was considered to be\ncomposed of two semicircles which the _w_ = \u0909 was made to represent.\nThis gave rise to the conception of a duality in the divine person,\nand hence grew the theory of the male and female \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f in the\noriginal androgyne of the _Sankhya_ and _Hara Gauri_ (\u0939\u0930 \u0917\u094c\u0930\u0940 and \u0909\u092e\u093e\n\u092e\u0939\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930) of the Tantra. Hence it is said; \u0905\u0928\u0907\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f \u0915\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0932\u0940\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0928\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0939\u093f\u092c\u093f\u0928\u093e\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0928\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0915\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092a\u093f \u0938\u0941\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0930\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe syllable ov = on is a word for Brahma (God), and the other cypher\nrepresents nature (the world). There is no Brahma, but ov = \u0950 or \u0913\u092e\u094d\u00a0\u0964\nThe dualism of Sankhya yoga is too well known to require an explanation.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Om a Triad.]\n\nAt a later period and posterior to the dualistic doctrines of the\naforesaid Tantra and P\u00e1tanjala yoga systems, the _Om_ branched out into\na Triad by the union of the nasal letter _m_ or _n_ with the \u0909 or w,\nand forming the conjoined character \u0950 and wn in Sanskrit and Greek.\nHenceforward _Onk\u00e1ra_ is regarded as a triliteral word composed of\n_a_+_u_+_m_ to represent a triplicate deity. Thus says Monier Williams:\u2014\n\n\u201c_Om_ is supposed to be composed of three letters _A_, _U_, _M_, which\nform a most sacred monosyllable (\u090f\u0915\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930), significant of the Supreme\nBeing as developing himself in the Triad of gods, Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and\nSiva\u201d (Indian Wisdom p. 103 note I). So we have in Manu II. 83 and 84:\u2014\n\n \u0905\u0915\u093e\u0930\u091e\u094d\u091a\u093e\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0915\u093e\u0930\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u093e\u092a\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u092c\u0947\u0935\u0926\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0930\u0941\u0926\u0939\u0924 \u092d\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u092c\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u093f\u0924\u0940\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n \u0905\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b \u0935\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0926\u093f\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0903 \u0909\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0941 \u092e\u0939\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u092e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0909\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0947\u0928 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u094b\u092e\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0965\n\nSo also the Bhagavad Git\u00e1. VIII. 13.\n\nHere the two halves of the circle \u0909 comprise Vishnu and Siva as joined\nin the bipartite body of _Hari Hara alias_ Hara Hari, adored by the\ndualists called \u0926\u094d\u0935\u0948\u0924\u0935\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0928\u0903, or more fully as \u0939\u0930\u093f\u0939\u0930\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u0948\u0924\u0935\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0928\u0903 and Brahm\u00e1 the god\nof Manu, is placed in the circlet above the great circle of his created\nworld. We need but hint to our readers in this place, to observe how\nthe original word _Om_ or Ov and One developed itself into the existing\nfaith of trinity. The T\u00e1ntrica Sivites however place their god Siva\nin the upper semicirclet formed by \u092e = m the initial of Maheswara\n(\u092e\u0939\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930), and say:\u2014\n\n \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092e\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u092c\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u0941\u0936\u093f\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n \u0905\u0927\u094b\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u092c\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 \u0936\u093f\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n\nThis is more reasonable to believe from both the letter _m\u2019s_ and its\ngod Siva\u2019s amalgamation with the early Aryan duality to form the present\nfaith of triality at a much later period.\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Om the Tetrad.]\n\nWe next see a further progress of _Om_ in its development from the\ntriliteral to a quadriliteral form, by its assumption of a crescent or\nhalf circlet (\u0915\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0932\u0940) according to the Tantra, or a half _M\u00e1tr\u00e1_\n(\u0905\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927 \u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e) of the Ved\u00e1nta. The Tantra says \u0924\u0926\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927 \u0915\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0932\u0940\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\nThe Maitr\u00ed Upanishad mentions only of the three _M\u00e1tr\u00e1s_ of _Om_\n(Ch. vi Sec. 3).\n\n\u201cBut the Mundak Upanishad\u201d says Weber, \u201crefers to the half _M\u00e1tr\u00e1_\n(mora), to which the word _Om_ here appearing in its full glory, is\nentitled in addition to its three _M\u00e1tr\u00e1s_ (morae) a. u. m. This is\nevidently a later addition by some one who did not like to miss the\nmention of the subject in the Atharvana Upanishad in which it occurs.\u201d\np. 160. Again says he\u2014\u201cThe M\u00e1ndukya Upanishad which treats of the three\nand half _M\u00e1tr\u00e1s_ of the word _Om_, is to be looked upon as the real\nM\u00e1ndukya, all the rest is the work of the _Gaudap\u00e1da_, whose pupil\n_Govinda_ was the teacher of Sankar\u00e1ch\u00e1rya about the seventh century A.\nD.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Om the Pentad.]\n\nWe find next a quinquiliteral figure of _Om_ in its component parts of\nthe three m\u00e1tr\u00e1s, m, and the _bindu_ or \u091a\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 the fifth.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Om the Hexad.]\n\nAnd then again with a sextuple or Hexaliteral _Om_ composed of the\nsixth member of _N\u00e1da_ (\u0928\u093e\u0926) over and above the aforesaid five parts.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Om the Heptad.]\n\nThe septuple Om is described in the Ramat\u00e1paniya upanishad as\nconsisting of \u0905, \u0909, \u092e, \u0928\u093e\u0926, \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941, \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f and \u0928\u092e\u00a0\u0964 Weber\u2019s A. S. Lit. p. 312.\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Om the Octad.]\n\nThis consists of the aforesaid seven parts, which together with S\u00e1nti\ncalled in Persian S\u00e1kat complete the number, Weber. Id. p. 315.\n\n\n IV. THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS OF OM.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The Initial of the Veda.]\n\nThe _om_ is denominated the heading of the Veda (\u092c\u0947\u0926\u0936\u093f\u0930\u0903) as the\nG\u00e1yatr\u00ed hymn is termed to be its parent (\u092c\u0947\u0926\u092e\u093e\u0924\u093e). It stands\nat the top (\u0936\u093f\u0930\u0938\u094d) of every book (\u092e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0932), chapter\n(\u0905\u0937\u094d\u091f\u0915), and hymn (\u090b\u091a\u094d) of every Veda either alone\nby itself or two or three _oms_ put together, as \u0913\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f\u092e\u0940\u0932\u0947 _on\nignem aiede_ of the Rigveda, \u0950 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u093e _On triseptem_ &c. of the\nAtharvan; again \u0950 \u0950 \u0950 \u090b\u0917\u094d\u0935\u0947\u0926\u093e\u092f \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0939\u093e _on_ I salute thee O Rigveda &c.\n\nIt is hence used at the head (\u0936\u093f\u0930\u0938\u094d) of every book on any branch of\nknowledge (\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e) which is a paronym of and derived from the same root\n(\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d Video) with Veda (\u092c\u0947\u0926\u094d). The Tantra calls it as the heading of\nthe G\u00e1yatr\u00ed which begins with the syllable;\n\n \u0924\u0938\u0947\u0924\u0928\u094d\u092e\u0939\u093e \u0917\u0941\u0939\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0903 \u0936\u0940\u0930\u094d\u0937\u092e\u0941\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n \u0950 \u092d\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u092c\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The sacred Syllable. \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902]\n\nIt is called the sacred syllable because it is used in sacred\nwritings and in the sacred Vedic and Sanskrit languages only, and\nnever in the popular vernacular tongues, which are known as unsacred\nand impure (\u0905\u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0915\u0943\u0924\u0902). Moreover it is used in sacerdotal functions\nof the sacerdotal class (\u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0947\u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u093e\u0902 ) or regenerate\nclasses of men, and never by the impure S\u00fadra on pain of damnation\n(\u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b\u091a\u094d\u091a\u093e\u0930\u0923\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094b\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u094b\u0939\u093f\u0928\u0930\u0915\u0902\u092c\u094d\u0930\u091c\u0947\u0924\u094d), unless he is sacrified\nby investiture of the sacred or sacrificial thread, (\u092f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u094b\u092a\u0935\u0940\u0924\u0902). Thus\nsays the S\u00e1stra; \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u094b\u093d\u092a\u093f \u0905\u0927\u0940\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0940\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d \u092f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0938\u0942\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u093e\u0928\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902, \u096a\u0930\u094d\u0925 \u092a\u091f\u0932\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe sacredness of the word _Om_, as the expression for the eternal\nposition of things, is specially emphasised in the Katha Upanishad\n(Weber. p. 158).\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Holy syllable \u092a\u092c\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902]\n\nIt is held as the most holy syllable being an appellation of the Most\nHigh, and must not be uttered in unholiness even by the holy orders of\nmen: so says the Katha Up;\u2014\u201cThis is the most holy syllable, this the\nsupreme syllable, whosoever knoweth this syllable getteth whatever he\ndesireth.\u201d (Cowell\u2019s Maitr\u00ed Upanishad. Ch. VI. S. 4) note.\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The Mystic Syllable \u0917\u0941\u0939\u094d\u092f\u0902]\n\nThis is styled the mystic syllable because the most recondite and\nabstruse doctrines of Brahmanical theism are hidden under its\nsymbolical garb, and form the foundation of those wonderful structures\nof the mystic poetry and philosophy of nations, which have been\nbeautifully illustrated by Sir W. Jones in his \u201cMystic Poetry of the\nHindus, Persians, and Greeks.\u201d It was this mysticism which invited\na Pythagoras of old to India. Manu says;\u2014\u201cHe knows the Veda, who\ndistinctly knows the mystic sense of this word.\u201d Chap XI. 266.\n\nThese senses are recommended to be deeply studied by the Upanishads\nthemselves, saying;\u2014\u201cThe _om_ is a subject of deep study\u201d (Web. p. 163),\nand forms of itself \u201cas another triple Veda.\u201d (Manu XI. 265). It is\nenjoined to be carefully kept in secrecy by the Tantras and Smritis.\n\n \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935\u092e\u0947\u0924\u0928\u094d\u092e\u0939\u093e \u0917\u0941\u0939\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0903 \u0915\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0930\u0941\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n \u0924\u0926\u0947\u0928\u094d\u092e\u0939\u093e\u092e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902 \u0917\u094b\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0917\u094b\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0939\u093f \u092f\u0924\u094d\u0928\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0965\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The Mysterious syllable \u0917\u0942\u0922\u093c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930]\n\n_Om_ again as a symbol of the eternal position of things \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0903 \u0915\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u093e\u0932\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e,\npresents to us a mysterious round of the mystic dance of myriads of\nspheres, emitting an inaudible sound reaching beyond its utmost limit\nto the unknown One who sitteth above the circumference of its visible\nhorizon; or as the sacred writer expresses it; \u201cHe that sitteth on the\ncircle of the earth.\u201d Isaiah. Chap. X. 1. The Tantra speaks of its\nencompassing the world; \u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u0915\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0926\u093f \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u091a \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0947\u0928\u0948\u092c \u0915\u0925\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947, \u0905\u0928\u0941\u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u093e\u0938\u093e\n\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0930\u0941\u092a\u093e\u091a\u093f\u0926\u093e\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 6. The sphere of sound \u0928\u093e\u0926\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903]\n\nThat _om_ contains within it the whole sphere of sounds (\u0928\u093e\u0926)\nis beautifully illustrated in twenty slokas or stanzas in an Upanishad\nof that name the \u0928\u093e\u0926\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0942\u092a\u0928\u093f\u0937\u0926\u094d\u00a0\u0964 (Weber, p. 165). It shows how the\neternal sound _om_ emitted by _Brahma_ pervaded throughout the\nUniverse, and the manner in which all other sounds are propelled by\ncontinual vibrations of air like curves upon the surface of water\n(\u092c\u0940\u091a\u093f\u0924\u0930\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0928\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u0947\u0928) to the auditory of the other. The _Vindu_ is a _Mudr\u00e1_\nin Tantra \u092c\u094d\u092f\u092a\u0915\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0915\u0941\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0932\u093f\u0928\u0940 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0930 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c \u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u093f\u0928\u0940\u00a0\u0964 Compare the Pythagorean music\nof the spheres.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. The Focus of light \u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe _Tejovindu Upanishad_ describes _Om_ as the source and focus of\nlight in fourteen slokas, and the empyrean above it as the abode of\npure ineffable light (\u092a\u0930\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903) of God that illumines the other\nspheres. (Web. p. 165). This light is viewed in the orb of the sun and\nin fire by their worshippers. Compare Milton\u2019s hymn to light; \u201cHail\nholy light\u201d &c.\n\n[Sidenote: 8. The spot of immortality \u0905\u092e\u0943\u0924 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903]\n\nAgain _Om_ is termed the reservoir of immortality or endless life in\nthe Amritavindu Upanishad which describes it in thirty stanzas, to be\nthe eternal fountain of the infinity of lives that fills all animated\nnature, and is drawn back to it. Its circumference extends to the\nregions of light and life, and beyond it is the region of death and\ndarkness. \u201cIn this word there is light and life\u201d (John 1)\n\u0950\u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0936\u094d\u091a \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u0936\u094d\u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u096c\u00a0\u0964 \u096a see Weber\u2019s A. S. Lit. pp. 69, 154, 165.\n\n[Sidenote: 9. The centre of Meditation \u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903]\n\nTherefore _Om_ is called the centre of meditation in the _Dhy\u00e1navindu\nUpanishad_ of twenty one stanzas, which direct the concentration of our\nthoughts to that centre for the attainment of perpetual light and life\nwhich flow from it. (Weber p. 165). The Tantra takes a \u091a\u0915\u094d\u0930 or \u092e\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093e and\nthe Buddhist a chink in the wall to fix the sight in meditation.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. The Position of Brahma \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0903]\n\nAnd lastly _Om_ is styled the receptacle of the great God, whose\nessence fills, pervades, and encompasses the whole orbit of the\nUniverse, as it is described in twenty two slokas of the Brahma\nVindu-Upanishad. It is called Brahma Mudr\u00e1 in the Tantra. (Weber, p.\np. 99, 158, 165).\n\n\n V. ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD _Om_.\n\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Etymology of the _Om_. \u0950 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926]\n\nHaving thus far seen the mysterious nature of the letter and syllable\n_Om_ in its Orthography, we shall now consider it as a word, and see\nthat not a less but much greater mystery is attached to its etymology\nthan has been hitherto thought of by any, and which will be found upon\nexamination to be more inscrutable in its nature than the mysteries of\nEleusis and the inexplicable hieroglyphics of the Egyptian priests.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Its symbolism of Brahmanism \u0924\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u094d\u092f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThese secret and sacred treasures of Brahmanic enigmas and symbols,\nhave been carefully preserved by the Brahmahood in their cabalistic\nwritings of the Tantras, which serve to be a secure safeguard of\ntheir religion amidst the ravages of foreigners in their liberty and\nliterature, and require to be diligently searched into for a thorough\nmastery of these mysticisms.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Its derivation \u0924\u0926\u0941\u0924\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903]\n\n_Om_ is denominated a word (\u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926) in the Veda and other sacred\nscriptures, and explained as a noun also (\u0938\u0902\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e) in the Nirukta\nand other lexicons. It is derived in the Koshas from the root _aba_\nor _ava_ to protect, or save (\u0930\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u0947) with the _Unadi_ suffix\n\u092e\u0928\u094d an anomalous formation into _om_ to denote \u201cprotection.\u201d\nDr. Mitra too derives it from the radical \u0905\u092c \u201cto preserve\u201d\nwith the suffix \u092e\u0928 to denote the Most High according to Manu\nand G\u00edt\u00e1. (Translation of Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya Up. p. 4).\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Its Primary sense \u0927\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903]\n\nApart from the symbolical significations of _Om_ (of which there\nare several as we shall come to notice afterwards), its primary and\nliteral sense would make us give different interpretations of it\naccording to the derivation of the term both in its verbal and nominal\nforms. \u0905\u0935 as a verb in the imperative mood means \u201csave\u201d\nas \u092e\u093e\u0924\u0930\u092c\u200b, \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0924\u0930\u092c\u200b, \u0926\u092c\u093d\u092c &c. in the _Mugdhabodha_, corresponding with the\nexpressions, _Ave Maria_, salve salvator, salve Deus, save O God &c.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Its Nominal sense \u092c\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0924\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0930\u094d\u0925]\n\nBut _aba_ to protect or preserve gives us the nominal (\u0915\u0943\u0926\u0928\u094d\u0924)\nforms of aba, \u00e1ba, \u00e1bu, and \u00e1buka (\u0905\u092c, \u0906\u092c, \u0906\u092c\u0941, \u0906\u092c\u0941\u0915\u200b), meaning a father\nor preserver in the Pr\u00e1krit Speech of Sanskrit dramas, and these are\nfound to agree in both respects of sound and sense with the words\n_\u00e1b_, _\u00e1b\u00e1_, _\u00e1bu_, _\u00e1buka_, _abi_ as _\u00e1buka_ &c. in Hebrew, Chaldee,\nSyriac and Arabic languages. This gives us the original meaning of \u0905\u092c\nof which \u0950 is a derivative form, and shows the close affinity which the\nAryan root bears to the Semitic, both in its sound and signification of\n\u201cFather\u201d (\u092a\u093e\u0924\u093e and \u092a\u093f\u0924\u093e) applied to the Great God.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. The word Om \u0950 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nBut our question being _Om_ and not the root \u0905\u092c, we ought to\nknow to what part of speech it belongs and what sense we are to give of\nit here. It is said to be a word indicative of auspiciousness when used\nat the beginning; (\u0906\u0926\u094c \u0950 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u092f\u094b\u0917\u094b \u092e\u093e\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0932\u093f\u0915\u0903). But whether as a verb or noun or any\nother part of speech, we know nothing of, and we are utterly at a loss\nwhat word to substitute for it in its translation. This is the reason\nwhy the word _Om_, is used by itself in the translations of Sanskrit\nworks by Europeans and our countrymen also for want of a proper term,\nas it is seen in the English versions of Vedas and Upanishads.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. An aptot noun \u0905\u092c\u094d\u092f\u092f \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ is enlisted as an indeclinable word in grammar having no\ninflection of its own in gender, number, case or person, and\nagreeing with all words in its unchanged state, as in the examples:\u2014\n\u0913\u092e\u0940\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930, \u0950 \u0926\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0917\u093e, \u0950 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094d, \u0950 \u0926\u0947\u092c\u0947\u092d\u094d\u092f\u094b \u091c\u0941\u0939\u094b\u092e\u093f, \u0913\u092e\u0941\u092a\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e \u090a\u0930\u094d\u091c\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e &c. It is included in\nthe (\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0917\u0923) as an aptot noun, and with indeclinable particles\n(\u0928\u093f\u092a\u093e\u0924\u0928), as an adverb, conjunction and interjection also with various\nsignifications.\n\n[Sidenote: 8. The initial _Om_ \u0906\u0926\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092e\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe anomalous and multinymous particle _Om_ was first discovered by Ram\nMohun Roy to be no other than the participal noun _on_=_being_ which as\nMax M\u00fcller says is _to on ontws_ the Being of Beings A. S. Lit. pp.\n321 _et passim._ The Latin _ens_ and the French _on_ as _t\u2019on_, bear\nclose affinity to On and \u0950 both in their sound and sense.\n\n[Sidenote: 9. The Final _Om_ \u0905\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092e\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u00a0\u0964]\n\nDr. R\u00e1jendra L\u00e1la Mitra has in one of his works pointed out the Vedic\n_Om_, to correspond with the Hebrew \u201cAmen,\u201d and this will be found so\ntrue of the final _Om_ of Brahmanical prayers, that its corresponding\nword _Amin_ invariably forms the last word of every prayer in Arabic,\nPersian and all other Mahomedan and Semitic languages. Thus it is to\nbe seen how intimately are both of these grand families of mankind\nconnected with each other in the main point of their different creeds.\n\n\n VI. LEXICAL MEANINGS OF _Om_.\n\n[Sidenote: Adverbial Meanings. \u0906\u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u093f\u0915 \u0928\u093f\u092a\u093e\u0924\u0928\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nAfter the etymological and philological interpretations that we have\nbeen given of the word _Om_, it is worthwhileto attend to its meanings\ngiven in the current lexicons for the information of the majority, with\nwhom the evidence of the history of philology is of little weight and\nvalue. T\u00e1ran\u00e1th\u2019s Sanskrit dictionary (\u0935\u093e\u091a\u0938\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928) presents us with\nfollowing adverbial meanings of the word.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. An Inceptive Particle. \u0906\u0930\u092e\u094d\u092d\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0915\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe Medinikosha says he, expounds it as an inchoative particle\n(\u0906\u0930\u092e\u094d\u092d\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0915 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926) to mean the beginning of a thing (\u0909\u092a\u0915\u094d\u0930\u092e), and\nwe find it accordingly used in the form of a proemial monogram at\nthe exordium of a book or Vedic hymn, sacred rite or lecture, in the\nSanhitas, Br\u00e1hmanas and Upanishads according to the passage quoted by\nT\u00e1r\u00e1n\u00e1tha in his dictionary;\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0926\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f \u0915\u0943\u0924\u093e \u092c\u0947\u0926\u0935\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0928\u093e\u092e\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\n\u0936\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0903 \u0938\u0924\u0924\u0902 \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092a\u094d\u0930\u092c\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0965 It answers the \u0905\u0925 of the Pur\u00e1na and the\nwords _now_ and _then_ in English as in the passage of the Kathavalli;\n\u0950 \u0909\u0936\u0928\u094d \u0939\u0935\u0948 \u092c\u093e\u091c\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092c\u0938 \u0907\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\nIt is synonymous with beginning (\u0906\u0926\u093f) in the Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya\nUpanishad, whereupon the poet has well said.\n\u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d \u092e\u0939\u0940\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924\u093e\u092e\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0936\u094d\u091b\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0938\u093e \u092e\u093f\u092c\u00a0\u0964 \u0930\u0918\u0941\u0935\u0902\u0936\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0967 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Illustrations of Ditto \u0924\u0926\u0941\u0926\u093e\u0939\u0930\u0923\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nKrishna (under the conception of the identity of his soul with that of\nthe Divine), speaks of himself in the Bh\u00e1gavadg\u00edt\u00e1 that, he was the\nletter _a_ of the alphabet, and the _Om_ of words (\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0923\u093e\u0928\u093e\u092e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b\u093d\u0939\u0902 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u093e\u0928\u093e\u091e\u094d\u091a\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0903).\nThis is shown in the latest English translation of the work to be a\ndoctrine derived from Christianity and corresponds with the passage\n\u201cI am Alpha &c.\u201d in the book of Revelations (Ch. I. V. 8). There is a\nsimilar passage in the Koran which says \u201cHe (God) is the first; _Ho al\nawl_ corresponding with the Greek\u201d _Ho esten arche_; and this passage\nand sometimes its initial \u1f49 (Gr.) and our \u0950, is used by Moslems at the\ntop and commencement of their books and other writings. Again like\n_Alpha_ of the holy Scripture we find the use of Alif upon the head of\nall writings in Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Hebrew in daily practice.\nHence it is hard to say who is the borrower, though every one will\nboast itself to be the lender. (_Vide_ Weber\u2019s paper on the R\u00e1m Tap Up.\npp. 276, and 360).\n\n[Sidenote: 3. An Initiatory Particle \u092e\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0932\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe Kosha adds the sense of auspiciousness and prosperity\n(\u092e\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0932\u0947\u0936\u0941\u092d\u0947) to the above, and this as we have already observed\nforms like the names of gods, the initiatory vocable of meritorious\nundertakings (\u0906\u0926\u093e\u092c\u094b\u092e \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u0903 \u092e\u093e\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0932\u093f\u0915\u0903). \u201c_Om_\u201d says the Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya, \u201cis also\nprosperity\u201d (I, 8.) To this the scholiast Sankara says; \u201cthe letter\n_Om_ is called prosperity, because it is possessed of the property and\nattribute of prosperity. The prosperous alone can pass the word _Om_\u201d\n(Chh. up. Ch. 1, p. 8).\n\nIts use is not confined to the sacred and antiquated language of Vedic\nwriting and the liturgy, but is to be met with in the classic Sanskrit\nof ancient bards and modern poets. Thus we have in the R\u00e1m\u00e1yana of our\nauthor (\u0930\u093e\u092e\u093e\u092f\u0923 \u096b\u00a0\u0964\u096e\u0967\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u0967\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u091c\u094d\u092f\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0935\u093f\u091c\u092f\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0936\u094d\u091a\u0915\u094d\u0930\u0947). In this sense we discover a curious affinity of\nthe Aryan _Om_ with the Semitic _\u00c1man_ _Am\u00e1n_ and _Aiman_, as in the\nPersian phrase _Aiman bu\u00e1d_ corresponding with \u0950 or \u0936\u0941\u092d\u0902 \u092d\u0942\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Gratulatory, Particle \u0928\u092e\u0938\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe word has been rendered in our translation by the salutatory\nterm \u201cHail\u201d, from a supposed similarity of its meaning with that of\n_namo_ \u0928\u092e\u0938\u094d which is used by women and S\u00fadras in lieu of the\nsacred _Om_ in their salutations to gods and superior beings, owing\nto the denunciation pronounced upon their utterance of the sacred\nsyllable (\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0936\u0942\u0926\u094d\u0930\u092f\u094b\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0902 \u0928\u0947\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f). We find its use in the same sense in Dr.\nRoer\u2019s Translation of the Aitareya Upanishad, where it is rendered\nby \u201csalutation to the Supreme Soul\u201d and by \u201cadoration\u201d in Cowell\u2019s\nversion of the Maitr\u00ed Upanishad. We are however at a loss of authority\nto warrant our adoption of _namo_ as a synonym of _Om_. We meet with\ninstances of the use of _Om_ and _namo_ together to mean salutation,\nas, \u0950\u0928\u094d\u0928\u092e\u0903 \u0936\u093f\u092c\u093e\u092f and \u0936\u093f\u092c\u093e\u092f\u094b\u0901 \u0928\u094d\u0928\u092e\u0903 in the Mugdhabodha, where _namo_,\nexpresses obeisance and governs \u0936\u093f\u092c\u093e\u092f in the dative, and not\n_Om_ which has no governing power.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Invocatory particle \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092c\u094b\u0927\u0928\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ in the sense of invocation is an absolute monoptot like \u092d\u094b\u0903,\n\u092d\u0917\u094b, \u0905\u0918\u094b, \u0905\u0939\u094b &c., without the power of governing the following\nword, as \u0950 \u0928\u093e\u0930\u093e\u092f\u0923\u093e, and its double use as \u0950 \u0939\u0930\u093f\u0903 \u0950 in the Aitareya\nUpanishad (1); so \u092d\u094b \u0930\u0915\u094d\u0937, \u092d\u0917\u094b\u0930\u0915\u094d\u0937 in the Mugdhabodha; but \u0928\u092e\u094b and its\nsynonyms \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0939\u093e, \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0918\u093e, \u092c\u0937\u091f\u094d, \u0936\u094d\u0930\u094c\u0937\u091f govern the dative as \u0928\u092e\u094b \u0939\u0930\u092f\u0947,\n\u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0939\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u092f\u0947, \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0918\u093e \u092a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0947, &c. The invocatory _Om_ is synonymous with\nthe interjections O, \u0913, \u0905\u0939\u094b, \u0939\u094b and all other single vowels whether\nnasal or not (\u0938\u093e\u0928\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0915\u0928\u093f\u0930\u0923\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0903), all of which are ungoverning\nparticles in this sense.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. A Laudatory particle \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ is usually termed as _pranava_ \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0903 or praise or word of praise,\nfrom the root _nu_ (\u092a\u094d\u0930 + \u0928\u0941 + \u0905\u092a) to laud, and in this sense it\nmight mean the glorification of Te Deum. Thus \u201c_Om_ is the _pranava_\nor initial word of the Rigveda priests, and it is termed the Udg\u00edtha\n(\u0909\u0926\u094d\u0917\u0940\u0925\u0903) of S\u00e1ma Veda choristers \u0938\u093e\u092e\u0917\u093e who chaunt it\u201d. (\u091b\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094b\u0917\u094d\u092f\u0909\u092a\u0928\u093f\u0937\u0926\u094d \u0967\u00a0\u0964 \u0969).\nBut it is made to signify the object of the verb, or the Being that is\nlauded (\u092f\u0902\u0928\u094c\u0924\u093f); and in this sense it means, \u201cThe Purusha or spirit who\nis unaffected by works, affections &c., and having the appellation\nof Pranava\u201d (see Monier Williams\u2019 Wisdom of the Hindus p. 103), so\nsays Gaudap\u00e1da in his K\u00e1rik\u00e1. In the former sense, Pranava corresponds\nwith _halleluyas_ and _hosannas_ of Christians, and _hamd o Salaut_ of\nMoslems, which are deemed sacred by their votaries. The K\u00e1rik\u00e1 has the\nfollowing stanzas on it:\u2014\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u094b\u0939\u094d\u092f\u092a\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0936\u094d\u091a \u092a\u0930\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0902 \u0939\u0940\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0939\u0943\u0926\u093f \u0938\u0902\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0965\n\u092f\u0941\u091e\u094d\u091c\u0940\u0924\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0947 \u091a\u0947\u0924\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0947 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0947 \u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0928\u092d\u092f\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947 \u0915\u094d\u0935\u091a\u093f\u0924\u00a0\u0965\n\n[Sidenote: 7. A Permissive Particle \u0905\u0928\u0941\u092e\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nIt is used in a permissive sense both in Vedic and classic Sanskrit,\nand expressed in English by the words \u201con\u201d \u201cgo on\u201d and the like. We\nhave an instance of it in the M\u00e1gha K\u00e1vya, in the passage:\n\u0913\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u092c\u0924\u094b\u0925\u0936\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0919\u094d\u0917\u093f\u0928\u0903 \u0907\u0924\u093f\u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f\u092c\u093e\u091a\u0902\u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: (_a._) An Injunctive \u0905\u0928\u0941\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cVerily this is an injunctive term (\u0905\u0928\u0941\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902), signifying\ninjunction, order, and whatever is enjoined, and ultimately the letter\n_Om_.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya Upanishad). The scholium (\u092d\u093e\u0937\u094d\u092f) explains it by\nsaying that, \u201cWhatever is enjoined by the learned or wealthy regarding\nlearning and wealth, it is done by saying \u201cOm\u201d.\u201d (Ibid I. 8. p. 8.)\n\n[Sidenote: 8. A Particle of assent \u0905\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0940\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nIt bears also the sense of assent and consent (\u0905\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0940\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0940\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094c)\nmeaning \u201cay\u201d \u201caye\u201d \u201cyea\u201d and \u201cyes\u201d, and in Bengali and Vernaculars \u0939\u093e\u0901\nand \u0939\u0941\u0902. So says Sankar\u00e1ch\u00e1rya:\u2014\u201cWhatever is assented to by the learned\nand wealthy, it is done by saying \u201c_Om_\u201d.\u201d Thus in the Vedic tradition;\nY\u00e1jnavalkya having been asked by S\u00e1kalya as to how many gods there\nwere, said; \u201cThirty-three.\u201d S\u00e1kalya assented by saying \u201cOm.\u201d Among\nmodern writings, the S\u00e1hitya Darpana cites the following instance of\n_Om_ being used in this sense:\u2014\u092d\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0930\u0947\u092b \u092d\u0935\u0924\u093e \u092d\u094d\u0930\u092e\u0924\u093e \u0938\u092e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0927\u093f\u0915\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u0924\u092e\u093e \u092e\u092e\u092c\u0940\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924\u093e \u0915\u093f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0941\u0924\u0947\u0915\u093f\u092e\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 9. A Particle of Repulse. \u0905\u092a\u093e\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nIt is used as the interjectional particle \u0939\u0941\u0901\u0915\u093e\u0930 expressive of\nrepelling or driving off another from one like \u201cAvaunt\u201d in English.\nWe meet with an instance of its use in this sense in the Vet\u00e1la\nPanchavinsati of Lassen (VI.) Thus, \u0915\u0943\u0924\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u092c\u0947\u0924\u093e\u0932\u0947\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 10. Do. of Ratifying. \u0926\u0943\u0922\u0940\u0915\u0930\u0923\u0947\u00a0\u0964]\n\nIt occurs in the sense of confirmation at the end of hymns and prayers\nin the Vedic writings, and corresponds with the words \u201cAmen\u201d and \u201cAmin\u201d\nat the conclusion of Christian and Moslem sermons and prayers as we\nhave said long before. We have a verse of Hafiz to this effect, where\nhe says _bishnow O \u00c1min bogo_ _i. e._ \u201cHear and say amen.\u201d There are\nmany instances of it in the Upanishads, such as \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903 \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903 \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\n\u0913\u0902 \u0939\u0930\u093f\u0903 \u0913\u0902, and so in the G\u00e1yatr\u00ed hymn which begins and ends with _Om_,\nagreeably to the precept which says; \u0906\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u0902 \u0926\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0902\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u092a\u0947\u0926\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u091c\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u0930\u094d\u0917 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u093e \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093f\u0915\u093e \u0938\u0926\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n\n VII. THE NOMINAL MEANINGS OF _Om_.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Nominal Meanings of _Om_. \u0938\u0902\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nBesides the meanings already given of _Om_ as a particle, there are\nmany other nominal significations attached to it as a significant noun\nor rather symbol to express certain attributes belonging to the nature\nof the Deity, that bear little or no connection with the etymology of\nthe word.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. _Om_ the Creator \u091c\u0917\u0924\u094d \u0938\u094d\u0930\u0937\u094d\u0920\u093e\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ is used to denote the creative power of God in Sankara\u2019s scholium.\nThis sense is had from the primordial word _logos_ the ov\n= _be_ or _fiat_ \u092d\u0941\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d _buad_ uttered by God in his creation of\nthe world, as we have in the scripture. \u201cAnd god said, \u201cLet there be\u201d\nand there was\u201d. Latin _Fiat-et-fit_; and Arabic _Kom fa K\u00e1na_.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Om is _God_ \u0908\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0903 \u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\nP\u00e1tanjala takes it as denotative of God himself \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930 \u0935\u093e\u091a\u0915\u0924\u0947\u0924\u093f \u092a\u093e\u0924\u091e\u094d\u091c\u0932\u0903;\nand others as a denotation of the Supreme God \u0950 \u092a\u0930\u092e\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0947\u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902\n\u092a\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0915\u0920\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0925 \u0935\u093e\u091a\u0938\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Om is Brahma. \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964 ]\n\n_Om_ is the verbal symbol of Brahma signifying the Universal spirit \u0950\n\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u093f \u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u0903 \u0928\u093e\u092e\u092c\u093f\u0936\u0947\u0937\u0903 \u0924\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0925\u0903 so says the Katha Upanishad \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964 This\nmeaning is obtained from \u0950 = om signifying _being_ or existence, and\nreferring to the totality of existence expressed by the word Brahma\n(formed of \u092c\u0943\u0939 + \u092e\u0928) _universal pervasion_.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Greatness of Brahma \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902 \u092c\u0943\u0939\u0924\u094d\u0935\u091e\u094d\u091a\u00a0\u0964]\n\nOm is used also to denote the vast magnitude of Brahma (\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902 \u092c\u093e\u092c\u0943\u0939\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902)\nin the Maitr\u00ed Upanishad, which says \u201c_Om_ is the greatness of Brahman,\nsays one who continually meditates thereon.\u201d (See Cowell\u2019s Translation\nof Id. IV. 4. p. 253). This idea is naturally suggested by the\ninfinity of the Universe pervaded and encompassed by the spirit of\nGod. \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941 \u0917\u0924\u0902 \u0939\u094d\u092f\u0948\u0924\u0924\u094d \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u091e\u094d\u091a\u093e\u092a\u093f\u0915\u094b\u091f\u093f\u0936\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964 The Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya Upanishad speaks of\nthe greatness and effects of _Om_ (I. 9). To this the scholium raises\nthe question, what are its greatness and effects? Then answers it by\nsaying;\u2014\u201cby the greatness of _Om_ is implied the existence of priests,\nthe institutions of sacrifices &c. &c. Therefore is its greatness.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Om is the way to Brahma \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u094b\u092a\u093e\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_,\u201d says the M\u00e1ndukya Upanishad, \u201cis the means (symbol) leading\nto Brahma,\u201d as a hieroglyphic character to its significate. Here says\nthe commentator \u00c1nandagiri (p.336.) \u0913\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0935\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0927\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092a\u093e\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092e\u093e\u0928\u094b \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0941\u092a\u093e\u092f\u094b\n\u092d\u092c\u0924\u0940\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0906\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0917\u093f\u0930\u093f \u091f\u0940\u0915\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u201cIt is known in all the Ved\u00e1ntas as the best\nmeans towards the accomplishment of one\u2019s adoration.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya\nUpanishad p. 5 note.)\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Immutable & Imperishable \u0950 \u0905\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nIt is immutable, undecayable, imperishable, indestructible and immortal\n(\u0905\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902). Thus in the M\u00e1ndukya; \u0913\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0924\u0926\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u092e\u093f\u0926\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u0930\u0939\u093f\u0924\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964 The circle of O is\nconsidered the most perfect of all geometrical figures, as it was held\nby the Pythagoreans to be the best symbol to represent the perfections\nof the Supreme Being. It is the sign of divine immutability from the\nfact of every other figure changing its shape by its constant rotation\nround the centre and becoming a spheroid which is no more susceptible\nof change. Such is the changeable nature of all things until they\nbecome one with the Divinity.\n\n[Sidenote: Om Knowable. \u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ the symbol of God is said to be the knowable, because every part\nof its circumference is equidistant from the central observer. So is\nGod said to be knowable (\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f) in Yoga philosophy for his\nknowableness to every one by means of meditation. Hence the Yoga system\nis called gnosticism contrary to the unknowableness of agnosticism.\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Eternity \u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ is called eternal (\u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902), because its circular form\nis the representation of eternity, having neither its beginning nor\nend (\u0905\u0928\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0902): so it is the symbol of infinity, the circle\nbeing described by an infinite line. Thus Gaudap\u00e1da;\n\u0905\u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0935\u094d\u0935\u094b\u093d\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u094b\u093d\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0903 \u0928\u092a\u0930\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u093e\u092c\u094d\u092f\u092f\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u092e\u093e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0941\u0915\u094d\u092f \u0915\u093e\u0930\u093f\u0915\u093e\u092f\u093e\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0967\u096c\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 9. The First and Last.]\n\nAgain Om is said to be the first and last of all things, because, says\nT\u00e1r\u00e1n\u00e1tha, every thing proceeds from its centre as its source, and\nreturns to that centre as its reservoir. \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0903\u0938\u0943\u0924\u093e\u0903 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u0935\u094d\u0935\u0947\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0932\u0940\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924 \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092c\u0948\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u093e\u091a\u0938\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u0902;\nor that every thing like the line of the circle meets at the same\npoint from where it is drawn and stretched. Moreover Om as has been\nalready said, is used both as the initial and final word of Mantras and\nprayers, so it is understood to be the beginning and end of all motions\nand utterances. In these senses it answers the _Alpha_ and _Omega_ of\nthe Revelation, and the _initium_ and _finem_\u2014_Hoal awl Hoal \u00e1kher_ of\nthe Koran.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. The First, Last and Midst. \u0906\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924 \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\nBut _Om_ is declared again to be the first, last and midst of things,\nfrom its being uttered in the beginning, middle and end of prayers\nand recitals of sacred hymns according to the ordinance which says\nthat, _Om_ is to be repeated thrice at every recital in the beginning,\nmiddle and end:\u2014\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0936\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u0947 \u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f \u0938\u0902\u092f\u0941\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u091a \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0902 \u0917\u0941\u092a\u094d\u0924\u0902\u091a\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u0941\u092e\u0902\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u0947\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0917\u093e\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0924\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964 This rule is said to bear reference\nto the triple state of the progression of mortal beings,\u2014their\nevolution, sustentation and dissolution. \u092f\u0924\u094b\u092c\u093e\u0907\u092e\u093e\u0928\u093f \u092d\u0942\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f \u091c\u093e\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947 \u092f\u0947\u0928\n\u091c\u093e\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u091c\u0940\u092c\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092f\u0924\u094d \u092a\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u092f\u092d\u093f\u0938\u092e\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0936\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0924\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u094d\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965 The triple utterance of _Om_ has given\nrise to the triplicate invocation of Hari, \u0906\u0926\u093e\u092c\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947\u091a \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947\u091a \u0939\u0930\u093f\u0903 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u0917\u0940\u092f\u0924\u0947,\nand with what Milton has expressed in his glorious hymn in the Paradise\nLost.\n\n\u201cHim first, Him last, Him midst, and without end.\u201d\n\nThe reverend Gaudap\u00e1da enjoins the same ordinance in his versified\ncommentary or K\u00e1rik\u00e1 to the M\u00e1ndukya Upanishad, where he says (verse\n27):\u2014\u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u094b \u0939\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u092e\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0925\u0948\u092c\u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u090f\u0935\u0902 \u0939\u093f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0935\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e \u092c\u094d\u092f\u0936\u094d\u0928\u0941\u0924\u0947 \u0924\u0926\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n\n VIII. APPLICATION OF _Om_\n IN THE VEDAS AND VEDANTA.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Pranava = Adorable.]\n\n\u201cO venerable, let me enter thee (viz. the word Om)\u2014the sheath of\nBrahm\u00e1, sw\u00e1h\u00e1. O venerable do thou enter me, sw\u00e1h\u00e1. O venerable, I\nshall be purified by thee.\u201d (Taittir\u00edya Up. IV. 3).\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The Burden of song.]\n\n\u201cOm, the hymns of the S\u00e1ma Sing, _Om_, Som, the hymns proclaim.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Commanding and assenting.]\n\n\u201cBy Om, the Adhwarju gives his reply:\u2014By Om the Brahm\u00e1 commands;\u2014By Om\nhe gives his orders for the burnt offering\u201d (Ibid VIII. Anuv\u00e1k).\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Beginning.]\n\n\u201c_Om_, says the Br\u00e1hman, when he commences to read the Veda.\u201d (Ibid).\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Om is Multinymous.]\n\n\u201cOm is Brahman, it is immortal, it is light, it is truthful, and a\nportion of holy light.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is the sun, the truthful, the Yajur, devotion, fire, wind and air.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is the moon, strength, immortality, and the means of attaining\nBrahma\u201d (Maitr\u00ed Upanishad VI. 35.) \u0950 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0905\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0947\u091c \u0938\u094b\u0939\u0902\u0936 \u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\u0906\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0947 \u0909\u0926\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e \u092e\u092f\u0942\u0916\u0947 \u092d\u092c\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u0941\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u092a\u0923\u093e\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0965 \u090f\u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0935\u093f\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u090f\u0924\u0926\u094d\u092f\u091c\u0941\u0930\u0947\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092f\u0903 \u090f\u0924\u0926\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0930\u0947\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093e\u092f\u0941\u0930\u0947\u0924\u0926\u093e\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\u090f\u0924\u091a\u094d\u091a\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u092e\u093e \u090f\u0924\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0930\u092e\u0947\u0924\u0926\u092e\u0943\u0924\u092e\u0947\u0924\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092c\u093f\u0937\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n\n[Sidenote: 6. It is all significant.]\n\nBut apart from all the particular objects to which this word is\nseverally applied, _Om_ is found from its general sense of \u201ca being\u201d\nat large, to be significant of \u201call things,\u201d as its archetype Brahman\nis made to stand for universal existence both collectively as well as\nsingly (_in toto et per singulatim_), as it is said in the M\u00e1ndukya\nUpanishad, \u0913\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0924\u0926\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u092e\u093f\u0926\u0902 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902 \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092a\u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0916\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u0902 \u092d\u0942\u0924\u0902 \u092d\u0935\u093f\u0937\u094d\u092f\u0926\u093f\u0924\u093f \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092e\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u090f\u0935,\n\u092f\u091a\u094d\u091a\u093e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0932\u093e\u0924\u0940\u0924\u0902 \u0924\u0926\u092a\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u090f\u0935\u00a0\u0965\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Om includes all things.]\n\n\u201cOm\u201d says the Sruti, \u201cis immortal.\u201d Its explanation is \u201cthis all\u201d;\nwhat was, what is, and what will be, all is verily the word \u201cOm\u201d; and\nevery thing else which is beyond the three-fold time is also verily the\nword \u201cOm.\u201d For this all (represented by \u201cOm\u201d) is Brahma, and Brahma is\n\u201call.\u201d (M\u00e1ndukya Upanishad Bh\u00e1shya verse 1 and 2). \u0913\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093f \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u090f\u092c\u0947\u0926\u092e\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0903\n\u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0941\u0924\u093f\u092d\u094d\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u0938\u094d\u092f\u091a\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0935\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0947\u0915\u093e\u0926\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u090f\u092c\u0947\u0926\u0902 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Scholium on the above.]\n\nAccording to Sankara\u2019s explanation the rendering would be as\nfollows:\u2014\u201cOm\u201d this sound (or immortal) is this \u201cAll,\u201d and its\nexplanation is \u201cwhat was, what is, and will be, all is verily the word\n\u201cOm\u201d.\u201d (Sankara\u2019s Bh\u00e1shya of the above). \u00c1nandagiri\u2019s explanation is to\nthe same purport; thus says he:\u2014\n\n\u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e\u0938\u094d\u092a\u0926\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u0936\u094d\u091a \u0924\u0925\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0926\u0947\u0915 \u0932\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0926\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0947\u0930\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u092a\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u092a\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0947\u092c\u0947\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n\n\n IX. THEOLOGY OF OM IN THE MONADS OF MONOTHEISTIC CREEDS.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Monads or Unities. \u090f\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0915\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nWe have seen that _Om_ expresses all things (Sarvamonk\u00e1ra), by virtue\nof the word like its kindred Greek and Latin _on_ and _ens_ (B.\n_haon_), signifying \u201ca being\u201d by synecdoche (_laxan\u00e1_) of a part for\nthe whole. And this is done of all things whether concrete or discrete\nand taken either singly or by groups of two or more things together; as\nit is said\u2014\u201c_Ekasadvisastrisas_\u201d &c., _i. e._ _Singulatim_, _dualiter_,\n_pluraliter_ &c. We shall first come to see the monads expressed by\n_Om_ and leave it to the reader to discover the relation which the\nsignificates may bear to the symbol, or rest satisfied with the idea of\ntheir being meaningless or arbitrary.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Om is speech or voice \u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u00a0\u0964]\n\nOm, says the Sruti is Sarv\u00e1v\u00e1k \u201call voice and speech\u201d; and we shall\ncome to see below that it is applied alike to denote both human and\nbrute speech, and words belonging to all the different parts of speech.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Om is sound and word \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cAll things are united with words which express them, and all words\nare contained in the mystical syllable _Om_, (\u0913\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u092e\u00a0\u0964\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902). _Om_,\npervades all sounds; he rises above all objects which are expressed by\nsounds, who repeats this sound _Om_\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya II.23.) (Maitr\u00ed p.\n253).\n\n[Sidenote: 4. Om is Brahman \u0950 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is Brahman called sound (_sabda_). By means of _Om_ rising above\nall things, a man merges in the Supreme called Para Brahma.\u201d \u201cOm is\nthe emblem of the Most High.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya p. 4. Manu II. 83. Bh\u00e1gavad\nG\u00edt\u00e1). So says the Maitr\u00ed Upanishad (VI. 22) \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u093f \u0928\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u093e\u0924\u0903 \u092a\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0927\u093f\u0917\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u096c\u00a0\u0964\u0968\u0968\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Om is Fire and its splendour \u0913\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0936\u094d\u091a \u0924\u0947\u091c\u0936\u094d\u091a\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cOm was splendour and fire at first. By this syllable _Om_ the\nsplendour germinates, it shoots upward, it expands, and becomes the\nvehicle of divine worship. The splendour germinates in the form of the\nmystic syllable _Om_, as a seed germinates; _i. e._ It is manifested as\nthe primeval form of the Veda, it next shoots upward as the internal\nsound _Om_ itself.\u201d Maitr\u00ed Up. VII. 11. \u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0925\u092e\u092e\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964\n\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b\u093d\u0928\u0947\u0928\u0948\u092c\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c \u0924\u0926\u0941\u0926\u094d\u092c\u0941\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0909\u092a \u096d\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u0967\u00a0\u0964 Fire was the first object of adoration\nof the Rigveda and of the fire worshippers of India and Persia. It is\nbelieved to be the _arche_ or beginning of all things according to\nHeraclitus.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Om is light. \u0950 \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cOm is light and manifest as light, the sleepless, deathless and\nsorrowless light.\u201d Again; \u201c_Om_ is light which shines in yonder sun,\nand in the moon, fire, and lightning\u201d (Maitr\u00ed Upanishad VI. 25.). So\nsays the Bh\u00e1gavad G\u00edt\u00e1, \u201cThat splendour which abiding in the sun\nillumines the whole world, which abides in the moon and in fire, that\nsplendour know to be mine\u201d (XV. 12.) Light was the first work of\ncreation and the \u201cfirst born\u201d of Heaven. God said \u201c_Lux fiat et lux\nfit_.\u201d\u2014\u201cLet there be light and there was light.\u201d\n\n\u0926\u0940\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094b\u092e\u094d \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0936\u0923\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u093e\u0916\u094d\u092f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u0947\u0924\u093e\u0930\u092e\u0930\u0942\u092a\u094b \u092c\u093f\u0917\u0924\u0928\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0930\u094b \u092c\u093f\u091c\u0930\u094b \u092c\u093f\u092e\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0936\u094b\u0915\u094b \u092d\u092c\u0924\u0940\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u0902 \u0939\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0909\u092a\n\u096c\u00a0\u0964\u0968\u096b \u0924\u0925\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u0926\u092e\u0941\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0928\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u093d\u0925\u0902\u0938\u094b\u092e\u094b\u093d\u0917\u094d\u0928\u094c \u0935\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0924\u093f \u092c\u093f\u092d\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0925\u0916\u0932\u094d\u0935\u0947\u0928\u0902 \u0926\u0943\u0937\u094d\u091f\u094d\u0935\u093e \u092e\u0943\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0902 \u0917\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0924\u0940\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u00a0\u0964 \u096c\u00a0\u0964\u0968\u096b\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 7. _Om_ is Lightening. \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0941\u091c\u094d\u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cThe Veda is called lightening, since the moment when it is uttered (as\nOm), it enlightens every incorporated being; therefore by the syllable\n_Om_ let a man adore the infinite splendour of Brahman\u201d (Maitr\u00ed\nUpanishad VII. 11.) \u092f\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u0941\u091a\u094d\u091a\u0930\u093f\u0924\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u090f\u092c \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902 \u0936\u0930\u0940\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u092f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0928\u0947\u0928\u0948\u0924\u093e \u0909\u092a\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u093e\u092a\u0930\u093f\u092e\u093f\u0924\u0902 \u0924\u0947\u091c\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0909\u092a \u096d\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u0967\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Om is the Brahman light. \u0950 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cThe syllable _Om_ is the Brahman light or pure intelligence, veiled\nbehind the fire and breath, and manifested itself at first as the\none undivided sound _Om_.\u201d Thus the Maitr\u00ed Upanishad T\u00edk\u00e1 (VII. 11).\n\u092f\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915\u092e\u093f\u0926\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0928\u0947\u0928\u0948\u0924\u0924\u094d \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b \u0909\u092a\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u096d\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u0967\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 9. _Om_ is Water. \u0913\u092e\u093e\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cOm shines in the waters\u201d (Maitr\u00ed Upanishad VI. 35). \u0906\u092a\u094b \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0938\u094b\u093d\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0902\n\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u092d\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u092c\u0903\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094b\u092e\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u096c\u00a0\u0964\u0969\u096b\u00a0\u0964 \u0926\u0940\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094b\u092e\u093e\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0913\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b\u093d\u0928\u0941\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u092a\u0928\u093e\u0926\u093e\u092a\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u0928\u093e\u0926\u093e\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0924\u091f\u094d\u091f\u0940\u0915\u093e\u00a0\u0964 Water is said\nto be the first work of God (\u0906\u092a \u090f\u092c\u092e\u0938\u091c\u093e\u0926\u094c\u00a0\u0964) \u201cand the Spirit of God\nfloated on the surface of the waters\u201d hence called \u0928\u093e\u0930\u093e\u092f\u0923\u0903 (Genesis\nand Manu). Thales found water to be the origin of all things.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. _Om_ is Flavour &c. \u0930\u0938\u094b\u092c\u0948\u0924\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cOm is _Rasa_, moisture, flavour, taste, relish and love (Maitr\u00ed Up.\nVI. 35). The goodness of God is flavour, a man having attained flavour,\nbecomes possessed of joy\u201d (Taittir\u00edya Up II. 7.)\u0950 \u0930\u0938\u094b\u092c\u0948\u0924\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u0930\u0938\u0903 \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\n\u092a\u0930\u093f\u092a\u093e\u0915 \u0928\u093f\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d \u0906\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0930\u0938\u0924\u0902? \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u092b\u0932\u093e\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092f \u0907\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0930\u094d\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964 By flavour _rasa_ they mean\nlove also and love is believed to be the formative power according to\nEmpedocles.\n\n[Sidenote: 11. Om is Ambrosia. \u0913\u092e\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0902 \u092e\u0927\u0941\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is ambrosia the food of gods. (Gr. _He ambrosia est setos\ntheon_). It is also honey and all sweet.\u201d So the Sruti;\n\u0905\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0902 \u0926\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0928\u093e\u092e\u094b\u0926\u0928 \u0939\u0947\u0924\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0909\u092a \u096c\u00a0\u0964\u0969\u096b\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0938\u094c\u092c\u093e\u092e\u0927\u0941\u00a0\u0964 \u091b\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094b\u0917\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0924\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0940\u092f\u091e\u094d\u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u0967\u00a0\u0964\u096d\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 12. Om Udg\u00edtha. \u0913\u092e\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0917\u0940\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_, this letter the Udg\u00edtha, should be adored, Om is chaunted.\u201d\n(Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya I. 1).\n\n\u201cThe Udg\u00edtha of S\u00e1ma Veda, corresponds with the _pranava_ of the Rig\nVeda.\u201d (Cowel\u2019s Mait VI. 3).\n\n\u201cThe Udg\u00edtha is the principle part of the S\u00e1ma verse, and sung by\nUdg\u00e1tri priests.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is chaunted (Udg\u00edyate), and is therefore called Udg\u00edtha and is a\n_Karm\u00e1ng\u00e1vayava_ or part of the liturgy.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is Udg\u00edtha, that is Om; what is Om, that is Udg\u00edtha.\u201d (Maitr\u00ed.\nCh\u2019ch\u00e1ndogya).\n\n[Sidenote: 13. _Om_ is breath. \u0950 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0938\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cOm called the Udg\u00edtha is breath,\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya Upanishad p. 12).\n\n[Sidenote: 14. _Om_ is sun. \u0906\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cThe sun is _Om_, _Om_ is Udg\u00edtha, the sun is Udg\u00edtha, he is _Om_.\u201d\n(Maitr\u00ed IV. 4).\n\n\u201cThe splendour of Brahman is yonder sun, and it too is the splendour of\nOm.\u201d (Ibid). \u092f\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u094d\u0939\u092e \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903 \u092f\u091c\u094d\u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0903 \u0938\u0906\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u0924\u094d \u0938\u092c\u093f\u0924\u0943\u0924\u0926\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092e\u0948\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940 \u0909\u092a\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 15. Om the soul. \u0913\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cThe soul is looked upon as _Om_.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya Upanishad. p. 12). \u201cFor\nthis all represented by _Om_ is Brahma. This soul is Brahma.\u201d (M\u00e1ndukya\nV. 2). \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u090f\u092c \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u092e\u0947\u092c\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0948\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u0930\u093e\u092a\u0930 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0938\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092a\u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0916\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 16. Om the Supreme spirit. \u0950 \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is the most appropriate name for the Supreme Spirit\n_param\u00e1tman_.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya I. 1). \u201cThe Universal soul is the totality\nof individual souls.\u201d (\u0938\u092e\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f \u092c\u094d\u092f\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f).\n\n[Sidenote: 17. Om is Mind. \u0913\u0902 \u092e\u0928\u0938\u094d\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cOm is mind _manas_, the self consciousness or _ahank\u00e1ra_ of the\nS\u00e1nkhya.\u201d (Ibid p. 3).\n\n[Sidenote: 18. Om is Body. \u0950 \u0915\u093e\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is corporeal.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya p. 3).\n\n[Sidenote: 19. Om is Adorable \u0913\u092e\u0941\u092a\u093e\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cThe letter Om is eulogised for its adorableness, and is an inducement\nto its worship.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya I. 9. p. 8).\n\n[Sidenote: 20. Om a Vehicle \u0950 \u0930\u0925\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is the vehicle of the worship and knowledge of the superior and\ninferior Brahma.\u201d (Maitr\u00ed Up. 260).\n\n[Sidenote: 21. Om is a Raft. \u0950\u092e\u0941\u0921\u093c\u0941\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is a raft of Brahman to cross over the torrents of the world.\u201d\n(Swet\u00e1swatara II. 8. p. 53).\n\n[Sidenote: 22. Om an arrow. \u0950 \u0936\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cThe body is the bow, _Om_ is the arrow, with which one pierces the\nmark Brahma through darkness.\u201d \u0927\u0928\u0941\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0930\u0940\u0930\u092e\u094b\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u0924\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0936\u093f\u0916\u093e\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092e\u0928\u0938\u094d\u0924\u092e\u094b \u0932\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0923\u0902\n\u092d\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u093e\u0917\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0924\u0940\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 23. Om a Bridge. \u0950 \u0938\u0947\u0924\u0941\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nAnd so _Om_ is used to represent many other single objects. (Maitr\u00ed Up.\np. 271).\n\nIt is represented as a bridge in the Atharva Veda (VI. 10 and VIII. 4).\n\n\n X. DUADS OR DUPLES OF THE BIPARTITE OM IN DUALISTIC THEORIES.\n\n[Sidenote: Duads. Om a couple. \u0950 \u092e\u093f\u0925\u0941\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ unites couples together and gratifies the wish of the adorer.\u201d\n(Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya I. 6). Again \u201ccouples being incorporated with the letter\n_Om_, establish the all-gratifying power and attribute of Om.\u201d\n(Sankara\u2019s Scholium to Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya).\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The Couple Udg\u00edtha & Pranava. \u0909\u0926\u094d\u0917\u0940\u0925\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0923\u092c\u094c\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ combines the _Udg\u00edtha_ of the S\u00e1ma with the _pranava_ of the Rig\nVeda, the first couple; and therefore speech (V\u00e1k) and breath (pr\u00e1na)\nthe sources of the Rik and S\u00e1ma, the second couple; and lastly the said\ntwo Vedas themselves as the third couple. (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya I. 1-8), and\nconsequently the Hotri and Udg\u00e1tri priests the fourth couple.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Brahma and Para Brahma. \u092a\u0930\u093e\u092a\u0930 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ is the superior and inferior Brahma conjointly. The superior or\n_Para Brahma_ is the one eternal and infinite God; and the inferior\nor _Apara Brahm\u00e1_ is the finite God:\u2014the demiurge of Plato, and the\n_Praj\u00e1pati_ and Indra of Vedanta theology. The Aitareya reckons the\npentad of the five elementary bodies, under the latter category. (V.\n3). K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa speaks of this as the _pancha mah\u00e1 bh\u00fata sam\u00e1dhi_ in the\nfirst book of his Raghu Vansa.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The two pronunciations. \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930 \u0926\u094d\u0935\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is pronounced as _svarati_ in the Rigveda and Svara in the Yajur\nVeda.\u201d (Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya IV. 4. Manu XI. 265).\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The Human & Divine Souls. \u091c\u0940\u092c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is \u00e1tman or soul. Two souls are said to enter the body; the\nindividual and the undivided or universal soul.\u201d (Ait. III. 1). \u201cTwo\nbirds (the supreme and individual souls) dwell upon the same tree of\nthe body.\u201d (Svet\u00e1svatara Upanishad).\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The Soul and Matter. \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u0940\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094c\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ is both spirit and matter,\u201d viewed as the same thing in the\nmaterialistic light of the S\u00e1nkhya, and dualistic view of others.\nSpinoza defines them both as the \u201c_Substantia cogitans, et substantia\nextensa, una eademque est substantia, quae jam sub hoc, jam sub illo\nattributo_ comprehenditur.\u201d (Ethics. 1 Pr. 7 schol).\n\n[Sidenote: 6. The Male and Female. \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937\u094c\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om Str\u00edpum_ the divine male and female\u201d; the original androgyne or\nbisex being combined in the person of the first human being, Brahm\u00e1 or\nAdam, and called the _Prakriti-purusha_ or _pradh\u00e1na_ &c., in the Yoga\nand Puranic Systems. So says Manu also (I, 32). \u201cThe power became half\nmale half female or nature active and passive, and divided itself in\ntwain.\u201d (Ibid).\n\n[Sidenote: 7. The cause and effect. \u0915\u093e\u0930\u094d\u092f \u0915\u093e\u0930\u0923\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201c_Om_ implies the two states of mundane existence, _viz_, the cause\ndynamic and the effect energy. The effect also is two fold, the gross\nand subtile.\u201d (\u0938\u094d\u0925\u0942\u0932 \u0938\u0942\u0915\u094d\u0937\u094d\u092e\u091e\u094d\u091a).\n\n[Sidenote: 8. The Two Elements. \u0938\u094d\u0925\u0942\u0932 \u0938\u0942\u0915\u094d\u0937\u094d\u092e\u094c\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe subtile elements (\u0938\u0942\u0915\u094d\u0937\u094d\u092e\u0924\u0928\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902) and the gross elements\n(\u0938\u094d\u0925\u0942\u0932\u092d\u094c\u0924\u093f\u0915\u0902) forming the Sth\u00fala or gross body and the _linga Sar\u00edra_\nor subtile body,\u2014the two component parts of all living bodies.\n\n[Sidenote: 9. Knowledge & Ignorance. \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0947\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe two states of the soul, knowledge and ignorance (\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0905\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e)\nand the two states of knowledge; namely that which is known (\u092c\u093f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924),\nand what is unknown (\u0905\u092c\u093f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0924), corresponding with two others\u2014the\n(\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u092c\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0924) the manifest and unmanifest.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. The two states of Life. \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u0924\u0925\u093e \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0915\u093e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\nKnowledge and action or Jn\u00e1na and Karman,\u2014theory and practice, are the\ntwo inseparable conditions of life; the one leading to the other, which\nis the result of the former, and according to others its cause, in the\ncelebrated dispute \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928 \u091c\u0928\u094d\u092f \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e \u0905\u0925\u092c\u093e \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u091c\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0902 between theorists and\npractitioners.\n\n[Sidenote: 11. Other Pairs.]\n\nIn this way many other pairs are joined together forming as they were\nthe two halves of the great circle of _Om_, and whether diametrically\nor obversely opposed or attached to each other, they form together, the\nsame circle of which each of them is but an imperfect part or half.\n\n[Sidenote: 12. Geometry of _Om_.]\n\n[Sidenote: 13. Logical Use of _Om_.]\n\nHence we see the mystery of the cypher of _Om_ to be no less wonderful\nand efficacious in the investigation of theological truths, than the\ngreat instrument of Euclid\u2019s compass in the bisection and measurement\nof geometrical dimensions. And as the circle is latterly found to be\nmade use of in the demonstration of propositions in Logic, how much\nmust we wonder to reflect on the use and application of the sacred\ninstrument of _Om_ by the ancient Rishis of India, to all things of\nthe physical, intellectual and spiritual world (_Sarvamonk\u00e1ra eva_) as\ntheir common measure.\n\n[Sidenote: 14. Dualism overthrown \u0926\u094d\u0935\u0924\u094b\u091a\u094d\u091b\u0947\u0926\u0903]\n\nHaving thus observed the deficiency of dualities and the imperfection\nof dualistic theories, by the instrumentality of _Om_, and the\napplication of its cypher of unity to them, to make up that unity\nwhich is essential to the true knowledge of God, whose nature is a\nperfect unity and without divisibility (Ekamev\u00e1dwit\u00eda), the sages next\nproceeded to the investigation of trialities and pluralities of tri-une\ndoctrines and so forth, which had been gaining ground even in those\nearly stages of society, by the application of the same test of the\nunity of _Om_ to them, till at last all these partitions are lost in\nthe cypher of One indivisible whole.\n\n[Sidenote: 15. The Metrical Sense of _Om_.]\n\n_Om_ in the sense of a compass or metrical instrument, is derived from\nO the cypher, letter or circle, and _ma_ to measure, meaning the circle\nof measurement.\n\n\n XI. TRIADS OR TRIPLES OR TRIPARTITE OM IN TRINITARIAN SYSTEMS.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Triads or Triples of _Om_ \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\n\u201cBut when considered as a triliteral word consisting of a, u, _m_,\n(\u0905, \u0909, \u092e), _Om_ implies, the three Vedas, the three states of human\nnature; the three divisions of the Universe; the three deities,\nagents of the three states of things\u2014the creation, preservation and\ndestruction; or properly speaking; the three principle attributes\nof the Supreme Being. In this sense it implies in fact the Universe\ncontrolled by the Supreme Being.\u201d R\u00e1m Mohun Roy.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Their External Manifestations. \u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe idea of the trisection of the circle of _Om_ followed that of its\nbisection, together with that of the three fold division of Divine\nnature, much earlier in the minds of the Aryans of India, than the\nthree sectors of the circle were unfolded by Euclid, and the mystery\nof the tri-une nature of the Divinity was discovered by the divine\nPlato, or that of the three persons in the God-head was revealed by the\nGospel. But not content with this discovery, the ancient sages applied\nthis triplicate division of _Om_ to many other things as the three\nfold manifestations of the _One_ Deity represented by the triliteral\nand trilateral figure of _Om_, and fell to their adoration, until they\nwere recalled to the worship of the invisible unity of _Om_ by the\nVed\u00e1nta doctrines. We shall now see these triples called the Vy\u00e1hrit\u00eds\n(\u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u093f) or three fold manifestations in their order.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The 3 Vedas. \u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u094b \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e \u092c\u0947\u0926\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nOm represents the three Vedas by its three letters, _viz_; the Rik,\nYajur and S\u00e1man, consisting of the Hymns, Ceremonies and Psalms.\nThe first like the hymns of Hesiod and Orpheus, the second like the\nLevitican laws, and the third resembling the Psalms of David, all of\nwhich are said to be of Divine origin.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The 3 States. \u0950 \u0917\u0941\u0923\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThese have no apposite terms in English, and are variously rendered\nto express the states of quietism, action and passion or excess of a\nfeeling, leading to error.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The 3 Worlds. \u0950 \u092d\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u092c\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe earth, sky and heavens, called the three great evolutions\n(\u092e\u0939\u093e \u092c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u093f) of _Om_. But those were afterwards subdivided into\ntwenty one (3\u00d77) each named as Om (\u0950 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u0902) as in the beginning\nof Atharva Sanhit\u00e1 \u0950 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u093e \u092f\u0947 \u092a\u0930\u093f\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092c\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0903\u2014\u201cThe Universe composed of thrice seven\nworlds.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The 3 states of things. \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0935\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964]\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The 3 Agencies Personified \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f \u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThese are the creation, preservation, and destruction of all things\n(\u0938\u0943\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f, \u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0924\u093f, \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0932\u092f), or as philosophically called their evolution,\nsustentation and dissolution (\u0909\u0924\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f, \u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0924\u093f, \u0927\u094d\u0935\u0902\u0938), and their agents,\n_Brahm\u00e1_ the creator, _Vishnu_, the preserver, and _Siva_ the destroyer\nof each and all, corresponding with Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, and\nOsiris, Horus and Typhon (\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u092e\u093e\u092c\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0923\u094d\u0935\u0940\u0936\u093e\u0903). But this trinity is refuted\nby the Ved\u00e1ntic doctrine of unity, which repudiates a secondary cause.\n(\u0938\u0943\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f \u0938\u094d\u0925\u093f\u0924\u093f \u0932\u092f\u093e\u0926\u0940\u0928\u093e\u0902 \u0928\u093e\u0928\u094d\u092f \u0915\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e \u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0915\u0902). The Maitr\u00ed Upanishad makes mention of many more triads\nwhich were glorified with the aforesaid hallowed epithet _Om_ (VI. 5.)\n_Viz._ the following:\u2014\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The Trisex Divinity.]\n\n_Om_ composed of the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter\n(\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092a\u0941\u0928\u094d\u0928\u092a\u0941\u0902). But the Ved\u00e1nta refutes the generic distinctions of\nthe One unknown (\u0928\u092a\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0928\u092a\u0941\u092e\u093e\u0928\u094d \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903).\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The 3 Elemental forms.]\n\nThe fire, wind and sun, (\u0938\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f \u092c\u093e\u092f\u0941), the three powerful\nmanifestations of the Deity each of which had its votaries in the early\nfire, wind and sun worshippers of India.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The 3 Agencies as above.]\n\nThe creation, preservation and destruction of things in the forms of\nBrahm\u00e1, Vishnu and Siva as said above.\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The 3 Fires. \u0905\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ the three sacrificial fires called the \u0926\u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0923\u093e, \u0917\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0939\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f and\n\u0906\u0939\u094d\u0935\u0928\u0940\u092f\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0903, which were continually preserved in families.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The 3 Vedas. \u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u094b\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092f\u093e\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Om_ the triple learning contained in the Rik, Yajur and S\u00e1man, which\nwere identified with God for their being his words.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. The 3 Intelligences.]\n\nThe three Intellectual faculties consisting of the Mind, Intellect or\nReason, and the conscious soul.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. The 3 Times. \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0915\u093e\u0932\u00a0\u0964]\n\nPresent, past and future composing the circle of the eternity of _Om_\n(\u0915\u093e\u0932\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0902).\n\n[Sidenote: 8. The 3 Aliments. \u0905\u0928\u094d\u0928 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964]\n\nFood and water and moon. The water and food are eulogised as _Om_ in\nBhrigu Valli as \u0905\u0928\u094d\u0928 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e, and the moon is reckoned as such for its\ncontaining the ambrosial beverage of the gods.\n\n[Sidenote: 9. The Mental Powers. \u092e\u0928\u094b\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe three intellectual faculties, the mind, intellect and consciousness\nas the spiritual manifestations of the Invisible Spirit.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. The three Vital Airs. \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThose of respiration, circulation and secretion called \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u092e\u093e\u0928 \u0938\u092e\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0903\nthe respiratory breath or air and others: there are two others which\nwith these three will be found among the pentads (\u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0903).\n\n[Sidenote: 11. The three feet of God. \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092a\u093e\u0926\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThese are the different hypostases of God or rather of the Divine\nsoul in its three states of universality, individuality and external\nappearances, each of which is subdivided into three states.\n\n[Sidenote: 12. The 3 Totals.]\n\nThe S\u00fatr\u00e1tm\u00e1, Taijana and Hirany\u00e1garbha (universal soul)\n(\u0938\u0942\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u0924\u0948\u091c\u0928 \u0939\u093f\u0930\u0923\u094d\u092f\u0917\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0903); The three emanations of infinite Intelligence from the\nUnity of God.\n\n[Sidenote: 13. The three Specials.]\n\nThe Visva, Taijasha, and Prajn\u00e1 (Individual Souls) (\u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935 \u0924\u0948\u091c\u0938 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e). The\nthree emanations of finite souls from Divine Intelligence.\n\n[Sidenote: 14. The three externals.]\n\nThe Vaisw\u00e1nara, Visvar\u00fapa and Vir\u00e1t the three manifest and visible\nforms; (\u092c\u0948\u0936\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0928\u0930 \u092c\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a \u092c\u093f\u0930\u093e\u091f\u094d). Hence the nature of God is a triplicate\nthreefold unity or the thrice three hypostases of the One Being.\n\n[Sidenote: 15. The three Forms of Devotion.]\n\nThe three forms of our devotion and Communion with God, that he is\npraised, worshipped and ascribed with attributes.\n\n[Sidenote: 16. The Triple man.]\n\nHis body\u2014the bow, his mind\u2014the arrow, and his soul\u2014the aim. (M\u00e1ndukya\nII. 4. p. 159).\n\n[Sidenote: 17. The 3 States of the Soul.]\n\nOf waking, dreaming and sound sleep of the soul. (\u091c\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d \u0938\u094d\u0935\u092a\u094d\u0928 \u0938\u0941\u0938\u0941\u092a\u094d\u0924\u093f).\n\n[Sidenote: 18. The 3 Humours of the Body.]\n\nThe bile, phlegm and choler or flatulence (\u0935\u093e\u0924 \u092a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u0915\u092b) are the\npreservatives of the body and life.\n\n[Sidenote: 19. Three Matr\u00e1s. \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe three _mor\u00e6_ or vowels, the long, short and prolated.\n(\u0939\u094d\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0935 \u0926\u0940\u0930\u094d\u0918 \u092a\u094d\u0932\u0942\u0924 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e).\n\n[Sidenote: 20. Three Accents. \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe acute, grave and circumflex. \u0909\u0926\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u0941\u0926\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u093f\u0924\u0903.\n\n[Sidenote: 21. Three Utterances of speech. \u092c\u093e\u0923\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nHuman speech consisting of letters, words and sentences treated of in\nOrthography, Etymology and Syntax. (\u0927\u094d\u0935\u0923\u093f\u0903 \u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u092e\u093e \u092c\u0948\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0940).\n\n[Sidenote: 22. Three Pronunciations \u0938\u094d\u092b\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nDistinct, indistinct and half distinct. (Anquetil). (\u0938\u094d\u092b\u0941\u091f \u0905\u0938\u094d\u092b\u0941\u091f \u0905\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0938\u094d\u092b\u0941\u091f).\n\n[Sidenote: 23. Do. of Three Vedas.]\n\nThe _Swarat\u00ed_ of Rik, the _Swara_ of Yajus, and _Sw\u00e1nvat\u00ed_ of S\u00e1ma.\n(\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0924\u0940 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0928\u092c\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0903).\n\n[Sidenote: 24. The 3 Letters.]\n\nOf Om _viz._ a, u, m, agree with the first, second and third word of\nevery triad, _i.e._, each to each.\n\n[Sidenote: 25. The 3 Merits.]\n\nOf the meditation of the three letters of _Om_ described at length in\nthe Upanishads.\n\n\n XII. THE TETRADS OR QUADRUPLES OF OM.\n\n[Sidenote: I. Tetrads of Om.]\n\nWe have next to consider the tetrads or quadruple divinities in the\nquadrants or four fold divisions of the circle of _Om_ consisting of\nits four letters a, u, or crescent of _Om_, and the circlet of entire\nOm styled Chandravindu as given by Professor Monier Williams from the\nNirukta of yaska. (Indian Wisdom p. 169).\n\n[Sidenote: II. In sciences.]\n\n1. The Om of orthographers consisting of the four stages of speech;\nnamely, \u0927\u094d\u0935\u0928\u093f \u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0940 \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u092e\u093e and \u092c\u0948\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0940\u00a0\u0964\n\n2. Of Grammarians; the four parts of speech, nouns, verbs, prepositions\nand particles.\n\n3. Of Ritualists; The hymns, liturgical precepts, Br\u00e1hmanas and ordinary\nlanguage.\n\n4. Of philologers or S\u00e1bdikas; the speech of serpents, beasts, birds and\nvernaculars.\n\n5. Of Etymologists; The Rik, Yajur and S\u00e1ma Vedas and current language.\n\n6. Of Spiritualists; The language of beasts, wild animals, musical\ninstruments and soul.\n\n7. Of Manu (IV. 126). The Pranava and the three Vyahrtis. (\u0950 \u092d\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092d\u094d\u0930\u0941\u0935\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d).\n\n8. Of Manu (IV. 124). The Rik sacred to the gods, the Yajur relating to\nmankind and the S\u00e1ma concerning the manes, and its sound.\n\n9. Of _Sm\u00e1rtas_; The four stages;\u2014of students, householders, mendicants\nand ascetics.\n\n10. Of Pur\u00e1nas. The four Ages;\u2014_Satya_, _Tret\u00e1_, _Dw\u00e1para_ and _Kali_.\nThe four castes &c.\n\n[Sidenote: III. In Divinity]\n\n_A_ for _\u00e1pta_ or _Vy\u00e1pta_\u2014pervading all worlds, represents the divine\nhypostasis of Viswa.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The 4 Conditions of Brahma.]\n\n_U_\u2014for _Utkarshat_, _i. e._, more elevated than _A_; as the _Taijas_\nthan _Visva_. (\u0924\u0948\u091c\u0938).\n\nM\u2014for _m\u00e1na_ or measure, as the _prajn\u00e1_ like a _prastha_ measures the\nabove two. (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e).\n\n_Om_\u2014_i. e._, the entire and without parts, is the fourth and perfect\ncondition of Brahma. (\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e).\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The 4 states of the Soul.]\n\n_\u00c1_ for the waking (J\u00e1grat) state, when the soul is subject to gross\nsenses.\n\n_U_\u2014for the _swapna_ or dreaming state, when the soul is withdrawn from\nvisible objects.\n\nM\u2014the _susupta_ or sound sleeping state, in which the soul is\nunconscious of itself.\n\n_Om_\u2014the absolute and perfect state of the soul viewing all in itself.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The 4 Manifestations of God.]\n\nA\u2014is external manifestation of the Universal soul in objects.\n\n_U_\u2014Internal manifestation perceived in the operations of the soul in\ndream.\n\nM\u2014unmanifested existence; or the self consciousness of the soul.\n\nOm\u2014Unmanifest state of the soul, unmodified and inactive state.\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The 4 Titles of the soul.]\n\nA\u2014_Viswa_ or _Vaisw\u00e1nara_ who abides manifest in the waking state.\n\nU\u2014_Taijasa_; abiding in dreams and knowing all without objects.\n\nM\u2014_Prajn\u00e1_, the perfect wise abiding in deep sleep.\n\n_Om_\u2014Absolute Brahma called _Tur\u00edya_ which is perfect and all knowing.\n\n[Sidenote: The Four fold Tetrads:]\n\n I.\n\n A\u2014_\u00c1ptah_, pervading.\n U\u2014_Utkarsha_, Exalted.\n M\u2014_M\u00e1na_, Measure.\n Om\u2014_Brahma_, Absolute.\n\n II.\n\n _J\u00e1grat_, Waking.\n _Swapna_, Dreaming.\n _Susupti_, Sleeping.\n _Sthira_, Calm.\n\n III.\n\n A\u2014_Vyakta_, external state.\n U\u2014_Antar_, internal state.\n M\u2014_Avyakta_, unmanifested.\n _Om Ananta_, Infinity.\n\n IV.\n\n _Viswa_, the visible world.\n _Taijasa_, the thinking soul.\n _Pragn\u00e1_, Consciousness.\n _Tur\u00edya_, Omniscience.\n\n\n XIII. THE PENTADS &C., OF _Om_.\n\n[Sidenote: The Pentads of Om.]\n\nThe quintuples of om are composed of five letters or divisions of the\nsymbolical circle, standing for so many different things each of which\nforms a part of the whole, and is called an _Om_. The five parts are,\nA, U, M, O and the _n\u00e1da_\u2014the nasal half circle above.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The Five Vital Airs. \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\nRespiration, flatulence, circulation, pulsation and assimilation,\ncommonly known by the names of _Pr\u00e1na_, _Ap\u00e1na_, _Vy\u00e1na_, _Ud\u00e1na_ and\n_Sam\u00e1na_.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The Five Caverns. \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u0915\u094b\u0937\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964]\n\n_Pancha koshas_ or sheaths of the soul, folding one over the other\n\u201clike the coats of an onion\u201d. 1. The sheath of the intellect. 2. The\nsheath of the mind. 3. The sheath of breathing. 4. The subtle and\ncorporeal bodies. 5. The sheath of Supreme bliss, not admitted by\nall. (\u092c\u093f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u092f, \u092e\u0928\u094b\u092e\u092f, \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u092e\u092f, \u0905\u0928\u094d\u0928\u092e\u092f, \u0906\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0926\u092e\u092f \u0915\u094b\u0937\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964)\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Five Internal organs, senses and their objects.\n\u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0947\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0923\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe ear, eye, skin, nose and tongue, of hearing, sight, feeling, smell\nand taste. Their five objects\u2014sound, colour, touch, savour and smell.\n(\u0936\u094d\u0930\u094b\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0915\u094d \u091a\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0941 \u091c\u093f\u0939\u094d\u0935 \u0918\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0928\u093f \u0924\u0925\u093e \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u0938\u094d\u092a\u0930\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0942\u092a \u0930\u0938\u0917\u0928\u094d\u0927\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964)\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The Five external Do. \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nThe voice, hands, feet, the organs of generation and secretion are\norgans of action. \u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u092a\u093e\u0923\u093f \u092a\u093e\u0926 \u092a\u093e\u092f\u0942\u092a\u0938\u094d\u0925\u093e\u0928\u093f \u092c\u0939\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0923\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f \u0905\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930 \u092c\u093e \u092c\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0940\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0923\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 5. The Five Elements. \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092d\u0942\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964]\n\nEarth, air, fire, water and ether. \u0915\u094d\u0937\u093f\u0924\u094d\u092f\u092a\u094d \u0924\u0947\u091c\u094b \u092e\u0930\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0935\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092e \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092e\u0939\u093e\u092d\u0942\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 6. The Five classes of Ignorance.]\n\n1. Obscurity (\u0924\u092e\u0938\u094d), 2. Illusion(\u092e\u094b\u0939), 3. Extreme illusion(\u092e\u0939\u093e\u092e\u094b\u0939\u0903),\n4. Gloom (\u0924\u092e\u093f\u0938\u094d\u0930), 5. Utter gloom (\u0905\u0928\u094d\u0927 \u0924\u092e\u0938\u0903).\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The six letters of Hexads or sextuples.]\n\nThe sextuples of _Om_ are composed of _a_, _u_, _o_, _m_, the _Vindu_,\ncypher, and the _n\u00e1da_; and according to another account, the _Ardha\nm\u00e1tr\u00e1_ of Om is the fourth and the _Vindu_ and _n\u00e1da_ the fifth and\nsixth _aksharas_. (Weber\u2019s R\u00e1ma Tapan\u00edya p. p. 292, & 312. Cowell\u2019s\nMaitr\u00ed Up. p. 271).\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The 6 Organs.]\n\nThe five organs of sense; _viz_ the nose, tongue, the eye, ear, skin\nand the mind. (Gotama Sutra I. 1, 12). But according to others the mind\nis not reckoned an organ.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Other Sextuples]\n\nThe six seasons (\u0937\u0921\u0943\u0924\u0935\u0903), the six flavours (\u0937\u0921\u094d\u0930\u0938\u093e\u0903), the six musical\nmodes (\u0937\u0921\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0917\u0903), the six Ved\u00e1ngas; but I never met a passage of their\nbeing preceded by _Om_.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. The Heptads or Septuples.]\n\nThe Septuples are formed by a, u, o, m, _Vindu_, _n\u00e1da_ and _S\u00e1nta_ or\nultimate silence, and these are used to symbolise the pantheistic form\nof the god Vir\u00e1j, in the following description of him given by Sankara.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The 7 Parts of Vir\u00e1j Body.]\n\n\u201cHis head\u2014the heavens; his eye\u2014the sun; his breath\u2014the wind; his\ncenter\u2014the ether; his urine\u2014the water; his feet\u2014the earth; his mouth\nthe fire.\u201d Anquetil gives the five senses, the mind and intellect as\nhis seven members. (Weber\u2019s Indian Studien. Vol. II. p. 107).\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Other Heptads.]\n\nAccording to other accounts there is a sevenfold septuples included\nin the figure Om comprising the Universe. The first _trisaptaka_ or\ntriplex septuple comprises the seven spheres of heaven, the seven\np\u00e1t\u00e1las or infernal regions, and the seven _Bhuvanas_ of earth. The\nsecond _trisapta_ consists of the _sapta dw\u00edpas_ or seven continents\nof the earth, the seven oceans, and the seven planets; and lastly the\n_sapta swara_ or the seven notes emitted by the planetary motions.\n\n[Sidenote: The Octads or octuples.]\n\nThe octuples consist of the aforesaid seven parts and the _s\u00e1kti_\nor word _namo_ added to them at the end, and are used as symbols of\nVir\u00e1j for the five vital airs, or the five organs of action and those\nof intellect _i. e._ the mind, intellect and self consciousness or\n_ch\u00edtta_.\n\n[Sidenote: The Nonads.]\n\nThese are nine cavities of the body \u0928\u092c\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0930\u0917\u0943\u0939 the abode of Brahma.\n\n[Sidenote: The _Decads_.]\n\nThese are the ten internal and external organs (\u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0947\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\nand \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u092c\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0940\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f) of the body\u2014the seats of Brahma.\n\n\n XIV. PHILOSOPHY OF THE NUMERICAL GROUPS CONTAINED\n UNDER THE MYSTIC SYLLABLE OM.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Inquiry into the numerical groups.]\n\nAfter the lengthy account we have given of the various classes of words\ncontained under the different numbers and divisions and subdivisions\nof the mysterious letter _Om_, it must be asked by the inquisitive\nreader, what do these clusters of concrete and abstract terms which are\nnumerically jumbled together under the unintelligible character _Om_\nserve to mean, and of what use are they to the contemplative Yogi in\nhis meditation on the attributes of his Maker by that symbol?\n\n[Sidenote: 2 (_a_). Enlargement of the understanding.]\n\nIn answer to this query we are bound to repeat the definition of yoga,\nthat it is the process of joining the ideas in the mind, and practicing\nthe limited powers of the understanding to rise by degrees from their\ngrasping the ideas of unities or single objects at a time, to the\ncomprehension of dualities and pluralities for the enlargement of the\nintellect, till at last the mind is fraught with a clear and distinct\nidea of every thing in the universe comprised under the several groups\nor generalizations of particulars.\n\n[Sidenote: 2 (_b_). Their Pantheistic view.]\n\nAnd also as we have more than once mentioned in the preceding articles,\nthat God is _aham bahushy\u00e1m_\u2014one in many, _to on to pan_ of the Greeks,\nor the _unity_ divided into and containing an _Infinity_ of parts; so\nHis symbol the holy Om is one circle and emblem of infinity, which for\nthe sake of our conception and convenience is viewed in its Finite\nparts of monads &c., and their ever increasing multiples by all other\nnumbers. But the monad like the prime number one whether multiplied or\ndivided by any number in arithmetic, remains still the same simple one.\nThus (1 \u00d7 2 = 2 \u00d7 1); (and 1/2 = 1 \u00f7 2, or 1/2 = 1 \u00d7 1/2). This is the\nroot of the pantheistic doctrine of the Ved\u00e1nta. \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902 \u0916\u0932\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0926\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e This\nOne is all: and the whole being taken from the whole the remainder is\nwhole. \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092e\u093e\u0926\u093e\u092f \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092e\u0947\u092c\u093e\u092c\u0936\u093f\u0937\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Numerical Philosophy.]\n\nIt was the oldest _S\u00e1nkhya_ or numerical school of philosophy in\nIndia, like the ancient Ionian school of Greece, that first made a\nclassification of all objects in nature under certain co-ordinate\ngroups for our contemplation of them under those classes; which its\nlater development of the _yoga_ system has converted to the objects\nof our meditation as same with or pervaded by the Deity; or in other\nwords, has recommended the meditation of nature\u2019s God in nature itself\nas in Natural Theology. It was the Tantra worship of later ages that\ndivided the symbol of unity and infinity of the divine _om_ into a\ndecad of parts, as it is the custom of mathematicians to divide the\ngreat circle of infinity into 360 degrees, though it might be divided\ninto an infinity of parts.\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The S\u00e1nkhya and Pythagorean.]\n\nThe S\u00e1nkhya system of evolution which is closely allied to that of the\nDarwinian, views the monad as the elementary _protozoa_, which combined\nwith other monads make up the duads, triads &c. we have mentioned\nbefore, and all which are resolvable to the primary monad. Om is always\n\u2018one\u2019 thing; nothing can destroy that numerical existence, combine the\nthing in every possible variety of ways, and it still remains \u2018_one_.\u2019\nIt cannot be less than _one_, it cannot be more. As (2 = 1 + 1 = II &\n3 = 1 + 1 + 1 = III). Resolve it into its minutest particles, and each\nparticle is _one_. As (\u00bd, \u2153, \u00bc &c.). One is the only absolute\nnumber; all others are but relations to it. The Infinite therefore\nmust be one, and if you take infinity and the infinitesimals from\nthe infinite, there remains also the same infinity; according to the\nVed\u00e1nta paradox \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092e\u0926\u0903 \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092e\u093f\u0926\u0902 \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u093e\u0924\u094d \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092e\u0941\u0926\u0941\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964 and all modes of existence\nare but finite aspects of the Infinite.\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Different aspects of the soul.]\n\nThe soul being a self moved monad, is one, whether it connects itself\nwith two or with three; in other words the essence remains the same\nwhatever its manifestations may be. The one soul may have two aspects,\nIntelligence and Passion, as in brutes; or it may have three aspects,\nas in man &c. For more of this see Lewes\u2019 History of Philosophy (Vol. I\np. 33 and p. 34).\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Query concerning Nature Worship.]\n\nThere rises another question of some importance in this place as, what\nhas the Yogi or worshipper of God to do with the objects presented to\nhim in the different groups under the partitions of _Om_, when his\nbusiness is solely to meditate on the nature and attributes of the\nDeity?\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Spiritual Worship.]\n\nTo this it may be answered that, the Hindu Yogi or meditative sage is\nenjoined to meditate on the Supreme Spirit in Spirit, \u201c_\u00e1tm\u00e1 \u00e1tmanyeva\nchintayet_\u201d. (\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u091a\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u092f\u0947\u0924\u094d). He does not adore any visible object,\nbut contemplates his creator with all his attributes as displayed in\ncreation, which he sums up abstractedly in his own spirit and mind.\nThere can be no contemplation of the inscrutable and incomprehensible\nnature of God apart from the light we derive from the abstract\nmeditation of all sensible and intellectual natures. \u201cObserve every\nthing in thyself and so shalt thou behold the Supreme.\u201d\n\u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0917\u0924\u0902 \u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u0928\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0902 \u092a\u0930\u093f\u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0938\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Self knowledge. What?]\n\nThe old rule of self knowledge \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935 or know thyself\n\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0902 \u091c\u093e\u0928\u0940\u0939\u093f, which was believed to constitute highest wisdom, and\nwhich has given rise to different interpretations in various schools\nof philosophy, does not mean the knowledge of one\u2019s state and nature\nto be sufficient for him; but that of his soul which makes him truly\ngreat. The wise Socrates looked inwards, and there discovered the moral\nand psychological truths the world has derived from him. His pupil the\ndivine Plato looked within him, and there found the eternal ideas of\nwhich sense awakened reminiscence.\n\n[Sidenote: 9. Knowledge of the Soul.]\n\nThe Hindu Yogi too looks inward and views within the circle of his\ncranium symbolized as _Om_, his soul seated as a ray and figure of the\nDivinity, and encompassed by the abstract ideas of all things whose\nimpressions he has received by sense and mind. He then learns to\ndistinguish by his discriminative power called the _\u00e1tm\u00e1n\u00e1tma viveka_,\n(\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0935\u093f\u0935\u0947\u0915) the soul of the Universe from all the representations\nwhich it presents to his mind.\n\n[Sidenote: 10. Of one in Many.]\n\nThe Platonic system had also a sort of classification in which the\nsearch for One in Many and Many in One, together with the detection\nof the One in the Many was the constant aim, consult for further\ninformation on this head in Lewes\u2019 History of Philosophy. (Vol. 1. p.\n237 and p. 405).\n\n\n XV. THE UNITARIAN FORMULA \u0950 \u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0924\u094d ONE THAT IS.\n\n[Sidenote: 1. Om the one.]\n\nFrom all our investigation into the origin, rise, and extent of meaning\nof the word _Om_ in its orthography, etymology and theology, it is\nevident that the Indo-Aryan mind was early infused with the idea of an\nabsolute _Om_ corresponding with the Greek _On_ and _\u00f4n_, and _En_ and\nalso _Aeon_ of the Gnostics, Latin _Ens_, _Unum_ and Entity, Romance\n_On_ and _un_, and _one_ in English, whose unity was the source of all\ndiversity in the plurality of creation, agreeably to the text _aham\nbahu Sy\u00e1m_ = _Ego multus sim_ of the Sruti.\n\n[Sidenote: 2. The Universal soul, = V\u00ecsw\u00e1tman.]\n\nIt was at first known as _one_ and then as the _self_ or soul by the\nsilent and innate intuition of the intellect, as it is declared in the\nMandukya Upanishad II. 2, 5. \u0924\u092e\u0947\u092c\u0948\u0915\u0902\u091c\u093e\u0928\u0925\u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0935\u093e\u091a\u094b, \u092c\u093f\u092e\u0941\u091e\u094d\u091a\u0925\u0905\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0948\u092c \u0938\u0947\u0924\u0941\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\u092e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0942\u0915\u0902 \u0968\u00a0\u0964 \u0968\u0967\u096b\u00a0\u0964\n\nMax M\u00fcller says (A. S. Lit. p. 23 and p. 322): \u201cThe \u00c1tman was next\nconceived as the Spirit = air, _\u00e1tm\u00e1_ and _anime_.\u201d \u201cThat one breathed\nbreathless by itself: other than it nothing since has been.\u201d Thus says\nthe Sruti (M\u00fcller p. 560). \u201cThis one \u00c1tman (atmos) fills, animates and\npervades the whole\u201d; as the poet sings \u201cspreads unspent\u201d throughout the\ninfinity of worlds:\n\n \u201cWhich are but parts of one undivided whole\n whose body nature is, and God the soul.\u201d (Pope).\n\n\u090f\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964 \u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902 \u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902 \u0935\u093f\u092d\u093e\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n\n[Sidenote: 3. Called as _Tat_ = that]\n\nThe inherent one of all ones \u201c_to on ontwn_,\u201d the unit of unities, the\nEns of entities, the soul of the world \u201cVisw\u00e1tman\u201d was yet without a\nname, nor did they know how to call him, than by the designation of\n_tat_ = \u201cthat,\u201d which they say is expressive of the idea of Brahma\n\u0924\u0926\u093f\u0924\u093f \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u094b\u093d\u092d\u093f\u0927\u093e\u0928\u092e\u0941\u0926\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 Because says V\u00e1chaspati, the nature of the one _Om_,\nwas unknown even to the learned \u092c\u093f\u0926\u0941\u0937\u093e\u0902 \u092a\u0930\u094b\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u091a\u094d\u091a \u0924\u091a\u094d\u091b\u092c\u094d\u0926\u094b \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u094b \u0928\u093e\u092e; and therefore it was\nspecified by the demonstrative pronoun _that_ \u201c_tat_,\u201d which sometimes\npreceded the \u090f\u0915 as \u0924\u0926\u0947\u0915\u0902 &c. (Greek _to on_). The\nnecessity of pronouncing _Om_ with _tat sat_ in the beginning of every\nVedic rite, is strictly enjoined in Bh\u00e1gavad-G\u00edt\u00e1. \u0950 \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0938\u0926\u093f\u0924\u093f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0926\u0947\u0936\u094b\n\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0928\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0935\u093f\u0927\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0923\u0936\u094d\u091a\u0948\u092c \u092c\u0947\u0926\u093e\u0936\u094d\u091a \u092f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0936\u094d\u091a\u092c\u093f\u0939\u093f\u0924\u093e\u0903 \u092a\u0941\u0930\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u092c\u0948\u0926\u093f\u0915\u0947 \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0923\u093f \u0924\u0947\u0937\u093e\u0902 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0925\u092e\u0924\u094b \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0926\u0947\u0936\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0907\u0924\u093f \u0924\u093e\u0902 \u092c\u093e\u091a\u0938\u094d\u092a\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 4. The Impersonal and Personal God.]\n\nThe word \u201c_tat_\u201d in the neuter gender, was used for the one self, which\nas an element or material cause, had evolved all things out of its\nimmaterial essence, and expressed an impersonal God, which the creed of\nthe early philosophers had established in the Vedas. It was at a much\nlater period that the belief of a personal God, is said to have been\nintroduced by the sage S\u00e1ndilya in the Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya and Swet\u00e1svatara\nUpanishads, where the self \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e is used in the masculine\ngender, and the masculine pronoun _Sa_ and _tam_ (Greek \u201c_ho and ton_,\u201d\nLat \u201c_is_\u201d), was substituted for _tat_ (Greek _to_ Lat _id_) in the\nsubjective _mantra_ \u0938\u094b\u093d\u0939\u0902 \u0939\u0902\u0938; but in the objective mantra it is\nneuter as \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935\u092e\u0938\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Of the Br\u00e1hma Som\u00e1ja]\n\nThe Br\u00e1hma Sam\u00e1j has preserved both the formula of the Impersonal God\n(\u0950 \u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0924\u094d) as their motto, as well as addressed their prayers to\nthe personal God by use of the masculine pronoun _sa_ and _tam_ instead\nof _tat_. Thus in the opening hymn of Ram Mohun Roy\u2019s Prayer Book\n\u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902 \u0936\u0930\u0923\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902 \u092c\u0930\u0947\u0923\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902 \u091c\u0917\u0924\u094d \u0915\u093e\u0930\u0923\u0902 \u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902 \u091c\u0917\u0924\u094d \u0915\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0943\u092a\u093e\u0924\u0943 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0939\u0930\u094d\u0924\u0943 \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902 \u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902 \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a\u0902 \u092d\u091c\u093e\u092e\u093f\u00a0\u0964\nSo in Devendra Natha Th\u00e1kur\u2019s hymn \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902 \u0938\u094d\u092e\u0930\u093e\u092e\u094b \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0902\u092d\u091c\u093e\u092e\u094b\u00a0\u0964 This\nis in accordance to the creed of all civilized nations to apply the\nmasculine pronoun to the Deity. The Koran has \u201cho=he\u201d in its formulas\nof \u201c_Ho\u2019lahad_\u201d \u201c_Ho\u2019lghani_\u201d _&c._, and so also the _ho_ of the Bible.\n_Tat_ like _On_ is sometimes used alone and by itself for God, at the\nopening of books and chapters, and upon the tops of pages with the Sat\nfollowing it as \u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0924\u094d.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. Ditto in the Feminine Gender.]\n\nBut those who have heard the preachings of Keshub Chandra Sen, may\nwell remember his exclamations as \u0924\u0941\u092e\u093f \u092a\u093f\u0924\u093e \u0924\u0941\u092e\u093f \u092e\u093e\u0924\u093e, \u0924\u0941\u092e\u093f \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937 \u0924\u0941\u092e\u093f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f, in\nimitation of the Roman idolatrous philosopher\u2019s acclamation to God,\n\u201ctu pater, tu mater, tu mas, tu femme\u201d &c., in Cudworth\u2019s Intellectual\nSystem. There is no masculine or feminine representative of the pronoun\n_tat_ or any other pronoun in the vernaculars, where they are all of\nthe common gender, hence \u0924\u093f\u0928\u093f, \u0909\u0928\u093f, \u0913, \u0938\u0947 &c., used for _tat_ by the\nHeathen Hindus, are applied alike to their gods and goddesses, while\nthe Sanskrit _sah_ = ho in Greek, Arabic and Hebrew designates the\nmasculine Deity only. Mahommed says in the Koran, \u201cye are ashamed of\nyour female children, but not of assigning female attributes to the\nDeity.\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Ditto in the Neuter Gender.]\n\nThe following passages will serve to show the early creed of the\nimpersonal God, from the application of the neuter pronoun _tat_ to him\nin the M\u00e1ndukya Upanishad. (11. 