Why You Should Cleanse Your Mind,
Not Just Your Body
The mind is the image of every body, and is not destructible as the body, but remains forever fixed to its purpose. Lord has made these creatures, in the triple spheres of thy intellect and mind. These three fold infinities of etherial, mental and intellectual spaces, are but reflexions of the infinite vacuity of divine intellect, and supply thee, with ample space for thy creation of as many worlds at thy will. Therefore thou art at liberty to create ad libitum, whatever thou likest and think, when thou hast the power to create everything.
Thus have I related to you, 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. Whatever reflexion is represented in the mind, the same is manifested in a visible form, and becomes compact and stands confest before it.
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. The conception of phenomenals as real, cannot make them real, any more than the appearance of a golden bracelet, can make it gold.
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 intellect or intellectual part, is the active principle, but the thought or mental part is quite inert. 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). 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. There is no error of egoism or personality in the transcendental category of the divine soul; because it is the integrity of all consciousness, as the sea is the aggregate of all its waves and waters. 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. 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. 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.
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. Whatever one thinks inwardly in himself, he is verily transformed to its likeness. 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.
He drank the sweet nectarious juice beaming as moonbeams in company with the gods; and reposed under the arbours of the groves, formed by the shaking branches of pārijāta plants. He next thought to live in a garden at the city of the Gandharvas, where he believed to have lived for an immeasurable period like the genius of Time himself, who is the producer of an infinity of worlds. There he gave birth to a male child of human figure in a doe, and became exceedingly fond of the boy, to the neglect of his sacred duties. His worldly thoughts having vitiated his understanding, caused him to be reborn as the son of the Madra king, and succeed to him in the kingdom of the Madras.The king of Madras, was released of his kingly person by his desire of asceticism; whereby he became the son of an anchorite in next-birth, in order to perform his austerities.
In all his former births, his mind thirsted after fresh pleasures and enjoyments; as a stag hunts after fresh verdure from forest to forest. The body sheds the tears of its eyes in sorrow for its past pains and austerities, as the sky rains after its excessive heat to cool the earth.
There is no great exertion of any kind that goes unrewarded in this world; all impossibility is thought possible by ardent pursuit after it. Whatever wonders are displayed by the active intellect to the inactive soul, the same is thought to be the world.
He did not find his son lowly bending down his head before him, the son who was the leader of the army of virtues, and who was the personified figure of all merits. The crown of the head had become as white and smooth, as the phallus of Siva anointed with camphor, at the Indu-varcha ceremony in honor of the moon. He was prepared to pronounce his imprecation against the god of fate, in vengeance of his snatching his son so prematurely from him. He appeared in armour with six arms and as many faces, accompanied by the army of his adherents, and holding the noose and sword and other weapons in his hands. “You sages are observers of the multifarious rules of religions austerities, and we are observant of the endless and immutable laws of destiny; we honour you therefore for your holiness, and not from any other desire.” As the motion of the moon is caused by no casual cause, though they falsely attribute a causality to it; such is the course of death in the
world of its own spontaneous nature. Therefore, O sage! allow not yourself to be so angry for your sorrow; but consider in its true light, the course of events that befall on humankind. Knowing that the course of our conduct, is subject to the destiny appointed by the Divine will, the wise never allow themselves to be subjected under the darkness of pride or passion, at our doings. Knowing that the course of our conduct, is subject to the destiny appointed by the Divine will, the wise never allow themselves to be subjected under the darkness of pride or passion, at our doings. As the skilful charioteer guides his chariot with care, so is this body conducted by the intelligent mind, with equal attention and fondness. It has the name of the heart from the affections of the body, and so it takes many other names at will. But the earthly bodies are all perishable. He having left this body of his behind him, in the mountain cave of Mandara, fled to the celestial region, as a bird flies from his nest to the open air. He became a king of the solar race, and then a rāja of the Pundras, and afterwards a missionary among the Sauras and Sālwas. He next became a Vidyādhara, and lastly the son of a sage or muni. Then he became a Vidyādhara (Jadugar) or magician himself; and plied his jugglery of abstracting ornaments from the persons of females. He was born as the boy of a Brāhman, under the name of Vāsudeva, and was taught in all the Srutis, among the intelligent and learned men of the place.
