Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

51. The minds of men are endowed with their knowledge at their very birth. Then growing big by degrees in course of time, they expand themselves in the form of this spacious forest of the world. 52. The wood of the world is the fastening post of the soul, where our blooming desires are fraught with fruits of poignant griefs. It branches out with gratifications, blossoms with hoary age, and is breaking its goodly post, and wandering at large of its free will.

BRAHMA IDENTIC WITH THE WORLD or IDENTITY OF THE WORLD WITH BRAHMA. Argument. Production and names of the Varieties of Animal Life and their spiritual Natures. Ráma said:—Tell me, sir, about the production of animal beings from Brahma, and let me know their different names and natures in full length. 2. Vasishtha replied:—The manner in which the different species of beings are produced from Brahma, and how they are destroyed afterwards, as also how they obtain their liberation at last:— 3. Also the manner of their growth and sustentation, and fitness in the world, are all what you must hear me now tell you in brief. 4. The power of the intellect of Brahma exerts of its free will, and this omnipotence becomes whatever is thought of (chetya) in the Divine Intellect. 5. The intellection becomes condensed to a certain subtile form, which having the powers of conception (sankalpa), becomes the principle entitled the Mind. 6. The mind then by an effort of its conception (called the Will), expands itself to an unreal (ideal) scenery like that of the Fairyland, by falling off from the nature of Brahmic Incogitancy.

7. The intellect when remaining in its original state, appears as a vacuum or vacancy; but upon manifesting itself in the form of the mind, it is seen as the visible sky by men. 8. Taking the conception of the lotus-born, it finds itself in its conceived form of the lotus (Brahmá), and then it thinks of creation in the form of Prajápati or lord of creatures. 9. He then formed from his thought (chitta) this creation, containing the fourteen worlds with all the bustle of living beings in them. 10. The mind itself is a vacuity with a vacuous body; its conception is the field of its action, and its sphere is full with the false workings of the mind. 11. Here there are many kinds of beings, labouring under great ignorance as the beasts and brute creatures. There are some with enlightened minds as the sages; and others staggering in the intermediate class, as the majority of mankind. 12. Among all living beings that are confined in this earth, it is only the human race living in this part (India), that are capable of receiving instruction and civilization.

13. But as most of these are subject to diseases and distress, and are suffering under the thrall of their ignorance, enmity and fear; it is for them that I will deliver my lecture on social and saintly conduct—rájatwikí níti (in the 42nd chapter of this book). 14. I will also treat there about the everlasting, imperishable and omnipresent Brahma, who is without beginning and end, whose mind is without error, and of the form of Intellectual light. 15. How endless beings are put to motion, by the momentum of a particle of his motionless body; and resembling the rolling of boisterous waves on the surface of the clear and tranquil ocean. 16. Ráma asked:—How sir, do you speak of a part of the infinite Spirit, and of the momentum of the motionless God; as also of a change and effort of it, that is altogether without them (vikárávikrama). 17. Vasishtha replied:—It is the usual and current mode of expression, both in the sástras and language of the people to say, “all this is made by or come from Him”, but it is not so in its real and spiritual sense.

18. No change or partition, and no relation of space or time, bear any reference to the Supreme, who is unchangeable, infinite and eternal; nor is there any appearance or disappearance of Him at any time or place, who is ever invisible every where. 19. There never was nor can there ever be any way, of representing the incomprehensible, except by symbolical expressions; it was therefore in accordance to common speech, that I have made use of those words. 20. Whatever words or sentences are used here as symbolical of some sense, whether they express as “produced from it tajja” or as a change of the same—“tanmaya”, the same should be used, in that sense all along. 21. It is tajja, as when we say “fire proceeds from fire” (meaning, the “mundane Brahma comes out of the spiritual Brahma.” Here fire is symbolical of Brahma and the world). It is tanmaya in the expression “Brahma is the producer and produced” (which means the identity—and transformation of the creator to the creation). 22. The first form is applied to the world as proceeding from Brahma: but the other form of the producer and produced, means also the creative power which made the world.

23. The expression idam—anyat = idem alius or this is one thing and that another, is false, the difference is verbal and not real; because there is no proof of it in the nature of God, which is one and all. 24. The mind, by reason of its birth (tajja) from Brahma, is possessed both of the power and intelligence of his Intellect, and is enabled to accomplish its intended purpose, by means of its intense application. 25. To say that one flame of fire, is the producer of another, is mere logomachy, and there is no truth in this assertion. (Because it is no other thing produced by another, but the very thing). 26. That one is the producer of another is also a paralogy; because the one Brahma being infinite, could produce no other thing, beside reproducing himself. (For where and whence could he get another thing to create a thing anew beside in himself?). 27. It is the nature of disputation to contradict one another by replies and rejoinders; but it is not right to foil the adversary by false sophistry. 28. The learned know Brahma as the ocean rolling in its endless waves, and as significant words and their significations, which go together as Brahma and his creation.

29. Brahma is the Intellect—Chit, Brahma is the mind—manas, Brahma is intelligence—Vijnána, and Brahma is substance—Vasthu; He is Sound—sabda, He is understanding—chit, and He is in the principles of things—Dhátus. 30. The whole universe is Brahma, and yet He is beyond all this. In reality the world is a nullity, for all is Brahma alone. 31. This is one thing and that is another, and this is a part of the great soul, are all contradictory assertions of ignorance (false knowledge), as no words can express the true nature of the unknown. 32. The spirit rises as the flame of fire, and this flame is significant of the mind. Its tremor signifies the fluctuation of the mind, which in reality is not the case, there being no rise or fall of the Divine Mind. 33. It is untruth that wavers and equivocates in double entendres. It prevaricates the truth, as the defective eye views the double moon in the sky. 34. Brahma being all (to pan) of himself, and all pervading and infinite of his own nature, there can be no other thing beside himself, and anything that is produced of him, is likewise himself.

35. Beside the truth of the existence of Brahma, there is nothing which can be proved as absolutely certain; and it is a scriptural truth which says, “verily all this is Brahma.” 36. This also must be the conclusion, which you will arrive at by your reasoning, and which I will propound with many instances and tenets in the Book of Nirvána or Extinction. 37. There are many things here in connection with this single question of which you are ignorant, and all which you will come to know fully in future, for dispelling your doubts on the subject. 38. The unreality having disappeared, the reality appears to view, as the darkness of night being dispelled, the visible world comes to sight. 39. The spacious world which appears to your false sight of it, will vanish, O Ráma! on your attaining to the state of calm quietism. The fallacious appearances must disappear from your vision, as soon as the light of truth comes to dawn upon your soul.

DESCRIPTION OF IGNORANCE. Argument. Delusion the cause of error. Ráma said:—Sir, I feel your speech to be as cooling and shining as the water of the milky sea; it is as deep and copious as the vast ocean:— 2. I am sometimes darkened and enlightened at others, by the variety of your discourses, as a rainy day is now obscured by the cloud, and again shines forth brightly with sunshine. 3. I understand Brahma as infinite and inconceivable, and the life and light of all that exists. I know that light never sets; but tell me, how they attribute many qualities that are foreign to his nature. 4. Vasishtha replied:—The wording and meaning of my lectures to you, are all used in their right and ordinary sense, they are neither insignificant or meaningless, equivocal or ambiguous, or contradictory of one with another. 5. You will understand the proper import of my phraseology, when the eyesight of your understanding becomes clearer, and when the light of reason will rise in your mind. 6. Do not mistake the meanings of my words, or the phraseology I have used all along, in order to explain the subject of my lectures, and purport of the sástras, for your acquaintance with them.

7. When you will come to know the clear Truth of Brahma, you will know more regarding the distinctions of significant words, and their significations and significates. 8. The distinctive verbal signs are invented for the communication of our thoughts, in conveying our instructions to others, and for our knowledge of the purport of the sástras. 9. Words and their meanings, phrases and their constructions, are used for the instruction of others; they are applied to the use of the ignorant, and never apply to those who are acquainted with truth (by their intention). 10. There is no attribute, nor imputation, that bears any relation with the free and unsullied soul. It is the dispassionate spirit of the supreme Brahma, and the same is the soul of the existent world. 11. This subject will again be fully discussed and dilated upon with various arguments, on the occasion of our arriving to the conclusion of this subject (in the book of Nirvána). 12. I have said so far about verbiology at present, because it is impossible to penetrate into the deep darkness of ignorance, without the means of verbiage (flux de mots).

13. As conscious ignorance offers herself a willing sacrifice to the shrine of knowledge, she bids her adversary—the destroyer of error, to take possession of her seat in the bosom of man. (Here is a double entendre of the word avidyá, the former meaning ignorance as well as a concubine, and the latter signifying the wife and knowledge; hence it implies the advance of knowledge upon disappearance of her rival ignorance). 14. As one weapon is foiled by another, and one dirt is removed by the other (cow dung and ashes), and as one poison is destroyed by another, and also as one foe is driven out by another enemy (similes curantur). 15. So Ráma, the mutual destruction of errors, brings joy to the soul. It is hard however to detect the error; but no sooner it is found out than it is put to destruction. It means the confutation of false doctrines by one another. 16. Ignorance obscures our perspicacity, and presents the false and gross world before us. We all view this wonderful universe, but know not what and how it is. 17. Unobserved it rushes to our view, but being examined with attention, it flies upon keen observation. We know it is a phantasm, and yet find it appearing with its dimensions and figures before us.

18. O the wonderful enchantment, which has spread out this world, and made the unreality to appear as a sober reality, to the knowledge of every one of us. 19. This earth is a distinct wide extended superfices, resting on the indistinct surface of an unknown substratum. He is the best of beings that has stretched this enchantment. 20. When you are enlightened with the thought, that all this is inexistent in reality; you will then become the knower of the knowable (God), and understand the import of my lectures. 21. So long as you are not awakened to true knowledge, rely upon my words, and know this immensity as the creature of the incorrigible and immovable ignorance. 22. All this immensity, that appears to sight, is but the picture of your mistaken thought; it is all unsubstantial, and a mere manifestation of your deluded mind only. 23. He is entitled to liberation, whose mind is certain of the reality of Brahma; and knows the moving and unmoving figures without, as the thoughts of the mind presented to the sight. 24. The whole scale of the earth, is as a net of birds to catch the fleeting mind; it is as false as a landscape in the dream; which represents the unreal as real ones to the mind.

25. He who looks upon the world without his attachment to it, is never subject to grief or sorrow on any account. And he who thinks all these forms as formless, sees the formless spirit. 26. The forms of the formless spirit, is the formation of ignorance, and when the blemishes of passions and mutations, do not even belong to great souls, how can these attributes relate to the greatest God. 27. The attributes given to the Supreme Spirit, are as dust thrown upon the surface of limpid water; it is our thoughts only that attribute these qualities to the inconceivable One, as we attribute certain meanings to words (that bear no relation to them). <28.> It is usage that establishes the meanings of words, which continue to be inseparably joined with them; and it is usage that determines their use in the sástras. 29. As the cloth cannot be thought of without its thread, so the soul is unintelligible without the medium of words giving its true definition. 30. It is possible to gain the knowledge of the soul from the sástras, without one’s self-consciousness of it; as it is possible to get over the sea of ignorance, by means of spiritual knowledge.