2)\n\n \u0924\u0926\u0947\u0924\u0926\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0938\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0926\u092c\u093e\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0928\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u0924\u0926\u0947\u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0924\u0926\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0902 \u0924\u0926\u094d\u0935\u094b\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0935\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0938\u094c\u092e\u094d\u092f\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n \u0924\u0926\u0947\u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0903 \u0906\u092f\u092e\u094d\u092f \u0924\u0926\u094d\u092d\u093e\u092c \u0917\u0924\u0947\u0928 \u091a\u0947\u0924\u0938\u093e\u00a0\u0964\n \u0932\u0915\u094d\u0937\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0924\u0926\u0947\u092c\u093e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0930\u0902 \u0938\u094c\u092e\u094d\u092f \u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n \u0924\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0947\u0928 \u092a\u0930\u093f\u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0927\u0940\u0930\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u0906\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0926 \u0930\u0942\u092a\u092e\u092e\u0943\u0924\u0902 \u092f\u0926\u094d\u092c\u093f\u092d\u093e\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n \u0924\u0924\u094d \u0936\u0941\u092d\u094d\u0930\u0902 \u0924\u0926\u094d \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0937\u093e\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u092f\u094b\u0924\u093f\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0926\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094b \u092c\u093f\u0926\u0941\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u0924\u092e\u0947\u0935\u092d\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u092e\u0928\u0941\u092d\u093e\u0924\u093f \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0902, \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092d\u093e\u0937\u093e \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u092e\u093f\u0926\u092e\u094d\u092c\u093f\u092d\u093e\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n\nMeaning:\u2014\u201cThe sun, moon and stars what are they? But a glimpse of light\ncaught from That (_Tat_).\u201d &c.\n\n\n XVI. ONTOLOGY OF THE SELF EXISTENT\n _Sat_ = BEING.\n\n[Sidenote: Philology of Sat.]\n\n1. The last word of the formular motto of Ved\u00e1nta is _sat_, which\nderived from the root _asa_, Lat. _esse_\u2014to be, makes the present\nparticiple _Sat_ and means a being, like the Latin _ens_ and Greek\n_On_, the participial noun of _eimi_ meaning a being. Thus the\nknowledge of _sat_ which is _Satyam_ = reality, is the doctrine of\n_On_\u2014the real being, which as said before is _to on onton_\u2014the being of\nbeings and prime cause of all existences, and forms the main subject\nof Ontology. This primary and fundamental truth of the existence of a\nfirst cause, led the Rishi _a priori_ to deduce all other existences\nfrom it by the text \u0905\u0939\u0902 \u0935\u0939\u0941\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0902 _Ego in multis et pluribus_\u2014the one\nin many: or in other words, when the Br\u00e1hman believes in but one real\nbeing in the Universe, he believes also that this being constitutes the\nUniverse. (M.W. Indian Wisdom p. 36).\n\n[Sidenote: 2. Etymology of Sat.]\n\n2. The noun _Sat_ in its verbal form is equivalent to _asti_,\ncorresponding with Lat. _est_, Gr. _esti_, Persic _ast_ and _hast_,\nBengali-\u00e1chhe, Uria achchhe &c. Eng. _is_, Ger. _Ist_ and the like. And\n_tat sat_ together makes the Greek _to estin_, Lat. _Id est_ French _Il\nest_ &c.; Arabic _alast_, Persic _ost_, and Hindi _Ohihae_. The Om _Tat\nSat_ is either an identic proposition, meaning the \u201cBeing that is\u201d or a\ndefinitive one, expressing _Om_ that (is) existent.\n\n[Sidenote: 3. The Ontology of _Sat_ or Being.]\n\n3. The Ch\u2019h\u00e1ndogya Upanishad says; \u201cIn the beginning there was the mere\nstate of _sat_\u2014being (_to on_)\u2014the one only without a second.\u201d Some\nhowever say that, \u201cin the beginning there was a state of _asat_\u2014not\nbeing; (_Lat. non est_, Gr. _to mi on_), the one without a second.\nHence out of a state of non-being would proceed a state of being. But\nhow can this be? How can _sat_ = being, proceed out of _asat_ not\nbeing?\u201d It is logically absurd by the well known maxim _Ex nihilo nihil\nfit_ of Lucretius. \u201cHence in the beginning there was a mere state of\nbeing (the _om_). One only without a second. (_om eka mev\u00e1\ndvit\u00edyam_ \u0913\u092e\u0947\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902). He willed and became many\u201d (Ch\u00e1nd. VI. 2. M.\nW. Ind. Wisdom p. 41).\n\n[Sidenote: 4. A Priori Argument of Ved\u00e1nta.]\n\n4. The Original text runs thus.\n\n \u0938\u0926\u0947\u0935\u0907\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930 \u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d, \u090f\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n \u0924\u0926\u093e\u0939 \u090f\u0915\u0947\u0906\u0939\u0941\u0903 \u0905\u0938\u0926\u0947\u0935\u0907\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d \u090f\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n \u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u0938\u0924\u0903 \u0938\u091c\u094d\u091c\u093e\u092f\u0947\u0924\u00a0\u0964\n \u0915\u0941\u0924\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0941\u0916\u0932\u0941 \u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0915\u0925\u092e\u0938\u0924\u0903 \u0938\u091c\u094d\u091c\u093e\u092f\u0947\u0924 \u0907\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0965\n \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0935\u0947\u0935\u0907\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d, \u090f\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n \u0924\u0926\u0948\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0924 \u0935\u0939\u0941\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0902 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u093e\u092f\u0947\u092f\u00a0\u0964\n\nThe above cited passage and numerous other texts of the Ved\u00e1nta\nsuch as the following, \u092f\u0924\u094b \u0935\u093e \u0907\u092e\u093e\u0928\u093f \u092d\u0942\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f \u091c\u093e\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0947 \u092f\u0947\u0928 \u091c\u093e\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093f\u00a0\u0964 and \u091c\u0928\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0938\u094d\u092f\u092f\u0924\u094b\u093d\u0928\u094d\u0935\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d &c.,\nunanimously prove _a priori_ and by deductive reasoning that Brahma\nis the primary cause from which all others are derived and deduced\nby reason. This is called the _P\u00farva vat_ or _a priori_ reasoning in\nthe Nyaya philosophy, which is shewn to be the logical inference of\nthe effect from its cause. \u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0923\u0947\u0928 \u0915\u093e\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u092e\u0928\u0941\u092e\u0940\u092f\u0924\u0947 \u092f\u0925\u093e \u092e\u0947\u0918\u094b\u0928\u094d\u0928\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\n\u092d\u0935\u093f\u0937\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u092c\u0943\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f\u0930\u093f\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092f\u0928\u0903\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u00a0\u0964\u0967\u00a0\u0964\u096c\u00a0\u0964\n\n\n[Sidenote: 5. Evidences of the First cause.]\n\n5. The priori inference of a pre-existent cause is supported by\nmany other modes of reasoning as we shall state below. 1. By the\nCosmological reasoning of Humboldt, Leibnitz and others, it is evident\nthat some being was uncaused, or was of itself without a cause.\nTherefore God is the first cause of all things. (Leibnitz). 2. By\nthe Anthropological reasoning founded on certain observed facts or\nphenomena of human consciousness, its knowledge of the subjective\n_ego_ and objective _non ego_ &c. 3. By the Ontological, we find the\nexistence in the mind of a clear and distinct idea of God, as a perfect\nBeing or _Ens_ or entity (sat) perfectly eminent. 4. Psychological\nIntuitive reasoning shows us clearly that \u201cwe may form the idea of a\nsupremely perfect being of whom we have a conscious proof. And as in\nthe exercise of our intellect we become conscious of a subjective unity\nunderlying the external diversity, so by the unvarying revelations of\nreason, we are led to recognize the existence of a Deity who, amidst\nall the shifting phenomena of the universe remains one and Immutable.\u201d\nVide Devendra N\u00e1th Tagore\u2019s Ontology p. 14.\n\n[Sidenote: 6. A Posteriori Argument.]\n\nThe Ved\u00e1nta philosophy pursues also a course of inductive reasoning in\nits aphorism of \u091c\u0928\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0938\u094d\u092f\u092f\u0924\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0938\u094d\u092f \u091c\u0928\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u093f \u092f\u0924\u0903, rising from the creation\nto its maker. This is the process of \u092a\u0930\u092c\u0924\u094d or _a posteriori_\nreasoning of the Ny\u00e1ya philosophy, in its inference of the cause\nfire from its effect the smoke (\u092a\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0924\u094b\u0935\u0928\u094d\u0939\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0928\u094d \u0927\u0941\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d), or of the major term\n\u0935\u094d\u092f\u092a\u0915\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f from the middle \u0935\u094d\u092f\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0927\u0942\u092e\u00a0\u0964 This is the physical\nreasoning of modern inductive science, which infers from the facts of\nexistence an author of these facts. The Universe exists, therefore it\nhas a cause, which is prior to all other causes. There are some who\nattempt to prove the posteriori \u092a\u0930\u0935\u0924\u094d argument of the Veda\nfrom a different construction of the G\u00e1yatri hymn, ascending from the\n_Vy\u00e1hritis_ or creation of the worlds (\u092d\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u0935\u0903\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d) to their creator\n\u0924\u0924\u094d \u0938\u0935\u093f\u0924\u093e; but this mode of reasoning is not justified by others,\nby reason of the initial Om = God.\n\n[Sidenote: 7. Ambiguity of the word _Sat_.]\n\nWe shall now take notice of the other meanings which the lexicons\nassign to _sat_, beside the being and entity of God \u092a\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925 \u0938\u0924\u094d\u0935 we\nhave so long dwelt upon. It means the goodness and excellence of a\nthing. \u0938\u093e\u0927\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0935\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0936\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0926\u093f\u092d\u093f\u0903 \u0938\u091a\u094d\u091b\u092c\u094d\u0926\u094b\u093d\u092a\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u093e\u091a\u0938\u094d\u092a\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092d\u093f\u0926\u093e\u0928\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n\nIn this sense the phrase _Om tat sat_ would mean \u201cGod The Good\u201d, which\nis quite correct on all hands. In English the etymology of God is good,\nand so the Sanskrit _sat_ means both God and good; thus also all systems\nof philosophy predicate the attribute of goodness of the nature of God.\nThe Persian term _Khoda_ though so nearly allied to God and _sat_ in\nsound, will be found to bear no affinity with either; but to owe its\nderivation to the Sanskrit \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0926\u093e (from \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0926\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0903) meaning self-produced;\n_swa_ \u0938\u094d\u0935 being invariably rendered into _kha_ in Persian, as _swata_\n\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924 _khod_, _swasri_ \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0938\u0943 khwahir &c.\n\n[Sidenote: 8. Another sense of _Sat_.]\n\n_Sat_ appears moreover in the sense of sitting in composition with an\nobjective word preceding it, as _diri-shad_ a celestial, _sabh\u00e1sat_\na courtier. It is from the root _sad_, Latin _sedo_\u2014to sit, with the\nsuffix _kwip_. Thus we have in the Kath\u00e1 Vall\u00ed: (V. 2.)\n\u0939\u0902\u0938\u0903 \u0936\u0941\u091a\u093f\u0938\u0926\u094d\u0935\u0938\u0941\u0930\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u0940\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0947\u0924\u093e \u0935\u0947\u0926\u093f\u0937\u0926\u0924\u093f\u0925\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0926\u0942\u0930\u094b\u0928 \u0938\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964\n\u0928\u0943\u0937\u0926\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0938\u0926\u0943\u0924\u0938\u0926\u094d\u0935\u094d\u092f\u094b\u092e\u0938\u0926\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u0926\u094d \u0905\u092c\u094d\u091c\u093e \u0917\u094b\u091c\u093e \u090b\u0924\u091c\u093e \u0905\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u091c\u093e\u090b\u0924\u0902 \u092c\u0943\u0939\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964\u096b\u00a0\u0964\u0968\u00a0\u0964\n\n\n\u201cThe Hansa, (God) sits above the heavens, it dwells in the atmosphere,\nas invokers it dwells in temples, and as guests it is not afar from us.\nIt dwells in man, in truth, in the ether, in water, mountains &c. &c.\u201d\n\n\n XVII. THE CONCLUSIVE LESSON ON THE PRACTICE OF YOGA.\n\nAfter our long and lengthy discussion on the subject of Yoga, and the\nsacred and mysterious words wherewith it is conducted, our treatise will\nbe deemed incomplete until we set a form or praxis of the manner in\nwhich it is to be conducted; and particularly by those who are fully\npersuaded of its efficacy, and prepared for its practice, but are\nprevented from it for want of proper guides to initiate them into it, or\ndeterred by the arduousness of the rites imposed upon them by false\nYogis, as to give up the exercise in disgust and hopelessness of their\npossibility ever to master it.\n\nWe shall set to these a short lesson from the Upanishad with directions\nfrom the Bh\u00e1gavad G\u00edt\u00e1, works which are believed to be of the highest\nauthority and sanctity by every Hindu, and which can never be suspected\nof misleading any body; but on the other hand universally acknowledged\nas the only luminaries amidst the intellectual gloom of superstition and\nignorance. The Kathopanishad says that the light of truth is to be\ngained by yoga only \u092f\u094b\u0917\u0940\u0928\u093e\u0902 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u0917\u092e\u094d\u092f\u0902, and the Bh\u00e1gavad G\u00edt\u00e1 declares, that\nknowledge, faith and practice are the only means of its attainment\n\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e \u091a \u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0936\u094d\u091a \u0928\u094b\u092a\u093e\u092f\u0928\u093e\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0915\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0930\u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d. It directs all men of competence to betake themselves to\nthe acquisition of learning, and the incompetent to the practice of acts\nthus: \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0928\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u092f\u094b\u0917\u094b\u093d\u0928\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0938\u093f\u0928\u093e\u092e\u093f\u0939\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u200b\u0938\u0941\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0947\u0937\u094d\u092f\u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093f\u0923 \u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0902, \u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0936\u094d\u091a \u0915\u093e\u092e\u093f\u0928\u093e\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n\nThe Maitr\u00ed Upanishad gives the following directions for the practice of\nyoga. \u201cIn the same way (is declared) the rule for the exercise of these\nmeans (for the concentration of the mind). This concentration (yoga) has\nsix parts:\u2014restraint of the breath (_pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma_), restraint of the\nsenses (_praty\u00e1h\u00e1ra_), meditation (_dhy\u00e1na_), attention (_dh\u00e1ran\u00e1_);\nself examination (_tarka_), and absorption (_sam\u00e1dhi_). When beholding\nby this manner of contemplation, he beholds the golden coloured, the\ndoer, the lord, the spirit, Brahman, the cause; then the seer abandoning\nhis merits and sins, reduces every thing to unity in the Supreme\nindestructible (soul). Thus says the Sruti;\u2014As beasts and birds approach\nnot a blazing mountain, so faults never approach those who know\nBrahman\u201d. (18).\n\n\u201cIt has been also said elsewhere when the sage, conditioned as _pr\u00e1na_,\nhas obtained the mastery over his mind, and left outside all the objects\nof the senses, then let him remain void of all volition. Since the\nindividual soul called _pr\u00e1na_ springs from the _non-pr\u00e1na_ (Supreme\nIntelligence); hence let the (apparent) _pr\u00e1na_ fix itself in the fourth\nstage (of pure intelligence). Thus saith the Sruti;\u2014\u201cThat which is\nitself apart from intellect, which yet abides in the midst of intellect,\nthe inconceivable, the supremely secret, on this let him fix his\nintellect (_chitta_); thus this subtle body having no object, is merged\n(in the Supreme).\u201d (19).\n\n\u201cIt hath also been said elsewhere; there is yet a higher exercise of\nattention (_dh\u00e1ran\u00e1_) for the sage; after pressing the end of his tongue\nagainst his palate and restraining his voice, mind and breath, he\nbeholds Brahman by contemplation. When thus by the annihilation of the\nmind, he beholds the self-manifesting soul, the less than the least, as\nidentified with the supreme soul, then having seen the soul thus\nidentified, he becomes divested of self. Being thus divested, he becomes\nunlimited, destitute of material support, only an object of pure\nthought. This is the great secret,\u2014final emancipation. Thus saith the\nSruti;\u2014By the serenity of the intellect he destroys all action, good or\nbad; with serene soul, abiding in the Divine Soul, he enjoys undying\nbliss.\u201d (20).\n\n\u201cIt hath been said also; the artery, called _sushumn\u00e1_, which supplies\nthe passage for the vital air, rises upward (from the heart) and is\ninterrupted in the middle of the palate. By means of this artery,\nconjoined with the _pr\u00e1na_ (brought under subjection), the mind merged\nby contemplation into its object Brahman, and the repetition of the\nmystic syllable _Om_, let him rise upwards turning the end of his tongue\non the palate, and uniting the senses (with the pr\u00e1na and mind) ]. Let\nthe absence of limitation contemplate itself (_i. e._ let him\ncontemplate on the unlimited Brahman). Then he attains freedom from all\norgans; and becomes no longer capable of pain or pleasure. He gains\nabsolute unity.\u201d Thus saith the Sruti:\u2014\n\n\u201cFirst having mastered _pr\u00e1na_, then having fixed it on the palate,\nhaving crossed the state of limitation, let him in the crown of his\nhead, merge (the soul) in the unlimited Brahman.\u201d (21).\n\n\u201cThus he may contemplate _Om_ as the sound and non-sound &c. (22 and\n23). Then _Om_ as light, and all other significates of _Om_.\u201d (24 &c.).\n\nThose who may think the English version of the lesson on Yoga as not\nvery explicit, will do well to consult the subjoined text in the\noriginal.\n\n \u0924\u0925\u093e \u0924\u0924\u094d \u092a\u094d\u0930\u092f\u094b\u0917\u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u092f\u093e\u092e\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u093e\u0930\u094b\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u0902\u0927\u093e\u0930\u0923\u093e\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0915\u0903 \u0938\u092e\u093e\u0927\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0937\u0921\u094d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0917\u094b \u0907\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0941\u091a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u0947\u00a0\u0964\u2014\n\n \u0905\u0928\u0947\u0928 \u092f\u0926\u093e \u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d \u092a\u0936\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f \u0930\u0941\u0915\u094d\u092d\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0923\u0902 \u0915\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0930\u092e\u0940\u0936\u0902 \u092a\u0941\u0930\u0941\u0937\u0902 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u092f\u094b\u0928\u093f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n \u0924\u0926\u093e\u092c\u093f\u0926\u094d\u092c\u093e\u0928\u094d \u092a\u0941\u0923\u094d\u092f \u092a\u093e\u092a\u0947 \u0935\u093f\u0939\u093e\u092f \u092a\u0930\u0947\u093d\u0935\u094d\u092f\u092f\u0947 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u200b\u092e\u0947\u0915\u0940 \u0915\u0930\u094b\u0924\u0940\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0947\u092c\u0902 \u0939\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u00a0\u0964\n \u092f\u0925\u093e \u092a\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u0924\u200b \u092e\u093e\u0926\u0940\u092a\u094d\u0924 \u092e\u093e\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092e\u0943\u0917\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u091c\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0926\u094d\u0935\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0935\u093f\u0926\u094b \u0926\u094b\u0937\u093e\u0928\u093e\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0915\u0926\u093e\u091a\u0928\u00a0\u0965\u0967\u096e\n\n \u0905\u0925\u093e\u0928\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u0926\u093e\u0935\u0948\u0935\u0939\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0928\u094d \u092e\u0928\u094b\u0928\u093f\u092f\u092e\u094d\u092f \u0907\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u093e\u0902\u0936\u094d\u091a \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u094b\u0928\u093f\u0935\u0947\u0936\u092f\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\n \u0928\u093f\u0903\u0938\u0919\u094d\u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0924\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0937\u094d\u0920\u0947\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0939 \u092f\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092d\u0942\u0924\u0903 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u0938\u0902\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0915\u094b \u091c\u0940\u0935\u0938\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0924\u094d\n \u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923\u094b\u0935\u0948\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0916\u094d\u092f\u0947 \u0927\u093e\u0930\u092f\u0947\u0924\u094d\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0938\u094d\u0924\u092e\u091a\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0917\u0941\u0939\u094d\u092f\u092e\u0941\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092e\u092e\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930 \u091a\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u0928\u093f\u0927\u093e\u092f\u0947\u0924 \u0924\u091a\u094d\u091a \u0932\u093f\u0919\u094d\u0917\u0902 \u0928\u093f\u0930\u093e\u0936\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0965\n\n XVIII. SYMBOLICAL YOGA CULT OF MUDR\u00c1 OR CHAKRA DIAGRAMS.\n\n_Om_ the object of Yoga meditation, being already described in sections\nIX. &c. of this article as symbolical of Divine nature, and its\ndifferent divisions as emblematical of the eternal attributes or\nhypostases of the Self\u2014same Unity, they are as shown before, represented\nby the component letters of that mystic syllable, and meditated upon by\nthe mental arithmetic of the speculative theosophist, the ved\u00e1ntist and\nyogi. But as the majority of people of grosser understandings are more\ndependant on ocular and sensible symbolism than abstract idealism, the\nTantras have purposely contrived many a figure and diagram (_Mudr\u00e1s_ and\n_Chakras_) for their guidance, of which we will give a few below with\ntheir geometrical names and notations.\n\nIt will appear from the diagrams described hereafter that _Om_ the\nsymbol of Brahman the Universal _Sat_ or existence, serves to show us as\na chart of the world, or representation of the cranium, everything\nexisting in the physical and intellectual world, which is expressed by\nthe word Om (\u0950 \u0936\u092c\u094d\u0926 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0925\u200b\u200b \u0935\u093e\u091a\u0915\u0903), in its different divisions and partitions\nfor our meditation and contemplation. The pious and religious\nspiritualist may employ them in Divine contemplation, but the majority\nare at liberty to use them in the meditation of every other subject\nwhich comes to be comprised within the compass of their thought, in the\ngroups of significations which the letters are said to convey. Hence the\nYoga of old, meant only an intense application of the mind to all\nsubjects of thought and knowledge. Thus the end of our Yoga philosophy\nis not only the abstruse meditation of Divine attributes, but the mental\nreflection of every thing besides.\n\n\n XIX. MATHEMATICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIAGRAMS OF OM.\n\n[Sidenote: Correctness of the Diagrams.]\n\nWe have seen from the diagrams given in the following section, that the\nT\u00e1ntrika formulists have spared no pains to divide the great circle\nof the Universe, filled by the omnipresence of Brahma and represented\nby the figure _om_, into several parts for the purpose of meditating\nHis different hypostases, and contemplation o\u00a3 the various orders of\ncreation. We are now to inquire as to whether these several divisions\nof a mathematical circle of 360 degrees are geometrically correct,\nor mere arbitrary partitions made by ignorant priests for their own\namusement and deception of their proselytes.\n\n[Sidenote: The Heptagon and Nonagon.]\n\nNow for instance, the problem of inscribing a heptagon or a nonagon\nin a circle will at once startle a student of Euclid as altogether\nimpossible, and identical with that which was celebrated among Greek\ngeometricians as the problem of the trisection of the angle. If treated\nalgebraically, it leads to a cubic equation with three real roots, the\narithmetical value of which can be found only approximately.\n\n[Sidenote: The L\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed\u2019s solution.]\n\nThe author of the L\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed has solved the problems, but given no\naccount of the way in which he got the numbers stated by him; if they\nhad been obtained by solution of the above mentioned equation, they\nwould probably have been more accurate than they are. He only lays down\nan arbitrary rule, that the side of the heptagon is 52055/120000 of the\ndiameter, and that of the nonagon 41081/120000 of the same. Neither of\nthese is very far from the truth. The accurate value of the side of the\nheptagon lies between 82/182 and 105/242. The side of the nonagon lies\nbetween 13/38 and 105/307.\n\n[Sidenote: Commentators on L\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed.]\n\nAmong the commentators on L\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed, R\u00e1makrishna, Gang\u00e1dhara, and\nRangan\u00e1tha have not attempted any demonstration of the problems in\nquestion, and have contented themselves with merely repeating the\nfigures contained in the text. Ganesa confesses that the proof of the\nsides of the regular pentagon, heptagon and nonagon cannot be shown in\na manner similar to that of the triangle, square and octagon.\n\n[Sidenote: The Pentagon.]\n\nBut this is untrue of the pentagon; its side can be geometrically found\nas shown in Euclid Book IV. Prop 11; and the admission of Ganesa serves\nonly to prove, that he was unacquainted with the Sanskrit translation\nof Euclid which contains a solution of this problem. Ganesa cannot\nmean only that the side of the pentagon is incommensurable with the\ndiameter; for that is equally true of the triangle, square and octagon,\ninscribed in a circle.\n\n\n THE FIGURES.\n\n OF OM (ON OR EN) OF HINDU ONTOLOGY.\n\n I. Mudr\u00e1, Madawar, Sphere or Sphaira.\n A Symbol of the Universe and Universalia.\n A System of the Universal Religion.\n \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u092e\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0916\u0923\u094d\u0921\u092e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0932\u093e\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0902 \u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092f\u0947\u0928\u091a\u0930\u093e\u091a\u0930 \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n II. The circle O, An Emblem of infinity and Eternity.\n A Type of the Catholic Theism of Hindus.\n \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0928\u093e\u0926\u094d\u092f\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0938\u0928\u093e\u0924\u0928 \u0935\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u200b\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u00a0\u0964\n\nIII. The convexity of O. A Type of the Extramundane,\n Unknowable and Absolute Supreme Brahma.\n Significant of Agnoism and Agnosticism.\n \u0950\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092a\u0930\u093f\u0927\u0947\u0903\u092a\u0930\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u092a\u0930\u093f\u092e\u0947\u092f\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f\u0924\u0941\u0930\u0940\u092f\u092a\u0930\u0935\u094d\u0930\u200b\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n IV. The concavity of O. Emblem of Intramundane\n Immensity of knowable Nature and its God Brahma .\n And Indicative of Gnosticism and Pantheism.\n \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f \u0928\u093f\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0941\u0923\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0924\u0925\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u0947\u092f\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n V. The circle with the Central point or Monad.\n A Symbol of the Definite and known world and its God.\n And signifying the Monotheism of all nations.\n \u0950\u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u0938\u0935\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u0917\u0941\u0923\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0935\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0923\u094d\u0921\u0935\u0940\u091c\u092e\u092a\u0930 \u0924\u0948\u091c\u0938 \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 1. The circle with the central A, \u0905 Alif or Unit.\n Emblematical of the unity of a Personal God.\n And the Primary unity of all things in Nature.\n And significant of unitarianity or _Advaita matam_.\n \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u092c\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u0915\u0947\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u0938\u094d\u0925\u200b\u0905\u0915\u093e\u0930 \u0938\u0939\u093f\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u094b\u092a\u093e\u0927\u093f\u0915 \u090f\u0915\u092e\u0947\u0935\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u092e\u0924\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 2. The two Semicircles of O. Symbolical of Duad or Duality .\n In the dualism of Persons in the God-head as _Dvaitam_.\n And the Duads of Co-ordinate Principles in Nature.\n And signifying the Ditheism of all Dualistic creeds.\n \u0950 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u200b\u0926\u094d\u0935\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u094b\u092a\u093e\u0927\u093f\u0915\u0947\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0938\u094d\u092f\u092d\u0947\u0926\u0926\u094d\u0935\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u091c\u0940\u0935\u0935\u094d\u0930\u200b\u0939\u094d\u092e \u092a\u0941\u092e\u094d\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f \u0926\u0948\u0924\u092e\u0924\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 3. The Trisected circle of _Om_. A symbol of the Triad or Trinity.\n Indicative of a Triality of Persons in the God-head as _Traitam_.\n And the co-ordinate Triples of the Principles in Nature.\n And signifying the Tritheism of Trinitarianity.\n \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0909\u092e\u200b\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0917\u0941\u0923\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915 \u0935\u094d\u0930\u200b\u0939\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0924\u093f \u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u093e\u0926\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u0948\u0924\u092e\u0924\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 3. (_a_) The Tripartite circle. With the Inscribed Triangle\n Euclid (IV. 2).\n A symbol of the Holy Trinity (_Trim\u00farti_ on the three sides).\n And the Triangular female emblem of God-mother in the midst.\n And Indicating the Materialistic Trinitarianism of Hindus.\n \u0950 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0924 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0935\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0935\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0915\u0943\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0915\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u0948\u0924\u0902 \u092e\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 4. The Four Quadrants of the circle of _Om_ or a square.\n Emblematical of the Tetrad of the Divinity.\n And the co-ordinate Quadruples of Things.\n And signifying the Quaternity of certain creeds.\n \u0950\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u092a\u093e\u0926\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0909\u092e\u0935\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0924\u0941\u0930\u0940\u092f \u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u093e \u0938\u200b\u092a\u094d\u0930\u200b\u0915\u0943\u0924\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 5. The Pentagon Inscribed in the circle. Denoting the Pentad.\n The Angular Points A. B. C. D. & E. Meeting at the Centre O\n (Euclid IV. 11).\n Indicative of the Quintuple Hypostases of the Deity.\n The Quintessence and the Five fold co-ordinates of Elementary\n bodies.\n \u0950 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0909\u092e\u0935\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0926\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u0915\u094b\u0936 \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0923 \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a\u092d\u0942\u0924\u092e\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 6. The Hexagon in the Circle. Significant of the Hexad.\n The Angular Points A.B.C.D.E.F. Meeting at the centre\n (Euclid IV. 15).\n Denotative of the sextuple Evolutions of the Monad O.\n And Indicative of the Six Internal and External Organs of sense.\n \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0937\u0921\u094d\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0950 \u0928\u092e\u094b \u0937\u094b\u0922\u093c\u093e\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0909\u092e\u0970 \u09fa\u0928\u092e\u0937\u0921\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f \u0937\u0921\u094d\u0930\u0938 \u0937\u0921\u0919\u094d\u0917\u093e\u0926\u093f\u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 7. The Heptagon. Inscribed in the circle O. Indicates the Heptad.\n The Angular Points A. B. C. D. E. F. G. Meeting at the centre O.\n According to the Process of L\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed mentioned below.\n Indicates the septuple Hypostases of Divine Essence, _viz_;\n The Five External senses, mind and intellect. (Anquetil).\n And the seven fold co-ordinate bodies in creation, _viz_;\n the seven Worlds, seven Planets, seven Continents and Oceans.\n \u0950\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0909\u092e\u0970 \u09fa \u0928\u092e\u0903\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0926\u093f \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092d\u0941\u0935\u0928\u092e\u092f\u0935\u093f\u0930\u093e\u091c\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924 \u0917\u094d\u0930\u0939 \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924 \u0926\u094d\u0935\u0940\u092a \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924 \u0938\u092e\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u091e\u094d\u091a\u00a0\u0964\n\n 8. The Octagon (A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H). Inscribed in the circle O.\n By Bisection of the Quadrants (in Figure 4).\n Indicative of the Octad or Octuple states of Spirit and Body.\n _viz_, the five Vital airs or the five external or five\n Internal senses with the Mind, Intellect and consciousness (Chittam).\n All forms of the Spirit.\n And the eight material forms of Earth &c., treated of in the Ashta\n M\u00farti.\n \u0950 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0937\u094d\u091f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0950 \u0928\u092e\u094b\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u0905\u0909\u0913\u092e\u0970 \u09fa \u0928\u092e\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0937\u094d\u091f \u092c\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0940\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092f \u0924\u0925\u093e \u0908\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u093e\u0937\u094d\u091f\u092e\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n 9. The Nonagon A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I. Inscribed in the circle O.\n By Trisection of the three sections of a Tripartite circle.\n Symbolical of a _nonad_ or nine fold nature of the Deity.\n And the nine doors or organs of Animal bodies.\n \u0950 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0928\u0935 \u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0924\u094d\u0930\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0913\u0928\u094d\u0928\u092e\u094b \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f \u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0905\u0909\u0913\u092e\u0970 \u09fa \u0928\u092e\u0903 \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u00a0\u0964\n \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u0903 \u0928\u0935\u0927\u093e\u0930\u0942\u092a\u093e\u0923\u093f\u00a0\u0964 \u0924\u0925\u093e\u091c\u0940\u0935\u0926\u0947\u0939\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0928\u0935\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0930\u093e\u0928\u093f\u091a\u00a0\u0964 \u0906\u0924\u094d\u092e\u0928\u0903 \u0928\u0935 \u0930\u0942\u092a\u093e\u0923\u093f \u092f\u0925\u093e\u2014\n \u0905-\u091c\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0924\u094d \u092c\u0948\u0936\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0928\u0930\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0909-\u0938\u094d\u0935\u092a\u094d\u0928\u091c\u0924\u0948\u091c\u0928\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u092e-\u0938\u0941\u0938\u0941\u092a\u094d\u0924 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u0913-\u0924\u0941\u0930\u0940\u092f\u092a\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092a\u0930 \u0935\u094d\u0930\u200b\u0939\u094d\u092e\u00a0\u0964\n \u09fa \u0928\u093e\u0926 \u0938\u092e\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f \u0938\u0942\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u00a0\u0964 \u0970 \u0935\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0941\u0935\u094d\u092f\u0937\u094d\u091f\u093f \u0939\u093f\u0930\u0923\u094d\u092f \u0917\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0928\u092e\u0903 \u0938\u094d\u0925\u0942\u0932\u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0903\u00a0\u0964 \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0935\u093f\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0935\u093f\u0930\u093e\u091c\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0938\u200b\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u200b\u092e\u094b\u0919\u094d\u0915\u093e\u0930\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0928\u0935 \u0930\u0947\u0916\u092d\u093f\u0903 \u0926\u0930\u094d\u0936\u093f\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u0925\u093e \u0950\n\n 10. The Decagon in a Circle. Emblematical of the Decad.\n The Decagon A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J. By Bisection of the\n Pentagon.\n Significant of the Five Internal and five External Senses.\n And the Ten Directions of space. All filled by Divine Spirit.\n \u0950\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0926\u0936\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u091e\u094d\u091a \u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u0926\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0930\u094d\u092c\u093f\u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u0926\u0936\u0926\u093f\u0917\u094d\u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u093f \u0908\u0936\u094d\u0935\u0930\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092e\u093e\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u092a\u0915\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n \u0950\u0928\u094d\u0928\u092e\u0903 \u0936\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u092f\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964 \u092f\u0925\u093e \u0905, \u0909, \u0913, \u092e, \u09fa, \u0970, \u0928\u092e\u0903, \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903,\u00a0\u0964\n \u0935\u093e \u0905, \u0909, \u0913, \u092e, \u09fa, \u0970, \u0928\u092e\u0903 \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903, \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903, \u0936\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0903\u00a0\u0964\n\n These figures might be multiplied _ad infinitum_, as there is no\n limit of created things and the attributes of the Creator; but as\n neither Infinity nor Immensity is comprehensible by the limited\n understanding of man, the Yogi takes some definite ideas and\n determinate objects for his meditation, as he is directed by the\n Natural Religion of mankind.\n\n\nNOTE TO FIGURE 7.\n\nSolution of the Problem of inscribing a heptagon in a circle, or\ndividing the circle into seven equal parts. According to S\u00faryad\u00e1sa\u2019s\ncommentary on L\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed. \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0924 \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092d\u0941\u091c\u093e\u0919\u094d\u0915\u0928\u0902 \u0938\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092f\u094d\u092f\u200b\u0926\u093e\u0938\u092e\u0924\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n\u201cFor the heptagon \u0938\u092e\u0935\u093e\u0939\u0941\u0915 \u0938\u092a\u094d\u0924\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0903 describe a circle, and an equilateral\nheptagon in it, then a line being drawn between the \u092d\u0941\u091c\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0930\u0947\u0916\u093e extremities\nof any two sides\u2014at pleasure, and three lines from the centre of the\ncircle \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0924 \u0915\u0947\u0928\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0930\u0902 to the angles indicated by those extremities\n\u092d\u0941\u091c\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0930\u091a\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0939\u093f\u0924 \u0915\u094b\u0923\u0902, an unequal quadrilateral \u0935\u093f\u0937\u092e \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902 is formed. The greater\nsides and the least diagonal \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0941\u0926\u094d\u0930\u0924\u0930\u0915\u0930\u094d\u0923\u0902 thereof are equal to the\nsemi-diameter \u0935\u094d\u092f\u0938\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0924\u0941\u0932\u094d\u092f\u0902\u201d. The value of the greater diagonal, which\nis assumed arbitrarily, is the chord of the arc \u091a\u093e\u092a\u200b\u0938\u094d\u092f \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u091c\u094d\u092f\u093e encompassing\nthe two sides. Its arrow \u0936\u0930\u0903 being deduced in the manner before directed,\nis the side of a small rectangular triangle \u090f\u0915\u091c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092f \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThus the greater diagonal \u092c\u0943\u0939\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0930\u0915\u0930\u094d\u0923\u0902, being arbitrarily assumed to be\n93,804, is the chord sought \u0907\u0937\u094d\u091f\u091c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0903; its arrow found in the manner directed\nis 22,579; this is the side, and half the base or chord \u091c\u0940\u0935\u093e\u0930\u0942\u092a \u092d\u0942\u092e\u094d\u092f\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u200b \u0915\u094b\u091f\u093f is\nthe upright 46,902; their squares are 509711241 and 21997604; the square\nroot of the sum of which is the side \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0917\u092e\u0942\u0932\u0902 of the heptagon or\n52,055 \u092f\u094b\u0917\u092e\u0942\u0932\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\nThese numbers are given from the copy of S\u00faryad\u00e1sa\u2019s commentary on the\nL\u00edl\u00e1vat\u00ed in the library of the As. Society. There are two obvious errors\nin them, probably of the copyist \u0932\u093f\u092a\u093f\u0915\u0930 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u092e\u093e\u0926\u0903; _viz._ 22,579 should be\n22.581, and 21997604 should be 2199797604.\n\n\nNOTE TO FIG. 9.\n\nTo inscribe a nonagon in a circle, \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0924 \u0928\u0935\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902 i. e., to divide it\ninto nine parts. \u201cA circle being described as before, inscribe a\ntriangle \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0930\u094d\u0917\u0924 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902 in it. Thus the circle is divided into three\nparts. Three equal chords \u0938\u092e\u093e\u0928 \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u091c\u094d\u092f\u093e being drawn in each of these\nportions, a nonagon is thus inscribed in it \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0928\u0935 \u092d\u0941\u091c\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902; and three\noblongs \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u091c \u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0902 are formed within the same; of which the base is\nequal to the side of the (inscribed) triangle \u092d\u0942\u092e\u093f\u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0924\u0941\u0932\u094d\u092f\u0902\u00a0\u0964 Then two\nperpendiculars \u0932\u092e\u094d\u092c\u092a\u093e\u0924\u0926\u094d\u0935\u092f\u0902 being drawn in the oblong, it is divided\ninto three portions, the first and last of which are triangles\n\u092a\u0930\u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092c\u094d\u092c\u093e\u0902\u0936 \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902; and the intermediate one is a tetragon. \u092e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0902\u0936 \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964\nThe base in each of them is a third part of the side of the inscribed\ntriangle \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0935\u093e\u0939\u094b\u0938\u094d\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u0924\u0940\u092f\u093e\u0902\u0936\u0903(?). It is the upright (of a rectangular triangle)\n\u091c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0915\u094b\u091f\u093f; the perpendicular is its side; and the square root of the\nsum of their squares \u092d\u0941\u091c\u0915\u094b\u091f\u093f\u0935\u0930\u094d\u0917\u092f\u094b\u0917\u092e\u0942\u0932\u0902 is the hypotenuse \u0915\u0930\u094d\u0923\u0903,\nand is the side of the nonagon \u0928\u0935\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902.\n\n\u201cTo find the perpendicular \u0932\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0902, put an assumed chord \u0915\u0932\u094d\u092a\u093f\u0924\u091c\u094d\u092f\u093e equal\nto half the chord \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u091c\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0930\u094d\u0926\u094d\u0927\u0902 of the (inscribed) tetragon; find its\narrow in the manner aforesaid, and subtract that from the arrow of the\nchord \u0924\u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0936\u0930 of the (inscribed) triangle, the remainder is\nthe perpendicular. \u0932\u092e\u094d\u092c\u092a\u0930\u093f\u092e\u093e\u0923\u0902\u00a0\u0964 Thus the perpendicular \u0932\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0902 comes out\n21,989: it is the side of a rectangular triangle. The third part of the\ninscribed \u090f\u0915\u091c\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092f \u0924\u094d\u0930\u093f\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902 triangle is 34,641: it is the upright. \u0915\u094b\u091f\u093f\u00a0\u0964\nThe square root of the sum of their squares \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0917\u092f\u094b\u0917 \u092e\u0942\u0932\u0902 is 41,031: and\nis the side of the inscribed nonagon.\u201d \u0935\u0943\u0924\u094d\u0924\u0938\u094d\u092f\u200b\u0928\u0935\u092d\u0941\u091c\u0902\u00a0\u0964\n\n[Illustration: THE OM TAT SAT.]\n\n\n\n YOGA V\u00c1SISHTHA.\n\n BOOK I.\n\n ON MORAL APATHY\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n INTRODUCTION.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n DIVINE ADORATION\n\n _Hail The Eternal._\n\nOm, salutation to the self-same Reality, from whom all beings proceed,\nby whom they are manifest, upon whom they depend, and in whom they\nbecome extinct (in the end).\n\n2. He is the knower, the knowledge and all that is to be known. He is\nthe seer, the (act of) seeing, and all that is to be seen. He is the\nactor, the cause and the effect: therefore salutation to Him (who is\nall) knowledge himself.\n\n3. Salutation to Him (who is) supreme bliss itself, from whom flow the\ndews of delight (as water springs from a fountain) both in heaven and\nearth, and who is the life of all.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n NARRATIVE OF SUT\u00cdKSHNA.\n\n4. One Sut\u00edkshna, a Br\u00e1hmana, whose mind was full of doubts, went to\nthe hermitage of Agasti and asked the sage respectfully:\u2014\n\n5. Oh great sage! that art informed in all the ways and truths of\nvirtue, and knowest with certainty all the S\u00e1stras, I am in a great\ndoubt (about something) which I pray you will kindly remove.\n\n6. Tell me whether a man\u2019s acts or his knowledge or both of these, is\nin your opinion, the cause of his emancipation.\n\n7. Agasti replied:\u2014\n\nAs the flight of birds in the air is effected by means of both their\nwings, so the highest state of emancipation is attained through the\ninstrumentality of both knowledge and acts.\n\n8. It is neither our acts nor knowledge alone that produces\nemancipation, but both together are known as the means of it.\n\n\n SECTION III.\n\n ANECDOTE OF K\u00c1RUNYA.\n\n9. I will recite to you an instance on this subject from the old\ntraditions, relating a Br\u00e1hman named K\u00e1runya, who was learned in the\nVedas in days of yore.\n\n10. He was the son of Agnivesya and accomplished in the Vedas and all\ntheir branches, and after finishing his studies at the preceptor\u2019s,\nreturned to his own abode.\n\n11. He remained a sceptic at home, holding his taciturnity and\ninertness to acts: when his father Agnivesya saw his son so slack in\nhis duties, he upbraided him thus for his good.\n\n12-13. Agnivesya said:\u2014\n\nWhy my son do you not discharge your duties, tell me how can you\nsucceed (in anything) if you remain inactive, and tell me also the\nreason of your cessation from acts.\n\n14. K\u00e1runya replied:\u2014\n\nThe offering of daily oblations, and performance of morning and evening\ndevotions during life, are inculcated in the Veda and law as the\n_active_ duties (of men).\n\n15. But it is neither by acts or riches, nor by means of progeny, that\none obtains his liberation, it is solely by self-denial that Stoics\ntaste the ambrosia (of emancipation).\n\n16. Tell me my father! which of these two ordinances is to be observed\nby me? Doubtful of this I have become indifferent to acts.\n\n17. Agasti said:\u2014\n\nHear me my son, that K\u00e1runya after saying so held his silence; when his\nfather seeing him thus, rejoined his speech.\n\n18. Agnivesya said:\u2014\n\nHear me relate a narrative (to you) my son, and you having fully\nconsidered its purport in your mind, may do as you may choose (best for\nyou).\n\n\n SECTION IV.\n\n STORY OF SURUCHI.\n\n19. There was a damsel named Suruchi, the best of the _Apsar\u00e1_ nymphs,\nwho was seated on the mountain peak of Him\u00e1laya, beset by peacocks\naround.\n\n20. Here Kinnaras inflamed by love sported with their mates, and the\nfall of heavenly streams (Gang\u00e1 and Yamun\u00e1), served to expurgate the\ngravest sins (of men).\n\n21. She beheld a messenger of Indra making his way through the sky; and\nthen this most fortunate and best of _Apsar\u00e1s_, addressed him thus:\n\n22. Suruchi said:\u2014\n\nO thou herald of gods, tell me kindly whence thou comest and whither\nart thou destined at present.\n\n\n SECTION V.\n\n ACCOUNT OF ARISHTANEMI.\n\n23. The divine Ariel replied:\u2014Well hast thou asked Oh pretty browed\nmaid, and I will tell thee all as it is. Know, Arishtanemi the royal\nsage, who has made over his realm to his son.\n\n24. He has (now) with religious indifference (to the world), set out\nto the forest for (practice of) asceticism, and is performing his\nausterities on the _Gandha M\u00e1dana_ mountains.\n\n25. I am now returning from there after discharge of my errand, and\nrepairing to Sakra\u2019s (palace) to report the matter.\n\n26. Suruchi said:\u2014\n\nTell me, my Lord, what matter has taken place there. I am with\nsubmission (much) inquisitive after it, nor shouldest thou cause me\n(the pain of) anxiety.\n\n27. The messenger replied:\u2014\n\nHear me gentle maid, relate to thee in length (everything) as it has\noccurred.\n\n28. On hearing that the king was practising the utmost rigors of\nasceticism in that forest, Indra, the lord of gods, desired me to take\nthis heavenly car and repair at once to the spot.\n\n29. \u201cTake this car,\u201d said he, \u201cbearing the (dancing) _Apsar\u00e1s_ equipped\nwith all their musical instruments, and furnished with a band of\nGandharvas, Siddhas, Yakshas and Kinnaras.\u201d\n\n30. \u201cConvey them,\u201d said he, \u201cwith all their wired instruments, flutes\nand drums to the auspices of the Sylvan mount of _Gandha M\u00e1dana_.\n\n31. \u201cThere having placed the Prince Aristanemi in the vehicle, bring\nhim to the enjoyment of heavenly delight in this city of _Amar\u00e1vati_\n(the seat of immortals).\u201d\n\n32. The messenger added:\u2014\n\nReceiving this injunction of Indra and taking the car with all its\nequipments, I proceeded to that mountain.\n\n33. Having arrived at the mountain and advancing to the hermitage of\nthe king, I delivered to him the orders of the great Indra.\n\n34. Hearing my words, Oh happy damsel! the king spoke to me with\nreluctance and said: \u201cI wish to ask thee something O messenger, which\n(I hope) thou wilt deign to answer.\n\n35. \u201cTell me what good and what evils there are in heaven, that knowing\nthem (beforehand), I may think of settling there as I may choose.\u201d\n\n36. I answered, saying:\u2014\n\nIn heaven there is ample reward for merit, conferring perfect bliss (to\nall); but it is the degree of meritoriousness that leads one to higher\nheavens.\n\n37. By moderate virtue, one is certainly entitled to a middle station,\nand virtue of an inferior order, leads a person to a lower position (in\nthe heavens).\n\n38. But one\u2019s virtue is destroyed by his impatience at the excellence\nof his betters, by his haughtiness to his equals, and by his joy at the\ninferiority of others.\n\n39. When one\u2019s virtue is thus destroyed, he must enter the abode of\nmortals. These and the like are the effects of merit and demerit (with\nus) in heaven.\n\n40. Hearing this, Oh good maiden, the king answered and said: \u201cI\ndo not, Oh divine messenger! like the heaven that is of such like\nconditions.\n\n41. \u201cI will henceforth practise the most austere form of devotion, and\nabandon this my unhallowed human frame in the same way, as the snake\nabandons his time-worn-skin (slough).\n\n42. \u201cBe thou pleased, Oh delegate of the gods! to return with thy\nheavenly car to the presence of the great Indra whence thou comest, and\nfare thee well.\u201d\n\n43. The celestial emissary resumed:\u2014\n\nThus being bid, I went Oh goodly dame to the presence of Sakra to\nreport the matter. Who upon my rehearsal of the matter, was struck with\ngreat wonder.\n\n44. Then the great Indra again spoke to me with a sweet voice and said:\n\u201cGo you my herald again to that king, and take him to the hermitage of\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki.\n\n45. \u201cHe is well acquainted with every truth, tell him my errand for the\ninstruction of the dispassionate prince, saying:\u2014\n\n46. \u2018Oh thou great sage! remonstrate with this prince who is humble and\ndispassionate, and dislikes the enjoyments of heaven.\n\n47. \u2018So that this prince who is aggrieved at the miseries of the world,\nmay gradually come to attain his emancipation.\u2019\u201d\n\n48. I then went and explained my mission to the royal hermit, took him\nto the sage V\u00e1lm\u00edki (who had grown amidst the ant-hills), and to whom I\ndelivered great Indr\u00e1\u2019s charge for the king\u2019s practice (of the means)\nfor his final liberation.\n\n49. Then the sage (named after the ant-hill in which he had grown),\nwelcomed the King with gentle inquiries regarding his welfare.\n\n50. The prince replied:\u2014\n\n\u201cOh great _seer_, that art informed in all the truths of religion, and\nart the greatest of them that know the knowable, thy very sight has\ngiven me all that I desired, and therein is all my welfare.\n\n51. \u201cGreat sire, I wish to learn from thee how I may escape the\nmiseries which arise from one\u2019s connection with this world, and which\n(I hope) thou wilt reveal to me without reserve.\u201d\n\n52. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014\n\nHear me Oh king! I will relate to you the entire R\u00e1m\u00e1yana, by the\nhearing and understanding of which you will be saved even while in this\nlife.\n\n\n SECTION VI.\n\n HISTORY OF R\u00c1MA.\n\n53. Hear me Oh great and intelligent king, repeat to you the sacred\nconversation which took place between R\u00e1ma and Vasishtha relating the\nway to liberation, and which I well know from my knowledge (of human\nnature).\n\n54. The prince said:\u2014\n\n\u201cO thou best of sages, tell me precisely who and what this R\u00e1ma was,\nwhat was his bondage and how he got freed from it.\u201d\n\n55. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014\n\nHari was proscribed under an imprecation to take upon himself the form\nof a prince, with an assumed ignorance as that of a man of little\nunderstanding.\n\n56. The prince said: \u201cTell me who was the author of that imprecation,\nand how it could befal on R\u00e1ma, who was the personification of\nconsciousness and felicity, and the very image of wisdom.\u201d\n\n57. V\u00e1lm\u00edki replied: Sanat-kum\u00e1ra, who was devoid of desires, had been\nresiding at the abode of Brahm\u00e1, to which Vishnu, the Lord of the three\nworlds, was a visitor from Vaikuntha.\n\n58. The Lord God was welcomed by all the inhabitants of the\n_Brahmaloka_ as well as by Brahm\u00e1 himself, except by Sanat-kum\u00e1ra who\nwas thus beheld and addressed to by the god.\n\n59. \u201cSanat-kum\u00e1r, it is ignorance that makes thee forsake thy desires\nfor fear of regeneration (on earth), therefore must thou be born under\nthe name of _Sara-janm\u00e1_ to be troubled with desires.\u201d\n\n60. Sanat-kum\u00e1ra in return denounced Vishnu by saying:\u2014\u201cEven all\ndiscerning as thou art, thou shalt have to sacrifice thine omniscience\nfor some time, and pass as an ignorant mortal (on earth).\u201d\n\n61. There was another anathema pronounced upon Vishnu by the sage\nBhrigu, who seeing his wife killed (by him), became incensed with anger\nand said: \u201cVishnu thou shalt have also to be bereft of thy wife.\u201d\n\n62. He was again cursed by _Vrind\u00e1_ to be deprived of his wife, on\naccount of his beguiling her (in the form of her husband).\n\n63. Again when the pregnant wife of Deva-datta was killed (with fear)\non seeing the man-lion figure of Vishnu;\n\n64. The leonine Hari was denounced by the husband, who was sorely\nafflicted at the loss of his consort, to be thus separated from his\nwife also.\n\n65. Thus denounced by Bhrigu, by Sanat-kum\u00e1ra, Deva-datta and Vrind\u00e1,\nhe was obliged (to be born in this earth) in the figure of a human\nbeing.\n\n66. I have thus explained to you the causes of all the imprecations\n(which were passed on Vishnu), and will now relate to you all other\nthings which you shall have carefully to attend to.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n REASON OF WRITING THE R\u00c1M\u00c1YANA.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n PERSONS ENTITLED TO ITS PERUSAL.\n\nSalutation to the Lord, the universal soul, shining manifest in heaven,\nearth and the sky, and both within and without myself.\n\n2. One convinced of his constraint (in this mortal world), and desiring\nhis liberation from it, and, who is neither wholly ignorant of, nor\nquite conversant with divine knowledge, is entitled to (the perusal of)\nthis work.\n\n3. The wise man, who having well considered the narrative (of\nR\u00e1ma) as the first step, comes afterwards to think on the means of\nliberation (as are expounded herein), he shall verily be exempt from\ntransmigration (of his soul).\n\n4. Know, O destroyer of thy enemies! that I have first embodied the\nhistory of R\u00e1ma in this R\u00e1m\u00e1yana (as the preparatory step to salvation).\n\n5. And I have given the same to my attentive pupil the obedient and\nintelligent Bharadw\u00e1ja, as the sea yields his gems to their seeker.\n\n6. These historical preparatories were rehearsed by the learned\nBharadw\u00e1ja in the presence of Brahm\u00e1, seated in a certain forest of the\nSumeru Mountain.\n\n7. Then the lord Brahm\u00e1, the great grandfather of the inhabitants (of\nthe three worlds), was so highly pleased with him that he addressed him\nsaying: \u201cOh my son! ask the best boon that thou wishest for.\u201d\n\n8. Bharadw\u00e1ja said:\u2014\u201cOh thou lord, that art master of the past and\nfuture times, grant me the desired boon of communicating to me the\nmeans whereby people are liberated from their miseries.\u201d\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n BRAHM\u00c1\u2019S BEHEST.\n\n9. Brahm\u00e1 said:\u2014\u201cGo ask diligently of thy preceptor V\u00e1lm\u00edki, to\ncomplete the faultless R\u00e1m\u00e1yana that he has undertaken (to write).\n\n10. \u201cBy the hearing of which men will get over their manifold errors,\nin the same manner as they pass over the sea by the bridge built over\nit by the great R\u00e1ma, who was fraught with all good qualities.\u201d\n\n11. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014Saying this to Bharadw\u00e1ja, the supreme maker of all\nbeings (Brahm\u00e1) accompanied him to my hermitage.\n\n12. In right earnest was the god welcomed by me with the _argha_ and\nofferings of water and the like, when the lord of truth spoke to me for\nthe good of all creatures.\n\n13. Brahm\u00e1 spake to me saying:\u2014\u201cDo not Oh sage! give up your\nundertaking until its final completion. No pains ought to be spared to\nmake the history of R\u00e1ma as faultless as it ought to be.\n\n14. \u201cBy this work of yours men will forthwith pass over this hazardous\nworld, in the same manner as one crosses the sea in a vessel.\u201d\n\n15. Again said the increate Brahm\u00e1 to me:\u2014\u201cI come to tell this very\nthing to you, that you complete the work for the benefit of mankind.\u201d\n\n16. Then Oh king, the God disappeared from my sacred hermitage in a\nmoment, just as the wave subsides in the water no sooner it has heaved\nitself.\n\n17. I was struck with wonder at the disappearance of that (deity), and\nthen being composed in my mind, I inquired of Bharadw\u00e1ja, saying:\u2014\n\n18. Tell me, Bharadw\u00e1ja, what Brahm\u00e1 spoke (to me) in the hermitage; to\nwhich he answered saying:\u2014\n\n19. \u201cThe God commanded you to complete the R\u00e1m\u00e1yana for the good of\nmen, and as a means of their crossing over the gulf of the world.\u201d\n\n\n SECTION III.\n\n INQUIRY OF BHARADW\u00c1JA.\n\n20. \u201cNow Sir\u201d, said Bharadw\u00e1ja, \u201cexplain to me how the great minded\nR\u00e1ma and Bh\u00e1rata conducted themselves amidst the troubles of this world.\n\n21. \u201cTell me also how did Satrughna, Lakshmana, and the renowned S\u00edt\u00e1,\nand all those who followed R\u00e1ma, as also the ministers and their highly\nintelligent sons, conduct themselves (on earth).\n\n22. \u201cTell me clearly how they escaped all its miseries, that I may do\nthe same with the rest of mankind: (for our salvation).\u201d\n\n23. Being thus respectfully addressed by Bharadw\u00e1ja, I was led, Oh\ngreat King! to carry out the behest of my lord (Brahm\u00e1), and to narrate\nthe R\u00e1m\u00e1yana to him; saying:\u2014\n\n24. Hear my son Bharadw\u00e1ja, I will tell you all that you have asked,\nand by the hearing of which you shall be enabled to cast away the dross\nof errors (under which you labour).\n\n25. You are wise and have to manage yourself in the manner of the\nfelicitous and lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma, with a mind free from (worldly)\nattachments.\n\n26. (Know that) Lakshmana, Bh\u00e1rata, the great minded Satrughna,\nKausaly\u00e1, S\u00edt\u00e1, Sumitr\u00e1 as well as Dasaratha;\u2014\n\n27. With Krit\u00e1stra and the two friends of R\u00e1ma, and Vasishtha and\nV\u00e1madeva, and the eight ministers of state as well as many others, had\nreached the summit of knowledge (by this means).\n\n28. Their names are Dhrishta, Jayanta, Bh\u00e1sa, Satya, Vijaya,\nVib\u00edshanah, Sushena and Hanum\u00e1na. And also Indraj\u00edta (who had attained\nhis highest knowledge).\n\n29. These were the eight ministers of R\u00e1ma, who are said to have been\nequally dispassionate in their minds, and content with what was their\nlot. They were great souls, and free in their lives.\n\n30. Well my son, if you follow the manner in which these men observed\nsacrificial rites, gave and received their offerings, and how they\nlived and thought, you are at once freed from the turmoils (of life).\n\n31. One fallen in this boundless ocean of the world, may enjoy (the\nbliss of) liberation by the magnanimity of his soul. He shall not come\nacross grief or destitution, but remain ever satisfied by being freed\nfrom the fever of anxiety.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n V\u00c1LM\u00cdKI\u2019S ADMONITION.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n ON TRUE KNOWLEDGE.\n\nBharadw\u00e1ja said, O Br\u00e1hman! relate to me first about R\u00e1ma, and then\nenlighten me by degrees with the conditions of attaining liberation in\nthis life, that I may be happy for ever.\n\n2. V\u00e1lm\u00edki replied:\u2014Know, holy Saint! all worldly conceptions to be\nas erroneous as the various hues that taint the clear firmament. It is\nbetter therefore to efface them in oblivion, rather than revive their\nreminiscence (in repeated states of existence).\n\n3. All visible objects are absolute negation; we have no idea of them\nsave from sensation. Inquire into these apprehensions, and you will\nnever find them as real.\n\n4. It is possible here (on earth) to attain to this knowledge (of\nworldly vanities) which is fully expounded herein: if you will listen\nto it attentively, you shall get at the truth and not otherwise.\n\n5. The conception of this world is a mistake, and though we actually\nsee it, it is never in existence. It appears in the same light, O\nsinless saint, as the variegated colours in the sky.\n\n6. The conviction of the non-existence of the objects of vision, leads\nto efface their impressions from the mind. Thus perfected, there\nsprings in it the supreme and eternal bliss of self-extinction.\n\n7. Otherwise there is no quietism to be had herein by men like\nyou, rolling in the depths of science for thousands of years and\nunacquainted with the true knowledge.\n\n8. Complete abandonment of desires, styled as the best state of\nliberation, is the only pure step towards beatitude.\n\n9. The absence of desires leads to the extinction of mental actions, in\nthe same manner as the absence of cold conduces to the dissolution of\nsmall particles of ice.\n\n10. Our desires which uphold our living bodies (and minds), bind us\nfast as by strings to our bodily prison. These being loosened, the\ninward soul is liberated (as a bird from its cage).\n\n11. Desires are of two kinds, pure and impure. The impure ones are the\ncause of transmigration, while the pure ones serve to destroy it.\n\n12. An impure desire is of the form of a mist of ignorance, consisting\nin the feeling of an obdurate egoism. This is said by the wise to be\nthe cause of birth (transmigration).\n\n13. A pure desire is like a parched seed incapable to bring forth the\ngerm of transmigration, and only supports the present body (in its dry\nrigidity).\n\n14. The pure desires which are unattended with transmigration, reside\nin the bodies of living-liberated men, like unmoving wheels (unable to\nmove them to action).\n\n15. Those that have the pure desires are not liable to transmigration,\nand are said to be knowing in all things that ought to be known. These\nare called the living-liberated and are of superior intelligence.\n\n16. I will explain to you how the high minded R\u00e1ma attained the state\nof liberation in life, hear you this that old age and death may not\ncome upon you.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n EARLY HISTORY OF R\u00c1MA.\n\n17. Hear, Oh highly intelligent Bharadaw\u00e1ja, the auspicious course and\nconduct of R\u00e1ma\u2019s life: whereby you shall be enabled to understand\neverything at all times.\n\n18. The lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma after coming out of his school, remained for\nmany days at home in his diversions, and without anything to fear.\n\n19. In the course of time as he took the reins of the Government, (in\nhis hand), his people enjoyed all the bliss that absence of grief and\ndiseases could impart (to them).\n\n20. At one time R\u00e1ma\u2019s mind virtuous as he was, became anxious to see\nthe different places of pilgrimage, the cities and hermitages (that lay\nabout).\n\n21. So R\u00e1ghava with this view, approached his father\u2019s feet, he touched\nthe nails (of his toes) as a swan lays hold on the buds of lotus.\n\n22. \u201cOh my father\u201d, he said, \u201cmy mind is desirous to see the different\nplaces of pilgrimage, temples of gods, forests and abodes (of men).\n\n23. \u201cGrant me my lord this my petition, as there is no petitioner of\nthine on earth whom didst thou ever dishonor.\u201d\n\n24. Thus solicited (by R\u00e1ma), the king consulted with Vasishtha, and\nafter much reflection granted him the first request he ever made.\n\n25. On a day of lucky stars R\u00e1ma set out (on his journey) with his\ntwo brothers (Lakshmana and Satrughna), having his body adorned\nwith auspicious marks, and (receiving the) benedictions which were\npronounced on him by the priests.\n\n26. Accompanied also by a body of learned Br\u00e1hmans whom Vasishtha had\nchosen on the occasion, and a select party of his associate princes;\n\n27. He started from home towards his pilgrimage after he received the\nbenedictions and embraces of his mothers.\n\n28. As he went out of his city, the citizens welcomed him with the\nsounds of trumpets, while the bee-like fickle eyes of the city ladies\nwere fixed upon his lotus like face.\n\n29. He was bestrewn with handfuls of fried paddy thrown over his body\nby the beautiful hands of village-women, that made him appear like the\nHim\u00e1laya covered over with snow.\n\n30. He dismissed the Br\u00e1hmans with honor, and went on hearing the\nbenedictions of the people, and taking a full view of the landscape\naround him until he proceeded towards the forest.\n\n31. He went on distributing alms after making his holy ablutions and\nperforming his devotion and meditation, as he gradually passed the\nlimits of Kosala after starting from his palace.\n\n\n SECTION III.\n\n R\u00c1MA\u2019S PILGRIMAGE.\n\n32. He went about seeing the many rivers and their banks, visiting the\nshrines of gods, sacred forests and deserts far and remote from the\nresorts of men, as also the hills, seas and their shores.\n\n33. He saw the _Mand\u00e1kin\u00ed_ bright as the moon, the _K\u00e1lindi_, clear\nas the lotus, and also the following rivers, _Sarasvat\u00ed_, _Satadru_,\n_Chandrabh\u00e1g\u00e1_ and _Ir\u00e1vat\u00ed_.\n\n34. Also _Ven\u00ed_, _Krishnaven\u00ed_, _Nirvindhy\u00e1_, _Saraju_, _Charmanvat\u00ed_,\n_Vitast\u00e1_, _Vip\u00e1s\u00e1_ and _B\u00e1h\u00fadak\u00e1_.\n\n35. He saw also the (holy places of) _Pray\u00e1ga_, the _Naimisha_, the\n_Dharmaranya_, _Gy\u00e1_, _Var\u00e1nas\u00ed_, _Sr\u00edgiri_, _Ked\u00e1ra_ and _Pushkara_.\n\n36. He saw the M\u00e1nasa and the northern M\u00e1nsaravara lakes, and many\nfiery lakes and springs, the B\u00e1da, the Vindhy\u00e1 range and the sea.\n\n37. He saw the fiery pool of Jw\u00e1l\u00e1mukh\u00ed, the great shrine of\nJagann\u00e1tha, the fountain of _Indradumna_ and many other reservoirs,\nrivers and lakes.\n\n38. He visited the shrine of _K\u00e1rtikeya_ and the Gandak river of\n_S\u00e1lagr\u00e1mas_, and also the sixty four shrines sacred to Hari and Hara.\n\n39. He saw various wonders, the coasts of the four seas, the _Vindhy\u00e1_\nrange, the groves of Hara, and the boundary hills and level lands.\n\n40. He visited the places of the great _R\u00e1jarshis_ and the\n_Brahmarshis_, and went wherever there was any auspicious sanctuary of\nthe gods and Br\u00e1hmans. 41. Thus they all honouring R\u00e1ma, travelled far\nand wide in company with his two brothers, and traversed all the four\nquarters on the surface of the earth.\n\n42. Honoured by the gods, _Kinnaras_ and by men, and having seen all\nthe places on earth, the descendant of Raghu returned home, like Siva\nwhen he returns to the _Sivaloka_.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n R\u00c1MA\u2019S RETURN FROM PILGRIMAGE.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma strewn over with handfuls of flowers by the citizens (surrounding\nhim) entered the palace, as when the beauteous Jayanta (son of Indra)\nenters his celestial abode.\n\n2. On his first arrival he bent himself in reverence before his father,\nbefore Vasishtha, before his brothers, his friends, the Br\u00e1hmanas and\nthe elderly members of the family.\n\n3. Repeatedly embraced as he was by friends, by his father, mothers and\nby the Br\u00e1hmanas, the son of Raghu bowed down his head to them with joy.\n\n4. The assembled people after their familiar conversation with R\u00e1ma\nin the palace, strolled about on all sides highly delighted with his\nspeech, resembling the music of a flute.\n\n5. Thus eight days were passed in festive mirth consequent to the\narrival of R\u00e1ma, and shouts of joy were sent forth by the elated\nmultitude.\n\n6. Thenceforth R\u00e1ghava continued to dwell happily at home, with\nrelating to his friends, the different customs and manners of the\ncountries (he visited) on all sides.\n\n7. He rose early in the morning and performed his morning service\naccording to law. He then visited his father seated as Indra in his\nCouncil.\n\n8. He next passed a fourth part of the day in company with Vasishtha\nand other sages, and was greatly edified by their conversations which\nwere full of instruction.\n\n9. He used also to go out for sport under orders of his father; and\nsurrounded by a large number of troops, to forests full of (wild) boars\nand buffaloes.\n\n10. Then after returning home and performing his bath and other rites\nwith his friends, he took his meal with them, and passed the night in\ncompany with his beloved companions.\n\n11. In these and similar practices did he pass his days with his\nbrothers at his father\u2019s house, after his return from the pilgrimage.\n\n12. Oh sinless (Bharadw\u00e1ja), with his conduct becoming a prince, R\u00e1ma\npassed his days with giving delight to the good men that surrounded\nhim, in the manner of the moon that gladdens mankind with his soothing\nambrosial beams.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n OF R\u00c1MA\u2019S SELF-DEJECTION AND ITS CAUSE.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014\n\nAfterwards R\u00e1ma attained the fifteenth year of his age, and so also\nSatrughna and Lakshmana who followed R\u00e1ma (in birth), attained also the\nsame age.\n\n2. Bh\u00e1rata continued to dwell with joy at the house of his maternal\ngrandfather, and the king (Dasaratha) ruled the whole earth as usual.\n\n3. The most wise king Dasaratha (now) consulted his ministers day after\nday about the marriage of his sons.\n\n4. But as R\u00e1ma remained at home since his return from pilgrimage, he\nbegan to decay day by day as the translucent lake in autumn.\n\n5. His blooming face with its out-stretched eyes, assumed by degrees a\npaleness like that of the withering petals of the white lotus beset by\na swarm of bees.\n\n6. He sat silent and motionless in the posture of his folded legs\n(_Padm\u00e1sana_), and remained absorbed in thought with his palm placed\nunder his cheek and neck.\n\n7. Being emaciated in person, and growing thoughtful, sad and\ndistracted in his mind, he remained speechless as a mute picture in\npainting.\n\n8. On being repeatedly requested by the anxious inmates of the family\nto perform his daily rites, he discharged them with a melancholy\ncountenance (literally\u2014with his faded lotus-like face).\n\n9. Seeing the accomplished R\u00e1ma\u2014the mine of merits in such a plight,\nall his brothers likewise were reduced to the same condition with him.\n\n10. The king of the earth observing all his three sons thus dejected\nand lean, gave way to anxiety together with all his queens.\n\n11. Dasaratha asked R\u00e1ma repeatedly and in a gentle voice (to\ntell him) what his anxiety was, and what was the cause of his\nthoughtfulness; but he returned no answer to it.\n\n12. Then being taken up in his father\u2019s lap, the lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma\nreplied, that he had no anxiety whatever, and held his silence.\n\n13. Afterwards the king Dasaratha asked Vasishtha, the best of speakers\nand well informed in all matters, as to the cause why R\u00e1ma was so\nsorrowful.\n\n14. The sage Vasishtha thought over the matter (for a while), and then\nsaid, \u201cThere is Oh king! a cause of R\u00e1ma\u2019s sadness, but you need not be\nanxious about it.\n\n15. \u201cWise men, Oh king! never entertain the fluctuations of anger or\ngrief, or a lengthened delight from frivolous causes, just as the great\nelements of the world do not change their states (of inertness) unless\nit were for the sake of (some new) production.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n ADVENT OF VISW\u00c1MITRA TO THE ROYAL COURT.\n\n\nThe king was thrown into sorrow and suspense at these words of the\nprince of sages (Vasishtha); but kept his silence for sometime, and\nwaited (that time might work a change).\n\n2. (Meanwhile) the queens of the palace, kept themselves watchful of\nthe movements of R\u00e1ma with anxious carefulness.\n\n3. At this very time the famous Visw\u00e1mitra, the great sage came to\nvisit the king of men at Ayodhy\u00e1.\n\n4. The intelligent and wise seer had his sacrificial rites disturbed\nby the _R\u00e1kshasas_, who were deceitfully powerful and giddy with their\nstrength.\n\n5. It was for the security of his sacrifice that the sage waited on the\nking, because he was unable to accomplish it in peace (by himself).\n\n6. It was also for the purpose of their destruction, that the\nillustrious Visw\u00e1mitra, who was the gem of austere devotion had come to\nthe city of Ayodhy\u00e1.\n\n7. Desirous of seeing the king, he spoke to the guards at the gate,\nto report the arrival of Kausika the son of G\u00e1dhi to the king with\ndespatch.\n\n8. On hearing these words, the guards were struck with fear in their\nminds, and ran as they were bid to the palace of the king.\n\n9. Coming to the Royal abode, the door-keepers informed the\nchief-warder of the arrival of Visw\u00e1mitra the royal sage.\n\n10. The staff-bearer immediately proceeded to the presence of the king,\nseated among the princes and chiefs (under him) in the Court house, and\ngave his report saying:\u2014\n\n11. \u201cPlease your majestic, there is waiting at the door a mighty\npersonage of majestic appearance, bright as the morning sun, with his\npendant locks of hair (red and ruddy) as sunbeams.\n\n12. \u201cThe brilliancy of his person has brightened the place from the\ntop-most flag down to the ground, and made the horses, men and armory\nshine as with a golden hue.\u201d\n\n13. No sooner had the warder appeared (before the king), and with\nhurried words announced the arrival of the sage Visw\u00e1mitra:\n\n14. Then the best of kings as he heard the herald say so, rose at\nonce from his throne of gold with all the ministers and chiefs that\nsurrounded him.\n\n15. He walked immediately on foot with the staff of princes and chiefs\nby whom he was held in honour and regard, and in company with Vasishtha\nand V\u00e1madeva.\n\n16. He went to the spot where the great sage was waiting, and saw\nVisw\u00e1mitra the chief of sages standing at the gateway.\n\n17. His priestly prowess joined with his military valour, made him\nappear as the sun descended on earth on some account.\n\n18. He was hoary with old age, rough-skinned by the practice of\nausterities, and covered down to his shoulders by red-bright braids of\nhair, resembling the evening clouds over topping a mountain brow.\n\n19. He was mild looking and engaging in his appearance, but at the same\ntime as brilliant as the orb of the sun. He was neither assuming nor\nrepulsive, but possessed of an ineffable gravity and majesty in his\nperson.\n\n20. He was attractive yet formidable (in his look), clear yet vast (in\nhis mind), deep and full (in knowledge), and shining (with his inward\nlight).\n\n21. His life time had no limit, nor his mind any bound to it, nor had\nage impaired his understanding. He held the ascetics pot in one hand,\nthat went (through life) as his only faithful companion.\n\n22. The compassionateness of his mind, added to the sweet complacency\nof his speech and looks, pleased the people as if they were actually\nserved with nectar drops, or sprinkled over with ambrosial dews.\n\n23. His body decorated by the sacred thread, and his white prominent\neyebrows, made him appear as a wonder to the eyes of his beholders.\n\n24. On seeing the sage, the lord of earth lowly bent himself at a\ndistance, and then bowed down to him (so low), that the ground was\ndecorated by the gems pendant upon his crown.\n\n25. The sage also in his turn greeted the Lord of the earth on the spot\nwith sweet and kind words, like the sun greeting the lord of the gods.\n\n26. Afterwards the assembled Br\u00e1hmans (of the court) headed by\nVasishtha, honoured him with their welcomes.\n\n27. The king said:\u2014We are as highly favoured, Oh holy sage! by thine\nunexpected appearance and thy glorious sight, as a bed of lotuses at\nthe sight of the luminous sun.\n\n28. Oh sage, I have felt at thine appearance the happiness which knows\nno bounds, and which has no diminution in it.\n\n29. This day we must be placed at the front rank of the fortunate, as\nwe have become the object of thine advent.\n\n30. With these and similar conversations that went on among the princes\nand the sages, they proceeded to the court-hall where they took their\nrespective seats.\n\n31. The king finding the best of sages (Visw\u00e1mitra) so very prosperous\nin his devotion, felt some hesitation to offer him the _arghya_\n(honorarium) himself with his cheerful countenance.\n\n32. He (the sage) accepted the _arghya_ offered him by the king, and\nhailed him during his act of turning round (the sage), according to the\nrules of S\u00e1stra.\n\n33. Thus honoured by the king, he with a cheerful countenance asked\nthe Lord of men about the good health (of himself and family), and the\nfulness of his finance.\n\n34. Then coming in contact with Vasishtha, the great sage saluted him\nas he deserved with a smile, and asked him about his health (and of\nthose in his hermitage).\n\n35. After their interview and exchange of due courtesies had lasted\nfor a while to the satisfaction of all in the royal assembly;\n\n36. They both took their respective seats; when every one (in the\ncourt) respectfully greeted the sage of exalted prowess.\n\n37. After the sapient sage (Visw\u00e1mitra) was seated, they made various\nofferings of _p\u00e1dya_, _arghya_ and kine to him.\n\n38. Having honoured Visw\u00e1mitra in due form, the lord of men\ncondescended to address him with a gladdest mind and in submissive\nterms, with his palms folded over each other.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n ADDRESS OF KING DASARATHA.\n\n39. He said, \u201cSir, your coming here is as grateful to me as the\nobtaining of nectar by one, as a rainfall after a drought, and as the\ngaining of sight by the blind.\u201d\n\n40. Again it is as delightful to me as the getting of a son by a\nchildless man in his beloved wife, and coming in possession of a\ntreasure in a dream.\n\n41. Your advent is no less pleasing to me than one\u2019s meeting with the\nobject of his wishes, the arrival of a friend, and the recovery of\nthing that was given for lost.\n\n42. It gives me the joy that is derived from the sight of a deceased\nfriend suddenly returning by the way of the sky. It is thus Oh Br\u00e1hman,\nI welcome your visit to me.\n\n43. Who is there that is not glad to live in the heaven (Brahma-loka)?\nI feel myself as happy Oh sage! at your advent, and this I tell you\ntruly.\n\n44. (Now tell me) what is your best pleasure, and what I may do for\nyou; O Vipra, that are the best of the virtuous, and most properly\ndeserving of my services.\n\n45. Formerly had you been famed under the title of R\u00e1jarshi (or royal\nsage); but since, made glorious by dint of your asceticism, you have\nbeen promoted to the rank of a Brahmarshi (or Brahman sage). Wherefore\nyou are truly the object of my worship.\n\n46. I am so glad at your sight that it soothes my inmost soul, in the\nsame manner as an ablution in Gang\u00e1\u2019s stream cheers the mind.\n\n47. Free as you are from fears and desires, from wrath and passions and\nthe feelings of pleasure, pain and disease, it is very wonderful, Oh\nBr\u00e1hman, that you should have recourse to me (for anything).\n\n48. I consider myself as situated at a holy sanctuary, and absolved\nfrom all my sins, or as merged in the lunar sphere (by your presence),\nOh! best of the learned in the truths of the Vedas.\n\n49. I understand your appearance as that of Brahm\u00e1 himself before me,\nand I confess myself, O sage! to be purified and favoured by your\nadvent.\n\n50. I am indeed so gratified at your arrival, that I deem myself\nfortunate in this birth, and that I have not lived in vain but led a\ntruly good life.\n\n51. My heart cannot contain within itself, but overflows (with joy)\nlike the sea at the sight of the moon, since I beheld your person here\nand made my respectful obeisance to you.\n\n52. Whatever is your commission, and whatsoever may be the object, O\ngreatest of sages! which has brought you hither, know it as already\ngranted (by me); for your commands are always to be obeyed by me.\n\n53. You need not hesitate to communicate to me your hest, O progeny of\nKausika, there is nothing, with me which is to be kept from you, if you\nshould ask for it.\n\n54. You need not dubitate about my performance of the act. I tell it\nsolemnly that I will execute your behest to the last item, as I take\nyou in the light of a superior divinity.\n\n55. Upon hearing these sweet words (of the king), which were pleasing\nto the ears, and delivered with a humility worthy of one knowing\nhimself, the far famed and meritorious chief of the sages felt highly\ngratified in himself.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n VISW\u00c1MITRA\u2019S REQUEST FOR R\u00c1MA.\n\n\nAfter the illustrious Visw\u00e1mitra had heard the aforesaid unusually\nlengthy speech of the lion among kings, his hairs stood erect with joy,\nand he said (in reply).\n\n2. This speech is worthy of thee, O best of kings on earth, and one\ndescended from a royal race, and guided by the sage Vasishtha himself.\n\n3. Consider well O king about the performance of the act which I have\nin mind, and support (the cause of) virtue.\n\n4. I am employed, O chief of men, in religious acts for attainment of\nmy consummation, whereto the horrible R\u00e1kshasas have become my great\nobstructions.\n\n5. Whenever I betake myself to offer sacrifices (to the gods) at\nany place, instantly do these nocturnal demons appear to destroy my\nsacrificial rites.\n\n6. The chiefs of the R\u00e1kshasas fling heaps of flesh and blood on the\nsacrificial ground (before me), on very many occasions that I commence\nmy ceremonies.\n\n7. Being thus obstructed in my sacrificial duties, I now come to thee\nfrom that spot and with a broken spirit, after having laboured in vain\n(for completion of the rites).\n\n8. I have no mind O king, to give vent to my anger by imprecations,\nwhich have no room in my conduct (of religious life).\n\n9. Such being the sacrificial law, I expect to gain its great object in\npeace by thy favor.\n\n10. Being thus oppressed I have recourse to thy protection, and thou\nshouldst protect me (from wrongs); otherwise it is an insult to\nsolicitors to be put to disappointment by the best of men (as thyself).\n\n11. Thou hast a son, the beauteous R\u00e1ma, powerful as the fierce tiger,\nand strong as the great Indra himself. He it is who is able to destroy\nthe R\u00e1kshasas.\n\n12. Now mayst thou deliver to me that R\u00e1ma thy eldest son, having his\nyouthful locks of hair like the sable plumage of a crow, but possessing\nthe true valour of a hero.\n\n13. Protected under my sacred authority, he will be able by his\npersonal prowess, to sever the heads of the malicious R\u00e1kshasas.\n\n14. I will do him an infinity of good services, whereby he will in the\nend become adored by the inhabitants of the three worlds.\n\n15. The night-wandering R\u00e1kshasas cannot abide in the field before\nR\u00e1ma, but must fly like stags in the wilderness before the furious lion.\n\n16. No other man than R\u00e1ma can make bold to fight with the R\u00e1kshasas;\nas no animal other than the furious lion can stand to fight with the\nwild elephants.\n\n17. Elated with their strength these vicious beings have become (as\ndeadly) as poisoned shafts in fighting, and being delegates of Khara\nand Dushana, they are as furious as death itself.\n\n18. They cannot, Oh thou tiger among kings! be able to sustain the\narrows of R\u00e1ma, but must set down like the flying dust under the\nceaseless showers of his arrows.\n\n19. Let not paternal affection prevail over thee O king (to withhold\nthy son), as there is nothing in this world, which the high-minded will\nrefuse to part with (to their suitor).\n\n20. I know it for certain, and so shouldst thou know also, that the\nR\u00e1kshasas must be destroyed by him; and (believe me) that wise men like\nourselves will never undertake to engage in an uncertainty.\n\n21. I well know the great soul of the lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma, and so does the\nillustrious Vasishtha, and all other far-seeing (sages and seers).\n\n22. Should the sense of greatness, duty and renown, have a seat in thy\nsoul, thou shouldst deliver my desired object\u2014thy son to me.\n\n23. It will take me ten nights to perform the rites of my sacrifice, at\nwhich R\u00e1ma shall have to stay with me and kill the R\u00e1kshasas, who are\nobnoxious to my rites and enemies of the sacrifice.\n\n24. Let the ministers, Oh K\u00e1kutstha! headed by Vasishtha join to give\ntheir assent (to it), and deliver thy R\u00e1ma to me.\n\n25. Thou O son of Raghu, that knowest the times (of religious\nobservances) must not allow my time to slip, so do as I may have R\u00e1ma.\nBe blest and give not way to sorrow.\n\n26. Even the smallest service appears to be much if done in good time,\nand the best service is of no avail if done out of season.\n\n27. The illustrious and holy chief of the sages Visw\u00e1mitra, paused\nafter saying these words fraught with a virtuous and useful intention.\n\n28. Hearing these words of the great sage, the magnanimous king held\nhis silence for some time, with a view to prepare a fitting answer;\nbecause no man of sense is ever satisfied with talking unreasonably\neither before others or to himself.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n DASARATHA\u2019S REPLY TO VISW\u00c1MITRA.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki added:\u2014On hearing these words of Visw\u00e1mitra, the tiger among\nkings remained speechless for a moment, and then besought him in the\nlowliness of his spirit.\n\n2. R\u00e1ma my lotus-eyed boy is only of fifteen years of age. I do not see\nhe is a match for the R\u00e1kshasas.\n\n3. Here is a full _akshauhin\u00ed_ legion of my soldiers; of whom, Oh my\nLord! I am the sole commander; surrounded by them I will offer battle\nto the R\u00e1kshasas cannibals.\n\n4. Here are my brave generals who are well disciplined in warfare; I\nwill be their leader in the height of war with my bow in hand.\n\n5. Accompanied with these, I can offer fight to the enemies of the\ngods, and to the great Indra himself, in the same manner as the lion\nwithstands the wild elephants.\n\n6. R\u00e1ma is but a boy who has no knowledge of the strength of our\nforces, and whose experience has scarcely stretched to the battle field\nbeyond the inner apartments (of the house).\n\n7. He is not well trained in arms, nor is he skilled in warfare. He\ndoes not know to fight with a foe, arrayed in the order of battle.\n\n8. He only knows how to walk about in the gardens of this city and\namidst the arbours and pleasant groves.\n\n9. He only knows how to play with his brother princes, in the flowery\nparks set apart for his play within the precincts of the palace.\n\n10. Nowadays, Oh Br\u00e1hman! he has become by a sad reverse of my fortune,\nas lean and pale as the withering lotus under the dews.\n\n11. He has no taste for his food, nor can he walk from one room to\nanother, but remains ever silent and slow brooding over his inward\ngrief and melancholy.\n\n12. In my great anxiety about him, O chief of sages, I have been, with\nmy family and dependants, deprived of the gist of our bodies, and\nbecome as empty clouds of autumn.\n\n13. Can my boy, so young as he is, and thus subjected to distemper, be\nfit to fight at all, and again with those marauders who rove about at\nnights.\n\n14. Oh thou high-minded sage! it is one\u2019s affection for his son that\naffords him far greater pleasure than his possession of a kingdom, or\nhis connection with beauteous females, or even his relish for the juice\nof nectar.\n\n15. It is from paternal affection that good people (engage to) perform\nthe hardest duties and austerities of religion, and any thing which is\npainfull in the three worlds.\n\n16. Men are even prepared under certain circumstances to sacrifice\ntheir own lives, riches and wives; but they can never sacrifice their\nchildren: this is the nature with all living beings.\n\n17. The R\u00e1kshasas are very cruel in their actions and fight deceitful\nwarfares: so that R\u00e1ma should fight them, is an idea which is very\npainful to me.\n\n18. I that have a desire to live, cannot dare to live for a moment in\nseparation from R\u00e1ma; therefore thou shouldst not take him away (from\nme).\n\n19. I have O Kausika! passed nine thousand rains in my lifetime, ere\nthese four boys were born to me after much austerity.\n\n20. The lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma is the eldest of these without whom the three\nothers can hardly bear to live.\n\n21. This R\u00e1ma is going to be conveyed by thee against the R\u00e1kshasas;\nbut when I am deprived of that son, know me certainly for dead.\n\n22. Of my four sons he is the one in whom rests my greatest love.\nTherefore do not take away R\u00e1ma\u2014my eldest and most virtuous son from\nme.\n\n23. If thy intention Oh sage, is to destroy the force of night\nwanderers, take me there accompanied by the four kinds (elephants,\nhorse, chariots and foot soldiers) of mine army.\n\n24. Describe to me clearly what these R\u00e1kshasas are, how strong they\nare, whose sons they be and what their size and figure.\n\n25. Tell me the way in which the R\u00e1kshasas are to be destroyed by R\u00e1ma\nor my boys or by myself, when they are known to be treacherous in\nwarfare.\n\n26. Tell me all these, Oh great sage! that I can calculate the\npossibility of our making a stand against the fiercely disposed\nR\u00e1kshasas in the open field, when they are certainly so very powerful.\n\n27. The R\u00e1kshasa named R\u00e1vana is heard as being very powerful, he is\nbrother of Kubera himself, and is the son of the sage Visravas.\n\n28. If it is he, the evil minded R\u00e1vana, that stands in the way of thy\nrites, we are unable to contend with that pest.\n\n29. Power and prosperity in all their flourish come within the reach of\nthe living at times, but they disappear at others.\n\n30. Nowadays we are no match for such foes as R\u00e1vana and some others.\nSuch is the decree of destiny.\n\n31. Therefore, O thou, that art acquainted with law, do this favour to\nmy son (as not to take him away); unlucky as I am, it is thou that art\nthe arbiter of my fate.\n\n32. The gods, and Asuras, the Gandharvas and Yakshas, the huge beasts,\nbirds and serpents are unable to fight with R\u00e1vana: what are we human\nbeings in arms to him.\n\n33. That R\u00e1kshasa holds the prowess of the most powerful, we cannot\nafford to fight with him, nor even with his children.\n\n34. This is a peculiar age in which good people are made powerless;\nI am moreover disabled by old age and want that spirit (that I was\nexpected to possess) derived as I am from (the most powerful) race of\nthe Raghus.\n\n35. Tell me O Br\u00e1hmana! if it is Lavan the son of Madhu (the notorious\nAs\u00fara) that disturbs the sacrificial rites; in that case also I will\nnot part with my son.\n\n36. If it be the two sons of Sunda and Upasunda terrible as they are\nlike the sons of the sun, that disturb your sacrifice, in that case\nalso I will not give my son to thee.\n\n37. But after all, O Br\u00e1hman, shouldest thou snatch him from me (by\ndint of the supernatural power that thou possessest), then I am also\ndead and gone with him. I do not see any other chance of a lasting\nsuccess of thy devotion (except by my death).\n\n38. Saying these gentle words, the descendant of Raghu was drowned in\nthe sea of suspense with regard to the demand of the sage, but being\nunable to arrive at a conclusion, the great king was carried away by\nthe current of his thoughts as one by the high waves of the sea.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n VISW\u00c1MITRA\u2019S WRATH. AND HIS ENRAGED SPEECH.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014On hearing this speech of the king with his piteous look\nand eyes full of tears, the son of Kausika became highly incensed and\nreplied.\n\n2. Thou art about to break thy promise after pledging thyself to its\nperformance, and thus wishest to behave as a deer after having been a\nlion (before).\n\n3. This is unbecoming of the race of Raghu, it is acting contrary (to\nthe rules) of this great family. Hot rays must not proceed from the\ncool beamed moon.\n\n4. If thou art so impotent Oh king! let me return as I came. Thou\npromise-breaking K\u00e1kustha live happily with thy friends.\n\n5. As the high spirited Visw\u00e1mitra now moved with ire, the earth\ntrembled under him, and the gods were filled with fear.\n\n6. Vasishtha the meek and wise and observant of his vows, perceiving\nthe great sage and friend of the world thus influenced by ire, gave\nvent to his speech (as follows).\n\n7. Oh king that art born of the race of the Iksh\u00e1kus, and art a form of\nvirtue itself, and called Dasaratha the fortunate, and art adorned with\nall the good qualities known in the three worlds.\n\n8. Being famed for thy meekness and strictness to thy vows, and\nrenowned in all three worlds for thy virtues and fame, thou canst not\nbreak thy plighted faith.\n\n9. Preserve thy virtue and think not to break thy faith, comply with\nthe request of the sage who is honoured in all the three worlds.\n\n10. Saying, thou wilt do it, if thou retract thy promise, thou losest\nthe object of thy yet unfulfilled desires. Therefore part with R\u00e1ma\nfrom thee.\n\n11. Descended from the race of Ikshaku, and being Dasaratha thyself,\nif thou failest to perform thy promise, who else on earth will ever\nkeep his word?\n\n12. It is in pursuance of the conduct of great men like thee, that low\npeople even do not dare to transgress the bounds of their duty, how\nthen dost thou wish to violate it thyself.\n\n13. Guarded by this lion-like man (Visw\u00e1mitra) in the manner of\nambrosia by fire, no R\u00e1kshasa will have power to prevail over R\u00e1ma,\nwhether he be accoutered and armed or not.\n\n14. Behold him here as the personification of virtue, the mightiest of\nthe mighty, and superior to all in the world in his intelligence, and\ndevotedness to asceticism.\n\n15. He is skilled in all warlike arms that are known in the three\nworlds, no other man knows them so well nor shall ever be able to\nmaster them like him.\n\n16. Among the Gods, the Sages, the Asuras, the R\u00e1kshasas, the N\u00e1gas,\nthe Yakshas and Gandharvas, there is none equal to him (in might).\n\n17. In bygone days when this son of Kaushika used to rule over his\nrealm, he was furnished with all the arms by Kris\u00e1swa, and which no\nenemy can baffle.\n\n18. These arms were the progeny of Kris\u00e1swa, and were equally radiant\nand powerful as the progeny of the Praj\u00e1pati, and followed him (in his\ntrain).\n\n19. Now Daksha (the patriarch) had two beauteous daughters Jay\u00e1\nand Supraj\u00e1 (alias Vijay\u00e1), who had a hundred offspring (as\npersonifications of the implements), that are invincible in war.\n\n20. Of these the favoured Jay\u00e1 has given birth to fifty sons of old,\nwho are implacable agents of the destruction of As\u00fara forces.\n\n21. In like manner, Supraj\u00e1 gave birth to fifty sons of very superior\nqualities, who are very powerful and terrible in their appearance, and\nindomitably aggressive.\n\n22. Thus Visw\u00e1mitra is strengthened and grown powerful (by means\nof these). He is acknowledged as a sage in the three worlds, Thou\ntherefore must not think otherwise than deliver R\u00e1ma to him.\n\n23. This mighty and virtuous man and prince of sages being nigh, any\none even at the point of death in his presence, is sure to attain\nhis immortality (on earth): therefore be not disheartened like an\ninsensible man.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n MELANCHOLY OF R\u00c1MA.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:\u2014After Vasishtha had done saying in this manner, king\nDasaratha was glad to send for R\u00e1ma with Lakshmana, and said:\n\n2. Go you chamberlain, and bring here quickly the truly mighty and long\narmed R\u00e1ma with Lakshmana, for the meritorious purpose of removing the\nimpediments (in the way of religious acts).\n\n3. Thus sent by the king he went to the inner apartment, and coming\nback in a moment informed the king.\n\n4. Oh sire! R\u00e1ma, whose arms have crushed all his foes, remains rapt in\nthoughts in his room like the bee closed in the lotus at night.\n\n5. He said, he is coming in a moment, but is so abstracted in his\nlonely meditation that he likes no body to be near him.\n\n6. Thus acquainted by the chamberlain, the king called one of the\nattendants of R\u00e1ma to him, and having given him every assurance, asked\nhim to relate the particulars.\n\n7. On being asked by the king how R\u00e1ma had come to that state, the\nattendant thus replied to him in a sorrowful mood.\n\n8. Sir, we have also become as lean as sticks in our persons, in sorrow\nfor the fading away of your son R\u00e1ma in his body.\n\n9. The lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma appears dejected ever since he has come back\nfrom his pilgrimage in company with the Br\u00e1hmanas.\n\n10. When besought by us with importunity to perform his daily rites,\nhe sometimes discharges them with a placid countenance, and wholly\ndispenses with them at others.\n\n11. He is averse, Oh Lord! to bathing, to worshipping the gods, to the\ndistribution of alms, and to his meals also; and even when importuned\nby us he does not take his food with a good relish.\n\n12. He no longer suffers himself to be rocked in the swinging cradles\nby the playful girls of the harem, nor does he divert himself under the\nshowering fountains like the _ch\u00e1taka_ (in rain water).\n\n13. No ornaments beset with the bud-shaped rubies, no bracelets nor\nnecklace, Oh king, can please him now, in the same manner as nothing in\nheaven can please its inhabitants who expect their fall from it (after\nthe expiration of their terms).\n\n14. He is sorrowful even while sitting in the arbours of creepers,\nregaled by flowery breezes, and amidst the looks of damsels playing\naround him.\n\n15. Whatever thing Oh king! is good and sweet, elegant and pleasing, to\nthe soul, he looks at them with sorrowful eyes, like one whose eyes are\nalready satiate with viewing them heaped up in piles (before him).\n\n16. He would speak ill of the girls that would dance merrily before\nhim, and exclaim out saying, \u201cwhy should these ladies of the harem\nflutter about in this way causing grief in me.\u201d\n\n17. His doings are like those of a madman, who takes no delight at his\nfood or rest, his vehicles or seats, his baths and other pleasures,\nhowever excellent they be.\n\n18. As regards prosperity or adversity, his habitation or any other\ndesirable things, he says of them to be all unreal, and then holds his\nsilence.\n\n19. He cannot be excited to pleasantry nor tempted to taste of\npleasures; he attends to no business, but remains in silence.\n\n20. No woman with her loosened locks and tresses, and the negligent\nglances of her eyes, can please him any more than the playful fawn can\nplease the trees in the forest.\n\n21. Like a man sold among savages, he takes delight in lonely places,\nin remotest skirts, in the banks (of rivers) and wild deserts.\n\n22. His aversion to clothing and conveyance, food and presents,\nbespeaks O king! that he is following the line of life led by wandering\nascetics.\n\n23. He lives alone, Oh lord of men! in a lonely place, and neither\nlaughs nor sings nor cries aloud from a sense of their indifference to\nhim.\n\n24. Seated in the posture of folded legs (Padm\u00e1sana), he stays with a\ndistracted mind, reclining his cheek on his left palm.\n\n25. He assumes no pride to himself nor wishes for the dignity of\nsovereignty; he is neither elated with joy nor depressed by grief or\npain.\n\n26. We do not know where he goes, what he does, what he desires, what\nhe meditates upon, whence and when he comes and what he follows.\n\n27. He is getting lean every day, growing pale day by day, and like a\ntree at the end of autumn, he is becoming discoloured day after day.\n\n28. Satrughna and Lakshmana are, Oh king! the followers of all his\nhabits, and resemble his very shadows.\n\n29. Being repeatedly asked by his servants, his brother-princes and his\nmothers (as to the cause of his dementedness), he says he has none, and\nthen resumes his taciturnity and indifference.\n\n30. He would lecture his companions and friends saying, \u201cdo not set\nyour mind to sensual enjoyments which are only pleasing for the time\nbeing.\u201d\n\n31. He has no affection for the richly adorned women of the harem, but\nrather looks upon them as the cause of destruction presented before him.\n\n32. He often chaunts in plaintive notes, how his life is being spent\nin vain cares, estranged from those of the easily attainable state of\n(heavenly bliss).\n\n33. Should some dependant courtier speak of his being an emperor (one\nday), he smiles at him as upon a raving madman, and then remains silent\nas one distracted in his mind.\n\n34. He does not pay heed to what is said to him, nor does he look at\nany thing presented before him. He hates to look upon things even the\nmost charming (to sight).\n\n35. As it is chimerical to suppose the existence of an etherial lake,\nand lotus growing in the same, so it is false to believe the reality of\nthe mind and its conceptions. Saying so R\u00e1ma marvels at nothing.\n\n36. Even when sitting amidst beauteous maids, the darts of Cupid\nfail to pierce his impenetrable heart, as showers of rain the\n(unimpregnable) rock.\n\n37. That \u201cno sensible man should ever wish for riches which are but the\nseats of dangers\u201d; making this his motto, R\u00e1ma gives away all that he\nhas to beggars.\n\n38. He sings some verses to this effect that \u201cit is an error to call\none thing as prosperity and the other adversity, when they are both but\nimaginations of the mind\u201d.\n\n39. He repeats some words to this purport that, \u201cthough it is the\ngeneral cry, \u201cO I am gone, I am helpless grown,\u201d yet it is a wonder,\nthat no body should betake himself to utter indifference.\u201d\n\n40. That R\u00e1ma, the destroyer of enemies, the great _S\u00e1la_ (oak) that is\ngrown in the garden of Raghu, should get into such a state of mind is\nwhat causes grief in us.\n\n41. We do not know, Oh great armed and lotus-eyed king! what to do with\nhim in this state of his mind. We hope only in thee.\n\n42. He laughs to scorn the counsels of the princes and Br\u00e1hmans before\nhim, and spurns them as if they were fools.\n\n43. He remains inactive with the conviction, that the world which\nappears to our view is a vanity, and the idea of self is also a vanity.\n\n44. He has no respect for foes or friends, for himself or his kingdom,\nmother or riches, nor does he pay any regard to prosperity or adversity.\n\n45. He is altogether quiescent, without any desire or effort, and\ndevoid of a mainstay; he is neither captivated by any thing nor freed\nfrom worldly thoughts. These are the reasons which afflict us most.\n\n46. He says, \u201cwhat have we to do with riches, with our mothers, with\nthis kingdom and all our activities.\u201d Under these impressions, he is\nabout to give up his life.\n\n47. As the _ch\u00e1taka_ (swallow) grows restless at the obstruction\nof rains (by hurricanes), so has R\u00e1ma become impatient (under the\nrestraint) of his father and mother, his friends and kingdom, his\nenjoyments and even his own life.\n\n48. Now in compassion on thy son, incline to root out this chagrin\nwhich like a noxious creeper has been spreading its branches (in his\nmind).\n\n49. For notwithstanding his possession of all affluence, he looks upon\nthe enjoyments of the world as his poison under such a disposition of\nhis mind.\n\n50. Where is that potent person in this earth, who can restore him to\nproper conduct (as by a potent medicine?).\n\n51. Who is there, that like the sun removing the darkness of the world\nby his rays, will remove the errors that have been the cause of grief\nin R\u00e1ma\u2019s mind, and thereby make his generosity effectual in his case.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n CONSOLATION OF R\u00c1MA.\n\n\nVisw\u00e1mitra said:\u2014If such is the case, you who are intelligent, may go\nat once, and persuade that progeny of Raghu to come hither; as they do\none deer by others (of the train).\n\n2. This stupor of R\u00e1ma is not caused by any (external) accident or\n(inward) affection; it is I think the development of that superior\nintellect which rises from the right reasoning of dispassionate men.\n\n3. Let R\u00e1ma come here for a while, and here shall we in a moment dispel\nthe delusion (of his mind), as the wind drives away the clouds from the\nmountain-tops.\n\n4. After his hebetude is removed by my reasoning, he shall be enabled\nto repose in that happy state of mind, to which we have arrived.\n\n5. He shall not only attain to pure truth and a clear understanding\nof uninterrupted tranquility, but secure to himself a plumpness and\nbeauteousness of his figure and complexion, as one derives from a\npotion of ambrosia.\n\n6. He will then attend with all his heart to the full discharge of the\nproper course of his duties without remission, which will redound to\nhis honour.\n\n7. He will become strong with a knowledge of both worlds, and his\nexemption from the states of pleasure and pain, and then he will look\nupon gold and stones with an indifferent eye.\n\n8. After the chief of the sages had spoken in this manner, the king\nresumed the firmness of his mind, and sent heralds after heralds to\nbring R\u00e1ma to him.\n\n9. By this very time R\u00e1ma was preparing to rise from his seat in the\npalace to come over to his father, in the manner that the sun rises\nfrom the mountain in the east.\n\n10. Surrounded by a few of his servants, he came with his two brothers\nto the hallowed hall of his father, resembling the heaven of the king\nof gods.\n\n11. He saw at a distance his kingly sire seated amidst the assemblage\nof princes, as Indra surrounded by the gods.\n\n12. He was accompanied on either side by the sages Vasishtha and\nVisw\u00e1mitra, and respectfully attended by his staff of ministers, all\nwell versed in the interpretation of all S\u00e1stras.\n\n13. He was fanned by charming damsels, waving the fine _chauri_\nflappers in their hands, and equalling in beauty the goddesses\npresiding over the quarters of heaven.\n\n14. Vasishtha, Visw\u00e1mitra and the other sages, with Dasaratha and his\nchiefs, saw R\u00e1ma coming at a distance as beautiful as Skanda himself.\n\n15. He appeared by his qualities of mildness and gravity to resemble\nthe mount Him\u00e1laya (with his cooling frost and firmness), and was\nesteemed by all for the depth and clearness (of his understanding).\n\n16. He was handsome and well proportioned (in his features), auspicious\nin his look, but humble and magnanimous in his mind. With loveliness\nand mildness of his person, he was possessed of all manly prowess.\n\n17. He was just developed to youth, yet he was as majestic as an\nelderly man. He was neither morose nor merry, but seemed to be fully\nsatisfied with himself, as if he had obtained all the objects of his\ndesire.\n\n18. He was a good judge of the world, and possessed of all holy\nvirtues. The purity of his mind was the attraction for all the virtues\nwhich met in him.\n\n19. The receptacle of his mind was filled by his magnanimity and\nhonourable virtues, and the candour of his conduct showed him in the\nlight of perfection (to every body).\n\n20. Endowed with these various virtues and decorated by his necklace\nand fine apparel, R\u00e1ma the support of Raghu\u2019s race, approached (his\nfather) with a smiling countenance.\n\n21. He bowed his head to his father with the sparkling gems trembling\nin his locks, and imparting to his head the graceful appearance of the\nmountain _Sumeru_ shaken by an earth-quake.\n\n22. The lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma came up to salute the feet of his father, when\nthe lord of the sages (Visw\u00e1mitra) was speaking with him.\n\n23. First of all R\u00e1ma saluted his father, and then the two honorable\nsages, he next saluted the Br\u00e1hmanas, and then his relations, and\nlastly his elders and well wishing friends.\n\n24. He then received and returned the salutations of the chiefs\nand princes, bowing to him with graceful motion of their heads and\nrespectful addresses.\n\n25. R\u00e1ma of god-like beauty and equanimity of mind, approached the\nsacred presence of his father, with the blessings of the two sages.\n\n26. During the act of his saluting the feet of his father, the lord of\nthe earth repeatedly kissed his head and face, and embraced him with\nfondness.\n\n27. At the same time, he the destroyer of his enemies, embraced\nLakshmana and Satrughna, with as intense an affection as the swan\nembracing the lotus flowers.\n\n28. \u201cBe you seated my son upon my lap\u201d, said the king to R\u00e1ma, who\nhowever, took his seat on a fine piece of cloth spread on the floor by\nhis servants.\n\n29. The king said \u201cO my son and receptacle of blessings, you have\nattained the age of discretion, so put not yourself to that state\nof self-mortification, as the dull-headed do from their crazy\nunderstandings.\n\n30. \u201cKnow that it is by following the course of his elders, guides\nand Br\u00e1hmanas, that one attains to meritoriousness, and not by his\npersistence in error.\n\n31. \u201cSo long will the train of our misfortunes lie at a distance, as we\ndo not allow the seeds of error to have access to us.\u201d\n\n32. Vasishtha said, Oh strong armed prince! you are truly heroic to\nhave conquered your worldly appetites, which are at once as difficult\nto be eradicated as they are fierce in their action.\n\n33. Why do you allow yourself like the unlearned, to be drowned in this\nrolling sea of errors, causing such dull inactivity in you?\n\n34. Visw\u00e1mitra said \u201cwhy are your eyes so unsteady (with doubts) as\nthe tremulous clusters of blue lotuses. You ought to do away with this\nunsteadiness, and tell us what is that grief (which rankles) in your\nmind.\n\n35. \u201cWhat are these thoughts, and what are their names and natures,\ntheir number and causes, that infest your mind like its maladies (in\nthe same manner) as the mice undermine a fabric.\u201d\n\n36. I am disposed to think, that you are not the person to be troubled\nwith those evils and distempers, to which the base and vile alone are\nsubject.\n\n37. Tell me the craving of your heart, O sinless R\u00e1ma! and they will be\nrequited in a manner, as will prevent their recurrence to you.\n\n38. R\u00e1ma\u2014the standard of Raghu\u2019s race having listened to the\nreasonable and graceful speech of the good-intentioned sage, shook off\nhis sorrowing, like the peacock at the roaring of a cloud, in the hope\nof gaining his object.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n R\u00c1MA\u2019S REPLY.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:\u2014Being thus asked with soothing words by the chief of\nthe sages, R\u00e1ma made his answer in a soft and graceful speech replete\nwith good sense.\n\n2. R\u00e1ma said, Oh venerable sage! I will tell thee in truth, untutored\nthough I am, all the particulars as asked by thee; for who would\ndisobey the bidding of the wise?\n\n3. Since I was born in this mansion of my father I have all along\nremained, grown up and received my education (in this very place).\n\n4. Then O leader of sages! being desirous to learn good usages (of\nmankind), I set out to travel to holy places all over this sea-girt\nearth.\n\n5. It was by this time that there arose a train of reflections in my\nmind of the following nature which shook my confidence in worldly\nobjects.\n\n6. My mind was employed in the discrimination of the nature of things\nwhich led me gradually to discard all thoughts of sensual enjoyments.\n\n7. What are these worldly pleasures good for, (thought I), and what\nmeans the multiplication (of our species) on earth? Men are born to\ndie, and they die to be born again.\n\n8. There is no stability in the tendencies of beings whether movable\nor immovable. They all tend to vice, decay and danger; and all our\npossessions are the grounds of our penury.\n\n9. All objects (of sense) are detached from each other as iron rods or\nneedles from one another; it is imagination alone which attaches them\nto our minds.\n\n10. It is the mind that pictures the existence of the world as a\nreality, but the deceptiveness of the mind (being known) we are safe\nfrom such deception.\n\n11. If the world is an unreality, it is pity that ignorant men\nshould be allured by it, like the deer tempted by a distant mirage\n(appearing) as water.\n\n12. We are sold by none (to any one) and yet we remain as if enslaved\nto the world; and knowing this well, we are spellbound to riches, as it\nwere by the magic wand of Sambara.\n\n13. What are the enjoyments in this quintessence (of the world) but\nmisery; and yet we are foolishly caught in its thoughts, as if clogged\nin honey (like bees).\n\n14. Ah! I perceive after long that we have insensibly fallen into\nerrors, like senseless stags falling into caverns in the wilderness.\n\n15. Of what use is royalty and these enjoyments to me? What am I and\nwhence are all these things? They are but vanities, and let them\ncontinue as such without any good or loss to any body.\n\n16. Reasoning in this manner Oh Br\u00e1hman, I came to be disgusted with\nthe world, like a traveller in (his journey through) a desert.\n\n17. Now tell me, O venerable sir! whether this world is advancing to\nits dissolution, or continued reproduction, or is it in course of its\nendless progression.\n\n18. If there is any progress here, it is that of the appearance and\ndisappearance of old age and decease, of prosperity and adversity by\nturns.\n\n19. Behold how the variety of our trifling enjoyments hastens our\ndecay, they are like hurricanes shattering the mountain trees.\n\n20. Men continue in vain to breathe their vital breath as hollow-bamboo\nwind-pipes having no sense.\n\n21. How is (human) misery to be alleviated, is the (only) thought that\nconsumes me like wild fire in the hollow of a withered tree.\n\n22. The weight of worldly miseries sits heavy on my heart as a rock,\nand obstructs my lungs to breathe out. I have a mind to weep, but am\nprevented from shedding my tears for fear of my people.\n\n23. My tearless weeping and speechless mouth, give no indication of my\ninward sorrow to any body, except my consciousness the silent witness\nin my solitude.\n\n24. I wait to think on the positive and negative states (of worldly\nbliss), as a ruined man bewails to reflect on his former state of\naffluence (and present indigence).\n\n25. I take prosperity to be a seducing cheat, for its deluding the\nmind, impairing the good qualities (of men), and spreading the net of\nour miseries.\n\n26. To me, like one fallen into great difficulties, no riches,\noffspring, consorts or home afford any delight, but they seem to be (so\nmany sources of) misery.\n\n27. I, like a wild elephant in chains, find no rest in my mind, by\nreflecting on the various evils of the world, and by thinking on the\ncauses of our frailties.\n\n28. There are wicked passions prying at all times, under the dark mist\nof the night of our ignorance; and there are hundreds of objects, which\nlike so many cunning rogues, are about all men in broad day-light, and\nlurking on all sides to rob us of our reason. What mighty champions can\nwe delegate (now) to fight with these than our knowledge of truth?\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n VITUPERATION OF RICHES.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014It is opulence, Oh sage! that is reckoned a blessing here;\nit is even she that is the cause of our troubles and errors.\n\n2. She bears away as a river in the rainy season, all high-spirited\nsimpletons overpowered by its current.\n\n3. Her daughters are anxieties fostered by many a malpractice, like the\nwaves of a stream raised by the winds.\n\n4. She can never stand steady on her legs any where, but like a\nwretched woman who has burnt her feet, she limps from one place to\nanother.\n\n5. Fortune like a lamp both burns and blackens its possessor, until it\nis extinguished by its own inflammation.\n\n6. She is unapproachable as princes and fools, and likewise as\nfavourable as they to her adherents, without scanning their merits or\nfaults.