Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

10. The one is the ego of the form of a minute particle, transcending all things in its minuteness; and the other is the ego of one’s self. The first is that the one ego is all, and the second is the knowledge, that my or thy ego is the same one. 11. There is a third sort of egoism amounting to the non-ego, which takes the body for the ego, and thus becomes subject to misery, and finds no rest in this life nor in the next. 12. Now leaving all these three kinds of subjective, objective and non egoisms; he who holds fast the fourth sort—non-ego, sees the sole intellect beyond these three. 13. This essence being above all and beyond the reach of all existence, is still the manifesting soul of the unreal world. 14. Look into it in thy notion of it, and thou shall find thyself assimilated to it; and then get rid of all thy desires and ties of thy heart herein, and become full of divine knowledge. 15. The soul is neither known by any logical inference, nor from the light the revelations of the vedas; it is always best and most fully known to be present with us by our notion of it.

16. All the sensations and vibrations that we have in our bodies, and all the thoughts we are conscious of in our minds, are all affections of the sovereign soul, which is beyond our vision and the visibles. (Invisible yet best seen in all its works and workings in us). 17. This Lord is no real substance, nor an unreal non-entity; He is not a minutiae nor a vast massiveness neither; He is not in the midst of these dimensions, nor is he this or that, but is always as he is. (I am that I am; says the Revelation). 18. It is improper to tell him such and such, or that he is otherwise than this or that; know him therefore as the inexpressible and undefinable one. 19. To say this is the soul and not the soul, is only a verbal difference of what no words can express or differentiate; it is the omnipresent power to which the soul is attributed. 20. It is present in all places, and comprehends the three times of the past, present and future in itself; and is yet invisible and incomprehensible to us, owing to its extreme rarity and immensity.

21. The soul residing in the infinity of substances, reflects itself as the living soul in animated bodies, as the sun-light reflects its rays in a prismatic glass. 22. It is owing to the animating power of the soul, that we have some notion of the soul (which no inanimate being can ever have). The soul though pervading all things, is most manifest in living bodies, as the air which surrounds all bodies everywhere, circulates only in the open etherial space. 23. The intellectual soul is all pervading and ubiquious, and never stationary in any place (as in the ideal heaven or empyrian of some sects); the spirit of the Lord is co-extensive with the vast range of his creation. 24. But the animating soul of living beings does not breathe in minerals but in animals only; as the light enlightens the eye only, and the dust flies with the winds. 25. When the animating principle resides in the soul, it bursts forth with all its desires; as people pursue their callings when the sun has risen above the horizon. (i.e. All desires are concomitant with the living soul and not with lifeless beings, as all actions are attendant upon the waking world, and not upon the sleeping).

26. But as it is nothing to the sun, if people should cease from their activities, when he is shining above their heads; so it is nothing to the intellect, whether men be without their desires and actions, while it resides in the soul. 27. If the soul is existent by the inherence of the Lord (Intellect) in it, it suffers no loss by the absence of the frail body from it. (There is a Divinity that acts within us, and is deathless at the death of the body). 28. The soul is not born nor does it die, it neither receiveth nor desireth anything; it is not restrained nor liberated; but it is the soul of all at all times. 29. The soul is awakened by its enlightenment, or else the soul is supposed in what is no soul for our misery only; as the supposition of a snake in a rope, leads to our error and fear. 30. Being without its beginning, it is never born, and being unborn it is never destroyed; it seeks nothing save itself for lack of anything besides. 31. The soul being unbounded by time and space, is never confined in any place; and being always unconfined, it requires no liberation.

32. Such, O Ráma! are the qualities of the souls of all persons; and yet the ignorant deplore for its loss from their want of reason. 33. Look thoroughly, O Ráma! into the course of all things in the world; and do not lament for anything like senseless men. 34. Abandon the thoughts of both your imaginary confinement and liberation; and behave yourself as wise men like a dumb selfmoving machine. 35. Liberation is a thing neither confined in this earth or in heaven above or pátála below; but resides in the hearts of the wise, in their pure souls and enlightened understandings. 36. The tenuity of the mind, by its expurgation from gross desires, is said to be its liberation by them that know the truth, and look into the workings of their souls. 37. As long as the pure light of the intellect does not shine forth in the sphere of the mind, so long does it long for liberation as its chief good. Liberation or freedom from all feelings, is less meritorious than the knowledge of all things. Here the sage gives preference to knowledge (jnána) above liberation (moksha).

38. After the mind has got the fulness of its intellectual powers, and the intellect has been fully enlightened; it would not care for all the tenfold blessings of liberation, and far less desire its salvation also. 39. Cease O Ráma, to think about the distinctions of the bondage and liberation of the soul; and believe its essence to be exempted from both. 40. So be freed from your thoughts of the duality (of worldly bondage and liberty), and remain steadfast to your duty of ruling the earth to its utmost limit of the sea, dug by the sons of Sagara (now called Sagara or the Bay of Bengal).

LECTURE ON APATHY OR STOICISM. Argument. Error is the cause of the misconception of the World, and Right Reason is the means of deliverance from it. Vasishtha continued:—It is a pleasure to look at the outer world, and painful to turn the sight to the inner soul; as it is pleasant to see the delightful prospects abroad, and bitterness of the heart to be without them. (All men court pleasure, but fly from pain). 2. It is by the fascination of these delightsome objects, that we are subjected to all our errors and blunders; as the taste of spirituous liquors, fills the brain with giddiness. 3. It is this intoxication, that drives the knowledge of sober truth from our minds, and introduces the delirium of the phenomenal world in its stead; as the heat of the sun (like the heat of the brain), produces the false mirage in the desert. 4. It is then that the deep ocean of the soul boils in its various aspects of the mind, understanding, egoism, sensation and volition; as the sea when moved by the hot winds, bursts in the forms of foaming froths, waves and surges.

5. The duality of the mind and its egoism, is only a verbal distinction and not distinct in reality; for egoism is but a thought chitta, and the thought is no other than the mind or manas. 6. As it is in vain to conceive the snow apart from its whiteness, so it is false to suppose the mind as distinct from egoism (because the ego is a conception of the mind only). 7. There is no difference of the ego from the mind, as the destruction of the one is attended with the loss of the other also; just as the removal of the cloth, is accompanied with the absence of its colour also. (Egoism is said to be the son of the mind, and the one dies without the other). 8. Avoid both your desire of liberation, as also your eagerness for worldly bondage; but strive to enfeeble your mind by lessening its egoism, by the two means of your indifference to and discrimination of worldly objects. (i.e. Neither seek the world nor hate it, but remain as an indifferent spectator of everything). 9. The thought of getting liberation, growing big in the mind, disturbs its peace and rest, and injures the body also (by a rigid observance of the austerities necessary for liberation).

10. The soul being either apart from all things, or intimately connected with all, can neither have its liberation nor bondage also (when it is already so separate from, as well as united with everything in the world). 11. When the air circulates in the body, by its natural property of motion, it gives movement to the members of the body, and moves the voluble tongue, like the flitting leaf of a tree. 12. As the restless wind, gives motion to the leaves and twigs of trees; so the vital airs add their force to the movement of the members of the body. 13. But the soul which pervades the whole, never moveth like the wind, nor is it moved as any part of the body; it does not move of itself, but remains unshaken as a rock at the motion of the winds, and like the Lord of all, it is unmoved by the breeze. 14. The soul shows by its reflexion, all things that are hid in it; as the lamp discovers by its light, whatever lay concealed in the darkness of the room.

15. It being so (but a counterfeit copy), why should you fall into the painful error, of conceiving like the ignorant and senseless men, that these members of your body and these things belong to you? 16. Thus infatuated by ignorance, men think the frail body as lasting, and attribute knowledge and agency of action to it (which in reality belong to the soul). 17. It is gross error only, that makes us believe the body as an automaton, or selfacting machine of its motions, actions and passions; and it is our sanguine wishes only, that present so many false views before us, as the solar heat, raises the mirage of water in the sandy desert. 18. It is this ignorance of truth, which makes the mind to pant after the pleasures of sense; and drags it along like a thirsty doe, to perish in the aqueous mirage of the parching shore. 19. But untruth being detected from truth, it flies from the mind, as a chandála woman when once known she comes to be as such, flies afar from the society of Bráhmans. 20. So when error comes to be found out, it can no more beguile the mind than the mirage (when it is discovered as such) fails to attract the thirsty to it.

21. Ráma! as truth is known and rooted in the mind, the seeds of earthly desires are uprooted from it, as thick darkness is dispelled by the light of a lamp. 22. As the mind arrives to certain truths, by the light of the sástras and reason; so its errors fastly fade away like icicles, melting under the heat of the solar rays. 23. The certainty of the moral truth, that ‘it is useless to foster and fatten this frail frame of the body,’ is as powerful to break down the trammels of worldly desires, as the robust lion is capable to break down the iron grate of his prison. 24. The mind of man being freed from the bonds of its desires, becomes as brilliant as the moonlight night, with the pure beams of disinterested delight. 25. The contented mind gets a coolness like that of a heated rock, after it is washed by a shower of rain; and it finds a satisfaction equal to that of a pauper, by his getting the riches of a king and his whole kingdom. 26. The countenance of the contented man, shines as clear as the face of the autumnal sky; and his soul overflows with delight, like the deluvial waters of the deep.

27. The contented man is as silent, as the mute cloud after the rain; and his soul remains as composed with its consciousness, as the profound sea is tranquil with its fulness. 28. He has his patience and steadiness like those of a rock, and he glistens as quietly in himself, as the glowing fire glitters after its fuel is burnt out. 29. He is extinct in himself as the extinguished lamp; and has his inward satisfaction as one who has feasted on ambrosia. 30. He shines with his inward light like a lantern with its lighted lamp; and as fire with its internal lustre, which can never be put out. 31. He sees his soul, as identic with the universal and all pervading soul; which is the lord and master of all, and which abides in all forms in its formless state. 32. He smiles at every thing, by his setting himself above and beyond all mortal and frail things; his days glide away sweetly and softly with him; and he laughs at those men, whose fickle minds are made the marks of cupid’s arrows. 33. His holy mind is isolated from the society of men, and from all their amusements; and rests secluded from all company and concern, with the fulness of its spiritual bliss within itself.