31. Ráma! it is impossible to arrive at the state of what is called imperishable life and bliss, when the soul is any how polluted by the blemishes of ignorance. 32. The existence of the world verily depends on the existence of the Supreme; know this, and do not question how and whence it came to exist. 33. Let it be for thee to think only how thou shalt get rid of this unreality; for it is upon the disappearance of the unreality, that thou canst know the real truth. 34. Leave off thinking whence is all this, how it is and how it is destroyed at last; believe it to be really nothing, but only appearing without being actually seen. 35. How can one know, how the unreality appears as reality by his mistake of it, when the error of reality, in the unreal, has taken a firm footing in his mind? 36. Try your best to destroy this prejudice of yours, and then you will know the truth. And verily such men are the greatest heroes and most learned in the world, who are freed from prejudices. 37. Strive to destroy your baneful ignorance, or it is sure to overpower on thee as upon the rest of mankind.

38. Take care, lest it should enthral thee to the pain of thy repeated transmigrations, and know ignorance to be the root of all evils and companion of every vice. It creates a man’s interest in what proves his peril. 39. Avoid quickly this false view, the baneful cause of your fears and sorrows, and of your diseases and dangers; and the germ of errors in the mind; and thereby ford over this perilous ocean of the world.

PRODUCTION OF JÍVA OR LIVING SOULS. Argument. Condensation of Desires in the Intellect. And Formation of living souls thereby. Vasishtha continued:—Hear now Ráma! the antidote against the wide extended malady of Ignorance, and the raging endemic of unreality, which vanishes from view upon your close inspection of it. 2. That which was proposed to be said (in chapter XL), concerning the sátwika and rájasika qualities. I am now going to expound the same, on account of investigating into the powers of the mind. 3. The same Brahma who is all-pervading, undecaying and immortal; is known as intellectual light and without beginning and end, and free from error. 4. The Intellect, which is body of Brahma, and has its vibration in itself, becomes agitated and condensed at intervals, as the translucent water of the ocean has its motion of itself, and becomes turbid and thickened by its perturbation. (i.e. The mind is possest of motion contrary to dull and motionless matter, and it is by its moving force, that it forms the gross bodies, as the huge surges of the sea).

5. As the water of the sea, is agitated in itself without any motion or excitation from without; so the Almighty power exerts its force in itself, throughout all its eternity and infinity. (The water composed of the gases, is always in motion). 6. As the air stirs in its own bosom of vacuity for ever, so the power of the Divine Spirit, exerts itself spontaneously and freely in its own sphere of the spirit. 7. And as the flame rises high of its own accord, so the power of the spirit, extends in itself in all directions. (It is the nature of the flame to rise upward only, but that of the Spirit, is to move in every way and all round the great circle of creation). 8. As the sea seems to move with its sparkling waters, reflecting the sun and moonbeams upon its surface, so the almighty spirit appears to shake with the fleeting reflections of creation in its bosom. 9. As the sea sparkles with the golden beams of the starry frame; so the translucent vast soul of God, shines with the light of its own intellectual sphere.

10. As chains of pearly rays, glitter to our sight in the empty sky; so sundry forms of things fly about in the vast vacuity of the intellect. (These are as bubbles in the vast expanse of the Divine Mind). 11. These intellectual images, being pushed forward by the force of intellect, they begin to roll in its vacuous sphere like waves in the sea. (They are the same in substance, though different in appearance). 12. These images though inseparable from the intellect of the Divine spirit, yet they seem to be apart from it, like the light in the holes of needles and other cavities. (The glory of God, is the light and life of all). 13. The universal Omnipotence exhibits itself in those particular forms, as the moon shows her various horns in her different phases. 14. Thus the intellectual power of the Supreme spirit, coming to shine forth as light, refracts itself in various forms as the very many semblances of that great light. 15. The Supreme spirit, though conscious of its nature of infinity and indivisibility, yet assumes to itself the state of its individuality, in every separate and limited form of created beings.

16. When the supreme Entity takes upon itself these several forms, it is immediately joined by a train of qualities and properties, with quantity, modality and the like as followers in its train. 17. The unsubstantial intellect, deeming itself as a substance by its being separated from the supreme soul; becomes divided into infinity like the waves of the sea water (which is one and many). 18. As there is no material difference of the armlet and bracelet, from their matter of the same gold; so it is the intellect and the soul the one and same thing. It is the thought that makes the difference in their different modes. 19. As there is no difference between one lamp and the others, that are lighted from the same light; so it is of all souls and intellects, which are alike in their nature, but differ only in their particular attributes—upadhis. 20. The Intellect, being put to action by the force of the soul on particular occasions, pursues its desires and the objects of its fancy. 21. The same intellect also, taking its volitive and active forms at different times and places; is styled the embodied soul or spirit, and known as Kshetrajna.

22. It is so named from its familiarity with the body or Kshetra, and its knowledge of the inward and outward actions of it (or from its knowing its person and personality). 23. This being fraught with its desires, is designated as Egoism or selfishness; and this again being soiled by its fancies, takes the name of the understanding. 24. The understanding leaning to its wishes, is termed the mind; which when it is compacted for action, takes the name of the senses or sensation. 25. The senses are next furnished with their organs called the organs of sense, which being joined with the organs of action, the hands and feet are jointly denominated the body. 26. Thus the living soul being tied to its thoughts and desires, and being entrapped in the net of pain and sorrow, is termed Chitta or heart. 27. Thus the gradual development of the intellect, produces its successive results (or phases as said above); so these are the different states or conditions of the living soul, and not so many forms of it, but all these are the impurities of the soul.

28. The living soul becomes associated with egoism in its embodied state, and this being polluted by its egoistic understanding, it is entangled in the net of selfish desires, which becomes the mind. 29. The concupiscent mind becomes eager to engraft itself in its consorts and offspring, and to secure the false possessions of the world to itself and without a rival. 30. The tendencies of the mind, pursue their desired objects, as the cow follows the lusty bull; and the mind runs after its objects only to be polluted by them, as the sweet stream of the river, meets the sea to become bitter and briny. 31. Thus the mind being polluted by its selfishness, loses the freedom of its will; and becomes bound to its desires, as the silkworm is enclosed in the cocoon. 32. It is the mind that exposes the body to confinement, by its pursuit after its desires, until it comes to feel the gall of its own thraldom, and the bitter regret of the conscious soul. 33. Knowing itself to be enslaved, it bids farewell to the freedom of its thought and knowledge; and begets within itself the gross ignorance, which rages and ranges free in the forest of this world, with its horribly monstrous appearance.

34. The mind containing within it the flame of its own desires, is consumed to death like the fettered lion in a fire. 35. It assumes to itself the agency of all its various acts, under its subjection to a variety of desires; and thus exposes itself to the changes of its state, in this life and all its future births. 36. It labours continually under all its octuple state of understanding; namely that the knowledge, intelligence and activity or active agency, and its egoism or selfishness, all of which are causes of all its woe. 37. It is sometimes styled the prakriti or character, and at others the máyá or seat of self delusion. The mind—manas is often converted to malas or foulness, and very often to karman or activity. 38. It is sometimes designated as bondage, and is often synonymous with the heart; it is called also as avidyá or ignorance, and frequently identified with the will or volition likewise. 39. Know Ráma, the heart is tied to the earth by a chain of sorrow and misery; it is brimful of avarice and grief, and the abode of passions.

40. It is living dead with the cares of age and the fear of death, to which the world is subject; it is troubled with desire and disgust, and stained by its ignorance and passions. 41. It is infested by the prickly thorns of its wishes, and the brambles of its acts; it is quite forgetful of its origin, and is beset by the evils of its own making. 42. It is confined as the silkworm in its own cell, where it is doomed to dwell with its sorrow and pain; and though it is but a minim in its shape, it is the seat of endless hell-fire. (A hair as heart. Pope. The heart is hell &c. Milton). 43. It is as minute as the soul, and yet appears as huge as the highest hill; and this world is a forest of wild poisonous trees, branching out with their fruits of decay and death. 44. The snare of desire is stretched over the whole world; its fruits are as those of the Indian fig trees, which has no pith or flavour within. 45. The mind being burnt by the flame of its sorrow, and bitten by the dragon of its anger; and being drowned in the boisterous sea of its desires, has entirely forgotten its Great Father.

46. It is like a lost stag straying out of its herd, and like one demented by his sorrows; or more like a moth singed by the flame of world affairs. 47. It is torn away as a limb from its place in the Spirit, and thrown in an incongenial spot; it is withering away like a lotus plant plucked from its root. 48. Being cast amidst the bustle of business, and among men who are inimical or as dumb pictures to him, every man is groveling in this earth amidst dangers and difficulties. 49. Man is exposed to the difficulties of this dark and dismal world, like a bird fallen in the waters of the sea; he is entangled in the snare of the world, like one snatched to the fairy land in the sky. 50. The mind is carried away by the current of business, like a man borne by the waves of the sea. Lift it, O brave Ráma! from this pit, as they do an elephant sinking in the mud. 51. Lift up thy mind by force, O Ráma! like a bullock from this delusive puddle (palvala) of the world, where it is shorn of its brightness and is weakened in its frame.

52. Ráma! the man whose mind is not troubled in this world, with successive joy and grief, and the vicissitudes of decrepitude, disease and death, is no human being: but resemble a monstrous Rákshasa, although he may have the figure of a man on him. (It is not humanity to <be> devoid of human feeling).

THE REPOSITORIES OF LIVING SOULS. Argument. The Transmigrations of Souls by virtue of their Acts, and the way of their salvation. Vasishtha continued:—Thus the living soul being derived from Brahma, assumes to itself the form of the mind, and is tossed about with the thoughts and cares of the world. It is then changed into thousands and millions of forms, as it figures to itself in its imagination. 2. It has undergone many prior births, and is in the course of migrating into many more; it will transmigrate into many more also, which are as multitudinous as the flitting particles of a water-fall (splitting to many atoms). 3. These atomic souls of living beings, being subjected to their desires by the great variety of their wishes; are made to wander under many forms, to which they are bound by their desires. 4. They rove incessantly to different directions, in distant countries both by land and water; they live or die in those places, as the bubbles blow out but to float and burst, and then sink in the water below. 5. Some are produced for the first time in a new kalpa age, and others are born a hundred times in it; some have had only two or three births, while the births of others are unnumbered (in a kalpa).