\n\n7. She begets only evils in them by their various acts (of profligacy),\nas good milk given to serpents, serves but to increase the poignancy of\ntheir poison.\n\n8. Men (by nature) are gentle and kind hearted to friends and\nstrangers, until they are hardheartened by their riches, which like\nblasts of wind, serve to stiffen (the liquid) frost.\n\n9. As brilliant gems are soiled by dust, so are the learned, the brave,\nthe grateful, the mild and gentle, corrupted by riches.\n\n10. Riches do not conduce to one\u2019s happiness, but redound to his woe\nand destruction, as the plant aconite when fostered, hides in itself\nthe fatal poison.\n\n11. A rich man without blemish, a brave man devoid of vanity, and a\nmaster wanting partiality, are the three rarities on earth.\n\n12. The rich are as inaccessible as the dark cavern of a dragon, and\nas unapproachable as the deep wilderness of the _Vindhy\u00e1_ mountain\ninhabited by fierce elephants.\n\n13. Riches like the shadow of night, overcast the good qualities of\nmen, and like moon-beams brings to bloom the buds of their misery.\nThey blow away the brightness of a fair prospect as a hurricane, and\nresemble a sea with huge surges (of disquiet).\n\n14. They bring upon us a cloud of fear and error, increase the poison\nof despondence and regret, and are like the dreadful snakes in the\nfield of our choice.\n\n15. Fortune is (as a killing) frost to the bondsmen of asceticism,\nand as the night to the owls of libertinism; she is an eclipse to the\nmoonlight of reason, and as moonbeams to the bloom of the lilies of\nfolly.\n\n16. She is as transitory as the Iris, and alike pleasant to view by\nthe play of her colours; she is as fickle as the lightening, which\nvanishes no sooner it appears to sight. Hence none but the ignorant\nhave reliance in her.\n\n17. She is as unsteady as a well born damsel following a base-born man\nto the words; and like a (deceptive) mirage that tempts the run-aways\nto fall to it as the doe.\n\n18. Unsteady as the wave, she is never steady in any place; (but is\never wavering to all sides) like the flickering flame of a lamp. So her\nleaning is known to nobody.\n\n19. She like the lioness is ever prompt in fighting, and like the\nleader of elephants favourable to her partizans. She is as sharp as the\nblade of a sword (to cut off all obstacles), and is the patroness of\nsharp-witted sharpers.\n\n20. I see no felicity in uncivil prosperity, which is full of\ntreachery, and replete with every kind of danger and trouble.\n\n21. It is pity that prosperity, like a shameless wench will again lay\nhold on a man, after being abandoned by him in his association with\n(her rival) Poverty.\n\n22. What is she with all her loveliness and attraction of human\nhearts, but momentary thing obtained by all manner of evil means, and\nresembling at best a flower shrub, growing out of a cave inhabited by a\nsnake, and beset by reptiles all about its stem.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n DEPRECIATION OF HUMAN LIFE.\n\n\nHuman life is as frail as a pendant drop of water tripling on the tip\nof a leaflet; and as irrepressible as a raving madman, that breaks\nloose from its bodily imprisonment out of its proper season.\n\n2. Again the lives of those whose minds are infected by the poison of\nworldly affairs, and who are incapable of judging for themselves, are\n(verily) but causes of their torment.\n\n3. Those knowing the knowable, and resting in the all-pervading spirit,\nand acquiescing alike to their wants and gains, enjoy lives of perfect\ntranquility.\n\n4. We that have certain belief of our being but limited beings, can\nhave no enjoyment in our transient lives, which are but flashes of\nlightenings amidst the cloudy sky of the world.\n\n5. It is as impossible to keep the winds in confinement, to tear\nasunder the sky to pieces, and wreathe the waves to a chaplet, as to\nplace any reliance in our lives.\n\n6. Fast as the fleeting clouds in autumn, and short as the light of\nan oilless lamp, our lives appear to pass away as evanescent as the\nrolling waves in the sea.\n\n7. Rather attempt to lay hold on the shadow of the moon in the waves,\nthe fleeting lightenings in the sky, and the ideal lotus blossoms in\nthe ether, than ever place any reliance upon this unsteady life.\n\n8. Men of restless minds, desiring to prolong their useless and\ntoilsome lives, resemble the she-mule conceiving by a horse (which\ncauses her destruction abortion or unfructification).\n\n9. This world (Sans\u00e1ra) is as a whirlpool amidst the ocean of creation,\nand every individual body is as (evanescent) as a foam or froth or\nbubble, which can give me no relish in this life.\n\n10. That is called true living, which gains what is worth gaining,\nwhich has no cause of sorrow or remorse, and which is a state of\ntranscendental tranquility.\n\n11. There is a vegetable life in plants, and an animal life in beasts,\nand birds: man leads a thinking life, but true life is above (the\nsuccession of) thoughts.\n\n12. All those living beings are said to have lived well in this earth,\nwho being once born herein have no more to return to it. The rest are\nno better than old asses (of burthen).\n\n13. Knowledge is an encumbrance to the unthinking, and wisdom is\ncumbersome to the passionate; intellect\u2014is a heavy load to the\nrestless, and the body is a ponderous burden to one ignorant of his\nsoul.\n\n14. A goodly person possessed of life, mind, intellect and\nself-consciousness and its occupations, is of no avail to the unwise,\nbut seem to be his over-loadings as those upon a porter.\n\n15. The discontented mind is the great arena of all evils, and the\nnestling place of diseases which alight upon it like birds of the air:\nsuch a life is the abode of toil and misery.\n\n16. As a house is slowly dilapidated by the mice continually burrowing\nunder it, so is the body of the living gradually corroded by the\n(pernicious) teeth of time boring within it.\n\n17. Deadly diseases bred within the body, feed upon our vital breath,\nas poisonous snakes born in caves of the woods consume the meadow air.\n\n18. As the withered tree is perforated by minutest worms residing in\nthem, so are our bodies continually wasted by many inborn diseases and\nnoxious secretions.\n\n19. Death is incessantly staring and growling at our face, as a cat\nlooks and purrs at the mouse in order to devour it.\n\n20. Old age wastes us as soon as a glutton digests his food; and it\nreduces one to weakness as an old harlot, by no other charm than her\npaint and perfumes.\n\n21. Youth forsakes us as soon, as a good man abandons his wicked friend\nin disgust, after his foibles come to be known to him in a few days.\n\n22. Death the lover of destruction, and friend of old age and ruin,\nlikes the sensual man, as a lecher likes a beauty.\n\n23. Thus there is nothing so worthless in the world as this life, which\nis devoid of every good quality and ever subject to death, unless it is\nattended by the permanent felicity of emancipation.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n OBLOQUY ON EGOISM.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma continued:\u2014\n\nEgoism springs from false conceit, and it is vanity (or vain glory)\nwhich fosters it; I am much afraid of this baneful egotism which is an\nenemy (to human kind).\n\n2. It is under the influence of egotism that all men in this\ndiversified world, and even the very poorest of them, fall into the\ndungeon of evils, and misdeeds.\n\n3. All accidents, anxieties, troubles and wicked exertions proceed from\negoism or self-confidence; hence I deem egoism as a disease.\n\n4. Being subject to that everlasting arch-enemy\u2014the cynic egoism, I\nhave refrained from my food and drink. What other enjoyment is there\nfor me to partake of?\n\n5. This world resembles a long continuous night, in which our egoism\nlike a hunter, spreads the snare of affections (to entrap us in it).\n\n6. All our great and intolerable miseries, growing as rank as the\nthorny plants of the catechu, are but results of our egoism.\n\n7. It overcasts the equanimity of mind as an eclipse overshadows the\nmoon; it destroys our virtues as a frost destroys the lotus flowers; it\ndispels the peace of men as the autumn drives away the clouds. I must\ntherefore get rid of this egoistic feeling.\n\n8. I am not R\u00e1ma the prince, I have no desire nor should I wish for\naffluence; but I wish to have the peace of my mind and remain as the\nself-satisfied old sage Jina.\n\n9. All that I have eaten, done or offered in sacrifice under the\ninfluence of egoism, have gone for nothing; it is the absence of egoism\nwhich (I call) to be real good.\n\n10. So long, O Br\u00e1hman! as there is (the feeling of) egoism in one, he\nis subject to sorrow at his difficulties; but being devoid of it, he\nbecomes happy; hence it is better to be without it.\n\n11. I am free from anxiety, O sage! ever since I have got the\ntranquility of my mind after giving up my (sense of) egoism; and known\nthe transitoriness of all enjoyments.\n\n12. As long, O Br\u00e1hman! as the cloud of egoism overspreads (the region\nof our minds), so long our desires expand themselves like the buds of\n_kurchi_ plants (in the rains).\n\n13. But when the cloud of egoism is dispersed, the lightning of\navarice vanishes away, just as the lamp being extinguished, its light\nimmediately disappears.\n\n14. The mind vaunts with egoism, like a furious elephant in the\nVindhyan hills, when it hears the thunder-claps in the clouds.\n\n15. Again egoism residing like a lion in the vast forest of all human\nbodies, ranges about at large throughout the whole extent of this earth.\n\n16. The self-conceited are decorated with a string of pearls about\ntheir necks, of which avarice forms the thread, and repeated\nbirths\u2014the pearls.\n\n17. Our inveterate enemy of egoism, has (like a magician) spread about\nus the enchantments of our wives, friends and children, whose spells it\nis hard to break.\n\n18. As soon as the (impression of the) word (_ego_) is effaced from the\nmind, all our anxieties and troubles are wiped out of it.\n\n19. The cloud of egoism being dispelled from the sky of our minds, the\nmist of error which it spreads to destroy our peace, will be dispersed\nalso.\n\n20. I have given up my (sense of) egoism, yet is my mind stupified with\nsorrow by my ignorance. Tell me, O Br\u00e1hman! what thou thinkest right\nfor me under these circumstances.\n\n21. I have with much ado given up this egoism, and like no more to\nresort to this source of all evils and perturbation. It retains its\nseat in the breast for our annoyance only, and without benefiting\nus by any good quality of its own. Direct me now, you men of great\nunderstandings! (to what is right).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n THE UNGOVERNABLENESS OF THE MIND.\n\n\nOur minds are infested by evil passions and faults, and fluctuate in\ntheir observance of duty and service to superiors, as the plumes of a\npeacock fluttering at the breeze.\n\n2. They rove about at random with ardour and without rest from one\nplace to another, like the poor village dog running afar and wide in\nquest of food.\n\n3. It seldom finds any thing any where, and happening even to get a\ngood store some where, it is as little content with it as a wicker\nvessel filled with water.\n\n4. The vacant mind, Oh sage! is ever entrapped in its evil desires,\nand is never at rest with itself; but roves at large as a stray deer\nseparated from its herd.\n\n5. Human mind is of the nature of the unsteady wave, and as light as\nthe minutest particle. It can therefore have no rest in spite of (the\nfickleness and levity of) its nature.\n\n6. Disturbed by its thoughts, the mind is tossed in all directions,\nlike the waters of the milk-white ocean when churned by the _Mandara_\nmountain.\n\n7. I can not curb my mind, resembling the vast ocean (in its course),\nand running with its huge surges (of the passions), with whirlpools (of\nerror), and beset by the whales of delusion.\n\n8. Our minds run afar, O Br\u00e1hman! after sensual enjoyments, like the\ndeer running towards the tender blades of grass, and unmindful of\nfalling into the pits (hid under them).\n\n9. The mind can never get rid of its wavering state owing to the\nhabitual fickleness of its nature, resembling the restlessness of the\nsea.\n\n10. The mind with its natural fickleness and restless thoughts, finds\nno repose at any place, as a lion (has no rest) in his prison-house.\n\n11. The mind seated in the car of delusion, absorbs the sweet, peaceful\nand undisturbed rest of the body, like the gander sucking up pure milk\nfrom amidst the water.\n\n12. O chief of sages! I grieve much to find the faculties of the mind\nlying dormant upon the bed of imaginary delights, from which it is hard\nto waken them.\n\n13. I am caught, O Br\u00e1hman! like a bird in the net by the knots (of my\negoism), and held fast in it by the thread of my avarice.\n\n14. I burn in my mind, O sage, like the dried hay on fire, by the flame\nof my anxieties and under the spreading fumes of my impatience.\n\n15. I am devoured, O Br\u00e1hman! like a clod of cold meat, by the cruelty\nand greediness of my heart, as a carcase is swallowed by a hungry dog\nand its greedy mate.\n\n16. I am borne away, O sage! by the current of my heart, as a tree on\nthe bank is carried away by the waters and waves beating upon it.\n\n17. I am led afar by my (greedy) mind, like a straw carried off by the\nhurricane, either to flutter in the air or fall upon the ground.\n\n18. My earthly mindedness has put a stop to my desire of crossing over\nthe ocean of the world, as an embankment stops the course of the waters\n(of a stream).\n\n19. I am lifted up and let down again by the baseness of my heart, like\na log of wood tied to a rope dragging it in and out of a well.\n\n20. As a child is seized by the false apparition of a demon, so I find\nmyself in the grasp of my wicked mind, representing falsities as true.\n\n21. It is hard to repress the mind, which is hotter than fire, more\ninaccessible than a hill, and stronger than a thunder bolt.\n\n22. The mind is attracted to its objects as a bird to its prey, and has\nno respite for a moment as a boy from his play.\n\n23. My mind resembling the sea both in its dullness as well as\nrestlessness, in its extent and fulness with whirlpools and dragons,\nkeeps me far from advancing towards it.\n\n24. It is more difficult to subdue the mind than to drink off the\nocean, or to upset the Sumeru mountain. It is ever harder than the\nhardest thing.\n\n25. The mind is the cause of all exertions, and the sensorium of the\nthree worlds. Its weakness weakens all worldliness, and requires to be\ncured with care.\n\n26. It is the mind from which arise our pains and pleasures by\nhundreds, as the woods growing in groups upon a hill; but no sooner is\nthe scythe of reason applied to them, than they fall off one by one.\n\n27. I am ready to subdue my mind which is my greatest enemy in this\nworld, for the purpose of mastering all the virtues, which the learned\nsay depend upon it. My want of desires has made me averse to wealth and\nthe gross pleasures it yields, which are as tints of clouds tainting\nthe (clear disk of the) moon (of our mind).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n ON CUPIDITY.\n\n\nI see our vices like a flock of owls flying about in the region of our\nminds, under the darkness of our affections, and in the lonesome night\nof our avarice.\n\n2. I am parched by my anxieties like the wet clay under solar rays,\ninfusing an inward heat in it by extraction of its soft moisture.\n\n3. My mind is like a vast and lonesome wilderness, covered under\nthe mist of errors, and infested by the terrible fiend of desire is\ncontinually floundering about it.\n\n4. My wailings and tears serve only to expand and mature my anxiety, as\nthe dews of night open and ripen the blossoms of beans and give them a\nbright golden hue.\n\n5. Avarice by raising expectations in men, serves only to whirl them\nabout, as the vortex of the sea wallows the marine animals in it.\n\n6. The stream of worldly avarice flows like a rapid current within\nthe rock of my body, with precipitate force (in my actions), and loud\nresounding waves (of my speech).\n\n7. Our minds are driven by foul avarice from one place to another, as\nthe dusty dry hays are borne away by the winds, and as the _Ch\u00e1takas_\nare impelled by thirst to fly about (for drink).\n\n8. It is avarice which destroys all the good qualities and grace which\nwe adopted to ourselves in good faith, just as the mischievous mouse\nsevers the wires (of a musical instrument).\n\n9. We turn about upon the wheel of our cares, like withered leaves\n(floating) upon the water, and like dry grass uplifted by the wind, and\nas autumnal clouds (moving) in the sky.\n\n10. Being over powered by avarice, we are disable to reach the goal (of\nperfection), as a bird entangled in the snare, is kept from its flight.\n\n11. I am so greatly burnt by the flame of avarice, that I doubt whether\nthis inflammation may be assuaged even by administration of nectar\nitself.\n\n12. Avarice like a heated-mare takes me far and farther still from my\nplace, and brings me back to it again and again. Thus it hurries me up\nand down and to and fro in all directions for ever.\n\n13. We are pulled up and cast down again like a bucket in the well, by\nthe string of avarice (tied about our necks).\n\n14. Man is led about like a bullock of burthen by his avarice, which\nbends his heart as fast as the string does the beast, and which it is\nhard for him to break.\n\n15. As the huntress spreads her net to catch birds in it, so does our\naffection for our friends, wives and children stretch these snares to\nentrap us every day.\n\n16. Avarice like a dark night terrifies even the wise, blindfolds the\nkeen-sighted, and depresses the spirit of the happiest of men.\n\n17. Our appetite is as heinous as a serpent, soft to feel, but full of\ndeadly poison, and bites us as soon as it is felt.\n\n18. It is also like a black sorceress that deludes men by her magic,\nbut pierces him in his heart, and exposes him to danger afterwards.\n\n19. This body of ours shattered by our avarice is like a worn out lute,\nfastened by arteries resembling the wires, but emitting no pleasing\nsound.\n\n20. Our avarice is like the long fibered, dark and juicy poisonous\ncreeper called Kaduka, that grows in the caverns of mountains, and\nmaddens men by its flavour.\n\n21. Avarice is as vain and inane, fruitless and aspiring, unpleasant\nand perilous, as the dry twig of a tree, which (bears no fruit or\nflower) but is hurtful with its prickly point.\n\n22. Venality is like a churlish old woman, who from the incontinence of\nher heart, courts the company of every man, without gaining the object\nof her desire.\n\n23. Greediness as an old actress plays her various parts in the vast\ntheatre of world, in order to please the different tastes of her\naudience.\n\n24. Parsimony is as a poisonous plant growing in the wide wilderness of\nthe world, bearing old age and infirmity as its flowers, and producing\nour troubles as its fruits.\n\n25. Our churlishnesss resembles an aged actress, attempting a manly\nfeat she has not the strength to perform, yet keeping up the dance\nwithout pleasing (herself or any body).\n\n26. Our fleeting thoughts are as fickle as pea-hens, soaring over\ninaccessible heights under the clouds (of ignorance); but ceasing to\nfly in the day light (of reason).\n\n27. Avarice is like a river in the rains, rising for a time with its\nrolling waves, and afterwards lying low in its empty bed. (Such are the\navaricious by the flux and reflux of their fortunes).\n\n28. Avarice is as inconstant as a female bird, which changes her mates\nat times, and quits the arbor that no longer bears any fruit.\n\n29. The greedy are as unsteady as the flouncing monkey, which is never\nrestive at any place, but moves to places impassable by others, and\ncraving for fruits even when satiate.\n\n30. The acts of avarice are as inconstant as those of chance, both of\nwhich are ever on the alert, but never attended with their sequence.\n\n31. Our venality is like a black-bee sitting upon the lotus of our\nhearts, and thence making its rambles above, below and all about us in\na moment.\n\n32. Of all worldly evils, avarice is the source of the longest woe. She\nexposes to peril even the most secluded man.\n\n33. Avarice like a group of clouds, is fraught with a thick mist\nof error, obstructing the light of heaven, and causing a dull\ninsensibility (in its possessor).\n\n34. Penury which seems to gird the breasts of worldly people with\nchains of gems and jewels, binds them as beasts with halters about the\nnecks.\n\n35. Covetousness stretches itself long and wide and presents to us a\nvariety of hues as the rainbow. It is equally unsubstantial and without\nany property as the iris, resting in vapour and vacuum and being but a\nshadow itself.\n\n36. It burns away our good qualities as electric fire does the hay; it\nnumbs our good sense as the frost freezes the lotus; it grows our evils\nas autumn does the grass; and it increases our ignorance as the winter\nprolongs the night.\n\n37. Greediness is as an actress in the stage of the world; she is as a\nbird flying out of the nest of our houses; as a deer running about in\nthe desert of our hearts; and as a lute making us sing and dance at its\ntune.\n\n38. Our desires like billows toss us about in the ocean of our earthly\ncares; they bind us fast to delusion as fetters do the elephant. Like\nthe _ficus indicus_ they produce the roots of our regeneration, and\nlike moon beams they put our budding woes to bloom.\n\n39. Avarice like (Pandora\u2019s) box is filled with miseries, decrepitude\nand death, and is full of disorder and disasters like a mad bacchanal.\n\n40. Our wishes are sometimes as pure as light and at others as foul as\ndarkness; now they are as clear as the milky way, and again as obscure\nas thickest mists.\n\n41. All our bodily troubles are avoided by our abstaining from avarice,\nas we are freed from fear of night goblins at the dispersion of\ndarkness.\n\n42. So long do men remain in their state of (dead like) dumbness and\nmental delirium, as they are subject to the poisonous cholic of avarice.\n\n43. Men may get rid of their misery by their being freed from\nanxieties. It is the abandonment of cares which is said to be the best\nremedy of avarice.\n\n44. As the fishes in a pond fondly grasp the bait in expectation of a\nsop, so do the avaricious lay hold on any thing, be it wood or stone or\neven a straw.\n\n45. Avarice like an acute pain excites even the gravest of men to\nmotion, just as the rays of the sun raise the lotus blossoms (above the\nwater).\n\n46. It is compared with the bamboo in its length, hollowness, hard\nknots, and thorny prickles, and yet it is entertained in expectation of\nits yielding the manna and a pearly substance.\n\n47. Yet it is a wonder that high-minded men, have been able to cut off\nthis almost unseverable knot of avarice, by the glittering sword of\nreason:\n\n48. As neither the edge of the sword, nor the fire of lightening, nor\nthe sparks of the red-hot iron, are sharp enough to sever the keen\navarice seated in our hearts.\n\n49. It is like the flame of a lamp which is bright but blackening and\nacutely burning at its end. It is fed by the oily wicks (of years), is\nvivid in all, but never handled by any body.\n\n50. Penury has the power of bemeaning the best of men to (the baseness\nof) straws in a moment, notwithstanding their wisdom, heroism and\ngravity in other respects.\n\n51. Avarice is like the great valley of the Vindhy\u00e1 hills, that is\nbeset with deserts and impenetrable forests, is terrible and full of\nsnares laid by the hunters, and filled with the dust and mist (of\ndelusion).\n\n52. One single avarice has every thing in the world for its object, and\nthough seated in the breast, it is imperceptible to all. It is as the\nundulating Milky ocean in this fluctuating world, sweeping all things\nyet regaling mankind with its odorous waves.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n OBLOQUY OF THE BODY.\n\n\nThis body of ours that struts about on earth, is but a mass of humid\nentrails and tendons, tending to decay and disease, and to our torment\nalone.\n\n2. It is neither quiescent nor wholly sentient, neither ignorant nor\nquite intelligent. Its inherent soul is a wonder, and it is reason (and\nits absence) that makes it graceful or otherwise.\n\n3. The sceptic is doubtful of its inertness and intellection: and the\nunreasonable and ignorant people are ever subject to error and illusion.\n\n4. The body is as easily gratified with a little, as it is exhausted in\nan instant, hence there is nothing so pitiable, abject and worthless as\nour bodies.\n\n5. The face is as frail as a fading flower: now it shoots forth its\nteeth like filaments, and now it dresses itself with blooming and\nblushing smiles as blossoms.\n\n6. The body is as a tree, having its arms resembling the branches, the\nshoulder-blades like stems, the teeth as rows of birds, the eye-holes\nlike its hollows, and the head as a big fruit.\n\n7. The ears are as two wood-peckers, the fingers of both hands and feet\nas so many leaves of the branches, the diseases as (parasite) plants,\nand the acts of the body are as axes felling this tree, which is the\nseat of the two birds the soul and intelligence.\n\n8. This shady arbor of the body, is but the temporary resort of the\npassing soul, what then whether it be akin to or apart from anybody, or\nwhether one would rely in it or not.\n\n9. What man is there, O venerable fathers! that would stoop to reflect\nwithin himself, that this body is repeatedly assumed only to serve him\nas a boat to pass over the sea of the world.\n\n10. Who can rely any confidence in his body, which is as a forest full\nof holes, and abounds in hairs resembling its trees?\n\n11. The body composed of flesh, nerves and bones, resembles a drum\nwithout any musical sound, and yet I sit watching it as a cat (for the\nsqueaking of mice).\n\n12. Our bodies are as trees growing in the forest of the world, bearing\nthe flowers of anxiety, and perforated by the worms of woe and misery,\nand mounted upon by the apish mind.\n\n13. The body with its smiling face appears a goodly plant, bearing the\nfruits both of good and evil; but it has become the abode of the dragon\nof avarice, and a rookery of the ravens of anger.\n\n14. Our arms are as the boughs of trees, and our open palms like\nbeautiful clusters of flowers, the other limbs are as twigs and leaves,\nand are continually shaken by the breath of life.\n\n15. The two legs are the erect stems (of the arbor of the body), and\nthe organs are the seats of the birds of sense. Its youthful bloom is a\nshade for the passing traveller of love.\n\n16. The hanging hairs of the head resemble the long grass growing on\nthe tree (of the body); and egoism like a vulture (in hollow), cracks\nthe ear with its hideous shrieks.\n\n17. Our various desires like the pendant roots and fibres of the fig\ntree, seem to support its trunk of the body, though it is worn out by\nlabour to unpleasantness.\n\n18. The body is the big abode of its owner\u2019s egoism, and therefore it\nis of no interest to me whether it lasts or falls (for egoism is the\nbane of happiness).\n\n19. This body which is linked with its limbs like beasts of burthen\nlabour, and is the abode of its mistress Avarice\u2014painted over by her\ntaints of passions, affords me no delight whatever.\n\n20. This abode of the body which is built by the frame-work of the\nback-bone and ribs, and composed of cellular vessels, tied together by\nropes of the entrails, is no way desirable to me.\n\n21. This mansion of the body, which is tied with strings of the\ntendons, and built with the clay of blood and moisture, and plastered\nwhite with old age, is no way suited to my liking.\n\n22. The mind is the architect and master of this bodily dwelling, and\nour activities are its supports and servants; it is filled with errors\nand delusions which I do not like.\n\n23. I do not like this dwelling of the body with its bed of pleasure on\none side, and the cries of pain as those of its children on the other,\nand where our evil desires are at work like its bawling hand-maids.\n\n24. I cannot like this body, which like a pot of filth, is full of\nthe foulness of worldly affairs, and mouldering under the rust of our\nignorance.\n\n25. It is a hovel standing on the two props of our heels, and supported\nby the two posts of our legs.\n\n26. It is no lovely house where the external organs are playing their\nparts, while its mistress the understanding sits inside with her brood\nof anxieties.\n\n27. It is a hut which is thatched over with the hairs on the head,\ndecorated with the turrets of the ears, and adorned with jewels on the\ncrest, which I do not like.\n\n28. This house of the body is walled about by all its members, and\nbeset by hairs growing like ears of corn on it. It has an empty space\nof the belly within (which is never full), and which I do not like.\n\n29. This body with its nails as those of spiders, and its entrails\ngrowling within like barking dogs, and the internal winds emitting\nfearful sounds, is never delightsome to me.\n\n30. What is this body but a passage for the ceaseless inhaling and\nbreathing out of the vital air? Its eyes are as two windows which\nare continually oped and closed by the eyelids. I do not like such a\nmansion as this.\n\n31. This mansion of the body with its formidable (wide-open) door of\nthe mouth, and (ever-moving) bolt of the tongue and bars of the teeth,\nis not pleasant to me.\n\n32. This house of the body, having the white-wash of ointments on the\nouter skin, and the machinery of the limbs in continued motion, and\nthe restless mind burrowing its base like the mischievous mouse, is not\nliked by me.\n\n33. Sweet smiles like shining lamps, serve to lighten this house of the\nbody for a moment, but it is soon darkened by a cloud of melancholy,\nwherefore I cannot be pleased with it.\n\n34. This body which is the abode of diseases, and subject to wrinkles\nand decay, and all kinds of pain, is a mansion wherewith I am not\npleased.\n\n35. I do not like this wilderness of the body, which is infested by the\nbears of the senses. It is empty and hollow within, with dark groves\n(of entrails) in the inside.\n\n36. I am unable, O chief of sages! to drag my domicile of the body,\njust as a weak elephant is incapable to draw out another immerged in a\nmuddy pit.\n\n37. Of what good is affluence or royalty, this body and all its efforts\nto one, when the hand of time must destroy them all in a few days.\n\n38. Tell me, O sage! what is charming in this body, that is only a\ncomposition of flesh and blood both within and without it and frail in\nits nature.\n\n39. The body does not follow the soul upon death; tell me Sir, what\nregard should the learned have for such an ungrateful thing as this.\n\n40. It is as unsteady as the ears of an infuriate elephant, and as\nfickle as drops of water that trickle on their tips. I should like\ntherefore to abandon it, before it comes to abandon me.\n\n41. It is as tremulous as the leaves of a tree shaken by the breeze,\nand oppressed by diseases and fluctuations of pleasure and pain. I have\nno relish in its pungency and bitterness.\n\n42. With all its food and drink for evermore, it is as tender as a\nleaflet and is reduced to leanness in spite of all our cares, and runs\nfast towards its dissolution.\n\n43. It is repeatedly subjected to pleasure and pain, and to the\nsuccession of affluence and destitution, without being ashamed of\nitself as the shameless vulgar herd (at their ups and downs).\n\n44. Why nourish this body any longer, when it acquires no excellence\nnor durability of its state, after its enjoyment of prosperity and\nexercise of authority for a length of time.\n\n45. The bodies of the rich as well as those of the poor, are alike\nsubject to decay and death at their appointed times.\n\n46. The body lies as a tortoise in the cave of avarice amidst the ocean\nof the world. It remains there in the mud in a mute and torpid state,\nwithout an effort for its liberation.\n\n47. Our bodies floating as heaps of wood on the waves of the world,\nserve at last for the fuel of funeral fire (on the pile); except a few\nof these which pass for human bodies in the sight of the wise.\n\n48. The wise have little to do with this tree of the body, which is\nbeset by evils like noxious orchids about it, and produces the fruit of\nperdition.\n\n49. The body like a frog, lies merged in the mire of mortality, where\nit perishes no sooner it is known to have lived and gone.\n\n50. Our bodies are as empty and fleeting as gusts of wind, passing over\na dusty ground, where nobody knows whence they come, and whither they\ngo.\n\n51. We know not the course of our bodies (their transmigrations), as we\ndo not know those of the winds, light and our thoughts; they all come\nand go, but from where and whither, we know nothing of.\n\n52. Fie and shame to them, that are so giddy with the ebriety of their\nerror, as to rely on any state or durability of their bodies.\n\n53. They are the best of men, O sage! whose minds are at rest with the\nthought, that their _ego_ does not subsist in their bodies, nor are the\nbodies theirs at the end (of their lives).\n\n54. Those mistaken men that have a high sense of honor and fear\ndishonor, and take a pleasure in the excess of their gains, are verily\nthe killers both of their bodies and souls.\n\n55. We are deceived by the delusion of egoism, which like a female\nfiend (sorceress) lies hid within the cavity of the body with all her\nsorcery.\n\n56. Our reason unaided (by religion) is kept in bondage like a female\nslave within the prison of our bodies, by the malicious fiend of false\nknowledge (or sophistry).\n\n57. It is certain that whatever we see here is unreal, and yet it is\na wonder, that the mass of men are led to deception by the vile body,\nwhich has injured the cause of the soul.\n\n58. Our bodies are as fleeting as the drops of a water-fall, and they\nfall off in a few days like the withered leaves of trees.\n\n59. They are as quickly dissolved as bubbles in the ocean; it is in\nvain therefore that it should hurl about in the whirlpool of business.\n\n60. I have not a moment\u2019s reliance in this body, which is ever\nhastening to decay; and I regard its changeful delusions as a state of\ndreaming.\n\n61. Let those who have any faith in the stability of the lightning, of\nthe autumn clouds, and in glacial castles, place their reliance in this\nbody.\n\n62. It has outdone all other things that are doomed to destruction in\nits instability and perishableness. It is moreover subject to very\nmany evils; wherefore I have set it at naught as a straw, and thereby\nobtained my repose.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n BLEMISHES OF BOYHOOD.\n\n\nOne receiving his birth in the unstable ocean of the world, which is\ndisturbed by the billows of the bustle of business, has to pass his\nboyhood in sufferings only.\n\n2. Want of strength and sense, and subjection to diseases and dangers,\nmuteness and appetence, joined with longings and helplessness, are the\nconcomitants of infancy.\n\n3. Childhood is chained to fretting and crying, to fits of anger,\ncraving and every kind of incapacity, as an elephant when tied to the\npost by its shackles.\n\n4. The vexations which tease the infant breast, are far greater than\nthose which trouble us in youth and old age, or disturb one in disease,\ndanger or at the approach of death.\n\n5. The acts of a boy are as those of young animals, that are always\nrestless and snubbed by every body. Hence boyhood is more intolerable\nthan death itself.\n\n6. How can boyhood be pleasing to any body, when it is but a semblance\nof gross ignorance, and full of whims and hobbies, and ever subject to\nmiscarriages.\n\n7. It is this silly boyhood which is in constant dread of dangers\narising at every step from fire, water and air, and which rarely betide\nus in other states of life.\n\n8. Boys are liable to very many errors in their plays and wicked\nfrolics, and in all their wishes and attempts beyond their capacities:\nhence boyhood is the most perilous state (of life).\n\n9. Boys are engaged in false pursuits and wicked sports, and are\nsubject to all foolish puerilities. Hence boyhood is fit for the rod\nand not for rest.\n\n10. All faults, misconduct, transgressions and heart-aches, lie hidden\nin boyhood like owls in hollow caves.\n\n11. Fie to those ignorant and foolish people, who are falsely led to\nimagine boyhood as the most pleasant period of life.\n\n12. How can boyhood appear pleasing to any one, when the mind swings\nlike a cradle towards every object of desire, however wrong it is\ndeemed to be in both worlds.\n\n13. The minds of all living beings are ever restless, but those of\nyoung people are ten times more at unrest.\n\n14. The mind is naturally unsteady, and so is boyhood also. Say what\ncan save us from that state of life, when both these vagrant things\ncombine to our destruction.\n\n15. The glances of women, the flashes of lightning, the flame of fire,\nand the ever-rolling waves, have all imitated the fickleness of boyhood.\n\n16. Minority seems to be a twin brother to the mind, and resembles it\nin the unsteadiness and frailty of all its purposes.\n\n17. All kinds of miseries, misdeeds and miscarriages await on boyhood,\nas all sorts of men hang upon the rich (for their supportance).\n\n18. Boys are fond of fresh things at all times, and on their failing\nto get the same, they fall to a fainting fit, as if from the effect of\npoison.\n\n19. A boy like a dog, is as easily tamed as he is irritated at a\nlittle, and he is as glad to lie in the dust, as to play with dirt.\n\n20. A foolish fretful boy with his body daubed in mire with the tears\nin his eyes, appears as a heap of dry clay soiled by a shower of rain.\n\n21. Boys are subject to fear and voracity; they are helpless but fond\nof every thing they have seen or heard, and equally fickle in their\nbodies and mind. Hence boyhood is a source of troubles only.\n\n22. The foolish and helpless child, becomes as sad and sour when he\nfails to get the object of his fancy, as when he is thwarted from the\nthing desired.\n\n23. Children have much difficulty to get at the things they want, and\nwhich they can ask only by indistinct words. Hence no one suffers so\nmuch as boys.\n\n24. A boy is as much irritated by the eagerness of his whimsical\ndesires, as a patch of ground in the desert is parched by the summer\nheat.\n\n25. A boy on entering his school, is subjected to corrections, which\nare as painful to him as the goading and fetters to the elephant.\n\n26. A great many whims and hobbies, and a variety of false fancies,\ntend continually to afflict boyhood, which is ever fond of toys and\ntrifles.\n\n27. How can senseless childhood be said to be a happy state of life,\nwhen the child is led by its ignorance to swallow everything in the\nworld, and to wish to lay hold on the moon in the sky.\n\n28. Say great sage! what difference is there between a child and a\ntree, both of which have sensitiveness, but unable to defend themselves\nfrom heat and cold.\n\n29. Boys are of the nature of birds, being both subject to fear and\nhunger, and ready to fly about when impelled by them.\n\n30. Again boyhood is the abode of fear from all sides; such as from the\ntutor, father, mother, elder brother and elderly boys, and from every\nbody besides.\n\n31. Hence the hopeless state of childhood, which is full of faults\nand errors, and addicted to sports and thoughtlessness, cannot be\nsatisfactory to any body.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n VITUPERATION OF YOUTH.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma continued:\u2014\n\nThe boy having passed his state of blemishes, gladly steps to his youth\nwith hopes of gaining his objects that tend only to his ruin.\n\n2. The insensible youth feels at this time the wanton inclinations of\nhis loose mind, and goes on falling from one tribulation to another.\n\n3. He is overcome as one subdued by the power of delusive Cupid, lying\nhidden in the cavity of the heart (hence called _Manoja_).\n\n4. His ungoverned mind gives rise to loose thoughts like those of\nvoluptuous women, and these serve to beguile him like the magic\ncollyrium (in the hand) of boys (called _Siddh\u00e1njana_).\n\n5. Vices of the most heinous kind betake persons of such (perverse)\nminds in their youth, and lead them to their ruin.\n\n6. The paths of youth lead them to the gate of hell through a maze of\nerrors. Those that have been left uncorrupt by their youth, are not to\nbe corrupted by anything else.\n\n7. Whoso has passed the dreadfully enchanted coast of youth, fraught\nwith various flavours and wonders, are said to be truly wise.\n\n8. I take no delight in our unwelcome youth, which appears to us in the\nform of a momentary flash of lightning, and soon succeeded by the loud\nroaring of the clouds (of manhood).\n\n9. Youth like rich wine is sweet and delicious (at first), but becomes\nbitter, insipid and noxious in a short time. Hence it is not delectable\nto me.\n\n10. Youth appearing (at first) as a reality, is found to be a false,\ntransient thing, as deceptive as a fairy dream by night. Hence I like\nit not.\n\n11. It is the most charming of all things to men, but its charm is soon\nlost and fled. Therefore the phantasmagoria of youth is not pleasing to\nme.\n\n12. Youth as an arrow-shot is pleasant to see, but painful to feel\nits smart. Hence I do not like youth that produces blood heat (in the\nveins).\n\n13. Youth as a harlot is charming at first sight, but turning heartless\nsoon after. Hence it is not to my liking.\n\n14. As the efforts of a dying man are all for his torment, so the\nexertions of the young are portentous of his destruction.\n\n15. Puberty advances as a dark night spreading the shadow of\ndestruction. It darkens the heart and mind by its hedious appearance,\nand intimidates even the god (Siva himself).\n\n16. Errors growing in youth, cause copious mistakes in life, by\nupsetting good sense and setting at naught the approved good manners\n(of society).\n\n17. The raging fire in the hearts of the young, caused by separation of\ntheir mates, burns them down like trees by a wild fire.\n\n18. As a clear, sacred and wide stream, becomes muddy in the rains, so\ndoth the mind of man however clear, pure and expanded it may be, gets\npolluted in his youth.\n\n19. It is possible for one to cross over a river made terrible by its\nwaves, but no way possible to him to get over the boisterous expanse of\nhis youthful desires.\n\n20. O how (lamentably) is one\u2019s youth worn out with the thoughts of\nhis mistress, her swollen breasts, her beautiful face and her sweet\ncaresses.\n\n21. The young man afflicted with the pain of soft desire, is regarded\nby the wise in no better light than a fragment of (useless) straw.\n\n22. Youth is the stake of haughty self-esteem, as the rack is for the\nimmolation of the elephant giddy with its frontal pearl.\n\n23. Youth is a lamentable forest, where the mind as the root of all,\ngives growth to jungles of (love sick) groans and sighs, and tears of\nsorrow. The vices of this time, are as venomous snakes of the forest.\n\n24. Know youthful bloom of the person to resemble the blooming lotus of\nthe lake:\u2014the one is full of affections, bad desires and evil intents,\nas the other is fraught with bees, filaments, petals and leaves.\n\n25. The new bloom of youth is the resort of anxiety and disease, which\nlike two birds with their (black and white) plumage of vice and virtue,\nfrequent the fountain of the young man\u2019s heart.\n\n26. Early youth resembles a deep sea, disturbed by the waves of\nnumberless amusements, transgressing all bounds, and regardless of\ndeath and disease.\n\n27. Youth is like a furious gust of wind, over-loaded with the dust of\npride and vanity, and sweeps away every trace of the good qualities\n(early acquired by one).\n\n28. The rude dust of the passions of youths, disfigures their face,\nand the hurricane of their sensualities cover their good qualities (as\nflying leaves overspread the ground).\n\n29. Youthful vigour awakens a series of faults, and destroys a group of\ngood qualities, by increasing the vice of pleasures.\n\n30. Youthful bloom confines the fickle mind to some beauteous person,\nas the bright moon-beams serve to shut the flitting bee in the dust of\nthe closing lotus.\n\n31. Youth like a delightsome cluster of flowers, growing in the arbour\nof human body, attracts the mind as the bee to it, and makes it giddy\n(with its sweets).\n\n32. The human mind anxious to derive pleasure from the youthfulness of\nthe body, falls into the cave of sensuality, as a deer running after\nthe mirage of desert heat, falls down into a pit.\n\n33. I take no delight in moony youth, which guilds the dark body with\nits beams, and resembles the stern mane of the leonine mind. It is a\nsurge in the ocean of our lives (that tosses us all about).\n\n34. There is no reliance in youth, which fades away as soon as summer\nflowers in this desert of the body.\n\n35. Youth is as a bird, and as soon flies away from our bodily cage as\nthe philosopher\u2019s stone, which quickly disappears from the hands of the\nunfortunate.\n\n36. As youth advances to its highest pitch, so the feverish passions\nwax stronger for our destruction only.\n\n37. As long as the night (delusion) of youth does not come to its end,\nso long the fiends of our passion do not cease to rage in the desert of\nthe body.\n\n38. Pity me, O sage! in this state of youth, which is so full of\nperturbations, as to have deprived me of the sight (light) of reason. O\npity me as thou wouldst for thy dying son.\n\n39. The foolish man who ignorantly rejoices at his transient youth, is\nconsidered as a human beast.\n\n40. The foolish fellow who is fond of his youth which is flushed with\npride and fraught with errors, comes to repent (of his folly) in a\nshort time.\n\n41. Those great minded men are honoured on earth, who have safely\npassed over the perils of youth.\n\n42. One crosses over with ease the wide ocean which is the horrible\nhabitation of huge whales; but it is hard to pass over our youth, that\nis so full of vices and the billows (of our passions).\n\n43. It is very rare to have that happy youth which is fraught with\nhumility, and spent in the company of respectable men; which is\ndistinguished by feelings of sympathy, and is joined with good\nqualities and virtues.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n VITUPERATION OF WOMEN.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma added:\u2014\n\nWhat beauty is there in the person of a woman, composed of nerves,\nbones and joints? She is a mere statue of flesh, and a frame of moving\nmachinery with her ribs and limbs.\n\n2. Can you find any thing beautiful in the female form, separated from\nits (component parts of the) flesh, skin, blood and water, that is\nworth beholding? Why then dote upon it?\n\n3. This fairy frame consisting of hairs in one part and blood in\nthe other, cannot engage the attention of a high-minded man to its\nblemishes.\n\n4. The bodies of females, that are so covered with clothing and\nrepeatedly besmeared with paints and perfumes, are (at last) devoured\nby carnivorous (beasts and worms).\n\n5. The breasts of women decorated with strings of pearl, appear as\ncharming as the pinnacles of Sumeru, washed by the waters of Ganges\nfalling upon them.\n\n6. Look at these very breasts of the woman becoming at last a lump of\nfood, to be devoured by dogs in cemeteries and on the naked ground.\n\n7. There is no difference between a woman and a young elephant that\nlives in the jungle, both of them being made of blood, flesh and bones.\nThen why hunt after her.\n\n8. A woman is charming only for a short time, and does not long last to\nbe so. I look upon her merely as a cause of delusion.\n\n9. There is no difference between wine and a woman, both of them\ntending equally to produce high-flown mirth and jollity, and creating\nrevelry and lust.\n\n10. Uxorious men are like chained elephants among mankind, that will\nnever come to sense however goaded by the hooks of reason.\n\n11. Women are the flames of vice, their black-dyed eye and hairs are as\ntheir smoke and soot. They are as intangible as fire, though pleasing\nto the sight. They burn the man as fire consumes the straw.\n\n12. They burn from afar (more than fire), and are as dry as bones (in\ntheir hearts), though appearing as soft and juicy to sight. They serve\nas fuel to the fire of hell, and are dangerous with their charmingness.\n\n13. The woman resembles a moon-light night, veiled over by her loosened\nlocks, and looking through her starry eyes. She shows her moon-like\nface amidst her flowery smiles.\n\n14. Her soft dalliance destroys all manly energy, and her caresses\noverpower the good sense of men, as the shade of night does the\nsleeping (world).\n\n15. The woman is as lovely as a creeper in its flowering time. Her palm\nare the leaves and her eyes as the black-bees (on the flower). Her\nbreasts are as the uplifted tops of the plant.\n\n16. The lovely damsel is like a poisonous creeper, fair as the filament\nof a flower but destructive of life, by causing inebriation and\ninsensibility.\n\n17. As the snake-catcher entices the snake by his breath and brings\nit out of its hole, so does the woman allure the man by her officious\ncivilities, and gets him under her control.\n\n18. Concupiscence as a huntsman, has spread his nets in the forms of\nwomen, for the purpose of ensnaring the persons of deluded men like\nsilly birds.\n\n19. The mind of man though as fierce that of a furious elephant,\nis tied fast by the chain of love to the fulcrum of women, just as an\nelephant is fastened (by his leg) to the post, where he remains dull\nand dumb for ever.\n\n20. Human life is as a pool in which the mind moves about in its mud\nand mire (as a fish). Here it is caught by the bait of woman, and\ndragged along by the thread of its impure desires.\n\n21. The beauteous-eyed damsel is a bondage to man, as the stable is to\nthe horse, the fastening post to the elephant, and as spells are to the\nsnakes.\n\n22. This wondrous world, with all its delights and enjoyments, began\nwith woman and depends on women for its continuance.\n\n23. A woman is the casket of all gems of vice (Pandora\u2019s box), she is\nthe cause of the chain of our everlasting misery, and is of no use to\nme.\n\n24. What shall I do with her breast, her eyes, her loins, her eyebrows,\nthe substance of which is but flesh, and which therefore is altogether\nunsubstantial.\n\n25. Here and there, O Br\u00e1hman! her flesh and blood and bones undergo a\nchange for the worse in course of a few days.\n\n26. You see sir, those dearly beloved mistresses, who are so much\nfondled by foolish men, lying at last in the cemetery, and the members\nof their bodies all mangled and falling off from their places.\n\n27. O Br\u00e1hman! those dear objects of love\u2014the faces of damsels, so\nfondly decorated by their lovers with paints and pastes, are at last to\nbe singed on the piles (by those very hands).\n\n28. Their braided hairs now hang as flappers of _chouri_ on the arbors\nof the cemetery, and their whitened bones are strewn about as shining\nstars after a few days.\n\n29. Behold their blood sucked in by the dust of the earth, voracious\nbeasts and worms feeding upon their flesh, jackals tearing their skin,\nand their vital air wafted in the vacuum.\n\n30. This is the state to which the members of the female body must\nshortly come to pass, you say all existence to be delusion, tell me\ntherefore why do you allow yourselves to fall into error?\n\n31. A woman is no other than a form composed of the five elements, then\nwhy should intelligent men be fondly attached to her (at the risk of\ntheir ruin)?\n\n32. Men\u2019s longing for women is likened to the creeper called Suta,\nwhich stretches its sprigs to a great length, but bears plenty of\nbitter and sour fruits.\n\n33. A man blinded by avarice (for the supportance of his mate) is as a\nstray deer from its herd; and not knowing which way to go, is lost in\nthe maze of illusion.\n\n34. A young man under the control of a young woman, is as much\nlamentable as an elephant fallen into a pit of the Vindhya mountain in\npursuit of his mate.\n\n35. He that has a wife, has an appetite for enjoyment on earth; but one\nwithout her has no object of desire. Abandonment of the wife amounts\nto the abandoning of the world, and forsaking the world is the path to\ntrue happiness.\n\n36. I am not content, O Br\u00e1hman! with these unmanageable enjoyments\nwhich are as flickering as the wings of bees, and are as soon at an\nend as they are born (like the ephemerids of a day). I long only\nfor the state of supreme bliss, from my fear of repeated-births\n(transmigration), decay and death.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n OBLOQUY OF OLD AGE.\n\n\nBoyhood has scarcely lost its boyishness when it is overtaken by youth,\nwhich is soon followed by a ruthless old age, devouring the other two.\n\n2. Old age withers the body like a frost freezing the lake of lilies.\nIt drives away the beauty of the person as a storm does the autumnal\nclouds; and it pulls down the body, as a current carries away a tree on\nthe bank.\n\n3. The old man with his limbs slackened and worn out by age, and his\nbody weakened by infirmity, is treated by women as a useless beast.\n\n4. Old age drives a man\u2019s good sense, as a good wife is driven away by\nher step dame.\n\n5. A man in his state of tottering old age, is scoffed at as a dotard\nby his own sons and servants, and even by his wife, and all his friends\nand relations.\n\n6. Insatiable avarice like a greedy vulture alights on the heads of\nthe aged, when their appearance grows uncouth, and their bodies become\nhelpless, and devoid of all manly qualities and powers.\n\n7. Appetite the constant companion of my youth, is thriving along with\nmy age, accompanied with her evils of indigence, and heart-burning\ncares and restlessness.\n\n8. Ah me! what must I do to remove my present and future pains? It is\nthis fear which increases with old age, and finds no remedy.\n\n9. What am I that am brought to this extremity of senselessness, what\ncan I do in this state. I must remain dumb and silent. Under these\nreflections there is an increased sense of helplessness in old age.\n\n10. How and when and what shall I eat, and what is sweet to taste?\nThese are the thoughts which trouble the mind of one when old age comes\nupon him.\n\n11. There is an insatiable desire for enjoyments, but the powers to\nenjoy them are lacking. It is the want of strength which afflicts the\nheart in old age.\n\n12. Hoary old age sits and shrieks as a heron on the top of the tree of\nthis body, which is infested within it by the serpents of sickness.\n\n13. As the grave owl\u2014the bird of night, appears unexpectedly to our\nsight soon as the evening shades cover the landscape, so does the\nsolemn appearance of death overtake us in the eve of our life.\n\n14. As darkness prevails over the world at the eve of the day, so doth\ndeath overtake the body at the eve of the life.\n\n15. Death overtakes a man in his hoary old age, just as an ape alights\non a tree covered with pearly flowers.\n\n16. Even a deserted city, a leafless tree and parched up land may\npresent a fair aspect, but never does the body look well that is pulled\ndown by hoary age.\n\n17. Old age with its hooping cough lays hold on a man, just as a\nvulture seizes its prey with loud shrieks in order to devour it.\n\n18. As a girl eagerly lays hold on a lotus flower whenever she meets\nwith one, and then plucks it from its stalk and tears it to pieces, so\ndoes old age overtake the body of a person and break it down at last.\n\n19. As the chill blast of winter shakes a tree and covers its leaves\nwith dust, so does old age seize the body with a tremor and fill all\nits limbs with the rust of diseases.\n\n20. The body overtaken by old age becomes as pale and battered, as a\nlotus flower beaten by frost becomes withered and shattered.\n\n21. As moon-beams contribute to the growth of _Kumuda_ flowers on\nthe top of mountains, so does old age produce grey hairs resembling\n_casla_ flowers on the heads of men (with inward phlegm and gout).\n\n22. Death the lord of all beings, views the grey head of a man as a\nripe pumpkin seasoned with the salt of old age, and devours it with\nzest.\n\n23. As the Ganges upsets a neighbouring tree by its rapid course, so\ndoes old age destroy the body, as the current of our life runs fast to\ndecay.\n\n24. Old age which preys on the flesh of the human body, takes as much\ndelight in devouring its youthful bloom as a cat does in feeding upon a\nmouse.\n\n25. Decrepitude raises its ominous hoarse sound of hiccough in the\nbody, as the jackal sends forth her hideous cry amidst the forest.\n\n26. Dotage as an inward flame consumes the living body as a wet log of\nwood, which thereupon emits its hissing sounds of hiccough and hard\nbreathing, and sends up the gloomy fumes of woe and sighs.\n\n27. The body like a flowering creeper, bends down under the pressure of\nage, turns to grey like the fading leaves of a plant, and becomes as\nlean and thin as a plant after its flowering time is over.\n\n28. As the infuriate elephant upsets the white plantain tree in a\nmoment, so does old age destroy the body that becomes as white as\ncamphor all over.\n\n29. Senility, O sage! is as the standard bearer of the king of death,\nflapping his _chouri_ of grey hairs before him, and bringing in his\ntrain an army of diseases and troubles.\n\n30. The monster of old age, will even overcome those that were never\ndefeated in wars by their enemies, and those that hide themselves in\nthe inaccessible caverns of mountains.\n\n31. As infants cannot play in a room that has become cold with snow, so\nthe senses can have no play in the body that is stricken with age.\n\n32. Old age like a juggling girl, struts on three legs at the sound of\ncoughing and whiffing, beating as a tymbal on both sides.\n\n33. The tuft of grey hairs on the head of the aged body, represents\na white flapper (_chouri_) fastened to the top of a handle of white\nsandal wood, to welcome the despot of death.\n\n34. As hoary age makes his advance like moon-light on the site of\nthe body, he calls forth the hidden death to come out of it, as the\nmoon-light makes the _nilumbium_ to unfold its buds.\n\n35. Again as the white wash of old age whitens the outer body, so\ndebility, diseases and dangers become its inmates in the inner\napartment.\n\n36. It is the extinction of being that is preceded by old age;\ntherefore I as a man of little understanding, can have no reliance in\nold age (though extolled by some)[1]\n\n37. What then is the good of this miserable life, which lives under\nthe subjection of old age? Senility is irresistable in this world, and\ndefies all efforts to avoid or overcome it.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n VICISSITUDES OF TIMES.\n\n\nMen of little understandings are found to fall into grave errors\nin this pit of the world, by their much idle talk, ever doubting\nscepticism, and schisms (in religion).\n\n2. Good people can have no more confidence in the net work of their\nribs, than little children may have a liking for fruits reflected in a\nmirror.\n\n3. Time is a rat that cuts off the threads of all thoughts (prospects),\nwhich men may entertain here about the contemptible pleasures of this\nworld.\n\n4. There is nothing in this world which the all-devouring time will\nspare. He devours all things as the submarine fire consumes the\nover-flowing sea.\n\n5. Time is the sovran lord of all, and equally terrible to all things.\nHe is ever ready to devour all visible beings.\n\n6. Time as master of all, spares not even the greatest of us for a\nmoment. He swallows the universe within himself, whence he is known as\nthe universal soul.\n\n7. Time pervades all things, but has no perceptible feature of his own,\nexcept that he is imperfectly known by the names of years, ages and\n_kalpas_ (millenniums).\n\n8. All that was fair and good, and as great as the mount of Meru, have\ngone down in the womb of eternity, as the snakes are gorged by the\ngreedy Garuda.\n\n9. There was no one ever so unkind, hard-hearted, cruel, harsh or\nmiserly, whom time has not devoured.\n\n10. Time is ever greedy although he should devour the mountains. This\ngreat gourmand is not satiated with gorging every thing in all the\nworlds.\n\n11. Time like an actor plays many parts on the stage of the world. He\nabstracts and kills, produces and devours and at last destroys every\nthing.\n\n12. Time is incessantly picking up the seeds of all the four kinds of\nliving beings from this unreal world, as a parrot picks up the seeds\nfrom under the cracked shell of a pomegranate. (_Viz._ the ovipari,\nvivipari, vegetables and the ephemerids).\n\n13. Time like a wild elephant uproots all proud living beings in this\nworld, as the other pulls up the trees of the forest with their tusks.\n\n14. This creation of God is like a forest, having Brahm\u00e1 for its\nfoundation and its trees full of the great fruits of gods. Time\ncommands it throughout its length and breadth.\n\n15. Time glides along incessantly as a creeping plant, composed of\nyears and ages as its parts, and the sable nights as black bees chasing\nafter them.\n\n16. Time, O sage, is the subtlest of all things. It is divided though\nindivisible, it is consumed though incombustible, it is perceived\nthough imperceptible in its nature.\n\n17. Time like the mind is strong enough to create and demolish any\nthing in a trice, and its province is equally extensive with it.\n\n18. Time is a whirlpool to men; and being accompanied with desire\nhis insatiable and ungovernable mistress and delighting in illicit\nenjoyments, he makes them do and undo the same thing over and again.\n\n19. Time is prompted by his rapacity to appropriate every thing to\nhimself, from the meanest straw, dust, leaves and worms, to the\ngreatest Indra and the mount Meru itself.\n\n20. Time is the source of all malice and greediness, and the spring of\nall misfortunes, and intolerable fluctuations of our states.\n\n21. As boys with their balls play about their play-ground, so does time\nin his arena of the sky, play with his two balls of the sun and moon.\n\n22. Time at the expiration of the _kalpa_ age, will dance about with a\nlong chain of the bones of the dead hanging from his neck to the feet.\n\n23. The gale of desolation rising from the body of this desolator of\nthe world at the end of a _kalpa_ age, causes the fragments of mount\nMeru to fly about in the air like the rinds of the _bhoja-petera_ tree.\n\n24. Time then assumes his terrific form of fire (\u092a\u094d\u0930\u0932\u092f\u093e\u0917\u094d\u0928\u093f), to dissolve the world in empty space, when the gods\nBrahm\u00e1 and Indra and all others cease to exist.\n\n25. As the sea shows himself in a continued series of waves rising and\nfalling one after another, so it is time that creates and dissolves the\nworld, and appears to rise and fall in the rotation of days and nights.\n\n26. Time plucks the gods and demigods as ripe fruits, from their great\narbor of existence, at the end of the world (to make them his food).\n\n27. Time resembles a large fig tree (Ficus religiosus), studded with\nall the worlds as its fruits, and resonant with the noise of living\nbeings like the hissing of gnats about them.\n\n28. Time accompanied by Action as his mate, regales himself in the\ngarden of the world, blossoming with the moon-beams of the Divine\nSpirit.\n\n29. As the high and huge rock supports its body upon the basis of the\nearth, so does time rest itself in endless and interminable eternity.\n\n30. Time assumes to himself various hues of black, white and red (at\nnight, day and midday) which serve for his vestures.\n\n31. As the earth is the great support of hills which are fixed upon it,\nso is time the support of all the innumerable ponderous worlds that\nconstitute the universe.\n\n32. Hundreds of great _kalpa_ ages (of the creation and dissolution of\nthe world) may pass away, yet there is nothing that can move eternity\nto pity or concern, or stop or expedite his course. It neither sets nor\nrises (as time).\n\n33. Time is never proud to think, that it is he who without the least\nsense of pain and labor, brings this world into play and makes it to\nexist.\n\n34. Time is like a reservoir in which the nights are as mud, the days\nas lotuses, and the clouds as bees.\n\n35. As a covetous man, with worn out broom sticks in hand, sweeps over\na mountain to gather the particles of gold strewn over it, so does time\nwith his sweeping course of days and nights, collect in one mass of the\ndead all living beings in the world.\n\n36. As a miserly man trims and lights a lamp with his own fingers, to\nlook into his stores at each corner of the room; so does time light the\nlamps of the sun and moon to look into the living beings in every nook\nand corner of the world.\n\n37. As one ripens the raw fruits in sun and fire in order to devour\nthem, so does time ripen men by their sun and fire worship, to bring\nthem under his jaws at last.\n\n38. The world is a dilapidated cottage and men of parts are rare gems\nin it. Time hides them in the casket of his belly, as a miser keeps his\ntreasure in a coffer.\n\n39. Good men are like a chaplet of gems, which time puts on his head\nfor a time with fondness, and then tears and tramples it down (under\nhis feet).\n\n40. Strings of days, nights and stars, resembling beads and bracelets\nof white and black lotuses, are continually turning round the arm of\ntime.\n\n41. Time (as a vulture) looks upon the world as (the carcase of) a ram,\nwith its mountains, seas, sky and earth as its four horns, and the\nstars as its drops of blood which it drinks day by day.\n\n42. Time destroys youth as the moon shuts the petals of the lotus. It\ndestroys life as the lion kills the elephant: there is nothing however\ninsignificant that time steals not away.\n\n43. Time after sporting for a _Kalpa_ period in the act of killing and\ncrushing of all living beings, comes to lose its own existence and\nbecomes extinct in the eternity of the Spirit of spirits.\n\n44. Time after a short rest and respite reappears as the creator,\npreserver, destroyer and remembrancer of all. He shows the shapes of\nall things whether good or bad, keeping his own nature beyond the\nknowledge of all. Thus doth time expand and preserve and finally\ndissolve all things by way of sport.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n RAVAGES OF TIME.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:\u2014Time is a self-willed sportsman as a prince, who is\ninaccessible to dangers and whose powers are unlimited.\n\n2. This world is as it were a forest and sporting ground of time,\nwherein the poor deluded worldlings are caught in his snare like a body\nof wounded stags.\n\n3. The ocean of universal deluge is a pleasure-pond of time, and the\nsubmarine fires bursting therein as lotus flowers (serve to beautify\nthat dismal scene).\n\n4. Time makes his breakfast of this vapid and stale earth, flavoured\nwith the milk and curd of the seas of those names.\n\n5. His wife _Chandi_ (Hecate) with her train of _M\u00e1tris_ (furies),\nranges all about this wide world as a ferocious tigress (with horrid\ndevastation).\n\n6. The earth with her waters is like a bowl of wine in the hand of\ntime, dressed and flavoured with all sorts of lilies and lotuses.\n\n7. The lion with his huge body and startling mane, his loud roaring and\ntremendous groans, seems as a caged bird of sport in the hand of time.\n\n8. The Mah\u00e1k\u00e1la like a playful young _Kokila_ (cuckoo), appears in the\nfigure of the blue autumnal sky, and warbling as sweet as the notes of\na lute of gourd (in the music of the spheres).\n\n9. The restless bow of death is found flinging its woeful arrows (darts\nof death) with ceaseless thunder claps on all sides.\n\n10. This world is like a forest, wherein sorrows are ranging about as\nplayful apes, and time like a sportive prince in this forest, is now\nroving, now walking, now playing and now killing his games.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n SPORTS OF DEATH.\n\n\nTime stands the foremost of all deceitful players in this world. He\nacts the double parts of creation and destruction, and of action and\nfate (utility and fatality).\n\n2. Time has no other character but those of action and motion by\nwhich his existence is known to us, and which bind all beings (in the\nsuccession of thoughts and acts).\n\n3. Fate is that which frustrates (the necessary consequences of) the\nacts of all created beings, as the solar heat serves to dissolve the\nconglomeration of snows.\n\n4. This wide world is the stage wherein the giddy mob dance about (in\ntheir appointed times).\n\n5. Time has a third name of a terrifying nature known as _Krit\u00e1ntah_\n(Fate), who in the form of a K\u00e1p\u00e1lika (one holding human skulls in his\nhand), dances about in the world.\n\n6. This dancing and loving Krit\u00e1ntah (Fate), is accompanied by\nhis consort called Destiny to whom he is greatly attached (as his\ncolleague).\n\n7. Time (as Siva), wears on his bosom of the world, the triplicate\nwhite and holy thread composed of the serpent named Ananta and the\nstream of Ganges, and the digit of the moon on his forehead (to measure\nhis course). (_Viz_:\u2014the Zodiacal belt; the milky way, and the lunar\nmansions).\n\n8. The sun and the moon are the golden armlets of time, who holds in\nhis palm the mundane world as the paltry plaything of a nosegay.\n\n9. The firmament with its stars appears like a garment with coloured\nspots in it; the clouds called _Pushkara_ and _Avarta_ are as the\nskirts of that garment, which are washed by Time in the waters of the\nuniversal deluge.\n\n10. Before him, dances his beloved Destiny with all her arts for ever,\nto beguile the living that are fond of worldly enjoyments.\n\n11. People hurry up and down to witness the dance of Destiny, whose\nunrestrained motion keeps them at work, and causes their repeated\nbirths and deaths.\n\n12. The people of all the worlds are studded about her person as her\nornaments, and the sky stretching from the heaven of gods to the\ninfernal regions, serves for the veil on her head.\n\n13. Her feet are planted in the infernal regions, and the hell-pits\nring at her feet like trinkets, tied by the string of evil deeds or\nsins (of men).\n\n14. She is painted all over from head to foot by the god _Chitra Gupta_\nwith ornamental marks prepared by her attendants (the deeds of men),\nand perfumed with the essence of those deeds.\n\n15. She dances and reels at the nod of her husband at the end of the\n_Kalpas_, and makes the mountains crack and crash at her foot-falls.\n\n16. Behind her dance the peacocks of the god Kum\u00e1ra; and K\u00e1la the god\nof death staring with his three wide open eyes, utters his hideous\ncries (of destruction).\n\n17. Death dances about in the form of the five headed Hara, with the\nloosened braids of hair upon him; while Destiny in the form of Gaur\u00ed,\nand her locks adorned with _Mand\u00e1ra_ flowers keeps her pace with him.\n\n18. This Destiny in her war-dance, bears a capacious gourd representing\nher big belly, and her body is adorned with hundreds of hollow human\nskulls jingling like the alms-pots of the Kap\u00e1li mendicants.\n\n19. She has filled (reached) the sky with the emaciated skeleton of her\nbody, and gets terrified at her all destructive figure.\n\n20. The skulls of the dead of various shapes adorn her body like a\nbeautiful garland of lotuses, which keep hanging to and fro during her\ndance at the end of a _Kalpa_ age.\n\n21. The horrible roaring of the giddy clouds Pushkara and Avarta at\nthe end of the Kalpa, serves to represent the beating of her _Damaru_\ndrum, and put to flight the heavenly choir of _Tumburu_.\n\n22. As death dances along, the moon appears like his ear-ring, and the\nmoon-beams and stars appear like his crest made of peacocks\u2019 feathers.\n\n23. The snow-capt Him\u00e1laya, appears like a circlet of bones in the\nupper loop of his right ear, and the mount _Meru_ as a golden areola in\nthat of the left.\n\n24. Under their lobes are suspended the moon and the sun, as pendant\near-rings glittering over his cheeks. The mountain ranges called the\n_lok\u00e1loka_ are fastened like chains around his waist.\n\n25. The lightnings are the bracelets and armlets of Destiny, which move\nto and fro as she dances along. The clouds are her wrappers that fly\nabout her in the air.\n\n26. Death is furnished with many weapons, as clubs, axes, missiles,\nspears, shovels, mallets and sharp swords, all of which are sure\nweapons of destruction.\n\n27. Mundane enjoyments are no other than long ropes dropped down by the\nhand of death, and keeping all mankind fast bound to the world; while\nthe great thread of infinity (_ananta_) is worn by him as his wreath of\nflowers.\n\n28. The belts of the seven oceans are worn about the arms of Death as\nhis bracelets resplendent with the living sea-animals, and the bright\ngems contained in their depths.\n\n29. The great vortices of customs, the successions of joy and grief,\nthe excess of pride and the darkness of passions, form the streaks of\nhair on his body.\n\n30. After the end of the world, he ceases to dance, and creates anew\nall things from the lowest animal that lives in the earth, to the\nhighest Brahm\u00e1 and Siva (when he resumes his dance).\n\n31. Destiny as an actress, acts by turns her parts of creation and\ndestruction, diversified by scenes of old age, sorrow and misery.\n\n32. Time repeatedly creates the worlds and their woods, with the\ndifferent abodes and localities teeming with population. He forms\nthe moveable and immovable substances, establishes customs and again\ndissolves them, as boys make their dolls of clay and break them soon\nafterwards.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n THE ACTS OF DESTINY.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014Such being the all destructive conduct of time and others\n(as already described), what confidence, O great sage, can men like me,\nhave upon them?\n\n2. We all remain here, O sage! as slaves sold to Fate and Destiny, and\nare deceived by their allurements as beasts of the forest.\n\n3. This Fate whose conduct is so very inhuman, is always up to devour\nall beings, and is incessantly throwing men into the sea of troubles.\n\n4. He is led by his malicious attempts to inflame the mind with\ninordinary desires, as the fire raises its flames to burn down a\nhabitation.\n\n5. Destiny the faithful and obedient wife of Fate, is naturally fickle\non account of her being a female, and is always bent on mischief and\ndisturbing the patience (even of the wisest of men).\n\n6. As the heinous serpent feeds upon the air, so does cruel Death ever\nswallow the living. He ripens the body with old age to create his zest,\nand then devours all animals warm with life.\n\n7. Death is called a relentless tyrant, having no pity even for the\nsick and weak; nor any regard for any one in any state of life.\n\n8. Every one in this world is fond of affluence and pleasures, not\nknowing that these are only calculated to lead him to his ruin.\n\n9. Life is very unsteady. Death is very cruel. Youth is very frail and\nfickle, and boyhood is full of dullness and insensibility.\n\n10. Man is defiled by his worldliness, his friends are ties to the\nworld, his enjoyments are the greatest of his diseases in life, and his\navarice and ambition are the mirage that always allures him (to ruin).\n\n11. Our very senses are our enemies, before which even truth appears\nas falsehood; the mind is the enemy of the mind and self is the enemy\nof self. (_i.e._ They are all deceptive).\n\n12. Self-esteem is stained (with the name of selfishness), intelligence\nis blamed for its fallaciousness, our actions are attended with bad\nresults, and our pleasures tend only to effeminacy.\n\n13. All our desires are directed to enjoyments; our love of truth is\nlost; our women are the ensigns of vice, and all that were once so\nsweet, have become tasteless and vapid.\n\n14. Things that are not real, are believed as real, and have become the\ncause of our pride, by hardening us in untruth, and keeping us from the\nlight of truth.\n\n15. My mind is at a loss to think what to do; it regrets at its\nincreased appetite for pleasure, and for want of that self-denial\n(which I require).\n\n16. My sight is dimmed by the dust of sensuality: the darkness of\nself-esteem prevails upon me: the purity of mind is never reached to,\nand truth is far off from me.\n\n17. Life is become uncertain and death is always advancing nigh; my\npatience is disturbed, and there is an increased appetite for whatever\nis false.\n\n18. The mind is soiled by dullness, and the body is cloyed with\nsurfeit and ready to fall; old age exults over the body, and sins are\nconspicuous at every step.\n\n19. Youth flies fast away with all our care to preserve it; the company\nof the good is at a distance; the light of truth shines from no where;\nand I can have recourse to nothing in this world.\n\n20. The mind is stupified within itself, and its contentment has fled\nfrom it: there is no rise of enlightened sentiments in it, and meanness\nmakes its advance to it from a distance.\n\n21. Patience is converted into impatience; man is liable to the states\nof birth and death; good company is rare, but bad company is ever\nwithin the reach of every body.\n\n22. All individual existences are liable to appear and disappear; all\ndesires are chains to the world, and all worldly beings are ever seen\nto be led away perforce where no body can tell.\n\n23. What reliance can there be on human life, when the points of the\ncompass become indistinct and undiscernible; when the countries and\nplaces change their positions and names, and when mountains even are\nliable to be dilapidated?\n\n24. What reliance can there be on man, when the heavens are swallowed\nin infinity, when this world is absorbed in nothingness, and the very\nearth loses her stability?\n\n25. What reliance can there be on men like ourselves, when the very\nseas are liable to be dried up, when the stars are doomed to fade\naway and disappear, and when the most perfect of beings are liable to\ndissolution?\n\n26. What reliance can there be on men like us, when even the demigods\nare liable to destruction, when the polar star is known to change its\nplace, and when the immortal gods are doomed to mortality?\n\n27. What reliance can there be on men like us, when Indra is doomed to\nbe defeated by demons; when even death is hindered from his aim, and\nwhen the current air ceases to breathe?\n\n28. What reliance can there be on men like us, when the very moon is to\nvanish with the sky, when the very sun is to be split into pieces, and\nwhen fire itself is to become frigid and cold?\n\n29. What reliance can there be on men like us, when the very Hari and\nBrahm\u00e1 are to be absorbed into the Great One, and when Siva himself is\nto be no more.\n\n30. What reliance can there be on men like us, when the duration\nof time comes to be counted, when Destiny is destined to her final\ndestiny, and when all vacuity loses itself in infinity?\n\n31. That which is inaudible, unspeakable, invisible, and unknowable in\nhis real form, displays to us these wondrous worlds by some fallacy (in\nour conceptions).\n\n32. No one conscious of himself (his egoism), can disown his\nsubjection to that Being, that dwells in the hearts of every one.\n\n33. This sun\u2014the lord of worlds, is impelled (by that power) to run\nover hills, rocks and fields, like an inert piece of stone, hurled down\nfrom a mountain and borne away by a current stream.\n\n34. This globe of earth, the seat of all the Suras and Asuras, and\nsurrounded by the luminous sphere in the manner of a walnut covered by\nits hard crust, subsists under His command.\n\n35. The gods in the heavens, the men on earth and the serpents in the\nnether world, are brought into existence and led to decay by His will\nonly.\n\n36. K\u00e1ma (Cupid) that is arbitrarily powerful, and has forcibly\noverpowered on all the living world, has derived his unconquerable\nmight from the Lord of worlds.\n\n37. As the heated elephant regales the air with his spirituous\nexudation, so does the spring perfume the air with his profusion of\nflowers, unsettling the minds of men (at the will of the Almighty).\n\n38. So are the loose glances of loving damsels directed to inflict deep\nwounds in the heart of man, which his best reason is unable to heal.\n\n39. One whose best endeavour is always to do good to others, and who\nfeels for others\u2019 woes, is really intelligent and happy under the\ninfluence of his cool judgment.\n\n40. Who can count the number of beings resembling the waves of the\nocean, and on whom death has been darting the submarine fire of\ndestruction.\n\n41. All mankind are deluded to entrap themselves in the snare of\navarice, and to be afflicted with all evils in life, as the deer\nentangled in the thickets of a jungle.\n\n42. The term of human life in this world, is decreased in each\ngeneration in proportion to (the increase of their wicked acts). The\ndesire of fruition is as vain as the expectation of reaping fruits\nfrom a creeper growing in the sky: yet I know not why men of reason\nwould not understand this truth.\n\n43. This is a day of festivity, a season of joy and a time of\nprocession. Here are our friends, here the pleasures and here the\nvariety of our entertainments. Thus do men of vacant minds amuse\nthemselves with weaving the web of their desires, until they become\nextinct.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n VANITY OF THE WORLD.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014O sage! this seemingly pleasing but actually unpleasant\nworld, has nothing in it that is productive of such a thing as can\nafford tranquility to the soul.\n\n2. After the playful boyhood is over, the mind wastes itself in the\nsociety of women like the deer fallen in a cavern, then the body bends\ndown under old age, and the man has only to grieve (for his folly).\n\n3. As the body is stricken with the frost of old age, its beauty flies\nafar from it like the bloom of the fading lotus, and then the fountain\nof man\u2019s worldliness is at once dried up.\n\n4. As the body gets towards its decline, so much doth death rejoice\nin it. The body grows lean with grey hairs upon the head, just as a\ncreeper fades away with the flowers upon it.\n\n5. All living creatures are borne away by the stream of avarice, which\nupsets the tree of contentment growing on the bank and flows on for\never in this world.\n\n6. Human body is like a vessel covered with skin; and glides over the\nocean of the world (without its helmsman of reason). It is tossed about\nby sensual pleasures, and goes down under the water by the pressure of\nits whale-like passions.\n\n7. The world is a wilderness abounding in creepers of avarice and\ntrees of sensuality, with hundreds of desires as their branches. Our\nminds like monkeys pass their time in roving about this forest without\ngetting the fruits (they seek).\n\n8. Those that do not yield to grief in troubles, that are not elated\nwith prosperity, nor smitten at heart by women, are rare in this world.\n\n9. Those who fight boldly in the battle fields and withstand the\nwar-elephants, are not so very brave in my opinion, as those who\nwithstand the surges of the mind amidst the streams of carnal appetites.\n\n10. I see no such deeds in the world which endure to the last (or final\nemancipation) of men. Actions proceeding from a desire of fruition in\nfools, serve only for their restlessness on earth.\n\n11. Such men are rare in the world, that have filled the corners of the\nworld with their fame and valour, who have filled their houses with\ntrue riches acquired by honest means and an unwavering patience.\n\n12. Good and bad fortune always overtake a man, even if he were living\nin an aperture of the rock or within the walls of mountains, or even if\nhe were enclosed within an iron built closet.\n\n13. Our sons and riches are mere objects of delight to us. It is as\nerroneous to suppose them to be of any good to us at the end, as to\nexpect any benefit from the decoction of poison.\n\n14. Old people being reduced to calamitous circumstances at the\npitiable state of the decay of their bodies and decline of life, have\ngreatly to be tormented at the thoughts of the impious deeds (of their\npast lives).\n\n15. Men having passed their early days in the gratification of their\ndesires and other worldly pursuits at the expense of the acts of virtue\nand piety, are as much troubled with anxieties at the end, that their\nminds are seized with a tremor like that of the plumage of a peacock\nshaken by the breeze. How then can a man attain to tranquility at any\ntime?\n\n16. Wealth whether forthcoming or unattainable, whether got by labour\nor given by fortune, is all as deceitful to the worldly minded, as the\nhigh waters of rivers (swelling only to subside).\n\n17. That such and such desirable acts are to be done, are the constant\nthoughts of men, who desire to please their sons and wives, until they\nare worn out with age and become crazy in their minds.\n\n18. Like leaves on trees that grow to fall, and falling make room for\nothers to shoot forth, are those men who devoid of reason, die away\ndaily to be born again.\n\n19. Men having travelled here and there and far and near, return to\ntheir homes at the end of the day; but none of them can have rest by\nday or night, except the virtuous few that live by honest dealings.\n\n20. After quelling his enemies and getting enough of riches in his\nclutches, the rich man just sits down to enjoy his gains; when death\ncomes upon him, and interrupts his joy.\n\n21. Seeing the vile trash of worldly gains earned and accumulated\nby the basest means to be but transitory, the infatuated mob do not\nperceive their approaching dissolution.\n\n22. Men loving their own lives, and making mouths at the demise of\nothers, are like a herd of sheep bound to the stake, and staring at the\nslaughter of their fellows, yet feeding themselves to fall as fattened\nvictims to death.\n\n23. The multitude of people on earth, is ever seen to appear in and\ndisappear from it as fast as the passing waves of the sea, but who can\ntell whence they come and whither they return.\n\n24. Women are as delicate as poisonous creepers, that with their red\npetaled lips and garments, and their eyes as busy as fluttering bees,\nare killers of mankind and stealers of their ravished hearts.\n\n25. Men are as passengers in a procession, repairing from this side and\nthat to join at the place of their meeting. Such is the delusive union\nof our wives and friends here (for our meeting in the next world).\n\n26. As the burning and extinguishing of the lamp depend on the wick and\nits moistening oil; so does our course in this transitory world (depend\non our acts and affections only). Nobody knows the true cause of this\nmysterious existence.\n\n27. The revolution of the world is comparable with that of the potter\u2019s\nwheel and the floating bubbles of rain water; that appear to be lasting\nto the ignorant observer only.\n\n28. The blooming beauty and graces (of youth), are destined to be\nsnatched away at the approach of old age. The youthful hopes also of\nmen fly at a distance like the bloom of lotus buds in winter.\n\n29. The tree which is ordained to be useful to mankind by the loads of\nfruits and flowers that it bears upon its body, is fated also to be\nhewn down by the cruel axe at last. How then can beneficent men expect\nto avoid the cruel hand of death.\n\n30. Society with relatives is (of all others) as perilous as that of a\npoisonous plant; it is pleasant for its domestic affections, which are\nin reality but delusions of the soul.\n\n31. What is that thing in the world, which has no fault in it; and what\nis that which does not afflict or grieve us; what being is born that\nis not subjected to death, and what are those acts that are free from\ndeceit?\n\n32. Those living a _Kalpa_ age are reckoned as short-lived, compared\nwith those living for many _Kalpas_, and they again are so in respect\nto Brahm\u00e1. Hence the parts of time being all finite, the ideas of their\nlength or shortness are altogether false.\n\n33. Things that are called mountains are made of rocks, those that are\ncalled trees are made of wood, and those that are made of flesh are\ncalled animals, and man is the best of them. But they are all made of\nmatter, and doomed to death and decay.\n\n34. Many things appear to be endued with intelligence, and the heavenly\nbodies seem to be full of water; but physicists have found out by\nanalysis that, there is no other thing any where except (_minuti\u00e6 of_)\nmatter.\n\n35. It is no wonder that this (unreal world) should appear a miraculous\n(reality) to the wise, and seem marvelously striking in the minds\nof mankind; since the visions in our dreams also appear so very\nfascinating to every one in their state of dreaming.\n\n36. Those that are corrupted in their greediness (after worldly\nenjoyments), will not even in their old age, receive the sermons on\ntheir eternal concerns, which they think to be false chimeras as those\nof a flower or a creeper growing in the sky.\n\n37. People are still deluded in their minds in wishing to attain the\nstate of their superiors; but they fall down still lower like beasts\n(goats) from the top of a hill, in wishing to lay hold on the fruits of\na verdant creeper out of their reach.\n\n38. Young men spending their wealth in personal gratifications, are\nas useless as plants growing in the bowels of a deep and inaccessible\ncavern, which spread their fruits and flowers, leaves and branches and\ntheir shades to the use of nobody.\n\n39. Men are found to resemble the black antelopes (in their\nwanderings): some of them roving about the sweet, soft and beautiful\nsceneries of the country, and others roaming in sterile tracts and\nparts of boundless forests. (_i.e._ Some living in the society of men,\nand others as recluses from it).\n\n40. The daily and diversified acts of nature are all pernicious in\ntheir nature; they appear pleasant and ravishing to the heart for a\ntime, but are attainded with pain in the end, and fill the mind of the\nwise with dismay.\n\n41. Man is addicted to greediness, and is prone to a variety of wicked\nshifts and plots; a good man is not now to be seen even in a dream, and\nthere is no act which is free from difficulty. I know not how to pass\nthis state of human life.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n MUTABILITY OF THE WORLD.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014\n\nWhatever we see of all moveable or immovable things in this world, they\nare all as evanescent as things viewed in a dream.\n\n2. The hollow desert that appears as the dried bed of a sea to-day,\nwill be found to-morrow to be a running flood by the accumulation of\nrain-water in it.\n\n3. What is to-day a mountain reaching the sky and with extensive\nforests on it, is in course of time levelled to the ground, and is\nafterwards dug into pit.\n\n4. The body that is clothed to-day with garments of silk, and decorated\nwith garlands and fragrance, is to be cast away naked into a ditch\nto-morrow.\n\n5. What is seen to be a city to-day, and busy with the bustle of\nvarious occupations, passes in course of a few days into the condition\nof an uninhabited wilderness.\n\n6. The man who is very powerful to-day and presides over\nprincipalities, is reduced in a few days to a heap of ashes.\n\n7. The very forest which is so formidable to-day and appears as blue\nas the azure skies, turns to be a city in the course of time, with its\nbanners hoisted in the air.\n\n8. What is (to-day) a formidable jungle of thick forests, turns in time\nto be a table-land as on the mount Meru.\n\n9. Water becomes land and land becomes water. Thus the world composed\nof wood, grass and water becomes otherwise with all its contents in\ncourse of time.\n\n10. Our boyhood and youth, bodies and possessions are all but transient\nthings, and they change from one state to another, as the ever\nfluctuating waves of the ocean.\n\n11. Our lives in this (mortal) world, are as unsteady as the flame of a\nlamp placed at the window, and the splendour of all the objects in the\nthree worlds, is as flickering as the flashing of the lightning.\n\n12. As a granary stored with heaps of grains is exhausted by its\ncontinued waste, so is the stock of life spent away by its repeated\nrespirations.\n\n13. The mind of man is as fluctuating as a flag waving in the air and\nfilled with the dust of sin, to indicate its wavering between the paths\nof heaven and hell.\n\n14. The existence of this delusive world, is as the appearance of an\nactress on the stage, shuffling her vests as she trudges along in her\ndancing.\n\n15. It\u2019s scenes are as changeful and fascinating as those of a magic\ncity; and its dealings as bewitching and momentary as the glances of a\njuggling girl.\n\n16. The stage of the world presents us a scene of continued dancing\n(of the sorceress of deception), and the deceptive glances of her eyes\nresembling the fleeting flashes of lightning.\n\n17. The days, the great men, their hey-days and deeds (that are past\nand gone), are now retained in our memory only, and such must be our\ncases also in a short time.\n\n18. Many things are going to decay and many coming anew day by day;\nand there is yet no end of this accursed course of events in this\never-changeful world.\n\n19. Men degenerate into lower animals, and those again rise to humanity\n(by metempsychosis), gods become no-gods, and there is nothing that\nremains the same.\n\n20. The sun displays every thing to light by his rays, and watches over\nthe rotations of days and nights, to witness like time the dissolution\nof all things.\n\n21. The gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and Siva and all material productions, are\nreduced to nothingness, like the submarine fire subsiding under the\nwaters of the deep.\n\n22. The heaven, the earth, the air, the sky, the mountains, the\nrivers, and all the quarters of the globe, are subject to destruction\nlike the dry fuel by the all-destroying fire of the last day.\n\n23. Riches and relatives, friends, servants and affluence, are of no\npleasure to him who is in constant dread of death.\n\n24. All these are so long delightful to a sensible man, as the monster\nof death does not appear before the eye of his mind.\n\n25. We have prosperity at one moment, succeeded by adversity at\nanother; so we have health at one time, followed by sickness soon after.\n\n26. What intelligent being is there, that is not misled by these\ndelusions of the world, which represent things otherwise than what they\nare, and serve to bewilder the mind?\n\n27. (The world is as varying) as the face of the skies; it is now as\nblack as dark clay, and in the next moment bright with the golden hues\nof fair light.\n\n28. It is now over-cast by azure clouds resembling the blue lotuses of\nthe lake, and roaring loudly for a time and then being dumb and silent\non a sudden:\n\n29. Now studded with stars, and now glowing with the glory of the sun;\nthen graced by the pleasant moonbeams, and at last without any light at\nall.\n\n30. Who is there so sedate and firm, that is not terrified at these\nsudden appearances and their disappearance, and the momentary durations\nand final dissolution of worldly things?\n\n31. What is the nature of this world, where we are overtaken by\nadversity at one moment, and elated by prosperity at another, where one\nis born at a time, and dies away at another?\n\n32. One that was something else before, is born as a man in this life,\nand is changed to another state in course of a few days; thus there is\nno being that remains steadily in the same state.\n\n33. A pot is made of clay, and cloth is made of cotton, and they are\nstill the same dull materials of which they are composed: thus there\nis nothing new in this world that was not seen or known before, and\nthat changes not its form. (_i.e._ All is but a formal and no material\nchange).\n\n34. The acts of creation and destruction, of diffusion, production, and\nsustentation follow one another, as the revolution of day and night to\nman.\n\n35. It happens sometimes, that an impotent man slays a hero, and that\nhundreds are killed by one individual; so also a commoner becomes a\nnoble man, and thus every thing is changeful in this varying world.\n\n36. These bodies of men that are always changing their states, are as\nbodies of waters rising and falling in waves by motion of the winds.\n\n37. Boyhood lasts but a few days, and then it is succeeded by youth\nwhich is as quickly followed by old age: thus there being no identity\nof the same person, how can one rely on the uniformity of external\nobjects?\n\n38. The mind that gets delighted in a moment and becomes dejected in\nthe next, and assumes likewise its equanimity at another, is indeed as\nchangeful as an actor.\n\n39. The creator who is ever turning one thing into another in his work\nof creation, is like a child who makes and breaks his doll without\nconcern.\n\n40. The actions of producing and collecting (of grains), of feeding\n(one\u2019s self) and destroying (others), come by turns to mankind like the\nrotation of day and night.\n\n41. Neither adversity nor prosperity is of long continuance in the\ncase of worldly people, but they are ever subject to appearance and\ndisappearance by turns.\n\n42. Time is a skilful player and plays many parts with ease; but he\nis chiefly skilled in tragedy, and often plays his tragic part in the\naffairs of men.\n\n43. All beings are produced as fruits in the great forest of the\nuniverse, by virtue of their good and bad acts (of past lives):\nand _time_ like a gust of wind blasts them day by day before their\nmaturity.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n UNRELIABLENESS OF WORLDLY THINGS.\n\n\nThus is my heart consumed by the wild-fire of those great worldly\nevils, and there rises in me no desire of enjoying them, as there rises\nno mirage from a lake.\n\n2. My existence upon earth gets bitter day by day, and though I have\ngot some experience in it, yet its associations have made me as sour as\nthe Nimba plant by its immersion in water.\n\n3. I see wickedness on the increase, and righteousness on the decline\nin the mind of man, which like the sour _Karanja_ (crab) fruit, becomes\nsourer every day.\n\n4. I see honour is eaten up every day by mutual altercations of men,\nusing harsh words to each other as they crack the nuts under their\nteeth.\n\n5. Too much eagerness for royalty and worldly enjoyments, is equally\nprejudicial to our welfare; as we loose our future prospects by the\nformer, and our present happiness by the latter.\n\n6. I take no delight in my gardens nor have any pleasure in women; I\nfeel no joy at the prospect of riches, but enjoy my solace in my own\nheart and mind.\n\n7. Frail are the pleasures of the world, and avarice is altogether\nintolerable; the bustle of business has broken down my heart, and (I\nknow not) where to have my tranquility.\n\n8. Neither do I hail death nor am I in love with my life; but remain as\nI do, devoid of all anxiety and care.\n\n9. What have I to do with a kingdom and with all its enjoyments? Of\nwhat avail are riches to me, and what is the end of all our exertions?\nAll these are but requirements of self-love, from which I am entirely\nfree.\n\n10. The chain of (repeated) births is a bond that binds fast all men\nby its strong knots of the senses; those striving to break loose from\nthis bondage for their liberation, are (said to be) the best of men.\n\n11. These haughty damsels whom the god of love employs to ravage the\nhearts of men, resemble a group of elephants subverting a lotus bed\nunder their feet.\n\n12. The treatment of the mind with pure reason being neglected now (in\nyouth), it is hard to heal it afterwards (in age), when it admits of no\ncure.\n\n13. It is the worldliness of man that is his true poison, while real\npoison is no poison to him. It is the poison of worldliness which\ndestroys his future life, while real poison is only locally injurious\nto him (in his present state).\n\n14. Neither pleasure nor pain, nor friends nor relatives, nor even life\nand death, can enchain (affect) the mind that has received the light of\ntruth.\n\n15. Teach me, Oh Br\u00e1hman! that art the best of the learned in the\nmysteries of the past and future, teach me so that I may soon become\nlike one devoid of grief and fear and worldly troubles, and may have\nthe light of truth beaming upon me.\n\n16. The forest of ignorance is laid over with the snare of desire,\nit is full of the thorns of misery, and is the dreadful seat of\ndestruction and the danger (of repeated births and deaths).\n\n17. I can rather suffer myself to be put under the jaws of death with\nhis rows of teeth like saws, but cannot bear the dreadly pains of\nworldly cares and anxieties.\n\n18. It is a gloomy error in this world to think that I have this and\nhave not the other; it serves to toss about our minds as a gust of wind\ndisperses the dust of the earth.\n\n19. It is the thread of avarice that links together all living beings\nlike a chaplet of pearls; the mind serves to twirl about this chain,\nbut pure consciousness sits quiet to observe its rotation.\n\n20. I who am devoid of desires, would like to break this ornamental\nchain of worldliness, hanging about me as a deadly serpent, in the\nsame manner, as a lion breaks asunder the net (which is laid to ensnare\nhim).\n\n21. Do you now, O most learned sage, scatter the mist which has\noverspread the forest of my heart, and the darkness which has overcast\nmy mind, by the light of true knowledge.\n\n22. There are no anxieties, O sage! which cannot be put to an end by\nthe society of good minded men; the darkness of night can be well\nremoved by moon-beams.\n\n23. Life is as fickle as a drop of water pending on a mass of clouds\nblown away by the winds. Our enjoyments are as unsteady as the\nlightning that flickers in the midst of clouds. The pleasures of youth\nare as slippery as water. With these reflections in my mind, I have\nsubdued them all under the province of peace and tranquility.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXX.\n\n SELF-DISPARAGEMENT.\n\n\nSeeing the world thus ingulphed amidst the abyss of hundreds of rising\ndangers and difficulties, my mind is immerged in the mire of anxieties.\n\n2. My mind is wandering everywhere and I am struck with fear at every\nthing; my limbs are shaking with fear like the leaves of a withered\ntree.\n\n3. My mind is bewildered by impatience for its want of true\ncontentment, just as a young woman is afraid in a desert for want of\nthe company of her strong handed husband.\n\n4. The thoughts of my mind are entangled in my desire for worldly\nenjoyments, as stags are caught in the pit strewn with grass over it.\n\n5. The senses of an unreasonable man, ever run astray to the wrong and\nnever turn to the right way; so the eyes of a blind man lead him but to\nfall into the pit.\n\n6. Human thoughts are linked to the animal soul as consorts to their\nlords. They can neither sit idle nor ramble at liberty, but must remain\nas wives under the control of their husbands.\n\n7. My patience is almost worn out, like that of a creeper under the\nwinter frost. It is decayed, and neither lives nor perishes at once.\n\n8. Our minds are partly settled in worldly things, and partly fixed\nin their giver (the Supreme soul). This divided state of the mind is\ntermed its half waking condition.\n\n9. My mind is in a state of suspense, being unable to ascertain the\nreal nature of my soul. I am like one in the dark, who is deceived by\nthe stump of a fallen tree at a distance, to think it a human figure.\n\n10. Our minds are naturally fickle and wandering all about the earth.\nThey cannot forsake their restlessness, as the vital airs cannot\nsubsist without their motion.\n\n11. Tell me Oh sage, what is that state of life which is dignified\nabove others, which is unassociated with the troubles (incident to\nbirth and death), unqualified by the conditions of humanity, and apart\nfrom errors, and wherein griefs are unknown.\n\n12. (Tell me also) how Janaka and the other good men, who are\nconspicuous for their ceremonious acts, and distinguished for their\ngood conduct, have acquired their excellence (in holy knowledge).\n\n13. (Tell me likewise) Oh source of my honor, how a man, who is\nbesmeared all over his body with the dirt of worldliness, may yet be\ncleansed and get rid of it.\n\n14. Tell me what is that knowledge, by resorting to which, the serpents\nof worldliness, may be freed from their worldly crookedness, and become\nstraight in their conduct.\n\n15. Tell me how the foulness of my heart may regain its clearness,\nafter it is so much soiled by errors and tainted with evils, like a\nlake disturbed by elephants and polluted with dirt.\n\n16. How is it possible for one engaged in the affairs of the world, to\nbe untainted with its blemishes, and remain as pure and intact as a\ndrop of water on the lotus leaf.\n\n17. How may one attain his excellence by dealing with others as with\nhimself, and minding the goods of others as straws, and by remaining\naloof from love.\n\n18. Who is that great man that has got over the great ocean of the\nworld, whose exemplary conduct (if followed) exempts one from misery.\n\n19. What is the best of things that ought to be pursued after, and what\nis that fruit which is worth obtaining? Which is the best course of\nlife in this inconsistent world.\n\n20. Tell me the manner by which I may have a knowledge of the past and\nfuture events of the world, and the nature of the unsteady works of its\ncreator.\n\n21. Do so, that my mind which is as the moon in the sky of my heart,\nmay be cleared of its impurities.\n\n22. Tell me what thing is most delectable to the mind, and what most\nabominable to it; as also how this fickle and inconstant mind may get\nits fixedness like that of a rock.\n\n23. Tell me what is that holy charm, which can remove this cholic pain\nof worldliness, that is attended with numberless troubles.\n\n24. Tell me how can I entertain within my heart, the blossoms of the\narbor of heavenly happiness, that sheds about it the coolness of the\nfull-moon beams.\n\n25. Oh ye good men! that are present and learned in divine knowledge,\nteach me so that I may obtain the fullness of my heart, and may not\ncome to grief and sorrow any more.\n\n26. My mind is devoid of that tranquility which results chiefly from\nholy happiness, and is perplexed with endless doubts, that disturb my\npeace as the dogs molest smaller animals in the desert.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n QUERIES OF R\u00c1MA.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014I have no reliance on the durability of life, which is as\ntransient as a drop of water that sticks to the point of a shaking\nleaf on a lofty tree; and as short as the cusp of the moon on Siva\u2019s\nforehead.\n\n2. I have no credit in the durability of life, which is transient as\nthe swelling that take place in the pouch of a frog while it croaks in\nthe meadow. Nor have I any trust in the company of friends, which are\nas dangerous as the treacherous snare of hunters.\n\n3. What can we do under the misty cloud of error (overhanging our\nminds), and raising our tempestuous desires which flash forth in\nlightnings of ambition, and burst out in the thunder claps of\nselfishness?\n\n4. How shall we save ourselves from the temptations of our desires\ndancing like peacocks (and displaying their gaudy train) around us;\nand from the bustle of the world breaking in upon us as thickly as the\nblossoms of the _Kurchi_ plant.\n\n5. How can we fly from the clutches of cruel Fate, who like a cat kills\nthe living as poor mice, and falls unwearied and unexpectedly upon his\nprey in the twinkling of an eye.\n\n6. What expedient, what course, what reflections, and what refuge must\nwe have recourse to, in order to avoid the unknown tracks of future\nlives?\n\n7. There is nothing so trifling in this earth below, or in the heavens\nabove, which ye gifted men cannot raise to consequence.\n\n8. How can this accursed, troublesome and vapid world, be relished by\none unless he is infatuated by ignorance?\n\n9. It is the fusion of desires, which produces the milky beverage of\ncontentment, and fills the earth with delights as the spring adorns it\nwith flowers.\n\n10. Tell me O sage, how the mist of our desires, which darkens the moon\nof our intellects, is to be dispelled from our minds, so as to make it\nshine forth in its full brightness.\n\n11. How are we to deal in this wilderness of the world, knowing well\nthat it is destructive both of our present and future interest?\n\n12. What man is there that moves about in this ocean of the earth, who\nhas not to buffet in the waves of his passions and diseases, and the\ncurrents of his enjoyments and prosperity.\n\n13. Tell me, O thou best of sages, how one may escape unburnt like\nmercury (in its chemical process), when fallen upon the furnace of the\nearth.\n\n14. (How can one get rid of the world) when it is impossible for him\nto avoid dealing in it, in the same manner as it is not possible for\naquatic animals to live without their native element.\n\n15. Our good deeds even are not devoid (of their motives) of affection\nand hatred, pleasure and pain, similarly as no flame of fire is\nunaccompanied by its power of burning.\n\n16. As it is not possible to restrain the mind from thinking on worldly\nmatters, without the process of right reasoning, deign to communicate\nto me therefore, the dictates of sound reason for my guidance.\n\n17. Give me the best instruction for warding off the miseries (of the\nworld), either by my dealing with or renouncing (the affairs of life).\n\n18. Tell me of that man of enlightened understanding who had attained\nto the highest state of holiness and tranquility of his mind of yore,\nand the deeds and manner by which he achieved the same.\n\n19. Tell me good sir, how the saints (of old) fled out of the reach\nof misery, that I may learn the same for suppression of my erroneous\nconceptions.\n\n20. Or if there be no such precept (as I am need of) in existence,\nor being _in esse_, it is not to be revealed to me by any body.\n\n21. And should I fail of myself (by intuition) to attain that highest\nstate of tranquility, then I must remain inactive (as I am), and avoid\nmy sense of egoism altogether.\n\n22. I will refrain from eating and drinking even of water, and from\nclothing myself with apparels; I will cease from all my actions of\nbathing and making my offerings, as also from my diet and the like.\n\n23. I will attend to no duty, nor care about prosperity or calamity. I\nwill be free from all desires except that of the abandonment of this\nbody.\n\n24. I must remain aloof from all fears and sympathies, from selfish\nfeelings and emulation, and continue to sit quietly as a figure in\npainting.\n\n25. I will gradually do away with the inspiration and respiration of my\nbreath and outward sensations; till I part with this trifle\u2014the seat\nall of troubles\u2014this the so called body.\n\n26. I do not belong to this body, nor does it belong to me, nor is any\nthing else mine; I shall be null and void like the oil-less lamp, and\nabandon every thing with this body.\n\n27. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014Then R\u00e1ma who was as lovely as the moon, and\nwhose mind was well fraught with reasoning, became silent before the\nassemblage of the eminent men, as the peacock ceases from his screaming\nbefore the gathering clouds in awe.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n PRAISES ON R\u00c1MA\u2019S SPEECH.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014When the prince R\u00e1ma (having his eyes resembling the\npetals of a lotus), had concluded his speech calculated to remove all\nignorance from the mind.\n\n2. All the men in the assembly had their eyes beaming forth with\nwonder, and the hairs on their bodies stood erect and pierced through\ntheir garments, as if wishing to hear the speech.\n\n3. The assembly seemed for a moment to have lost their worldly desires\nin their eagerness after a stoic indifference, and to be rolling in the\nsea of nectar.\n\n4. The audience remained (motionless) as the figures in a painting,\nbeing enraptured with internal delight at hearing the sweet words of\nthe fortunate R\u00e1ma.\n\n5. There were Vasishtha and Visw\u00e1mitra with other sages, and the prime\nminister Jayanta and other counsellors (of the king) then seated in\nthat assembly.\n\n6. There were also king Dasaratha and his subordinate rajas, with the\ncitizens and foreign delegates, the chieftains and princes, together\nwith Br\u00e1hmans and men learned in the Vedas and divine knowledge.\n\n7. These accompanied by their friends and allies, with the birds in the\ncages and the royal antelopes and steeds of sport (about the palace),\nlistened to R\u00e1ma with fixed and mute attention.\n\n8. There were likewise the queen Kausaly\u00e1 and other ladies adorned with\ntheir best jewels, and seated at the windows, all mute and motionless.\n\n9. Besides these the birds on the trees and creepers of the princely\npleasure garden, were listening to R\u00e1ma without fluttering their wings\nor making any motion or sound.\n\n10. There were the Siddhas and \u00e6rial beings, and the tribes of\nGandharvas and Kinnaras, together with N\u00e1rada, Vy\u00e1sa and Pulapa the\nchiefs of sages (present at that place).\n\n11. There were also some of the gods and chiefs of gods, Vidy\u00e1dharas\nand the N\u00e1gas, who heard the speech of R\u00e1ma which was full of meaning\nand clearness.\n\n12. As R\u00e1ma whose eyes were beautiful as the lotus, whose face was\nas lovely as the moon, and who likened the nocturnal luminary in the\natmosphere of Raghu\u2019s family, held his silence.\n\n13. Flowers were cast upon him from heaven in showers by the hands of\nthe divine personages with their loud cheers and blessings.\n\n14. The people in the assembly were highly regaled with the sweet scent\nand beauty of these flowers of paradise fraught with humming bees in\ntheir cells.\n\n15. These flowers when blown in the air by the breeze of heaven,\nappeared as they were clusters of stars, which after their fall\nbrightened the ground with their beauty as with the beaming smiles of\nheavenly maids.\n\n16. They appeared in the form of rain drops falling from the clouds,\nand blazing by the light of mute lightenings, and scattering about like\nballs of fresh butter.\n\n17. They resembled also as particles of snow-balls, or as the grains\nof a necklace of pearls or as beams of moon-light, or as the little\nbillows of the sea of milk, or like drops of ice-cream.\n\n18. There were also borne by the loose and sweet winds of heaven, some\nlotuses with long filaments, and attended by clusters of bees humming\nand flying about them.\n\n19. There were also to be seen heaps of _ketaki_ and _Kairava_, _Kunda_\nand blue lotus flowers, falling and shining brightly among them.\n\n20. These flowers covered the court hall and the roofs of houses and\ntheir courtyards. The men and women in the city raised their heads to\nbehold them falling.\n\n21. The sky was quite unclouded when the flowers fell incessantly from\nabove. A sight like this that was never seen before struck the people\nwith wonder.\n\n22. The shower of flowers fell for quarter of an hour, but the Siddhas\nfrom whose hands they fell were unseen all the while.\n\n23. The falling of the flowers having ceased after the assembly was\ncovered with them, they heard the following words, coming to them from\nthe divine personages in the sky.\n\n24. \u201cWe have been travelling every where in whole bodies of the Siddhas\nfrom the beginning of creation; but never have we heard any where so\nsweet a speech as this.\n\n25. \u201cSuch a magnanimous speech of indifference as has been just now\nspoken by R\u00e1ma\u2014the moon of Raghu\u2019s race, was never heard even by gods\nlike ourselves.\n\n26. \u201cWe account ourselves truly blessed to hear this highly charming\nand wondrous speech from the mouth of R\u00e1ma himself to-day.\n\n27. \u201cIndeed we are awakened and edified by attending diligently to this\ntruly excellent speech, delivered by R\u00e1ma on the ambrosial bliss of\nasceticism, and leading to the highest felicity of men\u201d.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII.\n\n ASSOCIATION OF AERIAL AND EARTHLY BEINGS.\n\n\nThe Siddhas said:\u2014\n\nIt behoves us to hear the decision of the great sages, in reply to the\nholy sermon, already delivered by the chief of Raghu\u2019s race.\n\n2. Come forward you great chiefs of the sages, you N\u00e1rada, Vy\u00e1sa,\nPulaha and all ye great sages, and be ready (to hear).\n\n3. Let us descend to the full open court of Dasaratha, which is as\nbright as gold and free from stain, in the manner of bees alighting on\nthe aureate and immaculate lotus.\n\n4. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014\n\nSo saying, the whole company of divine sages alighted themselves in\nthat court from their aerial abode.\n\n5. There N\u00e1rada the chief of sages, sat foremost playing on his lute,\nand in the midst was Vy\u00e1sa, with his dark blue complexion resembling a\nrainy cloud.\n\n6. It was more over adorned with the presence of the chief sages\nBhrigu, Angiras, Pulastya and others, with Chyavana, Udd\u00e1laka, Usira,\nSaraloman and many more about them.\n\n7. Their garments of deer skins hang loosely down as they embraced one\nanother. Their beads of _rudr\u00e1ksha_ moved in one hand, and their water\npots shook in the other.\n\n8. Their bodies shed a lustre in the Court-hall, resembling the yellow\nlight of the stars in the sky, and like the beams of so many suns\nblazing upon one another.\n\n9. They appeared as a shower of moon beams or as a halo about the full\nmoon, or as a circle about the orb of the sun out of its season.\n\n10. They looked like a circlet of gems of varied colors, or like a belt\nof pearls of great lustre.\n\n11. Vy\u00e1sa appeared at the place where he sat, to be as a dark cloud\namidst the stars; and N\u00e1rada was beheld upon his seat as the white orb\nof the moon amongst the starry group.\n\n12. Here Pulastya shone as Indra among the gods, and there Angir\u00e1\nblazed as the sun amidst the heavenly bodies.\n\n13. On seeing the body of Siddhas descending from the sky on earth, the\nwhole court of king Dasaratha rose up (to greet them).\n\n14. There was a promiscuous assemblage of the aerial and earthly sages,\nwhose commingled glory spread a lustre to the ten sides of the Court.\n\n15. Some of them held bamboo sticks in their hands, and others had\nlotuses in theirs. Some had put the sacred grass in their crests, while\nothers had inserted some gems to the braids of their hair.\n\n16. Some had matted and tawny brown hairs on their heads, and others\nwore garlands of flowers on theirs. Some had strings of beads for their\nbracelets and others wore wristlets made of the jasmine flowers.\n\n17. Some were clothed in tatters, and others wore garments made of\nbark, while there were others who wore raiments of silk. Some were girt\nwith girdles of grass and skin about their waists, and others wore\nwaist bands with pendant strings of pearl.\n\n18. Vasishtha and Visw\u00e1mitra honoured the aerials one by one; with\nrespectful offerings and water and courteous address.\n\n19. The great body of the etherials also honored Vasistha and\nVisw\u00e1mitra in their turn, with water and offerings worthy of them and\nwith polite speeches.\n\n20. The king also honoured the gods and the body of the Siddhas, who in\nreturn greeted the monarch with inquiries about his welfare.\n\n21. Then the heavenly and earthly saints interchanged their greetings\nwith one another with cordial welcomes and gestures, and were all\nseated afterwards on seats made of the _kusa_ grass.\n\n22. They next honoured R\u00e1ma, who lay bowing before them, with gentle\nwords and congratulations accompanied with shedding of flowers.\n\n23. There were seated in that assembly the sages:\u2014Visw\u00e1mitra,\nVasishtha, V\u00e1ma Deva and the ministers of state.\n\n24. There were also N\u00e1rada, the son of Brahm\u00e1, Vy\u00e1sa the greatest of\nsages, Mar\u00edchi, Durv\u00e1sa and Angir\u00e1.\n\n25. There were Kratu, Pulastya, Pulaha, Saraloma, the great sage\nV\u00e1ts\u00e1yana, Bharadw\u00e1ja, V\u00e1lm\u00edki the great bard and sage.\n\n26. There were also Udd\u00e1laka, Richika, Sarjati as well as Chyavana.\n\n27. These and many others versed in the Vedas and their branches, and\nknowing all things worth knowing, were the leading members (of the\nassembly).\n\n28. Then N\u00e1rada and others joined with Visw\u00e1mitra and Vasishtha in\naddressing R\u00e1ma, who was sitting silent with his face turned downwards;\nand said:\u2014\n\n29. We admire the blest and graceful speech of the prince which is\ndignified with the spirit of stoicism that breathes through the whole\nof it.\n\n30. It is full of thought, perspicuous, elegant, clear, dignified,\nsweet and worthy of noble minded men, by its lucid style and wants of\nfaults.\n\n31. Who is there that is not struck with admiration at the speech of\nR\u00e1ma? It is well expressive of his thoughts, correct in its diction\nplain and sweet and agreeable to all:\n\n32. It is rare to find one man among a hundred who is so eloquent as\nto combine dignity and force with a clearness and sweetness, that may\ncommand the admiration of all.\n\n33. Who has such a clear head as our prince, a head which is as\npenetrating as the best pointed arrow, and as fruitful and beauteous as\nthe creeping plant.\n\n34. He is truly a man whose intellectual light like that of R\u00e1ma\u2019s,\nburns as the flame of a lamp within himself and enlightens all about\nhim.\n\n35. Man\u2019s blood, flesh, and bones with other (parts of his body) serve\nas machines to supply him with sensations of external object; but there\nis no intelligence in them.\n\n36. Life and death, old age and troubles, repeatedly overtake every\nman; but they are beasts who are so infatuated as never to think of\nthese.\n\n37. There is scarcely any man to be seen, who is of so clear an\nunderstanding as R\u00e1ma (the destroyer of his enemies), who is able to\njudge of the future by the past.\n\n38. R\u00e1ma is the most excellent, admirable, useful, and well shaped\nperson amongst men, as is the mango tree (in the vegetable world).\n\n39. It is only to-day that we see that a man of R\u00e1ma\u2019s age has acquired\nso much experience of the world, and such extraordinarily mature an\nunderstanding.\n\n40. There are many such trees found growing in every place as are\nbeautiful to see, easy of ascent, abundant in flowers and leaves; but\nthere is no tree of paradise growing on earth.\n\n41. There may grow in every forest, trees with goodly flowers and\nleaves; but the extraordinary and fair clove tree is not always to be\nmet with.\n\n42. R\u00e1ma has displayed the wonder of his knowledge, as the moon\ndisplays her cooling beams and good trees their clusters of blossoms,\nand as the flowers diffuse their fragrance all about.\n\n43. It is very difficult to get the essence of true knowledge in this\naccursed world, which is constructed by the ungovernable and dominant\npredestination (of our past acts for misleading us to error and misery).\n\n44. Those only are reckoned the best of men, and leaders of the good,\nwho try their best to gain the essence of truth, and whose minds are\nfixed on glory as their best treasure.\n\n45. We do not see any one in all this world, who is equal to R\u00e1ma in\ndiscrimination and magnanimity; nor shall there be one like him in\nfuture. This is our firm conviction.\n\n46. If this speech of R\u00e1ma, which has filled every one here with\nadmiration, fail to get its reply to the satisfaction of R\u00e1ma\u2019s mind,\nit is certain that all of us here, must pass for senseless sages (on\nearth).\n\n\n\n\n YOGA V\u00c1SISHTHA.\n\n BOOK II.\n\n MUMUKSHU KHANDA\n\n OR\n\n THE MEANS OF FINAL LIBERATION.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n _Liberation of Sukadeva._\n\n\nAfter R\u00e1ma had delivered his speech in an audible voice before the\nassembly, he was tenderly accosted by the sage Visw\u00e1mitra who sat\nbefore him; saying:\u2014\n\n2. R\u00e1ma! that art the best of the most intelligent, and hast nothing\nmore to learn besides all that thou hast come to know by thy nice\nobservation.\n\n3. Thou hast an understanding clear as the mirror by its own nature\n(reflecting every image within itself); and yet thy queries about the\nsame, serve as the cleansing of the reflector (in order to refract its\nlight to others).\n\n4. Thou hast a mind like that of Suka\u2014the son of the great Vy\u00e1sa, who\nknowing the knowable by intuition, was yet in need of some precepts for\nconfirmation of his belief.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma said: How was it sir, that Suka\u2014the son of the great\nVy\u00e1sa\u2014who did not rest assured at first of his knowledge of the\nknowable, came to be settled in his belief afterwards.