Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

39. O great Spirit! this world being composed of reality and unreality in its twofold view, beguiles the understanding to take it sometimes for a real and at others for an unreal thing. It is the great mind of the Divine Soul, that is thus employed in these incessant and unceasingly endless creations for its diversion. (The soul is the animating power, and the mind is the principle of action. Metaphysically, the soul is an individual name; the mind is a generic term or genus. The soul is opposed to body, the mind to matter. The soul is the principle of animation, the mind of volition. The soul is the mind of a certain being, the mind is the soul without its personality).

STORY OF INDU AND HIS SONS. Argument. The Sun’s Narrative of Indu and his Devotion. The Sun continued:—It was, my lord! only the other day of one of thy by gone kalpas, and at the foot of a mount, beside the table-land of mount Kailasa standing in a corner of the continent of Jambudvípa:—(A kalpa is one day of Brahmá, and occupies the whole duration of a creation from its beginning to the end, which is called the Kalpánta or night of the god. This agrees with the seven days of creation in the book of Genesis, which are supposed to embrace so many long ages of creation). 2. That there lived a man by name of Suvarnajatá together with all his sons and their progeny, who had rendered that spot a beautiful and pleasant habitation. (The gloss says they were the patriarchs of mankind, settled first on the table-land and at the foot of the Himalayas). 3. There lived among them a Bráhman by name of Indu, a descendant of the patriarch Kasyapa, who was of a saintly soul, virtuous and acquainted with divine knowledge.

4. He resided in his residence with all his relatives, and passed his time agreeably in company with his wife, who was dear to his heart as his second self. (That, woman is ardhánga or half of the body of man, is established in Hindu law; and represented in mythology in the androgyne figures of Hara-Gaurí and Umá-Maheswara). 5. But there was no issue born of this virtuous pair, as there grows no grass in a sterile soil; and the wife remained discontented at the unfruitfulness of her efflorescence or seed. 6. With all the purity and simplicity of their hearts, and the beauty and gracefulness of their persons and manners; they were as useless to the earth, as the fair and straight stem of the pure paddy plant, without its stalk of corn. The discontented pair then repaired to the mountain, in order to make their devotion for the blessing of progeny. 7. They ascended the Kailása mountain, which was unshaded by shady trees, and unpeopled by living beings; and there they stood fixed on one side, like a couple of trees in the barren desert.

8. They remained in their austere devotion, subsisting upon liquid food which supported the trees also. They drank but a draught of water, which they held in the hollow of their palms, from a neighbouring cascade at the close of the day. (There is no single word for a gandusha or chuluka of water in English; the word handful being equivalent to mushthi and prastha). 9. They remained standing and unmoved as immovable trees, and continued long in that posture, in the manner of an erect wood in heat and cold. (Várkshivritti means intense meditation conducted by forgetting one’s self to wood or stone). 10. They passed in this manner the period of two ages, before their devotion met with the approbation of the god, who bears the crescent of the moon on his forehead. (This crescent was no doubt the missile disk, which the war-like god Siva held on his head in the manner of the Seiks). 11. The god advanced towards the parching pair, with the cooling moon-beams on his forehead; as when that luminary casts her dewy light on the dried trees and scorched lotuses, under the burning sun beams of a summer day.

12. The god, mounted on his milk-white bull, and clasping the fair Umá on his left, and holding the beaming moon on his head, appeared to them, as the vernal season was approaching to a green wood (or furze), with strewing flowers upon them. (There is an alliteration of soma and soma in the double sense of Uma and the moon. This kind of play upon words is very characteristic of metaphysical writers in all ages, as Alethes melethon. Lewis Hist. Phil. I. 69). 13. They with brightening eyes and faces beheld the god, as the lotuses hail the appearance of the comely moon; and then bowed down to the god of the silvery bow and snow white countenance. (Kálidása in his Mahápadya, has heaped all these and many more ensigns of whiteness on the hoary Hara of Himálaya). 14. Then the god rising to their view like the full moon, and appearing in the midst of the heaven and earth, spoke smilingly unto them in a gentle and audible voice; the breath of which refreshed them, like the breath of spring reviving the faded plants of the forest. 15. The god said:—I am pleased with thy devotion, O Bráhman! prefer thy prayer to me, and have thy desired boon granted to thee immediately.

16. The Bráhman replied:—O Lord of gods, deign to favour me with ten intelligent male children. Let these be born of me to dispel all my sorrows (for want of a male issue). 17. The sun rejoined:—The god said, be it so, and then disappeared in the air; and his great body passed through the etherial path, like the surge of the sea with the tremendous roar of thunders. 18. The Bráhmanic couple then returned to their home with gladness of their hearts, and appeared as the reflexions of the two divinities Siva and Umá in their persons. (The god Siva otherwise called Hara, bears every resemblance to Hercules (Harakula) the son of Jove (Siva); and his consort Umá to Omphale the wife of Hercules. Todd’s Rajasthan). 19. Returning there, the Bráhmani became big with child, by the blessing she had got of her god Siva. 20. She appeared as a thick cloud heavy with rain water, in the state of her full pregnancy; and brought forth in proper time (of child-birth), a boy as beautiful as the digit of the new moon. 21. Thus there were born of her ten sons in succession, all as handsome as the tender sprouts of plants; and these grew up in strength and stature, after they had received their sacramental investitures.

22. In course of a short time, they attained their boyhood, and became conversant in the language of the gods (Sanskrit); as the mute clouds become sonorous in the rainy season. (The Sanskrita, says Sir W. Jones, is more sonorous than Latin. It is the voice of gods, which is as high sounding as the roaring of clouds). 23. They shone in their circle with the lustre of their persons, as the resplendent orbs of the sky burn and turn about in their spheres. 24. In process of time these youths lost both their parents, who shuffled off their mortal coil to go to their last abode. (i.e. To be amalgamated with the person of Brahmá, with which they were acquainted by their proficiency in yoga divinity). 25. Being thus bereft of both their parents, the ten Bráhman lads left their home in grief, and repaired to the top of the Kailása mountain, to pass there their helpless lives in mourning. 26. Here they conversed together about their best welfare, and the right course that they should take to avoid the troubles and miseries of life.

27. They parleyed with one another on the topics, of what was the best good (Summum bonum) of humanity in this world of mortality, and many other subjects (which form the common places in ethics), such as:— 28. What is true greatness, best riches and affluence, and the highest good of humankind? What is the good of great power, possessions, chiefship and even the gain of a kingdom? What forms the true dignity of kings, and the high majesty of emperors? 29. What avails the autocracy of the great Indra, which is lost in one moment (a moment’s time of Brahmá). What is that thing which endures a whole kalpa, and must be the best good as the most lasting? 30. As they were talking in this manner, they were interrupted by the eldest brother, with a voice as grave, as that of the leader of a herd of deer to the attentive flock. 31. Of all kinds of riches and dignities, there is one thing that endureth for a whole kalpa, and is never destroyed; and this is the state of Brahmá, which I prize above all others. 32. Hearing this, the good sons of Indu exclaimed all in one voice saying:—Ah! well said; and then they honoured him with their mild speeches.

33. They said: How—O brother, can it be possible for us to attain to the state of Brahmá, who is seated on his seat of lotuses, and is adored by all in this world? 34. The eldest brother then replied to his younger brothers saying:—O you my worthy brothers, do you do as I tell you, and you will be successful in that. 35. Do you but sit in your posture of padmásana, and think yourselves as the bright Brahmá and full of his effulgence; and possessing the powers of creation and annihilation in yourselves. (Padmásana is a certain posture with crossed legs for conducting the yoga). 36. Being thus bid by the eldest brother, the younger brothers responded to him by saying “Amen”; and sat in their meditation together with the eldest brother, with gladness of their hearts. 37. They remained in their meditative mood, like the still pictures in a painting; and their minds were concentrated in the inmost Brahmá, whom they adored and thought upon, saying:— 38. Here I sit on the pericarp of a full blown lotus, and find myself as Brahmá—the great god, the creator and sustainer of the universe.

39. I find in me the whole ritual of sacrificial rites, the Vedas with their branches and supplements and the Rishis; I view in me the Sarasvatí and Gáyatrí mantras of the Veda, and all the gods and men situated in me. 40. I see in me the spheres of the regents, of the world, and the circles of the Siddhas revolving about me; with the spacious heaven bespangled with the stars. 41. I see this terraqueous orb ornamented with all its oceans and continents, its mountains and islands, hanging as an ear-ring in the mundane system. 42. I have the hollow of the infernal world, with its demons, and Titans, and serpents and dragons within myself; and I have the cavity of the sky in myself, containing the habitations and damsels of the immortals. 43. There is the strong armed Indra, the tormentor of the lords of peoples; the sole lord of the three worlds, and the receiver of the sacrifices of men. 44. I see all the sides of heaven spread over by the bright net of the firmament; and the twelve suns of the twelve months dispensing their ceaseless beams amidst it.

45. I see the righteous regents of the sky and the rulers of men, protecting their respective regions and peoples with the same care, as the cowherds take for protection of their cattle. 46. I find every day among all sorts of beings, some rising and falling, and others diving and floating, like the incessant waves of the sea. (Everything is changing in the changeful world). 47. It is I (the Ego) that create, preserve and destroy the worlds, I remain in myself and pervade over all existence, as the lord of all. 48. I observe in myself the revolution of years and ages, and of all seasons and times, and I find the very time, to be both the creator and destroyer of things. 49. I see a Kalpa passing away before me, and the night of Brahmá (dissolution) stretched out in my presence; while I reside for ever in the Supreme soul, and as full and perfect as the Divine Spirit itself. (Immortality of the human soul and its unity with the Divine). 50. Thus these Bráhmans—the sons of Indu, remained in this sort of meditation, in their motionless postures like fixed rocks, and as images hewn out of stones in a hill.

51. In this manner these Bráhmans continued for a long period in their devotion, being fully acquainted with the nature of Brahmá, and possest of the spirit of that deity in themselves. They sat in their posture of the padmásana on seats of kusa grass, being freed from the snare of the fickle and frivolous desires of this false and frail world. It is evident from this instance of the Bráhmans’ devotion, that it consisted of the contemplation of every thing in the world in the mind of man; like that of the whole universe in the mind of God. It is the subjective view of the objective that forms what is truely meant by yoga meditation and nothing beside.