6. Some are yet unborn and are to be born yet on earth, and many others have passed their births by attainment of their liberation at last. Some are alive at present, and others are no more to be born. 7. Some are born again and again, for myriads of kalpas, some remaining in one state all along, and many in various states repeatedly changing their forms and natures. 8. Some are subjected to the great misery of hell, and some are destined to a little joy on earth; some enjoying the great delights of the gods in heaven, and others raised to the glory of heavenly bodies above. 9. Some are born as Kinnaras and Gandharvas and others as Vidyádharas and huge serpents; some appear in the forms of Sol, Indra and Varuna (Ouranas), and others in those of the triocular Siva and the lotus-born Brahmá. 10. Some become the Kushmánda and Vetála goblins, and others as Yaksha and Rákshasa cannibals; some again become the Brahmánas and the ruling class, and others become Vaisyas and Súdras. (The four tribes of Indo-Aryans).

11. Some become Swapacha and Chandála (eaters of dog and hog-flesh), and others as Kirátas and Puskasa (eaters of rotten bodies); some become the grass and greens on earth, and others as the seeds of fruits and roots of vegetables, and as moths and butterflies in the air. 12. Some are formed into varieties of herbs and creeping plants, and others into stones and rocks; some into Jáma and Kadamba trees, and others into Sála, Tála and Tamála forests. 13. There are some placed in prosperous circumstances, and become as ministers and generals and rulers of states; while others are clad in their rags and remain as religious recluses, munis and taciturn hermits in the woods. 14. Some are born as snakes and hydras, worms, insects and ants; whilst there are others in the forms of great lions, big buffaloes, stags and goats, the bos guavas and fleet antelopes in forests. 15. Some are begotten as storks and cranes, ruddy geese and cuckoos; and others are become their pastures in the shapes of lotuses and water lilies, the nilumbium and other aquatic shrubs and flowers. 16. Some are brought forth as elephants and their cubs, and as wild boars, bulls and asses; and others come into being as bees and beetles, flies and gadflies, gnats and musquitoes.

17. Many are born to difficulties and dangers, and many to prosperity and adversity; some are placed in hell pits and others in their heavenly abodes. 18. Some are situated in the stars, and some in the hollows of trees; some move upon the wings of the winds, and others rest in the still air above or fly freely in the sky. 19. Many dwell in the sunlight of the day, and many subsist under the moonbeams at night; while there be others subsisting upon the beverage, which they draw from the herbaceous plants. 20. Some are liberated in their life-time, and rove about freely in this earth; while others live in their blissful states (in holy and lonely hermitage). Some are altogether emancipate in their reliance in the Supreme Spirit. 21. There are some that require long periods for their blessed and ultimate liberation; and others there are that disbelieve the intellectuality and spirituality of mankind, and dislike their being reduced to the solity of the soul, or to be reduced to their oneness or unity with the Supreme soul—Kaivalya. 22. Some become regents of the skies above, and others roll down in the form of mighty streams; some become females of beautiful appearances, and others as ugly hermaphrodites and abnormalities.

23. Some are of enlightened understandings, and some are darkened in their minds. Some are preachers and lecturers of knowledge, and others in their ecstatic trance of Samádhi. 24. The living souls that are under the subjection of their desires, are so powerless of themselves, that they have forgotten their freedom, and are fast chained to the fetters of their wishes. 25. They rove about the world, now flying up and then falling down in their hopes and fears; and are incessantly tossed up and down, like playing balls flung on all sides, by the relentless hands of playful Death. 26. Entrapped in the hundred fold snare of desire, and converted to the various forms of their wishes, they pass from one body to another, as the birds fly from one tree to alight on another. 27. The endless desires of the living soul, bred and led by the false imaginations of the mind, have spread this enchanted snare of magic or máyá, which is known by the name of the great world. 28. So long are the stupefied souls doomed to rove about in the world, like the waters in a whirlpool; as they do not come to understand the true nature of their selves, as selfsame with the Supreme-Self.

29. Having known and seen the true Self, by forsaking their false knowledge of it, they come to their consciousness of themselves, as identic with the divine Self; and having attained this in process of time, they are released from their doom of revisiting this world of pain and sorrow. 30. There are however some insensible beings, who notwithstanding their attainment of this knowledge, are so perverted in their natures, that they have to return again to this earth, after passing into a hundred lives in it in various shapes (owing to their disbelief in the self). 31. Some there are who after having attained to higher states, fall down again by the lowness of their spirits, and appearing in the shapes of brute creatures, have to fall into hell at last. 32. There are some great minded souls, who having proceeded from the state of Brahma, have to pass here a single life, after which they are absorbed in the Supreme soul. (Such were the sage Janaka and the sagely Seneca). 33. There are multitudes of living beings in other worlds also, some of whom have become as the lotus-born Brahmá, and others as Hara (the Horus of the Egyptian trinity).

34. There are others who have become as gods and brute creatures in them, and there are snakes and other reptiles also in them as well as in this earth. (Astronomers have descried kine in the moon, and Hindoos have found it to abound in deer, whence the moon is called mrigánka by them. So are the constellations in the heavens). 35. There are other worlds as obvious to view as this earth (in the starry heavens), and there are many such worlds that have gone by, and are yet to appear (in the immensity of space). 36. There are various other creatures of different shapes, produced by various unknown causes in the other worlds also, which have their growths and deaths like those of this earth. 37. Some are produced as Gandharvas, and others as Yakshas (the Yakkas at Ceylon); and some are generated as Suras (Sorians); and some others as Asuras (Assyrians) and Daityas (demons). 38. The manners and modes of life of the peoples in other parts of the globe, are as those of the men living in this part of the earth. 39. All creatures move according to their own natures and mutual relations for ever more, as the waves and currents of a river move forward, following and followed by others in regular succession.

40. The whole creation moves onward in eternal progression, in its course of evolution and involution, and in its motions of ascension and descension like the waves of the ocean. 41. In this manner do the multitudes of living beings, proceed from the Supreme Spirit, who with the consciousness of their self-existence, rise from and fall at last into it. (The consciousness of the universal soul, is divided into the individual souls of beings, that are derived and detached from it). 42. All created beings are detached from their source, like the light from the lamp and the solar rays from the sun; they are like sparks of red hot iron, and the scintillation of fire. 43. They are as the particles (or minute moments) of time, and the flying odours of flowers; or as the cold icicles and the minutial of rain water, borne by breeze and cooling the air all around. 44. So the flitting particles of life, flying from one spot to another, and filling different bodies with animation, are at last absorbed in the main spring of vitality whence they had risen.

45. The particles of vital air, being thus spread out and scattered over the universe, come to assume the various forms of animated beings in all the worlds, but they are all mere creations of our ignorance, and are in reality like the rolling waves of water in the vast ocean of eternity.

THE INCARNATION OF HUMAN SOULS IN THE WORLD. Argument. Discussion about incarnation of the spirit, and its extinction by death and liberation. Ráma asked:—I understand now how the particles of the Divine Spirit, take the forms of the living souls; but I cannot conceive how it assumes the corporeal body composed of bones and ribs. 2. Vasishtha replied:—Why don’t you know it Ráma, when I have explained it to you before? Where have you lost your deductive reasoning of arriving to the conclusion from those premises. 3. All these corporeal bodies in the world, and all these moving and unmoving persons and things, are but false representations, rising before us as the visions in our dreams. 4. The phenomenal world differs only in its being but a longer and more delusive dream; it is as the sight of the double moon by optical deception, and of a mountain in the delusion of darkness. 5. The enlightened mind which is cleared of its drowsiness of ignorance, and is freed from the fetters of its desire, views the world to be no more than a dream. 6. The world is a creation of the imagination, by the nature of all living souls, and it remains therefore impressed in the soul, until it attains its final liberation.

7. The fleeting essence of the soul, is like the eddy of waters; or like the germ of the seed, or more like the leaflet of a sprout. 8. And as the flower is contained in the branch, and the fruit within its flowers; so this creation of the imagination, is contained in the receptacle of the mind. 9. As the ever-changing form of the chameleon, exhibits but a particular hue at a time; so the ever-varying mind shows only the figure, which is prominent in its thought for the time being (and this inward figure is reflected by the visual organs). 10. The same thought assumes a visible form, as the clay takes the form of a pot; and the good thoughts and actions of the prior state of life, serve to give the soul a goodly form in its next birth on earth. 11. We see the mighty lotus-born Brahmá situated in the cell of that flower, and find it to be the effect of the good thoughts he had in his mind. 12. This unlimited creation is the false fabrication of imagination; whereupon the living soul in conjunction with the mind, obtained the state of Virinchí the Brahmá (vir inchoatious or incipiens the primary man, otherwise called ádima-purusha—Adam or the first male).

13. Ráma said:—I require, Sir, to be fully informed, whether all other beings sprang from the same cause as Brahmá—the lotus-born. 14. Vasishtha answered:—Hear me tell you, O long-armed Ráma, the manner of Brahmá’s having the body; and from his instance, you will learn about the existence of the world. 15. The Supreme soul, which is unlimited by time or space, takes of his own will, and by the power of his Omnipotence, the limited forms of time and space upon himself. 16. The same becomes the living soul, and is fraught with various desires in itself, of becoming many:—aham bahu syáma. 17. When this limited power which is Brahmá, thinks on the state of his having been the Hiranyagarbha, in his former state of existence in the prior Kalpa; he is immediately transformed to that state which is in his mind, and which is ever busy with its thoughts and imaginations. 18. It thinks first of the clear sky, the receptacle of sound, and which is perceptible by the auditory organs; and this thought being condensed in the mind, makes it vibrate as by the wind of the air.

19. It thinks then on the vibrations of air, which are the objects of feeling, through the porous skin and the mind; and is moved by the thoughts of air and wind to assume that form, which are invisible to the naked eye. 20. The condensation of the elements of air and wind together, produced the idea of light which is the cause of sight, and which has the colours and figures for its objects; and thus the mind being actuated by its triple thoughts of air, wind and light, produced the property of fire. 21. These joined immediately to produce the idea of coldness the property of water; and the mind then came to form the quadruple ideas of the four elements of air, wind, fire and water. 22. These united together produced the gross form of earth—the receptacle of scent; and then the mind being filled with these minute elementary particles in its thoughts of them, forsook its fine form of the spirit for its gross body of the quintuple elements (called the quintessence of material bodies (panchabhautika)). 23. It saw this body shining as a spark of fire in the sky, which joined with its egoism and understanding, formed its personality.

24. This is called the spiritual body (lingasaríra),—the embodying octuple, which is situated as the bee in the pericarp of the lotus like heart, and which gives growth to the outer body by its inner working (as the inner seed grows the outer tree). 25. It is thickened by the action of the heart of its internal process of calefaction, like the bel fruit or woodapple. And the outer body receives the qualities of the inner mind, as the jewel shines with the lustre of the little particle of gold, which is infused in the melted state of the metal in the crucible. 26. The quality of the inner soul or mind, manifests itself in the outer body, as the quality of the seed appears in the form and taste of its fruit. The mind then dwells upon the thoughts of its actions, which have their display in the several organs, and members of the bodily actions, which are produced by the motions of the inner thoughts and acts, as the leaves and branches of trees are projected by the inner process and operations of the seed. 27. Its thoughts of upside and below, lifts and lowers its head and feet upward and down-ward; and its thought of both sides, extends its two arms to the right and left.

