THE

YOGA-VÁSISHTHA

MAHÁRÁMÁYANA

OF

VÁLMÍKI

V asishtha said:—The loud cry that the king was killed in battle by the rival monarch, struck the people with awe, and filled the realm with dismay.

2. Carts loaded with utensils and household articles, were driving through the streets; and women with their loud wailings, were running away amidst the impassable paths of the city.

3. The weeping damsels that were flying for fear, were ravished on the way by their captors; and the inhabitants were in danger of being plundered of their properties by one another.

4. The joyous shouts of the soldiers in the enemy’s camp, resounded with the roarings of loose elephants and neighings of horses, trampling down the men to death on their way.

5. The doors of the royal treasury were broken open by the brave brigands, the valves flew off and the vaults re-echoed to the strokes. The warders were overpowered by numbers, and countless treasures were plundered and carried away.

6. Bandits ripped off the bellies of the royal dames in the palace, and the chandála free-booters hunted about the royal apartments.

7. The hungry rabble robbed the provisions from the royal stores; and the soldiers were snatching the jewels of the weeping children trodden down under their feet.

8. Young and beautiful maidens were dragged by their hair from the seraglio, and the rich gems that fell from the hands of the robbers, glistened all along the way.

2 9. The chiefs assembled with ardour with their troops of horses, elephants and war-chariots, and announced the installation of Sindhu by his minister.

10. Chief engineers were employed in making the decorations of the city and its halls, and the balconies were filled by the royal party attending at the inauguration.

11. It was then that the coronation of Sindhu’s son, took place amidst the loud acclamations of victory; and titles and dignities, were conferred upon the noblemen on the victor’s side.

12. The royal party were flying for life into the villages, where they were pursued by the victorious soldiers; and a general pillage spread in every town and village throughout the realm.

13. Gangs of robbers thronged about, and blocked the passages for pillage and plunder; and a thick mist darkened the light of the day for want of the magnanimous Vidúratha.

14. The loud lamentations of the friends of the dead, and the bitter cries of the dying, mixed with the clamour raised by the driving cars, elephants and horses, thickened in the air as a solid body of sound (pindagráhya).

15. Loud trumpets proclaimed the victory of Sindhu in every city, and announced his sole sovereignty all over the earth.

16. The high-shouldered Sindhu entered the capital as a second Manu (Noah), for re-peopling it after the all-devastating flood of war was over.

17. Then the tribute of the country poured into the city of Sindhu from all sides; and these loaded on horses and elephants, resembled the rich cargoes borne by ships to the sea.

18. The new king issued forthwith his circulars and royal edicts to all sides, struck coins in his own name, and placed his ministers as commissioners in all provinces.

19. His iron-rod was felt in all districts and cities like the inexorable rod of Yama, and it overawed the living with fear of instant death.

20. All insurrections and tumults in the realm, soon subsided 3 to rest under his reign; as the flying dust of the earth and the falling leaves of trees, fall to the ground upon subsidence of a tempest.

21. The whole country on all sides was pacified to rest, like the perturbed sea of milk after it had been churned by the Mandara mountain.

22. Then there blew the gentle breeze of Malaya, unfurling the locks of the lotus-faced damsels of Sindhu’s realm, and wafting the liquid fragrance of their bodies around, and driving away the unwholesome air (of the carnage).

V asishtha said:—In the meanwhile, O Ráma! Lílá seeing her husband lying insensible before her and about to breathe his last, thus spoke to Sarasvatí:

2. Behold, O mother! my husband is about to shuffle his mortal coil in this perilous war, which has laid waste his whole kingdom.

3. Sarasvatí replied:—This combat that you saw to be fought with such fury, and lasting so long in the field, was neither fought in thy kingdom nor in any part of this earth.

4. It occurred nowhere except in the vacant space of the shrine, containing the dead body of the Bráhman; and where it appeared as the phantom of a dream only (in your imagination).

5. This land which appeared as the realm of thy living lord Vidúratha, was situated with all its territories in the inner apartment of Padma. (The incidents of Vidúratha’s life, being but a vision appearing to the departed spirit of Padma).

6. Again it was the sepulchral tomb of the Bráhman Vasishtha, situated in the hilly village of Vindhyá, that exhibited these varying scenes of the mortal world within itself. ( i.e. As a panorama shows many sights to the eye, and one man playing many parts in the stage).

7. As the departed soul views the vision of the past world within its narrow tomb; so is the appearance of all worldly accidents unreal in their nature. Gloss:—The apparitions appearing before the souls of the dead lying in their tombs, are as false as the appearances presenting themselves before the living souls in their tomb of this world. The souls of the living and the dead are both alike in their nature, and both susceptible of the like dreams and visions.

8. These objects that we see here as realities, including 5 these bodies of mine and thine and this Lílá’s, together with this earth and these waters, are just the same as the phantoms rising in the tomb of the deceased Bráhman of the hilly region.

9. It is the soul which presents the images of things, and nothing external which is wholly unreal can cast its reflexion on the soul. Therefore know thy soul as the true essence which is increate and immortal, and the source of all its creations within itself. Note:—The subjective is the cause of the objective and not this of that.

10. The soul reflects on its inborn images without changing itself in any state, and thus it was the nature of the Bráhman’s soul, that displayed these images in itself within the sphere of his tomb.

11. But the illusion of the world with all its commotion, was viewed in the vacant space of the souls of the Bráhman and Padma, and not displayed in the empty space of their tombs, where there was no such erroneous reflexion of the world.

12. There is no error or illusion anywhere, except in the misconception of the observer; therefore the removal of the fallacy from the mind of the viewer, leads him to the perception of the light of truth.

13. Error consists in taking the unreal for the real, and in thinking the viewer and the view or the subjective and objective as different from each other. It is the removal of the distinction of the subjective and objective, that leads us to the knowledge of unity (the on or one or om ).

14. Know the Supreme soul to be free from the acts of production and destruction, and it is his light that displays all things of which He is the source; and learn the whole outer nature as having no existence nor change in itself.

15. But the souls of other beings, exhibit their own natures in themselves; as those in the sepulchral vault of the Bráhman, displayed the various dispositions to which they were accustomed. (Thus the one unvaried soul appears as many, according to its particular wont and tendency in different persons).

16. The soul has no notion of the outer world or any 6 created thing in it; its consciousness of itself as an increate vacuity, comprehends its knowledge of the world in itself. ( i.e. The subjective consciousness of the Ego, includes the knowledge of the objective world).

17. The knowledge of the mountain chains of Meru and others, is included under the knowledge in the vacuity of the soul; there is no substance or solidity in them as in a great city seen in a dream.

18. The soul views hundreds of mountainous ranges and thousands of solid worlds, drawn in the small compass of the mind, as in its state of dreaming.

19. Multitudes of worlds, are contained in a grain of the brain of the mind; as the long leaves of the plantain tree, are contained in one of its minute seeds.

20. All the three worlds are contained in an atom as the intellect, in the same manner as great cities are seen in a dream; and all the particles of intellect within the mind, have each the representation of a world in it.

21. Now this Lílá thy step-dame, has already gone to the world which contains the sepulchre of Padma, before the spirit of Vidúratha could join the same.

22. The moment when Lílá fell in a swoon in thy presence, know her spirit to be immediately conveyed to him and placed by his side.

23. Lílá asked:—Tell me, O goddess! how was this lady endowed here with my form before, and how is she translated to and placed as my step-dame beside my deceased husband?

24. Tell me in short, in what form she is now viewed by the people in Padma’s house, and the manner in which they are talking to her at present.

25. The goddess replied:—Hear Lílá, what I will relate to thee in brief in answer to thy question, regarding the life and death of this Lílá as an image of thyself.

26. It is thy husband Padma, that beholds these illusions of 7 the world spread before him in the same sepulchre in the person of Vidúratha.

27. He fought this battle as thou didst see in his reverie, and this Lílá resembling thyself was likewise a delusion. These his men and enemies were but illusions, and his ultimate death, was as illusory as a phantom of the imagination, like all other things in this world.

28. It was his self delusion, that showed him this Lílá as his wife, and it is the same deceit of a dream, which deludes thee to believe thyself as his consort.

29. As it is a mere dream that makes you both to think yourselves as his wives, so he deems himself as your husband, and so do I rely on my existence (also in a like state of dream).

30. The world with all its beauty, is said to be the spectre of a vision; wherefore knowing it a mere visionary scene, we must refrain from relying any faith in this visible phantasmagoria.

31. Thus this Lílá, yourself and this king Vidúratha, are but phantoms of your fancy: and so am I also, unless I believe to exist in the self-existent spirit.

32. The belief of the existence of this king and his people, and of ourselves as united in this place, proceeds from the fulness of that intellect, which fills the whole plenitude.

33. So this queen Lílá also situated in this place with her youthful beauty, and smiling so charmingly with her blooming face, is but an image of divine beauty.

34. See how gentle and graceful are her manners, and how very sweet is her speech; her voice is as dulcet as the notes of the Kokila, and her motions as slow as those of a lovelorn maiden.

35. Behold her eyelids like the leaves of the blue lotus, and her swollen breasts rounded as a pair of snow-balls; her form is as bright as liquid gold, and her lips as red as a brace of ripe Vimba fruits.

36. This is but a form of thee as thou didst desire to be to please thy husband, and it is the very figure of thy ownself, that thou now beholdest with wonder.

8 37. After the death of thy husband, his soul caught the same reflexion of thy image, as thou didst desire to be hereafter; and which thou now seest in the person of the young Lílá before thee.

38. Whenever the mind has a notion or sensation or fancy of some material object, the abstract idea of its image is surely imprinted in the intellect.

39. As the mind comes to perceive the unreality of material objects, it thenceforth begins to entertain the ideas of their abstract entities within itself. (Hence the abstract ideas of things are said to accompany the intellectual spirit after its separation from the body).

40. It was the thought of his sure death, and the erroneous conception of the transmigration of his soul in the body of Vidúratha, that represented to Padma thy desired form of the youthful Lílá, which was the idol of his soul. (This passage confutes the doctrine of metempsychosis, and maintains the verity of eternal ideas).

41. It was thus that thou wast seen by him and he was beheld by thee according to your desires; and thus both of you though possest of the same unvaried soul which pervades all space, are made to behold one another in your own ways (agreeably to your desires).

42. As the spirit of Brahma is all pervasive, and manifests itself in various ways in all places; it is beheld in different lights, according to the varying fancies (vikshepa sakti); or tendencies (vásaná sakti) of men, like the ever-changeful scenes appearing to us in our visions and dreams.

43. The omnipotent spirit displays its various powers in all places, and these powers exert themselves everywhere, according to the strong force and capability it has infused in them (in their material or immaterial forms).

44. When this pair remained in their state of death-like insensibility, they beheld all these phantoms in their inner souls, by virtue of their reminiscence and desires (which are inherent in the soul).

9 45. That such and such person were their fathers and such their mothers before, that they lived in such places, had such properties of theirs, and did such acts erewhile (are reminiscences of the soul).

46. That they were joined together in marriage, and the multitude which they saw in their minds, appeared to them as realities for the time in their imagination (as it was in a magic show).

47. This is an instance that shows our sensible perceptions, to be no better than our dreams; and it was in this deluded state of Lílá’s mind, that I was worshipped and prayed by her:—

48. In order to confer upon her the boon that she might not become a widow; and it was by virtue of this blessing of mine, that this girl had died before her husband’s death (to escape the curse of widowhood).

49. I am the progeny of Brahmá, and the totality of that intelligence of which all beings participate: it is for this reason that I was adored by her as the Kula Devi or tutelar divinity of all living beings.

50. It was at last that her soul left her body, and fled with her mind in the form of her vital breath, through the orifice of her mouth.

51. Then after the insensibility attendant upon her death was over, she understood in her intellect her living soul to be placed in the same empty space with the departed spirit of Padma.

52. Her reminiscence pictured her in her youthful form, and she beheld herself as in a dream, to be situated in the same tomb. She was as a blooming lotus with her beautiful countenance, and her face was as bright as the orb of the moon; her eyes were as large as those of an antelope, and she was attended by her graceful blandishments for the gratification of her husband.

V asishtha said:—Lílá having obtained the blessing of the goddess, proceeded with her fancied body to meet her royal spouse in heaven beyond the skies.

2. Having assumed her spiritual form which was as light as air, she fled merrily as a bird; and was wafted aloft by the fond desire of joining with her beloved lord.

3. She met before her a damsel sent by the goddess of wisdom, and as issuing out of the best model of her heart’s desire.

4. The damsel said:—I am the daughter of thy friend Sarasvatí, and welcome thee, O beauteous lady in this place. I have been waiting here on thy way through the sky in expectation of thee.

5. Lílá said:—Lead me, O lotus-eyed maid to the side of my husband, as the visit of the good and great never goes for nothing.

6. Vasishtha said:—The damsel replied, come let us go there; and so saying, she stood before her looking forward on her way.

7. Then proceeding onward both together, they came to the door-way of heaven, which was as broad as the open palm of the hand, and marked with lines as those in palmistry. (?).

8. They passed the region of the clouds, and overstepped the tracks of the winds; then passing beyond the orbit of the sun, they reached the stations of the constellations.

9. Thence they passed through the regions of air and water (Indraloka), to the abodes of the gods and saints (Siddhas); 11 whence they went across the seats of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva to the great belt—of the universe.

10. Their spiritual bodies pierced through its orifice, as the humidity of ice water passes out of the pores of a tight water-jar.

11. The body of Lílá was of the form of her mind, which was of the nature of its own bent and tenor, and conceived these wanderings within itself ( i.e. , the peregrinations of Lílá were purely the workings of her own mind and inclination).

12. Having traversed the spheres of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, and crossed the limit of the mundane sphere, and the environs of atmospheric water and air:—

13. They found an empty space as spacious as the scope of the great intellect, and impassable by the swift Garuda (the eagle of Jupiter) even in millions of Kalpa ages. ( i.e. The unlimited space of the mind and vacuity).

14. There they beheld an infinity of shapeless and nameless worlds, scattered about as the countless fruits in a great forest. (The Nebulae of unformed worlds).

15. They pierced through the ambit of one of these orbs before them, and passed inside the same as a worm creeps in a fruit which it has perforated.

16. This brought them back by the same spheres of Brahmá, Indra and others, to the orb of the globe below the starry frame.

17. Here they saw the same country, the same city and the same tomb as before; and after entering the same, they sat themselves beside the corpse of Padma covered under the heap of flowers.

18. At this time Lílá lost the sight of the heavenly damsel, who had been her companion erewhile, and who had now disappeared from her sight like a phantom of her illusion.

19. She then looked at the face of her husband, lying there as a dead body in his bed; and recognized him as such by her right discretion.

12 20. This must be my husband, said she, ay my very husband, who fell fighting with Sindhu, and has now attained this seat of the departed heroes, where he rests in peace.

21. I have by the grace of the goddess arrived here in person, and reckon myself truly blest to find my husband also as such ( i.e. , resting here in his own figure).

22. She then took up a beautiful chauri flapper in her hand, and began to wave it over his body as the moon moves in the sky over the earth.

23. The waking Lílá asked:—Tell me, O goddess! in what manner did the king and his servants and hand-maids accost this lady, and what they thought her to be.

24. The goddess replied:—It was by our gift of wisdom to them, that this lady, that king and those servants, found themselves to partake of the one and same intellectual soul, in which they all subsisted.

25. Every soul is a reflection of the divine intellect, and is destined by his fixed decree to represent the individual souls to one another as refractions of the same, or as shadows in a magic show (bhojakádrishta).

26. Thus the king received his wife as his companion and queen, and his servants as cognate with himself. ( i.e. Partaking of the same soul with his own).

27. He beheld the unity of his soul with her’s and their’s, and no distinction subsisting between any one of them. He was astonished to find that there was nothing distinct in them from what he had in himself.

28. The waking Lílá said:—Why did not that Lílá meet her husband in her own person, according to her request and the boon that was granted to her?

29. The goddess replied:—It is not possible for unenlightened souls (as that of the young Lílá), to approach in person to holy spirits (or their persons or places), which are visible and accessible only to the meritorious, and unapproachable by gross bodies as the sun light is inaccessible by a shadow.

13 30. So it is the established law from the beginning of creation, that intelligent souls can never join with dull beings and gross matter, as truth can never be mixed up with falsehood.

31. And so is that as long as a boy is prepossessed with his notion of a ghost, it is in vain to convince him of the falsehood of goblins as mere chimeras of his imagination.

32. And as long as the feverish heat of ignorance rages within the soul, it is impossible for the coolness of the moon of intelligence to spread over it.

33. So long also as one believes himself to be composed of a corporeal body, and incapable to mount in the higher atmosphere, it is no way possible to make him believe otherwise (that he has an incorporeal nature in his soul and mind).

34. But it is by virtue of one’s knowledge and discrimination, and by his own merit and divine blessing, that he acquires a saintly form (nature); wherewith he ascends to the higher region, as you have done with this body of yours.

35. As dry leaves of trees are burnt in no time by the burning fire, so this corporeal body is quickly lost by one’s assumption of his spiritual frame.

36. The effect of a blessing or curse, on any one is no other than his obtaining the state he desired or feared to have. (Hence the boon of Lílá has secured to her what she wished to get).

37. As the false appearance of a snake in a rope, is attended with no motion or action of the serpent in it; so the unreal views of Lílá’s husband and others, were but the motionless imageries of her own imagination.

38. Whoever views the false apparitions of the dead as present before the vision of his mind, he must know them as reflections of his past and constant remembrance of them.

39. So our notions of all these worlds are mere products of our reminiscence, and no creation of Brahmá or any other cause; but simple productions of our desire (which presents these figures to the imagination).

14 40. So they who are ignorant of the knowable spirit of God, have only the notions of the outer world in them; as they view the distant orb of the moon within themselves (in their minds).

T he goddess continued:—Those therefore who know the knowable God, and rely in virtue, can go to the spiritual worlds and not others. (Knowable means what ought to be and not what is or can be known).

2. All material bodies which are but false and erroneous conceptions of the mind, can have no place in Truth (the true spirit); as no shadow can have any room in sunshine. (So gross matter has no room in the subtile spirit).

3. Lílá being ignorant of the knowable (God), and unacquainted with the highest virtue (the practice of Yoga), could go no further than the city of her lord which she had at heart.

4. The waking Lílá said:—Let her be where she is (I inquire no more about her); but will ask you of other things. You see here my husband is about to die, so tell me what must I do at present.

5. Tell me the law of the being and not being of beings, and what is that destiny which destines the living beings to death.

6. What is it that determined the natures of things and gave existence to the categories of objects? What is it that has caused the warmth of the fire and sun, and gave stability to the earth?

7. Why is coldness confined to the frost and the like, and what forms the essence of time and space; what are the causes of the different states of things and their various changes, and the causes of the solidity of some and tenuity of others?

8. What is that which causes the tallness of trees and men above the grass and brambles; and why is it that many things dwindle and decay in the course and capability of growth?

16 9. The goddess said:—At the universal dissolution of the world, when all things are dissolved in the formless void; there remains the only essence of Brahma, in the form of the infinite sky stretching beyond the limits of creation on all sides.

10. It then reflects in its intellect in the form of a spark of fire, as you are conscious of your aerial journey in a dream.

11. This atomic spark then increased in its size in the divine spirit, and having no substance of itself, appeared what is commonly styled the ideal world.

12. The spirit of God residing in it, thought itself as Brahmá—the soul of the world, who reigned over it in his form of the mind, as if it was identic with the real world itself. (The world is a display of the Divine Mind).

13. The primary laws that he has appointed to all things at their first creation, the same continue invariably in force with them to the present time. ( i.e. The primordial law or nature).

14. The minds of all turn in the same way as it was willed by the divine mind, and there is nothing which of itself can go beyond the law which the divine will has assigned to it.

15. It is improper to say that all formal existences are nothing, because they remain in their substance (of the divine spirit), after disappearance of their forms; as the substance of gold remains the same after alteration of its shape and form.

16. The elementary bodies of fire and frost still continue in the same state, as their elements were first formed in the Divine mind in the beginning of creation.

17. Nothing therefore has the power to forsake its own nature, as long as the divine intellect continues to direct his eternal laws and decrees which are appointed to all.

18. It is impossible for any thing to alter its nature now from the eternal stamp, which Divine will has set upon all the substantial and ideal forms of creation.

19. As the Divine Intellect knows no opposition in its way, it never turns from the tenor of its own wonted intelligence 17 which directs the destinies of all. (This is the real or subjective, intellectual or nominal view of evolution of all things from the divine mind).

20. But know in the first place the world to be no created thing. All this that appears to exist, is but a display of the notions in our consciousness, like the appearances in our dreams.

21. The unreal appears as real, as the shadow seems to be the substance. Our notions of things are the properties of our nature. ( i.e. They are natural to us, as they are engrafted in it by the eternal mind).

22. The manner in which the intellect exhibited itself, in its different manifestations, at the beginning, the same continues in its course to this time, and is known as the samvid-kachana or manifestations of consciousness, which constitute the niyati —course or system of the universe.

23. The sky is the manifestation of the intellectual idea of vacuity in the divine mind; and the idea of duration in the intellect, appeared in the form of the parts of time.

24. The idea of liquidity evolved itself in the form of water in the divine mind; in the same manner as one dreams of water and seas in his own mind. (So the air and earth are manifestations of the ideas of fluidity and solidity).

25. We are conscious of our dreams in some particular state of our intellect, and it is the wonderfully cunning nature of the intellect, that makes us think the unreal as real.

26. The ideas of the reality of earth, air, fire and water are all false; and the intellect perceives them within itself, as its false dreams and desires and reveries.

27. Now hear me tell you about death, for removing your doubts with regard to the future state; that death is destined for our good, in as much as it leads us to the enjoyment of the fruits of acts in this life.

28. Our lives are destined in the beginning to extend to one, two, three and four centuries in the different Kali, Dwápara, 18 Tretá and Satya ages of the world. (Corresponding with the golden, silver, brazen and iron ages of the ancients).

29. It is however by virtue of place and time, of climate and food, and our good or bad actions and habits, that human life extends above or descends below these limits.

30. Falling short of one’s duties lessens his life, as his excelling in them lengthens its duration; but the mediocrity of his conduct keeps it within its proper bound.

31. Boys die by acts causing infant diseases and untimely deaths; so do the young and old die of acts that bring on juvenile and senile weakness, sickness and ultimate death.

32. He who goes on doing his duties as prescribed by law of the Sástras, becomes both prosperous and partaker of the long life allotted by the rule of the Sástra.

33. So likewise do men meet their last state and future reward, according to the nature of their acts in life-time; or else their old age is subjected to regret and remorse, and all kinds of bodily and mental maladies and anxieties.

34. Lílá said:—Tell me in short, O moon-faced goddess! something more with regard to death; as to whether it is a pleasure or pain to die, and what becomes of us after we are dead and gone from here. (Death is said to be release from misery by some, and the most grievous of all torments by others. So Pope:—O, the pain, the bliss of dying).

35. The goddess replied:—Dying men are of three kinds, and have different ends upon their death. These are those who are ignorant, and such as are practiced in yoga , and those that are reasonable and religious.

36. Those practicing the dháraná yoga , may go wherever they like after leaving their bodies, and so the reasonable yogi is at liberty to range everywhere. (It consists in mental retention and bodily patience and endurance).

37. He who has not practiced the dháraná yoga , nor applied himself to reasoning, nor has certain hopes of the future, is called the ignorant sot, and meets with the pain and pangs of death.

19 38. He whose mind is unsubdued, and full of desires and temporal cares and anxieties, becomes as distressed as a lotus torn from its stalk. ( i.e. It is the subjection of inordinary passions, and suppression of inordinate desires and cares, which ensure our true felicity).

39. The mind that is not guided by the precepts of the Sástras, nor purified by holiness; but is addicted to the society of the wicked, is subjected to the burning sensation of fire within itself at the moment of death.

40. At the moment when the last gurgling of the throat chokes the breath, the eye-sight is dimmed and the countenance fades away; then the rational soul also becomes hazy in its intellect.

41. A deep darkness spreads over the dimming sight, and the stars twinkle before it in day-light; the firmament appears to be obscured by clouds, and the sky presents its gloomy aspect on every side.

42. An acute pain seizes the whole frame, and a fata Morgana dances before the vision; the earth is turned to air and the mid-air seems to be the moving place of the dying person.

43. The sphere of heaven revolves before him, and the tide of the sea seems to bear him away. He is now lifted up in the air, and now hurled down as in his state of dizziness or dream.

44. Now he thinks as falling in a dark pit, and then as lying in the cavern of a hill; he wants to tell aloud his torments, but his speech fails him to give utterance to his thoughts.

45. He now finds himself as falling down from the sky, and now as whirled in the air like a bundle of straws blown aloft in the air by a gust of wind. He is now riding swiftly as in a car, and now finds himself melting as snow.

46. He desires to acquaint his friends of the evils of life and this world; but he is carried away from them as rapidly as by an air-engine, (like a stone shot by a ballista or an aeronaut in a balloon).

20 47. He whirls about as by a rotatory machine or turning wheel, and is dragged along like a beast by its halter. He wallows about as in an eddy, or turns around as the machine of some engine.

48. He is borne in the air as a straw, and is carried about as a cloud by the winds. He rises high like a vapour, and then falls down like a heavy watery cloud pouring out in the sea.

49. He passes through the endless space and revolves in all its vortiginous vacuities, to find as it were, a place free from the vicissitudes to which the earth and ocean are subject. ( i.e. A place of peace and rest).

50. Thus the rising and falling spirit roves without cessation, and the soul breathing hard and sighing without intermission, sets the whole body in sore pain and agony.

51. By degrees the objects of his senses become as faint to his failing organs, as the landscape fades to view at the setting of the sun. (The world recedes; it disappears: Pope).

52. He loses the remembrance of the past and present, upon the failing of his memory at this moment; as one is at a loss to know the sides of the compass after the evening twilight has passed away.

53. In his fit of fainting, his mind loses its power of thinking; and he is lost in a state of ignorance, at the loss of all his thoughts and sensibility. (So the lines:—It absorbs me quite, steals my senses, shuts my sight. Pope).

54. In the state of faintishness, the vital breath ceases to circulate through the body; and at the utter stoppage of its circulation, there ensues a collapse murch’ha or swooning.

55. When this state of apoplexy joined with delirium, has reached its climax, the body becomes as stiff as stone by the law of inertia, ordained for living beings from the beginning.

56. Lílá said:—But tell me, O goddess, why do these pains and agonies, this fainting and delirium, and disease and insensibility, overtake the body, when it is possessed of all its eight organs entire?

21 57. The goddess replied:—It is the law appointed by the author of life from the first, that such and such pains are to fall to the lot of living beings at such and such times. (Man’s primeval sin brought pain and disease and death into the world).

58. The primeval sin springs of itself as a plant in the conscious heart of man, and subjects him to his doomed miseries, which have no other intelligible cause. (There is no other assignable cause of death and disease except the original guilt).

59. When the disease and its pain overpower the body, and prevent the lungs and arteries to expand and contract, in order to inhale and exhale the air, it loses its equipoise (samána) and becomes restless.

60. When the inhaled air does not come out, nor the exhaled breath re-enter the lungs, all pulsation is at a stop; and the organic sensations are lost in their remembrance only. (As in the memory of sleeping and dreaming men).

61. When there is no ingress nor egress of the vital air, the pulse sinks and becomes motionless, and the body is said to become senseless, and the life to be extinct.

62. I shall also die away in my destined time, but my consciousness of former knowledge will all be awake at the hour of death (which proves the immortality of the soul).

63. Though I am dead and gone from here in this manner, yet I must mind, that the seed of my innate consciousness (the soul), is never destroyed with my life and body.

64. Consciousness is inward knowledge and imperishable in its nature; therefore the nature of consciousness is free from birth and death. (The body is subject to birth and death, but not the soul).

65. This consciousness is as clear as a fresh fountain in some persons, and as foul as tide water in others; it is bright in its form of the pure intellect— chit in some, and polluted with the passions of animal life, in its nature of the sentient or living soul— chetana in many.

66. As a blade of grass is composed of joints in the midst, 22 so is the even nature of the sentient or living soul; which is combined with the two states of birth and death amidst it.

67. The sentient soul is neither born nor dead at any time; but witnesses these two states as the passing shadows and apparitions in a dream and vision.

68. The soul is no other than the intellect, which is never destroyed anywhere by any. Say, what other thing is this soul, which is called the Purusha beside the intellect itself. Gloss. It is not the body, nor the vital breath, nor perceptions nor mind; it is not the understanding nor egoism, nor the heart nor illusion, all of which are inactive of themselves.

69. Say then whom and what you call to be dead today, and whether the intellect is liable to disease or demise at any time and in any wise. Millions of living bodies are verily dying every day, but the intellect ever remains imperishable.

70. The intellect never dies at the death of any living being; because all the living soul continues the same upon the demise of every body here.

71. The living soul therefore, is no more than the principle which is conscious of its various desires, affections and passions. It is not that principle to which the phases of life and death are attributed by men.

72. So there is none that dies, nor any one that is born at any time; it is this living principle only that continually revolves in the deep eddy of its desires.

73. Considering the unreality of the visible phenomena, there can be no desire for them in any body; but the inward soul that is led by its egoism to believe them as true, is subject to death at the dis-appearance of the phenomena.

74. The recluse ascetic flying from the fears of the world as foreign to his soul; and having none of its false desires rising in his breast, becomes liberated in his life and assimilated with the true ONE.

L ílá said:—Tell me, goddess! for edification of my knowledge, the manner in which a living being comes to die and to be re-born in another form.

2. The goddess replied:—As the action of the heart ceases to act, and the lungs blow and breathe no more, the current of the vital airs is utterly stopped, and the living being loses its sensibility.

3. But the intellectual soul which has no rise nor fall, remains ever the same as it abides in all moving and unmoving bodies, and in air, water, fire and vacuum. Gloss. So saith the Sruti:—The soul is unlimited, permanent and imperishable.

4. When the hindrance of breathing, stops the pulsation, and motion of the body, it is said to be dead; and is then called an inert corpse (but not so the soul).

5. The body being a dead carcase, and the breathing mixing with the air, the soul is freed from the bonds of its desires, and flies to and remains in the mode of the discrete and self-existent soul. Gloss. The Sruti says:—“His elemental parts mix with the elements, and his soul with the Supreme.” The unconditioned— nirupadhika spirit, joins with the Holy spirit; but not so the conditioned (upádhika) soul of the unholy.

6. The soul having its desires and styled the animal spirit—Jíva, is otherwise than the átman —soul. It remains in its sepulchral vault under the same atmosphere as the soul of Padma, which thou sawst hovering about his tomb. Gloss. The desire binds down the spirit to its own sphere. (The Ghost hovering about the charnel vault. Milton).

7. Hence such departed spirits are called pretas or ghosts of the dead, which have their desires and earthly propensities attached to them; as the fragrance of the flower is concentrated in its pollen, and thence diffused through the air.

24 8. As the animal souls are removed to other spheres, after their departure from this visible world, they view the very many scenes and sights; that their desires present before them like visions in a dream.

9. The soul continues to remember all its past adventures, even in its next state, and finds itself in a new body, soon after the insensibility of death is over. Gloss. This is the linga or súkshma deha —the spiritual or subtile body of spiritualism.

10. What appears an empty vacuum to others, seems as a dusky cloud to the departed soul, enveloping the earth, sky, moon and all other orbs within its bosom (the circumambient atmosphere).

11. The departed spirits are classed in six orders, as you shall now hear from me; namely, the great, greater and greatest sinners, and so likewise the three degrees of the virtuous.

12. These are again subdivided into three kinds, as some belonging to one state, and others composed of two or three states; ( i.e. of virtue and vice intermixed) in the same individual soul.

13. Some of the most sinful souls, lose the remembrance of their past states for the period of a whole year; and remain quite insensible within themselves, like blocks of wood or stone. (This is called the pretárasthá continuing for a whole year after death). (It is allied to Abraham’s bosom or Irack of Mahomedans).

14. Rising after this time, they are doomed to suffer the endless torments of hell; which the hardness of their earthly mindedness has brought upon them. (This is the Purgatory of Christians).

15. They then pass into hundreds of births, leading from misery to misery, or have a moment’s respite from the pains in their short lived prosperity, amidst their dreaming journey through life. (These transmigrations of the soul, are the consequences of its evil propensities).

16. There are others, that after their torpor of death is over, come to suffer the unutterable torments of torpidity, in the state of unmoving trees (which are fixed to undergo all the inclemencies of weather).

25 17. And others again that having undergone the torments of hell, according to their inordinate desires in life, are brought to be re-born on earth, in a variety of births in different forms.

18. Those of lesser crimes, are made to feel the inertness of stones for sometime, after the insensibility attending upon their death. (This means either the insensibility of dead bodies, or that of mineral substances.)

19. These being awakened to sensibility after some period, either of duration long or short (according to their desert); are made to return on earth, to feel the evils of brutish and beastly lives.

20. But the souls of the least sinful, come to assume soon after their death, some perfect human form, in order to enjoy the fruits of their desire and desert on earth.

21. These desires appear before the soul as dreams, and awaken its reminiscence of the past, as present at that moment.

22. Again the best and most virtuous souls, come soon after their death, to find themselves in heavenly abodes, by reason of their continued thoughts and speculations of them.

23. Some amongst them, are brought to enjoy the rewards of their actions in other spheres, from which they are sent back to the mortal world, at the residences of the auspicious and best part of mankind.

24. Those of moderate virtues are blown away by the atmospheric air, upon the tops of trees and medicinal plants, where they rove about as the protozoa, after the insensibility of death is over.

25. Being nourished here by the juice of fruits, they descend in the form of serum and enter into the hearts of men, whence they fall into the uterus in the form of semen virilis , which is the cause of the body and life of other living beings.

The gloss says:—Having enjoyed in the next world the good fruits of their virtuous deeds, they are blown down on earth by the winds and rain. Here they enter in the form of sap and marrow in the vegetable productions of corn, grain and fruits; and 26 these entering the body of animals in the form of food, produce the semen, which becomes the cause of the lives and bodies of all living beings.

26. Thus the dead, figure to themselves some one of these states of living bodies, according to their respective proclivity, after they recover from the collapse attending upon their death.

27. Having thought themselves to be extinct at first, they come to feel their resuscitation afterwards, upon receiving the offering of the mess, made to their departed spirits (by their surviving heirs).

28. Then they fancy they see the messengers of death, with nooses in their hands, come to fetch them to the realm of Yama ; where they depart with them, (with their provision for one year offered in their Srádh ceremony).

29. There the righteous are carried in heavenly cars to the gardens of Paradise, which they gain by their meritorious acts in life.

30. But the sinful soul, meets with icebergs and pitfals, tangled with thorns and iron pikes, and bushes and brambles in its passage, as the punishment of its sins.

31. Those of the middling class, have a clear and paved passage, with soft grassy path-ways shaded by cooling arbours, and supplied with spring waters on both sides of them.

32. On its arrival there, the soul reflects within itself that: “here am I, and yonder is Yama —the lord of the dead. The other is the judge of our actions—Chitragupta, and this is his judgment given on my behalf”.

33. In this manner the great world also, appears to every one as in a dream; and so the nature and manner of all things, present themselves before every soul.

34. But all these appearances are as void as air; the soul alone is the sentient principle, and the spacious space and time, and the modes and motions of things, though they appear as real, are nothing in reality.

35. Here (in Yama’s court), the soul is pronounced to reap 27 the reward of its acts, whereby it ascends either to the blissful heaven above, or descends to the painful hell below.

36. After having enjoyed the bliss of heaven, or suffered the torment of hell, it is doomed to wander in this earth again, to reap the reward of its acts in repeated transmigrations.

37. The soul springs up as a paddy plant, and brings forth the grains of intelligence; and then being assembled by the senses, it becomes an animal, and lastly an intelligent being.

_i.e._ The insensible vegetable, entering into the animal body in the form of food, is converted to a sensible but irrational soul; but entering as food in the body of man, it turns to a rational and human soul. The one Universal soul is thus diversified in different beings. (It is the plant and food that sustains and nourishes all souls. Gloss).

38. The soul contains in itself the germs of all its senses, which lie dormant in it for want of its bodily organs. It is contained in the semen virilis of man, which passing into the uterus, produces the fœtus in the womb of the female.

39. The fœtus then becomes either well-formed or deformed, according to the good or evil deeds of the person in its past state; and brings forth the infant of a goodly or ill shapen appearance.

40. It then perceives the moonlike beauty of youthful bloom, and its amorous disposition coming upon itself; and feels afterwards the effects of hoary old age, defacing its lotus-like face, as the sleets of snow, shatter and shrivel the lotus leaflets.

41. At last it undergoes the pains of disease and death, and feels the same insensibility of Euthanasia as before, and finds again as in a dream its taking of a new form.

42. It again believes itself to be carried to the region of Pluto, and subjected to the former kinds of revolution; and thus it continues to conceive its transmigration, in endless births and various forms.

43. Thus the aerial spirit goes on thinking, for ever in its own etherial sphere, all its ceaseless metempsychosis, until its final liberation from this changeful state.

28 44. Lílá said:—Tell me kindly, O good goddess! for the enlightenment of my understanding, how this misconception of its changeableness, first came upon the soul in the beginning.

45. The goddess replied:—It is the gross view of the abstract, that causes us to assume the discrete spirit, in the concrete forms of the earth and sky and rocks and trees (all of which subsist in the spirit, and are unsubstantial in themselves).

46. As the divine intellect manifests itself, as the soul and model of all forms; so we see these manifestations, in the transcendental sphere of its pure intelligence.

47. In the beginning, God conceived himself as the lord of creation (Brahmá); and then as it were in a dream, he saw in himself, all the forms as they continue to this time.

48. These forms were manifested in the divine spirit, at first as his will; and then exhibited in the phenomenal world, as reflexions of the same, in all their present forms.

49. Among these some are called living beings, which have the motions of their bodies and limbs; and live by means of the air which they breathe, and which circulate in their bodies through the lungs and arteries.

50. Such also is the state of the vegetable creation from the first, that they having their inward sensitiveness, are notwithstanding devoid of outward motion, and receive their sustenance by the roots; wherefore they are called Pádapas or pedobibers.

51. The hollow sphere of the divine intellect, beaming with intelligence, sends forth its particles of percipience, which form the consciousness of some beings, and sensitiveness in others.

52. But man uses his eyes to view the outer and the reflected world (in disregard of his consciousness of the real); although the eyes do not form his living soul, nor did they exist at his creation and before his birth. (When his view was concentrated within himself as in his sleeping visions).

53. It is according to one’s estimation of himself, that he has his proper and peculiar desires, and the particular form of his body also. Such is the case of the elementary bodies likewise, from their inward conception of their peculiar natures.

29 Gloss:—So the ideas of vacuity, fluidity and solidity forming the bodies of air, water and earth; and the form of every thing agreeing with its inherent nature.

54. Thus all moving and unmoving things, have their movable and immovable bodies, according to their intrinsic disposition or idiosyncrasy as such and such.

55. Hence all self-moving beings have their movable bodies, conforming with the conception of their natures as so and so; and in this state of their belief, they continue to this time, with their same inborn or congenital bodies.

56. The vegetable world still continues in the same state of fixedness, from its sense of immobility; and so the rocks and minerals continue in their inert state, from the inborn sense of their inertness.

57. There is no distinction whatever between inertness and intelligence, nor any difference betwixt production, continuance and extinction of things; all which occur in one common essence of the supreme.

58. The varying idiocrasy subsisting in vegetables and minerals, makes them feel themselves as such, and causes their various natures and forms, as they have to this time.

59. The inward constitution of all immovable objects, makes them remain in their stationary states; and so of all other substances, according to their different names and natures.

60. Thus the inward crasis or quality of worms and insects, makes them conceive themselves according to their different kinds, and gives them their particular natures for ever.

61. So the people under the north pole know nothing about those in the south, except that they have the knowledge of themselves only (as ever subject to the intense cold of the frigid zone).

62. So also all kinds of moving and unmoving beings, are prepossessed with their own notions of things, and regard all others according to the peculiar nature of themselves. (Átmá vat &c.).

63. Again as the inhabitants of caves, know nothing of their 30 outsiders; and as the frogs of dirty pools are unacquainted with pure water of streams; so is one sort of being ignorant of the nature of another.

64. But the inane intellect, residing in the form of the all pervasive mind, and all sustaining air; knows the natures of all things in all places.

65. The vital air that enters all bodies through the pores of their bodies, is the moving principle, that gives life and motion to all living beings.

66. Verily the mind is situated in all things, whether they are moving or immovable; and so is the air, which causes the motion in some, and quiescence in others.

67. Thus are all things but rays of the conscious soul, in this world of illusion, and continue in the same state as they have been from the beginning.

68. I have told you all about the nature of things in the world, and how un-realities come to appear as real unto us.

69. Lo here this king Vidúratha is about to breathe his last, and the garlands of flowers heaped on the corpse of thy husband Padma, are now being hung upon the breast of Vidúratha.

70. Lílá said:—Tell me goddess! by what way he entered the tomb of Padma, and how we may also go there to see what he has been doing in that place.

71. The goddess said:—Man goes to all places by the way of his desires, and thinks also he goes to the distant future, in the spiritual form of pure intellect.

72. We shall go by the same way (aerial or spiritual), as you will like to take; because the bond of our friendship will make no difference in our choice and desires.

73. Vasishtha said:—The princess Lílá being relieved of her pain, by the recital of this agreeable narration; and her intellectual sight being brightened, by the blazing sun of spiritual light; beheld the insensible and unmoving Vidúratha, breathe out his last expiring breath.

V asishtha continued:—In the meantime the eye-balls of the king became convoluted, and his lips and cheeks grew pale and dry, with his whole countenance; and there remained only the slender breath of life in him.

2. His body became as lean as a dry leaf, and his face turned as ghastly as the figure of death; his throat gurgled as the hoarsest beetles, and his lungs breathed with a bated breath.

3. His sight was darkened upon the insensibility of death, and his hopes were buried in the pit of despair; and the sensations of his external organs, were hid within the cavity of his heart.

4. His figure was as senseless as a picture in painting, and all his limbs were as motionless, as those of a statue carved upon a block of marble.

5. What need is there of a lengthy description, when it may be said in short; that his life quitted his body, as a bird flies off afar from a falling tree.

6. The two ladies with their divine eye-sight, beheld his animal spirit, flying upwards in the sky in its aerial form; and his consciousness disappearing, like the odour of a flower wafted by the wind.

7. His living soul being joined with its spiritual body, began to fly higher and higher in the air; as it was led by its inward desire or expectation of ascending to heaven.

8. The two ladies kept going after that conscious soul, like a couple of female bees, pursuing a particle of perfume borne afar in the air on the wings of the wind.

9. Then in a moment after the fainting fit of death was 32 over; the conscious soul was roused from its insensibility, like some fragrance expanding itself with the breeze.

10. It saw the porters of death, carrying away the souls of the dead, that have resumed their grosser forms, by means of the mess offerings of their kinsmen to their manes.

11. After a long year’s journey on the way, it reached at the distant abode of Yama , with the hope of reaping the reward of its acts; but found the gate fast beset by beasts of prey. (Like the Cerberus at the hellgate of Pluto).

12. Yama, on beholding the departed spirit of every body brought before him, ordered to find out its foul acts all along its life time.

13. On finding the prince’s spirit spotless, and ever inclined to virtuous acts and to have been nourished by the grace of the goddess of wisdom:—

14. He ordered it to be released, and re-entered into its former dead body, which lay buried under the flowers in the tomb.

15. It was then let to fly in the etherial path, with the swiftness of a stone flung from a sling; and was followed by the living Lílá and the goddess in the air.

16. The living soul of the king thus sailing through the sky, did not observe the forms of the two ladies that followed it, though they saw it all along its course. (Because heavenly forms are invisible to mortal eyes and souls).

17. They traversed through many worlds, and soon passed the bounds of the extra-mundane systems; till they arrived at the solar world, whence they descended on this orb of the earth.

18. The two self-willed forms (of Lílá and the goddess), in company with the living soul of the king; arrived at the royal city of Padma, and entered the apartment of Lílá.

19. They entered in a trice and of their own free will, into the inside of the palace; as the air passes in flowers, and the sunbeams penetrate in the water, and the odors mix with the air.

20. Ráma asked:—How was it Sir, that they entered into the abode adjoining to the tomb, and how could they find out 33 the way to it, the one having been dead a long time, and all three being but bodiless vacuity?

21. Vasishtha replied:—The tomb of the dead body of the prince, being impressed in his soul, and the object of its desire, led his spirit insensibly to it, as if it were by its inborn instinct.

22. Who does not know, that the endless desires which are sown in the human breast, like the countless seeds of a fig fruit, come of their own nature, to grow up to big trees in their time?

23. Just as the living body bears its seed—the subtile or linga deha in the heart, which germinates and grows to a tree at last; so every particle of the intellect, bears the mundane seed in itself. (The cosmos is contained in every individual soul).

24. As a man placed in one country, sees within himself his house, which is situated in a far distant land, so the soul sees the objects of his distant desires, ever present before it.

25. The living soul, ever longs after the best object of its desire; though it may undergo a hundred births, and become subject to the errors and delusions of his senses, and of this illusive world. (For whatever is born in the root, must come out in the seed; and that which is bred in the bones, must appear in the flesh).

26. Ráma rejoined:—There are many persons, that are free from their desire of receiving the funeral cake: now tell me, sir, what becomes of those souls, who get no cake offering at their Srádh.

27. Vasishtha replied:—The man having the desire of receiving the mess settled in his heart, and thinking it to be offered to him; is surely benefitted by its offering. (The funeral cake like every other food, is said to nourish the spirit, and cause its resuscitation in a new life and body).

28. Whatever is in the heart and mind, the same notions form the nature of living beings; and whether these are in their corporeal or incorporeal states, they think themselves as such beings and no other. (The sense of personal identity accompanies the soul everywhere).

34 29. The thought of having received the pinda cake, makes a man sapinda , though it is not actually offered to him; so on the other hand the thought of not being served with the cake, makes a sapinda become a nispinda (or one served with it becomes as one without it).

30. It is verily the desire of all living beings to be such and such as they have in their hearts, and that is the cause of their becoming so in reality. (Gloss. The ordinance of the necessity of cake offering, fosters its desire in the hearts of men. Or, which is the same thing, the desire of receiving the funeral cake, is fostered in the hearts of men, by the ordinance of Srádh).

31. It is the thought of a man, that makes the poison savour as nectar to his taste; and it is his very thought that makes an untruth seem as truth to him. (Gloss. The thought of a snake-catcher that he is the snake eating Garuda, makes him swallow the bitter poison as sweet honey; and the thought of snake-bite from the pricking of a thorn, mortifies a man by his false fear or imagination only).

32. Know this for certain, that no thought ever rises in any one without some cause or other; hence the desire or thought which is inherent in the spirit, is the sole cause of its regeneration on earth.

33. Nobody has ever seen or heard of any event, occurring without its proper cause; except the being of the Supreme Being, which is the causeless cause of all beings, from their state of not-being into being.

34. The desire is inherent in the intellect, like a dream in the soul; and the same appears in the form of acts, as the Will of God is manifested in his works of creation.

35. Ráma said:—How can the spirit that is conscious of its demerit, foster any desire of its future good; and how can it profit by the pious works of others for its salvation? (as the Srádh made by the relatives of the deceased).

36. Tell me too whether the pious acts of others, which are offered to the manes go for nothing; and whether the absence of future prospects of the unmeritorious ghost, or the benevolent wishes of others (for its future good) are to take effect.

35 37. Vasishtha said:—A desire is naturally raised in one at its proper time and place, and by application of appropriate acts and means; and the rising of the desire necessarily overcomes its absence. Gloss. So a Srádh done in proper season and manner, serves to the benefit of the desertless spirit.

38. The pious gifts made on behalf of the departed souls, accrue to them as their own acts; and the sense which they thus acquire of their worthiness, fills them with better hopes and desires of their future state. (Hence rises the hope of redemption by means of the redeeming son of man).

39. And as the stronger man gains the better of his adversary, so the later acts of piety drive away the former impiety from the spirit. Therefore the constant practice of pious acts is strictly enjoined in the Sástras.

40. Ráma said:—If the desire is raised at its proper time and place, how then could it rise in the beginning when there was no time nor place: ( i.e. , when all was void and yet Brahma had his desire and will).

41. You say that there are accessory causes, which give rise to the desires, but how could the will rise at first without any accessory cause whatever?

42. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O long-armed Ráma, that there was neither time nor place in the beginning, when the Spirit of God was without its will.

43. And there being no accessory cause, there was not even the idea of the visible world, nor was it created or brought into existence; and it is so even now.

44. The phenomenal world has no existence, and all that is visible, is the manifestation of the Divine Intellect, which is ever lasting and imperishable.

45. This will I explain to you afterwards in a hundred different ways, and it is my main purpose to do so; but hear me now tell you what appertains to the matter under consideration.

46. They having got in that house, saw its inside beautifully decorated with chaplets of flowers as fresh as those of the spring season.

36 47. The inmates of the palace were quietly employed in their duties, and the corpse of the king was placed upon a bed of mandara and kunda flowers.

48. The sheet over the dead body, was also strewn over with wreaths of the same flowers; and there were the auspicious pots of water placed by the bed side.

49. The doors of the room were closed, and the windows were shut fast with their latchets; the lamps cast a dim light on the white washed walls around, and the corpse was lying as a man in sleep, with the suppressed breathing of his mouth and nostrils.

50. There was the full bright moon, shining with her delightsome lustre, and the beauty of the palace, put to blush the paradise of Indra; it was as charming as the pericarp of the lotus of Brahmá’s birthplace, and it was as silent as dumbness or a dummy itself, and as beautiful as the fair moon in her fulness.

V asishtha continued:—They beheld there the younger Lílá of Vidúratha, who had arrived there after her demise, and before the death of that king.

2. She was in her former habit and mode with the same body, and the same tone and tenor of her mind; she was also as beautiful in all her features, as in her former graceful form and figure when living.

3. She was the same in every part of her body, and wore the same apparel as before. She had the very ornaments on her person, with the difference that it was sitting quietly in the same place, and not moving about as before.

4. She kept flapping her pretty fan (chouri), over the corpse of the king; and was gracing the ground below, like the rising moon brightening the skies above.

5. She sat quiet, reclining her moonlike face on the palm of her left hand; and decorated with shining gems, she appeared as a bed of flowers, with new-blown blossoms on it.

6. With the glances of her beautiful eyes, she shed showers of flowers on all sides; and the brightness of her person, beamed with the beams of the etherial moon.

7. She seemed to have approached to the lord of men, like the goddess Lakshmí, appearing before the god Vishnu; and with the heaps of flowers before her, she seemed as Flora or the vernal season in person.

8. Her eyes were fixed on the countenance of her husband, as if she was pondering his future well-being; and there was a melancholy like that of the waning moon, spread over her face, to think of his present woeful state.

38 9. They beheld the damsel, who however had no sight of them; because their trust was in truth, and saw everything clearly; while her views being otherwise, she could not discern their spiritual forms.

10. Ráma said:—You have said Sir, that the former Lílá had repaired there in her reverie and spiritual form, by the favour of the goddess of wisdom.

11. How do you now describe her as having a body, which I want to know how and whence it came to her.

12. Vasishtha replied:—What is this body of Lílá, Ráma! It is no more true than a false imagination of her gross spirit, like that of water in the mirage. (It is the conception of one’s self as so and so, that impresses him with that belief also).

13. It is the spirit alone that fills the world, and all bodies are creations of the fancy. This spirit is the Intellect of God, and full of felicity in itself.

14. The same understanding which Lílá had of herself to her end, accompanied her to her future state; and the same notion of her body followed her there, though it was reduced to dust, as the ice is dissolved into water.

15. The spiritual bodies also, are sometimes liable to fall into error, and think themselves as corporeal bodies, as we mistake a rope for the serpent.

16. The belief in the materiality of any body, as composed of the earth and other elements, is as false as it is to believe the hares to have horns on their heads.

17. Whoso thinks himself to have become a stag in his dream, has no need of seeking another stag for comparing himself with it. ( i.e. Men are actuated by their own opinion of themselves).

18. An untruth appears as truth at one time, and disappears at another; as the error of a snake in a rope, vanishes upon the knowledge of its falsehood.

19. So the knowledge of the reality of all things, in the minds of the un-enlightened; is dispersed upon conviction of their un-reality in the minds of the enlightened.

39 20. But the ignorant, that have a belief in the reality of this world of dreams, believe also in the transmigration of the animal soul, like the revolution of the globe on its own axis.

21. Ráma asked:—If the bodies of Yogis be of a spiritual nature, how is it that they are seen to walk about in the sights of men?

22. Vasishtha replied:—The Yogi may take upon himself various forms, without the destruction of his former body; as the human soul may deem itself transformed to a stag or any other being in a dream, without undergoing any change in its spiritual essence. (The identity of the self is not lost under any form of the body. Locke).

23. His spiritual body is invisible to all, though it may appear as visible to their sight. It is like the particles of frost seen in sun-beams, and as the appearance of a white spot in autumnal sky (when there is no frost nor cloud in it).

24. No body can easily discern the features of a Yogi’s body, nor are they discernible by other Yogis. They are as imperceptible as the features of a bird flying in the air.

25. It is from the error of judgment, that men think some Yogis to be dead and others to be living; but their spiritual bodies are never subject to death or common sight.

26. The embodied soul is subject to errors, from which the souls of Yogis are free; because their knowledge of truth has purged the mistake of a snake in the rope, from their souls.

27. What is this body and whence it is, and what of its existence or destruction? What is lasting remains forever and is freed from the ignorance it had before (and it is the soul which is ever lasting and free from error).

28. Ráma said:—Whether the embodied soul takes the spiritual form, or is it something other than this. Tell me this and remove my doubt.

29. Vasishtha said:—I have told this repeatedly to you, my good Ráma! and how is it that you do not understand it yet, that there exists only the spiritual body, and the material form is nothing?

40 30. It is by habit of constant meditation, that you must know your spiritual state, and subdue your sense of corporeality; and as you abstain from the latter, so you attain to the former state.

31. Then there will be an end of your sense of the gravity and solidity of objects, like the disappearance of the visions of a dreaming man, when he comes to wake.

32. The body of a Yogi becomes as light and subtile, as the evanescent appearances in a dream: (the fleeting objects of vision).

33. And as a dreaming man feels the lightness of his body, in his dreaming rambles; so the Yogi finds his solid body, as volatile as air in all places.

34. The expectation of the longlife of a master-head in his material body, is realized in the spiritual one, after the corpse has been burnt away. (Longevity consists in the longlife of the spirit and not of the body).

35. Every body must have to assume his spiritual frame afterwards; but the Yogi finds it in his life-time, by the enlightenment of his intellect.

36. As a man upon his waking from sleep, remembers his having an intellectual form in his dreaming state; so the Yogi is conscious of his spiritual body in his own intellect.

37. The notion of the corporeal body is a mere fallacy, like that of the snake in a rope; hence nothing is lost by the loss of this body, nor is anything gained by its production and regeneration.

38. Ráma said:—Now tell me Sir, what the inmates of the house thought this Lílá to be; whether they viewed her as an embodied being or a bodiless apparition appearing before them.

39. Vasishtha answered:—They took the sorrowful queen to be some friend of the king, and to have come from some place they knew not what and where.

40. They did not like to examine the matter, because it is the nature of the ignorant like that of brutes, to believe what they see, without investigation or consideration of its nature.

41 41. As a stone flung at random flies off from its mark, so the brutish and ignorant folks go astray, from hitting at the true mark of a thing placed before them.

42. As we know not what becomes of the objects of our dream, and whither they are fled upon our waking; such is the case with our material bodies, which are as false and fleeting as our delusive dreams.

43. Ráma said:—Tell me Sir, where the hill we dream of, is hid upon our waking; kindly remove my doubt, as the wind disperses the autumnal clouds.

44. Vasishtha said:—All things appearing in our dream or residing in our desire as the hill, &c., are absorbed in our consciousness whence they sprang; just as the motion of bodies subsides in the air which gives the vibration.

45. As the motion of the air mixes with the fixed ether, so the dreams and desires which we are conscious of, set in the unchanging soul whence they have their rise.

46. Our dreams like our knowledge of all other things, are made known to us by our consciousness, the nature of which is unknown to us as that of the inward soul. (Consciousness and the soul are represented as two different predicaments, and the one is not predicated of the other, as we say—the conscious soul).

47. We do not find our dreams and desires as distinct from our consciousness of them; they appertain to it in the same manner, as fluidity to water and motion to the air.

48. Whatever difference may appear to exist between them, is the effect of sheer ignorance; and this gross ignorance is the feature of this world, known as the phantom of fancy.

49. As it is impossible to conceive two co-eternal and co-existent causes together (as an efficient and a material cause); so it is wrong to suppose the dream as a distinct existence or otherwise, than an act of our consciousness.

50. There is no difference whatever between the dreaming and waking states; in dream we see a false city appearing to 42 view, so in waking you behold the unreal world, standing as a reality before you.

51. Nothing can be truly existent that appears as true in a dream; this being always true of the visions in a dream, it is likewise so of the external phenomena, appearing to the sight in our day dreams.

52. As the hill in a dream, immediately disappears into airy nothing, so the material world sooner or later disappears into naught by thinking on its nihility.

53. A Yogi is seen by some to mount in the air, and by others as a dead body lying on the ground; and this is according to one’s belief in his spiritual or material body, that every one sees him in his own way.

54. The view of the phenomenal world as distinct from the Unity, is as false as a sight in delusion or magical show; or a dream or delirium of the great Illusion— máyá .

55. Others who are blinded by similar errors, entertain as in a dream, the notion of their reproduction after being awakened from the insensibility of their death like sleep; but the spiritual body of the Yogi shines and soars upward, after passing over the mirage of the false appearances of the world.

V asishtha continued:—It was in the meantime that the goddess of wisdom, stopped the course of Vidúratha’s life, as we stop the flight of our minds at will.

2. Lílá said:—Tell me, goddess, what length of time has expired, since the corpse of the king was laid in this tomb, and I was absorbed in my deep meditation.

3. The goddess replied:—A month has passed since these maid servants of thine have been waiting here for watching thy body, which they thought lay asleep in the room.

4. Hear excellent lady! what has become of thy body, after it was rotten in a fortnight and evaporated in the air.

5. Seeing thy lifeless corpse lying as cold as frost on the ground, and turning as dry as a log of wood, or rather as a withered leaf on the floor;—

6. The royal ministers thought thee to be dead of thyself (a suicide), and removed thy putrid carcase out of the room.

7. And what more shall I say, than they laid thy corpse on a heap of sandal wood, and having set fire to the pile with the sprinkling of ghee, they reduced it to ashes in a short while.

8. Then the family raised a loud cry that their queen was dead, and wept bitterly for sometime, after which they performed thy funeral ceremonies.

9. Now when they will behold thee coming here in thy same body, they must be astonished to think thee as returned from the next world of the dead.

10. Now my daughter, when thou shalt appear before them in this thy purer and spiritual form, they must look upon thee with astonishment.

44 11. For thou hast not thy former form at present, but it is changed to a purer one, agreeably to the tenor and temperament of thy mind. (Lit. according to the desire in thy heart).

12. For every body beholds every thing without him, according to his inward feelings; as for example the sight of shadowy ghosts is frequent to children, that have a fear of devils at heart.

13. Now, O beauteous lady! Thou art an adept in spiritualism, and hast a spiritual body on thee, and hast forgotten and forsaken thy former body, with all the desires connate with it.

14. The view of material bodies, is lost to the sight of spiritualists; and the intelligent view them in the light of autumnal clouds, which are void of substance. ( i.e. The flimsy clouds which are without rain-water in them).

15. On attainment of the spiritual state, the material body becomes as an empty cloud, and as a flower without its odor.

16. When a man of pure desire, is conscious of his attaining the spiritual state; he loses the remembrance of his material body, as a youth forgets his embryonic state.

17. It is now the thirty first day that we have arrived at this place; and I have caused the maid servants here, to fall into a fast sleep this morning.

18. Now Lílá! let us advance before the wilful Lílá, and then discover to her at our will, the form of the truthful Lílá, and her manner and conduct to thee.

19. Vasishtha said:—So saying, they wished themselves to be perceived by the wilful Lílá, and stood manifest to her sight in their etherial forms of the goddess and her inspired dame.

20. At this instant the Lílá of Vidúratha, looked upon them with her staring eyes; and found the room lighted up by the full lustre of their bodies.

21. The apartment seemed to be lighted by the bright orb of the moon, and its wall washed over with liquid gold; the ground floor shone as paved with ice, and all was full of splendour.

45 22. After seeing the brightness of the bed chamber, Lílá looked up at the goddess and the other Lílá, and rising respectfully before them, she fell at their feet.

23. Be victorious, O ye goddesses! she said, that have blessed me with your visit, and know that know all, that I have come here first as a preparer of your way. (Lit. as the sweeper of your path).

24. As she was speaking in this manner, they received her with good grace, and then all the three sat together on a bedding in their youthful bloom, like luxuriant creepers on the snow capt top of Meru.

25. The goddess said:—Tell us daughter, how you came here before ourselves, how you have been, and what you have seen on your way hither.

26. The younger Lílá answered:—As I lay insensible on that spot (upon the shock of my death), I was enveloped in darkness like the new moon, and felt myself burnt away by the flame of a conflagration ( i.e. , funeral fire).

27. I had no sense nor thought of anything good or bad, but remained with my eyes closed under my eye-lids.

28. Then I found myself, O great goddess! after I had recovered from my anaesthesia of death, to assume (by mistake a new body agreeably to my former impression), and to be translated at once into the midst of the sky.

29. I mounted on the vehicle of winds, and was borne like fragrance to this mansion through the etherial space.

30. I found this house guarded by its warders, and lighted with lamps, and having a costly bedstead placed in the midst of it.

31. I am looking here upon this corpse, as my husband Vidúratha, who has been sleeping here with his body covered under the flowers, like the vernal god in a flower garden.

32. I thought he was taking his rest, after the fatigue of the warfare, and did not like to disturb his repose in this place.

33. I have now related to you, my gracious goddesses! all 46 that I have seen and thought of, since I have been restored to my new life.

34. The goddess spake:—Now I tell thee Lílá, that hast such beautiful eyes, and movest like a swan, that I will raise the corpse of the king to life from his bed in this bier.

35. Saying so, she breathed the breath of life as the lotus lets off its fragrance; and it fled into the nostrils of the carcase, like a creeping plant crawls into a hole.

36. It entered into the heart through the vital sheath, as the wind penetrates into the hole of a bamboo; and the breath of life was fraught with desires, as the waves of the sea sparkle with pearls.

37. The infusion of life, added to the colour of the face and body of king Padma; as the rain-water refreshes the fading lotus in a drought.

38. By degrees the members of the body became renovated, like a garden with its returning flowering season; and as the sides of a hill become virescent, with fresh grown bushes and creepers.

39. The person of the king shone as the queen of the stars, with all her digits of the full moon, when she enlightens the whole world, with the beams of her radiant face.

40. All his limbs became as tender and roscid, as the branches of trees in spring; and they regained their bright and golden hue, like the flowers of the vernal season.

41. He oped his eyes which were as clear as the sky, with their two pupils rolling as the two orbs of light; and enlightening the world, with their charming and auspicious beams.

42. He raised his body, as the Vindhyá mountain uplifts its head, and cried, “who waits there” with a grave and hoarse voice.

43. The two Lílás responded to him saying:—“your commands;” when he beheld the two Lílás in attendance upon him, and lowly bending themselves at his feet.

44. Both of them were of the same form and features, and of the like demeanour and deportment towards him. They were 47 alike to one another in their voice and action, as in their joy and gladness at his rising.

45. Then looking upon them he asked, “what art thou and who is she”? At this the elder Lílá responded to him saying—“deign to hear what I have to say”.

46. I am Lílá thy former consort, and was joined as twain in one with thee, as sounds and their senses are combined together.

47. The other Lílá is but a reflexion of myself, and cast by my free will for your service.

48. The lady sitting here beside the bed, is the goddess of wisdom—the blessed Sarasvatí, and mother of the three worlds; set her on the golden seat before you.

49. It is by virtue of our great merit, that she has presented herself to our sight, and brought us back from other worlds to your presence in this place.

50. Hearing this, the lotus-eyed king, rose from his seat, and with pendant wreaths of flowers and a strap of cloth hung about his neck, prostrated himself at her feet.

51. He exclaimed:—I hail thee, O divine Sarasvatí! that dost confer all blessings on mankind. Deign to confer on me the blessings of understanding and riches with a long life.

52. As he was saying so, the goddess touched him with her hand and said, “be thou my son, possessed of thy desired blessings, and gain thy blessed abode in future.

53. “Let all evils and evil thoughts be far from thee, and all thy discomforts be dispersed from this place; let an everlasting joy alight in thine hearts, and a thick population fill thy happy realm. May all prosperity attend on thee for ever.”

V asishtha said:—“Be it so,” said Sarasvatí and disappeared in the air; and the people rose in the morning with their revivified king.

2. He embraced the renascent Lílá, who embraced him in her turn, and they were exceeding glad in their coming to life again.

3. The palace was filled with loud acclamations of joy as those of giddy revelry: and the citizens were full of mirth and merry, song and music.

4. The shouts of victory, and sounds of huzzas and heydays, resounded in the air, and the people elated with joy, thronged at the royal courtyard to see their king.

5. The genii of the Siddhas and Vidyádharas, dropped down handfuls of flowers from above; and the sound of drums and kettles, and trumpets and conches, resounded on all sides.

6. The elephants roared aloud on the outside, with their uplifted trunks; and crowds of females filled the inner court-yard, with their loud rejoicings.

7. Men bearing presents to the king, fell upon one another at their mutual clashing; and others wearing the flowery chaplets on their heads and hairs, moved gracefully all about.

8. The red turbans of joy on the heads of the chiefs and host of citizens, and the waving of the reddish palms of dancing girls, filled the sky with a bed of red lotuses.

9. The ground also was strewn over with rosy flowers, by foot-falls of dancers with their reddish soles; and the pendant earrings of ballet girls, which flourished with the oscillation of their heads and shoulders, waved in the air like flowers of gold.

49 10. The silken veils which like autumnal clouds, covered the faces of fairy damsels in their dancing, glittered as so many moons shining in the court-yard.

11. The people then retired to their respective abodes, with loud applause of the queen’s return with her husband from the other world.

12. The king Padma heard of his adventures from the hearsay of his subjects, and made his purificatory ablution, with the waters of the four seas of the earth.

13. Then the royal ministers and ministerial Bráhmans, joined together in the act of his installation, like the synod of immortals, meeting at the inauguration of Indra.

14. The two Lílás continued in company with the king, to relate with delight their respective adventures, and the wisdom they had gathered thereby.

15. It was thus by grace of the genius of wisdom and their own experience, that this king Padma and his two queens, obtained their prosperity equal to that of the three worlds.

16. The king, who was fraught with the wisdom imparted to him by the goddess; continued to rule over his kingdom for thousands of years, in company with his consorts.

17. They reigned on earth, in their state of living liberation for myriads of years; and then receiving the perfect knowledge of the holy Siddhas, they became wholly liberated after their deaths.

18. The happy pair having reigned jointly, over their delightful realm of ever increasing population, and which was graced by learned men and righteous people, knowing their own rights and duties of doing good to all mankind, became freed from the burden of their state affairs for ever.

V asishtha said:—I have related to you this tale, prince! for removing your error of the phenomenal world. Mind this tale of Lílá, and renounce your misconception of the gross material world.

2. The substantiality of phenomena is a nil by itself, and requires no pains to invalidate it. It is hard to disprove a reality; but there is no difficulty in effacing a falsehood from the mind.

3. True knowledge consists in viewing the visibles as void, and knowing the one vacuum as the sole unity and real entity; one loses himself at last in this infinite vacuity. (Vasishtha was a súnya vádi or vacuist, which Sankaráchárya was at the pains to refute in his Dig-vijaya).