Your son is still engaged in his rigorous austerities on the bank of the rivulet, rolling with its loud waves on the beach, and the winds blowing and howling from all sides. Saying so, Yama the lord of world, who sees all at one view, made the Muni to dive into the thoughts of his son with his intellectual eye. Surprised at what he saw, the sage looked upon Yama with a smile; and dispassionate as he was, he spoke to the god in the following soft and dispassionate words. It is thou, O potent god! that knowest what is inside this world; while to us it presents its outward figure, in the shape of a magic scene only. It frames a form and gives a feature to the person, that it had not before; and destroys one in existence in a moment. It is the imagination that gives an image to airy nothing, as children see ghosts before them in the dark. (The mind changes the features of the face and body, and views things according to its own fancy). It was the (Divine) mind, that formed the world from its thought; wherefore the phenomenal is neither a substance by itself (as it subsists in the mind); nor is it nothing (being in existence in us). Gloss. It is therefore undefinable—anirvachanīya. They sink in the Supreme Spirit, resembling one vast body of pure and transparent, cold and sweet water; and like a vast mine of brilliant gems of unfailing effulgence. But one believing himself as a large wave, enlarges his spirit to greatness. He rests in peace, who thinks himself to be situated in the cooling orb of the moon; otherwise the body is consumed with cares; as a tree on the bank is burnt down by a conflagration. But the waves are not of one kind, nor are they altogether entities or nullities in nature; they are neither small or large nor high or low, nor do these qualities abide in them. As water is universally the same and transparent in its nature, so is the all pervading spirit of God, pure and holy in every place. The many wonderful powers that it contains, are all active in their various ways. The several powers productive of several ends, are all contained in that same body. All the natural and material forces, have the Divine spirit for their focus. That which is called the world, is only an attribute of Brahmā; and there is not the slightest difference between Brahmā and the world. Verily this plenitude is Brahma, and the world is no other than Brahma himself. Think intently upon this truth and shun all other false beliefs. It assumes to itself all varieties of forms by its volition of evolution or the will of becoming many; and it is the spirit that displays itself in itself and by itself (of its own causality); as the sea water displays its waves in its own water and by itself. The mind forgets its spiritual nature of its own will; and makes for itself a strong prison house (of its earthly possessions), as the silkworm weaves its own coating. The newly obtained power is assimilated with its recipient, as the virtue of every season is manifested in its effect upon the trees. There is no bondage nor liberation of human soul, nor of the Divine Spirit. We cannot account for the use of these words among mankind. There is no liberation nor bondage of the soul, which is the same with the Divine. It is this delusive world which shows the immortal soul under the veil of mortality, or as eclipsed by and under the shadow of temporary affairs. All those that appear as Brahmā, Vishnu and Rudras, as also they that have become as gods, and those that are called men and male creatures:— Some think of their stability in this world of dreams, and others are betrayed by their false hope of the stability of worldly affairs, which are quite unstable.
So are all places and things but imaginary ideas, and show themselves as real objects, to the purblind sight of the ignorant only. Thus have we all become, like the dreaming son of Bhrigu; to understand the false creations of our imagination, as sober realities. All things appearing unto us, are as false as these phantoms; and they proceed from the mind of Brahmā, as the varieties of trees and shrubs, are produced from the same sap of the vernal season. It is in its ideality, that anything appears as existent, which in reality is inexistent, though it is apparent to sight. The existence of the world, is as that of a lengthened dream; and the visible world is a wide spread snare of the mind, like fetters at the feet of an elephant. 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. And though the knowing and unknowing souls attain the state of susupti, and resemble each other in kind; yet the unknowing susupta soul, which is not awakened to the knowledge of its spirituality, is doomed to be reborn in the mortal world. 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 (stages of life). 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. The seed casts off its seedy form, and assumes the shape of the fruit; but Brahmā (the seed of all) contains the fruit (of the universe) in his bosom, without laying aside the seed. Brahmā evolves himself in his creation and does not produce the world like the fruit from the seed; therefore know the world as the vacuous heart of Brahmā, and is neither born nor unborn of itself. We see the outward sight because we cannot see the beholder of the sight (i.e. God himself who beholds his works). The beholder (God) is only the existent being, and the visibles are all nothing. 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. The atom of the intellect, contains the particles of all our notions; as the seed-vessel contains the farinaceous atoms of the future fruits and flowers, and branches and leaves (of very large trees). So the intellect conceives within itself and of its own particles, many other atomic germs, under the influence of particular times and places and actions and circumstances; which cannot be extraneous from itself. All that is displayed in this (outer) world, is in reality nothing at all; and yet do these living beings, though possessing the particles of intellect in them, erroneously conceive the duality of an extraneous existence. 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. One living being is born in another, and that again within another, like the coatings of plantain trees, which grow one under the other over the inmost pith. As proper regimen is the best medicine to secure the health of the body; so is the habit of keeping the organs of sense under control, the only means of edifying the understanding.
The worms and insects, that grow out of the dirt and scum of earth and water in the hot season, and appear filthy to our sight; are nevertheless full of the particles of intellect, becoming to them as living beings. Dreaming also appears as waking, as long as it lasts; but waking seems as dreaming, when the objects of its vision are not lasting. This breath circulating through out the whole body, gives it the powers of sensibility and consciousness, which have their seats in the heart and mind, wherein the erroneous conception of the world is hidden. 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. 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.