28. Its thoughts of the backward and forward, places its back behind, and its breast and belly before it; and the hairs on the head and fingers of the hands, are as the filaments and twigs of trees. 29. In this manner did Brahmá, who is called a muni or mental being, from his having sprung <from> the mind of Brahma, produced the several parts of his body, according to his thoughts of their usefulness to it. 30. He brought the body and its limbs to compactness, as the seasons bring their fruits and grains to perfection. Thus is every thing perfected in time, and all beings have their beautiful bodies and figures. 31. He, the lord Brahmá was the progenitor of all beings, and fraught with the qualities of strength and understanding, activity, dignity and knowledge. (The Smriti attributes the Siddhi chatushtaya or quadruple perfections to him). 32. Being begotten by the vacuous Brahma, he resides in the lap of vacuity; and is of the form of melted gold, like every other luminous body in the heavens. 33. Though situated in the Supreme, yet the mind of Brahmá is liable to the mistakes of its own making; and at times it quite forgets its having no beginning, middle nor end, like its source.

34. Sometimes the lord thinks himself, as identic with the waters which existed before creation in his mind; and at another as the mundane egg, which was as bright as the fire of universal destruction (see Manu I). 35. Sometimes the lord thought himself as the dark wood, which covered the earth before creation of living animals, and them as the lotus bed (wherein he was born). Afterwards he became of many forms at each phase and epoch of creation. (These epochs are called kalpas or periods, in which the divine mind manifested itself according to its wish within the different stages of creation). 36. Thus Brahmá became the preserver of many kinds of beings, which he created of his own will from his mind at each stage or kalpa-period; of which he was the first that issued from Brahma himself. (He was the first begotten, and nothing was created but by him). 37. When Brahmá was first begotten, he remained in his happy state of insensibility and forgetfulness (of his former existence); but being delivered from his torpor in the womb, he came to see the light. (i.e. He saw the light of heaven, after his delivery from the darkness of the womb).

38. He took a corporeal body, with its breathings and respirations (pránápána); it was covered with pores of hair, and furnished with gums of two and thirty teeth. It had the three pots of the thighs, backbone, and bones, standing on the feet below; with the five air, five partitions, nine cavities, and a smooth skin covering all the limbs. (The five airs are pránápána &c. The five partitions are, the head, the legs, the breast, belly and the hands). 40. It is accompanied by twice ten fingers and their nails on them; and with a couple of arms and palms and two or more hands and eyes (in the cases of gods and giants). 41. The body is the nest of the bird of the mind, and it is hole of the snake of lust; it is the cave of the goblin of greediness, and the den of the lion of life. 42. It is a chain at the feet of the elephant of pride, and a lake of the lotuses of our desire; The lord Brahmá looked upon his handsome body, and saw it was good.

43. Then the lord thought in himself, from his view of the three times of the past, present and future, and from his sight of the vault of heaven, with a dark mist as a group of flying locusts. 44. “What is this boundless space, and what had it been before. How came I to being?” Thus pondering in himself, he was enlightened in his soul. (Thus did Adam inquire about his birth, and the production of the world in Milton’s Paradise Lost). 45. He saw in his mind the different past creations, and recollected the various religions and their various sects, which had grown upon earth one after the other. 46. He produced the holy Vedas as the spring does its flowers; and formed with ease all varieties of creatures from their archetypes in his mind. 47. He set them in their various laws and customs, as he saw them in the city of his mind, for the purpose of their temporal and spiritual welfare. 48. He thought upon the innumerable varieties of sástras which had existed before, and all of which came to exist on earth in their visible forms, from their prototypes in his eternal mind; like the flowers springing from the womb of the vernal season.

49. Thus O Ráma! did Brahmá take upon him the form of the lotus-born, and create by his activity, all the different creatures upon their models existent in his mind, which took their various forms in the visible world at his will. (So the Sufi and Platonic doctrine of the phenomenal, as a copy of the noumena, or the suari zahiri as but a shadow of the suvari manavi or catini. See Allami).

DEPENDANCE OF ALL ON GOD. Argument. The mind being a finite production, its product of the world, is as unreal as the thoughts of the mind. Vasishtha continued:—The world appearing as substantial, has nothing substantive in it; it is all a vacuity and mere representation of the imageries and vagaries of the mind. 2. Neither is time nor space filled by any world at all, but by the great spirit, who has no form except that of vacuum. (The spirit of God fills the infinite vacuity from all eternity). 3. This is all imaginary, and as visionary as a city seen in a dream; whatever is seen any where is fallacy, and existing in the infinite vacuity. (All is void amidst the great void of Brahma’s Mind). 4. It is a painting without its base, and a vision of unrealities; it is an uncreated creation, and a variegated picture in empty air (without its canvas). 5. It is the imagination of the mind, that has stretched the three worlds, and made the many bodies contained in them. Reminiscence is the cause of these creations, as the eyesight is the cause of vision.

6. The pageantry of the world is an erroneous representation, like the elevations and depressions in a painting; they are not distinct from the supreme spirit, in which they are situated as buildings stand on their foundation. (Or as statues in bas-relief). 7. The mind has made the body for its own abode, as some worms make their cortices or coatings, and the soul also has its sheaths or koshas (namely the annamaya kosha &c.). 8. There is nothing which the mind can not get or build in its empty imagination, however difficult or unattainable it may appear to be. 9. What impossibility is there of the same powers residing in Omnipotence, which are possessed by the mind in its secluded cell? (The spiritual powers must be greater than the mental). 10. It is not impossible, O Ráma! for any thing to be or not to be at any time or always, when there is the omnipotent Lord, who can create or annihilate all things at his will. (The positive and the negative are co-eternal with the eternal Mind, though it is an impossibility in the order of nature, as; “It is impossible for the same thing to be, and not to be at the same time.” Locke).

11. Mind that, when the mind is empowered to make its own body, and to form others in its imagination, how much more is the power of the almighty to make and unmake all things at his will. 12. It is divine will that has brought the gods, the demigods and all mankind into existence; and it is by the cessation of the (creative) will, that they cease to exist as the lamp is extinguished for want of its oil. 13. Behold the sky and all things under it to be displayed by the divine will, and understand the universe as the visionary scene of thy dream laid open to thy sight. 14. There is nothing that is born or dies here at any time, because every thing is a nullity in its true sense. 15. There is also nothing, that becomes more or less in any wise when there is nothing in existence; for how can that (soul) have a body when it is bodyless, and can it be parted, when it is an undivided whole? 16. Ráma! seeing by thy keen sightedness, that all these bodies are bodiless (i.e. only imaginary beings), why shouldst thou fall into the error (of taking them for realities?).

17. As the mirage is made to appear by the heat of the sun, so do these false appearances seem as true to thee from the certainty of thy mind. So also are Brahmá and others but creatures of thy fancy. 18. They are as false as the sight of two moons in the sky by thy false imagination, it is the great fallacy of thy mind, that represents these false forms of the world before thee. 19. As the passenger in a boat sees the fixed objects on earth to be moving about him, so these varieties of visible objects offer themselves to thy view. 20. Know the world as an enchanted scene, presented by the magic of thy error (máyá); it is a fabrication of the working of thy mind, and is a nullity though appearing as a reality. 21. All this world is Brahma, what else is there beside him? What other adjunct can he have, what is that? Whence did it come, and where is it situated? 22. That this is a mountain and that is a tree, are appendages affixed by our error and mistake, it is the prejudgment of the mind, that makes the unreality appear as a reality.

23. The world is the creation of error and idol of fools; shun your fond desire and thoughts of it, Ráma, and think of thy unworldly soul. 24. It is as false as the visionary scene of a prolonged dream, and an aerial building of the fancies of the mind. 25. Shun this grand display of the world, which is so substantial to sight, and so inane when felt; It is the den of the dragons of desire, foaming with the poison of their passions. 26. Knowing the world as unreal, try to regard it as nothing; because the wise will never go after a mirage knowing it such. 27. The foolish man that runs after some imaginary object of his heart’s desire, is surely exposed to trouble and disappointment for his folly. 28. Whoever desires to have any thing in this world, after knowing it as an unreality, surely perishes with his soul for his forsaking the reality. 29. It is only that error of the mind, which makes it mistake a rope for a snake; and it is the variety of the thoughts and pursuits of men, that makes them roll about in the world.

30. When some vain thought labors in the mind, like the moon appearing to move under the water; it beguiles little children only, and not the wise as yourself. 31. He who pursues the virtues for his future happiness, surely kindles the fire of his intelligence to destroy the frost of his ignorance. 32. All the gross bodies that are seen here in this world, are all the creatures of the working of the mind, as the building of aerial castles in our thought. 33. It is the heart’s desire that produces these things, as it is want of desire that destroys them all. The unrealities appear as true as the fairylands appearing to view. (Fairy cities like the sight of castles in the icebergs). 34. Know Ráma, that nothing that is existent is lost on the dissolution of the world, nor what is inexistent of its nature, can ever come into existence. 35. Say Ráma, what things you call as entire or broken, or to be growing or decaying, when these ideas are but the formations of your sound or unsound mind or the working of your fancy.

36. As children make and break their toy-dolls of clay at will, so the mind raises and erases its thoughts of all things in the world (by its repeated recollections and oblivions of them). 37. As nothing is lost or drowned in the talismanic tank of a conjuror, so nothing is dead or dissolved in the magical sea of this world (samsára ságara). 38. The unrealities being all untrue, it is true that nothing is lost by their loss. Hence there is no cause for our joy or sorrow in this unreal world. (Why sorrow, when a fragile is broken, or a mortal is no more). 39. If the world is altogether an unreality, I know not what may be lost in it; and if nothing whatever is really lost in it, what reason can there be for the wise to sorrow for it? 40. If the Deity is the only absolute existence, what else is there for us to lose in it? The whole universe being full with Brahma, there can be no cause of our joy or sorrow for any thing whatever. 41. If the unreality can never come to existence, it cannot have its growth also. What cause is there of our sorrow for their want of growth or existence?

42. Thus every thing is but unreal and mere cause of our delusion, what is there that may be reckoned as the best boon for us, that the wiseman can have to desire. (No real bliss is to be found on earth). 43. But all this when taken in the sense of their being full with the Divine Spirit, what thing is there so very trifling for the wise man to dispose or refuse to take? 44. But he who considers the world as an unreality, is never subject to joy or sorrow at his gain or loss of any thing. It is only the ignorant that is elated or depressed at the one or the other. 45. That which was not before nor will remain afterwards, is likewise the same nihility at present; therefore who so desires the nullity, is said in the Sruti to be null himself. (The Sruti says: Nothing there was, nothing there is, and nothing will last in the end except the being of God). 46. What was before and what will be in the end, the same is in being (in esse) even at present; therefore, what is always in esse, it is that entity alone that is seen everywhere and at all times.

