THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.

in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)

Vol. 4 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.

Containing
The Nirvana-Prakarana, Uttaradha

Translated from the original Sanskrit
By
VIHARI LALA MITRA

[Pg x]

Ráma said:—Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuity which you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate to hear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips.

2. Vasishtha replied:—I have fully explained to you that the two states of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtues of composure and self-controul are both the same, though they are differentiated by two names.

3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is none between two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, as the vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect.

4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his self consciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is the Intellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and is styled the intellectual sphere.

5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; wherein the earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture of the earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti; and means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees is always clear, though they live upon the sap of earth).

6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind of a man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whose composure is never disturbed by anything.

7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; who had got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease; before he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep.

[Pg 570]

8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in and fill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectual sphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without being touched by or related to any.

9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; and as vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified from the impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about any thing in the world.

10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocks and trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is then said to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless state is called the active mind and not the intellect).

11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states of the view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); is said to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means the imperceptibility of soul).

12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of the various kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without making any effect of change in its immutable nature.

13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces all things, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which is permeated throughout all nature for ever.

14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in the inside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be the vacuity of the intellect.

15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether, connected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of the intellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entity or non-entity.

16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, and at last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation and dissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can the vacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it (Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse; there the whole universe is a void nothing)).

[Pg 571]

17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleeping state of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dream is dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world is vanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind.

18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection, and as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it, as by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to exist and disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleeping states of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence of the world).

19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of all the sástras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing any where; and yet as all and everything in every place and at all times. (i.e. Nothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract).

20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains his consciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests in its place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in an instant.

21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever been before; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind, gives it the form and figure as they appear unto us.

22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appears in varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, nor alters the clearness of its vacuous sphere.

23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external and internal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be ever wakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.

24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when you speak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadly cold and quiet, as long as you have to live.

25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as[Pg 572] you fix your eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view the mirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons in the sky.

26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; because the want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is no possibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterial causality.

27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of a causeless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, that appears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisible One).

28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its very original form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as a duality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspects to us.

29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notion of the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking the false for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality.

30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does it actually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewise never annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nil again.

31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, must be quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in the form of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, and imperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void, cannot be annulled to a nullity again).

32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, is ever reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want of visible, nor the vision of a thing without its view.

33. Ráma rejoined:—If it is such, then please to explain moreover, O most eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer; and what are these that thus appear to our view?

[Pg 573]

34. Vasishtha replied:—There being no assignable cause, for the appearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, and yet it <is> maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents.

35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, is all fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of Máyá only. But the world in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind.

36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us the shapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its ample garden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world in itself.

37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since the first creation of the world; and that <which> sparkles any where before us, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formless form, but in his spirit or intellectuality).

38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere, that manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.

39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualified vacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existent beings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is the attribute of a material substance.

40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discrete attribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexion of it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders.

41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity of the Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself; say who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or not being, or a something or nothing.

42. Ráma rejoined:—If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neither the reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view (i.e. if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, and neither the subjective nor objective); then say what is the difference between the cause and effect, what is the source[Pg 574] of all these, and if they are unreal why do they appear as realities?

43. Vasishtha replied:—Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestation of his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and then becomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought.

44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, as the earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself for that form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other cause to move it to action, except its own free will.

45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains his self consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains its identity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent state of the plenum.

46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible and invisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; it is the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobody questions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause and effect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantoms of error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceeding from its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world, and there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for his blunder.

47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyer of these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, and what is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liable to reproof.

48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscernible vacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world); how then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, without being blamed for it?

49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearance of the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth, which has led to the general belief of the creation of the world by Brahmá.

[Pg 575]

50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has led mankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion or máyá, of ignorance or avidyá, of the phenomenal or drisya, and finally of the world or jagat.

51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession of the mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a reality before it, as the false phantom of <a> ghost, takes a firm hold on the mind of an infant.

52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it as something real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than the embodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities in empty air.

53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a sea or as the God Virát himself; just <as> a man thinks in his dream, that he sees the hills and towns in his empty mind.

54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formless cause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solid world, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the great annihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. It is therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal form only in the Divine Mind.

55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state in the vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than an emptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.

56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receiving the dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but those of reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid light of the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is called Pratyagnánátma or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul).

57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visible forms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; and remain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, and place no faith or reliance on anything else.

58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in[Pg 576] itself by its incessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuition throughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of its whirlpools.

59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields our wished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thing before us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjective mind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).

60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit of its desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with its desired objects in its vacuous self in a minute.

61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in the interim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts, when it sees neither the one nor another thing.

62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearly in variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and though devoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuity of the sky, in the blueness of the firmament.

63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other than what is alike inane as itself; a material production requires a material cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore the created world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearance of dreams before our sleeping minds.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is the subjective Intellect and inborn in it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is the empty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself, and here the tripart or the triple state of the Intellect, its intellection and the chetya or intellectual combine together. (i.e. The thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts all unite together).

2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed as dead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifeless figures in a picture.

3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocks of wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving and unmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air.

4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of the chrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered as nothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.

5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gathering vapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems in them, but never does any one rely on their reality.

6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of the Intellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yet it is never relied on by any one.

7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caught in his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material things rising as smoke before it.

8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism[Pg 578] and meity, so as to say “this is I and that is mine.” Ah, well do I perceive it now, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in their visionary flights.

9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yet prone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance of truth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth in search of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.

10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves a priori the impossibility of the effect; so the want of any created thing, proves a posteriori the inexistence of a causal agent (i.e. there is no creation nor its creator likewise).

11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadows of its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobby to nourish their unborn or dead offspring.

12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made, and how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of the Intellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm and serene.

13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, a causality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclined to believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to do with their puerile reasoning.

14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, is but a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all these images like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its hues and figures to our eyes.

15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is only by our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the same which shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjective soul appears as the subjective world to our sight.

Ráma rejoined:—He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the bright vividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of the noumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air.

2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of this ignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does this ignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, those that are besotted by their ignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be as everlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O Ráma! hear a tale on this subject.

4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world with its three lokas of the upper and lower regions, in the manner of this terrestrial world.

5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours; and is called the sama bhúmi or level land, where all beings had their free range.

6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for his learning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men of his court.

7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as bright as the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru or polar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as its president.

8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his[Pg 580] praises, and he was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the support of its refugees.

9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretched its lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotus blossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscape with delight every morning.

10. That respectable prince of Bráhmanic faith, adored fire as the lord of gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god as equal to him (Because agni is said to be the Brahma or father of the gods).

11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephants and foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea is girt by his whirlpools and rolling waters.

12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection of the four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird the earth on all its four sides.

13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of the whole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of his foes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu.

14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the eastern borders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered a secret message that was not pleasing unto him.

15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by thy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to you something, which requires your consideration. (The word go—Gr. ge.—Pers. gao—cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their mutual simile).

16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the relentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the regions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest.

17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers thereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from the east and west, and killed by the enemy.

18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded[Pg 581] with his army to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy).

19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical princes of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way journey to the spot.

20. Vasishtha continued:—As he was relating in this wise, another emissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a rush, as a current of the deluging flood.

21. He represented, saying:—O lord, the general of thy forces on the north, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post, like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.

22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing out of his royal apartment, he bade as follows.

23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to appear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal, and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction).

24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on foot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors.

25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around; thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest.

26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his head, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north is waiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike sight”.

27. The king answered:—Go thou quickly there, and get him to my presence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that quarter.

28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal presence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld the chieftain in the following plight.

[Pg 582]

29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds and scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself with difficulty.

30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and contortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.

31. The chieftain said:—My lord, the three other chiefs of the three quarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to the realms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest (i.e. to encounter the enemies on every side).

32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms alone on this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with all their strength.

33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them to this palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you to punish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might.

34. Vasishtha continued:—As the yet alive and wounded chieftain, had been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; there appeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, and speaking to the king in the following manner.