4. When the self-born Brahmá created the world from nothing, and without the aid of any material or elementary body; it is plain that there was an eternal void, and all these are but manifestations of the vacuous soul. (The Teom and Beom of Genesis, corresponding with Tama and Vyom of the Veda, were the origin of creation).

5. The same creative soul, has spread the seeds of its consciousness in the stream of creation, and these produce the images as they incessantly appear to us, unless we take the pains to repress them.

6. The appearance of the world, is but a perspective of the sphere of divine intellect; and contained in the small space of human intellect within the soul; as in a transparent particle of sand.

7. Such being the case, say what is the essence of this erroneous conception, and what may be our desires of reliance 51 in it, and what can be the meaning either of destiny or necessity? (The predestination and chance, to which the Fatalists ascribe the origination of the universe).

8. This entire whole which is visible to the eye, is but a false appearance as that of magic; and there is no truth nor substance in a magic show.

9. Ráma said:—Oh! the wondrous exposition of the world, that you have now explained to me. It refreshes my soul, as the moon-beams revive the blades of grass, that have been burnt down by a conflagration.

10. It is after so long, that I have come to know the truly knowable; such as what and how it is, and the manner whereby, whence and when it is to be known.

11. I have my peace and rest in pondering on this wonderful theory, and your elucidation of the doctrines of the Sruti Sástras.

12. But tell me this one thing to remove my doubt, as my ears are never satiate, with drinking the nectarious juice of your sweet speech.

13. Tell me the time, which transpired during the three births of Lílá’s husband. Was it the duration of a day and night in one case, and of a month in another, and the period of a whole year in the case of Vidúratha?

14. Or did any one of them live for many years, and whether they were of short or longer durations, according to the measure of men, gods or Brahmá. (Because a human year is a day and night of the polar gods, and a moment of the cycle of Brahmá. And revolution of the whole planetary system to the same point makes a day of Brahmá).

15. Please sir, kindly tell me this, because little hearing is not sufficient to me, as a drop of water is not enough to moisten the dry soil or the parched ground of summer heat.

16. Vasishtha said:—Know sinless Ráma! that whosoever thinks of anything in any manner at any place or time, he comes to feel the same in the same manner, and in the same place and time.

52 17. Take for instance the destructive poison, which becomes as ambrosia to venomous insects, that take it for their dainty nourishment; and so is an enemy turning to a friend by your friendly behaviour unto him. (In both cases the evil turns to good by our taking it as such).

18. And the manner in which all beings consider themselves, and all others for a length of time; the same they seem to be by their mode and habit of thinking, as if it were by an act of destiny. ( i.e. They consider their thoughts of things as their destined nature, which is not so in reality; for fair is foul and foul is fair; according as our judgments declare).

19. The manner in which the active intellect represents a thing in the soul, the same is imprinted in the consciousness of its own nature. (Here the Chit is said to be the intellectus agens and consciousness— Samvid —the intellectus patiens . The motion of the mind gives us the impressions of the swiftness and slowness of time).

20. When our consciousness represents a twinkling of the eye as a Kalpa , we are led to believe a single moment an age of long duration. (As a short nap appears an age in dreaming), and (a long age as a moment as in the case of the seven sleepers of Kehef).

21. And when we are conscious of or think a Kalpa age as a twinkling, the Kalpa age is thought to pass as a moment; and so a long night in our unconscious sleep, appears as a moment upon waking.

22. The night appears a longsome age, to the long suffering sick, while it seems as a moment, in the nightly revels of the merry; so a moment appears as an age in the dream, and an age passes off as a moment in the state of insensibility. (The length and shortness of duration, depending on our consciousness and insensibility of the succession of our ideas. (See Locke and Kant on our idea of time)).

23. The notions of the resurrection of the dead, and of one’s metempsychosis, and being re-born in a new body; of his being a boy, youth or old man; and of his migrations to different places 53 at the distance of hundreds of leagues, are all but the phenomena of sleep, and retrospective views in a dream.

24. King Haris Chandra is said, to have thought a single night as a dozen of years; and the prince Lavana to have passed his long life of a hundred years as the space of a single night. (So the seven sleepers of Kehef passed a long period as one night, and so of others). ^[1]

25. What was a moment to Brahmá, was the whole age of the life-time of Manu (Noah); and what is a day to Vishnu, constitutes the long period of the life-time of Brahmá. (This alluded to the comparative differences in the cycles of planetary bodies presided by the different deities; such as Jupiter’s cycle of 60 years round the sun, is but one year to the presiding god of that planet).

26. The whole life-time of Vishnu, is but one day of the sedate Siva; for one whose mind is motionless in his fixed meditation, is unconscious of the change of days and nights and of seasons and years. (Since the meditative mind is insensible of the fluctuation of its ideas, or that there is an utter quietus of them in the quietism of the Yogi’s mind).

27. There is no substance nor the substantive world, in the mind of the meditative Yogi (who views them in their abstract light); and to whom the sweet pleasures of the world, appear as bitter, as they are thought to be the bane of his true felicity.

28. The bitter seems to be sweet, by being thought to be so; and what is unfavorable, becomes favorable as that which is friendly comes to be unfriendly by being taken in their contrary senses. (The mind can make a heaven of hell and a hell of a heaven. Milton).

29. Thus Ráma! it is by habitual meditation, that we gain the abstract knowledge of things; as on the other hand we forget 54 what we learnt, by want of their recapitulation. (Habit is second nature, and practice is the parent of productions).

30. These by their habitude of thinking, find every thing in a state of positive rest; while the unthinking fall into the errors of the revolutionary world, as a boat-passenger thinks the land and objects on the shore, to be receding from and revolving around him.

31. Thus the unthinking part of mankind, and those wandering in their error, think the world to be moving about them; but the thinking mind, sees the whole as an empty void, and full of phantoms, as one sees in his dream.

32. It is the thought (erroneous conception), that shows the white as black and blue; and it is the mistake of judgment, that makes one rejoice or sorrow at the events of life.

33. The unthinking are led to imagine a house where there is none; and the ignorant are infatuated to the belief of ghosts, as they are the killers of their lives.

34. It is reminiscence or memory, which raises the dream as her consort; and which represents things as they are presented to it, by the thoughts of the waking state.

35. The dream is as unreal as the empty vacuity, abiding in the hollow receptacle of the intellectual soul; it overspreads the mind like the shadow of a cloud, and fills it with images like those of a puppet-show under the magic lantern.

36. Know the phenomena of the revolving worlds, to be no more in reality, than mere resultants of the vibrations of the mind, in the empty space of the soul; and as the motions and gestures of the fancied hobgoblins, to the sight of children.

37. All this is but a magical illusion, without any substance or basis of itself; and all these imposing scenes of vision, are but the empty and aerial sights of dreams.

38. Just as the waking man, beholds the wondrous world before him, so also does sleeping man see the same; and both of them resemble the insensible pillar, which finds the images of statues engraved upon it (because the soul is ever awake in every state of all living bodies).

55 39. The great monument of the Divine Spirit, has the figure of the created world, carved in itself in the same manner, as I see a troop of soldiers passing before me in my dream. (All these appear to be in action, in their true state of nullity and inaction).

40. So is this waking world asleep in the soul of Brahma, and rises in his mind as the vegetable world springs from the sap lying hid in the earth, which gives it its growth and vernal bloom.

41. So likewise does the creation lie hid in, and spring from the Supreme Spirit; as the brightness of gold ornaments is contained in, and comes out of the material metal. (The Divine Spirit is both the material and efficient cause of creation— ex quo & a quo .)

42. Every atom of creation, is settled in the plenum of Divine spirit; as all the members of the body, are set in the person of their possessor.

43. The visible world has the same relation, to the bodiless and undivided spirit of God; as one fighting in a dream bears to his antagonist (both believing in their reality, while both of them are unreal in their bodies).

44. Thus the real and unreal, the spirit and the world, all dwindled into vacuum, at the great Kalpánta annihilation of creation, except the intellect of God which comprises the world in itself.

45. The causality of the one ( i.e. the spirit of God), and the unreality of the world cannot be true (since nothing unreal can come out of the real). Except Brahm—the all ( to pan ), there is no other cause, as a Brahmá or any other; the Divine Intelligence is the only cause and constituent of its productions.

46. Ráma asked:—But what cause was it that represented the citizens, counsellors and ministers of Vidúratha’s royal house also to Lílá’s vision, in the same manner as her lord the king, (who was alone the object of her thought)?

47. Vasishtha said:—All other thoughts are associated with 56 the principal one in the intellect, in the same manner as the high winds are accompaniments of the storm.

48. The association of thoughts, follows one another in a long and perpetual train; and caused the succession of the sights of the ministers, citizens and subjects of the king, in Lílá’s vision one after the other.

49. In this way the thought that the king was born of such and such a family, naturally introduced the thoughts of his palace and city, and of those that dwelt in them.

50. It is in vain to enquire into the cause and manner, of the intellect’s being combined with its thoughts at all times; since it is called the gem of thoughts (Chintámani), and must be always accompanied with its radiating thoughts, like a brilliant gem with its rays. ( i.e. Thinking is the inseparable attribute of the mind).

51. Padma thought to become a king like Vidúratha, in the proper discharge of the duties of his royal family; and this constant thought of himself as such, cast the mould of the mind and manner of Vidúratha upon him ( i.e. he looked himself in the light of that king).

52. All animate beings of every kind, are but models of their own thoughts, like looking-glasses showing their inward reflexions to the sight. (The innate man appearing in his outward figure, is a verity in physiognomy).

53. The mind which is fixed in the meditation of God, and remains unshaken amidst the turmoils of the world; is fraught with perfect rest, and preserves the composure of the soul, until its final liberation from the bondage of the body.

54. But the thoughts of the fluctuating enjoyments of this world, alternately represented in the mirror of the mind, like the shadows of passing scenes upon a looking glass.

55. It requires therefore a great force of the mind, to overcome its worldly thoughts, and turn them to the channel of truth; as the greater force of the main current of a river, leads its tributaries to the ocean.

57 56. But the mind is greatly disturbed, when the worldly and spiritual thoughts, press it with equal force to both ways; and it is then, that the greater force leads it onward in either way. (There is no midway like that of the Mádhyamikas between this world and the next).

Gloss. The worldly and spiritual thoughts being equally forcible, they naturally struggle in the mind, and that which is of greater force overcomes the other.

57. Such is the case with all the myriads of beings, whether are living, dead or to come to life; and the same accidents take place in the particles of all human minds (like the concussions of atomic forces).

58. All this is the empty sphere of the Intellect, all quiet and without any basis or substratum. It is neither peopled nor filled by any thing except its own native thoughts.

59. All these appear as dreams, even in our unsleeping states, and have no form or figure in the sight of the wise. The perception of their positive existence, is but a misconception of their negative inexistence.

60. There really exists but one omnipotent and all pervasive Spirit, which shows itself in diverse forms like the flowers, fruits and leaves of trees, all appearing from the self-same woody trunk (which like the great Brahma is the origin of all its off-shoots.)

61. He who knows the increate Brahma to be the measurer, measure and the thing measured, ( i.e. the creator, created and the creation), to be all one and himself, can never forget this certain truth of unity, nor ever fall into the error of dualism of the cause and effect.

62. There is but one Being (SAT), who is Holy and without beginning; and who, though he appears to be of the forms of light and darkness, and of space and time, doth never rise nor set anywhere. He is without beginning, middle or end; and remains as a vast expanse of water, exhibiting itself in its waves and currents.

58 63. The notion of myself, thyself and the objective world, are but effusions of our perverted understandings; and it is ignorance only that shows the One as many within the Sheath of the mind, according as it imagines it to be.

R áma said:—Please sir, explain to me whence arises this error of our knowledge of the objective world, without a cause of this error. (The True God cannot lead us to the knowledge of untruth).

2. Vasishtha said:—Because we have the knowledge of all things ( i.e. the objective), to be contained alike in our consciousness (as of the subjective self); it is plain that this eternal and increate self (or soul), is the cause and container of them all at all times.

3. That which has an insight or intuitive knowledge of all things, which are expressed by words and their meanings, is Brahma—the soul and no other; and nothing that is meant by any significant term, has a different form of its own. (It is the doctrine of nominalism that the notions conveyed by words have no realities corresponding with them in the mind, and have no existence but as mere names).

4. As the quality of a bracelet is not different from its substance of gold, nor that of a wave from the water; so the expansion of the world, is not distinct from the spirit of God. (The spirit inflated and produced the world out of itself. Sruti).

5. It is Brahma that is manifest in the form of the world, and not the world that appears as God; and so doth gold display itself in the form of a bracelet, and not the bracelet that takes the nature of gold.

6. As the whole is displayed in all its various parts, so the entire intellect shows itself in all the various operations of the mind composing the world. (The intellect displaying the mind, and this the world).

60 7. It is ignorance of the infinite and eternal Spirit of God, that exhibits itself as myself, thyself and the world itself in the mind. ( i.e. The knowledge both of the subjective and objective results from ignorance of the only One—tanmátram).

8. As the shades of different colours in gems, are not apart from the gems; so the notions of one’s self and the world are the shades inherent in the self-same intellect.

9. Like waves appearing on the surface of the undulated waters of the deep; this so-called and meaningless creation, is but a phasis in the Divine Intellect.

10. Neither does the Spirit of God reside in the creation, nor does the creation subsist in the Divine Spirit (like waves in the waters); nor is there such relation as of a part with the whole between them. (These are not parts of one undivided whole).

11. One should meditate on his intellect as the form of the Divine Intellect, in his own consciousness of it; and he will feel the Divinity stirring within himself, as it were stirred by the breath of a breeze. (There is a divinity stirring within us, Addition).

12. The minute particle of the vacuous intellect, will then appear in its wondrous form of a void, within the empty space of his conscious mind. (The primary hypostasis of the vacuous soul being but a void, its attributes of the intellect and mind, are of the same form).

13. He then finds this vacuous form stirring in himself as the airy spirit, with its property of feeling, as it is felt in the flatus venti or breath of air. (This is the Spirit of God).

14. The God then assumes a luminous form as the state of his own substantiality; and this is posited in the sheath of the intellect as a spark of fire. (This is the holy light of the God of glory or glorious God).

15. The light then melts into water as the self-same substance of itself; and this fluid substance contains in it the property of taste. (This is the liquid state of the floating spirit before creation).

61 16. The same is condensed in the form of a solid substance, which is the same with the Divine Mind. This becomes the earth bearing in its bosom the property of smell. (The earth being produced from the scum of water, is dissolved again into its watery form).

17. Again God represents himself to our intellect, as one infinite and uniform duration; and its measures in twinklings and other divisions, are but manifestations of the succession of our thoughts. (Prakachanamvidah parampará—is the very doctrine of Locke and others).

18. The other states in which God presents himself to our intellects are that, He is Holy, infinitely glorious, seen within us, ^[2] and without beginning, middle and end; that, He has no rising nor setting, and subsists of Himself without a substratum and as the substratum of all.

19. This knowledge of God is bliss itself, and his creation is identic with himself. Ignorance of God leads to the knowledge of the objective world, and its extinction is the way to know the eternity of His existence.

20. Brahma is conceived in the same manner in our souls, as He is represented to us by our intellects; just as we know all other things according to our ideas of them, in our all comprehensive minds.

21. Of these, those things only are true, the notions of which we derive from the dictates of our well-directed understandings; as all those are untrue, which the mind paints to us from the impressions of the senses and the meanings of words; which are incapable of expressing the nature of the undefinable and indescribable God (whom no words can express— Yato vácho nivastante . (Sruti))

22. Know the unreal world which appears as real, and the reality of God which appears as unreality, to be of the manner of the air in motion and at rest. The visible world like the current air, appears true to them, that have no knowledge of 62 the invisible God, who is as calm as the still air underlying the etherial air and its fluctuations.

23. A thing may appear different from another, and yet be the same with it; as the light in the fire is the selfsame fire. So the visible world arising from the invisible Brahma, appears as another reality; though it is same with the reality of God.

24. All things whether in being or not being, subsist in God as their invisible and unknown source and cause; as the unscooped earth is the cause of the would-be doll, the unhewn tree of a future statue, and the soot of the ink not in esse . (So all future statues are contained in the unhewn marbles, according to Aristotle).

25. One thing is exhibited as another in the great desert of the Divine Mind, which shows the phenomena of the world as figures in the mirage.

26. The wise soul thinks this world as one with its source—the Divine Intellect, as he considers the tree no way different from its parent seed.

27. As the sweetness of milk, the pungency of pepper, the fluidity of water, and the motion of winds, are the inseparable properties of their substances:—

28. So this creation is inseparable from the spirit of Brahma, and is a mere form of the one Supreme soul, beside which there is nothing in reality. (Whose body nature is, and God the soul).

29. This world is the manifestation of the lustre of the gem of Divine mind, and has no other cause except the essence of Brahma, which is no other than its material cause—the Supreme soul itself.

30. The will, the mind, the living soul, and its consciousness, are all the offspring of Divine intellection; because there is nothing that can be produced by exertion of any power without direction of the Intellect.

31. There is nothing that rises or sets anywhere, nor appears or disappears at any time; but everything is unborn at all times, 63 and lies quiet in the Divine Intellect, which is as solid as a massive rock.

32. To attribute the formation of these multitudes of the combination of atoms, and to suppose every particle to be composed of minutest infinitesimals; are but vagaries of imagination, as none of them could combine of themselves except by direction of the eternal mind. (Matter having no force nor design in itself).

33. All force resides in some living principle, as the waking, sleeping and dreaming states appertain to the living soul; and as the undulation of waves subsists in the water; (or) as the current of the stream lies hidden in it.

34. When the living soul feels its inappetency towards worldly enjoyments, it is then said to have reached to his highest perfection by the Sruti (such as:— nishkáma or abandonment of the desire of fruition, is the highest state of human felicity).

35. As the mind is freed from its choice and dislike of things, so is the soul liberated by avoiding its egoism and personality, and then it has no more to be conscious of the pain, attending upon a future birth and transmigration.

36. Whoso comes to know in his understanding, this state of supreme and inexpressible felicity; he is sure to overcome all his worldly appetites, that bind him fast to this earth.

37. But whoso labours in his mind under his affections to this world, he has to rove continually in it as in the whirlpool of a stream, and destroys the supreme felicity of his soul in his continuous turmoil.

38. It was the lotus-born Brahmá, that was conscious of his egoism at first, and who has by the will of his mind, spread out this universe. (He is eternally acting, and has not retired after his act of creation).

V asishtha continued:—These myriads of worlds and the millenniums of kalpa ages, are no more real in themselves than our false computation of the millionth part of an atom or the twinkling of an eye.

2. It is our error that represents them as true to us, though they are as false as our calculation of those infinitesimals.

3. These creations whether past or future, follow one another in endless succession, like the overflowing currents of water, with all the waves, eddies and whirlpools in them.

4. The prospect of these created worlds is as false, as the delusive mirage, which presents a stream of water, flowing with strings of flowers, fallen from the plants on the shore.

5. The conceptional creation is as baseless as a city in a dream or magic show; or as mountain in fiction, or an imaginary castle in air.

(It is a flatus venti , and not based on any thing real; but has a mere psychological existence, depending on fancy and imagination).

6. Ráma said:—Sir, the drift of your reasoning, leads to the establishment of the identity of the conceptional creation with the creator; and that this unity of both is the belief of the learned and wise. (So says Hegel: “creation is the reality of God; it is God passing into activity” Lewe’s Hist. Ph. II p. 626).

7. Now tell me, what you have to say with regard to the material bodies, which these existence bear on earth; and what is the cause that the body is subject to the casualties unknown to the inward spirits. ( i.e. The body is subject to material laws, but not so the immaterial spirit which has no change).

65 8. Vasishtha replied:—There is a supernatural and active energy of the Divine Intellect, called the predominant Decree, Fate or Destiny, which must come to pass, and bear its command over all our actions and desires. (Destiny is irresistible, being the decree of Providence, governing all events and our free wills also. Fate is the personification of the female agency of god. Here Vasishtha is a fatalist also; but his fate is the Divine decree).

9. She is invested from the beginning with irresistible and multifarious powers; and destines the manner in which every thing is to take place and continue for ever. (The philosophical destiny is the sum of the laws of universe, of matter and mind).

10. She is the essential cause of all essence, and the chief mover of the intellect; she is styled as the great power of powers, and remains as the great viewer of all things.

11. She is called the great agency and the great producer of all events; She is known as the chief mover of occurrences, and she is the soul and source of all accidents. (The mythological Destiny is superior to gods and men, and rules over the great Jove himself).

12. She whirls the worlds as straws, and bears her sway over the deities and demons; she commands the Nága dragons and the mountain monsters to the end of time.

13. She is sometimes thought to be an attribute of Divine essence, and to remain pictured in her ever varying colours in the hollow vacuity of the Divine Mind. (The theological destiny is the Almighty Will of God and his foreknowledge also; before which the fates float about, as if they are drawn up in variegated pictures).

14. The learned have explained Brahmá the Demiurge, to be identic with the Spirit of Brahma, for the understanding of those that are ignorant in spiritual knowledge; and by destiny they mean his creation. ( i.e. Creation is destination of the preordaining and irrevocable will of God).

15. The immovable spirit of Brahmá, appears to be full of 66 moving creatures and the infinity of Divine existence, seems to teem with the finite creation in the midst of it, like a grove of trees growing under the concavity of the hollow sky.

16. The unwaking spirit of God reflected various images in itself (as in a dream), likening to the reflection of a dense forest in the lens of a crystal stone: and these were understood by the demiurgus Brahmá, as the prototype of the destined creation, in the hollow sphere of the Divine mind.

17. The Intellect naturally exhibits a variety of forms in itself, as the body of an embodied person, shows its various members to view; and these were taken by the lotus-born Brahmá, as the several parts in the great body of the cosmos. (The Intellect is the phantasmagoria of the world, and the Demiurge is the formal framer of it).

18. This foreknowledge of events imprinted in the Intellect of God, is called Destiny, which extends over all things at all times. (This is Fatum christianum , that every thing is regulated by foreknowledge and Providence).

19. The meaning of Destiny, comprises the knowledge of the causes, which move, support and sustain all things in their proper order; and that such and such causes, must produce such and such effects for ever. (This is the Stoic Fate of Jewish Essences; or a concatenation of causes whence all things necessarily result).

20. This destiny is the force or mobile power, that moves all men and animals, and vegetable and inanimate creations; it is the beginning (or primary source) of the time and motion of all beings. (It is fatum from fari —the word or decree of Providence, that was the beginning of all existence.)

21. It is combined with Divine power, as the power divine is combined with it; and this combination of them into one, is the cause of the production and existence of the world.

22. It is the union or conformity of human exertion, with the course of destiny or decree of God, that is productive of certain ends, which are respectively called their destiny and destined effects. (Here Destiny is defined as the combination 67 of human and superhuman powers; and that the co-operation of natural and supernatural agencies, are necessary to the production of effects).

23. What more have you to ask me, Ráma! with regard to destiny and self-exertion; when I tell you that it is destined to all beings to betake themselves to their proper actions, in the destined or prescribed manner, in order to bring about the desired result? (Their destiny is equal to Vidhi or fixed laws, which were combined in Brahmá).

24. When a predestinarian sits idle and quiet, under the belief of being fed by his fixed lot; he is then said to depend on his destiny alone (as a fatalist).

25. By sitting idle in the manner of a waiter on Providence, for the whole of his lifetime, he gains nothing; but comes to lose his good sense and energy in a short time, and finally dies away in famine by his sole reliance on destiny. (Hence fate = fat and faut (in Arabic), is synonymous with death).

26. It is quite certain that whatever is destined, must surely come to pass of its own accord; and that it is impossible to prevent it by the foresight of gods and men.

27. Yet the intelligent ought not cease to exert their activity, by relying in their fates only; for they must know that it is our exertion that brings destiny into action. (Because it is, destined, that destiny requires to be enforced by human exertion, in order to bring on its effect. It is operation which enforces the law, which is otherwise dormant and a dead letter).

28. Destiny is inactive and abortive, without an active power to enforce it to action; it is human activity, that is productive of any effect or production in nature by the help of destiny.

29. Depend on destiny, and remain both deaf and dumb as a doll; be inactive, and become dull and torpid as a block. Say, what is the good of this vital breath, unless it has its vitality and activity? (Destiny has destined man to exertion in order to produce the destined end; and has so ordained all animated nature, in order to be productive).

68 30. It is good to sit quiet; by restraining even the vital breath in Yoga meditation; whereby one can obtain his liberation: otherwise the inactive man is not to be called a Yogi, but an idler and a lazzarone.

31. Both activity and inactivity are good for our liberation from pain; but the high minded esteem that as better, which saves them from the greater pain of regeneration, ( i.e. the hybernation of Yoga meditation). ^[3]

32. This inactive destiny is a type of the latent Brahmá; and who so leans to it by laying aside his busy course, is verily installed in the supremely holy state of highest felicity (as in ecstasis and hypnotism).

33. The inert destiny resides every where in the manner of Brahma—the latent soul in all bodies, and evolves itself in various shapes, by means of activity in all its productions.

V asishtha continued:—The essence of Brahma is all in all, and ever remains in every manner in every thing in all places. It is omnipotence, omniform and the lord God of all.

(This is the to pan of Pantheism, that, God is All and All is God; that God and nature are one substance, and all its various modifications. (This is the doctrine of Vedánta, Plato and Plotinus, and lately of Sufism and German philosophy)).

2. This Essence is the Spirit or Soul, whose omnipotence developes itself sometimes in the form of intellectual activity, and sometimes in the tranquility of soul. Sometimes it shows itself in the momentum of bodies, and at others in the force of the passions and emotions of the soul. Sometimes as something in the form of creation, and at another as nothing in the annihilation of the world. (This is the to on onton —the All of all; the eternal source of all existence; the Subjective as well as Objective both together).

3. Whenever it realises itself any where in any form or state, it is then viewed in the same manner at the same place and time. (The spirit realises itself in one form or other of its own free Will).

4. The absolute Omnipotence manifests itself as it likes and appears to us; and all its powers are exhibited in one form or other to our view and understandings.

5. These powers are of many kinds, and are primarily concentrated in the Divine Soul or Spirit. The potentialities (or potes esse ) are the Active and Passive powers, also the Rational and Irrational and all others.

6. These varieties of powers are the inventions of the learned for their own purpose and understanding; but there is no distinction 70 of them in the Divine Spirit. (All diversities are one and the same to the unity of God ( omne ens—to en—est unum. And again, Qua ens est indivisum in se, divisum ab omnialio )).

7. There is no duality in reality, the difference consists in shape and not in substantiality. Thus the waves in the waters of the sea, the bracelets and wristlets formed of gold, are no more than modifications of the same substances.

(All formal differences terminate in the material, and this again in the immaterial Spirit of God).

8. The form of a thing is said to be so and so, from its appearance only and not in its reality. The snake is affirmed of a rope, but we have neither the outward perception nor inward thought of a snake in it. Hence all appearances are delusions of sense.

9. It is the universal soul that shows itself in some form or other, to our deluded senses and understandings, and this also according to our different apprehensions of the same thing (as what appears as gold to one, seems as brass to another).

10. It is the ignorant only that understand the Omniform God, to be all forms of things; while the learned know the forms to be modifications of the various powers of the Almighty, and not the figures themselves.

11. Now whether the forms (of material things) be real or unreal, it is to be known that they appear to men according to their different apprehensions of those beings, which Brahma is pleased to exhibit in any particular form to their minds and senses. ( i.e. Some taking an abstract and others a concrete view of them, agreeably to their internal conceptions or external perceptions, of their various properties and qualities).

V asishtha resumed:—The supreme Deity is the all-pervading spirit and the great God and Lord of all. He is without beginning and end, and is self-same with the infinite bliss of his translucent self-cogitation.

2. It is this supreme felicity and purely intellectual substance, whence the living soul and mind have their rise, prior to their production of the Universe. ( i.e. The eternal and inert bliss called Brahma, became the living soul—anima, of and the active mind—mens, which created the world).

3. Ráma asked:—How could the self-cogitation of Brahma, as the infinite spirit and one without a second, conceive in it a finite living soul other than itself, and which was not in Being.

(The inactive and active souls, are not the one and the same thing, nor can the immutable and infinite be changed to one of a finite and changeful nature; nor was there a secondary being co-existent with the unity of the self-existent God).

4. Vasishtha replied:—The immense and transparent Spirit of Brahma, remained in a state of asat —non-existence, a state of ineffable bliss as seen by the adept Yogi; but of formidable vastness as conceived by the uninitiated novice. ( i.e. The meditation of the Infinite is a delight to the spiritualist, but it is a horror to the gross idolator, whose mind knows nothing beyond matter and material forms).

5. This state of supreme bliss, which is ever tranquil, and full with the pure essence of God, is altogether undefinable, and incomprehensible, even by the most proficient in divine knowledge. (God is unknowable, is the motto of the wise Athenians and modern Agnostics).

6. Thence sprang a power (an hypostasis) like the germ of a seed, and possessed of consciousness and energy, that is called 72 the living and conscious soul, and which must last until its final liberation. (This is the Demiurge, an emanation from God, and the source and soul of the world).

7. The clear mirror of the mind of this being, reflected in its vast vacuous sphere, the images of innumerable worlds set above one another, like statues engraved upon it.

8. Know Ráma! the living soul to be an inflation of Divine Spirit, like the swelling of the sea and the burning of a candle, when its flame is unshaken by the wind.

(The psyche or anima is the energy of the universal soul, or the finite rising from the Infinite).

9. The living soul is possessed of a finite cognoscence as distinguished from the clear and calm consciousness of the Divine Spirit. Its vitality is a flash of the vacuous intellect of Brahma and appertaining to the nature of the living God. Divina particula aurae. The Lord says: ‘ Aham asmi —I am that I am’; but the living soul knows itself to be ‘ Soham asmi ’—I am He or of Him.

10. Vitality is the essential property of the soul, resembling the inseparable properties of motion in the wind, warmth in the fire and coldness in the ice. (Animation is the natural faculty and necessary property of the soul).

11. Our ignorance of the nature of the Divine Intellect and Spirit, throws us to the knowledge of ourselves by our self-consciousness, and this it is, which is called the living soul.

(Beyond our conscious or subjective knowledge of ourselves, we know nothing of the subjectivity of God, nor are we certain of any objective reality).

12. It is by means of this positive consciousness, that we know our egoism or self-existence; it strikes us more glaringly than a spark of fire, and enlightens us to the knowledge of ourselves more than any other light.

(Our self-consciousness is the clearest of all knowledge, and the basis of all truth according to Descartes).

13. As in looking up to heaven, its blue vault is presented 73 to the sight, beyond which our eyes have not the power to pierce; so in our inquiry into the nature of soul, we see no more than the consciousness of ourselves, and nothing besides. ( i.e. The subjective soul only is knowable, and naught beyond it).

14. Our knowledge of the soul presents to us in the form of Ego known by its thoughts, like the vacuous sky appearing as a blue sphere by cause of the clouds. (The Ego is the subject of thoughts and self-cogitation).

15. Egoism differentiates the soul from our ideas of space and time, and stirs within it like the breath of winds, by reason of its subjectivity of thoughts. (Differentiation of the subjective Ego from the Objective space and time, is as the difference of Ego and Non-Ego, I and Not I, Le moi et non moi, Das Ich und nicht ich, Aham and twam &c.).

16. That which is the subject of thoughts, is known as the Ego, and is variously styled as the intellect, the soul, the mind, the máyá or delusion and Prakriti or nature. (The Ego personified is Rudra, the personification of chitta -cogitation is Vishnu, of Jíva or the soul is Brahmá, and of the manas or mind is the máyá or Illusion).

17. The mind (chetas) which is the subject of thoughts, contemplates on the nature of elementary matter, and thus becomes of itself the quintessence of the five elements.

(The mind is opposed to matter, but being the principle of volition produces matter at its will).

18. The quintessential mind next becomes as a spark of fire (of itself), and remains as a dim star—a nebula, in the midst of the vacuity of the yet unborn universe.

(The nebulae are the primary formations of heavenly bodies, called Brahmándas or mundane eggs).

19. The mind takes the form of a spark of fire by thinking on its essence, which gradually developes itself like the germ of a seed, in the form of the mundane egg by its internal force.

74 (The doctrine of evolution from fire, the arche of all things according to Heraclitus. Lewe’s Hist. Ph. I 72).

20. The same fiery spark figuratively called the Brahmánda or mundane egg, became as a snowball amidst the water, and conceived the great Brahmá within its hollow womb.

(The Spirit of God, dove-like, sat brooding over the hollow deep. Milton).

21. Then as sensuous spirits assume some bodily forms at pleasure, although they dissolve as a magic city in empty air; so this Brahmá appeared in an embodied form to view. (Spirits are at liberty to take upon them any form they like).

22. Some of them appear in the form of immovable, and others in those of moving beings; while others assume the shapes of aerials, as they are fond of choosing for themselves. (Hence the transmigration of souls in different bodies, depends on their own choice; and not on necessity or result of prior acts).

23. Thus the first born living being had a form, for himself as he liked in the beginning of creation, and afterwards created the world in his form of Brahma or Virinchi (Vir-incipiens). (The Demiurge, maker, creator or architect of the visible world, had necessarily a personality of his own).

24. Whatever the self-born and self-willed soul, wishes to produce, the same appears immediately to view as produced of its own accord. (Everything appeared of itself at the Fiat of God).

25. Brahmá, originating in the Divine Intellect, was by his nature the primary cause of all, without any cause of his own; though he appointed the acts of men; to be the cause of their transition from one state to another, in the course of the world.

(All the future states of beings depend on their acts of past and present lives, except that of the Great creator who is uncreated and unchangeable).

26. The thoughts naturally rise in the mind, like the foaming water, to subside in itself; but the acts done thereby, bind us, as the passing froth and flying birds are caught by ropes and snares.

75 (The thoughts are spontaneous in their growth as grass, and they entail no guilt on us. Shakespeare).

27. Thoughts are the seeds of action, and action is the soul of life. Past acts are productive of future consequence, but inaction is attended with no result. (Our lives are reckoned by our acts, and there is no vitality without activity).

28. The living soul bears its vitality as the seed bears the germ in its bosom; and this sprouts forth in future acts, in the manner of the various forms of leaves, fruits and flowers of trees.

(Thus the living soul of Brahmá was the seed of all animate and inanimate beings).

29. All other living souls that appeared in the various forms of their bodies, had such forms given to them by Brahmá, according to their acts and desires in premundane creations in former Kalpas. (Hence the belief in the endless succession of creations).

30. So the personal acts of people are the causes of their repeated births and deaths in this or other worlds; and they ascend higher or sink lower by virtue of their good or bad deeds, which proceed from their hearts and the nature of their souls.

31. Our actions are the efforts of our minds, and shape our good or bad destinies according to the merit or demerit of the acts. The fates and chances of all in the existing world, are the fruits and flowers of their past acts, and even of those done in prior Kalpas; and this is called their destiny. (Sástra: No act goes for naught even in a thousand Kalpas . Má bhuktan kshiyate Karma, kalpa koti satai rapi).

V asishtha continued:—The Mind sprang at first from the supreme cause of all; this mind is the active soul which resides in the supreme soul (the Ens entium).

2. The mind hangs in doubt between what is and what is not, and what is right and what is wrong. It forgets the past like the scent of a fleeting odor by its wilful negligence. (Unmindfulness is the cause of forgetfulness).

3. Yet there is no difference between these seeming contraries; because the dualities of Brahma and the soul, the mind and máyá, the agent and act, and the phenomenal and noumenal worlds, all blend together in the unity of God. (All seeming differences converge in unvarying Mind).

4. There is but one Universal soul displaying its Intellect as a vast ocean, and extending its consciousness as a sea of unlimited extent. (These extend to all beings in the universe).

5. What is true and real shines forth amidst all that is untrue and unreal; so does the subjective essence of the mind subsist amidst all its airy and fleeting dreams in sleep. And thus the world is both true and untrue as regards its subsistence in God and its external phenomena. (The substance is real but the appearance is false).

6. The erroneous conception either of the reality or unreality of the outer world, does not spring in the mind, which is conscious of its operations only, and of no outward phenomena. This conception is like the deception of a magic show, and is concomitant with all sensuous minds.

7. It is the long habit of thinking the unreal world as real, that makes it appear as such, to the unthinking, as a protracted 77 sleep makes its visionary scenes appear as true to the dreaming soul. It is the want of reflection, that causes us to mistake a man in a block of wood.

8. Want of spiritual light misleads the mind from its rationality, and makes it take its false imaginations for true; as children are impressed with a belief of ghosts in shadows, through their fear and want of true knowledge.

9. The mind is inclined of its own tendency, to assign a living soul (and also a body) to the Divine Spirit; which is devoid of appellation, form or figure, and is beyond our comprehension; (and is styled the Incomprehensible).

10. Knowledge of the living state (personality), leads to that of Egoism which is the cause of intellection. This again introduces the sensations and finally the sensible body. (Ego is the subject of thoughts).

11. This bondage of the soul in body, necessitates a heaven and hell for want of its liberation and then the acts of the body, become the seeds of our endless transmigrations in this world.

12. As there is no difference between the soul, intellect and life, so there is no duality in the living soul and intellect, nor in the body and its acts, which are inseparable from each other.

13. Acts are the causes of bodies, and the body is not the mind; the mind is one with egoism, and the ego is the living soul. The living soul is one with the Divine Intellect and this soul is all and the lord God of all.

T hus Ráma! there is one true essence, which appears many by our mistake; and this variety is caused by the production of one from the other, as one lamp is lighted from another.

2. By knowing one’s self as nothing as it was before its coming to being, and by considering the falsity of his notions (of his reality), no one can have any cause of grief (at its loss). (The Sruti:—The knower of the true-self, is above all grief and sorrow).

3. Man is but a being of his own conception, and by getting rid of this concept, he is freed from his idea of the duality of the world (as a distinct existence); just as one with his shoes on, perceives the whole earth he treads upon, to be covered over with skin.

4. As the plantain tree has no pith except its manifold coats, so there is no substantiality of the world beside our false conceptions of it.

5. Our births are followed by childhood, youth, old age and death one after the other, and then opens the prospect of a heaven or hell to our view, like passing phantoms before the flighty mind.

6. As the clear eye sees bubbles of light in the empty sky, so the thoughtless mind views the firmament full of luminous bodies (which are but phantoms of the brain).

7. As the one moon appears as two to the dimsighted eye, so the intellect, vitiated by influence of the senses, sees a duality in the unity of the supreme spirit.

8. As the giddiness of wine presents the pictures of trees before the drunken eye, so does the inebriation of sensation, present the phantoms of the world before the excited intellect.

79 9. Know the revolution of the visible world, to resemble the revolving wheel of a potter’s mill; which they turn about in play as the rotatory ball of a terrestrial globe.

10. When the intellect thinks of another thing (as matter) beside itself, it then falls into the error of dualism; but when it concentrates its thoughts in itself, it then loses the sense of the objective duality.

11. There is nothing beside the Intellect except the thoughts on which it dwells; and its sensations are all at rest, as it comes to know the nihility of objects.

12. When the weak intellect is quiet by its union with the Supreme, and by suppression of its functions, it is then called sansánta —or quiescent or insouciant.

13. It is the weak intellect that thinks of the thinkables, but the sound understanding ceases from all thoughts; as it is a slight intoxication that makes one rave and revel about, while deep drinking is dead to all excitements.

14. When the sound and consummate understanding, runs in one course towards its main reservoir of the supreme; it becomes divested of its knowledge of the knowables, and of its self-consciousness also in the presence of the one and no other.

15. The perfected understanding finds the errors, to which it is exposed by its sensation of the sensibles; and comes to know, that birth and life and all the acts and sights of the living state, are as false as dreams.

16. The mind being repressed from its natural flight, can have no thought of any thing; and is lost in itself; as the natural heat of fire and motion of the wind being extinct, they are annihilated of themselves.

17. Without the suppression of mental operations, the mind must continue in its misconceptions, as that of mistaking a rope for a snake through ignorance.

18. It is not difficult to repress the action of the mind and rouse our consciousness; in order to heal our souls of the malady of their mistaken notion of the world.

80 19. If you can succeed to suppress the desires of your restless mind at any time, you are sure to obtain your liberation even at the very moment and without fail.

20. If you will but turn to the side of your subjective consciousness only, you will get rid of the objective world, in the same manner as one is freed from his fear of snake in a rope, by his examination of the thing.

21. If it is possible to get rid of the restless mind, which is the source of all our desires; it is no way impossible to attain to the chief end of liberation to any.

22. When highminded men are seen to give up their lives as straws (in an honorable cause), there is no reason why they should be reluctant to abandon their desires for the sake of their chief good of liberation.

23. Remain unfettered by forsaking the desires of your greedy mind; for what is the good of getting sensible objects, which we are sure to lose (some time or other).

24. The liberated are already in the sight of the immortality of their souls and of God, as one who has got a fruit in his hand, or sees a mountain palpable before him.

25. It is the Spirit of God alone, that abides in everything in these phenomenal worlds, which rise to view like the waves of the waters of the great deluge. It is his knowledge that is attended with the summum bonum of liberation, and it is ignorance of that supreme Being, that binds the mind to the interminable bondage of the world.

R áma said:—Leaving the mind please tell me more about the nature of the living soul; what relation it bears to the Supreme soul, how it sprang from the same and what is its essence.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Know Brahma is omnipresent, and the Lord of all at all times; He manifests himself in whatever attribute he assumes to himself at his free will. Ex arbitrio suo.

3. The attribute which the universal soul assumes to itself in the form of perception (chétana), is known by the term living soul, which possesses the power of volition in itself.

4. There are two causal principles combined with the living soul, namely: its predestination resulting from its prior acts and volitions; and its later free will which branch forth severally into the various causes of birth, death and subsistence of beings.

5. Ráma said:—Such being the case, tell me, O thou greatest of sages, what this predestination means and what are these acts, and how they become the causal agents of subsequent events.

6. Vasishtha replied:—The intellect (chit) is possest of its own nature of the properties of oscillation and rest, like the vacillation and stillness of the winds in the air. Its agitation is the cause of its action, otherwise it is calm and quiet as a dead lock— quietus itself.

7. Its oscillation appears in the fluctuation of the mind, and its calmness in the want of mental activity and exertions; as in the nonchalance of Yoga quietism.

8. The vibrations of the intellect lead to its continual transmigrations; and its quietness settles it in the state 82 of the immovable Brahma. The oscillation of the intellect is known to be the cause of the living state and all its actions.

(The moving force of the mind is the animism of Stahl, and its rest is the quietus of Plato).

9. This vibrative intellect is the thinking Soul, and is known as the living agent of actions; and the primary seed of the universe. (This is the anima mundi or moving force of the world,—the doctrine of Stahl).

10. This secondary soul then assumes a luminous form according to the light of its intellect, and afterwards becomes multifarious at its will, and by means of the pulsations of the primary intellect all over the creation. (This luminous form is represented by the red body of Brahma and the red clay of which Adam was formed. (It was the All— to pan of Pantheism, and the Principium hylarchicum or first principle of Henry Moore)).

11. The pulsative intellect or soul, having passed through many transformations (or transmigrations), is at last freed from its motion and migration. And there are some souls which pass into a thousand births and forms, while there are others which obtain their liberation in a single birth (by means of their Yoga meditation or unification with God, which is the final aim of Platonism and of the Chinese Laosin).

12. So also the human soul being of its own nature prone to assume its dualism of the motive intellect, becomes by itself the cause of its transmigration and sufferings, as also of its transient bliss or misery in heaven or hell. (There is no rest for the restless soul, until it rests in the bosom of the all-tranquil and Universal soul).

13. As the same gold is changed to the forms of bracelets and other things, and as the same gross matter appears in the different forms of wood and stone; so the uniform soul of God appears as multiform according to his various modes and attributes. (The soul modifies itself into many forms of activity and passivity).

14. It is the fallacy of the human mind, that views the forms as realities, and causes one to think his soul which is freed from 83 birth and form, to be born, living and dead, as a man sees a city to rise and fall in his delirium. (The appearances and forms of things are objective and false fabrications of the intellect).

15. The varying intellect erroneously conceives its unreal egoism and meitatem as realities, from its ignorance of its unity with the unchangeable reality of God, and also from its felicity of enjoyments peculiar to its varied state. (The भोगाशा or desire of fruition is the cause of the revolution of the soul in endless states of beings).

16. As Lavana the King of Mathura, falsely deemed himself as a Chandála, so the intellect thinks on its own different states of existence and that of the world (from its desire of enjoying its pleasures which are deeply rooted in itself).

17. All this world is the phantom of an erroneous imagination, O Ráma! it is no more than the swelling of the waters of the deep. (The world is the expansion of the self-same soul and its evolution is the volition of Brahma).

18. The intellect is ever busied with the intellection of its own intelligences, and the innate principles of its action; in the same manner as the sea is seen to swell with its waters moving in waves of themselves. (The continuation of the intellect in the association of its preconceived ideas, is carried on by law of continuity).

19. The intellect is as the water in the wide expanse of Brahma; its inflation raises the waving thoughts in the mind, resembling the bubbles of water, and produces the revolutions of living souls like eddies in the sea of this world.

20. Know thy soul, O gentle Ráma! as a phenomenon of the all pervading Brahma, who is both the subject and object of his consciousness, and who has posited in thee a particle of himself, like the breath of a mighty lion.

21. The intellect with its consciousness, constitutes the living soul, and that with the will forms the mind; its knowing power is the understanding, and its retentiveness is called its memory: its subjectivity of selfishness is styled egoism, and its error is called máyá or delusion. (Consciousness is perception 84 qua mens de presenti suo statu admonitur . The living soul is psyche or animus. The intellect is the mover of the will. The intellectus est prior voluntate, non enimést voluntas &c. The understanding has the power to acquire knowledge, and memory has the power of retention &c.).

22. The mind by its imagination stretches out this world, which is as false as the phantom of Utopia—Gandharva-nagaram or an air drawn city.

23. The objective knowledge of the world in the mind, is as false as the appearance of chains of pearls in the sky, and as the visionary scenes in a dream. (The objective is the feigned fabrication of the mind, and therefore unreal).

24. The soul which is ever pure and self sufficient in its nature, and remains in its own state of tranquility; is not perceived by the perverted mind dwelling on its delusive dreams.

25. The objective world is referred to waking—Jágrat, because it is perceived in the waking state of the soul; and the subjective mind is allied to sleep— swapna , because the mind is active during the sleeping and dreaming states. The ego is related to deep sleep— sushupta , when we are unconscious of ourselves, and the fourth or pure Intellect— turíya or turya , is the trance or hybernation of the soul.

26. That which is above these four conditions, is the state of ultimate bliss, ecstasis ; and it is by reliance on that supremely pure essence of God, that one is exempted from all his causes of grief and sorrow (in his ecstatic delight).

27. Everything is displayed in Him and all things are absorbed in Him also; this world is neither a reality here or there; it presents only the false appearance of strings of pearls in the sky. (Sensible forms are empty appearances, and are only believed as real by materialists).

28. And yet God is said to be the cause and substratum, of all these unobstructed phantoms rising to the view, as the empty air is said to be the receptacle of the rising trees. Thus the uncausal God is said to be the cause of this uncaused 85 world, which only exists in our illusive conceptions, and presents itself to our delusive sensations of it.

29. As a polished piece of iron gets the reflexion of a grosser piece, so do our finer or inner sensations take the representations of the gross forms of their particular objects (though the senses and sensible objects are both untrue, as mere delusive and delusions).

30. These sensations are conveyed to the mind, and thence again to the living soul and intellect, in the same manner as the roots supply the sap to the stem, and thence to the branches, and lastly to the fruits of trees. ( i.e. The Divine Intellect is the last receptacle of the impressions of the senses).

31. As the seed produces the fruit, and the same contains the seed in itself; so the intellect producing the mind and its thoughts can not get rid of them; but is contained in, and reproduced by them in successive transmigrations.

32. There is some difference however in the simile of the insensible seed and tree; with the sensible intellect and mind (which are freed from reproduction by their attainment of liberation); but the thoughts of the creator and creation like the seed and tree, are reproductive of one another without end. (Because the thought of the creator accompanies that of the creation, and so the viceversa ; owing to the unbroken chain and interminable concatenation of the ideas of causality and its effect).

33. But there is this difference between the insensible seed and sensible intellect, that the former is continually productive of one another, while the latter ceases in its process upon its attainment of liberation; yet the ideas of the creator and creation are reproductive of each other adinfinitum .

34. Yet our understanding shows it as clearly—as the sun light sets forth the forms and colours of objects to view; that there is one eternal God of truth, who is of the form of intellectual light, which shows the forms of all things, that proceed from Him (as the colours of objects originate from the solar light, and are shown again by the same to our optical vision).

86 35. As the ground which is dug presents a hollow, so the reasoning of every system of sound philosophy establishes the existence of the transcendental void as the cause of all. (An unknown first cause without any attribute, is the unanimous conclusion, arrived at every rational system of Philosophy. See Kusumánjali. Here Vasishtha establishes his vacuous rather than a personal cause).

36. As a prismatic crystal represents various colours in its prisms, without being tinged by the same; so the transparent essence of Brahma shows the groups of worlds in its hollow bosom without its connection with them. (This variety of vision is caused by our optical deception).

37. The universal soul is the source, and not the substance of all these vast masses of worlds; just as the seed is the embryo, and not the matter of the trees and plants and their fruits and flowers that grow from the same. (The to on is the only principle called God, all other objects are but phenomenal modifications of his essence).

38. Ráma said:—Oh how wonderful is this world, which presents its unreality as a reality in all its endless forms unto us; and though situated in the Divine self, appears to be quite apart from it. O how it makes its minuteness seem so very immense to us. (What are these worlds but as particles subsisting in the divine essence, when they are compared with the immensity of the Divine spirit and mind—the finite with the Infinite).

39. I see how this shadowy scene of the world appearing in the Divine soul, and becoming as an orb, by virtue of the ideal tanmátras or particles of the divine essence in it. I find it as a snow ball or icicle made of frozen frost.

40. Now tell me Sir, how the spiritual particles increase in bulk, and in what manner the body of the self born Brahmá was produced from Brahma. Say also in what manner do these objects in nature come to existence in their material forms.

(Brahmá the Demiurgus was an emanation of God according to Gnostics; and Vaishwánara was the same as the soul of the world according to Plotinus).

87 41. Vasishtha replied:—Too incredible is this form and without a parallel, which sprang of itself from its own essence. It is altogether inconceivable how some thing is produced of its own conception.

42. Just fancy, O Ráma! how the unexpanded phantom of a Vetála or ghost, swells in bigness to the sight of fearful children; and conceive in the same manner the appearance of the living spirit from the entity of Brahma. (Evolution of the Living God from the inert Brahma, is as the springing of the moving spirit from the dormant soul).

43. This living spirit was a development of Brahma—the universal soul; it was holy and a commensurable and finite being, and having a personality of its own; it remained as an impersonal unreality in the essence of the selfexistent God. Being separated afterwards from its source, it had a different appellation given to it. (This is the Holy spirit or ghost in one sense, as also the Divine Logos in another, and in whom there was life).

44. As Brahma the all extended and infinite soul, became the definite living soul at will; so the living spirit, became the mind by its volition afterwards. (There is a trinity or triple division of the soul into soma or the universal soul, the pneuma or anima or the living spirit, and the nous or mens or mind).

45. The mind which was the principle of intellection, took a form of its own; and so likewise the life assumed an airy form in the midst of vacuity. (The mind is the state of the impersonal soul with a sense of its personality, and life is animation or the vital principle in the form of the vital breath).

46. The wakeful living god (who had no twinkling of his eyes), whereby we measure time was yet conscious of its course by means of his thoughts; and had the notion of a brilliant icicle of the form of the future mundane egg in his mind. See Manu’s Genesis of the World. I.

47. Then the living soul felt in itself the sense of its consciousness, and by thinking ‘what am I,’ was conscious of its egoism. (Why is the non-ego of the objective world put 88 before the ego? The objective orb of the world should follow the subjective consciousness).

48. This god next found in his understanding the knowledge of the word taste, and got the notion of its becoming the object of a particular organ of sense, to be hereafter called “the tongue.” ( Rasaná or the instrument of the perception of rasa or flavour. Rasa abiding in water is reckoned first of the elements on account the Spirit of God resting on it before creation, wherefore God is himself called rasa in the Sruti— rasa vaitat ).

49. The living soul then found out in his mind the meaning of the word ‘light,’ which was afterwards to sparkle in the eye—the particular organ of sight.

(The Bible says, lux fiat et lux fit —Light to be the first work of creation; though the Vedas give Priority to water as in the passages “ apa eva sasarjádau ”, Manu. Yasrishtih Srasturádyá. Sakuntala).

50. Next the god came to know in his mind the property of smell, and the organ of smelling; as also the substance of earth to which it appertains as its inseparable property. (The Nyaya says: prithví gandhavatí —the earth is smelling. It followed the creation of light).

51. In this manner the living soul, came to be acquainted at once with the other sensations, and the organs to which they appertain as their inseparable properties and objects. (The word bhavitá means the spontaneous growth of these faculties in the soul or mind, and kákatálíya signifies the simultaneous occurrence of the senses, and sensible objects, and their sensations in the mind).

52. The unsubstantial living spirit which derives its being from the essence of the substantial Brahma, comes next to acquire the knowledge of sound, the object of the organ of hearing, and the property of air. (So Nyáya:—“ ákásh sabdádharah ”; and “ yá Sruti visaya gunáh ”—Sakuntala).

53. It then comes to understand the meaning of the word touch (twak) as the medium of feeling, as also to know the 89 tongue as the only organ of taste. (According to schoolmen, taste is the object of the palate and not of the tongue).

53. It finds the property of colour to be the peculiar object of the eye—the organ of sight; and that of smell to be an object peculiar to the nose—the organ of the sense of smelling (ghránendriya).

54. The living soul is thus the common receptacle of the sensations, and source of the senses, which it developes afterwards in the organs of sense in the body. It perceives the sensation of sensible objects through the perceptive holes, that convey their perceptions into the sensorium of the mind. (The common sensory is variously placed in Western philosophy, such as the heart, brain, pineal gland, the ventrialis &c.).

55. Such, O Ráma! as it was with the first animated being, is still so with all living animals; and all these sensations are represented in the Soul of the world— anima mundi , in its spiritual form— átiváhika , known as the súkshma or lingadeha —the subtle body. (The spiritual body has 17 organs of sense viz, 5 Internal, 5 External, the mind and Intellect and others (called the saptadasha lingátmaka linga saríra )).

56. The nature of this abstruse essence, is as undefinable as that of the spirit; it appears to be in motion, when it is really at rest, as in our idea of the soul. (Spiritual bodies are said to move and fly about, because the spirit is the motive, and life the animating principle as the soul is that of consciousness).

57. As measure and dimensions are foreign, to our notion of Brahma—the all conscious soul, so are they quite apart from that of the spirit also, which is no more than the motive power of the soul. (Magnitude, figure, motion, rest, number, place, distance, position, &c. are all objects of the senses).

58. As the notion of the spiritual, is distinct from that of all others which are material and corporeal; so the notion of Brahma is quite apart from every thing, except that of his self-consciousness.

(God says in the Scripture, “I am that I am,” which proves his consciousness of himself to constitute his essence).

90 59. Ráma said:—If consciousness is self-same with Brahma, and our consciousness of ourselves as Brahma, make us identic with Brahma Himself; then what is the use of devising a duality of the soul (as the divine and human souls), or of talking of the liberation and final absorption of the one in the other? (If what the Sruti says, Brahmásmi—I am Brahma; as the scripture declares—“In Him we live and move,” then what means our redemption or return to Him?).

60. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, your question is irrelevant at this time, when I was going to prove another thing. Nothing can be appropriate out of its proper time and place, as the untimely offering of flowers to gods is not acceptable to them. (A question beside the mark is apropos de bottes , and brought in by the head and shoulders).

61. A word full of meaning, becomes meaningless out of its proper place; like the offering of flowers to gods and guests, out of their proper season. (So all intempestivous acts, go mal a propos , unless they are done in proper time).

62. There is a time for the introducing of a subject, and another to hold silence over it; so every thing becomes fruitful in its proper season. (Tempus coronat opus).

63. But to resume our subject; the living soul afterwards appeared from Him, as the human soul appears in dreaming; and thought in himself that he was the great father of created beings in time to come. ( i.e. He would become the Maker of the world).

64. He uttered the syllable Om (on or ens), and was conscious of the verification of its meaning in his mind, which soon displayed all forms of beings to his mental vision. ( i.e. The All One became many, which displayed themselves in the mind of the living God as visions in a dream).

65. All these were unrealities, that were displayed in the empty sphere of the divine mind; and the shadowy world seemed as a huge mountain, floating before him in the air.

66. It was neither born of itself, nor was made by Brahmá; nor is it destroyed at any time by any other power. It was Brahma himself, appearing as the phantom of an aerial city.

91 67. As the living Brahmá and other spiritual beings, are unreal in their nature; so also are the essences of other beings, from the big giant to the little emmet, but mere unrealities in their substance.

68. It is our erroneous understanding, that represents these unrealities as real ones unto us; but the clear understanding will find all things, from the great Brahmá down to the minutest insect, to vanish entirely from its sight. (Errors of the mind breed errors in the brain; and these lead to errors of vision again).

69. The same cause that produces Brahmá, produces the insects also; and it is the greater depravity of the mind, that causes its transmigration, into the contemptible forms of worms.

70. The living being that is possest of a rational soul, and is devoted to the cultivation of the mind, attains to the state of man; and then acts righteously for attaining a better state in after life. (These are the states of gods and angels in heaven).

71. It is wrong to suppose one’s elevation, to be owing to the merit of his acts, and his degradation to the condition of worms, to result from his former acts of demerit; because there is the same particle of intellect in both of them, and this being known, will destroy the mistaken difference between the great and small.

72. The notions of the measurer, measure and measurable, are not separate from the intellect (or mind); therefore the controversy of unity and duality, is as futile as the horns of a hare or a lake of lotuses in the air. (This means the ideas of the producer, production and product, are always one in the Absolute subjective. Schelling).

73. It is our misconception of the blissful Brahma, that produces the wrong notion of solid substances in us; and this imagination of our own making, binds us as fast as the silk-worms are fast bound in the cocoons; formed by their own serum (or ichor or serosity).

74. It is the case of the knower, to perceive everything in his mind, as it is revealed in it by Brahma; and also to meet with every thing as it is allotted by God to his share. (God 92 is the revealer and giver of all things. Or—Man meets his fate, as it is meted to him by his Maker).

75. It is the immutable law of nature, that nothing can be otherwise than what it is ordained to be; and there is nothing in nature, which can change its nature for a minute in a whole kalpa-age. (Nature derives her power from the will of her Maker, and her course is, according to the immutable order, fixed by the ordainer of all).

76. And yet this creation is a false phantom, and so is the growth and dissolution of all created beings, as also our enjoyment of them. (All visible Nature is the working of the invisible Spirit).

77. Brahma is pure, all pervading, infinite and absolute. It is for our misery only, that we take him for the impure matter and unreal substance; and as the definite and limited pluralities.

78. It is the vitiated imagination of boys, that fancies the water and its waves as different things; and makes a false distinction between them which are really the same things. (Hence whatever differences there appear in objects, they are all as the fallacy of a snake in the rope with the unknowing. There is no difference of antagonistic powers felt in the spirit of Brahma, who is equal in all, and to whom all things are equal; though there seems a constant opposition in the natures of things).

79. It is His undivided self which expanded itself in visible nature, and which appears as a duality, like that of the waves and the sea, and the bracelets and gold. Thus He of himself appears as other than himself. ( i.e. The difference appearing in the visibles, disappears in the indifference of the Divine Mind).

80. We are led to imagine the visible and mutable world, to have sprung from the invisible and immutable spirit, which manifested itself in the form of the mind that produced the Ego. Thus we have the visible from the invisible, and the mind and the ego from the same source. (The absolute Brahma manifesting itself in two forms, the mind or ego and nature or non-ego. The Ego of the mind is infinite, which produced the finite ego 93 or human soul, personified as the first male (Adimapurusha or Adam)).

81. The mind joined with the ego, produced the notions of elementary principles or elemental particles; which the living soul combined with its intellect, derived from the main source of Brahma, and of which it formed the phenomenal world. (These notions were the intentive concepts of the formal and reflexive world, existing primordially in the essence of Brahma, as its material cause or ( upádánam ). So says the Vedánta:— Yato viswamvá imámi bhutani &c. ).

82. Thus the mind being realised from Brahma, sees before it whatever it imagines; and whatever the intellect thinks upon, whether it is a reality or unreality, the same comes to take place. The reflexion verily passes into reality. (The imagination is the faculty representative of the phenomena of internal and external worlds. It is both productive and reproductive. Sir Wm. Hamilton. Here intellect means the Supreme Intellect, the wisdom of God and his design in the works of creation. All beings and things are manifestations of one Eternal and original mind God).

V asishtha said:—Hear me relate to you, Ráma! an old anecdote bearing upon this subject, and relating to a difficult proposition adduced by the Rákshashí for solution.

2. There lived on the north of Himálaya a heinous Rákshashí, by name of Karkatí—a crooked crab; who was as dark as ink and stalwart as a rock, with limbs as strong as could split the sturdy oak.

3. She was also known by the title of Visúchí or cholic pain, by which she was ever afflicted, and which had reduced her frame like that of the Vindhyá hill, which was cowered down (by the curse of Agastya).

4. Her eye-balls were as blazing as fires; and her stature reaching half way to the sky, was girt by a blue garment, like the shade of night wrapping the atmosphere.

5. A white mantle formed the covering of her head, like the fragment of a cloud; and the long erect hairs of her head, stood like a sable cloud on her crest.

6. Her eyes flashed as lightnings, and her sharp hooked nails 95 glistened as sapphires; her legs were as long as tamála trees, and her loud laughter was as a burst of frost.

7. A string of dried bones decorated her body, like a wreath of flowers; and the relics of dead bodies, adorned every part of her body.

8. She frolicked in the company of Vetálas, with human skulls hanging down her ears as ear-rings; and stretched out her arms aloft, as if she was going to pluck the sun from his sphere.

9. Her huge body being in want of its necessary aliment, caused her culinary fire to blaze like the submarine flame, which the waters of the deep are unable to quench. (The latent heat in water).

10. Nothing could ever satiate the insatiable hunger, of this big bellied monster; nor satisfy her lickerish tongue, which was always stretched out like a flame of fire.

11. She thought in herself saying:—Oh! if I could but once go to the Jambudwípa—the land of Asia, I would devour all its men in one swoop, and feast on them continually, like the submarine fire upon the waters.

12. As the clouds cool the burning sands by their rain, so will I allay the burning fire of my hunger there. It is settled as the best plan to support my life, at this critical moment.

13. All men are well guarded by means of their mantras , medicines, austerities, devotions and charities, from all evils of the world; whence it is impossible for any body to destroy the indestructible devotee. (My all destructive devotion will destroy all; but render me indestructible).

14. I will perform the most rigorous austerities, with an unflinching heart and mind; because it is by intensity of painstaking, that we may gain what is otherwise hard to be had. ( Industria vincit omnia. —Labour conquers all).

15. Having thought so, she repaired to an inaccessible mountain, for the purpose of destroying all animal beings. (The Rákshasa cannibals are devourers of all flesh; and are of the omnivorous kind).

96 16. She climbed to the top of the mountain, by scrambling over it with her hands and feet; and stood on it with her body resembling a cloud, and her eye-balls flashing as lightnings. ( i.e. Her body and eyesight, were similar to the cloud and lightning on the mountain top).

17. Having got to the summit, she made her ablution and then sat at her devotion; with her steadfast eyeballs resembling the two orbs of the sun and moon, and fixed on one object.

18. She passed there many a day and month, and saw the course of many a season and year. She exposed her huge body to the rigor of heat and cold, like the hill itself (on which she sat).

19. She with her huge black body, remained unmoved as a thick sable cloud, on the mountain top; and her jet black hairs stood up as if to touch the sky.

20. Seeing her body beaten by the blasts, and covered with nothing but her ragged skin; and her hairs standing up to their end, to be tossed to and fro by the raging winds; while the twinklings of her eyelids, shed a whitish glare on her sable frame, the god Brahmá made his appearance before her.

V asishtha resumed:—After the lapse of a thousand years, Brahmá appeared to her, in order to put an end to the ardour of her austerities, and crown her with success or the reward of her devotion. (Ardent devotion has the power of displacing even the gods from their heavenly seats).

2. She saluted him internally in her mind, and remained fixed in her position; thinking about the boon she should beg of him, for allaying her keen appetite.

3. She soon recollected a certain request, which she should prefer to her complying god; and it was to transform her soft and flexible form to the shape of an inflexible iron-nail, wherewith she could torment all living beings. ( i.e. To make her fleshy form as stiff as a poker, so as to be able to pierce all others without being pierced herself).

4. At Brahmá’s bidding, she bethought in herself: “I will become as thin as a minute pin, in order to enter imperceptibly into the hearts of animals, as the odor of flowers enters the nostrils.”

5. “By this means will I suck the heart-blood of beings, to my heart’s satisfaction; in this way will my hunger be satiated, and the gratification of my appetite, will give the greatest delight to my soul.”

6. As she was thinking in this manner, the God discovered her sinister motives, contrary to the character of a yogi; and accosted her in a voice resembling the roaring of clouds.

98 7. Brahmá said:—Daughter Karkatí, of the Rákshasa race, that sittest here like a cloud on the inaccessible top of this mountain; know that I am pleased with thy devotion, and bid thee now to raise thyself, and receive the boon that thou desirest of me.

8. Karkatí answered:—“O Lord of the past and future! If thou art inclined to grant my request, then please to confer on me the boon, of transforming my unironlike body to the form of an iron needle.”

9. Vasishtha said:—The God pronounced “Be it so,” and joined, “thou wilt be as a pin, and shalt be called the cholic pain, for thy giving pain to all bodies.”

10. “Thou shalt be the cruel cause of acute pain and pang to all living being; and particularly to the intemperate and hard-working fools, and loose libertines, who are destined to be thy devoted victims.”

11. “Moreover shalt thou molest the dwellers of unhealthy districts, and the practicers of malpractices; by entering their hearts with thy infectious breath, and by disturbing their sleep, and deranging the liver and other intestinal parts of the body.”

12. “Thou shalt be of the form of wind (in the bowels), and cause bile and flatulence under the different names of colic diseases, and attack the intemperate both among the wise and unwise.”

13. “The wise when attacked by thee, will be healed by repeating this runic mantra , which I will here propound for their benefit.”

14. The mantra runs thus:—“There lives Karkatí, the Rákshasí, in the north of the snowy mountain; her name is Visúchiká, and it is for repelling her power that I repeat this mantra; “Om, I bow to hring, hrang and ring, rang —the powers of Vishnu, and invoke the Vaishnavi powers to remove, destroy, root out, drive away this colic pain, far beyond the Himálayas, and afar to the orb of the moon. Om, (amen) and swáhá (soho), be it so.” Let these lines be held on the left arm as an amulet.

99 15. “Then rub the painful part with the palm of that hand, and think the colic Karkatí to be crushed under the mallet of this amulet, and driven back beyond the hills with loud wailing.”

16. “Let the patient think the medicinal moon to be seated in his heart, and believe himself to be freed from death and disease; and his faith will save his life and heal his pain.”

17. “The attentive adept, who having purified himself with sprinkling the water in his mouth, repeats this formula, he succeeds in a short time to remove the colic pain altogether.”

18. The lord of the three worlds then disappeared in the air, after delivering this efficacious amulet to the Siddhas attending upon him. He went to his splendid seat in heaven, where he was received by the god Indra, who advanced to hail him with his hosannas.

V asishtha continued:—Now this Súchí who had been as tall as a mountain-peak, and a Rákshasí of the blackest kind, resembling a thick and dark cloud of the rainy season; began gradually to fade away, and grow leaner and leaner day by day.

