What appears before us, Is it real or a reflection?
I shall now narrate to you how this creation appears to have emerged from the one pure undivided cosmic being.
This universe is in fact the eternal effulgent infinite consciousness which generates within itself the knowable with an idea concerning its form, and an enquiry concerning itself. Thus is space bought into being. When, after a considerable time the consciousness of creation becomes strong in the infinite being, the future jīva (living cosmic soul — also known as Hiranyagarbha) arises within it: and the infinite abandons, as it were, its supreme state, to limit itself as the jīva. However, even then Brahma remains the infinite, and there is no real transformation into any of these.
In space, the faculty of sound manifest itself. Then comes into being egotism which is vital to further creation of the universe, and, at the same time, the factor known as time. All this happens merely by the creative-thought inherent in the cosmic being, not as real transformation of the infinite. By the similar exercise of the creative-thought, air is created. Consciousness which is surrounded by all these is called the jīva which gives rise to all the different elements in the world. Even so, when this consciousness thought: ‘I am light’, source of light like the sun, etc., were instantly created. Similarly water and earth were created.
All these fundamental elements continued to act upon one another – as experiencer and experience — and the entire creation comes into being like ripples on the surface of the ocean.
The five elements are the seed of which the world is the tree; and the eternal consciousness is the seed for the elements. As is the seed, so is the fruit (tree). Therefore, the world is nothing but Brahman the absolute.
There were the brisk and beautiful chowry deer serving as flappers of the mountain king, and dousing in the pools filled with falling flowers. They beheld big monkeys, jumping about with their hideous reddish cheeks, and hiding themselves in the coverts of widespreading creepers. The uninhabited skirts of the mountain, were as the solitary walks of Buddhist vagrants; and the rivulets at its foot, were gliding with their currents covered under the kunda and mandara flowers, as if they were running to meet the sea, mantled in their yellow vests of the spring season. He sat retired as a lover, solely reclined on the thought of his beloved object in his retirement; and his mind was at rest, after its long wanderings. He thought upon the course of the currents of the world, which are continually gliding with successive joy and sorrow to man, who gets rid of them after his long trial. He sat in a state of uniform meditation, without a shadow of duplicity in it; and was smiling with a cold apathy at all the pursuits of mankind. His soul was at rest, in the everlasting rest of God; as the pure crystal catches the colour of the gem, which is contiguous to it. Yama seeing the son of Bhrigu, said to the father in a voice, hoarse as the sounding sea. ‘Lo there thy son.’ “I am emancipated, my lords, at your sight this day (from all earthly cares), as you have blessed me by your sights, resembling those of the sun and moon, appearing together to view.” Tell me who are you, whose feet have sanctified this place; as the glorious orbs of the day and night, enlighten the firmament. Bhrigu made him acquainted with the state of his former birth, and he remembered it instantly by the clairvoyance of his inward sight. Blessed is the law of the Supreme Being, which is without its beginning or end, and is known as destiny here below; and by whose power the world is revolving as a curricle. I drank the water reddened with the pollen of mandara flowers, and roved along the bank of the heavenly stream of Mandākinī filled with lotuses. There is naught of good or evil, which I have not tasted or felt or done myself; nor is there anything, which I have not seen and felt and known in my past lives. I will follow you, with my firm belief in the one adored Deity of the learned. Let that be the desirable object of my mind, and I will act exactly in conformity with my belief.
They ascended to the sky, and passed through the pores of the clouds to the region of the Siddhas; whence they descended to the lower world, and arrived at the valley of Mandara. This is that body of mine, which was used to repose on the cooling beds, made with heaps of mandara flowers, in the airy spots of Meru. Ah my pitiable body! how dost thou rest here in peace, forgetful of thy former delights in the different stages of life; and insensible of the thoughts of thy past enjoyments and amusements of yore. I take fright to look upon this body, in which I had taken so much pleasure before, and which is now reduced to a skeleton. Look at the remains of my body, whose appearance of molten gold, attracted the hearts of beauteous dames, bearing now a load of dry bones only. This dried body of mine, lying flat on the mountain stone, resembles the mind of the wise, abased at the sense of its own unworthiness. It is freed from the demon of the mind (mental activity), and is resting in its felicity without any apprehension of the vicissitudes of fate and fortune, or fear of fall. The body is disturbed and troubled like a tall tree, by the restlessness of the apish mind; and it is hurled down by its excitation like a tree uprooted from its bottom. They have gone over the bounds of worldly enjoyments, who have had the high-mindedness, to lay hold on the tranquillity of their minds. How was it then that he regretted so much for his body begotten by Bhrigu; in disregard of all his other bodies; and the pains and pleasures which attended upon them? This wind entered into heart of Bhrigu in a flux of the vital and circulating breaths, and being joined in time with the semen, formed the germ of Sukra’s body. This is the way of all flesh, whether it be the body of a wise or unwise man (to mourn for its loss). This is the usual custom of the world, whether the person was mighty or not. The wise as well as the unwise, are on an equal footing with respect to their nature and custom. It is only the difference in desire that distinguishes the one from the other, as it is the privation of or bondage to desires, that is the cause of their liberation or enthralment in this world. It is also the great aim that distinguishes the great, from the mean-mindedness of the base. The shadow of the sun, is seen to shake in the water, but not so the fixed sun himself; so the wise are moved in worldly matters, though they are firm in their faith in God. He is free who has the freedom of his mind, although his body is enthralled in bondage; but he labours in bondage whose mind is bethralled by error, though he is free in his body. Therefore conform thyself with the custom of the society in thy outward conduct; but remain indifferent to all worldly concerns in thy inward mind. Mind, O lotus-eyed Rāma, that you mix with nothing, nor let anything to mix with you; but be of a purely enlightened nature, and rest content in thy inward soul. If you can rescue yourself from the great gloom of egotism, and arrive at the state of pure indifference to all objects; you will certainly become great in your mind and soul, and be the object of universal veneration.
Fare you well, we shall now depart to our desired habitation; know for certain that there is nothing desirable to the mind, which it cannot accomplish. After the god had gone to the place of his destination, and gained his destined state among the gods, the Bhrigus remained to ruminate on the inexplicable and unalterable course of destiny. His Brāhmanical body fell down immediately on the ground, staggering as when a tree is felled or falls down with its uprooted trunk; and it
became disfigured in a moment in its face and limbs. The father then embraced the revived body of his son, and shed a flood of his affectionate tears upon him; as the high risen cloud washes the mountain top with showers. Thus the son and sire graced each other by their company, as the sun and lotus-lake rejoice to see one another, after the shade of night. The worthy sire and son, sat awhile on the spot, to halt after all their toils and troubles were at an end, and then they rose up to discharge the duties that were then at hand. They both continued as the living liberated guides of men, by their knowledge of all that was to be known; and preserving the equanimity of their minds, and the steadiness of their dispositions, amidst all the vicissitudes of time and place. Thus the son of Bhrigu, who was born as Sukra at first, was gradually led away from his holy state by his thought of the heavenly nymph, and subjected to various states of life to which he was prone.
As long as there is no volition nor nolition, connected with the identity of the living soul; so long it reposes in a state of rest, not unlike that of sound sleep (susupti). These being joined also with one another, became dense and thick; and remain in the same place, where it has grown. Among these repeated births, the subordinate regenerations resemble the many folded coatings of a plantain tree; and the spirit of Brahmā is contiguous to, and pervades the whole, like the lofty leaves of the same tree. Thus every regeneration of the mind in a new life, is accompanied with its concomitant desires, and their results. The new life is attended with its proper body, unless the mind has lost its reminiscence. Thus the soul passing under the triple condition in its living state, does not give rise to the body, as the sea-water gives rise to the waves. The ubiquity of the intellect, makes it pass into the mind in its next birth; and exhibit itself in different forms in all its succeeding and subordinate regenerations. The influence of the Divine spirit, is as cool as the cooling shade of a plantain arbour. It is of its own nature; and is as unchangeable as the pith of the plantain tree, notwithstanding the changes in all its outer coats and coverings. So Brahmā taking the form of the mind, becomes