ANALECTA OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERES. Argument:—The Spiritual body or soul, is not destroyed by destruction of the material Body. The Sol said:—O great father of creation! thus did these venerable Bráhmans, remain at that spot, occupied with these various thoughts (of existence) and their several actions in their minds for a long time. (This sort of yoga meditation is called Sárúpya, or approximation of one to the divine attribute, of thinking on the States and functions of all things in the world in one’s self). 2. They remained in this state (of abstraction), until their bodies were dried up by exposure to the sun and air, and dropped down in time like the withered leaves of trees. (This is called the Samádhi yoga or absorption in meditation, until one’s final extinction or Euthanasia in the Spirit). 3. Their dead bodies were devoured by the voracious beasts of the forest, or tossed about as some ripe fruits by the monkeys on the hills (to be food for greedy vultures and hungry dogs). 4. These Bráhmans, having their thoughts distracted from outward objects, and concentrated in Brahmáhood, continued in the enjoyment of divine felicity in their Spirits, until the close of the kalpa age at the end of the four yugas.

(The duration of a day of Brahmá extends over a kalpa age composed of four yugas, followed by his night of kalpánta, when he becomes extinct in his death-like sleep, the twin brother of death. Ho hupnos esti didumos adelphos thanatow). 5. At the end of the kalpa, there is an utter extinction of the solar light, by the incessant rains poured down by the heavy Pushkara and Avartaka clouds at the great deluge (when the doors of heaven were laid open to rain in floods on earth. Genesis). 6. When the hurricane of desolation blew on all sides, and buried all beings under the Universal ocean (which covered the face of the earth). 7. It was then thy dark night, and the previous creation slept as in their yoga-nidrá or hypnotic trance in thy sleeping self. Thus thou continuing in thy spirit, didst contain all things in thee in their spiritual forms. (Darkness reigned on the deep, and the spirit of God viewed everything in itself).

8. Upon thy waking this day with thy desire of creation, all these things are exhibited to thy view, as a copy of all that was in thy inmost mind or Spirit already. (So it is upon our waking from sleep, we come to see a fac-simile of all that lay dormant in the sleeping mind). 9. I have thus related to you O Brahmá! how these ten Bráhmans were personified as so many Brahmás; these have become the ten bright orbs situated in the vacuous sphere of thy mind. (An English poet has expressed the holy soul to appear as a luminary in heaven). 10. I am the one eldest among them, consecrated in this temple of the sky, and appointed by thee, O lord of all! to regulate the portions of time on earthly beings. 11. Now I have given you a full account of the ten orbs of heaven, which are no other than the ten persons united in the mind of Brahmá, and now appearing as detached from him. (Mentally viewed, everything is found situated in the mind, but when seen with open eyes, it seems to be set apart from us. Have therefore your thoughts or your sights as you may choose).

12. This beautiful world that you behold, appearing to your view, with all its wonderful structures, spread out in the skies, serves at best as a snare to entrap your senses, and delude your understanding, by taking the unrealities as realities in your mind. (Brahmá the Demiurgus, being but architect of the world, and a person next to or an emanation of the mind of God, had not the intelligence of the soul, to discern the innate ideas, which represented themselves in the outer creation).

INDIFFERENCE OF BRAHMÁ. Argument.—That God expects nothing from his creation. Brahmá said:—O Bráhman! that art the best of Bráhmists (Bráhmos), the God Sol having thus spoken of the ten Bráhmanas to Bráhma (me), held his silence. (Here is a tautology of the word Bráhman in the fashion of metaphysicians in its several homonymous significations. This is an address of Brahmá to Vasishtha—the Bráhman and Brahmist, relating the Bráhmanas). 2. I then thought upon this for sometime in my mind, and said afterwards, O Sol, Sol! do thou tell me at present what I am next to create. (Brahmá’s asking the sun about what he was next to create, bears allusion to his works of creation during the six days of genesis, which was directed by the course of the sun—his morning and evening), 3. Tell me thou sun, what need is there of my making any more worlds, after these ten orbs have come into existence. (These ten orbs are the ten planetary bodies belonging to the solar system). 4. Now O great sage! the sun having long considered in his mind about what I wanted him to tell, replied to me in the following manner in appropriate words.

5. The sun said:—What need hast thou of the act of creating, my lord! that art devoid of effort or desire? This work of creation is only for thy pleasure (and not for any use to thee). 6. Thou lord that art free from desires, givest rise to worlds, as the sunbeams raise the waters, and the sunshine is accompanied by the shadow (as its inseparable companion). 7. Thou that art indifferent to the fostering or forsaking of thy body (i.e. either to live or die), needst have nothing to desire nor renounce for thy pleasure or pain. (No gain or loss can add to the joy or grief of the apathetic philosophic mind). 8. Thou, O Lord of creatures! dost create all these for the sake of thy pleasure only, and so dost thou retract them all in thyself, as the sun gives and withdraws his light by turns. (Creation and annihilation are the acts of expansion and subtraction of all things, from and in the supreme spirit). 9. Thou that art unattached to the world, makest thy creation out of the work of love to thee, and not of any effort or endeavour on thy part.

10. If thou desist from stretching the creation out of the Supreme Spirit, what good canst thou derive from thy inactivity? (Wherefore it is better to do and produce something than nothing). 11. Do thy duty as it may present itself to thee, rather than remain inactive with doing nothing. The dull person who like the dirty mirror, does not reflect the image, comes to no use at all. 12. As the wise have no desire of doing anything which is beyond their reach, so they never like to leave out anything which is useful, and presents itself before them. (Nor long for more, nor leave out your own. Or, Act well thy part &c.). 13. Therefore do thy work as it comes to thee, with a cheerful heart, and calmness of mind; with a tranquil soul, as if it were in thy sleep, and devoid of desires which thou canst never reap. 14. As thou dost derive pleasure, O Lord of worlds! in forming the orbs of the sons of Indu, so the lord of gods will give thee thy reward for thy works of creation.

15. The manner in which, O lord, thou seest the worlds with the eyes of thy mind, nobody can see them so conspicuously with their external organs of vision; for who can say by seeing them with his eyes, whether thy are created or increate. 16. He who has created these worlds from his mind, it is he alone that can behold me face to face, and no other person with his open eyes. 17. The ten worlds are not the work of so many Brahmás as it appeared to thee before; and no body has the power to destroy them, when they are seated so firmly in the mind. (It may be easy to destroy all visible objects, but not to efface the impressions of the mind (memory)). 18. It is easy to destroy what is made by the hand, and to shut out the sensible objects from our perception; but who can annul or disregard what is ascertained by the mind. 19. Whatever belief is deep-rooted in the minds of living beings, it is impossible to remove it by any body, except by its owner (by change of his mind or its forgetfulness). 20. Whatever is habituated to confirmed belief in the mind, no curse can remove it from the mind, though it can kill the body.

21. The principle that is deeply rooted in the mind, the same forms the man according to its stamp; it is impossible to make him otherwise by any means, as it is no way possible to fructify a rock by watering at its root like a tree.

STORY OF INDRA AND AHALYA. Argument. A Rooted Belief is not to be shaken by others as in the case of Lovers. The Sol said:—The mind is the maker and master of the world; the mind is the first supreme Male: Whatever is done by the Mind (intentionally), is said to be done; the actions of the body are held as no acts. 2. Look at the capacity of the mind in the instance of the sons of Indu; who being but ordinary Bráhmans, became assimilated to Brahmá, by their meditation of him in their minds. 3. One thinking himself as composed of the body (i.e. a corporeal being), becomes subject to all the accidents of corporeality: But he who knows himself as bodiless (an incorporeal being), is freed from all evils which are accidental to the body. 4. By looking on the outside, we are subjected to the feelings of pain and pleasure; but the inward-sighted yogi, is unconscious of the pain or pleasure of his body. (Lit. of what is pleasant or unpleasant to the body). 5. It is thus the mind that causes all our errors in this world, as it is evidenced in the instance of Indra and his consort Ahalyá (related in the ancient legends).

6. Brahmá said:—Tell me, my Lord Sol, who was this Indra, and who that Ahalyá, by the hearing of which my understanding may have its clear-sightedness. 7. The sun said:—It is related my lord! that there reigned in former times a king at Magadha (Behar), Indra-dyumna by name, and alike his namesake (in prowess and fame). 8. He had a wife fair as the orb of moon, with her eyes as beautiful as lotuses. Her name was Ahalyá and she resembled Rohiní—the favourite of moon. 9. In that city there lived a palliard at the head of all the rakes; he was the intriguant son of a Bráhman, and was known by the same name of Indra. 10. Now this queen Ahalyá came to hear the tale of the former Ahalyá wife of Gotama, and her concupiscence related to her at a certain time. 11. Hearing of that, this Ahalyá felt a passion for the other Indra, and became impatient in the absence of his company; thinking only how he should come to her. 12. She was fading as a tender creeper thrown adrift in the burning desert, and was burning with her inward flame, on beds of cooling leaves of the watery lotus and plantain trees.

13. She was pining amidst all the enjoyments of her royal state, as the poor fish lying exposed on the dry bed of a pool in summer heat. 14. She lost her modesty with her self possession, and repeated in her phrensy, “here is Indra, and there he comes to me.” 15. Finding her in this pitiable plight, a lady of her palace took compassion on her, and said, I will safely conduct Indra before your ladyship in a short time. 16. No sooner she heard her companion say “I will bring your desired object to you,” than she oped her eyes with joy, and fell prostrate at her feet, as one lotus flower falls before another. 17. Then as the day passed on, and the shade of night covered the face of nature, the lady made her haste to the house of Indra—the Bráhman’s boy. 18. The clever lady used her persuasions as far as she could, and then succeeded to bring with her this Indra, and present him before her royal mistress forthwith. 19. She then adorned herself with pastes and paints, and wreaths of fragrant flowers, and conducted her lover to a private apartment, where they enjoyed their fill.

20. The youth decorated also in his jewels and necklaces delighted her with his dulcet caresses, as the vernal season renovates the arbour with his luscious juice. 21. Henceforward this ravished queen, saw the world full with the figure of her beloved Indra, and did not think much of all the excellences of her royal lord—her husband. 22. It was after sometime, that the great king came to be acquainted of the queen’s amour for the Bráhman Indra, by certain indications of her countenance. 23. For as long as she thought of her lover Indra, her face glowed as the full blown lotus, blooming with the beams of her moon like lover. 24. Indra also was enamoured of her with all his enraptured senses, and could not remain for a moment in any place without her company. 25. The king heard the painful tiding of their mutual affection, and of their unconcealed meetings and conferences with each other at all times. 26. He observed also many instances of their mutual attachment, and gave them his reprimands and punishments, as they deserved at different times. 27. They were both cast in the cold water of a tank in the cold weather, where instead of betraying any sign of pain, they kept smiling together as in their merriment.

