Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

19. If there is inappetency of enjoyments, why think of anything else? and if there be no such inappetency, what avails any other thought or meditation? 20. The well intelligent sage who is freed from his relishing the visibles, is situated in his position of unflinching meditation, and in the enjoyment of his continuous reveries. 21. He whom the visibles do not delight, is known as the most enlightened man; and he who takes no delight in the enjoyables, is deemed as the full wise man. 22. He who is disposed to repose by nature, can have no inclination to enjoyments; it is unnatural to indulge in carnal enjoyments, but the subdued nature needs nothing to enjoy. 23. Let men resort to their reflection, after their hearing of a lecture, reciting the scripture, and muttering the mantras and uttering their prayers; and when tired with meditation, let them return to their lectures and recitals. 24. Sitting in meditation in an indefatigable mood, and resting at agreeable ease with freedom from fear and care; remaining in rapturous hypnotism, with a quiet and composed mind, likens the fair autumnal sky with its unclouded and serene aspect.

THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS LIBERATION. Argument:—Of the different steps leading to Liberation, and firstly of Indifference to the world and lastly of putting reliance in the holy precepts. Vasishtha continued:—Hear now the manner and the measures which the yogi adopts to himself, in order to obtain his release from his cumbrous burthen and troubles of the world. 2. As the germ of discrimination springs in the mind at first, by reason of the disparagement of the world (for the multiplicity of its faults, or from some cause or other). 3. All good people, resort under the wide stretching shade of this (fullgrown) tree; as the weary and sunburnt traveller halts under the cooling shade of trees on their way. 4. The wise man shuns the ignorant at a distance, as the wayfarer casts aside the sacrificial wood; because the worshippers of the gods only observe the ceremonious rites of holy ablutions and almsgivings, austerities and offering of sacred oblations. 5. In his fair, just, polite and undissembling behaviour, and in his placid and pleasing countenance, he resembles the fair moon with her ambrosial beams. 6. He acts with sound wisdom and prudence, is polite and civil in his manners, is prompt in serving and obliging others, is holy in his conduct and humorous in his discourse.

7. He is as clear and cold, soft and pleasing as fresh butter, and his company is delightsome to people even at his very first appearance. 8. The deeds of wise men are as pure and grateful to mankind, as the dews of moon-beams, are refreshing and refrigerating of whole nature. 9. No one sleeps so delighted on a bed of flowers, and in a flower garden devoid of fears; as he rests secure in the society of reasonable and pious men. 10. The society of holy and wisemen, like the pure waters of the heavenly river, serve to cleanse the sins and purify the minds of the sinful. 11. The society of the holy recluse and liberated men, is as cooling as a refrigeratory or ice house. 12. The great and high delight, which the holy sage feels in his heart, is not to be enjoyed in the company of fairies among the gods, gandharvas and human kind. 13. It is by continued performance of proper acts, that the pious devotee attains his knowledge and clearness of understanding; when the significance of the sástras, is reflected as clearly in the tablet of his mind, as the reflections of objects are seen in a reflector.

14. A good understanding moistened by instruction of the sástras, thrives in the mind of a holy man, as a plantain tree grows in the forest. 15. The mind which is cleared by good judgment, retains the clear impression of everything in it, as a mirror reflects the images of objects on its surface. 16. The wise man whose soul is purified by the association with holymen, and whose mind is cleansed with the lavation of scriptural instruction, is as a sheet of linen cloth flaming with fire. 17. The holy saint shines with the effulgence of his person, as the sun does with his golden beams, diffusing a pure light all around the world. 18. The wise man follows the conduct of holy sages, and the precepts of the sástras in such a manner; as to imitate and practice them himself. 19. Thus the tyro becomes by degrees, as good as the good and great objects of his imitation, and as full of knowledge as the sástras themselves; and having then put down all the enjoyments of life under him, he appears to come out of a prison, by breaking down his chains and fetters.

20. He who is practiced in reducing his appetites and enjoyments day by day, resembles the crescent moon daily increasing in brightness, and enlightening his family, as the moon throws her lustre over the stars about her. 21. The penurious miser (who amass their wealth without enjoying it), is always as sulky as the face of eclipsed moon, and never as smiling as the countenance of the liberal, which is as bright as the face of the moon when freed from eclipse. 22. The liberal man spurns the world as mere straw, and becomes renowned among the great for his munificence; he resembles the kalpa plant of paradise, which yields the desired fruit to every body. 23. Though one may feel some compunction in his mind, at the wilful abdication of his possessions; yet the wise man is glad at his having no property at all. (It is better to have no property, than to regret at its loss or resignation). 24. Any one may laugh at his prior acts, if he will come to know what he was and he is; as a low chandal by being játismara, laughs in disgust in making comparison of his past birth with that of the present.

25. Even the siddhas or holy saints, repair with wonder to see the yogi for their esteem of him; and look upon him as the moon risen on earth, with their delighted eyes. 26. The yogi who is ever accustomed to despise all enjoyment, and has attained his right judgement, does not hold in estimation any of the enjoyables in life, though it presents itself to him in the proper manner. 27. The holy man whose soul is raised and enlightened (in time), feels his former enjoyments to become as dull and insipid to him, as a luxuriant tree becomes dry and withered in autumn. 28. He then resorts to the company of holymen, for his greatest and lasting good; and becomes as sane and sound, as the sickman becomes hale by his abstinence and recourse to physicians. 29. Being then exulted in his mind, he dives into the deep sense of the sástras; as a big elephant plunges into a large lake of clear water. 30. It is the nature of virtuous men, to deliver their neighbours from danger and calamity; and to lead them to their well being and prosperity, as the sun leads people to light. 31. The reasonableman becomes from before, averse to receive anything from another, and lives content with what is his own.

32. He hates to taste the delicacies of others, from his satiety with the ambrosial draughts of contentment; and prepares himself for his abandonment of what he is already possessed of himself. 33. He is accustomed to give away his gold and money to beggars, and beg his vegetable food from others; and by habitual practice of giving away whatever he has, he is even ready to part with the flesh of his body. 34. Verily the man of subdued mind and holy soul, gets over the hidden traps of ignorance with as much ease, as a running man leaps over a pitfall (goshpada). 35. The holyman being accustomed to despise the acceptance of wealth from others, learns betimes to slight the possession of any wealth for himself also. 36. Thus the aversion to the wealth and possessions of others, leads the wise and holy man by degrees to be averse to the retaining of anything for himself. 37. There is no such trouble in this earth, nor any great pain in the torment of hell, as there is in the punishment of earning and accumulation of wealth. 38. Ah! how little are the money making fools aware, of the cares and troubles which they have to undergo in their restless days and nights, in their servitude for money.

39. All wealth is but lengthening woe, and prosperity is the harbinger of adversity; all enjoyments and aliments are but ailments, and thus every earthly good turns to its reverse. 40. One cannot have a distaste to sensual enjoyments, as long he thinks on the objects of sense; and so long as he has a craving for riches, which are the spring of all evils and bane of human life. 41. He who has got a relish for his highest heavenly bliss, looks upon the world as a heap of straw, and riches as the fire that kindles them to a flame. Avoid this fire and be cool and quiet. 42. The meaning of wealth is known to be the source of all evils in the world, and as the cause of all wants and disorders and even of diseases and death. It is also the cause of oppression and plunder, of incendiarism and the like, and their consequent poverty and famine. 43. In this mortal world of the death and diseases of living beings, there is one elixir which confers perpetual health and life to man, and this is his contentment only. (Hence called the ambrosia of life, santoshámritang).

44. The vernal season is charming, and so are the garden of paradise, the moon-beams and fairies, but all combine in contentment only, which is alone capable of yielding all the delights. 45. The contented soul likens a lake in the rains, when it is full as it is deep, and as clear and cooling as the nectarious beverage of the gods. 46. The honest man is strengthened by his contentment and flourishes with full glee, as a flower tree is decked with blooming blossoms in the flowering season. 47. As the poor emmet is likely to be crushed under the foot of every passer, in its ceaseless search and hoarding of food; so the greedy and needy man is liable to be spurned, for his incessant wanderings after paltry gains and lucre. 48. The deformed and disfigured beggar, is as a man plunged in a sea of troubles, and buffeting in its waves without finding a support for rest, or any prospect of ever reaching to the shore.

49. Prosperity like a beauty, is as frail and fickle as the unstable waves of the ocean; what wiseman is there that can expect to find his reliance in them, or have his rest under the shade of the hood of hideous serpent? (This simile is borrowed in the Nyáya wherein world is said kupita phani phaná chháyeva). 50. He who knowing the pains attending on the gaining, keeping and losing of money, still persists to pursue in its search, is no better than a brute, and deserves to be shunned by the wise as unsociable. 51. He who mows down at once the growing grass of his internal and external appetites, from the field of his heart, by the means of the scythe of insouciance, gets it prepared for reception of the seeds of Divine knowledge. 52. Ignorant people take the world for a reality, and wise men also conduct themselves under this supposition though they are well aware of its unreality; and this owing to their neglect of practicing what they are taught to believe. (The wise and foolish are in the same footing, by equally unwise conduct in life).

53. The sum of the whole is that, it is the resignation of the world which leads men to the society of sages and study of the scriptures; and then by reliance in the holy precepts, one abandons his worldliness, and at last his firm dislike of the temporal, leads him to seek his spiritual bliss.

ON THE DIGNITY OF RIGHT DISCRIMINATION. Argument:—The state of holy Resignation. Vasishtha continued:—After a man has come to his resignation of the world, and to his association with holy men; and after he has well digested the precepts of the sástras, and abandoned his carnal appetites and enjoyments:— 2. And then having a distaste to worldly objects, and gained the reputation of being a man of probity; and being outwardly an inquirer after truth, and inwardly full of enlightenment. 3. He does not long for wealth, but shuns it as one flies from darkness; he gives away whatever he has in hand, as a man casts aside the dry and rotten leaves from his house. 4. Every one is seen to be worn out with toil and care, for the supportance of his family and friends throughout his life; and yet like a weary traveller labouring under his load, he is rarely found to cast off his burthen, as long he has strength to bear it. 5. A man in full possession of his senses, and the sensible objects all about him, is yet quite insensible of them, if he is but possessed of the calm, quiet of his mind.