the same Brahmā by reminiscence of his mind; as the sap of the soil makes the seed to bring forth the fruit, which reproduces the like seed. He must not attribute causality to what is not the cause, nor impute the causation of material bodies to the immaterial spirit of God, that is the prime and supreme cause of all. We must reason rightly regarding what is certain truth, and not argue falsely about what transcends our knowledge. The seed of the fruit bears a material form, but Brahmā—the universal seed, has no form at all; therefore it is improper to compare the visible seed, with the invisible Brahmā; who is beyond all comparison. The viewer viewing the view, is unable to see himself because his consciousness being engrossed by external objects, is disabled from looking into itself. Brahmā who is as clear as the firmament, cannot be perceived by all our endeavours; because the sight of the sky as a visible thing, cannot give us an insight into the invisible Brahmā. As the sweet saccharine juice of the sugarcane, thickens itself into the form of the sugarcandy; so the will of God, becomes compact in the solid body of the universe. As every thing is beheld in our sight, without being separated from its idea in the mind; so the inward notion, shows itself in the shape of the visible object, like the vision in a dream, which is but a representation of the thoughts entertained in our minds. As the serum of the earth appears in various shapes (of minerals and vegetables); so the sap of the intellect, produces the infinity of ideas and thoughts, growing as trees in the wilderness of the mind. There are some living souls, which meet and join with others and propagate their species; and then cease to exist after having lived a long time together. There are thousands of worlds like atoms of earth, contained in the mind; as in the ample space of the sky and in the particles of water; and these reside in those atoms like oil in the mustard seeds. Whatever the intellect dwells upon at any time or place, it immediately sees the same appearing therein before it; as anything which is seen in dream, appears to be true to the dreamer all that time. I consider the atoms of the intellect and the mind, contained within the particles, of the material body, to be both vacuous, and joined in one without causing a duality in their nature. It is this particle of the intellect which displays the creation, like the vision of a dream before it; and it is this conception, that led the gods Brahmā and others to the idea of their visible bodies, as it makes the little insects to think of their own bodies. Others look on outward objects as receptacles of the intellect, from the belief that the all pervasive, inseparable and imperishable intellect (soul), must abide in all and every one of them. These rove from one error to another, as a man sees one dream after another; and roll about in the pit of their delusion, as a stone when hurled from a hill downward. God being the all-pervading spirit of nature, is verily seen in the spirit of every body; and as he is ubiquitous, his omnipresence is present in every thing in all places. By reverting the cognition of visibles, to the recognition of their essence (tanmātra) in the invisible plenum, we get rid of our error of the reality of the formal world, as we do of the ornament in the material gold. He is successful in his inquiry, who by his good understanding, comes to know how to curb his worldly avarice day by day. He who is discoursive in his words, and not discerning in his mind, is like a blazing fire in a picture. No one can be wise until he gets rid of his false wit.
All living beings composed of the dense intellect and soul, contain other living animals under one another, like the manifold crusts of the plantain tree, and the insects contained in the womb of earth. According as living beings strive for their progress, so they prosper in their lives, agreeably to the various scope of their thoughts and actions. The worshippers of gods, get to the region of gods, and those of Yakshas meet at the place of Yakshas, and the adorers of Brahmā ascend to Brahmaloka. Resort therefore to what is best and the greatest refuge. As long as one knows anything to be lasting before him, so long he believes himself to be waking, but no sooner is it lost to him, than he thinks himself to have been dreaming of it. When the body has its activity with the powers of the mind, speech and the other members of action, it is to be understood, that its vital element is put to motion by the vital breath which it breathes. The mind circulates about the outer world, through the passages of sight and other organs; and sees within itself the forms of many mutable shapes and figures. When the body is weary with action of its limbs, mind or speech, the living element then becomes still, and remains in its composure, with the calm and quiet soul residing within the body. Life lies latent in the inner heart, as the liquid oil resides in the sesamum seed; it lies as dormant in the interior part, as frigidity within the frost, and fluidity in the clarified butter. One feeling the impassibility of his mind, and dealing unconcernedly with every one, and reaching to the fourth stage of consciousness, beyond the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping, is said to be turīya or deadened in life. This principle of life and thought, sees the multitudinous worlds situated with all their vicissitudes within itself, as the large tree and all its parts and productions, are observed to be contained within the seed. When it is full of blood, it perceives a fiery redness in itself, like that of a rubicund rock, or as the crimson red of the setting sun in the sky. When the organs are not besieged by external objects, which disturb the inward senses of the mind; it indulges itself in the reflexion of many things, which is called its dreaming state.
Whatever the mind often thinks upon with a strong conviction of its reality, it immediately assumes that form, as the iron-ball becomes ignited by its contact with fire. The mind is the cause of error, and it is the mind which is the framer of the world. The mind also stretches itself in the form of the universe (Viswarūpa) in its gross state. (The first is the human mind, second the mind of Brahmā, and the third is the mind of Virāj).
It is not now the proper time and place for you to propose this question, it should be adduced when I would come to the conclusion of the subject. It is best to investigate into the mind by the nature of its acts and operations, which tend to be the causes of the repeated births of mankind. Men learned in the sāstras and eloquent in speech, have given various appellations to the mind, in different systems of philosophy, according to its various perceptive faculties and different functions and operations in the body. (Gloss. It is called the mind (mana) from its power of minding (manana); it is termed internal sight (pasyanti) from its seeing inwardly; it is the ear (srotra) from its hearing—sravana from within, and so on). It receives the same form in which it delights, and which it assumes to itself in its imagination. But that there is no other way to the salvation of the supposed mind (than by these means), is an ipse dixit of the Vedānta, and an assumed dogma (kalpitāniyama) as those of other schools. The inward senses being excited, actuate the outward organs of sense in their own ways, as the exciting motion of the winds, drives the dust of the earth before their course. Whatever nature the mind adopts to itself by its wonted habit, the same shoots forth in the form of its two kinds of motion (the will and action). The mind is ascertained by the Kāpila (Sānkhya) philosophers, as a pure substance, like the immaterial intellect (under the title of pradhāna); and this view of it is adopted in their system or sāstra. The wise have styled our consciousness of the world as a magic scene (māyā), an appearance of ignorance—avidyā, a mere thought (bhāvanā), and the cause and effect of our acts. It is the abstract meditation of the thoughtful yogi, that weakens the outward impressions, and by dissociating the soul from all external things, keeps it steady and sedate in itself. Man obstructs to himself the sight of the clear firmament of his intellect, by the mist of his doubts; but he thinks it as unobstructed by his error, and indulges the fancies of his imagination which tends the more to his error. The bugbear of one’s (soul’s) imprisonment in the vacuity (cavity) of the body, is dispersed by his insight into it, as the fear of a lion lurking in the jungle, is removed upon finding no such thing therein. They meet also with the results of the forms, which they have in view for the time; though they are not in reality what they seem to be, nor are they entirely false (being the idealities of their mind). Be on thy guard, as never to allow the reflexions of your mind, to taint the clear crystal of thy soul; but remain unmindful of the visibles, and regardless of all worldly desires (which are causes of misery and repeated births and deaths).
They are dormant amidst the thick gloom of error, overspreading the mazy paths of life, and are awake under the transcendent light (of divine knowledge), requiring the vigilance of the living. All their restless desires and passions are set to rest, at the disappearance of their ignorance; as the turbulent waves of rivers subside of themselves, in the absence of stormy clouds. When the disturbances of doubts are settled, and the wandering of curiosity is over, it is then that the full moon of internal fulness, sheds its lustre over the mind. He sees rightly, who sees his body as an apparition of his error, and the abode of all evils; and that it does not serve for the spiritual meditation of his soul and his maker. He that looks on the states of misery and happiness, which attend on worldly life, to be but the fluctuating conditions of the ego, has no cause to repine or rejoice at them. I bow down to that Siva, of transcendental understanding; whose faculties are wholly engrossed in the meditation of that eternal Being, who presides over the creation, destruction and preservation of the universe, and who is manifest in all the various wondrous and beauteous grandeurs of nature.
Rāma said:—How do you call, O great sage! the body to be the dominion of a man, and how the Yogi can enjoy his princely felicity in it?
Vasishtha replied:— Here the understanding is fast bound in chains as a prisoner, and the organs of sense are let loose as monkies to play about. The face is as a flower garden, the smiles whereof are its blooming blossoms. As the air contained in a pot, is not felt by the touch like the pot itself, so is the living soul, which resides in the city of the body. The soul doing all actions, is yet no doer of them; but remains as witness of whatever is done by the body; and sometimes presides over the actions actually done by it. The sage, like the sun, looks down from above the atmosphere of the earth, on the hosts of mortals that have been hewn down by misery, like heaps of brambles and branches scattered in the woods. The worldly enjoyments of the wise, do not tend to vitiate their nature; as the poisonous draught of Siva, was not capable of doing him any injury. (The baneful effects of worldliness, do not affect the wise). The sensualist eager for the gratification of his senses, are as much ridiculed by the wise; as a man who takes to him a woman deserted by another, is derided by his tribe. The well governed mind, being once let loose, recurs like a spoiled boy to its former habits; as the tree withered in summer heat, grows luxuriant at a slight rain-fall. The mind that is naturally greedy, wishes for more with all its fulness; as the sea with the sufficiency of its water to overflood the earth, receives the rain waters and the outpourings of innumerable rivers in its insatiate womb. (The greedy mind like the insatiate sea, is never full). With the writhing of your hands and gnashing of your teeth, and twisting of your limbs and body, you must chastise your reprobate members and mind. Those men are reckoned the most prosperous, and best disposed in their minds in this earth; who have the manliness to govern their minds, instead of being governed by them.
Our senses are our invincible enemies, being the sources of all misdeeds and wicked actions. They are the ungrateful miscreants against the body, in which they have found their refuge. He who is fraught with the treasure of knowledge in his frail body, is not to be overcome by his inward enemies of sensual appetites. He who has weakened the pride of his mind, and subdued the enemies of his senses; has his desires all shrunken as the lotuses in the cold weather. So long do the demons of our desires, infest the region of our hearts, as we are unable to bring the mind under the subjection of our knowledge of the True one. The mind is called our father, for its enlightening our understanding with the light of the sāstras derived by itself, and for its leading us to perfection by losing itself in the Supreme spirit. The mind as a counsellor of our good, teaches us how to fell down the tree of our transmigration, and produce the arbour of our future bliss. Know your body to be a frail flower, and all its pleasure and pain to be unreal; so never take them for realities, as in the instance of the snare, snake and the matting; but remain above sorrowing for any thing as in the instance of Bhīma and Bhāsa.
Their monstrous and mountainous bodies, hid the disk of the sun in the sky; and their stretching arms smote him of his rays. They increased also in their number and size under the leadership of Dāma, Vyāla and Kata. Huge hills were hurled by the heroes, with the hoarse noise of roaring lions; and were blown up and down, by the blast of an all destroying tornado. The ghosts of Vetālas as big as the tālas or palmtrees, were beating the tāla or time of their giddy dance, with the tāli or clapping of their palms, over the heaps of carnage, floating on floods of blood flowing as a sanguinary sea, on the surface of earth. They ran about with their brandished swords in hand, and broke down the buildings by the rapidity of their motion, like the blast of a gale; and the rocks which they hurled at the foe, were reduced to dust, like the ashes of a burning mountain. Thus the gods and demigods dashed over one another, as the forest trees in a storm, striking each other with their branching arms, and strewing the flowers of mutual bloodshed. The elephants that were the regents of the different quarters of the skies, sent their loud roars, answering the tremendous peal of the world-destroying cloud. The huge rocks which were hurled by the demons, flew as birds in the air with their flapping wings sounding as thunder claps; while the hoarse noise of the rocky caverns, sounded as the deep sounding main. Struck by the flying weapons, the heavenly charioteers fell upon the ground; and their celestial cities were deluged by the hydraulic engines of the demons. Death was now lurking behind, and now hovering over the heads of the gods and leaders of armies; like a black-bee now skulking in, and then flitting over the lotuses; while the armies on both sides, were discomfited by the blows of the gods and demigods on the battle-field. Many countries and cities, villages and forests, vales and dales were laid waste; and innumerable demons and elephants, horses and human being were put to death. The furious flames of heavenly fire, burned the bodies of the infernal hosts; who in their turn, quenched the flame with water-spouts drawn out of the subterranean deep. The demons spread a dark night in the sky, by the shadow of their arms; which the gods destroyed by the artificial flame of lightenings, blazing as so many suns in heaven. The shower of thunder-arms, broke down the battery of mountain ramparts; and the Morphean weapon of slumber dispelled by that of its counteraction. The war chariots with their up-lifted flags and moon-like disks, moved as clouds about the horizon, while their wheel rolled with loud roaring under the vault of heaven. The world seemed to them as a forest of full blown rubicund (Kinsuka) flowers, by the rage of their obstinate enmity, and appeared as a sea of blood filled with mountains of dead bodies in it. The sky was filled with the broken fragments of the edifices, falling from the seven spheres of heaven, and their incessant fall raised a noise like the roaring of the diluvian clouds. The dread of the demons drove the celestial deities, the Siddhas and Sāddays and the gods of the winds, together with the Kinnaras, Gandharvas and Chāranas, from all their different quarters to one indistinct side. Then there blew a tremendous tornado like the all-destroying Boreas of universal desolation; laying waste the trees of the garden of paradise, and threatening to destroy the gods; while the thunders of heaven were splitting and breaking down the mountains flung to the face of the sky.
Streams of blood, gushed out of their wounds like water-falls in the basin of Ganges; and the gods caught into the snares of the demigods, groaned and roared aloud like lions. Dāma, Vyāla and Kata pursued the flying and run away gods, in the same manner as a raging fire runs after the wood for its fuel. The defeated gods after halting awhile, had then their recourse to the almighty Brahmā, in order to consult him on the means of gaining their victory over the demons. The judging Brahmā having heard and considered all this, delivered the following encouraging words to the host of gods before him. Those that are caught and bound fast in the net of their ambition, and led away by the thread of their expectation, are surely defeated in their aims, and are caught as birds by a string. A man however great and experienced he may be, is easily overcome by a boy, when he is enticed to pursue after every thing by his avarice. He that puts a limit to his soul or ātmā, which is unbounded and infinite, both surely reduce his magnanimity or garimā to the minuteness or anima by his own making. As long as the Asuras are independent of worldly things, they must remain invincible; but being dependent on them, they will perish as a swarm of gnats in the flame of wild fire. Know, it is avarice which is the cause of the poverty, and all dangers to mankind; just as the Karanja tree is the source of its bitter and pernicious fruits. No sooner these ignorant creatures of Sambara, shall have gained their high desires, than they are sure to be foiled by you in their vain attempts. They being subjected by their desire, will be easily subdued by you; for nobody that is led blindfold by his desires in this world, is ever master of himself.
They halted in their delightsome houses for some days, as the bees rest themselves in the cells of flowers after their wanderings. The encampment of the gods, was beset by a magical flood of the demons, resembling the stream of the Ganges; while showers of firearms and missiles of all sorts, were hurled upon their heads from above. The hydraulic engine sent forth floods of weapons, whirling as whirlpools, and sounding loud as the rattling thunder; and sweeping the hills and rocks in their current. The demons jumped up to the sky from the surface of the earth, as birds fly to heaven from mountain tops. The gods fell violently on the earth, as the fragment of a rock falls precipitately on the ground. Showers of weapons were falling as water-falls or showers of rain, and the tide of thunders flowed as fast as the fall of meteoric fire in promiscuous confusion. The Devas and Asuras, though worried by one another, did not yet give up their hope of victory, but hurled the weapons from their hands for mutual annoyance; and riding on the broad backs of big elephants, they wandered in the air, spreading their effulgence all around. The disordered world seemed to approach its untimely end, by the blowing of the furious winds mixed with fire and water; and the many suns of the deities and demons, shining above and below.
They carried on their warfare sometimes by fraud and often by their aggressiveness; and frequently after a truce or open war was made with the gods. They sometimes took themselves to flight, and having recruited their strength, they met again in the open field; and at others they lay in ambush, and concealed themselves in their subterranean caves. So when the desires of the demons Dāma and others, became identified with their selves, their souls were degraded from their greatness, and confined to the belief of the desired objects. Desire of their enjoyments, diminished their strength and valour; and their former acts of gallantry now became a dead letter to them. They moved slowly in despair of their victory, and for fear of losing their lives, in their encounter with the furious elephants (of the gods) in the field. When the demons Dāma, Vyāla, Kata and others, who were renowned before the gods in their prowess, fled cowardly in different ways:— Some sank in billowy seas and in the watery maze of Ganges, and others fell on distant islands, in different parts of the Jambudvīpa, and in the nets of fisher-men. Their heads which were covered with hard brazen and pointed coronets, were broken by slabs of stone, which were pelted upon them from the hands of the gods.