35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likening the shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, the skirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides.

36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks all around; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swords and spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances.

37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shaking weapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while their rolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about.

38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshy arbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big[Pg 583] elephants, seem as huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high.

39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bending of their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea, sounding hoarsely under the lashing winds.

40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening froth fallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to the foaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.

41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlike array of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising upon the surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge.

42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, are shining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour.

43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and long stretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about these marine animals upon the shore.

44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accord against us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are uttering and muttering their invectives to us.

45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these things to my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to the borders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts.

46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and club and sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion.

47. Vasishtha added:—Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, the emissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears, after making a gurgling noise.

48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights and attendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, the men and women and all the citizens at large[Pg 584] were struck with terror; and the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shouldered their arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of trees shaken by a hurricane.

Vasishtha continued:—In the mean while, the assembled ministers advanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to the celestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas—Titans around.

2. The ministers addressed:—Lord! We have consulted and ascertained, that as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace, dissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force or due punishment.

3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostages doth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for a reconciliation.

4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of different countries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and those that are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardly conciliated by terms of peace or subsidy.

5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showing our valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed, towards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.

6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command the people to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let the generals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets.

7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; and order the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as the dark deluging clouds inundate the land.

8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the[Pg 586] bowstrings twang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscure the skies as by the clouds.

9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings in the air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growling clouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain, and make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in their ear.

10. The king said:—Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptly all what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow you straightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and the adoration of Agni—the fiery god.

11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king; yet he found a moment’s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pure Gangá water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by a showering of rain water.

12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy fire with as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the sástras; and then began to reflect in himself, in the following manner.

13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure and prosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realm stretching to the sea.

14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemies under my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under the bending skies on all sides.

15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear and cooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretches to the three worlds, like the three branches of Gangá.

16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and to respectable Bráhmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasures for myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanut fruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say:—his realms were चतुराब्धिसोमा or bounded by the four oceans on all sides).

17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and they groaned before me as croaking frogs with their[Pg 587] distended pouches, and my rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islands amidst the distant seas.

18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyond the visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of bordering mountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops.

19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation; I have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my good will for the public weal. (It means the prince’s high attainments in spiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns).

20. I have manacled the lawless Rákshasas, in strong chains and fetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of my treasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and without letting them clash with one another.

21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of those triple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy and renown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow and frost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw.

22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts; and after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and are eager for warfare.

23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and the victory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as a sacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown its worshipper with victory.

24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to the Fire-god (as a fit fruit to <the> shrine; and say:—O Igneous god, I make here an offering of my head to thee).

25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations to fire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with my former offerings.

26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine, with brilliant and strong bodies, like that of Náráyana, with his mighty arms.

[Pg 588]

27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet my enemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, by keeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee.

28. Vasishtha replied:—So saying, the king took hold of a dagger in his hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, as boys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In many instances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails).

29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; the headless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew also upon the burning furnace.

30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royal carcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst its burning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make an instantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest.

31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of his kingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, as the radiant body of Náráyana, when it rose at first from the formless deep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).

32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendent lustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royal crown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude to the Agniculas or fiery races of men).

33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets, bracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; and necklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along.

34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes and sizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horse back, like so many Indras riding on their Uchai-srava horses (having their ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenward flight).

[Pg 589]

35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows of golden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equally long and strong with the god of war.

36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on their war-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alike impregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as the vehicles they rode upon.

37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of the submarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with the oblations that were offered upon it.

38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on all sides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures looked like Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.

Vasishtha continued:—In the mean time the battle was raging in its full fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that had advanced before the city gates.

2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and there they set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by clouds of smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc and wailing on every side.

3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network of arrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared to view: and was then lost to sight the next moment.

4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves of the forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling as loosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurling through the air.

5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to the burnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the great combatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra, where they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs.

6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery of bravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about in showers.

7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spirits of dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air, appeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies.

8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about[Pg 591] with loud shouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if stricken by lightnings in the battle field.

9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt from above; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; and descending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that were ready to die.

10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavy ocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants, crackled like the clashing clouds in air.

11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts and its bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made a glare of fire around.

12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore their garments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and the clashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around.

13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weapons dashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of the battlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray.

14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; and the flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air, resembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea.

15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and the clashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the sounding main beset by islands.

16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet of the foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from the wounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariots and slain elephants in its rapid course.

17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battle axes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the broken arms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it.

[Pg 592]

18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from the clashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deified souls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of their wrinkled and decaying frames of earth.

19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashes of lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filled the air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth.

20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cut their weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing at each other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together.

21. Here the headless trunks of the kabandhas (anthropophagi), mingled with the gigantic bodies of the vetála demons, were disastrous on every side; and there the demoniac vetála plucking their hearts for their hearty meal.

22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breaking asunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shaking arms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.

23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, made their maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passing with their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around.

24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier’s final glory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward in their giving or receiving of wounds.

25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiers and chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants (i.e. puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent on destruction.

26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting and unrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were poured upon the nameless and dastardly cowards.

[Pg 593]

27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is as glorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures, for the protection of their protégés.

28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict of elephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid of ichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.

29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes, and cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued and overcome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with their hands.

30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people, being downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to and fell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter under the shining sun.

31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, became subject to death (i.e. they called death, to be re-born); as millionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life.

32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon their arms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like the adoration of the three worlds.

33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, when churned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiers under them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.

34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to the valour of the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees (i.e. the toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as that of Baladeva (who fought dead drunk in battle).

35. There was the clashing of arms of the Rákshasas, who fought together in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed on carcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns of mountains.

36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, with the detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and there were the flying stones on another, which were[Pg 594] flung from the slings of the combatants, and which covered the ground below.

37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions, resembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there was heard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the lofty edifices of the city.

38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying fire brands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the people betook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes and treasures all behind.

39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, in order to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves, for fear of the devouring phoenix, darting upon them from the sky.

40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if they were pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed in their pressing mills.

41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by the stones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions, resounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of the ragged caverns.

42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loud shouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives and dearly earned vigour in the battle field.

43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarism flashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings, went on unceasingly all around.

44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, who were as staunch hearted as the Mount Kailása, with the strong god Siva seated therein.

45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy a lasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state, by their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says:—The brave live by dying, and die by their living).

46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowers immerging into the waters of lakes; great champions[Pg 595] were seen to stalk over the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes.

47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzing sound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noise around; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. The flying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing of horses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels, together with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafened the ears of men all about.

Vasishtha continued:—Thus the war waged with the fury of the four elements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world; and the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in and about the battle field.

2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drums and conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms on all sides.

3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, and their steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting in twain with clattering noise.

4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fell fainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, and mown down as straws and grass.

5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a peal that filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered with a treble roar, resounding with uproar of the kapa or doomsday clouds.

6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hill and mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks every where.

7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four fold or four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the four quarters of the sky, or like the four arms of Náráyana, stretching to so many sides of heaven.

8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse, elephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of the confines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lying out of the town.

[Pg 597]

9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of his enemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like the wild roar of the surrounding sea.

10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared as sharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in the wide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean.

11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as the whirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their waving flags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.

12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and the neighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring of shining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under the sunshine.

13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surges and swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbarians gabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters.

14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemed as they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, and breaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds.

15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in which the slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments of floating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rolling waves of the sea.

16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimely dissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the borders of the visible horizon.

17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as the sparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces, resembled the casting of ballast stones into it.

18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above; and presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and of fleecy vapours in another.

[Pg 598]

19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the king thought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in the ocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, which he thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse the cloud of the hostile force like the wind).

20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as when the god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay the demon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when the Indo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains).

21. He bowed to his god Agni—Ignis, and let fly his mighty missile with all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve his own forces from destruction.

22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of the cloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of the enemy.

23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forth into a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the four sides or quarters of the sky.

24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts and arrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shots and rockets.