47. There are the unreal sky and moon and stars, seen underneath the water; it is only the deluded boys that like to look at them, but never the wise (who look at the reality and not at its shadow). 48. Children take a liking for light, empty and gaudy baubles; which are of no good or use to them nor any body at all, and are rather led to sorrow at their loss, than derive any good from their gain whatever. 49. Therefore act not as a child, O lotus-eyed Ráma! but conduct yourself as the wise, and by looking at these fleeting baubles as ever evanescent, rely in the Everlasting alone. 50. Ráma! be not sad or sorry to learn, that all these with thyself and myself are nothing in reality; nor be glad or joyous to know, that all these and ourselves are real entities. But reckon alike whether these be or not be; because it is the One Being, that becomes and unbecomes anything, it is the only Being, and all things that becomes.

51. Válmíki said:—As the sage was saying in this manner, the day glided away to its dusk; the sun departed to his even tide and evening service, and with him the assembly parted to their evening ablutions and rest, after which they assembled again to the court with the rising sun.

DESCRIPTION OF LIVING LIBERATION. Argument. The emancipation of Living souls from the thraldom of the World. Vasishtha said:—No man knows sorrow as long as he is in possession of his pleasant home, family and wealth; but why should he be sorrowful upon their disappearance, knowing them as a short-lived enchantment and accompaniment. 2. What pleasure or pain can one derive, either from the grandeur or destruction of his aerial castle, and what cause of joy can he have in his ignorant children, or of sorrow upon their death? (An ignorant son is sorrow to his father. Solomon). 3. What joy is there in the increase of our wealth or family, seeing them as the increasing mirage of water which can never satisfy the thirsty. (The thirst for riches is never satisfied. Lat. Auri sacra fames. Verg.). 4. There is increase of care with the increase of wealth and family; and there is no happiness in the increase of worldly possessions and affections. (Care follows increasing wealth. Little wealth little care). 5. The abundance of carnal enjoyments, which are delightsome to the ignorant voluptuary, is quite distasteful and disgusting to the abstemious, wise and learned. (Carnal pleasures are brutish, but mental delights are relished by the wise).

6. What joy is there in the possession of temporary wealth and family to the wise, that seek their lasting welfare, and are quite indifferent about these? 7. Therefore, O Ráma! be truly wise in thy conduct in this world; shun the transient as they are transitory, and lay hold on whatever offers of itself unto thee. (Be content with what thou gettest). 8. Inappetency of what is ungotten, and enjoyment of what is in present possession; are the true characteristic of the wise and learned. (Contentment is abundance; and a contented mind as a continued feast). 9. Take care of this bewildering world, where thy enemies are lurking in many a deceitful shape; and conduct thyself as the wise man, evading the dangers that wait upon the unwise. (The enemies are of seven shapes, viz.: a swordsman, a poisoner, an incendiary, a curser, an exorcist, a backbiter and an adulterer). 10. They are great fools who do not look deeply into the things, and think the world to be without any fraud or guile. (The credulous are most imposed upon).

11. Fools are led by the deceitful speech of cheats, to fall into the temptations of the world; but men of right understanding place no reliance in them, nor plunge themselves into the pit of errors. (It is cunningness to keep from the cunning). 12. He who knowing the unrealities, place no reliance in anything; is said to have mastered all knowledge, and is never liable to error. (Discrimination of truth and untruth, and of right and wrong, constitute the highest wisdom of man). 13. Who so knowing himself as frail as any thing in this frail world, has his faith in neither, is never liable to fall into the error of taking either of them for real. 14. Placed between the unreality and reality of this and next life, you must have the good sense of sticking to the Truth, and neither wholly reject or stick to this or the next. (The text says, stick not to the outward or inward alone: i.e. either to the outer world or <the> inner spirit entirely, but attend to your interests in both of them). 15. Though engaged in business, yet you must remain, O Ráma! quite indifferent to all things; because the apathetic and inappetent are truly happy in this world.

16. He who has nothing to desire or leave, but lives as he is obliged to live, has his intellect as unsullied as the lotus-leaf, to which the laving waters never stick. 17. Let thy accessory organs manage thy outward affairs or not; but keep thy apathetic soul quite unconcerned with all. (i.e. The body and mind may attend to business; but the soul must remain aloof from all). 18. Let not thy mind be plunged in and deeply engaged with the objects of sense, by thinking them in vain to be thy properties and possessions; but manage them or not with utter indifference of thy mind. (i.e. Observe a stoical indifference in all thy worldly concerns). 19. When thou comest to feel, Ráma! that the sensible objects have ceased to give any relish to thy soul, then thou shalt know thyself to have reached the acme of thy spiritual edification, and got over the boisterous sea of the world. 20. The embodied or disembodied soul whether living or dead, that has ceased to have any taste for sensuous enjoyments, has attained its liberation without its wishing for it. 21. Try Ráma! by your superior intelligence, to separate your mind from its desires, as they extract the perfume from flowers.

22. They that have not been swept away by the waves of their desires, to the midst of the ocean of this world, are said to have got over it; but the others are no doubt drowned and lost in it. (This is the first time that I found the word budita to occur in Sanskrit in the sense of drowned. See the vernacular Bengali dubita also). 23. Sharpen your understanding to the edge of a razor, erase the weeds of doubt therewith, and after scanning the nature of the soul, enter into thy spiritual state of blessedness. 24. Move about as those who have attained to true knowledge, and elevated their minds with true wisdom; and do not act as the ignorant worldling: who is mindful of the present state, and unmindful of the future. 25. In conducting yourself in this world, you should imitate them that are liberated in their life time, who are great in their souls and understandings, and who are ever satisfied with themselves, and not follow the examples of the greedy and wicked. 26. Those having the knowledge of both worlds, neither slight nor adhere to the customs of their country, but follow them like other people during their life time. (i.e. Act in harmony and conformity with approved custom and usage).

27. Great men knowing the truth, are never proud of their power or good qualities, nor of their honour or prosperity like the vulgar people. 28. Great men are not depressed by adversity, nor elated by prosperity; but remain fixed like the sun in the sky without anything to support it. 29. Great minds like warriors ride in the chariots of their bodies, clad in the armour of their knowledge; they have no desire of their own, but conduct themselves according to the course of the time. 30. You too Ráma! have gained your extensive learning in philosophy, and it is by virtue of your prudence, that you can manage yourself with ease. 31. Suppress the sight of the visibles, and avoid your pride and enmity; then roam wherever you will, and you will meet with success. 32. Be sedate in all circumstances, unattached to the present, and wishing to know all other things in future; have the calm composure of your mind, and go where you will. 33. Válmíki said:—Ráma, being advised in this manner by the pure doctrines of the sage, brightened in his countenance; and being full within himself with the ambrosia of his knowledge; shone forth like the ambrosial moon with her cooling beams.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLDS AND THEIR DEMIURGI. Argument. Relation of many past and Future Worlds, and of the gods and other beings contained in them. Ráma said:—O venerable sir, that art acquainted with all religious doctrines and versed in all branches of the Vedas, I am set at perfect ease by thy holy preachings. 2. I am never satiate with hearing your speech, which is equally copious, clear and elegant. 3. You have said sir, of the birth of Brahmá in course of your lecture on the productions of the satva and rájasa qualities. I want you to tell me more on that subject. 4. Vasishtha answered:—There have been many millions of Brahmás and many hundreds of Sivas and Indras, together with thousands of Náráyanas, that have gone by (in the revolution of ages). 5. There have been various kinds of beings also in many other worlds, having their manners and customs widely differing from one another. 6. There will also be many other productions in the worlds, synchronous with others, and many to be born at times remotely distant from one another. 7. Among these, the births of Brahmá and the other gods in the different worlds, are as wonderful as the productions of many things in a magic show.

8. Some creations were made with Brahmá as the first born, others with Vishnu and some with Siva as the next created beings. There were some other (minor productions), having the munis for the patriarchs. (These are the different periods of the formation of the world under the different Demiurgi). 9. One Brahmá was lotus-born, another was produced from the water; and a third was born of an egg, and the fourth was produced in the air. (These are named as the Padmaja, Náráyana, Andaja and Maruta). 10. In one egg the sun was born with all his eyes, and in another Vásava—the Indra; in some one was born the lotus-eyed Vishnu, and in another he with his three eyes as Siva. 11. In one age was born the solid earth, having no holes for the growth of vegetables, in another it was overgrown with verdure; it was again filled with mountains, and at last covered by living creatures. 12. The earth was full of gold in some place, and it was hard ground at others; it was mere mud in many places, and incrusted with copper and other metals in some.

13. There are some wondrous worlds in the universe, and others more wondrous still than they; some of them are luminous and bright, and others whose light have never reached unto us. 14. There are innumerable worlds scattered in the vacuum of Brahma’s essence, and they are all rolling up and down like waves in the ocean. (Here the infinite vacuity, is represented as the body of Brahma, and the sole substance of all other bodies). 15. The splendours of worlds, are seen in the SUPREME like waves in the sea, and as the mirage in the sandy desert; they abide in Him as flowers on the mango tree. 16. It may be possible to count the particles of the solar rays, but not the number of worlds abounding in the Supreme Spirit. 17. These multitudes of worlds rise and fall in the Universal Spirit, like gnats flying and following others in swarms in the rainy season. 18. It is not known since when they have been in existence, and what numbers of them have gone by, and are remaining at the present time. 19. They have been rolling without beginning like the billows of the sea; those that are past and gone had their previous ones, and they their prior ones also.

20. They rise over and over, to sink lower and lower again; just as the waves of the sea, rising aloft and falling low by turns. 21. There are series of mundane worlds like the egg of Brahmá, which pass away by thousands like the hours in course of the year. 22. There are many such bodies revolving at present, in the spacious mind of Brahma; beside the mundane system of Brahmá (Brahmánda). 23. There will grow many more mundane worlds in the infinity of the divine mind, and they will also vanish away in course of time, like the evanescent sounds in the air. (The sounds are never lost, but remain in the air. Sabdonityam). 24. Other worlds will come into existence in the course of other creations, as the pots come to be formed of clay, and the leaves grow from germs in endless succession. (Here Brahma is made the material cause of all). 25. So long doth the glory of the three worlds appear to the sight, as long as it is not seen in the intellect, in the manner as it exists in the divine mind. 26. The rising and falling of worlds are neither true nor wholly false; they are as the fanfaronade of fools, and as orchids of the air.