28. The king then ordered them to be taken out of the tank, and told them to repent for their crimes; but the infatuated pair, was far from doing so, and replied to the king in the following manner. 29. Great King! As long we continue to reflect on the unblemished beauty of each other’s face, so long are we lost in the meditation of one another, and forget our own persons. 30. We are delighted in our persecutions, as no torment can separate us from each other, nor are we afraid of separation, though O King, you can separate our souls from our bodies. 31. Then they were thrown in a frying pan upon fire, where they remained unhurt and exclaimed, we rejoice, O King! at the delight of our souls in thinking of one another. 32. They were tied to the feet of elephants, to be trampled down by them; but they remained uninjured and said, King we feel our hearty joy at the remembrance of each other. 33. They were lashed with rods and straps, and many other sorts of scourges, which the king devised from time to time.

34. But being brought back from the scourging ground, and asked about their suffering, they returned the same answer as before; and moreover, said Indra to the King, this world is full with the form of my beloved one. 35. All your punishments inflict no pain on her also, who views the whole world as full of myself. (We see our beloved in every shape. Hafiz. A thousands forms of my love, I see around me. Urfi. “berundaruna man sad surate O paidast” id). 36. Therefore all your punishments to torment the body, can give no pain to the mind (soul); which is my true self, and constitutes my personality (purusha), which resides in my person (purau sete). 37. This body is but an ideal form, and presents a shadowy appearance to view; you can pour out your punishments upon it for a while; but it amounts to no more than striking a shadow with a stick. (The body is a thing that my senses inform me, and not an occult something beyond the senses. Berkeley. Man can inflict the (unsubstantial) body, and not the (substantial) spirit within. Gospel).

38. No body can break down the brave (firm) mind; then tell me great king! what the powers of the mighty amount to? (The mind is invulnerable, and no human power can break its tenor). 39. The causes that conspire to ruffle the tenor of the resolute mind, are the erroneous conceptions of external appearances. It is better therefore to chastise such bodies which mislead the mind to error. (The certainty of the uncertainty of our bodies, is the only certain means for the certitude of our minds and safety of our souls; and better is it for us that our bodies be destroyed, in order to preserve our minds and souls intact). 40. The mind is firm for ever that is steadfast to its fixed purpose. Nay it is identified with the object which it has constantly in its thoughts. (This is called mental metamorphosis or assimilation to the object of thought, as there is a physical transformation of one thing to another form by its constant contact with the same; such as by the law of chemical affinities, which is termed yoga also in Indian medical works).

41. Being and not being are words applicable to bodies (and are convertible to one another); but they do not apply to the mind; since what is positive in thought, cannot be negatived of it in any wise. 42. The mind is immovable and cannot be moved by any effort like mobile bodies. It is impregnable to all external actions, and neither your anger or favour (barasápa), can make any effect on it. 43. It is possible for men of strong resolutions to change the coarse of their actions; but where is such a strong minded man to be found, who is able to withstand or change the current of his thought? 44. It is impossible to move the mind from its fixed fulcrum, as it is impracticable for tender stags to remove a mountain from its base. This black-eyed beauty is the fixed prop of my mind. (The black eyed beauty of India and Asia, is very naturally opposed to the blue eyed maid of Homer and Europe).

45. She is seated in the lofty temple of my mind, as the goddess bhavání (Juno) on the mount Kailása (Olympus); and I fear nothing as long I view this beloved preserver of my life and soul before me. (The Persian poet Urfi uses the same simile of the temple and mind in the hemistich or distich. “I see her image in my inward shrine, as an idol in the temple of an idolatrous land).” 46. I sit amidst the conflagration of a burning mountain in summer’s heat, but am cooled under the umbrage of her showering cloud, wherever I stand or fall. 47. I think of nothing except of that sole object of my thought and wish, and I cannot persuade myself, to believe me as any other than Indra the lover of Ahalyá. 48. It is by constant association, that I have come to this belief of myself; nor can I think of me otherwise than what is in my nature; for know, O King! The wise have but one and the same object in their thought and view. (So says Hafiz:—If thou wilt have her, think not of another).

49. The mind like the Meru, is not moved by threat or pity; it is the body that you can tame by the one or other expedient. The wise, O King! are masters of their minds, and there is none and nothing to deter them from their purpose. 50. Know it for certain, O King, that neither these bodies about us, nor these bodies and sensations of ours are realities. They are but shows of truth, and not the movers of the mind: but on the contrary, it is the mind which supplies the bodies, and senses with their powers of action; as the water supplies the trees and branches with their vegetative juice. 51. The mind is generally believed as a sensuous and passive principle, wholly actuated by the outward impressions of senses; but in truth it is the mind, which is the active and moving principle of the organs of action. Because all the senses become dormant in absence of the action of the mind; and so the functions of the whole creation are at a stop, without the activity of the Universal Mind—anima mundi. (See Psychology and Mental Philosophy).

LOVE OF THE FICTITIOUS INDRA AND AHALYA. Argument. Curses have power on the body, and not upon the mind. The Sol said:—The lotus-eyed king thus defied by this perverse Indra, addressed the sage Bharata, who was sitting by him (in the court-hall). 2. The king spoke:—Lord, you are acquainted with all morality, and seest this ravisher of my wife, and hearest the arrogant speech, that he utters before our face. 3. Deign, O great sage! pronounce thy fulmination upon him without delay; because it is a breach of justice to spare the wicked, as it is to hurt the innocent. 4. Being thus besought by the great king, Bharata the best of the wise munis; considered well in his mind, the crime of this wicked soul Indra. 5. And then pronounced his imprecation by saying:—“Do you, O reprobate sinner, soon meet with thy perdition, together with this sinful woman, that is so faithless to her husband.” 6. Then they both replied to the king and his venerable sage, saying,—“what fools must ye be, to have thus wasted your imprecation, the great gain of your devotion, on our devoted heads” (knowing that our souls are invincible).

7. The curse you have pronounced, can do us very little harm; for though our bodies should fall, yet it cannot affect our inward minds and spirits (which are unchangeable). 8. The inner principle of the soul, can never be destroyed by any body and anywhere; owing to its inscrutable, subtile and intellectual nature. 9. The Sol added:—This fascinated pair, that were over head and ears in love, then fell down by effect of the denunciation, as when the lopped branches fall upon the ground from the parent tree. 10. Being subjected to the torment of transmigration, they were both born as a pair of deer in mutual attachment, and then as a couple of turtle doves in their inseparable alliance. 11. Afterwards, O lord of our creation, this loving pair came to be born as man and woman, who by their practice of austerities, came to be reborn as a Brahman and Brahmaní at last. 12. Thus the curse of Bharata, was capable only of transforming their bodies; and never to touch their minds or souls which continued in their unshaken attachment in every state of their transfiguration (or metamorphosis of the body only, and no metempsychosis of the soul).

13. Therefore wherever they come to be reborn in any shape they always assume by virtue of their delusion and reminiscence, the form of a male and female pair. 14. Seeing the true love which subsisted between this loving pair in the forest, the trees also become enamoured of the other sex of their own kinds. (This refers to the attachment of the male and female flowers, long before its discovery by Linnaeus).

INCARNATION OF THE LIVING SOUL OR JÍVA. Argument. The Mind is the cause of all its creations. The Sol continued:—Therefore I say, my lord! that the mind like time, is indestructible of its nature, and the inavertible imprecation of the sage, could not alter its tenor. 2. Therefore it is not right for thee, O great Brahmá! to destroy the ideal fabric of the air-drawn world of the sons of Indu, because it is improper for great souls, to put a check to the fancies of others (but rather to let every one to delight in his own hobby horse and romantic visions). 3. What thing is there, O lord of lords! that is wanting in thee in this universe of so many worlds, that should make thy great soul, to pine for the air built worlds of Indu’s sons? (It is not for noble minds to pine for the greatness of others, nor repine at the loss which they may sustain). 4. The mind is verily the maker of worlds, and is known as the prime Male—Purusha (the Demiurgus or Protogonus). Hence the mind that is fixed to its purpose, is not to be shaken from it by the power of any imprecation or by virtue of any drug or medicine, or even by any kind of chastisement.

5. The mind which is the image of every body, is not destructible as the body, but remains forever fixed to its purpose. Let therefore the Aindavas continue in their ideal act of creation, (as so many Brahmás themselves). 6. Thou lord that hast made these creatures, remain firm in thy place, and behold the infinite space which is spread out before thee, and commensurate with the ample scope of thy understanding, in the triple spheres of thy intellect and mind, and the vast vacuity of the firmament. (i.e. The infinitude of the etherial vacuum is co-extensive with the amplitude of Brahmá’s mind, and the plenitude of creations). 7. These three fold infinities of etherial, mental and intellectual spaces, are but reflexions of the infinite vacuity of divine intellect, and supply thee, O Brahmá, with ample space for thy creation of as many worlds at thy will. 8. Therefore thou art at liberty to create ad libitum, whatever thou likest and think not that the sons of Indu, have robbed thee of anything; when thou hast the power to create everything. 9. Brahmá said:—After the sun had spoken to me in this manner, concerning the Aindava and other worlds, I reflected awhile on what he said, and then answered him saying:—

10. Well hast thou said, O sun, for I see the ample space of air lying open before me; I see also my spacious mind and the vast comprehension of my intellect, I will therefore go on with my work of creation forever. 11. I will immediately think about multitudes of material productions, whereof O sun! I ordain thee as my first Manu or progeny, to produce all these for me. (The sun light was the first work of creation, and the measure of all created beings, by his days and nights or mornings and evenings). 12. Now produce all things as thou wilt, and according to my behest, at which the refulgent sun readily complied to my request. 13. Then this great luminary stood confest with his bipartite body of light and heat; with the first of which he shone as the sun in the midst of heaven. 14. With the other property of the heat of his body, he became my Manu or agent in the nether worlds. (The solar heat or calor, is the cause of growth upon earth). 15. And here he produced all things as I bade him do, in the course of the revolutions of his seasons.

