Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise than what it is, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless duration never changes with the course of time, and the ocean continues alike under its rolling waves, and the airy space remains unchanged above the changing clouds. 32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul, whether it exists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations and marks in a stone are never distinct from it; so are the states of waking and sleeping coincident with the soul Divine. 33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the four forms of bodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who though devoid of all forms, is still of the form of whole creation, cosmos and the mundane soul. 34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all space is visible to us in only form of infinite space or sky; the endless vacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect, it is no way different from it. 35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the earth and clouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation, and subsist in their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma alone.

36. The Lord is devoid of all appellations and attributes, and remains united with his body of the Intellect, containing the knowledge of all things within itself; and the phenomenal is never separate from the noumenal.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE ORIGINAL CAUSE. Argument: - Conversation of the two sages, and relation of Human Miseries. The Huntsman said: - Tell me, O sage! What then became of the world that you saw in your dream; relate in full all its accounts until its final extinction (or nirvána). 2. The sage replied: - Hear me then tell thee, O honest fellow, what then passed in the heart of the person wherein I had entered, and listen to the wondrous tale with proper attention. 3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation, I saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its train of months, seasons and years, passing imperceptibly by me. 4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and happy with enjoyment of my conjugal bliss. 5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage, came as a guest to my house, and I received the venerable and austere devotee with honour within my doors. 6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he took his meal and he rested himself at ease, when I made him the following inquiry regarding the weal and woe of mankind.

7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and know well the course of the world; and are therefore known neither to fret at adversity, nor delight in prosperity. 8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged in busy life in the world; so as the husbandman reaps good or bad crops in autumn, according to the manner of his cultivation of the field (such is the common belief of men). 9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place, are equally faulty in their actions at the one and same time; that they are brought to suffer and fall under some severe calamity or general doom all at once. 10. We see alternate famine and drought, portents and catastrophes repeatedly overtaking a large portion of mankind at the same time; say then is it owing to the wickedness of the people at the one and very time. 11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked as if he was taken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in his mind; and then he uttered these words of equal reverence and ambrosial sweetness.

12. The sagely guest said: - O well spoken! these words of yours bespeak thy highly enlightened mind; and that you have well understood the cause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal one, tell me; how you came to know it. 13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added); Remember the universal soul only, and think naught what thou art and where thou sittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I and from whence, and what is the phenomenals, whether it is anything substantial or ideal of the mind only. 14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you do not know it as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you are the phantom of a dream before me. 15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing, and mere formation of your imagination; it glares with the glare of the glassy Intellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself. 16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as you must know; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any form whatsoever, you think or take it to be any where.

17. Now in assigning a causality to things, you will find that the Intellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing one cause to anything, you have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for everything. 18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in whom all living beings reside, that is known as virajátma or common soul of all; and the same viewed as residing in us, is known as sútrátmá or individual souls linked together in a series (composed of all souls). 19. There will be other living beings in future, with the virajan soul pervading in all of them, and causing their weal or woe according to their desires. (Lit. causing the affluence and want of men according to their respective acts). 20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours of the body and then the limbs and members of the bodies of men, become perturbed likewise. 21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind or subside of themselves; because: - 22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons living together, <who> are equally guilty of some crime at the same time; who wait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as the fire of heaven on a forest at the same time.

23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to feel the effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from such expectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to its result. 24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any place or time; the same occurs to him in the same proportion as he expected it; whether that object be with or without its cause (i.e. actual or not). 25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way accompanied with their immediate or accessory causes, as all actual existences are; therefore this visionary world is the appearance of the everlasting Intellect of Intelligence, which is Brahma itself. 26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless unreality only; but considering it as the appearance of Brahma, it has both its cause and reality (Hence it is called sadasadátmaka i.e. both a reality and unreality also). 27. The casual occurrence of dreams, deludes our consciousness of them; and so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is equally delusive of our apprehension of it. Its extension is a delusion, as the expansion of a dream.

28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as casual or causal as we take it to be (hence while we deem our dreams as causeless delusions, we are apt to believe the equally visionary world, as a caused and sober reality). 29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the visionary world, as the product of a real causality. It is natural to the waking state to <take> it for a reality, what appears as quite calm and unreal in our sleep and dreams. 30. Now hear me tell you, O great minded sage, that the one satya - Ens or Brahma is the sole cause of existences; or else what other thing is it that is the cause of all nature and this all pervading vacuum. 31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth, and the rarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance, and what is the cause of the self born Brahma. 32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the origin of the winds, and fire and water; and what is the source of our apprehensions of things than mere vacuum or the vacuous intellect.

33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of departed souls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in this manner that the course of creation is going on in this manner from the beginning (without any assignable cause). 34. Thus are all things seen to be going on, and recurring in this world, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air; from our constant habit of thinking and seeing them as such. 35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of Brahmá or creator, spreads and moves throughout the world; and receives afterwards as many different names, as the different phases and forms of that he displays in nature, such as the earth, air &c. 36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds, in the spacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives of itself various forms of things in its own imagination. 37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same receives the very form as a decree of fate; and because these forms are the very images or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are deemed to form the very body of the Deity.

38. In whatever likeness was anything designed at first by the Divine Intellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to this day (and so will it continue to bear for evermore). 39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient, it is able to alter them and make others anew, by its great efforts again (i.e. God can unmake what he has made, and make others again). 40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is thought also to be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever there is no supposition of a cause, there is no apprehension nor capability of its alteration also. (i.e. The world is both as changeable as well as unchangeable, according as it is believed to be made by or selfsame with its Maker). 41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the ideal of the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before, so it continues ever still. 42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits of their pious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or bad rewards or results thereof in this life. There are others who are crushed under a thousand calamities, falling upon them like showers of hailstones or the thunderbolts of heaven.

TRANSCENDENTAL ADMONITIONS. Argument: - Conversation of the impossibility of the departed soul, to reenter into the former body. The house keeping sage then said as follows: - It was by this kind of reasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated with me, and made <me> acquainted with whatever was worth knowing. 2. I then restrained my guest, to remain longer with me by entreaties; and he consented to abide at mine, which resembled the abode of a dead (ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to reason, are called dead people). 3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which were as bright and cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the venerable personage, that is now sitting beside you. 4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal of my ignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of fire, being pleased with my sacrifice. 5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded with wonder; and could not know the sage that expounded the theory of dreaming, now sitting confest before me. 6. The Huntsman said: O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable in my mind, that the sage that expounded the nature of dreams, is now manifest before me.

7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you saw in your dream, and who explained the cause of dreams to you, should now be seen in this waking state. 8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy dream, come to appear in a solid body, and sit sedate at this place, like the fancied ghost of boys. 9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours, in due order; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he comes in this questionable form. 10. The sage replied: - Hear me patently, O fortunate man, to relate to you about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this briefly to you, but you must not be hasty about it. 11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for my acquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has come hither now with his tale too long to relate. 12. He said these words, saying, that he remembered his former nature, which was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at the end of the foggy season (of the month of mágh).

13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards, with an expanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and remained bathed (amazed) at my wondrous change. 14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of the enjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger, pursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water. 15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world, should so allure even the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell, deceive mankind only to deceive them. 16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my ignorance, that I was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the world, to this state of life, which is utterly devoid of every good. 17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only, and there is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error of errors and the greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled and betrayed by unrealities. 18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and yet it is a wonder, that all these false appearances, should appear as realities.

19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to these falsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and this tear off and cast away from me. 20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the world; she can do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself; It is now that I must try to get rid of my error, of deeming the unreal as real. 21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all a mistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person sitting here by me, is as the man in the moon or in the cloud. 22. Then thought I of speaking to that great sage of enlightened understanding; and so thinking, I addressed him saying: - 23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out of the body of this person), in order to see what I may be doing there. 24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah! where are those bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in their ashes.

25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the matter yourself; and by seeing their present state, you will know every thing relating to them. 26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my former body. 27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come back to this place, after seeing my former body; so saying I became a breath of air, and fled from my abode. 28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through the air, and was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a flower, carried rapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a long time. 29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body, by the passage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any other passage, I kept floating in the air. 30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and became tied again to that stake of the world, by my returning affections to it. 31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and asked him intensely in the following manner in my house in this place.

32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future; and knowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing sight. 33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered, as also my own body likewise, could neither of them be found anywhere. 34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the sphere of this earth, and searched amidst all fixed and living bodies herein, but could not find that opening of the throat from which I had come out. 35. Being thus addressed by me, that high minded muni or sage then said unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy bright and brilliant eyes to find it out unaided by my advice. 36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yoga meditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, as one sees a lotus placed in his palm. 37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then attend to my advice, and I will tell thee all about it.

38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the lotus blossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of Brahmá only that developes the lotus of understanding, and that you can know nothing of yourself. 39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you dreamt in your reverie, of entering into the heart of another person, and were confirmed in your consciousness of that belief. 40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you believed to have seen the three worlds therein; and the great sphere of heaven and earth contained in its bosom. 41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and thought yourself to reside in the body of another person; you happened to fall asleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly caught fire and was burnt down. 42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky, and the blazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon. 43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud or ash coloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was spread over as with a canopy. 44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns, sent forth horrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting sparks filled the horizon.