27. All things are of the manner of sea waves, which vanish no sooner than they appear to view, and they are all of the nature of paintings, which are impressed in the mind. 28. The world is a perspective, and all things are but paintings in it; they are not without the tableau of the mind, and are represented in it as the figures on a canvas. 29. The learned in divine knowledge, consider the creations proceeding from the Spirit of God, as showers of rain falling from the waters contained in the clouds. 30. The visible creation is no more distinct from God, than the sea water exuding from the earth and the earth itself, and the leaves and seeds of the Simul tree from the tree itself. 31. All created things that you see in their gross or subtle forms, have proceeded from the vacuity of the Divine Mind, and are strung together, like a rosary of large and small gems and beads. 32. Sometimes the subtile air is solidified in the form of the atmosphere, and therefrom is produced the great Brahmá, thence called the air-born lord of creatures. 33. Sometimes the atmospheric air is condensed into a solid form, and that gives birth to a Brahmá; under the title of the atmospheric lord of creation.

34. At another time it is light that is thickened to a luminous body, and thence is born another Brahmá, bearing the appellation of the luminous lord of all creatures. 35. Again the water being condensed at another time, produced another Brahmá designated the aqueous lord of creation. 36. Sometimes the particles of earth take a denser form, and produce a Brahmá known as the terrene Brahmá. (Such was Adam made out of the dust of the ground). 37. It is by extraction of the essences of these four Brahmás, that a fifth is formed under the name of the quintuple Brahmá, who is the creation of the present world. 38. It is sometimes by the condensation of water, air or heat, that a being is produced in the form of a male or female. 39. It is sometimes from the speaking mouth of this being, and from his feet and back and the eyes, that different men are produced under the appellations of Bráhmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Súdras. (These Kshatriyas are born from the arms and eyes according to Manu). 40. Sometimes the great Being causes a lotus to grow out of his navel; in which is born the great Brahmá known as the lotus-born.

41. All these theories of creation (in the different sástras) are idle dreams, and as false as the dreams in our sleeping state; they are the reveries of fancy like the eddies of water. 42. Tell me what do you think of these theories in your own judgment; do they not appear as the tales told to boys? 43. Sometimes they imagine a being produced in the pure vacuity of the Divine mind, this they call the golden and mundane egg, which gave birth to the egg-born Brahmá. 44. It is said also that the first and divine Male, casts his seed in the waters, which grows up to a lotus-flower which they call the great world. 45. This lotus is the great womb of the birth of Brahmá, and at another time of the sun also; sometimes the gods Varuna and Vayu also are born of it, and are thence called oviparous. 46. Thus Ráma, are the different accounts of the production of Brahmá—the creator, so various also is the description of this unsolid and unsubstantial creation. 47. I have related to you already about the creation of one of these Brahmás, and mentioned about the production of others without specifying their several works.

48. It is agreed by all, that the creation is but the development of divine mind; although I have related for your acquaintance, the various processes of its production. 49. The sátwika and other productions, of which I told you before, have all come to existence, in the manner I have narrated to you. 50. Now know the endless succession of all things in the world; creation is followed by destruction as pleasure by pain; and as ignorance is followed by knowledge, and bondage by liberation. 51. Past creations and objects of affection being gone, others come to rise in future, as the lamps are lighted and extinguished by turns at home. 52. The production and destruction of all bodies, are as those of Brahmá and the lamps, they assume their forms in their time, but become an undistinguishable mass after death. 53. The four ages of the world, namely, the Satya, Tretá, Dwápara and Kali Yugas, revolve in endless rotation, like the wheel of the potter or of any other engine. 54. The Manvantaras and Kalpa cycles succeed one another, as the day and night, the morning and evening, and the times of work follow those of rest by turns.

55. All worlds and things are under the subjection of time. They are subject to repeated successions, and there is nothing without its rotation. 56. They all proceed of their nature from the vacuum of Divine Intellect, as the sparks of fire scintillate from the red-hot iron. 57. All things once manifest, are next concealed in the divine mind; just as the season fruits and flowers, disappear after their appearance in season. 58. All productions are but fluctuations of the mind of the Supreme spirit; their appearances to our view, are as the sight of two moons to infirm eyes. 59. It is the intellect alone, which exhibits these appearances to our view; they are always situated in the intellect, though they appear without it like the beams in the inner disk. 60. Know Ráma, the world to be never in existence; it is a motionless show of that power, which resides only in the Supreme spirit. 61. It is never as it appears to you, but quite a different thing from what it seems to be; it is a show depending on the power of the Omnipotent.

62. What the world exists since the mahá kalpa or great will of God, and there is no more any other world to come into existence in future, is the conclusion of the learned holds good to the present time. (This belief is based on the holy text, “so aikshata—God willed—‘Let there be’, and there was all”). 63. All this is Brahma to the intelligent, and there is no such thing as the world, which is a mere theory (upapádya) of the unintelligent. 64. The insapient consider the world as eternal, from the continued uniformity of its course; but it is the effect of the everlasting error, which raises the false supposition of the world. 65. It is their theory of repeated transmigrations, that they cannot say anything otherwise; but must conclude the world as such, in order to keep pace with their doctrine. (The doctrine of perpetual metempsychosis of the Mímámsaka materialists, naturally makes them suppose the eternity of the world). 66. But it is to be wondered why they do not consider the world to be destructible, seeing the incessant perishableness of all things all around. (They flash as momentary lightenings in their appearance, to be extinguished into nothingness soon after).

67. So others (the Sánkhyas) seeing the continuous course of the sun and moon, and the stability of mountains and seas all about, come to the conclusion of the indestructibility of the world from these false analogies. 68. There can be nothing whatever, which does not reside in the wide expanse of the Divine mind; but as these are but the conceptions of the mind, they can never have any visible or separate form or existence. 69. All these appear in repetition, and so repeated is the course of our births and deaths; as those of pain and pleasure succeeding one another, and our rest and actions, following each other for evermore. 70. This same vacuum and these quarters of the sky, with all these seas and mountains, appear in the recurrent course of creation with their various hues, like those of the solar rays seen through the chink of a wall. 71. The gods and demigods appear again and again, and all people come and depart by turns, bondage and liberation are ever recurrent, and Indras and Somas ever reappear to view. 72. The god Náráyana and the demigods appear by turns, and the sky is always revolving with the regents of all its sides, the sun and moon, clouds and winds.

73. The heaven and earth appear again like the lotus-flower full open to view, and having the mount Meru for its pericarp, and the Sahya peak for its filament. 74. The sun resumes his course in the maze of the sky like a lion, and destroys the thick darkness with his rays, as the lion kills the huge elephant with his beaming nails. 75. See again the moving moon shining with her bright beams, resembling the white filaments of flowers; and anointing the countenances of the etherial goddesses, with sweet ambrosial light, and borne by the air and breezes of heaven. 76. Again the holy arbour of heaven sheds its heap of flowers, on the deserts of meritorious men, as rewards of their virtuous acts. 77. Behold again the flight of time, riding as the eagle on its two wings of acts and actions, and passing with the noise of pat-pat over the vast maze of creation. 78. See another Indra appearing, after the by-gone lords of gods have passed away; and taking his seat on the lotus-like throne of heaven like a contemptible bee. (The passing lords of gods and men are as fleeting flies on flowers).

79. Again the wicked age of Kali appears to soil the holy satya yuga, as the black body of Náráyana fills the clear waters of the deep, or as a blast of wind sweeps the dust of the earth on its pellucid surface. 80. Again doth time form the plate of the earth like a potter, and turn his wheel incessantly, to bring on the revolutions of his creations in successive kalpas. 81. Again doth the veteran time, who is skilled in the work of renovation, wither away the freshness of creation, as the autumnal winds blast the foliage of a forest, in order to produce them anew. 82. Again the dozen of zodiacal suns, rising at once and burning the creation, leaves the dead bodies all around, like the white bones lying scattered in a country. 83. Again the pushkara and ávartaka clouds, poured down their rain water, deluging the tops of the boundary mountains, and filling the face of the earth with foaming froth, swimming on the surface of one sheet of water. 84. And after the waters had subsided and the winds had ceased to blow; the world appeared as a vast vacuum void of all beings.

85. Again we see living beings filling the earth, and feeding for some years upon the moisture of its verdure, leaving their decayed bodies, and being mixed up with their souls in the universal spirit. 86. Again the Divine Mind stretches out other creations at other times, and these are drawn like pictures of fairylands (airy castles) in the canvas of vacuum. 87. Again the creation appears to view, and again it is submerged in the water of deluvion, both of which follow one another like the axles of a wheel. 88. Now consider, O Ráma! if there is any stability of any thing in this revolutionary world, beside its being a maze of continuous delusion. 89. The revolution of the world resembles the hallucination of Dásúra’s mind; it is a phantasia without any solidity in it. 90. The world appearing so extensive and thickly peopled, is but a fancied unreality like the erroneous appearance of two moons in the sky. It is made of unreality though appearing as real, and is not worth reliance by our ignorance of its nature.

STORY OF DÁSÚRA. Argument. Description of the vanity of worldly enjoyments, illustrated in the tale of Dásúra. Vasishtha continued:—All worldly men that are engaged in a variety of business, and are perverted in their understandings with a desire of opulence and enjoyments; can never learn the truth, until they get rid of their worldliness. 2. He only who has cultivated his understanding, and subdued his sensual organs, can perceive the errors of the world, as one knows a bel fruit held in his hand (i.e. as one knows the places on earth in a small globe). 3. Any rational being, who scans well the errors of the world, forsakes his delusion of egoism, as a snake casts off his slough. 4. Being thus paralysed (unconscious) of his selfishness, he has no more to be born; as a fried grain can never germinate, though it is sown in the field, and lies for ever in it. 5. How pitiable is it that ignorant men take so much pains for the preservation of their bodies, which are ever subject to diseases and dangers; and liable to perish to-day or to-morrow at the expense of their souls. 6. Do not therefore, O Ráma! take so much care for the dull body like the ignorant; but regard only for the welfare of thy soul.

7. Ráma said:—Tell me Sir, the story of Dásúra, which is illustrative of the visionary and air-drawn form of this rotatory universe, which is all hollow within. 8. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me rehearse to you, O Ráma! the narrative of Dásúra, in illustration of the delusive form of the world, which is no more than the air-built utopia of our brains. 9. There is on the surface of this land, the great and opulent province of Magadha, which is full of flower trees of all kinds. 10. There is a forest of wide extending kadamba groves, which was the pleasant resort of charming birds of various sorts and hues. 11. Here the wide fields were full of corns and grains, and the skirts of the land were beset by groves and arbours; and the banks of rivulets were fraught with the lotuses and water lilies in their bloom. 12. The groves and alcoves resounded with the melodious strains of rustic lasses, and the plains were filled with blades of blossoms, bedewed by the nightly frost, and appearing as arrows of the god of love, Káma. 13. Here at the foot of a mountain, decked with karnikara flowers, and beset by rows of plantain plants and kadamba trees, was a secluded spot over-grown with moss and shrubs.