6. Wherever he remains, whether in his retired solitude or remote from his country; or in a forest or sea or distant deserts or gardens; he is perfectly at home in every place. 7. But he is not in love with any place, nor dwells secure in any state whether it be the company of friends in a pleasure garden, or in learned discussions in the assembly of scholars. 8. Wherever he goes or stays, he is always calm and self-governed, silent and self communing; and though well informed himself, yet he is ever in quest of knowledge by reason of his inquiry after truth. 9. Thus by his constant practice, the holy sage sits on the low ground or in water, and reclines himself in the supreme One in the state of transcendent bliss. 10. This is the state of perfect quietude, both of inner soul as also of the outward senses; and the yogi remains quite insensible of himself, with his consciousness of indubitable truth: (of the unity of his soul with the Supreme spirit). 11. This transcendent state, consists in the unconsciousness of sensible objects; and the consciousness of a vacuum full with the presence of omniscience spirit (or soul).

12. Firstly one’s concern with the knowledge of unity, and lastly his unconsciousness of himself and everything besides, whether of a void or substance, constitutes what is called the state of highest felicity. 13. The saint who is mindless of everything, and rests in his consciousness; has no taste of (or desire for anything), but remains as a block of stone amidst the encircling water (without tasting it). 14. The self-conscious person who has attained to that exclusive state of perfection (nirodha-padam), which shuts out all objective thoughts from it, remains silent and slow, and quite unmindful of everything beside itself; and he reposes in his own being (i.e. rests in himself), as a human figure does in its picture. 15. He who has known the One that is to be known, sees in his heart all things as nothing; all magnitudes dwindle into minuteness (before his sight of the boundless majesty of God), and the whole plenum appears as vacuum to him. 16. The knower of God, has no more the knowledge of himself or others (the ego, tu, and the world besides); and all space and time and existence appear as non-existent before him.

17. The seer who has seen the glory of God, is situated in the region of light; and like a lighted lamp, he dispels his inner darkness, together with all his outward fears, animosities and affections. 18. I bow down before that sun like sage, who is set beyond darkness on every side, and is raised above all created things; and whose great glory is never liable to be darkened. 19. I cannot describe in words the most eminent state of divine seer, whose soul is fraught with divine knowledge, whose mind is quite at rest, and whose knowledge of duality is wholly extinct. 20. Know, O most intelligent Ráma, that the Great Lord God is pleased to bless him with the bliss of his final extinction in him; in reward of his serving him by day and night with sincere devotion. 21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O chief of sages, who is this Lord God, and how He is propitiated by our prayers and faith in him; explain this mystery to me, for you are acquainted with all truth. 22. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O highly intelligent Ráma, that the Lord God is neither at a distance nor unattainable by us; the Lord is the all knowing soul, and the soul is the great God.

23. In Him are all things, and from him have come all these; He is all, and everywhere with all; He is immanent in and self same with all, he is everlasting and I bow down to him. 24. From him comes out this creation, as well as all its change and dissolution; He is the uncaused cause of all, which rise as winds in the hollow vault of heaven. 25. Him do all these creatures—the moving as well as unmoving, worship always (in their hearts), as well as they can; and present them the best offerings that they can find. 26. So men by adoring him in their repeated births, with all their hearts and minds and in the best manner that they can; propitiate at last the supreme object of their adoration. 27. The great Lord God and Supreme soul, being thus propitiated by their firm faith; sends to them at last his messenger (or angel), with his good will for their enlightenment. 28. Ráma asked:—Tell me, great sage, how does the lord God and supreme soul, send his messenger to man; and who is this messenger, and in what manner he throws the light in the mind.

29. Vasishtha replied:—The messenger sent by the divine spirit, is known by the name of wise discrimination, which shines as coolly in the cell of the human heart, as the moonlight does in the clear firmament. 30. It is this which awakens and instructs, the brutish and cupidinous soul to wisdom, and by this means saves the unwise soul, from the turbulent ocean of this world. 31. This enlightening and intellectual spirit, residing in the human heart; is denominated as the pranava or adorable, in the Veda and Vedic sástras. 32. This holy spirit is propitiated daily, by men and the serpent tribe, and by gods and demigods also; by their prayers and oblations, by their austerities and almsgivings, as also by their sacrificial rites and recitals of the scriptures. 33. This Lord has the highest heaven for his crown, and the earth and infernal regions for his footstools; the stars glisten as hairs on his person; his heart is the open space of the sky, and all material bodies, are as the bones of his body. 34. He being the intellectual soul of all, spreads undivided every where; He is ever wakeful, and sees and moves every thing, as it were with his hands and feet, and his eyes and ears and the other organs of his body.

35. The living or sentient soul, being awakened to wisdom, by destroying the demon of the sensualistic mind; takes upon it a bright spiritual form and becomes a spiritual being. 36. Now shun the various wishes of your heart, which are ever changeful and full of evils; and exert your manliness to exult your soul to the state of meeting with divine grace. 37. The rambling mind resembles a demon, buffeting with the waves of furious ocean of the world; it is the enlightened soul only that shines like a luminary, over the dark dreary and dismal waste of the earth. 38. See thy mind is wafted away by the gale of its greediness, to the vast billowy ocean of the world; and hurled to the deep cavity of its whirlpools, from whose depth no man can rise again. 39. You have the strong ship of your divine wisdom alone, that can get you across the sea of your ignorance; and bear you up above the billows of your carnal appetites and passions.

40. In this manner the lord being propitiated by his worship, sends his holy spirit as his messenger, for sanctification of the human soul; and thus leads the living being to his best and most blest state, by the gradual steps of holy society, religious learning, and the right understanding of their esoteric and spiritual sense.

TOTAL STOICISM AND INSOUCIANCE. Argument:—The tranquility arrived at by the Holy Sage, and his relation with the world. Vasishtha continued:—Those that are stanch in their discernment of truth, and firm in the abandonment of their desires, are truly men of very great souls, and conscious of their greatness in themselves. 2. The vast extent of magnanimity of noble minded men, and the fathomless depth of their understanding, is even greater than the space occupied by the fourteen worlds. (The unbounded mind of the divine Newton, comprehended the boundless with all the hosts of heaven in its fathomless depth). 3. Wise men having a firm belief in the erroneous conception of the reality of the universe, are quite at rest from all internal and external accidents, which overtake the unwary ignorant as sharks and alligators. (The sea of ignorance abounding with sharks of casualties). 4. What reliance is there in our hope or desire for anything in this world, which is as tempting and deceitful, as the appearance of two moons in the sky, of water in the mirage, and the prospect of a fairy city in the air. (Here the falsity applies both to worldly things as well as our desire for them, and means the unrealizeableness of unrealities).

5. Desires are as vain as the empty void, owing to the nullity of the mind in which they arise; the sapient therefore are not led away by their desires, which they know, have their origin in the unreal and vacant mind. (The yogi who has arrived at the state of his inappetency in the seventh stage of yoga, never falls back to his desires any more). 6. The three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are common to all living beings at large; but that state which is beyond those triple functions, and is all seeing and all knowing, without its being seen or known in the state or nature of the Supreme being (whose omniscience neither wakes, nor dreams nor sleeps at any time). 7. The soul in its enraptured state sees the world as a collection of light, issuing from gems of various kinds; and the human soul as a reflexion of that light, and not as a solid or earthly (material) substance.

8. The phenomenal world presenting its various appearances to the eye sight, is no more than an empty vacuity; and the varieties of light and lightsome bodies which appear in it, are no other than reflexions of the rays of the vast mine of brilliant gems, which is hid under it, and shoots forth its glare in the open air. 9. Here there is no other substance in reality, neither the vast cosmos nor the boundless vacuity itself; all this is the glare of that greatest of gems, whom we call the great Brahma, and whose glory shines all around us. 10. The created and uncreated all is one Brahma alone, and neither is there any variety or destructibility in these or in him. All these are formless beings, and appear as substantial ones in imagination only, as the sun beams paint the various figures in empty clouds in the air. (Note. Whereas there is no variation in God, there is neither the creation nor destruction of any thing at all; these are but creations of imagination, and evolutions of the infinite mind of the eternal God). 11. Thus when the imaginary world appears to blend with the etherial void, this solid mass of the material world, will then vanish into nothing.

12. So the whole proving to be a perfect unsubstantiality, it is quite impossible for it to admit any property or predicate whatever (whether material or immaterial), which is usually attributed to it; because there is no probability of any quality belonging to an absolute nothing, as it is impossible for a bird of air to alight upon, or find a resting place in an air-grown tree. 13. There is no solidity of anything, nor is there a vacuity at all; the mind also is itself a nullity but that which remains after all these, is the only being in reality, and which is never inexistent at any time. 14. The soul is one alone and without its variation, and has the consciousness of all varieties in itself, and these are inherent in its nature, as all the various forms of jewelleries are ingrained in a lump of gold. 15. The sapient sage who remains in his own essential nature, finds his egoism or personality, together with the consciousness of his mind and the world besides, all dwindle into himself; it is difficult to describe the mind of wise man, which remains identified with the nature of the self-existent being.

16. The understanding is perplexed and confounded in itself, by observation of the sward nature of things on all sides; and requires to be slowly and gradually brought to the knowledge of truth, by means of right reason and argument. 17. It is by abstracting the mind, from its dwelling or visible nature—the production of Virát; and leading it to the contemplation of the spiritual cause of these works (i.e. the sutrátma), that the true knowledge of the author of the present, past and future worlds can be arrived at. 18. He is known as a wise sage, whose well discerning soul has perceived the truth in itself; and that has found his rest in the One unity, has no perception of the visible world, and all its endless varieties (which are attributed to Virát). 19. All the aforesaid sayings which are given here by way of advice, are perceived by the intuition of the wise man, as the wise sayings of good people, are self-evident of themselves. 20. The substance of all this is that, there is no bulk or magnitude of beings in general, nor its absence either as an entire vacuum; therefore there is neither a gross or airy mind also, but the One that exists after all, is the true and ever existent entity.

21. This entity is Intelligence, which is conversant with all the intelligibles in itself; its manifestation in the form of our senses is fraught with all our woe, while its disappearance leads to our felicity. 22. Being developed, it evolves itself in the shape of outward organs, and takes upon it the form of the gross body; as the liquid water, consolidates by degrees to the bulky forms of islands, and huge mountainous bodies. 23. This intelligence being engrossed by ignorance, assumes gross form of mind to itself; and with form it binds itself fastly with the corporeal body, as a man views his aerial dreams in their material substance. (So the intelligent mind is transformed to a material substance). 24. In these states of the conversion of intelligence into sensation, perception and other faculties, the Intellect remains the same and unchangeable though it is expressed by different words of human invention (and which are but synonyms of the same). 25. The soul remains the same both in its conception of mental thoughts and ideas, as well as in its perception of outward objects; and it is not changed in either case like the mind, in its vision of the dreams within it, and its sight of object, without itself.