34. It gets clear of the turbid and turbulent ocean of this world, and is quite cleared of the dirt of worldly desires; it is loosened from the fetters of its error, and set free from the fear of dualism. 35. The man being thus released, attains the highest state of humanity, and rests in that supreme felicity, which is desired by all and found by few, and from which nobody returns to revisit the earth. 36. This height of human ambition being arrived at, there is nothing else to wish for; and this great gratification being once gained, there is no other joy which can delight us more. 37. The self contented man, neither gives to nor receives anything from anybody; he neither praises nor dispraises any one, nor does he rejoice or grieve at anything, nor is he ever elated nor depressed at any occurrence. 38. He is said to be liberated in his life time, for his taking no title on himself, and withholding from all business; as also for his being free from desires (which bind a man fast to this earth). 39. Abstain from wishing any thing in your heart, and hold your tongue in tacit silence; and remain as dumb as a cloud after it has poured down all its waters.

40. Even the embrace of a fairy fails to afford such delight to the body, as the cooling beams of contentment gladdens the mind. 41. Though decked with the disk of the moon, dangling as a breast plate from the neck, one does not derive such coolness, as he feels in himself from the frigidity of contentment—sang froid. 42. The florid arboret decorated with the blooming florets of the vernal season, is not so refreshing to sight; as the smiling countenance of one, fraught with the magnanimity of his soul, and want of cupidity in his mind. 43. Neither the frost of the snowy mountain, nor the coldness of a string of pearls; not even the gelidness of the plantain or sandal paste, or the refreshing beams of the lightsome moon, can afford that internal coolness, as the want of appetency produces in the mind. 44. Contentedness or inappetency of everything, is more charming than the pleasurableness of royal dignity and heavenly felicity, and the pleasantness of moonlight and vernal delights. It is more charming than the enchanting graces of a beauty, (which ravish the senses and not the soul).

45. Inappetence is the source of that complete self-sufficiency, to which the riches of the three worlds can make no addition. (Lit. It cares not a straw (or a fig) for all the prosperity of the world). 46. Self-complacency strikes the axe at the root of the thorny difficulties of the world; and decorates its possessor with blessings like the blossoms of a flowery tree. 47. The man decorated with inappetency (or self-sufficiency), has all in himself though possest of nothing. He spurns the deep earth as a cave, and the big mountain as the trifling trunk of a tree. He looks on all the sides of air as mere caskets, and regards the worlds as straws. 48. The best of men that are devoid of desire, laughs to scorn at the busy affairs of the world, and at men taking from one and giving to another, or storing or squandering their riches. 49. That man is beyond all comparison, who allows no desire to take root in his heart, and does not care a fig or a straw for the world. 50. Wherewith is that man to be compared, whose mind is never employed in the thoughts of craving something and avoiding another, and who is ever master of himself?

51. O ye wise and intelligent men! rely on the want of cravings of your heart, which is your greatest good fortune, by setting you to the bliss of safety and security, and beyond the reach of the dangers and difficulties of the world. 52. Ráma! you have nothing to desire in this world, nor are you led away by worldly desires, like one who is borne in a car, and thinks that his side-views are receding back from him. 53. O intelligent Ráma! why do you fall into the error of ignorant men, by taking this thing to be yours and that as another’s by the delusion of your mind? (For all things are the Lord God’s for ever more, and mortal men are but the poor pensioners of a day). 54. The whole world is the self-same spirit, and all its variety is in perfect uniformity with the supreme soul; the learned know that the world is eternally the same and unvaried in itself, and do not grieve at the apparent changes of things and vicissitudes of times. 55. Seeing all things in their true light, to be a manifestation of the divine essence; all intelligent men place their dependance in Him (as the support and substance of all), and do not desire for any thing else.

56. Rely therefore on that invariable state of things, which is free from the conditions of existence and inexistence and of beginning and end (and this is the everlasting essence of God which fills the whole). 57. This illusive enchantment of the world flies afar before the indifference of strongminded men; as the timid fawn flies off at the sight of the ferocious lion. 58. Men of subdued passions and sedate minds, regard the graces of fairy forms, to be no more than the loveliness of wild creepers, or the fading beauty of dilapidated statues of stone. 59. No pleasures gladden their hearts nor dangers depress their spirits; no outward good or bad can make any effect on their minds, which are as inflexible as the firm rocks against the violence of winds. 60. The mind of the magnanimous sage, is as impregnable as a rock, which baffles the blandishments of youthful damsels, and breaks the darts of love to pieces, and falling down as pulverised atoms of dust and ashes. 61. One knowing his self, is not carried away by his fondness or aversion of any person or thing; because the heart which has no vibration in it, is insensible of all feelings.

62. The dispassionate man who looks on all things with an equal eye, is as insensible as a stone of the charms of blooming maids; and is as averse to pernicious pleasures as a traveller is to the sandy desert. 63. All things necessary for life, are obtained with little labour of those, who are indifferently minded about their gain; and the wise get the free gifts of nature, with as much ease as the eye sight gets the solar light. (Nature’s bounties of air and light and of water and vegetable food, which are essential to life, are denied to nobody). 64. The gifts of nature, which are alloted by fortune to the share of every one, are relished by the wise without their rejoicing or murmur. 65. Neither rejoicing nor bewilderment, can overtake the mind of the way-farer, who well knows his way (and is aware of the states of its stages); but he stands firm as the Mandára mountain, amidst the turbulent waves of the sea. 66. He looks indifferently on the pains and pleasures of the world, with his usual patience, taciturnity and want of anxiety; and relies his trust in that spirit, which resides in the interior of every body.

67. Though beset by anxious cares, he remains without the anxiety of his mind; and stands steadfast with his confidence in the supreme soul, like Brahmá in his hurry of the creation of the world. 68. Though overtaken by the accidents of the times, places and circumstances of life, yet he is not overpowered by the influence of their pain or pleasure; but stands erect as the sturdy oak against the influence of the seasons. 69. The wise may fail in the action of their bodily organs, and falter in their speech also; but their strong and unconcerned minds never fail in their operations, nor despond under the pressure of outward circumstances. 70. The gold becomes impure by its inward alloy, and not by its outward soil; so a man becomes unholy by the impurity of heart and foulness of his mind, and not on account of the dust or dirt on his body. 71. The learned understand the wise man apart from his body; because the maimed body does not take away anything from the wisdom of a man. 72. The pure and luminous soul being once known, is never to be lost sight of, as a friend being once known, is never thought to be a foe.

73. The fallacy of the snake in the rope, being once-removed, it is no more looked upon as a snake; as the river receiving its torrents from the water-fall of a hill in the rainy season, retains no more its current after the rains have passed. 74. Gold though purified by fire, does not retain its purity for ever; for it becomes dirty by being thrown into the mud and mire. 75. After the heart string has been broken, it can never be joined any more; as the first that has fallen down from its stalk, can be stuck to it no more. 76. As no analysis can distinguish the gem from the ore, when they are both broken to pieces; so there is no reasoning to show the soul which is lost with body. 77. Who that knows what error is, will be so great a fool as to fall to it again? As none that has known a body of men to be the pariah chandálas, will ever like to mix in their company. 78. As the mistake of milk in water, passes away upon examination of the liquid; so the error of worldly desires, vanishes upon knowledge of their vanity.

79. Even learned Bráhmans may fall into the error, of drinking some liquor for pure water; until they come to detect their mistake of the same. (So the wise are deluded to error, by their mistake of the same). 80. Those who are acquainted with truth, took upon fairy forms and features in no better light than as paintings and pictures with respect to their outward bodies. 81. The sable locks and crimson lips of the fairy, are portrayed as in black and red in a picture; so there is no difference of the figure in its living form or in painting. 82. The idea of sweetness which is accompanied with that of molasses, is not to be separated in the mind even by its separation from the body; in the same manner the idea of bliss is inseparably accompanied with that of the soul, which is indestructible by the destruction of the body. 83. Spiritual felicity may be enjoyed in this corporeal body, in the same manner, as one enjoys the pleasure of imagination, while he is occupied with his bodily functions.

84. Thus a man who is steadfast in his spiritual meditation, and intent upon the supreme soul, is not to be turned away from it by the power of the gods, or by the jealousy of Indra (for the preservation of his dignity, from its being superceded by an austere devotee). 85. As there is no lover of a licentious woman, that can turn her heart from the dearest object of her love; so there is nothing in the world that can alienate the fickle mind, from its love of spiritual joy. 86. There is no such joy in the whole world, which is able to divert the mind of the magnanimous philosopher, from its reliance on the delight of intellectual light. 87. As a domiciled woman who is subject to all domestic toils and privations, and is constantly employed in her household drudgeries, and subjected to maltreatment under the subjection of her husband and father-in-law:— 88. Has still the comfort of thinking on her sweet heart, and dissipate her sorrows with the thought of her favourite lover; such is the mystic love of spiritualists (as that of Persean Mystic poets).

89. So the man who is bound to the cares of worldly affairs, has the consolation of his soul and spiritual bliss, by freeing his mind from ignorance, and conducting himself in the right way, by his comprehensive view of all things. (The worldly man may have the blessing of spiritualism). 90. He does not break under his bodily torture, nor does he wail with his bleeding heart and weeping eyes; he is not burnt by the flame of his martyrdom, nor does he die when perishing under the scourge of the stake and stock of persecution. (As the crucifixion of Mandavy did not alter the tenor of his mind. Gloss. Nor the unity of Mansur belief was changed by the cruciating pains of the cross. So says Hafiz. Kashad maqshe Ana-al Haq bar Zamin Khun; cho Mansur ar Kuni bar daram imshab). 91. The mind is free from the pain and pleasure which befal to the lot of humanity, and is unmoved amidst all the mishaps of fortune. The devotee rejoices in the region of his spiritual bliss, whether he remains in his hermitage in the forest, or wanders about in deserts, or ranges wide over mountains.

ON MANCIPATION AND EMANCIPATION. Argument. Instances of the Enfranchisement of many great Examplars in Active Life among gods and men. Vasishtha continued:—See, Janaka the king employed in the government of his realm, and yet liberated in his lifetime from his bondage in the world; by means of his mental release from all its cares and anxieties. 2. Remember your grand sire Dilípa, who though deeply engaged in his state affairs, had yet enjoyed his long and peaceful reign, owing to the dispassionateness of his disposition; (which is tantamount to self-liberation). 3. Think of Buddha who ruled over his people, freed from all his passions and affections; and bring to your mind, how Manu ruled over in peace, his realm and who was as an exemplar of liberation in his lifetime. 4. Remember how the monarch Mándhátá, had obtained the blessed state of his affranchisement; though he was incessantly engaged in various warfares and state affairs. 5. Think of Bali, who while he was confined in the infernal region, conducted himself in his virtuous course, and became liberated in his lifetime, by his unbounded bounty and want of attachment to the world.