14. It was sprinkled over with the reddish dust of crimson flowers borne by the winds, and was resonant to the warblings of water fowls, singing in unison with the melodious strains of aquatic cranes. 15. On the sacred hill overhanging that spot, there rose a kadamba arbor, crowded by birds of various kinds; and there dwelt on it a holy sage of great austerity. 16. He was known by the name of Dásúra, and was employed in his austere devotion; sitting on a branch of his kadamba tree with his exalted soul, and devoid of passions. 17. Ráma said:—I want to know Sir, whence and how that hermit came to dwell in that forest, and why he took his seat on that high kadamba tree. 18. Vasishtha replied:—He had for his father, the renowned sage Saraloman, residing in the same mountain, and resembling the great Brahmá in his abstract meditation. 19. He was the only son of that sire, like Kacha the only progeny of Brihaspati, the preceptor of the gods, with whom he came to dwell in the forest from his boyhood. 20. Saraloma having passed many years of his life in this manner, left his mortal frame for his heavenly abode, as a bird quits its nest to fly into the air.

21. Dásúra being left alone in that lonely forest, wept bitterly and lamented over the loss of his father, with as loud wailings as the shrieks of a heron upon separation from its mate. 22. Being bereft of both his parents, he was full of sorrow and grief in his mind; and then he began to fade away as the lotus blossom in winter. 23. He was observed in this sad plight by the sylvan god of that wood, who taking compassion on the forlorn youth, and accosted him unseen in an audible voice and said:— 24. O sagely son of the sage! why weepest thou as the ignorant, and why art thou so disconsolate, knowing the instability of worldly things? 25. It is the state of this frail world, that everything is unstable here; and it is the course of nature that all things are born to live and perish afterwards into nothingness. 26. Whatever is seen here from the great Brahmá down to the meanest object, is all doomed to perish beyond a doubt. 27. Do not therefore wail at the demise of thy father, but know like the rising and falling sun, every thing is destined to its rise and fall. (Here sun—the lord of the day—ahah-pati, is spelt aharpati by a várttika of Kátyáyna).

28. Hearing this oracular voice, the youth wiped his eyes red hot with weeping; and held his silence like the screaming peacock at the loud sound of the clouds. (The pea-cock is said to cry at the sight, but to be hushed at the sound of a rainy cloud). 29. He rose up and performed the funeral ceremonies of his sire, with devoutness of his heart; and then set his mind to the success of his steady devotion. 30. He was employed in the performance of his austerities according to the Bráhmanic law, and engaged himself in discharging his ceremonial rites by the Srauta ritual, for the accomplishment of his sundry vows. 31. But not knowing the knowable (Brahma), his mind could not find its rest in his ceremonial acts, nor found its purity on the surface of the stainless earth. (The earth appears sullied to the tainted soul, but it is all unstained to the taintless soul, which views it full with the holy spirit of God). 32. Not knowing the fulness of the world with divine spirit, and the holiness of the earth in every place, he thought the ground polluted (by the original sin), and did not find his repose any where.

33. Therefore he made a vow of his own accord, to take his seat on the branch of a tree, which was untainted with the pollution of the earth. (Because the Lord said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake”; but not so the trees growing upon it). 34. Henceforth said he, “I will perform my austerities on these branching arbours, and repose myself like birds and sylvan spirits, on the branches and leaves of trees.” 35. Thus sitting on high, he kindled a flaming fire beneath him, and was going to offer oblations of living flesh on it, by paring bits of his shoulder blade (mixed with blood). 36. When the god of fire thought in himself that, as fire is the mouth whereby the gods receive their food, the offering of a Bráhman’s flesh to it, would wholly burn down their faces. (Fire is the mouth of gods, says Veda, because the gods of early Aryans were distinguished from the savages for their taking cooked food and meat, while the latter took them raw for want of their knowledge of kindling fire. Again all flesh was palatable to the gods, except that of their brotherhood—Bráhmans).

37. Thinking so, the god of fire appeared before him in his full blaze, as the luminous sun appeared before the lord of speech—Brihaspati or Jupiter. 38. He uttered gently and said, “Accept young Bráhman your desired boon from me, as the owner of a store, takes out his treasure from the chest in which it is deposited”. 39. Being thus accosted by the god, the Bráhman boy saluted him with a laudatory hymn; and after adoring him with suitable offerings of flowers, addressed him in the following manner. 40. “Lord! I find no holy place upon earth, which is full of iniquity and sinful beings; and therefore pray of thee to make the tops of trees, the only places for my abode.” 41. Being thus besought by the Bráhman boy, the god pronounced “Be it so” from his flaming mouth, and vanished from his sight. 42. As the god disappeared from before him, like the day-light from the face of the lotus-flower; the son of the sage being fully satisfied with his desired boon, shone forth in his face like the orb of the full moon.

43. Conscious of the success of his desire, his gladdened countenance brightened with his blooming smiles; just as the white lotus blushes with its smiling petals, no sooner it perceives the smiling moonbeams falling upon it.

DESCRIPTION OF DÁSÚRA’S KADAMBA FOREST. Argument. Comparisons of the Kadamba tree, and its branches, leaves, fruits and flowers and birds. Vasishtha continued:—Thus Dásúra remained in the forest reaching to the region of the clouds, and forming a stage for the halting of the tired horses of the meridian sun at midday. (i.e. As high as to reach the sphere of the sun at noon). 2. Its far stretching boughs spread a canopy under the vault of heaven on all sides, and it looked to the skies all around with its full blown blossoming eyes. 3. The gentle winds were shedding the fragrant dust from the tufts of its hanging hairs, which studded with swarms of fluttering bees, and its waving leaves like palms of its hands, were brushing over the face of its fairy welkin. 4. The banks with their long shrubbery, and the crimson filaments of their milk-white blossoms, were smiling like the fair faces of beauties, with their teeth tinged with reddish hue of betel leaves. 5. The creeping plants were dancing with delight, and shedding the dust from the pistils of their flowers, which were clustered in bunches and beaming with the lustre of the full bright moon.

6. The earth with its thickening thickets, and the warbling chakoras as amongst them, appeared as the milky path of heaven studded with stars singing their heavenly strains. 7. Groups of peacocks sitting on the tops of branching trees, appeared with variegated trains, like rainbows amidst the verdant foliage, seeming as bluish clouds in the azure sky. 8. The white chauri deer with half of their bodies hidden under the coverts of the woods, and their fore parts appearing without the thickets, appeared as so many moons with their dark and bright sides in the sky. 9. The warbling of chataks, joined with the trill of cuckoos, and the whistling of chakoras, filled the groves with a continuous harmony. 10. Flocks of white herons sitting on their nestling boughs, seemed as bodies of siddha sylphs, sitting quietly beside their coverts in heaven. 11. Waving creepers with their ruddy leaflets shaking with the breeze, and their blooming blossoms beset by bees, resembled the Apsaras of heaven, flapping their rosy palms and looking at the skies. 12. The clusters of Kumuda or blue lotuses, moving on the sky-blue waters with their yellow filaments, and shedding their golden dust around, appeared as the rainbow and lightings, darting their radiance in the azure sky.

13. The forest with thousands of uplifted branches, seemed as the god Visva-rúpa lifting his thousand arms on high, and dancing with the breeze, with the pendant orbs of the sun and moon, suspended as the earrings to both his ears. 14. The groups of elephants lying underneath the branches, and the clusters of stars shining above them, gave the woodlands an appearance of the sky, with its dark clouds moving below the blazing stars above. 15. The forest was as the store house of all sorts of fruits and flowers, as the god Brahmá was the reservoir of all sorts of productions. 16. The ground glistened with the falling florets and the farina of the flowers, as the firmament glittered with the lustre of solar and stellar light. 17. The flights of birds flying on the boughs of trees, and those fluttering about their nests, and the flocks of fowls feeding on the ground, made the forest appear as a city with its people above, below and all about it. 18. Its bowers resembled the inner apartments of houses, with the blossoms waving as flags over them, and strewn over with the white farina of flowers, as they decorate the floors with flowers and powders, and hung flowers over them, as upon the windows of houses.

19. There was the joint harmony of the humming bees and buzzing beetles; the twittering of chakoras and parrots, and cooing of cokilas in the deep coverts of the woods; and issuing out of their holes like the music of songstresses, coming out in unison from the hollows of windows. 20. Birds of various kinds hovered about the coverts of the sylvan goddesses; as they were the only guests of their lonely retreats. 21. The bees were continually humming over the farinaceous pistils of flowers, and sounding water-falls were incessantly exuding from the high hills in its neighbourhood. 22. Here the gentle zephyrs were continually playing with the waving flowers; and the hoary clouds overtopped the lofty trees, as they do the tops of mountains. 23. The sturdy woods resembling high hills, were rubbed by the scabby cheeks of elephants, and stood unmoved though they were incessantly dashed by their huge legs and feet. (See kumára Sambhava). 24. Birds of variegated plumage that dwelt in the hollows of the trees, were as the various races of beings dwelling in the person of Vishnu. (Vishnu means the residence of beings like Viráta).

25. With the movements of their painted leaves, resembling the fingers of their palms, the trees seemed to keep time with the dancing creepers, and point out the modes of their oscillation. 26. They danced also with delight with their branching arms and clasping armlets of the creepers, to think on the subsistence, that every part of their body affords to all kinds of living beings. (The produce of trees supplies the supportance of all living creatures). 27. And thinking how they are the support of thousands of creeping plants, which entwine round them as their consorts, they sing their joyous chime in the buzzing of the bees about them. 28. The flowers dropped down by the kind siddha (sylphs) from the trees, were hailed by the bees and cuckoos with their joyous notes and tunes. 29. The kadamba tree seemed by its blooming blossoms, to laugh to derision, the five woody arbors on the skirts which do not bear their flowers. (These are the banian, bata and ficus religiosus, the mango, the fig tree and frondos. (i.e. বটাশ্বত্থ, অম্র, উডুম্বর, and পলাস called বনস্পতি or lords of woods)).

30. With its uplifted head reaching to the sky, and the flight of birds flying over it like the hairs on its head, it seemed to defy the párijata tree of Indra’s heaven. 31. The body of bees thronging all about its person, gave it the appearance of the thousand eyed Indra, with whom it vied in the greater number of its eyes. 32. It had a tuft of flowers on some part of its head, appearing as the hood of a snake decorated with gems, and seeming as the infernal serpent had mounted its top with his crowned head, in order to survey the wonders of heaven. 33. Besmeared with the pollen of its flowers, it appeared as the god Siva anointed with his powdered ashes; while its shady bowers overhung with luscious fruits, refreshed the passing travellers with rest and repast. 34. The kadamba arbour appeared as the garden of paradise, having alcoves under its thickening boughs, and grottos formed by the flowery creepers below it; while the birds of heaven hovered about it as its perpetual inhabitants.

DÁSÚRA’S SURVEY OF THE HEAVENS. Argument. Dásúra surveys all the sky from his seat on the Kadamba tree. Vasishtha continued:—Dásúra remained in this flowery arbour, as if he dwelt on a hill of flowers; and he felt in his mind the delight, which the flowery spring and its fruitage could infuse in the heart. 2. He mounted and sat over the high and airy top of the tree, and looked on all sides like the god Vishnu surveying the worlds. 3. There sitting on a branch which reached to the sky, he was employed in his devotion, devoid of fear and desire. 4. From this his leafy and easy couch of repose, he cast his curious eyes to view the wonders of nature on all sides. 5. He beheld a river at a distance glittering as a necklace of gold, and the summits of distant hills rising as nipples on the breast of the earth. The fair face of the sky appeared as the face of a fairy, covered under the blue veil of a cloud. 6. The verdant leaves of trees were as the green garb of this fairy, and the clusters of flowers were as garlands on her head; the distant lakes appearing as water-pots, were decorated by their aquatic plants and flowers.

7. The fragrance of the blooming lotuses, seemed as the sweet breathing of the fairy; and the gurgling of the waterfalls, sounded as the trinkets fastened to her feet. 8. The trees touching the skies; were as the hairs on her body, the thick forests resembled her thighs, and the orbs of the sun and moon, were as earrings pendant on her ears. 9. The fields of corn seemed as pots of her sandal paste, and the rising hills were as her breasts, covered by the cloudy mantle on their tops. 10. The seas with their lucent waters were as her mirrors, to reflect the rays of her jewels of the starry frame. (The stars are explained in the gloss as drops of sweat on her person). 11. The season fruits and flowers were as embroideries on her bodice, and the rays of the sun and moon were as powders over her body, or as the pasted sandal on her person. 12. The clouds covering the landscape were as her garment, and the trees and plants on the borders, were as the fringes or the skirts of her raiment. In this manner he beheld all the ten sides of heaven as full with the form of a fairy queen.

DÁSÚRA’S BEGETTING A SON. Argument:—Mental sacrifices of Dásúra, and his production and Instruction of a son begotten by the sylvan goddess. Vasishtha continued:—Thence forward Dásúra remained as an ascetic in his hermitage, in that forest, and was known as the Kadamba Dásúra, and a giant of austere devotion. 2. There sitting on the leaves of the creepers growing on the branch of that tree, he looked up to heaven, and then placing himself in the posture of padmásana, he called back his mind to himself. 3. Unacquainted with spiritual adoration, and unpracticed to the ceremonial ritual, he commenced to perform his mental sacrifice, with a desire of gaining its reward. 4. Sitting on the leaves of the creepers in his aerial seat, he employed his inward spirit and mind, in discharging his sacrificial rites, of the sacred fire and horse sacrifice. 5. He continued there for the space of full ten years, in his acts of satisfying the gods with his mental sacrifices of the bull, horse and human immolations, and paying their honorariums in his mind. 6. In process of time, his mind was purified and expanded, and he gained the knowledge of the beatification of his soul. (It is believed that ceremonial acts, lead to the knowledge productive of spiritual bliss).

7. His ignorance being dispelled, his heart became purified of the dirt of worldly desires; and he came to behold a sylvan goddess, standing beside his leafy and mossy seat. 8. She was a body of light and dressed in a robe of flowers; her form and face were beautiful to behold, and her large bright eyes turned wistfully towards him. 9. Her body breathed the fragrance of the blue lotus, and her figure charmed his inmost soul. He then spoke to the goddess, standing before him with her down cast looks. 10. What art thou, O tender dame! That lookest like a creeper fraught with flowers, and defiest the god Cupid with thy beauteous form and eyes, resembling the petals of the lotus. 11. Why standest thou as Flora, the befriending goddess of flowering creepers? Thus accosted, the dame with deer-like eyes and protuberant bosom replied to him. 12. She said to the hermit with a sweet and charming voice in the following manner:—“Mayst thou prosper in obtaining the objects of thy wishes”:— 13. “For any thing which is desirable and difficult of attainment in this world, is surely obtainable when sought after with proper exertion by the great”:—

14. “I am, O Bráhman! a sylvan goddess of this forest, which is so full of creeping plants, and decorated by the beautiful kadamba trees. 15. “Here I strayed to witness the festive mirth of the sylvan goddesses, which always takes place on this thirteenth day of the lunar month of chaitra in this forest. 16. “I saw here my companions enjoying their festival of love, and felt myself sorry to think of my childlessness among them. 17. “Finding thee accomplished in all qualifications, I have resorted hither with my suit of begetting a son by thee. 18. “Please Sir, to procreate a son in me, or else I will put my person in the flames, to get rid of my sorrow of childlessness.” <19.> Hearing the sylvan dame speaking in this manner, the hermit smiled at her, and spoke kindly to her with presenting her a flower with his own hand, and said:— 20. Depart O damsel! and betake thyself to the worship of Siva for a whole month, and then thou shalt like a tender creeper, beget a boy as beautiful as a bud by this time of the year.

21. But that son of thine, whom thou didst desire of me at the sacrifice of thy life, will betake himself to austerities like mine, and become a seer like myself (because he will be born of my blessing to thee). 22. So saying the sage dismissed the suppliant dame now gladdened in her face, and promised to perform the necessary for her blessing’s sake. 23. The lotus-eyed dame then retired from him, and went to her abode; and the hermit passed his months, seasons and years in his holy meditation. 24. After a long time the lotus-eyed dame returned to the sage with her boy, now grown up to the twelfth year of his age. 25. She made her obeisance and sat before him with her boy of the moon bright face; and then uttered her words, sweet as the murmur of the humble bee, to the stately Ámra tree. 26. This sir, is the would be son (bhávya) of both of us, who has been trained up by me in all the branches of learning. (The Veda and its branches. The future bhávya—would be, should be the preter bhávita—was to be).

27. He is only untaught in the best knowledge, which releases the soul from its return to this world of troubles. (By the best or subha knowledge, is meant the para—superior or spiritual learning). 28. Do you now my lord! deign to instruct him in that knowledge, for who is there that should like to keep his own boy in ignorance (of his future and best welfare)? 29. Being thus besought by her, he bespoke to the tender mother, to leave the child there and depart her own way. 30. She being gone, the boy remained submissive to his father, and dwelt by his side as his pupil, like Aruna (Ouranus) waiting upon the sun. 31. Inured in austerity, the boy continued to receive his best knowledge from the various lectures of his father, and passed a long time with him in that place, under the name of the sage’s son. <32.> The boy was taught in various narratives and tales, and with many examples and ocular instances; as also in historical accounts and evidences of the Veda and Vedánta (for his best knowledge of spirituality).

33. The boy remained attendant on the lecture of his father, without feeling any anxiety; and formed his right notions of things by means of their antecedents. (The antecedent or preliminary causes of right judgements are, perceptions, inferences, comparisons and testimony or authoritative statements of sástras. (These are originally termed as pratyaksha, anumiti, Upamiti and Sabda or Sabda-bodha)). 34. The magnanimous father thus instilled true knowledge into the mind of his boy, by means (of the quadruple process) of right reasoning and correct diction, rather than regarding the elegance of expression; as the cloud indicates the approaching rain to the peacock by its hoarse sounds. (The quadruple process as mentioned above.)

GRANDEUR OF THE AIR-BORN KING. Argument. Description of Dominions of the Air-born King, and the Frailty of Worldly possessions. Vasishtha continued:—It was on one occasion that I passed by that (Dásúra’s) way in my invisible body, to bathe in the heavenly stream of mandákiní (milky way) in the etherial regions. 2. After my departure from that region by the way of the Pleiades (saptarshi), I arrived to the spot where Dásúra dwelt on his high Kadamba tree. 3. I came to listen to a voice proceeding from the hollow of the tree in the forest, which was as charming as the buzzing of the bee, fluttering about the bud of a lotus. 4. Attend my intelligent son! said he, to a narrative that I will relate unto thee by way of a simile of worldly things, and it is pleasant to hear. 5. There is a very powerful King renowned in all the three worlds for his great prosperity. His name is Khottha or Air-produced, and able to grasp the whole world. (Like the air whereof he was born. Kha, Khao and Khavi yet un, is empty air in Sanskrit, Hebrew and Arabic, and Khali in Persian and Urdu).

6. All the lords of the earth bend their heads lowly under his rule, and bear the badge of their submission to him with as great an honour, as poor men are proud to carry about a bright gem on the head. 7. He exulted in his valour and the possession of all kinds of rarities, and there is no one in the three worlds, that is able to bring him under his subjection. 8. His unnumbered acts and exploits, are fraught with successive pain and pleasure; and they are as interminable as the continuous waves of the sea. 9. No one has been able to check the prowess of that mighty brave by force of fire or sword, as none hath ever been able to press the air or wind in his hand. 10. Even the gods Indra, Upendra and Hara, have fallen short of following his steps in his ambitious pursuits, and the splendid inventions of his imagination.

11. With his triple form of the sátwika, rájasika and támasika qualities, he encompasses the world, and is enabled to accomplish all sorts of actions. (These are the qualities of goodness, moderation and excess, or the three states of deficiency, mediocrity and excess of moral acts, according to the text of Aristotelean Ethics. But I would prefer to call them the positive, comparative and superlative virtues, or rather the minimum, mean and maximum states of virtues). 12. He is born in the extensive vacuity (of the spirit of Brahma), with his triple body as that of a bird (viz; the flesh and bones and the feathers, and remains in vacuum as the air and the sound). 13. He has built a city in that unlimited space of the Universe, having fourteen provinces (chaturdasa Bhuvana) (the planetary spheres), in its triple divisions (tribhuvana) of the earth and regions above and below it. 14. It is beautified with forests and groves and pleasure-lawns and hills, and bounded by the seven lakes of pearly waters on all sides. (The city signifies the earth and the lakes the seven oceans in it).

15. It is lighted by two lamps of hot and cooling light (the sun and moon), which revolve above and below it in their diurnal and nocturnal courses, as those of righteous and nefarious people. (The original words, as the courses divá, and nisácharas or the day and nightfarers). 16. The king has peopled this great city of his with many selfmoving bodies (animals), which move in their spheres quite ignorant of themselves (i.e. of their origin, their course and their fates). 17. Some of these are appointed in higher and some in lower spheres, and others move in their middle course; some destined to live a longer time, and others doomed to die in a day (as the ephemerids). 18. These bodies are covered with black skins and hairs (as thatched huts), and furnished with nine holes (as their doors or windows); which are continually receiving in and carrying out the air to keep them alive. 19. They are supplied with five lights of sensation and perceptions and supported by three posts of the two legs and the back bone, and a frame work of white bones for the beams and bamboo rafters. It is plastered over with flesh as its moistened clay (or mud wall), and defended by the two arms as latches on door way.