26. The Intellect or understanding, resembling a vacuous substance, is as unchangeable in its nature as that of vacuity and eternity; and the objects which present their ideas in the soul, are as dreams which appear in the mind, and are nothing in reality. 27. The gross nature of external objects, bear no relation with the pure internal intellect; nor can their impurity touch or pollute the purity of the soul; therefore the intellect is not subject to the mutability of external nature. 28. The understanding never acquires the mutable state, of the objects it dwells upon (as the mind does); it remains always in its immutable nature, and is never otherwise in any state or condition. 29. The yogi having attained to his extreme purity of his understanding, in the seventh or the highest degree of his perfection; becomes identified with intelligence, and of the meaning of its presence or absence. 30. The minds of the passing or ordinary people, are impressed with idea of their materiality by reason of their understanding themselves as material bodies. 31. They falsely take their fleeting minds, which are as pure as the clear firmament for a material object; in the same manner as the players in a drama, take upon themselves the false guise of Pisáchas demons. (Misrepresenting the fair as foul).

32. All error is corrected by the habit of an unerring wisdom, as the madness of a man is cured by his thinking himself as no mad man. (That is, the constant habit of your thinking yourself as so and so, is what will make you really appear as such). 33. The knowledge of one’s erroneousness makes him get out of his error, as the error of dreaming is lost, upon one’s coming to the knowledge, that all he beheld was but a mere dream. 34. It is the extenuation of our desires, that lessens our attachment to the world (and the vice versa); the desire is a great demon, which must be destroyed by the wise man. 35. As the madness of men, is increased by their habitual ravings; so it is by their constant practice of sobriety, that the giddy insanity of man comes to be abated. 36. As the passing human body, is taken in its corporeal sense in thought; so it is taken in a spiritual sense also by the learned, by virtue of its understanding or intellectual powers or faculties.

37. The passing or subtile body, having taken the form of the living soul; is capable of being converted into the state of Brahma; by the intense culture of its understanding. (But it is argued and objected that). 38. If anything is produced according to its substance, and if any body thinks himself according his own understanding; how is it then possible for a material being, to take itself in a spiritual sense. 39. Logomachy rather increases the doubts, but following one’s advice, the error is removed off; as devil is removed off by chaunting the mantras only, rather than knowing the meaning of them. 40. The world being thought as identic with its thought (or conception in the mind), it is believed to be an immaterial and bodiless substance; until at last its substantivity is lost in the vacuity of the Intellect. (So says the sruti:—The world is the bodiless and unsullied spirit). 41. The mind being quite at rest from all its internal and external thoughts, the real spiritual nature of the soul then appears to light; and manifest itself in the form of the cool and clear firmament, which must be laid hold upon for one’s rest and refuge.

42. The wise man will perform his sacrifice with knowledge, and plant the stakes of his meditation in it; and at the conclusion of his all-conquering sacrifice (Vishajit) offer his relinquishment of the world (sarva tyága) as his oblation to it. (Because whoso wishes to overcome the world, needs first to make an offering of it in his holy sacrifice). 43. The wise man is always the same and equally firm in himself, whether he stands under a shower of rain or falling rain or fire stones from above, or walks in a diluvian storm; or when he is travelling all over the earth or mounting or flying in the air. 44. No one can attain the station of the apathetic sage, whose mind is tranquil by its want of desire, and which has obtained its enclosure within itself; unless he is practiced to sit in his steadfast meditation. 45. The mind can never derive that perfect peace and tranquility, either from the study of the sástras, or attending on holy lectures and sermons, or by the practice of austerities and self-controul; as it does by its distaste of all external objects and enjoyments.

46. The mind like a bundle of hay is burnt away by the fire of inappetency of all worldly objects; this fire is kindled by the breath of abandonment of all things, and fanned by the persuasion, that all prosperity is followed by adversity. 47. The perception of sensible objects, casts a mist of ignorance in and all about the mind; it is one’s knowledge alone, which shines as a brilliant gem within himself. 48. It is the Intellect alone which shines amidst this gloom, like a luminary in the sky; and looks over all mankind, Nágas and Asuras, and over mountains and in their caves. 49. It is by the infusion of this Intellect, that all things are moving in the dull womb of the universe; they are whirling in the whirlpool of the Intellect, and are deriving their freshness from the enlivening power of that source. 50. All living beings whirling in the great whirlpool of the Intellect (chit Vivarte), are as weak little fishes encircled by the net of ignorance; they are swimming and skimming in the water of the vast vacuum, and are quite forgetful of their spiritual origin.

51. It is the Divine Intellect, that shows itself in various forms within the sphere of itself; as the air presents the variegated forms of thickening clouds, in the wide arena of the sky. 52. All living beings are of the same nature, with their spiritual source, when they are devoid of their desires; it is the difference of desire that makes their different states, and causes them to fly about like the dry leaves of trees, and rustling in the air as hollow reeds. 53. Therefore you must not remain as the ignorant, but rise above them by raising your mind to wisdom; and this is to be done, by calling the manly powers to your aid; and then by overcoming your dullness to suppress the whole band of your rising desires, and next by breaking the strong fetters and prison-house of this world, to devote your attention to your improvement in spiritual knowledge. (These steps are described very diffusely in the gloss for the practice of the devotee).

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVEN KINDS OF LIVING BEINGS. Argument:—The septuple orders of living creatures, according to the degrees of the tenacity and laxity of their desires. (As mentioned in the preceding Chapter). Vasishtha added:—These bodies of living beings, that are seen to fill the ten sides of this world; and consisting of the different tribes of men, Nágas, Suras, Gandharvas, mountaineers and others. 2. Of these some are sleeping wakers (waking sleepers), and others are waking in their imaginations only, and hence called imaginative wakers; some are only wakeful, while there be others who have been waking all along. 3. Many are found to be strictly wakeful, and many also as waking sleepers both by day and night; there be some animals that are slightly wakeful, and these constitute the seven classes of living beings (inhabiting this world). 4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, the difference of the seven species of living beings for my satisfaction; which appear to me to be as different as the waters of the seven seas. 5. Vasishtha replied:—There have been some men in some former age and parts of the world, who are known to have been long sleepers with their living bodies. (Such were the seven sleepers of kehef mentioned in Sádi’s Gulistan).

6. The dream that they see, is the dream of the existence of the world; and those who dream this dream are living men, and denominated as waking sleepers or day dreamers. 7. Sometimes a sleeping man, sees a dream rising of itself before him, by reason of some prior action or desire of the same kind arising in the mind; such is the uncalled for appearance of anything or property unto us; and it is therefore that we are denominated as dreaming men. (The story of Lílá related before, will serve as an elucidation of this kind). 8. They who come to wake after their prolonged sleep and dream, are called as awakened from their sleep and dream, and to have got rid of them (such are the enlightened men that have come out of their ignorance). 9. I say we are also sleepers and dreamers, among those sleeping men; because we do not perceive the omniscient One, who by his omnipresence is present every where, as the All in all. 10. Ráma rejoined;—Tell me now where are those awakened and enlightened men now situated, when those kalpa ages wherein they lived and were born, are now past and gone along with their false imagination.

11. Vasishtha replied:—Those who have got rid of their erroneous dreams in this world, and are awakened from their sleep; resort to some other bodies which they meet with, agreeable to the fancies which they form in their imaginations. (Every one having a peculiar fancy of himself for anything, assumes that form in his next birth). 12. Thus they meet with other forms in other ages of the world, according to their own peculiar fancies; because there is no end of the concatenation and fumes of fancy, in the empty air of the mind. 13. Now know them that are said to be awakened from their sleep, to be those who have got out of this imaginary world; as the inborn insects, come out of an old and rotten fig tree. 14. Hear now of those that are said to be waking in their fancies and desires, and they are those who are born in some former age, and in some part of the world; and were entirely restless and sleepless in their minds owing to some fanciful desire springing in them, and to which they were wholly devoted (so are they that live upon hope).

15. And they also who are lost in their meditation, and are subjected in the realm of their greedy minds; who are strongly bound to their desires, by losing or the sacrifice of all their former virtues. 16. So also are they whose desires have been partly awake from before, and have gradually engrossed all the other better endeavours of their possessors, are likewise said to be wakeful to their desires. 17. They who after cessation of their former desires, resort to some fresh wishes again; are not only greedy people themselves, but think ourselves also to be of the same sort. 18. I have told you already regarding the vigils of their desires, and now know them to be dormant over their desires, who bear their lives as they are life beings, and dead to their wishes like ourselves. But hear further of them that are ever awake. 19. The first patriarchs that were produced from the self-evolving Brahma, are said to have been ever wakeful, as they had been immerged in profound sleep before their production. 20. But being subjected to repeated births, these ever wakeful beings, became subject to alternate sleep and waking, owing to their subjection to reiterated work and repose.

21. These again became degraded to the state of trees, on account of their unworthy deeds; and these are said to be duly waking, because of their want of sensibility even in waking state. (The nocturnal sleep of the vegetable creation was unknown to the ancients). 22. Those who are enlightened by the light of the sástras, and the company of wise men; look upon the world as a dream in their waking state, and are therefore called as waking dreamers by day. 23. Those enlightened men, who have found their rest in the divine state; and are neither wholly awake nor asleep, are said to have arrived at the fourth stage of their yoga. 24. Thus have I related to you the difference, of the seven kinds of beings, as that of the waters of the seven seas from one another. Now be of that kind which you think to be the best. 25. After all, O Ráma, give up your error of reckoning the worlds as real entities of themselves; and as you have come to your firm belief in one absolute unity, get rid of the duality of vacuity and solidity, and be one with that primeval body, which is free from monism and dualism.

ADMONITION TO ARRIVE AT THE YOGA OF ULTIMATE REST. Argument:—The world disappearing at the sight of God, its falsity at the sight of the self, and its voidness before true knowledge. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what is the cause of mere waking for nothing, and how does a living being proceed from the formless Brahma, which is tantamount to the growth of a tree in empty air. 2. Vasishtha replied:—O highly intelligent Ráma, there is no work to be found any where which is without its cause, therefore it is altogether impossible for any body to exist here, that is merely awake for nothing. 3. Like this, it is equally impossible also for all other kinds of living beings, to exist without a cause. 4. There is nothing that is produced here, nor anything which is destroyed also; it is only for the instruction and comprehension of pupils, that such words are coined and made use of. 5. Ráma asked:—Who then is it that forms these bodies, together with their minds, understandings and senses; and who is it that deludes all beings into the snares of passions and affections, and into the net of ignorance.

6. Vasishtha replied:—There is no body that forms these bodies at any time, nor is there any one who deludes the living beings in a manner at all. 7. There is alone the self-shining soul, residing in his conscious self; which evolves in various shapes, as the water glides on in the shapes of billows and waves. (Here water is expressed by the monosyllabic word ka—aqua, as it is done else where by udac undan and udra—hydra as also by ap—ab Persian). 8. There is nothing as an external phenomenon, it is the intellect which shows itself as the phenomenal; it rises from the mind (as perception does from the heart), like a large tree growing out of its seed. 9. It is in this faculty of the understanding, O thou support of Raghu’s race, that this universe is situated, just as the images are carved in a stone. 10. There is but one spiritual soul, which spreads both internally as well as externally, throughout the whole extent of time and space; and know this world as the effluvia of the divine intellect scattered on all sides. 11. Know this as the next world, by suppressing your desire for a future one; rest calmly in your celestial soul even here, nor let your desires range from here to there.

12. All space and time, all the worlds and their motions with all our actions, being included under the province of the intellectual soul; the meanings of all these terms are never insignificant and nil. 13. O Rághava! It is they only who are well acquainted with the meanings of words (the vedas), and those keen observers who have ceased to look upon the visibles, that can comprehend the Supreme soul, and not others (who have no understanding). 14. Those who are of light minds, and are buried in the depth of egoism; it is impossible for them ever to come to the sight of that light (which is seen only by the holy). 15. The wise look upon the fourteen regions of this world, together with multitudes of their inhabitants, as the members of this embodied spirit. 16. There can be no creation or dissolution without its cause; and the work must be conformable with the skill of its maker. 17. If the work be accompanied with its cause, and the work alone be perceptible without its accompanying cause, it must be an unreality, owing to our imperception of its constituting cause.

18. And whereas the product must resemble its producer, as the whiteness of the sea water produces the white waves and froths, so the productions of the most perfect God, must bear resemblance to his nature in their perfection. But the imperfect world and the mind not being so, they cannot be said to have proceeded from the all perfect One. 19. (Therefore imperfect nature is no creation of the father of perfection). Wherefore all this is the pure spirit of God, and the whole is the great body of Brahma; in the same manner, as one clod of earth, is the cause of many a pot; and one bar of gold, becomes the cause of many a jewel. 20. As the waking state appears as a dream in dreaming (i.e. when one dreams), on account of the oblivion of the waking state; so the waking state seems as dreaming, even in the waking state of the wise. (So the pot appears as the clod in its unformed state, and the clod appears as the pot after it is formed. So the spirit appears as the world to the ignorant, while the world appears as soul to the wise).

21. If it is viewed in the light of the mind or a creation of the mind, it proves to be as false as water in the mirage (because the phantasies of the mind present only false appearances to view). It proves at last to be a waking dream by the right understanding of it. 22. By right knowledge all material objects, together with the bodies of wise men, dissolve like the bodies of clouds, in their proper season. 23. As the clouds disappear in the air, after pouring their waters in the rains; so doth the world disappear from the sight of men, who have come to the light of truth and knowledge of the soul. 24. Like the empty clouds of autumn and the water of the mirage, the phenomenal world loses its appearance, no sooner it is viewed by the light of right reason. 25. As solid gold is melted down to fluidity by hot fire, so the phenomenals all melt away to an aerial nothing, when they are observed by the keen eye of philosophy. 26. All solid substances in the three worlds, become rarefied air when they <are> put to the test of a rational analysis; just as the stalwart spectre of a demon, vanishes from the sight of the awakened child into nothing.

27. Conceptions of endless images, rise and fall of themselves in the mind; so the image of the world being but a concept of the mind, there is no reality in it, nor is there anything which has any density or massiveness in it (a mass being but the conception of an aggregate of minute particles and no more). 28. The knowledge and ignorance of the world, consist only in its conception and nescience in the mind; when the knowledge of its existence disappears from the understanding, where is there the idea of its massiveness any more in the mind. (So as in the insensibility of our sound sleep and swooning, we have no consciousness of it). 29. The world loses its bulk and solidity, in our knowledge of the state of our waking dream; when its ponderousness turns to rarity, as the gold melts to liquidity when it is put upon fire. 30. The understanding as it is (i.e. being left uncultivated), becomes dull and dense by degrees; as the liquid gold when left to itself, is solidified in a short time.

31. Thus one who in his waking state considers himself to be dreaming, and sees the world in its rarified state; comes to extenuate himself with all his desires and appetites, as a ponderous cloud is sublimated in autumn. 32. The wise man seeing all the visible beauties of nature which are set before his face, as extremely rare and of the appearance of dreams, takes no notice of nor relish in them. 33. Where is this rest of the soul, and where this turmoil of the spirit for wealth; their abiding in the one and same man, is as the meeting of sleep and wakefulness together, and the union of error and truth in the same person, and at the same time (which is impossible). 34. He who remains asleep to (or insensible of) the erroneous imaginations of his mind, acts freed from his false persuasion of the reality of the world. 35. Who is it, O high minded Ráma, that takes a pleasure in an unreality, or satisfies himself with drinking the false water of the mirage appearing before him. 36. The saintly sage, who rests in his knowledge of truth; looks upon the world <as> an infinite vacuum, beset with luminaries, which shines forth like the light of lamps set behind the windows.

37. The waking man who knows everything as void and blank, and as the vagary of his vagrant mind ceases to long for the enjoyment of it. (For nobody craves for anything, which he knows to be nothing). 38. There is nothing desirable in that, which is known to be nothing at all; for who runs after the gold, which he has seen in his dream at night? 39. Every body desists from desiring that, which he knows to be seen in his dream only; and he is released from the bondage, which binds the beholder to the object of this sight. (Lit. the knot of the viewer and view is broken). 40. He is the most accomplished man, who is not addicted to pleasure, and is of a composed mind and with pride; and he is a man of understanding, who is dispassionate and remains quiet without any care or toil. (Perfect composure is the character of the Stoic and Platonic philosophers). 41. Distaste to pleasure, produces the want of desire; just as the flame of fire being gone, there is an end of its light. (The fire gives heat but the flame produces the light).

42. The light of knowledge, shows sky as a cloudless and lighted sphere; but the darkness of error, gives the world an appearance of the hazy fairy land. 43. The wise man neither sees himself, nor the heavens nor anything besides; but his ultimate view is at last fixed upon the glory of God (which shines all about him). 44. The holy seer (being seated in the seventh stage of his yoga), sees neither himself nor the sky nor the imaginary worlds about him; he does not see the phantasms of his fancy, but sits quite insensible of all. 45. The earth and other existences, which are dwelt and gazed upon by the ignorant, are lost in the sight of the sage, who sees the whole as a void, and is insensible of himself. (The earth recedes, and heaven opens to his sight. Pope). 46. Then there comes on a calm composure and grace in the soul, resembling the brightness of the clear firmament; and the yogi sits detached from all, as a nullity in himself.

47. Unmindful of all, the yogi sits silent in his state of self-seclusion and exclusion from all: he is set beyond the ocean of the world, and the bounds of all its duties and action. (The yogi gets exempt from all social and religious obligation). 48. That great ignorance (or delusion), which is the cause of the mind’s apprehension of the earth and sky, and the hills and seas and their contents, is utterly dissolved by true knowledge, though these things appear to exist before the ignorant eye. 49. The sapient sage stands unveiled before his light of naked truth, with his tranquil mind freed from all sceptical doubts; and being nourished with the ambrosia of truth, he is as firm and fixed in himself, as the pithy and sturdy oak.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FORM AND ATTRIBUTES OF BRAHMA. Argument:—Refutation of the Theories of Logicians, and Explanation of Brahma as Immanent in all nature. Ráma said:—Tell me, O sage, whence comes our knowledge of the world (as a distinct entity from God); and then tell me, how this difference is removed and refuted. 2. Vasishtha replied:—The ignorant man takes to his mind all that he sees with his eyes, and not at all what he does not see. Thus he sees a tree in its outward branches and leaves, but knows not the root, which lies hid from his sight. 3. The wise man sees a thing by the light of the sástra, and uses it accordingly; but the ignorant fool, takes and grasps anything as he sees it; without considering its hidden quality. 4. Be attentive to the dictates of the sástras, and intent upon acting according to their purport; and by remaining as a silent sage, attend to my sermon, which will be an ornament to your ears. 5. All this visible phenomenon is erroneous, it hath no real existence, and appears as the flash of light in the water and is known by the name of ignoramus.

6. Attend for a moment and for my sake, to the purport of the instruction which I am now going to give you; and knowing this as certain truth, rely upon it (and you will gain your object hereby). 7. Whence are all these and what are they, is a doubt (inquiry) which naturally rises of itself in the mind; and you will come to know by your own cogitation, that all this is nothing and is not in existence. 8. Whatever appears before you in the form of this world, and all its fixed and moveable objects; as also all things of every shape and kind, is altogether evanescent and vanishes in time into nothing. 9. The continual wasting and partition of the particles of things, bespeak their unavoidable extinction at last, as the water exuding by drops from a pot, make it entirely empty in a short time. 10. Thus all things being perishable, and all of them being, but parts of Brahma, it is agreed (by Logicians), that Brahma is neither endless nor imperishable, nor even existent at this time (since by loss of parts by infinitesimal, the whole is lost in toto at last).

11. This conceit (of a theist) likening the intoxication of wine, cannot over power our theistical belief; because our knowledge of bodies, is as that of things in a dream, and not at all of their real substantiality. 12. The phenomenals are of course all perishable, but not the other (the spirit), which is neither matter nor destructible, and this is conformable with the doctrines of the sástras, which mean no other. 13. Whether what is destroyed come to revive again or not, is utterly unknowable to us; all that we can say by our inferences, is that the renovations are very like the former ones. 14. That matter existed in the form of vacuum upon its dissolution, is not possible to believe (from the impossibility of plastic nature to be converted to a formless void). Again if there was the vacuum as before, then there could not be a total dissolution (if this was left undestroyed). 15. If the theory of the identity of creation and dissolution be maintained (owing to the existence of the world in the spirit of God); then the absence of causality and effect, supports our tenet of their being the one and the same thing.

16. Vacuity being conceivable by us, we say everything to be annihilated, that is transformed to or hid in the womb of vacuum; if then there is anything else which is meant by dissolution, let us know what may it be otherwise. 17. Whoever believes that, the things which are destroyed, comes to restore again (as the Pratyabhijna vadis do); is either wrong to call them annihilated, or must own, that others are produced to supply their place. 18. Where is there any causality or consequence in a tree, which is but a transformation of the seed; notwithstanding the difference of its parts, as the trunk and branches, and leaves and fruits. 19. The seed is not inactive as a pot or picture, but exhibits its actions in the production of its flower and fruits in their proper seasons. (So doth the divine spirit show its evolution and involution, as the proper times of creation and dissolution of the world). 20. That there is no difference in the substance of things (of different form and natures), is a truth maintained by every system of philosophy; and this truth is upheld in spirituality also; therefore there is no dispute about it.

21. And this substance being considered to be of an eternally inert form, and of a plastic nature; it is understood to be of the essence of vacuum, both by right inference and evidence of sástras. 22. Why the essential principle is unknown to us, and why we have still some notion of it, and how we realize that idea, is what I am now going to relate to you step by step. 23. All these visible spheres, being annihilated at the final dissolution of the world; and the great gods also being extinct, together with our minds and understandings, and all the activities of nature. 24. The sky also being undefined and time dwindling into a divisible duration; the winds also disappearing and fire blinding into the chaotic confusion. 25. Darkness also disappearing and water vanishing into nothing; and all things which are expressed by words quite growing nil and null in the end. 26. There remains the pure entity of a conscious soul, which is altogether unbounded by time and space, and is something without its beginning or end; is decrease or waste, and entirely pure and perfect in its nature.

27. This one is unspeakable and undiscernible, imperceptible and inconceivable and without any appellation or attribute whatever; This is an utter void itself and yet the principle and receptacle of all beings and the source of all entity and non-entity. 28. It is not the air nor the wind, nor is it the understanding nor any of its faculties nor a void or nullity also; it is nothing and yet the source of everything, and what can it be but the transcendent vacuum (vyom-beom Hebrew, and the bom-bom of sivaites when Siva is called vyom-Kesa). 29. It is only a notion in the conception of wise and beside which no one can conceive or know anything of it, whatever definition or description of it is given by others, is only a repetition of the words of the vedas. 30. It is neither the time or space, nor the mind nor soul nor any being or nothing that it may said to be; it is not in the midst or end of any space or side, nor is it that we know or know altogether. (The Lord is unspeakable yet faintly seen in these his meanest works. Milton).

31. This <is> something too translucent for common apprehension, and is conceivable only by the greatest understandings; and such as have retired from the world and attained to the highest stage of their yoga. 32. I have left out the popular doctrines, which are avoided by the Srutis; and the expressions of the latter are displayed herein, like the playful waves in the limpid ocean. 33. It is said there, that all beings are situated in their common receptacle of the great Brahma; as the unprojected figures are exhibited in relief, upon a massive stony pillar. 34. Thus all beings are situated and yet unsituated in Brahma, who is the soul of and not the same with all; and who is in and without all existence (These contraries are according to the texts of different Srutis, giving the discordant ideas of God in the spiritualistic and materialistic points of view). 35. Whatever be the nature of the universal soul, it is devoid of all attributes; and in whatever manner it is viewed, it comes at last to mean the self-same unity. (The different paths leading to the one and same goal). 36. It is all and the soul of all, and being devoid of attributes, it is full of all attributes; and in this manner it is viewed by all.

37. So long, O intelligent Ráma, as you do not feel the entire suspension of all your objects (in the torpid state of your samádhi); you cannot be said to have reached to the fullness of your knowledge, as it is indicated by your doubts till then. 38. The enlightened man who has come to (know) the unapparent great glory of God, has the clear sightedness of his mind, and remains quiet with viewing the inbeing of his being. 39. His fallacies of I, thou and he, and his error of the world and the three times (viz. the present, past, and future); are lost in his sight of that great glory, as many a silver coin is merged in a lump of gold. 40. But as a gold coin, produces (yields) various kinds of coins (different from itself); it is not in that manner that these worlds and their contents, are produced as things of a different kind from the nature of God. 41. The detached soul looks always upon the different bodies, as contained within itself; and remains in relation to this dualism of the world, as the gold is related to the various kinds of jewels, which are produced from it.

42. It is inexpressible by the words, implying space and time or any other thing; though it is the source and seat of them all; it comprehends everything, though it is nothing of itself. 43. All things are situated in Brahma, as the waves are contained in the sea; and they are exhibited by him, like pictures drawn by the painter; he is the substratum and substance of all, as the clay of the pots which are made of it. 44. All things are contained in it, as they are and are not there at the sametime, and as neither distinct nor indistinct from the same; they are ever of the same nature, and equally pure and quiet as their origin. 45. The three worlds are contained in it, as the uncarved images are concealed in a stone or wood; and as they are seen with gladness even there, by the future sculptor or carver. 46. The images come to be seen, when they are carved and appear manifest on the stone pillar; otherwise the worlds remain in that soul, as the unperturbed waves lie calmly in the bosom of the sea.

47. The sight of the worlds appears to the Divine intellect, as divided and distinct when they are yet undivided and indistinct before their creation; they appear to be shining and moving there; when they are dark and motionless on the outside. 48. It is the combination of atoms, that composes these worlds; and makes them shine so bright, when no particle has any light in it. (Dull matter is dark, and it is the light of God that makes it shine). 49. The sky, air, time and all other objects, which are said to be produced from the formless God; are likewise formless of themselves; the Lord God is the soul of all, devoid of all qualities and change, undecaying and everlasting, and termed the most transcendent truth.

EXPLANATION OF NIRVÁNA—ANAESTHESIA. Argument:—Ascertainment of the source of cause of the visible world. Ráma said:—How there is sensibility in sensible beings, and there is durability in time; how vacuum is a perfect void, and how inertness abides in dull material substances:— 2. How does fluctuation reside in air, and what is the state of things in futuro, and those that absent at present; how doth motion reside in moving things, and how doth plasmic bodies receive their forms. 3. Whence is the difference of different things, and the infinity of infinite natures; how there is visibility in the visibles, (i.e. how the visibles appear to view), and how does the creation of created things come to take place:— 4. Tell me, O most eloquent Brahman, all these things one by one, and explain them from the first to last, in such manner, that they may be intelligible to the lowest understanding. 5. Vasishtha replied:—That endless great vacuum, is known as the great and solid intellect itself; but this is not to be known any more, than as a tranquil and self-existent unity. 6. The Gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva and others, are reduced to their origin at the last dissolution of the world; and there remains only that pure source whence they have sprung.

7. There is however no cause to be assigned in this prime cause of all, who is also the seed of matter and form, as well as of delusion, ignorance and error. (These being but counterparts of spirit and knowledge, are all mingled in Him). 8. The original cause is quite transparent and tranquil, and having neither its beginning nor end, and the subtile ether itself is dense and solid, in comparison with the rarity of the other. 9. It is not proper to call it a nullity, when it is possessed of an intellectual body; nor can it with propriety styled as an existent being, when it is altogether calm and quiet (and nothing imaginable). 10. The form of that being is as inconceivable, as the idea of that little space of time which lies in midst of our thought of the length of a thousand miles, which the mind’s eye sees in a moment. (Its flash is quicker than that of a lightning and the flight of imagination). 11. The yogi who is insensible of the false and delusive desires and sights of objects, that intrude upon internal mind and external vision, sees the transient flash of that light in his meditation, as he wakes amidst the gloom of midnight.

12. The man that sits with the quiet calmness of his mind, and without any of joy or grief; comes to feel the pulsation of that spirit in himself, as he perceives the fluctuation of his mind within him. 13. That which is the spring of creation, as the sprout is the source of all vegetable productions; the very same is the form of the Lord (That he is the vegetative seed or germ of the arbour of the world. Sansára Briksa Brijánkura). 14. He is the cause of the world, which is seen to exist in Him; and which is a manifestation of himself, in all its varieties of fearful forms and shapes (All which is the act of his illusion). 15. These therefore having no actual or real cause, are no real productions nor actual existences; because there is no formal world (in its natural form), nor a duality co-existent with the spiritual unity. 16. That which has no cause, can have no possible existence; the eternal ideas of God cannot be otherwise than mere ideal shapes. 17. The vacuum which has no beginning nor end, is yet no cause of the world; because Brahma is formless, but the vacuous sky, which presents a visible appearance, cannot be the form of the formless and invisible Brahma.

18. Therefore he is that, in which the form of the world appears to exist; hence the lord himself appears as that which is situated in the vacuity of his intellect. 19. The world being of the nature of the intellectual Brahma, is of the same intellectual kind with him; though our error shows it otherwise (i.e. in a material and visible form. All is one with the unborn and ever tranquil One, in whom all dualities blend in unity). 20. This whole world springs from that whole intellect, and subsists in its entirety in that entire One; the completeness of that is displayed in the totality of this, and the completeness of creation, depends upon the perfection of its cause. (Nothing imperfect proceeds from the perfect one). 21. Knowing that One as ever even and quiet, having neither its rise or fall; nor any form of likeness, but ever remaining in its translucent unity as the ample sky, and is the everlasting all; and combining the reality and unreality together in its unity, makes the nirvána of sages.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNDIVIDED INDIVIDUALITY OF GOD. Argument:—Ascertainment of the unity of God. Vasishtha continued:—The world is a clear vacuum, subsisting in the entity of the vacuous Brahma; it is as the visible sky in the empty sky, and means the manifestation of Brahma. 2. The words I and thou are expressive of the same Brahma, seated in his undivided individuality; so are all things seated as calmly and quietly in him, as if they are not seated there, though they are shining in and by the same light. 3. The earth with its hills and protuberant bodies upon it, resembles the tumour on the body of Brahma; and the whole world, remains as dumb as a block in the person of Brahma. 4. He views the visibles, as he is no viewer of them; and he is the maker of all, without making anything; because they naturally subsist with their several natures in the Supreme spirit. 5. This knowledge of the subsistence of all nature in the essence of God, precludes our knowledge of the positive existence of everything besides; and our ideas of all entity and vacuity and of action and passion, vanish into nothing. (Since the One is all in all).

6. The one solid essence of the everlasting One, is diffused through all every where, as the solidity of a stone stretches throughout its parts; and all varieties blending into unity, are ever alike to him. 7. Life and death, truth and untruth, and all good and evil, are equally indifferent in that vacuous spirit, as the endless billows continually rising and falling in the waters of the deep. 8. The selfsame Brahma becomes divided, into the viewer and the view (i.e. into the subjective and the objective); the one being the intellect or the supreme, and the other the living soul (the former being the viewer of the latter). This division is known in the dreaming and waking states of the living or animal soul; when the same is both the subject as well the object in either state. (i.e. The sleeping soul dreams the living state as its object, and the living soul believes the other as object of its dream). 9. In this manner the form of the world, being exhibited as a vision in a dream, in the sphere of the divine intellect; is manifest therein as the counterpart or representation of Brahma himself, from the beginning. (This is the doctrine of the eternal ideas, being co-existent with the essence of the eternal One).

10. Therefore know this world and all things in it, to be exactly of that spiritual form, in which they are exhibited in the divine spirit; nor is there any variation in their spirituality (to materiality) owing to their appearance in various forms, as there is no change in the substance of the moon, owing to her several phases. 11. All these worlds reside and rove amidst the quiet spirit of God, in the same manner, as the waters remain and roll in waves in the midst of the calm bosom of the ocean. 12. Whatever is manifest, is manifested as the work, and that which is not apparent is the hidden cause of them; and there is no difference in them, in as much as they are both situated in that spirit, as their common centre; just as a traveller ever going forward, yet never moving from the centre of the earth. (The cause and effect both concentrate in the Lord, and there is no particle that goes out of that centre). 13. Hence the prime cause of creation is as nil, as the horn of a hare (which is a nullity in nature); search for it as much as you can, and you will find nothing (save an ectype of the eternal One).

14. Whatever appears anywhere without its <cause>, must be a fallacy of vision and mind; and who can account for the truth of an error which is untrue itself. (Falsehood is no truth). 15. How and what effect can come to existence without its cause, and what is it but an error of the brain, for a childless man to say he sees his son. 16. Whatever comes to appearance without its cause, is all owing to the nature of our imagination of the same; which shows the objects of our desire in all their various forms to our view, as our fancy paints the fairy lands in our minds. 17. As a traveller passing from one country to another, finds his body (himself) to stand at the midspot (from his knowledge of the rotundity of the earth); so nothing departs from its nature, but turns about that centre like. 18. The understanding also shows many false and biggest objects, in its airy and minute receptacle; as for instance the many objects of desire, and the notion of mountains, which it presents to us in our waking and dreaming states.

19. Ráma rejoined:—We know well that the future banian tree, resides within the minute receptacle of its seed; why then don’t you say, that the creation was hidden in the same manner in the unevolved spirit of God? 20. Vasishtha replied:—The seed in its material form, contains the formless big tree in its undeveloped bosom; which developes afterwards to a gigantic size, by aid of the auxiliary causalities (of heat, rain &c.). (But God is formless spirit and cannot contain the material world in it, nor has it the need of other helping causes to produce the world). 21. The whole creation being dissolved in the end, tell me what remains there of it in the form of its seed; and what ancillary causes are there to be found, which cause the production of the world. (Nothing exists in nothing). 22. The pure and transparent spirit of God, has nothing of any possible shape or figure in it; and if it is impossible for even an atom to find a place therein, what possibility is there for a formal seed to exist or subsist in it.

23. So the reality of a causal (productive) seed, being altogether untrue; there is no possibility of the existence of a real (substantial) world, nor can you say how, whence, by whom and when it came into being. 24. It is improper to say that the world consisted in a minute particle in the divine spirit, and quite absurd to maintain that it remained in an eternal atom (according to the atomic theory); for how is it possible that a body as big as a mountain could be contained in a minim as small as a mustard seed? It is therefore a false theory of the ignorant. 25. Had there been a real seed from eternity, it is possible for the world to be produced from it, by causes inherent in the same; but how could a real and formal seed, be contained in the formless spirit of God; and by what process could the material proceed from the immaterial? 26. It is therefore that prime and transcendent principle (of the divine spirit), which exhibits itself in the form of the world; and there is nothing which is ever produced from, nor reduced into it.

27. The world is situated in its intellectual form, in the vacuity of the Intellect; it is the human heart which portrays it, in its material shape. The pure soul views it in its pure spiritual light, but the perverted heart perceives it in a gross and concrete state. 28. It appears in the mind as empty air, and fluctuates there with the oscillation of the wind; there is nothing of its substantiality in the mind, nor even an idea of its creation (or being a created thing), as the word sarga is meant to express. 29. As there is vacuity in the sky, and fluidity in the water of its own nature; so is there spirituality alone in the soul, which views the world in a spiritual light only. 30. The world is a reflexion of Brahma, and as such, it is Brahma himself, and not a solid and extended thing; it is without its beginning or end and quiet in its nature, and never rises nor sets of itself. (i.e. It is inherent in the divinity, and is neither involved in nor evolved from it).

31. As a wise man going from one country to another, finds his body to be ever situated in the midst of this globe; so the universe with all its remotest worlds, is situated in the vacuity of the divine spirit. 32. As fluctuation is innate in the air, and fluidity is inherent in water, and vacuity is essential to vacuum; so is this world intrinsic in the divine soul, without anything concomitant with it. 33. The vacuous phantom of the world, is in the vacuum of divine consciousness or intellect; and being thus situated in the Supreme soul, it has no rising nor setting as that of the sun. Therefore knowing all these to be included in that vacuum, and there is nothing visible beside the same, cease from viewing the phantoms of imagination, and be as the very vacuity yourself.

THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORLD. Argument:—The ignorance of self shows the world, but the knowledge of self disperses it to nothing. Vasishtha continued:—It is the thought and its absence, that produce the gross and subtile ideas of the world; which in reality was never created in the beginning for want of a creator of it (i.e. The identity of the world with Brahma himself, precludes the supposition of its creation). 2. The essence of the intellect being of an incorporeal nature, cannot be the cause of a corporeal thing. The soul cannot produce an embodied being, as the seed brings forth the plants on earth. 3. It is the nature of man to think of things, by his own nature, and hence the intelligent of mankind view the world in an intellectual light, while the ignorant take in a gross material sense. The intellect being capable of conceiving everything in itself (whether the concrete or discrete). 4. The etherial soul relishes things according to its taste, and the intellect entertains the idea of whatever it thinks upon; the ignorant soul begets the idea of creation, as a giddy man sees many shapes in his intoxication.

5. Whenever the shape of a thing, which is neither produced nor existent, presents itself to our sight; it is to be known as a picture of the ideal figure, which lies quietly in the divine mind. 6. The vacuous Intellect dwelling in the vacuity of the intellect, as fluidity resides in water; shows itself in the form of the world, as the fluid water displays itself in the form of waves upon its surface. So the world is the self-same Brahma, as the wave is the very water. (But the world is intellectual display and not material as the wave). 7. The worlds shining in the empty air, are as the clear visions of things in a dream, or like the false appearances appearing to a dim-sighted man in the open sky. 8. The mirror of the intellect perceives the pageant of the world, in the same manner, as the mind sees the sights of things in dream. Hence what is termed the world, is but void and vacuity. (A something of nothing).

9. The dormant Intellect (or the sleeping soul of God), is said to be awakened in its first acts of creation; and then follows the inaction of the intellect, which is the sleep and night of the soul. (And so it is with all beings, the time of their action being their waking, and that of rest their sleep). 10. As a river continues to run in the same course, in which its current first began to flow; so the whole creation moves in the same unvaried course as at first, like the continuous current and rippling waves of rivers. 11. As the waves of river are concomitant with the course of its waters, so the source of creation lying in the vacuous seed of the airy Intellect, gives rise to its incessant course, along with its ceaseless train of thoughts. 12. The destruction of a man in his death, is no more than the felicity of his repose in sleep; so the resurrection of his soul (in a renovated body) in this world, is likewise a renewal of his felicity. (Hence there is neither pain nor fear, either in living or dying but both is bliss).

13. If there is any fear for or pain in sin, it is equally so both in this life as well as in the next; therefore the life and death of the righteous are equally as blissful (as they are painful to the unrighteous). 14. Those who look on and hail their life and death, with equal indifference; are men that have an unbroken tranquility of their minds, and are known as the cold-hearted (or meek stoical and platonic). 15. As the conscience becomes clear and bright, after the dross of its consciousness (of the subjective and objective), is cleansed and wiped from it; so shines the pure soul which they term the liberated and free (mukta). 16. It is upon the utter absence of our consciousness, that there ensues a total disappearance of our knowledge of the phenomenals also; and then our intellect rises without a vestige of the intelligibles in it, as also without its intelligence of the existence of the world. (This state of the mind constitutes likewise its liberation or mukti).

17. He that knows God, becomes unified with the divine nature, which is neither thinkable nor of the nature of the thinking principle or intellect, or any which is thought of by the intellect; and being so absorbed in meditation, remains quite indifferent to all worldly pursuits. 18. The world is a reflexion of the mirror of the intellect, and as it is exhibited in the transparent vacuity of the divine spirit, it is in vain to talk of its bondage or liberty. 19. It is the oscillation of the airy intellect, and an act of its imagination, which produces this imaginary world; it is entirely of the nature of the airy spirit whence it has its rise, and never of the form of the earth or anything else as it appears to be. 20. There is no space or time, nor any action or substance here, except an only entity, which is neither a nothing nor any thing that we know of. 21. It is only a spiritual substance, appearing as a thick mist to our sight; it is neither a void nor a substantiality either: but something purer and more pellucid, than the transparent vacuum about us.

22. It is formless with its apparent form, and an unreality with its seeming reality; it is entirely a pure intellectual entity, and appearing as manifest to sight, as an aerial castle in a dream. 23. It is termed the nirvána-extinction of a man, when his view of this outstretched gross and impure world, becomes extinct in its pure spiritual form in the vacuity of his mind. The vast and extensive world presenting all its endless varieties to view, has no diversity in it in reality; but forms an infinite unity, like the vacuous space of the sky, and the fluidity of waters of the one universal ocean on the globe.

STORY OF THE GREAT STONE, AND VASISHTHA’S MEDITATION. Argument:—Here the story of the stone is given, in elucidation of the truth that Intellect is all in all. Vasishtha added:—It being proved before, that the Intellect is always and every where, and in every manner the all in all; it becomes evident, that it remains like the vacuous and translucent air in everything in the whole universe. 2. Wherever there is the Intellect, there is also the creation (inseparable from it); the Intellect residing alike both in the void as well as in the plenum, all things are full of the Intellect, and there is nothing whatsoever in existence beside this universal Intellect. 3. As all created things (whether the moving or unmoving), appear in their visionary forms in our dream; so it is the vacuous Intellect alone, which appears in the various forms of existence in our waking dreams also. 4. Attend now, Ráma, to my narration of the stone, which be as pleasant to taste, as a remedial of ignorance. In this I will relate what I have seen and actually done myself. 5. Being anxious to know the knowable One, I was fully resolved in my mind, to leave this world and all its erroneous usages.

6. I remained a long while in a state of calm and quiet meditation, after having forsaken all the eagerness and restlessness of my body and mind, for the sake of solitary peace and rest. 7. I then pondered in my mind, of betaking myself to some seat or shrine of the Gods; and there sitting in quiet, continue to survey the changing and transitory states of worldly things. 8. I find all things, said I, to be quite insipid to my taste, though they seem to be pleasant for a while; I never see any one in any place, who is ever happy or content with his own state. 9. All things breed but care and sorrow, with the acutest pangs of remorse and regret; and all these phenomenals produce but evil, from their appearance of good to the beholder of them. (Thus the goodly bright aspects of the sun and moon, are attended with sunstroke and lunacy to their observer). 10. What is all this that comes to our view, who is their viewer and what am I that look upon these visibles (i.e. what is this objective sight, and what is this subjective self). All this is the quiet and unborn spirit, which flashes forth in the vacuous sky with the light of its own intellect.

11. With thoughts as these, I sought to retire from here to a proper place, where I might confine myself, in myself and which might be inaccessible to the gods and demi-gods, and to the siddhas and other beings. 12. Where I might remain unseen by any being, and sit quiet in my unalterable meditation; by placing my sole reliance in one even and transparent soul, and getting rid of all my cares and pains. 13. Ah! where could I find such a spot, which may be entirely void of all creatures; and where I may not be distracted in my mind by interruptions of the objects of my five external organs of sense. 14. I cannot choose the mountains for my seat, where the whistling breeze of the forests, the dashing noise of waterfalls, and the concourse of wild animals, serve to disquiet the mind, without the capability of their being quieted by human power. 15. The hills are crowded with hosts of elephants, and the dales are filled with hordes of savage peoples, the countries are full of heinous men, more baneful than the poison of venomous serpents.

16. The seas are full of men (on board the vessels), and are filled with horrible beasts in their depth; and the cities are disturbed with the din of business, and the broil of the citizens. 17. The foot of the mountains and the shores and coasts of seas and rivers, are as thickly peopled as the realms of the rulers of men; and even the summits of mountains and the caverns of infernal regions, are not devoid of animal beings. 18. The mountains are singing in the whistling of the breezes, and the trees are dancing with the motion of their leafy palms; and the blooming flowers are smiling gently, in the caves of mountains and forest grounds and low lands. 19. I cannot resort to the banks of rivers, where the mute finny tribe dwell like the silent munis in their grottos, and gently shake the water lilies by their giddy flirtation; because this place is disturbed also by the loud noise of the sounding whirlpools, and the hoarse uproar or roaring whirlwind. 20. I can find no rest in the barren deserts, where the howling winds are raising clouds of all engulfing dust, nor can I resort to the mountain cataracts, where the air resounds with the stunning noise of incessant waterfalls.

21. Then I thought of setting myself in some sequestered corner, of the remote region of the sky; where I might remain absorbed in my holy meditation without any disturbance. 22. In this corner, I thought of making a cell in my imagination, and keeping myself quite pent up in its close cavity, by an entire relinquishment of all my worldly desires. 23. With these reflexions, I mounted high in the blue vault of the sky; and found the ample space in its womb to know no bounds (and was identic with Infinity itself). 24. Here I saw the siddhas (perfected spirits) roving in one place, and the roaring clouds rolling in another; in one side I beheld the vidyádhara or accomplished spirits, and the excelled yakskas on another. (Heaven is the abode of perfected souls of all people at large). 25. In one spot I saw an aerial city, and the region of the jarring winds in another; I beheld the raining clouds on one side, and raging yoginis or furies in another. 26. There was the city of the Daityas or demons, hanging in the air on one side; and the place of the Gandarvas appearing in another. The planetary sphere was rolling about in one way, and the starry frame revolving at a distance.

27. Some where the sky was brushed over by flights of birds, and great gales were raging in another part; somewhere there appeared portents in the sky, and elsewhere there were canopies of clouds formed in the heavens. 28. One part of heaven was studded with cities, peopled by strange kinds of beings; the car of the sun was gliding on one side, and the wheel of the lunar disk was sliding in another. 29. One region of the sky was burning under the torrid sun, and another part was cooled by the cooling moon-beams; one part was intolerable to little animals and another was inaccessible owing to its intense heat. 30. One place was full of dancing demons, and another with flocks of flying garuda eagles; one region was deluged by diluvian rains, and another was infested by tempestuous winds. 31. Leaving these plenary parts behind, I passed onward far and further; when I reached to a region entirely desolate, and devoid of everything (i.e. the increate vacuity). 32. Here the air was mild, and no being was to be seen even in a dream; there was no omen of good, nor anything portentous of evils, nor any sight or sign of world.

33. I figured to myself in this place, a solitary cell with some space in it; and it was without any passage for egress, and was as goodly as the unblown bed of a lotus. 34. It was not perforated by worms, but was as handsome as the bright disk of the full-moon; and as lovely as the comely features of the lily and lotus, jasmine and mandara flowers. 35. This abode of my imagination, was inaccessible to all other beings but to myself; and I sat there alone with only my thoughts and creations of my imagination by myself. 36. I remained quite silent and calm in my mind, in my posture of Padmásana (or yoga meditation); and then rose from my seat at the expiration of a hundred years, after my acquirement of spiritual knowledge. 37. I sat in unwavering meditation, and was absorbed in a fit of hypnotism; I remained as quiet as the calm stillness of the air, and as immovable as a statue carved in relief upon the face of the sky. 38. At last I found out in my mind, what it had been long searching after in earnest; and at last the breath of my expectation returned into my nostrils. (Parting breath of longing returns with the longed for object).

39. The seed of knowledge which I had sown in the field of my mind, came to sprout forth of itself from the midst of it, after the lapse of a whole century. 40. My life or living soul, is now awakened to its intuitive knowledge (of truth); as a tree left withered by the dewy season, becomes revivified by the moisture of the renovating spring. 41. The hundred years which I passed in my meditation here, glided away as quickly as a single moment before me; because a long period of time appears a very short space, to one who is intensively intent upon a single object. (Whereas the succession of thoughts be an unchanging duration of the same moment to him who is fixed in his mind). 42. Now my outward senses had their expansion, from their contracted state (in my meditative mind); just as the withered arbors expand themselves into flowers and foliage, by the enlivening influence of the vernal season. 43. Then the vital airs filled the organs of my body, and restored my consciousness of their sensations; soon after I was seized upon by the demon of my egoism, accompanied by its consort of desire; and these began to move to and fro, just as the strong winds shake the sturdy oaks.

ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN. Argument:—Difference of Egoism in wise and in common people, and Disappearance of visibles. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O most sapient sage, how it is possible for the demon of ego to take hold of you, that are extinct in the deity, and dissipate my doubts there. 2. Vasishtha replied:—It is impossible, O Ráma, for any being whether knowing or unknown to live here without the sense of his egoism; as it is not possible for the contained to subsist without its container. 3. But there is a difference of this which you must know, that the demoniac egoism of the quiet minded man, is capable of control by means of his knowledge of and attention to the srutis. 4. It is the infantine ignorance which raises up this idol of egoism, though it is found to exist no where; just as little children make dolls and images of gods and men, that have no existence at all. 5. This ignorance also (which is the cause of egoism), is nothing positive of itself; since it is dispelled by knowledge and reason, as darkness is driven away by the light of a lamp. (Ignorance and darkness are but negative terms).

6. Ignorance is a demon that dances about in the dark, and a fiend that flies afar before the light of reason. (Hence the disappearance of ignorance causes our egoism to disappear also). 7. Granting the existence of ignorance, in absence of the advance of knowledge and reason; yet it is at best but a fiend of delusion, and is as shapeless as the darkest night (When nothing is to be seen). 8. Granting the existence of creation, we have no trace of ignorance any where in it (since creation is the production of omniscience, there is no nescience in any part of) the existence of two moons in the sky. 9. Creation having no other cause (but God himself), we know not how could ignorance find a place in it; just so it is impossible for a tree to grow in the air (which God hath made void, barren, and bare). (God hath planted the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden, but no tree of ignorance did He set any where).

10. When creation began and was begotten in the beginning, in its pure and subtile form in the womb of absolute vacuum (or the mind of God); how is it possible for the material bodies of earth and water to proceed (from the immaterial spirit) without a material cause? 11. The Lord is beyond (the conception of) the mind, and (the perception of) the six senses, and is yet the source of the mind and senses; but how could that formless and incorporeal being, be the cause of material and corporeal things? 12. The germ is the effect (or product), germinating from its causal source—the seed; but how and where can you expect to see the sprout springing without the productive seed? 13. No effect can ever result, without its formal cause or main-spring; say who has ever seen or found a tree to spring from and grow in empty air. (Nihil ex nihilo fit, et nihil in nihilum reverte posse). 14. It is imagination alone that paints these prospects in the mind, just as the fume of fancy shows you the sight of trees in the empty air; so it is the phrensy of the mind, that exhibits these phenomena before your eyes, but which in reality have no essentiality in them.

15. So, the universe as it appeared at its first creation, in the vacuity of the divine intellect; was all a congeries of worlds swimming in empty air (in their hollow ideal shapes). 16. (But the universe is not altogether a void and nihility). It is the same as it shines itself in the spacious intellect of the supreme soul (or spirit); it is the divine nature itself which is termed as creation, and which is an intellectual system having proceeded from the intellect, and the self-same divinity. 17. The vision of the world which is presented in our dream, and which is of daily occurrence to us, furnishes us with the best instance of this; when we are conscious of the sights of cities, and of the appearance of hills, all before our mental eyes in the dreaming state. (So this world is but a dream). 18. It is the nature of the Intellect as that of a dream, to see the vision of creation, as we view the appearance of the uncreated creation before our eyes, in the same manner as it appeared at first in the vast void (of divine mind).

19. There is but one unintelligible intelligence, a purely unborn and imperishable being, that appears now before us in the shape of this creation, as it existed with its everlasting ideas of infinite worlds, before this creation began. 20. There is no creation here, nor these orbs of earth and others; it is all calm and quiet with but One Brahma seated in his immensity. 21. This Brahma is omnipotent and as He manifests himself in any manner, He instantly becomes as such without forsaking his purely transparent form. 22. As our intellect shows itself, in the form of visionary cities in our dream; so doth the divine intellect exhibit itself, in the forms of all these worlds, at the commencement of their creation. 23. It is in the transparent and transcendent vacuum of the Intellect, that the vacuous intellect is situated; and the creation is the display of its own nature, by an act of its thought in itself. (There is a large note explanatory of this passage). 24. The whole creation consists in the clear vacuity of the intellect, and is of the nature of the spirit situated in the spirit of God. (The world exists in its spiritual form in the ample space of the divine spirit).

25. The whole creation being but the diffusion of the selfsame spiritual essence of God, there is no possibility of the existence of a material world or ignorance or egoism, in the creation and pervasivefulness of the Supreme spirit. 26. Everything have I told you all about the desinence of your egoism, and one knowing the unreality of his egoisticism, gets rid of his false belief, as a boy is freed from his fear of a ghost. 27. In this manner, no sooner was I fully convinced of the futility of egoism, than I lost the sense of my personality; and though I retained fully the consciousness of myself, yet I got freed from my selfishness, as a light autumnal cloud by disloading its watery burden. 28. As our knowledge of the inefficacy of a flaming fire in painting, removes the fear of our being burnt by it; so our connection of our fallacies of egoism and creation, serves to efface the impressions of the subjective and objective from our minds. 29. Thus when I was delivered from my egoism, and set to the tranquility of my passions; I then found myself seated in an unatmospheric firmament (which was free from cloud and rain); and in an uncreated creation (i.e. in the everlasting vacuity or eternal sunshine of heaven).

30. I am none of egoism, nor is it anything to me; having got rid of it, I have become one with clear intellectual vacuum. 31. In this respect, all intelligent men are of the same opinion with myself; as it is well known to them that our notion of egoism is as false, as the fallacy of fire represented in a painting. 32. Being certain of the unreality of yourself and of others, and of the nihility of everything beside; conduct yourself in all your dealings with indifference, and remain as mute as a stone. 33. Let your mind shine with the clearness of the vault of heaven, and be as impregnable to the excess of all thoughts and feelings as solid stone. Know that there is but One Intellectual essence from beginning to end, and that there nothing to be seen except the One-deity, who composes the whole plenum.

PROVING THE CREATION AS DIVINE ATTRIBUTE. Argument:—The Eternity and infinity of creation, elucidated in the story of the block of stone. Ráma said:—O venerable sir, what an extensive, noble, grand and clear prospect have you exposed to my sight; (by showing the infinite of time and place to be composed of the essence of the supreme deity). 2. I find also by my percipience, that the entity of the One and sole Ens, fills the whole space at all times and places; and that it is the essence which shows itself alike in every manner and form always and every where forever and evermore. 3. I have yet some scruples sir, rankling in my breast, and hope you will please to remove them, by explaining unto me the meaning of your story of the stone (you mentioned before). 4. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, I will relate to you the story of the stone, in order to stablish that this whole or the plenum, is existent in all times and in all places (with the Divine essence). 5. I will elucidate to you by means of this story, how thousands of worlds are contained within the compact and solid body of a stone (as the thoughts of all things, are comprised in the density of the Divine Intellect).

6. I will also show to you in this story, how the grand material world (which is as compact as a stone, is contained in its immaterial or airy ideal state, in the vast vacuity of the divine mind). 7. You will also find from this story, that there is in the midst of all plants and their seeds, and in the hearts of all living animals, as also in the bosom of the elementary bodies of water and air as of earth and fire, sufficient space containing thousands of productions of their own kinds. 8. Ráma rejoined:—If you say, O sage, that all vegetables and living beings are full with the productions of their respective kinds, then why is it that we do not perceive the numerous productions, which abound in the empty air? 9. Vasishtha replied:—I have already told you Ráma, much about this first and essential truth; that the whole of this creation which appears to our sight, is empty air and subsisting in the inane vacuum only.

10. In the first place there is nothing that was ever produced in the beginning, nor is there anything which is in existence at present; all this that appears as visible to us is no other than Brahma Himself, and subsisting in his Brahmic or plenary immensity or fullness. (So the sruti: The Lord is full in the fulness of his creation &c.). 11. There is no room for an atom of earth, to find its place in the fulness of the divine Intellect, which is filled with its ideal worlds; nor do the material worlds exist in Brahma, who is of the form of pure vacuum. 12. There is no room even for a spark of fire, to have its place in the intellectual creation of God which admits of no gap or pore in it; nor do these worlds exist in any part of Brahma, who is entirely a pure vacuity. 13. There is no possibility also for a breath of air, to subsist in the imporous fulness of the intellectual creation of God; nor doth any of these (earthly, luminous or aerial) worlds, exist in the purely vacuous Intellect of Brahma.

14. There is not even a jot of the visible vacuity, that finds a place in the intensity of the ideal creation in the divine mind; nor is it possible for any of these visible worlds, to subsist in the compact vacuum of the deity. 15. The five great elementary bodies, have no room in the consolidated creation of God, which subsists in its vacuous form in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect. 16. There is nothing created any where, but it is the vacuum and in the vacuity of the great spirit of God. 17. There is no atom of the great spirit of God, which is not full of creations or created things; nor is there any creation or created thing, but is the void and in the vacancy of the Divine spirit. 18. There is no particle of Brahma, distributed in the creation: because the Lord is spirit, and always full in Himself. (The Divine soul, admits no materiality nor divisibility in its nature). 19. The creation is the supreme Brahma, and the Lord is the creation itself; there is not the slightest tint of dualism in them, as there is no duality of fire and its heat.

20. It is improper to say that this is creation and the other is Brahma, and to think them as different from one another; just as it is wrong to consider a dáru and dárya (a tree and tearable) as two things, from the difference in the sounds of the words (of the same meaning). (So Brahma immensity and srishti—creation are synonymous terms differing in sound). 21. There exists no difference of them, when their duality disappears into unity; and when we can not have any idea of their difference, unless we support the gross dualistic theory (which is absurd). 22. We know all this as one clear and transparent space, which is without its beginning and end, and quite indestructible and tranquil in its nature; and knowing this all wise men remain as mute as a piece of solid stone, even when they are employed in business. 23. Look at this whole creation as whether extinct in the Deity, and view the visible world as a vast void only; look upon your egoism and tuism as mere fallacies, and behold the Gods and demigods and the hills and everything else as the visionary appearances in our dream, which spread their nil of delusion over the minds of men (even in their waking state).

DESCRIPTION OF THE NET WORK OF THE WORLD. Argument:—Vasishtha’s hearing a faint sound after his hybernation and his coming to the sight of endless worlds afterwards. Ráma rejoined:—Relate to me, O sage, of your acts of a whole century, after you had risen from your trance, in the cell of your aerial abode. 2. Vasishtha replied:—After I had awakened from my trance, I heard a soft and sweet sound, which <was> slow but distinctly audible, and was clearly intelligible both in sound and sense. 3. It was as soft and sweet, as if it proceeded from female voice; and musical to the ear; and as it was neither loud nor harsh owing to its effeminacy, I kept to watch whence the words were heard. 4. It was as sweet as the humming of the bees, and as pleasing as the tune of wired instruments; it was neither the chime of crying nor the rumble of reading, but as the buzzing of black bees, known to men as the visa-koshi strain in vocal music. 5. Hearing this strain for a long time, and seeking in vain whence it came, I thought within myself: “It is a wonder that I hear the sound, without knowing its author, and from which of the ten sides of heaven it proceeds.”

6. This part of the heavens, said I, is the path of the siddhas (or spirits of sanctified saints), and on the other side I see an endless vacuity; I passed over millions of miles that way, and then I sat there awhile and pondered in my mind. 7. How could such feminine voice, proceed from such a remote and solitary quarter; where I see no vocalist with all my diligent search. 8. I see the infinite space of the clear and inane sky lying before me, where I find no visible being appearing to my sight notwithstanding all my diligent search. 9. As I was thinking in this manner, and looking repeatedly on all sides, without seeing the maker of the sonant sound; I thought on a plan in the following manner. 10. That I must transform myself to air, and be one with the inane vacuum; and then make some sound in the empty air, which is the receptacle of sound. (The air is said to be the vehicle and medium of sound, which is called the property of air). 11. I thought on leaving my body in its posture of meditation, as I was sitting before; and with the vacuous body of my intellect, mix with the inane vacuum, as a drop of water mixes with water.

12. Thinking so, I was about to forsake my material frame, by sitting in my posture of Padmásana, and betaking myself to my samádhi or intense meditation, and shut my eyes closely against all external sights. 13. Having then given up my sensations of all external objects of sense, I became as void as my intellectual vacuum, preserving only the feeling of my consciousness in myself. 14. By degrees I lost my consciousness also, I became a thinking principle only; and then I remained in my intellectual sphere as a mirror of the world (i.e. to reflect the reflexions of all worldly things in their abstracted light). 15. Then with that vacuous nature of mine, I became one with the universal vacuum; and melted away as a drop of water with the common water, and mixed as an odour in the universal receptacle of empty air. 16. Being assimilated to the great vacuum, which is omnipresent and pervades over the infinite space; I became like the endless void, the reservoir and support of all, although I was formless and supportless myself. 17. In my formless (of endless space), I began to look into myriads of worlds and mundane eggs, that lay countless in my infinite and unconscious bosom.

18. These worlds were apart from, and unseen by and unknown to one another; and appeared with all their motions and manners, as mere spaces to each other (i.e. they are at such great distance that they could not be seen all at once). 19. As visions in a dream appearing thickly to a dreaming man, and as nothing to the sleeping person; so the empty space abounds with worlds to their observers, and as quite vacant to the unobservant spiritualist. 20. Here many things are born, to grow and decay and die away at last; and what is present is reckoned with the past, and what was in the womb of futurity, comes to existence in numbers. 21. Many magic scenes and many aerial castles and buildings, together with many a kingdom and palace, are built in this empty air, by the imaginations of men. 22. Here there were to be seen many edifices with several apartments counting from unit to the digit (and these are the various systems of philosophy, with one and many more number, of their respective categories).

23. There were some structures, constructed with ten or sixteen apartments; and others which had dozens and three dozens of doors, attached to them. (The predicaments of the Nyáya and Jaina systems of philosophy. But Buddhism or Jain Atheism is called Nirávarana, having no category but vacuity). 24. The whole ethereal space is full of the five primary elements, which compose elementary bodies of single or double and triple natures. 25. Some of these bodies are composed of quadruple, quintuple and hextuple elements, and others of seven different elementary principles called seven fold great elements—Sapta-mahá-bhutas. (They are the five subtile elements of earth, water, fire, air and vacuum, and the two principles of time and space, all which subsist in vacuity). 26. So there are many super-natural natures, which are beyond the power of your conception (as the Gods, demons and other etherial beings), and so there are spaces of everlasting darkness, without the light of the sun and moon. 27. Some parts of the void were devoid of creation, and others were occupied by Brahmá the creator—their master, some parts were under the dominion of the patriarchs or lords of creatures, and under influence of various customs.

28. Some parts were under the control of the vedas, and others were ungoverned by regulations of sástras; some parts were full of insects and worms, and others were peopled by gods and other living beings. 29. In some parts the burning fires of daily oblations were seen to rise, and at others the people were observant of the traditional usages of their respective tribes only (without knowing their reasons). 30. Some parts were filled with water, and others were the regions of storms; some bodies were fixed in the remote sky, and others were roving and revolving in it continually. 31. The growing trees were blossoming in some parts, and others were fructifying and ripening at others. There were the grazing animals moving pronely in some place, and others were teeming with living beings. 32. The Lord alone is the whole creation, and He only is the totality of mankind; He is the whole multitude of demons, and He too is the whole shoal of worms every where. 33. He is not afar from anything, but is present in every atom that is contained in his bosom. All things are growing and grown up in the cell of vacuity, like the coatings of the plantain tree.