6. Namuchi the lord of Dánavas, who carried continued wars and contentions against the gods; was notwithstanding cool and quiet in his mind (which bespoke his freedom from earthly broils and bondage). 7. Vritra the Asura who fell in his battle with the god Indra, was however, of a great and calmly quiet mind, as long as he fought with him. (Vritra the Assyrian, called Vihithru in Zend, was killed by Indra the Aryan). 8. Prahláda the prince of the Daityas, dwelling in the demoniac world underneath the ground, dispensed his dispensations to them, with an unruffled and gladsome mind (and this want of perturbation, is tantamount to the deliverance of the mind, from the fetters of earthly broils). 9. Sambara the demon, who was a sorcerer in warfare, was as cool blooded as water in his heart; whereby he was delivered from the sorcery of the world, as a fleet deer flying from the dart. (Here is a play upon the word Sambara, which is repeated four times without their different meanings being given in the gloss). 10. The demon Kusala also, whose mind was not fettered to the world, waged an unprofitable war against Vishnu; from whom he obtained his spiritual knowledge, and his deliverance from this temporary scene.

11. Look at fire how free and uncompressed it is, while it answers for the mouth of gods, and serves to intromit for them the oblations that are offered to it, and perform the endless works of fusion for them. (The evanescent fire is said to be the mouth of the gods, because the primeval Aryans represented as gods, had long learnt to take boiled food cooked on fire, before the raw flesh eaters of the Turanian tribes. The yajniya oblations stand for all sorts of daily consecrated food of the panchayajnas. The endless works of fire allude to the vulcanian arts first, discovered by the Aryans). 12. See the gods drinking the juice of Soma plants, and presiding over the endless functions of the world; are ever as free as air (neither to be seen nor touched by anybody). 13. Jupiter the leader of the gods, and Moon the pursuer of his wife Rohini, have been continually performing their revolutions, without changing their places in heaven; and so the other planets also. 14. Sukra-(Venus) the learned preceptor of the Asura demons, shines in the same manner in the heavenly sphere, and runs in his unvaried course, of protecting the interests of the Asuras.

15. See also the winds to be flying freely at all times, and through all the worlds, with their charge of enlivening and giving motion to all bodies. 16. See Brahmá continuing in the same unchangeable state of his mind, and giving life and velocity to all beings, which have been thereby continually moving about in the world. 17. The lord Hari, though ever liberated from every bond, has been continually employed in his contests and combats with the Asuras as if in sport. 18. The three-eyed god Siva, though ever freed from all concerns, is joined in one body with his dearer half the beauteous Gaurí, in the manner of a lover enamoured of his beloved one. 19. The fair Hara thou ever free, is bound to the embrace of his fairy Gaurí, and was as a crescent of the fair moon, or as a lace of pure pearls about her neck. 20. The heroic Skanda who was of vast understanding, and like a sea of the gems of his learning, and perfectly free (as the sole lord of the world), made war with Taraka (Darius?) of his free will. (This passage plainly shows them to be Alexander and Darius of history).

21. Mark how Bhringí the attendant of Siva, was absorbed in his meditation, and thinking himself to be freed from the burden of his body, made a free offering of his blood and flesh to his goddess Gaurí. 22. The sage Nárada, who was of a liberated nature from his very birth, and resigned the world and all its concerns altogether, was still engaged in many affairs with his cool understanding. 23. The honourable Viswámitra who is now present here, is liberated in his life time, and yet he does not slight to preside at sacrifices, solemnized according to the ritual of the sacred veda. 24. The infernal snake bears the earth on its head, and the sun makes the day by turns; the god of death is ever employed in his act of destruction, and still they are all free agents of their acts. 25. There are many others among the Yaksas, Suras and Asuras of the world, who are all liberated in their life time, and still employed in their respective employments. 26. What numbers of them are employed in worldly affairs, and how many more are engaged in different courses of life; and still they are cold blooded and cool headed within themselves, and as still and quiet as cold stones without.

27. Some attaining the acme of their understanding, have retired to solitude, to pass their lives in abstract meditation; and among these are the venerable Bhrigu and Bharadvája, Sukra and Viswámitra (who were not less serviceable to mankind by many of their acts and works). 28. Many among mankind were rulers of their realms, and held the exalted canopy and chouri and other ensigns of royalty on their heads, and were not less distinguished for the piety and spirituality at the same time. Among these, the conduct of the royal personages Janaka, Saryali and Mándhatrí, stand preeminent above the rest. 29. Some among the living-liberated, are situated in the planetary spheres, and are thence adored by their devotees for their blessings on the world. Of these Jupiter and Venus, the Sun and Moon, are the deities of gods, demons and human kind. 30. Some among the deities, are seated in their heavenly vehicles, and continually ministering to the wants of all created beings, as the regents of fire, air, water and death and Tumbura and Nárada. 31. Some situated in the secluded regions of Pátála, are equally distinguished both for their holiness and piety; such as Vali, Subotra, Andha, Prahláda and others.

32. Among beasts of the field and fowls of the air, and inferior animals, you will find many intelligent beings, as the bird Garuda (Jove’s eagle), and the monkey Hanumána (the god Pan), Jambubána &c; and among the demigods there are some that are sapient, and others as muddle headed as beasts. 33. Thus it is possible for the universal soul that resides everywhere, and is at all times the same, to show itself in any form in any being according to its will (since it is all in all). 34. It is the multifarious law of His eternal decree, and the manifold display of His infinite power, that invests all things with multiform shapes and diverse capacities, as they appear to us. 35. This law of divine decree is the lord of all, and embodies in itself the creative, preservative and destructive powers under the titles of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva. These names are indicative of the intelligent faculties of the universal soul. 36. It is not impossible for the supreme soul, to reside in all bodies in any manners it likes; it presides sometimes in the manner of the grains of pure gold, amidst worthless sands and dust; and at others as the mixture of some base metal in pure gold.

37. Seeing some good connected with or resulting from evil, our inclinations would lead us even to the evil (in expectation of reaping the good); were it not for fear of the sinfulness of the act and its consequent punishment, that we are deterred from doing it. (i.e. Human nature is addicted to vice, but fear of sin and its punishment, leads us to virtue. Had there been no such thing, we would all become vicious). 38. We see sometimes something substantial arising from the unsubstantial, as we arrive to the substantial good of divine presence, by means of the unsubstantial meditation of his negative attributes: that he is neither this nor that nor such and such (neti-neti-iti sruti). 39. What never existed before, comes to existence at sometime or place unknown to us; as the horns of a hare which are never to be seen in nature, are shown to us in magic play, and by the black art of sorcery. 40. Those which are seen to exist firm and solid as adamant, become null and void and disperse in air; as the sun and moon, the earth and mountains, and the godlike people of the antedeluvian world.

41. Seeing these changes in the state of things, you must give up, O mighty armed Ráma! your joy and grief on any occasion, and preserve the equanimity of your mind at all times. 42. The unreal (material existence) seems as real, and the sober reality (of spiritual essence), appears as a non-entity in nature; resign therefore your reliance in this deceitful world, and preserve the equanimity of your mind under all circumstances. 43. It is true that you gain nothing by your resignation of the world; and it is equally true on the other hand, that you lose nothing by your getting rid of its unrealities by yourself. 44. But it is true, O Ráma! that you gain a certain good by your getting rid of this world; and it is your riddance from the manifold evils and mischances, which are unavoidable concommittants with this life. 45. Again you obtain the certain gain of your salvation, by your resignation of the world, which you can never earn by your attachment to it. Therefore strive for your liberation by purging your mind from its attachments to the world.

46. He who wishes for his prosperity, must take the pains to have an insight of his soul; because a single glimpse of the soul, is sure to cut off all the pains and pangs of the world from their root. 47. There are many dispassionate and disconnected men, even in the present age; who are liberated in their lifetime, like the sacrificial king Janaka and others. 48. So you too are liberated for life, for your having an unpassionate and unprejudiced mind, and may manage to conduct yourself with your tolerant spirit, like the patient earth, stone and moveless metals. 49. There are two kinds of liberation for living beings, viz.: one in their present life and body, and the other after separation of life from the body, both of which admit of some varieties as you will bear afterwards. 50. First of all the peace of mind, from its unconcernedness with everything is termed its liberation; and it is possible to be had by the sinless man either in this life or in the next. 51. Lessening of affections is fraught with the bliss of solity (Kaivalya), and it is possible to become impassible both in the embodied as will as disembodied states of life.

52. He who lives in perfect apathy and without his affection for any body, is called the living liberated man; but the life which is bound by its affections is said to be in bondage, or else it is free as air. 53. It is possible to obtain liberation, by means of diligent inquiry and reasoning; or else it is as difficult to come to it, as it is hard for a lame man to leap over a hole, though as small as the footmark of a cow-goshpada. 54. For know, O Ráma of great soul, that the soul should not be cast into misery by your neglect of it, or by subjecting it through ignorance to its affection for others. (i.e. Be master of yourself and not bound to others). 55. He who relies on his patience, and employs his mind, and cogitates upon the supreme soul in his own soul, for the attainment of his consummation; finds the deep abyss of the world, as a small chink in his vast comprehension.

56. The high station to which Buddha had attained by his patience, and from which the Arhata prince fell to scepticism by his impatience; and that summum bonum which is reached at by great minds, is the fruit of the tree of diligent inquiry, which like the Kalpa arbor, yields all what is desired of it.

THE WORLD COMPARED WITH THE OCEAN. Argument. The world likened to the ocean, and the women to its waves. The means of passing over it, and the delight when it is got over. Vasishtha continued:—These worlds which have sprung from Brahmá the creator, are upheld by ignorance, and become extinct before right reason. (i.e. Their materiality melts away before the light of true philosophy). 2. The worlds are vortices of water, and whirlpools in the ocean of Brahmá. They are as numerous as the particles of light, and as innumerable as the motes that fly in the sunbeams. 3. It is the imperfect knowledge of the world that is the cause of its existence (or makes it appear as an entity); but full knowledge of it makes it vanish into nothing. (These are the two opposite systems of materialism and immaterialism). 4. The world is a dreadful ocean unbounded and unfordable; and there is no means of getting over it, save by the raft of right investigation and diligent scrutiny. 5. This ocean is full with the water of ignorance, and its vast basin is filled with fatal whirlpools and overwhelming waves of discord and dangers.