2. Her gigantic cloud-like form, was soon reduced to the shape of the branch of a tree, which afterwards became of the figure of a man, and then of the measure of a cubit only.

3. It next became of the length of a span in its heighth, and then of a finger’s length in all. Growing by degrees thinner and thinner like a corn or grain, it became at last as lean as a needle or pin.

4. She was thus reduced to the thinness of a needle, fit only to sew a silken robe; and became as lean as the filament of the lotus flower by her own desire; which can change a hill to a grain of sand. (This passage bears reference to the microcosm of human soul).

5. The unmetallic Súchí , was thus transformed to the form of a black and slender iron needle; which containing all her limbs and organs of her body in it, conducted her in the air and everywhere as she liked. (Thus the gross human body being reduced to its subtle átiváhika or spiritual form, it is possible for the Yogi to traverse through the air, as we perceive in the course of our minds).

6. She viewed her person as an iron pin, and having neither any substance nor length or breadth of her body. (The false idea of length and breadth of the soul is a fallacy of our understanding; because the soul like a geometrical line, has no dimension nor substance whatever in it).

101 7. Her mind with its power of thought, appeared as bright as a golden needle (pointing to the point); and as a streak of the sapphire impregnated by solar ray.

8. Her rolling eye-balls, were as dark as the spots of black clouds, moved to and fro by the winds; and her sparkling pupils were gazing at the bright glory (of God); piercing through their tenuous pores. (It is explained also as fixing the eye-sight to some chink (as that of a wall or other), through which the light of God enters the sensory of sight, and then penetrates into the soul as in Yoga meditation).

9. She had observed the vow of her taciturnity (mauna-vrata), for reducing the plumpness of her person, and was gladdened in her face, to become as lean as the filament of a feather. (The vow of keeping silence is said to be of great good, by increasing the power of thought; for he who speaks little thinks much, and who so talks much, must talk in vain. It is the practice of munis or saints to remain silent, whence the vow has its name).

10. She beheld a light alighting on her, from the air at a distance; and she was glad in her face to find her inward spirit, to be sublimated as air. (The internal light and lightness of the body are results of yoga practice).

11. With her contracted eye brows, she beheld the rays of light extending to her from afar; which caused the hairs on her body, to stand up like those of babies at bathing.

12. Her grand artery called Brahmanádí or susumna , was raised about its cavity in the head called the Brahma-randhra ; in order to greet the holy light, as the filaments of the lotus, rise to receive the solar light and heat.

13. Having subdued the organs of her senses and their powers, she remained as one without her organic frame, and identified with her living soul; and resembled the intelligent principle of the Bauddhas and Tárkikas, which is unseen by others. ( i.e. In her spiritual form only).

14. Her minuteness seemed to have produced the minutiae of minute philosophers, called the siddhárthas; and her silence was like that of the wind confined in a cave. Her slender form 102 of the puny pin, resembled the breath of animal life, which is imperceptible to the eye.

15. The little that remained of her person, was as thin as the last hope of man (which sustains his life). It was as the pencil of the extinguished flame of a lamp; that has its heat without the light.

16. But alas! how pitiable was her folly, that she could not understand at first, that she was wrong to choose for herself the form of a slender pin, in order to gratify her insatiable appetite.

(This is a ridicule to Yogis and students, that emaciate themselves with intense study and Yoga, only with a desire to pamper their bodies afterwards, with luxuries and carnal enjoyments).

17. Her object was to have her food, and not the contemptible form of the pin; her heart desired one thing, and she found herself in another form, that was of no use to her purpose.

18. It was her silliness, that led her make the injudicious choice of needleship for herself; and so it is with the short witted, that they lack the sense of judging beforehand, about their future good.

19. An arduous attempt to accomplish the desired object, is often attended by a different result; and even success on one hand, becomes a failure on another; just as the mirror is soiled by the breath, while it shows the face to the looker. (Disappointment lurks in many a shape, and often stings us with success).

20. How be it, the Rákshasí soon learnt to be content with her needleship, after she had relinquished her gigantic form; although she viewed her transformation as worse, than her dissolution itself. (Utter annihilation is more desirable to the Yogi than his metamorphosis to meaner forms).

21. Lo! the contrariety in the desires of the infatuated, who distaste in a trice, what they fondly wished at one time; as this fiend was disgusted at her pinship in lieu of her monstrous figure. (And so they wilfully shun the object of their former fondness, as the suicides and dying people quit their fond bodies without remorse).

103 22. As one dish of food is easily replaced by another, suiting the taste of the voluptuary; so this fiend did not hesitate to shun her gigantic body, which she took to taste the heart blood of animals in her pinnate form.

23. Even death is delectable to the giddy headed, when they are overfond of some thing else; as the minim of a meagre needle was desirable to the monstrous fiend for the gratification of her fiendish desire.

24. Now this needle took the rarefied form of air, and moved about as the colic wind (colica flatulenta), after all living beings, in quest of her suction of animal gore.

25. Its body was that of fiery heat, and its life the vital breath of animals; its seat was in the sensitive heart, and it was as swift as the particles of solar and lunar beams.

26. It was as destructive as the blade of the deadly sword, and as fleet as the effluvia flying in air. It penetrated into the body in the form of the minutiae of odor.

27. It was ever bent to do evil, like an evil spirit, as she was now known by that name; and her sole object was to kill the lives of others at her pleasure.

28. Her body was afterwards divided into two halves; one of which was as fine as a silken thread, and the other as soft as a thread of cotton.

29. Súchí ranged all about the ten sides of the world, in these two forms of hers; and pierced and penetrated into the hearts of living beings, with all her excruciating pains.

30. It was for the accomplishment of all these purposes of hers, whether they be great or little; that Karkatí forsook her former big body, and took the form of the acute and small needle. (Because humbleness and acuteness are the means of success in every project).

31. To men of little understanding, a slight business becomes an arduous task; as the foolish fiend had recourse to her austerities, in order to do the mean work of the needle.

32. Again men however good and great, can hardly get rid of their natural disposition; and it was for this reason that 104 the great Rákshasí, performed her austere devotion, in order to become a vile pin for molesting mankind.

33. Now as Súchí was roving about in the sky, her aerial form which was big with her heinous ambition, disappeared in air like vapour, or as a thick cloud in autumn.

34. Then entering in the body of some sensualist or weak or too fat a person, this inward colic flatulence of Súchí, assumed the shape of Visúchiká or cholera.

35. Sometimes she enters in the body of some lean person, as also in those of healthy and wise people; and appearing at first as a colic pain, becomes a real cholera at last.

36. She is often delighted, to take her seat in the hearts of the ignorant; but is driven back afterwards by the good acts and prayers, and mantras and medicines of the wise.

37. In this manner she continued many years in her rambles; her bipartite body kept sometimes flying up in the air, and oftentimes creeping low on the ground.

38. She lies concealed in the dust of the ground, and under the fisted fingers of hands; she hides herself in the sun-beams, in air and in the threads of cloths. (All this refers to the pestilential air).

39. She is hid in the intestines, entrails and genitals, and resides in the bodies of pale and ash coloured persons; she abides in the pores, lines and lineaments of the body; as also in dry grass and in the dried beds of rivers (All these are abodes of malaria).

40. She has her seat among the indigent, and in the naked and uncovered bodies of men; as also in those which are subject to hard breathings. She dwells in places infested by flies and of obstructed ventilation, as also in green verdures excepting only of the mango and woodapple (bel) trees.

41. She lurks in places scattered with bones and joints of animal bodies, and such as are disturbed by violent winds, and gusts of air, she lies in dirty places, and in cold and icy grounds and likewise in polluted cloths and places polluted by them.

105 42. She sits in holes and hollow places, withered trees, and spots infested by crows, flies and peacocks. Also in places of dry, humid and high winds, and in benumbed fingers and toes.

43. As also in cloudy regions, in cavernous districts of the form of rotten bodies; in regions of melting and driving snows, and in marshy grounds abounding in ant hills and hills of málúra trees. ( Málúra is Kapitha or kath-bel , which is deemed unwholesome).

44. She exhibits herself in the mirage of desert sand, and in wildernesses abounding with ravenous beasts and snakes. Sometimes she is seen in lands infested by venomous reptiles, and disgusting leeches and worms.

45. She frequents the stagnate pools, soiled by dry leaves and those chewed by the Pisáchas; and haunts the hovels beside the cross ways, where passengers halt and take shelter from cold.

46. She rambles in all places, ever where the leeches suck the blood of men, and vile people tear them with their nails and hold them in their fists for feeding upon them. (Here is a relation between the blood sucking Súchí or Needle and the leeches).

47. In this manner she passes in all places, that we view in the landscape of cities in drawings; until she is tired with her long journey through them.

48. She then stops in her course like a tired bullock, whose body is heated by travelling through towns, with loads of cotton and utensils on their backs.

49. She afterwards lays her down to rest in some hidden place, like a needle tired with continued sewing; and there drops down like it, from its bridling thread in the hand of the sewer.

50. The hard needle held in the hand of the sewer, never hurts his finger; because a servant however sharp he may be, is never faithless or is injurious to his master.

51. The iron needle growing old in its business of stitching, was at last lost by itself; like the rotten plank of a boat, bearing the burthensome ballast of stones in it.

106 52. It wandered about on all sides of its own accord, and was driven to and fro like chaff by the driving winds, according to the course of nature (with all things).

53. Being taken up by some one, it is fed with the fag end of a thread put into its mouth, as the malady of cholera is caught by those human parasites, who glut themselves with food supplied by the sap of another.

54. The malady of colic, like the needle, is ever fond of feeding on the pith of others with its open mouth; and continually finds the thread-like heartstring of some body put into its hole.

55. Thus the strong bodies of greedy and heinous beings, are nourished by the sap of the weak and innocent, as the colic disease preys on the lean bodies of the poor; and the sharp needle is supported by the thin thread of the needy (who cannot afford to buy new suits).

56. Though the heart of Súchí like the hole of the needle, was to receive the thread-like sap of the patient’s heart; yet her power to pierce it, was like that of the sewing needle, which is as potent as the piercing sun-beams, to penetrate into the toughest substances.

57. At last Súchí came to find on a sudden, the fault of her wrong choice of the puny body (of the needle); which was to be filled with her scanty fare of a bit of thread, and then she began to repent for her folly.

58. She continued however with all her might, to trudge on in her wonted course, of pricking and piercing the bodies of others; and notwithstanding her great regret, she could not avoid the cruelty of her nature.

59. The sewing man cuts and sews the cloth; agreeably to his own liking; but the weaver of destiny weaves the long loom of lengthened desires in all bodies, and hides their reason under the garb of her own making.

60. The colic Súchí went on like the sewing needle, in her business of piercing the hearts of people by hiding her head; as it is the practice of robbers to carry on their rogueries, 107 by covering their faces. (All the three are sly boots, and carry on their trades under the seal of secrecy).

61. She like the needle with the sewing thread behind it, raises her head to make and look at the loop-hole, that she should penetrate in the manner of burglars, making and marking the holes in the wall for their entry.

62. She entered alike in the bodies of the weak and strong, like the needle stitching cloths of all textures (whether silken, linen or fibrous); as it is the custom of the wicked to spare neither the just nor unjust (from their calumny and villainy).

63. The colic pain like the piercing needle, being pressed under the fingers, lets off its griping, like the thread of the needle in its act of sewing. (So the wicked when caught in the act, let out and give up their wickedness).

64. The acute and unfeeling colic, being as ignorant as the stiff and heartless needle, of the softness or dryness of the object; pierces the hardiest breast, without deriving any sweetness from it. (So the unfeeling ruffians molest the moneyless, to no benefit to themselves).

65. The needle is compared with a rich widow, being both equally stern and full of remorse; both equally veiled and speechless, and with their eye of the needle, are empty in their joyless hearts.

66. The needle hurts no body (but rather does good in clothing mankind, by mending their tattered habits); and yet she is dragged by the thread, which is no other than the thread of her fate (woven by the fatal sisters for her drudgery).

67. Slipt from the finger of her master, the needle sleeps in peace after her trudging, in company with her fellows of dirt and dregs; for who is there that does not deem himself blest, in the company of his equals, when he is out of employ?

68. The herd of common people, is ever fond of mixing with the ignorant rabble in their modes of life; because there is no body that can avoid the company of his equals. (Kind flies with its own kind; or, Birds of one feather fly together).

108 69. The lost needle when found by a blacksmith and heated in the hearth, flies to heaven by the breath of the bellows, after which it disappears in the air. (So the society of the good elevates one to heaven, which leads at last to his final liberation).

70. In this manner the current of vital airs, conducts the breath of life in to the heart; which becomes the living spirit, by force of the acts of its prior states of existence.

71. The vital airs being vitiated, in the body, cause the colic pains known by different names; such as flatulence, bile and the like.

72. The colic caused by vitiation of the Vyána air, produces many diseases, and affects all the members of the body with a watery fluid. When it comes by breathing of the lungs, it causes the Váya súla or pulmonary colic of lungs, and is attended by disfigurement of the body, and insanity or hysteria known as the hysteric colic.

73. Sometimes it comes from the hands of sheepkeepers, and by the smell of the sheep’s wool in blankets; and at others it seizes the fingers of children, and causes them to tear their bed cloths therewith.

74. When it enters the body by the foot, it continues in sucking the blood; and with all its voracity, becomes satisfied with very little food.

75. It lies in the glandular vessel of the faeces, with its mouth placed downward; and takes at pleasure any form, it likes to assume as its prerogative.

76. It is the nature of the malicious, to show the pervertedness of their hearts by doing injury to others; as it is characteristic of the base people to raise a row for their pleasure, and not for any gain or good to themselves.

77. The miserly think much of their gain of even a single cowry: so deeprooted is the avaricious selfishness of human nature. (All little gain is no gain, compared with the wants of men).

78. It was but for a particle of blood, or as much as could be picked out by the point of a pin, that the colic Súchí was bent 109 on the destruction of men: so the wise are fools in their own interests (and so do cut-throats kill others for a single groat).

79. How great is my master-stroke, says the needle, that from stitching the shreds of cloth, have come to the pitch of piercing the hearts of men; so be it and I am happy at my success.

80. As the rust of the lazy needle passes off in sewing, without being rubbed with dust; so must it take the rust, unless it is put in the action of piercing the patient and passive shreds. (The rolling stone gathers no moss).

81. The unseen and airy darts of fate, are as fatal as the acts of the cruel Vísúchi; though both of them have their respite at short intervals of their massacres.

82. The needle is at rest after its act of sewing is done; but the wicked are not satisfied, even after their acts of slaughter are over.

83. It dives in the dirt and rises in the air, it flies with the wind and lies down wherever it falls; it sleeps in the dust and hides itself at home and in the inside, and under the cloths and leaves. It dwells in the hand and ear-holes, in lotuses and heaps of woolen stuffs. It is lost in the holes of houses, in clefts of wood and underneath the ground. (Compare the adventures of a pin in Gay’s Fables).

84. Válmíki added:—As the sage was speaking in this manner, the sun went down in the west, and the day departed to its evening service. The assembly broke after mutual salutations, to perform their sacred ablution; and joined again on the next morning, with the rising beams of the sun to the royal palace.

V asishtha continued:—After the carnivorous fiend—Karkatí, had feasted for a long period on the flesh and blood of human kind; she found her insatiable voracity to know no bounds, and never to be satisfied with anything.

2. She used to be satisfied erewhile, with a drop of blood in her form of the needle; and she now became sorry, at the loss of the insatiable thirst and appetite of her former state.

3. She thought in herself, O pity it is! that I came to be a vile needle; with so weak and slender a body, that I can take nothing for my food.

4. How foolish I have been to forego my former gigantic form, and change my dark cloudy figure for something as the dry leaf of a forest tree.

5. O wretch that I am, to have foregone my dainty food of flesh flavoured with fat. (The Ráskshasa cannibals are raw flesh-eaters and feeders on the fat of animals).

6. I am doomed to dive in dirt, and drop down on the ground; to be trodden and trampled over under the feet of people, and soiled and sullied in the filth.

7. O me miserable, helpless and hopeless thing, and without any support or status of mine; from one woe I fall to another, and one danger is succeeded by another unto me!

8. I have no mistress nor maidservant, nor my father nor mother; I have got no son nor brother, nor any one to serve or befriend me.

9. I have no body nor abode, nor any refuge nor asylum anywhere; nor have I a fixed dwelling in any spot, but am driven about, like the fallen leaves of forest trees by the driving winds.

111 10. I am subject to all accidents, and exposed to every kind of calamity; I wish for my extinction, but it wishes not to approach unto me. (Death flies from the destitute).

11. What else have I done to have given away my own big body, in the foolishness of my heart; than parted like a madman, with a precious jewel for a paltry piece of glass.

12. One calamity is enough to turn the brain out of order; but what will be my case when it is followed by other calamities in endless succession.

13. I am hung up (with the cloth) to be suffocated by the smoke, and dropped down in the streets to be trodden under foot; I am cast away with the dirt, and hid under the grass to my great distress.

14. I serve at another’s will, and am guided by my guide; I am stark naked while I sew for others, and am ever a dependant on another’s guidance.

15. Long do I drudge and trudge for a paltry gain, and stitching alone is all the work that I have to perform for life. O unlucky that I am, that my ill luck even is so very luckless.

16. I see the demon of despair rising before me, upon my penitence of this day; and threatening to make an end of this body, of which I have made an offering to him.

17. What better fate can await on me, after my loss of so big and bulky a body by my foolishness; than to be annihilated into nothing, rather than be a thing which is good for nothing.

18. What man will pick me up, who am as lean as a mollusk (or thread worm); from the heap of ashes, under which I lie buried by the wayside.

19. No keensighted man will take into his consideration a wretched and a forlorn being; as nobody living on a high hill, ever stoops to take notice of the grass growing on the ground below.

20. I cannot expect to raise myself higher, while I am lying 112 in the sea of ignorance; what blind man can perceive the glorious sun-light, who is guided by the flash of fireflies?

21. I know not therefore how long I shall have to labour under my difficulties, when I find myself already drowned in a sea of misery.

22. When shall I be restored again to the form of the daughter of Anjanágiri mountain; and will stand as a pillar over the ruins of the nether and upper worlds?

23. When shall I have my arms reaching to the clouds, and my eyes flashing as lightning; my garb becoming as white as snow, and my hairs touching the sky.

24. My big belly resembling a huge cloud, and my long breasts hanging below as pillows; shaking with the motion of my body, in its dancing like the pinions of a peacock.

25. The ash-white light emitted by my laughter, cast the light of the sun into the shade; and my former high stature, threatened to devour the terrible god of death.

26. My hollow sockets deep as the holes of mortars, flashed erewhile with living fire; like the rays of the sun; and my large legs moved as two monumental pillars in my rambling.

27. When shall I have my big belly, with its large cavity like a pot-belly; and when shall I have again my soft black nails, resembling the dark and humid clouds of autumn.

28. When will those tender smiles return to me, whereby I moved the great Rákshasas to my favour; and when shall I dance in my giddy circles, at the music of the tabor amidst the forests.

29. When will that big belly of mine, be filled with potfuls of fattened liquor; and be fed with heaps of the flesh and bones of dead bodies.

30. When shall I get me drunk, with drinking the blood of human gores; and become merry and giddy, until I fall fast asleep.

31. It was I who destroyed my former brilliant body, by my bad choice of austerities, and accepted this petty needlish 113 form, like one taking the sulphate of gold, instead of that precious metal.

32. Ah! where is that huge body which filled all sides, and shone as the sable hill of Anjanágiri; and what is this puny and pinny form of the shape of a spider’s leg, and as thin and lean as a tender blade of grass.

33. The ignorant are found to throw away a golden jewel, as useless on the ground as a piece of glass; and so have I cast aside my shining body, for a bit of this blackest needle.

34. O great Vindhyá with thy hollow and snow covered caves! why dost thou not destroy thy dull elephants by thy native lions? It is I that am as silly as an elephant— gaja múrkha .

35. O my arms! which used to break down mountain peaks, why do ye fail to pluck the butter-like moon with thy moony nails?

36. O my breast! which was as fair as the side of the snowy mountain, even without my glassy ornaments; why dost thou not show thy hairs, which were as large as leeches that feed on lion’s flesh?

37. O my eyes! that used to dispel the darkness of the darkest night, and kindle the dry fuel with your glaring fire; why do ye cease to lighten the air with your effulgence?

38. O my shoulder blades! are ye broken down and levelled with the earth? or are ye crushed and smashed or mouldered and worn out by age?

39. O my moonbright face! why dost thou not shine over me with thy bright beams; resembling the everlasting light of the orb of the moon, now at an end for ever?

40. O my hands! where is your strength fled today? See ye not, how I am transformed to an ignoble needle, that is moved about by the touch of the foot of a fly?

41. Alas! the cavity of my navel, which was as deep as a well, and beset by hairs resembling rows of beautiful plants about it; and my protuberant posteriors, which likened to the bottom of the Vindhyá hills.

114 42. Where is that towering stature reaching to the sky, and what is this new earned contemptible form of the needle; where is that mouth, hollow as the vault of the sky, and what is this hole of the needle? Where is that heap of my flesh meat, and what is this drop of watery food? Ah! how lean have I grown, but who is to be blamed for an act of my own doing?

V asishtha continued:—Afterwards Súchí became silent and motionless, and thought of resuming her austerities for the sake of regaining her long lost body.

2. With this intention she returned to the Himálayas; and there abstaining from her desire of human gore, she sat reiterating her castigations.

3. She saw in her mind her form of the needle, entering into her heart with her breathings.

4. Thus meditating on her mental form of the needle, she was wafted by her vital breath to the top of the hill, and alighted on it like a vulture from high.

5. There she remained alone and apart from all living beings, and sat amidst burning fires, with her form of an ash-coloured stone ( i.e. besmeared by ashes like a yogi ).

6. She sat there as a sprout of grass, springing in that dry and grassless spot; but soon faded away, to a blade of withered hay in the sandy desert.

7. She remained standing on tip-toe of her only one foot, and continued in the castigation of her own self. (Standing of the one legged needle, represented the posture of devotees standing on one leg).

8. She lightly touched the ground with her tiptoe stature, and avoiding all sidelong looks, gazed on the upper sky with her upraised face and uplifted eyes.

9. The acute point of the black iron needle, firmly preserved its standing posture by penetrating the ground; while it fed itself upon the air, which it inhaled by its uplifted mouth.

10. The scarcity of food in the forest, made it look up as in quest of some prey coming from a distance; while its lower 116 part shaking with the wind, enticed the unwary to approach towards it.

11. The ray of light issuing as a pencil from the needle hole, became like its attendant guard on the hinder part.

12. As men are kindly disposed towards the mean, that are favourites to them; so was the needle attached to the pencil of ray, that became its constant attendant.

13. The needle had another constant companion, of its devotion in its own shadow; but the blackness of its person, made it always to remain behind the back. (The shadow of a thing ever remains behind it).

14. Thus the shadowy needle and pencil of ray, having firmly adhered themselves to the iron needle; these three have always become intimate friends, like all good people mutually assisting one another.

15. The trees and plants of the mountain forest, felt compassion for Súchí on seeing her in this plight; for who is there, that bears no sympathy for the pious devotee, or her penances and austerities?

16. The needle that was thus stuck fast to the ground by its foot, and had sprung up like some faculty of the mind; was fed with the fragrance of the fruitage, blown and borne by the breeze to its uplifted mouth.

17. The woodland gods and demigods, continued to fill its mouth with the dust; of blown and unblown flowers in the woods.

18. But it did not swallow the powdered dust of meat; which the god Indra had caused to be thrown into its mouth, for the purpose of frustrating the efficacy of its devotion.

19. Its fixity of purpose, did not permit it to swallow the delicious powder; because a person however mean he may be, is sure of success by his firmness of mind.

20. The god of winds, with his power of uprooting the mountains; was astonished to find the needle, averse to swallow the food, ministered to it in the form of the pollen of <flowers>.

117 21. The resolute devotee is never to be shaken from his purpose, though he is plunged in the mud or drowned in water, or scattered by the winds and thrown into the burning fire.

22. Or when he is shattered by showers of hailstones, or struck by the lightning or battered by rain drops, and intimidated by thunder claps.

23. The resolute mind is not changed in a thousand years, and the feet of the firm, like those of the drowsy and dead drunk, never move from their place.

24. The holy hermit who is devoted to his purpose, loses in time the motion of his external organs; but obtains by the exercise of his reason, the light of true knowledge in his soul.

25. Thus did Súchí gain the light of knowledge, and become a seer of the past and future. She became cleansed of the dross of her sins, and her Visúchí or impurity was turned to Súchí or purity.

26. She came to know the truly knowable, in her own understanding; and she felt true bliss in her soul, after the removal of her sins by devotion.

27. She continued for many thousand years in her austere devotion, to the great astonishment of seven times seven worlds, that got affrighted at her austerities. (The cause of their fright was, lest she should take possession of their happy states, by the merit of her devotion).

28. The great mountain was set in a blaze, by the fervour of her devotion; and that flame spread to all the worlds, like the blaze of a portentous meteor.

29. This made Indra the god of heaven, to ask Nárada respecting the cause of this intense devotion; saying “Who is it that engrosses to her the fruition of worlds, by her austere devotion”? To whom Nárada thus replied:

30. “It is Súchí, who by her continued devotion of thousands of years, has attained her highest state of enlightenment; and it is that light that now enflames all the worlds.”

118 31. It is Súchí’s devotion, O lord of gods, that makes the Nágás to sigh and the hills to tremble. It causes the celestials to fall down, and the sea to overflow on earth. It dries up all things, and casts to shade the bright orb of the sun itself.

V asishtha related:—Indra having learnt about the austere devotion of Karkatí, had the curiosity to know more of her through Nárada, whom he asked about the matter.

2. Indra said:—I know Súchí to have acquired her fiendish practice (of blood sucking), by means of her devotion; but who is this apish Karkatí that is so greedy of her gain (of flesh and bones).

3. Nárada replied:—It is Karkatí the malevolent fiend, that became Jíva Súchí or colic pain of the living, and assumed the shape of an iron needle as its support or fulcrum.

4. Having afterwards forsaken that prop, it entered into the human body as its landing place; and then it flew up to the heart on the vehicle of vital breath, and is seated in the car of the current air in atmosphere. (The resting place locus standi, point d’appui or powsto of the diseases of life).

5. This colic of life— Jíva Súchí , having entered into the bodies of vicious lives, passes through the canals of their entrails and the pores of their flesh, fat and blood, and then nestles as a bird in the interior part.

6. It enters the intestines with the breath of the air, and there settles in the form of flatulent colic; afterwards being seated at the end of the nyagrodha artery, it forms the plethoric colic with fulness of blood and inflammation.

7. It also enters the body through other parts and organs, and receives different names according to its situation; and then feeds itself upon their flesh and marrow (as the best food for living beings).

8. Fastened to the knots of wreathed flowers and stuck to the 120 leafy garlands, decorating the breasts and cheeks of fond damsels, she steeps enraptured with them, on the bosoms of their loving spouses. ( i.e. The menial needle is blessed in the company of her mistress).

9. She flies to the bodies of birds in wood-land retreats, which are free from worldly sorrow and strife; and flutters on the tops of flowers of the Kalpa arbours of Paradise, or rolls on beds of lotuses in the lakes.

10. She flies over the high hills of the gods, in the forms of fluttering bees; and sips the honey drops, perfumed with the fragrance of the pollen of mandara flowers.

11. She devours in the form of vultures, the entrails of the dead bodies of warriors, through the notches made in them, by blades of swords in warfare.

12. She flies up and down in the pellucid and glassy paths of the firmament, and pierces through all the pores and arteries or inlets into the human body; as the inflated winds pass in every creek and corner on all sides.

13. As the universal vital air (prána-váyu), runs in the heart of every living being, in the form of the pulsation of air; so does Súchí oscillate in every body, as it were her own habitation.

14. As the intellectual powers are lodged in every person, in the manner of blazing lamps in them; so does she reside and blaze as the mistress of every body; answering her dwelling house.

15. She sparkles as the vital spark in the particles of blood, and flows as fluidity in liquid bodies; she rolls and trolls in the bowels of living beings, as whirl pools whirl about in the bosom of the sea.

16. She rests in the milk white mass of flesh, as Vishnu reclines on his bed of the serpent Vásuki; she tastes the flavour of the blood of all hearts, as the goddess (Kálí) drinks the liquor of her goblet of wine.

17. She sucks the circulating red hot blood of hearts, as the winds absorb the internal and vivifying juice, from the hearts of plants and trees.

121 18. Now this living Súchí, intending to become a devotee, remains as motionless as an immovable substance, and as fixed and steady in her mind.

19. The iron-hearted needle, being now rarefied as the invisible air, is traversing to all sides, on the swift wings of winds resembling its riding horses.

20. It goes on feeding on the flesh and drinking the blood of all living beings; and carrying on its various acts of giving and receiving, and dancing and singing all along.

21. Though the incorporeal Súchí has become aeriform and invisible as vacuum, yet there is nothing which she is unable to accomplish by the powers of her mind, outstripping the swiftness of the winds.

22. But though she runs mad with her meat, and turns about giddy with her drink; yet she is curbed by fate, like an elephant in chains from running at random.

23. The living body like a running stream, moves apace with billows in its course; and the painful and destructive diseases under which it labours, are as greedy sharks lying hid underneath.

24. This frail body like the formless Súchí, being disabled by infirmity to gorge its fleshy food, begins to lament its fate, like old and sickly rich folks, for their want of hunger and appetite.

25. The body with its members, moves about like the beasts of the forest (for their prey); and it plays its parts like an actress on the stage, with goodly apparel and ornaments on her person.

26. The body is moved to and fro by its internal and external winds, and its natural weakness (immobility), is always in need of being moved by the vital airs, as the immovable fragrance requires to be wafted by the breeze.

27. Men in vain rely in mantras and medicines, in austerities and charities, and in the adoration of idols for relief; while their bodies are subject to diseases like the sea to its surges.

28. The unseen force of mobility, is soon lost in the solid 122 body, as the light of the lamp is lost in darkness. So the living Súchí came to be lost in the iron needle, in which she had her rest. ( i.e. The living body is lost and transformed to a spirit, wherein it finds its rest after death).

29. Every one aspires to a state according to his natural propensity; as the inclination of the Rákshasi led her to choose the needleship upon herself.

30. A man being tired by travelling far and wide, returns at last to take his rest at home; so the big and living Súchí turned to the form of the thin iron Súchí to execute her repose; but like ignorant people, who prefer the grosser pleasure of the body to the nicer delights of the soul; she still panted for her grosser enjoyments, that were now lost to her.

31. With the intention of satisfying her thirst, she travelled to all parts and quarters (in her form of the poor needle); but derived more of the mental pleasure of experience, than the satisfaction of her corporeal appetites.

32. When the container is in existence, it is possible to fill it with its contents and not otherwise; so one having his body, can seek and get every pleasurable object to give it delight.

33. Remembering now the past enjoyments of her former body, she became sorrowful in her mind, that was so highly pleased and satisfied with filling its belly before.

34. She was then resolved to betake herself to austere devotion, for the purpose of recovering her former body; and with this object in view, she chose for herself the proper situation for her castigations.

35. The living soul of Súchí, thought of entering into the heart of a young vulture flying in the air; and thus soared to it and rested herself in the air like that bird, by the help of her vital breath. ( i.e. The greedy spirit was turned to the form of a hungry vulture to shriek and seek for carrion).

36. The vulture being thus filled with the malevolent spirit of the colic Súchí in itself, began to think of executing the purposes that Súchí had in her mind.

123 37. Thus the vulture bearing the insatiate Súchí within its body, flew to its intended spot on the mountain. It was driven there like a cloud by the wind, and it was in this place that Súchí was to be released from her needleship.

38. It sat there on a spot of the solitary forest in its state of asceticism, seeming to be freed from all desires of the world.

39. It stood there on one of its legs, supported on the tip of its toe and appeared as the statue of some deity, consecrated on the top of the mountain by some one in the form of Garuda.

40. There standing on one leg, supported on an atom of dust; she remained as the mountain peacock, that stands on one leg with the head raised to the sky.

41. The bird seeing the living Súchí coming out of his body, and standing on the mountain as a statue, fled away and disappeared from that place.

42. Súchí issued from the body of the bird, in the manner of the spirit coming out of it, and the intellect aspiring to higher regions; and as the particles of fragrance fly upon the wings of winds, in order to meet the breath of the nostrils to be borne into the nose.

43. The vulture fled to his own place after leaving Súchí at that place, like a porter disburthening himself of his load; and found himself relieved of his lickerish diseases on his return.

44. Now the iron Súchí, being seated in her devotion, in the form of the living Súchí; appeared as graceful as a right man engaged in the performance of his proper duty.

45. And as the formless spirit is unable to do anything, without a formal support or instrument; so the living Súchí supported herself on the tip of her toe, for performance of her devotion.

46. The living Súchí has sheathed the iron needle (in her heart), as an evil spirit (Písáchí) enwraps a Sinsapá tree; and as the winds enfold the particles of odor, which they bear away in their bosom.

124 47. Thenceforwards, O Indra! has she betaken herself to her protracted devotion, and passed many years in the solitary wilderness in her steady position and posture of body.

48. It now behoves you, O Indra! that art skilled in stratagems, to devise some plan, in order to delude her from her object, or else her devotion will destroy the people, you have so long preserved.

49. Vasishtha said:—Indra having heard these words of Nárada, sent Maruta (Eolus) the god of winds to her search, in all quarters of the globe.

50. The god Maruta then proceeded in quest of her, in his spiritual form of intelligence; and having traversed the etherial regions, alighted upon the nether world. The winds and all other elemental and physical powers, are believed to be endued with intelligence also; and not as mere brute forces, on account of the regular discharge of their proper functions, which they could never do without intelligence.

(Hence the imagination and adoration of the Marutgana in the elemental worship of the Veda).

51. He beheld everything instantly at a glance of his intelligence; which perceived all things at one view; as the sight of the Supreme Spirit sees through all bodies without exception or hindrance. ( i.e. The sight of the spirit like its breath, sees through and supports all things).

52. His sight stretched to the Lokáloka mountain in the polar circle, far beyond the seven seas of the earth, where there is a large tract of land abounding with gems. (It is doubtful whether the polar mountain or sea abounds with gems).

53. He viewed the circle of the Pushkara continent, surrounded by a sea of sweet water; and containing mountains with their dales and valleys.

54. He next saw the Gomeda islands, surrounded by the sea of liquor with its marine animals; and the land abounding with cities and towns.

55. He beheld also the fertile and peaceful continent of 125 Kraunchadwípa, bounded by the sweet Saccharine sea, and beset by a range of mountains.

56. Further on was the Swetadvípa (Albion island), with its subsidiary isles surrounded by the Milky (Atlantic) ocean, and having the temple of Vishnu in the midst of it (meaning perhaps the ancient Kelts to be colony of the Hindus).

57. After that appeared the sea of butter, surrounding the Kushadwípa island; and having chains of mountains and cities with buildings in them. (Butter milk &c., are fictitious names and not this really).

58. Then came the Sákadwípa in view amidst the ocean of curds, containing many countries and many large and populous cities in them. (The sákadwípa is said to be Scythia or the land of the saccae or sakas).

59. Last appeared the Jambudwípa girt by the sea of salt, having the Meru and other boundary mountains, and many countries in it. (This is Asia stretching to the polar mountains on the north and south).

60. Thus the intelligence of air (Marut), having alighted on earth upon the wings of winds, spread himself afterwards to its utmost ends with rapidity (or spread himself rapidly to its utmost limits afterwards).

61. The god of air then directed his course to Jambudwípa (Asia), and having arrived there, he made his way to the summit of the snowy mountain. (Himálaya, where Súchí was performing her devotion).

62. He saw a great desert on the highest top of the summit, which was as extensive as the expanse of the sky, and devoid both of living creatures and the vestiges of animal bodies. ( i.e. There were neither any living being not fossil remains to be found on the mountain peak).

63. It was unproductive of greens or grass owing to its nighness to the sun; and was covered over with dust, like that composing this earth.

64. There spread a wide ocean of the mirage to excite the 126 thirst, like the lucid waters of a river; and allure the longings of men by its various hues, resembling the variegated colours of rain-bow.

65. Its wide expanse reaching almost to infinity, was unmeasurable even by the regents of the quarters of heaven, and the gusts of wind, blowing upon it, served only to cover it with a canopy of dust.

66. It resembled a wanton woman, besmeared with red powder as the sunbeams, and sandal paste like the moonbeams; and attentive to the whistlings of the breeze. (Thinking them to be hissings of men).

67. The god of the winds having travelled all over the seven continents and their seas, and being tired with his long journey on the surface of the earth; rested his gigantic body which fills the infinite space in all directions, on the top of that mountain; like a butterfly resting on the twig of a tree, after its wearied flight in the air.

T he god of the winds beheld Súchí standing erect, like a crest on the summit of the mountain, amidst that vast tract of the desert all around.

2. She stood upon one leg fixed in her meditation and roasted by the burning sun over her head; she was dried up to a skeleton by her continued fasting, and her belly was contracted to the shrunken skin. ( i.e. She was threadbare as skin in all her body and belly).

3. Now and then, she inhaled the hot air with her open mouth, and then breathed it out, as her heart could not contain the repeated influx of air. (Respiration of air is practised by Yogis, to sustain their lives therewith for want of solid food).

4. She was withered under the scorching sunbeams, and battered in her frame by the hotter winds of the desert; yet she moved not from her stand-point, as she was relieved every night by the cold bath of moonbeams.

5. She was content with covering her head under the particles of dust, and did not like to change her state for a better fortune. ( i.e. She preferred her poverty to high dignity).

6. She gave up the possession of her forest to other living beings, and lived apart from all in the form of a crest of hair. Her breathings being withdrawn to the cranium, appeared out of it as a tuft of hairs or bushes clapped on her head. (Air confined in the cranium, is said to keep the body alive for ages).

7. The god of air was astonished to see Súchí in this state; he bowed down to her and was struck with terror as he beheld her more earnestly. (The countenance of the holy is awful to the sight of the unholy).

128 8. He was so overawed by the blaze of her person, that he durst not ask her anything, such as:—“O saintly Súchí! why dost thou undertake thyself to these austerities”?

9. He only exclaimed, O holy Súchí, how wondrous is this sight of thy devotion! Impressed with veneration for her holiness, the god made his departure to heaven whence he came.

10. He passed the region of the clouds, and reached the sphere of the still air (sthíra váyu); and then leaving the realm of the Siddhas behind him, he arrived to the path of the sun—the ecliptic.

11. Then rising higher in his airy car, he got into the city of Indra, where he was cordially embraced by the lord of gods, for the merit of his sight of Súchí. (Visit to sacred persons and holy shrines, is believed to impart a share of holiness to the visitant).

12. Being asked what he saw, he related all that he had seen, before the assembled gods in the synod of Sakra or Indra.

13. Pavana said:—There is the King of mountains the high Himalaya, situate in the midst of Jambudwípa (in Asia); who has the lord Siva, that bears the crescent of the moon on his forehead, for his son-in-law.

14. On the north of it, is a great peak with a plain land above it, where the holy Súchí holds her hermitage, and performs her rigorous devotion.

15. What more shall I relate of her, than that she has abstained herself even of her sustenance of air, and has made a mess of her entrails coiled up together.

16. She has contracted the opening of her mouth to a needle hole, and stopped even that with a particle of dust, in order to restrain it even from the reception of a cold dewdrop for its food.

17. The fervour of her devotion, has made the snowy mountain to forsake its coldness; and assume an igneous form which it is difficult to approach. (The blaze of holiness is said to set mountains on fire, as the presence of the Holy spirit set the sacred mount of Sinai on flame).

129 18. Therefore let all of us rise and repair soon to the great father of creatures for redress; or know this fervent devotion of hers must prove to our disadvantage in its result.

19. Hearing these words pronounced by Pavana, the lord Indra in company with the other gods, proceeded to the abode of Brahmá, and prayed unto him for their safety.

20. Brahmá answered:—“I am going even now to the summit of the snowy Himalaya, to confer to Súchí her desired boon.” Upon this assurance of Brahmá, the gods all returned to their celestial abodes.

21. During this time Súchí became perfect in her holiness, and began to glow with the fervour of her devotion on the mountain of the immortals.

22. Súchí perceived very clearly the revolution of the time (of her castigation), by fixing her open eyes on the sun, and by counting the days by the rays of solar light penetrating the opening of her mouth:—the needle hole.

23. Súchí though flexible as a bit of thread, had yet attained the firmness of the mountain Meru, by her erect posture.

24. She beheld by the ray of sun light, which penetrated the eye of the needle, that the shadowy attendant upon her erect posture, was the only witness of her upright devotion.

25. The shadow of Súchí which was the only attendant on her devotion, hid herself under her feet for fear of the midday heat, so do people in difficulty find their best friends forsake their company in times of adversity.

26. The union of the three persons of the iron, the ascetic and shadowy Súchí, like the meeting of the three rivers (Asi, Varaná and Gangá from three sides), described a triangle in the form of the sacred city of Benares (or a delta of Gangá or the triune divinity).

27. This union of the three, like the confluence of three rivers of a Trivení (as Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvatí), purifies the sins of men by the three different hues of their waters, viz. the blue, black and white.

130 28. A person becomes acquainted with the unknown cause of all, only by suchana or reasoning in his own mind; and by means of his selfconsciousness (of the truth or untruth of a thing). It is the cogitation of one’s own mind that is best guide in all things or else, O Ráma! there is no other better preceptor for men.

V asishtha continued:—After the lapse of a thousand years of long and painful devotion, the great father of creation (Brahmá), appeared to her under his pavilion of the sky, and bade her accept the preferred boon.

2. Súchí who was absorbed in her devotion, and her vital principle of life, remaining dormant in her, wanted the external organs of sense (to give utterance to her prayer), and remained only to cogitate upon the choice she should make.

3. She said to herself: “I am now a perfect being, and am delivered from my doubts; what blessing therefore is it, that I have need of asking (either for myself or others), beyond this state of beatitude; which I already possess in my peace and tranquility, and the bliss of contentment and self-resignation.”

4. I have got the knowledge of all that is to be known, and am set free from the web of errors; my rationality is developed, and what more is requisite to a perfect and rational being?

5. Let me remain seated as I am in my present state, I am in the light of truth; and quite removed from the darkness of untruth; what else is there for me to ask or accept?

6. I have passed a long period in my unreasonableness, and was carried away like a child, by the demon of the evil genius of earthly desires. (As a child wants to have everything he sees, not knowing whether it is good or bad for him to have it).

7. This desire is now brought under subjection by my power of ratiocination, and of what avail are all the objects of my desire to my soul? (There is nothing of any good to the soul, for nothing temporal is of any spiritual good).

132 8. The lord of creatures kept looking on Súchí sitting with her mind fixed in her silent meditation, and resigned to her destiny; and quite abstracted from all external sensations, and the use of her bodily organs.

9. Brahmá with the kindness of his heart, again accosted the apathetic dame, and said unto her: “Receive thy desired blessing, and live to enjoy for sometime longer on earth”.

10. Then having enjoyed the joys of life, thou shalt attain the blissful state from which thou shalt have no more to return here, and this is the fixed decree destined for all living beings on earth.

11. Be thy desire crowned with success, by merit of this devotion of thine, O best of the womankind! Resume thy former corpulence, and remain as a Rákshasí in this mountain forest.

12. Regain thy cloud-like shape whereof thou art deprived at present, and revive as a sprout from thy pinnate root, to become like a big tree growing out of its small root and little seed.

13. Thou shalt get an inward supply of serum from thy pinnate tendon, as a plant gets its sap from the seeded grain; and the circulation of that juice will cause thy growth like that of a germ from the ingrained seed.

14. Thy knowledge of truth has no fear of following into the difficulties of the world; while on the contrary, the righteousness of thy soul will lead thee like a huge cloud, that is heavy, with its pure water high in the heaven, notwithstanding the blasting gusts of wind. ( i.e. The pure and contrite spirit goes on its wonted course, in spite of the tribulations of the world).

15. If by thy constant practice of Yoga meditation, thou hast accustomed thyself to a state of habitation (death like Samádhi), for thy intellectual delight, and hast there by become assimilated to the anaesthesia of thy meditation (to the state of a stock and stone).

16. But thy meditativeness must be compatible with thy worldly affairs, and the body like the breeze, is nourished best 133 by its constant agitation. ( i.e. Meditation must be joined with utility, and the body with its activity).

17. Therefore my daughter! thou dost act contrary to nature, by withstanding the action which thy nature requires; nor can there be any objection to thy slaughter of animal life under proper bounds. (Because the carnivorous are made to live upon flesh, as the omnivorous man upon all kinds of food).

18. Act therefore within the bounds of justice, and refrain from all acts of injustice in the world; and stick steadfastly to reason, if thou shouldst like to live liberated in this life. (Justice is the source of liberty, but injustice leads to bondage).

19. Saying so far, the god disappeared from below to his heavenly sphere, when Súchí said to him “be it so and I have nothing to oppose to this”. Then thinking in her mind, that she had no cause to be dissatisfied with the decree of the lotus-born Brahmá, found herself immediately in possession of her former body.

20. She came to be of the measure of a span at first, and then of a cubit; and next a full fathom in length; and increasing fastly in her height, she grew up as a tree; till at last she was of the form of a cloud. She had all the members of the body added to her instantly, in the manner of the growth of the arbour of human desire. (Our growing desires and their increase, are compared with the growth and ramifications and fructification of trees).

21. From the fibrous form of Súchí (the needle), which was without form or feature, body, blood, bones, flesh or strength, there grew up all the parts and limbs at once. Just so the fancied garden of our desire, springs up on a sudden with all its verdant foliage and fruits and flowers from their hidden state.

V asishtha continued:—Súchí the needle now became the fiend Karkatí again; and her leanness turned to bulkiness, in the manner of a flimsy cloud; assuming a gigantic form in the rainy season.

2. Now returning to her natal air and element, she felt some joy in herself; but renounced her fiendish nature by the knowledge she had gained; as a snake throws off its old slough. (She was regenerated to a new life in the very same body).

3. There seated in her lotiform posture, she continued to reflect on her future course; and relying on the purity of her new life and faith, she remained fixed as a mountain peak. (Unmoved by the stormy temptations of the world).

4. After six months of her continued meditation, she got the knowledge of what she sought; as the roaring of clouds rouses the peacock, to the sense of an approaching rain.

5. Being roused to her sense, she felt the pains of her thirst and hunger; because the nature of the body never forsakes its appetites as long as it lasts in the same state. (There cannot be a thorough change of innate nature in the same person).

6. She was sorrowful at last, not to find out what food she should take to herself; because she thought the killing of animal life for food, was unlawful and repugnant to her nature.

7. The food forbidden by the respectable and got by unjust means, must be rejected even at the expense of one’s valuable life. (Respectable men abhor the flesh of unclean animals and forbidden meat).

8. If my body, said she, should perish for want of lawful 135 food, I do not transgress the law in that; but the guilt lies in my taking of unlawful food; for the sustenance of my life. (Hence no man is guilty of his legal gain and lawful food).

9. Whatever is not obtained according to the customary rules of society, is not worth taking; and if I should die without my proper food, or live upon improper fare, it amounts to the same thing whether I live or die (because unrighteous living is moral death).

10. I was only the mind before, to which the body is added as a base appendage. It vanishes upon the knowledge of self; hence its care and neglect are both alike. (The soul forming our true essence, must be preserved pure in expense of the impure body).

11. Vasishtha resumed:—As she was uttering these words, in silence to herself, she heard a voice in the air, coming from the god of winds, who was pleased at the renunciation of her fiendish disposition.

12. “Arise Karkatí”, it said, “and go to the ignorant and enlighten them with the knowledge thou hast gained; for it is the nature of the good and great, to deliver the ignorant from their error.

13. “Whosoever will not receive this knowledge (of lawful food), when it is imparted to him by thee, make him verily the object of thy derision, and take him as being a right meat and proper food for thee.”

14. On hearing these words she responded, “I am much favoured by thee, kind god!”; and so saying, she got up and descended slowly from the height of the craggy mountain.

15. Having passed the heights, she came to the valley at the foot of the mountain; and thence proceeded to the habitation of the Kiráta people, who inhabit the skirts at the bottom of the hills.

16. She saw those places abounding in provisions of all sorts; such as human kind and their cattle with their fodder and grass. There were vegetable as well as animal food, with various 136 kinds of roots and plants. There were eatables and drinkables also, with the flesh of deer and fowls, and even of reptiles and insects.

17. The nocturnal fiend then walked her way, under the shade of the deep darkness of night, towards the habitation at the foot of Himálaya, in her form of the sable mount of Anjanágiri (unperceived by the inhabitants).

V asishtha resumed:—It was a deep dark night, black as ink and as thick as tangible pitch; hiding the habitation of the Kirátas under its nigrescent umbrage. (Kirátas are the present Kirántis of the Himalayas, and the ancient Kerrhoides of Ptolemy).

2. The sky was moonless, and overcast by a veil of sable clouds; the woodlands were obscured by tamála trees, and thick masses of black clouds were flying about in the air.

3. The thick furze and bushes besetting the hilly villages, obstructed the passages by their impervious darkness, and the flitting light of fireflies gave the homesteads an appearance of the bridal night.

4. The thick darkness spreading over the compounds of houses, shut out the passage of the light of lamps, which made their way of or from the chinks of the dwelling in which they were burning.

5. Karkatí beheld a band of Pisáchis, dancing about her as her companions; but she became motionless as a block of wood, on seeing the giddy Vetálas, moving about with human skeletons in their hands.

6. She saw the sleeping antelopes by her, and the ground matted over by the thick snow falls; while the drizzling drops of dew and frost, were gently shaken by the breeze on the leaves of trees.

7. She heard the frogs croaking in the bogs, and the night ravens cawing from the hollows of trees; while the mingled noise of jocund men and women, were issuing from the inside of the houses.

138 8. She saw the ignis fatuus burning in the swamps, with the lustre of portentous meteors; and found the banks and bournes, thick with thorns and thistles, growing by their sides, and washed by the waters gliding below them.

9. She looked above and saw the groups of stars shining in the firmament, and beheld the forest about her shaking their fruit and flowers by the breeze.

10. She heard the alternate and incessant cries of owls and crows in the hollows of trees; and listened also the shouts of robbers in the skirts, and the wailings of the villagers at a distance.

11. The foresters were silent in their native woods, and the citizens were fast asleep in the cities; the winds were howling in the forests, and the birds were at rest in their sylvan nests.

12. Furious lions lay in their dens; and the deer were lying in their caves also. The sky was full of hoarfrost, and the woodlands were all still and quiet.

13. The lightnings flashing from amidst the dark inky clouds, resembled the reflexions of ray from the bosom of a crystal mountain. The clouds were as thick as solid clay, and the darkness was as stiff as it required to be severed by a sword.

14. Blown by the storm, the dark cloud fled like the sable Anjaná mountain in the air, and it deluged a flood of pitchy rain, like a water-fall from the bosom of a mountain.

15. The night was as dark as the pit of a coal-mine, and as jet black as the wing of the black bee— bhramara ; and the whole landscape lulled to sleep, appeared as the world lying submerged under ignorance. (Sleep and ignorance are twin brothers, and a reversion of the comparison of ignorance with sleep. Such reversed similes are not uncommon in oriental poetry, as that of the moon with the beauteous face &c.).

16. In this dreadful dead of night, she saw in the district inhabited by Kirátas, a prince and his minister, wandering together in the forest.

17. The prince was named Vikrama, and was as brave and valorous as his name and conduct implied him to be. He came 139 out undaunted from within the city, after the citizens had fallen fast-asleep.

18. Karkatí beheld them roving in the forest with the weapons of their valour and fortitude, and searching the Vetálas infesting the neighbourhood.

19. Seeing them, she was glad to think that she had at last got her proper food; but wanted to know beforehand, whether they were ignorant folks or had any knowledge of their souls, or whether their weariness under the burthen of their bodies, had exposed them to the dangers of the darksome night.

20. The lives of the unlearned (said she), are verily for their perdition in this world and the next; it is therefore meet to put an end to these, rather than leave them to live to their peril in both worlds. (The earlier the ignorant die, the sooner do they rid themselves of their miseries and responsibilities).

21. The life of the untutored is death, without spiritual knowledge, and physical death is preferable; in as much as it saves the dying soul from its accumulation of sin. (Living in the sinful world is sin, unless it is averted by spiritual knowledge).

22. It is the primeval law ordained by our prime father—the lotus-born Brahmá, that ignorant souls and those without knowledge of their selves, should become the food of the heinous. ( i.e. Of voracious and envious animals, which devour the body and not the soul).

23. Therefore there is no harm in my feeding upon these two persons, who have offered themselves for my food; because it is silliness to let slip, a ready prize or proffered gift from the hand. (A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or a self-given gift is not to be lost).

24. But lest they should prove to be men of parts and good and great souls, I cannot in that case feel disposed of my own nature, to put an end to their valuable lives.

25. I must therefore make a trial of them, and see if they are possessed of such parts; that I may decline from making my mess of them, because I feel averse to molest the intelligent.

140 26. For those that expect to have true glory and real happiness, with the length of their lives on earth; must always honour the learned with honorariums, adequate to their parts and desires.

27. I should rather suffer my body to perish with hunger, than destroy the intelligent for its supportance; because the soul derives more satisfaction from the counsels of the wise, than bare life without knowledge, can possibly afford.

28. The learned are to be supported even at the expense of one’s own life; because the society of the wise affords a physic to the soul ( psyches iatrion ), though death should deprive us of our bodies (for it ameliorates even the pangs of death).

29. Seeing me a man-eater Rákshasí, so favorably disposed to the preservation of the wise; what reasonable man is there, that must not make a breast-plate of the wise for himself. ( i.e. The wise are ornaments to human beings however inhumane they may be to others of their fellow creatures. Hence the most cruel tyrants were the greatest supporters of learning).

30. Of all embodied beings, that move about on the surface of the earth, it is the man of profound understanding only, who sheds his benign influence like cooling moon-beams all around him. (The light of knowledge is compared with the gentle moonbeams).

31. To be despised by the wise is death, and to be honoured by the learned is true life; because it is the society of the sapient only, that makes the life bring forth its fruits of heavenly bliss and final beatitude.

32. I will now put a few questions for their examination, and know whether they are men of parts, or gilded on the surface with sapient looks, like copper by a chemical process.

33. Upon examination and ascertainment of the qualifications if they prove to be wiser than the examiner; in that case one should avail of their instruction, or otherwise there is no harm to make an end of them as they best deserve.

V asishtha continued:—Afterwards the Rákshasi, who was an offshoot of the great garden of Rákshasa race, made a loud and tremendous yell like the deep roarings of a cloud.

2. After her deep roar she muttered in a clattering voice, like the rattling of a thunder clap following the rumbling of clouds.

3. She said:—Ho, ho? what are ye, that venture abroad in this dread and dreary desert, dark as the great delusion of Máyá, and which without the light of the sun and moon, is as gloomy as the gloom of ignorance. What are ye crawling here for like insects bred in stones?

4. What men of great minds are ye, to have come here as the weak minded aberrants that have lost their way? You have become an easy prey to me, and must meet your fate in my hands in a moment.

5. The Prince replied:—O thou demon, what art thou and where is thy stand: If thou beest an embodied being, show thyself unto us, or who is to be terrified by thy bodiless form buzzing like a bee?

6. It is the business of the brave to pounce at once like a lion upon his prey (and not to bark as a dog at a distance). Therefore leave off thy bragging and show us thy prowess at once.

7. Tell me what thou dost want of us, and whether thou dost terrify us by thy vain vauntings, or utterest these words from thy own fear of us.

8. Now measure thy body according to thy speech, ( i.e. let them conform with one another), and confront thyself to us without delay; because the dilatory gain no good, save the loss of their time.

9. On hearing the prince’s speech she thought it was well 142 said, and immediately showed herself to them, uttering her loud shout with a grinning laughter.

10. The prince heard her voice to fill the air, and resound in the woods, and saw her huge and hideous person, by the light of her open mouth and ivory teeth, in the act of her loud laughter.

11. Her body was as a huge cliff, hurled down by the thunder bolt of the last doomsday (when high mountains were rent and thrown into the sea to form their hidden rocks). The flashes of her eyeballs blazed in the sky like a pair of bangles or conch shells.

12. The darkness of her appearance, cast into shade, the deep dark waters of the deep at the universal deluge; which hid the flame of the submarine fire under them; and her voice was as hoarse as the growling of clouds on the high heads of hills.

13. Her statue was like that of a monumental pillar standing between the heaven and earth; while the gnashing of her teeth struck the night-rovers with the terror of being grinded under them to death.

14. Her figure inspired like those of the nocturnal goblins, yakshas, Rákshas and Pisáchas, with the dread of dire disaster, by its erect hairs, muscular limbs, dingy eyes and coal black colour of the body.

15. The air she breathed in the lungs, snored as the horrible snorting of the nostrils of horses; while the tip of her nose was as big as a mallet, and its sides as flat as a pair of bellows or winnowing fans.

16. She stood with her jet black body like a rock of dark agate, and that joined with her loud laugh, gave her the appearance of the all subduing night of dissolution. (Kálarátri—the night of universal doom, is an attribute of Kálí—the goddess of destruction).

17. Her bulky body resembling a thick cloudy night, approached to them like an autumnal cloud, moving in the forest of the sky.

143 18. The huge body appeared as a demon rising from underneath the ground, and approaching to devour them as the eclipse ingulfs the orbs of the sun and moon.

19. Her ebon breasts were hanging down, like two pendant clouds of sombre sapphires, or more like the two mortars or water pots, with her necklaces hanging on them.

20. Her two arms were suspended to her bulky body, like a couple of stout branches to the sturdy oak, or like two logs of burnt wood to her coal like body.

21. Seeing her thus, the two valiant men remained as steadfast, as those standing on the firm ground of certainty, are never led away by doubts.

22. The Minister said:—O great friend! what causes this rage and fury in thy great soul? It is the mean and base only, that are ever violent even in trifling matters.

23. Lay aside this great ado for nothing, which does not become thee; because the wise pursue their business with coolness to crown it with success.

24. Know the soft and slow breath of our moderation, has driven away in the air, swarms of such flies like thyself; as the slight breath of the wind scatters about the dry leaves and straws.

25. Setting aside all hauteur and ardour of spirit, the wiseman conducts his business with the calm coolness of the mind, assisted by reason and practical wisdom.

26. One must manage his affairs with slowness, whether it prove effectual or not; because the overruling destiny has the disposal of all events, which human ardour has no power to prevent.

27. Now let us know thy desire and what is thy object with us; because no suitor of ours, has been refused of his prayer, nor let to return in disappointment.

28. Hearing these words, the Rákshasí pondered in her mind and said:—O the serene composure of these lion-like men and the affability of their conduct with others?

144 29. I do not think them to be men of the ordinary kind, and the more wonderful it is, that their inward soul is exprest in the outward gestures of their faces and eyes, and in the tone and tenor of their speech. (This is a truth of the Samudrika science of physiognomy).

30. The words, the face and eyes, are expressive of the inward thoughts of the wise, and these go together like the salt and water of the sea (which are inseparable from one another. So Chanakya).—मनस्येकं वचस्येकं कर्म्मस्येकं महात्मनां । मनस्यन्यत् वचस्यन्यत् कर्म्मस्यन्यत् दुरात्मनां ॥ The mind, the word and act of the wise all agree. But those of fools disagree in all the three.

31. My intention is already known to them, as is theirs also to me: they cannot be destroyed by me when they are indestructible themselves by their moral excellence. (So the Sástra:—The virtuous may endure or live for ever— chiranjívati dharmátmá .)

32. I understand them to be acquainted with spiritual knowledge also, without which there cannot be a good understanding. Because it is the knowledge of the indestructibility of the spirit, that takes away the fear of death which is wanting in these men.

33. I shall therefore ask them, about something wherein I am doubtful; because they that fail to ask the wise what they know not, must remain dunces throughout their lives.

34. Having thought so, she opened her mouth to make her queries, by suppressing her roaring voice and her loud laughter for a while.

35. Tell me, O ye sinless men, that are so brave and valiant, who you are and whence ye come: because your very sight has raised my regard for you, as the good hearted become friends with one another, even at their first sight.

36. The minister said:—This is the king of the Kirátas, and I his counsellor; we have come out tonight in our nightly round, for apprehending malicious beings like thyself.

145 37. It is the duty of princes to punish the wicked, both by day and night; for such as trespass the bounds of their duty, must be made as fuel to the fire of destruction.

38. The Rákshasí said:—Prince! thou hast a good minister, but a bad one unbecomes a prince; all good princes have wise counsellors, and they make the good prince.

39. The wise minister is the prince’s guide to justice, and it is he who elevates both the prince and his people. Justice is the first of the four cardinal virtues (justice, temperance, prudence and frugality), and it is the only virtue of a ruler; who is thence called the Dharma avatára or personification of justice.

40. But kings must have spiritual knowledge also, because it is the highest of human knowledge. The king having this knowledge, becomes the best of kings; and the minister who knows the soul, can give the best counsel for the guidance of other souls. (For it is said:—Nándhenaiva níyamána yathándhah; the blind cannot lead the blind. So the Gospel: one blind man cannot lead another).

41. It is the fellow feeling for others that makes a ruler, whoever is unacquainted with this rule, is not fit to be either a ruler or his minister. (The rule is: Rule others as ye rule yourselves. Sadhi swátmá vadanyán ).

42. If ye know this polity, it is good and ye shall prosper, or else ye wrong yourselves and your subjects; in which case ye must be made a prey to me. (Because if you have no regard for your own souls and those of others, why should I have any regard for yours?)

43. There is but one expedient for you two lads, to escape from my clutches; and it is by your solution of my intricate questions; according to your best wits and judgment. (The queries are said to be prasna pinjara or the cage or prison-house of dilemmas; in which sense the text should read vidárayasi for vichárayasi , to mean that, if you cannot break the knots, I will not stop to break your necks).

44. Now do you, O prince and you his counsellor, give me 146 the solution of the questions that I require of you. If you fail to give the proper answers as you have agreed to do, you must then fall under my hands, as any body that fails to keep his words. (The breach of a promise was punishable with death by the old Hindu law. Hence the first question; “Why am I obliged in keeping my word” in Paley’s Moral philosophy).

V asishtha continued:—After saying so, the fiend began to put forth her queries; and you should be attentive to them Ráma, like the prince who told her to go on.

2. The Rákshasí resumed:—What is that atomic minim which is one yet many, and as vast as the ocean, and which contains innumerable worlds like the bubbles of the sea? (It is a minim for its minuteness, an atom—owing to its imperceptibility, one—as regards its unity, many—on account of its attributes (upádhis), and vast in respect to its infinity, containing the passing worlds as the evanescent bubbles of water).

3. What is that thing which is a void yet no-void, which is something yet nothing? What is it that makes myself, and thyself, and wherein do I or thou dost abide and subside? (It is nothing in appearance, but something in our consciousness, and is both the subjective and objective).

4. What is it that moveth unmoved and unmoving, and standeth without stopping; what is it that is intelligent yet as dull as a stone; and what is it that presents its variety in the vacuity of the understanding? (Another text reads vyomni chitra krit , which means: who paints the sky with variegated hues).

5. What is it that has the nature of fire without its burning quality; and what is that unigneous substance which produces the fire and its flame. (This passage refers to the glory and light of God which shines without burning).

6. Who is he that is not of the nature of the ever-changing solar, lunar and stellar lights, but is the neverchanging 148 enlightener of the sun, moon and stars; and who is that being who having no eyes, gives the eye its sight?

7. Who is he that gives eyesight to the eyeless vegetables, and the blind mineral creation? (Whereby they perceive the light of the luminaries of heaven as the sunflower moonflower— helioselini and others).

8. Who is the maker of heavens, and who is the author of the natures of things; who is the source of this gemming world, and whose treasure are all the gems contained in it? (Man foolishly owns them for a time, but leaves at last to their true possessor and maker).

9. What is that monad which shines in darkness, and is that point which is and is not; what is that iota which is imperceptible to all, and what is that jot which becomes an enormous mountain? (A geometrical monad is a point without dimension. In the Monadology of Leibnitz, it is the elementary particle of vital force acting not mechanically, but from internal principle. It is the entelechy of Aristotle, whose essence consists in force).

10. To whom is a twinkling of the eye, as long as a Kalpa millennium; and a whole age but a moment? Who is he whose omnipresence is equal to his absence, and whose omniscience is alike his total ignorance? ( i.e. To whom eternity is a moment, and whose omnipresence and omniscience are unknown to us).

11. Who is called the spirit, but is no air in itself; and who is said to be the sound or word, but is none of them himself? He is called the All, but is none at all of all that exists; and he is known as Ego, but no ego is he himself. ( Spiritus or the breathing of ventus -wind- prána and the sabda-sonus or Sruti are not God; nor is he one and all in his person, nor the ego and non-ego, I not I, and le moi et non le moi , das Ich und nicht Ich , the subjective and objective, and having no personality of his own).

12. What is it that is gained by the greatest application, of a great many births (lives), and when gained at last, is hard to be retained (owing to the spiritual carelessness of mankind)? (Liberation by final extinction— nirvána , is hard to be had 149 owing to the interminable metempsychosis of the soul, according to the doctrine of the pre-existence and immortality of souls).

13. Who being in easy circumstances in life, has not lost his soul in it; and who being but an atom in creation, does not reckon the great mountain of Meru as a particle? i.e. the egotist. (It is harder for the easy rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to enter the eye of a needle. Gospel. The pride of egotism levels mountains to dust, and its ambition soars above them).

14. What is that which being no more than an atom, fills a space of many leagues; and who is an atomic particle; that is not contained (measured) in many miles? (It is the atomic theism of Kanáda’s Vaiseshika system and of Ecphantus and Archelaus. The mind is included in the atomism of Empedocles and Anaxagoras. Epicurus added morality to it, and Lucretius added to it the beauty of poetry also. See also the Ateistic Atomic systems of Leucippus and Democritus).

15. At whose glance and nod is it, that all beings act their parts as players; and what is that ace which contains in its bosom many a mountain chain? (The mountain was produced from and is contained in the atom of the divine mind; and so every grain of the human brain, contains in it the form of a prodigious mountain).

16. Who is it, that is bigger than the mount Meru in his minuteness; and who is it that being, lesser than the point of a hair, is yet higher than the highest rock? (So the sruti: Anor-aniyán mahato mahiyán: i.e. Minuter than the minutest and bigger than the biggest).

17. Whose light was it, that brought out the lamp of light from the bosom of darkness; and what minute particle is it, that contains the minutiae of ideas ad infinitum in it? (God said “ Lux fiat et lux fit. ” Genesis. Hail holy light Heaven’s first born. Milton. Eternal ideas of immaterial forms of possible existences in the Divine Mind, the archetype of the ectypal world. These are the Types of things, Plato; Forms of ditto. Cicero. Eternal exemplars of things. Seneca &c.).

150 18. Which having no flavour in it, gives savour to all things; and whose presence being withdrawn from all substances, reduces them to infinitesimal atoms, ( i.e. by destruction of cohesion. So the Sruti.— Raso vai tat. —He is flavour etc. Attraction of all kinds, is a manifestation of Divine power— ákrishti , personified in the form of Krishna—the regent of the sun, whose gravity supports the solar world).

19. Who is it that by his self-pervasion, connects the particles composing the world (as by their power of attraction); and what imperceptible power is it, that rejoins the detached particles, after their separation and dissolution for recreation of the new world? (The atomic powers of attraction and repulsion of particles and bodies).

20. Who being formless, has a thousand hands and eyes; and a twinkling of whose eye, comprehends the period of many cycles together? (The divine hypostases of Viráj, is endowed with a thousand hands and eyes, as in the Purusha Súkta: Sahasra sirsha, sahasra váhu sahasráxa &c.).

21. In what microscopic mite does the world subsist as an arbor in its seed, and by what power do the unproductive seeds of atoms, become productive of worlds?