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. These men relying on the error of their own hypothesis, inculcate their supposed view of the mind to others, as the only light to guide them in the way of their salvation. O sinless Rāma! Cherish no fondness for the phenomenal world, which is an unreal illusion, full of fear and unholiness, and is stretched out to ensnare the mind. So on looking deeply, you will find no bondage in the world; the notions that this is the world and this is myself, are only errors of the mind. He believes these elephants pursuing their mates, in his thought; so it is the thought, that gives the outward forms of things.
He knows rightly, who knows the Ego to be as minute as a millionth or billionth part of the point of a hair, and pervading all over the infinity of space and eternity of time. He understands rightly, who understands his soul to stretch above and below and all about him; whose magnitude has no bounds nor an equal to it.
The man that is liberated in this life, and is settled in the Supreme state of felicity, is not tarnished by his reigning over the realm of his body, and turning about like a wheel. Its loss is no loss to the wise; but its continuance is the cause of continued happiness to the wise man. Hence the wise man reigns over the dominion of his body, without any pain or trouble, in the same manner as one remains the lord of his house, without any anxiety or disturbance. Men often bathe their outer bodies in holy streams, without looking to the purification of their inward souls; and they shave their persons at the confluence of rivers with the sea, in hopes of obtaining their object. 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. He whose mind is bent to the enjoyment of carnal pleasures, should first of all check the inclination, as they draw out the poisonous plants from the ground.
He who can entrap these greedy birds of the senses, under the snare of his right reason, is never ensnared in his person in the trap of sin, but breaks its bonds as the elephant does his fetters. 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. 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.
And how is that fortitude which thou pointest out for my imitation, from the instance of Bhīma and Bhāsa, in order to get rid from all earthly sorrow? The flower-gardens on all sides, had surpassed the mandara groves of paradise; and the magical skill of the demon, had set rows of sandal trees, with their encircling snakes all around. The gods fled from their heavenly abode for fear of them, as the timorous deer fly from before the sight of Siva’s and Gaurī’s bull into the thick thickets. These horrible leaders of his army, being produced in his magic, flew upward with their enormous bodies, resembling the flying mountains of old. They were preadamite beings and devoid of changing desires; and the want of their prior acts (like those of the human kind), made them move about as free as spiritual beings in one uniform tenor of their course.
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. All sides were filled by the demons, who blazed like burning suns with their luminous bodies, and held the tall kalpa branches in their hands for striking the enemy therewith, and with which they broke down the tops and peaks of mountains. The mountain forests were set on fire by the fiery weapons, and the burning rocks melted down their lava with as dreadful a noise, as that of the volcanic mount of Meru with its melting gold, and blazing with the effulgence of the twelve suns of the zodiac. Flights of swords, spears and lances were flying in the air, like rivers running down the sides of mountains; and the vault of heaven was filled by war-whoops and shouts of the combatants. The demons flew in the air like winged mountains, moving around the sky; and making a whizzing rustle that was dreadful to hear. The fire of the lightenings, dried up the waters of the raining clouds; and the clashing of arms, emitted a shower of fire on all sides. 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. They looked upon heaven for signs of good and evil with their uplifted heads and eyes, but the world appeared to them as a sea of blood from the heaven above to the earth below.
Vyāla (Baal) with his stretching arms, was crushing the bodies of the gods; and Kata was harassing them in their unequal challenge with them. Now ye gods! excite your enemies to the war by your policy, of creating in them an ambition and intense desire for conquest, and by this you will gain your object.
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 disordered world seemed to approach its untimely end, by the blowing of the furious winds mixed with fire and water (as in the chaotic state); and the many suns of the deities and demons, shining above and below (as it is predicted of the dreaded last day). The sky was filled with violent sounds, and the earth and its mountains, were washed by torrents of blood; the blood-sucking goblins danced on all sides, and filled the cavity of the world with confusion.
They fought again for five years, eight months and ten days, darting their fire arms, trees and stones and thunders upon the gods. Falling into the errors of egotism and selfishness, they were led to the blunder of mei tatem or thinking these things as mine; just as a man mistakes a rope for a snake. Many fell in the cavities of the eddies of seas, and in the abyss of the ocean, and in the running streams; some fell into far distant forests, and others dropped down amidst the burning woods of wild fire.
They are great fools who do not look deeply into the things, and think the world to be without any fraud or guile. Try Rāma! by your superior intelligence, to separate your mind from its desires, as they extract the perfume from flowers.
But they fled from their abodes for fear of his ire, and hid themselves in the seventh sphere of the infernal regions. Then a nod of his eyebrows, assigned to them a place in the burning furnace of hell; where they were immediately cast by the stern porters of hell gate. The error of egoism like a dark cloud, hidest the bright disk of the moon of truth under its gloom, and causes its cooling beams to disappear from sight. So it is, O strong armed Rāma! that nothing can ever be something, or anything can ever be nothing. But it is possible for a little thing to be great, as for a great one to be reduced to minuteness.