25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents of discs and battle axes.

26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods of bhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; and also swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity.

27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence of lightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flying swords and sabres.

28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of great force and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found in mountain caves, and grew there for ages.

29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms,[Pg 599] blasted the ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry in all directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.

30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, were driven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to all sides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflows on the land in the rains.

31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariots and foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the four directions; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sides during the rains.

32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurled down as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords were broken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of mariche flowers over the ground.

33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on the ground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while the groans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts.

34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusks rising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vying with thunder claps and roaring clouds.

35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as the crashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horses clashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.

36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as the rattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of the clashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded as the crashing of stones.

37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; and cries of dying soldiers, crying “we die, we are slain,” swelled in the air all around.

38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling of an eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed[Pg 600] on their bodies, exhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky.

39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon the shore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of a purple cloud.

40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the tall tala trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men, were seen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain.

41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate on the ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh and fat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in the field.

42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; and the concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised a rattling sound all around.

43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolation were blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thunders of destruction were clapping all about.

44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face of the land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the sky was drizzling through all its pores.

45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all in a blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses and elephants, were in full cry and loud uproar.

46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots and rumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated to the twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides.

47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashing of the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely from them, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.

48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all the four sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers like swarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies.

[Pg 601]

49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst the conflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons, falling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flying forces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbed by the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarine fire.

Vasishtha continued:—The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded as the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling the snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and driven afar to the southern main—the Indian Ocean.

2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking against one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in the forest.

3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant Dardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the field with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of Afghanistan).

4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down torrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors, and glittered like curling lightnings.

5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and gored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh, similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.

6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains, who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid Pisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.

7. Those that fled to the tala and tamala forests, and to the old woods on the bank of the dasárná river; were caught by lions and tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet.

8. The yovanas living on the coasts of the western ocean,[Pg 603] and those in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in the course of their flight.

9. The sákas or Scythians being unable to endure the impulse, of the black iron arrows for a moment fled to all directions; and the Rumatha people were blown away and broken down, like the lotus bed by the blowing winds.

10. The routed enemy flying to the Mahendra mountain, covered its three peaks with their armours of black mail, and made them appear as mantled by the sable clouds of the rainy weather.

11. The legions of these hostile forces, being broken down by the arms of the king, like the large mines of gold, were first plundered of their raiments by the highway robbers, and then killed and devoured by the nocturnal cannibals and hobgoblins of the desert.

12. The surface of the land was converted to the face of the sky; by the broken fragments of weapons glistering on like the stars of heaven twinkling in myriads above.

13. The caverns of the earth, resounding to the noise of the clouds above, appeared as a grand orchestra, sounding the victory of the king both in earth and heaven.

14. The peoples inhabiting the islands, lost their lives under the whirling disks; as those dwelling in the watery marshes perish on dried lands for want of rain.

15. The vanquished islanders fled to the Sahya mountains, and having halted there for a week, departed slowly to the respective places.

16. Many took shelter in the Gandhamádana mountains, while multitudes of them resorted to the Punnága forests; and the retreating Gandharvas became refugees in the sanctuaries of the Vidyádhara maidens.

17. The Huns, Chins and Kirátas, had their heads struck off by the flying discuses of the king; and these were blown away by the opposite winds, like lotus flowers by the blast.

18. The Nilipa people, remained as firm as trees in a forest, and as fixed in their places as thorns on stalks and brambles.

19. The beautiful pastures of antelopes, the woodlands and[Pg 604] hilly tracts on all sides; were desolated by showers of weapons, and the rush and crush of the forces.

20. The thorny deserts became the asylum of robbers, after they deserted their habitations to be over grown by thorns and thistles.

21. The Persians who were abundant in number, got over to the other side of the sea (the Persian Gulph); and were blown away by the hurricane, like stars blasted by the storm of final desolation.

22. The winds blew as on the last day of destruction, and broke down the woods and forests all about; and disturbed the sea by shaking its hidden rocks below.

23. The dirty waters of the deep, rose on high with a gurgling noise; and the sky was invisible owing to the clouds of weapons, which obscured its face on all sides.

24. The howling winds, raised a clapping and flapping sound all about; and there fell showers of snow also, which flowed on earth, like the waters of the sea.

25. The charioteers of Vidura country, fell down from their cars, with the loud noise of waves; and were driven to fall into the waters of the lake, like bees from lotuses.

26. The routed foot soldiers who were as numerous as the dust of the earth, and well armed from head to foot; were yet so overpowered under the showers of darts and discs, that they were blinded by the tears of their eyes, and disabled to beat their retreat. (i.e. They were as dust, set down by the showers of darts from above, and tears of their eyes below).

27. The Huns were buried with their heads and heels, in their flight over the sandy deserts of the north; and others were as muddied as the dirty iron, by their being fastened in the miry shores of northern seas. (The Huns had been the progenitors of the present Hungarians, residing beyond the Baltic. They are said to have been as dark complexioned as their cognate Dravidians of Deccan in Southern India).

28. The Sáks (Saccae or Scythians), were driven to cassia forests on the bank of the eastern main; there they were confined[Pg 605] for some time, and then released without being despatched to the regions of death.

29. The Madrasees were repulsed to the Mahendra mountains, whence they lightly alighted on the ground as if fallen from heaven; and there they were protected by the great sages, who preserved them there with tender care as they bear for the stags of their hermitage.

30. The fugitives flying to the refuge of the Sahya mountains, found in lieu of their imminent destruction, in the subterranean cell, the two fold gain of their present and future good therein. Thus it comes to pass that, many times good issues out of evil, where it was least expected. (We know not what were the two great gains made at this place, except it be made to mean, that the hidden cell of sahya or patience is the door to prosperity and success).

31. The soldiers flying to Dasárná at the confluence of the ten rivers, fell into the Dardura forest like the fallen leaves of trees; and there they lay dead all about by eating the poisonous fruits thereof.

32. The Haihayas that fled to Himálayas, drank the juice of Visalya-karaní or pain killing plants by mistake; and became thereby as volant as Vidyádharas, and flew to their country.

33. And then the people of Bengal, who are as weak as faded flowers, showed their backs to the field, and fled to their homes; from which they dare not stir even to this day, but remain as Pisáchas all along.

34. But the people of Anga or Bihar, that live upon the fruits of their country; are as strong as Vidyádharas, and sport with their mates, as if it were in heavenly bliss.

35. The Persians being worsted in their bodies, fell into the tala and tamala forests; whereby drinking their intoxicating extracts, they became as giddy as drunken men. (The addictedness of Persians to their delicious drinks, is well known in their Ána Cronatics).

36. The light and swift mettled elephants of the swarthy[Pg 606] Kalingas, pushed against their four fold armies in the field of battle, where all lay slain in promiscuous heaps.

37. The salwas passing under the arrows and stones of the enemy, fell into the waters which girt their city, wherein they perished with the whole of their hosts, that are still lying there in the form of heap of rocks.

38. There were numbers of hosts, that fled to different countries in all directions; and many that were driven to the distant seas, where they were all drowned and dead, and borne away by the waves.

39. But who can count the countless hosts, that fled to and lay dead and unnoticed in every part of the wide earth and sea, on the fields and plains, in forests and woods, on land and water, on mountains and dales, on shores and coasts and on the hills and cliffs. So there is nobody who can tell what numbers of living beings are dying every moment, in their homes and abodes in cities and villages, in caves and dens, and every where in the world.

Vasishtha continued:—The hostile forces of the enemies thus flying on all sides, were pursued to a great distance by the four forms of Vihaschit as said before.

2. These four forms of almighty power, and of one soul and mind; went on conquering the four regions on every side, with one intent and purpose.

3. They chased the retreating enemies without giving them any respite, to the shores of the seas on all sides; as the currents of rivers keep on their course without intermission, to the coast of the far distant ocean.

4. This long course of the royal forces, as well as of the enemies, soon put an end to all their provisions and ammunitions, and all their resources and strength were exhausted at last, as a rill is lost under the sands ere it reaches the lake.