16. Thus have I related to you, O sagely Vasishtha! all about the nature and acts of the mind, and omnipotence of the great soul; which infuses its might in the mind in its acts of creation and production. 17. Whatever reflexion is represented in the mind, the same is manifested in a visible form, and becomes compact and stands confest before it. (The ideal becomes visible or the noumenal is exprest in the phenomenal). 18. Look at the extraordinary power of the mind, which raised the ordinary Aindava Brahmans to the rank of Brahmá, by means of their conception of the same in themselves. 19. As the living souls of the Aindavas, were incorporated with Brahmá, by their intense thought of him in them (or by their mental absorption of themselves in him); so also have we attained to Brahmáhood, by means of our mental conception of that spiritual light and supreme intellect in ourselves. (So in our daily ritual,अहं ब्रह्म नचान्यस्मि, ब्रह्मैवास्मिन शौकभाक् । सच्चिदानन्दरूपोऽहं, नित्यमुक्त स्वभाववन् ॥

20. The mind is full of its innate ideas, and the figure that lays a firm hold of it, the same appears exprest without it in a visible shape; or else there is no material substance beside one’s own mind. (This is the doctrine of conceptionalists, that all outward objects are but representations of our inborn ideas, in opposition to the belief of sensationalists, that the internal notions are reflections of our external sensations). 21. The mind is the wonderful attribute of the soul, and bears in itself many other properties like the inborn pungency of the pepper. (These inborn properties are the memory, imagination and other faculties of the mind). 22. These properties appear also as the mind, and are called its hyperphysical or mental faculties; while it is downright mistake on the part of some to understand them as belonging to the body. (The sánkhya materialists understand the internal faculties as products of the body and matter).

23. The self same mind is termed also the living principle—Jíva (Zoa), when it is combined with its purer desires; and is to be known after all to be bodiless and unknown in its nature. (The life being combined with gross desires, assumes the body for its enjoyment of them, but loosened from its fetters, it resumes its purer nature. Hence the future spiritual life, is free from grosser wishes). 24. There is no body as myself or any other person in this world, except this wondrous and self-existent mind; which like the sons of Indu, assumes the false conception of being real Brahmás themselves. 25. As the Aindavas were Brahmás in their minds, so my mind makes me a Brahmá also; it is the mind that makes one such and such, according to the conception that he entertains of himself. (We are in reality nothing, but what our minds inform us to be). 26. It is only by a conceit of my mind, that I think myself situated as a Brahmá in this place; otherwise all these material bodies, are known to be as unreal, as the vacuity of the soul wherein they abide.

27. The unsullied mind approximates the Divine, by its constant meditation of the same; but being vitiated by the variety of its desires, it becomes the living being, which at last turns to animal life and the living body. (This is called the incarnation of the living soul or the materialization of the spirit). 28. The intelligent body shines as any of the luminous orbs in the world of the Aindavas, it is brilliant with the intelligent soul, like the appearance of a visionary creation of the mind. (The body is a creature of the mind like a figure in its dream). 29. All things are the productions of the mind and reflexions of itself, like the two moons in the sky, the one being but a reflexion of the other; and as the concepts of the Aindava worlds. 30. There is nothing as real or unreal, nor a personality as I or thou or any other; the real and unreal are both alike, unless it be the conception which makes something appear as a reality which has otherwise no reality of itself.

31. Know the mind to both active and inert (i.e. both as spirit and matter). It is vast owing to the vastness of its desires, and is lively on account of its spiritual nature of the great God; but becomes inert by its incorporation with material objects. 32. The conception of phenomenals as real, cannot make them real, any more than the appearance of a golden bracelet, can make it gold, or the phenomenals appearing in Brahmá, can identify themselves with Brahmá himself. 33. Brahma being all in all, the inert also are said to be intelligent, or else all beings from ourselves down to blocks, are neither inert nor intelligent. (Because nothing exists besides Brahma, wherefore what exists not, can be neither one nor the other). 34. It is said that the lifeless blocks, are without intelligence and perception; but every thing that bears a like relation to another, has its perception also like the other. (Hence all things being equally related to Brahma, are equally sentient also in their natures). 35. Know everything to be sentient that has its perception or sensitivity; wherefore all things are possest of their perceptivity, by the like relation (sádrisya-sambandha) of themselves with the supreme soul.

36. The terms inert and sensitive are therefore meaningless, in their application to things subsisting in the same divine spirit; and it is like attributing fruits and flowers to the arbors of a barren land. The barren waste refers to the vacuum of the divine mind, and its arbours to its unsubstantial ideas, which are neither inert nor sentient like the fruits or flowers of those trees. 37. The notion or thought, which is formed by and is an act of the intellect, is called the mind; of these the portion of the intellect or intellectual part, is the active principle, but the thought or mental part is quite inert. 38. The intellectual part consists of the operation of intellection, but the thoughts or thinkables (chetyas), which are the acts of the chit or intellect are known to be inert; and these are viewed by the living soul in the erroneous light of the world, (rising and sitting before it like the sceneries of a phantasmagoria). 39. The nature of the intellect—chit is a pure unity, but the mind—chitta which is situated in the same, and thence called chit—stha or posited in the intellect, is a réchauffé or dualism of itself, and this appears in the form of a duality of the world.

40. Thus it is by intellection of itself as the other form, that the noumenal assumes the shape of the phenomenal world; and being indivisible in itself, it wanders through the labyrinth of errors with its other part of the mind. 41. There is no error in the unity of the intellect, nor is the soul liable to error, unless it is deluded by its belief of pluralities. The intellect is as full as the ocean, with all its thoughts rising and sitting in it as its endless waves. 42. That which you call the mental part of the intellect, is full of error and ignorance; and it is the ignorance of the intellectual part, that produces the errors of egoism and personality. 43. There is no error of egoism or personality in the transcendental category of the divine soul; because it is the integrity of all consciousness, as the sea is the aggregate of all its waves and waters. 44. The belief of egoism rises as any other thought of the mind, and is as inborn in it as the water in the mirage, which does not exist really in it.

45. The term ego is inapplicable to the pure and simple internal soul; which being vitiated by the gross idea of its concupiscence, takes the name of ego, as the thickened coldness is called by the name of frost. 46. It is the pure substance of the intellect which forms the ideas of gross bodies, as one dreams of his death in his sleep. The all-pervading intelligence which is the all inherent and omnipotent soul, produces all forms in itself, and of which there is no end until they are reduced to unity. 47. The mind manifests various appearances in the forms of things, and being of a pure etherial form, it assumes various shapes by its intellectual or spiritual body. 48. Let the learned abstain from the thoughts of the threefold forms of the pure intellectual, spiritual and corporeal bodies, and reflect on them as the reflexions of the divine intellect in his own mind. 49. The mind being cleansed of its darkness like the mirror of its dirt, shows the golden hue of spiritual light, which is replete with real felicity, and by far more blissful than what this earthly clod of body can ever yield.

50. We should cleanse the mind which exists for ever, rather than the body which is transient and non-existent; and as unreal as the trees in the air, of which no one takes any notice. 51. Those who are employed in the purification of their bodies, under the impression that the body also is called the átmá or soul (in some sástra); are the atheistic chárvakas, who are as silly goats among men. 52. Whatever one thinks inwardly in himself, he is verily transformed to its likeness, as in the instance of the Aindava Bráhmans, and of Indra and Ahalya cited before. 53. Whatever is represented in the mirror of the mind, the same appears in the figure of the body also. But as neither this body nor the egoism of any one, is lasting for ever, it is right to forsake our desires. 54. It is natural for every body to think himself as an embodied being, and to be subject to death (while in reality it is the soul that makes the man, who is immortal owing to the immortality of the soul). It is as a boy thinks himself to be possessed of a demon of his own imagination, until he gets rid of his false apprehension by the aid of reasoning.

ON THE POWERS OF MIND. Argument. Force of the Faculties of the Mind and Energy of Men. Vasishtha added:—Now hear, O support of Raghu’s race! what I next proposed to the lotus-born lord Brahmá, after we had finished the preceding conversation. 2. I asked him saying:—Lord! you have spoken before of the irrevocable power of curses and imprecations, how is it then that their power is said to be frustrated again by men. 3. We have witnessed the efficacy of imprecations, pronounced with potent Mantra—anathemas, to overpower the understanding and senses of living animals, and paralyze every member of the body. (This speaks of the incantations and charms of the Atharva Veda). 4. Hence we see the mind and body are as intimately connected with each other, as motion with the air and fluidity with the sesamum seed (because the derangement of the one is attended by the disorganization of the other: i.e. of the body and mind). 5. Or that there is no body except it but be a creation of the mind, like the fancied chimeras of visions and dreams, and as the false sight of water in the mirage, or the appearance of two moons in the sky.

6. Or else why is it that the dissolution of the one, brings on the extinction of the other, such as the quietus of the mind is followed by the loss of bodily sensations? 7. Tell me, my lord! how the mind is unaffected by the power of imprecations and menace, which subdue the senses and say whether they are both overpowered by these, being the one and same thing. 8. Brahmá replied:—Know then, there is nothing in the treasure-house of this world, which is unattainable by man by means of his exertions in the right way. 9. And that all species of animal being, from the state of the highest Brahmá, down to minute insects, are bicorpori or endowed with two bodies the mental and corporeal. (i.e. The mind and the body). 10. The one, that is the mental body, is ever active and always fickle; and the other is the worthless body of flesh, which is dull and inactive. 11. Now the fleshy part of the body which accompanies all animal beings, is overpowered by the influence of curses and charms, practised by the art of incantation—abhichára Vidyá. (Exorcism, the Mumbo Jumbo of the Tantras).

12. The influence of certain supernatural powers stupifies a man, and makes him dull and dumb. Sometimes one is about to droop down insensible, as spell bound persons are deprived of their external senses, and fall down like a drop of water from a lotus-leaf. 13. The mind which is the other part of the body of embodied beings, is ever free and unsubdued; though it is always under the subjection of all living beings in the three worlds. 14. He who can control his mind by continued patience on one hand, and by incessant vigilance on the other, is the man of an unimpeachable character, and unapproachable by calamity. 15. The more a man employs the mental part of his body to its proper employment, the more successful he is in obtaining the object he has in view. (Omnium vincit vigilentia vel diligentia). 16. Mere bodily energy is never successful in any undertaking (any more than brute force); it is intellectual activity only, that is sure of success in all attempts. (The head must guide the body). 17. The attention of the mind being directed to objects unconnected with matter, it is as vain an effort to hurt it (an immaterial object); as it is to pierce a stone with an arrow (or to beat the air).