6. Here goodness and good actions float on the surface, as its froth and foams; but they hide the deadly latent heat of hellfire underneath. Here roll the incessant billows of avarice, and there snores the huge whale, and the great leviathan of the mind. 7. It is the reservoir of the endless channels and rivulets of life, running as its streams and currents; and it is the depository of innumerable treasures of brilliant gems hidden under its depth. It is infested by the serpents of diseases, and the horrid sharks of the senses. 8. See Ráma, the playful women, resembling the tremulous billows of this ocean; and are able to attract and pierce the hearts of the wise, with the hooks and horns of their looks. 9. Their lips are as red as rubies, and their eyes are as black as blue lotuses; their teeth are as the unblown blossoms of fruits and flowers, and their sweet smiles are as the hoary froth of the sea. 10. The curled locks of their hairs are as the crisped creepers of blue lotuses, and their twisted eyebrows are as the slanting of little billows; their backsides are as protruded islets, and their throats and necks are lined over like conchshells.

11. Their foreheads are as plates of gold, and their graces as the sharks of the sea; their loose glances are as the splashing waves, and their complexions are gold coloured like the sands on the sea shore. 12. Such is this ocean-like world, with its tremendous surges and rolling waves; and it is the part of manhood to buffet it over by manly exertions, in order to save one’s self from sinking under them. 13. Fie for that man! who having good sense for his vessel, and reason for his helmsman, does not conduct himself across the wide expanse of this worldly ocean. 14. He is reckoned the most valiant man, who measures the immeasurable expanse of this ocean (by his knowledge of the Infinite soul, which comprehends the whole within itself). 15. Considering well about this world with the learned, and looking into all its hazards with the eye of the mind, he who relies his trust in the Lord, becomes blest forever. 16. You are truly blest, O Ráma! that are employed from your early youth to scrutinize about this world.

17. Men who consider the world, and take it in the same light of a dangerous ocean as you do, are not likely to be drowned in it, when they steer their bark in it after due consideration. 18. The enjoyments of the world are to be duly considered, ere one dares to come to the enjoyment of them; and like the ambrosia, before they feed on any other fare (like Garuda—the head of the fowls of the air). 19. He who considers beforehand the employment he should engage in, and the enjoyments he ought to share in this world, fares well in his present and future life; or else he falls to danger like the inconsiderate man. 20. The judicious and preadmonished man, prospers in his fame and fortune, and rises in his power and understanding in his life; as the trees come to flower and fructify in spring. 21. Ráma! you will shine with the elegance of the bright and cooling moonbeams, and with the beauty of perpetual prosperity, if you will but begin your worldly career with full knowledge, of all that is to be known respecting the world before hand.

ON LIVING LIBERATION. Argument. On Liberation from Earthly Bondage, and Salvation of the Soul during one’s Lifetime. Ráma rejoined:—O sage! nobody is satiate with all thou sayest, but must learn more and more from you; therefore say in short the substance of the present subject, which is as grand as it is wondrous to hear. 2. Vasishtha replied:—I have already given you many interpretations of living liberation, and here are some more for your satisfaction and close attention. 3. With their visual organs they view this world, as a hazy maze in their state of sound sleep; and they consider it as an unreality in their spiritual light, when their minds are fixed in the Supreme soul only. 4. He who has got his disengagement, has his mind as still as in sleep; and he that sees the soul, is ravished with joy at the sight. 5. He takes nothing that is within his reach, nor retains what is within his grasp; but keeps his mind looking within himself as having everything there. (The liberated and self-contented man having nothing in his hand, has all in his inward soul).

6. He sees the bustle of the tumultuous with the eye of his mind, and smiles in himself at the hurry and flurry of the world (like the laughing philosopher of old). 7. He does not live in future expectation, nor does he rely in his present possession; he does not live on the pleasure of his past memory, but lives listless of all (in perfect insouciance). 8. Sleeping he is awake, in his vision of heavenly light, and waking he is plunged in the deep sleep of his mental reveries; he does all his works with his external body; but he does nothing with his inward mind (which is fixed in his God). 9. In his mind he has relinquished the thoughts of all things, and renounced his care also for anything; he does his outward actions, and remains as even as if he has done nothing. (The spiritualist is neither concerned with nor affected by his external acts). 10. He pursues the course of duties of his caste and family, as they have descended to him from the custom of his forefathers.

11. He does all that is required and expected of him with a willing mind, and without the error of believing himself as their actor. (He does them as a machine, and without the false persuasion of his agency of them). 12. He remains insouciant, of all that he does by rote and habit, and neither longs for, nor loathes nor rejoices nor grieves at anything. 13. He takes no notice of the amity or enmity of others to him, and is devoted to them that are devoted to him; but cunning with such as deal in craftiness with him. 14. He deals as a boy with boys, and as a veteran with old people; he is youthful in the society of young men, and is grave in the company of the aged and wise. He is not without sympathy with the woes of others (but rejoices at their happiness). 15. He opens his mouth in edifying speeches, and never betrays his penury in any way; he is always sedate in his mind, and ever of a cheerful complexion. 16. He is wise and deep, yet open and sweet (in his conversation; and is full with the fulness of his knowledge, as the full moon with all her digits); he is ever free from pain and misery.

17. He is magnanimous in his disposition, and as sweet as a sea of delight; he is cool and cooling the pains of others, and as refreshing as the full moonbeams to mankind. 18. He has meritorious deeds for his object, nor is any action or worldly good of any purpose to him; neither does he gain anything by his abandonment of pleasures or riches or friends, nor by their disappearance from him. 19. Neither action nor inaction, nor labour nor ease; neither bondage or release, or heaven or hell, can add to or take away anything from his inner contentment. 20. He sees everything and everywhere in the same uniform light, nor is his mind afraid of bondage or eager for its release. (Such inflexible passivity was the highest virtue of the stoics). 21. He whose doubts are wholly removed by the light of his knowledge, has his mind towering upwards as the fearless phœnix of the sky. 22. He whose mind is freed from error, and is settled in its equanimity, doth neither rise nor fall like any heavenly body, but remains unaltered as the high heaven itself.

23. He does his outward actions, by the mere movement of the outer members of his body, and without the application of his mind to them; as a baby sleeping in a cradle, has the spontaneous play of his limbs, without any purpose of his mind. (This shows the possibility of bodily actions independently of the mind). 24. So the drunken and delirious man, doth many acts in his state of dementedness; and as he never does them with the application or attention of his mind, he retains no trace of them in his remembrance. 25. And as children lay hold of or reject everything, without knowing whether it is good or bad for them; so do men do their actions or refrain from them, without their deliberate choice or aversion of them. (This proves the causality of the mind). 26. So a man doing his duty by habit or compulsion, is not sensible of any pain or pleasure that he derives from it (because his mind was quite unconcerned with the act). 27. An act done by the outer body without its intention in the inner mind, is reckoned as no act of the actor, nor does it entail upon him its good or bad result. (An involuntary act is not taken into account).

28. He neither shrinks from misery, nor does he hail his good fortune; he is neither elated at his success, nor depressed by his failure. 29. He is not dismayed at seeing the sun growing cool, and the moon shining warmly over his head; he is not disconcerted by the flame of fire bending downwards, nor at the course of waters rising upwards. (He is not terrified by the prodigies of nature). 30. He is not affrighted nor astonished, at any wonderful occurrence in nature; because he knows all the phenomena of nature, to be the wondrous appearances of the omnipotent and all-intelligent soul. 31. He expresses no need nor want of his, nor is in need of other’s favour or kindness; nor has he recourse to wiliness or cunning; he undertakes no shameful act as begging and the like, nor betrays his shamelessness by doing an unworthy action. 32. He is never mean-spirited nor haughty in his spirit, he is neither elated nor depressed in his mind, nor is he sad or sorry or joyous at anytime. (The word dínátmá is used for the meek in spirit in Dr. Mill’s version of the “Sermon on the mount”).

33. No passions rise in his pure heart, which is as clear as the autumnal sky; and as the clear firmament which gives no growth to thorns or thistles. 34. Seeing the incessant births and deaths of living beings in the course of this world, who is it whom you may call to be ever happy or unhappy? (Since happiness and sorrow succeed one another by turns). 35. Froth as the foaming bubble bursts in the water, so our lives flash to fly out into eternity; whom therefore do you call to be happy anywhere, and what is that state of continued pleasure or pain? 36. In this world of endless entrances and exits, what being is there that lasts or is lost for ever; it is our sight that produces the view, as our failing sight takes it out of view (as every spectre of optical delusion). (The text drishti srishti kara narah is very expressive; and means, “man is the maker of the world by his sight of it”). 37. The sights of these worlds are no more than the transitory view of spectacles in our nightly dreams; which are unforeseen appearances of momentary duration, and sudden disappearance.

38. What cause can there be of joy or sorrow in this wretched world, which is a scene of incessant advents and departures? 39. It is the loss of some good, that is attended with sorrow to the sufferer; but what sorrow can assail the self-liberated man, who sees nothing as positive good in the ever-changing state of things herein? 40. Of what avail is prosperity or the enjoyment of any pleasure to one, when it is succeeded by adversity and pain the next moment, which embitters life by its baneful effects. 41. It is riddance from the states of pleasure and pain, of choice and dislike, of the desirable and displeasing, and of prosperity and adversity, that contributes to the true felicity of man. 42. After your abandonment of pleasing and unpleasing objects, and relinquishment of your desire for enjoyments, you get a cold inappetence, which will melt your mind like frost. 43. The mind being weakened, its desires will be wasted also; as the sesamum seeds being burnt, will leave no oil behind. (The mind being repressed, will put a check to all its passions and feelings).

44. By thinking existence as non-existent, the great souled man gets rid of all his desires, and sets himself aloof as in the air; and with his joyous spirits that know no change, the wise man sits and sleeps and lives always content with himself.

MANNER OF CONDUCTING THE YOGA HYPNOTISM. Argument. The Action of the Mind is creative of the Error of the World, and Yoga is the suppression of that Action. Vasishtha continued:—As the rotation of a firebrand, describes a circle of sparkling fires; so the revolving of the mind, depicts the apparent circumference to the sky, as the real circle of the universe. 2. In like manner the rolling of waters makes curves in the sea, appearing something other than water; so the revolution of the mind forms many ideal worlds, seeming to be bodies beside itself. 3. And as you come to see strings of pearls in the sky, by the twinklings of your eyes fixed in it; so these false worlds present themselves to your view, by the pulsation of your mind. 4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whereby the mind has its vibration and how it is repressed, that I may thence learn how to govern the same. 5. Vasishtha answered:—Know Ráma, as whiteness is concomitant with snow, and oil is associated with sesamum seeds; and fragrance is attendant upon flowers and the flame is coexistent with fire. 6. So Ráma, the mind is accompanied by its fluctuations hand in hand, and they are virtually the one and the everything, though passing under different names by fiction.