22. Whose glance is it, that causes the production of the world, as from its seed; and who is it that creates the world without any motive or material? (The motives are the subjective or internal cause and the objective or external objects of creation. And material means the matter of unisubstantism of materialists).

23. What is that being, who without his visual organs, enjoys the pleasure of seeing— Drishti ; and is the viewer— drashtá of Himself, which he makes the object of his view (drishya). i.e. God sees all things in himself as the receptacle of all in the eternal ideas of them in his mind. Or. The Ego meditates on itself both subjectively as the viewer, and objectively as the view. (So Milton, “And God saw his works were good” answering his fair idea).

24. Who is he that having no object of vision before him, 151 sees nothing without him, but looks upon himself as an infinity void of all visibles within it. (This is the subjective reflection of the Yogi, like that of God on his ownself, as abstracted from the thought of all other things. The Mind is the subjective reality and matter has no objective reality).

25. Who is it, that shows the subjective sight of the soul by itself, as an objective view; and represents the world as the figure of a bracelet, in his own metal? ( i.e. The subjective soul and the metal are the true realities, and the objective view of the jewel and the world, is but error and delusion. The Vedantist like Berkeley, held all objective reality to be subjective).

26. Who is it that has nothing existent beside himself, and in whom all things exist, like the waves existing in the waters; and who is it whose will makes them appear as different things? (The one being no more than fluctuations of the other, and substantially the same).

27. Both time and space are equally infinite and indivisible, as the essence of God wherein they subsist, why then do we try to differentiate and separate them like the water from its fluidity?

28. What is the inward cause in us, which makes the believer in the soul, to view the unreal world as real, and why does this fallacy continue at all times?

29. The knowledge of the worlds whether as present, past or in futuro , is all a great error; and yet what is that immutable being, which contains in it the seed of this phenomenal wilderness?

30. What being is that, which shows these phenomena without changing itself, such as in the shape of the seed of the world, before it developes itself in creation; and sometimes in the form of a developed forest of created beings?

31. Tell me, O prince! on what solid basis does the great Meru, stand like a tender filament of the lotus; and what gigantic form is that, which contains thousands of Merus and Mandaras within its capacious womb?

32. Tell me, what is that immeasurable Intellect, which has 152 spread these myriads of intelligences in all these worlds; what is that which supplies thee with thy strength for ruling and protecting thy people, and in conducting thyself through life; and what is it in whose sight, thou dost either lose thyself or thinkest to exist? Tell me all these, O clear sighted and fair faced prince, for the satisfaction of my heart.

33. Let thy answer melt down the doubt, that has covered the face of my heart as with snows. If it fail to efface this dirt of doubt altogether from the surface of my heart, I will never account it as the saying of the wise.

34. But if thou fail to lighten my heart of its doubts, and set it at ease; then know for certain, that thou shalt immediately be made a fuel to the fire of my bowels at this very moment.

35. I shall then fill this big belly of mine with all the people of thy realm; but shouldst thou answer rightly, thou shalt reign in peace; or else thou shalt meet thy end like the ignorant, who are surfeited with the enjoyments of life.

36. Saying so, the nocturnal fiend made the loud shout of a roaring cloud, expressive of her joy; and then sat silent with her fearful features, like a light hearted cloud in autumn (which is of gigantic shape, but empty of rain waters within).

V asishtha continued:—After the giant-like progeny of the Rákshasa had proposed her occult questions, in the deep gloom of night in that thick forest, the good and great counsellor began to give his replies. (The repetition of the word great in the original, expresses the solemnity of the occasion; as the disquisitions concerning the Great God in the Áranyakas or forest lectures of the vedic Rishis, were conducted with great solemnity in their holy hermitage in forests. So was the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus).

2. The Counsellor said:—Hear, me! thou dark and cloud like form! to unravel thy riddling questions, with as great ease as the lion foils the fury of gigantic elephants.

3. All thy questions relate to the Supreme Spirit, and are framed in thy enigmatical language, to try the force of our penetration into their hidden meanings.

4. The soul which is Selfsame with the intellect which is minuter than a particle of air, is that atomic principle that thou dost inquire into, because it is a nameless minim imperceptible by the six organs of sense, and unintelligible to the mind. (Answer to the first question about the atom. अणु).

5. Underlying the atomic intellect, is the minute seed which contains this universe; but whether it is a substantial or unsubstantial reality, nobody can say. (This is the answer to the second question with regard to the mundane seed).

6. It is called a reality from our notion of its being the soul of all by itself, and it is from that soul that all other existences have come in to being. (Answer about the nature of God).

7. It is a void from its outward inanity, but it is no void as regards its intellect (which is a reality); it is said to be nothing 154 from its imperceptibility, but it is a subtile something from its imperishableness. (All finite bodies are unreal, the immortal soul is real, and identic with the Supreme soul).

8. It is not a nothing from its being permeated in all things, ( i.e. though all pervading yet it is an absolute entity); for all things are but reflexions of the minute Intellect, and its unity shines forth in the plurality, all which is as unreal, as the formal bracelet formed of the substantial gold.

9. This minutial is the transcendental vacuum, and is imperceptible owing to its minuteness; and though it is situated in all things, yet it is unperceived by the mind and external senses.

10. Its universal pervasion cannot make it void and null, because all that is (existent) is not that (Intellect), which alone is known as the thinking principle, that makes us speak, see and act.

11. No kind of reasoning can establish the non-entity of the real Ens (sat), because of it is not being seen by anybody. Yet the universal soul is known in its hidden form, like the unseen camphor by its smell.

12. The unlimited soul resides in all limited bodies, and the atomic intellect pervades the vast universe; and it is in the same manner as the mind fills all bodies, in its purely subtile state unknown to the senses.

13. It is one and all, the unity as well as plurality, by its being the soul of each and all, both singly as well as collectively, and its supporting and containing each and all by and within itself.

14. All these worlds are as little billows in the vast ocean of the divine Intellect; whose intelligence, like a liquid body, shows itself in the form of eddies in the water. (Hence nothing is different from the Supreme).

15. This minutiae of the intellect being imperceptible to the senses and the mind, is said to be of the form of vacuity; but being perceived by our consciousness, it is not a nothing, although of the nature of a void in itself.

155 16. I am That and so art thou, by our conviction of the unity (of the spirit); but neither am I That nor thou art He, by believing ourselves as composed of our bodies only. (It is in answer of what art thou &c. Spiritually considered all souls are the same with the supreme; but being viewed in the body, all bodies are different from one another, and quite apart from their unity with the Divine spirit).

17. Our egoism and tuism being got rid of by our knowledge of truth, we cease to be the ego and tu ; and so all other persons lose all their properties ( svayam or suum ) in the sole Unity. (This is an enlargement of the preceding answer to the question—What art thou &c.).

18. This particle of the intellect is immovable, though it moves thousand of miles over; and we find in our consciousness many a mile to be composed in this particle. (The mind notwithstanding its wide range, never stirs from its seat in the soul).

19. The mind is firmly seated in the vacuous intellect, from which it never stirs, though it goes to all places where it is never located. (This is the answer of what moveth not).

20. That which hath its seat in the body can never go out of it; as a baby hanging on the breast of its mother, cannot look to another place for its rest.

21. One though free to range over large tracts at will, will never start from his own abode, where he has the liberty and power to do all he likes.

22. Wherever the mind may rove, it is never affected by the climate of that place; as a jar taken to a distant country with its mouth shut, does not yield any passage to the light and air of that region into it. (In answer to what remains in a place so as it does not remain there).

23. The cogitation and incogitancy of the intellect, being both perceived in our minds, it is said to be both intellection as well as dullness of the intellect. (This is the answer “of what is ever active, yet as dull as a block of stone”).

24. When our intellection is assimilated into the solid substance 156 of Divine Intellect, then is our intellect said to become solidified as a stone. (By forgetting one’s self to a stone. Pope).

25. The worlds which the intellect of the Supreme Being has spread in the infinite space, are the most wonderful as they are his increate creations. (These being but manifestations of his inborn essence).

26. The Divine Soul is of the essence of fire, and never forsakes its igneous form. It inheres in all bodies without burning them, and is the enlightener and purifier of all substances. (This answers the question, “what is fiery without its inflammability”).

27. The blazing intelligence of the divine soul, which is purer than the etherial sphere, produces the elemental fire by its presence. (As the burning of mount Sinai in the Bible and Taurus in the Koran, and the fiery form of Brahmá the creator and regent of vulgar fire).

(This is in answer of “what unigneous entity produces the substance of fire?”).

28. The intellect which is the light of the soul, and enlightener of the lights of the luminous sun, moon and stars, is indestructible and never fades; although the light of the luminaries, is lost on the last day of universal doom. (In answer to “what unextinguishable fire is the kindler of planetary lights”).

29. There is an inextinguishable light (glory), known as ineffably transcendental, which the eye cannot behold, but is perceptible to the mind as its inward illumination, and presenting all things to its view. (Answer to “what light imperceptible to the eye, brings all things to view?” This is spiritual light).

30. Thence proceeds the intellectual light, which transcends the sensible and mental lights; and presents before it wonderful pictures of things invisible to visual light. (It is luminous by itself and shows things lying hid in darkness, as one walking in the dark, makes himself known to another by telling him “it is I”).

157 31. The eyeless vegetable creation, is sensible of an inward light within them, causing their growth and giving them the capability of bearing their fruits and flowers. (In answer to the question regarding the light and life of vegetable creation, which are also classed under animated nature).

32. With regard to time, space and action and existence of the world, all which are but the percepta or perceptions of sense, and have no master or maker, father or supporter except the Supreme Soul in whom they subsist, as mere modifications of himself and are nothing of themselves. (It is in answer to the question, “who is the maker of the skies &c.”).

33. The atomic spirit is the casket of the bright gem of the world, without changing its minuteness. The divine spirit is its measure and measurer, beside which there is no separate world of itself. (Answer to the question “who is the holder and measurer of the world”).

34. It is that Spirit which manifests itself in every thing in all these worlds; but it shines as the brightest gem, when all the worlds are compressed in it (at the universal dissolution).

35. From the unintelligibleness of his nature, he is said to be a speck of obscurity, as he is called to be a ray of light, from the brightness of his intellect. He is known as existent by our consciousness of him, as he is said to be non-existent from his being removed from our visual sight.

36. He is said to be afar from his invisibleness to our eyes, and to be near us from his being of the nature of our intellect. He is represented as a mountain for his being the totality of our consciousness, although he is minuter than any perceptible particle. (In answer to “what is minute yet vast”).

37. It is his consciousness that manifests itself in the form of the universe; the mountains are not real existences, but subsist like the Meru in his atomic substratum. (In answer to the question “how an atom contains and expands itself as a hill &c.”).

158 38. A twinkling is what appears as a short instant, and a Kalpa is the long duration of an age. (It is definitive proposition of identity, that a nimesha is a nimesha and a Kalpa is a Kalpa ).

39. Sometimes a twinkling—instant represents a Kalpa, when it is fraught with the acts and thoughts of an age; as an extensive country of many leagues, is pictured in miniature or in a grain of the brain.

40. The course of a long Kalpa , is sometimes represented in the womb of a nimesha instant; as the period of the building of a great city, is present in the small space of the mind’s remembrance, as it is in the bosom of a mirror.

41. As little moments and Kalpa ages, high mountains and extensive yojanas , may abide in a single grain of the intellect; so do all dualities and pluralities unite and meet in the unity of God.

42. That ‘I have done this and that before’, is an impression derived from the thought of our actual actions and activity at all times; but the truth thereof becomes as untrue as our doings in the dream. (This to prove that all vyávahárika or customary events, are real untruths; being but prátibhásika or phenomenal appearances only).

43. It is calamity that prolongs the course of time, as our prosperity on the otherhand diminishes its duration; as the short space of a single night, appeared as a period of twelve long years to king Haris Chandra in his misery. (The fallacy of human conception of the length or shortness of time).

44. Anything appearing as a certain truth to the mind, stamps the same impression in the soul, as the sense of some golden jewellery, becomes more impressive in the soul than the idea of its gold. (The fallacy of our perceptions, creating errors in the judgement of the understanding).

45. There is nothing as a moment or an age or as near or afar to the soul; it is the conception in the minute intellect (or the working of the mind), that creates their length or 159 brevity and their nearness and remoteness. (As a year of men is a day of Gods, and such a year of these makes a day of Brahmá; while there is no measure of time or space in the infinity of the Divine mind).

46. The contraries as light and darkness, nearness and distance, and a moment and an age, being but varied impressions on the unvaried percipient mind, have no real difference in them. (They are as unreal as the various evanescent hues of the recipient and reflexive clouds. So no colour is real chromatics or Science of colours).

47. All things or objects which are perceptible to the senses, are called to be evident or apparent; and those which lie beyond them, are said to be imperceptible or unapparent. But visual sensation is not selfevident, except the vision of the intellect, which is the real essence. (In answer to the question “What is perceptible and unreal?” Answer—All what is apparent, is untrue).

48. As long as there is the knowledge of the jewel, there is the knowledge of the gem also; that of the real gem, being lost under the apparent form. (So reliance on ocular evidence, presents an obstruction to the vision of the intellect).

49. It is by reversion of the attention from the visible form of the jewel to the real essence of the gem, that one is led to the sight of the pure light of the only One Brahma. (So says a poet:—Forsake the visible to see the invisible).

50. Brahma is viewed as Sat or reality, when He is considered as pervading all things; and He is said to be Asat or unreal, because He is not the object of vision. So is the Intellect said to be a reality from its faculty of intellection, otherwise it is a stolid or dull matter. (Answers to “what reality appears as unreal, and what intellect as the absence of intellect”).

51. The intellect is the wonderful property of the Divine Spirit, in which it is present as its object (chetya); but how can a man have a view of it, whose mind fixed to the sight of the world, which is a shadow of the Intellect, and moves as a tree which is shaken by the wind?

160 52. As a mirage is the reflexion of the dense light of the sun, so is the world a shadow of the solid light of the Divine intellect.

53. That which is rarer than the rays of the sun and never decays, is ever as uniform as it was before creation and disjoined from it. Hence its existence is tantamount to its nonexistence.

54. As the accumulation of sunbeams, exhibits the formation of a gold mine in the sky; so the golden appearance of the world, prevents the deluded to look to the knowable object of the intellect.

55. Like the appearance of a visionary city in dream, the sight of this world is neither a reality nor altogether unreal; because it is a reflexion of the intellect, as the dream is that of images in the memory. It is but a continued medley of error.

56. Knowing it as such, men should consider everything by the light of reason; and proceed to the knowledge of truth by their intellectual culture.

57. There is no difference between a house and a void, than that the one is the object of vision, and the other of consciousness. Again all nature teeming with life, is said to live in God, who is light and life of all for evermore.

58. But all these living beings have no room in the empty sphere of Divine Intellect. They live and shine like the solar rays, proceeding imperceptibly from that luminous orb.

59. There appears a difference in these rays both from the original light, and also from one another (in different beings), by a curious design of Providence; but it is yet the same in all, like the forms of the trees growing out of the same kind of seed.

60. As the tree contained in the seed, is of the same kind with the parent seed; so the innumerable worlds contained in the vacuous seed of Brahma, are also void and vacuum as Brahma himself.

61. As the tree which is yet undeveloped in the seed, is 161 not in esse without development of its parts; (so the world in the womb of Brahma, was discernible only to the Divine Intellect; in the form of the ideal or spiritual world to be in futuro ).

62. There is but one God, who is one and increate, calm and quiet, without beginning, middle or end, and without a body and its parts. He has no duality and is one in many. He is of the form of pure light, and shines for ever with everlasting and undiminished lustre.

T he Rákshasí said:—Well said, O counsellor! Thy sayings are sanctifying and fraught with spiritual doctrines; now let the prince with his eyes like lotus-leaves answer to the other queries.

2. The Prince answered:—He whose belief consists in the relinquishment of all reliance in this world, and whose attainment depends upon forsaking all the desires of the heart:—

3. He whose expansion and contraction causes the creation and extinction of the world, who is the object of the doctrines of Vedánta, and who is inexpressible by words or speech of humankind:—

4. Who is betwixt the two extremities of doubt (whether he is or is not), and is the midst of both extremities (that both he is and is not); and the pleasure (Will) of whose mind, displays the world with all its movables and immovables to view:—

5. He whose Universal pervasion does not destroy his unity; who being the soul of all is still but one; it is he alone, O lady! who is truly said to be the eternal Brahma (so far the Exordium).

6. This minute particle is erroneously conceived as spirit (air), from its invisibleness to the naked eye; but it is in truth neither air nor any other thing except the only pure Intellect. (Answer to the question, “what is it of the form of air and not air?”).

7. This minim is said to be sound (or the words), but it is error to say it so: because it is far beyond the reach of sound or the sense of words. (So the Sruti ‘ natatravákgacchati ’, no word (vox or voice) can reach unto him—express his nature. (In answer to the query “what is sound and no sound?”)).

8. That particle is all yet nothing, it is neither I, thou or he. It is the Almighty soul and its power is the cause of all. (The 163 gloss explains pratibha as sakti or power, in preference to the other meanings of the word, as—knowledge, design, light, reflexion and influence. (This is in answer to “who is all yet no one omnium et nullum , and what are I, thou and he, which are viewed as the ego , tu and ille , the subjective and objective realities”)).

9. It is the soul that is attainable with great pains ( i.e. the knowledge of which is gained with pains of Yoga), and which being gained adds nothing to our stock (as we are already in possession of our souls); but its attainment is attended with the gain of the supreme soul, than which there is no better gain. (So the Sruti yalalábhat naparamlabha . In answer to ‘what gain is no gain’).

10. But ignorance of the soul, stretches the bonds of our worldliness and repeated transmigrations, with their evils growing like the rankest weeds in spring; until they are rooted out by spiritual knowledge.

11. And those who are in easy circumstances in life, lose their souls by viewing themselves only as solid bodies, which rise fastly to view like the dense mirage by light of the sun. (It is easier for a camel to enter the hole of a needle, than for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Gospel).

12. It is the particle of self-consciousness, which contains the Meru and the three worlds, like bits of straw in itself. They are as disgorged from it in order to present their delusive appearances unto us. (This answers the question: “what particle hides in it the world as a straw,” and means the mind to be the container of the universe).

13. Whatever is imprinted in the intellect, the same appears exprest without it. The fond embrace of passionate lovers in dream and imagination, serves to exemplify this truth.

14. As the intellect rose of itself with its omnipotent Will at the first creation of the world, so it exercises the same volition in its subsequent formations also, like the sprigs rising from the joints of reeds and grass. (i.e. The eternal Will (Fiat) is productive of all things for ever).

164 15. The hobby that has entered in the heart, shows itself on the outside also, as in the instance of the whims of children. (The phrases, “the wish being father to the thought,” and “every one delights in his hobby horse,” correspond with the purport of the passage).

16. The iota of the intellect, which is as minute as an atom, and as subtile as air; fills the whole universe on all sides. (The three words paramánu , anu and súkshma , respectively signify the minuteness of the intellect with regard to its unity, dimension and rarity. Gloss).

17. Though but a particle, yet it is not contained in hundreds of leagues; and being all-pervasive it is infinite. Having no beginning it is measureless, and having no form of itself it is formless. (In answer to ‘what minutiae is immeasurable &c.’).

18. As a cunning coxcomb deludes young girls by their becks and calls and winks and glances. (Quips and cranks and wanton wiles; Nods and becks and wreathed smiles. Pope):—

19. So the holy look of the divine intellect, serves as a prelude to the rotatory dance of worlds, with all their hills and contents for ever ( i.e. a nod and look of the Almighty, moves the worlds).

20. It is that atom of the intellect, which envelops all things within its consciousness, and represents also their forms without it; as a picture canvas shows the figures of the hills and trees drawn in it, to stand out as in bas-relief. (The external world being but a prominent representation of the internal, the phenomenal of the noumenal. So Persian: Suvaribatini and Zahiri ).

21. The divine spirit though as minute as the hundredth part of the point of a hair, is yet larger than the hills it hides in itself, and as vast as infinity, being unlimited by any measure of space or time. (In answer to “what is it that retains its minuteness and yet comprehends the great Meru”).

22. The comparison of the vast vacuity of divine understanding with a particle of air (as it is made by the minister), is not an exact simile. It is as a comparison of a mountain with a mustard seed, which is absurd.

165 23. The minuteness which is attributed to it (in the veda), is as false as the attribution of different colours to the plumage of the peacock, and of jewellery to gold, which can not be applicable to the spirit. (The Veda says, anoraníyan . He is minuter than the minute &c.; because the spirit admits no attribute).

24. It is that bright lamp which has brought forth light from its thought, and without any loss of its own essential effulgence. (Answer to “What lamp gave light in darkness?” “He was the light of the world, and the light shine forth in darkness,” Gospel).

25. If the sun and other luminous bodies in the world, were dull and dark in the beginning; then what was the nature of the primeval light and where did it abide? (This question is raised and answered by the prince himself in the next).

26. The pure essence of the mind which was situated in the soul, saw the light displayed on the outside of it, by its internal particle of the intellect. Gloss:—That light existed inside the intellectual atom before creation, and its preceding darkness; it was afterwards set forth by itself without it, when it shone amidst the darkness. (So the passage, lux fiat et lux fit , and then the mind beheld it, and said it was good).

27. There is no difference in the lights of the sun, moon and fire from the darkness, out of which these lights were produced: the difference is only that of the two colours black and white. (Gloss:—Both of them are equally insensible things).

28. As the difference of the cloud and snows, consists in the blackness of the one and whiteness of the other; such is the difference of light and darkness in their colours only, and not in their substance (as they have no real substantiality in them).

29. Both of these being insensible in their natures, there is no difference between them: and they both disappear or join with one another before the light of intellect. They disappear before the intellectual light of the Yogi, who perceives no physical light or darkness in his abstract meditation under the blaze 166 of his intellect. They join together as light and shade,—the shadow inseparably following the light. The adage goes, Zer cheragh tariki :—there is darkness beneath the lighted lamp.

30. The sun of the intellect, shines by day and night without setting or sleeping; It shines in the bosom even of hard stones, without being clouded or having its rise or fall.

31. The light of this blazing soul, has lighted the sun, which diffuses its light all over the three worlds; it has filled the capacious womb of earth with a variety of provisions, as they lay up large panniers of food in a store-house. ( i.e. It is the sun-light that grows and ripens all things for our food).

32. It enlightens darkness without destroying itself, and the darkness that receives the light, and becomes as enlightened as light itself. (This passage is explained both in a physical as well as spiritual sense. The light dispelling ignorance and the gloom of nature).

33. As the shining sun brings the lotus-buds to light, so the light of the Divine Spirit, enlightens our intellects, amidst the gloom of ignorance which envelopes them.

34. And as the sun displays himself by making the day and night by his rise and fall, so does the intellect show itself by its development and reticence by turns.

35. All our notions and ideas are contained in the particle of the intellect, as a healthy seed contains the leaves and fruits and flowers of the future tree in its breast.

36. These and all the powers of the mind, develope themselves in their proper times, as the fruits and flowers make their appearance in spring and proper seasons— khandas . (The Hindu festivals of Khanda pálás, are celebrated in honour of the returning seasons, and continue as a relic of the primitive agricultural state of society).

37. The particle of divine spirit is altogether tasteless, being so very vapid and void of qualities; yet it is always delectable as the giver of flavour to all things. (The gloss explains the spirit as spiritual knowledge, which is unpalatable to all, owing 167 to its abstruse and subtile nature; but which becomes tasty when blended with all other knowledge, which mainly depends on spiritual science. This is in answer to “What particle is that which is entirely tasteless, yet always tasted with zest?”).

38. All savours abide in the waters (water being the receptacle of taste), as a mirror is the recipient of a shadow; but the savour like the shadow is not the substance; it is the essence of the spirit that gives it the flavour. (The Nyáya says “ jaleparamánurasah ” the atom of the spirit is the savour of the water).

39. All bodies existing in the world, are forsaken by the atomic spirit of the supreme, by their unconsciousness of Him; but they are dependant upon him, by the consciousness of the divine particle, shining in their souls. ( i.e. Consciousness is the connecting link between the human and Divine souls). In answer to “who are forsaken by and supported by the Divine Spirit.”

40. It is He who being unable to wrap up himself, enwraps the world in him, by spreading out the vesture of his atomic intellect over all existence. (In answer to “who being uncovered himself covers the whole?”).

41. The supreme Spirit which is of the form of infinite space, cannot hide itself in any thing within its sphere, which would be like the hiding of an elephant in the grass.

42. Yet this all knowing spirit encompasses the world, knowing it to be a trifle, just as a child holds a particle of rice in his hand. This is an act of máyá or delusion. (Here delusion like destiny is represented to exercise its influence on omniscience itself).

43. The spirit of God exists even after the dissolution of the world, by relying in his chit or intellect; just as plants survive the spring by the sap they have derived from it.

44. It is the essence of the Intellect which gives rise to the world, just as the garden continues to flourish by the nourishment of the vernal season.

168 45. Know the world is verily a transformation of the intellect, and all its productions to be as plants in the great garden of the world, nourished by the vernal juice of the intellect.

46. It is the sap supplied by the intellectual particle, that makes all things grow up with myriads of arms and eyes; in the same manner as the atom of a seed, produces plants with thousand branches and fruits. (In answer to “What formless things take a thousand forms”).

47. Myriads of kalpas amount to an infinitesimal part of a twinkling of the atomic intellect, as a momentary dream presents a man all the periods of his life from youth to age. In answer to “What twinkling of the eye appears as many thousand Kalpas &c.”

48. This infinitesimal of a twinkling even, is too long for thousands of kalpas, the whole duration of existence is as short as a flash of his eye.

49. It is the idea only that makes a twinkling, appear a kalpa or many, just as the idea of satiety in starvation, is a mere delusion to the deluded soul.

50. It is concupiscence only, that makes the famishing to feed upon his thoughts of food; as it is the despair of one’s life, that presents his death before him in his dream.

51. All the worlds reside in the intellectual soul within the atom of its intellect; and the outward worlds are only reflexions ( réchauffé ) of the inner prototype. (The phenomenal is an ectype of the original noumenal).

52. Whatever object appears to be situated anywhere, it is but a representation of its like model in some place or other, and resembles the appearance of figures in bas-relief on any part of a pillar; but the changes occurring in the external phenomena, are no results of the internal, which as the serene vacuum is subject to no change.

53. All existences, which are present in the intellect at this moment, are the same as they have existed, and will ever exist inwardly like trees in their seeds.

169 54. The atom of the intellect, contains the moments and ages of time, like grains within the husk; it contains these (as its contents) in the seed within the infinite soul of god. (The soul is the unconscious container of the intellect, which is conscious of the ideas contained in it).

55. The soul remains quite aloof as if retired from the world (udásína), notwithstanding the subsistence and dependence of the latter upon the former. The Divine soul is unconcerned with its creation and its sustentation at all times. (In answer to “who is the cause of the world without any motive or causality in him?” This is the doctrine of perfect bliss of the soul without being ruffled or disturbed by any motivity or activity. So the man imitating divine perfection, is required to be apathetic and callous to all worldly affairs).

56. The essence of the world springs from the atom of the pure Intellect, which however remains apart from both the states of action and passion itself (the intellect being the thinking principle, has only its perceptivity, without sensitivity of passion, or the Will or volition for action).

57. There is nothing created or dissolved in the world by any body at any time; all apparent changes are caused by the delusion of our vision (and it is the province of Vedánta to remove the error of conceiving the unreal worlds as a reality).

58. (Viewed in its spiritual light), this world with all its contents, is as void as the vault of the vacuous atmosphere; the word world applied to the phenomena, is but an insignificant term signifying a nothing.

59. It is the particle of intellect that is led by the delusion of máyá , to view the scenes situated in the Divine soul, in the outward appearance of the phenomenal world. (Answer to what thing that has eyes; views on its outside what is contained in the soul?).

60. The words external and internal as applied to the world, are meaningless and not positive terms; there is no inside or outside of the divine soul, they are contrived to explain its 170 different views by the intellect for the instruction of pupils. (Brahma has no inside nor outside. Sruti).

61. The viewer looking into the invisible being within himself, comes to see the soul; but he who looks on the outside with his open eyes, comes to view the unreal as real.

62. Therefore whoever looks into the soul (as the true reality), can never view the false phenomena as realities as others do.

63. It is the internal sight of the intellect that looks into the inward soul, which is without all desires; while the external eyes are mere organs to look upon the false appearance of outward objects. ( i.e. The eye of the mind, is the true eye to see the real nature of the soul; but the outer eyes are no eyes, that feed only upon the falsities of nature).

64. There can be no object of sight, unless there is a looker also, as there can be no child without its parent. This duality (of their mutual dependence upon one another), proceeds from the want of knowledge of their unity. ( i.e. The viewer, the view and the vision ( drashtá , drishya and darsana ), being one and the same thing, as the parent and the offspring, and the seed and its sprout, are the same substance. The doctrine of the Vedantic unity, thus attempts to reduce and unite all varieties to their primitive simplicity).

65. The viewer himself becomes the view as there can be no view without its viewer. No body prepares any food, unless there be some body to feed upon it. (It is the agent that makes the act, as there can be no act without its agent).

66. It is in the power of the intellect (imagination), to create the views of its vision; as it lies in the capacity of gold, to produce all the various forms of jewellery. ( i.e. Fancy paints and moulds itself in many colours and shapes. The creations of phantasy are mere phantoms— phantasia et phantasmos ).

67. The inanimate view never has nor can have the ability of producing its viewer; as the golden bracelet has no power of bringing the gold into being.

171 68. The intellect having the faculty of intellection (chetana), forms the thoughts of intelligibles (chetyas) within itself, which however unreal are erroneously viewed as real entities by its intellectual vision to its own deception, as it is caused by the appearance of jewellery in gold.

69. That the viewer (the divine intellect), being transformed to the view (of the visible world), is no more perceptible in it, than as the jewelery of gold and not gold itself. ( i.e. The formal part of the world and jewel, hides the material part of the intellect and gold which formed them).

70. Thus the viewer becoming the view ( i.e. the subject being turned to the object), still views himself as the viewer; as gold transformed to a jewel, is always looked upon as gold.

71. One unity alone being apparent in all nature, it is useless to talk of the duality of the viewer and view. A word with a masculine affix cannot give the sense of a neuter noun (so the masculine noun Intellectus , cannot apply to the neuter phenomenon ).

72. The viewer who feasts his eyes with a view of the outer visible world, cannot have the sight of the inner soul with the internal eyes of his intellect; but when the viewer shuts out the outer view, all its realities appear as unreal.

73. When the viewer perceives the unreality of the visibles by the light of his understanding, he then comes to see the true reality. So by retracting the mind from viewing the figure of the jewel, one comes to see the nature of its gold only.

74. The visibles being present, there must be their viewers also to whose view they are apparent. It is the absence of both (the viewer and the view), and the knowledge of their unreality, that produce the belief of unity. (The disappearance of the visible, causes the withdrawal of the viewer; like the removal of the umbrella, drives away its shade).

75. The man who considers all things in the contriteness of his conscious soul, comes at last to perceive something in him, which is serenely clear, and which no words can express.

172 76. The minute particle of the intellect, shows us the sight of the soul as clearly as a lamp enlightens everything in the dark. (Answer to “who shows the soul as clearly as a visible thing”?)

77. The intelligent soul is absolved of its perceptions of the measure, measurer and measurables, ( i.e. of the forms and properties of things), as liquid gold when dissolved of its form of an ornament. (Answer to “what thing is absolved of its properties like gold of its jewellery”).

78. As there is nothing which is not composed of the elementary bodies of earth, water &c.; so there is nothing in nature which is apart from the nature of the atomic intellect. (Answer to “what is that from which nothing is apart?”).

79. The thinking soul penetrates into all things in the form of their notions; and because all thoughts concentrate in the intellect, there is nothing apart from it.

80. Our desires being the parents of our wished for objects, they are the same with our prospects in our view: therefore there is no difference between our desires and desired objects; as there is none between the sea and its waves. (In refutation of the question, “what is that which is distinct from the wish?”).

81. The Supreme Soul exists alone unbounded by time and space. Being the universal soul, it is the soul of all; and being omniscient, it is no dull matter at all. (Answer to “what is the undivided duality and plurality?”).

82. The Ens being but intelligence, is not perceptible to sight; there is unity and no duality in it; but all forms unite into one in the great self of the Supreme.

83. If there be a duality, it is the one and its unity. The unity and duality of the universal soul, are both as true as the light and its shade joined together.

84. Where there is no duality or any number above it, there unity also can have no application to any; and where there is no unit, there cannot be any two or more over it, which are but repetitions of the unit (except an indeterminate all or whole).

173 85. Anything which is so situated, is in itself such as it is; it cannot be more or less than itself; but is identic with itself like water and its fluidity. (Its plurality is but a repeated unity).

86. The multiplicity of forms which it exhibits, blends into a harmonic whole without conflicting with one another. The multifarious creation is contained in Brahma, like a tree with all its several parts in the embryonic seed.

87. Its dualism is as inseparable from it as the bracelet from its gold; and although multiformity of nature, is evident to the comprehensive understanding; yet it is not true of the true entity (of God).

88. Like fluidity of water, fluctuation of air, vacuity of the sky, is this multiformity an inseparable property of the Godhead.

89. Disquisition of unity and duality is the cause of misery to the restless spirit, it is the want of this distinction that consummates the highest knowledge.

90. The measure, measurement and measurer of all things, and the viewer, view and vision of the visible world, are all dependent on the atom of the intellect which contains them all. ( i.e. The divine mind is the maker and pattern of the great fabric of the universe, which it contains and views in itself).

91. The atom of the divine intellect, spreads out and contracts in itself, like its limbs, these mountainous orbs of the world, by an inflation of its spirit as it were by a breath of air.

92. O the wonder, and the great wonder of wonders! that this atom of the intellect, should contain in its embryo, all the three regions of the worlds, above and below one another.

93. O! it is an incredible delusion that must ever remain an inexplicable riddle, how the monstrous universe is contained in the minute atom of the Intellect.

94. As a pot contains in it, the seed, with a huge tree within its cell, so does the divine soul contain the atom of the intellect, containing the chains of worlds (outstretched within itself).

174 95. The all-seeing eye sees at once all the worlds, situated within the bosom of the intellect, as the microscopic sight discovers the parts of the future tree concealed in the seed.

96. The expansion of the world in the atom of the Intellect, is analogous to the enlargement of the hidden parts of the seed, into leaves and branches, fruits and flowers.

97. As the multiformity of the future tree, is contained in the uniform substance within the seed; it is in like manner that the multiplicity of worlds, is situated in the unity of the atomic Intellect, and as such it is seen by any one who will but look into it.

98. It is neither an unity nor a duality, not the seed or its sprout, neither is it thin or thick, nor is born nor unborn (but ever the same as it is).

99. He is neither an entity nor nonentity, nor graceful nor ungraceful (but a vacuity); and though it contains the three worlds with the ether and air, yet is nothing and no substance at all.

100. There is no world nor a not-world beside the intellect, which is all of itself, and is said to be such and such in any place or time, as it appears so and so to us there and then.

101. It rises as if unrisen, and expands in its own knowledge; it is selfsame with the supreme soul, and as the totality of all selves, it spreads through the whole vacuum as air.

102. As a tree springs from the ground according to its seed, so the world appears to sight in the form, as it is contained in the seed of the intellect.

103. The plant does not quickly quit its seed, lest it would be dried up and die away for want of its sap; so the man that sticks to the soul and seed of his being, is free from disease and death.

104. The mount Meru is like the filament of a flower, in respect to the vastness of that atom; all visibles have their place in that invisible atom. (In answer to the question, in respect to whom is the great Meru but a filament?)

175 105. The Meru is verily a filament of the atomic flower of the divine soul; and myriads of Merus resemble the cloudy spots, rising in the sphere of the intellect.

106. It is that one great atom that fills the world, after having made it out of itself; and given it a visible, extended and material form in its own hollow sphere. (Answer to “By whom is the world created, extended &c.”).

107. As long as the knowledge of duality is not driven out of the mind, so long does it find the charming form of the world, as in its dream upon waking. But the knowledge of unity, liberates the soul from its stay in and return to the world, which it beholds as a mass of the divine essence.

V asishtha continued:—The apish Karkatí of the forest, having heard the speech of the prince, pondered well in herself the sense of the words, and forsook her levity and malice.

2. She found the coolness and tranquility of her heart after its fervour was over; in the manner of the peacock at the setting in of the rains, and the lotus bed at the rising of moonbeams.

3. The words of the prince delighted her heart in the same manner, as the cries of cranes flying in the sky, gladden the passing clouds in the air.

4. The Rákshasí said:—O how brightly shines the pure light of your understanding, it glows as serenely by its inward effulgence, as it is illuminated by the sun of intelligence.

5. Hearing the grains (words) of your reasoning, my heart is as gladdened, as when the earth is cooled by the serene beams of the humid moon-light.

6. Reasonable men like yourself are honoured and venerated in the world, and I am as delighted in your company, as a lake of lotuses with her full blown buds under the moon-beams.

7. The society of the virtuous, scatters its blessings, as a flower garden spreads its fragrance all around; and as the brightness of sun-beams, brings the lotus buds to bloom.

8. Society with the good and great, dispels all our woes; as a lamp in the hand, disperses the surrounding darkness.

9. I have fortunately obtained you as two great lights in this forest; you both are entitled to my reverence here, and deign now to acquaint me, with the good intent which has brought you hither.

177 10. The prince answered:—O thou sprout of the savage race of Rákshas! the people of this province are always afflicted in their hearts by a certain evil.

11. It is the obdurate disease of Vishuchi or cholic pain, which troubles the people of this part, I have therefore come out with my guards to find her out in my nightly rounds.

12. This cholic pain is not removed from the hearts of men by any medicine, so I have come out in search of the mantra revealed to her for its cure.

13. It is my business and professed duty, to persecute such wicked beings as thyself, that infest our ignorant subjects in this manner, and this is all that I have to tell thee and do in this place.

14. Therefore, O good lady! do thou promise to me in thy own words, that thou shalt never injure any living being in future.

15. The Rákshasí replied:—Well! I tell thee in truth, my lord! that I shall hence forward never kill any body.

16. The prince replied:—If it be so O thou liver on animal flesh! tell me how shalt thou support thy body by thy abstaining from animal food?

17. The Rákshasí replied:—It is now passed six months, O prince! that I have risen from my entranced meditation, and fostered my desire for food, which I wholly renounce today.

18. I will again repair to the mountain top, and betake myself to my steadfast meditation, and sit there contented as long as I like, in the posture of an unmoving statue.

19. I will restrain myself by unshaken meditation until my death, and then I shall quit this body in its time with gladness. This is my resolution.

20. I tell you now, O prince! that until the end of this life and body of mine, I shall no more take away the life of any living being, and you may rely assured upon my word.

21. There is the mount Himalaya by name, standing in the heart of the northern region, and stretching in one sweep, from the eastern to western main.

178 22. There had I dwelt at first in a cave of its golden peak, in the shape of an iron statue, and also as the fragment of a cloud, and borne the appellation of Karkatí the Rákshasí:—(the crablike crooked Sycorax).

23. There I obtained the sight of Brahmá by the austerity of my devotion; and expressed my desire of killing mankind, in the shape of a destructive needle.

24. I obtained the boon accordingly, and passed a great many years in the act of afflicting living brings, and feeding upon their entrails in the form of the cholic pain.

25. I was then prohibited by Brahmá to kill the learned, and was instructed in the great mantra for my observance.

26. He then gave me the power of piercing the hearts of men, with some other diseases which infest all mankind.

27. I spread myself far and wide in my malice, and sucked the heart blood of men, which dried up their veins and arteries; and emaciated their bodies.

28. Those whom I left alive after devouring their flesh and blood, they begat a race as lean and veinless as they had become themselves.

29. You will be successful O happy prince in getting the mantra or charm for driving the Visúchiká pain; because there is nothing impossible of attainment by the wise and strong.

30. Receive of me immediately, O raja! the mantra which has been uttered by Brahmá for removal of the cholic pain, from the cells of arteries vitiated by Visúchiká .

31. Now advance towards me, and let us go to the neighbouring river; and there initiate you with the mantra, after you both are prepared to receive it by your ablution and purification.

32. Vasishtha said:—Then the Rákshasí proceeded to the river side that very night, accompanied by the prince and his minister, and all joining together as friends.

33. These being sure of the amity of the Rákshasí both by affirmative and negative proofs, made their ablutions and stood on the bank on the river.

179 34. The Rákshasí then communicated to them with tenderness, the effective mantra which was revealed to her by Brahmá, for the removal of Visúchiká pain, and which was always successful.

35. Afterwards as the nocturnal fiend was about to depart by leaving her friendly companions behind, the prince stopped her course with his speech.

36. The prince said:—O thou of gigantic stature! thou hast become our preceptor by thy teaching us the mantra , we invite thee with affection, to take thy repast with us at ours tonight.

37. It does not become thee to break off our friendship, which has grown like the acquaintance of good people, at our very first meeting.

38. Give thy illfavoured feature a little more graceful figure, and walk along with us to our abode, and there reside at thy own pleasure.

39. The Rákshasí replied:—You can well provide a female of your own kind with her proper food; but what entertainment can you give to my satisfaction, who am a cannibal by my nature!

40. It is the food of a giant (Rákshasa) alone, that can yield me satisfaction, and not the little morsel of petty mortals; this is the innate nature of our being, and can not be done away with as long as we carry with us our present bodies.

41. The prince answered:—Ornamented with necklaces of gold, you shall be at liberty to remain with the ladies in my house, for as many days as you may like to abide.

42. I will then manage to produce for your food, the robbers and felons that I will seize in my territories; and you will have them supplied to you by hundreds and thousands at all times.

43. You can then forsake your comely form, and assume thy hideous figure of the Rákshasí, and kill and take to your food hundreds of those lawless men.

44. Take them to the top of the snowy mountain and devour them at thy pleasure; as great men always like to take their meals in privacy.

180 45. After your recreation by that food and a short nap, you can join your meditation; and when you are tired with your devotion, you can come back to this place.

46. You can then take the other offenders for your slaughter; because the killing of culprits is not only justifiable by law, but it amounts to an act of mercy, to rid them (of their punishment in the next world).

47. You must return to me when you are tired of your devotion; because the friendship which is formed even with the wicked, is not easily done away.

48. The Rákshasí replied:—You have well said prince! and we will do as you say; for who is there that will slight the words of the wise that are spoken to him in the way of friendship?

49. Vasishtha said:—Saying so, the Rákshasí assumed a graceful form, and wore on her person necklaces and bracelets, and silken robes and laces.

50. She said, “Well raja, let us go together” and then followed the footsteps of the prince and his counsellor, who walked before her and led the way.

51. Then having arrived at the royal abode, they passed that night in their agreeable repast and discourse together.

52. As it became morning, the Rákshasí went inside the house, and there remained with the women; while the prince and the minister attended to their business.

53. Then in the course of six days, the prince collected together all the offenders whom he had seized in his territory, and brought from other parts.

54. These amounted to three thousand heads which he gave up to her; when she resumed her fiercely dark form of the black fiend of night.

55. She laid hold of thousands of men in her extended grasp, in the manner of a fragment of cloud retaining the drops of rain water in its wide spread bosom.

56. She took leave of the prince and went to the top of the 181 mountain with her prey, as a poor man takes the gold, that he happens to get in some hidden place.

57. There she refreshed herself with her food and rest for three days and nights; and then regaining the firmness of her under-standing, she was employed in her devotion.

58. She used to rise from her devotion once after the lapse of four or five and sometimes seven years, when she repaired to the habitation of men and to the court of the prince.

59. There passing sometime in their confidential conversation, she returned to her retired seat in the mountain, with her prey of the offenders.

60. Thus freed from cares even in her lifetime, she continued to remain as a liberated being in that mountain &c. &c.

V asishtha continued:—The Rákshasí thus continued in her devotion, and remained on friendly terms with the successive rulers of the Kiráta country, who kept supplying her with her rations. (The Rákshasí maneater was turned to Rákshiní or preserver of men).

2. She continued by the power of her perfection in the practice of yoga meditation, to prevent all portents, to ward off all dread and danger of demons, and remove the diseases of the people. (All these were done by the Rákshasí vidyá now lost, and by supernatural powers gained by yoga).

3. In the course of many years of her meditation, she used to come out of her cell at certain intervals, and call at the head quarters, for her capture of the collection of living creatures kept for her victims. (Man slaughter was not blamable on the part of the cannibal Rákshasí, though practising the yoga; nor was the eating of animal flesh reprehensible in Vasishtha himself, who had been a flesh eating yogi. (See Uttara Ráma Charita)).

4. The practice continues still to be observed by the princes of the place, who conduct the animals to be sacrificed to her departed ghost on the hill; as none can be negligent to repay the good services of his benefactor. (Hence the prevalence of the practice of offering sacrifices to the names of ancestors and deified heroes and heroines, and even of demons for their past good services).

5. At last she became defunct in her meditation, and ceased since long to appear to the habitations of men, and lend her aid in removing their diseases, dangers and difficulties. (The good genius of the place left it at last).

183 6. The people then dedicated a high temple to her memory, and placed in it a statue of hers, under the title of Kandará—caverner alias Mangalá deví—the auspicious goddess. (The whole legend of the Kandará of Kirátas, alludes to the account of Mangalá Chandí alias Kalika deví—the black and voracious goddess of the Hindus).

7. Since then it is the custom of the chiefs of the tribe, to consecrate a newly made statue in honor of the Kandará deví—the goddess of the valley, after the former one is disfigured and dilapidated. (The Kirántis are said to continue in their idolatry to this day, notwithstanding the conversion of their fellow hill tribes to Mahomedanism, except the Kafers—another hill tribe of the Himalayas who are idolators still).

8. Any prince of the place, who out of his vileness, fails to consecrate the statue of the Kandará goddess, brings out of his own perverseness, great calamities to visit his people. (This sort of retributive justice is expressed in the adage “rájadoshat rájya nashta”:—“And for the king’s offence the people died.” Pope’s Homer’s Iliad I).

9. By worshipping her, man obtains the fruits of all his desires; and by neglecting it, he exposes himself to all sorts of evils and calamities; as effects of the pleasure and displeasure of the goddess to her votaries or otherwise. (The two clauses are instances of affirmative and negative enthymemes coupled together as anvaya vyatirekí . The first enthymeme of the antecedent and consequent is affirmative anvayí , and the other a vyatirekí or negative one). Gloss.

10. The goddess is still worshipped by dying and ailing people with offerings, for remedy of their illness and securing her blessings; and she in her turn distributes her rewards among them, that worship her either in her statue or picture. (Raxá Kálí is worshipped in statue, but Mongla Chandí is worshipped in a ghata or potful of water).

11. She is the bestower of all blessings to young babes, and weak calves and cows; while she kills the hardy and proud that deserve their death. She is the goddess of intelligence and 184 favours the intelligent, and presides for ever in the realm of the Kiráta people. (Vasishtha being a theist, reviles like a Vaishnava, the black goddess as a Rákshasí, which a Kaula cannot countenance).

V asishtha said:—I have thus related to you Ráma, the unblamable legend of Karkatí, the Rákshasí of Imaus, from its beginning to end in ipso facto . (Imaus and Imodus are ranges of the Himálayas. The Gloss interprets Imaus as a synonym of Himálayas, by apocope of the latter member of the compound word, and by a grammatical rule, that the curtailing of a part of a proper name, does not affect the full meaning of the name. So for the omissions of agnomens and cognomens).

2. Ráma rejoined:—But how could one born in a cave of Himavatas (Imodus), become a black Rákshasí, and why was she called Karkatí? These I want to be clearly explained to me. (Ráma’s demand was reasonable, as the people of the Himálayas, are always of fair complexions, and the Rákshasas were the Negroes of Southern India).

3. Vasishtha replied:—The Rakshas (cannibals), are originally of many races, some of whom are of dark and others of fair complexions, while many have a yellowish appearance and some of a greenish shade. (We know the red Rákshasas of America, but it is impossible for us to account for the green or blue Rákshasas in the text).

4. As for Karkatí, you must know that there was a Rákshasa by name of Karkata, from his exact resemblance to a cancer. (Here is a reversion of Sycorax the Negro parent, and her crooked son caliban Kálibán—the black Negro, having long arms and legs, with feet and hands furnished with claws and long nails like those of beasts).

5. The reason of my relating to you the narrative of Karkatí, was only for her queries which I recollected and thought, would serve well to explain the omniform God, in our disquisition 186 into spiritual knowledge. (Gloss. Vasishtha adduces a contradiction in the spiritual knowledge of God, by calling him a spirit and yet as all forms of things. But this seeming contrariety will disappear upon reflecting that, the phenomenal is contained in the noumenal, and the forms are viewed only in the spirit as visions in dreams).

6. It is evident that the pure and perfect unity, is the source of the impure and imperfect duality of the phenomena, and this finite world has sprung from its Supreme cause, who is without beginning and end. (The One is the cause of many, and the Infinite is the source of the finite. Ahamsarvasyám. Anádirádi sarvasya).

7. These float (before our eyes) like the waves upon waters, which are apparently of different forms, and yet essentially the same with the element, on which they seem to move. So the creations whether present, past or future, are all situated in the Supreme Spirit. (The immaterial spirit is the basis and substratum of material bodies).

8. As wet wood when ignited, serves for the purpose of infusing heat, and inviting the apes of the forest to warm themselves in cold weather; so the externally shining appearance of the world, invites the ignorant to resort to it.

9. Such is the temporary glow of the ever cool spirit of God, in the works of creation; which shows itself in many forms without changing its essence.

10. The absent world appeared in presence, and its unreality appears as a reality to consciousness, like the potential figures carved in wood. (The would-be world existed in the eternal ideas in the mind of God, like the possible figures in the wood, which were carved out afterwards. And so too Aristotle).

11. As the products, of the seed from its sprout to the fruit, are all of the same species; so the thoughts (chetyas) of the mind—Chitta, are of the same nature as those originally implanted in it. (The homogeneity of the cause with all its effects).

12. By the law of the continuity of the same essence, there is no difference in the nature of the seed and its fruit; so the 187 intellect (chit) and the thoughts (chetyas), differ in nothing except in their forms; like the waves and water differing in external appearance, and not in the intrinsicality of their substance (Vastu).

13. No demonstration can show the difference between thoughts and the mind; and whatever distinction our judgment may make betwixt them, it is easily refuted by right reasoning. (Such as the incapability of an effect being produced without its cause, or disagreement between the effects of the same or similar causes).

14. Let this error therefore vanish, as it has come from nothing to nothing; and as all causeless falsities fail of themselves. You will know more of this, Ráma! when you are awakened to divine knowledge. In the meantime, do away with error of viewing a duality, which is different from the only existent Unity. (Duality being driven out, all will appear one and the same. So Sádi the sophist: duirácho badar kardam ekebinam ekedámam ).

15. After the knot of your error is cut asunder, by your attending to my lectures, you will come to know by yourself, the signification and substance (object) of what is called the true knowledge, which is taken in different senses by the various schools; but that which comes of itself in the mind, is the intuitive knowledge of divine truth.

16. You have a mind like that of the common people (itara), which is full of mistakes and blunders (anarthas); all which will doubtlessly subside in your mind, by your attending to my lectures (because the words of the wise remove all errors).

17. You will be awakened by my sermons to know this certain truth, that all things proceed from Brahma into whom they ultimately return. (Brahma is the producer, sustainer, and recipient or the first and last of all. He is alpha and omega).

18. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, your affirmation of the first cause in the ablative case, “that all things proceed from Brahma,” is opposed to the negative passage in the Sruti in the same case, that “nothing is distinct from Him”; and is inconsistent in itself (in as much as, there cannot be all things, and again 188 nothing but Brahma; and to say “the same thing comes from the same,” would be a palpable absurdity).

19. Vasishtha answered:—Words or significant terms are used in the Sástras for instruction of others; and where there appears any ambiguity in them, they are explained in their definitions. (Hence the ablative form “from Brahma” is not faulty, for what is in the receptacle, the same comes out of it; or as they say, “what is in the bottom, the same comes upon the surface”; and the one is not distinct from the other, as the wave differs not from the water whence it rises. This is downright pantheism).

20. Hence it is the use though not in honest truth, to make a difference of the visibles from the invisible Brahma (for the purpose of instruction); as it is usual to speak of ghosts appearing to children, though there be no such things in reality. (It is imagination that gives a name to airy nothing, and it is the devise of language to use words for negative ideas, as the word world to denote a duality and darkness for want of light, and not anything in itself).

21. In reality there is no duality connected with the unity of Brahma, as there is no dualism of a city and the dream that shows its apparition in sleep. Again God being immutable in his nature and eternal decree, it is wrong to apply the mutations of nature and the mutability of Will to Him. (Volition is accompanied by nolition ( Volo and nolo ) in mutable minds, but there is no option Vikalpa in the sankalpa—suo arbitrio of the unchangeable Mind).

22. The Lord is free from the states of causality and the caused, of instrumentality and instruments, of a whole and its part, and those of proprietorship and property. (The attribution of cause and effect or any other predicate or predicable, is wholly inapplicable to him, who is devoid of all attributes).

23. He is beyond all affirmative and negative propositions, and their legitimate conclusions or false deductions and elenches. ( i.e. Nothing can be truly affirmed or denied or ascertained or negated of Him, by any mode of reasoning. Naisatarkenánaneyah ).

189 24. So the attribution, of the primary volition to the Deity, is a false imputation also. Yet it is usual to say so for the instruction of the ignorant; though there is no change in his nature from its nolliety to velleity. (So it is usual to attribute sensible properties of speech and sight, to the immaterial spirit of God, by a figure of speech; and for the instruction of the vulgar, who cannot comprehend the incomprehensible).

25. These sensible terms and figurative expressions, are used for the guidance of the ignorant; but the knowing few, are far from falling into the fallacy of dualism. All sensible conceptions ceasing upon the spiritual perception of God, there ensues an utter and dumb silence. (We become tongue-tied, and our lips are closed and sealed in silence, to speak anything with certainty of the unspeakable).

26. When in time you come to know these things better, you shall arrive at the conclusion, that all this is but one thing, and an undivided whole without its parts, and having no beginning nor end. (The world is therefore self-same and co-eternal and co-existent, with the eternal and self-existent God).

27. The unlearned dispute among themselves from their uncertainty of truth; but their differences and dualisms are all at an end, upon their arriving to the knowledge of the true unity by instructions of the wise. (The reality is precisely in the indifference of the subject and object. Schelling).

28. Without knowledge of the agreement of significant words with their significates, it is impossible to know the Unity, for so long as a word is taken in different senses, there will be no end of disputes and difference of opinions. Dualisms being done away, all disputes are hushed up in the belief of unity. ( i.e. All words expressive of the Deity, refer to his unity and signify the one and the same Lord of all, which ends all controversy on the point).

29. O support of Raghu’s race! place your reliance on the sense of the great sayings of the vedas; and without paying any regard to discordant passages, attend to what I will tell you at present. (Such as: Brahma is used in one place in the ablative 190 and in another in the locative case, and also in the nominative and as the same with the world).

30. From whatever cause it may have sprung, the world resembles a city rising to view in a vision; just as the thoughts and ideas appearing before the mirror of the mind, from some source of which we know nothing. (They are as puppet shows of the player, behind the screen).

31. Hear Ráma! and I will relate to you an instance for your ocular evidence, how the mind (chitta), spins out the magical world (máyika) from itself. (This ocular instance called the drishtánta-drishtávedana , is that of the spider’s thread (urnanábha-tantu) woven of itself, and given in the Sruti).

32. Having known this, O Ráma! you will be able to cast away all your erroneous conceptions; and being certain of the certitude, you will resign your attachment to, and your desires in this enchanted and bewitching world. (Hence the certainty, of God’s being aloof from the false world, as it is said Deus ex machina ).

33. All these prospective worlds are machinations or the working of the mind. Having forsaken these false fabrications of fancy, you will have the tranquility of your soul, and abide in peace with yourself for ever. (Exemption from all worldly cares and anxieties of the past, present and future lives, leads to the peace of mind).

34. By paying your attention to the drift of my preachings, you will be able to find out of your own reasoning, a mite of the medicine, for curing all the maladies of your deluded mind. (Right reason by the art of reasoning, furnishes the true medicine (psyches iatrion) to remove the errors of the understanding).

35. If you sit in this manner (in your silent meditation), you will see the whole world in your mind; and all outward bodies will disappear (in your abstract contemplation), like drops of oil in the sand. (All things are presented to the mind by intuition, and are present in the memory—the great keeper or master of Rolls of the soul).

36. The mind is the seat of the universe as long as it is not vitiated by passions and affections and afflictions of life; 191 and it is set beyond the world (in heavenly bliss), no sooner it gets rid of the turmoils of its present state. (The mind, says Milton, can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven).

37. The mind is the means to accomplish anything; it is the store-keeper to preserve all things in the store-house of its memory; it is the faculty of reasoning; and the power to act like a respectable person. It is therefore to be treated with respect, in recalling, restraining and guiding us to our pursuits and duties. ( Facultates sunt quibus facilius fit, sine quibus omnino confici non potest. Cicero).

Note. —The mind is what moves and acts by its active and cognitive faculties, and is more to be regarded than the body, which move entirely as it is moved by the mind. Hence God is called the Mind of the world— Anima mundi ?

38. The mind contains the three worlds with all their contents, and the surrounding air in itself; and exhibits itself as the plenum of egoism, and plenitude of all in its microcosm. (The mind is the synthesis of all its attributes, and man is living synthesis of the world with regard to his mind. Paracelsus. Its memory is both a capacity and a power by its retention and ready reproduction of every thing).

39. The intellectual part of the mind, contains the subjective self-consciousness of ego , which is the seed of all its powers; while its other or objective part, bears the erroneous forms of the dull material world in itself. (The former is called the drashtá or viewer ego , and the latter the drishta or the view non ego . The subjective is the thinking subject ego , and the objective is the object of thought the non ego ).

40. The self-born Brahmá saw the yet increate and formless world, as already present before his mind in its ideal state, like a dream at its first creation. He saw it (mentally) without seeing it (actually). ( i.e. The eternal ideas of immaterial forms of possible things in the Divine Mind. The eternal exemplars of things and Archetypes of the Ectypal world. Thus the passage in the Bible “And God saw his works were good.” i.e. answer those in his fair idea. Milton).

192 41. He beheld the whole creation in the self-consciousness (samvitti) of his vast mind, and he saw the material objects, the hills &c., in the samvid of his gross personal consciousness. At last he perceived by his súkshma vid subtile sightedness (clairvoyance), that all gross bodies were as empty as air and not solid substantialities. (Consciousness being the joint knowledge of the subjective and objective, i.e. of ourselves in connection with others; the one is called superior or subjective self-consciousness, and the other or objective personal-consciousness). ^[6]

42. The mind with its embodying thoughts, is pervaded by the omnipresent soul, which is spread out as transpicuously as sun-beams upon the limpid water. (The soul is the chit or intellectual part of the mind (chitbhága of chitta), and the root of all mental activities. The chidbhága has the power of giving knowledge which moves the other faculties of the mind. Gloss).

43. The mind is otherwise like an infant, which views the apparition of the world in its insensible sleep of ignorance; but being awakened by the intellect chit, it sees the transcendent form of the self or soul without the mist of delusion, which is caused by the sensitive part of the mind, and removed by the reasoning faculties of the intellect—Chidbhága.

44. Hear now Ráma! what I am going to tell of the manner, in which the soul is to be seen in this phenomenal world, which is the cause of misleading the mind from its knowledge of the unity to the erroneous notion of the duality. (The sensitivity of the mind of objective phenomenals, misleads it from its intellection of the subjective noumenal part which is a positive unity. Gloss).

45. What I will say, can not fail to come to your heart, by the opposite similes, right reasoning, and graceful style, and good sense of the words, in which they shall be conveyed to you; and 193 by hearing of these, your heart will be filled with delight, which will pervade your senses, like the pervasive oil upon the water.

46. The speech which is without suitable comparisons and graceful phraseology, which is inaudible or clamorous, and has inappropriate words and harsh sounding letters, cannot take possession of the heart, but is thrown away for nothing, like butter poured upon the burnt ashes of an oblation, and has no power to kindle the flame.

The blemishes of speech are all comprised in the following couplet in the Mahábháshya of Patánjala:—ग्रस्तं निरस्तं प्रबिलम्वितं द्रुतमीम्वु कूतं ध्मानमथबिकम्पितं । बिस्रस्तमेणी कृतमङ्गकं हतं बिकीर्ण मेताष्ठस्वरदोषभाबनाः ॥

47. Whatever narrative and tales there are in any language on earth, and whatever compositions are adorned with measured sentences and graceful diction; all these are rendered perspicacious by conspicuous comparisons, as the world is enlightened by the cooling beams of the moon. Hence every sloka almost in this work, is embellished with a suitable comparison.

V asishtha continued:—I will relate to you Ráma, agreeably to your request, the story that was narrated to me of old by Brahmá himself (the personified mind of God and the lord of creatures). The manas or mind produced Manu —the progeny of the mind; who begat the Manujas otherwise called mánavas or manushyas , or men—the offspring of the mind.

2. I had asked the lotus-born god once before, to tell me how these hosts of creation had come to being. (Vasishtha the offspring of Brahmá, had his communion with his father—the first great patriarch of mankind).

3. Then Brahmá the great progenitor of men, granted my request, and related to me the apologue of Aindava in his sonorous voice. (The oracles of God were delivered in the loud noise of thunders— brihad-vachas ).

4. Brahmá said:—All this visible world is the manifestation of the divine mind, like the circling whirl-pools and rippling curls of water on the surface of the sea. (Referring to the revolutions of heavenly bodies in the air).

5. Hear me tell you, said he, how I (the personified mind), awoke at first on the day of creation in a former kalpa, with my volition to create (expand) myself. (The volitive mind rose out of the sleeping intelligence on the dawning day of creation).

6. Erewhile I remained alone, and quietly intent upon the One at the end of the prior day (or Kalpa), by having compressed the whole creation in the focus of my mind, and hid it under the gloom of the primeval night. (Old chaos or darkness that 195 reigned over the surface of the deep before the dawn of light. Tama ásit, tamaságúdhamagra. There was darkness enveloping all things. Sruti).

7. At the end of the chaotic night I awoke as from a deep sleep; and performed my matins as it is the general law (of all living beings). I oped my eyes with a view to create, and fixed my look on the vacuum all about me.

(When that spirit sleeps it is night, and when it awakes, it is a day of recreation (resurrection). Manu).

8. As far as I viewed, it was empty space and covered by darkness, and there was no light of heaven. It was unlimitedly extensive, all void and without any boundary. (Infinite space existed ere creation came into existence. Sruti. All was teom and beom or tama and vyoma ).

9. Being then determined to bring forth the creation, I began to discern the world in its simple (ideal) form within me, with the acuteness of my understanding. ( i.e. I looked into the prototypes or models of things contained in the Mind).

10. I then beheld in my mind the great cosmos of creation, set unobstructed and apart from me in the wide extended field of vacuity. (The archetypes of our ideas, are the things existing out of us. Locke. Our ideas though seen within us, form no part of ourselves or our being).

11. Then the rays of my reflexion stretched out over them, from amidst the lotus-cell of my abode, and sat in the form of ten lotus-born Brahmás over the ten orbs (planets) of this world; like so many swans brooding upon their eggs. (The spirit of God that dove-like sat, brooding over the deep. Milton).

12. Then these separate orbs (mundane eggs), brought forth, to light multitudes of beings, amidst their transparent aqueous atmospheres. (All worlds girt by their covereles of watery ether or nebulous clouds, teemed with productions of every kind).

13. Thence sprang the great rivers and the roaring seas and oceans; and thence again rose the burning lights and blowing 196 winds of the firmament. (The atmospheric water is the source of all things).

14. The gods began to sport in the etherial air, and men moved about on the earth, and demons and serpents were confined in their abodes underneath the ground. (The gods are called devas from their sporting in the regions of light— divideváh divyanti . Men are párthivas from prithví the earth, and demons are called infernal from their abode in the infrapátála or antipodes).

15. The wheel of time turns with the revolution of seasons and their produce, and it adorns the earth with her various productions by change of the seasons.

16. Laws were fixed for all things on all sides, and human actions were regulated in the smritis as right or wrong, and producing as their fruits, the reward of heaven or the torments of hell. (And Brahmá appointed to all beings their several laws. Manu. And there is no single atom that goes beyond its appointed law—nature or dharma , which is an attribute of the Great God).

17. All beings are in pursuit of their enjoyments and liberty, and the more they strive for their desired objects, the better they thrive in them. (The gloss makes the pursuit of earthly enjoyments to be the cause of pain and hell, and that of liberation from them to be productive of heavenly bliss).

18. In this way were the sevenfold worlds and continents, the septuple oceans and the seven boundary mountains, brought to existence, and they continue to exist until their final dissolution at the end of a Kalpa period (which is determined by the Kalpa or will of God).

19. The primeval darkness fled before light from the face of open lands, and took its refuge in mountain caverns and hollow caves; it abides in some places allied with light, as in the shady and sunny forest lands and lawns.

20. The azure sky like a lake of blue lotuses, is haunted by fragments of dark clouds, resembling swarms of black-bees on 197 high; and the stars twinkling in it, liken the yellow filaments of flowers shaken by the winds.

21. The huge heaps of snow setting in the valleys of high hills, resemble the lofty simula trees beset by their pods of cotton.

22. The earth is encircled by the polar mountains serving as her girdles, and the circles of the polar seas serving as her sounding anklets and trinkets. She is girt by the polar darkness as by a blue garment, and studded all about with gems, growing and glowing in the bosoms of her rich and ample mines and seas.

(The lokáloka or polar mountain, is so called from its having eternal light and night on either side, turned towards or beyond the solar light).

23. The earth covered over by the garniture of her verdure, resembles a lady sitting begirt by her robes; and having the produce of paddy for her victuals; and the busy buzz of the world for her music.

24. The sky appears as a bride veiled under the sable mantle of night, with the glittering chains of stars for her jewels. The season fruits and flowers hanging in the air, resemble wreaths of lotuses about her person.

25. The orbs of worlds appear as the beautiful fruits of pomegranates, containing all their peoples in them, like the shining grains of granites in the cells of those fruits.

26. The bright moon-beams stretching both above and below and all around the three sides, appear as the white sacred thread, girding the world above and below and all about; or as the stream of Gangá running in three directions in the upper, lower and nether worlds.

27. The clouds dispersing on all sides with their glittering lightnings, appear as the leaves and flowers of aerial forests, blown away by the breezes on all sides.

28. But all these worlds with their lands and seas, their skies and all their contents, are in reality as unreal as the visionary 198 dreams; and as delusive as the enchanted city of the Fairy land.

29. The gods and demons, men and serpents, that are seen in multitudes in all worlds, are as bodies of buzzing gnats, fluttering about the dumbura —fig trees. (Udumbara is the ficus religiosus—yajnadumbura or sacred fig tree. It is by the orthographical figure aphaeresis or elision of the initial, that udumbara is made dumbura, vulgo ).

30. Here time is moving on with his train of moments and minutes, his ages, yugas and kalpas , in expectation of the unforeseen destruction of all things. (Time devours and destroys all things).

31. Having seen all these things in my pure and enlightened understanding, I was quite confounded to think, whence could all these have come into being. (The first inquiry into the cause and origin of beings).

32. Why is it that I do not see with my visual organs, all that I perceive, as a magic scene spread out in the sphere of my Mind?

33. Having looked into these for a long time with my steadfast attention, I called to me the brightest sun of these luminous spheres and addressed him saying:—(The first address of Brahmá to the sun, corresponds with Adam’s address to that luminary. “Thou glorious sun nature’s first born and the light and life &c.” Milton).

34. Approach to me, O god of gods, luminous sun! I welcome thee to me! Having accosted him thus, I said:—

35. Tell me what thou art and how this world with all its bright orbs came to being; if thou knowest aught of these, then please reveal it to me.

36. Being thus addressed, he looked upon me, and then having recognized me, he made his salutation, and uttered in graceful words and speech.