18. Drown the body under the water or dip it in the mud, burn it in the fire or fling it aloft in air, yet the mind turneth not from its pole; and he who is true to his purpose, is sure of success. (The word tatkshanát phalitah or gaining immediate success, is an incredible expression in the text). 19. Intensity of bodily efforts overcomes all impediments, but it is mental exertion alone which leads to ultimate success in every undertaking (for without the right application of bodily efforts under guidance of reason, there can be no expectation of prospering in any attempt). 20. Mark here in the instance of the fictitious Indra, who employed all his thoughts to the assimilation of himself into the very image of his beloved, by drowning all his bodily pains in the pleasure of her remembrance. 21. Think of the manly fortitude of Mándavya, who made his mind as callous as marble, when he was put to the punishment of the guillotine, and was insensible of his suffering. (So it is recorded of the Sophist Mansur, who was guillotined for his faith in the anal Haq “I am the True One,” and of the martyrs who fell victims to their faith in truth).

22. Think of the sage who fell in the dark pit, while his mind was employed in some sacrificial rite, and was taken up to heaven in reward of the merit of his mental sacrifice. (Redemption is to be had by sacrifice of the soul, and not of the body). 23. Remember also how the sons of Indu obtained their Brahmáhood, by virtue of their persevering devotion, and which even I have not the power to withhold. (i.e. Even Brahmá is unable to prevent one’s rising by his inflexible devotedness). 24. There have been also many such sages and master-minds among men and gods, who never laid aside their mental energies, whereby they were crowned with success in their proper pursuits. 25. No pain or sickness, no fulmination nor threat, no malicious beast or evil spirit, can break down the resolute mind, any more than the striking of a lean lotus-leaf, can split the breast of a hard stone. 26. Those that you say to have been discomfited by tribulations and persecutions, I understand them as too infirm in their faiths, and very weak both in their minds and manliness.

27. Men with heedful minds, have never been entrapped in the snare of errors in this perilous world; and they have never been visited by the demon of despair, in their sleeping or waking states. 28. Therefore let a man employ himself to the exercise of his own manly powers, and engage his mind and his mental energy to noble pursuits, in the paths of truth and holiness. 29. The enlightened mind forgets its former darkness, and sees its objects in their true light; and the thought that grows big in the mind, swallows it up at last, as the fancy of a ghost lays hold of the mind of a child. 30. The new reflexion effaces the prior impression from the tablet of the mind, as an earthen pot turning on the potter’s wheel, no more thinks of its nature of dirty clay. (One risen to a high rank or converted to a new creed, entirely forsakes and forgets his former state). 31. The mind, O muni! is transmuted in a moment to its new model; as the inflated or aerated water rises high into waves and ebullitions, glaring with reflexions of sun-light. (Common minds are wholly occupied with thoughts of the present, forgetful of the past and careless of the future).

32. The mind that is averse to right investigation, sees like the purblind, every thing in darkness even in broad day light; and observes by deception two moons for one in the moonshine. (The uninquisitive are blind to the light of truth). 33. Whatever the mind has in view, it succeeds soon in the accomplishment of the same. And as it does aught of good or evil, it reaps the reward of the same, in the gladness or bitterness of his soul. 34. A wrong reflector reflects a thing in a wrong light, as a distracted lover sees a flame in the moonbeams, which makes him burn and consume in his state of distraction. (This is said of distracted lovers, who imagine cooling moon-beams and sandal-paste as hot as fire, and inflaming their flame of love). 35. It is the conception of the mind, that makes the salt seem sweet to taste, by its giving a flavour to the salted food for our zest and delight. 36. It is our conception, that makes us see a forest in the fog, or a tower in the clouds; appearing to the sight of the observer to be rising and falling by turns.

37. In this manner whatever shape the imagination gives to a thing, it appears in the same visionary form before the sight of the mind; therefore knowing this world of your imagination, as neither a reality nor unreality, forbear to view it and its various shapes and colours, as they appear to view.

A VIEW OF THE GENESIS OF THE MIND AND BODY. Argument. First Birth of the Mind, and then that of Light. Next grew the Ego, and thence came out the World. Vasishtha said:—I will now tell you Ráma! What I was instructed of yore by lord Brahmá himself. (The prime progenitor of mankind and propounder of the Vedas). 2. From the unspeakable Brahmá, there sprang all things in their undefinable ideal state, and then the Spirit of God being condensed by His Will, it came to be produced of itself in the form of the Mind. (The volitive and creative agency of God). 3. The Mind formed the notions of the subtile elementary principles in itself, and became a personal agent (with its power of volition or creative will). The same became a luminous body and was known as Brahmá the first Male. (Purusha or Protogonus—Pratha-janya or Prathamajanita). 4. Therefore know Ráma, this same Brahmá to be the Parameshthi or situated in the Supreme, and being a personification of the Will of God, is called the Mind. 5. The Mind therefore known as the Lord Brahmá, is a form of the Divine essence, and being full of desires in itself, sees all its wills (in their ideal forms), present before it.

6. The mind then framed or fell of itself, into the delusion (avidyá), of viewing its ideal images as substantial (as one does in his delirium); and thence the phenomenal world (with whatever it contains), is said to be the work of Brahmá. 7. Thus the world proceeding in this order from the Supreme essence, is supposed by some to have come into being from another source, of dull material particles. (Doctrine of Hylotheism or the Materialistic system of Sánkhya Philosophy), 8. It is from that Brahmá, O Ráma! that, all things situated in this concave world, have come to being, in the manner of waves rising on the surface of the deep. 9. The self-existent Brahmá that existed in the form of intellect (chit) before creation, the same assumed the attribute of egoism (ahankára) afterwards, and became manifest in the person of Brahmá. (Thence called Swayambhu or self-born). 10. All the other powers of the Intellect, which were concentrated in the personality of the Ego, were tantamount to those of Omnipotence. (The impersonal Intellect and the personal Ego or Brahmá, are both of them equally powerful).

11. The world being evolved from the eternal ideas in the Divine Intellect, manifested itself in the mind of the great father of all—Brahmá. (Intellectus noster nihil intelligit sine phantasmata); it is the mind which moves and modifies them, and is the Intelligence (logos-Word) of the One, and the manifestation of its power. 12. The Mind thus moving and modeling all things is called the Jíva living soul or Nous. (The Scholiast says:—The Mind is the genus—Samashti, the soul is an individual name (Vyashti) of every individual living being. The Mind is soul without personality; the soul is the mind of a certain being. The Mind is the principle of volition, and the soul is that of animation). 13. These living souls rise and move about in the vacuous sphere of the infinite Intellect (chidákása). These are unfolded by the elementary particles of matter, and pass in the open space surrounded by air. They then reside in the fourteen kinds of animated nature, according to the merit and demerit of their prior acts. They enter the bodies through the passage of their vital breath, and become the seeds of moving and immoving beings.

14. They are then born of the generative organ (foetus), and are met on a sudden by the desires of their previous births (which lay waiting on them). Thus led on by the current of their wishes, they live to reap the reward or retribution of their good or bad acts in the world. 15. Thus bound fast to action and fettered in the meshes of desire, the living souls enchained in their bodies, continue to rove about or rise and fall in this changeful world by turns. 16. Their wish is the cause of their weal or woe, says the Sruti; and which is inseparable from the soul as volition from the mind. (The wish is the inactive desire of the soul, and volition the active will of the mind). 17. Thousands of living souls, are falling off as fast as the leaves of forest trees; and being borne away by the force of their pursuits, they are rolling about as the fallen leaves wafted by the breeze in the valleys. (The aberration of living souls from the Supreme). 18. Many are brought down and bound to innumerable births in this earth, by their ignorance of the Chit or Divine Intellect, and are subjected to interminable transmigrations in various births.

19. There are some who having passed many mean births in this earth, have now risen high in the scale of beings, by their devotedness to better acts (and are likely to have their liberation in the course of their progression to the best). 20. Same persons acquainted with spirituality, have reached their state of perfection; and have gone to heaven, like particles of sea-water, carried into the air above by the blowing winds. 21. The production of all beings is from the Supreme Brahmá; but their appearance and disappearance in this frail world, are caused by their own actions. Hence the actionless yogi, is free from both these states. (God made everything perfect; Man’s sin brought his death and woe). 22. Our desires are poisonous plants, bearing the fruits of pain and disappointment; and lead us to actions which are fraught with dangers and difficulties. (Cursed was the ground for man’s unrestricted desires, which sowed it with thorns and thistles). 23. These desires drive us to different countries, to distant hills and dales in search of gain. (Else man could live content with little and on his native plain).

24. This world O Ráma! is a jungle of withered trees and brambles; and requires the axe of reason to clear away these drugs and bushes. So are our minds and bodies but plants and trees of our woe, which being rooted out by the axe of reason, will no more come to grow by their transmigration in this earth. (The mind and body are rooted out by Suppression of their desires and passions).

BRAHMA THE ORIGIN OF ALL. Argument. Description of the twelve species of Human beings and the ways of their liberation. Vasishtha said:—Hear me now relate to you, Ráma! the several classes of higher, lower and middling species of beings, and the various grades of their existence here and elsewhere in the scale of creation. (i.e. The spontaneous production of beings suo motu, when they were not bound by karma-vipáka or acts of a prior life, to be born in any particular form or state on earth). 2. They were the first in their production, and are known as the idam-prathama—or the first class in their birth, whose long practice in a course of virtuous actions in prior states, has secured to them the property of goodness—satva-guna only. (These are the holy saints and sages, who are entitled to their liberation in life time, and upon separation from their bodies). 3. The second grade is called the guna pívari or state of sound qualities, which is attained by the prosperous, and leads them to meritorious deeds, to the acquisition of their desired objects, and their right dealing in the affairs of the world. (This meritorious state becomes entitled to liberation after some births in this earth).

4. The third grade is termed the sasatwá, or the state of substantiality of men of substance. It is attended with like results, proportioned to the righteous and unrighteous acts of men, who may obtain their liberation after a hundred transmigrations of their souls on earth. 5 & 6. The fourth grade comprises infatuated people called atyanta támasi, who are addicted to their varying desires in this changeful world, and come to the knowledge of truth, after passing a thousand lives in ignorance and sin, and suffering the effects proportionate to their good or evil deeds. 7. The fifth grade is composed of men of a baser nature, called adhama-satwá by the wise, and who may possibly have their liberation, after a course of numberless births in different shapes and forms. 8. The sixth grade is composed of those extremely benighted men (atyanta támasi), who are doubtful of their liberation (Sandigdha-moksha), and continue in the vicious course of their past lives. 9. Those who after passing two or three previous births in other states, are born afterwards with the quality of gentleness, these are reckoned as the seventh grade, and are denominated the Rájashi—gentry or gentility.