5. The king beheld his forces and those of his enemies, to be as exhausted at the end; as the merits and demerits of a man are lost up on his ultimate liberation.

6. The weapons ceased to fly about, as if they were at rest after they had done their part in the sky; and as the flames of fire subside of themselves, for want of fuel and the combustibles.

7. The horses and elephants went under their shelters, and the weapons stuck to trees and rocks; and they seemed to fall fast asleep, like birds upon their spray at night fall.

8. As the waves cease to roll in a dried up channel, and the snows to fall under the clouded sky; and as the clouds fly before the storm, and the fragrance of flowers is borne away by the wind.

9. So the flying weapons were submerged like fishes, under the falling showers of rain; and the dripping drops of darts,[Pg 608] were thwarted by the thickening showers of snow (i.e. the dropping arrows were driven away, by the drifts of snow).

10. The sky was cleared of the whirling disks, that were hurled by hundreds, and hurtling in the hazy atmosphere; and it got a clean sweep of the gathering clouds, that were soaring up in surges, and pouring down in floods of rain.

11. The firmament presented the appearance of an immense ocean, composed of the limpid fuel of the vast void; and containing the sparkling gems of the stars in its bosom, and the burning submarine fire of the sun in the midst of it.

12. The great vacuum appeared as extensive and deep, and as bright and serene, and devoid of the dust of rajas or pride, as the minds of great men (which are of equal extent and depth of knowledge &c.).

13. They then beheld the oceans, lying as junior brothers of the skies; being of equal extent and clearness, and stretching to the utmost limits of the horizon.

14. These with their deep sounding waves and foaming froths, are as gratifying to the minds of people; as the roaring clouds with their showers of snow, are ravishing of human hearts.

15. They having fallen down from high heaven, and stretching wide their huge bodies on the earth below; seem to be rolling grievously on the ground, with their deep groanings and breathings, and raising up their billowy arms, in order to lift themselves on high.

16. They are gross and dull bodies, yet full of force and motion, and though they are mute and dumb, yet full of noise and howling in their hollow cavities; they are full of dreadful whirlpools, as is this world with all its dizzy rounds.

17. The gems sparkling on the banks, add to the brightness of the sun beams (in the morning); and the winds blowing in the conch shells, resound all along the coast.

18. Here the huge waves are growling, like the big clouds roaring loudly on high; and the circling eddies are whirling around, as the shattered corallines were scattered along.

[Pg 609]

19. The hoarse snorting of sharks and whales, is howling in the bosom of the deep; and the lashing of the waters by their tails, sounded as the splashing of the oars of vessels in them.

20. Here are the horrid sharks and alligators, devouring the fleecy mermaids and marine men in numbers; and a thousand suns shining in their reflexions on the rising waves.

21. Here are seen fleets of ships floating on the surface of the waters, and rising aloft on the tops of the waves; and driven forward by the blowing winds, howling horribly through the furling sails and cracking cordage.

22. The ocean with his hundreds of arms of the heaving waves, handles the orbs of the sun and moon; and displays varieties of sparkling gem, with reflexions of their ’beams in them.

23. Here were the shoals of sharks, skimming over the foaming main; and there were the water spouts, rising like columns of elephants’ trunks to the skies, and representing a forest of bamboos.

24. In some places, the rippling waves were gliding, like curling creepers, with hairy tufts and frothy blossoms on them; and in others, little rocks resembling the backs of elephants and bearing the vernal flowers, were scattered in the midst of the waters.

25. Some where were the heaps of froth and frost and hills of icebergs, resembling the edifices of the gods and demigods; and else where were the groups of sparkling little billows, that laughed to scorn the clusters of shining stars in the skies.

26. Here are branches (chains) of rocks concealed in its depth, like little gnats hidden in the hollows underneath the ground; and there are the huge surges, which make pigmies and dwarfs of the high hills on earth.

27. Its coasts are spread over with sparkling gems, like beds of gemming sprouts and shoots of flowers on the ground (or) as the ground strewn over with the germinating shoots and sprouts of gemming blossom; while the glistening pearls[Pg 610] bursting out of their silvery shells sparkle amidst the spreading sands.

28. The sea seems to weave a vest of silken stuff, with its fleecy waves; and decking it with all its floating gems and pearls; while the rivers flowing into it from all directions, serve to colour it with their various waters.

29. The coasts studded with gems and pearls of various hues, display as it were the beams of a hundred moons, in the versicoloured nails of its feet.

30. The shadows of the beaching tali forests, falling on the swelling waves of the sea, were imbued with the hues of the marine gems; and appeared as moving arbours with their variegated foliage, fruits and flowers.

31. There are seen the shadows of sundry fruit trees, reflected in the waters gliding below; and as rising up and falling down with their reflexions in the moving waves and billows. The false and falling shadows, gathered numbers of marine beasts under them, for gorging the falling fruits. (This is pursuing a shadow).

32. Again the greedy fishes were collected some where, and leaping to catch the birds that were sitting on the fruit trees, and seen in their reflexions on the waves.

33. Here are seen many sea monsters also, that break the embankments, and rove about at random in the watery maze, as birds fly freely in the vacuous air.

34. The ocean being a formless deep, bears the image of the three worlds impressed on its bosom; it bears also the image of the pure vacuum in itself, as it bore the image of Náráyana in its breast.

35. Its great depth, clearness and immeasurable extent, gives it the appearance of the majestic firmament, which is reflected in its bosom, as it were imprest upon it.

36. It bears the reflexion of the sky and of the flying birds thereof, as if they were the images of aquatic fowls swimming on its surface, or resembled the blackbees fluttering about its lotus like waves.

37. Its boisterous waves are borne to the skies by the violent[Pg 611] winds, and washing the welkin’s face with their briny sprays; and the deep sounding main, resounding from its hollow rocks, is roaring aloud like the diluvian clods.

38. The gurgling noise of the whirlpools, resembles the loud thunder claps of heaven; and the submarine fire is sometimes seen to burst out of the deep, like the latent flame of Agastya, that consumed the waters of the main.

39. The watery maze presents the picture of a vast wilderness, with its waves as the waving trees; the billows as its branch boughs, its surfs as blossoms, and the foams and froths as flowers.

40. The high heaving surges with the shoals of fishes skimming and skipping upon them; appear as fragments of the sky fallen below, and carried away by the gliding waters.

41. Thus the hostile forces were driven afar to the shores of the salt seas; extending far and wide and bounding the earth on every side; while the lofty mountains rising to the skies with their verdant tops, intercepted the sight on all sides.

Vasishtha continued:—Then the royal army beheld whatever there was on sides of them; namely, the forests and hills, the seas and the clouds, and the foresters and hill people, and the trees of the forest.

2. They said: behold, O lord, that high hill, which lifts its lofty top to the sky, and invites the clouds to settle upon it; while its midmost part is the region of the winds, and the base is composed of hard and rugged stones.

3. See, O lord, how they abound with fruit trees of various kinds, and the groves whose fragrance is wafted around by the gentle winds.

4. The sea breaks down the peninsulas with its battering breakers, and disperses the stones of the rocks on its banks; it shatters the bordering forests with its wavy axes, and scatters their fruits and flowers all over the waters. (The gloss explains the peninsula to mean the maritime lands of Madras).

5. Behold the sea-breeze wafting away the clouds, settling on the tops of mountains, by the sufflation of the leafy boughs of trees dancing over them; in the manner of men, blowing away the smoke with their fans.

6. Here are arbours on its coasts, like the trees in the garden of paradise; whose branches are as white as the conch-shells growing in the full-moon-tide, and whose fruits are as bright as the disk of the moon.

7. Lo, these trees with their spouses of the creepers, are honouring you with offerings of gemming flowers, from the rosy palms of their rubicund leaves.

8. There is the Rikshabana rock, howling as a ferocious bear; and devouring the huge sharks and swallowing the[Pg 613] swelling waves, in its cavern-like mouth, and under its stony teeth.