\n\n6. Visw\u00e1mitra answered: \u201cHear me relate to thee R\u00e1ma, the narrative\nof Sukadeva, whose case was exactly like thine, and the narration of\nwhich is a preventive of future births (in this world).\u201d\n\n7. There is the great Vy\u00e1sa sitting on his seat of gold by thy father\u2019s\nside, swarthy in his complexion like a coal-black hill, but blazing as\nthe burning sun (by his brilliancy).\n\n8. His son was named Suka, a boy of great learning and wisdom, of a\nmoon-like countenance, and a stature sedate as the sacrificial altar.\n\n9. He reflected in his mind the vanity of worldly affairs like thyself,\nand became equally indifferent to all its concerns.\n\n10. It was then that this great minded youth was led by his own\ndiscriminative understanding to a long inquiry after what was true,\nwhich he found out at last by his own investigation.\n\n11. Having obtained the highest truth, he was still unsettled in\nhis mind, and could not come to the belief of the certainty of his\nknowledge.\n\n12. His mind grew indifferent to its perceptions of the transitory\nenjoyments of the world, and like the _Ch\u00e1taka_ thirsted only after the\ndew drops of heavenly bliss.\n\n13. Once upon a time the clear sighted Suka finding his father the sage\nKrishna-Dwaip\u00e1yana\u2014Vy\u00e1sa, sitting quietly alone by himself, he asked\nhim with reverence; saying:\u2014\n\n14. Tell me, O sage! whence this commotion of the world had its rise,\nand how it may subside. What is its cause, how far is it to extend, and\nwhere is it to end?\n\n15. The sage Vy\u00e1sa who knew the nature of the soul, being thus asked\nby his son, explained to him clearly all that was to be said (on the\nsubject).\n\n16. Suka thought that he already knew all this by his good\nunderstanding, and did not therefore think much of his father\u2019s\ninstructions.\n\n17. Vy\u00e1sa understanding the thoughts of his son, replied to him saying\nthat, he knew no better the true nature of these things.\n\n18. But that there was a prince named Janaka in this land, who well\nknew the knowledge of the knowable, and from whom Suka could learn\nevery thing.\n\n19. Suka being thus directed by his father, repaired to the city of\nVideha at the foot of mount Sumeru, which was under the rule of Janaka.\n\n20. The club-bearer (door keeper) informed the high minded Janaka of\nhis coming, telling him that Suka the son of Vy\u00e1sa was waiting at the\ngate.\n\n21. Janaka who understood that Suka had come to learn from him, gave no\nheed to the informant, but held his silence for seven days afterwards.\n\n22. The prince then ordered him to be brought in the outer compound,\nwhere he had to remain in the vexation of his spirit for seven days\nmore as before.\n\n23. Suka was then commanded to enter the inner apartment, where he\ncontinued a week more without seeing the prince.\n\n24. Here Janaka entertained the moon-faced Suka with abundance of\neatables, perfumeries and lusty damsels.\n\n25. But neither those vexations nor these entertainments could affect\nthe tenor of Suka\u2019s mind, which remained firm as a rock at the blasts\nof wind.\n\n26. He remained there as the full moon (without any wane or increase),\ntranquil in his desires, silent and contented in his mind.\n\n27. The prince Janaka having thus known the (unalterable) disposition\nof Suka\u2019s mind, had him introduced to his presence, where seeing the\ncomplacency of his soul, he rose up and bowed down to him.\n\n28. Janaka said: \u201cYou have accomplished to the full all your duties\nin this world, and obtained the object of your heart\u2019s desire to its\nutmost extent; what is it that you now desire for which you are welcome\nat mine\u201d.\n\n29. Suka said: \u201cTell me my guide whence sprang all this bustle\n(of worldly life); and tell me also how it may soon come to its\nsubsidence.\u201d\n\n30. Visw\u00e1mitra said: Being thus asked by Suka, Janaka spoke to him the\nsame things which he had learned from his great souled father.\n\n31. Suka then said: \u201cAll this I have come to know long before by my own\nintuition, and then from the speech of my father in answer to my query.\n\n32. \u201cYou sir, who are the most eloquent of all, have spoken to the same\npurport, and the same is found to be the true sense of the S\u00e1stras.\n\n33. \u201cThat the world is a creation of volition, and loses itself\nwith the absence of our desires; and that it is an accursed and\nunsubstantial world after all, is the conclusion arrived at by all\nsages.\n\n34. \u201cNow tell me truly you long armed prince, what you think this world\nto be (whether a reality or unreality); that my mind may be set at rest\nby you from its wandering all about the world (in search of truth).\u201d\n\n35. Janaka replied: \u201cThere is nothing more certain, O sage! than what\nyou have known by yourself and heard from your father.\n\n36. \u201cThere is but one undivided intelligent spirit known as the\nuniversal soul and nothing besides; it becomes confined by its desires,\nand freed by its want of them.\n\n37. \u201cYou have truly come to the knowledge of the knowable, whereby your\ngreat soul has desisted from its attachment to objects of enjoyment and\nvision.\n\n38. \u201cYou must be a hero to have overcome your desire in the lengthening\nchain of attractive enjoyments from your early youth. What more do you\nwant to hear?\n\n39. \u201cEven your father, with all his learning in every science, and\ndevotedness to austerities, has not arrived to the state of perfection\nlike you.\n\n40. \u201cI am a pupil of Vy\u00e1sa, and you are his son; but you are greater\nthan both of us, by your abandonment of the taste for the enjoyments of\nlife.\n\n41. \u201cYou have obtained whatever is obtainable by the comprehensiveness\nof your mind; and as you take no interest in the outer and visible\nworld, you are liberated from it, and have nothing to doubt of.\u201d\n\n42. Being thus advised by the magnanimous Janaka, Suka remained silent\nwith his mind fixed in the purely supreme object.\n\n43. Then being devoid of sorrow and fear, and released from all\nefforts, exertions and doubts, he repaired to a peaceful summit of the\nmount Meru to obtain his final absorption.\n\n44. There he passed ten thousands of rains in a state of unalterable\nmeditation, till at last he broke his mortal coil, and was extinguished\nin the supreme soul like a lamp without oil.\n\n45. Thus purified from the stain of transmigration by abstaining from\nearthly desires, the great souled Suka sank into the holy state of the\nSupreme Spirit, as a drop of water mixes with the waters or merges into\nthe depth of the ocean.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n SPEECH OF VISW\u00c1MITRA.\n\n\nVisw\u00e1mitra said:\u2014\n\nR\u00e1ma! it now becomes you to have your mind properly purified from its\ndoubts, as it was done in the case of the son of Vy\u00e1sa.\n\n2. You see, O great sages! how perfectly the knowable is known to R\u00e1ma,\nwhose good understanding has learnt to feel a distaste for worldly\nenjoyments, as if they were diseases unto him.\n\n3. You well know that the fixed principle in the mind of one knowing\nthe knowable, is to have an aversion to all the enjoyments of life.\n\n4. It is the desire of fruition that chains down a man fastly to the\nearth; but the knowledge of the frailties here serves to dispel his\ndarkness.\n\n5. Know R\u00e1ma that it is the curtailing of desires which the wise call\nliberty, and the fastening of our desires to earthly objects, is what\nis termed our confinement here.\n\n6. Spiritual knowledge is easily obtainable by most men here, but a\ndistaste to (pleasurable) objects is hard to be had (however painful it\nis to procure them).\n\n7. He who fully comprehends a thing, is said to know it, and who so\nknows what is knowable, is called a learned man; no earthly enjoyments\ncan be delectable to such high minded men.\n\n8. The mind that has no zest for earthly pleasures, except the glory of\ndisinterested deeds, is said to be liberated even in the present life.\n\n9. As there grows no vegetable in a sterile soil, so there grows no\ndisinclination to worldliness, until one comes to know the knowable\nreality (_i.e._ to say: neither the godly can be worldly, nor the\nworldly be godly).\n\n10. Hence know this supporter of Raghu\u2019s race to have verily known the\nknowable, which has made him disgusted with his princely enjoyments.\n\n11. I tell you great sages that, whatever R\u00e1ma has come to know by his\nintuition, requires to be confirmed by Vasishtha for the tranquility of\nhis mind.\n\n12. It is only a reliance in the Unity, that R\u00e1ma now requires for his\nrepose, just as the beauty of autumn depends on the clearness of the\nfirmament.\n\n13. Let the venerable Vasishtha then reason with the high minded R\u00e1ma,\nand restore the peace of his mind.\n\n14. For he is the master and family preceptor of the whole race of\nthe Raghus; besides he is all knowing and all seeing; and has a clear\ninsight (into all things) of the three times (present, past and future).\n\n15. Then addressing himself to Vasishtha he said:\u2014you _well remember\nsir_, the instruction given us of old, for pacifying our mutual enmity,\nand promoting the welfare of the high minded sages.\n\n16. When our lord the lotus-born Brahm\u00e1, seated on the table land of\nNishadha mountain, and shaded by the Sarala trees, delivered his wise\nlectures to us and the sages.\n\n17. It is by means of that knowledge of liberation that our worldly\ndesires are dispelled like the darkness of night by sun-beams.\n\n18. Please now, O Br\u00e1hman, to communicate that rational knowledge of\nthe knowable to your pupil R\u00e1ma, whereby he may gain the peace of his\nmind.\n\n19. It will be no difficult task for you to teach the spotless R\u00e1ma,\nwhose mirror-like mind is quite clear to take the reflection.\n\n20. The wisdom of the holy, their learning of the S\u00e1stras, and the\nscholarship of the learned, are then only praiseworthy, when they are\ncommunicated to a good student, and those who are disgusted with the\nworld.\n\n21. But instruction given to one who is no student nor disgusted with\nthe world, becomes as polluted as milk put in a hide vessel.\n\n22. Again the instruction imparted by one devoid of passions and\naffections, fear and anger, pride and sin, serves to infuse tranquility\ninto the mind.\n\n23. At these words of Visw\u00e1mitra the son of Gadhi, the assembled sages\nVy\u00e1sa, N\u00e1rada and others, honoured his saying with the exclamation\n\u201cbravo\u201d, \u201cwell said\u201d &c.\n\n24. Then the venerable Vasishtha brilliant as Brahm\u00e1 his father, and\nseated by the side of the king, spoke in reply:\n\n25. O sage, I will perform without fail, what you have commanded me to\ndo, for who, though mighty, can refuse to perform the behests of the\ngood and wise?\n\n26. I will destroy the mental darkness of the princes R\u00e1ma and others\nby the light of knowledge, as we dispel the gloom of night by the light\nof a lamp.\n\n27. I well remember the instructions which were given of yore by the\nlotus-born Brahm\u00e1 on the Nishadha mountain, for dispelling the errors\nof the world.\n\n28. Having said so, the high-minded Vasishtha made up his mind as one\ngirds up his loins, to deliver his lecture to R\u00e1ma for dispelling his\nignorance, and showing him the state of supreme felicity.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n ON THE REPEATED CREATIONS OF THE WORLD.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\n\u201cI will now expound to you R\u00e1ma! the knowledge that was imparted of old\nby our lord the lotus-born (Brahm\u00e1), after creation of the world, for\nthe peace of mankind.\u201d\n\n2. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014I know sir, you will expound to me the subject of\nliberation in full length; but remove first my fallacy about the\nfrailty of this world.\n\n3. And how it was that, the great sage Vy\u00e1sa\u2014the father and guide of\nSuka, did not attain to disembodied emancipation (after his death) with\nall his omniscience, while his son did so.\n\n4. Vasishtha said:\u2014(Hear me R\u00e1ma), there is no counting of the atoms\nproceeding from the spirit and forming the three worlds both before and\nafter the birth of the glorious sun.\n\n5. There is no body even who can count the millions of orbs which at\npresent form the three worlds.\n\n6. Nor can any one say by calculation, what numbers of creation\nwill rise from the (unlimited) ocean of divine existence, like its\ninterminable waves (for ever).\n\n7. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014It is needless to talk of worlds gone by or yet to come;\nsay what you will of the present (state of existence).\n\n8. Vasishtha said:\u2014This world consists of brute, human and heavenly\nbeings, whose lives when they are said to perish in any part of it are\nreally existent in the same part.\n\n9. The mind is called to be ever-fluctuating, and gives rise to (all\nthings in) the three worlds in itself. It resides in vacuity in the\nform of the heart, and the increate (God) also residing in the vacuous\nsoul (gives the mind the power to realize the latent ideas of the soul).\n\n10. The millions of beings that are dead, those that are dying\nand will die hereafter, are all to be reborn here according to the\ndifferent desires in their minds.\n\n11. The external world appearing as a reality, is in truth but a\ncreation of our desires; it is an ideal castle in the air, and a magic\nview spread before us.\n\n12. It is as false as an earthquake in a fit of delirium, as a\nhobgoblin that is shown to terrify children, as a string of pearls in\nthe clear firmament, and as the moving trees on the bank to a passenger\nin the boat.\n\n13. It is an illusion as the phantom of a city in a dream, and as\nuntrue as the imagination of a flower growing in the air. The unreality\nof the world best appears to one at the point of and after his death.\n\n14. But this knowledge of (the unreality of the world) becomes darkened\nupon one\u2019s being reborn on earth, when the shadow of this world falls\nagain on the mirror of his sentient soul.\n\n15. Thus there is a struggle for repeated births and deaths here, and a\nfancy for the next world after one\u2019s death.\n\n16. After one\u2019s shuffling off his body, he assumes another and then\nanother form, and thus the world is as unstable as a stool made of\nplantain leaves and its coatings.\n\n17. The dead have no sensation of the earth and other elementary\nbodies, nor of the course of the world; but they fall again to these\nerrors upon their being reborn here.\n\n18. There is an interminable ignorance resembling an immense river\nenveloping the face of creation, and breaking into streamlets of\nunfordable ignorance.\n\n19. The Divinity like a sea shoots forth in the various waves of\ncreation, which rise incessantly and plentifully one after the other.\n\n20. All beings here are but the waves of this sea, of which some are\nalike to one another in their minds and natures, while others are half\nalike, and some quite different from the rest.\n\n<21.> I reckon yonder sagely Vy\u00e1sa as one of the thirty two of these\nwaves, on account of his vast knowledge, and good looking appearance.\n\n22. There were twelve of them possessed of a lesser understanding, they\nwere the patriarchs of men, and endued with equal energy. Ten of them\nwere men of subdued spirits, and the rest were adepts in their family\nduties.\n\n23. There will be born again other Vy\u00e1sas and V\u00e1lm\u00edkis, and likewise\nsome other Bhrigus and Angir\u00e1s, as well as other Pulastyas and others\nin different forms.\n\n24. All other men, Asuras and gods with all their hosts are repeatedly\nborn and destroyed either in their former or different shapes.\n\n25. Like this there are seventy two Tret\u00e1 cycles in a Kalpa age of\nBrahm\u00e1, some of which have passed by and others to follow. Thus\nwill there be other people like those that have gone by, and as I\nunderstand, another R\u00e1ma and Vasishtha like ourselves (by the eternal\nrotation of ideas in the Divine mind).\n\n26. There have been ten successive incarnations of this Vy\u00e1sa, who has\ndone such wondrous acts, and is famed for his vast knowledge.\n\n27. Myself and V\u00e1lm\u00edki have been contemporaries many a time, as also\nborn in different ages and very many times.\n\n28. We have been many times, and there were others also like myself,\nand so was I born also in many forms (in many ages).\n\n29. This Vy\u00e1sa will again be born eight times hereafter, and again will\nhe write his Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata and the Pur\u00e1na histories.\n\n30. He having divided the Vedas and described the acts of Bh\u00e1rata\u2019s\nrace (in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata), and established the knowledge of Brahm (in\nthe Ved\u00e1nta), is to attain to his disembodied liberation (after his\nfinal termination).\n\n31. This Vy\u00e1sa who is devoid of fear and sorrow, and has become\ntranquil and emancipate in himself after subduing his mind and\ndiscarding the worldly desires is said to be liberated even in his\npresent life time.\n\n32. The living emancipate may sometimes be associated by his relatives\nand estates, his acts and duties, his knowledge and wisdom, and all his\nexertions like other men\u2019s, or he may forsake them all at once.\n\n33. These beings are either reborn a hundred times in some age or never\nat all (as in the case of divine incarnations), and depending on the\ninscrutable will (M\u00e1y\u00e1) of God.\n\n34. There souls undergo the like changes by repetition, as a bushel of\ngrain, which is collected to be sown repeatedly, and to be reaped again\nand again (in the same or some other field).\n\n35. As the sea heaves its incessant surges of different shapes, so are\nall beings born incessantly in various forms in the vast ocean of time.\n\n36. The wise man who is liberated in his life time, lives with his\ninternal belief (of God) in a state of tranquility, without any doubt\nin his mind, and quite content with the ambrosia of equanimity.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n PRAISE OF ACTS AND EXERTIONS.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nI know gentle R\u00e1ma that, liberation of the soul, whether in its\nembodied or disembodied state is both alike, as the sea-water and its\nwaves are the same liquid substance.\n\n2. The liberation whether of embodied or disembodied spirits, consists\nin their detachment from the objects of sense: hence the soul\nunattached to sensual gratification, is (said to be) liberated, having\nno idea of sensible objects.\n\n3. And though we see before us the living liberated sage (Vy\u00e1sa) as an\nembodied person, yet we have no doubt of the detachment of his inward\nsoul from the (mortal coil of his) body.\n\n4. The difference between the embodied and disembodied souls, when they\nare equally enlightened and liberated, is like that of the sea-water in\nits calm and billowy states.\n\n5. There is no more difference between bodily and unembodied liberation\nthan there is betwixt the air in motion and at rest.\n\n6. Liberation whether with or without the body, is productive of\nunselfishness; we have lost our selfishness ever since we have come to\nthe knowledge of an undivided unity (of the soul).\n\n7. Now therefore attend to the true doctrine that I am going to deliver\nto you, which will be a jewel to your ears as it will dispel the\ndarkness of ignorance (from your mind).\n\n8. Know, O son of Raghu, that every thing in this world is obtainable\nby our efforts being properly employed (to our purposes).\n\n9. This (knowledge of truth) rises as the moon (in the human mind), and\nsheds its cooling and delightsome influence to the heart, that there is\nno other way to gain the fruits of our exertions but by our efforts.\n\n10. We evidently see the results of the exercise of our efforts, and\nnothing coming out from what the dull and mistaken call as chance or\nfate.\n\n11. An effort when directed according to the counsel and conduct of the\ngood in the exercise of the action of the body and mind, it is attended\nwith success, otherwise it is as vain as the freak of a madman.\n\n12. Thus he who wishes to acquire riches, and perseveres in its\nacquisition, surely succeeds in gaining them; or else he stops short in\nthe midway.\n\n13. It was by means of the exertion of their efforts that some\nparticular persons have obtained the paramount dominion of Indra over\nthe three worlds.\n\n14. It is by the exertion of one\u2019s efforts that he attains to the rank\nof the lotus-born (Brahm\u00e1); and some even gain the inward joy of the\nstate of Brahm by it.\n\n15. It was by virtue of his self-exertion that some body has become the\nbest among men, even as he who bears the ensign of the eagle (Vishnu\namong the gods).\n\n16. It was by the exertion of one\u2019s efforts that some persons succeeded\nto obtain the form of Siva accompanied by his female power, and adorned\nby the semi-circle of the moon in his crest.\n\n17. Know our actions to be of two kinds namely, those of former and\npresent lives: and that acts of the life generally supersede\nthose of the past.\n\n18. Know also that energy joined with constant practice, and supported\nby wisdom and some stimulating force, is able to break down the mount\nof Meru, and the demerits of acts in the former lives of men.\n\n19. The exertions of a man proceeding from his good efforts and\ncountenanced by the law, lead to his success, or else they either go\nfor nothing or turn to his disadvantage.\n\n20. So a man laid up in a state of disability, is unable to twist his\nfingers in order to hold a little water in the hollow of his palm for\ndrink: while there is another who (by his well directed efforts) gets\nthe possession of seas and islands, mountains and cities for himself,\nsupports all his dependents and relations, and does not think this\nearth too great for him.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n NECESSITY OF ACTIVITY.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nIt is the will or inclination that is the prime instrument of all\nactions done even according to the rules of law and s\u00e1stras, as it is\nthe reflection of light that gives various hues to things.\n\n2. Whoever wishes to do anything desirable to him by unlawful acts, it\nbecomes as fruitless as the endeavours of a madman.\n\n3. As you try so you get both of good and evil: and fortune and\nexertion are the joint causes of acts according to fatalists.\n\n4. Human exertions are either lawful or unlawful; the former leading to\nsuccess, and the latter to dangerous consequences.\n\n5. Fortune and exertions contend with each other like two rams of\nunequal strength, wherein the mightier overcomes the other.\n\n6. Therefore should man apply himself diligently (to his duties), and\nemploy his skill and promptness after them in such a way, as his to-day\nmay overcome the morrow (_i.e._, do the works of to-morrow to-day).\n\n7. When two unequal forces (of two persons) contend with one another\nlike two rams, the stronger force whether of this or that man,\novercomes the other.\n\n8. When one incurs a failure or danger even by his lawful exertions, he\nshould know it to be the result of his misapplied exertions.\n\n9. One by his utmost exertion in the right way, as by the gnashing of\nhis teeth (and the like), can overcome his misfortune and so does his\nbad luck sometimes baffle his exertions.\n\n10. When one finds himself to be led astray by the demerit of his acts\nof a former state of existence, he must attempt to subdue the same by\ngreater energy of his present state.\n\n11. So far should one diligently endeavour to exercise his exertions,\nas he may be able to beat down the evils resulting from his bad fortune\n(or predestination).\n\n12. The evils of bad fortune are undoubtedly removed by the meritorious\nacts of the present life, as the bad consequence of an act of yesterday\nis averted by its remedy of today.\n\n13. Having trampled over an unfavorable fortune by one\u2019s reliance on\nhis continuous energy, he must attempt to secure to himself every good\nfor his well-being in his present life.\n\n14. Know that tranquility is not to be found by the effortlessness of\ndull ass-like men; it is the lawful energy of men which is said to\nsecure his welfare in both worlds.\n\n15. And that one should make his way out of the pit of this world by\nforce of his energy and diligence, just as the lion breaks out from his\ncage.\n\n16. One must ponder in himself every day that his body is subject to\ncorruption, his beastly acts must be kept backward and man like acts\nput forward.\n\n17. It is our good exertions that are attended by good results as the\nbad ones are followed by bad consequences. Chance is a mere meaningless\nword.\n\n18. Do not make your bloom of youth useless as ashes by sitting idly at\nhome and enjoying the bliss of the harem like a worm in the sore.\n\n19. He who has no reliance on present objects, but depends upon\nsuppositions of the past, is as a man flying for fear of his own hands\nsupposing them as snakes.\n\n20. It is a pleasure to men of perverted understandings to think\nthemselves guided by their fortunes, prosperity flies away far off from\nsuch men who depend on their fortunes.\n\n21. Therefore let a man diligently apply himself first to (the\ncultivation of) his reason, and then investigate into the works of\nabstruse spiritual knowledge.\n\n22. Those who do not set their hearts to acts according to the dictates\nof the s\u00e1stras, but exert themselves otherwise to gain (their ends),\nare accursed as mad men for their vain attempts.\n\n23. Thinking there is no end of exertions one declines to take the\npains (after anything), and says that, no pains can bring out a gem\nfrom a stone (or oil from water).\n\n24. Know that there is a limitation both of human lot and exertion, as\nof all other things as a pot or picture having a (limited capacity and\nlength).\n\n25. And that it is by means of good conduct derived from best precepts\nand the company of the good, that one succeeds to his object, and a\ndisposition that breaks loose of these (bounds), is sure to fall to the\ncontrary (extreme of) ruin.\n\n26. Again any man who conducts himself in the right course of action,\nnever fails in his attempts at any time.\n\n27. Some among the best of men, who had been reduced to misery by their\npoverty and helplessness, have again risen to the eminence of Indra by\nexertion of their manhood.\n\n28. By learning the S\u00e1stras well from boyhood, by keeping company with\nthe good, and by possession of good qualities, as also by diligent\napplication, a man is sure to gain his object.\n\n29. It has been seen, known, heard, and experienced (by us) that acts\nare rewarded with success; and they are dull-headed who think of\nobtaining it from fortune or by chance.\n\n30. Had there not been the folly of idleness in this world, what man\nwould fail either to be rich or learned? It is by reason of idleness\nthat this earth is filled to its utmost limit of the sea with indigent\nand beastly men.\n\n31. Let a man after passing his childhood, and getting rid of its false\nand idle playfulness and when he has attained the age of youthful\nvigour, apply himself diligently to the company of wise men, and to\nthe cultivation of his understanding by a knowledge of the S\u00e1stras and\ntheir meanings, and by scanning well his own faults and qualities.\n\n32. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:\u2014After the sage had said these sayings, the day\npassed away, and the sages went to bathe after taking leave of the\nassembly, where they joined again with the rising beams of the sun\ndispelling the gloom of night.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n REFUTATION OF FATALISM.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed saying:\u2014\n\nNow fate being no other than the result of our actions of the former\nstate of our existence, it is possible to leave it at a distance, and\nto extricate one\u2019s self (from its fetters) by betaking himself to good\ncompany and study of moral S\u00e1stras.\n\n2. Whatever one attempts to do, he readily meets with its reward: this\nbeing the effect of exertion. Fate is no other but the same thing.\n\n3. Men laboring hard, are heard to exclaim \u201cO how painful it is\u201d: so\nmen suffering under fate cry out \u201cO hard is fate!\u201d (so the one is as\nbad as the other).\n\n4. Thus then fate being no other than a name for our past actions, it\nis as easily overcome (by present acts) as a boy (is subdued) by an\nadult youth.\n\n5. As some bad conduct of yesterday is corrected by proper behaviour of\nthe present day, so the anterior fate is removed by (posterior) acts.\n\n6. Those carnal minded libertines who do not try the means (of\nreforming their fate), but depend upon the favor of fortune, are\nperverted in their nature and marked for misery.\n\n7. Thus if the acts of manliness are capable of forefending one\u2019s\nmisfortunes, it must be acknowledged that manliness which destroys the\nother, is the mightier of the two.\n\n8. As of two fruits growing on the same fore-stalk, the one is found to\nbe empty within and the other full of juice, so the fruit of fate is\nrendered abortive by that of manliness.\n\n9. Seeing the decay of the best things in the world, we must own the\npredominant power of the cause of this decay.\n\n10. Like two rams our fate and exertions are fighting with one another,\nwherein the victory is always on the side of the stronger.\n\n11. In the case of the royal elephant\u2019s taking up a beggar boy for\nbeing made the ruler (of a country), its cause is to be attributed more\nto the vote of the country-men and citizens (than to chance or fortune).\n\n12. As a man takes his food and grinds it under his teeth, so is one\n(depending on fate) crushed by the stronger party relying on his\nexertions.\n\n13. Inferior servants are thus employed like clods of earth by their\nmore active masters in any work they like.\n\n14. Silly and impotent men seeing the strong thriving by their\nexertions whether apparent or unseen, are apt to attribute it to their\ngood fortune (instead of their diligence).\n\n15. The strong efforts of men truly constitute their presiding fortune,\nand these two are viewed alike by the wise.\n\n16. In the case of the (aforesaid) beggar boy\u2019s installation to\nthe ruling and protection of the people of a realm, the unanimous\nconcurrence of the law and ministers, of the elephant and citizens (is\nto be taken as the chief cause).\n\n17. Should the beggar boy be ever elected for a ruler by the royal\nelephant itself (without the assent of men), in that case it is to\nbe attributed to the boy\u2019s good fortune only (because there was no\nsensible exertion on his side).\n\n18. Present acts destroy those of the past life and so also the\nvice-versa comes to pass; but the exertions of a man are undoubtedly\nsuccessful (at all times).\n\n19. Of these two powers that of the present state is manifestly\nsuperior to the other; hence it is as possible to overcome the past by\nthe present, as to lick a boy by an adult.\n\n20. As a hail shower lays waste the cultivation of a whole year, so\nalso doth the predominant fate sometimes overpower the attempts of this\nlife.\n\n21. However it does not behoove us to be sorry at the loss of our long\nearned treasure (as of the harvest), for what avails our sorrow at what\nis beyond our control.\n\n22. If I should sorrow for what I have not the power to prevent, I must\nthen weep all the days of my life because I am not to be spared by\ndeath.\n\n23. All our acts are subject to their proper time and place, and to\nthe modes of their operation and combination according to the course\nof nature; hence it is that the more diligent are the most successful\n(everywhere).\n\n24. We ought therefore to rely in our exertions and clearness of\nunderstanding by the help of S\u00e1stras and association with the wise, for\nfording over the ocean of this world.\n\n25. Actions of the past and present lives are the two fruit trees\ngrowing in the garden of humanity; of which the one that is cultivated\nbest, thrives and fructifies the most.\n\n26. He who is unable to overcome his false fate by his best exertions\n(in this life), is no better than an ignorant beast that has no power\nover its pain or pleasure.\n\n27. He who thinks of going to heaven or hell by the will of the Maker,\nis also a slave to destiny and no better than a beast.\n\n28. The man of a noble mind and one employed in acts of goodness,\nbreaks off from the errors of the world as a lion from its cage.\n\n29. Those who vainly imagine themselves to be led about by some\n(supernatural power), and so slight their necessary duties, are to be\nshunned at a distance as the mean and base.\n\n30. There are thousands of acts that are attended with gain or loss to\ntheir doers; but it is the duty of man to do what is right whether they\nare pleasant or painful.\n\n31. He who does not transgress the bounds of law, nor forsake the\nduties (of his race), is attended by every blessing abundant as the\npearls in the sea.\n\n32. Devoted diligence in acts leading to one\u2019s object, is termed to be\nhis manliness by the wise; and that being guided by the S\u00e1stra leads to\nhis success.\n\n33. An act accompanied by exertion, is of itself the accomplisher of\none\u2019s object, and the company of the wise and study of good books\nserve to raise a man by brightening his understanding.\n\n34. The infinite happiness or a tranquil spirit is known as the _Summum\nbonum_ by the wise; and those good works are fit for study which lead\nto that state.\n\n35. The acts of our former lives constitute what we call our destiny,\nand they return to us from the region of the gods, for our good in both\nworlds.\n\n36. We blame the fate which is a creation of the fancy of the ignorant,\nwho by their adoration of the same come to meet their destruction.\n\n37. One benefits himself always by his activity in both worlds, as his\ngood acts of to-day gives a grace to those of yesterday.\n\n38. Whoso therefore applies himself with diligence to his acts, reaps\ntheir fruits like that of an _Amalaki_ in his palm, which though it is\nwithin his grasp, yet it could not be obtained without the cost of some\nlabour:\n\n39. It is the ignorant only that depart from the beaten path, and fall\ninto the error of fatalism. Therefore give up that false faith in an\nunreal fate, which is a mere creation of the imagination and devoid of\nany cause or effect; and apply to your manly exertions.\n\n40. The fruit of following the S\u00e1stras and observing the good customs\nand local usages, is long known (to be wholesome), as exciting the\nheart and the exertion of the limbs to action. This it is what they\ncalled \u201cmanly activity.\u201d\n\n41. All wise men after discussion of the subject of fate and acts, have\napplied themselves to activity by utter rejection of fatality, and\naccomplished their ends by attendance on the good and wise.\n\n42. Knowing the efficacy of activity, every one should betake himself\nto his personal exertions, and attain to his highest perfection by\nattending to good S\u00e1stras and the wise counsels of learned men.\n\n43. And knowing the bondage of our births to be full of pain, let\npeople strive for the exercise of their activities, and obtain the true\nand sweet blessing of tranquility by their attendance on the wise.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n ON THE NECESSITY OF ACTIVITY.\n\n\nHaving obtained a body free from disease and a mind free from trouble,\none should try to know the knowable to prevent his further birth (in\nthis world).\n\n2. Whoso wishes to avert his destiny by means of his activity, obtains\nthe acme of his wishes both in this world as well as in the next.\n\n3. But whoever is averse to assiduity and relies in his luck, he is an\nenemy to his own soul, and sacrifices all his virtues, riches and hopes\n(to his idleness).\n\n4. It is the exercise of our sensuous and mental faculties as also\nof the members of the body, which are the different modes of our\nexertions, that leads us to success.\n\n5. Our perceptions are the cause of our mental activity, and this\nactuates the body to action, whereby we obtain the fruits of our desire.\n\n6. In whatever case there is some act (enjoined in the S\u00e1stra), it\npoints us to our exertions and never to destiny. Even children are well\naware of this.\n\n7. It was by the exercise of their exertions that Divaspati (Jupiter)\nbecame the lord of gods, and Sukra obtained the preceptorship of demons.\n\n8. There have been many weak, poor and miserable men, who have by means\nof their manly exertions become equal to Indra himself.\n\n9. So also there have been many great men on earth, who after enjoyment\nof a great many extraordinary things and luxuries here, have become\nguests in hell for want of the exercise of their manly virtues.\n\n10. In this manner have all beings evaded the effects of their various\nstates of want and opulence by means of their own exertions (in the\nright way).\n\n11. There are three fold benefits derived from the study of books, from\nlectures of a preceptor, and from one\u2019s own industry, all of which are\nattendant on our exertions and not destiny.\n\n12. This is the long and short of all the S\u00e1stras, that diligence\npreserves our minds from all evils, by employing them to whatever is\ngood and right.\n\n13. To apply with diligence to whatever is excellent, not low or\nmean and not liable to loss or decay, is the precept of parents and\npreceptors to their sons and pupils.\n\n14. I get the immediate fruit of my labour in proportion to my\nexertion: hence I say, I enjoy the fruit of my labour and not of\nfortune.\n\n15. Activity gives us success and it is this that elevates the\nintelligent. But men of little understandings rely only in fortune in\ntheir miserable state.\n\n16. We have ocular evidence (of the efficacy) of activity every day, in\nthe instances of men travelling in distant countries (for the sake of\ngain).\n\n17. He that eats becomes satiate and not who starves: so he who walks\nis said to proceed and not one who rests: and in like manner whoso\nspeaks is called a speaker and not the silent man: thus action makes\nthe man.\n\n18. Wise men escape from great difficulties by means of their\nexertions; but not so the mistaken fatalist by his fruitless inertness.\n\n19. Whoso acts in any manner, gets his reward accordingly; but the\nrestive man has nothing to expect anywhere.\n\n20. By well directed industry a man reaps the best reward, as he meets\nwith its reverse by his misapplied labour: think upon this O R\u00e1ma! and\ndo as you like.\n\n21. The reward of industry which a man meets with sooner or later at\nany time or place, the same is said by the wise to be his fortune.\n\n22. No one can see his fortune, nor has any body ever seen the same,\nnor is there such a thing to be found in any world: it is but the merit\nof our acts here which they place in the other world.\n\n23. A man is born on earth to grow up and decay in his time, and no\ndestiny is seen therein in the same way as his childhood, youth and old\nage.\n\n24. One\u2019s application to diligence and action for the attainment of an\nobject, is known by the term exertion by the wise, whereby all things\nare accomplished (and which is no destiny).\n\n25. One\u2019s going from one place to another, his holding a thing in the\nhand, and the movement of his limbs, are all the acts of his exertion\nand not his destiny.\n\n26. There is another kind of propensity to acts productive of evil;\nthis sort of action is likened to the attempt of a mad man which yields\nno good.\n\n27. Men of acute understandings raise themselves to elevation, by\ntheir association with the virtuous, study of good works and active\nemployment to duties tending to their own good.\n\n28. The boundless joy arising from equanimity, is said to constitute\none\u2019s _Summum bonum_ (upon earth). This blessing also results from a\nman\u2019s diligent application to the S\u00e1stras (and not from his destiny).\n\n29. It is the understanding that leads to the knowledge of the S\u00e1stras,\nas it is the other that tends to our right understanding of things.\nJust so does the lotus serve to beautify a lake, as it is the lake\nwhich lends its grace to the lotus. (_i.e._ They serve mutually to\nassist each other).\n\n30. It is also by virtue of one\u2019s deep study and good company in youth,\nthat a man attains his desirable objects afterwards (which are the\nresults of his exertions).\n\n31. It was by means of his activity that Vishnu had conquered the\ndemons, and established the order of the world. It was by this that he\ncreated the worlds none of which could be the work of fate.\n\n32. Now, O lord of Raghu\u2019s race! employ your efforts to the exertion of\nyour manly activities in such a way in this earth, that you may live\nfree from fear of being bitten by the serpentine people in this arbor\nof the world (_i.e._ crush the malice of your enemies).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n INVALIDATION OF DESTINY.\n\n\nVasishtha continued saying that:\u2014\n\nWhat does destiny mean, which has no form, nor act, no motion nor\nmight, but is a false notion rooted in the (minds) of the ignorant.\n\n2. It is a word that has come into vogue from the idea of the future\nretribution of one\u2019s past actions (or retributive justice) and the\nlike, which is designated \u201cdestiny\u201d.\n\n3. From this the ignorant are led to believe that there is a thing as\ndestiny: the inscrutability of which has led them to the fallacy as\nthat of the supposition of a snake in a rope.\n\n4. As a past misdeed of yesterday is rectified by a good action of the\nfollowing day, let this day therefore supercede the past, and employ\nyourself to-day to action.\n\n5. The perverted understanding that believes in a destiny grounded\non its erroneous conception, may well enter into the fire from his\nconviction that it will not burn him unless it is so destined.\n\n6. If destiny is the sole cause of every thing, why then should a man\nbetake himself to his actions of bathing and making his offerings,\nsitting and walking, all of which may be done by his destiny.\n\n7. What then is the necessity of one\u2019s advising another to do a thing\nwhen destiny is the director of all? Let then all be silent and say\nnothing to nobody.\n\n8. There is no one to be seen on earth that is motionless except the\nbodies of the dead; and if it is action that produces anything, it is\nuseless to believe in destiny.\n\n9. Nor is there any co-operative power of the invisible destiny\nperceptible in the actions of men, whence it is but a meaningless word.\n\n10. Two things as the implements and members of the body being joined\ntogether, have each their several action (as that of the pen and razor\nand the hand in writing and shaving); but the hand being wanted,\nnothing can be done by destiny (with its having those tools).\n\n11. There is no such clear idea of a destiny like those of the mind\nand intellect, even in the (illiterate) cow-herd or in the (learned)\npandit. Hence it is a mere non-entity.\n\n12. If the concept of destiny be other (than that of an agent), it must\nmean something else; or if it be the same thing (with the agent) why\nthen give it a different name (as destiny)? If it be proved to be an\nimaginary term, then why not imagine your exertion to be agent (of your\naction)?\n\n13. The immaterial destiny like vacuity has no connection with the\nmaterial body. If it had a form or figure it would be visible (to some\none or other); hence destiny is a nullity.\n\n14. If destiny is the main spring of the movements of all beings in the\nthree worlds, then let all creatures rest at ease (with the assurance)\nthat destiny will perform their parts.\n\n15. The belief that we are guided by destiny and do as we are led to\ndo, is a deception and an allegation (of self excuse); in fact there is\nno such thing as destiny.\n\n16. It is the fool that fancies to himself a destiny and relies on it\nto his own disadvantage; while the intelligent raise themselves to\nbetter states by means of their exertion.\n\n17. Say who is there among the mighty and brave, the intelligent and\nlearned, that looks or waits upon destiny in this world?\n\n18. Destiny may be said good, if it can have the power of saving a\nman from being beheaded, whom fortune-tellers had pronounced by their\ncalculation to be long lived.\n\n19. Again, O R\u00e1ghava, should one who is foretold by his fortune-teller\nto become a learned man, attain his learning without being taught in\nit, then may we believe fortune to be true.\n\n20. Mark, O R\u00e1ma! how the sage Visw\u00e1mitra has cast away his destiny at\na distance; and attained to Brahmahood by his own exertions.\n\n21. Look at us and others who have become sages, that it was by our\nindustry we became aeronauts or wanderers in the etherial regions.\n\n22. Remember, O R\u00e1ma, how the chiefs of the D\u00e1nava race, have\nestablished their empires on earth by their prowess, and by discarding\ntheir destinies altogether.\n\n23. Look again how the chiefs of gods have wrested the extensive earth\nfrom those demons by their valourous deeds of slaying and harassing\nthem (in battle).\n\n24. See R\u00e1ma! how they make handsome wicker vessels (of bamboo work)\nfor the holding of water by their own industry, and without the aid of\nany destiny to the completion of the same.\n\n25. In all our works of giving and receiving, walking, resting and the\nlike, we see no causality of destiny in their completion, as we see of\nmedicines (in healing diseases).\n\n26. Therefore O R\u00e1ma, give up this destiny of your mistaken fancy;\nwhich is in reality devoid of its cause or effect, and is a false and\nideal nullity; and betake yourself to your best exertions.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n INVESTIGATION OF ACTS.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma asked:\u2014\n\n\u201cWill you Sir, that art versed in all knowledge, kindly explain the\ntrue sense of destiny in popular use.\u201d\n\n2. Vasistha replied:\u2014It is a man\u2019s activity and no other, O R\u00e1ghava,\nthat is the cause of all his actions, and the recipient of their\nconsequence, wherein destiny has nothing to do.\n\n3. Destiny is a mere imaginary thing, which neither exists nor acts nor\nfeels (their effects). It is neither seen nor regarded (by any body).\n\n4. The good or bad result which proceeds from the accomplished acts of\nsuccessful activity, is expressed by the word destiny.\n\n5. The wished for and unwished for consequences resulting from the good\nand bad deeds of human activity, are termed the effects of destiny by\npeople.\n\n6. Human activity which is the only cause of some unavoidable future\nconsequence, is called as destiny by the majority of mankind.\n\n7. Truly, O R\u00e1ghava! destiny though void as vacuity, appears as real to\nsome body, who thinks it to be an active agent, while others know it to\nbe inactive.\n\n8. Again destiny is a mere saying uttered by men upon the result of\nsome good or bad effect of their actual exertion, that \u201cit is this\nwhich has produced the other.\u201d\n\n9. It is my belief and I have known it for certain that, destiny is\nno more than the word uttered by people upon their attainment of the\nobject of their exertions.\n\n10. Destiny is that word of consolation which is uttered by men, as\nsignificant of the good or evil which they meet with and which they\ncall to be the effect of the other.\n\n11. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014How is it sir, that you who are all wise, do now\ncontradict your own assertion that destiny is the result of the stock\nof our former acts (of past life)?\n\n12. Vasishtha answered saying:\u2014Well said O R\u00e1ma! you know every thing;\nbut hear me tell you the whole of it, whereby you will have a firm\nbelief in the nullity of destiny.\n\n13. All the various desires which men may have entertained in their\nminds before, even those come to be accounted as his deeds (or mental\nactions) at last.\n\n14. All animals are seen also to act according to their desires, and to\ndo nothing to which an inclination was wanting in their natures.\n\n15. As the villager goes to his village and the townsman comes to\nthe town: so it is the nature of the desire that leads men to their\nparticular acts.\n\n16. The keen and firm resolution with which an act was done in the\nformer state of life, that verily is termed destiny in the successive\nbirths, or generations of living beings.\n\n17. Thus are the acts of all active beings conformable with their\nnatures, and the actions of men are in accordance to their desires, the\ndesire is no other than the mind itself, and the mind is self-same with\nthe human soul.\n\n18. The mind is the soul and cause of all acts which they call the\ndoings of destiny, certainly there is no other thing as destiny beside\nthe mind.\n\n19. This mind is verily the living soul, which acts as it desires, and\nenjoys accordingly the fruits thereof, and is same with destiny.\n\n20. Know R\u00e1ma that the mind, the heart, desire, action and destiny are\nsynonymous terms, and applied by the virtuous to the unascertainable\nsoul (evolved in these forms).\n\n21. Now whatever the so named soul undertakes to do continually and\nwith a firm resolution, it obtains the fruit thereof accordingly.\n\n22. It is by means of the activity or exertion of this soul, and by no\nother means, O support of Raghu\u2019s race, that it obtains everything, and\nmay it lead you to your good only.\n\n23. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Being caught in the net of my pre-existent desire, I\nremain a captive to them and do as they lead me to. Say then, O sage\nwhat else I can do.\n\n24. Vasishtha replied:\u2014So then O R\u00e1ma, you will be able to reach to\nyour lasting good, if you will but exert your activity for it, without\nwhich there is no other way to it.\n\n25. These desires are of two kinds, some leading to good and others to\nevil. Hence the desire of one\u2019s prior state must have been of one kind\nor other.\n\n26. If you will be guided now by the pure desires (of your nature), you\nwill be gradually led by means of your good acts to attain the state of\nyour lasting welfare.\n\n27. But if your wrong inclinations tend to lead you to difficulties,\nyou must try your best to overcome such propensities _perforce_.\n\n28. You R\u00e1ma are wise and perfectly intelligent, and not composed of a\ndull (material) body only; now if you should be in need of another\u2019s\nguidance to waken your intellect, say where lies your own intelligence.\n\n29. If you would have one to enlighten your understanding, say where\nis that another to illumine him, and who is the other to illuminate\nhim also. Hence as no one is wholly devoid of understanding, let him\nimprove it himself.\n\n30. The current of our desires is flowing betwixt the two channels of\ngood and evil; it must be by exertion of our activity that we must turn\nit to the right course.\n\n31. You who are the mightiest of the mighty, must exert the force\nof your activity to turn your mind to a profitable course from its\ndirection to the profitless.\n\n32. By directing the mind to the right way from the wrong, it will\ntake the right course and so the _vice versa_. But as human mind is\nas (tender as) a child, it must not be employed by force (but gentle\nmeasures).\n\n33. The training of the child like that of the mind, is effected slowly\nby gentleness and indulgence, and not by force and hurry.\n\n34. You have already by your constant practice, got a mastery over\nall your good and bad desires; you have hence forward to direct your\ntendencies to good only.\n\n35. O victorious R\u00e1ma! When by your pristine habits you have an\naptitude to do what is good, learn that it is the result of your good\nnature.\n\n36. O sinless R\u00e1ma, your desires are at present lying dormant in your\nmind, and require some practice to be employed only to the doing of\ngood.\n\n37. If you will not exert yourself at present to improve your dormant\ndesires by constant practice, you can never expect to be happy.\n\n38. When it is doubtful (to know the nature of the innate propensity),\ndo you incline to what is good, and as you thrive in this, you shall\nhave no evil to fear.\n\n39. Whatever one practices, he becomes perfect in that in time; as\nstudying from childhood makes the learned free from error.\n\n40. When you have the good will in you, you must accomplish your\npurpose, by means of your activity and subjection of the organs of your\nbody.\n\n41. So long as your mind is imperfect and unacquainted with the state\nof divine truth, you must attend to your teacher, books and reasoning,\nand act according to their directions (in the paths of truth).\n\n42. Having first finished your acts and known the truth, you must\nabandon even your meritorious deeds, and all your desires with them.\n\n43. Having known by your good understanding, that the virtuous course\nled by honorable men is truly good, give particular attention to\nknow the nature of God, then forsake even that (enquiry), and remain\n(silent) as a saint (_muni_).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n DESCENSION OF KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\nVasistha resumed:\u2014\n\nThis thing called destiny is as true as the reality of God. It is the\ncause of causes and effect of effects. (It is an attribute of God).\n\n2. Now attend to my words and depend on your exertions, and intently\napply your ever confident mind to the attainment of your chief good.\n\n3. Try your exertions to turn to your subjection the misleading senses\nfrom pursuing their objects.\n\n4. I will now propound to you a code containing of the essence of\nthe best means of liberation, which will confer the fruits of your\nexertions and lead you to your welfare in both worlds.\n\n5. Let them that have great minds, forsake their worldly desires in\norder to avoid their future births, and attend to these lectures with\ncalm contentment (in their minds).\n\n6. Weigh well the meanings of the antecedent and subsequent\npropositions, repress your mind from its worldly cares, and dispose\nyour self to equanimity for its inquiry after truth.\n\n7. Hear me relate to you R\u00e1ma, the way to emancipation, which will\nremove your feelings of pain and pleasure, and become the surest means\nto lead you to supreme happiness.\n\n8. On hearing this lecture on liberation in the company of all those\nreasonable men, you will know that highest state which is free from\npain, and of which there is no termination.\n\n9. This was spoken of old in a former _Kalpa_ age by Brahm\u00e1 abiding in\nthe Supreme spirit. It is the remover of all anxiety and giver of all\ncomfort to the soul.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma asked saying:\u2014Say O Br\u00e1hman\u2014that art my guide, what cause\nmoved Brahm\u00e1 himself of old to reveal this knowledge, and in what\nmanner was it obtained by you.\n\n11. Vasishtha replied:\u2014The supreme soul of infinite manifestations\nexists by itself; it passes through and supports the whole in the form\nof vacuity and understanding, and as light to all living beings.\n\n12. From him who remains the same (unaltered being) in his rest and\nmotion, the great Vishnu was born, like a moving wave on the quiet\nwaters of the sea.\n\n13. Then was Brahm\u00e1 produced from the lotus of his heart, having the\nmount Meru for its pericarp, and the points of the compass for its\npetals, and the stars for its pistils.\n\n14. He being beset by gods and sages acquainted with the Vedas and\ntheir significations, created all the worlds and the minds with their\nvarious thoughts.\n\n15. He then created the groups of men in the Bh\u00e1rata division (India)\nin a corner of Jambudw\u00edpa (Asia), and subjected them to all manner of\ndiseases and afflictions.\n\n16. They are also troubled with the possession and want of many\nthings, and their subjection to dangers and diseases. Here all species\nof created beings are subjected to a variety of tribulations and\nafflictions.\n\n17. The lord and creator of worlds, seeing the misery of these people,\nfelt compassion for them, as a father does for his children.\n\n18. He then pondered within himself for a moment with intensity of\nthought and for the good of all creatures, how to exterminate the\nmisery of these beings who were subjected to death and despair.\n\n19. With this thought the lord god (Brahm\u00e1), established himself the\nrules of austerity, piety, charity, veracity and pilgrimage.\n\n20. Having established these, the lord and creator again thought within\nhimself, how to make an end of the many miseries of the men he had\ncreated.\n\n21. He thought upon self-extinction as the Supreme bliss, which was\nobtainable only through a knowledge of the Deity, and whereby man\nmight be exempted from repeated births and deaths.\n\n22. It was divine knowledge, he thought, the only means of men\u2019s\ncrossing over (the ocean) of this world; but austerity, charity and\npilgrimage were no means to it. (But mere preparatives to knowledge).\n\n23. Upon this said he \u201cI will immediately make a new and sure bridge\nfor the salvation of men and for their liberation from pain.\u201d\n\n24. Having thought so, the lord Brahm\u00e1 sitting on the lotus, meditated\nin his mind, and produced me from himself.\n\n25. Being thus produced, I stood forthwith in the presence of my\nprogenitor, as a wave rising from the sea leans towards it.\n\n26. I then bowed down to the god who held a water-pot in one hand and\na rosary in the other, with a pitcher and a bead of seeds in my either\nhand, and was thus addressed by him.\n\n27. Come my son said he, and then holding me with his hand, made me sit\non the northern petal of his lotus of truth, which shone as bright as\nthe moon amidst the silvery clouds.\n\n28. Wearing the skin of an antelope, Brahm\u00e1 my father, spoke to me who\nwas in the like habit, with the voice of a gander addressing a stork\n(_i.e._ a talkative person addressing a mute one).\n\n29. He said \u201cI will for a moment overpower thy ficklemindedness under\na mist of insensibility, as a dark cloud overshadows the disk of the\nmoon.\u201d\n\n30. It was under this imprecation that I lost my reason and forgot\nevery thing, even the clear idea I had of God.\n\n31. I then became as helpless as one out of his wits, and came to be\nafflicted with distress and sorrow like an indigent person.\n\n32. Ah woeful is this world! said I, and how came evil to dwell in it?\nWith these thoughts I remained in silence (pondering on the origin of\nevil).\n\n33. Then he my father spoke to me saying: Ah my son, why art thou so\nafflicted? Ask of me the remedy for thy affliction, and thou shalt\nbecome happy.\n\n34. Then the lord creator of all peoples was asked by me, seated as I\nhad been on the gold-coloured leaflet of the lotus, about the medicine\nof worldly woes.\n\n35. How came, said I, O my lord, this world to be so full of misery,\nand how can people get rid of it, is what I ask of thee (to know).\n\n36. I then learnt the most holy wisdom which Br\u00e1hman my father\ndelivered to me, and following his advice, I became quite composed (in\nmy mind).\n\n37. Then the Creator of the world and revealer of all causes, seeing me\nknowing the knowable and restored to my own natural state said:\u2014\n\n38. I had turned thee to insanity my son, by an illusion, in order\nto make thee an enquirer into the essence of true knowledge for the\nwelfare of mankind.\n\n39. Now art thou released from the curse of illusion, and arrived to\nthy highest state of understanding. Thou hast become as one soul (with\nthe Supreme), and art as pure gold (after its purification from dross).\n\n40. Now shut thy heart against the world, and proceed to the land of\nBharata on the surface of the earth for the good of mankind.\n\n41. There employ thyself to ceremonial duties to the best of thy\nknowledge; and advise others to ritual acts in their proper order (of\nexoteric faith).\n\n42. But such as are disgusted (with the world) in their hearts, and are\nrational with their elevated understandings, are to be counseled to\nesoteric knowledge which confers true felicity (to man).\n\n43. Being thus appointed by him who was born in the lotus, I continue\nto abide herein throughout the succession of beings. (_i.e._ for ages).\n\n44. I have no duty to perform here, but live while I have to live free\nfrom all cares. I do my acts always with as tranquil a mind as it were\nin a state of sleep; I do my works with the body; but I do nothing here\nwith my soul (which is fixed in God).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE INQUIRER AND LECTURER.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:\u2014\n\nI have thus related to you fully about the descent of knowledge on\nearth, with the reason of my birth and the intention of the lotus born\nBrahm\u00e1 (in making me his apostle).\n\n2. Now R\u00e1ma, as you are eager to learn the transcendental knowledge,\nand feel so great an anxiety for it in your mind, it must be the effect\nof your pristine merit.\n\n3. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014How was it sir, that the Supreme lord felt a desire to\nsend down knowledge on earth after his creation of it (and not along\nwith it?)\n\n4. Vasishtha replied:\u2014This Brahm\u00e1 is in his own nature the same with\nthe Supreme Brahm, and is born in him, as a billow is born of the\nwaters of the deep. (The co-eternal _logos_).\n\n5. This great lord saw the imperfection of his creation, and saw its\nwhole course (at one view) in times past, present and future. (The\nperversion of mankind subsequent to their fall).\n\n6. He saw the decay of ceremonial rites after the end of the Satya\n(golden) and other ages, and considering the error to which men were to\nfall afterward, he felt pity for their states (for want of sacrifices).\n\n7. Then the Lord thought of endowing me with true knowledge, and sent\nme on the surface of the earth for dispelling the ignorance of mankind.\n\n8. Like me he has sent also some other great sages here, as Sanat\nKum\u00e1ra, N\u00e1rada and many others also.\n\n9. He has sent them all for the redemption of mankind from the fetters\nof their ignorance by a series of meritorious acts, and their progress\nin divine knowledge also.\n\n10. These great sages seeing at the end of the past golden age, the\ngradual decay of the holy ritualistic rites on earth:\n\n11. They created the rulers of earth at different divisions of the\nland, for regulating the course of duties, and observing their proper\nlimits (of action).\n\n12. They have made many works on the traditional law and sacrificial\nrules to be observed on earth, and many appropriate provisions for the\naccomplishment of religious and temporal duties (in the smritis).\n\n13. But in the revolution of time, all these duties became slack in\ntheir course, and men have no other thought except that of seeking\ntheir daily maintenance.\n\n14. Every day disputes are rising among the land-owners on account of\ntheir estates and properties, and the people are subjected to various\npenalties in large numbers.\n\n15. In such a state, it is not possible for the rulers to rule over\ntheir states without fighting with one another, when they with their\nsubjects are inevitably reduced to wretchedness (by warfare).\n\n16. In order to remove the impotence (of such princes), and to lead\nthem to a comprehensive view of things, we have prescribed to them many\nexcellent precepts of knowledge.\n\n17. It was the spiritual knowledge which had been at first propounded\nto princes; but it came afterwards to be known under the title of royal\nscience (polity).\n\n18. This royal science is of a recondite nature, and is also the best\nkind of spiritual knowledge. Many kings have been set beyond the reach\nof calamity by a knowledge of this science.\n\n19. It is after many such fair-famed princes that have gone by, that\nyour mighty self was begotten by the present king Dasaratha.\n\n20. O slayer of your enemies, I find a very agreeable and holy kind of\napathy growing spontaneously in your most clear understanding.\n\n21. There is another kind of cold-heartedness, O R\u00e1ma, which is caused\n(by some sorrow) in the minds of the virtuous and reasonable men, that\nis styled their casual indifference.\n\n22. But your unprecedented and astonishing apathy, which is produced\nwithout any cause and by your reason only, is called real stoicism by\nthe wise.\n\n23. Seeing the obnoxiousness of worldly things, what man will not grow\naverse to them? The best displacency to them, is what rises in the mind\nof one from his own judgment.\n\n24. They are reckoned as great men and greatly wise also, whose\nindifference springs without any cause (of detestation to the world),\nand whose minds are clear (of all gloomy thoughts).\n\n25. One whose mind feels a disgust (to the world) from its own\njudgement and nice discrimination (of things), is as graceful to see as\nthe youthful bridegroom adorned with chaplets of flowers.\n\n26. They are esteemed as the best of men, who betake themselves to\nindifference after judicious consideration of the worldly troubles.\n\n27. It must be by one\u2019s repeated and judicious examination of the\ninward and outward illusions (of this world), that he should forcibly\nwithdraw himself from them.\n\n28. Who is there that feels not an aversion to worldliness at the\ndoleful sight of a funeral event? It is that aversion however, which is\nborn of itself that is highly commendable.\n\n29. I see you are sincerely indifferent, and reaching the acme of true\ngreatness. You are worthy of the best knowledge as is the moist earth\nof receiving the seeds.\n\n30. It is by the grace of the Lord God and Supreme spirit, that a lucky\nunderstanding like yours, naturally inclines to reason.\n\n31. It is by performance of ritual duties and observance of the\nprescribed rules, that the demerits of former births are expunged.\n\n32. Upon expurgation of former demerits, the understanding turns of\nitself to take cognizance of spiritual matters, like the simultaneous\nflight of the crow towards the falling fruit of the palm.\n\n33. But those that are devoted only to ritual acts, are like persons\nplunged in an eddy, wherein they are whirled up and down until they\ncome to perceive the state of supreme (felicity).\n\n34. Seeing this (illusory) state of the world, a man must shake off the\ndelusion of his worldly-mindedness, just as the elephant breaks loose\nfrom his fetters.\n\n35. It is too intricate, O R\u00e1ma! to understand the course of this\nboundless world, and not even the greatest of embodied beings (as man)\ncan know it without true knowledge.\n\n36. Know, O support of Raghu\u2019s race! that men of great understandings\nhave got over the unfordable ocean of the world by means of the raft of\ntheir knowledge and reason.\n\n37. Now hear with attention and steadiness of your mind, this rational\nknowledge for your deliverance from the flood of this world.\n\n38. The unceasing excitements of the senses and the fears and miseries\nof the world, will continually disturb the mind, without the remedy of\nright reason.\n\n39. There is naught beside rational knowledge, that can enable holy men\nto endure the afflictions of the opposite extremes of heat and cold and\nwind and rain.\n\n40. The incessant cares and miseries which befal to men at every step,\nserve sometimes to torment the ignorant mind as a flame of fire burns\naway the straw.\n\n41. But the troubles of this world can not afflict the wise man, who\nknows the knowable, and discerns all things (in their true light); just\nas it is impossible for the flame of fire to burn down a wood drenched\nby the rains.\n\n42. The man knowing the truth resembles the firm arbor of the oak\n(Kalpa), which no whirlwind of disease or distress, raised by the hot\nwinds of this desert of the world, has the power to upset.\n\n43. The intelligent man who has a mind to know the truth, must\ndiligently serve his wise preceptor with loving regard.\n\n44. The sayings of the well-minded preceptor who is asked about\nanything, must be carefully preserved in the mind, as a piece of fine\nmuslin receives the dye (with which it is dyed).\n\n45. O best of the eloquent, you must not receive the instruction of\none unacquainted with truth himself; whoever asks him anything is the\ngreatest of fools.\n\n46. Whoever does not carefully attend to the words of the truth-telling\npreceptor who is asked about anything, is the basest of men.\n\n47. He is the best inquirer who makes his enquiry of one after\nascertaining by his deeds whether he knows the knowable or not.\n\n48. But he is reckoned a vile inquirer and incapable of knowing great\nthings, who makes a boyish query without ascertaining the lecturer\u2019s\n(qualifications).\n\n49. The wise man when asked, will reply to him who is able to\ncomprehend the antecedent and subsequent propositions, and is possessed\nof a good understanding; but he should make no answer to a vile brutish\nbeing.\n\n50. The preceptor who gives his lecture without examining the capacity\nof the inquirer to grasp his meaning, is pronounced unwise by the\nlearned.\n\n51. O delight of Raghu\u2019s race! this our meeting is a very congenial one\nand well adapted to each other, wherein you as inquirer are an admirer\nof virtue, and I the speaker, am well acquainted (with the subject).\n\n52. You that understand the meaning of words, should well consider all\nwhat I tell you, and take them to your heart.\n\n53. You are truly great and disgusted with the world, and know the\ntruth among mankind; whatever is spoken to you must be impressed in\nyour mind as the red dye on muslin.\n\n54. You by your attention to what I say and discrimination of spiritual\nmatters, can make your understanding receive my instruction as the\nwaters reflect the sun-light.\n\n55. Receive all that I say and store them diligently in your mind; or\nelse it is useless to ask me anything.\n\n56. The mind, O R\u00e1ma! is as fickle as an ape in the forest, correct it\ncarefully and attend to spiritual instruction.\n\n57. Keep yourself always from the injudicious and ignorant, and those\naddicted to the company of wicked people, and honour the virtuous.\n\n58. It is by association with good people that we can gain wisdom,\nwhich resembles a tree yielding the fruits both of enjoyment and\nliberation (_i.e._, both of worldly and future good).\n\n59. There are four guards said to keep watch at the gate of Liberation,\nnamely: peace, judgment, contentment and the society of the good.\n\n60. All these or three or two of them are to be attended with care,\nbecause they shall open to you the door leading to the abode of\nliberation.\n\n61. Or at last one of them is to be resorted to with diligence and even\nat the expense of one\u2019s life; because by securing one of these a man\ncan reconcile and gain all the four (to his favour).\n\n62. The wise man is the receptacle of all _S\u00e1stras_ and _Srutis_, of\nall knowledge and austerity, and is a gem on earth, as the sun is the\nreceptacle of light (and gem of heaven).\n\n63. The dull understanding of the senseless man becomes as stiff as a\n(motionless) block, and like the frozen water becoming as hard as stone.\n\n64. Your good nature and good qualities, O R\u00e1ma! and the counsels of\nthe learned in the _S\u00e1stras_, have made you sit here with a heart\nblooming like lotus at the rising sun.\n\n65. Your lifted ears to hear these wise lectures, have enabled you to\nrepress your thoughts; as the music of the lute attracts the mind of\nthe deer.\n\n66. Now secure, O R\u00e1ma! the treasures of peace and good nature by your\npractice of indifference of which there is no decay.\n\n67. Your knowledge of the attainment of liberation will be increased by\nyour attending to the S\u00e1stras and the society of good men, as also by\nyour practice of austerity and self subjection.\n\n68. You must know that, it is the study of divine knowledge with a\nclear understanding, that is a sure remedy against ignorance.\n\n69. Know this world to be a poisonous plant and seat of dangers. It\ninfects the ignorant at all times, unless one will take the pains to\ndispel his darkness.\n\n70. Avarice accompanied by ignorance moves within the heart in a\nserpentine course, and expands and contracts it by turns like the\nbellows of a blacksmith.\n\n71. The true light of things dawns only in the minds of the wise, as\nthe gentle moon appears to sight only in the clear and cloudless sky.\n\n72. He is truly called a man who can judge (the truth) by the major and\nminor propositions, whose mind is expanded and fraught with brilliant\ningenuity.\n\n73. R\u00e1ma! the clear wisdom of your mind, makes you shine as the full\nmoon dispelling the darkness of the cloudless sky by her cooling and\ntranslucent beams.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n GREATNESS OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nR\u00e1ma! I honor you as one of a perfect mind. You know what to ask, and\nunderstand what is spoken to you. I will therefore go on speaking\nrespectfully to you.\n\n2. Be still to attend to knowledge by keeping your mind fixed in\nyourself, and being freed from pride and passions, incline yourself to\npure truth.\n\n3. You are possessed of all the qualities of an enquirer, and I those\nof the speaker, in as much as there are gems in the ocean.\n\n4. You have gained my son the _insouciance_ which is cognate with\nreason, like the humidity of the moonstone bearing its correlation with\nthe gentle beams of the moon.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma! your long and early practiced pure virtues and good qualities,\nhave raised your fame, as the long stretching white fibers of the stalk\nexalt the spotless lotus.\n\n6. Now hear the words I tell you R\u00e1ma; for you alone are fit to receive\nthem, as the moon only is able to open the _Kumuda_ petals.\n\n7. Whatever business or investigation is undertaken by any body, it\nmust be brought to a happy close, tending to his peace and tranquility\n(or to his rest and quiet).\n\n8. Had not there been the solace of philosophy for men of good\nunderstanding, what rational being could dare to bear the misery\nbrought on in this world by ignorance.\n\n9. All the faculties of the mind are absorbed in the contemplation of\nthe Supreme, like the dissolution of the rocks of boundary mountains by\nthe solar heat at the end of the (_Kalpa_) world.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma! the intolerable cholic pain caused by this venomous world,\nis healed only by _yoga_ meditation, as the poison of snake-biting is\nremoved by _Garuda_ incantations.\n\n11. The capacity of _yoga_ is obtained by discussion of the S\u00e1stras in\nthe company of good people, which alone can furnish us with the great\ncharm of spiritual knowledge.\n\n12. It must be owned that we lessen our woes by acting with reason:\ntherefore reasonable men are never to be looked upon with disregard.\n\n13. The reasoning man gets released from his worldly sickness, and\nquits his frame which is full of diseases, as a snake casts off his\ntime worn slough; and looks with a placid mind and calm composure upon\nthe magic scenes of the world. Hence the fully wise man is not subject\nto the misery of the imperfectly wise.\n\n14. The rough and uneven pleasure of the world is but a disease to men,\nand stings them like a snake. It cuts them as a sword, and pierces them\nas a spear. It binds them fast as by a rope, and burns them as with\nthe fire, and blindfolds their understanding as in the darkness of\nthe night. It makes them as prostrate and dull as a slab of stone. It\ndestroys one\u2019s prudence and lowers his position. It casts them into the\npit of error, and torments them with avarice. Thus there is almost no\nkind of trouble which does not betide worldly minded men.\n\n15. Worldliness is as dangerous a disease as cholera, which unless it\nis healed in time, is sure to trouble its patient with the torments of\nhell:\u2014\n\n16. Such as those caused by the eating of stones, wounds of swords and\nspears; being pelted with stones, burnt by fire, and numbed by frost;\nloosing of limbs, besmearing the body with blood as with sandal paste;\nby being bored by worms as worm-eaten trees, and pricked in the body\nby pikes and broomsticks, or pierced by the fiery shafts and bolts\ncontinually falling in battle. By toiling and moiling in the sun and\nworking in cold and rain as in a summer fountain house; or remaining\ndumb and deaf and without rest or sleep, and finally by loosing the\nhead (in war or penalty).\n\n17. Under thousands of such intolerable pangs of worldly life, no one\nshould remain negligent of his release from this state; but ought to\nthink that it is his reflection in the S\u00e1stras only, that can produce\nhis real good.\n\n18. Look here R\u00e1ma! on these great sages and Rishis, these Br\u00e1hmans and\nprinces, who having fortified themselves by the armour of wisdom, and\nbeing liable to no pain or grief; have yet engaged themselves to the\narduous affairs of this world with minds as placid as yours.\n\n19. Moreover there are many of the best of men, who with their\nspiritual light and pure understandings, reside in this world as the\ngods Hari, Hara and Brahm\u00e1, who were above all concerns and fluctuating\ndesires of life.\n\n20. The journey of this world is delightful to one, who after the\nremoval of his errors and dispersion of the cloud of his ignorance, has\ncome to the knowledge of truth.\n\n21. That the serenity of the mind and calm repose of the heart being\nsecured, all the senses are subjected to peace, and every thing is\nviewed in an equal light; and this knowledge of the truth gives a\ndelight to our journey in this world.\n\n22. Know also that, this body of ours is the car, and these organs are\nits horses, our breathings are the winds blowing upon it, and the mind\nis the driver that feels the delight of driving; the atomic soul is the\nrider who is conscious of wandering about the world. The knowledge of\nthis truth makes our earthly journey a pleasant one.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n ON PEACE AND TRANQUILITY OF MIND.\n\n\nIntelligent men that have seen the spirit, fix their sight upon it, and\nrove about in the world as persons of great and elevated souls.\n\n2. They (that are liberated in this life), neither grieve nor wish nor\nask for aught of good or evil (in this world). They do their works as\nif doing nothing (_i.e._ with indifference).\n\n3. Those that rely on theirselves, remain both quietly, as well as act\ntheir parts with a calm serenity (of their minds); and take no concern\neither for what is noxious or delectable to them.\n\n4. Their coming and not coming, going and not going, doing or not\ndoing, and speaking or not speaking are alike indifferent to them.\n\n5. Whatever acts or sights may appear pleasant or disgusting to any\nbody, cease to affect them in any way after they have come to know\ntheir God (as the Author of all good).\n\n6. The mind getting rid of its desires feels a sweet composure\nassociated with a bliss as if descending from the heavenly orb of the\nmoon all about it.\n\n7. By being unmindful of worldly affairs and regardless of all its\nexcitements, the soul is filled with a felicity resembling the\nambrosial waters in the moon.\n\n8. He who ceases to act his magical parts (in this playground of the\nearth), and desists from following his inclinations and childish\npranks, shines forth in his spiritual light.\n\n9. Such are the powers gained from spiritual knowledge, and by no other\nmeans whatever.\n\n10. Therefore should a man try to seek and know and adore the Supreme\nsoul, by means of his reasoning powers during life.\n\n11. It is the concordance of one\u2019s belief with the precepts of the\nS\u00e1stra and his instructor, joined with his constant meditation, that\ncan give him a full view of the Supreme spirit.\n\n12. The fool slighting the S\u00e1stra and its instructions, and\ndisregarding the counsels of great men, are exposed to difficulties and\ndangers from which they can have no release.\n\n13. There is no disease nor poison, nor trouble nor affliction, so\npainful to one in this earth, as the ignorance which is bred in himself.\n\n14. Those whose intellects are a little purified, will find this work\nto be of greater efficacy to dispel their ignorance than any other\n_S\u00e1stra_.\n\n15. This S\u00e1stra with its beautiful examples and pleasing lessons and\nwant of discordance, should be diligently attended to by every body who\nis a friend to good sayings and their senses.\n\n16. Want of dignity, inextricable difficulties, baseness and\ndegeneracy, are all offsprings of ignorance, as the thorns are the\noffshoots of the prickly _Ketaki_ plant.\n\n17. It is far better, O R\u00e1ma! to rove about a begging with a pot in\nhand to the abodes of the vile Chand\u00e1las, than lead a life deadened by\nignorance.\n\n18. Rather dwell in dark dismal cells or dry dreary wells, and in the\nhollow of trees, or remain as solitary blind worms (under the ground),\nthan labour under the miseries of ignorance.\n\n19. The man receiving the light leading to his liberation, will never\nfall into the darkness of error or gloom of death.\n\n20. So long will chill frost of penury continue to contract the lotus\nof humanity, as the clear light of reason does not shine upon the mind\nlike the sun.\n\n21. One must know the true nature of the soul both from his preceptor\nand the evidence of the S\u00e1stras, as also from friends like ourselves,\nfor the sake of liberating himself from the misery of the world.\n\n22. Try O R\u00e1ma! to imitate those that are liberated in their life\ntime, who are free to roam about like the gods Hari, Hara, and others,\nand as the holy sages among Br\u00e1hmans.\n\n23. Here (on earth) our miseries are as endless as atoms, and our\nhappiness as little as a drop of water on the stalk of a straw;\ntherefore do not fix your sight upon that little happiness which is\nbeset by misery.\n\n24. But let the intelligent man diligently apply himself to the\nattainment of that state of endless happiness which is free from pain\nand constitutes his highest consummation.\n\n25. They are reckoned the best of men and deserving of consummation,\nwhose minds are freed from the fever (of worldly cares), and attached\nto the transcendental state (of ultimate beatitude).\n\n26. Those base minded mortals that are satisfied with their enjoyments,\neating and drinking, and the pleasures of their worldly possessions,\nare reckoned as stark-blind frogs (in a well).\n\n27. All who are attached to the company of imposters and wicked men,\nas of those that are addicted to the practice of evil deeds, and are\nenemies in the garb of friendship, and are given up to gluttony:\u2014\n\n28. Such foolish men of mistaken and stupid minds fall into the hardest\nof hardships, to the misery of miseries, and the horror of horrors and\nthe hell of hells.\n\n29. Happiness and misery destroy and succeed each other by turns, and\nare as fleeting as flashes of lightnings. Hence it is impossible to be\nhappy for ever.\n\n30. Those great souls who are indifferent and well judging like\nyourself, are known as the most honourable of men, and worthy alike\nboth of temporal enjoyments and spiritual emancipation.\n\n31. By reliance upon right reasoning joined with a habit of\ndispassionateness, men are enabled to get over the dark and dangerous\ntorrents of this world.\n\n32. No man of reason should allow himself to sleep (in negligence)\namidst the illusions of the world, well knowing their noxious property\nto derange the understanding.\n\n33. Whoso remains neglectful in his worldliness, resembles a man\nsleeping negligent on a grassy bed when his house is on fire.\n\n34. What being arrived at, there is no returning from it; and what\nbeing gained, there is no cause of sorrowing; that state is undoubtedly\nattainable by divine knowledge only; and is a certain truth.\n\n35. Should there be no such future state, yet there is no harm to\nbelieve in it; but if there be such a state, its belief will save you\nfrom the (dreadful) ocean of this world.\n\n36. Whenever a man is inclined to think on the means of his salvation,\nhe is sure to be soon entitled to his liberation.\n\n37. The undecaying, unerring and fearless state of tranquility, is no\nwhere to be had in the three worlds, without one\u2019s union (with the\nSupreme).\n\n38. Having gained that best of gains, no one is liable to the pain from\nwhich no wealth, friend or relation can save any body.\n\n39. Neither the actions of one\u2019s hands and feet in his offerings and\npilgrimage to distant lands, nor the bodily pains of asceticism, nor\nhis refuge in a holy place can serve his salvation.\n\n40. It is only by means of one\u2019s best exertions and the fixing of his\nmind to one object, as also by the subjection of his desires, that the\nultimate state (of bliss) can be arrived at.\n\n41. So it is by means of discrimination, reasoning and ultimate\nascertainment of truth, that a man may avoid the snares of misery, and\nattain his best state.\n\n42. One sitting at ease in his seat and meditating within himself (the\nnature of the soul), attains the blissful state, which is free from\nsorrow and future birth.\n\n43. All holy men are known to be situated beyond the bounds of the\nfrail pleasures (of this life); their optimum quiescence is reckoned\nthe ultimate bliss.\n\n44. They have given up all thoughts both of humanity and heaven\n(_i.e._ of both worlds), which are devoid of true felicity as the\nmirage is void of water.\n\n45. Therefore should one think of subduing his mind, and resort to\npeace and contentment as the means (to happiness); these joined with an\nunbounded equanimity produce true happiness.\n\n46. It is not to be had by sitting (quietly at home), or going up and\ndown (from place to place); and neither by wandering (in pilgrimage),\nnor prostrating (before the altar). It is not to be acquired by the\nR\u00e1kshasas, demons, deities or ignorant-men.\n\n47. That ultimate felicity is born of and obtainable from the peace of\nmind: it is the fruit of the high arbor of reason from its blossom of\npeace.\n\n48. Those that are engaged in worldliness but do not mix in it like the\nall-illumining sun, are known as the best of men.\n\n49. The mind that is at peace and rest, that is clear and free from\nerrors, and without any attempt or desire, doth neither forsake nor\nwish for the world.\n\n50. Hear me tell you of the warders at the gate of salvation in their\norder, some one of which being secured, one may have his entrance into\nit.\n\n51. Thirst after pleasure is a state of protracted disease, and this\nworld is full of mirage (all parched and dry). It is equanimity alone\nthat can cool this dryness as the moistening beams of the moon.\n\n52. It is quiescence which leads to all good and is reckoned the best\nstate of being. Quietism is felicity, it is peace and the preventive of\nerror.\n\n53. The man who lives content with his quiet and a calm clearness of\nhis soul, with a mind fraught with stoicism, makes friends of his\nenemies.\n\n54. Those whose minds are adorned with the moon light of quietism, feel\na flux of the beams of purity rising in them like the hoary waves of\nthe milky ocean.\n\n55. Those holy men who have the lotus-like flower of quietism growing\nin the lotiform receptacle of their hearts, are said to have a\nsecondary heart like the two _pericardiums_ of the god Hari (holding\nBrahm\u00e1 in one of them).\n\n56. They whose untainted faces shine as the moon with the lustre of\nquiescence, are to be honoured as the luminaries of their families,\nand ravishers of the senses of others by the charming beauty of their\ncountenance.\n\n57. Whatever is beautiful in the three worlds, and in the shape of\nimperial prosperity and grandeur, there is nothing in them that can\nafford a happiness equal to that of quietism.\n\n58. Whatever misery, anxiety and intolerable difficulty (may overtake a\nman), they are lost in the tranquil mind like darkness in the sun.\n\n59. The mind of no living being is so delighted with moon beams, as\nthat of the peaceful man from his heart-felt joy.\n\n60. The virtuous man that is calm and quiet, and friendly to all living\nbeings, feels the benign influence of highest truths appearing of\nthemselves in his mind.\n\n61. As all children whether good or bad, have a strict faith in their\nmother, so all beings here have a reliance on the man of an even\ndisposition.\n\n62. Neither does a cooling ambrosial draught nor the kind embrace of\nprosperity, afford such gratification to the soul, as one\u2019s inward\nsatisfaction of the mind.\n\n63. Whether afflicted by diseases or disasters, or dragged by the rope\nof avarice, do you bear up yourself, O R\u00e1ma, by the equanimity of your\nmind.\n\n64. Whatever thou dost and eatest with the calm coolness of thy mind,\nall that is sweeter far to the soul than anything sweet to taste.\n\n65. The mind that is overpowered by the ambrosial flavour of quietism\nand desists from activity, may have the body lacerated (for a time),\nbut it will be filled up shortly.\n\n66. Neither imps nor goblins, demons or enemies, nor tigers nor snakes,\never annoy a peaceful man.\n\n67. He who has his mind and body well guarded by the invulnerable\narmour of meekness, can never be pierced by the shafts of adversity;\nbut remains as the thunder-stone impenetrable by arrows.\n\n68. The king seated in his palace is not so graceful to sight, as\nthe quiet peaceful man is graced by his equanimity and clearness of\nunderstanding.\n\n69. No one is so delighted at seeing a thing dearer than his life, as\nby the satisfaction which he feels at the sight of a contented and\npeaceful man.\n\n70. He who lives a holy life with his gentle and peaceful conduct, is\nsaid to be truly living in this world and no other.\n\n71. The sober minded, meek and honest man pleases every one by all that\nhe does, and as it were captivates all beings to himself.\n\n72. He is called the meek who neither feels pleasure or pain at the\nsight, touch or hearing and tasting of anything good or bad (to the\nsenses).\n\n73. He who is indifferent to all objects, and neither leaves nor longs\nfor any thing; but keeps his senses and appetites under subjection, is\ncalled a saint.\n\n74. Whoso knowing all things both internally as well as externally with\na clear understanding, attends and looks to his own concerns, he is\nverily said to be a saint.\n\n75. He whose mind is as calm as moon beams both at the approach of a\nfeast or fighting, and even at the moment of death, is said to be a\nsaint.\n\n76. Who though present at a place, neither rejoices nor murmurs at any\nthing, but remains as if he were absent from it, and conducts himself\nas quietly as if he were fast asleep; such a one is called a saint.\n\n77. He whose complaisant look casts a graceful nectarious radiance on\nall around him, is said to be a saint.\n\n78. Who feels a cool calmness within himself, and is not disturbed or\nimmerged in any state of life, and who though a layman is not worldly\nminded, such a man is termed a saint.\n\n79. He who takes not to his mind the tribulations of this life, however\nlong or great they may be, nor thinks this base (bodily frame) to be\nhimself, is known to be a saint.\n\n80. The man of the world who has a mind clear as the firmament, and not\ntainted (by worldliness), is said to be a saint.\n\n81. The quiet Platonic shines forth among sages and ascetics, among\npriests and princes, and among the mighty and learned.\n\n82. Great and meritorious men, whose minds are attached to Quietism,\nfeel a rest rising in their souls like the cooling beams of the moon.\n\n83. Quietism is the utmost limit of the assemblage of virtues, and the\nbest decoration of manliness; it shines resplendent in all dangers and\ndifficulties.\n\n84. Do you now, O R\u00e1ma! follow for your perfection in the way in which\nhigh-minded men have attained their perfect state, by holding fast on\nquietism as an imperishable virtue, preserved by the respectable, and\nnever to be lost or stolen by any.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n ON THE ASCERTAINMENT OF AN ARGUMENT.\n\n\nIt must be the duty of one, whose understanding is cleared and purified\nby a knowledge of the S\u00e1stras, to argue incessantly with a guide\nknowing how to reason aright.\n\n2. The understanding when sharpened by reasoning, comes to view the\ntranscendent state. It is reasoning which is the only best medicine for\nthe chronic disease of worldliness.\n\n3. The world is of the form of a wood of troubles, shooting in sprouts\nof endless desires which being once felled under the saw of reason,\nwill germinate no more.\n\n4. O wise R\u00e1ma! our understandings are shrouded under unconsciousness\nat the loss of our friends, at times of danger, and even of quiet. It\nis reason that is our only companion (at these times).\n\n5. There is no expedient for the learned and wise except reason; it is\nby means of reason that the minds of good people can avoid evil and\nsecure their good.\n\n6. All our strength and understanding, our valour and renown, and the\nends of our actions, result from our reasoning with the intelligent.\n\n7. Reason is the lamp to show us the right and wrong, and the\ninstrument for accomplishment of our desires:\u2014by reliance on right\nreason, one crosses over easily the wide ocean of the world.\n\n8. Pure reasoning like a strong lion, tears asunder the elephants\nof great error, which ravage the lotus beds of the mind (or mental\nfaculties).\n\n9. If ignorant men have at any time attained a better state in life, it\nwas all owing to the light of the lamp of their reasoning.\n\n10. Know O R\u00e1ghava that, dominion and fair prosperity, together with\nour enjoyments and eternal salvation, are all but fruits of the\ncelestial _Kalpa_ plant of reasoning.\n\n11. The minds of great men, which are expanded by reasoning here, are\nnever liable to be immerged under the currents of calamity (but float\nabove them) like gourds upon water.\n\n12. Those who conduct themselves with their intellects shining forth\nwith reason, become the recipients of its most liberal gifts.\n\n13. Want of reason is like the thorny and sour plant of _Karanja_\nsprouting forth with blossoms of woe, and growing in the brakes of\nignorant minds in order to shut out their hopes and prospects.\n\n14. Do you, O R\u00e1ghava! shake off the lethargy caused by your neglect\nof reasoning. This torpor darkens your vision as it were by the inky\npowder of collyrium, and maddens your mind as it were, by the ebriety\nof wine.\n\n15. The man of right judgment is not liable to fall into the long and\ndangerous maze of error (like others); but remains as a blaze of light\namidst the gloom (of ignorance).\n\n16. The reasoning faculties shine, as a bed of lotuses in the limpid\nlake of the mind: whoso has such a reasoning mind, exalts his head as\nhigh as the Him\u00e1layan height.\n\n17. The man having a dull mind and incapable of reasoning (of reason)\nas a flash of lightening, and like boys, sees false apparitions about\nhim.\n\n18. R\u00e1ma, you must shun at a distance the base unreasonable man, who\ngrows as plump as a _Khanda_ cane to cause sorrow and resembles the\nspring season to grow fresh weeds of evil.\n\n19. Whatever misdeeds, misconducts and mischances present themselves to\nman, they are all the effects of his want of the light of reason, and\nlay hold on him like ghosts appearing in the dark.\n\n20. O support of Raghu\u2019s race, do you shun at a distance the\nunreasonable man of the nature of a solitary wild tree, which comes to\nno good use (to mankind).\n\n21. The mind that is fraught with reason and devoid of the impatience\nattendant on worldly desires, feels the light of transcendent quietism\nshining in the soul with the full lustre of the moon.\n\n22. When the light of reason shines in any person, it imparts the\ncoolness and good grace of moon-beams to all things around him.\n\n23. The reasoning power of man accompanied with the flag of divine\nknowledge and the silvery flapper of good understanding, shines as\nmoon-light in the darkness of night.\n\n24. Men with the good grace of their reason, throw a radiance like that\nof the sun on all sides about them, and dispel the gloom of worldliness.\n\n25. Reasoning serves to destroy the false apparitions of errors which\npresent themselves to the minds of boys like ghosts in the sky at night.\n\n26. All things in the world appear as charming (as if they were\nrealities); but they are (in fact) but unrealities, and liken the clods\nof earth that are broken (to pieces) by the hammering stone of reason.\n\n27. Men are theirself tormenters by the false imagination of their own\nminds; it is reason alone that can drive away this inveterate spectre\nfrom the mind.\n\n28. Know the fruit of the high arbor of reason, to be the even,\nunobstructed, interminable and independent happiness called _Kaivalya_.\n\n29. It is by means of reason and its evident influence on the\ndeprivation of (physical) gratifications, that there rises an unshaken\nand exalted disinterestedness in the mind, like the cooling beams of\nthe moon.\n\n30. When the saint has reached his perfection by means of the elixir\nof judgment seated in his mind, he neither desires for more nor leaves\n(what he has).\n\n31. The mind relying on that state of equanimity and perceiving\nthe clear light (of truth within itself), has neither its fall nor\nelevation, but enjoys its inward expansion as that of vacuum for ever.\n\n32. One unconcerned with the world, neither gives nor receives any\nthing, nor feels himself elated or depressed at any event, but views\nevery thing as an indifferent spectator.\n\n33. He is neither torpidly cold nor does he dwell on anything\ninternally or externally. He is neither inactive nor merged in activity.\n\n34. He slights the loss of anything, and lives content with what he\nhas; he is neither depressed nor elevated; but remains as full as the\n(tideless) sea.\n\n35. It is in this manner that the high-souled and high-aspiring _Yogis_\nconduct themselves in this world, with their fullness (of joy) and\nliving as they are liberated in this life.\n\n36. These saintly sages having lived as long as they like (in this\nearth), abandon it at last, and gain their \u0915\u0948\u0935\u0932\u094d\u092f eternal unity (after\ndeath).\n\n37. The sapient man should intently consider within himself, who and\nwhose he is, what is his family and by whom he is surrounded, and think\non the remedy (of his worldliness).\n\n38. It is the king, O R\u00e1ma! who well knows the difficult and doubtful\nstate of the business (before him); and his success or failure depends\nsolely on his right judgment and on nothing else.\n\n39. It is the _dicta_ and _data_ established by the Veda and Ved\u00e1nta\nthat form the grounds of our evidence, and these are to be ascertained\nby our reason as by the help of a lamp in the gloom of night.\n\n40. The bright eye-sight of reason, is neither blinded by the darkness\n(of night), nor dimmed by the full blaze (of the day), even when it has\nto view things (situated) at a distance.\n\n41. He who is blind to reason is as one born blind, and a demented man\nis an object of universal pity; but the man with a reasoning soul is\nsaid to be possessed of divine eye-sight, and becomes victorious in all\nthings (he undertakes).\n\n42. The miraculous power of reason is acknowledged to be a divine\nattribute and an instrument to highest felicity; wherefore it is not to\nbe lost sight of for a moment.\n\n43. The man graced by reason is loved even by the great, as the\ndelicious and ripe mango fruit is delectable to all.\n\n44. Men with their minds illumed by the light of reason, are like\ntravellers acquainted with their way, and are not liable to pit falls\nof incessant danger and misery.\n\n45. Neither doth the sickman nor one beset by a hundred evils wail so\nbitterly, as the ignorant man whose soul is deprived of reason.\n\n46. Rather leap as a frog in the mud, or creep as a worm in the dirt,\nrather lie as a snake in a dark cell or crawl on the ground, than walk\nas a man devoid of reason.\n\n47. Therefore get rid of unreasonableness which is the abode of all\nyour dangers, is reprobated by the wise (as the bane of mankind), and\nis the terminus of all your calamities.\n\n48. Great men must always be in full possession of their reasoning,\nbecause those unsupported by their reason are liable to fall into the\npits of darkness.\n\n49. Let every one keep his soul under the control (of his own reason),\nand by this means, deliver the fawn of his mind from falling into the\nmirage of this world.\n\n50. It is the province of reasoning to consider logically in one\u2019s\nself, whence the evil, known as worldliness, had its rise.\n\n51. The thick mist of error is only for the continued misery of man,\nand it prevails on the stony minds of those that are demented by the\nloss of reason.\n\n52. The wise that hold fast on the truth and forsake all untruth in\nthis world, are yet unable to discern their true natures without the\naid of reason.\n\n53. It is by means of reason that one comes to the knowledge of truth;\nand by means of truth that he gets the peace of his mind; and it is the\ntranquility of the mind that dispels the misery of men.\n\n54. Now R\u00e1ma, do you take delight in such acts as may be productive of\nutility to the world, and whereby you may arrive to perfection. Weigh\nall things with the clear eye of reason, which will make you blessed\nfor ever.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n ON CONTENTMENT.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:\u2014Contentment is the chief good; contentment is\ncalled the (true) enjoyment; and the contented man, O thou destroyer of\nenemies, gets the best repose.\n\n2. Those who are happy with their prosperity of contentment, and\npossess the calm repose of their souls, are as holy saints, and think a\nsovereignty no better than a bit of rotten straw.\n\n3. Whoever retains a contented mind amidst all the affairs of the\nworld, he is never disturbed O R\u00e1ma, in adverse circumstances nor ever\ndejected (in his spirit).\n\n4. The saints that are satisfied with the ambrosial draught of\ncontentment, think the highest affluence and enjoyments (of the rich)\nbut poison (to their souls).\n\n5. Even the waves of liquid nectar fail to afford that pleasure, which\nthe sweetest taste of contentment\u2014the healer of all evils; gives to\nits possessor.\n\n6. Abandonment of unfruitful desires and calmness in those that are\nobtained, feeling no pain at and having no sense of pleasure (in any\nthing), constitute what is called contentment here below.\n\n7. Until the mind can enjoy the contentment rising spontaneously in the\nsoul of itself, so long will troubles continue to grow in it as briars\nand brambles in a bog.\n\n8. The mind cooled by calm contentment, and purified by the light of\nphilosophy, is always in its full bloom as the lotus under sun-beams.\n\n9. The ungoverned mind which is under the subjection of desires and\ndevoid of contentment, does not receive the light of knowledge, as a\nsoiled mirror takes no reflection of the face.\n\n10. The man whose mind is always bright with the sunshine of\ncontentment, does not shrivel itself like the lotus in the dark night\nof ignorance (or adversity).\n\n11. A man though poor, enjoys the happiness of sovereignty, who is\ndevoid of diseases and anxieties, and whose mind is contented.\n\n12. He is called a contented man, who does not long after what he is\nnot possessed of, and enjoys what he has in its right manner, and is\nalways graceful in his manners.\n\n13. There is a beauty shining in the face of one, whose mind has the\nsatisfaction of contentment, the fulness of magnanimity and the purity\nof thoughts like that of the milky ocean in it.\n\n14. Let a man entertain his self-possession within himself, and abandon\nhis craving of all things, by reliance on his manly exertions.\n\n15. He whose mind is full with the ambrosia of contentment and a calm\nand cool understanding, acquires a perpetual composure within himself,\nas it were by the cooling beams of the moon.\n\n16. All great fortunes wait on him whose mind is strengthened by\ncontentment, as if they were his servants, and as they remain in\nattendance upon a king.\n\n17. One remaining content and composed in himself, quells all his\nanxieties and cares, as the rains set down the dust of the earth.\n\n18. R\u00e1ma! a man shines by the contentment of his mind and the purity of\nhis conduct, as the cooling and spotless moon when she is full.\n\n19. No one receives so much delight from his accumulation of wealth,\nas he derives from the sight of the beautiful placid countenance (of a\ncontented person).\n\n20. Know, O thou delight of Raghu\u2019s race! that the best of men who are\ndecorated with grace of equanimity (the only quality that adorns the\nwise), are more honoured both by gods and sages than any.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n ON GOOD CONDUCT.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed saying:\u2014\n\nKnow, O highly intelligent R\u00e1ma! that the company of the virtuous is\neverywhere of the greatest benefit to men for their crossing over the\nocean of the world.\n\n2. It is the arbour of virtuous company that produces the fresh blossom\nof discrimination; which being cherished by high-souled men, yields to\nthem its fruits of prosperity.\n\n3. The society of the learned makes solitude appear as company, and the\nevil of death as good as a festivity; and converts a difficulty to ease.\n\n4. It is the society of the virtuous which wards off all disasters,\nthat like the frost, invade the lotus beds of our hearts; and baffle\nthe icy breath of ignorance (which deadens our souls).\n\n5. Know the society of the virtuous to be the best improver of the\nunderstanding, the destroyer of the tree of ignorance; and remover of\nall our mental diseases.\n\n6. The society of the virtuous produces the light of reason, which is\nas charmingly fair as a cluster of flowers after its being washed by\nrain-water.\n\n7. It is the influence of virtuous company that teaches us the best\nmode of life, which is never impaired or obstructed by anything, and is\never full in itself.\n\n8. Let no man ever keep himself from the association of the virtuous,\nthough he is involved in utmost distress, and cast in irremediable\ncircumstances.\n\n9. The society of the virtuous, lends a light to the right path. It\ndestroys the internal darkness of man, by the rays of the sun of\nknowledge.\n\n10. Whoever has bathed in the cold and clear stream of good company\nis not in need of the merit derived from acts of charity, pilgrimage,\nausterity and sacrifice.\n\n11. Whoever has the society of virtuous men, and whose lives are free\nfrom passions and sins, and doubts and the knots (of scruples in their\nhearts), of what use is (the observance of) austerity, or (performance\nof) pilgrimage (to him)?\n\n12. Blessed are the peaceful in their minds, who are viewed with as\ngreat an ardour by people, as poor men fondly dote upon gems and jewels.\n\n13. The intelligent mind with its gracefulness derived from good\ncompany, shines always as the goddess of riches in the company of fairy\nnymphs.\n\n14. Therefore that blessed man is renowned as having attained the crown\nof a clear understanding, who never abstains himself from the company\nof the holy.\n\n15. Hence all unscrupulous believers, holy men and those who are\nrevered by people, are to be served by all means for crossing over the\nocean of the world.\n\n16. Surely do they serve as dry fuel to hell-fire, who neglect the\ncompany of the saints, which is known as rain water to extinguish the\nflames of hell.\n\n17. The medicine of holy association, serves to allay entirely all the\nafflictions consequent to poverty and death and tribulations of worldly\naffairs.\n\n18. Contentment, society of the virtuous, ratiocination and quietism,\nare the several means for crossing over the ocean of the world by\nmankind.\n\n19. Contentment is reckoned as the best gain, good company the right\ncourse, reasoning the true knowledge, and quietism the highest bliss\n(of man).\n\n20. These are the four surest means to break off the trammels of the\nworld, and whoever is practiced in these, has surely passed over the\nerroneous waters of the terrestrial sea.\n\n21. Learn, O best of the intelligent! that the practice of some one\nof these pure virtues, leads to an assuetude of all the four (cardinal\nvirtues).\n\n22. Every one of these separately is a leader to the others; wherefore\ndiligently apply yourself to one of these for your success in getting\nthem all.\n\n23. Association with the good, contentment, right reasoning, and good\njudgment, joined with peace and tranquility, serve as cargo-ships in\nthe ocean of the world.\n\n24. All prosperity attends on him who is possessed of reason,\ncontentment, quietism and the habit of keeping good company, like the\nfruits of the _kalpa_ tree (satisfying every desire).\n\n25. The man possessed of reasoning, contentment, quietude, and a\nproclivity to keep good company, is attended by every grace, as all the\ndigits unite in the full moon.\n\n26. The happy mind which is fraught with contentment, quietness,\nreasoning power, and a tendency to good company, meets with the\nprosperity and success, as they attend on kings (who are) guided by\n(the counsels of) good ministers.\n\n27. Therefore, O delight of Raghu\u2019s race! do you bravely govern your\nmind, and always practise with diligence some one of these virtues (for\nyour conduct in life).\n\n28. Exert your best manliness to subdue your elephantine mind, and know\nthat until you have mastered one of these cardinal virtues, you can\nmake no progress (in holiness).\n\n29. It must be, O R\u00e1ma! that you shall have to set your heart to work\nby the exertion of your manliness and the gnashing of your teeth, for\nyour success in meritorious deeds.\n\n30. For whether you be a god or _yaksha_ or a man or an arbor, you\ncannot, O long-armed R\u00e1ma! have a better course till then (_i.e._\nbefore mastering one of these qualities).\n\n31. As soon as one of these virtues is strengthened and made fruitful\nin you, it will serve to weaken the force of the faults of your\nungovernable mind.\n\n32. The cultivation of virtues leads to their full growth and\nsuppression of vice; but the fostering of vice will (on the other\nhand) conduce to the increase of vices and suppression of good\nqualities.\n\n33. The mind is a wilderness of errors, in which the stream of our\ndesires is running with full force, amidst its two banks of good and\nevil whereon we hold our stand.\n\n34. It bears away and throws the man on that bank which he strives to\nreach by his own exertion, therefore O R\u00e1ma, do as you like to reach to\neither shore.\n\n35. Now try by degrees with all the exertion of your manly force, to\nturn the course of your desires towards the happy shore in the forest\nof your mind; and know, O high-minded R\u00e1ma; that one\u2019s own disposition\nis as a rapid current to him, which must not be permitted to bear him\naway (to the perilous coast).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n ON THE CONTENTS OF THE WORK.\n\n\nThus, O progeny of Raghu! it is the reasoning soul that is worthy of\nattending to the words of wisdom, as a prince (is inclined to listen)\nto a discourse on polity.\n\n2. The clear and high-minded man, who has renounced the company of\nstupid folks, is capable of fair reasoning, as the clear sky has the\ncapacity of receiving the moon-light.\n\n3. You who are replete with the entire grace of this quality, should\nnow attend to the words, that I say, to remove the errors of your mind.\n\n4. He, the arbour of whose merits is bending down with the load of\nits fruits, feels a desire to hear these words for the sake of his\nsalvation.\n\n5. It is the noble minded only and not the base, that are receptacles\nof grand and holy sermons conferring the knowledge of their future\nstate.\n\n6. This collection consisting of thirty-two thousand stanzas, is deemed\nas containing the essence of the means conducing to liberation, and\nconferring the final annihilation (of our being).\n\n7. As a lighted lamp presents its light to every waking man, so does\nthis work effect the ultimate extinction of every person whether he\nwould like it or not.\n\n8. One\u2019s knowledge of this work whether by his own perusal or hearing\nof it from the rehearsal of others, tends to the immediate obliteration\nof his errors and augmentation of his delight, as it is done by the\nholy river of heaven (Ganges).\n\n9. As the fallacy of a snake in the rope is removed by examining it,\nso the fallacy of the reality of the world is removed by perusal of\nthis work, which gives peace to one who is vexed with and tired of the\nworld.\n\n10. It contains six books all fraught with sentences full of reason,\nand each distinct from the other in its import. It has many verses\ncontaining chosen examples on all subjects.\n\n11. The first book treats of Indifference, and causes the growth of\napathy (in the mind) like that of a tree in the desert soil.\n\n12. It contains one thousand and five hundred stanzas, which being well\nconsidered in the mind, must impart a purity to it like the lustre of a\ngem after its polish.\n\n13. The next book dwells on the conduct of one longing after his\nliberation, and contains a thousand slokas arranged in judicious order.\n\n14. It describes the nature of men desiring their liberation. Then\nfollows the book on the creation of the world, and filled with\nnarratives and examples (of various kinds).\n\n15. It has seven thousand stanzas teaching sound philosophy about the\nspectator and spectacle of the world in the forms of\u2014_I and thou_,\ndesignated the _ego_ and _non-ego_.\n\n16. It contains a description of the production of the world from its\nstate of non-existence. A diligent attention to this chapter will\nconvey a full knowledge of this world into the mind of the hearer.\n\n17. This _ego_ and _non-ego_, and this vast expanse with all the\nworlds, space and mountains, are (to be viewed) as having no form nor\nfoundation, and as there are no such things (in reality).\n\n18. There are no elements as the earth and others which exist in our\nfancy only, and are like phantoms appearing in a dream, or as aerial\ncastles and chimeras of the mind.\n\n20. They resemble the moving hills on the shore to one passing in a\nboat, without any actual movement in them; or liken the hobgoblins\nappearing to an unsound mind. Such is the appearance of the world\nwithout any seed or source or origin of its own.\n\n21. It is as the impression of a tale in the mind, or the sight of a\nchain of pearls in the sky, or taking a bracelet for its gold or a\nwave for the water. (_i.e._ Taking the appearance for its _cause_, or\nthe phenomena for the noumena).\n\n22. Or as the blueness of the sky is always apparent to sight without\nits reality, and evercharming to behold without the existence of any\ncolour in it.\n\n23. Thus whatever unreal wonders always appear to us in our dreams or\nin the sky, they are but the resemblances of a fire in a picture, which\nseems to be burning without having any fire in it.\n\n24. The word \u201cjagat\u201d or _passing_, is appropriately applied to the\ntransitory world, which passes like the sea with its heaving waves,\nappearing as a chain of lotus flowers in dancing.\n\n25. It is (as false) as one\u2019s imagination of a body of waters at a\nspot, from the sound of the ruddy geese (that live by rivers); and (as\nuseless) as a withered forest in autumn, when the leaves and fruits\nfall off, and yield neither shade nor luscious nutriment, (to the\ntraveller).\n\n26. It is full with delirious cravings as of men at the point of death,\nand as dark as caverns in the mountains. Hence the efforts of men are\nbut acts of their phrensy.\n\n27. It is better to dwell in the clear sky of the autumnal (atmosphere\nof) philosophy, after subsidence of the frost of ignorance, than to\nview at this world, which is no more than an image at a post or a\npicture upon the wall.\n\n28. Know all sensible and insensible things to be made of dust (to be\nreduced to dust again). Next follows the book on Existence.\n\n29. It contains three thousand stanzas full of explanations and\nnarratives, showing the existence of the world to be a form (or\ndevelopment) of the essence of the _Ego_ (in a subjective light).\n\n30. It treats of the manner in which the spectator (_Ego_) is manifest\nas the spectacle (_non-ego_), and how the ten-sided sphere of the\narbour of the world is manifest both as the subjective and objective\n(at the same time).\n\n31. It has thus arrived at its development which is said to be\neverlasting. Next follows the book on quietude consisting of five\nthousand stanzas.\n\n32. The fifth is styled the book on holiness, containing a series of\nexcellent lectures, and shewing the erroneous conception of the world,\nas I, thou and he (as distinct existences).\n\n33. It is the suppression of this error, which forms the subject of\nthis book; and the hearing of the chapter on quietude, serves to put an\nend to our transmigration in this world.\n\n34. After suppression of the train of errors, there still remain slight\nvestiges of it to a hundredth part, as the dispersed troops in a\npicture afford us some faint idea of them.\n\n35. Aiming at the object of another person is as vain as looking at\nthe beauty of an imaginary city, and sitting in expectation of an\nunattainable object. It is as a noisy fighting for something in sleep.\n\n36. It is as vain as a man of unsubdued desires, bursting into a\nroaring like that of the loud and tremendous thunder-claps, and as the\nraising of a city on the model of one\u2019s effaced impressions in a dream.\n\n37. It is as vain as a would-be city, with its garden and flowers and\nfruits growing in it: and as a sterile woman bragging of the valorous\ndeeds of her unborn and would-be sons.\n\n38. Or when a painter is about to draw the picture of an imaginary city\non the ground work of a chart, by forgetting to sketch a plan of it\nbeforehand.\n\n39. It is as vain as to expect evergreen herbage and fruitage of all\nseasons, and the breeze of an ungrown arbour; or to it in a future\nflowery parterre, pleasant with the sweets of spring.\n\n40. Then follows the sixth book entitled annihilation, which is as\nclear as the waters of a river after subsidence of its billows within\nitself.\n\n41. It contains the remaining number of slokas (_i.e._ 14500 Stanzas\nof the aggregate number of 32000 Slokas composing the entire work),\na knowledge of these is pregnant with great meanings, and the\nunderstanding of them leads to the chief good of utter extinction and\npacification of desires.\n\n42. The intellect being abstracted from all its objects, presents the\nmanifestation of the soul, which is full of intelligence and free from\nall impurity. It is enveloped in the sheath of infinite vacuity, and is\nwholly pure and devoid of worldly errors.\n\n43. Having finished its journey through the world and performed its\nduties here, the soul assumes a calmness as that of the adamantine\ncolumn of the sky, reflecting the images of the tumultuous world\n(without changing itself).\n\n44. It rejoices exceedingly at its being delivered from the innumerable\nsnares of the world, and becomes as light as air by being freed from\nits desire of looking after the endless objects (of its enjoyments).\n\n45. The soul that takes no notice of the cause or effect or doing of\nany thing, as also of what is to be avoided or accepted (i.e. which\nremains totally indifferent to every thing), is said to be disembodied\nthough encumbered with a body, and to become unworldly in its worldly\nstate.\n\n46. The intelligent soul is compared to a solid rock, compact and\nwithout any gap in it. It is the sun of intelligence which enlightens\nall people, and dispels the darkness of ignorance.\n\n47. (This soul) though so very luminous, has become grossly darkened\n(in its nature), by being confined to the vile fooleries of the world,\nand wasted by the malady of its cravings.\n\n48. When freed from the chimera of its _egoism_, it becomes incorporeal\neven in its embodied state, and beholds (the glory of) the whole world\nas it was placed at the point of one of the myriads of hairs (on its\nbody), or like a bee sitting on a flower upon the Sumeru mountain.\n\n49. The intelligent and vacuous soul contains and beholds in its sphere\na thousand glories of the world, shining in each atom, as it was in a\nmirror.\n\n50. It is not even possible to thousands of Haris, Haras and Brahm\u00e1s,\nto equal the great minded sage in the extent of his comprehensive soul;\nbecause the liberated have their chief good (of internal joy) stretched\nto a far greater limit than any.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n ASCERTAINMENT OF THE EXAMPLE OR MAJOR PROPOSITION\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nThe several parts of this work as already related, give rise to the\nunderstanding, as seeds sown in a good field never fail to produce good\nfruitage.\n\n2. Even human compositions are acceptable when they are instructive\nof good sense; otherwise the Vedas also are to be renounced (as\nunreliable); because men are required always to abide by reason.\n\n3. Words conformable with reason are to be received even if spoken by\nboys; otherwise they are to be rejected as straws though pronounced by\nthe lotus-born (Brahm\u00e1 himself).\n\n4. Whoever drinks from a well by reason of its being dug by his\nancestors, and rejects the holy water of the Ganges even when placed\nbefore him, is an incorrigible simpleton.\n\n5. As early dawn is invariably accompanied by its train of light, so is\ngood judgment an inevitable attendant on the perusal of this work.\n\n6. Whether these lessons are heard from the mouth of the learned, or\nwell studied by one\u2019s self, they will gradually make their impressions\nupon the mind by one\u2019s constant reflection on their sense.\n\n7. They will first furnish (to the learner) a variety of Sanskrit\nexpressions, and then spread before him a series of holy and judicious\nmaxims, like so many ornamental creepers to decorate the hall.\n\n8. They will produce a cleverness joined with such qualifications and\ngreatness, as to engage the good grace of gods and kings.\n\n9. They are called the intelligent who know the cause and effect of\nthings, and are likened to a torch-bearer who is clear sighted in the\ndarkness of the night. (Like the _stoa_ of the Stoics).\n\n10. All their erroneous and covetous thoughts become weaker by degrees,\nas the regions of the sky are cleared of their mists at the approach of\nautumn.\n\n11. Your thoughts require only the guidance of reason (to hit the\nright), as every action needs be duly performed to make it successful.\n\n12. The intellect becomes (by culture) as clear as a great lake in\nautumn, and it gets its calmness (by reason), like that of the sea\nafter its churning by the Mandara mountain.\n\n13. Like the flame of a chandelier cleansed of its sootiness and\ndispelling the shroud of darkness, the refined intellect shines forth\nin full brightness, and distinguishes (the different natures of) things.\n\n14. The evils of penury and poverty cannot overpower on them, whose\nstrong sight can discern the evils of their opposites (wealth and\nriches); as no dart can pierce the mortal parts of a soldier clad in\nfull armour.\n\n15. No worldly fears can daunt the heart of the wise man, however\nnearest they may approach to him. Just as no arrow can pierce through a\nhuge solid stone.\n\n16. Such doubts as \u201cwhether it is destiny or our own merit that is\nthe cause of our births and actions,\u201d are removed (by learning), as\ndarkness is dispelled by day-light.\n\n17. There is a calm tranquility attending upon the wise at all times\nand in all conditions (of life); so also does the light of reason like\nsolar rays, follow the dark night of error.\n\n18. The man of right judgment has a soul as deep as the ocean and as\nfirm as a mountain, and a cool serenity always shines within him like\nthat of moon-light.\n\n19. It is he who arrives slowly at what is called \u201cliving-liberation;\u201d\nwho remains calm amidst the endless turmoils (of the world), and is\nquite aloof from common talk (_i.e._ unnoticed by the world).\n\n20. His mind is calm and cool at every thing; it is pure and full\nof heavenly light; shining serenely as the autumnal night with the\nradiance of moon-beams.\n\n21. When the sun of reason illumines the cloudless region of the mind,\nno portentous comet of evil can make its appearance (within its sphere).\n\n22. All desires are at rest with the elevated; they are pure with the\nsteady, and indifferent to the inert, like the body of light clouds in\nautumn.\n\n23. The slanders of envious ill-wishers are put out of countenance (by\nthe wise), as the frolics of goblins disappear at the approach of day.\n\n24. The mind that is fixed on the firm basis of virtue, and placed\nunder the burthen of patience, is not to be shaken by accidents; but\nremains as a plant in a painting (unmoved by winds).\n\n25. The knowing man does not fall into the pit-falls lying all about\nthe affairs of this world: for who that knows the way will run into the\nditch?\n\n26. The minds of the wise are as much delighted in acting conformably\nto the precepts of good books and the examples of the virtuous, as\nchaste women are fond of keeping themselves within the bounds of the\ninner apartments.\n\n27. Of the innumerable millions of atoms which compose this universe,\nevery one of them is viewed in the light of a world in the mind of the\nabstracted philosopher.\n\n28. The man whose mind is purified by a knowledge of the precepts of\nliberation, neither repines nor rejoices at the loss or gain of the\nobjects of enjoyment.\n\n29. Men of unfettered minds look upon the appearance and disappearance\nof every atomic world, as the fluctuating wave of the sea.\n\n30. They neither grieve at unwished-for occurrences nor pine for\ntheir wished-for chances; and knowing well all accidents to be the\nconsequences of their actions, they remain as unconscious as trees\n(totally insensible of them).\n\n31. These (holy men) appear as common people, and live upon what they\nget; whether they meet with aught of welcome or unwelcome to them,\ntheir minds remain unconquered.\n\n32. They having understood the whole of this S\u00e1stra, and having read\nand considered it well, as well as pondered (on its purport), hold\ntheir silence as in the case of a curse or blessing (which is never\nuttered by saints).\n\n33. This S\u00e1stra is easy to be understood, and is ornamented with\nfigures (of speech). It is a poem full of flavours and embellished with\nbeautiful similes.\n\n34. One may be self taught in it who has a slight knowledge of words\nand their senses; but he who does not understand the purport well,\nshould learn it from a pandit.\n\n35. After hearing, thinking and understanding this work, one has no\nmore need of practising austerities, or of meditation and repeating\nthe _Mantras_ and other rites: and a man requires nothing else in this\nworld for the attainment of his liberation.\n\n36. By deep study of this work and its repeated perusal, a man attains\nto an uncommon scholarship next to the purification of his soul.\n\n37. The _ego_ and the _non-ego_, that is, the _viewer_ and the _view_,\nare both but chimeras of the imagination, and it is their annihilation\nalone, that leads insensibly to the vision of the soul.\n\n38. The error of the reality of _ego_ and the perceptible world, will\nvanish away as visions in a dream; for who, that knows the falsehood of\ndreams, will fall into the error (of taking them for truth?)\n\n39. As an imaginary palace gives no joy or grief to any body, so it is\nin the case of the erroneous conception of the world.\n\n40. As no body is afraid of a serpent that he sees in painting, so the\nsight of a living serpent neither terrifies nor pleases one who knows\nit.\n\n41. And as it is our knowledge of the painted serpent that removes our\nfear of it as a serpent, so our conviction of the unreality of the\nworld, must disperse our mistake of its existence.\n\n42. Even the plucking of a flower or tearing of its (tender) leaflet,\nis attended with a little exertion (of the nails and fingers), but no\n(bodily) exertion whatever is required to gain the blessed state (of\nYoga meditation).\n\n43. There is an action of the members of body, accompanied with the act\nof plucking or pulling off a flower; but in the other case (of Yoga),\nyou have only to fix your mind, and make no exertion of your body.\n\n44. It is practicable with ease by any one sitting on his easy seat\nand fed with his usual food, and not addicted to gross pleasures, nor\ntrespassing the rules of good conduct.\n\n45. You can derive happiness at each place and time, from your own\nobservations, as also from your association with the good wherever it\nis available. This is an optional rule.\n\n46. These are the means of gaining a knowledge of the highest wisdom,\nconferring peace in this world, and saving us from the pain of being\nreborn in the womb.\n\n47. But such as are afraid of this course, and are addicted to the\nvicious pleasures of the world, are to be reckoned as too base, and no\nbetter than faeces and worms of their mother\u2019s bowels.\n\n48. Attend now, R\u00e1ma, to what I am going to say with regard to the\nadvancement of knowledge, and improvement of the understanding in\nanother way.\n\n49. Hear now the recent method in which this S\u00e1stra is learnt (by\npeople), and its true sense interpreted to them by means of its\nExposition.\n\n50. That thing which serves to explain the unapparent meaning (of a\npassage), by its illustration by some thing that is well known, and\nwhich may be useful to help the understanding (of the passage) is\ncalled a simile or Example.\n\n51. It is hard to understand the meaning given before without an\ninstance, just as it is useless to have a lampstick at home without\nsetting a lamp on it at night.\n\n52. Whatever similes and examples I have used to make you understand\n(the precepts), are all derived from some cause or other, but they lead\nto knowledge of the uncaused Brahma.\n\n53. Wherever the comparisons and compared objects are used as\nexpressive of the cause and effect, they apply to all cases except\nBrahma (who is without a cause).\n\n54. The examples that are given to explain the nature of Brahma, are to\nbe taken in their partial (and not general) sense.\n\n55. Whatever examples are given here as explanatory of divine nature,\nthey are to be understood as appertaining to a world seen in a dream.\n\n56. In such cases, no corporeal instance can apply to the incorporeal\nBrahma, nor optional and ambiguous expressions give a definite idea of\nHim.\n\n57. Those who find fault with instances of an imperfect or\ncontradictory nature, cannot blame our comparison of the appearance of\nthe world to a vision in dream.\n\n58. A prior and posterior non-entity is considered as existent at the\npresent moment (as is the visible world which was not, nor will be\nafterwards). So the waking and dreaming states are known to be alike\nfrom our boyhood.\n\n59. The simile of the existence of the world with the dreaming state\nis exact in all instances, as our desires, thoughts, our pleasures and\ndispleasures, and all other acts are alike in both states.\n\n60. Both this work and others which have been composed by other authors\non the means of salvation, have all pursued the same plan in their\nexplanation of the knowable.\n\n61. The resemblance of the world to a dream is found also in the\nSrutis or Ved\u00e1nta. It is not to be explained in a word, but requires a\ncontinued course of lectures (on the subject).\n\n62. The comparison of the world to an imagery in the dream or an\nimaginary Utopia of the mind, is also adduced in examples of this kind\nin preference to others.\n\n63. Whenever a causality is shown by a simile of something which is no\ncause, there the simile is applied in some particular and not all its\ngeneral attributes.\n\n64. The partial similitude of this comparison with some property of the\ncompared object, is unhesitatingly acknowledged by the learned in all\ntheir illustrations.\n\n65. The light of the sense (of some thing) is compared with a lamp in\nits brightness only, in disregard of its stand or stick, the oil or the\nwick.\n\n66. The compared object is to be understood in its capacity of\nadmitting a partial comparison (of the properties); as in the instance\nof sense and light, the simile consists in the brightness of both.\n\n67. When the knowledge of the knowable thing is derived from some\nparticular property of the comparison, it is granted as a suitable\nsimile, in understanding the sense of some great saying (passage in the\nscriptures).\n\n68. We must not overshadow our intellect by bad logic, nor set at\nnaught our common sense by an unholy scepticism.\n\n69. We have by our reasoning well weighed the verbosity of our\nopinionative adversaries, and never set aside the holy sayings of the\nVedas, even when they are at variance with the opinions of our families.\n\n70. O R\u00e1ma! we have stored in our minds the truths resulting from the\nunanimous voice of all the S\u00e1stras, whereby it will be evident that\nwe have attained the object of our belief, apart from the fabricated\nsystems of heretical S\u00e1stras.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE EVIDENCE.\n\n\nIt is the similarity of some particular property (of one thing to that\nof another) which constitutes a simile; whereas a complete similitude\nbetween the comparison and compared object, destroys their difference\n(and makes them the one and same thing).\n\n2. From the knowledge of parables follows the cognition of the one soul\ntreated of in the S\u00e1stras (Ved\u00e1nta); and the peace which attends on the\nmeditation of the Holy Word, is styled Extinction.\n\n3. It is therefore useless to talk of either (the complete or partial)\nagreement (of the properties) of the example and the exemplar; it is\nenough to the purpose to comprehend the purport of the holy word in\nsome way or other.\n\n4. Know your peace to be the chief good, and be diligent to secure the\nsame. When you have got the food for your eating, it is useless to talk\nabout how you came by it.\n\n5. A cause is compared with (or shewn for its explication by) something\nwhich is no cause at all: so is a comparison given to express its\npartial agreement in some respect with the compared object.\n\n6. We must not be so absorbed in the pleasures of the world as to be\ndevoid of all sensibility; like some blind frogs which are generated\nand grow fat amidst the stones.\n\n7. Be attentive to these parables and learn your best state from them;\nall reasonable men should abide by the lessons of religious works for\ntheir internal peace.\n\n8. As also by the precepts of the S\u00e1stras, by the rules of humanity,\nprudence and spiritual knowledge; and also by the continued practice of\nthe acts of religious merit.\n\n9. Let the wise continue their inquiries until they can obtain their\ninternal peace, and until they may arrive at the fourth stage (turya)\nof felicity known by the name of indestructible tranquility.\n\n10. Whoso has gained this fourth state of tranquil felicity, he has\nreally passed beyond the limits of the ocean of the world, whether he\nis alive or not, or a house-holder or an ascetic.\n\n11. Such a man remains steady at his place like the calm sea\nundisturbed by the Mandara mountain, whether he has performed his\nduties according to the Srutis and Smritis or not.\n\n12. When there is a partial agreement of the comparison with the nature\nof the compared object, it is to be considered maturely for the well\nunderstanding of the point in question, and not to be made a matter of\ncontroversy.\n\n13. From every form of argument you are to understand the intelligible\n(that is explained to you); but the confounded disputant is blind both\nto right and false reasoning.\n\n14. The notion of self (soul or God) being clear (self-evident) in\nthe sphere of our consciousness within the mind. Any one who prattles\nmeaninglessly about this truth, is said to be defective in his\nunderstanding (_i.e._ our consciousness of self-existence according to\nthe maxim \u201c_Ego sum qui cogito_,\u201d is an undeniable truth).\n\n15. It is partly by pride and partly by their doubts, that the ignorant\nare led to altercate about their cognitions, and thereby they obscure\nthe region of their inward understanding, as the clouds overshadow the\nclear firmament.\n\n16. Of all sorts of proofs it is the evidence of perception which forms\ntheir fountain-head, as the sea is the mainspring of all its waters. It\nis this alone which is used in this place as you shall learn below.\n\n17. The substance of all sensations is said to be the supersensible\napprehension (or inward knowledge of things) by the wise; and it is\nverily their right concept which is meant by their perception.\n\n18. Thus the notion, knowledge and certainty (of things) as derived\nfrom words, are styled the triplicate perception as we have of the\nliving soul.\n\n19. This soul is consciousness and egoism, and is of the masculine\ntermination, and the cognition of the object whereby it is manifested\nto us, is called a category. (Viz. _samvid_, _samvitti_ and _pad\u00e1rtha_).\n\n20. It becomes manifest in the form of the passing world by the\nmultifarious acts and shifts of its volition and option, as the water\nexhibits itself in the shape of its waves and bubbles.\n\n21. It was uncausal before, and then developed itself as the cause of\nall in its act of creating at the beginning of creation, and became\nperceptible by itself.\n\n22. The causality was a product of the discrimination of the living\nsoul, that was in a state of inexistence (before); until it became\nmanifest as existent in the form of the material world.\n\n23. Reason says, that the self-same being destroys the body which\nwas produced of itself, and manifests itself in its transcendental\nmagnitude (of intelligence).\n\n24. When the reasoning man comes to know the soul, he finds by his\nreason the presence of the indescribable being, before him.\n\n25. The mind being free from desire, the organs of sense are relieved\nfrom their action, the soul becomes devoid of the results of its past\nactions as of those it has left undone.\n\n26. The mind being set at ease and freed from its desires, the organs\nof action are restrained from their acts, as an engine when stopped in\nits motion.\n\n27. It is sensuousness which is reckoned as the cause that puts the\nmachinery of the mind to work, just as the rope tied to the log and\nfastened about the neck of a ram, propels him to fighting.\n\n28. The sight of external objects and the purposes of the internal\nmind, set all men at play, as the inward force of the air puts the\nwinds to motion.\n\n29. All spiritual knowledge is holy wherever it is found in any one: it\nadds a lustre to the body and mind like that of the expanded region of\nthe sky.\n\n30. He sees the appearances of all visible objects, and maintains his\nown position among them. He views the spirit in the same light in which\nit presents itself in any place.\n\n31. Wherever the universal soul appears itself in any light, it remains\nthere and then in the same form in which it exhibits itself unto us.\n\n32. The universal soul being alike in all, the looker and the object\nseen are both the same being. The looker and the looked being one,\ntheir appearance as otherwise is all unreal.\n\n33. Hence the world is without a cause (because it is an unreality and\nnot caused by any one). All existence is evidently Brahma himself, the\nperceptible cause of all. Hence perception (_pratyaxa_) is the basis of\nevidence, and inference and others as analogy and verbal testimony are\nbut parts of it (_anum\u00e1na_, _upam\u00e1_, _s\u00e1bdah_).\n\n34. Now let the worshippers of fate who apply the term destiny to all\ntheir exertions, cast off their false faith; and let the brave exert\ntheir manliness to attain their highest state.\n\n35. Continue O R\u00e1ma, to consider the true and lucid doctrines of the\nsuccessive teachers (of mankind), until you can arrive to a clear\nconception of the infinitely Supreme being in your own mind.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n ON GOOD CONDUCT.\n\n\nIt is the society of the respectable and reasoning with them, that\nleads most efficiently to the improvement of the understanding, and\nnext to the making of a great man, with all the characteristics of\ngreatness.\n\n2. Whatever man excels in any quality here, he becomes distinguished by\nit: therefore learn it from him, and improve your understanding by the\nsame.\n\n3. True greatness consists in quietness and other virtues, without\na knowledge of which it is impossible, O R\u00e1ma! to be successful in\nanything.\n\n4. Learning produces quiet and other qualities, and increases the\nvirtues of good people; all which are praised by their good effects\non the mind, as the rain is hailed for its growing the new sprouts of\nplants.\n\n5. The qualities of quietude and other virtues serve to increase the\nbest knowledge (of men); as sacrifice with rice serves to produce\nfelicitous rains for the harvest.\n\n6. As learning produces the qualities of quiet and the like, so do\nthese qualities give rise to learning; thus they serve to grow each\nother, as the lake and lotuses contribute to their mutual benefit\n(excellence).\n\n7. Learning is produced by right conduct as good conduct results from\nlearning; thus wisdom and morality are natural helps to one another.\n\n8. The intelligent man who is possessed of quietude, meekness and good\nconduct, should practise wisdom, and follow the ways of good people.\n\n9. Unless one should bring to practice his wisdom and good conduct in\nan equal degree, he will never be successful in either of them.\n\n10. Both of these should be conjoined together like the song united\nwith percussion, as it is done by the husbandman and his wife in sowing\nthe seeds and driving away the (seed-picking) birds from their fields\nof grain.\n\n11. It is by practice of wisdom and right conduct (as causes of one\nanother), that good people are enabled to acquire both of them in an\nequal degree.\n\n12. I have already expounded to you, O R\u00e1ma, the rule of good conduct,\nand will now explain to you fully the way of gaining learning.\n\n13. Learning conduces to renown, long life and to the acquisition of\nthe object of your exertion; therefore should the intelligent learn the\ngood sciences from those who have studied and mastered them.\n\n14. By hearing (these lectures) with a clear understanding, you will\nsurely attain the state of perfection, as dirty water is purified by\ninfusion of the _Kata_ fruits.\n\n15. The sage who has known the knowable, has his mind drawn insensibly\nto the blissful state; and that highest state of unbounded felicity\nbeing once known and felt (in the mind), it is hard to loose its\nimpression at any time.\n\n\n\n\n YOGA V\u00c1SISHTHA\n\n BOOK III.\n\n UTPATTI-KHANDA.\n\n EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n CAUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n EXORDIUM (BH\u00daMIK\u00c1.)\n\nIt is both by means of words and lights (_V\u00e1gbh\u00e1bhis_ _i.e._ the words\nof the scripture and the lights of nature and reason), that the knower\nof the Great God (Brahmavid), perceives the spirit of Brahma appearing\nwithin himself as in a dream. And he also knows him as such, who\nunderstands him according to the purport of the holy text. \u201cWhat this\nis, that is the self.\u201d (_i.e._ He is all in all).\n\n2. This passage shows in short, the visible world to reside in the\nvacuous bosom of Brahma at its creation: it is now to be known in\nlength, what this creation is, whence it takes its rise, and wherein it\nbecomes extinct at last.\n\n3. Hear me, O intelligent R\u00e1ma! now expound to you all things according\nto my best knowledge of them, and agreeably to their nature and\nsubstance in the order of creation.\n\n4. One conscious of himself as a spiritual and intelligent being, views\nthe passing world as a _Somnum_ (swapnam) dream: and this dreaming\nsimile of the passing world, applies equally to our knowledge of _ego_\nand _tu_ or _non-ego_ (which is as false as our cognitions in a dream).\n\n5. Next to the book describing the conduct of the seekers of liberation\n(_mumukshu-vyavah\u00e1ra_), then follows the book of evolution (_utpatti_),\nwhich I am now going to propound to you.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n WORLDLY BONDAGE.\n\n6. Bondage consists in our belief of the reality of the visible world\n(and our relation with its phenomena, Gloss). So our release depends on\nthe negation of phenomenals. Now hear me tell you how to get rid of the\nvisible (fetters of our minds).\n\n7. Whoever is born in this world, continues to progress, till at\nlast he obtains his final liberation (his _ultimum_ and _optimum_\nperfection); or rises towards heaven or falls into hell (under the\nsubjection of his righteous and unrighteous actions (Gloss)).\n\n8. I shall therefore expound for your understanding every thing\nrelating to the production and continuance of things, and their prior\nstates as they were.\n\n9. Hear me R\u00e1ma, now give you an abstract of this book in brief, and I\nwill here-after dilate upon it, as you may wish to know more of this\n(theory of production).\n\n\n SECTION III.\n\n PHASES OF THE SPIRIT.\n\n10. Whatever appears either as moving or unmoving in this world,\nknow them all as appearances in a dream in a state of sound sleep\n(_susupti_); which become extinct at the end of a _Kalpa-age_. (The\nevents of a _Kalpa_ or day of Brahm\u00e1 are as his day dream).\n\n11. Then there remains a nameless and undeveloped something, in a\nstate of deep, dark and dank abyss, without any light or thick-spread\n(nebulae) over it. (The Teo and Beo of Moses, the _tama_ = teom of Manu\nand Veda, and the Moisture of Thales).\n\n12. This great self-existence is afterwards attributed with the\ntitles of Reality (_Rita_), self (_\u00c1tma_), Supreme (_Param_), Immense\n(_Brahma_), Truth (_Satyam_) and so forth by the wise, as expressions\nfor the Great Spirit (_mah\u00e1tman_) for popular use. (Vide Gloss for\ndefinitions of these terms).\n\n13. This self-same spirit next shows itself in another form, which\nis called the living soul (_J\u00edv\u00e1tm\u00e1_), and comes afterwards to be\nunderstood in the limited sense of life. (J\u00edva, J\u00edv, Zeu or Zeus; Ji\nand J\u00e1n; Zoa Protozoa &c.). (But it is the undivided and universal soul\nof which the divided, individual and particular souls are but parts and\nparticles. Gloss).\n\n14. This inert living principle (J\u00edva-Life or the Protozoa), becomes\naccording to its literal signification the moving spirit (_\u00e1kul\u00e1tma_),\nwhich afterwards with its power of thinking (_manana_) becomes the\nMind, and lastly the embodied soul (Bh\u00fat\u00e1tm\u00e1). (So says the Sruti;\n_Etasm\u00e1t J\u00e1yate pr\u00e1nah_, _manah_, _sarvendriy\u00e1nicha_, _Kham_,\n_V\u00e1yur\u00fap_, _Prithiv\u00ed_ _&c._ (_i.e._ From Him\u2014the Spirit, is derived\nthe life, mind and the organs of sense or body, whence he is styled the\nLiving, Thinking and All acting Deity)).\n\n15. Thus the mind is produced and changed from the quiescent nature of\nthe Great Supreme Spirit to a state of restlessness (_asthir\u00e1k\u00e1ra_)\nlike that of a surge, heaving itself in the (Pacific) Ocean (_i.e._\nthe restful spirit of God-Brahma is transformed to the restless state\nof the Mind, personified as Brahm\u00e1 or Hiranyagarbha, called the\nAtmabhu\u2014the son of the spirit of God or God the Son, Demiurge).\n\n16. The mind soon evolves itself as a self-volitive power which\nexercises its desires at all times whereby this extensive magic\nscene of the world is displayed to our view. This scene is figured\nas _Vir\u00e1jm\u00farti_, or manifestation of the desires of the will of\nDivine mind, and represented as the offspring of Brahm\u00e1 in the Indian\nTheogony. (_Vide_ Manu on Genesis, chap I).\n\n17. As the word golden bracelet signifies no other thing than a\nbracelet made of gold, so the meaning of the word world is not\ndifferent from its source\u2014the Divine will. (The difference is formal\nand not material, and consists in form and not in the substance, the\ndivine will being the substratum of the formal world).\n\n18. Again as the word gold bears the idea of the substance of which the\nbracelet is made, so the word Brahma conveys the meaning of immensity\nwhich contains the world in it; but the word world contains no idea of\nBrahma nor bracelet that of gold. (The substance contains the form as a\nstone does the statue, but the form does not contain the substance, as\nthe statue may be of earth or metal or of wood).\n\n19. The unreality of the world appears as a reality, just as the heat\nof the sun presents the unreal mirage in the moving sands of the desert\nas real waves of the sea. (So the phantasm of the mind-Brahm\u00e1, presents\nthe phantasmagoria of the world (Viswar\u00fapa) as a sober reality).\n\n20. It is this phantasy (of the reality of the unreal world),\nwhich the learned in all things, designate as ignorance\u2014_avidy\u00e1_,\nnature\u2014_sansriti_, bondage\u2014_bandha_, illusion\u2014_m\u00e1y\u00e1_, error-_moha_,\nand darkness\u2014_tamas_. (To denote our mental delusion and deception of\nsenses. Gloss).\n\n\n SECTION IV.\n\n NATURE OF BONDAGE.\n\n21. Now hear me relate to you, O moon-faced R\u00e1ma! about the nature of\nthis bondage, whereby you will be able to know the mode and manner of\nour liberation from it (as the diagnosis of a disease being known, it\nis not difficult to heal it).\n\n22. The intimate relation of the spectator with the spectacle is called\nhis bondage to the same, because the looker\u2019s mind is fast bound to\nthe object of his sight. It is the absence of the visible objects,\ntherefore, from the mirror of the mind, which is the only means of his\nliberation. (So also is the removal of the objects of the other senses\nfrom the mind).\n\n23. The knowledge of the world, _ego_ and _tu_ (as separate existences)\nis said to be an erroneous view of the soul (which is one and the same\nin all); and there can be no liberation of one, as long as he labours\nunder this blunder of _bheda-jn\u00e1na_ or knowledge of individualities.\n(This is called _savikalpa-jn\u00e1na_ or cognition of biplicity, which\ncannot lead to _Kaivalya mukti_ or the felicity derived from a\nknowledge of universal unity).\n\n24. To say that the soul is neither this nor that (_nedam-nedam_) is\nbut false logomachy, which cannot come to an end. The discrimination\nof alternatives serves only to increase the ardour for the visibles.\n(_i.e._ The ardour of induction spreads the infection of materialism.\nThe idle _neti-neti_ and _tanna-tanna_ of Vedanta Philosophy is mere\namphilogy and prevarication of both, as _idem et non idem_).\n\n25. It is not to be obtained by sophists by the chopping of logic or by\npilgrimage or ceremonial acts, any more than by a belief in the reality\nof the _phenomenal_ world. (All these are observances of the esoteric\nfaith and blind persuasion, but do not appertain to the science of\nesoteric spiritualism. Gloss).\n\n26. It is hard to avoid the sight of the phenomenal world, and to\nrepress one\u2019s ardour for the same. But it is certain that, the visibles\ncan not lead us to the Reality, nor the Real mislead us to unreality\n(_i.e._ the spiritual and physical knowledge are mutually repugnant to\neach other).\n\n27. Wherever the invisible, inconceivable and intelligent spirit is\nexistent, there the beholder views the visible beauty of God shining\neven in the midst of atoms. (_i.e._ Every particle of matter manifests\nthe beauty of its maker; unless there be a dull material object to\nintercept the sight of the intelligent soul).\n\n28. The phenomenal world has its rise from Him, yet those ignorant\npeople that depart from Him to the adoration of others, resemble fools,\nthat forsake rice to feed upon gruel. (_i.e._ They take the shadow for\nthe substance).\n\n29. Although this visible world is apparent to sight, yet O R\u00e1ma! it\nis but a shadow of that Being, who resides alike in the smallest atom\nas in the mirror of the mind, that receives the image of the largest\nas well as minutest things. (Compare. As full and perfect in a hair as\nheart. Pope.)\n\n30. The spirit is reflected in every thing like a figure in the mirror,\nand it shines equally in rocks and seas, in the land and water, as it\ndoes in the mirror of the mind. (compare: Wherever I cast my eyes, thy\nbeauty shines).\n\n31. The visible world is the scene of incessant woes, births, decay\nand death, and the states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are\npresenting by turns the gross, subtile and evanescent forms of things\nfor our delusion.\n\n32. Here I sit in my meditative mood (_anir\u00fadha_), having wiped off\nthe impressions of the visibles from my mind; but my meditation is\ndisturbed by the recurrence of my remembrance of the visibles: and this\nis the cause of the endless transmigrations of the soul. (_i.e._ The\nreminiscence of the past is the cause of our everlasting bondage in\nlife).\n\n33. It is hard to have a fixed (_nir\u00fadha_) and unalterable\n(_nirvikalpa_) meditation (_sam\u00e1dhi_), when the sight of the visible\nworld is present before our bodily and mental vision. Even the fourth\nstage of insensible _sam\u00e1dhi_ called the tur\u00edya, in the state of sound\nsleep (_susupti_), is soon succeeded by one\u2019s self-consciousness and\nexternal intelligence.\n\n34. On rising from this state of deep meditation, one finds himself as\nroused from his sound sleep, in order to view the world full of all its\nwoes and imperfections opening wide before him. (Compare, \u201cI wake to a\nsea of troubles, how happy they who wake no more\u201d. Young).\n\n35. What then, O R\u00e1ma! is the good of this transient bliss which one\nattains by his temporary abstraction (Dhy\u00e1na), when he has to fall\nagain to his sense of the sufferings to which the world is subject as a\nvale of tears. (Compare, \u201cWhen the cock crew I wept &c.\u201d Young\u2019s Night\nThoughts).\n\n36. But if one can attain to a state of unalterable abstraction of his\nthoughts from all worldly objects, as he has in his state of sound\nsleep (_susupti_), he is then said to have reached the highest pitch of\nhis holiness on earth. (For it is the entire oblivion of the world that\nis necessary for our spiritual perfection, as it is said, \u201cforget the\npresent for the future\u201d).\n\n37. No body has ever earned aught of reality in the scene of unreal\nvanities; for whenever his thoughts come in contact with any outward\nthing, he finds it inseparable from the blemishes of existence.\n(\u201cVanity of vanities, the world is vanity\u201d. Ecclesiastes.)\n\n38. Should any body (in the practice of the fixedness of his\nattention), fix his sight for a while on a stone, by forcibly\nwithdrawing it from visible objects, he is sure to be carried away\nafterwards by the visibles pressing upon his sight.\n\n39. It is well known to all that an unflinching meditation, having even\nthe firmness of a rock, can have no durability, in the practice of the\nYogi owing to his worldly propensities.\n\n40. Even the _nir\u00fadha_ or steadfast meditation which has attained the\nfixedness of a rock, cannot advance one step towards the attainment of\nthat tranquillity which has no bounds to it. (_i.e._ The everlasting\nbliss of liberation or _moksha_).\n\n41. Thus the sight of phenomena being altogether irrepressible, it is a\nfoolish supposition of its being suppressed by practices of _Jap-tap_\nor prayers and austerities and the like acts of devotion.\n\n42. The idea of the phenomena (_drisyadhi_), is as inherent in the mind\nof the spectator of the visible world, as the seeds of the lotus flower\nare contained in the inner cells of the pericarp.\n\n43. The ideal of the phenomenal world (_drisyadhi_), lies as hidden\nin the minds of the spectators of the outer world, as are the in-born\nflavour and moisture of fruits, the oil of sesamum seeds; and the\ninnate sweet scent of flowers.\n\n44. As the fragrance of camphor and other odoriferous substances\ninheres in their nature, so the reflexion of the visible world resides\nin the bosom of the intellect.\n\n45. As your dreams and desires rise and subside of themselves under the\nprovince of your intellect, so the notions of things always recur to\nyour mind from the original ideas of them impressed in the seat of the\nvisibles (the mind).\n\n46. The mental apparition of the visible world, deludes its beholder in\nthe same manner, as the visual appearance of a spectre or hobgoblin,\nmisleads a child (to its destruction).\n\n47. The notion of the visible world gradually expands itself, as the\ngerm of the seed shoots forth in time, and spreads itself afterwards in\nthe form of a plant.\n\n48. As the minute germs and animalcules, which are contained within\nthe bosoms of fruits and embryos of animals, expand themselves to\nwonderfully beauteous forms afterwards, so the seed of this world\n(originally) lying hid in the Divine Mind, unfolds itself in wonderful\nforms of the visible phenomena in nature.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST CAUSE.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n NARRATIVE OF THE AIR-BORN AND AERIFORM BR\u00c1HMAN.\n\nVasishtha resumed:\u2014Hear me R\u00e1ma; now relate to you the narrative of\none \u00c1k\u00e1saja or air-born Br\u00e1hman, which will be a jewel to your ears,\nand enable you the better to understand the drift of the book of\nGenesis.\n\n2. There lived a Br\u00e1hman \u00c1k\u00e1saja by name, who sat always reclined in\nhis meditation, and was ever inclined to the doing of good to all\ncreatures.\n\n3. Finding him long-lived, Death thought within himself saying:\u2014It is\nI alone that am imperishable, and devour all things one by one.\n\n4. How is it that I cannot cram myself with this air-born, wherein I\nfind my teeth as blunt in him, as the edge of a sword is put to the\nbluff by the solid rock.\n\n5. So saying, he proceeded to the abode of the Br\u00e1hman, intent upon\nmaking an end of him; for who is of so dull a nature as is not alert in\nhis practice.\n\n6. But as he was about to enter the house, he was opposed by a gorgeous\nflame of fire, like the conflagration of final destruction on the last\nday of the dissolution of the world.\n\n7. He pierced the ambient flame and entered the dwelling, where seeing\nthe Br\u00e1hman before him, he stretched his hand to lay hold on him with\nall avidity.\n\n8. He was unable even with his hundred hands (_i.e._ with all his\nmight) to grasp the Br\u00e1hman, as it is impossible for the strongest to\nwithstand the resolute man in his wonted course.\n\n9. He then had recourse to Yama\u2014his lord to clear his doubt, and to\nlearn why he could not devour the air-born (being).\n\n10. Yama replied saying:\u2014Death, trust not too far thy own might, that\nmakes thee mighty to destroy the living. It is the act of the dying\nperson that is the chief cause of his death and naught otherwise.\n\n11. Therefore do thou be diligent to find out the acts of the person\nthou intendest to kill; because it is by their assistance only that\nthou canst seize thy prey.\n\n12. Hereupon Death betook himself gladly to wander about in all\nplaces under the horizon. He roved over the habitable parts, as also\nthroughout the lacunal and fluvial districts.\n\n13. He traversed the forests and jungles, marshy and rocky grounds and\nmaritime coasts, and passed to foreign lands and islands, and pried\nthrough their wildernesses, cities and towns.\n\n14. He searched through kingdoms and countries, villages and deserts;\nand surveyed the whole earth to find out some act of the Br\u00e1hman in any\npart of it.\n\n15. At last Death with all his search and effort, came to find the acts\nof the air-born Br\u00e1hman, to be as _nil_ as the offspring of a barren\nwoman; and his mind as transfixed (in meditation) as if it were a rock.\n\n16. He then returned from his reconnoitering to his all-knowing master\nYama, and besought his advice, as servants do in matters of doubt and\ndifficulty (how to proceed).\n\n17. Death addressed him saying:\u2014\u201cTell me my lord, where the acts of\nthe Air-born Br\u00e1hman are to be found;\u201d to which Yama after a long\nhead-work, replied as follows.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n STATE OF THE SOUL.\n\n18. Know, O Death! that this air-born seer has no acts whatever; for as\nhe is born of empty air so his doings are all null and void. (_i.e._\nThe bodiless spirit or mind is devoid of acts requiring physical means\nand appliances).\n\n19. Whoso is born of air, is as pure as air itself, and has no\ncombination of cause or acts like all embodied (beings).\n\n20. He has no relation with acts of his prior existence. He is _nil_\nas the child of an unprolific woman, and as one unborn, uncreated and\nunbegotten.\n\n21. Want of causes has made him a pure vacuous being, and the privation\nof prior acts has made him as _nil_ as an etherial arbor.\n\n22. His mind is not ruffled as those of others, by reason of the\nprivation of his former acts; nor is there any such act of his present\nstate, whereby he may become a morsel to death.\n\n23. Such is the soul seated in the sheath of vacuity, and remaining for\never as the simple form of its own causality (_k\u00e1ranadeha_), and not\nguided by any extraneous causation whatever.\n\n24. It has no prior deed, nor does it do any thing at present; (_i.e._\nneither led by predestination, nor actuated by present efforts); but\ncontinues as something in the shape of aeriform intelligence.\n\n25. Our inference of the actions of breathing and motion by the agency\nof the soul, is a mere supposition; because the soul is devoid of every\nthought of or tendency to action.\n\n26. It sits meditating on itself as inseparable from the Supreme\nIntelligence, just as the images (in painting and statuary), are\ninseparable from the mind of the painter and sculptor.\n\n27. The self-born Br\u00e1hman is as intimately connected with the objects\nof his thought, as fluidity is associated with water and vacuity with\nthe firmament.\n\n28. His soul is as immanent in the supreme, as motion is inherent in\nthe winds. It has neither the accumulated acts of past lives, nor those\nof its present state. (_i.e._ It is neither a passive nor active agent\nof prior or present acts; but is an indifferent witness of the acts of\nthe body and mind).\n\n29. It is produced without the co-operation of accompanying causes, and\nbeing free from prior motives, it is not subjected to the vicissitudes\nconcomitant with human life.\n\n30. It is found to be no other than its own cause; and having no other\ncause for itself, it is said to be self-produced.\n\n31. Say, how can you lay hold on that being that has done no act\nbefore, nor is in the act of doing any thing at present? It is then\nonly subjected to thee when it thinks itself mortal. (But he that knows\nhis soul to be immortal is not subject to death).\n\n32. Whoso believes his soul to be of this earth, and thinks himself to\nbe an earthly being, he may be easily overtaken by thee (whose power\nextends over earth-born mortals only).\n\n33. This Br\u00e1hman is a formless being, by reason of his disowning the\nmaterial body. Hence it is as hard for thee to enthral him, as to\nentwine the air with a rope.\n\n34. Death rejoined saying:\u2014Tell me my lord! how may the unborn _Aja_\nor the self-born _swayambhu_, be produced out of vacuum, and how can an\nearthly or other elemental body be and not be (at the same time).\n\n35. Yama replied:\u2014This Br\u00e1hman is neither born nor is _nil_ at any\ntime; but remains for ever the same, as the light of intelligence of\nwhich there is no decay.\n\n36. There remains nothing at the event of the great Doomsday, except\nthe tranquil, imperishable and infinite Br\u00e1hman himself in his\nspiritual form.\n\n37. This is the nature of the everlasting vacuum, too subtile in its\nessence, and devoid of all attributes; but viewing present before its\nmind, the stupendous cosmos in the form of a huge mountain in the\nbeginning of recreation. (The mind is the noumenon\u2014Brahma, and the\nphenomena of the world is the gigantic macrocosm known as _Vir\u00e1jm\u00farti_).\n\n38. Being of the nature of intelligence it is imperishable; but those\nwho view the spirit in the form of any phenomenal body, are liable to\nperish with it like all embodied beings.\n\n39. Thus this Br\u00e1hman remained in the womb of vacuity in the beginning,\nin his state of unalterable, vacuous intelligence.\n\n40. It is purely of the nature of the inane understanding, and of\nthe form of a vast expanse of omniscience; having neither body nor\norganism; no acts nor agency, nor desire of any kind in itself.\n\n41. That which is simply of the form of vacuum and pure light, is never\nbeset by the snare of pristine desires, as a corporeal being.\n\n42. It has nothing to know or see without itself (_i.e._ beyond its\nself-consciousness). The only conception that we have of it, is\nwhat resembles an extended intelligence (_i.e._ an all-diffusive\nomniscience).\n\n43. Under these circumstances, how is it susceptible of any earthly or\nother external form? Therefore O Death! desist from thy attempt to lay\nhold on the same.\n\n44. Hearing these words of Yama, Death thought upon the impracticability\nof laying hold on empty vacuity by any body, and sorrowfully returned\nto his own abode.\n\n45. R\u00e1ma said: you said sir, that Brahm\u00e1 is your great grand-sire; I\nthink it is he that you mean to say as the unborn, self-born, universal\nsoul and intelligence.\n\n46. So is this Brahm\u00e1, R\u00e1ma! as I have spoken to you, and it was with\nregard to the same, that the aforesaid discussion was held of yore\nbetween Death and Yama (Pluto).\n\n47. Again when Death had made an end of all living beings at the\ninterval of a _manwantar\u00e1_, he thought himself strong enough to make an\nattempt to bear down upon the lotus-born Brahm\u00e1 also.\n\n48. It was then that he was admonished by Yama, saying:\u2014It is your\nhabit that makes you go on your wonted course of killing.\n\n49. But the super-etherial form of Brahm\u00e1 too is beyond your reach:\nit being simply of the nature of the mind having connection with its\nthoughts only, and no concern with the actual forms of things.\n\n50. It is of the form of the wonderfully vacuous intellect, having the\nfaculty of cognition in it. Thus the intellect being but vacuum, has\nneither any cause for it, nor any effect produced by it.\n\n51. As the aeriform volitive principle in men, manifests itself without\nbeing connected with material forms, so is the self-born (Brahm\u00e1)\nmanifest to all in his own immaterial nature.\n\n52. Like strings of pearl appearing to view in the clear firmament, and\nforms of cities seen in a dream, the self-born (Brahm\u00e1) is manifest of\nhimself without relation to external objects.\n\n53. As there is no beholder nor any thing beholden of the solitary\nSupreme spirit which is the intellect itself; so is the mind manifest\nof itself (without its looking at or being looked upon by any body).\n\n54. It is the volitive mind which is called Brahm\u00e1 and volition being a\nspiritual faculty, has no connection with any material substance.\n\n55. As the mind of the painter is fraught with images of various\nthings, so is the mind of Brahm\u00e1 full of figures of all created beings.\n\n56. The self-born Brahm\u00e1 is manifest in his own mind as Brahm\u00e1 is\nmanifested in the vacuous sphere of his intellect. He is without\nbeginning, middle and end, and appears to have a figure like that of\na male being, while in reality he has no body, as the offspring of a\nbarren woman.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n CAUSES OF BONDAGE IN THE BODY.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014It is even so as you have said, that the mind is a pure\nessence, and has no connection with the earth and other material\nsubstances; and that it is verily Brahm\u00e1 itself.\n\n2. Now tell me, O Br\u00e1hman! Why the remembrance of his former states (in\nthe past and previous Kalpas), is not (to be reckoned as) the cause\nof his birth, as it is in the case of mine and yours and of all other\nbeings.\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Whoever had a former body, accompanied with the\nacts of his prior existence, retains of course its reminiscence, which\nis the cause of his being (reborn on earth).\n\n4. But when Brahm\u00e1 is known to have no prior acts, how is it possible\nfor him to have his reminiscence of any thing?\n\n5. Therefore he exists without any other cause except the causation\nof his own mind. It is by his own causality that the Divine spirit is\nself-born, and is himself his own spirit.\n\n6. He is everlasting, and his body is born of itself from the\nself-existent Brahma. This unborn or self-born Brahm\u00e1 has no material\nbody whatever, except his subtile _\u00e1tiv\u00e1hika_ or _linga deha_.\n\n7. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014The everlasting body is one thing (called the _S\u00fakshma\nsar\u00edra_ or subtile or immaterial body), and the mortal body is another\n(called the _sth\u00faladeha_ or the gross and material frame). Now tell me\nsir, whether all created beings have a subtile body also as that of\nBrahm\u00e1?\n\n8. Vasishtha replied:\u2014All created beings that are produced of a cause,\nhave two bodies (the _s\u00fakshma_ and the _sth\u00fala_ or the subtile and the\ngross). But the unborn being which is without a cause, has one body\nonly (which is called the _\u00e1tiv\u00e1hika_ or the everlasting spiritual\nbody).\n\n9. The increate Brahm\u00e1 is the cause of all created beings, but the\nuncreated spirit having no cause for itself, has one body for it.\n\n10. The prime lord of creatures has no material body; but manifests\nhimself in the vacuous form of his spiritual body.\n\n11. His body is composed of the mind alone, and has no connection\nwith the earth or any other material substance. He is the first lord\nof creatures, that stretched the creation from his vacuous body (or\nspiritual essence).\n\n12. All these are but forms of the images or ideas in his vacuous mind,\nand having no other patterns or originals in their nature. And that\nevery thing is of the same nature with its cause, is a truth well known\nto all (from the identity of the effect and its material cause).\n\n13. He is an inexistent being and of the manner of perfect\nintelligence. He is purely of the form of the mind, and has an\nintellectual and no material entity.\n\n14. He is prime (cause) of all material productions in the physical\nworld, and is born of himself with his prime mobile force in the form\nof the mind.\n\n15. It was by the first impulse given by the prime moving power, that\nthis expanse of creation came to be spread in the same ratio, as the\ncurrents of air and water (or the velocity of winds and tides), are in\nproportion to the impetus given to them.\n\n16. This creation shining so bright to our sight, has caught its light\nfrom the luminous mind of the formless Brahm\u00e1, and appears as real to\nour conceptions (as they are ideal in the Divine mind).\n\n17. Our vision in a dream is the best illustration of this (unreality\nof worldly things): as that of the enjoyment of connubial bliss in\ndreaming. It is then that an unreal object of desire, presents itself\nas an actual gain to our fond and false imagination.\n\n18. The vacuous, immaterial and formless spirit, is now represented as\nthe self-born and corporeal lord of creatures in the form of the first\nmale. (Protogonus or the only begotten son of God).\n\n19. He remains undiscerned in his state of pure intelligence; but\nbecomes manifest to all by the evolution of his volition. He is\nindiscernible in his absolute state (of inaction); but becomes\nconspicuous to us in the display of his nature (in creation).\n\n20. Brahm\u00e1 is the divine power of volition (or the will of God). He\nis personified as the first male agent of creation, but devoid of a\ncorporeal body. He is only of the spiritual form of the mind, and the\nsole cause of the existence of the triple world.\n\n21. It is his volition that makes the self-born (Brahm\u00e1) to exert his\nenergies, as human desires impel all mankind to action: and the vacuous\nmind manifests itself as a mountain of desires.\n\n22. It then forgets its everlasting and incorporeal nature, and assumes\nto itself the solid material body, and shows itself in the shape of a\ndelusive apparition (in his creation).\n\n23. But Brahm\u00e1, who is of an unsullied understanding, is not involved\nin oblivion of himself, by the transformation of his unknowable nature\nto the known state of volition (or change of the _nirguna_ to _saguna_).\n\n24. Being unborn of material substance, he sees no apparition like\nothers, who are exposed by their ignorance to the misleading errors of\nfalsehood, appearing in the shape of a mirage before them.\n\n25. As Brahm\u00e1 is merely of the form of the mind, and not composed of\nany material substance, so the world being the product of the eternal\nmind, is of the same nature with its original archetype.\n\n26. Again as the uncreated Brahm\u00e1 is without any accompanying causality\nwith himself, so his creation has no other cause beside himself (_i.e._\nThere is no secondary cause of the universe).\n\n27. Hence there is no difference in the product from its producer;\nbecause it is certain, that the work must be as perfect as its author\n(so says the _Sruti_:\u2014_P\u00farnat p\u00farnam_ &c.).\n\n28. But there is nothing as a cause and effect to be found in this\ncreation, because the three worlds are but the prototypes of the\narchetype of the divine mind.\n\n29. The world is stretched out in the model of the Divine mind, and not\nformed by any other holy spirit. It is as immanent in the mind of God,\nas fluidity is inherent in water.\n\n30. It is the mind which spreads out this extended unreality of the\nworld like castles in the air, and builds Utopian cities (by its\nimagination only).\n\n31. There is no such thing as materiality, which is as false a\nconception as that of a snake in a rope. Hence it is no way possible\nfor Brahma and other beings to exist as individual bodies.\n\n32. Even spiritual bodies are inexistent to enlightened understandings.\nAs for the material body, it has no room in existence. (Matter or a\ncorporeal substance or an unseen substratum is a non-entity. Berkeley).\n\n33. Man (_manu_) who derives his name from his mind (_mana_) is a\nform of the volitive soul called _Verinchi_ (Lat. _vir_\u2014inchoare the\ninchoative spirit of Brahma); and has for his dominion the mental or\nintellectual world _mano-rajyam_ (Lat. mentis regio vel regnum) where\nall things are situated in the form of realities.\n\n34. The mind is the creative Brahma called _Verinchitvas_ (Lat.\nVirinchoativus), by the exercise of its inherent _sankalpa_ or the\nvolition of incipience or creation\u2014_sisriksha_; and displays itself in\nthe form of the visible universe by development of its own essence.\n\n35. This _Virinchi_ or the creative power is of the form of the mind\n_manas_, as the mind itself is of the form of _Virinchi_ also. It has\nno connection with any material substance, which is a mere creation of\nthe imagination. (That is to say, matter is an imaginary substance or\nsubstratum of qualities only).\n\n36. All visible things are contained in the bosom of the mind, as the\nlotus-bud and blossom reside in the seed of the lotus. Hence there is\nno difference between the mental and visible appearances of things, nor\nhas any one ever doubted of it any where.\n\n37. Whatever things you see in a dream, whatever desires you have at\nheart and all the ideals of your fancy, together with your ideas,\nnotions and impressions of the visibles, know your mind to be the\nreceptacle of them all.\n\n38. But the visible objects relating to the option of the mind (_i.e._\nwhich are desirable, to every one), are as baneful to their beholder,\nas an apparition is to a child (_i.e._ they are equally tempting and\nmisleading to all).\n\n39. The ideal of the phenomenal _drisyadhi_, developes itself as the\ngerm contained in the seed and becomes in its proper time and place\na large tree (comparable with the great arbor of the world known as\n_sans\u00e1ramah\u00ed ruha_ or _Vriksha_).\n\n40. If there is no rest with what is real, there can be no peace with\nthe phenomenals which are full of troubles, and give no solace to the\nmind. It is impossible that the feeling of the perception of visibles\nwill be ever lost to their perceiver (observer), though its subsidence\nonly is said to constitute liberation.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE NIGHT-FALL.\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:\u2014\n\nWhile Vasistha\u2014the leading sage, was thus going on with his lecture\nwithout interruption, the whole assembly was intent upon listening to\nit with a fixed tone and tenor of their minds.\n\n2. The string of bells (tied to the waists of warriors) ceased to\njingle, every one was motionless, and even the parrots in the cages\nceased to warble and flutter.\n\n3. The ladies forgot their dalliance and were quietly attentive to the\nsermon: and all in the royal hall, were fixed in attention as they were\npaintings and statues.\n\n4. There remained but an hour to the closing of the day, and the\nsun-beams became agreeable to all. The busy bustle of the world was\ndwindling away with the glimmering light of the setting sun.\n\n5. The beds of full-blown lotuses exhaled their fragrance all around,\nand soft Zephyrs were playing about, as if to attend the audience.\n\n6. The sun glided away from his diurnal course, and advanced to the top\nof his solitary setting mountain, as if he meant to reflect on all that\nhe had heard.\n\n7. The shades of night began to cover the landscape, and the frost to\noverspread the forest-lands; as if they were cooled by the cooling\nlectures on philosophy.\n\n8. Now failed the concourse of the people in all directions, as if they\nhad availed themselves of the instructions of the sage to abate the\nfervour of their exertions.\n\n9. All objects on earth cast their lengthened shadows, as if they\nstretched their necks to hear the preaching of Vasishtha.\n\n10. The chamberlain then advanced lowly to the monarch of the earth,\nand begged to inform, that the time for evening ablution and service,\nwas about to expire.\n\n11. Upon this the sage Vasishtha, curbed his sweet speech and\nsaid:\u2014Let thus far, mighty king! be your hearing of this day, and I\nwill resume my lecture, and speak of other things to-morrow.\n\n12. Here the sage held his silence, when the king responded \u201cBe it so\nas you will,\u201d and rose from his seat.\n\n13. He honoured for his own good, that godly sage and the other seers\nand Br\u00e1hmans, with due respects and offerings of flowers, water, worthy\nhonorariums, fees, gifts and homage.\n\n14. Then rose the whole assembly with the king and the assemblage of\nsages; and the gems and jewels that decked the persons of the princes\nand people, shed their lustres on the faces of all.\n\n15. There was a commingled tinkling of the bracelets and armlets of\nthe throng caused by the collision of their bodies (in their egress),\nand mixed flashing of the necklaces and brocades that decorated their\npersons.\n\n16. The jewels attached to the tufts and crests of hair on the tops of\ntheir heads, emitted a jingling sound resembling the humming of bees\namidst their flowery braids.\n\n17. The face of the sky on all sides, that shone with a purple hue\nreflected by the golden ornaments on their persons, seemed as it was\npleased with the wise sayings and sense of the sage.\n\n18. The aerial visitants vanished in the air, and the earthly guests\nrepaired to their respective habitations on earth where they all\nperformed their daily (evening) services in their own residences.\n\n19. In the meantime sable night made her appearance on earth, and like\na bashful young lady, withdrew to the closet apart from the rest of\nmankind.\n\n20. The lord of the day passed to other lands to shine upon them, for\nverily it is the avowed duty of every good person to give the benefit\nof equal light to all.\n\n21. The shade of evening veiled all sides, and uplifted the canopy\nof the starry sphere on high, which like the vernal atmosphere, was\nemblazoned with the starlike flowers of _kinsuka_.\n\n22. The birds of air took to their repose in the hollows of mango\ntrees, or on the tops of K\u00e1damba arbours, as honest people of fair\ndealing, find their rest in the purity of their minds, and contriteness\nof their inward hearts.\n\n23. The skirts of the clouds tinged with red by the slanting beams of\nthe setting sun, and with a shade of yellow hue upon them, decorated\nthe western hills with vests of yellow garb while the sky crowned their\nheads with gemming wreaths of starry groups.\n\n24. The Goddess of evening (Vespera), having departed after receiving\nher homage (by the vespers of mankind), was followed by her train of\ndark night shades, appearing as black-bodied fiends\u2014Vet\u00e1las (night\nroving _nis\u00e1charas_ of deserts).\n\n25. A gentle and cooling breeze was blowing softened by the dew drops\nof night, and opening the petals of the Kumuda flowers (nylumbium), and\nbearing their fragrance all around.\n\n26. A thick gloom covered the face of nature, and the stars were hid\nunder the mists of night, and all the quarters of the skies, seemed\nwith their overhanging loose and hairy mists, as the faces of widows\nshrouded by the dark dishevelled hair of mourning (for their departed\nlord the sun).\n\n27. Now appeared the moist orb of the moon in her ambrosial form in the\nmilky ocean of the sky, to moisten the mundane heat with her milk-white\nbeams (sudh\u00e1-subhra-d\u00eddhiti).\n\n28. On her rising, the thick mists of darkness fled from the eastern\nhemisphere, and became invisible in the air; as the darkness of\nignorance is put to flight from the minds of monarchs, by their\nattendance to the sayings of wisdom.\n\n29. Then the sages and seers, the rulers and priests of the people,\ntook their rest in their respective beds, as the words of Vasishtha\nwhich were full of meaning, reposed in the recesses of their hearts.\n\n30. As the thick darkness of night, resembling the dark complexion of\ndeath, receded from the arena of the skies, there followed close on its\nfoot-steps the dewy dawn of the day with her slow moving pace.\n\n31. The twinkling stars now disappeared from the sky, as the flowers on\nthe trees were blown away by the breeze, and strewn on the ground as\nthe fallen stars of heaven.\n\n32. The sun became visible to the eyes, which his rays had roused from\ntheir sleep, as the new-rising faculty of reason becomes conspicuous in\nthe minds of enlightened great souls.\n\n33. Fragments of clouds shining with solar gleams, spread a yellow\nmantle over the eastern hills, which were still decorated with strings\nof stars, pendant on the crests of their lofty heads (like strings of\npearls suspended to the crowns of kings).\n\n34. All the terrestrial and celestial congress assembled again at the\nroyal hall, in the order and manner (of their meeting) of the day\nbefore, after the performance of their morning services. (Originally\n_pr\u00e1tastan\u00e1h_ matins or matutinal ceremonies).\n\n35. The whole assemblage took their seats as on the previous day, and\nsat unmoved in their places, as a lotus-lake in its calmness after a\nstorm.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n NATURE OF THE MIND.\n\n36. Then R\u00e1ma addressed the most eloquent of sages Vasishtha, with his\nmellifluent words regarding the subject under investigation (the nature\nof the mind).\n\n37. He said:\u2014Tell me plainly, O venerable sir! about the form of the\nmind, which developed itself in all things of the universe, as they\nwere offshoots of it (or manifestations of the mind).\n\n38. Vasishtha replied:\u2014R\u00e1ma! there is no form whatever of the mind,\nthat may be seen by any body. It has nothing substantial besides its\nname as that of the formless and irremovable vacuity: (with which\nit is compared in its all-comprehensiveness, all-diffusiveness and\nall-pervasiveness).\n\n39. The mind as an _ens_ or entity (sat), is not situated in the outer\nbody (or any part of it), nor is it confined in the cavity of the\ninward heart or brain. But know it O R\u00e1ma, to be situated everywhere,\nas the all encompassing vacuum. (Being all-pervading and all-diffusive\nin its nature as vacuity itself).\n\n40. This world is produced from it, and likens to the waters of the\nmirage. It manifests itself in the forms of its fleeting thoughts,\nwhich are as false as the appearance of secondary moons in the vapours.\n\n41. The thinking principle is generally believed as something\nintermediate between the positive and negative, or real and unreal, you\nmust know it as such and no other (_i.e._ neither material as the body,\nnor immaterial as the soul, but a faculty appertaining to the nature of\nboth).\n\n42. That which is the representative of all objects is called the mind:\nthere is nothing besides to which the term mind is applicable.\n\n43. Know volition to be the same as the mind, which is nothing\ndifferent from the will, just as fluidity is the same with water, and\nas there is no difference between the air and its motion in the wind.\n(The inseparable property answering for its substance).\n\n44. For wherever there is any will, there is that attribute of the mind\nalso and nobody has ever taken the will and the mind for different\nthings.\n\n45. The representation of any object whether it is real or unreal is\nmind, and that is to be known as Brahma the great father of all.\n\n46. The incorporeal soul in the body is called the mind, as having the\nsensuous knowledge or everlasting ideas of the corporeal world in\nitself. (_i.e._ The sentient and thinking soul is the same with mind).\n\n47. The learned have given the several names of ignorance, intellect,\nmind, bondage, sin and darkness, to the visible appearance of creation.\n\n48. The mind has no other image than that (of a receptacle and\nreflector of the ideas) of the visible world, which, I repeat to say,\nis no new creation (but a reflexion of the mind).\n\n49. The visible world is situated in an atom of the great mind, in the\nsame manner, as the germ of the lotus plant is contained within its\nseed.\n\n50. The visible world is as innate in the all-knowing mind, as the\nlight is inherent in the sun-beams, and velocity and fluidity are\ninborn in the winds and liquids.\n\n51. But the visionary ideas of the visibles are as false and fleeting\nin the minds of their observers, as the form of a jewel in gold, and\nwater in the mirage; and as wrong as the foundation of a castle in the\nair, and the view of a city in a dream.\n\n\n SECTION III.\n\n KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION.\n\n52. But as the phenomenals appear as no other than real to their\nobserver, I will O R\u00e1ma! cleanse them now from thy mind as they do the\nsoil from a mirror.\n\n53. As the disappearance of an appearance makes the observer no\nobserver of it, know such to be the state of the abstraction of the\nmind from whatever is real or unreal in the world. (This is called\n_Keval\u00edbh\u00e1va_ or _non-chalance_ of all things).\n\n54. This state being arrived, all the passions of the soul, and the\ndesires of the mind, will be at rest, as torrents of rivers at the calm\nensuing upon the stillness of the wind.\n\n55. It is impossible that things having the forms of space, earth and\nair (_i.e._ material objects) will present the same features in the\nclear light (of induction), as they do to our open sight.\n\n56. Thus when the observer comes to know the unreality of the phenomena\nof the three worlds, as well as of his own entity, it is then that his\npure soul attains to the knowledge of _kaivalya_ or solity of divine\nexistence.\n\n57. It is such a mind that reflects the image of God in itself as in\na mirror; while all others are as blocks of stone, and incapable of\nreceiving any reflexion at all.\n\n58. After suppression of the sense of _ego_ and _tu_ (or both the\nsubjective and objective knowledge), and the error of the reality of\nthe outer world the beholder becomes abstracted and remains without\nvision of external things in his sitting posture.\n\n59. R\u00e1ma rejoined:\u2014If the perception of entity is not to be put down,\nnor an entity become a non-entity nor when I cannot view the visibles\n(which are the causes of our error), as non-entities;\n\n60. Then tell me O Br\u00e1hman! how to uproot this disease of our eagerness\nfor the visibles from the mind, which bewilders the understanding, and\nafflicts us with a train of troubles.\n\n61. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Now hear my advice, R\u00e1ma, for the suppression\nof this phantom of phenomenon, whereby it will surely die away and\nbecome utterly extinct.\n\n62. Know R\u00e1ma, that nothing that is, can ever be destroyed or become\nextinct; and though you remove it, yet it will leave its seed or trace\nin the mind.\n\n63. This seed is the memory of such things, which reopens the ideas\nof the visibles in the mind, expanding themselves in the fallacious\nnotions of the forms of big worlds and skies, mountains and oceans.\n\n64. These (wrong notions) called _doshas_ or faults and defects of\nunderstanding, are obstacles in the way to liberation; but they do not\naffect the sages who are found to be liberated.\n\n65. Again if the world and all other things are real existences (as\nthe S\u00e1nkhyas maintain): yet they cannot confer liberation on any one;\nbecause the visibles, whether they are situated within or without us\nare perishable themselves.\n\n66. Learn therefore this dreadful proposition (solemn truth), which\nwill be fully explained to you in the subsequent parts of this work.\n(Note:\u2014A dreadful dogma it is to physicists and \u201c_\u00e1div\u00e1dis_\u201d or\nasserters of the _encipientes mundi_ or beginning of the world).\n\n67. That all things appearing in the forms of vacuity, elementary\nbodies, the world, and _ego et tu_, are non-entities, and have no\nmeanings in them.\n\n68. Whatever is seen apparent before us, is no other but the supreme\nBrahma himself, and his undecaying and imperishable essence.\n\n69. The plenitude of creation is an expansion of his plenum, and the\nquiet of the universe rests in his quietude. It is his _beom_ which is\nthe substance of vacuum, and it is his immensity that is the substratum\nof the immense cosmos.\n\n70. Nothing visible is real, and there is neither any spectator nor\nspectacle here. There is nothing as vacuity or solidity in nature, but\nall this is but a piece of extended Intelligence.\n\n71. R\u00e1ma rejoined:\u2014The adages relating the grinding of stones by the\nson of a barren woman, the horns of a hare, and the dancing of a hill\nwith its extended arms;\n\n72. And the oozing of oil from sand, the reading (of books) by dolls of\nmarble, and the roaring of clouds in a painting, and such others are\napplicable to your words (of the reality of an unreal essence of God).\n\n73. I see this world to be full of diseases, deaths and troubles,\nmountains, vacuities and other things, and how is it sir, that you tell\nme of their non-existence?\n\n74. Tell me Sir, how you call this world to be unsubstantial,\nunproduced and inexistent, that I may be certain of this truth.\n\n75. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Know R\u00e1ma, that I am no inconsistent speaker,\nand hear me explain to you how the unreality appears as real, as the\nson of a barren woman has come to rumour.\n\n76. All this was unproduced before, and did not exist in the beginning\nof creation. It comes to appearance from the mind like that of a city\nin a dream. (_i.e._ They are all but creations of the mind and fancy).\n\n77. The mind also was not produced in the beginning of creation and\nwas an unreality itself. Hear me tell you therefore, how we come to a\nnotion of it.\n\n78. This unreal mind spreads by itself the false and changing scenes of\nthe visible world, just as we dream of changeful unrealities as true in\na state of dreaming. (Here the dreaming philosopher sees dreams in his\ndream).\n\n79. It then exerts its volition in the fabrication of the body and\nspreads far and wide the magic scene of the phenomenal world.\n\n80. The mind by its potentiality of vacillation has many actions of its\nown, as those of expansion, saltation, and motion, of craving, roving,\ndiving and seizing, and many other voluntary efforts (the causes of\nphysical operations).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n ON THE ORIGINAL CAUSE. (M\u00daLA-K\u00c1RANA).\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me, O chief of the sages! what cause is it that leads\nto our misconception of the mind, how it is produced and what is the\nsource of its illusion.\n\n2. Tell me sir, in brief of the first production (of the mind), and\nthen, O best of the eloquent, you may tell the rest, that is to be said\non the subject.\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Incident to the universal dissolution, when\nall things were reduced to nothing, this infinity of visible objects\nremained in a state of calm and quiet before their creation.\n\n4. There was then the only great God in existence, who is increate and\nundecaying, who is the creator of all at all times, who is all in all,\nand supreme soul of all, and resembling the sun that never sets.\n\n5. He whom language fails to describe, and who is known to the\nliberated alone; who is termed the soul by fiction only, and not by his\nreal nature (which is unknowable).\n\n6. Who is the prime Male of S\u00e1nkhya philosophers and the Brahma of\nVed\u00e1nta followers; who is the Intelligence of gnostics and who is\nwholly pure and apart from all (personalities).\n\n7. Who is known as vacuum by vacuists, who is the enlightener of solar\nlight, who is truth itself, and the power of speech and thought and\nvision, and all action and passion for ever.\n\n8. Who though ever existent everywhere appears as inexistent to the\nworld, and though situated in all bodies, seems to be far from them.\nHe is the enlightener of our understanding as the solar light (of the\nworld).\n\n9. From whom the gods Vishnu and others are produced as solar rays from\nthe sun; and from whom infinite worlds have come into existence like\nbubbles of the sea.\n\n10. Unto whom these multitudes of visible creations return as the\nwaters of the earth to the sea, and who like a lamp enlightens the\nsouls and bodies (of all immaterial and material beings).\n\n11. Who is present alike in heaven as in earth and the nether worlds;\nand who abides equally in all bodies whether of the mineral, vegetable\nor animal creation. He resides alike in each particle of dust as in\nthe high and huge mountain ranges; and rides as swift on the wings of\nwinds, as he sleeps in the depths of the main.\n\n12. He who appoints the eight internal and external organs\n(Paryashtakas) of sense and action to their several functions; and who\nhas made the dull and dumb creatures as inert as stones, and as mute as\nthey are sitting in their meditative mood.\n\n13. He who has filled the skies with vacuity and the rocks with\nsolidity; who has dissolved the waters to fluidity, and concentrated\nall light and heat in the sun.\n\n14. He who has spread these wonderful scenes of the world, as the\nclouds sprinkle the charming showers of rain; both as endless and\nincessant, as they are charming and dulcet to sight.\n\n15. He who causes the appearance and disappearance of worlds in the\nsphere of his infinity like waves in the ocean; and in whom these\nphenomena rise and set like the running sands in the desert.\n\n16. His spirit the indestructible soul, resides as the germ of decay\nand destruction in the interior (vitals) of animals. It is as minute as\nto lie hid in the body, and as magnified as to fill all existence.\n\n17. His nature (Prakriti) spreads herself like a magic creeper (_m\u00e1y\u00e1\nlat\u00e1_) all over the space of vacuity, and produces the fair fruit in\nthe form of the mundane egg (_Brahm\u00e1nda_); while the outward organs\nof bodies, resembling the branches of this plant, keep dancing about\nthe stem (the intelligent soul), shaken by the breeze of life which is\neverfleeting.\n\n18. It is He, that shines as the gem of intelligence in the heart of\nthe human body; and it is he from whom, the luminous orbs constituting\nthe universe, continually derive their lustre.\n\n19. It is that colossus of intelligence, which like a cloud sheds\nambrosial draughts of delight to soothe our souls, and showers forth\ninnumerable beings as rain drops on all sides. It bursts into incessant\nflashes showing the prospects of repeated creations which are as\n(momentary as) flashes of lightenings.\n\n20. It is his wondrous light which displays the worlds to our wondering\nsight; and it is from his entity that both what is real and unreal,\nhave derived their reality and unreality.\n\n21. It is the insensible and ungodly soul, that turns to the\nattractions of others against its purpose; while the tranquil soul\nrests in itself (as in the spirit of God).\n\n22. He who transcends all existences, and by whom all existent beings\nare bound to their destined actions in their proper times and places,\nand also to their free actions and motions and exertions of all kinds.\n\n23. It is he who from his personality of pure consciousness, became of\nthe form of vacuum (pervading all nature), and then by means of his\nvacuous mind and empty thoughts filled it with substances, wherein his\nsoul was to reside, and whereon his spirit had to preside.\n\n24. Having thus made the infinite hosts of worlds in the immense sphere\nof the universe, he is yet neither the agent of any action nor the\nauthor of any act in it; but remains ever the same as the sole one\nalone, in his unchangeable and unimpairing state of self-consciousness,\nand without any fluctuation, evolution or inhesion of himself, as he is\nquite unconcerned with the world.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n ADMONITION FOR ATTEMPT TO LIBERATION.\n\n _Mumukshu Pratyopadesa._\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014It is by the knowledge of this transcendent supreme\nspirit and God of gods, that one may become an adept (in divine\nservice), and not by the rigour of religious austerities and practices.\n(Proficiency by theoretic knowledge).\n\n2. Here nothing is needed than the culture and practice of divine\nknowledge, and thereby the truth being known, one views the errors of\nthe world, as a satiate traveller looks at a mirage in a clear light.\n\n3. He (God) is not far from nor too near us, nor is he obtainable by\nwhat he is not (as the adoration of images and ceremonial acts). He is\nthe image of light and felicity, and is perceivable in ourselves.\n\n4. Here austerities and charities, religious vows and observances, are\nof no good whatever. It is the calm quietude of one\u2019s own nature only\nthat is serviceable to him in his services to God.\n\n5. Fondness for the society of the righteous and devotedness to the\nstudy of good books, are the best means of divine knowledge; while\nritual services and practices, serve only to strengthen the snare of\nour in-born delusions, which true knowledge alone can sever.\n\n6. No sooner one has known this inward light of his as the very God,\nthan he gets rid of his miseries, and becomes liberated in this his\nliving state.\n\n7. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Having known the Self in himself, one is no more exposed\nto the evils of life and even to death itself.\n\n8. But say how is this great God of gods to be attained from such great\ndistance (as we are placed from him), and what rigorous austerities and\namount of pains are necessary for it.\n\n9. Vasishtha replied:\u2014He is to be known by means of your manly\nexertions (in knowledge and faith), and by the aid of a clear\nunderstanding and right reasoning, and never by the practice of\nausterities and ablutions, nor by acts attended with bodily pain of any\nkind. (Hence the mistake of _Hatha yoga_).\n\n10. For know, O R\u00e1ma! all your austerities and charities, your\npainstaking and mortification are of no efficacy, unless you wholly\nrenounce your passions and enmity, your anger and pride, your\nselfishness and your envy and jealousy.\n\n11. For whoever is liberal of any money which he has earned by\ndefrauding others, and with a heart full of vile passions, the merit of\nsuch liberality accrues to the rightful owner of the property and not\nto its professed donor.\n\n12. And whoever observes any vow or rite with a mind actuated by\npassions, he passes for a hypocrite and reaps no benefit of his acts.\n\n13. Therefore try your manly exertions in securing the best remedies\nof good precepts and good company, for putting down the diseases and\ndisturbances of the world.\n\n14. No other course of action except that of the exertion of one\u2019s\nmanliness, is conducive to the allaying of all the miseries and\ntroubles of this life.\n\n15. Now learn the nature of this manliness for your attainment to\nwisdom, and annihilation of the maladies of passions and affections and\nanimosity of your nature.\n\n16. True manliness consists in your continuance in an honest calling\nconformable with the law and good usage of your country; and in a\ncontented mind which shrinks from smelling the enjoyments of life.\n\n17. It consists in the exertion of one\u2019s energies to the utmost of his\npower, without bearing any murmur or grief in his soul; and in one\u2019s\ndevotedness to the society of the good and perusal of good works and\nS\u00e1stras.\n\n18. He is styled the truly brave who is quite content with what he\ngets, and spurns at what is unlawful for him to take; who is attached\nto good company, and ready at the study of unblamable works.\n\n19. And they who are of great minds, and have known their own natures\nand those of all others by their right reasoning, are honoured by the\ngods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu, Indra and Siva.\n\n20. He who is called a righteous man by the majority of the good people\nof the place, is to be resorted to with all diligence as the best and\nmost upright of men.\n\n21. Those religious works are said to compose the best S\u00e1stra, which\ntreat chiefly of Spiritual knowledge; and one who constantly meditates\non them, is surely liberated (from the bonds of this world).\n\n22. It is by means of right discrimination derived from the keeping of\ngood company and study of holy works, that our understanding is cleared\nof its ignorance, as dirty water is purified by _Kata_ seeds, and as\nthe minds of men are expurgated by the Yoga philosophy.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n RECOGNITION OF THE NIHILITY OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD.\n\n (_Drisy\u00e1satt\u00e1 Pratijn\u00e1nam_).\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014\n\nTell me, O Br\u00e1hman! where is this God situated and how can I know him,\nof whom you spoke all this, and whose knowledge you said, leads to our\nliberation.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:\u2014This God of whom I spoke, is not at a distance\nfrom us. He is situated in these our bodies, and is known to be of\nthe form of mere Intellect (_chinm\u00e1tra_) to us. So says Fichte: The\nInfinite Reason (chit) alone exists in himself\u2014the finite in him.\nLewis vol. II. p. 563.\n\n3. He is all in all, though all this world is not the omnipresent\nHimself. He is one alone and is not termed the all that is visible (to\nus). So Fichte: God is infinite and embraces the finite, but the finite\ncan not encompass the Infinite. Lewis vol. II. p. 573.\n\n4. It is this Intellect which is in Siva, that wears the cusp of the\nmoon in his crest; the same is in Vishnu that rides on his eagle\nGaruda, and in Brahm\u00e1 that is born of the lotus. The sun also is a\nparticle of this Intellect (but they are not the self-same Intellect\nthemselves).\n\n5. R\u00e1ma rejoined:\u2014So it is; and even boys say this also, that if\nthe whole world is mere Intelligence (_chetana m\u00e1trakam_); then why\ncall it by another name (as the world), and what is the use of giving\nadmonition of it to anybody (when every one is full of intelligence).\n\n6. Vasishtha replied:\u2014If you have known the mere Intellect\n(_Chinm\u00e1tram_), to be the same with the intelligent world (_chetana\nviswa_), you have then known nothing for getting rid of this world.\n\n7. The world is verily intelligent, O R\u00e1ma (with the mundane soul);\nbut the animal soul (_J\u00edva_) is called _pasu_ or brutish observer of\nthings pasyati, on account of its looking after sensual gratifications\nonly as brutes, and giving rise only to the fears of disease, decay and\ndeath (from its love of itself, and care for self-preservation).\n\n8. The animal soul (_J\u00edva_), though an incorporeal substance, is an\nignorant thing and subject to pain and sorrow. The mind _manas_ also,\nthough it is capable of intelligence\u2014_chetan\u00edyam_, has become the root\nof all evils. (_i.e._ With its power of intellection and nature of\nintelligence (_chetanam_), it is yet ever inclined to the wrong side by\nitself).\n\n9. Intellectual liberation (_chetya mukta_) from thoughts of the world,\nis one state (of the soul), and unintelligent gazing (_unmukhat\u00e1_) at\nit, is another. He who knows the better of these two the states of the\nsoul, has no cause of sorrow (_i.e._ the rational from the irrational\nsoul).\n\n10. He who has seen the all surpassing Supreme Being, has his\nheartstrings all cut asunder, and the doubts of his mind all driven\naway. The sequences of his acts are washed away (and leave no fear of\nhis transmigration).\n\n11. The longing after perceptibles (_Chetyas_) does not cease, unless\nthe perception of the visibles is effaced from the mind.\n\n12. How then is this perception to be effaced? How is it possible\nto have a longing after the unintelligible Intelligence, without\nsuppression of our longing for the visibles? It is only to be effected\nby avoiding the external perceptions of the mind.\n\n13. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me sir, where and how is that vacuous soul\ncalled pasu, by the knowledge of which no one can get rid of\nhis transmigration (_i.e._ the worshippers of the _j\u00edv\u00e1tm\u00e1_ or\nanimal soul called _j\u00edvav\u00e1dis_, are not entitled to their final\nliberation\u2014_mukti_).\n\n14. Tell me also, who is that man, who by his company with the good and\nstudy of good works, has gone over the ocean of the world, and beholds\nthe Supreme soul in himself.\n\n15. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Whatever animal souls being cast in\nthe wilderness of this life, long after this intelligent soul\n(_chetan\u00e1tman_), they are truly wise, and know him (in themselves).\n\n16. Whoso believes the animal soul as the life of the world (or mundane\nsoul), and thinks (the knowledge of the) Intelligence to be attended\nwith pain only, he can never know Him anywhere (in this world).\n\n17. If the Supreme soul be known to us, O R\u00e1ma! the string of our woes\nis put to an end, like the fatal cholera after termination of its\ncholic pain or extraction of its poison.\n\n18. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me, O Br\u00e1hman! the true form of the Supreme soul,\nby light of which the mind may escape from all its errors.\n\n19. Vasishtha replied:\u2014The Supreme soul is seen in the same way in\nourselves and within our bodies, as we are conscious of our minds to be\nseated within us, after its flight to distant countries.\n\n20. Our notion of the Supreme spirit is often lost in the depth of our\nminds, in the same way, as the existence of the outer world (objective\nknowledge), becomes extinct in our consciousness in yoga meditation.\n\n21. It is He in whose knowledge we lose our sense of the beholder and\nvisibles, and who is an invacuous vacuum or a substantive vacuity\nhimself. (_i.e._ Who being known, we forget our knowledge both of the\nsubjective and objective, and view his unity as the only _to on_ or\nsubstratum of all). So Fichte: In thee, the Incomprehensible, does\nmy own existence, and that of the world become comprehensible to me.\nLewis. Phil. vol. II. P. 563.\n\n22. He whose substance appears as the vacuum, and in whom subsists the\nvacuous plenum of the universe; and who appears as vacuity itself,\nnotwithstanding the plenitude of his creation subsisting in him, is\nverily the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).\n\n23. Who though full of intelligence, appears to stand as an unconscious\nhuge rock before us; and who though quite subtile in his nature, seems\nas some gross body to our conception: such is the form of the Supreme\nsoul (that you want to know).\n\n24. That which encompasses the inside and outside of every thing, and\nassumes the name and nature of the very thing to itself, is verily the\nform of the Supreme (that you want to know).\n\n25. As light is connected with sunshine and vacuity with the firmament\nand as Omnipresence is present with every thing and every where: such\nis the form of the Supreme spirit (that you want to know).\n\n26. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014But how are we to understand that He who bears\nthe name and nature of absolute and infinite reality should yet be\ncompressed within any thing visible in the world, which is quite\nimpossible to believe?\n\n27. Vasishtha replied:\u2014The erroneous conception of the creation of\nthe world, resembles the false impression of colours in the clear sky;\nwherefore it is wrong, O R\u00e1ma! to take a thing as real, of which there\nis an absolute privation in nature.\n\n28. It is the knowledge of Brahma that constitutes his form, or else\nthere is no act of his whereby he may be known to us (the universe\nbeing but a development of himself). He is entirely devoid of any\nvisible form, and therefore there is no better course for any one than\nto know him as truth.\n\n29. After an absolute negation of the visibles comes to be known\n(_i.e._ after disappearance of the traces of phenomenals from the\nmind), there remains a pre-eminent object of conception, which is\ninborn and manifest of itself.\n\n30. This concept (of the Super-eminent) has oftentimes no reflexion,\nowing to its having no visible appearance; and at others it is not\nwithout its reflexion on the mirror of the mind (which has received its\nimage).\n\n31. No body has ever conceived this transcendent verity in himself, who\nhas not at the same time been convinced of the impossibility of the\nexistence of the visible world. (_i.e._ Conviction of the nullity of\nthe phenomenal alone, leads to the perception of the Reality).\n\n32. R\u00e1ma rejoined:\u2014Tell me, O sage! how the existence of so many\nextensive worlds composing the visible Universe, can be thought of as\nunreal, or comprised in the _chinm\u00e1tram_ (or minutiae of the divine\nmind), as the mount Meru in the sesamum seed.\n\n33. Vasishtha replied:\u2014If you will but stay a few days in the company\nof holy men, and study the sacred S\u00e1stras with a steady mind with me:\n\n34. Then I will purge away this false view of the visibles from your\nunderstanding, like the delusive mirage from one\u2019s sight. This absence\nof the view will extinguish your sense of being the viewer, and restore\nyou to your intelligence alone.\n\n35. When the viewer is united with the view, and the view with the\nviewer, there then turns out an unity of the duality, and the duality\nblends into an inseparable unity.\n\n36. Without union of the two there is no success of either; and this\nunion of both the viewer and the view having disappeared at last, there\nremains an only one unity (which is indissoluble).[2]\n\n37. I will now cleanse away the dross of all your sense of egoism and\ntuism, with that of the world and all other things from the mirror of\nyour mind, by bringing you to your consciousness of self, and total\nnegation of every thing besides.\n\n38. From nothing never comes a something, nor from something ever\nproceeds a nothing; and there is no difficulty whatever in removing\nwhat does not exist in nature (_i.e._ That a nil is nil is self\nevident, and no argument is required to prove it so).\n\n39. This world which appears so very vast and extensive, was not in\nbeing at the beginning. It resided in the pure spirit of Brahma, and\nwas evolved from the mind (_Chitta_) of Brahm\u00e1.\n\n40. The thing called the world was never produced, nor is it in being\nnor in actual appearance. It is as the form of a bracelet in gold,\nwhich it is not difficult to alter and reduce to its gross metallic\nstate.\n\n41. I will explain it fully by other reasons, whereby this truth may\nappear of itself, and impress irresistibly in your mind.\n\n42. How can that be said to have its being, which was not brought into\nbeing before, and how can there be a rivulet in the mirage, or the ring\nof an eclipse in the moon?\n\n43. As a barren woman has no son nor a mirage any water in it; and as\nthe firmament has no plant growing in it, so there is no such thing\nwhich we erroneously call the world.\n\n44. Whatever you see, O R\u00e1ma! is the indestructible Brahma himself:\nthis I have many times shown you with good reasons, and not in mere\nwords (as my _ipse dixit_ only).\n\n45. It is unreasonable, O intelligent R\u00e1ma! to disregard what a learned\nman speaks to you with good reasons; because the dull-headed fellow who\nneglects to listen to the words of reason and wisdom, is deemed as a\nfool, and is subject to all sorts of difficulties.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n NATURE OF GOOD S\u00c1STRAS.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma asked:\u2014How can it be reasonably shewn and established, that there\nis nothing to be known and seen in this world, although we have evident\nnotions of it supported by sense and right reasoning?\n\n2. Vasishtha answered:\u2014It is from a long time, that this endemic of\nthe fallacious knowledge (of the reality of the world), is prevalent\n(among mankind); and it is by means of true knowledge only that this\nwrong application of the word world, can be removed from the mind.\n\n3. I will tell you a story, R\u00e1ma! for your success in (the attainment\nof) this knowledge; if you will but attend to it, you will become both\nintelligent and emancipate.\n\n4. But if from the impatience of your nature like that of brute\ncreatures, you get up and go away after hearing half of this\n(narrative), you shall then reap no benefit from it.\n\n5. Whoever seeks some object and strives after it, he of course\nsucceeds in getting the same; but if he become tired of it he fails\ntherein.\n\n6. If you will betake yourself, R\u00e1ma! to the company of the good\nand study of good S\u00e1stras, you will surely arrive at your state of\nperfection in course of a few days or mouths, according to the degree\nof your diligence.\n\n7. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014O you, that are best acquainted with the S\u00e1stras, tell\nme which is the best S\u00e1stra for the attainment of spiritual knowledge,\nand a conversancy with which may release us from the sorrows of this\nlife.\n\n8. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Know, O high minded R\u00e1ma! this work (the\nV\u00e1sishtha Sanhit\u00e1) to be the best of all others on spiritual knowledge.\nIt is the auspicious Great R\u00e1m\u00e1yana and the S\u00e1stra of s\u00e1stras.\n\n9. The R\u00e1m\u00e1yana is the best of histories, and serves to enlighten the\nunderstanding. It is known as containing the essence of all histories.\n\n10. But by hearing these doctrines one easily finds his liberation\ncoming of itself to him; wherefore it is reckoned as the most holy\nrecord.\n\n11. All the existing scenes of the world will vanish away upon their\nmature consideration; as the thoughts occurring in a dream, are\ndispersed upon the knowledge of the dreaming state after waking.\n\n12. Whatever there is in this work, may be found in others also, but\nwhat is not found here, cannot be found elsewhere (in other works); and\ntherefore the learned call it the thesaurus (_sanhit\u00e1_) or store-house\n(of philosophy).\n\n13. Whoever attends to these lectures every day, shall have his\nexcellent understanding undoubtedly stored with transcendent knowledge\nof divinity day by day.\n\n14. He who feels this S\u00e1stra disagreeable to his vitiated taste, may\ntake a fancy to the perusal of some other s\u00e1stra that is more wordy and\neloquent.\n\n15. One feels himself liberated in this life by the hearing of these\nlectures, just as one finds himself healed of a disease by a potion of\nsome efficacious medicine.\n\n16. The attentive hearer of these sermons, perceives their efficacy\nin himself, in the same way as one feels the effects of the curses or\nblessings pronounced upon him which never go for nothing (but have\ntheir full effects in time).\n\n17. All worldly miseries are at an end with him, who considers well\nthese spiritual lectures within himself, and which is hard to be\neffected by charities and austerities, or performance of the acts\nordained in the _sraut\u00e1_ or ceremonial vedas, or by hundreds of\npractices in obedience to the ordinances appointed by them.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n ON THE SUPREME CAUSE OF ALL. (PARAMA K\u00c1RANA).\n\n\nVasishtha continued:\u2014\n\nThey are truly delighted and gratified (in their souls), who are ever\ndevoted with all their hearts and minds in holy conversation among\nthemselves.\n\n2. Those that are devoted to the acquisition of knowledge and\ninvestigation of spiritual science, enjoy the same bliss of liberation\nin their living state, as it is said to attend on disembodied souls.\n\n3. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me O Br\u00e1hman! the distinct natures of the living\nand disembodied liberations, that I may try to learn the same, with an\nunderstanding enlightened by the light of S\u00e1stras (literally, having\nthe eye-sight of S\u00e1stras).\n\n4. Vasishtha said:\u2014Who ever remains as he is (_i.e._ without any\nperturbation in his worldly course), and continues intact as vacuity\namidst society: such a one is called the living liberated (J\u00edvan mukta).\n\n5. Who so is employed in his intellection only and seems to be sleeping\nin his waking state, though while conducting his worldly affairs: such\na one is called the living liberated.\n\n6. Whose countenance is neither flushed nor dejected in pleasure\nor pain (in joy or grief and such other reverses); and who remains\ncontented with what he gets: such a one is called liberated while he is\nliving.\n\n7. Whose waking is as a state of sound sleep, and who is not awake to\nthe accidents of the waking state, and whose waking state is insensible\nof the desires incident to it: such a one is called liberated in his\nlife.\n\n8. Who though actuated by the feelings of affection, enmity, fear and\nthe like, is at rest, and as clear and undisturbed as vacuity within\nhimself: such a one is called liberated while he is alive.\n\n9. Who has not an air of pride in him, and is not conceited (with a\nnotion of his greatness) when he does or refrains to do anything: such\na one is called self-liberated in his life time.\n\n10. Who at one glance or winking of his eye, has a full view of the\nwhole creation and final destruction of the world, like the Supreme\nself (to which he is assimilated): such a one is said to be liberated\nin his life time.\n\n11. Who ever is not feared by nor is afraid of any body, and who is\nfreed from the emotions of joy, anger and fear: such a one is liberated\nin life.\n\n12. Who is quiet and quietly disposes his business of this world, and\nwho though he stands as an individual in the sight of men, attaches\nno individuality to himself; and who though a sentient being, is\ninsensible to all impressions: such is the living liberated soul.\n\n13. Who being full of all possessions, and having every thing present\nbefore him, remains cold and apathetic to them, as if they were useless\nto him: such a man is liberated in his life.\n\n14. Now leaving the subject of \u201cliving liberation,\u201d I will tell you\nwhat they call the \u201cdisembodied liberation,\u201d which like a breath of\nwind enters into the soul, after it has fled from the mortal body.\n\n15. The disembodied free spirit neither rises nor sets (like the sun),\nnor is it subject to wane (like the moon); it is neither manifest nor\nhidden; it is not at a distance, nor is it in me, thee or in any other\nperson.\n\n16. It shines forth in the form of the sun, and preserves the world\nin the manner of Vishnu. It creates the world in the shape of the\nlotus-born Brahm\u00e1, and destroys all as Rudra or Siva.\n\n17. It takes the form of the sky supported on the shoulders of air,\nwhich supports all living beings, the gods, sages and demigods in the\nthree worlds. It takes the form of boundary mountains and separates the\ndifferent regions (of the earth and skies).\n\n18. It becomes the earth and supports these numerous sets of beings,\nit takes the forms of trees, plants and grass, and yields fruits and\ngrains for supportance (of all living creatures).\n\n19. It takes the forms of fire and water and burns and melts in them by\nitself. It sheds ambrosia in the form of the moon, and causes death in\nthe shape of poison.\n\n20. It becomes light wherewith it fills the space of the firmament, and\nspreads darkness in the form of Erebus (_tama or Teom_). It becomes\nvacuum (_vyom or beom_) to leave empty space for all, while in the form\nof hills it obstructs their free passage on earth.\n\n21. In the form of the fleet mind, it moves the self-moving animals,\nand in that of dull matter it settles the unmoving immovables. It girds\nthe earth by its form of the ocean, as a bracelet encircles the arm.\n\n22. The bodiless spirit takes upon it the great body of the sun, and\nillumes all the worlds with their minute particles, while it remains\nquiet in itself.\n\n23. Whatever is shining in this universe or ever was or is to be so,\nin any of the three\u2014past, present and future times, know them all O\nR\u00e1ma! as forms of the Divine Spirit (which is free to take any shape it\nlikes).\n\n24. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me, O Br\u00e1hman! why this view of liberation,\nappears so very difficult to me, as to make me believe it altogether\nincomprehensible to and unattainable by any body.\n\n25. Vasishtha replied:\u2014This (disembodied) liberation is called\n_nirv\u00e1na_ or total extinction of self-consciousness, and is styled\nBrahma also (in whom the human soul is finally absorbed). Attend now to\nthe means of its attainment.\n\n26. All such visible objects known as I, thou, this &c., being\nunproduced (_anutpanna_) from the eternal _sat_ or entity of God, it is\nimpossible to have any conception of them in our minds.[3]\n\n27. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Methinks, O best of them that know the knowable! that\nthe bodiless souls of the liberated, when they pass through the bounds\nof the three worlds, have again to be born according to the course of\nnature.\n\n28. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Those that retain the reminiscence of the three\nworlds have to move about in them, but such as have lost the idea of\ntheir existence, are absorbed in infinity.\n\n29. For how can one derive the knowledge of the unity of God from his\nbelief in the duality of the separate existence of the world? Therefore\nthe figurative sense of cosmos as God (_Viswa_) can not give the\nspiritual and infinite idea of Brahma.\n\n30. He is no other but himself, of the nature of pure intellect, and of\nthe form of the clear and tranquil vacuum (that pervades all things).\nBrahma is said to be the world, to signify his manifestation of its\nunreality as a reality unto us.\n\n31. I have well considered about a golden bracelet, and found nothing\nas a bracelet in it save its gold. (The form is changeable, but the\nsubstance is real).\n\n32. I observed the billows, and found nothing in them but water; and\nwhere there was no water I saw no billow to rise. (It is the substance\nand not its shape or shadow that is to be looked into).\n\n33. I see no oscillation any where except in the winds, which are no\nother than this force in motion, and moving all things in the world.\n(Thus the spirit of God is the fountain or _primum mobile_ of all\nforces, which are but forms of the main force).\n\n34. As vacuity abides in air, and water appears in the burning deserts,\nand as there is light spread over all creation; so is the spirit of\nBrahma manifest in the three worlds in the forms of the very worlds.\n\n35. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me, O sage! the cause which makes this world with\nits nature of absolute negation or non-existence, to exhibit such\ndistinct appearances in its phenomena.\n\n36. Tell me also, how the viewer and the view (of these worlds) being\nboth extinct (as they are equally unreal in their nature), there\nremains their _nirv\u00e1na_ or absorption in the Deity without their\npersonalities.\n\n37. Again as it is impossible to conceive the existence of the visible\nobjects, say how is it possible to conceive the existence of the\ninvisible Brahma in his own nature (of incomprehensibility).\n\n38. Say by what mode of reasoning this truth may be known and\nascertained, and this being accomplished, there remains nothing else to\nbe inquired into.\n\n39. Vasishtha replied:\u2014This false knowledge or prejudice of the\nreality of the world, has been long prevalent like a chronic disease\n(among mankind); and requires to be removed by the specific charm\n(mantra) of reasoning only.\n\n40. It can not however be expelled quickly and in a minute, but\nrequires length of time, like the ascent and descent of an even sided\nprecipice.\n\n41. Therefore hearken to what I say, for dispelling your fallacy of\nthe world, by means of arguments, logical inferences, and habitual\nmeditation (about the nature of God).\n\n42. Attend now R\u00e1ma! to a tale that I am to tell you for your\nattainment of this knowledge, and by the hearing of which you will\nbecome intelligent, wise and liberated.\n\n43. I will even now relate to you the subject of the production of the\nworld, in order to show you, that all that is produced serves to bind\nour souls to the earth, and that you may live quite free from the same.\n\n44. I will tell you at present under this topic of creation, that the\nerroneous conception of the world is as unsubstantial as Vacuum itself.\n(_i.e._ All this is null and void).\n\n45. Because this world which appears to contain these moving and\nunmoving beings, and abounds in various races of gods, Asura\u2014giants\nand Kinnara\u2014pigmies.\n\n46. All these together with the Rudras and other demigods, become\ninvisible and lose themselves in nothing at the ultimate dissolution of\nthe world. (This final disappearance _tirobh\u00e1va_ of all things, proves\ntheir present appearance _\u00e1virbh\u00e1va_ to be mere phantoms of our brain.\nGloss).\n\n47. Then there remains a moist and hollow deep, without light and thick\nspread with mist; all undefinable and undeveloped, save something which\nis Real and lasts for ever.\n\n48. There was no air nor form of any thing, no sight nor any thing\nto be seen. There were not these multitudes of created and material\nbeings, that appear to be endless and everlasting to view.\n\n49. There was a nameless self, the fullest of the full in its form; it\nwas no _ens_ nor _non ens_, no entity nor non-entity, no reality nor\nunreality neither.\n\n50. It was mere intellect without its intellection, infinite without\ndecay, auspicious and full of bliss. It was without its beginning,\nmiddle and end, eternal and imperishable.\n\n51. In him this world is manifest as a pearly goose in painting; He is\nand yet is not this (creation), and is the soul of both what is real as\nwell as unreal. (_Sadasad\u00e1tman_).\n\n52. He is without ears, tongue, nose, eyes and touch, yet he hears,\ntastes, smells, sees and feels every thing in all places and at all\ntimes.\n\n53. He is also that (intellectual) light (_chid\u00e1loka_), whereby the\nform of that real as well as unreal Being\u2014_sadasad\u00e1tma_ is discerned\nby us in his perspective of creation, as one without beginning or end,\nand presenting a representation that is without any colour or shade.\n\n[4]54. He is that vacuous Soul who views the worlds as clearly, as\nthe yogi beholds Him in the form of ineffable light, with his half\nclosed eyes, and fixing his sight to the midst of his eyebrows (in his\n_khechar\u00ed mudr\u00e1_ or aerial mode of meditation).\n\n55. He is the cause of all, and whose cause is as _nil_ as the horns of\na hare; and whose works are all these worlds, like so many waves of the\nsea.\n\n56. His light is ever shining every where, and he has his seat in the\nhuman heart; and it is from the candle light of his intellect, that all\nthe worlds derive their light.\n\n57. It is He without whose light the sun would dwindle into darkness;\nand whose existence alone gives the world its appearance of a mirage.\n\n58. It is his pulsation that vibrates throughout the universe, and it\nis his inertia that stops the course of the whole; it is on that pivot\nthat the world has its revolution, just as the turning round of a fire\nbrand describes a circle.\n\n59. His nature is pure and unchangeable; and the works of creation and\ndestruction, are mere acts of his volition (_Vil\u00e1sa_), in the persons\nof Brahma and Hara.\n\n60. It is his _inertia_ and force that gives rest and motion to all\nthings, like the ubiquious course of the winds. But this is the common\nbelief that he moves, while in reality his nature is free from all\nmutability (like the immovable rock).\n\n61. He is always awake in his ever sleeping state, and therefore can\nneither be said to be waking nor sleeping any where or at any time, but\nis both awake and asleep every where and at all times.[5]\n\n62. His quiescence is attended with bliss and tranquillity, and his\nagitation puts the world in motion and in its course of action; which\nis said to remain unaltered in both states which unite in him.\n\n63. He is inherent in all things as fragrance is innate in the flower,\nand is indestructible as its odour at the destruction of the flower.\nHe pervades all things, and is yet as intangible as the whiteness of\nlinen.\n\n64. Who though speechless, is the author of all speech and sound,\nand who though he appears to be as incogitant as a stone, is full of\ncogitation (being the intellect itself). Who though fully satisfied\nwith his bliss, enjoys all things, although he requires nothing for\nhimself.\n\n65. Who though bodiless actuates all the members of the body; and is\nattributed with a thousand arms and eyes (in the Veda); and who having\nno support for himself, is yet the support of all, and pervades the\nwhole without being seated any where.\n\n66. Who having no organs nor organic power, is the organ of organs,\nand performs the functions of innumerable organs; and who without a\nsensorial mind, exhibits endless designs of his Divine mind in the\ninfinity of creation.\n\n67. It is for want of our (knowledge) of him, that we are in constant\ndread of this delusive world as in that of a dragon or hydra; but it\nis at his sight (or by our knowledge of him), that all our fears and\ndesires fly away afar from us.\n\n68. It is in the presence of the clear light of that God of Truth, that\nall the wishes of our minds have a better play, just as actors dance\nthe best as long as they have the lights.\n\n69. It is by him that a hundred series of visible objects (as pots\nand plates\u2014_ghata-pat\u00e1d\u00ed_), rise every moment to our view, like the\nceaseless series of waves, billows and surges rising on the surface of\nthe waters.\n\n70. It is he that exhibits himself otherwise than what he is, in\nhundreds of different shapes to our mistaken minds, as the substance of\ngold is made to appear to our view in the various forms of bracelets,\narmlets, and a hundred other sorts of trinkets.\n\n71. He who manifests himself as the soul, abiding in me, thee and\nin this or that person, and is neither myself, thyself, himself nor\nitself, is the Supreme soul or Self, that is the same with and apart\nfrom all.\n\n72. It is he and the self-same being, whether you view him in one or\nmore objects, as it is the same water that heaves itself in this one or\nthe other wave. Thus all visible phenomena have their rise from him.\n\n73. He from whom time has its counting and the visibles have their\nview; by whom the mind exercises its thinking powers, and by whose\nlight the world is enlightened; is the Supreme.\n\n74. Whatever forms, figures and their actions, whatsoever flavours and\nodours, and what sounds, touch, feelings and perceptions soever, you\nare sensible of, know them all and their cause also to be the Supreme.\n\n75. You will be able to know your soul, O good R\u00e1ma! if you will take\nit in the light of the sight or faculty of vision, that lies between\nthe looker and the object looked upon.\n\n76. Know it as increate and indestructible, and without beginning and\nend. It is the eternal and everlasting Brahma and bliss itself. It\nis immaculate and infallible, highly adorable and unblamable in its\nnature. It is beyond all description and a mere void in its form. It is\nthe cause of causes and a notion of something that is unknowable. It is\nthe understanding, and the inward faculty of the intellect or the mind.\n(_i.e._ It is a spiritual substance and must be known in the spirit).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE CHAOTIC STATE.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014That which remains incident to the Universal dissolution\n(_mah\u00e1-pralaya_), is commonly designated by the term \u201cformless void.\u201d\n\n2. How then said you, there was no void, and how could there be no\nlight nor darkness neither?\n\n3. How could it be without the intellect and the living principle, and\nhow could the entities of the mind and understanding be wanting in it?\n\n4. How could there be nothing and not all things? Such like paradoxical\nexpressions of yours, have created much confusion in me.\n\n5. Vasishtha said:\u2014You have raised a difficult extra-question, R\u00e1ma!\nbut I shall have no difficulty to solve it, as the sun is at no pains\nto dispel the nocturnal gloom.\n\n6. On the occasion or the termination of a great _kalpa age_, when\nthere remains That Entity (the _Tat sat_) of God, it cannot be said to\nbe a void, as I will now explain to you. Attend R\u00e1ma and hear.\n\n7. Like images carved in bas-relief upon a pillar, was this world\nsituated _in relievo_ of That Entity, and cannot be said to have been a\nvoid.[6]\n\n8. Again when there was the representation of the plenitude under the\nappellation of the world at any place (in the essence of God), and be\nit real or unreal, it could not have been a void and vacuity.\n\n9. As a pillar with carved or painted figures, cannot be said to be\ndevoid of them; so Brahma exhibiting the worlds contained in him, can\nnot become a void. (_i.e._ As a pillar is not devoid of figures which\nhas carved images on it; so Brahma is not a void, having the worlds\ncontained in him. This is a negative enthymem).\n\n10. But the world contained in Brahma, becomes both something and\nnothing; as billows in calm waters may either exist or not exist. (So\nthe appearance and disappearance of the worlds in Brahma, like those\nof the little billows in a quiet lake, prove their existence and\nnon-existence at the same time, as it is predicated of the Chaos or the\n_Mah\u00e1pralaya_. Gloss).[7]\n\n11. Again it happens that certain figures are marked on some insensible\ntrees in some places by the hand of time, which people mistake for\nimages; so it comes to pass that certain figures of evanescent matter,\noccur in the eternal mind, which men mistake for the real world.\n\n12. This comparison of the figured pillar and tree and the world, is a\npartial and not complete simile; the similitude here referring only to\nthe situation of the transient world in the substance of the permanent\nBrahma (like the appearance of false figures in the firmly fixed pillar\nand on the standing tree).\n\n13. But this appearance of the world is not caused by another (as\nin the case of the pillar, figures and pictures carved and painted\nby the hands of the statuary and painter). It rises, lasts and sets\nspontaneously and of itself in the self-same essence of Brahma (as the\nfigures in the tree or the waves of the Ocean). It is the property of\nthe divine soul and mind to raise and set such imageries in them by\nturns, like the creations of our imagination.[8]\n\n14. The meaning of the word void (_s\u00fanya_) instead of no void\n(_as\u00fanya_) or existence, is a fiction as false as inanity is a\nnullity in nature. Something must come out of something, and never\nfrom a void nothing; and how can nothing be reduced to nothing in the\nend\u2014_mah\u00e1pralaya_ (_s\u00fanyat\u00e1 s\u00fanyate katham_)? (_Ex nihilo nihil fit,\net in nihilum nihil reverti posse_).\n\n15. In answer to your second question it has been said \u201cthere was\ndarkness neither.\u201d Because the divine light of Brahma (which existed\nbefore creation), was not like the light of a material luminary (which\nis followed by darkness). The everlasting light was not to be obscured\nby darkness, like the sunshine, or moon-light or the blazing of fire or\nthe twinkling of stars or our eyes.\n\n16. It is the absence of the light of the great celestial luminaries,\nthat is called darkness, and there being no material property in the\nimmaterial essence of God, there could be no such light or darkness\nwith him before creation.\n\n17. The light of the vacuous Brahma is an internal perception of the\nsoul, and is only felt and perceived within one\u2019s self, and never\nexternally by any body; nor is this spiritual light ever clouded by any\nmist or darkness of temporal objects.\n\n18. The indestructible Brahma is beyond and free from external and\nvisible light and darkness; and is above the region of vacuum which is\ncontained, as it were, within his bosom, and contains the universe as\nsheathed within its hollow womb.\n\n19. As there is no difference between the outside and inside of a fruit\n(both of which is the same thing); so there is no shade of difference\nbetwixt Brahma and the universe (the one pervading and the other\npervaded by his spirit).\n\n20. As the billow is contained in and composed of the water and the pot\nof the earth, so the world being contained in Brahma, it can not be\nsaid as null and void, but full of the spirit of God.\n\n21. The comparison of earth and water does not agree corporeally\nwith the spiritual essence of God, whose vacuous spirit contains and\ncomprises the whole (_Visva_) within itself, as those elements do their\ncomponent parts and productions.\n\n22. Now as the sphere of the intellect is clearer and brighter far than\nthe spheres of air and empty space; so the sense and idea of the word\nworld as situated in the divine mind, is clearer in a far greater\ndegree than this visible world appears to us.\n\n23. (In answer to the third question with regard to the want of\nintellect), it is said thus:\u2014As the pungency of pepper is perceived\nby one who tastes it, and not by him who has never tasted it; so the\nminutiae of the Intellect are known in the intellectual sphere by a\ncultivated intelligence, and by none who is without it.\n\n24. Thus the Intellect appears as no intellect to one who is devoid\nof intelligence in himself (_i.e._ one having the Intellect, does not\nperceive it without a cultivated understanding). So this world is seen\nin the spirit of God or otherwise, according as one has cultivated or\nneglected his spiritual knowledge.\n\n25. The world as it is, is seen either in its outward figure or in\na spiritual light, as other than or the same with Brahma (by the\nmaterialist and spiritualist); but the Yogi views it in its fourth\n(_tur\u00edya_) state of _susupta_ or utter extinction in his unconscious\nsoul.\n\n26. Therefore the Yogi, though leading a secular life, remains\nsomnolent (_Susupta_) in his soul, and tranquil (_S\u00e1nta_) in his mind.\nHe lives like Brahma unknown to and unnoticed by others, and though\nknowing all and full of thoughts in himself, he is as a treasury of\nKnowledge, unknown to the rest of mankind.\n\n27. (In answer to the question how corporeal beings could proceed\nfrom the incorporeal Brahma). Vasishtha says:\u2014As waves of various\nshapes rise and fall in the still and shapeless breast of the sea, so\ninnumerable worlds of various forms, float about in the unaltered and\nformless vacuity of Brahma\u2019s bosom.\n\n28. From the fullness of the Divine soul (_Brahm\u00e1tm\u00e1_), proceeds\nthe fullness of the living soul (_J\u00edv\u00e1tm\u00e1_), which is formless also\n(_nir\u00e1kriti_). This aspect of Brahma is said to be owing to the purpose\nof manifesting himself (as living in all living beings).\n\n29. So the totality of worlds proceeding from the _plenum_ of Brahma,\nthere remains the same sum total also as the plenitude of Brahma\nhimself.\n\n30. Considering the world as synonymous with Brahma in our minds, we\nfind their identity (in the same manner), as one finds by taste the\npepper and its pungency to be the same thing.\n\n31. Such being the state of the unreality of the mind and its\ncognizables, their reflexions upon each other (_i.e._ of the mind upon\nthe object and those of the object on the mind), are equally untrue as\nthe shadow of a shadow. (Here is an utter negation of perception and\nperceptibles. There being no material subtratum, the shadowy scene of\nthe world is a mere mental synthesis. Berkeley).[9]\n\n32. Know Brahma to be smaller than the smallest atom, and minutest of\nminutest particles. He is purer than air, and more tranquil than the\nsubtile ether which is embosomed in him.\n\n33. Unbounded by space and time, his form is the most extensive of\nall. He is without beginning and end, and an ineffable light without\nbrightness in it. (He is the light of lights).\n\n34. He is of the form of intellect\u2014_chit_ and life eternal, without\nthe conditions and accidents of vitality\u2014_j\u00edvat\u00e1_. The Divine\nMind has its will eternal, and is devoid of the desires of finite\nminds\u2014_chittata_.\n\n35. Without the rise of the intellect (_i.e._ its development), there\nis neither vitality nor understanding, no intellection nor any organic\naction or sensation, and no mental desire or feeling whatever (all of\nwhich are but products of the intellect or Ego).\n\n36. Hence the Being that is full of these powers (and without which no\npower has its display), and who is without decline or decay, is seen by\nus to be seated in his state of tranquil vacuity, and is rarer than\nthe rarefied vacuum of the etherial regions.\n\n37. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me again and more precisely of the form of this\ntranscendental Being, who is of the nature of infinite intelligence,\nand which may give more light to my understanding.\n\n38. Vasistha said:\u2014I have told you repeatedly, that there is one\nsupreme Brahma, the cause of causes, who remains alone by himself, when\nthe universe is finally dissolved or absorbed in him. Hear me describe\nHim fully to you.\n\n39. That which the Yogi sees within himself after forgetting his\npersonality, and repressing the faculties and functions of his mind, in\nhis _Sam\u00e1dhi_\u2014meditation, is verily the form of the unspeakable Being.\n\n40. As the Yogi who is absorbed in his meditation in absence of the\nvisible world, and in privation of the viewer and visibles, and sees\nthe light shining in himself, even such is the form of that Being.\n\n41. Who having forgotten the nature of the living soul\u2014_j\u00edva_, and his\nproclivity towards the intelligibles, remains in the pure light and\ntranquil state of his intellect (as in Yoga), such is the form of the\nSupreme Spirit.\n\n42. He who has no feeling of the breathing of the winds, or of the\ntouch or pressure of any thing upon his body; but lives as a mass of\nintelligence in this life; is verily the form of the Supreme.\n\n43. Again that state of the mind, which a man of sense enjoys in his\nlong and sound sleep, that is undisturbed by dreams and gnats, is\nverily the form of the Supreme.\n\n44. That which abides in the hearts of vacuum, air and stone, and is\nthe intellect of all inanimate beings, is the form of the Supreme.\n\n45. Again whatever irrational and insensible beings live by nature, as\nwithout the soul and mind (as vegetables and minerals), the tranquil\nstate of their existence is the nature of the Supreme Soul.\n\n46. That which is seated in the midst of the intellectual light of the\nsoul, and what is situated in the midst of the etherial light of the\nsun, and that which is in the midst of our visual light, is verily the\nform of the Supreme. (This passage admits of an occult interpretation\nin the Yoga system).\n\n47. The soul which is the witness of our knowledge, of solar and visual\nlights and darkness, is without beginning and end, and is the form of\nthe Supreme.\n\n48. He who manifests this world to us, and keeps himself hidden from\nview, be he the same with or distinct from the world, is the form of\nthe Supreme.\n\n49. Who though full of activity, is sedate as a rock, and who though\nnot a vacuum (being the plenum of all), appears yet as an empty\nvacuity, such is the form of the Supreme.\n\n50. He who is the source and terminus of our triple consciousness of\nthe knower, known and knowledge (_i.e._ from whom they rise and in whom\nthey set by turns); is most difficult of attainment.\n\n51. He who shines forth with the lustre of the triple conditions of\nthe knowable, knower and their knowledge, and shows them to us as a\nlarge insensible mirror, is verily the form of the Supreme, who is here\nrepresented not as the cause\u2014_nimitta_, but as the source\u2014_vivarta_\nof the triple category.\n\n52. The mind that is liberated from bodily activities (as in the waking\n_Jagrat_ state) from its dreaming (as in the _swapna_ or sleeping\nstate), and is concentrated in the intellect (as in the state of\n_susupti_ or sound sleep), and abides alike in all moving as well as\nunmoving bodies (as in the _tur\u00edya_ or fourth state of the soul), is\nsaid to remain in the end of our being.\n\n53. The intelligent mind which is as fixed as an immovable body, and\nfreed from the exercise of its faculties, is comparable with the Divine\nMind.[10]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n SPIRITUAL VIEW OF CREATION.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me, O Br\u00e1hman, wherein this world abides at its\nlast dissolution, when it does not retain its present form, nor this\nresplendent show (as we see in it now).\n\n2. Vasishtha answered:\u2014Tell me, R\u00e1ma, what is the form of the barren\nwoman\u2019s son, and wherefrom he comes and where he goes, tell me also\nfrom where comes the sky-arbour (aerial castle), and where it remains.\n\n3. R\u00e1ma replied:\u2014There never was, nor is, nor ever will be the son of\na barren woman or an arbour in the sky; why then ask about the form and\nfigure of what is nothing?\n\n4. Vasishtha said:\u2014As there never was a barren woman\u2019s son or a forest\nin the air, so there existed no such scene as that of the world before.\n\n5. That which has no existence at all, could have neither its\nproduction before, nor can it have its dissolution afterwards. What\nshall I then tell you regarding its genesis or exit.\n\n6. R\u00e1ma rejoined:\u2014The son of a barren woman and a forest in the sky\nare mere fictions, but the visible world is not so, which has both its\nbeginning and end.\n\n7. Vasishtha replied:\u2014It is hard to have a comparison of the compared\nobject, agreeing in all respects with what it is compared. The\ncomparison of the world, is as a simile of those objects, which admit\nof no comparison (but with themselves).\n\n8. The appearance of the world, is compared with that of a bracelet,\nbecause the one is as false as the other, and neither of them is real.\n\n9. And as there is nothing in the sky except a negative emptiness, so\nthe existence of the world in Brahma, is but a negative idea.\n\n10. As the collyrium is no other than blackness, and as there is\nno difference between frost and its coldness, so the world is not\notherwise than the great Brahma himself.\n\n11. As coldness can not be negatived of the moon and frost, so creation\ncan not be negated of God. (Literally, creation is no negative property\nof Brahma, but essential to his nature).\n\n12. As there is no water in a sea of the mirage, nor light in the new\nmoon, so this world, as it is, does not abide in the pure spirit of God\n(in its gross state).\n\n13. That which did not exist at first owing to its want of a cause, has\nneither its existence at present, nor can it be destroyed (when it is a\n_nil_ itself).\n\n14. How is it possible for a dull material object to have any other\ncause but a material one; just as it is not the light (but some solid\nsubstance), that is the cause of a shadow.\n\n15. But as none of these works, has come into existence without some\ncause, that cause whatever it is, is situated in these productions of\nit: (_i.e._ the author is displayed in his works).\n\n16. Whatever appears as ignorance or delusion (as this world), has some\nappearance of intelligence or truth (of the Divinity) in it, as the\ndelusion of the world seen in a dream, is the effect of the intellect\nwithin us. (Consciousness is awake in our dreams also).\n\n17. As the illusion of the world in a dream, is not without our inward\nconsciousness of it, in like manner Brahma was not unconscious of the\nexpansion of the world, at the beginning of creation.\n\n18. All this that we behold about us, is situated in the divine soul\n(in the same manner as the visions in our dreams, are but archetypes of\nour souls); there is no other world that rises and sets (but what is\nimprinted in our minds).\n\n19. As fluidity is another name for water, and fluctuation the same\nwith wind; and as sunshine is no other than light, so the world is\nnaught but Brahma (displayed in nature).\n\n20. As the figure of a city, resides in the inward intellect of one,\nwho is conscious of his dreaming, in the same manner this world, is\ndisplayed in the Supreme soul.\n\n21. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014If it is so, then tell me, O Br\u00e1hman! whence is this\nour belief of its substantiality, and how this unreal and visionary\n_ideal_, presents its baneful visible aspect unto us.\n\n22. For the view being in existence, there must be its viewer also,\nand when there is the viewer, there is the view likewise. As long as\neither of these is in existence, there is our bondage, and it is on the\ndisappearance of both, that our liberation chiefly depends: (which can\nhardly take place).\n\n23. It is entirely impossible to be so, as long as our notion of the\nview, is not lost in our minds, for unless the view is vanished both\nfrom the vision of the eyes and mind, no one can even form an idea of\nliberation in his mind.\n\n24. Again the representation of the view at first, and its obliteration\nafterwards, is not enough for our liberation, because the remembrance\nof the view, is bondage of the soul.\n\n25. Moreover when the picture of the view, is settled in the soul,\nand reflected in the mirror of the mind, there is no necessity of its\nrecollection (for what is deeply rooted in the soul, comes out of\nitself).\n\n26. The intellect which was without the notion of the visibles at\nfirst, would be entitled to liberation, were it not owing to the nature\nof the viewer (to imbibe the ideas of visibles).\n\n27. Now sir, please to remove by your reasoning, my hopelessness of\nliberation, which I ween, is unattainable by any.\n\n28. Vasishtha said:\u2014Hear me, R\u00e1ma! explain to you in length, how the\nunreal world with all its contents, appears as real to us.\n\n29. For unless it is explained to you by my reasoning, and the\nnarratives and instances (of the practice of others), this doubt will\nnot subside in your breast, as dirt sets down in the lake.\n\n30. Then R\u00e1ma, you will be able to conduct yourself on earth, as\none under assurance of the erroneous conception of the creation and\nexistence of the world.\n\n31. You will then remain as a rock against the impressions of affluence\nand want, and of gain and loss, and your relation with whatever, is\nfleeting or lasting and the like.\n\n32. Mind, that there is that only one spirit, which is self-existent,\nand all besides is mere fiction. I will now tell you, how the triple\nworld was produced and formed.\n\n33. It was from Him, that all these beings have come to existence;\nwhile He of himself, is all and every thing in it. He likewise appears\nto us and disappears also, both as forms and their appearances, and as\nthe mind and its faculties, and as figures and their shapes, and as\nmodes and motions of all things.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n THE IDEALISTIC THEO-COSMOGONY OF VED\u00c1NTA.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nFrom the state of perfect quiescence and tranquillity of the supremely\nHoly spirit, the universe rose to being in the manner, which you must\nhear with your best understanding and attention.\n\n2. As sound sleep displays itself in visionary dreams, so does Brahma\nmanifest himself in the works of creation, of which he is the soul and\nreceptacle: (_i.e._ who contains and forms and enlivens the whole).\n\n3. The world, which of its nature is continually progressive in its\ncourse, is identic with the essence of that Being, whose form is\nselfsame with the ineffable glory of his eternally gemming Intellect\n(_chin-mani_).\n\n4. This _chit_ or Intellect, then (_i.e._ after its inert quiescence),\ngets of itself an intellection (_chety\u00e1_) in itself, before assuming\nto itself consciousness or the knowledge of egoism. (This is the first\nstage of the percipient soul).\n\n5. Then this thinking Intellect (_chetya-chit_), gets the notions\n(_bodhas_) of some faint images (_\u00fahita-r\u00fapas_), which are purer\nand lighter than air, and which have received their names and forms\nafterwards. (The innate ideas are born in it before the embryonic mind\nor soul).\n\n6. Afterwards this transcendent essence (Intellect), becomes an\nintelligent principle (_sacheta_), and eager for intelligence\n(_chetana_). It is now worthy of its name as Intellect or _chit_, on\naccount of its attaining to what is called intelligence.\n\n7. Lastly it takes the form of gross consciousness (_ghana-samvedana_),\nand receives the name of the living soul\u2014_j\u00edva_. It now loses its\ndivine nature by reflecting on itself: (_i.e._ its own personality).\n\n8. This living principle, is then involved in thoughts relating to the\nworld only; but depends by its nature on the divine essence: (as the\nfallacy of the snake, depends on the substance of the rope).[11]\n\n9. Afterwards there rises a void space into being, called\n_Kham\u2014vacuum_ (Arabic _Kh\u00e1viyetun_), which is the seed or source\nof the property of sound, and which became expressive of meaning\nafterwards. (It is called _\u00e1k\u00e1sa_ or sky-light from _k\u00e1sa_ to shine, as\nlight was the first work of God).\n\n10. Next in order are produced the elements of egoism and duration\nin the living soul (_i.e._ the simultaneousness of the ideas of\nself-entity and duration in the living principle). And these two\nterms, are the roots of the subsistence of future worlds. (_i.e._ The\nindividuality and durability of things).\n\n11. This ideal knowledge, of the unreal forms of the net-work of world,\nin divine Spirit, was made to appear as a reality by the Omnipotent\npower. (_i.e._ The ideal world appeared afterwards as real).\n\n12. Thus the ideal self-consciousness became the seed (or root) of the\ntree of desires, which were vacillated by egoism in the form of air.\n\n13. The intellect in the form of the airy ego, thinks on the element\nof sounds (_sabda tanm\u00e1tram_); it becomes by degrees denser than the\nrarefied air, and produces the element of mind.\n\n14. Sound is the seed (or root) of words, which were afterwards\ndiversified in the forms of names or nouns and significant terms; and\nthe assemblage of words, as shoots of trees, is varied in _padas_ or\ninflected words, _v\u00e1kyas_ or sentences, and the collections of Vedas\nand S\u00e1stras.\n\n15. It is from this Supreme spirit, that all these worlds derived their\nbeauty afterwards; and the multitude of words (which sprang from the\nsounds), and were full of meaning, became widely spread at last.\n\n16. The Intellect having such a family as its offspring, is expressed\nby the word _j\u00edva_ (_zoa_) or the living soul, which became afterwards\nthe arbor (or source) of all forms of beings, known under a variety of\nexpressions and their significations. (_i.e._ The living god Brahm\u00e1\nbecame the cause of the formal world, from the _tanm\u00e1tra_ elements\nproduced by Brahma).\n\n17. The fourteen kinds of living beings, which fill the cells in the\nbowels of all worlds, sprang afterwards from this living soul. (These\ninclude all vegetable and animal life and all such as increase in bulk\nand growth).\n\n18. It was then, that the Intellect by a motion and inflation of\nitself, and at an instantaneous thought, became the element _tanm\u00e1tra_\nof touch and feeling (the air), which was yet without its name and\naction. (The Spirit breathed breathless. _Sruti_). This breath caused\nair, which expanded itself and filled all bodies, which are objects of\ntouch and feeling.\n\n19. The air, which is the seed (root) of the tree of tangibles, then\ndeveloped itself into branches, composed of the (49) various kinds of\nwinds, that are the causes of the breathings and motions of all beings.\n\n20. Then the Intellect produced at pleasure and from its idea of\nlight, the elemental essence of lustre, which received afterwards its\ndifferent names (from the light of the sun and moon and the stars, as\nalso from those of fire and lightning).\n\n21. Then the sun, fire, lightning and others, which are the seeds (or\nroots) of the tree of light, caused the various colours of bodies that\nfilled the world. (That light is the cause of colour, was known to the\nancient Rishi).\n\n22. It reflected on the want of fluidity, and produced the liquid body\nof waters, whose taste constitutes the element (_tanm\u00e1tra_) of flavour.\n\n23. The desire of the soul for different flavours (_rasas_), is the\nseed of the tree of taste, and it is by the relish of a variety of\ntastes, that the world is to go on in its course.\n\n24. Then the self-willed Brahm\u00e1, wishing to produce the visible earth,\ncaused the property of smell to appertain to it from his own element of\nit.\n\n25. He made his elementary solidity, the seed or source of the tree\nof forms (morphology); as he made his own element of rotundity the\nsubstratum of the spherical world.\n\n26. Those elements being all evolved from the Intellect, are again\ninvolved of themselves in it, as the bubbles of water rise and subside\nin itself.\n\n27. In this manner, all those beings remain in their combined states,\nuntil their final dissolution into their simple and separate forms.\n\n28. All those things, which are but forms and formations of pure\nIntellect, remain within the sphere of Divine Intelligence, as the\ngerms of the big banian tree, reside in the forms of pollen and the\nseed.\n\n29. These sprouted forth in time, and burst out into a hundred\nbranches: and after having been concealed in an atom, became as big as\nthey were to last for ever.\n\n30. Such is the growth and multiplication of things by pervasion of the\nIntellect, until they are put to a stop by its contraction and when\nweakened in their bodies by its desertion, they droop down in the end.\n\n31. Thus is this class of elementary _tanm\u00e1tras_, produced in the\nIntellect out of its own volition, and are manifested in the form of\nformless minuti\u00e6 to sight.[12] (trasaranus).\n\n32. These five-fold elements are verily the only seeds of all things\nin the world. They are the seeds of the primary momentum that was\ngiven to them (in the beginning). In our notions, they are the seeds\nof elementary bodies, but in their real nature, they are the increate\nideal shapes of the Intellect replenishing the world.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE SELF-BORN.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nR\u00e1ma! When the Supreme Brahma remains in his resplendent and tranquil\nstate (before creation), there is no essence of etherial light or heat\nor even darkness produced in the intellectual spirit. (But they lie\nhidden there as if buried in oblivion).\n\n2. The _Sat_-God has the attribute of _Chetya_\u2014intellectuality at\nfirst, and it is from the intellection (_Chetana_) of his intellectual\npart (_Chety\u00e1nsa_), that the epithet of mind (_Chitta_) is attributed\nto him. The faculties (_Sakti_) of his intellect (_Chit_), are called\nits intelligence (_Chetan\u00e1_).\n\n3. The _Chit_ or intellect has then the attribute of the Living soul\n(_J\u00edva_), from its intelligence (_Chetan\u00e1_), and connection with the\n_chetya_ or intelligible objects in nature. It is next attributed with\nthe title of _m\u00e1y\u00e1_ or illusion, from the subjection of its _Chetya_ or\ncognizable objects only to itself\u2014_Aham m\u00e1tra_.\n\n4. It has then the attribute of understanding (_buddhi_), from the\nexcess of its egoism (_ahant\u00e1_), which is full with the purposes of\nits mind and the elements of sound &c. (_i.e._ with a desire for all\nsensible objects).\n\n5. This (living, deluded and self reflecting) ego, is puffed up with\nthoughts of (possessing) all things, and looks upon the great arbour of\nthe visible world (as the great garden for its pleasure and gain).\n\n6. But the living souls, like so many evanescent objects seen in a\ndream, are made to rise and fall one after the other, in this great\nforest of the world surrounded by the skies.\n\n7. But the world is (as continuous) as the grove of _Karajna_ plants,\ngrowing from unsown seeds; and its elementary bodies of the water,\nfire, earth and air, have no regard for any body; (that is living or\ndead).\n\n8. The intellect which is the soul of the universe, creates afterwards\nthe earth and all other things, as one remembering the objects of his\ndream (recalls them to his memory).\n\n9. Wherever there is the germ of the world, it develops itself even at\nthat place; the live elements are the five fold seed of the world, but\nthe undecaying intellect is the seed of the quintuple (_pancha-bh\u00fata_).\n\n10. As is the seed so is its fruit; hence know the world to be a form\nand full of God; and the spacious firmament to be the reservoir of the\nquintuple elements in the beginning of creation.\n\n11. The soul like the body, is composed of the powers of the Intellect,\nand does not subsist of itself; but being inflated by the same, it\nextends its bulk.\n\n12. But the vacuous form of the intellect, which is seated in the\nspiritual body of the soul, cannot be composed of solid reality (as the\nprimary elements of matter). This is not possible; hence nothing can\ncome out from an impossibility.\n\n13. Again that which is changeable in its form, cannot have its\nsameness at all times: hence if the essence of the quintuple elements,\nbe attributed to Brahma, from the idea of their being the quintessence\nof his spirit, there can be no immaterial and immutable Brahma.\n\n14. Therefore know this quintuple to be the developed Brahma himself,\nas he evolved them in the beginning, and as he is their producer for\nthe creation of the world.\n\n15. Thus He being the prime cause of their production, there is nothing\nthat is produced (without) him, and the world is no product of itself.\n\n16. The unreal appears as real as a city seen in a dream, and as a\ncastle built in air by our hopes: so we place the living soul in\nourselves, which has its foundation in the vacuous spirit of God.\n\n17. Thus the brilliant spirit, which is situated in the Divine\nIntellect, being no earthly or any other material substance, is styled\nthe living soul, and remains in vacuum as a luminous body rising in the\nsky.\n\n18. Hear now how this vacuous living soul, comes to be embodied in the\nhuman body, after its detachment as a spark from the totality of vital\nspirits, in the empty sphere of divine Intellect.\n\n19. The soul thinks itself as \u201ca minute particle of light\u201d at\nfirst, and then it considers itself as growing in the sphere of its\nconsciousness.\n\n20. The unreal appearing as real, proves to be unreal at last; as the\nfictitious moon becomes a nullity afterwards; so the soul continues to\nview itself subjectively and objectively both as the viewer and the\nview.\n\n21. Thus the single self becomes double as one sees his own death in a\ndream; and thus it waxes into bigness and thinks its vital spark as a\nstar. (This is the form of the _lingadeha_ or sentient soul within the\nbody).\n\n22. As the soul goes on thinking itself the microcosm of the world\n(_Viswar\u00fapa_), so it falsely thinks itself as such in reality, as it is\nexpressed by the dictum \u201c_Soham_\u201d \u201cso am I.\u201d\n\n23. By thinking himself as such, man comes to believe it as true, as\none believes himself as a traveller in his dream. So by thinking the\nsoul as a star, he views it so within himself.\n\n24. By continued meditation of his soul as such, he loses his external\nsensations, and views this star in his cranium.\n\n25. He sees the soul within him though it be without him; just as\nthe mirror reflects the distant hill in itself; and the soul remains\nconfined within him, as a body is confined in a well, and as a sound is\nshut up in the hollow of a cave.\n\n26. The consciousness of our dreams and desires, is but a particle\n(attribute) of the living soul, whose real form is that of a star\nwaking (keeping watch) within us. (Consciousness of external objects in\nour dream and desire, is compared to the reflection of outward images\nin a glass or bubble of water, and to the echo of a distant sound in a\nhollow cave).\n\n27. Now this vacuous life, which is composed of the essences of the\nmind, understanding and knowledge, resides in the hollow sheath of the\nstar. (The star is supposed to be the eye-sight and residence of life.\nGloss).\n\n28. It appears to me to take its flight to the sky, to see what is\npassing there (i.e. the manner in which the mental eye of the Yogi\npenetrates the regions of air). And then it enters the body by two\nholes, which have the names of the external organs (of sight) given\nthem afterwards. (The whole sphere of air is thought to teem with life\nor living souls and spirits, which rove free in the air, until they are\nmade to enter and pass out of the body by two unknown holes, whether of\nthe nostrils or sockets or glottis, remains undefined and undetermined).\n\n29. The organs by which the embodied living soul, is to see (external\nobjects), are called the eyes-_netras_ (from their receiving (_nayana_)\nthe light of the soul). That by which it is to feel, is styled the skin\n(_twak_ or touch); and those whereby it is to hear, are termed the ears\n(_srutis_ from _sru_ to hear, corresponding with _suna_ or _shunu_ in\nvernaculars and Persian).\n\n30. The organ of smelling is the nose\u2014_ghr\u00e1na_ from its bearing the\nscent\u2014_ghr\u00e1na_ to the soul; and that of taste is named as tongue\n_rasan\u00e1_, for its conducting the _rasa_ taste or flavour to the spirit.\n\n31. Then there is the breathing air (the air of breath or breath of\nlife), which actuates the energies of the organs of action. It is this\nair which is the cause\u2014of vision, and mover of the internal organs of\nthe mind and thought.\n\n32. This (vital breath) supports the embodied and all supporting soul\n(_\u00e1tiv\u00e1hika-deh\u00e1tm\u00e1_) in the vacuity of the body, and fills and kindles\nit as the air does a spark of fire.\n\n33. The word _J\u00edva_ or the living soul (_zoa_), is brought under a\nfigurative sense, \u2018to mean something real in the unreal body\u2019. Hence\nBrahm\u00e1 is said to be the life and soul of the unreal world.\n\n34. The gross embodied soul, is of the form of vacuum like the mind and\nyet it imagines itself to reside in an _ovum_ in the body, as Brahm\u00e1\nis supposed to be seated in the mundane egg. (_i.e._ The soul loses its\nlight airy shape and free range, by being confined in the body).\n\n35. Some view the spirit of God as floating on the surface of the\n(ante-mundane) waters (in the form of _N\u00e1r\u00e1yana_); and others view\nit in the person of the Lord of creatures (Brahm\u00e1); while there are\nothers, who look at it as infused throughout the creation in the figure\nof _vir\u00e1j_. These are called the subtile and gross bodies of the soul\n(_sth\u00fala_ and _s\u00fakshma sar\u00edras_).\n\n36. The soul or spirit is the spacious womb of productions, and the\nmeans of executing its own purposes, and of knowing the proper time and\nplace, and the article and the manner of action (modus operandi).\n\n37. The mind is the inventor of words, expressive of ideas (in the\nsoul), and subjects itself to the arbitary sounds of its own invention.\nHence God is erroneously said to be embodied in words (_sabda Brahma_\nof Mim\u00e1ns\u00e1 philosophy) in this world of errors.\n\n38. The unproduced and self-born Brahm\u00e1, that has risen of himself (and\nrepresents the mind), is as unreal as the soaring of a man in the sky\nin his dream.\n\n39. This all supporting-embodied soul, is the prime Lord of creatures,\nwho is said to have formed this illusory frame of the world.\n\n40. But there was nothing formed or born in it (in reality); nor is\nthere any substance to be found in the world. It is the same vacuous\nform of Brahma still, whose essence is known to extend as the infinite\nspace itself.\n\n41. Things appearing as real, are as unreal as an imaginary city\n(Utopia), which presents a variety (of forms and colours) to the fancy,\nwithout being built or painted by any body. (The phenomenal appearance\nof the world, is likened to a phantasmagoria).\n\n42. Nothing that is unmade or unthought of, can be real (either in\nsubstance or idea); and the gods Brahm\u00e1 and others, being freed from\ntheir avocations at the universal dissolution of existence, could\nneither resume their functions nor have materials for the same.\n\n43. The self-born Brahm\u00e1, having then neither his remembrance of the\npast, nor any material appliance at hand, could neither form an ideal\nor material world out of nothing. Therefore production of Brahm\u00e1 and\nformation of the universe are alike (chimerical).\n\n44. The earth and all other existences, are but the eternal ideas of\nthe divine mind, and they appear to us as objects of a dream in our\nwaking state: (when they vanish into airy nothing).\n\n45. The divine spirit is known to be vacuum only, and so also is the\nworld ever known to be: (because the like produces the like). So all\nwaters are alike liquid bodies, though they are made to pass under\ndifferent names.\n\n46. This creation is every where the same in the Supreme Spirit. It is\nbut an evolution of the same (though presenting different aspects to\nus); and the creator is always and everywhere immutable in his nature.\n\n47. The vacuous universe, under the name of the mundane egg, shines as\nclearly as the Divine Spirit: it is calm in its appearance, and becomes\ndisturbed by causes born in itself. (Nature is uniform, but ruffled by\naccidents).\n\n48. It is supported by the supportless supporter of all, who is one and\nwithout a second, but devoid of unity in (the variety of his) creation.\nAll this is born in his consciousness, and therefore there is nothing\nthat is produced anew.\n\n49. He, who is of the form of unlimited space, and without any vacuity\nin it (because nature abhors a vacuum); who is transparent yet teeming\nwith abundance; who is the whole world (God in nature), without any\nworldliness in him; is verily the substratum of all.\n\n50. He, who is neither the container nor the contained, nor the view of\nthe world; who is neither the world nor its creator (Brahm\u00e1), and about\nwhom there can be no dispute nor disputant; is verily the unknown God.\n\n51. He, who is neither the passing world nor any of its passing things;\nwho is quite at rest, yet situated in all things, (whether moving or\nquiescent); is the only Brahma that shines of himself in himself (as\nthe soul of and all in all).\n\n52. As we form in ourselves the image of a whirlpool, by the idea of\nthe fluidity of water in our minds; so the sight of the world produces\nthe false notion of its reality in the mind.\n\n53. All unrealities become extinct at the end, as we see the\ndeath of our frail bodies in dreams. So we find on the contrary\nthe essential part of our soul, to be unscathed by its own nature\nof indestructibility, and remaining in the form of everlasting\nconsciousness in the atmosphere of our intellects.\n\n54. Brahm\u00e1 the prime Lord of creatures, is ever manifest by himself in\nthe form of vacuity in the Supreme spirit; and he being of a spiritual\nform as the mind, has no material body formed of earth as all other\ncorporeal beings; and is therefore both real and unborn (in his\nessence).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n ESTABLISHMENT OF BRAHMA.\n\n\nVasishtha added:\u2014\n\nIn this manner the visible world, myself, thyself and all other things\nare nothing; all these being unmade and unborn are inexistent: it is\nthe Supreme spirit only that is existent of itself.\n\n2. The primeval vacuous soul is awakened at first of itself, and by its\nown energy from its quietness, and begins to have a motion in itself\nlike the troubled waters of the deep.\n\n3. It then begins to reflect in itself, as in a dream or in\nimagination, without changing its vacuous form, which is likened to a\nrock with the inward faculty of thought.\n\n4. The body of the Great Vir\u00e1j also, is devoid of any material form,\neither of earthly or any other elemental shape, (as it is viewed in the\nVedas). It is purely a spiritual, intellectual and etherial form, and\nas transparent as the ether itself.\n\n5. It is undecaying and steady as a rock, and as airy as a city seen\nin a dream. It is immovable as the line of a regiment represented in a\npicture.\n\n6. All other souls are as pictures of dolls and puppets, painted\nand not engraven on the body of Vir\u00e1j as upon a huge pillar; and\nhe standing as an uncarved column in the empty sphere of Brahm\u00e1,\nrepresents all souls (and not bodies) as they are mere pictures on it.\n\n7. The prime Lord of creatures is said to be self-born at first, and he\nis known as the increate (Brahm\u00e1), for want of his prior acts to cause\nhis birth. (He is coeternal with the eternal Brahma, and is therefore\nnot subject to birth and death).\n\n8. The primeval patriarchs, who obtain their ultimate liberation at the\nfinal dissolution of the world, have no antecedent cause to be reborn\nas unliberated mortals. (So the emancipate souls of the living and\ndead, are freed from the doom of regeneration.)\n\n9. Brahma, who is the reflector of all souls, is himself invisible in\nthe inward mirror of other souls: (_i.e._ he reflects all images in\nhimself, but never casts his own reflexion upon any). He is neither the\nview nor the viewer, and neither the creation nor the creator himself.\n(These being the functions of the creative and representative powers of\nBrahm\u00e1 and Vir\u00e1j).\n\n10. Though thus negated of all predicates, yet is Brahma the soul of\nall predicables, that may be affirmed or denied of him (since he is all\nin all). He is the source of these chains of living beings, as light is\nthe cause of a line of lighted lamps in illuminations.\n\n11. The will of the gods (Brahm\u00e1 and Vir\u00e1j), proceeding from the\nvolition of Brahma, is of that spiritual nature as the other; just as\none dream rising in another, is equally unsubstantial as the first:\n(_i.e._ the products of spiritual causes, are also spiritual, by the\nrule of the homogeneity of the cause and effect).\n\n12. Hence all living souls, which are evolved from the breathing of\nthe Supreme Spirit, are of the same nature as their origin for want of\nan auxiliary causality. (God made man in his own image, and as perfect\nas himself: and this _man_ is _manas_ the Brahm\u00e1, or as he is named\nAdam, corresponding with _Adima_ or _Adyam purusham_\u2014the first male or\nProtogonus).\n\n13. Want of a secondary agency, produces the equality of effects with\ntheir cause (as the fruits and flowers of trees, are of the same kind\nwith the parent tree, unless there rises a difference in them by cause\nof engraftments). Hence the uniformity of created things, proves\nthe conception of their creation by a secondary cause, to be wholly\nerroneous.\n\n14. Brahma himself is the prime soul of Vir\u00e1j and self-same with him,\nand Vir\u00e1j is the soul of creation and identical with it. He is the\nvacuous vitality of all; and it is from him that the unreal earth and\nother things have their rise. (Vir\u00e1j is the spirit of God diffused in\nnature).\n\n15. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me, whether the living soul, is a limited thing or\nan unlimited mass of life; or does the unbounded spirit of God, exist\nin the shape of a mountainous heap of living souls: (_i.e._ whether\nit is to be taken in a collective or integral sense, and whether it\nforms a totality\u2014_samashti_ existent in the Divinity, of which all\nindividual souls are either as parts _vyashti_ or separate existences).\n\n16. Are these living souls like showers of rain-water falling from\nabove, or as the drizzling drops of waves in the vast ocean of\ncreation, or as the sparks of fire struck out of a red-hot iron, and\nfrom whence they flow, and by whom they are emitted.\n\n17. Tell me sir, the truth concerning the profusion of living souls,\nand though I have a partial knowledge of it, I require it to be more\nfully and clearly explained by you.\n\n18. Vasishtha replied:\u2014There being but one living soul of the\nuniverse, you can not call it a multitude. Your question therefore is\nquite out of place, as the query about the horns of hares (which do not\nexist in nature).\n\n19. There are no detached living souls, O R\u00e1ma, nor are they to be\nfound in multitudes any where, nor was there a mountainous heap of\nsouls known to have existed at any time.\n\n20. Living soul is but a fictitious word, and it is heaped with many\nfictions, all of which, you must know for certain, do not apply to the\nsoul.\n\n21. There is but one pure and immaculate Brahma, who is mere Intellect\n(_chinm\u00e1tram_) and all pervasive. He assumes to himself all attributes\nby his almighty power. (Here Brahma is represented not only as\nOmniscient and Omnipotent; but as _saguna_ also by his assumption of\nall attributes).\n\n22. The living soul is viewed by many to evolve itself from the\nintellect into many visible and invisible forms (_m\u00farta-m\u00fatam_); just\nas a plant is seen to develope itself into its fruits and flowers.\n\n23. They add to their knowledge of the soul the attributes of the\nliving principle, understanding, action, motion, mind and unity and\nduality, as if these appertain to its nature.\n\n24. But all this is caused by ignorance, while right understanding\nassigns them to Brahma. The ignorant are bewildered by these distinct\nviews (of the soul), and will not be awakened to sense.\n\n25. These different believers are lost (in their various views), as the\nlight is lost under darkness. They will never come to the knowledge of\ntruth as it is the case with the ignorant.\n\n26. Know Brahma himself as the living soul without any divisibility or\ndistinction. He is without beginning or end. He is omnipotent, and is\nof the form of the great Intellect which forms his essence.\n\n27. His want of minuteness (_i.e._ his fulness) in all places,\nprecludes his distinctive appellations every where. Whatever attributes\nare given him (by fiction), are all to be understood to mean Brahma\nhimself.\n\n28. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014How comes it, O Br\u00e1hman? that the totality of the\nliving souls in the world, is guided by the will of one universal soul,\nwhich governs the whole, and to which all others are subject.\n\n29. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Brahma the great living soul and\nOmnipotent power, remained from eternity with his volition (_satya\nsankalpa_\u2014fixed determination) of creation, without partition or\nalteration of himself.\n\n30. Whatever is wished by that great soul, comes to take place\nimmediately. The wish it formed in its unity at first, became a\npositive duality at last. Then its wish \u201cto be many\u201d (_Aham bahu\nsyam_), became the separate existences afterwards.\n\n31. All these dualities of his self-divided powers (the different\nliving souls), had their several routines of action allotted to them,\nas \u201cthis is for that\u201d; meaning \u201cthis being is for that duty, and such\naction is for such end\u201d.\n\n32. Thus though there can be no act without exertion (by the general\nrule as in the case of mortals), yet the predominant will of Brahm\u00e1,\nis always prevailing without its exertion to action, (as in the case\nof saints whose wills are effective of their ends without the aid of\naction).\n\n33. Though they that bear the name of living beings, effect their\npurposes by exertion of their energies, yet they can effect nothing\nwithout acting according to the law appointed by the predominant power.\n\n34. If the law of the predominant power, is effective of its end\n(_i.e._ the law of action for production of acts); then the exertions\nof the subordinate powers (the living souls), must also be attended\nwith success: (_i.e._ the attainment of the like result of the like\naction).\n\n35. Thus Brahma alone is the great living soul that exists for ever and\nwithout end; and these millions of living beings are no other in the\nworld (than agents of the divine energies).\n\n36. It is with a consciousness of the intellectual soul (_i.e._ the\ninward knowledge of the divinity within themselves), that all living\nsouls are born in this world; but losing that consciousness (their\nknowledge of God) afterwards, they became alienated from him.\n\n37. Hence men of inferior souls, should pursue the course of conduct\nled by the superior souls, for regaining their spiritual life\n_\u00e1tmaj\u00edvatwam_, as the copper becomes transformed into gold (by\nchemical process).\n\n38. Thus the whole body of living beings, that had been as inexistent\nas air before, come into existence, and rise resplendent with the\nwonderful intellect.\n\n39. Whoso perceives this wondrous intellect in his mind, and gets\nafterwards a body and the consciousness of his egoism, he is then said\nto be an embodied living soul.\n\n40. The mind that is gratified with intellectual delights, becomes\nas expanded as the intellect itself, and thinks those pleasures to\nconstitute the sum total of worldly enjoyments.\n\n41. The Intellect is said to remain unchanged in all its succeeding\nstages; and though it never changes from that state, yet it wakes\n(developes) by a power intrinsic in itself.\n\n42. The uninterrupted activity of the Intellect, indulges itself in the\namusement of manifesting the intelligibles in the form of the world\n(_i.e._ Of evolving the knowables from its own knowledge of them. Or\nit is the pleasure of the intellect to unfold the secrets of nature to\nview).\n\n43. The extent of the intellectual faculty, is wider and more rarefied\nthan the surrounding air, and yet it perceives its distinct egoism by\nitself and of its own nature. (The subjective knowledge of ego\u2014self).\n\n44. Its knowledge of self, springs of itself in itself like the water\nof a fountain; and it perceives itself (its _ego_) to be but an atom\namidst the endless worlds.\n\n45. It perceives also in itself the beautiful and wondrous world, which\nis amazing to the understanding, and which is thereafter named the\nuniverse. (_i.e._ The one existing in the other and not without it:\nmeaning, the soul to be the seat of both the subjective and objective\nknowledge).\n\n46. Now R\u00e1ma, our _egoism_ being but a conception of the intellect is\na mere fiction (_kalpan\u00e1_); and the elementary principles being but\ncreatures of egoism, they are also fictions of the intellect.\n\n47. Again the living soul being but a resultant of our acts and\ndesires, you have to renounce these causes, in order to get rid of your\nknowledge of _ego_ and _tu_ (_i.e._ of the existence of yourself and\nthat of others); and then you attain to the knowledge of the true one,\nafter discarding the fictions of the real and unreal.\n\n48. As the sky looks as clear as ever, after the shadows of clouds\nare dispersed from it, so does the soul look as bright as it existed\nat first in the intellect, after its overshadowing fictions have been\nremoved.\n\n49. The universe is a vacuum, and the world is a name for the field\nof our exertions. This vacuity is the abode of the gods (_Viswa_ and\n_Vir\u00e1j_, both of whom are formless). The wonderful frame of plastic\nnature, is but a form of the formless intellect and no other.\n\n50. What is one\u2019s nature never leaves him at any time; how then can a\nform or figure be given to the formless Divinity?\n\n51. The divine intellect is exempt from all the names and forms which\nare given to unintelligent worldly things, it being the pervader and\nenlivener, of all that shines in the world. (Intellect is the power of\nunderstanding).\n\n52. The mind, understanding and egoism, with the elements, the hills\nand skies, and all things that compose and support the world, are made\nof the essences proceeding from the intellect. (The intellect from\n_interlegere_ contains all things).\n\n53. Know the world to compose the mind-_chitta_ of the intellect-_chit_\nof God, because the mind does not subsist without the world. Want of\nthe world would prove the inexistence of the mind and intellect which\nconsist of the world. (Hence the identity of the intelligent world with\nthe mind and intellect of God).\n\n54. The intellect like the pepper seed, is possest of an exquisite\nproperty within itself, and bears like the flavour of the other, the\nelement of the living soul, which is the element of animated nature.\n\n55. As the mind exerts its power and assumes its sense of egoism, it\nderives the principle of the living soul from the Intellect, which with\nits breath of life and action, is called a living being afterwards.\n(The mind is what thinks, moves and acts).\n\n56. The intellect (_chit_), exhibiting itself as the mind (_chitta_),\nbears the name of the purpose it has to accomplish, which being\ntemporary and changeable, is different from the _chit_ and a nullity.\n(The mind being the principle of volition, is applied also to the\nobject of the will, as we say, I have a mind to play; which is equal to\nthe expression, I have a playful mind: and this state of the mind being\nvariable, is said to be null).\n\n57. The distinction of actor and act, does not consist in the\nintellect, it being eternal, is neither the author or the work itself.\nBut the living soul, which is active and productive of acts, is called\nthe _purusha_ or the embodied soul residing in the body\u2014_purau-sete_.\nIt is action which makes the man-_purusha_, from which is derived his\nmanhood-_paurusha_.\n\n58. Life with the action of the mind constitutes the mind of man. The\nmind taking a sensitive form, employs the organs of sense to their\ndifferent functions. (The sensitivity of the mind bears an active and\nnot the passive sense of sensitiveness or sensibility).\n\n59. He, the radiance of the light of whose intellect, is the cause of\ninfinite blessings to the world, is both its author and workmanship\nfrom all eternity, and there is none beside him. (He is the\n_Pratyag\u00e1tm\u00e1_ the all-pervading soul).\n\n60. Hence the ego or living soul is indivisible, uninflammable,\nunsoilable and undriable in its essence; it is everlasting and infinite\n(ubiquious), and as immovable as a mountain. (The living soul is viewed\nin the light of the eternal soul).\n\n61. There are many that dispute on this point, as they dispute on\nother matters, in their error, and mislead others into the same; but\nwe are set free from all mistake. (The disputants are the dualists,\nwho make a distinction between the eternal and created souls.\n(_J\u00edv\u00e1tm\u00e1-param\u00e1tm\u00e1-dvaita-v\u00e1dis_)).\n\n62. The dualist relying on the phenomena, is deceived by their varying\nappearances; but the believer in the formless unity, relies in the\neverlasting blessed spirit (which he views in his intellect).\n\n63. Fondness for intellectual culture, is attended with the vernal\nblossoms of intellect, which are as white as the clear firmament, and\nas numberless as the parts of time.\n\n64. The intellect exhibits itself in the form of the boundless and\nwonderful mundane egg, and it breathes out the breath of its own\nspirit in the same egg. (The breathing soul is called the _s\u00fatr\u00e1tm\u00e1_\none of the ten hypostases of Brahma, the vital air is the first of the\nelementary bodies, in the order of emanation _alias_ creation).\n\n65. It then showed itself in the wondrous form of the antimundane\nwaters, not as they rise from springs or fall into reservoirs, as also\nin those of the substances constituting the bodies of the best of\nbeings.\n\n66. It next shone forth with its own intellectual light, which shines\nas bright as the humid beams of the full moon.\n\n67. Then as the intellect rises in full light with its internal\nknowledge, upon disappearance of the visibles from sight; so also it is\ntransformed to dullness by dwelling upon gross objects, when it is said\nto be lie dormant. In this state of the intellect, it is lowered to and\nconfined in the earth.\n\n68. The world is in motion by the force of the Intellect, in whose\ngreat vacuity it is settled; it is lighted by the light of that\nIntellect, and is therefore said to be both existent as well as\ninexistent by itself.\n\n69. Like the vacuity of that Intellect, the world is said now to exist\nand now to be inexistent; and like the light of that Intellect, it now\nappears and now disappears from view.\n\n70. Like the fleeting wind which is breathed by that Intellect, the\nworld is now in existence and now inexistent; and like the cloudy and\nunclouded sphere of that Intellect, the world is now in being and now a\nnot being.\n\n71. Like the broad day light of that Intellect, the world is now in\nexistence, and like the disappearance of that light, it now becomes\nnothing. It is formed like collyrium from the particles of the oil of\nthe _rajas_ quality of the Intellect.\n\n72. It is the intellectual fire that gives warmth to the world, and it\nis the alabaster (conch) of the intellect that causes its whiteness;\nthe rock of intellect gives it hardness, and its water causes its\nfluidity.\n\n73. The sweetness of the world, is derived from the sugar of the\nintellect, and its juiciness from the milk in the divine mind; its\ncoldness is from the ice, and its heat from the fire contained in the\nsame. (_i.e._ The divine Intellect is the material cause (_up\u00e1d\u00e1na\nk\u00e1rana_) of the world).\n\n74. The world is oily by the mustard seeds contained in the Intellect;\nand billowy in the sea of the divine mind. It is dulcet by the honey\nand aureate by the gold contained in the same.\n\n75. The world is a fruit of the tree of Intellect, and its fragrance is\nderived from the flowers growing in the arbour of the mind. It is the\n_ens_ of the Intellect, that gives the world its entity, and it is the\nmould of the eternal mind, that gives its form.\n\n76. The difference is, that this world is changeful, while the clear\natmosphere of the Intellect has no change in it; and the unreal world\nbecomes real, when it is seen as full of the Divine spirit.\n\n77. The invariable self-sameness of the Divine spirit, makes the\nentity and non-entity of the world alike (because it has no existence\nof its own, but in the Supreme soul). And the words \u2018part and whole\u2019\nare wholly meaningless, because both of these are full with the divine\nspirit.\n\n78. Fie to them, that deride notions as false talk; because the world\nwith its hills, and seas, earth and rivers, is all untrue without the\nnotion of God\u2019s presence in it. (The Buddhists are perceptionalists,\nand have no faith in any thing beyond their sensible perceptions\n(_pratyaksha_); but the Vedantic spiritualists, on the contrary, are\nabstract conceptionalists, and believe nothing to be true, of which\nthey have no notion or inward conception).\n\n79. The intellect being an unity, cannot be mistaken for a part of any\nthing; and though it may become as solid as a stone, yet it shines\nbrightly in the sphere of its vacuity.[13]\n\n80. It has a clear vacuous space in its inside, as a transparent\ncrystal, which reflects the images of all objects, though it is as\nclear as the sky.\n\n81. As the lines on the leaves of trees, are neither the parts of the\nleaves nor distinct from them, so the world situated in the Intellect,\nis no part of it nor separate from it.\n\n82. No detached soul is of heterogeneous growth, but retains in its\nnature the nature of the intellect, and Brahm\u00e1 is the primary cause of\ncauses. (Hence called Hiranyagarbha.)\n\n83. The mind is of its own nature a causal principle, by reason of its\nnotion of the Intellect; but its existence is hard to be proved, when\nit is insensible and unconscious of the intellect.\n\n84. Whatever is in the root, comes out in the tree, as we see the seed\nshoot forth in plants of its own species.\n\n85. All the worlds are as void as vacuity, and yet they appear\notherwise, as they are situated in the Great Intellect. All this is the\nseat of the Supreme, and you must know it by your intellection.\n\n86. As the Muni spake these words, the day declined to its evening\ntwilight. The assembly broke with mutual salutations, to perform their\nvesperal ablutions, and met again at the court hall with the rising\nsunbeams, after dispersion of the nocturnal gloom.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n STORY OF THE TEMPLE AND ITS PRINCE.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014The world is a void and as null as the pearls in the\nsky (seen by optical delusion). It is as unreal as the soul in the\nvacuity of the intellect.\n\n2. All its objects appear, as unengraven images on the column of the\nmind, which is without any engraving or engraver of it.\n\n3. As the intermotion of the waters in the sea, causes the waves to\nrise of themselves, so the visibles as they appear to us, are as waves\nin the calm spirit of the Supreme. (The variety of the waves, with the\npearls, shells and froth they pour out, resemble the multiformity of\nworldly productions).\n\n4. As sun-beams seen under the water, and as water appearing in the\nsands of the desert (mirage); so it is the fancy, that paints the world\nas true to us; and its bulk is like that of an atom, appearing as a\nhill (when seen through the microscope).\n\n5. The fancied world is no more than a facsimile of the mind of its\nMaker, just as the sun beams under the water, are but reflexions of the\nlight above; and no other than a negative notion (a false idea).\n\n6. The ideal world is but an aerial castle, and this earth (with its\ncontents), is as unreal as a dream, and as false as the objects of our\ndesire.\n\n7. The earth appearing as solid, is in the light of philosophy, no\nbetter than the liquid water of a river, in the mirage of a sandy\ndesert, and is never in existence.\n\n8. The illusive forms of the visibles, in this supposed substantial\nform of the world, resemble at least, but aerial castles and rivers in\nthe mirage.\n\n9. The visionary scenes of the world being taken to the scales, will be\nfound when weighed, to be light as air and as hollow as vacuum.\n\n10. The ignorant that are taken away by the sound of words in\ndisregard of sense, will find when they come to sense, that there is\nno difference between the world and Brahma: (the one being but the\nreflection of the other).\n\n11. The dull world is the issue of the Intellect, like the beams of the\nsun in the sky. The light of the intellect, is as light as the rarefied\nrays of the sun; but it raises like the other, the huge clouds, to\nwater the shooting seeds of plants.\n\n12. As a city in a dream, is finer than one seen in the waking state,\nso this visionary world is as subtile as an imaginary one.\n\n13. Know therefore the insensible world to be the inverse of the\nsensible soul, and the substantive world as the reverse of the\nunsubstantial vacuum. The words plenum and vacuum are both as inane as\nairy breath, because these opposites are but different views of the\nsame Intellect.\n\n14. Know therefore this visible world to be no production at all; it\nis as nameless as it is undeveloped, and as inexistent as its seeming\nexistence.\n\n15. The universe is the sphere of the spirit of God in the infinite\nspace; it has no foundation elsewhere except in that Spirit of which it\nis but a particle, and filling a space equal to a bit of infinity.\n\n16. It is as transparent as the sky, and without any solidity at all;\nit is as empty as empty air, and as a city pictured in imagination.\n\n17. Attend now to the story of the Temple which is pleasant to hear,\nand which will impress this truth deeply in your mind.\n\n18. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me at once, O Br\u00e1hman, the long and short of the\nstory of the temple, which will help my understanding of these things.\n\n19. Vasishtha said:\u2014There lived of yore a prince on the surface of\nthe earth, whose name was Padma from his being like the blooming and\nfragrant lotus of his race; and who was equally blessed with wisdom,\nprosperity and good children.\n\n20. He observed the bounds of his duties, as the sea preserves the\nboundaries of countries; and destroyed the mist of his adversaries,\nas the sun dispels the darkness at night. He was as the moon to his\nlotus-like queen, and as burning fire to the hay of evils and crimes.\n\n21. He was the asylum of the learned, as the mount Meru was the\nresidence of the gods; he was the moon of fair fame risen from the\nocean of the earth; and was as a lake to the geese of good qualities;\nand like the sun to the lotuses of purity.\n\n22. He was as a blast to the creepers of his antagonists in warfare;\nand as a lion to the elephants of his mind (appetites). He was the\nfavourite of all learning, and a patron of the learned, and a mine of\nall admirable qualities.\n\n23. He stood fixed as the mount Mandara, after it had churned the ocean\nof the demons. He was as the vernal season to the blossoms of joy, and\nas the god of the floral bow to the flowers of blooming prosperity.\n\n24. He was the gentle breeze to the vacillation of the playful\ncreepers, and as the god Hari in his valour and energy. He shone as the\nmoon on the florets of good manners, and as wildfire to the brambles of\nlicentiousness.\n\n25. His consort was the happy L\u00edla, playful as her name implied, and\nfraught with every grace, as if the goddess of prosperity, had appeared\nin person upon earth.\n\n26. She was gentle with her submissiveness to her lord, and was sweet\nin her speech without art; she was always happy and slow in her\nmovements, and ever smiling as the moon.\n\n27. Her lovely lotus-white face was decorated with painted spots, and\nher fair form which was as fresh as a new blown bud, appeared as a\nmoving bed of lotuses.\n\n28. She was buxom as a playful plant, and bright as a branch of\n_kunda_ flowers, and full of glee and good humour. With her palms red\nas corals, and her fingers white as lilies, she was in her person a\ncongeries of vernal beauties.\n\n29. Her pure form was sacred to touch, and conferred a hilarity to the\nheart, as the holy stream of the Ganges, exhilarates the flock of swans\nfloating upon it.\n\n30. She was as a second Rati, born to serve her lord, who was K\u00e1ma in\nperson on earth to give joy to all souls.\n\n31. She was sorry at his sorrow, and delighted to see him delightful;\nand was thoughtful to see him pensive. Thus was she an exact picture of\nher lord, except that she was afraid to find him angry.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n JOY AND GRIEF OF THE PRINCESS.\n\n\nThis single wived husband, enjoyed the pleasure of an undivided and\nunfeigned love, in company with his only consort, as with an _Apsar\u00e1_\n(or heavenly nymph) on earth.\n\n(The _Apsaras_ are the _Abisares_ of Ptolemy and _Absairs_ of the\nPersians: a term applied to the fairy race in the watery valley of\nCashmere, supposed to be the site of Paradise-Firdous, and the scene of\ninnocent attachment).\n\n2. The seats of their youthful sports were the gardens and groves, the\narbours of shrubberies, and forests of Tam\u00e1la trees. They sported also\nin the pleasant arbours of creepers and delightful alcoves of flowers.\n\n3. They delighted themselves in the inner apartments, on beds decked\nwith fragrant flowers, and on walks strewn over with fresh blossoms.\nThey amused in their swinging cradles in their pleasure gardens in\nspring, and in rowing their tow-boats in summer heat.\n\n4. Hills overgrown with sandal woods and shades of shady forests; the\nalcoves of N\u00edpa and Kadamba trees, and coverts of the P\u00e1ribhadra or\nDevad\u00e1ru-cedars, were their favourite resorts in summer.\n\n5. They sat besides the beds of _kunda_ and _Mand\u00e1ra_ plants, redolent\nwith the fragrance of full-blown flowers; and strayed about the vernal\ngreen-woods, resounding with the melody of _kokilas\u2019_ notes.\n\n6. The glossy beds of grassy tufts, the mossy seats of woods and lawns,\nand water-falls flooding the level lands with showers of rain (were\nalso their favourite resorts).\n\n7. Mountain layers overlaid with gems, minerals and richest stones; the\nshrines of gods and saints, holy hermitages and places of pilgrimage,\nwere oft visited by them.\n\n8. Lakes of full-blown lotuses and lilies, smiling _Kumudas_ of various\nhues, and wood-lands darkened by green foliage, or overhung with\nflowers and fruitage, were their frequent haunts.\n\n9. They passed their time in the amorous dalliances of godlike youths;\nand their personal beauty, was graced by the generous pastimes, of\ntheir mutual fondness and affection.\n\n10. They amused each other with bon-mots and witticisms and solution\nof riddles; with story telling and playing the tricks of hold-fists\n_mushti-bandha_ (_purmuthi_), and the various games of chess and dice.\n\n11. They diverted themselves with the reading of dramas and narratives,\nand interpretation of stanzas difficult even to the learned. And\nsometimes they roamed about cities, towns and villages.\n\n12. They decorated their persons with wreaths of flowers and ornaments\nof various kinds; fared and feasted on a variety of flavours, and moved\nabout with playful negligence.\n\n13. They chewed betel leaves mixed with moistened mace and camphor,\nand saffron; and hid the love marks on their bodies, under wreaths of\nflowers and corals, with which they were adorned.\n\n14. They played the frolics of \u201chide and find\u201d (Beng. _lukichuri_),\ntossing of wreaths and garlands, and swinging one another in cradles\nbestrewn with flowers.\n\n15. They made their trips in pleasure-boats, and on yokes of elephants\nand tame camels; and sported in their pleasure-ponds by pattering water\nupon one another.\n\n16. They had their manly and womanly dances, the sprightly _t\u00e1ndava_\nand the merry _l\u00e1sya_; and songs of masculine and effeminate voices\nthe _Kal\u00e1_ and _g\u00edta_. They had symphonious and euphonious music, and\nplayed on the lute and tabor, (the wired and percussive instruments).\n\n17. They passed in their flowery conveyances through gardens and\nparterres, by river sides and highways, and amidst their inner\napartments and royal palaces.\n\n18. The loving and beloved princess being thus brought up in pleasure\nand indulgence, thought at one time with a wistful heart within\nherself:\u2014\n\n19. \u201cHow will this my lord and ruler of earth, who is in the bloom of\nyouth and prosperity, and who is dearer to me than my life, be free\nfrom old age and death.\n\n20. \u201cAnd how will I enjoy his company on beds of flowers in the palace,\npossessed of my youth and free-will, for the long long period of\nhundreds of years.\n\n21. \u201cI will therefore endeavour with all my vigilance and prayers, and\nausterities and endeavours, how this moon-faced prince, may become free\nfrom death and decline.\n\n22. \u201cI will ask the most knowing, and the most austere and very learned\nBr\u00e1hmans, how men may evade death.\u201d\n\n23. She accordingly invited the Br\u00e1hmans and honoured them with\npresents, and asked them lowly, to tell her how men might become\nimmortal on earth.\n\n24. The Br\u00e1hmans replied:\u2014\u201cGreat queen! holy men may obtain success in\nevery thing by their austerities, prayers and observance of religious\nrites; but no body can ever attain to immortality here below.\u201d\n\n25. Hearing this from the mouths of the Br\u00e1hmans, she thought again in\nher own mind, and with fear for the demise of her loving lord.\n\n26. \u201cShould it happen, that I come to die before my lord, I shall then\nbe released from all pain of separation from him, and be quite at rest\nin myself.\n\n27. \u201cBut if my husband happen to die before me, even after a thousand\nyears of our lives, I shall so manage it, that his soul (the immortal\npart of his body), may not depart from the confines of this mansion\n(the charnel-house).\n\n28. \u201cSo that the spirit of my lord, will rove about the holy vault in\nthe inner apartment, and I shall feel the satisfaction of moving about\nin his presence at all times.\u201d\n\n29. \u201cI will commence even from this day, to worship Sarasvat\u00ed\u2014the\ngoddess of Intelligence, and offer my prayers to her for this purpose,\nwith observance of fasts and other rites to my heart\u2019s content.\u201d\n\n30. Having determined so, she betook herself to observe the strict\nceremonials of the S\u00e1stra, and without the knowledge of her lord.\n\n31. She kept her fasts, and broke them at the end of every third night;\nand then entertained the gods, Br\u00e1hmans, the priests and holy people,\nwith feasts and due honours.\n\n32. She was then employed in the performance of her daily ablutions,\nin her act of alms-giving, in the observance of her austerities and in\nmeditation; in all of which she was painstaking, an observant of the\nrules of pious theism.\n\n33. She attended also to her incognizant husband at stated times, and\nministered unto him to the utmost, her duties as required by law and\nusage.\n\n34. Thus observant of her vows, the young princess passed a hundred of\nher trinoctial ceremony, with resolute and persevering pains-taking and\nunfailing austerities.\n\n35. The fair goddess of speech, was pleased at the completion of her\nhundredth trinoctial observance, in which she was honoured by her, with\nall outward and spiritual complaisance, and then bespoke to her.\n\n36. Sarasvat\u00ed said:\u2014\u201cI am pleased my child! with thy continued\ndevotion to me, and thy constant devotedness to thy husband. Now ask\nthe boon that thou wouldst have of me.\u201d\n\n37. The princess replied:\u2014\u201cBe victorious, O moon-bright goddess!\nthat puttest to an end all the pains of our birth and death, and the\ntroubles, afflictions and evils of this world; and that like the sun,\nputtest to flight the darkness of our affections and afflictions in\nthis life.\n\n38. \u201cSave me O goddess, and thou parent of the world, and have pity\non this wretched devotee, and grant her these two boons, that she\nsupplicates of thee.\n\n39. \u201cThe one is, that after my husband is dead, his soul may not go\nbeyond the precincts of this shrine in the inner apartment.\n\n40. \u201cThe second is, that thou shalt hear my prayer, and appear before\nme, whenever I raise my voice to thee, for having thy sight and\nblessing.\u201d\n\n41. Hearing this, the goddess said, \u201cBe it so;\u201d and immediately\ndisappeared in the air (whence she came); as the wave subsides in the\nsea whence it rises to view.\n\n42. The princess being blessed by the presence and good grace of the\ngoddess, was as delighted as a doe at the hearing of music.\n\n43. The wheel of time rolled on its two semicircles of the fort-nights.\nThe spikes of months, the arcs of the seasons, the loops of days and\nnights and the orbit of years. The axle composed of fleeting moments;\ngiving incessant momentum to the wheel.\n\n44. The perceptions of the prince, entered into the inner man within\nthe body (_lingadeha_); and he looked in a short time, as dry as a\nwithered leaf without its juicy gloss.\n\n45. The dead body of the warlike prince, being laid over the sepulchre,\nin the inside of the palace, the princess began to fade away at its\nsight, like a lotus flower without its natal water (of the lake).\n\n46. Her lips grew pale by her hot and poisoned breath of sorrow; and\nshe was in the agony of death, as a doe pierced by a dart (in her\nmortal part).\n\n47. Her eyes were covered in darkness at the death of her lord, as a\nhouse becomes dark at the extinction of the light of its lamp.\n\n48. She became leaner every moment, in her sad melancholy; and turned\nas a dried channel covered with dirt in lieu of its water.\n\n49. She moved one moment and was then mute as a statue; she was about\nto die of grief, as the ruddy goose at the separation of her mate.\n\n50. Then the etherial goddess Sarasvat\u00ed, took pity on the excess of\nher grief, and showed as much compassion for her relief, as the first\nshower of rain, does to the dying fishes in a drying pond.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n STORY OF THE DOUBTFUL REALM OR REVERIE OF L\u00cdL\u00c1.\n\n\nSarasvat\u00ed said:\u2014Remove my child, the dead body of thy husband to\nyonder shrine! and strew those flowers over it, and thou shalt have thy\nhusband again.\n\n2. Never will this body rot or fade as long as the flowers are fresh\nover it, and know thy husband will shortly return to life again. (The\nstrewing of flowers over the dead body and the grave, is a practice\ncommon in many religions).\n\n3. His living soul which is as pure as air, will never depart from this\ncemetery of thy inner apartment. (The departed soul is believed to\nhover about the crypt or cairn until the day of resurrection).\n\n4. The black-eyed princess, with her eyebrows resembling a cluster\nof black-bees, heard this consolatory speech of the goddess, and was\ncheered in her spirit, as the lotus-bed on return of the rains.\n\n5. She placed the corpse of her husband there, and hid it under the\nflowers, and remained in expectation of its rising, as a poor man\nfosters the hope of finding a treasure.\n\n6. It was at midnight of the very day, when all the members of the\nfamily had fallen fast asleep, that L\u00edl\u00e1 repaired to the shrine in the\ninward apartment.\n\n7. There she meditated on the goddess of knowledge, in the recess of\nher understanding, and called her in earnest in the sorrow of her\nheart, when she heard the divine voice thus addressing to her.\n\n8. \u201cWhy dost thou call me, child, and why art thou so sorrowful in thy\ncountenance? The world is full of errors, glaring as false water in a\nmirage.\u201d\n\n9. L\u00edl\u00e1 answered:\u2014\u201cTell me goddess, where my husband resides at\npresent, and what he has been doing now. Take me to his presence, as I\nam unable to bear the load of my life without him.\u201d\n\n10. The goddess replied:\u2014\u201cHis spirit is now roving in the sky, of\nwhich there are three kinds:\u2014one the firmament or region of the\nsensible worlds; the other is the region of the mind, the seat of\nvolition and creation; and third is the region of Intellect, which\ncontains the two others.\n\n11. \u201cYour husband\u2019s soul is now in the sheath of the region of\nIntellect (being withdrawn both from the regions of the visible\nworld and sensuous mind). It is now by seeking in the region of the\nIntellect, that things which are inexistent here, are to be found there.\n\n12. \u201cAs in passing from one place to another, you are conscious of\nstanding in the mid spot (which is neither the one nor the other);\nso you will arrive in an instant at the intermediate region of the\nintellectual world (lying between this sensible and spiritual worlds).\n\n13. \u201cIf you will abide in that intellectual world, after forsaking all\nyour mental desires, you will certainly come to the knowledge of that\nspiritual Being who comprehends all in himself.\n\n14. \u201cIt is only by your knowledge of the negative existence of the\nworld, that you can come to know the positive existence of that Being,\nas you will now be able to do by my grace, and by no other means\nwhatever.\u201d (Forget the sensible to get to the Spiritual. Hafiz).\n\n15. Vasishtha said:\u2014so saying, the goddess repaired to her heavenly\nseat; and L\u00edl\u00e1 sat gladly in her mood of steadfast meditation.\n(Platonism).\n\n16. She quitted in a moment the prison house of her body, and her soul\nbroke out of its inner bound of the mind, to fly freely in the air,\nlike a bird freed from its cage: (so Plato compares the flight of the\nparting soul with that of a bird from its cage).\n\n17. She ascended to the airy region of the Intellect, and saw (by her\nintellectual light) her husband seated there in his seat, amidst a\ngroup of princes and rulers of the earth (who had received various\nforms and states according to their acts and desires).\n\n18. He was seated on a throne, and lauded with the loud acclamations of\n\u201cLong live the king,\u201d and \u201cBe he victorious.\u201d His officers were prompt\nin the discharge of their several duties.\n\n19. The royal palace and hall were decorated with rows of flags, and\nthere was an assemblage of unnumbered sages and saints, Br\u00e1hmans and\nRishis at the eastern entrance of the hall.\n\n20. There stood a levy of innumerable princes and chiefs of men at the\nsouthern porch, and a bevy of young ladies standing at the western\ndoor-way.\n\n21. The northern gateway was blocked by lines of horse, carriages and\nelephants; when a guard advanced and informed the king of a warfare in\nDeccan.\n\n22. He said that the chief of Karnatic, has made an attack on the\neastern frontier; and that the chieftain of Surat, has brought to\nsubjection the barbarous tribes on the north; and that the ruler of\nMalwa, has besieged the city of Tonkan on the west.\n\n23. Then there was the reception of the ambassador from Lank\u00e1, coming\nfrom the coast of the southern sea.\n\n24. There appeared next the Siddhas, coming from the Mahendra mountains\nbordering the eastern main, and traversing the numerous rivers of their\nfluvial districts; as also the ambassador of the Guhyaka or Yaksha\ntribes, inhabiting the shores of the northern sea.\n\n25. There were likewise the envoys, visiting the shores of the western\nmain, and relating the state of affairs of that territory to the\nking. The whole courtyard was filled with lustre by the assemblage of\nunnumbered chieftains from all quarters.\n\n26. The recitals of Br\u00e1hmans on sacrificial altars, died away under\nthe sound of the timbrels; and the loud shouts of panegyrists, were\nre-echoed by the uproar of elephants.\n\n27. The vault of heaven, resounding to the sound of the vocal and\ninstrumental music; and the dust raised by the procession of elephants\nand chariots, and the trotting of horses\u2019 hoofs, obscured the face of\nthe sky as by a cloud.\n\n28. The air was perfumed by the fragrance of flowers, camphor and heaps\nof frankincense; and the royal hall was filled with presents sent from\ndifferent provinces.\n\n29. His fair fame shone forth as a burning hill of white camphor, and\nraised a column of splendour reaching to the sky, and casting into\nshade the solar light.\n\n30. There were the rulers of districts, who were busily employed\nin their grave and momentous duties, and the great architects who\nconducted the building of many cities.\n\n31. Then the ardent L\u00edl\u00e1 entered the court-hall of the ruler of men,\nand unseen by any, just as one void mixes with another void, and as air\nis lost in the air.\n\n32. She wandered about without being seen by any body there; just as a\nfair figure, formed by false imagination of our fond desire, is not to\nbe perceived by any one without ourselves.\n\n33. In this manner she continued to walk about the palace unperceived\nby all, as the aerial castle built in one\u2019s mind, is not perceived by\nanother.\n\n34. She beheld them all assembled in the royal court in their former\nforms, and saw all the cities of the princes, as concentrated in that\nsingle city of her lord\u2019s.\n\n35. She viewed the same places, the same dealings, the same concourse\nof boys, and the same sorts of men and women, and the same ministers as\nbefore.\n\n36. She saw the same rulers of earth, and the very same Pandits as\nbefore; the identic courtiers and the self-same servants as ever.\n\n37. There was the same assemblage of the learned men and friends as\nbefore, and the like throng of citizens pursuing their former course of\nbusiness.\n\n38. She saw on a sudden, the flames of wild fire spreading on all sides\neven in broad midday light; and the sun and moon appearing both at\nonce in the sky, and the clouds roaring with a tremendous noise, with\nthe whistling of the winds.\n\n39. She saw the trees, the hills, the rivers and the cities flourishing\nwith population; and the many towns, and villages and forests all about.\n\n40. She beheld her royal consort as a boy of ten years of age after\nshaking off his former frame of old age, sitting amidst the hall with\nall his former retinue, and all the inhabitants of his village.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE COURT HOUSE AND THE CORTES.\n\n41. L\u00edl\u00e1 having seen all these began to reflect within herself, whether\nthe inhabitants of this place were living beings or the ghosts of their\nformer living souls.\n\n42. Then having recovered her sense at the removal of her trance, she\nentered into her inner apartment at midnight, and found the inmates\nfast bound in sleep.\n\n43. She raised one by one her sleeping companions, and said she was\nanxious to visit the royal hall.\n\n44. She wanted to be seated beside the throne of her lord, and to clear\nher doubt by seeing the courtiers all alive.\n\n45. The royal menials rose up at her call, and obedient to her command\nthey said \u201cBe it so,\u201d and attended to their respective duties.\n\n46. A train of club-bearers ran to all sides to call the courtiers from\nthe city, and sweepers came and swept the ground as clean as the sun\nhad shed his rays upon it.\n\n47. A better set of servants cleansed the court-yard as clean, as\nautumn days clear the firmament of its rainy clouds.\n\n48. Rows of lights were placed about the court-yard, which looked as\nbeautiful as clusters of stars in the clear sky.\n\n49. The ground of the court-yard was filled by throngs of people, as\nthe earth was covered of yore by floods of the great deluge.\n\n50. The dignified ministers and chiefs attended first and took their\nrespective seats, and appeared as a set of the newly created rulers of\npeople of the world on all sides, or the regents of the quarters of the\nsky.\n\n51. The cooling and fragrant odour of thickly pasted camphor filled the\npalace, and the sweet-scented zephyrs breathed profusely the fragrance\nof the lotus flowers, which they bore from all sides.\n\n52. The chamberlains stood all around in their white garbs, and\nappeared as an assemblage of silvery clouds, hanging over the burning\nhills under the equator.\n\n53. The ground was strewn over by the morning breeze with heaps of\nflowers, bright as the beaming dawn dispelling the gloom of night, and\netiolated as clusters of stars fallen upon the ground.\n\n54. The palace was crowded by the retinue of the chiefs of the land,\nand seemed as it was a lake full of full-blown lotuses, with the fair\nswimming swans rambling about them.\n\n55. There L\u00edl\u00e1 took her seat on a golden seat by the side of the\nthrone, and appeared as the beauteous Rati seated in the joyous heart\nof K\u00e1ma (_i.e._ as Venus sitting in the lap of aureate lighted Phoebus).\n\n56. She saw all the princes seated in their order as before, and the\nelders of the people and the nobles of men and all her friends and\nrelatives, seated in their proper places.\n\n57. She was highly delighted to behold them all in their former states,\nand shone forth as the moon with the brightness of her countenance, to\nfind them all alive again.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n EXPOSURE OF THE ERRORS OF THIS WORLD.\n\n\nShe said, \u201cI have much consolation in you, and now will I console my\nsorrowing heart.\u201d So saying, she made a sign for the assembly to break,\nand rose from her royal seat.\n\n2. She entered the inner apartment and sat by the side of the dead\nbody of her lord, hidden under the heap of flowers, and thus began to\nreflect within herself.\n\n3. She exclaimed:\u2014\u201cO the wondrous magic! that presents these people of\nmy place situated in the same manner without myself, as they were seen\nto be seated within me.\n\n4. \u201cO how great is the extent of this delusion, as to contain the same\nhigh hills, and the same spacious forests of palm and Hint\u00e1la trees,\nboth in the outside as well as they are situated in the inside of\nmyself.\n\n5. \u201cAs the mirror shows the reflexion of the hills within itself as\nthey are without it, so the reflector of the intellect presents the\nwhole creation inwardly as it has outwards of itself.\n\n6. \u201cI must now invoke the goddess of wisdom to ascertain which of these\nis illusion, and which the sober and certain reality.\u201d\n\n7. So saying, she worshipped and invoked the goddess, and beheld her\nimmediately present before herself, in the form of a virgin.\n\n8. She made the goddess sit on the elevated seat, and having seated\nherself low upon the ground before her, asked that divine power to tell\nher the truth.\n\n9. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014\u201cVouchsafe, O goddess, and clear this doubt of thy\nsuppliant; for it is thy wisdom which has framed this beautiful system\nof the universe at first and knows the truth. (Divine wisdom is the\nprime cause of all).\n\n10. \u201cTell me, O great goddess, about what I am going to lay before\nthee at present, for it is by thy favour alone that I may be successful\nto know it.\n\n11. \u201cI saw the pattern of this world in the intellect, which is more\ntransparent than the etherial sphere, and as extensive as to contain\nmillions and millions of miles in a small space of it.\n\n12. \u201cIt is what no definite words can express, and what is known as\nthe calm, cool and ineffable light. This is called the unintelligible\nintelligence, and is without any cover or support (_nir\u00e1varana\nnirbhitti_).\n\n13. \u201cIt exhibits the reflexions of space and the course of time, and\nthose of the sky and its light, and the course of events concentrating\nin itself.\n\n14. \u201cThus the images of the worlds, are to be seen both within and\nwithout the intellect, and it is hard to distinguish the real and\nunreal ones between them.\u201d\n\n15. The goddess asked:\u2014Tell me fair lady, what is the nature of the\nreal world, and what you mean, by its unreality.\n\n16. L\u00edl\u00e1 replied:\u2014I know the nature of the real to be such as I find\nmyself to be sitting here, and looking upon you as seated in this place.\n\n17. And I mean that to be unreal, as the state in which I beheld my\nhusband in the etherial region erewhile; because vacuity has no limit\nof time or place in it.\n\n18. The goddess rejoined:\u2014The real creation cannot produce an unreal\nfigure, nor a similar cause produce a dissimilar effect.\n\n19. L\u00edl\u00e1 replied:\u2014But we often see, O goddess! dissimilar effects to be\nproduced from similar causes: thus, the earth and earthen pot though\nsimilar in their substance, yet the one is seen to melt in water, and\nthe other to carry water in it.\n\n20. The goddess said:\u2014Yes, when an act is done by the aid of auxiliary\nmeans, there the effect is found to be somewhat different from the\nprimary cause. (Thus the earthen pot being produced by the auxiliary\nappliances of fire, the potter\u2019s wheel and the like, differs in its\nquality from the original clay).\n\n21. Say O beauteous lady! what were the causes of thy husband\u2019s being\nborn in this earth? The same led to his birth in the other world also\n(_i.e._ the merit of the acts and desires of men, are the causes of\ntheir transmigrations in both worlds).\n\n22. When the soul has fled from here, how can the earth follow him\nthere any more, and what auxiliary causes can there be in connection\nwith this cause?\n\n23. Wherever there arises a coaction with its apparent causality, it\nis usually attributed by every one to some unknown antecedent cause or\nmotive.\n\n24. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Methinks goddess, that it was the expansion of my\nhusband\u2019s memory that was the cause of his regenerations; because it is\ncertain that reminiscence is the cause of the reproduction of objects\nbefore us.\n\n25. The goddess replied that, memory is an aerial substance, and its\nproductions are as unsubstantial as itself.\n\n26. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Yes I find reminiscence to be an airy thing, and its\nreproduction of my husband and all other things within me to be but\nempty shadows in the mind.\n\n27. The goddess replied:\u2014So verily was this reproduction of thy\nhusband and all those things which appeared to thy sight in thy\nreverie; and so, my daughter, is the appearance of all things I see in\nthis world.\n\n28. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Tell me goddess for the removal of my conception of the\nreality of the world, how the false appearance of my formless lord, was\nproduced before me by the unreal world, (since nothing unsubstantial\ncan cast a shadow).\n\n29. The goddess replied:\u2014As this illusive world appeared a reality to\nthee before thy reminiscence of it, so must thou know all this to be\nunreal from what I am going to relate to thee.\n\n30. There is in some part of the sphere of the Intellect the great\nfabric of the world, with the glassy vault of the firmament for its\nroof on all sides.\n\n31. The Meru (the polar axle or mountain) is its pillar, beset\naround by the regents of the ten sides, as statues carved upon it.\nThe fourteen regions are as so many apartments of it, and the hollow\nconcavity containing the three worlds, is lighted by the lamp of the\nluminous sun.\n\n32. Its corners are inhabited by living creatures resembling ants and\nemmets, which are surrounded by mountains appearing as ant-hills in the\nsight of Brahm\u00e1, the prime lord of creatures and the primeval patriarch\nof many races of men.\n\n33. All animal beings are as worms confined in the cocoons (prison\nhouses) of their own making. The azure skies above and below are as the\nsoot of this house, beset by bodies of Siddhas (or departed spirits),\nresembling groups of gnats buzzing in the air.\n\n34. The fleeting clouds are the smoke of this house or as webs of\nspiders in its corners, and the hollow air is full of aerial spirits,\nlike holes of bamboos filled with flies.\n\n35. There are also the playful spirits of gods and demigods, hovering\nover human habitations, as swarms of busy and buzzing bees about\nvessels of honey.\n\n36. Here there lay amidst the cavity of heaven, earth and the infernal\nregions, tracts of land well watered by rivers, lakes and the sea on\nall sides.\n\n37. In a corner of this land, there was situated a secluded piece of\nground (a vale or village), sheltered by hills and craigs about it.\n\n38. In this secluded spot thus sheltered by hills, rivers and forests,\nthere lived a Br\u00e1hman with his wife and children, free from disease\nand care of gain and fear of a ruler, and passed his days in his\nfire-worship and hospitality, with the produce of his kine and lands.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n STORY OF A FORMER VASISHTHA AND HIS WIFE.\n\n\nThis Br\u00e1hman was equal to his namesake\u2014the sage Vasishtha, in his age\nand attire, in his learning and wealth, and in all his actions and\npursuits, except in his profession. (The one being a secular man, and\nthe other the priest of the royal family).\n\n2. His name was Vasishtha, and that of his wife Arundhat\u00ed; who was as\nfair as the moon, and as the star of the same name on earth.\n\n3. She resembled her namesake the priestess of the solar race, in her\nvirtues and parts and in all things, except in her soul and body.\n\n4. She passed her time in true love and affection in his company, and\nwas his all in the world, with her sweet smiling face resembling the\nKumuda flower.\n\n5. This Br\u00e1hman had been sitting once under the shady _sarala_ trees,\non the table land of his native hill, when he saw the ruler of the\nland, passing with his gaudy train below.\n\n6. He was accompanied by all the members of the royal family and his\ntroops and soldiers, and was going to a chase, with a clamour that\nresounded in the hills and forests.\n\n7. The white flappers shed a stream of moon light, and the lifted\nbanners appeared as a moving forest, and the white umbrellas made the\nsky a canopy to them.\n\n8. The air was filled with dust raised by the hoofs of horses from the\nground, and lines of elephants with their high _ha\u00fad\u00e1s_, seemed as\nmoving towers, to protect them from the solar heat and sultry winds.\n\n9. The wild animals were running on all sides at the loud uproar of the\nparty, resembling the roaring of a whirlpool, and shining gems and\njewels were flashing all about on the persons of the party.\n\n10. The Br\u00e1hman saw the procession and said to himself, \u201cO how charming\nis royalty, which is fraught with such splendour and prosperity.\u201d\n\n11. Ah! how shall I become the monarch of all the ten sides, and have\nsuch a retinue of horse and elephants and foot soldiers, with a similar\ntrain of flags and flappers and blazing umbrellas.\n\n12. When will the breeze waft the fragrance of _kunda_ flowers, and\nthe farina of lotuses to my bed-chamber, to lull me and my consorts to\nsleep.\n\n13. When shall I adorn the countenances of my chamber maids with\ncamphor and sandal paste, and enlighten the faces of the four quarters\nwith my fair fame, as the moon-beams decorate the night.\n\n14. With these thoughts, the Br\u00e1hman was thenceforth determined to\napply himself with vigilance, to the rigid austerities of his religion\nfor life.\n\n15. He was at last overtaken by infirmities which shattered his frame,\nas the sleets of snowfall, batter the blooming lotuses in the lake.\n\n16. Seeing his approaching death, his faithful wife was fading away\nwith fear, as a creeper withers at the departure of spring, for fear of\nthe summer heat.\n\n17. This lady then began to worship me (the personification of Wisdom)\nlike thyself, for obtaining the boon of immortality which is hard to be\nhad.\n\n18. She prayed saying:\u2014Ordain, O goddess! that the spirit of my lord\nmay not depart from this sepulchre after his demise: and I granted her\nrequest.\n\n19. After sometime the Br\u00e1hman died, and his vacuous spirit remained in\nthe vacuity of that abode.\n\n20. This aeriform spirit of the Br\u00e1hman, assumed the shape of a mighty\nman on earth, by virtue of the excessive desire and merit of acts in\nhis former state of existence.\n\n21. He became the victorious monarch of the three realms, by\nsubjugating the surface of the earth by his might, by laying hold on\nthe high steeps (of the gods) by his valour, and his kind protection of\nthe nether lands (watery regions) under his sway.\n\n22. He was as a conflagration to the forest of his enemies, and as the\nsteadfast Meru amidst the rushing winds of business on all sides. He\nwas as the sun expanding the lotus-like hearts of the virtuous, and as\nthe god of the _makara_ ensign (Kama or Cupid) to the eyes of women.\n\n23. He was the model of all learning, and the all giving _Kalpa_ tree\nto his suitors; he was the footstool of great Pandits, and as the\nfull-moon shedding the ambrosial beams of polity all around.\n\n24. But after the Br\u00e1hman was dead, and his dead body had disappeared\nin the forms of elementary particles in air, and his airy spirit had\nreposed in the aerial intellectual soul within the empty space of his\nhouse.\n\n25. His Br\u00e1hmanic widow (born of the priestly class), was pining away\nin her sorrow, and her heart was rent in twain as the dried pod of\n_Simbi_.\n\n26. She became a dead body like her husband, and her spirit by\nshuffling off its mortal coil, resumed its subtile and immortal form,\nin which it met the departed ghost of her husband.\n\n27. She advanced to her lord, as rapidly as a river runs to meet the\nsea below its level; and became as cheerful to join him, as a cluster\nof flowers to inhale the vernal air.\n\n28. The houses, lands and all the immovable properties and movable\nriches of this Br\u00e1hman, are still existent in that rocky village, and\nit is only eight days past, that the souls of this loving pair, are\nreunited in the hollow vault of their house.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n THE MORAL OF THE TALE OF L\u00cdL\u00c1.\n\n\nThe goddess said:\u2014That Br\u00e1hman whom I said before, had become a\nmonarch on earth, is the same with thy husband, and his wife Arundhati,\nis no other than thyself\u2014the best of women.\n\n2. You two are the same pair now reigning over this realm, and\nresembling a pair of doves in your nuptial love, and the deities Siva\nand P\u00e1rvati in your might.\n\n3. I have thus related to you the state of your past lives, that you\nmay know the living soul to be but air, and the knowledge of its\nreality is but an error.\n\n4. The erroneous knowledge (derived from sense), casts its reflection\nin the intellect, and causes its error also (errors in the senses breed\nerrors in the mind); and this makes you doubtful of the truth and\nuntruth of the two states (of the sensible and intellectual worlds).\n\n5. Therefore the question, \u2018which is true and which is untrue,\u2019 has no\nbetter solution than that all creations (whether visible or invisible,\nmental or ideal), are equally false and unsubstantial.\n\n6. Vasishtha said:\u2014Hearing these words of the goddess, L\u00edl\u00e1 was\nconfused in her mind, and with her eyes staring with wonder, she\naddressed her softly.\n\n7. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014How is it, O goddess! that your words are so incoherent\nwith truth, you make us the same, with the Brahmanic pair, who are in\ntheir own house, and we are sitting here in our palace.\n\n8. And how is it possible that the small space of the room in which\nmy husband\u2019s body is lying, could contain those spacious lands\nand hills and the ten sides of the sky: (as I already saw in my\ntrance\u2014_Sam\u00e1dhi_).\n\n9. It is as impossible as to confine an elephant in a mustard seed, and\nas the fighting of a gnat with a body of lions in a nut-shell.\n\n10. It is as incredible as to believe a lotus seed containing a hill\nin it, and to be devoured by a little bee; or that the peacocks are\ndancing on hearing the roaring of clouds in a dream.\n\n11. It is equally inconsistent to say, O great goddess of gods! that\nthis earth with all its mountains and other things, are contained\nwithin the small space of a sleeping room.\n\n12. Deign therefore, O goddess to explain this mystery clearly unto me;\nbecause it is by thy favour only that the learned are cleared of their\ndoubts.\n\n13. The goddess said:\u2014Hear me fair lady! I do not tell thee a lie;\nbecause transgression of the law is a thing unknown to us. (The law is\n_n\u00e1nritam vadeta_\u2014never tell an untruth).\n\n14. It is I that establish the law when others are about to break it;\nif then I should slight the same, who else is there who would observe\nit.\n\n15. The living soul of the village Br\u00e1hman, saw within itself and in\nthe very house, the image of this great kingdom, as his departed spirit\nnow views the same in its empty vacuity. (Therefore both these states\nare equally ideal).\n\n16. But you have lost the remembrance of the states of your former\nlives after death, as they lose the recollection of waking events in\nthe dreaming state.\n\n17. As the appearance of the three worlds in dream, and their formation\nin the imagination; or as the description of a warfare in an epic poem\nand water in the mirage of a _maru_ or sandy desert (are all false):\n\n18. So were the hills and habitations which were seen in the empty\nspace of the Br\u00e1hman\u2019s house, which was no other than the capacity of\nhis own mind to form the images of its fancy, and receive the external\nimpressions like a reflecting mirror (all mere ideal).\n\n19. All these though unreal, yet they appear as real substances on\naccount of the reality of the intellect, which is seated in the cavity\nof the inmost sheath of the body and reflects the images.\n\n20. But these images, which are derived from the remembrance of unreal\nobjects of the world, are as unreal as those objects which cast their\nreflexions in the intellect; just as the waves rising in the river of a\nmirage, are as unreal as the mirage itself.\n\n21. Know this seat (sadana) of yours, which is set in this closet\n(_kosha_) of the house, as well as myself and thyself and all things\nabout us, to be but the reflections of our intellect only, without\nwhich nothing would be perceptible, as to one who is devoid of his\nintellect.\n\n22. Our dreams and fallacies, our desires and fancies, as also our\nnotions and ideas, serve as the best evidences, that afford us their\nlight for the understanding of this truth: (that nothing is true beside\nthe subjective mind, which creates and forms, produces and presents all\nobjects to our view).\n\n23. The spirit of the Br\u00e1hman resided in the vacuity of his house\n(the body), with the seas and forests and the earth (_i.e._ their\nimpressions) within itself, as the bee abides in the lotus.\n\n24. Thus the habitable globe with every thing it contains, is situated\nin a small cell in one corner of the intellect, as a spot of flimsy\ncloud in the firmament.\n\n25. The House of the Br\u00e1hman was situated in the same locality of the\nintellect, which contains all the worlds in one of its atomic particles.\n\n26. The intelligent soul contains in every atom of it, unnumbered\nworlds within worlds, enough to remove your doubt; of the Br\u00e1hman\u2019s\nviewing a whole realm within the space of his intellect.\n\n27. L\u00edl\u00e1 asked:\u2014How can the Br\u00e1hmanic pair be ourselves, when they are\ndead only eight days before, and we have been reigning here for so many\nyears?\n\n28. The goddess replied:\u2014There is neither any limit of space or\nduration, nor any distance of place or length of time in reality: hear\nme now tell you the reason of it.\n\n29. As the universe is the reflexion of the divine mind, so are\ninfinity and eternity but representations of himself.\n\n30. Attend to what I tell you about the manner in which we form the\nidea of time, and its distinct parts of a moment and an age, in the\nsame way as we make the distinction of individualities in me, thee and\nthis or that person (which are essentially the same undivided spirit\nand duration).[14]\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n _State of the Human soul after death._\n\n31. Hear now, that no sooner does any one come to feel the\ninsensibility consequent to his death, than he forgets his former\nnature and thinks himself as another being.\n\n32. He then assumes an empty form in the womb of vacuity in the\ntwinkling of an eye, and being contained in that container, he thinks\nwithin himself in the same receptacle.\n\n33. \u201cThis is my body with its hands and feet.\u201d Thus the body he thinks\nupon, he finds the same presented before him.\n\n34. He then thinks in himself: \u201cI am the son of this father and am\nso many years old; these are my dear friends and this is my pleasant\nabode.\u201d\n\n35. \u201cI was born and became a boy, and then grew up to this age. There\nare all my friends and in the same course of their lives.\u201d\n\n36. Thus the compact density of the sphere of his soul, presents him\nmany other figures, which appear to rise in it as in some part of the\nworld.\n\n37. But they neither rise nor remain in the soul itself, which is as\ntransparent as the empty air; they appear to the intellect as a vision\nseen in a dream.\n\n38. As the view beheld in a dream, presents the sights of all things in\none place, so does every thing appear to the eye of the beholder of the\nother world as in his dream.\n\n39. Again whatever is seen in the other world, the same occurs to\nmen in their present states also; wherefore the reality of this and\nunreality of the other world, are both alike to a state of dreaming.\n\n40. And as there is no difference in the waves of the same sea-water,\nso the produced visible creation is no other than the unproduced\nintellectual world, both of which are equally indestructible: (the one\nbeing but a copy of the other).\n\n41. But in reality the appearance is nothing but a reflection of the\nintellect; and which apart from the intelligible spirit, is merely an\nempty vacuity.\n\n42. The creation though presided by the intelligible spirit, is itself\na mere void, its intelligible soul being the only substance of it as\nthe water of the waves.\n\n43. The waves though formed of water, are themselves as false as the\nhorns of hares; and their appearance as natural objects: is altogether\nfalse (because they are the effects of the auxiliary cause of the winds\nwhich have raised them).\n\n44. Hence there being no visible object in reality (except a false\nappearance of such), how can the observer have any idea of the visible,\nwhich loses its delusion at the moment of his death.\n\n45. After disappearance of the visible outer world from sight, the soul\nreflects on its reminiscence of the creation in its inner world of the\nmind, according to the proper time and place of every thing.\n\n46. It remembers its birth, its parents, its age and its residence,\nwith its learning and all other pursuits in their exact manner and\norder.\n\n47. It thinks of its friends and servants, and of the success and\nfailure of its attempts. And thus the increate and incorporeal soul,\nruminates on the events of its created and corporeal state in its\nintellectual form.\n\n48. It does not however remain long in this state, but enters a new\nbody soon after its death, to which the properties of the mind and\nsenses, are added afterwards in their proper times.\n\n49. It then becomes a baby, and finds a new father and mother, and\nbegins to grow. Thus whether one may perceive it or not, it is all the\nproduct of his former reminiscence.\n\n50. Then upon waking from this state of trance, like a fruit from the\ncell of a flower, it comes to find that a single moment appeared to it\nas the period of an age.\n\n51. So King Harish Chandra of yore thought one night as a period of\ntwelve years; and so one day seems as long as a year to them that are\nseparated from their beloved objects.\n\n52. Again as the birth or death of one in his dream, or his getting a\nbegotten father in infancy, or a hungry man\u2019s faring on dainty food in\nthought, is all false:\n\n53. So when a sated man says he is starving, or one declares he is an\neye witness of a thing he has not seen, or an empty space is full of\npeople, or that he has got a lost treasure in his dream, who is there\nto believe him?\n\n54. But this visible world rests in the invisible spirit of God, as the\nproperty of pungency, resides in the particles, of the pepper seed, and\nas the painted pictures on a column. But where are the open and clear\nsighted eyes to perceive the same?\n\n\n INTERPRETATION OF L\u00cdL\u00c1\u2019S VISION.\n\n55. The vision of L\u00edl\u00e1, called sam\u00e1dhi in Yoga and _clairvoyance_ of\nspiritualism, was the abstract meditation of her lord in her memory.\nWhich presented her with a full view of every thing imprinted in it.\nThe memory is taken for the whole intellect _chit_, which is identified\nwith God, in whose essence the images of all things, are said to be\neternally present.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n GUIDE TO PEACE.\n\n\nSoon after the insensibility occasioned by one\u2019s death is over, there\nappears to him (soul) the sight of the world, as he viewed it with his\nopen eyes when he was living.\n\n2. It presents before him the circle of the sky and its sides with the\ncycle of its seasons and times, and shows him the deeds of his pious\nand secular acts, as they were to continue to eternity.\n\n3. Objects never seen nor thought of before, also offer themselves to\nhis view, as the sight of his own death in a dream, and as they were\nthe prints in his memory.\n\n4. But the infinity of objects, appearing in the empty sphere of the\nimmaterial intellect, is mere illusion, and the baseless city of the\nworld, like an aerial castle, is but the creation of imagination.\n\n5. It is the remembrance of the past world, that makes it known to us\n(because it is impossible to recognise any thing without a previous\nimpression of its kind in the mind). Hence the length of a _kalpa_ age\nand the shortness of a moment, are but erroneous impressions proceeding\nfrom the rapidity and slowness of our thoughts.\n\n6. Therefore knowledge, based upon previous notions or otherwise, is\nof two kinds, and things known without their cause, are attributed to\nDivine Intelligence (as the hidden cause of all).\n\n7. We are conscious also of thoughts, unthought of before in our minds,\nas we often have in our dreams; and think of our parents after their\ndemise by mistake of other persons as such.\n\n8. Sometimes genius supercedes the province of memory, as in the first\ncreation or discovery of a thing, which is afterwards continued by its\nremembrance.\n\n9. According to some, those visible worlds are said to have remained\nin their ideal state in the Divine mind; and according to others, that\nthere were no pre-existent notions of these in the mind of God.\n\n10. According to some others, the world manifested itself not from the\nmemory, but by the power and will of God; while others maintain it to\nbe the production of a fortuitous combination, of intelligence and\natomic principles on a sudden (_K\u00e1kat\u00e1l\u00edya sanyoga_).\n\n11. It is the entire forgetfulness of the world, which is styled\nliberation, and which can not be had from attachment to what is\ndesirable or aversion of the undesirable.\n\n12. It is difficult to effect an entire negation, both of one\u2019s\nsubjective as well as objective knowledge of his self, and the\nexistence of the outer world; and yet no body can be freed without\nobliteration of both.\n\n13. As the fallacy of taking a rope for a snake, is not removed until\nthe meaning of the world snake, is known to be inapplicable to the\nrope; so no one can have rest and peace of his mind, unless he is\nconvinced of the illusive nature of the world.\n\n14. One party, who is at peace with himself (by his abandonment of the\nworld), can not be wholly at rest without divine knowledge; as the\nghost of his inward ignorance, may overtake him after his getting rid\nof the devil of worldliness.\n\n15. The world is certainly a monster in itself without the knowledge of\nits Author; but the difficulty of knowing the first cause, has rendered\nit an impassable wilderness.\n\n16. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014If reminiscence be the cause of one\u2019s reproduction,\nthen say, O goddess! what were the causes of the birth of the Br\u00e1hmanic\npair, without the vestiges of their past remembrance.\n\n17. The goddess replied:\u2014Know that Brahm\u00e1 the first progenitor of\nmankind, who was absolute in himself, did not retain any vestige of his\npast remembrance in him.\n\n18. The first born, who had nothing to remember of a prior birth, was\nborn in the lotus with his own intelligence\u2014_chaitanya_; (and not\nbecause of his remembrance).\n\n19. The lord of creatures being thus born by chance of his own genius\nor creative power, and without any assignable cause or design on his\npart, reflected within himself \u201cnow I am become another and the source\nof creation.\u201d\n\n20. Whatever is thus born of itself, is as it were nothing and never\nproduced at all, but remained as the absolute intellect itself in\n_nubibus_ (chinnabhas).\n\n21. It is the Supreme being that is the sole cause of both states of\nreminiscence (_i.e._ the one caused by vestiges of prior impressions,\nand the other produced by prior desires); and both the conditions of\ncause and effect combine in Him in the sphere of his intellect.\n\n22. Thus it is the knowledge of the union of the cause and effect, and\nthe auxiliary cause in Him, that gives us our tranquillity and naught\notherwise.\n\n23. Causality and consequence are mere empty words of no significance,\nsince it is the recognition of the universal intellect, which\nconstitutes true wisdom.\n\n24. Hence nothing is produced that is seen in the phenomenal, or known\nin the noumenal or intellectual world (_Chid-jagat_); but every thing\nis situated within the space of the sphere of the intellect in one\u2019s\nown soul.\n\n25. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014O! wonderful was the sight thou hast shown me, O\ngoddess; it was a fair prospect of the world as in its morning light,\nand as brilliant as in the glare of a lightning.\n\n26. Now goddess! deign to satisfy my curiosity, until I become\nconversant with it by my intense application and study.\n\n27. Kindly take me to that dwelling where the Br\u00e1hman pair dwelt\ntogether, and show me that mountainous spot of their former residence.\n\n28. The goddess replied:\u2014If you want to see that sight, you shall have\nto be immaculate, by forsaking the sense of your personality (_mana_ or\n_meum_), and betaking yourself to the clairvoyance or clear sightedness\nof seeing the unintelligible Intellect (_achetya-chit_) within the\nsoul.\n\n29. You shall then find yourself in a vacuous atmosphere (_vyom\u00e1tman_),\nand situated in the sky (_nabhas-nubibus_), resembling the prospects of\nearthly men, and the apartments of the firmament (_i.e._ all _nil_ and\nvoid).\n\n30. In this state we shall be able to see them with all their\npossessions without any obstruction; otherwise this body is a great\nbarrier in the way of spiritual vision.\n\n31. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Tell me kindly, O goddess! the reason, why do we not\nsee the other world with these eyes, nor go there with these bodies of\nours.\n\n32. The goddess replied:\u2014The reason is that you take the true futurity\nfor false, and believe the untrue present as true. For these worlds\nwhich are formless, appear as having forms to your eyes, as you take\nthe substance gold in its form of a ring.\n\n33. Gold though fashioned as a circlet, has no circularity in it; so\nthe spirit of God appearing in the form of the world, is not the world\nitself.\n\n34. The world is a vacuity full with the spirit of God; and whatever\nelse is visible in it, is as the dust appearing to fly over the sea.\n(Hence called _m\u00e1y\u00e1_ or illusion of vision, as specks peopling the\nsummer skies).\n\n35. This illusory quintessence of the world is all false, the true\nreality being the subjective Brahma alone; and in support of this truth\nwe have the evidence of our guides in Ved\u00e1nta philosophy, and the\nconviction of our consciousness.\n\n36. The Brahma believer sees Brahma alone and no other anywhere, and he\nlooks to Brahma through Brahma himself, as the creator and preserver of\nall, and whose nature includes all other attributes in itself.\n\n37. Brahma is not known only as the author of his work of the creation\nof worlds, but as existent of himself without any causation or\nauxiliary causality (_i.e._ as neither the creator or created, nor\nsupporter of nor supported by another).\n\n38. Until you are trained by your practice of Yoga, to rely in one\nunity, by discarding all duality and variety in your belief, so long\nyou are barred from viewing Brahma in his true light.\n\n39. Being settled in this belief of unity, we find ourselves by our\nconstant practice of Yoga communion, to rest in the Supreme spirit.\n\n40. We then find our bodies mixing with the air as an aerial substance,\nand at last come to the sight of Brahma with these our mortal frames.\n\n41. Being then endued with pure, enlightened and spiritual frames, like\nthose of Brahm\u00e1 and the gods, the holy saints are placed in some part\nof the divine essence.\n\n42. Without practice of yoga, you can not approach God with your mortal\nframe. The soul that is sullied by sense, can never see the image of\nGod.\n\n43. It is impossible for one to arrive at the aerial castle (objects of\nthe wish) of another, when it is not possible for him to come to the\ncastle (wished for object), which he has himself built in air.\n\n44. Forsake therefore this gross body, and assume your light\nintellectual frame; then betake yourself to the practice of yoga, that\nyou may see God face to face.\n\n45. As it may be possible to realize an aerial castle by the labour of\nbuilding it, so it is possible to behold God, either with this body or\nwithout it, by practice of yoga only and not otherwise.\n\n46. And as the erroneous conception of the existence of the world, has\ncontinued since its first creation (by the will of Brahma); so it has\nbeen ever since attributed to an eternal fate\u2014niyati (by fatalists),\nand to an illusory power (_m\u00e1y\u00e1 sakti of M\u00e1y\u00e1 vadis_).\n\n47. L\u00edl\u00e1 asked:\u2014Thou saidst O goddess? that we shall go together to\nthe abode of the Brahman pair, but I ask thee to tell me, how are we to\neffect our journey there?\n\n48. As for me, I shall be able to go there with the purer part of my\nessence the sentient soul (after leaving this my gross body here). But\ntell me how wilt thou that art pure intellect (_chetas_), go to that\nplace?\n\n49. The goddess replied:\u2014I tell thee lady, that the divine will is\nan aerial tree, and its fruits are as unsubstantial as air, having no\nfigure nor form nor substance in them.\n\n50. And whatever is formed by the will of God from the pure essence of\nhis intelligent nature, is only a likeness of himself, and bears little\ndifference from its original.\n\n51. This body of mine is of the like kind, and I will not lay it aside,\nbut find out that place by means of this as the breeze finds the odours.\n\n52. And as water mixes with water, fire with fire and air with air, so\ndoes this spiritual body easily join with any material form that it\nlikes.\n\n53. But a corporeal body cannot mix with an incorporeal substance, nor\na solid rock become the same with an ideal hill.\n\n54. And as your body, which is composed both of its spiritual and\nmental parts, has become corporeal by its habitual tendency to\ncorporeality.\n\n55. So your material body becomes spiritual (_\u00e1tiv\u00e1hika_), by means\nof your leaning to spirituality, as in your sleep, in your protracted\nmeditation, insensibility, fancies and reveries.\n\n56. Your spiritual nature will then return to your body, when your\nearthly desires are lessened and curbed within the mind.\n\n57. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Say goddess, what becomes of the spiritual body after\nit has attained its compactness by constant practice of yoga; whether\nit becomes indestructible, or perishes like all other finite bodies.\n\n58. The goddess replied:\u2014Any thing that exists is perishable, and of\ncourse liable to death; but how can that thing die which is nothing,\nand is imperishable in its nature? (Such is the spirit).\n\n59. Again the fallacy of the snake in a rope being removed, the snake\ndisappears of itself, and no one doubts of it any more.\n\n60. Thus, as the true knowledge of the rope, removes the erroneous\nconception of the snake in it, so the recognition of the spiritual\nbody, dispels the misconception of its materiality.\n\n61. All imagery is at an end when there is no image at all, as the\nart of statuary must cease for want of stones on earth. (Thus they\nattribute materiality to the immaterial spirit from their familiarity\nwith matter).\n\n62. We see clearly our bodies full of the spirit of God, which you can\nnot perceive owing to your gross understanding.\n\n63. In the beginning when the intellect\u2014_chit_, is engrossed with the\nimagination of the mind\u2014_chitta_, it loses thenceforth its sight of\nthe only one object (the unity of God).\n\n64. L\u00edl\u00e1 asked:\u2014But how can imagination have any room or trace out\nanything in that unity, wherein the divisions of time and space and all\nthings, are lost in an undistinguishable mass?\n\n65. The goddess replied:\u2014Like the bracelet in gold and waves in water,\nthe show of truth in dreams, and the resemblance of aerial castles:\u2014\n\n66. As all these vanish on the right apprehension of them, so the\nimaginary attributes of the unpredicable God, are all nothing whatever.\n\n67. As there is no dust in the sky, so there can be no ascribing of any\nattribute or partial property to God; whose nature is indivisible and\nunimaginable, who is an unborn unity, tranquil and all-pervading.\n\n68. Whatever shines about us, is the pure light of that being, who\nscatters his lustre like a transcendental gem all around.\n\n69. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014If it is so at all times, then tell me, O goddess! how\nwe happened to fall into the error of attributing duality and diversity\nto His nature.\n\n70. The goddess replied:\u2014It was your want of reason that has led\nyou to error so long; and it is the absence of reasoning that is the\nnatural bane of mankind, and requires to be remedied by your attending\nto reason.\n\n71. When reason takes the place of the want of reason, it introduces\nin a moment the light of knowledge in the soul, in lieu of its former\ndarkness.\n\n72. As reason advances, your want of reason and knowledge and your\nbondage to prejudice, are put to flight; and then you have an\nunobstructed liberation and pure understanding in this world.\n\n73. As long as you had remained without reasoning on this subject, so\nlong were you either dormant or wandering in error.\n\n74. You are awakened from this day both to your reason and liberation,\nand the seeds for the suppression of your desires, are sown in your\nheart.\n\n75. At first neither was this visible world presented to you nor you to\nit, how long will you therefore reside in it, and what other desires\nhave you herein?\n\n76. Withdraw your mind from its thoughts of the visitor, visibles and\nvision of this world, and settle it in the idea of the entire negation\nof all existence, then fix your meditation solely in the supreme Being,\nand sit in a state of unalterable insensibility (by forgetting yourself\nto a stone).\n\n77. When the seed of inappetency has taken root in your heart, and\nbegun to germinate in it, the sprouts of your affections and hatred\n(literally\u2014pathos and apathy), will be destroyed of themselves.\n\n78. Then the impression of the world will be utterly effaced from the\nmind, and an unshaken _anesthesia_ will overtake you all at once.\n\n79. Remaining thus entranced in your abstract meditation, you will\nhave in process of time a soul, as luminous as a luminary in the clear\nfirmament of heaven, freed from the concatenation of all causes and\ntheir consequences for evermore.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n PRACTICE OF WISDOM OR WISDOM IN PRACTICE.\n\n (VIJN\u00c1NA-BHY\u00c1SA).\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n ABANDONMENT OF DESIRES.\n\n _B\u00e1san\u00e1 Ty\u00e1ga._\n\nThe goddess continued:\u2014\n\nAs objects seen in a dream, prove to be false as the dream, on being\nroused from sleep and upon knowing them as fumes of fancy; so the\nbelief in the reality of the body, becomes unfounded upon dissolution\nof our desires.\n\n2. As the thing dreamt of disappears upon waking, so does the waking\nbody disappear in sleep, when the desires lie dormant in the soul.\n\n3. As our corporeal bodies are awakened after the states of our\ndreaming and desiring, so is our spiritual body awakened after we cease\nto think of our corporeal states.\n\n4. As a sound sleep succeeds the dormancy which is devoid of desires\n(_i.e._ when we are unconscious of the actions and volition of our\nminds); so does the tranquillity of liberation follow the state of our\ninappetency even in our waking bodies.\n\n5. The desire of living-liberated men (_j\u00edvan-muktas_), is not properly\nany desire at all, since it is the pure desire relating to universal\nweal and happiness.\n\n6. The sleep in which the will and wish are dormant, is called the\nsound sleep _susupta_, but the dormancy of desires in the waking state,\nis known as insensibility _moha_ or _m\u00farchh\u00e1_.\n\n7. Again the sleep which is wholly devoid of desire, is designated the\n_tur\u00edya_ or the fourth stage of yoga, and which in the waking state is\ncalled _sam\u00e1dhi_ or union with Supreme.\n\n8. The living man, whose life is freed from all desires in this world,\nis called the living liberated\u2014_j\u00edvan-mukta_, a state which is unknown\nto them that are not liberated (_amukta_).\n\n9. When the mind becomes a pure essence (as in its _sam\u00e1dhi_), and its\ndesires are weakened, it becomes spiritualised (_ativ\u00e1hika_), and then\nit glows and flows, as the snow melts to water by application of heat.\n\n10. The spiritualised mind, being awakened (as if it were from its\ndrowsiness or lethargy), mixes with the holy spirits of departed souls\nin the other world.\n\n11. When your egoism is moderated by your practice of yoga, then the\nperception of the invisible, will of itself rise clearly before your\nmind.\n\n12. And when spiritual knowledge gains a firm footing in your mind, you\nwill then behold the hallowed scenes of the other world more than your\nexpectation.\n\n13. Therefore O blameless lady! try your utmost to deaden your desires,\nand when you have gained sufficient strength in that practice, know\nyourself to be liberated in this life.\n\n14. Until the moon of your intellectual knowledge, comes to shine forth\nfully with her cooling beams, so long you shall have to leave this body\nof yours here, in order to have a view of the other world.\n\n15. This fleshy body of yours, can have no tangible connection with one\nwhich is without flesh; nor can the intellectual body (_lingadeha_),\nperform any action of the corporeal system.\n\n16. I have told you all this according to my best knowledge, and the\nstate of things as they are: and my sayings are known even to boys, to\nbe as efficacious as the curse or blessing of a deity.\n\n17. It is the habitual reliance of men in their gross bodies, and their\nfond attachment to them, that bind their souls down, and bring them\nback to the earth; while the weakening of earthly desires serve to\nclothe them with spiritual bodies.\n\n18. No body believes in his having a spiritual body here even at his\ndeath bed; but every one thinks the dying man to be dead with his body\nfor ever.\n\n19. This body however, neither dies, nor is it alive at any time; for\nboth life and death are mere resemblances of aerial dreams and desires\nin all respects.\n\n20. The life and death of beings here below, are as false as the\nappearances and disappearance of persons in imagination, (or a man in\nthe moon), or of dolls in play or puppet shows.\n\n21. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014The pure knowledge, O goddess! that thou hast imparted\nto me, serves on its being instilled into my ears, as a healing balm to\nthe pain caused by the phenomenals.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n ON THE PRACTICE OF YOGA.\n\n22. Now tell me the name and nature of the practice, that may be of use\nto Spiritualism, how it is to be perfected and what is the end of such\nperfection.\n\n23. The goddess replied:\u2014Whatever a man attempts to do here at any\ntime, he can hardly ever effect its completion, without his painful\npractice of it to the utmost of his power.\n\n24. Practice is said by the wise, to consist in the conference of the\nsame thing with one another, in understanding it thoroughly, and in\ndevoting one\u2019s self solely to his object.\n\n25. And those great souls become successful in this world, who are\ndisgusted with the world, and are moderate in their enjoyments and\ndesires, and do not think on the attainment of what they are in want of.\n\n26. And those great minds are said to be best trained, which are\ngraced with liberal views, and are delighted with the relish of\nunconcernedness with the world, and enraptured with the streams of\nheavenly felicity.\n\n27. Again they are called the best practised in divine knowledge, who\nare employed in preaching the absolute negation of the knower and\nknowables in this world, by the light of reasoning and S\u00e1stras.\n\n28. Also the knowledge, that there was nothing produced in the\nbeginning, and that nothing which is visible, as this world or one\u2019s\nself, is true at any time, is called to be practical knowledge by some.\n\n29. The strong tendency of the soul towards the spirit of God, which\nresults from a knowledge of the nihility of visibles, and subsidence of\nthe passions, is said to be the effect of the practice of Yoga.\n\n30. But mere knowledge of the inexistence of the world, without\nsubduing the passions, is known as knowledge without practice, and is\nof no good to its possessor.\n\n31. Consciousness of the inexistence of the visible world, constitutes\nthe true knowledge of the knowable. This habitude of the mind is called\nthe practice of Yoga, and leads one to his final extinction\u2014_nirv\u00e1na_.\n\n32. The mind thus prepared by practice of Yoga, awakens the\nintelligence which lay dormant in the dark night of this world, and\nwhich now sheds its cooling showers of reason, like dew drops in the\nfrosty night of autumn.\n\n33. As the sage was sermonizing in this manner, the day departed as\nto its evening service, and led the assembled train to their evening\nablutions. They met again with their mutual greetings at the rising\nbeams of the sun after the darkness of night was dispelled.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n THE AERIAL JOURNEY OF SPIRITUAL BODIES.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014\n\nAfter this conference between the goddess and that excellent lady on\nthat night, they found the inmates of the family fast asleep in the\ninner apartment.\n\n2. They entered the charnel-house which was closely shut on all sides\nby latches fastened to the doors and windows, and which was perfumed\nwith the fragrance of heaps of flowers.\n\n3. They sat beside the corpse decorated with fresh flowers and\ngarments, with their faces shining like the fair full-moon; and\nbrightening the place.\n\n4. They then went to the cemetery and stood motionless on the spot,\nas if they were sculptures engraven on marble columns, or as pictures\ndrawn upon the wall.\n\n5. They shook off all their thoughts and cares, and became as\ncontracted as the faded blossoms of the lotus at the decline of the\nday, when their fragrance has fled from them.\n\n6. They remained still, calm and quiet and without any motion of their\nlimbs, like a sheet of clouds hanging on the mountain top in the calm\nof autumn.\n\n7. They continued in fixed attention without any external sensation,\nlike some lonely creepers shrivelled for want of the moisture of the\nseason.\n\n8. They were fully impressed with the disbelief of their own existence,\nand that of all other things in the world, and were altogether absorbed\nin the thought of an absolute privation of every thing at large.\n\n9. They lost the remembrance of the phantom of the phenomenal world,\nwhich is as unreal as the horn of a hare.\n\n10. What was a _non ens_ at first, is even so a not-being at present,\nand what appears as existent, is as inexistent as the water in a\nmirage.\n\n11. The two ladies then became as quiet as inert nature herself, and as\nstill as firmament before the luminous bodies rolled about in its ample\nsphere.\n\n12. They then began to move with their own bodies, the goddess of\nwisdom in her form of intelligence, and the queen in her intellectual\nand meditative mood.\n\n13. With their new bodies they rose as high as one span above the\nground, then taking the forms of the empty intellect, they began to\nmount in the sky.\n\n14. The two ladies then with their playful open eyes, ascended to the\nhigher region of the sky, by their nature of intellectual knowledge.\n\n15. Then they flew higher and higher by force of their intellect, and\narrived at a region stretching millions of leagues in length.\n\n16. Here the pair in their etherial forms, looked about according to\ntheir nature in search of some visible objects; but finding no other\nfigure except their own, they became much more attached to each other\nby their mutual affection.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n THE AERIAL JOURNEY.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:\u2014\n\nThus ascending higher and higher and reaching by degrees the highest\nstation, they went on viewing the heavens, with their hands clasped in\neach other\u2019s.\n\n2. They saw a vast expanse as that of the wide extended universal\nocean, deep and translucent within; but soft with etherial mildness,\nand a cooling breeze infusing heavenly delight.\n\n3. All delightsome and pleasant was the vast Ocean of vacuity, into\nwhich they dived, and which afforded them a delight far greater in its\npurity, than what is derived from the company of the virtuous.\n\n4. They wandered about all sides of heaven, under the beams of the full\nmoon shining above them; and now halted under the clear vault of the\nclouds, covering the mountain tops of _Meru_, as if under the dome of a\nhuge white washed edifice.\n\n5. And now they roved by the regions of Siddhas and Gandharvas,\nbreathing the charming fragrance of _Mand\u00e1ra_ chaplets; and now passing\nthe lunar sphere, they inhaled the sweet scent exhaled by the breeze\nfrom that nectarious orb (_Sudh\u00e1kara_).\n\n6. Now tired and perspiring profusely, they bathed in the lakes of\nshowering clouds, fraught with the blushing lotuses of lurid lightnings\nflashing within them.\n\n7. They promenaded at random of their free will on all sides, and now\nalighted like fluttering bees on the tops of high mountains, appearing\nas filaments of the lotus-like earth below.\n\n8. They roved also under the vaults of some fragments of clouds, which\nwere scattered by the winds, and raining like the cascade of Ganges,\nthinking them as shower-bath-houses in the air.\n\n9. Then failing in their strength, they halted in many places, with\ntheir slow and slackened steps, and beheld the vacuum full of great and\nwondrous works.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAVEN.\n\n10. They saw what they had never seen before, the tremendous depth of\nvacuity, which was not filled up by the myriads of worlds which kept\nrevolving in it.\n\n11. Over and over and higher and higher, they saw the celestial spheres\nfilled with luminous orbs adorned with their ornamental stars, roving\none above and around the other.\n\n12. Huge mountainous bodies as the _Meru_ moved about in the vacuous\nspace, and emitted a rubicund glare, like a flame of fire from within\ntheir bowels on all sides.\n\n13. There were beautiful table-lands, like those of the Him\u00e1layas, with\ntheir pearly peaks of snow; and also mountains of gold, spreading an\naureate hue over the land.\n\n14. They saw in some place mountains of emerald, tinging the landscape\nwith verdant green, as it were a bed of grass; and in others some dark\ncloud, dimming the sight of the spectator, and hiding the spectacle in\ndark blackness.\n\n15. They beheld also tracts of blue sapphire, with creepers of p\u00e1rij\u00e1ta\nflowers, blooming with their blossoms as banners in the azure skies.\n\n16. They saw the flights of Siddhas (or departed holy spirits), the\nflight of whose minds outstripped the swiftness of the winds; and heard\nthe vocal music of the songs of heavenly nymphs in their aerial abodes.\n\n17. All the great bodies in the universe (the planetary system), were\nin continual motion; and the spirits of the gods and demigods, were\nmoving about unseen by one another.\n\n18. Groups of spiritual beings, as the Kushm\u00e1ndas, R\u00e1kshasas and\nPis\u00e1chas, were seated in aerial circles at the borders; and the winds\nand gales blowing with full force in their etherial course.\n\n19. Loud roarings of clouds, as those of the crackling wheels of\nheavenly cars, were heard in some places; and the noise of rapid stars,\nresembled the blowing of pneumatic engines.\n\n20. There the half burnt Siddhas, were flying from their burning cars\nunder the solar rays, by reason of their nearness to the Sun; and the\nsolar embers were flung afar by the breath of the nostrils of his\nhorses. (It means the falling of the burning meteors and meteorolites\nfrom the sky).\n\n21. In some places they beheld the rulers of men, and trains of\nApsaras, hurrying up and down the air; and in others, the goddesses\nroving amidst the smoky and fiery clouds in the firmament.\n\n22. Here they saw some sparks of light, falling like the jewels of\ncelestial nymphs, in their hurried flight to their respective spheres;\nand there they beheld the lightsome spirits of lesser Siddhas dwindling\ninto darkness.\n\n23. Flakes of mists were falling off from the clouds, as if by friction\nof the bodies of turbulent spirits, rushing up and down the skies; and\nshrouding the sides of mountains as with sheets of cloth.\n\n24. Fragments of clouds, beset by groups in the shapes of crows, owls\nand vultures, were flying about in the air; and there were seen some\nmonsters also, as D\u00e1kinis heaving their heads in the forms of huge\nsurges, in the cloudy ocean of the sky.\n\n25. There were bodies of Yogin\u00eds too, with their faces resembling those\nof dogs, ravens, asses and camels, who were traversing the wide expanse\nof the heavens to no purpose.\n\n26. There were Siddhas and Gandharvas, sporting in pairs in the coverts\nof dark, smoky and ash coloured clouds, spread before the regents of\nthe four quarters of the skies.\n\n27. They beheld the path of the planets (the zodiac), which resounded\nloudly with the heavenly music of the spheres; and that path also (of\nthe lunar mansions), which incessantly marked the course of the two\nfortnights.\n\n28. They saw the sons of gods moving about in the air, and viewing with\nwonder the heavenly stream of Ganges (the milky way), which was studded\nwith stars, and rolling with the rapidity of winds.\n\n29. They saw the gods wielding their thunderbolts, discuses, tridents,\nswords and missiles; and heard N\u00e1rada and Tumburu singing in their\naerial abodes on high.\n\n30. They beheld the region of the clouds, where there were huge bodies\nof them mute as paintings, and pouring forth floods of rain as in the\ngreat deluge.\n\n31. In some place they saw a dark cloud, as high as the mountain-king\nHim\u00e1laya, slowly moving in the air; and at others some of a golden hue\nas at the setting sun.\n\n32. In some place there were flimsy sheets of clouds, as are said to\nhover on the peaks of the Rishya range; and at another a cloud like the\ncalm blue bed of the Sea, without any water in them.\n\n33. There were tufts of grass seen in some places, as if blown up by\nthe winds and floating in the stream of air; and swarms of butterflies\nat others with their glossy coats and wings.\n\n34. In some place, there was a cloud of dust raised by the wind, and\nappearing as a lake on the top of a mountain.\n\n35. The M\u00e1tris were seen, to be dancing naked in their giddy circles in\nsome place, and the great Yogin\u00eds sat at others, as if ever and anon\ngiddy with intoxication.\n\n36. There were circles of holy men, sitting in their calm meditation in\none place; and pious saints at others, who had cast away their worldly\ncares at a distance.\n\n37. There was a conclave of celestial choristers, composed of heavenly\nnymphs, Kinnaras and Gandharvas in one place; and some quiet towns and\ncities situated at others.\n\n38. There were the cities of Brahm\u00e1 and Rudra full with their people,\nand the city of illusion (M\u00e1y\u00e1) with its increasing population.\n\n39. There were crystal lakes in some places and stagnant pools at\nothers; and lakes with the Siddhas seated by them, and those embosomed\nby the rising moon.\n\n40. They saw the sun rising in one part, and the darkness of night\nveiling the others; the evening casting its shadow on one, and the\ndusky mists of dusk obscuring the other.\n\n41. There were the hoary clouds of winter in some places, and those of\nthe rains in others; somewhere they appeared as tracts of land and at\nanother as a sheet of water.\n\n42. Bodies of gods and demigods, were roving from one side to the\nother; some from east to west, and others from north to the south.\n\n43. There were mountains heaving their heads to thousands of miles\nin their height; and there were valleys and caves covered in eternal\ndarkness.\n\n44. There was a vast inextinguishable fire, like that of the blazing\nsun in one place; and a thickly frost covering the moon-light in\nanother. (The burning heat of the tropics and the cold of the frigid\nzone).\n\n45. Somewhere there was a great city, flourishing with groves and\narbours; and at another big temples of gods, levelled to the ground by\nthe might of demons.\n\n46. In some place there was a streak of light, described by a falling\nmeteor in the sky; in another the blaze of a comet with its thousand\nfiery tails in the air.\n\n47. In one place there was a lucky planet, rising with its full orb to\nthe view; in another there spread the gloom of night, and full sunshine\nin another.\n\n48. Here the clouds were roaring, and there they were dumb and mute;\nhere were the high blasts driving the clouds in air, and there the\ngentle breeze dropping the clusters of flowers on the ground.\n\n49. Sometimes the firmament was clear and fair, and without an\nintercepting cloud in it, and as transparent as the soul of a wise man,\ndelighted with the knowledge of truth.\n\n50. The vacuous region of the celestial gods, was so full with the dewy\nbeams (_him\u00e1nsu_) of the silvery orb of the moon (_sweta-v\u00e1ha_), that\nit appeared as a shower of rain, and raised the loud croaking of the\nfrogs below.\n\n51. There appeared flocks of peacocks and goldfinches, to be fluttering\nabout in some place, and vehicles of the goddesses and Vidy\u00e1dharis\nthronging at another.\n\n52. Numbers of K\u00e1rtikeya\u2019s peacocks were seen dancing amidst the\nclouds, and a flight of greenish parrots was seen in the sky appearing\nas a verdant plain.\n\n53. Dwarfish clouds were moving like the stout buffaloes of Yama; and\nothers in the form of horses, were grazing on the grassy meadows of\nclouds.\n\n54. Cities of the gods and demons, appeared with their towers on high;\nand distinct towns and hills, were seen at distances, as if detached\nfrom one another by the driving winds.\n\n55. In some place, gigantic Bhairavas were dancing with their\nmountainous bodies; and great _garudas_ were flying at another, as\nwinged mountains in the air.\n\n56. Huge mountains also, were tossed about by the blowing of winds;\nand the castles of the Gandharvas, were rising and falling with the\ncelestial nymphs in them.\n\n57. There were some clouds rising on high, and appearing as rolling\nmountains in the sky, crushing down the forests below; and the sky\nappeared in some place, as a clear lake abounding in lotuses.\n\n58. The moon-beams shone brightly in one spot, and sweet cooling\nbreezes blew softly in another. Hot sultry winds were blowing in some\nplace, and singeing the forest on the mountainous clouds.\n\n59. There was a dead silence in one spot, caused by perfect calmness of\nthe breeze; while another spot presented a scene of a hundred peaks,\nrising on a mountainlike cloud.\n\n60. In one place the raining clouds, were roaring loudly in their fury;\nand in another a furious battle was waging between the gods and demons\nin the clouds.\n\n61. In some place the geese were seen gabbling in the lotus lake of the\nsky, and inviting the ganders by their loud cackling cries.\n\n62. Forms of fishes, crocodiles and alligators, were seen flying in the\nair, as if they were transformed to aerial beings, by the holy waters\nof their natal Ganges.\n\n63. They saw somewhere the eclipse of the moon, by the dark shadow\nof the earth, as the sun went down the horizon; and so they saw the\neclipse of the sun by the shadow of the moon falling on his disk.\n\n64. They saw a magical flower garden, exhaling its fragrance in the\nair; and strewing the floor of heaven, with profusion of flowers,\nscattered by showers of morning dews.\n\n65. They beheld all the beings contained in the three worlds, to be\nflying in the air, like a swarm of gnats in the hollow of a fig tree;\nand then the two excellent ladies stopped in their aerial journey,\nintent upon revisiting the earth.\n\n NOTE. Most part of the above description of the heavens, consists\n of the various appearances of the clouds, and bears resemblance\n to Shelly\u2019s poetical description of them. All this is expressed\n by one word in the Cloud-Messenger of K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa, where the cloud\n is said to be \u201c_K\u00e1ma r\u00fapa_\u201d or assuming any form at pleasure.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH.\n\n\nThese ladies then alighted from the sky in their forms of intelligence,\nand passing over the mountainous regions, saw the habitations of men on\nthe surface of the earth.\n\n2. They saw the world situated as a lotus, in the heart of the first\nmale Nara (Brahm\u00e1); the eight sides forming the petals of the flower,\nthe hills being its pistils, and the pericarp containing its sweet\nflavour.\n\n3. The rivers are the tubes of its filaments, which are covered with\ndrops of snow resembling their dust. The days and nights rolling over\nit, like swarms of black-bees and butterflies, and all its living\nbeings appearing as gnats fluttering about it.\n\n4. Its long stalks which are as white as the bright day light, are\ncomposed of fibres serving for food, and of tubes conducting the drink\nto living beings.\n\n5. It is wet with moisture, which is sucked by the sun, resembling\nthe swan swimming about in the air. It folds itself in sleep in the\ndarkness of night in absence of the sun.\n\n6. The earth like a lotus is situated on the surface of the waters of\nthe ocean, which make it shake at times, and cause the earthquake by\ntheir motion. It is supported upon the serpent V\u00e1suki serving for its\nunderstalk, and is girt about by demons as its thorns and prickles.[15]\n\n7. The mount Meru (and others) are its large seeds, and the great\nhives of human population; where the fair daughters of the giant race,\npropagated (the race of men), by their sweet embrace (with the sons of\nGod).[16]\n\n8. It has the extensive continent of Jambudw\u00edpa situated in one petal,\nthe petioles forming its divisions, and the tubular filaments its\nrivers.\n\n9. The seven elevated mountains, forming the boundary lines of this\ncontinent, are its seeds; and the great mount of Sumeru reaching to the\nsky, is situated in the midst. (_i.e._ The topmost north pole).\n\n10. Its lakes are as dewdrops on the lotus-leaf, and its forests are\nas the farina of the flower; and the people inhabiting the land all\naround, are as a swarm of bees about it.\n\n11. Its extent is a thousand yojanas square, and is surrounded on all\nsides by the dark sea like a belt of black bees.\n\n12. It contains nine _varshas_ or divisions, which are ruled by nine\nbrother kings, resembling the regents of its eight petalled sides, with\nthe Bh\u00e1rata-varsha in the midst.\n\n13. It stretches a million of miles with more of land than water in it.\nIts habitable parts are as thickly situated as the frozen ice in winter.\n\n14. The briny ocean which is twice as large as the continent, girds it\non the outside, as a bracelet encircles the wrist.\n\n15. Beyond it lies the S\u00e1ka continent of a circular form, and twice as\nlarge as the former one, which is also encircled by the sea.\n\n16. This is called the milky ocean for the sweetness of its water, and\nis double the size of the former sea of salt.\n\n17. Beyond that and double its size is the Kusadw\u00edpa continent,\nwhich is full of population. It is also of the size of a circle, and\nsurrounded by another sea.\n\n18. Around it lies the belt of the sea of curds, delectable to the\ngods, and double the size of the continent which is encircled by it.\n\n19. After that lies the circle of the Krauncha dw\u00edpa, which is also\ntwice the size of the former one, and surrounded by a sea in the manner\nof a city by a canal.\n\n20. This sea is called the sea of butter, and is twice as large as the\ncontinent which is girt by it. Beyond it lies the S\u00e1lmali dw\u00edpa, girt\nby the foul sea of wine.\n\n21. The fair belt of this sea resembles a wreath of white flowers, like\nthe girdle of the _Sesha_ serpent, forming the necklace hanging on the\nbreast of Hari.\n\n22. Thereafter is stretched the Plaxa dw\u00edpa, double the size of the\nformer, and encircled by the belt of the sea of sugar, appearing as the\nsnowy plains of Him\u00e1laya.\n\n23. After that lies the belt of the Pushkara dw\u00edpa, twice as large as\nthe preceding one, and encircled by a sea of sweet water double its\ncircumference.\n\n24. Hence they saw at the distance of ten degrees, the descent to the\ninfernal regions; where there lay the belt of the south polar circle,\nwith its hideous cave below.\n\n25. The way to the infernal cave is full of danger and fear, and ten\ntimes in length from the circle of the _dw\u00edpas_ (continents).\n\n26. This cave is encompassed on all sides by the dreadful vacuum, and\nis half covered below by a thick gloom, appearing as a blue lotus\nattached to it.\n\n27. There stood the Lok\u00e1loka Kumeru or South Polar mountain, which\nis bright with sun-shine on one side, and covered by darkness on the\nother, and is studded with various gems on its tops, and decked with\nflowers growing upon it.\n\n28. It reflected the glory of the three worlds (in the everlasting\nsnows), which are clapped as a cap of hairs on its top.\n\n29. At a great distance from it, is a great forest, untrodden by the\nfeet of any living being; and then proceeding upward, they saw the\ngreat northern ocean encompassing the pole on all sides.\n\n30. Further on they beheld the flaming light of the aurora borealis,\nwhich threatened to melt the snowy mountain to water.\n\n31. Proceeding onward, they met with the fierce Boreas or north winds,\nblowing with all their fury and force.\n\n32. They threatened to blow away and uproot the mountains, as if they\nwere dust or grass; and traversed the empty vacuum with their noiseless\nmotion.\n\n33. Afar from these they saw the empty space of vacuum, stretching wide\nall about them.\n\n34. It spreads around to an unlimited extent, and encompasses the\nworlds as a golden circlet encircles the wrist (_i.e._ the belt of the\nzodiac).\n\n35. Thus L\u00edl\u00e1, having seen the seas and mountains, the regents of the\nworlds, the city of the gods, the sky above and the earth below in the\nunlimited concavity of the universe, returned on a sudden to her own\nland, and found herself in her closet again.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n MEETING THE SIDDHAS\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014After the excellent ladies had returned from their\nvisit of the mundane sphere, they entered the abode where the Br\u00e1hman\nhad lived before.\n\n2. There the holy ladies saw in that dwelling, and unseen by any body,\nthe tomb or tope of the Br\u00e1hman.\n\n3. Here the maid servants were dejected with sorrow, and the faces of\nthe women were soiled with tears. Their countenances had faded away,\nlike lotuses with their withered leaves.\n\n4. All joy had fled from the house, and left it as the dry bed of the\ndead sea, after its waters were sucked by the scorching sun (Agastya).\nIt was as a garden parched in summer, or a tree struck by lightening.\n\n5. It was as joyless as the dried lotus, torn by a blast or withering\nunder the frost; and as faint as the light of a lamp, without its wick\nor oil; and as dim as the eyeball without its light.\n\n6. The house without its master, was as doleful as the countenance of a\ndying person, or as a forest with its falling and withered leaves, and\nas the dry and dusty ground for want of rain.\n\n7. Vasishtha continued:\u2014Then the lady with her gracefulness of divine\nknowledge, and the elegance of her perfections, and her devotedness\nto and desire of truth, thought within herself, that the inmates of\nthe house might behold her and the goddess, in their ordinary forms of\nhuman beings.\n\n9. The dwellers of the house then beheld the two ladies as Laxm\u00ed and\nGaur\u00ed together, and brightening the house with the effulgence of their\npersons.\n\n10. They were adorned from head to foot, with wreaths of unfading\nflowers of various kinds; and they seemed like Flora\u2014the genius of\nspring, perfuming the house with the fragrance of a flower garden.\n\n11. They appeared to rise as a pair of moons, with their cooling and\npleasant beams; infusing a freshness to the family, as the moonlight\ndoes to the medicinal plants in forests and villages.\n\n12. The soft glances of their eyes, under the long, loose and pendant\ncurls of hair on their foreheads, shed as it were a shower of white\n_m\u00e1lati_ flowers, from the dark cloudy spots of their nigrescent eyes.\n\n13. Their bodies were as bright as melted gold, and as tremulous as the\nflowing stream. The current of their effulgence, cast a golden hue on\nthe spot where they stood, as also over the forest all around.\n\n14. The natural beauty of Laxm\u00ed\u2019s body, and the tremulous glare of\nL\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s person, spread as it were, a sea of radiance about them, in\nwhich their persons seemed to move as undulating waves.\n\n15. Their relaxed arms resembling loose creepers, with the ruddy\nleaflets of their palms, shook as fresh Kalpa creepers in the forest.\n\n16. They touched the ground again with their feet, resembling the fresh\nand tender petals of a flower, or like lotuses growing upon the ground.\n\n17. Their appearance seemed to sprinkle ambrosial dews all around, and\nmade the dry withered and brown boughs of _tam\u00e1la_ trees, to vegetate\nanew in tender sprouts and leaflets.\n\n18. On seeing them, the whole family with Jyeshtha Sarm\u00e1 (the eldest\nboy of the deceased Br\u00e1hman), cried aloud and said, \u201cObeisance to the\nsylvan goddesses,\u201d and threw handfuls of flowers on their feet.\n\n19. The offerings of flowers which fell on their feet, resembled the\nshowers of dew-drops, falling on lotus leaves in a lake of lotuses.\n\n20. Jyeshtha Sarm\u00e1 said:\u2014Be victorious, ye goddesses! that have come\nhere to dispel our sorrow; as it is inborn in the nature of good\npeople, to deliver others from their distress.\n\n21. After he had ended, the goddesses addressed him gently and said,\ntell us the cause of your sorrow, which has made you all so sad.\n\n22. Then Jyeshtha Sarm\u00e1 and others related to them one by one their\ngriefs, owing to the demise of the Br\u00e1hman pair.\n\n23. They said:\u2014Know O goddess pair! there lived here a Br\u00e1hman and\nhis wife, who had been the resort of guests and a support of the\nBr\u00e1hminical order.\n\n24. They were our parents, and have lately quitted this abode; and\nhaving abandoned us with all their friends and domestic animals here,\nhave departed to heaven, and left us quite helpless in this world.\n\n25. The birds there sitting on the top of the house, have been\ncontinually pouring in the air, their pious and mournful ditties over\nthe dead bodies of the deceased.\n\n26. There the mountains on all sides, have been lamenting their loss,\nin the hoarse noise (of the winds) howling in their caverns, and\nshedding showers of their tears in the course of the streams issuing\nfrom their sides.\n\n27. The clouds have poured their tears in floods of rainwater, and fled\nfrom the skies; while the quarters of the heavens have been sending\ntheir sighs in sultry winds all around.\n\n28. The poor village people are wailing in piteous notes, with their\nbodies mangled by rolling upon the ground, and trying to yield up their\nlives with continued fasting.\n\n29. The trees are shedding their tears every day in drops of melting\nsnow, exuding from the cells of their leaves and flowers, resembling\nthe sockets of their eyes.\n\n30. The streets are deserted for want of passers-bye, and have become\ndusty without being watered. They have become as empty as the hearts of\nmen forsaken by their joys of life.\n\n31. The fading plants are wailing in the plaintive notes of Cuckoos\nand the humming of bees; and are withering in their leafy limbs by the\nsultry sighs of their inward grief.\n\n32. The snows are melt down by the heat of their grief and falling in\nthe form of cataracts, which break themselves to a hundred channels by\ntheir fall upon stony basins.\n\n33. Our prosperity has fled from us, and we sit here in dumb despair of\nhope. Our houses have become dark and gloomy as a desert.\n\n34. Here the humble bees, are humming in grief upon the scattered\nflowers in our garden, which now sends forth a putrid smell instead of\ntheir former fragrance.\n\n35. And there the creepers that twined so gayly round the vernal\narbors, are dwindling and dying away with their closing and fading\nflowers.\n\n36. The rivulets with their loose and low purling murmur, and light\nundulation of their liquid bodies in the ground, are running hurriedly\nin their sorrow, to cast themselves into the sea.\n\n37. The ponds are as still in their sorrow, as men sitting in their\nmeditative posture (_Sam\u00e1dhi_), notwithstanding the disturbance of the\ngnats flying incessantly upon them.\n\n38. Verily is that part of the heaven adorned this day by the presence\nof our parents, where the bodies of heavenly choristers, the Kinnaras,\nGandharvas and Vidy\u00e1dharas, welcome them with their music.\n\n39. Therefore, O Devis! assuage this our excessive grief; as the visit\nof the great never goes for nothing.\n\n40. Hearing these words, L\u00edl\u00e1 gently touched the head of her son with\nher hand, as the lotus-bed leans to touch its offshoot by the stalk.\n\n41. At her touch the boy was relieved of all his sorrow and misfortune,\njust as the summer heat of the mountain, is allayed by the showers of\nthe rainy season.\n\n42. All others in the house, were as highly gratified at the sight of\nthe goddesses, as when a pauper is relieved of his poverty, and the\nsick are healed by a draught of nectar.\n\n43. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Remove my doubt, sir, why L\u00edl\u00e1 did not appear in her\nown figure before her eldest son\u2014Jyeshta Sarm\u00e1.\n\n44. Vasishtha answered:\u2014You forget, O R\u00e1ma! to think that L\u00edl\u00e1 had a\nmaterial body, or could assume any at pleasure. She was in her form of\npure intellect (lingadeha), and it was with her spiritual hand that she\ntouched the inner spirit of the boy and not his body. (Gloss). Because\nwhoso believes himself to be composed of his earthly body only, is\nverily confined in that; but he who knows his spirituality, is as free\nas air: (and it was in this aerial form that L\u00edl\u00e1 was ranging about and\ntouched her son).\n\n45. Belief in materialism leads one to think his unreal earthly frame\nas real, as a boy\u2019s belief in ghosts makes him take a shadow for a\nspirit.\n\n46. But this belief in one\u2019s materiality, is soon over upon conviction\nof his spirituality; as the traces of our visions in a dream, are\neffaced on the knowledge of their unreality upon waking.\n\n47. The belief of matter as (vacuous) nothing, leads to the knowledge\nof the spirit. And as a glass door appears as an open space to one of a\nbilious temperament, so does matter appear as nothing to the wise.\n\n48. A dream presents us the sights of cities and lands, of air and\nwater, where there are no such things in actuality; and it causes the\nmovements of our limbs and bodies (as in somnambulation) for nothing.\n\n49. As the air appears as earth in dreaming, so does the non-existent\nworld appear to be existent in waking. It is thus that men see and talk\nof things unseen and unknown in their fits of delirium.\n\n50. So boys see ghosts in the air, and the dying man views a forest in\nit; others see elephants in clouds, and some see pearls in sun-beams.\n\n51. And thus those that are panic-struck and deranged in their minds,\nthe halfwaking and passengers in vessels, see many appearances like the\naforesaid ghosts and forests, as seen by boys and men in the air, and\nbetray these signs in the motions and movements of their bodies.\n\n52. In this manner every one is of the form of whatever he thinks\nhimself to be; and it is habit only that makes him to believe himself\nas such, though he is not so in reality.\n\n53. But L\u00edl\u00e1 who had known the truth and inexistence of the world, was\nconscious of its nothingness, and viewed all things to be but erroneous\nconceptions of the mind.\n\n54. Thus he who sees Brahma only to fill the sphere of his intellect,\nhas no room for a son or friend or consort to abide in it.\n\n55. He who views the whole as full with the spirit of Brahma, and\nnothing produced in it, has no room for his affection or hatred to any\nbody in it.\n\n56. The hand that L\u00edl\u00e1 laid on the head of Jyeshtha Sarm\u00e1\u2014her eldest\nson, was not lain from her maternal affection for him, but for his\nedification in intellectual knowledge.\n\n57. Because the intellect being awakened, there is all felicity\nattendant upon it. It is more subtile than ether and far purer than\nvacuum, and leads the intellectual being above the region of air. All\nthings beside are as images in a dream.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n PAST LIVES OF L\u00cdL\u00c1.\n\n\nThe two ladies then disappeared from that place, leaving the Br\u00e1hman\nfamily at their house in the mountainous village.\n\n2. The family exclaimed \u201cWe are highly favoured by the sylvan\ngoddesses;\u201d and then forgetting their grief, they betook themselves to\ntheir domestic employments.\n\n3. Then the etherial goddess spake to the aerial-L\u00edl\u00e1, who stood\nfixed in air, over the mansion of the Br\u00e1hman, in a state of mute\nastonishment.\n\n4. They then conversed as familiarly with each other, as persons having\nthe same thoughts and desires, agree with one another in their views\nand acts; and as the dreamers of the same dream hold their mutual\ncorrespondence, like _Usha and Aniruddha_ (the Cupid and Psyche of\nIndia).\n\n5. Their conversation in their immaterial forms, was of the same\nintellectual (psychical) kind, as we are conscious of in our dreams and\nimaginations.\n\n6. Sarasvat\u00ed said:\u2014Now you have fully known the knowable, and become\nacquainted with whatever is visible and invisible: such is the essence\nof Brahma; say now what more you want to know.\n\n7. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Tell me the reason why I was seen by my son, and not\nwhere the spirit of my departed lord is reigning over his realm.\n\n8. Sarasvat\u00ed replied:\u2014Because you were not then perfect by your\npractice of Yoga to have your wish fulfilled, nor had you then lost\nyour sense of duality, which is a preventive of perfection.\n\n9. He who has not known the unity, is not entitled to the acts and\nbenefits of his faith in the true God; as no one sitting in the sun,\ncan enjoy the coolness of shade.\n\n10. You were not practiced to forget your identity as L\u00edl\u00e1, nor learnt\nthat it is not your will, but the will of God that is always fulfilled.\n\n11. You have afterwards become of pure desire, and wished that your son\nmight see you, whereby he was enabled to have your sight.\n\n12. Now if you should return to your husband, and do the like, you will\nundoubtedly be successful in your desire.\n\n13. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014I see within the sphere of this dome (of my mind), the\nBr\u00e1hman to have been my husband before; and I see also in it, that he\ndied and became a ruler of the earth afterwards.\n\n14. I see in it that spot of the earth, that city and that palace of\nhis where I sat as his queen.\n\n15. I see within myself my lord to be reigning in that place, and I see\neven there how he died afterwards.\n\n16. I see herein the glory of the sovereign of so many countries on\nearth, and I see also the perfect frankness of his conduct through life.\n\n17. I see the worlds in the inner sky of my mind, as they are placed in\na casket, or as the oil is contained in a mustard seed.\n\n18. I see the bright orb of my husband ever roving before me, and now I\npray you to contrive any how to place me by his side.\n\n19. The Goddess replied:\u2014Tell me L\u00edl\u00e1, to what husband you shall go,\nas there are hundreds of them that you had, and shall have in your past\nand future lives, and now there are three of them confined in this\nearth.\n\n20. The nearest of the three, is the Br\u00e1hman who is here reduced to\nashes; the next is the prince lying in state and covered with flowers\nin the inner apartment.\n\n21. The third is now a reigning prince in this earth, and has been\nbuffeting in the waves of error in the vast ocean of the world.\n\n22. His intellect is darkened and disordered by the splashing waves\nof worldliness, his intelligence is perverted to stupidity, and he is\nconverted to a tortoise in the ocean of the world.\n\n23. The management of his very many disordered state affairs, has\nstultified him to a lubbard, and he is now fast asleep amidst the\nturmoils of business.\n\n24. He is fast bound to subjection by the strong chain of his thoughts,\nthat he is a lord, is mighty, accomplished, and that he is happy and is\nto enjoy his estates for ever.\n\n25. Now say, O excellent lady! to what husband you wish to be led,\nin the manner of the fragrance of one forest borne by the breeze to\nanother.\n\n26. Here you are in one place, and there they in others amidst this\nvast world; and the state of their lives and manners differs widely\nfrom one another.\n\n27. These orbs of light in the heaven, though they appear to be placed\nso near us (both to our eyesight and in the mind), are yet situated\nmillions of leagues apart from one another; and the departed souls are\ncarried in them (in their endless transmigrations).\n\n28. And again all these bodies are as vacuous as air, though they\ncontain the great mounts Meru and Mandara in themselves.\n\n29. All bodies are formed by the combination of atoms, incessantly\nproceeding from the Great Intellect, like particles of sun-beams over\nthe universe.\n\n30. The great and stupendous fabric of the world, is no more (in the\neye of intelligence), than a quantity of paddy weighed in the balance.\n\n31. As the spangled heavens appear like a forest full of brilliant\ngems in it, so the world appears as full of the glory of God to the\ncontemplative mind, and not as composed of earth or other material\nbodies in it.\n\n32. It is intelligence alone, that shines in the form of world in the\nintelligent soul, and not any material body, which was never brought\ninto being before.\n\n33. As billows in the lake, rise and set and rise again, so the rising\nand falling days and nights present these various scenes to our\nknowledge.\n\n34. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014So it is, O mother of mankind! and so I come to\nremember now, that my present birth (state) is of a royal (_r\u00e1jasika_)\nkind, and neither of too pure nor gross a nature. (_Sattvika or\nT\u00e1masika_).\n\n35. I having descended from Brahm\u00e1, had undergone a hundred and eight\nbirths (in different shapes); and after passing various states, I find\nmyself still in existence.\n\n36. I recollect, O goddess! to have been born in another world before,\nand to have been the bride of a Vidy\u00e1dhara, when I used to rove about\nas freely as a bee over flowers.\n\n37. Being debased by my libertinism, I was born in this mortal world,\nand became the mate of the king of the feathered tribe (an eagle).\n\n38. And then having been a resident in the woods, I was turned to a\nwoodman\u2019s mate, wearing a vest of leaves on my loins.\n\n39. Growing fond of my life, I sported wantonly about the forest, and\nwas changed to the _guluncha_ plant, delighting the woods with my leafy\npalms and flowering eyes.\n\n40. This arboret of the holy hermitage, was held sacred by the society\nof saintly sages; and then I was regenerated in the form of an\nanchorite\u2019s child, after the woods were burnt down by a wild-fire.\n\n41. Here I was initiated in the formularies for removing the curse of\nwomanhood, and became as a male being in the person of the handsome\nprince of Sur\u00e1shtra (Surat), where I reigned for a hundred years (or\nfor a whole century).\n\n42. I was then denounced to become a weasel, and covered with leprosy,\nin the lowlands of T\u00e1li, on account of my misconduct in the government.\n\n43. I remember, O goddess! how I became a bullock at Surat, and was\ngoaded by thoughtless cowherd boys, in their merry sport for full eight\nyears.\n\n44. I bear in mind when I was transformed to a bird, and with what\ndifficulty I broke the net, that was laid by birdcatchers for my\ndestruction. It was in the same manner as we release ourselves from the\nsnares of sinful desires.\n\n45. I remember with pleasure when as a bee, I lighted lightly on the\nleaflets of blossoms, sipped the honey of the blooming buds, dined on\nthe pistils, and slept in the cups of lotus flowers.\n\n46. I wandered about in pleasant wood-lands and lawns, with my exalted\nand branching horns and beautiful eyes, in the form of an antelope,\ntill I was killed by the dart of a huntsman in my mortal part.\n\n47. I have been in the form of a fish, and was lifted up by the waves\nof the sea above the surface of the water. I saw how a tortoise was\nkilled by the blow of a club on the neck, when it failed to break its\nback-bone.\n\n48. I was a Chand\u00e1la huntsman once, roving by the side of Charmanvat\u00ed\n(the river Chenab), when I used to quench my thirst with cocoa water,\nas I was tired with roaming.\n\n49. I became a stork also, delighting in lakes with my mate, and\nfilling the air with our sweet cries.\n\n50. In another birth, I rambled about in groves of palm and tam\u00e1la\ntrees, and fixed my eyes with amorous looks and glances upon my lover.\n\n51. I had next been a fairy Apsar\u00e1, with a form as bright as melted\ngold, and features as beautiful as those of the lotus and lily, in\nwhich the celestials like bees and butterflies, used to take delight.\n\n52. I remember to have decked myself in gold and pearls, and in gems\nand rubies upon earth, and to have sported with my youthful consorts in\npleasure gardens and groves, and on hills and mountains.\n\n53. And I remember also to have lived long as a tortoise on the borders\nof a river, and to have been carried away by the waves, sometimes under\nan arbour of creepers, over-hung with clusters of beautiful flowers;\nand at others to some wild cave washed by the waves.\n\n54. I see how I acted the part of a goose with my covering of feathers,\nswimming on the high heaving waves on the surface of a lake.\n\n55. Then seeing a poor gnat hanging on the moving leaf of a S\u00e1lmali\nbranch, I became its associate and as contemptible a thing like itself.\n\n56. I became an aquatic crane also, skimming playfully over the waters\ngushing from the hills, and slightly kissing the crests of the waves\nrising over the rapid torrent.\n\n57. I remember also how I slighted the loves of amorous youths, and\nspurned off from me the Vidy\u00e1dhara boys on the Gandha M\u00e1dana and\nMandara hills.\n\n58. I remember likewise the pangs of a lovelorn lass, when I lay pining\nin my bed, strewn over with the fragrance of camphor, and how I was\ndecaying like the disk of the waning moon.\n\n59. Thus I passed through many births, in the wombs of higher and\nlower animals, and found them all to be full of pain. And my soul\nhas run over the billows of the irresistible current of life, like\nthe fleet antelope, pacing its speed with the swiftness of the wind\n(_V\u00e1tapram\u00ed_).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n EXPOSITION OF L\u00cdL\u00c1\u2019S VISION.\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me sir, in what manner the goddesses broke out of the\nstrongholds of their bodies, and the prison-house of this world (where\ntheir souls were pent up), and passed through infinite space, to survey\nthe scenes beyond its confines. (_i.e._ How does the mind and the\nflight of imagination, reach to regions unknown and unseen before).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Where is the world and where is its support or\nsolidity? They were all situated in the region within the minds of the\ngoddesses.\n\n3. They saw in it the hilly tract, where the Br\u00e1hmana Vasishtha had his\nabode and his desire of royalty (pictured it in their minds).\n\n4. They saw in a corner of it the deserted mansion of the Br\u00e1hman, and\nthey saw in it the surface of the earth stretching to the seas (_i.e._\nin their mental view).\n\n5. They beheld in that imaginary spot of earth the city of the prince,\nand the royal palace which he had enjoyed with Arundhati his consort\n(in his imagination).\n\n6. How she was born under the name of L\u00edl\u00e1, and worshipped the goddess\nof wisdom\u2014Sarasvat\u00ed; by whom she was miraculously conveyed to the\ndelightful region of the sky.\n\n7. It was in the mansion situated in that hilly village, that she\nbeheld the world placed within the space of a span of her mind.\n\n8. Having come out of her vision of the world, she found herself seated\nin her house, as one finds himself lying in his own bed, after his\nrambling from one dream to another.\n\n9. All that she saw was mere vision and void; there was no world nor\nearth, nor a house nor the distance thereof.\n\n10. It was the mind which showed them these images, as it presents the\nobjects of our desire to our view; or else there was neither any world\nnor earth in actuality.\n\n11. The sphere of intelligence is infinite, and without any covering;\nand being agitated by the powers of one\u2019s intellect, it presents all\nthe objects of nature to his view, as the sky when agitated by heat\nproduces the winds.\n\n12. The sphere of the intellect is uncreated (being a mode of the\nDivinity itself); it is ever calm everywhere; and is supposed as the\nworld itself by deluded minds.\n\n13. He who understands rightly, views the world to be as unsubstantial\nas air; but whoso is misled by his wrong judgment takes it to be as a\nsolid mountain.\n\n14. As a house and a city are manifested to us in our dream, so is this\nunreal world presented as a reality to our understandings.\n\n15. As is the misconception of water in the mirage, and the mistake\nof gold in a bracelet; so does all this unreality appear as a\nsubstantiality to the mistaken mind.\n\n16. Discoursing in this manner between themselves, the two charming\nladies, walked out of the house with their graceful steps.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINOUS HABITATION.\n\n17. Being unseen by the village people, they viewed the mountain which\nstood before them, kissing the vault of heaven, and touching the orb of\nthe sun with its lofty peaks.\n\n18. It was decorated with flowers of various colours, and covered with\na variety of woods of various hues. There were waterfalls gushing with\ntheir tremendous roarings on one side, and groves resounding with the\nwarbling of birds in another.\n\n19. The clouds were variegated by the many coloured clusters of flowers\nsweeping over them, and cranes and storks sat screeching on the\ncloud-capt top of _gulancha_ trees.\n\n20. There were the robust reeds, hedging the banks of rivers with their\nwide stretching stems and roots, and the strong winds tossing about the\ntender creepers, growing out of the rocky caves, for want of support.\n\n21. The tops of trees covered with flowers, were over-topped by the\nsheds of clouds hanging from the vault of heaven; which shed profusely\ntheir pearly drops of rain water upon them, and formed the current\nstreams below.\n\n22. The banks of the streamlets were continually laved by the waves,\nraised by the winds playing upon the shaking arbours on them; and a\ncontinued cooling shade was spread by the branching trees all around.\n\n23. Standing on that spot, the ladies beheld the hilly hamlet in the\nlawn, likening a fragment of heaven fallen upon the ground.\n\n24. There the purling rills were softly gliding by, and here the\nbrimming brooks wabbled in the ground. The birds of the air were\nchirping on the sprays and aquatic fowls were flying about the holes of\nthe sea shore.\n\n25. There they saw the herds of kine slowly moving and grazing in\nthe plains, and filling the echoing woods with their loud lowing;\nand beheld the space, interspersed with shady groves and arbours and\nverdant meadows all about.\n\n26. The cliffs were whitened with snow, impenetrable by sun-beams; and\nthe tops of hills were covered with bushy brambles, forming as braids\nof hair upon their craggy heads.\n\n27. Cascades falling in torrents in the cavities of rocks, and\nscattering their pearly particles afar, memorialized the churning of\nthe milky ocean by the Mandara mountain.\n\n28. The trees in the glens, loaded as they were with their fruits\nand flowers, appeared as waiters upon the goddesses, and standing to\nwelcome their approach with their rich presents.\n\n29. Shaken by gusts of roaring winds, the forest trees, were shedding\nshowers of their mellifluent flowers, as offerings to the sylvan gods\nand people.\n\n30. The birds that approached fearlessly to drink the water dropping\nfrom the hill, now fled for fear of their seeming as sleets, shells and\nshots of archers.\n\n31. The birds parched by thirst, and wishing to drink the water dashed\nby the waves of the rivulet, were hovering upon it as stars in the sky.\n\n32. There were rows of crows sitting on the tops of the tall _t\u00e1la_ (or\npalm) trees, from whose sight the boys were hiding the remains of their\nsweetmeat.\n\n33. There they beheld the rustic lads with garlands of flowers on their\nheads and garments; and roaming in the cooling shades of the date, jam\nand nimba trees.\n\n34. They saw the lean and hungry beggar woman passing slowly by the\nway, and clad in her flaxen robe, with chaplets of blossoms for her ear\ndress.\n\n35. They saw the lazy rustics sitting retired in their lonely retreats,\nand conversing afar from the noisy brooks where they could hardly hear\none another.\n\n36. They saw the naked mendicant boys, besmeared in their face and\nhands with curd, and with cow-dung upon their bodies, and holding the\nflowery branches of plants in their hands, and crowding in the compound.\n\n37. The bushes on the verdant banks of the river, were shaken to and\nfro as in a swing by the dashing of the waves, which left their marks\non the sandy shore, as the waters receded to their bed.\n\n38. The house was full of flies cloyed with the sweets of milk and\ncurds; but the children were moaning with cries for their want of\nsufficient food.\n\n39. The herdswomen were observed to be fretting, at seeing their\nwristlets daubed by the cow-dung (which they were pasting); and the men\nwere seen to be smiling, at seeing the eagerness of women, for tying\nthe loosened knots of their hair.\n\n40. The crows were alighting from the tops of hills, to pick up the\nofferings of the holy sages; and the paths about their houses, were\nstrewn over with the sacred _kuru_ and _kurunta_ leaves.\n\n41. The floral plants growing in the caverns of the hills, and about\nthe precincts of the house, covered the ground every morning, with\nheaps of flowers to the depth of the heels.\n\n42. There were the _chouri_ kine and antelopes, grazing in one part of\nthe forest; and also the tender fawn sleeping on the bed of grass under\nthe _gunja_ groves.\n\n43. There were the young calves lying on one side, and shaking their\nears to drive the flies away; which were fluttering on their faces, and\nupon the milk exuding from the sides of their mouths.\n\n44. The rooms were stored with honey, which had been collected by\ndriving the bees from the hives; the gardens were full of flowering\n_asokas_ (_asoka Jonesia_); and their rooms were painted with lacdye.\n\n45. The winds moistened by the showers of rain, had given the arboretum\nto bloom, and the blooming buds of Kadamba, overhung like a canopy, the\nbeds of green grass below.\n\n46. The _Ketaka_ (_keya_) arbour was blooming white by removal of its\nweeds, and the water-course was gliding along with its soft murmuring\ntune.\n\n47. The winds whistled in the windows of the caves, and the clouds\nrested on the roofs of the mountain tops; the ponds were brimful of\nwater, and filled with lotuses like so many lightsome moons.\n\n48. The green arbour cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the\nground, where the dew-drops trembling on the blades of grass, glistened\nlike twinkling stars in the azure sky.\n\n49. The trees incessantly dropped down their ripened fruits, and dried\nflowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on the\nwhitened ground.\n\n50. There some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household\ncompound, like the _chirinti_ (or kul\u00edna) girls, that never forsake\nthe abode of their parents; while there were others hovering over the\nroof of the house, and flashing in lightenings that supplied the place\nof lights.\n\n51. The altar here, re-echoed to the loud roaring of the winds,\nconfined in the caverns of the mountains; and the temple there, was\ngraced by the twittering swallows and parrots, that alighted upon it in\ntheir numerous flights.\n\n52. Soft breezes were moving slowly, loaded with the fragrance exhaled\nby the sleepy flowers (in the evening), and gently shaking the leaves\nof trees as they passed along the lawn.\n\n53. There the ladies were attentive to the prattling and playful\nparrots and partridges, and here they listened to the melodious notes\nof the _Kokila_, responsive to the jarring crows on the branches.\n\n54. The palma and tam\u00e1la trees were loaded with fruits, and the forest\ntrees were entwined by creepers, which waved their leafy palms around\nthem.\n\n55. There were the tender ivy creepers, clasping the branches on one\nside, and the fragrance of the efflorescent _Kandala_ and _silindhra_\nplants, exhaled on the other. The tapering _t\u00e1la_ and _tam\u00e1la_ trees\nrising as high as spires, and a cooling breeze was blowing amidst the\nflower plants in the gardens.\n\n56. There were the kine hastening to drink the water in the troughs,\nand garden trees hanging with loads of green unripe fruits and\nbeautiful flowers; the running streams were hidden under rows of trees\non the banks, and the stalks of plants were studded with flowers\nwithout alternation.\n\n57. The gardens were perfumed with the nectarious fragrance of _kunda_\nflowers, and the lakes were redolent with the odour of lotuses, hiding\nthe humble bees giddy with liquor, in their honied cells. The air was\nreddened with the roseate pollen, flying from the crimson lotuses\n(_sthala padmas_) of the land, and mocked the redness of Indra\u2019s palace\nin the sky.\n\n58. The gargling noise of the rivulets running down precipitately from\nthe hills, and the whiteness of the hoary cloud, hanging with the hue\nof _kundu_ flowers over them; the beauty of the flowery parterres in\nthe compound of the house, and the melodious warbling of musical birds\nsinging joyous in the air, enchanted the scene.\n\n59. The youths were sporting on their beds of flowers, and the playful\ndamsels were decked with flowery wreaths hanging down to their feet.\nThe ground was adorned every where with sprouting and prickly shrubs\nand blades of grass; and there was a beauty displayed in the clasping\nof creepers about the clumps of reeds.\n\n60. The new shooting buds and blossoms covered the trees around, and\nfragments of clouds shrouded the houses below; the ground was decorated\nby wreaths of icicles, and the flash of lightnings in the clouds over\nthe houses, terrified the women within.\n\n61. There was the fragrance of blue lotuses exhaling its sweets\nabout, and the hoarse lowings of the kine, hastening to their green\ngrazing ground. The confident deer and does were lying tamely in the\nhouse-yard, and the peacocks dancing merrily before the water-falls, as\nif they were the showers of rain water.\n\n62. The odoriferous breezes were blowing giddily, with the flavour of\nthe fragrance they bore about; and the medicinal plants were lending\ntheir lights like lamps at night. The nests of birds were resonant with\nceaseless warblings, and the noise of the cataracts deafened the ears\nof men on the bank.\n\n63. The pearly dew drops, that were continually dropped on the ground,\nfrom the leaves of trees and blades of grass; and the gleaming beauty\nof the ever blooming blossoms above, form with others, the everlasting\ncharms of mountainous habitations, and baffle the description of poets.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n ACCOUNT OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE OF L\u00cdL\u00c1\n\n _A Description of the Domestic Duties of a Hindu Lady._\n\n\nThe two goddesses then alighted in that cooling village seat, as the\ntwo states of felicity and liberation, meet in the tranquil spirit of\nthe man knowing the Divine spirit.\n\n2. L\u00edl\u00e1, who had by this time, become personified to the form of pure\nintelligence, by her knowledge of yoga, now became a seer of the three\ntimes presenting themselves before her.\n\n3. She remembered the whole course of her past life, and derived\npleasure in relating the events of her former life and death.\n\n4. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014I recollect by thy favour, O goddess! and by sight of\nthis place, all what I did and thought of in my past life.\n\n5. Here I had grown up to old age, and here I had withered and become\nlean and thin as a skeleton. I was a Br\u00e1hman\u00ed here, and had my body\nscratched by the dried sacrificial grass (_kusa_), which I had to\nmeddle with.\n\n6. I was the legal wife of my lord, and producer of his race, and was\nemployed in the acts of milking the kine, and churning the curd (for\nbutter and _ghee_). I had been mother of many sons, and a kind hostess\nto my guests.\n\n7. I was devoted to the service of the gods, Br\u00e1hmans and good people,\nand rubbed my body with cow milk and _ghee_: I was employed in cleaning\nthe frying pans and the boiling kettles of the house.\n\n8. I boiled the food daily with a single bracelet of glass and one of\nconch-shell in my wrists; and served my father, mother, brother and\ndaughters and sons-in-law with their daily victuals.\n\n9. I was emaciated in my body like a domestic servant, by working all\nday and night; and \u2018haste and hasten,\u2019 were the words I used to repeat\nto myself.\n\n10. Being thus busied and employed, I was so silly and ignorant, that I\nnever thought within myself, even in a dream, about what I was and what\nwas this world, although I had been the wife of a Br\u00e1hman.\n\n11. Wholly engaged in the collection of fuel, cow-dung, and sacrificial\nwood and vegetables, I became emaciated in my body, which was wrapt in\na worn out blanket.\n\n12. I used to pick out the worms from the ears of the milch cow, and\nwas prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand.\n\n13. I used to go to the swelling lake every day, and get the fresh\ngreen grass for the fodder of my tender calves. I used to wash and\nclean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white\ntints of pasted and powdered rice (_gundi_).\n\n14. I had to correct my domestics with gentle rebukes, and tell them to\nkeep within their bounds like the billows in the rivers.\n\n15. With my infirm body and ears shaking as dried leaves of trees, and\nsupporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age.\n\n16. As she was speaking in this manner, and walking in company with\nSarasvat\u00ed about the village, in the valley of the mountain, she was\nastonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and showed them to the\ngoddess.\n\n17. This was my flowery arbour, decorated by these torn _p\u00e1tala_\nplants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering Asokas.\n\n18. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to\nthe trees; and this is my pet calf Karnik\u00e1, which has refrained from\nbrowzing the leaves (in my absence).\n\n19. This is my watering woman, now so languid and dirty in her\nappearance; and weeping these eight days in my absence, with her eyes\ndaubed in tears.\n\n20. This, O goddess, is the place, where I used to eat and sit, and\nwhere I slept and walked; and these are the places where I gave and\nreceived the things to and from my attendants.\n\n21. This is my eldest son Jyeshtha Sarm\u00e1, weeping in the house; and\nthis is my milch cow, now grazing on the grassy plain in the forest.\n\n22. I see this portico and these windows, once dear to me as my person,\nand besmeared with the dry powder of the _huli_ festival of the vernal\nseason.\n\n23. I see these pulpy plants of gourd planted with my own hands, and\ndear to me as myself, now spreading themselves over the oven place.\n\n24. I see these relatives of mine, who had been the bonds of my life\nbefore, now smoking in their eyes with tears, and carrying the fuel for\nfire, with beads of _rudr\u00e1ksha_ seeds on their bodies.\n\n25. I see that stony shore, baffling the force of the waves, which have\nbeen pelting their pebbles against it, now covered by bushes of the\nbeach.\n\n26. The verdant meadows were full of leafy plants, with pendant dew\ndrops on their tips; and the plains were whitened by the hailstones\nfalling on them in showers.\n\n27. The mid-day was mantled by sun beams, as by a white mist of frost,\nand the arbours resounded with the humming of bees, fluttering about\ntheir clustering flowers.\n\n28. The blooming pal\u00e1sa glowing as reddish corals, had covered the\ntrees and the land with heaps of crimson flowers.\n\n29. The village rill was flowing with the floating fruits, which it\nbore from shore to shore; and the rustic lads jumbled together with\nloud noise, eager to lay hold on them.\n\n30. The cool shady beach of the rill, was strewn over with pebbles,\nwashed and carried away by the current, and covered by leaves falling\nfrom the trees.\n\n31. There I see the altar of my house, which is so beautifully\nornamented with the flowering creepers, and which is overhung on its\nwindows by clusters of fruits and flowers.\n\n32. Here lived my husband, whose life has fled to the sky in its aerial\nform, and became afterwards the lord of the earth, reaching to the\nsurrounding seas.\n\n33. I remember, how he had fostered the fond wish of obtaining royal\ndignity, and how ardently he looked forward on its attainment.\n\n34. I see, O goddess! his royal dignity of eight days, which had seemed\nto be of so long a duration (as eighty years) before.\n\n35. I see the soul of my Lord, residing in the empty space of this\nmansion, as in his former kingly state; although it is invisible to all\nas the current air in the sky, and as the odours borne by the winds.\n\n36. It is in this vacuous space, that his soul is contained in the form\nof a thumb; which contains in its bosom, the whole extent of the realm\nof my lord, stretching to thousands of leagues in its circumference.\n\n37. I see also O goddess! the spacious kingdom of my lord, in the space\nof my intellect, which makes room for thousands of mountains by the\nmiraculous power of God, styled as illusion. (_m\u00e1y\u00e1_).\n\n38. I wish now, O Goddess! to see the earthly city of my lord again;\nlet us therefore turn our course that way, as no place is distant to\nthe resolute.\n\n39. Vasishtha said:\u2014Having said so, she bowed down to the goddess and\nentered into the shrine, and then like a bird, she flew into the air\nwith the goddess.\n\n40. It was a region devoid of darkness, and as fair as a sea of\nmoonlight. And then it was as azure as the person of N\u00e1r\u00e1yana, and as\nbright as the back of a locust.\n\n41. They passed above the regions of the clouds and winds, as also\nbeyond the spheres of the orbits of the sun and moon.\n\n42. They passed beyond the path of the north polar star, and the limits\nof the circuits of the s\u00e1dhyas and siddhas and other celestial beings.\n\n43. Thence they ascended to the higher heavens of Brahm\u00e1 and the\nTushita divinities, and then upward to the sphere of Golaka (the\nzodiac); and thence again to the Sivaloka, and the sphere of the Pitris\nor the departed souls of the dead.\n\n44. Passing thus beyond the spheres of the embodied living beings,\nand bodiless souls of the dead, they proceeded far and farther to the\nunknown regions of empty space.\n\n45. Having passed the etherial sphere, they beheld nothing there,\nexcept the sun, moon and the stars shining below them.\n\n46. There was only a deep darkness to be seen, filling the whole\nvacuity of space, and appearing as the basin of the waters of universal\ndeluge, and as compact as the impenetrable cavity of a rock.\n\n47. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Tell me, O goddess! what became of the light of the\nsun and other luminaries, and whence came this dense darkness as to be\ncompressed under the fist (mushti-gr\u00e1hya).\n\n48. The goddess replied: you have got to a spot so remote from the\nspheres of heaven, that the light of the luminaries can never reach to\nit.\n\n49. And as one in a deep dark pit, can see no light of a fire fly\nflitting over it; so the solar light is invisible to one behind the\ngreat belt of heaven.\n\n50. L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Oh! the great distance that we have come to, whence the\ngreat luminary of the sun also, appears as small as an atom below.\n\n51. Tell me mother, what sort of a place is that which lies beyond this\nregion, and how can we come to it after traversing this gloomy expanse.\n\n52. Sarasvat\u00ed said:\u2014Behind this is the great pole of the universe,\nwhich is scattered over with innumerable nebular stars in the form of\nthe particles of dust.\n\n53. Vasishtha said:\u2014As they were talking in this manner, they glided\nimperceptibly to that pole, as the bee saunters over the solitary hut\non the height of a mountain.\n\n54. They then were at no pains to come down from that precipice, as\nthere is no pains to effect what must certainly come to pass in the\nend, though it appeared difficult at first. (Or) that which is certain\nmust come to pass, however hard it might seem at first.\n\n55. They saw the system of the universe, laid naked to their sight, as\nthe bold navigator beholds a world exposed to his view beyond the wide\nexpanse of waters.\n\n56. They saw the watery expanse to be ten times greater than the earth,\nand enveloping it in the shape of the crust of the walnut fruit.\n\n57. Then there is a latent heat which is ten times as great as the\nwater, and the circumambient air which is as much greater than the\nwater; and then the all encompassing vacuum of which there is no end.\n\n58. There is no beginning, middle or end of that infinite space; and it\nis productive of nothing, like a barren woman of her offspring.\n\n59. It is only an extended expanse, infinite, calm and without\nbeginning, middle or end, and is situated in the Supreme spirit.\n\n60. Its immensity is as immeasurable as if a stone is flung with full\nforce from its top, or if the ph\u0153nix would fly up to it with all his\nmight, or if he would traverse through it in full velocity, it is\nimpossible for him to reach from one end to the other, in a whole Kalpa\nage.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXX.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE MUNDANE EGG\u2014(BRAHM\u00c1NDA).\n\n\nThey passed in a moment beyond the regions of the earth, air, fire,\nwater, and vacuum, and the tracks of the ten planetary spheres.\n\n2. They reached the boundless space, whence the universe appeared as an\negg (ovum).\n\n3. They beheld under its vault millions of luminous particles floating\nin the air (nebul\u00e6).\n\n4. These were as innumerable bubbles, floating on the waters of the\nunlimited ocean of the sphere of the Intellect.\n\n5. Some of them were going downward, and others rising upward; some\nturning round, and others appeared to their understanding to remain\nfixed and immovable.\n\n6. These different motions appeared to them with respect to their own\nsituations, as they saw them in their different sides.\n\n7. Here there were no ups and downs and no upside or below, nor any\ngoing forward or backward. Here there are no such directions as men\ntake to be by the position of their bodies.\n\n8. There is but one indefinite space in nature, as there is but one\nconsciousness in all beings; yet everything moves in its own way, as\nwayward boys take their own course.\n\n9. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014Tell me sir, why do we call upward and downward, forward\nand backward, if there are no such things in space and nature.\n\n10. Vasishtha said:\u2014There is but one space enveloping all things, and\nthe worlds which are seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of\nvacuity, are as worms moving on the surface of water.\n\n11. All these bodies that move about in the world by their want of\nfreedom (_i.e._ by the power of attraction), are thought to be up and\ndown by our position on earth.\n\n12. So when there is a number of ants on an earthen ball, all its sides\nare reckoned below which are under their feet, and those as above which\nare over their backs.\n\n13. Such is this ball of the earth in one of these worlds, covered\nby vegetables and animals moving on it, and by devas, demons and men\nwalking upon it.\n\n14. It is covered also by cities, towns and mountains, and their\ninhabitants and productions, like the walnut by its coat.\n\n15. Like elephants appearing as pigmies in the Vindhyan mountains, do\nthese worlds appear as particles in the vast expanse of space.\n\n16. Every thing that is any where, is produced from and subsists in\nspace. It is always all in all things, which are contained as particles\nin it.\n\n17. Such is the pure vacuous space of the Divine understanding, that\nlike an ocean of light, contains these innumerable worlds, which like\nthe countless waves of the sea, are revolving for ever in it.\n\n18. Some of these are hollow within, and others as dark as the darkness\nin the end of a _kalpa_ age: and they are all moving about in the ocean\nof vacuity, like the waves of the sea.\n\n19. Some of these are whirling about with a jarring noise for ever,\nwhich is neither heard by nor known to any body. It is like the motion\nof men addicted to earthly pursuits by their nature.\n\n20. Some of these are now growing in form, as if they were newly\ncreated, and are in the course of their development, like sprouts in\nthe cells of seeds newly sown in the ground.\n\n21. Some of these are melting away as icicles under heat, like the\nmountains that were melted down by the burning sun and heavenly fire,\nat the dissolution of the world.\n\n22. Others have been continually falling downward without gaining\nthe ground, till at last they dwindle away, and melt into the divine\nIntellect.\n\n23. Others are as immovable in the air, as the animalculae in the\nwater, which are moved to and fro by the wind, without any sign of\nmotion or sensation in them.\n\n24. Again nothing is stable in nature, but every thing is as changeful\nas the acts and usages enjoined in the Vedas and s\u00e1stras, are altered\nand succeeded by others.\n\n25. There are other Brahm\u00e1s and other patriarchs, and many Vishnus and\nmany Indras one after the other. We have different kings of men, and\nsometimes no ruler of them.\n\n26. Some are as men and lords of others (Ishas), in this multiform\ncreation, and some are creeping and crooked living beings on earth;\nsome kinds are as full as the waters of the ocean, and others have\nbecome quite extinct in the world.\n\n27. Some are as hard as solid stones, and others as soft as the poor\ninsects and worms; some are of godly figures as the giants, and others\nof puny human forms.\n\n28. Some are quite blind and suited to darkness (as owls and moles and\nbats); others are suited to light (as men, birds and beasts), and some\nto both (as cats and rats).\n\n29. Some are born as gnats sucking the juice of the fruits of the fig\ntree; while others are empty within, and fly about and feed upon the\nair.\n\n30. The world is thus filled with creatures beyond the conception of\nYogis, and we can not form even a guess-work of the beings that fill\nthe infinite vacuum.\n\n31. This world is the sphere of these living beings; but the great\nvacuum spreading beyond it, is so extensive, that it is immeasurable by\nthe gods Vishnu and others, were they to traverse through it, for the\nwhole of their lives.\n\n32. Every one of these etherial globes, is encircled by a belt\nresembling a golden bracelet; and has an attractive power like the\nearth to attract other objects.\n\n33. I have told you all about the grandeur of the universe to my best\nknowledge, any thing beyond this, is what I have no knowledge of, nor\npower to describe. 34. There are many other large worlds, rolling\nthrough the immense space of vacuum, as the giddy goblins of _Yakshas_\nrevel about in the dark and dismal deserts and forests, unseen by\nothers.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n\n SECTION I.\n\n ALIGHTING OF THE LADIES ON EARTH.\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014After having seen the worlds in their aerial journey,\nthe ladies alighted from there, and quickly entered the inner apartment\nof the king.\n\n2. There they saw the dead body of the king lying in state amidst heaps\nof flowers, accompanied by the spiritual body of L\u00edl\u00e1, sitting beside\nthe corpse.\n\n3. It was the dead of night, and the inmates had fallen into sound\nsleep one by one; and the room was perfumed with the incense of resin,\ncamphor and sandalwood and saffron.\n\n4. L\u00edl\u00e1, seeing the house of her latter husband, and wishing to enter\ninto it, alighted in her assumed body (sankalpadeha) on the spot of his\nsepulchre.\n\n5. She then passed through the fictitious spacious palace of her lord\n(_sankalpasans\u00e1ra_), by breaking out of the confines of her body and\ncranium called the earthly and worldly environs in Yoga terminology\n(sans\u00e1ra and Brahm\u00e1nda-\u00e1varanas).\n\n6. Then she went again with the goddess to the bright and spacious\ntemple of the world (Brahm\u00e1nda-mandapa), in which she quickly entered.\n\n7. She saw her husband\u2019s imaginary world to lie as a dirty and mossy\npool, as the lioness beholds the mountain cave covered by darkness and\nclouds.\n\n8. The goddesses then entered into that vacuous world with their airy\nbodies, as weak ants make their passage through the hard crust of the\nwood-apple or _bel_-fruit.\n\n9. There they passed through regions of cloudy hills and skies, and\nreached the surface of the earth, consisting of tracts of land and\nbasins of water.\n\n10. They then came to the Jambudw\u00edpa (Asia), situated amidst the\nninefold petals of the other dw\u00edpas (or continents), and thence\nproceeded to the territories of L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s husband in the _varsha_ land of\nBharata (India).\n\n11. At this interval of time they beheld a certain prince\u2014(the ruler\nof Sinde), strengthened by other chiefs, making an attack on this part\nwhich was the beauty of the world.\n\n12. They beheld the air crowded by people of the three worlds, who had\nassembled there to see the conflict.\n\n13. They remained undaunted, and saw the air crowded by aerial beings\nin groups like clouds.\n\n14. There were the Siddhas, Ch\u00e1ranas, Gandharvas, Vidy\u00e1dharas, S\u00faras,\ncelestials and Apsar\u00e1s in large bodies.\n\n15. There were also the goblins of Bh\u00fatas and Pis\u00e1chas, and R\u00e1kshasa\ncannibals; while the Vidy\u00e1dhara females were flinging handfuls of\nflowers like showers of rain on the combatants.\n\n16. The Vet\u00e1las, Yakshas and Kushm\u00e1nds, that were looking at the affray\nwith pleasure, took themselves to the shelter of hills, to avoid the\nflying darts and weapons.\n\n17. The imps were flying from the air, to keep themselves from the way\nof the flying weapons; and the spectators were excited by sound of the\nwar-whoop of the combatants.\n\n18. L\u00edl\u00e1 who was standing by with a flapper (or fan) in her hand, was\nfrightened at the imminent dreadful conflict, and smiled to scorn their\nmutual vauntings.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n SIGHT OF A BATTLE ARRAY IN EARTH AND AIR.\n\n19. Virtuous people who were unable to endure the horrid sight, betook\nthemselves to prayers, with the chief priests for averting the calamity.\n\n20. The messengers of Indra, were ready with their decorated elephants\n(called _loka-p\u00e1las_), for bearing the souls of mighty heroes to grace\nthe seats of heaven.\n\n21. The ch\u00e1ranas and Gandharvas, were singing praises of the advancing\nheroes; and heavenly nymphs that liked heroism, were glancing at the\nbest combatants.\n\n22. Voluptuous women were wishing to embrace the arms of the brave;\nand the fair fame of the heroes, had turned the hot sunshine to cool\nmoonlight.\n\n23. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014Tell me, sir, what sort of a warrior is called a hero,\nthat becomes a jewel in heaven, and who is an insurgent.\n\n24. Vasishtha answered:\u2014He who engages in a lawful warfare, and fights\nfor his king, and whether he dies or becomes victorious in the field,\nis called a hero, and goes to heaven.\n\n25. Whoever kills men otherwise in war and dies afterwards, in an\nunjust cause, is called an insurgent, and goes to hell at last.\n\n26. Whoever fights for unlawful property, and dies in battle, becomes\nsubject to everlasting hell fire.\n\n27. Whoso wages a just warfare, that is justified by law and usage,\nthat warrior is called both loyal as well as heroic in deed.\n\n28. Whoever dies in war, for the preservation of kine, Br\u00e1hmans and\nfriends with a willing mind, and whoso protects his guest and refugee\nwith all diligence, he verily becomes an ornament in heaven after his\ndeath.\n\n29. The king who is steadfast in protecting his subjects and his own\ncountry, is called the just, and those that die in his cause are called\nthe brave.\n\n30. They that die fighting on the side of riotous subjects, or in the\ncause of rebellious princes or chiefs, are doomed to fire.\n\n31. They that die fighting unjustly against their kings, lawgivers and\nrulers, are subjected to the torments of hell.\n\n32. A war which is just, serves to establish order; but the giddy that\nare fearless of the future, destroy all order (by their unjust warfare).\n\n33. The hero dying, goes to heaven, is the common saying; and the\ns\u00e1stras call the lawful warrior only a hero, and not otherwise.\n\n34. They who suffer wounds on their bodies, for the protection of the\nrighteous and good, are said to be heroes, or else they are insurgents\n(_dimbhavas_).\n\n35. It was in expectation of seeing such heroes that the damsels of the\ngods, were standing in the air, and talking to themselves of becoming\nthe spouses of such warriors.\n\n36. The air was as decorated as by an illumination on high, and by rows\nof the beautiful heavenly cars of gods and Siddhas, and presence of\ncelestial maidens, who sang in sweet notes, and decorated their locks\nwith _mand\u00e1ra_ flowers.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n ONSET OF THE WAR.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014L\u00edl\u00e1 standing with the goddess of wisdom in air, saw\nthe Apsar\u00e1s dancing there, at the eagerness of the combatants for war\nbelow.\n\n2. She beheld the assemblage of the forces in her own territory once\ngoverned by her lord; and saw the field of the air not less formidable\nby the assembled ghosts (and its encircling belt composed of the lion,\nscorpion, crab and the archer).\n\n3. The meeting of the two forces made the ground appear as a billowy\nsea; like the meeting of two clouds in the sky, giving it the\nappearance of two hostile forces.\n\n4. The battle array of armoured warriors, flashing as the fire of\nheaven, was succeeded by their commingled blows, resembling the\nrattling of thunders above, deafening the ears and dazzling the sight.\n\n5. Then darts and javelins, spears and lances, and many other missiles\n(_pr\u00e1sas_) began to fall on both sides, like showers of raindrops,\nhailstones and meteorolites from the skies.\n\n6. Showers of shafts fell with a force, that would pierce the pinions\nof _garuda_, and struck out the glare of sunbeams, by hitting at the\narmours of the warriors.\n\n7. The combatants standing face to face with their lifted arms, and\nstaring at each other with steadfast looks, seemed as they were\npictures in a painting.\n\n8. The armies drawn in long regiments, standing in lines opposite to\neach other, were heard to answer one another by their repeated shouts.\n\n9. The battalia of both armies, and the drums on both sides, were put\nto a stop by the warnings of their leaders, against striking the first\nblow.\n\n10. The intermediate space of the breadth of two bows, that separated\nthe hostile forces like a bridge from one another, appeared as the gap,\ncaused by the winds in the midst of the ocean at the universal deluge.\n(Or more like the partition of the waters of the Red sea by the rod of\nMoses).\n\n11. The leaders were drowned in thoughts for fear of bloodshed and\nmassacre; and the cowardly soldiers groaned in their hearts, with the\nhoarse noise of croaking frogs.\n\n12. There were numbers of bravoes, eager to yield up their precious\nlives in a trice; and the bowyers stood with their bowstrings drawn to\nthe ear, and ready to let loose their pointed arrows at the foe.\n\n13. Others stood dreadfully fixed to strike their arms upon the enemy,\nand many were looking sternly at their adversaries, with their frowning\nlooks.\n\n14. The armours were clashing by mutual concussion, the countenances\nof the bravoes were burning with rage, and the faces of cowards were\nturned towards sheltered retreats for flight.\n\n15. The lookers stood in doubt of their lives until the end of the war,\nand old men like big elephants, were covered with horripilation on\ntheir bodies.\n\n16. The silence which ensued at the expectation of the first blow,\nresembled the calm of the stormy main, and the deep sleep of a city at\nthe dead of night.\n\n17. The musical instruments, the drum and conch-shell were all silent,\nand a thick cloud of dust, covered the face of the earth and sky.\n\n18. The retreaters were flying from their stronger assailants, who kept\nrunning after them, in the manner of sharks pursuing the shoals of\nfishes in the sea.\n\n19. The glittering fringes of the flags, put the etherial stars to\nblush, and the lifted goads in the hands of the elephant-drivers, made\na forest of tapering trees in the sky.\n\n20. The flinging arrows were flying like flocks of the winged tribe\nin air, and the loud beating of drums and blowing of pipes, resounded\namidst the air.\n\n21. There was a phalanx in a circular form, attacking a host of wicked\ndemons, and here was a squadron in the form of Garuda, with its right\nand left wings, attacking a body of elephants.\n\n22. Somewhere a great howling was heard to rise from the vanguard of a\nbody of troops, disconcerted by a cohort in the form of eagles: and at\nanother many were seen to fall upon one another with mutual shouts.\n\n23. Thus a tremendous noise was raised by the warriors of the many\nlegions, and a multitude of big mallets were seen to be raised on high\nby the hands of the combatants.\n\n24. The glaring of sable steel, shaded the sunbeams like a cloud, and\nhissing darts in the air, emitted a sound, resembling the rustling of\nbreeze amidst the dry leaves of trees.\n\n25. Now the brunt of battle, began like the dashing of clouds upon\nclouds at the end of a Kalpa, and the war raged like the raging sea\nruffled by a hurricane.\n\n26. Big elephants were falling in the field like coal-black rocks,\nhurled down by gusts of wind.\n\n27. It seemed that the infernal spirits were let loose from their caves\nof hell, to rage in the battle field with their horrid and dismal\nfigures.\n\n28. The day light was obscured by the sable cloud of swords, and the\nmallets and lances were raised up by the black Kunta warriors, who\nseemed bent upon converting the earth to an ocean of bloodshed.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII.[17]\n\n COMINGLED FIGHTING.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014Sir, relate to me in short and promptly, about this\nwarfare, as my ears are delighted with narratives of this kind.\n\n2. Vasishtha said:\u2014These ladies then, in order to have a better view\nof the battle below, ascended in their imaginary aerial cars _vim\u00e1nas_,\nto a more retired spot in the higher regions of the sky.\n\n3. At this interval, there began a mingled fight of the forces face to\nface, with a commingled shout of the two armies, as the dashing of the\nwaves against one another in the raging sea.\n\n4. At this instant, Vid\u00faratha the lord of the realm, (formerly\nPadma\u2014the husband of L\u00edl\u00e1), seeing a daring warrior of the hostile\nforce attack one of his soldiers, struck him impatiently on the breast,\nwith the blow of a ponderous mallet.\n\n5. Then the battle raged with the impetuosity of the rolling waves of\nthe stormy main, and the arms on both sides, flamed with living fire\nand flash of fiery lightnings.\n\n6. Now the edges of waving swords (larattarat), glittered in the sky,\nand cracking and clashing noise (Kanakana), filled the air with a\nhideous crackling (kadkada).\n\n7. Then flew the winged arrows, overshadowing the beams of the sun, and\nemitting a booming noise (hunk\u00e1ra), which hushed the rattling clamour\n(gharghara) of summer clouds.\n\n8. Armours clashed against armours (Kankata), with a clanking noise\n(tank\u00e1ra), and shot forth the sparks of glistening fire (Kanatkana);\nand arms, hashing (ch\u2019hina-bhinna) and slashing (Khanda-khanda)\nagainst arms, filled the air with their fragments flying like birds in\nthe air.\n\n9. The shaking (dodulya) shanks and arms of the army, appeared as a\nmoving forest (dordruma) on the land, and the twangings of their bows\n(tank\u00e1ra), and rumbling of the disks (krenk\u00e1ra), drove away the birds\nof the air, and crackled like the rattling drive of wheels (dravat) in\nheaven.\n\n10. The hissing of their loosened strings (halhala), resembled the\n(ghunghuna) buzzing of bees, heard in the _sam\u00e1dhi_ yoga (by shutting\nthe ears).\n\n11. Iron shafts like sleets of hailstones, pierced the heads of the\nsoldiers, and the (ranat) crashing of armours (sanghatta), broke the\narms of the warriors in mail (Kankata sankata).\n\n12. Weapons struck on brazen armours with a howling noise (hunk\u00e1ra),\nmade a clanking sound by the stroke (t\u00e1nk\u00e1ra), and flying like drifts\nof rain water (tartara), pierced the face of the air on all sides:\n(literally, denticulated\u2014dantura dingmukha).\n\n13. The striking of steel on one another (sanghatta), made the hands\nring with a jingling sound (jhanjhanat); and the continued rapping\non the arms (\u00e1sphota), and clapping of hands, (karasphota), raised a\npattering and chattering sound (chat chat and pat pat).\n\n14. The whizzing noise of unsheathing the sword (shitk\u00e1ra), and the\nhissing of the sparks of fire (sansana); the flinging of arrows in all\nways (sadatk\u00e1ra), and the flying of darts, likened the rustling of\nfalling leaves (Kharkhara) in autumn.\n\n15. The spouting of life blood (dhakdhak), from the throats separated\nfrom the bodies, the mangled limbs and heads, and the broken swords\nfilled the whole space.\n\n16. The flame of fire flaring (sphurat) from the armours; emblazoned\nthe hairs of the warriors, and the fighting and falling (ranatpatat)\nof swordsmen, raised a giddy and loud jingling of their weapons\n(jhanjhana).\n\n17. The lofty elephants pierced by the spears of the Kunta lancers,\npoured out torrents of red-hot blood; while the tusky tribe was goring\nwhole bodies of them with their shrill cries (chitk\u00e1ra).\n\n18. Others crushed by the ponderous maces of their antagonists, creaked\ngrievously under the blows; while the heads of the slain soldiers, swam\nin the rivers of blood over the plain.\n\n19. Here the hungry vultures were pouncing from above, and there the\nsky was covered by a cloud of dust; and the weaponless combatants,\nwere engaged in _Kes\u00e1kes\u00ed_ fighting, by holding each other down by the\nhairs.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIV.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE.\n\n\nNow the generals and ministers of the belligerent powers, and the\naerial spectators of the war, were thus talking among themselves.\n\n2. Lo! here the ground has become a lake of blood, with the heads of\nthe slaughtered hosts floating as lotuses upon it; and there the air\nhas become as the starry heaven, glittering with broken weapons, flying\nlike birds in the sky.\n\n3. Behold the air is reddened with the particles of vermeil blood,\nborne above by the winds, and the sky presenting the evening clouds,\nwith the glow of the setting sun at midday.\n\n4. What are these, says one, that are flying as straws in the\nfirmament? They are, says the other, no straws, but the flight of\narrows, that have filled the atmosphere.\n\n5. As long as the dust of the earth, cries another, is moistened by the\nbloodshed of the brave, so long are the heroes entitled to glory, and\nhave their abode in heaven for myriads of years.[18]\n\n6. Fear not these sable swords, says the s\u00e1stra, whose blades are worn\nby the brave like petals of blue lotuses about their necks and breasts;\nand bravoes are favourites in the eyes of the goddess of fortune.\n(Fortune favours the brave).\n\n7. The heavenly nymphs that beheld the fighting, felt a desire to\nembrace the brave, and the god of the flowery bow (K\u00e1ma or Cupid), was\nbusy to loosen their waist bands. (Cupid by inversion is D\u00edpuc, another\nname of the Indian K\u00e1ma. And Fairies or Paries and Huries are said to\nfall to the lot of the fighters in Jehad-battle. So says Dryden: \u201cNone\nbut the brave deserve the fair\u201d).\n\n8. They beckoned their welcome by the waving of their reddish palms, in\nthe shaking of the ruddy leaves of trees, and by the round glances of\ntheir eyes, in the blooming blossoms of plants, and by the perfume of\ntheir breath in the honied fragrance of flowers.\n\n9. The geniuses of the garden of Paradise, were singing sweetly in the\nnotes of the sylvan choir, and betook themselves to dancing in the\nwagging tails of peacocks.\n\n10. As the brave warrior was breaking the line of the enemy with his\nhardy axe; so was his beloved breaking his hard heart and spirit, with\nthe soft glances of her eyes.\n\n11. It is by my lance, says the lancer, that I have severed the head of\nmy adversary with the rings in his ears, like the head of the ascending\nnode of R\u00e1hu, approaching the disk of the sun.\n\n12. Lo! There is a champion, hurling the blocks of stones, attached to\nthe end of a chain reaching his feet; and another whirling his wheel\nwith a wondrous log of wood, held in his uplifted arm.\n\n13. There comes that combatant in the form of Yama, appearing from the\nregion of Pluto (Preta), and spreading a horrid devastation all around.\nCome let us go hence as we came.\n\n14. Look there the ravenous birds, greedily plunging their long necks\nin the cells of bodies just separated from their heads, and glutting\nthemselves with the gushing blood; and see there the headless trunk of\nthe slain, moving to and fro in the field of battle.\n\n15. The eloquent among the spectators were talking to one another,\nabout the frailty of human life, and the uncertainty of the time of\ntheir meeting in the next world.\n\n16. Oh! the stern cannibal of death, says one, that devours in one\nswoop, whole bodies of the assembled armies, now weltering in blood;\nand levels the levelling hosts to the ground.\n\n17. The showers of arrows falling on the bodies of elephants, resemble\nthe showers of rain drops on mountain tops; and the darts sticking to\ntheir frontal bones, liken the bolts of lightening piercing the peaks\nof cliffs.\n\n18. While the headless body of the beheaded, was groveling grievously\non the ground for want of its head, the pate flying on high as a bird\nof air, proclaimed its immortality in heaven.\n\n19. The army harassed by stones slung on their heads, cried to entrap\nthe enemy in the snares set at their feet.\n\n20. Wives that had become Apsar\u00e1s (heavenly nymphs) after death, were\nnow eager to claim their husbands, who were restored to their youth, by\nvirtue of their falling in the field of battle.\n\n21. The glaring light of the line of lances that had reached the skies,\nseemed as a flight of stairs or golden vistas, for the ascent of the\nbrave to the gates of heaven.\n\n22. The wife of the slain soldier, seeing now a heavenly goddess,\ntaking possession of her husband\u2019s fair gold-like breast, was looking\nabout in search of another.\n\n23. Generals, wailing loudly with their uplifted arms, over their\nfallen armies in the field, appeared as the cliffs of rocks, resounding\nto the clamorous surges below.\n\n24. They cried out to fight the foremost in war, and to remove the\nwounded to the rear; and not to trample over the bodies of their own\nsoldiers, now lying low on the ground.\n\n25. Behold! there the Apsar\u00e1s eagerly tying their loosened locks, and\nadvancing with sobbing bosoms to receive the departed warriors, joining\ntheir company in their celestial forms.\n\n26. Ah! receive them says one, who are our guests from afar, on the\nbanks of the rivers of Paradise, decorated with lotus blossoms of\ngolden hue, and entertain them with fresh water and cooling breeze.\n\n27. Look! there the groups of weapons, broken into pieces like bones\nby their concussion, are huddled in the air with a jingling sound\n(kanatk\u00e1ra), and shining as stars in the sky.\n\n28. Lo! the stream of deceased souls, flowing in arrowy currents and\nrolling in whirlpools of the flying disks, is rapidly gliding with the\npebbles and stones, flung from the slings in the air.\n\n29. The sky is become as a lake of lotuses with the lotiform heads of\nwarriors flung aloft in the air, while the flying weapons are floating\nlike their stalks in it, with the broken swords as their thorns all\naround.\n\n30. The flying fragments of the flags, forming the folia of the plants,\nand the darts sticking to them, appear as big black bees fluttering\nabout the flowers moving with the breeze.\n\n31. The arrows sticking to the dead bodies of elephants, are as emmets\non mountain tops, and as timid girls clinging to the bosoms of men.\n\n32. The winds unfurling the curling locks of Vidy\u00e1dhara females,\nindicate their approaching spousals, as the unfolding plumage of fowls\nare predictions of success in augury.\n\n33. The lifted umbrellas are shining as so many moons on high and the\nmoon shining above in the form of fair fame, spreads her light as a\nwhite canopy on earth.\n\n34. The brave warrior, soon after his death, assumes a celestial form\nframed by his own merit, as a man in his sleep, attains to a state, he\nhas imagined to himself in his waking.\n\n35. The flying spears and lances and clubs and disks are hurtling\nin the air, like shoals of restless fishes and sharks, moving about\nincessantly in the troubled waters of the sea.\n\n36. The milk-white rags of umbrellas, tattered and shattered by arrowy\nshafts, are flying as cranes in the crowded air, and appearing as the\ndisk of the moon broken into a thousand pieces.\n\n37. These waving flappers flying in the air with a hoarse gurgling\n(gharghara), seem as the waves of the sea lifted in the air, and\nundulating with a babbling noise in the ocean of the sky.\n\n38. Those slips of the flappers and umbrellas, hashed by the slashing\narms, appear as the laurels of glory flung aloft and flying in the\nregions of air.\n\n39. Behold ye friends! how these flying arrows and showering spears,\nare approaching to us with hits of their spoil, like bodies of locusts,\nbearing away their verdant booty in the air.\n\n40. Hearken to the clanking sound of the striking steel, in the\nuplifted arm of the armoured soldier, resounding like the loud larum of\nthe regent of death.\n\n41. Hear the tremendous blows of weapons, like the blowing of an\nall destroying tornado, throwing down the elephants like craigs of\nmountains, with their long stretching tusks lying like water falls on\nthe ground.\n\n42. Lo! there the drivers of war chariots are stopped in their course,\nand striving to make their way through the puddles of blood, in which\nthe wheels and horses of the car, are huddled together as in a bog of\nquagmire.\n\n43. The jingling of arms and armours, and the jangling of swords and\nsteel, resound, as the tinkling of the lute at the dancing of the dire\nand dreaded dame of death.\n\n44. See the skirts of the sky reddened by the roseate particles, borne\nby the winds from the streams of blood, issuing out of the wounds in\nthe bodies of men, horses and elephants lying dead in the field.\n\n45. Look at the array of arrows formed in the air as a wreath of\nblossoms, and falling as the rays of lightnings from the dark black\nclouds of weapons hanging on high.\n\n46. Lo! the surface of the earth filled with blood-red weapons,\nappearing as faggots of fire strewn over the ground in an universal\nconflagration.\n\n47. The multitudes of commingled weapons, clashing with and breaking\none another into pieces, are falling down in showers, like the\ninnumerable rays of the sun.\n\n48. The fighting of one man among the motionless many, is like the\nmagic play of a magician[19] where the conjurer acts his parts amidst\nthe bewitched beholders, Lo! there the indifferent spectators viewing\nthe warfare as a dream (by their _prajna_ or inward vision of the mind).\n\n49. The field of battle, where all other sounds are hushed under the\nclashing of arms, resembles the stage of the martial god Bhairava,\nchanting his pitiless war song in jarring cacophony.\n\n50. The battlefield is turned to a sea of blood, filled with the sands\nof pounded weapons, and rolling with the waves of broken discuses.\n\n51. All the quarters under the regents of the sky, are filled with\nmartial music loudly resounding on all sides; and the rebellowing hills\nseem to challenge one another, in their aerial flight and fighting (as\nin contest of the gods and titans of old).\n\n52. Alas for shame! says one, that these arrows flung with such force\nfrom the bow strings, and flying with such loud hissing, and glittering\nas red hot lightnings in the air, are foiled in their aim of piercing\nthe impenetrable armours, and driven back by them to hit at the stony\nhills.\n\n53. Hear me friend, that art tired with the sight, that it is time for\nus to depart from this place, ere we are pierced in our bodies by these\nsharp arrows flashing as fire, and before the day runs its course of\nthe fourth watch (evening).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXV.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLEFIELD.[20]\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014Then the waves of horse troops mounting to the sky,\nmade the battlefield appear as a raging sea.\n\n2. The moving umbrellas floated as its foam and froth, and the\nfeathered silvery arrows glided like the finny pearly fishes in it,\nwhile the high flight and rush of the cavalry, heaved and dashed as\nsurges of the sea.\n\n3. The rushing of the weapons resembled the running of its currents,\nand the circles of the soldiers were as vortices of its waters. The\nelephants were as its islets and their motions resembled the moving\nrocks in it.\n\n4. The whirling disks were as its eddies, and the flying hairs on the\nheads likened its floating weeds. The sparkling sands were as its\nshining waters, and the flash of swords like its glassy spray.\n\n5. The gigantic warriors were its whales and alligators, and the\nresounding caverns like its gurgling whirlpools.\n\n6. The flying arrows were like its swimming fishes, and the floating\nflags likened its uprising waves and bores.\n\n7. The shining weapons formed the waters of this ocean and their\nwhirlpools also, while the long lines of forces appeared as the huge\nand horrible bodies of its whales.\n\n8. Soldiers clad in black iron armour, were as the dark blue waters of\nthe deep, and the headless bodies groveling in dust were as the eddies\nof the sea, with the encircled equipments as the sea weeds.\n\n9. The showers of arrows had obscured the skies with a mist, and the\nconfused rattlings of the battlefield, were as the roarings of the\nclouds.\n\n10. The flying and falling heads of the slain soldiers, resembled the\nlarge drops of rain, and their bodies were as pieces of wood, whirling\nin the eddies of the disks.\n\n11. The bold bowyer, bending his strong bow in the form of a curve,\nand leaping above the ground, resembled the spouting sea, rising from\nunderneath the ground with his heaving waves on high.\n\n12. The unnumbered umbrellas and flags, that were moving up and down in\nthe field, were as the foaming and frothing sea, rolling in waves of\nblood, and carrying away the beams and timbers of the broken cars in\nits current.\n\n13. The march of the army resembled the flowing of the sea waters,\nand the blood spouting from the wounds of the elephants likened its\nbubbles, while the moving horses and elephants represented the sea\nanimals in their motion.\n\n14. The battlefield had become like the wondrous field of the air,\nwhere the furious war, like a tremendous earthquake, shook the hills\nlike moving clouds in the sky.\n\n15. Here the waves were undulating like flights of birds in the air,\nand the groups of elephants falling aground like rocks, and the\ncowardly ranks were murmuring like herds of the timorous deer.\n\n16. The field is turned to a forest of arrows, and wounded soldiers\nare standing fixed on the ground as trees, with the arrows flying as\nlocusts, and the horses moving like antelopes in it.\n\n17. Here the loud drum sounded as the humming of bees in the hollows\nof trees, and the army appearing as a mist, with the bold warrior\nsprawling like a lion in it.\n\n18. The dust was rising in clouds and the forces falling as rocks; the\nhuge cars broken down as hills, and the flaming swords shining on all\nsides.\n\n19. The rise and fall of the foot soldier\u2019s feet flitted like the\nfalling flowers on the ground, and the flags and umbrellas o\u2019ertopped\nit as clouds; it was overflown by streams of blood, and the\nhigh-sounding elephants falling as thundering showers of rain.\n\n20. The war was as the last doom of death ready to devour the world,\nand destroy the flags and banners, the umbrellas and chariots in a\nconfused chaos.\n\n21. The shining weapons were falling like fragments of the refulgent\nsun, and burning all things as a burning pain inflames the soul and\nmind.\n\n22. The out-stretched bows were as rainbows, and the falling arrows as\nshowers of rain; the flying sabres resembled the forky lightnings, and\ntheir falling fragments like the sparkling hailstones.\n\n23. The dire massacre made a sea of blood, with the hurling stones as\nits shoals and rocks; while the flying arms resembled the falling stars\nfrom heaven.\n\n24. The sky was as a sea full of the whirlpools of the groups of disks\nand circlets, that were hurled in the air; and there were the burning\nfires, that performed the funerals of the slain.\n\n25. The missiles were as bolts of thunder, which struck the rock-like\nelephants dead in the field, to block the passage of men.\n\n26. The earth and sky were obscured by a thick cloud of showering\narrows, and the army below was a sea of tempestuous warfare and\nbloodshed.\n\n27. The destructive weapons were flying on all sides, like huge dragons\nof the sea, carried aloft by gusts of wind from the stormy main.\n\n28. The flying arms of bolts and swords, disks, pikes and lances, were\nblazing and breaking one another in the air with such hideous noise,\nthat it seemed to be a second deluge, when the last tornado blew up\neverything on high scattering them in all directions, and crushing and\nsmashing them with a tremendous peal.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVI.\n\n SECTION I.\n\n COLLISION OF EQUAL ARMS AND ARMIGERENTS.\n\n\nThe heaps of arrows rising in spires above the ground, drove the\ncowards and the wounded afar from the field.\n\n2. The hills of the dead bodies of men, horses and elephants, heaving\nin promiscuous heaps, and appearing as clouds fallen upon earth,\ninvited the Yakshas and R\u00e1kshasas, and the carnivorous Pis\u00e1chas, to\ncome and sport in the wide ocean of blood.\n\n3. Now there commenced a commutual contest, betwixt men of rank and\nvirtue, and those of good character, valour and strength on both sides;\nnot excepting even the holy and household people, all of whom took part\nin the combat (that is, no condition of life, nor age nor sex, could\nescape the contagion of a warfare).\n\n4. Duels were fought between these, like the clashing of one cloud with\nanother; and like the confluence of two streams discharging their fury\nagainst each other.\n\n5. As a rib is joined to another, and one side with the other, so met\nthe horse against the horse, and elephant opposed the elephant in\nmutual conflict.\n\n6. As one forest clasps and clings to another, and one hill is linked\nwith the other in a range, so the duelists strove together, as one wave\ndashes against the other.\n\n7. Footmen fought with footmen, as the reeds crush the reeds, and\nbamboos clash against one another, and the contrary winds struggle\nbetween themselves.\n\n8. Cars falling upon cars, and chariots running against chariots, broke\none another to pieces; and the citizens beat the rustics, as the Devas\nsmote the demons of old.\n\n9. The sky which had been erewhile clouded by the flight of arrows, was\nnow emblazoned by the banner of the bowyer, resembling the rainbow of\nvarious colours.\n\n10. At last the warriors who were overpowered in their conflict with\nunequal arms, fled away from the field, as they do from the fire of a\nconflagration.\n\n11. Now the armigerents with discuses, met the thwarters of disks\n(chakras) in contest; and bowyers were opposed to bowmen, and swordsmen\nchallenged the sword fighters in the field. So met the hookers and\ncrookers with their co-rivals with crowbars (bhusundis) in hand.\n\n12. Maces were opposed to maces (musalas), and lancers were set against\nthe lance bearers (kuntas) in fighting. Spearmen braved the spearmen\n(rishtis), and the throwers of missiles were crossed with missives\n(pr\u00e1sas) in hand.\n\n13. Mallets militated against mallets (mudguras), and clubs were\ncontravened by clubmen in the conflict. Combatants with pikes (saktis),\nencountered the pikemen (sakti-dharas) face to face; and iron rods were\ncrossed to pointed rods (s\u00falas) in the strife.\n\n14. Pugilists with missive weapons, counteracted the missiles of their\nantagonists (pr\u00e1sas), and those fighting with battle axes (parasus),\nbaffled the poleaxes and pickaxes (paraswadhas) of their foes.\n\n15. Trappers with their traps and snares, attacked the darters of\nnooses and lassos (p\u00e1sas); and the darters of javelins (sankus),\nwithstood the darts of the dartsmen on the other side. Daggers were\nopposed to daggers (kshurikas), and cudgels were presented before the\ncudgels (bhindip\u00e1las of the enemy).\n\n16. Combatants with iron gloves contravened the boxers with iron\nfistcuffs (Vajramushtis), and those with iron cranes, pursued\nthe fighters with crooked goads (ankusas) in hand. Warriors with\nploughshares attacked the ploughmen, and those with tridents, fell upon\nthe trident holders (tris\u00falins) in contest.\n\n17. Champions with chained armours set upon the soldiers attired in\nmail (srinkhala j\u00e1la); and they poured upon the field as flights of\nlocusts, or as the waves in the troubled sea.\n\n18. The air also seemed as a sea, with flying disks whirling as\nwhirlpools (chakravartas), and the flight of reeds whistling like\ngusts of wind; while the range of running weapons seemed as sharks and\ndolphins moving about it.\n\n19. The hollow of the heaven became as the great deep of the sea,\nimpassable by the celestials, owing to the waving weapons, moving as\nsea monsters in the air.\n\n20. Thus the armies of the two belligerent potentates, each composed of\neight ranks or battalions, were furiously engaged with one another, as\ndescribed below.\n\n\n SECTION II.\n\n CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES.\n\n21. Now hear me relate to you, the forces on the side of Padma, now\nnamed Vid\u00faratha, and the allied powers that came to his side, from the\nCentral and Eastern districts.\n\n22. There came the hardy warriors of Kosala (Oudh) and K\u00e1si (Benares);\nthose of Magadha (Behar) and Utkala (Orissa), situated in the east; and\nthe Mekhalas (of Vindhya range), the Karkars (of Karnatic), and the\nMadras (of Madura) in the south.\n\n23. The chiefs of Hema (Imaus) and Rudras and the T\u00e1mraliptas (Tamils)\nfrom the south; the Pr\u00e1gjyotishas (of east Assam), and the horse faced\nOsmuks and Ambashtha cannibals.\n\n24. Then there joined the Varna-koshthas and Viswotras, and the eaters\nof raw food and flesh and the fish eaters (piscivori); and those with\nfaces like tigers, the Kiratas (Kirrhoids and Kira-antis), with the\nSauviras and one legged people.\n\n25. Next came the mountaineers of M\u00e1lyav\u00e1na, Sibira and Anjanagiri; and\nothers having the ensigns of bulls and lotuses, and the people of the\nsun rising mountain (Udaya-giri) in the east.\n\n26. Those that joined from the south east (pr\u00e1gdaxina), are the\nfollowing, namely; the Vindhyaris, the Chedis, the Vatsas, the Das\u00e1rnas\n(near the confluence of the ten streams); and the Angas, Bangas and\nUpabangas (of Upper and Lower Bengal).\n\n27. They that met from the south were, Kalingas and Pundras, the\nJatharas, Vidarbhas and the hill people (on the Karnatic coast); the\nSabaras, the outcasted savages, the Karnas and the Tripura people.\n\n28. Those named Kantakas from their thorny district, the unenlightened\nKomalas (of Comilla?); the Karnas (Canarese), the \u00c1ndhras, the Cholas\nand the people on the borders of the Charmanvati river.\n\n29. The Kakos or bald-headed and bearded people, and those of the\nHema-kuta hills; the frizzled and long necked people, and the\ninhabitants of Kishkindha and cocoa forests.\n\n30. The princes that joined with L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s husband from the south, were as\nfollows viz. the Vindhyans, the Kusumians (of Patna), the Mahendras and\nthe Darduras (of the hills of the same names).\n\n31. The Malays and the solar race, and the Prince of the (33) united\nstates and the rich and united cities of Avanti and S\u00e1mbavati.\n\n32. And those of Dasapura (or ten cities) of Katha (Kota), Chakra,\nReshika Cutch and others, and the foresters of Upagiri and Bhadragiri\nhills.\n\n33. The prince of Nagore and the chiefs of Dandaka forest, and the\njoint states of the people; the Sahas, Saivas, and the hill people of\nthe Rishyamuka and Karkota and the Vimbila foresters.\n\n34. Then came the inhabitants from the banks of Pamp\u00e1, the Kerakas and\nKarkaviras; with the Kherikas, Asikas and the people of Dhrumapattana.\n\n35. Next came the K\u00e1sikas and Khallukas, the Yadas and Tamraparnikas;\nthe Gonardas, the Kanakas and the people of Dinapattam.\n\n36. The Tamris (Tamils), Kadambharas, Sahak\u00e1ras and Enakas (or deer\nhunters); the Vaitundas, Tumba-vanalas, and those attired in deer and\nelephant skins.\n\n37. Then came the lotus-like Sibis and Konkans and the inhabitants of\nChitrakuta mountains; with the people of Karnata, the Mantas, Batakas\nand those of Cattak.\n\n38. The Andhras and Kola hill people (Koles), the Avantis and Chedis;\nwith the Chandas and Devanakas and Kraunchavahas.\n\n39. At last came the people from the three peaks of Chitrak\u00fata\nmountains, called the Sil\u00e1kh\u00e1ra, Nanda mardana and Malaya, which were\nthe seats of the guardian B\u00e1kshasas of Lank\u00e1.\n\n40. Then those of the southwest where there is the great realm of\nSur\u00e1stra (Surat), with the kingdoms of Sindhu (Sinde) Sauvira, Abh\u00edra,\nand Dravidas (in Deccan).\n\n41. Also those of the districts of Kikata, Siddha Khanda, and K\u00e1liruha,\nand the mount Hemagiri or golden hills and the Raivataka range.\n\n42. Then the warriors of Jaya Kachchha (the victorious Cutch), and\nMayavara (Mewar); as also the Yavanas (Ionians), the Bahlikas (Balkhs),\nthe Marganas (nomads), and the grey coloured Tumbas (on the north).\n\n43. Then there came Lahsa races and many hill peoples, inhabiting the\nborders of the sea (Caspian), forming the limit of the dominion of\nL\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s husband (Hindu Government) on the north.\n\n44. Now know the names of the countries belonging to the enemy in the\nwest, and of those composed of the following mountain ranges, _viz._\n\n45. The mount Manim\u00e1n and the Kurar-pana hills, with the hillocks of\nVanorka, Megha-bhava, and the Chakra-vana mountain.\n\n46. There is the country of the five peoples limiting the territory of\nthe K\u00e1sa Brahmans, and after that the Bh\u00e1raksha, the P\u00e1raka and S\u00e1ntika\ncountries.\n\n47. Thence stretch the countries of the Saivyas, Amarakas, the\nPachchyas (P\u00e1sch\u00e1tyas) and Guhutwas; and then the Haihaya country, and\nthose of the Suhyas, Gayas and Tajikas and Hunas (Huns).\n\n48. Then along the side of some other countries, there is the range of\nKarka hills, inhabited by barbarous people, devoid of caste, customs\nand limits of moral duties.\n\n49. Thence stretches a country hundreds of leagues in length, to the\nboundary mountain of Mahendra, abounding in rich stones and gems.\n\n50. After that stands the Aswa range with hundreds of hills about it;\nand extending to the dread ocean on the north of the Pariy\u00e1tra range.\n(Paropamisus).\n\n51. On the north western side, there are countries beyond the boundary\nmountains (of Asia), where Venupati was the king of the land.\n\n52. Then there are the countries of the Ph\u00e1lgunakas and M\u00e1ndavayas\nand many other peoples; and those of Purukundas and Paras (Paris?) as\nbright as the orb of the sun.\n\n53. Then the races of Vanmilas and Nalinas and the Dirghas; who are so\ncalled, from their tall statures and long arms and hairs. Then there\nare the Rangas (Red men), St\u00e1nikas with protuberant breasts, and the\nGuruhas and Chaluhas.\n\n54. After that is the kingdom of women (ruled by a queen), where they\nfeed upon bullocks and heifers. Now about the Him\u00e1layas and its hills\nin the north (of India):\u2014\n\n55. These are the Krauncha and Madhum\u00e1n hills; and the Kail\u00e1sa, Vasum\u00e1n\nand the Sumeru peaks; at the foot of which are the people, known under\nmany names.\n\n56. Beside these there met the warlike tribes of India consisting of\nthe Madrawars, Malavas and Sura-senas. The Rajputs of the race of\nArjuna, the Trigartas and the one legged people and Khudras.\n\n57. There were the Abalas, Prakhalas, and Sakas (Sacc\u00e6 or Scythians).\nThe Khemadh\u00fartas, the Dasadhanas, the Gav\u00e1sanas and Dandahanas (club\nfighters).\n\n58. The Dh\u00e1nadas and Sarakas and B\u00e1tadh\u00e1nas also, with the islanders\nand G\u00e1ndh\u00e1ras and Avanti warriors of Malwa.\n\n59. The warlike Takshasilas (Taxilas), the B\u00edlavas, Godhanas and the\nrenowned warriors of Pushkara (Pokhra).\n\n60. Then there were the T\u00edkshas and K\u00e1lavaras, and the inhabitants of\nthe cities of K\u00e1haka and Surabh\u00fati likewise.\n\n61. There were the people of the Ratik\u00e1darsa and Antar\u00e1darsa also; and\nthe Pingalas, the Pandyas, Yamanas and Y\u00e1tudh\u00e1nas R\u00e1kshasas too.\n\n62. There were also the races of men, known as Hemat\u00e1las and Osmuks,\ntogether with the hilly tribes, inhabiting the Himalaya, Vasum\u00e1n,\nKrauncha and Kailasa mountains.\n\n63. Hear me now relate to you the peoples that came from the north\neast quarter, which extends a hundred and eighty leagues in its\ncircumference.\n\n64. There came also the Kalutas and Brahmaputras, the Kunidas and\nKhudinas, with the warlike Malavas and the champions of the Randhra and\nforest states.\n\n65. Then there were the Kedavas and Sinhaputras of dwarfish statures;\nthe Sabas (Sab\u00e6 or Sabians?), the Kacc\u00e6s, the Pahlavis (ancient\nPersians), the Kamiras and the Daradas (the present Darduis or\nHimalayan hills).\n\n66. There were also the people of Abhisa, the Jarvakas, the Pulolas\nand Kuves; the Kir\u00e1tas and Yamupatas, together with the poor and rich\npeople of desert lands and tracts of gold.\n\n67. Thus L\u00edl\u00e1 saw in one view, the residences of the _devas_; the\nforest lands and the earth in all their beauty. She saw all the seats\nof opulence (viswavasus), and the edifices with which they were\nadorned; she beheld the summit of Kail\u00e1sa, and the delightful groves\nat its foot, and the level lands traversed by the aerial cars of\nVidy\u00e1dhara and celestial beings.[21]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVII\n\n CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES CONTINUED.[22]\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014Thus the ravaging war was making a rapid end of men,\nhorse, elephants and all; and the bravos coming foremost in the combat,\nfell in equal numbers on both sides.\n\n2. These (as named before), and many others were reduced to dust and\nashes; and the bravery of the brave, served but to send them like poor\nmoths to the fire and flame of destruction.\n\n3. Know now the names of the central districts, not yet mentioned by\nme, that sent their warriors to the field, in favour of the consort\nprince of L\u00edl\u00e1.\n\n4. These were the inland forces of Sursena (Muttra), the Gudas\n(Gaudas?), and the Asganas (?); the Madhymikas and they that dwell\nunder sunlight (the tropics).\n\n5. The S\u00e1lukas and Kodmals, and Pippal\u00e1yanas; the M\u00e1ndavyas, Pandyans,\nSugr\u00edvas and Gurjars.\n\n6. The P\u00e1riy\u00e1tras, Kurashtras, Yamunas and Udumvaras; the Raj-waras,\nthe Ujjainas, the K\u00e1lkotas (Calicuts) and the Mathuras (of Muttra).\n\n7. The P\u00e1nch\u00e1las (P\u00e1nj\u00e1bis), the Northern and Southern Dharmakshetras;\nthe Kurukshetriyas, P\u00e1nch\u00e1lakas and S\u00e1raswatas.\n\n8. The line of war chariots from Avanti, being opposed by the arms of\nthe warriors of the Kunta and Panchanada districts, fell in fighting by\nthe sides of the hills.\n\n9. Those arrayed in silken attire, being dismantled by the enemy, fell\nupon the ground, and were trodden down by the elephants.\n\n10. The bravadoes of Daspura, being hacked in their breasts and\nshoulders by the hostile weapons, were pursued by the Banabhuma\nwarriors, and driven to the distant pool.\n\n11. The S\u00e1ntikas being ripped in their bellies, lay dead and motionless\nin naked field, and wrapped in their mangled entrails, which were torn\nand devoured by the voracious Pis\u00e1chas at night.\n\n12. There the veteran and vociferous warriors of Bhadrasiri, who were\nwell skilled in the battle field, drove the Amargas to the ditch, as\nthey drive the tortoises to their pits.\n\n13. The Haihayas were driving the Dandakas, who like fleet stags were\nflying with the swiftness of winds, and all gushing in blood by the\npointed and piercing arrows of the enemy.\n\n14. The Daradas were gored by the tusks of the elephants of their\nenemies, and were borne away in floods of their blood, like the broken\nbranches of trees.\n\n15. The Ch\u00ednas (Chinese) were mangled in their bodies by darts and\narrows, and cast their tortured bodies in the water, as a burden they\ncould no longer support.\n\n16. The As\u00faras, pierced in their necks by the flying lances of the\nKarnatic lancers, fled in all directions like the faggots of fire, or\nas the flying meteors of heaven.\n\n17. The S\u00e1kas and D\u00e1sakas were fighting together, by holding down one\nanother by the hair on their heads, as if the whales and elephants were\nstruggling mutually from their respective elements.\n\n18. The flying cowards were entrapped in the snares cast by the Das\u00e1rna\nwarriors, as dolphins hiding under the reeds, are dragged out by nets\non the blood-red shore.\n\n19. The lifted swords and pikes of the Tongas (Tonguise), destroyed the\nGurjara (Guzrati) force by hundreds, and these like razors balded the\nheads (_i.e._ made widows) of hundreds of Gurjara women. (It is their\ncustom to remain baldheaded in widowhood).\n\n20. The lustre of the lifted weapons of the warriors, illumined the\nland as by flashes of lighting; and the clouds of arrows were raining\nlike showers of rain in the forest.\n\n21. The flight of the crowbars (bhusundis), which untimely obscured the\norb of the sun, affrighted the Abh\u00edra (cowherd) warriors with the dread\nof an eclipse, and overtook them by surprise, as when they are pursued\nby a gang of plunderers of their cattle.\n\n22. The handsome gold collared army of the T\u00e1mras or tawny coloured\nsoldiers, were dragged by the Gauda warriors, as captors snatch their\nfair captives by the hair.\n\n23. The Tongons were beset by the Kanasas, like cranes by vultures with\ntheir blazing weapons, destroying elephants and breaking the discuses\nin war.\n\n24. The rumbling noise (gudugudurava), raised by the whirling of\ncudgels by the Gauda gladiators, frightened the G\u00e1ndh\u00e1ras to a degree,\nthat they were driven like a drove of beasts, or as the dreading\nDr\u00e1v\u00eddas from the field.\n\n25. The host of the S\u00e1ka or Scythian warriors, pouring as a blue\ntorrent from the azure sky, appeared by their sable garb as the mist of\nnight, approaching before their white robed foes of the Persians.\n\n26. The crowded array of lifted arms in the clear and bright\natmosphere, appeared as a thick forest under the milk white ocean of\nfrost, that shrouds the mountainous region of Mandara.\n\n27. The flights of arrows which seemed as fragments of clouds in the\nair from below, appeared as waves of the sea, when viewed by the\ncelestials from above.\n\n28. The air appeared as a forest thickly beset by the trees of spears\nand lances, with the arrows flying as birds and bees; and innumerable\numbrellas, with their gold and silver mountings, appearing as so many\nmoons and stars in the sky.\n\n29. The Kekayas made loud shouts, like the war whoops of drunken\nsoldiers, and the Kankas covered the field like a flight of cranes, and\nthe sky was filled with dust over their heads.\n\n30. The Kir\u00e1ta army made a purling noise (kulakula) like the effeminate\nvoice of women; causing the lusty Angas to rush upon them with their\nfurious roar.\n\n31. The K\u00e1sas (Khasias) covering their bodies with _kusa_ grass (in\ntheir grassy garbs), appeared as birds with feathers, and raised clouds\nof dust by flapping their feathered arms.\n\n32. The giddy warriors of Narmada\u2019s coasts, came rushing in the field\nunarmed with their weapons, and began to fleer and flout and move about\nin their merry mood.\n\n33. The low statured S\u00e1lwas came with the jingling bells of their waist\nbands, flinging their arrows in the air, and darting showers of their\ndarts around.\n\n34. The soldiers of Sibi were pierced with the spears hurled by the\nKuntas. They fell as dead bodies in the field, but their spirits fled\nto heaven in the form of Vidy\u00e1dharas.\n\n35. The P\u00e1ndu-nagaras were laid groveling on the ground in their quick\nmarch, by the mighty and light footed army, who had taken possession of\nthe field.\n\n36. The big P\u00e1ncha-nadas (Punjabis), and the furious warriors of K\u00e1si\n(Benares), crushed the bodies of stalwart warriors with their lances\nand cudgels, as elephants crush the mighty trees under their feet and\ntusks.\n\n37. The Burmese and Vatsenis were cut down on the ground by the disks\nof the N\u00edpas (Nepalese); and the Sahyas were sawn down with saws as\nwithered trees.\n\n38. The heads of the white K\u00e1kas (Caucasians), were lopped off with\nsharp axes; and their neighbouring prince of the Bhadras was burnt down\nby the fiery arrows (fire arms).\n\n39. The Matangajas (of Elephanta) fell under the hands of K\u00e1shthayodhas\n(of Katiawar), as old unchained elephants falling in the miry pit; and\nothers that came to fight, fell as dry fuel into the blazing fire.\n\n40. The Mitragartas falling into the hands of the Trigartas, were\nscattered about as straws in the field, and having their heads struck\noff in their flight, they entered the infernal regions of death.\n\n41. The weak Vanila force, falling into the hands of the Magadha army,\nresembling a sea gently shaken by the breeze, went down in the sands,\nas lean and aged elephants.\n\n42. The Chedis lost their lines in fighting with the Tongans, and lay\nwithered in the field of battle, as flowers when scattered in the\nplains, fade away under the shining sun.\n\n43. The Kosalas were unable to withstand the war cry of the deadly\nPauravas, and were discomfited by showers of their clubs, and missile\narrows and darts.\n\n44. Those that were pierced by pikes and spears, became as coral plants\nred with blood all over their bodies, and thus besmeared in bloodshed,\nthey fled to the sheltering hills like red hot suns to the setting\nmountains (ast\u00e1chala).\n\n45. The flight of arrows and weapons borne away by the rapid winds,\nmoved about in the air as fragments of clouds, with a swarm of black\nbees hovering under them.\n\n46. The flying arrows seemed as showering clouds, and their feathers\nappeared as the woolly breed; their reedy shafts seeming as trees, were\nroving with the roar of elephants.\n\n47. The wild elephants and people of the plains, were all torn to\npieces like bits of torn linen.\n\n48. War chariots with their broken wheels, fell into the pits like the\nbroken craigs of mountains, and the enemy stood upon their tops as a\nthick mist or cloud.\n\n49. The multitude of stalwart warriors meeting in the field, had given\nit the appearance of a forest of _t\u00e1la_ and _tam\u00e1la_ trees; but their\nhands being lopped off by weapons, they made it appear as a mountainous\nwood, with its clumps of tapering pine trees.\n\n50. The youthful damsels of Paradise were filled with joy and glee,\nto find the groves of their native hill (Meru), full of the brave\nchampions (fallen in the field).\n\n51. The forest of the army howled in a tremendous roar, until it was\nburnt down by the all devouring fire of the enemy.\n\n52. Hacked by the Pis\u00e1chas (Assamese), and snatched of their weapons\nby the Bhutas (Bhoteas), the Das\u00e1rn\u00e1s (at the confluence of the ten\nstreams of Vindhya) threw off their staffs, and fled as a herd of\nheifers (_nikuchya karnidhavati_\u2014bolted with their broken staves.\nP\u00e1nini).\n\n53. The K\u00e1sias were eager to despoil the tinsels from the dead bodies\nof the chiefs by their valour, as the summer heat robs the beauty of\nlotuses in a drying pool.\n\n54. The Tush\u00e1kas were beset by the Mesalas, with their darts, spears\nand mallets; and the sly Katakas were defeated and driven away by the\nNarakas in battle.\n\n55. The Kauntas were surrounded by Prastha warriors, and were defeated\nlike good people by the treachery of the wily.\n\n56. The elephant drivers, that struck off the heads of their hosts in\na trice, were pursued by the harpooners, and fled with their severed\nheads, as they do with the lotus-flowers plucked by their hands.\n\n57. The S\u00e1raswatas fought on both sides with one another until it was\nevening, and yet no party was the looser or gainer, as in a learned\ndiscussion between pandits and among lawyers.\n\n58. The puny and short statured Deccanese, being driven back by the\nR\u00e1kshas of Lanka, redoubled their attack on them, as the smothering\nfire is rekindled by fuel.\n\n59. What more shall I relate R\u00e1ma about this war, which baffles the\nattempt of the serpent V\u00e1suki even, to give a full description of it\nwith his hundred tongues and mouths.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\n CESSATION OF THE WAR.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:\u2014Now as the war was waging fiercely, with mingled\nshouts on both sides, the sun shrouded his burnished armour under the\nmist of darkness, and was about to set.\n\n2. The waters of the limpid streams glided with the showers of stones\nflung by the forces, and falling on the fading clusters of lotuses\ngrowing in them.\n\n3. Flashes of fire glittered in the sky, by the clashing of the shafts\nand darts below; and waves of arrows were seen, now approaching nigh\nand now receding at a distance.\n\n4. Severed heads like loose lotuses, floated and whirled in the\nwhirlpools of blood below, and the sea of heaven was filled with flying\nweapons, moving as marine animals above.\n\n5. The rustling of the breeze and the whistling of the overshadowing\nclouds of weapons, frightened the aerial Siddhas and sylvan apes, with\nthe fear of an approaching rain.\n\n6. The day declined after it had run its course of the eight watches\n(Y\u00e1m\u00e1rdhas), and assumed the graceful countenance of a hero, returning\nin glory, after he has fought his battle.\n\n7. The army like the day, declined in splendour, being battered in its\ncavalry, and shattered in its force of elephants.\n\n8. Then the commanders of the armies, in concert with the ministers of\nwar, sent envoys to the hostile parties for a truce to the fighting.\n\n9. Both parties agreed to the armistice, seeing how much they were\nharassed in the engagement; and the soldiers with one voice, gave their\nassent to it.\n\n10. They hoisted their soaring banners of truce on the pinnacles of the\nhighest chariots (rathas); and a crier on each side, mounted over one,\nto give proclamation to the armies below.\n\n11. They furled the white flags on all sides, which like so many moons\nin the gloom of night, proclaimed peace on earth by cessation from\ncontention.\n\n12. Then the drums sent their loud peals around, which were resounded\nby roarings of the clouds (Pushkar\u00e1vartas) above and all about.\n\n13. The flights of arrows and weapons, that had been raging as fire in\nthe atmosphere, now began to fall in torrents, like the currents of the\nlake Mansaravara on the ground below.\n\n14. The hands and arms of the warriors were now at rest like their\nfeet; as the shaking of trees and the surges of the sea are at an end\nafter the earthquake is over.\n\n15. The two armies now went their own ways from the field of battle, as\nthe arms of the sea run into the land in different directions.\n\n16. The armies being at rest, there was an end of all agitation in the\nfield; as the waves of the ocean are lulled to rest, on its calm after\na storm (literally, after its churning by the Mandara mountain).\n\n17. It became in an instant as dreadful as the dismal womb of death\n(P\u00fatan\u00e1); and as deep and dark as the hollow pit of the sea, after its\nwaters were sucked up by Agastya (the sun).\n\n18. It was full of the dead bodies of men and beasts, and flowed in\nfloods of purpling blood; it was resonant with the sounds of insects,\nlike a heath with the humming of beetles.\n\n19. The gory bodies were gushing with blood, and gurgling as the waves\nof the sea; and the cries of the wounded who wished to live, pierced\nthe ears, and throbbed the heart strings of the living.\n\n20. The dead and wounded weltering side by side in streams of blood,\nmade the living think the dead as still alive like themselves.\n\n21. Big elephants lying dead in piles in the field appeared as\nfragments of clouds, and the heaps of broken chariots seemed as a\nforest dispersed by the storm.\n\n22. Streams of blood were running with the dead bodies of horses and\nelephants, and heaps of arrows and spears and mattocks and mallets,\nflowing together with broken swords and missiles.\n\n23. Horses were lying girt in their halters and harnesses, and the\nsoldiers wrapt in their mails and armours; and flags and flappers and\nturbans and helmets lay scattered in the field.\n\n24. The winds were rustling in the orifice of the quivers, like the\nhissing of arrowy snakes, or as the whistling of the breeze in the\nholes of bamboo trees; and the Pis\u00e1chas were rolling on beds of dead\nbodies, as upon their beddings of straws.\n\n25. The gold chains of the helmets and the head ornaments of the fallen\nsoldiers, glittered with the various colours of the rainbow, and greedy\ndogs and jackals were tearing the entrails of the dead like long ropes\nor strings.\n\n26. The wounded were gnashing their teeth in the field of blood, like\nthe croaking of frogs in the miry pool of blood.\n\n27. Those clad in party coloured coats with a hundred spots on them,\nhad now their arms and thighs gushing in a hundred streams of blood.\n\n28. The friends of the dead and wounded, were wailing bitterly over\ntheir bodies; lying amidst the heaps of arrows and weapons, the broken\ncars and the scattered trappings of horses and elephants, which had\ncovered the land.\n\n29. Headless trunks of the goblins were dancing about with their\nuplifted arms touching the sky; and the stink of the carrion, fat and\nblood, filled the nostrils with nausea.\n\n30. Elephants and horses of noble breed, lay dead and others gasping\nwith their mouths gaping upwards; and the dashing of the waving streams\nof blood, beat as loud as drums against their rock-like bodies.\n\n31. The blood gushing out of the pores of the wounded horses and\nelephants, ran like that of a wounded whale into a hundred streams. And\nthe blood spouting from the mouths of the dying soldiers flowed into a\nhundred channels.\n\n32. Those who were pierced with arrows in their eyes and mouths, were\nuttering an inaudible voice in their last gasp of death; and those\npierced in their bellies, had their bowels gushing out with a horrible\nstench; while the ground was reddened with thickened blood issuing out\nof the wounds.\n\n33. Half dead elephants grasped the headless trunks with their uplifted\ntrunks (proboscis), while the loose horses and elephants, that had lost\ntheir riders, were trampling over the dead bodies at random.\n\n34. The weeping, crying and tottering wives of the fallen soldiers,\nfell upon their dead bodies weltering in blood, and embracing them fast\nby their necks, made an end of themselves with the same weapons.\n\n35. Bodies of soldiers were sent with their guides on the way, to\nfetch the dead bodies from the field; and the hands of their lively\ncompanions, were busily employed in dragging the dead.\n\n36. The field had become a wide river running with waves of blood, and\nbreaking into a hundred whirling streams, carrying the severed heads,\nas lotuses swimming in them, and the torn braids of hair floating as\nbushes on them.\n\n37. Men were busy to extract the weapons from the bodies of the\nwounded, who lamented loudly on account of their dying in a foreign\nland, and losing their arms and armours and horses and elephants in the\nfield.\n\n38. The dying souls remembered their sons and parents, their dear ones\nand their adored deities, and called out by their names; and began to\nsigh and sob with heart-rending heigh-hos and alacks.\n\n39. The brave that died cursed their fates, and those falling in their\nfighting with elephants, blamed the unkind gods they had adored in vain.\n\n40. The cowards fearing to be killed betook themselves to base flight;\nbut the dauntless brave stepped forward amidst the whirlpools of blood.\n\n41. Some suffering under the agony of arrows piercing their mortal\nparts, thought upon the sins of their past lives, that had brought this\npain upon them; while the blood sucking Vet\u00e1las, advanced with their\nhorrid mouths for drinking the blood of the headless trunks (Kabandhas).\n\n42. The floating flags and umbrellas and flappers, seemed as white\nlotuses in the lake of blood below, while the evening stretched her\ntrain of stars like red lotuses in the etherial sea above.\n\n43. The battle field presented the appearance of an eighth sea of\nblood; the rathas or warcars forming its rocks, and their wheels its\nwhirlpools; the flags being its foam and froth, and the white flappers\nas its bubbles. (There are seven seas only on record).\n\n44. The field of blood with the scattered cars, appeared as a track of\nland plunged in mud and mire, and covered over with woods broken down\nand blown away by a hurricane.\n\n45. It was as desolate as a country burnt down by a conflagration, and\nas the dry bed of the sea sucked up by the sage Agastya (the sun). It\nwas as a district devastated by a sweeping flood.\n\n46. It was filled with heaps of weapons, as high as the bodies of big\nelephants lying dead about the ground.\n\n47. The lances which were carried down by the streams of blood, were as\nbig as the palm trees growing on the summits of mountains. (Compare the\ndescription in Ossian\u2019s poems).\n\n48. The weapons sticking in the bodies of the elephants, seemed as the\nshining flowers growing on verdant trees: and the entrails torn and\nborne up by vultures, spread a fretted network in the sky.\n\n49. The lances fixed beside the streams of blood, were as a woody\nforest on the bank of a river; and the flags floating on the surface,\nappeared as a bush of lotuses in the liquid-blood.\n\n50. Dead bodies of men were drawn up by their friends, from the bloody\npool in which they were drowned, and the embedded bodies of big\nelephants were marked by men by the jutting weapons sticking in them.\n\n51. The trunks of trees which had their branches lopped off by the\nweapons, appeared as the headless bodies of slain soldiers, and the\nfloating carcasses of elephants seemed as so many boats swimming in the\nsea of blood.\n\n52. The white garments that were swept down by the current, seemed as\nthe froth of the pool of blood, and were picked up by the servants sent\nto search them out.\n\n53. The demoniac bodies of headless soldiers, were rising and falling\nin the field, and hurling large wheels and disks upon the flying army\non all sides.\n\n54. The dying warriors were frothing forth floods of blood from their\nthroats, and stones stained with blood were inviting the greedy\nvultures to devour them.\n\n55. Then there were groups of Sut\u00e1la, Vet\u00e1la and Utt\u00e1la demons dancing\ntheir war dance about the field, and whirling the rafts of the broken\ncars upon the flying soldiers on all sides.\n\n56. The stir and last gasp of those that were yet alive, were fearful\nto behold, and the faces of the dying and the dead that were covered in\ndust and blood, were pitiful to the beholder.\n\n57. The devouring dogs and ravenous ravens beheld the last gasp of\nthe dying with pity; while the feeders on carrions were howling and\nfighting on their common carcass, till many of them became dead bodies\nby their mutual fighting.\n\n58. Now I have described the sea of blood, which flowed fast with\nthe gore of unnumbered hosts of horses, elephants and camels, and of\nwarriors and their leaders, and multitudes of cars, and war chariots;\nbut it became a pleasure garden to the god of death, delighting in his\nbed of bloodshed, and grove of the weapons beset all around.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIX.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE-FIELD INFESTED BY NOCTURNAL FIENDS.\n\n\nNow the blood-red sun set down in the west, like a hero red with blood;\nand hid his lustre, which was dimmed by the brightness of the weapons\nof war in the western main.\n\n2. The sky which had reflected the blood-red flush of the field of\nblood, was now dimmed by the setting of the glorious sun, and darkened\nby the veil of evening.\n\n3. Thick darkness overspread the face of heaven and earth like the\nwaters of the great deluge, and there appeared a body of ghosts\n(Vet\u00e1las), dancing in a ring and clapping their hands.\n\n4. The face of the day like that of an elephant, being besmeared with\nthe blackness of night fall, was again painted by the light of evening\nwith the pearly spots of stars on the cheeks.\n\n5. The busy buzz of Creation being silent in the dead darkness of\nnight, like the humming of bees over the surface of the waters, the\nhearts of men were closed in sleep as in death, like the petals of the\nlotus at night.\n\n6. The birds lay with their folded wings and fallen crests in their\nnests, as the dead bodies were lying in the field, covered with their\nwounds and weapons.\n\n7. Then the fair moonbeams shone above, and the white lotuses were\nblown below; the hearts of men were gladdened, and the victors felt\njoyous in themselves.\n\n8. The ruddy evening assumed the shape of the blood-red sea of battle,\nand the fluttering bees now hid themselves like the faces of the fallen\nsoldiers.\n\n9. There was an etherial lake above spangled with stars like the white\nlotuses on high; and here was the earthly lake below, beset by lotuses\nresembling the stars of heaven.\n\n10. The bodies that were thought to be lost in darkness, were now\nrecovered in light, as the gems hid under the water, are found\nscattered about in moonlight.\n\n11. The battle field was filled by the Vet\u00e1la demons, howling with\ntheir hideous cry; while bodies of vultures, crows and owls, were\ntearing the carcasses and sporting with the skeletons.\n\n12. Then blazed the funeral piles as brightly as the starry frame on\nhigh, and the fire consumed the dead bodies together with their bones\nand raiments.\n\n13. The fire burnt the bodies with their bones to ashes, after which\nit extinguished itself as if sated with plenty. The female fiends now\nbegan to sport in the water.\n\n14. There arose a mingled cry of dogs and crows, of Yakshas and\nVet\u00e1las, with the clapping of their hands; and bodies of ghosts were\nmoving about as woods and forests.\n\n15. The D\u00e1kinis (D\u00e1yinis) were eager to steal away the flesh and fat\nfrom the piles, and the Pis\u00e1chas delighted in sucking the blood and the\nflesh and bones of the dead.\n\n16. The demons were now looking and now lurking about the funeral\npiles, and the R\u00e1kshasas that rushed in, bore away the carcasses on\ntheir shoulders.\n\n17. There came also bodies of ferocious Kumbh\u00e1ndas, and big D\u00e1maras,\nuttering their barbarous cries of _chumchum_, and hovering over the\nfumes of fat and flesh in the shapes of clouds.\n\n18. Bodies of Vet\u00e1las stood in the streams of blood like earthly\nbeings, and snatched the skeletons with hideous cries.\n\n19. The Vet\u00e1la younglings slept in the bellies and chests of the\nelephants, and the R\u00e1kshasas were drinking their fill in the bloody\nfield.\n\n20. The giddy Vet\u00e1las fought with one another with the lighted faggots\nof the piles, and the winds were wafting the stench of the putrid\ncarcasses on all sides.\n\n21. The female fiends (R\u00fapik\u00e1s), filled the baskets of their bellies\nwith carrion, with a rat-a-tat (ratarata) noise; and the Yaksha\ncannibals were snatching the half-burnt carcasses from the funeral\npiles, as their roasted meat and dainty food (S. kali A. Kul).\n\n22. Aerial imps (khagas) attacked the dead bodies of the big Bangas and\nblack Kalingas, and flouted about with their open mouths, emitting the\nblaze of falling meteors.\n\n23. The Vet\u00e1la goblins fell down in the dark and discoloured\nblood-pits, lying hid in the midst of the heaps of dead bodies; while\nthe Pis\u00e1cha ogres and the leaders of Yogini sprites, laughed at them\nfor their false step (vet\u00e1la).\n\n24. The pulling of the entrails (antras-\u00e1nts), vibrated as by striking\nthe strings of wired instruments (tantras\u2014or t\u00e1nts); and the ghosts of\nmen that had become fiends from their fiendish desires, fell a-fighting\nwith one another.\n\n25. Valiant soldiers were affrighted at the sight of the spectres\n(R\u00fap\u00edk\u00e1s); and the obsequies were disturbed by the Vet\u00e1la and R\u00e1kshasa\ngoblins.\n\n26. The hobgoblins of the night (nis\u00e1charas), got frightened at the\nfall of the carcasses from the shoulders of the elves (R\u00fap\u00edk\u00e1s), who\nwere carrying them aloft in the air; where they were waylaid by a\nthrong of ghostly demons (bh\u00fata-sankata).\n\n27. Many dying bodies, that were lifted aloft with labour by the bogies\n(D\u00e1nas), were let to fall down dead on the ground, being found unfit\nfor their food.\n\n28. Pieces of blood-red flesh, fallen from the fiery jaws of jackals,\nresembled clusters of _asoka_ flowers, strewn all around the funeral\nground.\n\n29. Vet\u00e1la urchins were busy in putting on the scattered heads over the\nheadless bodies of kabandhas (acephali); and bodies of Yaksha, Raksha\nand Pis\u00e1cha ogres, were flashing as firebrands in the sky.\n\n30. At last a thick cloud of darkness, covered the face or the sky, and\nthe view of the hills and valleys, gardens and groves, was hid under an\nimpenetrable gloom. The infernal spirits got loose from their dismal\nabodes, and ranged and ravaged at large over the field, as a hurricane\nunder the vault of heaven.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XL.\n\n REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN LIFE AND MIND.\n\n\nVasishtha related:\u2014The nocturnal fiends were thus infesting the gloomy\nfield, and the myrmidons of death (Yama), roaming about it as marauders\nin the day time.\n\n2. The naked and fleeting ghosts, were revelling on their provision of\ncarrion in their nightly abode, and under the canopy of thick darkness,\nwhich was likely to be laid hold upon under the clutches of one\u2019s hand\n(hasta-gr\u00e1hya).\n\n3. It was in the still hour of the gloomy night, when the host of\nheaven seemed to be fast bound in sleep, that a sadness stole in\nupon the mind of L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s magnanimous husband (the belligerent prince\nVid\u00faratha by name).\n\n4. He thought about what was to be done on the next morning, in council\nwith his Counsellors; and then went to his bed, which was as white as\nmoonlight, and as cold as frost. (A cold bed in the east _vs._ a warm\none in the west).\n\n5. His lotus-eyes were closed in sleep for a while in his royal camp,\nwhich was as white as the moonbeams, and covered by the cold dews of\nnight.\n\n6. Then the two ladies, issued forth from their vacuous abode, and\nentered the tent through a crevice, as the air penetrates into the\nheart and amidst an unblown bud of flower.\n\n7. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014How is it possible sir, that the gross bodies of the\ngoddesses, with their limited dimensions, could enter the tent through\none of its holes, as small as the pore of a piece of cloth?\n\n8. Vasishtha answered saying that:\u2014Whoso mistakes himself to be\ncomposed of a material body, it is no way possible for him to enter a\nsmall hole with that gross body of his.\n\n9. But he who thinks himself to be pent up in his corporeal body as\nin a cage, and obstructed by it in his flight, and does not believe\nhimself to fill his frame, or to be measured by its length; but has the\ntrue notion of his inward subtle spirit, it is no way impossible for\nhim to have his passage any where he pleases to go.\n\n10. He who perceives his original spiritual state, as forming the\nbetter half of his body, may pass as a spirit through a chink; but\nwhoso relies in his subsequent half of the material body, cannot go\nbeyond it in the form of his intellect.\n\n11. As the air never rises upward, nor the flame of fire ever goes\ndownward; so it is the nature of the spirit to rise upward, as that of\nthe body to go down; but the intellect is made to turn in the way in\nwhich it is trained.\n\n12. As the man sitting in the shade, has no notion of the feeling of\nheat or warmth; so one man has no idea of the knowledge or thoughts of\nanother person.\n\n13. As is one\u2019s knowledge so is his thought, and such is the mode\nof his life; it is only by means of ardent practice (of yoga and\nlearning), that the mind is turned to the right course.\n\n14. As one\u2019s belief of a snake in a rope, is removed by the conviction\nof his error; so are the bent of the mind and course of conduct in\nlife, changed from wrong to right by the knowledge of truth.\n\n15. It is one\u2019s knowledge that gives rise to his thoughts, and the\nthoughts that direct his pursuits in life: this is a truth known even\nto the young and to every man of sense.\n\n16. Now then the soul that resembles a being seen in a dream or formed\nin fancy, and which is of the nature of air and vacuum, is never liable\nto be obstructed any where in its course: (for who can constrain the\nflight of his imagination?).\n\n17. There is an intellectual body, which all living beings possess in\nevery place. It is known both by consciousness, as well as the feelings\nof our hearts.\n\n18. It is by the divine will, that the intellect rises and sets by\nturns. At first it was produced in its natural, simple and intellectual\nform, and then being invested with a material body, it makes together\nan unity of the person out of the duality (of its material and\nimmaterial essences).\n\n19. Now you must know the triple vacuity, composed of the three\nairy substances\u2014the spirit, mind and space, to be one and the same\nthing (all the three being equally all pervasive); but not so their\nreceptacle (of the material body), which has no pervasion.\n\n20. Know this intellectual body of beings, to be like the air, present\nwith every thing and every where (over which it extends and which it\ngrasps in itself); just as your desire of knowing extends over all\nthings in all places, and presents them all to your knowledge.\n\n21. It abides in the smallest particles, and reaches to the spheres of\nheavens (which it grasps within itself): it reposes in the cells of\nflowers, and delights in the leaves of trees. (_i.e._ It stretches over\nall these things in its knowledge of them).\n\n22. It delights in hills and dales, and dances over the waves of the\noceans; it rides over the clouds, and falls down in the showers of rain\nand hailstones of heaven.\n\n23. It moves at pleasure in the vast firmament, and penetrates through\nthe solid mountains. Its body bears no break in it, and is as minute as\nan atom.\n\n24. Yet it becomes as big as a mountain lifting its head to heaven,\nand as large as the earth, which is the fixed and firm support of all\nthings. It views the inside and outside of every thing, and bears the\nforests like hairs on its body.\n\n25. It extends in the form of the sky, and contains millions of worlds\nin itself; it identifies itself with the ocean, and transforms its\nwhirlpools to spots upon its person.\n\n26. It is of the nature of an uninterrupted understanding, ever\ncalm and serene in its aspect; it is possessed of its intellectual\nform, from before the creation of the visible world, and being all\ncomprehensive as vacuity itself, it is conversant with the natures of\nall beings.\n\n27. It is an unreality as the appearance of water in the mirage, but\nmanifests itself as a reality to the understanding by its intelligence.\nWithout this (intellection), the intellectual man is a nil as the son\nof a barren woman, and a blank as the figure of a body seen in a dream.\n\n28. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014How is that mind to which you attribute so many\npowers, and what is that again which you say to be nothing? Why is it\nno reality, and as something distinct from all what we see?\n\n29. Vasishtha replied:\u2014All individual minds are indued with these\nfaculties, except all such individualities, whose minds are engrossed\nwith the error (of the reality) of the outer world.\n\n30. All the worlds are either of a longer or shorter duration, and they\nappear and disappear at times; some of these vanish in a moment, and\nothers endure to the end of a _Kalpa_. But it is not so with the mind,\nwhose progress I will now relate to you.\n\n31. There is an insensibility which overtakes every man before his\ndeath; this is the darkness of his dissolution (mah\u00e1-pralaya-y\u00e1min\u00ed).\n\n32. After the shocks of delirium and death are over, the spiritual part\nof every man, is regenerated anew in a different form, as if it was\nroused from a state of trance, reverie or swoon; (the three states of\ninsensibility\u2014avidy\u00e1-trayam).\n\n33. And as the spirit of God, assumes his _triune_ form with the\npersons of Brahm\u00e1 and Vir\u00e1j, after the dissolution of the world for\nits recreation; so every person receives the triplicate form of his\nspiritual, intellectual and corporeal beings, after the termination of\nhis life by death.\n\n34. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014As we believe ourselves to be reproduced after death by\nreason of our reminiscence; so must we understand the recreation of all\nbodies in the world by the same cause. Hence there is nothing uncaused\nin it (as it was said with regard to the unproduced Brahm\u00e1 and others).\n\n35. Vasishtha replied:\u2014The gods Hari, Hara and others, having obtained\ntheir disembodied liberation or _videha-mukti_, (_i.e._ the final\nextinction of their bodies, their minds and spirit as in nirv\u00e1na), at\nthe universal dissolution, could not retain their reminiscence to cause\ntheir regeneration.\n\n36. But human beings having both their spiritual and intellectual\nbodies entire at their death, do not lose their remembrance of the\npast, nor can they have their final liberation like Brahm\u00e1, unless\nthey obtain their disembodied state, which is possible to all in this\nlife or hereafter, by the edification of their souls, through yoga\nmeditation alone.\n\n37. The birth and death of all other beings like yourself, are caused\nby their reminiscence, and for want of their disembodied liberation or\neternal salvation.\n\n38. The living soul retains its consciousness within itself, after its\npangs of death are over; but remains in its state of insensibility by\nvirtue of its own nature (called pradh\u00e1na).\n\n39. The universal vacuum is called nature (prakriti). It is the\nreflexion of the invisible divine mind (chit prativimbam); and is the\nparent of all that is dull or moving (Jad\u00e1-Jada), which are so produced\nby cause of their reminiscence or its absence (sansmriti and asmriti);\nthe former causing the regeneration of living beings, and the latter\nits cessation as in inert matter.\n\n40. As the living principle or animal life begins to have its\nunderstanding (bodha), it is called _mahat_ or an intelligent being,\nwhich is possessed of its consciousness (ahank\u00e1ra). It has then the\norgans of perception and conception, added to it from their elements\n(tanm\u00e1tras) residing in the vacuous ether.\n\n41. This minutely intelligent substance, is next joined with the five\ninternal senses, which form its body, and which is otherwise called its\nspiritual body (\u00e1tivahika or lingadeha).\n\n42. This spiritual being by its long association with the external\nsenses, comes to believe itself as a sensible being; and then by\nimagining to have the sensible form, it finds itself invested with a\nmaterial body (\u00e1dhibhautika-deha) as beautiful as that of a lotus.\n\n43. Then seated in the embryo, it reposes in a certain position for\nsometime, and inflated itself like the air, until it is fully expanded.\n\n44. It then thinks itself to be fully developed in the womb, as a man\ndreams of a fairy form in his sleep, and believes this illusion as a\nreality.\n\n45. He then views the outer world, where he is born to die, just as one\nvisits a land where he is destined to meet his death; and there remains\nto relish its enjoyments, as prepared for him.\n\n46. But the spiritual man soon perceives every thing as pure vacuum,\nand that his own body and this world are but illusions and vain\nvacuities.\n\n47. He perceives the gods, and human habitations, the hills and the\nheavens resplendent with the sun and stars, to be no more than abodes\nof disease and debility, decay and ultimate death and destruction.\n\n48. He sees nothing but a sad change in the natures of things, and all\nthat is movable or immovable, great or small, together with the seas,\nhills and rivers and peoples of this earth and the days and nights, are\nall subject to decay sooner or later.\n\n49. The knowledge that I am born here of this father, and that this is\nmy mother, these my treasures, and such are my hopes and expectations,\nis as false as empty air.\n\n50. That these are my merits and these my demerits, and these the\ndesires that I had at heart; that I was a boy and am now young; are the\nairy thoughts of the hollow mind.\n\n51. This world resembles a forest, where every being is like a detached\narbor; the sable clouds are its leaves, and the stars its full blown\nflowers.\n\n52. The walking men are as its restless deer, and the aerial gods and\ndemons its birds of the air; the broad day light is the flying dust of\nits flowers, and the dark night the deep covert of its grove.\n\n53. The seas are like its rills and fountains, and the eight boundary\nmountains as its artificial hills; the mind is the great tank in it,\ncontaining the weeds and shrubs of human thoughts in abundance.\n\n54. Wherever a man dies, he is instantly changed to this state, and\nviews the same things every where; and every one thus rises and falls\nincessantly, like the leaves of trees in this forest of the world.\n\n55. Millions of Brahm\u00e1s, Rudras, Indras, Maruts, Vishnus and Suns,\ntogether with unnumbered mountains and seas, continents and islands,\nhave appeared and disappeared in the eternal course of the world.\n\n56. Thus no one can count the numbers of beings that have passed away,\nare passing and shall have to pass hereafter, nor such as are in\nexistence and have to become extinct in the unfathomable eternity of\nBrahma.\n\n57. Hence it is impossible to comprehend the stupendous fabric of\nthe universe any how except in the mind, which is as spacious as the\ninfinite space itself, and as variable as the course of events in the\nworld.\n\n58. The mind is the vacuous sphere of the intellect, and the infinite\nsphere of the intellect, is the seat of the Supreme.\n\n59. Now know the whirlpool and waves of the sea to be of the same\nelement, as the sea in which they rise and fall, though they are\nnot of the same durable nature as the sea water, by reason of their\nevanescence. So the phenomena are the same with the Noumena, though\nnone of these is a reality.\n\n60. The etherial sphere of heaven, is but a reflexion of the\nintellectual sphere of the Divine mind, and the bright orbs of the\nfirmament, are as gems in the bosom of Brahma. Its concavity is the\ncave of the mind of the Eternal One.\n\n61. The world according to the sense in which I take it, as the seat\nof God, is highly interesting, but not so in your sense of its being\na sober reality. So the meaning of the words \u201cI and thou,\u201d refers\naccording to me to the intellectual spirit, and according to you to the\nliving soul and body.\n\n62. Hence L\u00edl\u00e1 and Sarasvat\u00ed, being in their vacuous intellectual\nbodies, were led by the pure desire of their souls, to every place\nwithout any obstruction or interruption.\n\n63. The intellectual spirit has the power, to present itself wherever\nit likes, on earth or in the sky, and before objects known or unknown\nand wished to be known by it. It was by this power that they could\nenter into the tent of the prince.\n\n64. The intellect has its way to all places and things, over which\nit exercises its powers of observation, reflection and reasoning to\ntheir full extent. This is known as the spiritual and unconfined body\n(\u00c1tiv\u00e1hika), whose course cannot be obstructed by any restriction\nwhatever.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLI.\n\n DISCRIMINATION OF ERROR.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014Upon the entrance of the ladies in the tent, it\nappeared as a bed of lotuses; and its white vault, seemed as graceful\nas the vault of heaven with two moons rising at once under it.\n\n2. A pure and cooling fragrance spread about it, as if wafted by the\nbreeze from the Mandara flowers; and lulled the prince to sleep, with\nevery body lying in their camps.\n\n3. It made the place as pleasant as the garden of Eden (Nandana), and\nhealed all the pains and cares of the people there. It seemed as a\nvernal garden, filled with the fragrance of the fresh blown lotuses in\nthe morning.\n\n4. The cooling and moon-bright radiance of the ladies, roused the\nprince from his sleep, as if he was sprinkled over with the juice of\nambrosia.\n\n5. He beheld upon his rising the forms of two fairies (apsar\u00e1s), seated\non two stools, and appearing as two moons risen on two pinnacles of the\nmount Meru.\n\n6. The prince beheld them with wonder, and after being composed in his\nmind, he rose up from his bed, as the god Vishnu rises from his bed of\nthe serpent.\n\n7. Then advancing respectfully to them, with long strings of flowers in\nhis hands, he made offerings of them to the ladies, with handfuls of\nflowers flung at their feet.\n\n8. Leaving his pillowed sofa in the midst of the hall, he sat with his\nfolded legs on the ground; and lowly bending his head, he addressed\nthem saying:\u2014\n\n9. Be victorious, O moon-bright goddesses! that drive away all the\nmiseries and evils and pains and pangs of life, by your radiance, and\ndispellest all my inward and outward darkness by your sunlike beams.\n\n10. Saying so he poured handfuls of flowers on their feet, as the trees\non the bank of a lake, drop down their flowers on the lotuses growing\nin it.\n\n11. Then the goddess desiring to unfold the pedigree of the prince,\ninspired his minister, who was lying by, to relate it to L\u00edl\u00e1.\n\n12. He upon waking, saw the nymphs manifest before him, and advancing\nlowly before them, threw handfuls of flowers upon their feet.\n\n13. The goddess said:\u2014Let us know, O prince! who you are and when and\nof whom you are born herein. Hearing these words of the goddess, the\nminister spake saying:\u2014\n\n14. It is by your favour, O gracious goddesses! that I am empowered to\ngive a relation of my prince\u2019s genealogy to your benign graces.\n\n15. There was a sovereign, born of the imperial line of Ixaku, by name\nof Mukunda-ratha, who had subjugated the earth under his arms.\n\n16. He had a moon-faced son by name of Bhadraratha; whose son\nViswaratha was father to the renowned prince Brihadratha.\n\n17. His son Sindhuratha was the father of Sailaratha, and his son\nK\u00e1maratha was father of Mah\u00e1ratha.\n\n18. His son Vishnuratha was father of Nabhoratha, who gave birth to\nthis my lord of handsome appearance.\n\n19. He is renowned as Vid\u00faratha, and is born with the great virtues\nof his sire, as the moon was produced of the milky ocean, to shed his\nambrosial beams over his people.\n\n20. He was begotten by his mother Sumitr\u00e1, as the god Guha of Gauri;\nand was installed in the realm at the tenth year of his age, owing to\nhis father\u2019s betaking himself to asceticism.\n\n21. He has been ruling the realm since that time with justice; and your\nappearance here to night, betokens the blossoming of his good fortune.\n\n22. O goddesses! whose presence is hard to be had, even by the merit of\nlong devotion, and a hundred austerities, you see here the lord of the\nearth-famed Vid\u00faratha, present before you.\n\n23. He is highly blessed to-day by your favour. After saying these\nwords, the minister remained silent with the lord of the earth.\n\n24. They were sitting on the ground with their folded legs (padm\u00e1sana),\nand clasped hands (krit\u00e1njali), and downcast looks; when the goddess\nof wisdom told the prince, to remember his former births, by her\ninspiration.\n\n25. So saying, she touched his head with her hand, and immediately the\ndark veil of illusion and oblivion was dispersed from over the lotus of\nhis mind.\n\n26. It opened as a blossom by the touch of the genius of intelligence,\nand became as bright as the clear firmament, with the rays of his\nformer reminiscence.\n\n27. He remembered by his intelligence his former kingdom, of which he\nhad been the sole lord, and recollected all his past sports with L\u00edl\u00e1.\n\n28. He was led away by the thoughts of the events of his past lives, as\none is carried away by the current of waves, and reflected in himself,\nthis world to be a magic sea of illusion.\n\n29. He said: I have come to know this by the favour of the goddesses,\nbut how is it that so many events have occurred to me in course of one\nday after my death.\n\n30. Here I have passed full seventy years of my lifetime, and recollect\nto have done many works, and remember also to have seen my grand-sire.\n\n31. I recollect the bygone days of my boyhood and youth, and I remember\nwell all the friends and relatives and all the apparels and suite, that\nI had before.\n\n32. The goddess replied:\u2014Know O king! that after the fit of\ninsensibility attending on your death was over, your soul continued\nto remain in the vacuum of the same place, of which you are still a\nresident.\n\n33. This royal pavilion, where you think yourself to abide, is situated\nin the vacuous space, within the house of the Br\u00e1hman in that hilly\ndistrict.\n\n34. It is inside that house that you see the appearances of your other\nabodes present before you: and it was in that Br\u00e1hmana\u2019s house, that\nyou devoted your life to my worship.\n\n35. It is the shrine within the very house and on the same spot, that\ncontains the whole world which you are seeing all about you.\n\n36. This abode of yours is situated in the same place, and within the\nclear firmament of your mind.\n\n37. It is a false notion of your mind, which you have gained by your\nhabitual mode of thinking, that you are born in your present state, of\nthe race of Ix\u00e1ku.\n\n38. It is mere imagination, which has made you to suppose yourself\nto be named so and so, and that such and such persons were your\nprogenitors, and that you had been a boy of ten years.\n\n39. That your father became an ascetic in the woods, and left you\nin the government of the realm. And that you have subjugated many\ncountries under your dominion, and are now reigning as the lord\nparamount over them.\n\n40. And that you are ruling on earth with these ministers and officers\nof yours, and are observant of the sacrificial rites, and a just ruler\nof your subjects.\n\n41. You think that you have passed seventy years of your life, and that\nyou are now beset by very formidable enemies.\n\n42. And that having waged a furious battle, you have returned to this\nabode of yours, where you are now seated and intend to adore the\ngoddesses, that have become your guests herein.\n\n43. You are thinking that these goddesses will bless you with your\ndesired object, because one of them has given you the power of\nrecollecting the events of your former births.\n\n44. That these goddesses have opened your understanding like the\nblossom of a lotus, and that you have the prospect of getting your\nriddance from all doubts.\n\n45. That you are now at peace and rest, and enjoy the solace of your\nsolity; and that your long continued error (of this world), is now\nremoved for ever.\n\n46. You remember the many acts and enjoyments of your past life, in\nthe body of prince Padma, before you were snatched away by the hand of\ndeath.\n\n47. You now perceive in your mind, that your present life is but a\nshadow of the former, as it is the same wave, that carries one onward,\nby its rise and fall.\n\n48. The incessant current of the mind flows as the stream of a river,\nand leads a man, like a weed, from one whirlpool into another.\n\n49. The course of life now runs singly as in dreaming, and now\nconjointly with the body as in the waking state, both of which leave\ntheir traces in the mind, at the hour of death.\n\n50. The sun of the intellect being hid under the mist of ignorance,\nthere arises this network of the erroneous world, which makes a moment\nappear as a period of hundred years.\n\n51. Our lives and deaths are mere phantoms of imagination, as we\nimagine houses and towers in aerial castles and icebergs.\n\n52. The world is an illusion, like the delusion of moving banks and\ntrees to a passenger in a vessel on water, or a rapid vehicle on land;\nor as the trembling of a mountain or quaking of the earth, to one\naffected by a convulsive disease.\n\n53. As one sees extraordinary things in his dream, such as the\ndecapitation of his own head; so he views the illusions of the world,\nwhich can hardly be true.\n\n54. In reality you were neither born nor dead at any time or place;\nbut ever remain as pure intelligence in your own tranquility of soul.\n\n55. You seem to see all things about you, but you see nothing real in\nthem; it is your all seeing soul, that sees every thing in itself.\n\n56. The soul shines as a brilliant gem by its own light, and nothing\nthat appears beside it, as this earth or yourself or any thing else, is\na reality.\n\n57. These hills and cities, these people and things, and ourselves\nalso, are all unreal and mere phantoms, appearing in the hollow vault\nof the Br\u00e1hmana of the hilly district.\n\n58. The kingdom of L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s husband, was but a picture of this earth, and\nhis palace with all its grandeur, is contained in the sphere of the\nsame hollow shrine.\n\n59. The known world is contained in the vacuous sphere of that shrine,\nand it is in one corner of this mundane habitation, that all of us\nhere, are situated.\n\n60. The sphere of this vaulted shrine, is as clear as vacuity itself,\nwhich has no earth nor habitation in it.\n\n61. It is without any forest, hill, sea or river, and yet all beings\nare found to rove about in this empty and homeless abode (_i.e._ in the\nDivine Mind).\n\n62. Here there are no kings, nor their retinue, nor any thing that they\nhave on earth. Vid\u00faratha asked:\u2014If it is so, then tell me goddess! how\nI happened to have these dependants here?\n\n63. A man is rich in his own mind and spirit, and is it not so ordained\nby the Divine mind and spirit also? If not, then the world must appear\nas a mere dream, and all these men and things are but creatures of our\ndreams.\n\n64. Tell me goddess, what things are spiritually true and false, and\nhow are we to distinguish the one from the other.\n\n65. Sarasvat\u00ed answered:\u2014Know prince that, those who have known\nthe only knowable one, and are assimilated to the nature of pure\nunderstanding, view nothing as real in the world, except the vacuous\nintellect within themselves.\n\n66. The misconception of the serpent in a rope being removed, the\nfallacy of the rope is removed also; so the unreality of the world\nbeing known, the error of its existence, also ceases to exist.\n\n67. Knowing the falsity of water in the mirage, no one thirsts after\nit any more, so knowing the falsehood of dreams, no one thinks himself\ndead as he had dreamt. The fear of dreaming death may overtake the\ndying, but it can never assail the living in his dream.\n\n68. He whose soul is enlightened with the clear light of the autumnal\nmoon of his pure intellect, is never misled to believe his own\nexistence or that of others, by the false application of the terms _I_,\n_thou_, _this_ &c.\n\n69. As the sage was sermonizing in this manner, the day departed to its\nevening service with the setting sun. The assembly broke with mutual\ngreetings to perform their ablutions, and it met again with the rising\nsun, after dispersion of the gloom of night.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLII.\n\n PHILOSOPHY OF DREAMING. SWAPNAM OR SOMNUM.\n\n\nThe man who is devoid of understanding, ignorant and unacquainted with\nthe All-pervading principle, thinks the unreal world as real, and as\ncompact as adamant.\n\n2. As a child is not freed from his fear of ghosts until his death; so\nthe ignorant man never gets rid of his fallacy of the reality of the\nunreal world, as long as he lives.\n\n3. As the solar heat causes the error of water in the mirage to the\ndeer and unwary people, so the unreal world appears as real to the\nignorant part of mankind.\n\n4. As the false dream of one\u2019s death, appears to be true in the\ndreaming state, so the false world seems to be a field of action and\ngain to the deluded man.\n\n5. As one not knowing what is gold, views a golden bracelet as a mere\nbracelet, and not as gold (_i.e._ who takes the form and not the\nsubstance for reality); so are the ignorant ever misled by formal\nappearances, without a knowledge of the causal element.\n\n6. As the ignorant view a city, a house, a hill and an elephant, as\nthey are presented before him; so the visibles are all taken only as\nthey are seen, and not what they really are.\n\n7. As strings of pearls are seen in the sunny sky, and various paints\nand taints in the plumage of the peacock; so the phenomenal world,\npresents its false appearances for sober realities.\n\n8. Know life as a long sleep, and the world with myself and thyself,\nare the visions of its dream; we see many other persons in this sleepy\ndream, none of whom is real, as you will now learn from me.\n\n9. There is but one All-pervading, quiet, and spiritually substantial\nreality. It is of the form of unintelligible intellect, and an immense\noutspreading vacuity.\n\n10. It is omnipotent, and all in all by itself, and is of the form as\nit manifests itself everywhere.\n\n11. Hence the citizens that you see in this visionary city, are but\ntransient forms of men, presented in your dream by that Omnipotent\nBeing.\n\n12. The mind of the viewer, remains in its self-same state amidst the\nsphere of his dreams, and represents the images thought of by itself\nin that visionary sphere of mankind. (So the Divine Mind presents its\nvarious images to the sight of men in this visionary sphere of the\nworld, which has nothing substantial in it).\n\n13. The knowing mind has the same knowledge of things, both in\nits waking as well as dreaming states; and it is by an act of the\npercipient mind, that this knowledge is imprinted as true in the\nconscious souls of men.\n\n14. R\u00e1ma said:\u2014If the persons seen in the dream are unreal, then tell\nme sir, what is that fault in the embodied soul, which makes them\nappear as realities.\n\n15. Vasishtha replied:\u2014The cities and houses, which are seen in dreams\nare in reality nothing. It is only the illusion (m\u00e1y\u00e1) of the embodied\nsoul, which makes them appear as true like those seen in the waking\nstate, in this visionary world.\n\n16. I will tell you in proof of this, that in the beginning of creation\nthe self-born Brahm\u00e1 himself, had the notions of all created things, in\nthe form of visionary appearances, as in a dream and their subsequent\ndevelopment, by the will of the creator; hence their creator is as\nunreal as their notions and appearances in the dream.\n\n17. Learn then this truth of me, that this world is a dream, and that\nyou and all other men have your sleeping dreams, contained in your\nwaking dreams of this visionary world. (_i.e._ The one is a night dream\nand the other a day dream, and equally untrue in their substance).\n\n18. If the scenes that are seen in your sleeping dream, have no reality\nin them, how then can you expect those in your day dreams to be real at\nall?\n\n19. As you take me for a reality, so do I also take you and all other\nthings for realities likewise, and such is the case with every body in\nthis world of dreams.\n\n20. As I appear an entity to you in this world of lengthened dreams; so\nyou too appear an actual entity to me; and so it is with all in their\nprotracted dreaming.\n\n21. R\u00e1ma asked:\u2014If both these states of dreaming are alike, then tell\nme, why the dreamer in sleep, does not upon his waking, think the\nvisions in his dream, to be as real as those of his day dreaming state?\n\n22. Vasishtha replied:\u2014Yes, the day dreaming is of the same nature as\nnight dreams, in which the dreamt objects appear to be real; but it is\nupon the waking from the one, as upon the death of the day dreamer,\nthat both these visions are found to vanish in empty air.\n\n23. As the objects of your night dreams do not subsist in time or\nplace upon your waking, so also those of your day dream, can have no\nsubsistence upon death.\n\n24. Thus is every thing unreal, which appears real for the present, and\nit disappears into an airy nothing at last, though it might appear as\ncharming as a fairy form in the dream.\n\n25. There is one Intelligence that fills all space, and appears as\nevery thing both within and without every body; It is only by our\nillusive conception of it, that we take it in different lights.\n\n26. As one picks up a jewel he happens to meet with in a treasure\nhouse, so do we lay hold on any thing, with which the vast Intellect is\nfilled according to our own liking. (Here we find the free agency of\nhuman will).\n\n27. The goddess of intelligence, having thus caused the germ of true\nknowledge, to sprout forth in the mind of the prince, by sprinkling the\nambrosial drops of her wisdom over it, thus spake to him in the end:\u2014\n\n28. I have told you all this for the sake of L\u00edl\u00e1, and now, good\nprince, we shall take leave of you, and these illusory scenes of the\nworld.\n\n29. Vasishtha said:\u2014The intelligent prince, being thus gently\naddressed by the goddess of wisdom, besought her in a submissive tone.\n\n30. Vid\u00faratha said:\u2014Your visit, O most bounteous goddess, cannot go\nfor nothing, when we poor mortals cannot withhold our bounty from our\nsuppliant visitants.\n\n31. I will quit this body to repair to another world, as one passes\nfrom one chain of dreams into another.\n\n32. Look upon me, thy suppliant, with kindness, and deign to confer\nthe favour I ask of thee; because the great never disdain to grant the\nprayers of their suppliants.\n\n33. Ordain that this virgin daughter of my minister, may accompany me\nto the region, where I shall be led, that we may have spiritual joy in\neach other\u2019s company hereafter.\n\n34. Sarasvat\u00ed said:\u2014Go now prince to the former palace of your past\nlife, and there reign without fear, in the enjoyment of true pleasure.\nKnow prince, that our visits never fail to fulfil the best wishes of\nour supplicants.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLIII.\n\n BURNING OF THE CITY.\n\n\nThe goddess added:\u2014Know further, O prince! that you are destined to\nfall in this great battle, and will have your former realm, presented\nto you in the same manner as before.\n\n2. Your minister and his maiden daughter will accompany you to your\nformer city, and you shall enter your lifeless corpse, lying in state\nin the palace.\n\n3. We shall fly there as winds before you, and you will follow us\naccompanied by the minister and his virgin daughter as one returning to\nhis native country.\n\n4. Your courses thereto will be as slow or swift as those of horses,\nelephants, asses, or camels, but our course is quite different from any\nof these.\n\n5. As the prince and the goddess were going on with this sweet\nconversation, there arrived a man on horse back before them in great\nhurry and confusion.\n\n6. He said:\u2014Lord! I come to tell that, there are showers of darts and\ndisks, and swords and clubs, falling upon us as rain, from the hostile\nforces, and they have been forcing upon us as a flood on all sides.\n\n7. They have been raining their heavy weapons upon us at pleasure, like\nfragments of rocks hurled down from the heads of high hills, by the\nimpetuous gusts of a hurricane.\n\n8. There they have set fire to our rock-like city, which like a wild\nfire, is raging on all sides. It is burning and ravaging with _chat\nchat_ sounds, and hurling the houses with a hideous noise.\n\n9. The smoke rising as heaving hills, have overspread the skies like\ndiluvian clouds; and the flame of fire, ascending on high, resembles\nthe ph\u0153nix flying in the sky.\n\n10. Vasishtha said:\u2014As the royal marshal was delivering with\ntrepidation this unpleasant intelligence, there arose a loud cry\nwithout, filling the sky with its uproar (hallahalloo-kol\u00e1 halam).\n\n11. The twanging (tank\u00e1ra) of bow strings drawn to the ears, the\nrustling (sarsara) of flying arrows flung with full force; the loud\nroaring (bringhana) of furious elephants, and the shrieks (chitk\u00e1ra) of\nfrightened ones.\n\n12. The gorgeous elephants bursting in the city with a clattering\n(chatchata) sound; and the high halloos (halahala) of citizens, whose\nhouses have been burnt down on the ground:\u2014(Here dagdhad\u00e1ra _Arabic_\ndaghdaghad-d\u00e1r, means both a burnt house and also a burnt wife).\n\n13. The falling and flying of burnt embers with a crackling noise\n(tank\u00e1ra); and the burning of raging fire with a hoarse sound\n(dhaghdhaga _Arabic_ daghdagha, _Bengali_ dhakdhak):\u2014\n\n14. All these were heard and seen by the goddesses and the prince and\nhis minister, from an opening of the tent; and the city was found to be\nin a blaze in the darkness of the night.\n\n15. It was as the conflagration or fiery ocean of the last day, and the\ncity was covered by clouds of the hostile army, with their flashing\nweapons, waving on all sides.\n\n16. The flame rose as high as the sky, melted down big edifices like\nhills by the all dissolving fire of destruction.\n\n17. Bodies of thick clouds roared on high, and threatened the people,\nlike the clamour (kala-kala) of the gangs of stout robbers, that were\ngathered on the ground for plunder and booty.\n\n18. The heavens were hidden under clouds of smoke, rolling as the\nshades of Pushkara and \u00c1varta, and the flames of fire, were flashing,\nlike the golden peaks of Meru.\n\n19. Burning cinders and sparks of fire, were glittering like meteors\nand stars in the sky; and the blazing houses and towers glared as\nburning mountains in the midst.\n\n20. The relics of the forces were beset by the spreading flames of\nclouds of fire, and the half burnt citizens (with their bitter cries),\nwere kept from flight, for fear of the threatening enemy abroad.\n\n21. Sleets of arrowy sparks flying in the air on all sides, and showers\nof weapons falling in every way, burnt and pierced the citizens in\nlarge numbers.\n\n22. The greatest and most expert champions, were crashed under the feet\nof elephants in fighting; and the roads were heaped with treasures,\nwrested from the robbers in their retreat.\n\n23. There were wailings of men and women at the falling of fire-brands\nupon them; and the splitting of splinters and the slitting of timbers\nemitted a _phat-phat_ noise all around.\n\n24. Big blocks of burning wood were blown up, blazing as burning suns\nin the air; and heaps of embers filled the face of the earth with\nliving fire.\n\n25. The cracking of combustible woods and the bursting of burning\nbamboos, the cries of the parched brutes and the howling of the\nsoldiers, re-echoed in the air.\n\n26. The flaming fire was quenched after consuming the royalty to ashes,\nand the devouring flame ceased after it had reduced everything to\ncinders.\n\n27. The sudden outbreak of the fire was as the outburst of house\nbreaking robbers upon the sleeping inhabitants; and it made its prey of\neverything (whether living or lifeless), that fell in its way.\n\n28. At this moment the prince Vid\u00faratha heard a voice, proceeding from\nhis soldiers, at the sight of their wives flying from the scorching\nflames.\n\n29. Oh! the high winds, that have blown the flames to the tops of our\nhousehold trees, with their rustling sound (kharakhara) and hindered\nour taking shelter under their cooling umbrage.\n\n30. Woe for the burning of our wives, who were as cold as frost to our\nbodies before (by their assuaging the smart of every pain); and whose\nashes now rest in our breasts, like the lime of shells, _i.e._ in the\nsublimated state of spiritual bodies (s\u00fakshma-dehas).\n\n31. Oh! the mighty power of fire, that has set to flame the forelocks\nof our fair damsels, and is burning the braids of their hair, like\nblades of grass or straws.\n\n32. The curling smoke is ascending on high, like a whirling and long\nmeandering river in the air, and the black and white fumes of fire,\nresemble the dark stream of Yamun\u00e1 in one place, and the milky path of\nthe etherial Gang\u00e1 in another.\n\n33. Streams of smoke bearing the brands of fire on high, dazzled the\nsight of the charioteers of heaven by their bubbling sparks.\n\n34. There are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, relations and\nsuckling babes, all burnt alive in the livid flames; and here are we\nburning in grief for them in these houses, which have been spared by\nthe devouring fire.\n\n35. Lo! there the howling fire is fast stretching to these abodes, and\nhere the cinders are falling as thick as the frost of Meru.\n\n36. Behold the direful darts and missiles dropping down as the driving\nrain, and penetrating the windows, like bodies of gnats in the shade of\nevening.\n\n37. The flashing spears and flaming fire, flaring above the watery\nocean of the sky, resemble the submarine fire ascending to heaven.\n\n38. The smoke is rising in clouds, and the flames are tapering in the\nform of towers, and all that was humid and verdant, is sucked and dried\nup, as the hearts of the dispassionate.\n\n39. The trees are broken down by the raging element, like posts\nof enraged elephants; and they are falling with a cracking noise\n(kata-kata), as if they were screaking at their fall.\n\n40. The trees in the orchards, now flourishing in their luxuriance\nof fruits and flowers, are left bare by the burning fire, like\nhouseholders bereft of their properties.\n\n41. Boys abandoned by their parents in the darkness of the night, were\neither pierced by flying arrows or crushed under the falling houses, in\ntheir flight through the streets.\n\n42. The elephants posted at the front of the army, got frightened at\nthe flying embers driven by the winds, and fled with loud screaming at\nthe fall of the burning houses upon them.\n\n43. Oh! the pain of being put to the sword, is not more grievous, than\nthat of being burnt by the fire, or smashed under the stones of the\nthundering engine.\n\n44. The streets are filled with domestic animals and cattle of all\nkinds, that are let loose from their folds and stalls, to raise their\ncommingled cries like the confused noise of battle in the blocked up\npaths.\n\n45. The weeping women were passing as lotus flowers on land, with\ntheir lotus like faces and feet and palms, and drops of tears fell\nlike fluttering bees from their lotiform eyes and wet apparel upon the\nground.\n\n46. The red taints and spots of _alak\u00e1vali_, blazed as _asoka_ flowers\nupon their foreheads and cheeks.\n\n47. Alack for pity! that the furious flame of fire, should singe the\nblack bee-like eyelids of our deer-eyed fairies; like the ruthless\nvictor, that delights in his acts of inhumanity.\n\n48. O the bond of connubial love! that the faithful wife never fails to\nfollow her burning lord, and cremates herself in the same flame with\nhim (this shows the practice of concremation to be older than the days\nof V\u00e1lm\u00edki and Visw\u00e1mitra).\n\n49. The elephant being burnt in his trunk, in breaking the burning\npost to which he was tied by the leg, ran with violence to a lake of\nlotuses, in which he fell dead. (Here is a play upon the homonymous\nword \u201cpushkara,\u201d in its triple sense of a lake, a lotus and the\nproboscis of an elephant).\n\n50. The flames of fire flashing like flitting lightnings amidst the\nclouds of smoke in the air, were darting the darts of burning coals\nlike bolts of thunder in showers.\n\n51. Lord! the sparks of fire sparkling amidst the dusky clouds, appear\nas glittering gems in the bosom of the airy ocean, and seem by their\ntwirling to gird the crown of heaven with the girdle of Pleiades.\n\n52. The sky was reddened by the light of the flaming fires, and\nappeared as the courtyard of Death dyed with purple hues in joy for\nreception of the souls of the dead.\n\n53. Alas! the day and want of manners! that the royal dames are carried\naway by these armed ruffians by force. (_O tempores O mores_).\n\n54. Behold them dragged in the streets from their stately edifices, and\nstrewing their paths with wreaths of flowers torn from their necks;\nwhile their half burnt locks are hanging loosely upon their bare\nbreasts and bosoms.\n\n55. Lo! their loose raiments uncovering their backs and loins, and the\njewels dropt down, from their wrists, have strewn the ground with gems.\n\n56. Their necklaces are torn and their pearls are scattered about;\ntheir bodies are bared of their bodices, and their breasts appear to\nview in their golden hue.\n\n57. Their shrill cries and groans rising above the war cry, choked\ntheir breath and split their sides; and they fell insensible with their\neyes dimmed by ceaseless floods of tears.\n\n58. They fell in a body with their arms twisted about the necks of one\nanother, and the ends of their cloths tied to each other\u2019s; and in\nthis way they were dragged by force of the ruffians, with their bodies\nmangled in blood.\n\n59. \u201cAh! who will save them from this state,\u201d cried the royal soldiers,\nwith their piteous looks on the sad plight of the females and shedding\nbig drops of their tears like lotuses.\n\n60. The bright face of the sky turned black at the horrible sight, and\nit looked with its blue lotus-like eyes of the clouds, on the fair\nlotus-like damsels thus scattered on the ground.\n\n61. Thus was the goddess of royal prosperity, decorated as she was with\nher waving and pendant locks, her flowing garments, flowery chaplets\nand gemming ornaments brought to her end like these ladies, after her\nenjoyment of the pleasures of royalty and gratification of all her\ndesires.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLIV.\n\n SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014At this instant the great queen, who was in the bloom\nof youthful beauty, entered the camp of Vid\u00faratha, as the goddess of\ngrace pops upon the lotus flower.\n\n2. She was decorated with pendant wreaths of flowers and necklaces, and\naccompanied by a train of her youthful companions and handmaids, all\nterrified with fear.\n\n3. With her face as bright as the moon and her form as fair as the\nlily, she appeared as a luminary of heaven, with her teeth shining as\nsets of stars, and her bosom throbbing with fear.\n\n4. Then the king was informed by one of her companions about the fate\nof the warfare, which resembled the onset of demons upon the Apsar\u00e1\ntribe.\n\n5. Lord! this lady, said she, has fled with us from her seraglio, to\ntake refuge under thy arms, as a tender creeper seeks the shelter of a\ntree, from a rude gust of wind.\n\n6. Behold! the ravishers ravishing the wives of the citizens with their\nuplifted arms, like the swelling waves of the sea carrying away the\narbours of the bank in their rapid current.\n\n7. The guards of the royal harem are all crushed to death by the\nhaughty marauders, as the sturdy trees of the forest are broken down by\nthe furious tornado.\n\n8. Our armies frightened by the enemy from afar, dare not approach the\nfalling city, as nobody ventures to rescue the lotus beds from a flood,\nunder the threatening thunders of a rainy night.\n\n9. The hostile force have poured upon the city in terrible numbers, and\nhaving set it on fire, are shouting loudly under the clouds of smoke,\nwith their weapons brandishing on all sides.\n\n10. The handsome ladies are dragged by the hair from amidst their\nfamilies, in the manner of screaming cranes, caught and carried away by\nthe cruel fowlers and fishermen.\n\n11. Now we have brought this exuberant tender creeper to thee, that\nthou mayst save her from similar fate by thy might.\n\n12. Hearing this, he looked at the goddesses and said, now will I go\nto the war from here, and leave this my lady as an humble bee at your\nlotus feet.\n\n13. Saying so, the king rose in a rage from his seat and sprang like\nthe enraged lion from the den, when pierced and pressed by the tusk of\na furious elephant.\n\n14. The widowed L\u00edl\u00e1 beheld the queen L\u00edl\u00e1 to be exactly of her form\nand features, and took her for a true inflexion of herself in a mirror.\n\n15. Then said the enlightened L\u00edl\u00e1 to Sarasvat\u00ed:\u2014Tell me, O goddess!\nhow this lady here is exactly as myself, she is what I have been\nbefore, and how she came to be as myself.\n\n16. I see this prime minister with all these soldiers and citizens,\nthese forces and vehicles, to be the same as mine, and situated in the\nsame place and manner as before.\n\n17. How is it then, O goddess! that they came to be placed in this\nplace. I see them as Images situated within and without the mirror of\nmy mind, and know not whether these be living beings (or the false\nchimeras of my imagination).\n\n18. Sarasvat\u00ed replied:\u2014All our external perceptions of things, are the\nimmediate effects of our internal conceptions of them. The intellect\nhas the knowledge of all the intelligibles in it, as the mind has the\nimpressions of mental objects in itself. (Or in other words:\u2014the\nintellect is possessed of all intelligence, like the mind of its\nthoughts, as they present themselves in dreams. Gloss).\n\n19. The external world appears in an instant in the same form and\nmanner to one, as he has its notion and impression in his intellect and\nmind; and no distance of time or place, nor any intermediate cause can\ncreate any difference in them.\n\n20. The inward world is seen on the outside, as the internal\nimpressions of our minds, appear to be seen without us in our dreams.\nWhatever is within us, the same appears without us, as in our dreams\nand desires, and in all our imaginations and fancies of objects.\n\n21. It is the constant habitude of your mind, that presented these\nthings as realities to your sight, and you saw your husband in the same\nstate in which you thought him to be, when he died in that city of\nyours.\n\n22. It is the same place wherein he exists at present, and is presented\nwith the same objects of his thought at present as he had at that\nmoment. Any thing that appears to be different in this state, proceeds\nfrom the turn of his mind of thinking it so before.\n\n23. All that appears real to him, is as unreal as his dream or\ndesire, and the creation of his fancy; for every thing appears to be\nthe same as it is thought of in the mind. (All external objects are\nrepresentations of their prototypes in the mind).\n\n24. Say therefore what truth can there be in these visionary objects,\nwhich are altogether unsubstantial as dreams, and vanish in the end\ninto airy nothing.\n\n25. Know then every thing to be no better than nothing; and as a dream\nproves to be nothing upon waking, so is waking also a dream and equally\nnothing at death.\n\n26. Death in life time is a nullity, and life in death becomes null\nand extinct; and these extinctions of life and death, proceed from the\nfluctuating nature of our notions of them.\n\n27. So there is neither any entity nor nonentity either, but both\nappear to us as fallacies by turns. For what neither was before, nor\nwill be, after a _Kalpa_ = creation or dissolution, the same cannot\nexist to-day or in any _Yuga_ = age, whether gone before or coming\nafterwards.\n\n28. That which is never inexistent, is the ever existent Brahma, and\nthe same is the world. It is in him that we see everything to rise and\nfall by our fallacy, and what we falsely term as the creation or the\ncreated.\n\n29. As phantoms appearing in the vacuum, are all vacant and void, and\nas the waves of the sea, are no other than its water; so do these\ncreated things exist and appear in Brahma only.\n\n30. As the minuti\u00e6 appearing in the air, vanish in the air; and as the\ndust driven by the winds, are lost in the winds; so the false notions\nof yourself and myself, are lost in that Supreme self, in which all\nthings rise and fall like waves of the ocean.\n\n31. What reliance can there be in this dust of creation, which is no\nmore than the water of the mirage? The knowledge of individualities is\nmere fallacy, when every thing is united in that sole unity.\n\n32. We see apparitions in the dark, though the darkness itself is no\napparition; so our lives and deaths are the false notions of our error,\nand the whole existence is equally the production of gross error (m\u00e1y\u00e1).\n\n33. All this is Himself, for He is the great Kalpa or will which\nproduces every thing; it is He that exists when all things are extinct\nin Him; and therefore these appearances, are neither real nor unreal of\nthemselves.\n\n34. But to say both (the real and unreal) to be Brahma, is a\ncontradiction; therefore it is He, who fills the infinity of space, and\nabides equally in all things and their minutest particles.\n\n35. Wherever the spirit of Brahma abides, and even in the minute\nanimalcule, it views the whole world in itself; like one thinking on\nthe heat and cold of fire and frost, has the same sensation within\nhimself at that moment. (Vide Hume).\n\n36. So doth the pure intellect perceive the Holy Spirit of God within\nitself, just as one sees the particles of light flying in his closet at\nsunrise.\n\n37. So do these multitudes of worlds, move about as particles in the\ninfinite space of the Divine mind, as the particles of odoriferous\nsubstances oscillate in the empty air.\n\n38. In this manner does this world abide in its incorporeal state\nin the mind of God, with all its modifications of existence and\ninexistence, emanation and absorption, of its condensation and\nsubtilization and its mobility and rest.\n\n39. But you must know all these modes and these conditions of being\nto belong to material bodies only and not to the spirit, which is\nunconditioned and indivisible (_i.e._ without attributes and parts).\n\n40. And as there is no change or division of one\u2019s own soul, so there\nis no partition or variation of the Supreme Spirit. It is according to\nthe ideas in our minds, that we view things in their different aspects\nbefore us.\n\n41. Yet the word world\u2014_visva_\u2014all, is not a meaningless term; it\nmeans the all as contained in Brahma (who is _to pan_). Therefore it is\nboth real and unreal at the same time like the fallacy of a snake in a\nrope.\n\n42. It is the false notion (of the snake), that makes the true (rope)\nto appear as the untrue snake to us, which we are apt to take for the\ntrue snake itself, so we take the Divine Intellect, which is the prime\ncause of all, as a living soul (like ours), by mistake.\n\n43. It is this notion (of the living soul), that makes us to think\nourselves as living beings, which whether it be false or true, is like\nthe appearance of the world in empty air.\n\n44. Thus these little animals delight themselves with their own\nmisconceived idea of being living beings, while there are others who\nthink themselves so, by their preconceived notions as such.\n\n45. Some there are that have no preconceived notions, and others that\nretain the same as or somewhat different notions of themselves than\nbefore. Somewhere the inborn notions are predominant, and sometimes\nthey are entirely lost.\n\n46. Our preconceived notions of ourselves, represent unrealities as\nrealities to our minds, and present the thoughts of our former family\nand birth, and the same occupations and professions before us (as also\nthe enjoyments we had before and no more existent at present).\n\n47. Such are the representations of your former ministers and citizens,\nimprinted as realities in your soul, together with the exact time and\nplace and manner of their functions, as before.\n\n48. And as the intelligence of all things, is present in the omniscient\nspirit of God, so is the idea of royalty inherent in the soul of the\nprince (_i.e._ like the ex-king Lear, he thinks himself every inch a\nking).\n\n49. This notion of his goes before him as his shadow in the air, with\nthe same stature and features, and the same acts and movements as he\nhad before.\n\n50. In this manner, L\u00edl\u00e1! Know this world to be but a shadowy reflexion\nof the eternal ideas of God; and this reflection is caught by or\nrefracted in the consciousness of all animal souls as in a prismatic\nmirror.\n\n51. Everything shows itself in every place in the form in which it\nis; so whatever there is in the living soul, casts out a reflexion\nof itself, and a shadow of it is caught by the intellect, which is\nsituated without it. (The mind is a mirror of the images in the soul).\n\n52. Here is the sky containing the world, which contains this earth,\nwherein you and myself and this prince are situated, as reflexions of\nthe One Ego only. Know all these to be contained within the vacuous\nwomb of the Intellect, and to remain as tranquil and transparent as\nvacuity itself.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLV.\n\n THEISM CONSISTING IN TRUE KNOWLEDGE.\n\n\nSarasvat\u00ed continued:\u2014Know L\u00edl\u00e1! this Vid\u00faratha, thy husband, will\nlose his life in this battle-field; and his soul will repair to the\nsepulchre in the inner apartment, where it will resume its former state.\n\n2. Upon hearing these words of the goddess, the second L\u00edl\u00e1, who was\nstanding by, bent herself lowly before the goddess, and addressed her\nwith her folded palms.\n\n3. The second L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s speech. Goddess! the genius of intelligence is\never adored by me, and she gives me her visits in my nightly dreams.\n\n4. I find thee here exactly of her likeness; therefore give me thy\nblessing, thou goddess with the beauteous face.\n\n5. Vasishtha said:\u2014The goddess being thus addressed by the lady,\nremembered her faith and reliance in her, and then spake with\ncomplacence to the lady standing suppliant before her.\n\n6. The goddess said:\u2014I am pleased my child, with thy unfailing and\nunslakened adoration of me all thy lifetime; now say what thou askest\nof me.\n\n7. The second L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Ordain O goddess, that I may accompany my\nhusband with this body of mine to whatever place he is destined to go,\nafter his death in the war.\n\n8. The goddess replied:\u2014Be it so my child; that hast worshipped\nme with all diligence and without fail, with flowers, incense and\nofferings.\n\n9. Vasishtha said:\u2014The second L\u00edl\u00e1 being gladdened by this blessing\nof the goddess, the first L\u00edl\u00e1, was much puzzled in her mind at the\ndifference of their states.\n\n10. The first L\u00edl\u00e1 said:\u2014Those who are desirous of truth, and they\nwhose desires lean towards godliness, have all their wishes fulfilled\nwithout delay and fail.\n\n11. Then tell me, goddess! why could I not keep company with my\nBr\u00e1hmana husband with my body of the Br\u00e1hman\u00ed, but had to be taken\nto him in the hilly mansion after my death, (and reproduction in the\npresent form).\n\n12. The goddess answered saying:\u2014Know O excellent lady! that I have no\npower to do anything; but every thing happens to pass according to the\ndesire of the living being.\n\n13. Know me only as the presiding divinity of wisdom, and I reveal\neverything according to my knowledge of it. It is by virtue of the\nintellectual powers as exhibited in every being, that it attains its\nparticular end.\n\n14. It is according to the development of the mental powers of living\nbeings in every state, that it obtains its object in the manner and in\nthe same state as it aims at.\n\n15. You had attained the powers of your understanding by your\ndevotedness to my service, and have always desired of me for being\nliberated from flesh.\n\n16. I have accordingly awakened your understanding in that way, whereby\nyou have been able to arrive at your present state of purity.\n\n17. It was by cause of your constant desire of liberation, that you\nhave gained the same state, by enlargement (of the powers) of your\nintellect.\n\n18. Whoever exerts his bodily powers according to the dictates of his\nunderstanding, is sure to succeed in gaining his object sooner or later.\n\n19. Performance of austerities and adoration of gods, are as vain\nwithout cultivation of the intellect, as to expect the falling of\nfruits from the sky.\n\n20. Without cultivation of the intellect and exertion of manly powers,\nthere is no way to success; do therefore as you may choose for yourself.\n\n21. It is verily the state of one\u2019s mind, that leads his internal soul\nto that state which it thinks upon, and to that prosperity which it\nattempts to obtain. 22. Now distinguish between what is desirable or\ndisagreeable to you, and choose that which is holy and perfect, and you\nwill certainly arrive to it.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLVI.\n\n ONSLAUGHT OF VID\u00daRATHA.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:\u2014Relate to me the acts of Vid\u00faratha, after he went out\nenraged from the camp, and left the ladies and the goddess talking in\nthat manner.\n\n2. Vasishtha said:\u2014Vid\u00faratha left his camp in company with a large\nbody of his companions like the bright moon beset by a host of stars.\n\n3. He was in armour and girt by laces and girdles, and thus attired\nin his martial habit, he went forth amidst the loud war cry of _vae\nvictis_, like the god Indra going to battle.\n\n4. He gave orders to the soldiers and was informed of the battle array;\nand having given directions to his captains, he mounted his chariot.\n\n5. It was adorned with mountings resembling the pinnacles of mountains\nand beset by five flags fringed with strings of pearls and gems,\nresembling a celestial car.\n\n6. The iron hoops of its wheels flashed with their golden pegs, and the\nlong and beautiful shaft of the car, rang with the tinkling of pearls\nwhich were suspended to it.\n\n7. It was drawn by long necked, swift and slender horses of the best\nbreed and auspicious marks; that seemed to fly in the air by their\nswiftness and bearing aloft a heavenly car with some god in it.\n\n8. Being impatient of the swiftness of the winds, they spurred them\nwith their hinder heels and left them behind, and sped the forepart of\ntheir bodies as if to devour the air, impeding their course.\n\n9. The car was drawn by eight coursers with their manes hanging down\ntheir necks like flappers, and white spots or circlets resembling the\ndisks of moon on their foreheads, and filling the eight sides around\nwith their hoarse neighing. 10. At this time there rose a loud noise\nof the elephants, resounding like drums from the hollows of the distant\nhills.\n\n11. Loud clamours (kala-kalas) were raised by the infuriate soldiers,\nand the tinkling of their belted trinkets (kinkini), and clashing of\ntheir weapons, rang afar in the open air.\n\n12. The crackling (chatachata) of the bows, and the wheezing (shitkara)\nof the arrows, joined with the jangle (jhanjhana) of armours, by their\nclashing against one another, raised a confused hubbub all around.\n\n13. The sparkling (kanatkara) of blazing fire, and the mutual challenge\nof the champions; the painful shrieks of the wounded and the piteous\ncry of captives, were seen and heard on all sides.\n\n14. The mingled sounds thickened in the air, and filled its cavity and\nits sides as with solid stones and capable of being clutched in the\nhands.\n\n15. Clouds of dust flew as fast and thick into the air, that they\nseemed to be the crust or strata of the earth, rising upward to block\nthe path of the sun in the sky.\n\n16. The great city was hid in the dark womb of the overspreading dust\n(rajas), as the ignorant state of man is covered in darkness by the\nrising passion (rajas) of juvenescence.\n\n17. The burning lights became as dim, as the fading stars of heaven by\nday light, and the darkness of night became as thick, as the devils of\ndarkness gather their strength at night.\n\n18. The two L\u00edl\u00e1s saw the great battle with the virgin daughter of\nthe minister from the tent; and they had their eyes enlightened with\nfarsightedness by favour of the goddess.\n\n19. Now there was an end of the flashing and clashing of the hostile\narms in the city, as the flash and crash of submarine fires were put to\nan end by the all-submerging floods of the universal deluge.\n\n20. Vid\u00faratha collected his forces and without considering the\nsuperiority of the hostile power pressed himself forward amidst them,\nas the great Meru rushed into the waters of the great deluge.\n\n21. Now the twanging of the bow strings emitted a clattering\n(Chatachata) sound; and the forces of the enemy advanced in battle\narray, like bodies of clouds with rainbows amidst them.\n\n22. Many kinds of missiles flew as falcons in the air; and the black\nsteel waved with a dark glare owing to the massacres they made.\n\n23. The clashing swords flashed with living flames of fire by their\nstriking against one another; and showers of arrows whistled like\nhissing rainfalls in the air.\n\n24. Two edged saws pierced the bodies of the warriors; and the flinging\nweapons hurtled in the air by their clashing at and crashing of each\nother.\n\n25. The darkness of the night was put to flight by the blaze of the\nweapons; and the whole army was pierced by arrows, sticking as the\nhairs on their bodies.\n\n26. Headless trunks moved about as players in the horrid solemnity of\nthe god of death (Yama); and the furies fled about at the dint of war,\nlike the raving lasses at Bacchanal revelries.\n\n27. Elephants fighting with their tusks, sent a clattering noise in the\nair; and the stones flung from the slings, flew as a flowing stream in\nthe sky.\n\n28. Bodies of men were falling dead on the ground, like the dried\nleaves of forests blown away by blasts; and streams of blood were\nrunning in the field of battle, as if the heights of war were pouring\ndown the floods of death below.\n\n29. The dust of the earth was set down by the floods of blood, and the\ndarkness was dispelled by the blaze of weapons; all clamour ceased\nin intense fighting, and the fear for life, was lost under the stern\nresolution of death.\n\n30. The fighting was stern without a cry or noise, like the pouring\nof rain in the breezeless sky, and with the glitter of swords in the\ndarkened air, like the flashes of forky lightnings amidst the murky\nclouds.\n\n31. The darts were flying about with a hissing noise (khad-khada);\nand the crow-bars hit one another with a harsh (taktaka) sound; large\nweapons were struck upon one another with a jarring noise (jhanjhana),\nand the dreadful war raged direfully in the dim darkness (timitimi) of\nthe night.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLVII.\n\n ENCOUNTER OF SINDHU AND VID\u00daRATHA.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014As the war was waging thus furiously between the two\narmies, the two L\u00edl\u00e1s addressed the goddess of knowledge and said:\u2014\n\n2. \u201cTell us, O goddess! what unknown cause prevents our husband to gain\nthe victory in this war, notwithstanding your good grace to him, and\nhis repelling the hostile elephants in the combat\u201d.\n\n3. Sarasvat\u00ed replied:\u2014Know ye daughters, that I was ever solicited by\nVid\u00faratha\u2019s enemy to confer him victory in battle, which your husband\nnever craved of me.\n\n4. He lives and enjoys his life as it was desired by him, while his\nantagonist gains the conquest according to his aim and object.\n\n5. Knowledge is contained in the consciousness of every living being,\nand rewards every one according to the desire to which it is directed.\n\n6. My nature like that of all things is as unchangeable as the heat\nof fire (which never changes to cold). So the nature of Vid\u00faratha\u2019s\nknowledge of truth, and his desire of liberation lead him to the like\nresult (and not to victory).\n\n7. The intelligent L\u00edl\u00e1 also will be liberated with him, and not the\nunintelligent one, who by her nature is yet unprepared for that highest\nstate of bliss.\n\n8. This enemy of Vid\u00faratha, the king of Sinde, has long worshipped me\nfor his victory in war; whereby the bodies of Vid\u00faratha and his wife\nmust fall into his hands.\n\n9. Thou girl wilt also have thy liberation like hers in course of time;\nbut ere that, this enemy of yours,\u2014the king of Sinde, will reign\nvictorious in this earth.\n\n10. Vasishtha said:\u2014As the goddess was speaking in this manner, the\nsun appeared on his rising hill to behold the wondrous sight of the\nforces in fighting.\n\n11. The thick mists of night disappeared like the hosts of the enemy\n(Sinde); and left the forces of Vid\u00faratha to glitter as stars at the\napproach of night.\n\n12. The hills and dales and the land and water gradually appeared to\nsight, and the world seemed to reappear to view from amidst the dark\nocean of the (deluge).\n\n13. The bright rays of the rising sun radiated on all sides like the\nstreams of liquid gold, and made the hills appear as the bodies of\nwarriors besmeared with (blood).\n\n14. The sky seemed as an immense field of battle, stretched over by the\nradiant rays of the sun (Karas), likening the shining arms (Karas) of\nthe warriors, shaking in their serpentine mood.\n\n15. The helmets on their heads raised their lotus-like tops on high,\nand the rings about their ears blazed with their gemming glare below.\n\n16. The pointed weapons were as fixed as the snouts of unicorns, and\nthe flying darts fled about as butterflies in the air. The bloody field\npresented a picture of the ruddy dawn and dusk, and the dead bodies on\nthe ground, represented the figures of motionless saints in their Yoga.\n\n17. Necklaces like snakes overhung their breasts, and the armours like\nsloughs of serpents covered their bodies. The flags were flying like\ncrests of creepers on high, and the legs of the warriors stood as\npillars in the field.\n\n18. Their long arms were as branches of trees, and the arrows formed\na bush of reeds; the flash of weapons spread as a verdant meadow all\naround, while their blades blazed with the lustre of the long-leaved\n_ketaka_ flowers.\n\n19. The long lines of weapons formed as rows of bamboos and bushes\nof brambles, and their mutual clashing emitted sparks of fire like\nclusters of the red _asoka_ flowers.\n\n20. The bands of Siddhas were flying away with their leaders from the\nair, to avert the weapons which were blazing there with the radiance\nof the rising sun, and forming as it were, a city of gold on high.\n\n21. The sky re-echoed to the clashing of darts and discuses, of swords\nand spears and of mallets and clubs in the field; and the ground was\noverflown by streams of blood, bearing away the dead bodies of the\nslain.\n\n22. The land was strewn with crowbars, lances and spears, and with\ntridents and stones on all sides; and headless bodies were falling\nhideously, pierced by poles and pikes and other instruments of death.\n\n23. The ghosts and goblins of death were making horrible noise above,\nand the shining cars of Sindhu and Vid\u00faratha, moved with a loud\nrumbling below.\n\n24. They appeared as the two luminaries of the sun and moon in heaven,\nand equipped with their various weapons of disks and rods, of crowbars\nand spears, and other missiles besides.\n\n25. They were both surrounded by thousands of soldiers, and turned\nabout as thy liked, with loud shouts of their retinues.\n\n26. Crushed under heavy disks, many fell dead and wounded with loud\ncries; and big elephants were floating lightly on the currents of blood.\n\n27. The hairs on the heads of dead bodies, floated like weeds in the\nstream of blood, and the floating discuses glided like the disks of the\nmoon, reflected in the purple streamlet.\n\n28. The jingling (jhanat) of gemming ornaments, and the tinkling\n(ranat) bells of war carriages, with the flapping (patat) of flags by\nthe wind, filled the field with a confused noise.\n\n29. Numbers of valiant as well as dastardly soldiers followed their\nrespective princes, some bleeding under the spears of Kuntas and others\npierced by the arrows of bowyers.\n\n30. Then the two princes turned round their chariots in circling\nrings over the ground, and amidst phalanxes armed with all sorts of\ndestructive weapons.\n\n31. Each confronted the other with his arms, and having met one\nanother face to face, commenced showering forth his arrows with the\npattering sound of hailstones.\n\n32. They both threatened one another with the roaring of loud surges\nand clouds, and the two lions among men, darted their arrows upon one\nanother in their rage.\n\n33. They flung their missiles in the air in the form of stones and\nmalls, and some faced like swords, and others headed as mallets.\n\n34. Some were as sharp edged disks, and some as curved as battle axes;\nsome were as pointed as pikes and spears, and others as bars and rods\nin their forms, and some were of the shape of tridents, and others as\nbulky as blocks of stones.\n\n35. These missives were falling as fully and as fast as blocks of\nstones, which are hurled down from high and huge rocks, by gusts of\nblustering hurricanes. And the meeting of the two armigerent powers,\nwas as the confluence of the Indus and the sea, with tremendous\nroaring, and mutual collision and clashing.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLVIII.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF DAIV\u00c1STRAS OR SUPERNATURAL WEAPONS.[23]\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014R\u00e1j\u00e1 Vid\u00faratha, finding the high shouldered\nSindhu-r\u00e1ja before him, was enraged like the raging sun, in his mid-day\nfury.\n\n2. The twanging of his bow resounded in the air on all sides, and\ngrowled as loudly as the howling of winds in the caverns of mountains.\n\n3. He drew his arrows from the dark quiver, and darted them like the\nrays of the sun rising from the womb of night.\n\n4. Each arrow flung from the bowstring, flew as thousands in the air,\nand fell as millions on the ground. (The arrow or _b\u00e1na_ is a name\ngiven to bombs which burst out into unnumbered shells).\n\n5. The king Sindhu was equally expert in his bowmanship, as both of\nthese bowyers owed their skill in archery to the favour of Vishnu.\n\n6. Some of these darts were called bolts, which blocked the aerial\npassages as with bolts at their doors, and fell down on the ground with\nthe loud roar of thunderbolts.\n\n7. Others begirt with gold, flew hissing as if blown by the winds in\nthe air, and after shining as stars in the sky, fell as blazing meteors\non the ground.\n\n8. Showers of shafts poured forth incessantly from the hands of\nVid\u00faratha, like the ceaseless torrents of rivers or billows of the sea,\nand the endless radiation of solar rays.\n\n9. Shells and bullets were flying about as sparks of fire struck out\nof the balls of red-hot iron, and falling as flowers of forests, blown\naway by gusts of wind.\n\n10. They fell as showers of rainwater, and as the rush of water-falls;\nand as plentifully as the sparks of fire which flew from the burning\ncity of Vid\u00faratha.\n\n11. The jarring sound (chatchat) of their bowstrings, hushed the\nclamour of the two armies, as a calm quiets the roaring of the raging\nsea.\n\n12. The course of the arrows, was as the stream of Ganges (the milky\npath) in heaven, running towards the king Sindhu, as the river runs to\nmeet the sea (Sindhu).\n\n13. The shower of arrows flying from the golden bow of the king, was as\nthe flood of rain falling under the variegated rainbow in the sky.\n\n14. Then L\u00edl\u00e1 the native of that city, saw from the window the darts of\nher husband, rushing like the currents of Ganges, against the forces of\nSindhu resembling a sea.\n\n15. She understood the flight of those darts to promise victory to her\nlord, and then spoke gladly to Sarasvat\u00ed, with her lotus like face\n(Lit.\u2014by opening her lotus like mouth).\n\n16. Be victorious O goddess! and behold victory waiting on the side\nof my lord, whose darts are piercing the rocks, and breaking them to\npieces.\n\n17. As she was uttering these words full of affection (to her lord),\nthe goddesses eyed her askance, and smiled at her womanish tenderness\nof heart.\n\n18. The flaming (Agastian) fire of Sindhu swallowed the raging sea of\nVid\u00faratha\u2019s arrows, as the submarine fire consumes the water, and as\nJahnu drank the stream of Ganges.\n\n19. The missive weapons of Sindhu, thwarted the thickening arrows of\nhis adversary, and drove them back broken and flying as dust in the\nempty air.\n\n20. As an extinguished lamp loses its light in the air, so the flashes\nof the fire arms disappeared in the sky, and nobody knew where they\nfled.\n\n21. Having thus dispelled the shower of arrows, he sent a thick cloud\nof his weapons, appearing as hundreds of dead bodies flying in the air.\n\n22. Vid\u00faratha repelled them quickly by means of his better bolts, as a\nhurricane disperses the frightening clouds in the air.\n\n23. Both the kings being thus baffled in their aims by the opposing\narms, which were indiscriminately let loose against one another, laid\nhold on more potent missiles (which they had got as gifts of their gods\nto them).\n\n24. Sindhu then let fly his magic missile the gift of a Gandharva to\nhim, which kept his hostile army all spell-bound except Vid\u00faratha\u2019s\nself.\n\n25. Struck with this weapon, the soldiers became as mute as moonstruck,\nstaring in their looks, and appearing as dead bodies or as pictures in\na painting.\n\n26. As the soldiers of Vid\u00faratha remained exorcised in their files, the\nking employed his instruments of a counter-charm to remove the spell.\n\n27. This awakened the senses of Vid\u00faratha\u2019s men as the morning twilight\ndiscloses the bed of lotuses, and the rising sun opens their closed\npetals to light; while Sindhu like the raging sun darted his rage upon\nthem.\n\n28. He flung his serpentine weapons upon them, which bound them as fast\nas a band all about their bodies, and encircled the battle ground and\nair, like snakes twining round the craigs and rocks.\n\n29. The ground was filled with snakes as the lake with the spreading\nstalks of lotuses, and the bodies of gigantic warriors were begirt by\nthem, like hills by huge and horrible hydras.\n\n30. Everything was overpowered by the poignant power of the poison, and\nthe inhabitants of the hills and forests were benumbed by the venomous\ninfection.\n\n31. The smart poison spread a fiery heat all around, and the frozen\nsnows like fire-brands sent forth their burning particles which were\nwafted by the hot winds in the air.\n\n32. The armigerous Vid\u00faratha who was equally skilled in arms, had\nthen recourse to his Garuda or serpivorous weapons, which fled like\nmountainous eagles to all sides.\n\n33. Their golden pinions spread in the sky on all sides, and\nembroidered the air with purple gold; and the flapping of their wings\nwheezed like a breeze, which blew away the poisonous effluvia afar in\nthe air.\n\n34. It made the snakes breathe out of their nostrils with a hissing,\nresembling the gurgling (ghurghur) of waters in a whirlpool in the sea.\n\n35. The flying Garuda weapons devoured the creeping terrene serpents\nwith a whistling noise (salsala), like that of the rising waters\n(water-spouts), in the act of their suction by Agastya\u2014the sun.\n\n36. The face of the ground delivered from its covering of these\nreptiles, again appeared to view, as the surface of the earth\nre-appeared to light, after its deliverance from the waters of the\ndeluge.\n\n37. The army of Garudas disappeared afterwards from sight, like a line\nof lamps put out by the wind, and the assemblage of clouds vanishing in\nautumn.\n\n38. They fled like flying mountains for fear of the bolts of the\nthundering Indra; and vanished like the evanescent world seen in a\ndream, or as an aerial castle built by fancy.\n\n39. Then king Sindhu shot his shots of darkness (smoke), which darkened\nthe scene like the dark cave under the ground.\n\n40. It hid the face of the earth and sky, like the diluvian waters\nreaching to the welkin\u2019s face; making the army appear as a shoal of\nfishes, and the stars as gems shining in the deep.\n\n41. The overspreading darkness appeared as a sea of ink or dark\nquagmire, or as the particles of Anjanagiri (Inky mountain) wafted by\nthe breeze over the face of nature.\n\n42. All beings seemed to be immersed in the sea or darkness, and to\nlose their energies as in the deep gloom of midnight.\n\n43. Vid\u00faratha the best of the most skilful in ballistics, shot his\nsun-bright shot which like the sun illumined the vault of the sky.\n\n44. It rose high amidst the overspreading darkness like the sun\n(Agastya) with his effulgent beams, and dispelled the shades of\ndarkness, as autumn does the rainy clouds.\n\n45. The sky being cleared of its veil of darkness, manifested itself\nwith its reddish clouds, resembling the blowzy bodices of damsels\nbefore the king. (Here is a pun upon the word _payodhara_ which means\nboth a cloud and the breast of a woman).\n\n46. Now the landscape appeared in full view, like the understanding\n(good sense) of men coming in full play after the extinction of their\navarice.\n\n47. The enraged Sindhu then laid hold on his dreadful R\u00e1kshasa weapon,\nwhich he instantly flung on his foe with its bedeviled darts.\n\n48. These horrid and destructive darts flew on all sides in the air,\nand roared as the roaring sea and elephantine clouds (dighastis) of\nheaven.\n\n49. They were as the flames of lambent fire, with their long licking\ntongues and ash-coloured and smoky curls, rising as hoary hairs on the\nhead, and making a _chat-chat_ sound like that of moist fuel set up on\nfire.\n\n50. They wheeled round in circles through the air, with a horrible\n_tangtang_ noise, now flaming as fire and now fuming as smoke, and then\nflying about as sparks of fire.\n\n51. With mouths beset by rows of sprouting teeth like lotus stalks,\nand faces defaced by dirty and fusty eyes, their hairy bodies were as\nstagnate pools full of moss and weeds.\n\n52. They flew about and flashed and roared aloud as some dark clouds,\nwhile the locks of hairs on their heads glared as lightnings in the\nmidway sky.\n\n53. At this instant Vid\u00faratha the spouse of L\u00edl\u00e1, sent forth his\nN\u00e1r\u00e1yana weapon, having the power of suppressing wicked spirits and\ndemons.\n\n54. The appearance of this magic weapon, made the bodies of the\nR\u00e1kshasas, disappear as darkness at sun rise.\n\n55. The whole army of these fiends was lost in the air, as the sable\nclouds of the rainy season, vanish into nothing at the approach of\nautumn.\n\n56. Then Sindhu discharged his fire arms which set fire to the sky, and\nbegan to burn down every thing, as by the all destroying conflagration\nof the last day.\n\n57. They filled all the sides of air with clouds of smoke, which seemed\nto hide the face of heaven under the darkness of hell.\n\n58. They set fire to the woods in the hills, which burned like\nmountains of gold; while the trees appeared to bloom with yellow\n_champaka_ flowers all around.\n\n59. All the sides of the sky above, and the hills, woods and groves\nbelow, were enveloped in the flames, as if they were covered under the\nred powder of _huli_, with which Yama was sporting over the plain.\n\n60. The heaven-spreading flame burnt down the legions in one heap of\nashes, as the submarine fire consumes whole bodies of the fleet and\nnavy in the sea.\n\n61. As Sindhu continued to dart his firearms against his vanquished\nadversary, Vid\u00faratha let off his watery arms with reverential regard.\n\n62. These filled with water, flew forward as the shades of darkness\nfrom their hidden cells; and spread up and down and on all sides, like\na melted mountain gushing in a hundred cataracts.\n\n63. They stretched as mountainous clouds or as a sea in the air, and\nfell in showers of watery arrows and stones on the ground.\n\n64. They flew up like large _tam\u00e1la_ trees, and being gathered in\ngroups like the shades of night, appeared as the thick gloom beyond the\n_lok\u00e1loka_ or polar mountains.\n\n65. They gave the sky the appearance of subterraneous caves, emitting\na gurgling sound (ghurghura) like the loud roaring of elephants.\n\n66. These waters soon drank (cooled) the spreading furious fire, as the\nshades of the dark night swallow (efface) the surrounding red tints of\nthe evening.\n\n67. Having swallowed the fires above, the waters overflooded the ground\nand filled it with a humidity which served to enervate all bodies, as\nthe power of sleep numbs every body in death-like torpidity.\n\n68. In this manner both the kings were throwing their enchanted weapons\nagainst each other, and found them equally quelling and repelling one\nanother in their course.\n\n69. The heavy armed soldiers of Sindhu and the captains of his\nregiments were swept away by the flood, together with the warcars which\nfloated upon it.\n\n70. At this moment, Sindhu thought upon his anhydrous weapons\n(soshan\u00e1stre\u2014thermal arms), which possessed the miraculous power of\npreserving his people from the water, and hurled them in the air.\n\n71. These absorbed the waters as the sun sucks up the moisture of the\nnight, and dried up the land and revived the soldiers, except those\nthat were already dead and gone.\n\n72. Their heat chased the coldness as the rage of the illiterate\nenrages the learned, and made the moist ground as dry, as when the\nsultry winds strew the forest land with dried leaves.\n\n73. It decorated the face of the ground with a golden hue, as when the\nroyal dames adorn their persons with a yellow paint or ointment.\n\n74. It put the soldiers on the opposite side to a state of feverish (or\nblood heated) fainting, as when the tender leaves of trees are scorched\nby the warmth of a wild fire in summer heat.\n\n75. Vid\u00faratha in his rage of warfare laid hold on his bow (kodanda),\nand having bent it to a curve, let fly his cloudy arms on his\nantagonist.\n\n76. They sent forth columns of clouds as thick as the sable shades of\nnight, which flying upward as a forest of dark _tam\u00e1la_ trees, spread\nan umbrage heavy with water on high.\n\n77. They lowered under the weight of their water, and stood still by\ntheir massive thickness; and roared aloud in their circles all over the\nsky.\n\n78. Then blew the winds dropping the dewdrops of the icy store\nthey bore on their pinions; and showers of rain fell fast from the\ncollections of the clouds on high.\n\n79. Then flashed the fiery lightnings from them like golden serpents in\ntheir serpentine course or rather like the aslant glances of the eyes\nof heavenly nymphs.\n\n80. The roarings of the clouds rebounded in the mountainous caverns\nof the sky, and the quarters of heaven re-echoed to the same with the\nhoarse noise of elephants and the roaring of lions and growling of\ntigers and bears.\n\n81. Showers of rain fell in floods with drops as big as _musalas_\u2014malls\nor mallets, and with flashes of lightnings threatening as the stern\nglancings of the god of death.\n\n82. Huge mists rising at first in the form of vapours of the earth, and\nthen borne aloft by the heated air into the sky, seemed like titans\nto rise from the infernal regions (and then invade heaven with their\ngloomy armament).\n\n83. The mirage of the warfare ceased after a while; as the worldly\ndesires subside to rest upon tasting the sweet joys attending on divine\nknowledge.\n\n84. The ground became full of mud and mire and was impassable in every\npart of it; and the forces of Sindhu were overflown by the watery\ndeluge, like the river Sinde or the sea.\n\n85. He then hurled his airy weapon which filled the vault of heaven\nwith winds, and raged in all their fury like the Bhairava-Furies on the\nlast day of resurrection.\n\n86. The winds blew on all sides of the sky, with darts falling as\nthunder bolts, and hailstones now piercing and then crushing all bodies\nas by the last blast of nature on the dooms-day.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XLIX.\n\n DESCRIPTION OF OTHER KINDS OF WEAPONS.\n\n\nThen blew the icy winds of winter, blasting the beauty of the foliage\nof forest trees, and shaking and breaking the beautiful arbors, and\ncovering them with gusts of dust.\n\n2. Then rose the gale whirling the trees like birds flying in the\nair, dashing and smashing the soldiers on the ground, and hurling and\nbreaking the edifices to dust.\n\n3. This fearful squall blew away Vid\u00faratha and his force, as a rapid\ncurrent carries away the broken and rotten fragments of wood.\n\n4. Then Vid\u00faratha who was skilled in ballistics hurled his huge and\nheavy arrows, which stretched themselves to the sky, and withstood the\nforce of the winds and rain.\n\n5. Opposed by these rock-like barriers, the airy weapons were at a\nstand still, as the animal spirits are checked by the firm stoicity of\nthe soul.\n\n6. The trees which had been blown up by the winds and floating in the\nbreezy air, now came down and fell upon the dead bodies, like flocks of\ncrows upon putrid carcasses.\n\n7. The shouting (shitk\u00e1ra) of the city, the distant hum (d\u00e1tk\u00e1ra)\nof the village, the howling (bh\u00e1nk\u00e1ra) of forests, and the rustling\n(utk\u00e1ra) of the trees, ceased on all sides like the vain verbiology of\nmen.\n\n8. Sindhu saw burning rocks (rockets?) falling from above like leaves\nof trees, and flying about as the winged Main\u00e1kas or moving rocks of\nthe sea or Sinde (sindhu).\n\n9. He then hurled his thundering weapons, falling as flaming\nthunderbolts from heaven, which burnt the rocks away as the flaming\nfire destroys the darkness.\n\n10. These falling bolts broke the stones with their pointed ends, and\nhewed down the heads (tops) of the hills, like a hurricane scattering\nthe fruits of trees on the ground.\n\n11. Vid\u00faratha then darted his Brahm\u00e1 weapon to quell the thunderbolts,\nwhich jostling against one another, disappeared in their mutual\nconflict.\n\n12. Sindhu then cast his demoniac weapons (Pis\u00e1ch\u00e1stras) as black as\ndarkness, which fled as lines of horrid Pis\u00e1cha demons on all sides.\n\n13. They filled the firmament with the darkness of their bodies, and\nmade the daylight turn to the shade of night, as if it were for fear of\nthem.\n\n14. They were as stalwart in their figures as huge columns of smoke,\nand as dark in their complexion as the blackest pitch, and tangible by\nthe hand.\n\n15. They were as lean skeletons with erect hairs on their heads and\nbearded faces, with looks as pale as those of beggars, and bodies as\nblack as those of the aerial and nocturnal fiends.\n\n16. They were terrific and like idiots in their looks, and moved about\nwith bones and skulls in their hands. They were as meagre as churls,\nbut more cruel than either the sword or thunderbolt.\n\n17. The Pis\u00e1chas lurk about the woods, bogs and highways, and pry into\nempty and open door houses. They hunt about as ghosts in their dark\nforms, and fly away as fast as the fleeting lightning.\n\n18. They ran and attacked with fury the remaining forces of the enemy,\nthat stood weaponless in the field, with their broken and sorrowful\nhearts.\n\n19. Frightened to death they stood motionless, and dropped down their\narms and armours, and stood petrified as if they were demon-struck,\nwith staring eyes, open mouths, and unmoving hands and feet.\n\n20. They let fall both their lower and upper garments, loosened their\nbowels and slakened their bodies through fear, and kept shaking as\nfixed trees by the winds.\n\n21. The line of the Pis\u00e1chas then advanced to frighten Vid\u00faratha out\nof his wits, but he had the good sense to understand them as the mere\nMumbo-jumbos of magic.\n\n22. He knew the counter charm to fight out the Pis\u00e1chas from the field,\nand employed his charmed weapons against the Pis\u00e1cha army of his enemy.\n\n23. He darted in his ire the R\u00fapik\u00e1 weapon, which gave comfort to his\nown army, and deluded the Pis\u00e1cha force of his adversary.\n\n24. These R\u00fapik\u00e1s flew in the air with erect hairs on their heads;\ntheir terrific eyes were sunk in their sockets, and their waists and\nbreasts moved as trees with bunches of fruit.\n\n25. They had past their youth and become old; and their bodies were\nbulky and worn out with age; they had deformed backs and hips, and\nprotuberant navels and naves.\n\n26. They had dark dusky bodies, and held human skulls in their hands\nall besmeared with blood. They had bits of half devoured flesh in their\nmouths, and pouring out fresh blood from their sides.\n\n27. They had a variety of gestures, motions and contortions of their\nbodies, which were as hard as stone, with wry faces, crooked backs and\ntwisted legs and limbs.\n\n28. Some had their faces like those of dogs, crows, and owls, with\nbroad mouths and flat cheek-bones and bellies, and held human skulls\nand entrails in their hands.\n\n29. They laid hold of the Pis\u00e1chas as men catch little boys, and joined\nwith them in one body as their consorts. (_i.e._ The R\u00fapik\u00e1 witches\nbewitching the demoniac Pis\u00e1chas, got the better of them).\n\n30. They joined together in dancing and singing with outstretched arms\nand mouths and eyes, now joining hand in hand and now pursuing one\nanother in their merry sport.\n\n31. They stretched their long tongues from their horrid mouths, and\nlicked away the blood exuding from the wounds of the dead bodies.\n\n32. They plunged in the pool of blood with as much delight, as if\nthey dived in a pond of ghee, and scrabbled in the bloody puddle with\noutstretched arms and feet, and uplifted ears and nose.\n\n33. They rolled and jostled with one another in the puddle of carrion\nand blood, and made it swell like the milky ocean when churned by the\nMandara mountain.\n\n34. As Vid\u00faratha employed his magic weapon against the magic of Sindhu,\nso he had recourse to others from a sense of his inferiority.\n\n35. He darted his Vet\u00e1la weapon, which made the dead bodies, whether\nwith or without their heads, to rise up in a body in their ghastly\nshapes.\n\n36. The joint forces of the Vet\u00e1las, Pis\u00e1chas and R\u00fapik\u00e1s presented a\ndreadful appearance as that of the Kavandhas, and seemed as they were\nready to destroy the earth.\n\n37. The other monarch was not slow to show his magical skill, by\nhurling his R\u00e1kshasa weapon, which threatened to grasp and devour the\nthree worlds.\n\n38. These with their gigantic bodies rose as high as mountains, and\nseemed as hellish fiends appearing from the infernal regions in their\nghostly forms.\n\n39. The ferocious body of the roaring R\u00e1kshasas, terrified both the\ngods and demigods (sur\u00e1suras), by their loud martial music and war\ndance of their headless trunks (Kavandhas).\n\n40. The giddy Vet\u00e1las, Yakshas and Kushm\u00e1ndas, devoured the fat and\nflesh of dead bodies as their toast, and drank the gory blood as their\nlurid wines in the coarse of their war dance.\n\n41. The hopping and jumping of the Kushm\u00e1ndas, in their war dance in\nstreams of blood, scattered its crimson particles in the air, which\nassembled in the form of a bridge of red evening clouds over the\nsparkling sea.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER L.\n\n DEATH OF VID\u00daRATHA.\n\n\nVasishtha said:\u2014As the tide of war was rolling violently with a\ngeneral massacre on both sides, the belligerent monarchs thought on the\nmeans of saving their own forces from the impending ruin.\n\n2. The magnanimous Sindhur\u00e1ja, who was armed with patience, called to\nhis mind the Vaishnava weapon, which was the greatest of arms and as\npowerful as Siva (Jove) himself.\n\n3. No sooner was the Vaishnava weapon hurled by him with his best\njudgment (mantra), than it emitted a thousand sparks of fire from its\nflaming blade on all sides.\n\n4. These sparks enlarged into balls, as big and bright as to shine like\nhundreds of suns in the sky, and others flew as the lengthy shafts of\ncudgels in the air.\n\n5. Some of them filled the wide field of the firmament with\nthunderbolts as thick as the blades of grass, and others overspread the\nlake of heaven, with battle axes as a bed of lotuses.\n\n6. These poured forth showers of pointed arrows spreading as a net-work\nin the sky, and darted the sable blades of swords, scattered as the\nleaves of trees in the air.\n\n7. At this time, the rival king Vid\u00faratha, sent forth another Vaishnava\nweapon for repelling the former, and removing the reliance of his foe\nin his foible.\n\n8. It sent forth a stream of weapons counteracting those of the other,\nand overflowing in currents of arrows and pikes, clubs and axes and\nmissiles of various kinds.\n\n9. These weapons struggled with and justled against one another. They\nsplit the vault of heaven with their clattering, and cracked like loud\nthunder claps cleaving the mountain cliffs.\n\n10. The arrows pierced the rods and swords, and the swords hewed\ndown the axes and lances to pieces. The malls and mallets drove the\nmissiles, and the pikes broke the spears (saktis).\n\n11. The mallets like Mandara rocks, broke and drove away the rushing\narrows as waves of the sea, and the resistless swords broke to pieces\nby striking at the maces.\n\n12. The lances revolved like the halo of the moon, repelling the\nblack sword-blades as darkness, and the swift missiles flashed as the\ndestructive fires of Yama.\n\n13. The whirling disks were destroying all other weapons; they stunned\nthe world by their noise, and broke the mountains by their strokes.\n\n14. The clashing weapons were breaking one another in numbers, and\nVid\u00faratha defeated the arms of Sindhu, as the steadfast mountain defies\nthe thunders of Indra.\n\n15. The truncheons (Sankus) were blowing away the falchions (asis);\nand the spontoons (s\u00falas) were warding off the stones of the slings.\nThe crow bars (bhusundis) broke down the pointed heads of the pikes\n(bhindhip\u00e1las).\n\n16. The iron rods of the enemy (paras\u00falas) were broken by tridents\n(tris\u00falas) of Siva, and the hostile arms were falling down by their\ncrushing one another to pieces.\n\n17. The clattering shots stopped the course of the heavenly stream, and\nthe combustion of powder filled the air with smoke.\n\n18. The clashing of dashing weapons lightened the sky like lightnings,\ntheir clattering cracked the worlds like thunderclaps, and their shock\nsplit and broke the mountains like thunderbolts.\n\n19. Thus were the warring weapons breaking one another by their\nconcussion, and protracting the engagement by their mutual overthrow.\n\n20. As Sindhu was standing still in defiance of the prowess of his\nadversary, Vid\u00faratha lifted his own fire-arm, and fired it with a\nthundering sound.\n\n21. It set the war chariot of Sindhu on fire like a heap of hay on the\nplain, while the Vaishnava weapons filled the etherial sphere with\ntheir meteoric blaze.\n\n22. The two Kings were thus engaged in fierce fighting with each other,\nthe one darting his weapons like drops of raging rain, and the other\nhurling his arms like currents of a deluging river.\n\n23. The two Kings were thus harassing each other like two brave\nchampions in their contest, when the chariot of Sindhu was reduced to\nashes by its flame.\n\n24. He then fled to the woods like a lion from its cavern in the\nmountain, and repelled the fire that pursued him by his aqueous weapons.\n\n25. After losing his car and alighting on the ground, he brandished\nhis sword and cut off the hoofs and heels of the horses of his enemy\u2019s\nchariot in the twinkling of an eye.\n\n26. He hacked every thing that came before him like the lean stalks of\nlotuses; when Vid\u00faratha also left his chariot with his _asi_ (ensis) in\nhand.\n\n27. Both equally brave and compeers to one another in their skill in\nwarfare, turned about in their rounds, and scraped their swords into\nsaws by mutual strokes on one another.\n\n28. With their denticulated weapons, they tore the bodies of their\nenemies like fishes crushed under the teeth, when Vid\u00faratha dropt down\nhis broken sword, and darted his javelin against his adversary.\n\n29. It fell with a rattling noise on the bosom of Sindhu (the king), as\na flaming meteor falls rumbling in the breast of the sea (Sindhu).\n\n30. But the weapon fell back by hitting upon his breast plate, as a\ndamsel flies back from the embrace of a lover deemed an unfit match for\nher.\n\n31. Its shock made Sindhu throw out a flood of blood from his lungs,\nresembling the water spout let out from the trunk of an elephant.\n\n32. Seeing this, the native L\u00edl\u00e1 cried with joy to her sister L\u00edl\u00e1: see\nhere the demon Sindhu killed by our lion-like husband.\n\n33. Sindhu is slain by the javelin of our lion-like lord, like the\nwicked demon by the nails of the lion-god Nrisinha, and he is spouting\nforth his blood like the stream of water, thrown out by the trunk of an\nelephant from a pool.\n\n34. But alas! this Sindhu is trying to mount on another car, although\nbleeding so profusely from his mouth and nostrils, as to raise a\nwheezing (chulchulu) sound.\n\n35. Lo there! our lord Vid\u00faratha breaking down the golden mountings\nof his car with the blows of his mallet, as the thundering\nclouds\u2014Pushkara and \u00c1varta break down the gold peaks of Sumeru.\n\n36. See this Sindhu now mounting on another carriage, which is now\nbrought before him, and decorated as the splendid seat of a Gandharva.\n\n37. Alack! our lord is now made the mark of Sindhu\u2019s mallet darted as\na thunder bolt against him; but lo! how he flies off and avoids the\ndeadly blow of Sindhu.\n\n38. Huzza! how nimbly he has got up upon his own car; but woe is to me!\nthat Sindhu has overtaken him in his flight.\n\n39. He mounts on his car as a hunter climbs on a tree, and pierces my\nhusband, as a bird-catcher does a parrot hidden in its hollow, with his\npointed arrow.\n\n40. Behold his car is broken down and its flags flung aside; his horses\nare hurt and the driver is driven away. His bow is broken and his\narmour is shattered, and his whole body is full of wounds.\n\n41. His strong breast-plate is broken also by slabs of stone and his\nbig head is pierced by pointed arrows. Behold him thrown down on earth,\nall mangled in blood.\n\n42. Look with what difficulty he is restored to his senses, and seated\nin his seat with his arm cut off and bleeding under Sindhu\u2019s sword.\n\n43. See him weltering in blood gushing out profusely from his body,\nlike a rubicund stream issuing from a hill of rubies. Woe is me! and\ncursed be the sword of Sindhu that hath brought this misery on us.\n\n44. It has severed his thighs as they dissever a tree with a saw, and\nhas lopped off his legs like the stalks of trees.\n\n45. Ah! it is I that am so struck and wounded and killed by the enemy.\nI am dead and gone and burnt away with my husband\u2019s body.\n\n46. Saying so, she began to shudder with fear at the woeful sight of\nher husband\u2019s person, and fell insensible on the ground like a creeper\ncut off by an axe.\n\n47. Vid\u00faratha though thus mutilated and disabled, was rising to smite\nthe enemy in his rage, when he fell down from his car like an uprooted\ntree, and was replaced there by his charioteer ready to make his\nretreat.\n\n48. At this instant, the savage Sindhu struck a sabre on his neck, and\npursued the car in which the dying monarch was borne back to his tent.\n\n49. The body of Padma (alias Vid\u00faratha), was placed like a lotus in the\npresence of Sarasvat\u00ed, shining with the splendour of the sun; but the\nelated Sindhu was kept from entering that abode, like a giddy fly from\na flame.\n\n50. The charioteer entered in the apartment, and placed the body in its\ndeath-bed, all mangled and besmeared with blood, exuding from the pores\nof the severed neck, in the presence of the goddess, from where the\nenemy returned to his camp.\n\n(_Gloss_). Here Padma fighting in the person of Vid\u00faratha, and falling\nbravely in the field, obtained his redemption by his death in the\npresence of the goddess; but the savage Sindhu, who slew his foiled\nfoe in his retreat, proved a ruffian in his barbarous act, and could\nhave no admittance into the presence of the goddess and to his future\nsalvation.\n\n\n\n\n CONCLUSION.\n\n\nThe whole vision of L\u00edl\u00e1, like that of Mirza, shows the state of human\nlife, with its various incidents and phases to its last termination\nby death. It is not so compact and allegorical as that of the western\nessayist; but as idle effusions of those ideal reveries or loose\nvagaries which are characteristic of the wild imagination of eastern\nrhapsodists. The discontented Br\u00e1hmana longs for royal dignity,\nimagines to himself all its enjoyments in the person of Padma, and sees\nat last all its evils in the character of Vid\u00faratha; which serves as a\nlesson to aspirants from aiming at high worldly honours which end in\ntheir destruction.\n\nL\u00edl\u00e1 by her wisdom sees in her silent meditation, the whole course\nand vicissitudes of the world, and the rise and fall of human glory\nin the aspirations of her husband. These parables serve to show the\nnature of Yoga philosophy to be no other, than an absolute idealism or\nmental abstraction, consisting in the abstract knowledge of all things\nappertaining to our temporal as well as Spiritual concerns.\n\nThe knowledge is derived either by intuition as that of the Br\u00e1hmana\nand Padma, or by inspiration like that of the genius of wisdom to\nher votary L\u00edl\u00e1. It may also be had by means of communication with\nothers, as in the discourse of R\u00e1ma and his preceptor; as also from the\nattentive perusal of such works as the present one, treating both of\ntemporal and spiritual subjects, and reviewing them with the eye of the\nmind.\n\nThe Yogi is said to know all things through the medium of his\nintellectual eye (jn\u00e1na chakshu), apart from his connection with every\nthing in the world called _nihsanga_, as it is expressed by the Persian\nsophist;\u2014\u201c_amokhteh Oniamekhteh az harche hast_\u201d.\u2014\u201cKnowing and not\nmixing with all that is.\u201d\n\nFrom this view of Yoga, it will appear that, all kinds of knowledge,\nwhether as it existed among the ancients, or is in the course of its\nimprovement in modern times, forms a subject of the Yoga or meditative\nphilosophy, which embraces and comprehends in itself a knowledge of\nall practical arts and sciences, as the military art and other things\ntreated of in this work. Hence it is evident, that a large fund of\nlearning forms the greatest Yoga, and the most learned among men, were\nthe greatest thinkers or Yogis amongst mankind in all ages. No rational\nbeing therefore can either refrain from thinking, or employing his\nmind to the acquisition of knowledge, both of which are termed Yoga in\nIndian philosophy.\n\nBut the yogi is commonly believed to be an inspired sage or seer,\nviewing all things appearing before him in his dream and vision. These\nare sometimes retrospective, and resultants of the vibrations of waking\nfeelings and imagination, as in the case of the Br\u00e1hmana\u2019s anticipation\nof royalty as a coming reality.\n\nIn many instances they are believed as prospective and prophetic\nof future events, as in Padma\u2019s dread of his future life and fate.\nIn L\u00edl\u00e1\u2019s case however they were \u201cno dreams but visions strange\u201d\nof supernatural sights, and prophetical of the future state of her\nhusband, as it was revealed to her by the goddess.\n\nBut as there are few that rely any faith \u201cin the baseless fabric of a\nvision\u201d, they require to be told that the books of revelation in all\nreligions are based upon these dreams and visions, which are believed\nto be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the souls of saints, in\nthe sacred records of all nations.\n\nThe holy scriptures furnish us with many texts on the divine origin of\ndreams and visions as the following.\n\n\u201cBut this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall\ncome to pass in the last days, saith God. I shall pour out of my spirit\nupon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and\nyour young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.\n\n\u201cAnd on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those\ndays of my spirit, and they shall prophesy;\n\n\u201cAnd I will shew wonders, in heaven above, and signs in the earth\nbeneath; blood, and fire and vapour of smoke:\n\n\u201cThe sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood &c.\u201d\n\n The Book of Acts, Chap II. v. 16-20.\n\n END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.\n\n\n\n\n GENEALOGY\n\n\n I. K\u00e1l\u00ed Mitra.[24]\n II. Sr\u00eddhara Mitra.\n III. Sukti Mitra.\n IV. Sauveri Mitra.\n V. Hari Mitra.\n VI. Soma Mitra.\n VII. Kesava Mitra.\n VIII. Mrityunjaya Mitra.\n IX. Dhui Mitra.[25]\n X. N\u00eds\u00e1pati Mitra.\n XI. Lambodara Mitra Alias Kuvera.\n XII. Parameswara Mitra.[26]\n XIII. D\u00e1napati Mitra.\n XIV. Jayadeva Mitra.\n XV. Shashthivara Mitra.\n XVI. Sr\u00edk\u00e1nta Mitra.\n XVII. Sivar\u00e1ma Mitra.\n XVIII. Krishnar\u00e1ma Mitra.\n XIX. S\u00edt\u00e1r\u00e1ma Mitra.[27]\n XX. Gocula Chandra Mitra.\n XXI. Jagamohana Mitra.\n XXII. Rasika L\u00e1la Mitra\n XXIII. Vih\u00e1ri L\u00e1la Mitra.\n\n\n\n FOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Cicero \u201c_De senectute._\u201d\n\n[2] Kant says:\u2014\u2018The pure Ego is the condition of all consciousness,\nthe condition of the sum total of experience, consequently the Ego is\nthe source from which the universe is to be deduced.\u2019 Again: \u201cThe thing\n_per se_ underlying all phenomena, is one and the same substance with\nEgo. We know not wherein the Ego is different from it. This identity\nof both is only an affirmation of Monism, not of Idealism.\u201d Lewis:\nHist.-Phil. Vol. II. pp. 356-7. Fichte says:\u2014The Non-Ego is a product\nof the Ego. It is the Ego which thus creates the necessity for a\nNon-Ego and the Non-Ego wanted. Ibid. p. 358.\n\n[3] Because the visible and destructible bodies could not proceed from\nthe invisible and indestructible essence of God, nor the invisible\nand indestructible souls of persons, which are _utpanna_ or produced\nfrom the essence of the eternal and infinite spirit, can have their\nextinction except in their main source, when they become instinct in\nand identic with the supreme spirit.\n\n[4] The _khecar\u00ed_ or aerial mode of meditation is said to confer\nliberation from sickness and acts and the grasp of death. Thus;\n\n_Nap\u00eddyate rogena nacha lipyate karman\u00e1, B\u00e1dhyate sa na kalena, yo\nmudr\u00e1m-vetti khecar\u00edm._\n\nThe mode of conducting it is described as follows.\n\n_Kap\u00e1la kuhare jihv\u00e1, pravesit\u00e1 vipar\u00edtag\u00e1, Bhruvorantargat\u00e1 drishtir,\nmudr\u00e1-bhavati khecar\u00ed._\n\n[5] This passage contradicts the belief of his rising and sleeping by\nturns at the end of each _kalpa_ of the creation and dissolution of the\nworld, as well as the popular faith of Hari\u2019s, _sayana_ and Utth\u00e1na at\nthe opposite tropics.\n\n[6] The pre-existent substratum is the Noumenon underlying all\nphenomena. It is the support of qualities, and something in which all\naccidents inhere. Berkeley.\n\n[7] It contradicts the well known axiom of Locke, that, \u201cit is\nimpossible for the same thing to be and not be at the same time.\u201d\n\n[8] The unknown substance is the known cause, a spiritual\nsubstance\u2014God. Berkeley.\n\n[9] The venerable Vasishtha would not raise question \u201cwhere is the\nshadow of a shadow?\u201d (_prativimbasya prativambam kutak_), had he known\nthe discoveries of the modern science of Optics, and the achievements\nof photography and phonography, the refractions of prismatic lens and\nthe vibrations of musical wires.\n\n[10] The gods Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Sun, Indra and all others, are\nassimilated into the Supreme Spirit in their state of rest. He is\nbeyond all attribute and out of the sphere of the universe, and is of\nthe form of an immutable Intellect.\n\n[11] The living soul is the creative spirit of God, represented by the\ndivine hypostasis of _Hiranyagarbha_ or Demiurgus, which is dependent\non the Supreme spirit.\n\n[12] _Tanm\u00e1tra_ or tat-m\u00e1tra might be rendered from its affinity as\n\u201cthat matter,\u201d but the idealistic theory of ved\u00e1nta being opposed to\nthat of the materialistic, it expresses only the idea and not the\nmatter.\n\n[13] The conceptualism of Europe, is a doctrine between Realism\nand Nominalism and betwixt Idealism and Relationism. The realist\nsays, universal genera are real and independent existences; but the\nnominalist (_like the Pratyaks\u00e1v\u00e1di_) says that, things only exist and\nuniversals are _Flatus venti-pral\u00e1pa_.\n\n[14] Note. It is the mind that lengthens time by the quick succession\nof its thoughts, and shortens it by its quiescence.\n\n[15] This means the demons to have first peopled the borders and skirts\nof the earth. See Hesiod. Works and Days. Book I. v. 200.\n\n[16] That the Meru or Altain chain in Scythia, was the great hive of\nhuman race is an undisputed truth in history. So Moses speaks of the\ngiant race in Genesis chapter VI. v. 2 and 4. \u201cAnd there were giants in\nthe earth in those days, and also after that. And when the sons of God\nsaw the daughters of men fair, they took them to wives, of all which\nthey chose.\u201d\n\nAnd again: \u201cwhen the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and\nthey bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of\nold, men of renown\u201d.\n\n[17] The whole of this chapter abounds in onomatopoeian alliterations,\nand is more a play upon words than display of sense. It is interesting\nhowever, for these jingling words in the language, as also for the\nnames of the warlike weapons in use among the ancients.\n\n[18] Notwithstanding the reward of heavenly abodes promised to the\nslayer and slain in war, in the S\u00e1stra and Koran, the Asiatics are far\nbackward now-a-days, both to kill and to be killed than the Europeans,\nwho are forbidden by the Holy writ, to slay and shed human blood. Thus\nthere is a laxity of the injunction and prohibition on both sides.\n\n[19] P. mujosi S. Y\u00e1tudh\u00e1na, H. J\u00e1dugar = juggler.\n\n[20] The battle ground is compared firstly with the sky, then with the\nsea, next with a forest, and lastly with the last dooms-day.\n\n[21] It was easy for the lively L\u00edl\u00e1, to learn about these peoples and\ntheir native lands in her lonely Yoga meditation, by the help of the\ngoddess of learning; but it is hard for us to identify them without\nsubjecting ourselves to a long labour of love, which is a sort of Yoga\nalso, called _vidya Yoga_, or intense application and self devotion to\nlearning.\n\n[22] Note. It is not easy to say, whether this continuation and lengthy\ndescription of the warfare, is Vasishtha\u2019s or V\u00e1lm\u00edki\u2019s own making;\nboth of them being well acquainted with military tactics: the former\nhaving been the general of King Sud\u00e1sa against the Persians, and the\nlatter the epic poet of R\u00e1ma\u2019s wars with R\u00e1vana in the celebrated\nRam\u00e1yana.\n\nThese descriptions are left out in the vernacular translations of this\nwork as entirely useless in Yoga philosophy, without minding, that they\nformed the preliminary step to R\u00e1ma\u2019s military education, which he was\nsoon after called to complete under the guidance of Visw\u00e1mitra in the\nhermitage.\n\n[23] I have always thought the Daiv\u00e1stras or superhuman arms, described\nin the Ram\u00e1yana and Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata epics, as a display of pyrotechnic\ncontrivances much in use in early warfare. Or they may have been some\nkinds of electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and steam engines emitting\ngusts of fire, water, wind and smoke in the field of war. Halhead in\nhis Gentoo Laws, tells them to be shot from a kind of cross-bow used by\nthe Crusadiers of old.\n\n[24] He was formerly an inhabitatnt of K\u00e1nya Kubjya, North Western\nProvinces, India. He being invited on an occasion of a ceremony (yajna)\nby \u00c1disura, R\u00e1j\u00e1 of Gour Bengal, paid a visit at his court on Thursday\n12th Kartick (October-November) Sak\u00e1bda 994 (Tenth-Eleventh Century\nA.D.), and on his request he settled there and became the founder of\nGour Mitra Family, at Maldah in Bengal.\n\n[25] Baris\u00e1, Twenty four Pargannahs, District Alipur, Bengal.\n\n[26] B\u00e1li. Boro Pargunah, District Hugli.\n\n[27] B\u00e1gb\u00e1zar, Calcutta.","title":"The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 1 (of 4)","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":175223}