37. The sun replied:—Thou lord! art the eternal cause of these false phenomena, how is it then that thou knowest it not, but askest me about the cause thereof?

199 38. But shouldst thou, all knowing as thou art, take a delight in hearing my speech, I will tell thee of my unasked and unthought of production, which I beg thee to attend to.

39. O great Spirit! this world being composed of reality and unreality in its twofold view, beguiles the understanding to take it sometimes for a real and at others for an unreal thing. It is the great mind of the Divine Soul, that is thus employed in these incessant and unceasingly endless creations for its diversion. (The soul is the animating power, and the mind is the principle of action. Metaphysically, the soul is an individual name; the mind is a generic term or genus. The soul is opposed to body, the mind to matter. The soul is the principle of animation, the mind of volition. The soul is the mind of a certain being, the mind is the soul without its personality).

T he Sun continued:—It was, my lord! only the other day of one of thy by gone kalpas, and at the foot of a mount, beside the table-land of mount Kailasa standing in a corner of the continent of Jambudvípa:—(A kalpa is one day of Brahmá, and occupies the whole duration of a creation from its beginning to the end, which is called the Kalpánta or night of the god. This agrees with the seven days of creation in the book of Genesis, which are supposed to embrace so many long ages of creation).

2. That there lived a man by name of Suvarnajatá together with all his sons and their progeny, who had rendered that spot a beautiful and pleasant habitation. (The gloss says they were the patriarchs of mankind, settled first on the table-land and at the foot of the Himalayas).

3. There lived among them a Bráhman by name of Indu, a descendant of the patriarch Kasyapa, who was of a saintly soul, virtuous and acquainted with divine knowledge.

4. He resided in his residence with all his relatives, and passed his time agreeably in company with his wife, who was dear to his heart as his second self. (That, woman is ardhánga or half of the body of man, is established in Hindu law; and represented in mythology in the androgyne figures of Hara-Gaurí and Umá-Maheswara).

5. But there was no issue born of this virtuous pair, as there grows no grass in a sterile soil; and the wife remained discontented at the unfruitfulness of her efflorescence or seed.

6. With all the purity and simplicity of their hearts, and the beauty and gracefulness of their persons and manners; they were as useless to the earth, as the fair and straight stem of the pure 201 paddy plant, without its stalk of corn. The discontented pair then repaired to the mountain, in order to make their devotion for the blessing of progeny.

7. They ascended the Kailása mountain, which was unshaded by shady trees, and unpeopled by living beings; and there they stood fixed on one side, like a couple of trees in the barren desert.

8. They remained in their austere devotion, subsisting upon liquid food which supported the trees also. They drank but a draught of water, which they held in the hollow of their palms, from a neighbouring cascade at the close of the day. (There is no single word for a gandusha or chuluka of water in English; the word handful being equivalent to mushthi and prastha ).

9. They remained standing and unmoved as immovable trees, and continued long in that posture, in the manner of an erect wood in heat and cold. ( Várkshivritti means intense meditation conducted by forgetting one’s self to wood or stone).

10. They passed in this manner the period of two ages, before their devotion met with the approbation of the god, who bears the crescent of the moon on his forehead. (This crescent was no doubt the missile disk, which the war-like god Siva held on his head in the manner of the Seiks).

11. The god advanced towards the parching pair, with the cooling moon-beams on his forehead; as when that luminary casts her dewy light on the dried trees and scorched lotuses, under the burning sun beams of a summer day.

12. The god, mounted on his milk-white bull, and clasping the fair Umá on his left, and holding the beaming moon on his head, appeared to them, as the vernal season was approaching to a green wood (or furze), with strewing flowers upon them. (There is an alliteration of soma and soma in the double sense of Uma and the moon. This kind of play upon words is very characteristic of metaphysical writers in all ages, as Alethes melethon . Lewis Hist. Phil. I. 69).

13. They with brightening eyes and faces beheld the god, as the lotuses hail the appearance of the comely moon; and then bowed down to the god of the silvery bow and snow white 202 countenance. (Kálidása in his Mahápadya, has heaped all these and many more ensigns of whiteness on the hoary Hara of Himálaya).

14. Then the god rising to their view like the full moon, and appearing in the midst of the heaven and earth, spoke smilingly unto them in a gentle and audible voice; the breath of which refreshed them, like the breath of spring reviving the faded plants of the forest.

15. The god said:—I am pleased with thy devotion, O Bráhman! prefer thy prayer to me, and have thy desired boon granted to thee immediately.

16. The Bráhman replied:—O Lord of gods, deign to favour me with ten intelligent male children. Let these be born of me to dispel all my sorrows (for want of a male issue).

17. The sun rejoined:—The god said, be it so, and then disappeared in the air; and his great body passed through the etherial path, like the surge of the sea with the tremendous roar of thunders.

18. The Bráhmanic couple then returned to their home with gladness of their hearts, and appeared as the reflexions of the two divinities Siva and Umá in their persons. (The god Siva otherwise called Hara, bears every resemblance to Hercules (Harakula) the son of Jove (Siva); and his consort Umá to Omphale the wife of Hercules. Todd’s Rajasthan).

19. Returning there, the Bráhmani became big with child, by the blessing she had got of her god Siva.

20. She appeared as a thick cloud heavy with rain water, in the state of her full pregnancy; and brought forth in proper time (of child-birth), a boy as beautiful as the digit of the new moon.

21. Thus there were born of her ten sons in succession, all as handsome as the tender sprouts of plants; and these grew up in strength and stature, after they had received their sacramental investitures.

22. In course of a short time, they attained their boyhood, and became conversant in the language of the gods (Sanskrit); 203 as the mute clouds become sonorous in the rainy season. (The Sanskrita, says Sir W. Jones, is more sonorous than Latin. It is the voice of gods, which is as high sounding as the roaring of clouds).

23. They shone in their circle with the lustre of their persons, as the resplendent orbs of the sky burn and turn about in their spheres.

24. In process of time these youths lost both their parents, who shuffled off their mortal coil to go to their last abode. ( i.e. To be amalgamated with the person of Brahmá, with which they were acquainted by their proficiency in yoga divinity).

25. Being thus bereft of both their parents, the ten Bráhman lads left their home in grief, and repaired to the top of the Kailása mountain, to pass there their helpless lives in mourning.

26. Here they conversed together about their best welfare, and the right course that they should take to avoid the troubles and miseries of life.

27. They parleyed with one another on the topics, of what was the best good ( Summum bonum ) of humanity in this world of mortality, and many other subjects (which form the common places in ethics), such as:—

28. What is true greatness, best riches and affluence, and the highest good of humankind? What is the good of great power, possessions, chiefship and even the gain of a kingdom? What forms the true dignity of kings, and the high majesty of emperors?

29. What avails the autocracy of the great Indra, which is lost in one moment (a moment’s time of Brahmá). What is that thing which endures a whole kalpa, and must be the best good as the most lasting?

30. As they were talking in this manner, they were interrupted by the eldest brother, with a voice as grave, as that of the leader of a herd of deer to the attentive flock.

31. Of all kinds of riches and dignities, there is one thing that endureth for a whole kalpa, and is never destroyed; and this is the state of Brahmá, which I prize above all others.

204 32. Hearing this, the good sons of Indu exclaimed all in one voice saying:—Ah! well said; and then they honoured him with their mild speeches.

33. They said: How—O brother, can it be possible for us to attain to the state of Brahmá, who is seated on his seat of lotuses, and is adored by all in this world?

34. The eldest brother then replied to his younger brothers saying:—O you my worthy brothers, do you do as I tell you, and you will be successful in that.

35. Do you but sit in your posture of padmásana , and think yourselves as the bright Brahmá and full of his effulgence; and possessing the powers of creation and annihilation in yourselves. (Padmásana is a certain posture with crossed legs for conducting the yoga).

36. Being thus bid by the eldest brother, the younger brothers responded to him by saying “ Amen ”; and sat in their meditation together with the eldest brother, with gladness of their hearts.

37. They remained in their meditative mood, like the still pictures in a painting; and their minds were concentrated in the inmost Brahmá, whom they adored and thought upon, saying:—

38. Here I sit on the pericarp of a full blown lotus, and find myself as Brahmá—the great god, the creator and sustainer of the universe.

39. I find in me the whole ritual of sacrificial rites, the Vedas with their branches and supplements and the Rishis; I view in me the Sarasvatí and Gáyatrí mantras of the Veda, and all the gods and men situated in me.

40. I see in me the spheres of the regents, of the world, and the circles of the Siddhas revolving about me; with the spacious heaven bespangled with the stars.

41. I see this terraqueous orb ornamented with all its oceans and continents, its mountains and islands, hanging as an ear-ring in the mundane system.

42. I have the hollow of the infernal world, with its demons, 205 and Titans, and serpents and dragons within myself; and I have the cavity of the sky in myself, containing the habitations and damsels of the immortals.

43. There is the strong armed Indra, the tormentor of the lords of peoples; the sole lord of the three worlds, and the receiver of the sacrifices of men.

44. I see all the sides of heaven spread over by the bright net of the firmament; and the twelve suns of the twelve months dispensing their ceaseless beams amidst it.

45. I see the righteous regents of the sky and the rulers of men, protecting their respective regions and peoples with the same care, as the cowherds take for protection of their cattle.

46. I find every day among all sorts of beings, some rising and falling, and others diving and floating, like the incessant waves of the sea. (Everything is changing in the changeful world).

47. It is I (the Ego) that create, preserve and destroy the worlds, I remain in myself and pervade over all existence, as the lord of all.

48. I observe in myself the revolution of years and ages, and of all seasons and times, and I find the very time , to be both the creator and destroyer of things.

49. I see a Kalpa passing away before me, and the night of Brahmá (dissolution) stretched out in my presence; while I reside for ever in the Supreme soul, and as full and perfect as the Divine Spirit itself. (Immortality of the human soul and its unity with the Divine).

50. Thus these Bráhmans—the sons of Indu, remained in this sort of meditation, in their motionless postures like fixed rocks, and as images hewn out of stones in a hill.

51. In this manner these Bráhmans continued for a long period in their devotion, being fully acquainted with the nature of Brahmá, and possest of the spirit of that deity in themselves. They sat in their posture of the padmásana on seats of kusa grass, being freed from the snare of the fickle and frivolous desires of this false and frail world.

206 It is evident from this instance of the Bráhmans’ devotion, that it consisted of the contemplation of every thing in the world in the mind of man; like that of the whole universe in the mind of God. It is the subjective view of the objective that forms what is truely meant by yoga meditation and nothing beside.

T he Sol said:—O great father of creation! thus did these venerable Bráhmans, remain at that spot, occupied with these various thoughts (of existence) and their several actions in their minds for a long time. (This sort of yoga meditation is called Sárúpya, or approximation of one to the divine attribute, of thinking on the States and functions of all things in the world in one’s self).

2. They remained in this state (of abstraction), until their bodies were dried up by exposure to the sun and air, and dropped down in time like the withered leaves of trees. (This is called the Samádhi yoga or absorption in meditation, until one’s final extinction or Euthanasia in the Spirit).

3. Their dead bodies were devoured by the voracious beasts of the forest, or tossed about as some ripe fruits by the monkeys on the hills (to be food for greedy vultures and hungry dogs).

4. These Bráhmans, having their thoughts distracted from outward objects, and concentrated in Brahmáhood, continued in the enjoyment of divine felicity in their Spirits, until the close of the kalpa age at the end of the four yugas.

(The duration of a day of Brahmá extends over a kalpa age composed of four yugas, followed by his night of kalpánta , when he becomes extinct in his death-like sleep, the twin brother of death. Ho hupnos esti didumos adelphos thanatow ).

5. At the end of the kalpa, there is an utter extinction of the solar light, by the incessant rains poured down by the heavy Pushkara and Avartaka clouds at the great deluge (when the doors of heaven were laid open to rain in floods on earth. Genesis).

6. When the hurricane of desolation blew on all sides, and 208 buried all beings under the Universal ocean (which covered the face of the earth).

7. It was then thy dark night, and the previous creation slept as in their yoga- nidrá or hypnotic trance in thy sleeping self. Thus thou continuing in thy spirit, didst contain all things in thee in their spiritual forms. (Darkness reigned on the deep, and the spirit of God viewed everything in itself).

8. Upon thy waking this day with thy desire of creation, all these things are exhibited to thy view, as a copy of all that was in thy inmost mind or Spirit already. (So it is upon our waking from sleep, we come to see a fac-simile of all that lay dormant in the sleeping mind).

9. I have thus related to you O Brahmá! how these ten Bráhmans were personified as so many Brahmás; these have become the ten bright orbs situated in the vacuous sphere of thy mind. (An English poet has expressed the holy soul to appear as a luminary in heaven).

10. I am the one eldest among them, consecrated in this temple of the sky, and appointed by thee, O lord of all! to regulate the portions of time on earthly beings.

11. Now I have given you a full account of the ten orbs of heaven, which are no other than the ten persons united in the mind of Brahmá, and now appearing as detached from him. (Mentally viewed, everything is found situated in the mind, but when seen with open eyes, it seems to be set apart from us. Have therefore your thoughts or your sights as you may choose).

12. This beautiful world that you behold, appearing to your view, with all its wonderful structures, spread out in the skies, serves at best as a snare to entrap your senses, and delude your understanding, by taking the unrealities as realities in your mind. (Brahmá the Demiurgus, being but architect of the world, and a person next to or an emanation of the mind of God, had not the intelligence of the soul, to discern the innate ideas, which represented themselves in the outer creation).

B rahmá said:—O Bráhman! that art the best of Bráhmists (Bráhmos), the God Sol having thus spoken of the ten Bráhmanas to Bráhma (me), held his silence. (Here is a tautology of the word Bráhman in the fashion of metaphysicians in its several homonymous significations. This is an address of Brahmá to Vasishtha—the Bráhman and Brahmist, relating the Bráhmanas).

2. I then thought upon this for sometime in my mind, and said afterwards, O Sol, Sol! do thou tell me at present what I am next to create. (Brahmá’s asking the sun about what he was next to create, bears allusion to his works of creation during the six days of genesis, which was directed by the course of the sun—his morning and evening),

3. Tell me thou sun, what need is there of my making any more worlds, after these ten orbs have come into existence. (These ten orbs are the ten planetary bodies belonging to the solar system).

4. Now O great sage! the sun having long considered in his mind about what I wanted him to tell, replied to me in the following manner in appropriate words.

5. The sun said:—What need hast thou of the act of creating, my lord! that art devoid of effort or desire? This work of creation is only for thy pleasure (and not for any use to thee).

6. Thou lord that art free from desires, givest rise to worlds, as the sunbeams raise the waters, and the sunshine is accompanied by the shadow (as its inseparable companion).

7. Thou that art indifferent to the fostering or forsaking of thy body ( i.e. either to live or die), needst have nothing to desire nor renounce for thy pleasure or pain. (No gain or loss can add to the joy or grief of the apathetic philosophic mind).

210 8. Thou, O Lord of creatures! dost create all these for the sake of thy pleasure only, and so dost thou retract them all in thyself, as the sun gives and withdraws his light by turns. (Creation and annihilation are the acts of expansion and subtraction of all things, from and in the supreme spirit).

9. Thou that art unattached to the world, makest thy creation out of the work of love to thee, and not of any effort or endeavour on thy part.

10. If thou desist from stretching the creation out of the Supreme Spirit, what good canst thou derive from thy inactivity? (Wherefore it is better to do and produce something than nothing).

11. Do thy duty as it may present itself to thee, rather than remain inactive with doing nothing. The dull person who like the dirty mirror, does not reflect the image, comes to no use at all.

12. As the wise have no desire of doing anything which is beyond their reach, so they never like to leave out anything which is useful, and presents itself before them. (Nor long for more, nor leave out your own. Or, Act well thy part &c.).

13. Therefore do thy work as it comes to thee, with a cheerful heart, and calmness of mind; with a tranquil soul, as if it were in thy sleep, and devoid of desires which thou canst never reap.

14. As thou dost derive pleasure, O Lord of worlds! in forming the orbs of the sons of Indu, so the lord of gods will give thee thy reward for thy works of creation.

15. The manner in which, O lord, thou seest the worlds with the eyes of thy mind, nobody can see them so conspicuously with their external organs of vision; for who can say by seeing them with his eyes, whether thy are created or increate.

16. He who has created these worlds from his mind, it is he alone that can behold me face to face, and no other person with his open eyes.

17. The ten worlds are not the work of so many Brahmás as it appeared to thee before; and no body has the power to destroy 211 them, when they are seated so firmly in the mind. (It may be easy to destroy all visible objects, but not to efface the impressions of the mind (memory)).

18. It is easy to destroy what is made by the hand, and to shut out the sensible objects from our perception; but who can annul or disregard what is ascertained by the mind.

19. Whatever belief is deep-rooted in the minds of living beings, it is impossible to remove it by any body, except by its owner (by change of his mind or its forgetfulness).

20. Whatever is habituated to confirmed belief in the mind, no curse can remove it from the mind, though it can kill the body.

21. The principle that is deeply rooted in the mind, the same forms the man according to its stamp; it is impossible to make him otherwise by any means, as it is no way possible to fructify a rock by watering at its root like a tree.

T he Sol said:—The mind is the maker and master of the world; the mind is the first supreme Male: Whatever is done by the Mind (intentionally), is said to be done; the actions of the body are held as no acts.

2. Look at the capacity of the mind in the instance of the sons of Indu; who being but ordinary Bráhmans, became assimilated to Brahmá, by their meditation of him in their minds.

3. One thinking himself as composed of the body ( i.e. a corporeal being), becomes subject to all the accidents of corporeality: But he who knows himself as bodiless (an incorporeal being), is freed from all evils which are accidental to the body.

4. By looking on the outside, we are subjected to the feelings of pain and pleasure; but the inward-sighted yogi, is unconscious of the pain or pleasure of his body. (Lit. of what is pleasant or unpleasant to the body).

5. It is thus the mind that causes all our errors in this world, as it is evidenced in the instance of Indra and his consort Ahalyá (related in the ancient legends).

6. Brahmá said:—Tell me, my Lord Sol, who was this Indra, and who that Ahalyá, by the hearing of which my understanding may have its clear-sightedness.

7. The sun said:—It is related my lord! that there reigned in former times a king at Magadha (Behar), Indra-dyumna by name, and alike his namesake (in prowess and fame).

8. He had a wife fair as the orb of moon, with her eyes as beautiful as lotuses. Her name was Ahalyá and she resembled Rohiní—the favourite of moon.

213 9. In that city there lived a palliard at the head of all the rakes; he was the intriguant son of a Bráhman, and was known by the same name of Indra.

10. Now this queen Ahalyá came to hear the tale of the former Ahalyá wife of Gotama, and her concupiscence related to her at a certain time.

11. Hearing of that, this Ahalyá felt a passion for the other Indra, and became impatient in the absence of his company; thinking only how he should come to her.

12. She was fading as a tender creeper thrown adrift in the burning desert, and was burning with her inward flame, on beds of cooling leaves of the watery lotus and plantain trees.

13. She was pining amidst all the enjoyments of her royal state, as the poor fish lying exposed on the dry bed of a pool in summer heat.

14. She lost her modesty with her self possession, and repeated in her phrensy, “here is Indra, and there he comes to me.”

15. Finding her in this pitiable plight, a lady of her palace took compassion on her, and said, I will safely conduct Indra before your ladyship in a short time.

16. No sooner she heard her companion say “I will bring your desired object to you,” than she oped her eyes with joy, and fell prostrate at her feet, as one lotus flower falls before another.

17. Then as the day passed on, and the shade of night covered the face of nature, the lady made her haste to the house of Indra—the Bráhman’s boy.

18. The clever lady used her persuasions as far as she could, and then succeeded to bring with her this Indra, and present him before her royal mistress forthwith.

19. She then adorned herself with pastes and paints, and wreaths of fragrant flowers, and conducted her lover to a private apartment, where they enjoyed their fill.

20. The youth decorated also in his jewels and necklaces delighted her with his dulcet caresses, as the vernal season renovates the arbour with his luscious juice.

214 21. Henceforward this ravished queen, saw the world full with the figure of her beloved Indra, and did not think much of all the excellences of her royal lord—her husband.

22. It was after sometime, that the great king came to be acquainted of the queen’s amour for the Bráhman Indra, by certain indications of her countenance.

23. For as long as she thought of her lover Indra, her face glowed as the full blown lotus, blooming with the beams of her moon like lover.

24. Indra also was enamoured of her with all his enraptured senses, and could not remain for a moment in any place without her company.

25. The king heard the painful tiding of their mutual affection, and of their unconcealed meetings and conferences with each other at all times.

26. He observed also many instances of their mutual attachment, and gave them his reprimands and punishments, as they deserved at different times.

27. They were both cast in the cold water of a tank in the cold weather, where instead of betraying any sign of pain, they kept smiling together as in their merriment.

28. The king then ordered them to be taken out of the tank, and told them to repent for their crimes; but the infatuated pair, was far from doing so, and replied to the king in the following manner.

29. Great King! As long we continue to reflect on the unblemished beauty of each other’s face, so long are we lost in the meditation of one another, and forget our own persons.

30. We are delighted in our persecutions, as no torment can separate us from each other, nor are we afraid of separation, though O King, you can separate our souls from our bodies.

31. Then they were thrown in a frying pan upon fire, where they remained unhurt and exclaimed, we rejoice, O King! at the delight of our souls in thinking of one another.

32. They were tied to the feet of elephants, to be trampled 215 down by them; but they remained uninjured and said, King we feel our hearty joy at the remembrance of each other.

33. They were lashed with rods and straps, and many other sorts of scourges, which the king devised from time to time.

34. But being brought back from the scourging ground, and asked about their suffering, they returned the same answer as before; and moreover, said Indra to the King, this world is full with the form of my beloved one.

35. All your punishments inflict no pain on her also, who views the whole world as full of myself. (We see our beloved in every shape. Hafiz. A thousands forms of my love, I see around me. Urfi. “ berundaruna man sad surate O paidast ” id ).

36. Therefore all your punishments to torment the body, can give no pain to the mind (soul); which is my true self, and constitutes my personality ( purusha ), which resides in my person (purau sete).

37. This body is but an ideal form, and presents a shadowy appearance to view; you can pour out your punishments upon it for a while; but it amounts to no more than striking a shadow with a stick. (The body is a thing that my senses inform me, and not an occult something beyond the senses. Berkeley. Man can inflict the (unsubstantial) body, and not the (substantial) spirit within. Gospel).

38. No body can break down the brave (firm) mind; then tell me great king! what the powers of the mighty amount to? (The mind is invulnerable, and no human power can break its tenor).

39. The causes that conspire to ruffle the tenor of the resolute mind, are the erroneous conceptions of external appearances. It is better therefore to chastise such bodies which mislead the mind to error. (The certainty of the uncertainty of our bodies, is the only certain means for the certitude of our minds and safety of our souls; and better is it for us that our bodies be destroyed, in order to preserve our minds and souls intact).

40. The mind is firm for ever that is steadfast to its fixed purpose. Nay it is identified with the object which it has constantly 216 in its thoughts. (This is called mental metamorphosis or assimilation to the object of thought, as there is a physical transformation of one thing to another form by its constant contact with the same; such as by the law of chemical affinities, which is termed yoga also in Indian medical works).

41. Being and not being are words applicable to bodies (and are convertible to one another); but they do not apply to the mind; since what is positive in thought, cannot be negatived of it in any wise.

42. The mind is immovable and cannot be moved by any effort like mobile bodies. It is impregnable to all external actions, and neither your anger or favour (barasápa), can make any effect on it.

43. It is possible for men of strong resolutions to change the coarse of their actions; but where is such a strong minded man to be found, who is able to withstand or change the current of his thought?

44. It is impossible to move the mind from its fixed fulcrum, as it is impracticable for tender stags to remove a mountain from its base. This black-eyed beauty is the fixed prop of my mind. (The black eyed beauty of India and Asia, is very naturally opposed to the blue eyed maid of Homer and Europe).

45. She is seated in the lofty temple of my mind, as the goddess bhavání (Juno) on the mount Kailása (Olympus); and I fear nothing as long I view this beloved preserver of my life and soul before me. (The Persian poet Urfi uses the same simile of the temple and mind in the hemistich or distich. “I see her image in my inward shrine, as an idol in the temple of an idolatrous land).”

46. I sit amidst the conflagration of a burning mountain in summer’s heat, but am cooled under the umbrage of her showering cloud, wherever I stand or fall.

47. I think of nothing except of that sole object of my thought and wish, and I cannot persuade myself, to believe me as any other than Indra the lover of Ahalyá.

48. It is by constant association, that I have come to this 217 belief of myself; nor can I think of me otherwise than what is in my nature; for know, O King! The wise have but one and the same object in their thought and view. (So says Hafiz:—If thou wilt have her, think not of another).

49. The mind like the Meru, is not moved by threat or pity; it is the body that you can tame by the one or other expedient. The wise, O King! are masters of their minds, and there is none and nothing to deter them from their purpose.

50. Know it for certain, O King, that neither these bodies about us, nor these bodies and sensations of ours are realities. They are but shows of truth, and not the movers of the mind: but on the contrary, it is the mind which supplies the bodies, and senses with their powers of action; as the water supplies the trees and branches with their vegetative juice.

51. The mind is generally believed as a sensuous and passive principle, wholly actuated by the outward impressions of senses; but in truth it is the mind, which is the active and moving principle of the organs of action. Because all the senses become dormant in absence of the action of the mind; and so the functions of the whole creation are at a stop, without the activity of the Universal Mind— anima mundi . (See Psychology and Mental Philosophy).

T he Sol said:—The lotus-eyed king thus defied by this perverse Indra, addressed the sage Bharata, who was sitting by him (in the court-hall).

2. The king spoke:—Lord, you are acquainted with all morality, and seest this ravisher of my wife, and hearest the arrogant speech, that he utters before our face.

3. Deign, O great sage! pronounce thy fulmination upon him without delay; because it is a breach of justice to spare the wicked, as it is to hurt the innocent.

4. Being thus besought by the great king, Bharata the best of the wise munis ; considered well in his mind, the crime of this wicked soul Indra.

5. And then pronounced his imprecation by saying:—“Do you, O reprobate sinner, soon meet with thy perdition, together with this sinful woman, that is so faithless to her husband.”

6. Then they both replied to the king and his venerable sage, saying,—“what fools must ye be, to have thus wasted your imprecation, the great gain of your devotion, on our devoted heads” (knowing that our souls are invincible).

7. The curse you have pronounced, can do us very little harm; for though our bodies should fall, yet it cannot affect our inward minds and spirits (which are unchangeable).

8. The inner principle of the soul, can never be destroyed by any body and anywhere; owing to its inscrutable, subtile and intellectual nature.

9. The Sol added:—This fascinated pair, that were over head and ears in love, then fell down by effect of the denunciation, as when the lopped branches fall upon the ground from the parent tree.

219 10. Being subjected to the torment of transmigration, they were both born as a pair of deer in mutual attachment, and then as a couple of turtle doves in their inseparable alliance.

11. Afterwards, O lord of our creation, this loving pair came to be born as man and woman, who by their practice of austerities, came to be reborn as a Brahman and Brahmaní at last.

12. Thus the curse of Bharata, was capable only of transforming their bodies; and never to touch their minds or souls which continued in their unshaken attachment in every state of their transfiguration (or metamorphosis of the body only, and no metempsychosis of the soul).

13. Therefore wherever they come to be reborn in any shape they always assume by virtue of their delusion and reminiscence, the form of a male and female pair.

14. Seeing the true love which subsisted between this loving pair in the forest, the trees also become enamoured of the other sex of their own kinds. (This refers to the attachment of the male and female flowers, long before its discovery by Linnaeus).

T he Sol continued:—Therefore I say, my lord! that the mind like time, is indestructible of its nature, and the inavertible imprecation of the sage, could not alter its tenor.

2. Therefore it is not right for thee, O great Brahmá! to destroy the ideal fabric of the air-drawn world of the sons of Indu, because it is improper for great souls, to put a check to the fancies of others (but rather to let every one to delight in his own hobby horse and romantic visions).

3. What thing is there, O lord of lords! that is wanting in thee in this universe of so many worlds, that should make thy great soul, to pine for the air built worlds of Indu’s sons? (It is not for noble minds to pine for the greatness of others, nor repine at the loss which they may sustain).

4. The mind is verily the maker of worlds, and is known as the prime Male—Purusha (the Demiurgus or Protogonus). Hence the mind that is fixed to its purpose, is not to be shaken from it by the power of any imprecation or by virtue of any drug or medicine, or even by any kind of chastisement.

5. The mind which is the image of every body, is not destructible as the body, but remains forever fixed to its purpose. Let therefore the Aindavas continue in their ideal act of creation, (as so many Brahmás themselves).

6. Thou lord that hast made these creatures, remain firm in thy place, and behold the infinite space which is spread out before thee, and commensurate with the ample scope of thy understanding, in the triple spheres of thy intellect and mind, and the vast vacuity of the firmament. ( i.e. The infinitude of the etherial vacuum is co-extensive with the amplitude of Brahmá’s mind, and the plenitude of creations).

221 7. These three fold infinities of etherial, mental and intellectual spaces, are but reflexions of the infinite vacuity of divine intellect, and supply thee, O Brahmá, with ample space for thy creation of as many worlds at thy will.

8. Therefore thou art at liberty to create ad libitum , whatever thou likest and think not that the sons of Indu, have robbed thee of anything; when thou hast the power to create everything.

9. Brahmá said:—After the sun had spoken to me in this manner, concerning the Aindava and other worlds, I reflected awhile on what he said, and then answered him saying:—

10. Well hast thou said, O sun, for I see the ample space of air lying open before me; I see also my spacious mind and the vast comprehension of my intellect, I will therefore go on with my work of creation forever.

11. I will immediately think about multitudes of material productions, whereof O sun! I ordain thee as my first Manu or progeny, to produce all these for me. (The sun light was the first work of creation, and the measure of all created beings, by his days and nights or mornings and evenings).

12. Now produce all things as thou wilt, and according to my behest, at which the refulgent sun readily complied to my request.

13. Then this great luminary stood confest with his bipartite body of light and heat; with the first of which he shone as the sun in the midst of heaven.

14. With the other property of the heat of his body, he became my Manu or agent in the nether worlds. (The solar heat or calor, is the cause of growth upon earth).

15. And here he produced all things as I bade him do, in the course of the revolutions of his seasons.

16. Thus have I related to you, O sagely Vasishtha! all about the nature and acts of the mind, and omnipotence of the great soul; which infuses its might in the mind in its acts of creation and production.

17. Whatever reflexion is represented in the mind, the same is manifested in a visible form, and becomes compact and stands 222 confest before it. (The ideal becomes visible or the noumenal is exprest in the phenomenal).

18. Look at the extraordinary power of the mind, which raised the ordinary Aindava Brahmans to the rank of Brahmá, by means of their conception of the same in themselves.

19. As the living souls of the Aindavas, were incorporated with Brahmá, by their intense thought of him in them (or by their mental absorption of themselves in him); so also have we attained to Brahmáhood, by means of our mental conception of that spiritual light and supreme intellect in ourselves. (So in our daily ritual,अहं ब्रह्म नचान्यस्मि, ब्रह्मैवास्मिन शौकभाक् । सच्चिदानन्दरूपोऽहं, नित्यमुक्त स्वभाववन् ॥

20. The mind is full of its innate ideas, and the figure that lays a firm hold of it, the same appears exprest without it in a visible shape; or else there is no material substance beside one’s own mind. (This is the doctrine of conceptionalists, that all outward objects are but representations of our inborn ideas, in opposition to the belief of sensationalists, that the internal notions are reflections of our external sensations).

21. The mind is the wonderful attribute of the soul, and bears in itself many other properties like the inborn pungency of the pepper. (These inborn properties are the memory, imagination and other faculties of the mind).

22. These properties appear also as the mind, and are called its hyperphysical or mental faculties; while it is downright mistake on the part of some to understand them as belonging to the body. (The sánkhya materialists understand the internal faculties as products of the body and matter).

23. The self same mind is termed also the living principle—Jíva (Zoa), when it is combined with its purer desires; and is to be known after all to be bodiless and unknown in its nature. (The life being combined with gross desires, assumes the body for its enjoyment of them, but loosened from its fetters, it resumes its purer nature. Hence the future spiritual life, is free from grosser wishes).

24. There is no body as myself or any other person in this 223 world, except this wondrous and self-existent mind; which like the sons of Indu, assumes the false conception of being real Brahmás themselves.

25. As the Aindavas were Brahmás in their minds, so my mind makes me a Brahmá also; it is the mind that makes one such and such, according to the conception that he entertains of himself. (We are in reality nothing, but what our minds inform us to be).

26. It is only by a conceit of my mind, that I think myself situated as a Brahmá in this place; otherwise all these material bodies, are known to be as unreal, as the vacuity of the soul wherein they abide.

27. The unsullied mind approximates the Divine, by its constant meditation of the same; but being vitiated by the variety of its desires, it becomes the living being, which at last turns to animal life and the living body. (This is called the incarnation of the living soul or the materialization of the spirit).

28. The intelligent body shines as any of the luminous orbs in the world of the Aindavas, it is brilliant with the intelligent soul, like the appearance of a visionary creation of the mind. (The body is a creature of the mind like a figure in its dream).

29. All things are the productions of the mind and reflexions of itself, like the two moons in the sky, the one being but a reflexion of the other; and as the concepts of the Aindava worlds.

30. There is nothing as real or unreal, nor a personality as I or thou or any other; the real and unreal are both alike, unless it be the conception which makes something appear as a reality which has otherwise no reality of itself.

31. Know the mind to both active and inert ( i.e. both as spirit and matter). It is vast owing to the vastness of its desires, and is lively on account of its spiritual nature of the great God; but becomes inert by its incorporation with material objects.

224 32. The conception of phenomenals as real, cannot make them real, any more than the appearance of a golden bracelet, can make it gold, or the phenomenals appearing in Brahmá, can identify themselves with Brahmá himself.

33. Brahma being all in all, the inert also are said to be intelligent, or else all beings from ourselves down to blocks, are neither inert nor intelligent. (Because nothing exists besides Brahma, wherefore what exists not, can be neither one nor the other).

34. It is said that the lifeless blocks, are without intelligence and perception; but every thing that bears a like relation to another, has its perception also like the other. (Hence all things being equally related to Brahma, are equally sentient also in their natures). ^[7]

35. Know everything to be sentient that has its perception or sensitivity; wherefore all things are possest of their perceptivity, by the like relation (sádrisya-sambandha) of themselves with the supreme soul.

36. The terms inert and sensitive are therefore meaningless, in their application to things subsisting in the same divine spirit; and it is like attributing fruits and flowers to the arbors of a barren land. The barren waste refers to the vacuum of the divine mind, and its arbours to its unsubstantial ideas, which are neither inert nor sentient like the fruits or flowers of those trees.

37. The notion or thought, which is formed by and is an act of the intellect, is called the mind; of these the portion of the 225 intellect or intellectual part, is the active principle, but the thought or mental part is quite inert.

38. The intellectual part consists of the operation of intellection, but the thoughts or thinkables (chetyas), which are the acts of the chit or intellect are known to be inert; and these are viewed by the living soul in the erroneous light of the world, (rising and sitting before it like the sceneries of a phantasmagoria).

39. The nature of the intellect—chit is a pure unity, but the mind— chitta which is situated in the same, and thence called chit—stha or posited in the intellect, is a réchauffé or dualism of itself, and this appears in the form of a duality of the world.

40. Thus it is by intellection of itself as the other form, that the noumenal assumes the shape of the phenomenal world; and being indivisible in itself, it wanders through the labyrinth of errors with its other part of the mind.

41. There is no error in the unity of the intellect, nor is the soul liable to error, unless it is deluded by its belief of pluralities. The intellect is as full as the ocean, with all its thoughts rising and sitting in it as its endless waves. ^[8]

42. That which you call the mental part of the intellect, is full of error and ignorance; and it is the ignorance of the intellectual part, that produces the errors of egoism and personality.

43. There is no error of egoism or personality in the transcendental category of the divine soul; because it is the integrity 226 of all consciousness, as the sea is the aggregate of all its waves and waters.

44. The belief of egoism rises as any other thought of the mind, and is as inborn in it as the water in the mirage, which does not exist really in it.

45. The term ego is inapplicable to the pure and simple internal soul; which being vitiated by the gross idea of its concupiscence, takes the name of ego, as the thickened coldness is called by the name of frost.

46. It is the pure substance of the intellect which forms the ideas of gross bodies, as one dreams of his death in his sleep. The all-pervading intelligence which is the all inherent and omnipotent soul, produces all forms in itself, and of which there is no end until they are reduced to unity.

47. The mind manifests various appearances in the forms of things, and being of a pure etherial form, it assumes various shapes by its intellectual or spiritual body.

48. Let the learned abstain from the thoughts of the threefold forms of the pure intellectual, spiritual and corporeal bodies, and reflect on them as the reflexions of the divine intellect in his own mind.

49. The mind being cleansed of its darkness like the mirror of its dirt, shows the golden hue of spiritual light, which is replete with real felicity, and by far more blissful than what this earthly clod of body can ever yield.

50. We should cleanse the mind which exists for ever, rather than the body which is transient and non-existent; and as unreal as the trees in the air, of which no one takes any notice.

51. Those who are employed in the purification of their bodies, under the impression that the body also is called the átmá or soul (in some sástra); are the atheistic chárvakas , who are as silly goats among men.

52. Whatever one thinks inwardly in himself, he is verily transformed to its likeness, as in the instance of the Aindava Bráhmans, and of Indra and Ahalya cited before.

227 53. Whatever is represented in the mirror of the mind, the same appears in the figure of the body also. But as neither this body nor the egoism of any one, is lasting for ever, it is right to forsake our desires.

54. It is natural for every body to think himself as an embodied being, and to be subject to death (while in reality it is the soul that makes the man, who is immortal owing to the immortality of the soul). It is as a boy thinks himself to be possessed of a demon of his own imagination, until he gets rid of his false apprehension by the aid of reasoning.

V asishtha added:—Now hear, O support of Raghu’s race! what I next proposed to the lotus-born lord Brahmá, after we had finished the preceding conversation.

2. I asked him saying:—Lord! you have spoken before of the irrevocable power of curses and imprecations, how is it then that their power is said to be frustrated again by men.

3. We have witnessed the efficacy of imprecations, pronounced with potent Mantra —anathemas, to overpower the understanding and senses of living animals, and paralyze every member of the body. (This speaks of the incantations and charms of the Atharva Veda).

4. Hence we see the mind and body are as intimately connected with each other, as motion with the air and fluidity with the sesamum seed (because the derangement of the one is attended by the disorganization of the other: i.e. of the body and mind).

5. Or that there is no body except it but be a creation of the mind, like the fancied chimeras of visions and dreams, and as the false sight of water in the mirage, or the appearance of two moons in the sky.

6. Or else why is it that the dissolution of the one, brings on the extinction of the other, such as the quietus of the mind is followed by the loss of bodily sensations?

7. Tell me, my lord! how the mind is unaffected by the power of imprecations and menace, which subdue the senses and say whether they are both overpowered by these, being the one and same thing.

8. Brahmá replied:—Know then, there is nothing in the treasure-house of this world, which is unattainable by man by means of his exertions in the right way.

229 9. And that all species of animal being, from the state of the highest Brahmá, down to minute insects, are bicorpori or endowed with two bodies the mental and corporeal. ( i.e. The mind and the body).

10. The one, that is the mental body, is ever active and always fickle; and the other is the worthless body of flesh, which is dull and inactive.

11. Now the fleshy part of the body which accompanies all animal beings, is overpowered by the influence of curses and charms, practised by the art of incantation— abhichára Vidyá . (Exorcism, the Mumbo Jumbo of the Tantras).

12. The influence of certain supernatural powers stupifies a man, and makes him dull and dumb. Sometimes one is about to droop down insensible, as spell bound persons are deprived of their external senses, and fall down like a drop of water from a lotus-leaf.

13. The mind which is the other part of the body of embodied beings, is ever free and unsubdued; though it is always under the subjection of all living beings in the three worlds.

14. He who can control his mind by continued patience on one hand, and by incessant vigilance on the other, is the man of an unimpeachable character, and unapproachable by calamity.

15. The more a man employs the mental part of his body to its proper employment, the more successful he is in obtaining the object he has in view. (Omnium vincit vigilentia vel diligentia).

16. Mere bodily energy is never successful in any undertaking (any more than brute force); it is intellectual activity only, that is sure of success in all attempts. (The head must guide the body).

17. The attention of the mind being directed to objects unconnected with matter, it is as vain an effort to hurt it (an immaterial object); as it is to pierce a stone with an arrow (or to beat the air).

18. Drown the body under the water or dip it in the mud, burn it in the fire or fling it aloft in air, yet the mind turneth 230 not from its pole; and he who is true to his purpose, is sure of success. (The word tatkshanát phalitah or gaining immediate success, is an incredible expression in the text).

19. Intensity of bodily efforts overcomes all impediments, but it is mental exertion alone which leads to ultimate success in every undertaking (for without the right application of bodily efforts under guidance of reason, there can be no expectation of prospering in any attempt).

20. Mark here in the instance of the fictitious Indra, who employed all his thoughts to the assimilation of himself into the very image of his beloved, by drowning all his bodily pains in the pleasure of her remembrance.

21. Think of the manly fortitude of Mándavya, who made his mind as callous as marble, when he was put to the punishment of the guillotine, and was insensible of his suffering. (So it is recorded of the Sophist Mansur, who was guillotined for his faith in the anal Haq “I am the True One,” and of the martyrs who fell victims to their faith in truth).

22. Think of the sage who fell in the dark pit, while his mind was employed in some sacrificial rite, and was taken up to heaven in reward of the merit of his mental sacrifice. (Redemption is to be had by sacrifice of the soul, and not of the body).

23. Remember also how the sons of Indu obtained their Brahmáhood, by virtue of their persevering devotion, and which even I have not the power to withhold. ( i.e. Even Brahmá is unable to prevent one’s rising by his inflexible devotedness).

24. There have been also many such sages and master-minds among men and gods, who never laid aside their mental energies, whereby they were crowned with success in their proper pursuits.

25. No pain or sickness, no fulmination nor threat, no malicious beast or evil spirit, can break down the resolute mind, any more than the striking of a lean lotus-leaf, can split the breast of a hard stone.

26. Those that you say to have been discomfited by tribulations 231 and persecutions, I understand them as too infirm in their faiths, and very weak both in their minds and manliness.

27. Men with heedful minds, have never been entrapped in the snare of errors in this perilous world; and they have never been visited by the demon of despair, in their sleeping or waking states.

28. Therefore let a man employ himself to the exercise of his own manly powers, and engage his mind and his mental energy to noble pursuits, in the paths of truth and holiness.

29. The enlightened mind forgets its former darkness, and sees its objects in their true light; and the thought that grows big in the mind, swallows it up at last, as the fancy of a ghost lays hold of the mind of a child.

30. The new reflexion effaces the prior impression from the tablet of the mind, as an earthen pot turning on the potter’s wheel, no more thinks of its nature of dirty clay.

(One risen to a high rank or converted to a new creed, entirely forsakes and forgets his former state).

31. The mind, O muni! is transmuted in a moment to its new model; as the inflated or aerated water rises high into waves and ebullitions, glaring with reflexions of sun-light. (Common minds are wholly occupied with thoughts of the present, forgetful of the past and careless of the future).

32. The mind that is averse to right investigation, sees like the purblind, every thing in darkness even in broad day light; and observes by deception two moons for one in the moonshine. (The uninquisitive are blind to the light of truth).

33. Whatever the mind has in view, it succeeds soon in the accomplishment of the same. And as it does aught of good or evil, it reaps the reward of the same, in the gladness or bitterness of his soul.

34. A wrong reflector reflects a thing in a wrong light, as a distracted lover sees a flame in the moonbeams, which makes him burn and consume in his state of distraction. (This is said of distracted lovers, who imagine cooling moon-beams and sandal-paste as hot as fire, and inflaming their flame of love).

232 35. It is the conception of the mind, that makes the salt seem sweet to taste, by its giving a flavour to the salted food for our zest and delight.

36. It is our conception, that makes us see a forest in the fog, or a tower in the clouds; appearing to the sight of the observer to be rising and falling by turns.

37. In this manner whatever shape the imagination gives to a thing, it appears in the same visionary form before the sight of the mind; therefore knowing this world of your imagination, as neither a reality nor unreality, forbear to view it and its various shapes and colours, as they appear to view.

V asishtha said:—I will now tell you Ráma! What I was instructed of yore by lord Brahmá himself. (The prime progenitor of mankind and propounder of the Vedas).

2. From the unspeakable Brahmá, there sprang all things in their undefinable ideal state, and then the Spirit of God being condensed by His Will, it came to be produced of itself in the form of the Mind. (The volitive and creative agency of God).

3. The Mind formed the notions of the subtile elementary principles in itself, and became a personal agent (with its power of volition or creative will). The same became a luminous body and was known as Brahmá the first Male. (Purusha or Protogonus—Pratha-janya or Prathamajanita).

4. Therefore know Ráma, this same Brahmá to be the Parameshthi or situated in the Supreme, and being a personification of the Will of God, is called the Mind.

5. The Mind therefore known as the Lord Brahmá, is a form of the Divine essence, and being full of desires in itself, sees all its wills (in their ideal forms), present before it.

6. The mind then framed or fell of itself, into the delusion (avidyá), of viewing its ideal images as substantial (as one does in his delirium); and thence the phenomenal world (with whatever it contains), is said to be the work of Brahmá.

7. Thus the world proceeding in this order from the Supreme essence, is supposed by some to have come into being from another source, of dull material particles. (Doctrine of Hylotheism or the Materialistic system of Sánkhya Philosophy),

8. It is from that Brahmá, O Ráma! that, all things 234 situated in this concave world, have come to being, in the manner of waves rising on the surface of the deep.

9. The self-existent Brahmá that existed in the form of intellect (chit) before creation, the same assumed the attribute of egoism (ahankára) afterwards, and became manifest in the person of Brahmá. (Thence called Swayambhu or self-born).

10. All the other powers of the Intellect, which were concentrated in the personality of the Ego, were tantamount to those of Omnipotence. (The impersonal Intellect and the personal Ego or Brahmá, are both of them equally powerful). ^[9]

11. The world being evolved from the eternal ideas in the Divine Intellect, manifested itself in the mind of the great father of all—Brahmá. ( Intellectus noster nihil intelligit sine phantasmata ); it is the mind which moves and modifies them, and is the Intelligence (logos-Word) of the One, and the manifestation of its power.

12. The Mind thus moving and modeling all things is called the Jíva living soul or Nous. (The Scholiast says:—The Mind is the genus— Samashti , the soul is an individual name (Vyashti) of every individual living being. The Mind is soul without personality; the soul is the mind of a certain being. The Mind is the principle of volition, and the soul is that of animation).

13. These living souls rise and move about in the vacuous sphere of the infinite Intellect (chidákása). These are unfolded by the elementary particles of matter, and pass in the open space surrounded by air. They then reside in the fourteen kinds of animated nature, according to the merit and demerit of their prior acts. They enter the bodies through the passage of their vital breath, and become the seeds of moving and immoving beings.

14. They are then born of the generative organ (foetus), and are met on a sudden by the desires of their previous births 235 (which lay waiting on them). Thus led on by the current of their wishes, they live to reap the reward or retribution of their good or bad acts in the world.

15. Thus bound fast to action and fettered in the meshes of desire, the living souls enchained in their bodies, continue to rove about or rise and fall in this changeful world by turns.

16. Their wish is the cause of their weal or woe, says the Sruti; and which is inseparable from the soul as volition from the mind. (The wish is the inactive desire of the soul, and volition the active will of the mind).

17. Thousands of living souls, are falling off as fast as the leaves of forest trees; and being borne away by the force of their pursuits, they are rolling about as the fallen leaves wafted by the breeze in the valleys. (The aberration of living souls from the Supreme).

18. Many are brought down and bound to innumerable births in this earth, by their ignorance of the Chit or Divine Intellect, and are subjected to interminable transmigrations in various births.

19. There are some who having passed many mean births in this earth, have now risen high in the scale of beings, by their devotedness to better acts (and are likely to have their liberation in the course of their progression to the best).

20. Same persons acquainted with spirituality, have reached their state of perfection; and have gone to heaven, like particles of sea-water, carried into the air above by the blowing winds.

21. The production of all beings is from the Supreme Brahmá; but their appearance and disappearance in this frail world, are caused by their own actions. Hence the actionless yogi, is free from both these states. (God made everything perfect; Man’s sin brought his death and woe).

22. Our desires are poisonous plants, bearing the fruits of pain and disappointment; and lead us to actions which are fraught with dangers and difficulties. (Cursed was the ground 236 for man’s unrestricted desires, which sowed it with thorns and thistles).

23. These desires drive us to different countries, to distant hills and dales in search of gain. (Else man could live content with little and on his native plain).

24. This world O Ráma! is a jungle of withered trees and brambles; and requires the axe of reason to clear away these drugs and bushes. So are our minds and bodies but plants and trees of our woe, which being rooted out by the axe of reason, will no more come to grow by their transmigration in this earth. (The mind and body are rooted out by Suppression of their desires and passions).

V asishtha said:—Hear me now relate to you, Ráma! the several classes of higher, lower and middling species of beings, and the various grades of their existence here and elsewhere in the scale of creation. ( i.e. The spontaneous production of beings suo motu , when they were not bound by karma-vipáka or acts of a prior life, to be born in any particular form or state on earth).

2. They were the first in their production, and are known as the idam-prathama —or the first class in their birth, whose long practice in a course of virtuous actions in prior states, has secured to them the property of goodness— satva-guna only. (These are the holy saints and sages, who are entitled to their liberation in life time, and upon separation from their bodies).

3. The second grade is called the guna pívari or state of sound qualities, which is attained by the prosperous, and leads them to meritorious deeds, to the acquisition of their desired objects, and their right dealing in the affairs of the world.

(This meritorious state becomes entitled to liberation after some births in this earth).

4. The third grade is termed the sasatwá , or the state of substantiality of men of substance. It is attended with like results, proportioned to the righteous and unrighteous acts of men, who may obtain their liberation after a hundred transmigrations of their souls on earth.

5 & 6. The fourth grade comprises infatuated people called atyanta támasi , who are addicted to their varying desires in this changeful world, and come to the knowledge of truth, after passing a thousand lives in ignorance and sin, and suffering the effects proportionate to their good or evil deeds.

238 7. The fifth grade is composed of men of a baser nature, called adhama-satwá by the wise, and who may possibly have their liberation, after a course of numberless births in different shapes and forms.

8. The sixth grade is composed of those extremely benighted men (atyanta támasi), who are doubtful of their liberation ( Sandigdha-moksha ), and continue in the vicious course of their past lives.

9. Those who after passing two or three previous births in other states, are born afterwards with the quality of gentleness, these are reckoned as the seventh grade, and are denominated the Rájashi—gentry or gentility.

10. Those who remain mindful of their duties, and are employed in discharge of them in this state of life; are said by the wise to be entitled to their liberation, soon after their demise.

11. Those among the Rájashi—gentility, whose acts are commensurate with those of gentlemen and the nobility, are included in the eighth class, and are called Rája Sátwiki —or noble gentlemen; and are entitled to their liberation after a few births on earth.

12. The ninth class comprises the rája-rájashi or right gentlemen, whose actions conform with their title, and who obtain their long longed-for liberation, after a course of hundred births in the same state.

13. The next or tenth class is composed of the rájatámasí or blinded gentry, who act foolishly under their infatuation; and who are uncertain of their liberation, even after a thousand births.

14. The most giddy of this class is called atyanta-rája-tamashi , or the excessively infatuated gentry, whose conduct in life correspond with their name, and whose transmigration does not cease at any time.

15. Then the lower classes comprise the children of darkness or ignorance— tamas ; of whom the támasas form the eleventh grade, and are said to be deprived of their liberation forever 239 more. (These are the Rákshasas and demons of various orders).

16. There have been a few however among them, who have obtained their salvation by means of their divine knowledge, and their good acts during their life time (such as Prahláda, the son of a demon, and Karkotaka—the son of a Nága).

17. Next follows the twelfth order of támasa-rájasa , who combine in them the qualities of darkness and enlightenment, and who are liberated after a thousand births in their former demoniac state, and one hundred births in their progressive improvements.

18. Then comes the thirteenth order of támas-támasi or those in darkest darkness, who have to transmigrate for millions of years both in their prior and later births, before they can have their liberation from the bondage of body.

19. Last comes the fourteenth order of beings, who continue in their state of gross ignorance ( atyanta—támasí ) forever, and it is doubted whether they can have their liberation at all.

(All these classes of human beings have proceeded from Brahmá, whose life and spirit circulate in all of them; else they could neither live nor breathe).

20. All other masses of living beings also, have proceeded from the body of the great Brahmá, as the moving waves rise from the great body of waters.

21. And as the lamp flickering by its own heat, scatters its light on all sides; so does Brahmá glowing in himself, irradiate his beams in the shape of scintilla, to spread all over the universe: (which is the vacuity of Brahmá’s mind, and comprises the cosmos within it).

22. And as the sparks of fire are flung about by force of the burning flame; so do these multitudes of produced beings rise from the substance of Brahmá himself.

23. As the dust and filaments of mandara flowers, fly to and fill the air on all sides; and as the beams of the moon shoot out of its orb, to fill the four quarters of heaven and earth; 240 so the minutiæ of Divine essence emanate from the Deity, and spread throughout the universe.

24. As the variegated arbor, produces its leaves and flowers of various hues from itself; so the varieties of created beings, spring from one Brahmá—the source of all.

25. As the gold ornaments are in relation to the metal gold of which they are made, and wherein they subsist, so Ráma! are all things and persons in relation to Brahmá, out of whom they have sprung and in whom they abide.

26. As the drops of water, are related to the pure water of the cascade, so Ráma, are all things related to the increate Brahmá, whence they issue as drizzling drops.

27. As the air in a pot and about a basin, is the same with the surrounding air of heaven; so are all individual objects the same, with the undivided spirit of the all-pervading Brahmá.

28. As the drops of rain-water, and those of water spouts, whirlpools and waves, are identic with their parent waters; so are all these phenomenal sights, the same with the great Brahmá, whence they spring, and wherein they exist and subside.

29. As the mirage presents the appearance of a billowy sea, by the fluctuation of sunbeams on sand; so do all visible objects show themselves to the sight of the spectator, beside which they have no figure or form of themselves.

30. Like the cooling beams of the moon, and the burning light of the sun, do all things shine with their different lustres derived from Brahmá.

31. It is He, from whom all things have risen, unto him they return in their time; some after their transmigrations in a thousand births, and others after longer periods of their revolutions in various bodies.

32. All these various forms of beings in the multiform world are moving in their respective spheres by the will of the Lord. They come and go, rise and fall, and shine in their transitory forms, like the sparks of fire, fluttering and sparkling for a moment, and then falling and becoming extinct for ever.

V asishtha said:—There is no difference of acts, from the agent, as they have sprung together from the same source of their creator: they are the simultaneous growth of nature like flowers and their odour. (The Gitá says:—The actor, act and its effect, are naturally united together).

2. When human souls are freed from their desires, they are united with the supreme soul of Brahma, as the blueness of the sky which appears distinct to the eyes of the ignorant, is found to be joined with the clear firmament. (The human soul is a shadow of the supreme, as blueness is a shade of vacuity).

3. Know, O Ráma! that it is for the understanding of the ignorant, that the living souls are said to have sprung from Brahma: when they are in reality but shadows of the same.

4. Wherefore it is not right on the part of the enlightened to say that such and such things are produced from Brahma, when there is nothing that exists apart or separate from him: (on account of the unity of all existences and identity of the actor and the act).

5. It is a mere fiction of speech to speak of the world as creation or production, because it is difficult to explain the subject and object of the lecture, without the use of such fictitious language (as the actor and act, the creator and the created &c.).

6. Hence the language of dualists and pluralists is adopted in monotheistic doctrines, as the expressions, this one is Brahma, or divine soul, and these others are the living souls, as they are in use in the popular language.

7. It has been seen (explained), that the concrete world has sprung from the discrete Brahma; because the production of 242 something is the same with its material cause, though it seems different from it to common understandings.

8. Multitudes of living beings rising like the rocks of Meru and Mandara mountains, are joined with the main range from which they jut out. (All are but parts of one undivided whole. Pope.)

9. Thousands and thousands of living beings, are incessantly produced from their common source, like the innumerable sprigs of forest trees, filling the woodland sky with their variegated foliage. (So are all creatures but off shoots of the parent tree of the Supreme Soul).

10. An infinity of living beings will continue to spring from the same, like blades of grass sprouting from the earth below; and they will likewise be reduced to the same, like the season plants of spring, dying away in the hot weather of Summer.

11. There is no counting of the living creatures that exist at any time, and what numbers of them, are being born and dying away at any moment (and like waves of water are rising and falling at each instant).

12. Men with their duties proceed from the same divine source, like flowers growing with their fragrance from the same stem; and all these subside in the same receptacle whence they had their rise.

13. We see the different tribes of demons and brutes, and of men and gods in this world, coming into existence from non-existence, and this is repeated without end.

14. We see no other cause of their continuous revolution in this manner, except the forgetfulness of their reminiscence, which makes them oblivious of their original state, and conform with every mode of their metempsychosis into new forms. (Otherwise the retention of the knowledge of its original state and former impressions, would keep it alive in the same state of primeval purity, and exempt it from all transmigrations).

15. Ráma said:—For want of such reminiscence, I think that, 243 obedience to the dictates of the infallible Sástras, which have been promulgated by the sages, and based on the authority of the Vedas, is the surest way for the salvation of mankind.

16. And I reckon those men as holy and perfect, who are possest of the virtues of the great, and have magnanimity and equanimity of their souls, and have received the light of the unknowable Brahma in them. (Such men are exempt from the pain of transmigration).

17. I reckon two things as the two eyes of the ignorant, for their discernment of the path of salvation. The one is their good conduct, and the other their knowledge of the Sástras, which follows the former.

18. Because one who is righteous in his conduct only, without joining his righteousness with his knowledge also, is never taken into account; and is slighted by all to be plunged into insignificance and misery. (The unlearned virtuous, is as despicable as the learned vicious).

19. Again Sir;—it is the joint assent of men and the Veda, that acts and their actors come one after the other; and not as you said of their rising simultaneously from their divine origin. (That is to say; that the morals established by the wise, and the virtues inculcated by the holy scriptures, are the guides of good acts and their observers, which are not the spontaneous growth of our nature or intention).

20. It is the act which makes the actor, and the actor who does the work. Thus they follow one another on the analogy of the seed and the tree which produce one another. This mutuality of both is seen in the practice of men and ordinances of the Veda.

21. Acts are the causes of animal births, as the seed gives birth to the sprouts of plants; and again works proceed from living beings as the sprouts produce the seeds. (Thus both are causes and effects of one another by turns, and never grown together).

22. The desire that prompts a person to his particular pursuit in his prison house of this world, the same yields him the 244 like fruits and no other. (Men get what they have in their hearts and nothing besides).

23. Such being the case, how was it sir, that you said of the production of animals from the seed of Brahma, without the causality of their prior acts, which you say to be simultaneous with the birth of animal beings.

24. On one hand you have set at naught the law of antecedence and sequence of birth and action to one another, by your position of their simultaneity.

25. And again to say, that Brahma is not the origin of actions, and that Brahmá and other living beings are subjected to their several actions, are self contradictory propositions and opposed to common sense. (For the acts do not originate from Brahmá, they cannot be binding on others; and if the actions do not proceed from that source, whence do they come to take place). This question upsets the doctrine of Free Will.

26. And also to say that living beings are born together with their actions (by predestination), and are bound to them to no purpose, would be to apply to them the analogy of fishes which are caught by the baits they cannot devour, but cause their death. (So men must be bound in vain to the baits of their actions, if they are to go without reaping their fruition).

27. Therefore please to tell me sir, about the nature of acts, for you are best acquainted with the secrets of things, and can well remove my doubts on the subject.

28. Vasishtha replied:—You have well asked, my good Ráma! about this intricate subject, which I will now explain to you in a manner that will enlighten your understanding.

29. It is the activity of the mind which forms its thoughts and intentions, which are the roots or seed of actions; and it is its passivity, which is the recipient of their results. (So says the Sruti:—whatever is thought in the mind, the same is expressed in words and done in action).

30. Therefore no sooner did the principle of the mind spring from the essence of Brahmá, than it was accompanied by its 245 thoughts and actions in the bodies, which the living beings assumed, according to their prior deserts and in-born desires.

31. As there is no difference between the self-same flower and its fragrance; in the same manner there is no distinction of the mind, from its actions which are one and the same thing.

32. It is the exertion of bodily activity, which we call an action here; but it is well known to the wise to be preceded by a mental action, which is called its thought in the mind: ( chitta of the chit or the thought of the thinking principle).

33. It is possible to deny the existence of material objects, of the air and water, the hill and others; but it is impossible to deny the operations of our mental faculties, of which we have subjective evidence in ourselves.

34. No deliberate action of the present or past life goes for nothing; all human actions and efforts are attended with their just results, to which they are properly directed. (Sávadhánam anushthitán).

35. As the ink ceases to be ink, without its inky blackness, so the mind ceases to exist, without the action of its mental operations.

36. Cessation of mental operation, is attended with desinence of thought, and quiescence of the mind, is accompanied with discontinuance of actions. The liberated are free from both of these; but the unemancipate from neither. ( i.e. The liberated are devoid of the thoughts and actions, which are concomitants with one another).

37. The mind is ever united with its activity as the fire with its heat, and the want of either of these, is attended to worldlings with the extinction of both.

38. The mind being ever restless in itself, becomes identified with the actions proceeding from its activity. The actions also whether good or bad, become identified with the mind, which feels their just rewards and punishments. Hence you see Ráma! The inseparable connection of the mind and acts, in reciprocating their actions and reactions upon each other.

V asishtha said:—The mind is mere thought, and thought is the mind in motion (literally, having the property of fluctuation). Its actions are directed by the nature of the thoughts (lit. according to the nature of the objects of thought); and the result of the acts is felt by every body in his mind.

2. Ráma said:—Sir, I pray you will explain in length, regarding the immaterial mind as opposed to the material body, and its inseparable property of will or volition (contrary to the inertness of dull matter).

3. Vasishtha replied:—The nature of the mind is known to be composed of the property of Volition, which is an attribute of the infinite and almighty power of the Supreme soul. ( i.e. The mind is the volitive principle of the soul).

4. The mind is known to be of the form of that self-moving principle, which determines the dubitation of men between the affirmative and negative sides (as whether it is so or not dwikotika ). i.e. The principle of rationality or the Reasoning faculty, consisting of the two great alternatives; viz. 1. The principle of contradiction: or of two contradictory propositions of which one is true, and the other untrue, i.e. Is, or, is not. 2. Raison determinantic or determining by a priori reasoning, as, why so and not otherwise.

5. The mind is known to be of the form of Ego , which is ignorant of the self manifesting soul of God; and believes itself as the subject of its thoughts and actions.

6. The mind is of the nature of imagination (Kalpaná), which is ever busy in its operations: hence the inactivity of the 247 mind is as impossible in this world, as the insapience of the sapient man. (Imagination is an active faculty, representing the phenomena of the internal and external worlds, Sir W. Hamilton. It is an operation of the mind consisting of manifold functions, such as;—1. of receiving by the faculty of conception. 2. of retaining by the faculty of memory. 3. of recalling by the power of reproductive fancy; 4. of combining by productive fancy. In modern philosophy, it is the power of apprehending ideas, and combining them into new forms).

7. As there is no difference in the essence of fire and heat; so there is no difference whatever between mind and its activity, and so betwixt the mind and soul ( i.e. the living soul).

8. The mind is known by many names in the same person and body, according to its various faculties and functions, its various thoughts and desires, and their manifold operations and consequences. (The mind, soul and intellect taken together as the same thing, comprise all the powers of intellect and intelligence).

9. The Divine Mind is said to be distributed into all souls by mistake and without any reason; since the All— to pan is without any substance or substratum, and indivisible in its nature. It is a mere fabrication of our desires and fancies to diversify it in different persons. (The Divine mind being the Anima mundi , contains all within itself, and having no container of it).

10. Whoever has set his desire in any thing as if it were a reality, finds the same to be attended with the like fruit as he had expected of it. (It means either that Association of ideas in the mind, introducing as by a chord; a train of kindred consecutive ideas, which are realised by their constant repetition, or that the primary desires of our nature, which are not factitious, but rising from our constitutions, are soon satisfied).

11. It is the movement of the mind, which is said and perceived by us to be the source of our actions; and the actions of the mind are as various as the branches, leaves and fruits of trees. (So it is said, the tree of desire has the mind for its seed, which gives force to the action of bodily organs, resembling 248 its branches; and the activities of the body, are the causes which fructify the tree of desire).

12. Whatever is determined by the mind, is readily brought into performance by the external organs of action (Karmendriya); thus because the mind is the cause of action, it is identified with the effect. (By the law of the similarity of the cause and effect, in the growth of one seed from another. Or that the efficient cause a quo , is the same with the final- propte quod by inversion of the causa cognoscendi—in the effect being taken for the cause).

13. The mind, understanding, egoism, intellect, action and imagination, together with memory, or retentiveness, desire, ignorance, exertion and memory, are all synonyms of the mind. (The powers of the mind, constitute the mind itself).

14. So also sensation, nature, delusion and actions, are words applied to the mind for bewilderment of the understanding. (Many words for the same thing, are misleading from its true meaning).

15. The simultaneous collision of many sensations (like the Kákátáli sanyoga), diverts the mind from its clear sight of the object of its thought, and causes it to turn about in many ways.

16. Ráma asked:—How is it Sir, that so many words with their different significations, were invented to express the transcendent cause of our consciousness (the mind), and heap them on the same thing for our confusion only?

17. Vasishtha replied:—As man began to lose sight of his consciousness, and laboured under suppositions about his-self, it was then that he found the mind to be the waking principle within him. ( i.e. It is after one has lost the knowledge of his conscious soul, that he thinks himself to be composed of the mind. Or it was after man’s degradation from his spiritual nature, that he came to consider himself as an intellectual being with no higher power than his mental faculties the manas ; (whence he derives his name as man , mánava or manusha )).

18. When man after considering himself and other things 249 comes to understand them in their true light; he is then said to have his understanding— buddhi . (We understand with or by means of reason, as we say—a proposition is right by its reasons hetuváda ; but not reason on any thing without understanding it; as we cannot judge of a thing without knowing what it is).

19. When man by false conception of himself, assumes a personality to him by his pride, he is called an egoist, with the principle of ego or egoism in him, causing his bondage on earth. Absolute egoism is the doubting of every thing beside self-existence. Persona est rationalis naturae individua substantia. Boethius.

20. It is called thought which passes from one object to another in quick succession, and like the whims of boys, shifts from one thing to another without forming a right judgement of any. (Thoughts are fickle and fleeting, and flying from one subject to another, without dwelling long upon any).

21. The mind is identified with acts, done by the exercise of a power immanent in itself as the agent; and the result of the actions, whether physical or moral, good or bad, recurs to the mind in their effects. (The mind is the agent and recipient of the effects of all its various internal and external actions, such as right or wrong, virtuous or vicious, praiseworthy or blamable, perfect or imperfect and the like).

22. The mind is termed fancy for its holding fast on fleeting phantasies by letting loose its solid and certain truths. It is also the imagination, for giving various images or to the objects of its desire— ihita Kalpaná . It is called Kákatálíya Sanyoga or accidental assemblage of fancied objects. It is defined as the agglutinative and associative power to collect materials for imagination which builds up on them. ( Imaginari est quan rei corporae figuram contemplari. Descartes).

23. The Memory or retention is that power of the mind, which retains an image whether known or unknown before, as if it were a certainty known already; and when it is attended with the effort of recalling it to the mind, it is termed as remembrance or recollection. (Memory is the storehouse of ideas preconceived or thought to be known before 250 in the mind. Retention is the keeping of the ideas got from sensation and reflection. Remembrance is the spontaneous act of the mind; and recollection and reminiscence, are intentional acts of the will. All these powers and acts of the mind, are singly and collectively called the mind itself; as when I say, I have got it in mind, I may mean, I have it in memory, remembrance &c. &c.)

24. The appetence which resides in the region of the mind, for possession of the objects of past enjoyment; as also the efforts of the mind for attainment of other things, are called its desires. (Appetites or desires are—common to all, and are sensitive and rational, irascible &c. Vide Reed and Stewart. The mind is the same as desire; as when I say, I have a mind to do a thing, I mean, I have a desire to do it).

25. When the mind’s clear sight of the light of the soul or self, is obscured by the shadow of other gross things, which appear to be real instead of the true spiritual, it is called ignorance; and is another name of the deluded understanding. (It is called avidyá or absence of Vidyá or knowledge of spiritual truth. It becomes Mahávidyá or incorrigible or invincible ignorance, when the manners and the mind are both vitiated by falsehood and error).

26. The next is doubt, which entraps the dubious mind in the snare of scepticism, and tends to be the destruction of the soul, by causing it to disbelieve and forget the supreme spirit. (To the sceptic doubts for knowledge rise; but they give way before the advance of spiritual light).

27. The mind is called sensation, because all its actions of hearing and feeling, of seeing and smelling, thinking and enjoying, serve to delight the senses, which convey the impressions back to the mind. (The doctrine that all knowledge is derived originally from senses, holds the single fact of sensation as sufficient for all mental phenomena. It is the philosophy of Condillac, called Dirt philosophy by Fichte).

28. The mind that views all the phenomena of nature in the Supreme Spirit, and takes outward nature as a copy of the 251 eternal mind of God, is designated by the name of nature itself. (Because God is the Natura naturans or the Author of Nature; and the works of nature—matter and mind, are the Natura naturata . Hence the mind knowing its own nature and that of its cause, is said to be an union of both natures, and is the personality of Brahmá the Demiurge, who is combined of nature and mind).

29. The mind is called máyá or magic, because it converts the real into unreal, and the unreal into real. Thus showing the realities as unrealities, and the vice-versa by turns. It is termed error or mistake of our judgement, giving ascent to what is untrue and the contrary. The causes of error are said to be ignorance (avidyá) and passions (tamas).

30. The sensible actions are seeing and hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling, of the outward organs of sense; but the mind is the cause both of these actions and their acts. (The mind moves the organs to their actions, as also feels and perceives their acts in itself).

31. The intellect (chit) being bewildered in its view of the intellectual world (chetyas), manifests itself in the form of the mind, and becomes the subject of the various functions which are attributed to it. (The intellect having lost its universality, and the faculty of intellection or discernment of universal propositions, falls into the faults of sensitivity and volition, by employing itself to particular objects of sense and sensible desires).

32. Being changed into the category of the mind, the intellect loses its original state of purity, and becomes subject to a hundred desires of its own making (by its volitive faculty).

33. Its abstract knowledge of general truths being shadowed by its percipience of concrete and particular gross bodies, it comes to the knowledge of numbers and parts, and is overwhelmed by the multiplicity of its thoughts and the objects of its desires. ( i.e. Having lost the knowledge of the universal whole and discrete numbers, the mind comes to know the concrete particulars only).

252 34. It is variously styled as the living principle and the mind by most people on earth; but it is known as intellection and understanding (chitta and buddhi) by the wise.

35. The intellect being depraved by its falling off from the sole supreme soul, is variously named by the learned according to its successive phases and functions, owing to its being vitiated by its various desires, and the variety of their objects.

36. Ráma said:—O Sir! that art acquainted with all truths, please tell me, whether the mind is a material or immaterial thing, which I have not been able to ascertain as yet. (It is said to be matter by materialists and as spirit by spiritualists).

37. Vasishtha replied:—The mind, O Ráma! is neither a gross substance nor an intelligent principle altogether: it is originally as intelligent as the intellect; but being sullied by the evils of the world and the passions and desires of the body, it takes the name of the mind. (From its minding of many things).

38. The intellect (chit) which is the cause of the world, is called the chitta or heart, when it is situated in the bosom of sentient bodies, with all its affections and feelings (ávilám). It then has a nature between goodness and badness (by reason of its moral feelings and bad passions).

39. When the heart remains without a certain and uniform fixity to its purpose, and steadiness in its own nature, it feels all the inner changes with the vicissitudes of the outer world, and is as a reflector of the same. (The text says, the fluctuations of the heart, cause the vicissitudes of the world. But how can the heart be subjective, and the world the objective? Is the heart author of its feelings without receiving them from without? Yes).

40. The intellect hanging between its intelligence and gross objects, takes the name of the mind, when it is vitiated by its contact with outward objects.

41. When the action of the Intellect or the faculty of intellection, is vitiated by sensitivity, and becomes dull by reason of its inward dross; it is then styled the mind, which is neither a gross material thing, nor an intelligent spiritual principle.

253 42. The intellectual principle is variously designated by many such names, as the mind, the understanding, the ego , and the living soul or principle of animation.

43. The mind bears its different appellations according to the variety of its functions; just as an actor in the theatre, appears under different names and garbs of the dramatic personages on the stage. (The world is a stage, where one man acts many parts. Shakespeare).

44. As a man passes under many titles, according to his various occupations and professions; so the mind takes different appellations according to the various operations of its nature. (Thus one man is a scholar, a householder, an officer, a subject and many others at once).

45. Besides the names that I have mentioned regarding the mind, the disputants in mental philosophy, have invented many others agreeably to their diverse theories.

46. They have attributed to the mind many designations, according to the views in which they designed to exhibit its nature; such as some calling it the intellect, another the understanding, the sensation and so forth.

47. One takes it as dull matter, and another as the living principle; some one calls it the ego, while others apply the term understanding to it. (As Manas or Manu is the father of and of the same nature with all mankind; so is the mind manas or mens , similar in its nature and names with every one and all its operations).

48. I have told you, Ráma that egoism, mind and the light of understanding, together with the volition of creation, are but different properties of the one and same internal principle. (Ego—the subjective, mind—the motive, understanding—the thinking, and the volitive powers, all relate to the same soul. All these are different faculties having the one and same common root—the one universal soul).

49. The Nyáyá philosophy has taken the mind &c., in different lights according to its own view of them; and so the Sánkhya system explains the perception and senses in a way peculiar to 254 itself. (Namely: the Nyáyá says, the Ego to be a dravya or substance; the living soul as God; the mind a sensitive particle and internal organ; and understanding as a transitory property of the mind. The Sánkhya has the understanding as a product of matter, and egoism a resultant of the same, and the mind as the eleventh organ of sense).

50. In this manner are all these terms taken in very different acceptations, by the different systems of Mímámsá, Vaiseshika, Arhata and Buddhist philosophy. The Pancharátra and some other systems, have given them particular senses disagreeing with one another. (See Rákháldása Nyayaratna’s tract on the identity of the mind and the soul átmá ; and Hirálal’s reply to and refutation of the same).

51. All these various doctrines, arising at different times and in distant countries, lead at last to the same supreme Being, like the very many different ways, leading their passengers to the same imperial city. (All systems of philosophy, like every scheme of religion and its different sects and schisms, lead their followers to the same truth of one Superintending power or Deity).

52. It is ignorance of this supreme truth or misunderstanding of the discordant doctrines, that causes the votaries of different systems and sects, to carry on an endless dispute among themselves with bitter acrimony. (All party contentions, are but effects of ignorance of the various terminology bearing the same sense).

53. The disputants maintain their particular positions by their respective dogmatism; just as passengers persist in their accustomed paths as the best suited to them. (Bias has a stronger basis in the mind and has a faster hold of the human heart, than the best reason and the surest truth).

54. They have spoken falsely, whose words point out every thing as the fruit of our acts, and direct mankind only to the performance of their actions. It is according to the various prospects that men have in view, that they have given their reasons in their own ways. (Ask of the learned, the learned are blind, this bids you shun, and that to love mankind. Pope).

255 55. The mind receives its various names from its different functions as a man is called a Snataka or early bather, and a dátá —donor, from his acts of sacred ablutions and religious gifts.

56. As the actor gets his many titles, according to the several parts which he performs; so the mind takes the name of a Jíva or living being, from its animation of the body and its desires. (The mind is repeatedly said to be the animating and volitive principle).

57. The mind is said to be the heart also, which is perceived by every body to reside within himself. A man without the heart, has no feeling nor sensation.

58. It is the heart which feels the inward pleasure or pain, derived from the sight or touch, hearing or smelling, and eating and drinking of pleasurable and painful things.

59. As the light shows the colours of things to the sight, so the mind is the organ, that reflects and shows the sensations of all sensible objects in the cranium and sensory.

60. Know him as the dullest of beings, who thinks the mind to be a dull material substance; and whose gross understanding cannot understand the nature of the Intellect.

61. The mind is neither intelligence (chetana) nor inert matter (jada); it is the ego that has sprung amidst the various joys and griefs in this world. (The pure intelligence knows no pleasure nor pain; but the mind which is the same with the conscious ego , is subjected to both in this world).

62. The mind which is one with the divine Intellect ( i.e. sedately fixed in the one Brahmá), perceives the world to be absorbed into itself; but being polluted with matter (like fresh water with soil), it falls into the error of taking the world for real. (The clear mind like clear water is unsullied with the soil of the material world; but the vitiated mind, like foul water, is full of the filth of worldliness).

63. Know Ráma, that neither the pure immaterial intellect, nor gross matter as the inert stone, can be the cause of the material world. (The spirit cannot produce matter, nor can dull matter be productive of itself).

256 64. Know then, O Rághava, that neither intelligence nor inertia, is the cause of the world; it is the mind that is the cause of visible objects, as it is the light which unfolds them to the view. (Intelligence is the knowledge of the self-evident, and not their cause).

65. For where there is no mind, there is no perception of the outer world, nor does dull matter know of the existence of anything; but everything is extinct with the extinction of the mind. (A dead body like a dull block, is insensible of every thing).

66. The mind has a multiplicity of synonyms, varied by its multifarious avocations; as the one continuous duration undergoes a hundred homonyms, by the variations of its times and seasons.

67. If egoism is not granted to be a mental action, and the sensations be reckoned as actions of the body; yet its name of the living principle, answers for all the acts of the body and mind. (Egoism or knowledge of the self, is attributed to the soul by some schools of philosophy, and sensations are said to be corporeal and nervous actions; yet the moving and animating power of the mind, must account for all bodily and mental actions.)

68. Whatever varieties are mentioned of the mind, by the reasonings of different systems of philosophy, and sometimes by the advocates of an opinion, and at others by their adversaries:—

69. They are neither intelligible nor distinguishable from one another, except that they are all powers of the self-same mind; which like the profluent sea, pours its waters into innumerable outlets.

70. As soon as men began to attribute materialistic powers and force to the nature of the pure (immaterial) consciousness, they fell into the error of these varieties of their own making.

71. As the spider lets out its thread from itself, it is in the same manner that the inert has sprung from the intellect, and matter has come into existence from the ever active spirit of Brahmá.

257 (The Sruti says:—Every thing comes out of the spirit as the thread from the spider, the hairs and nails from the animal body, and as rocks and vegetables springing from the earth).

72. It is ignorance (of the said Sruti), that has introduced the various opinions concerning the essence of the mind; and hence arose the various synonymous expressions, significant of the Intellect among the opponents.

73. The same pure Intellect, is brought to bear the different designations of the mind, as understanding, living principle and egoism; and the same is expressed in the world by the terms intelligence, heart, animation and many other synonyms, which being taken as expressive of the same thing, must put an end to all dispute. (So all metaphysical disputes owe their origin to the difference of terminology. Such as, Kant regarded the mind under its true faculties of cognition, desire and moral feeling, called as Erkenntnißvermögen or Denkvermögen, Begehrungsvermögen, and Gefühlsvermögen. Instead of multiplying the synonyms of Mind here, I refer the reader to Roget’s Thesaurus for them).

R áma said:—I come to understand, O venerable sage! from all you have propounded, that this grandeur of the universe being the work of the Divine Mind, is all derived from the same. (Here the creation of the world by the Divine mind, is viewed in the pantheistic light of Emanation).

2. Vasishtha answered:—The Mind as already said, having assumed a substantial form, manifested itself in the form of water in the mirage, raised by the shining blaze of its own light. (This passage embodies both theories, that light was the first work of God, and the Spirit of God moved on the surface of the waters. O ruh Eloim marhapeth-fi pene al maim. Genesis. Apa eva Sasarjádan. Manu).

3. The mind became amalgamated (identic), with the contents of the world, in the Spirit of Brahmá, now showing itself in the form of man, and now appearing as a God. ( i.e. the mind reflected on these images which were evolution of itself in itself; because the thought or product of the mind, was of the same substance with itself). (This accords with the pantheistic doctrine, that God and Nature are one substance, and the one is a modification of the other).

4. Somewhere he showed himself as a demon and at another place like a yaksha (yakka); here he was as a Gandharvá , and there in the form of a Kinnará . (All these were the ideal manifestations of the Divine Mind).

5. The vast expanse of the Mind, was found to comprise in it the various tracts of land; and the pictures of many cities and habitable places. (Because the mind is the reservoir of all their images).

259 6. Such being the capacity of the mind, there is no reckoning of the millions of bodies, which are contained in it, like the woods and plants in a forest. All those are not worth our consideration in our inquiry about the mind. (They are as useless to the psychologist as botany is to the geologist).

7. It was this mind which spread out the world with all its contents, beside which there exists naught but the Supreme Spirit. (The mind is the container of the archetypes of the ectypal world, or the recording power of knowledge; but the Supreme Soul is the disembodied self-consciousness, having the principle of volition or Will; while the Spirit is the animating faculty of the soul).

8. The soul is beyond every category, it is omnipresent and the substratum of all existence, and it is by the power of this soul, that the mind doth move and manifest itself. (The mind is the soul incorporated with bodies; but the soul is quite apart from these).

9. The Mind is known as the cause of the body, which is work of the mind; it is born and becomes extinct with the body, which the soul does not, nor has it any such quality which belongs to the mind.

10. The mind is found by right reasoning to be a perishable object, and no sooner doth it perish, than the living soul succeeds to obtain its final liberation. For the desires of the mind are the bondage of its transmigration, but the dissolution of the mind with its desires, secures its liberation. (Volition and velleity, are the active and inactive acts of the mind for its eternal bondage).

11. After decadence of the mental desires there is no more any exertion for acts. This state is called the liberation of living souls, from their release from trouble and care; and the mind thus released, never comes to be born and die again. (Free from desire, is freedom from deadly sin).

12. Ráma said:—Sir! You have said before, that human nature is principally of three kinds viz:—the good, the gentle 260 and the base ( Satva , rajas and tamas ); and it is owing to the good or bad nature of their minds, that men differ from one another.

13. Now please tell me, how could the wondrous mind originate from the pure intellect with its good or bad propensities, which are wanting in the Divine Intellect.

14. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are three spheres of the infinite vacuity, at immense distances from one another: and these are the intellectual, mental, and the physical spheres.

15. These spheres are common to all mankind, and are spread out everywhere; and they have all sprung and come to being from the essence of the Chit or Divine Intellect. (The first is the space of Divine Infinity, the second is the spatium dunamia or potential space and may be filled by bodies; and the third is the place energeia or actually occupied by bodies).

16. That space which is both in the inside and outside of everything, and denotes its occupation or otherwise by some substance or its absence, and pervades through all nature, is called the inane sphere of the Intellect.

17. That is called the sphere of the Intellect, which embraces all space and time which has spread out the other spheres, and which is the highest and best of all.

18. The physical sphere contains all created beings, and extends to the circuit of the ten sides, all about and above and below us. It is a continued space filled with air, which supports the clouds and waters above the firmament.

19. Then the vacuity of the mental sphere, which has also sprung from the intellectual sphere, has likewise the intellect for its cause like the others, as the day is the source of all works and animal activities. (Here the word works has the double sense of the works of creation, which were made in the week days, and the daily works of men and their religious duties, all which are done in the day time. The night being the time to sleep).

261 20. The vitiated Intellect which views itself as a dull thing, amidst the gross material objects of the physical sphere, the same is termed the mind, which thinks of both spheres, whence it is born and where it is placed.

21. It is for the understanding of the unenlightened, that I have made use of the metaphor of the spheres; because figures are used for the instruction of the unenlightened and not to lighten the enlightened. (These serve for ocular demonstrations in mathematical and not in metaphysical sciences).

22. In the intellectual sphere, you will see one Supreme Brahma, filling its whole space, and being without parts or attributes, and intelligible only to the enlightened.

23. The ignorant require to be instructed in appropriate words and precise language, showing the demarkation between monotheism and ditheism, which is unnecessary for the instruction of the enlightened.

24. I have contrived to explain to you the nature of divine knowledge, by the parable of the three spheres, which will enlighten you as long as you are in dark on the subject.

25. The intellectual sphere being obscured by ignorance, we are led to look into the mental and physical spheres; not knowing that they are as delusive as the sunbeams in a mirage, and as destructive as the flames of a conflagration.

26. The pure intellect being changed to the state of the changeful mind, takes a debased figure; and then being confounded in itself, weaves the magic web of the world to entangle itself in the same.

^[10] 27. The ignorant that are guided by the dictates of their perverted minds, know nothing concerning the nature of the Intellect, which is identic with the Supreme. So the witless 262 that unwittingly take the white shells for bright silver, are seen to labour under their delusion, until they are freed from it, by the clear light of their understanding.

W hatever may be the origin and nature of the human heart (which some take for the mind), it should be always inquired into in seeking out one’s own liberation. (The heart called antahkarana —an inner organ, is often supposed as the same with the mind; its cravings after worldliness, are to be suppressed under its longing for liberation from worldly cares).

2. The heart being fixed in the Supreme, becomes purified of its worldly desires and attachments; and then O Ráma! it perceives that soul in itself, which transcends all imaginations of the mind. (Kalpanás are imaginary attributes of God in the mind; who can only be seen in the heart).

3. It is the province of the heart, to secure the sedateness of the world in itself; and it lies in the power of the heart, either to make its bondage or get its freedom, from the desires and troubles of the world.

4. On this subject there hangs a curious tale relating the legend of the heart, which was revealed to me of yore by Brahmá himself; and which I will now relate to you Ráma, if you will listen to it with attention.

5. There is a long, open and dreary desert, Rámátaví by name; which was quite still and solitary and without an inhabitant, in it; and so vast in its extent, as to make a pace of a league of it. (Or rather to make a league of a pace of it).

6. There stood a man of a terrific and gigantic figure in it, with a sorrowful visage and troubled mind, and having a thousand arms and a thousand eyes.

7. He held many clubs and maces in all his manifold arms, with which he was striking his own back and breast, and then 264 running away in this direction and that (as if for fear of being caught by some one).

8. Then having struck himself fast and hard with his own hands, he fled afar a hundred leagues for fear of being laid hold by some body.

9. Thus striking and crying and flying afar on all sides, he became tired and spent, and lank in his legs and arms.

10. He fell flat with his languid limbs in a large blind pit, amidst the deep gloom of a dark night, and in the depth of a dire dark cave (from which he could not rise).

11. After the lapse of a long time, he scrambled out of the pit with difficulty; and again continued to run away, and strike himself with his own hands as before.

12. He ran again a great way, till at last he fell upon a thorny thicket of Karanja plants, which caught him as fast in its brambles, as a moth or grasshopper is caught in a flame.

13. He with much difficulty extricated himself from the prickles of the Karanja furze; and began again to beat himself as before, and run in his wonted course as usual.

14. Having then gone a great way off from that place, he got to a grove of plantain arbour under the cooling moonbeams, where he sat for a while with a smiling countenance.

15. Having then come out of the plantain grove, he went on running and beating himself in his usual way.

16. Going again a great way in his hurriedness, he fell down again in a great and darksome ditch, by being exhausted in all his limbs and his whole body.

17. Rising from the ditch, he entered a plantain forest, and coming out from that spot, he fell into another ditch and then in another Karanja thicket.

18. Thus he was falling into one ditch after rising from a thorny furze, and repeatedly beating himself and crying in secret.

19. I beheld him going on in this way for a long time, 265 and then I with all my force, rushed forward and stopped him in his way.

20. I asked him saying:—Who are you Sir, and why do you act in this manner? What business have you in this place, and why do you wail and trouble yourself for nothing?

21. Being thus asked by me, O Ráma! he answered me saying:—I am no body, O sage! nor do I do any such thing as you are telling me about.

22. I am here stricken by you, and you are my greatest enemy; I am here beheld and persecuted by you, both to my great sorrow and delight.

23. Saying so, he looked sorrowfully into his bruised body and limbs, and then cried aloud and wept a flood of tears, which fell like a shower of rain on the forest ground.

24. After a short while he ceased from his weeping, and then looking at his limbs, he laughed and cried aloud in his mirth.

25. After his laughter and loud shouts were over, hear, O Ráma! what the man next did before me. He began to tear off and separate the members of his big body, and cast them away on all sides.

26. He first let fall his big head, and then his arms, and afterwards his breast and then his belly also.

27. Thus the man having severed the parts of his body one after another, was now ready to remove himself elsewhere with his legs only, by the decree of his destiny.

28. After he had gone, there appeared another man to my sight, of the same form and figure with the former one, and striking his body himself as the other.

29. He kept running with his big legs and outstretched stout arms, until he fell into the pit, whence he rose again, and betook to his flight as before.

30. He fell into a pond again, and then rose and ran with his body wringing with pain; falling again in hidden caves, and then resorting to the cooling shade of forest trees.

266 31. Now ailing and now regaling, and now torturing himself with his own hands; and in this way I saw him for sometime with horror and surprise in myself.

32. I stopped him in his course, and asked about what he was doing; to which he returned his crying and laughter for his answers by turns.

33. Finding at last his body and limbs decaying in their strength, he thought upon the power of destiny, and the state of human lot, and was prepared to depart.

34. I came again to see another succeeding him in the same desert path, who had been flying and torturing himself in the same way as the others gone before him.

35. He fell in the same dark pit in his flight, where I stood long to witness his sad and fearful plight.

36. Finding this wretched man not rising above the pit for a long time, I advanced to raise him up, when I saw another man following his footsteps.

37. Seeing him of the same form, and hastening to his impending fall in the doleful pit, I ran to stop his fate, by the same query I made to the others before.

38. But O lotus-eyed Ráma! the man paid no heed to my question and only said, you must be a fool to know nothing of me.

39. You wicked Bráhman! he said to me, and went on in his course; while I kept wandering in that dreadful desert in my own way.

40. I saw many such men coming one after the other to their unavoidable ruin, and though I addressed to all and every one of them, yet they softly glided away by me, like phantoms in a dream.

41. Some of them gave no heed to my saying, as a man pays no attention to a dead body; and some among the pit-fallen had the good fortune of rising again.

42. Some among these had no egress from the plantain 267 grove for a long while, and some were lost forever, amidst the thorns and thistles of Karanja thickets.

43. There were some pious persons among them, that had no place for their abode; though that great desert was so very extensive as I have told you already (and capable of affording habitations for all and many more of them).

44. This vast desert is still in existence, together with these sorts of men therein; and that place is well known to you, Ráma, as the common range of mankind. Don’t you remember it now, with all the culture of your mind from your early youth?

45. O that dreadful desert is this world, filled with thorns and dangers on all sides. It is a dark desert amidst a thick spread darkness, and no body that comes herein, finds the peace and quiet of his heart, except such as have acquired the divine knowledge, which makes it a rose garden to them. (See the pit-falls in the bridge of Addison’s Vision of Mirza).

R áma said:—What is that great desert, Sir, and when was it seen by me, and how came it to be known to me? What were those men there, and what were they about?

2. Vasishtha replied:—Attend O great-armed Ráma! and I will tell you all:—

That great desert is not distant nor different from this wilderness of the world.

3. That which bears the name of the world, is a deep and dark abyss in itself. Its hollowness is unfathomable and unfordable; and its un-reality appearing as reality to the ignorant, is to be known as the great desert spoken of before.

4. The true reality is obtainable by the light of reason only, and by the knowledge of one object alone. This one is full without its union with any other, it is one and only by itself.

5. The big bodied men, that you beheld wandering therein, know them to be the minds of men, and bound to the miseries of the world.

6. Their observer was Reason personified in myself, and it was I only and no other person, that could discern the folly of their minds by my guiding reason.

7. It is my business to awaken those drowsy minds to the light of reason, as it is the work of the sun to open the lotus-buds to bloom, by his enlivening rays.

8. My counsels have prevailed on some minds and hearts, which have received them with attention; and have turned them away from earthly broils, to the way of true contentment and tranquility.

269 9. But there were others that paid no attention to my lectures through their great ignorance; but fell down into the pit, upon being chid by me with reproofs and rebukes.

10. Those deep and dark pits were no other than the pits of hell and the plantain groves of which I have told you, were the gardens of Paradise.

11. Know these to be the seats of those minds which long for heavenly joys, and the dark pits to be the abode of hellish hearts, which can never get their release from those darksome dungeons.

12. Those who having once entered the plantain grove, do not come out any more from it; know them to be the minds of the virtuous, and fraught with all their virtues.

13. Those which having fallen into the Karanja thickets, were unable to extricate themselves from the thorns; know them to be the minds of men, that are entangled in the snares of the world.

14. Some minds which were enlightened with the knowledge of truth, got released from the snares; but the unenlightened are bound to repeated transmigrations in different births.

15. The souls which are subjected to metempsychosis, have their rise and fall in repetition, from higher to lower births, and the vice-versa likewise.

16. The thick thicket of Karanja brambles, represents the bonds of conjugal and family relations; they are the source of various human desires, which are springs of all other woe, difficulty and dangers.

17. The minds that have been confined in the Karanja bushes are those, that are repeatedly born in human bodies, and are repeatedly entangled into domestic attachments from which all other animals are quite at large.

18. O support of Raghu’s race! the plantain grove which I told you was cooling with moonbeams; know the same to be the refreshing arbour of heaven, which gives delight to the soul.

270 19. Those persons are placed here, who have their bodies fraught with virtuous deeds and edified by persevering devotion and austerities, and whose souls are elevated above others.

20. Those ignorant, thoughtless and unmindful men, that slighted my advice, were themselves slighted by their own minds, which were deprived of the knowledge of their own souls and of their reason.

21. Those who told me, “we are undone at your sight, and you are our greatest enemy”; were demented fools, and melting away with their lamentations (for having disregarded my counsels).

22. Those who were loudly wailing, and let fall a flood of tears in their weeping; were men who bitterly deplored in their minds for being snatched from the snare of pleasures, to which they had been so fondly attached.

23. Those having a little sense and reason, but not arriving to the pure knowledge of God; were bitterly complaining in their hearts, for being obliged to forsake their fond enjoyments of life.

24. Those who came to their understanding, now wept over the pains which they had inflicted on their bodies, for the supportance of their families; and were grieved in their minds to leave behind the objects of their care, for whom they had taken such pains.

25. The minds that had some light of reason, and had not yet arrived to divine knowledge, were still sorrowing for having to leave behind their own bodies, wherein they had their late abode.

26. Those who smiled in the cheerfulness of their hearts, were men who had come to the light of reason; and it was their reason which gave consolation to their hearts.

27. The reasonable soul that is removed from its bondage of the world, exults with joy in its mind, to find itself liberated from the cares of life.

28. Those men who laughed to scorn their battered and shattered 271 bodies, were glad to think in their minds, how they got rid of the confines of their bodies and limbs, the accomplices of their actions.

29. Those who laughed with scorn to see the falling members of their bodies, were glad to think in their minds, that they were no better than instruments to their various labours in the world.

30. Those who had come to the light of reason, and had found their rest in the supreme state of felicity, looked down with scorn upon the former abodes of their meanness from a distance.

31. The man who was stopped by me on his way and asked with concern (about what he was going to do); was made to understand how the power of wisdom could outbrave the desperate.

32. The weakened limbs, that gradually disappeared from sight, meant the subjection of the members of the body, under the control of the mind, that is freed from its venality of riches.

33. The man that is represented with a thousand arms and eyes, is a symbol of the covetous mind, which looks to and longs after everything, and wants to grasp all things, as with so many hands. (The ambition of Alexander is described to count the spheres, and grasp the earth and heaven in his arms).

34. The man that was striking himself with his blows, meant the torments which a man inflicts on his own mind, by the strokes of his anxieties and cares.

35. The man who had been running away with striking hard blows upon his body, signified how the mind runs all about, being lashed at every moment by the strokes of his insatiate desires.

36. The man that afflicts himself by his own desires, and then flies to this way and that, signifies his fool-heartedness to hunt after everything, and be a runaway from himself.

37. Thus every man being harassed by his ceaseless desires, 272 pants in his mind to fly to his Maker, and set his heart to yoga meditation.

38. All these ceaseless woes are the making of one’s own mind, which being worried at last by its incessant anxieties, strives to retire from them, to find its final repose in yoga .

39. The mind is entrapped in the net of its own wishes, as the silk worm is entwined in the cocoon by the thread of its own making.

40. The more is the mind of man afflicted by troubles, the more busily is it employed in its foibles; just as a boy indulges himself in his playfulness, unmindful of the evils waiting upon it.

41. The mind of man is in the same plight as that of the foolish ape, which in striving to pull out the peg of a half split timber, lost its life by the smashing of its testes in the crevice. (See the story of the ape and its pulling the peg in the Hitopadesa and its Persian version of the Anvarsoheli).

42. No flight can release the mind, unless it is practised to resignation, restrained from its other pursuits, and constrained to the continued practice of pious meditation, which can only relieve its sorrows.

43. It is the misjudgment of the mind, that is the cause of accumulated woes, which increase in height as the peak of a mount; so it is the government of the mind which melts our woes, like the hoarfrost under sunbeams.

44. Accustom your mind to the righteous ways pointed out by the sástras in all your life time. Restrain your appetites, and govern your passions, and observe the taciturnity of holy saints and sages. You will at last arrive to the holy state of holies, and rest under the cooling umbrage of holiness, and shall no more have to grieve under the calamities which betide all mankind.

V asishtha continued:—I have told you of the origination of the mind from the essence of the Supreme being; it is of the same kind, and yet not the same with its source, but like the waves and waters of the sea. (The mind being but an attribute of the Divine soul).

2. The minds of the enlightened are not different from the Divine Mind; as those that have the knowledge of the community of waters, do not regard the waves to differ from the waters of the sea.

3. The minds of the unenlightened are the causes of their error, as those not knowing the common property of water, find a difference in the waters of the waves and the sea.

4. It is requisite for the instruction of the unlearned, to acquaint them of the relation between the significant words and their significations (as the relation of water between the waves and the sea).

5. The Supreme Brahma is omnipotent, and is full and perfect and undecaying for ever. The mind has not the properties that belong to the omnipresent soul.

6. The Lord is almighty and omnipresent, and distributes his all diffusive power, in proportion as he pleases to every one he likes.

7. Observe Ráma, how the intellectual powers are distributed in all animated bodies (in their due proportion); and how his moving force is spread in the air, and his immobility rests in the rocks and stones.

274 8. His power of fluidity is deposited in the water, and his power of inflammation is exhibited in fire; his vacuity is manifested in vacuum, and his substantiality in all solid substances.

9. The omnipotence of Brahma, is seen to stretch itself to all the ten sides of the universe; his power of annihilation is seen in the extinction of beings; and his punishment is evident, in the sorrows of the miserable.

10. His felicity is felt in the hearts of the holy, and his prowess is seen in the persons of giants; his creative power is known in the works of his creation, and his power of destruction in the desolation of the world, at the end of the great Kalpa age.

11. Everything is situated in Brahma, as the tree is contained in the seed of the same kind, and afterwards developes in its roots and sprouts, its leaves and branches, and finally in its flowers and fruits.

12. The power called the living principle, is a reflexion of God, and is of a nature between the thinking mind and dull matter, and is derived from Brahma.

13. The nature of God is unchangeable, although it is usual to attribute many varieties to him; as we call the same vegetable by the different names of a germ, a sprout, a shrub, a plant and a tree at its different stages of growth.

14. Know Ráma, the whole world to be Brahma, who is otherwise termed the Ego. He is the all pervading soul, and the everlasting stupendous fabric of the cosmos.

15. That property in him which has the power of thinking, is termed the mind; which appears to be something other than the Soul, thus we erroneously see peacock’s feathers in the sky, and froths in the eddies of water (and suppose them as different things from the sky and water).

16. The principles of thought and animation—the mind and life, are but partial reflexions of the Divine Soul; and the form of mind is the faculty of thought, as that of life is the power of animation. (The one is called the rational and the other animating soul).

275 17. Thus the mind being but the thinking power of Brahma, receives the appellation of Brahmá; and this power appearing as a part of the impersonal Brahma, is identified with Ego (the personal Brahma).

18. It is our error which makes a difference between the soul and mind, and Brahma and Brahmá; because the properties which belong to the mind, are the same with those of the self-existent soul.

19. That which is variously named as the principle of mind or thought, is the same power of omnipotence which is settled in the mind (which is the repository of the thinking powers).

20. So are all the properties of the living soul, contained in and derived from the universal soul of Brahma; as all the properties of vegetation, blossoming and fructification of trees, are contained in the season of spring, and are dispensed among the plants, agreeably to their respective soil and climate, and other circumstances (of their culture &c.).

21. As the earth yields its various fruits and flowers in their season, so the hearts and minds of men, entertain their thoughts and passions in their proper times: some appearing at one time and others at another (like the paddies and other grains of particular seasons).

22. And as the earth produces its harvests, according to their particular soil and season; so the heart and mind exhibit their thoughts and feelings of their own accord, and not caused by another.

23. The numbers and forms which convey determinate ideas, as distinguished from others of the same kind (as the figures in arithmetic and geometry), are all expressed in words coined by the mind from the mint of the mind of Brahma, the original source of ideas.

24. The mind adopts the same image as the reflexions which it receives from without, or the thoughts and imaginations it forms of itself, and as the instance of the Aindava brothers, serves to support this truth (of the double power of intuition and perception 276 of the mind, to see into its own inner operations, and receive the impressions from without).

25. The animating principle (jíva-zoa), which is the cause of this creation, resides in the Supreme Spirit, like the fluctuation which is seen in the unagitated waters of the oceans.

26. The intelligent soul sees these hosts of creation to be moving in the essence of Brahma, as he beholds the innumerable waves, billows and surges of the sea, rolling on the surface of the waters.

27. There is no other reality that bears a name or form or figure or any action or motion except the supreme spirit; in which all things move about as the waves of the sea water (and which is the real source of the unreals).

28. As the rising and falling and continuation and disappearance of waves, occur on the surface of the sea by the fluctuation of its waters; so the creation, sustentation and annihilation of the universe, take place in Brahma, by the agency of Brahma himself.

29. It is by the inward heat of his spirit, that Brahma causes this world to appear as a mirage in himself; and whatever varieties it presents in its various scenes, they are all expansions and manifestations of the Divine Spirit.

30. All causality and instrumentality, and their resultants as well as the production, continuance and destruction of all things; take place in Brahma himself; beside which there is no other cause whatever.

31. There is no appetence nor pleasure, nor any desire or error in him, who relies his dependence in the Supreme; for how can one have any desire or error in himself who lives in the Supreme self, who is devoid of them?

32. The whole is a form of the Supreme soul, and all things are but forms of the same; and the mind also is a form of it, as a golden ornament is but a form of the gold.

33. The mind which is ignorant of its Supreme origin, is called the living soul; which from its ignorance of the 277 Supreme soul, resembles a friend who has alienated himself from his true friend.

34. The mind which is misled by its ignorance of the all-intelligent God, to imagine its own personality as a reality; is as one who believes his living soul to be the production of vacuum; (or as something produced from nothing).

35. The living soul although it is a particle of the Supreme soul, shows itself in this world as no soul at all (but a form of mere physical vitality). So the purblind see two moons in the sky, and are unable to distinguish the true moon from the false one.

36. So the soul being the only real entity, it is improper to speak of its bondage and liberation; and the imputation of error to it, is quite absurd in the sight of lexicographers, who define it as infallible.

37. It is a wrong impression to speak of the bondage of the soul, which is ever free from bonds; and so it is untrue to seek the emancipation of the soul, which is always emancipate.

38. Ráma asked:—The mind is known sometimes to arrive at a certainty, which is changed to uncertainty at another; how then do you say that the mind is not under the bondage of error?

39. Vasishtha answered:—It is a false conceit of the ignorant to imagine its bondage; and their imagination of its emancipation, is equally a false conception of theirs.

40. It is ignorance of the smriti sástra , that causes one to believe in his bondage and emancipation; while in reality there are no such things as bondage and liberation.

41. Imagination represents an unreality as reality, even to men of enlightened understandings; as a rope presents the appearance of a snake even to the wise.

42. The wise man knows no bondage or liberation, nor any error of any kind: all these three are only in the conceptions of the ignorant.

278 43. At first the mind and then its bondage and liberation, and afterwards its creation of the unsubstantial material world, are all but fabulous inventions that have come into vogue among men, as the story of the boy of old (or as the old grand-mother’s tale).

Note—The conclusion of this chapter concerning the negation of bondage and liberation of the soul, and its error and enlightenment &c., rests on the text of a Sruti; which negates everything in the sight of one who has come to the light of the universal soul. The passage is:—न निरोधो नचोत्पत्तिः ननवद्धो नच साधकः । ममुक्षर्णबै मुक्त इत्येषा परमार्थताः

R áma said:—Relate to me, O chief of sages! the tale of the boy, in illustration of the Mind (and the other principles of our intellectual nature).

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me Ráma, tell you the tale of a silly and jolt-headed boy, who once asked his nurse, to recite to him some pretty story for his amusement.

3. The Nurse then began to relate her fine wrought story for the pleasure of the boy, with a gladsome countenance, and in accents sweet as honey.

4. There were once on a time, some three highminded and fortunate young princes; in a desolate country, who were noted for their virtues and valour. (The three princes were the three hypostases of the holy trinity, dwelling in the land of inexistence or vacuity, asat-pure . i.e. These triple powers were in being in empty space, which is co-eternal with them).

5. They shone in that vast desolate land resembling the spacious sky, like stars in the expanse of the waters below. Two of them were unbegotten and increate, and third was not born of the mother’s womb. (These three uncreated princes, were the principles of the soul and the mind, and the living soul—jíva, which is not procreated in the womb with the body).

6. It happened once on a time, that these three, started together from their dreary abode (of vacuum), for the purpose of finding a better habitation somewhere else. They had no other companion with them, and were sorrowful in their minds, and melancholy in their countenances; as if they were transported from their 280 native country. (This means the emigration of these principles, from the eternal and inane sphere of Brahma, to the mundane world of mortality, which was very painful to them).

7. Having come out of that desert land, they set forth with their faces looking forward; and proceeded onward like the three planets Mercury, Venus and Jupiter in their conjunction.

8. Their bodies which were as delicate as Sirísha flowers, were scorched by the powerful sun shining on their backs; and they were dried like leaves of trees by the heat of the summer day on their way. ( i.e. Their tender spiritual bodies melted under the heat of the solar world).

9. Their lotus like feet were singed by the burning sands of their desert path, and they cried aloud like some tender fawns, going astray from their herd saying:—“O Father save us”. (The alienated soul and mind, which are doomed to rove about in this world are subjected to endless pains, causing them to cry out like the tormented spirit of our Lord:—Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani;—Lord, Lord, hast thou forsaken me?).

10. The soles of their feet were bruised by the blades of grass, and the joints of their bodies, were weakened by the heat of the sun; while their fair forms were covered with dust flying from the ground on their lonesome journey. (Their pilgrimage in the thorny and sunny paths of the world of woes).

11. They saw the clump of a leash of trees by the way side, which were braided with tufts of spikes upon them, and loaded with fruits and flowers hanging downward; while they formed a resort for flights of the fowls of air, and flocks of the fauna; of the desert, resting both above and around them. (The copse of the three trees, means the triple states of dharma , artha and Káma , or virtue, wealth and their fruition, which are sought after by all).

12. The two first of these trees did not grow of themselves, (but were reared by men); and the third which was easy of ascent, 281 bore no seeds to produce other plants in future. ( i.e. Virtue and wealth require to thrive by cultivation, and enjoyment which is delectable to taste, is not productive of any future good or reward).

13. They were refreshed from the fatigue of their journey, under the shade of these trees; and they halted there like the three Deities Indra, Váya and Yama, under the umbrage of the Párijáta arbour of Paradise. (The three gods—Jupiter, Eolus and Pluto, were the regents of the three regions of heaven, sky and the infernal world:— swar , bhuvar and bhur , composing the three spheres of their circuit).

14. They eat the ambrosial fruits of these trees; and drank their nectarious juice to their fill; and after decorating themselves with guluncha chaplets, they retook themselves to their journey. ( i.e. The intellectual powers are supported by the fruits of their acts in their journey through life).

15. Having gone a long way, they met at the mid-day a confluence of three rivers, running with its rapid currents and swelling waves. (The three streams are the three qualities of satva , rajas and tamas or of goodness, mediocrity and excess, which are commingled in all the acts of mankind).

16. One of these was a dry channel and the other two were shallow and with little water in them; and they looked like the eyes of blind men with their blinded eye-balls. ( i.e. The channel of satva or temperance was almost dried up, and that of rajas or mediocrity had become shallow for want of righteous deeds; but the stream of tamas or excess was in full force, owing to the unrighteous conduct of men).

17. The princes who were wet with perspiration, bathed joyfully in the almost dried up channel; as when the three gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva lave their sweating limbs, in the limpid stream of Ganges. (The three powers of the soul, like the three persons of the Puránic trinity, were respectively possessed of the three qualities of action; and yet their pure natures preferred to bathe in the pure stream of goodness— satva , as in the holy waters of heavenly Ganga—the hallowed Mandákiní).

282 18. They sported a long while in the water, and drank some draughts of the same, which was as sweet as milk, and cheered their spirits with full satisfaction of their hearts (meaning that satwika or good conduct is sweeter far to the soul, than any other done as unjust or showy— rajas or tamas ).

19. They resumed their journey, and arrived at the end of the day and about sunset, to their future abode of a new-built city, standing afar as on the height of a hill. (This new-built city was the new-made earth; to which the spirits descended from their Empyrean).

20. There were rows of flags fluttering like lotuses, in the limpid lake of the azure sky; and the loud noise of the songs of the citizens was heard at a distance.

21. Here they saw three beautiful and goodly looking houses, with turrets of gold and gems shining afar, like peaks of mount Meru under the blazing sun. (These were the human bodies, standing and walking upright upon the earth, and decorated with crowns and coronets on their heads).

22. Two of these were not the works of art, and the third was without its foundation; and the three princes entered at last into the last of these. (The two first were the bodies of men in their states of sleep and deep sleep, called swápa sopor or swapnas-somnus and sushupti-hupnos or hypnotes , which are inborn in the soul; but it is the jágrata or waking body which is the unstable work of art).

23. They entered this house, and sat and walked about in it with joyous countenances; and chanced to get three pots as bright as gold therein.

(These pots were the three sheaths of the soul, mind and of the vital principle, called the pránamáyá-kosha ). 24. The two first broke into pieces upon their lifting, and the third was reduced to dust at its touch. The far sighted princes however, took up the dust and made a new pot therewith? It means, that though these sheaths are as volatile as air, yet it is possible to employ the vital principle to action.

283 25. Then these gluttonous princes cooked in it a large quantity of corn for their food; amounting to a hundred dronas minus one, for subsistence of their whole life-time. (It means that the whole life-time of a hundred years, allotted to man in the present age of the world, is employed in consuming so many measures of food, except perhaps one Drona , which is saved by his occasional fasts during his long life).

26. The princes then invited three Bráhmans (childhood, youth and age) to the fare prepared by them, two of whom (childhood and youth) were bodiless; and the third ( i.e. old age) had no mouth wherewith to eat.

27. The mouthless Bráhman took a hundred dronas of the rice and eat it up, because he devoured the child and youth, and the princes took the remainder of the Bráhman’s food for their diet (which was nothing).

28. The three princes having refreshed themselves with the relics of the Bráhman’s food; took their rest in the same house of their next abode, and then went out in their journey of hunting after new abodes (or repeated transmigrations).

29. Thus I have related to you, O Ráma! the whole of the story of the boy and princes; now consider well its purport in your mind, and you will become wise thereby.

30. After the nurse had finished her relation of the pretty parable, the boy seemed glad at what he had heard (though it is plain without understanding its import).

31. I have told you this story, O Ráma! in connection with my lecture on the subject of the mind; and it will serve to explain to you, the fabrication of the mind of this imaginary being of the world.

32. This air-built castle of the world, which has come to be taken for a reality, is like the story of the body, but a false fabrication of the old nurse’s imagination. (Or old grand-mother’s tale, and giving a name and form to an airy nothing).

33. It is the representation of the various thoughts and ideas of our minds, which exhibit themselves to view, according 284 to the notions we have of them in our states of bondage and liberation. ( i.e. Our bondage to gross bodies, exhibits them in their grosser form, and our liberation from the materialistic, shows them in their subtile and immaterial shapes).

34. Nothing is really existent except the creations of our imagination, and it is our fancy which fashions all the objects in their peculiar fantastic forms. (Everything appears to us as we fancy it to be; whereby the same thing is viewed in a different light, not only by different persons; but by the same person in a different state of mind).

35. The heavens, earth, sky and air, as also the rivers, mountains and the sides and quarters of the sky, are all creations of our fancy, like the visions in our dreams; which join and disjoin and fashion the views in their phantastic forms. (Imagination or phantasy, is a faculty representative of the phenomena of internal or external worlds. Sir William Hamilton).

36. As the princes, the rivers and the future city, were mere creations of the nurse’s imagination, so the existence of the visible world, is but a production of the imaginative power of man. (The nurse’s representations of the princes &c., were rather the prosopopœia or personifications of her abstract thoughts; as the material world is a manifestation of the ideal, and called by the sufis suwari manavi and suwari zahiri ).

37. The imaginative power manifests all things all around, as the moving waters, show the rise and fall of the waves in the sea. “It gives a shape of airy nothing”. “It is the power of apprehending ideas and combining them into new forms and assemblages”.

38. It was this imaginative power of God, which raised the ideas of things in his omniscient and all comprehensive soul; and these ideals were afterwards manifested as real by his omnipotence; just as things lying in the dark are brought to view by the light of the day. (Imaginatio est rei corporae figuram contemplari. Descartes and Addison. It is a lively conception of the objects of sight. Reid. It recalls the ideas by its reproductive fancy, and combines them by its productive power).

285 39. Know hence, O Ráma! the whole universe to be the net-work of imagination, and your fancy to be the most active power of the mind. Therefore repress the thickening phantoms of your fleeting fancy, and obtain your tranquility by your sole reliance on the certainty of the immutable soul of souls.

“Retire the world, shut out, imagination’s airy wings repress; call thy thoughts home &c.” Young’s Night thoughts.

V asishtha continued:—The ignorant are subject to errors caused by their false fancies, from which the wise are entirely free; and they by imagining and attributing perishable properties to the imperishable soul, beguile themselves like children, by taking their dolls for men. (It is the attributing of sensible properties to the conscious soul).

2. Ráma rejoined:—What is this perishable property, which is imagined of and imputed to the imperishable soul? Tell me, also O greatest of theologians! what is that misrepresentation, which misleads the mind to the erroneous conception, of the unreal world for a reality.

3. Vasishtha replied:—The soul by its continued association with unreal and perishable things, thinks itself as one of them, and takes upon it the title of an unreal and perishable egoism, as a boy by association of his thoughts imagines a false apparition to be a real ghost. (Egoism and tuism and suism, means the personality or personal reality of the three persons I, thou and this—aham, twam and sah, which in all systems of mystic philosophy, is denied of all finite beings. The absolute Ego is the supreme soul, and all other souls are but reflections of it).

4. All things being situated in one absolute reality, it is hard to account for one’s personal egoism; and to say how and whence this conception came to be in vogue. (The impersonal and universal soul is the true Ego, and has no personal existence what ever).

5. In fact there is no egoism beside that of the supreme 287 soul; and yet is the nature of the injudicious to make a difference of a finite and infinite Ego, and of a mortal and immortal soul; as we see two streams of water in the sun-beams in a sandy desert. (The human soul is no other, than a particle of the supreme).

6. The mind is a spacious mind (of richest gems) in this extensive creation, and depends for its support on the supreme soul; as the waves are dependent on the waters of the sea, for their rise and subsistence. (The mind is the individual soul, but the soul is the universal and undivided spirit and opposed to the European doctrine of the minds being a generic and the soul an individual name).

7. Therefore give up, O Ráma! your erroneous view of the reality of the world and your reliance on the baseless fabric of the universe, and rely with delight on your judicious view of the true substratum and support of all.

8. Inquire now into the nature of Truth, with a rational understanding; and being freed from all error and bias, discard all that is false and untrue.

The idea of Tritheism and faith in the mystic number three, is as deeply rooted in the Hindu mind, as we find it in the Alexandrine triad of old, and the Trinity of modern Christians. We have already given an ample exposition of the various triads in Hindu theology and other sciences in our introduction to this work (Vol. I. Sect XI. p. 61). Besides those we meet herewith some other triads which are conveyed in the allegorical story of the old nurse to her infant care for his early instruction, though it is doubtful that the boy could either understand or derive any benefit thereby. It will be worth while to mention here the Alexandrian Triad of the three hypostases of the one Being in the psyche —eternal soul, nous —the mind, and Zoa —Jíva—life or activity. This last is the same with the logos —Word, the manifestation of Divine power in whom there was life also. Others formed their Triad of matter, soul and force, as the three principia in nature. The Christian Trinity, which 288 some maintain as an imitation of the Alexandrians, presents many differences respecting some portion of this doctrine, which resulted in the heresies of Arianism, Sabellianism, Nestorianism &c. see further particulars on this head in Lewe’s History of Philosophy, Vol. 1, p. 391.

9. Why do you think the unconfined soul to be confined in the body? It is vain to suppose the nature of the infinite soul, to be confined in any place.

10. To suppose the one as many, is to make a division of and create a variety in the nature of the Supreme Spirit. Again the Divine essence being diffused alike in all, it cannot be said to be confined in one thing and absent in another.

11. The body being hurt, the soul is supposed to be hurt likewise; but no pain or hurt or sickness of any kind, can appertain to the unchanging soul.

12. The body being hurt or weakened or destroyed, there is no injury done to the soul, as the bellows (of the blacksmith) being burnt, the wind with which it was filled, escapes unconsumed.

13. Whether the body lasts or falls, it is of no matter to us, (since the soul survives its loss); as the flower being destroyed, deposits its fragrance in the air.

14. Let any pain or pleasure befall on the body, as dew-drops falling on lotus-leaves: it can affect us no more than it is for the fading lotus, to affect or afflict in any manner the flying and aerial bee.

15. Let the body rise or fall, or fly in smoke and mix with the air; these changing forms of it, can have no effect whatever on the soul.

16. The connection of the body with the soul, is like that between the cloud and the wind; and as that of the lotus with the bee. (The former is moved and alighted upon by the latter, and not that the latter is preserved by the former).

17. If the mind which forms a part of all living bodies, is not affected by bodily pain; how is it possible that the primary 289 power of intellect which resides in the soul, shall ever be subject to death?

18. If you know, O wise Ráma, the soul to be indestructible and inseparable (from any place or person), what cause then can you have to sorrow for the supposed separation or disappearance of the all-pervading spirit?

19. After destruction of the body, the soul flies from it, to abide in the infinite space of empty air; like the wind mixing with the air after dispersion of the clouds, and the bee flying to it after the lotus has faded away.

20. The mind also is not relaxed with all its enjoyments of life, unless it is burnt down by the knowledge of truth; why then speak of the annihilation of the soul.

21. The connection of the perishable body and imperishable soul, is analogous to that of a vessel and the fruit it holds, and of a pot and the air in it. ( i.e. Of the container and the contained; the frame-work is fragile, but its component is infrangible).

22. As a plum is held in the hand or it falls into a pit, so the vacuous soul is reposed in or deposed from the body.

23. As a pot being broken, its vacuous part mixes, with the air; so the body being dissolved, the soul remains unhurt in the empty space.

24. The mind and body of living beings, are apt to disappear at times from their habitations, and hide themselves under the shroud of death; why then should we sorrow for such renegades?

25. Seeing the death and disappearance of others at all times, no fool learns to think for himself, but fears to die like all ignorant fools.

26. Therefore renounce, O Ráma! Your selfish desires, and know the falsity of egoism. Forsake the bond of the body for flying upward, as a new fledged bird flies above, and leaves its nest behind.

290 27. It is an act of the mind, to lead us to good or evil; as it is another function of it, to fabricate the false fabric of the world like appearances in a dream.

28. It is our incorrigible ignorance, that stretches out these imageries for our misery only; and it is our imperfect knowledge, which shows these false-hoods as realities unto us.

29. It gives us a dim sight of things, as we view the sky obscured by a mist; and it is the nature of the mind, to have an erroneous view of objects.

30. The dull and unreal world, appears as a reality to us; and the imaginary duration of the universe, is as a protracted dream in our sleep.

31. It is the thought or idea of the world, that is the cause of its formal existence, as it is the blinking of the eye, that shows a thousand disks of the sun and moon in the clear sky.

32. Now Ráma, employ your reason to annihilate the formal world from your mind, as the sun dissolves the snows by the heat of his beams.

33. As one wishing to overcome his cold, gets his object at sunrise; so he who wishes to demolish his mind (its errors), succeeds in it at the rise of his reason.

34. As ignorance increases, so it introduces a train of impervious errors and evils. It spreads a magic spell around it, as Samvara the sorcerer showered a flux of gold dust about him.

35. The mind makes the way to its own destruction by its worldliness, and acts the part of its own catastrophe or self destruction by all its acts.

36. The mind cares only for keeping itself from destruction; but it is a fool not to know beforehand its imminent death.

37. The mind by its restless desires, hastens itself to a painful death; which reasonable are trying to avoid; by their government of the mind. (It is not right to trouble the mind with worldly cares).

38. The mind that is purified by reason, is purged from its 291 volitions and nolitions; and resigns itself to the will of the Divine soul, which is ever present before it.

39. The curbing of the mind, is the magnanimity of soul, and gives rise to liberation from pain, therefore try to restrain your mind, and not to give a loose rein to it.

40. The world is a vast wilderness, full of the forests of our weal and woe, and beset by the dragons of disease and death on all sides: the irrational mind is as the rampant lord of the desert land, and drives us anon to all sorts of dangers and difficulties.

41. As the sage ended his sermon, the day departed to its end; and the sun declined to the west to his evening service. The assembly broke after mutual salutations, and met again and greeted each other with the parting night and rising sun. (This is the Brahma muhúrta or dawning day break at 4 A.M. )

S ome minds are seen to break-forth in passions like the torrents of oceans, and to heave and overflow on earth on every side. (By the unrestrained rage of their appetites).

2. They reduce the great to lowness, and exalt the low also to greatness; they make strangers of their friends, as also friends to strangers. (Such is the changeful state of the human mind).

3. The mind makes a mountain of a mote by its thought, and thinks itself a lord with its little of a trifle. (These are those that are puffed up with vanity. Falsus honor juvat, non sed mendosum and mendacem. Horace).

4. The mind being elated by the prosperity, which attends upon it by the will of God, spreads a large establishment for a while, and is then reduced to poverty in a moment at its loss. (Fortuna nunquam perpetuo est bona:—Good luck lasts not for ever. The highest spoke in fortune’s wheel, may soon turn lowest. Fortuna transmutat incertos honores. Fortune is ever shifting her uncertain favours).

5. Whatever things are seen in this world to be stationary or changeful, are all but accidents according to the state of viewing them in that light: Just as a passing vessel is thought stationary by its passenger on board, but as moving by the spectators on the shore.

6. The mind is so changeful by the influence of time, place, power and nature of acts and things, that it continually shuffles from one feeling to another, like an actor personating his many parts on the stage.

7. It takes the truth for untruth and its reverse for certainty: so it takes one thing for another, and its joy and grief are 293 all of its own making. ( i.e. The creations of its imagination).

8. The fickle mind gets every thing according to its own doing, and all the actions of our hands, feet and other members of the body, are regulated by the same. (The mind is the mover of bodily organs).

9. Hence it is the mind that reaps the rewards of good or evil according to its past acts; just as the tree bears its fruits, according as it is pruned and watered in time. (Reap as you sow).

10. As the child makes a variety of his toy dolls at home from clay, so the mind is the maker of all its good and bad chances, according to the merit or demerit of its past actions.

11. Therefore the mind which is situated in the earthen dolls of human bodies, can do nothing of its own will, unless it is destined so by virtue of its former acts. (The mind that moves the body, is itself moved by the destiny derived from its prior acts).

12. As the seasons cause the changes in trees, so the mind makes differences in the dispositions of living beings. (As many men so many minds, and hard to have two men of one mind).

13. The mind indulges in its sport of deeming a span as a league, and vice-versa of thinking a long as short, as in the case of the operations of our dreams and fancy.

14. A Kalpa age is shortened to a moment, and so is a moment prolonged to a Kalpa, by the different modes of the mind; which is the regulator both of the duration and distance of time and place.

15. The perceptions of the quickness and slowness of motion, and of much or little in quantity, as also of swiftness or tardiness of time, belong to the mind and not to the dull material body (though these sensations are derived by means of the bodily organs).

16. So the feelings of sickness and error and of dolor and danger, and the passing of time and distance of place, all rise 294 in the mind like the leaves and branches of trees. (From its inborn perceptions of them).

17. The mind is the cause of all its feelings, as water is the cause of the sea, and the heat of fire. Hence the mind is the source of all things, and intimately connected with whatever is existent in the world.

18. The thoughts that we have of the agent, effect and instrument of things, as also of the viewer, view and the instrumentality of sight, all belong to the mind.

19. The mind alone is perceived to be in existence in the world; and its representations of the forests and all other things are but variations of itself! So the thinking man sees the substance of gold only, in all its various formations of bangles and bracelets, which are taken for naught. (All objectivity is dependant on the subjective mind, as there is no perception of an object independent of the mind. See identity of the subjective and objective in the Pantheistic Idealism of Spinoza).

V asishtha said:—Hear me relate to you Ráma a very pretty narrative, representing the world as an enchanted city, stretched out by magic of the magician Mind.

2. There lies on the surface of this earth a large and populous tract of land by name of Northern Pándava, a country full of forests of various kinds. (We know the Northern Kuru the Uttara Kuru or Otterokoros of Ptolemy, to be the Trans-Himalayan Tartary, which is here termed the North-Pándava, from the King Pandu’s rambles and the wanderings of the Pándava princes in it in their exile).

3. The forests were deep and dense, and there dwell in the fastness of these woods a number of holy hermits; while the Vidyádhara damsels had wrought there many a bower of swinging creepers (for their amusement).

4. Heaps of rubicund farina, wafted by the breeze from full blown lotuses, rose as high as crimson hills on the ground; which was decorated with wreaths and garlands by the loads of flowers, which had fallen thereon from the surrounding trees.

5. Groves of Karanja plants were decorated with bundles of blossoms, to the utmost boundaries of the jungle; and the firmament resounded with the rustling noise, emitted by the leafy date trees in the villages around.

6. There was a range of tawny rocks on one side, and fields brown with ripened corn on another; while the warbling of cerulean doves re-echoed in the resonant groves about.

7. The shrill cry of the stork resounded in the forest, and the branches of tamala and pátali flowers, hang down like ear-rings of the hills.

296 8. Flocks of various birds, were making a chorus with their vocal music; and the blooming crimson blossoms of páribhadra arbors, were hanging over the banks, all along the length of the running streams.

9. Damsels in the cornfields, were exciting the passion of love with their vocal music; and the breezes blowing amidst forests of fruits and flowers, dropped down the blossoms in copious showers.

10. The birds, Siddhas and seers were sitting and singing outside their homes of mountain caverns; and made the valley symphonious with their celestial strains of holy hymns.

11. The Kinnara and Gandharva concerts, were singing under their bowers of plantain trees; and the greyish and gaysome groves of flowers, were filled with the hum of the whistling breeze.

12. The lord of this romantic country, was the virtuous Lavana, a descendant of king Harish Chandra; and as glorious as his sire the sun upon earth. (This prince had descended of the solar race).

13. His fair fame formed a white diadem to crown his head, and adorn his shoulders with its brightness; it whitened the hills in the form of so many Sivas, besmeared with the hoary ashes upon his tufted head and person.

14. His sword had made an end of all his enemies; who trembled as in a fit of fever on the hearing of his august name.

15. His greatest exertion was devoted to the supportance to respectable men; and his name was uttered like that of Hari by all his people.

16. The Apsara fairies sang with glee the songs of his praise, sitting in the celestial seats of the gods on the tops of the Himalayan mountains.

17. The regent of the skies heard with attention, the songs of the heavenly maids, and the aerial swans and cranes of Brahmá, were responsive to their eulogies with their gabbling cries. 297 ( Dhani is the enharmonic diapason of Indian music).

18. His uncommonly magnanimous and wonderous acts, which were free from the fault of niggardliness; were unlike to any thing that was ever heard or seen by any body.

19. His nature knew no wiliness, and it was a perfect stranger to pride and arrogance; he kept himself steadfast to his magnanimity, as Brahmá held himself fast to his rudráksha beads.

20. He used to take his seat in the royal throne amidst his courtiers, as the lord of the day occupies his seat in the sky for the eight parts (watches) of the day. (The Ritual day is divided into eight yamárdha parts for particular rites and duties).

21. After he was seated there as gladly as the moon in the firmament, his chieftains and legions appeared before the throne with their salutations (and presenting of arms).

22. Then as the royal party was seated in the court-hall, beautiful songstresses (that were in attendance), began to sing, and ravish the hearts of the hearers, with the music of lutes.

23. Then a set of handsome maids, waved the beautiful chouries which they held in their hands, over the person of the king: and the ministers and counsellors, as wise as the preceptors of the gods and demons (Vrihaspati and Sukra), took their seats beside him.

24. The ministers were then employed in the public affairs pending before them; and the dextrous officers were engaged in relating the reports of the country to the king.

25. There were the learned pandits reciting the holy legends from their books, and the courteous panegyrists chaunting their sacred eulogies on one side.

26. There appeared at this time a magician in his fantastic attire, and with his blustering vauntings before the Court; in the manner of a roaring cloud, threatening to deluge the earth with his showers of rain.

298 27. He bowed down to the ruler of the earth, and lowly bent his capped head and neck before the court; as a tree hangs down its loads of fruits, at the foot of a mountain.

28. He approached before the king, as a monkey advances to a shady and lofty tree, loaded with fruits and flowers. (The artful sorcerer is compared with the cunning monkey prying into a fruitful arbour).

29. The flippant brat then conveyed the fragrance of his sense, with the breath of his mouth; and addressed the lofty headed king with his sweet voice, as the humble bee hums to the lotus.

30. Reign O lord! that sittest on the earthly throne like the moon enthroned on high, to mark one wonderful feat of my art, known as the trick of Kharolikiká.

31. Saying so, he began to twirl about his magic staff set with peacocks’ feathers, which began to display many wonders like the wonderful works of creation.

32. The king beheld it describing a bright circlet, emitting the particles of its rays around; and viewed in the manner, that the god Indra views his variegated rainbow sparkling afar in the sky.

33. As this time a chieftain of Sinde (who was the master of horse,) entered the court, as a cloud appears in the starry heaven.

34. He was followed by his swift and beautiful courser, as the Uchcha Sravá horse of Indra follows his master in the celestial regions. (This is the Pegasus of the Hindus).

35. The chieftain brought the horse before the king and said this horse my lord! is a match for the Uchcha Sravá , who was produced from the milky ocean, and flies with the swiftness of the mind.

36. This horse of mine, O king of the earth! is the best of his kind, and a compeer of Uchcha Sravás; he is a personification of the wind in the swiftness of his flight.

37. My master has made a present of this horse to you, my 299 lord; because the best of things is a suitable present to the best of men. (Great gifts are for the great; or, a donum worthy of the donor and donee).

38. After he had ended his speech the magician spoke in a voice, as sweet as that of the swallow, after the roaring of the cloud is hushed to silence.

39. Do you my lord ride upon this horse, and wander at your pleasure with full lustre on earth; as the sun shines forth in splendour by his revolving round the heavens.

40. Hearing this the king looked at the horse, and ordered him to be brought before him, in a voice like that of the peacock answering the roaring cloud.

41. The king saw the horse brought before him as a figure drawn in painting, and gazed upon him with his fixed eyes and without closing his eye-lids, as he was himself turned to a painting. (A gift horse is looked in his gait, and not in his mouth).

42. Having looked upon him for a long time, he mounted on his back, and sat still with his closed eye-lids, as the sage Agastya was confounded at the sight of the sea and its rocks.

43. He continued for a couple of hours as if he was drowned in his meditation, and as insensible saints remain in the enjoyment of their internal and spiritual stupor.

44. He remained as spell-bound and overpowered by his own might, and could not be roused from his stupefaction by any body, but was absorbed in some thoughts of his own mind.

45. The flapping chouries ceased to wave about his person, and the holders of the flappers remained as still as the moon beams at night.

46. The Courtiers remained motionless at seeing his quiescence, as when the filaments of the lotus, remain unmoved, by their being besmeared in the mud.

47. The noise of the people in the Courtyard, was all hushed and quiet; as the roaring of the clouds is stopped at the end of the rains.

300 48. The ministers were drowned in their thoughtfulness and doubts at the state of their king, as the host of the gods were filled with anxiety on seeing the club bearing Vishnu fighting with the demons.

49. The people were struck with terror and dismay, at seeing this apoplexy of their prince who remained with his closed eyes, like closed lotuses shorn of their beauty.

V asishtha continued:—After a couple of hours the king returned to his senses, like the lotus flower resuming its beauty, after the mists of the rainy weather are over.

2. He shook his body decorated with ornaments upon his seat; as a mountain shakes with its peaks and woods at an earthquake.

3. His seat also shook under him as he came to his sense and moved his body, just as the seat of Siva on the Kailása mountain, is shaken by the movement of the infernal elephant.

4. As he was about to fall down from the horseback, he was held up by and supported upon the arms of his attendants; as the mount Meru is kept from falling, by the hills at its feet and sides.

5. The attendants bore the prince, in the deranged state of his mind upon their arms; as the still waters of the sea bear the figure of the moon that is disturbed by the waves.

6. The king asked them softly saying, what place was it and whose court it was; as the bee shut up in the flower cup of the lotus, asked it when it is about to sink in the water saying:—Ah! where am I, and where am I going?

7. The Courtiers then respectfully asked the king, what was the matter with him; with a voice as sweet as the lotus utters to the sun when he is eclipsed by Ráhu.

8. The attendants also with all the ministerial officers, asked him about his case; as the gods terrified at the great deluge, asked the sage Márkandeya concerning the occurrence.

9. Lord! we were greatly dismayed, said they, upon seeing 302 you in that plight; because the stoutest hearts are broken by accidents proceeding from unknown causes.

10. What were those pleasant objects of your desire, that had so much bewitched your mind? Since you know that all the objects which appear pleasant for the present, prove to be bitter at the end. Gaudia principium nostri sunt saepe doloris. Ovid. Pleasure is often the introduction to pain, and amid the roses fierce Repentence rears her snaky crest. Thomson. So: Pleasure is pain, when drunk without a rein.

11. How could your clear understanding, which has been pacified by the grand doctrines and precepts of the wise, fall in to the false fascinations of the foolish? ( Falsum gaudium juvat, quem nisi mendosum. False pleasure pleases, none but the base).

12. The minds of fools are fascinated by the trivial and tawdry trifles of common people; but they are of no value to the high minded as one like yourself. (The good and great are above the reach of the allurements of pleasure).

13. Those who are elated by the pride of their bodies, have their minds always excited by ungovernable passions, which take their lead through life. (Pride is innate in beauty).

14. Your mind is elevated above common things, it is calm and quiet and enlightened by truth; and fraught with excellent qualities; yet it is strange to find it out of its wits.

15. The mind unpracticed to reasoning, is led away by the currents of time and place, but the nobleminded are not subject to the influence of incantations and enchanting spells.

16. It is impossible for the reasoning mind to be weakened or deranged, the high mind like the mount towering of Meru, is not to be shaken by the boisterous winds.

17. Thus consoled by his companions, the countenance of the king resumed its colour; as the face of the full moon collects its brightness, in the bright fortnight of the month.

18. The moon-like face of the king was brightened by his full open eyes, as the vernal season is beautified by the blooming blossoms, after the winter frost has passed away.

303 19. The king’s face shone forth with astonishment, and it was mixed with fear, at the remembrance of the charm of the magician; as the moon shines pale in the sky, after her deliverance from the shadow of an eclipse.

20. He saw the magician and said to him with a smile, as the serpent takshaka addresses his enemy—the weasel.

21. You trickster, said he, what was this snare which thou didst entrap me in, and how was it that thou didst perturb my tranquil soul by thy wily trick, as a gale disturbs the calm of the sea.

22. How wonderful are the captivating powers of spells, which they have derived from the Lord, and whose influence had overpowered on the strongest sense of my mind.

23. What are these bodies of men, that are subject to death and disease and what are our minds that are so susceptible of errors, and lead us to continued dangers.

24. The mind residing in the body, may be fraught with the highest knowledge, and yet the minds of the wisest of men, are liable to errors and illusion. ( Hominis est errare. To err is human).

25. Hear ye courtiers! the wonderful tale of the adventures, which I passed through under this sorcery, from the moment that I had met this magician at first.

26. I have seen so many passing scenes in one single moment under this wizard, as had been shown of old by Brahma in his destruction of the theurgy of Indra. (The mighty Sakra spread his Indrajála or the web of his sorcery, in order to frustrate the attempts of the valiant Bali against him, and was at last foiled himself by the Brahma vidyá of Brahmá).

27. Having said so, the king began to relate smilingly to his courtiers, the strange wonders which he had beheld in his state of hallucination.

28. The king said:—I beheld a region full with objects of various kinds, such as rivers and lakes, cities and mountains, with many boundary hills, and the ocean girding the earth around.

T he king related:—This land of mine abounding in forests and rivulets, and appearing as the miniature of this orb of the earth. Literally:—as the younger twin sister of the earth:—

2. This land appearing as the paradise of Indra, of which I am the king, and where I am now sitting in my court-hall, amidst my courtiers and all these citizens.

3. There appeared here yonder sorcerer from a distant country, like a demon rising from the infernal region on the surface of the ground.

4. He turned round his magic-wand emitting its radiance around, as the tempest rends and scatters the rainbow of Indra in fragments in the air.

5. I was looking intently at the whirling wand, and the horse standing before me, and then mounted on the back of the steed in the dizziness of my mind.

6. I sat on the back of this unmoving horse and seemed to ride on a fleet steed, with the swiftness of the Pushkara and Ávartaka clouds, riding over the tops of immovable rocks.

7. I then went to a chase in full speed, a pass over an ownerless desert, howling as the surges of the boundless ocean.

8. I was borne afterwards with the horse in the air, as if we were wafted by the winds; and dashed onward like common people, who are carried afar by the current of the insatiable desires of their minds.

305 9. Being then fatigued with my journey, and moving slowly with my wearied horse, I reached to the skirt of the desert which was as vacant as the mind of a pauper, and as empty as the heart of a woman. (Cares hover over roofs of wealth, and secrets from female hearts fly by stealth. Curae laqueata circum Tecta volantes. Hor. Cares that flutter bat-like round fretted roofs. A woman is never so weak as in keeping her secrets).

10. It was as the wilderness of the world burnt down by a conflagration, and without even a bird flying over it. It was as a waste of sandy frost, and without a tree or any water in it. (A vast desert displayed its barren waste).

11. It appeared as another sky in its extent, and as the eighth ocean of the world. It was as a sea on earth with its bed entirely dried up. (There are in all only seven oceans in Indian Geography, the eighth is a myth).

12. It was as expanded as the mind of a wise man, and as furious as the rage of the ignorant. There was no trace of human feet, nor track with any grass or herb in it. (Immeasurable and fathomless as the sapient mind.)

13. My mind was bewildered in this boundless desert, like that of a woman fallen into adversity, and having no friend or food or fruit for her supportance. (Adversity is the canker of the woman’s breast: asaubhagyan jvarástrínám ).

14. The face of the sky was washed by the waters, appearing in the mirage of the sandy desert; and I passed panting in that dreary spot until it was sunset.

15. It was with great pain and sorrow, that I passed across that vast desert; like the wise man who goes across this world, which is all hollow and void within.

16. After passing this desert, I met a thick forest beyond it, when the sun was setting in his setting mountain with his horse, and tired with traversing through the hollow sphere of heaven.

17. Here the birds were warbling amidst the jámb and kadamba trees, and were the only friends that the weary travellers could meet with, in their weary and lonesome journey.

306 18. Here detached plots of long grass, were seen waving their tops; like covetous men nodding their heads, on finding some riches to their heart’s content. (The poor are pleased with a little, and bow down their heads at petty pittances).

19. This shady forest afforded me a little joy, after my pains in the dry and dreary desert; as a lingering disease seems more desirable to men, than the pains attending on death.

20. I then got under the shade of Jambíra tree, and felt myself as pleased, as when the sage Markandeya got upon the top of the mountain at the great deluge. (The Ararat of Noah?).

21. Then I took shelter under the creepers, descending from its branches, as the scorching top of a mount, finds a temporary shadow under the umbrage of a dark cloud.

22. As I was hanging down with holding the pendant roots in my hand, the horse slided away from underneath me, as the sins of a man glide under him, that puts his trust in the sacred Ganges streams. (The purificatory power of Ganges water, resides even in the belief of its holiness, and does not consist only in bathing in it).

23. Fatigued with my travel of the live-long day in the dreary waste, I took my refuge under this tree; as a traveller rests under the shelter of a kalpa tree at the setting of the sun.

24. All this business of the world was stopped, as the sun went down to rest in the western hills. (The Hindu ritual prescribing no duty for the night consisting of three watches— triyama rajaní ).

25. As the shade of night overspread the bosom of the universe, the whole forest below betook itself to its nightly rest and silence. (The vegetable creation was known to sleep at night by the Hindu sages).

26. I reposed myself in the grassy hollow of a branch of that tree, and rested my head on the mossy bed like a bird in its nest. (Primeval men slept in the hollow of trees like birds, for fear of rapacious animals in the caves of the earth below, as also in the caverns of upland hills and mountains).

307 27. I remained there as insensible as one bitten by a snake, and as a dead body that has lost its past remembrance. (Sleep and death are akin to each other— hypnos kai thanatos didumo adelpho ). I was as impotent as a sold slave; and as helpless as one fallen in a dark ditch or blind pit. Bought slaves krita-dásas and their loss of liberty, were in vogue from the earliest times in India. (अन्ध कुप-अन्ध-कुया = a blind pit).

28. I passed that one night as a long Kalpa in my senselessness; and I thought I was buffeting in the waves like the seer—Markandeya at the great deluge. ( i.e. The body was insensible in the state of sleep; but the mind was active as in a dream, which makes an age of a moment).

29. I passed the night under a train of dangers and difficulties, that invaded me as in the state of dreaming; and I had no thought about my bathing or eating or worshipping my Maker (the mind being wholly occupied by the objects of the dream).

30. I passed the night in restlessness and disquiet, shaking like the branch of a tree; and this single night of trouble was as long as it was tedious to me (like the time of a lingering disease).

31. A melancholy overspread my countenance, as darkness had veiled the face of the night, and my waking eyes kept watching for the day, like blue-lotuses expecting with their watchful eyes the rising moon.

32. The demoniac noise of wild beasts being hushed in the forest at the end of the night, there fell a shivering fit on me with the clattering of my teeth through excessive cold.

33. I then beheld the east, red with the flush of intoxication; as if it was laughing at seeing me drowned in my difficulties.

34. I saw the sun advancing afterwards towards the earth, and to mount on his Airávata the regent elephant of that quarter. He seemed to be so full of glee, as the ignorant man has in his folly, and the poor man in obtaining a treasure.

308 35. Having got up from my mossy bed, I shook off my bed cloth, like the god Siva tossing about his elephantine hide at his giddy dance in the evening. (See Magh. Book I).

36. I then began to wander in the wide forestland, as the god Rudra roves about the wide world, after its desolation by his demons at the end of kalpas.

37. There was no animal of any kind to be seen in the desolate desert, as the good qualities of good breeding, are never to be found in the persons of the illiterate.

38. I saw only the lively birds, perching and chirping all about the woods without intermission.

39. It was then at mid-day, when the sun had run his eighth hour, and the plants had dried up the dews of their morning baths.

40. That I beheld a damsel carrying some food and a goblet of water, on the way as Hari bore the poisonous liquor to the demons in his disguise in the shape of Mádhaví.

41. She was of a swarthy complexion, and dressed in sable black attire; and looked askance at me; when I advanced towards her as the bright moon appears towards the dark and sable night.

42. I asked her to give me some of her food in my great distress, because, I told her, one is enriched by relieving the distress of the needy.

43. O good maid; said I, increasing hunger is consuming my bowels and I would take any food, even as the female serpent devours her own brood and young, in the excess of her hunger. (Hunger beats down the stony wall, and impure food is pure to the hungry).

44. I begged of thee and yet thou gavest me nothing, but dost remain as inexorable as the goddess of fortune, who declines to favour the wretched, however they implore her aid. (Fortune turns a deaf ear to the supplications of the poor).

45. Then I kept a long time, following her closely from one wood to another, and clinging to her as her shadow, moving behind her in the afternoon.

309 46. She then turned to me and said:—Know me, to be a Chandála girl and bearing the name of Harakeyuri; we are as cruel as Rákshasas, and feeders on human flesh as on those of horses and elephants.

47. You cannot, O King! get your food by merely your craving it of me; as it is hard to have the favour of men, without first meeting with their desires.

48. Saying so, she went on trippingly at every step, and then entered into an arbour on the wayside and spoke merrily unto me saying:—

49. Well, I will give you of this food, if you will consent to be my husband; for it is not the business of base and common people to do good to others, before securing their own good.

50. My Chandála father is here ploughing in the field, with his sturdy yoke of bulls, and has the figure of a demon, standing in the cemetery with his haggardly hungry and dusky stature.

51. This food is for him, and may be given to you, if you will agree to espouse me; because the husband deserves to be served even at the peril of one’s life.

52. To this I replied, I agree to take thee to my wife, for what fool is there that will abide by the usage of his family, when his life is in danger?

53. She then gave me half of the food she had with her, as Mádhaví parted with half of her ambrosia to the hungry Indra of old.

54. I ate the Chandál’s food, and drank the beverage of Jambu fruits which she gave me; and then rested at that place, and fell to a sleep caused by my fatigue and long walking.

55. Then she approached to me, as a black cloud advances before the sun; she held me in her arms, and led me onward with her guiding hand, and as fondly as her second self.

56. She took me to her father, a fat and ugly fellow of a 310 repulsive appearance; as the tormenting agony of death, leads a person to the hideous cell of the devil.

57. My companion whispered to his ears the tidings of our case, as the black bee hums her tale softly to the ear of an elephant (in order to sip his frontal juice or ichor of mada-bárí ).

58. This man, said she, is to be my husband, if you, my father, will give your consent. To this he expressed his approval by saying—“Vádham be it so” by the end of this day (when marriage rites usually take place and is called godhuli, or the dusty dusk of returning herds from their pasture grounds).

59. He loosened the bulls from their yoke, as the regent of death releases his hell hounds. And it was in the dusk of the day, when the sky was obscured by the evening mist, and rising dust of godhuli , that we were dismissed from the demons’ presence, to take our own way.

60. We passed the great jungle in a short time, and reached the Chandála’s abode in the evening; as the demons pass amidst the funeral ground, to rest in their charnel vaults at night.

61. The dwelling had on one side, the slaughtered monkeys, cocks and crows; and swarms of flies flying over them, and sucking the blood sprinkled over the ground.

62. The moist entrails and arteries of the slaughtered beasts, that were hung up to be dried in the sun; were chased by the ravenous birds of the air, that kept hovering over them; while flocks of birds fluttered over the Jambira trees (to pick up the fruits for their food).

63. There were heaps of fat laid up to be dried in the portico, and ravenous birds flying over them; and the skins of the slain animals, which were besmeared with blood, lay in piles before their sight.

64. Little children had bits of flesh in their hands, beset by buzzing flies; and there were the veteran Chandálas, sitting by and rebuking the boys.

65. We then entered the house scattered with disgusting 311 entrails and intestines about, and I thought myself as the ghost of a dead man standing beside the regent of death.

66. I had then a seat of a big plantain leaf, given to me with due respect, in order to be seated as a welcome guest, in the abominable abode of my new-earned father-in-law.

67. My squint eyed mother-in-law then eyed at me, with her blood-red eyeballs; and muttered with gladness in her look, “is this our would-be son-in-law?”

68. Afterwards we sat on some seats of skin, and I partook of the repast which was served before me, as the reward of my sins. ( i.e. This fare was as unpalatable, as the requital of one’s crimes).

69. I heard there many of those endearing words, which were the seeds of endless misery; as also many such speeches that were unpleasant to my mind, for their being of no benefit to me.

70. Afterwards, it came to pass on one day, when the sky was cloudless and the stars were shining; that they presented a dowry of cloths and other articles before me (as dánadravya).

71. With these they made over that frightful maiden to me, and we were joined together as black and white, and as sin and its torment together ( i.e. she was given to torment me for my past sins).

72. The flesh-eating Chandálas, festivated the marriage ceremony with profusion of wine and loud shouts of joy; they beat their sounding tomtoms with merriment, as wicked men delight in carrying on the acts of their vileness. (The giddy mirth of the rabble, is compared with the revelry of the riotous).

T he king continued:—What more shall I say of that festivity, which had quite subdued my soul? I was thenceforward named as Pushta-Pukkusha or cherished Chandála by my fellows. (Beng-ghar-jámái or home-bred bridegroom).

2. After the festivity had lasted for a week, and I had passed full eight months at that place; my wife had her pubertal efflorescence, and afterwards her conception also (garbhádhána and garbha).

3. She was delivered of a daughter which is the cause of woe, as a danger is the spring of calamities. (The parallel passage is well known dáriká dukhkha dáyika , a daughter is the source of grief). This daughter grew up as soon as the growth of the cares and sorrows of the ignorant. (The wise neither care nor sorrow for any earthly matter).

4. She brought forth again a black boy in course of three years; as the fruit of folly raises the false expectation of fruition. ( i.e. We are often frustrated in our hopes in our boys).

5. She again gave birth to a daughter and then to another boy; and thus I became an old Chandála, with a large family in that forest land.

6. In this manner passed many years with these shoots of my woe in that place; as a Brahmicide has to pass long years of torment in hell-fire. (Here is a piece of priestcraft in the augmented torment for killing a Brahman as any other man).

7. I had to undergo all the pains of heat and cold, of chill-winds and frost, without any help to be had in that dreary forest; and as an old tortoise is constrained to move about in the mud of a pool for ever.

313 8. Being burthen with the cares of my family, and troubled by anxieties of my mind; I saw my increasing afflictions like a conflagration rising all about me.

9. Clad in bark and wrapt in old and ragged cloths, with a covering of grass and a straw hat on my head, I bore loads of logs from the woods; as we bear the burden of sins on our backs and heads. (See Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress).

10. I had to pass full many a live-long year, under the shade of dhavalí trees; with no other cloth or covering on me than an old tattered, dirty and stinking Kaupina , which was beset by fleas and leeches. (Kaupina a piece of rag covering the lower secret parts of the body as that of Fakirs and Yogis).

11. I was exposed to the chill cold winds, in all my toils to support my family; and lay like a frog in some cave in the woods, under the keen blasts of winter.

12. The many quarrels and bickerings, and the sorrows and wailings, to which I was often exposed at home and abroad, made my blood to gush out in tears from my weeping eyes.

13. We passed the nights on marshy grounds in the jungle, and being deluged by the raining clouds, we took our shelter in the caverns of mountains, with no other food than the roasted flesh of bears.

14. Afterwards the rainy season of sowing being over, and the dark drizzling clouds having dispersed in air, I was driven from my abode, by the unkindness of my relations and continued contention with others.

15. Being thus in dread of every body in the neighbourhood, I removed myself to the house of another man, where I dwelt with my wife and prattling children for some years.

16. Then vexed by the scolding of the termagant Chandálí, and the threats of the villainous Chandálas; my face became as pale as the waning moon under the shadow of Ráhu (the ascending node).

17. I was bit and scratched by the teeth and nails of my wife, as if my flesh and muscles were torn and gnawed down under the 314 grinders of a tigress; and I was as one caught by or sold to a hellish fiend, and thought myself as changed to an infernal being also.

18. I suffered under the torrents of snow thrown out of the caverns of the Himálaya, and was exposed to the showers of frost, that fell continually in the dewy season.

19. I felt on my naked body the iron shafts of rain, as darts let fly from the bow of death; and in my sickly and decrepit old age, I had to live upon the roots of withered vegetables.

20. I dug them out plentifully from the woodland grounds and eat them with a zest, as a fortunate man has in tasting his dainty dishes of well cooked meat.

21. I took my food apart and untouched by any body, for fear of being polluted by the touch of a vile and base born family; and because the pungency of my unsavoury diet, made my mouth wry at every morsel.

22. While I was famishing in this manner, I saw others had their venison and sheep’s flesh bought from other places for their food; and who pampered their bodies also with the flesh they cut out from other living animals and devoured raw with great zest.

23. They bought animal flesh sold in iron pots and stuck in spits, for undergoing migrations into as many thousand bodies as they have killed and fed upon. (This is the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis of the soul, as described in Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World).

24. I often repaired to the garden grounds of the Chandálas, with my spade and basket in the cool of the evening, in order to collect the raw flesh, which had been cast about in the dirt, for making any food of them.

25. But the time seemed to turn favourable to me, when I was about to be cast into hell, by leading me to take refuge of the mountain caverns, and seek my supportance there by the roots and plants growing therein.

26. In this state, I was met by my good chance, on some 315 Chandálas appearing in person before me, and driving away the village dogs with their clubs from before them (to the woods).

27. They gave my wife and children some bad rice as the villagers used to take, and we passed the night under the shade of a palm tree, whose withered leaves were rattling with the rain drops, that fell in showers upon them.

28. We passed the night in company with the sylvan apes, with our teeth clattering with cold; and the hairs of our bodies standing on their ends, like a thousand thorns through coldness.

29. The rain drops decorated our bodies with granules of vivid pearls, and our bellies were as lean and lank like an empty cloud through hunger and for want of food.

30. Then there rose a quarrel in this diresome forest, between me and my wife; and we kept answering one another, with our clattering teeth and ruddy eyes by effect of the cold.

31. My foul and dirty person resembled that of a dark black demon, and we roved about the borders of rivers and brooks, to fish with a rod and hook in my hand.

32. I wandered also with a trap in my hand, like Yama with his noose at the desolation of the earth; and caught and killed and drank the heart blood of the deer in my hunger and thirst.

33. I sucked the warm heart blood, as the milk of my mother’s breast, at the time of famishing; and being besmeared in blood, I stood as a blood sucking demon in the cemetery.

34. The Vetálas of the woods fled before me, as they do from the furies of the forests; and I set my snares and nets in the woods, for catching the deer and birds of the air.

35. As people spread the nets of their wives and children, only to be entangled in them in the false hope of happiness; so did I spread my net of thread, to beguile the birds to their destruction.

36. Though worried and worn out in the nets of worldly cares, and surrounded on every side by the miseries of our vicious lives; yet do our minds take their delight, in the perpetration of cruel and foul acts (to the injury of others).

316 37. Our wishes are stretched as far and wide, as a running river overflows its banks in the rainy season; but the objects of our desires fly afar from us, as snakes hide themselves from the snake eating Karabhas by their own sagacity. (The Karabha is a quadruped of the weasel kind, and is called gohadgel —in Bengali).

38. We have cast off kindness from our hearts, as the snake leaves off his slough; and take a delight to let fly the hissing arrows of our malice, as the thunder storm betides all animals.

39. Men are delighted at the sight of cooling clouds, at the end of the hot season; but they avoid at a distance the rough briny shore spreading wide before them. (So men hail their happiness, and avoid their troubles).

40. But I underwent many a difficulty, which multiplied as thickly upon me, as the weeds growing in dales; and I moved about all the corners of that hellish spot, during my destined time. (What is decreed, cannot be avoided).

41. I have sown the seeds of sin under the rain-water of my ignorance, to grow speedily as thorns on my way. I have laid hidden snares for the unwary innocent, to secure myself in the mountain caves.

42. I have caught and killed the innocent deer in the trap; to feed upon its flesh; and have killed the chouri kine, to lay my head on the hair hanging down their necks.

43. I slept unconscious of myself in my ignorance, as Vishnu lay on his huge hydra; I lay with my out-stretched legs and limbs in the brown cell, resounding to the yell of wild beasts abroad.

44. I lay my body also, on the frost of a cave in the marshy ground of Vindhyá; and wrapped my swarthy form in a tattered quilt, hanging down my neck and full of fleas.

45. I bore it on my back, as a bear bears the long bristles upon him even in the hot season; and suffered the heat of the wild fire, which burnt away many wild animals which perished in groups as in the last conflagration of the world.

317 46. My wife bore her young ones, both for our pleasure as well as pain: as the food of the glutton, is both for his satiety and sickness; and the influence of planets, is for our good and evil also.

47. Thus I the only son of a king, had to pass sixty painful years of my life, as so many kalpa ages of long duration.

48. I raved sometimes in my rage, and wept at others in my bitter grief; I fared on coarse meals, and dwelt, alas! in the abodes of vulgar Chandálas. Thus I passed so many years of my misery at that place, as one fastened to the fetters of his insatiable desires, is doomed to toil and moil for naught until his death. (Bound to our desires, we are dragged to the grave).

T he king continued to say:—Time passed away, and old age overtook me, and turned my beard to blades of grass covered with hoar frost.

2. My days glided away in alternate joy and grief, brought on by my fate and acts; just as a river flows on with the green and dried leaves, which the winds scatter over it.

3. Quarrels and broils, misfortunes and mischances, befell on me every moment; and beset me as thickly and as fastly as the arrows of woe flying in a warfare.

4. My foolish mind kept fluttering like a bird, in the maze of my wishes and fancies; and my heart was perturbed by passions, like the sea by its raging waves.

5. My soul was revolving on the vehicle of my wandering thoughts; and I was borne away by them like a floating straw, to the whirlpool of the eventful ocean of time.

6. I that moved about like a worm amidst the woodlands of Vindhyá, for my simple supportance, felt myself in the process of years, to be weakened and pulled down in my frame, like a biped beast of burthen.

7. I forgot my royalty like a dead man, in that state of my wretchedness, and was confirmed in my belief of a Chandála, and bound to that hilly spot like a wingless bird.

8. The world appeared to me, as desolate as at its final desolation; and as a forest consumed by a conflagration; it seemed as the sea-shore lashed by huge surges; and as a withered tree struck by a lightning.

9. The marshy ground at the foot of Vindhyá was all dried 319 up, and left no corn nor vegetable, nor any water for food or drink; and the whole group of Chandálas, was about to die in dearth and dryness.

10. The clouds ceased to rain, and disappeared from sight; and the winds blew with sparks of fire in them. (The hot winds of the monsoon called agni-vrishti).

11. The forest trees were bare and leafless, and the withered leaves were strewn over the ground; wild fires were raging here and there, and the wood-lands became as desolate, as the abodes of austere ascetics (dwelling in the deserts).

12. There ensued a formidable famine, and a furious flame of wildfire spread all around; it burnt down the whole forest, and reduced the grass and gravels all to ashes.

13. The people were daubed with ashes all over their bodies, and were famishing for want of food and drink; because the land was without any article of food or even grass or water in it, and had turned to a dreary desert.

14. The mirage of the desert glistened as water, and deluded the dry buffaloes to roll in it (as in a pool); and there was no current of breeze to cool the desert air.

15. The call and cry for water, came only to the ears of men; who were parching under the burning rays of the torrid sun (in the Deccan).

16. The hungry mob, hurrying to browse the branches and herbs, yielded their lives in those acts; while others sharpened their teeth, in their acts of tearing and devouring one another.

17. Some ran to bite the gum of catechu, thinking it to be a bit of flesh; while others were swallowing the stones, as if they were cakes lying on the ground before them.

18. The ground was sprinkled with blood, by the mutual biting and tearing of men; as when blood is spilt in profusion, by the lion’s killing a big and starving elephant.

19. Every one was as ferocious as a lion, in his attempt to devour another as his prey; and men mutually fought with one another, as wrestlers do in their contest.

320 20. The trees were leafless, and the hot winds were blowing as fire-brands on all sides; and wild cats were licking the human blood, that was spilt on the rocky ground.

21. The flame of the wild fire rose high in the air, with clouds of smoke whirling with the howling winds of the forest; it growled aloud in every place, and filled the forest-land with heaps of brown cinders and burning fire brands.

22. Huge serpents were burnt in their caves, and the fumes rising from these burning bodies, served to grow the poisonous plants on the spot; while the flame stretching aloft with the winds, gave the sky an appearance of the glory of the setting sun.

23. Heaps of ashes were lifted like dust, by the high howling winds, and stood as domes unsupported by pillars in the open sky; and the little children stood crying for fear of them, beside their weeping parents.

24. There were some men who tore a dead body with their teeth, and in their great haste to devour the flesh, bit their own hands and fingers, which were besmeared in their own blood.

25. The vultures flying in the air, darted upon the smoke, thinking it a turret of trees, and pounced upon the fire brands, taking them for bits of raw flesh.

26. Men biting and tearing one another, were flying in all directions; when the splitting of the burning wood hit upon their breasts and bellies, and made them gory with blood gushing out of them.

27. The winds were howling in the hollow caves, and the flames of the wild fire flashing with fury; the snakes were hissing for fear of these, and the burnt woods were falling down with hideous noise.

28. Thus beset by dangers and horrors, with no other shelter than the rugged hollows of rocks, this place presented a picture of this world, with its circumambient flames, burning as the twelve zodiacal suns on high.

321 29. The winds were blowing hot amidst the burning woods and rocks, and drying up all things; and the heat of the fire below and the sunbeams above, together with the domestic calamities caused by influence of the planet Saturn, made this place a counterpart of this woeful world.

T he king continued:—As these calamities continued to rage in this place, by the displeasure of destiny; and the disasters of the last dissolution prematurely overtook the forest and mountaineers here:—

2. Some of these men went out from that place, with their wives and children, in search of some new abodes in foreign lands; as the clouds disperse and disappear from the sky, after the rainy season is over.

3. They were accompanied by their wives and children and close relatives, who clung to them as the members of their bodies; but the lean and infirm were left behind them, like the separated branches of trees.

4. Some of these emigrants were devoured by tigers, as they went out of their houses; as unfledged birds are caught by falcons, as they come out of their nests.

5. Some entered into the fire like moths, to put an end to their miserable lives; others fell into the pits, like fragments of rocks falling from the hills.

6. I separated myself from the connections of my father-in-law and others; and depending upon myself, I escaped narrowly from that distressed country, with my wife and children about me.

7. We passed the pit-falls and storms, and the wild beasts and snakes, without any harm; and came out of that forest safe from all the deadly perils of the way.

8. Having then arrived at the border of that forest, we got to the shade of some palm trees, where I lay down my children from my shoulders as burdens of my sin and woes. ^[11]

323 9. I halted here after my tiresome journey and lengthened troubles, as one who had fled from the confines of hell; and took my rest like the withering lotus, from the scorching sun-beams and heat of summer.

10. My Chandála wife also slept under the same tree, and my two boys lay fast asleep in each other’s embrace, under the cooling shade.

11. Afterwards my younger son Prach’chhaka, who was as dear to us as he was the less intelligent, rose up and stood before me.

12. He said with a depressed spirit, and tears gushing out of his eyes, “Papa give me soon some meat-food and drink or else I die”.

13. The little boy repeatedly made the same request, and said with tears in his eyes, that he was dying of hunger.

14. I told him I had no meat, and the more I said so, the more he repeated his foolish craving, which could neither be supplied with nor put down to silence.

15. I was then moved by paternal affection, and affliction of my heart, to tell him, “child, cut off a slice of my flesh, and roast and eat it.”

16. He agreed to it, and said ‘give it then’; because his hunger was so pressing and his vitality was so much exhausted, that he could not decline to crave my flesh for his food.

17. Being then overpowered by affection and compassion I thought of putting an end to all my grief with my life, which became so intolerable to me at his excessive distress.

18. Being unable to endure the pain of my affection, I despaired of my own life; and resolved to resort to death, as my only friend at this last extremity.

19. I collected some wood, and heaped them together for my funeral pile, and having put it on fire, I saw it blaze as I wished.

20. As I was hastening to throw myself on this pile, I was immediately roused from my reverie by the sound of music 324 proceeding from this palace, hailing me as king, and shouting my victory jaya .

21. I understood this conjurer had wrought this enchantment on me, and put me to all these imaginable troubles for so long a period.

22. Like the ignorant, I was subject to a hundred changes of fortune (which can never approach the wise). As the great and mighty King—Lavana, had been recapitulating and expostulating on the vicissitudes of fortune:—

23. The sorcerer suddenly disappeared from his sight, at which the courtiers looked around them with their staring eyes; and then addressed the king, saying:—

24. This man was no sorcerer, our liege lord! who had no mercenary views of his own in this; but it was a divine magic (theurgy), that was displayed to our lord, to represent the lot of humanity and the state of the world.

25. This world is evidently a creation of the mind, and the imaginary world is only a display of the infinite power of the Almighty. (It was a coinage of the brain, a stretch of the imagination which gives images to ideals).

26. These hundreds of worldly systems, display the multifarious powers of Omnipotence; which delude even the minds of the most wise, to believe in the reality of unrealities, as it were by the spell of magic.

27. This delusion being so potent on the minds of wise, it is no wonder, that our king would be overpowered by it, when all common minds are labouring under the same error.

28. This delusive magic was not spread over the mind, by any trick or art of the conjurer; who aimed at nothing more than his own gain, by the act of his sorcery. (It is the divine will, which spreads the illusion alike on all minds).

29. They that love money, never go away of themselves without getting something: therefore we are tossed on the waves of doubt ( i.e. doubtful) to take him for a sorcerer.

30. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! though I am sitting here at 325 this moment, before you and others of this assembly; yet I am quite sensible of the truth of this story, which is no fiction like the tale of the boy I have told you before, nor is it any coining or hearsay of mine.

31. Thus the mind is enlarged by the various inventions of its imagination, as a tree is extended by the expansion of its boughs and branches. The extended mind encompasses all things, as an outstretched arbor overspreads on the ground. It is the mind’s comprehension of every thing, and its conversancy with the natures of all things, that serve to lead it to its state of perfection. (The amplitude of the mind, consists in the extent of its knowledge).

V asishtha said:—Since the subjective Intellect chit , has derived the power of knowing the objective Intelligibles chetyas , from the supreme cause in the beginning; it went on to multiply and diversify the objects of its intelligence, and thus fell from the knowledge of the one intelligent Universal Ego , to the delusion of the particular non egos ad infinitum . (The knowledge of the subjective universal soul being lost, the mind is left to be bewildered in the objective particulars to no end).

2. Thus Ráma, the faculties of the mind, being deluded by the unrealities of particulars, they continue to attribute specialities and differences to the general ones to their utter error. (Multiplication and differentiation of objects, mislead the mind from the universal unity of the only one).

3. The mental powers are ever busy to multiply the unrealities to infinity, as ignorant children are prone to create the false goblins of their fancy, only for their terror and trouble.

4. But the reality soon disperses the troublesome unrealities, and the unsullied understanding drives off the errors of imagination, as the sun-shine dispels the darkness.

5. The mind brings distant objects near it, and throws the nearer ones at a distance; it trots and flutters in living beings, as boys leap and jump in bushes after little birds.

6. The wistful mind is fearful, where there is nothing to fear; as the affrighted traveller takes the stump of a tree for demon, standing on his way.

7. The suspicious mind suspects a friend for a foe, as a drunken sot thinks himself lying on the ground, while he is walking along.

327 8. The distracted mind, sees the fiery Saturn in the cooling moon; and the nectar being swallowed as poison, acts as poison itself.

9. The building of an aerial castle however untrue, is taken for truth for the time being; and the mind dwelling on hopes, is a dreamer in its waking state.

10. The disease of desire is the delusion of the mind; therefore it is to be rooted out at once with all diligence from the mind.

11. The minds of men being entangled in the net of avarice like poor stags, are rendered as helpless as these beasts of prey, in the forest of the world.

12. He who has removed by his reasoning, the vain anxieties of his mind, has displayed the light of his soul, like that of the unclouded sun to sight.

13. Know therefore that it is mind that make the man and not his body that is called as such: the body is dull matter, but the mind is neither a material nor immaterial substance (as the spirit).

14. Whatever is done with the mind or voluntarily by any man, know Ráma, that act to be actually done by him (since an involuntary action is indifferent by itself); and whatsoever is shunned by it, know that to be kept out in actu .

15. The mind alone makes the whole world, to the utmost end of the spheres; the mind is the vacuum, and it is the air and earth in its greatness. (Since it comprehends them all in itself; and none of these is perceptible without the mind).

16. If the mind do not join a thing with its known properties and qualities; then the sun and the luminaries would appear to be without their light (as it is with the day-blind bats and owls, that take the day light for darkness, and the dark night for their bright day light).

17. The mind assumes the properties of knowledge and ignorance, whence it is called a knowing or unknowing thing; but these properties are not to be attributed to 328 the body, for a living body is never known to be wise, nor a dead carcase an ignorant person.

18. The mind becomes the sight in its act of seeing, and it is hearing also when it hears any thing; it is the feeling of touch in connection with the skin, and it is smelling when connected with the nose.

19. So it becomes taste being connected with the tongue and palate, and takes many other names besides, according to its other faculties. Thus the mind is the chief actor on the stage of the living animal body.

20. It magnifies the minute and makes the true appear as untrue; it sweetens the bitter and sours the sweet, and turns a foe to a friend and vice-versa .

21. In whatever manner the mind represents itself in its various aspects, the same becomes evident to us both in our perceptions and conceptions of them. ( i.e. Every body takes things in the same light, as his mind represents them unto him).

22. It was by virtue of such a representation, that the dreaming mind of king Haris chandra, took the course of one night for the long period of a dozen of years.

23. It was owing to a similar idea of the mind, that the whole city of Brahmá appeared to be situated within himself.

24. The presentation of a fair prospect before the imagination, turns the present pain to pleasure; as a man bound in chains forgets his painful state, in the hopes of his release or installation on the next morning.

25. The mind being well fortified and brought under the subjection of reason, brings all the members of the body and internal passions of the heart under our control; but the loose and ungoverned mind, gives a loose rein to them for their going astray; as the loosened thread of a string of pearls, scatters the precious grains at random over the ground.

26. The mind that preserves its clear sightedness, and its equanimity and unalterableness in all places, and under all conditions; retains its even temper and nice discernment at 329 all times, under the testimony of its consciousness, and approbation of its good conscience.

27. With your mind acquainted with the states of all things, but undisturbed by the fluctuations of the objects that come under your cognizance, you must retain, O Ráma! your self-possession at all times, and remain like a dumb and dull body, (without being moved by any thing).

28. The mind is restless of its own nature, with all its vain thoughts and desires within itself; but the man is carried abroad as by its current; over hills and deserts and across rivers and seas, to far and remote cities and countries (in search of gain).

29. The waking mind deems the objects of its desire, to be as sweet as honey, and whatever it does not like, to be as bitter as gall; although they may be sweet to taste; ( i.e. the blindness of sensuous minds in their choice of evil for good, and slighting of good as evil).

30. Some minds with too much self reliance in themselves, and without considering the true nature of things; give them different forms and colours, according to their own conceptions and opinions, though they are far from truth. (Every man delights in his own hobby horse).

31. The mind is a pulsation of the power of the Divine Intellect, that ventilates in the breeze and glares in luminous bodies, melts in the liquids and hardens in solid substances. (Compare the lines of Pope: “Glows in the sun &c.” The mind is dependent on the intellect, and the mental operations, are subordinate to the intellectual).

32. It vanishes in vacuity and extends in the space; it dwells in everything at its pleasure, and flies from everywhere at its will.

33. It whitens the black and blackens the white, and is confined to no place or time but extends through all. (The mind can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven).

34. The mind being absent or settled elsewhere, we do not 330 taste the sweet, which we suck or swallow or grind under the teeth or lick with the tongue.

35. What is seen by the mind, is seen with the eyes, and what is unseen by it, is never seen by the visual organs; as things lying in the dark are not perceptible to the sight.

36. The mind is embodied in the organic body, accompanied by the sensible organs; but it is the mind that actuates the senses and receives the sensations; the senses are the products of the mind, but the mind is not a production of sensations.

37. Those great souls (philosophers), who have investigated into the manner of the connection between the two quite different substances of the body and mind, and those learned men who show us their mutual relations (the psychologists), are truly worthy of our veneration.

38. A handsome woman decked with flowers in the braids of her hair, and looking loosely with her amorous glances, is like a log of wood, in contact with the body of one, whose mind is absent from himself. (The dalliance of a woman is dead and lost, to the unfeeling heart and unmindful man).

39. The dispassionate Yogi that sits reclined in his abstract meditation in the forest, has no sense of his hands being bitten off by a voracious beast from his body; owing to the absence of his mind.

40. The mind of the sage, which is practised in mental abstraction, may with ease be inclined to convert his pleasures to pain, and his pains to pleasure.

41. The mind employed in some other thought and inattentive to the present discourse, finds it as a detached piece of wood dissevered by an axe. (The presence of the mind joins the parts of a lecture, as its inadvertence disjoins them from their consecutive order).

42. A man sitting at home, and thinking of his standing on the precipice of a mountain, or falling into the hollow cave below, shudders at the idea of his imminent danger: so also one is startled at the prospect of a dreary desert even in his dream, 331 and is bewildered to imagine the vast deep under the clouds. (See Hume on the Association of Ideas).

43. The mind feels a delight at the sight of a lovely spot in its dream, and at seeing the hills, cities and houses stretching on, the clusters of stars shining in the extended plain of the sky. (Objects which are pleasurable or painful to the sight, give pleasure and pain to the mind, when it is connected with that sense).

44. The restless mind is busy to stretch many a hill and dale and cities and houses in our dreams, as these are the billows in the vast ocean of the soul.

45. As the waters of the sea display themselves in huge surges, billows and waves, so the mind which is in the body, displays itself in the various sights exhibited in our dreams. (Meaning, the dreams to be transformations ( Vikáras ) of the mind, like the waves of the water).

46. As the leaves and branches, flowers and fruits are the products of the shooting seed; so every thing that is seen in our waking dreams, is the creations of our minds.

47. As a golden image is no other than the very gold, so the creatures of our living dreams, are not otherwise than the creations of our fanciful mind.

48. As a drop or shower of rain, and a foam or froth of the wave, are but different forms of water; so the varieties ( manatá ), of sensible objects are but formations of the same mind. (Lit. formations or transformations of the mind).

49. These are but the thoughts of our minds, that are seen in our waking dreams; like the various garbs which an actor puts on him, to represent different characters in a play.

50. As the king Lavana believed himself to be a chandála for some time, so do we believe ourselves to be so and so, by the thoughts of our minds.

51. Whatever we think ourselves to be in our consciousness, the same soon comes to pass upon us; therefore mould the 332 thoughts of your mind in any way you like. ( i.e. As one thinks himself to be, so will he find himself to become in his own conceit).

52. The embodied being beholds many cities and towns, hills and rivers before him; all which are but visions of waking dreams, and stretched out by the inward mind.

53. One sees a demon in a deity, and a snake where there is no snake; it is the idea that fosters the thought, as the king Lavana fostered the thoughts of his ideal forms.

54. As the idea of man includes that of a woman also, and the idea of father comprises that of the son likewise; so the mind includes the wish, and the wish is accompanied by its action with every person. (As when I say I have a mind to do so, I mean I have a wish to do it; and the same wish leads me to its execution. Or that the action is concomitant with the will so the phrase: “take will for the deed”).

55. It is by its wish that the mind is subject to death, and to be born again in other bodies; and though it is a formless thing of its nature, yet it is by its constant habit of thinking, that it contracts the notion of its being a living substance (jíva).

56. The mind is busy with its thoughts of long drawn wishes, which cause its repeated births and deaths, and their concomitants of hopes and fears, and pleasure and pain. (The wish is father of thoughts, and these mould our acts and lives).

57. Pleasure and pain are situated in the mind like the oil in the sesamum seed, and these are thickened or thinned like the oil under particular circumstances of life. Prosperity thickens our pleasure, and adversity our pain; and these are thinned by their reverses again.

58. As it is the greater or lighter pressure of the oil-mill, that thickens or thins the oil, so it is the deeper or lighter attention of the mind, that aggravates or lightens its sense of pleasure or pain. (Loss or gain unfelt, is nothing lost or gained. 333 The pleasure or pain of which we are ignorant, is no pleasure or pain).

59. As our wishes are directed by the particular circumstances of time and place, so the measurements of time and place, are made according to the intensity or laxity of our thoughts. ( i.e. The intense application or inattention of the mind, prolongs and shortens the measure of time and place to us).

60. It is the mind that is satisfied and delighted at the fulfilment of our wishes, and not the body which is insensible of its enjoyments. (The commentary explains the participation of the enjoyment both by the body and mind, and not by one independently of the other).

61. The mind is delighted with its imaginary desires within the body, as a secluded woman takes her delight in the seraglio. (The pleasure of imagination pleases the inmost soul, when we have no external and bodily pleasure to enjoy).

62. He who does not give indulgence to levities and fickleness in his heart, is sure to subdue his mind; as one binds an elephant by its chain to the post.

63. He whose mind does not wave to and fro like a brandished sword, but remains fixed as a post or pillar to its best intent and object, is the best of men on earth; all others (with fickle minds), are as insects continually moving in the mind.

64. He whose mind is freed from fickleness, and is sedate in itself, is united with his best object in his meditation of the same. (The unflinching mind, is sure of success).

65. Steadiness of the mind is attended with the stillness of worldly commotions, as the suspension of the churning Mandara, was attended with the calmness of the ocean of milk.

66. The thoughts of the mind being embroiled in worldly cares (of gaining the objects of desire and enjoyments), become the sources of those turbulent passions in the breast, which like poisonous plants fill this baneful world (with their deadly breath).

334 67. Foolish men that are infatuated by their giddiness and ignorance, revolve round the centre of their hearts, as the giddy bees flutter about the lotus-flower of the lake; till at last grown weary in their giddy circles, they fall down in the encompassing whirlpools, which hurl them in irreparable ruin.

V asishtha continued:—Now attend to the best remedy, that I will tell you to heal the disease of the heart; which is within one’s own power and harmless, and a sweet potion to taste.

2. It is by the exertion of your own consciousness by yourself, and by diligent relinquishment of the best objects of your desire, that you can bring back your refractory mind under your subjection.

3. He who remains at rest by giving up the objects of his desire, is verily the conqueror of his mind; which is reduced under his subjection as an elephant wanting its tusks.

4. The mind is to be carefully treated as a patient by the prescriptions of reason, and by discriminating the truth from untruth, as we do good diet from what is injurious.

5. Mould your heated imagination by cool reasoning, by precepts of the Sástras, and by association with the dispassionate, as they do the heated iron by a cold hammer.

6. As a boy has no pain to turn himself this way and that in his play; so it is not difficult to turn the mind, from one thing to another at pleasure.

7. Employ your mind to the acts of goodness by the light of your understanding; as you join your soul to the meditation of God by light of your spirit.

8. The renunciation of a highly desirable object, is in the power of one, who resigns himself to the divine will; it is a shame therefore to that worm of human being, who finds this precept difficult for his practice.

336 9. He who can take the unpleasant for the pleasurable in his understanding; may with ease subdue his mind, as a giant overcomes a boy by his might.

10. It is possible to govern the mind like a horse, by one’s attention and exertion; and the mind being brought to its quietness, it is easy to enter into divine knowledge.

11. Shame to that jackass (lit.: jackalish man), who has not the power to subdue his restless mind, which is entirely under his own subjection, and which he can easily govern.

12. No one can reach the best course of his life, without the tranquility of his mind; which is to be acquired by means of his own exertion, in getting rid of the fond objects of his desire. (The best course of life, is to live free from care, which is unattainable without subjection of our desires).

13. It is by means of destroying the appetites of the mind, by means of reason and knowledge of truth; that one can have his absolute dominion over it, without any change or rival in it. (The rival powers in the kingdom of the mind ( manorájya ), are the passions and the train of ignorance— moha ).

14. The precepts of a preceptor, the instructions of the sástras, the efficacy of mantras, and the force of arguments, are all as trifles as straws, without that calmness of the mind, which can be gained by renunciation of our desires and by the knowledge of truth.

15. The One All and all-pervading quiescent Brahma can be known then only, when the desires of the mind are all cut off by the weapon of indifference to all worldly things.

16. All bodily pains of men are quite at an end, no sooner the mind is at rest, after the removal of mental anxieties by means of true knowledge.

17. Many persons turn their minds to unmindfulness, by too much trust in their exertions and imaginary expectations; and disregarding the power of destiny, which overrules all human efforts.

18. The mind being long practised in its highest duty, of the 337 cultivation of divine knowledge, becomes extinct in the intellect, and is elevated to its higher state of intellectual form.

19. Join yourself to your intellectual or abstract thoughts at first, and then to your spiritual speculations. Being then master of your mind, contemplate on the nature of the Supreme soul.

20. Thus relying on your own exertion, and converting the sensible mind to its state of stoic insensibility, you can attain to that highest state of fixedness, which knows no decay nor destruction. (Spiritual bliss).

21. It is by your exertion and fixed attention, O Ráma! that you can correct the errors of your mind; as one gets over his wrong apprehension of taking one thing for another (such as his mistaking of the east for the west).

22. Calmness of mind, produces the want of anxiety; and the man that has been able to subdue his mind, cares a fig for his subjection of the world under him. (For, what is this world, without its perception in the mind?).

23. Worldly possessions are attended with strife and warfare, and the enjoyments of heaven also, have their rise and fall; but in the improvement of one’s own mind and nature, there is no contention with anybody, nor any obstruction of any kind.

24. It is hard for them to manage their affairs well, who cannot manage to keep their minds under proper control. (Govern yourself ere you can govern others. Or:—Govern your mind, lest it govern you).

25. The thought of one’s being dead, and being born again as a man, continually employ the minds of the ignorant with the idea of their egoism (which is a false one, since the soul has no birth or death, nor any personality of its own).

26. So no body is born here nor dies at any time; it is the mind that conceives its birth and death and migration in other bodies and worlds. ( i.e. Its transmigration and apprehension of its rise or fall to heaven or hell).

27. It goes hence to another world, and there appears in another form (of the body and mind); or it is relieved from the 338 encumbrance of flesh, which is called its liberation. Where then is this death and why fear to die (which is no more than progress to a new life?).

28. Whether the mind roves here; or goes to another world with its earthly thoughts, it continues in the same state as before unless it is changed to another form (of purity), by its attainment of liberation (from humanity).

29. It is in vain that we are overwhelmed in sorrow, upon the demise of our brethren and dependants; since we know it is the nature of the mind, to be thus deluded from its state of pure intelligence to that of error. (It is the deluded mind, and not the intelligent soul that is subject to sorrow).

30. It has been repeatedly mentioned both before and afterwards, and in many other places (of this work); that there is no other means of obtaining the pure diet of true knowledge, without subduing the mind (and bringing it under the control of reason).

31. I repeat the same lesson, that there is no other way, save by the government of the unruly mind, to come to the light of the truly real, clear and catholic knowledge of the Supreme. (By catholic knowledge is meant the universally received doctrines of divinity).

32. The mind being destroyed ( i.e. all its function, being suspended), the soul attains its tranquility, and the light of the intellect shines forth in the cavity of the heart.

33. Hold fast the discus of reason, and cut off the bias of your mind; be sure that no disease will have the power to molest you, if you can have the good sense to despise the objects of pleasure, which are attended by pain. (All pleasure is followed by pain. Or: Pleasure leads to pain, and pain succeeds pleasure).

34. By lopping the members of the mind, you cut it off altogether; and these being egoism and selfishness which compose the essence of the mind. Shun your sense that ‘it is I’ and ‘these are mine.’

35. Want of these feelings, casts down the mind like a tree 339 felled by the axe; and disperses it like a scattered cloud from the autumnal sky.

36. The mind is blown away by its destitution of egoism ( Ahantá ) and meitatism (mamatá), like a cloud by the winds. (Unconsciousness of one’s egoism and personality, is the tantamount to his utter extinction, and unification with the one universal Soul).

37. It is dangerous to wage a war, against winds and weapons, and fire and water, in order to obtain the objects <of> our worldly desire; but there is no danger whatever in destroying the growing soft and tender desires of the mind. (It is easier to govern one’s self than to suppress his enemies).

38. What is good, and what is not so, is well known for certain even to boys; ( i.e. the immutability of good and evil is plain to common and simple understandings); therefore employ your mind to what is good, as they train up children in the paths of goodness. (Sow good betimes, to reap its reward in time. If good we plant not, vice will fill the place; and rankest weeds, the richest soils deface).

39. Our minds are as inveterate and indomitable, as ferocious lions of the forest; and they are true victors, who have conquered these, and are thereby entitled to salvation. (Govern your restless mind, and you govern the rest of your kind).

40. Our desires are as fierce lions, with their insatiable thirst after lucre: and they are as delusive as the mirage of the desert, by leading us to dangers.

41. The man that is devoid of desires, cares for nothing, whether the winds may howl with the fury of storms; or the seas break their bounds, or the twelve suns (of the Zodiac) rise at once to burn the universe.

42. The mind is the root, that grows the plants of our good and evil and all our weal and woe. The mind is the tree of the world, and all peoples are as its branches and leaves, (which live by its sap and juice).

43. One prospers every where, who has freed his mind 340 from its desires; and he that lives in the dominion of indifference, rests in his heavenly felicity.

44. The more we curb the desires of our minds, the greater we feel our inward happiness; as the fire being extinguished, we find ourselves cooled from its heat.

45. Should the mind long for millions of worldly mansions in its highest ambition; it is sure to have them spread out to view within the minute particle of its own essence. (The ambitious mind grasps the whole world within its small compass).

46. Opulence in expectancy, is full of anxiety to the mind, and the expected wealth when gained is no less troublesome to it; but the treasure of contentment is fraught with lasting peace of mind, therefore be victorious over your greedy mind by abandonment of all your desires.

47. With the highly holy virtue of your unmindfulness, and with the even-mindedness of those that have known the Divine spirit; as also with the subdued, moderated and defeated yearnings of your heart, make the state of the increate One as your own. (Sedateness of the mind, resembles the state of God).

V asishtha continued:—Whatever be the nature of the object of any man’s desire, his mind does not fail to run after it with great avidity in every place.

2. This eagerness of the mind rises and sets by turns, with the view of the desired object, like the clear bubbles of water foaming and bursting of themselves with the breath of winds.

3. As coldness is the nature of frost, and blackness is that of ink; so is swiftness or momentum the nature of the mind, as stillness is that of the soul.

4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the mind is identified with momentum, and what is the cause of its velocity; tell me also; if there is any other force to impede the motion of the mind.

5. Vasishtha replied:—We have never seen the motionless quiet of the mind; fleetness is the nature of the mind, as heat is that of fire.

6. This vacillating power of motion, which is implanted in the mind, is known to be of the same nature as that of the self-motive force of the Divine mind; which is the cause of the momentum and motion of those worlds.

7. As the essence of air is imperceptible without its vibration, so we can have no notion of the momentum of our minds, apart from the idea of their oscillation.

8. The mind which has no motion is said to be dead and defunct; and the suspension of mental agitation, is the condition of Yoga quietism and leading to our ultimate liberation.

9. The mortification of the mind, is attended with the subsidence of our woes; but the agitated thoughts in the mind, are causes of all our woes.

342 10. The monster of the mind, being roused from its rest, raises all our dangers and disasters; but its falling into rest and inaction, causes our happiness and perfect felicity.

11. The restlessness of the mind is the effect of its ignorance; therefore Ráma! exert your reason to destroy all its desires (for temporal possessions).

12. Destroy the internal desires of your mind, which are raised by ignorance alone; and attain your supreme felicity by your resignation to the divine will.

13. The mind is a thing that stands between the real and unreal and between intelligence and dull matter, and is moved to and fro by the contending powers on either side.

14. Impelled by dull material force, the mind is lost in the investigation of material objects; till at last by its habitual thought of materiality, it is converted to a material object, resembling dull matter itself. (Such is the materialistic mind).

15. But the mind being guided by its intellectual powers, to the investigation of abstract truths, becomes an intelligent and intellectual principle, by its continued practice of thinking itself as such. (This is immaterial mind).

16. It is by virtue of the exertion of your manly powers and activities, and by force of constant habit and continued practice; that you can succeed to attain any thing, to which, you employ your mind with diligence. (Diligence overcomes all difficulties).

17. You can also be free from fears, and find your rest in your reliance in the sorrowless Being; provided you exercise your manly activities therein, and curb the proclivities of your mind by your intelligence.

18. It must be by the force of your intelligent mind, that you must lift up your deluded mind, which is drowned in the cares of this world. There is no other means that will help you to do so.

19. The mind only is capable of subduing the mind; for who can subdue a king unless he is a king himself?

343 20. Our minds are the boats, to lift us from the ocean of this world; where we are carried too far by its beating waves, and thrown into the eddies of despair, and where we are caught by the sharks of our greediness.

21. Let your own mind cut the net of the mind, which is ensnared in this world; and extricate your soul, by this wise policy, which is the only means of your liberation. ( i.e. Set your mind to correct your mind).

22. Let the wise destroy the desires of their minds, and this will set them free from the bonds of ignorance.

23. Shun your desire for earthly enjoyments and forsake your knowledge of dualism; then get rid of your impressions of entity and non-entity, and be happy with the knowledge of one unity.

24. The thought of the unknowable, will remove the thoughts of knowables; this is equivalent to the destruction of desires, of the mind and ignorance also.

25. The unknown one of which we are unconscious by our knowledge, transcends all whatever is known to us by our consciousness. Our unconsciousness is our nirvána or final extinction, while our consciousness is the cause of our woe.

26. It is by their own attention that men soon come to the knowledge of the knowables; but it is the unknowing or unconsciousness of these that is our nirvána , while our consciousness is the cause of our woe. (Want of self-consciousness, is want of pain. And perfect apathy is the perfection of solipsism).

27. Destroy O Ráma, whatever is desirable to your mind, and is the object of your affection; then knowing them as reduced to nothing, forsake your desires as seedless sprouts (which can never grow); and live content without the feelings of joy and grief.

V asishtha continued:—The false desires which continually rise in the breast; are as the appearances of false moons in the sky, and should be shunned by the wise.

2. They rise in the minds of the unwise amidst their ignorance; but every thing which is known only by its name and not in actuality, can not have its residence in the minds of wise people. (Nominalism as opposed to Realistic Platonism).

3. Be wise, O Ráma; and do not think like the ignorant; but consider well all that I tell you;—there is no second moon in the sky, but it appears so only by deception of our optical visions.

4. There exists nothing real or unreal any where, except the only true essence of God; as there is no substantiality in the continuity of the waves, besides the body of waters.

5. There is no reality in any thing, whether existent or non-existent, all which are mere creations of your shadowy ideality; do not therefore impute any shape or figure to the eternal, boundless and pure spirit of God.

6. You are no maker nor master of anything, then why deem any act or thing as your own ( mamatá—meity ?) You know not what these existences are, and by whom and wherefore they are made.

7. Neither think yourself as actor, because no actor can attempt to do anything. Discharge whatever is your duty, and remain at your ease with having done your part.

8. Though you are the actor of an action, yet think not yourself as such, minding your inability to do or undo any 345 thing: for how can you boast yourself as the actor, when you know your inability for action.

9. If truth is delectable and untruth is odious, then remain firm to what is good; and be employed in your duties (in the path of truth and goodness).

10. But as the whole world is a gallery, a magic and an unreality; then say what reliance is there in it, and what signifies pleasurableness or unpleasurableness to any body.

11. Know Ráma, this ovum of the world to be a delusion, and being inexistent in itself, appears as a real existence to others.

12. Know this busy sphere of the world, which is so full with its inessence; to be an ideal phantasm presented for the delusion of our minds.

13. It is like the beautiful bamboo plant, all hollow within, and without pith and marrow in the inside; and like the curling waves of the sea, both of which are born to perish without being uprooted from the bottom. (It is impossible to root out the bamboo as well as the rising wave of the water).

14. This world is as volatile as the air and water flying in the air, and hardly to be tangible or held fast in the hand; and as precipitous as the water-fall in its course (hurling down and sweeping away everything before it).

15. It appears as a flowery garden, but never comes to any good use at all; so the billowy sea in the mirage, presents the form of water, without allaying our thirst.

16. Sometimes it seems to be straight, and at others a curve; now it is long and now short, and now it is moving and quiet again; and everything in it, though originally for our good, conspires to our evil only.

17. Though hollow in the inside, the world appears to be full with its apparent contents; and though all the worlds are continually in motion, yet they seem to be standing still.

18. Whether they be dull matter or intelligences, their existence depends upon their motion; and these without stopping 346 any where for a moment, present the sight of their being quite at rest.

19. Though they are as bright as light to sight, they are as opaque as the dark coal in their bowels; and though they are moved by a superior power, they appear to be moving of themselves.

20. They fade away before the brighter light of the sun, but brighten in the darkness of the night; their light is like that of the mirage, by reflection of sunbeams.

21. Human avarice is as a sable serpent, crooked and venomous, thin and soft in its form; but rough and dangerous in its nature, and ever unsteady as a woman.

22. Our love of the world, ceases soon without the objects of our affection; as the lamp is extinguished without its oil, and as the vermilion mark, which is soon effaced. (Here is a pun upon the world sneha meaning a fluid substance as well as affection; and that the world is a dreary waste, without the objects dear to us).

23. Our false hopes are as transient, as the evanescent flash of lightnings; they glare and flare for a moment, but they disappear in the air as these transitory flashes of light.

24. The objects of our desire are often had without our seeking; but they are as frail as the fire of heaven; they appear to vanish like the twinkling lightnings, and being held carefully in the hand, they burn it like the electric fire. (This passage shows the science of electricity and the catching of electric fire, to have been known to the ancients).

25. Many things come to us unasked, and though appearing delightsome at first, they prove troublesome to us at last. Hopes delayed, are as flowers growing out of season, which, neither bear their fruits, nor answer our purposes. (Unseasonal flowers are held as ominous and useless).

26. Every accident tends to our misery, as unpleasant dreams infest our sleep and disturb our rest.

27. It is our delusion (avidyá), that presents these many 347 and big worlds before us; as our dreams produce, sustain and destroy all the appearances of vision in one minute.

28. It was delusion which made one minute, appear as many years to king Lavana; and the space of one night, seem as the long period of a dozen of years to Haris chandra.

29. Such also is the case with separated lovers among rich people, that a single night seems as a live long year to them, in the absence of their beloved.

30. It is this delusive avidyá , that shortens the flight of time to the rich and happy; and prolongs its course, with the poor and miserable: all of whom are subject to the power of delusion vipary’ása .

31. The power of this delusion is essentially spread over all the works of creation, as the light of a lamp, is spread over things in its effulgence and not in substance.

32. As a female form represented in a picture is no woman, and has not the power of doing any thing; so this avidyá which presents us the shapes of our desired objects in the picture of the mind, can produce nothing in reality.

33. The delusion consists in the building of aerial castles in the mind, without their substance; and though these appear in hundreds and thousands of shapes, they have no substantiality in them.

34. It deludes the ignorant, as a mirage misleads the deer in a desert; but it can not deceive the knowing man by its false appearances.

35. These appearances like the foaming waters, are as continuous as they are evanescent, they are as fleeting as the driving frost, which can not be held in the hand.

36. This delusion holds the world in its grasp, and flies aloft with it in the air; it blinds us by the flying dust, which is raised by its furious blasts. (This is delusion of ambitions).

37. Covered with dust and with heat and sweat of its body, it grasps the earth and flies all about the world. The deluded man ever toils and moils, and runs every where after his greed.

348 38. As the drops of rain water, falling from the clouds, form the great rivers and seas; and as the scattered straws being tied together, make the strong rope for the bondage of beasts; so the combination of all the delusive objects in the world, makes the great delusion of Máyá and Moha. (‘ Gutta cum gutta facit lacum ’. Drop by drop, makes a lake. Or by drops the lake is drained. And many a little, makes a mickle).

39. The poets describe the fluctuations of the world as a series of waves and the world itself, as a bed of lotuses: pleasant to sight, but floating on the unstable element. But I compare it with the porous stalk of the lotus, which is full of perforations and foramens inside; and as a pool of mud and mire, with the filth of our sins. (The world is full of hidden traps and trapdoors and is a pit of sinfulness).

40. Men think much of their improvement, and of many other things on earth; but there is no improving in this decaying world; which is as a tempting cake with a coating of sweets, but full of deadly gall within.

41. It is as an extinguishing lamp, whose flame is lost and fled we know not where. It is visible as a mist, but try to lay hold on it, and it proves to be nothing.

42. This earth is a handful of ashes, which being flung aloft flies in particles of dust; and the upper sky which appears to be blue, has no blueness in it.

43. There is the same delusion here on earth, as in the appearance of couple of moons in the sky; and in the vision of things in a dream, as also in the motion of immovable things on the land, to the passenger in a boat. (Things taken to be true, prove to be false).

44. Men being long deluded by this error, which has fastly laid hold of their minds, imagine a long duration of the world, as they do of the scenes in their dreams.

45. The mind being thus deluded by this error, sees the wonderful productions of world, to rise and fall within itself like the waves of the sea.

349 46. Things which are real and good, appear as otherwise in our error; while those that are unreal and noxious, appear as real and good to our deluded understandings.

47. Our strong avarice riding on the vehicle of the desired object, chases the fleeting mind as bird-catchers do the flying birds in nets.

48. Delusion like a mother and wife often offers us fresh delights, with her tender looks and breasts distilling sweet milk.

49. But these delights serve only to poison us, while they seem to cool the worlds with their distillation; just as the crescent orb of the moon, injures us with too much of her moistening influence, while it appears to refresh us with her full bright beams.

50. Blind delusion turns the meek, mild and mute men, to giddy and vociferous fools; as the silent Vetálas become in their revelrous dancings, amidst the silent woods at night.

51. It is under the influence of delusion, that we see the shapes of snakes and serpents, in our brick-built and stone made houses at night falls: ( i.e. apprehensions of these in darkness).

52. It makes a single thing appear as double, as in the sight of two moons in the sky; and brings near to us whatever is at a distance, as in our dreams; and even causes us to dream ourselves as dead in sleep.

53. It causes the long to appear as short, as our nightly sleep shortens the duration of time; and makes a moment appear as a year, as in the case of separated lovers.

54. Look at the power of this unsubstantial ignorance, a negative thing, and still there is nothing which it can not alter to some thing else.

55. Therefore be diligent to stop the course of this delusion, by your right knowledge: as they dry up a channel by stopping the current of the stream.

56. Ráma said:—It is wonderful that a false conception, which has no real existence, and is so delicate as almost a nothing (but a name) should thus blind the understanding.

350 57. It is strange that something without form or figure, without sense or understanding, and which is unreal and vanishing, should so blindfold the world.

58. It is strange that a thing sparkling in darkness, and vanishing in day light, and mope-eyed as the moping owl, should thus keep the world in darkness.

59. It is strange that something prone to the doing of evil (deception), and unable to come to light and flying from sight, and having no bodily form whatever, should thus darken the world.

60. It is a wonder that one acting so miserly, and consorting with the mean and vile, and ever hiding herself in darkness, should thus domineer over the world.

61. It is wonderful that fallacy which is attended with incessant woe and peril, and which is devoid of sense and knowledge, should keep the world in darkness.

62. It is to be wondered that error arising from anger and avarice, creeping crookedly in darkness, and liable to instant death (by its detection), should yet keep the world in blindness.

63. It is surprising that error which is a blind, dull and stupid thing itself, and which is falsely talkative at all times, should yet mislead others in the world.

64. It is astonishing, that falsehood should betray a man, after attaching so close to him as his consort, and showing all her endearments to him; but flying at the approach of his reason.

65. It is strange that man should be blinded by the womanish attire of error, which beguiles the man but dares not to look at him face to face.

66. It is strange that man is blinded by his faithless consort of error, which has no sense nor intelligence, and which dies away without being killed.

67. Tell me Sir, how this error is to be dispelled, which has its seat in the desires, and is deeply rooted in the recesses of the heart and mind, and lead us to the channels of endless misery, by subjecting us to repeated births and deaths, and to the pains and pleasures of life.

R áma repeated:—Tell me sir, how this stony blindness of man, is to be removed, which is caused by the train of ignorance or delusion called avidyá .

2. Vasishtha replied:—As the particles of snow, melt away at the sight of the sun, so is this ignorance dispelled in a moment, by a glance of the holy spirit.

3. Till then doth ignorance continue to hurl down the soul and spirit, as from a precipice to the depths of the world, and expose them to woes, as thick as thorny brambles.

4. As long as the desire of seeing the spirit, does not rise of itself in the human soul, so long there is no end of this ignorance ( avidyá ) and insensibility ( Moha ).

5. The sight of the supreme Spirit, destroys the knowledge of our self-existence, which is caused by our ignorance; as the light of the sun, destroys the shadows of things.

6. The sight of the all-pervading God, dispels our ignorance in the same manner, as the light of the twelve zodiacal suns (all shining at once), puts the shadows of night to flight from all sides of the horizon.

7. Our desires are the offspring of our ignorance, and the annihilation of these constitutes what we call our liberation; because the man that is devoid of desires, is reckoned the perfect and consummate Siddha.

8. As the night-shade of desires, is dissipated from the region of the mind; the darkness of ignorance is put to flight, by the rise of the intellectual sun ( Vivekodaya ).

9. As the dark night flies away before the advance of solar 352 light, so does ignorance disappear, before the advancement of true knowledge— Viveka.

10. The stiffness of our desires, tends to bind the mind fast in its worldly chains; as the advance of night serves to increase the fear of goblins in children.

11. Ráma asked:—The knowledge of the phenomenals as true, makes what we call avidyá or ignorance, and it is said to be dispersed by spiritual knowledge. Now tell me sir, what is the nature of the Spirit.

12. Vasishtha replied:—That which is not the subject of thought, which is all-pervasive, and the thought of which is beyond expression and comprehension is the universal spirit (which we call our Lord and God).

13. That which reaches, to the highest empyrean of God, and stretches over the lowest plots of grass on earth, is the all-pervading spirit at all times, and unknown to the ignorant soul.

14. All this is verily Brahma, eternal and imperishable intelligence. To him no imagination of the mind can reach at any time.

15. That which is never born or dead, and which is ever-existent in all worlds, and in which the conditions of being and change are altogether wanting.

16. Which is one and one alone, all and all pervading, and imperishable Unity; which is incomprehensible in thought, and is only of the form of Intellect, is the universal Spirit.

17. It is accompanied with the ever-existent, all-extending, pure and undisturbed Intellect, and is that calm, quiet, even and unchanging state of the soul, which is called the Divine Spirit.

18. There resides also the impure mind, which is in its nature beyond all physical objects, and runs after its own desire; it is conceivable by the Intellect as sullied by its own activity.

19. This ubiquious, all-potent, great and godlike mind, separates itself in its imagination from the Supreme spirit, and rises from it as a wave on the surface of the sea. (So 353 the Sruti:— Etasmat Jayate pranahmanah &c. The life and mind have their rise from Him).

20. There is no fluctuation ( Sansriti ) nor projection ( Vikshepa ) in the all-extending tranquil soul of God; but these take place in the mind owing to its desires, which cause its production of all things in the world. (Hence the world and all things in it, are creations of the divine and active mind, and not of the inactive Supreme Soul).

21. Therefore the world being the production of desire or will, has its extinction with the privation of desires; for that which comes the growth of a thing, causes its extinction also; as the wind which kindles the fire, extinguishes it likewise. (Here is a coincidence with the Homœpathic maxim Similes per similibus ).

22. The exertion of human efforts, gives rise to the expectation of fruition, but want of desire, causes the cessation of exertions; and consequently puts a stop to the desire of employment, together with our ignorance causing the desire.

23. The thought that ‘I am distinct from Brahma’, binds the mind to the world; but the belief that ‘Brahma is all’ releases the mind from its bondage.

24. Every thought about one’s self, fastens his bondage in this world; but release from selfish thoughts, leads him to his liberation. Cease from thy selfish cares, and thou shalt cease to toil and moil for naught.

25. There is no lake of lotuses in the sky, nor is there a lotus growing in the gold mine, whose fragrance fills the air, and attracts the blue bees to suck its honey.

26. The goddess of ignorance—Avidyá, with her uplifted arms resembling the long stalks of lotus plants, laughs in exultation over her conquests, with the glaring light of shining moonbeams.

27. Such is the net of our wishes spread before us by our minds, which represent unrealities as real, and take a delight to dwell upon them, like children in their toys.

354 28. So also is the snare spread out by our own ignorance, all over this world, that it ensnares the busy people to their misery in all places, as it binds fast the ignorant men and boys in its chains.

29. Men are busied in worldly affairs with such thoughts, as these that, ‘I am poor and bound in this earth for my life; but I have my hands and feet wherewith I must work for myself’.

30. But they are freed from all affairs of this life, who know themselves as spiritual beings, and their spiritual part is neither subject to bondage nor labour. (They know themselves to be bodiless, in their embodied forms).

31. The thought that ‘I am neither flesh nor bones, but some thing else than my body,’ releases one from his bondage; and one having such assurance in him, is said to have weakened his avidyá or ignorance.

32. Ignorance ( avidyá ) is painted in the imagination of earthly men, to be as dark as the darkness which surrounds the highest pinnacle of Meru, blazing with the blue light of sapphire, or at the primeval darkness impenetrable by the solar light. (Hence ignorance and darkness are used as synonymous terms).

33. It is also represented by earth-born mortals, as the blackness which naturally covers the face of heaven by its own nature like the blue vault of the sky. (Thus Avidya is represented as the black and the blue goddess Kali).

34. Thus ignorance is pictured with a visible form, in the imagination of the unenlightened; but the enlightened never attribute sensible qualities to inanimate and imaginary objects.

35. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what is the cause of the blueness of the sky, if it is not the reflexion of the blue gems on the Meru’s peak, nor is it a collection of darkness by itself.

36. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! the sky being but empty vacuum, cannot have the quality of blueness which is commonly attributed to it; nor is it the bluish lustre of the blue gems which are supposed to abound on the top of Meru.

355 37. There is neither the possibility of a body of darkness to abide in the sky, when the mundane egg is full of light (which has displaced the primeval darkness); and when the nature of light is the brightness which stretches over the extramundane regions. (This is the zodiacal light reaching to extramundane worlds).

38. O fortunate Ráma! the firmament (súnya) which is a vast vacuum, is open to a sister of ignorance (avidyá) with regard to its inward hollowness. (The sky and ignorance are twin sisters, both equally blank and hollow within, and of unlimited extent, enveloping the worlds within their unconscious wombs).

39. As one after losing his eyesight, beholds but darkness only all about him; so the want of the objects of sight in the womb of vacuity, gives the sky the appearance of a darksome scene.

40. By understanding this, as you come to the knowledge, that the apparent blackness of the sky, is no black colour of its own; so you come to learn the seeming darkness of ignorance to be no darkness in reality (but a figurative expression derived from its similitude to the other).

41. Want of desire or its indifference, is the destroyer of ignorance; and it is as easy to effect it, as to annihilate the lotus-lake in the sky (an Utopia or a castle built in the air, being but an airy nothing).

42. It is better, O good Ráma! to distrust the delusions of this world, and disbelieve the blueness of the sky, than to labour under the error of their reality.

43. The thought that ‘I am dead,’ makes one as sorrowful, as when he dreams of his death in sleep; so also the thought that ‘I am living’ makes one as cheerful, as when he wakes from the deadly dream of his death-like sleep.

44. Foolish imaginations make the mind as stolid as that of a fool; but reasonable reflexions lead it to wisdom and clearsightedness.

45. A moment’s reflexion of the reality of the world and of his 356 own essence, casts a man into the gloom of everlasting ignorance, while his forgetfulness of these, removes all mortal thoughts from his mind.

46. Ignorance is the producer of passions and tempter to all transient objects; it is busy in destroying the knowledge of the soul, and is destroyed by knowledge of the soul only. (Ignorance leads to materialism, but it is lost under spiritual knowledge).

47. Whatever is sought by the mind, is instantly supplied by the organs of action; which serve as ministers subservient to the orders of their king. (The body serves the mind).

48. Hence who so does not attend to the dictates of his mind, in the pursuit of sensible objects, entertains the tranquility of his inmost soul, by his diligent application to spirituality.

49. What did not exist at first, has no existence even now (i.e. material objects); and these that appear as existent, are no other than the quiescent and immaculate essence—Brahma himself. (The eternal is ever existent, and the instantaneous are but the phases and fluctuations of the everlasting).

50. Let no other thought of any person or thing, or of any place or object employ your mind at any time, except that of the immutable, everlasting and unlimited spirit of Brahma. (For what faith or reliance is there in things that are false and fleeting).

51. Rely in the superior powers of your understanding, and exert your sovran intellect (to know the truth); and root out at once all worldly desire by enjoyment of the pleasures of your mind.

52. The great ignorance that rises in the mind and raises the desires of thy heart, has spread the net of thy false hopes for thy ruin, causing thy death and decrepitude under them.

53. Thy wishes burst out in expressions as these that, “these are my sons and these my treasures; I am such a one, and these things are mine.” All this is the effect of a magic spell of ignorance, that binds thee fast in it.

54. Thy body is a void, wherein thy desires have produced 357 all thy selfish thoughts; as the empty winds raise the gliding waves on the surface of the sea (resembling the fleeting moments in the infinity of the Deity).

55. Learn ye that are seekers of truth, that the words: I, mine and this and that, are all meaningless in their true sense; and that there is nothing that may be called real at any time, except the knowledge of the true self and essence of Brahma.

56. The heavens above and the earth below, with all the ranges of hills and mountains on earth, and all the lines of its rivers and lakes, are but the dissolving views of our sight, and are seen in the same or different lights as they are represented by our ignorance. (This is a tenet of the drishtisrishti system of philosophy, which maintains Visual creations or existence of phenomenals, to be dependant upon sight or visual organs and are deceptio visus or fallacies of vision only).

57. The phenomenals rise to view from our ignorance, and disappear before the light of knowledge (as the dreams and spectres of the dark, are put to flight before the rising sun-light). They appear in various forms in the substratum of the soul, as the fallacy of a snake appearing in the substance of a rope.

58. Know Ráma, that the ignorant only are liable to the error, of taking the earth and sun and the stars, for realities; but not so the learned, to whom the Great Brahma is present in all his majesty and full glory, in all places and things.

59. While the ignorant labour under the doubt of the two ideas, of a rope and a snake in the rope; the learned are firm in their belief, and sight of one true God in all things.

60. Do not therefore think as the ignorant do, but consider all things well like the wise and the learned. Forsake your earthly wishes, and do not grovel like the vulgar by believing the unself as the self. (The second clause has the double sense of mistaking an alien as your own, and of taking an unreality for the true God).

61. Of what good is this dull and dumb body to you, Ráma? 358 (in your future state), that you are so overcome by your alternate joy and grief at its pleasure and pain?

62. As the wood of a tree and its gum resin, and its fruit and seed, are not one and the same thing, though they are so closely akin to one another; so is this body and the embodied being, quite separate from one another, though they are so closely united with each other.

63. As the burning of a pair of bellows, does not blow out the fire, nor stop the air blown by another pair, so the vital air is not destroyed by destruction of the body, but finds its way into another form and frame elsewhere. (This is the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul and life in other bodies).

64. The thought that ‘I am happy or miserable,’ is as false as the conception of water in the mirage:—and knowing it as such, give up your misconceptions of pleasure and pain, and place your reliance in the sole truth.

65. O how wonderful is it, that men have so utterly forgotten the true Brahmá, and have placed their reliance in false ignorance ( avidyá ), the sole cause of errors.

66. Do not, O Ráma! give way to ignorance in your mind, which being overspread by its darkness, will render it difficult for you to pass over the errors of the world.

67. Know ignorance to be a false fiend and deluder of the strongest minds; it is the baneful cause of endless woes, and producer of the poisonous fruits of illusion.

68. It imagines hell fire, in the cooling beams of the watery orb of the moon; and conceives the torments of the infernal fires, proceeding from the refreshing beams of that celestial light. (This passage alludes to the poetical description of moon light as a flame of fire, in respect to a lover, who is impatient at the separation of his beloved, and is burning under the inextinguishable flame of ardent desire).

69. It views a dry desert in the wide waters, beating with billows and undulating with the fragrance of the aqueous kalpa flowers; and imagines a dry mirage in the empty clouds of 359 autumn. (This alludes also to the wild imageries of poets, proceeding from their false imagination and ignorance).

70. Ignorance builds the imaginary castles in empty air, and causes the error of rising and falling towers in the clouds; it is the delusion of our fancy, that makes us feel the emotions of pleasure and pain in our dreams.

71. If the mind is not filled and led away by worldly desires, there is no fear then of our falling into the dangers, which the day-dreams of our earthly affairs incessantly present before us.

72. The more does our false knowledge (error) lay hold of our minds, the more we feel the torments of hell and its punishments in us, as one dreams of night-mares in his sleep.

73. The mind being pierced by error as by the thorny stalk of a lotus, sees the whole world revolving before it like the sea rolling with its waves.

74. Ignorance taking possession of the mind, converts the enthroned princes to peasants; and reduces them to a condition worse than that of beastly huntsmen. (All tyrants are the creatures of ignorance).

75. Therefore, Ráma! give up the earthly desires, that serve at best to bind down the (celestial) soul to this mortal earth and its mortifying cares; and remain as the pure and white crystal, with reflecting the hues of all things around in your stainless mind.

76. Employ thy mind to thy duties, without being tarnished by thy attachment to any; but remain as the unsullied crystal, receiving the reflections of outward objects, without being stained by any.

77. Knowing everything with avidity in thy watchful mind, and performing all thy duties with due submission, and keeping from the common track with thy exalted mind, thou wilt raise thyself above comparison with any other person.

V álmíki relates:—Being thus admonished by the high minded Vasishtha, the lotus eyes of Ráma became unfolded as new-blown flowers.

2. He with his expanded heart and blooming face, shone forth with a pure grace, like the fresh lotus reviving at the end of night, under the vivifying beams of the rising sun.

3. His smiling countenance shone forth as the shining moon, with his inward enlightenment and wonder; and then with the nectarious beams of his bright and white pearly teeth, he spoke out these words.

4. Ráma said:—O wonder! that the want of ignorance should subdue all things, as if it were to bind the huge hills with the thin threads of lotus stalks. (Wondrous achievements of science).

5. O! that this straw of the earth, which shows itself to be so compact a body in the world; is no more than the production of our ignorance, which shows the unreal as a reality.

6. Tell me further for my enlightenment regarding the true nature of this magical earth, which rolls as a ceaseless stream, running amidst the etherial worlds.

7. There is another great doubt that infests my breast, and it is with regard to the state which attended on the fortunate Lavana at last.

8. Tell me moreover regarding the embodied soul and the animated body, whether they are in concord or discord with one another, and which of them is the active agent and recipient of the rewards of acts in this earth.

9. Tell me also who was that sorcerer and where he fled, after putting the good prince Lavana to all his tribulation, and then restoring him to his former exalted position.

361 10. Vasishtha said:—The body is as a frame of wood work, and contains nothing (spiritual) in it; it receives the reflexion of an intelligence in it as in a dream, and this is called the mind.

11. This mind becomes the living principal (life), and is endued with the power of thinking also. It is as unstable as a boat on the current of world of affairs, and plays the part of a fickle monkey, amidst the busy castle of the world.

12. The active principle in the body, is known under the several appellations of the mind, life and egoism (or consciousness); and having a body for its abode, is employed in a variety of actions.

13. This principle is subject to endless pains and pleasures in its unenlightened or unawakened state, and the body bears no relation with them. (The mind is the perceptive and sensitive principle and not the body).

14. The unenlightened understanding again has received many fictitious names, according to the various faculties which it exhibits in its acts.

15. As long as the unawakened mind is in its sleeping state, it perceives the busy bustle of the world as it were in his dream, and which is unknown to the waking or enlightened mind.

16. As long as the living being is not awakened from its dormancy, so long it has to labour under the inseparable mist of worldly errors.

17. But the darkness over-hanging on the minds of the enlightened, is as soon put to flight as the shade of night overspreading the bed of lotuses, is dispersed at sun rise.

18. That which is called the heart, the mind, the living soul, ignorance and desire by the learned, and what is also styled the principle of action, is the same embodied being that is subject both to the feelings of pleasure and pain.

19. The body is dull matter and is insensible of pain and pleasure; it is the embodied being, which is said to be subject to these by men of right reason: and this by reason of its 362 impervious ignorance and irrationality, is the cause of its own misery.

20. The living soul is the subject of its good and bad actions; but it becomes confined in its body by reason of its irrationality, and remains pent up there like the silkworm in its cocoon.

21. The mind being fast bound to its ignorance, exerts its faculties in various ways, and turns round like a wheel in its various pursuits and employments.

22. It is the mind dwelling in the body, that makes it to rise and set, to eat and drink, to walk and go, and to hurt and kill, all which are acts of the mind, and not of the body.

23. As the master of the house does his many acts in it, and not the house itself; so the mind acts its several parts in the body, and not the body by itself.

24. The mind is the active and passive agent of all the actions and passions, and of the pains and pleasures of the body; and it is the mind only that makes the man.

25. Hear me now tell you the useful moral of the story of Lavana; and how he was transformed to a Chandála, by derangement of his mind.

26. The mind has to feel the effects of its actions whether good or evil; and in order that you may understand it well, hear attentively what I will now relate unto you.

27. Lavana who was born of the line of king Harischandra, thought within himself one day, as he was sitting apart from all others of his court.

28. My grand-father was a great king and performed the Rájasúya sacrifice in act; and I, being born of his line, must perform the same in my mind ( i.e. mentally).

29. Having determined so, and getting the things ready for the sacrifice, he entered the sacrificial hall for his initiation in the sacred rites.

30. He called the sacrificial priests, and honoured the holy saints; he invited the gods to it, and kindled the sacrificial fire.

363 31. Having performed the sacrifice to his heart’s content, and honoured the gods, sages and Bráhmans; he went to a forest to reside there for a year.

32. Having then made presents of all his wealth to Bráhmans and other men, he awoke from his slumber in the same forest by the evening of that day.

33. Thus the king Lavana attained the merit of the sacrifice, in his internal satisfaction of having attained the meritoriousness of the sacrifice.

34. Hence learn to know the mind to be the recipient of pleasure and pain; therefore employ your attention, Ráma! to the purification of your mind.

35. Every man becomes perfect in his mind in its full time and proper place; but he is utterly lost who believes himself to be composed of his body only.

36. The mind being roused to transcendental reason, all miseries are removed from the rational understanding; just as the beams of the rising sun falling upon the lotus-bud, dispel the darkness that had closely contracted its folded petals.

R áma asked:—What evidence is there sir, in proof of Lavana’s obtaining the reward of his mental sacrifice of Rájasúya, in his transformation to the state of the Chandála, as it was wrought upon him by the enchantment of the magician?

2. Vasishtha answered:—I was myself present in the court-house of king Lavana, at the time when the magician made his appearance there, and I saw all that took place there with my own eyes.

3. After the magician had gone and done his work, I with the other courtiers, was respectfully requested by the king Lavana, to explain to him the cause (of the dream and its circumstances).

4. After I had pondered the matter and clearly seen its cause, I expounded the meaning of the magician’s spell, in the way as I shall now relate to you, my Ráma!

5. I remembered that all the performers of Rájasúya sacrifice, were subjected to various painful difficulties and dangers, under which they had to suffer for a full dozen of years.

6. It was then that Indra, the lord of heaven had compassion for Lavana, and sent his heavenly messenger in the form of the magician to avert his calamity.

7. He taxed the Rájasúya sacrificer with the inflictment of the very many hardships in his dream, and departed in his aerial journey to the abode of the gods and Siddhas.

8. (Prose) Thus Ráma! it is quite evident and there is no doubt in it. The mind is the active and passive agent of all kinds of actions and their sequences.

( a ). Therefore rub out the dirt of your heart, and polish 365 the gem of your mind; and having melted it down like the particle of an icicle, by the fire of your reason, attain to your chief good summum bonum at last.

( b ). Know the mind as self-same with ignorance (avidyá), which presents these multitudes of beings before you, and produces the endless varieties of things by its magical power.

( c ). There is no difference in the meanings of the words ignorance, mind, understanding and living soul, as in the word tree and all its synonyms.

( d ). Knowing this truth, keep a steady mind freed from all its desires; and as the orb of the clear sun of your intellect has its rise, so the darkness of your nolens and volens flies away from you.

( e ). Know also this truth, that there is nothing in the world which is not to be seen by you, and which can not be made your own, or alienated from you. Nothing is there that does not die or what is not yours or others. All things become all at all times. (This dogma is based on a dictum of the Vedánta given in the Madhu Bráhmana. That nothing is confined in any place or person at all times, but passes from one to another in its turn and time).

9. The multitudes of existent bodies and their known properties, meet together in the substantiality (of the self-same Brahma); as the various kinds of unburnt clay vessels, are melted down in the same watery substance.

10. Ráma said:—You said sir, that it is by weakening the desires of our mind, that we can put an end to our pleasures and pains; but tell me now, how is it possible to stop the course of our naturally fickle minds.

11. Vasishtha replied:—Hear, O thou bright moon of Raghu’s race! the proper course that I will tell thee for quieting the restless mind; by knowing this thou shalt obtain the peace of thy mind, and be freed from the actions of thy organs of sense.

12. I have told you before of the triple nature of the production 366 of beings here below, which I believe, you well remember.

13. Of these the first is that power (Brahmá), who assumed to himself the shape of the Divine Will (Sankalpa), and saw in his presence whatever he wished to produce, and which brought the mundane system into existence.

14. He thought of many changes in his mind, as those of birth and death, of pleasure and pain, of the course of nature and effect of ignorance and the like; and then having ordained them as he willed, he disappeared of himself as snow before the solar light.

15. Thus this god, the personification of Will, rises and sets repeatedly, as he is prompted from time to time by his inward wish. (So does every living being come out of the mould of its internal desire. Or that:—it is the wish, that frames and fashions every body, or the will that moulds the mind).

16. So there are millions of Brahmás born in this mundane egg, and many that have gone by and are yet to come, whose number is innumerable (and who are incarnations of their desires only).

17. So are all living beings in the same predicament with Brahmá, proceeding continually from the entity of God. Now I will tell you the manner in which they live, and are liberated from the bond of life.

18. The mental power of Brahmá issuing from him, rests on the wide expanse of vacuum which is spread before it; then being joined with the essence of ether, becomes solidified in the shape of desire.

19. Then finding the miniature of matter spread out before it, it becomes the quintessence of the quintuple elements. Having assumed afterwards the inward senses, it becomes a suitable elementary body composed of the finest particles of the five elements. It enters into grains and vegetables, which re-enter into the bowels of animals in the form of food.

20. The essence of this food in the form of semen, gives birth to living beings to infinity.

367 21. The male child betakes himself in his boy-hood, to his tutor for the acquisition of knowledge.

22. The boy next assumes his wondrous form of youth, which next arrives to the state of manhood.

23. The man afterwards learns to choose something for himself, and reject others by the clearsightedness of his internal faculties.

24. The man that is possessed of such right discrimination of good and evil, and of right and wrong, and who is confident of the purity of his own nature, and of his belonging to the best caste (of a Brahmán); attains by degrees the supernatural powers for his own good, as also for the enlightenment of his mind, by means of his knowledge of the seven essential grounds of Yoga meditation.

R áma said:—Please sir, tell me in brief, what are the grounds of yoga meditation, which produce the seven kinds of consummation, which are aimed at by the yogi adepts. You sir, who are best acquainted with all recondite truths, must know it better than all others.

2. Vasishtha replied:—They consist of the seven states of ignorance (ajnána-bhúmi), and as many of knowledge also; and these again diverge into many others, by their mutual intermixture. (Participating the natures of one another, and forming the mixed modes of states of truth and error).

3. All these states (both of right and wrong cognitions), being deep rooted in the nature of man (mahá-satta), either by his habit or of training, made produce their respective fruits or results (tending to his elevation or degradation in this world and the next).

Note. Habit or natural disposition (pravritti) is the cause of leading to ignorance and its resulting error; but good training— sádhana and better endeavours— prayatna , are the causes of right knowledge and elevation.

4. Attend now to the nature of the sevenfold states or grounds of ignorance; and you will come to know thereby, the nature of the septuple grounds of knowledge also.

369 5. Know this as the shortest lesson, that I will give thee of the definitions of true knowledge and ignorance; that, it is the remaining in one’s own true nature ( swarúpa or suiform state), that constitutes his highest knowledge and liberation; and his divergence from it to the knowledge of his ego (egoism—ahanta), is the cause of his ignorance, and leads him to the error and bondage of this world.

6. Of these, they that do not deviate from their consciousness—samvitti of themselves—swarúpa, as composed of the pure ens or essence only (suddha-san-mátra), are not liable to ignorance; because of their want of passions and affections, and of the feelings of envy and enmity in them. (The highest intelligence of one’s self, is the consciousness of his self-existence, or that “I am that I am” as a spiritual being; because the spirit or soul is the true self).

7. But falling off from the consciousness of self-entity—swarúpa, and diving into the intellect—Chit, in search of the thoughts of cognizable objects (chetyárthas), is the greatest ignorance and error of mankind. (No error is greater than to fall off from the subjective and run after the objective).

8. The truce that takes place in the mind, in the interim of a past and future thought of one object to another (arthadar thántara); know that respite of the mind in thinking, to be the resting of the soul, in the consciousness of its self-entity swarúpa.

9. That state of the soul which is at calm after the setting of the thoughts and desires of the mind; and which is as cold and quiet as the bosom of a stone, and yet without the torpitude of slumber or dull drowsiness; is called the supineness of the soul in its recognition of itself.

10. That state of the soul, which is devoid of its sense of egoism and destitute of its knowledge of dualism, and its distinction from the state of the one universal soul, and shines forth with its unsleeping intelligence, is said to be at rest in itself or swarúpa .

370 11. But this state of the pure and self-intelligent soul, is obscured by the various states of ignorance, whose grounds you will now hear me relate unto you. These are the three states of wakefulness or jágrat , known as the embryonic waking (or vijajágrat ), the ordinary waking, and the intense waking called the mahajágrat . ( i.e. the hypnotism or hybernation of the soul, being reckoned its intelligent state, its waking is deemed as the ground of its ignorance, and the more is it awake to the concerns of life, the more it is said to be liable to error).

12. Again the different states of its dreaming (swapnam or somnum), are also said to be the grounds of its ignorance and these are the waking dream, the sleeping dream, the sleepy waking and sound sleep or sushupti . These are the seven grounds of ignorance. (Meaning hereby, all the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep ( jágrat , swapna and sushupta ), to be the grounds fertile with our ignorance and error).

13. These are the seven-fold grounds, productive of sheer ignorance, and which when joined with one another, become many more and mixed ones, known under different denominations as you will hear by and by.

14. At first there was the intelligent Intellect (Chaitanya Chit), which gave rise to the nameless and pure intelligence Suddha-Chit; which became the source of the would-be mind and living soul.

15. This intellect remained as the ever waking embryonic seed of all, wherefore it is called the waking seed (Vijajágrat); and as it is the first condition of cognition, it is said to be the primal waking state.

16. Now know the waking state to be next to the primal waking intelligence of God, and it consists of the belief of the individual personality, of the ego and meity ,—aham and mama; i.e. this am I and these are mine by chance—prág-abháva. (The first is the knowledge of the impersonal soul, and the second the knowledge of personal or individual souls).

17. The glaring or great waking—mahajágrat, consists in the firm belief that I am such a one, and this thing is mine, 371 by virtue of my merits in this or by-gone times or Karman . (This positive knowledge of one’s self and his properties, is the greatest error of the waking man).

18. The cognition of the reality of any thing either by bias—rudhádhyása or mistake—arudha, is called the waking dream; as the sight of two moons in the halo, of silver in shells, and water in the mirage; as also the imaginary castle building of day dreamers.

19. Dreaming in sleep is of many kinds, as known to one on his waking, who doubts their truth owing to their short-lived duration (as it was in the dreaming of Lavana).

20. The reliance which is placed in things seen in a dream, after one wakes from his sleep, is called his waking dream, and lasting in its remembrance only in his mind. (Such is the reliance in divine inspirations and prophetic dreams which come to be fulfilled).

21. A thing long unseen and appearing dimly with a stalwart figure in the dream, if taken for a real thing of the waking state, is called also a waking dream. (As that of Brutus on his seeing the stalwart figure of Cæsar).

22. A dream dreamt either in the whole body or dead body of the dreamer, appears as a phantom of the waking state: (as a living old man remembers his past youthful person, and a departed soul viewing the body it has left behind).

23. Besides these six states, there is a torpid—jada state of the living soul, which is called his sushupta —hypnotism or sound sleep, and is capable of feeling its future pleasures and pains. (The soul retains even in this torpid state, the self-consciousness of its merit and demerit (as impressions— sanskáras in itself, and the sense of the consequent bliss or misery, which is to attend upon it)).

24. In this last state of the soul or mind, all outward objects from a straw up to a mountain, appear as mere atoms of dust in its presence; as the mind views the miniature of the world in profound meditation.

372 25. I have thus told you Ráma, the features of true knowledge and error in brief, but each of these states branches out into a hundred forms, with various traits of their own.

26. A long continued waking dream is accounted as the waking state— jágrat , and it becomes diversified according to the diversity of its objects. ( i.e. Waking is but a continued dreaming).

27. The waking state contains under it the conditions of the wakeful soul of God; also there are many things under these conditions which mislead men from one error to another; as a storm casts the boats into whirlpools and eddies.

28. Some of the lengthened dreams in sleep, appear as the waking sight of day light; while others though seen in the broad day-light of the waking state, are no better than night-dreams seen in the day time, and are thence called our day dreams.

29. I have thus far related to you the seven grades of the grounds of ignorance, which with all their varieties, are to be carefully avoided by the right use of our reason, and by the sight of the Supreme soul in our-selves.

V asishtha continued:—O sinless Ráma, attend now to the sevenfold stages of cognoscence, by the knowledge of which you will no more plunge into the mire of ignorance.

2. Disputants are apt to hold out many more stages of Yoga meditation; but in my opinion these (septuple stages) are sufficient for the attainment of the chief good on ultimate liberation. (The disputants are the Patánjala Yoga philosophers, who maintain various modes of discipline, for attaining to particular perfections of consummation—Siddhi; but the main object of this Sástra is the summum bonum (parama-purushártha) which is obtainable by means of the seven stages—Bhúmikas which are expounded herein below).

3. Knowledge is understanding, which consists in knowing these seven stages only; but liberation—mukti, which is the object of knowledge (jnána), transcends the acquaintance of these septuple stages.

4. Knowledge of truth is liberation (moksha), and all these three are used as synonymous terms; because the living being that has known the truth, is freed from transmigration as by his liberation also. (The three words mukti , moksha and jnána imply the same thing).

5. The grounds of knowledge comprise the desire of becoming good—subhechhá, and this good will is the first step. Then comes discretion or reasoning (vicháraná) the second, followed by purity of mind (tanu-manasa), which is the third grade to the gaining of knowledge.

6. The fourth is self-reliance as the true refuge—Sattá-patti, then asansakti or worldly apathy as the fifth. The sixth is 374 padárthabháva or the power of abstraction, and the seventh or the last stage of knowledge is turya-gati or generalization of all in one.

7. Liberation is placed at the end of these, and is attained without difficulty after them. Attend now to the definitions of these steps as I shall explain them unto you.

8. First of all is the desire of goodness, springing from dispassionateness to worldly matters, and consisting in the thought, “why do I sit idle, I must know the Sástras in the company of good men.”

9. The second is discretion, which arises from association with wise and good men, study of the Sástras, habitual aversion to worldliness, and consists in an inclination to good conduct, and the doing of all sorts of good acts.

10. The third is the subduing of the mind, and restraining it from sensual enjoyments; and these are produced by the two former qualities of good will and discretion.

11. The fourth is self-reliance, and dependence upon the Divine spirit as the true refuge of this soul. This is attainable by means of the three qualities described above.

12. The fifth is worldly apathy, as it is shown by one’s detachment from all earthly concerns and society of men, by means of the former quadruple internal delight (which comes from above).

13. By practice of the said fivefold virtues, as also by the feeling of self-satisfaction and inward delight (spiritual joy); man is freed from his thoughts and cares, about all internal and external objects.

14. Then comes the powers of cogitation into the abstract meanings of things, as the sixth step to the attainment of true knowledge. It is fostered either by one’s own exertion, or guidance of others in search of truth.

15. Continued habitude of these six qualifications and incognition of differences in religion, and the reducing of them all to the knowledge of one true God of nature, is called generalization. 375 (Because all things in general, proceed from the one and are finally reduced in to the same).

16. This universal generalization appertains to the nature of the living liberation of the man, who beholds all things in one and in the same light. Above this is the state of that glorious light, which is arrived by the disembodied soul.

17. Those fortunate men, O Ráma, who have arrived to the seventh stage of their knowledge, are those great minds that delight in the light of their souls, and have reached to their highest state of humanity.

18. The living liberated are not plunged in the waters of pleasure and sorrow, but remain sedate and unmoved in both states; they are at liberty either to do or slight to discharge the duties of their conditions and positions in society.

19. These men being roused from their deep meditation by intruders, betake themselves to their secular duties, like men awakened from their slumber (at their own option).

20. Being ravished by the inward delight of their souls, they feel no pleasure in the delights of the world; just as men immerged in sound sleep, can feel no delight at the dalliance of beauties about them.

21. These seven stages of knowledge are known only to the wise and thinking men, and not to beasts and brutes and immoveable things all around us. They are unknown to the barbarians and those that are barbarous in their minds and dispositions.

22. But any one that has attained to these states of knowledge, whether it be a beast or barbarian, an embodied being or disembodied spirit, has undoubtedly obtained its liberation.

23. Knowledge severs the bonds of ignorance, and by loosening them, produces the liberation of our souls: it is the sole cause of removing the fallacy of the appearance of water in the mirage, and the like errors.

24. Those who being freed from ignorance, have not arrived at their ultimate perfection of disembodied liberation; have 376 yet secured the salvation of their souls, by being placed in these stages of knowledge in their embodied state during their life time.

25. Some have passed all these stages, and others over two or three of them; some have passed the six grades, while a few have attained to their seventh state all at once (as the sages Sanaka, Nárada and other holy saints have done from their very birth).

26. Some have gone over three stages, and others have attained the last; some have passed four stages, and some no more than one or two of them.

27. There are some that have advanced only a quarter or half or three fourths of a stage. Some have passed over four quarters and a half, and some six and a half.

28. Common people walking upon this earth, know nothing regarding these passengers in the paths of knowledge; but remain as blind as their eyes were dazzled by some planetary light or eclipsed by its shadow.

29. Those wise men are compared to victorious kings, who stand victorious on these seven grounds of knowledge. The celestial elephants are nothing before them; and mighty warriors must bend their heads before them.

30. Those great minds that are victors on these grounds of knowledge, are worthy of veneration, as they are conquerors of their enemies of their hearts and senses; and they are entitled to a station above that of an emperor and an autocrat, samrat and virat, both in this world and in the next in their embodied and disembodied liberations— sadeha and videha muktis .

Notes :—These terms called the grades of knowledge may be better understood in their appropriate English expressions, as:—

1. Desire of improvement.

2. Habit of reasoning.

3. Fixity of attention.

4. Self-dependence—Intuition

5. Freedom from bias or onesidedness.

6. Abstraction or abstract knowledge.

7. Generalization of all in the universal unity.

8. Liberation is anaesthesia or cessation of action, sensation and thoughts.

V asishtha said:—The human soul reflecting on its egoism , forgets its essence of the Supreme soul; as the gold-ring thinking on its formal rotundity, loses its thought of the substantial gold whereof it is made.

2. Ráma said:—Please tell me sir, how the gold can have its consciousness of its form of the ring, as the soul is conscious of its transformation to egoism.

3. Vasishtha said:—The questions of sensible men, relate only to the substances of things, and not to the production and dissolution of the existent formal parts of things, and neither to those of the non-existent; so you should ask of the substances of the soul and gold, and not of the ego and the ring, which are unsubstantial nullities in nature. (So men appraise the value of the gold of which the ring is made, and not by the form of the ring).

4. When the jeweller sells his gold-ring for the price of gold, he undoubtedly delivers the gold which is the substance of the ring and not the ring without its substance. (So the shapes of things are nothing at all, but the essential substance—Brahma underlying all things, is all in all).

5. Ráma asked:—If such is the case that you take the gold for the ring, then what becomes of the ring as we commonly take it to be? Explain this to me, that I may thereby know the substance of Brahma (underlying all appearances).

6. Vasishtha said:—All form, O Ráma, is formless and accidental quality, and no essential property of things. So if you would ascertain the nature of a nullity, then tell me the shape and qualities of a barren woman’s son (which are null and nothing).

378 7. Do not fall into the error of taking the circularity of the ring, as an essential property of it; the form of a thing is only apparent and not prominent to the sight. (In European philosophy, form is defined as the essence of a thing, for without it nothing is conceivable. But matter being the recipient of form, it does form any part of its essence. Vasishtha speaking of matter as void of form, means the materia prima of Aristotle, or the elementary sorts of it).

8. The water in the mirage, the two moons in the sky, the egoism of men and the forms of things, though appearing as real ones to sight and thought, cannot be proved as separate existences apart from their subjects. (All these therefore are fallacies vanishing before vichárana or reasoning, the second ground of true knowledge).

9. Again the likeness of silver that appears in pearl-shells, can not be realized in the substance of the pearl-mother, or even a particle of it at any time or any place. (The Sanskrit alliterations of kanam , kshanam , kvanu , cannot be preserved in translation).

10. It is the incircumspect view of a thing that makes a nullity appear as a reality, as the appearance of silver in the shell and the water in the mirage (all which are but deceptions of sight and other senses, and are therefore never trustworthy).

11. The nullity of a nil appears as an ens to sight, as also the fallacy of a thing as something where there is nothing of the kind (as of silver in the pearl-mother and water in the mirage).

12. Sometimes an unreal shadow acts the part of a real substance, as the false apprehension of a ghost kills a lad with the fear of being killed by it. (Fright of goblins and bogies of mormos and ogres, have killed many men in the dark).

13. There remains nothing in the gold-jewel except gold, after its form of jewellery is destroyed; therefore the forms of the ring and bracelet are no more, than drops of oil or water on a heap of sand. The forms are absorbed in the substance, as the fluids in dust or sand.

379 14. There is nothing real or unreal on earth, except the false creations of our brain (as appearances in our dreams); and these whether known as real or unreal, are equally productive of their consequences, as the sights and fears of spectres in children. (We are equally encouraged by actual rewards and flattering hopes, as we are depressed at real degradation and its threatening fear).

15. A thing whether it is so or not, proves yet as such as it is believed to be, by different kinds and minds of men; as poison becomes as effective as elixir to the sick, and ambrosia proves as heinous as hemlock with the intemperate. (So is false faith thought to be as efficacious by the vulgar as the true belief of the wise).

16. Belief in the only essence of the soul, constitutes true knowledge, and not in its likeness of the ego and mind, as it is generally believed in this world. Therefore abandon the thought of your false and unfounded egoism or individual existence. (This is said to be self-reliance or dependance on the universal soul of God).

17. As there is no rotundity of the ring inherent in gold; so there is no individuality of egoism in the all-pervading universal soul.

18. There is nothing everlasting beside Brahma, and no personality of Him as a Brahmá, Vishnu or any other. There is no substantive existence as the world, but off spring of Brahmá called the patriarchs. (All these are said to be negative terms in many passages of the srutis as the following:—

There is no substantiality except that of Brahma. There is no personality (ádesa) of him. He is Brahma the supreme soul and no other. He is neither the outward nor inward nor he is nothing.)

19. There are no other worlds beside Brahma, nor is the heaven without Him. The hills, the demons, the mind and body all rest in that spirit which is no one of these.

20. He is no elementary principle, nor is he any cause as 380 the material or efficient. He is none of the three times of past, present and future but all; nor is he anything in being or not-being ( in esse or posse or in nubibus ).

21. He is beyond your egoism or tuism , ipseism and suism , and all your entities and non-entities. There is no attribution nor particularity in Him, who is above all your ideas, and is none of the ideal personifications of your notions ( i.e. He is none of the mythic persons of abstract ideas as Love and the like).

22. He is the plenum of the world, supporting and moving all, being unmoved and unsupported by any. He is everlasting and undecaying bliss; having no name or symbol or cause of his own. (He is the being that pervades through and presides over all— sanmátram ).

23. He is no sat or est or a being that is born and existent, nor an asat — nonest ( i.e. extinct); he is neither the beginning, middle or end of anything, but is all in all. He is unthinkable in the mind, and unutterable by speech. He is vacuum about the vacuity, and a bliss above all felicity.

24. Ráma said:—I understand now Brahma to be self-same in all things, yet I want to know what is this creation, that we see all about us. ( i.e. Are they the same with Brahma or distinct from him?)

25. Vasishtha replied: The supreme spirit being perfectly tranquil, and all things being situated in Him, it is wrong to speak of this creation or that, when there is no such thing as a creation at any time.

26. All things exist in the all containing spirit of God, as the whole body of water is contained in the universal ocean; but there is fluctuation in the waters owing to their fluidity, whereas there is no motion in the quiet and motionless spirit of God.

27. The light of the luminaries shines of itself, but not so the Divine light; it is the nature of all lights to shine of themselves, but the light of Brahma is not visible to sight.

381 28. As the waves of the ocean rise and fall in the body of its waters, so do these phenomena appear as the noumena in the mind of God (as his ever-varying thoughts).

29. To men of little understandings, these thoughts of the Divine mind appear as realities; and they think this sort of ideal creation, will be lasting for ages.

30. Creation is ascertained to be a cognition (a thought) of the Divine Mind; it is not a thing different from the mind of God, as the visible sky is no other than a part of Infinity.

31. The production and extinction of the world, are mere thoughts of the Divine mind; as the formation and dissolution of ornaments take place in the self-same substance of gold.

32. The mind that has obtained its calm composure, views the creation as full with the presence of God; but those that are led by their own convictions, take the inexistent for reality, as children believe the ghosts as real existences.

33. The consciousness of ego (or the subjective self-existence), is the cause of the error of the objective knowledge of creation; but the tranquil unconsciousness of ourselves, brings us to the knowledge of the supreme, who is above the objective and inert creation.

34. These different created things appear in a different light to the sapient, who views them all in the unity of God, as the toy puppets of a militia, are well known to the intelligent to be made and composed of mud and clay.

35. This plenitude of the world is without its beginning and end, and appears as a faultless or perfect peace of workmanship. It is full with the fullness of the supreme Being, and remains full in the fullness of God.

36. This plenum which appears as the created world, is essentially the Great Brahma, and situated in his greatness; just as the sky is situated in the sky, tranquility in tranquility, and felicity in felicity. (These are absolute and identic terms, as the whole is the whole &c.).

37. Look at the reflexion of a longsome landscape in a mirror, 382 and the picture of a far stretching city in the miniature; and you will find the distances of the objects lost in their closeness. So the distances of worlds are lost in their propinquity to one another in the spirit of God.

38. The world is thought as a nonentity by some, and as an entity by others; by their taking it in the different lights of its being a thing beside God, and its being but a reflection of Brahma. (In the former case it is a nonentity as there can be nothing without God; in the latter sense it is real entity being identic with God).

39. After all, it can have no real entity, being like the picture of a city and not as the city itself. It is as false as the appearance of limpid water in the desert mirage, and that of the double moon in the sky.

40. As it is the practice of magicians, to show magic cities in the air, by sprinkling handfuls of dust before our eyes; so doth our erroneous consciousness represent the unreal world, as a reality unto us.

41. Unless our inborn ignorance (error) like an arbour of noxious plants, is burnt down to the very root by the flame of right reasoning, it will not cease to spread out its branches, and grow the rankest weeds of our imaginary pleasures and sorrows.

V asishtha continued:—Now Ráma, attend to the wonderful power of the said Avidyá or error, in displaying the changeful phenomenals, like the changing forms of ornaments in the substance of the self-same gold.

2. The king Lavana, having at the end of his dream, perceived the falsehood of his vision, resolved on the following day to visit that great forest himself.

3. He said to himself: Ah! when shall I revisit the Vindhyan region, which is inscribed in my mind; and where I remember to have undergone a great many hardships in my forester’s life.

4. So saying, he took to his southward journey, accompanied by his ministers and attendants, as if he was going to make a conquest of that quarter, where he arrived at the foot of the mount in a few days.

5. There he wandered about the southern, and eastern and western shores of the sea ( i.e. all round the Eastern and Western Ghats). He was as delighted with his curvilinear course, as the luminary of the day, in his diurnal journey from east to west.

6. He saw there in a certain region, a deep and doleful forest stretching wide along his path, and likening the dark and dismal realms of death (Yama or Pluto).

7. Roving in this region he beheld everything, he had seen before in his dream; he then inquired into the former circumstances, and wondered to learn their conformity with the occurrences of his vision.

384 8. He recognised there the Chandála hunters of his dream, and being curious to know the rest of the events, he continued in his peregrination about the forest.

9. He then beheld a hamlet at the skirt of the wilderness, foggy with smoke, and appearing as the spot where he bore the name of Pushta Pukkasa or fostered Chandála.

10. He beheld there the same huts and hovels, and the various kinds of human habitations, fields and plains, with the same men and women that dwelt their before.

11. He beheld the same landscapes and leafless branches of trees, shorn of their foliage by the all devouring famine; he saw the same hunters pursuing their chase, and the same helpless orphans lying thereabouts.

12. He saw the old lady (his mother-in-law), wailing at the misfortunes of other matrons; who were lamenting like herself with their eyes suffused in tears, at the untimely deaths and innumerable miseries of their fellow brethren.

13. The old matrons with their eyes flowing with brilliant drops of tears, and with their bodies and bosoms emaciated under the pressure of their afflictions; were mourning with loud acclamations of woe in that dreary district, stricken by drought and dearth.

14. They cried, O ye sons and daughters, that lie dead with your emaciated bodies for want of food for these three days; say where fled your dear lives, stricken as they were by the steel of famine from the armour of your bodies.

15. We remember your sweet smiles, showing your coral teeth resembling the red gunjaphalas to our lords, as they descended from the towering tála (palm trees), with their red-ripe fruits held by their teeth, and growing on the cloud-capt mountains.

16. When shall we see again the fierce leap of our boys, springing on the wolves crouching amidst the groves of Kadamba and Jamb and Lavanga and Gunja trees.

17. We do not see those graces even in the face of Káma 385 the god of love, that we were wont to observe in the blue and black countenances of our children, resembling the dark hue of Tamála leaves, when feasting on their dainty food of fish and flesh.

Lamentation of the mother-in-law.

18. My nigrescent daughter, says one, has been snatched away from me with my dear husband like the dark Yamuná by the fierce Yama. O they have been carried away from me like the Tamála branch with its clustering flowers, by a tremendous gale from this sylvan scene.

19. O my daughter, with thy necklace of the strings of red gunja seeds, gracing the protuberant breast of thy youthful person; and with thy swarthy complexion, seeming as the sea of ink was gently shaken by the breeze. Ah! whither hast thou fled with thy raiment of woven withered leaves, and thy teeth as black as the jet-jambu fruits (when fully ripe).

20. O young prince! that wast as fair as the full moon, and that didst forsake the fairies of thy harem, and didst take so much delight in my daughter, where hast thou fled from us? Ah my daughter! she too is dead in thy absence, and fled from my presence.

21. Being cast on the waves of this earthly ocean, and joined to the daughter of a Chandála, thou wast, O prince! subjected to mean and vile employments, that disgraced thy princely character. (This is a taunt to all human beings that disgrace their heavenly nature, and grovel as beasts while living on earth).

22. Ah! that daughter of mine with her tremulous eyes, like those of the timorous fawn, and Oh! that husband valiant as the royal tiger; you are both gone together, as the high hopes and great efforts of men are fled with the loss of their wealth.

23. Now grown husbandless, and having of late lost my daughter also, and being thrown in a distant and barren land, I am become the most miserable and wretched of beings. Born of a low caste, I am cast out of all prospect in life, and have become a personification of terror to myself, and a sight of horror to others.

386 24. O! that the Lord has made me a widowed woman, and subjected me to the insult of the vulgar, and the hauteur of the affluent. Prostrated by hunger and mourning at the loss of a husband and child, I rove incessantly from door to door to beg alms for my supportance (as it is the case of most female beggars).

25. It is better that one who is unfortunate and friendless, or subject to passion and diseases, should rather die sooner than live in misery. The dead and inanimate beings are far better than the living miserable.

26. Those that are friendless, and have to toil and moil in unfriendly places, are like the grass of the earth, trampled under the feet, and overwhelmed under a flood of calamities.

27. The king seeing his aged mother-in-law mourning in this manner, offered her some consolation through the medium of her female companions, and then asked that lady to tell him, “who she was, what she did there, who was her daughter and who is his son.”

28. She answered him with tears in her eyes:—This village is called Pukkasa-Ghosha, here I had a Pukkasa for my husband, who had a daughter as gentle as the moon.

29. She happened to have here a husband as beautiful as the moon, who was a king and chanced to pass by this way. By this accident they were matched together, in the manner that an ass finds by chance a pot of honey lying on her way in the forest.

30. She lived long with him in connubial bliss, and produced to him both sons and daughters, who grew up in the covert of this forest, as the gourd plant grows on a tree serving as its support.

T he Chandála continued:—O lord of men! After lapse of sometime, there occurred a dearth in this place owing to the drought of rain, which broke down all men under its diresome pressure.

2. Pressed by extreme scarcity, all our village people were scattered far abroad, and they perished in famine and never returned.

3. Thence forward O lord! we are exposed to utmost misery, and sit lamenting here in our helpless poverty. Behold us lord, all bathed in tears falling profusely from our undrying eyelids.

4. The King was lost in wonder, at hearing these words from the mouth of the elderly lady; and looking at the face of his follower the faithful minister, remained in dumb amazement as the figure in a picture.

5. He reflected repeatedly on this strange occurrence, and its curious concurrence with his adventures in the dream. He made repeated queries relating to other circumstances, and the more he heard and learned of them, the more he found their coincidence with the occurrences of his vision.

6. He sympathised with their woes, and saw them in the same state, as he had seen them before in his dream. And then he gave suitable gifts and presents to relieve their wants and woes.

7. He tarried there a long while, and pondered on the decrees of destiny; when the wheel of fortune brought him back to his house, wherein he entered amidst the loud cheers and low salutations of the citizens.

8. In the morning the King appeared in his court hall, and 388 sitting there amidst his courtiers, asked me saying:—“How is it, O sage, that my dream has come to be verified in my presence to each item and to my great surprise”?

9. “They answered me exactly and to the very point all what I asked of them, and have removed my doubt of their truth from the mind, as the winds disperse the clouds of heaven.”

10. Know thus, O Ráma! it is the illusion of Avidya, that is the cause of a great many errors, by making the untruth appear as truth, and representing the sober reality as unreality.

11. Ráma said: Tell me sir, how the dream came to be verified; it is a mysterious account that cannot find a place in my heart.

12. Vasishtha replied:—All this is possible, O Ráma! to the illusion of ignorance (Avidya); which shows the fallacy of a picture (pata) in a pot (ghata); and represents the actual occurrences of life as dreams, and dreams as realities.

13. Distance appears to be nigh, as a distant mountain seen in the mirror; and a long time seems a short interval, as a night of undisturbed repose.

14. What is untrue seems to be a truth as in dreaming one’s own death in sleep; and that which is impossible appears possible, as in one’s aerial journey in a dream.

15. The stable seems unsteady, as in the erroneous notion of the motion of fixed objects to one passing in a vehicle; and the unmoving seem to be moving to one, as under the influence of his inebriation.

16. The mind infatuated by one’s hobby, sees exposed to its view, all what it thinks upon within itself. It sees things in the same light, as they are painted in his fancy, whether they be in existence or not, or real or unreal.

17. No sooner does the mind contract its ignorance, by its false notions of egoism and tuism, than it is subjected to endless errors, which have no beginning, middle or end and are of incessant occurrence in their course.

389 18. It is the notion that gives a shape to all things; it makes a kalpa age appear as a moment, and also prolongs a moment of time to a whole Kalpa.

19. A man deprived of understanding, believes himself as he is said, to have become a sheep; so a fighting ram thinks himself to be a lion in his ideal bravery. (The word sheep is a term of derision, as the lion is that of applause).

20. Ignorance causes the blunder of taking things for what they are not, and falling into the errors of egoism and tuism: so all errors in the mind produce errors in actions also.

21. It is by mere accident, that men come in possession of the objects of their desire; and it is custom that determines the mode of mutual dealings. (The gain is accidental and the dealing is conventional).

22. Lavana’s remembrance of the dream of his having lived in the habitation of the Pukkasa, was the internal cause, that represented to him the external picture of that abode, as it was a reality. (The mind shows what we think upon, whether they are real or unreal ones).

23. As the human mind is liable to forget many things which are actually done by some, so it is susceptible to remember those acts as true which were never done, but had been merely thought upon in the mind. (The forgetfulness of actualities as well as the thoughts of inactualities, belong both to the province of the mind. Here Lavana did not remember what he had not done, but recollected the thoughts that passed in his mind).

24. In this manner is the thought of my having eaten something while I am really fasting; and that of my having sojourned in a distant country in a dream, appears true to me while I think of them.

25. It was thence that the king came to find the same conduct in the habitation of the Chandálas at the side of Vindhyá, as he had been impressed with its notion in his dream as said before.

26. Again the false dream that Lavana had dreamt of the Vindhyan people, the same took possession of their minds also. 390 (The same thought striking in the minds of different persons at the same time (as we see in men of the same mind)).

27. The notion of Lavana as settled in the minds of the Vindhyans, as the thoughts of these people rose in the mind of the king. (If it is possible for us to transfer our thoughts to one another, how much easier must it be for the superior instrumentality of dreams and revelations to do the same also. This is the yoga, whereby one man reads the mind of another). Again the same error taking possession of many minds all at once, proves the futility of common sense and universal belief being taken for certainty, hence the common belief of the reality of things, is the effect of universal delusion and error.

28. As the same sentiments and figures of speech, occur in different poets of distant ages and countries, so it is not striking that the same thoughts and ideas should rise simultaneously in the minds of different men also. (We have a striking instance of the coincidence of the same thought in the titles of Venisanhára and Rape of the Lock, in the minds of Vhattanarayn and Pope).

29. In common experience, we find the notions and ideas to stand for the things themselves, otherwise nothing is known to exist at all without our notion or idea of it in the mind. (All that we know of, are our ideas and nothing besides. Locke and Berkeley).

30. One idea embraces many others also under it, as those of the waves and current, are contained under that of water. And so one thought is associated by others relating its past, present and future conditions of being; as the thought of a seed accompanies the thoughts of its past and future states and its fruits and flowers of the tree. (So the word man, comprises almost every idea relating to humanity).

31. Nothing has its entity or non-entity, nor can anything be said to exist or not to be, unless we have a positive idea of the existent, and a negative notion of the in-existent.

32. All that we see in our error, is as inexistent as oiliness 391 in sands; and so the bracelet is nothing in reality, but a formal appearance of the substance of gold.

33. A fallacy can have no connection with the reality, as the fallacy of the world with the reality of God, and so the fallacy of the ring with the substance of gold and of the serpent with the rope. The connection or mutual relation of things of the same kind, is quite evident in our minds.

34. The relation of gum resin and the tree, is one of dissimilar union, and affords no distinct ideas of them except that of the tree which contains the other. (So the idea of the false world, is lost in that of its main substratum of the Divine Spirit).

35. As all things are full of the Spirit, so we have distinct ideas of them in our minds, which are also spiritual substances; and are not as dull material stones which have no feelings. ^[13]

36. Because all things in the world are intellectually true and real, we have therefore their ideas impressed in our minds also.

37. There can not be a relation or connection of two dissimilar things, which may be lasting, but are never united together. For without such mutual relation of things, no idea of both can be formed together.

38. Similar things being joined with similar form together their wholes of the same kind, presenting one form and differing in nothing.

39. The intellect being joined with an abstract idea, produces an invisible, inward and uniform thought: so dull matter joined to another dull object, forms a denser material object to view. But the intellectual and material can never unite together owing to their different natures.

40. The intellectual and material parts of a person, can never be drawn together in any picture; because the intellectual 392 part having the intellect, has the power of knowledge, which is wanting in the material picture.

41. Intellectual beings do not take into account the difference of material things as wood and stone; which combine together for some useful purpose (as the building of a house and the like).

42. The relation between the tongue and taste is also homogeneous; because rasa taste and rasand the instrument of tasting, are both watery substances, and there is no heterogeneous relation between them. (And so of the other organs of sense and their respective objects).

43. But there is no relation between intellect and matter; as there is between the stone and the wood; the intellect cannot combine with wood and stone to form anything. (The mind and matter have no relation with one another, nor can they unite together in any way).

44. Spiritually considered, all things are alike, because they are full with the same spirit; otherwise the error of distinction between the viewer and the view, creates endless differences as betwixt wood and stones and other things.

45. The relation of combination though unseen in spirits, yet it is easily conceived that spirits can assume any form ad libitum and ad infinitum (but they must be spiritual and never material. So also a material thing can be converted to another material object, but never to a spiritual form).

46. Know ye seekers of truth, all things to be identic with the entity of God. Renounce your knowledge of nonentities and the various kinds of errors and fallacies and know the One as All to pan . (The omnipotent spirit of God, is joined with all material things, in its spiritual form only; and it is knowable to the mind and spirit of man, and never by their material organs of sense).

47. The Intellect being full with its knowledge, there is nothing wanting to us; it presents us everything in its circumference, as the imagination having its wide range, shews us the sights 393 of its air-built castles and every thing beside. (The difference consists in the intellect’s shewing us the natures of things in their true light, and the imagination’s portraying them in false shapes and colours to our minds).

48. To Him there is no limit of time or place, but his presence extends over all his creation. It is ignorance that separates the creator from creation, and raises the errors of egoism and tuism ( i.e. of the subjective and objective. The union of these into One is the ground-work of pantheism).

49. Leaving the knowledge of the substantive gold, man contracts the error of taking it for the formal ornament. The mistake of the jewel for gold, is as taking one thing for another, and the production for the producer.

50. The error of the phenomenon vanishes upon loss of the eyesight, and the difference of the jewel (or visible shape), is lost in the substance of gold.

51. The knowledge of unity removes that of a distinct creation, as the knowledge of the clay takes off the sense of puppet soldiers made of it. (So the detection of Æsop’s ass in the lion’s skin, and that of the daw with the peacock’s feathers, removed the false appearance of their exteriors).

52. The same Brahma causes the error of the reality of the exterior worlds, as the underlying sea causes the error of the waves on its surface. The same wood is mistaken for the carved figure, and the common clay is taken for the pot which is made of it. (The truth is that, which underlies the appearance).

53. Between the sight and its object, there lieth the eye of the beholder, which is beyond the sight of its viewer, and is neither the view nor the viewer. (Such is the supreme Being hidden alike from the view and the viewer).

54. The mind traversing from one place to another, leaves the body in the interim, which is neither moving nor quite unmoved; since its mental part only is in its moving state. (So should you remain sedate with your body, but be ever active in your mind).

394 55. Remain always in that quiet state, which is neither one of waking, dreaming nor of sleeping; and which is neither the state of sensibility or insensibility; but one of everlasting tranquility and rest.

56. Drive your dullness, and remain always in the company of your sound intellect as a solid rock; and whether in joy or grief, commit your soul to your Maker.

57. There is nothing which one has to lose or earn in this world; therefore remain in uniform joy and bliss, whether you think yourself to be blest or unblest in life. (“Naked came I, and naked must I return; blessed be the name of the Lord”).

58. The soul residing in thy body, neither loves nor hates aught at any time; therefore rest in quiet, and fear naught for what betides thy body, and engage not thy mind to the actions of thy body.

59. Remain free from anxiety about the present, as you are unconcerned about the future. Never be impelled by the impulses of your mind; but remain steadfast in your trust in the true God.

60. Be unconcerned with all, and remain as an absent man. Let thy heart remain callous to everything like a block of stone or toy of wood; and look upon your mind as an inanimate thing, by the spiritual light of your soul.

61. As there is no water in the stone nor fire in water, so the spiritual man has no mental action, nor the Divine spirit hath any. (There is no mutability of mental actions in the immutable mind of God).

62. If that which is unseen, should ever come to do anything or any action; that action is not attributed to the unseen agent, but to something else in the mind. (But the mind being ignored, its actions are ignored also).

63. The unselfpossessed (unspiritual) man, that follows the dictates of his fickle and wilful mind, resembles a man of the border land, following the customs of the out-cast Mlechchás or barbarians.

395 64. Having disregarded the dictates of your vile mind, you may remain at ease and as fearless, as an insensible statue made of clay.

65. He who understands that there is no such thing as the mind, or that he had one before but it is dead in him to-day; becomes as immovable as a marble statue with this assurance in himself.

66. There being no appearance of the mind in any wise, and you having no such thing in you in reality except your soul; say, why do you in vain infer its existence for your own error and harm?

67. Those who vainly subject themselves to the false apparition of the mind, are mostly men of unsound understandings, and bring fulminations on themselves from the full-moon of the pure soul.

68. Remain firm as thou art with thyself (soul), by casting afar thy fancied and fanciful mind from thee; and be freed from the thoughts of the world, by being settled in the thought of the Supreme Soul.

69. They who follow a nullity as the unreal mind, are like those fools who shoot at the inane air, and are cast into the shade.

70. He that has purged off his mind, is indeed a man of great understanding; he has gone across the error of the existence of the world, and become purified in his soul. We have considered long, and never found anything as the impure mind in the pure soul.

V asishtha said (Prose). After the birth of a man and a slight development of his understanding, he should associate the company of good and wise men.

2. There is no other way except by the light of Sástras and association with the good and wise, to ford over the river of ignorance, which runs in its incessant course flowing in a thousand streams.

3. It is by means of reasoning that man is enabled to discern what is good for him, and what he must avoid to do.

4. He then arrives to that ground of reason which is known as good will, or a desire to do what is good and keep from what is bad and evil.

5. Then he is led by his reason to the power of reasoning, and discerning the truth from untruth, and the right from wrong.

6. As he improves in knowledge, he gets rid of his improper desires, and purifies his mind from all worldly cares.

7. Then he is said to have gained that stage of knowledge, which is called the purity of his soul and mind and of his heart and conduct.

8. When the yogi or adept attains to his full knowledge, he is said to have arrived at his state of goodness—satva.

9. By this means and the curtailing of his desires, he arrives to the state called unattachment or indifference to all worldly matters (anásakta), and is no more subjected to the consequence of his actions.

10. From the curtailment of desires, the yogi learns to abstract his mind from the unrealities of the world.

397 11. And whether sitting inactive in his posture of Samádhi meditation, or doing anything for himself or others, he must fix his mind to whatever is productive of real good to the world. His soul being cool by the tenuity of his desires, is habituated to do its duties, without the knowledge of what it is doing. (He neither fondly pursues anything nor thinks with ardour of any. His want of desire makes him indifferent to all, and like a man waking from his sleep, he takes himself to the discharge of his duties).

12. Verily, he who has subdued his mind, has reached to the contemplative stage of yoga meditation.

13. Thus one having his mind dead in himself, learns by practice of years, to perform his duties, by refraining from his thoughts of external objects. Such a one is said to have attained the turya or fourth stage of his spiritual elevation, and to have become liberated in his life-time.

14. He is not glad to get anything, nor sorry to miss it. He lives without fear of accidents, and is content with whatever he gets.

15. Thou hast O Ráma! known whatever is to be known by man; and thou hast certainly extirpated thy desire in all thy actions through life.

16. Thy thoughts are all spiritual, and transcend the actions of the corporeal body, though thou art in thy embodied state. Do not give up thy self to joy or grief, but know thyself to be free from decay and defect.

17. Spiritually thou art a pure and bright substance, which is ubiquious and ever in its ascendancy. It is devoid of pleasure and pain, and of death and disease.

18. Why dost thou lament at the grief or loss of a friend, when thou art so friendless in thyself. Being thrown alone in this world, whom dost thou claim as a friend of thy soul?

19. We see only the particles of matter of which this body is composed; it exists and passes away in its time from its place; but there is no rising or falling of the soul.

398 20. Being imperishable in thyself, why dost thou fear to fall into naught? And why think of the destruction of thy soul, which is never subject to death?

21. When a jar is broken in twain from its upper part, its vacuity is not lost, but mixes with the air; so the body being destroyed, the indestructible soul is not lost with it (but unites with its original source).

22. As the sunlight causing the appearance of a river in the mirage, is not lost at the disappearance of the phenomenal river; so the immortal soul does not perish upon dissolution of the frail body.

23. There is a certain illusion, which raises the false appetites within us; otherwise the unity of the soul requires the help of no duality or secondary substance, in order to be united with the sole unity.

24. There is no sensible object, whether visible, tangible, audible or of taste or smelling (which relate to the particular senses and brain), that can affect the unconnected soul.

25. All things and their powers, are contained in the all-powerful and all-comprehensive soul; these powers are displayed throughout the world, but the soul is as void as the empty air.

26. It is the mental deception, O Rághava, that presents before it the phenomena of the triple world, representing diverse forms according to the triplicate nature of man (the satva , rajas and tamas ).

27. There are threefold methods of dispelling this delusion of the mind, namely: by the tranquility of the mind, by destroying its desires, and by abandonment of acts (which lead only to errors in our repeated regenerations).

28. The world is a crushing mill, with its lower and upper stones of the earth and heaven; our desires are the cords that incessantly drag us under it: therefore Ráma, break off these ropes (and you will escape the danger of being crushed by it).

29. Our unacquaintance with spiritual knowledge, is the 399 cause of all our errors; but our acquaintance of it, leads us to endless joy and ultimately to Brahma himself.

30. The living being having proceeded from Brahma, and travelled over the earth at pleasure, turns at last to Brahma by means of his knowledge of Him.

31. Ráma! all things have sprung from one Being, who is perfect felicity itself, inconceivable and undecaying in its nature; and all these are as the rays of that light, or as the light of that everlasting fire.

32. These are as lines on the leaves of trees, and as the curls and waves on the surface of waters. They are as ornaments made of that gold, and as the heat and cold of that fire and water.

33. Thus the triple world subsists in the thought of the Divine mind. It has thus sprung from the mind of God, and rests in its self-same state with the all-comprehending mind.

34. This Mind is called Brahma, who is the soul of all existence. He being known the world is known also ( i.e. , the world is known through him); and as he is the knower of all, he gives us the knowledge of all things. (Thus the Sruti:—There is no knowing of anything but by the knowledge that He imparts to us).

35. This all-pervasive Being is explained to us by the learned, by the coined epithets of the soul, intellect and Brahma, used both in the sástras as in the popular language.

36. The pure notion that we have of an everlasting Being, apart from all sensible ideas and impressions, is called the Intellect and soul.

37. This Intellect or Intelligent soul, is much more transparent than the etherial sky; and it is the plenum, that contains the plenitude of the world, as a disjoined and distinct reflexion of itself.

38. The knowledge of the separate existence of the unreal reflexion of the world, apart from that real reflector, is the cause of all our ignorance and error; but the view of their subsistence in the 400 mirror of the supreme soul, blends them all to myself also (who are the same soul).

39. Now Ráma, that hast a bodiless soul of the form of pure intellect, thou canst have no cause to fall into the error, of being sorry for or afraid of the vanities of the world.

40. How can the unembodied soul be affected by the passions and feelings of the body? It is the ignorant and unintelligent only, that are subject to vain suspicions about unrealities.

41. The indestructible intellect of the unintelligent even, is not destroyed by the destruction of their bodies, how then should the intelligent be afraid of their dissolution?

42. The intellect is irresistible in its course, and roves about the solar path (ecliptic); it is the intellectual part that makes the man, and not the outward body. (Puri sete purushah; it is the inner soul that is called man).

43. The soul called the purusha or inner person, whether it abideth in the body or not, and whether it is intelligent or otherwise (rational or irrational), never dies upon the death of the body.

44. Whatever miseries you meet with, Ráma! in this transient world, all appertain to the body, and not to the intangible soul or intellect.

45. The intellectual soul being removed from the region of the mind (which is but an inward sense, and of the nature of vacuity, and not the grains of the brain composing the mind), is not to be approached by the pleasures and pains affecting the body and mind.

46. The soul that has curbed its earthly desires, flies to its seat in the spirit of Brahma, after the dissolution of its prison house of the body; in the same manner as the bee lying hid under the coverlet of the lotus petals in the darkness of the night, takes to its heavenward flight by the dawning light of the day.

47. If life is known to be frail, and the living state to be a transient scene, then say, O Ráma! what it is that is lost by loss 401 of this prison-house of the body, and what is it that you mourn for?

48. Think therefore, O Ráma! on the nature of truth; and mind not about the errors of ignorance. Be freed from your earthly desires, and know the sinless soul to be void of all desires.

49. The intellectual soul being tranquil and transparent, and a mere witness of our doings, without any doing or desire of its own, receives the reflexion of the undesirous God, as a mirror reflects the images of things.

50. The soul being, as said before, a translucent particle, reflects the images of all worlds in itself; as a polished gem reflects the rays of light in its bosom.

51. The relation of the indifferent soul with the world, is like that of the mirror and its reflexions; the difference and identity of the soul and the world, are of the same kind.

52. As the activities of living beings, have a free play with the rising sun; so the duties of the world, are fully discharged by the rising of the intellect.

53. No sooner you get rid of your error of the substantiality of the world, than you shall come to the consciousness of its being a vacuum, resting in the spirit of God (which is the receptacle of infinite space, and whatever there appears in it).

54. As it is the nature of a lighted lamp to spread its lustre all around, so it is the nature of mental philosophy, to enlighten us with the real state of the soul.

55. The essence of the supreme soul gave rise to the mind (will) at first, which spread out the universe with its net work of endless varieties. It was as the sky issuing out of the infinite vacuity, and assuming the shape of the blue atmosphere which is also a nullity.

56. Privation of desires melts down the mind, and dissolves the mist of ignorance from the face of the intellect. Then appears the bright light of the one infinite and increate God, like the clear firmament of autumn after the dispersion of clouds.

402 57. The mind sprouts out at first from the supreme soul with all its activities, and takes upon it the nature of the lotus-born Brahmá by its desire of creation. It stretches out a variety of worlds by its creative will, which are also as the fancied apparitions, appearing before the imaginations of deluded boys.

58. Non-entity appears as an entity before us, it dies away at death, and reappears with our new birth. The mind itself takes its rise from the divine intellect, and displays itself in the substance of the Divine Soul, as the waves play about on the surface of the waters of the deep.