9. The Mahendra mountain with loud uproar, growls at the roaring clouds (moving below its height); as the stronger champion hurls defiance against his weaker rival.

10. There the enraged Malaya mount lifts his lofty head, decorated with forests of sandalwood; and threatens the loud ocean below, rolling with its outstretched arms of the waves on the shore.

11. The ocean rolling incessantly, with its gemming waves on all sides; is looked upon by the celestials from high, as if he bore away the treasured gems of the earth.

12. The wild hillocks, with woods and ruddy rocks on the tops, and waving with the wafting gales; appeared as huge serpents, creeping with their crescent gems, and inhaling the breeze.

13. There were the huge sharks and elephants, moving and grappling with each other upon the surges; and this sight delights the minds of men, as that of a rainy and light cloud opposing and pursuing one another.

14. There is an elephant fallen in a whirlpool, and being unable to raise itself from the same, it left its proboscis on the water, and dies with sputtering the water from snout on all sides.

15. The high hills as well as the low seas, are all equally filled with living beings; and as the oceans abound with aquatic animals, so are all lands and islands full of living beings.

16. The sea like the earth and all the worlds, are full of whirlpools and revolutions of things, and all these are mere falsities, that are taken for and viewed as realities.

17. The ocean bears in its bosom the liquid waves, which are inert in themselves, and yet appearing to be in continual motion; so Brahma contains the innumerable worlds, which seem to be solid without any substantiality in them. (The worlds are as empty and unstable waves).

[Pg 614]

18. It was at the churning of the ocean, by the gods and giants of yore; that it was despoiled of all its bright and hidden treasures, which have since fallen to the lot of Indra and the gods.

19. It has therefore adopted to wear on its breast, the reflexions of the greatest and brightest lights of heaven, as its false and fictitious ornaments. These are seen even from the nether worlds, and of these no one can deprive it.

20. Among the shining sun is one, whose image it bears in its bosom, with equal splendour as it is in heaven. This bright gem is daily deposited as a deposit in the western main, to give its light to the nether world. It is called the gem of day दिनमनि, because it makes day wherever it shines.

21. There is a confluence of all the waters from all sides to it, and assemblage of them in its reservoir, gives it the clamorous sound, as it is heard in the crowds of men in mixed processions.

22. Here is a continued conflict of the marine monsters in their mutual contentions, as there is a jostling of the currents and torrents of the waters of rivers and seas, at the mouths of gulfs and bays.

23. There the large whales are rolling and dancing on the rising waves; and spurting forth spouts of water from their mouth; and these shedding showers of pearls, are borne aloft and scattered about by the blowing winds.

24. The streams of water, flowing like strings of pearl, and bearing the bubbles resembling brilliant pearls (abdas) amidst them; adorn the breast of the ocean as necklaces, and whistling by their concussion.

25. The sea winds serve to refresh the spirits of the siddha and sádhya classes of spirits, that dwell in their abodes of the caverns of Mahendra mountains; and traverse the howling regions of the sounding main.

26. Again the winds exhaled from the caves of the Mahendra mountains, are gently shaking the woods growing upon it, and stretching a cloud of flowers over its table lands.

[Pg 615]

27. Here is the Mount Gandhamádana, full of mango and kadamba trees; and there the fragments of clouds, are seen to enter into its caves like stags, with their eyes flashing as lightnings.

28. The winds issuing from the valleys of Himálaya mountains, and passing through the encircling bowers of creeping plants, are scattering the clouds of heaven, and breaking the breakers of the sea.

29. The winds of the Gandhamádana mountain, are exhaling the fragrance of the kadamba flowers growing upon it; and ruffling the surface of the sea with curling waves.

30. After twisting the fleecy clouds, in the form of the curling locks of hair, on the pinnacles of Alaka (the residence of Kubera); the winds are passing by the alleys of the Gandhamádana groves, and forming <a> cloud or canopy of flowers at this place.

31. Here the odoriferous airs, bearing the sweet burthen of fragrant flowers and gums, and moistened by the admixture of icy showers, are creeping slowly amidst the alleys.

32. Lo there the nálikera creepers, diffusing their sourish scent to the breezes, which being acidulated by their sourness, are turning towards the regions of Persia.

33. Here the winds are wafting the odours, of the flowery forests of Ísana on the Kailasa mountain; and there they are breathing with the perfume of the lotuses of the mountain lakes; and blowing away the camphor-white (fleecy) clouds from the face of the sky.

34. The fluid ichor which flows from the frontal proboscis of elephants, is dried and stiffened by the breezes issuing out of the caverns of the Vindhya mountain.

35. The females of the savara foresters, covering their bodies with the dry leaves of trees, and accompanied by their swarthy males, in leafy apparel, have been making a town of their jungle, by extirpating the wild animals, with their iron arrows.

36. Behold, great lord, these seas and mountains, these forests and rivers, and these clouds on all sides, look as if they[Pg 616] are all smiling under your auspices, as under the brightness of sun-beams.

37. Here they also describe the flowery beds, of the Vidyádhari wood nymphs; and their sports (which <is> omitted on account of their uselessness).

The Royal companions related:—Hear, O high minded lord! the Kinnara females from their abodes of leafy bowers, where they enjoy themselves with singing their songs; and the Kinnara also being enrapt with the music, listen to it attentively by forgetting their business of the day.

2. There are the Himálaya, Malaya, Vindhya, Krauncha, Mahendra, Mandara, Dardura and other mountains; which from their distant view, appear to the sight of the observer, to be clothed in robes of hoary clouds, and seen as heaps of stones covered with the dry leaves of trees.

3. Those distant and indistinct chains of boundary mountains, appear to stretch themselves like the walls of cities; and those rivers which are seen to fall into the ocean with their gurgling noise; appear as the woof and texture threads of the broad sheet of waters of the ocean.

4. The ten sides of the sky, which are spread over the tops of mountains; appear as the royal consorts, looking on thee from their lofty edifices, and smiling gladly at thy success. The many-coloured and roaring clouds in the sky, resembling the variegated birds of air, warbling their notes on high; and the rows of trees which are dropping down the showers of flowers from high, appear as the arms of heavenly nymphs, shedding their blessings upon thy head with their hands.

5. The high hills overgrown with rows of trees, and stretching all along the sea shore; appear as ramparts; and these being beaten by the surges, seem as mere moss gathered on the coast.

6. O! the extensive, all sustaining and wondrous body of the ocean, that supported the body of Hari sleeping upon it;[Pg 618] contained the unrighteous creation at the great deluge, and it covered all the mountains and rocks and the submarine fire under it.

7. There is the northern ocean, to which the Jambu river, pours all the gold of the Meru or polar mountain, and it contains numerous cities and forests and mountains and countries. It washes the face of the sky and all its lights, and is therefore adored by gods as well as men.

8. Here is this polar mountain, reaching to the solar sphere, and presenting the trees on its top as its cloud-capt head; may the earth extending to this mountain be thine, and may not this mount which hides the sun under its clouds, obstruct the extension of thy realm.

9. Here is this Malaya mount on the south, growing the fragrant sandal wood, which converts all other woods to its nature. Its sweet paste decorates the persons of gods, men and demons, and is put as a spot on the forehead like the frontal eye <of> Siva; and is sprinkled over the body belike the bedewed persons of females with sweat.

10. The waves of the ocean are continually laving the coast, overgrown with forests of the sandal wood, and encircled by folds of snakes; while the woodland nymphs wandering on this mount, throw a lustre about it by the beauty of their persons.

11. Here is the hill called Krauncha, with its groves resonant with the cooing of cuckoos; and its rugged caves and rivers resounding harshly to one another; while the bamboos are crackling with their mutual friction, and the humble bees have been humming about; among these is heard the warbling of emigrating cranes on high, and the loud screams of peacocks, which are terrific to the serpent tribe.

12. Behold here, O great lord, the sport of woodland nymphs, in the groves of their soft leafy bowers; and listen to the tinkling sound of their bracelets, which are so sweet to the ears of hearers.

13. There behold the drizzling ichor, exuding from the foreheads of elephants, and the swarming bees giddy with the[Pg 619] drink; which has made the sea to melt in tears, on account of its being slighted by them.

14. Lo there the fair moon, with his train of fairy stars, sporting in their reflexions, in the lap of his sire, the milky ocean, from which it was churned as its butter or froth.

15. See there the tender creepers, dancing merrily on the table-lands of the Malaya mountain; displaying their red petals as the palms of their hands, and winking with their eyes formed of fluttering bees. The blooming flowers bespeak their vernal festivity, and the warbling cuckoos fill the groves with their festive music.

16. Here the rain-drops produce the pearly substance of vansa-lochana, in the hollows of bamboos; and the gaja-mati or frontal pearl, in the skull of elephants; and large pearls in the womb of pearl-shells. So the words of the wise, are productive of unlike effects in different persons.

17. So the gems are productive of various effects, according as they are produced in varied forms in different receptacles; as in men and stones, in seas and forests, in frogs, clouds and elephants. They gladden and distract the mind, cause fear and error, fever and death, and many other preternatural and supernatural effects.

18. Lo here the city smiling under the rising moon, and singing in praise of that ambrosial luminary, through all its windows, doorways and openings, as it were from the mouths of its females; and responsive to his eulogy sung by the Mandara mountain, from the many mouths of its caves and caverns, and the pipes of hallow bamboos.

19. The wondering women of the siddhas, behold with their astonished and uplifted faces and eyes, a large body of cloud borne away by the winds; and dubitate in their minds, whether it is a mountain peak carried away by the winds, or is it a forest of the snowy mountain flying upward in the air, or is it a column to measure the distance of the earth and sky, or a balance to weigh their weight.

20. See the moorlands at the foot of the Mandara mountain,[Pg 620] how cool they are with the cooling breezes wafting the coldness of the waves of Ganges; and see its footlands inhabited by the fair Vidyádhara tribe; and behold its flowery woodlands all around, overtopped by shady clouds of flowers above.

21. See the forests and groves and the hursts spread there abouts, with the huts and hamlets and habitations of men scattered therein. Look at the holy shrines, and the sacred brooks and fountains lying in them, the very sight of which, disperses our woes, poverty and iniquities.

22. Mountain craigs and ridges, overhung on all sides of the horizon; the dales and caverns, and the groves and grottos, are overshadowed by clouds; the limpid lakes, resemble the clear firmament; such sights are sure to melt away masses of our crimes.

23. Lo here my lord, the ravines of the Malaya mountain, redolent with the odour of the aromatic sandal wood; and there the Vindhyan hills, abounding with infuriate elephants; the Kailása mount yielding the best kind of gold, in its olden laureate lore; and the Mount Mahendra, fraught with its mineral ore (aguru—agallochum); the summits of the snowy mountain are plenteous, with the best kind of horses and medicinal plants; thus while every place <is> found to abound with richest productions of nature, why does man set to repine in his time worn cell, like an old and blind mouse in its dirty hole.

24. Behold the dark and rainy cloud on high, appearing as another world, to submerge the earth under its flood; and threatening it with its flashing and forky lightnings, and gliding as frisky shrimp fishes in the etherial ocean.

25. Oh! the bleak rainy winds, blowing with the keen icy blasts of frozen snows, poured down profusely by the raging rainy clouds on high. They are now howling aloud in the air, and now chilling the blood, and shaking the body with horripilation.

26. Oh! the cold winds of winter are blowing, in their course with the dark clouds of heaven; and scattering cluster[Pg 621] of flowers, from the twigs and branches of trees. And there are the drizzling rain drops dropping in showers, amidst the thick forests, redolent with the odours of kadamba blossoms.

27. There the winds are bearing the fragrance of the breaths of languid females, as if it were the celestial odour of ambrosia, stolen by and borne on the wings of zephyr.

28. Here the gentle breezes are breathing, with the breath of the new blown lilies and lotuses of the lake, and sweeping their tender odours to the land; and the blasts are bursting the flakes of the folded clouds, and wafting the perfumes from the gardens and groves.

29. Yonder the mild airs are lulling our toils, cooled by their contact with the evening clouds of heaven; and resembling the vassal florists, perfumed all over in their culling the flowers from the royal gardens.

30. Some of these are perfumed with the odours of different flowers, and others with the fragrance of lilies and lotuses; in some places they are scattering showers of blossoms, and shedding the dust of flowers at others. Some where the air is blowing from the hoary mountain of frost, and at others from those of blue, black and red minerals.

31. The sun is scattering his rays, as firebrands in some places, and these are spreading a conflagration with loud cluttering in the woods, like the riotous rabble in a country.

32. The winds like wicked attendants on the sun, are spreading the conflagration caused by the solar rays; and carry their clattering noise afar.

33. The cooling winds blowing from the woods, and bedewed by the gentle beams of the moon, or moistened by the watery particles of heaving waves; though cheering to the souls of others, appear yet as fiery hot to separated lovers.

34. Lo here, O lord! how the savara women, on the low lands of the eastern main, are covered in their rude and rough leafy garments, and wearing their sounding bracelets of brass; and see how they are strutting about, in the giddiness of their prime youth.

[Pg 622]

35. See how these newly loving lasses, are clinging round the bodies of their mates, for fear of darkness of the approaching night; in the manner of timid snakes twining about the trunk of sandal wood trees.

36. Struck with fear by the alarm, given by the sounding bell at day break; the loving consort leans on the bosom of her lover, as the darkness lingers in the enclosed room.

37. There is a furze of kinsuka flowers, blooming as firebrands, on the border of the southern sea, which is continually washing them with lavations of its waves, as if it wanted to extinguish them.

38. The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwards like mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about like flames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them as extinguished cinders of fire.

39. Behold there on the other side, the real flashes of living wild fire, blazing in the forests on the east; and to their flames are borne above the mountain tops, by the flying winds of the air.

40. See the slow moving clouds, shrouding the lowlands lying at the foot of the Krauncha mountain; and observe the crowding peacocks dancing under them, and screaming aloud with their grave and shrill cries to the clouds. Lo there the gusts of rain-winds rising high, and blowing the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees afar on all sides.

41. Behold the sun setting mountain in the west, with its thousand peaks of glittering gold; shining amidst the dusky hue of the evening sky; and the sloping sun descending below in his chariot whirling down with its rattling wheels in the rustling of evening winds. (But the solar car is a velocipedes with a single wheel only).

42. The moon that rises upon the eastern mount of Meru like a full blown flower, in order to give light to the darkened mansion of this world; is itself accompanied by its black spots, sitting as black-bees upon the blossom. Hence there is no good thing in this perverted world, which is free from its fault and frailty.

[Pg 623]

43. The moon light is shining like the laughter of the god Rudra, amidst his dome of the triple world; or it is as the white wash of the great hall of the universe, or it likens <to> the milky fluid of the milky ocean of the sky.

44. Look on all sides of the sky, tinged with the evening twilight, and the variegated hues of mountain tops; and filled with the milky beams of the moon, that was churned out by the Mount Mandara from the milky ocean.

45. Look there, O incomparable lord! those hosts of Guhyka ghosts, that are as hideous as the large tála or palm trees; and also those puny Vetála younglings are pouring upon the ill-fated dominions of the Hunas; and devouring troubled inhabitants at night.

46. The face of the moon shines brightly like the beauteous face of a fairy, so long as it does not appear out of its mansion at night; but it is shorn of its beams, and appears as a piece of fleecy cloud, by its appearance at day light; as the fairy face becomes disgraced, by appearing out of the inner apartment.

47. Look at the lofty peaks of the snowy mountain, covered with the fair vesture of the bright moon beams; and see its craigs washed by floods of the falling Ganges; behold its head capped by perpetual snows, and begirt by creepers of snowy whiteness.

48. Behold there Mandara mountain touching the sky, and crowning the forest with its lofty ridges; here the winds are wafting the cradle chimes of Apsara nymphs, and there the mountainous mines gemming in various hues.

49. See the high hills all around, abounding with blooming flowers like offerings to the gods; see the thickening clouds round their loins, and resounding hoarsely within their hollows, while the starry heaven shines over their heads.

50. There is the Kailása mountain on the north, vying with firmament in its brightness; below it there is the hermitage of Skanda, and the moon shines in her brilliance above.

51. Lo, the god Indra has let loose his winds, to break the[Pg 624] branches of trees, and demolish the huts on the ground, the fragments of which they have been carrying afar.

52. The winds are wafting the profuse fragrance of flowers after the rains, and filling the nostrils of men with their odours; while the flights of bees are floating as clouds in the azure sky.

53. Methinks the goddess Flora has chosen for her abode, the blooming flowers in the forests; limpid waters in the marshy grounds, and in villages abounding in fruitful trees, and flourishing fields.

54. The windows are overgrown with creeping plants in the rains, and the house tops are decorated with the flowers of the climbing creepers upon them. The ground is strewn over with the dropping flowers up to the heels, and the breezes are blowing the dust of the flowers all about. All these have made the woodlands the seats of the sylvan gods.

55. The rains have converted the rustic village, to a romantic paradise or fairy land; by the blooming champaka flowers, the swinging of the rural nymphs in their cradles, of creepers, by the warbling of birds and gurgling of water-falls, the blossoming of the tall palm trees in the skirts; the tender creepers blooming with clusters of snow white blossom, the dancing of peacocks on the tops of houses, and the borders shaded by the sal trees; and the rainy clouds hanging over the village and the bordering hills.

56. Again the soft and sweet breathing breezes, the variegated leaves of the plants and creepers, the verdure of the village, the cries of cranes and other fowls, and the wild notes of the foresters; these together with the jollity of the swains, and the merriment of the pastoral people, over their plenty of milk, curd, butter and ghee, and their glee in their peaceful abodes, add a charm to this hilly tract.

The companions added:—Look lord, the field of battle, stretching to the bordering hills; look upon the heaps of shining weapons, and the scattered forces of elephants, horse, infantry and war chariots.

2. Look at the slain and their slayers, and the combatants attacking their corrivals; and how their dying souls are borne by celestial nymphs in heavenly cars to heaven.

3. The victor finding his adversary worsted in warfare, ought not slay him unjustly, unless he is justified to do so by laws of warfare (as a youth is justified to take unto him no other woman but his legal wife).

4. As health and wealth and prosperity, are good for men when they are rightly gained; so it is right to fight for those by whom one is supported.

5. When one kills his opposing corrival in combat, without violation of the laws of warfare, he is justly styled a heavenly champion, and not one who takes undue advantage of his enemy.

6. Behold there the bold champion brandishing his sword, as if he is swinging a blue lotus in his hand; and casting the dark shadow of the evening dusk on the ground. Such a hero is courted by Laxmi for her spousal.

7. Look at those flourishing weapons, flaming as the flying embers of wild fire, in a mountain forest; or as the dreadful dragons of the sea, dancing on land with hundreds of their flashing hoods and heads.

8. Look at the sky on one side, resembling the sea with its watery clouds, and shining with strings of its stars on another;[Pg 626] see how it is covered by dark clouds on one side; and how it is brightened by moon beams on the other.

9. Look at the firmament, ranged by multitudes of revolving planets, resembling the rolling chariots of warriors; and crowded by myriads of moving stars, likening the soldiers in the battle field; and yet it is the error of the ignorant to think it an empty vacuum; an error which is hard for the wise to remove.

10. The sky with its over spreading clouds, its fiery lightnings, its thunder bolts that break down the mountain wings; its starry array, and the battle of gods and demigods that took place in it; is still as inscrutable in his nature, as the solid minds of the wise, whose magnitude no one can measure.

11. O wise man, thou hast been constantly observing before thee, the sun, moon and all the planets and stars in the firmament, together with all the luminous bodies of comets, meteors and lightnings; and yet is astonishing that your ignorance will not let see the Great Náráyana in it.

12. Thou dark blue sky, that art brightened by moon-light, dost yet retain thy blackness, like the black spot amidst the lightsome disk of the moon; and such is the wonder with ignorant minds, that with all their enlightenment, they will never get rid of their inward bias and prejudice.

13. Again the clear sky which is full with endless worlds, is never contaminated by their faults, nor ever changed in its essential state; and resembles the vast and pure mind of the wise, which is full with its knowledge of all things, and devoid of all their pollutions.

14. Thou profound sky, that art the receptacle of the most elevated objects of nature, and containest the lofty clouds and trees and summits in thy womb; that art the recipient of the sun, moon and the aerial spirits that move about in thee; art yet inflamed by the flames of the fiery bodies that rise in thee to our great regret, notwithstanding thy greatness, which helps them to spread themselves high in heaven.

15. Thou sky that art replete with pure and transparent light, and great with thy greatness of giving quarters to all the[Pg 627] great and elevated objects of nature; but it is greatly to be pitied, that the dark clouds to whom thou givest room to rise under thee, molest us like base upstarts, with pelting their hailstones at random.

16. Again thou dark sky, art the attestor of all lights; as the touchstone is the test of gold; and thou art a void in thy essence, yet thou dost support the substances of stars and planets of clouds and winds and all real existences at large.

17. Thou art the day light at daytime, and the purple red of evening, and turnest black at night; thus devoid of all colour of thyself thou dost exhibit all colours in thee; hence it is impossible even for the learned, to understand aright thy nature and its convertible conditions also.

18. As the helpless man is enabled to achieve his purposes, by means of his patient perseverance; so the inane sky has risen above all, by means of its universal diffusion. (The gloss says that, extension of knowledge, is the cause of elevation).

19. The sun that persists in his wonted course, rises to the vertical point in time; but the unmoving straws and trees, and the dormant hills and places, and stagnant pools and ponds, are ever lying low on the ground.

20. The night invests the sky with a sable garb, and sprinkles over it the fair moonlight like the cooling dust of camphor; with the decoration of stars like clusters of flowers upon it. The day mantles the firmament with bright sun beams, and the seasons serve to cover it in clouds and snows, and in the gaudy attire of vernal flowers. Thus is time ever busy, to decorate the heavenly paths of his lords the sun and moon, the two time keepers by day and night.

21. The firmament like the magnanimous mind, never changes the firmness of its nature; although it is ever assailed by the disturbances of smokes and clouds of dust and darkness, of the rising and setting sun and moon and their dawns and dusks: and of the confluence of stars and combat of gods and demons.

22. The world is an old and decayed mansion, of which the[Pg 628] four sides are its walls, the sky its covering roof above and the earth its ground floor below; the hills and mountains are its pillars and columns, and the cities and towns are its rooms and apartments; and all the various classes of animal beings, are as the ants of this abode.

23. Time and action are the occupants of this mansion from age to age, and all its ample space presents the aspect of a smiling garden; it is feared every day to be blown and blasted away, and yet it is a wonder how this frail flower should last so long and for ever more.

24. It is the air methinks, that puts a stop to the greater height or rising of trees and hills; for though it does not actually restrain their growth, yet its influence (pressure from above), like the authority of noble men, puts a check to the rise of aspiring underlings.

25. O fie for that learning, which calls the air as void and vacuity; seeing it to contain millions of worlds in its bosom, and producing and reducing also unnumbered beings in its boundless bosom.

26. We see all things to be born in and to return into the air; and yet we see the madness of men, that reckon the all containing and all pervading air, as something different from God.

27. We see the works of creation, to be continually producing, existing and extinguishing in air, like sparks of fire; I ween this pure and sole air, which is without beginning, middle and end, as the universal source and terminus of all, and no other distinct cause as God.

28. The vacuum is the vast reservoir of the three worlds, and bears in its ample space the innumerable productions of nature; I understand infinite vacuity as the body of the Intellect, and that transcendent being, in which this erroneous conception of the world, has its rise and fall.

29. Therein the woodlands on mountain tops, the solitary forester chants his charming strains amidst his sylvan retreat; and attracts the heart of the lonely passenger, who lifts up his head to listen to the rapturous times.

[Pg 629]

30. Hearken O Lord, to the sweet music, proceeding from the thick groves on yonder lofty mountain; and emitted with the heart rending strains, of love born Vidyádhara nymphs; and behold the lonely and lovesick passenger, whose lovesick heart being smitten by the sound, has neither the power to proceed forward or recede backward from the spot, or utter a word.

31. I hear a lovelorn Vidyádhara damsel, singing her love ditty amidst the woods of the hill with her heaving sighs and tears flowing profusely from her eyes. She sang saying: “Lord, I well remember the day, when thou ledst me to the recess of the bower, holding my chin and giving kisses on my cheeks with thy smiling face, and now the pleasing remembrance of that gladsome moment, hath left me to deplore its loss for years”.

32. I heard her tale, O Lord, thus related to me from the mouth of a forester on the way. He said:—Her former young lover, was cursed by a relentless sage to become an arbour for a dozen of years; and it is since this ill fated change of his, that she has been reclining on that tree, and singing her mournful ditty unto the same.

33. And now observe the wonder, that on my approach the arborescent lover, was released of his sad curse, and shedding a shower of flowers upon her, he changed his form and clasped her unto his arms with his face smiling as his blooming flowers.

34. The tops of hills are decorated with flowers, as the heads of elephants are painted with white dye; the sky is whitened with the stars and falling meteors, as the summit of the mountain is etiolated with hoar-frost and snows.

35. Behold there the beautiful stream of Kaveri, gliding along with shoals of fishes skimming in its waters; to its boisterous waves resounding with the cries of shrill and clamorous cranes; see its banks mantled in vests of flowers, and its shores freely grazed by timid fauns without any fear.

36. Look the Bela rock, which is washed by the billows of Varuna—the god of the sea; its stones shining as gold under the solar rays; and sparkling as the marine fire when they are laved by the waves.

37. Look at the abodes of the Ghosha shepherds at the foot[Pg 630] of the mountain, which are continually covered under the shrouding clouds; and behold the beauty of the blossoming palása and patala trees thereabouts.

38. Look at the plains, whitened by the full-blown whitish flowers; see the mandara tree with twining and flowering creepers; look at the banks crowded by cranes and peacocks; look at those villages and the water falls, resounding as music from the mouths of mountain caves and forests, and redounding to the joy of the happy inhabitants of the valley.

39. Here the buzzing bees are sporting about the new blown petals of plantain flowers; and inspiring fond desire in the breasts of the Pamara foresters; who enjoy a bliss in their rustic pastures and hidden hilly caverns, which I ween, is not attainable by the immortal gods in their garden of Eden. (So says Hafiz:—Thou canst not have in heaven, the blissful fount of Roknabad, nor the flowery groves of Mossella).

40. Behold the black bees sporting and swinging in their cradles of the flowery creepers of the forest; and to the Pulinda forester singing to his beloved, with his eyes fixed upon her face; and mark also the sportive Kiráta, forgetting to kill the deer roving beside his lonely cavern.

41. Here the weary traveller is regaled, by the sweet scent of various full blown flowers, and is cooled in his body by the odorous dust, wafted by the breeze from the flowering creepers; while the winds bearing the watery particles of the waves, which lave the vale on all sides, render the spot more delightful than the spotted disc of the moon (i.e. the people have more of coolness here, than the gods have in the moist sphere of the moon).

42. Here the unceasing gliding of waters, and the continued waving of the palm trees; together with the dancing of the blossoming branches, and the undulation of the spreading creepers in the air; the forest of lofty sála trees in the borders, and the hanging clouds over the bordering hills, all combine to add a charm to this village of the vale, not unlike to that of the gardens in the orb of the moon.

43. The flashing of lightnings, and the deep roaring of[Pg 631] clouds; the merry dance of peacocks and their loud shrieks and screams, and their trailing trains displayed in the air, decorate the valley with a variety of variegated gems.

44. The bright orb of the moon appearing on one side, and the dark clouds rising as huge elephants on the other; serve to embellish the village in the valley, and the hills in the skirts, with a beauty unknown in the heavenly kingdom of Brahmá: (which is the empyrean or city of fire only).

45. O! how I long to lodge myself in the mountain grotto, amidst the fragrant arbours of the beauteous Mandána forest, and in the delightsome groves of blooming santánaha blossoms, and where the busy bees are continually fluttering, over the mandára and paribhadra arborets.

46. O, how much are our hearts attracted, by the cries of the tender deer, browzing the verdant and delightsome verdure; and by the blooming blossoms on hills and in dales, as by sight of the cities of mankind.

47. Look on yonder village in the valley, where the waterfall appears as a column of clear chrysolite; and the peacocks are in their merry dance, all about the precipitate cascade.

48. See how the joyous peacocks, and the gaysome creepers, bending down under the burden of their blossoms; are dancing delightfully, beside the purling water of the cataract.

49. I believe the lusty god of desire (Káma or Cupid), sports here at his pleasure, in this village of the valley protected by the hills all around. He is sporting with the handsome harita birds (the green partridges and parrots) in the verdant groves, and beside the crystal lakes, resounding with the sweet warblings of water-fowls.

50. O most prosperous and magnanimous lord, that art the centre of all virtues, and the highest and gravest of men; thou art like the towering mountain, the refuge of mankind from heat, and the cause of their plenty (i.e. the rainy clouds on mountain tops, are the causes of plenteous produce).

51. Thou cloud that bathest in holy waters (i.e. that resist from the waters of seas and rivers); that art exalted above all earthly beings, and choosest to abide in hills and wildernesses[Pg 632] like holy hermits, and art taciturn like them, from the pure holiness of thy nature; thou appearest also as fair in the form when thou art emptied (of thy waters) in autumn; all this is good in thee; but say why dost thou rise in thy fulness with flashing lightnings in thy face, and roaring thunders in thy breast, like lucky upstarts of low origin?

52. All good things being misplaced (or out of their proper place), turn to badness; as the water ascending to the clouds, turns to hoar frost and cold ice.

53. O, wonder! that the drops distilled by the clouds, fill the earth with water; and wonder it is that this water supports all beings, and makes the poor grow with plenty (of harvest).

54. Ignorant people are as dogs, in their unsteadiness, impudence, in their impurity and wayfaringness; hence I know not whether the ignorant have derived their nature from dogs or these from them.

55. There are some persons, who notwithstanding all their faults, are yet esteemed for certain qualities in them; as the dogs are taken into favour, on account of their valour, contentedness and faithfulness to their masters. (So are men serviceable to their masters for these virtues in them).

56. We see all worldly people pursuing the course of their worldliness as madmen, and pushing on in the paths of business at the sacrifice of their honor, and likely to tumble down with fatigue. I find them flying to and fro as trifling straws, and know not whether it is of their will or madness or stupidity, that they have made choice of this foolish course.

57. Among brute creatures, the brave lion hears the tremendous thunder claps without shuddering: while the cowardly dog trembles and shuts his eyes with fear at the sound.

58. I believe, O vile dog, that thou hast been taught to bark at thy fellows, and to ramble about in the streets, by some surly and strolling porter or peon (among men).

59. The divine creator, that has ordained varieties in all his works, has made the nasty breed of his daughter Saromá all[Pg 633] equal in their filthiness. These are the dogs, that make their kennels or dog holes in dirt, that feed upon filth and carrion and copulate in public places, and carry about an impure body every where. (This is a slur against the progeny of one’s daughters, who generally turn to be vicious).

60. “Who is there viler than thee”; says a man to his dog; to which he answered, “the silly man as thee is the vilest of all”. There are the best qualities of valour, fidelity and unshaken patience, combined in the canine tribe; and these are hard to be had in human kind, who grovel in the darkness of their ignorance amidst greater impurities and calamities. (The instinctive sagacity of beasts, is a surer safe guard to them, than the boasted reason of man).

61. The dog eats impure things and lives in impurity; he is content with what it gets, feeds upon dead bodies and never hurts the living, and yet men are fond of pelting stones on him every where; thus the dog is made a plaything by men, contrary to the will of God.

62. