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

THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VÁLMÍKI

in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)

Vol. 4 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.

Containing
The Nirvana-Prakarana, Uttaradha

Translated from the original Sanskrit
By
VIHARI LALA MITRA

THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA

[Pg x]

Argument:—Arguments in proof of the intellectual vacuum, and therepresentation of the world therein.

Ráma said:—Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuitywhich you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate tohear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips.

2. Vasishtha replied:—I have fully explained to you that the twostates of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtuesof composure and self-controul are both the same, though they aredifferentiated by two names.

3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is nonebetween two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, asthe vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect.

4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his selfconsciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is theIntellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and isstyled the intellectual sphere.

5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; whereinthe earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture ofthe earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti;and means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees isalways clear, though they live upon the sap of earth).

6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind ofa man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whosecomposure is never disturbed by anything.

7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; whohad got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease;before he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep.

[Pg 570]

8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in andfill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectualsphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without beingtouched by or related to any.

9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; andas vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified fromthe impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about anything in the world.

10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocksand trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is thensaid to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless stateis called the active mind and not the intellect).

11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states ofthe view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); issaid to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means theimperceptibility of soul).

12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of thevarious kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without makingany effect of change in its immutable nature.

13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces allthings, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which ispermeated throughout all nature for ever.

14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in theinside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be thevacuity of the intellect.

15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether,connected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of theintellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entityor non-entity.

16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, andat last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation anddissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can thevacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it(Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse; therethe whole universe is a void nothing)).

[Pg 571]

17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleepingstate of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dreamis dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world isvanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind.

18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection,and as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it,as by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to existand disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleepingstates of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence ofthe world).

19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of allthe sástras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing anywhere; and yet as all and everything in every place and at all times.(i.e. Nothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract).

20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains hisconsciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests inits place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in aninstant.

21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever beenbefore; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind,gives it the form and figure as they appear unto us.

22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appearsin varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, noralters the clearness of its vacuous sphere.

23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external andinternal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be everwakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.

24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when youspeak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadlycold and quiet, as long as you have to live.

25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as[Pg 572] you fixyour eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view themirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons inthe sky.

26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; becausethe want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is nopossibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterialcausality.

27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of acauseless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, thatappears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisibleOne).

28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its veryoriginal form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as aduality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspectsto us.

29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notionof the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking thefalse for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality.

30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does itactually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewisenever annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nilagain.

31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, mustbe quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in theform of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, andimperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void,cannot be annulled to a nullity again).

32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, isever reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want ofvisible, nor the vision of a thing without its view.

33. Ráma rejoined:—If it is such, then please to explain moreover, Omost eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer;and what are these that thus appear to our view?

[Pg 573]

34. Vasishtha replied:—There being no assignable cause, for theappearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, andyet it <is> maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents.

35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, isall fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of Máyá only. But theworld in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind.

36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us theshapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its amplegarden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world initself.

37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since thefirst creation of the world; and that <which> sparkles any where beforeus, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formlessform, but in his spirit or intellectuality).

38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere,that manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.

39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualifiedvacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existentbeings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is theattribute of a material substance.

40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discreteattribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexionof it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders.

41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity ofthe Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself;say who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or notbeing, or a something or nothing.

42. Ráma rejoined:—If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neitherthe reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view(i.e. if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, andneither the subjective nor objective); then say what is the differencebetween the cause and effect, what is the source[Pg 574] of all these, and ifthey are unreal why do they appear as realities?

43. Vasishtha replied:—Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestationof his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and thenbecomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought.

44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, asthe earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself forthat form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other causeto move it to action, except its own free will.

45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains hisself consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains itsidentity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent stateof the plenum.

46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible andinvisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; itis the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobodyquestions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause andeffect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantomsof error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceedingfrom its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world,and there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for hisblunder.

47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyerof these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, andwhat is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liableto reproof.

48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscerniblevacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world);how then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, withoutbeing blamed for it?

49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearanceof the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth,which has led to the general belief of the creation of the world byBrahmá.

[Pg 575]

50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has ledmankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion ormáyá, of ignorance or avidyá, of the phenomenal ordrisya, and finally of the world or jagat.

51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession ofthe mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a realitybefore it, as the false phantom of <a> ghost, takes a firm hold on themind of an infant.

52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it assomething real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than theembodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities inempty air.

53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a seaor as the God Virát himself; just <as> a man thinks in his dream, thathe sees the hills and towns in his empty mind.

54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formlesscause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solidworld, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the greatannihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. Itis therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal formonly in the Divine Mind.

55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state inthe vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than anemptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.

56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receivingthe dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but thoseof reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid lightof the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is calledPratyagnánátma or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul).

57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visibleforms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; andremain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, andplace no faith or reliance on anything else.

58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in[Pg 576] itself by itsincessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuitionthroughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of itswhirlpools.

59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields ourwished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thingbefore us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjectivemind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).

60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit ofits desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with itsdesired objects in its vacuous self in a minute.

61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in theinterim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts,when it sees neither the one nor another thing.

62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearlyin variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and thoughdevoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuityof the sky, in the blueness of the firmament.

63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other thanwhat is alike inane as itself; a material production requires amaterial cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore thecreated world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearanceof dreams before our sleeping minds.

Argument:—Proof of the cosmos as the reflexion of the gem of theIntellect, and the Immateriality of the objective material world.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is the subjective Intellect and inbornin it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is theempty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself,and here the tripart or the triple state of the Intellect, itsintellection and the chetya or intellectual combine together.(i.e. The thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts allunite together).

2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed asdead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifelessfigures in a picture.

3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocksof wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving andunmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air.

4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of thechrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered asnothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.

5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gatheringvapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems inthem, but never does any one rely on their reality.

6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of theIntellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yetit is never relied on by any one.

7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caughtin his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material thingsrising as smoke before it.

8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism[Pg 578] and meity,so as to say “this is I and that is mine.” Ah, well do I perceive itnow, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in theirvisionary flights.

9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yetprone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance oftruth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth insearch of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.

10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves apriori the impossibility of the effect; so the want of any createdthing, proves a posteriori the inexistence of a causal agent(i.e. there is no creation nor its creator likewise).

11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadowsof its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobbyto nourish their unborn or dead offspring.

12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made,and how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of theIntellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm andserene.

13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, acausality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclinedto believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to dowith their puerile reasoning.

14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, isbut a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all theseimages like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its huesand figures to our eyes.

15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is onlyby our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the samewhich shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjectivesoul appears as the subjective world to our sight.

Argument:—The Knowledge of the objective continuing with ourignorance of the subjective and the story of the wise princeVipaschit, attacked by his rude enemies.

Ráma rejoined:—He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the brightvividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of thenoumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air.

2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of thisignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does thisignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, those that are besotted by theirignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be aseverlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O Ráma! hear a tale onthis subject.

4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world withits three lokas of the upper and lower regions, in the manner ofthis terrestrial world.

5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours;and is called the sama bhúmi or level land, where all beings hadtheir free range.

6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for hislearning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men ofhis court.

7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as brightas the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru orpolar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as itspresident.

8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his[Pg 580] praises, andhe was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the supportof its refugees.

9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretchedits lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotusblossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscapewith delight every morning.

10. That respectable prince of Bráhmanic faith, adored fire as the lordof gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god asequal to him (Because agni is said to be the Brahma or father ofthe gods).

11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephantsand foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea isgirt by his whirlpools and rolling waters.

12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection ofthe four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird theearth on all its four sides.

13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of thewhole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of hisfoes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu.

14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the easternborders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered asecret message that was not pleasing unto him.

15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly bythy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate toyou something, which requires your consideration. (The word go—Gr.ge.—Pers. gao—cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence theirmutual simile).

16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by therelentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to theregions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest.

17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderersthereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him fromthe east and west, and killed by the enemy.

18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded[Pg 581] with hisarmy to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy).

19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimicalprinces of the east and south, who put him to death in his half wayjourney to the spot.

20. Vasishtha continued:—As he was relating in this wise, anotheremissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great arush, as a current of the deluging flood.

21. He represented, saying:—O lord, the general of thy forces on thenorth, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post,like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.

22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuingout of his royal apartment, he bade as follows.

23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, toappear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal,and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction).

24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry onfoot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors.

25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around;thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest.

26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down hishead, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north iswaiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlikesight”.

27. The king answered:—Go thou quickly there, and get him to mypresence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of thatquarter.

28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royalpresence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheldthe chieftain in the following plight.

[Pg 582]

29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of woundsand scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itselfwith difficulty.

30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, andcontortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.

31. The chieftain said:—My lord, the three other chiefs of the threequarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to therealms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest(i.e. to encounter the enemies on every side).

32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms aloneon this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with alltheir strength.

33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them tothis palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you topunish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might.

34. Vasishtha continued:—As the yet alive and wounded chieftain,had been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; thereappeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, andspeaking to the king in the following manner.

35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likeningthe shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, theskirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides.

36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks allaround; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swordsand spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances.

37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shakingweapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while theirrolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about.

38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshyarbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big[Pg 583] elephants, seemas huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high.

39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bendingof their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea,sounding hoarsely under the lashing winds.

40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening frothfallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to thefoaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.

41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlikearray of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising uponthe surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge.

42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, areshining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour.

43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and longstretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about thesemarine animals upon the shore.

44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accordagainst us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are utteringand muttering their invectives to us.

45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these thingsto my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to theborders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts.

46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and cluband sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion.

47. Vasishtha added:—Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, theemissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears,after making a gurgling noise.

48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights andattendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, themen and women and all the citizens at large[Pg 584] were struck with terror;and the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shoulderedtheir arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of treesshaken by a hurricane.

Argument:—Adopting ways and means to quell the disturbances ofthe hostile enemies.

Vasishtha continued:—In the mean while, the assembled ministersadvanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to thecelestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas—Titans around.

2. The ministers addressed:—Lord! We have consulted and ascertained,that as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace,dissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force ordue punishment.

3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostagesdoth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for areconciliation.

4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of differentcountries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and thosethat are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardlyconciliated by terms of peace or subsidy.

5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showingour valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed,towards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.

6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command thepeople to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let thegenerals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets.

7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; andorder the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as thedark deluging clouds inundate the land.

8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the[Pg 586] bowstringstwang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscurethe skies as by the clouds.

9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings inthe air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growlingclouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain,and make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in theirear.

10. The king said:—Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptlyall what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow youstraightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and theadoration of Agni—the fiery god.

11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king;yet he found a moment’s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pureGangá water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by ashowering of rain water.

12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy firewith as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the sástras; and thenbegan to reflect in himself, in the following manner.

13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure andprosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realmstretching to the sea.

14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemiesunder my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under thebending skies on all sides.

15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear andcooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretchesto the three worlds, like the three branches of Gangá.

16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and torespectable Bráhmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasuresfor myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanutfruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say:—hisrealms were चतुराब्धिसोमा or bounded by the four oceans onall sides).

17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and theygroaned before me as croaking frogs with their[Pg 587] distended pouches, andmy rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islandsamidst the distant seas.

18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyondthe visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of borderingmountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops.

19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation;I have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my goodwill for the public weal. (It means the prince’s high attainments inspiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns).

20. I have manacled the lawless Rákshasas, in strong chains andfetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of mytreasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and withoutletting them clash with one another.

21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of thosetriple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy andrenown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow andfrost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw.

22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts;and after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and areeager for warfare.

23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and thevictory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as asacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown itsworshipper with victory.

24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to theFire-god (as a fit fruit to <the> shrine; and say:—O Igneous god, Imake here an offering of my head to thee).

25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations tofire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with myformer offerings.

26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine,with brilliant and strong bodies, like that of Náráyana, with hismighty arms.

[Pg 588]

27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet myenemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, bykeeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee.

28. Vasishtha replied:—So saying, the king took hold of a dagger inhis hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, asboys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In manyinstances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails).

29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; theheadless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew alsoupon the burning furnace.

30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royalcarcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst itsburning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make aninstantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest.

31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of hiskingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, asthe radiant body of Náráyana, when it rose at first from the formlessdeep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).

32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendentlustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royalcrown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude tothe Agniculas or fiery races of men).

33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets,bracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; andnecklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along.

34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes andsizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horseback, like so many Indras riding on their Uchai-srava horses(having their ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenwardflight).

[Pg 589]

35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows ofgolden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equallylong and strong with the god of war.

36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on theirwar-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alikeimpregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as thevehicles they rode upon.

37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of thesubmarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with theoblations that were offered upon it.

38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on allsides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures lookedlike Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.

Argument:—Description of the warfare before the city gates,betwixt the Royal armies and the Rude Invaders of the Realm.

Vasishtha continued:—In the mean time the battle was raging in itsfull fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that hadadvanced before the city gates.

2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and therethey set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by cloudsof smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc andwailing on every side.

3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network ofarrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared toview: and was then lost to sight the next moment.

4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves ofthe forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling asloosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurlingthrough the air.

5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to theburnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the greatcombatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra,where they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs.

6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery ofbravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about inshowers.

7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spiritsof dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air,appeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies.

8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about[Pg 591] with loudshouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if strickenby lightnings in the battle field.

9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt fromabove; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; anddescending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that wereready to die.

10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavyocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants,crackled like the clashing clouds in air.

11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts andits bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made aglare of fire around.

12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore theirgarments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and theclashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around.

13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weaponsdashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of thebattlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray.

14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; andthe flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air,resembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea.

15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and theclashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the soundingmain beset by islands.

16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet ofthe foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from thewounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariotsand slain elephants in its rapid course.

17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battleaxes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the brokenarms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it.

[Pg 592]

18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from theclashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deifiedsouls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of theirwrinkled and decaying frames of earth.

19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashesof lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filledthe air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth.

20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cuttheir weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing ateach other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together.

21. Here the headless trunks of the kabandhas (anthropophagi),mingled with the gigantic bodies of the vetála demons, weredisastrous on every side; and there the demoniac vetála pluckingtheir hearts for their hearty meal.

22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breakingasunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shakingarms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.

23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, madetheir maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passingwith their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around.

24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier’s finalglory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward intheir giving or receiving of wounds.

25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiersand chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants(i.e. puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent ondestruction.

26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting andunrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were pouredupon the nameless and dastardly cowards.

[Pg 593]

27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is asglorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures,for the protection of their protégés.

28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict ofelephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid ofichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.

29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes,and cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued andovercome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with theirhands.

30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people,being downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to andfell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter underthe shining sun.

31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, becamesubject to death (i.e. they called death, to be re-born); asmillionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life.

32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon theirarms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like theadoration of the three worlds.

33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, whenchurned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiersunder them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.

34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to thevalour of the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees(i.e. the toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as thatof Baladeva (who fought dead drunk in battle).

35. There was the clashing of arms of the Rákshasas, who foughttogether in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed oncarcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns ofmountains.

36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, withthe detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and therewere the flying stones on another, which were[Pg 594] flung from the slings ofthe combatants, and which covered the ground below.

37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions,resembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there washeard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the loftyedifices of the city.

38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying firebrands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the peoplebetook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes andtreasures all behind.

39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, inorder to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves,for fear of the devouring phoenix, darting upon them from thesky.

40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if theywere pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed intheir pressing mills.

41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by thestones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions,resounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of theragged caverns.

42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loudshouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives anddearly earned vigour in the battle field.

43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarismflashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings,went on unceasingly all around.

44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, whowere as staunch hearted as the Mount Kailása, with the strong god Sivaseated therein.

45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy alasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state,by their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says:—Thebrave live by dying, and die by their living).

46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowersimmerging into the waters of lakes; great champions[Pg 595] were seen to stalkover the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes.

47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzingsound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noisearound; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. Theflying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing ofhorses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels,together with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafenedthe ears of men all about.

Argument:—Description of the Discomfiture of the Royal army, andtheir use of pneumatic arms.

Vasishtha continued:—Thus the war waged with the fury of the fourelements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world;and the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in andabout the battle field.

2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drumsand conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms onall sides.

3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, andtheir steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting intwain with clattering noise.

4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fellfainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, andmown down as straws and grass.

5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a pealthat filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered witha treble roar, resounding with uproar of the kapa or doomsdayclouds.

6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hilland mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks everywhere.

7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four foldor four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the fourquarters of the sky, or like the four arms of Náráyana, stretching toso many sides of heaven.

8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse,elephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of theconfines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lyingout of the town.

[Pg 597]

9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of hisenemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like thewild roar of the surrounding sea.

10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared assharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in thewide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean.

11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as thewhirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their wavingflags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.

12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and theneighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring ofshining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under thesunshine.

13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surgesand swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbariansgabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters.

14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemedas they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, andbreaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds.

15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in whichthe slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments offloating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rollingwaves of the sea.

16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimelydissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the bordersof the visible horizon.

17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as thesparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces,resembled the casting of ballast stones into it.

18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above;and presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and offleecy vapours in another.

[Pg 598]

19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the kingthought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in theocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, whichhe thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse thecloud of the hostile force like the wind).

20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as whenthe god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay thedemon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when theIndo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains).

21. He bowed to his god Agni—Ignis, and let fly his mighty missilewith all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve hisown forces from destruction.

22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of thecloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of theenemy.

23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forthinto a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the foursides or quarters of the sky.

24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts andarrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shotsand rockets.

25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents ofdiscs and battle axes.

26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods ofbhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; andalso swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity.

27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence oflightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flyingswords and sabres.

28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of greatforce and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found inmountain caves, and grew there for ages.

29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms,[Pg 599] blastedthe ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry inall directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.

30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, weredriven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to allsides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflowson the land in the rains.

31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariotsand foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the fourdirections; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sidesduring the rains.

32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurleddown as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords werebroken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of maricheflowers over the ground.

33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on theground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while thegroans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts.

34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusksrising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vyingwith thunder claps and roaring clouds.

35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as thecrashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horsesclashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.

36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as therattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of theclashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded asthe crashing of stones.

37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; andcries of dying soldiers, crying “we die, we are slain,” swelled in theair all around.

38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling ofan eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed[Pg 600] on their bodies,exhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky.

39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon theshore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of apurple cloud.

40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the talltala trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men,were seen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain.

41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate onthe ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh andfat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in thefield.

42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; andthe concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised arattling sound all around.

43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolationwere blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thundersof destruction were clapping all about.

44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face ofthe land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the skywas drizzling through all its pores.

45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all ina blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses andelephants, were in full cry and loud uproar.

46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots andrumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated tothe twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides.

47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashingof the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely fromthem, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.

48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all thefour sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers likeswarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies.

[Pg 601]

49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst theconflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons,falling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flyingforces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbedby the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarinefire.

Argument.—Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of theircountries and places of retreat.

Vasishtha continued:—The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowdedas the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resemblingthe snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, anddriven afar to the southern main—the Indian Ocean.

2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and strikingagainst one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves inthe forest.

3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distantDardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from thefield with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people ofAfghanistan).

4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured downtorrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors,and glittered like curling lightnings.

5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies andgored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh,similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.

6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains,who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horridPisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.

7. Those that fled to the tala and tamala forests, and tothe old woods on the bank of the dasárná river; were caught bylions and tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death undertheir feet.

8. The yovanas living on the coasts of the western ocean,[Pg 603]and those in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured bysharks, in the course of their flight.

9. The sákas or Scythians being unable to endure the impulse,of the black iron arrows for a moment fled to all directions; and theRumatha people were blown away and broken down, like the lotus bed bythe blowing winds.

10. The routed enemy flying to the Mahendra mountain, covered its threepeaks with their armours of black mail, and made them appear as mantledby the sable clouds of the rainy weather.

11. The legions of these hostile forces, being broken down by the armsof the king, like the large mines of gold, were first plundered of theirraiments by the highway robbers, and then killed and devoured by thenocturnal cannibals and hobgoblins of the desert.

12. The surface of the land was converted to the face of the sky; bythe broken fragments of weapons glistering on like the stars of heaventwinkling in myriads above.

13. The caverns of the earth, resounding to the noise of the cloudsabove, appeared as a grand orchestra, sounding the victory of the kingboth in earth and heaven.

14. The peoples inhabiting the islands, lost their lives under thewhirling disks; as those dwelling in the watery marshes perish on driedlands for want of rain.

15. The vanquished islanders fled to the Sahya mountains, and havinghalted there for a week, departed slowly to the respective places.

16. Many took shelter in the Gandhamádana mountains, while multitudesof them resorted to the Punnága forests; and the retreating Gandharvasbecame refugees in the sanctuaries of the Vidyádhara maidens.

17. The Huns, Chins and Kirátas, had their heads struck off by theflying discuses of the king; and these were blown away by the oppositewinds, like lotus flowers by the blast.

18. The Nilipa people, remained as firm as trees in a forest, and asfixed in their places as thorns on stalks and brambles.

19. The beautiful pastures of antelopes, the woodlands and[Pg 604] hillytracts on all sides; were desolated by showers of weapons, and the rushand crush of the forces.

20. The thorny deserts became the asylum of robbers, after theydeserted their habitations to be over grown by thorns and thistles.

21. The Persians who were abundant in number, got over to the otherside of the sea (the Persian Gulph); and were blown away by thehurricane, like stars blasted by the storm of final desolation.

22. The winds blew as on the last day of destruction, and broke downthe woods and forests all about; and disturbed the sea by shaking itshidden rocks below.

23. The dirty waters of the deep, rose on high with a gurgling noise;and the sky was invisible owing to the clouds of weapons, whichobscured its face on all sides.

24. The howling winds, raised a clapping and flapping sound all about;and there fell showers of snow also, which flowed on earth, like thewaters of the sea.

25. The charioteers of Vidura country, fell down from their cars, withthe loud noise of waves; and were driven to fall into the waters of thelake, like bees from lotuses.

26. The routed foot soldiers who were as numerous as the dust of theearth, and well armed from head to foot; were yet so overpowered underthe showers of darts and discs, that they were blinded by the tearsof their eyes, and disabled to beat their retreat. (i.e. Theywere as dust, set down by the showers of darts from above, and tears oftheir eyes below).

27. The Huns were buried with their heads and heels, in their flightover the sandy deserts of the north; and others were as muddied as thedirty iron, by their being fastened in the miry shores of northernseas. (The Huns had been the progenitors of the present Hungarians,residing beyond the Baltic. They are said to have been as darkcomplexioned as their cognate Dravidians of Deccan in Southern India).

28. The Sáks (Saccae or Scythians), were driven to cassia forests onthe bank of the eastern main; there they were confined[Pg 605] for some time,and then released without being despatched to the regions of death.

29. The Madrasees were repulsed to the Mahendra mountains, whence theylightly alighted on the ground as if fallen from heaven; and there theywere protected by the great sages, who preserved them there with tendercare as they bear for the stags of their hermitage.

30. The fugitives flying to the refuge of the Sahya mountains, foundin lieu of their imminent destruction, in the subterranean cell, thetwo fold gain of their present and future good therein. Thus it comesto pass that, many times good issues out of evil, where it was leastexpected. (We know not what were the two great gains made at thisplace, except it be made to mean, that the hidden cell of sahyaor patience is the door to prosperity and success).

31. The soldiers flying to Dasárná at the confluence of the ten rivers,fell into the Dardura forest like the fallen leaves of trees; and therethey lay dead all about by eating the poisonous fruits thereof.

32. The Haihayas that fled to Himálayas, drank the juice ofVisalya-karaní or pain killing plants by mistake; and becamethereby as volant as Vidyádharas, and flew to their country.

33. And then the people of Bengal, who are as weak as faded flowers,showed their backs to the field, and fled to their homes; from whichthey dare not stir even to this day, but remain as Pisáchas all along.

34. But the people of Anga or Bihar, that live upon the fruits of theircountry; are as strong as Vidyádharas, and sport with their mates, asif it were in heavenly bliss.

35. The Persians being worsted in their bodies, fell into thetala and tamala forests; whereby drinking theirintoxicating extracts, they became as giddy as drunken men. (Theaddictedness of Persians to their delicious drinks, is well known intheir Ána Cronatics).

36. The light and swift mettled elephants of the swarthy[Pg 606] Kalingas,pushed against their four fold armies in the field of battle, where alllay slain in promiscuous heaps.

37. The salwas passing under the arrows and stones of the enemy, fellinto the waters which girt their city, wherein they perished with thewhole of their hosts, that are still lying there in the form of heap ofrocks.

38. There were numbers of hosts, that fled to different countries inall directions; and many that were driven to the distant seas, wherethey were all drowned and dead, and borne away by the waves.

39. But who can count the countless hosts, that fled to and lay deadand unnoticed in every part of the wide earth and sea, on the fieldsand plains, in forests and woods, on land and water, on mountains anddales, on shores and coasts and on the hills and cliffs. So there isnobody who can tell what numbers of living beings are dying everymoment, in their homes and abodes in cities and villages, in caves anddens, and every where in the world.

Argument:—Relation of the cessation of arms, and description ofmajestic ocean.

Vasishtha continued:—The hostile forces of the enemies thus flyingon all sides, were pursued to a great distance by the four forms ofVihaschit as said before.

2. These four forms of almighty power, and of one soul and mind; wenton conquering the four regions on every side, with one intent andpurpose.

3. They chased the retreating enemies without giving them any respite,to the shores of the seas on all sides; as the currents of rivers keepon their course without intermission, to the coast of the far distantocean.

4. This long course of the royal forces, as well as of the enemies,soon put an end to all their provisions and ammunitions, and all theirresources and strength were exhausted at last, as a rill is lost underthe sands ere it reaches the lake.

5. The king beheld his forces and those of his enemies, to be asexhausted at the end; as the merits and demerits of a man are lost upon his ultimate liberation.

6. The weapons ceased to fly about, as if they were at rest after theyhad done their part in the sky; and as the flames of fire subside ofthemselves, for want of fuel and the combustibles.

7. The horses and elephants went under their shelters, and the weaponsstuck to trees and rocks; and they seemed to fall fast asleep, likebirds upon their spray at night fall.

8. As the waves cease to roll in a dried up channel, and the snows tofall under the clouded sky; and as the clouds fly before the storm, andthe fragrance of flowers is borne away by the wind.

9. So the flying weapons were submerged like fishes, under the fallingshowers of rain; and the dripping drops of darts,[Pg 608] were thwarted by thethickening showers of snow (i.e. the dropping arrows were drivenaway, by the drifts of snow).

10. The sky was cleared of the whirling disks, that were hurled byhundreds, and hurtling in the hazy atmosphere; and it got a clean sweepof the gathering clouds, that were soaring up in surges, and pouringdown in floods of rain.

11. The firmament presented the appearance of an immense ocean,composed of the limpid fuel of the vast void; and containing thesparkling gems of the stars in its bosom, and the burning submarinefire of the sun in the midst of it.

12. The great vacuum appeared as extensive and deep, and as bright andserene, and devoid of the dust of rajas or pride, as the minds of greatmen (which are of equal extent and depth of knowledge &c.).

13. They then beheld the oceans, lying as junior brothers of the skies;being of equal extent and clearness, and stretching to the utmostlimits of the horizon.

14. These with their deep sounding waves and foaming froths, are asgratifying to the minds of people; as the roaring clouds with theirshowers of snow, are ravishing of human hearts.

15. They having fallen down from high heaven, and stretching wide theirhuge bodies on the earth below; seem to be rolling grievously on theground, with their deep groanings and breathings, and raising up theirbillowy arms, in order to lift themselves on high.

16. They are gross and dull bodies, yet full of force and motion, andthough they are mute and dumb, yet full of noise and howling in theirhollow cavities; they are full of dreadful whirlpools, as is this worldwith all its dizzy rounds.

17. The gems sparkling on the banks, add to the brightness of the sunbeams (in the morning); and the winds blowing in the conch shells,resound all along the coast.

18. Here the huge waves are growling, like the big clouds roaringloudly on high; and the circling eddies are whirling around, as theshattered corallines were scattered along.

[Pg 609]

19. The hoarse snorting of sharks and whales, is howling in the bosomof the deep; and the lashing of the waters by their tails, sounded asthe splashing of the oars of vessels in them.

20. Here are the horrid sharks and alligators, devouring the fleecymermaids and marine men in numbers; and a thousand suns shining intheir reflexions on the rising waves.

21. Here are seen fleets of ships floating on the surface of thewaters, and rising aloft on the tops of the waves; and driven forwardby the blowing winds, howling horribly through the furling sails andcracking cordage.

22. The ocean with his hundreds of arms of the heaving waves, handlesthe orbs of the sun and moon; and displays varieties of sparkling gem,with reflexions of their ’beams in them.

23. Here were the shoals of sharks, skimming over the foaming main; andthere were the water spouts, rising like columns of elephants’ trunksto the skies, and representing a forest of bamboos.

24. In some places, the rippling waves were gliding, like curlingcreepers, with hairy tufts and frothy blossoms on them; and in others,little rocks resembling the backs of elephants and bearing the vernalflowers, were scattered in the midst of the waters.

25. Some where were the heaps of froth and frost and hills of icebergs,resembling the edifices of the gods and demigods; and else where werethe groups of sparkling little billows, that laughed to scorn theclusters of shining stars in the skies.

26. Here are branches (chains) of rocks concealed in its depth, likelittle gnats hidden in the hollows underneath the ground; and there arethe huge surges, which make pigmies and dwarfs of the high hills onearth.

27. Its coasts are spread over with sparkling gems, like beds ofgemming sprouts and shoots of flowers on the ground (or) as the groundstrewn over with the germinating shoots and sprouts of gemming blossom;while the glistening pearls[Pg 610] bursting out of their silvery shellssparkle amidst the spreading sands.

28. The sea seems to weave a vest of silken stuff, with its fleecywaves; and decking it with all its floating gems and pearls; while therivers flowing into it from all directions, serve to colour it withtheir various waters.

29. The coasts studded with gems and pearls of various hues, display asit were the beams of a hundred moons, in the versicoloured nails of itsfeet.

30. The shadows of the beaching tali forests, falling on theswelling waves of the sea, were imbued with the hues of the marinegems; and appeared as moving arbours with their variegated foliage,fruits and flowers.

31. There are seen the shadows of sundry fruit trees, reflected in thewaters gliding below; and as rising up and falling down with theirreflexions in the moving waves and billows. The false and fallingshadows, gathered numbers of marine beasts under them, for gorging thefalling fruits. (This is pursuing a shadow).

32. Again the greedy fishes were collected some where, and leaping tocatch the birds that were sitting on the fruit trees, and seen in theirreflexions on the waves.

33. Here are seen many sea monsters also, that break the embankments,and rove about at random in the watery maze, as birds fly freely in thevacuous air.

34. The ocean being a formless deep, bears the image of the threeworlds impressed on its bosom; it bears also the image of the purevacuum in itself, as it bore the image of Náráyana in its breast.

35. Its great depth, clearness and immeasurable extent, gives it theappearance of the majestic firmament, which is reflected in its bosom,as it were imprest upon it.

36. It bears the reflexion of the sky and of the flying birds thereof,as if they were the images of aquatic fowls swimming on its surface, orresembled the blackbees fluttering about its lotus like waves.

37. Its boisterous waves are borne to the skies by the violent[Pg 611] winds,and washing the welkin’s face with their briny sprays; and the deepsounding main, resounding from its hollow rocks, is roaring aloud likethe diluvian clods.

38. The gurgling noise of the whirlpools, resembles the loud thunderclaps of heaven; and the submarine fire is sometimes seen to burst outof the deep, like the latent flame of Agastya, that consumed the watersof the main.

39. The watery maze presents the picture of a vast wilderness, with itswaves as the waving trees; the billows as its branch boughs, its surfsas blossoms, and the foams and froths as flowers.

40. The high heaving surges with the shoals of fishes skimming andskipping upon them; appear as fragments of the sky fallen below, andcarried away by the gliding waters.

41. Thus the hostile forces were driven afar to the shores of the saltseas; extending far and wide and bounding the earth on every side;while the lofty mountains rising to the skies with their verdant tops,intercepted the sight on all sides.

Argument:—Description of the forest trees, the hills and seas,the forest and hill peoples, and clouds on high.

Vasishtha continued:—Then the royal army beheld whatever there was onsides of them; namely, the forests and hills, the seas and the clouds,and the foresters and hill people, and the trees of the forest.

2. They said: behold, O lord, that high hill, which lifts its lofty topto the sky, and invites the clouds to settle upon it; while its midmostpart is the region of the winds, and the base is composed of hard andrugged stones.

3. See, O lord, how they abound with fruit trees of various kinds, andthe groves whose fragrance is wafted around by the gentle winds.

4. The sea breaks down the peninsulas with its battering breakers,and disperses the stones of the rocks on its banks; it shatters thebordering forests with its wavy axes, and scatters their fruits andflowers all over the waters. (The gloss explains the peninsula to meanthe maritime lands of Madras).

5. Behold the sea-breeze wafting away the clouds, settling on the topsof mountains, by the sufflation of the leafy boughs of trees dancingover them; in the manner of men, blowing away the smoke with their fans.

6. Here are arbours on its coasts, like the trees in the garden ofparadise; whose branches are as white as the conch-shells growing inthe full-moon-tide, and whose fruits are as bright as the disk of themoon.

7. Lo, these trees with their spouses of the creepers, are honouringyou with offerings of gemming flowers, from the rosy palms of theirrubicund leaves.

8. There is the Rikshabana rock, howling as a ferocious bear; anddevouring the huge sharks and swallowing the[Pg 613] swelling waves, in itscavern-like mouth, and under its stony teeth.

9. The Mahendra mountain with loud uproar, growls at the roaring clouds(moving below its height); as the stronger champion hurls defianceagainst his weaker rival.

10. There the enraged Malaya mount lifts his lofty head, decorated withforests of sandalwood; and threatens the loud ocean below, rolling withits outstretched arms of the waves on the shore.

11. The ocean rolling incessantly, with its gemming waves on all sides;is looked upon by the celestials from high, as if he bore away thetreasured gems of the earth.

12. The wild hillocks, with woods and ruddy rocks on the tops, andwaving with the wafting gales; appeared as huge serpents, creeping withtheir crescent gems, and inhaling the breeze.

13. There were the huge sharks and elephants, moving and grappling witheach other upon the surges; and this sight delights the minds of men,as that of a rainy and light cloud opposing and pursuing one another.

14. There is an elephant fallen in a whirlpool, and being unable toraise itself from the same, it left its proboscis on the water, anddies with sputtering the water from snout on all sides.

15. The high hills as well as the low seas, are all equally filled withliving beings; and as the oceans abound with aquatic animals, so areall lands and islands full of living beings.

16. The sea like the earth and all the worlds, are full of whirlpoolsand revolutions of things, and all these are mere falsities, that aretaken for and viewed as realities.

17. The ocean bears in its bosom the liquid waves, which are inert inthemselves, and yet appearing to be in continual motion; so Brahmacontains the innumerable worlds, which seem to be solid without anysubstantiality in them. (The worlds are as empty and unstable waves).

[Pg 614]

18. It was at the churning of the ocean, by the gods and giants ofyore; that it was despoiled of all its bright and hidden treasures,which have since fallen to the lot of Indra and the gods.

19. It has therefore adopted to wear on its breast, the reflexionsof the greatest and brightest lights of heaven, as its false andfictitious ornaments. These are seen even from the nether worlds, andof these no one can deprive it.

20. Among the shining sun is one, whose image it bears in its bosom,with equal splendour as it is in heaven. This bright gem is dailydeposited as a deposit in the western main, to give its light to thenether world. It is called the gem of day दिनमनि, becauseit makes day wherever it shines.

21. There is a confluence of all the waters from all sides to it, andassemblage of them in its reservoir, gives it the clamorous sound, asit is heard in the crowds of men in mixed processions.

22. Here is a continued conflict of the marine monsters in their mutualcontentions, as there is a jostling of the currents and torrents of thewaters of rivers and seas, at the mouths of gulfs and bays.

23. There the large whales are rolling and dancing on the rising waves;and spurting forth spouts of water from their mouth; and these sheddingshowers of pearls, are borne aloft and scattered about by the blowingwinds.

24. The streams of water, flowing like strings of pearl, and bearingthe bubbles resembling brilliant pearls (abdas) amidst them; adorn thebreast of the ocean as necklaces, and whistling by their concussion.

25. The sea winds serve to refresh the spirits of the siddha and sádhyaclasses of spirits, that dwell in their abodes of the caverns ofMahendra mountains; and traverse the howling regions of the soundingmain.

26. Again the winds exhaled from the caves of the Mahendra mountains,are gently shaking the woods growing upon it, and stretching a cloud offlowers over its table lands.

[Pg 615]

27. Here is the Mount Gandhamádana, full of mango and kadamba trees;and there the fragments of clouds, are seen to enter into its caveslike stags, with their eyes flashing as lightnings.

28. The winds issuing from the valleys of Himálaya mountains, andpassing through the encircling bowers of creeping plants, arescattering the clouds of heaven, and breaking the breakers of the sea.

29. The winds of the Gandhamádana mountain, are exhaling the fragranceof the kadamba flowers growing upon it; and ruffling the surfaceof the sea with curling waves.

30. After twisting the fleecy clouds, in the form of the curling locksof hair, on the pinnacles of Alaka (the residence of Kubera); the windsare passing by the alleys of the Gandhamádana groves, and forming <a>cloud or canopy of flowers at this place.

31. Here the odoriferous airs, bearing the sweet burthen of fragrantflowers and gums, and moistened by the admixture of icy showers, arecreeping slowly amidst the alleys.

32. Lo there the nálikera creepers, diffusing their sourishscent to the breezes, which being acidulated by their sourness, areturning towards the regions of Persia.

33. Here the winds are wafting the odours, of the flowery forests ofÍsana on the Kailasa mountain; and there they are breathing with theperfume of the lotuses of the mountain lakes; and blowing away thecamphor-white (fleecy) clouds from the face of the sky.

34. The fluid ichor which flows from the frontal proboscis ofelephants, is dried and stiffened by the breezes issuing out of thecaverns of the Vindhya mountain.

35. The females of the savara foresters, covering their bodieswith the dry leaves of trees, and accompanied by their swarthymales, in leafy apparel, have been making a town of their jungle, byextirpating the wild animals, with their iron arrows.

36. Behold, great lord, these seas and mountains, these forests andrivers, and these clouds on all sides, look as if they[Pg 616] are all smilingunder your auspices, as under the brightness of sun-beams.

37. Here they also describe the flowery beds, of the Vidyádhari woodnymphs; and their sports (which <is> omitted on account of theiruselessness).

Argument:—Description of the hills and forests, rivers and otherobjects on all sides.

The Royal companions related:—Hear, O high minded lord! the Kinnarafemales from their abodes of leafy bowers, where they enjoy themselveswith singing their songs; and the Kinnara also being enrapt with themusic, listen to it attentively by forgetting their business of the day.

2. There are the Himálaya, Malaya, Vindhya, Krauncha, Mahendra,Mandara, Dardura and other mountains; which from their distant view,appear to the sight of the observer, to be clothed in robes of hoaryclouds, and seen as heaps of stones covered with the dry leaves oftrees.

3. Those distant and indistinct chains of boundary mountains, appear tostretch themselves like the walls of cities; and those rivers which areseen to fall into the ocean with their gurgling noise; appear as thewoof and texture threads of the broad sheet of waters of the ocean.

4. The ten sides of the sky, which are spread over the tops ofmountains; appear as the royal consorts, looking on thee from theirlofty edifices, and smiling gladly at thy success. The many-colouredand roaring clouds in the sky, resembling the variegated birds of air,warbling their notes on high; and the rows of trees which are droppingdown the showers of flowers from high, appear as the arms of heavenlynymphs, shedding their blessings upon thy head with their hands.

5. The high hills overgrown with rows of trees, and stretching allalong the sea shore; appear as ramparts; and these being beaten by thesurges, seem as mere moss gathered on the coast.

6. O! the extensive, all sustaining and wondrous body of the ocean,that supported the body of Hari sleeping upon it;[Pg 618] contained theunrighteous creation at the great deluge, and it covered all themountains and rocks and the submarine fire under it.

7. There is the northern ocean, to which the Jambu river, pours all thegold of the Meru or polar mountain, and it contains numerous cities andforests and mountains and countries. It washes the face of the sky andall its lights, and is therefore adored by gods as well as men.

8. Here is this polar mountain, reaching to the solar sphere, andpresenting the trees on its top as its cloud-capt head; may the earthextending to this mountain be thine, and may not this mount which hidesthe sun under its clouds, obstruct the extension of thy realm.

9. Here is this Malaya mount on the south, growing the fragrant sandalwood, which converts all other woods to its nature. Its sweet pastedecorates the persons of gods, men and demons, and is put as a spot onthe forehead like the frontal eye <of> Siva; and is sprinkled over thebody belike the bedewed persons of females with sweat.

10. The waves of the ocean are continually laving the coast, overgrownwith forests of the sandal wood, and encircled by folds of snakes;while the woodland nymphs wandering on this mount, throw a lustre aboutit by the beauty of their persons.

11. Here is the hill called Krauncha, with its groves resonant with thecooing of cuckoos; and its rugged caves and rivers resounding harshlyto one another; while the bamboos are crackling with their mutualfriction, and the humble bees have been humming about; among these isheard the warbling of emigrating cranes on high, and the loud screamsof peaco*cks, which are terrific to the serpent tribe.

12. Behold here, O great lord, the sport of woodland nymphs, in thegroves of their soft leafy bowers; and listen to the tinkling sound oftheir bracelets, which are so sweet to the ears of hearers.

13. There behold the drizzling ichor, exuding from the foreheads ofelephants, and the swarming bees giddy with the[Pg 619] drink; which has madethe sea to melt in tears, on account of its being slighted by them.

14. Lo there the fair moon, with his train of fairy stars, sporting intheir reflexions, in the lap of his sire, the milky ocean, from whichit was churned as its butter or froth.

15. See there the tender creepers, dancing merrily on the table-landsof the Malaya mountain; displaying their red petals as the palms oftheir hands, and winking with their eyes formed of fluttering bees.The blooming flowers bespeak their vernal festivity, and the warblingcuckoos fill the groves with their festive music.

16. Here the rain-drops produce the pearly substance ofvansa-lochana, in the hollows of bamboos; and thegaja-mati or frontal pearl, in the skull of elephants; and largepearls in the womb of pearl-shells. So the words of the wise, areproductive of unlike effects in different persons.

17. So the gems are productive of various effects, according as theyare produced in varied forms in different receptacles; as in men andstones, in seas and forests, in frogs, clouds and elephants. Theygladden and distract the mind, cause fear and error, fever and death,and many other preternatural and supernatural effects.

18. Lo here the city smiling under the rising moon, and singing inpraise of that ambrosial luminary, through all its windows, doorwaysand openings, as it were from the mouths of its females; and responsiveto his eulogy sung by the Mandara mountain, from the many mouths of itscaves and caverns, and the pipes of hallow bamboos.

19. The wondering women of the siddhas, behold with their astonishedand uplifted faces and eyes, a large body of cloud borne away by thewinds; and dubitate in their minds, whether it is a mountain peakcarried away by the winds, or is it a forest of the snowy mountainflying upward in the air, or is it a column to measure the distance ofthe earth and sky, or a balance to weigh their weight.

20. See the moorlands at the foot of the Mandara mountain,[Pg 620] how coolthey are with the cooling breezes wafting the coldness of the waves ofGanges; and see its footlands inhabited by the fair Vidyádhara tribe;and behold its flowery woodlands all around, overtopped by shady cloudsof flowers above.

21. See the forests and groves and the hursts spread there abouts, withthe huts and hamlets and habitations of men scattered therein. Look atthe holy shrines, and the sacred brooks and fountains lying in them,the very sight of which, disperses our woes, poverty and iniquities.

22. Mountain craigs and ridges, overhung on all sides of the horizon;the dales and caverns, and the groves and grottos, are overshadowed byclouds; the limpid lakes, resemble the clear firmament; such sights aresure to melt away masses of our crimes.

23. Lo here my lord, the ravines of the Malaya mountain, redolent withthe odour of the aromatic sandal wood; and there the Vindhyan hills,abounding with infuriate elephants; the Kailása mount yielding thebest kind of gold, in its olden laureate lore; and the Mount Mahendra,fraught with its mineral ore (aguru—agallochum); the summitsof the snowy mountain are plenteous, with the best kind of horses andmedicinal plants; thus while every place <is> found to abound withrichest productions of nature, why does man set to repine in his timeworn cell, like an old and blind mouse in its dirty hole.

24. Behold the dark and rainy cloud on high, appearing as anotherworld, to submerge the earth under its flood; and threatening it withits flashing and forky lightnings, and gliding as frisky shrimp fishesin the etherial ocean.

25. Oh! the bleak rainy winds, blowing with the keen icy blasts offrozen snows, poured down profusely by the raging rainy clouds on high.They are now howling aloud in the air, and now chilling the blood, andshaking the body with horripilation.

26. Oh! the cold winds of winter are blowing, in their course with thedark clouds of heaven; and scattering cluster[Pg 621] of flowers, from thetwigs and branches of trees. And there are the drizzling rain dropsdropping in showers, amidst the thick forests, redolent with the odoursof kadamba blossoms.

27. There the winds are bearing the fragrance of the breaths of languidfemales, as if it were the celestial odour of ambrosia, stolen by andborne on the wings of zephyr.

28. Here the gentle breezes are breathing, with the breath of the newblown lilies and lotuses of the lake, and sweeping their tender odoursto the land; and the blasts are bursting the flakes of the foldedclouds, and wafting the perfumes from the gardens and groves.

29. Yonder the mild airs are lulling our toils, cooled by their contactwith the evening clouds of heaven; and resembling the vassal florists,perfumed all over in their culling the flowers from the royal gardens.

30. Some of these are perfumed with the odours of different flowers,and others with the fragrance of lilies and lotuses; in some placesthey are scattering showers of blossoms, and shedding the dust offlowers at others. Some where the air is blowing from the hoarymountain of frost, and at others from those of blue, black and redminerals.

31. The sun is scattering his rays, as firebrands in some places, andthese are spreading a conflagration with loud cluttering in the woods,like the riotous rabble in a country.

32. The winds like wicked attendants on the sun, are spreading theconflagration caused by the solar rays; and carry their clatteringnoise afar.

33. The cooling winds blowing from the woods, and bedewed by the gentlebeams of the moon, or moistened by the watery particles of heavingwaves; though cheering to the souls of others, appear yet as fiery hotto separated lovers.

34. Lo here, O lord! how the savara women, on the low lands ofthe eastern main, are covered in their rude and rough leafy garments,and wearing their sounding bracelets of brass; and see how they arestrutting about, in the giddiness of their prime youth.

[Pg 622]

35. See how these newly loving lasses, are clinging round the bodiesof their mates, for fear of darkness of the approaching night; in themanner of timid snakes twining about the trunk of sandal wood trees.

36. Struck with fear by the alarm, given by the sounding bell at daybreak; the loving consort leans on the bosom of her lover, as thedarkness lingers in the enclosed room.

37. There is a furze of kinsuka flowers, blooming as firebrands, onthe border of the southern sea, which is continually washing them withlavations of its waves, as if it wanted to extinguish them.

38. The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwardslike mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about likeflames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them asextinguished cinders of fire.

39. Behold there on the other side, the real flashes of living wildfire, blazing in the forests on the east; and to their flames are borneabove the mountain tops, by the flying winds of the air.

40. See the slow moving clouds, shrouding the lowlands lying at thefoot of the Krauncha mountain; and observe the crowding peaco*cksdancing under them, and screaming aloud with their grave and shrillcries to the clouds. Lo there the gusts of rain-winds rising high, andblowing the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees afar on all sides.

41. Behold the sun setting mountain in the west, with its thousandpeaks of glittering gold; shining amidst the dusky hue of the eveningsky; and the sloping sun descending below in his chariot whirling downwith its rattling wheels in the rustling of evening winds. (But thesolar car is a velocipedes with a single wheel only).

42. The moon that rises upon the eastern mount of Meru like a fullblown flower, in order to give light to the darkened mansion of thisworld; is itself accompanied by its black spots, sitting as black-beesupon the blossom. Hence there is no good thing in this perverted world,which is free from its fault and frailty.

[Pg 623]

43. The moon light is shining like the laughter of the god Rudra,amidst his dome of the triple world; or it is as the white wash of thegreat hall of the universe, or it likens <to> the milky fluid of themilky ocean of the sky.

44. Look on all sides of the sky, tinged with the evening twilight, andthe variegated hues of mountain tops; and filled with the milky beamsof the moon, that was churned out by the Mount Mandara from the milkyocean.

45. Look there, O incomparable lord! those hosts of Guhyka ghosts, thatare as hideous as the large tála or palm trees; and also thosepuny Vetála younglings are pouring upon the ill-fated dominions of theHunas; and devouring troubled inhabitants at night.

46. The face of the moon shines brightly like the beauteous face of afairy, so long as it does not appear out of its mansion at night; butit is shorn of its beams, and appears as a piece of fleecy cloud, byits appearance at day light; as the fairy face becomes disgraced, byappearing out of the inner apartment.

47. Look at the lofty peaks of the snowy mountain, covered with thefair vesture of the bright moon beams; and see its craigs washed byfloods of the falling Ganges; behold its head capped by perpetualsnows, and begirt by creepers of snowy whiteness.

48. Behold there Mandara mountain touching the sky, and crowning theforest with its lofty ridges; here the winds are wafting the cradlechimes of Apsara nymphs, and there the mountainous mines gemming invarious hues.

49. See the high hills all around, abounding with blooming flowers likeofferings to the gods; see the thickening clouds round their loins,and resounding hoarsely within their hollows, while the starry heavenshines over their heads.

50. There is the Kailása mountain on the north, vying with firmament inits brightness; below it there is the hermitage of Skanda, andthe moon shines in her brilliance above.

51. Lo, the god Indra has let loose his winds, to break the[Pg 624] branchesof trees, and demolish the huts on the ground, the fragments of whichthey have been carrying afar.

52. The winds are wafting the profuse fragrance of flowers after therains, and filling the nostrils of men with their odours; while theflights of bees are floating as clouds in the azure sky.

53. Methinks the goddess Flora has chosen for her abode, the bloomingflowers in the forests; limpid waters in the marshy grounds, and invillages abounding in fruitful trees, and flourishing fields.

54. The windows are overgrown with creeping plants in the rains, andthe house tops are decorated with the flowers of the climbing creepersupon them. The ground is strewn over with the dropping flowers up tothe heels, and the breezes are blowing the dust of the flowers allabout. All these have made the woodlands the seats of the sylvan gods.

55. The rains have converted the rustic village, to a romantic paradiseor fairy land; by the blooming champaka flowers, the swingingof the rural nymphs in their cradles, of creepers, by the warbling ofbirds and gurgling of water-falls, the blossoming of the tall palmtrees in the skirts; the tender creepers blooming with clusters of snowwhite blossom, the dancing of peaco*cks on the tops of houses, and theborders shaded by the sal trees; and the rainy clouds hanging over thevillage and the bordering hills.

56. Again the soft and sweet breathing breezes, the variegated leavesof the plants and creepers, the verdure of the village, the cries ofcranes and other fowls, and the wild notes of the foresters; thesetogether with the jollity of the swains, and the merriment of thepastoral people, over their plenty of milk, curd, butter and ghee, andtheir glee in their peaceful abodes, add a charm to this hilly tract.

Argument.—Description of the battle field, and of the hills andsky, and the story of the foolish crow.

The companions added:—Look lord, the field of battle, stretching tothe bordering hills; look upon the heaps of shining weapons, and thescattered forces of elephants, horse, infantry and war chariots.

2. Look at the slain and their slayers, and the combatants attackingtheir corrivals; and how their dying souls are borne by celestialnymphs in heavenly cars to heaven.

3. The victor finding his adversary worsted in warfare, ought not slayhim unjustly, unless he is justified to do so by laws of warfare (as ayouth is justified to take unto him no other woman but his legal wife).

4. As health and wealth and prosperity, are good for men when theyare rightly gained; so it is right to fight for those by whom one issupported.

5. When one kills his opposing corrival in combat, without violation ofthe laws of warfare, he is justly styled a heavenly champion, and notone who takes undue advantage of his enemy.

6. Behold there the bold champion brandishing his sword, as if he isswinging a blue lotus in his hand; and casting the dark shadow of theevening dusk on the ground. Such a hero is courted by Laxmi for herspousal.

7. Look at those flourishing weapons, flaming as the flying embers ofwild fire, in a mountain forest; or as the dreadful dragons of the sea,dancing on land with hundreds of their flashing hoods and heads.

8. Look at the sky on one side, resembling the sea with its wateryclouds, and shining with strings of its stars on another;[Pg 626] see how itis covered by dark clouds on one side; and how it is brightened by moonbeams on the other.

9. Look at the firmament, ranged by multitudes of revolving planets,resembling the rolling chariots of warriors; and crowded by myriads ofmoving stars, likening the soldiers in the battle field; and yet it isthe error of the ignorant to think it an empty vacuum; an error whichis hard for the wise to remove.

10. The sky with its over spreading clouds, its fiery lightnings, itsthunder bolts that break down the mountain wings; its starry array,and the battle of gods and demigods that took place in it; is stillas inscrutable in his nature, as the solid minds of the wise, whosemagnitude no one can measure.

11. O wise man, thou hast been constantly observing before thee, thesun, moon and all the planets and stars in the firmament, together withall the luminous bodies of comets, meteors and lightnings; and yetis astonishing that your ignorance will not let see the GreatNáráyana in it.

12. Thou dark blue sky, that art brightened by moon-light, dost yetretain thy blackness, like the black spot amidst the lightsome disk ofthe moon; and such is the wonder with ignorant minds, that with alltheir enlightenment, they will never get rid of their inward bias andprejudice.

13. Again the clear sky which is full with endless worlds, is nevercontaminated by their faults, nor ever changed in its essential state;and resembles the vast and pure mind of the wise, which is full withits knowledge of all things, and devoid of all their pollutions.

14. Thou profound sky, that art the receptacle of the most elevatedobjects of nature, and containest the lofty clouds and trees andsummits in thy womb; that art the recipient of the sun, moon andthe aerial spirits that move about in thee; art yet inflamed by theflames of the fiery bodies that rise in thee to our great regret,notwithstanding thy greatness, which helps them to spread themselveshigh in heaven.

15. Thou sky that art replete with pure and transparent light, andgreat with thy greatness of giving quarters to all the[Pg 627] great andelevated objects of nature; but it is greatly to be pitied, that thedark clouds to whom thou givest room to rise under thee, molest us likebase upstarts, with pelting their hailstones at random.

16. Again thou dark sky, art the attestor of all lights; as thetouchstone is the test of gold; and thou art a void in thy essence, yetthou dost support the substances of stars and planets of clouds andwinds and all real existences at large.

17. Thou art the day light at daytime, and the purple red of evening,and turnest black at night; thus devoid of all colour of thyself thoudost exhibit all colours in thee; hence it is impossible even for thelearned, to understand aright thy nature and its convertible conditionsalso.

18. As the helpless man is enabled to achieve his purposes, by meansof his patient perseverance; so the inane sky has risen above all, bymeans of its universal diffusion. (The gloss says that, extension ofknowledge, is the cause of elevation).

19. The sun that persists in his wonted course, rises to the verticalpoint in time; but the unmoving straws and trees, and the dormant hillsand places, and stagnant pools and ponds, are ever lying low on theground.

20. The night invests the sky with a sable garb, and sprinkles overit the fair moonlight like the cooling dust of camphor; with thedecoration of stars like clusters of flowers upon it. The day mantlesthe firmament with bright sun beams, and the seasons serve to cover itin clouds and snows, and in the gaudy attire of vernal flowers. Thus istime ever busy, to decorate the heavenly paths of his lords the sun andmoon, the two time keepers by day and night.

21. The firmament like the magnanimous mind, never changes the firmnessof its nature; although it is ever assailed by the disturbances ofsmokes and clouds of dust and darkness, of the rising and setting sunand moon and their dawns and dusks: and of the confluence of stars andcombat of gods and demons.

22. The world is an old and decayed mansion, of which the[Pg 628] four sidesare its walls, the sky its covering roof above and the earth its groundfloor below; the hills and mountains are its pillars and columns, andthe cities and towns are its rooms and apartments; and all the variousclasses of animal beings, are as the ants of this abode.

23. Time and action are the occupants of this mansion from age to age,and all its ample space presents the aspect of a smiling garden; it isfeared every day to be blown and blasted away, and yet it is a wonderhow this frail flower should last so long and for ever more.

24. It is the air methinks, that puts a stop to the greater height orrising of trees and hills; for though it does not actually restraintheir growth, yet its influence (pressure from above), like theauthority of noble men, puts a check to the rise of aspiring underlings.

25. O fie for that learning, which calls the air as void and vacuity;seeing it to contain millions of worlds in its bosom, and producing andreducing also unnumbered beings in its boundless bosom.

26. We see all things to be born in and to return into the air; andyet we see the madness of men, that reckon the all containing and allpervading air, as something different from God.

27. We see the works of creation, to be continually producing, existingand extinguishing in air, like sparks of fire; I ween this pure andsole air, which is without beginning, middle and end, as the universalsource and terminus of all, and no other distinct cause as God.

28. The vacuum is the vast reservoir of the three worlds, and bears inits ample space the innumerable productions of nature; I understandinfinite vacuity as the body of the Intellect, and that transcendentbeing, in which this erroneous conception of the world, has its riseand fall.

29. Therein the woodlands on mountain tops, the solitary foresterchants his charming strains amidst his sylvan retreat; and attracts theheart of the lonely passenger, who lifts up his head to listen to therapturous times.

[Pg 629]

30. Hearken O Lord, to the sweet music, proceeding from the thickgroves on yonder lofty mountain; and emitted with the heart rendingstrains, of love born Vidyádhara nymphs; and behold the lonely andlovesick passenger, whose lovesick heart being smitten by the sound,has neither the power to proceed forward or recede backward from thespot, or utter a word.

31. I hear a lovelorn Vidyádhara damsel, singing her love dittyamidst the woods of the hill with her heaving sighs and tears flowingprofusely from her eyes. She sang saying: “Lord, I well remember theday, when thou ledst me to the recess of the bower, holding my chin andgiving kisses on my cheeks with thy smiling face, and now the pleasingremembrance of that gladsome moment, hath left me to deplore its lossfor years”.

32. I heard her tale, O Lord, thus related to me from the mouth of aforester on the way. He said:—Her former young lover, was cursed bya relentless sage to become an arbour for a dozen of years; and it issince this ill fated change of his, that she has been reclining on thattree, and singing her mournful ditty unto the same.

33. And now observe the wonder, that on my approach the arborescentlover, was released of his sad curse, and shedding a shower of flowersupon her, he changed his form and clasped her unto his arms with hisface smiling as his blooming flowers.

34. The tops of hills are decorated with flowers, as the heads ofelephants are painted with white dye; the sky is whitened with thestars and falling meteors, as the summit of the mountain is etiolatedwith hoar-frost and snows.

35. Behold there the beautiful stream of Kaveri, gliding along withshoals of fishes skimming in its waters; to its boisterous wavesresounding with the cries of shrill and clamorous cranes; see its banksmantled in vests of flowers, and its shores freely grazed by timidfauns without any fear.

36. Look the Bela rock, which is washed by the billows of Varuna—thegod of the sea; its stones shining as gold under the solar rays; andsparkling as the marine fire when they are laved by the waves.

37. Look at the abodes of the Ghosha shepherds at the foot[Pg 630] of themountain, which are continually covered under the shrouding clouds; andbehold the beauty of the blossoming palása and patalatrees thereabouts.

38. Look at the plains, whitened by the full-blown whitish flowers; seethe mandara tree with twining and flowering creepers; look atthe banks crowded by cranes and peaco*cks; look at those villages andthe water falls, resounding as music from the mouths of mountain cavesand forests, and redounding to the joy of the happy inhabitants of thevalley.

39. Here the buzzing bees are sporting about the new blown petals ofplantain flowers; and inspiring fond desire in the breasts of thePamara foresters; who enjoy a bliss in their rustic pastures and hiddenhilly caverns, which I ween, is not attainable by the immortal gods intheir garden of Eden. (So says Hafiz:—Thou canst not have in heaven,the blissful fount of Roknabad, nor the flowery groves of Mossella).

40. Behold the black bees sporting and swinging in their cradles of theflowery creepers of the forest; and to the Pulinda forester singingto his beloved, with his eyes fixed upon her face; and mark also thesportive Kiráta, forgetting to kill the deer roving beside his lonelycavern.

41. Here the weary traveller is regaled, by the sweet scent of variousfull blown flowers, and is cooled in his body by the odorous dust,wafted by the breeze from the flowering creepers; while the windsbearing the watery particles of the waves, which lave the vale on allsides, render the spot more delightful than the spotted disc of themoon (i.e. the people have more of coolness here, than the godshave in the moist sphere of the moon).

42. Here the unceasing gliding of waters, and the continued waving ofthe palm trees; together with the dancing of the blossoming branches,and the undulation of the spreading creepers in the air; the forestof lofty sála trees in the borders, and the hanging clouds over thebordering hills, all combine to add a charm to this village of thevale, not unlike to that of the gardens in the orb of the moon.

43. The flashing of lightnings, and the deep roaring of[Pg 631] clouds; themerry dance of peaco*cks and their loud shrieks and screams, and theirtrailing trains displayed in the air, decorate the valley with avariety of variegated gems.

44. The bright orb of the moon appearing on one side, and the darkclouds rising as huge elephants on the other; serve to embellish thevillage in the valley, and the hills in the skirts, with a beautyunknown in the heavenly kingdom of Brahmá: (which is the empyrean orcity of fire only).

45. O! how I long to lodge myself in the mountain grotto, amidst thefragrant arbours of the beauteous Mandána forest, and in thedelightsome groves of blooming santánaha blossoms, and wherethe busy bees are continually fluttering, over the mandára andparibhadra arborets.

46. O, how much are our hearts attracted, by the cries of the tenderdeer, browzing the verdant and delightsome verdure; and by the bloomingblossoms on hills and in dales, as by sight of the cities of mankind.

47. Look on yonder village in the valley, where the waterfall appearsas a column of clear chrysolite; and the peaco*cks are in their merrydance, all about the precipitate cascade.

48. See how the joyous peaco*cks, and the gaysome creepers, bending downunder the burden of their blossoms; are dancing delightfully, besidethe purling water of the cataract.

49. I believe the lusty god of desire (Káma or Cupid), sports here athis pleasure, in this village of the valley protected by the hills allaround. He is sporting with the handsome harita birds (the greenpartridges and parrots) in the verdant groves, and beside the crystallakes, resounding with the sweet warblings of water-fowls.

50. O most prosperous and magnanimous lord, that art the centre of allvirtues, and the highest and gravest of men; thou art like the toweringmountain, the refuge of mankind from heat, and the cause of theirplenty (i.e. the rainy clouds on mountain tops, are the causesof plenteous produce).

51. Thou cloud that bathest in holy waters (i.e. that resistfrom the waters of seas and rivers); that art exalted above all earthlybeings, and choosest to abide in hills and wildernesses[Pg 632] like holyhermits, and art taciturn like them, from the pure holiness of thynature; thou appearest also as fair in the form when thou art emptied(of thy waters) in autumn; all this is good in thee; but say why dostthou rise in thy fulness with flashing lightnings in thy face, androaring thunders in thy breast, like lucky upstarts of low origin?

52. All good things being misplaced (or out of their proper place),turn to badness; as the water ascending to the clouds, turns to hoarfrost and cold ice.

53. O, wonder! that the drops distilled by the clouds, fill the earthwith water; and wonder it is that this water supports all beings, andmakes the poor grow with plenty (of harvest).

54. Ignorant people are as dogs, in their unsteadiness, impudence, intheir impurity and wayfaringness; hence I know not whether the ignoranthave derived their nature from dogs or these from them.

55. There are some persons, who notwithstanding all their faults, areyet esteemed for certain qualities in them; as the dogs are taken intofavour, on account of their valour, contentedness and faithfulnessto their masters. (So are men serviceable to their masters for thesevirtues in them).

56. We see all worldly people pursuing the course of their worldlinessas madmen, and pushing on in the paths of business at the sacrifice oftheir honor, and likely to tumble down with fatigue. I find them flyingto and fro as trifling straws, and know not whether it is of their willor madness or stupidity, that they have made choice of this foolishcourse.

57. Among brute creatures, the brave lion hears the tremendous thunderclaps without shuddering: while the cowardly dog trembles and shuts hiseyes with fear at the sound.

58. I believe, O vile dog, that thou hast been taught to bark atthy fellows, and to ramble about in the streets, by some surly andstrolling porter or peon (among men).

59. The divine creator, that has ordained varieties in all his works,has made the nasty breed of his daughter Saromá all[Pg 633] equal in theirfilthiness. These are the dogs, that make their kennels or dog holes indirt, that feed upon filth and carrion and copulate in public places,and carry about an impure body every where. (This is a slur against theprogeny of one’s daughters, who generally turn to be vicious).

60. “Who is there viler than thee”; says a man to his dog; to whichhe answered, “the silly man as thee is the vilest of all”. There arethe best qualities of valour, fidelity and unshaken patience, combinedin the canine tribe; and these are hard to be had in human kind, whogrovel in the darkness of their ignorance amidst greater impurities andcalamities. (The instinctive sagacity of beasts, is a surer safe guardto them, than the boasted reason of man).

61. The dog eats impure things and lives in impurity; he is contentwith what it gets, feeds upon dead bodies and never hurts the living,and yet men are fond of pelting stones on him every where; thus the dogis made a plaything by men, contrary to the will of God.

62. Looking at the crow flying there upon the offerings, left on thelingam or phallus of Siva on yonder bank; and there appearing tosight to tell its tale to people, saying; “Behold me on high, with allmy degrading sin” (of stealing from the altars of deities).

63. Thou croaking crow, that crowest so harshly, and treadst the marshylake; it is no wonder that thou wouldst vex us with thy cries, thathast put down the sweet buzz of humming bees.

64. We see the greedy rook, devouring ravenously the dirty filth, inpreference to the sweet lotus stalk. It is no wonder that some wouldprefer sour to sweet, from their long and habitual taste of it.

65. A white crow sitting in a bush, of white lotus flowers and theirsnowy filaments, was taken at first for a hansa or heron, but asit began to pick up worms, it came to be known as a crow.

66. It is difficult to distinguish a crow, sitting in company with acuckoo, both being of the like sable plumes and feathers;[Pg 634] unless theone makes itself known as distinct from the other, by giving out itsown vocal sound.

67. The crow sitting on a forest tree, or on a mould of clay or highbuilt building, looks on all sides for its prey; as a nightly thiefmounts on a chaitta tree; and sits watching there from the waysof people.

68. It is impossible for a crow, to abide with cranes and storks bythe side of a lake, which abounds in lotus flowers, that diffuse theirsombre farina all about.

69. For shame that the noisy crow, should have a seat on the soft lotusbed in company with silent swans, and play his disgraceful part andtricks among them. (i.e. It is impudence on the part of theignorant, to open their mouths, where the learned hold their silence).

70. Thou crow that criest as the hardest saw, say where hast thou leftor lost thy former reservedness to-day. Why dost thou brood over theyoung cuckoo, the sweetness of whose voice thou canst never attain, andwhom thou canst not retain as thy young.

71. One seeing a dark crow sitting as a black steg, in a bed of whitelotuses, and crowing aloud with delight at that place, said unto himsaying:—It is better for thee O clamorous crow to rend ears of thosewith thy cracking voice, that are not tired with splitting the head ofothers with their wily verbiage.

72. It is well when the cunning consort with the cunning, as the crowand the crab meeting at a pool; or the rook and the owl joining in anarbour; for the two rogues though seemingly familiar, will not fail tofoil one another by their natural enmity (ká ko lu kiká).

73. The cuckoo associating with the crow, and resembling him in figureand colour; is distinguished by his sweet notes from the other; as thelearned man makes himself known by his speech in the society of theignorant.

74. The blossoming branch is well able to bear, the spoliation of itsflowers by the cuckoo; and will not yet suffer the association of crowsand cranes, and co*cks and vultures upon[Pg 635] its twigs. (i.e. It ispossible to bear with an injury from the good, but not to tolerate thesociety of bad people).

75. How delightfully do people listen to the sweet notes of thecuckoo, which unites the separated lovers together; but who can brookto hearken unto the jarring cries of the crow or hooting of the owl,without disgust.

76. When the sweet notes of the young kokila, serve to ravishthe ears of hearers, with the gladsome tidings of the vernal season;there is the grating cry of the crow, immediately obtruding upon theirears, and demanding the melodious cuckoo as its foster child. (It iswell known to all here, that young cuckoos are fostered in the nests ofcrows).

77. Why and what hast thou been cooing so long, O thou tender cuckoo,with so much joy and glee in yonder grove; lo! thy pleasant vernalseason is too soon over with its fading flowers, and behold the sternwinter approaching fast, to blast the blossoming trees with its icybreath, and bidding thee to hide thy head in thy nest.

78. A separated mistress seeing a sweet kokila, pour forth his notes tothe tender blossoms of the vernal season thus address to him saying:“say, O sweet cuckoo! who taught thee to tell, that vernal season istava tava tua tua, i.e. “for thee and thy enjoyment,”this is verily a woeful lie thou tellest me, instead of saying “itis mine and mine” that art enjoying thy companion.” (It would betterrendering in English to reverse the application of the words mine andthine).

79. The cuckoo sitting silent in an assemblage of crows, appears as oneof them in its form and colour of its feathers; and the graceful gaitof the cuckoo, makes it known from the rest, as the wise man is markedin the company of fools. It is hence that every body is respected byhis inward talents and outward deportment, more than by outer form andfeathers.

80. O brother kokila! it is in vain that thou dost coo so sweetly, whenthere is none to appreciate its value; it is far better therefore, thatthou shouldst sit quiet in thy secluded[Pg 636] covert under the shady leaves,when these flocks of crows are so loud in their cries; and when it istime for the falling dews, and not of vernal flowers.

81. It is to be wondered, that the young cuckoo forsakes its mother forits fostering crow; which on her part begins to prick it with its billand claws. As I reflect on these, I find the young cuckoo growing inits form to the likeness of its mother; and hence I conclude, that thenature of a person prevails over his training every where.

Argument:—Description of a Lake of lotus, and the bees and swansfrequenting them.

The companions said:—Behold there, O lord! the lotus lake on thetableland of the mountain; reflecting the sky in its bosom, andresembling the pleasure pond of Káma or Cupid. Behold there the beds ofwhite, red and blue lotuses, with their protruding stalks; and listento the mingled sounds of the water fowls sporting thereon.

2. Lo the full blown lotus standing on its stalk with its thousandpetals, and the royal gander or swan resting on its pericarp; it iscrowded by double streaked bees, and birds of various kinds, as if itwere the abode of the lotus-seated Brahmá himself.

3. All the sides are overspread by mists and fearful frost, and the reddust of the farina of full blown flowers and lotuses, have been flyingall about; the bees and birds giddy with the odours spread around, arehumming and warbling their tunes and notes in the open air; and theclouds are spreading above as an aerial canopy.

4. There is the lashing sound of the breaking waves, beating againstthe shore; and here is the rumbling noise of the humming bees, vyingwith one another; somewhere the silent waters are sleeping in the deep,and elsewhere the fair lotus of the lake, are lying hid in the bushes.

5. The pearly particles of water, are lulling away the heat of thepeople; wild beasts are prowling on the bank, overgrown by wildthickets all around; the waves are laving the stones on the bank, andthe land appears as the clear sky on the earth.

6. The bosom of the lake displays the rays of lightnings, from theredness of the clouds by the dust of flowers borne above by the winds;and one side of it is obscured by a dark[Pg 638] rainy cloud hanging over it,while the other side exhibits the variegated rays of the evening skiesabove it.

7. There is a fragment of the autumnal cloud, borne aloft by thedriving winds; and appearing as it were a part of the sky supportedupon the air.

8. The rippling waves of the lake by gentle breeze, and the wettishhumming bees fluttering over the bed of the lotus lake, made a noiseall around; like the falling of flowers from the branches of trees,lying on the bank of a river.

9. The large lotus leaves are waving like fans made of palm leaves,and the foaming froths were puffing as the snowy chowries ofprinces; the buzzing bees and cooing cuckoos, were singing to andlauding the lake which lay like a lord, in the assemblage of lotuses,resembling the consorts of his harem. (The lake is likened to alord).

10. Lo the chorus of black bees, singing their charming chimes beforehim; and the yellow farina of the lotus flowers, have strewn his waterswith dust of gold. The yellowish froths are floating like fragments ofits gold coloured flowers; and the flowery furzes on the bank, decorateit as its headdress.

11. The deep fountain, having the beautiful lotuses on its bosom;enjoys their sweet fragrance, as princes derive from the assemblage, oftalented men in their courts.

12. The pellucid lake, reflecting the clear autumnal sky on itssurface; resembles the mind of the wise man, which is ever clear andcomposed, with the light of the true sástra.

13. The limpid lake is little discernible in winter, when the keenblasts have covered it with hoar frost, and converted its blueness towhite.

14. So the world appears to the wise, a vast sheet of the glory of God;and all these distinct forms of things, like waves of the sea are lostat last, into the bright element of Eternity.

15. It is by one’s own exertion, that every body should try to raisehimself above the sea of error, or else he must be continually whirlingin the whirlpool of blunder, like all other ignorant men.

[Pg 639]

16. As the waters of wells, tanks, lakes and seas, differ from oneanother in their quality; so the persons of men and women, aredifferent from each other in their respective dispositions.

17. Who can count the aquatic plants and lotuses, which grow in thelakes as plentifully, as the passions and desires spring in thefountain of the human heart; and which are carried away by the waves ofaccidents, or hurled into the whirlpool of perdition.

18. Oh, the wonderful effect of bad company, that the lotus growingin the company of aquatic plants, loses its fragrance in the currentwaters, and shows its thorny stalks to view.

19. The good qualities of a person like those of the lotus, are lostunder the assemblage of vicious faults in the same; such as the pores,the hollowness and the too fine and fragile fibres of the lotus stalks,make them entirely useless to any body.

20. But the lotus which adorns its natal waters, and fills the air withits fragrance; is as a nobleman born with the noble qualities of anoble family, and whose virtues are impossible for the hundred hoodedserpent—Vásuki also to relate. (Such a person is called the lotus ofhis family).

21. What other thing can equal the lotus in its praise, which in formof Laxmí, rests on the bosom of Hari, and graces his hand in the mannerof a bouquet or nose gay.

22. The white and blue lotuses, are both esteemed for their quality ofsweet scent, though they differ in their colour; and hence the one issacred to the sun and the other to the moon.

23. The blooming beauty of the lotus-bed, is not comparable to thatof the full blown flowers of the forest; nor does the lotus-lake bearcomparison with the starry heaven also; but they are to be comparedwith the comely and smiling face of the dancing girl in her fete.

24. Blessed are bees, that have all along enjoyed their lives inrevelling over the sweets of flowers, without having any other thing tocare about.

[Pg 640]

25. Blest are the bees and cuckoos, that feast upon the flavour ofmango fruits, and regale themselves with the fragrance of theirflowers; all others not so blest, are born only to bear the name of thespecies.

26. The bees cloyed with honey, and giddy with the flavour of lotuses,in the lake where they revel; laughed to scorn some others of theirtribe, that led their humble lives on the common farina of flowers.

27. The black bee that buzzed to the lotus, lived and sported in itscompany and slept in its honey cup at night; was in trouble at theapproach of autumn, not knowing what flower to choose for its fare, andwere to resort for its rest.

28. A black bee sitting on the unblown bud of a flower, appeared as ablack man placed over a trident by kála.

29. O thou insatiate bee! that ever rovest over hills and dales, andsuckest the sweets of all kinds of flowers; why wanderest thou still,unless it were for thy restless discontent.

30. Thou soft bodied bee, that art bred up in sweets, and feedest uponthe farina of flowers; it is better for thee to resort to the lotusesof the lake, than bruise thy body in thorns and thistles.

31. O humble bee, if thou art deprived of thy mellifluous food andthy fair fare of the farina of flowers in stern winter; thou shouldstyet repair as wise men do to such as may suit thy taste, and becongenial to thy nature; rather than be mean and debase thyself, by thyattendance upon the base and mean.

32. Look there, O lord! the assemblage of milk white swans, swimmingin the lake, and feeding upon the silvery fibres of lotus stalks, andguggling as gravely, as the chaunters of the Sáma Veda.

33. Here the gander pursuing the geese, seated in their cradles oflotus bushes; thinks the limpid lake as the blue sky, and the lotuscradle as a cloud, and stops from his pursuit (for fear of falling downon earth). (Mistake of the terrestrial lake, for the aerial mandákiní).

34. Let no body be so unfortunate, O lord, as was this gander, which<was> in pursuit of the shadow of the goose.

[Pg 641]

35. The sweet music of the swan as it sings of its own accord, isinimitable by the crow or crane, although they are taught to learn itfor many years in its society.

36. Although the swan and drake are both of the same kind, and of likeform and figure, and live upon the same sort of food; yet they differwidely from one another in their respective species and qualities.

37. The swan soaring in the sky, with his snow white wings andfeathers; appears as the hoary lotus sitting upon its stalk; and thenit gladdens the minds of men, as the full-moon with her icy beams.

38. The elevated stalks of lotuses, rising as the lofty stems ofplantain trees, with the lotuses sitting as the goddess Flora uponthem, afford delight to swans only, and to no other bird.

39. Lo, how the lake is adorned like a beauteous lady, with thewaves resembling her waving bracelets, and the ripples likening hernecklaces; while the aquatic plants and flowers, represent wreaths andgarlands on her bosom.

40. The strings of fluttering bees, are as streaks of black spots onher person; the swelling of cranes and storks are as the tinklings ofher anklets, and the rippling waves are as the glances of her eyes.

41. The lake is graced like a lady, by the young swans crying by herside as her young ones; and looking up to the mountain as her lord, fora fresh supply of fresh water from his profluent cascade.

42. Don’t you, O harmless swan, says one, reside with the maliciouswater fowls and birds of prey, in one and the same lake; it is betterthat thou dost remain with thy own kind, that may assist thee indistress.

43. Look to thy end, O silly bee, says one, that art now so giddywith thy drink of the sweet honey of flower, and treadst on the headsof elephants, to sip and suck their exuding ichor, and ramblest atlarge among the blooming lotuses, that the winter of scarcity is fastapproaching to thee, when thou shalt be constrained to live upon thedewdrops drizzling on blades of grass or dripping from stones.

[Pg 642]

44. O lord! the milk white swan with wide stretched wings entered intothe lotus bush, to see after his young ones, they on seeing him, beginto cackle, as a child does on seeing his father before him. The youngones said, O father, it is all delusion, like white pearl in silver andone sees fog over his head at mid-day.

45. The swan is as silently floating over the limpid waters of thelake, as the bright moon is gently gliding along the translucentatmosphere of the firmament; and as it passes through, the beds oflotuses, its wings bruise against the blossoms, causing them to distiltheir fragrant fluid, which is gulped in by fishes, in the manner ofthe holy water of Ganges.

Argument:—This chapter is devoted to the description of somebeasts and birds, some fishes and a traveller.

Some companion said:—Behold the crane, which notwithstanding itsdestitution of all good qualities, has one special instinct of utteringthe onomatopoeia signifying the rain.

2. O crane that resemblest the swan in the colour of thy feathers, thoumightest well be taken for a young swan, wert thou but without therapacity of the king-fisher (mudgu).

3. So there is a line of king-fishers, that are expert in diving amidstdeep waters, and catching the fishes in its wide extended beaks, nowsitting idle on the shore, and not venturing to dart themselves intothe water, for fear of the sharks, floating there with their openmouths and wide stretched jaws.

4. Thus murderers also dart upon men, in the manner of divingking-fishers, and cry out saying, “madgu madguru, thisking-fisher is our instructor in killing.”

5. Seeing a white heron with its long neck and uplifted head, sittingsilently and watching on the shore, the people took it at first for ahansa or hernshaw; but finding it afterward to catch a shrimpfrom the marsh water, they came to know it as a heron at last.

6. A crane was observed by a woman, to be sitting on the shore like adevotee the live long day, while it was in reality watching for prey,until the evening shade, as the day labourers are wont to do for theirbread.

7. Look there, says a wayfaring woman to her companion, how theserustic women are culling the lotuses amidst the frosty lake; if youlike you can follow them, but I will fall back from you.

[Pg 644]

8. Look there, O lord! (says the companion to the king), how thattraveller appeases his angry mate, and leads her to the flowery bowerof the weedy bush.

9. Look then, O lord, at the dalliance of the lady, and at her smilingface mixed with her frowning looks; and hearken to her speech to herassociate.

10. The crane, king-fisher and other rapacious birds, that livetogether in the same place, are all of the same mind and purpose; butthe fool and wise man can never agree, though they abide together inthe same society for ever.

11. As the cricket caught under the bill of wood pecker, whistles tohis face; so the retribution of our past misdeeds, flies as a flagbefore us, and unfolds itself unto us (wherever we may happen to go, orchance to be reborn).

12. As long as the cruel crane of fate, keeps clucking upon the talltree on the shore; so long doth the fearful shrimp (of the livingsoul), keep itself concealed in the bog (of the body) with its inwardtrepidation. Hence there is no rest or quiet of the body and soul,until the ultimate quietus of both.

13. The bodies of animals, which are devoured by rapacious beastsand birds, and then disgorged unhurt and entire out of their bowels;resemble I ween to their rising from the lap of sleep, or a state ofprofound trance.

14. The fear that overtakes the fishes in their native waters, at thesight of rapacious animals, is far greater than those of thunder clapsor thunder bolts falling upon them; and this I know from remembrance ofmy past life of a fish, and cannot be denied by the wise.

15. Behold there the herd of deer before thus reposing in raptures overthe bed of flowers, under the shade of trees on the borders of thelake; and look also at the hive of the bees about the new blown flowersof the grove.

16. Look the high minded and lofty headed peaco*ck craving and cryingaloud for rain water, to the great god of the clouds and rains; andthe god Indra in return pours in floods to fill[Pg 645] the whole earth withwater; for the greatness of gods looks to the general and individualgood.

17. The peaco*cks like suckling babes, attend on the clouds as their wetnurses; or it may be, that the black peaco*cks are the offspring of darkclouds (that endears and unites them thus to one another).

18. Lo the wanderer looking with wonder on the eyes of the antelope,and finding their resemblance with those of his dear one at home,remains stupified as statue at the sight of the objects exposed to hisview.

19. The peaco*ck instead of drinking water from the ground, snatches byforce the snake from underneath; wherefore I am at a loss to know whichof these to blame for its malice. (The peaco*ck kills the snake, butthis one destroys all living creatures).

20. Why is it that the peaco*ck shuns to drink in the large lake, whichis as liberal as the minds of great men; and is content to swallow thedrops of rain water, spit out and spirted by the cloud; unless it befor shame of stooping down his head, to drink the water of the lake.

21. See the peaco*ck dancing, with displaying his gaudy train to theclouds; and oscillating their starry plumage in the rain, as if theywere the offspring of the rainy season.

22. The rainy dark cloud which was carried by the wind from the bed ofocean, appeared over the forest lake and met with the gleeful dancingpeaco*ck below.

23. It is better for thee, O chátaka! to pick up the blades of grassfor thy food, and drink the water of the fountains, and rest in theshady plantain grove of the forest; than to dwell in the hollow cave ofa withered tree in sultry heat, by thy pride of never stooping down forthy subsistence.

24. Think not, O peaco*ck! this cloud to be a sea and the abode ofsharks; but know to be a watery cloud, born of the smoke of wildfire, and of the vapours of the mountain and ascending to the sky.(Therefore thou canst not fear to dance before it).

[Pg 646]

25. The peaco*ck seeing the cloud that was so profuse of rain even inautumn, becoming sometimes so scant of its supply as not even to fill atank (such as in times of drought), sustains its thirst with patience,in gratitude to the past favours of the cloud; nor does it fain toblame its former supporter for failing, nor deigns to drink any otherearthly water like the common people.

26. The peaco*ck that was wont to drink the crystal drops of theclouds, would not now stoop to drink the dirty water of the ditch,though pressed and pinched by drought and thirst; because the sweetremembrance of his past beverage, supports him from fainting, and theexpectation of fresh draughts, preserves him from dying.

27. Travellers mitigate the toils of their journey, by mutualconversation on the way; as the ignorant that cannot commune withthemselves, communicate their thoughts with others, to beguile thetediousness of their lives.

28. Look there, O lord! to the slender stalks of the lotuses,supporting the burden of the water on the lotus leaves; like yon tenderdamsels carrying the water pots on their heads.

29. Being asked why they were carrying those of lotus flowers andleaves and for what use; they replied, to make cooling beds forassuaging the fever heat of the love sick wives of travellers fromtheir homes.

30. These impassioned damsels, with their swollen breasts and youthfuldalliance, and the motions and gestures of their bodies, served toexcite the remembrance of the separated brides, whom the travellers hadleft behind at their far distant abodes.

31. Ah surely, says a traveller, that dear one of mine, must now beweeping and wailing, or falling down and rolling on the ground, at thesight of yonder dark cloud in the sky in my absence.

32. Lo there the lines of black bees, fluttering on the cups oflotuses, and the little bees giddy with the dulcet[Pg 647] liquor of flowers;the gentle breezes are blowing on all sides, and wafting the fragranceof the opening blossoms; while the leaves of trees are dancing to thetunes of the rustling winds.

Argument:—The lovesick traveller, relating the woes of hisseparation to his beloved one.

The companions continued:—The traveller having returned home, andfinding his beloved one by the arbour of mandara trees, began torelate to her the pangs of his protracted separation.

2. Listen to my marvellous tale, said he, and what happened to me oneday, when I sought to send some one to thee with my tidings.

3. I sought long but sought in vain, at the time of my painfulseparation, to send one to thee at this house of mine; but where sucha one be found in the world, who would take a severe interest in theaffliction of another, for the sake of charity or mere friendship?

4. Lo, I came to behold even then and there, a big cloud on the top ofa mount, resembling the steed of cupid, that appeared jocundly beforeme, accompanied by the swift lightening as his precursor.

5. I advanced before him and addressed unto him, saying: ah brothercloud, thou bearest the rainbow of Indra, as a collar about thy neck,and are graceful in thy course, have pity on me for a moment. Please goto my dear one and tell her my tidings, with thy low voice, sympathetictears and breath of sighs; because the tender form of the pliantcreeper, will not be able to bear thy loud uproar.

6. I know not, O dark cloud! to what abode to direct thee to find mybeloved one, who is pictured in the plate of my heart by the pencil ofmy mind, and is forever situated in my bosom.

7. But now, O my friendly cloud! my distracted mind has lost thatfigure of my beloved in my breast, together with the[Pg 649] sight of herperson from my eyes; and now having lost the freedom of my body in aforeign country, I have become but a wooden framework without my love,which is its living soul: for what living body can bear the pangs ofseparation.

8. People then thought me dead, and with tears in their eyes, began toprepare my obsequies and collect wood for my funeral.

9. I was borne away to be burnt on a dreadful funeral pile, which washorribly crackling with the cracking wood, of the blazing fire on theburning ground.

10. There, O my lotus eyed love, I was laid on the pile by some personswith their weeping eyes; and the pyre was surrounded by a number ofmen, who stood as spectators of the horrible sight.

11. At that time the curling smoke of the pyre, began to enter into mynostrils like the creepers or stalks of lotus plants; and as when thedark and lengthy body of the curvilinear snake, enters into a hole inthe ground.

12. But <in> all this, I was defended by the strong armour of my firmlove to thee; as the unborn or selfborn son of god Brahmá, was defendedfrom the showers of darts, of the whole host of demons and thinkingmyself to be plunged in the cooling pool of thy love within my heart; Iwas untouched by the flames of fire burning all about me.

13. All this time I lay in the ecstacy of my love to thee, and I feltraptures of joy rise in my breast, from my fancied association withthee. I deemed myself as drowned in an ambrosial lake, while I was inthat state of rapture, and thought sovereignty of the whole world, tooinsignificant before my ecstatic transport.

14. Methought I felt raptures of inexpressible delight fill my wholesoul, at the thought of all thy blandishments and graces, and in theallurements of thy speech, sweet smiles and sidelong glances, and allthe gestures and motions of thy person, that spread an ambrosial charmall around me.

15. Methought we clasped in mutual embraces, and together in amorousfolds; till exhausted with surfeit, I lay[Pg 650] upon the cool soft bed, asif I was drowned in the cold and icy ocean of the lunar disc.

16. At this moment as I lay long in my bed, bedewed with cool sandalpaste, and the cooling beams of the full-moon; I heard a thunderingnoise accompanied with flames of fire, rising from the burning pile ofwoods under me, as it was the submarine fire, proceeding from the milkyocean wherein I was lying.

17. The companions resumed:—When the husband had said so far, hislistening spouse cried out aloud; saying “Ah me! I am dead, I am gone,”and for fear of hearing the sad consequence, fell into a swoon andbecame senseless.

18. The husband finding her fainting, began to wave over her <a> fan oflotus leaves, besprinkled with water; and taking her up to his bosom,tried to restore her to her senses.

19. Being then desired by her to finish his tale, he began to relatethe remainder by holding her chin with his hand.

20. As I felt the pain of the burning flame touching my body, I criedout and groaned in affliction; the spectators hastened to extinguishthe blazing pile, and felt delighted to find me alive.

21. The attendants then with loud shouts of joy, like the sound ofdrums &c. and with garlands of flowers, raised and embraced me to theirbosoms; and went on shouting and singing and dancing and laughing withexultation.

22. I then saw the funeral ground resembling the formidable body ofBhairava—the god of destruction. It was equally covered with ashes,wreathed with snakes and studded with human skulls: and the scatteredbones that were strewn over the ground, seemed as the beams of the mooncrowning the head of Siva.

23. Here hot winds were blowing from the funeral piles, as from theburning fire on Hara’s head; and bearing the burnt ashes of the deadbodies, as a dark mist all around; they bore stink of the rotten bonesto the air, and carried about the rustling noise of the bones jostlingagainst one another.

24. The burning piles and their flashing flames and flying sparks, andthe fiery winds scorching the trees and herbage;[Pg 651] give this place theappearance of the play ground, of the gods of wind and fire, and of thesons of sun—Yama and Saturn.

25. Thus I saw the funeral ground full of terrors, and covered withskeletons of half-burnt bodies and putrid carcasses also; it isinfested by hungry dogs and howling jackals, and other voraciousbeasts, and the ravenous ravens and vultures. It is a place where theVetála—demons and Pisácha—hobgoblins, revel with fearful shrieks andjarring sounds.

26. I beheld there the biers of dead bodies, borne by their mourningfriends, with loud cries and lamentations that filled the air allabout. I saw the beasts and birds, that tore their entrails andarteries, yet moist with blood, and I saw the ground strewn over withhalf burnt logs of wood and bushes.

27. In some places the glaring pyres, gave a gloomy light, and inothers the tufts of hair, were heaped as spots of clouds; somewherethe ground was besmeared with blood, and looked like a lurid sheet ofcloth; and elsewhere the clouds were roaring, as the setting sun wentdown the western hill (or horizon).

Argument:—Prolusion on the winds and the forest trees and wildbees; then on celestial nymphs, birds &c.

The companions continued:—Thus the loving pair after taking to oneanother in the aforesaid manner; began to sip their delicious wine. Andnow attend, O lotus eyed lord to the other things of things of thisplace.

2. Lo, there the winds, shaking the plantain leaves and clusters oftheir flowers, and blowing to all sides, with the dust of various sortsof flowers, with which they have adorned themselves.

3. There the breezes are blowing, loaded with odours exhaled by theflowers of the forest; and there the gentle zephyrs are wafting theperfumes, which they have stolen from the locks of their favouritefairies.

4. Here are the blasts blowing from the salt sea on the south; anddriving as fastly as the stern lion rushes into the fastness of woodsand mountain caves; and as forcibly, as the fierce giants attacked thegods on the top of Mount Meru.

5. Again there is the high wind playing and shaking with the hightamála, tála and other palma trees; while the gentle gales, aresoftly gliding over the waves, and wafting their moisture to the tenderplants below.

6. There the soft breezes are wheezing, with the dust thrown out by theflowers; while gentle zephyrs are moving about as princes amidst thebowers and flower gardens.

7. There the god Aeolus plays his sweet sylvan pipe, in the holes ofthe hollow bamboo; in the manner of the female sweet musicians, tuningtheir reeds in the city of Pándu or Hastinápura. (Here is a palpableanachronism with regard to the anterior of prince Pándu).

[Pg 653]

8. Here every plant is fraught with bees, except the karnikaraflower; which is avoided by them, on account of its disregard of thegod of air, by withholding to pay him the tribute odour and farina.

9. The tála or palm tree, that rises as high as a column butyields no fruit nor flower to the hungry passenger, owing to itsinaccessible height, is as disgraceful in itself as the uncharitablerich man.

10. Ignorant and unworthy people, build their pride on outward show, asthe kinsuka flower displays the beauty of its colour to view, inabsence of its fragrance.

11. Look at the Karnikara flower, blooming only to decay;because its want of fragrance makes it as worthless and despicable, asunworthy and ignorant men are disregarded by all.

12. So the tamála tree with its blushing blossoms, beguile thethirsty chátaka by its false appearance of a rainy cloud, so thefair outside of the foul, deceives the unwise by his inward foulness.

13. Look at these robust, woody, shady and cloud-capt hills, whichafford shade and shelter to others; and are possessed of many morequalities, befitting the kings of men; are standing in the manner oflofty bamboos (having all these qualities in them).

14. Look at yonder cloud on the mountain top, resting as it were uponthe seat of its table land of bright gold, and twirling its yellowmantle of lightnings; appearing as the god Hari clad in his vest ofaureate yellow.

15. Look on the blooming kinsuka flower, with the flutter-beesand birds about them appearing as a fighting warrior, pierced by flyingarrows, and besmeared with crimson blood.

16. Lo the golden mandára flowers, touching the amber-colouredclouds of heaven; appearing as the giddy Gandharva lads, lying on thetop of the Mahendra mountain.

17. Behold the weary wayfarers, laying and lulling themselves to rest,under the shade of the Kalpa trees in the garden[Pg 654] of paradise; whilethe siddhas and Vidyádharas are sitting there at ease, and singingtheir songs to the tune of their stringed instruments.

18. Behold also the celestial nymphs, stretched there at ease,tittering and singing in the groves-bowers of the Kalpa arbour of Eden.

19. There is the silent abode of the great sage Mandapala, famed in thelegends; and the cave of the celebrated vulture said to be his wife.

20. See there the line of hermitages of the ancient sages; where theenvious animals forget their mutual animosities, and <live> together inperfect concord and amity.

21. There are the coral plants, growing with other shrubs and bushes,by the side of the sea coast; and the drops of water trickling uponthem, glisten as gems by the solar rays.

22. The waves are rolling with precious gems, on the bosom of theocean; like playful damsels rocking on with their ornaments on thebreasts of their lovers.

23. Here the jingling noise of the jewelleries of the celestial nymphs,sauntering from the celestial regions, to the infernal abodes of theserpents through the midway skies.

24. Here those hollow mountain caves, whistling with a sound resemblingthe buzzing of wild bees, falling down giddy with drinking the ichorexuding from the forehead of elephants.

25. Lo the sea ebbing with the waning moon during the dark fortnightof the month; and the receding tides describing and leaving the linearmarks of their regression upon the sands on the shore.

26. Lo the woodland decorated as a beauty, with clusters of flowershanging as wreaths and garlands on every side; breathing fragrance allabout, and attired in the robe of its cooling shade.

27. The variegated foliage from its party-coloured dress, andthe waterfalls seem as its sweet smiles; and the flowers strewnabout, appear as the flowery bed of the happy woodland[Pg 655] dame. (Theword vana means the vana-devi or woodland goddess,corresponding with a dryad, sylva or Flora).

28. Here the high-minded sages and hermits, are as highly delightedwith their quiet sylvan retreats; as the celestials are joyous ingardens of Eden. (Eden and Udyána are both the same).

29. The placid and indifferent minds of sages, are equally delightedwith these solitary woodlands, as the restless and impatient minds oflovers and worldly people.

30. The waters of the sea, whether running into the land, or washingthe foot of the rock on the sea-shore; are equally shining and soundingas their tinkling ornaments or anklets (nupurs).

31. The punnága flowers blooming on mountains, appear as goldenmines upon them; and the goldfinch birds flying over them, look likewinged angels in the aerial course.

32. The mountain forests appear to be in a conflagration, with theirfull blown champaka flowers blazing as fire, and the beesand clouds hovering over them as smoke; while the current winds arespreading above their dust and petals like the sparks of fire.

33. Lo the kokila swinging and singing, on his seat of thetopmost stalk of a karavira tree; when his mate comes andembraces him there, and sings responsive to his songs with herclamorous chattering. (It is a sarcasm on pettish wives, thatoften interrupt the silent musings of their consorts with theirtastelessness).

34. See the salt waters of the briny ocean, roaring aloud againstshore; but the coast-lands are kept in subjection under the hands oftheir able masters. (The rule of kings stretched to the seashore).

35. O lord! deign to make this earth (i.e. the continent ofJambudwípa or Asia), stretching to the four seas on the four sides, asthy footstool; and establish thy rule over the remaining potentates,that escaped the brunt of thy valour; appoint rulers over all theprovinces on all sides; and provide them[Pg 656] with proper force and arms,which are necessary to keep them in order; and continue to govern thyrealms with mercy and moderation.

Argument:—Boundaries of Vipaschit’s Realms. His adoration offire and attempt to proceed further.

Vasishtha related:—Then the king Vipaschit and his companions, saton the coast of the sea, and did whatever was requisite for theestablishment of his sovereignty.

2. They then chose spots for their abodes at that place, and madehouses for themselves according to their positions; they settled theboundaries of the provinces, and set guards for their defence.

3. At last they went down into the ocean, and then proceeded to theother side of the world; in order to show his glory; like that ofVipaschit, to other parts of the world.

4. Then came on the dark night, in the form of an all overshadingcloud; and the people all sank into the lap of sleep, after finishingtheir daily works and rituals.

5. They were amazed to think in themselves, how insensibly they wereled to so great a distance in so short a space of time, and to meet theocean like currents of rivers falling into it.

6. They said: “It is a wonder that we have come so far, withoutany attempt on our part; and therefore this great velocity must beattributed, to the swiftness of the vehicles of the great god Agni (orElectricity itself)”.

7. Lord! say they, how extensive is the view that lies before oursight; stretching from one end of the Jambudwípa to its other extremityof the vast salt ocean, and thence again to the islands in it, andother lands and seas beyond them.

8. There are islands and seas beyond these, and others again beyondthem; how many such and many more, may there be of this kind, and howinscrutable is the delusion which is thus spread before our minds.(i.e. All these are but our mental delusions).

[Pg 658]

9. Let us therefore pray the god of fire (electricity), that we maysee at once every thing on all sides by his favour, and with<out> anyexertion of or pain on our sides.

10. So saying and thinking in this manner, they all reflected onthe god with one accord, and meditated on him, as they sat in theirrespective places.

11. The god appeared to them, and stood manifest before their sight inhis tangible form, and spoke to them saying:—“Ask ye my sons, whatfavor you desire of me.”

12. They said: O lord of gods, that abidest beyond this visible andelemental world, ordain, that by means of the vedic mantra and ourpurified minds, we may know the knowables in our minds.

13. Give us, O God, this great and best boon, that we ask of thee; thatwe may know by thy light, whatever is knowable by either the externalsenses; mind or by our self-consciousness. (i.e. By the threemeans of knowledge).

14. Enable us to see with our eyes O lord! the paths, which lead thesiddhas and yogis to the sight of the invisibles; and make us also toperceive in our minds the things, that <are> imperceptible to them.

15. Let not death overtake us, till we have reached to the ways of thesiddhas; and let thy grace guide us in the paths, where no embodiedbeing can pass (i.e. in our journey to the next world, when wehave shuffled our mortal coil).

16. Vasishtha said:—“So be it”, said the igneous god, and instantlydisappeared from their sight; as the submarine fire bursts forth, andvanishes at once in the sea.

17. As the fiery god disappeared, there appeared the dark night afterhim; and as the night also fled after a while, the sunshine returnedwith the reviving wishes of the king and his men, to survey the wideocean lying before them.

Argument:—The king walks on foot on the sea, his chase of sharksand other marine animals.

Vasishtha related:—Rising then in the morning, they regulated theaffairs of the state according to the rules prescribed by law; and wereeager to see the sea, as if they were impelled by some preternaturalforce, which nothing less than the power of ministerial officers couldrestrain.

2. But they were so exasperated by their mad ambition, that they forgottheir affection for their families, and forsook them all weeping beforethem, for undertaking their perilous sea voyage.

3. They said, “we will see what there is on the other side of the sea,and then return instantly to this place.” Saying so they muttered theinvocatory mantras of the Fire god, who inspired them with the power ofwalking on foot and dryshod over the sea.

4. All the representatives of the king, being followed by theircompanions on all sides, proceeded to the borders of the several seas,and then walked on their feet over to watery maze.

5. They walked on foot upon the waters, as if they were walking uponthe surface of the ground, and all the four bodies of the quadrupleking, now met together in one place, and immediately afterwards theyseparated apart with all their forces.

6. Marching on foot over the vast expanse, they surveyed all that wasin and upon the sea; and disappeared altogether from the sight of thepeople on the shore, as a spot of cloud, vanishes from view in autumn.

7. The forces travelled on foot all over the watery path of[Pg 660] the ocean,with as much fortitude; as the elephants of the king, traverse withpatience on land, when they are bound to a distant journey.

8. They mounted high and went down, along with the rising and loweringwaves; as when men climb upon and descend from steep mountains, and asone rides and goes galloping on horseback, or in the manner of Harifloating upon the billowy ocean, or in his act of churning the sea.

9. They paced over the whirlpools, as the straws float upon waters; andthey promenaded as gracefully amidst the encompassing waves, as thebeauteous moon passes through the surrounding clouds.

10. The brave soldiers that were so well armed with weapons in theirhands, and so well protected by the power of their mantras andamulets; that they were as often disgorged from bowels of the sharks,as they came to be devoured by them: (because they could neithermasticate nor digest them).

11. Pushed onward by the waves, and driven forward by the winds, theirbodies were carried to the distance of many a league in a moment.

12. The huge surges which lifted them to great heights, representedthe enormous elephants, on which they used to mount, and ride about intheir native land.

13. The vast expanse of water appears as the void space of the sky;and the succession of heaving waves in it, represents the folds ofgathering clouds in heaven, and as they were dashing against oneanother, they emitted the flash of lightnings anon.

14. The loose and loud surges of the sea, resembled the loosenedelephants in the battle field; and though they dashed against the shorewith all their force; yet they were unable to break them down, as theelephants are baffled in their attempt to break down a stone builtrampart.

15. The waving waves reflecting the rays of the brilliant pearls andgems, which they bore with them from shore to shore; resemble theeminent men, who though they pass alone[Pg 661] from place to place, appearyet to be accompanied by their train and glory every where.

16. The surf tramples over the mass of hoary froth with contempt, asthe snowy white swan treads upon the bed of whitish lotuses in disdain.(The surf and the swan, being whiter far than the froth and the lotus).

17. The sounding main, which was as loud as the roaring clouds, and there-billowing billows, which were louder than they, bore no terror tothem that stood as rocks thereon.

18. The cloud-kissing waves of the ocean, now rising above themountains, and now falling low at their feet, were likely to touch thesolar orb, and then sink into the infernal.

19. They were not afraid of the rising or falling waters; but passedover the sea as upon sheet of cloth; and shrouded by the drizzlingclouds, which formed a canopy over them.

20. Thus the companions of the king crossed the ocean, which was fullof sharks and alligators, and tremendous eddies; they were sprinkled bywater like showers of flowers, and adorned with marine gems and pearls;and they crossed over on foot, as others do in navies.

Argument:—The King and his train, pass over the islands andproceed towards the west.

Vasishtha related:—Thus they proceeded onward, to explore into thevisible phenomena, exposed before them by Ignorance (avidyá or externalnature); and continued to walk on foot, over the watery maze and theislands it contained.

2. They passed over the ocean to some island, and then from that islandto the sea again; and in this manner they traversed on foot, over manya mountain and wilderness in interminable succession.

3. Then as the king was proceeding towards the western main, he wasseized and devoured by a voracious fish, which was as the undying breedof Vishnu’s fish, and as fleet as a boat in the stream of BitastaBeyah. (Vishnu’s fish was the deathless incarnation of himself).

4. The fish fled with him in his belly to the milky ocean; but findinghim too hard for his digestion, he bore him in his bowels to a greatdistance in another direction.

5. He was then borne to the saccharine ocean on the south, and wasthere cast out in the island of Yakshas; where he was overpowered tothe love of a female fiend by her art of enchantment, (or) where he wasenchanted into the amour of a female Yakshí, by her skill in sorcery.(The yakshas are the present yakhas of Ceylon, or Egypt, and are saidto be equally adept in the art of máyá or magic).

6. He then went towards the east, and passing by the Ganges, he killeda shark that had pursued him, and arrived at last at the district ofKánya Kubja the modern Cawnpore.

7. Then proceeding towards the north, he came to the country, ofUttara-kurus, where he was edified by his adoration of[Pg 663] Siva, andbecame exempted from the fear of death, in all his wanderings on allsides of the earth.

8. In this way, travelling long and afar, both by land and sea; hewas often attacked by wild elephants on the boundary mountains, andrepeatedly gorged and disgorged by sharks and alligators in the seas.

9. Then proceeding towards the west, he was picked up by an eagle andset upon his back; and the bird took to his golden pinions, and borehim in an instant to the Kusa-dwípa across the ocean.

10. Thence he passed to the Krauncha-dwípa on the east; where he wasseized and devoured by a Rákshasa of the mountain, but whom he killedafterwards by ripping up his belly and its entrails.

11. Roving then in the south, he was denounced to become a yaksha bycurse of Daksha the king of that part: until he was released from thatstate by the king of the Saca-dwípa after some years.

12. He then passed over the great and smaller seas lying in the north,and after passing over the great frigid ocean, he arrived at thecountry of gold, where he was changed to a stone by the siddhas of thatplace.

13. In this state he remained a whole century, till by the grace ofhis god Agni—ignis, he was released from the curse of the siddha, whor*ceived him again into his favour.

14. Then travelling to the east, he became king of the country ofcocoanuts; and after reigning there for full five years, he wasrestored to the remembrance of his former state.

15. Then passing to the north of the Meru Mountain, he dwelt among theApsaras, in the groves of kalpa trees for ten years, and subsisted onthe bread fruits of cocoanuts.

16. Going afterwards to the Salmali-dwípa in the west, which aboundsin trees of the same name, he dwelt in the society of birds for manyyears, having been previously instructed in their language, when he hadbeen carried away by Garuda.

17. Thence journeying in his westerly course, he reached to[Pg 664] theMandara Mountain which abounded in verdure and madára forests;and here he sojourned for a day in company with Mandarí—a Kinnerafemale.

18. He then journeyed to the Nandana garden of the gods, which aboundedin kalpa trees rising as high as the waves of the milky ocean; and heremained in the company of the woodland gods for a septenary, sportingwith the Apsara damsels in their amorous dalliance.

Argument.—The actions of the Individual prince, appertaining tohis quaternary forms.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether the different states and acts of theprince, relate particularly to any one part of his quadripartite body,or generally or severally to all and each part of himself; because itis equally impossible that all and every part should act the same part,as that the several parts of the same person, could act differentlyfrom the other. (It is unnecessary to be multipartite to act alike, aswell as impossible for the same personality to act differently in itsmany persons or parts or forms, which are all one and the same being).

2. Vasishtha replied:—Any person that is conscious of his selfidentity, and its invariability and indivisibility, may yet thinkhimself as another person and doing different things, as a man does inhis dream.

3. Again it is the clearness of the soul, that shows the abstractimages of things in itself, as it did in that of Vipaschit or the wiseprince; and as a mirror reflects the discrete figures of objects, andof the sky and sea, in its clear and empty bosom.

4. As reflectors made of the same metal, reflect one another inthemselves; so all things which are in reality but of an intellectualor ideal nature, reflect themselves in the intellect. (The mind is therepository of the ideal forms of things, and it is mental fallacy onlywhich makes them appear as real ones. This is the idealistic theory ofBerkeley).

5. Hence whatever object presents itself, to any one of the sensesof any body, is no other than the concretion or density of hisintellectual idea of the same in its nature. (Hence the sensibles arebut solidified ideas, and ectypes of the ideal; and not as causes orprototypes of our eternal ideas).

6. It is the one and self same thing <that> appears as many, and[Pg 666] thevaried ones are but the invariable one in reality; there is no positivevariety nor uniformity either in esse, because all apparentvariety is positive unity (i.e. all is one, and the one in all).

7. Hence whatever part of the prince, was conscious of anything, whichpresented itself before him of any time; the same is said to be thestate of his being during that time. (i.e. Whatever a man isconscious of doing or suffering at any time, the same forms the stateor mode of living for the time being).

8. And as it is possible to a yogi, who sits secluded in one place;to see all present, past and future events at one view before him; soit is possible for a prince, sitting retired in his palace, to manageall affairs of his whole domain; and much more for the king Vipaschit,who delegated his viceroys, as members of his body to all parts. (Thispassage explains the quadripartite kings, to mean himself and his threeviceroys on three sides).

9. So doth a cloud stretch itself to all the quarters of the sky, andperform at once the several functions of quenching the parched earthwith its water, and of growing the vegetables and fructifying thetrees. So also doth a man boast of his manifold acts at the same time.

10. So also are the simultaneous acts of the lord God, and those of thelords of men and yogis; who design and perform at the same time, themultifarious acts relating to the creation, preservation and managementof the world.

11. So doth the one and selfsame Vishnu, with his four arms and as manyforms, act many parts and separably also, as the preservation of theworld on the one hand, and the enjoyment of his fair consorts on theother.

12. Again though the two hands of a person, are enough to discharge theordinary affairs of life; yet it is requisite to have many arms, inorder to wield many weapons in warfare.

13. It was in the same manner, that the self same monarch was situatedwith his fourfold persons, in all the four sides of the earth; wherethough they were impressed with the consciousness[Pg 667] of their selfidentity, yet they all acted their several parts as quite distinct andapart from others.

14. They were all alike conscious of the pains and pleasures attendingon their lying down on naked grounds, their passing to distant islandsand their travelling to different forests and groves, and desert landsalso.

15. They all remembered their journeys over hills and mountains, aswell as their voyages by water and air; they knew how they floated onthe seas, and rested on clouds.

16. They knew how they mounted upon waves of seas, and rode on the backof flying wind; and how they lay on the shores of seas, and at the footof mountains.

17. Again the prince proceeding to Scythea, or the land of sacason the east; passed into the enchanted city of the yakshas, lying atthe foot of the Eastern mountain or Udaya-giri; where being spellboundby their sorcery, he lay asleep for full seven years in the wood of theleafless mansá sijá trees.

18. Rising afterwards from his drowsiness, he was converted to thetorpid state of a stone by his drinking some mineral water, and wascondemned to remain for seven years more with the mineral substances ofthe earth.

19. He was then confined in a cave of the western mountain—Astáchala,which reaches to the region of the clouds and is shrouded by darkness;and he became enamoured of the company, of Pisácha and Apsara females.

20. He then arrived at a region which was free from fear, andwhere there rose a high mountain with water-falls in all sides ofit; here the prince was lost in the forest of haritaki orchebula—myrobalans, and become invisible for years.

21. The prince that had erewhile been spellbound by the yaksha,travelled afterwards to the frigid climate; and there being transformedto a lion, he roved about the Raivata hills for ten days and nights.

22. And then being deluded by the black art of Pisáchas, he was changedto the form of a frog, and lived in that state in the caves of thegolden mountain for a decad of years.

23. Travelling afterwards to the country of Kumárika (Cape[Pg 668] Comorin),he dwelt at the bottom of the northern ridge of the Black mountain.Then going to the saca country, he was transformed to a hog, andlived in a dark hole for a hundred years in that shape.

24. He lived for fourteen years as a squint-eyed, in the land ofmarivaca; when the western form of the prince was turned to aVidyádhara, by virtue of his skill in learning various lore.

25. There he enjoyed sexual intercourse at his full satisfaction underthe scented bower of alá, and passed his time in amusem*nt.

Argument:—Mutual assistance of the four persons of the prince toone another, and their true meaning.

Vasishtha continued:—Now of the quadripartite bodies of the prince,that which was transformed to a tree, in the valley called the valeof fearlessness in sacadwípa: supported itself by sucking thebetter water of the rock which it drew by its roots.

2. It was then that the western part of the royal person, came up tothe relief of the former or eastern part, and released it from thecurse of its vegetable state of full seventy years, by the power of itsincantations.

3. Again the western person of the king, passing to the frigid clime,was there transformed to a stone by curse of the chief of the Pisáchatribe; but was released afterwards from that state by <a> southernpersonage, by his offering of meat food to the carnivorous Pisácha.

4. At another time as this western personage, was settled beyond thewestern horizon, it was changed to the form of a bull by a femalefiend, that had assumed on her the form of a cow, and was freed at lastfrom that state by the southern person.

5. Again the southern figure of the prince, was doomed to live as ademon on a mountain tree in the Kshemaka, and was liberated at lastfrom it by the yaksha prince.

6. Then again, the eastern person of the prince, was metamorphosed tothe shape of a lion, on a mountain in the province of Vrishaka, and wasdelivered for its metamorphoses by the western personality.

7. Ráma rejoined:—How is it sir, that the single individuality ofthe prince, which was confined in one spot as that of a yogi; couldbe ubiquious at one and the same time, could perform[Pg 670] the variousacts of different times and places at once, by the all comprehensiveuniversality of the mind.

8. Vasishtha replied:—O Ráma! Let the unenlightened think whateverthey may, respecting this world (i.e. let them take itsunreality for positive reality); but do you attend to what I say,regarding the light in which it is viewed by the enlightened yogis (whoview it in its spiritual light, and conduct all their operations in themind only).

9. According to spiritualists, there is no other essence, except oneuniversal Intellect; the phenomenal are an utter inexistence, and thecreation or increate entity of the world, blends into nothing. (Theintellect is a formless and all-pervading essence, and acts in manyways in all places).

10. This universal Intellect is the eternal residence of and one withthe eternal and universal soul; and it is this that constitutes theessentiality and universality of the Supreme soul at all times.

11. Say, who can obstruct any where or by any force the course of thegreat mind, which is ubiquious and all comprehensive, and exhibitsitself in various forms in the endless varieties of its thoughts.(Hence there is nothing in reality, except they be but representationsof the inward thoughts of the mind; or manifestations of theomnipresent One in various shapes).

12. What is it to us and what can we call to be ours, when all thesesights are exhibited in the supreme soul or Intellect in all places andtimes; and all that is present, past and future, are comprised <in>that all-comprehending mind.

13. So that the far and near, a moment and an age, are the same to it,which is never altered in its nature (so says the sruti:—It is bothnear and afar, the past and the present &c.).

14. All things are situated in the soul, and yet look at the act ofIgnorance, that they appear to be placed without it, as we behold themwith our naked eyes (as phantasms of the hidden soul).

15. The soul is the substantial omniscience of vacuous form, andexhibits the three worlds in its vacuity, without changing[Pg 671] itsvacuousness (but shows like the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria ofthese in itself).

16. The universal soul appears in the universe, as both its viewer andthe view in itself, or as the subjective and objective in its self-samenature; but how is it possible for the inherent soul of the apparentworld, to admit of a visible form in any way, unless it be by thedelusion of our understanding to think it so.

17. But tell me thou sage that knowest the truth, what thing isimpossible to the active agency of the selfsame Deity, to whom allthings are alike possible at all times and places; and so also to thewise king Vipaschit, who was alike conscious of his self identity inall his quadruple forms. (The Lord that spreads unspent, and acts alikein all. Pope).

18. The enlightened Intellect of the yogi, that has not yet arrived atit* transcendent state of unity with the Deity; and retains the senseof its individuality; can yet readily unite itself with the souls ofothers in all places.

19. There is nothing impossible to the supreme soul; but the halfenlightened soul, that lingers between its knowledge and ignorance, andhas not attained to transcendent wisdom, is confounded in its intellectregarding the true knowledge of things.

20. The soul that is some what advanced in its knowledge, is said tohave partly progressed towards its perfection (siddhi); hence the fourparts of Vipaschit situated on the four sides, made up a perfect whole.(The whole number in common calculation, is usually divided into andmade up of four quarters).

21. These four parts were as so many states or degrees of perfection,which lighted on Vipaschit like the rays of heavenly light; and thesestates mutually helped and healed each other, as the members of thebody assist and supply to the defects of one another.

22. Ráma said:—Tell me, O venerable Bráhman, why the quadruple kingVipaschit, ran on all sides like brutes, if he was so enlightened inevery part, and why he did not sit collected in himself as he was.

[Pg 672]

23. Vasishtha replied:—What I have related to you regardingenlightenment, applies only to the case of yogis, who though theyare combined of many parts in their minds, do yet remain sedate inthemselves in the same state.

24. But the Vipaschitas were not so wholly enlightened as the holyyogis, but being partly enlightened, they remained in the midmost statebetween the two, as if hanging betwixt both state of enlightenment andignorance at the same time.

25. They bore upon them the marks of both at once, namely of the one bytheir discretion and discernment, and of the other by the passions andaffections of their minds, that led them to the two different ways ofliberation as well as of bondage.

26. Those who are ever vigilant in the discharge of their pious acts,and are wavering between their temporal and eternal concerns, as theVipaschitas continued in their course of action, such persons cannot beperfect and esoteric yogis in this life.

27. The devotees that are devoted to their devotion of a particulardeity as the Vipaschitas were of the god of fire, are styled as thedháraná yogis; and not transcendent or param yogis, unless theyattain to transcendental knowledge (or jnána yoga, which removes theavidyá—ignorance).

28. The learned yogi does not see any mist of ignorance, to obstructhis sight of the lights of truth; but the ignorant devotee is blind totruth, though he may be received into the favour of his favorite deity.

29. The Vipaschitas were all of them subject to ignorance, and theyrejected the knowledge of the true soul, by their attachment to grossmaterial bodies, which are at best but vain unrealities. Listentherefore to what I will now relate, regarding those that are liberatedfrom their grossness even in their lifetime.

30. The yogis retain of course their knowledge of the concrete, intheir conduct of the external affairs of life; but liberation is thevirtue of the mind, consisting in its freedom from subjection to grossmaterials, and subsisting in the mind only, and not in the body or itssensibility.

[Pg 673]

31. But as the bodily properties are inseparably connected with thebody, and its sensibility can in no way be separated from it; theliberated soul is therefore <in> no way attached to it, nor doth theyogi ever take any heed of it in his mind (his thoughts being solelyfixed in the solity of the soul).

32. The mind of the liberated yogi, is never reunited with his body,any more than pollen is ever rejoined with its parent stalk; althoughthe bodily properties of the living liberated yogi, ever remain thesame as those of worldly persons. (Freedom consists in the minds andsoul, and not in the bonded body).

33. The bodies of both are of course equally perceptible by all, butnot the minds which are hidden in them; the liberated soul cannot beseen by others; but the incarcerate spirit is known to every body, byits addictedness to the discharge of its bounded duties.

34. Self-liberation is as well perceptible to oneself, as hisperception of the sweetness of honey and the taste of other things, arewell known to himself; and one is well acquainted with his liberationand bondage, from his consciousness of pleasure and pain from the oneor other.

35. It is thus by one’s inward perception of his liberation, that he iscalled the liberate; and it is also the inward coolness of his soul, aswell as the indifference of his mind, that constitute his liberationeven in his life time.

36. Neither the bondage, or liberation of the soul, nor the pleasure orpainfulness of one’s mind can be any how known to another; whether youdivide the body into pieces or place it upon a royal throne. (Thoughthe features of the face, are said to be indicators of the inward mind).

37. Whether laughing or crying, the liberated soul feels no pleasure orpain therein; because it is situated in both states in the unalterablespirit of God.

38. The minds of liberated persons, are settled in the divine spiritand no where else, even when they are in the act of receiving or doingany thing with their bodies: But the learned men of the differentschools, are seen to be quite otherwise[Pg 674] from their unacquaintance withliberation (and being moved by the circ*mstances of life).

39. The bodies of liberated persons, are not affected by externalevents, and though such a one may appear to be weeping, yet he neverweeps in grief; nor does he die, with the death of his mortal body.

40. The great man that is liberated in his life time, does not smilethough he has a smiling face; nor is he affected by nor angry atany thing, though he seems to be moved by affections and anger.(i.e. His feelings are never lasting).

41. Undeluded he sees the delusions of the world, and unseen by any hesees the failings of others; and all pleasure and pain seem as idealunto him.

42. Every thing is as nil to the liberate, as flowers growing inthe garden of the sky; and the existence of the world is non-existenceunto him, who sees the unity alone in all existence. (The One being alland all being one; all others are lost in the only One).

43. The words pleasure and pain, are as aerial flowers to him, who areindifferent to them, who have become victorious over their feelings, bytheir liberation from all sensations in their life time.

44. They that have known the truth, are unaltered in their natures; asthe mouths of Brahmá, are unflinching in the recital of Vedas. (?)

45. And as Siva ripped the upper head of Brahmá, as a bud of lotus,with the nail of his hand; and the god neither resented it, nor grewanother head instead, which he was well able to do: so the meek yogiremains unresentful at any harm done to him.

46. Of what use is the upward or sky-looking face to him, whose inneror intellectual eye shows him the voidness of all things around; hencethe possession of the external organ of sight, is useless to him, whosees everything within himself.

47. Every one gets as it is allotted to him by his fate, in retributionof his past actions; and his fatality (of retributive justice), doesnot betide mortals only; but binds the god Siva[Pg 675] also to the sweetembraces of Gaurí, as well as to his melancholy contemplation forever; and so also doth the milky ocean, bear the ambrosial moon in hisample bosom. (An irrevocable binds even Jove himself, as Hara to hisnakedness, and Hari to his serpent bed).

48. Good minded men are seldom seen to abandon their passions, thoughthey are capable of doing so in their life time; but they become quitedispassionate upon their death, when the five elemental principles oftheir bodies, are burnt away upon the funeral pile. (All lie level withthe dust in their silent graves).

49. But the living liberated man, gains nothing by his doing anything,nor loses aught by his doing of naught; nor has he any concern with anyperson, nor interest whatever with anything here on earth.

50. What avails one’s passionateness or dispassionateness in thisworld; since what is fated in this life, cannot be averted by any means.

51. The god Hari, who is liberated in his life, does not yet cease fromhis work of slaying the Asuras, or to have them slain by the hands ofIndra &c.; he becomes incarnate, to die himself or by hands of demons;and is repeatedly born and grown up, to be extinct at last. (Such isthe general doom of all).

52. No one can give up his alternate activity and rest at once, noris there any good to be reaped by his attachment to the one, orrelinquishment of the other.

53. Therefore let a man remain in whatever state he may be, withouthaving any desire of his own; because the god Hari is without anydesire in himself, being the form of pure Intellect or Intelligenceonly. (Desire subsists in the mind, and not in the intellectual soul).

54. The changing time changes and moves the steady soul, like a ballon every side; as it turns about the fixed sun round the world inappearance (and not in reality).

55. The lord of the day, is not able to restrain his body, from itsapparent course; though he is seated in his nirvána as he is,without any desire of changing his place.

[Pg 676]

56. The moon also appears to be waning under her wasting disease,though she remains ever the same in all kalpa ages of the world; so thesoul of the liberated person continues the same, though his body issubject to decay by age.

57. The fire too is ever free and liberated in itself, becausenothing can extinguish its latent heat at any time; and though it wassuppressed by the sacrificial butter of marutta, and the seminal liquidof Siva for a while, yet it revived again as it was before. (Light andheat are coeternal elements).

58. Vrihaspati and Sukra the preceptors of the gods and demigods, wereliberated in their life time, and with all their ambitious views ofpredominance, they <appeared>as dull and miserable persons.

59. The sagely prince Janaka is perfectly liberated in his mind,and yet he is not loathe to rule over his princedom, and to quellhis enemies in battle. (Liberation consists in the mind, and not incessation from action).

60. The great kings Nala, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilípa, Nahusa and others,were all liberated in their lives; and yet they reigned and ruled overtheir realms, with all the vigilance of sovereigns.

61. A man acting either wisely or foolishly in life, is neither boundto or liberated in this world; but it is his ardent desire of or apathyto worldliness, that constitutes his bondage to or liberation from it.

62. The demoniac princes Vali, Namuchi, Vritra, Andhaka, Mura andothers, lived quite liberated in their lives; though they acted asunwisely, as if they were elated by their ambition and passions.

63. Therefore the existence or disappearance of the passions, in theconduct of any body, makes no difference in his spiritual character;but it is the pure vacancy of the human soul and mind, that constituteshis liberation in this world.

64. Being possest of the knowledge of God as pure vacuum, the livingliberated person is assimilated to the likeness of vacuity itself; andis freed from the duality of thinking himself otherwise than the divinespirit. (The sense of self personality,[Pg 677] is lost in the knowledge ofthe universality of the divine soul).

65. He is conscious of the fallacy of phenomenal appearances, which heknows to be no more than as the variegated rainbow reflected in emptyair (by the ineffable light of the glory of God).

66. As the various colours are seen to shine in the rainbow, in thefield of empty air; so these myriads of brilliant worldly bodies, arebut vacuous particles appearing in infinite space. (The great worldsare as minute atoms in the sight of great God).

67. This world is an unreality, appearing as a reality in view; it isunborn and increate, and yet it is irresistibly conspicuous to oursight, like the appearance of the sky in the empty firmament.

68. It is without its beginning or end, and yet appearing to have bothof these; it is a mere void, and seeming as a real substantiality;it is increate, and yet thought to be a created something; it isindestructible, though thought to be subject to destruction.

69. Its creation and destruction are phenomena occurring in thevacuous essence of God, as the structure of a wooden post and statue,takes place in the substance of the wood. (Here the Divine essence isconsidered as the material cause of the world, and the one being voidthe other is considered equally void also).

70. The mind being freed from its imagination, and drowned in deepmeditation (samádhi), as in the state of a sleepless sleeper; it comesto the sight of an even intellectual vacuity, engrossing the sights ofall the worlds, as if absorbed in it.

71. As a man passing from one place to another, is unmindful of theintermediate scenes; so the attention being directed solely to thesight of the intellectual void, the thought of all the world and otherexistences is wholly lost in the same. (Such sight of the single pointin view is called the sakhá chandra darsana. Nyáya).

72. In this state of intense meditation, the thought of a[Pg 678] duality islost in that of the unity; and this idea of oneness disappears in thatof a vast void, which terminates to a state of conscious bliss (whichis the summum bonum of yoga philosophy).

73. In this state of insouciance, the duality of the world islost in the nullity of vacuity; the knowledge of self personality isdwindled to spirituality, and all futurity presents itself clearlyto the view of the clairvoyance of the enrapt yogi. (This forms thepúrnatá or perfectibility of yoga practice).

74. The perfect yogi remains with his mind, as clear as the vacuoussky, enveloping the phenomenals in its ample sphere; he sits silentand as still and cold as a stone; he views the world in himself, andremains quiet in rapturous amazement at the view.

Argument:—Release of the Dead from the error of the world, theirwanderings and fancies of themselves.

Ráma said:—Now tell me sir, what the Vipaschitas did, being cast inthe seas, islands and forests, in the different parts of the earth.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear now, Ráma, of the Vipaschitas, in all theirwanderings amidst the forests of tála and tamála trees, upon the hillsand in the islands of different sides.

3. One of the Vipaschitas, that was roving about the westerly ridge ofa mountain in Kraunchadwípa, was crushed to death by the tusk of anelephant, as it tears a lotus in the lake.

4. Another of these was smashed in his contest with a Rákshasa, whobore his mangled body aloft in air, and then cast it amidst the marinefire, where it was burnt to ashes.

5. The third was taken up by a Vidyádhara, to the region of thecelestials; where he was reduced to ashes by curse of the god Indra,who was offended at the prince’s want of respect towards him.

6. The fourth that went to the farthest edge of a mountain in theKusadwípa, was caught by a shark on the sea shore, which tore his bodyto eight pieces.

7. In this manner did all these four lose their lives on all sides, andthey all fell as sorrowfully as the regents of the four quarters, atthe last dissolution of the world on the doomsday.

8. After they were reduced to the state of vacuity amidst the vastvacuum, their vacuous and self-conscious souls, were led by thereminiscence of their former states to behold the earth (to which theyhad been so much attached).

9. They saw the seven continents with their belts of the seven oceans,and also the cities and towns with which they were decorated everywhere.

[Pg 680]

10. They beheld the sky above, with the orbs of the sun and moonforming the pupils of its eyes; and also the clusters of stars, thatwere hanging as chains of pearls about its neck, and the flaky cloudsthat formed its folded vest.

11. They saw with their intellectual eye, the stupendous bodies thatrose out of chaos at the revolutions of past kalpa cycles, and filledthe amplitude of the sky and all sides of the horizon with the giganticforms. (These were the big bodies of the many Unitarian Saivas thatappeared at the beginning of repeated creations).

12. Being possest of their consciousness in their spiritual forms, theydescended to observe the manners of elemental bodies that were exposedbefore them.

13. All the four Vipaschitas were actuated by their previousimpressions, to the inquiry into the measure and extent of theignorance, which led people to the belief of the body as soul itself,in want of their knowledge of the spiritual soul (as it is the casewith gross materialists).

14. They roved from one continent to another, to witness in what partof this ideal globe of the earth was this ignorance (avidyá) mostfirmly seated, so as to give it the appearance of a visible substance.

15. Then passing over the seven continents and oceans, the westernVipaschit, happened to meet with the God Hari standing on a parcel offirm land.

16. Receiving then the incomparable knowledge of divine truth from him,he remained in his samádhi meditation at that spot for full fiveyears.

17. Finding afterwards his soul to be full with divine presence, herelinquished even his spiritual body, he fled like his vital breath, tothe transcendent vacuum of final extinction nirvána.

18. The eastern Vipaschit was translated to the region of moon (by hisadoration of that luminary), and was seated beside that full bright orb(for his great purity and piety). But the prince, though placed in theexalted sphere of the moon,[Pg 681] continued ever afterwards to lament forthe loss of his former body. (So heavenly souls are said to long fortheir bodies).

19. The southern prince being forgetful of his spiritual nature,thinks himself to be reigning in the Salmalidwípa, and employed in theinvestigation of external and sensible objects.

20. The northern one dwelling amidst the limpid waters of the seventhocean, thought himself to be devoured by a shark, which retained him inhis belly for the space of a thousand and one years.

21. There he fed upon the bowels of the shark, which killed the animalin a short time; and then he came out of its belly, as if it gave birthto a young shark.

22. Then he passed the frigid ocean of snows and over its icy tracts,stretching to eighty thousand yojanas (or leagues) in dimension.

23. He next arrived <at> a spot of solid gold, which was the haunt ofgods, and stretched to ten thousand yojanas, and here he met with hisend.

24. In this land the prince Vipaschit attained the state of a Godhead,in the same manner as a piece of wood is turned to fire in a burningfurnace.

25. Being one of the principal gods, he went to the Lokáloka or polarmountain, which surrounded the globe of the earth, as an aqueductbegirds the base of a tree.

26. It rises to the height of fifty thousand yojanas, and has theinhabited earth on one side of it which faces the sunlight, and eternaldarkness reigning on the other.

27. He ascended to the top of the polar mount, which pierced the starrysphere; and as he was seated upon it, he was beheld in the light of astar by the beholders below.

28. Beyond that spot and afar from this highest mountain, lay the deepand dark abyss of infinite void.

29. Here was the end of the globular form of this earth, and beyond itwas the vacuity of the sky, of fathomless depth, and full of imperviousdarkness.

30. There reigns a darkness of the hue of a swarm of black[Pg 682] bees, andas the shade of the black tamála trees; there is neither the stableearth nor any moving body under the extended sky; this great void isdevoid of support, nor does it support anything whatever at any time.(This is chaos).

Argument:—Account of the Earth and the starry frame below theendless Vacuum, which envelops the Universe.

Ráma said:—Please, tell me sir, how this globe of the earth issituated, how and where the polar mountain stands upon it, and do thestars revolve about the same.

2. Vasishtha replied:—As boys build their fancied castles in emptyair, so is this world the creation of the imagination of the mind ofBrahmá, and no more than this.

3. As the dimsighted man sees the shadow of the moon, and other falsesights before his eyes, so the creative Power—Brahmá sees in thebeginning, the phantoms of the phenomenal world in the vacuity of itsIntellect (like a shadow of the prototype in the Divine mind).

4. As an imaginary city is situated in the mind, and is invisible tothe eye; so the notion of the world is posited in the intellect, andnot exhibited in actuality.

5. Whenever there is the reflexion of anything whatever in themind, and arising spontaneously of its own nature (from previousreminiscence); the same presents itself even then and in that statebefore the sight (as in a dream).

6. As the dimsighted eye, sees false sights in the sky; so the deludedmind, sees the earth and the orbs of heaven (i.e. the heavenlybodies).

7. As the current water flows on the surface of rivers, and thereresides the latent fire underneath; so the notions of things presentingthemselves as dreams of the mind, are manifested as real ones beforethe sight.

8. Hence as thoughts and notions of things, occur and subsidecontinually in the mind; so the earth and heavenly bodies, appearincessantly to revolve in their spheres (and the stars to rise and setin endless succession).

[Pg 684]

9. The world is entirely inexistent, to dull and inanimate beings; itis visible to those that have the visual organs but utterly invisibleto the blind, and altogether unknown to them that are born as such. Itis imperceptible to the insensible, and perceptible only in the samemanner as it is presented in the mind. So it is in the power of themind alone, to represent it in some form or other to one’s self.

10. It is thus according to the mental conception (of someastronomers), that the bodies of stars, are considered to be as largeas the earth; and the unreal world (of spiritualist), is believed as areal entity (by the materialist).

11. The world has both light and darkness, owing to the presence orabsence of the sun; beyond which there is the great abyss of vacuity,which is a vast expanse of darkness, except where there is a glimpse ofZodiacal light.

12. The polar circle is called the polar mountain, from theprotuberance of the poles at both ends; it is termed also the Lokálokaor having a light and another dark side, owing to the course of the suntowards or away from it. Its distance from the starry circle, derivesit also of Zodiacal light.

13. Beyond the polar circle, and afar from the sphere of the sky, thereis the sphere of the starry frame, which revolves around them at agreat distance on all the ten sides.

14. This starry (zodiacal) belt, girds the firmament up and down, fromthe heavens above to the infernal regions below, in the vast vacuity ofspace; and extends to all sides.

15. The starry sphere (or belt of the zodiac), turns round the polarcircle of the earth, and its nether regions, as it appears to ourimagination, and not otherwise (as fixed and motionless).

16. The sphere of zodiacal stars, is twice as distant from the poles,as those are distant from the middle of the earth; in the same manneras the covering crust of a ripe walnut is aloof from the sheath of itsseeds.

17. Thus the starry belt is settled at double the distance from thepoles, as the polar circle is situated from the equator;[Pg 685] and it turnsall about the ten sides, as a bel fruit whirls in the sky.

18. The aspect of the world is according to the modality, in which itis situated in the imagination of Brahmá, and as it is reflected fromits archetype in the Divine mind (or its consciousness of it).

19. There is another sphere of the heavens, which is afar from thestarry frame, and twice in its extent than that; this is lighted by thezodiacal light and beyond it there reigns a thick darkness.

20. At the end of this sphere, there is the great circle of theuniverse; having one half of it stretching above and one below,and containing the sky in the midst of them. (This is called theBrahmánda kharpara, or the mundane sphere).

21. It extends to millions of yojanas, and is compact with all itscontents; it is a mere work of imagination, and formed of vacuity inthe immensity of vacuum (which is the mind of God).

22. The sphere of light turns on every side, of the great circle ofvacuity, with all the lightsome bodies of the sun, moon and stars inits circ*mstance: there is no upside nor downward in it, but are allthe same herein.

23. There is no actual ascending, descending nor standing, of anyplanetary body therein; they are mere manifestations of the intellect,which exhibits these variations in the workings of the mind.

Argument:—Vipaschita’s wanderings beyond the sphere of the worldand the regions of darkness.

Ráma! I have told you all these by my personal perception of them, andnot by any guess-work of mine, because it is by means of their purelyintelligent bodies, that yogis like ourselves have come to the clearsight of these things in nature, which are otherwise unknowable to thematerial body or mind.

2. Thus the world of which I have spoken, appears to us as in a dream,and not in any other aspect as it is viewed by others (As either animaginary or solid material body).

3. Now whether the world is viewed in the light of a dream or anyother thing, it is of no matter to us; since it is the business of thelearned, to speak of its situation and what relates thereto (and not ofits nature or essence).

4. There are the two poles (merus) situated at the utmost extremitiesof the north and south of the world; and it is the business of thelearned, to enquire into the endless kinds of beings lying between them.

5. These varieties are well known to the people of those particularparts; and not to us here, where they do not appear in their nativebeauty.

6. The two poles (as said before), standing at the farthest extremitiesof the globe, limit the earth with its seven continents and seas, andstretch no farther beyond them.

7. Now hear, O Ráma, that the whole body of water on earth, is tentimes as much, as the extent of the two continents (lit., valves),which are surrounded by it.

8. The two continents attract the circumambient waters[Pg 687] around them, asthe magnet attracts the needles about it; and the water (in its turn),upholds the continents (and islands), as the Kalpa tree supports thefruits upon it.

9. All things on earth are supported by it, as the fruits of a tree aresupported by its stem; wherefore every thing on earth falls down on it,as fruits fall upon the ground.

10. Far below the surface of the water, there is a latent heatunderneath, which is ever burning without any fuel, which is as stillas air, and clear as the flame of fire.

11. At the distance of ten times from it, there is the vast regionof air; and as many times afar from that, there is the open space oftransparent vacuum.

12. At a great distance from that, there is the infinite space of thevacuity of Divine spirit; which is neither dark nor bright, but is fullof Divine Intelligence.

13. This endless void of the supreme spirit, is without its beginning,middle or end; and is named as the universal soul, the great Intellectand perfect bliss (nirvána or insouciance).

14. Again there are myriads of orbs, in the distant parts of thesespheres; that appear to and disappear from view by turns.

15. But in reality, there <is> nothing that either appears ordisappears, in the uniformly bright soul of Brahma; where every thingcontinues in the same manner, throughout all eternity.

16. I have thus related to you, Ráma, all about the phenomenal worlds,that are perceptible to us; hear me now to tell you, what became ofVipaschit in the polar region.

17. Being led by his former impressions and accustomed habit, he keptwandering about the top of the mountain (as he was wont to do before);but fell down afterwards in the dark and dismal pit therein.

18. He found himself lying as dead at that spot, when the birds of air,as big as mountain peaks, alighted upon his dead body, which they toreto pieces and devoured at last.

19. But as he died on the holy mount, and had a spiritual body ofhimself; he did not feel the pains and pangs which are[Pg 688] inevitable uponthe loss of the material body, but retained his clear consciousness allalong.

20. Yet as his self-consciousness, did not attain the transcendentperceptivity of his soul; he remembered the grossness of his past actsand deeds, and was sensible of them, as any living body.

21. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, for the unembodied mind, toperform the outward actions of the body; and how can our spiritualconsciousness, have any kind of perception of any thing?

22. Vasishtha replied:—As desire drives the home-keeping man fromhis house, and as imagination leads the mind to many places andobjects, so the mind of this prince was led from place to place (as hisreminiscence portrayed them before it).

23. As the mind is moved or led by delusion, dream, imagination andby error or misapprehension and recital of stories, (to the belief ofthings); so the mind of the prince was led to the credence (of whateverappeared before him).

24. It is the spiritual or intellectual body (or the mind), which issubject to these fallacies (and not the corporeal body); but the humanmind, forgets in course of time, its spiritual nature; and thinks onits materiality (i.e. takes it for a material substance).

25. But upon disappearance of these fallacies, in the manner of themistaken notion of the snake in a rope; there appears the spiritualbody only, in lieu of the corporeal one.

26. Consider well, O Ráma! that the spiritual body is the only realsubstantiality; because all that appears to exist here beside theintellect, is no existence at all (without the mind, which makes andunmakes them).

27. As the mind of a man going from one place to another, passes onquietly over the intermediate places, and is quite unconscious of them;such is the case with the intellect, which passes to endless objects,without ever moving from its fulcrum, or changing itself to any otherform.

[Pg 689]

28. Say therefore, where is there a duality, and what object is theredeserving your amity or enmity, when all this totality is but oneinfinite Deity, and known as the transcendent understanding.

29. The transcendental understanding is that calm and quiet state ofthe Intellect, which is without the workings of the mind; and thoughthe prince Vipaschit was settled in his spiritual body, he had not yetattained to that state of transcendentalism. (This is Platonism ormusing of the soul in itself).

30. He being in want of this percipience, found his mind on thestretch; and with his spiritual body, he saw a dark gloom, as itappears to a foetus confined in the embryo.

31. Amidst this gloom, he beheld <the> mundane egg split in twain,and perceived the surface of the earth, situated in the lower valvethereof. It was a solid substance, as bright as gold, and extending tomillions of yojanas.

32. At the end of this he saw the waters, eight times in extent to thatof the land; and these in the form of crusts of the oceans, formedthe two valves (continents) of the earth (i.e. the Eastern andWestern hemispheres).

33. After passing over this, he reached to the region of light, blazingwith the sun and stars; emitting flames of conflagration issuing fromthe vault of heaven.

34. Having passed that region of fire, without being burnt or hurt inhis spiritual body; he was led by his mind to another region, where hethought and felt himself to be borne aloft by the winds to his formerhabitation.

35. As he was carried in this manner, he felt himself to be of aspiritual body; for what is it beside the mind, that can lead any bodyfrom one place to another.

36. With this conviction of himself, the patient prince passed over theregion of the winds; and got at last to the sphere of vacuum, which wasten times in extent to that of the former.

[Pg 690]

37. Passing over this, he found the infinite space of the vacuumof Brahma; wherein all was situated, and whence all had proceeded,which is nothing and yet something, of which nothing can be known orpredicated.

38. Moving along this empty air, he was carried far and farther onwardin his aerial journey; until he thought in his mind, he could see fromthere, all the other spheres of the earth and water, and of fire andair, which he had passed over before.

39. There were again the formations of worlds, and repeated creationsand dissolutions of them to be seen in it; and trains of gods and men,and those of hills and all other things; going on in endless successiontherein.

40. There was a recurrence of the primary elements, and their assumingof substantial forms; and repetitions of creations, and reappearancesof worlds and the sides of the compass.

41. Thus the prince is still going on in his journey through theinfinite void of Brahman; and finds the succession of creations andtheir dissolutions in it to no end.

42. He has no cessation from his wanderings, owing to his convictionand assuetude of thinking the reality of the world; nor does he get ridof his ignorance, which is from God also. (Man is created in ignorance,and barred from tasting the forbidden fruit of knowledge).

43. Whatever you view in your waking, or see in your dream; is theperspicacity of the Divine soul, and ever displays these sights initself.

44. This world is an apparition of our ignorance, like the spectresthat are seen amidst deep darkness; but know that it is the transparentintellect of God which represents it so, and will ever do the same.

45. And as the dark sight of the gross world, as well as the clearlight of its transparency, do both of them proceed alike from theselfsame mind of God; it is impossible to conceive, whether it is theone or the other, or both alike.

[Pg 691]

46. Hence, O Ráma, this prince being uncertain of the transparency ofthe Divine spirit has been wandering for ever more, in the dark mazeof his preconceived worlds; as a stray deer, roves amidst the tangledwilderness.

Argument:—The fates of the four Vipaschitas, and thetransformation of one to a stag.

I have heard of the liberation of two Vipaschitas, by grace of Vishnu;and want now to know what became of the two brothers, that have <been>wandering all about.

2. Vasishtha replied:—One of these two, learnt by long habit to subduehis desires, and by his wandering in many islands, had at last settledin one of them, and obtained his rest in God.

3. Having relinquished the sight, of the outward livery of the world,he saw millions of orbs rolling in the vacuity and is still enrapt withthe view.

4. The second one (or other) of them, was released from his personalwanderings, by his continuance in the contiguity of the moon, wherehis constant association with the stag-like mark on the disc of thatluminary, changed his form to that of that animal, which he stillretains in his situation upon a hill.

5. Ráma asked:—How is it sir, that the four persons of Vipaschit,having but one mind, and the same desire and aim in view, could differso much in their acts, that brought upon them such different results ofgood and evil?

6. Vasishtha replied:—The habitual desire of a person, becomes variedaccording to the various states of his life, in course of time and indifferent places; it becomes weaker and stronger in degree, though itis never changed in its nature.

7. It is according to circ*mstances that the selfsame desire or objectof a person, is modified in different forms; and whatever of these isgreater in its intensity, the very same takes the precedence of others,and comes to pass in a short time.

8. In this divided state of their desires, the four persons of theprince, arrived to four different states in their modes in[Pg 693] life; sothat two of them were immerged in their ignorance, the third became adeer, and the last gained his liberation at last.

9. The two former have not yet arrived at the end of their nescience,but have been grovelling in darkness by their blindness to the light oftruth; which can hardly dispel the darkness, that is continually spreadby ignorance.

10. It is only the light of philosophy, that is able to drive thegloom of ignorance; which however deep rooted it is, then flies at adistance, as the shade of night is dispersed before the light of day.

11. Attend now to what this Vipaschit did in the other world, where hewas cast on the coast of gold, across the far distant ocean of sweetwaters, and which he mistook for the habitable earth.

12. Beyond this he beheld an orb in the vacuity of Brahmá, which was ashe thought the vacuum of the great Brahma himself.

13. Here he was led by his excellent virtues, amidst the society of thelearned; and learning from them the visible world in its true light, hewas amalgamated into the state of Brahma himself.

14. No sooner had he arrived at that state, than his ignorance and hisbody disappeared from him, as the sea in the mirage vanishes before thecloser view, and as falsehood flies before truth.

15. Thus I have related to you all the acts of Vipaschit, and about theeternity of ignorance as that of Brahma, because it is coeval with him(because the positive idea of knowledge, is always blended with that ofits counterpart or the negative idea of ignorance).

16. See the millions of years, that have been passing in eternity, butthe mind by its nature, is quite unmindful of their course and number.(So also is the idea of eternity, of which we have no definite idea).

17. As the knowledge of horses is said to be false, when known, so theknowledge of the world (as a separate[Pg 694] existence) is a falsity, butbeing truly known, it is found to be Brahma himself. (?)

18. There is no difference of avidyá or ignorance, from theessence of Brahma; because the one subsists in the other; for Brahma isthe perfect Intellect himself that shows the difference in the modes ofintellection. (All differences are displayed in the Divine Mind).

19. Another Vipaschit, that was wandering all about in the universalsphere, could not come to the end of his ignorance (avidyá), in hiscourse of a millennium.

20. Ráma said:—How was it, sir, that he could not reach to the utmostpole of the universe, nor could he pierce its vault to get out of it?Please explain this fully to me, which you have not yet done.

21. Vasishtha replied:—When Brahma was born at first in mundane egg,he broke the shell with both his hands, into the upper and lower halves.

22. Hence the upper valve of the shell, rose too far upwards from thelower half; and so the lower valve, descended as far below the upperpart.

23. Then there are the circles of earth, water and air, which aresupported upon these valves; while these two serve as bases for thesupport of other spheres.

24. In the midst of these there is the vacuous sky, which is infinitein its extent, and which appears unto us, as the blue vault of heaven.

25. It is not bounded by the circles of earth and water, but is a purevoid, and basis of all other spheres that rest upon it.

26. He passed by that way into the infinite void, as the circles of thestarry frame revolve amidst the same; in order to examine the extent ofignorance and to obtain his release from it, as he was taught to find.

27. But this avidyá or ignorance being coalescent with Brahma,is as infinite as the Deity himself; and there she is as unknowable asGod, as yet nobody has been able to know her nature. (God and Natureare both unknowable).

[Pg 695]

28. Vipaschit continuing to mount afar and higher in the heavens, foundthe nature of avidyá or ignorance to be coextensive with theextent of the worlds, through which he traversed on high.

29. Now see how one of these persons was liberated, and anothergrazing about as a stag; see the other two fast bound to their formerimpressions, and constrained to rove about the worlds, which they tookfor realities in their ignorance.

30. Ráma said:—Tell me kindly, O sage, where and how far and in whatsorts of worlds, have these Vipaschitas been still roaming, withgetting their intermission.

31. At what distance are those worlds, where they are born over andover again; all this is very strange to me, as they have been relatedby you.

32. Vasishtha said:—The worlds to which the two Vipaschitas arecarried, and where they have been roving; are quite invisible tome, notwithstanding all my endeavours to look into them. (It is theterra incognita).

33. So the place where the third Vipaschit is roving as a deer, is alsoin a land which is known to nobody on earth.

34. Ráma said: you have <said> sir, that the Vipaschit who istransformed to a deer, has been roving on a hill; tell me therefore, omost intelligent seer, where is that hill situated, and how far is itfrom here.

35. Vasishtha answered:—Hear me tell you, how far off is that worldfrom here, where Vipaschit has entered after passing through the vastvacuity of the supreme spirit; and has been wandering there in his formof a deer.

36. Know it to be somewhere amidst these three worlds, where he hasbeen roving as a stray deer; because this is the vast vacuity of theDivine spirit; in which all these worlds are interspersed at greatdistances from one another.

37. Ráma rejoined:—How is it consistent, sir, to say with good reason,that Vipaschit was born and dead in this world, and is still rovingas a deer in it? (Why did he wander about in infinity, if he were toremain a finite being herein? gloss).

38. Vasishtha replied:—As the whole must well know all[Pg 696] the partsof which it is composed, so do I know every thing every where, whichis situated in the all comprehensive soul of God, whereto I haveassimilated myself. (Vasishtha means to say, that he knew all in hissvánubhava or all knowing mind. Gloss).

39. I know the absent (i.e. all things past and future), andall that is destroyed, as well as all forms of things whether small orgreat, are all interwoven together and exhibited before me, as if theywere the production of this earth of ours.

40. Hence all that I have told you, O Ráma, regarding the adventures ofthe prince, was the work of his fancy, and took place in some part ofthis world, where he lived and died.

41. The Vipaschitas all wandered about the other worlds in empty air,and all this was the work of their imagination, which is unrestrictedin its flight through boundless space.

42. One of these has happened to be born here as a deer, and it is inthe dale of a mountain, somewhere upon this earth. (It is believed thatall mortal souls transmigrate to this again, after their wanderings areover in other spheres).

43. The place where the prince is reborn in his form of a stag, afterall his wanderings in other spheres were over; is in this orb of earth,where he is placed on a certain spot by an act of unaccountable chance(káka táliya).

44. Ráma said:—If it is so, then tell me sir, in what region of thisearth, on what hill and in what forest of it, is this stag placed atpresent.

45. What is he doing now, and how does he nibble the grass in theverdant plain; and how long will it be, before that veteran seer maycome to the remembrance of his former state and past actions.

46. Vasishtha replied:—It is the same stag, which has been presentedto you by the ruler of the province of Trigarta; and is kept close inyour pleasure garden for your sport.

47. Válmíki said:—Ráma was quite surprised with all the people sittingat the court, upon hearing the sage say so; and ordered his attendantlads in the hall to bring it forthwith before his presence there.

[Pg 697]

48. Then the brute stag was brought and placed before the open court,when the court-people found it plump and fat, and quite tame andgentle. (Lit.: content with its own state).

49. Its body was spotted all over, as with the stars of heaven; and itseyes were as outstretched as the petals of lotus flowers, and by farmore handsome than the eyes of beauteous damsels.

50. It looked with its timorous glances, on the blue sapphires whichdecorated the court; ran to bite them with its open month, thinkingthem to be blades of grass.

51. Then as it gazed at the assemblage, with its raised neck, upliftedears and staring eyes through fear; so they raised their heads, prickedup their ears, and looked upon the animal with their open eyes, forfear of its leaping and jumping upon them.

52. At last the king with all his ministers and courtiers, were allamazed at the sight of the animal, and thought it was all a magic,which they saw before them.

53. The wondering eyes of the assembled people, and the shining gems onthe persons of the princes, made the court hall appear, as if it werestudded with full blown lotuses all around. (The simile of bloomingeyes and blossoming lotuses, is common in all Indian poetry).

Argument:—The stag burnt in the meditation of Vasishtha, andturned in its former figure of the Prince.

Válmíki related:—Ráma then asked Vasishtha, to tell him by what meansVipaschit was released from his brutish shape and restored to his humanform again.

2. Vasishtha said:—The way by which a person has had his rise, is theonly means that conduces to his success, welfare and happiness in life(and a departure from this course, brings on his ruin).

3. Vipaschit had been a worshipper, and it is by his re-entrance intothe refuge of that deity only; that his changed form of the stag, maybe altered and restored to its former figure, of bright and unalloyedgold.

4. I will now try the means of his restoration in your presence, as youmay all witness it with your open eyes; and this stag will of itselfenter into the fire before your sight.

5. Válmíki related:—Saying so, the benevolent sage, touched his waterpot with his hand, and muttered his mantras upon it in the proper form(i.e. with fixed attention).

6. He thought intently upon the god of fire, with his flashing flamesall around him; and immediately there sprang a blaze of fire, upon hisreflection on it (in the midst of the royal hall).

7. This was a pure flame, kindled without any coal or fuel, and burningwith a rumbling noise, without emitting any smoke or soot or sloe.

8. Brighter and brighter it burnt in its beauty, and shone as a dome ofgold, by shedding a golden lustre all about; it was as flushing as theblushing kinsuka blossom, and as glowing as the evening cloudsof heaven.

9. The assembled hosts receded backward, upon beholding[Pg 699] the spreadingflame; but the stag flushed with the fervour of its former faith, onseeing its adored deity manifest before its sight.

10. As it looked on the fire with its ardent desire, he got rid of hissins, as if they were burnt away by its flames; and then advancingslowly towards it, he jumped at once amidst the blaze, as a lionsprings aloft on his prey.

11. At this moment, the Muni moved his mind to meditation, and foundthe sins of the prince were burnt away from his soul; and thenaddressed the god, saying:—

12. O lord, that bearest the sacrificial butter to the celestials,recall to thy mind the past acts of the prince, in his faith to thee;and kindly restore him, to his former handsome figure again.

13. As the sage was praying in this manner, he saw the stag to bereleased from the flame, and running towards the assembled princes,with the velocity of an arrow flying towards its butt end or mark.

14. Having entered into the burning fire, he appeared as a flamingbody, and was seen by the assembly to be of a form, as bright as theappearance of an evening cloud.

15. Thus the stag was changed to the form of a man, before the sightof the assembled princes; as a spot of cloud is seen to assume anotherfigure in the face of the bright vault of heaven.

16. It was seen amidst the flame, to assume a figure as that of puregold; which afterwards took the form of a man, of handsome shape andappearance. (So the funeral fire purifies the soul of its impurities,and gives it a brighter form afterwards).

17. He appeared as the orb of the sun, or as the disc of the moon inthe sky; or as the god Varuna in the waters of the deep, or as theevening cloud or rising moon.

18. There was the reflexion of the sun in the pupils of his eyes, asit was reflected on the surface of water, or on a mirror or brightgem; and the fire of his faith, blazed serenely in the sockets of hiseyeballs.

19. Shortly afterwards this blaze of light disappeared from[Pg 700] the court,as the light of a lamp is blown away by the breath of wind; or as thetinges of evening clouds vanish in the sky under the shades of night.

20. The man then stood as plainly in the hall, as the idol of a deityis seen to stand in a dilapidated temple (without its brightness); oras an actor is seen behind the scene (without his dress).

21. He stood silent holding a rosary on his hand, and having his sacredthread, hanging down a chain of gold about his neck; he wore a robe ofpure white blanched by the fiery heat; and appeared as the bright moon,rising before the assembly.

22. On seeing the brightness of his person and attire, the courtiersall and every one, cried out saying, “O to the lustre”; and because hewas as lustrous as day light, he was named, “Lustre” by all.

23. The courtiers also confirmed it by saying that, because he is asbright as brightness itself, let him be styled the “bright or Bhása”,the name that he bore on him ever afterwards.

24. He sat in the hall in his meditative mood, and remembered all theincidents of his past life and former body.

25. The assembly was struck with wonder, and remained quite motionlessand speechless and absorbed in thought; as Bhása was reflecting in hismind the adventures of his past life.

26. Then the prince rose from his reverie after a short while, andadvanced towards the assembly, under his newly obtained title of Bhásaor the light.

27. He advanced at first towards Vasishtha, and saluted him withdelight; and then addressed him saying:—“I bow down, sir, before thee,as the giver of my life and light of knowledge of myself.”

28. Vasishtha raised him by touching his head with his hand; and said:“May thy protracted ignorance, O prince, dissipate this day and forever after”.

29. Victory to Ráma, said Bhása, and bowed down to Dasaratha; whorising a little from his seat, thus accosted him smilingly and said:—

30. Dasaratha said:—You are welcome, O prince! be seated[Pg 701] on thisseat; you have wandered through many difficulties of the world, nowtake your rest here.

31. Válmíki related:—Thus accosted by the king, the prince now bearingthe name of Bhása, took his seat on a cushion, after making hissalutation, to the venerable sages Visvámitra and others.

32. Dasaratha exclaimed:—O the pains, that Vipaschit has so longundergone, under the thraldom of Ignorance; in the manner of a wildelephant, tied in fetters at his feet by ruthless huntsmen.

33. O to what miseries is man exposed, owing to his want of preciseunderstanding, and by his false knowledge of the reality of theseworlds, that are seen to be revolving in empty shape.

34. How wondrous are these worlds, so extensive and so remote, whichVipaschit has traversed out, and how incredible are the pains, throughwhich he has passed so long.

35. O how wonderful is the nature and glory, of the inane Intellectof the vacuous spirit of the Supreme, that exhibits in empty air, theblank thoughts of his all comprehensive mind, as sole and substantialones (to the apprehension of ignorant mortals).

Argument:—There is no substantive world, separate from thethoughts in the Eternal mind.

Dasaratha said:—I understand that Vipaschit has acted unwisely, intaking so much pains in his wanderings for a knowledge of the spheres;because it is all in vain to inquire into unrealities and uselessmatters, and it was his ignorance or avidyá alone, that led himto the search.

2. Válmíki related:—At this moment the sage Viswámitra, who wassitting beside the king; oped his mouth and said on the subject nowunder consideration.

3. Viswámitra said:—O king, there are many such men, who without agood understanding, and for want of best knowledge; are apt to thinkthat all things are possible to be known by them.

4. Hence it is that the sons of king Vatadhána, have been wandering inthis manner, and for very many years, in search of true knowledge, allover this earth, and without ever being able to arrive at it.

5. It is for exploring the limits of this earth, that they have beenemployed with ceaseless toil and unwearied labour, as a river runs inits incessant course for ever.

6. This great world (the earth), is situated as an orb in the air,like an imaginary tree of boys growing in the sky, or as a toy ball offanciful Brahmá, rolling about in empty air.

7. As creeping emmets move about a sugar ball, without falling off fromit; so do all living bodies move about their support of this earth,which is sustained in the empty air.

8. Those that are situated on the lower surface of this globe, aremoving thereabouts as erectly, as those that are on its[Pg 703] upper side(and though this earth is turning up and down yet no one sides awayfrom it).

9. The sun, moon and planets, together with the starry frame andthe heavenly stream (the milky way); are attracted to turn round itincessantly, without ever coming in contact with it.

10. The sky girds and surrounds it on all sides, though the firmamentappears to be above our heads, and the earth below our feet.

11. The living beings below the earth, are both moving downward orflying upward, as the beasts and birds on the upper side of it; and theregion to which they fly is called the upper sky (whether it be in thisor that side of it).

12. There is on some part of this earth, a warrior race by name ofVatadhánas; and there were born three princes of this royal family, indays of yore (and are said to be living still).

13. They were firmly intent like Vipaschit, to know the limits of thevisible world; and set out in their journey to explore the same, with afirm and unfailing resolution.

14. They passed from the land to water, and the waters to other landsagain; and thus they passed many lives and ages, in their repeatedinquiries with their resuscitated bodies in reiterated births (becausethe steady pursuit of one, follows him in his successive births).

15. Thus wandering for ever all about the earth, they like ants movingon a sweet cake, found no end of it, nor reached to any other spot,beyond the same even in their thought of another one.

16. They are still turning around it in the air, like busy emmets abouta roll; and they are yet in the same search without being tired of it.(Alexander said, “Earth is this thy end?” but these princes found noend of it).

17. Because whoever stands on any part of the globe, thinks it as theuppermost, and all other places on every side of it, to be lower thanit; and so the antipodes below think themselves as upmost.

[Pg 704]

18. They then said among themselves that, if they could not find theend of the earth all their toil, they must give up the pursuit andremove themselves elsewhere.

19. So it is with this world, O king! which is no more than display ofthe thoughts of Brahmá; it is a work or creation of the mind only, anda delusion as that of a protracted dream.

20. The mind is the Supreme Brahma, and Brahma is self-same with hisvery mind; they are both of the form of the intellect, and there is no<more>difference between them, than that of open air and the sky.

21. The intellect operates in itself, like the running waters inwhirlpools; and as the eddies and their swelling bubbles, are no otherthan the very water, so the operations of the mind, are modificationsof the mind itself.

22. The sky which is but vacuum, and was a void in the beginning; showsitself in the form of the world; which is neither created nor everdestroyed.

23. Whatever the intellect suggests (from its preconceptions andpredilections); the mind (which is the active principle), obeys thesame and is inclined in the same way; and continues to view the outerworld, as it has ever existed in thought.

24. The visible world is of the same form, and equally imperishable asthe intellectual; it is the eternal God that manifests himself in thismanner, which is otherwise nothing of itself.

25. There is an atom of the divine Intellect, an infinity of minuteratoms in the shape of ideas, just as there are innumerable stonesin the body of a rock; they reside in the spirit of God, and are astranslucent as the divine spirit.

26. They abide in their own natures in the unexpanded spirit of God;but they do not live independent of themselves, as there <is> nothingthat is separate from the supreme spirit.

27. Therefore this world is said to be the manifestation of theDivine Mind; and this conclusion <is> arrived at by the learned,by means of their logical consideration of the antecedent[Pg 705] andsubsequent (i.e. by both their a priori as well as aposteriori arguments).

28. It is strange therefore that the human soul, should sorrow forits degradation and think itself as a different thing, though it isinseparable from the one universal soul.

29. Now let the so called prince Bhása, who is otherwise known as themighty monarch Vipaschit by his former appellation; what other strangethings, he remembers to have seen, in all his wanderings through worlds.

30. Bhása replied:—I have seen many sights, and wandered untiredthrough many regions; and remember also to have felt variousvicissitudes in my life.

31. Hear O king, how much I have known and felt, in my course throughremote regions in the spacious firmament on high; and know the joys andgriefs, which I have enjoyed and suffered, in my transmigrations indifferent bodies and distant worlds, from a long long time out of mind.

32. It was by favour of the god of fire, and by the good and bad turnsof fate; that I have seen a great many scenes, in my course in variousforms and lives, like the revolving waters in a whirlpool, with a calmand constant and resolute mind.

33. Actuated by past reminiscence and misled by mistaken view ofvisibles; I was impelled by my firm zeal to inquire into all worldlythings, in the different forms and changes of my body.

34. I had been an arbour for a thousand years, having my sensesundeveloped in me, and feeling the rigours of all climates and seasonswithin myself. I had no mind nor mental action, save those of drawingthe sap of the earth by my roots, and expanding myself into fruits andflowers.

35. I had been a mountain stag for a hundred years, with my skin ofgolden hue, and my ears as flat as leaves of trees; I fed on blades ofgrass, was charmed with all kinds of music, and being the weakest ofall animals of the forest, I could do no injury to any one.

36. I lived for half a century as a Sarabha, a wild animal[Pg 706] witheight legs; I dwelt in the caves of Krancha mountain, and brought onmy death by falling down from a craig, in attempting to fight with theraining clouds on high. (The Sarabha is a fabulous beast thatdies by jumping down the hill).

37. I had also been born once as Vidyádhara, and had lived upon thetable land of Malaya mountains, and amidst the happy bowers of Mandara,redolent with the sweet scent of sandal woods and kadamba flowers. HereI have breathed the sweet air perfumed by gum agallochum, and enjoyedthe company of Vidyádharí-fairies.

38. I was born as a cygnet of the swan of Brahmá, and tasted the honeyof aureate lotuses for more than a century, and sported on the banks ofthe heavenly stream of Mandakiní, on the celestial mount of Meru.

39. For a hundred years, I remained by the side of milky ocean,feeling the cooling breezes wafting the moisture of its waves, and thefragrance of the forests and listening to the songs of the songsters ofsprings, which join to vanish the infirmities and sorrows of life.

40. I was once born as a jackal, in the woods of Kalenjara mountains,and roved about the blossoming gunja and karanja forests;here I was trodden down by an elephant, and was about to expire, when Ibeheld that elephant to be killed by a lion in his turn.

41. I was at one time transformed to the form of a celestial nymph, andaccursed by a siddha to dwell alone in some other sphere; where I livedfor the period of half a yuga upon the sahya mountain, smilingwith the blooming blossoms of santanaka arbours.

42. I next lived as a Valmika bird of raven, in my nest amidst thekaravíra plants, growing on the marshy grounds at the foot of amountain; and there I passed my solitary life of a hundred years, witha fearful breast and ceaseless scrambles on the dreary rocks.

43. I saw afterwards a level plain somewhere, with shady bowers ofsylvan creepers under the shade of sandal trees; and[Pg 707] beheldsome females amusing there with swinging, like fruits on the branchesof trees, and to be ravished away by the passing siddhas.

44. At another time, I passed my days as an anchorite, under the shadeof Kadamba trees at the foot of a mountain; where I dwelt on themeditation of the single object of my devotion, and thus foolishly metmy end with the pain of not meeting my object.

45<a>. I saw also this universe to be full of beings, which fill it asfishes people the ocean on every side; the air, sky and light, are allinhabited by beings, as well as this earth of ours.

45<b>. There is another wonder which fills this universe, as the shadowof the sky fills the ocean on all sides; it pervades in the air, water,sky and light, as well in all forms of things on earth. (This is thereflexion of Brahma in all creation, as that of the sky in water.Gloss).

46. I also <saw> another wonder in a woman, who contains the threeworlds in her ample womb; and who is pictured with the forms of hillsand all things, resembling their reflexions in a mirror.

47. I asked her saying: O thou big bodied and big bellied one! tell mewho thou art; to which she replied and said:—know me sir, to be thepure and clear Intellect, that contains all these worlds within herself.

48. She added and said:—O sir, as you see me so wondrous in my form,so must you know all things in the world to be of the same kind; butpeople who view them in their natural form find them otherwise, unlessthey look into them in their spiritual light, when the gross formsvanish into nothing.

49. These numberless beings on earth, are continually hearing, evenwithout the directions of the Vedas and sástras, a warning voicearising from some part of their bodies, bidding them what is right orwrong for them to do. (This is called anáhata dhwani or thevoice of conscience).

[Pg 708]

50. Nature reigns over all elements like anáhata dhwani. Theelements appear immovable at sight, but in fact, they possess inherentmobile forces; no one can assign any cause over them except delusion ormáyá.

51. I once went to a place, where there were no females to be found,nor had the people any desire for them; and yet many among the livingthere were fastly passing away, and many others newly coming toexistence.

52. I have seen the wonder of some portentous clouds in the sky,charging against each other with a jarring noise; and pouring downtheir rains with fragments of things on all sides, which were picked upand used as weapons by men.

53. I have <seen> another wonder somewhere that, these earthly citiesand buildings, were passing in their aerial course, amidst a mist ofthick darkness; and then vanishing in the air, returning to be yourhabitations here below.

54. Another wonder that I saw was, that all these men and gods andreptiles, having left their differences of species, came to be of onekind in common with all other beings. (All distinctions are lost in theend). Because all things proceed at first from vacuum, and to this theyreturn at last.

55. I also beheld a spot which was full of light, and shone forthbrightly without the lights of the sun, moon and stars. I remember wellthat effulgent glory, before which there was <neither> darkness nor dayand night, and nothing else in existence.

56. I saw also a place never seen before, which was devoid of gods anddemons, men and animals of all kinds, it was without the vegetablecreation, and habitation of any kind of being; and a world where thepresent and future, and all worlds are blended into eternity.

57. In short, there is no place which I have not seen, nor any side(of the compass) where I have not been; there is no act or eventwhich I have not known, and in a word there is nothing unknown to me,that is unknown to the knower of all. (The soul that becomes one withOmniscient soul, becomes all-knowing like the same).

[Pg 709]

58. I remember to have heard the jingling sound of the armlets ofIndra, which resembled the noise of the rattling clouds on high; orlikened the jangling jar of the gems, which glistened on the peaks ofthe Mandara mountain, in its trepidation of churning the milky ocean.

Argument:—Bhása relates his repeated births, the wonders he hasseen, and the vanity of the world.

Bhása continued:—It was once at the foot of the Mandara mountain,that I dwelt as a siddha under the shady bower of Mandára trees; andhad been sleeping in the sweet embrace of an Apsara, Mandará by name;when it happened, that the current of a river bore us both away, as itcarries down a straw in its course.

2. I supported my partner now floating on the water, and asked her totell me how could it happen to be so; when she with her tremulous eyesanswered me thus, saying:—

3. Here it occurs at the full moon, that this mountain which is sacredto the moon, gives rise to its outlets, which then rush out as rapidly,as ladies run to meet their consorts at the rising of the moon.

4. It was owing to my rapture in your company, that I forgot to tellyou of this; saying so she lifted me up, and fled with me into the air,as a female bird mounts into the sky with her young.

5. I was to the top of that mountain, where I remained seven years,with my dried and unsoiled body, as a bee remains unsullied on thepericarp of a lotus flower growing in the bed of the Ganges.

6. I thence saw some other worlds beyond the starry circle, which wereencircled by one another like the coatings of a plantain tree. Theywere bright by their own light, and were peopled by luminous bodies.

7. There were no distinctions of directions nor divisions of daytime(for want of the sun); there <were> no sástras or rules of conduct, norvedas for religious guidance; there was no[Pg 711] difference of the gods anddemigods, but the whole was bright with its own light.

8. I was next born as a Vidyádhara, and lived for twice seven yearsas an ascetic under the name of Amarasoma, dwelling in the groveof kadamba trees, at the foot of a cloud-capt mountain, which wasfrequented by aerial cars of the celestials, for their pleasure, thesport and diversion.

9. Then I was borne with the velocity of winds, afar amidst theetherial regions on high; whence I beheld numberless elephants andhorses, lions and deer, and woods and forests filled with beasts andbirds, all moving along in the form of clouds beneath.

10<a>. It was thus with the force of the bird of heaven—Garuda, that Imounted up to heaven from earth, and passed through infinite space, byfavour of the god of fire, in order to see the extensive range of thedelusion of Avidyá or Ignorance, which was displayed all around.

10<b>. It was thus by favour of the god of fire, and the fervour ofmy desire to see the extensive range of the delusion of Avidyá orIgnorance; that I mounted up to heaven from earth, with the force ofthe bird of heaven—Garuda; and passed through the infinitespace, that was spread all around.

11. I felt in myself to fall off once, away and afar from the solarworld; it seemed to be an etherial ocean inhabited by stars, amidstwhich I was situated as one, with the consciousness of my fall andcourse of time.

12. With the only consciousness of my fall from the sky on high, Ifelt in myself the sense of falling fast asleep from fatigue; and thenin that state of sound sleep of my body, I thought I saw the sensibleworld in my mind, as if it were in my waking state.

13. I saw again the same world within the horizon, and the samemandára mountain of the gods amidst it; whilst I had beenfluttering in the midst of its abyss, as a bird sitting on a slendertwig, is shaken and tossed about by the blowing wind.

14. I saw with my eyes to the utmost extent of the sensible[Pg 712] world, andagain and again I was led to the sight of the visibles, and enjoymentof the sensibles only (in the repeated transmigrations of my soul).

15. Thus I passed a long series of years, in viewing the visible andinvisible objects (both of my waking and dreaming hours); as well as inpassing through the passable and impassable paths (of this and otherworlds).

16. I could not find anywhere, the limit of this Avidyá or Ignorance,which showed unto me the visibles only (in my waking and dreaming,and in this world and others). It is a fallacy that has taken thepossession of our minds, as the apparition of a goblin takes a deeproot in the breasts of boys.

17. This and this (i.e. the visible) are not realities, is thefirm conviction of all in their right reasoning; and yet the falsesight of this and this as a reality, is never to be removed from anybody.

18. We find our pleasures and pains, occurring to us every moment,with the changes of time and place; their course is as constant as thecurrents of rivers, which are ceaselessly succeeding one another.

19. I remember to have seen a world, with all kinds of moving andunmoving beings in it; and a verdant mountain top in the midst,rustling with the blowing breeze, and shining of itself without thelight of the luminaries. (This is the pinnacle of the glory of God).

20. This mountain peak is delightsome to solitary recluses, it is quitefree, alone and unlimited, and beyond all fear of change or decay. Ihave never seen in this brightsome world, a glory which is comparableto this divine effulgence.

Argument:—Description of a carcass falling from above, andcovering the whole surface of the Earth.

Vipaschit said:—I saw another great wonder, in some part of some otherworld, which I will now rehearse unto you; it was a horrible sightthat attends on sin, and which I had to see by my blind attachment toignorance.

2. There is somewhere amidst the vast vacuum, a wonderfully brightsphere, which is quite impassable by you; it is situated in a vacuitylike this of ours, and so different from it, as a city in dream differsfrom one in sight. (Because the romantic view of the vision is notrealizable to ocular sight).

3. As I saw rambling in that sphere, in search of the object that Ihave in my heart, and looking to all sides of the void; I saw a hugeand unmoving shadow, like that of a body of locusts spread over theearth.

4. I saw astonished at the sight, and cast my eyes on all sides to seewhat it was; I came to find the mountainous form of a man, falling fastfrom the sky; and hurling down like a whirlpool upon the earth.

5. Who can be this person? said I, is it the lord Virát with hismountainous body, or a mountain falling from the clouds? It fills thesky and the whole space of heaven, and hides the light of the day underits all developing shadow?

6. As I saw pondering in me what might this portent mean; (as whetherit was the figure of Virát or the form of Brahmá himself); I saw soonafter, the bulky body of the sun falling down from heaven, it seemedto be hurled down by the hurricane of desolation and dashing with ahideous crash against the backbone or great belt of the mundane egg ofBrahmá.

7. Soon as this hideous and prodigious body, fell down upon[Pg 714] theearth, it filled its whole surface, and covered the face of the sevencontinents and oceans.

8. I dreaded my imminent destruction, together with that of whole earthunder its blow; and determined to enter into the ever burning fire bymy side.

9. Then the lord fire—the source of vedas, and my adored divinity ina hundred repeated births, appeared manifest before me in his coolingmoon-like form, and said, fear not, no evil will betide thee.

10. I then addressed the god, saying: be victorious, O my lord andadored one in repeated births; save me from this untimely desolation,which is now impending on all.

11. Thus invoked by me, the god responded again saying the same words:“Fear thou not, but rise, O sinless one, and follow me to my region ofthe empyrean”.

12. Saying so, he made me sit on the back of his parrot, and flew withme up to heaven; by burning athwart a part of the falling body.

13. Getting to the upper sky, I found the body as if it were made ofwood, and it was this which struck so much terror below, as it isattended with the falling of a portent—a comet or meteor from above.

14. Then as it felt down in full force, the earth shook beneath itsweight, with all trembling waters and tottering mountains, and shakingwoods and forests. The mountains burst forth in cataracts, whichoverflowed on the land, and bored it to horrible holes.

15. The earth groaned from her bowels, and the sky roared on all itsfour sides; the heavens resounded to the roar, and mountains growledwith the fearful howling of all beings, as at the approach of theirlast doom.

16. The earth groaned under the burden, and all the quarters trembledwith fear; the vacuum was filled with the echo of cries rising from theearth, and the Garuda-eagles were on their flight through fear.

17. There arose a harsh and hideous uproar on high, from the loudbursting of the mountains below; and like the crashing[Pg 715] and clatteringof the dark and dense clouds of deluge, when they are shattered andscattered, by the blasts of diluvian winds.

18. The earth trembled and roared at the impetuous fall of the hideouscarcass, and the resounding sky re-bellowed to the sound from itshundred mouths; the mountains burst out on all sides, and their fallingfragments and pinnacles, were hurried headlong, and buried underneaththe ground.

19. Its fall was as the breaking down of a mountain pinnacle orfragment, smashing the tops of the lower hills, rending and splittingthe ground, and levelling all things on earth with the dust.

20. It perturbed the waters of the deep, and hurled down the hills tothe ground; it crushed all living beings, and gave ample range to thesport of the agents of destruction (the Rudras).

21. The falling of the sun upon the earth, and his hiding the face ofthe continents under him; the crushing of mountains and the breakingdown of towering cities.

22. The celestials saw all these from above this earth, which formsone half of the mundane egg, turning to a vacuum form; (i.e.vanishing into the air).

23. As I was looking on that mountainous body of flesh, (i.e.the huge carcass); I observed that the ample space of all the sevencontinents of the earth was not enough to contain this single body.

24. Seeing this, I applied to the good grace of the god of fire; andasked him saying, Lord what is this and what does it mean.

25. Why did the sun also fall down from heaven, along with that corpse;and how is it that the space of the whole earth and all its oceans, hasnot sufficient room to compass it?

26. The God of fire replied:—Hold your patience, my son, for a while,until this portentous event passes away; when I will explain thismarvellous matter fully to you.

27. Soon as the God had said these words, there flocked an assemblageof the celestials all around us; and it consisted of all[Pg 716] kinds ofbeings that are born and move about in the aerial regions.

28. There were the siddhas, sadhyas, Apsaras, Daityas, Gandharvas andKinnaras among them; together with the Munis, Rishis, yakshas andPatres, Matres and the gods also with them.

29. All these celestials then, bowed down their heads in veneration;and all joined with their prostrate bodies to praise the dark goddessof Night, who is the refuge and resort of all.

30. The celestials said:—May that goddess protect us her protégés, whois immaculate and incomparable, and has the grey braids of Brahmá’shairs, tied at the top of her khattanga ensign, and the headsof the slain Daityas, strung to the neck-chain hanging on her breast;who wears the feathers of Garuda on her head, and who afterdevouring the world, drinks off the deep also at the end.

Argument:—Description of the body of the Goddess, and her foodof the carcass, and drink of the blood.

Vipaschit continued:—All this time I was looking at the carcass, thathad fallen from above, and covered the whole surface of the earth underit.

2. I distinguished that part of its body which was its belly, andhad hid in it the whole earth, with all its seven continents andimmeasurable mountain.

3. I was then told by the god of fire, that there was no limitation ofits arms and thighs, and of the extent of its head; and that it hadfallen from beyond the polar region, which <is> inaccessible to mankind.

4. The Goddess who is so much lauded by the celestials, is themanifestation of vacuum, which of itself becomes dry (i.e. isnaturally empty and void).

5. She is represented as accompanied by ghosts and furies, as followedby demons and hobgoblins, which walk in her train, and shine as starsand meteors in the open firmament.

6. Her long and muscular arms, are stretched to the skies as the tallpines of the forest; and her eyeballs flash forth with living fire, andscatter the solar beams all around.

7. The flashing weapons in her hands, were jangling in the sky; and hermissiles were darting like flocks of birds flying from their aerialnests.

8. Her flaming body and flashing eyes and limbs, glistened with theglare of a bush of reeds set on fire, or as the sparkling of a flightof arrows in the midway air.

9. Her glittering teeth, shed the lustre of the beaming moon, andbrightened the faces of the four quarters of heaven, with a milk whitesplendour; while her tall slender stature, reached to and touched thesky.

[Pg 718]

10. She stood supportless, like the stretching clouds of the eveningsky; and was mounted on a dead body, as if she rested on the blessedseat of Brahmá. (Brahma pada the throne of God, Elysium,Valhalla or Nirvána).

11. She shone in her brilliant form, like the crimson clouds ofevening; and added to the ocean of the etherial expanse, the burningblaze of submarine fire.

12. She was flaunting in her decorations of human skeleton and bones,and flourishing her weapons of the mallet and others; and darting herarrows all around, as a mountain scatters its flowers all about.

13. She mounted aloft in the air, with her neckchain of human skulls,sounding with a harsh clattering noise; resembling the rattling ofstones, falling down a mountain with the precipitate rains.

14. The gods then prayed to her saying: O mother goddess! we make anoffering of this carcass to thee; do thou join with thy adherents, andsoon take this corpse for your food, and make an end of it.

15. Upon this prayer of the gods unto her, the goddess began to draw inwith her inhaling breath, the blood and pith of the carcass into herbowels and intestines.

16. As the goddess was absorbing the dead blood, by her inhalation ofit, the red fluid rushed into her wide open month, like the entranceof the evening clouds, into the cavity of the western mountain (of thesetting sun).

17. The etherial goddess drank the blood, thus drawn in by her breath;as long as her lean skeleton-like frame, grew fat from her satiety, andshe stood confest in her form of Chandika.

18. Being thus filled and fattened, by full draughts of the sanguineousbeverage; she had the appearance of a blood red cloud, with flashinglightenings shooting from her eyes.

19. The pot bellied goddess, being then giddy with her bloody drink;became loose in her attire, began to flounce her ornaments, andflourish all her weapons in the empty air.

20. She began to dance and toss about in the air, which was almostfilled by the bulk of her body; while the gods kept[Pg 719] watching on hermovements, from their seats on the distant border or boundary mountains.

21. Immediately upon this, the whole host of her female ghosts andgoblins, composed of Rupikas and others, flew upon the carcass, as therainy clouds alight upon mountains.

22. The mountainous carcass, was laid hold by the clutches ofKumbhandas, and torn to a thousand pieces by them; while the Rupikasbored its belly, and the yakshas gored its back with their elephantinetusks.

23. But they could not get or break its arms, shoulders and thighs;because these members of its body, stretched far beyond the limits ofthe mundane or solar system.

24. They could not therefore be reached unto by the ghosts, who areconfined within the limits of this world, and could not go beyond,where those parts were rotten away of themselves.

25. As the goddess was dancing in the air, and her hobgoblins wereprancing over the carcass; the celestials remained sitting on themountain tops, and kept looking on this dreadful scene.

26. The disgusting morsels of putrid flesh, and the stench of therotten carcass filled the air and blood red clouds shrouding the scene,seemed as burning bushes, forming the fuel of the furnace (for roastingthe rancid meat).

27. The chopping of the fetid flesh, raised a sap-sap sound;(meaning the sap of the carcass); and the breaking of its hard bones,sent forth a kat-kat noise (purporting to cut them to pieces).

28. The concourse of the demons, caused a clashing sound; resounding asthe clashing occasional by the collision and concussion of rocks andmountains against one another.

29. The goddess devoured her mouthfuls of flesh, roasted in the firethat flashed forth from her mouth, and the offals and fragments thatfell down from it, covered the earth below with filth; while the dropsof blood that distilled from the draughts she had drank, reddened theether with tints of vermilion hue.

30. The celestial spectators saw their premises, within the[Pg 720] precinctsof the visible horizon; and the surface of the continents of the earth,to present the sight of an universal ocean of blood.

31. All the mountains on earth, were covered with blood, whichreflected their redness to the cloud on high; which gave the appearanceof a red mantling veil, spreading over the faces of the female regentdeities of all sides of heaven.

32. The sky below blazed with the flash of the weapons, whichbrandished in the hands of the goddess all around; and there was novestige of any city or habitation to be seen on earth. (Lit.: they werelost to sight, but retained in memory: i.e. things absent from sight,are present in the mind).

33. It was an incredible sight to see, that all the moving and unmovingobjects of nature should be engrossed and absorbed in the bodies of theghosts of insatiate death.

34. The dancing demons were waving their arms in air, in a manner asif they <were> weaving nets for catching the aerial birds; and werelifting and dropping them up and down, so as they seemed to measure theheight and depth of the firmament.

35. They stretched out the entrails of their victims, from the earthbelow to the solar circle above; and appeared to measure the distancewith lines and cords.

36. The gods seeing the earth thus endangered by the portentous carcaseand its surface converted to an extensive sheet or ocean of blood.

37. They felt themselves dismayed and distressed, from their seat abovethe polar mountain; and beyond the boundary of the seven continents,where the stench of the putrid carcass could not stink into theirnostrils.

38. Ráma asked:—How is it sir, that the stench of the carcass couldnot infect the gods, in their seats on the polar mountain; when thefallen dead body is said to extend even beyond the limits of themundane system?

39. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O Ráma, that the dead bodystretched beyond the limits of the mundane sphere; but its belly laywithin the boundaries of seven continents, and that its head and thighsand its head and feet were without it.

[Pg 721]

40. But from its breasts and the two sides and its loins and waist,which lay out of this sphere, one could have a clear view of the polarcircle, as well as that of its mountainous top.

41. Sitting in those parts and places, the gods could well behold thepinnacles of the mountain; which were surely bright to sight, and aswhite as the rainless clouds of the skies (i.e. white as fleecyclouds).

42. Then the maters of furies of heaven, kept on dancing on the widespread dead body; while the hosts of ghosts were devouring its flesh,as the corpse lay its face turned downwards (i.e. upside down ortopsy turvy).

43. Seeing now the streams of reddish blood running around and theputrid stink of rotten body spreading on all sides; the gods all feltsorrowful at heart, and grieved among themselves with exclaiming (asfollows).

44. Ah alas! whither hath that earth disappeared, with all the bodiesof waters upon her; where are those multitudes of men fled from it, andwhere are the mountains swept away from its surface.

45. Alas for those forest of sandal, mandara and kadambawoods which had so ornamented the earth! and woe for the flowergardens, and the happy groves of Malaya mountains!

46. Where are those uplands of the lofty and gigantic snowy mountainsof Himálaya which appear now to be reduced to lurid clay, by ire of theredhot blood, of the bloody ghost of the carcass.

47. Even the gigantic Kalpa trees, that grew below the Kraunchamountains, in the continent of the Krauncha dwípa; and which had spreadits branches up to the Brahma-loka, are now reduced to dirt.

48. O thou lordly milky ocean! where art thou now, that hast producedthe moon and the goddess Laxmí from thy bosom; and that didst yield thepárijata flower and the celestial ambrosia of the gods of yore.

49. O thou ocean of cards! what has become of thee, that was full withthy waving forest of billows; which rose as high as[Pg 722] mountains, andbore about sweet butter with their foaming froth.

50. O thou mellifluous sea of honey, which was bordered by mountainsstudded by cocoa-nut trees; whose fruits afforded sweet liquor for thebeverage of goddesses, where hast thou and they fled at present.

51. O Krauncha dwípa! that didst abound in Kalpa arbour which wereinseparably clasped by the twining ivy of golden hue; say where art<thou> hid with thy towering Krauncha mountain.

52. O Puskara dwípa! where art thou now with thy limpid fountains,which were ever decked with beds of lotus bushes, sported upon by thesilvery swans of Brahmá?

53. O where are thy Kadamba groves gone, with their outstretchedbranches on all sides; and whose sheltered coverts were frequented byaerial nymphs, for their secluded amusem*nts.

54. O where is the Gomedha dwípa gone with its springs of sweetwaters, and the flowery gardens about its holy places? And where <are>those vales and dales, which were beautified by Kalpa trees and theirgolden creepers?

55. Ah! where is the Saka dwípa with its forests of heavenly and eververdant arbours, the very remembrance of whose fair spectacles, raisesin the minds the sense of holiness and the sensations of heavenly bliss.

56. Ah! where are those tender plants, which waved their leaves atthe gentle breeze; and where are those blooming flowers, which hadbrightened the scene all around.

57. The devastation of all these beauties of the landscape, fills ourmind with pity and grief; and we know not how much more piteous andpainful must it be to the majority of mankind.

58. Ah! when shall we see again, the sugar-cane field beside the sea ofsaccharine waters; and the hardened sugar candy on the dry lands about;when shall we see the sweetmeats made of molasses and confectionarydolls of sugar.

59. When shall we see again, sitting on our golden seats on Mount Meruthe merry dance of the beauteous Apsaras[Pg 723] daubed with sandal pastein their arbours of tála and tamála trees; and wafted by the coolingbreeze of Kadamba and Kalpa trees on sylvan mountains?

60. Ah! we remember the memorable Jambuvatí river, which flows with thesweet juice of jambu fruits, and passes through the Jambudwípa to itsboundary ocean (i.e. the Indian ocean in the south).

61. I oft remember said one, the giddy song and dance of celestialnymphs, in the thick and shady groves of sailendra-trees, and inthe coverts of mountains beside the heavenly stream; and it rends myheart like the lotus flower, as it opens its petals in the morning.

62. Another one said:—Look at this ocean of blood, sparkling like themelted gold on the top of the golden mountain of Meru; and brighteningthe beams of the rising and setting sun, or as the moon-beams spreadover the face of all sides of heaven.

63. Alas! we know not where the earth is gone, with all hercircumambient oceans about the continents; nor do we know where thathigh hill of Himálaya has fled, which was the resort of many rainyclouds, and yielded the lotus flowers on its summit.

64. We know neither where those rivers, forests and groves have gone,which decorated the earth before; and pity for the cities and villagesand their people, that are now to be seen no more.

Argument:—The corpse was eaten up by the ghosts, and its bloodsucked up by the goddess.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—After the corpse had been partly devouredby the demons, the gods who had been sitting on the polar mount, withVásava or Indra at their head spoke to one another in the followingmanner.

2. Lo! the voracious goblins have not yet wholly devoured the corpse;but flung its fat and flesh into the air to prove the paths of vehiclesof Vidyádharas; and these being wafted away and scattered about by thewinds, appear as huge masses of clouds overspreading the skies.

3. See them also throwing away the relics of their food and drink, overthe seven continents and oceans of the earth, and making it again toreappear to view (in the forms of its mud and waters).

4. Alas! that the once delightsome earth, is now polluted by the impurecarrion and blood; and covered under the garniture of its forests, asthe sky is over shadowed by clouds.

5. The big bones of its bulky body, form the mountains of this earth;and what is this high Himálaya, but the huge back bone of <the>gigantic skeleton.

6. Vasishtha said:—As the gods were speaking in this manner, thedemons were employed in the meantime to construct the earth anew withthe materials of the carcass, after which they flew in the air, andkept on dancing and flouncing there.

7. As the ghosts were disporting in their giddy dance in the air, thegod commanded the liquid portion of the dead body, to be collectedtogether in one great basin of the ocean the abodes of whales andsharks.

[Pg 725]

8. And as this ocean was from the pleasure (gaudium) of thegods, it is thenceforth styled the ocean of wine (or merriment of thedeities; in distinctions from the oceans of milk and other beverages).

9. The demons having done their dancing in the pandemonium in air, comedown to drink their full draughts of that Stygian pool; after whichthey repair to their aerial abysm to dance again.

10. The demoniac orgies are still wont, to indulge themselves indrinking of that bloody pool; and to dance in their airy circles, incompany with their co-partners. (It refers to strong drink and drunkensots).

11. And because the earth was besmeared, with the fat and flesh(medhas) of the corpse, it is thenceforward termed themediní or corpus. (The earth is said to have been formed ofthe flesh of the dead body of the demon Madhu, killed by Hari in thebeginning of creation).

12. At <the> last disappearance of the dead body of the demon, thereappeared again the succession of day and night; and the lord ofcreatures having formed all things anew, restored the earth to itsformer shape. (This is event of the war between the gods and titans ofyore).

Argument:—Explication of the story of the carcass, and theNarrative of Asura and others.

Bhása said:—Hear now, O lord of the earth, what I then said to thegod of fire, from my seat under the wing of his riding parrot, and theanswer which the god made to my query.

2. I said, O lord, of the sacrificial fire and sacrifice, deign toexplain unto me the mystery of the carcass, and the accompanying events(of the goddess and her demons).

3. The god <of> fire replied:—Attend, O prince, and I will tell youall of what has happened; and relate to you all about the carcass, asit is well known in all the three worlds (i.e. in the traditionsof all people).

4. Know there is an eternal formless and transcendent Intellect, in theform of the boundless and formless vacuity; wherein there are countlessworlds, subsisting as minute atoms in endless space.

5. This intellectual void, which contains all and every thing initself; happened of its own spontaneity, to be conscious of itscontents in course of time.

6. I conceived by its innate knowledge, the abstract idea of igneousparticles of in itself, just as you find yourself to be in the state oftravelling in your dream; by thinking yourself as such in the state ofyour waking. (One dreams whatever he thinks in himself).

7. It was thus that the Divine Intellect saw the particles of fire, asin the unconscious state of its dream; and as one sees the lotus dust(for any thing,) before him in his imagination.

8. Then as this Intellect reflected on the expansion of theseparticles, it became itself assimilated with them; and evolved[Pg 727] itselfin the thought in the shape of powers and organs of sense, in thoseparticles of its body.

9. It then beheld the sensible organs, as receptacles of theirparticular faculties; and saw the world with all its beings, appearingbefore it as in its dream; and as we see a city in our dreaming state.

10. There was one among the living by name of Asura, who became haughtyand proud of his dignity, he was vain and addicted to vanities, and hadno parents nor forefathers of his own.

11. Being elated with giddiness, he entered once into the holyhermitage of a sage, and destroyed and defiled the sacred asylum in hisrage.

12. The sage denounced his curse upon him and said “whereas thou hastdemolished my abode with thy gigantic figure, be thou now be born as acontemptible gnat, by thy immediate death under my curse.”

13. The burning fire created by the rage of the sage, burnt down theAsura to ashes, even at that moment and on the very spot, as the wildfire consumes the woods, and as the submarine fire dries up a channel.

14. Then the Asura became as air, without his form and its supportingbody; and his heart and mind became as insensible as in a swoon.

15. His sensibilities fled from him, and became mixed with the etherialair; and were hurled up and down thereabouts, by the course of theflying winds.

16. They existed in the form of the intelligent and airy soul, whichwas to be the living soul in connection with the body; composed ofparticles of the undivided elements, of earth, fire, water and air (orthe air in motion as distinguished from the vacuous air).

17. The quintessence of five elements being joined with a particle ofthe intellect, begets a motion of their own accord as the vacuity ofthe sky, produces the wind by its breath and of its own nature.

[Pg 728]

18. At last the particle of intellect, is awakened in the airy soul; asthe seed developes its germs in connection with the earth, water andair, and in course of time.

19. The understanding (or intellectual part) of the Asura, being fullyoccupied with the thought of the sage’s curse and that of its havingthe nature of a gnat; brooded over the reflection of the parts of itsbody, and became the very gnat in its shape.

20. This puny insect which is born by daylight in dirt, and is blownaway by the breath of wind, is the short-lived ephemeral of a day.

21. Ráma asked:—How can living animals be born from other sources(as dirt &c.), if they are but the creatures of our dream as you saidbefore? So please to tell me, whether they have really their birth; orbe anything otherwise.

22. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, all living beings from the greatBrahmá to the animalcule and vegetable below, have two kinds of birth;the one is that they are all full of Brahma, and the other that theyare the creatures of our errors.

23. The false but rooted knowledge of the previous existence of theworld, and of all creatures besides, leads to the belief of theregeneration of beings from the reminiscence of the past; and thiscalled the erroneous conceptions of births in the visible world.

24. The other is the viewing of the representation of Brahma, in allthings appearing to exist in this non-existent and unreal world; andthis called the pantheistic view of the world, and not as a productioneither by birth or creation of it.

25. Thus the gnat being produced by its delusive knowledge of theworld, and its continuance in the same state of blunder; did notallow it to see the one Brahma in all, but led to different views andattempts, as you shall hear just now.

26. It passed half a day of its lifetime in whistling its faint voice,among the humming gnats in the bushes of reeds and long grass; anddrank merrily their juice and dews, and sported and flew all about.

[Pg 729]

27. The next day it kept fluttering over a pool of mud and mire, incompany with its female copartner.

28. Being then tired with its swinging, it rested on a blade of grassin some place, where it was trodden over by the foot of a deer, whichkilled him on the spot, as it was by the fall of a rock upon him.

29. Now as it died by looking <at> the face of a deer, it was rebornin the shape and with the senses of the same (from its reminiscence ofthem).

30. The deer grazing in the forest, was killed by arrow of an archer;and as he saw the countenance of the huntsman in his dying moment, hecame to be born next in the same form.

31. The huntsman roaming in the forest, happened to enter into thehermitage of a hermit, by whom he was reclaimed from his wickedness,and awakened to the light of truth.

32. The muni said:—O erring man! why did you roam so long,afflicting the innocent deer with your arrows; why do <you> not ratherprotect them, and observe the law of universal benevolence in thistransitory world?

33. Life is but a breath of air, and overhung by the clouds ofcalamities, and is as frail as a drop of falling water; our enjoymentsare a series of clouds interspersed by fickle and flickeringlightnings; youth is fleeting and its pleasures are as the glidingwaters, and the body is as transient as a moment; therefore O mychild! attain thy felicity while in this world, and expect thynirvána-extinction at the end.

Argument:—The Hunter’s Inquiry into the means of salvation andthe sage’s instruction about them.

The Huntsman said:—Instruct me now, O sage, the way to my salvationfrom misery; and teach me the best mode of conduct, which may neitherbe too difficult nor too facile to practice.

2. The sage replied:—Now be submissive to me, and throw away your bowand arrows; and betaking yourself to taciturnity and conduct of sages,be free from trouble and remain herein.

3. Vasishtha related:—Being thus advised by the sage, the huntsmanthrew away his bow and arrows; and betaking himself to the conduct ofsages, remained still even without asking for food.

4. In course of a few days, his mind turned to the investigations ofsástras; as a full blown flower enters into the minds of men, by meansof its far smelling fragrance.

5. Once he asked his preceptor, O Ráma, to tell him, how and in whatmanner, outward objects come to be seen within us in our dream.

6. The sage said:—This very question, O my good fellow, had alsoarisen at first under my scrutiny; how these shadows of things beyondus, rise like the bodies of clouds in our sleeping hours in the sphereof our minds.

7. I then applied to my meditation, and practiced the closeness of myattention for my introspection into this matter; and steadily sat inmy padmásana posture of folded legs, and intensely intent uponinvestigation of this incident.

8. Sitting in this manner, I stretched my thought all about[Pg 731] and afar;and then retracted them, into the recess of my mind; as the rising sunstretches out his beams in the morning, and afterwards draws them backinto its disc in the evening.

9. I sent forth my breathings in quest of knowledge, and then calledto myself; and thus continued in exhaling and inhaling my breaths, asflowers let out and contract their fragrance by turns.

10. My breath being accompanied with my mind, was reposed in the airbefore me; and then it was with the air inhaled by the pupil sittingbefore me, and intromitted into his nostrils.

11. Thus my breath being mixed with his, was admitted into his heart;as a snake is drawn in by the breath of a bear, sitting with his wideopen mouth at the entrance of his hole.

12. Thus I entered into his heart, by means of my vehicle of my breath;and was put into difficulty of being confined therein, by my folly offollowing my breath in its passage into his breast.

13. I passed there amidst the arteries and aorta, and was ledthrough all the conduits and blood-vessels into all the nerves andveins, both large and small and inside and outside the body.

14. I was at last confined in the cage of the ribs on both sides ofthe body, and had the fleshy masses of the liver and spleen presentedbefore me. This was the painful habitation of my living soul, and thesewere as potfuls of meat set before it.

15. My intestines kept coiling within me with a hissing sound, and weresurrounded by a flood of red hot blood continually flowing and boiling,like the waves of the ocean heated under the hot sunshine.

16. I had fresh supplies of sweet scents, incessantly borne to mynostrils by the blowing breeze; and these tended to infuse both life tomy body, and sensibility to my soul.

17. But then I was tormented as in hell-fire, by the boiling blood,bile and phlegm; in my dark and dismal dungeon. (Which was moreoverinfected by the stink of dirt within).

[Pg 732]

18. It is the free and slow passage of the vital airs through thelungs, that regulates the circulation of blood in all parts ofthe body; and this determines the state of the bodily humours, aderangement of which tends to generation of future diseases.

19. The vital airs pushing against each other, burst forth in explosionwithin their cavities; while the culinary fire is burning as thesubmarine blaze, through the tubular stomach, resembling the hollowpipe of a lotus stalk.

20. The external air carries the particles of things, through the outerorgans of sense into the body; and these then enter into the mind,either in their gross or pure state, as thieves enter into a house atnight.

21. The chyle is carried with a chyme by the internal winds, to allparts of the body by the passage of the intestines; as the outer airbears the low and loud sounds of songs in all direction.

22. I then entered into his heart, which is difficult of access, andI passed therein with as much jostling, as a strong man makes his wayamidst a thickly crowded throng of men.

23. Soon afterwards I found the sight of some shining substance, ata distance from the heart (i.e. the culinary fire); as a manscorched by sun shine, finds the sight of cooling moon in the gloom ofnight.

24. It was the spiritual light, which reflected like a mirror all thistriple worlds in itself, and threw its rays upon all things therein; itwas the essence of whatever there is in existence; and the receptacleof all living souls.

25. The living soul or life, says the sruti pervades the wholebody, as the fragrance of a flower runs through all parts of it. Yet itis the heat of the heart in which it chiefly resides, as the perfume ofthe flower dwells in the pistils, after the blossom is expanded by thesolar heat.

26. I then crept unperceived into that heat, which was the cell of theliving soul; and was there preserved by the vital airs from extinction,as a burning lamp in a lantern, is preserved by its interior airs fromits being blown out or extinguished. (Because the light is put out in areceptacle).

[Pg 733]

27. I entered into that heat as fragrance passes into the air, or asthe hot wind pushes into the cold air, or as water rushes into a pot(i.e. I pass through several sheaths, to the seat of bliss).

28. I passed into the second sheath, which is as bright as moon lightand as clear as a spot of white cloud; and thence I ascend to thefair sheaths known by the names of the cells of butter, sweets andmilk-white water.

29. Being tired with my arduous passage through these sheaths, Ireturned and rested in the genial warmth of my breast, where I saw thefull view of the world, appearing as a dream before my sight.

30. It showed the images of the sun and moon, and the pictures of theseas and hills, with the shapes of gods and demigods and human forms;it presented also the sights of cities and countries, and the face ofthe sky on all sides around.

31. It exhibited also the oceans with their islands, and the course oftime and seasons and all moving and unmoving objects to my view.

32. This vision of my dream, continued steadfast and quite alike evenafter I was awake, wherefore I remained in the same state after mysleep as I had been when sleeping, because the view recurred to me inmy waking state, as it had occurred to me in my sleep. (i.e. Theworld is but a waking dream).

33. Now listen to me, O huntsman, what then I did. I said to myself,“what, is this a waking dream I see before me?” and as I was thinkingin this manner, I had this knowledge of it awakened in me.

34. Verily it is the representation of the Divine Intellect, and it isthe manifestation of the Deity himself; and all these objects under thedifferent names, are but manifestations of the Divine spirit in variousshapes in the world.

35. Wherever there is the substance of Intellect, there is the cosmicalimage of the Deity impressed upon it; in its empty vacuous form, whichit never forsakes (for aught of a gross nature).

36. Ah! it is now I perceive, said I to myself, that all these[Pg 734]appearances passing under the names of the world; are mererepresentations of the intellect, in the form of a passing dream.

37. It is a little expansion of the essence of the intellect, whichis termed a dream (or an imperfect view of things); and it is also agreater expansion and extension of the same, which is said to <be>waking; both being the display of the self-same intellectual essence.

38. A dream is said to be dream in the waking state, and not while onecontinues in his dreaming state, when it appears as waking; so ourwaking is but a dream, whence the two states of our waking and sleepingdream.

39. Even our death is a dream, which continues with our intellect evenafter our death; because the intellect which resides in the body, doesnot die even in a hundred deaths of the body; for who has ever heard ofthe death of the soul (which is same with intellect) of any body.

40. This Intellect is a void and vacuous substance, dwelling in andexpanding with the body; it is infinite and undivided, and remainsindivisible and indestructible, both with as well as without thedestructible body.

41. The vacuous particle of the intellect, which is indestructibleby its nature, and shines forth eternally and ad infinitum byitself; has the so called world for its pith and sap and ever attachedto itself.

42. The vacuum of the intellect, contains within its bosom, theminute particles of ideas; each of which represents a part of thegreat variety of objects, that compose its totality (“as parts of anundivided whole”).

43. The soul breaking off from its view of the visibles, rests in itsreceptacle of heart; and sees the various sights in its dream, whichare unfolded by the intellect before it.

44. Again the soul being inclined to the outer mind of sights, exposedbefore it by its own intellect; it comes to see the visions of theexternal objects, which pass under the phenomenal world.

45. The soul sees in itself and in the same state, the sights of allthings both within and without it; such as, this earth and[Pg 735] sky, thewinds and waters, the hills and cities, and all things spread on allsides.

46. As the solar disc which is situated in the heaven above, appearsalso in the waters below in full blaze; so the soul is situated both inthe inside and outside, in the form of the world, (or with the form ofimprest ideas in it).

47. Therefore knowing that it is the intellectual soul, that seesthe internal dream and the external world in itself; whoso abstainsfrom craving anything is surely blest (because he has every thing inhimself. Every soul or mind being full of the thoughts and sights ofall things in itself, can be no more in want of anything).

48. The soul is both inseverable and uninflammable (i.e. it canneither be cut asunder nor burnt away); and whoso says otherwise, hemust be betrayed by the delusion of duality, as a boy is decoyed by thedeceitful yaksha (hocus-pocus).

49. He who sees his inward soul, to view the world internally initself, is said to be dreaming in himself; and whoso finds his soullooking outwardly on the external world, is known to be waking.

50. Thinking so for regarding the dreaming and waking states, I wasinquisitive to know the state of sound sleep, and went on making myinquiries therein.

51. But I thought of what good is the sight of the visible to me?Better remain quiet in myself, because it is the thoughtless oblivion,and consciousness of self, <that> is true insouciance or the stupor orsusupti—somnum or hypnotism.

52. As the hair and nails of the body, are never thought of, thoughthey are well known to belong to and to be attached to it; so the mindis quite unconscious of all material and immaterial objects in nature,in its state of sound sleep when it rests in its self-consciousnessalone.

53. Tired with the rambles and sights of my waking and dreamingstates, I sought my quiet rest in the state of my thoughtlessself-consciousness; and this being the sole aim and end of sound sleep,there is no other meaning of the susupti hypnotism.

[Pg 736]

54. It is possible even in the waking state, to have this sound sleepof susupta hypnotism; by our determination of thinking of naught, savethat of sitting quiet in one and same state (of abstractedness).

55. The state of abstraction being arrived at, is termed susupti—soundsleep; but when the sleep is light (Vikshepa), it is calledswapnam—somnum or dream.

56. Having ascertained my torpor to the hypnotic susupti, I wasresolved to seek after the turíya or fourth state of supremebliss; and with this resolution, I set out in search of it with my bestintrospection and diligence.

57. I tried my utmost, but could get no indication of its true form andfeature: and found out at last, that it was not to be had without ourclearsightedness, as the sunlight is imperceptible to the dimsightedeye.

58. That is called clearsightedness, wherein our view of the world, asit appears unto us is utterly lost; and whereby we see in that light inwhich it exists in the Divine Mind.

59. Therefore the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, areall included under this fourth state; wherein the world is seen as itexists, in the light of a nihility.

60. This then is the turya or ultimate view of the world, thatit is produced by no cause and from nothing; but it is Brahma himselfthat exists in this state of tranquillity, from all eternity.

61. The impossibility of the pre-existent and primordial causes,precludes the possibility of the production of anything and of thecreation itself; it is the Intellection of the intellect only, thatgives rise to the conception of creation; as it is the nature of waterto assume its fluidity and exhibit its dilation.

Argument:—The joining of the two souls of the sage and his pupiltogether made them twain, and gave a two fold view of objects:but their union in unity made them one, and presented the one andsame view of things to both the united pair.

The ascetic sage continued:—I then thought of being united with hisconsciousness, and breathed out the breath of my life to be joined withhis, as the ripe mango sends forth its flavour, to mix with thefragrance of lotus flowers.

2. I did not forsake my vital heat (or energy), until I entered intohis intellect; and began with infusing my outward sensations, into theorgans of his external senses.

3. I then attracted my outward sensations, by the internal sensibilityof my heart, and mixed them with those of his, as a drop of oil ismixed with and diluted in water.

4. As my sensuousness was intermingled with his sensations, I becamesensible of a duplex feeling of all external objects, which appeared intheir reduplicated forms to my senses.

5. All things on all sides seemed to be doubled about me, and thereappeared two suns and two moons to be presented to my sight. So theheaven and earth appeared in their two fold forms before me.

6. As one face is seen as two in some glasses, so all thingspresented their double forms to the mirror of my eyes. And all thesebiplex shapes seemed to be as closely united together as the world(i.e. the body and mind).

7. And as the same intellect resides in the form of oil in two sesameseeds, so I saw the two worlds mixed up together with my intellectunited with his in his body.

8. And though my consciousness was united with his in the same body,yet it was not wholly assimilated with his (owing[Pg 738] to the difference ofour desires); but they view the world respectively, in the differentlights of milk and water (i.e. as appearing pleasant to the oneand painful to the other).

9. Yet as I looked awhile into his consciousness, and compared andmeasured it with mine; they were both found to be the same thing and ofthe self same essence. (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselvesin connection with others).

10. My consciousness was joined with his in the same manner, as oneseason joins with another (at its end); or as the confluence of tworivers runs together, and as the smoke mixes with the clouds, or thewind carries the fragrance of flowers with it.

11. This our consciousness being mixed up together, the double view ofthe world now became one; just as the erroneous sight of the two moonsin the sky, is soon changed to one upon aright its right view.

12. Then my power of discernment which was in his person, became finerand finer without wholly losing itself in his, and resided together inhis very body.

13. Afterwards the faculties of the mind which resided in his breast,were found to be directed to the observation of external objects; andto take delight in noticing the occurrences of the day (i.e. thepresent objects).

14. He being at rest from his weariness, after taking his meal anddrink; felt drowsy and inclined to sleep, as the lotus flower shuts itspetals at nightfall, after sucking the nectarious liquid of the lake.

15. He withdrew his mind from observing occurrences, that circulatedall about the busy scene of the external world; as the setting sunretrenches his rays from the face of the world, as he goes to take hisrest in the evening.

16. The functions of his senses receded into heart, and the operationsof his mind retired to his brain, and remained hidden therein, like themembers of a tortoise drawn inside its shell.

17. His eyelids were closed, as his heart had shut up; and he remainedas dead as a lifeless block or as a figure in painting or statuary.

[Pg 739]

18. I also followed the course of his mental faculties, and settledwith them in his mind, and my senses being under the direction of themind were reposed in the recess of his heart. (The sensations are saidto pass from their organs, and run through the veins and arteries tothe recess of the heart).

19. Then insensible of all outward perceptions, and their conceptionstoo in my mind; I remained with that heat (or spirit) in me, assleeping on a soft bed, and perceiving naught but a void all about me.(This is termed the blissful state of ánanda-maya—felicity).

20. And as the breathing of our vital breath, was neither obstructedin the aorta, nor passed with rapidity through the lungs, as itdoes in cases of excess in eating and drinking and fatigue, it passedevenly by its passage of the nostrils.

21. Then our souls remained with the supreme soul in the breast, andkept the course of the naturally ungovernable mind under subjection (ofthe blissful soul).

22. The soul is then employed in its consciousness of supreme blissin itself, and takes no notice of the actions of others; and the bodyalso then rests in perfect blissfulness, in that state of sound sleep.(Sound sleep of hybernation or hypnotism is the perfect rest of thebody and soul, when undisturbed by dreams).

23. Ráma asked:—Say sir, what does the mind do now in its subjectionunder the vital breath, which was the cause of its operations in thewaking state? The mind has no form also beside the breath, how thendoes it subsist without the same.

24. Vasishtha replied:—Even so, there is neither the body beside itsbeing the notion of one’s self; it is the imagination of the mindalone that makes the body, just as the dream causes the appearanceof a mountain and other things. (There is no existence of the mindindependent of the vital air of breathing. Gloss).

25. So there is not the mind also in absence of its idea or thought ofsomething; as there is no production of the visible world, for want ofits causes at the beginning of creation.[Pg 740] (Therefore the phenomenalworld is only the effect of our previous reminiscence. Gloss).

26. Therefore all these are forms of Brahma, as he is the soulof all; and the world itself is not otherwise than the image ofGod. (Hypothesis of theological Pantheism, that all things aremanifestations of God).

27. The mind and body are both Brahma, to them that know the truth;though they are otherwise to our knowledge of them, than what they arein theirs. (The common knowledge of them, is that of Soulism).

28. The manner in which the triple world is Brahma, and how he is thesoul of all these varieties; is as you, O intelligent prince, shall nowhear me to relate unto you.

29. There exists for ever the only pure Intellect (or Intelligence),which is of the form of infinite vacuum; and it is that alone whichshows itself always in all forms, without being either the world itselfor its visible appearance. (The formless God exhibits all forms).

30. The Lord being omniscient, took upon him the form of hypostasisof the mind, without forsaking his nature of pure intelligence, andexemption from disease and decay (which the material body is subjectto).

31. Then as the Lord thought upon the movement of his mind, he assumedthe substantivity of the vital breath upon himself; and know, O Ráma,that best knowest the knowable, that these are but modalities of theselfsame being of God.

32. Now as this inflation of the air, appears to be a model form ofthe Divine essence; so the sensations and bodily perceptions, and theentities of space and time, are but various modifications of the samebeing.

33. Thus the whole world is entirely the formation of the Divine Mind,and as this mind is the very intellect of the supreme Brahma; so thetotality of creation is only the expansion of the mind of Brahmahimself.

34. The formless Brahma who is without his beginning and end, who hasno reflexion of himself, and is free from disease and decay, is thequiet intellect and the only quiescent Ens of[Pg 741] Brahma, that wasthe whole universe for its body. (Whose body nature is, and God thesoul. Pope).

35. The supreme being <is> omnipotent, and so the mind also retains itspotency every where, though it remains as empty air.

36. The volitive mind is Brahma, which immediately produces in itself,whatever it wills at any time; and the reproduction of every thing inthe mind, is a truth too well known even to boys.

37. Now behold, O Ráma the almighty power of the mind, which at firstmade itself (or became) a living being by its breathing; and then anintelligent being, by its power of thinking; and next became the livingsoul, with its body; it made the three worlds, and became the primemale in the form of Brahmá; it became embodied from its aerial form,in the shape of Virát; thus it created every thing in itself of itsown will, as men produce all things in their imagination, and see thecities of their fancy in dream.

Argument:—Predominance of the mind over the vital breath, andthe view of final Dissolution in Dream.

Vasishtha related:—Whatever the mind wills, regarding the creation ofthe world, the same immediately appears before it; whether it be theproduction of the non-existent to view, or annihilation of existingones, or the representation of one as the other—pratibháshika.

2. [Now in an answer to Ráma’s question, “how does the mind subsist orhave its action or thought without being moved by the vital breath”,he says that] whenever the mind fancies itself as the vital breath,and can neither subsist nor do any thing without its being actuatedby the air of respiration; it is then said to be subject to vitality(i.e. to exist with the breath of a living being and no more).

3. It thinks it cannot live long without the association of respiration(as in the state of transient and breathless dream) but must comeback to its life and living action (of thinking) with the return ofbreathing. (The thinking power of the mind is suspended with thebreathing, in the states of dreaming and wondrous sight seeing).

4. Again as the mind fancies itself to be accompanied with the vitalbreath in some living body; it finds itself instantly joined with same,and beholds the world rising as an enchanted city to view.

5. The mind thinks of the convenience of its union with the vitalbreath and body; and with this persuasion it is pleased to remain forever as a triplicate being, combined with its intellectuality, vitalityand corporeality.

6. Know now that the uncertainty of knowledge, which, keeps themind in suspense, is the cause of great woe to mankind;[Pg 743] and thatthere is no way of getting rid of it except of the true knowledge oftattwajnána.

7. He who has the knowledge of the distinction of his self and another(i.e. of the ego and nonego—the subjective and objective asdifferent from another); can have no redress from his error, save bymeans of his spiritual knowledge of the only spirit.

8. There is no way to true knowledge, except by means of theinvestigations of liberation; therefore be employed with all vigilanceto inquire into the means of liberation.

9. Verily the very conceptions of ego and alias I and anotherare erroneous, and proceed from utter ignorance; and there is no othermeans to remove them, except by means of liberation. (The knowledge ofego and tu is the bondage of the soul: and the want ofegoism and tuism, leads it to its liberation from all).

10. Hence any thought which is habitual to the mind, comes to be firmlyimpressed upon it in time; and hence the idea that the vital breathis one’s life and all, makes his mind dependent upon the breath.(i.e. As the thought of one’s being this or that, makes him assuch; so the firm belief of the mind as breath, makes it subject to thesame).

11. So also when the body is in a healthful state with its vitality,the mind is dependent on it and has its free play; but being in illhealth, it feels its life embittered and forgets to know itself in itstrue nature.

12. When the respiration is quick in discharging the duties of thebody, and the mind is engaged in its busy thoughts, then neither ofthem <is> capable of meditation, unless they are repressed in thebreast.

13. These two the mind and respiration, stand in relation of the carand driver to one another, and what living being is there, that is notdriven along by them in their train?

14. It was in this manner that the supreme spirit, hath ordained themind and vital breath, in the very beginning of creation; and thereforethis law of their co-operation, continues unaltered to this day.

15. Hence the mind and vital airs are acting in concert in[Pg 744] all livingbodies, and conducting them at all times in all places in their statedcourse or action all along (except those of yogis who have repressedthem under their subjection).

16. The co-equal course of both, serves to the regular conduct of thefunctions of life (as in the waking state); but their unequal course,produces dissimilar effects (as that of dreaming when the mind alone isactive); and the inactivity of both causes the inertness of the body andsoul (as in the state of sound sleep).

17. When the intestines are blocked by the chyle of food taken intothem, and the breathing becomes dull and slow; the mind also becomescalm and quiet, and then ensues the blissful state of sound sleep.

18. When the stomach is filled with food, and the lungs are languidwith weariness, the breathing then remains without its inflation, andbrings on <a> state of sweet and sound sleep of susupti orhypnotism.

19. Again when the intestinal parts are cool and phlegmatic, orexhausted by effusion of blood owing to some sore or wound, and thebreathing being stopped in the body, there comes the state of numbnessof sleep.

20. The ascetic said:—Then I had entered into his heart, it became alldark to me as night; and he fell into a sound sleep, from his satietywith the fulness of his food.

21. I was there assimilated into one with his mind, and lay in deepsleep with himself without any effort of my own.

22. Then as the passage of his lungs was re-opened, after digestionof the food in his stomach; his breathings resumed their naturalvibration, and he began to breathe out slowly and softly in hisslumbering state.

23. After the sound sleep had become light and airy, I beheld the sunnyworld arising out of my breast, and appearing manifest before me in mydream.

24. This world seemed to rise out of the troubled ocean, and to befilled with water (seas) upon its surface; it was released from thedarkness of diluvian clouds, which had enveloped it, like the mistsoverhanging on oceans.

[Pg 745]

25. There was a hurricane blowing over it, bearing aloft the rocksand stones, in its whirling and uproarious course; and carrying awayuprooted arbours, with the furze and grassy turfs along with them.

26. It was carrying away and casting all about, the fragments andremains of the last conflagration of desolation; and hurling down thedetachments of celestial cities from high.

27. Then as I was looking at a certain place, I found my self situatedwith my consort in one of the abodes of a splendid city rising at thatspot.

28. And there as I was sitting in company with my consort and children,and attended by my friends and servants, and supplies with dishes andcups of food and drink, I was all on a sudden carried away by the wavesof the deluging waters.

29. The flood swept me away together with the edifice and the city,wherein we were situated; and we were floating on the tops ofmountainous waves, and buffeting in the water.

30. There arose a loud dashing noise louder than the roaring sea; I wasstunned by the stridor, and was insensible of the fates of my family.

31. Men were driven away and hurled down into the whirling eddies, andwere buried deep into the dreadful mud, with their wailings and loudcries, with the beating of their breasts.

32. The houses and huts were breaking and cracking, their beams andposts were splitting, the pillars and supports were bursting, and theroofs and coverings were falling down, while the females were lookingout with their faces fixed at the windows. (i.e. Women staredfrom within the doors and windows and dared not to stir without).

33. As I was looking awhile at all this, being affected at the sight;and was weeping sorrowfully at the event, I saw the whole edificefalling down on the ground.

34. The walls on the four sides broke down, and buried the old andyoung and female inmates under them; and these were borne away by thewaves at last, as the impetuous waterfall carries away the shatteredand scattered stones to a hundred different ways.

[Pg 746]

35. I was then blown away into the waters of the deluge, leaving behindme my family and friend; and accompanying only my mind and vital breathwith me.

36. I was tossed about by the waves, and borne away to the distance ofleagues after leagues; and was thrown upon the floating woods, whichroasted me by their inburning wildfire.

37. I was dashed against the floating planks and timbers, and slashedin many parts of my body, then falling into a whirlpool I was hurledinto the abyss of pátála.

38. Being thus tossed all about, and hurled up and down, I had been fora long time, buffeting amidst the waves and waters, and their gurgling,roaring and rumbling sounds.

39. I was then buried under the mud, caused by the friction of thedrowned mountains against one another; and was again lifted upward likean elephant, by the influx of a flood of water.

40. As I was halting on a hill covered with foam and froth; immediatelyI was run over by a rush of water, as a man is overtaken by his enemy.

41. Being then ingulfed in the water, and carried away by the waves andcurrent wheresoever they pleased, I lost the sight of whatever I wasseeing, and was greatly dejected in my mind.

42. At this moment there, I had come to know by my reminiscence, that<a> certain muni will lecture to the public, the Vasishtha’saddress of Ráma hereafter.

43. I remembered my former state of holy trance (samádhi) andexclaimed; O, had I been an ascetic in another world.

44. I have entered into the body of another person, in order to see thesights in his dreaming; and all that I am now seeing (of this floodand others), is no more than a dream, and mere error of the mind andfalsehood.

45. It is from our habitual bias in the present scene, that I believedthese falsehoods as true in me; and though I was troubled to see myselfto be borne away by the flood in my[Pg 747] dream; yet I feel myself happy atpresent to find, it was but the unreality of a dream.

46. What I saw as water, was the whirling eddy in the ocean of theuniversal deluge, and as false as the water of mirage; and the hillsand woods, and the cities and towns, that were swept away by the flood,were as false as any visual deception.

47. There were the gods and aerials, men and women, and huge snakesalso borne away by the flood; and the great cities and mansions ofthe rulers of men (i.e. royal edifices), all floating upon thewaters.

48. I saw the mountain merged in and mixed up with the waters, andbeing battered and shattered by the waves; I saw the approachingdissolution of the world, and thus considered within myself.

49. There is even the god Siva with his three eyes, swimming upon andswept away as a straw by the waves: O fie for shame! that there isnothing impossible for the fates.

50. Fragments of houses floating upon the waters, looked like lotusflowers flaunting under the sun-beams.

51. It was astonishing to see the bodies of Gandharvas, Kinnaras,and of men and Nágas, floating on the waters, like swarms of beesfluttering over lotus-beds in the lake.

52. The fragments of the splendid edifices of the gods and demigods andothers, decorated with the ornamental works of the vidyádharas, werefloating like golden vessels on the wide expanse of the ocean.

53. The god Indra was floating on the glassy water, as if he were lyingin his crystal palace; he mounted over the waves, as if he rode on hiselephant; and was swinging on the surges as upon his cradle.

54. The waves rising to the sky, were washing the faces of the stars,and the winds were scattering them all about; as they drop down theflowers of the garden of Eden on the mansions of the gods, and as menstrew the ground with fried rice.

55. Waves as high as mountains rose to the sky, and then their breakersflying aloft like stones flung by ballistas, fell[Pg 748] upon the lotus seatof Brahmá, and turned it about with the god also, who was sitting uponit in his deep meditation.

56. The clouds were roaring aloud with deep and appalling thunder,and the billows were flashing like frightful lightnings in theair; elephants, horses, and ferocious lions were wandering in theatmosphere, and forests as large as the earth, were floating in the sky.

57. The dark blue waves of over-flowing waters, pushed with suchviolent force against one another; as if the god of destruction waspropelling them one after another to the act, of utter annihilation (oras the powers of destruction were propelling one another).

58. The waves were carrying down into the deep, the gods, men, andNágas, together with their abodes in heaven, earth and the regionsbelow.

59. The irresistible flood having flooded over all sides, of earth,heaven and the infernal region, the bodies of the gods and demigods,were all floating together like shoals of fishes; and their heavenlycars and vehicles were swimming over on the surface of the waters, asin the field of battle.

60. The body of dark blue waters, resembled the azure form of Krishna;and their foaming froths, likened the milk white calves about him. (Thetext is utterly meaningless).

61. The waves pushed one another, with the burber sound fordrowning every thing; and the females both of the gods and giants wereheard to wail aloud with cries of hola and howling. (Hola is theexclamation of wailing, corresponding with waílá in Persian).

62. The loud cries raised by all, at the falling down of their houses,were resounded by the waters on all sides; and the clouds roving overthe rolling waves, appeared as the covers of fallen and floating domes.

63. Ah it was piteous to behold, how the whirling waters of whirlpools,hurled down even the gods into the deep; and how Indra, Yama, andKubera, breathed out their last breaths in the form of flying andflimsy clouds.

64. There the learned and saintly persons, were carried[Pg 749] away with theignorant, in the shape of dead bodies and devoid of their pride; andthe cities of the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, and Indra, were swept away, allbroken and crushed to pieces.

65. The bodies of weak women, were washed and carried over by thewaves, and there was no body left to save them from the grasp of death;which devoured them altogether under his horrid jaws.

66. The floods which flowed at first with their serpentine course intothe caves of mountains, overflooded them to their tops at last; and thecities of the gods, which floated at first as boats upon the waters onmountain tops, were hurled to the bottom at last.

67. The gods and giants and all other beings, together with theirresidences in heaven, and the continents and mountains on earth, wereall submerged and shattered like lotus-beds by the waters; and thethree worlds were turned to an universal ocean and all their grandeurand splendour were swallowed up by time, together with all the sovranpowers of earth and heaven.

Argument:—The sage’s situation at the end of the Deluge, and hisdescription of the reproduction of creation.

The Huntsman said:—Tell me sir, how a sage as yourself, could beexposed to that state (of the dream or delusion of the Deluge); and whywere you not delivered from your meditation.

2. The sage replied:—At the end of the Kalpa age, all kinds of beingsmeet with their destruction; namely, there is a termination of theerroneous forms of the worlds, and a cessation of the luminous bodiesin the heaven.

3. Sometimes the dissolution takes place gradually at the end ofa kalpa; and at others it comes on all on a sudden, with asimultaneous turmoil and disorganization on all sides.

4. So when there was an outbreak of waters on every side, and the godswere repairing to Brahmá the first cause of all; for redress from theimpending danger, they were all swept away by the overflowing tide.

5. Moreover, O forester! know time to be the most mighty destroyerof all things; and every thing must occur in its time, as it ispredestined at the beginning. (Time devours all things).

6. The time of one’s dissolution being nigh, there ensues a detrimentin the strength, intellect and prowess of everybody not excepting eventhe great. (Nothing is of any avail before fate).

7. I have told you also, O fortunate forester! that all that is seenin a dream is mere dreaming; and nothing of it, comes to take place inreality herein.

8. The forester responded:—Sir, if the dream is a mere falsity anderror of imagination; then what was the good of your[Pg 751] relating allthis, that know well what is good and useful for mankind.

9. The sage replied:—There was much use of my relating all this toyou, O intelligent huntsman, for improvement of your understanding; andas you have come to know, that the visibles are all as false as thesights in sleep, you shall now know what is real and true.

10. Now as long as the waters of deluge lasted, I remained seated inthe heart of the said medium, and saw some other false sights in hisdream.

11. I saw the waters of the deluge, to recede to the unknown regionfrom where they had overflown; and the huge waves disappearedaltogether, as when the winged mountains fled away for fear of thethunders of Indra. (Who lopped of their pinions of yore. See the legendin stanza—Book I. Kumára sambhava of Kálidása).

12. I was borne aloft by my good fate to some distant shore, where Iwas seated as firmly as upon the elevated peak of a high and solidmountain.

13. Thence I saw the waters to subside in their basins, and the starsof heaven shining upon them, like the sparkling particles of theirsplashing billows, or as their foaming and floating froths.

14. The reflexions of the stars in water, seemed as the shining gemsin the bosom of the ocean; and the stars that shone above in thefirmament, appeared as the nightly flaming bushes on the tops ofmountains. (There are the medicinal plants that are said to burn bynight. Vide Kumára Sambhava Stanza—Book I.).

15. The firmament studded with lustrous stars, and had the appearanceof an island beaming with gold; and the azure sky seemed wrapt overwith the blue garments of celestial dames.

16. The blue diluvian clouds that floated in the sky, resembled a bedof cerulean lotuses in the etherial lake; and the lightnings thatflashed in their bosoms, likened the yellow farina of flowers, flyingall about the midway sky.

[Pg 752]

17. Masses of mountain-like clouds flushed with frost, and poured downshowers of rain on all sides; the floods of the deluge rolled down withtheir reflexions, as bearing the huge Kalpa forests in their bosom.

18. Afterwards the basin of the universal ocean was dried up, andturned to an empty and dry hollow on all around; and the mountain ofthe Mandara and Sahya hills, that had been drowned under the waterswere found to be melted down to mud or washed away by the recedingflood.

19. Here the sun and moon were found to be sunk in the slough, andthere the gods Yama and Indra to be hid under the soil; somewhere theserpents and takshakas were rolling in the mire, and elsewherethe Kalpa woods lay buried with their tops and branches underneath themud.

20. In some places the heads and hands of people were scattered overthe ground, and looked like lotus buds and flowers torn from theirstalks and strewn about the bare and barren land.

21. There were the Vidyádhara females drowned up to their necks in theslime, and crying in their piteous chimes in one place; and there werethe big bodied buffaloes of Yama lying in another, and resembling thehuge bodies of dead elephants appearing in dream. (The buffalo of Yamais no less bulky than the Airávata elephant of Indra).

22. In some place the bulky body of Garuda, bulged out like the hugemountain of the gods; and in others the embankments were swept away; asif they were slashed by the mace of Yama fallen upon the ground.

23. There were the remains of the dead hansa of Brahmá, muddledin the mire somewhere, and the relics of Indra’s elephant were huddledin the mud in another place.

24. In the meanwhile I found a flat land in one spot, where I resortedfor rest from my weariness; and was there overtaken by sound sleep,that insensibility stole upon me.

25. Then waking from my sound sleep, I found myself seated in the heartof the hunter; and retaining the possession[Pg 753] of my sensibility, I wasled by my innate desire to see the similar sights of desolation asbefore.

26. I beheld upon my waking, the said flat land to lie in the veryheart of the hunter where I was situated; and was seized with greatergrief and sorrow at my sight of the spectacle. (The reproduction of theworld being but the renovation of our woe, and happy are they who workno more to the sight).

27. I saw therefrom the rising of the bright and beautiful sun on thenext day; and by means of the solar light, I came to the sight ofthe worlds and the sky, of this earth and its hills, which presentedthemselves to my view.

28. But I soon found that, the earth and sky, the air and allits sides, together with the hills and rivers, were all but thereproduction of my mind (from its previous ideas of them); as theleaves shoot forth from the trees. (Because the insensible stones, haveno perception of the visibles).

29. Then on seeing the things, as they were exposed to my sight onthe earth; I began to manage with them in a manner as I had somewhatforgotten their right and proper use. (Reminiscence of the past beingoften liable to obliteration).

30. After my birth I passed sixteen years at that spot, and had theknowledge of this person as my father, and that one as my mother,and this spot as my dwelling place, and all this knowledge risingspontaneously from my self-cogitation.

31. I then saw a village and the hermitage of a Bráhman at that place;and there I beheld a house and found a friend therein, and many moreother places.

32. Thus I remained in the society of my friends, in the village hutsand hamlets; and passed many days and nights, in the states of repeatedwatchfulness and returning sleep.

33. Remaining thus in company with these, I came to lose in course oftime the light of the understanding I had attained before, and forgotmyself as one of them by my habitual mode of thinking, as the manforgot himself to a fish (as it is related before in the story of Dama,Vyála and Kata).

34. In this manner, I remained as a village Bráhman (or[Pg 754] parish-person)for a long time; relying only in my body as begotten by a Bráhman, andquite forgetful of other.

35. I believed my material body only to constitute my person, and mywife alone as my copartner; I understood my desires only to be theessence of my soul, and thought that riches only were the sole objectof gain in life.

36. I had an old cow only for my treasure, and the greens of mygarden as my only provision; my collections were only the sacred fireand sacrificial animals, and my utensil an only water pot. (Kinesconstituted the wealth of the ancient Indians, as the pecus orsheep were reckoned as riches by the old Latins; hence godhanameans kine money, as pancha godhanam—the value of five cowscorresponding with the penta pecuniae of the Romans).

37. My hopes were as frail as perennial plants, and my conduct the samewith that of other men; and the state of my living was as mean, as ofthe mud and mire about my dwelling.

38. I passed my days in pruning and weeding the garden of my greens;and in performing my daily ablutions, in the rills and rivuletsreckoned as holy by men.

39. I was employed in providing my food and drink, and in procuring thefuel and cow-dung for fire; and remained entangled in the snare, ofscrutinizing about what was right or wrong for daily observance.

40. In this way a whole century of my life time, passed away at thatplace, when it happened on a time that a holy hermit passed by that wayfrom a great distance, and became my guest in my humble abode.

41. Being welcomed and honoured by me, he entered in my dwelling, andtook his rest after washing and bathing himself. Then after his meal hesat on his bed, and began to tell his fate at the approach of night.

42. He spoke of many climes and countries, and of many lands andmountains; and talked of their different customs and manners, whichwere pleasant to hear, and related to various subjects.

43. All these, he said, are the display of the One Intellect,[Pg 755] which isinfinite and immutable in its nature; and manifests itself in the formof cosmos, which is for ever present with it as it is now seen to be.

44. Being thus enlightened by him, I was filled as it were with a floodof light, and remained listening to him with attention, all whatever hesaid on this and other subjects.

45. I heard also my own tale from him, and learning that the personwhich contained me within its womb, is no less than the body of Viráthimself, I was eager to come out of the same.

46. So long as I was not aware, that its mouth is the only door way formy exit of that body; I kept moving through it, as if I were wanderingamidst the vast extent of the earth and oceans.

47. I then left that spot, beset as it was by my friends and relations;and entered into his vital part, in order to make my egress with thevital breath.

48. Intending then to see both the inside and outside of the Viráta’sbody, in which I resided, I continued to mark well the process of itsouter movements as also of its inner thoughts.

49. I fixed my attention to my consciousness, and remained settled atmy station without changing its spot; and then breathed out with hisbreath, as the fragrance of flowers accompanies the wind.

50. The rising with his respiration, I reached the cavity of his mouth;and mounting afterwards on the vehicle of the wind, I went on forward,and beheld all that lay before me.

51. I observed there the hermitage of a sage, situated in the grotto ofa mountain at a distance; and found it full with anchorites, and myselfsitting in my padmásana among them. (He saw the sight to whichhe was habituated all along his life).

52. These anchorites stood before me as my pupils, and wereemployed in their duty of taking care of my person in its state ofanaesthesia.

53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I hadbeen residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back,after taking some food which he got in the adjacent village.

[Pg 756]

54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thingabout it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body formy own amusem*nt.

55. I got to <the> region of vitality which was situated within theheart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before,and I left behind.

56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approachingwith its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, togetherwith the positions of the world.

57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state,the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed <to> bedislocated from its place.

58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor markthe situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where itlay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could Iknow where they were taken.

59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting asight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anewto view.

60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shiningall at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting downthe high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water.

61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire ofconflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched withall the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of themsave in the memory of men.

62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning emberson all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes allaway.

63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forthin flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universeflushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the eveningsky.

64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into aflame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving[Pg 757] bee is closedup in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched andunscathed by the burning flame.

65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered asthe flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered overthe burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus ofthe lands (sthala padma).

Argument:—Continuation of the subject of fire and flame, and hotwinds and fiery clouds at the final Dooms-day Dissolution.

The sage continued:—Though repeatedly burning amidst those fires, yetI was neither consumed nor felt the least pain therein; and thoughfalling from one fire into another; yet I thought all this as a dreamin my dreaming (i.e. one dream in another).

2. The fires flew aloft, and filled the vault of heaven with flames;and I was flying as a fire-brand amidst and all about it. (So thesinless soul soars in the highest empyrean of heaven).

3. As I was wandering with my spiritual light and unwearied soul amidstthis universal conflagration, there arose on a sudden a tremendoushurricane (raised by the rarefied air on all sides).

4. It howled and growled aloud like the roaring of clouds on high; andblew fiercely all along, bearing down and carrying away every thingbefore it.

5. The whirling and howling tornado, raged with redoubled force in theforest; lifting aloft large tracts of woods in the form of clouds, andintermixed with rolling firebrands, resembling the revolving suns above.

6. Flames of fire flashed above, like the evening clouds of heaven, andblazed like hundreds of fiery pools on high; and the earth with thehabitation of men, giants and gods, burned as burning mountains on allsides.

7. The burnt, unburnt and half burnt devils and demons, were rovingtogether throughout the heated air, and grappling each other in theetherial streams.

8. The gods and goddesses, were falling down as flames of[Pg 759] fire; andthe abode of the celestials, were melted down in showers of fire.

9. Flashes of fire were flickering as lightnings, from the burningvault of heaven; and clouds of dark smoke hid the face of the verticalsky in darkness.

10. The faces of the earth and sky and of all sides of heaven, werewrapt in a flaming veil like that of the evening cloud; and the wholeuniverse with its seven spheres, appeared as a massive mountain offlaming fire.

11. On one side the sparks of flaming fire, were flashing overthe head; and on another a huge mountainous mist of smoke hid thehemisphere from sight. In the midst there appeared a mountainous bodyof fire as that of Hara—the god of destruction, dancing amidst thedestructive winds of the Rudras blowing on all sides.

Argument:—Here God is ascertained as the Cause of the visionaryworld; and Refutation of the Theory of Karma or Human Deeds andDestiny.

The sage resumed and said:—Continuing thus in the vagaries of my falseimagination, I was led to many such painful sights, until they raisedin me the feelings of woe and sorrow, and my curiosity gave way toweariness.

2. I then thought in my mind that it is a mere dream in the mind ofanother person, which I have come to see from my seat within hisbreast; therefore I must refrain from such sights, and restrain mysorrow for them in vain.

3. The Huntsman asked:—It was for the investigation of the nature ofdream, that you had entered into the bosom of another person; say thenwhat have you come to know about it, and how are your doubts removed(with respect to its false phantasms).

4. How came you to see the ocean in the breast, which never existstherein, and how did you see the conflagration in the heart and thetornado in the bowels, which are never to be found in any of thoseplaces.

5. You said you saw the earth and sky, and the rivers and mountains andmany other things in the mind; but how can these and the world itself,be in any manner situated therein.

6. The sage replied:—All these things and the world also are merenon-entities, as there was no pre-existent material cause for theproduction of the world, before its coming to existence; thereforeneither the term creation nor its sense, is in any way applicable tothis world or it is seen by us. (It is therefore but the mere phantasmof an everlasting dream).

7. Hence the world creation and its meaning, proceed from ignorance ofthe supreme soul, which is immutable in its nature; and it is ignoranceof this truth (lit. true knowledge), that[Pg 761] produces the fallacy (lit.the false knowledge) of creation. (Therefore the world (i.e. theidea of the world), is ever present in the Divine mind).

8. Therefore I say, O thou fortunate one, that after you come to yourknowledge in this respect (i.e. of the nature of God), and yourignorance of His supremely pure nature is removed:—

9. You will no more believe like myself, the false impression ofyour consciousness (of the existence of the world); but must come toknow that, this causeless and uncreated world, is only the expandedreflexion of your own mind.

10. Where is the body and the heart, and where are these elementsof water &c.; what is this dream and what are these conceptions andperceptions, and what is life or death or anything else? (All which arenothing in reality).

11. There is but one transpicuous Intellect everywhere, before whichthe subtile ether is opalescent, and the biggest mountain is but a mite.

12. It is of its own nature that this intellectual vacuity, reflects onsomething in its thought; and sees the same as its aeriform body; andthis it is what is called the world.

13. As it is our intellect alone, which reflects itself in variousforms in our dream; and as there is nothing besides it that thenpresents itself to our view, so this world is no other than the aerialform of the intellect only.

14. This universe is a quiet vacuity without any stir or shadow ofanything in it; and it is the dimness of the purblind eye of theintellect, that presents these false shapes to sight, as blind men seeblack spots in the clear sky.

15. To my sight the world is neither an entity nor a non-entity, nor isit a mere void or the shadow or reflexion of anything; but the formlessinfinity of the vacuous intellect only: (or the infinite vacuity of theformless intellect only).

16. As it is in the state of our sleep, that the pure intellect seesitself in the various forms of its dream, without any cause whatsoever;so doth it view every thing in its own vacuum in[Pg 762] waking also; withoutthe external objects of sight or its act of seeing them.

17. It is something that is unspeakable and without its beginning andend; it is apparent with its own conceptions which are one with it andmake no duality in its nature (Lit., whose nature is free from unity orduality, or as Sádi says:—azchunin O chunan, from this & thatand so & such).

18. As there is but one endless duration, embracing the periods bothof creation as well as annihilation; and as the tree comprehends allits parts, blossoms and fruit under it; so is Brahma the Soul of all.(These are but parts of one stupendous whole. Pope).

19. As the great edifice of one, appears as an empty space to another;so as one’s sight of a castle in a mirage, appears as nothing toanother; so this visible world of waking people, is the dream ofsleeping persons, and rising on the ground of their imagination.

20. It is as the transpicuous vacuity of the intellect, exhibits itselffrom time to time in itself; that we see the things in our dream, aswe behold them when we are awake; and so also we see the sights in ourwaking state, as we behold them in our dreams in sleep.

21. As the fragrance of flowers, lies hid in the invisible air; so theworld lies concealed in the invisible intellect, which sees throughevery pore of it.

22. It is by shutting out your thoughts of all and everything from yourmind, that thou mayst <be> quite pure in thyself; and it is then onlythat thy infinite soul has its everlasting peace and rest, when it isfreed from all cares, both within and without itself.

23. The Huntsman said:—Tell me sir, how can men get rid of theirthoughts and cares of life, when they <are> invariably accompanied bythe acts and reminiscences of their past lives. Tell me also what kindof men are subject to the tendencies of their past conduct, and who arethey that are released from them.

[Pg 763]

24. The sage replied:—Those souls that are full of intelligence andhave their spiritual bodies, are never subject to renewed births norto the consequences of their past actions; and such were the bodiesof Brahmá, and Kapila and others, that became manifest of themselves(suam-bhávah), and such were the supernatural bodies of the gods anddivine incarnations.

25. Their bodies were not of this world, nor were they subject toits dualistic illusory imaginations; but they were forms of pureintelligence and of a subtile and spiritual nature.

26. In the beginning of creation, there was no primordial act of anybody, to fashion his form or frame of mind; but there existed the soleand self-existent Brahma only, who manifested himself in the form ofthe world (which is therefore a manifestation of the Deity himself, andis thence called tanmaya or full of the Divine essence).

27. As the great Brahmá and others, were the manifestations of thesupreme Brahma in the beginning, so there have been many thousands morethat were manifested from the same divine essence, which are known aspure intelligences, and superior orders of beings. (Such are the godsand angels and spirits of different denominations).

28. But these persons who are deluded by their ignorance of truth,to think themselves other than or apart from Brahma, and as dull andunintellectual beings, and as a distinct duality from the nature ofGod:—

29. They are seen to be born again the next time, in consequence oftheir past actions, and accompanied with the results of those acts,whereby they are confined in their unintellectual bodies, in order tolead their unspiritual lives, quite forgetful of their divine nature,and subjected to the false belief of their materiality.

30. But such as preserve the purity of their divine character, bythinking themselves as inseparable from the Divine soul, are known hereas uncontaminated by their former acts, as the persons of the divineBrahmá, Vishnu and Siva or the holy trinity.

[Pg 764]

31. All those that know the true nature of the soul, remain with itspurity in the spirit of God; but such as understand it in the light ofthe living spirit, live in themselves as detached from the Divine soul.

32. Whenever one knows himself as a mere living being, he is thencertainly accompanied by his ignorance or avidyá; and the soul takesthe name of the animal spirit or life, which is conversant only withthe world wherein it is situated.

33. But as he comes to know in course of time, the true and divinenature of his soul, he is then reinstated in his real state and becomesone with the supreme soul of all.

34. As the fluidity of water exhibits itself in the form of whirlpoolsin some waters; so the divine intellect shows the in-existent world asexistent, to those understandings which are ignorant of the nature ofthe supreme soul. (It is the nature of the omniscient mind, to picturein itself, the appearances of things that are not in actual existence).

35. The world is the reflexion of omniscience, and not therepresentation of our dreaming or waking states; therefore it can haveno action or property of itself, when it is nothing in reality.

36. In fact neither the knowledge of the world nor ignorance of it, orits action or motion or any of its properties, is anything in reality;all these are the results of our thought, that represents the unreal asreal one unto us.

37. In truth Brahma being the very creation or the great cosmos itself,is verily the soul of all beings; it is in vain therefore to supposeour prior acts as cause of our births. That God is the creator of theuniverse, is a mere assumption made from his omnipotence (which issupposed to make everything out of nothing; but as ex nihilo nihilfit, God is himself diffused throughout all nature).

38. It is impossible for any body to have the bindings of his prioracts upon him, at his first creation in the world; it was onlyafterwards through his ignorance that he fabricated to himself afate or causality of his actions for his fruitions in afterlives[Pg 765](i.e. in his subsequent and succeeding births or transmigrationsin the world).

39. Say whether the vortex of sea has any body or action of its own; itis but the whirling water, as Brahma himself is apparent in the form ofthis seeming world.

40. As the persons appearing in our dream have no prior acts for theirappearance; so were the living beings in their first formation, enduedwith pure understanding only (for want of their prior acts to actuatethem at first).

41. It is a mere supposition, that they had their causal acts at firstcreation; and that all living beings have been roving ever since (inrepeated births), being fast bound by the chain of their prior acts.(Man was pure in his creation, but since his first act of transgressionor original sin, and then his actual sins, have subjected him to themiserable doom of undergoing repeated births).

42. But this creation is no act of creation, but verily themanifestations of Brahma himself; and such being the case (that theworld is the selfsame Brahma), say what can acts mean, whence theyproceed and where they lie.

43. It is only the ignorance of the supreme soul, which binds us to thebondage of acts; but its fetters fall off from the believer of Brahmaby his knowledge of truth. (Those who rely on their acts of faith,are subjected to them; but the believer in One is released from theirbonds).

44. Know the outward acts of faith, to proceed from ignorance of theuniverse; but as the wise man advances in his knowledge, he extricateshimself from the bondage of all religions and ceremonial acts andobservances.

45. Whereas the external acts of faith <are> entirely devoid of anysubstantiality or meritoriousness in them, it is no way difficult toget <rid> of them at once; it is solely our spiritual bond which is ourchief concern, beside which there is no bond whatsoever.

46. So long there is the dread of the dreadful illusion of this world,as long as you do not attain to your wisdom; and so long[Pg 766] do youexhibit your wisdom, that you do not fall into the vertiginous eddy ofworldly affairs. Therefore try always, ye men of pure hearts and soul,to acquire your wisdom and learning; because there is no other way ofyour flying from the fears of the world, save by means of your rightunderstanding.

Argument:—Praise of wisdom and Intellectual knowledge, andarguments in support of the Intellectuality of the world.

The sage continued:—The wise man shines in the assembly of thelearned, as the sun illumines the assemblage of lotuses, in hisinvestigation of the duties of religion and ceremonial acts, leading tothe welfare of men in both worlds.

2. The heavenly felicity which is attained by the learned and wise bymeans of their spiritual knowledge, is as an ocean of bliss; beforewhich the prosperity of god Indra even, appears to dwindle away asrotten straws amidst the billows.

3. I find no such felicity or prosperity, in the three regions of thisearth or heaven above or in the pátála below, which is greater orcomparable with the blissfulness of learning and wisdom.

4. The learned have as clear a sight of the true state of all things,as the moon-light gives a clear view of the sphere of stars in thecloudless sky.

5. The visible world, soon vanishes from sight, and turns to theinvisible Brahma, by the sapience of the wise; as a rosary of cord,appearing at first as a snake, is soon found to be a line upon itsinspection.

6. That Brahmá—the god is ever situated in his Brahma-hood or godheadis a truth evident by itself; and that it is his nature that gives riseto the terms creation, destruction, body and others. (Gloss: that thewords creation &c., appertain to his very nature, and are not distinctfrom him).

7. He to whom the existence of the world is nil and naught, hasno care or concern for acts and duties, which are no more than blankletters to him.

8. It is possible to believe in the production of the material[Pg 768] world,from the prior existence of its material cause; but in want of suchthere can be no world, nor can there be a cause of it, when it isitself null and void.

9. It is only the reflection of Brahma, that takes the names of theearth and all other things; wherefore it is not necessary for thesemere reflexions to have any cause at all. (The substance of God, beingthe cause of the shadow).

10. As the men seen in a dream, have no real cause except theimagination of the dreamer; such are the persons seen in our wakingdreams, but mere reflexions of our imaginations, and not the productionof their parents.

11. As there is not the causality of the prior acts, for the appearanceof persons in human forms in our dream; so neither is there any actualcause for people seen in waking dream, to assume the garb of humanityupon them.

12. Both prior acts as well as desires, are equally false in theircausality, of framing living beings in different shapes in theirrepeated births, just as they are no causes of producing the personsseen in our dreams.

13. Men appear as dreams and their impressions, in the course of theirbirths and deaths; and they are conscious of this state or that as theythink themselves either as the one or the other (i.e. we seem tobe or not, as we think ourselves to be).

14. People appear to be as they think of their being, from theirconsciousness of themselves; and they seem to be in the same state intheir dream, as they appear in the waking state, both in their intentsand actions. (The dreamer and the dreamt do not differ from theirwaking states).

15. The desires and sensations of the dreaming man, are alike those ofthe waking, and differing only in the dimness of the former, from thedistinctness of the latter. Thus a dreaming man is sensible of derivingthe same satisfaction, in obtaining the object of his wish as thewaking man; though the one is of a concealed and the other of an overtnature. (Therefore there is no difference between the states).

16. Whenever our pure consciousness of things, shines forth[Pg 769] of its ownnature in either of its two states of clearness or faintness; it isthen the reflexion of the one <that> takes the appellation of waking,and the other is known as the dreaming state.

17. As long as this consciousness continues to glare in any body, sincehis first creation until his final emancipation, he is said to be aliving being, under his repeated births and deaths.

18. The import of the words waking and dreaming, is not at alldifferent from that of consciousness; whose irrepressible reflexionconstitutes the essence of both states, as light is the essentiality ofluminaries.

19. As heat is the gist of fire, and motion the marrow of thesufflated air or wind; or as the fluidity of water is the pith of thebillows, and coolness the quiddity of breeze (so is consciousness thequintessence of both our waking and dreaming states).

20. The whole universe is an unruffled chasm, and an unchangingunreality; and this seeming reality of the world, is even united withits negative sense of nihility.

21. Brahma in its exoteric sense, is both the production as well as thedestruction of the world, and equally alike its visible form and itsnotion also; but being viewed in its esoteric light, it <is> only ofthe nature of the pure Intellect, and the One alone, that is for evercalm and quiet and undecaying in itself.

22. Whatever thought of causality or effect, passes in the mind ofBrahma at any time, the same comes to take place immediately, as menconstruct their houses as they please in cities.

23. The whole creation abides in the mind of God, as the city you dreamof is in your thought; the cause and effect herein, being the same inone case as in the other.

24. The causality and effectuality are both contained in the womb ofthe dense Intellect; and these are exerted in the same manner in theact of creation of the world, as in that of the construction of thyimaginary castle.

25. The Divine Intellect employs its will, in the causation of itsintended creation; as you form the plan for the construction of yourprojected edifice: Thus the causality and its effect are combinedtogether in the one and same mind.

[Pg 770]

26. The divine mind develops itself in its own form of the sky, and theworld that is for ever situated therein, is then called the creationand lying in the expanse of that sky. (Gloss. The srutis deny theexistence of the outer and visible world).

27. The light which the sun of our consciousness, cast upon theimaginary city in the mind; is of its own nature what is signified bythe terms causality and its effect. (i.e. Our consciousness isthe cause of our knowledge of the world—the false creation of ourimagination).

28. The forms in which the mind displayed itself at first, thesame continue to exist ever since in the same state; and these areinvariably designated by the terms of time, space and the rest.

29. Whatever names are borne by the things, which are exhibited in thevacuity of the Intellect; they are ever after viewed as realities underthe designations of some as causes and others as their effect (as thecow is the cause of the production of milk, and the pot is the cause ofits reception, and so forth).

30. The creation which was miraculously displayed in its ideal form inthe Intellect, consisted at first of mere ideas, which received thename of the (material) world afterwards. (So the sruti: whatever isthought of in the mind at first, receives a name (or a word) for itsdesignation afterwards).

31. This triple world is of a vacuous form, and is situated inthe vacuity of the intellect; just as the clear air contains itsinsufflation inbred in it. (The inherence of vibration inborn in it).

32. As the vapours and clouds covering the face of the sky, givethe appearance of blueness to it; so the dizziness of ignorance,misrepresents the clear intellect in the form of the gross world.

33. But on receiving the true reflexion of the spirit in the intellect,by means of intense meditation, the notion of the creation turns tothat of non-creation; as the false notion of the snake in the rope, ischanged to that of the rope upon its revision.

[Pg 771]

34. The dead find the future world, as what they used to see in theirdream; but that world as well as this, are equally as formless as thevacuum of the Intellect. (Both this world and the next, are situated inthe Divine-Mind, and are of the same form as that).

35. The Huntsman said:—Tell me sir, why are men regenerated in newbodies; for their sufferings and enjoyments in future births; andtell me also what are the principal and accompanying causes of ourreproduction in this world.

36. If it is on account of the pious or impious acts, which are donein our present destructible bodies, that we are destined to theirretributions afterwards; then say why our indestructible souls, shouldbe brought to feel their results in other bodies, which seems to bevery absurd to me.

37. The sage replied:—The words piety and impiety, our desires andacts, are words of the same import, and significant of their causalityin framing the living soul according to their own stamp; but these aremere suppositions, and neither true causes of the schesis of our souls,nor of the modes of our lives.

38. It is the mind which is situated in the vacuous intellect, andis possest of the power of intellection that imagines in itself thevarious states of things (and the happiness and miseries of life),and gives names to them accordingly. (So says the sruti:—The sapientseeing the different form and states of things, coin words to designatethem and their various modes also).

39. The conscious soul comes to know by means of its intellection, itsown body in its vacuous self; and after death it sees the same to existas in its dream or imagination (i.e. in its ideal form).

40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewisein the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soulcontinues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.

41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or thecreator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it,then can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and howcan this body be what the dead[Pg 772] person had before, and as for hisintellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body intoanother.

42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be rebornafterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was soand am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again<in>some form or other.

43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men areimpressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasionand scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which isaltogether false and fanciful.

44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to thephantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spaciousvacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitionsin this world.

45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, whichis spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoyeverything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing.

46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantlyrising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomenain its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove tobe the display of One all pervading Brahma only.

47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them everexist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreadsundivided through all, and knows all these <to be> an undivided whole,and yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is fulland perfect in each and all of these).

48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another ina common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realitiesto the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light,they proved to be self-same with the unborn One.

49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knowerof the knowable (i.e. to him who knows the truth), and what isunderstood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is[Pg 773] believed to be trueby the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both).

50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because theyare all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcilethese opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universalcatholicism (of One, to pan).

51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is realor unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely onits verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothingcan upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness).

52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute itsdictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference oridentity of things, or their unity or duality.

53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to usis right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with hisknowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identicwith the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge.(i.e. God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God).

54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One isnot distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finiteunderstanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, thathave no knowledge of the knowable One.

55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge ofhim; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledgeincreases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls.

56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real onesbefore the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight.

57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the oneintellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousandshapes to the understanding of gross instincts.

58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as itexhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into[Pg 774] one, or thesingle form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soulappear in one or more forms to our intellects also.

59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appearsin various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; andare either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of ourimagination.

60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of ourminds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of themind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its pralayaor anaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them.

61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions ofthe mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought inany manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself inreality before us even then and there.

62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in theforms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and inthe beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner ofdreams and the phantoms of its imagination.

63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preservedin the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together ofthemselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view itin our presence.

64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as wellas permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, butcontinues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as ourtransient lives also.

65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain orgo; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards theeast or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can neverlose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as youproceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, isnever effaced from it).

66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced todo or think upon is never effaced from consciousness,[Pg 775] unless it befrom numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss torealize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them toeffect).

67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, andyou will find your consciousness to continue <the> same, and neverchanging with the change of your place. (So doth one’s consciousnessaccompany him even after his death).

68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the objector state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrarythe unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (i.e. his wishedfor object together with the consciousness of himself).

69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both stateswhether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady inhimself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and hisobject). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connectionswith others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what itwills).

70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heavenand earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body isplaced in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east andwest, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But theman of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walksone way or the other (but stands in the middle).

71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alonepervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many andmany thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.

72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, orindestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divineintellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dreamof the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (Theindestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because thedestruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).

73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is[Pg 776] evidentfrom the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, thatare invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their pastlives.

74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burntdown to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and deliveringtheir errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.

75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like theliving as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they notreckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (Thisargument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability ofthe reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return ofabsent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the deadat the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).

76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it notbe equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception ofthe idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.

77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being theestablished and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quitecompatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintainedin Indian philosophy.

78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view,as the sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, whichappears as realities to the eyes of beholders, without having anysubstantiality in them (The lunar spots are considered as meremarks—kalankas though to all appearance they seem as habitableparts—chandra-loka).

79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as partsof the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its beingcomposed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only,and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.

80. All these are immutable and quiet, and lie quiescent in the vacuityof the Divine Intellect; they are irremovable[Pg 777] and unconspicuous ofthemselves, and lie immanent in the Divine soul.

81. It is the steady consciousness, that is conscious of whatever isfixed upon at any time or place; and represents all things whether realor unreal, that is inbred or inherent in it.

82. Let our bodies rise or fall, and our destinies overtake us as theywill; let happiness or misery befall on us as they are decreed, theycannot affect the serenity of the indifferent soul.

83. Hence it is of no matter unto us, whether these are realities orotherwise, or whether it may be so and so or not; avoid your desire forany thing, and be wise and at rest after all your wanderings.

Argument:—The Intellect manifested in the World, which is but amanifestation of the Divine—mind and its Omnipotence.

The sage continued:—The visible world is being a something in nothingan entity based upon non-entity (i.e. a substance based upon theintellect), resembles our consciousness of things seen in our dreamonly. And as all things are eternally situated in the Divine Mind,there can be no meaning in our being bound to or liberated from them.

2. These worlds that appear to rove before us, are seen as the mitesflying about in the solar rays (or as the bright circlets seeming toswim before our closed eyes); they are but evanescent phantoms in theair, and appearing as stable bodies in the minds of the ignorant.

3. Whatever is seen to be placed before us in any form or state, issoon found to change its mode and manner before us; so likewise is thechangeful state of all things herein, that are continually rotatinglike the waters in a whirlpool.

4. The earth, air, water &c., are the materials that combine to formfrail bodies, that are doomed to decay and dissolve in a short time;and yet they are computed by the ignorant to last for ages—as yugas &kalpas. (Everything is changing and nothing lasting).

5. The world is a dream, and the totality of existence a mere nihility;and yet the notion of entity that we <have> of this nullity, is noother than a reflexion of the one Eternal Intellect.

6. Like this solar world of ours, there are hundreds and thousandothers to be seen in the skies; nor is it incredible that others havethe like notions of other peoples.

7. We see the seas and lakes, teeming with living beings of variouskinds, and find the pools and bogs full of frogs everywhere;[Pg 779] butnone of them know anything about the other reservoirs, nor of theirinhabitants neither beside those of their own.

8. As a hundred men sleeping in one and the same room; see as many airbuilt castles differing from another in their dream; so there appeardifferent worlds in the airy intellects of some, which are seen andunknown to others.

9. As many aerial cities are seen, in the dreams of many men, sleepingtogether in the same room; so do these aerial worlds appear in emptysphere of our minds, and are said to be in being and not being in thesame time (i.e. being but a dream which is no-being or nothing).

10. The sky is a miracle of the mind, and a phenomenon of itself;it is visible without its form, and appears as limited without itslimitation, and as created without its creation. (vacuity beingincreate).

11. The vacuum bearing the nature of the vacuous mind, is vainly styledthe firm firmament; it presents to view the forms of fleeting objectsin it, as the understanding represents its ideas and passing thoughtsto our knowledge.

12. The remembrance of a thing, is the cause of its dream by night, asthe desire of something causes its conception in the mind; and as theapprehension of one’s death, proceeds from his seeing in the instancesof others.

13. In the beginning of creation, the world appears as an image inthe mind; which is no other than a flash or reflexion of the DivineIntellect, and to which no other name than a réchauffé of theDivine Intellect, can be properly assigned.

14. The saying that Brahma shines as the very world means to say that,he did not shine anew in the form of the world, but has this formeternally subsisting in his omniscience.

15. It is said that the cause is (identic with) the effect, becausethe common cause of all, is specialized in its form of the effect(i.e. the one becomes as many). The action which was confined inthe cause at first (as vegetation in the seed), becomes evolved in thegerm of creation afterwards.

[Pg 780]

16. When such things (or conditions) occur in the mind in dreams, ashave not been seen or known before, they are called sanskáras orpristine impressions in the mind (as our inward-passions and feelings),and not the external objects of sense, which are not inbred in the mind.

17. These mental impressions or reminiscences, are perceptible to us inour dreaming and not in the waking state; and though they are unseen inour waking; yet they are not lost unto us so long as we retain thoseimpressions in the mind. They naturally appear in the soul in dreaming,as the visibles appear to sight in the waking state.

18. Thus the vedántist comes to know the inexistence of the outerworld, and by knowing the knowable One, they come to attain theconsummation of their object (which is the attainment of their finalemancipation or moksha).

19. The impressions of the waking state, which occur in the stateof dreaming, are the newly made imprints of the waking hours on thememory; and these make the sleeping hours seem as waking to thedreaming soul.

20. These recent ideas fluctuate in the mind, as by the breath of thewind, and they occur and recur of themselves, without the agency ofpristine impressions.

21. There is one sole Intellect only, possessed of its many multitudesof airy dreams; and being dispossessed of them at last, it remainssolely by and in itself.

22. The consciousness that we have of the dreams, ranging at large inthe empty sphere of our Intellect, is verily what is denominated theworld by us; and the want of this consciousness in our sound sleep,is what is termed the extinction of world by ourselves. This analogyapplies also to the nature of the self-existed One.

23. There exists only the infinite sphere of one eternal Intellect, andthere appears an infinity of shapes, perpetually rising and setting inits open in the manner of dreams. These are born of its own nature andare called the world, and bear the same intellectual form with itself.

24. Thus the atomic particle of the Intellect, contains the[Pg 781] form ofthe whole cosmos within its bosom; which is an exact ectype of itsarchetype, as the shadow under a mirror, is the true representation ofthe prototype.

25. The cavity of the Intellect contains the consciousness which isdiffused in it like the dilution of an atom; and extends throughoutwithout beginning and end, and this is called the cosmos.

26. Hence as far as the vacuity of the Intellect extends to allinfinity, there is the appearance of the wide world connected with it,as immanent in and identic with itself at all times. (The intimateconnection of the subjective mind and objective world together).

27. The intellect is selfsame with the world, and therefore all mindsand intellectual beings as myself and thyself, are worlds or microcosmalso; and it <is> for this reason that the great macrocosm of theworld, is said to be comprised in the corpuscle of the mind.

28. Therefore I who am a minute soul, am of the form of the wholeworld also (being its container in the mind); hence I abide everywherelikewise, even in the midst of an atom also.

29. Being in the form of the minutiae of the intellect, I amalso as great as the universal soul, and as expanded as the open airall around; I also see all the three worlds about one, wherever I abideor move. (All things are present in the mind, at all places and times).

30. I am an atom of the intellectual soul, and am joined with theintellectual soul of the universe; it is my sight of the supreme spiritin my meditation, that I am lost in it as a drop of water is lost inthe ocean.

31. Having entered into the Divine spirit, and feeling its influence inme, I am filled with its cognition; and behold the three worlds withinme, as the seed lies hid in the pericarp or in the seed vessel (to bedeveloped in its future foliage).

32. I see the triple world expanding within myself (according to ourreminiscence of the same which is engraven in the mind), beside whichthere is no outer world on the outside[Pg 782] of any body. (The world lies inthe conception of mind only, and the exterior one is but a reflexion ofthe same).

33. Whenever the world appears in any form, whether of a gross orsubtile nature, as in the states of our waking or dreaming; both theseforms of the interior or exterior worlds, are to be known as thereflexion of the ideal one imprinted in the intellect.

34. When the living soul indulges itself in the sight of the world,in the state of its dreaming; it is to be known as a reflexion of theexpanded particle of the intellect, which the sleeping soul delights todote upon.

35. The Huntsman rejoined:—If the visible world is causeless orwithout its maker, then how could it come into existence, and if it bea caused or created exterior world, how could we have any knowledge ofit in the sleeping and dreaming of the soul.

36. The sage replied:—All this is without a cause, and the worldproceeded at first without any causality whatever. (The Muni meansto say that there cannot be any independent or instrumental cause ofcreation save the emanation of One oneself).

37. It is verily impossible for gross and perishable bodies andtransient beings, to come to being without a cause; but that which isa facsimile or shadow only of the antitype and original model of theeternal mind, cannot possibly have any cause at all.

38. It is Brahma himself that thus shines refulgent, by nature of hisintellectual effulgence; hence the world’s creation and destruction areutterly inapplicable to what is without its beginning and end.

39. Thus the uncaused creation, abides in the substance of the greatGod, and shines forth with divine glory to all infinity. It is togross minds only, which are prepossessed with the grosser ideas ofmateriality, that it appears in the form of a gross material body.

40. What numberless varieties do there appear in the unvaried Brahma,and what un-numbered diversities of shapes and[Pg 783] forms are seen in theformless One, that is ever unchanged and imperishable.

41. Brahma is formless in his person (which is of a spiritual form);yet he exhibits himself in many forms, in his being the mind (or mirrorof all ideal forms); where he represents his spiritual self or soul, inall the various forms of moving and immovable bodies.

42. He makes the gods, sages and seers in his likeness, and directsthem to their different degrees and duties also; he stablishes the lawsand prohibitions of conduct, and appoints the acts and observances atall times and places.

43. All existences and privations, productions and destructions, ofmoving or unmoving bodies, whether great or small ones, are subject tohis decree, and can never transgress any of his general laws.

44. Ever since the general decree, nothing takes place without itsproper special cause; as you can never expect to exude oil from sand(save from oily seeds).

45. The destined decree of providence, is the leader of all eventsin the world; it is as one part of the body of Brahma, by which herepresses the other part of himself (i.e. his will); as werestrain the action of one hand by the other. (One over-ruling fategoverns even Jove himself).

46. This unavoidable destiny overtakes us, against our prudence andwill, like the sudden fall of a fruit on a flying crow (काकतालीय)and drives us along with its course, as the tide or eddybears down the waters with it.

47. The preordination of certain effects from certain causes, iswhat is called destiny; without which there result all disorder anddisturbance, and in want of which the great Brahma even cannot abide.It is therefore the imperishable soul of all existence.

48. Thus then this destiny is the cause of all, and although it isunseen and unknown, yet it acts on all as it is destined for them eversince their very production. (This is no more than the unchangeable lawof nature).

49. The uncausing Brahma that causes nothing, is believed[Pg 784] by theignorant as the causal agent of creation; which they mistake as theproduction of its maker by error of their judgment.

50. The wise man however, seeing the sudden appearance of worldbefore him, like the rotation of a wheel, considers its causes assuch and such or this and that, as they have been determined by theirpreordained destiny.

51. So all existent bodies have their special causes, in theirprimordial destiny, which determines their subsequent lots in endlesssuccession. Hence the occurrences, of our waking state, resembling thevisions in our dream, are never without their antecedent causes.

52. Thus when I dreamt the erroneous dream of the destruction of theworld, caused by concussion of the elements and waters I had its causeinbred in me, in my reminiscence of the great deluge I had heard of intraditional narration.

53. In this manner we see the reflexions of almighty power in allthings that come under own reflection (or observation), just as wesee the crystals and shell-fishes shining with their intrinsicalbrightness. May this Omnipotent power that is ever-living soul ofsouls, and known to us in our imperfect notion of him, be glorified forever and ever.

Argument:—The three Humours of Human body Composing the threestates of its earthly existence.

The sage continued:—The living soul (or man) perceives the dream ofthe outer world, by means of the external organs of sense; and that ofthe inner world by the internal senses; but the quickness of both theinternal and external senses, gives the sensations of both these worldsto the soul.

2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward objects, thenthe perceptions of mental objects and inner functions become faint andfainter by degrees.

3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside, and theinner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the object of thoughtand the idea of the world however minute they had been before, assumegradually a more expanded form, and present their extended appearancesto the soul. (Brooding upon a thought, dilates it the more).

4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being oncethought upon as something however small in its idea, dilates itself toan enormous size in the mind, which cast at last its reflexion on theexternal organs of sense also, and make it appear so big and vast tosight.

5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied with outerobjects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form of the exteriorworld only (so the external senses carry their impressions to the mindalso).

6. The intellectual and aeriform soul, is composed of the congeriesof all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing, touch orfeeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the four internalsensations of will or volition.

7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place,[Pg 786]accompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airyintellect is to be ever unobstructed, because it always knows and seesevery where.

8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills the veins andarteries of the living person; the soul is then lulled to sleep and tosee false visions in its dream.

9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the moonlightsky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled with full blownlotuses and their blooming buds.

10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season,and mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled sky, andresounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of humming humblebees.

11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and themerry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound; and views itscourt-yard filled with provisions of food and drink (to its heart’scontent).

12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens, runningsportfully to join the distant sea; girt with the swimming flowersand smiling with their flashy foams; and darting about their fickleglances, in flitting motion of the shrimps, fluttering on the surfaceof the water.

13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits ofthe Himálayan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the frigidclimes); and having their white washed walls, appearing as if they werevarnished with moon-beams.

14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy season, or ashid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the showering clouds ofthe rainy weather, and views the ground below overgrown with herbaceousplants, and the muddy marshes grown over with blue lotuses.

15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers, and resortedto by droves of deer and the weary traveller; that halted under thecooling umbrage of the thickening foliage of the forest, and weresoothed by soft breezes of the sylvan spot.

[Pg 787]

16. The flowery arbour had all its alleys and arcades, bestrewnover with the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson dusts ofKunda, Kadamba and Mandara blossoms, were blushingand mantling the scenery all around.

17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and the groundwore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands were clear ofclouds, and the firmament was clear and cold under the autumnal sky.

18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of Kunda,Kadamba and Kadalí or plantain trees, which waved theirleafy fans on their exalted heads, which appeared to nod at the dancingof the leaflets.

19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with the unblownbuds and blossoms upon them; appeared as young damsels dancinggracefully, with strings of pearls on their slender persons.

20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as brightlyas the blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also the fanningwhite chouries and waving over them, like the feathered tribe,flapping their wings over the floral lake (or lotus beds).

21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful mood,with curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their currents; andmurmuring along with mixed music of birds on the spray beside them.

22. The dhará—terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dhára ortorrents of water falling from the adharas or cataracts, ofdharádharas or mountains; and all the sides of heaven wereobscured by the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its vault.

23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with the fluid ofbile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor as an atom inits cell, and then sees the dreams of the following nature in itself.

24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red kinsuka flowersupon its withered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also theforms of red lotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.

[Pg 788]

25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric juice, aswhen the limpid streams turn to dry sand banks; and there appear flamesof wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the darkened face of nature.

26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of the sunseems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in forests, thewithered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas, instead of theirlimpid waters.

27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning to bedsof hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry winds, and theforests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared quite desolateall about.

28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a flight ofstorks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise than before, andthe former verdure of the trees, are no more coming to sight.

29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning sand ofthe parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant tree by theway side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade over the parched ground.

30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all its landsand places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of dust covering theface of the sky on all sides.

31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its planetarybodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and forests and theopen air, all which seem to be burning in a blaze.

32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons, thatserve to favour the fires instead of quenching them; and beholds thelands below covered with grass and leafy creepers, which entrap them asvestures of clouds.

33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the watersof the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all tepid and hot.

34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of the gastricjuice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and the soul retainingits vigour, sees various dreams of the following description.

[Pg 789]

35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees the earthand the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in dream, quitedifferent from what they appeared before.

36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the hills andhilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as that of thewhirling of the wheels of a chariot.

37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a camel or eagleor on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot drawn by ganders orswans.

38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing beforeit; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the water.

39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some greatdanger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill.

40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination of allthe three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence; then the soul is ledby the windy humour to see several dreams of the following nature.

41. It sees rainfalls flowing down the mountains, and hailstoneshurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting of thehills and edifices, and sees the trees to be moving about.

42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon; which isover cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants and lions.

43. The palm and támala trees, appear to be burning around; and thehollow caves and caverns, to resound with the harsh noise of theflashing fire and falling trees.

44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing against oneanother, and the caverns resounding to their hoarse and harsh crackling.

45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other, and emita harsh and hideous noise about them; and the streams running amidstthem, appear as wearing necklaces with the loosened creepers and busheswhich they bore away.

46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the[Pg 790] mountainstreams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which they carried down,seemed to spread as far as the utmost pole.

47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their denticulatededges, and crashed and split themselves with their harsh and hideoussounds.

48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around by thestrong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain made their bed overthe moss below.

49. The tall tála trees fell to the ground with marmarasound, like the wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all birdsflew with a harsh scream, like the crying of men at the last day ofdesolation of the world.

50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one mass, likejaríkrita jíva in dream.

51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth, and frogunderneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed within the fruit.

52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and thesapling within the wall of a pillar.

53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are blamed, as ifthey are encased within the hollow of the earth.

54. Deep darkness reigned there, and susupti appeared like deepdark well within the cavern of a mountain.

55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the body, andafterward by a separate juice a new energy comes within, so the vitalair which once disappeared, makes its appearance again.

56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within the body inthe shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall therein.

57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so thecombination of triple humours, composes the inward and outward essenceof the body.

58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds of the body,and led by force of the triple humours (phlegm etc.); sees (by means ofits internal senses), the dreams of the absent[Pg 791] world, as it beholdsthe visions of the visible phenomena, with its external organs of sense.

59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the senses, bythe greater or less irritation of the humours, that the mind is liableto view its internal vision, in a greater or less degree; but theaction of the humours being equable, the tenor of the mind runs in aneven course.

60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours (from the effectsof intoxication, mantras or poison and the like), looks abroad over thewide world, and sees the earth and sky and the mountains to be turninground; and flames of fire issuing from burning piles.

61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the risingmoon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees and hills, andfloods of water washing the face of heaven.

62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters, orrambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places, and findsitself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of hoary clouds.

63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky, and seesthe false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing and crushing ofsinful bodies.

64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel, and risinginstantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of people, and thinksitself as diving in the waters upon the land.

65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere atnight, the sun shining then as in the day time; and a thick darknessoverspreading the face of the day.

66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the land is seento be full of holes and ditches; rows of edifices are seen in the air,and amity is found to be combined with enmity (friends turning to foesand vice versa).

67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are takenfor friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land, and flats andplanes appear as caves and caverns.

[Pg 792]

68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and crystal gems,and resonant with the melody of birds; and limpid lakes are seen toglide below, with their water as sweet as butter.

69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses adorned withfemales, appearing as lotuses fraught with bees.

70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in itself;yet perceives all these sights without, as if it were awake to them.(Thus the derangement of the humours, causes these errors of sensationof perceiving what is not present to the senses).

71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to representmany such sights of external objects, in the forms of dream to theminds of people.

72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see manyextraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and withoutthem (i.e. in their dreaming and outward sight also).

73. When the internal organs are equable in their action, then thecourse of nature and the conduct of people, appear in the usual state.

74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the positionsof woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear and unperturbedstate, as they are known to exist, agreeably to the natural order ofthings; such as cool and clear streams, shady forests, and countriesand paths traversed by passengers.

75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of the sun andmoon, and the rays of the starry array; and all other appearances,however unreal in their nature, appear as wonders to the sight andother senses.

76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind, asvacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal as real,and the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as separate andextrinsic or derived from without, is the essential property of itsnature.

[Pg 793]

77. It is the calm and quiet spirit of Brahma, that gives rise toall things which are equally calm and quiet also; the world is merevacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous mind thatrepresents endless varieties of such forms in the sphere of its ownvacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous person.

Argument:—Relation of sleep after dream, and followed by dreamlikewise, concluding with proof of the unity of God.

The Huntsman said:—Tell me, O great sage, what did you do and seeafterwards, from your seat in the erroneous spirit of that person.

2. The sage replied:—Hear me tell you next, what I did and sawafterwards, by my union with and my situation in the spirit of thatinfatuated person.

3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion of thelast doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane, which blew away themountains as straws, on the day of the final desolation of the world.

4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from the mountaintops; which bore away the woods and hills in the torrent.

5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality of theindividual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual minuteness,the falling rains and hailstones from the mountain tops.

6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into a stateof sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me all over.

7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was gradually raisedfrom my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of the night, unfolds itspetals in the morning.

8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some circular disksappearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy dreams flying about andhovering upon me.

9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain of dreams;and saw a hundred shapes of things, arising in my[Pg 795] spirit, as theshapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in the bosom of the sea.

10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell of myconsciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to be volitant inthe still and motionless air.

11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in water, andas fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency is immanent inpepper &c.; so is the world inborn in Brahma.

12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame in itself;the phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream of a new bornchild, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping man. (Sight is hereapplied to the mind’s eye).

13. The Huntsman rejoined:—Tell me sir, how is it possible for theIntellect to have the sight of anything in its state of sound sleep,since dreams never occur in the mind except in the state of slight andlight sleep.

14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as also of theperson in whose heart you dwelt; how could the sight of the creationappear to you (or has the term sound sleep any other sense thanthe state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep is the state of utterinsensibility or anaesthesia—gloss).

15. The sage replied:—Know that creation is expressed by the words,viz. jáyati is born, bháti appeareth, and kachatishineth; and are applied indiscriminately to all material things, aspots and pictures (घट पट) as well as to the worldalso; all these words are used to express a duality (or somethingdifferent as proceeding from Unity), by men whose brains are heatedwith dualism, or the notion of a duality (as different from the natureof the Unity or the only One).

16. Know that the word játa or born means only being (sattwa),and its synonyms are prádurbháva—manifestation, which isderived from the root bhu to be.

17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the sense of beingborn also, and the sarga meaning production or creation, it issame with being also.

18. With us learned men, there is nothing as jáyáti or what[Pg 796] is madeor may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one calm and quietunborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity).

19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma alone(the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of existence, isthe Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then what hypostasis orunsubstantiality is there that can be positively affirmed or denied ofit, which is of them alike.

20. That which is called sakti or the active energy of God,resides literally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separatepower of itself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence, which isself same with Brahma, and not as an attribute or part of him. (Vedántaignores the predicates of potentiality as predicable of Brahma, who isthe very essence of Omnipotence).

21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong to thenature of God, according to the cognition of men learned in divineKnowledge; because God never sleeps nor dreams, nor does he wake in themanner of His creature. (No changing property appertaining to finitebeings can ever be attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is).

22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also anythingthat we either know or have any notion of, can have any relation tothe nature of the Inscrutable One; any more than the impossibility ofour having any idea of the world before its creation. (So the Persianmystic Berun Zátash, aztohmate chunan to chunin. His nature is beyondour comprehension and presumption of it as so and such).

23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines thecreation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligiblein its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning ofcreation.

24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (i.e.neither the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something asnothing, perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature.

25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agentof the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine[Pg 797] Mind, and exists forever in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle ofimagination.

26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as aduality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorantmen like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is paintedupon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to bemarked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwisethan their own person.

27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without itsbeginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to theunreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing sochangeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet andserene prospect in itself.

Argument:—The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision offriends and relations in Dreaming.

The sage continued:—Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awokefrom my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just<as> a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys theheavens above him.

2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheldthe terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all,to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by myvisual organs or ocular deception only.

3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of thearbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vastocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight.

4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to haveproceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonrycarved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and alsoas a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus.

5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of itsfeelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity,as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as theproduce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of theearth.

6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planesof level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon thesmooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members andorgans of their bodies.

7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part of Infinity,and to have presented themselves to our view, like flying herds ofdistant regions coming to our sight; or as presents[Pg 799] are broughtto the presence of prince from different parts of lands, or as theretributions and rewards of one’s <good> or bad deeds in this life,meet him in the next and successive transmigration.

8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of Brahma, or alittle billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a sculpture on thecolossal pillar of the Intellect, without being carved out or cast uponit. (It is the macrocosm moulded in the mind of God).

9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity of worlds,appearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of air; the mindwanders at random all over it as an infuriate elephant, with an airyempty life, as fickle and fleeting as a breath of air.

10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without itsfoundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing sobright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its own;it is the magical power of the great magician, that has displayedthese wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over the ignorant andinfatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man has rather eaten the fruitof the tree of ignorance).

11. Though the creation seems so exuberant, at all places and in alltimes; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by any limitation ofspace and time; and though it appears as multitudinous yet it is thesingle unity; and though seemingly multifarious, yet is all but oneinvariable uniformity.

12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of thisworld, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is the same errorwhich occurs to us in our dream, <that> possesses us also even in ourwaking state of dreaming. (Equality of day and night dreams).

13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the absentpast, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already presentbefore it; whether they relate to aught of time or place, or substanceor action or anything relating to its creation or its destruction.

14. There are numberless beings contained under every[Pg 800] species ofanimals, which contain others ad infinitum in their ovaries,bearing animalcules like seeds of pomegranate fruits.

15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset by cloudsof the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of heaven; and the seais heard to resound with the loud larum of battle drums, raised by thewarring winds with the conflicting currents.

16. I then beheld there a visible sphere before me, amidst which I sawthe village of my prior dream, and recognized the spot of my formerresidence therein.

17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the very spotand of the same age as I had seen them before; I saw my wife and myvery children seated in the very same house.

18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes, my heartwished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves swell to meet theshore.

19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy at myjoining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of seeing more andmore, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the past.

20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present beforeit, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the objects ofits future desires, and becomes unmindful of the past.

21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge ofeverything; nor is there any other principle of understanding besidethe intellect, which ever subsists by itself.

22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance ofhimself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism or doubt, to think ofa duality.

23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant inquiry intotruth and divine knowledge, and by his study of good sástras andattendance on divine sages, does not forget his enlightenment any more(nor relapses to his former ignorance).

24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose mindis bound down by worldly desires; is liable to lose his[Pg 801] goodunderstanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable planet orinauspicious star.

25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also, which is notyet cultivated by association with the wise, is liable to fall intoerror of duality, and involve thee thereby to repeated difficulties.

26. The Huntsman answered:—It is all very true, O sage, thatnotwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does not find itsrest in the knowledge of only true One.

27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to whether it is soor not; and though I rely in my conception of the truth as you havedeclared, yet my mind finds no rest in it.

28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you have preached,yet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my ignorance reigns supremein me.

29. Unless the understanding is enlightened in the company of wise men,by attending the doctrine of the best sástras, and due examination oftheir precepts, there can be no end of the errors of the world, nor anyrest for the weary soul, wandering continually in the maze of errors.

Argument:—Truth and untruth of Dreams.

The Huntsman said:—If the sight of the world is no more than avision in dream, then tell me, O great sage, where lies its truth orfalsehood, which is a matter of great doubt and difficulty to me.

2. The sage replied:—That dream is true and comes actually to takeplace, which rises in our consciousness under the conditions of properplace and time, and right actions and things. (These are the morningdreams relating to pious acts and sacred things in some adjacent place).

3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or by effect ofsome mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu, whether it is favourableor not to the dreamer.

4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the shape of adream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by accident by law ofchance.

5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness, the same issure as fate, we are sure to see and become the same (by the naturaltendency and constitution of our minds).

6. Certainty removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches there, theother falls down absolutely.

7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside of anybody; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to itself the variousforms of worldly things, and remains in the same state as it knowsitself to be.

8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the sástras, that thephenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it to be believed asso indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one a sceptic, whowanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without coming to a settledbelief).

[Pg 803]

9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding hisbelief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to be reckonedas a visionary one only.

10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the strongconsciousness of any body in his waking state; the same comes to beknown as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time and change of placeeither sooner or later.

11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect, and wasrepresented in its subtile and incompressible form; It had its essencein the mind of God, and then extended its tenuous substance to anylength ad libitum.

12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of the intellectof Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal, and lasting andtransient also. (They are real as reflexion of the Divine Mind, andunreal and transitory in their phenomenal aspects.)

13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens and soul of all, there can be noother that may be styled as such; say therefore what else is there,that may be called a reality or non reality either.

14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at anytime, it cannot bedeemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant or enlightenedpart of mankind.

15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion of our sensesand misconception of our consciousness; the visible worlds commonlypassed under the name of illusion (máyá), hath naught of reality orcertainty in it.

16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind, with theglare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be thrillingand flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.

17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards;so doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking state, andthen falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep. (This refers to thealternate creation and annihilation of the world).

18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous to thatof dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be[Pg 804] as that of waking,and that both these states are but the two phases of the one and sameBrahma (as the liquid and condensed states of ghee or butter are boththe same).

19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible entity,and the spacious universe is its reflexion only; the three states ofwaking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple hypostases of the samebeing (or Divine Existence).

20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how can youdetermine any rule for ascertaining the results of various dreams.

21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams (either insleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries; thereforethe sage must wipe off their impressions from his consciousness.[1]

22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams, likepulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no other cause ofdreams nor any laws for governing them; except the sound sleep (orinsouciance), when these appearances entirely subside or vanish away.

23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of theimpressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of this thingor that (or ghata patadi &c.); but relying on the doctrine of thecauselessness of external objects (or the objective), they prove to beno other than mere imaginations of the subjective mind (or noumenalonly).

24. In this therefore there is <no> other law with respect to this,than the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally grantedas such by the common sense of mankind (vyávahárikam).

25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some times some truthin some dreams, and at others there is no[Pg 805] truth in any of them at all;and in want of any constancy, it is only a fortuitous occurrence.

26. Whatever appears subjectively to one’s self, either from his ownnature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever one ishabituated to think of anything in himself, he sees the same in thevery form, both in his dreaming as well as waking states.

27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking statesof men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and they remain thesame whether when one is waking or lying in the visionary city of hisdreams.

28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because thedream also appears as waking to the waking soul that never sleeps. (Thesoul is ever wakeful).

29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called by thatname; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind, which seessleeping and waking in the same light.

30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two states ofwaking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of <a> dead person,continues to behold the visibles; even after its separation from thebody, and resurrection after death.

31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise than what itis, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless duration never changeswith the course of time, and the ocean continues alike under itsrolling waves, and the airy space remains unchanged above the changingclouds.

32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul, whether itexists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations and marks in a stoneare never distinct from it; so are the states of waking and sleepingcoincident with the soul Divine.

33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the four forms ofbodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who though devoid of allforms, is still of the form of whole creation, cosmos and the mundanesoul.

34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all space isvisible to us in only form of infinite space or sky; the[Pg 806] endlessvacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect, it is noway different from it.

35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the earth andclouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation, and subsistin their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma alone.

36. The Lord is devoid of all appellations and attributes, and remainsunited with his body of the Intellect, containing the knowledge of allthings within itself; and the phenomenal is never separate from thenoumenal.

Argument:—Conversation of the two sages, and relation of HumanMiseries.

The Huntsman said:—Tell me, O sage! What then became of the world thatyou saw in your dream; relate in full all its accounts until its finalextinction (or nirvána).

2. The sage replied:—Hear me then tell thee, O honest fellow, whatthen passed in the heart of the person wherein I had entered, andlisten to the wondrous tale with proper attention.

3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation,I saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its train of months,seasons and years, passing imperceptibly by me.

4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and happywith enjoyment of my conjugal bliss.

5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage, came as aguest to my house, and I received the venerable and austere devoteewith honour within my doors.

6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he took his mealand he rested himself at ease, when I made him the following inquiryregarding the weal and woe of mankind.

7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and know wellthe course of the world; and are therefore known neither to fret atadversity, nor delight in prosperity.

8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged in busy lifein the world; so as the husbandman reaps good or bad crops in autumn,according to the manner of his cultivation of the field (such is thecommon belief of men).

9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place, areequally faulty in their actions at the one and same time;[Pg 808] that theyare brought to suffer and fall under some severe calamity or generaldoom all at once.

10. We see alternate famine and drought, portents and catastrophesrepeatedly overtaking a large portion of mankind at the same time; saythen is it owing to the wickedness of the people at the one and verytime.

11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked as if he wastaken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in his mind; and then heuttered these words of equal reverence and ambrosial sweetness.

12. The sagely guest said:—O well spoken! these words of yours bespeakthy highly enlightened mind; and that you have well understood thecause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal one, tell me; how youcame to know it.

13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added); Remember theuniversal soul only, and think naught what thou art and where thousittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I and from whence, and whatis the phenomenals, whether it is anything substantial or ideal of themind only.

14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you do not knowit as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you are the phantom of adream before me.

15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing, and mereformation of your imagination; it glares with the glare of the glassyIntellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself.

16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as you mustknow; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any form whatsoever, youthink or take it to be any where.

17. Now in assigning a causality to things, you will find that theIntellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing one cause to anything,you have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for everything.

18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in whomall living beings reside, that is known as virajátma orcommon soul of all; and the same viewed as residing in us, is knownas sútrátmá or individual souls linked together in a series(composed of all souls).

[Pg 809]

19. There will be other living beings in future, with the virajan soulpervading in all of them, and causing their weal or woe according totheir desires. (Lit. causing the affluence and want of men according totheir respective acts).

20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours of the bodyand then the limbs and members of the bodies of men, become perturbedlikewise.

21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind or subsideof themselves; because:—

22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons livingtogether, <who> are equally guilty of some crime at the same time; whowait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as the fire of heaven ona forest at the same time.

23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to feelthe effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from suchexpectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to its result.

24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any place ortime; the same occurs to him in the same proportion as he expected it;whether that object be with or without its cause (i.e. actual ornot).

25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way accompanied withtheir immediate or accessory causes, as all actual existences are;therefore this visionary world is the appearance of the everlastingIntellect of Intelligence, which is Brahma itself.

26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless unrealityonly; but considering it as the appearance of Brahma, it has both itscause and reality (Hence it is called sadasadátmaka i.e.both a reality and unreality also).

27. The casual occurrence of dreams, deludes our consciousness of them;and so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is equally delusive ofour apprehension of it. Its extension is a delusion, as the expansionof a dream.

28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as casual or causalas we take it to be (hence while we deem[Pg 810] our dreams as causelessdelusions, we are apt to believe the equally visionary world, as acaused and sober reality).

29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the visionary world,as the product of a real causality. It is natural to the waking stateto <take> it for a reality, what appears as quite calm and unreal inour sleep and dreams.

30. Now hear me tell you, O great minded sage, that the one satya—Ensor Brahma is the sole cause of existences; or else what other thing isit that is the cause of all nature and this all pervading vacuum.

31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth, and therarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance, and whatis the cause of the self born Brahma.

32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the origin of thewinds, and fire and water; and what is the source of our apprehensionsof things than mere vacuum or the vacuous intellect.

33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of departedsouls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in this manner thatthe course of creation is going on in this manner from the beginning(without any assignable cause).

34. Thus are all things seen to be going on, and recurring in thisworld, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air; from ourconstant habit of thinking and seeing them as such.

35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of Brahmáor creator, spreads and moves throughout the world; and receivesafterwards as many different names, as the different phases and formsof that he displays in nature, such as the earth, air &c.

36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds, in thespacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives of itselfvarious forms of things in its own imagination.

37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same receives thevery form as a decree of fate; and because these forms are the veryimages or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are deemed to form the verybody of the Deity.

38. In whatever likeness was anything designed at first by[Pg 811] the DivineIntellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to this day (and sowill it continue to bear for evermore).

39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient, it isable to alter them and make others anew, by its great efforts again(i.e. God can unmake what he has made, and make others again).

40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is thought alsoto be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever there is nosupposition of a cause, there is no apprehension nor capability of itsalteration also. (i.e. The world is both as changeable as wellas unchangeable, according as it is believed to be made by or selfsamewith its Maker).

41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the idealof the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before, so itcontinues ever still.

42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits of theirpious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or bad rewards orresults thereof in this life. There are others who are crushed under athousand calamities, falling upon them like showers of hailstones orthe thunderbolts of heaven.

Argument:—Conversation of the impossibility of the departedsoul, to reenter into the former body.

The house keeping sage then said as follows:—It was by this kind ofreasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated with me, and made <me>acquainted with whatever was worth knowing.

2. I then restrained my guest, to remain longer with me by entreaties;and he consented to abide at mine, which resembled the abode of a dead(ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to reason, are called deadpeople).

3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which were as brightand cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the venerable personage,that is now sitting beside you.

4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal of myignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of fire, being pleasedwith my sacrifice.

5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded withwonder; and could not know the sage that expounded the theory ofdreaming, now sitting confest before me.

6. The Huntsman said: O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable inmy mind, that the sage that expounded the nature of dreams, is nowmanifest before me.

7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you saw in yourdream, and who explained the cause of dreams to you, should now be seenin this waking state.

8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy dream, come toappear in a solid body, and sit sedate at this place, like the fanciedghost of boys.

9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours, in dueorder; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he comes in thisquestionable form.

[Pg 813]

10. The sage replied:—Hear me patently, O fortunate man, to relate toyou about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this briefly to you,but you must not be hasty about it.

11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for myacquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has come hither nowwith his tale too long to relate.

12. He said these words, saying, that he remembered his former nature,which was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at the end of the foggyseason (of the month of mágh).

13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards, with anexpanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and remained bathed(amazed) at my wondrous change.

14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of theenjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger,pursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water.

15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world, should so allureeven the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell, deceive mankind only todeceive them.

16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my ignorance, thatI was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the world, to this state oflife, which is utterly devoid of every good.

17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only, andthere is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error of errors andthe greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled and betrayed byunrealities.

18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and yet it is awonder, that all these false appearances, should appear as realities.

19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to thesefalsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and this tearoff and cast away from me.

20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the world; shecan do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself; It is now that Imust try to get rid of my error, of deeming the unreal as real.

21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all[Pg 814] amistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person sittinghere by me, is as the man in the moon or in the cloud.

22. Then thought I of speaking to that great sage of enlightenedunderstanding; and so thinking, I addressed him saying:—

23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out of the body ofthis person), in order to see what I may be doing there.

24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah! where arethose bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in their ashes.

25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the matteryourself; and by seeing their present state, you will know every thingrelating to them.

26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my former body.

27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come back to thisplace, after seeing my former body; so saying I became a breath of air,and fled from my abode.

28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through the air,and was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a flower, carriedrapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a long time.

29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body, by thepassage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any other passage, Ikept floating in the air.

30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and became tiedagain to that stake of the world, by my returning affections to it.

31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and asked himintensely in the following manner in my house in this place.

32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future; andknowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing sight.

33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered,[Pg 815] as also myown body likewise, could neither of them be found anywhere.

34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the sphere of thisearth, and searched amidst all fixed and living bodies herein, butcould not find that opening of the throat from which I had come out.

35. Being thus addressed by me, that high minded muni or sagethen said unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy bright andbrilliant eyes to find it out unaided by my advice.

36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yogameditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, asone sees a lotus placed in his palm.

37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then attend to myadvice, and I will tell thee all about it.

38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the lotusblossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of Brahmá onlythat developes the lotus of understanding, and that you can knownothing of yourself.

39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you dreamt inyour reverie, of entering into the heart of another person, and wereconfirmed in your consciousness of that belief.

40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you believed to haveseen the three worlds therein; and the great sphere of heaven and earthcontained in its bosom.

41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and thoughtyourself to reside in the body of another person; you happened to fallasleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly caught fire and wasburnt down.

42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky, and theblazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon.

43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud or ashcoloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was spread over as witha canopy.

44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns, sent forthhorrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting sparks filled thehorizon.

45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and[Pg 816] appearedas trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked as theclattering cloud.

46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as fixedlightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face as that ofmolten gold.

47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled thenumber of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the bosom of thesky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight of fire works).

48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the hollow sky;startled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who rushed out of theircaves and caverns, and wandered about in the forest.

49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves andnests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river watersboiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by the fumes.

50. The young chauri bulls, were parched in the flames; and thestink of the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts, filled the air witha nasty stench.

51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or diluvianfire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your hermitage, as aserpent devours its prey.

52. The Huntsman asked:—Tell me sir, what was the real cause of thisfire; and why the Bráhman lads that dwelt in their pupilage there, wereburnt down also.

53. The sage replied:—It is the vibration or effort of the volitive ordesigning mind, that is the true cause or incentive of the productionor demolition of the desired object; and so its quiescence is the causeof the absence of the three worlds.

54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation of theheart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile force (orprimum mobile) for the causation of the three worlds.

55. It is the pulsation of the Divine Mind, that is the cause of theimaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of population andof rains and draughts.

56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative[Pg 817] mindof Brahmá, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of the firstpatriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression, all ofwhich proceed from the first quiet and calm intellect, through themedium of vacuum.

57. The learned know well, that the effulgence of the pure and vacuousIntellect, shines in the vacuum of their intellects; but the ignorantthink it as it appears to them, which is not the reality (which it isnot in reality).

Argument:—The world is a vision, and to be known only byconception, perception and meditation.

The other sage rejoined:—Afterwards the whole village together withall its dwellings and trees, were all burnt down to ashes like thedried straws.

2. All things being thus burnt away, the two bodies of you two, thathad been sleeping there, were also scorched and burnt, as a large pieceof stone, is heated and split by fire.

3. Then the fire set after satiating itself with devouring the wholeforest, as the sea sat below in its basin, after its waters were suckedup by the sage Agastya.

4. After the fire was quenched and the ashes of the burnt cinders hadbecome cold; they were blown away by gusts of wind, as they bear awaythe heaps of flowers.

5. Then nothing was known, as to where the hermit’s hut and the twobodies were borne away; and where was that visionary city, which wasseen as vividly as in waking, and was populous with numbers of people.

6. In this manner the two bodies having disappeared, their existenceremains in the conscious soul, as the memory of externals remains inthe mind, at the insensibility of the body in the state of dreaming.

7. Hence where is that passage of the lungs, and where is that Virajiansoul any more? They are burnt away together with the vigour andvitality of the dead body.

8. It is on account of this, O sage, that you could not find out thosetwo bodies; and wandered about in this endless world of dreams, as ifyou were in your waking state.

9. Therefore know this mortal state, as a mere dream appearing aswaking, and that all of us are but day dreams, and seeing one anotheras we see the visionary beings in our dreams.

[Pg 819]

10. You are a visionary man to me, and so am I also to you; and thisintellectual sphere, wherein the soul is situated within itself.

11. You have been ere while a visionary being in your life, until youthought yourself to be a waking man in your domestic life.

12. I have thus related to you the whole matter, as it has occurredto you; and which you well know by your conception, perception andmeditation of them.

13. Know at last that it is the firm conviction of our consciousness,which shines for ever as the glitter of gold in the vacuum of ourminds; and the intellectual soul catches the colour of our deeds,be they fair or foul or a commixture of both, in its state of aregenerated spirit.

Argument:—Refutation of the Reality of Dreams, and the reason ofthe Preceptorship of the Hunter.

The sage resumed:—Saying so the sage held his silence, and lay himselfin his bed at night; and I was as bewildered in my mind, as if blownaway by the winds.

2. Breaking then my silence after a long time, I spoke to that sage andsaid: sir, in my opinion, such dreams appear <to have> some truth andreality in them.

3. The other muni replied:—If you can believe in the truth of yourwaking dreams, you may then rely on the reality of your sleeping dreamslikewise; but should your day dreams prove to be false, what faith canyou then place on your night dreams (which are as fleet as air).

4. The whole creation from its very beginning, is no more than a dream;and it appears to be comprised of the earth etc., yet it is devoid ofeverything.

5. Know the waking dream of this creation is more subtile, than ourrecent dreams by night; and O lotus eyed preceptor of the huntsman, youwill shortly hear all this from me.

6. You think that the object you see now, in your waking state in theday time, the same appear to you in the form of dream in your sleep; sothe dream of the present creation, is derived from a previous creation,which existed from before as an archetype of this, in the vacuum of theDivine Mind.

7. Again seeing the falsity of your waking dream of this creation, howdo you say that you entertain doubts regarding the untruth of sleepingdreams, and knowing well that the house in your dream is not yours, howdo you want to dote upon it any more?

[Pg 821]

8. In this manner, O sage, when you perceive the falsity of your wakingdream of this world; how can you be doubtful of its unreality any more?

9. As the sage was arguing in this manner, I interrupted him by anotherquestion; and asked him to tell me, how he came to be the preceptor ofthe huntsman.

10. The other sage replied:—Hear me relate to you this incident also;I will be short in its narration, for know O learned sage, I can dilateit likewise to any length.

11. I have been living here, as a holy hermit for a long time; andsolely employed in the performance of my religious austerities; andafter hearing my speech, I think you too will like to remain in thisplace.

12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake mehere alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein.

13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in thecourse of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine inthis place, and all its people will be wholly swept away.

14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs,when this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinnedof their occupants.

15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and inperfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, byour knowledge of the knowable.

16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; andperform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moonperform their revolutions in the solitary sky.

17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, manykinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonelyplace.

18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing birdsitting upon them; and the waters will be filled[Pg 822] with lotus beds,with the humming bees and chakoras chirping amidst them. Thereshall we find happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for ourrepose.

Argument:—Arrival of the Huntsman, and the sage’s preceptorshipof him.

The other sage said:—When both of us shall dwell together in thatforest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there willappear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue inpursuing after a deer.

2. You will then reclaim and enlighten him, by means of yourmeritorious remonstrance; and he then will commence and continue topractice his austerities, from his aversion to the world.

3. Then continuing in his austere devotion, he will be desirous ofgaining spiritual knowledge, and make inquiries into the phenomena ofdreaming.

4. You sir, will then instruct him fully in divine knowledge, and hewill be versed in it by your lectures on the nature of dreams.

5. In this manner you will become his religious instructor, and it isfor this reason that I have accosted you with the epithet or title ofthe huntsman’s guru or religious guide.

6. Now sir, I have related to you already regarding our errors of thisworld; and what I and you are at present, and what we shall turn to beafterwards.

7. Being thus spoken to by him, and learning all these things from him,I became filled with wonder, and was he more amazed as I remonstratedwith him on these matters.

8. Thus we passed the night in mutual conversation, and after we gotup in the morning, I honoured the sage with due respect, and he waspleased with me.

9. Afterwards we continued to live together in the same homely hutof the same village, with our steady minds and our friendship dailyincreasing.

[Pg 824]

10. In this manner time glided on peacefully upon us, and therevolutions of his days and nights, and returns of months, seasons andyears; and I have been sitting here unmoved under all the vicissitudesof time and fortune.

11. I long not for a long life, nor desire to die ere the destined day;I live as well as I may, without any care or anxiety about this or that.

12. I then looked upon the visible sphere, and began to cogitate in mymind; as to what and how and whence it was, and what can be the causeof it.

13. What are these multitudes of things, and is the cause of all these;it is all but the phenomena of a dream, appearing in the vacuity of theIntellect.

14. The earth and heaven, the air and the sky, the hills and rivers,and all the sides of firmament; are all but pictures of the Divinemind, represented in empty air.

15. It is the moonlight of the Intellect, which spreads its beamsall round the ample space of vacuum; and it is this which shines asthe world, which is an ineffaceable fac-simile or cartography of thesupreme Intellect in the air.

16. Neither is this earth nor sky, nor are these hills and dales reallyin existence; nor am I anything at all; it is only the reflexion of thesupreme Mind in empty air.

17. What may be the cause of aggregation of solid bodies, when there isno material cause for the causation of material bodies in the beginning.

18. The conception of matter and material bodies, is a fallacy only;but what can be the cause of this error, but delusion of the sight andmind.

19. The person in the pith of whose heart, I remained in the manner ofhis consciousness, was burnt down to ashes together with myself.

20. Therefore this vacuum which is without its beginning and end,is full with the reflexion of the Divine Intellect; and there is noefficient or instrumental or material cause of creation, except itsbeing a shadow of the substance of the Divine Mind.

[Pg 825]

21. All these pots and pictures, these prints and paints before us,are but the prints of the Divine Mind; nor can you ever get anything,without its mould therein.

22. But the Intellect too has no brightness of it, except its purelucidity; for how can a mere void as vacuum have any light, except itstransparency.

23. The Intellect is the pure Intelligence, of the extended entity ofBrahma; which shows in itself the panorama of the universe, what elseare the visibles, and where is their view besides.

24. There is but one Omnipresent soul, who is uncaused and uncausing,and without its beginning, middle and end; He is the essence of thethree worlds and their contents. He is something as the universalintelligence, and shows all and every thing in itself (and reflectsthem in all partial intelligences according to their capacities).

Argument:—The living liberation of the sage, by means of hishabitual meditation.

The sage continued:—Having thus considered the vanity of thevisibles, I remained free from my anxious cares about the world; andbecame passionless and fearless, and extinct in nirvána, frominsensibility of my egoism.

2. I became supportless and unsupporting, and remained without mydependence upon any body; I was quite calm with my self-composure, andmy soul was elevated and rested in heaven.

3. I did as my duty called, and did nothing of my own accord; andremained as void and blank as vacuum, which is devoid of all action andmotion.

4. The earth and heaven, the sky and air, the mountains and rivers, andall that lies on all sides and the sides themselves, are not but shadowin the air, and all living bodies are no more than the embodied (died)Intellect or Intellectual bodies.

5. I am quiet and composed, and manage myself as well as I can; I amquite happy in myself; having no injunction nor prohibition to obey,nor to act an inner or outer part (i.e. not having a double partto play, nor any duplicity in the heart).

6. Thus I resided here in my even temper, and the same tenor of my mindand actions; and it is by mere chance, that you have come to meet mehere.

7. Thus I have fully explained to thee about the nature of dream and mypersonal self; together with that of the phenomenal world and thyself.

8. Hence thou hast well understood, what is this visible world thatlies before thee; as also what these beings and these people are, andwhat Brahma is after all.

[Pg 827]

9. Now knowing these things, O thou huntsman, to be mere false, <you>must now have your peace of mind, with the conviction that, all this isthe representation of the Intellect in empty air. Yea, it is this thatis dimly seen in these, and naught besides.

10. The hunts-man rejoined:—If so it be then both me and thee and thegods even, you say to be nullity; and that all of these are but thephantoms of a dream, and that all men are no men, and all existence asnon existence (sadasat).

11. The sage replied:—It is verily so, and all and every one of us issituated as the spectre of a dream to one another, and as phasmain the cosmorama of the world.

12. These spectres appear in forms, according to one’s conception ofthem; and the only One appears as many, like the rays of light. Allthese radiations cannot be wholly true or untrue, nor a mixture of bothof them.

13. The visionary city of the world that appears in our waking state,is but a waking dream or an apparition of our minds, and appears as theprospect of a distant city before us, that we never saw before.

14. I have fully explained all this to you already, and you have beenenlightened in the subject to no end; now you have grown wise and wellknown all and everything; do therefore as you may like best for you.

15. Though thus awakened and enlightened by me, your reprobate mind isnot yet turned to reason, nor found its rest either in transcendentalwisdom, or in the transcendent state of the most high.

16. Without assuetude you cannot concentrate your vagrant mind intoyour heart; nor can you without the practice of constant reflexionattain the acme of wisdom.

17. It is impossible to attain the summit of perfection, without yourhabitual observance of wisdom; as it is incapable for a block of woodto contain any water in it, unless it is scooped out in the form of awooden vessel.

18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to theprecepts of the sástras and preceptors, tend to the removal[Pg 828] ofthe mind’s suspense between unity and duality (i.e. betweenGod and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss ofnirvána—anaesthesia in quietism.

19. Insensibility of one’s worth and state and inertness to allworldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, andabstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart—

20. These joined with one’s deliverance from the fetters of dualities,and enfranchisem*nt from all pleasurable and painful associations, arethe surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterablebliss—nirvána (which is ever attendant on the Deity).

Argument:—The sage relates the elevation of the Huntsman toheaven by means of his austere devotion.

The God Agni said:—Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost inwonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in thevery forest.

2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, andappeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into asea.

3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed himonward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by analligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of hismeditation.

4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of hisnirvána or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but wastossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness.

5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but hecame to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, tobe the production (display) of Providence.

6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning;and this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body,which I have gained by means of devotion.

7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of theexistent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, whichis above the etherial space (i.e. in heaven).

8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, andset his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictatedto him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without itsconstant practice.

9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied[Pg 830] himself to theobservance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers.

10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagelyseers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, forvery many years and seasons.

11. Remaining long in the discharge of his austere duties, andsuffering all along the severities of his rigorous penance; he askedonce his sagely guide, as to when he shall obtain his rest and respitefrom these toils, to which the muni responded unto him in the followingmanner.

12. The muni said:—The little knowledge that I have imparted untothee, is a spark fire and able to consume a forest of withered wood;though it has not yet burnt down the impression of this rotten worldfrom your mind.

13. Without assuetude you cannot have your beatitude in knowledge;and with it, it is possible to attain it in course of a long time.(i.e. No knowledge is efficacious without its long practice,hence a novice in yoga is no yogi or adept in it).

14. Such will verily be your case, if you will rely in my assurance ofthis to you, and wear my words as a jewel about your ears, knowing themto be oracular in this world.

15. You praise the unknown spirit of God, in your ignorance of hisnature; and your mind is hanging in suspense between your knowledge andignorance of (divine nature).

16. You are led <of> your own accord to inquire into the nature andextent of the cosmos, which is but a phantom of delusion. (The worldbeing but a delusion, it is in vain to investigate about it).

17. You will be thus employed for ages, in your arduous understandingof making this research, until Brahmá—the creative power will appearbefore you, being pleased at your investigation into his works.

18. You will then ask the favour of thy favouring god, to release youfrom your ponderous doubt of the reality or delusiveness of the world,saying:—

19. Lord! I see the cosmorama of the phenomenal world, is spread outevery where as a delusion before our sight; but[Pg 831] I want to see a spot,which exhibits the true mirror of the Divine mind, and which is freefrom the blemish of the visibles.

20. The mirror of the vacuous mind, though as minute as an atom,represents yet the reflexion of this vast universe in some part orother within it. (i.e. The minute atom of the mind, is thereflector of vast universe).

21. It is therefore to be known, how far this boundless world extendsto our woe only; and how far does the sphere of the etherial skystretch beyond it.

22. It is for this that I ask your good grace, to make me acquaintedwith the infinite space of the universe; accept my prayer, O thou lordof gods, and readily grant this my request.

23. Strengthen and immortalize this body of mine, and make it mountupon the regions of sky, with the velocity of the bird of heaven(Garuda or Phoenix).

24. Make my body increase to the length of a league each moment; untilit encircles the world in the manner of its outer and surrounding sky.

25. Let this pre-eminent boon be granted to me, O great and gloriousGod, that I may reach beyond the bounds of the circumambient sky, whichsurrounds the sphere of the visible world.

26. Being thus besought by thee, O righteous man, the Lord will sayunto thee, “Be it so as though desirest,” and then he will disappear asa vision from thy sight, and vanish into the air, with his attendantgods along with him.

27. After the departure of Dis Pater with his accompanying deities, totheir divine abodes in heaven; thy thin and lean body emaciated by thyausterities, will assume a brightness as that of the brilliant moon.

28. Then bowing down to me and getting my leave, thy brightsome bodywill mount to the sky in an instant, in order to see the object of thydesire, which is settled in thy mind.

29. It will rise high into the air as a second moon, and higher stillas the luminous sun itself; and blaze above as[Pg 832] brightly as a burningfire, in defiance of the brightness of the luminaries.

30. Then it will fly upwards in the empty sky, with the force of thestrong winged phoenix; and run forward with the rapidity of a runningcurrent, in order to reach at the bounding belt of the world.

31. Having gone beyond the limit of the world, thy body will increasein its bulk and extent; and become as swollen as the diluvian ocean,that covered the face of the whole universe.

32. There thou wilt find thy body, growing bigger and bigger still; andfilling like a big cloud the empty space of air, which is devoid of allcreated things.

33. This is the great vacuum of the Divine spirit, filled with thechaotic confusion of elements, flying about as whirlwinds; and theunbounded ocean of the infinite Mind, swelling with the waves of itsperpetual thought.

34. You will find within this deep and dark vacuity, numberless worldsand created bodies, hurling headlong in endless succession; just as youperceive in your consciousness, a continued series of cities and otherobjects appearing in your dream.

35. As the torn leaves of trees, are seen to be tossed about in the airby the raging tempest; so you will see multitudes of worlds, hurled toand fro in the immensity of the Divine Mind.

36. As the passing world presents a faint and unsubstantial appearanceto one looking down at it on the top of a high citadel; so do theseworlds appear as mere shades and shadows when viewed in their spirituallight from above.

37. As the people of this world view the black spots attached to thedisk of the moon, which are never observed by the inhabitants ofthat luminary; so are these worlds supposed to subsist in the Divinespirit, but they are in reality no other than the fleeting ideas of theinfinite Mind.

38. You will thus continue to worlds after worlds, moving in the midstof successive spheres and skies; and thus pass a long time viewing thecreation stretching to no end.

39. After viewing the multitudes of worlds, thronging in the[Pg 833] heavenslike the leaves of trees; you will be tired to see no end of them inthe endless abyss of Infinity.

40. You will then be vexed in yourself, at this result of yourdevotion, as also at the distention of your body, and stretch of yourobservations all over the immensity of space.

41. Of what good is this big body, which I bear as a ponderous burthenupon me; and in comparison with which millions of mountain ranges, asthe great Meru etc., dwindle away into lightsome straws.

42. This boundless body of mine, that fills the whole space of the sky;answers no purpose whatever, that I can possibly think of.

43. This ponderous body of mine, that measures the whole space ofthe visible world; is quite in the darkness—ignorance without itsspiritual knowledge, which is the true light of the soul.

44. I must therefore cast off this prolated body of mine, which is ofno use to me, in the acquisition of knowledge or in keeping companywith wise and holy men.

45. Of what good is this big and bulky body of mine, to scan theunknowable infinity of the endless and supportless Brahma, whoseessence contains and supports the whole of this universe, and is hardto be ascertained.

46. Thinking so in yourself, you will shrivel your bloated body, byexhaling your breath (as you had expanded it by your inhalation of it),and then shun your frame as a bird cast off the outer crust of a fruitafter suction of its juicy sap.

47. After casting off the mortal clod and coil of your body, thy soulwill rest in empty air accompanied with its respirative breath of life,which is more tenuous than the subtile ether (over which it floats).

48. Thy big body will then fall down on earth, as when the great mountof Meru fell on the ground, being cleft of its wings by ire of Indra;and will crush all earthly beings, and smash the mountains to dustunderneath it.

49. Then will the dry and starved goddess Kálí, with her[Pg 834] hungry hostof Mátris and furies, devour thy prostrate body, and restore the earthto its purity, by clearing it of its nuisance.

50. Now you heard me fully relate unto your future fate, go thereforeto yonder forest of palm trees, and remain there in practising yourausterities as well as you may like.

51. The huntsman rejoined:—O sir, how great are the woes that areawaiting upon me, and which I am destined to undergo in my vain pursuitafter knowledge (of the infinite nature and works of God).

52. Pray tell me sir, if you have anything to say, for my averting thegreat calamity that you have predicted; and tell me also, if there beno expedient to avoid the destined evil.

53. The sage replied:—There is no body nor any power whatever, thatis ever able to prevent the eventualities of fate; and all attempts toavert them, are thrown on one’s back.

54. As there is no human power to the left on the right, or fix thefeet on the head; so there is no possibility to alter the decree offate.

55. The knowledge of the science of astrology, serves only to acquaintus with the events of our fate; but there is nothing in it, that canhelp us to counteract the shafts of adverse fortune.

56. Therefore those men are blest, who with their knowledge of sovranpredestination are still employed in their present duties; and whoafter the death and burning of their bodies, rest in the eternal reposeof Brahma in their consciousness.

Argument:—The aerial spirit of the Huntsman is reborn on Earthas prince Sindhu, who kills Vidúratha, and is remonstrated by hisMinister.

The Huntsman said:—Tell me Sir, what will then become of my soul inits aerial position, and of my body in its situation on earth.

2. The sage replied:—Hear me attentively to tell you, about what isto become of your lost body on earth, as also of your living soulsustained in the air.

3. The body being subducted from thy whole self, thy soul will assumean aerial form, and will remain in empty air, united with its vitalbreath.

4. In that airy particle of your soul, you will find the surface of theearth, situated in the recess of your mind; and you will behold it asclearly, as you view the world in your dream.

5. Then from the inward desire of your heart, you will see in theamplitude of your mind, that you have become the sovereign lord of thiswide extended globe.

6. The will of this idea rises of itself in your mind, that you havebecome a king by name and in the person of Sindhu, who is so highlyhonoured by men.

7. After eight years of thy birth, thy other will depart from thismortal world, and leave to thee this extensive earth, reaching to itsutmost boundaries of the four seas.

8. You will find in the border of your realm, a certain lord of theland by name of Vidúratha, who will rise as thy enemy, and whom it willbe difficult for thee to quell.

9. You will then reflect in yourself, of your past and peaceful reignof a full century; and think of the pleasures you have so long enjoyedin company with your consort and attendants.

10. Woe unto me, that this lord of the bordering land, has[Pg 836] now risenagainst me in my old age; and has put me to the trouble of waging aformidable warfare against him.

11. As thou shalt be thinking in this wise, there will occur the greatwar between thee and that lord of the land; in which all your quadruplearmaments, will be greatly worsted and thinned.

12. In that great war, thou wilt succeed to slay that Vidúratha, bystriking him with thy sword, and keeping thy stand on thy war-car.

13. You will then become the sole lord of this earth, to its utmost ofthe four oceans; and become to be dreaded and honoured by all, like theregents of all the sides of heaven.

14. Having thus become the sovereign monarch of the earth, and reigningover it and the name of the mighty Sindhu, thou wilt pass thy time inconversation with the learned pandits and ministers of thy court.

15. The minister will say, It is a mighty wondrous deed, O lord, thatthou hast achieved, by slaying the invincible Vidúratha in thy singlecombat.

16. Then thou wilt say, tell me O good man, how this Vidúratha waxed sovery rich, and possessed his forces as numerous as the waves of ocean;and what cause impelled him to rise against me.

17. The Minister will reply:—This lord has Lílá as his lady, who hadwon the favour of the fair goddess Sarasvatí; who is the supportress ofthe world, by her extreme devotion to her. (Sarasvatí is the goddess ofwisdom and hand-maid of God. See Sir Wm. Jones’ prayer).

18. The benign goddess took this lady for her foster-daughter, andenabled her to achieve all her actions, and even obtain her liberationwith ease. (Wisdom facilitates all human act).

19. It is by favour of this goddess, that this lady is able toannihilate thee at a single nod or word of hers; wherefore it is nodifficult task to her to destroy thee all at once.

20. Sindhu then will answer him saying:—If what thou sayest is true,it is wondrous indeed, how then could the invincible Vidúratha come tobe slain by me in warfare.

[Pg 837]

21. And why he being so highly favoured by the goddess, could not getthe better of me in this combat (by slaying me with his hand).

22. The Minister will reply:—Because he always prayed the goddess withearnestness of his heart, to give him liberation from the cares andtroubles of this world.

23. Now then, O lord, this goddess that knows the hearts of all men,and confers to all the objects of their desire, gave thee the victorythou didst seek, and conferred <on> him the liberation he sought by thyhands.

24. Sindhu then, will respond to it; saying:—If it is so, then I mustask, why the goddess did not confer the blessing of liberation on mealso, that have been so earnestly devoted to her at all times.

25. The Minister will then say in his reply:—This goddess resides asintelligence in the minds of all men, and as conscience also in thehearts of all individual beings, and is known by the title of Sarasvatíto all.

26. Whatever object is constantly desired by any one, and earnestlyasked of her at all times; she is ever ready to confer the same to him,as it is felt in the heart of everyone.

27. You lord never prayed for your liberation, at the shrine of thisgoddess; but craved for your victory over your enemies, which she hasaccordingly deigned to confer unto you.

28. Sindhu will then respond to it and say:—why is it that prince didnot pray the goddess of pure wisdom for his obtaining a kingdom likeme; and how was it that I slighted to pray her for my final liberationas he did?

29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart forliberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek afterthe same? (i.e. Why does the goddess give us the knowledgeof what is good, without enabling us to exist and persist after itsattainment)?

30. To this the minister will reply saying:—The propensity of doingevil (or slaughter), being inherent in your nature (from your pastprofession of huntsmanship), you neglected to[Pg 838] stoop down to thegoddess, and pray unto her for your liberation.

31. It is well known since the creation of the world, that theintrinsic gist forms the nature of man; and this truth being evident toall from their boyhood to age, there is no body to ignore or repudiateit at any time.

32. The purity or impurity of the inner heart, to which one ishabituated by his long practice or custom, continues to predominateover all his qualities and actions to the very last, and there is nopower to contravene it in any manner.

Argument:—Description of the nature of Sindhu, his resignationof the kingdom, his discrimination and final liberation.

Then Sindhu will say:—Tell me sir, what kind of a vile-person and howignorant I had been before whereby I still retain the evil propensitiesof my past life, and am doomed to be reborn in this earth (the vale ofmisery).

2. The minister will say in his reply:—“Hear me attentively, O king,for a while; and I will tell you this secret, which you require me torelate, and will surely remove your ignorance.”

3. There is a self existent and undecaying Being from all eternity,which is without its beginning or end, which is designated the greatBrahma, and passes herein under the little of I and thou, and of thisand that &c.

4. I am that self same Brahma, by the consciousness of my selfcogitation (ego cogito ergo sum). This becomes the livingprincipal with the power of intellection (vivo qui intellego Ilive because I think). This power does not forsake its personality;(but retains its persona of I am that I am).

5. Know this Intellect to be a spiritual or supernatural substance,having a form rarer and more transparent than that of the subtileether; it is this which is the only being in existence, nor is thereanything which is of a material substance. (This passage maintains theimmateriality of the world).

6. This formless takes the form of the mind, by its being combined,with volition and its views of this and the next world, (i.e.its worldly enjoyments and future bliss), in its state of life anddeath, and of waking and sleep. (That is the mind is sensible of thesepassing and alternate phenomena).

7. The mind, though formless, stretches itself into the form of thephenomenal world; just as the formless air dilates itself, in the formof force or oscillation in all material bodies.

[Pg 840]

8. The world is identic with the mind, as the seeming and visiblesky is the same with empty vacuity; so the corporeal is alike theincorporeal, and there is no difference whatever, between the materialand mental worlds.

9. This net work or least of worlds resides in the mind, in theirimmanent impressions in it, and the outer world is in reality. Andthat the cosmos consists of ideas in the formless mind, its formalappearance has no real substance in it. (The immaterial ideas of themind are real, and not the material objects or the sober reality of thesubjective only).

10. There arose at first the pure (satya) personality of the impersonaland universal spirit of God (Brahma), in the person of the creativepower known under the title of Brahmá. This personal god assumed tohimself the appellation of ego from his will of creation, and theundivided spirit, was divided into many impure personalities (rájasaand támasa), from its desire of becoming many (aham bahu syam-sim multaand plurimá).

11. The sindhu will say: Tell me sir, what you mean by rájasaand támasa bodies (or impure personalities); and how and whenceare these appellations at first in primo to the supremebeing—parapada—the Indefinite One.

12. The monitor will reply saying:—As all embodied beings herein, arepossessed of members and limbs of their bodies; so the bodiless spiritis comprised of an infinite variety of minor spiritual forms under it,which are known as the good or bad spirits.

13. The selfsame spirit then designates all these several parts ofitself by various appellations, and the incorporeal spirit assumes toitself, an endless variety of material and terraqueous natures andnames. (That changed through all, yet in all the same; known by this orthat or one or other nature and name).

14. Thus the universal spirit continues to exhibit in itself, all thevarious forms of this visionary world at its own will; and gives adistinct name and nature to each and every one of these representationsof itself.

15. When the Divine spirit, deigned to covert itself into thepersonality of Brahmá, and in those of me or thee and other[Pg 841]individualities; it became altered from its state of original holinessand purity to those impurity and foulness, known as rájasí andtámasí. (When God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam,it lost its purity and sanctity by contamination of flesh).

16. The unalterable pure nature of the holy spirit of God, being thustransformed to unholiness, it passed into different states of impurityin the living souls of beings. (The same living soul passing differentdegrees of purity and impurity).

17. The spirit of God being blown at first as the living soul (in ananimal body); the soul that comes to perceive its incarceration inflesh and its doom to suffering, is said to be of the pure nature ofsáttikí.

18. Those who while they are living in the world, are possest ofpoliteness and good qualities; they are said to be merely of a goodnature Kevala sáttiki.

19. Those who being born in repeated regenerations are destined tothe enjoyments of life, and to their final liberation at last, aredesignated as the राजस राजसी.

20. Those again who being born in this nether world, are inclined tothe practice of their manly virtues only; such souls are famed as themerely rájasí (shining), and are few in their number.

21. Those souls which have been undergoing their repeatedregenerations, ever since the beginning of creation; and arecontinually roving in the bodies of inferior beings, are said by thewise, to belong to the species of the most impure támasa támasí;though it is possible from them to attain their salvation at last.

22. Those which have been wandering in many births, in the forms ofvile animals, and until they attain their salvation at the end; suchsouls are designated as merely vile Kevala tamasi by the wise,who are versed in the science of psychology.

23. In this manner have these philosophers classed the emanated soulof beings into many grades and species; among which O my respectedsir, your soul is reckoned among the vilest of the vile tamasatamasí.

[Pg 842]

24. I know you to have passed through many births of which you knownothing; and these have been as various as they were fraught with thevariegated scenes of life.

25. You have in vain passed all your lives in doing nothing that isuseful; and more particularly your late aeronautic life, with thatgigantic body of yours.

26. Being thus born with the vile species of thy soul, it is difficultfor thee to obtain thy liberation from the prison house of this world.

27. Sindhu will then say in his response:—Tell me sir, how can Idivest myself of this inborn vile nature of my soul; that I may learnto abide by thy counsel, and try to purify my soul and rectify theconduct of my life.

28. There is nothing in all these three worlds, which is hard to beacquired by means of earnest endeavour and intense application.

29. As a fault or failure of the previous day, is corrected by itsrectifications to day; so can you purify your pristine impure soul byyour pious acts of the present day.

30. Whoever earns for any thing and labours hard to earn it, is sure togain it in the end, wherein the remiss are sure to meet with failure.

31. Whatever a man is intent upon doing, and tries to effect at alltimes; and whatsoever one desires with earnestness, and is constantlydevoted to the same pursuit, he is to succeed in it, and have hisobject without fail.

32. The sage related:—The king being thus remonstrated by hisminister, was resolved to resign the burthen of his state, and torenounce his realm and royalty even at that very moment.

33. He wished to retire to some far distant forest, and prayed hisministers to support his realm; but he declined to take the charge,though the state was free from all its enemies (i.e. though itwas a peaceful realm).

34. He then remained in the company of wisem*n, and was enlightened bytheir discourses; as the sesame seeds became odorous by being placedamidst a heap of flowers.

[Pg 843]

35. Then from his inquiries into the mysteries of his life and birth,and into the causes of his confinement in this world, he obtained theknowledge of his liberation from it.

36. It was thus by means of his continued inquiries into truth, and hiscontinual association with the wise and good, that the soul of Sindhuattained a holy sanctity in comparison with which, the prosperity ofBrahma even, is as a straw or the dried leaf of a withered tree, whichthe winds of the sky toss about to and fro.

Argument:—The aerial body of the Hunter, and its downfall fromthe high heaven.

The sage resumed and said:—I have thus related these future events,as if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thouwishest and thinkest best for thyself.

2. Agni the god of fire said:—Hearing these words of the sage, thehuntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising withthe sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool.

3. In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religiousausterities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms ofdisinterested friendship with one another.

4. After some time the muni met with his finalextinction—nirvána, and by casting off his mortal body,obtained his last repose in the state of transcendent tranquility.

5. In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahmato give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of hisdesire.

6. The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing,begged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage hadpredicted to him.

7. Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode;and the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy thefruition of his austere devotion.

8. He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space,which lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of anincalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filledthe regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched alongand across this lower world.

[Pg 845]

9. He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagleof Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulkof his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process ofan indefinite period of time.

10. Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuatedin the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself.

11. From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respirationof his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in theair, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.

12. His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the airinto the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, andthe great antagonist of Vidúratha.

13. His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became ahuge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering ofthunders, as one earth falling upon another.

14. At a certain time, it shines as a Kesandraka, at others itappears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky.

15. I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this hugecarcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe ofthis earth.

16. The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen,resembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as acity in our dream.

17. The dry and big bellied goddess chandí, then devoured thiscarcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrailswith its red hot blood.

18. The earth is called mediní or fleshy from the flesh of thiscorpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.

19. It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance ofthe earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from thedust of this body.

[Pg 846]

20. This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and thefossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath theground, which grew everything useful to men.

Argument:—The god of fire, after directing Vipaschit to wanderover the world according to his desire, disappeared from hissight.

The god of fire added:—Go now O sapient Vipaschit, to your wished forabodes, and with the steadiness of your mind, conduct with proprietyevery where on earth.

2. Indra the lord of the assemblage of creatures, has been performinghis hundred fold sacrifices in his celestial abode; and there I aminvited to attend by an invocation of him.

3. Bhása said:—Saying so, the lord Agni disappeared from that place;and passed through the transparent ether like the electric fire oflightning.

4. I was then led by my predestination to roam about in the air; anddirect my mind into the investigation of my allotted acts, and thetermination of my ignorance.

5. I beheld again an innumerable host of heavenly bodies, roving aboutin the air; holding their positions at different stations of thefirmament, and containing inhabitants of different natures and customs.

6. Some of these were of one and same form, resembling floatingumbrellas in the sky; and attracting the hearts of men, by theirshining appearance and slow motion. (The great velocity of heavenlybodies, appear to be slow when they are seen by the naked eyes of menfrom this distant earth).

7. Some of them are of earthy substance, but shining and moving onwardlike mountains in motion.

8. Some were of woody appearance, and others of stony substance;but they are all lightsome bodies, and all moving onward in theiruninterrupted course.

9. I beheld also some figures like carved statues of stone, standingin the open space of my mind, and talking together all their live-longdays.

[Pg 848]

10. In this manner I beheld for a long while, many such figures likeimages in my dream, and was quite bewildered in my utter ignorance ofthem.

11. I then intended to perform my austere devotion, in order to obtainmy liberation; when the god Indra appeared unto me and said: “noVipaschit, you are doomed to become a stag again, and not entitled toyour liberation now.”

12. You are propelled by your previous predilection to prefer thepleasures of heaven; therefore I must direct you to dwell in myparadise, and wander there amidst my gardens of mandara trees.

13. Being thus bid by him, I rejoined and said to him: I am weary, Olord, with the troubles of the world, and want to get my release fromthem; ordain therefore my immediate emancipation from them.

14. The god listened to my prayer and said: emancipation attends onthe pure soul, which is purged from all its desires; and this had beenalready expounded to you by the god of fire (in his narrative of thesage and hunter); ask therefore some other boon, said he, and I beggedhim to tell me of my next and future state.

15. Indra replied and said:—I find you to be fated to be changed tothe state of a deer hereafter, from the fond desire of your heart, towander about and feed freely in the fields.

16. By becoming a deer, you will have to enter the holy assembly (ofDasaratha); where another deer like you, has obtained his liberationbefore, by listening to the spiritual instructions formerly deliveredthere by me.

17. Therefore be born as a deer in some forest on earth with yourpensive soul; and you will then come to recollect your past life fromits relation by Vasishtha (in the court of king Dasaratha).

18. You will learn there, that all this existence is but the delusionof a dream, and the creation of imagination; and the account of yourfuture life depicted in its true colour.

19. After being released from the body of the deer, you shall[Pg 849] regainyour human form, and perceive the rays of holy light shining in yourinward spirit.

20. This light will then dispel the long prevailing gloom of ignorancefrom your mind, and then you shall attain your nirvánasupineness, as the calm and breathless wind.

21. After the god had said so, I had the presentiment of being a deerin this forest, and entirely forgot my human nature, under my firmconviction of having become a beast.

22. I have been ever since residing in the recess of these woods, underthe impression of my being changed to a stag; and feeding ever sinceupon the grass and herbs growing on the mountain top.

23. Here I saw once a body of troopers coming to a hunting excursion;and being then affrighted at the sight, I betook myself to flight.

24. They then laid hold of me, and took me to their place; where theykept me for some days for their pleasure, and at last brought me hitherbefore Ráma.

25. I have thus related to you all the incidents of my life; and themagical scenes of the world, too full of marvelous events.

26. It is the production of our ignorance, which pervades over allthings, and branches out into innumerable forms in everything thatpresents itself to our view; and there is nothing whatever to dispelthis darkness, except by the light of spiritual knowledge.

27. Válmíki relates:—Then as Vipaschit had held his silence afterspeaking in this manner; he was accosted by the well minded Ráma withthe following words.

28. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how a person without any desire of hisown, sees the object of another’s desire in himself; and could the deerthought of by yourself, come to the sight of others in Indra’s Paradise?

29. Vipaschit replied:—Let me tell you that the earth where upon thehuge carcass had fallen, was once before trodden upon by Indra, withthe pride of his performance of a hundred sacrifices.

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30. There strutting along in his haughty strides, he met the anchoriteDurvásas sitting still in his meditative mood; and believing him to bea dead body lying on his way, he knocked it down with his feet.

31. At this the angry anchorite threatened the proud god withsaying:—O Indra! as you have dashed me with your feet by thinking me alifeless corpse, so will a huge carcass shortly fall upon this groundand slash it to pieces and reduce it to dust.

32. And as you have spurned me as a dead body, so art thou accursed tobe crushed under the falling carcass on earth.

33. He transformed into a deer, as he was king of kings before, andremained in his appearance according to his ideas.

34. In truth neither is the actual world a reality, nor the imaginaryone an unreality; it is in fact the one and same thing, whether weconceive it as the one or other (i.e. either as the real orunreal).

35. Listen now, O Ráma, to another reason, which appertains to thissubject, and clearly settles the point in question. (That God beingAlmighty and all in all, it makes no difference whatever, whether theworld is viewed as his creation or as a pantheon).

36. He in whom all things reside, and from whom everything proceeds;who is all in all; and who is every where in all must be the One thatyou may call all, and beside whom there <is> none at all.

37. It is equally possible to him, to bring forth whatever he wills toproduce; as also not to produce, whatever he does not wish to bring toexistence.

38. Whatever is desired in earnest by any body, must eventually cometo pass to him in reality (as the desired doership of Vipaschit); andthis is as true as the instance of light, being ever accompanied by itsshade.

39. If it is impossible for the desire and its act, which are oppositein their nature, to meet together in fact; then it would be impossiblefor the omnifarious God to be all things both in[Pg 851] being and not being;therefore the objects of our desire and thought, are equally presentwith us as the real ones.

40. There is a reality (or entity of God) attached to every form ofexistence, and there is nothing which of itself is either an entity ornullity also.

41. O the great magic or illusion, which is overspread every where, andpervades over all nature in every form and at all times; and binds allbeings in inextricable delusion.

42. The nature of the great God comprises the community of spiritsin his spirit, and combines in itself all laws whether permissive orprohibitive acting in concert and eternal harmony.

43. It is his infinite power that has displayed the ignorance orIllusion, which spreads over all the three worlds from time with orwithout its beginning; and it is our delusion only, which depicts allthings in their various forms to our view.

44. Or how could the creation that was once destroyed by the greatdeluge, come to resuscitate again; unless it were a réchauffé ofthe reminiscence of the past one, else the elementary bodies of air,fire and earth, could not possibly be produced from nothing.

45. Therefore the world is no other than a manifestation of the divinenature; and this is the verdict of the sástras, and the conviction ofmankind from the very beginning of creation.

46. Things which admit of no sufficient proof for their materialexistence, are easily proved to exist, by their being considered underthe light of the understanding.

47. Things of a subtile nature, which are imperceptible by the senses,are known in their essence by the understanding of the learned; hencethe essence of Brahma is pure understanding, of which we are quiteignorant owing to our ignorance of the Intellect.

48. The world is obvious to us from its figure, as the air is evidentby its vibration; hence no body is born or dies herein, (save that itappears to or disappears from our sight).

49. That I am living and the other is dead, are conceptions of ourmind; hence death being but the total disappearance of[Pg 852] the visibleworld from our view, it must be as pleasing to us as our sound sleepitself.

50. If it be the recognition of the visibles, which is called the lifeor revivification of man; then there are no such things in the world,as are commonly termed the life and death of beings.

51. At a time, the intellect appears a duality, and at other an unity,both are nothing but intellect.

52. It is the Intellection of the Divine Intellect, that infuses itsintelligence into all minds; hence what is life without the intellectand the faculty of intellection.

53. The intellect being free from pain, there is no cause of complaintin any intellectual being; since the word world and all that it meansto express, are but manifestations of vacuous intellect.

54. It is wrong to say, that the intellect is one thing and thebody another; since the unity is the soul of all and pervades allmultiformity; and as the waves and whirlpools are seen in the waters,so are all these bodies known to abide in the Supreme being.

55. The universal pervasion of divine essence, as that of the subtileair, is the cause of causes and the sole cause of all; hence the worldis a subtile substance also, being but a reflexion of the DivineIntellect.

56. It is wonderful, how this subtile world appears as a solid body tous; it is only our conception of it as such that makes it appear sounto us; but conception is no substance at all, therefore the world hasno substantiality in it.

57. It is the demon of error that reigns over us in its aerial form,deludes us to take the shadowy world for the substance; while in factthis creation of error is as nil and void, as the vacuous creation ofthe intellect. (i.e. The sensible world is as void and null asthe ideal one).

58. Hence this nether world below and the etherial worlds above, are asvoid as the hyperphysical world of the Divine Intellect; and all thesebeing but reflexions of the Divine mind, are exhibited in various ways.

[Pg 853]

59. The Intellect being a subtile entity, there is nothing as a solidsubstance anywhere; the phenomenals are all unsubstantial rarities,though they appear to us solidified realities.

60. The knowledge of the true verity and that of the unreality, are soblended together; that we must remain in mute silence like a block ofwood or stone, to pronounce anything in the affirmative or negativeabout either.

61. The visible whole is the infinite Brahma, and this universedisplays the majesty of the great God; and all these bodies are thevarious forms, exhibiting the infinite attributes of the deity.

62. In this manner, is the substance of the Divine Intellect displayedin itself; and it is the vacuous spirit of God, that manifests thisunsubstantial world in its own vacuity.

63. The number of living beings, since the beginning of creation, isunlimited in every place; and of these there are many, that existeither in their corporeal or incorporeal forms.

64. There are other siddha and spiritual beings, abiding with theirsubtile natures and tenuous forms in the supreme Being; they live ingroups in all elements, but never come to see one another of their ownkind.

65. The exuberance of the visible world, being purely of aerial andvacuous form; they are never seen in their true and intellectual light,except when they appear to us in their aerial shapes in our dreams.

66. The world being well known, remains as it does in our inwardconception of it, in the form of a hazy mist appearing to our sight atthe end of night (i.e. dark and obscure).

67. It is a dark and indistinct maze, with nothing distinguishable init when seen from a distance; it becomes clearer at a nearer view, andby keeping yourself afar you lose sight of it altogether.

68. As the particles of water fly off, and fall again into the sea; sodo the atoms of intellect in all living beings, continually rise andsubside, in the vast ocean of the Divine Mind. (So doth every thingproceed from and recede into the Divine Spirit).

69. This grandeur of creation is as the crowding throng of[Pg 854] our dreams,which ere before lay slumbering; in the hollow space of the DivineMind, therefore know these effusions of the divine Intellect, as calmand quiet as the unruffled spirit of God (that ever reposes in its calmfelicity).

70. I have seen the infinite glories of creation, and have felt thevarious results of my deeds to no end; I have wandered in all quartersof the globe for ages; but I found no rest from the toils and troublesof the delusive world, except in the knowledge of my vanities of theworld.

Argument:—The Breaking and Rejoining of the Court and thedissolution of the Ignorance of Bhása and his Liberation in Life.

Válmíki related:—As Vipaschit was going on saying these things, thesun wishing to put an end to his speech, proceed with his rapid stridesto enlighten another world.

2. Loud trumpets gave the alarum of the departing day, and filled theair on all sides with their swelling sound: and all the quarters ofheaven seemed to re-echo in their joy, the fanfare of victory.

3. The king Dasaratha gave Vipaschit, many gifts in money, maidservantsand houses; and bestowed on him many rich and royal presents worthy ofkings, and then rose from his seat.

4. The king, Ráma and Vasishtha, having taken leave of the assembly,and saluted one another in their proper order, retired to theirrespective abodes.

5. Then having bathed and refreshed themselves, they passed the nightin ease and repose; then resorted to the assembly in the morning, andwere seated in their respective seats.

6. The sage Vasishtha then resumed the subject of the last discourse;and spoke his sweet words with such complacence of his countenance, asif the comely moon was shedding her ambrosial beams, from her brightand cooling face.

7. Let me tell you, O king, that Vipaschit has not been able with allhis endeavours, to ascertain the true nature of Ignorance; nor is it anerror of the mind which makes the unreal appear as real.

8. The nature of Ignorance as long as it is unknown, appears to beeternal and endless; but being understood, it proves to be as null andnothing, as the limpid water in a mirage.

9. You have already heard, O wise monarch, the narration[Pg 856] of Bhása theminister of Vipaschit; and shall now hear of his liberation in hisliving state.

10. It is likely that he will come to be acquainted with truth fromsome other source or discourse, and then he will be liberated in hislife time; by being freed from his ignorance.

11. And because this ignorance or Avidyá, is ever accompanied withIntellect of the Lord himself, it is for this very reason, that theunreality is erroneous by taken for the reality itself.

12. If this ignorance—avidyá—nescience, be an attribute ofGod, then it is no other than the very God; and the unknown or themysterious nature, is not otherwise than the inscrutable nature of God.

13. This ignorance is infinity (in the infinity of created things), andis productive of endless shoots like the sprouts of spring, some ofwhich are insipid and others sapid, some are luscious, while others aremellow and inebriating.

14. Some growing as thorny plants, all hollow within and hollowwithout, while others are straight and herbaceous as the succulentreeds or sugar cane.

15. Some of them are unfruitful and unprofitable, and others areattractive of the heart by their untimely blossoming, which ispredicative of evil only and no desirable good. (Early blossoms areominous).

16. Avidyá or Nescience has no form nor shape, save that of itsshapeless bulk, which fills all worlds; it is a long and broad mass ofdarkness, and infested by demons and devils (that take in the dark andat night).

17. Like false light and phantasms in the open air, and like the linkedand twisted motes of light curling about in the sky; do all thesevisibles appear to our view in the clear firmament, and are in realitybut fallacies of our vision.

18. The variegated views which are stretched all about the empty air,without any connecting chain or link between them; are as the manycoloured rainbows of heaven, which are described by the falling rainsand melt into the empty air.

[Pg 857]

19. The world resembles a rainy river, with all its orbs appearingas the countless waves of water, with the dirty and foaming frothsfloating over it; and the fearful eddies and whirlpools, resembling therevolving planetary bodies.

20. The world is a vast and dreary desert, ever exhibiting the watersof mirage on its surface; while in reality but a body of dust, andfilled with the ashes of dead bodies.

21. As a man wandering in the fairyland of his dream, finds no terminusof his journey; so have I been roving forever in the land of my wakingdream, without finding any end to my travelling.

22. The web of desires that I have been fondly weaving so long, provedat last to be fragile and frail; hence men of firm minds learn betimes,to abandon their desires for the whole range of visible objects.

23. All those objects (ideas) that are contained in the empty space ofthe Intellect, are as precious germs safely stored in the casket ofthe mind; and appear by our misconception of them, as visible objectsplaced in the open space of air.

24. Those worlds are as the celestial cities of the siddhas, whichare situated in the air and are quite invisible to us; but these thatappear to our view, are non-entities, and mere phantoms of our fancy.

25. The heavenly abodes of the siddhas or godly souls, are feigned asteeming in gold, precious gems and rubies, with rivers yielding pearlsand fields of diamonds; they abound with victuals and eatables, andrivers running with limpid and drinkable waters.

26. They are said to abound in honey and wines, in milk and curds, inbutter and clarified butter also; there are streams of sweet beverage,and celestial nymphs in groups.

27. There fruits and flowers grow in the gardens at all seasons, andheavenly damsels sport in the bowers at all times; and all sorts ofgains and enjoyments, readily attends on the immediate desire of everybody.

28. There a hundred suns are shining, on one side, and a thousand moonson another; and some inhabitants are dressed in[Pg 858] gold and purple, whileothers are quaffing their fill of ambrosial draughts.

29. There is a spontaneous darkness in one place, and full sunshinein another, and an everlasting joy in some place; and the siddhas orperfected spirits are continually wafted as by a breeze, from one ofthese to another, with their light and ponderous bodies.

30. Some meet with their birth and death at each moment, while thereare others that live to enjoy their everlasting joys of heaven.

31. There are magnificent palaces and great dignities of all sorts; itis fraught with the delights of all seasons, and filled with whateveris desirable to mind, and delectable to the spirit.

32. But these desirable blessings, attending upon the pious deeds ofvirtuous; find no place in the quiet minds of the righteous (whichfixed divine felicity alone).

33. There is nothing that is desirable to the soul, which is devoted tothe contemplation of Brahma only; say therefore, O ye unholy, of whatgood are all these blessings, if they do not lead to divine felicity.

34. If in the beginning there was no creation at all, owing to its wantof a creator; say then what is this world, of what it is composed, andhow came it to existence.

35. If the world is not the act of causality and nothing in reality,then how does <it> appear to be existent? It is the everlasting will ofGod, that manifests itself in the manner in the Divine Mind; just as wesee the display of our rising thought and wishes in our mind.

36. It is even so, O ye simpletons, that you or I or he, come to seeour imaginary castles in the air; by the stretch of our imagination, orthe liveliness or flight of our fancy.

37. He who has the single object of divine felicity, for his solepursuit in life; comes to attain the same supreme bliss, after heforsakes his mortal body.

38. But whoso pursues after the two fold objects of heaven and heavenlybliss, by means of his religious rites and sacrifices[Pg 859] in this life;acquires both of them afterwards, as the unity of purpose secures oneonly to one.

39. The siddhas reign in the said manner, according to the thoughts intheir minds; while the unholy are doomed to the torments of hell, owingto the sinful thoughts of their minds.

40. Whatever one thinks upon, he feels the same in himself, as long ashe possesses his mortal body; and after he loses his material body, hefeels it in his mind, which is but a part of the body.

41. When a living person quits one body for another, he carries withhim the same mind into the other that he had in the prior one, and seesthe same things in its thoughts, which he was accustomed to look uponbefore.

42. A good conscience has all goodly prospects before it, as a vitiatedsoul meets with ghastly aspects on all sides; the airy mind sees onlysuch aerial shapes in its vacuity.

43. Pure souls only come to enjoy the sights of these siddha cities inthe air, but impure spirits are subjected to suffer their torments inhell.

44. There is a continual rotation of the unwieldy stones of grindingmills, for crushing the vicious souls; and the hurling of wicked intoblind wells or dark pits, out of which they can rise no more.

45. There some bodies are cast amidst the frozen snows, where they arepetrified to stones; and many are thrown into the burning coals ofdevils, or led amidst the burning sands of trackless deserts.

46. The clouds dropped down living fire, and the skies poured forthfiery showers; and red-hot bolts and arrows darted down from heaven.

47. Stones and disks and swords, were floating on the running stream ofthe sky; and falling like fragments of clouds upon the breasts of theaccurst, and breaking them as with the strokes of felling axes.

48. The hot iron sleets and brimstones, falling with a hissing[Pg 860] sound;and weapons were hurled from engines, with a loud tremendous noise.

49. Missiles and bolts and discs, together with pikes and clubs, andswords and shafts were falling in showers; and traps and tackles andmalls and mallets were striking in hundred.

50. There the hot and burning sands, buried the passengers under theground; and there burning meteors were falling like torches; whilelarge ravens were devouring the dead bodies around.

51. Blazing piles also ingulfed the dead, from which they could neverget out; while darts and spears and bolts and arrows, were piercing theother bodies all about.

52. Hunger and dismay and excruciating pains, tormented by turns, thebodies of dead apostates; while others were hurled down from high hillsand heights, on rough and hard stones below.

53. Some were weltering in blood, and rolling in pools of dirt, rottenflesh and disgusting pus; and others were crushed under stones andweapons, and beneath the feet of horses and elephants.

54. Hungry vultures and owls, were picking up and tearing the deadbodies, out of caves and places; and their limbs and members, weremangled and scattered all over the ground.

55. It is thus that men are prepossessed, with these thoughts of thepunishment of their guilt, from the sacred writings; and thereby cometo suffer the same, both in their bodies and minds, from their inwardimpressions of them.

56. Whatever form or figure, ever appears in the vacuum of theIntellect; or whatsoever is dreamt or thought of at anytime; the sameholds fast the imagination, and presents itself before the mirror ofthe mind of its own accord.

Argument:—Manifestations of the self-existent Intellect. Itslight guiding to Divine knowledge, and ignorance thereof leadingto darkness.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether these various events incidental tothe lives of the hermit and hunter, were owing to any cause, or oftheir own spontaneity (i.e. whether they were the effects ofany cause, or of their spontaneous occurrence as mere dreams andphantasies).

2. Vasishtha replied:—These occurrences are as the appearance ofeddies, in the vast ocean of the unknown soul (or mind); and are knownto be in their continual rotation in the vortex of the soul, of theirown accord and in their airy forms.

3. As the oscillating particles of air, are ever in motion in theair; so the current of thoughts is continually in action, in the vastvacuity of intellect (or mind).

4. Whatever issues from its source in any shape, retains its originalform unless it is converted to and restrained in any other form; sothe aerial thoughts of the vacuous mind are always aerial, unless theyare drawn in painting or exhibited in another form. (Just so a clod ofearth is always the earth, till it is moulded to the form of a pot orany other thing).

5. It is the vacuous essence of the Divine Intellect, that inheresin every form that is exhibited by and derived from it; so it is thesubstance of the body, that permits through out all its members andlimbs; as it is the woody substance of the tree, that is diffusedthrough all the leaves and branches, that shoot forth from it. (Gloss.The difference consists in the permanence of the permeating principle,and the temporiety of the pervaded growth).

6. Brahma appears to remain permanent in some existences, as in thefour elemental forms of earth etc.; while he seems to be transcient andevanescent in others, as in the frail bodies of[Pg 862] mortal bodies, all ofwhich abide in their aerial state in the vacuous spirit.

7. All these various objects therefore, being but reflections of theIntellect impressed upon the soul; it is impossible for us to determinewhich of these is substantial or unsubstantial or real or unreal.

8. All these are altogether unknowable except that we know them asreflexions in the inanity of the Intellect; say ye therefore that arewholly ignorant of all what you think this visible world to be, whethera reality or unreality.

9. Whatever you behold anywhere in the universe, is but an exhibitionin the vacuum of the Divine Intellect; and what avails it to you thatknow the truth, whether you believe it as such or not. Rely thereforein your belief of it as it is.

10. These forms of reflexions rise of themselves in the Divine Mind,as the waves and billows exhibit themselves on the surface of thesea; they are the spontaneous offspring of the Divine Spirit, and areof themselves both their causes as well as effects (or self causedeffects).

11. It is the display of the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind,that passed under the appellations of its will or volition, or itsimagination and creation, or the creation of its imagination; hencethis world is to be understood under any one of these senses, and notof its being composed of earth and water.

12. It is this appearance of the Divine Mind, that appears in thismanner and nothing besides; it is the Divine itself that resides in theDivinity, and passes under the title of Avidyá or Ignorance, from ourignorance of its nature.

13. There is no material grossness in the integrity of the DivineIntellect; which is purely vacuous and immaterial; and composes thewhole universe, this is transcendental knowledge, and its perfection isliberation.

14. It is the reflexion of the vacuous Intellect, which spreads overthe whole universe; it is rare and uncompressed, and ever calm andquiet, and passes by the name of the world.

15. The meditative man whose eye-sight is fixed in his[Pg 863] musing, whosebody is emaciated in devotion, and whose mind is abstracted from theconcrete, and is absorbed in intellection, is only capable of seeingthe Intellectual world.

16. Whatever the vacuous essence of the intellect, exhibits in any format any place; the same appears to be present there of its own nature.

17. The unthinking man and unreasonable soul, sees only erroneoussights in the midst of skies; as one who is dim-sighted and purblind bybirth, does not cease from seeing the double moon in the sky.

18. Whatever is seen anywhere, is no other than the unpolluted Brahmahimself; and the vacuous sphere of the Intellect being for ever clearand transparent, is never sullied by any foulness (of gross matter).

19. The intellect without forsaking its pure form ofself-consciousness, exhibits varieties of gross objects in the form ofdreams within itself. So also is our consciousness of the world, in themanner of our dreams.

20. By comparing the dicta of the sástras with one another, andweighing them well with acute judgement, one will find his rest inhimself; but the man of shallow understanding will not find it so.

21. The ignorance which floats upon the sea of your understanding, doesnot contaminate my mind, in the manner of dirt polluting a pure andclear stream.

22. As there is neither the earth nor any earthly thing, to be met within our sleep, though we are conscious of them in our dream; so also thephenomenal world has no real existence, though we are conscious of itin our waking.

23. As the clearness of the Intellect, like sunlight or flaming fire,shows us many things in our sleeping dreams, so doth its light exhibitthe visibles to our view in our waking dreams also by day.

24. There is no difference between the two states of dreaming andwaking, they are both of the same nature, and the difference lies inthe modes of our apprehension of them.

[Pg 864]

25. The waking man never apprehends his waking state to be a dream; butthe dead man that rises again to life in the next world, thinks hispast life to have been but a state of dreaming.

26. The shortness and length of time, occupied by the two statesof dreaming and waking, is generally considered to constitute thedifference between them; but during the time of their presence, theyare both considered alike the other (i.e. the dreaming manthinks himself as waking).

27. The sleeping and waking dreams, bearing alike the same quality ofpresenting false objects to view, are necessarily of the same nature;and there is no difference whatever in their outward features, as thereis neither elder and younger of two twin brothers. (Dreaming and wakingare twin brothers, like sleep and death neither of which is more orless).

28. Whatever is the waking dream, just so is the waking in dream also;neither of which leaves anything—being, behind the two states ofwaking and dreaming. (They present many things when present, but leavenothing lasting in their absence or when they are past and gone).

29. As we know the inconstancy of hundreds of dreams, all along thelength of our life time; so the unredeemed and unenlightened soul, seeshundreds of waking states (in its repeated transmigrations in life,i.e. in this living world).

30. As the living mortals may well recollect the very many sleepingdreams, they have seen throughout their lives; so the immortalizedsouls of siddhas well remember, the number of waking dreams which theyhad seen, in their past transmigrations in different bodies.

31. Thus our waking is equipollent with our dreaming, and our dreamsare equivalent with waking, in their correlation with one another inlike quality, and our perception of both alike.

32. As the word worlds and phenomenal, are significant of the one andsame meaning; so the terms dreaming and waking are hom*onymous, andinterchangeable to one another—mutatis mutandis.

[Pg 865]

33. As the fairy-land in a dream, is as clear as the open space of theIntellect; so is this world an inane void and blank, and without thegrossness of avidyá which ignorance imputes to it. (Ignoranceviews the fair ideal world as a foul material one).

34. The world is a vacuous substance, and represented as a gross stuffby ignorance; so I am as free as air and any airy thing in the world,and it is my imagination only, that binds me to my grossness.

35. Therefore do not confine your free and unconfined nature, inthe bondage of gross matter; and never change the pure vacuum ofyour person to a material stuff, nor disfigure your formless andintellectual self in a gross and finite form.

36. There can be no bondage nor liberation, of aught whatever in thisvisible world of our ignorance or avidyá; because all thingsherein are mere reflexions of the formless void of the Divine Intellect.

37. Here there is no display of ignorance, nor any misconceptions ofours of any thing; there is neither any bondage nor release of aughtwhatever, and nothing that is either existent or inexistent (since allare but reflexions of Divine Intellect).

38. There is nescience, nor knowing of anything here by us; because itis the uncreated Intellect alone, that manifests itself in this manner;it reflects all forms in itself, as if they are all its dreams orcreations.

39. As a man passing from one place to another, has his mind kept inabeyance in the interim; so should we keep our minds quiet and stillbetwixt our sight of the visibles and our dreams. (In action of themind is reckoned as nirvána).

40. As one has his body and mind, quite quiet and calm in his sleep atnight; and in the respite of his sights and thoughts, in the states ofhis waking and dreaming; this very state of insensibility is callednirvána of the yogi.

41. Know our knowledge of the difference of objects (as the one isimmaterial and the other material), is equally untrue as that ofour waking and dreaming states; because it is impossible[Pg 866] for us toconceive any other thing as matter, to consist in the immaterialIntellect.

42. Our knowledge of identity and diversity, proceed however from thesame vacuous intellect; which combines the unity and duality also, inunbroken union or harmony in itself.

43. Knowing all as parts of undivided whole, all these are the samewhatever they appear to be; hence the visible however diversified theymay appear, are all one and the same principle.

44. Hence the etherial sphere of Brahma, contains all in itself; andwho as an aerial point concentrates all in it; and the creation is theunity of Brahma, together with all its varieties.

45. Knowing all things as full of God, you must however reject them all(as mere reflexions of the Deity); and rest yourself at last in thevacuous Intellect, as the great rock of your refuge.

46. Now, O fortunate Ráma, remain to act in conformity with the rulesof your order, and laws of society and the statues of your positionand dignity; continue to go on, eat and drink and rest in your usualcourse, rely in your desired object, and ever recline in the gloriousand holy lord of your intellect, and the supreme God of all.

Argument:—Here Duality is reduced to the unity of Brahma; andgood counsels given for subversion of ignorance.

Vasishtha continued:—All objects being convertible to the conceptionsof the vacuous intellect, the whole universe is supposed to have itsseat in the hollow mind; and therefore both the outward sights ofthings, as also the inward thoughts of their forms, are all but idealimages in the empty mind.

2. The world being but a dream, and of the form of an ideal city in themind, has nothing substantial in it; and is therefore a quiet vacuityin itself, without having anything of any kind, or any diversitywhatsoever contained therein.

3. It is the uniform display of the Intellect, appearing as multiformunto us; and this variety though unsubjective to the soul, is lookedupon by it within itself, as we view the fairy-land of our dream,rising from ourselves. (Query:—whether our dreams are subjective orobjective to us?)

4. In the beginning this world appeared, as the aerial castle of adream in the vacuum of the Intellect; it was a mere reflexion of theDivine Mind, and though it was of the form of a false shadow, remainedas substantive to the supreme spirit.

5. The knowing theosophist well knows this mystery, which is mysteriousto the unknowing ignorant; because the word creation bears the sense ofboth the reality as well as unreality in it.

6. The knowing spiritualist as well as the unknowing agnostic, bothacknowledge the reality of creation; but they can neither understandhow it exists, nor communicate to one another their right conception ofit.

7. They both know the meaning, of the word creation in their minds; theone having the sense of its sedateness ever[Pg 868] wakeful in their minds(from their spiritual view of it); and the other having the senseof its unsteadiness always waking in them (from their sight of thechangeful scenes of the outer world); so they resemble the sober anddrunken men, that view the world in its steady and shaking states.

8. As the liquid waters in a river, rise incessantly in restless waves;so the rolling worlds, push forward into being, in the vast expanse ofthe Divine Mind.

9. These creations which are not of the nature of the intellect, haveyet their sites in the Intellect, like the thoughts that rise and fallin it; and these though they are invisible in their nature, appear asvisible things, like the fair objects and fairy cities in our dream.

10. It is spreading shadow of the divine Intellect, which pass underthe name of the world; and this formless in itself, appears as having aform, like the shadow of anything else.

11. It is a gross error, to take the unsubstantial shadow for asubstantial body; as it is a gross error to suppose the empty shadow ofa ghost as an embodied being.

12. The world is as unreal as an imaginary city, and as false as astring of rain drops; why then do you rely in an unreality, which ispalpable from the testimonies of both the ignorant and knowing men.

13. The words then that are used to express this thing and that, aremere empty sounds, as those emitted by a splitting block of wood or abamboo; or those heard in the dashing of waves or blowing of winds; itis the current air which conveys the empty sound into the open vacuumof the sky, but they are all unreal and meaningless, and bear but aconventional sense, with which it has no connection whatsoever.

14. It is light of the lord that reflects itself in his creation, andthe reflexion of his fiat that reverberates through the whole;while in reality there is neither any sound nor substance, that is tobe heard or seen in the universe (except the voice and the sight of theLord).

15. Whatever shines or exists herein, is the transcendent realityof the Lord; otherwise there is nothing that could[Pg 869] appear at firstwithout its cause (all being but parts of the one undivided whole—topan).

16. Therefore from (thy knowledge of) the distinctions of words andthings; know the one as all in all, and remain as quiet and calm as theindefinite and infinite void itself.

17. Forsake the fickleness of thy mind, by means of the calm repose ofthy soul; the purity of thy understanding, and by an even tenor of thydisposition; because an inconstant soul is troublesome in life.

18. It is one’s self that is a friend or enemy to himself, and if onewill not try to guard and save himself by his own self, there is noother to do so for him. (He who is no friend to himself, is his ownenemy himself).

19. Get over the ocean of the world while you are young, and make yourgood understanding the ferry boat, to bear your body safely to theother shore.

20. Do what is good for you today, and why defer till tomorrow; you cando nothing in oldage, when your body becomes a burden to yourself.

21. Know your<self> as oldage (if it is fraught with learning); andaccount decrepitude as death itself in your lifetime. Youth is verilythe life of the living, provided it is fraught with learning.

22. Having obtained thy life in this living world, which is astransient as the fleeting lightning; you must try to derive the essencefrom this dirty earth, by availing yourself of the benefit of goodsástras and the company of the wise.

23. Woe to the ignorant! that will not seek their salvation in life;that are sinking in the pits of mud and mire; and never striving tolift themselves above them.

24. As the ignorant rustic is afraid at the sight of the earthen imagesof ghosts, and bends down to them; which those that are acquainted withthe meaning of the word ghost never do.

25. So those that see God in an idol or in his visible creation, aremisled to think it their god and adore it as such; but[Pg 870] those that knowthe true meaning of the term, never pay their adoration to any visibleobject.

26. As things in motion come to rest afterwards, and the visibledisappear from the sight of the learned, who are acquainted with theirtrue meaning. (The world recedes, and the light of God opens to theirview).

27. As the sights in a dream, seeming to be true in the state ofdreaming, disperse at last upon waking, and upon the knowledge of theirunreal nature.

28. So doth this world, which is conceived as something existing in thevacuum of the understanding; melts at last into empty air and nothing,upon our knowledge of its intellectual nature.

29. This living world is as a wilderness, burning with theconflagration of various evils attendant on life; and here we areexposed as weak antelopes, living upon our precarious sustenances; andhere we are governed by our ungovernable minds and restless passionsand senses of our bodies; all these require to be subdued in order toobtain our liberation from repeated births and deaths.

Argument:—Government of the senses and fixedness of the Mind,and the study of yoga sástra.

Ráma rejoined:—I know sir, all knowledge to be in vain and useless,without proper government of ourselves and senses; tell me thereforehow these may be kept under control, in order to give us the trueknowledge of things unbiased by the senses.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Addictedness to enjoyments and display ofmanhood, and devotedness to the acquisition of the means of life orwealth; are preventives of self-controul and liberation of one’s self,as blindness is an obstruction to one’s sight of a light.

3. Then listen to this least advice of mine as the shortest and bestmeans, for the government of yourself and your senses; and this is sureto lead one to his successfulness, by his own endeavour and with notoil or trouble.

4. Know the intellect as the man that mans you, and its power ofintellection which makes you a living man; and whatever the livingsoul thinks of within itself, it verily becomes the very same (but theignorant man becomes effeminate).

5. Let the strength of your consciousness, ply the pointed goad ofyour acute good sense; and you will doubtless subdue your ungovernableelephantine mind, and come off victorious shortly at last.

6. The mind is the captain of the army of your bodily and mentalsenses; subdue therefore this leading mind, and you will conquer thewhole host of your senses. Just so does a man walking on boots, treadover the thorns lying by his way.

7. [In order therefore to subdue your mind], you must settle yourself-consciousness in your consciousness of the omnipresent[Pg 872] vacuum ofthe Divine soul, and rest yourself quiet in the recess of your heart;and then your mind will sit quiet of itself, as the snows of wintersettle down of themselves in autumn.

8. Thus by stopping the action of your consciousness, you willalso shut up your mind, and put a stop to the operation of all itsfaculties; as you can never been able to do by means of all yourdevotion and austerities, your pilgrimages, your knowledge andsacrifice, and all other ceremonies and acts and duties.

9. Whatever comes to occur in the consciousness, the same must beforgot or buried in the consciousness of the great God alone; and sothe forgetfulness of all enjoyments and their objects, amounts to ourvictory over them. (The way to overcome the pleasures of life, is tobury their remembrance in oblivion).

10. We must try by all means, to shut out the objects of sense fromour consciousness; and this state of our unconsciousness of them, istantamount to the state of godliness or heavenly bliss.

11. Again the contentment which arises, from our acting in conformitywith the rules of our order, is another cause of preserving thesteadiness of the mind; therefore remain firm in the practice of yourparticular duties, and seek no happiness besides.

12. He who relinquishes his inclination, towards the attainment ofwhat is unlawful for him; and remains content with earning his lawfulgains, is verily said to be a man of subdued appetites, and one who hasgoverned.

13. He who is pleased with his inward and conscious gratification, andis not grieved at the unpleasant things all about him, is said to havewell governed and benumbed his mind.

14. By suspension of the action of consciousness, the mind too comes toforget and forsake its activity, and the sensations also being relaxedfrom their restlessness, pursue their discrimination and judgement.

15. The discriminative and judging soul, becomes ennobled andmagnanimous, and keeps its command over the feelings and[Pg 873] senses; andis not impelled by the waves of its desires, to be tossed about on thesurface of the wide ocean of this world.

16. The man of well governed senses comes, by his association with thewise, and his constant study of religious works, to know all things inthe world in their true light.

17. All worldly errors are dispelled by the light of truth; or elseone must fall into the pit of misery, by his mistake of falsehood fortruth; as the ignorant traveller is ingulfed in the dreary sands, byhis mistake of the mirage for water.

18. Knowing this world as the unknowable intellect itself, that is theknowledge of the material world as the immaterial mind of God; is thetrue light in which the cosmos is viewed by the wise, who have neitherthe fear of their falling into the snare of error, nor require theirrelease from it.

19. As the dried up waters of a river, are seen no more to glide evenslightly in their course; so the formless phenomenals of the world,never appear in the sight of the wise, nor leave their slightestvestiges behind in their mind.

20. The knowledge of the world as an infinite void, and freed from theerroneous individualities of myself and thyself; leads to the knowledgeof a supreme-self, which is apart from all, and the only ego that fillsthe whole.

21. All this conception of our subjective egoism and the objectiveworld, are but errors of our brain proceeding from ignorance; they areall situated in the void of Intellect, and are void of themselves; andall bodies are but empty shadows in air, and as quiet as quietus ornullity itself.

22. This world appears as a shadow of the Intellect, in the vacuityof the very Intellect; it is a void amidst the void of the Intellect,which is certainly a void itself.

23. No body can deny its similitude, to the shadowy sight in a dream;it is an unreal notion, and as unsubstantial as all notions can be, andas the notion of a void is void itself.

24. This dream is no other than our consciousness of it, and the airyrealms that it presents to our view for the time; so doth the Intellectshow us the sight of the world, without any action or passion orinstrumentality of itself.

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25. So I am of the substance of the very Intellect, which is withoutit* activity, passivity and instrumentality; and the world beingunassignable to any causality or instrumentality, subsists only in oursimple conception of it.

26. As the conception of one’s death in a dream, is no reality atall; and the sight of water in the mirage, is a visual deception only(so the sight of the world appearing to view, is no real existence orentity at all).

27. The vacuous intellect reflects its thoughts at first, in the clearmirror of its vacuity (or concavity); which is a mere hap-hazard ofchance, and has no firm base or support (nor any form or figure ofitself).

28. The world appears as fixed and firm, without its foundationanywhere; and seems to be shining brightly, with its darksome opacity;know then this fixity and this brightness of it, to be the diuturnityand glory of the eternal and glorious God.

29. The vivacity of living beings, displays the spirit of the everliving God; the air is his vacuity, and the running waters, show thevortiginous current of the eternal soul.

30. As every member of the body is constituent part of the whole frame;so all the various parts of animated and inanimate nature, constitutethe entirety of the one cosmical deity. (These are but parts of oneundivided whole, whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).

31. As the crystal mirror shows the shade of everything in itself, sodoth the transparency of Divine soul, exhibit the reflexions of allthings in it; the silent soul is as quiet as the mute crystal, butshows the varying scenes of nature, as interminably as a clear mirrorreflects everything.

32. There is no beginning or end of the supreme being (nor of his actsand attributes, which are displayed in nature); it is the intermediateof the two that is dimly seen by us, the rest is all enveloped inignorance, though there is no ignorance in the Omniscient.

33. The living soul wakes from its sleeping dream, to fall back to itswaking dream again; and thus it continues for ever[Pg 875] in its dreamingwhether waking or sleeping which are both alike to it.

34. The soul finds its rest only, while it remains in the fourth stateof its sound sleep; or else it passes all along from dreaming todreaming, in both its state of sleeping and waking, which continuallyhaunt after it, unless it is drowned in its susupti or soundsleep of hynotism, the only resort of the wise.

35. But waking and sleeping and dreaming and sound sleep, are all aliketo the enlightened soul; which is equally indifferent in all states,and whether it is asleep or awake, is never infested by dreams nor setbeside itself.

36. The knowledge of unity or duality, and that of Ego and tu orthe subjective and objective; never disturbs the enlightened; who viewsthe whole as an empty void, and is alike insensible of all as well asnull.

37. The distinction of unity and duality, made in the meaninglessspeech of the unwise, is laughed at by the enlightened and wise, as theaged and intelligent men laugh to scorn, at the pranks and prattlingsof young lads.

38. The controversy of unity and duality, is of spontaneous growth inthe heart like an indigenious plant; which without its pruning will notput forth its blossoms, to perfume the atmosphere of the understanding.

39. The discussion of unity and duality, is as benificial to man ashis best friend; in sweeping away the dirt and dross of ignorance fromtheir minds, as they drive away the dust from within the doors of theirhouses.

40. Then the minds of men are settled in the Divine Mind, when thereensues a mutual communion between themselves, and a communication andparticipation of their reciprocal joys and felicity with one another.

41. These men being always joined together in their fellowship, andserving one another with the mutual delight and obligingness oftheir hearts; attain to that state of the enlightenment of theirunderstandings, whereby they are admitted into their communion with theMost High.

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42. It is possible for a man to be benefited, even by his carefulpreservation of a trifle (at some time or other); but it is neverpossible for any body, to attain the most recondite knowledge of God,without his diligent inquiry into the same.

43. Whatever highest position one may enjoy in this material world, isto be recognised by all as nothing, provided that one does not remainaloof from all kind of vices.

44. What is that happiness which is gained by the possession of akingdom, which at last is no better than mere botheration of the mind;while the mind that has gained its peace and tranquility in truth andDivine knowledge, spurns at the state of gods and kings as mere strawsto him.

45. The sleepy as well as the wakeful, are alike apt to see thevisibles, and are rapt with the sight; but the saints that are calm andquiet and at rest with themselves, are averse to sight-seeing, and seethe only one in themselves.

46. Without painstaking, and your continued practice of contemplation,you can not succeed to attain this state of infinite felicity; for knowthis state of transcendent bliss, is the fruit of intense devotion only.

47. Thus have I said at length, to impress in you the necessity ofintense devotion; but to what good is all this say the evil-minded tome, and thus slight and take no heed of all that I have been so longdelivering unto you.

48. It must be by means of steady attention to these lectures, andby long and repeated practice of devotion; as also by hearing thesesermons and discoursing upon them that the ignorant can come to theright light of truth.

49. He who having once read this spiritual work, slights it afterwardsas already perused by him; and turns to the study of unspiritual books,is a vile wretch that collects the burnt ashes after the fire isextinguished. (Irreligious works are the ashes of the fiery religiousones).

50. This excellent work is to be read always, like the recital of thevedas, which are embodied herein; and this is calculated to reward thelabor of the student, by its being constantly read with reverence, andrightly explained with diligence.

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51. The student will learn from this sástra all that he expectsto find in the vedas; because it embodies both the practical as well asspiritual doctrines of the sacred scriptures, and a knowledge of bothof them, is available by proper perusal of this work.

52. By learning this book, one may have a knowledge of the doctrinesof the vedánta, tarka and siddhánta sástras, because this isthe only work, that treats of the tenets of all schools. (Here theword drishti is hom*onymous with darsana, which is rendered as aschool of philosophy by Colebrooke).

53. It is from my sympathy for you all, that I propound these doctrinesto you; and by way of imposture, that I impose these lessons on yourcredulity. You are best judges of my discourse and can well detect,whether there is anything as deception in my prolusions.

54. The knowledge that you may derive, by weighing well theinstructions given in this great work; will serve you as salt, in orderto season and relish the teachings of other sástras, that are atbest but sundry dishes before it.

55. The materialist who is conversant with the visibles, disparagesthis book for its occult teachings of spiritualism; but don’t you bethe killer of your souls as to neglect your eternal salvation, in orderto revisit this material world, and to be busied with your temporalaffairs.

56. Biased minds cling to the dogmas of exploded systems, and ignoblemen drink the foul water of tanks, dug by their ancestors; you arereasoning men yourselves, therefore do not remain for ever fast boundto your ignorance.

Argument:—Intromission of the Living soul and all bodies, thatis the subjective and objective into the Divine Essence.

Vasishtha continued:—The atoms of living souls in the world, are asthe particles of rays in the orb of the sun (or as the sparks of firein a furnace); and as all these parts taken collectively, make the oneundivided whole; so there is no division of the unity of the Deity,throughout the whole creation.

2. By attaining the transcendental knowledge of all being the One, andthe One as all; every thing loses its shape and form before us, andthere remains nothing whatever as a distinct being or duality.

3. The true believer or knower of truth, sees the self-same objectin all states and forms of things; and this is the transcendent andtranslucent Brahma only, and nothing else whatsoever at any time.

4. He is the same, that is known to the ignorant, as their objectsof sense; but we do not recognize either ourselves or others, or thesensible objects of the ignorant as such.

5. The belief of the ignorant man in the reality of himself, thyselfand all others, does not affect the knower of truth, as the delusionof mirage never overtakes the man on Mount Meru: (where the deceptivesands of the deserts are wanting).

6. As the man intent upon one object, has no consciousness of anyother thing in his mind; so one enrapt at the sight of God alone, isconscious of nothing besides.

7. There neither is nor was nor shall ever be, any such thing as thematerial world at any time; the world in esse is the image ofBrahma himself, and abides in his spirit.

8. The world is the splendour of the chrystalline vacuum of the DivineIntellect, and subsists in the vacuity of the supreme[Pg 879] soul itself; itis in this light that the universe is seen in the dhyána yoga orabstruse contemplation of <the> yogi.

9. As there is nothing in an empty dream or in the aerial castle ofimagination except the clear atmosphere of the Intellect; so there isno essence or substance nor form or figure of this world, that we viewin our present waking state.

10. At first there was no creation of any kind, nor this world whichappears to us (in its material form); it exists in its aerial formin the Divine Mind from all eternity; and there being no primary orsecondary cause of it, how is it possible to call it a material thingof its own spontaneous growth.

11. Therefore there is nothing that sprang itself out of nothing atfirst, nor was there ever a creator called Brahmá or other by theignorant, in the beginning; there is nothing but an infinite void frometernity to eternity, which is filled by the self-born or increatespirit, whose intellect exhibits this creation, contained for ever andever in its vacuity.

Argument:—The steadiness of the Intellect in waking andDreaming, which are alike to one another.

Vasishtha continued:—In the state of waking dream the dream passesunder the name of waking; and in the state of dreaming wakefulness,this waking goes by the name of sleeping.[2]

2. The dream terminates into waking, and the waking man rises from hisdreaming, and falls back into it again; so one awakened from his dreamlike waking, falls afterwards to his waking dreams.

3. The dream of the waking dreamer, is to be called a dream also, asthe waking dream of this world; and so the waking (or consciousness) ofthe sleeping waker, is to be styled his waking state.

4. Therefore that wakefulness (or consciousness) of one, remainsin his dreaming state, is to be called his waking likewise and not hisdreaming; so also the waking dream (of the existence of the world),and the imaginations of airy castles while one is waking, is to bedesignated his dreaming and never as his waking.

5. Whatever lasts for a short while, as a temporary delusion or flightof imagination, passes under the name of a dream even in one’s wakingstate; and so the short watchfulness of consciousness in the state ofdreaming, is known as dreaming and never as waking.

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6. Therefore there is no difference whatever, between the two statesof waking and dreaming, beside the absence of one of these two in theother (i.e. the absence of shortness in waking, and that ofdurability in the dream). Again they are both unreal, owing to theirblending with one another (i.e. dreaming blended with the viewof the phenomenals in waking; and the wakeful consciousness blendingwith dreaming).

7. The waking dream of the world, vanishes under its unconsciousness indeath; and the consciousness of dreaming is lost, under the knowledgeof its being an airy nothing. (The world recedes as heaven opens toview. Pope).

8. The dying person that does not come to perceive the vanity of thevisionary world at his death-bed can have no sight of the state of hiswaking (or resurrection), in the next or future world.

9. Whoever believing himself as alive, among the varying scenes of thisvacuous world, lives content with them; he can never come to the sightof the visions, which await upon him.

10. As the intellect displays its wonders, in the exhibitions of thevarious scenes of worlds, to the sight of one in his dream; so doththis universe appear before the minds of men, at the time of theirwaking.

11. These creations which are so conspicuous to sight, are at best butnothing in their transcendental light and all the forms of things, areas the empty shadows of them appearing in our dreams.

12. As the world with all its varieties of visible objects, appear inits inane and shadowy form in the dream; so it is seen in its vacuousand intellectual form only, in our waking state (although it seems tobe tangible body).

13. It is the nature of the vacuous Intellect, to show the form of theworld in its own firmament; so doth this earth appear unto us, amidstthe spacious atmosphere, like the orbs of light in the skies.

14. It is the wondrous display of the Intellect, that shines beforeus under the name of universe; and these wonders are as[Pg 882] inborn andinnumerable in itself, as the watery and earthly particles, are connatewith, and diffused throughout nature.

15. What thing is there in it, which you can mistake for a reality inthis unreal world; that is situated as a vacuous body in the infinitewomb of vacuity.

16. The words recipient, receipt and reception, or the percipient,perceived and perception (i.e. the subject, object andattribute), are all meaningless with regard to this vacuous world; andwhether it is a reality or unreality, we have no perception of it.(Because the presence of everything is lost, at the absence of itsproperties, which are adscititious only).

17. Whether it is so or not or be it anything otherwise (as othersmay have it); yet why should mistake it for anything at all, inwhatever light you take it, it will amount to your mistake of anempty ball for a fruit (so says the vedánta:—जगद्ब्रह्म स्वरूपत्वात्प्रागभाब तथा प्रध्रंसाभाब एबं अन्यान्य भाबानाम दुर्निरूप्यत्वात् केबलात्यन्ताभाबोऽस्ति ।).

Argument:—Definition of supreme soul and its synonyms and itssimile to a blue stone.

Vasishtha continued:—The true sense of the word soul or self, is tobe understood from the title which is applied to it; and this title ofthe soul is borne out by the simile, of the solid and transparent bluestone.

2. It is from the beginning of creation, that the vacuous soul isthus diffused in itself; and the reflexion which it casts in its ownvacuity, the same passes under the name of this world or creation.

3. There runs no river in it, nor there rises nor sinks any rock in thesame; it is the mere vacuum subsisting in its infinite void, whereinthe intellect reflects itself without any action or bidding or fiat ofit.

4. This reflexion of the Divine Intellect, was without its utterance of“word” and quite without its “will” or “thought”. It was also withoutthe appliance of any subsequent material (as matter), and this is thetrue sense of the word soul or self.

5. The soul itself is the whole world, which has no other expressionfor it; and being devoid of a name, it is expressible by no other namethough they give many names to it.

6. Its name being nameless, whatever appellation they put to it, is notopposite but inappropriate to it; what is the good therefore of givingit a name or no name at all.

7. Its namelessness or giving it a misnomer or improper expression, isall the same; since all what is visible, is no other than a display ofthe wondrous fabric of the Divine Mind.

8. Whatever shines in any manner, in the empty space of the Divine mindat any time; the same shines forth even then[Pg 884] and in that manner, asthe rays of that Intellect (emanating therefrom, and concentrating intoall other minds).

9. It is denominated by one as soul, by another as asat, and bysome as nothing; all these are the mystery of intellect only, but infact, all are the attributes of soul.

10. The word itself conveys the meaning of self—soul. It is withoutbeginning and end, and no language can express it; in fact, it is anundivided whole.

11. Now listen to a long narrative which hangs on this subject, andwhich will serve to gladden your hearts and ears, by removing theduality from your sight, and by enlightening your understanding (withknowledge of the unity).

12. Know that there is a very large crystal stone, extending itself tothousands of leagues in space; and stretching like the solid ceruleanfabric of the firmament, or as the blue sky all around us.

13. It is all of a piece without any joining of parts in it, and is asdense and compact as the hard adamant; it is thick, big and bulky inits size, but at the same time as clear and far as the face of the sky.

14. It continues from countless times, and endures to endless duration;and with its comely and pellucid body, it appears as the clearfirmament, or the blank vacuum on high.

15. No one ever knows its nature or genus, from his having never seenanything of the same kind, nor does any body know from when and where,it hath come to existence. (All know it is, but none knows how andwhence it is).

16. It does not contain anything substantial, as the material elementswithin itself; and yet it is as dense and solidified in itself as acrystalline, and indissoluble as an adamant.

17. Yet it is composed of innumerable streaks and strokes, which areembodied in itself; and these resemble the veins and fibres on lotusleaves, and the marks of conches etc. in Hari’s feet.

18. These marks are named as air, water, earth, fire and vacuum, thoughthere are no such things to be found therein;[Pg 885] except that the stonewas possest living soul, which it imparted to its marks.

19. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how that stone of yours, could havelife or sensibility in it; the stone is an insensible thing, and couldnot give names to the marks on its body.

20. Vasishtha replied:—That immense and luminous stone, is neither asentient nor inert body; no body knows its nature and state, and thereis no other like it.

21. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks, which areimprinted in the bosom of that stone; and how could any one ever breakthat stone, in order to see its contents and its marks.

22. Vasishtha replied:—It is hard to break this hard stone, nor hasanybody been ever able to break it; by cause of its extending overinfinite space, and encompassing all bodies within its bosom. (Sosays the sruti:—There is nothing but is encompassed by it—the allpervading soul).

23. It is full of numberless spots in its spacious cavity; and theseconsist of the marks of mountains and trees, and of countries, townsand cities.

24. There are also small and large dots in it, with any form or figureof them; but serve to represent the forms of men, and gods and demigodsin them, as an outline shows the images of things.

25. There is a long line drawn in it in the form of a circle, whichrepresents the great circle of the visible sky or horizon; and thiscontains the two central points, signifying the sun and moon.

26. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks of such forms;and how it is possible for any body, to look into the cell of a solidor hollow ball.

27. Vasishtha replied:—It is I, O Ráma, that beheld those marks ofdifferent forms in that impenetrable block; and it is possible for youto look into it, if you will but like to do so.

28. Ráma said:—How could you sir, look into those marks inside thatsolid stone, which you say, is as stiff as adamant, and incapable ofbeing broken or perforated by any means.

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29. Vasishtha replied:—It was by means of my being seated, in thevery heart of that stone; that I came to see those marks, as also topenetrate into their meanings.

30. Who else is able to penetrate into that rigid stone beside myself,who have been able by my penetration, to pry and pierce into themysteries of those hidden marks.

31. Tell me sir, what is that stone and what are you yourself; explainto me where you are and what you are speaking, and what are thosethings that you have seen and known to mean.

32. Vasishtha replied:—It is the supreme soul, which is the soleentity and sober reality; and this is represented by figure of speech,as the great stone, of which I have been speaking to you.

33. We are all situated in the cavity of this supreme spirit, and thethree worlds form the flesh of this Great being, who is devoid of allsubstantiality.

34. Know the spacious firmament to be a part of this solid rock, andthe ever flying winds as fragment of its body; the fleeting time andevanescent sounds together with all our varying actions and desires,and the imaginations of our minds, to be but the fugacious particles ofits substance.

35. The earth, air, water and fire, and the vacuum and understandingalso, together with our egoism and sensibilities, are the portions andsections of its totality.

36. We are all but bits and parcels of the great rock of the supremesoul, and every thing whatever there is in existence, proceeds fromthat source, and we know of no other cause or causality whatsoever.

37. This large stone is the great rock of Divine Intellect, and thereis nothing whatever, which is beside and beyond its intelligence. Saythen if there be any such thing and what it bears.

38. All things are but mere notions of them, as those of a pot or cot,a picture and all others; they appear in us as our dreams, and risebefore us as the waves of water (which are no other but water).

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39. It is all the substance of Brahma and the essence of the greatIntellect, which fills and pervades the whole; know therefore all theseas one, with the substantiality of the Supreme spirit, and all as quietand calm as itself.

40. Thus all this plenum is situated, in the bosom of the great rockof the intellect; which is without its beginning, middle and end, andwithout any hole therein, or doorway thereto. Therefore it is theSupreme soul only which contemplates in itself, and produces (as theobject of its thought), this ideal creation of the universe (or the oneconverted into many), and which passes under the title of the visibleor phenomenal world.

Argument:—Refutation of the four fold Appellations of the World,and the three fold states of the Living soul.

Vasishtha continued:—The four titles, namely, the self-styled, themisnamed, the nameless, and the otherwise named, under which theworld passes in their different senses; are all meaningless to thespiritualist (who view the world in its spiritual light, and asselfsame with the Supreme spirit, as it is related in the precedingchapter).

2. These different words do not disturb the mind of the spiritualist,whose soul is at rest in the Supreme spirit, and who pays no regard tothe use of words (or terminology of theology).

3. All these visibles rise from the Intellect only, and bear no namesof their own; they are of the nature of pure vacuum, and appear unto usin their simple vacuous forms (as phantoms in the air).

4. This is the soul, and this its title (that is giving a name to anameless spiritual thing), is an erroneous conceit or coinage of thebrain. The spirit admits of no expressions; therefore take heed of noword but mind its meaning.

5. Whatever appears to be moving or staying or doing any action, is ascalm and clear as the void air, and devoid of action as the Divine soul.

6. All things however sounding, are as silent as the still stone saidbefore; and though they seem to be ever moving, they are ever as quietas the void of the sky, and as still as the quiescent stone.

7. Though all things appear to be acting in their various ways, yetthey are as motionless as the unmoving vacuum; and though the worldappears to be formed of the five elements, yet it is but a void anddevoid of its quintessence.

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8. The world with its fulness of things, is but a congeries of yourconceptions; it is full with the all pervasive and pellucid Intellect,which shows the visions of great cities, like the vacant sights in ourdream (or as a dumb and shadowy show, without any sound or substance init).

9. It is full of action and motion, without any activity or mobilityin it, like the passing city of our imagination; it is the air builtcastle of our error, and as the fairy land in our dream.

10. It is a false conception or notion of the mind, and as the fadingshadow of a fairy; it is creation of our fancies, but altogetherunsubstantial in its substantiality.

11. Ráma rejoined:—I ween this world as a waking dream, andreproduction of our remembrance of it; because it is reminiscence ofthe past only, that presents the absent to our view, and brings theouter objects to our knowledge. (Hence remembrance is the cause ofresolving everything to our knowledge of them).

12. Vasishtha replied:—No Ráma, it is the reflexion which the glassymirror of the Intellect, casts before us at anytime, the same appearsto us even then in its vacuous form; and there is no idea or thoughtof anything, that lays a firm hold on the mind, or has its foundationthere. (Refutation of innate conceptions and prior reminiscence).

13. Therefore the phenomenon always belongs, to the noumenon of theSupreme spirit; and the fluctuating phenomenals ever abide in it, asthe undulating waves play in the calm waters of the sea.

14. The uncaused world, exists of itself in the Supreme soul; andbecomes extinct of itself, in the vacuity of the universal soul.

15. The world is viewed in the same light by every one, as it isreflected in himself, hence the ignorant are always in fault in havinga wrong view of it; but not so the wise, who know it as nothing.

16. Again the lord god Brahma himself, has exhibited the lucid natureof his being, according to the four states or conditions, which arenatural to the soul.

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17. These are the three states of waking, dreaming and sleep, togetherwith a fourth called-the turíya or the state of sound sleep, andthese names are applied to the soul by the Supreme soul itself.

18. But in reality none of these quadruple states, belongs either tothe Divine or the living soul, which is always tranquil, and which isof the nature of an indefinite void.

19. Or it may be said in respect to the soul, that it is either alwayswakeful, or in its ever dreaming state; or in a state of continuousrest and sleep. (The Divine soul never sleeps. Sir W. Jones. The everwakeful eyes of Jove. Homer).

20. Or it is ever in its fourth state of turya, which isbeyond all these triple states; but whether it is in this or that orwhat state, we know nothing of, being ourselves always in a state ofdisquiet and continued agitation.

21. We know nothing of the inanity of the vacuous soul, as to whetherit is as the chasm in the foam or froth, or whether it is as the air ina bubble or spray; or whether it is as the gap amidst waves of the seaor what it is at all.

22. As a thing is known to be in its imagination, so it is impressedalso in our conception of the same; and as anything appears eitheras real or unreal in the dream, we retain the like idea of it in ourwaking also.

23. All this is the display of our consciousness, and whateverreflexion it exhibits unto us it is but an empty shadow in the hollowof the vacant mind, which resides in the vacuity of the vacuousintellect, that pervades the infinite vacuum of the soul.

24. Consciousness is the pith and marrow of vacuous Intellect, andretains this form (of its quiddity) at all times; it neither rises norsets, and this world is inherent in it (i.e. it is subjectiveand derived from within).

25. The creations on the beginning, and the dark nights of dissolution,are but parts of its body, and resemble its nails and hairs.(i.e. The light which was the first work of creation, likenedthe whiteness of its nails, and the darkness of the universal deluge,equalled the blackness of its hairs).

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26. Its appearance and disappearance, that is its clearness anddimness; are no other than as the breathing air of the great Intellect.(i.e. The exhaling and inhaling breaths of the Intellect, arecauses of its expansion and contraction).

27. Therefore what means the waking, sleeping or dreaming of the soul,and what signifies the term sound sleep or the turíya of the soul(which is ever awake) So the word volition and nolition are meaninglesswhen applied to the soul, which is always composed and indifferent.(These attributes belong to the mind only).

28. It is the inward consciousness, that exhibits its inner concepts asoutward objects; how then is there a duality or anything objective, andwhat means this remembrance of extraneous matter.

29. Therefore all these that appear to our sight, are without theirbase or foundation; they are the reflexion of our consciousness in openair, which is wholly devoid of any material object.

30. Though the external world is said to be a reality, it is because ofits being a concept of the divine mind, out of which it has risen toview; and reminiscence is said to be its cause also, by reason of ourremembrance of the first creation, which continue all along with us.

31. But there is no outward object at all, owing to the absence ofmaterial elements; and the want of the five principles of matter,before and at the time of first creation.

32. As there are no horns of hares, and no trees growing in the air,and as there is no son of a barren woman, nor a dark moon shining inthe sky.

33. So this visible world, and these personalities of ourselves; whichare mere misrepresentations of our ignorance, are things invisible andinexistent in themselves, and are seen and known by ignorant only.

34. To them the world appears as an erroneous body, and ourpersonalities and abstractions of persons; but there is nothing asfictile or abstract to the spiritualist, who view them all in oneundivided whole—the Divine spirit or soul.

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35. It is consciousness the pith and marrow of the soul, that exposesall these concepts of it to light; and the manner in which it displaysthem to the imagination, so do they make their appearance to our sight.

36. Whenever our misconception portrays its concept in a material form,or gives a name and form to an airy nothing; we come to see the sameform in our imagination, in the empty void of our mind.

37. The great Intellect has the appearance of the sky for itself, whichin the ordinary use of language, is expressed by the word matter, asconsisting of the four elements, and the endless void which is devoidof them.

38. The unchanging and undecaying intellect, bears to itself the formof air only; which it conceives by mistake as the stable earth; just asimaginary men believe the air built castle to a reality.

39. The intellect being an incorporeal substance, has neither thisform nor that nor of any kind at all; it has its pulsation and rest ofitself, like the breath and stillness of winds in the air.

40. As the intellect manifests itself in its own sphere in the twostates of its volition and nolition (or action or inaction); so theworld seems to be in its states of motion and quiescence; which takeplace in the bosom of vacuum.

41. As the sphere of the Intellect remains unchanged, at the rise andsubsidence of its thought; so doth the sphere of air remain unvaried,with all the creation and its dissolution in its bosom.

42. The world is always in the same unvaried state, whether you call itso or otherwise; and the seeming revolutions of bodies and successionof events, are well known to be nothing to the learned and wise, andnot to others.

43. Because the wise soul dwells in the hearts of all, which it viewsalike as its own self; but the ignorant soul is unconscious of itsidentity, from its sight of the outer world, and its knowledge of thedifference of bodies from one another.

44. What is there the interior or exterior of it, and that what isvisible and invisible in it; all this is in the Lord[Pg 893] whether active orquiescent, know all to be the om or on and rest quiet.

45. There can be no reasoning, without an insight into the meanings ofthe significant terms and their significates; and it is considerationof both sides of the question that leads to our right judgment. Henceit is reasoning that leads us to truth, as the light guides us amidstthe darkness of night.

46. Therefore drive off the multitudes of multifarious desires anddoubts from your mind, by means of the clearness (light) of yourunderstanding (obtained by your habit of right reasoning), and also byyour attention to the true interpretation of the sástras; andthen rise and fly aloft to the higher region of light and truth, andattain the highest, best and most perfect state of Divine felicity andself-liberation.

Argument:—The false and ignorant Attribution of creation, to theincreate and self-manifest world.

Vasishtha continued:—As the unconscious tree, displays various formsin its branches; so doth the unconcerned spirit of God, exhibit theairy semblance of creation in air.

2. And as the ocean describes the whirlpools, insensibly upon itssurface; so doth the spirit of God, exhibit this rotatory worldsunconcernedly, on the surface of its own vacuum, and as they are seenby all.

3. The Lord gives also to the sensible part of his creation, theirinternal faculties of the mind, understanding and egoism, as also manyother powers under different appellations.

4. The phenomenal world is the production of the insensible Intellect,whose volitive faculties are as loose as the rolling eddies of riversand seas.

5. The mind and understanding and all mental faculties, proceed fromthe Divine Intellect; in the same manner as the whirlpools and eddies,and waves and surges rise on the surface of the sea.

6. As a picture is nothing except its canvas, so the world which is nomore than a painting, is drawn on the substratum of the intellect; andthis is a vacuous substance, with the lustre of the world in it.

7. What I have said before of the insensibility of the tree and sea,in the production of the branches and whirlpools by them; the sameinstance applies to Intellect also, which shows the creation rising inits vacuity, not by an act of its intention or will, but by ordinanceof fate, which governs all things, (and rules over Jove himself). Thisis the doctrine of fatalism.

8. And as a tree exhibits its various forms, receiving the[Pg 895] severalnames of a plant, a shrub, a creeper &c.; so doth the intellect displayits many features, like its flowers &c., and called by the differentappellations of earth, air, water &c.

9. And as the branches and leaves of a tree, are not different from thetree itself; so the productions of the great Intellect, are no otherthan its very substance (or are essentially the same with itself).

10. And as there are many things, made of the substance of a tree,bearing different names to themselves; so the productions of theIntellect, and the offspring of a living being, pass under severalforms and appellations (of boy, girl, infant, adult and the like).

11. The offshoots of the Intellect are all these creatures, which growin and rise from the mind (of their own spontaniety); they appear to bethe works of the mind as their cause, but are no better than the dreams(arising of themselves in the mind).

12. Should you say, why these conceptions of creation rise in vain inthe mind (if the creation is nothing in substance); I answer that theyrise in the manner of dreams in the state of sleeping, which you cannotdeny to enjoy. (The thoughts of creation like those of imagination andthe conception in our dreaming, are not unattended by a certain degreeof delight, during the time of our enjoyment of them. Gloss).

13. As the tree displays various forms in the productions, and theimagination presents different shapes to our mental sights; so theintellect is employed in realizing many such creations in empty air.

14. As the odours of flowers fly about invisible in the open air, andas pulsation abides inherent in the wind; so the intellectual powers,are intrinsic in the very nature of the soul.

15. These creations likewise are ingrained in the Divine spirit, asfragrance is inborn in flowers and vacuity is ingenite in the air; andas vacillation and velocity are innate in the winds.

16. As the air, wind and the flower, are receptacle of inanity,oscillation and odours respectively; so the Intellect is container ofcreation, although it is literally but an empty vacuity.

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17. Vacuity is no other than vacuum itself, as fluidity is not separatefrom liquids; fragrance is as inseparable from flowers, as pulsation isnever to be the disjoined from the wind.

18. Heat is not disparate from fire, nor is coldness apart from snow;know thus the world to be no way different nor disengaged from thetransparence of the vacuous Intellect.

19. In the beginning, the Divine Intellect sees the creation appearin itself, as a dream rising in the mind; thus the world having noextraneous cause, and being subjective to the Intellect (as derivedfrom within itself); is no way a heterogeneous mass or different fromthe Divine mind.

20. The instance of the dream is the best illustration of creation, andyou can judge it well by the nature of the dream you dream every night;say what is there substantial in it, beside its being essential to theuniversal soul.

21. The dream is not the effect of any impression in the mind, nor theresult of remembrances stored in the memory; because it shows us manysights, unseen and unthought of before; say therefore how these come topass.

22. If what is seen in a dream, comes to present itself at the time ofour remembrance of the dream?

23. Therefore these revolving worlds; are as the rotatory whirlpools(in the wide ocean of the infinite mind); they are the fortuitousappearances of chance, and whatever occurs in the mind, passesafterwards for its dreams.

24. The creations being insensibly produced from the Divine Mind,like the waves and whirlpools in the ocean; receives its stabilityand continuity afterwards, in the manner of the continuation of thewhirling waters and ever rolling billows.

25. Whatever is born without its cause, is equal to the unborn; becausethe unborn are forever similar to those, which have no cause for theirbirth.

26. As the precious gems growing insensibly of themselves, have theirlustre inherent in them; and as this brilliance is no substanceor anything real at all, so the appearance of the world has nosubstantiality of itself.

27. Some how or other, the world has its rise, like the wave[Pg 897] or eddyin a river; and then it continues to go on as the continuous course ofthe stream.

28. There are numberless worlds of intellectual forms, gliding in thevast vacuity of the Intellect; and passing as aerial dreams without anycause whatsoever.

29. All these again become causes and productive of others, and they<are> all of vacuous forms including even the great Brahmá and the godsand angels (all of whom are aerial beings, and others of the same kind).

30. All that is born in and produced from void, are null and void also;they grow in the void or air, and return also into vacuity.

31. It is the vacuum that appears as the plenum, as in theinstance of an empty dream seeming as something; the man that denieshis own percipience of it, is no better than a boor or brute.

32. The unreal appearing as real, is the fabrication of error andignorance; but the spiritualist who knows the truth, views the world asthe wondrous display of the Divine Mind and falsification.

33. It is the longstanding and deep rooted prejudice, that produces theerroneous conceptions of the creation and destruction of the world; itis wisdom to know it in its true light, and foolishness to take thewrong view of it.

34. The light of the Divine spirit, being once seen in this causelessvoid of the visible world, it continues for ever before our sight;as the dream that we see in our vacant minds in sleep, remains everafterwards in our remembrance.

35. It happens that the intellect comes to present, the adventitiousappearance of the world to our minds; in the same manner, as the seashows its whirls and waves to our sight, of its own nature.

36. Such is the nature of the Intellect also, that it shows itself inthis manner (as the sea); and exhibits the revolving worlds, in its ownetherial essence only (of its own accord).

37. Then the aerial Intellect, by a retrospective view in itself,invented certain worlds afterwards, significant of the mental[Pg 898]and intellectual powers as well as of material elements and theirproperties.

38. Ráma said:—If it is so sir, that all these powers are thespontaneous growth of chance, how can the mental power of memory beproduced on a sudden, when it is well known to be the product ofremembrance or former impressions in the mind. Please explain me this.

39. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me Ráma, and I will destroy your doubt, asthe lion kills an elephant; and will establish the one invariable unityas the broad day light of the sun.

40. There is an only universal soul, that is invisible amidst thevacuum of his Intellect; as the uncarved doll remains unseen, in thewood of every forest tree. (All things are contained in the Divinesoul, as the future images in blocks of wood and stone. Aristotle,Addison).

41. We see the carpenter that carves out the puppet, from the woodof the tree (and the mason who hues out the statue from the block ofstone); but we know not the soul, which chisels out the figure of theworld from the great bulk of Instinct.

42. The statue does not appear in the rugged block, unless and untilit <is> hewn out by the skill of carver, so the hidden world does notmake its appearance in the Intellect, till it is brought to view by theingenuity of the Mind (the universal architect).

43. The uncarved body of the world (Corpus-mundi), does yetappear <in> its aeriform state; which is original and genuine form inthe Divine Intellect (until <it> is moulded in this its fictitiousshape by creative mind).

44. In the beginning of creation, the inventive Intellect forms of itsnatural originality, the concept of the future world; appearing as anairy dream in the sight of the soul (and then the imaginative mindframes it according to its conceit in various forms).

45. The vacuous Intellect conceives in its empty bosom, the airy idealof the world; as if it were a toy or doll gliding of itself in itself.

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46. It conceives itself as the essential part of the great Brahma, andthe seed of the mundane system; and then imagines itself as the sourceof life and the living soul, and the receptacle of egoism.

47. It imagines itself as the understanding and the mind also; and tobe the reservoir of space and time. It deems itself as the root of theknowledge of I, thou, he, and others, and as the quintessence of thequintuple elements.

48. It sees in itself the congeries of the inward and outward senses,as also of the eight faculties of the mind; and both the spiritual aswell as the elemental bodies contained in itself.

49. It thinks itself as the great trinity, consisting of the threepersons of Brahmá, Vishnu, and Siva; and sees the sun, moon and starsall in itself. It considers itself as the whole creation and theinterior and exterior part of everything.

50. All these being the imaginary creations of the Intellect; thereis nothing whatever beside itself; but it is quite transparent in itsessence, there is no concrete matter in it; and neither remembranceof gross materials is ever attached to it, nor any duality whatsoeversubsisting in the unity of its nature.

51. The world is a causeless, uncaused and increate thing; and anothing at all in reality; its creation is a dream, and its appearance,is as that of a delusive shadow in empty air.

52. It appears as a phantom in vacuum, and as an intelligence in theIntellect; it is intelligible as it is, and that is in the sense of anihility.

53. What is the remembrance of a thing, any more than the dream ofsomething, which is nothing in reality; and what is time of which wehave no conception, except it be an imagination or devise of the mindin empty air.

54. What is contained in the inside of the compact intellect, thevery same appears on the outside of it; but in reality there is nosubstantiality in the exterior object of sight, as there is naught inthe interior object of thought; all which are but the glitterings ofthe Intellect.

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55. Whatever issues out of the bodiless and nameless something, whichis forever quiescent and calm in its nature; are deemed as causelessand uncaused productions, appearing before the blinded sight.

56. Know therefore that this world, is to be viewed in the sameintellectual light; as you see the supreme Brahma himself; and know itto be the very aerial castle of your dream, as it is represented in thevacuous space of your mind in your sleeping state.

57. There is no such thing, as the visible or phenomenal world at anytime; where can you find any dust on the watery surface of the sea; andhow can you see anything visible, in the invisible spirit of Brahma.

58. If the world should appear as anything at all to your sight, youmust view it as the manifestation of God himself, in his unthinkableand incomprehensible nature. (Nature is the body of God).

59. The world is full of the glory of God, from the fullness of Divineglory; nor is the one derived from the other; but a full representationof Divine splendour on the face of nature.

60. Though I have been repeatedly giving these lectures, yet thedeluded minds of men are far from receiving them; they believe theworld of their dream as if it were in waking, and knowing even itsunreality they will never get rid of their rooted prejudice.

Argument:—Character of the unexcited and self-liberated man andhis happiness in Life.

Vasishtha continued:—He who is <neither> delighted with his delights,nor dejected in his distress; who looks only within himself for hispeace and solace, is verily called the liberated man in his life time.

2. He is called the self-liberated man, whose mind is <not> moved fromits steadiness in solid rock of intellectuality, towards the worldlyenjoyments that are spread before him (and which are ever attractive ofunrestrained minds).

3. That is called the liberated soul, which reclines in itsintellectuality, and has its mind ever fixed in it; which delights inintellectual culture, and has repose therein.

4. He is verily styled the liberated soul, who reposes in the supremesoul; whose mind does not slide from divine contemplation, nor takesany delight in visible objects all around.

5. Ráma said:—Sir, I ween the man that feels no pain in pain, norderives any pleasure from what is pleasurable, and is entire insensibleof both, to be a mere block, and devoid both his senses and sensibility.

6. Vasishtha replied:—We call him the self reposed, who rests in hisvacuous intellect only; and whose soul derives a spontaneous delightfrom the purity of his understanding, such as it finds in nothing andno where besides.

7. He is said to have his rest in the supreme soul, whose mind iscleansed of its doubts in all things; and who has obtained by means ofhis discrimination, the true and certain knowledge of everything. (Sosays the sruti: No doubts disturb the mind of one, whose soul confidesand has found its rest in God).

8. He is said to rest and have his repose in God, who takes[Pg 902] no delightin any earthly thing whatever; and though he is outwardly employed indischarging the duties of his life, yet his soul is fixed in his god.

9. He is known to have his quiescence, whose activities are all withoutany aim or expectation; and he goes on and lives content, with whateverhe gets and offers itself to his lot.

10. He alone is happy and successful, in this world of woe and misery;who in his long restless, helpless and tedious journey in it, hasfound his repose in the supreme spirit, by means of his intellectualimprovements.

11. They who after running their long race, in the active course ofworldly life; have come at last to set themselves at ease and quiet,at the latter end of their lives, are as men that appear to fall fastasleep, and enjoy their repose after the vexatious dreams of their busydays.

12. They shine and pass as brightly, in the open sphere of theirintellects, as the glorious sun rises in the sky, and runs his dailycourse without stopping any where.

13. Good people seem to be sleepy in their minds, though they are seento be wakeful and employed in business with their bodies; they remainas inactive as any inert body, though they are never dormant in theirsouls (which are ever awake to their eternal concerns).

14. They who lie asleep on their beds, and are drowned in theirreveries and dreams; are said and believed to be sleeping: though theyare not insensible of the workings of their minds.

15. When the tired traveller, halts after his long and wearisomejourney, and ceases to utter a word owing to his hard breathing, suchdumbness does not bespeak his dead silence or torpidity.

16. The man of transcendent knowledge, and perfect peace andtranquility of his mind and soul; remains as blind to the splendoursof day as the purblind owl, and as quiet as any body in the darknessof night, when the whole creation sleeps in the gloom of ignorance andunconsciousness.

17. That man is happy, who sleeps over the varied scenes of thisvisible world, and does not sights of woe, which it[Pg 903] presents to viewat the time of waking. (The gloss quotes a corresponding passage fromthe Bhagavad Gítá).

18. He who pays no regard to ceremonial rites, and remains sincereto the welfare of his soul; such a man is said to be self satisfied,from his communion with himself, and is never, O Ráma, deemed as deadhimself.

19. He who has passed over the miseries of this world, and got to theother side of it (next world); remains supremely blest in himself, byhis sense of heavenly bliss in his inward soul.

20. He who is fatigued with his long and tiresome journey in thisworld, and is ever deluded by four senses and sensible objects; getsweary of and cloyed with his enjoyments in life, and meets with thespectres of despair at the end.

21. Being overtaken by hoary old age, he is battered and shatteredby the hoar-frost of diseases; and then like the old and worn-outantelope, he wishes in vain to traverse his native forests and plains.

22. Forsaken by the supreme soul, the sole and faithful guide in ourjourney through life; we are exposed to the intricate maze of thornsand thickets, till the weary traveller is at a loss of the shady grovewhereto take his rest.

23. Here we are robbed of our passport and passage money, by thehighway men of our sins and sensualities; till we are overcome by ourweakness, and exposed to numberless dangers and difficulties on the way.

24. He that is possest of his soul by means of his spiritual knowledge,gets over the ocean of the world to the spiritual regions; where herests calmly in the bedstead of his spirit, and without the bedding ofhis body.

25. The man who moves about, without any aim or attempt of himself andwithout his dream and sound sleep; whose mind is ever wakeful and whoseeyes are never closed in sleep, such a man sleeps softly in the lap ofhis soul.

26. As a horse of real breed, sleeps in his standing as well asrunning; so the self-possest person sleeps in himself, even though he<is> employed in the acts of life among mankind.

27. How very sound and profound, is the trance or reverie[Pg 904] of thephilosophic mind, that it is not disturbed, even at the crackling ofthunders or cracking of volcanoes.

28. How exquisite is the ecstasy of the right discerner of truth, whosees all within himself, which the external observer with his openeyes, finds as lying afar without himself.

29. The man who with his open eyes, sees the world disappear from hissight; is giddy with his ecstatic views, and not with ebriety liquor.(He sleeps calmly in the trance of ecstacy).

30. Ah! how happily he sleeps in his reverie, whose soul is satiate andat rest, after it has swallowed the visible world in itself, and drankthe ambrosial draught of self satisfaction.

31. How happily doth the self-possest man sleep in his solity, who isever joyous without any joy or anything to enjoy; who is joyful inenjoying the everlasting felicity of unity, and who sees effulgentlight of his inward spirit, without any mortal thing on the outside.

32. Happy is the self-possest soul, which is blind to the objects ofcommon desire, and rejoices in the blaze of transcendent light initself; which delights in subtile and spiritual joys, as much as othersluxuriates in their solid food and gross enjoyments.

33. Happily sleeps the spiritual man, with the inward peace of hismind; who shuts his eyes against the outer world, which abounds only insights of woe, and restlessness of the giddy mob.

34. The self-possest rest in perfect peace of their minds, who bemeanthemselves as the meanest of the mean in their outer demeanour; butdeem themselves as the greatest of the great in the greatness of theirsouls; they have their repose in the lap of the vast void of theirselves.

35. The spiritualist sleeps happily in the universal soul, with itsbody resting in its vast vacuity; which contains an infinity of worldsin every atom of it.

36. The spiritualist rests perfectly blest in Supreme Spirit, which isfull of ineffable light, and in which he sees the[Pg 905] repeated creationand dissolution of the world, without being destroyed himself.

37. Blest is the godly man, that seeing the world as a dream in hissleep, rests in the Spirit of his god, where he sees everything asclear as day light, and as bright as open sky.

38. How blest is the psychist with his musings, who contemplates on theessences of all substances, and engrosses the entity of whole nature inhimself; and whose comprehensive mind grasps the cosmos in itself, asthe vacuity of the sky, comprehends the whole universe within its amplewomb.

39. How happily does the self-communing sage, sleep in his abstractcontemplation of the clear and bright heavens in himself; and who viewsthe whole universe in the light of the clear firmament, resounding withthe sound of his own breathings or snoring.

40. How happily doth the self-communist, rest in the depth of hisinmost thoughts; who finds himself as null and void, as the infinitevacuum itself, and views the universe hovering as a dream, in a cornerof that vacuity.

41. How cheerfully does the self-musing sage, lie down in his humblebedstead, which he finds as a matting made of straws, swept before himby the tide of time, and the current contented circ*mstances.

42. The sage, who by his diligent self-consultation, has come to knowthe true nature of himself (i.e. of his soul); lives in hislifetime as in the state of dreaming, and deems as an aerial figure ofhis dream subsisting in empty air.

43. The sage who by his diligent self-cogitation, has come to theknowledge of his own vacuousness; comes to the same knowledge of allnature at large, till at last he comes to reduce and assimilate himselfto vacuity.

44. The waking man falls to sleep, and the sleeping person rises towake again, and in this manner they pass their time in endless turns;but the sound sleeper alone is ever wakeful to his true friend ofspirituality (because sound sleep is one’s absorption in the quiet ofDivine Spirit).

45. He who having passed his days in this life, in company[Pg 906] with hisbest friend of self-liberation (jívan mukti) in his lifetime; comesto enjoy the sweet companionship of that friend (amurta-mukti), inhis future life for a long period of time, he is verily entitled tohis perpetual rest and everlasting bliss, in the list of the Divinityitself forever.

Argument:—Our acts are our best friends and relatives; theirvirtues and the enjoyments of their fellowship.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who is that friend with whom he lives, andwhat is the nature of this enjoyments, whether it is subjective orobjective, that is whether derived from within oneself, or fromexternal objects.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Our own conduct alone is our only true friend,whether it is ingenite in our nature, or derived by our extrinsictraining and education from others. (The two words svaprabáhaand swapráya in the text, are explained in the gloss assahaja—innate and abhyasta or learnt.)

3. Our inborn good conduct is as infallibly and friendly to us, as thenatural beneficence of our parents; and our extraneous good behaviour,is as overruling upon us, as the controul and restraints by a faithfulwife in the intricate maze of life.

4. A fearless course of life, and a well earned livelihood, and a wellregulated mode of living; together with a dispassionate temper andcoolness of mind, are replete with unrestricted and ambrosial sweets.

5. An unblemished life acquired from early youth, is able to save aperson from all dangers and difficulties in the world, and renderhim confidential for every trust, and a repository of all wealth andtreasures.

6. It is able to preserve men from all evils, as a father prevents hisboys from daubing their bodies with dust and dirt; and hinder them fromall acts of wickedness.

7. Such a life gives a man the fervour of fire, and the sweet offlowers; it adds a clearness to his mind and countenance, as thesunlight brightens the face of the day.

8. It supports a man as the father feeds and fondles his[Pg 908] child, andprotects him from every accident, as the father is ever ready to shieldhis children from all harm.

9. As fire purifies the body of gold from alloy, and separates thegross that is to be rejected; so does it show the good qualities, fromwhatever is to be shunned and avoided.

10. It gladdens the hearts of men with polite speech, which is policedfrom rusticity; and is a repository of all laudable pursuits, as atreasury is full of moneybags and precious gems.

11. As the sun never shows darkness to view, so the good man neverexposes his dark side to sight; as the loving wife shows only heraffection to her beloved, so does he show his tenderness only to people.

12. He speaks and behaves kindly with all men, and doth them good only;and his words are always sweet and cooling, and without interested orselfish view.

13. He is the well-wisher of men, and is therefore revered by them all;he speaks smilingly to all without any craving of his own, and bearsthe form of goodness only to all beings.

14. Should he happen to meet an enemy in a contest, who is ready tostrike the first blow on him; he tries to evade it by eluding hisopponent by some artifice or sleight of art or skill.

15. He is the patron of gentle and polite men, and protector of womenand his family; and is as the nectarious physic to the souls, of allthose that ailing under sickness and sick-heartedness.

16. He is particularly a patron of learning, and patronizer of thelearned; he is a servitor of venerable men, and a favourer of theeloquent and argumentative. He is a compeer and alter ego to hisequals in births and breeding.

17. He conciliates the favour of princes, noblemen and the liberaltowards him; and in conducting all sacrifices, acts of charities,austerities of devotion and pilgrimages, by contribution of his honestmeans.

18. He partakes of his good food and drink, in company with his friendsand Bráhmans; and joining with his wife and children, and all thedependants and inmates of his family (i.e.,[Pg 909] he never eatsalone), and he never keeps company save with the good and great.

19. He abstains from all enjoyments, deeming them as straws and causesof disease; and indulging himself in conversing upon good subjects,with his view to the edification and beatification of mankind.

20. In this manner he passes his time, in company with his friends andfamily; he is content with his own state, and glad at what fortune hasprovided for him (i.e., his own lot and profession).

21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, in short, who are his wives andchildren and his friends also; what are their different forms, and whatare the qualities and virtues they are respectively possessed of.

22. Vasishtha replied:—Sacred ablutions and charities, religiousausterities and meditation are his so many sons; that are all of greatsouls, and entirely devoted to him.

23. His wife is named Chandra-lekha, who is like a digit of the moonin her appearance, and whose very sight delights the eyes; she is hisconstant companion, always loving to him and content in herself.

24. She is the ravisher of his heart, and dispeller of the gloom of hismind, by reason of her loving kindness to him; she is the delight anddelighter of his soul, and is ever a faithful helpmate unto him.

25. He has another consort by name of Samata (i.e. of thesame mind) with herself; who is dear to his heart, and keeps at thedoor to his house, and pleases him by her very appearance.

26. She fixes her mind always, at the mansions of virtue and patience;and runs before and guides the steps of her emburdened lord, to theabode of the blessed and felicitous.

27. That strong man has another wife named Maitri or friendship, whomhe bears along with Samata on his either shoulder; and whoadvises him how to quell the enemies of his king’s states (in royalservice).

28. She is his clever counsellor in all honourable acts, and[Pg 910] gaveproof of the veracity of her advices; by augmenting his wealth andrendering him honourable before all.

29. Being thus employed in the discharge of his duties, in the circleof his friends, family and advisers, the sapient man <is> alwayspleased in himself, and never frets nor grumbles at any person oranything whatever.

30. The wise man ever remains as he is, silent and sedate in his mind;he remains always as unmoved as a picture in painting; though he may bemoving about in the ordinary affairs of life.

31. He remains as dumb as a stone in fruitless discussions; and feignshimself as a deaf man in useless conversation.

32. He continues as a dead body, in acts which are against the socialusage; but in conversations regarding polity and good manners, he isas eloquent as the wise Brihaspati, and as fluent as the snake Vásuki(with its hundred tongues).

33. When engaged in some righteous discourse, he exposes the fallacyof sophistical reasoners; and clears all doubts in a moment, by theversatility of his conversation on various subjects all at once.

34. He is tolerant and magnanimous, bounteous and charitable; he ispliant and gentle, sweet in his speech and handsome in his look, andfamed for his pious acts.

35. Such is the character of enlightened men of their own nature, andno practice nor education can ever make any one as such; as the sun andmoon and fire are bright by themselves, and there is none and nothingelse, that can ever make them shine.

Argument:—On the nihility of the Phenomenal, and substantialityof the Noumenal vacuum.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—It is the manifestation of our vacuousconsciousness, that exhibits the phenomenal world unto us; whereasthere is in reality no such thing as this world, or its appearance, ora vacuum in nature or a thing as consciousness in ourselves.

2. Whatever is apparent before us, is the manifestation of theIntellect, and vainly styled the world; just as the open air calledthe sky, is no other than the air itself. (So the vacuum known as theworld, is not otherwise than the very vacuum).

3. As a man going from one place to another, sees a gap and blankbetween; and yet thinks of the place he has seen and left behind, so isthe world a mere gap and thought of the mind.

4. Before creation there was nothing, how then could this somethingappear from that nothing; the latter having no material cause, is nomaterial or visible thing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit. So the sruti: sateva asit, na kinchit idam agra asit).

5. Then there was not an atom—the origin of the world in existence;how then and from where, could this revolving world, have its rise andform?

6. Therefore this formal and visible world, could not have sprung fromit, as no child could ever be born of a barren woman. Hence thereis nothing as the visible world, and the conception thereof must beentirely false (as that of a ghost or goblin).

7. Whatever then appears as visibly present before us, is only theblank vacuity of the Intellect; and this is the[Pg 912] transcendental state,in which the supreme unity appears unto us (according to the doctrineof srutis).

8. As it is in depth of our sound sleep, there appears a fleeting dreambefore us; so it is with the supreme Intellect, which never forsakesthe serene and unalterable tranquility of its divine nature.

9. But exists of itself in itself, and in its calm and quiet state,ever before the appearance of creation; and manifests intellectualvacuity, in the form of the visible world, as it appears unto us.

10. As the idle thoughts of the mind, present themselves as airycastles in our sleep; so doth the vacuum of the supreme Intellect,exhibit the appearance of the creation in its own empty space.

11. As the empty air evolves itself, in the manner of whirlwinds initself; so does the intellectual vacuum exhibit the phenomenal world,subsisting in its very self (in the noumenon).

12. Hence the three worlds that appear so visibly to our view, arequite unintelligible and unexposed to our sight in their very nature;it is the Supreme Deity itself, that appears in this manner of itssubsistence in its own vacuous substance.

13. There is nothing as the formal earth, or anything whatever atany time; or be it anything either formal or formless, (i.e.,whether as plastic nature or subtile air or spirit, or whatsoever youmay choose to call it; it is the Great Deity alone, that manifestsitself in this manner).

14. As the formless mountain appearing in dream, disappears in airupon waking; and as the visible world in waking becomes invisible insleep, so does the triple world appear and disappear by turns, in thetransparent and tranquil intellect only.

15. To the watchful and enlightened mind, the world appears as identicwith God; but however intelligent we may be, can never know thatwe are all along sleeping in our waking.

16. As the mind is unoccupied with any object, in the interim of one’sjourney from one place to another; so the[Pg 913] minds of all livings beings,are naturally unoccupied with any preconceived idea; and this blanknessis the true state of the intellect. (This passage contradicts thedoctrine of innate ideas in the mind).

17. That unemployed state of mind, which one has in the interval of hisjourney from place to place, is what bears the name of transcendentvoid, wherein all existence is contained. (This passage is opposed tothe preceding one. To say the intellect to be a perfect void and blank,and again the container of all, is quite contradictory).

18. Now this void of the mind, and the vacuity of the world, aresimilar to one another as regards the similarity of their contents; asneither of them contains anything besides the principles of the fiveelements, either in their ideal or gross forms of elemental bodies,called as the real and unreal ones. (Sadasadátmaka).

19. The ideal or unreal ones, are the inward conceptions of the mind,and are called as manaskáras; while the real or gross forms ofthem, are styled the rúpalokas or visible objects, and both ofthese are but different modes of divine essence. All of them are likethe eddies and waves, rising on the surface of the infinite ocean ofthe Deity.

20. Hence there is no such thing as the objectivity of the world,except that it be of the nature of that vacancy of the mind, as atraveller has in the interim of his journey from one place to another.

21. As the rising and setting of the passions and affections in themind, are mere modes of it; so the being and not being of anything,and the presence and absence of the world, are mere modalities of theDivine Mind.

22. The chasm that there is between one thought and another, is trulycharacteristic of the voidness of the Divine Mind, (which reposesforever, in its everlasting and tranquil intellectual felicitysachchidánanda); the visible world is but a wave in the ocean ofEternity, or as the mirage in a sandy desert.

23. The Divine spirit never changes from its state of calm repose,and vacant mindedness, as that of a traveller in the[Pg 914] interval of hisjourney from one place to another. Such is the state of this worldwhich is ever calm and quiet.

24. From the beginning or since the time of the first creation of theworld, nothing was made, that seems to be made; it is only a magic showthat appears so palpably to sight.

25. Alas! all this is nothing, that is so bright to sight; and yet itis something right, when viewed in the light of Brahma himself; andthen it affords us fresh delight.

26. Ah! where shall I go, and what can I get from this ungodly world,which is ever prone to unrighteousness; it is an unsubstantial sight,and passes for substantial, and yet no body understands that it isBrahma the very god, that exhibits himself in this mode and manner.

27. It is no production nor reflexion, neither the archetype nor itsectype; what then are these phenomenals, and how and from where? Allthese that appear to view, are of the vacuity of Brahma, who exhibitshimself in this manner (in all shapes).

28. As a gem shines itself of its own lustre, and not derived fromwithout; so does the vacuous Intellect shine of its own splendour,shown forth in the creation, which is selfsame with itself.

29. It is in that calm and quiet vacuity, that this sun shines withall his glory; or rather a spot of that vacuum shines in the shape ofthe sun, which is but a modicum or molecule of it, and nothingbeside.

30. Though situated therein, yet neither does the sun nor the moonshine of itself; it is that God that illumes those luminaries, neitherof whom can illumine that transcendent Being the supreme Lord unto us.

31. It is his lustre, that enlightens this visible (the mundane)sphere; and it is he alone that is the enlightener of the sun, moon,and stars and fire as also of all other shining bodies, that shine withtheir borrowed light from him.

32. Whether He is formless or fictile, bodiless or embodied, is theverbal disquisition of the ignorant only at all times; whereas it iswell known to the learned, that any supposititious form of Him, isas unreal as the potentiality of a sky flower[Pg 915] growing in empty air.(Here are ákás-latas—sky-plants or orchids in air, but noákás-pushpa or sky-flower, which must grow on the plant and notin the air.)

33. As a ray of sunbeams, a particle of sand or sunstone, shinebrightly in sunshine; but the sun and moon also do not shine even asconspicuously as those particles, before the great glory of theirMaker. (The sun is a grain of sand, and the moon a molecule, before theglory of the Great God).

34. The shining sun, moon, and stars being but offshoots, of theflaming gem of the vacuous Intellect of the Deity; say how can they beotherwise than flashes of the same gem, from which they are emitted.(The flash is not separate from the gem).

35. The divine state or hypostasis being divested ofintellectuality, and being devoid of its voidness also, becomesdeprived of its essentiality, as also destitute of all quality; beingthus drained of all its properties and attributes, it becomes full ofthe plenum and totally of all existences.

36. The earth and all elemental bodies reside in it, in a manner asthey are absent therein, and all living beings living by it, do notabide in the same. (All these opposites meet in its nature).

37. All things combine therein in unity, and in their atomic forms,without forsaking their grossness without; while the Divine neverforsakes its uniformity, without any mixture of duality in its pureentity of unity.

38. Anything here is nothing, nor is anything a nothing altogether;therefore it is too difficult to say, what thing it is and what not.(The nature of God is inscrutable).

39. There is one thing which is infinite, and without any intersection,and is ever extended in everywhere; and this is the essence of the vacuousintellect, containing the germ and gist of the universe in itself.

40. As the mind is vacant and still, in the interim of its passingfrom one thought to another; such is the nature and[Pg 916] form of the world(i.e., of a quiet void), although it appears so variegated toview.

41. Though it appears to be multifarious, yet it is the uniformintellect only, which extends invariably over all vacuity; and sees asin its dream, the forms of the five elemental bodies hovering about it.

42. As the intellect passes from its rest of sleep, to the sights inits dream; so it passes from the state of pralaya or the voidof universal desolation to the commotion of creation. (The sleepingand waking of the soul causing the extinction and resuscitation of theworld. Manu I).

43. As sleep and dream recur to every soul, so the extinction andrenovation of the world, occur to all alike; so also is waking akin tothe turíya, or enlightened state of the soul: hence the worldis no other than a phenomenon in the intellectual vacuum. (The wordswaking and enlightenment are synonymous terms).

44. Thus the whole universe is no more, than a stage of waking,sleeping and dreaming and turíya scenes; such is the understanding ofthe learned on this subject; and we know nothing in what light, it isviewed by the ignorant.

45. The Lord is inscrutable amidst the living brute and all inertcreation; nor can we come to any conclusion, in respect to thenature of that Being, who is beyond the knowledge, of our mind andunderstanding.

46. This much is knowable of Him, that he is of the pure Intellect, andthat all things are full of Him; yet they are not of the form of thatReality, which manifests itself in the form of the universe.

47. The words permeation and diffusion, of the Divine spirit increation; are used by the learned only, for explanation of theOmnipresence of the Deity; else there is no scent, i.e. nothingof the import of the word pervasion (of Divine essence) in all nature.(Nature is the mere body; but God its soul is a bodiless Being).

48. It is since the first creation of the world, that this great[Pg 917]essence of the vacuous Intellect, is situated of itself, in the soulsof great souled (or high minded men).

49. The all pervading Intellect is ever situated, in the minds ofthe sages, whose souls are full with the presence of the One supremespirit; and it is that Intellect, which conceived in itself the idea,which passes under the name of the world.

50. The knowledge of the felicity of the world, like that of a dreamupon waking, is attained with delight, but the want of this knowledge,as of some bad dream at the time of sleeping, makes us uneasy all thewhile.

51. The silent saint that knows the truth, is always in the selfsamestate of tranquility, whether he be walking or sitting any where, orremain in the states of waking and sleeping.

52. The wise man that remains indifferent to everything, and sitscontent even in his distress; and cares not whether he lives or dies,has nothing whatever either to gain or lose.

53. The wise man, who is outwardly employed in worldly affairs, withouttaking any thing to heart, and neither parts with nor craves anything;remains inactive in his active life.

54. Utter indifference is characteristic of the wise man, just as heatand cold, are natural to fire and snow, and this habit of the mind, isnot acquired by practice or education.

55. He who is not by his nature, of this disposition of his mind, isever ignorant of truth; and ignorance of this truth, is the sign of acharacter, that <is> inclined to base desires.

56. The truly wise man, remains perfect and pithy in his own goodnature; he is quite satiate with the sweet ambrosial draught, of histranscendent tranquility; he is sedate in his mind, and without hisvarying desires of this thing or that.

Argument:—The world a Pantheon or full with the fullness of God;and our erroneous conception of its materiality.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is devoid of any material element, asthe earth and others; and I ween the first creator to be the Mind only,which is the fruitful tree of desires.

2. The word mind derived from the act of minding, came to be usedafterwards as a name for the thinking power, as it was from thewhirling of waters, that is got the name of a whirlpool.

3. It is by its connection with the Intellect, that it has itsunderstanding and the other faculties; or else it would <be> as blankas the void of the air, which could have no dust were it not for theearth underlying it.

4. The mind is neither the body nor heart, nor the senses nor desiresnor even has it any of these; and though these are commonly attributedto it, yet in its true sense, it is devoid of all properties.

5. How can reminiscence be the cause of reproduction of the world?The former creator or Brahmá, being liberated or extinct with theextinction of that world, could not have retained his reminiscenceof it; nor could the new creator of the new world, possibly have anyremembrance of what he knew not all. (There have been many by goneBrahmás before).

6. The holy and liberated souls, have neither their bodies norreminiscences any more; nor the passing currents of other rivers,return or whirl back, like the whirlpools of some. (So the sruti:—Theliberated souls, return no more to mortality).

7. Or if he have any body at all, owing to the reminiscence of hisformer state; it must be an unearthly and immaterial[Pg 919] body, quite stilland rarefied as in imaginary forms. (Such are the spiritual bodies ofgods and angels).

8. As our imagination presents to us, a visionary mountain to themind’s eye; such is the air-drawn body of the all engrossing Virát;presented unto us without any earthly form. (Virát is Pantheon).

9. There is therefore no such thing as reminiscence, at any timewhatsoever; it is merely built on popular belief, and not upon thereason of wise men. (Because the creator had no remembrance of a priorcreation in his first formation of the world).

10. Ráma rejoined:—How do you say sir, that rememberest everythingthat there was no previous remembrance in the first creator; who musthave remembered the creation of a first kalpa or learnt it, Oinspired sage, by his inspiration also. (So says the sruti:—Brahmáperformed austerities and was inspired by the Lord, see Manu I).

11. Vasishtha replied:—The pre-existence of reminiscence is possiblein the outward or visible world, which admits of cause and effect; butcan it be where there is no such world, but a mere vacuum only.

12. There is nothing visible here, from the highest heaven tothe lowest pit; if it <were> so a nullity only, then what is itsreminiscence and to what use is it.

13. The remembrance of the prior world in its absence, is called itsreminiscence; but when there never was nor is any visible world at all,how can you think of its reminiscence; even in fancy.

14. The entire absence of the phenomenals at all times, makes itidentic with the invisible Brahma himself; and this being the truth ofit, say how can you fancy the reminiscence of anything.

15. Therefore the prime creator, could have no remembrance of a priorexistence; nor could he have any bodily form, being of a spiritual formof pure intelligence only.

16. We should remember the past from our present state, that we aremortal beings undergoing repeated transmigrations,[Pg 920] and not bring otherpersons and things to our remembrance, as others think it to mean. (Weshould remember ourselves only).

17. Reminiscence means the retention of past things, in our remembranceor inward memory; but what can we remember, when there nothing was noris, nor shall ever be anything.

18. All this stupendous fabric, is the supreme Brahma itself; whor*mains as immovable as a mountain, and without its beginning, middleor end. What then is the reminiscence or presence of it?

19. The Lord being the universal soul, is the soul or essence of allthings; and shines like the lustre of the vacuous Intellect; outwardlyhe is quite calm, as I may say he is reposing in our remembrance.

20. So the remembrance of the Lord, is as he is seen in the light ofnature; hence the habitual meditation of the lord, corresponds with thecontemplation of external nature. (Because apart from nature we have noidea of God, unless we think as the Lord of nature. This is called thenatural religion, or the worship of God in nature, the ancient vedicreligion).

21. Whatever is known to us is nature, and the same is the object ofour meditation. Hence the appearance of any thing (in the mind), iscalled to be its remembrance.

22. And as anything which is absent or inexistent, appears visible (byerror) before our sight, like the false appearance of water in themirage: such is the case with our misleading memory also (which ishence called a treacherous memory).

23. Again any prejudice which is rooted in the minds of men, andappears as right by long habit of thinking it as such; this also passesfor memory also (though it is a wrong impression in the mind).

24. Any sudden accident or passing event, that strikes the mind for amoment; pass also under the name of memory; though it may or may nothappen any more.

25. Any idea that rises of itself in the mind, becomes so impressed init, by its being fostered for any length of time; that any other thingbearing resemblance thereto, passes for an object of our memory.

[Pg 921]

26. Any thing whether obtained or not by any means, passes also for anobject of memory; as the ventilation of wind by means of a fan. (Itmeans a negative idea is ever accompanied with its affirmative one inthought and memory).

27. Again whatever occurs in the mind, by parts of the whole subject,is also called its memory (how imperfect so ever it may be); just asany part of the body is called the body also.

28. There are also many chimeras, rising of themselves before the mind,like magic shows appearing before our sight; and if the remembrance ofthese be called memory, then say what truth or reliance is there in it.

29. Consider then how very imperfect and erroneous, this faculty ofmemory is to man; and as there is no visible creation at all, itsmemory therefore is altogether meaningless.

30. Hence then the world being but a display, of the density or volumeof the Divine Intellect; it is reflected at present as a visible objectin the minds of the ignorant, who have given them the name of memory,which in reality is nothing at all.

31. I cannot tell you about the means of liberation, nor do I knowwherein it consists; yet however to clear the doubt of the inquirer, Iwill relate something about it at present.

32. Until there is an end of the sight of the visibles, and an oblivionof the remembrance of past events; and a cessation of avidyá,ignorance and delusion, it is hard to be attained. (i.e. A slaveto this world and errors, is never emancipated in this life—jívanmukta).

33. The ignorant have a belief, in whatever is quite unknown to us;since they can never conceive whatever is imperceptible to their senses(i.e. whose minds never rise beyond sensible objects.)

34. The enlightened are unacquainted with the gross errors, which lurkin the darkness of ignorant minds; as the ever luminous sun, knowsnothing of what passes in the gloom of night.

35. Whatever likeness of any thing, ever appears to be impressed in themirror of the mind; the same being habitual[Pg 922] to thought, as any thingstudied or stored in the mind, receives the name of reminiscence fromits impression in the memory.

36. But these glaring impressions in the imagination, being rubbedout of the mind like the colours of a painting, there remains no moreany tinge of the mistaken world therein, as in the clear minds of thelearned.

37. The mirage shows the appearance of water in it, which is a meredelusion and never true; so is the dream that shows this creation toview, which is no more in reality than a false vision.

38. It is the vacuous Intellect, which contains the creation in it; andshows its representation in ourselves; thus the world appears in thevoid of the Intellect only, and not any thing as fallen or detachedfrom it. (It is a picture in the plate of the mind).

39. The supreme soul shows this form in itself, and makes its unrealityappear as a reality unto us; and though this form was manifested atthe beginning, yet it is no more than the display of an unreality.(i.e. Being seen in God it is real, but without him it is unrealand nothing).

40. Then say, whence and where is this world, with all its pleasant aswell as unpleasant things; it is never anything of a plastic form, noran appearance proceeding from reminiscence.

41. The world having no cause (either material or instrumental), in thebeginning, appears as the very form of the supreme, it is to our woeonly, that we view its visible form, or search in our memory (for apristine pattern of it).

42. Both of these views are wrong, and tend to our bondage in theworld; but the view of its voidness in the vacuity of the Intellect, isthe only means to our release and liberation from it.

43. The view of the apparent world in its vacuous form, and as situatedin the vacuity of the Intellect, and its identity with swarúpaor self same spirit of God, and as undetached in their essence from thedivine essence (is the only means of our liberation herein).

44. The view of the situation of the visible bodies, as those[Pg 923] ofthe sun, moon, and mountains &c., in the empty space of the DivineIntellect; like those of the invisible ones, as space, time, and otherideal objects therein, is the only means of our release from thebondage of this world.

45. The view of the self same spirit, situated or dwelling in therecess of the Intellect, and identic with its own notion of itself, andbearing resemblance to the nature of the dream, which proceeds fromits essence, is the only means of our emancipation from our temporalbondage.

46. How can any earthly or other elemental body, have its place inthe spirit of God, which is not of the form of the earth or any otherelement; it shines of itself and in itself, in and as the quiet void ofthe Intellect itself.

47. How and from where could the earth and other elements, proceedin the beginning as in the state of our dreaming; unless they wereinherent in and coeval with the divine essence, as the many objects ofour dream rise from our own nature.

48. These effusions of the spirit, as named afterwards as the earth&c., and deemed as material objects; but say, how could the spiritualemanations or mnemonic effluences, assume such corporal and tangibleforms.

49. The world is neither the production of our error, nor is it arepresentation of our delusion or as a magic show; nor is it thepermeation of the spirit as pervading all nature, but it is the veryessence of the selfsame deity itself.

50. It is the Divinity Brahma itself that shines in the form of thiswondrous world; it is the self-same unity, which appears to manifest,and yet so very obscure as mysterious unto us. What is visible is onlypure light, and that of the serene clearness of open air, which glowsand grows dim by turns, by the vicissitudes of the light and shade ofcreation and destruction. (These as they change are but the varied God.Thomson’s Seasons).

Argument:—The attribution of all physical force to the Divinespirit, like the ascribing of all our bodily actions to the Mind.

Ráma rejoined:—If the nature of the Divine spirit is, as the notionwhich is Universally entertained of it; that it is common soul of all,and infinite in its pervasion, why then is it supposed to be the soulof the living body only, and called the Ego or a personal being?

2. How does the Intellect become inert, as a block of wood or stone inthe state of our sleep, and why is it said to exist or become extinctin the state of its numbness (when it is said to be universal in itsnature).

3. Vasishtha replied:—It is by common usage and mode of speech, thatthe universal soul is said to reside as the ego or personal being inthe body; as it is by common use of language only, to take the handsof the body as hands, and not to understand the feet as such. (So theembodied soul only is called the ego).

4. As the leaf of a tree is considered only as a leaf or part of thetree, so the universal soul residing in the tree (as vegetable life),passes under the designation of a tree only.

5. And as vacuity in the sky, is styled the sky also; so the universalsoul dwelling in matter, is designated as that matter likewise. (And sothe common vacuum indwelling a pot, passes under the name of the potalso).

6. And as an aerial castle in a dream, appears as a tangible castle tothe dreamer for the time; so the universal soul living in our sleep,dream, and waking, is thought to be sleeping, dreaming or being awakeat that time.

7. As stony trees or cliffs are seen to rise on mountains, and[Pg 925] waveson the surface of waters; so the huge mountain also rises as a stonytree, from the bosom of the all pervading spirit.

8. As the living body gives growth, to dull and dead nails and hairs,so the living soul of the universe, grows the insensible stones andtrees upon it. (So the spirit produces the matter, and the insensiblerises from sensibles).

9. As the conscious soul becomes unconscious, as a stone or block ofwood in its sleep; so the universal soul becomes inert, before creationand after its dissolution. And again as the sleeping soul, sees thetrain of dreams rising out of it, so the tranquil spirit of God,beholds the lustre of creation issuing out of it.

10. And as the sensible and insensible soul of man, produces bothsensible offspring and insensible excrements from its body; so theuniversal soul, produces both living beings and inert bodies fromitself.

11. The sensible as well as the insensible, are both embodied in theperson of the universal soul; which is possessed of both the movablesand immovables in itself, although it is formless in its substance.

12. All these contraries in nature, disappear before the sight of thetruly learned; as the false sights in dream, disappear from view of theawakened man, who knows the falsity of dreams.

13. All this is the vacuity of the Intellect, where there is no sight,view nor its viewer; as a dreamer being awakened from his dreaming,neither sees his dream nor his dreaming sights any more.

14. Millions and millions of creations, are appearing in anddisappearing from the vacuum of the Intellect, in the manner ofrecurring waves, and the revolving whirlpools in the sea.

15. As the waters of the ocean, show various shining forms in therising waves; so the Intellect raises many creations, bearing differentnames in its own intellectuality.

16. The world as it is, appears as the very Brahma to the[Pg 926] trulylearned, while to the ignorant mass of men, it appears as many andchanging, for want of the precise knowledge of it.

17. The wave that knows its nature, of calm and cool water only, thinksno more of its being a fluctuating wave (so the man that knows himselfas Brahma, thinks no longer of his frail and mortal state).

18. The conception of the undulation of the divine spirit, from thefluctuating appearance of creation, is a mistaking of the calmness ofthe Divine nature; the fluctuation belongs to the powers residing inthe Divinity.

19. The vacuous Intellect never forsakes its tranquility; and thevariety of knowledge that rises in it, like the varying train ofdreams, is attributable to the mind, which they call Brahma or thegreat progenitor of all.

20. Thus the prime lord of creatures, was the formless and undecayingmind; it was of intellectual form like an imaginary being, and supposedas the cause of all.

21. Who says “thou art nothing,” that saying is like the word gold,which has no form of itself, but whose purity is gold.

22. The increate Brahma, being of an intellectual and vacuous form, andan imaginary body endued with volition, appeared as the prime Ego or apersonal being, and containing the world in his person.

23. It is the empty void of the Intellect, which displays these wondersthat are known to constitute the continued bustle, of the alternatecreation, sustentation, and destruction of the world.

24. The clear and increate light, to which the intellect evolves itselfof its own accord; and which bears resemblance to the evolution of airydreams from the mind; is termed the first father of all. (Light wasthe first work of God, or coeternal with the Eternal spirit. Hail holylight Heaven’s first-born, or the Eternal coeternal beam. Milton).

25. As a wave assumes one form or other, and rolls on[Pg 927] interminablyover the vast expanse of the sea; so runs the heavenly mind, in theforms of the revolving creations and their dissolutions.

26. The light of the intellectual vacuum, which passes under thename of Virát; is of the same mind as Brahma, and stretches out thecreation, like a castle or city of imagination.

27. Virát is the combined form of the triple states of waking, dreamingand sleep; the two first are analogous to the creation and supportanceof the universe, and the last is similar to the utter darkness ofdissolution.

28. From the chaotic state of his dissolution, there sprang light anddarkness (in the forms of days and nights), like dark and white hairsgrowing on his head; and the rotations of time resembling the joints ofhis body.

29. His mouth represented the fire, his head the upper sky, and the airbelow his navel; his foot-stool was the earth, his eyes were the sunand moon, and the east and west were his two ears. In this manner didthe Lord Virát manifest himself, in the imagination of his mind (Virátrepresents the concrete universe).

30. Thus did the expanded vacuous form of Virát, represent the wholevisible world in his ideal person; which was a figure of his ownimagination, as any of the unsubstantial forms of our dream or fancy.

31. Whatever is thought of in the vacuity of the Intellect, the samecomes to be vividly exhibited therein; such is verily the form of thisworld, which we conceive in ourself.

32. Virát is verily an aeriform being in himself, and appears to be aswide extended as the vast extent of the universe; and is in his ownnature, like a city or mountain, that we see in our dreams.

33. Whatever one thinks himself to be, he conceives in him to havebecome the same, without his actually being as such, so an actor isseen to play his part in dream, from the concept of his acting on thestage.

[Pg 928]

34. Whatever be the tenets of the Vedánta, Buddhism, Sánkhya andSaugata systems of the philosophy; and whatsoever may be the doctrineof Tryaksha, Pashupati and other propounders of Ágama sástras; theyall agree in acknowledging Brahma, as the giver of the boons that theyrespectively desire; and all of them obtain the particular object ofbliss from the same. Such is the glory of the great God, whose soulfills all bodies, and whose bounty supports them all (lit., whose bodycomprehends the whole).[3]

Argument:—Subsistence of Brahma after evanescence of the world,likened to the continuance of Intellection after disappearance ofdreams upon waking.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect alone glistened in the beginning,with its thought of creation, appearing as the vision of a dream beforeit. This was the representation of the three worlds, and a reflexion ofthe light of Brahma Himself. (The Divine spirit was the archetype, ofwhich the world was an ectype or réchauffé).

2. These creations were as the endless billows in the ocean of theDivine Mind, and rising from the fluidity of his omniscience; hencethere is no difference between the creation and its absence, nor isthere any woe in the one or bliss in the other.

3. As the dream and sound sleep of the soul, do both of them appertainto its sleeping state; when the mind remains as vacant as empty air;so the visible and invisible creation (i.e. its presence andabsence) are both of them alike in the vacuity of the Intellect (wherethey both resemble but an empty dream).

4. This world appearing like a city seen in our dream, in our wakingstate; is not worthy of reliance of the wise, who are well acquaintedwith its nature of a visionary appearance.

5. And as we find the falsity of the visionary city in the dream, uponour waking, so we come to find our mistake of the reality of the worldat last.

6. As upon waking, we come to find the falsity of all our efforts anddesires; in the visionary city of our dream; so do we find at last, allour aims and attempts in our waking state in this world, to be equallyfalse and fleeting.

7. If any one assigns any other cause, then why that one does notadmit, what he said, is mere fancy.

[Pg 930]

8. When guessing knowledge is no better than a dream of the world; soocular authority is more strong than inocular one.

9. It is better to judge the soul and other attribute by near example,than by the far off; otherwise it is like a fall from the top of a hillin a dream.

10. Perfect insensibility is entire inertness, and a changeless stateof body and mind; while the nature of the world, and the state ofthings herein, are incessantly restless and changeful; therefore it isincapable to conduct samádhi or intense meditation in either ofthese two states.

11. Meditation in worldly life, must be too sensitive and variable;while its intensity or trance stupifies a man to a stone; but trueliberation consists neither in the changeableness of mind, nor in itsstone like insensibility.

12. I think nothing is obtainable from the stone like apathetic trance,as there is nothing to be <had> from the drowsy stupor <for> anybody.(Hence both fickleness as well as mental torpor are repugnant tomeditation and self-liberation).

13. It is therefore by means of consummate knowledge only, thatreasoning men can dispel their ignorance; and there is no chance of hisbeing born again, who has secured his liberation in his life time.

14. Inflexible abstraction is said to have no bounds, and it consistsin sitting steadfast in profound meditation, without distraction ordiversion, such a posture is said to be all illuminating, or eternalsunshine to the Yogi.

15. It is called the endless hypnotism or absorption of the soul, andis the fourth or last state of contemplativeness. It is also styled asnirvána self-extinction, or losing one’s self in his reveries;and this is what they designate moksha or liberation from allbonds and cares of the world. (This is the abstract Platonism of theancients).

16. It is the density or depth of pansophy, and the intensity ofexcogitation; and there being an entire absence of the retrospectof the phenomenals in it, it is known as the state of perfecttranscendentalism or glory.

[Pg 931]

17. It is not the stone like inertness of some philosophers (Gautamaand Kanada), nor the hypnotism or sound sleep of others (Hiranyagarbas); it is neither the unoptativeness or want of option of thePátanjalas, nor is the inexistence or utter annihilation of theBuddhist.

18. It is the knowledge of Brahma as the prime source of all, andnihility of the visible creation; it is knowing God as all and yetnothing that exists; and therefore it is to know Him as He is—in hisall pervading spirit.

19. It is the consummate knowledge of all (as nothing), that givesus our positive rest of nirvána (in our nothingness); and inknowing that the world as it is, equal to its inexistence.

20. That all this variety is no variety at all, nor all these anyentity in reality; all apparent realities are mere unrealities, andit is the end of all our conceptions and inductions, that is the onlyreality (i.e. God the first and last of all—the Alpha andOmega).

21. The entire nihility of the visible world, is the state of itsnirvána or extinction; and the settled knowledge of this in anyone, constitutes his supreme felicity.

22. This state is attainable by one’s pure understanding, and hishabit of constant reconsideration; joined with a knowledge of thesástras, and scrutiny into the right sense of significant wordsand their significates.

23. This work is the best guide to liberation, by means of itsconstant study; or else it is attainable by no other means, save byenlightenment of the understanding. ज्ञानतोमुक्तिरेब ।

24. Neither pilgrimage nor charity, nor sacred ablutions or learning;nor meditation or Yoga contemplation, nor religious austerities norsacrifice of any kind (is liberation ever attainable by mankind, exceptby means of divine knowledge).

25. The world is only a delusion, causing the unreal <to> appear asreal; it is the empty vacuum only which presents the appearance of theworld, which is as a dream in the vacancy of the Intellect.

26. No religious austerity nor pilgrimage, is ever able to remove ourerror of the world; they can at the best procure[Pg 932] for us the reward ofheaven, but never secure unto us our liberation or final beatitude.

27. Our error is extirpated only, by the light of the sástrasand of our good understanding; but above all, it is spiritual knowledgealone, which is the best means to our liberation and final salvation.

28. But it is the vivid light of the scriptures, which is sure todestroy our error of the world; as the sunshine serves to dispel thegloom of night.

29. The light, clearness and shade, of creation, preservation anddestruction respectively, appear by turns in the clear vacuous mirrorof the Intellect; as the ventilation of breeze in air, and fluctuationof waves in water.

30. As the rudiment of the future form, is contained in the heart orembryo of every thing; and as the air contains in its incessant motion(sadágati) within itself; such is the existence of the world,inherent in the Divine Intellect, and so has it its evolution anddissolution therein, like the rise and fall of wind in empty air.

Argument:—The appearance of the world in our Ignorance, and itsDisappearance before the light of true knowledge.

Vasishtha continued:—The vacuity of the Intellect which presented theshadow of a dream at first, could not possibly assume the form of acausal and sensible body (as that of Brahmá), in order to be visibleand form the visible world. For how is it possible for the intellectualvacuum, to have a bodily form at all.

2. In the beginning of creation, O Ráma, there was nothing except ashadow dream in the Intellect. And neither was there this creation northe next world in visible existence.

3. The world appeared only in the form, of an unsubstantial notion ofit; and the vacuous intellect remained as quiet with its ideal world,as the mind rests quietly with the nightmare in its dream.

4. Such is the essence of the Intellect, which is translucent andwithout its beginning and end; and though it is a clear void in itself,yet it bears the ideal model of the world in its mirror.

5. So long as this is unknown, the world appears as a gross substance;but being known as contained in the Divine spirit, it becomes aspiritual substance also; because how is it possible for any grossmatter, to attach itself to the transcendent vacuum, of which there isno beginning and end?

6. This pure and abstract knowledge of the world, is as that of a cityin dreaming; and such being the state of the world ere its creation,how can any earthly or other matter, be ever joined with the same?

7. The light of the Divine soul, shining amidst the vacuity[Pg 934] of theIntellect, is termed cosmos or the universe; consisting as it issupposed, of matter, mind and faculties.

8. It is want of understanding only, which makes us suppose a thing,which is turning round like a whirlpool, and having the force of thewind in it as the stable earth, although it has no basis or stabilityof it.

9. Afterwards the same Divine spirit (jíva), wishing to display its ownglory (thought in its personality of Brahmá), of the ideal forms of theearth and other things (in its imagination).

10. Then the great minds of (Brahmá), shone with a purer light ofitself; and this is called his creation which is of an aerial form andno other. (Light being the first work of creation).

11. That pure light, was nothing substantial of itself; but thebrightness of the Intellect only, shining with the effulgence of theDivine spirit. (This was the psychic light of the soul in itself).

12. This light is the body of the spirit, which shone as intellectuallight in the void of the Intellect; and it presented the appearance ofthe world in it, in the manner of dreams floating before the empty mind.

13. There being no other inference to be derived, nor any other causeto be possibly assigned (to the production of the world), or of itsbeing produced of itself; it is certain that the divine spirit, seesitself in the form of creation, within the vacuum of its Intellect inthe beginning. (As anything cannot come by itself or from nothing; theworld must therefore be either a nothing or a form of something that isever existent of itself).

14. This body of the world (corpus mundi), having no property of atangible body, is never fragile in its nature; but it is as void as theemptiness of the Intellect, and as inane as the empty air.

15. Its form is that of the supreme Being, which is without any formwhatever; and identic with the Divine form, it comprehends all bodiesin itself, and extends undivided as all in all in its ownself.

16. This will be better understood in the instance of a[Pg 935] dream, whichrises of itself and shows itself in various forms; but as all thesevarieties are nothing but empty visions, so the diverse scenes andsights of the world, are no more than shows of the Divine spirit.

17. The Divine soul of Brahma, assumed to itself the state of theliving spirit; and without forsaking its transparent form, became ofthe form of mind (in the person of the great Brahmá—the creativePower).

18. This power extends the universe in its aerial form in air; whichappears to be changed from its unchangeable state of transparency, tothat of a gross nature (i.e. the visible and material world).

19. The Mind is Brahmá himself, who gives an external and visibleform to the world, that was seated invisible in his heart; andis continually employed in the process of repeated creation anddestruction of all.

20. The immaterial mind of Brahma, evolved the world from itsprotoplasm, which was originally seated in his heart; and thence itappeared in a different form as a counterpart of the original, or asthe formless representation of something in a dream.

21. The God Brahmá though in himself dwelling with his formless mind,in his embodied form of the triple world, and of being diffused inendless forms of sensible and insensible beings therein.

22. But there was neither the earth, nor any material form, nor evenanything of a visible appearance therein; it was only his mind whichexhibited itself, in the form of the formless and vacuous world. (TheDivine hypostasis of the personified mind of Brahma, was only a mentaland aerial form, and not a material one).

23. Then the lord Brahmá thought that, this mental form of his, wasnothing in substance, as it did not appear to sight; it was theIntellect only, which shone in this manner within itself, and had nosolidity or substantiality in it. (The Intellect is the omniscience ofGod, and the Mind is the intelligence of Brahmá).

[Pg 936]

24. This mental conception or abstract contemplation of the world,is inexpressible by words, and makes the meditator remain in muteastonishment; and causes him to continue as dumb in this ordinaryconduct in life. (This is the state of platonic supineness orinsouciance).

25. The Intellect being infinite and unlimited, the mind is lostin infinity in its reflection; hence Brahmá having long remainedin his silence, became awakened to his knowledge at last. (Brahmáthe Demiurgic Mind having recovered itself from its wonder andbewilderment, becomes detached at last from the divine mind).

26. After the insensible mind of Brahmá, had come to its sense, itrevolved in itself with its thoughts; as the liquid waters of the sea,turns in whirlpools by agitation.

27. So the insensible air is put to ventilation by its internal motion,and so all living souls which are identic with the calm and quietsupreme soul, slide away like the gliding waters, from their mainsource.

28. And as the winds and waves, which are identical with the calm airand still water, blow and flow in all directions of themselves, so theminds of living beings which are same with supreme Intellect, run inseveral ways in their own accord.

29. Hence the vacuous intellect of all living beings, is the same withthe Divine intellect; and this, O most intelligent Ráma, is otherwiseknown as the supreme soul also.

30. The Divine soul appears unto us, to have its twinklings like thevacillation of air; its closing causes the close or end of the world,as its flashing exposes the creation to view.

31. Its glancing causes the visibility of creation, and its winkingmakes it invisible or extinct to view, while the want of both theseacts (opening and closing of its sight), is tantamount to the formlessvoid of the world.

32. But the view of the opening and shutting of its sight, or thevisibility and disappearance of the world in one unvaried light, makesthe equality of existence and non-existence in the mind, and bespeaksthe perfection of the soul.

33. Seeing and not seeing, and their results of creation and[Pg 937]extinction, make no difference in the Divine Intellect which is alwaysthe same. (The veda says Íkshati or glancing of God, and not hiswill or word is the cause of the world).

34. Know therefore this world, to be as calm and quiet as the Divinesoul; and that it is of the nature of the uncreated vacuum, which isever the same and no decay.

35. The sensuous and conscious intellect, exhibits itself as theinsensible and unconscious vacuum; the very intellect shows itself inthe form of the world, which is in a manner its body and residence.

36. The Intellect is neither born or made, nor does it ever grow ordecay; it is never visible nor perceptible, nor have we any notion ofit; it displays its wonders in itself, without any extraneous substancein it.

37. All that is called the phenomenal, is the brightness of the blazinggem of the great Intellect, and proceeding from the quarry of itsvacuum; as the sunshine which illumines the world, issues from the orbof that luminary.

38. It is Brahma himself that shines forth as the creation, justas our sleep exhibits the visionary world in its dream; so is allthis creation as quiet as sleep, and yet full with the bustle of theslumbering world.

39. Whatever is known in any manner in the mind, either as existent orinexistent in the world; the same is the reflexion of the Intellect,whether it be an entity or non-entity.

40. Should the impossibility of existence, lead us to the suppositionof some cause as of the primary atoms and the like; then what causecan there be assigned to the appearance of sights in our dream (and offabrics without their foundation).

41. If the origin of the world is not ascribed to Brahma, as theorigination of dreams to the Intellect; then neither is there any truthin the existence of the one, or in the appearance of <the> other, whichis never true.

42. The minds of men are inclined towards the particular objects oftheir fancy; hence those that believe and delight in God, take him asthe origin of all things that appear unto them.

[Pg 938]

43. Whatever is in the minds of men, and to whatever their hearts areconstantly devoted; they know the same as the only objects of theirlives, and the very gist of their souls.

44. He who delights in Brahma, becomes of the same mind in a moment;and so any one who is gratified in any thing, is incorporated with thesame in his mind.

45. The man who has obtained his rest in God, has found the highestbliss in his mind; though he shows himself as otherwise in his outwardconduct and social dealings.

46. There is no reason for the supposition of unity or duality herein,when the whole existence is as I have propounded, and it is in vain tolook at anything else.

47. There <is> nothing as visible or invisible, or anything as formlessor having a form herein; there is nothing as subject or object, noraught of reality or unreality here, when the whole is the very Brahmahimself.

48. This world is without a beginning and end, and is known to theworld as soul; but in fact, one Brahma rules over all without any fixedrule, like a path without a name.

49. That which is conceived as the serene Brahma, is considered as thebright Brahmá or Demiurgus also; just as what is known as the calm andclear firmament, the very same is said <to be> the empty void likewise.

50. As the nebulae which seem to bedim the face of the sky, aresomething in appearance and nothing in substance; just <so> do ourmental faculties appear to flutter in and obscure the clear atmosphereof the Intellect, and seem to be as dualities or otherwise than theserene intellectual principle.

51. But the mental, bodily and all other perceptive and active powersof living beings, are the common properties of the intellectual soul;just as the very many gaps and hollows in various bodies, are in commonwith the vacuity of the one universal vacuum only. (i.e. Allthese are the aerial powers of psychic principle).

52. As the quiet soul passing from its sleeping to the dreaming state,retains its identity and invariableness; so the[Pg 939] divine soul passinginto creation after its quiescence, remains the very unchanged unity asever.

53. Thus the supreme spirit reflects the shadow of its great Intellect,in the forms of creation and dream; hence neither is this creation northe vision in dreaming, any thing in its substance than a mere shadow(of the picture in the Divine Mind).

54. It is the bright picture of the Divine Mind, that exhibits its formin the vacuity of the Great Intellect; and so the ideal appearance asthe visible creation, like the fairy land in dream (and the airy castleof imagination). (The word cháya—shadow means both the glory of God,as also the darkness of illusion. Gloss).

55. From the impossibility of the appearance of the world, by any meansas it is conjectured by different schools, and from its want of a priorcause; it must be that the intellect saw itself thus exhibited in itsown vacuity.

56. In the beginning of creation, the formless void of the Intellect,showed itself in this visible and intangible form; and representeditself as a picture of its mind or dream or its imagination.

57. Like the dream it was a blank and without any attribute; it ischangeable but not frangible, and although it was the substance ofintellectual voidness, yet it was vitiated with the stain of ourmisapprehension of it, called avidyá. (The world is purely of anintellectual form, and it is our ignorance which imputes a gross formto it).

58. Like the dream, it seems to possess some properties in itsappearance; but is wholly devoid of any in its substance; it is neverdifferent from the spiritual nature of the Lord, though it appearsotherwise to our misconception of it.

59. The phenomenal world likens a mountain seen in dream, and isinseparable from the soul wherein it resides; therefore the visiblesappearing in the vacuity of the Intellect, are more vacuous than thevacuum of the firmament.

60. That which is the supreme soul; and devoid of all form;[Pg 940] the verysame and of the same nature is all this, that we call the visible world.

61. Whatever conception we have in our dream, the same is the displayof our intellect; so the cities and castles that we see in the dreams,are no real existences; but appearances presented unto us by theintellect.

62. As the recognizance of our acquaintances in dream, and theremembrance of the impressions in our memory, are altogetherunsubstantial (owing to the absence of their prototypes in us); so thesight of the visibles and the perception of perceptibles quite unrealalso (because none of those things are present in us).

63. Therefore leaving <these> unrealities of our recognitions,perceptions and remembrances, which are so much relied upon by theignorant; we should take them in the light of the direct manifestationsof the Deity in those forms.

64. As the waves of the sea, continue to roll incessantly on thesurface of the waters; so innumerable worlds that are continuallyrevolving, on the surface of the supreme soul, are of the same naturewith itself.

65. All laws and their anomalies, as well as all varieties andcomplexities unite in harmony in the Divine nature. (There all discordis concord, and all partial evil is universal good).

66. Therefore that Brahma is all in all, and there is none and nothingbesides; He alone is the soul of all, as all these live in Him.

67. The roving mind thinks the world to be roving about with all itscontents; but the steady minded take it to be quite sedate and quiet;hence it is impossible for the learned also, to settle their mindswithout the habitual sedateness of their attention.

68. There is no other means, for suppressing the mind from the sight ofthe visibles; without the constant habit of attending to the lectures(of the preceptor) on this sacred sástra.

69. Though it is difficult to repress the mind from its thoughts ofthis world, either in its states of living or death, (i.e.either in its waking or sleeping states); yet it is possible[Pg 941] to do soby effacing its impressions at once, from the study of this spiritualsástra.

70. The knowledge of the nihility of the visible body, and that of themind also in want of the body; both in this world as well as in thenext world, will always serve to preserve our peace and quietism (andthis is attainable by means of studying this sástra).

71. The mind, body and the visibles, are all three of them suppressedunder the sense of their nothingness; as the mind, its force and themoving clouds, do all disappear in absence of their cause (i.e.motion).

72. The cause of restlessness is ignorance only, which is altogetherdispelled by the study of this sástra; and those whose mindsare a little enlightened, have their composure from attending to therecital and preaching.

73. The unintelligent will be able to understand the teachings of theformer part from the latter; and he that understands the words andpurports of these lectures, will never return disappointed (in hisexpectation of nirvána or ultimate rest).

74. Then know this sástra as the best means, to the dispersionof the error; and to the production of an universal indifference orinsouciance everywhere.

75. Therefore try your best, to weigh well the precepts of thissástra; and whether you study one or both parts of this work,you will doubtless be freed from your misery thereby.

76. Should this sástra prove unpalatable, owing to its being thecomposition of a holy sage; in that case the student may consult thesacred srutis, for the perfection of his spiritual knowledge.

77. Do not spend your time in false reasoning, nor offer your preciouslife to flames and ashes; but let your sapient understanding committhe visibles to the invisible soul (i.e. view them in theirspiritual light, and bury the gross phenomenal in utter oblivion andappear in the noumenal soul only).

78. No one can buy a jot or moment of his lifetime, at the[Pg 942] cost ofall the gems in the world; and yet how many are there, who foolishlymisspent their time in their worldly dream?

79. Though we have a clear conception of the world, yet it is a falsesight together with that of its beholder—the living soul; it is asfalse as the dream of one’s own death in his sleep, and his hearing thewailing of his friend at his demise.

Argument:—The world resembling a dream and an atom of the Divinemind, and Brahmá’s account of it.

Ráma rejoined:—There <are> innumerable worlds in the universe, many ofwhich have gone before, many are in existence, and many as yet to be;how then is it sir, that you persuade me to the belief of their nullity.

2. Vasishtha replied:—you well know, Ráma, the relation which theworld bears to a dream, in that they both mean a passing scene; andthis sense of it, can be denied by no one of this audience.

3. The words which are spoken by the wise, who know their applicationand sense; are neither understood nor received in the hearts of commonpeople, though they are in common use.

4. When you will come to know the knowledge <of> One, then you willdiscern the three times clearly and behold them as present before you.

5. As it is the intellect alone, that displays itself in the form ofthe world in our dream; so doth the Divine Intellect also, exhibit theworlds in itself, in the beginning of creation; and there is no othercause of their production.

6. Hence there are innumerable worlds, revolving like atoms in theinfinite space of air; and there is no one who can count their number,and descry their modes and natures.

7. It was of old that my venerable sire—the lotus-born Brahmá, andall besmeared with the fragrant dust of that flower, has delivered adiscourse on this subject, which I will now relate unto you.

8. It was of old that my sire Brahmá, told me about the number ofworlds, and their respective situations in the[Pg 944] heavens, whence theythus appear unto us. To this he said (as follows).

9. Brahmá said:—O sage, all this is Brahma, that is manifested as theworld; it is infinite entity of the Deity in its abstract essence; butviewed in the concrete, the world is a nonentity.

10. Attend to this narration of mine, which is as felicitous to thesoul, as it is pleasant to the ear; it is called the narrative of <the>mundane egg, or of the mundane body or mass.

11. There is in the infinite vacuum, a vacuous substance known as thevacuity of the Intellect, in the form of a minute atom only. (Such asthe grain of the mind is, in the hollow cerebrum of the head).

12. It saw as in a dream in itself, of its being as the living soul,resembling the oscillation of the wind in empty air. (The livingprinciple or spirit, is a breath of air).

13. The Lord thus became the living being, with forsaking its vacuousform; and thought itself to become the ego, in its aeriform form.

14. He had then his egoism, and egoistic sense in himself; and this wasthe knowledge of himself as an unit, which is an act of delusion only.

15. Then he thought himself, as changed to the conditions of theunderstanding, mind and ego, as in his dream; and was inclined of hisown option, to impose mutability upon his immutable nature.

16. He then saw in his mind as if in dream, the five senses attachedto his body; these are as formless as the appearance of a mountain indream, which the ignorant are apt to take as a solid body. (The fiveformless faculties of sense, are thought to be composed of the fiveorgans of sense by the gross corporealist).

17. Then he beheld in the atom of his intellect, that his mental body(or his mind), was comprised of the three worlds; in their aerialor abstract forms, apparent to view, but without their substanceor solidity or any basis at all. (This is the mental form ofVirát—cosmos).

[Pg 945]

18. This stupendous form was composed of all beings, whether of themoving or unmoving kinds.

19. He beheld all things comprised in himself, as they are seen indream or reflected in a mirror; and the triple world appeared in hisperson, as the picture of a city newly printed on a plate.

20. He saw the three worlds in his heart, as they are seen in alooking glass; together with all things contained therein, in theirvivid colours of many kinds (viz. the view, viewer and the actof viewing;—the doer, deed and the action of doing;—the enjoyer,enjoying and the enjoyment).

21. He observed minuter atoms subsisting within the minute atoms; andstupendous worlds also on high, clustering together in groups and rings.

22. These being seen in ignorance of their natures; appear as grossmaterial bodies; but viewed in the clear light of their essence, theyprove to be the display of the divine mind only.

23. Thus the viewer who views the world, in the light of Brahma, findsthis view of it, as a vision in this dream; and comes to know thatthere is no real viewer to view of it, nor any cause thereof nor anyduality whatsoever.

24. All these that appear all around us, are quite quiescent in theirnature, and in the Divine spirit alone as their main substratum; theyare all situated in the universal soul from eternity to eternity.

25. Myriads of worlds that are situated in the Divine spirit, appear tobe settled without the same; just as the waves of the sea, rise aboveits waters and scatter its salt spray in the air.

Argument:—The fallacy of assigning a cause to the causelessworld; which is likened to a dream of the Divine Mind.

Ráma rejoined:—If the world is without a cause, and proceeds of itselffrom the essence of Brahma, as our dreams, thoughts and imaginations,proceed of themselves from the nature of our minds.

2. And if it be possible for anything to proceed from no cause, thentell me sir, why we can never have anything without its proper causes.(Such as the production of paddy without its cultivation).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, I am not speaking of common practiceof men, for the production of anything by application of its propercausalities; but of the creation of the world, which is not in needof the atomic principle and material elements, as it is maintained byatomist. (Text). (Whatever invention is adopted by any one, in order toproduce a certain end, is never effected without the application of itsproper means and appliances).

4. In whatever light this visible world is imagined by anybody, heviews it in the same light; while another sees it in a differentmanner, according to his own imagination of it.

5. There are some who imagine it as the diffusion of the Divine soul,and think it as one with the nature of the Deity; while others thinkit as the living body of Virát, with the insensible parts of it,resembling the hairs and nails growing upon his body.

6. The meanings of the words causality and not causality do both ofthem belong to the deity; because the Lord being almighty, has thepower to be either the one or other as he likes.

7. If there be anything whatever, which is supposed to be[Pg 947] besideBrahma in its essence; it is then reasonable to suppose him as thecause of the same, which could not otherwise come to existence.

8. But when all things, that appear so different from one another,are all of them without their beginning or end or co-eternal with theEternal One. Then say, which of these can be the cause of the other.(Hence the world is one with the lord and has no cause of it).

9. Here nothing comes to exist or desist at any time; but are alleternally existent in the self-existent One; as one and the same withhis vacuous self.

10. What is the cause of anything, and to what purpose should any becaused at any time; the Lord expects nothing from his creatures, andtherefore their creation is equal to their not being created at all.

11. Here there is no vacuum or plenum, nor any entity nor non-entityeither, nor any thing between them; as there is nothing predicable ofthe infinite vacuity of Brahma (as either this or that).

12. Whatever is is, and what not may not be; but all is Brahma only,whether what is or is not (i.e. what is past or gone or yet tobe, i.e. all what is present, past or to be in future).

13. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how the Divine spirit is not thecause of all, when it is believed to be the sole cause, by all who areignorant of its quiescent nature (as you maintain).

14. Vasishtha replied:—There is no one ignorant of God, since everyone has an innate conviction of the Divinity as the consciousness ofhimself; and whoso knows the vacuous entity of the Deity, knows alsothat this nature admits of no scrutiny or discussion.

15. Those who have the knowledge of the unity of God, and his natureof quiescence and as full of intelligence; know also, his unknowablenature is beyond all scrutiny.

16. Ignorance of God, abides in the knowledge of God (because oneacknowledges the existence of God, when he says[Pg 948] he is ignorant ofhis nature); and this is as our dreaming is included under the stateof sleeping. (Gloss. Philosophers dream many false ungodly theories ofcausation, while they are sleeping in the quiescent spirit of God.)

17. It is for the instruction of the ignorant, concerning theomnipresence of God, that I say, He is the soul of all or as all inall; while in reality his holy spirit is perfectly pure and undecaying.

18. All existences are thought either as caused or uncaused, accordingto the view that different understandings entertain respecting them.(But neither of these views, refutes the doctrine of the unity of theDeity. Gloss.)

19. Those that have the right conception of things (as manifestationsof the unity in different forms); have no cause to assign any cause tothem whatever (as the atomic principles or elements): therefore thecreation is without any cause whatever.

20. Therefore the assigning of a cause to this creation, either asmatter—prakriti or spirit—purusha, by undermining one’sself-consciousness of Divine pervasion; is mere verbiage of sophistsfor their own confusion only.

21. In absence of any other cause of creation (save that of ourconsciousness of it), it is naught beside an appearance in our dream;and there is nothing as the gross material form or its visibleappearance whatsoever.

22. Say what cause can the ignorant assign, to their sight of the landin their dream, than to the nature of the Intellect, which exhibitssuch phenomena to minds. Say if there can be any other meaning ofdreams.

23. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of dreams, are deludedto believe them as realities; but those that are acquainted with theirfalsehood, are not misled to believe them or this world as real ones.

24. It is the impudence of fools to broach any hypothesis of causality,either by their supposition, arrogance or in the heat of their debate(as it is the case with all the different schools of philosophy).

[Pg 949]

25. Is the heat of fire, the coldness of water, and the light ofluminous bodies, and the natures of things their respective causes, asthe ignorant suppose them to be? (Or is it the attribute of Brahma thatis so manifested in these their several causes? The entity of Divineunity, is the prime sole cause of causes).

26. There be hundreds of speculative theorists, that assign as manycauses to creation without agreeing in any; let them but tell the causeof the aerial castle of their imagination.

27. The virtues and vices of men are formless things, and are attendedwith their fruitions on the spiritual body in the next world; howcan they be causes of our corporeal bodies in this world. (As it ismaintained by Mímámsá philosophers).

28. How can our finite and shapeless knowledge of things, be the causeof the incessant rise and fall, of endless, and minute bodies in theworld, as it is maintained by vijnána váda or gnostic school.(These assert the existence of things depends upon our knowledge orperception of them as such).

29. It is nature says the naturalist, which is the cause of allevents but as nothing result from the nature of anything, without itscombination with another; it is too indeterminate in its sense.

30. Therefore all things appear as causeless illusions to the ignorant,and their true cause to be a mystery to them; while they are known tothe intelligent as the wondrous display of the Divine Intellect, thatshows everything in itself.

31. As one knowing the falsehood of dreams, is never sorry at his lossof anything in dream; so those that have the knowledge of truth inthem, never feel any sorrow even at the possession or separation oftheir lives.

32. In the beginning there was no production of the visible world,nor is it anything more than the vacuum of the intellect; in its ownand true form it appears as a dream, and is no other than that in itsessence.

33. There is no other supposition, which is more apposite[Pg 950] to it: thanits resemblance to the dream; and our conception of the world, has thegreat Brahma only for its ground work.

34. As fluidity, waves and whirlpools, are the inherent properties ofpure water; such are the revolutions of worlds, but appearances on thesurface of the Divine Mind, and have the Divine spirit of Brahma attheir bottom.

35. As velocity and ventilation, are inborn in the nature of pureair; the creation and preservation of the world, are ingrained andintrinsical in the nature of God.

36. As infinity and vacuity are the inherent properties of the Greatvacuum, so is the knowledge of all things existent and non-existent,and of creation and annihilation immanent in the Divine Mind.

37. All things in existence and lying dormant in the Divine Mind, areyet perceptible to us, because we participate of the very same mind.

38. This creation and its destruction also, both abide side by side inthe dense intellect of the Divine Soul; as the thickening dreams andsound sleep, both reside together in the calm sleeping state of oursoul.

39. As a man passes from one dream to another, in the same dormantstate of his soul; so doth the supreme soul see the succession ofcreations, taking place alternately in its own essence.

40. The clear atmosphere of Divine Soul, which is devoid of earthy andother material substances; yet appears in their utter absence, to bepossessed of them all, in the same manner as the human soul, sees manythings in its dream, without having any of those things in itself.

41. As the human mind sees at a thought the forms of a pot, or paintingrising before it; so the all seeing mind of God, sees at a glance ofits thought, worlds upon worlds appearing at once in its presence.

42. The all seeing soul, sees all things as they are in itself;and finds them to be of the same intellectual nature with its ownintellect; and as all things are equivalent to the words[Pg 951] expressiveof them. (As there is a mutual correspondence between the significantwords and their significates).

43. Of what use then are sástras, and of what good is the reasoningupon their verbiage, when our inappetency is the best way to felicity;and there being no creation without its cause, we have nothing to dowith what appears but seemingly so.

44. It being proved, that the want of want is our best bliss below; thesensation of want or desire, must be the source of perpetual miseryto man; and though our desires are many, yet the feeling of it is oneand the same, and betrays the prurient mind, as the various dreams bynight, disclose the cupidinous nature of the soul.

Argument:—The formlessness of the world, for its formation fromthe formless mind.

Ráma rejoined:—The world is known to consist of two sorts of beings,namely the corporeal or solid substances and the incorporeal or subtileessences.

2. They are styled the subtile ones, which do not strike against oneanother; and those again are said to be solid things, which push anddash against each other.

3. Here we see always the dashing of one solid body against another;but know nothing of the movement of subtile bodies, or of their comingin contact with another.

4. We know yet something, about the quick motion of our subtile sensesto their respective objects, and without coming in contact with them,as we find in our perception of the distant orb of the moon (withouttouching it).

5. I repudiate the theory of the half-enlightened, who maintain thematerial world to be the production of the will or imagination; nor canI believe that the immaterial intellect, can either produce or guidethe material body.

6. It is the will I ween, that the material breath of life, moves theliving body to and fro; but tell me sir, what is that power whichpropels, the living breath both in and out of the beings.

7. Tell me sir, how the intangible intellect moveth the tangible body;and carries it about, as a porter bears a load all about.

8. Should the subtile intellect, be capable of moving the solid body atit* will; then tell me sir, why cannot a man move a mountain also byhis own will?

9. Vasishtha replied:—It is the opening and closing of the[Pg 953] mouth ofthe aorta in the breast, that lets in and out the vital breath, throughthe passage of its hole and the lungs.

10. As you see the bellows of ironsmiths about you, having a hollowinside them, so it is the hollow of the aorta, which lets in and outthe vital air, by the breathing of the heart.

11. Ráma rejoined:—It is true that the ironsmith closes and expandsthe valves of the bellows; but tell me sir, what power blows the windpipe of the heart, and lets the air in and out of the inner lungs.

12. How the single breath of inhalation becomes a centuple (in order topass into a hundred channels of the arteries), and how these hundredscombine again into one (in their exhalation); and why are some assensible beings, and others as insensible as woods and stones.

13. Tell me sir, why the immovables have no oscillation at all; and whythe moving bodies alone are possessed of their pulsation and mutation(and why <is> the vegetable creation deprived of motion, when it ispossessed of sensibility in common with the animal creation).

14. Vasishtha replied:—There is an internal percipience (inner man),which moves the interior cords of the body; just as the ironsmith plieshis bellows in the sight of men.

15. Ráma rejoined:—Say sir, how is it possible for the subtile andintactile soul, to move the vital airs and tangible entrails in theanimal body.

16. If it be possible for the imperceptible perceptive soul, to put inmotion the intestinal and tactual entrails of the body; then it may beequally possible for the thirsty soul, to draw the distant water to it.(In order to quench its thirst, instead of going to the watery pool).

17. If it be possible for the tangible and intangible, to come togetherin mutual contact at their will; then what is the use of the activeand passive organs of action (if the will alone be effective of anypurpose).

18. As the intangible powers of the soul or spirit, bear no connectionwhatever with the outward objects of the world; some think they canhave no effect on the internal organs of[Pg 954] the body (in putting them toaction). So please explain it more fully to me.

19. Tell me, how you yogis perceive the outward corporeal things inyour inner incorporeal souls; and how your formless souls, can have anycommand over or any contact with solid bodies.

20. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me tell you for rooting out all yourdoubts, and these words will not only be pleasing to your ears, butgive you a conception of the unity of all things.

21. There is nothing here, at any time, what you call as a solidsubstance or tangible body, but all is a wide and extended vacuum ofthe rare and subtile spirit.

22. This spirit is of the nature of the pure Intelligence, quite calmand intangible; and all material things as the earth, are as visionaryas our dreams, and the creatures of imagination.

23. There was nothing in the beginning, nor shall there be anythingat the end; for want of a cause for its creation or dissolution; thepresent existence is an illusion, as any fleeting shape and shadowappearing before the dreaming mind.

24. The earth and sky, the air and water, and the hills and rivers thatappear to sight; are lost sight of by the abstracted yogi; who by meansof his abstraction, sees them in their ideal and intangible forms.

25. The outer elements and their inner perceptions, the earth, the woodand stones; are all but empty ideas of the intellect, which is the onlyreal substratum of the ideas, and there is no reality besides.

26. Attend now to the narrative of Aindava, in elucidation of thisdoctrine; this will not fail to gratify your ears, though I have oncebefore related this to you. (In the former narration the world wasidentified with the mind, and here it is represented as identical withthe Intellect itself).

27. Attend yet to the present narration, which I am going to relate inanswer to your question; and whereby you will come to know these hillsand others, to be identic with your intellect.

28. There lived once in days of yore, a certain Bráhman in[Pg 955] some partof the world, who was known under the name of Indu, and was famed forhis religious austerities and observance of vedic ceremonies.

29. He had ten sons by whom he was surrounded like the world by its tensides (of the compass); who were men of great souls, of magnanimousspirits, and were revered by all good and great men.

30. In course of time the old father met with his demise, and departedfrom his ten sons as the eleventh Rudra, at the time of the dissolutionof the world.

31. His chaste wife followed his funeral (by concremation), for fear ofthe miseries of widowhood; just as the evening twilight follows like afaithful bride, the departing daylight with the evening star shiningupon her forehead (in token of the vermeil spot on women’s forehead).

32. The sons then performed the funeral ceremonies, and in sorrow fortheir deceased sire, they left their home and domestic duties andretired to the woods for holy devotion.

33. They practiced the best method for the intensity of theirattention, and which is best calculated to secure the consummation oftheir devotion; and was the constant reflection of their identity withBrahma (in the formula we are the lords of all, about us).

34. Thinking so in themselves, they sat in lotus like posture; andwishing to gain the knowledge of the unity of all things, they did whatyou shall be glad to learn from me.

35. They thought they sustained in them the whole world, which ispresided over by the lotus-born Brahmá; and believed themselves to betransformed, to the form of the mundane God in an instant.

36. Believing themselves as Brahma, they sat long with the thought ofsupporting the world; and remained all along with their closed eyes, asif they were mere figures in painting.

37. With this belief they remained fixed and steady at the same spot,and many a month and year glided over their heads and motionless bodies.

38. They were reduced to dry skeletons, parts of which were[Pg 956] beaten anddevoured by rapacious beasts; and some of their <limbs> were at oncesevered and disappeared from their main bodies, like parts of a shadowby the rising sun.

39. Yet they continued to reflect that they were the God Brahmá andhis creation also, and the world with all its parts, were contained inthemselves (i.e. They considered themselves as Virát the form ofmacrocosm).

40. At last their ten bodiless minds, were thought to be convertedto so many different worlds, in their abstract meditation of them.(i.e. Each of them viewed himself as a cosmos).

41. Thus it was by the will of their intellects, that each of thembecame a whole world in himself; and remained so in a clear or abstractview of it, without being accompanied by its grosser part.

42. It was in their own consciousness, that they saw the solid earthwith all its hills &c. in themselves; because all things have referenceto the intellect, and are viewed intellectually only (or else they arenothing).

43. What is this triple world, but its knowledge in our consciousness,without which we have no perception of it, and with which we have aclear conception of every thing. So all things are of the vacuousnature of our consciousness, and not otherwise.

44. As the wave is no other than the water of the sea, so there isnothing movable or immovable whatever, without our conscious knowledgeof it.

45. As the Aindavas remained in their vacuous forms of intellectualworlds in the open air; so are these blocks of wood and stone also,pure intellectual beings or concept in the sphere of our minds.

46. As the volitions of the Aindavas, assumed the forms of the world,so did the will of lotus-born Brahmá take the form of this universe.(So says the veda: The divine will produced the world, just as theadage goes, the will is the mother of the act).

47. Therefore this world together with all these hills and trees;as also these great elements and all other bodies, appertain to theintellect only, which is thus spread out to infinity.

[Pg 957]

48. The earth is the intellect, and so are its trees and mountains, andheaven and sky also the intellect only; there is nothing beside theintellect, which includes all things in itself, like the intellectualworlds of the Aindavas.

49. The intellect like a potter, forms every thing upon its own wheel;and produces this pottery of the world, from the mud of its own body(out of its own intellectual substance).

50. The sensible will being the cause of creation, and framer of theuniverse, could not have made any thing, which is either insensibleor imperfect in its nature, and neither the mineral mountains nor thevegetable production, are devoid of their sensations.

51. Should the world be said to be the work of design, or of thereminiscence or former impression or of the Divine will; yet as theseare but different powers of the Intellect, and are included under it;the world then proves to be the production of the intellect, under someone of its attributes as it is said before. (Hence there is no grossbody as the product of intelligent Intellect).

52. Therefore there cannot be any gross substance in the DivineIntellect which blazes as a mine of bright gems, with the gemming lightof consciousness in universal soul of God.

53. Anything however mean or useless, is never apart from the Divinesoul; and as it is the nature of solar light to shine on all objects,so doth the light of intellect, take everything in the light of theGreat Brahma, which pervades alike on all.

54. As the water flows indiscriminately upon the ground, and as the sealaves all its shores, with its boisterous waves; so doth the intellectever delight, to shed its lustre over all objects of its own accord,and without any regard to its near or distant relation.

55. As the great creator evolves the world, like the petals of hislotiform navel, in the first formative period of creation; so doth thedivine intellect, unfold all the parts of the mundane system from itsown penetralia, which are therefore not distinct from itself.

56. The Lord is unborn and increate, and unconfined in his[Pg 958] natureand purely vacuous in his essence; he is calm and quiescent, and isimmanent in the interim of ens and nil (i.e. ofexistence and non-existence). This world therefore is no more than areflexion of the intellectual or its ideal pattern in Divine Mind.

57. Therefore the ignorant man, who declares the insensibility ofinanimate objects, is laughed at by the wise, who are sensible of theirsensibility in their own kinds. Hence the rocks and trees which aresituated in this ideal world, are not wholly devoid of their sensationsand feelings.

58. The learned know these ideal worlds in the air, to be full with theDivine soul; and so they know this creation of Brahmá’s will, to be butan airy utopia only, and without any substantiality in them.

59. No sooner is this material world, viewed in its aerial andintellectual light, than the distresses of this delusive world betakethemselves to flight, and its miseries disappear from sight.

60. As long as this intellectual view of the world, does not light tothe sight of a man, so long do the miseries of the world, beset himthicker and thicker and closer on every side.

61. Men besotted by their continued folly, and remaining blind to theirintellectual view of the world, can never have its respite from thetroubles of the world, nor find their rest from the hardness of thetimes.

62. There is no creation, nor the existence or inexistence of theworld, or the birth or destruction of any one here; there is no entitynor nonentity of any thing (beside the essence of the One). There isthe Divine soul only, that glows serenely bright with its own light inthis manner; or there is no light whatever except the manifestation ofthe divine spirit.

63. The cosmos resembles a creeper, with the multitude of its buddingworlds; it has no beginning nor end, nor is it possible to find itsroot or top at any time, or to discover the boundless extent of itscircumference. Like a crystal pillar, it bears innumerable statues inits bosoms, which are thickly studded together without having theirinitium or end.

[Pg 959]

64. There is but one endless being, stretching his innumerable arms tothe infinity of space; I am that vacuous soul embracing every thing adinfinitum, and I find myself as that stupendous pillar, in my uncreatedand all comprehensive soul, which is ever as quiescent and transparentand without any change in itself.

Argument:—The intellectuality and incorporality of the World,preclude the idea of its materiality.

Vasishtha continued:—Now as the triple world is known, to be a purelyintellectual entity; there is no possibility of the existence of anymaterial substance herein, as it is believed by the ignorant majorityof mankind.

2. How then can there be a tangible body, or any material substanceat all; and all these that appear all around to our sight, is only anintactile extension of pure vacuity.

3. It is the emptiness of our intellectuality, and contained in thevacuity of the Divine Intellect; it is all an extension of calm andquiet intelligence, subsisting in the serene intelligence of thesupreme One.

4. All this is but the quiescent consciousness, and as a dream that weare conscious of in our waking state; it is a pure spiritual extension,though appearing as a consolidated expanse of substantial forms.

5. What are these living bodies and their limbs and members, what arethese entrails of theirs, and these bony frames of them? Are theynot but mere shadows of ghosts and spirits, appearing as visible andtangible to us. (Or very likely they resemble the phantoms of ourdreams, and the apparitions that we see in the dark. Gloss).

6. The hands, the head, and all the members of the body, are seats ofconsciousness or percipience; where it is seated imperceptible andintangible, in the form of the sensorium or sensuousness.

7. The cosmos appears as a dream in the vacuum of the Divine Mind; andmay be called both as caused and uncaused in its nature, owing to itsrepeated appearance and eternal inherence in the eternal Mind.

[Pg 961]

8. It is true that nothing can come out from nothing, or without itscause; but what can be the cause of what is eternally destined orordained in the eternal mind. (Predestination and Preordination beingthe uncaused cause of all events).

9. It is possible for a thing to come to existence, without anyassignable cause or causality of it; and such is the presence of everything that we think of in our minds (and so also is the appearance ofthis world in its intellectual light).

10. If it is possible for things, ever to appear in their various formsin our dreams, and even in the unconscious state of our sleep; whyshould it <be> impossible for them to appear also in the day dream ofour waking hours, the mind being equally watchful in both states of itsbeing.

11. Things of various kinds, are present at all times, in the allcomprehensive mind of the universal soul; these are uncaused entitiesof the Divine Mind, and are called to be caused also, when they arebrought to appearance.

12. As each of the Aindavas, thought himself to have become a hundredin his imagination; so every one of these imaginary worlds, teemed withmillions of beings—the mere creatures of our fancy.

13. So is every body conscious of his being many, either consecutivelyor simultaneously at the same time; as we think of our multiformityin the different parts and members of our bodies. (Or as the kingVipaschit viewed himself, as dilated in the sun, moon and stars, soalso one man thinks himself as many, in different states of his life).

14. As the one universal body of waters, diverges itself into athousand beds and basins, and branches into innumerable channelsand creeks, and as one undivided duration, is divided into all thedivisions of time and seasons (so doth the one and uniform soul becomemultiform and many). (As the sruti says:—aham-bahu-syam).

15. All compact bodies are but the airy phantoms of our dream, risingin the empty space of our consciousness; they are as formless andrarefied, as the hollow mountain in a dream, and giving us a voidnotion of it.

[Pg 962]

16. As our consciousness consists of the mere notions and ideas ofthings, the world must therefore be considered, as a mere idealexistence; and it appears in the sights of it and observes in the samelight; as the fleeting notions of things glide over the void of theintellect. (The mind is conversant only with the ideas and not with thesubstance of things).

17. Our knowledge and nescience of things, resemble the dreaming andsleeping states of the soul; and the world is same as the intellect,like the identity of the air with its breeze.

18. The noumenon and the phenomenon, are both the one and same stateof the Intellect; being the subjectivity of its vacuous self, and theobjectivity of its own intellections and reveries; Therefore this worldappears as a protracted dream, in the hollow cavity of the sleepingmind.

19. The world is a non-entity, and the error of its entity, is causedby our ignorance of the nature of God from the very beginning ofcreation. In our dream of the world, we see many terrific aspects ofghosts and the like; but our knowledge of its non-entity, and of thevanity of worldliness, dispel all our fears and cares about it.

20. As our single self-consciousness, sees many things in itself; sodoes it behold an endless variety of forms, appearing in the infinitevacuity of the Divine Mind.

21. As the many lighted lamps in a room, combine to emit one greatblaze of light; so the appearance of this multiform creation, displaysthe Omnipotence of one Almighty Power.

22. The creation is as the bursting bubble, or foam and froth of themantling ocean of omnipotence; it appears as a wood and wilderness inthe clouded face of the firmament, but disappears in the clear vacuousatmosphere of the Divine Mind; and there is no speck nor spot ofcreation in the infinite ocean of the Supreme Intellect.

Argument:—Vasishtha’s elucidation of the story of Kunda-danta atthe request of Ráma.

Ráma rejoined:—I pray you sir, to remove the shade of a doubt from mymind, as the sunshine dispels the darkness from before it; in order tobring to light whatever is dark and obscure in the world.

2. I beheld once a self-governed ascetic, who came to the seminary,where I was sitting amidst the synod of the sages and learned men, andconversing on subjects of theology and divinity.

3. He was a learned Bráhman, and of a godly appearance; he came fromthe land of the Videhas or the Mithilas, and was practiced in religiousausterities, and was as unbearable in the lustre of his person as theterrific seer Durvásas self.

4. On entering the assembly, he made his obeisance to the illustriouspersons; when we also saluted him in return and advanced his seat forhim to sit down.

5. The Bráhman being well seated, I picked up many discourses withhim from the Vedánta, Sánkhya, and Siddhánta philosophy, and when hisweariness was gone, I made this question to him, saying:—

6. Sir, you seem to be tired with your long journey to this place,please tell me, O eloquent sir, from where you have started here today.

7. The Bráhman replied:—so it is, O fortunate prince, I have takengreat pains to come up to this place; and now hear me to tell you thereason, that brings me hither to you.

8. There is a district here, known by the name of Vaideha, it isequally populous as well as prosperous in all respects; and is aresemblance of its semblance of the heavenly paradise.

[Pg 964]

9. There I was born and educated, and held my residence at the sameplace; and named as Kundadanta from the whiteness of my teeth, bearingresemblance to the buds of Kunda flowers.

10. I resigned afterwards my worldly concerns, and betook myself totravel far and wide about this earth; and resorted to the asylums ofholy sages and saints, and to the shrines of gods to rest from myfatigue.

11. I retired next to <a> sacred mountain, where I sat silent for along period, practicing my devotional austerities.

12. There I found a desert, which was devoid of grassy pastures andwoody trees; and where the light of the sun and the shade of night,reigned by turns, as it was the open sky on earth.

13. There is in the midst of it a branching tree, with little of itsverdant leaves and leaf-lets; and the luminous sun dispensed his gentlebeams, from the upper sky and through cooling foliage.

14. There hung suspended under one of its boughs, a man of a holy mien;who blazed as the resplendent sun pendent in the open air, by the cordsof his wide extending beams and radiating rays.

15. His feet were tied upwards by a clotted cord of munja grass,and his head hung downward towards the ground beneath; and this gavehim the appearance of an offshoot of the banian tree rooted in theearth below.

16. Having then after a while, approached to him at that place, I sawhim to have his two folded palms affixed to his breast (as if he wasintent upon the meditation of the lord, with the devoutness of hisheart).

17. Advancing nearer to the body of the Bráhman, I found it to be aliveby its respiration, and from its having the feeling of touch, and theperception of heat and cold, and that of the breeze and change ofweather.

18. Afterwards I employed myself solely, in my attendance on thatdevout personage only; and underwent all the rigours of the sun andseasons, until I was received into his confidence.

[Pg 965]

19. I then asked him saying; who art thou lord, that hast thusbetaken thyself to this sort of painful devotion; say, O long sightedseer, what is the aim and object of this thy protracted state ofself-mortification at the peril-expense of thy precious life.

20. He then replied to my question saying:—Tell me first O devotee,what is the object of thy devotion and those of all other persons,that are devoted to the particular objects of their pursuit. (So it isuseless to inquire into the aim and object of another, when there is nobody without his particular end in view).

21. This he said as introductory to his speech to me; but being pressedfurther by my importunate inquiries, he gave the following answer to myquestions.

22. I was born, said he, at Mathura where I grew up from childhood toyouth in the house of my father; and acquired my knowledge of philologyand the arts in course of this time.

23. I then learnt this also, that princes are the receptacles of allpleasures and enjoyments, and that it is the early bloom of youth, thatis capable of the fruitions of life.

24. Since then I began to reflect on my being the possessor of theseven continents of the earth; and to foster the ardent expectation, ofthe gratification of all my desires of this life.

25. It is for this purpose that I have come to this place, and haveemployed myself in this state of devotion, for attainment of objects ofmy desire.

26. Therefore, O thou disinterested and self offered friend of mine, dothou now return to thy own country and desired abode; and leave me toremain in this state, with my firm resolution for the accomplishment ofmy desired object.

27. Being thus bid by him to depart from that place, listen you now towhat I replied unto him; this you will wonder at its rehearsal, and thewise will be gladdened in their hearts to learn.

28. I addressed him saying:—O holy saint, let me remain here at thyservice, and underneath this holy tree, until you obtain the desiredboon of your devotion.

[Pg 966]

29. On my saying so, the meek minded devotee, remained as cool andquiet as a block of stone, and with his closed eye lids, he persistedin his dormancy as a dead body, without any motion in his outer limbs.

30. I too continued to stay before him, as quiet and quiescent as ablock of wood, and endured without shrinking the rigours of the climateand seasons, for full six months at that spot.

31. I saw at one time, effulgent as the blazing sun, descending fromthe solar orb, and then standing in presence of the devotee.

32. As this deific personage was adored mentally by the ascetic, and bybodily prostration of myself; he uttered his words, in a tone as sweetas the exudation of ambrosial sweetness.

33. He said: O painstaking Bráhman, that hast long been pendent onthe projected bough of this branching banian tree, suspend thy severeausterities, and accept thy desired boon, which I am ready to confer onthee.

34. Thou shalt as thou wishest, reign over the seven oceans andcontinents of this earth; and with this present body, thou shalt ruleover it, for seven thousand years.

35. In this manner did this secondary sun, give his blessing to thedevout ascetic; and was prepared to plunge into the bosom of the oceanout of which he rose of himself. (The sun is usually said to rise fromand set in the mountain top, but he is made to rise out of and sink inthe sea, according to the Grecian mythology).

36. The Deity having departed, I accosted the ascetic hanging belowthe branch, and said to him I witnessed to day what I had heard frombefore, that the gods are ever propitious to their suppliants.

37. Now O Bráhman, as you have gained the object of your desire, it isdesirable that you should give up your austerity, and pursue the propercallings and the course of your life.

38. He having assented to my proposal, I ascended on the tree andloosened his feet therefrom; as they let loose the feet of an elephantfrom the fetters tied to its prop and post.

39. Having then bathed himself, he made his offerings with[Pg 967] his purehands for the remission of his sins; and then with the fruits which hewas fortunate to pluck from the tree, he broke the fast of his longlent.

40. It was by virtue of his meritorious devotion, that we obtainedplenty of the delicious fruits of that holy tree; where upon werefreshed ourselves, and subsisted for three days.

41. Thus this Bráhman being desirous of obtaining the sovereignity ofthe earth, consisting of the septuple continents girt by the sevenoceans all around, made his painful maceration with his uplifted feetand downward head, until he obtained desired boon from the god of day,and refreshed himself for three days at the spot, till at last both ofus set out on our journey towards the city of Mathurá.

Argument:—The guest’s description of <the> sanctuary of thegoddess Gaurí.

The guest Kunda-danta resumed his narration and said:—We then betookourselves to our homeward journey, and bent our course towards the holycity of Mathurá, which was as fair and splendid as the solar and lunarmansions, and the celestial city of Amaravati of Indra.

2. We reached at the rustic habitation of Raudha, and halted at themango forest over an adjacent rock. Then we turned towards the city ofSalísa, where we remained two days in the cheerfulness of our spirits.

3. We passed our itinerant time, with that hilarity of our hearts,which ever attends on travelling through unknown places and scenes; andthe succeeding season of our halting, was passed in our repose underthe cooling shade of woodland arbours, and refreshing ourselves in thecooling brooks and breezes.

4. The faded flowers which were thrown down in profusion, from theflowery creepers growing on the banks of rivers; the dashing ofthe waves, the humming of the bees, and the singing of birds, aredelightsome to the souls of passing travellers.

5. The thickening and cooling shades of beachening trees, the drovesof deer and the flights of chirping birds; and the frozen ice and dewdrops, hanging tremulously as pearls on the leaves of verdant trees,and at the ends of the blades of green grass (are refreshing to thesoul of the weary passenger.)

6. We passed many days through woods and forests, and over hills anddales, through caves and defiles, over marshes and dry lands, and incities and villages; and also crossed over a great many rivers andchannels and running waters.

7. We passed our nights under the arbours of thick plantain[Pg 969] forests;and being weary with walking over snow and dew, we laid ourselves onbeds made of plantain leaves.

8. On the third we came to a jungle full of gigantic woods and trees,which for want of human habitation, seemed to have divided the empireof heaven between themselves (meaning that there was to be seennothing, except the skies above and woods below).

9. Here that devotee left the right path, and entered into anotherforest, with uttering these useless words to me (which were discursiveand preventive of our returning to our respective habitations).

10. He said:—Let us go to the sanctuary of Gaurí here, which is theresort of many munis and sages from all quarters; and is the asylum towhich my seven brothers, have repaired for attainment of their objects.

11. We are eight brothers in all, and all of us have fostered greatambitions in various respects; we are all equally resolved to devoteourselves to rigorous austerities, for the success of our determinedpurposes.

12. It is for that purpose that <they> have sought their shelter inthis holy asylum, and with fixed determination practiced various actsof self mortification, whereby they have been expurgated from theirsins.

13. Ere this I accompanied my brothers to this place, and remained herewith them for six months together; and now I find this same sanctuaryof Gaurí in the same state as I had seen it before.

14. I see the piece of ground, overhung by the shady flower of trees;under the shade of which I see the young fauns to be reposing in thistheir peaceful retreat; I see also the leafy bowers with the sprays ofbirds thereon, listening to the recital of the sástras, conducted bythe sages underneath.

15. Let us therefore go to the asylum of the sages, which resembles theseat of Brahmá crowded by the Bráhmans on all sides; here shall ourbodies be purified of their sins, and our hearts will be sanctified bythe holiness of the place.

16. It is by sight of these holy men of superior understanding,[Pg 970] thatthe minds of even the learned and saintlike persons, and even those ofthe knowers of truth are purified (wherefore it must be sanctifying tous also).

17. Upon his saying so, we both went together to that asylum of therecluses of sages and hermits; but to our great disappointment, we sawnothing but the appearance of a total desolation.

18. There was not a tree nor plant, and neither a shrub nor creeper tobe seen on the spot; nor was there any man or muni or a boy orchild was met thereabouts; nor any altar or priest was there anywhere.

19. It was only a vast desert, all void and devoid of bounds; anunlimited space of burning heat, and appeared as the blank expanse ofthe sky, had fallen down on the ground below.

20. Ah wœ to us! what is all this come to be! said we to one another;and saying so, we continued to rove about for a long while, until wechanced to espy an arbour at some distance.

21. It presented a thickly shady and cooling aspect, resembling that ofa dark and drizzling cloud in the sky; and there was observed an agedhermit, sitting in his meditation beneath it.

22. We two sat upon the grassy spot, spread out in front of theeremite; and though we kept sitting there for a long time, yet we couldfind no respite in the abstracted meditation of the muni.

23. Then feeling uneasy at my staying there for a long while, I brokemy silence in impatience, and cried out in a loud voice, saying,suspend, O sage, the life-long musings of your mind.

24. My loud cry awakened the muni from the trance of hisreverie, as the roaring of a raining cloud wakens the sleeping lion,rising straight with his yawning mouth (and stretched out limbs).

25. He then said unto us, who are ye pious persons, that are in thisdesert; say where is that sanctuary of Gaurí gone, and who is it thathas brought me hither. Tell me what means this change and what time isthis.

[Pg 971]

26. Upon his saying so, I replied to him saying, you sir, know all thisand not we; say how is <it> that you being a sage and seer do not knowyourself?

27. Hearing this the holy man betook himself to his meditation again,and there saw all the events that had occurred to himself and us also.

28. He remained a moment in deep thought, and then coming to himselffrom his abstraction, he said unto us, learn now about this marvelousevent, and know it to be a delusion only by your good common sense.

29. This young kadamba tree, that you are seeing in this desert, andthat gives me a shelter underneath it, and is now flowering in kindnessto me.

30. It was for some reason or other, that the chaste goddess Gaurí,dwelt for full ten years upon it, in the form of the goddess of speech,and underwent all the inclemencies of the seasons sitting there upon.

31. It was by her that a goodly grove, and an extensive forest wasstretched out at this place, which became therefore known by her name,and was decorated by the flora of all the seasons.

32. It was a romantic spot to all grades of gods and men, who keptsinging and sporting here in concert with the melody of tuneful andsportive birds; the air was filled with clouds of flowers, whichbrightened as myriads of moon in the sky; while the flying dust of fullblown lotuses, perfumed the air on all sides of the forest.

33. The pollen of mandara and other flowers, perfumed the air around;and the opening bud and blooming blossoms brightened as moons; theflowering creepers sent forth their fragrance all about, and the wholecourtyard of the forest, seemed to <be> strewn over with perfumery.

34. Its bowers were the seats of the god of the vernal season andflora; and the orchestra of black-bees, sitting and singing in concertwith their mates on the top of flowers; the flower beds were spread asthe outstretched sheet of moon[Pg 972] light, and as cradles for the swingingsports of siddha and celestial damsels.

35. Here were brooks frequented by cranes and herons, and aquatic birdsof various kinds; and there spacious lawns on the ground, graced byco*cks and peaco*cks, and land birds of various hues.

36. The gandharvas and yakshas, siddhas and the hosts of celestials,bowed down to this kadamba tree, and their coronets rubbed against thebranch, which was sanctified by the touch of the feet of the goddessSarasvatí alias Gaurí. And the flowers of the tree, resemblingthe stars of heaven, exhaled their fragrance all around.

37. Gentle zephyrs were playing amidst the tender creeper, anddiffusing a coldness throughout the secret bowers, even in the lightand heat of the blazing sunshine; while the flying dust of the kadambaand other flowers, spread a yellow carpet all over the ground.

38. The lotus and other aquatic flowers, were blooming in the brooks,frequented by storks and cranes and herons and other watery birds, thatsported upon them; while the goddess regaled herself amidst the flowerygroves, which displayed her wondrous powers in the variety of theirflowers.

39. It was in such a forest as this, that the goddess Gaurí the consortof the god Hara, resided at this spot for a long time, for some causeknown to her godly mind; and then by changing her name and form to thatof kadamba—Sarasvatí, she waved as gracefully as a kadamba flower, onthe crown of the head of her spoused partner Hara or Siva.

Argument:—Meeting of the Kadamba Hermit with his brothers, theirbane and blessing and final success.

The old anchorite resumed and said:—The goddess Gaurí dwelt for a fulldecade of years, on this very Kadamba tree of her own accord; and thenshe left this arbour of her own will, in order to join her lord Hara onhis left side.

2. This young Kadamba tree, being verified by the ambrosial touch ofthe goddess, never becomes old, nor fades or withers; but ever remainsas fresh as a child in the lap of her mother.

3. After the goddess had left this place, that great garden wasconverted to a common bush, and was frequented only by woodmen, whoearned their livelihood by woodcutting.

4. As for myself, know me to be the king of the country of Malwa, andto have now become a refugee in this hermitage of holy ascetics, byabdication of my kingdom.

5. On my resorting to this place, I was honoured here by theinhabitants of this holy asylum; and have taken any abode beneath thiskadamba tree, where I have been in my meditative mood ever since thattime.

6. It was some time ago, that you sir, had come here in companywith seven brethren, and betaken yourselves to the practice of yourreligious austerities.

7. So did you eight persons reside here as holy devotees since thattime, and were respected by all the resident devotees of this place.

8. It came to pass in process of time, that one of them removed fromhere to the Srí mountain; and then the second among them, went out toworship the lord Kártikeya in another place.

9. The third has gone to Benares and the fourth to the[Pg 974] Himálayas; andthe remaining four remained at this place, and employed themselves totheir rigorous austerities.

10. It was the earnest desire of each and every one of them, to becomethe sovran lord of all the seven continents of the earth.

11. At last they all succeeded to accomplish their objects of theirself same desire, by the grace and boon which obtained from therespective deity of their adoration, that was pleased with theausterity of his particular devotee.

12. The brethren returned to their habitation, when you had beenemployed in your devotion; and after their enjoyment of the fruition ofthis earth in golden age, they have ascended to the empyrean of Brahmá.

13. O sir, those brothers of yours, finding their respective godspropitious to them, and willing to confer blessings upon them, had madethe following request of them saying:—

14. Ye gods! make our seven brothers, the lords of the seven continentsof the earth; and let all our subjects be truthful and sincere, andattached to the occupations of their respective orders.

15. The gods that were adored by them, gladly occupied their prayer;and having assented to their request, disappeared from them, andvanished in the open sky.

16. They all went afterwards to their respective habitation, and metdeath except this one who is now here.

17. I only have been sitting alone, devoutly intent upon meditation;and have remained as motionless as a stone, beneath this kadamba tree,which is sacred to the goddess of speech.

18. Now as the seasons and years, have been rolling on upon my devotedhead, I have lived to see this forest, to be broken and cut down bywoodmen, living in the skirts of these woods.

19. They have spared only this unfading kadamba tree, which they hadmade an object of their veneration, as the abode of the goddess ofspeech; and me also whom they believe to be absorbed in inflexiblemeditation.

20. Now sirs, as you seem to have newly come to this place,[Pg 975] and bearthe appearance of aged ascetics; I have therefore related to you allthat I have come to know by my cogitation only.

21. Rise then ye righteous men, and proceed to your native homes; whereyou will meet your brothers in the circle of their family and friends.

22. You will find eight of your brothers, remaining in their abode; andresembling the eight high minded Vasus, sitting in the high heaven ofBrahmá.

23. After that great devotee had said so far, I interrupted himsaying:—I have a great doubt in this wondrous relation of yours, whichyou will be pleased to expound it to me.

24. We know this earth to be composed of seven continents only, howthen is it possible for eight brothers, to be the lord of them all, atthe one and same time.

25. The kadamba ascetic said:—It is not inconsistent what I haverelated to you, there are many such are seeminglyincongruous, but become evident when they are explained.

26. These eight brothers, having passed their periods of asceticism,will all of them become lords of the seven continents of the earth, intheir domestic circles. (i.e. Each thinks himself as such).

27. All these eight brothers, will remain in their respective houseson the surface of the earth; and will there become the lords of theseptuple continents, in the manner as you shall now hear from me.

28. Every one of these eight persons had each a wife at home, who wereof unblemished character and persons withal; and resembled the eightstars or planets of heavens, in the brightness of their bodies. (Theywere equally chaste and fair and loving wives also).

29. After these eight brothers have departed, to conduct theirprotracted devotion abroad; their love lorn wives became disconsolateat their separation, which is altogether intolerable to faithful wives.

30. They in their great sorrow of spirit, made painful austeritiesto the memory of the absent lords; and conducted a[Pg 976] hundredChándráyana vows and rites, to the satisfaction of the goddessPárvatí. (The Olympian Juno, and the patroness of chastity).

31. Invisibly the goddess appeared to them, and spake her words to themseparately in their inner apartments; after each and every one of themhad performed her daily devotion to <the> goddess.

32. The goddess said:—O Child, that hast been long fading away by thyausterities, like the tender shoot under the scorching sun; now acceptthis boon to thy heart’s desire, both for thyself as also for thyhusband.

33. Hearing this voice of the goddess of heaven, the lady Chirantiká,offered her handfuls of flowers to her, and began to address her prayerto the goddess, to her heart’s satisfaction.

34. The reserved and close tongued damsel, uttered her words in a slowflattering voice flushed with joy; and addressed the heavenly goddess,as the peahen accosts the rising cloud.

35. Chirantiká said:—O goddess, as thou bearest eternal love toSiva—the god of gods, such is the love I bear also to my husband, Omake him immortal.

36. The goddess replied:—Know, O goodly minded lady, that it isimpossible to gain immortality, from the inflexible decree of destiny,ever since the creation of the world. No devotion, austerity norcharity can buy life, ask therefore some other blessing.

37. Chirantiká said:—O goddess! if it be impossible to attainimmortality, then ordain it thus far; that he being dead, his soul maynot depart beyond the confines of this house of his.

38. When the body of my husband, falls dead in this house; then conferme this boon, that his parted soul may never depart from this place.

39. Be it so, O daughter, that your husband being gone to <the> otherworld, you may still continue to be his beloved wife, even after hisdemise.

40. Saying so, the goddess Gaurí held her silence in the midst of theair; as the sound of the clouds is stopped, after its betokening thewelfare of the world.

[Pg 977]

41. After disappearance of the goddess in air, the husbands of theseladies returned to them from all sides, and at the lapse of some timeafter they had received their desired blessings.

42. Now was there a mutual interview of the wives with their husbands,and general meeting of the brothers with each other, and with theirfriends and relatives.

43. Hear now a wonderful event, which happened to them at this time;and which presented itself as an obstacle, towards the achievement oftheir noble purpose.

44. It was at the time when the brothers were employed in theirdevotion, that their parents had gone out with their wives in searchof them, and were wandering about the hermitages of saints, with theirsorrowful hearts.

45. Unmindful of their personal pains and pleasures, for the sake ofthe welfare of their sons, they intended to see the village of Kalapa,which lay on their way.

46. Passing by the village of munis or saints, they espied ontheir way a white man of short stature, with grey and erect hairs onhis head, and his body bedaubed with ashes.

47. Thinking him to be an ordinary old passenger, the parents forgot todo him due honour, and let the dust of the ground they trod upon, flyunwarily to his sacred person. This irritated the old passenger, whothus bespake to him in his ire.

48. You great fool that are going on pilgrimage in company with thywife and daughters-in-law; don’t you heed me the sage Durvásas, thatyou slight to do me due reverence.

49. For this act of thy negligence, the boons so dearly earned by thysons and daughters in law will go for nothing, and will be attainedwith their contrary effect.

50. On hearing this malediction the old parents and their daughtersin law, were proceeding to do him reverence, when the ancient sagedisappeared from their sight and vanished in air.

51. At this the parents and their daughters, were greatly dismayedand disheartened; and returned disappointed to their home, with theirmelancholy countenances.

52. Therefore I say, there was not the only inconsistency,[Pg 978] in each ofthe brothers reigning over the seven continents all at once; but therewere many other odds awaiting upon them as on all human wishes; andthese occurring as thickly one after the other as the sores and ulcersgrowing on goitres. (Or pouches on the throat).

53. There are as many oddities and vanities, always occurring in thewishes, and aerial castles of the vacuous mind; as the numberlessportents and comets and meteors and unnatural sights, are seen toappear in the empty sky.

Argument:—Brahmá’s relation of the contending sides of blessingand imprecation.

Kunda-Danta rejoined:—I then asked the hermit of Gaurí’s asylum, whosehead was hoary with age, and whose hair resembled the dried blades ofwithered grass.

2. There are but seven continents only, that composed this earth; howthen could every one of the eight brothers, become the sole lord ofearth at one and the same time.

3. Again how could a person, that had no egress from his house, conquerthe seven continents abroad, or govern them himself (by sitting quietlyat home).

4. How could they that had the boon on one hand, and its contrary curseon the other, go in either way which are opposed to one another, as thecool shade of trees and the heat of sunshine?

5. How can opposite qualities reside together at the same time, whichis as impossible as the container and contained to become the samething? (Here the blessing of the gods and the curse of the sage, mustcounteract one another, and neither of them could effect anything).

6. The Hermit of the asylum returned:—Attend, O holy man, to myrelation of the sequel of their tale; and you will come to see thesequence of their contrary fates.

7. As for you two, you will reach to your home, after eight days fromthis place; and there meet with your relatives, with whom you will livehappily for some time.

8. These eight brothers also, having joined with their families athome: will breathe their last in course of time; and have their bodiesburnt by their friends and relations.

9. Then their conscious souls, will remain separately in air[Pg 980] for alittle while; and there continue in a state of torpidity, as in theinsensibility of sleep.

10. All this interval their acts will appear, in the vacuous space oftheir minds, for the sake of receiving their retributive justice; andalso the blessing of gods and the curse of the sage, will wait on themat this time.

11. The acts will appear in the shapes of the persons to whom theywere done and the blessings and imprecation likewise will assume theirparticular forms, in order to make their appearance before them.

12. The blessings will assume the forms of fair moon-bright bodies,having four arms on each, and holding a lotus bud, a club and otherweapons in each of them.

13. The curse will take the forms of Siva with his three eyes, andholding the lance and mace in his either hand; and having a darkterrific body, with a surly grim and frowning countenance.

14. The Blessings will vauntingly say:—Avaunt thou accursed curse! itis now our time to work; as it is with the seasons to act their partsat their proper times.

15. The curse will say in his turn:—Be afar from here; ye blessedblessings, and do not intrude upon my time; it will take effect as anyone of the seasons, nor is there any body capable of counteracting itswonted course.

16. The blessings will rejoin and say; Thou cured curse, art but acreature of an human sage; but we are messengers of the God of day; nowas preference is given to the first born God of light, over a humanbeing (who is the last work of God); it is proper that we should haveour precedence here (in the present case).

17. Upon the blessings saying so, the personified curse of the sage gotenraged, and returned in reply saying, I am no less the creation ofa God than you are since we are born of the God Rudra by his consortRudrání—the Fury.

18. Rudra is the greatest of gods, and the sage was born with a portionof Rudra’s prowess; saying so the accursed curse lifted up its head, ashigh as the exalted summit of a mountain.

[Pg 981]

19. On seeing the haughty high-headedness of the personation of curse;the personified image of the boon smiled scornfully at him, and thenmade his reply in his speech of well weighed words.

20. O thou miscreant curse, leave thy wickedness and think on the endof this affair; as also about what is to be done, after termination ofall this altercation of ours.

21. We must have recourse to the father of the gods, for his favourabledecision of the case, is it not therefore better for us to do even nowwhat must come to be finally determined by him.

22. The curse on hearing these words of the personified boon replied,well, I agree to what you say; because a fool even cannot decline toaccept the reasonable proposal of a person.

23. Then the curse agreed to resort to the abode of Brahmá; in companywith the divine Blessing; because the great-minded gods are alwaysresorted to by the wise, for the dissipation of their doubts.

24. They bended down before Brahmá, and related all that had occurredbetween them; and the god on hearing the whole on both sides,replied to them in the following manner.

25. Brahmá said:—Hearken unto me, ye master of blessing and curse,and let him have the precedence of the other, that is possessed ofintrinsic merit and essence.

26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they bothentered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to soundtheir understandings, and descry their respective parts.

27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of oneanother, and having known their respective characters; came out inpresence of the God, and besought him by turns.

28. The curse said:—I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this myadversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding thecurses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock andthe strong thunderbolt.

29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but[Pg 982]intellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of atany time.

30. The Blessing replied:—The intellectual blessing, which its giver(the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Bráhmans, is herepresent before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be deliveredunto them).

31. The body of every one is the evolution of one’s intelligence, andit is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessingthat is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it isin his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all hiswandering at all times and places. (i.e. The consciousness ofone’s merits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes himenjoy or suffer their results accordingly).

32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mindof the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one’s self,overcomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (i.e. Firmgood will, turns away the evil ones).

33. The donor’s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it;becomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and dulyfostered in one’s self. (i.e. A good given us by others, is ofno good, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).

34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness,and by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these becomeperfected in one’s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (Itis the habitual mode of the mind’s thought, that makes the future man,be it a holy or accursed one).

35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one’sconsciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded,never finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Bráhmans’ thoughts ofthe blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that ofthe curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter,though it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture,supersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule;—

36. Nor force of pride to counteract this law. (Hence the[Pg 983] blessing ofthe god, being prior to the curse of the sage, must have its precedenceover the latter).

37. But where both sides are of equal force, there both of them havetheir joint effect upon the same thing; so the curse and blessing beingconjoined together, must remain as the commingling of milk with water.

38. The equal force of the blessing and curse, must produce a double ordivided effect on the mind of man; as a person dreaming of the fairycity in his sleep, thinks himself as turned to one of its citizens(without losing the idea of his own personality: so a man has adifferent idea of himself, in different states of his life).

39. Now pardon me, O Lord for my repetition of the same truths beforethee that I have learnt from thee, and permit me now to take leave ofthee, and depart to my place.

40. Upon his saying so, the curse felt ashamed in itself, and fled awayfrom the presence of the god; as the ghosts and goblins fly away fromthe air, at the dispersion of darkness from the sky.

41. Then the other blessing (which was given by the goddess Gaurí tothe ladies of these brothers), concerning the restriction of theirdeparted ghosts, to the confines of their house, came forward andpresented itself before Brahmá in lieu of the curse, and began to pleadhis case, as a substitute does for his constituent.

42. He said:—I know not, O Lord of gods, how human souls can fly overthe seven continents of the earth, after their separation from theirdead bodies (Deign to explain this therefore unto me.)

43. I am the same blessing of the goddess, that promised unto themtheir dominion over the seven continents in their own house; and alsotheir conquest of the whole earth within its confines.

44. Now tell me, O Lord of gods, how am I to restrain their spirits tothe narrow limits of their own abodes; and at the same time confer thedomain of the septuple earth, to each[Pg 984] and every one of them (as it isdestined to them by the blessing of the God of day.)

45. Brahmá responded:—Hear me, O thou blessing of conferring therealms of the seven continents on each of them; and thou the boon ofdetaining their departed spirits within the confines of these mansions;that both of you are successful in executing your respective purposeson them.

46. Now do you retire from this place with full assurance inyourselves, that the delivered ghosts of these brothers; will neverquit nor ever depart from their present abodes after their demise; butcontinue to reside there forever more; with the belief of their beingthe Lords of the seven regions of this earth. (It is the firm beliefof the mind of the possession of anything, that makes it the truepossessor thereof, much more than its actual enjoyment of the same).

47. Their souls will remain at proper distances from each other, afterthe loss and extinction of their frail bodies; and will deem themselvesas lords of the seven regions of earth, though dwelling in the emptyair of their own abodes.

48. How could there be the eight regions and seven continents of theearth, when to all appearance the surface of the earth, presents but aflat level everywhere.

49. Tell us Lord! where are these different divisions of the earthsituated, and in what part of their petty abode; and is it not asimpossible for the small place of their house to contain this wideearth in it, as it is for the little cell of a lotus bud to hide anelephant in its pericarp.

50. Brahmá replied:—It being quite evident to you as to ourselvesalso, that the universe is composed of an infinite vacuity only; it isnot impossible for its being contained within the hollow of the humanheart, as in the minute particle of the vacuous mind, which containsall things in it in the manner of its dreams.

51. If it were possible for the minute granule of their vacuous minds,to contain the figures of their houses and their domestic circleswithin itself, why should it be thought[Pg 985] impossible for them, tocompress the greater and lesser circle of this earth also, within theirample space.

52. After the demise of a person, the world exhibits itself in thesame form as it is, in the minute atom of his mind; and this is but avacuous mass of the visible and material world, in its invisible andimaginary figure.

53. It is in this invisible particle of the mind, that the world isseen in its abstract form, within the precincts of the body and abodeof every body; and this earth appears to be drawn in it as in a map,with all its sevenfold continents and the contents thereof.

54. Whatever is manifest in the mind, is a mere mental conception andinborn in the mind, and there is no such thing as an extraneous ormaterial world in reality. It is the vacant mind that presents thesevagaries of the world and all other visibles before its vision, as thevacuous firmament shows the variety of atmospherical appearances to oursight.

55. The personified benediction, having learnt this abstract truth,from the mouth of the divine Brahmá, who had conferred this boon tothe Bráhmanical brothers, abandoned his erroneous conception of thematerial world, and repaired to the abode of the deceased brethren,that had been released from the mistake of their mortal bodies.

56. The personated blessing bowed down to the bounteous Brahmá, anddeparting from his presence with speed, entered into the parlour of theeight brother kings, in his eight-fold spiritual personality (calledthe ashta siddhi).

57. They beheld the brothers there in their respective residences, eachsitting as the Lord of the earth with its septuple continents, and allof them employed in the performance of their sacrifices and enjoymentof their blessings, like the eight Lordly Manus for the whole period ofa day of Brahmá.

58. They were all friendly to each other, though unacquainted with therespective provinces of one another; each of them was employed in hisconcern with the world, without clashing with the authority of anotherover it.

59. One of them who was handsome in the bloom of his[Pg 986] youth; held hishappy reign over the great city of Ujjain, which was situated in theprecincts of his own house, or rather in the environs of his own mind.

60. Another one of them had his domain over the country of Scythia(sáka), where he settled himself for his conquest of the Nágas(saccae); he cruises as a corsair in the wide outlandish seas, for hisvictory on every side.

61. Another reigns secure in his capital of Kusadwípa, and confersperfect security to his subjects from all alarm; and like a hero whohas quelled his enemies, he rests in peace on the bosom of his beloved,after all his conquest.

62. Some one of them indulges himself to sport, in company with thecelestial Nymphs of Vidyádhara; in skimming over the waters of thelakes on mountain tops, and in the gushing water falls on their side.

63. Another one is engaged these eight days in conducting his horsesacrifice in his royal abode at Krauncha dwípa, which he has greatlyaggrandised with his accumulated gold, from the other continents.

64. Another one is employed in waging a battle in the Sálmalicontinents, where his war elephants have assembled, and have beenuprooting the boundary mountain from their bases with robust tusks.

65. The Monarch of the Gomedha continent, who had been the eighth andlast of the Bráhman brothers, was smitten with love for the princessof the Pushkara dwípa; upon which he mustered a large armament forravishing her in warfare.

66. The monarch of the Pushkara continent, who was also the master ofthe Mountainous regions of Lokáloka; set out with his deputy to inspectthe land of the gold mines.

67. Thus every one of these brothers, thought himself to be the Lord ofhis respective province, as his imagination portrayed unto him in theregion of his mind.

68. The Blessings then, having relinquished their several forms andpersonalities, became united and one with the consciousness of theBráhmans, and felt and saw whatever passed in them, as if they werepassing in themselves likewise.[Pg 987] (The divine blessing on them being noother than the approbation of their conscience).

69. So these brothers became and found in themselves, what they hadlong been longing after, in their respective lordship over the sevenregions of the earth, which they continued to enjoy ever since to theirheart’s content.

70. It was in this manner that these men of enlarged understandings,obtained what they sought in their minds, by means of their austeredevotion and firm devotedness to their purpose. So it is with thelearned that they find everything beside them, whatever they are intentupon in their minds, by means of their acting upon the same principle,and using the proper means conducing to that end.

Argument:—Nature of the unenlightened soul, to representunnumbered worlds within itself.

Kunda-danta said:—I then asked <the> devotee sitting beneath thekadamba tree, to tell me how the seven large continents of theglobe, could be contained within the narrow limits of the abodes ofeach of these brothers (which is next to an impossibility).

2. The kadamba devotee replied:—The essence of the intellect thoughso very vacuous in itself, is notwithstanding the most capacious andubiquious of any thing in existence; and is present in its own naturewith every thing, wherever it is known to exist.

3. The soul sees itself in the form of the triple world, and everything besides in its different nature and figure, without changingitself to any one of them. (i.e. The soul remains unchanged inall the changeful scenes of nature).

4. Kunda-danta rejoined:—But how do you attribute the quality ofvariety or multiplicity, to the purely simple and immutable natureof the Supreme soul, as you see them appertaining to the intrinsiccharacter of everything else in nature. (Or as Pope says:—That changedthrough all, yet in all the same; great in the earth, as in theetherial frame).

5. The kadamba devotee replied:—The sphere of the intellectualvacuum, is all quiet and serene, and there is nothing as any varietyor multiformity in it; the changes that are apparent in its face, areno more, than the waves and eddies, whirling on the surface of thechangeless main.

6. It is in the immensity of intellectual vacuity, that infinitecreations seem to be continually purling about, as the rising waves areseen to be whirling in the sea; and it is in its fathomless[Pg 989] depth thatthey appear to sink, like the waters subsiding in the hollow of thedeep.

7. The substantial forms of things, that rise in the unsubstantialessence of the intellect, are as the various forms of substances, seenin the dreaming state of the soul, and all which are utterly forgottenin its state of sound sleep—susupti.

8. As a Hill seen in dream is no hill at all, and as things appearingto be in motion in dreaming, are found afterwards to be perfectlymotionless; so are all things in nature but mere unrealities, andthough as real from the real nature of soul itself. (i.e. Itis the intellect that fashions everything in its own manner, and itsimagination gives a form to an airy nothing).

9. The intellect is an immaterial substance, and neither creates norperceives any thing material by itself; but conceives everything asit is manifested to it in its idea in the beginning. (i.e. Theideas of things are inborn in the mind).

10. As the intellect sees a great variety of objects in <its> dream,which it takes for realities for the time; so its belief in the realityof its ideas, causes it to conceive them as real entities.

11. The vacuous intellect, which glitters of itself in its own state oftransparence; comes to find the world shinning in the same light withinitself. (i.e. The world is subjective with the intellect, andnot a part from our intellectual light of the same).

12. As we have the consciousness of heat in the fire, even when it isseen in a dream; so we are conscious of the presence of everything inour minds, even in the absence of the thing itself from us. (It wasthus that the Bráhman brothers were conscious of their lordship, evenin their want of the realms themselves).

13. And as we have the idea of the solidity of a pillar, from ourdream of it in sleep; so have we the idea of the great variety ofthings in existence; although there is no diversity or differencein the nature of the One unvaried unity that pervades the whole.(And that shows its unchangeable self, as many and changed throughall—Aham-bahusyam).

[Pg 990]

14. In the beginning all substances were as pure and simple, as theessence of their maker by and after which they were made; and theystill continue to be in the same state of their ideal purity, as theywere originally made out of that airy entity and unity.

15. As the tree is diversified in the various forms of its roots andfruits, and its leaves, flowers and the trunk; so is the Supreme unityvaried in all and everywhere in his self-same and undivided essence.

16. It is in the fathomless ocean of the Supreme essence, that theimmensity of creation is subsisting like the waters of the deep; andit is in the boundless space of that transcendent vacuum, that theinfinity of the worlds have been rolling on, in their original vacuousand apparently visible forms.

17. The transcendental and comprehensible i.e. the immaterialsoul and the material world, are but commutual terms as the tree andarbour, and their difference lies in the intelligibleness of the oneand unintelligibility of the other; but true intelligence leads us tothe unconceivable One, while our ignorance of the same, deludes us tothe knowledge of many, and tends to our distress only. (True happinessin our reliance on the unknown One only).

18. The mundane and supermundane is surely the One and same thing,according to the deduction of spiritual philosophy; and the knowledgeof this sublime truth, is sure to lead one to his ultimate liberation.

19. The world is the product of the will of God, and the will is apower or faculty appertaining to the personality of the Deity; and thesame being transmuted to the form of the world, it is proved that theworld is the formal part of the Supreme soul. (Whose body nature is,and God the soul).

20. He whom no words can define, and yet who defines the senses ofwords; who is subject to no law or prohibition, or to any state orcondition of being, but appoints them for all sorts of beings, isindeed the only Lord of all.

21. He that is ever silent but speaks through all, who is[Pg 991] inactiveas a rock but acts in all; who is always existent and appears asinexistent, is the Supreme Lord of all.

22. That subtile essence that constitutes the solidity of all grossbodies, and remains undecayed in all frail bodies, is the pure Brahmahimself; He has no volition or nolition of creation or destruction, andthere is no possession or want of the property of anything.

23. It is the one and invariable soul, that rests always in its stateof rest and sleep, and perceives the succession of creation anddestruction of the world, in its alternate states of dream and soundsleep, which present themselves as two pictures before its sight.

24. It is also in the substratum of the intellect, that unnumberedworlds seem to rise and set in succession; they appear as passingpictures before the mind, without being rooted or painted therein.

25. As the mixing of one thing with another, produces a differenteffect in the mixture; so doth the union of the mind with the organs ofsense, cause a variety of impressions to be imprinted in the intellect.(So the commixture of curd and sugar creates a different flavour in thecondiment, gloss).

26. All things have their existence in the essence of the intellectonly, without which nothing is knowable to any body; hence there isnothing anew in nature, except its being but a representation of theoriginal idea in the mind (and this is evident from the identity andsimilarity of the ectypes with its antitypes, gloss).

27. Hence our consciousness of the identity of things with the essenceof our intellect, proves them to be as immaterial and immovable astheir fixed ideas in the mind.

28. Thus the world which is so visible and perceptible to us, isnothing but a mere nullity in reality; and whatever appears as existingherein, together with the great gods and angels, are no more than thefalse visions in our dream and fancy.

29. We see the various fluctuations and phenomena, rising in the watersof the vast ocean of the intellect; and appearing[Pg 992] in the forms of ourjoy and grief, and those of moving and unmoving bodies in creation.

30. O that the nature and course of the world, should so obscure thebright mirror of the intellect; as to hide it under the dirt of ourpassions, and cover it under the clouds and snows of our ignorance.

31. As spectres and dissolving views appear in the air, before thesight of the dimsighted; so doth this shadow of the world appear assubstance, to the view of the unspiritual myopist.

32. Whatever we imagine, the same we find, and seem to enjoy for thetime; and as we are delighted with the view of our imaginary city, sodo we indulge ourselves in the sight of this air-drawn utopia of theworld.

33. As we seem to enjoy our ecstasy, in the fairy land of our fancy; sowe are betaken by the delusion of this unreal world, under the beliefof its reality.

34. There is one eternal destiny, which ever runs apace in its wontedcourse; and destines all beings to continue in their allotted careersas ever before.

35. It is destiny that produces the moving bodies from living beings,and the motionless ones from the unmoving; it is that predestinationwhich has destined the downward course of water and fluids, and theupward motion of the flames of fire.

36. It is that blind impulse, that impels the members of the body totheir respective actions; and makes the luminous bodies to emit theirlight; it causes the winds to wind about in their continuous course,and makes the mountains to stand unmoved in their proper places.

37. It makes the luminaries of heaven, to roll on in their regularrevolutions, and causes the rains and dews of the sky, to pour down intheir stated seasons; and it is this eternal destiny that directs thecourses of years, ages and cycles, and the whole curricle of time torun its wonted course.

38. It is the divine ordinance, that has ordained the limits of theearth and the distant ocean and seas, and has fixed the position of thehills and rocks in them; it has allotted the[Pg 993] natures and powers of allthings, and prescribed the laws of rights and duties for all and everyone.

39. Kunda-danta rejoined:—The reminiscence of the scenes of pastlife, occurs in the present state of existence, in the forms of ourimagination and of desire for the same; and these inward thoughtsbecome the gist and marrow to frame our lives in their fashion; buttell me sir, how could the first created beings in the beginning ofcreation have any reminiscence, whereupon their lives and natures weremoulded?

40. The devotee replied:—All these that offer themselves to our view,are quite unprecedented and without their original patterns in themind, and resemble the sight of our own death that we happen to seein a dream. It is the omniscience of Brahmá, that caused the firstcreation, and not his memory of the past as it is with us and othercreated beings.

41. It is the nature of our intellect, to represent the imaginary cityof the world in its empty vacuity; it is neither a positive reality,nor a negative unreality either; being now apparent and now lost tosight by itself.

42. It is the clearness of the intellect, which represents theimaginary world in the manner of a dream; but the pure vacuousintellect, neither sees nor bears the remembrance of the world initself. (It is the sight of a thing, that leaves its traces in the mindafterwards; but when there is no sight of a thing, there can be noremembrance of it).

43. The wise that are devoid of joy and grief, and remain unchanged inprosperity and adversity; are men of right integrity and equanimity intheir nature, and move on as equably as the wheel of fortune leads themonward.

44. As the intellect retains in it, the remembrance of what it has seenin its dream; so does it bear in itself the false impression of thistriple world to its end.

45. It is only the reflexion of our consciousness, which passes underthe name of the world; now knowing the nature of your consciousness asmere vacuousness, you will blot out the impression of the world also.

46. That which is all and everything, and from which all[Pg 994] have issuedand in which they exist; know that All as all which fills all space,wherein all things are situated.

47. I have thus fully explained to you, how you may come to know thiscreation as its creator—the Great Brahmá Himself; and have alsoexpounded to you the means, whereby you may get rid of your impressionof the phenomenal world.

48. Now rise ye Bráhmans and repair to your abodes, as the bees resortto their cells and calyxes of lotuses at the dusk of the day; go andperform your evening services, while I remain here in my pensivemeditation, and absorbed in my spiritual ecstasy forever.

Argument:—The return of the interlocutors to the abodes; Demiseof the brothers and enlightenment of Kunda-danta.

Kunda-danta rejoined:—The old sage having said so far, closed his eyesin meditation; and he became as motionless as a statue or picture,without any action of his breath and mind.

2. And we prayed him with great fondness and endearment, yet he utterednot a word unto us; because he seemed to be so rapt in his abstraction,as to have become utterly insensible of the outer world.

3. We then departed, from that place, with our broken hearts anddejected countenances; and were received after a few days journey, byour gladsome friends at home.

4. We live there in joyous festivity, as long as the seven brotherswere living; and passed our time in narrations of our past adventures,and relations of the old accounts of by gone times.

5. In course of time the eight brothers disappeared (perished) one byone, like the seven oceans at the end of the world, in the vast oceanof eternity; and were released like many of my friends also, from theirworldly cares.

6. After sometime, the only friend that I had, sunk also like thesetting sun in darkness; and I was left alone to bewail their loss insorrow and misery at their separation.

7. I then repaired in the sorrow of my heart, to the devotee underthe Kadamba tree; in order to derive the benefit of his advice, todissipate my dolor.

8. There I waited on him for three months, until he was released fromhis meditation, when upon my humble request of him, he deigned toanswer me as follows.

9. The devotee replied:—I can not pass a moment, without[Pg 996] myemployment in meditation; and must without any loss of time, resort tomy wonted devotion again.

10. As for you, you can not derive the benefit of my transcendentadvice to you; unless you engage yourself to practice my precepts withall diligence.

11. Now I tell you to repair to the city of Ayodhyá (Oudh), wherethe king Dasaratha reigns, and remains with his son Ráma (and otherchildren and members of his royal family).

12. Do you now go to this Ráma, who has been attending on the lecturesof the sage Vasishtha, the preceptor and priest of the royal family,and delivered before the princes assembled in the imperial court.

13. You will there hear the holy sermon, on the means of attaining ourfinal emancipation; and will thereby obtain your best bliss in thedivine state like that of mine.

14. Saying so, he was absorbed in the cooling ocean of his meditation;<after> which I directed my course to this way, and arrived at lastbefore Ráma and this princely assembly.

15. Here am I, and all these are the incidents of my life, as I haverelated herein, regarding all what I have heard and seen, as also allthat has passed on me.

16. Ráma said:—The eloquent Kunda-danta that made this speech to me,has been ever since sitting by my side in this assembly.

17. This very Brahmin bearing the name of Kunda-danta, that has sathere all along by me; has heard the whole of the sermon, which has beendelivered by the sage, on the means of obtaining our liberation.

18. Now ask this Kunda-danta, that is sitting here by me at present,whether he has well understood the context of this lecture, and whetherhis doubts are wholly dissipated or not.

19. Vasishtha said:—Upon Ráma saying so to me, I looked uponKunda-danta, and made him the following interrogatory, saying:—

20. Tell me, Oh you goodly Bráhman Kunda-danta, what you have learntand understood, by your long attendance upon[Pg 997] and hearing of mylecture, calculated to confer liberation on men.

21. Kunda-danta replied:—Sir, your lecture has wholly removed thedoubts of my mind, and I find myself now as perfect master of myself,by my victory over all selfish passions, and by my knowledge of theknowable One.

22. I have known the immaculate One that is to be known, and seen theundecaying One that is worth our seeing; I have obtained all thatis worth our obtaining, and I have found my repose in the state oftranscendent felicity.

23. I have known this plenum, to be the condensation of thattranscendental essence; and that this world is no other than amanifestation of this sel-fsame soul.

24. The universal soul being also the soul of every individual, islikewise the soul inherent in all forms of things; it is only theself-existent soul, that becomes apparent in all existences and allplaces.

25. It is possible for the human mind, which is minuter than themolecule of a mustard seed, to contain the whole world in itself;though it is naught but a mere zero, before the clear sight of theintelligent.

26. It is possible also for a little room, to contain the sevencontinents of the earth (in its map or picture); though the room itselfis no more than a mere empty space.

27. Whatever object is perceptible to us at any time or place, is onlythe concrete form of the divine spirit; which is quite apart from everything in the discrete.

Argument:—Elucidation of the sacred text that “all is Brahma”;and the equality of curse.

Válmíki said:—After Kunda-danta had finished his saying in the saidmanner, the venerable Vasishtha delivered his edifying speech onspiritual knowledge and said:

2. Whereas the elevated soul of this person, has found his rest in theparadise of spiritual philosophy; he will see the world like a globe inhis hand, and glowing with the glory of the great God.

3. The phenomenal world is a false conception, it is verily theincreate Brahma himself shining in this manner; this erroneousconception is the very Brahma, that is one and ever calm and undecaying.

4. Whatever thing appears any where, in any state, form or dimension;it is the very Deity, showing himself in that condition of his being,form and mode of extension.

5. This unborn or self-existent Deity, is ever auspicious, calm andquiet; he is undecaying, unperishing and immutable, and extends throughall extent, as the extensive and endless space.

6. Whatever state of things he proposes in his all-knowing intellect,the same is disposed by him in a thousand ways, like the branching outof a plant in the rains.

7. The great mundane egg, is situated as a particle in the bosom ofthe great intellect of God; and this world of ours is a particle also,being comprised in a grain of our brains.

8. Know therefore, my good friend, thy intellectual sphere to beboundless, and without its beginning or end; and being absorbed in themeditation of thy personal extinction, do thou[Pg 999] remain as quiet as thouart sitting, relying in thy unperturbed and imperishable soul.

9. Wherever there is anything in any state or condition in any part ofthe world, there you will find the presence of the divine spirit in itsform of vacuity; and this without changing its nature of calm serenity,assumes to itself whatever form or figure it likes (or rather evolvesthem from within itself at its free will).

10. The spirit is itself both the view and its viewer; it is equallythe mind and the body, and the subjective and objective alike; It issomething and yet nothing at all, being the great Brahma or universalsoul, that includes and extends throughout the whole.

11. The phenomenal is not to be supposed as a duality of, or any otherthan the self-same Brahma; but it is to be known as one and the samewith the divine self, as the visible sky and its vacuity.

12. The visible is the invisible Brahma, and the transcendent Oneis manifest in this apparent whole (because the noumenon shows thephenomenon, as this exhibits the other): therefore it is neitherquiescent nor in motion, and the formal is altogether formless.

13. Like dreams appearing to the understanding, do these visionspresent themselves to the view; the forms are all formless conceptionsof the mind, and more intangible ideas of the brain.

14. As conscious beings come to be unconscious of themselves, in theirdormant state of sleep; so have all these living and intelligentbeings, become unconscious and ignorant of themselves and their souls,and turned to torpid trees that are lost to their sensibility.

15. But the intellect is capable to return to its sensibility, from itsstate of vegetable torpidity in time; as the dormant soul turns to seeits dreams in sleep, and then to behold the vivid outer world after itswakening.

16. Until the living soul is liberated from its charm of self delusion,it is subjected to view its guileful reveries of elemental[Pg 1000] bodies,appearing as a chain of airy dreams, before the mind’s eye in sleep.

17. The mind gathers the dross of dullness about it, as the souldraws the sheath of sleep upon itself; this dullness or dimness ofapprehension is not intrinsic in the mind, but an extraneous schesiscontracted by it from without.

18. The intellect moulds the form of one, who is conversant withmaterial and insensible things, into a motionless and torpid body; andit is the same intellect, which shapes the forms of others, that areconscious of their intellectual natures, into the bodies of rationaland moving being. (The dull soul is degraded to the state of immovablethings and rooted trees, but intelligent souls, are elevated to therank of moving men and other locomotive animals).

19. But all these moving and unmoving beings, are but differentmodifications and aspects of the same intellect; as the nails and otherparts of the human body, are but the multifarious modalities of thesame person.

20. The order and nature of things has invariably continued the same,as they have been ordained by the Divine will ever since its firstformation of the world; and because the creation is a transcript of itsoriginal mould in the Divine mind; it is as ideal as any working ofimagination or a vision in dreaming, both in its states of being andnot being.

21. But the intangible and quiescent Brahma, is ever calm and quiet inhis nature; he is never permeated with the nature of things, nor is heassimilated with the order of nature.

22. He appears as the beginning and end of creation, or as the cause ofits production and dissolution; but these are the mere dreams of theDivine intellect, which is always in its state of profound sleep andrest.

23. The world is ever existent in his spiritual nature, and without anybeginning or end of himself; the beginning and end of creation, bear norelation with his self-existent and eternal nature.

24. There is no reality in the nature of the visible creation,or in its existence or dissolution; all these are no other than[Pg 1001]representations shown in the spirit of God, like figures described in apicture.

25. As a legion drawn in painting, does not differ from its model inthe mind of the painter; so these tangible objects of creation, withall other endless varieties, are not different from their prototype inthe mind of God.

26. Notwithstanding the want of any difference, between the noumenaland phenomenal worlds; yet the mind is prone to view the variance ofits subjectivity and objectivity, as it is apt to differentiate its owndoings and dreams, in the states of its sleep and ignorance. It is theprofound sleep and insouciance of the soul, that cause its liberationfrom the view, as its sensibility serves to bind it the more to thebondage of the visibles.

27. It is the reflexion of the invisible soul, that exhibits thevisible to view, just as the subtile sunbeam, displays a thousand solidbodies glaring in sight; and shows the different phases of creation anddissolution as in its visions in dreaming.

28. The dreaming state of the sleeping intellect is called itsideality, and the waking state of the self-conscious soul is termed itsvitality, as in the instances of men and gods and other intellectualbeings.

29. After passing from these, and knowing the unreality of both theseimaginative and speculative states, the soul falls into its state ofprofound sleep or trance, which is believed as the state of liberationby those that are desirous of their emancipation.

30. Ráma said:—Tell me, O venerable sir, in what proportion doth theintellect abide in men, gods and demons respectively; how the soulreflects itself during the dormancy of the intellect in sleep, and inwhat manner does it contain the world within its bosom.

31. Vasishtha replied:—Know the intellect to abide alike in gods anddemons, as well as in all men and women; it dwells also in imps andgoblins, and in all beasts and birds, reptiles and insects, includingthe vegetables and all immovable things (within its ample sphere).

[Pg 1002]

32. Its dimension is boundless and also as minute as an atom; and itstretches to the highest heaven, including thousands of worlds withinitself.

33. The capacity that we have of knowing the regions beyond the solarsphere, and even of penetrating into the darkness of polar circles; isall the quality of our intellect, which extends all over the boundlessspace, and is perfectly pellucid in its form and nature.

34. So very great is the extent of the intellect, that it comprehendsthe whole universe in itself; and it is this act of his comprehensionof the whole, that is called the mundane creation, which originatesfrom it.

35. The intellect spreads all around like the current of a river,which glides all along over the ground both high and low, leaving someparts of it quite dry, and filling others with its waters. So doththe intellect supply some bodies with intelligence, while it forsakesothers and leaves them in ignorance.

36. It is intelligence which constitutes the living soul of the body,which is otherwise said to be lifeless and insensible; it resides inall bodies like the air in empty pots, and becomes vivid in some andimperceptible in others as it likes.

37. It is its knowledge of the soul (i.e. the intellectualbelief in its spiritual), that removes the error of its corporeity;while the ignorance of its spiritual nature, tends the more to fosterthe sense of its corporeality, like one’s erroneous conception of waterin the mirage.

38. The mind is as minute as the minutest ray of sunbeams; and this isverily the living soul, which contains the whole world within it.

39. All this phenomenal world is the phenomenon of the mind, as it isdisplayed in its visionary dreams; and the same being the display ofthe living soul, there is no difference at all between the noumenal andthe phenomenal.

40. The intellect alone is assimilated into all these substances, whichhave substantiality of their own; whatever is seen without it, islike its visionary dream, or as the forms of jewelleries[Pg 1003] made of thesubstance of gold. (i.e. The intellect is the intrinsic essenceof all external substances).

41. As the same water of the one universal ocean, appears different indifferent places; and in its multifarious forms of waves and billows;so doth the divine intellect exhibit the various forms of visibles initself. (i.e. Nothing is without or different from the divineessence).

42. As the fluid body of waters, rolls on incessantly in sundry shapeswithin the basin of the great deep; so do these multitudes of visiblethings, which are inherent in and identic with the divine intellect,glide on forever in its fathomless bosom.

43. All these worlds are situated as statues, or they are engraved assculptures in the aerial column of the divine intellect; and are alikeimmovable and without any motion of theirs through all eternity.

44. We see the situation of the world, in the vacuous space of ourconsciousness; as we see the appearances of things in our airy dreams.We find moreover everything transfixed in its own sphere and place, andcontinuing in its own state, without any change of its position or anyalteration in its nature. (The invariable course of nature, is not thefortuitous production of blind chance).

45. The exact conformity of everything in this world, with itsconception in the mind of man, with respect to their invariableequality in form and property, proves their identity with one another,or the relation of one being the container of the other. (i.e.The mind is either same with or container of the world).

46. There is no difference between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds,as there <is> none between those in our dream and imagination. Theyare in fact, the one and same thing, as the identity of the waters,contained in tanks, rivers and seas, and between the curse and blessingof gods.

47. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether a curse or blessing, is theeffect of any prior cause or the causation of subsequent consequences;and whether it <is> possible for any effect to take[Pg 1004] place withoutit* adequate causality. (Here is a long legend of the transformationof Nundi and Nahusha given in illustration of this passage in thecommentary).

48. Vasishtha replied:—It is the manifestation of the clear firmamentof the divine intellect in itself, that is styled as the world; just asthe appearance and motion of waters in the great deep, is termed theocean and its current.

49. The revolution of the eternal thoughts of the divine mind,resembles the rolling waves of the deep; and these are termed by sages,as the will or volitions of the ever wilful mind of God.

50. The clear minded soul comes in course of time, to regard thismanifestation of the divine will, in its true spiritual light; by meansof its habitual meditation and reasoning, as well as by cause of itsnatural good disposition and evenness of mind.

51. The wise man possest of consummate wisdom and learning, becomesacquainted with the true knowledge of things; his understandingbecomes wholly intellectual, and sees all things in their abstractand spiritual light; and is freed from the false view of duality (ormateriality).

52. The philosophic intellect, which is unclouded by prejudice, is thetrue form of the Great Brahma himself; who shines perspicuous in ourconsciousness, and has no other body besides.

53. The enlightened soul sees this whole plenitude of creation, as thedisplay of the Divine Will alone; and as the exhibition of the tranquiland transparent soul of the Divinity, and naught otherwise.

54. This manifestation of the Divine Will, in the boundless space ofthe universe; likens to the aerial castle of our imagination, or thecity of palaces seen in our dream.

55. This all productive will, is selfsame with the Divine Soul; andproduces whatever it likes to do any place or time. (Lit. Whatever itwills, the same takes place even then and there).

56. As a boy thinks of his flinging stones, at the aerial castle of hisimagination; so the Divine will is at liberty to[Pg 1005] scatter, myriads ofglobular balls, in the open and empty space of boundless vacuity.

57. Thus everything being the manifestation of the Divine will, inall these three worlds; there is nothing as a blessing or curse(i.e. good or evil) herein, which is distinct from the DivineSoul.

58. As we can see in our fancy, the gushing out of oil from a sandydesert; so can we imagine the coming out of the creation, from thesimple will of the Divine Soul.

59. The unenlightened understanding, being never freed from itsknowledge of particulars and their mutual differences: It is impossiblefor it to generalize good and evil, under the head of universal good.(“All partial evil is but universal good”. Pope).

60. Whatever is willed in the beginning, by the omniscience of God; thesame remains unaltered at all times, unless it is altered by the sameomniscient will.

61. The contraries of unity and duality, dwell together in the samemanner in the formless person of Brahma; as the different members of anembodied being, remain side by side in the same person. (The knowledgeof all contrarieties, blends together in omniscience. Gloss).

62. Ráma said:—Why some ascetics of limited knowledge, are so veryapt to confer their blessings, as also to pour their imprecations onothers; and whether they are attended with their good or bad results ornot.

63. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is disposed in the beginning, by theDivine will which subsists in Brahma; the very same comes to passafterwards, and nothing otherwise. (Lit. there is no other principlebesides).

64. Brahmá the Lord of creation, knew the Supreme Soul in himself, andthereby he became the agent of the Divine will; therefore there is nodifference between them (i.e. betwixt Brahmá and Brahma); asthere is none between the water and its fluidity.

65. Whatsoever the Lord of creatures—Brahmá, proposes to[Pg 1006] do atfirst as inspired in him by the Divine will; the same takes placeimmediately, and the very same is styled this world.

66. It has no support nor receptacle for itself, but appears as vacuousbubble in the great vacuity itself; and resembles the chain of pearls,fleeting before the eyes of purblind men in the open sky.

67. He willed the productions of creatures, and institution of thequalities of justice, charity and religious austerities; He stablishedthe Vedas and sástras, and the five system of philosophical doctrines.(Namely; the four Vedas and the Smritis, forming the five branches ofsacred knowledge, and the five branches of profane learning—consistingof the Sánkhya yoga, Pátanjala, Pásupata, and Vaishnava systems. Gloss).

68. It is also ordained by the same Brahmá, that whatever thedevotees-learned in the Vedas, pronounce in their calmness or dispute,the same takes place immediately (from their knowledge of the Divinewill).

69. It is he that has formed the chasm of vacuum in the inactiveintellect of Brahma, and filled it with the fleeting winds and heatingfire; together with the liquid water and solid earth.

70. It is the nature of this intellectual principle, to think ofeverything in itself; and to conceive the presence of the same withinit, whether it be a thought of thee or me or of anything beside (eitherin general or particular).

71. Whatever the vacuous intellect thinks in itself, the same it seespresent before it; as our actual selves come to see, the unreal sightsof things in our dreams.

72. As we see the unreal flight of stones, as realities in ourimagination; so we see the false appearance of the world, as true bythe will of God, and the contrivance of Brahma.

73. Whatever is thought of by the pure intellect, must be likewise ofa purely intellectual nature also; and there is nothing that can do itotherwise (or convert it to grossness), as they defile the pure metalwith some base alloy.

74. We are apt to have the same conceptions of things in ourconsciousness, as we are accustomed to consider them, and[Pg 1007] not of whatwe are little practiced to think upon; hence we conceive all that wesee in our dreams to be true, from our like conceptions of them in ourwaking state. (It is thus that we conceive this purely ideal world as agross body, from our habit of thinking so at all times).

75. It is by uniting one’s intellectuality, with the universal anddivine intellect, and by the union of the subjective and objectiveand their perceptibility in one’s self, by means of the tripútiyoga, that we can see the world in its true light.

76. One universal and vacuous intellect, being all pervading andomnipresent, is the all seeing subject and all seen objects by itself;hence whatever is seen or known to be anywhere, is the very verity ofthe intellect and no other.

77. As oscillation is inherent in air, and fluidity is immanent inwater; so is amplitude intrinsical in Brahma, and the plentitude isinnate in the Divine mind.

78. Even I am Brahma also in his self manifest form of Virát, whichembodies the whole world as its body; hence there is no difference ofthe world from Brahma, as there is none between air and vacuity.

79. As the drops of water as a cataract, assume many forms and runtheir several ways; so the endless works of nature take their variousforms and courses, at different places and times.

80. All beings devoid of their senses and understanding, issue aswaters of the waterfall, from the cascade of the divine mind; andremain forever in their uniform courses, with the consciousness oftheir existence in Brahma.

81. But such as come forth from it, with the possession of their sensesand intellects in their bodies, deviate in different ways like theliquid waters, in pursuit of their many worldly enjoyments.

82. They are then insensibly led, by their want of good sense, toregard this world as theirs (i.e. the sphere of their actions,कर्म्मक्षेत्र); being ignorant of its identity with theuncreated spirit of God.

[Pg 1008]

83. As we see the existence and distribution of other bodies in us,and the inertness of stones in our bodies; so the Lord perceives thecreation and annihilation of the world, and its inertia in himself.

84. As in our state of sleep we have both our sound sleep and ourdreams also; so doth the divine soul perceive the creation as well asits annihilation, in its state of perfect rest and tranquility.

85. The divine soul perceives in its state of tranquility, the twophases of creation and destruction, succeeding one another as its dayand night; just as we see our sleep and dreams recurring unto us likedarkness and light.

86. As a man sees in his mind, both the dream of moving bodies aswell as immovable rocks in his sleep; so does the Lord perceive theideas, both of the stable and unstable in his intellectual tranquility.(i.e. It is possible for the intellect to conceive the ideas ofgross bodies also).

87. As a man of absent mind, has no heed of the dust flying on any partof his body; so the divine spirit is not polluted, by his entertainingthe ideas of gross bodies within itself.

88. As the air and water and stones, are possessed of the consciousnessof their airy, watery and solid bodies, so are we conscious of ourmaterial, intellectual and spiritual bodies likewise.

89. As the mind that is freed from seeing the objects of sight, andliberated from entertaining all their thoughts and desires also, flowsalong like a stream of limpid waters; so doth the current of the divinespirit glide on eternally, with the waves and eddies of creation anddissolution, perpetually rolling on and whirling therein.

Argument:—Description of nature and destiny, and of creation andits teeming with vitality.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how can one paramount destiny, guide thefates of these endless chains and varieties of beings; and how can oneuniform nature, be the predominant feature of all these various kindsof beings.

2. Say why is the sun so very shining among the myriads of gods, andcause is it that lengthens and shortens, the durations of days andnights (in summer and winter).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever the Lord has ordained at first ofhimself (i.e. of his own will and wisdom); the same appearing asthe fortuitous formation of chance, is called the very system of theuniverse.

4. All that is manifested in any manner by omnipotence, is andcontinues as real in the same manner; because what is made of thepith of divine will and intelligence, can never be unreal; nor is itpossible for the manifest and obvious to be evanescent.

5. All that is situated or appears to us in any manner, being composedof the divine intellect, must continue to remain for ever in the samemanner; this appearance of creation and its disappearance in itsdissolution, are both attributed to the unseen power of its destiny.

6. To say this one is such and that is otherwise, is to attribute themto the manifestation of Brahma as so and so; and these formations oftheirs, together with their ultimate dissolution, are called the actsof their destiny.

7. The three states of waking, sleeping and dreaming, appearing to thenature of the soul, are no way separated from it; as the fluidity andmotion of water, are not otherwise than properties of the same limpidliquid.

[Pg 1010]

8. As vacuity is the property of air, and warmth of the sunshine, andas odour is the quality of camphor; so the states of waking, sleepingand dreaming, appertain to the very nature of the soul, and areinseparable from it.

9. Creation and dissolution follow one another, in the one and samecurrent of the Divine Intellect; which in its vacuous form, subsists inthe vacuous spirit of Brahma.

10. What is believed as creation, is but a momentary flash of theDivine Intellect; and that which is thought to be a kalpa period, isbut a transient glare of the same. (A kalpa age is but a fleetingmoment in the eternal duration of Brahma).

11. The sky and space and the things and actions, that come to ourknowledge at any time; are as mere dreams occurring unto us, by a flashof the glaring nature of the Divine Intellect.

12. The sights of things and the eternal thoughts, and whatever occursat any time or place; are all presented unto us by our minds, fromtheir formless shapes or ideas in the vacuous intellect of God. (Themind derives the formal images, from their ideals subsisting in theDivine Intellect).

13. Whatever is thus manifested by the mind or designed by it at anytime, the same is termed its destiny, which is devoid of any form likethe formless air.

14. The uniform state of things for a whole kalpa age, measuring but amoment of Brahma; is what is expressed by the word nature, by naturalphilosophers that know all nature.

15. The one soul—consciousness or universal intelligence (of God),is diversified into a hundred varieties of living beings; and everyportion of this general intelligence, retains the same intellectionlike its original, without forsaking its nature (Note: As the oneelement of fire, diversifies itself into many forms of sparks, withoutlosing its properties of heat and burning).

16. The intelligences that appertain to and manifest themselves, inthe supreme intelligence of God, do some of them imagine to assumeto themselves some embodied forms, in utter ignorance of theirintellectual natures.

[Pg 1011]

17. The earth, air, water and fire and vacuum, are severally thereceptacles of many properties; but it is the vacuous intellect whichis the great repository of these, that appear as dreams hovering allabout it.

18. This place contains the vast receptacle, for the reception ofall tangible and solid bodies; and this spacious earth with all thepopulation on its surface, is seated in the midst of it.

19. It has a place for the vast body of waters, or the great ocean init; and affords a seat to the sun—the source of light; it has a spacefor the course of the winds, and a vacuum containing all the worlds init.

20. It is the reservoir of the five elements, which are the quintupleprinciples of our knowledge; and it being thus the container of thequintessence of Brahma, what is seen or anything else before it.

21. The learned call this intelligence as the intellect andomniscience; it is omniform, uniformed and all-pervading, and isperceived by all owing to its greatness and its great magnitude.

22. Brahmá the son or offspring of Brahma; is the selfsame Brahmahimself; who by expanding his intelligence, has expanded the vacuumunder the name of firmament; and as an awning of silk in cloth. (Infact nothing was made by the father but by the son).

23. When delusion rules over the intellect of Brahmá and over thesubtile and gross matters; then how is it possible for other things,that are but parts of them, to stand good in law?

24. It is simply by his will (and without any external appliance), thatthis god Brahma stretched the network of the universe, as a spiderweaves its web out of itself; it revolves like a disc or wheel in theair, and whirls like a whirlpool in the hollow depth of the intellect,appearing as it were a sensible sphere in the heavens.

25. These spheres present some bodies of great brightness, and othersof a lesser light; which there are some scarcely visible to us, and allappearing as figures in a painting.

26. All created objects appear in this manner and those[Pg 1012] that are notcreated never appear to view; but they all appear as visions in adream, to the sight of the learned.

27. The intellect is the selfsame soul, and the Lord of All, and theseeming visibles are all really invisible; they are all evanescentfor their want of lasting bodies; and neither are they visible bythemselves, nor are they ever perceptible to or seen by us.

28. The vacuous intellect, sees these as its dreams in the greatvacuity of the intellect, and this world being no other than aphenomenon of the vacuous intellect, can have no other form than thatof mere vacuum.

29. Whatever is manifested by the intellect in any manner, the same iscalled its form and body; and the countenance of that manifested formfor a certain period, is termed its nature or destiny.

30. The first manifestation of the divine intellect, in the form ofvacuum and as the vehicle of sound; became afterwards the source ofthe world, which sprouted forth like a seed, in the great granary ofvacuity. (The conveying of sound and the containing of worlds are thenature of vacuum).

31. But the account given of the genesis of the world, and of thecreation of things one after the other, are mere fabrication of sagesfor instruction of the ignorant, and has no basis on truth. (Because noreason can be assigned for the Lord’s production of the material world).

32. There is nothing that is ever produced of nothing, nor reduced tonothingness at any time; all this is as quiet and calm as the bosom ofa rock, and ever as real as it is unreal. (The world is real in theideal, but an utter unreality in its materiality).

33. As there existed no separate body before, so there can be no end ofit also; all things exist as inseparable infinitesimal with the spiritof God, and can therefore neither rise nor set in it where they arealways present.

34. The vacuous world existing in vacuum of the divine spirit, is apure vacuity or blank only; how is it possible then to rise or set init, or go beyond it to rise or set elsewhere.

[Pg 1013]

35. What is the world, but a ray of the ever shining gem of divineintellect; before whose omniscience, every thing shines for ever in itsown light and nature.

36. The Divine spirit though unknown to all, makes itself some whatconceivable to us in our consciousness of it, and in our thinkablenessof it, and by means of our reasoning and reflection.

37. We can get some knowledge of it by our reason, as we can drawinferences of future events by means of our reasoning; this knowledgeis rarer than that of the subtile element of air, and fainter than ourprescience into the future of all things.

38. Then this transcendental essence of the divine spirit, beingabout to reflect in itself, becomes the thinking principle called theintellect, which is somewhat intelligible to us.

39. Having then the firm conviction of its consciousness in itself,it takes the name of the living soul, which is known by the title ofAnima, meaning the supreme spirit or soul.

40. This living soul embodied in itself the nameless avidyáor ignorance, which shrouded the atmosphere of its intellect, andsuperceded the title of the pure intelligence. (The living souljívátmá is involved in ignorance máyá, of its originalstate of Chiddáta or the intelligent soul).

41. It is then employed in the thoughts, of its bodily conduct andworldly carrier only; and being forgetful of its spiritual nature, isengaged in the discharge of his temporal functions.

42. Being thus forgetful of its nature of vacuum, which possesses theproperty of conveying the sound, it becomes prepossessed with the errorof taking the future material bodies for real, in lieu of the realityof the intellect.

43. It gets next the motion of its egoism, with the idea of time, inits spiritual body; and then these two run together, in quest of thematerial elements, which are the seeds for the growth of the forthcoming world.

44. Then the thinking power of the living soul, begets the sense ofconsciousness within itself; and produces therein the conviction of theunreal world, as a positive reality.

[Pg 1014]

45. After this the thinking principle or the mind, bursts out like aseed into a hundred sprouts of its wishes; and then by reflecting onits egoism, thinks as a living being at the very moment.

46. Thus the pure spirit passing under the name of living soul, isentangled in the maze of its erroneous and unreal reality, has beenrolling like a heaving wave in the depth of the universal spirit. (Allliving souls of animate beings, are as bursting bubbles in the ocean ofthe eternal spirit).

47. The mind by constantly reflecting at first on the vacuous nature ofthe living soul; is stultified at last to think it as solidified intothe nature of animal life or the vital air or breath of life.

48. This being became the source of articulate sounds or words, whichwere expressive of certain meanings, and significant of things, thatwere to be created afterwards; and were to be embodied in the wordingof the Vedas. (The Lord spake and all things came out at his bidding,which were afterwards stated in the Book of Genesis).

49. From him was to issue forth the would be world, by virtue of thewords which he spake to denote the things he meant; the words that heinvented were fraught with their meanings, and productive of the thingswhich they expressed.

50. The intellect being employed in this manner (in the thoughts ofcreation), takes upon it the title of a living being; which beinggarbed in significant words, was productive of all existent entities.(The volitive principle of the divine intellect, takes the name of theliving soul or Brahmá the creative agent).

51. It was this self-existent entity that produced the fourteenspheres, which fill the whole space of vacuity; and which give rise toso many worlds that subsist therein.

52. But before this being had the power of his speech, and of theuse of his limbs and body, it remained to reflect only on thesignifications of words, having had his mind alone the only activepart of himself. (So the mind alone of a living body, is[Pg 1015] the onlyactive part of it in its embryonic state, before its attainment of thefunctions of all its other parts and members).

53. As the air devolopes a seed to a plant, by exhaling on its outercoat, so doth the intellect develope the bodily functions of livingbeings, by working in its internal parts. (i.e. The mindactuates the action of the body).

54. And as the oscillating intellect or mind, happens to come acrossthe idea of light; it beholds the same appearing to view; as it isconveyed before it by its significant sound (i.e. as meant bythe word).

55. Light is only our intellection or notion of it, and nothing withoutit; as feeling is our consciousness of it, and not the perceptionderived by means of the touch of anything. (This is theory of Berkeley).

56. So is sound but our consciousness of it, and a subjectiveconception of our mind; as vacuum is a conception of the vacuous mind,and as the receptacle of sound caused by itself.

57. As in this state of sound it is known to be the product ofair in its own vacuity, so everything else is the product of ourconsciousness, and there nothing as a duality beside it.

58. So the properties of odour and flavour, are as well as thesubstances of sound and air; and these unrealities seem as real ones,like the dreams that are seen and thought of in our minds.

59. Heat which is the seed or seat of the arbor of light, and evolvesitself in the radiance and other luminous bodies; are the forms of thesame intellect, that shows itself in all things.

60. So is flavour a mere quality of empty air, is thought of as areality in every article of our food and drink; and is a mere namewithout its substance.

61. All other things, which were hereafter to be designated bydifferent names as fragrance &c., are but so many forms of the thoughtsand desires existing in the mind of this living being or Brahmá.

62. This being had in his mind the seed of all forms and dimensions,from which was to proceed this terrestrial globe, that was to becomeafterwards the support of all creatures.

[Pg 1016]

63. All things yet unborn, appeared as already born in this divinemind, which was filled with the models of all future existences ofevery kind; and all these formless beings had their forms afterwards,as it thought and willed them to be (i.e. The ideal became thereal at last).

64. These forms appeared to view as by an act of chance, and the organswhereby they came to be seen, were afterwards called by name of eyes,or the visual organs of sight.

65. The organs which gave the perception of sounds, were named theears; and those which bore the feeling of touch to the mind, werecalled the organs of feeling or त्वक्.

66. The organ of perceiving the flavours, was styled the tongue ororgan of taste; and that which received the perception of smell, weretermed the nose or organ of scent.

67. The living soul being subjected to its corporeal body, has noperception of the distinctions of time and place by means of its bodilyorgans, which are so imperfect and soulless on the whole. (i.e.He is not thoroughly diffused all over the body, but has its seat inthe mind also, which perceives the abstract ideas of time and space andall other abstract natures of things).

68. In this manner are all things but imageries of the soul, and idealsof the intellect, and wholly confined in the soul; they neither appearnor set on the out side of it, but are set as silent engravings in thestony and stiff bosom of the same.

Argument:—The Living soul is identified with Brahma or theuniversal soul; its birth is but a fiction of speech; and theerroneous conception of its animal soul and body, is fullyexposed herein.

Vasishtha continued:—The fiction of the first rise of the livingsoul; from the calm and quiet spirit of God as said before, is merelyfictitious and not a true one; but was meant to elucidate the nature ofthe animate soul, as the same with and not distinct from the Supremesoul.

2. In this manner the fiction (of the living soul) means that, thisbeing a part of the supreme soul is verily the same with it. (As theair in the pot or cot, is the same as universal air or vacuum).It is when the subjective soul is employed with the thoughts of theobjective, that it is termed the living God or spirit. (Hence thequiescent and creative souls, are but the states or hypostases of thesame soul).

3. The inclination of the self-intelligent or subjective soul, towardsthinkable objects of thought, garbs it under a great many fictitiousnames or epithets, which you shall now hear me, O Ráma, relate to youin all their varieties.

4. It is called the living soul or jíva, from its power of living andthinking; and from its addictedness towards the thinkables, it istermed the thinking principle and the intellect.

5. It is termed intelligence for its intellection of this thing asthat, as well as for its knowledge of what is what; and it is calledthe mind from its mending, willing and imagining of many things. (Thethree powers of the mind are here reckoned, as retention, volition andimagination).

6. The reliance in self that, “I am” is what is called egoism; and theprinciple of percipience called the mind by the vulgar, is when freedfrom everything, styled the intellect by the wise and those acquaintedwith the sástras.

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7. It is called the aggregate of the octuple principles or totality ofexistence, when it is combined with all its wishes of creation; andthen named as subtile nature, before its production of the substantialworld.

8. Being absent from or imperceptible to our perception, it is calledthe hidden nature; and in this manner many other fictitious names aregiven to it by way of fiction or fabrication of our imagination. (Theword avidyá here meant as absent, is elsewhere explained asunknown and as ignorance and illusion also).

9. All these fictitious appellations that I have told thee here, aremere inventions of our fancy, for the one formless and changelesseternal being.

10. In this manner are all these three worlds, but the fairy lands ofour dream and the castles of our imagination; they appear as objectsmade for our enjoyment and bliss, but are in reality an intactiblevacuity.

11. So must you know, O best of embodied beings, that this body ofyours is of a spiritual or intangible nature; it is the intellectualbody formed of the vacuous intellect, which is rarer than the rarifiedair.

12. It never rises nor sets (i.e. it is neither born nor dies)in this world, but continue with our consciousness of ourselves, untilour final liberation from the sense of our personalities. This mentalbody or mind of ours, is the recipient of the fourteen worlds and allcreated objects.

13. It is in the extensive regions of our minds, that millions ofworlds continue to be created and dissolved in the course oftime; and an unnumbered train of created beings, are growing andfalling as fruits in it in the long run of time. (The mind and time,contain all things).

14. This intellectual body beholds the world, both inside and outsideof it; as the looking glass reflects and refracts, the outward andits inward images both in as well as out of it; and as the open airreflects and shows us the upper skies.

15. The mind must bear these images in its mirror, until its finaldissolution with all things at the end of the world; when[Pg 1019] all mindsand bodies and all the world and their contents, are to be incorporatedin the great vacuum of the Divine Mind.

16. The compactness of the Divine Mind, which comprehends all imagesor ideas in itself, imparts them partly in all individual minds, whichare but parts of itself, and which are made to think likewise. (Thispassage maintains the innate ideas derived immediately from God).

17. This spiritual body that was employed in viewing the inborn worldin itself; is turned as the form of the Great Brahmá by some, and asthat of the God Virát by others.

18. Some call him the sanátana or sempiternal, and others givehim the name of Náráyana or floating on the surface of the waters. Somestyle him as Ísha and by his name as Prajápati—the Lord of creatures(Patriarch).

19. This being chanced to have, his five organs of sense on a sudden,and these were seated in the several parts of his body, where theystill retain there seats as before.

20. Then his delusion of the phenomenal, seemed to extend too far andwide, without any appearance of reality therein, all being a vast wasteand void. (The noumenal only is the true reality).

21. It was all the appearance of that eternal and transcendentalBrahma, and not of the unreal phenomenal which is never real; it is thevery Brahma, which is without its beginning and end, and appearing in alight quite unintelligible to us. (Being imperceptible in his person,his reality is hid under the garb of unreality).

22. Our inquiry into the spiritual form of the deity, leads us to takethe delusive world as such; just as the longing of the ardent loverafter his loved one, leads him to the view of its bloated phantom inhis dream (i.e. in our search after the spiritual, we are misledto take the corporeal as such).

23. As we have the blank and formless notion of a pot, presented inthe real shape of the pot in our minds; so have we the notions of ourbodies and the world also, represented as realities in dreams andimagination.

24. As the dreamed objects of our vacuous minds, seem to[Pg 1020] be real onesfor the time in our sleep; so all these aerial objects in nature,appear as solid substances in the delusion of our dreams by daylight.

25. This spiritual and formless body (of the deity), comes to begradually perceived in us and by itself also; as we come to see theaerial forms presenting themselves unto us in our dream.

26. It is then embodied in a gross body, composed of flesh and bones,and all its members, and its covering of the skin and hairs; and inthis state it thinks (of its carnal appetites and enjoyments).

27. It then reflects on its birth and acts in that body, and upon theduration and end of that body also; and entertains the erroneous ideasof the enjoyments and incidents of its life.

28. It comes to know its subjection to decay, decrepitude and death,and of its wanderings on all sides of the wide sphere of this globe; itgets the knowledge of the knower and known, and also of the beginning,middle and of all acts and things.

29. And thus the primordial spirit, being transformed to the livingsoul, comes to know the elementary bodies of earth, air, and water&c, and the varieties of created beings and conduct of men and findsitself as contained and confined within the limits of its body andof this earth, after its having been the container of all bodies andspace before. (The difference here spoken of, is that of the personalsoul of the jíva or living being, and that of the impersonal soul ofBrahma—the universal spirit).

Argument:—Unity of the impersonal and personal spirittreated; and the materiality of the living soul refuted.

Vasishtha continued:—This spiritual body (or the personal spirit),as that of Brahma—the primeval creator of all; being possessed ofits volition, comes as by an act of chance and of its own motion, tothink and brood on its thoughts; (which it had derived from the eternalspirit of Brahma).

2. It continues to remain in the same state, as it is ever conscious ofin itself; and sees of its own nature, this universe exposed before itas it had in his mind, nor is there and wonder in this.

3. Now this viewer—Brahma, and his viewing and the view of the world,must either all be false (as there is no duality in nature); or theymust all be true, having the spirit of Brahma at the bottom.

4. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, please to tell me, how this spiritual andshadowy sight of the primeval Lord of creation, could be realized inits solidified state, and reality can there be in the vision of a dream.

5. Vasishtha replied:—The spiritual view is ever apparent by itselfwithin ourselves; and our continuous and ceaseless sight of it, givesit the appearance of a solid reality.

6. As the visionary sights of our dreams, come to be realized in times,by our continuous poring upon them; so doth the spiritual appearas real, by our constant habit of thinking them as such. (So it isrecorded in the case of King Harischandra of old).

7. The constant thought of the reality of our spiritual body, makesappear as a real object to our sight; as the constant craving of deerafter water, makes it appear in the mirage of the parched desert beforethem.

[Pg 1022]

8. So the vision of this world, has like every other fallacy, misled uslike the poor and parching deer, to the misconception of water in themirage; and does this and all other unrealities appear as real ones inour ignorance.

9. Many spiritual and intellectual objects, like a great many unrealthings, are taken for the material and real, by the avidity of theirdesires and ignorant admirers.

10. The impression that I am this, and that one is another, and thatthis is mine and that is his; and that these are the hills and skiesabout us; are all as erroneous as the conception of reality in ourdreams and false phantoms of the brain.

11. The spiritual body which was at first conceived, by the primecreator of all—Brahmá, assumed a material form as that of a globeunder his sight. (Meaning the Mundane egg).

12. The living soul of Brahma, being born of the mundane egg in acorporeal body; forgot or rather forsook to think of its incorporealintellectuality, and thought himself as composed of his presentmaterial body only. He looked into it and thought, that this was hisbody and the recipient of his soul: (instead of the souls being thefountain of the body).

13. Then it becomes confined in that body, by its belief of theunreality as a sober reality; and then it thinks of many things withinitself, and goes on seeking and running after them all. (But thesteady soul is sedate, and has all within itself, without seeking themelsewhere without).

14. This God then makes many symbolical sounds and forms (invents)words for names and actions; and at last upon his utterance of themystic syllable Om or (on) the Vedas rang out and sang in currents ofverbiage.

15. Then through the medium of those sacred words, the god ordained theordinances for the conduct of all mankind; and everything turned to be,as he wished and thought it to be in his own mind. (Hence Brahmá issaid the creative mind of God).[4]

[Pg 1023]

16. Whatever exists in any manner, the same is the self same Brahmáitself; and yet no body perceives it as such, owing to the predominanterror of all, of believing the unreal world as a real existence.

17. All the things from the great Brahmá down to all, are but falseappearances as those of dreams and magical show; and yet the spiritualreality is utterly lost to sight, under the garb of material unreality(i.e. The unreal matter is taken for real spirit).

18. There is nothing as materiality anywhere and at any time; it is thespiritual only which by our habitual mode of thinking and naming, issaid to be substantial, elemental and material.

19. This our fallacy of materiality, has come to us from our verysource in Brahmá—the creator; who entertained the false idea of thematerial world, and transmitted this error even into the minds of thewise and very great souls.

20. How is it possible, O Ráma, for the intelligent soul, to be thusconfined in a clod of earth, all this must either be an illusory scene,or a representation of Brahma himself.

21. There can be no other cause of this world, except the eternalcausality of Brahma; who is self-existent, only without any action orcausation of himself; thus the Supreme soul being wholly devoid ofthe attributes of cause and effect, what can this world be, but anextension of the Divine essence?

Argument:—Description of liberation, as heedlessness of the pastand future, ignorance of the knowables, and thoughtlessness aboutthe thinkables.

Vasishtha continued:—Gaining the knowledge of knowables, is called ourbondage in this world; but it is our release from the bonds of knowableobjects, that is termed our liberation from it.

2. Ráma rejoined:—But how can it be possible, sir, to get our escapefrom the knowledge of the knowables, and how can our rooted knowledgeof things, and our habitual sense of bounden to them, be removed fromus.

3. Vasishtha replied:—It is the perfection of our knowledge, andfeeling of it as such, that removes our misjudgment; and then we getour liberation from error, after disappearance of our inborn bias.

4. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is that simply uniform feeling,and what is called that complete and perfect knowledge said to be,which releases the living soul entirely, from its fetters of error.

5. Vasishtha replied:—The soul is full with its subjective knowledgeof intuition, and has no need of the objective knowledge of theknowables from without; and perfect knowledge is our inward sense ofthe same, and not expressible in words.

6. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, whether the knowableness of knowledge,that is whether the internal knowledge of the knowing soul, is thesame or separate from itself; and whether the word jnána orknowledge, is taken in its instrumental or abstract sense (i.e.whether it is used to mean the power by means of which we derive ourknowledge, or the so derived knowledge itself).

[Pg 1025]

7. Vasishtha replied:—All perception is knowledge, and this term isdenotative of its causality also (as we say, my knowledge is my guide,i.e. the instrumentality of my guidance). Hence there is nodifference between knowledge and the known or the knowable, as there isnone between the air and its ventilation.

8. Ráma rejoined:—If it be so (that there is no difference betweenthem); then tell me, whence arises the error of difference inour conception of them; the conception of the materiality of theperceptible or objective world, must be as erroneous as that of thehorns of a hare, which had never been in esse, nor are likely tobe at any time in future.

9. Vasishtha replied:—The error of the reality of external objects,gives rise to the error of the reality to our knowledge of them also;but there is no inward object of thought, nor of the outward senses,has ever any reality in it.

10. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O sage, how can you deny the existence ofthose objects, which are evident to the senses of mine, thine and allothers alike; and which are ever present in their thoughts in the mindsof sensible beings.

11. Vasishtha replied:—It was at the time of the first creation of theworld, that the self manifested God Virát, exhibited the outline of thecosmos in a corner of his all-comprehensive mind; but as nothing wasproduced in reality, there is no possibility of our knowing any as aknowable or real entity.

12. Ráma rejoined:—How can our common sight, of the present, past andfuture prospects of this world; and our daily perception of things,which are felt by all in general, be regarded as nothing by yourteaching. (Common sense can not be controverted by abstruse philosophy).

13. Vasishtha replied:—Just as the dreamer’s vision in sleep, thedeer’s mistake of water in the mirage in sand, the illusory sight ofa moon in the sky, and the prospects of our delusive fancies, do alldisappear on right observation; so the false perceptions of worldlythings, and the mistaken conceptions of our own entities, are aserroneous as the sights of the false lights in[Pg 1026] the empty air. (Thesedissolve as dreams upon waking, and the testimony of one waking man, isenough to disperse the deceptive sights of all dreamers and sleepers).

14. Ráma rejoined:—If our knowledge of I and thou and of this andthat, is as false as that of all other things in the womb of the world;why then were these brought into existence, not left to remain in theirideas in the mind of their creator, as they had existed before hiscreation of them?

15. Vasishtha replied:—It is certain that everything springs fromits cause, and not otherwise; what then could there be the (material)cause, for the creation of the world therefrom, after the dissolutionof everything at the universal destruction?

16. Ráma replied:—Why sir, cannot that being be the cause ofrecreation, which remains undestroyed and indestructible, afterdestruction of the prior creation?

17. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever substance there abides in the cause,the same is evolved in effect also; hence the essence of Brahma beingcomposed of his intellect only, it could not give rise to the materialworld from itself; as the substance of a pot, cannot produce that of apicture or cloth.

18. Ráma replied:—Why sir, the world existed in its subtile (or ideal)state, in the person (mind) of Brahma (God); from which it issued forthanew and again, after dissolution of the former creation.

19. Vasishtha said:—Tell me, O intelligence Ráma, how could the LordGod (whose nature is composed of pure intelligence), conceive theentity or quintessence of the world in himself, and which like theproductive seed, sprang out in the form of the future creation. Saywhat sort of entity was it.

20. Ráma replied:—It is an entity of Divine intelligence, and issituated in the subjective soul of God in that form. It is neither avacuous nullity, nor an unreal entity.

21. Vasishtha said:—If it be so, O mighty armed Ráma, that the threeworlds are Divine intelligence only; then tell me why bodies formed ofpure intelligence (as those of the[Pg 1027] gods and angels), and those havingthe intelligent soul in them (as those of human beings), are subject totheir birth and death.[5]

22. Ráma said:—If then there has been no creation at all at any timefrom the beginning; then tell me sir, whence has this fallacy of theexistence of the world come to be in vogue.

23. Vasishtha replied:—The inexistence of cause and effect, proves thenullity of being and not being (i.e. its annihilation also); allthis that is thought of to exist, is the thought and thinking of thedivine soul, which is the triputi or triple entity of thinker, thinkingand the thought together. (i.e. The soul is both the subjectiveand objective, as also their connecting predicate by itself).

24. Ráma rejoined:—The thinking soul thinks about the implements andthe acts, as the looker looks on the objects of his sight; but how canthe divine looker be the dull spectacle (and the object the same withthe subject); unless you maintain that the objective fuel burns thesubjective fire (which is impossible).

25. Vasishtha replied:—The viewer is not transformed to the view,owing to impossibility of the existence of an objective view; it is theall seeing soul, that shows itself as one solid plenum in itself.

26. Ráma rejoined:—The soul is the pure intellect only, and is withoutit* beginning and end; it thinks only on its eternal and formlessthoughts; how then can it present the form and appearance of thevisible world.[6]

27. Vasishtha replied:—The thinkables being all causeless ofthemselves, have none of them any cause whatsoever; and it is theprivation of the thinkables, that bespeaks the liberation of theintellect. (The production of the thinkables, is as impossible as thebirth of the offspring of a Barren woman. Gloss).

[Pg 1028]

28. Ráma rejoined:—If it is so, then say how and whence have we thethought of our conception of ourselves; and our knowledge of the world,and our sense of motion and the like; (as they are suggested to us byour common sense, and the universal testimony of all people).

29. Vasishtha replied—The impossibility of cause, precludes thepossibility of any production; how and whence could the thinkablesproceed, when all is quite calm and quiet everywhere, and the knowledgeof creation is but an error and a delusion.

30. Ráma rejoined:—Here tell us sir, how this error comes toovershadow the unknowable, unthinkable and the immovable being, thatis selfmanifest and ever untainted and clear by itself (Swaprakása orSwayamprakása).

31. Vasishtha replied:—there is no error or mistake herein, owing toits want of any causation also; our knowledge of egoism and tuism, isdrowned altogether in that of one unevanescent Unity.

32. Ráma replied:—O venerable sir, I am so bewildered in the errorof my consciousness, that I know not what other question I am here tomake; I am not so enlightened as the learned, to argue any more on thispoint.

33. Vasishtha replied:—Do not desist, O Ráma, from making yourinquiries concerning the causality of Brahma; until you are satisfiedwith the proof of his causelessness, as they test the purity of goldon the stone; and then by knowing this, you will be able to reposeyourself, in the blissful state of the supremely Blest.

34. Ráma rejoined:—I grant sir, as you say, that there is no creationfor want of its cause, but tell me now whence is this my error of thethinkable and its thought (so rooted in me that I can not get rid ofit).

35. Vasishtha replied:—There is no error in the belief of the uncausedcreation, and in its perfect calmness; but it is for want of your habitof thinking it so (and your bias of the reality of the world), thatreally makes you so restless.

36. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, whence rise this habit as[Pg 1029] well as thedesuetude of this mode of our thinking; and how does our rest proceedfrom the one, and our disquiet from the other mode of thought.

37. Vasishtha replied:—Belief in the eternal God, breed no error inthat of the eternity of the world; it is the habit of thinking itotherwise, that creates the error of creation. Be you therefore assound in your mind, as the solid minded sages have been.

38. Ráma rejoined:—Please to tell me sir, in your preaching of theselectures to your audience, what other mode of practice there may be, inour attainment of a quietude like that of the living liberated sages.

39. Vasishtha replied:—The lesson that we preach, is to know one’sself as Brahma and resting in the spirit of Brahma; and this knowledgeis sure to release the soul, both from its longing for liberation, asalso from its dread of bondage in this world.

40. Ráma rejoined:—This doctrine of yours, by its all negativedistinctions of our knowledge of time and space, and of our actionsand thing, serves to drive away our consciousness of all existencewhatsoever from the mind.

41. Vasishtha replied:—Yes, because all our objective knowledge, ofthe distinctions of time and place and of actions and things in ourminds; is the effect of our ignorance of the subjectivity of the soul,beside which there is no other substance—before the liberated spirit.

42. Ráma rejoined:—The absence of our knowledge of an intelligentagent, and also of an intelligible object; deprives us altogether ofany intelligence at all; the impossibility of the union of the unityand duality together, must preserve our distinct knowledge of theknowing principle and the known or knowable object. (The transitiveverb to know must have an object, and cannot like a neuter orintransitive verb, be confined to or reflect upon its agent. Gloss).

43. Vasishtha replied:—It is by your act of knowing of God, that youhave or get your knowledge of Him; therefore the word is taken in itsactive sense by you and others (Who[Pg 1030] have to know a thing before it isknown to them). But with us (or sages like ourselves), who are possestof our intuitive knowledge of ourselves as the deity, it is but aself-reflexive verb. (Gloss. Buddhi with the ignorant, meansknowing; but with the sapient, it means feeling).

44. Ráma rejoined:—But how do you feel your finite selves or egoism,and your limited knowledge, as same with the infinite soul andomniscience of the deity; unless it were to ascribe your imperfectionsto the transcendental divinity, who is purer than the purest water, andrarer than the rarefied ether.

45. Vasishtha replied:—It is the feeling of the perfections ofthe divine soul in ourselves, that we call our egoism; and not theascription of our imperfect personalities unto him. And here theduality of the living and divine souls, bears resemblance to the unityof the ventilating breeze with the universal and unfluctuating air.जीबब्रक्षनोरैक्यं ।

46. As the waves of the ocean, have been continually rising andsubsiding in it; so the objective thoughts of one’s egoism and theworld besides, must be always rising and falling in the subjective soulof the supreme being, as well as self-liberated persons (Hence thesubjective and objective cannot be the one and same thing).

47. Vasishtha replied:—If so it be, then say what is the fault, thatis so much reprehended in the popular belief of a duality; and indisregarding the creed of the Unity, which is eternal and infinite,full and perfect in itself, quite calm and quiet in its nature, and istermed the transcendent One.

48. Ráma rejoined:—If it be so (that the living soul, is as the breezeor breath of the calm air of Brahma and same with it), then tell mesir, who and what power is it, which conceives the ego, tu and others,which feels and enjoys all as their agent, if the fundamental fallacyof the world be the root of all. (The whole being false, there isnothing as one or an another or as bondage or liberation).

49. Vasishtha replied:—The knowledge of the reality of the objectiveor knowable things, is the cause of our bondage[Pg 1031] (in this world); trueknowledge does not recognise their reality, and full intelligencewhich assumes the forms of (and shows) all things in itself, sees nodifference of bondage or liberation before it. (All things are alike inthe full light of intelligence).

50. Ráma rejoined:—Intelligence like light, does not show us allthings in the same light; it shows us the difference between a pot anda picture, as light shows the white and black to view. Again as thelight of our eye sight shows us the different forms of outward objects,so does our intelligence confirm and attest the reality of our visualperceptions.

51. Vasishtha replied:—All outward objects having no cause of theircreation, nor any source of their production, are as incredible asthe offspring of a barren woman; and the appearance of their realitywhich is presented to our sight, is as false as that of silver ina conchshell or in the glittering sands, and not otherwise. (Thephenomenal is a mirage, and deception of sight).

52. Ráma rejoined:—The sight of the miserable world, whether itbe true or false, is like the startling apparition in a dream, andattended with pain only for the time; tell me therefore the best means,how to avoid and get rid of this error.

53. Vasishtha replied:—The world being never the better than a dream,it is the reflection of the idea of its reality, that is the bestmethod of getting rid of the snare of its tempting joys and sorrows.

54. Ráma rejoined:—But how to effect this object, which may redound toour bliss and rest; say how to put an end to the sight of the world,which shows the sights of falsities as realities, in the continuoustrain of its deluding dreams.

55. Vasishtha replied:—It is the due consideration of theantecedent and subsequent states of things, which must remove theerroneous impression of their reality; just as the conception ofthe substantiality of sights seen in our dreams, is eliminated uponreflection of their subsequent disappearance (and bearing no trace offormer forms behind).

[Pg 1032]

56. Ráma rejoined:—But how do the rising apparitions of the world,disappear in the depth of our minds, and what do we then come toperceive, after the vestiges of our gross remembrances have faded away?(The mind is never vacant of its thoughts of visible objects).

57. Vasishtha responded:—After the false appearance of the world, hasvanished like the faded sight of a city from view; the unconcerned mindof the unconcerned soul, looks upon it as a painting, wholly washed outby the rain (i.e. as a clear blank or vacuity).

58. Ráma asked:—What then becomes of the man, after subsidence ofthe worldly sights and desires from his mind; like the gross lookingobjects of a dream; and after the mind rests in its state of listlessindifference.

59. Vasishtha replied:—Then the world recedes from his sight, and thenthis predilection of it, and his desire for its enjoyment depart anddie away along with it.

60. Ráma rejoined:—How can this blind and deep rooted predilection,which has accompanied the soul from many previous births, and branchedout into multifarious desires, resign its hold of the human heart allat once?

61. Vasishtha replied:—As the knowledge of truth, serves to dispersethe rooted error of the material world from the mind, so the sense ofthe vanity of human desires, and of the bitterness of their enjoyment,dissipate their seeds at once from the heart (where they can take rootno more).

62. Ráma rejoined:—After dissipation of the error of materiality, ofthe visible spheres of worlds; say, O sage, what is that state of themind which follows it, and how its peace and tranquility at last?

63. Vasishtha replied:—After dissipation of the error of the materialworld, the mind reverts to its seat in the immaterial soul; where it isreleased from all its earthly bonds, and finds its rests in the stateof an indifferent insouciance—vairágya.

64. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, if the error of the world is aslittle, as that of a child’s idea of sorrow, then what trouble there isfor a man to remedy it?

[Pg 1033]

65. Vasishtha replied:—All our desires, like the fond wishes of boys,being wholly extinct in the mind, there remains no more any cause ofany sorrow in it; and this you may well know from the association ofdesires in all minds.

66. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is the mind, and how are we toknow its nature and workings; and what good do we derive, by our bestinvestigation of the mental powers and properties.

67. Vasishtha replied:—The inclination of the intellect towards theintelligibles, is called the mind, for its mending the thinkablesonly; and the right knowledge of its workings, leads to the extinctionof all our worldly desires. (i.e. The thoughts of things, areproductive of our desires for them; banish your thoughts, and you getrid of your desires at once).

68. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how long continues this tendency ofthe intellect towards the thinkables, and when does the mind come tohave its unmindfulness, which causes our coma or anæsthesis ofNirvána.

69. Vasishtha replied:—There being a total absence of thinkablethings, what is then left for the intellect to be intent upon; themind dwells upon its thoughts only, but the want of thinkable objects,leaves nothing for it to think upon.

70. Ráma rejoined:—How can there be the absence of thinkables, when wehave the ideas in store to think and reflect upon; nor is there any onewho can deny the existence of ideas, which are ever imprinted in themind (i.e. the eternal ideas).

71. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is the ideal world of the ignorant,has no truth in it and is denied by the learned; and the conceptionwhich the sapient have of it, is that of a nameless and formless unityonly.

72. Ráma rejoined:—What is that knowledge of this triple world of theignorant, which has no truth or reality therein; and what is the trueknowledge of the wise about it, which is inexpressible in words?

73. Vasishtha replied:—The knowledge of the ignorant, regarding theduality of the world, is wholly untrue from first[Pg 1034] to last; but thetrue knowledge of the wise, neither recognizes a duality herein; noracknowledges the production hereof; (but views it in the light of anullity and void).

74. Ráma rejoined:—Whatever is not produced in the beginning, cannot of course exist at any time; but how is it, that this unreal andunapparent nothing, could come to produce in us its conception of asomething?

75. Vasishtha replied:—This causeless and uncaused unreality ofthe world, appears unto us as a real entity; like the daydream thatpresents the false sight of the cosmos as a reality in our waking.

76. Ráma rejoined:—The sights that we see in our dreams, and theimages that we conceive in our imagination; are but perceptions derivedfrom our impressions of them in our waking state.

77. Vasishtha replied:—Tell me, O Ráma, whether the things that yousee in your dream, or conceive in your imagination, are exactly of thesame forms, that you see in your waking state.

78. Ráma replied:—The things that we see in our dream, and conceive ofin our fancy or imagination; do all of them appear unto us in the samelight, as they show themselves to us in our waking state.

79. Vasishtha questioned:—If the impressions of the waking state,come to represent themselves in our dreaming (and if our dreams arealike our waking sights), then tell me Ráma! why do you find your housestanding entire in the morning, which you beheld to have fallen down inyour dream.

80. Ráma answered:—I see that the things seen in waking, do not appearthe same in dreaming; but tell me sir, why they seem to resemble thosethat have been seen before.

81. Vasishtha replied:—It is neither the notion nor idea of anything,that appears as a reality in our minds; but the inherent impression ofthe world in the soul, that exhibits it to us from first to last.

82. Ráma said:—I find it now, that this world is no better[Pg 1035] than adream; but tell me sir, how to remedy our fallacy of its reality, whichholds us fast as a goblin.

83. Vasishtha replied:—Now consider how this dream of the world hascome into vogue, and what may be the cause thereof; and knowing thatthe cause is not different from its effect, view this visible creationin the light of its invisible origin.

84. Ráma said:—But as the mind is the cause of the sights, seen in ourdreams in sleep, it must therefore be the same with its creation ofthis world, which is equally unsubstantial and undecaying as itself.(The world is the permeation of the Divine mind—its maker or pervader).

85. Vasishtha replied:—So it is, O most intelligent Ráma, the worldis verily the manas—mens or the mind of God, which is no otherthan the consolidation of the Divine Intellect or intelligence. Thusthe world being situated in the mind, and this in that, it is this mindonly that exhibits these dreamlike shows, which originate from it, andhave no other source besides.

86. Ráma rejoined:—But why am I not to think the identity of theworld with Brahma himself, as there is the identity of the divinemind with him, and that of the mind with the creation. And likewiseas the relation of sameness subsists between a component part and itsensemble or the integral whole, as there is between the branchof a tree and the tree itself? (because these are but parts of oneundivided whole). But it would be absurd to identify the undivided andformless Brahma, with the divided and formal world.

87. Vasishtha replied:—It is impossible, O Ráma, to identify thisfrail world with the eternal Brahma, who is increate to identify thisperishable, quite calm and quiescent and intact in his nature.

88. Ráma added:—I come to find at last and by a haphazard, myerroneous conception of the world from first to last; as also the errorof my attributing the qualities of activity and passivity, to thenature of the transcendent being.

89. Vasishtha concluded with saying:—Now I have fully[Pg 1036] exposedthe erroneous views of the world (entertained both by the wise andignorant), both by the elegance of my poetical diction, as also by theenlightening reasonings of the learned; both of which are calculated toremove the mistaken views of the vacuity and delusion of the world, byestablishment of the truth of the whole, as being composed of essenceof the One sole and Supreme entity.

Argument:—Concerning the identity of the world and God, or thetotal absence of the universe.

Ráma rejoined:—If it is so sir, as you say, the world must be a greatriddle; as it can neither be said to be in existence with all itscontents, or it is a perfect nullity with every thing quite extinct init.

2. This existence that shows itself as the world to sight, appears as adelusion or deception of vision in view; though it cannot properly becalled an illusion, if it is composed of divine essence as you mean tosay.

3. Vasishtha replied:—The fortuitous appearance in which Brahma,manifests himself of his own accord; is known to him as the world andsubsisting in himself.

4. Ráma rejoined:—How does Brahma manifest himself as the world,before existence of space and after its extinction (at the ultimatedissolution of creation); and how does the divine spirit shine itselfas the world in want of the light of the luminaries?

5. Vasishtha replied:—The world shines in this manner in the light ofthe Divine Intellect; and know this light to proceed from the Divinespirit, which is thus diffused all over the universe.

6. As the light of the lamp or chandelier, enlightens the house withits lustre; it was thus the holy light of the Divine spirit that shoneitself, without presenting its outward appearance, or having any one tolook upon it (before creation).

7. Thus it is an immaterial and imperishable entity, without anyappearance of or looker on it; it shines with the light of theintellect, upon the basis or stand of the Divine spirit.

8. It shines in its visible appearance, in the sight of the[Pg 1038] spiritonly, that constantly looks upon it, as it sees its dreams in sleep.

9. It shines only in the light of the intellect, and appears as thecreated world before its creation; all its visible and shining sheenbeing derived from the Supreme.

10. The One supreme intellect alone, assumes the triple forms of thesight, seer and seeing (i.e. the subjective, objective and theattribute), in the beginning of creation; and shows itself as thecreated world of its own nature and accord.

11. We have the resemblance of such like appearance, presenting unto usin our dreams and creatures of our fancy; and it is in the same manner,that this creation shines before us with the light of the intellect.

12. This world (shining so bright and fair), is like a vacuous bodyappearing in the vacuity of the intellect; the creation has neitherits beginning nor end, it is a development of the intellect, which isdistributed through it.

13. It has become habitual to our nature, to suppose the existence ofthe world, but the false impression of its visibility, is lost in theconsciousness of high-minded men.

14. To them this creation presents no visible forms, nor any sensibleappearance at all; it is to them a representation of fallacy only, asthe mistake of a man in a statue, or taking a false apparition as real.

15. In this manner the blunder of a duality in the soul, produces adualism in the mind; but ere the existence of creation, there existedno dualism of the creator and the created, or of the manifester and themanifested.

16. The want of a cause causes the appearance of a duality (i.e.of the causal agency and its effect, in the vacuity of the intellect);but tell me how could there be a cause when there is no creation inexistence. (The creation presupposes a cause, but not otherwise nor itsabsence).

17. It is the Divine intellect alone, that manifests itself in themanner of the world, in the total absence of all visible objects; andthough this seems to be the waking state of the[Pg 1039] Supreme soul, yet itis neither its waking, sleeping nor dreaming state.

18. The visible world is no production of dream, but a manifestationof Brahma himself; and there existed the Divine intellect only, in themanner of the infinite void, before the birth of the atmospheric vacuumof the world.

19. The intellect which beholds this universe as its body, withoutbeing distributed or changed in the form of the world; is purely of aspiritual or vacuous form, that manifested itself in this visible formbefore it came to existence.

20. And this visible world that is so manifest to view, is as void andvacuous as the empty air.

21. Now knowing this in your own understanding, you must remain devoidof all dualism in your mind; be as mute as a block of stone, nor giveheed to the words of the universe in your heart, nor care for theirsayings of earthly enjoyments, (for fear of losing your spiritualbliss).

Argument:—Ráma’s coma and trance, and his revival by thespiritual lecture of his preceptor.

Ráma rejoined and said:—Alas! that I have so long strayed about, inthe erroneous maze of the world; without the knowledge of its being amere void and vacuum.

2. I now come to know the fallacy of my conception of the world, whichis but a mere nullity; which never is nor was, nor shall ever prove tobe a positive reality.

3. It is all still and supportless, and existing in our false knowledgeof it; it is an endless formation of the solid intellect, and a merevacuous conception of ours, without any figure or form or colour ormark of its own.

4. It is the transcendental vacuum and of a wholly inconceivablenature; and yet how wonderous it is, that we call this our world, ourearth and the sphere of our action.

5. How it appears as a duality (apart from the unity of God), andhow these worlds and mountains seen as separate and solid bodies ofthemselves; when they are in reality but the pellucid sky appearing asthick and opaque to our misconception of them.

6. This creation and the future world, are as the dreams that we see,but working of our imagination; while it is the intellect only thatshows itself as these intelligible objects, which could not otherwisepresent their visible aspects to our conceptions of them.

7. The thought that I am situated in heaven or hell in this life, makesthis world appear as such unto us; because the visibles are all objectsor creatures of our consciousness of them. (It is the mind that makes aheaven or hell).

[Pg 1041]

8. There is nothing as visible or its vision, nor this world or itscreation, unless it is caused as such, by the intellect within us; itis neither a scene in our waking or sleeping, nor is this anything asreal in its nature.

9. If this be but an erroneous sight, how could the negative errorproduce this positive spectacle, should it <be> but a false conceptionof the mind, then tell me, O sage, how could this blank fallacy bringforth the thought of this real existence.

10. It is not possible for error, to creep into the infallible mindof omniscience; nor is it probable that error should reign over thisperfect creation at large; it is therefore the Lord himself, thatexhibits his glory in this manner.

11. What can we think otherwise of the continuity of space, infinityof vacuum and infinity of time, than they are the attributes ofomnipotence; and how are we to look on the transparency of the air andcrystal, without thinking them as manifestation of his nature?

12. An erroneous notion is as false, as the sight of one’s own death ina dream; but how can this world which is so palpable to sight, be lostto or expunged from our sight, without losing our sight of its greatmanifester also? (To ignore the world is to ignore its maker also, asthe denial of God leads to that of the world).

13. The sights of the mirage, fairy cities and double moons in the sky,are of course deceptions of vision and productions of our error; butthe same analogy does not apply to our sight of the world.

14. The boys’ apparitions of ghosts, never lay hold on adults and thewaking, nor on any one in the day light and open air; this and similarerrors arise in our ignorance only, but they vanish upon our secondthought and true knowledge of them.

15. It is improper in this place to raise the question, regardingwhence this bug bear of error could rise among mankind; since itis evident from our own reasoning, that there is no such thing asavidyá or ignorance (which is the[Pg 1042] cause of error) ever inexistence, nor an asat or not being even in being. (Because theVeda says सदेवईदमग्र आसीत् the existence existed frombefore).

16. It is evident by rational reasoning, that whatever is invisible andimperceptible to us, the same is called as asat or not being,and the conception of idea or that is termed an error.

17. That which is not clearly obtained by any proof or reasoning, andis as impossible as the sky-flower or the horn of a hare, how can thatbe believed to be as anything in existence.

18. And a thing however apparent to sight, but having no cause orevidence of its reality, cannot be believed as <a> thing in existence,but it must be a nullity like the issue of a barren woman.

19. Therefore there can no error at any time, nor can an error everproduce anything whatever; it is therefore the manifest omniscience ofProvidence, that is conspicuous in every part of this wide and granddisplay.

20. Whatever then is seen now to shine before us, is the manifestationof Supreme being itself; the same Supreme spirit fills this plenitude,and is full with it in itself. (So the Veda पूर्ण मदः पूर्णमिदं &c.).

21. There is nothing that is either shining or unshining here at anytime, unless it be the calm and quiet and transparent spirit of God,that inheres in its body of the mundane world.

22. It is the one unborn, undying and unchanging everlasting Being,that is the most adorable and ever adored Lord of all, that fillsand pervades the whole with his essence. He only is the word ego,selfmanifest—pure and all pervading, while I and all others arewithout our egoism, and shine only in that unity (literally, withoutour duality).

Argument:—Ráma’s ecstatic hybernation and union with the Supremeunity.

Ráma rejoined:—There is the only One alone whom neither the gods northe rishis know or comprehend; He is without beginning, middleand end, and it is that being that thus shines himself, without thisworld and these phenomena.

2. It is useless to us to mind the difference, between the unityand duality, and to be led to the doubts created by the misleadingverboilogy of erroneous doctrines; without relying in the state of onetranquil and unvarying Spirit.

3. The world is as clearly a vacuous body, appearing in the womb ofvacuity; as the string of pearls and the aerial castles, that are seenin the open sky.

4. The world is attached in the same manner, to the solidity of theinvisible intellect; as vacuity is inherent in vacuum, lapidity in thestone, and fluidity in water.

5. Though the world, appears to be spread on all sides of space; yet itis no more than an empty vacuity, lying calm and quiet, in the hollowwomb of the great intellect.

6. This world appearing so fair and perspicuous, to the sight ofignorant people; vanishes as a phantom into nothing, at the sight ofthe boundless glory of the transcendent God.

7. The impression of difference and duality, existing between thecreator and creation, among worldly men; vanishes upon reflection, likewaves into the waters of the sea.

8. The existence of the world, together with all our miseries in it,before the light of our liberation; as the darkness of night flies awayat sunrise, and the light of the day disappears, before the gloom ofnight.

9. Whether in plenty or poverty, or in birth, death or disease; or inthe troubles and turmoils of the world, the wise[Pg 1044] man remains unshaken,though he may be overpowered by them.

10. There is no knowing nor error in this world, nor any pain orpleasure, or distress or delight in it; but they are all attributes ofthe deity, whose pure nature is unsullied by them.

11. I have come to know, that this existence is the immaculate Brahmahimself; and is the want of our knowledge, which says anything to bebeside the spirit of the Great God.

12. I am awakened to, and enlightened in divine knowledge; and findexternal existence cease to exist in any presence.

13. Perfect knowledge tells us, all these worlds to be but Brahmahimself; but want of this knowledge says, I was no Brahma before, buthave now become so by my knowledge.

14. The known and the unknown, the dark and the bright are all butBrahma, as vacuity and unity, and brightness and blueness, do allappertain to the one and same sky.

15. I am extinct in the deity (in my divine knowledge), and sitdauntless of anything; I am devoid of all desire, with my leaning inperfect blessedness; I am as I am, ravished in my infinite bliss,without my sensibility of what or which.

16. I am wholly that one and sole entity, which is naught but perfecttranquility; I see nothing but a calm and quiet, which utterly absorbsand enrapts me quite.

17. Knowing the knowable (the unknown One) is to unknow one’s selfand ignore the visible; as this cognition continues to dawn in thesoul, the whole cosmos sinks into oblivion and seems a block of stone,without the name and sign of anything being known.

Argument:—Ráma’s feeling of his comatosity, and hisrelation of it to his preceptor Vasishtha.

Ráma said:—In whatever manner and form, the living or individual soulconceives the universal soul within itself; it has the same conceptionor idea presented before it, agreeably to its concept thereof.(i.e. The divine spirit appears in the same form in us, as wethink it to be).

2. All these worlds lie in concert in their spiritual state, in theboundless spirit of the great Brahma; but they appear to us in variouslights, like the different rays, radiating from the one and same gem.

3. The great and bright quarry of the Divine Mind, contains all thesegemming worlds in its unbounded bosom; all of which unite to shed andscatter their conjoined light upon us, like the commingled rays of thegems contained in the womb of a vast mine.

4. All these several worlds, shining together like so many lamps of alustre; are clearly perceived by some and are imperceptible to others,as the blaze of day light is dazzling to the clear-sighted, but quitedim to the blind.

5. As the rushing of the contrary currents, describe the whirlpoolsin the waters of the deep; so do the contact and conflict of theelementary atoms, produce the consolidation and dissolution of worlds,which are no acts of creation.

6. The creation is everywhere but a coagulation, of the drizzling dropsof the gelid intellect; who can therefore count the countless wateryparticles, that are incessantly oozing out of it, and are condensed inthe forms of worldly spherules.

7. As the part is not different in its substance, from that of thewhole; so the creation is not otherwise than its creator,[Pg 1046] except inthe difference of the two terms of devious significations.

8. The causeless and uncausing unity, being the archetype of infinitevariety; these numberless multiplicities are only ectypes of that solemoiety, and neither a duality nor pluralities whatever; nor do thesecopies and counterparts, ever rise or fall apart from their originalprototype (but the both are showing the same).

9. It is that intelligence which shows the intelligibles in itself; itproduces these unproduced productions to view, as the sun light exposesthe visibles to light.

10. It is from my inappetency of all things in existence, that I haveaccomplished that perfection, and acquired that prosperity for myself,which is termed insouciance or the nirvána extinction.

11. It is not by our understanding this bliss, nor can we have anyknowledge of it by our percipience; neither is there any knowledgewhereby we may know, the unknown one which is alone to be known. (Hereis a pun and play of the word bódha or knowledge, which is explained inthe gloss to a great length).

12. It is a knowledge that rises of itself, and a waking of the soulresembling its somnolence; it throws a light as that of the midday sunin the inmost soul, and is neither confined in or absent from any placeor time. (i.e. The full blaze of spiritual light, fills the soulat all times and places or as Pope says: It wraps my soul, and absorbsme quite).

13. It is after the subsidence of all desire within, and desistancefrom all actions without accompanied with one’s desistance from allwishes, that this stillness attends upon the enlightened soul.

14. The saint of awakened understanding, that is confined in himself,and absorbed in his meditation; is neither inclined to the prurience ofany thing, nor to the avoidance of aught whatever. (“Have what I have,and dare not leave, enamoured of the present day.” Young).

15. In this state of rapture, the mind of the saint, though[Pg 1047] in fullpossession of its mental faculties; remains yet as fixed and inactive,and unmindful of all worldly things and bodily actions; as a burningtaper, that consumes itself while illumes others, without anyshaking or motion of its own. (i.e. Thoughtful and inactive).

16. The soul becomes as Viswarúpa or incorporated with the world, inits condition of thoughtfulness, when it is called the Viswátma orthe mundane soul; or else it is said to be situated in the state ofthe immense void of Brahma, when it is devoid of and unoccupied withits thoughts. Hence creation and its cessation, both appertain to theDivine Intellect, in its states of activity or thoughtfulness and itswants or stupor.

17. He who is enrapt in divine ecstasy, and settled in his belief ofthe identity of the Deity with his excogitation of him, remains closelyconfined in himself with his rapture and secure from distraction of hismind (and perturbation of worldly thoughts).

18. He who relies only in the cogitation of his self, regardlessof all other things in the world; comes to find the reality of hisself-cognition alone, and else beside, to be as nil as emptyair. (Literally: as empty air is not distinct from vacuity).

19. The man of enlarged understanding, has an unbounded store ofknowledge in himself; but this ultimately ends in the knowledge of theunspeakable one. (The end of all knowledge is the knowledge of God).

20. It is therefore in our quietism, that we feel the very best entityof our consciousness, to be either dormant or extinct; and this stateof tranquility of the mind, is unutterable in words.

21. That which is the acme of all knowledge, is the abstract andabstruse knowledge of all as the true One; hence the world is a realentity, in as much as it abides in the eternal One (in its abstractlight).

22. The felicity of Nirvána—ecstasy, with the utter extinction ofall desire, and the consciousness of a cool and calm composure ofone’s self, is the summum bonum or highest state of bliss andperfection; that is aimed at to be attained even by the gods Brahmá,Vishnu and Siva.

[Pg 1048]

23. All things (desirable to the soul), are always present with it,in all places and at all times; they are ever accompanied with ourconcepts of them in the intellect, which is the only pure entity thatis ever in existence, and is never dissolved. (The thought survives thething it represents).

24. Too hot is the busy bustle of the world, and very cooling is thebliss of Nirvána insensibility; it is therefore far better to have thecold heartedness of insouciance, than the heart burning heat ofworldliness.

25. As an artist conceives in himself, the contrivance of a statuesculptured in relief, in the slab of his mind; so the Great Brahma seesthis universe inscribed in him, in rilievo and not carved out of him.

26. Just as the spacious ocean looks upon the waves, heaving upon thesurface of its waters; so doth the great Brahma see the myriads ofworlds, rolling about in the midst of its intellect.

27. But ignorant people of dull understandings, behold those fixedinseparable spectacles, in the light of separate spectres, appearing invarious shapes and forms, in the spheres of their intellect.

28. In whatever manner doth any body conceive anything in his mind, heverily thinks and beholds it in the same light, by his habitual mode ofthinking the same as such.

29. As a man waking from his sleep, finds no truth in aught he saw inhis dream; whether it be the death or presence or absence of a friendor other; so the enlightened soul sees no reality in the Life or death,of any living being seen in this visible world because none lives byhimself, nor dies or departs away of himself, but all are deputed alikein the tablet of the eternal mind.

30. The thought and conviction of this truth in the mind, that whateverappears to pass under and away from our sight, is the fixed inert andquiescent réchauffé of its divine original, is sure and enoughto forfend the mind, from its falling into the error of taking the copyfor its mould.

[Pg 1049]

31. This lesson will certainly tend to lessen the enjoyments of yourbody, that none of them will ever serve to prevent its fall to naught;as also to protect you from the error of accounting for the reality ofthese numberless, that are at best but passing sights in your dream.

32. Inappetency of earthly enjoyments increases our wisdom, as wisdomserves to diminish our worldly desires, thus they mutually serve toaugment one another, as the open air and sunshine.

33. The knowledge which tends to create your aversion to riches, andto your family and friends, is of course averse to your ignorance anddullness; and the one being acquired and accomplished by you, serves toput an end to your ignorance at once.

34. That is the true wisdom of wise men, which is unalloyed by avarice,and that is the true learning of the learned, which is not vitiated byany yearning.

35. But neither wisdom and inappetency, singly and simply, nor theircombined and augmented states, are of no good unless they have attainedtheir perfection, but prove as vain as the blaze of a sacrificial firein a picture, which has not the power of consuming the oblation offeredupon it.

36. The perfection of wisdom and inappetence, is a treasure whichis termed liberation also; because any body who has reached to, andremains in that state of infinite bliss, is freed from all the bonds ofcare.

37. In this state of our emancipation, we see the past and present,and all our sights and doings in them as present before us; and findourselves situated, in a state of even calm and tranquility, of whichthere is no end nor any breach whatever.

38. The self-contented man who finds all his happiness in himself,is ever cool and calm and tranquil in his soul, and is devoid of alldesire and selfishness in his mind. He relies in his cool heartedindifference and apathy to all worldly objects, and sees only a clearvoid stretched before him.

39. We scarcely find one man, among a hundred thousand human beings,who is strong enough and has the bravery, to[Pg 1050] break down the trammelsof his earthly desires, as the lion alone breaks of the iron bars ofhis prison house. (The adamantine chain of avarice, binds us all aliketo this nether earth).

40. It is the inward light of the clear understanding, that dispels themist of desires that overcasts the cupidinous mind; and melts down theincrassated avarice, as the broad sunshine dissolves the thickened icein autumn.

41. It is the want of desire that is the knowledge of the knowable,(or what is best and most worthy of being known), and stands aboveall things that are desirable or worth our desiring; it bears itsresemblance to the breath of air, without any external action of it.(i.e. The man that is without any desire of his, lives tobreathe his vital breath only, without doing any external action ofhis; but breathes as the current mind, to no purpose whatsoever).

42. He sits quiet and firm in himself, with his thoughts fixed inascertaining the truths and errors of the world; and looks all othersin the light of himself, without having to do with or desire of them.

43. He sits reclined in the immensity of Brahma, with his enlightenedview of the visibles as subsisting in Him; he remains indifferent toall things, and devoid of his desire for anything, and sits quiet inthe quiescence of his liberation; which is styled as moksha bythe wise.

Argument:—Vasishtha’s commendation of Ráma’s knowledge, and hisfurther questions for his trial and Ráma’s replies.

Vasishtha said:—Bravo Ráma! that you are awakened to light andenlightened in your understanding; and the words you have spoken, arecalculated to destroy the darkness of ignorant minds, and rejoice thehearts of wise.

2. These phenomenals that ever appear so very bright to our sight,lose their gloss at our want of desire and disregard of them; it isthe knowledge of this truth, that is attended with our peace andtranquility, and our liberation and inexcitability.

3. All these imaginary sights vanish from our view, at the suppressionof our imagination of them; just as the want of ventilation in thewinds, reduces them to the level of the one common, and calm still air.

4. The enlightened man remaining unmoved as a stone, or moving quietlyin his conduct in life (i.e. who is ever unruffled in hisdisposition), is verily said to have his clear liberation.

5. Look at yogis like ourselves, O Ráma, that having attained thisstate of liberation, have been cleansed from all our iniquities; andare now set at quiet rest, even in the conduct of our worldly affairs.

6. Know the great gods Brahmá, Vishnu and others, to have been situatedin this state of quiet and freedom, that they are remaining as pureintelligences, even while discharging the offices of their godship.

7. Do you, O Ráma, attain the enlightenment of holy sages, and remainas still as a stone like ourselves.

8. Ráma replied:—I see this world as a formless void, situated inthe infinite vacuity of Brahma; it is an uncreated and unsubstantialnihility, and with all its visibility, it is an invisible nothing.

[Pg 1052]

9. It is as the appearance of water in the mirage, and as a whirlpoolin the ocean; its glare is as glitter <of> gold in the dust, and ofsands in the sandy shores of seas in sunshine.

10. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! if you have become so enlightened andintelligent, then I will tell you more for the edification of yourunderstanding; and put some questions for your answer to them, in orderto remove my doubts regarding them.

11. Tell me, how can the world be a nullity, when it shines so verybrightly all about and above our heads; and how can all these things,which are so resplendent to sight, and always perceptible to oursenses.

12. Ráma replied:—The world was never created in the beginning, norwas anything ever produced at any time, it is therefore as nil as theoffspring of an unprolific woman and a creation of our imagination only.

13. It is true that there is no result without its cause, or thatnothing comes from nothing, but can be the cause of the world when itis a nullity, and a production of our error only.

14. The immutable and everlasting deity, cannot be the creator, withoutchanging itself to a finite form; how can therefore be there a cause ofthis frail and finite form?

15. It is the unknown and nameless Brahma, that shows himself as thecause of the world, which having proceeded from him is his very self,nor does the word world bear any other sense at all (nor it can be madeto bear any other sense).

16. The first intelligence named as the God Brahmá, rises from andabides for a little while, that unknown and nameless category of theuniversal spirit, as the conscious soul and having a spiritual body.(This is called the jívátmá or the living soul with a personalbody of it).

17. It then comes to see on a sudden, the luminaries of the sun andmoon and the heavenly hosts, rising in the infinity of the Divine Mind,and thinks a small moment as a long year as its reverie of a dream.(The Morning and evening of the creation of Brahmá, occupying many ayear of mortals).

18. It then perceived the ideas of space and time, together[Pg 1053] with thoseof their divisions and motions also; and the whole universe appearingto its sight, in the vast immensity of vacuity: (of the Divine Mind).

19. Upon the completion of the false world in this manner, its falsecontriver the soi-disant Brahmá, was employed in wandering allover the world as his creation.

20. So the living soul of every body, being deluded by its mistakenconception of the world as a positive reality, traverses up and downand all about it, in its repeated wanderings amidst its false utopia.

21. And though the events of life, takes place according to the wishesof the soul; yet these are mere accidents of chance; and it is amistake to think them as permanent result of fixed laws.

22. Because it is as wrong to suppose the substantiality of the world,and the permanency of the events; as to grant the birth of a childborn of a barren woman, and the feeding of it with the powder of thepulverized air.

23. Nothing can be positively affirmed or denied, regarding theexistence of the world; except that whatever it is, it is no other thanthe diffusion of the all pervasive spirit of the Eternal one.

24. The world is as clear as the transparent atmosphere, and as solidas the density of a rock; it is as mute and still as a stone, and quiteindestructible in its nature.

25. The world is originally ideal, from the ideas of the eternal mind;and then it is spiritual, from the pervasion of the all pervadingspirit of Virát; it is thus a mere void, appearing as a solid body tous.

26. Thus Brahma being the great vacuum and its fulness, where is anyother thing as the world in it, the whole is a dead calm as quietus,and a void devoid of its beginning and end (i.e. a round sphere).

27. As the waves have been ever heaving and diving, in the bosom ofthe waters of the deep; and as the waves are not distinct from thosewaters, so the worlds rolling in the breast of[Pg 1054] the vacuous Brahma, areno other than the selfsame essence of Brahma himself.

28. The few that are versed in their superior or esoteric, as well asin the inferior or exoteric knowledge; live as long as they live andthen dive at last in this Supreme, as drops of water mix into the sea.

29. The exoteric (or phenomenal) world, abides in the esoteric (orthe noumenal) Brahma; and is of the same transcendent nature as theDivine Mind; for it is never possible for the gross, changeful andtransitional nature, to subsist in the pure, unchanged and quiet stateof the deity.

30. For who that knows the nature of dream as false, and that of mirageas a fallacy can ever believe them as realities; so any one that knowsthe visible Nature to be of the nature of Brahma, can ever take it fordull and gross material substance. (Nature being one with its God, isequally of a spiritual nature).

31. The enlightened sage, that has the esoteric knowledge of the world,and reflects it in its spiritual sense; cannot be misled to view it inits gross (material) light, as the holy man that tastes ambrosia, isnever inclined to drink the impure liquor of wine.

32. He who remains in his Nirvána meditation, by reverting hisview from the sight of the visibles, to the excogitation of his self;and represses his mind from the thoughts of thinkables, he is verilyseated in the tranquility of Supreme spirit.

33. Vasishtha said:—If the visible creation is situated inBrahma—their cause and origin, as the germ or sprout of a plantis seated in its producing seed; how then can you ignore thesubstantiality or distinction of either of them from their originatingsource the seed or God (who is said in the sruti, as the seed of thearbor of the world,—sansáramahirúpavíja &c.).

34. Ráma replied:—The germ does seem to be seated or situated in theseed (as a separate or different substance); but as it is producedfrom the essence of the seed, it appears to be the same substance withitself. (Were it not so, the germ would become another plant than thatof the seed).

[Pg 1055]

35. If the world as it appears to us is inherent in Brahma, then itmust be of the same essence and nature as Brahma; and these beingeternal and imperishable in Brahma, needs have the world to be so also(and not of the seed and sprout, or the begetter and begotten).

36. We have neither seen nor ever heard, that any finite, formalor perishable, has ever proceeded from an infinite, formless andimperishable cause (therefore this world is not as it appears to us).

37. It is impossible for a formless thing, to remain in any form orother whatsoever; as it is never possible for an atom, to contain amountain in its bosom.

38. It is the voice of an idiot only who says, that the stupendousworld with its gigantic form, abides in the formless abyss of Brahma;as bright gems are contained in the hollow of a box or basket. (Thebasket has a base to support any thing, whereas the vacuity of Brahmahas no basis at all).

39. It does not befit any body to say that, the transcendence andtranquility of God, supports the material and moving world upon it; northat a corporeal body (the corpus mundi), is an imperishable thing (asthe divine spirit).

40. Our perception of the world having a form, is no proof of itsreality; because there is no truth whatever in the many curious forms,that present themselves before us in our dreams. (This is a refutationof the Buddhists’ reliableness in perception).

41. It is an unprecedented dream, that presents us the sight of theworld, of which we had no innate or preconceived idea in us; while ourusual dreams are commonly known, to be the reproduced representations,of our former impressions and perceptions, and the results of our pastremembrances of things &c.

42. It is not a day dream as some would have it to be, because thenight dreams disappear in the day time; but how does a dreamer of hisown funeral at night, come to see himself alive upon his waking in theday? (This continuous sight of the world day by day, is not comparableto a transient dream[Pg 1056] by day or night, but a permanent one in theperson of the Great God himself).

43. Others again maintain that, no bodiless things can appear in ourdream, since we dream of certain bodies only; but this tenet has notruth in it, since we often dream of, as well as see the apparitions ofbodiless ghosts both by day and night.

44. Therefore the world is not as false as a dream, but an impressionsettled like a dream in our very conscious soul; it is the formlessdeity, that manifests itself in the various forms of this world, to ourunderstandings.

45. As our intellect remains alone and in itself, in the forms andother things, appearing as dreams unto us in our sleep; so doth Brahmaremain solely in himself in the form of the world we see: for God beingwholly free and apart from all, can not have any accompaniment with him.

46. There is nothing that is either coexistent or inexistent in him(that is what can be either affirmed or denied of him); because we haveno concept or conception of him ourselves, nor do we <have> any notionor idea we are to form of him.

47. What is this nameless thing, that we can not know in ourunderstanding; it is known in our consciousness (i.e. we areconscious of it), but it is in esse or non-esse, we knownothing of (this world).

48. It is an inexistence appearing as existent, as also an existenceseeming to be unexistent; all things are quite manifest in it at alltimes and in all forms (but how and whence they are is quite unknown).

49. It is the development of Brahma in Brahma, as the sky is evolved invacuity; for nothing can be found to fill the vacuum of Brahma, exceptBrahma himself (or his own essence).

50. There I, my seeing and my sight of the world, is all mere fallacy;it is the calm and quiet extension of the Divine intellect only, thatfills the infinite vacuity of his own spirit, and naught beside.

51. As the ærial castle of our imagination, has no building nor realityin it; so is this world but a calm and quiet vacuity, and unfailingvacant ideality.

[Pg 1057]

52. It is a boundless space full with the essence of the Supremespirit, it is without its beginning and end, wholly inscrutable in itsnature, and quite calm and quiet in its aspect.

53. I have known my own state also, to be without its birth and death,and as calm and quiet, as that of the unborn and immortal Brahmahimself; and I have come to know myself (i.e. my soul) also, tobe as formless and undefinable, as the Supreme soul or spirit.

54. I have now given expression, to all that I find to be impressed inmy consciousness; just as whatever is contained in the seed, the samecomes to sprout forth out of it.

55. I know only the knowledge that I bear in my consciousness, andnothing about the unity or duality (of the creation and creator);because the question of unity and duality rises only from imagination(of the one or other).

56. All these knowing and living liberated men, that have beenliberated from the burthen of life by their knowledge of truth; aresitting silent here, and devoid of all their earthly cares, like theempty air in the infinite vacuity.

57. All their efforts of mixing with the busy bustle of the world,are here at an end; and they are sitting here as quiet and silent asyon mute and motionless picture on the wall, medalling on the brightregions in their minds.

58. They are as still as the statues engraven in a rock, or as peopledescribed in fancy tales, to dwell in the ærial city built by Sambarain air (i.e. as the inhabitants dwelling in the Elysian ofPlato, or in the utopia of Sir Thomas Moore); or as the airy figures inour dream.

59. This world is verily a phantom appearing in our dream of thecreation; it is a structure without its base, and a figure intangibleto our touch. Where then is its reality? (Its tangibleness is adeception of our sense).

60. The world appears as a positive reality to the blinded ignorant,but it <is> found to be a negative nullity by the keen-sighted sage;who sees it in the light of Brahma and a manifestation of himself,and as still as the calm air, reposing in the quiet vacuity of thattranscendent spirit.

[Pg 1058]

61. All these existences, with their moving and unmoving beings, andourselves also, are mere void and vacant nullities, in the knowledge ofthe discerning and philosophic mind.

62. I am void and so are you too, and the world beside but mere blanks;the intellect is a void also, and by having all several voids initself, it forms the immense intellectual vacuum, which is the soleobject of our adoration (being as infinite and eternal, as well as allpervading and containing all as the supreme spirit).

63. Being thus seated with my knowledge of the infinite vacuity ofBrahma, I take thee also, O thou best of biped beings, as indistinctfrom the knowable One, who is one and same with the all comprehendingvacuum, and so make my obeisance to thee.

64. It is from the all comprehensiveness (i.e. omniscience) ofthe vacuous intellect, that this world rises and sets in it by turns;it is as clear as the transparent air, and has no other cause of it butthe undulation of the same.

65. This hypostasis of Brahma is beyond all other existences, andabove the reach of all sástras, it is by attaining to this state oftranscendentalism, that one becomes as pure and superfine as empty air.

66. There is nothing as myself, my feet and hands, or this pot or aughtelse that I bear, as any material existence; all is air and empty andinane as air, and knowing this, let us turn ourselves to our airyintellects only. (i.e. I think ourselves as intellectual andspiritual beings only, in utter disregard of our bodies and earthlythings).

67. You have shewn me sir, the nullity of the world and the vanity ofall worldly things; and the truth of this doctrine is evident in thelight of our spiritual knowledge, in defiance of the sophistry of ouropponents.

68. The sophist that discomfits the silent sage with his sophistry, cannever expect to see the light of spiritual knowledge to gleam upon him(spirituality is got by silent meditation and not by wrangling).

69. The Being that is beyond our perception and conception,[Pg 1059] andwithout any designation or indication; can be only known in ourconsciousness of him, and not by any kind of reasoning or argumentation.

70. The Being that is without any attribute, or sight or symbol of hisnature, is purely vacuous and entirely inconceivable by us, save bymeans of our spiritual light of him.

Argument:—Illustration of the efficacy of knowledge derived fromBooks and Preceptors. In the story of the Wood-cutter, and hisobtaining a precious Gem.

Válmíki relates:—After the lotus-eyed Ráma, had said these words, hefell into a trance and remained silent, with his mind reposing in thestate of supreme bliss. (The ecstatic state of rapture and transport ofthe devout).

2. He felt himself supremely blest at his repose in the Supreme spirit,and then awaking after a while from his holy trance, he wistfully askedhis sagely preceptor, saying:—

3. Ráma said:—O Venerable sir, that art the dispeller of my doubts, asthe clear autumn is the scatterer of dark clouds; that the doubt whichhad so long rankled in my breast, has at last quite set at rest.

4. I find this knowledge of mine to be the best and greatest of all,and capable of saving me from the boisterous ocean of this world; ittranscends all other doctrines, which are mere verbiology to ensnarethe heedless minds of men.

5. If all this is certainly the very Brahma, and our consciousness ofhim; then O Venerable sir, he must be unspeakable and inexpressible inwords, even by the most learned and wisest of men.

6. Remaining thus in the meditation of the knowable One, and withoutany desire in our minds of any earthly good; we are enabled to attainthe consciousness of our highest bliss (The Turíya state), which isunattainable by learning and unutterable in words. (The divine state isonly known <to> one’s self, but never to be spoken or expressed).

7. How can this certain and invariable state of felicity, be obtainedfrom the dogmas of the sástras; which are at variance with each other,and are employed in the enumeration of[Pg 1061] their several categories. (Theever varying sástras cannot give us any knowledge of this invariablefelicity).

8. We can gain no true knowledge from the tenets of the differentsástras, that are <at> best but contradictory of one another; it istherefore in vain to expect any benefit from them, that are based uponmere theories of our pretended leaders.

9. Tell me therefore, O Venerable sir, whether it is of any good to us,to learn the doctrines of the sástras or attend to the teaching of ourpreceptors (when our true knowledge is derived from within ourselves:i.e. from our intuition, self-consciousness and our personalexperiences).

10. Vasishtha replied:—So it is, O mighty armed Ráma, the sástrasare not the means to divine knowledge; those being profuse in wordytorrents, and this beyond the reach of words.

11. Yet hear me to tell you, O thou best of Raghu’s race, how thedictates of the sástras and the lectures of your preceptors, are ofsome avail towards the improvement of your understanding.

12. There lived in a certain place some wood-cutters, who had been everunfortunate and miserable in this lives (or who were miserably poorall their lives). They pined and faded away in their poverty, like thewithering trees in summer heat.

13. Excessive poverty made them cover themselves with patched up rags,and they were as emaciated in their despair as the fading lotus flowersfor want of their natal water.

14. Being parched by famine, and despairing of their lives; they onlythought of the means of filling their bellies.

15. In this state of their distress and despondence, one thoughtgleamed in their minds; and it was to carry the woods day by day to thetown, and to live upon the profits of their sale as fuel.

16. Thus determined they went to the forest to fell down the woods,because any plan that is hit upon in distress, is best to be availedof, for the preservation of life.

17. Thus they continued daily to go to the forest to fell the[Pg 1062] woods,and fetch them to the town for sale; and to fill their bellies andsupport their bodies with the sale proceeds thereof.

18. It happened that the skirts of the forest whither they went, werefull of woods with hordes of treasures, consisting of gold and preciousgems, lying hidden under the trees, and also exposed to view.

19. It then turned out that some of the log-bearers, happened by theirgood luck to espy the brilliant gems, which they took with them totheir homes from the forest.

20. Some saw the valuable sandalwood trees, and others beheld beautifulflowers in some place; some found fruit trees somewhere, all which theytook and sold for their food and livelihood.

21. Some men of dull understanding, slighted all these goods; and keptcollecting the blocks of wood, which they bore to the way side of theforest, and there sold at trifling prices. (Nothing is valued at homeunless it is taken to a distance).

22. Among all these wood men, who were employed in common in collectionof woods, some of them happened by their good luck, to find someprecious gems there, which set them at ease for every care.

23. Thus amongst all of these that had been toiling and moiling in thesame field of labour; now it happened to obtain their desired boon thePhilosopher’s gem. (That converts all things to gold, and is desired byall but found by few).

24. Now they having obtained the desirable gem, which bestowed uponthem all the blessings of affluence and prosperity; they becamepreeminently happy with their fortune, and remained quite content inthe very woods.

25. So the seekers and sellers of worthless wooden blocks, beinggainers of the all bounteous gem of their heart’s desire (Chintámani);remained happily with themselves, as the gods dwelling together inharmony in the Elysian field.

26. Thus the Kir woodmen, having obtained their best gains of whatforms the pith and gist of every good in the main, remained in quietand quite content in themselves, and[Pg 1063] passed their days without anyfear or grief, in the enjoyment of their everlasting equanimity andfelicity.

27. This world is compared to the wilderness, and all its busy peopleare as the day-labouring Kiri foresters, daily toiling and moiling intheir hard work, for their help of daily bread. Some amongst them arehappy to find the precious treasure of true knowledge, which gives themthe real bliss of life and lasting peace of mind.

Argument:—Study of the sástras whether for temporal ends orultimate bliss tends mainly to the edification of the Mind.

Ráma said:—Do thou, O greatest of sages, deign to give me the besttreasures of knowledge, as the wood-cutter obtained their precioustreasures of the Philosopher’s stones, and whereby I may attain to thefull, perfect and indubitable knowledge of all things.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The woodmen that I have mentioned bear allusionto all mankind in general and their great poverty that I havedescribed, refers to the extreme ignorance of men which is the cause ofall their woe (three fold miseries—tritapas of the body, mindand soul, or of this world and the next. Gloss).

3. The great forest which is said to be the place of their residence,is the vast wilderness of knowledge, which the human kind have totraverse under the guidance of their preceptors and the sástras; andtheir labour in felling and selling the wood for their daily food, isthe hard struggle of human kind in their life time for their simplefare and supportance.

4. The unavaricious men that are unemployed in business, and areyet desirous of the enjoyments of life; are the persons that devotethemselves to the acquisition of learning. (Such is the literary bodyof students and scholars).

5. And those people also, who pursue their callings for the provisionsof life, and are dependents <on> others for their supportance; becomesuccessful in the acquirement of learning in their minds, by theirpractice of the precepts and studious habits.

6. As the wood-cutters, who sought for the worthless wood at first,get the very valuable gems at last; so men prosecuting their studiesfor a paltry maintenance and self supportance,[Pg 1065] succeed to gain divineknowledge at the end. (Secular knowledge often leads to the spiritual).

7. There are some sceptics who say by way of derision, what is the goodto be derived from poring upon books? but these have been found to haveturned to true believers at last. (Those who came to deride, returnedbelievers at the end and confessed the truth).

8. Worldly men devoted to the objects of their fruition in life, andacquainted with the objects of mental and spiritual truths; comingdistrustfully to listen to the doctrines of the sástras, have becomefully convinced of their truths at last.

9. Men are led away to many ways by the different tenets of thesástras, and by direction of their various desires and inclinations;but they come to meet at last in the same path of glory, as the gemmingforest of the woodmen.

10. He who is not inclined to the injury of others, but goes on in hisown beaten course; is called the upright man, and it is his judgementwhich is sought and followed by every one.

11. But men ignorant of truth, are dubious of the result of righteousconduct, in earning their livelihood; and are doubtful also of thebenefit, which is derived from the study of the sástras. (Hence theyfall to misconduct and neglect their studies also, in order to earntheir bread by foul means).

12. But men persisting in their righteousness, gain both theirlivelihood and liberation at once; as the honest woodmen obtained theirwood as well as the gems together, and in the same place.

13. Among these some succeeded to get the sandal woods, and some togain the precious gems, while others met with some common metals, and agreat number of them, found the wood of the forest trees only. (So areour lots differently cast among different individuals, according to ourrespective deserts).

14. Some of us gain the objects of our desire, and some acquire richesor deeds of virtue and merit; others obtain their liberation; andattain their proficiency in the sástras.

15. Know, O Ráma, that the sástras deal only with instructions for theacquirement of the triple blessings of our[Pg 1066] livelihood, riches andvirtue; but they give no direction for our knowing the supreme One,who is inexpressible in words. (Because no word nor thought can everapproach to the unknowable One).

16. The words and their significations (which are used in the sástras),serve only to express the intelligible objects which are signified bythem, as the seasons denote the seasonal fruits and flowers which theybear; but the knowledge of the supreme being, is derived from one’sintuition, and is felt in our consciousness alone.

17. Divine knowledge is said in the sástras, to transcend the knowledgeof all other things; and the transparency of the Divine person,surpasses the brightness of all objects, as the beauty of the femalebody excels the lustre of the brightest gems. (The personal grace offemales, transcends the beauty of all their decorations).

18. The transcendental knowledge of the Deity, is not to be derivedfrom the doctrine of the sástras, nor from the teachings of ourpreceptors; it cannot be had by means of our gifts and charities; norby divine service and religious observances, can we ever know theunknowable One.

19. These and other acts and rites, are falsely said to be the causesof divine knowledge, which can never be attained by them; now attendto me, O Ráma, and I will tell you the way to your rest in the Supremesoul.

20. The study of the sástras, serves of course to purify the mindfrom vulgar errors and prejudices; but <it> is the want of desire oraversion to worldly enjoyments, that makes the mind look within itself,wherein it sees clearly the image of God shining in it.

21. This sástra stablishes right understanding in lieu of ignorance,and this right reasoning serves to drive away all gross errors from themind at once.

22. The sástra or learning serves principally to cleanse the mirror ofthe mind, from its dross of errors at first, and then it purifies theperson of its possessor, by the force of its doctrines.[Pg 1067] (So the sástrahas the power of purifying both the body and mind of the learned man).

23. As the rising sun casts his image spontaneously, on the dark bosomof the ocean; so doth the luminary of sástra or learning, shed of itsown accord the bright light of truth, in the minds of ignorant.

24. As the sun enlightens all objects, by his presence before them;so doth the light of learning illume the dark understandings of theilliterate, by its benign appearance therein.

25. In this manner there is an intimate relation, between the learningderived from the sástra, and the mind of the man that is desirous ofhis liberation; in as much as the sástra alone affords the knowledge ofthe otherwise unknowable One to our minds.

26. As the sight of the sun and the ocean, shows us the blue waters ofthe one, turning to a bright expanse by the rays of the other; so theinstance of the sástra and its doctrines, shows the enlightenment ofhuman intellect by means of the other.

27. As boys in their play with pebbles, rub them against one anotherin the water, and have their hands cleansed of dirt by abrasion ofthe stones; so the discussion of the sástras, clears the minds of thedisputants of their errors, by refutation of discordant opinions.

28. So also do learned men, by their confutation of repugnantdoctrines, clear their minds of doubtful questions; and becomeperfected in forming right principles, and ascertaining the truth fromfalsehood.

29. The sástras distil with sweetness of the holy texts, and infusethe sweet balm of true knowledge into the mind; they are as profuse ofdulcitude, as the sugarcane exudes with its saccharine juice, which isso delectable to taste.

30. As the rays of sunlight falling on the walls of houses, becomeperceptible to us, by means of our visual organs; so the light ofspiritual knowledge, pierces into the souls of men, by means of ourhearing the sástras through the medium of our ears.

[Pg 1068]

31. Learning acquired for the acquisition of the triple good of thisworld, namely virtue, wealth and the objects of our desire; is nolearning at all without the knowledge of the sástras leading to ourliberation. Much learning both in theory and practice, is worth nothingwithout the salvation of our souls.

32. That is the best learning, which gives us the knowledge of truth;and that is true knowledge, which causes our equanimity in all statesof our being; and that is called perfect equanimity, which produces ourhypnotism in waking (i.e. whereby we may sleep in insensibilityover the waking and tumultuous world).

33. Thus are all these blessings obtained from learning of the sástras,therefore let every one devote himself to the study of the sástras withall diligence.

34. Hence know, O Ráma! that it is the study of the sástras, andmeditation of their recondite meanings; together with one’s attendanceon his preceptor, and audience of his lectures and counsels, as wellby his equanimity, and observance of his vows and discipline, that hecan attain his supreme bliss, in the everlasting God, who is beyond allworldly things, and is the supreme lord God of all.

Argument:—Sama-darsana or equanimity agreeing with stoicfortitude under all the various shades of its meaning,elaborately treated here.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear me Ráma, to tell you again for theperfection of your understanding (after what I have said already inpraise of the virtue of equanimity); because the repetition of alesson, serves to impress it the more in the memory of inattentivepersons.

2. Ráma! I have told you before about the existence of the world, afterI had related to you in length regarding its creation or production;whereby you have come to know, that both the appearance and subsistenceof the world (i.e. its coming to and being in existence), aremere fallacies of our understanding.

3. I have next explained to you also, in the Upasama-Prakarana or mylecture on Insouciance, of the necessity of observing and maintaininga total indifference in regard to the whole creation (which is hererepeated as leading to our nirvána or lukewarmness in this ourliving state).

4. In my discourse on indifference, I have described to you thedifferent stages of nonchalance; the attainment of the highest pitchof which, will conduce ultimately to your obtaining the blissfulnessof the nirvána numbness, which is treated of in this book onanæsthesia. (From the stage of Upasama or allaying of allexcitements to that of upasánti or absence of excitability,there are some intermediate states spoken of before).

5. You shall have here to hear (or learn) from me, regarding the mannerin which the learned are to conduct themselves in this phenomenalworld, after they have learnt and obtained, whatever there is to beknown and obtainable herein (i.e. after their attainment ofdivine knowledge and wisdom).

[Pg 1070]

6. A man having received his birth in this world, should habituatehimself from his boyhood, to view the phenomenals as they are ofthemselves, and without any concern with himself; in order to have hissecurity and happiness apart from all others. (i.e. Constrainyourself to yourself, and without any concern of yours with any).

7. Regard all in the one and same light with yourself, and observea universal benevolence towards all beings, and then placing yourreliance in your own equanimity, conduct yourself safely and securelyevery where.

8. Know the plan of your even-mindedness, to be productive of thefruits of purest and most delicious taste; and bearing the blossoms ofunbounded prosperity, and the flowers of our unfading good fortune.

9. Meekness of disposition, yields the fruit of universal benevolence,and makes the prosperity of the whole world wait at its service.(Blessed are the meek; for they shall enjoy all the blessing &c.).

10. Neither the possession of a kingdom on earth, nor the enjoymentof the best beauties herein; can yield that undecaying and essentialhappiness, which is derived from the equanimity of the meek.

11. The utmost limit of a cool disposition, and the entire want of allanxious cares, are the two antidotes that set at naught the fervour andvapours of sorrow from the human mind.

12. It is very rare to meet a person, amidst the spheres of all theseworlds; who is fraught with the ambrosia of cool insouciance, who isfriendly to his enemies and whose enemies are his friends, and wholooks on all alike as he does to himself.

13. The mind of the enlightened man, shines as brightly as the luminousmoon; and dazzles with drops of ambrosial dews; the sages all lived todrink the cooling draught of immortality, as you learn from the livesof the royal sage Janaka and others of immortal fame.

14. The man practising his demureness, has his faults[Pg 1071] described as hisqualities, his sorrows seem as his pleasure (i.e. he rejoices inhis misery); and his death is eternal life unto him.

15. Sámyam or stoicism is ever accompanied, with a good grace, good lotand placidness; all of which are constant attendants on the stoic sage,as faithful wives fondly cling to the sides of their beloved husbands.

16. Equanimity is the perpetual prosperity of the soul, and not thetransitory hilarity of the mind; therefore there is no treasure(i.e. spiritual bliss) whatsoever, which is a stranger to themeekness of spirit.

17. He that is honest in all his dealings, and steady in his ownprofessions; and liberal in his minds (i.e. taking no heed ofthe faults of others); are men as valuable as richest gems, and aredeemed and desired by all as gods upon earth. (Because men with godlyvirtues, are deemed and deified as gods).

18. The even minded man, that is righteous and upright in all hisdoings and dealings, who is magnanimous in his soul and benevolentin his mind; such a man is neither burnt by fire, nor ever soiled orsullied by water (i.e. nothing can alter the even tenor of hismind and the smoothness of his conduct).

19. Who can foil that man that does what is right, and observes thingsin their true light; who is not susceptible of joy or grief (but goeson in the even course of his life).

20. The righteous and unflinching man, is relied upon and esteemedby all his friends and enemies also; he is honoured by his king andmaster, and loved by all wisem*n with whom he has any dealing.

21. The wise and even sighted men are of indifferent minds, and donot try to flee from evil, nor rejoice to receive any good; they arecontent with whatever comes to pass upon them, as aught of good or bad,they care for naught.

22. These meek minded men are unmindful of any good or desirable thing,which they may happen either to lose or leave from them; because theyhave to resort to the happy state of their equanimity (Samatá or stoicsameness); of which no calamity or chance can deprive them.

[Pg 1072]

23. Men enjoying the felicity of equanimity, laugh to scorn at thetribulations of the world; and live uninjured under all the varyingcirc*mstances of life; they are venerated by the gods also, for theinvariable samatá or sameness of their minds, (as those of the godsthemselves).

24. If the (unfavorable) course of events, ever happened to ruffle thecountenance of the forbearing man; yet the inward equanimity of hismind, serves to shed the ambrosial beams, of a placid moon light withinhimself.

25. Whatever the even minded man acts or does for himself, andwhatsoever he says in opprobrium of the misdeeds of others; are alllauded with applause by the majority of men (who like to see thegoodness of others, and to learn of and correct their own faults).

26. Whatever good or evil is known or seen to be done by the impartialobserver, at any time whether past or present; are all approved of bythe public (under the impression of their being done for common good).

27. The man that sees all things in the same light (of indifference),is never displeased or dejected in his countenance at any calamity ordanger, that may betide him at any time.

28. The prince Sibi of old, is recorded in history to have passedpieces of flesh from his own body, and to have fed a hawk therewith,in order to save the life of a captive pigeon from his claws. (Thisis an instance of samadristi or fellow feeling even towards the brutecreation).

29. Again mind the impassible prince, who did not sink into despondenceseeing his beloved consort to be maltreated before his sight. (This isan instance of unimpressible fortitude).

30. Mind also how the king of Trigarta, offered his only sonwho was accomplished and successful in all his desires to the horribleRákshasa; upon his being vanquished by the fiend, at a certainwager he had laid with him.

31. Look at the great king Janaka, how he remained undismayed andundejected, at the burning of his well decorated city of Mithila.

32. Look at the quiet and submissive prince of Sályadesa,[Pg 1073] how hecalmly struck off his head from his body, as if it were the pluckingoff of a lotus leaf or flower from its stem, in order to satisfy thedemand of a deity for the same.

33. The Sauvíra sovereign, who had won the big Airávata elephant ofthe god Indra, in a combat with him; made at last a gift of him to thevery god, with as much unconcern, as one offers a heap of white kunduflowers, or huge heaps of rotten straws upon the sacrificial fire.

34. You have heard how the elephant named kundapa, employed his trunkin sympathy to the Bráhman’s kine, in lifting them from being plungedin the mud; and afterwards devoted his body to the service of theBráhman; wherefore he was taken up to heaven in a celestial car.

35. Let your continued observance of toleration, preserve you from actsof intolerance, which tend at best to the oppression of others; andknow that the spirit of intolerance, is as the goblin of the kadambaforest (whose business was the havoc and depredation of all livingbeings). (i.e. By want of forbearance, you make yourself anenemy to all, and make them as enemies to you).

36. Remember the young and gentle Jadabharata, who by the naturalhebetude of his mind, devoured the firebrand that was thrown into hisalmspot, thinking as a piece of meat, and without any injury to himself(To the meek and tolerant, a furnace of fire, becomes a bed of rosesand flowers).

37. Think of the soberminded kura, who notwithstanding his followingthe profession of a huntsman all his lifetime, was at last translatedto heaven, and placed by the souls of the righteous men after hisdemise.

38. Think of the listlessness and want of concupiscence, in the personof the royal sage Kapardana, who being seated in the garden of paradisein his youth, and beset by celestial damsels all about, felt no desirefor any of them.

39. Know how many princes and Lords of peoples have from theunperturbed apathy of their souls, resigned their realms and societyof mankind, and betaken themselves to[Pg 1074] lonely forests and solitarycaves of Vindhyan Mountains, and there spent their lives in motionlesstorpidity.

40. Think of the great sages and saints, and of divine and devotedadepts, who were adored by even the gods, for the steadiness of theirholy devotion, that have passed away in the observance of their rigidand unruffled vows of an universal indifference.

41. Call to your mind the instances of many a monarch, of ordinary menand of base and mean huntsmen also, that have been honoured in all agesand countries, for their observance of an unimpressed equality in allstates and circ*mstances of their lives.

42. All intelligent men strictly observed the rule, of preservingtheir equanimity in their course through life; whether it be for theachievement of their acts for this life or the next, as also for thesuccess of their understandings of every kind.

43. They neither long for longevity nor desire their death indifficulties; but live as long as they have to live, and act as theyare called to act, without any grudge or murmur.

44. It is the business of the wiseman, to conduct himself in the careerof his life, with a contented mind and placid countenance, both in hisfavourable and unfavourable circ*mstances, as well as in the happinessor misery of himself or others.

Argument:—The liberated man neither gains nor loses anything,by his observance or neglect of the acts of life; and yet heis enjoined to act in conformity with the prescribed rules ofconduct of his society and country.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the wise and liberated man is not freedfrom his subjection to the prescribed rules of conduct, when his soulis beatified with the spiritual light, and his mind is emancipated fromall earthly cares.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The observance and avoidance of all ritual andpious acts, are equal and of no avail to the truly enlightened man;who is indifferent to aught of good or evil to his life (i.e.who is neither solicitous to have anything desirable or leave what isunfavourable to him into the world).

3. There is nothing whatever in this frail world, which may bedesirable to the man of right understanding, not aught of positiveevil, which deserves the avoidance and abhorrence of the wise man.

4. The wise man derives no positive nor permanent good, by his doing ofany act prescribed by custom or usage; nor does he lose anything by hisneglect of them; wherefore it is best for him to stand in the middlecourse, and according to the common rules of society and his country.

5. As long as there is life in the body, it is called a living body andhas its motion also; therefore measure your movements according to thebreathings of your life, nor accelerate nor slacken them beyond theirjust measure (i.e. neither outrun thy breath, nor halt in thycourse).

6. If it is equal to any one, to walk either by this way or that to hisjourney’s end, yet it is much better for him, to walk by the beatenpath, than in a strange and unknown one. (So if it be the same thing tosleep at home or abroad; yet it must be[Pg 1076] safer and more comfortable toevery one to sleep at his own lodge than elsewhere).

7. Whatever actions are done at any time, with meekness and mildnessof disposition, and with a placid frankness of the mind, is ever heldas perfectly pure and contrite in its nature, and never blameable inanywise.

8. We have seen many wise, learned and farsighted men, to haveconducted themselves very honorably and blamelessly in this world,which is full of faults and pitfalls, and beset by traps and snares onevery way.

9. Every one is employed with perfect compliance of his mind, indischarging the duties of the particular sphere in which he is placed;some commencing their career in life, in the state of householdershipand others ascending gradually to state of living liberation (when theyare not exempted from observances of particular duties also).

10. There are many wise and well discerning kings and princes, likeyourself and those sitting in this assembly who are vigilantly employedin the ruling of their respective states, without their attachment ortenacity to them, and without their desire of reaping any fruition fromthem, and by way of the disinterested discharge of duty.

11. There are some that follow the usages, according to the true senseof the Vedas, and take their food from what is left after their dailyofferings to the sacrificial fire. (The early Aryans ever fed uponcooked food, after their first offerings to the gods by their mouth ofthe fire (Agner vaidevanam Mukham)).

12. All men belonging to any of the four classes, are employed in theobservance of their respective rites and duties, and in the acts of theworship of the gods, and in their meditations with different ends andviews (Kamya-karma).

13. Some men of magnanimous minds, and higher aims of future liberationor Moksha, have renounced all their ritual acts karmakánda; and remain inactive as ignorant people, with their spiritualknowledge of the only One.

14. Some are seen to be sitting silent and insensitive, in[Pg 1077] theirposture of deep and unbroken meditation; in dreary and dismal desertsuntraversed by the deer and wild beasts; and in distant and lovelysolitudes, where no trace of a human being was never seen even in adream.

15. Some are found to resort to some sacred place of pilgrimage, andthere to perform their acts for future rewards; while others are knownto recline in some holy hermitage or sacred shrine of saints, and thereto pass their lives in the practice of resignation and indifference andquite unknown to men.

16. Many are seen to leave their own houses, and quit their nativecountries, in order to avoid the enmity and scorn of their fellowcountrymen; and betake themselves to other lands, where they settle asstrangers.

17. There are many who being dissatisfied with their families, forsaketheir company and desert their homes; and rove about as wanderers, fromforest to forest, over hills and dales, and cities and towns, withoutbeing settled any where.

18. How many are there that travel to the great city of Benares, andto the holy city of Allahabad and visit the holy hills and cities, andthe sacred shrine of Badarikásrama (for performance of their acts ofrighteousness there).

19. How many are seen to resort <to> the holy places at Sálagrama, andto the sacred cell in Kalapagráma, how many are on their way to theholy city of Mathura, and the sacred hill at Kalinjar.

20. See the numbers of pilgrims thronging in the woodlands on Mahendramountains, and upon table lands of Gandhamádana hills; see also thepilgrims on the plains of Dardura hills; as those also upon the levellands of Sahya Mountains.

21. See the pilgrims thronging on the craigs of the Vindhyan range,and those dwelling in the hollows of the Malaya Mountains; see themthat dwell in the happy groves of Kailása, and those in the caverns ofRikshavata mounts.

22. In these as well as many other holy places and mounts, you willfind a great many hermits and far-sighted devotees dwelling in peace,and wholly devoted to their holy devotion.

[Pg 1078]

23. Those among them that have become sannyasins, are desertersof their prescribed duties, while they that are Brahmacharins,are strict observers of the law and their sacred rites: but thosethat have the faith of Buddha, are apostates from the holy faith, andfanatics in their practices.

24. Some of these have left their native homes, and others have quittedtheir natal lands altogether; some have their settled habitations insome place, and others leading their nomadic lives from place to place.

25. Among these, O Ráma, that dwell in the sublunar sphere of thisglobe, as also among them that live at the antipodes, and are known asdaityas:—

26. Some are of clear understandings, and well acquainted with thecivil laws of their society; some are of enlightened understanding, andothers again are acquainted with the past, and have a foresight of thefuture.

27. Some are of unenlightened understandings, and are always insuspense, and suspicion of their minds; they are addicted to vice, andunable to govern themselves, are always under the government of others.

28. Some there are who are half-enlightened, and proud withal of theirknowledge of truth; they break loose from the observance of customaryduties, and are not yet the esoteric yogi or spiritualist.

29. Thus among these great multitudes of men, that are wading in thevast ocean of life, every one is striving to get the end, according tohis different aim and object.

30. But it is neither one’s confining himself at home, or remainingin his native country, nor his betaking him to hermitage or dwellingin some solitary forest; nor the observance of customary duties;nor practice of painful austerities, whereby one may ford over theunfordable gulf of this world.

31. Neither dependence on righteous acts nor the forsaking of them;nor one’s employment in the observance of customary usages, or hisattainment of great powers, can be of any avail to him, in saving himfrom the turmoils of the world.

32. It is one’s self-control only, that is the means of his[Pg 1079] salvation(lit., getting over the sea of the world); and the man whose mind isnot attached, or tied down to anything in this world, is said to havegot or gone over it.

33. It is no matter whether a man does or neglects, the righteous deedsof his religion and society; provided he keeps the contriteness of hismind in both, and is never attached to nor affected by either: such aman is deemed a sage and saved from his return to this nether world.

34. The man that does neither any righteous or unrighteous action inhis life, but has his mind fixed in this earth, and attached to earthlyobjects, is deemed a hypocrite, and destined to revisit this earth inhis repeated births.

35. Our minds again are of the nature of nasty flies, which are proneto fly about and pour upon the sores of worldly pleasures; from whichit is hard for us to deter them, as it is impossible for us to killthem at once for attainment of our salvation (or, our minds are assurfeited bees, cloyed with the honey of their cells from which theycannot fly away. Gloss).

36. It sometime comes to happen and by the good fortune of a person,that his mind turns of itself towards its perfection; and then by aflash of inward light within itself, comes to see the presence of thedivine spirit in the very soul.

37. The mind being enlightened by the flash of spiritual light in thesoul, becomes enrapt at the sight, and losing all earthly attachment,is unified with the supreme unity.

38. Being unmindful of everything, and conscious of thy entity as aparticle of the infinite vacuity, remain perfectly happy with thyself,and in the everlasting felicity of thy soul.

39. Being replete with the knowledge of transcendental truth, anddevoid of the faults and frailties of thy nature, have the magnanimityof thy soul, with the equanimity of thy mind and elevation of thyspirit; and thus remain O thou support of Raghu’s royal race, withoutsorrow and fear of death and rebirth, and be as holy as the holy ofholies.

40. Know the translucent state of the most Holy Brahma, to be quiteclear of all the grossness and foulness of nature, and free from allthe qualities and properties that are attributed to[Pg 1080] Him. He is beyondour conception and above the reach of our thought. He is increate andever existent of Himself, and manifest in his abode of our intellect.Knowing him then as thyself, remain quite free and dauntless for ever.

41. There is nothing more that can be gleaned, from greater verbosityon this subject; nor is there anything remaining to be communicated toyou, for your best instruction in divine knowledge. You are roused, ORáma, to your full knowledge of the essential doctrines of divinity,and you have become cognizant, of whatever is knowable and recondite innature.

42. Válmíki says:—After the chief of sages had spoken so far, hesaw Ráma rapt in his ecstasy and bereft of his mental efforts; andthe whole assembly sitting fixed in the one and same tenor of theirmeditation. They were all entranced in their reveries and musings, inthe mysterious nature of the Divinity; as the humming bees ramble overthe lotus petals with their soft and silent murmur, and revel upon thesweetness of the honey cups of flowers.

Argument:—Narration of the plaudits of the assembly, accompaniedwith the showering of flowers and uproar of musical instruments,at the end of the holy sermon.

Válmíki continued:—Upon the termination of the holy sermon onNirvána—anesthesia, there arose loud hubbub without the court house,which put a stop to the sage’s proceeding further in continuation ofhis discourse.

2. But the whole audience in the court hall, was immerged in a state ofstead fast hypnotism, and settled intentiveness in the Supreme; and thefaculties of their mind were quite clear, and their workings at rest.

3. The whole audience on hearing the lecture on investigation afterintellect, became passengers on the raft of sat, and they allgained their salvation.

4. Immediately there arose a loud chorus of applause, from the mouthsof the emancipated sages or siddhas, dwelling in the upper regions ofthe skies, and it filled the concave of heaven, with the acclamationsof praise to the venerable sage.

5. In the same manner there rose shouts of praise also, from the holysages seated in the assembly; together with the loud acclamation givenby the son of Gádhi—Viswámitra, who sat at their head.

6. Then was heard a swelling sound, filling the face of the fourquarters of the firmament; just as the blasts of wind filled thehollows of the withered bamboos in the forest, and make them resoundwith a sound with a soft sweet melody.

7. Next arose a flourish of trumpets from the celestials, mingling withthe hosannahs of the siddhas; which rumbled together and resoundedloudly, amidst the hollow caves of distant mountains and dale.

[Pg 1082]

8. Along with the flourish of celestial trumpets, there fell showers offlowers from above, resembling the driving rain of snows, which blockedthe faces on all sides of heaven.

9. The floor of the court hall was strewn over with flowers, and thefanfare of the drums and timbals, filled the mouths of hollow caves andcaverns; the flying dust covered the face of the sky, and the risingodours after the rain were borne upon the wings of the winds to allsides.

10. Then there rose a mingled rumble of the shouts of applause, andthe peal of heavenly trumpets; joined with the whistle of the hissingshowers of flowers, and the rustling of the winds all about.

11. The courtiers all looked around with their uplifted faces and eyes,and were struck in their minds with wonder and surprise; while thebeasts all about the palace and in the parks, remained amazed at theevent with their pricked up ears.

12. The women and children in the inside, sat staring with their wonderstricken eyes; and the princes sitting in the court hall, lookedastonished on one another with their smiling faces.

13. The face of the firmament became exceedingly brightened, by thefalling showers of flowers from above; and the great concavity of theworld, was filled with the hissing sound of the falling rains.

14. The showers of flowers and drizzling rain drops, with their hissingsounds, made the royal palace an appearance of festivity. (With thescattering of fried rice, sprinkling of rose water and blowing ofconchshells).

15. Not only the palace, but all places in the worlds, seem tocelebrate their festive mirth, with tossing of flower garlands, joinedwith celestial music.

16. The shouts of the siddhas and their ejacul*tions of joy, rolledand growled as high in the upper sky; as the rolling billows andrebillowing waves, howled in the depth of the ocean and sea.

[Pg 1083]

17. After the hubbub of the heavenly hosts had subsisted, (in the lullof the rains and rackets); the following words of the siddhas proceededfrom above, and were heard to be uttered in an audible and distinctvoice.

18. The siddhas said:—We have erewhile since time erst began, listenedto delivered thousands of sermons, in the assembly of siddhas orperfect beings, on the means of attaining liberation, (which is thehighest pitch of perfection of the living soul); but never heretoforeheard a lecture so impressive on the mind, as this last locution of thesage.

19. We see boys and women and the bending brute creatures, togetherwith the creeping and crawling animals, are all enrapt by this soothingspeech, which will doubtless enrapture its readers and hearers infuture.

20. The sage has used every argument and example, for rousing Ráma tohis beatification; such as it is doubtful whether he had ever shewnsuch affection to his Arundhatí or not.

21. Hearing this lecture on liberation, even the brute creation ofbeasts and birds, become emancipated from the burthen of their basebodies; and as for men, they forget altogether the trammels of theirbodies in their embodied state.

22. Our draught of these ambrosial drops of divine knowledge, throughthe vessels of our ears; has not only satiated our appetite for wisdom,but renovated our understandings, and added a fresh beauty to ourspiritual bodies.

23. On hearing these words of the heavenly host of siddhas, were struckwith wonder, and looked upward with full open eyes; and then as theycast their looks below, they beheld the surface of the court-hall, tobe strewn over with flowers and lotuses, falling in showers from above.

24. They saw heaps of mandara and other celestial flowers, piledup to the roof of the lofty hall; and observed the court yard to becovered over with blossoming plants and creepers, and with wreaths andgarlands of flowers without an interstice.

25. The surface of the ground, was strewn over with buds and blossomsof Párijata plants; and thick clouds of Santanaka[Pg 1084] flowers, shadowedover the heads and shoulders of the assembled people in the court.

26. The saffron flowers of Harichandana (yellow sandal wood), hungover the jewelled crests of the princes; and seemed as an awning ofrainy clouds, spread over the glittering chandeliers of the court hall.(Harichandana is a tree in the garden of Paradise).

27. Seeing these events in the court, the people all gave vent to therepeated shouts of their loud applause; and talked to one another ofthis and that, as was fitted to the solemnity of occasion.

28. They then adored the sage with the prostration of their bodies andlimbs, and made him their obeisances, with offerings of handfuls offlowers.

29. After the loud peals of applause had somewhat abated; the king alsorose and prostrated himself down and then worshipped the sage, with thetray of his presents and wreaths of flowers held in his hands.

30. Dasaratha said:—It was by your admonition, O thou Lord ofArundhati; that I was released from this my mortal frame; and gainedthe transcendent knowledge which filled my soul, and joined it with thesupreme essence in perfect bliss.

31. We have nothing in this nether earth, nor is there anything withthe gods in heaven, which I ween is worthy enough to be given, as aproper offering in thine adoration.

32. Yet I beg to pray you something in order to acquit myself of myduty to you, and to render my services to thee prove effectual to me,and hope you will not be irritated at this address of mine.

33. That I adore you myself with my queens and my weal in both worlds,together with all these dominions and servants of mine (all which I nowoffer humbly at your venerable feet).

34. All these possessions of mine are yours entirely at present, somy lord take them as yours, and make them as parts of your hermitage;please to dispose of these as you please, or use them as you like.

[Pg 1085]

35. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O great king, that we Bráhmans arepleased, only with the mere obeisances of people; we are verilysatisfied with receiving reverence of men, and these you have alreadydone and shown to me.

36. You know to rule the earth, and therefore its sovereignty issuitable to thee; nor can you show a Brahmin to have ever reigned as aking, keep therefore what is yours to yourself and prosper therein.

37. Dasaratha answered:—What is this trifle of a realm to me, which Iam ashamed to call and own as mine; it cannot lead me to the knowledgeof its true Lord, therefore do so as I may clearly and truly know themost high.

38. Válmíki relates:—As the king was saying so, Ráma rose from hisseat, and threw handfuls of flowers on the sacred person of hispreceptor; and then lowly bending himself before him, he addressed himas follows.

39. Venerable sir, as you have made the king speechless, by telling himthat you are pleased with mere obeisance of men; so I am taught to waithere, with my bare prostration at your venerable feet.

40. Saying so, Ráma bowed down his head, lowly at the feet of hisguide; and then scattered handful of flowers on his pure person, as thetrees on the sides of a mountain, sprinkle their dew drops at the footand base of the mount. (Gloss. The branches of trees serving as theirhands, and the leaves as their palms).

41. Then the pious prince made his repeated bows of reverence to hisvenerable preceptor; while his lotus like eyes were suffused with thetears of his inward joy and piety. (Ánandásru—tears issuing from piousand joyous feelings).

42. Next rose the brother princes, of Dasaratha’s royal race; namelyBharata, Satrughna and Lakshmana, together with their equals in kithand kin; and they all advanced to the sage, and bowed down to him withtheir respectful reverence.

43. The other chiefs and nobles and regents, that sat in their order ata distance; together with the saints, sages and[Pg 1086] the clergy at large,rose in groups from their seats, and did their homage to the sage, withflinging handfuls of flowers upon him.

44. At this instant the sage was almost covered with and hid under theheap of flowers, that were poured upon him from all sides; in the samemanner as the snowy mountain of Himálaya, is wrapped and concealedunder the snows of water.

45. After clangor of the assembly was over, and the peals of theirpranáma-hailings had ended; Vasishtha remembered his saying withthe assembled sages, of proving to them the truth of his doctrines, andof removing the doubts of his audience regarding the miracles he hadwrought.

46. He then shoved off with both his arms, the heaps of flowers fromabout his sides; and showed out his fair face from amidst them, as whenthe disc of the moon, shines forth from within the hoary clouds.

47. Then there ensued a hush over the flourish of the trumpets, and asilence upon the fanfare of applauses; the falling of flowers was at astop, and the murmur of siddhas above, ceased with the clamour of theassemblage below.

48. After the princes and assembled nobles, had made their obeisancesand greetings, there occurred a calm stillness in the assembly, as whena lull takes place in the atmosphere after a storm.

49. Then the chief of sages Vasishtha, upon hearing the applausespoured upon him from all sides; spoke softly to the royal sageViswámitra, from the unblemished purity of his soul.

50. Hear me, O sage, that art the lotus of the princely race of Gádhi,and ye sages that are assembled here, namely Vámadeva, Nimi and Kruta,together with Bharadwája, Pulastya, Atri, Nárada and Ghrishti, andSándilya.

51. Hear me also, O ye sages Bhása, Bhrigu, Bharanda, Vatsa andVátsyáyana, with all others that are assembled here at present, and hadthe patience to listen to this contemptible discourse of mine.

52. Please now with your well known affability to me,[Pg 1087] point out to mewhatever you have found as meaningless or unintelligible and ambiguousin my discourse.

53. The audience responded:—O Venerable sir, we have never heard ormarked in <a> single word in this spiritual and divine discourse ofthine, that is meaningless or unintelligible to anybody.

54. We confess that whatever foulness was inbred in our natures, by ourrepeated births in this sinful world; has been all purged out by yourholy lecture, as the alloy in gold is burnt away by the purifying fire.

55. O sir, our minds are as expanded by your divine sermon, as the bluelotus buds are opened to bloom, by the cold and ambrosial beams of moonlight.

56. We all bow down to thee, O thou chief of sages, as our best guidein divine knowledge; and the giver of true wisdom to us, with regard toall things in nature.

57. Válmíki relates:—The sages said so far and then hailed and boweddown to Vasishtha again, and their united applause of him, rose as highas the loud roar of raining clouds.

58. Then the speechless siddhas, poured down again their showers offlowers from above; and these hid the body of the sage under them, asthe clouds of winter cover the rocks under ice and snows.

59. Afterwards the intelligent and learned men in the court, gavetheir praises to King Dasaratha and to Ráma also; saying that the fourprinces were no other than the four fold incarnation of the God Mádhavaor Vishnu himself.

60. The siddhas said:—We hail the four princes of Dasaratha line, whoare the quadruple forms of the self incarnate Vishnu, and are quiteliberated from the bonds of flesh, in these their living states ofhumanity.

61. We hail king Dasaratha, as having the mark of the sovereignty ofthe whole world. (Imprinted in his person); that is of this world whichextends to the limits of the four oceans, and lasts forever in his race.

62. We hail the sage Vasishtha, who is as bright as the sun,[Pg 1088] andstands at the head of the whole host of sages; and also the royal sageViswámitra of renowned fame and dignity.

63. It is through their means (i.e. because of their assemblagein this court), that we had this fair opportunity of hearing thisdivine discourse, which is so full of knowledge and fraught withreason, that it serves to dispel the great gloom of error at once.

64. So saying the siddhas of heaven again let fall their handfuls offlowers in showers; and made the assembly look up to them in silence,with their uplifted eyes and gladdened minds.

65. And then there was a mutual greeting of the siddhas from above, andof the assembled people to them from below.

66. At last the assembly broke, with their respectful greetings toone another, accompanied with their mutual offerings of flowers andsalutations. And the celestial and terrestrial, the great Munisand sages, the Pandits and Bráhmans; together with the princes andnobles, bade adieu to and took leave of one another (in order to repairto their respective abodes).

Argument:—Ráma’s conclusion on the lecture of Vasishtha, andViswámitra’s request over Ráma.

Válmíki related:—After the assembly had rejoined the next day,there was observed a profound silence over it; and there appeared acheerfulness in the countenances of princes from the enlightenment bythe last lecture.

2. The people seemed to be smiling in their faces, by reflecting ontheir former errors and follies, after their coming to the light oftruth. (The reminiscence of the freaks and follies of boyhood, is asource of delight in old age).

3. The wisem*n in the assembly, appeared to be sitting fixed in theirsteadfast meditation, by having the feelings and passions of theirminds, curbed and subdued upon their access to the relish of trueknowledge.

4. At this time, Ráma sat with his brothers, in their posture ofpadmásana—having their legs crossed upon one another; had thepalms of their hands folded together, and their eyes fixed steadfastlyupon the face of their preacher.

5. The king Dasaratha remained in a sort of entranced meditation, andthought himself as liberated in his life time, and placed in a state ofinfinite bliss.

6. The sage after holding his silence, as long as he was adored by hisreverential audience, spoke to them at last in distinct words, andwanted to know what they would now like to hear about.

7. He said, O lotus eyed Ráma, that art as the cooling moon in theclear sphere of thy race, tell me what thou now wishest to hear, asmost desirable and delightsome to your mind.

8. Tell me the state in which you find yourself at present,[Pg 1090] and inwhat light you view the appearance of the appearance of the world nowbefore you.

9. Being thus addressed by the sage, Ráma looked at his face; and thenbespoke to him in his distinctly audible voice, and his plain andunfaltering accents.

10. Ráma said:—It is all owing to thy favour only, O Venerable sir,that I have attained to my state of perfect holiness, and become aspure as the clear atmosphere in autumnal calm and serenity.

11. I am entirely freed from all the errors, which are so detrimentalto the right course of our lives in this world, and an act as pure asthe clear sky, in the true and very state of finite vacuity. (The verystate of the deity).

12. I am set free from all bonds, and released from all attributes andadjuncts; I find myself situated in a crystalline sphere, and shiningthere as clear as crystal.

13. I am quite pacified in my mind and am neither willing to hear or doanything else; I am quite satiate in myself, and require nothing morefor my satisfaction. I am quite at rest as in the state of hypnotism.

14. My mind is quite calm in its thoughts, and entirely pacified in itswishes; all my desires have fled from it, and I find my mind to rest inits perfect peace and supreme bliss.

15. I am staid in all my thoughts and allayed in my desires, whilstliving in this waking world; I am enrapt and entranced, while I amquite sane and sound and sleepless at all hours by day and night.

16. With my soul devoid of all wishes and expectations, I live while Iam destined to live in this material body of mine; and remain smiling(i.e. rejoicing) as long as I sit to listen to your inspiringlessons.

17. Now I am no more in need of admonition or instruction of thesástras, or of the acquisition of riches or friends; nor am Iwilling either to get rid of them at any time. (Because of my utterindifference to them as is theirs also to me).

18. I have found and am in the enjoyment of that unalloyed[Pg 1091] happiness,which attends on one in heaven or Paradise, or in his attainment of thesovereignty of the whole world.

19. The world which I perceive within myself by my outward senses, isconceived to be brighter far and more transparent than the outwardatmosphere, by being viewed in the light of the intellect, andconsidered as a part of its infinite vacuous sphere.

20. This world I ween, is certainly a vacuum; and it is by my beliefin the nihility of the phenomenal, that I am awaked to my immortality.(The visible world is a passing and vanishing sight, and it is by ourbelief in the spiritual only, that we see the everlasting scene).

21. Let me remain content with all that is, or comes to pass on me,whether they are desirable to me or occur themselves; and let me actas the law enacts to its full extent and without fail, but without anyobject of mine or expectation of reward.

22. I am neither content nor discontented with anything, nor rejoicenor repine at any event; I do what is my duty in society, withoutretaining the erroneous conception of reaping their reward.

23. Let this creation be otherwise or go to perdition, let the winds ofthe last destruction blow with their fury also; or let the land smilein its plenty and beauty, yet I sit unmoved by them, and remain in thedivine self or spirit.

24. I rest in myself which is unseen or dimly seen by others, and isundecaying and untainted in itself; I am not enchained to my wishes,but am as free as air, which you cannot compress in your clutches.

25. As the fragrance of flowers upon the trees, is wafted by the breezeand deposited in the air, so is my soul borne away from the confines ofmy body, and posited in empty vacuity (where it ranges at large in itsfreedom).

26. As these princes and rulers of people, live and enjoy themselves intheir realms at pleasure; and whether they are enlightened or not, theyare employed in their respective occupations.

27. So do I enjoy myself with the steadiness and equanimity[Pg 1092] of mymind, which is freed from all fear, grief or joy and desire.

28. I am happy above all happiness (derived from this frail world); myhappiness is in the everlasting One, than which there is no happinessto be preferred by me. But because I live here as a human being, youare at liberty to appoint me to any duty, in common with all mankindand becoming to humanity.

29. I cannot be averse, to manage myself with the trifles of thisworld, as long as I am destined to them; in the same manner as boysare never to be blamed, for indulging themselves in their playthingsin their boyhood. So long sir, as I shall have to live in this body ofmine, I must do my bodily acts, with my mind fixed in the sole One only.

30. I must live to eat and drink, and continue in the course of mybusiness in life; but I am freed from all fear of my failings in them,by the kind counsels to me. (That the liberated man is at liberty to door undo his duties).

31. Vasishtha replied:—O Bravo Ráma! that you have chosen for yourselfthe most meritorious course of life; wherein you shall never have torepent, from the beginning to the end of your career.

32. By this cold indifference in thy self, and complete equanimity inevery state, you have verily secured to the unbroken rest in your life,as the visible firmament has found in infinite vacuity.

33. It is by your good fortune, that you have got rid of your sorrows,and it is fortunate to you to be set so well composed in yourself; itis your good luck to be freed from the fears of both worlds, and it ishappy for you to be at your heart’s ease and rest.

34. You are lucky, my lord, to be so fraught with your holy knowledge;and to have purified the lineage of Raghu, with your knowledge of thepresent, past and future.

35. Now prepare yourself to accomplish the object, of the chief ofsages—The great Viswámitra’s request and by completion of his holysacrifice at your sire’s behest, continue to enjoy[Pg 1093] the sovereignty ofthe earth; in subordination to your royal parent.

36. May the mighty king reign for ever in prosperity, over thisprosperous realm of his; in conjunction with yourself and his othersons, relatives and nobles and in possession of all his infantry,cavalry, his chariots and his lines of elephants &c., and without anydisease and fear of his enemies.

Argument:—Entrancement of the audience to a state of somnolenceknown as Hybernation, hypnotism and Ecstasis in Theosophy.

Válmíki related:—Upon hearing these words of the sage, the assembledprinces and lords of men in the court, felt a sang froid orcoolness in their souls, as if they were all besprinkled with ambrosialwaters upon them.

2. Ráma with his lotus like eyes and moon like face, remained asresplendent, as if they were filled with ambrowaters, or the nectariousliquid of the Milky ocean.

3. Then the sage Vámadeva and others, who were fraught with divineknowledge, exclaimed with their admiration for the preacher; O the holyinstruction, that you have imparted unto us this day!

4. The King with his pacified soul and joyous mind, shone as shiningin his countenance, as if he had a new light infused in himself (andcausing the hairs on his body to stand on their ends, from his inwardgladness).

5. After many other sages, who were well acquainted with the knowledgeof the knowable One, had thus pronounced their praises; the enlightenedRáma (lit. who was purged from his ignorance), oped his mouth again,and spoke in the following manner.

6. Ráma said:—O thou seer, that knowest the past and future; thou hastcleansed away all our inward dross, as fire serves to purge gold fromits impurity.

7. Venerable sir we have now become cosmognostics or all knowing, byour knowledge of the universal soul, though we are confined in thesevisible bodies of ours, and seeming to all appearance, as knowingnothing beyond them.

8. I feel myself now as perfect and full in all, and to have[Pg 1095] becomequite undecaying in myself; I am freed from all fear and apprehension,and am quite cognoscent with all things.

9. I am overjoyed to no end, and am happy beyond all measure; Ihave risen to a height from which there is no fear of falling,and am elevated to the supreme acme of eminence and perfection.(Parama-purushártha).

10. Alack! how am I cleansed by the holy and cooling water of divineknowledge, which you have so kindly poured forth in me, and whereby Iam as joyous, as a full blown lotus in the lake of my heart.

11. I am now set, sir, by your favour to a state of happiness, whichbrightens to me the face of universe with ambrosial delight.

12. I now hail myself, that have become so fair within myself with theclearness of my mind, and by disappearance of all sorrow from it. Ihave received a grace in my face, from the peace of mind and purity ofmy wishes. I am joyous in myself with my inward joy, and I <am> whollypure with the purity of my soul.

Argument:—Sounding of midday trumpet, performance of dailyablution, and description of the setting sun. The meeting of theassembly on the next morning upon the discourse on Nirvána.

Válmíki related:—As Ráma and the sage had been remonstrating in thismanner, the sun advanced towards the zenith, to listen to their holyconversation in <its> royal dome.

2. The solar beams spread on all sides, with greater force andeffulgence; as if to expose to clearer and greater light the sense ofRáma’s speech.

3. Then the lotus beds in the tanks of the pleasure gardens, all aboutthe royal palace, began to expand their embosomed buds to bloom beforehim, as the princes shone forth in brightness amidst the royal hall.

4. The air was exhilarated with joy at hearing the holy lectures of thesage; and seemed to be dancing with the sunbeams, glistening in thestrings of pearls, suspended at the windows of the palace.

5. The premature gleams of the sun, glistened as bright at theglittering glass doors and shining chandeliers of the court hall; asthe gladdened hearts of the audience, glowed at enlightening speech ofthe sage.

6. After Ráma was settled in his sedateness, his face shone as brightas a blooming blue lotus by its reflexion of the rays of the sage’slook upon it. (Here the blue complexion of Ráma, is compared to ablue lotus, blooming under the moon bright look of fair Vasishtha’scountenance).

7. The sun advancing towards the summit of the horizon, like the marinefire rising on the surface of the blue ocean; sucked or dried up byhis darting flames the dewy humidity of the sky, as the submarine heatresorbs the waters of the deep.

[Pg 1097]

8. The cerulean sphere of heaven, appeared as the lake of blue lotuses,and the shining sun seemed as the golden pericarp of the flower; hisbright beams resembled the aureate farina of flowers, and his slantingrays likened the aslant pistils in the air.

9. He shone as the dazzling crown upon the head of the azure queen ofthe worlds; and was hanging down like the resplendent earring, pendanton the ear of heaven; while the little lay hid under his glaring light,like bits of diamonds lying concealed under the effulgence of a blazingruby.

10. The ethereal maids of all the quarters of heaven, held out themirrors of silvery clouds before his face, with their uplifted arms ofthe mountain peaks all around; and these are emblazoned by solar rays,like the rainless clouds on mountain tops.

11. The sun stones in the quarries on earth emitted a fury blaze, whichemblazoned the skies around, with a greater light than that of the sun.

12. The trumpets sounded aloud, with the wind blown by the mouths oftrumpeters; and the conchshells blew as loudly at midday, as the windsof the last deluge, set the sea waves to their tremendous uproar.

13. Then the spherules of sweat, appeared on the faces of the princes,as the dew drops falling on lotus leaves; and they were so closelyconnected together, as to give them the appearance of strings of pearls.

14. The thickening noise of the hurry and flurry of men, resounded ashoarsely within the hollow walls of the hall, that they filled the earsof men, as the dashing waves fill the concave of the hollow sea.

15. The waiting maids then came forward with cups of liquid camphor intheir hands; in order to sprinkle them on the persons of the princes;to assuage their fervour of the solar heat.

16. Then the assembly broke, and the king rose from his seat in companywith Ráma and the princes and Vasishtha,[Pg 1098] together with all the lordsand nobles, that were present in the assembly.

17. The assembled lords and princes, the ministers of the state andreligion, together with the high priests and sages; rose from theirseats, and having gladly made their greetings to one another, tooktheir leave and departed to their respective abodes.

18. The front of the royal inner apartment, was fanned with flappers ofpalm leaves, wafting the clouds <of> camphor powder, that was scatteredfor allaying the midday heat.

19. Then the chief of sages—Vasishtha, oped his mouth and spoke outto Ráma, amidst the sonata of noonday music, that resounded amidst thewalls of the royal hall.

20. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! you have heard whatever is worth hearing,and known also all that is worth your knowing; and now I see nothingfurther, that is worth communicating to you for your higher knowledge.

21. Now you have to reconcile in yourself, and by your bestunderstandings, all that you have been instructed by me, and what youhave read and learnt in the sástras, and harmonise the whole for yourguidance.

22. Now rise to do your duties, while I hasten to the performance ofsacred ablutions; it is now midday, and the proper time of our bathingis fastly passing away.

23. And then whatever else you have to enquire about, for thesatisfaction of your wishes, you can propose the same to me tomorrowmorning, when I shall be happy to expatiate on the subject.

24. Válmíki related:—After the sage had spoken in this manner, themighty king Dasaratha saluted the parting chiefs and sages, andhonoured them according to their proper ranks and degrees.

25. And then being advised by Vasishtha, the virtuous king with Ráma byhis side, proceeded to give their due honours, to the sages and siddhasand to the Bráhmanas also one after the other.

26. He gave them gems and jewels, and monies and[Pg 1099] bouquets of flowers;and he gave to others riches equivalent to the values of the gems andjewels; while he gave strings of pearls and necklaces to some also.

27. He honoured some with his respects and civilities, and others withmonies suited to their worth and degree, while he gave his gifts ofcloths and seats, food and drink, and of gold and lands to others.

28. He saluted others with perfumeries and aromatic spices and wreathsof flowers; he honoured the elders with due respects, and gave his bareregards to others.

29. Then the king rose from amidst the assembly, with the whole bodyof his courtiers, and the holy sages and Vasishtha with him; as thesplendid moon rises in the sky, with the train of stars about him. (Themoon is masculine in Sanskrit, and twin brother of the sun).

30. The rising of the assembly and its people, was attended with arumbling noise, as it is heard in the treading of men, over a bog ofknee deep mud and mire.

31. The clashing of the concourse against one another, and the crackingof their armlets and wristlets by their friction with each other;joined with the broken jewels and scattered pearls, slipped from thetorn necklaces of the nobles, gave the floor of the court hall, theappearance of the spangled heaven.

32. There was a close concussion of the bodies, of sages and saints,of Bráhmans and princes and nobles all jumbled together; and there wasa rapid undulation of the chourie flappers, waving in the hands offanning maid servants.

33. But there was no huddling or dashing or pushing one against theother; as they were intent upon reflecting on the sense of the sagespreaching, and rather asking excuses of one another, with the gesturesof their bodies, when they came in contact with others.

34. At last the king and the sages and nobles, accosted one anotherwith sweet and soft words; and took their parting leave (for repairingto their respective abode for the day).

35. They then left the palace, and proceeded to their residences, withtheir gladdened faces and contented minds; as[Pg 1100] when the immortalsrepair to all parts of heaven, from the synod of the king ofgods—Indra or Sakra.

36. After every one had taken leave of others, and arrived at hishouse; he employed himself in the discharge of his ritual services ofthe day.

37. Thus the king and all, performed their daily ablutions and servicesas usual, until the end of the day.

38. As the day ended with the discharge, of the duties of the dailyritual; so the sojourner of the etherial path—the tired sun, satdown to rest in the west (as the birds of air repair at eve, to theirrespective nests). (The sun is said to be the unka or falcon ofheaven; resting at his aspiand or nest in the west, by a poet ofPersia).

39. After the performance of their vespers, the prince Ráma and thepeople at large, passed their nights awake and fastly, with talkingabout and thinking upon the discourse of the day.

40. Then the rising sun advanced in the east, with sweeping away thedust of darkness from before his path, and strewing about the starryflowers on his way, in order to fix his seat in the midst of his domeof the universe.

41. The infant or rising sun, reddened the skies with his rays,resembling the crimson hue of kusambha flowers; and then he embarkedon the board of his bright orb, amidst the wide ocean of the etherialregion. (The sun sailed in the etherial sea, through the scatteredisland of the hidden stars and planets on his way. Gloss).

42. Then the regnant princes and lords of men, together with thenobles, peers and their ministers, met at the court hall of KingDasaratha; when there gathered also the great saints and sages, withVasishtha at their head.

43. They entered into the court and took their seats, according totheir different degrees and ranks; just as the stars of heaven appearand occupy their places, in their respective constellations and circlesin the expanse of heaven.

44. Then the king and his ministers, advanced and bowed down toVasishtha, and ushered him to his high seat or pulpit;[Pg 1101] and they allpoured forth their praises to him, after that sage was seated in therostrum.

45. Now the lotus-eyed Ráma, who sat before the king and the holy sage,oped his lotus like mouth, and spoke in the following manner, with hisnatural good sense, and usual elegance of speech.

46. Ráma said:—O Venerable sir, that art acquainted with allreligions, and art the great ocean of knowledge; thou art the axe ofall knotty questions and doubts, and remover of the griefs and fears ofmankind.

47. Please tell us whatever more is worth our hearing and knowing;for thou knowest best whatever there remains to be said, for theedification of our knowledge.

48. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma you have gained your full knowledge, andhave nothing more to learn; you have attained the perfection of yourunderstanding, and obtained the summum bonum which is sought by all(but found by few), and wherewith you are quite content in yourself.

49. You better consider in yourself and say, how do you find yourselfand your inner mind at present; and what else is there, that you wishto know and hear from me.

50. Ráma rejoined:—Why sir, I find myself fully perfected in myunderstanding; and being possest of the peace and tranquility of mymind, with the blessing of Nirvána or ultimate beatitude of my soul, Ihave nothing to ask or desire of thee.

51. You have said all that you had to impart to me, and I have knownall that is worth my knowing; Now sir, take your rest with the Goddessof speech, who has done her utmost for the instruction of us all.

52. I have known the unknown and knowable One, that is only to be knownby us as the true reality; and knowing this all as the One Brahma, Iam freed from my knowledge of the duality (of the living and supremesoul); and having got rid of the deception of the diversity of thevisibles, I am released from my reliance in all worldly things.

Argument:—The abstraction and intellection of all knowledge,merging in the infinite vacuum.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—Hear me moreover, O Ráma, to tell thee,a few words on transcendental knowledge, that the mirror of the mindshines more brightly, by expurgation of the external images that arereflected on it, than when it is eclipsed by those outward shadows.(i.e. Wipe off visibles from the mind).

2. Again the significant words that <are> the symbols of the objects ofour knowledge, are as insignificant as the hissing murmurs of watersand waves, and the phenomenal is but a semblance of the noumenal, as adream is the réchauffé or reflexion of the mind, and the visible world,is but a recast of the visionary dream.

3. The waking state is that of dreaming, and its scenes are those ofour dreams; and presenting themselves before us in both these statesfrom our remembrance of them: they are the inward concept of ourconsciousness, and appearing to be situated without it. (i.e.They are the innate ideas of our minds, and not perceptions of ouroutward organs of sense).

4. As I am conscious of the clearness of my intellectual sphere,notwithstanding the view of the fairy lands in its state of dreaming;so I find my mind, to be equally clear in my waking also of all itsimaginary forms of the three worlds and their contents, which inreality <are> a formless vacuity only.

5. Ráma rejoined:—If all things are formless amidst the formless voidof the universe, as in empty vacuity of the intellect; then tell mesir, whence arise these endless shapes and forms, as those <of> earth,water, fire and those of these hills, rocks and pebbles?

6. Tell me why the elements are of different forms and qualities[Pg 1103] andwhy the empty air, space and time have no forms nor properties oftheirs; what makes the wind so very fleet, and what is the cause of themotions and actions of waving bodies.

7. How came the sky to be a vacuum only, and why is the mind of thesame nature also; these are all the various natures and properties ofthings, <that> require to be well explained from my knowledge therein.

8. Vasishtha replied:—You have well asked these questions, Ráma, asthey naturally suggest themselves to every inquirer after truth; buttell me in one word, why do you see the varieties of earth and sky, aswell as of all other things that you see in your dream.

9. Whence do you see the waters in your sleep, and how are the pebblesscattered about you in your dream; why do you see the flaming fires inyour vision, and all sides of heaven appearing before your sight.

10. Say how you have the idea of time in your dreaming, and perceivethe actions and motions of persons and things at that time; and tellme from where do all those accidents proceed, that you see to occur inyour sleeping and dreaming moments.

11. What is it that creates, produces and gives the formless dream itsfascinating form, and then dissolves it to nothing at last; you find itproduced and presented to your view, but cannot say how it acts and ofwhat stuff it is composed.

12. Ráma replied:—The dream of the dreaming world, has no form norposition of its own; its soul and substance is mere void, and the earthand rocks which it presents to sight, are nil and in nubibus(and leave not a rack behind).

13. The vacuous soul only, is its sole cause, which is likewise asformless and supportless like itself; The formless void is never inneed of a support for it.

14. Nothing whatsoever of it is ever produced, nor bear any relationwith our consciousness; they are the reflexions of the intellect only,and are situated in the recess of the mind.

15. The mind is the evolution of the intellect, which reflects theimages of things in the form of ideas upon the mind; hence[Pg 1104] the notionsof time and space, and of air, water, hills and mountains, are allreflexions of the intellect upon the mind.

16. Our consciousness is also a void, and receives the impressionsof vacuum in the form of its vacuity; and those of the stone, airand water, in the forms of their solidity, fluidity and liquidity.(i.e. The vacuous mind receives and retains only the abstractideas of all concrete bodies in the universe).

17. In reality there is nothing as the earth or any solid body or itsform or sight in existence; but they all exist in their abstract statesin the great void of the intellect, and are equally void in theirnatures with itself.

18. In fact there is nothing in reality, nor anything which is visibleto sight, there is only the infinite vacuity of intellect, whichrepresents all things in itself, and is identic with all of them.

19. The intellect has the notion of solidity, in the abstract init; and thereby conceives itself in the forms of the earth, rocksand hills. (The idea or conception of solidity, gives rise to theperception of solid bodies, and not the perception of solids, thatproduces the abstract idea of their solidity; or that the innate ideas,give birth to appearances in the concrete).

20. So by its conception of oscillation and fluidity, it perceives theform of air and water in itself; and so also by its inward conceptionof heat, it feels the fire in itself without forsaking its intellectualform.

21. Such is the nature of this intellectual principle, in its airy andvacuous form of the spirit, soul or mind; that developes itself in allthese various modalities and schemes, without any cause or incentive.(These modes or states of being, are here called nishkáranaguna,and Akárana gunotpannaguna in Nyáya philosophy, and same withthe Vibhu-nishthaguna of Vedánta; all meaning them to be theincreate and eternal qualities or attributes of the supreme soul ordeity).

22. There is nothing any where in nature, beside these intellectualattributes of itself; as there is no sky or vacuum without its vacuity,nor the vast expanse of the ocean, devoid of the body of waters in it.

[Pg 1105]

23. Know then there is nothing else anywhere, nay not even the sense ofthyself or myself or any other, except in the recess of intellectualvacuity; so commit thyself to that all teeming void; and remain quitesedate in thyself.

24. As you see the earth and heaven and all their contents, in thydream and creation of thy fancy, in the recess of thy mind and in themidst of this house of thine; so should you behold everything in theirincorporeal forms to be contained in the ample space of the infinitevacuum of the divine intellect and its all-knowing intelligence.

25. The vacuum of the intellect shines forth as the substratum of allbodies, but without a body of its own in the beginning of creation;because nothing having any prior material cause for its corporealexistence, it is the intellect alone which must be understood, toexhibit all formal existence in its vacuous space and to our ignorance.

26. Know your immaterial mind, understanding and egoism, together withthe material existences of the elemental bodies, these hills, skies andall others, to be situated as dull and dumb stones, in the quiet, calmand clear sphere of the infinite intellect.

27. Thus you see there is nothing produced nor destroyed, nor anything,that may be said to exist of itself; this world as it appears to exist,exists in this very form (of its immateriality); in the vacuity of thedivine intellect.

28. It is the sunshine of the intellect, that manifests the world inits visible shape and form; as the sunlight shows the hidden objects ofdarkness to view, and as the fluidity of water, gives rise to the wavesand bubbles.

29. This appearance of the world, is no real appearance; it is therepresentation of the intellectual vacuum only, in its true and propersenses and light, as it is viewed by the wise; though the ignorant mayview it in any light as they please.

Argument:—The existence of the world in its spiritual sense, andnullity of its creation, destruction and material existence.

Ráma rejoined:—If it is so, sir, that the whole plenum is vacuum, asthe phenomenon in our dreams; it must follow therefrom, that the worldwe see in our wakings is vacuity also, and there can be no doubt in it.

2. But tell me sir, in answer to this important question of mine; howthe formless and bodiless intellect appears to become embodied in allthese various forms of bodies, that we see in the state of our wakingdream. (i.e. The vanishing visions of our sleeping dreams, provethem to be quite vacuous and nil; but not so the lasting scenes of ourwaking state which appear to be substantially positive; and how doesthe negative intellect assume this positive form).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, the visibles that appear to view in ourwaking dream by day light, are all vacuous bodies; owing to their beingborn, resting and supportance in empty vacuity; hence you cannot on anyreason doubt about their vacuousness (whose or when their production,sustentation, substance and supportance, do all depend on the infiniteand all comprehending vacuum, which is the very attribute of the unityof the formless deity. Gloss).[7]

4. This infinite and eternal void, being entirely devoid of all thematerial causes (i.e. earth, air, water and fire, which arenecessary for the production of anything); it is impossible that[Pg 1107]creation could come out from this nothing in the beginning. (Exnihilo nihil fit).

5. And as the formless intellect could not bring forth the earth &c.,for the formation of solid bodies; it is impossible to believe thisphenomenal appearance, to have their real existence in nature. (Thesubtile mind cannot make or become any solid body).

6. Therefore the airy intellect sees the visibles in the day time,in the manner that it sees the visions in its dreams by night. Itsees them all rising, in their intellectual light within itself; butappearing as real and formal objects, set without it by its delusion.(Máyá or Illusion).

7. It is the reflexion of the workings of the intellectual soul, thatappears as real within the hollow sphere of the intellect; it resemblesthe representations of the memory in the mind in our sleep, and takesthe name of the visible world.

8. It is the clear perception of these intellectual representations, inthe vacuum of the mind only, that is styled by us as a vision or dream,while it is the gross conception of them in the mind, that is calledthe gross or material world.

9. It is thus the different views, of the same internal thought andideas, have different names and appellations, given to them by the veryintellect itself; the finer and purer ones being called as thoughts,and the grosser ones, as sensible and material objects.

10. Thus it is the same reflexion of the intellectual, which takes thenames both of the dream as also of the world; the working of the mindand its reflexion in itself are natural to intellect, and though thevisions subside with the disappearance of the dream upon waking, yetthe working and reflecting of the mind are never at rest, either inwaking or dreaming.

11. Many such visions of creation rise and set alternately, in thevacuity of Brahma’s mind, and are never apart from it; just as theempty air is either in motion or at rest in the hollow of the greatvoid, and always inseparable from it. (Hence the[Pg 1108] air, vision, dream&c., are all void, and the world is but a phantom in it).

12. Ráma said:—Sir, you have spoken of millions of worlds to mebefore; tell me now which of them are situated within the sphere of themundane egg, and which of them are beyond this egg (or supermundaneones).

13. Which of them are the terrestrial globes and which the vacuousspheres; which of them are igneous bodies in the sphere of fire, andwhat are the airy bodies in the regions of air.

14. Which are the superfices of the earth, situated in the midstof vacuity; of which the hills and forests set at the antipodes,are opposed to one another on both sides, and hang up and downperpendicular in empty air.

15. Which are the aerial bodies with their living souls, and which theinhabitants of darkness with their darksome shapes; what are they thatare formed of vacuum only, and what can they be, whose bodies are fullof worms and insects.

16. What sorts of beings settle the etherial sphere, and what are theythat live in the midst of rocks and stones; what are they that dwell inthe vessels and basins of water, and what be they that people the airlike the aerial fowls of air.

17. Tell me, O thou greatest of philosophers, how this mundane egg ofours is situated among them. (These are questions of cosmogony, andbear no relation to theology).

18. Vasishtha replied:—These wondrous unknown, unseen and unheardof worlds, are mentioned and described in the sástras with theirexemplifications also; and they have been received and believed as trueby their students.

19. Ráma, the cosmology of the world, has been described—given by godsand sages, in hundreds of their sástras called the Ágamas; allof which you are well acquainted with.

20. Now as you are well acquainted with the descriptions, that aregiven of them in the sástras; it is not necessary to relate them againin this place. (The cosmology of the world has been given before in thenarrative of Lílá).

[Pg 1109]

21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me yet, O Venerable sir, how the great void ofthe intellect came to be produced from divine spirit; tell moreover itsextent and duration in time and space.

22. Vasishtha replied:—The great God Brahma, is without beginning andever existent and without decay; there is no beginning, midst nor endof him, nor are there any shapes of figures in his transcendent vacuum.

23. The vacuum of Brahma is without its beginning and end, and isspread unspent and unbounded to all eternity; it is this which makesthe universe, which is ever without its beginning and end.

24. The reflexion of the intellectual vacuum in its own vacuity, iscalled the universe by itself to no purpose (by itself or thehuman mind, which views the world in the wrong light of creation, andnot as the Divine Mind itself. Gloss).

25. As a man sees a fair city in his dream by night, so is the sightof this world to him, in his dream by day light. (The Sanskrit wordBhano in the text meaning reflexion, corresponds with the GreekPhano to see, and hence phantom or false sights).

26. Think not the solid rock to have any solidity in it, nor the fluidwaters any fluidity in them; do not think the empty firmament to be avacuity, nor the passing time to have any flight or counting of it.(All these are seemingly so, but they are nothing in reality).

27. All things are fixed in their formless, invariable and ideal statesin the divine intellect; but it is the fallacious and fickle nature ofthe human mind, to give and view them in different forms, according toits own fancy.

28. The mind views the non-created eternal ideas of the intellect, ascreated objects before its sight, just as it sees rocks where there areno rocks, and the sky in a skyless place in its dream.

29. As the formless and insensible mind, sees the formal[Pg 1110] world in itssleep, as if it were in its waking state; so does it see the invisibleand formless world in its visible form, during its waking hours of theday also.

30. As the motion of air always takes place amidst the air at rest(i.e. as the winds fluctuate amidst the still air); so also doththe spirit of Brahma, oscillate in his own spirit incessantly, andwithout its rise or fall.

31. This world resides in the same manner in the divine spirit ofBrahma as the property of fluidity is inherent in water; and vacuityappertains to vacuum; and as substantiality is essential to allsubstances in the abstract.

32. The world is neither adventitious nor extraneous to the soul, anddoes not occur to or transpire from it, in the life or deaths of anybody; it is causeless and comes from no cause, and is neither joinedwith nor set separate from the divine spirit.

33. The One that has no beginning nor end; nor has any indication ofitself; that is formless and is of the manner of the intellectualvacuum only, can never become the cause of the visible and materialcreation. (Therefore the world is to be supposed to exist in its idealand immaterial form, in the vacuity of the divine intellect).

34. Thus as the forms and features of a whole body, are but parts andproperties of its entirety tout ensemble; so is this vacuousworld situated, in the undivided and formless vacuity of Brahma (“asparts of one undivided whole”, Pope).

35. All this is a hiatus and quietus, without its support andsubstratum, it is but pure intelligence, without any grossness orfoulness herein; there is no entity nor nonentity here, nor cananything be said to exist or not exist (independent of the Divine Mind).

36. All this is but an air drawn city, of our imagination and dream;and everything here, appears to be stretched out in a fairy dance allabout us; but in reality it is only a calm and quiet vacuity, full withthe unchanging and undecaying spirit of God.

[Pg 1111]

37. The whole is the hollowness of the divine heart, and the vacuoussphere of the Omniscient Intellect; it is its intellection, thatreflects many a transparent image in its own sphere and to no end. Thisit is which is called the world or the image of the divine soul, whichcontinues forever and ever, (and is said—the world without end. Amen).

Argument:—Entity of Brahma and non-entity of the world,illustrated in the story of the king of Kushadwípa.

Vasishtha resumed:—The uncreated phenomenon of creation, that appearsto view, is nothing in reality. It is the transcendental principle ofsupreme Brahma, that is the only true reality.

2. It was on this subject, that I was once asked by some one, to myreply to a certain question of his; which I will now relate to you,O high-minded Ráma, for strengthening your understanding to the fullknowledge thereof.

3. There is the great island of Kushadwípa, surrounded by the seas onall sides; like a watery belt about it, and this land is renowned (forits beauty), all over the three regions of the world.

4. There is the city called Ilávatí, situated on its north easternside, and is beset by a colonnade of pillars, gilded all over withgold, and glittering with radiant beams, reaching from earth to theskies.

5. There formerly reigned a prince, known by the name of Prajnapti; whoruled on earth as the god Indra in heaven; and to whom this earth orland paid its homage (as the skies do to the regent of heaven).

6. It was on one occasion, that I happened to alight at the presence ofthis prince; as the sun descends on earth on the last day of desolation.

7. The prince hailed and adored me with offerings of flowers andpresents, made me sit by him with due reverence; then in the course ofmy conversation with him, he fondly asked me as follows.

8. Tell me sir, said he, what becomes of the world after thedestruction of all things; and when the causalities of recreation[Pg 1113] areall extinct and annihilated, in the undefinable vacuum of desolation.

9. What then becomes the prime cause of the causation of things, at therecreation of the world; and what are accompanying elements for thereproduction of objects, and how and whence they take their rise.

10. What is the world and what was the beginning of its creation; whatwas the primeval chaos, and whence is this earth? What is the air thesupport of the seas, and what is hell, which is filled by worms andinsects? (i.e. Whence are these varieties from the one source ofBrahma?)

11. What be the creatures contained in the womb of air (i.e. thecelestials), and what are they that are contained in <the> bosom of themountains (i.e. the demons); what are the elementary bodies andtheir productions, and how the understanding and its faculties havecome to existence?

12. Who is the maker of all these, and who is their witness; what isthe support of the universe, and what are these that are containedtherein? I am quite certain, that the world can never have its ultimatedestruction.

13. All the Vedas and sástras are opposed to one another, in theirdifferent views and interpretations; and every one of them has made asupposition, according to its particular view.

14. From our knowledge of the world, we know not whether it isindestructible or an unreality in itself. (i.e. If it is anideal unreality, it needs have no cause nor is it destructible at all;but should it be a reality and destructible thing, then what must bethe cause of the production and destruction thereof? Gloss).

15. Again tell me, O thou chief of sages, what is the form and cause ofthose bodies that are doomed to dwell in hell; after the demise of menon earth, and cremation and destruction of their bodies here.

16. What are the accompanying causes of the regeneration of bodies,after their destruction on death? The virtues and vices of departedsouls, being both of them formless things,[Pg 1114] cannot be theiraccompanying causes, towards the formation of their corporeal frames.

17. It is quite an absurd reasoning, that want of matter could possiblyproduce a material body; just as it is impossible to believe, thatthere should be an offspring, without the seminal cause of its parents.

18. Tell me sir, what else should be the cause, of the production ofmaterial bodies (after death); and for want of any such cause, it isimproper also, to deny the existence of a future state.

19. It is contrary to the dictates of Vedas and sástras, as also to theconviction and common sense of mankind, to deny the future state ofour existence. The resurrection of our bodies is as unavoidable as ourtransportation to a distant land by decree of law, though it be againstour wish or will.

20. How are beings born and actuated in the course of their lives, byinvisible causes which are quite unconnected with them (i.e.by the merit or demerit of the acts of their past lives, which arealtogether detached from their present bodies?). Just as the pillarsof stone were converted to gold (by word of the Bráhman), and withoutbeing gilded over by it. Say, sir, how this vast treasure was obtainedin a moment by the Bráhman. (i.e. What could be the cause ofthis preternatural event).

21. How that to be called a great one, which remains for a moment only?further what necessity is there to frame strict laws for the presentto reap harvest in future, when that does not stand good on soundreasoning?

22. Tell me sir, how do you reconcile such discordances in the Vedas,which mention the existence of a being and not being in the beginning;and tell us also that, the Not being existed before creation, andthen the Being or creation was born of the not being. (The discordantpassages are असद्बा इदमग्र आसीत् उतो सदजायत । againअसदेब इदमग्र आसीत् सदेब सोम्य इदमग्र आसीत् ।).

23. How could the primeval nonentity become Brahmá, or how could thelatter be produced from the former; or if it were the mighty vacuitywhich gave birth to Brahmá, then[Pg 1115] tell me sir, why there were no otherBrahmás also, born of its spacious womb.

24. Tell me how the vegetable and other creations, could be producedwithout their different sources; and how they derived their nature ofpropagating their kinds, by their own seeds and property.

25. Tell me why the life and death of one man, are coeval with those ofhis friend or adversary; and do people happen to obtain their wishes intheir next lives by dying in the holy places of Prayága &c.

26. Should the wishes of men, be crowned with success in their nextlives; then tell me sir, why the sky is not filled with myriads ofmoons, when the worshippers of that luminary, are daily seen to bedying with the expectation, of becoming a brilliant orb like it, in thenext state of their existence in heaven.

27. Say how can men succeed to their wishes in future, when most ofthem desire to gain the same object, and it falls to the lot of one ofthem; just as a maid expected to be wedded by many, is destined to andsecured by one man only.

28. Again how can a woman be called a wife, who is either unchaste, orleads a life of celibacy even when dwelling in her husband’s house?

29. Say sir, what is the difference between the blessing and curse,which are pronounced on the Bráhman brothers, for their sovereigntyover the seven continents on the one hand, and their having no suchthing on the other; when they remained thinking themselves as monarchsof the world in their very house.

30. The acts of piety consisting of charities, austerities andobsequious ceremonies, which are productive of unknown rewards in thenext world, and are of no benefit to their observers on earth; thenwhat is the good derived from them, if they are not attended with anyearthly benefit to the earthly body, but to a future body with which noone here has any concern. (Lit. to which none bears any affection).

31. Should it be said that the soul of the pious observer,[Pg 1116] reapsthe reward in its future state; this also is impossible because thedisembodied soul is incapable of enjoyment; and should it have anotherbody to enjoy hereafter, but of what use is that distant body to theperson of the present observer (of the pious acts)?

32. Should these acts be accompanied with any reward, either in thislife or in the next, they could be known to the actor, but in want ofthis, their observance appears to be an irreconcilable incongruity.

33. These are my doubts (in the sástras and practices of men), whichI beg you will kindly remove by your cool and clear reasoning, as themoon-light disperses the evening twilight.

34. Now sir, deign to dispel my doubts in my inquiry aftertranscendental truth, that it may conduce to my good in both worlds;because the company of the righteous, is ever fraught with very greatblessings to all people.

Argument:—Desultory replies of the sage to the foregoingquestions in the three following chapters.

Vasishtha replied:—Hear me prince, and I will clearly expound to youthe doctrine, which will root out your doubts all at once.

2. All these entities in the world, are inexistent nullities for ever;though they appear as realities in our consciousness.

3. Whatever appears in any manner in our consciousness, (either asexisting or non-existent, or as so and so); the same is thought as realas it seems to be, without our consideration of its true nature of areality or otherwise.

4. Such is the nature of this consciousness, that it is thought to beone and same with the bodiless soul, by every one who knows what it is(by his acquaintance with the science of psychology).

5. It is this knowledge (or the idea) of a thing in the mind, eitherin waking or dreaming, that they call to be its body; hence it is thiserroneous consciousness of anything, that is believed as its body, andthere is nothing else beside this that they call a solid body.

6. The world shines (or shows itself) before us, like the sights seenin a dream; and the privation of all causes towards the production ofthe (material) world, prove it to be not otherwise than the phantom ofa dream.

7. Thus this pure and immaculate knowledge of the universe, is termedthe very Brahma himself (because God is said to be infinite knowledgeonly. सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं व्रह्म). The very same shines asthe world, which is not otherwise than that.

8. Thus doth the world remain quite pure and unchanged, from everbefore and forever more; and so it is thought and[Pg 1118] said to be, by theVedas and all good and great sástras, as also by the joint assent ofall thinking men, in all ages and countries.

9. They are the most ignorant fools, and resemble the croaking frogsdwelling in the recess of dark caves and pits; who deny the soleexistence of the beings which is impressed in the consciousness of allbeings, which is full and perfect every where, and is acknowledged byall great souls.

10. There are many at present, who are deluded by their notions ofthe appearances of things, and the evidence of their senses, and havefallen into the error of understanding the gross body, as the cause ofconsciousness and inward impressions (i.e. they maintain theobjectivity of their knowledge as derived from without, and deny thesubjective consciousness derived from within).

11. They are giddy with their wrong notions, and are not worthy ofour discourse; because no conversation can be held with them that areintoxicated without intoxication, and are learned with their ignoranceor learned fools.

12. When the discourse of the learned, is not capable of removing thedoubts of men in all places; such discourse is to be understood as thefoolish talk of the universe.

13. He who relies in his belief in the sensibles only, and regardsthe believer of the invisible as a fool; such a man (i.e. theBuddhist or Charvaka), is considered for his unreasonable reasoning, asa block of stone or stony block head.

14. The fool that maintains this (materialistic) doctrine, inopposition to all rational philosophy, is said to be a frog of the darkcave (or as a blind mole of the hole); because he is blind both to thepast which is out of his sight, as also to the invisible future and isconcerned only what is present before him.

15. It is the veda and the sayings of wisem*n, and the inferencesof their right reasoning (in support of the invisible), as I havemaintained in these lectures, that can remove the doubts in thesematters.

16. If the sensible body (i.e. its sensation) be consciousness(according to the Buddhist); then why is the dead body unconsciousof anything? (To this the Buddhist retorts by saying:)[Pg 1119] Should theconscious and all pervading soul be the body, then why doth notthe dull corpse think as the living body? In reply to this foolishquestion, it is thus said in the veda:

17. This world is an imaginary city of the divine mind, in its form ofBrahmá—the creator; and it is hence that the phenomenon of the world,appears to our minds as a phantom in our dream (or as a reflex of thesame).

18. Therefore all this that you see, is but the creation of the divineintellect, and an intellectual entity in itself; and you are not amissin your judgement, if you consider them as phantoms in your dream, andappearing in the vacuity of your mind.

19. Hence this earth and the skies, these hills and cities, are all butappearances in the void of the intellect, and conception of your mind,as those appearing in the reveries of dream, or as air built castles.

20. It is the dense vacuum of self-consciousness, which is called thegreat Brahmá or the personal god of creation; and it is the displayof his will in the concrete, which is known as Virát or the visibleuniverse; thus is the pure and discrete consciousness of Brahma,condensed into the form of the world.

21. Whatever is imagined in the imaginary city of Brahma, the same isconceived as existent in reality; as you conceive the objects of yourdesire or fancy, to be present before you in actuality (i.e. Thethought of a thing appears as the thing itself).

22. So whatever is thought of in the fancied city, or fairy land ofone’s imagination at any time; the same seems to be present before himfor the time being, as you see in the air-drawn castle of your fancy.

23. Hence as Brahma in his form of the mind, thinks of the action ofliving and quietus of death bodies; so are they thought of by allmankind.

24. After the great dissolution of the world (and dissolution of allthings), it is said to be reproduced and renovated anew from nothing;but as the want of any material cause, cannot[Pg 1120] produce the materialworld, it is certain there is no material being in existence.

25. Brahmá—the lord of creatures, having got rid of the world uponits dissolution, was freed also from all his remembrance and ideas ofcreation for ever; therefore it is the reflexion of divine light onlywhich appears as the world before us.

26. Thus the supreme soul of Brahma, reflected itself in itself in thebeginning, in the manner of an imaginary castle of his will, which wasair-drawn as the visible sky in the invisible vacuum, and known as thecosmos or world subsisting in empty space.

27. As an imaginary castle is the creation of the brain or intellect,and presents to our minds only its intellectual form alone; so does theworld appear to us in its intellectual form, and only as an evolutionof the intellect, and without having any other cause for its appearance.

28. Whether there be any body or not any where, there is the vacuousintellect which is every where (i.e. the hollow space of themind comprehends both the plenum as well as the vacuum of the world).And know the divine spirit to pervade all over this totality, whetherit be the embodied duality or vacuous unity.

29. Hence the vacuous mind of a dead body, beholds the figure of thewhole world within its vacuity; the empty mind of a living being, seesthe shapes both of solid and subtile bodies, in its imagination ordream. (It means to say that, the death of the body does not involvethe death of the mind).

30. As the living man thinks this immaterial world, to be a solid massof dull matter; so doth the dead person think this vacuous universe, asa solid and substantial existence lying exposed before him in its mind.

31. But as the enlightened or awakened soul of a living body, sees notrace of scenes of its dream upon its waking; so the redeemed soul of adead being sees no trace of the objects-sight in this world, upon itsredemption and beatification in the next world.

[Pg 1121]

32. The very same is the case with the enlightened soul, of every bodyin this world; that it bears only the inward conception of it withinitself; but no outward perception thereof without. Therefore there isno material reality in existence, as there is no substantial causalityin vacuity.

33. As the sleeping man sees the visionary world of his dream, inthe light of a real existence; so the unenlightened person views thephenomenal world, as a sober reality before him; and so do the soulsof the dead, deem the empty void of air as the world of their departedspirits. (Thus there are three different worlds, for the sleeping,waking and departed souls of men).

34. The unpeopled or open air, appears as the earth and heaven, andfull of mountains &c. as before to the souls of the departed (fromtheir bearing those impressions with them even to the next world, andso on throughout all their future transmigration).

35. The departed soul perceives its separation from a dead body, andthinks of its regeneration in another frame on earth; where it willhave its enjoyments and suffering again as before.

36. The soul never gets rid of this delusion of its regeneration, (andof its desire of renovation also), so long as it neglects to resort tothe means, of obtaining its salvation and final liberation; it is bymeans of its knowledge of truth and absence of desire, that is freedfrom its error of reproduction.

37. Hence it is the consciousness of the soul, of its righteous orunrighteous desire; that represents the picture of this airy world, inthe hollow sphere of the mind. (Thus the world is only the picture andproduction of one’s own desire).

38. The world is therefore neither of a substantial nor vacuous form,but the display of divine intelligence; the want of this knowledgeis the source of all misery to man, but its true knowledge asrepresentation of divine wisdom, is fraught with all bliss and joy.

Argument:—Answer to the question of future rewards andpunishment of departed souls in another world.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear me now to tell you, why men happen to meetwith their (unexpected) good or fortune at home; and in the same mannerhow rewards and retributions, come to attend on departed souls fromunforeseen causes in the far distant (or next) world.

2. You know the whole world to be the volitional city (or fabric)of Divine will, and appearing as phenomenal to our outward sight,and as noumenal in the light of our inward insight of it, and asBrahma himself in its spiritual light. (i.e. God has so willedthe world, as to be viewed in the triple light of the physical,intellectual and spiritual also).

3. In this volitional city, everything appears in the same light, asone would behold it in any of its different aspects.

4. As in your own house, you are master of the direction of youroffspring, and of the disposal of your things and affairs as please;so is the Lord the sole disposer and dispensator of all things in thisworld of his will, as he likes of his own accord.

5. As in the desired dwelling of your liking, you find everything to beas well disposed as you wish it to be; so doth he direct and disposeall things in this world of his.

6. The disorder that there appears to take place in the order ofnature, is to be attributed to the Divine Will as the sovran law of all.

7. The good or evil which waits on men, owing to the obedience to ortransgression of law; is both attributable to the Divine Will (whichhas originated the laws and ordained their results).

8. It is the dispensation of the Divine will also, whereby all livingbodies have their perceptions of worldly things; just as[Pg 1123] they havethe conception of the existence of the world, which in reality has noentity of it.

9. It is by will of the divine intellect, that everything appears tobe existent before us; as it is the oscitation and occlusion or thegaping and closing of the intellect, which causes the appearance anddisappearance of the world to our view.

10. The king said:—Tell me sir, if the world was the production of thedivine will, why was it not known to exist before with the eternity ofthe Will divine, and why and when it came to be manifested and knownto others afterwards; tell me also, whether the world is an unstableand vanishing appearance in the air, or it has any fixity in the divinemind or stability in nature.

11. Vasishtha replied:—Such is the nature of the vacuous andvolitional city of divine intellect; that it comes to being and notbeing in succession, in the states of repeated waking dreams ofcreation, and in the sleeping oblivion of its desolation.

12. Like the mud built house of playful boys, and the air drawn castlesof fanciful men, do the appearances of creation, appear both as realand unreal in the divine intellect as well as to our minds.

13. As you build and break your imaginary city in the air, and makeand unmake a fabric of your will elsewhere; whether it be of your ownor choice or for any other reason, so it is with the Divine will, toconstruct and protract or retract or annul any of its works adlibitum.

14. Thus are all beings, continually rising and falling, in thisvacuous city of the divine will; which is ever shining in its nature,with the pure light of the divine mind. (God throws his own light onthe work of his will).

15. The whole plenum of the world is a vacuum, and full with thedense intelligence of omniscience; therefore it is this omniscientintelligence, which doth still whatever it thinks upon and wills. (Thispassage shows that the Vedánta Brahma, is not inactive or Nishkriya asmany believe; but the living[Pg 1124] God, and sole agent of all things anddirector of all accidents in this world).

16. Therefore it is not the hidden but self manifest God, that does allthings even at the distance of Millions of miles, and myriads of ages,as if they lay before him at the present time.

17. So there is nothing in any country or in any world, which is notknown nor thought of by the sole and unhidden soul of all. (The glossapplies it to every individual soul, which is conscious of its meritsand demerits everywhere).

18. As a brilliant gem reflects its light and shade within itself, sodoth the gem of the intellect reflect by its own light the variousvicissitudes of the world in itself. (i.e. The human mind issensible of its deserts).

19. Laws and prohibitions, which are necessary for the preservationof people, are implanted in the human soul. (As they are the eternalvarieties of the divine mind), and accompany it every where with theirjust rewards.

20. The soul never sets nor rises (i.e. It neither dies norrevives, but supposes itself as such by its error only); It is Brahmahimself and his reflexion in others, and emanating always from thedivine soul its source and origin.

21. As from being the viewer, it supposes itself to be the view, andthinks its imaginary world as a visible phenomenon; (i.e.believes itself both as the subjective as well as objective); so itthinks itself to be born, living and dying (by the like error of itsown).

22. When the soul of its own nature ceases to cast its reflexion, orsuppresses it within itself, and remains quietly in the vacuous sphereof divine intellect, by assimilating itself with the universal soulof Brahma, it is then said to be quietus of quiet in death.(The word for death in the text is Sánta-Samita or extinct, orinstinct in the divine soul).

23. The emission and intromission of its reflexion, are as natural tothe ignorant and imperfect living soul of animal beings; as oscillationand calm are congenital with air (or as respiration and inspirationwith breath).

[Pg 1125]

24. Now as you see in the city of your imagination, the growth, decayand death of people, at different times and places;—

25. So it is the nature of this imaginary city of God, to exhibit thesechanges everywhere, as in the cases of animals, vegetables and allthings in all the three worlds.

26. But God neither wills nor does everything himself, in this creationof his will, but he acts by general laws and secondary causes, asin the cricket play of boys, and growth of grass from grass, andproduction of trees and their fruits &c. from seeds.

27. It is the nature of the almighty intellect of God, to bring forthforthwith to being whatever it wills to be and appear. (The almightythought, will or word, is variously said to be the prime cause of all).

28. All things being originally of intellectual form, appear afterwardsin various forms, and with different natures; as the almighty intellectinvests them with.

29. Hence everything here, is verily of an intellectual form, by theiroriginating from the divine intellect; and as the intellect includesall things in itself, it is omniform and shows itself in any form itlikes.

30. This very intellect is the omniscient and universal soul, withouthaving its beginning, middle or end; it is omnipotent and somethingwhich is nothing, and an entity appearing as non-entity; It appearssuch as it remains anywhere, and shows itself as anything; it is theorigin of all things and beings, and the source of all vegetables andgrass.

Argument:—Reconciliation of the opposite results of virtuous andsinful acts, on one and same person at the same time.

Vasishtha continued saying:—The life of a person is dear and useful tohim, as long as he lives and not afterwards; but hear me tell you thegood of a man’s dying in some holy place, with a wish for future rewardin his next life.

2. God has ordained certain virtues and merits to certain places, evenfrom the beginning of his imaginary city of this world (as to all otherthings at their very beginning).

3. Whatever merit is assigned to any place, the same awaits on the soulof the person, after its release from bondage, by his performance ofthe acts of piety enjoined by the sástras.

4. Hence any great sin that is committed by any body anywhere, iseither partly or wholly effaced by the good act of the person,according to comparative merit of the holy place, or the degree ofabsolution in the mind of the penitent sinner.

5. In any case of the insignificance of the sin, with regard to thegreater sacerdotalism of the place; there the sinner is quite absolvedfrom his guilt, and attains the object of his wish (in his future life).

6. But in case of the equality of the merits of penitence, with theholiness of the place; the penitent man receives two bodies in his nextlife, that is both a physical body and spiritual soul.

7. Such is the effect of the primeval guilt and merit of mankind, thatthey are endowed with double bodies, consisting of their physicalframes and spiritual souls (the one maculate and the other immaculate)and such the divine soul even from before.

[Pg 1127]

8. The principle is called Brahma in its sense of the whole, and asBrahmá—the totality of the living soul jíva; and also asaham or the ego, meaning any living soul in particular; and ashe remains in any manner of the whole or part, so he manifests himselfin his semblance of the world.

9. The reflexion of purity acquired in some holy place, appears to thepenitent soul in the same manner; as it appears in its contrary lightto the guilty soul, which is not so absolved from its sin in any holyplace. (These different reflexions, present the appearance of heavenlybliss to the soul of one, and that of hell torments to the other, as intheir visions of paradise and Styx in dream).

10. The one sees the visions of his own death, and the weeping of hisliving relatives; and deems himself as a departed ghost to the nextworld, all alone and without a single soul beside him.

11. He sees also the deaths of his friends there, and thinks also thathe hears the wailings of their relations at that place; he sees thechimeras of all these in his phrensy, as a man of deranged humours seesthe spectres of bugbears in his delirium.

12. So it happens with great souls also, to see the sights both of goodgrace and affright, according to the measure of their merit or guiltin this life; and thus thousands of hopeful and hideous shapes, floatabout in the imaginations of men, owing to the purity and depravity oftheir natures.

13. The friends of the dying man, lying insensible as a dead body; weepand wail over his corpse, and then take him to the funeral ground forhis cremation.

14. But the guiltless man being accompanied by his self-conscious andrighteous soul sees the approach of his decrepitude and death, withfirmness and without any feeling of sorrow (as if he had no decay nordeath).

15. With his present body he sees himself to be a living being; andwith his invisible part or inward soul, he sees his conquest over deathby the merit of his holy pilgrimage (and the immortality of his soul inthe future world).

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16. The guiltless man is in fear of his death for a moment only, but isconscious of the indestructibility of his inward soul, as a man cladin mail, is dauntless of the shafts of his unarmoured antagonist. (Thepure soul is invulnerable to the shafts of death).

17. In this manner the relatives of the deceased, find his pure soul,to obtain its immortality after his death; and that life and death areindifferent to the virtuous and purified person.

18. The sights of all the three worlds, are equally fallacious both intheir tangible and intangible forms; as the vision of one object in adream, is as false as another in their visionary nature. (The glosssays that, one error succeeds another, in the same way as one lie isfollowed by another).

19. We have clear conceptions of the fallacies, arising in our minds,both in our dreams and imagination; but the fallacies of our wakingdreams by broad daylight, are more obvious and never less conspicuousto our apprehension than either of them (the latter being more generaland lasting than the former ones).

20. The king said:—But tell me sir, how virtue and vice, both of whichare bodiless things (as being the abstract qualities of our actions),assume to themselves the bodily forms of living beings, in the courseof the transmigration of our souls. (Virtuous souls being blessed withhuman bodies, while vicious spirits are doomed to suffer in variousbrutish forms).

21. Vasishtha replied:—There is nothing impossible to the creativepower of Brahmá, to be produced in the imaginary fabric of this worldof his mind; nor is it impracticable to the substantive divine willto give substantial forms to understand things. (The substantive willis called satyasankulpa which brings the inexistent to realexistence).

22. There is nothing which is unimaginable, and cannot be produced bythe mind of Brahmá; as it is with us to have no idea of anything andnothing in being, of which we have no imagination in our finite minds.(Brahmá has given forms to[Pg 1129] all the imaginary ideas of his mind, whichwe cannot do to our formless and abstract idea of any).

23. A visionary city in the dream and an imaginary castle of fancy, doboth present the like ideal form to the mind; and yet both of them arecomposed of a train of ideas, which appear as real objects for the timebeing. (So the ideal seems as real for a time).

24. All the numerous thoughts, which lie as a dead and dormant mass, inthe states of our deep and sound sleep; appear to us in endless formsin the vision of our dream and waking our imagination and leave theirtraces in the memory.

25. Who is there that has not had the notion, of the aerial castles ofhis dream and imagination; and found them not to be composed of ourconcepts only, in the airy world of our vacuous consciousness.

26. Therefore what thing is there, that is not capable of beingproduced in this ærial world, which is the production of the airyimagination of the vacuous intellect; and what thing also which issubstantially produced therefrom? (The creatures of the mind, havemental forms only).

27. Therefore it is this fallacy only, which appears in the form ofthe visible universe; where there is nothing in real existence orinexistence; but all things appear to be in esse and nonesse, in the Nabhas and in the Nubibus of the divinemind.

28. Anything that is perceived in any manner, the same is thought asa manifestation of its Áker in the same manner; and the enlightenedseekers of truth, find no impropriety in their belief as such. (Theseas they change, are the varied God. Thomson’s “The Seasons”).

29. Hence when a man is taught by the tenets of his religion, to hopefor the enjoyment of flowery banks (lit.—hills), and streams flowingwith nectar in paradise (lit.—heaven); it is very probable that hewill meet with the same things, in his future life in the next world.(So the Moslem is taught to expect the gratification of all his carnaldesires in heaven, as the promised rewards of his holy Koran. TheHindus likewise have bodily delights to expect in their differentheavens).

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30. Hence the acts that are done in this world by any body, areattended with their like rewards unto him in the next; and there is noinconsistency in this belief, though it appears so to the unbeliever(The adage—as you sow, so shall you reap, holds equally true in everyreligion with regard to future retribution, as in every case herebelow).

31. Should there be anything, which may be said to be permanent in thisworld, it must be ever present in the view of its viewer; let then anyman say upon this criterion, which he does not lose the sight of allother things before his eye sight, except the ideas of things in hismind, which are ever present in his knowledge, and never lost sight ofin his consciousness.

32. I have given you the analogy of our dreams and thoughts, to provethe essentiality of our notions and ideas; and whereas the worldsappertain to the will and subsists in the mind of omniscience, they arenot otherwise than the essence of the Great Brahma Himself.

33. As there is nothing wanting or impossible to be produced, in theærial castle of your imagination; so there is nothing which does notand cannot exist in the will and mind of the almighty.

34. Whatsoever is thought of in any form, in the Divine Mind, thesame remains fixed therein in the very form; and the same appears tobe situated in the same nature before our views in its photo or in ascenography.

35. Hence this semblance of the Divine Mind, is perceived only by ourinternal senses, and not perceptible to the external organs, or to bothof these at once; because it is for our minds only to perceive theimpressions of the eternal mind, and to impel the internal organs (bytheir inward efforts), to receive those reflexions.

36. As the lord has willed everything at first, so it lasts with him tothe very last of his creation (i.e. from the very beginning ofhis Sankalpa, to the end of the kalpa epoch); when his will of creatingthe world anew, gives another form to the state of things in future.

37. The Lord manifests himself as he wills, in the manner of[Pg 1131] his will,and in the form of another world in every kalpa duration of creation;as the minds of men come to see another world and another state ofthings in their each successive dream.

38. There is nothing which does not exist, in this worldly city ofDivine will, and all that exists therein is naught but the productionof the Divine Intellect; therefore this world is to be known, as fullof the forms of the productive mind of God.

Argument:—End of Vasishtha’s Replies to the important queries,and his showing the unity of the world with Brahma himself.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—Now hear me tell you in reply to thequestion, why the heaven is not filled with a hundred full moons, ifit were the wish of a hundred persons to shine as such a luminary onfuture, and if the wishes of all are crowned with success in their nextstate of being. (The souls of the pious are said to twinkle as stars inheaven).

2. Those that aspired to become as bright as the full moon of heaven,became actually so in their conception of themselves as such in thesphere of their minds; and not by their situation in the vault of thesky or in the orb of that luminary.

3. Say who has ever and anywhere, got into the imaginary city ofanother; and who has ever got any fancied treasure, except the framerof the fancy and the fabricator of the wished for wealth. (Every one isthe master of his own Utopia and delights in his hobby horse).

4. Every one has a heaven of his own, in the utopia of his creation;wherein he is situated and shines as a full bright moon, and withoutit* phases of the wane and waste.

5. All those aspirants to luminosity, had thought of entering into themoon of his own mind; and there he found himself to rest at last, withfull light of that luminary and delight of his conscious soul.

6. Each of them thought of entering into the disc of the moon shiningin their minds, and felt themselves glad in their situation, as if theywere seated in the orb of the celestial moon.

7. Whatever one seeks and searches after, the same becomes con-naturalwith his consciousness; and in the case of his firm[Pg 1133] belief in the samestate, he thinks and feels himself to be the very same.

8. As every aspirer to the state of the full moon, came to be such inhis respective conception of that luminary; so the suitors of the samebride in marriage, became wedded to her according to his own conceptionof hers. (Every one imagines his doxy, as a fairy paragon of beauty).

9. The one pure maiden that is thought of being taken to wife, bymany men in their minds; is never defiled by any one of them in hercharacter, by their simple enjoyment of her ideal only. (The ideal isnot tangible possession).

10. As the sovereign ruler of the seven continents, holds his sway overthem, without ever going out of his city; so the soul passes to themall, by remaining in the precincts of its body: and so does every mansee his imaginary castle, in the sphere of his own house.

11. When the whole universe owes its origin to the imagination of itsomniscient originator—the self born Brahma; what can it be otherwise,than an intangible vacuum and quite calm and quiet in itself. (Themoving bodies are the fixed figures of the divine mind, and appear tobe turning round like the pictures in a panorama or the objects in ascenograph).

12. Now hear me tell you of the unknown and invisible results of theacts piety, such as charity, obsequeous rites, religious austeritiesand the mutterings of holy mantras, which accrue to the departed ghostsof bodily beings in the next world.

13. The souls marked with traces of pious acts in them, come to viewthem vividly as their actual works, and painted in as lively colours astheir dreams, by fabrications of their lively intellects.

14. The carnal mind distrusting the reality of these impressions ofconsciousness, and disregarding the internal operation of the inwardintellect; becomes restless for its sensuous enjoyment and exercise ofthe outward organs of action, until by abatement of this fervour, it isrestored to its inward peace and tranquility.

[Pg 1134]

15. It is the theme of early poets which tells us, that the impressionsof the acts of piety and charity which are imprinted in the intellect,are reflected over the passive soul in the next world, when theconscious soul continues to keep the gratification of those acts.

16. Thus the rewards of charity and uncharitableness, are equally feltin the gratification and dissatisfaction of the soul in this worldalso, where everything is by our feeling of it.

17. Thus have answered fully to whatever you have asked of me; and nowknow from all this, that the sensible world is an intangible dream, andan air drawn spectacle of the mind.

18. The prince rejoined:—But please to tell me sir, how could theintellect alone and itself before the production of the body; and howcan a light subsist without its receptacle of a lamp or lantern.

19. Vasishtha replied:—The sense in which you use the world body, isquite unknown to the spiritualist, who discard the material meaning ofthe term, as they reject the idea of the dancing of stones in air. (Thelearned know the spiritual body only).

20. The meaning of the word body, is the same as that of Brahma (who isall in all); and there is no difference in the meaning of the two, asthere is none between the words fluid and liquid.

21. The body is a visionary appearance, and the great body of Brahma,is likened unto the figure of a phantom in vision, which representsthe forms of all things as in dream in the stupendous fabric of theuniverse. [Brahma is more likely the phantasmagoria that shows allforms in it. Gloss].

22. But the difference between thy dream or vision and spectrum ofBrahma, consist in the former representing the figures of thy previousthoughts alone, which disperse and vanish upon thy waking; but theuniverse which is exhibited in spectrum of Brahma, is not so evanescentas that of other.

23. What is thing then we call the body, and how does it appear intous in the shape of something in our dream; and[Pg 1135] why doth anythingappearing as a reality in dream, appear as nothing and vanish as anerror upon our waking.

24. There is no waking, sleeping or dreaming, nor any other conditionof being, in the Turíya or transcendent state of Brahma [as inthose of the divine hypostases of Brahmá, Virát and others]. It issomething as the pure and primeval light and as the transparent air,all quiet and still, [as the infinite eternity].

25. It is the same as the unknown and inscrutable light, which showsand glows before us to this day; It is the same primeval and primordiallight, that showed first the sight of the world to view, as if it werea dream in the gloom of night. (Light was nature’s first born, andbrought forth all nature from it).

26. As in passing from one district to another, the body thoughproceeding onward, is ever in the midst of its circuit, and yet neverfixed at any spot; so are all things in their endless rotation in thisworld, whether singly or collectively.

27. The sight of the world, like that of a dream, presents <a> favourableaspect to some minds, but it presents a clear and serene prospect tomen of unclouded intellects.

28. The vacuum as well as the plenum of objects, and the reflexionas likewise the eclipse or adumbration of things; the existence andinexistence of the world and matter, and the unity and duality of thedivine entity, are all but the extraneous phases or aspects of the samevacuous intellect.

29. The world is entirely or completely evolution from the fulness ofthe deity; and stands as a complete counterpart of the original; it isneither a shining or unshining body by itself, but is as bright as thecontents of a crystal within its bowels.

30. Wherever there is the evolution of the world in the intellect,there is the presence of the subtile soul also at that place, andwhenever there is a jot of thought anywhere, it is attended with thethought of the world also. (The mind and soul are one with creation,and the same thing).

31. The vacuum of intellect is present everywhere (pervading andcomprehending the whole). And this omnipresence[Pg 1136] is the divinepresence (which engrosses and envelopes this all) which is termed theworld. [The word world-jagat passing [in our right], is spirituallysánta or quiet].

32. The divine soul is as quiet and unchangeable, as this universe isstable and stationary; and it is the fluctuation of the supreme mind,which causes these variations in the face of the city of the divinewill [or the world].

33. The impossibility of any other inference [of the world’s dualityor its being aught otherwise than the divine entity]; proves itnecessarily to be of the very same essence. Any unreasonable hypothesisof sophists is inconsistent with this subject [of the absolute unity].

34. The joint assent of the common belief of mankind, the testimonyof the sástras, and the dicta of the Vedas, are established andincontrovertible truths. Hence nobody can have any doubt in regard tothe real entity of the Divine spirit.

35. This being confessed it becomes evident, that the world is thedeity itself; and when the world appears as one with the deity, itis seen in our clairvoyance to be extinct in the Divine essence.(Clairvoyance is charama-sákshat kára or the last sight ofcreation at one’s dying moment; when the world disappears, and eternityappears full open to view. Gloss).

36. From this analogy of the ultimate evanescent sight of the world, itwill be evident to the living soul, that the sight of the phenomenalis wholly lost before it in the noumenal. This is the doctrine ofcosmotheism, wherein whole nature is seen in nature’s God.

37. He who is acquainted with the sphere of his intellect, is notunacquainted with the fact of the dependency of the arbour of the worldto it, he sees the three worlds in himself, in either of his two statesof bondage and liberation. (The fettered soul is fastened to the sightof the material and temporal world; but the liberated soul views it inits spiritual light).

38. The visible world though so manifest to view, is entirely lost tosight upon its right knowledge; and the knower thereof in its light,becomes like the setting sun, wholly invisible to public sight, andremains as mute as a clod of silent stone.

[Pg 1137]

39. The way that is established by the Vedas, and received by thegeneral assent of wisem*n; is to be acknowledged, as the right pathleading to sure success (vox populi vox dei).

40. He who adheres steadily to his own purpose, by utter disregard ofall other objects in his view; is said to be firmly fixed to his point,and is sure to reap his success at the end.

41. Everything appears to one in the same light, as he is accustomed toview and take it for; and whether this object of his faith is a trueor false one, it appears just the same to any body as he is wont tobelieve it.

42. This is the conclusion of your question, as I have determined anddelivered to you; now be quick and walk your way with perfect ease ofyour mind, health of your body and agility of your limbs.

Argument:—Relation of Brahma as the all-pervading spirit, and ofthe means of the presentation of spiritual being before one.

Vasishtha resumed:—As I was sitting relating these things to theprince, he honoured me with his obeisance; and then thinking I haddispensed my task to him, rose up to proceed on my aerial journey (fromthe Ilávrita-Varsha of Kushadwípa).

2. Thus I have related unto you this day, O most intelligent Ráma,regarding the omnipresence of the Divine spirit; keep this vacuous viewof Brahma before your sight, and proceed everywhere with the peace ofyour mind (as you are ever living and moving in the Lord).

3. Know all this to be Brahma itself, and a nameless and unsubstantialvoid only; it is something unborn and increate, all calm and quiet, andwith out its beginning, middle and end. (It is infinity in space andeternity in duration).

4. It is said to be the reflexion of the intellect, and named as Brahmafrom its immensity, it is termed the most transcendent, and somethingwithout any designation at all.

5. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how can we have the sights of thecelestial, and of the Siddha and Sádhya spirits, of Yama, Brahmá and ofthe heavenly Vidyádharas and choristers; and tell me also sir, how thepeople of the other spheres can be visible to us.

6. Vasishtha replied:—The celestial siddhas, Sádhyas, the gods Yamaand Brahmá, and the Vidyádhara demigods; these together with all otherbeings of great souls and wondrous might;—

7. Are all visible to you both by day and night, and above, below,behind and ever before you, if you will but look at them[Pg 1139] with the eyesof your mind; but if you shut your mental eye against spirituality, youcan never have the sight of spirit presented before your view. (Thispassage is illustrated in the story of Chudaloka. Gloss).

8. These beings being habituated to be viewed in our minds, are neverafar from us, and as they are represented to be volitive or self willedbeings, they are said to be ever roving everywhere. (The spirits are oftwo kinds; some stationary in their particular lokas or spheres; andothers to be wandering about. Gloss).

9. These volitional beings are as fickle as the living creatures ofthis earth of ours; and as the volatile winds, which are blowing atrandom in every direction.

10. These resemble the airy creatures of your imagination and dream,which hover and gather about you by day and night; while the othersare devoid of their volition and motion, and are settled stationary intheir respective spheres.

11. If you can in the calm quietness of your mind and soul, securethe reflexion of any of these spirits in your silent and steadfastmeditation; you can without fail, have the visitation of the same inthe inmost recess of your soul (and hold your secret communion with italso. Gloss).

12. In this manner do men see the gods as they see the siddhas, arrayedwith all their majesty and glory, as they are feigned to be in theirintense meditations. (Dhyánenaivapara-devah).

13. Now as men of steady minds, find themselves to be soaring toheaven, in the company of the siddhas and clad in all their glory;those of fickle and unsubdued minds, have to take great pains, in orderto confine the fleeting object of their contemplation under theircontrol. (It is often dangerous to the unadept novice in meditation, tolet slip the object of his contemplation from his grasp).

14. The world is altogether an unsubstantial and imperceptible thing;and is ever as silent and a serene void, as the vacuum of the intellect(or the Divine mind). It appears however[Pg 1140] as a solid and compactmass, according as the notion we have of it in our consciousness.(i.e. This nothing is thought of <as> something, according toour mistaken notion or conception of it).

15. It does not exist in our unconsciousness, nor does it appear to bein existence or otherwise it is not dull, insensible and unthinkingbeings; it is a vacuity and nullity, and utterly an intangible andimperceptible thing in our sensibility and unconsciousness of it.

16. It is the nature of the intellect to reflect in itself, and allthat is seen about us, is the shadow of that reflexion; the knowledgeof substantiality in this shadowy reflection, proceeds from the vanityof the intellect, and not from its nature which <is> free from mistake.

17. There can be no talk of causation, production or vegetation, inthe nature of the universe; which being an absolute void, is entirelydevoid of the elements of cause and effect. (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).

18. That which appears to be produced, is only a void in the midst ofprimeval vacuum (teo et beo); nor can there be the attribution of unityor duality to the infinite vacuity.

19. Yet the world appears as something existent in your mind; and asvisible before your eyes; and this happens in the same manner as youhave the consciousness and sight of your dreams; in the unruffled calmof your hollow sleep.

20. As imagination causes the mountains and mountainous regions, torise in the hollow sphere of our minds; but neither is the one northe other found to be really existent therein; such is this creationan airy working of the divine mind (and leaving no trace of it leftbehind).

21. Hence it is the nature of the wise and sapient, to remain as quietand mute as motionless blocks of wood or stone; and the character ofgreat minds, to manage themselves as wooden puppets, moving wholly asthey are moved by the prime mobile power of God alone (Without beingactuated by their own desire, or deeming themselves as free agents).

[Pg 1141]

22. As the waves are seen to roll about on the surface waters, and asthe eddies are whirling round and hurling headlong into the deep; sothe whole creation and all created things, turn about the pivot of thegreat Brahma alone. (Not an atom herein, has an excentric course of itsown).

23. As vacuity is inborn in the firmament, and undulations are immanentin the air; so are these creations inherent and inseparably connectedwith the divine spirit, in their amorphous or formless and idealshapes. (This passage maintains the idealistic theory of the ancients).

24. As an air drawn castle of our will or imagination, presentsa substantial shape before us with all its unsubstantialness; sodoes this world appear as a compact frame exhibited before us,notwithstanding its situation in the formless mind of Brahma.

25. All these three worlds, that we are accustomed to believe as realones, and as seats of our temporal as well as spiritual concerns; areall void and formless, and as unreal ones as the airy castles of ourimagination.

26. As it is the thought of our minds, that creates full populouscities in them; so it is the thought of the mind of God, that createsthese numerous worlds, and presents them to our minds and eyes.

27. Though ever and all along thought as a reality, this visible worldbears no meaning at all; and resembles the sight of a man’s own deathin his dream.

28. As a man sees the funeral of his dead body, conducted by his son inhis dream; so the unreal world is seen as a reality, in as much as itis reflected as such by its supreme contriver.

29. Both the entity and non-entity of the cosmos or world, constitutethe corpus of the immaculate deity; just as a fictitious name appliedto a person, makes no difference in his personage.

30. Whether what I have said is true or not (that the siddhas andothers are mere imaginary or spiritual beings),[Pg 1142] you have nothing tolose or gain therefrom (because we have no concern whatever with them);and as it is useless for wise men to expect any reward by castingfruits into the Phálgu river, so it is of no good to the intelligentwho have known the true God, to take the pains of invoking the aid ofthe minor gods instead of Him.

Argument:—Thinking God as the Ego, Brahmá and the creation, andthe description of God.

Vasishtha resumed:—The man that considers himself as the Ego, from hispossession of the intellect and intellectual powers in him; elevateshim to the rank of Brahmá and contains the whole world in himself.

2. As the Lord Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha remained in this state (of thetotality of souls) he was not then the creator of the world; but wasalike the increate Brahma—the everlasting God, as he continued fromall eternity. (Brahmá assimilating himself to the impersonal God, hadno personality of himself, so the holy trinity was all One, beforethe Lord caused his coeternal son to create the world; as nothing wascreated but by the son).

3. It is in our consciousness, that the world appears in this manner,and is like the mirage in a desert, where its very unreality showsitself as a reality. (Hence our consciousness, is not always the testof truth).

4. It is since the creation, that the primeval vacuum began to present,the blunder or falsity of the world in itself; but how and whencearose this blunder, unless it were the presentation of Brahma himself.(Delusion is God also).

5. The world is a whirlpool (a revolving sphere), in the vast ocean ofBrahma (i.e. in the great expanse of vacuum). Where then is thequestion of unity or duality in this, or the talk of the dualism ofthe eddy from the waters of the deep, or how can there be the topic ofunity in want of a duality. (The world is therefore Brahma-dharma or anhypostasis of God. Gloss).

6. The great Brahma is profoundly quiet, and having his intellectinherent in himself, he is conscious of his being the[Pg 1144] great or soleEgo (or the totality of beings) in his mind, and sees himself as themidst of the vast expanse of vacuity.

7. As fluctuation is inherent in air, and heat is inbred in fire; andas the moon contains its coolness in itself, so does the Great Brahmabrood over the eternal ideas of things, contained in the cavity of hisfathomless mind.

8. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how does the divine mind come to thinkof and brood upon his creation; when the eternal intellect is everemployed in its process of intellection. The course of Divine thoughtbeing unobstructed from eternity to eternity, its even tenor cannotbe supposed to be now and then turned to the act of creation, or evensaid to be brought in its action and motion, since the time that thiscreation first began to exist (There can be no talk of the beginning orend of the world before eternity).

9. Vasishtha replied:—It is even so, O Ráma! the great Ego of Godalways thinks of everything in itself; and the increate and everexistent spirit of God, has never anything unknown to his knowledge.(The evolution and involution of the world, are known by the terms ofits creation and annihilation).

10. The vacuous is ever and every where present both in creation andnon-creation (i.e. both before as well as after it); and thereis nothing that is known to him as existent or nonexistent at anytime (since the ignorant know the world as existent, and the learnedconsider it a nihility; but the Lord knows them all in himself).

11. As the mind is conscious of its fluctuation, and the moon of hercoldness; and as the air knows its voidness, so doth Brahma knowhimself as the Ego, and never thinks himself without the other. (Theyare Misra or combined together).

12. Such is the entity of God, and never unlike to or otherwise thanthis; and whereas the world is without its beginning and end, it mustbe as imperishable as Brahma himself. (The world is without end).

13. It is only from your want of sufficient intelligence, and hearingof or prejudice in the word non-ego; that you are led to thebelief of a duality, in the undualistic unity of the Deity.

[Pg 1145]

14. Never does any body nor anything here, think of itself of anythingwhatever; there is none and naught whatsoever, that can think unless itis the same with the Divine Ego.

15. The apparent threefold world, ever appears in this manner; as onewith and inseparable from God that dwells alike and evenly in all,which composes one uniform whole, without admixture of any diversity orduality (all which blend together in harmony in one universal unity).

16. Know O Ráma, that is nothing like a rock or tree, is produced inempty vacuity; so these seeming solid worlds, can never be produced inthe vacuous spirit of Brahma (but are all mere phantoms of what theyappear to be) know this, and go on freely in your own way.

17. Precepts to men of little intelligence and doubtful minds, fail topersuade them to the knowledge of truth; and so long as they can notcomprehend the unity, they are ever apt to believe in the multiplicityof objects.

18. Neither precepts nor sástras, can lead the ignorant to theknowledge of truth, unless they can get rid of their prejudice ofdiversity, which the creator Brahmá, has spread over the minds of men.

19. Ráma rejoined:—I understand sir, what you say (regarding the egoas the agent); but I beseech you to explain it by some illustration,for my clear knowledge of it.

20. What does the supreme Brahma do, by his assuming the title ofego or thinking agent to himself; you know all this (by your vastknowledge), though it is not quite satisfactory to your audience.

21. Vasishtha replied:—The supreme One that was quite indistinctbefore (as the undistinguishable chaos); becomes after his assumptionof the title ego to himself, divided and distinguished into thedistinct essences of vacuum, space and its directions and time with allits divisions. (The ego itself is diversified into these various forms).

22. The ego then assuming its personality, finds many such distinctionsappearing before itself; which are quite imperceptible[Pg 1146] in its state ofimpersonality. (The personal soul only, is conscious of these).

23. The knowledge of these vacuous principles, their qualities andattributes, which is preserved in the soul in the forms of theirabstract ideas; is expressed afterwards by certain symbolical soundsor words, which are also as void as air. (A word is a breath, and thebreath is air).

24. It is thus the formless and vacuous principle of the ego,entertains in itself or its soul, the notions or knowledge of times andspace in their ideal forms.

25. This universe which appears as the réchauffé or reflex ofthe ideal of the ego, and seems as the visible and substantial world,is in reality but the intangible Brahma, and appearing as the tangiblenon Brahma to view.

26. The world is verily the quiet spirit of Brahma, it is one with Him,and without its beginning, middle or end; it is verily the void ofBrahma, who assumes to himself the titles of Ego and the living soul,vacuous himself in his own vacuous self, as this vast and extensivephenomenon, and as something otherwise than what He is. (The world isthe mirror of the divine Mind and its thoughts).

Argument:—Vasishtha’s relation of a lecture delivered to Ráma ina former birth.

Vasishtha continued:—O Ráma, the destroyer of thy enemies, this veryquestion that you have asked me today, was put to me once before, whenyou had been a pupil under my discipline.

2. In a former age, there was once this spiritual discourse betwixtourselves, when you had been a pupil of mine in a certain forest(according to Metempsychosis), the present is but a repetition of apast life. The wheel of life rolls and revolves incessantly from age toage.

3. As I sat there as your preceptor, and your sitting in my presence asmy pupil; you then had put this very question to me, with the gravityof your understanding.

4. The Pupil said:—You sir that know all things, now deign to removethis doubt and difficulty of mine, regarding what things die and perishat the great deluge, and what things are not liable to destruction.

5. The Preceptor replied saying:—Know my son, that the relics of allthings are utterly destroyed at the last deluge; as your thickeningdreams disappear in your sound sleep.

6. The hills and rocks on all the ten sides of the earth, are alldestroyed without any distinction, and of the actions of men androutine of their business, there remains nothing behind.

7. All beings are destroyed at the end, and the great void (that is thereceptacle of all bodies), becomes a perfect void.

8. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra, Rudra and others, that are the primecauses of the causal agencies of this world, do all become extinct atthe end of the world, and there remains no vestige of them at last.

9. There remains only the great vacuity of the divine intellect,[Pg 1148] whichis ever existent and undecaying; and this appears from the divinespirits remaining as the witness both of annihilations as also of theregeneration of the past and future worlds.

10. The entity never becomes a non-entity, nor the non-entity nevercomes to be an entity; tell me therefore where the past worlddisappears, and from whence the future world comes to existence.

11. The Preceptor replied:—This world, my boy, is not wholly destroyednor does it become altogether extinct; and it is quite true thatnothing ever goes to nothing, nor does anything, nor does anything ever proceed from anihility.

12. That which is an entity in reality, never becomes a non-entity inanywise, and how can that which is inexistent of itself, ever become anil and null afterwards (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).

13. Where is water to be had in the mirage, and when are the twoseeming moons to be seen in the sky; where are the delusive hairs foundto be floating in the air, and when does a false conception prove to betrue. (So the seeming world is a nullity, although it appears awhile assomething to our deluded sight).

14. Know my son, all these phenomenals to be mere delusions, andwithout any reality in them; they appear as cities and towns in ourdreams, and are ever obtrusive on us.

15. They are however liable to vanish away quite out of our sight atlast, as our dreams disappear upon our waking, and as our waking scenesare lost and hid under the veil of our sleep.

16. As we know nothing where the city of our dreaming, vanishes away atlast upon our waking; so we are quite ignorant about that chaotic void,wherein the universe submerges upon its exit.

17. The Pupil rejoined:—If the world is a nullity as you say, thensir, be pleased to tell what is it that thus appears to and disappearsfrom us by turns; and what is that vacuous intellect which presentsthis extensive view before us; as also how does the void present itsreflexion of the plenum and to what purpose.

[Pg 1149]

18. The Preceptor replied:—It is the vacuous sphere of the intellect,my boy, that thus shines with its transparency; and it is thisreflexion of it which is called the world, which is no other than this.

19. It is the reflexion of the widely extended substance of the greatvoid of the intellect; and this apparently solid figure of it, is noother than the same transpicuous form of that intellect. (So says thesruti, Brahmá reflects his twofold forms to us, the one opaque and seenwith our naked eye, and the other translucent and viewed by our mentalsight).

20. The incorporeal Brahmá like all corporeal bodies, presents botha fair as well as a dark complexion (the one being his clear orintellectual form seen by the clear sighted, and the other his hazyfigure viewed by gross understandings). He also discloses himself sometimes and closes at another, which cause the creation and annihilationof the world. (Manu calls it the waking and sleeping of God, and othersthe evolution and involution of the divine spirit).

21. The clearness of the divine spirit, ever remains the same andunaltered, both before and after the creation and its dissolution;as a fountain of limpid waters is always clear, whether it reflectsthe shadows of its bordering arbours or not. (No change in nature canaffect the spirit of God).

22. As a man remains unchanged in his sleep, whether he be dreamingor enjoying his sound rest; so the spirit continues alike in itsintellect, whether it is in the act of creation or annihilation.

23. As the ideal world appears to be calm and quiet, both in the dreamof the dreamer, as well as in the sound sleep of the sleeper; so thisvisible world of ours is ever viewed in its calmness, in the tranquilspirit of the Lord and of the contemplative saint.

24. Hence I do not recognize the existence of a vacuum or sky, anywhereand independent of our soul; nor can we expect the same sphereappearing in the souls of others, as it does in ours according to ourview of it.

25. If we can perceive the light of our intellect, even at the[Pg 1150] pointof our death, and disappearance of the world from us; why should wenot conceive the same to be the case with others, and that they do notperceive the same intellectual light also in their consciousness. (Thisis an evidence of the immortality in our souls).

26. The Pupil rejoined:—If such is the case, that others who areawake, have the same view of the world, as the dreamer has in hisdream; then I believe that all those that are living, have the sameview of the world as those that are dying, (i.e. A mere faintidea of it and not a substantial one).

27. The preceptor replied:—So it is, O my intelligent lad, the worldthen does not appear in its real form (of a solid body to the dreamerand the dying), as it appears as a reality to the intellects of others(that are waking and living). Idealism presents the true picture of theworld.

28. The world does not appear and is not anything, and nothing that isreal or has any reality in it; it is a mere reflexion of the intellect,and there can be no reality in our false sight of it.

29. It is apparent everywhere, and seems to be in every way at alltimes; but it does not exist <in reality> in anyway, anywhere or atanytime.

30. And because it is both the real and unreal form of Brahma, itis both a reality as well as unreality likewise; and being of theintellectual void, is never destructible nor ever destroyed.

31. The vacuous entity of the supreme intellect, which exhibits thephenomena of creation and its destruction (in repeated rotation),abounds with our misery only, if we attend to its occurrences with anydegree of concern; but it does not affect us at all, if we can butremain altogether unconcerned with its casualties.

32. All these appearances exist every where at all times, in the samemanner as they appear to the ignorant; but in truth, they appear in nowhere, in any manner or at any time to the wise and learned (who knowthe nature of worldly delusions).

33. It is the one self-same Being that appears as a god in[Pg 1151] one place,and as a pot or clod in another. Here he is seen as a hill and there asa rill or dale; He is an arbour here, of furze or bush there, and thespreading grass in another. He is the moving and movable some where andthe unmoving and unmovably else where; and He is the fire and all otherelements also everywhere.

34. He is entity and nonentity, and both vacuity and solidity also; Heis action and duration, and the earth and sky likewise. He is the beingand not being, and their growth and their destruction likewise, and Heis good as well as the evil, that attends on one and forefends another.

35. There is nothing that is not He, who though one is always allthings in all places; He is in and out of everything, and extendsalong the beginning, middle and end of all things. He is eternityand duration and the three divisions of time also; (i.e. thepresent, past and future, called the triple time).

36. He is all, and existent in all things, in all places and times; andyet He is not the All, and neither existing with anything at any timeor place (but is but dimly seen in these His lowest works. Milton).

37. Know now, Ráma, that Brahma being the universal soul, He is allin all places and times; and because Brahma is the conscious soul, Heexhibits all things to our consciousness, as if they were images in ourdreams or the creatures of our imagination. (i.e. A corporealGod only can form a formal and plastic world; but the intellectual soulof God, can make only a formless and immaterial creation, as we see inour dream and phantasies).

38. The maker of the terrene world, must have an earthly body; and theframer of the woody arbours must have a wooden frame, but the Lord Godof all, has neither a corporeal body nor a material shape. (Thus theyframe a fire, air and water God, but the true God is none of theseelements).

39. Others make a mountain God as the Lord of all; and some even makeand worship a human figure as the supreme God (and so are all theheathen gods represented in human figures).

[Pg 1152]

40. Some make a picture the Lord and maker of all; and others make someimage as such, and worship it as the great God of all.

41. But there is only one supreme Being, who is the maker, supporterand the Lord God of all others; He is without beginning and end, andthe Lord Brahma, whose spirit upholds and supports all others.

42. A straw made image or an earthen pot, is attributed with divinepowers, and represented as the Most high; and so the formless God isshown in frail images, which are made and destroyed by human hands.

43. An outward object is made the actor and enjoyer of acts; but thewise know intelligence only, as the active and passive agent of allactions.

44. But the truly wise (i.e. the vacuist) acknowledges noactive nor passive agent of creation; although many among the wise(i.e. the Páshupatas) recognize one God alone, as the onlyactor, and enjoyer of all.

45. All these views may be probable, and well apply to the most high,who is the sole object of all these theories; and as there is nothing,which can be positively affirmed or denied of Him. (Here the vacuistVasishtha is a tolerator of all faiths, as suited to the capacities ofthe different understanding of men).

46. All these believers look to their desired objects, as manifest totheir view in the vacuous space of their intellects, and by viewing thewhole world in themselves, they remain undecayed at all times.

47. All visibles and all laws and prohibitions, together with alldesires and designs of men; are confined with their knowledge of themin themselves. Hence those that are true to their faiths, and firmin the observance of their duties and performance of their acts, areverily of the nature of the divine soul, by their viewing all nature inthemselves.

48. This very doctrine was inculcated to before, when you had been apupil under my preceptorship; but as you could not fully comprehendit then, you are doomed to another birth,[Pg 1153] to learn it again from me.(Vasishtha means to say that he is immortal, though Ráma may have histransmigration in many incarnations).

49. The world representing the longsome dark and dreary winter night,presents the pure light of knowledge, shining with the serene andcooling beams of the autumnal lunar disk; now O Ráma! as you <are>edified by your pure intelligence, shake off the dross of dullignorance from you, and continue in the discharge of your duties, asthey have lineally descended to you and to your royal race.

50. Do you remain released from your attachment, to all things of thistemporal world; and relying solely in the One supreme and universalsoul, whose pure nature is perceptible throughout all nature; then beas lucid as the pellucid sky, with the peace of your mind and transportof your soul, and learn to rule your realm with justice and equity.

Argument:—Demonstration of the exceeding exultation of theaudience at the close of the long winded lengthy lecture.

Válmíki related:—As the sage had finished saying these things, or sofar, the celestials sounded their trumpets from heaven, as the cloudsresounded in the rainy skies, with showers of nectarious rain drops (onthe earth below). The face of the sky was whitened on all sides, as bydrifts of snowfalls in hoary winter, and the surface of the earth wascovered by rain drops, dropping like showers of flowers. (The sound ofcelestial trumpets, is ever accompanied with or followed by a shower<of> refreshing rain).

2. The earth appeared to be blessed with prosperity in the beauty ofthe flowers, stretching their pistils and peduncles like beauties intheir evening decorations, and sending afar the fragrance of theirfarinacious dust, like the perfumery on the persons of fairies, theirouter garniture and inner cool sweetness are verily the gifts of thegods.

3. The falling flowers of heavenly arbors, dropped down from theirdried boughs, by the rampant and apish hurricane of heaven, are nowvying with the glittering stars, scattered all over the face of thefirmament, and deriding at their grim laughter with their bashful andblushing smiles.

4. The lowering clouds accompanied with sounds of trumpets, anddrizzling rain drops and falling of flowers (which bore resemblanceto one another); next lighted upon the court hall, like the shadowysnow fall on Himálaya’s head, and filled the assembly with wonder, andgaping mouths and staring eyes.

5. The assembly seated in their order, took hold of handfuls of theseheavenly flowers; and poured them upon Vasishtha with their obeisance,and cast away all their earthly cares and[Pg 1155] woes with those celestialofferings to the sage. (Every offering confers and recurs, with anequivalent blessing to the offerer).

6. The King Dasaratha said:—O wonder! that we are so lightly releasedof our cares and woes, in this wide extended vale of miseries of theworld; and that our souls are now lightened of their throws by yourgrace, like the heavy clouds lightened of their weight, and floatinglightly at last on Himálayas.

7. We have reached to the goal of our acts, and seen the end of ourmiseries of this life; we have fully known the knowable One (that isonly to be known), and have found our entire rest in that supreme state(by your good grace alone).

8. We have known to rest in the ultimate void in our meditation, and toget rid of our erroneous thoughts of bodies, by means of our intenseapplication to the abstract (or Platonic abstraction).

9. It is by our riddance from the coinage and vagaries of ourimagination, and by our escape from the feverish fervour for the sightsof the dreaming world; as also by our ceasing to mistake the shells andco*ckles for silver, and by our deliverance from misdeeming ourselves asdead either in our sleep or dream, (that we may be enabled to the trueknowledge of ourselves &c.).

10. It is by our knowledge of the identity of the wind and itsoscillation, and of the sameness of the water with its fluidity; asalso by our distrust in this talismanic world, and in this fairy landof our fancy (that we can attain to the knowledge of truth &c.).

11. It must be by our discredit in the magical scenes of this world,and in the aerial castles of fairies; as also by our mistrust in thelimpid currents of the mirage, and in the aerial groves and doublemoons of heaven (that we can come to know the truth).

12. It is no earthquake, if our tottering foot steps should shake andslip in our drunkenness; nor can we view a ghost in a shadow as boysdo, nor see the braids of hair hanging down from the clouds in heaven.

13. From these and other instances, which you have given[Pg 1156] for ourinstruction; you have sir, at once effaced our credit in the visiblesights of this world.

14. Ráma added:—My ignorance is dispelled, and I have come to theknowledge of truth by your good grace; and O thou chief of sages,I acknowledge thee to have brought me to light from my imperviousdarkness.

15. I am freed from my doubts, and set to the light of the truenature of God; and I will now act as thou sayst, in acknowledging thetranspicuous truth (or viewing God as manifest in nature, and not ashidden under her veil).

16. Remembering and reconsidering thy words, that are so fraught withambrosial sweetness and full of delightsome taste; I am filled withfresh delight, though already satisfied and refreshed by their sense(i.e. the more I think of them, the happier I seem to feelmy-self).

17. I have nothing to do for myself at present, nor is there any leftundone or remaining to be done by me. I am as I am and have ever been,and always without any craving for me. (This state of self-satisfactionand self-sufficiency, is the highest bliss for man).

18. What other way to our true felicity can there be, than this thathas been shown by thee? or else I find this wide-extended field of theearth, to be so full of our woe and misery.

19. I have no foe to annoy me nor a friend to give any joy to me; Ihave no field to work in, nor an enemy to fear nor a good soul torely in. It is our misunderstanding that makes this world appear sotroublesome to ourselves, while our good sense makes it all agreeableto us. (If the world will not suit thee, suit thyself to it).

20. How could we know all this (for our happiness) without thy goodgrace unto us; as it is never possible for a boy, to ford and crossover a river, without the assistance of a boat or bridge.

21. Lakshmana said:—It is by reason of your removing the doubts, thathad been inherent in and inherited by me in my repeated births; and itis by virtue of the merit, that I had acquired in my former births;that I have come to know[Pg 1157] the truth this day, by the divine sermon ofthe holy sage; and to feel the radiance of a holy light in me, shiningas brightly as the cooling beams of moonlight.

22. It is strange that in disregard of this heavenly bright and vividlight, that men should be entangled in a thousand errors, and beburnt at last as dried wood or fuel, by their foul mistake and greatmisfortune.

23. Viswámitra said:—O! it is by our great merit, that we have comethis day, to hear this holy lecture from the mouth of the sage; andwhich has at once expurgated our inner souls, as a thousand lavationsin the clear stream of Ganges.

24. Ráma rejoined:—We have seen the highest pitch of all prosperity,and the best of all that is to be seen; we have known the end of alllearning, and the last extremity of adversity; we have seen manycountries and heard many speeches; but never have we heard, nor seennor known anything better than the discourse on the beauty of the soul,which the sage has shown to us to-day.

25. Nárada added:—Our ears are purified to-day, by the hearing of whatwe have never heard heretofore; to be preached by Brahmá or the godsabove or men below.

26. Lakshmana rejoined:—Sir, you have entirely dissipated all ourinner and outer darkness also; and have shewn us the transcendentlight, of the bright sun of the Divine soul.

27. Satrughna said:—I am satisfied and tranquilized, and uncomposedin the supreme soul; I am for ever full and perfect in myself, and sitquite content with my solity.

28. Dasaratha repeated:—It is by the merit of our deeds, done andacquired in our repeated lives, that we have been, O thou chief ofsages, sanctified this day by thy sacred and sanctifying speech.

29. Válmíki related:—As the king and his courtiers, were speaking inthis manner, the sage oped his mouth again, and thus bespoke his wordsfraught with pure and purifying knowledge.

30. Vasishtha said:—Hear me, O thou moon like king of Raghu’s race,and do as I bid you to do; Rise now and honour[Pg 1158] the assembled Bráhmans,who deserve their due honour at the close of a discourse.

31. Rise therefore, and satisfy their desires with thy ample gifts; andthou will obtain thereby, the merit that attends on the learning of thevedas, and doing thy duties according to their dictates.

32. It is incumbent on even a mean worm-like man, to honor the Bráhmansto their utmost at the termination of a sermon on salvation; how muchmore important must it then be on the part of a monarch to acquithimself of this necessary duty.

33. Hearing this behest of the sage, the king held his reverentialsilence; and beckoned to his heralds to proceed to all the ten sides ofhis dominions, and invite thousands of Bráhmans, that are acquaintedwith the vedas forthwith (to the royal court).

34. He bade them to go to Mathura, Suráshtra and Gauda, and to bringwith them with due respect all the Bráhmans, that are born of Vedicfamilies, and are abiding in those districts and lands.

35. There then assembled more than ten thousands of Bráhmans to theroyal palace, and the king fed them all alike and paying particularregard to the more learned among them.

36. He treated them with the best sorts of food and rice, honoured themwith their honorariums, and gave them a good many gifts; and afterhonouring them in this manner, he offered his oblations to the manes ofhis ancestors, and gave his offerings to the tutelar gods of his house.(A Bráhman has his precedence in a feast to the gods and patres;but the merit of giving a feast is lost unless it is followed by othergifts).

37. The king next treated his friends and relatives with proper repast,and then fed his companions and servants and the citizens all on thesame day. His attention was at last directed to the feeding of the poorand needy, and of the lame and blind and lunatics.

38. Having discharged to his utmost the duties of the festival, hecommanded a great festivity to be held in his hall, all[Pg 1159] over decoratedwith silk and embroidery, and with gold, gems and pearls.

39. The city then being adorned and lighted, like the ever brightmount of Meru, there went on a merry dance and ball of giddy girls andplayers in every house (as a sign of general joy).

40. There was a ringing of bells and sounding of cymbols all about,with the beating of drums and trimbrels at every door; flutes andwind instruments were blowing on every side, and guitars and wiredinstruments were playing with loud gingling, and vying with each other.

41. The markets were closed, and the marketers stopped in their course;the air appeared as an arbour of plants, shaking with the uplifted andquavering and waving arms of the merry dancers in the streets; and itseemed as the starry heaven, by the glittering light of the teeth ofstrolling players, displayed in their comic dance and loud laughter.

42. There was the heroic dance attended by the loud shouts of theplayers, and melodramas accompanied with the soft and sweet strains ofthe performers, there was also a staggering and strutting dance on onefoot and leg, and thumping the ground with the other.

43. Here they flung wreaths of flowers glittering like stars andfalling down in showers; and there the scattered flowers, which werestrewn over the ground as rain drops, were indiscriminately troddingdown under the feet of passersby.

44. Here the actresses dance about with their loose ornaments andgestures of love; and there the bards chanted their hymns withclearness, as the Bráhmans recited them and the songstresses sang.

45. Here the sots and topers drank their fill of wine; and the foodmongers fed upon their eatables of various kinds (i.e. some wereseen to be indulging their drink and others in their eating).

46. The insides of houses were daubed with wine, as the outer bodies ofthe princes with ointment of moon light hue.

47. The attendent servants and waiting maids on the king,[Pg 1160] saunteredabout trimmed in gaudy attires of various colours; and graced the royalfestival with their decorations of necklaces and sweet perfumes ontheir persons.

48. The sprightly ballet girls, being besmeared with a paste of allperfumeries (called the yaksha dust), and decorated with glitteringornaments, repaired to the ball at the royal hall with all alacrity.

49. Thus the king Dasaratha held his entertainment for a whole week,and passed full seven nights in festive mirth and rejoicing; while hedistributed his gifts and food for as many days, which redounded toexhaustless prosperity on earth.

Argument:—Válmíki speaks in praise of this work to this pupilBharadwája, and blesses him to be as blessed as the divine Rámawith the hearing of it.

Válmíki said:—O most intelligent Bharadwája, and the chief of mypupils, you have now heard how the great Ráma and others, came to theknowledge of the knowable One (that is only to be known), and passedacross this vale of misery and sorrow, by their attention to theselectures.

2. Do you thus fix your sight to the light of Brahma, and conductyourself gladly, by abandoning all your affections and cares of thisworld, and by remaining dauntless with your living liberation andtranquility of mind.

3. Know, O thou sinless one, that the learned and the meek, that donot mix with the society of worldly men, but remain steady as Rámaand others in their right principles, are never liable to be deludedalthough they are beset by temptations on all sides.

4. Thus these men of great natures, as the king Dasaratha and theprince Ráma and his brothers, together with companions, have attendedto the state of the living liberated (even in their life time).

5. Thou my son Bharadwája! that art naturally of a liberal mind, hastnow become more liberated at present, by thy hearing of these sermonson the salvation of our souls.

6. It is possible even for boys to obtain their liberation, by theirattention to those holy lectures, as the most evident and surest meansto salvation; and cannot therefore fail to convince thee of the truththereof.

7. As the high minded and sinless and sorrowless sons of Raghu’s race,have attained to their holy state of perfection[Pg 1162] and self-liberation;so do thou also obtain that best and highest state, by your attendingto the lectures of the divine sage Vasishtha.

8. It is by advice of the good and service under the great, as also bymeans of humble inquiries to and explications of the learned; that weakmen of good understandings, can know the knowable, as the Rághavas andothers did under Vasishtha.

9. The ties of avarice and affection that have fast bound the hearts ofthe ignorant (to this world); do all tend to debar them like playfulboys from inquiring into the means of their liberation, until theybecome too old to benefit by their knowledge.

10. Those that can discern the minds of high minded men, can only cometo their knowledge of truth; and such men only have no more to returnto this world of woe; and this is the substance of all that I can speakto thee (i.e. know and have the minds of the great, in order tobecome as great thyself, so says Gay in his Fables. (Hast thou fathomedTully’s mind, and the vast sense of Plato’s head)).

11. Having first received your instruction from the preceptor, you mustweigh well and digest its meaning in yourself; and then communicate itssense, to the most sensible and intelligent student. This is said bysages and saints, as the trivium of science; know this and you need nomore, to become wise when your boyhood is over.

12. Whoso will read this book, not without understanding its sense andwhoever will manuscript it without the expectation of getting its fee;as also anybody who will recite or cause it to be recited (to a publicaudience), either with or without any desire of reward, shall have hisample recompense in the land of Áryas (both in his present and futurelives). (So it is with the public preaching of its doctrine).

13. These men receive the reward, awaiting on the performance of theRájasúya sacrifice, and are entitled to their heavenly seats in theirpure essence; as often as they ascend to it after their demise onearth, and until they attain their final liberation, which attainson them as prosperity does on the[Pg 1163] meritorious (after the thirdtransmigration of their expurged souls).

14. It was at first that the god Brahmá of unknowable form, hadcomposed this work in his excellent diction; and then considering itas the only means to the liberation of mankind, had revealed it tothe assemblage of saints (of which Vasishtha or Válmíki has made thisversion). Let nobody therefore take the truthfulness of this saying foran untruth.

15. At the close of the recital of these lectures, on the means ofhuman salvation, it becomes every sensible man of good sense, to honourthe Bráhmans with diligence; and to serve them with their desirablegifts of food and drink, and furnish them with goodly houses for theirlodging.

16. They should also be rewarded with their honorariums, and suppliedwith monies to their hearts’ desire, and to the utmost capacity of thedonor; and then the giver or master of the ceremony should rest himselfassured, of having acquitted his duty to and reaped its merit to theintent of the sástras.

17. I have thus rehearsed to you the great sástra, in elucidation ofdivine knowledge and its pure truth; with addition of a great manytales and stories, serving as example and illustrations of the abstrusedoctrines for your clear understanding of them. May your hearing ofthese, serve to lead you to your utter indifference of this world, andto the desire of your liberation in it, while you are alive herein. Maythis tend also to your continued prosperity, in order to engage yourattention towards the perfection of your knowledge and devotion, and tothe discharge of the duties of your station without failing.

Argument:—Acknowledgment of the obligation of Arishtanemiand others, to their preceptors and preachers.

Válmíki continued to say:—I have thus related to you, O prince,whatever the pot born Vasishtha had taught and preached to the princes;and it is certain that you will attain the same elevated state, as theydid by the hearing of these lectures on sacred knowledge.

2. The Prince Arishtanemi replied:—O Venerable sir, your kind look isenough to extricate us from bondage in this world; and it is hence thatI am not only brought to light, but saved from the ocean of this worldby your favour.

3. The Heavenly Messenger said:—After saying so, the said princeseemed to look amazed in his look; and then he began to speak thesewords to me with a graceful voice.

4. The Prince said:—I bow down to thee, O Messenger divine, and wishall safety to attend on thee; it is said that the friendship of thegood is attended with seven benefits, all which hast thou conferredupon me.

5. Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra, and wellknow that, I am both gladdened as well as grown insouciant ofworldly concerns, by hearing this discourse of thine.

6. I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without feelingany anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the sense of allthat I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O Lady! that I was quitesurprised (to see so much civility on the part of a prince).

7. He said:—I have never heard before, such words and fraught with somuch knowledge, as I have come now to hear[Pg 1165] from thee; It has filledmy inward spirit with as much joy, as if I have drunk my fill of anambrosial draught just now.

8. I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the bidding ofVálmíki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou hast asked of me.And now I shall bend my course, towards the celestial city of Sakra.

9. The fairy said:—I must thank thee now, O thou very fortunateemissary of the gods! for all that thou hast related to me; and myknowledge whereof, has entirely composed my spirit, by its benigninfluence.

10. I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain fromsorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may now to yourdestination at Indras, with all speed attending on your journey thither.

11. So saying Suruchi—the best of fairies, continued to keep her seaton the slope of the Himálayas, and contiguous to the Gandhamádana mountof fragrance, and reflect on the sense of what she had heard (of divineknowledge).

12. Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts of Vasishtha,you are at liberty to do as you like, by your weighing well theirpurport. (For the effecting of your liberation which is the main objectof man, both in this life as well as in the next).

13. Kárunya said:—The remembrance of the past, the sight of thepresent, and the talk of future events, together with the existence ofthe world; are all as false as the sights in our dreams or of water inmirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren woman.

14. I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what is leftundone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse of the occasionand without any assiduity on my part.

15. Agasti said:—Kárunya—The worthy son of Agnibesya, said in theaforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time in the discharge ofhis duties, as they occured to him from time to time.

16. And you O Sutikshana! should never entertain any doubts regardingthe acts, that you shall have to perform after[Pg 1166] your attainmentof divine knowledge (Lest they entail their retribution on youafterwards). Because dubitation destroys the virtue of the deed, asselfishness takes away its merit.

17. Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles theduplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of theircombination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows with duesubmission to him.

18. Sutíkshana said:—Any action done in ignorance of the actor, isreckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full knowledgeto be taken into account. (So the brute activities of the giddy mob,bear no value or blame in them before the wise). But actions done withreason and reasonable men, are invaluable in their nature. All ouracts are best seen by the light of the intellect as the actions ofstage-players are seen only in the candle light. (So are all our mentaland corporeal acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).

19. It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the actionof our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it is themalleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms of jewelleries.(Hence we should never reject the one for the other).

20. As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to theboisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave andmove in our sight; so it is the inbeing of the great soul, that fillsall the great and small alike.

21. I submit to and bear with all that befalls to me, because there isno escape from destiny, nor slighting of the sound sayings of sages;and I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to owe my knowledge of the knowableOne to thy good grace only.

22. I own myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and bow downprostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me up from the dolefulpit of the world; because there is no other way to repay my gratitudeto my venerable preceptor.

23. Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression to hisobligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world, save by meansof offering himself to his services; with his whole body and mind andthe words of his mouth.

[Pg 1167]

24. It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have passed over theRubicon of this world; I am filled with infinite joy amidst all theseworlds, and am set free from all my doubts.

25. I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung in the Sáma-veda, as fillingall this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill the boundless deep;and whose remembrance fills our soul with ecstasy.

26. I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the form ofincarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the joyous bliss ofdivine felicity; who is beyond all duality and sees the only One in theunity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever alike the pure and immaculateOne, and witnesseth the inmost of all minds; who is beyond all statesand conditions (of so and so or of such and such); and who is quitedevoid of the three qualities (which belong to all bodies) i.e.There is no known quality or property that can be predicated to theDeity. The qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar andunique as own nature.

27. Here ends the Mahárámáyana of the sage Vasishtha, with itscontinuation by his recorder Válmíki, and the speech of the celestialmessenger at the latter end of the Book on Nirvána or the ultimateExtinction of the living soul.

FINIS.

[1] The mind involved in ignorance, is said to be waking,and the uncontrouled mind is styled as dreaming: the mind subdued byweariness is said to be asleep, and when brought under subjectionby any effort, is called samádhi or meditation, lastly itsliberation from ignorance, is known as its state of mukti oremancipation.

[2] Note.—Each of the three states of waking, dreaming andsound sleep admit of three conditions viz. waking wakefulness, wakingdream and the waking sound sleep; again dreaming watchfulness, dreamingdream and dreaming sleep; and lastly the sleepy waking, the sleepydream and the sleepy sound sleep (see the scholium of Sureshvara forinstances of every Kind).

[3] The founder of Vedánta was Vyása, of Buddhism—Buddha,of Sánkhya—Kapila, of Saugata—Patanjali. Tryaksha, Pashupati andBhairana were professors of Ágama tantras.

[4] Note. The sacred Sanskrit was at once a perfect language,without any knowledge of us regarding its formative stage, though abalabhásá or infant-language is said to have existed before, ofwhich we have no relic nor know anything.

[5] Note. If the world be a form of Divine knowledge, andsubsistent in and subjective to the eternal mind of God; it can then beneither created nor destroyed at any time; but since it is subject tocreation and destruction, it can be a part of Divine knowledge. Nor isit an object for want of any cause of its creation. Therefore it is amere nullity.

[6] Note.—If the thinkables are the produce of their firstcreation, then it remains to be said, whence (i.e. from whatmaterials) they were formed.

[7] Note.—According to Vasishtha, Byam, Beom or vacuum, ispossest of all the attributes of Brahm Godhead, in its unity, infinity,eternity, incorporeality and formlessness, as also in its omnipresence,omnipotence in its supporting the worlds and in the omniscience of thevacuous intellect.