7. Of the two categories of the mind and its pulsation, if either of these comes to be extinct, the other also has its extinction, as the properties of a thing being lost, their subject likewise ceases to exist; and there is no doubt of this. 8. There are two ways of extinguishing the mind, the yoga or hypnotism and spiritual knowledge; of these the yoga is the suppression of mental powers, and knowledge is the thorough investigation of all things. 9. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, to suppress the vital airs, and to attain thereby to that state of tranquility, which is fraught with endless felicity? 10. Vasishtha replied:—There is a circulating air breathing through the lungs and arteries of the body, as the water flows through the veins and pores of the earth, and which is called the vital breath or life. 11. It is the fluctuation of this air, that impels and gives force to the internal organs of the body, and which is designated by the various names of prána, apána &c., according to their positions and motions (all of which are but varieties of the vital breath).

12. As fragrance resides in flowers and whiteness in the frost, so is motion the flavour of the mind, and is one and the same with its receptacle—the mind. 13. Now the vibration of this vital breath, excites the perception of certain desires and feelings in the heart; and the cognitive principle of these perceptions is called the mind. 14. The vibration of vital air gives pulsation to the heart strings, causing their cognition in the mind; in the same manner as the motion of the waters, gives rise to the waves rolling and beating on the shore. 15. The heart is said to be the afflation of the vital breath by the learned in the Vedas, and this being suppressed quiets the mind also. (The mind, says the Sruti, is moved by the vital air &c.). 16. The action of the mind being stopped, the perception of the existence of the world becomes extinct (as we have no perception of it in our sound sleep, when the mind is inactive). It is like the extinction of worldly affairs at sunset.

17. Ráma asked:—How is it possible to stop the course of the winds, perpetually circulating through the cells of the body, like the unnumbered birds flying in the air to their nests. (The passage of the nostrils is the open air, and the cells in the body are as their nests). 18. Vasishtha replied:—It is possible by study of the sástras and association with the good and wise, by habitual dispassionateness, by the practice of Yoga, and by removal of reliance in every transaction of the world. 19. Meditation of the desired object, and keeping in view that single object, and firm reliance on one particular object, are the best means of suppressing the vital breath. 20. Next, it is by suppression of breath in the acts of inspiration and respiration puraka and rechaka, in such manner as it may be unattended with pain, together with fixed meditation, it is possible to suppress the vital air (which gives longevity to the practitioner). 21. The utterance of the syllable om, and pondering upon the significations of that word, and dormancy of the perceptive senses, are means of the suppression of breath. 22. The practice of rechaka or respiring out, serves to purge out the crudities of the body, and by leaving the nostrils untouched, the vital breath is suppressed altogether.

23. The practice of puraka or breathing in, tends to fill the inside as the clouds fill the sky; and then the breathing being stopped, its vibrations are stopped also. 24. Then the practice of kumbhaka or sufflation of the breath, the air is shut up in a closed vessel and this serves to stop the course of breathing. (Long explanations of these practices are given in the gloss forming subjects of anemography). 25. Afterwards the tongue being carried to the orifice of the palate, and the tip being attached to the guttural bulb or nodule, will prevent the vibration of the breathing. 26. Again the mind getting rid of the flights of fancy, and becoming as vacant as empty air, prevents the course of breathing by its fixed meditation of itself (as in the state of Samádhi or trance). 27. Again as the vital breath ranges within the space of twelve inches about the tip of the nose, this region should be closely watched by the eyesight in order to prevent the egress and ingress of breath.

28. Moreover the practice of stretching the tongue to the distance of twelve inches above the palate, and sticking the tip of it to the cavity called Brahmarandhra, serves to make one unconscious of himself, and stop his breathing. (These processes are explained in great length in the gloss for the practice of Yoga cult, resembling the mesmerism of modern spiritualists, for causing the comatosity of the practitioner). 29. The eyesight being lifted upwards and fixed in the cavity between the eyebrows, exhibits the light of the intellect, and stops the vibrations of breath. (This is called the Khechari mudra and practised by all intelligent men). 30. No soon does the spiritual light dawn over the soul, and the mind is steadfastly fixed to it, without any intermixture of dualism (i.e. worldly thoughts), there is an utter stop of breathing. 31. The livelong practice of seeing a simple vacuity within one’s self, and freeing the mind from all its thoughts and desired objects, serves to stop the fluctuation of breath. (This is supported by the Patanjali yoga sástra). 32. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, what is this thing which they call the human heart, which receives the reflexions of all things as a large reflector or mirror?

33. Vasishtha replied:—Hear my good Ráma; the hearts of all animals in this world, are of two kinds, namely: the superior and inferior, and learn their difference. 34. That which has a certain dimension, and is placed as a piece of flesh inside the breast, is called an inferior heart, and forms a part of the body. 35. The other is of the nature of consciousness, and is called the superior mind; because it is both in the inside and outside of the body, and yet it is situated in no part of it. 36. That is the superior part, wherein all this world is situated, which is the great reflector of all things, and receptacle of all goods (so says the Sruti: “the earth and sky and all things reside in it”). 37. The consciousness of all living creatures, is also called their heart; though it is no part of the animal body, nor is a dull inert substance as a pebble or stone. 38. Now this conscious or sensitive heart, being purified of its internal desires, and joined perforce with the chitta or thinking mind, the vibrations of vital breath are put to a stand.

39. These as well as many other methods, which have been adopted by others, and dictated by the mouths of many sages, equally serve to suppress the breathing (both for the fixity of attention and prolongation of life). 40. These methods which are adapted to the process of yoga meditation (or concentration of the mind); are to be slowly adopted by continued practice, for the redemption of the good from this world; or else their hasty adoption of it may prove detrimental to life. 41. As it is long practice, that perfects a man to the rank of a cenobite and anchorite, so the gradual suppression of respiration, is attended with equal success; as repression of desires, is accompanied by many happy results. 42. It is by continued practice, that the breath is compressed within the confines of twelve inches about the cavities of the brows, nostrils and palate, as the cataract is confined within the limit of the pit. 43. It is repeated practice also, that the tip of the tongue should be brought to a contact with the gullet of the throat, through which the breath doth pass both in and out.

44. These are the various modes which by their constant practice, lead to Samádhi or hypnotism, when the mind has its fullest tranquility, and its union with the Supreme soul. 45. It is by practice of these methods, that a man is freed from sorrow, and is filled with internal rapture, and becomes enrapt in the supreme soul. 46. The vibrations of the vital air, being suppressed by continued practice, the mind gets a tranquility, which is akin to its extinction. 47. Human life is wrapt in desires, and liberation (moksha) is the release of the mind from these; and breathing is the operation of life, and its suppression is the path to its extinction or nirvána. 48. The vibration of breath is the action of the mind, producing the error of the existence of the world; and this being brought under subjection, dispels this error. 49. The knowledge of duality being removed, shows the existence of the unity only; which no words can express, except by attributes that are ascribed to it.

50. In whom and from whom is all, and who is all in every place; yet who is not this world, nor there abides such a world as this in him, nor has the world come out from him (i.e. the world abides in its ideal and not material form in the spirit). 51. Owing to its perishableness and its situation in time and space, and limitation by them, this material world cannot be a part of identic with that immaterial spirit, which has no attribute nor its likeness. 52. It is the moisture of all vegetables and the flavour of all eatables; it is the light of lights and the source of all desires rising in the heart, like moonbeams proceeding from the lunar disk. 53. It is the kalpa tree yielding all earthly fruitions as its fruits, which are incessantly borne aloft only to fall down with their juicy flavour of various tastes. 54. The high minded man that depends on that boundless spirit, and rests secure in its bosom, is verily called the wise and liberated in his life time.

55. He is the best of men, whose mind is freed from all desires and cravings; and who has found his rest from the thoughts of his fancied good and evil. He remains listless amidst all the cares and concerns of this life.

DESCRIPTION OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. Argument. The second method of suppressing the Mind by spiritual knowledge, being the Theory of self liberation. Ráma said:—Sir, as you have related to me the methods of suspending the mind to a dead lock, by means of yoga practices; I hope you will kindly tell me now, the manner in which it is brought to stand still, by means of perfect knowledge. 2. Vasishtha replied:—By perfect knowledge is meant the firm belief of a man, in the existence of one self manifest or Supreme Soul, that is without its beginning and end. This is what the wise mean by the term “full or perfect knowledge.” 3. Its fulness consists in viewing all these visible forms as these pots and these pictures ghatapata, and all these hundreds cries of beings, to be manifest in the fullness of that spirit and not distinct from it. 4. It is imperfect knowledge that causes our birth and pain, and perfect knowledge that liberates us from these; as it is our defective sight, which shows us the snake in the rope, while our complete view of it removes the error.

5. The knowledge which is free from imagination, and its belief of the objective, and relies only on its conscious subjectivity, leads only to the liberation of men, which nothing else can do. 6. The knowledge of the purely subjective, is identic with that of the supreme spirit; but this pureness being intermingled with the impure objective matter, is termed avidyá or ignorance. 7. Consciousness itself is the thing it is conscious of (or in other words, knowledge is identic with the known; i.e. the subjective is the same with the objective), and there is no difference between them. The soul knows only itself as there is no other beside itself. (Its parichinote is its subjective knowledge, and sanchinote the objective and effect of avidyá or ignorance). 8. “Seeing the soul alone in its true light in all the three worlds,” is equivalent to the expression “all this world is the soul itself” in the Sruti, and the knowledge of this truth constitutes the perfection of man. 9. The whole being the soul, why talk of an entity or a nullity; and what meaning can there be in bondage or liberation (which appertain to the same soul?)

10. The mind is no other than its perceptions, which are manifested by God himself; and the whole being an infinite vacuum, there is no bondage nor liberation of any. 11. All this is the immense Brahma, extending in the form of this vast immensity; so you may enlarge your invisible soul by yourself, and by means of the knowledge of yourself. 12. By this comprehensive view of Brahma as all in all you can find no difference between a piece of wood or stone and your cloth; why then are you so fond of making these distinctions? 13. Know the soul as the only indestructible substance, which remains quiescent from first to the last; and know this to be the nature of your soul also. 14. Know this boundless universe with all the fixed and moving bodies it contains, to be a transcendent void; where there is no room for your joy or sorrow whatever. 15. The shapes of death and disease and of unity and duality, rise constantly in the soul, in the form of interminable waves in the sea. 16. He that remains in the close embrace of his soul, with his inward understanding, is never tempted to fall a prey to the trap of worldly enjoyments.