45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and appeared as trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked as the clattering cloud. 46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as fixed lightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face as that of molten gold. 47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled the number of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the bosom of the sky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight of fire works). 48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the hollow sky; startled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who rushed out of their caves and caverns, and wandered about in the forest. 49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves and nests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river waters boiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by the fumes. 50. The young chauri bulls, were parched in the flames; and the stink of the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts, filled the air with a nasty stench. 51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or diluvian fire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your hermitage, as a serpent devours its prey.

52. The Huntsman asked: - Tell me sir, what was the real cause of this fire; and why the Bráhman lads that dwelt in their pupilage there, were burnt down also. 53. The sage replied: - It is the vibration or effort of the volitive or designing mind, that is the true cause or incentive of the production or demolition of the desired object; and so its quiescence is the cause of the absence of the three worlds. 54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation of the heart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile force (or primum mobile) for the causation of the three worlds. 55. It is the pulsation of the Divine Mind, that is the cause of the imaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of population and of rains and draughts. 56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative mind of Brahmá, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of the first patriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression, all of which proceed from the first quiet and calm intellect, through the medium of vacuum.

57. The learned know well, that the effulgence of the pure and vacuous Intellect, shines in the vacuum of their intellects; but the ignorant think it as it appears to them, which is not the reality (which it is not in reality).

VIEW OF INEXISTENCE. Argument: - The world is a vision, and to be known only by conception, perception and meditation. The other sage rejoined: - Afterwards the whole village together with all its dwellings and trees, were all burnt down to ashes like the dried straws. 2. All things being thus burnt away, the two bodies of you two, that had been sleeping there, were also scorched and burnt, as a large piece of stone, is heated and split by fire. 3. Then the fire set after satiating itself with devouring the whole forest, as the sea sat below in its basin, after its waters were sucked up by the sage Agastya. 4. After the fire was quenched and the ashes of the burnt cinders had become cold; they were blown away by gusts of wind, as they bear away the heaps of flowers. 5. Then nothing was known, as to where the hermit’s hut and the two bodies were borne away; and where was that visionary city, which was seen as vividly as in waking, and was populous with numbers of people. 6. In this manner the two bodies having disappeared, their existence remains in the conscious soul, as the memory of externals remains in the mind, at the insensibility of the body in the state of dreaming.

7. Hence where is that passage of the lungs, and where is that Virajian soul any more? They are burnt away together with the vigour and vitality of the dead body. 8. It is on account of this, O sage, that you could not find out those two bodies; and wandered about in this endless world of dreams, as if you were in your waking state. 9. Therefore know this mortal state, as a mere dream appearing as waking, and that all of us are but day dreams, and seeing one another as we see the visionary beings in our dreams. 10. You are a visionary man to me, and so am I also to you; and this intellectual sphere, wherein the soul is situated within itself. 11. You have been ere while a visionary being in your life, until you thought yourself to be a waking man in your domestic life. 12. I have thus related to you the whole matter, as it has occurred to you; and which you well know by your conception, perception and meditation of them.

13. Know at last that it is the firm conviction of our consciousness, which shines for ever as the glitter of gold in the vacuum of our minds; and the intellectual soul catches the colour of our deeds, be they fair or foul or a commixture of both, in its state of a regenerated spirit.

THE SAGE’S DISCOURSE AT NIGHT. Argument: - Refutation of the Reality of Dreams, and the reason of the Preceptorship of the Hunter. The sage resumed: - Saying so the sage held his silence, and lay himself in his bed at night; and I was as bewildered in my mind, as if blown away by the winds. 2. Breaking then my silence after a long time, I spoke to that sage and said: sir, in my opinion, such dreams appear <to have> some truth and reality in them. 3. The other muni replied: - If you can believe in the truth of your waking dreams, you may then rely on the reality of your sleeping dreams likewise; but should your day dreams prove to be false, what faith can you then place on your night dreams (which are as fleet as air). 4. The whole creation from its very beginning, is no more than a dream; and it appears to be comprised of the earth etc., yet it is devoid of everything. 5. Know the waking dream of this creation is more subtile, than our recent dreams by night; and O lotus eyed preceptor of the huntsman, you will shortly hear all this from me.

6. You think that the object you see now, in your waking state in the day time, the same appear to you in the form of dream in your sleep; so the dream of the present creation, is derived from a previous creation, which existed from before as an archetype of this, in the vacuum of the Divine Mind. 7. Again seeing the falsity of your waking dream of this creation, how do you say that you entertain doubts regarding the untruth of sleeping dreams, and knowing well that the house in your dream is not yours, how do you want to dote upon it any more? 8. In this manner, O sage, when you perceive the falsity of your waking dream of this world; how can you be doubtful of its unreality any more? 9. As the sage was arguing in this manner, I interrupted him by another question; and asked him to tell me, how he came to be the preceptor of the huntsman. 10. The other sage replied: - Hear me relate to you this incident also; I will be short in its narration, for know O learned sage, I can dilate it likewise to any length.

11. I have been living here, as a holy hermit for a long time; and solely employed in the performance of my religious austerities; and after hearing my speech, I think you too will like to remain in this place. 12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake me here alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein. 13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in the course of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine in this place, and all its people will be wholly swept away. 14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs, when this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinned of their occupants. 15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and in perfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, by our knowledge of the knowable. 16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; and perform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moon perform their revolutions in the solitary sky.

17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, many kinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonely place. 18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing bird sitting upon them; and the waters will be filled with lotus beds, with the humming bees and chakoras chirping amidst them. There shall we find happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for our repose.

ONE SOUL IS THE CAUSE OF ALL. Argument: - Arrival of the Huntsman, and the sage’s preceptorship of him. The other sage said: - When both of us shall dwell together in that forest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there will appear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue in pursuing after a deer. 2. You will then reclaim and enlighten him, by means of your meritorious remonstrance; and he then will commence and continue to practice his austerities, from his aversion to the world. 3. Then continuing in his austere devotion, he will be desirous of gaining spiritual knowledge, and make inquiries into the phenomena of dreaming. 4. You sir, will then instruct him fully in divine knowledge, and he will be versed in it by your lectures on the nature of dreams. 5. In this manner you will become his religious instructor, and it is for this reason that I have accosted you with the epithet or title of the huntsman’s guru or religious guide. 6. Now sir, I have related to you already regarding our errors of this world; and what I and you are at present, and what we shall turn to be afterwards.

7. Being thus spoken to by him, and learning all these things from him, I became filled with wonder, and was he more amazed as I remonstrated with him on these matters. 8. Thus we passed the night in mutual conversation, and after we got up in the morning, I honoured the sage with due respect, and he was pleased with me. 9. Afterwards we continued to live together in the same homely hut of the same village, with our steady minds and our friendship daily increasing. 10. In this manner time glided on peacefully upon us, and the revolutions of his days and nights, and returns of months, seasons and years; and I have been sitting here unmoved under all the vicissitudes of time and fortune. 11. I long not for a long life, nor desire to die ere the destined day; I live as well as I may, without any care or anxiety about this or that. 12. I then looked upon the visible sphere, and began to cogitate in my mind; as to what and how and whence it was, and what can be the cause of it.

13. What are these multitudes of things, and is the cause of all these; it is all but the phenomena of a dream, appearing in the vacuity of the Intellect. 14. The earth and heaven, the air and the sky, the hills and rivers, and all the sides of firmament; are all but pictures of the Divine mind, represented in empty air. 15. It is the moonlight of the Intellect, which spreads its beams all round the ample space of vacuum; and it is this which shines as the world, which is an ineffaceable fac-simile or cartography of the supreme Intellect in the air. 16. Neither is this earth nor sky, nor are these hills and dales really in existence; nor am I anything at all; it is only the reflexion of the supreme Mind in empty air. 17. What may be the cause of aggregation of solid bodies, when there is no material cause for the causation of material bodies in the beginning. 18. The conception of matter and material bodies, is a fallacy only; but what can be the cause of this error, but delusion of the sight and mind. 19. The person in the pith of whose heart, I remained in the manner of his consciousness, was burnt down to ashes together with myself.

20. Therefore this vacuum which is without its beginning and end, is full with the reflexion of the Divine Intellect; and there is no efficient or instrumental or material cause of creation, except its being a shadow of the substance of the Divine Mind. 21. All these pots and pictures, these prints and paints before us, are but the prints of the Divine Mind; nor can you ever get anything, without its mould therein. 22. But the Intellect too has no brightness of it, except its pure lucidity; for how can a mere void as vacuum have any light, except its transparency. 23. The Intellect is the pure Intelligence, of the extended entity of Brahma; which shows in itself the panorama of the universe, what else are the visibles, and where is their view besides. 24. There is but one Omnipresent soul, who is uncaused and uncausing, and without its beginning, middle and end; He is the essence of the three worlds and their contents. He is something as the universal intelligence, and shows all and every thing in itself (and reflects them in all partial intelligences according to their capacities).

RELATION OF PAST EVENTS. Argument: - The living liberation of the sage, by means of his habitual meditation. The sage continued: - Having thus considered the vanity of the visibles, I remained free from my anxious cares about the world; and became passionless and fearless, and extinct in nirvána, from insensibility of my egoism. 2. I became supportless and unsupporting, and remained without my dependence upon any body; I was quite calm with my self-composure, and my soul was elevated and rested in heaven. 3. I did as my duty called, and did nothing of my own accord; and remained as void and blank as vacuum, which is devoid of all action and motion. 4. The earth and heaven, the sky and air, the mountains and rivers, and all that lies on all sides and the sides themselves, are not but shadow in the air, and all living bodies are no more than the embodied (died) Intellect or Intellectual bodies. 5. I am quiet and composed, and manage myself as well as I can; I am quite happy in myself; having no injunction nor prohibition to obey, nor to act an inner or outer part (i.e. not having a double part to play, nor any duplicity in the heart).

6. Thus I resided here in my even temper, and the same tenor of my mind and actions; and it is by mere chance, that you have come to meet me here. 7. Thus I have fully explained to thee about the nature of dream and my personal self; together with that of the phenomenal world and thyself. 8. Hence thou hast well understood, what is this visible world that lies before thee; as also what these beings and these people are, and what Brahma is after all. 9. Now knowing these things, O thou huntsman, to be mere false, <you> must now have your peace of mind, with the conviction that, all this is the representation of the Intellect in empty air. Yea, it is this that is dimly seen in these, and naught besides. 10. The hunts-man rejoined: - If so it be then both me and thee and the gods even, you say to be nullity; and that all of these are but the phantoms of a dream, and that all men are no men, and all existence as non existence (sadasat). 11. The sage replied: - It is verily so, and all and every one of us is situated as the spectre of a dream to one another, and as phasma in the cosmorama of the world.

12. These spectres appear in forms, according to one’s conception of them; and the only One appears as many, like the rays of light. All these radiations cannot be wholly true or untrue, nor a mixture of both of them. 13. The visionary city of the world that appears in our waking state, is but a waking dream or an apparition of our minds, and appears as the prospect of a distant city before us, that we never saw before. 14. I have fully explained all this to you already, and you have been enlightened in the subject to no end; now you have grown wise and well known all and everything; do therefore as you may like best for you. 15. Though thus awakened and enlightened by me, your reprobate mind is not yet turned to reason, nor found its rest either in transcendental wisdom, or in the transcendent state of the most high. 16. Without assuetude you cannot concentrate your vagrant mind into your heart; nor can you without the practice of constant reflexion attain the acme of wisdom.

17. It is impossible to attain the summit of perfection, without your habitual observance of wisdom; as it is incapable for a block of wood to contain any water in it, unless it is scooped out in the form of a wooden vessel. 18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to the precepts of the sástras and preceptors, tend to the removal of the mind’s suspense between unity and duality (i.e. between God and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss of nirvána - anaesthesia in quietism. 19. Insensibility of one’s worth and state and inertness to all worldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, and abstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart - 20. These joined with one’s deliverance from the fetters of dualities, and enfranchisement from all pleasurable and painful associations, are the surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterable bliss - nirvána (which is ever attendant on the Deity).

RELATION OF FUTURE FORTUNE. Argument: - The sage relates the elevation of the Huntsman to heaven by means of his austere devotion. The God Agni said: - Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost in wonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in the very forest. 2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, and appeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into a sea. 3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed him onward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by an alligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of his meditation. 4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of his nirvána or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but was tossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness. 5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but he came to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, to be the production (display) of Providence.

6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning; and this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body, which I have gained by means of devotion. 7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of the existent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, which is above the etherial space (i.e. in heaven). 8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, and set his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictated to him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without its constant practice. 9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied himself to the observance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers. 10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagely seers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, for very many years and seasons. 11. Remaining long in the discharge of his austere duties, and suffering all along the severities of his rigorous penance; he asked once his sagely guide, as to when he shall obtain his rest and respite from these toils, to which the muni responded unto him in the following manner.

12. The muni said: - The little knowledge that I have imparted unto thee, is a spark fire and able to consume a forest of withered wood; though it has not yet burnt down the impression of this rotten world from your mind. 13. Without assuetude you cannot have your beatitude in knowledge; and with it, it is possible to attain it in course of a long time. (i.e. No knowledge is efficacious without its long practice, hence a novice in yoga is no yogi or adept in it). 14. Such will verily be your case, if you will rely in my assurance of this to you, and wear my words as a jewel about your ears, knowing them to be oracular in this world. 15. You praise the unknown spirit of God, in your ignorance of his nature; and your mind is hanging in suspense between your knowledge and ignorance of (divine nature). 16. You are led <of> your own accord to inquire into the nature and extent of the cosmos, which is but a phantom of delusion. (The world being but a delusion, it is in vain to investigate about it).

17. You will be thus employed for ages, in your arduous understanding of making this research, until Brahmá - the creative power will appear before you, being pleased at your investigation into his works. 18. You will then ask the favour of thy favouring god, to release you from your ponderous doubt of the reality or delusiveness of the world, saying: - 19. Lord! I see the cosmorama of the phenomenal world, is spread out every where as a delusion before our sight; but I want to see a spot, which exhibits the true mirror of the Divine mind, and which is free from the blemish of the visibles. 20. The mirror of the vacuous mind, though as minute as an atom, represents yet the reflexion of this vast universe in some part or other within it. (i.e. The minute atom of the mind, is the reflector of vast universe). 21. It is therefore to be known, how far this boundless world extends to our woe only; and how far does the sphere of the etherial sky stretch beyond it. 22. It is for this that I ask your good grace, to make me acquainted with the infinite space of the universe; accept my prayer, O thou lord of gods, and readily grant this my request.

23. Strengthen and immortalize this body of mine, and make it mount upon the regions of sky, with the velocity of the bird of heaven (Garuda or Phoenix). 24. Make my body increase to the length of a league each moment; until it encircles the world in the manner of its outer and surrounding sky. 25. Let this pre-eminent boon be granted to me, O great and glorious God, that I may reach beyond the bounds of the circumambient sky, which surrounds the sphere of the visible world. 26. Being thus besought by thee, O righteous man, the Lord will say unto thee, “Be it so as though desirest,” and then he will disappear as a vision from thy sight, and vanish into the air, with his attendant gods along with him. 27. After the departure of Dis Pater with his accompanying deities, to their divine abodes in heaven; thy thin and lean body emaciated by thy austerities, will assume a brightness as that of the brilliant moon. 28. Then bowing down to me and getting my leave, thy brightsome body will mount to the sky in an instant, in order to see the object of thy desire, which is settled in thy mind.

29. It will rise high into the air as a second moon, and higher still as the luminous sun itself; and blaze above as brightly as a burning fire, in defiance of the brightness of the luminaries. 30. Then it will fly upwards in the empty sky, with the force of the strong winged phoenix; and run forward with the rapidity of a running current, in order to reach at the bounding belt of the world. 31. Having gone beyond the limit of the world, thy body will increase in its bulk and extent; and become as swollen as the diluvian ocean, that covered the face of the whole universe. 32. There thou wilt find thy body, growing bigger and bigger still; and filling like a big cloud the empty space of air, which is devoid of all created things. 33. This is the great vacuum of the Divine spirit, filled with the chaotic confusion of elements, flying about as whirlwinds; and the unbounded ocean of the infinite Mind, swelling with the waves of its perpetual thought. 34. You will find within this deep and dark vacuity, numberless worlds and created bodies, hurling headlong in endless succession; just as you perceive in your consciousness, a continued series of cities and other objects appearing in your dream.

35. As the torn leaves of trees, are seen to be tossed about in the air by the raging tempest; so you will see multitudes of worlds, hurled to and fro in the immensity of the Divine Mind. 36. As the passing world presents a faint and unsubstantial appearance to one looking down at it on the top of a high citadel; so do these worlds appear as mere shades and shadows when viewed in their spiritual light from above. 37. As the people of this world view the black spots attached to the disk of the moon, which are never observed by the inhabitants of that luminary; so are these worlds supposed to subsist in the Divine spirit, but they are in reality no other than the fleeting ideas of the infinite Mind. 38. You will thus continue to worlds after worlds, moving in the midst of successive spheres and skies; and thus pass a long time viewing the creation stretching to no end. 39. After viewing the multitudes of worlds, thronging in the heavens like the leaves of trees; you will be tired to see no end of them in the endless abyss of Infinity.

40. You will then be vexed in yourself, at this result of your devotion, as also at the distention of your body, and stretch of your observations all over the immensity of space. 41. Of what good is this big body, which I bear as a ponderous burthen upon me; and in comparison with which millions of mountain ranges, as the great Meru etc., dwindle away into lightsome straws. 42. This boundless body of mine, that fills the whole space of the sky; answers no purpose whatever, that I can possibly think of. 43. This ponderous body of mine, that measures the whole space of the visible world; is quite in the darkness - ignorance without its spiritual knowledge, which is the true light of the soul. 44. I must therefore cast off this prolated body of mine, which is of no use to me, in the acquisition of knowledge or in keeping company with wise and holy men. 45. Of what good is this big and bulky body of mine, to scan the unknowable infinity of the endless and supportless Brahma, whose essence contains and supports the whole of this universe, and is hard to be ascertained.

46. Thinking so in yourself, you will shrivel your bloated body, by exhaling your breath (as you had expanded it by your inhalation of it), and then shun your frame as a bird cast off the outer crust of a fruit after suction of its juicy sap. 47. After casting off the mortal clod and coil of your body, thy soul will rest in empty air accompanied with its respirative breath of life, which is more tenuous than the subtile ether (over which it floats). 48. Thy big body will then fall down on earth, as when the great mount of Meru fell on the ground, being cleft of its wings by ire of Indra; and will crush all earthly beings, and smash the mountains to dust underneath it. 49. Then will the dry and starved goddess Kálí, with her hungry host of Mátris and furies, devour thy prostrate body, and restore the earth to its purity, by clearing it of its nuisance. 50. Now you heard me fully relate unto your future fate, go therefore to yonder forest of palm trees, and remain there in practising your austerities as well as you may like.

51. The huntsman rejoined: - O sir, how great are the woes that are awaiting upon me, and which I am destined to undergo in my vain pursuit after knowledge (of the infinite nature and works of God). 52. Pray tell me sir, if you have anything to say, for my averting the great calamity that you have predicted; and tell me also, if there be no expedient to avoid the destined evil. 53. The sage replied: - There is no body nor any power whatever, that is ever able to prevent the eventualities of fate; and all attempts to avert them, are thrown on one’s back. 54. As there is no human power to the left on the right, or fix the feet on the head; so there is no possibility to alter the decree of fate. 55. The knowledge of the science of astrology, serves only to acquaint us with the events of our fate; but there is nothing in it, that can help us to counteract the shafts of adverse fortune. 56. Therefore those men are blest, who with their knowledge of sovran predestination are still employed in their present duties; and who after the death and burning of their bodies, rest in the eternal repose of Brahma in their consciousness.

EXPOSTULATION OF SINDHU BY HIS MINISTER. Argument: - The aerial spirit of the Huntsman is reborn on Earth as prince Sindhu, who kills Vidúratha, and is remonstrated by his Minister. The Huntsman said: - Tell me Sir, what will then become of my soul in its aerial position, and of my body in its situation on earth. 2. The sage replied: - Hear me attentively to tell you, about what is to become of your lost body on earth, as also of your living soul sustained in the air. 3. The body being subducted from thy whole self, thy soul will assume an aerial form, and will remain in empty air, united with its vital breath. 4. In that airy particle of your soul, you will find the surface of the earth, situated in the recess of your mind; and you will behold it as clearly, as you view the world in your dream. 5. Then from the inward desire of your heart, you will see in the amplitude of your mind, that you have become the sovereign lord of this wide extended globe. 6. The will of this idea rises of itself in your mind, that you have become a king by name and in the person of Sindhu, who is so highly honoured by men.

7. After eight years of thy birth, thy other will depart from this mortal world, and leave to thee this extensive earth, reaching to its utmost boundaries of the four seas. 8. You will find in the border of your realm, a certain lord of the land by name of Vidúratha, who will rise as thy enemy, and whom it will be difficult for thee to quell. 9. You will then reflect in yourself, of your past and peaceful reign of a full century; and think of the pleasures you have so long enjoyed in company with your consort and attendants. 10. Woe unto me, that this lord of the bordering land, has now risen against me in my old age; and has put me to the trouble of waging a formidable warfare against him. 11. As thou shalt be thinking in this wise, there will occur the great war between thee and that lord of the land; in which all your quadruple armaments, will be greatly worsted and thinned. 12. In that great war, thou wilt succeed to slay that Vidúratha, by striking him with thy sword, and keeping thy stand on thy war-car.

13. You will then become the sole lord of this earth, to its utmost of the four oceans; and become to be dreaded and honoured by all, like the regents of all the sides of heaven. 14. Having thus become the sovereign monarch of the earth, and reigning over it and the name of the mighty Sindhu, thou wilt pass thy time in conversation with the learned pandits and ministers of thy court. 15. The minister will say, It is a mighty wondrous deed, O lord, that thou hast achieved, by slaying the invincible Vidúratha in thy single combat. 16. Then thou wilt say, tell me O good man, how this Vidúratha waxed so very rich, and possessed his forces as numerous as the waves of ocean; and what cause impelled him to rise against me. 17. The Minister will reply: - This lord has Lílá as his lady, who had won the favour of the fair goddess Sarasvatí; who is the supportress of the world, by her extreme devotion to her. (Sarasvatí is the goddess of wisdom and hand-maid of God. See Sir Wm. Jones’ prayer). 18. The benign goddess took this lady for her foster-daughter, and enabled her to achieve all her actions, and even obtain her liberation with ease. (Wisdom facilitates all human act).

19. It is by favour of this goddess, that this lady is able to annihilate thee at a single nod or word of hers; wherefore it is no difficult task to her to destroy thee all at once. 20. Sindhu then will answer him saying: - If what thou sayest is true, it is wondrous indeed, how then could the invincible Vidúratha come to be slain by me in warfare. 21. And why he being so highly favoured by the goddess, could not get the better of me in this combat (by slaying me with his hand). 22. The Minister will reply: - Because he always prayed the goddess with earnestness of his heart, to give him liberation from the cares and troubles of this world. 23. Now then, O lord, this goddess that knows the hearts of all men, and confers to all the objects of their desire, gave thee the victory thou didst seek, and conferred <on> him the liberation he sought by thy hands. 24. Sindhu then, will respond to it; saying: - If it is so, then I must ask, why the goddess did not confer the blessing of liberation on me also, that have been so earnestly devoted to her at all times.

25. The Minister will then say in his reply: - This goddess resides as intelligence in the minds of all men, and as conscience also in the hearts of all individual beings, and is known by the title of Sarasvatí to all. 26. Whatever object is constantly desired by any one, and earnestly asked of her at all times; she is ever ready to confer the same to him, as it is felt in the heart of everyone. 27. You lord never prayed for your liberation, at the shrine of this goddess; but craved for your victory over your enemies, which she has accordingly deigned to confer unto you. 28. Sindhu will then respond to it and say: - why is it that prince did not pray the goddess of pure wisdom for his obtaining a kingdom like me; and how was it that I slighted to pray her for my final liberation as he did? 29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart for liberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek after the same? (i.e. Why does the goddess give us the knowledge of what is good, without enabling us to exist and persist after its attainment)?

30. To this the minister will reply saying: - The propensity of doing evil (or slaughter), being inherent in your nature (from your past profession of huntsmanship), you neglected to stoop down to the goddess, and pray unto her for your liberation. 31. It is well known since the creation of the world, that the intrinsic gist forms the nature of man; and this truth being evident to all from their boyhood to age, there is no body to ignore or repudiate it at any time. 32. The purity or impurity of the inner heart, to which one is habituated by his long practice or custom, continues to predominate over all his qualities and actions to the very last, and there is no power to contravene it in any manner.

THE ULTIMATE EXTINCTION OR NIRVANA OF SINDHU. Argument: - Description of the nature of Sindhu, his resignation of the kingdom, his discrimination and final liberation. Then Sindhu will say: - Tell me sir, what kind of a vile-person and how ignorant I had been before whereby I still retain the evil propensities of my past life, and am doomed to be reborn in this earth (the vale of misery). 2. The minister will say in his reply: - “Hear me attentively, O king, for a while; and I will tell you this secret, which you require me to relate, and will surely remove your ignorance.” 3. There is a self existent and undecaying Being from all eternity, which is without its beginning or end, which is designated the great Brahma, and passes herein under the little of I and thou, and of this and that &c. 4. I am that self same Brahma, by the consciousness of my self cogitation (ego cogito ergo sum). This becomes the living principal with the power of intellection (vivo qui intellego I live because I think). This power does not forsake its personality; (but retains its persona of I am that I am).

5. Know this Intellect to be a spiritual or supernatural substance, having a form rarer and more transparent than that of the subtile ether; it is this which is the only being in existence, nor is there anything which is of a material substance. (This passage maintains the immateriality of the world). 6. This formless takes the form of the mind, by its being combined, with volition and its views of this and the next world, (i.e. its worldly enjoyments and future bliss), in its state of life and death, and of waking and sleep. (That is the mind is sensible of these passing and alternate phenomena). 7. The mind, though formless, stretches itself into the form of the phenomenal world; just as the formless air dilates itself, in the form of force or oscillation in all material bodies. 8. The world is identic with the mind, as the seeming and visible sky is the same with empty vacuity; so the corporeal is alike the incorporeal, and there is no difference whatever, between the material and mental worlds.

9. This net work or least of worlds resides in the mind, in their immanent impressions in it, and the outer world is in reality. And that the cosmos consists of ideas in the formless mind, its formal appearance has no real substance in it. (The immaterial ideas of the mind are real, and not the material objects or the sober reality of the subjective only). 10. There arose at first the pure (satya) personality of the impersonal and universal spirit of God (Brahma), in the person of the creative power known under the title of Brahmá. This personal god assumed to himself the appellation of ego from his will of creation, and the undivided spirit, was divided into many impure personalities (rájasa and támasa), from its desire of becoming many (aham bahu syam-sim multa and plurimá). 11. The sindhu will say: Tell me sir, what you mean by rájasa and támasa bodies (or impure personalities); and how and whence are these appellations at first in primo to the supreme being - parapada - the Indefinite One. 12. The monitor will reply saying: - As all embodied beings herein, are possessed of members and limbs of their bodies; so the bodiless spirit is comprised of an infinite variety of minor spiritual forms under it, which are known as the good or bad spirits.

13. The selfsame spirit then designates all these several parts of itself by various appellations, and the incorporeal spirit assumes to itself, an endless variety of material and terraqueous natures and names. (That changed through all, yet in all the same; known by this or that or one or other nature and name). 14. Thus the universal spirit continues to exhibit in itself, all the various forms of this visionary world at its own will; and gives a distinct name and nature to each and every one of these representations of itself. 15. When the Divine spirit, deigned to covert itself into the personality of Brahmá, and in those of me or thee and other individualities; it became altered from its state of original holiness and purity to those impurity and foulness, known as rájasí and támasí. (When God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam, it lost its purity and sanctity by contamination of flesh). 16. The unalterable pure nature of the holy spirit of God, being thus transformed to unholiness, it passed into different states of impurity in the living souls of beings. (The same living soul passing different degrees of purity and impurity).

17. The spirit of God being blown at first as the living soul (in an animal body); the soul that comes to perceive its incarceration in flesh and its doom to suffering, is said to be of the pure nature of sáttikí. 18. Those who while they are living in the world, are possest of politeness and good qualities; they are said to be merely of a good nature Kevala sáttiki. 19. Those who being born in repeated regenerations are destined to the enjoyments of life, and to their final liberation at last, are designated as the राजस राजसी. 20. Those again who being born in this nether world, are inclined to the practice of their manly virtues only; such souls are famed as the merely rájasí (shining), and are few in their number. 21. Those souls which have been undergoing their repeated regenerations, ever since the beginning of creation; and are continually roving in the bodies of inferior beings, are said by the wise, to belong to the species of the most impure támasa támasí; though it is possible from them to attain their salvation at last.

22. Those which have been wandering in many births, in the forms of vile animals, and until they attain their salvation at the end; such souls are designated as merely vile Kevala tamasi by the wise, who are versed in the science of psychology. 23. In this manner have these philosophers classed the emanated soul of beings into many grades and species; among which O my respected sir, your soul is reckoned among the vilest of the vile tamasa tamasí. 24. I know you to have passed through many births of which you know nothing; and these have been as various as they were fraught with the variegated scenes of life. 25. You have in vain passed all your lives in doing nothing that is useful; and more particularly your late aeronautic life, with that gigantic body of yours. 26. Being thus born with the vile species of thy soul, it is difficult for thee to obtain thy liberation from the prison house of this world. 27. Sindhu will then say in his response: - Tell me sir, how can I divest myself of this inborn vile nature of my soul; that I may learn to abide by thy counsel, and try to purify my soul and rectify the conduct of my life.

28. There is nothing in all these three worlds, which is hard to be acquired by means of earnest endeavour and intense application. 29. As a fault or failure of the previous day, is corrected by its rectifications to day; so can you purify your pristine impure soul by your pious acts of the present day. 30. Whoever earns for any thing and labours hard to earn it, is sure to gain it in the end, wherein the remiss are sure to meet with failure. 31. Whatever a man is intent upon doing, and tries to effect at all times; and whatsoever one desires with earnestness, and is constantly devoted to the same pursuit, he is to succeed in it, and have his object without fail. 32. The sage related: - The king being thus remonstrated by his minister, was resolved to resign the burthen of his state, and to renounce his realm and royalty even at that very moment. 33. He wished to retire to some far distant forest, and prayed his ministers to support his realm; but he declined to take the charge, though the state was free from all its enemies (i.e. though it was a peaceful realm).

34. He then remained in the company of wisemen, and was enlightened by their discourses; as the sesame seeds became odorous by being placed amidst a heap of flowers. 35. Then from his inquiries into the mysteries of his life and birth, and into the causes of his confinement in this world, he obtained the knowledge of his liberation from it. 36. It was thus by means of his continued inquiries into truth, and his continual association with the wise and good, that the soul of Sindhu attained a holy sanctity in comparison with which, the prosperity of Brahma even, is as a straw or the dried leaf of a withered tree, which the winds of the sky toss about to and fro.

FALL OF THE HUGE BODY OF THE HUNTER. Argument: - The aerial body of the Hunter, and its downfall from the high heaven. The sage resumed and said: - I have thus related these future events, as if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thou wishest and thinkest best for thyself. 2. Agni the god of fire said: - Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising with the sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool. 3. In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religious austerities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms of disinterested friendship with one another. 4. After some time the muni met with his final extinction - nirvána, and by casting off his mortal body, obtained his last repose in the state of transcendent tranquility. 5. In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahma to give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of his desire. 6. The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing, begged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage had predicted to him.

7. Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode; and the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy the fruition of his austere devotion. 8. He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space, which lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of an incalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filled the regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched along and across this lower world. 9. He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagle of Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulk of his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process of an indefinite period of time. 10. Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuated in the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself. 11. From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respiration of his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in the air, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.

12. His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the air into the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, and the great antagonist of Vidúratha. 13. His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became a huge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering of thunders, as one earth falling upon another. 14. At a certain time, it shines as a Kesandraka, at others it appears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky. 15. I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this huge carcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe of this earth. 16. The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen, resembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as a city in our dream. 17. The dry and big bellied goddess chandí, then devoured this carcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrails with its red hot blood. 18. The earth is called mediní or fleshy from the flesh of this corpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.

19. It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance of the earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from the dust of this body. 20. This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and the fossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath the ground, which grew everything useful to men.

WANDERING OF VIPASCHIT. Argument: - The god of fire, after directing Vipaschit to wander over the world according to his desire, disappeared from his sight. The god of fire added: - Go now O sapient Vipaschit, to your wished for abodes, and with the steadiness of your mind, conduct with propriety every where on earth. 2. Indra the lord of the assemblage of creatures, has been performing his hundred fold sacrifices in his celestial abode; and there I am invited to attend by an invocation of him. 3. Bhása said: - Saying so, the lord Agni disappeared from that place; and passed through the transparent ether like the electric fire of lightning. 4. I was then led by my predestination to roam about in the air; and direct my mind into the investigation of my allotted acts, and the termination of my ignorance. 5. I beheld again an innumerable host of heavenly bodies, roving about in the air; holding their positions at different stations of the firmament, and containing inhabitants of different natures and customs.

6. Some of these were of one and same form, resembling floating umbrellas in the sky; and attracting the hearts of men, by their shining appearance and slow motion. (The great velocity of heavenly bodies, appear to be slow when they are seen by the naked eyes of men from this distant earth). 7. Some of them are of earthy substance, but shining and moving onward like mountains in motion. 8. Some were of woody appearance, and others of stony substance; but they are all lightsome bodies, and all moving onward in their uninterrupted course. 9. I beheld also some figures like carved statues of stone, standing in the open space of my mind, and talking together all their live-long days. 10. In this manner I beheld for a long while, many such figures like images in my dream, and was quite bewildered in my utter ignorance of them. 11. I then intended to perform my austere devotion, in order to obtain my liberation; when the god Indra appeared unto me and said: “no Vipaschit, you are doomed to become a stag again, and not entitled to your liberation now.”

12. You are propelled by your previous predilection to prefer the pleasures of heaven; therefore I must direct you to dwell in my paradise, and wander there amidst my gardens of mandara trees. 13. Being thus bid by him, I rejoined and said to him: I am weary, O lord, with the troubles of the world, and want to get my release from them; ordain therefore my immediate emancipation from them. 14. The god listened to my prayer and said: emancipation attends on the pure soul, which is purged from all its desires; and this had been already expounded to you by the god of fire (in his narrative of the sage and hunter); ask therefore some other boon, said he, and I begged him to tell me of my next and future state. 15. Indra replied and said: - I find you to be fated to be changed to the state of a deer hereafter, from the fond desire of your heart, to wander about and feed freely in the fields. 16. By becoming a deer, you will have to enter the holy assembly (of Dasaratha); where another deer like you, has obtained his liberation before, by listening to the spiritual instructions formerly delivered there by me.

17. Therefore be born as a deer in some forest on earth with your pensive soul; and you will then come to recollect your past life from its relation by Vasishtha (in the court of king Dasaratha). 18. You will learn there, that all this existence is but the delusion of a dream, and the creation of imagination; and the account of your future life depicted in its true colour. 19. After being released from the body of the deer, you shall regain your human form, and perceive the rays of holy light shining in your inward spirit. 20. This light will then dispel the long prevailing gloom of ignorance from your mind, and then you shall attain your nirvána supineness, as the calm and breathless wind. 21. After the god had said so, I had the presentiment of being a deer in this forest, and entirely forgot my human nature, under my firm conviction of having become a beast. 22. I have been ever since residing in the recess of these woods, under the impression of my being changed to a stag; and feeding ever since upon the grass and herbs growing on the mountain top.

23. Here I saw once a body of troopers coming to a hunting excursion; and being then affrighted at the sight, I betook myself to flight. 24. They then laid hold of me, and took me to their place; where they kept me for some days for their pleasure, and at last brought me hither before Ráma. 25. I have thus related to you all the incidents of my life; and the magical scenes of the world, too full of marvelous events. 26. It is the production of our ignorance, which pervades over all things, and branches out into innumerable forms in everything that presents itself to our view; and there is nothing whatever to dispel this darkness, except by the light of spiritual knowledge. 27. Válmíki relates: - Then as Vipaschit had held his silence after speaking in this manner; he was accosted by the well minded Ráma with the following words. 28. Ráma said: - Tell me sir, how a person without any desire of his own, sees the object of another’s desire in himself; and could the deer thought of by yourself, come to the sight of others in Indra’s Paradise?

29. Vipaschit replied: - Let me tell you that the earth where upon the huge carcass had fallen, was once before trodden upon by Indra, with the pride of his performance of a hundred sacrifices. 30. There strutting along in his haughty strides, he met the anchorite Durvásas sitting still in his meditative mood; and believing him to be a dead body lying on his way, he knocked it down with his feet. 31. At this the angry anchorite threatened the proud god with saying: - O Indra! as you have dashed me with your feet by thinking me a lifeless corpse, so will a huge carcass shortly fall upon this ground and slash it to pieces and reduce it to dust. 32. And as you have spurned me as a dead body, so art thou accursed to be crushed under the falling carcass on earth. 33. He transformed into a deer, as he was king of kings before, and remained in his appearance according to his ideas. 34. In truth neither is the actual world a reality, nor the imaginary one an unreality; it is in fact the one and same thing, whether we conceive it as the one or other (i.e. either as the real or unreal).

35. Listen now, O Ráma, to another reason, which appertains to this subject, and clearly settles the point in question. (That God being Almighty and all in all, it makes no difference whatever, whether the world is viewed as his creation or as a pantheon). 36. He in whom all things reside, and from whom everything proceeds; who is all in all; and who is every where in all must be the One that you may call all, and beside whom there <is> none at all. 37. It is equally possible to him, to bring forth whatever he wills to produce; as also not to produce, whatever he does not wish to bring to existence. 38. Whatever is desired in earnest by any body, must eventually come to pass to him in reality (as the desired doership of Vipaschit); and this is as true as the instance of light, being ever accompanied by its shade. 39. If it is impossible for the desire and its act, which are opposite in their nature, to meet together in fact; then it would be impossible for the omnifarious God to be all things both in being and not being; therefore the objects of our desire and thought, are equally present with us as the real ones.

40. There is a reality (or entity of God) attached to every form of existence, and there is nothing which of itself is either an entity or nullity also. 41. O the great magic or illusion, which is overspread every where, and pervades over all nature in every form and at all times; and binds all beings in inextricable delusion. 42. The nature of the great God comprises the community of spirits in his spirit, and combines in itself all laws whether permissive or prohibitive acting in concert and eternal harmony. 43. It is his infinite power that has displayed the ignorance or Illusion, which spreads over all the three worlds from time with or without its beginning; and it is our delusion only, which depicts all things in their various forms to our view. 44. Or how could the creation that was once destroyed by the great deluge, come to resuscitate again; unless it were a réchauffé of the reminiscence of the past one, else the elementary bodies of air, fire and earth, could not possibly be produced from nothing. 45. Therefore the world is no other than a manifestation of the divine nature; and this is the verdict of the sástras, and the conviction of mankind from the very beginning of creation.

46. Things which admit of no sufficient proof for their material existence, are easily proved to exist, by their being considered under the light of the understanding. 47. Things of a subtile nature, which are imperceptible by the senses, are known in their essence by the understanding of the learned; hence the essence of Brahma is pure understanding, of which we are quite ignorant owing to our ignorance of the Intellect. 48. The world is obvious to us from its figure, as the air is evident by its vibration; hence no body is born or dies herein, (save that it appears to or disappears from our sight). 49. That I am living and the other is dead, are conceptions of our mind; hence death being but the total disappearance of the visible world from our view, it must be as pleasing to us as our sound sleep itself. 50. If it be the recognition of the visibles, which is called the life or revivification of man; then there are no such things in the world, as are commonly termed the life and death of beings. 51. At a time, the intellect appears a duality, and at other an unity, both are nothing but intellect.

52. It is the Intellection of the Divine Intellect, that infuses its intelligence into all minds; hence what is life without the intellect and the faculty of intellection. 53. The intellect being free from pain, there is no cause of complaint in any intellectual being; since the word world and all that it means to express, are but manifestations of vacuous intellect. 54. It is wrong to say, that the intellect is one thing and the body another; since the unity is the soul of all and pervades all multiformity; and as the waves and whirlpools are seen in the waters, so are all these bodies known to abide in the Supreme being. 55. The universal pervasion of divine essence, as that of the subtile air, is the cause of causes and the sole cause of all; hence the world is a subtile substance also, being but a reflexion of the Divine Intellect. 56. It is wonderful, how this subtile world appears as a solid body to us; it is only our conception of it as such that makes it appear so unto us; but conception is no substance at all, therefore the world has no substantiality in it.

57. It is the demon of error that reigns over us in its aerial form, deludes us to take the shadowy world for the substance; while in fact this creation of error is as nil and void, as the vacuous creation of the intellect. (i.e. The sensible world is as void and null as the ideal one). 58. Hence this nether world below and the etherial worlds above, are as void as the hyperphysical world of the Divine Intellect; and all these being but reflexions of the Divine mind, are exhibited in various ways. 59. The Intellect being a subtile entity, there is nothing as a solid substance anywhere; the phenomenals are all unsubstantial rarities, though they appear to us solidified realities. 60. The knowledge of the true verity and that of the unreality, are so blended together; that we must remain in mute silence like a block of wood or stone, to pronounce anything in the affirmative or negative about either. 61. The visible whole is the infinite Brahma, and this universe displays the majesty of the great God; and all these bodies are the various forms, exhibiting the infinite attributes of the deity.

62. In this manner, is the substance of the Divine Intellect displayed in itself; and it is the vacuous spirit of God, that manifests this unsubstantial world in its own vacuity. 63. The number of living beings, since the beginning of creation, is unlimited in every place; and of these there are many, that exist either in their corporeal or incorporeal forms. 64. There are other siddha and spiritual beings, abiding with their subtile natures and tenuous forms in the supreme Being; they live in groups in all elements, but never come to see one another of their own kind. 65. The exuberance of the visible world, being purely of aerial and vacuous form; they are never seen in their true and intellectual light, except when they appear to us in their aerial shapes in our dreams. 66. The world being well known, remains as it does in our inward conception of it, in the form of a hazy mist appearing to our sight at the end of night (i.e. dark and obscure). 67. It is a dark and indistinct maze, with nothing distinguishable in it when seen from a distance; it becomes clearer at a nearer view, and by keeping yourself afar you lose sight of it altogether.

68. As the particles of water fly off, and fall again into the sea; so do the atoms of intellect in all living beings, continually rise and subside, in the vast ocean of the Divine Mind. (So doth every thing proceed from and recede into the Divine Spirit). 69. This grandeur of creation is as the crowding throng of our dreams, which ere before lay slumbering; in the hollow space of the Divine Mind, therefore know these effusions of the divine Intellect, as calm and quiet as the unruffled spirit of God (that ever reposes in its calm felicity). 70. I have seen the infinite glories of creation, and have felt the various results of my deeds to no end; I have wandered in all quarters of the globe for ages; but I found no rest from the toils and troubles of the delusive world, except in the knowledge of my vanities of the world.

DESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN AND HELL. Argument: - The Breaking and Rejoining of the Court and the dissolution of the Ignorance of Bhása and his Liberation in Life. Válmíki related: - As Vipaschit was going on saying these things, the sun wishing to put an end to his speech, proceed with his rapid strides to enlighten another world. 2. Loud trumpets gave the alarum of the departing day, and filled the air on all sides with their swelling sound: and all the quarters of heaven seemed to re-echo in their joy, the fanfare of victory. 3. The king Dasaratha gave Vipaschit, many gifts in money, maidservants and houses; and bestowed on him many rich and royal presents worthy of kings, and then rose from his seat. 4. The king, Ráma and Vasishtha, having taken leave of the assembly, and saluted one another in their proper order, retired to their respective abodes. 5. Then having bathed and refreshed themselves, they passed the night in ease and repose; then resorted to the assembly in the morning, and were seated in their respective seats. 6. The sage Vasishtha then resumed the subject of the last discourse; and spoke his sweet words with such complacence of his countenance, as if the comely moon was shedding her ambrosial beams, from her bright and cooling face.

7. Let me tell you, O king, that Vipaschit has not been able with all his endeavours, to ascertain the true nature of Ignorance; nor is it an error of the mind which makes the unreal appear as real. 8. The nature of Ignorance as long as it is unknown, appears to be eternal and endless; but being understood, it proves to be as null and nothing, as the limpid water in a mirage. 9. You have already heard, O wise monarch, the narration of Bhása the minister of Vipaschit; and shall now hear of his liberation in his living state. 10. It is likely that he will come to be acquainted with truth from some other source or discourse, and then he will be liberated in his life time; by being freed from his ignorance. 11. And because this ignorance or Avidyá, is ever accompanied with Intellect of the Lord himself, it is for this very reason, that the unreality is erroneous by taken for the reality itself. 12. If this ignorance - avidyá - nescience, be an attribute of God, then it is no other than the very God; and the unknown or the mysterious nature, is not otherwise than the inscrutable nature of God.

13. This ignorance is infinity (in the infinity of created things), and is productive of endless shoots like the sprouts of spring, some of which are insipid and others sapid, some are luscious, while others are mellow and inebriating. 14. Some growing as thorny plants, all hollow within and hollow without, while others are straight and herbaceous as the succulent reeds or sugar cane. 15. Some of them are unfruitful and unprofitable, and others are attractive of the heart by their untimely blossoming, which is predicative of evil only and no desirable good. (Early blossoms are ominous). 16. Avidyá or Nescience has no form nor shape, save that of its shapeless bulk, which fills all worlds; it is a long and broad mass of darkness, and infested by demons and devils (that take in the dark and at night). 17. Like false light and phantasms in the open air, and like the linked and twisted motes of light curling about in the sky; do all these visibles appear to our view in the clear firmament, and are in reality but fallacies of our vision.

18. The variegated views which are stretched all about the empty air, without any connecting chain or link between them; are as the many coloured rainbows of heaven, which are described by the falling rains and melt into the empty air. 19. The world resembles a rainy river, with all its orbs appearing as the countless waves of water, with the dirty and foaming froths floating over it; and the fearful eddies and whirlpools, resembling the revolving planetary bodies. 20. The world is a vast and dreary desert, ever exhibiting the waters of mirage on its surface; while in reality but a body of dust, and filled with the ashes of dead bodies. 21. As a man wandering in the fairyland of his dream, finds no terminus of his journey; so have I been roving forever in the land of my waking dream, without finding any end to my travelling. 22. The web of desires that I have been fondly weaving so long, proved at last to be fragile and frail; hence men of firm minds learn betimes, to abandon their desires for the whole range of visible objects.

23. All those objects (ideas) that are contained in the empty space of the Intellect, are as precious germs safely stored in the casket of the mind; and appear by our misconception of them, as visible objects placed in the open space of air. 24. Those worlds are as the celestial cities of the siddhas, which are situated in the air and are quite invisible to us; but these that appear to our view, are non-entities, and mere phantoms of our fancy. 25. The heavenly abodes of the siddhas or godly souls, are feigned as teeming in gold, precious gems and rubies, with rivers yielding pearls and fields of diamonds; they abound with victuals and eatables, and rivers running with limpid and drinkable waters. 26. They are said to abound in honey and wines, in milk and curds, in butter and clarified butter also; there are streams of sweet beverage, and celestial nymphs in groups. 27. There fruits and flowers grow in the gardens at all seasons, and heavenly damsels sport in the bowers at all times; and all sorts of gains and enjoyments, readily attends on the immediate desire of every body.

28. There a hundred suns are shining, on one side, and a thousand moons on another; and some inhabitants are dressed in gold and purple, while others are quaffing their fill of ambrosial draughts. 29. There is a spontaneous darkness in one place, and full sunshine in another, and an everlasting joy in some place; and the siddhas or perfected spirits are continually wafted as by a breeze, from one of these to another, with their light and ponderous bodies. 30. Some meet with their birth and death at each moment, while there are others that live to enjoy their everlasting joys of heaven. 31. There are magnificent palaces and great dignities of all sorts; it is fraught with the delights of all seasons, and filled with whatever is desirable to mind, and delectable to the spirit. 32. But these desirable blessings, attending upon the pious deeds of virtuous; find no place in the quiet minds of the righteous (which fixed divine felicity alone). 33. There is nothing that is desirable to the soul, which is devoted to the contemplation of Brahma only; say therefore, O ye unholy, of what good are all these blessings, if they do not lead to divine felicity.

34. If in the beginning there was no creation at all, owing to its want of a creator; say then what is this world, of what it is composed, and how came it to existence. 35. If the world is not the act of causality and nothing in reality, then how does <it> appear to be existent? It is the everlasting will of God, that manifests itself in the manner in the Divine Mind; just as we see the display of our rising thought and wishes in our mind. 36. It is even so, O ye simpletons, that you or I or he, come to see our imaginary castles in the air; by the stretch of our imagination, or the liveliness or flight of our fancy. 37. He who has the single object of divine felicity, for his sole pursuit in life; comes to attain the same supreme bliss, after he forsakes his mortal body. 38. But whoso pursues after the two fold objects of heaven and heavenly bliss, by means of his religious rites and sacrifices in this life; acquires both of them afterwards, as the unity of purpose secures one only to one.

39. The siddhas reign in the said manner, according to the thoughts in their minds; while the unholy are doomed to the torments of hell, owing to the sinful thoughts of their minds. 40. Whatever one thinks upon, he feels the same in himself, as long as he possesses his mortal body; and after he loses his material body, he feels it in his mind, which is but a part of the body. 41. When a living person quits one body for another, he carries with him the same mind into the other that he had in the prior one, and sees the same things in its thoughts, which he was accustomed to look upon before. 42. A good conscience has all goodly prospects before it, as a vitiated soul meets with ghastly aspects on all sides; the airy mind sees only such aerial shapes in its vacuity. 43. Pure souls only come to enjoy the sights of these siddha cities in the air, but impure spirits are subjected to suffer their torments in hell. 44. There is a continual rotation of the unwieldy stones of grinding mills, for crushing the vicious souls; and the hurling of wicked into blind wells or dark pits, out of which they can rise no more.

45. There some bodies are cast amidst the frozen snows, where they are petrified to stones; and many are thrown into the burning coals of devils, or led amidst the burning sands of trackless deserts. 46. The clouds dropped down living fire, and the skies poured forth fiery showers; and red-hot bolts and arrows darted down from heaven. 47. Stones and disks and swords, were floating on the running stream of the sky; and falling like fragments of clouds upon the breasts of the accurst, and breaking them as with the strokes of felling axes. 48. The hot iron sleets and brimstones, falling with a hissing sound; and weapons were hurled from engines, with a loud tremendous noise. 49. Missiles and bolts and discs, together with pikes and clubs, and swords and shafts were falling in showers; and traps and tackles and malls and mallets were striking in hundred. 50. There the hot and burning sands, buried the passengers under the ground; and there burning meteors were falling like torches; while large ravens were devouring the dead bodies around. 51. Blazing piles also ingulfed the dead, from which they could never get out; while darts and spears and bolts and arrows, were piercing the other bodies all about.

52. Hunger and dismay and excruciating pains, tormented by turns, the bodies of dead apostates; while others were hurled down from high hills and heights, on rough and hard stones below. 53. Some were weltering in blood, and rolling in pools of dirt, rotten flesh and disgusting pus; and others were crushed under stones and weapons, and beneath the feet of horses and elephants. 54. Hungry vultures and owls, were picking up and tearing the dead bodies, out of caves and places; and their limbs and members, were mangled and scattered all over the ground. 55. It is thus that men are prepossessed, with these thoughts of the punishment of their guilt, from the sacred writings; and thereby come to suffer the same, both in their bodies and minds, from their inward impressions of them. 56. Whatever form or figure, ever appears in the vacuum of the Intellect; or whatsoever is dreamt or thought of at anytime; the same holds fast the imagination, and presents itself before the mirror of the mind of its own accord.

EXPLANATION OF NIRVÁNA. Argument: - Manifestations of the self-existent Intellect. Its light guiding to Divine knowledge, and ignorance thereof leading to darkness. Ráma said: - Tell me sir, whether these various events incidental to the lives of the hermit and hunter, were owing to any cause, or of their own spontaneity (i.e. whether they were the effects of any cause, or of their spontaneous occurrence as mere dreams and phantasies). 2. Vasishtha replied: - These occurrences are as the appearance of eddies, in the vast ocean of the unknown soul (or mind); and are known to be in their continual rotation in the vortex of the soul, of their own accord and in their airy forms. 3. As the oscillating particles of air, are ever in motion in the air; so the current of thoughts is continually in action, in the vast vacuity of intellect (or mind). 4. Whatever issues from its source in any shape, retains its original form unless it is converted to and restrained in any other form; so the aerial thoughts of the vacuous mind are always aerial, unless they are drawn in painting or exhibited in another form. (Just so a clod of earth is always the earth, till it is moulded to the form of a pot or any other thing).

5. It is the vacuous essence of the Divine Intellect, that inheres in every form that is exhibited by and derived from it; so it is the substance of the body, that permits through out all its members and limbs; as it is the woody substance of the tree, that is diffused through all the leaves and branches, that shoot forth from it. (Gloss. The difference consists in the permanence of the permeating principle, and the temporiety of the pervaded growth). 6. Brahma appears to remain permanent in some existences, as in the four elemental forms of earth etc.; while he seems to be transcient and evanescent in others, as in the frail bodies of mortal bodies, all of which abide in their aerial state in the vacuous spirit. 7. All these various objects therefore, being but reflections of the Intellect impressed upon the soul; it is impossible for us to determine which of these is substantial or unsubstantial or real or unreal. 8. All these are altogether unknowable except that we know them as reflexions in the inanity of the Intellect; say ye therefore that are wholly ignorant of all what you think this visible world to be, whether a reality or unreality.

9. Whatever you behold anywhere in the universe, is but an exhibition in the vacuum of the Divine Intellect; and what avails it to you that know the truth, whether you believe it as such or not. Rely therefore in your belief of it as it is. 10. These forms of reflexions rise of themselves in the Divine Mind, as the waves and billows exhibit themselves on the surface of the sea; they are the spontaneous offspring of the Divine Spirit, and are of themselves both their causes as well as effects (or self caused effects). 11. It is the display of the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind, that passed under the appellations of its will or volition, or its imagination and creation, or the creation of its imagination; hence this world is to be understood under any one of these senses, and not of its being composed of earth and water. 12. It is this appearance of the Divine Mind, that appears in this manner and nothing besides; it is the Divine itself that resides in the Divinity, and passes under the title of Avidyá or Ignorance, from our ignorance of its nature.

13. There is no material grossness in the integrity of the Divine Intellect; which is purely vacuous and immaterial; and composes the whole universe, this is transcendental knowledge, and its perfection is liberation. 14. It is the reflexion of the vacuous Intellect, which spreads over the whole universe; it is rare and uncompressed, and ever calm and quiet, and passes by the name of the world. 15. The meditative man whose eye-sight is fixed in his musing, whose body is emaciated in devotion, and whose mind is abstracted from the concrete, and is absorbed in intellection, is only capable of seeing the Intellectual world. 16. Whatever the vacuous essence of the intellect, exhibits in any form at any place; the same appears to be present there of its own nature. 17. The unthinking man and unreasonable soul, sees only erroneous sights in the midst of skies; as one who is dim-sighted and purblind by birth, does not cease from seeing the double moon in the sky. 18. Whatever is seen anywhere, is no other than the unpolluted Brahma himself; and the vacuous sphere of the Intellect being for ever clear and transparent, is never sullied by any foulness (of gross matter).

19. The intellect without forsaking its pure form of self-consciousness, exhibits varieties of gross objects in the form of dreams within itself. So also is our consciousness of the world, in the manner of our dreams. 20. By comparing the dicta of the sástras with one another, and weighing them well with acute judgement, one will find his rest in himself; but the man of shallow understanding will not find it so. 21. The ignorance which floats upon the sea of your understanding, does not contaminate my mind, in the manner of dirt polluting a pure and clear stream. 22. As there is neither the earth nor any earthly thing, to be met with in our sleep, though we are conscious of them in our dream; so also the phenomenal world has no real existence, though we are conscious of it in our waking. 23. As the clearness of the Intellect, like sunlight or flaming fire, shows us many things in our sleeping dreams, so doth its light exhibit the visibles to our view in our waking dreams also by day. 24. There is no difference between the two states of dreaming and waking, they are both of the same nature, and the difference lies in the modes of our apprehension of them.

25. The waking man never apprehends his waking state to be a dream; but the dead man that rises again to life in the next world, thinks his past life to have been but a state of dreaming. 26. The shortness and length of time, occupied by the two states of dreaming and waking, is generally considered to constitute the difference between them; but during the time of their presence, they are both considered alike the other (i.e. the dreaming man thinks himself as waking). 27. The sleeping and waking dreams, bearing alike the same quality of presenting false objects to view, are necessarily of the same nature; and there is no difference whatever in their outward features, as there is neither elder and younger of two twin brothers. (Dreaming and waking are twin brothers, like sleep and death neither of which is more or less). 28. Whatever is the waking dream, just so is the waking in dream also; neither of which leaves anything - being, behind the two states of waking and dreaming. (They present many things when present, but leave nothing lasting in their absence or when they are past and gone).

29. As we know the inconstancy of hundreds of dreams, all along the length of our life time; so the unredeemed and unenlightened soul, sees hundreds of waking states (in its repeated transmigrations in life, i.e. in this living world). 30. As the living mortals may well recollect the very many sleeping dreams, they have seen throughout their lives; so the immortalized souls of siddhas well remember, the number of waking dreams which they had seen, in their past transmigrations in different bodies. 31. Thus our waking is equipollent with our dreaming, and our dreams are equivalent with waking, in their correlation with one another in like quality, and our perception of both alike. 32. As the word worlds and phenomenal, are significant of the one and same meaning; so the terms dreaming and waking are homonymous, and interchangeable to one another - mutatis mutandis. 33. As the fairy-land in a dream, is as clear as the open space of the Intellect; so is this world an inane void and blank, and without the grossness of avidyá which ignorance imputes to it. (Ignorance views the fair ideal world as a foul material one).

34. The world is a vacuous substance, and represented as a gross stuff by ignorance; so I am as free as air and any airy thing in the world, and it is my imagination only, that binds me to my grossness. 35. Therefore do not confine your free and unconfined nature, in the bondage of gross matter; and never change the pure vacuum of your person to a material stuff, nor disfigure your formless and intellectual self in a gross and finite form. 36. There can be no bondage nor liberation, of aught whatever in this visible world of our ignorance or avidyá; because all things herein are mere reflexions of the formless void of the Divine Intellect. 37. Here there is no display of ignorance, nor any misconceptions of ours of any thing; there is neither any bondage nor release of aught whatever, and nothing that is either existent or inexistent (since all are but reflexions of Divine Intellect). 38. There is nescience, nor knowing of anything here by us; because it is the uncreated Intellect alone, that manifests itself in this manner; it reflects all forms in itself, as if they are all its dreams or creations.

39. As a man passing from one place to another, has his mind kept in abeyance in the interim; so should we keep our minds quiet and still betwixt our sight of the visibles and our dreams. (In action of the mind is reckoned as nirvána). 40. As one has his body and mind, quite quiet and calm in his sleep at night; and in the respite of his sights and thoughts, in the states of his waking and dreaming; this very state of insensibility is called nirvána of the yogi. 41. Know our knowledge of the difference of objects (as the one is immaterial and the other material), is equally untrue as that of our waking and dreaming states; because it is impossible for us to conceive any other thing as matter, to consist in the immaterial Intellect. 42. Our knowledge of identity and diversity, proceed however from the same vacuous intellect; which combines the unity and duality also, in unbroken union or harmony in itself. 43. Knowing all as parts of undivided whole, all these are the same whatever they appear to be; hence the visible however diversified they may appear, are all one and the same principle.

44. Hence the etherial sphere of Brahma, contains all in itself; and who as an aerial point concentrates all in it; and the creation is the unity of Brahma, together with all its varieties. 45. Knowing all things as full of God, you must however reject them all (as mere reflexions of the Deity); and rest yourself at last in the vacuous Intellect, as the great rock of your refuge. 46. Now, O fortunate Ráma, remain to act in conformity with the rules of your order, and laws of society and the statues of your position and dignity; continue to go on, eat and drink and rest in your usual course, rely in your desired object, and ever recline in the glorious and holy lord of your intellect, and the supreme God of all.

ANNIHILATION OF IGNORANCE. Argument: - Here Duality is reduced to the unity of Brahma; and good counsels given for subversion of ignorance. Vasishtha continued: - All objects being convertible to the conceptions of the vacuous intellect, the whole universe is supposed to have its seat in the hollow mind; and therefore both the outward sights of things, as also the inward thoughts of their forms, are all but ideal images in the empty mind. 2. The world being but a dream, and of the form of an ideal city in the mind, has nothing substantial in it; and is therefore a quiet vacuity in itself, without having anything of any kind, or any diversity whatsoever contained therein. 3. It is the uniform display of the Intellect, appearing as multiform unto us; and this variety though unsubjective to the soul, is looked upon by it within itself, as we view the fairy-land of our dream, rising from ourselves. (Query: - whether our dreams are subjective or objective to us?) 4. In the beginning this world appeared, as the aerial castle of a dream in the vacuum of the Intellect; it was a mere reflexion of the Divine Mind, and though it was of the form of a false shadow, remained as substantive to the supreme spirit.

5. The knowing theosophist well knows this mystery, which is mysterious to the unknowing ignorant; because the word creation bears the sense of both the reality as well as unreality in it. 6. The knowing spiritualist as well as the unknowing agnostic, both acknowledge the reality of creation; but they can neither understand how it exists, nor communicate to one another their right conception of it. 7. They both know the meaning, of the word creation in their minds; the one having the sense of its sedateness ever wakeful in their minds (from their spiritual view of it); and the other having the sense of its unsteadiness always waking in them (from their sight of the changeful scenes of the outer world); so they resemble the sober and drunken men, that view the world in its steady and shaking states. 8. As the liquid waters in a river, rise incessantly in restless waves; so the rolling worlds, push forward into being, in the vast expanse of the Divine Mind. 9. These creations which are not of the nature of the intellect, have yet their sites in the Intellect, like the thoughts that rise and fall in it; and these though they are invisible in their nature, appear as visible things, like the fair objects and fairy cities in our dream.

10. It is spreading shadow of the divine Intellect, which pass under the name of the world; and this formless in itself, appears as having a form, like the shadow of anything else. 11. It is a gross error, to take the unsubstantial shadow for a substantial body; as it is a gross error to suppose the empty shadow of a ghost as an embodied being. 12. The world is as unreal as an imaginary city, and as false as a string of rain drops; why then do you rely in an unreality, which is palpable from the testimonies of both the ignorant and knowing men. 13. The words then that are used to express this thing and that, are mere empty sounds, as those emitted by a splitting block of wood or a bamboo; or those heard in the dashing of waves or blowing of winds; it is the current air which conveys the empty sound into the open vacuum of the sky, but they are all unreal and meaningless, and bear but a conventional sense, with which it has no connection whatsoever.

14. It is light of the lord that reflects itself in his creation, and the reflexion of his fiat that reverberates through the whole; while in reality there is neither any sound nor substance, that is to be heard or seen in the universe (except the voice and the sight of the Lord). 15. Whatever shines or exists herein, is the transcendent reality of the Lord; otherwise there is nothing that could appear at first without its cause (all being but parts of the one undivided whole - to pan). 16. Therefore from (thy knowledge of) the distinctions of words and things; know the one as all in all, and remain as quiet and calm as the indefinite and infinite void itself. 17. Forsake the fickleness of thy mind, by means of the calm repose of thy soul; the purity of thy understanding, and by an even tenor of thy disposition; because an inconstant soul is troublesome in life. 18. It is one’s self that is a friend or enemy to himself, and if one will not try to guard and save himself by his own self, there is no other to do so for him. (He who is no friend to himself, is his own enemy himself).