10. Those who remain mindful of their duties, and are employed in discharge of them in this state of life; are said by the wise to be entitled to their liberation, soon after their demise. 11. Those among the Rájashi—gentility, whose acts are commensurate with those of gentlemen and the nobility, are included in the eighth class, and are called Rája Sátwiki—or noble gentlemen; and are entitled to their liberation after a few births on earth. 12. The ninth class comprises the rája-rájashi or right gentlemen, whose actions conform with their title, and who obtain their long longed-for liberation, after a course of hundred births in the same state. 13. The next or tenth class is composed of the rájatámasí or blinded gentry, who act foolishly under their infatuation; and who are uncertain of their liberation, even after a thousand births. 14. The most giddy of this class is called atyanta-rája-tamashi, or the excessively infatuated gentry, whose conduct in life correspond with their name, and whose transmigration does not cease at any time. 15. Then the lower classes comprise the children of darkness or ignorance—tamas; of whom the támasas form the eleventh grade, and are said to be deprived of their liberation forever more. (These are the Rákshasas and demons of various orders).

16. There have been a few however among them, who have obtained their salvation by means of their divine knowledge, and their good acts during their life time (such as Prahláda, the son of a demon, and Karkotaka—the son of a Nága). 17. Next follows the twelfth order of támasa-rájasa, who combine in them the qualities of darkness and enlightenment, and who are liberated after a thousand births in their former demoniac state, and one hundred births in their progressive improvements. 18. Then comes the thirteenth order of támas-támasi or those in darkest darkness, who have to transmigrate for millions of years both in their prior and later births, before they can have their liberation from the bondage of body. 19. Last comes the fourteenth order of beings, who continue in their state of gross ignorance (atyanta—támasí) forever, and it is doubted whether they can have their liberation at all. (All these classes of human beings have proceeded from Brahmá, whose life and spirit circulate in all of them; else they could neither live nor breathe). 20. All other masses of living beings also, have proceeded from the body of the great Brahmá, as the moving waves rise from the great body of waters.

21. And as the lamp flickering by its own heat, scatters its light on all sides; so does Brahmá glowing in himself, irradiate his beams in the shape of scintilla, to spread all over the universe: (which is the vacuity of Brahmá’s mind, and comprises the cosmos within it). 22. And as the sparks of fire are flung about by force of the burning flame; so do these multitudes of produced beings rise from the substance of Brahmá himself. 23. As the dust and filaments of mandara flowers, fly to and fill the air on all sides; and as the beams of the moon shoot out of its orb, to fill the four quarters of heaven and earth; so the minutiæ of Divine essence emanate from the Deity, and spread throughout the universe. 24. As the variegated arbor, produces its leaves and flowers of various hues from itself; so the varieties of created beings, spring from one Brahmá—the source of all. 25. As the gold ornaments are in relation to the metal gold of which they are made, and wherein they subsist, so Ráma! are all things and persons in relation to Brahmá, out of whom they have sprung and in whom they abide.

26. As the drops of water, are related to the pure water of the cascade, so Ráma, are all things related to the increate Brahmá, whence they issue as drizzling drops. 27. As the air in a pot and about a basin, is the same with the surrounding air of heaven; so are all individual objects the same, with the undivided spirit of the all-pervading Brahmá. 28. As the drops of rain-water, and those of water spouts, whirlpools and waves, are identic with their parent waters; so are all these phenomenal sights, the same with the great Brahmá, whence they spring, and wherein they exist and subside. 29. As the mirage presents the appearance of a billowy sea, by the fluctuation of sunbeams on sand; so do all visible objects show themselves to the sight of the spectator, beside which they have no figure or form of themselves. 30. Like the cooling beams of the moon, and the burning light of the sun, do all things shine with their different lustres derived from Brahmá. 31. It is He, from whom all things have risen, unto him they return in their time; some after their transmigrations in a thousand births, and others after longer periods of their revolutions in various bodies.

32. All these various forms of beings in the multiform world are moving in their respective spheres by the will of the Lord. They come and go, rise and fall, and shine in their transitory forms, like the sparks of fire, fluttering and sparkling for a moment, and then falling and becoming extinct for ever.

IDENTITY OF THE ACTOR AND HIS ACTION. Argument. It is for persuasion of men addicted to Acts that the Actor is identified with his Acts. Vasishtha said:—There is no difference of acts, from the agent, as they have sprung together from the same source of their creator: they are the simultaneous growth of nature like flowers and their odour. (The Gitá says:—The actor, act and its effect, are naturally united together). 2. When human souls are freed from their desires, they are united with the supreme soul of Brahma, as the blueness of the sky which appears distinct to the eyes of the ignorant, is found to be joined with the clear firmament. (The human soul is a shadow of the supreme, as blueness is a shade of vacuity). 3. Know, O Ráma! that it is for the understanding of the ignorant, that the living souls are said to have sprung from Brahma: when they are in reality but shadows of the same. 4. Wherefore it is not right on the part of the enlightened to say that such and such things are produced from Brahma, when there is nothing that exists apart or separate from him: (on account of the unity of all existences and identity of the actor and the act).

5. It is a mere fiction of speech to speak of the world as creation or production, because it is difficult to explain the subject and object of the lecture, without the use of such fictitious language (as the actor and act, the creator and the created &c.). 6. Hence the language of dualists and pluralists is adopted in monotheistic doctrines, as the expressions, this one is Brahma, or divine soul, and these others are the living souls, as they are in use in the popular language. 7. It has been seen (explained), that the concrete world has sprung from the discrete Brahma; because the production of something is the same with its material cause, though it seems different from it to common understandings. 8. Multitudes of living beings rising like the rocks of Meru and Mandara mountains, are joined with the main range from which they jut out. (All are but parts of one undivided whole. Pope.) 9. Thousands and thousands of living beings, are incessantly produced from their common source, like the innumerable sprigs of forest trees, filling the woodland sky with their variegated foliage. (So are all creatures but off shoots of the parent tree of the Supreme Soul).

10. An infinity of living beings will continue to spring from the same, like blades of grass sprouting from the earth below; and they will likewise be reduced to the same, like the season plants of spring, dying away in the hot weather of Summer. 11. There is no counting of the living creatures that exist at any time, and what numbers of them, are being born and dying away at any moment (and like waves of water are rising and falling at each instant). 12. Men with their duties proceed from the same divine source, like flowers growing with their fragrance from the same stem; and all these subside in the same receptacle whence they had their rise. 13. We see the different tribes of demons and brutes, and of men and gods in this world, coming into existence from non-existence, and this is repeated without end. 14. We see no other cause of their continuous revolution in this manner, except the forgetfulness of their reminiscence, which makes them oblivious of their original state, and conform with every mode of their metempsychosis into new forms. (Otherwise the retention of the knowledge of its original state and former impressions, would keep it alive in the same state of primeval purity, and exempt it from all transmigrations).

15. Ráma said:—For want of such reminiscence, I think that, obedience to the dictates of the infallible Sástras, which have been promulgated by the sages, and based on the authority of the Vedas, is the surest way for the salvation of mankind. 16. And I reckon those men as holy and perfect, who are possest of the virtues of the great, and have magnanimity and equanimity of their souls, and have received the light of the unknowable Brahma in them. (Such men are exempt from the pain of transmigration). 17. I reckon two things as the two eyes of the ignorant, for their discernment of the path of salvation. The one is their good conduct, and the other their knowledge of the Sástras, which follows the former. 18. Because one who is righteous in his conduct only, without joining his righteousness with his knowledge also, is never taken into account; and is slighted by all to be plunged into insignificance and misery. (The unlearned virtuous, is as despicable as the learned vicious).

19. Again Sir;—it is the joint assent of men and the Veda, that acts and their actors come one after the other; and not as you said of their rising simultaneously from their divine origin. (That is to say; that the morals established by the wise, and the virtues inculcated by the holy scriptures, are the guides of good acts and their observers, which are not the spontaneous growth of our nature or intention). 20. It is the act which makes the actor, and the actor who does the work. Thus they follow one another on the analogy of the seed and the tree which produce one another. This mutuality of both is seen in the practice of men and ordinances of the Veda. 21. Acts are the causes of animal births, as the seed gives birth to the sprouts of plants; and again works proceed from living beings as the sprouts produce the seeds. (Thus both are causes and effects of one another by turns, and never grown together). 22. The desire that prompts a person to his particular pursuit in his prison house of this world, the same yields him the like fruits and no other. (Men get what they have in their hearts and nothing besides).

23. Such being the case, how was it sir, that you said of the production of animals from the seed of Brahma, without the causality of their prior acts, which you say to be simultaneous with the birth of animal beings. 24. On one hand you have set at naught the law of antecedence and sequence of birth and action to one another, by your position of their simultaneity. 25. And again to say, that Brahma is not the origin of actions, and that Brahmá and other living beings are subjected to their several actions, are self contradictory propositions and opposed to common sense. (For the acts do not originate from Brahmá, they cannot be binding on others; and if the actions do not proceed from that source, whence do they come to take place). This question upsets the doctrine of Free Will. 26. And also to say that living beings are born together with their actions (by predestination), and are bound to them to no purpose, would be to apply to them the analogy of fishes which are caught by the baits they cannot devour, but cause their death. (So men must be bound in vain to the baits of their actions, if they are to go without reaping their fruition).

27. Therefore please to tell me sir, about the nature of acts, for you are best acquainted with the secrets of things, and can well remove my doubts on the subject. 28. Vasishtha replied:—You have well asked, my good Ráma! about this intricate subject, which I will now explain to you in a manner that will enlighten your understanding. 29. It is the activity of the mind which forms its thoughts and intentions, which are the roots or seed of actions; and it is its passivity, which is the recipient of their results. (So says the Sruti:—whatever is thought in the mind, the same is expressed in words and done in action). 30. Therefore no sooner did the principle of the mind spring from the essence of Brahmá, than it was accompanied by its thoughts and actions in the bodies, which the living beings assumed, according to their prior deserts and in-born desires. 31. As there is no difference between the self-same flower and its fragrance; in the same manner there is no distinction of the mind, from its actions which are one and the same thing.

32. It is the exertion of bodily activity, which we call an action here; but it is well known to the wise to be preceded by a mental action, which is called its thought in the mind: (chitta of the chit or the thought of the thinking principle). 33. It is possible to deny the existence of material objects, of the air and water, the hill and others; but it is impossible to deny the operations of our mental faculties, of which we have subjective evidence in ourselves. 34. No deliberate action of the present or past life goes for nothing; all human actions and efforts are attended with their just results, to which they are properly directed. (Sávadhánam anushthitán). 35. As the ink ceases to be ink, without its inky blackness, so the mind ceases to exist, without the action of its mental operations. 36. Cessation of mental operation, is attended with desinence of thought, and quiescence of the mind, is accompanied with discontinuance of actions. The liberated are free from both of these; but the unemancipate from neither. (i.e. The liberated are devoid of the thoughts and actions, which are concomitants with one another).

37. The mind is ever united with its activity as the fire with its heat, and the want of either of these, is attended to worldlings with the extinction of both. 38. The mind being ever restless in itself, becomes identified with the actions proceeding from its activity. The actions also whether good or bad, become identified with the mind, which feels their just rewards and punishments. Hence you see Ráma! The inseparable connection of the mind and acts, in reciprocating their actions and reactions upon each other.

INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF MIND. As the Ego, the subjective and really existent entity. Argument. The Faculties of the Mind, and their Various Functions and appellations. Vasishtha said:—The mind is mere thought, and thought is the mind in motion (literally, having the property of fluctuation). Its actions are directed by the nature of the thoughts (lit. according to the nature of the objects of thought); and the result of the acts is felt by every body in his mind. 2. Ráma said:—Sir, I pray you will explain in length, regarding the immaterial mind as opposed to the material body, and its inseparable property of will or volition (contrary to the inertness of dull matter). 3. Vasishtha replied:—The nature of the mind is known to be composed of the property of Volition, which is an attribute of the infinite and almighty power of the Supreme soul. (i.e. The mind is the volitive principle of the soul).

4. The mind is known to be of the form of that self-moving principle, which determines the dubitation of men between the affirmative and negative sides (as whether it is so or not dwikotika). i.e. The principle of rationality or the Reasoning faculty, consisting of the two great alternatives; viz. 1. The principle of contradiction: or of two contradictory propositions of which one is true, and the other untrue, i.e. Is, or, is not. 2. Raison determinantic or determining by a priori reasoning, as, why so and not otherwise. 5. The mind is known to be of the form of Ego, which is ignorant of the self manifesting soul of God; and believes itself as the subject of its thoughts and actions.

6. The mind is of the nature of imagination (Kalpaná), which is ever busy in its operations: hence the inactivity of the mind is as impossible in this world, as the insapience of the sapient man. (Imagination is an active faculty, representing the phenomena of the internal and external worlds, Sir W. Hamilton. It is an operation of the mind consisting of manifold functions, such as;—1. of receiving by the faculty of conception. 2. of retaining by the faculty of memory. 3. of recalling by the power of reproductive fancy; 4. of combining by productive fancy. In modern philosophy, it is the power of apprehending ideas, and combining them into new forms). 7. As there is no difference in the essence of fire and heat; so there is no difference whatever between mind and its activity, and so betwixt the mind and soul (i.e. the living soul). 8. The mind is known by many names in the same person and body, according to its various faculties and functions, its various thoughts and desires, and their manifold operations and consequences. (The mind, soul and intellect taken together as the same thing, comprise all the powers of intellect and intelligence).

9. The Divine Mind is said to be distributed into all souls by mistake and without any reason; since the All—to pan is without any substance or substratum, and indivisible in its nature. It is a mere fabrication of our desires and fancies to diversify it in different persons. (The Divine mind being the Anima mundi, contains all within itself, and having no container of it). 10. Whoever has set his desire in any thing as if it were a reality, finds the same to be attended with the like fruit as he had expected of it. (It means either that Association of ideas in the mind, introducing as by a chord; a train of kindred consecutive ideas, which are realised by their constant repetition, or that the primary desires of our nature, which are not factitious, but rising from our constitutions, are soon satisfied).

11. It is the movement of the mind, which is said and perceived by us to be the source of our actions; and the actions of the mind are as various as the branches, leaves and fruits of trees. (So it is said, the tree of desire has the mind for its seed, which gives force to the action of bodily organs, resembling its branches; and the activities of the body, are the causes which fructify the tree of desire). 12. Whatever is determined by the mind, is readily brought into performance by the external organs of action (Karmendriya); thus because the mind is the cause of action, it is identified with the effect. (By the law of the similarity of the cause and effect, in the growth of one seed from another. Or that the efficient cause a quo, is the same with the final-propte quod by inversion of the causa cognoscendi—in the effect being taken for the cause). 13. The mind, understanding, egoism, intellect, action and imagination, together with memory, or retentiveness, desire, ignorance, exertion and memory, are all synonyms of the mind. (The powers of the mind, constitute the mind itself).

14. So also sensation, nature, delusion and actions, are words applied to the mind for bewilderment of the understanding. (Many words for the same thing, are misleading from its true meaning). 15. The simultaneous collision of many sensations (like the Kákátáli sanyoga), diverts the mind from its clear sight of the object of its thought, and causes it to turn about in many ways. 16. Ráma asked:—How is it Sir, that so many words with their different significations, were invented to express the transcendent cause of our consciousness (the mind), and heap them on the same thing for our confusion only? 17. Vasishtha replied:—As man began to lose sight of his consciousness, and laboured under suppositions about his-self, it was then that he found the mind to be the waking principle within him. (i.e. It is after one has lost the knowledge of his conscious soul, that he thinks himself to be composed of the mind. Or it was after man’s degradation from his spiritual nature, that he came to consider himself as an intellectual being with no higher power than his mental faculties the manas; (whence he derives his name as man, mánava or manusha)).

18. When man after considering himself and other things comes to understand them in their true light; he is then said to have his understanding—buddhi. (We understand with or by means of reason, as we say—a proposition is right by its reasons hetuváda; but not reason on any thing without understanding it; as we cannot judge of a thing without knowing what it is). 19. When man by false conception of himself, assumes a personality to him by his pride, he is called an egoist, with the principle of ego or egoism in him, causing his bondage on earth. Absolute egoism is the doubting of every thing beside self-existence. Persona est rationalis naturae individua substantia. Boethius. 20. It is called thought which passes from one object to another in quick succession, and like the whims of boys, shifts from one thing to another without forming a right judgement of any. (Thoughts are fickle and fleeting, and flying from one subject to another, without dwelling long upon any).

21. The mind is identified with acts, done by the exercise of a power immanent in itself as the agent; and the result of the actions, whether physical or moral, good or bad, recurs to the mind in their effects. (The mind is the agent and recipient of the effects of all its various internal and external actions, such as right or wrong, virtuous or vicious, praiseworthy or blamable, perfect or imperfect and the like). 22. The mind is termed fancy for its holding fast on fleeting phantasies by letting loose its solid and certain truths. It is also the imagination, for giving various images or to the objects of its desire—ihita Kalpaná. It is called Kákatálíya Sanyoga or accidental assemblage of fancied objects. It is defined as the agglutinative and associative power to collect materials for imagination which builds up on them. (Imaginari est quan rei corporae figuram contemplari. Descartes).

23. The Memory or retention is that power of the mind, which retains an image whether known or unknown before, as if it were a certainty known already; and when it is attended with the effort of recalling it to the mind, it is termed as remembrance or recollection. (Memory is the storehouse of ideas preconceived or thought to be known before in the mind. Retention is the keeping of the ideas got from sensation and reflection. Remembrance is the spontaneous act of the mind; and recollection and reminiscence, are intentional acts of the will. All these powers and acts of the mind, are singly and collectively called the mind itself; as when I say, I have got it in mind, I may mean, I have it in memory, remembrance &c. &c.) 24. The appetence which resides in the region of the mind, for possession of the objects of past enjoyment; as also the efforts of the mind for attainment of other things, are called its desires. (Appetites or desires are—common to all, and are sensitive and rational, irascible &c. Vide Reed and Stewart. The mind is the same as desire; as when I say, I have a mind to do a thing, I mean, I have a desire to do it).

25. When the mind’s clear sight of the light of the soul or self, is obscured by the shadow of other gross things, which appear to be real instead of the true spiritual, it is called ignorance; and is another name of the deluded understanding. (It is called avidyá or absence of Vidyá or knowledge of spiritual truth. It becomes Mahávidyá or incorrigible or invincible ignorance, when the manners and the mind are both vitiated by falsehood and error). 26. The next is doubt, which entraps the dubious mind in the snare of scepticism, and tends to be the destruction of the soul, by causing it to disbelieve and forget the supreme spirit. (To the sceptic doubts for knowledge rise; but they give way before the advance of spiritual light). 27. The mind is called sensation, because all its actions of hearing and feeling, of seeing and smelling, thinking and enjoying, serve to delight the senses, which convey the impressions back to the mind. (The doctrine that all knowledge is derived originally from senses, holds the single fact of sensation as sufficient for all mental phenomena. It is the philosophy of Condillac, called Dirt philosophy by Fichte).

28. The mind that views all the phenomena of nature in the Supreme Spirit, and takes outward nature as a copy of the eternal mind of God, is designated by the name of nature itself. (Because God is the Natura naturans or the Author of Nature; and the works of nature—matter and mind, are the Natura naturata. Hence the mind knowing its own nature and that of its cause, is said to be an union of both natures, and is the personality of Brahmá the Demiurge, who is combined of nature and mind). 29. The mind is called máyá or magic, because it converts the real into unreal, and the unreal into real. Thus showing the realities as unrealities, and the vice-versa by turns. It is termed error or mistake of our judgement, giving ascent to what is untrue and the contrary. The causes of error are said to be ignorance (avidyá) and passions (tamas). 30. The sensible actions are seeing and hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling, of the outward organs of sense; but the mind is the cause both of these actions and their acts. (The mind moves the organs to their actions, as also feels and perceives their acts in itself).

31. The intellect (chit) being bewildered in its view of the intellectual world (chetyas), manifests itself in the form of the mind, and becomes the subject of the various functions which are attributed to it. (The intellect having lost its universality, and the faculty of intellection or discernment of universal propositions, falls into the faults of sensitivity and volition, by employing itself to particular objects of sense and sensible desires). 32. Being changed into the category of the mind, the intellect loses its original state of purity, and becomes subject to a hundred desires of its own making (by its volitive faculty). 33. Its abstract knowledge of general truths being shadowed by its percipience of concrete and particular gross bodies, it comes to the knowledge of numbers and parts, and is overwhelmed by the multiplicity of its thoughts and the objects of its desires. (i.e. Having lost the knowledge of the universal whole and discrete numbers, the mind comes to know the concrete particulars only). 34. It is variously styled as the living principle and the mind by most people on earth; but it is known as intellection and understanding (chitta and buddhi) by the wise.

35. The intellect being depraved by its falling off from the sole supreme soul, is variously named by the learned according to its successive phases and functions, owing to its being vitiated by its various desires, and the variety of their objects. 36. Ráma said:—O Sir! that art acquainted with all truths, please tell me, whether the mind is a material or immaterial thing, which I have not been able to ascertain as yet. (It is said to be matter by materialists and as spirit by spiritualists). 37. Vasishtha replied:—The mind, O Ráma! is neither a gross substance nor an intelligent principle altogether: it is originally as intelligent as the intellect; but being sullied by the evils of the world and the passions and desires of the body, it takes the name of the mind. (From its minding of many things). 38. The intellect (chit) which is the cause of the world, is called the chitta or heart, when it is situated in the bosom of sentient bodies, with all its affections and feelings (ávilám). It then has a nature between goodness and badness (by reason of its moral feelings and bad passions).

39. When the heart remains without a certain and uniform fixity to its purpose, and steadiness in its own nature, it feels all the inner changes with the vicissitudes of the outer world, and is as a reflector of the same. (The text says, the fluctuations of the heart, cause the vicissitudes of the world. But how can the heart be subjective, and the world the objective? Is the heart author of its feelings without receiving them from without? Yes). 40. The intellect hanging between its intelligence and gross objects, takes the name of the mind, when it is vitiated by its contact with outward objects. 41. When the action of the Intellect or the faculty of intellection, is vitiated by sensitivity, and becomes dull by reason of its inward dross; it is then styled the mind, which is neither a gross material thing, nor an intelligent spiritual principle. 42. The intellectual principle is variously designated by many such names, as the mind, the understanding, the ego, and the living soul or principle of animation.

43. The mind bears its different appellations according to the variety of its functions; just as an actor in the theatre, appears under different names and garbs of the dramatic personages on the stage. (The world is a stage, where one man acts many parts. Shakespeare). 44. As a man passes under many titles, according to his various occupations and professions; so the mind takes different appellations according to the various operations of its nature. (Thus one man is a scholar, a householder, an officer, a subject and many others at once). 45. Besides the names that I have mentioned regarding the mind, the disputants in mental philosophy, have invented many others agreeably to their diverse theories. 46. They have attributed to the mind many designations, according to the views in which they designed to exhibit its nature; such as some calling it the intellect, another the understanding, the sensation and so forth. 47. One takes it as dull matter, and another as the living principle; some one calls it the ego, while others apply the term understanding to it. (As Manas or Manu is the father of and of the same nature with all mankind; so is the mind manas or mens, similar in its nature and names with every one and all its operations).

48. I have told you, Ráma that egoism, mind and the light of understanding, together with the volition of creation, are but different properties of the one and same internal principle. (Ego—the subjective, mind—the motive, understanding—the thinking, and the volitive powers, all relate to the same soul. All these are different faculties having the one and same common root—the one universal soul). 49. The Nyáyá philosophy has taken the mind &c., in different lights according to its own view of them; and so the Sánkhya system explains the perception and senses in a way peculiar to itself. (Namely: the Nyáyá says, the Ego to be a dravya or substance; the living soul as God; the mind a sensitive particle and internal organ; and understanding as a transitory property of the mind. The Sánkhya has the understanding as a product of matter, and egoism a resultant of the same, and the mind as the eleventh organ of sense). 50. In this manner are all these terms taken in very different acceptations, by the different systems of Mímámsá, Vaiseshika, Arhata and Buddhist philosophy. The Pancharátra and some other systems, have given them particular senses disagreeing with one another. (See Rákháldása Nyayaratna’s tract on the identity of the mind and the soul átmá; and Hirálal’s reply to and refutation of the same).

51. All these various doctrines, arising at different times and in distant countries, lead at last to the same supreme Being, like the very many different ways, leading their passengers to the same imperial city. (All systems of philosophy, like every scheme of religion and its different sects and schisms, lead their followers to the same truth of one Superintending power or Deity). 52. It is ignorance of this supreme truth or misunderstanding of the discordant doctrines, that causes the votaries of different systems and sects, to carry on an endless dispute among themselves with bitter acrimony. (All party contentions, are but effects of ignorance of the various terminology bearing the same sense). 53. The disputants maintain their particular positions by their respective dogmatism; just as passengers persist in their accustomed paths as the best suited to them. (Bias has a stronger basis in the mind and has a faster hold of the human heart, than the best reason and the surest truth).

54. They have spoken falsely, whose words point out every thing as the fruit of our acts, and direct mankind only to the performance of their actions. It is according to the various prospects that men have in view, that they have given their reasons in their own ways. (Ask of the learned, the learned are blind, this bids you shun, and that to love mankind. Pope). 55. The mind receives its various names from its different functions as a man is called a Snataka or early bather, and a dátá—donor, from his acts of sacred ablutions and religious gifts. 56. As the actor gets his many titles, according to the several parts which he performs; so the mind takes the name of a Jíva or living being, from its animation of the body and its desires. (The mind is repeatedly said to be the animating and volitive principle). 57. The mind is said to be the heart also, which is perceived by every body to reside within himself. A man without the heart, has no feeling nor sensation. 58. It is the heart which feels the inward pleasure or pain, derived from the sight or touch, hearing or smelling, and eating and drinking of pleasurable and painful things.

59. As the light shows the colours of things to the sight, so the mind is the organ, that reflects and shows the sensations of all sensible objects in the cranium and sensory. 60. Know him as the dullest of beings, who thinks the mind to be a dull material substance; and whose gross understanding cannot understand the nature of the Intellect. 61. The mind is neither intelligence (chetana) nor inert matter (jada); it is the ego that has sprung amidst the various joys and griefs in this world. (The pure intelligence knows no pleasure nor pain; but the mind which is the same with the conscious ego, is subjected to both in this world). 62. The mind which is one with the divine Intellect (i.e. sedately fixed in the one Brahmá), perceives the world to be absorbed into itself; but being polluted with matter (like fresh water with soil), it falls into the error of taking the world for real. (The clear mind like clear water is unsullied with the soil of the material world; but the vitiated mind, like foul water, is full of the filth of worldliness).

63. Know Ráma, that neither the pure immaterial intellect, nor gross matter as the inert stone, can be the cause of the material world. (The spirit cannot produce matter, nor can dull matter be productive of itself). 64. Know then, O Rághava, that neither intelligence nor inertia, is the cause of the world; it is the mind that is the cause of visible objects, as it is the light which unfolds them to the view. (Intelligence is the knowledge of the self-evident, and not their cause). 65. For where there is no mind, there is no perception of the outer world, nor does dull matter know of the existence of anything; but everything is extinct with the extinction of the mind. (A dead body like a dull block, is insensible of every thing). 66. The mind has a multiplicity of synonyms, varied by its multifarious avocations; as the one continuous duration undergoes a hundred homonyms, by the variations of its times and seasons.

67. If egoism is not granted to be a mental action, and the sensations be reckoned as actions of the body; yet its name of the living principle, answers for all the acts of the body and mind. (Egoism or knowledge of the self, is attributed to the soul by some schools of philosophy, and sensations are said to be corporeal and nervous actions; yet the moving and animating power of the mind, must account for all bodily and mental actions.) 68. Whatever varieties are mentioned of the mind, by the reasonings of different systems of philosophy, and sometimes by the advocates of an opinion, and at others by their adversaries:— 69. They are neither intelligible nor distinguishable from one another, except that they are all powers of the self-same mind; which like the profluent sea, pours its waters into innumerable outlets. 70. As soon as men began to attribute materialistic powers and force to the nature of the pure (immaterial) consciousness, they fell into the error of these varieties of their own making. 71. As the spider lets out its thread from itself, it is in the same manner that the inert has sprung from the intellect, and matter has come into existence from the ever active spirit of Brahmá.

(The Sruti says:—Every thing comes out of the spirit as the thread from the spider, the hairs and nails from the animal body, and as rocks and vegetables springing from the earth). 72. It is ignorance (of the said Sruti), that has introduced the various opinions concerning the essence of the mind; and hence arose the various synonymous expressions, significant of the Intellect among the opponents. 73. The same pure Intellect, is brought to bear the different designations of the mind, as understanding, living principle and egoism; and the same is expressed in the world by the terms intelligence, heart, animation and many other synonyms, which being taken as expressive of the same thing, must put an end to all dispute. (So all metaphysical disputes owe their origin to the difference of terminology. Such as, Kant regarded the mind under its true faculties of cognition, desire and moral feeling, called as Erkenntnißvermögen or Denkvermögen, Begehrungsvermögen, and Gefühlsvermögen. Instead of multiplying the synonyms of Mind here, I refer the reader to Roget’s Thesaurus for them).

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SPHERE OF THE INTELLECT. Argument. The Intellectual, Mental and Material Spheres, and their representations in the Mind. Ráma said:—I come to understand, O venerable sage! from all you have propounded, that this grandeur of the universe being the work of the Divine Mind, is all derived from the same. (Here the creation of the world by the Divine mind, is viewed in the pantheistic light of Emanation). 2. Vasishtha answered:—The Mind as already said, having assumed a substantial form, manifested itself in the form of water in the mirage, raised by the shining blaze of its own light. (This passage embodies both theories, that light was the first work of God, and the Spirit of God moved on the surface of the waters. O ruh Eloim marhapeth-fi pene al maim. Genesis. Apa eva Sasarjádan. Manu).

3. The mind became amalgamated (identic), with the contents of the world, in the Spirit of Brahmá, now showing itself in the form of man, and now appearing as a God. (i.e. the mind reflected on these images which were evolution of itself in itself; because the thought or product of the mind, was of the same substance with itself). (This accords with the pantheistic doctrine, that God and Nature are one substance, and the one is a modification of the other). 4. Somewhere he showed himself as a demon and at another place like a yaksha (yakka); here he was as a Gandharvá, and there in the form of a Kinnará. (All these were the ideal manifestations of the Divine Mind). 5. The vast expanse of the Mind, was found to comprise in it the various tracts of land; and the pictures of many cities and habitable places. (Because the mind is the reservoir of all their images). 6. Such being the capacity of the mind, there is no reckoning of the millions of bodies, which are contained in it, like the woods and plants in a forest. All those are not worth our consideration in our inquiry about the mind. (They are as useless to the psychologist as botany is to the geologist).