17. He that has a clear head for right judgment, is never moved by the force of earthly delights; but remains as unshaken as a rock against the gentle winds of the air. 18. The ignorant, unreasonable and stupid men, that are guided by their desires only; are preyed upon by continued misery, as the fishes of a dried tank are devoured mercilessly by cranes. 19. Knowing the world to be full of the spirit, and without the matter of ignorance avidyá, close your eyes against its visible phenomena, and remain firm with your spiritual essence. 20. Plurality of things is the creation of imagination, without their existence in reality. It is like the multifarious forms of the waves in the sea, which are in reality its water only. The man therefore, that relies on his firm faith in the unity, is said to be truly liberated and perfect in his knowledge.

INVESTIGATION OF THE PHENOMENALS. Argument. Description of Divine Meditation, which keeps the mind from its attention to temporary enjoyments. Vasishtha continued:—I will now describe to you that pensive excogitation, which keeps the reasoning mind, from attending to objects placed in its presence. 2. The eyes are for seeing only, and the living soul is for bearing the burthen of pain and pleasure alone; they are like the eyes and bodies of a beast, or like bull of burden, which sees and carries a load of food, without being able to taste it. 3. The eyes being confined to the visible phenomena, can do no harm to the soul residing in the body; as an ass fallen into a pit, is but a slight loss to its owner. 4. Do not O base man, regale thy eyes, with the dirty stuff of the sight of visibles; which perish of themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and put thee to peril also (by the diseases and difficulties which they load upon thee).

5. The acts which are deemed as one’s own deeds and beings, and whereby the acutely intelligent man thinks himself to be living, and by which he counts the duration of his lifetime, (according to the saying, that our lives are computed by our acts, and not by the number of our days); these very acts, turn at last, against him, for his accountableness of them. 6. Do not rely thy eyes on visible objects, which are unreal in their nature, and are produced to perish soon after, and to please thy sight for a moment only. Know them as destroyers of thy otherwise indestructible soul. 7. O my eyes! that are but witnesses of the forms, which are situated in the soul; it is in vain that ye flash only to consume yourselves, like the burning lamps after a short while. 8. The vision of our eyes is as the fluctuation of waters, and its objects are as the motes that people the sun-beams in the sky. Whether these sights be good or bad, they are of no matter to our minds.

9. Again there is that little bit of egoism beating in our minds, like a small shrimp stirring amidst the waters; let it throb as it may, but why should we attribute it with the titles of “I, thou or he or this or that”? 10. All inert bodies and their light appear together to the eye, the one as the container of the other; but they do not affect the mind, and therefore do not deserve our notice. 11. The sight of objects and the thoughts of the mind, have no connection with one another (because the sight is related to the eye, and the thoughts bear relation with the mind); And yet they seem to be related to each other, as our faces and their reflexions in the mirror. (The retina of the eye receive the reflexions, and convey them to the sensory of the cranium, in the form of reflections or thoughts, and hence their mutual relations). 12. Such is their inseparably reciprocal relation in the minds of the ignorant; but the wise who are freed from their ignorance, remain aloof from the visibles with their mental meditations alone. 13. But the minds of the vulgar are as closely connected with the visibles, as the sacrificial wood with the lac dye.

14. It is by diligent study, that the chain of mental thoughts are severed from the visibles; in the like manner, as our wrong notions are removed by means of right reasoning. 15. After dispersion of ignorance, and the connexion of the visibles from the mind, there will be no more a blending of forms and figures and their reflexions and thoughts in it. 16. The sensible impressions which have taken possession of the inner mind, are to be rooted out from it as they drive out a demon from the house. 17. O my mind! says the intelligent man, it is in vain that thou deludest me, who have known thy first and last as nothing; and if thou art so mean in thy nature (as the progeny of barren woman) thou must be so as nothing even at present. 18. Why dost thou display thyself in thy five fold form of the five senses unto me? Go make thy display before him who acknowledges and owns thee as his. (As for me I own the intellect and not the mind). 19. Thy grand display of the universe yields me no satisfaction, since I am convinced, O vile mind, all this to be no better than a magic play.

20. Whether thou abidest in me or not it is of no matter to me; because I reckon thee as dead to me as thou art dead to reason. (As the mind is perverse to reason, so are reasonable men averse to it. The mind is all along used in the sense of the sentient mind, and not the superior intellectual faculty—chit, which is distinct from chitta, synonymous with manas the mind.) 21. Thou art a dull unessential thing, erroneous and deceitful and always reckoned as dead, the ignorant alone are misled by thee and not the reasonable. (It is hard to determine what the attributes of the mind may mean. It is said to be dead, because it is kept in mortification and subjection). 22. It was so long through our ignorance, that we had been ignorant of thee; it is now by the light of reason, that we find thee as dead as darkness, under the light of a lamp. There is always an impervious darkness under the lighted lamp (zer cheragh tarikist). 23. Thou hast long taken possession of this mansion of my body, and prevented me, O wily mind, from associating with the good and wise.

24. Thou liest as dull as dead body at the door of this bodily mansion, against the entrance of my worshipped guests (of good virtues) to it. 25. O the gigantic monster of the world! which has its existence in no time. Art thou not ashamed, O my mind, to assume to thyself this deceitful form the world, and appear before me in this hideous shape? 26. Go out of this abode of my body, thou demoniac mind, with the train of thy female fiends of avarice and her companions, and the whole host of thy devilish comrades of rage, wrath and the like. 27. Seeing the advance of reason to the temple of the body, the demon of the mind flies from it, as the savage wolf leaves its den at the approach of the hunter. 28. O pity for these foolish folks! that are so subdued by this dull and deceitful mind, as the unwary people are spellbound by the magic wand. 29. What is thy boast and might in subduing the ignorant rabble, exercise thy power upon me, that defy thy power to prevail over the unity of my belief. 30. I need not try to defeat the power of my foolish mind, after I have already baffled its attempts against me, and laid it to dust.

31. I had ere long taken thee for a living thing, and passed many a livelong life, and day and night, with thy company in this dreary world. 32. I have now come to know the nullity of the mind, and that it is put to death by my power; I have hence given up my concern with it, and betaken to my reliance in the ever existent soul only. 33. It is by good luck, that the living liberated men come to know the demise of their minds; and cease to spend their lives under the illusion of its existence. 34. Having driven away the deceitful demon of the mind, from the mansion of my body; I am situated at rest without any troublesome thought or turbulent passion in me. 35. I smile to think in myself the many follies, to which I was led for a long time under the influence of my demoniac mind. 36. It is by my good fortune, that the gigantic demon of my mind, is at last vanquished by the sword of my reason, and driven out of the mansion of my body.

37. It is by my good fortune also, that my heart is after all purified from its evil inclination, by the suppression of my demoniac mind; and that my soul now rests alone in peace, in the abode of my body. 38. With the death of the mind, there is an end of my egoism and all my troublesome thoughts and cares; and the expulsion of the ogres of evil passions from my breast, by the breath or mantra of reason, has made it a place of rest for my soul. 39. What is this mind with its egoism and eager expectations to me, than a family of intractable inmates, of whom I have fortunately got rid by their wholesale deaths. 40. I hail that pure and ever prosperous soul which is self-same with my inward soul, and identic with the immutable intellect; (and not with the changeful mind). 41. I hail that ego in me, which is yet not myself nor I nor any other person, nor is it subject to sorrow or error. 42. I hail that ego in me, which has no action nor agency, nor any desire nor worldly affair of its own. It has no body nor does it eat or sleep (but it is as itself).

43. This ego is not myself nor any other, and there is nothing as I or anybody else. The ego is all in all, and I bow down to that being. (There is no direct evidence as what the ego is, but is pointed by mere indirect and negative evidences as what it is not). 44. The ego is the first cause and support of all, it is the intellect and the soul of all worlds. It is the whole without parts; I therefore bow down to that ego. 45. I prostrate to the self-same Ego of all, which is eternal and immutable, which is the sole immense soul and without its parts. It is all, in all and abides at all times. 46. It is without any form or designation, and is manifest as the immense spirit. It abides in itself, and I bow down to that ego. 47. It is the same in all things in its too minute form, and is the manifester of the universe. It is the essence of my existence and abiding in me, in which state I bow down to it.

48. It is the earth and ocean with all their hills and rivers, which are not the ego, nor they are the ego itself. I bow to the selfsame ego which comprises the world with all its contents. 49. I bow to that undecaying and indestructible Lord which is beyond thought, and is ever charming and ever the same. Who manifests the endless universe with all its worlds and many more yet invisible and unformed bodies. He is unborn and undecaying, and his body is beyond all attributes and dimensions.

UNSUBSTANTIALITY OF THE MIND. Argument. The unsubstantiality of the Mind is established by Reasoning and Intuition. Vasishtha resumed:—Having thus considered and known the mind in themselves; and in the aforesaid manner; it is the business of great minded philosophers, O mighty Rama, to enquire into the nature of the soul, as far as it is knowable (by the help of psychology). 2. And knowing the world to be purely the soul, it is to be enquired, whence arose the phantom of mind which is nothing in reality. 3. It is ignorance, error and illusion, which exhibit the vacant and visionary mind to view, as it is our false imagination, which forms an arbour of trees in the vacant air. 4. As the objects standing on the shore, seem to be moving to ignorant boys passing in a boat; so the sedate soul appears to be in motion (like the mind) to the unintelligent. 5. After removal of our ignorance and error, we have no perception of the fluctuation of our minds; as we no more think the mountains to be in motion, after the velocity of air car is put to a stop.

6. I have given up the thoughts of all internal and external things, knowing them as the creation of my airy mind only. Thus the mind and its actions being null and void, I see all things to exist in the spirit of Brahma alone. 7. I am freed from my doubts, and sit quiet devoid of all care; I sit as Siva without a desire stirring in me. 8. The mind being wanting, there is an end of its youthful desires and other properties also; and my soul being in the light of the supreme spirit, has lost its sight of all other colours and forms presented to the eyes. 9. The mind being dead, its desires also die with it, and its cage of the body is broken down without it. The enlightened man being no more under the subjection of his mind, is liberated from the bondage of his egoism also. Such is the state of the soul, after its separation from the body and mind, when it remains in its spiritual state in this and the next world. 10. The world is one calm and quiescent Unity of Brahma, and its plurality or multifariousness is as false as a dream. What then shall we think or talk of it, which is nothing in reality.

