Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

30. There arose a loud dashing noise louder than the roaring sea; I was stunned by the stridor, and was insensible of the fates of my family. 31. Men were driven away and hurled down into the whirling eddies, and were buried deep into the dreadful mud, with their wailings and loud cries, with the beating of their breasts. 32. The houses and huts were breaking and cracking, their beams and posts were splitting, the pillars and supports were bursting, and the roofs and coverings were falling down, while the females were looking out with their faces fixed at the windows. (i.e. Women stared from within the doors and windows and dared not to stir without). 33. As I was looking awhile at all this, being affected at the sight; and was weeping sorrowfully at the event, I saw the whole edifice falling down on the ground. 34. The walls on the four sides broke down, and buried the old and young and female inmates under them; and these were borne away by the waves at last, as the impetuous waterfall carries away the shattered and scattered stones to a hundred different ways.

35. I was then blown away into the waters of the deluge, leaving behind me my family and friend; and accompanying only my mind and vital breath with me. 36. I was tossed about by the waves, and borne away to the distance of leagues after leagues; and was thrown upon the floating woods, which roasted me by their inburning wildfire. 37. I was dashed against the floating planks and timbers, and slashed in many parts of my body, then falling into a whirlpool I was hurled into the abyss of pátála. 38. Being thus tossed all about, and hurled up and down, I had been for a long time, buffeting amidst the waves and waters, and their gurgling, roaring and rumbling sounds. 39. I was then buried under the mud, caused by the friction of the drowned mountains against one another; and was again lifted upward like an elephant, by the influx of a flood of water. 40. As I was halting on a hill covered with foam and froth; immediately I was run over by a rush of water, as a man is overtaken by his enemy.

41. Being then ingulfed in the water, and carried away by the waves and current wheresoever they pleased, I lost the sight of whatever I was seeing, and was greatly dejected in my mind. 42. At this moment there, I had come to know by my reminiscence, that <a> certain muni will lecture to the public, the Vasishtha’s address of Ráma hereafter. 43. I remembered my former state of holy trance (samádhi) and exclaimed; O, had I been an ascetic in another world. 44. I have entered into the body of another person, in order to see the sights in his dreaming; and all that I am now seeing (of this flood and others), is no more than a dream, and mere error of the mind and falsehood. 45. It is from our habitual bias in the present scene, that I believed these falsehoods as true in me; and though I was troubled to see myself to be borne away by the flood in my dream; yet I feel myself happy at present to find, it was but the unreality of a dream.

46. What I saw as water, was the whirling eddy in the ocean of the universal deluge, and as false as the water of mirage; and the hills and woods, and the cities and towns, that were swept away by the flood, were as false as any visual deception. 47. There were the gods and aerials, men and women, and huge snakes also borne away by the flood; and the great cities and mansions of the rulers of men (i.e. royal edifices), all floating upon the waters. 48. I saw the mountain merged in and mixed up with the waters, and being battered and shattered by the waves; I saw the approaching dissolution of the world, and thus considered within myself. 49. There is even the god Siva with his three eyes, swimming upon and swept away as a straw by the waves: O fie for shame! that there is nothing impossible for the fates. 50. Fragments of houses floating upon the waters, looked like lotus flowers flaunting under the sun-beams. 51. It was astonishing to see the bodies of Gandharvas, Kinnaras, and of men and Nágas, floating on the waters, like swarms of bees fluttering over lotus-beds in the lake.

52. The fragments of the splendid edifices of the gods and demigods and others, decorated with the ornamental works of the vidyádharas, were floating like golden vessels on the wide expanse of the ocean. 53. The god Indra was floating on the glassy water, as if he were lying in his crystal palace; he mounted over the waves, as if he rode on his elephant; and was swinging on the surges as upon his cradle. 54. The waves rising to the sky, were washing the faces of the stars, and the winds were scattering them all about; as they drop down the flowers of the garden of Eden on the mansions of the gods, and as men strew the ground with fried rice. 55. Waves as high as mountains rose to the sky, and then their breakers flying aloft like stones flung by ballistas, fell upon the lotus seat of Brahmá, and turned it about with the god also, who was sitting upon it in his deep meditation. 56. The clouds were roaring aloud with deep and appalling thunder, and the billows were flashing like frightful lightnings in the air; elephants, horses, and ferocious lions were wandering in the atmosphere, and forests as large as the earth, were floating in the sky.

57. The dark blue waves of over-flowing waters, pushed with such violent force against one another; as if the god of destruction was propelling them one after another to the act, of utter annihilation (or as the powers of destruction were propelling one another). 58. The waves were carrying down into the deep, the gods, men, and Nágas, together with their abodes in heaven, earth and the regions below. 59. The irresistible flood having flooded over all sides, of earth, heaven and the infernal region, the bodies of the gods and demigods, were all floating together like shoals of fishes; and their heavenly cars and vehicles were swimming over on the surface of the waters, as in the field of battle. 60. The body of dark blue waters, resembled the azure form of Krishna; and their foaming froths, likened the milk white calves about him. (The text is utterly meaningless). 61. The waves pushed one another, with the burber sound for drowning every thing; and the females both of the gods and giants were heard to wail aloud with cries of hola and howling. (Hola is the exclamation of wailing, corresponding with waílá in Persian).

62. The loud cries raised by all, at the falling down of their houses, were resounded by the waters on all sides; and the clouds roving over the rolling waves, appeared as the covers of fallen and floating domes. 63. Ah it was piteous to behold, how the whirling waters of whirlpools, hurled down even the gods into the deep; and how Indra, Yama, and Kubera, breathed out their last breaths in the form of flying and flimsy clouds. 64. There the learned and saintly persons, were carried away with the ignorant, in the shape of dead bodies and devoid of their pride; and the cities of the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, and Indra, were swept away, all broken and crushed to pieces. 65. The bodies of weak women, were washed and carried over by the waves, and there was no body left to save them from the grasp of death; which devoured them altogether under his horrid jaws. 66. The floods which flowed at first with their serpentine course into the caves of mountains, overflooded them to their tops at last; and the cities of the gods, which floated at first as boats upon the waters on mountain tops, were hurled to the bottom at last.

67. The gods and giants and all other beings, together with their residences in heaven, and the continents and mountains on earth, were all submerged and shattered like lotus-beds by the waters; and the three worlds were turned to an universal ocean and all their grandeur and splendour were swallowed up by time, together with all the sovran powers of earth and heaven.

WORKINGS OF IMAGINATION. Argument: - The sage’s situation at the end of the Deluge, and his description of the reproduction of creation. The Huntsman said: - Tell me sir, how a sage as yourself, could be exposed to that state (of the dream or delusion of the Deluge); and why were you not delivered from your meditation. 2. The sage replied: - At the end of the Kalpa age, all kinds of beings meet with their destruction; namely, there is a termination of the erroneous forms of the worlds, and a cessation of the luminous bodies in the heaven. 3. Sometimes the dissolution takes place gradually at the end of a kalpa; and at others it comes on all on a sudden, with a simultaneous turmoil and disorganization on all sides. 4. So when there was an outbreak of waters on every side, and the gods were repairing to Brahmá the first cause of all; for redress from the impending danger, they were all swept away by the overflowing tide. 5. Moreover, O forester! know time to be the most mighty destroyer of all things; and every thing must occur in its time, as it is predestined at the beginning. (Time devours all things).

6. The time of one’s dissolution being nigh, there ensues a detriment in the strength, intellect and prowess of everybody not excepting even the great. (Nothing is of any avail before fate). 7. I have told you also, O fortunate forester! that all that is seen in a dream is mere dreaming; and nothing of it, comes to take place in reality herein. 8. The forester responded: - Sir, if the dream is a mere falsity and error of imagination; then what was the good of your relating all this, that know well what is good and useful for mankind. 9. The sage replied: - There was much use of my relating all this to you, O intelligent huntsman, for improvement of your understanding; and as you have come to know, that the visibles are all as false as the sights in sleep, you shall now know what is real and true. 10. Now as long as the waters of deluge lasted, I remained seated in the heart of the said medium, and saw some other false sights in his dream.

11. I saw the waters of the deluge, to recede to the unknown region from where they had overflown; and the huge waves disappeared altogether, as when the winged mountains fled away for fear of the thunders of Indra. (Who lopped of their pinions of yore. See the legend in stanza - Book I. Kumára sambhava of Kálidása). 12. I was borne aloft by my good fate to some distant shore, where I was seated as firmly as upon the elevated peak of a high and solid mountain. 13. Thence I saw the waters to subside in their basins, and the stars of heaven shining upon them, like the sparkling particles of their splashing billows, or as their foaming and floating froths. 14. The reflexions of the stars in water, seemed as the shining gems in the bosom of the ocean; and the stars that shone above in the firmament, appeared as the nightly flaming bushes on the tops of mountains. (There are the medicinal plants that are said to burn by night. Vide Kumára Sambhava Stanza - Book I.). 15. The firmament studded with lustrous stars, and had the appearance of an island beaming with gold; and the azure sky seemed wrapt over with the blue garments of celestial dames.

16. The blue diluvian clouds that floated in the sky, resembled a bed of cerulean lotuses in the etherial lake; and the lightnings that flashed in their bosoms, likened the yellow farina of flowers, flying all about the midway sky. 17. Masses of mountain-like clouds flushed with frost, and poured down showers of rain on all sides; the floods of the deluge rolled down with their reflexions, as bearing the huge Kalpa forests in their bosom. 18. Afterwards the basin of the universal ocean was dried up, and turned to an empty and dry hollow on all around; and the mountain of the Mandara and Sahya hills, that had been drowned under the waters were found to be melted down to mud or washed away by the receding flood. 19. Here the sun and moon were found to be sunk in the slough, and there the gods Yama and Indra to be hid under the soil; somewhere the serpents and takshakas were rolling in the mire, and elsewhere the Kalpa woods lay buried with their tops and branches underneath the mud. 20. In some places the heads and hands of people were scattered over the ground, and looked like lotus buds and flowers torn from their stalks and strewn about the bare and barren land.

21. There were the Vidyádhara females drowned up to their necks in the slime, and crying in their piteous chimes in one place; and there were the big bodied buffaloes of Yama lying in another, and resembling the huge bodies of dead elephants appearing in dream. (The buffalo of Yama is no less bulky than the Airávata elephant of Indra). 22. In some place the bulky body of Garuda, bulged out like the huge mountain of the gods; and in others the embankments were swept away; as if they were slashed by the mace of Yama fallen upon the ground. 23. There were the remains of the dead hansa of Brahmá, muddled in the mire somewhere, and the relics of Indra’s elephant were huddled in the mud in another place. 24. In the meanwhile I found a flat land in one spot, where I resorted for rest from my weariness; and was there overtaken by sound sleep, that insensibility stole upon me. 25. Then waking from my sound sleep, I found myself seated in the heart of the hunter; and retaining the possession of my sensibility, I was led by my innate desire to see the similar sights of desolation as before.

26. I beheld upon my waking, the said flat land to lie in the very heart of the hunter where I was situated; and was seized with greater grief and sorrow at my sight of the spectacle. (The reproduction of the world being but the renovation of our woe, and happy are they who work no more to the sight). 27. I saw therefrom the rising of the bright and beautiful sun on the next day; and by means of the solar light, I came to the sight of the worlds and the sky, of this earth and its hills, which presented themselves to my view. 28. But I soon found that, the earth and sky, the air and all its sides, together with the hills and rivers, were all but the reproduction of my mind (from its previous ideas of them); as the leaves shoot forth from the trees. (Because the insensible stones, have no perception of the visibles). 29. Then on seeing the things, as they were exposed to my sight on the earth; I began to manage with them in a manner as I had somewhat forgotten their right and proper use. (Reminiscence of the past being often liable to obliteration).

30. After my birth I passed sixteen years at that spot, and had the knowledge of this person as my father, and that one as my mother, and this spot as my dwelling place, and all this knowledge rising spontaneously from my self-cogitation. 31. I then saw a village and the hermitage of a Bráhman at that place; and there I beheld a house and found a friend therein, and many more other places. 32. Thus I remained in the society of my friends, in the village huts and hamlets; and passed many days and nights, in the states of repeated watchfulness and returning sleep. 33. Remaining thus in company with these, I came to lose in course of time the light of the understanding I had attained before, and forgot myself as one of them by my habitual mode of thinking, as the man forgot himself to a fish (as it is related before in the story of Dama, Vyála and Kata). 34. In this manner, I remained as a village Bráhman (or parish-person) for a long time; relying only in my body as begotten by a Bráhman, and quite forgetful of other.

35. I believed my material body only to constitute my person, and my wife alone as my copartner; I understood my desires only to be the essence of my soul, and thought that riches only were the sole object of gain in life. 36. I had an old cow only for my treasure, and the greens of my garden as my only provision; my collections were only the sacred fire and sacrificial animals, and my utensil an only water pot. (Kines constituted the wealth of the ancient Indians, as the pecus or sheep were reckoned as riches by the old Latins; hence godhana means kine money, as pancha godhanam - the value of five cows corresponding with the penta pecuniae of the Romans). 37. My hopes were as frail as perennial plants, and my conduct the same with that of other men; and the state of my living was as mean, as of the mud and mire about my dwelling. 38. I passed my days in pruning and weeding the garden of my greens; and in performing my daily ablutions, in the rills and rivulets reckoned as holy by men.

39. I was employed in providing my food and drink, and in procuring the fuel and cow-dung for fire; and remained entangled in the snare, of scrutinizing about what was right or wrong for daily observance. 40. In this way a whole century of my life time, passed away at that place, when it happened on a time that a holy hermit passed by that way from a great distance, and became my guest in my humble abode. 41. Being welcomed and honoured by me, he entered in my dwelling, and took his rest after washing and bathing himself. Then after his meal he sat on his bed, and began to tell his fate at the approach of night. 42. He spoke of many climes and countries, and of many lands and mountains; and talked of their different customs and manners, which were pleasant to hear, and related to various subjects. 43. All these, he said, are the display of the One Intellect, which is infinite and immutable in its nature; and manifests itself in the form of cosmos, which is for ever present with it as it is now seen to be.

44. Being thus enlightened by him, I was filled as it were with a flood of light, and remained listening to him with attention, all whatever he said on this and other subjects. 45. I heard also my own tale from him, and learning that the person which contained me within its womb, is no less than the body of Virát himself, I was eager to come out of the same. 46. So long as I was not aware, that its mouth is the only door way for my exit of that body; I kept moving through it, as if I were wandering amidst the vast extent of the earth and oceans. 47. I then left that spot, beset as it was by my friends and relations; and entered into his vital part, in order to make my egress with the vital breath. 48. Intending then to see both the inside and outside of the Viráta’s body, in which I resided, I continued to mark well the process of its outer movements as also of its inner thoughts. 49. I fixed my attention to my consciousness, and remained settled at my station without changing its spot; and then breathed out with his breath, as the fragrance of flowers accompanies the wind.

50. The rising with his respiration, I reached the cavity of his mouth; and mounting afterwards on the vehicle of the wind, I went on forward, and beheld all that lay before me. 51. I observed there the hermitage of a sage, situated in the grotto of a mountain at a distance; and found it full with anchorites, and myself sitting in my padmásana among them. (He saw the sight to which he was habituated all along his life). 52. These anchorites stood before me as my pupils, and were employed in their duty of taking care of my person in its state of anaesthesia. 53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I had been residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back, after taking some food which he got in the adjacent village. 54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thing about it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body for my own amusement. 55. I got to <the> region of vitality which was situated within the heart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before, and I left behind.

56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching with its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together with the positions of the world. 57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state, the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed <to> be dislocated from its place. 58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark the situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it lay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I know where they were taken. 59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a sight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew to view. 60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining all at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down the high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water. 61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of conflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with all the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them save in the memory of men.

62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers on all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all away. 63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth in flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe flushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening sky. 64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a flame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving bee is closed up in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and unscathed by the burning flame. 65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered as the flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered over the burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus of the lands (sthala padma).

DESCRIPTION OF THE TERMINATION OF A KALPA-PERIOD. Argument: - Continuation of the subject of fire and flame, and hot winds and fiery clouds at the final Dooms-day Dissolution. The sage continued: - Though repeatedly burning amidst those fires, yet I was neither consumed nor felt the least pain therein; and though falling from one fire into another; yet I thought all this as a dream in my dreaming (i.e. one dream in another). 2. The fires flew aloft, and filled the vault of heaven with flames; and I was flying as a fire-brand amidst and all about it. (So the sinless soul soars in the highest empyrean of heaven). 3. As I was wandering with my spiritual light and unwearied soul amidst this universal conflagration, there arose on a sudden a tremendous hurricane (raised by the rarefied air on all sides). 4. It howled and growled aloud like the roaring of clouds on high; and blew fiercely all along, bearing down and carrying away every thing before it. 5. The whirling and howling tornado, raged with redoubled force in the forest; lifting aloft large tracts of woods in the form of clouds, and intermixed with rolling firebrands, resembling the revolving suns above.

6. Flames of fire flashed above, like the evening clouds of heaven, and blazed like hundreds of fiery pools on high; and the earth with the habitation of men, giants and gods, burned as burning mountains on all sides. 7. The burnt, unburnt and half burnt devils and demons, were roving together throughout the heated air, and grappling each other in the etherial streams. 8. The gods and goddesses, were falling down as flames of fire; and the abode of the celestials, were melted down in showers of fire. 9. Flashes of fire were flickering as lightnings, from the burning vault of heaven; and clouds of dark smoke hid the face of the vertical sky in darkness. 10. The faces of the earth and sky and of all sides of heaven, were wrapt in a flaming veil like that of the evening cloud; and the whole universe with its seven spheres, appeared as a massive mountain of flaming fire. 11. On one side the sparks of flaming fire, were flashing over the head; and on another a huge mountainous mist of smoke hid the hemisphere from sight. In the midst there appeared a mountainous body of fire as that of Hara - the god of destruction, dancing amidst the destructive winds of the Rudras blowing on all sides.

ASCERTAINMENT OF KARMA OR ACTS OF MEN. Argument: - Here God is ascertained as the Cause of the visionary world; and Refutation of the Theory of Karma or Human Deeds and Destiny. The sage resumed and said: - Continuing thus in the vagaries of my false imagination, I was led to many such painful sights, until they raised in me the feelings of woe and sorrow, and my curiosity gave way to weariness. 2. I then thought in my mind that it is a mere dream in the mind of another person, which I have come to see from my seat within his breast; therefore I must refrain from such sights, and restrain my sorrow for them in vain. 3. The Huntsman asked: - It was for the investigation of the nature of dream, that you had entered into the bosom of another person; say then what have you come to know about it, and how are your doubts removed (with respect to its false phantasms). 4. How came you to see the ocean in the breast, which never exists therein, and how did you see the conflagration in the heart and the tornado in the bowels, which are never to be found in any of those places.

5. You said you saw the earth and sky, and the rivers and mountains and many other things in the mind; but how can these and the world itself, be in any manner situated therein. 6. The sage replied: - All these things and the world also are mere non-entities, as there was no pre-existent material cause for the production of the world, before its coming to existence; therefore neither the term creation nor its sense, is in any way applicable to this world or it is seen by us. (It is therefore but the mere phantasm of an everlasting dream). 7. Hence the world creation and its meaning, proceed from ignorance of the supreme soul, which is immutable in its nature; and it is ignorance of this truth (lit. true knowledge), that produces the fallacy (lit. the false knowledge) of creation. (Therefore the world (i.e. the idea of the world), is ever present in the Divine mind). 8. Therefore I say, O thou fortunate one, that after you come to your knowledge in this respect (i.e. of the nature of God), and your ignorance of His supremely pure nature is removed: -

9. You will no more believe like myself, the false impression of your consciousness (of the existence of the world); but must come to know that, this causeless and uncreated world, is only the expanded reflexion of your own mind. 10. Where is the body and the heart, and where are these elements of water &c.; what is this dream and what are these conceptions and perceptions, and what is life or death or anything else? (All which are nothing in reality). 11. There is but one transpicuous Intellect everywhere, before which the subtile ether is opalescent, and the biggest mountain is but a mite. 12. It is of its own nature that this intellectual vacuity, reflects on something in its thought; and sees the same as its aeriform body; and this it is what is called the world. 13. As it is our intellect alone, which reflects itself in various forms in our dream; and as there is nothing besides it that then presents itself to our view, so this world is no other than the aerial form of the intellect only.

14. This universe is a quiet vacuity without any stir or shadow of anything in it; and it is the dimness of the purblind eye of the intellect, that presents these false shapes to sight, as blind men see black spots in the clear sky. 15. To my sight the world is neither an entity nor a non-entity, nor is it a mere void or the shadow or reflexion of anything; but the formless infinity of the vacuous intellect only: (or the infinite vacuity of the formless intellect only). 16. As it is in the state of our sleep, that the pure intellect sees itself in the various forms of its dream, without any cause whatsoever; so doth it view every thing in its own vacuum in waking also; without the external objects of sight or its act of seeing them. 17. It is something that is unspeakable and without its beginning and end; it is apparent with its own conceptions which are one with it and make no duality in its nature (Lit., whose nature is free from unity or duality, or as Sádi says: - azchunin O chunan, from this & that and so & such).

18. As there is but one endless duration, embracing the periods both of creation as well as annihilation; and as the tree comprehends all its parts, blossoms and fruit under it; so is Brahma the Soul of all. (These are but parts of one stupendous whole. Pope). 19. As the great edifice of one, appears as an empty space to another; so as one’s sight of a castle in a mirage, appears as nothing to another; so this visible world of waking people, is the dream of sleeping persons, and rising on the ground of their imagination. 20. It is as the transpicuous vacuity of the intellect, exhibits itself from time to time in itself; that we see the things in our dream, as we behold them when we are awake; and so also we see the sights in our waking state, as we behold them in our dreams in sleep. 21. As the fragrance of flowers, lies hid in the invisible air; so the world lies concealed in the invisible intellect, which sees through every pore of it.

22. It is by shutting out your thoughts of all and everything from your mind, that thou mayst <be> quite pure in thyself; and it is then only that thy infinite soul has its everlasting peace and rest, when it is freed from all cares, both within and without itself. 23. The Huntsman said: - Tell me sir, how can men get rid of their thoughts and cares of life, when they <are> invariably accompanied by the acts and reminiscences of their past lives. Tell me also what kind of men are subject to the tendencies of their past conduct, and who are they that are released from them. 24. The sage replied: - Those souls that are full of intelligence and have their spiritual bodies, are never subject to renewed births nor to the consequences of their past actions; and such were the bodies of Brahmá, and Kapila and others, that became manifest of themselves (suam-bhávah), and such were the supernatural bodies of the gods and divine incarnations. 25. Their bodies were not of this world, nor were they subject to its dualistic illusory imaginations; but they were forms of pure intelligence and of a subtile and spiritual nature.

26. In the beginning of creation, there was no primordial act of any body, to fashion his form or frame of mind; but there existed the sole and self-existent Brahma only, who manifested himself in the form of the world (which is therefore a manifestation of the Deity himself, and is thence called tanmaya or full of the Divine essence). 27. As the great Brahmá and others, were the manifestations of the supreme Brahma in the beginning, so there have been many thousands more that were manifested from the same divine essence, which are known as pure intelligences, and superior orders of beings. (Such are the gods and angels and spirits of different denominations). 28. But these persons who are deluded by their ignorance of truth, to think themselves other than or apart from Brahma, and as dull and unintellectual beings, and as a distinct duality from the nature of God: - 29. They are seen to be born again the next time, in consequence of their past actions, and accompanied with the results of those acts, whereby they are confined in their unintellectual bodies, in order to lead their unspiritual lives, quite forgetful of their divine nature, and subjected to the false belief of their materiality.

30. But such as preserve the purity of their divine character, by thinking themselves as inseparable from the Divine soul, are known here as uncontaminated by their former acts, as the persons of the divine Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva or the holy trinity. 31. All those that know the true nature of the soul, remain with its purity in the spirit of God; but such as understand it in the light of the living spirit, live in themselves as detached from the Divine soul. 32. Whenever one knows himself as a mere living being, he is then certainly accompanied by his ignorance or avidyá; and the soul takes the name of the animal spirit or life, which is conversant only with the world wherein it is situated. 33. But as he comes to know in course of time, the true and divine nature of his soul, he is then reinstated in his real state and becomes one with the supreme soul of all.

34. As the fluidity of water exhibits itself in the form of whirlpools in some waters; so the divine intellect shows the in-existent world as existent, to those understandings which are ignorant of the nature of the supreme soul. (It is the nature of the omniscient mind, to picture in itself, the appearances of things that are not in actual existence). 35. The world is the reflexion of omniscience, and not the representation of our dreaming or waking states; therefore it can have no action or property of itself, when it is nothing in reality. 36. In fact neither the knowledge of the world nor ignorance of it, or its action or motion or any of its properties, is anything in reality; all these are the results of our thought, that represents the unreal as real one unto us. 37. In truth Brahma being the very creation or the great cosmos itself, is verily the soul of all beings; it is in vain therefore to suppose our prior acts as cause of our births. That God is the creator of the universe, is a mere assumption made from his omnipotence (which is supposed to make everything out of nothing; but as ex nihilo nihil fit, God is himself diffused throughout all nature).

38. It is impossible for any body to have the bindings of his prior acts upon him, at his first creation in the world; it was only afterwards through his ignorance that he fabricated to himself a fate or causality of his actions for his fruitions in afterlives (i.e. in his subsequent and succeeding births or transmigrations in the world). 39. Say whether the vortex of sea has any body or action of its own; it is but the whirling water, as Brahma himself is apparent in the form of this seeming world. 40. As the persons appearing in our dream have no prior acts for their appearance; so were the living beings in their first formation, endued with pure understanding only (for want of their prior acts to actuate them at first). 41. It is a mere supposition, that they had their causal acts at first creation; and that all living beings have been roving ever since (in repeated births), being fast bound by the chain of their prior acts. (Man was pure in his creation, but since his first act of transgression or original sin, and then his actual sins, have subjected him to the miserable doom of undergoing repeated births).

42. But this creation is no act of creation, but verily the manifestations of Brahma himself; and such being the case (that the world is the selfsame Brahma), say what can acts mean, whence they proceed and where they lie. 43. It is only the ignorance of the supreme soul, which binds us to the bondage of acts; but its fetters fall off from the believer of Brahma by his knowledge of truth. (Those who rely on their acts of faith, are subjected to them; but the believer in One is released from their bonds). 44. Know the outward acts of faith, to proceed from ignorance of the universe; but as the wise man advances in his knowledge, he extricates himself from the bondage of all religions and ceremonial acts and observances. 45. Whereas the external acts of faith <are> entirely devoid of any substantiality or meritoriousness in them, it is no way difficult to get <rid> of them at once; it is solely our spiritual bond which is our chief concern, beside which there is no bond whatsoever.

46. So long there is the dread of the dreadful illusion of this world, as long as you do not attain to your wisdom; and so long do you exhibit your wisdom, that you do not fall into the vertiginous eddy of worldly affairs. Therefore try always, ye men of pure hearts and soul, to acquire your wisdom and learning; because there is no other way of your flying from the fears of the world, save by means of your right understanding.

ASCERTAINMENT OF NIRVÁNA OR ULTIMATE EXTINCTION. Argument: - Praise of wisdom and Intellectual knowledge, and arguments in support of the Intellectuality of the world. The sage continued: - The wise man shines in the assembly of the learned, as the sun illumines the assemblage of lotuses, in his investigation of the duties of religion and ceremonial acts, leading to the welfare of men in both worlds. 2. The heavenly felicity which is attained by the learned and wise by means of their spiritual knowledge, is as an ocean of bliss; before which the prosperity of god Indra even, appears to dwindle away as rotten straws amidst the billows. 3. I find no such felicity or prosperity, in the three regions of this earth or heaven above or in the pátála below, which is greater or comparable with the blissfulness of learning and wisdom. 4. The learned have as clear a sight of the true state of all things, as the moon-light gives a clear view of the sphere of stars in the cloudless sky. 5. The visible world, soon vanishes from sight, and turns to the invisible Brahma, by the sapience of the wise; as a rosary of cord, appearing at first as a snake, is soon found to be a line upon its inspection.

6. That Brahmá - the god is ever situated in his Brahma-hood or godhead is a truth evident by itself; and that it is his nature that gives rise to the terms creation, destruction, body and others. (Gloss: that the words creation &c., appertain to his very nature, and are not distinct from him). 7. He to whom the existence of the world is nil and naught, has no care or concern for acts and duties, which are no more than blank letters to him. 8. It is possible to believe in the production of the material world, from the prior existence of its material cause; but in want of such there can be no world, nor can there be a cause of it, when it is itself null and void. 9. It is only the reflection of Brahma, that takes the names of the earth and all other things; wherefore it is not necessary for these mere reflexions to have any cause at all. (The substance of God, being the cause of the shadow). 10. As the men seen in a dream, have no real cause except the imagination of the dreamer; such are the persons seen in our waking dreams, but mere reflexions of our imaginations, and not the production of their parents.

11. As there is not the causality of the prior acts, for the appearance of persons in human forms in our dream; so neither is there any actual cause for people seen in waking dream, to assume the garb of humanity upon them. 12. Both prior acts as well as desires, are equally false in their causality, of framing living beings in different shapes in their repeated births, just as they are no causes of producing the persons seen in our dreams. 13. Men appear as dreams and their impressions, in the course of their births and deaths; and they are conscious of this state or that as they think themselves either as the one or the other (i.e. we seem to be or not, as we think ourselves to be). 14. People appear to be as they think of their being, from their consciousness of themselves; and they seem to be in the same state in their dream, as they appear in the waking state, both in their intents and actions. (The dreamer and the dreamt do not differ from their waking states).

15. The desires and sensations of the dreaming man, are alike those of the waking, and differing only in the dimness of the former, from the distinctness of the latter. Thus a dreaming man is sensible of deriving the same satisfaction, in obtaining the object of his wish as the waking man; though the one is of a concealed and the other of an overt nature. (Therefore there is no difference between the states). 16. Whenever our pure consciousness of things, shines forth of its own nature in either of its two states of clearness or faintness; it is then the reflexion of the one <that> takes the appellation of waking, and the other is known as the dreaming state. 17. As long as this consciousness continues to glare in any body, since his first creation until his final emancipation, he is said to be a living being, under his repeated births and deaths. 18. The import of the words waking and dreaming, is not at all different from that of consciousness; whose irrepressible reflexion constitutes the essence of both states, as light is the essentiality of luminaries.

19. As heat is the gist of fire, and motion the marrow of the sufflated air or wind; or as the fluidity of water is the pith of the billows, and coolness the quiddity of breeze (so is consciousness the quintessence of both our waking and dreaming states). 20. The whole universe is an unruffled chasm, and an unchanging unreality; and this seeming reality of the world, is even united with its negative sense of nihility. 21. Brahma in its exoteric sense, is both the production as well as the destruction of the world, and equally alike its visible form and its notion also; but being viewed in its esoteric light, it <is> only of the nature of the pure Intellect, and the One alone, that is for ever calm and quiet and undecaying in itself. 22. Whatever thought of causality or effect, passes in the mind of Brahma at any time, the same comes to take place immediately, as men construct their houses as they please in cities. 23. The whole creation abides in the mind of God, as the city you dream of is in your thought; the cause and effect herein, being the same in one case as in the other.

24. The causality and effectuality are both contained in the womb of the dense Intellect; and these are exerted in the same manner in the act of creation of the world, as in that of the construction of thy imaginary castle. 25. The Divine Intellect employs its will, in the causation of its intended creation; as you form the plan for the construction of your projected edifice: Thus the causality and its effect are combined together in the one and same mind. 26. The divine mind develops itself in its own form of the sky, and the world that is for ever situated therein, is then called the creation and lying in the expanse of that sky. (Gloss. The srutis deny the existence of the outer and visible world). 27. The light which the sun of our consciousness, cast upon the imaginary city in the mind; is of its own nature what is signified by the terms causality and its effect. (i.e. Our consciousness is the cause of our knowledge of the world - the false creation of our imagination). 28. The forms in which the mind displayed itself at first, the same continue to exist ever since in the same state; and these are invariably designated by the terms of time, space and the rest.

29. Whatever names are borne by the things, which are exhibited in the vacuity of the Intellect; they are ever after viewed as realities under the designations of some as causes and others as their effect (as the cow is the cause of the production of milk, and the pot is the cause of its reception, and so forth). 30. The creation which was miraculously displayed in its ideal form in the Intellect, consisted at first of mere ideas, which received the name of the (material) world afterwards. (So the sruti: whatever is thought of in the mind at first, receives a name (or a word) for its designation afterwards). 31. This triple world is of a vacuous form, and is situated in the vacuity of the intellect; just as the clear air contains its insufflation inbred in it. (The inherence of vibration inborn in it). 32. As the vapours and clouds covering the face of the sky, give the appearance of blueness to it; so the dizziness of ignorance, misrepresents the clear intellect in the form of the gross world.

33. But on receiving the true reflexion of the spirit in the intellect, by means of intense meditation, the notion of the creation turns to that of non-creation; as the false notion of the snake in the rope, is changed to that of the rope upon its revision. 34. The dead find the future world, as what they used to see in their dream; but that world as well as this, are equally as formless as the vacuum of the Intellect. (Both this world and the next, are situated in the Divine-Mind, and are of the same form as that). 35. The Huntsman said: - Tell me sir, why are men regenerated in new bodies; for their sufferings and enjoyments in future births; and tell me also what are the principal and accompanying causes of our reproduction in this world. 36. If it is on account of the pious or impious acts, which are done in our present destructible bodies, that we are destined to their retributions afterwards; then say why our indestructible souls, should be brought to feel their results in other bodies, which seems to be very absurd to me.

37. The sage replied: - The words piety and impiety, our desires and acts, are words of the same import, and significant of their causality in framing the living soul according to their own stamp; but these are mere suppositions, and neither true causes of the schesis of our souls, nor of the modes of our lives. 38. It is the mind which is situated in the vacuous intellect, and is possest of the power of intellection that imagines in itself the various states of things (and the happiness and miseries of life), and gives names to them accordingly. (So says the sruti: - The sapient seeing the different form and states of things, coin words to designate them and their various modes also). 39. The conscious soul comes to know by means of its intellection, its own body in its vacuous self; and after death it sees the same to exist as in its dream or imagination (i.e. in its ideal form). 40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewise in the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soul continues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.

41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or the creator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it, then can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and how can this body be what the dead person had before, and as for his intellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body into another. 42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be reborn afterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was so and am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again <in> some form or other. 43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men are impressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasion and scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which is altogether false and fanciful. 44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to the phantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spacious vacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitions in this world.

45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, which is spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoy everything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing. 46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantly rising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomena in its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove to be the display of One all pervading Brahma only. 47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them ever exist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreads undivided through all, and knows all these <to be> an undivided whole, and yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is full and perfect in each and all of these). 48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another in a common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realities to the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light, they proved to be self-same with the unborn One.

49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knower of the knowable (i.e. to him who knows the truth), and what is understood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is believed to be true by the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both). 50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because they are all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcile these opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universal catholicism (of One, to pan). 51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is real or unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely on its verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothing can upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness). 52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute its dictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference or identity of things, or their unity or duality.

53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to us is right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with his knowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identic with the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge. (i.e. God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God). 54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One is not distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finite understanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, that have no knowledge of the knowable One. 55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge of him; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledge increases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls. 56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real ones before the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight. 57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the one intellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousand shapes to the understanding of gross instincts.

58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as it exhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into one, or the single form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soul appear in one or more forms to our intellects also. 59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appears in various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; and are either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of our imagination. 60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of our minds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of the mind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its pralaya or anaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them. 61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions of the mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought in any manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself in reality before us even then and there.

62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in the forms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and in the beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner of dreams and the phantoms of its imagination. 63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preserved in the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together of themselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view it in our presence. 64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as well as permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, but continues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as our transient lives also. 65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain or go; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards the east or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can never lose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as you proceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, is never effaced from it).

66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced to do or think upon is never effaced from consciousness, unless it be from numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss to realize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them to effect). 67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, and you will find your consciousness to continue <the> same, and never changing with the change of your place. (So doth one’s consciousness accompany him even after his death). 68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the object or state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrary the unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (i.e. his wished for object together with the consciousness of himself). 69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both states whether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady in himself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and his object). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connections with others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what it wills).

70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven and earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is placed in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and west, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the man of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks one way or the other (but stands in the middle). 71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone pervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and many thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics. 72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or indestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine intellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream of the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The indestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the destruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).

73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is evident from the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that are invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past lives. 74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt down to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering their errands, to have disappeared with their living souls. 75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the living as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they not reckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This argument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of the reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of absent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead at the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep). 76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not be equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of the idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.

77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the established and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quite compatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained in Indian philosophy. 78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as realities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality in them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks - kalankas though to all appearance they seem as habitable parts - chandra-loka). 79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts of the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being composed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only, and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves. 80. All these are immutable and quiet, and lie quiescent in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect; they are irremovable and unconspicuous of themselves, and lie immanent in the Divine soul. 81. It is the steady consciousness, that is conscious of whatever is fixed upon at any time or place; and represents all things whether real or unreal, that is inbred or inherent in it.

82. Let our bodies rise or fall, and our destinies overtake us as they will; let happiness or misery befall on us as they are decreed, they cannot affect the serenity of the indifferent soul. 83. Hence it is of no matter unto us, whether these are realities or otherwise, or whether it may be so and so or not; avoid your desire for any thing, and be wise and at rest after all your wanderings.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE & VICISSITUDES OF THINGS. Argument: - The Intellect manifested in the World, which is but a manifestation of the Divine - mind and its Omnipotence. The sage continued: - The visible world is being a something in nothing an entity based upon non-entity (i.e. a substance based upon the intellect), resembles our consciousness of things seen in our dream only. And as all things are eternally situated in the Divine Mind, there can be no meaning in our being bound to or liberated from them. 2. These worlds that appear to rove before us, are seen as the mites flying about in the solar rays (or as the bright circlets seeming to swim before our closed eyes); they are but evanescent phantoms in the air, and appearing as stable bodies in the minds of the ignorant. 3. Whatever is seen to be placed before us in any form or state, is soon found to change its mode and manner before us; so likewise is the changeful state of all things herein, that are continually rotating like the waters in a whirlpool.

4. The earth, air, water &c., are the materials that combine to form frail bodies, that are doomed to decay and dissolve in a short time; and yet they are computed by the ignorant to last for ages - as yugas & kalpas. (Everything is changing and nothing lasting). 5. The world is a dream, and the totality of existence a mere nihility; and yet the notion of entity that we <have> of this nullity, is no other than a reflexion of the one Eternal Intellect. 6. Like this solar world of ours, there are hundreds and thousand others to be seen in the skies; nor is it incredible that others have the like notions of other peoples. 7. We see the seas and lakes, teeming with living beings of various kinds, and find the pools and bogs full of frogs everywhere; but none of them know anything about the other reservoirs, nor of their inhabitants neither beside those of their own. 8. As a hundred men sleeping in one and the same room; see as many air built castles differing from another in their dream; so there appear different worlds in the airy intellects of some, which are seen and unknown to others.

9. As many aerial cities are seen, in the dreams of many men, sleeping together in the same room; so do these aerial worlds appear in empty sphere of our minds, and are said to be in being and not being in the same time (i.e. being but a dream which is no-being or nothing). 10. The sky is a miracle of the mind, and a phenomenon of itself; it is visible without its form, and appears as limited without its limitation, and as created without its creation. (vacuity being increate). 11. The vacuum bearing the nature of the vacuous mind, is vainly styled the firm firmament; it presents to view the forms of fleeting objects in it, as the understanding represents its ideas and passing thoughts to our knowledge. 12. The remembrance of a thing, is the cause of its dream by night, as the desire of something causes its conception in the mind; and as the apprehension of one’s death, proceeds from his seeing in the instances of others. 13. In the beginning of creation, the world appears as an image in the mind; which is no other than a flash or reflexion of the Divine Intellect, and to which no other name than a réchauffé of the Divine Intellect, can be properly assigned.

14. The saying that Brahma shines as the very world means to say that, he did not shine anew in the form of the world, but has this form eternally subsisting in his omniscience. 15. It is said that the cause is (identic with) the effect, because the common cause of all, is specialized in its form of the effect (i.e. the one becomes as many). The action which was confined in the cause at first (as vegetation in the seed), becomes evolved in the germ of creation afterwards. 16. When such things (or conditions) occur in the mind in dreams, as have not been seen or known before, they are called sanskáras or pristine impressions in the mind (as our inward-passions and feelings), and not the external objects of sense, which are not inbred in the mind. 17. These mental impressions or reminiscences, are perceptible to us in our dreaming and not in the waking state; and though they are unseen in our waking; yet they are not lost unto us so long as we retain those impressions in the mind. They naturally appear in the soul in dreaming, as the visibles appear to sight in the waking state.

18. Thus the vedántist comes to know the inexistence of the outer world, and by knowing the knowable One, they come to attain the consummation of their object (which is the attainment of their final emancipation or moksha). 19. The impressions of the waking state, which occur in the state of dreaming, are the newly made imprints of the waking hours on the memory; and these make the sleeping hours seem as waking to the dreaming soul. 20. These recent ideas fluctuate in the mind, as by the breath of the wind, and they occur and recur of themselves, without the agency of pristine impressions. 21. There is one sole Intellect only, possessed of its many multitudes of airy dreams; and being dispossessed of them at last, it remains solely by and in itself. 22. The consciousness that we have of the dreams, ranging at large in the empty sphere of our Intellect, is verily what is denominated the world by us; and the want of this consciousness in our sound sleep, is what is termed the extinction of world by ourselves. This analogy applies also to the nature of the self-existed One.

23. There exists only the infinite sphere of one eternal Intellect, and there appears an infinity of shapes, perpetually rising and setting in its open in the manner of dreams. These are born of its own nature and are called the world, and bear the same intellectual form with itself. 24. Thus the atomic particle of the Intellect, contains the form of the whole cosmos within its bosom; which is an exact ectype of its archetype, as the shadow under a mirror, is the true representation of the prototype. 25. The cavity of the Intellect contains the consciousness which is diffused in it like the dilution of an atom; and extends throughout without beginning and end, and this is called the cosmos. 26. Hence as far as the vacuity of the Intellect extends to all infinity, there is the appearance of the wide world connected with it, as immanent in and identic with itself at all times. (The intimate connection of the subjective mind and objective world together). 27. The intellect is selfsame with the world, and therefore all minds and intellectual beings as myself and thyself, are worlds or microcosm also; and it <is> for this reason that the great macrocosm of the world, is said to be comprised in the corpuscle of the mind.

28. Therefore I who am a minute soul, am of the form of the whole world also (being its container in the mind); hence I abide everywhere likewise, even in the midst of an atom also. 29. Being in the form of the minutiae of the intellect, I am also as great as the universal soul, and as expanded as the open air all around; I also see all the three worlds about one, wherever I abide or move. (All things are present in the mind, at all places and times). 30. I am an atom of the intellectual soul, and am joined with the intellectual soul of the universe; it is my sight of the supreme spirit in my meditation, that I am lost in it as a drop of water is lost in the ocean. 31. Having entered into the Divine spirit, and feeling its influence in me, I am filled with its cognition; and behold the three worlds within me, as the seed lies hid in the pericarp or in the seed vessel (to be developed in its future foliage).

32. I see the triple world expanding within myself (according to our reminiscence of the same which is engraven in the mind), beside which there is no outer world on the outside of any body. (The world lies in the conception of mind only, and the exterior one is but a reflexion of the same). 33. Whenever the world appears in any form, whether of a gross or subtile nature, as in the states of our waking or dreaming; both these forms of the interior or exterior worlds, are to be known as the reflexion of the ideal one imprinted in the intellect. 34. When the living soul indulges itself in the sight of the world, in the state of its dreaming; it is to be known as a reflexion of the expanded particle of the intellect, which the sleeping soul delights to dote upon. 35. The Huntsman rejoined: - If the visible world is causeless or without its maker, then how could it come into existence, and if it be a caused or created exterior world, how could we have any knowledge of it in the sleeping and dreaming of the soul.

36. The sage replied: - All this is without a cause, and the world proceeded at first without any causality whatever. (The Muni means to say that there cannot be any independent or instrumental cause of creation save the emanation of One oneself). 37. It is verily impossible for gross and perishable bodies and transient beings, to come to being without a cause; but that which is a facsimile or shadow only of the antitype and original model of the eternal mind, cannot possibly have any cause at all. 38. It is Brahma himself that thus shines refulgent, by nature of his intellectual effulgence; hence the world’s creation and destruction are utterly inapplicable to what is without its beginning and end. 39. Thus the uncaused creation, abides in the substance of the great God, and shines forth with divine glory to all infinity. It is to gross minds only, which are prepossessed with the grosser ideas of materiality, that it appears in the form of a gross material body. 40. What numberless varieties do there appear in the unvaried Brahma, and what un-numbered diversities of shapes and forms are seen in the formless One, that is ever unchanged and imperishable.

41. Brahma is formless in his person (which is of a spiritual form); yet he exhibits himself in many forms, in his being the mind (or mirror of all ideal forms); where he represents his spiritual self or soul, in all the various forms of moving and immovable bodies. 42. He makes the gods, sages and seers in his likeness, and directs them to their different degrees and duties also; he stablishes the laws and prohibitions of conduct, and appoints the acts and observances at all times and places. 43. All existences and privations, productions and destructions, of moving or unmoving bodies, whether great or small ones, are subject to his decree, and can never transgress any of his general laws. 44. Ever since the general decree, nothing takes place without its proper special cause; as you can never expect to exude oil from sand (save from oily seeds). 45. The destined decree of providence, is the leader of all events in the world; it is as one part of the body of Brahma, by which he represses the other part of himself (i.e. his will); as we restrain the action of one hand by the other. (One over-ruling fate governs even Jove himself).

46. This unavoidable destiny overtakes us, against our prudence and will, like the sudden fall of a fruit on a flying crow (काकतालीय) and drives us along with its course, as the tide or eddy bears down the waters with it. 47. The preordination of certain effects from certain causes, is what is called destiny; without which there result all disorder and disturbance, and in want of which the great Brahma even cannot abide. It is therefore the imperishable soul of all existence. 48. Thus then this destiny is the cause of all, and although it is unseen and unknown, yet it acts on all as it is destined for them ever since their very production. (This is no more than the unchangeable law of nature). 49. The uncausing Brahma that causes nothing, is believed by the ignorant as the causal agent of creation; which they mistake as the production of its maker by error of their judgment. 50. The wise man however, seeing the sudden appearance of world before him, like the rotation of a wheel, considers its causes as such and such or this and that, as they have been determined by their preordained destiny.

51. So all existent bodies have their special causes, in their primordial destiny, which determines their subsequent lots in endless succession. Hence the occurrences, of our waking state, resembling the visions in our dream, are never without their antecedent causes. 52. Thus when I dreamt the erroneous dream of the destruction of the world, caused by concussion of the elements and waters I had its cause inbred in me, in my reminiscence of the great deluge I had heard of in traditional narration. 53. In this manner we see the reflexions of almighty power in all things that come under own reflection (or observation), just as we see the crystals and shell-fishes shining with their intrinsical brightness. May this Omnipotent power that is ever-living soul of souls, and known to us in our imperfect notion of him, be glorified for ever and ever.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEPING STATES. Argument: - The three Humours of Human body Composing the three states of its earthly existence. The sage continued: - The living soul (or man) perceives the dream of the outer world, by means of the external organs of sense; and that of the inner world by the internal senses; but the quickness of both the internal and external senses, gives the sensations of both these worlds to the soul. 2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward objects, then the perceptions of mental objects and inner functions become faint and fainter by degrees. 3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside, and the inner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the object of thought and the idea of the world however minute they had been before, assume gradually a more expanded form, and present their extended appearances to the soul. (Brooding upon a thought, dilates it the more). 4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being once thought upon as something however small in its idea, dilates itself to an enormous size in the mind, which cast at last its reflexion on the external organs of sense also, and make it appear so big and vast to sight.

5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied with outer objects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form of the exterior world only (so the external senses carry their impressions to the mind also). 6. The intellectual and aeriform soul, is composed of the congeries of all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing, touch or feeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the four internal sensations of will or volition. 7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place, accompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airy intellect is to be ever unobstructed, because it always knows and sees every where. 8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills the veins and arteries of the living person; the soul is then lulled to sleep and to see false visions in its dream. 9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the moonlight sky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled with full blown lotuses and their blooming buds.

10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season, and mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled sky, and resounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of humming humble bees. 11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and the merry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound; and views its court-yard filled with provisions of food and drink (to its heart’s content). 12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens, running sportfully to join the distant sea; girt with the swimming flowers and smiling with their flashy foams; and darting about their fickle glances, in flitting motion of the shrimps, fluttering on the surface of the water. 13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits of the Himálayan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the frigid climes); and having their white washed walls, appearing as if they were varnished with moon-beams. 14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy season, or as hid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the showering clouds of the rainy weather, and views the ground below overgrown with herbaceous plants, and the muddy marshes grown over with blue lotuses.

15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers, and resorted to by droves of deer and the weary traveller; that halted under the cooling umbrage of the thickening foliage of the forest, and were soothed by soft breezes of the sylvan spot. 16. The flowery arbour had all its alleys and arcades, bestrewn over with the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson dusts of Kunda, Kadamba and Mandara blossoms, were blushing and mantling the scenery all around. 17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and the ground wore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands were clear of clouds, and the firmament was clear and cold under the autumnal sky. 18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of Kunda, Kadamba and Kadalí or plantain trees, which waved their leafy fans on their exalted heads, which appeared to nod at the dancing of the leaflets. 19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with the unblown buds and blossoms upon them; appeared as young damsels dancing gracefully, with strings of pearls on their slender persons.

20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as brightly as the blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also the fanning white chouries and waving over them, like the feathered tribe, flapping their wings over the floral lake (or lotus beds). 21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful mood, with curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their currents; and murmuring along with mixed music of birds on the spray beside them. 22. The dhará - terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dhára or torrents of water falling from the adharas or cataracts, of dharádharas or mountains; and all the sides of heaven were obscured by the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its vault. 23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with the fluid of bile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor as an atom in its cell, and then sees the dreams of the following nature in itself. 24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red kinsuka flowers upon its withered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also the forms of red lotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.

25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric juice, as when the limpid streams turn to dry sand banks; and there appear flames of wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the darkened face of nature. 26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of the sun seems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in forests, the withered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas, instead of their limpid waters. 27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning to beds of hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry winds, and the forests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared quite desolate all about. 28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a flight of storks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise than before, and the former verdure of the trees, are no more coming to sight. 29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning sand of the parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant tree by the way side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade over the parched ground.

30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all its lands and places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of dust covering the face of the sky on all sides. 31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its planetary bodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and forests and the open air, all which seem to be burning in a blaze. 32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons, that serve to favour the fires instead of quenching them; and beholds the lands below covered with grass and leafy creepers, which entrap them as vestures of clouds. 33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the waters of the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all tepid and hot. 34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of the gastric juice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and the soul retaining its vigour, sees various dreams of the following description. 35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees the earth and the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in dream, quite different from what they appeared before.

36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the hills and hilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as that of the whirling of the wheels of a chariot. 37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a camel or eagle or on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot drawn by ganders or swans. 38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing before it; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the water. 39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some great danger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill. 40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination of all the three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence; then the soul is led by the windy humour to see several dreams of the following nature. 41. It sees rainfalls flowing down the mountains, and hailstones hurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting of the hills and edifices, and sees the trees to be moving about. 42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon; which is over cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants and lions.

43. The palm and támala trees, appear to be burning around; and the hollow caves and caverns, to resound with the harsh noise of the flashing fire and falling trees. 44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing against one another, and the caverns resounding to their hoarse and harsh crackling. 45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other, and emit a harsh and hideous noise about them; and the streams running amidst them, appear as wearing necklaces with the loosened creepers and bushes which they bore away. 46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the mountain streams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which they carried down, seemed to spread as far as the utmost pole. 47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their denticulated edges, and crashed and split themselves with their harsh and hideous sounds. 48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around by the strong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain made their bed over the moss below.

49. The tall tála trees fell to the ground with marmara sound, like the wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all birds flew with a harsh scream, like the crying of men at the last day of desolation of the world. 50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one mass, like jaríkrita jíva in dream. 51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth, and frog underneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed within the fruit. 52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and the sapling within the wall of a pillar. 53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are blamed, as if they are encased within the hollow of the earth. 54. Deep darkness reigned there, and susupti appeared like deep dark well within the cavern of a mountain. 55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the body, and afterward by a separate juice a new energy comes within, so the vital air which once disappeared, makes its appearance again. 56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within the body in the shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall therein.

57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so the combination of triple humours, composes the inward and outward essence of the body. 58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds of the body, and led by force of the triple humours (phlegm etc.); sees (by means of its internal senses), the dreams of the absent world, as it beholds the visions of the visible phenomena, with its external organs of sense. 59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the senses, by the greater or less irritation of the humours, that the mind is liable to view its internal vision, in a greater or less degree; but the action of the humours being equable, the tenor of the mind runs in an even course. 60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours (from the effects of intoxication, mantras or poison and the like), looks abroad over the wide world, and sees the earth and sky and the mountains to be turning round; and flames of fire issuing from burning piles. 61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the rising moon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees and hills, and floods of water washing the face of heaven.

62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters, or rambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places, and finds itself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of hoary clouds. 63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky, and sees the false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing and crushing of sinful bodies. 64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel, and rising instantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of people, and thinks itself as diving in the waters upon the land. 65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere at night, the sun shining then as in the day time; and a thick darkness overspreading the face of the day. 66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the land is seen to be full of holes and ditches; rows of edifices are seen in the air, and amity is found to be combined with enmity (friends turning to foes and vice versa). 67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are taken for friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land, and flats and planes appear as caves and caverns.

68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and crystal gems, and resonant with the melody of birds; and limpid lakes are seen to glide below, with their water as sweet as butter. 69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses adorned with females, appearing as lotuses fraught with bees. 70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in itself; yet perceives all these sights without, as if it were awake to them. (Thus the derangement of the humours, causes these errors of sensation of perceiving what is not present to the senses). 71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to represent many such sights of external objects, in the forms of dream to the minds of people. 72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see many extraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and without them (i.e. in their dreaming and outward sight also). 73. When the internal organs are equable in their action, then the course of nature and the conduct of people, appear in the usual state.

74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the positions of woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear and unperturbed state, as they are known to exist, agreeably to the natural order of things; such as cool and clear streams, shady forests, and countries and paths traversed by passengers. 75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of the sun and moon, and the rays of the starry array; and all other appearances, however unreal in their nature, appear as wonders to the sight and other senses. 76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind, as vacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal as real, and the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as separate and extrinsic or derived from without, is the essential property of its nature. 77. It is the calm and quiet spirit of Brahma, that gives rise to all things which are equally calm and quiet also; the world is mere vacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous mind that represents endless varieties of such forms in the sphere of its own vacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous person.

DISQUISITION OF SOUND SLEEP. Argument: - Relation of sleep after dream, and followed by dream likewise, concluding with proof of the unity of God. The Huntsman said: - Tell me, O great sage, what did you do and see afterwards, from your seat in the erroneous spirit of that person. 2. The sage replied: - Hear me tell you next, what I did and saw afterwards, by my union with and my situation in the spirit of that infatuated person. 3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion of the last doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane, which blew away the mountains as straws, on the day of the final desolation of the world. 4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from the mountain tops; which bore away the woods and hills in the torrent. 5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality of the individual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual minuteness, the falling rains and hailstones from the mountain tops. 6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into a state of sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me all over.

7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was gradually raised from my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of the night, unfolds its petals in the morning. 8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some circular disks appearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy dreams flying about and hovering upon me. 9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain of dreams; and saw a hundred shapes of things, arising in my spirit, as the shapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in the bosom of the sea. 10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell of my consciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to be volitant in the still and motionless air. 11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in water, and as fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency is immanent in pepper &c.; so is the world inborn in Brahma. 12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame in itself; the phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream of a new born child, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping man. (Sight is here applied to the mind’s eye).

13. The Huntsman rejoined: - Tell me sir, how is it possible for the Intellect to have the sight of anything in its state of sound sleep, since dreams never occur in the mind except in the state of slight and light sleep. 14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as also of the person in whose heart you dwelt; how could the sight of the creation appear to you (or has the term sound sleep any other sense than the state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep is the state of utter insensibility or anaesthesia - gloss). 15. The sage replied: - Know that creation is expressed by the words, viz. jáyati is born, bháti appeareth, and kachati shineth; and are applied indiscriminately to all material things, as pots and pictures (घट पट) as well as to the world also; all these words are used to express a duality (or something different as proceeding from Unity), by men whose brains are heated with dualism, or the notion of a duality (as different from the nature of the Unity or the only One). 16. Know that the word játa or born means only being (sattwa), and its synonyms are prádurbháva - manifestation, which is derived from the root bhu to be.

17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the sense of being born also, and the sarga meaning production or creation, it is same with being also. 18. With us learned men, there is nothing as jáyáti or what is made or may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one calm and quiet unborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity). 19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma alone (the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of existence, is the Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then what hypostasis or unsubstantiality is there that can be positively affirmed or denied of it, which is of them alike. 20. That which is called sakti or the active energy of God, resides literally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separate power of itself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence, which is self same with Brahma, and not as an attribute or part of him. (Vedánta ignores the predicates of potentiality as predicable of Brahma, who is the very essence of Omnipotence).

21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong to the nature of God, according to the cognition of men learned in divine Knowledge; because God never sleeps nor dreams, nor does he wake in the manner of His creature. (No changing property appertaining to finite beings can ever be attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is). 22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also anything that we either know or have any notion of, can have any relation to the nature of the Inscrutable One; any more than the impossibility of our having any idea of the world before its creation. (So the Persian mystic Berun Zátash, aztohmate chunan to chunin. His nature is beyond our comprehension and presumption of it as so and such). 23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines the creation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible in its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning of creation. 24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (i.e. neither the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something as nothing, perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature.

25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agent of the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine Mind, and exists for ever in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle of imagination. 26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as a duality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorant men like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is painted upon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to be marked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwise than their own person. 27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without its beginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to the unreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing so changeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet and serene prospect in itself.

THE PHENOMENON AND PERSPECTION OF DREAMS. Argument: - The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision of friends and relations in Dreaming. The sage continued: - Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awoke from my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just <as> a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys the heavens above him. 2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheld the terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all, to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by my visual organs or ocular deception only. 3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of the arbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vast ocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight. 4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to have proceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonry carved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and also as a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus.

5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of its feelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity, as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as the produce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of the earth. 6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planes of level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon the smooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members and organs of their bodies. 7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part of Infinity, and to have presented themselves to our view, like flying herds of distant regions coming to our sight; or as presents are brought to the presence of prince from different parts of lands, or as the retributions and rewards of one’s <good> or bad deeds in this life, meet him in the next and successive transmigration. 8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of Brahma, or a little billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a sculpture on the colossal pillar of the Intellect, without being carved out or cast upon it. (It is the macrocosm moulded in the mind of God).

9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity of worlds, appearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of air; the mind wanders at random all over it as an infuriate elephant, with an airy empty life, as fickle and fleeting as a breath of air. 10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without its foundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing so bright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its own; it is the magical power of the great magician, that has displayed these wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over the ignorant and infatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man has rather eaten the fruit of the tree of ignorance). 11. Though the creation seems so exuberant, at all places and in all times; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by any limitation of space and time; and though it appears as multitudinous yet it is the single unity; and though seemingly multifarious, yet is all but one invariable uniformity.

12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of this world, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is the same error which occurs to us in our dream, <that> possesses us also even in our waking state of dreaming. (Equality of day and night dreams). 13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the absent past, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already present before it; whether they relate to aught of time or place, or substance or action or anything relating to its creation or its destruction. 14. There are numberless beings contained under every species of animals, which contain others ad infinitum in their ovaries, bearing animalcules like seeds of pomegranate fruits. 15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset by clouds of the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of heaven; and the sea is heard to resound with the loud larum of battle drums, raised by the warring winds with the conflicting currents. 16. I then beheld there a visible sphere before me, amidst which I saw the village of my prior dream, and recognized the spot of my former residence therein.

17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the very spot and of the same age as I had seen them before; I saw my wife and my very children seated in the very same house. 18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes, my heart wished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves swell to meet the shore. 19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy at my joining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of seeing more and more, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the past. 20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present before it, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the objects of its future desires, and becomes unmindful of the past. 21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge of everything; nor is there any other principle of understanding beside the intellect, which ever subsists by itself. 22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance of himself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism or doubt, to think of a duality.

23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant inquiry into truth and divine knowledge, and by his study of good sástras and attendance on divine sages, does not forget his enlightenment any more (nor relapses to his former ignorance). 24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose mind is bound down by worldly desires; is liable to lose his good understanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable planet or inauspicious star. 25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also, which is not yet cultivated by association with the wise, is liable to fall into error of duality, and involve thee thereby to repeated difficulties. 26. The Huntsman answered: - It is all very true, O sage, that notwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does not find its rest in the knowledge of only true One. 27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to whether it is so or not; and though I rely in my conception of the truth as you have declared, yet my mind finds no rest in it. 28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you have preached, yet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my ignorance reigns supreme in me.

29. Unless the understanding is enlightened in the company of wise men, by attending the doctrine of the best sástras, and due examination of their precepts, there can be no end of the errors of the world, nor any rest for the weary soul, wandering continually in the maze of errors.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF DREAMS. Argument: - Truth and untruth of Dreams. The Huntsman said: - If the sight of the world is no more than a vision in dream, then tell me, O great sage, where lies its truth or falsehood, which is a matter of great doubt and difficulty to me. 2. The sage replied: - That dream is true and comes actually to take place, which rises in our consciousness under the conditions of proper place and time, and right actions and things. (These are the morning dreams relating to pious acts and sacred things in some adjacent place). 3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or by effect of some mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu, whether it is favourable or not to the dreamer. 4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the shape of a dream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by accident by law of chance. 5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness, the same is sure as fate, we are sure to see and become the same (by the natural tendency and constitution of our minds). 6. Certainty removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches there, the other falls down absolutely.

7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside of any body; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to itself the various forms of worldly things, and remains in the same state as it knows itself to be. 8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the sástras, that the phenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it to be believed as so indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one a sceptic, who wanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without coming to a settled belief). 9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding his belief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to be reckoned as a visionary one only. 10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the strong consciousness of any body in his waking state; the same comes to be known as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time and change of place either sooner or later. 11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect, and was represented in its subtile and incompressible form; It had its essence in the mind of God, and then extended its tenuous substance to any length ad libitum.

12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of the intellect of Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal, and lasting and transient also. (They are real as reflexion of the Divine Mind, and unreal and transitory in their phenomenal aspects.) 13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens and soul of all, there can be no other that may be styled as such; say therefore what else is there, that may be called a reality or non reality either. 14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at anytime, it cannot be deemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant or enlightened part of mankind. 15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion of our senses and misconception of our consciousness; the visible worlds commonly passed under the name of illusion (máyá), hath naught of reality or certainty in it. 16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind, with the glare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be thrilling and flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.

17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards; so doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking state, and then falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep. (This refers to the alternate creation and annihilation of the world). 18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous to that of dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be as that of waking, and that both these states are but the two phases of the one and same Brahma (as the liquid and condensed states of ghee or butter are both the same). 19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible entity, and the spacious universe is its reflexion only; the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple hypostases of the same being (or Divine Existence). 20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how can you determine any rule for ascertaining the results of various dreams. 21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams (either in sleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries; therefore the sage must wipe off their impressions from his consciousness.

22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams, like pulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no other cause of dreams nor any laws for governing them; except the sound sleep (or insouciance), when these appearances entirely subside or vanish away. 23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of the impressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of this thing or that (or ghata patadi &c.); but relying on the doctrine of the causelessness of external objects (or the objective), they prove to be no other than mere imaginations of the subjective mind (or noumenal only). 24. In this therefore there is <no> other law with respect to this, than the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally granted as such by the common sense of mankind (vyávahárikam). 25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some times some truth in some dreams, and at others there is no truth in any of them at all; and in want of any constancy, it is only a fortuitous occurrence.

26. Whatever appears subjectively to one’s self, either from his own nature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever one is habituated to think of anything in himself, he sees the same in the very form, both in his dreaming as well as waking states. 27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking states of men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and they remain the same whether when one is waking or lying in the visionary city of his dreams. 28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because the dream also appears as waking to the waking soul that never sleeps. (The soul is ever wakeful). 29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called by that name; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind, which sees sleeping and waking in the same light. 30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two states of waking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of <a> dead person, continues to behold the visibles; even after its separation from the body, and resurrection after death.