11. My soul by advancing to the state of divine holiness, becomes as rarefied and all-pervasive as the eternal spirit of God, in which it is situated for ever. 12. That which is, and what is not, as the soul and the mind the substantial and the unsubstantial, is the counterpart of the something, which is rarer than air, calm and quiet, eternal and intangible; and yet all pervading and extended through all. 13. Let there be a mind in us, or let it remain or perish for ever; yet I have nothing to discuss about it, when I see everything to be situated in the soul. 14. I considered myself as a limited and embodied being, as long as I was unable to reason about these abstruse subjects; and now I have come to know my unlimited form of the spirit; but what is this that I call “myself” is what I have not yet been able to know, since the whole is full with the one supreme spirit. 15. But the mind being granted as dead, it is useless to dubitate about it; and we gain nothing by bringing the demon of the mind to life again.

16. I at once repudiate the mind, the source of false desires and fancies; and betake myself to the meditation of the mystic syllable “Om” with the quietness of my soul, resting quiescent in the Divine spirit. 17. With my best intelligence, I continue always to inquire of my God, both when I am eating or sleeping or sitting or walking about. 18. So do the saints conduct their temporal affairs, with a calm and careless mind, meditating all along on the Divine soul in their becalmed spirits. 19. So do all great minded men gladly pass their lives, in the discharge of their respective duties, without being elated by pride or the giddiness of vanity; but manage themselves with a cheerfulness resembling the gentle beams of the autumnal moon.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF THE SENSUOUS MIND. Argument. Story of Vítahavya, materialist becomes a spiritualist. Vasishtha continued:—It was in this manner that the learned Samvarta, who had the knowledge of the soul reasoned with himself, and which he communicated to me on the Vindhyan mountain. (Samvarta is said to have been the brother of Vrihaspati, both of whom have transmitted to us two distinct treatises on law, which are still extant). 2. Shut out the world, said he, from your sight, and employ your understanding to abstract reasoning, in order to get over the vast ocean of this world. 3. Hear me tell you Ráma of another view of things, whereby the great sage Vítahavya gave up the practice of making his offerings to fire, and remained dauntless in his spiritualistic faith. 4. The illustrious Vítahavya wandered about the forests in former times, and then resided in a cave of the Vindhya mount, which was as spacious as a cave of Meru under the sun’s passage. (The cave of mount Meru is the Polar circle about which the sun is said to turn; but Sumeru is the meridian circle on which the sun passes).

5. He grew in course of time dissatisfied with the ritual acts, which serve only to bewilder men, and are causes of diseases and difficulties to man (rather than those of their removal). 6. He fixed his aim to the highest object of unalterable ecstasis—samádhi, and abandoned his cares for the rotten world, in the course of his conduct in life. 7. He built a hut of leaves with the branches of plantain trees; strewed it with black stones, and perfumed it with fragrant earth. 8. He spread in it his seat of deer’s skin, serving as a pure paillasse for holy saints; and sat still upon it as a rainless cloud in the clear firmament. 9. He sat there in the posture of padmásana with his legs crossed upon one another, and held his heels with the fingers of both his hands, and remained with his uplifted head, like the fast and fixed peak of a mountain summit. 10. He closed his eyesight from looking upon the surrounding objects, and pent up his mind in his bosom, as the descending sun confines his beams in the hollow caves of Meru. 11. Then having stopped the course of his internal and external senses, he thus revolved in his mind, which was free from sin and guile.

12. How is it that though I have restrained my outer organs, I cannot with all my force stop the course of my mind, which is ever as fickle as a leaflet, floating on and dancing over the waves. 13. It impels the external organs (as a charioteer drives his horses), and is propelled by them in turn to their different objects, as a juggler tosses about and flings up and down his play balls. 14. Though I refrain from the exercise of my external faculties, yet it pursues them with eagerness, and runs towards the objects from which I try to stop its course. 15. It turns from this object to that, as they say from the pot to the picture and from that to the chariot (ghata, pata and sakata): and in this manner the mind roves about the objects of sense, as a monkey leaps from branch to branch of a tree. 16. Let me now consider the courses of the five external senses and their organs, which serve as so many passages for the mind. 17. O my wicked and wretched senses, how shall I counsel to call you to your good sense, when you are so senseless as to roll on restlessly like the billows of waters in the sea.

18. Do not now disturb me any more with your fickleness, for I well remember to what trains of difficulties I have been all along exposed by your inconstancy. 19. What are ye O my organs, but passages (to conduct the outer sensations) to the inner mind, and are dull and base of yourselves, and no better than the billows of the sea and the water in the mirage. 20. Ye senses that are unsubstantial in your forms, and without any spiritual light in you; your efforts are as those of blind men only to fall into the pit. 21. It is the intellectual soul only, that witnesseth the objects of sense, it is in vain that ye are busy without the soul. 22. It is in vain for the organs of sense, to display themselves to view, like the twirling of a firebrand and the appearance of a snake in the rope; since they have no essence of their own, and are of no use without the soul. 23. The all knowing soul knows well the eyes and ears, though none of these organs knows the internal soul, and is as far from it, as the heaven and hell asunder.

24. As the wayfarer is afraid of snakes, and the twice born Bráhmans are in dread of demoniac savages; so the intellect fears and avoids the company of the senses for its safety, and remains retired from them for its security. 25. Yet the unseen intellect directs the organs of sense, to their various duties from a distance; as the distant sun directs the discharge, of the diurnal duties of men on earth, from his situation in heaven. 26. O my mind! that art wandering all about like a mendicant, in order to fill the belly with food; and actest as a chárváka materialist, to make a god of thy body, and to enslave thyself to its service; do not thus rove about the world in the vain search of your bane only. 27. It is a false pretension of thine, to think thyself to be as intelligent as an intelligence or as the intellect itself; you two are too different in your natures, and cannot agree together. 28. It is thy vain boast also, to think thyself to be living, and to be the life and the ego likewise; because these things belong to the soul, and thou art entirely devoid of the same.

29. Egoism produces the knowledge of “I am the Ego” which thou art not; and neither art thou anything except a creature of false imagination, which it is good for thee to give up at once (because the mind’s eye sees the fumes of fancy only.) 30. It is the conscious intellect, which exists without its beginning and end, and nothing else is existent beside this: what art thou then in this body, that takest the name of the mind. 31. The impression of the activity and passivity of the mind is as wrong, as the belief of poison and nectar to be the one and same thing; since the two opposites can never meet together. 32. Do not, therefore thou fool, expose thyself to ridicule, (that art dependant on the organs of the body); by thinking thyself as both the active and passive agent, which thou art not; but a mere dull thing as it is known to all. 33. What is thy relation with enjoyments or theirs with thee, that thou wishest to have them come to thee? Thou art a dull thing and without thy soul, canst have no friend or foe to thee.

34. The unreal has no existence, and the existence of the mind, is an unreality as the redness of a crystal. Knowledge, action and passion belong to the soul only, and are not attributable to the mind. 35. If thou beest the eternal Mind, then thou art selfsame with the eternal soul; but the painful mutability of thy nature, bespeaks thee to be not the same (immutable, everlasting and imperishable soul). 36. Now as thou hast come to be acquainted, with the falsity of thine action and passion; hear now how I am purged of these impressions, by my own reasoning as follows. 37. That thou art an inert unreality, said I, is a truth beyond all doubt; and that the activity of an inactive nullity is as false, as the dancing of the ideal demon or of inert stones. 38. Therefore art thou dependant on the Supreme Spirit for thy movement; and it is in vain for thee to fain thyself as living or doing anything by thyself (being but a puppet player by the power of the Almighty).

39. Whatever is done by the power of another, is ascribed to that other and not to actor; as the harvest which is reaped by the sickle of the husband man, is said to be the act of the reaper and not of the instrument. 40. He who kills one by the instrumentality of another, is considered the slayer, and not the intermediate means of slaughter; for nobody upbraids the passive sword with guilt, by exculpation of the perpetrator. 41. He who eats and drinks, is said to be the eater and drinker; and not the plate or cup, which hold the eatables or the drinkables. 42. Thou art entirely inactive in thy nature, and art actuated by the All wise Intellect; therefore it is the soul only that perceives everything by itself, and not thou ignorant mind (that assumest the title of the percipient to thee). 43. It is the Supreme Soul, that awakens and informs the mind without intermission; as the ignorant people require to be constantly guided by their superiors by repeated admonitions. 44. The essence of the soul is manifest to all in its form of intelligence, from which the mind derives its power and name for its existence.

45. Thus the ignorant mind is produced by some power of the soul, and remains all along with its ignorance; until it comes to melt away like snow, under the sunshine of its spiritual knowledge. 46. Therefore, O my ignorant mind! that art now dead under the influence of my knowledge of the soul; do not boast any more of thy being a particle of thy spiritual origin for thy sorrow only. 47. The conception of the entity of the unreal mind, is as false as the production of a plant by the light of a magic lantern; there is only that true knowledge which proceeds directly from the Great God. (All else is error and misconception). 48. Know Ráma, these worlds to be no manifestations of Divine power, but as illusive representation of His intellect (chit and máyá), like the glittering waves of waters in the sea. 49. O thou ignorant mind, if thou art full of intelligence as the Intellect, then there would be no difference of thee from the Supreme one, nor wouldst thou have any cause of sorrow. (Hence the human mind is not Divine). 50. The Divine mind is all-knowing and omnipresent and omniform at all times; and by the attainment of which one obtains everything.

51. There is no such thing as thou or he, except the Great Brahma, who is always manifest every where; we have conceptions of ourselves without any exertion on our parts (which proves a Divinity stirring of itself in us). 52. If thou art the soul, then it is the soul that is everywhere here and naught besides; but if thou art anything other than the soul, then thou art nothing, because all nature is the body of the universal soul. 53. The triple world is composed of the Divine soul, beside which there is no existence; therefore if thou art anything thou must be the soul, or otherwise thou art nothing. 54. I am now this (as a boy), and then another (as an old man), and that these things are mine and those another’s, are thoughts that vainly chase upon the mind; for thou art nothing positive here, and positivism is as false a theory as the horns of a hare (or rara avis) on earth. 55. We have no notion of a third thing between the intellect and the body, to which we can refer the mind, as we have no idea of an intermediate state betwixt sunlight and shade (where we may betake us to rest).

56. It is that something then, which we get by our sight of (i.e. by the light of) truth, after the veil of darkness has been removed from our eyes. It is our consciousness (the product of the light of truth), that we term the mind. 57. Hence, O foolish mind! thou art no active nor passive agent of action, but art the sedate self-consciousness of Brahma (knowing only “I am what I am”, “Sohamasmi”). Now therefore cast off thy ignorance, and know thyself as a condition of the very soul.

58. Truly the mind is represented as an organ of the sense of perception and action, and the internal instrument of knowing the soul, and not the soul itself; but this is only by way of explaining the knowable by something familiar and better known to us, and serving as its Synonym. (As to see one’s unlookable face, by the reflexion of the very face in the looking glass; so it is to perceive the invisible soul by its shadow cast upon the mind. This explains the mention of the mind in the Srutis such as in the texts:—“It is by means of the mind alone, that the knowledge of the soul is to be gained.” “It is through the mind only, that the soul is to be seen.” And so many other passages). 59. The mind being an unreal instrumentality (as the sight &c.), can have no existence without its support (as the eyes of the sight); nor can it have any action of its own, without the agency of an actor (as the sword of the swordsman). Hence it is false to attribute activity or sensibility to it.

60. Without the agency of an actor, the instrument of the mind has no power nor activity of its own; as the passive sickle has no power of cutting the harvest, without the agency of the reaper. 61. The sword has the power of slaying men, but by means of the agency of the swordsman; otherwise the dull instrument has no power in any part of its body, to inflict a wound on another. 62. So my friend, thou hast no power nor agency of thine own, to do thine actions to trouble thyself in vain. It is unworthy of thee to toil for thy worldliness like the base worldling (i.e. worldly goods), unless it were for thy spiritual welfare. 63. The Lord (who works of his free will), is not to be pitied like thee that art subjected to labour, because his works are all as unaccountable as those he has not yet done (but thy acts are brought to account for themselves). 64. Thy boast of serving the soul, proceeds from thy ignorance only and thy fellowship with the insensible organs of sense, is quite unworthy of thee.

65. Thou art wrong to pursue the objects of sense, for the sake of thy maker and master; because the Lord is independent of all desire (of the service of others,) being full and satisfied in himself forever. 66. It is by his self-manifestation, and not by act of his exertion of creation, that the omnipresent and omniscient God, fills the whole with his unity, which admits of no duality even in imagination. 67. The one God that manifests himself as many, and that is all by himself, and that comprises the whole within himself, has nothing to want or seek, beside and apart from himself. 68. All this is the magnificence of God, and yet the foolish mind craves after them in vain; as a miserable man longs to have the princely pomp of another, which is displayed before him. 69. Thou mayst try to derive the divine blessings, by being intimate with the Divine soul; but there will be no more intimacy between the soul and the mind, than there is between the flower and its fruit. (i.e. The fruit which here represents the mind, does not inherit the quality of the flower which is here put for the soul). Gloss.

70. That is called the intimate relation of two things, when the one agrees in all its properties with the other; which is here wanting in the case of the soul and mind; the first being immortal, calm and quiet, and the second a mortal and restless thing. 71. O my mind! thou art not of the same kind with the soul, owing to thy changing appearances and ever changeful occupations, and promptness for multifarious inventions. Thy states of happiness and misery, moreover bespeak thee plainly to be of a different nature (from thy source of the soul thou art derived from). 72. The relationship of the homogeneous (as of the liquid and curdled milk), as well as of the heterogeneous (as between the milk and water), are quite apparent to sight; but there is no relation betwixt the contraries (as it is observed in the antagonism of the soul and mind). Note. The spiritual man represses the sensuous mind, and the sensualistic mind buries the conscious and conscientious soul.

73. It is true that there are many things, having the qualities of other things, or an assemblage of properties common to others; yet everything has a special identity of its own; and therefore I do beseech thee, not to lose the consciousness of thy identity with that of the soul, whereby thou exposest thyself to misery (i.e. keep in mind thy divine nature). 74. Therefore employ thyself with intense application to the meditation of the soul; or else thou art doomed to misery, for thy ruminating on the objects of the visible world, in thy internal recesses. 75. Sliding from consciousness of thyself, and running after the imaginary objects of thy desire, are calculated for thy misery only; therefore forget thyself O man!, to associate with thy mind and the bodily organs, in order to find thy rest in the soul or Samádhi—ecstasy. 76. Whence is this activity (i.e. what is this active principle), since the mind is proved to be a nullity as a skyflower, and to be utterly extinct, with the extinction of its thoughts and desires. 77. The soul also is as void of activity, as the Sky is devoid of its parts. It is only the Divine spirit that exhibits itself in various shapes within itself.

78. It bursts forth in the form of oceans with its own waters, and foams in froths by the billows of its own breathing. It shines in the lustre at all things, by its own light in itself. (So says the Urdu poet: Oleken chamakta hai har rang meh). 79. There is no other active principal anywhere else, as there is no burning fire brand to be found in the sea; and the inert body, mind and soul (as said and seen before), have no active force in any one of them. 80. There is nothing essential or more perspicuous, than what we are conscious of in our consciousness; and there is no such thing as this is another or this no other, or this is good or bad, beside the self-evident One. 81. It is no unreal ideal, as that of the Elysian gardens in the sky; it is the subjective consciousness samvid, and no objective object of consciousness samvedya, that extends all around us.

82. Why then entertain the suppositions of “this is I and that is another,” in this unsuppositious existence? There can be no distinction whatever of this or that in one unlimited, all extending and undefinable expanse of the soul; and the ascription of any attribute to it, is as the supposition of water in the mirage, or of a writing in the Sky. 83. O my honest mind! if thou canst by the purity of thy nature, get thyself freed from the unrealities of the world; and become enlightened with the light of the soul, that fills the whole with its essence, and is the inbeing of all beings, thou shalt verily set me at rest from the uneasiness of my ignorance, and the miseries of this world and this miserable life.

ON THE NECESSITY OF AVOIDING ALL BODILY AND WORLDLY CARES, AND ABIDING IN INTELLECTUAL DELIGHTS. Argument:—The sensuous Mind and the senses as roots of Evil, and their Extinction as the source of God. Vasishtha continued:—Hear now Ráma, how that great sage of enlightened understanding, remonstrated in silence with his refractory senses. 2. I will tell you the same openly what he admonished in secret to his senses; and by hearing these expostulations of him, you will be set above the reach of misery. 3. O my senses, said he, I know your special essences to be for our misery only; and therefore I pray you, to give up your intrinsic natures for the sake of my happiness. 4. My admonitions will serve to annihilate your actualities, which are no more than the creatures of ignorance. 5. The amusement of the mind with the exilition of its sensitivity, is the cause of its fury and fever heat, as the kindlings of fire is for burning one’s self or others in its flame. (i.e. The excitement of passions and sensations is painful to the peaceful mind of man).

6. The mind being disturbed and bewildered, makes the restless feelings and sensations, flow and fall to it, with the fierceness of boisterous rivers falling into the sea, which it breaks out and runs in the form of many a frith and firth into the land. (i.e. The sensational man is subject to the excess of sensitive excitability and intolerance). 7. The sensitive minds burst forth in the passions of their pride and egoism, clashing against one another like the conflicting clouds; and fall in showers of hailstorms on the heads of others. (Sensational men are bent on mutual mischief and injury). 8. The cares of prosperity and adversity, are the tormenting cankers in their breasts, and they pierce and perforate the hearts to such a degree, as they are intent upon uprooting them from their innermost recesses. (Heart burning anxieties attending both on fortune and misfortune). 9. They are attended with hiccoughs and hard breathings in the chest, with groaning and sobbing in the lungs, like hooting owls in the hollow of withered trees; whether covered with tufts of moss on their tops, or resembling the hoary haired heads on the dried trunks of old and decayed bodies. (Men growing old, yet pant and pine for riches the more.) धनाशा जीविताशाच जीर्यतेऽपि न जीर्य्यति ।

10. The cavities of the heart inside the body, are perplexed with crooked cares resembling the folds of snakes, hoary hairs likening hoar frost over hanging the head, and the apish wishes lurk about in the caves within the bosom. 11. Avarice is as a dancing stork, clattering her pair of sharp bills (to entice men towards her); and then pull off their eyes from their decayed frames, as also the intestinal cords of the body. (The avaricious man is deprived of his good sense, sight and heartstrings). 12. Impure lust and lawless concupiscence, symbolized as the filthy cock, scratches the heart as his dunghill, and sounds as shrill on this side and that (Hence the cockish rakes are called coxcombs, and cockneys, from their hoarse whistling as the horse neighs, and strutting on stilts as the cock-a-hoop). 13. During the long and gloomy nights of our ignorance we are disturbed by the fits of phrenzy, bursting as the hooting owl from the hollow of our hearts; and infested by the passions barking in our bosoms like the Vetála demons in the charnel vaults and funeral grounds. 14. These and many other anxieties, and sensual appetites disturb our rest at nights, like the horrible Pisácha ogres appearing in the dark.

15. But the virtuous man who has got rid of his gloom of ignorance, beholds every thing in its clear light, and exults like the blooming lotus in the dawning light of the day. 16. His heart being cleared of the cloud of ignorance, glows as the clear sky unclogged by fogs and mists; and a pure light envelopes it, after the flying dust of doubts has been driven from it. 17. When the doubts have ceased to disturb the mind with the gusts of dubiety and uncertainty; it becomes as calm and still as the vault of the sky, and the face of a city after the conflicting winds have stopped to blow. 18. Mutual amity or brotherly love, purifies and cheers the heart of every body; and grows the graceful trees of concord and cordiality, as the plants bring forth their beautiful blossoms and anthers in spring. 19. The minds of ignorant and unskilful men, are as empty as a barren waste; and are shriveled with cares and anxieties, as the lotusbed is withered under the shivering cold and ice. (Here is a pun on the word jádya, used in its double sense of dulness and frost, both of which are cold and inert jada).

20. After the fog and frost of ignorance, is dissipated from the atmosphere of the mind; it gains its glaring lustre, as the sky gets the sunshine, after the dispersion of clouds in autumn. (Learning is the light of the lamp of the mind, as sunshine is that of the clear sky). 21. The soul having its equanimity, is as clear and cheerful and as deep and undisturbed, as the deep and wide ocean, which regains its calm and serenity, after the fury of a storm has passed over it. 22. The mind is full within it with the ambrosial draughts of everlasting happiness, as the Vault of heaven is filled with the nectarous moonbeams at night. (Happiness is the moonlight of the mind). 23. The mind becomes conscious of the soul, after the dispersion of its ignorance; and then it views the whole world in its consciousness, as if it were situated in itself. 24. The contented mind finds its body to be full of heavenly delight, which is never perceived by those living souls which are ensnared by their desires of worldly enjoyments. (The bliss of content is unknown to the prurient).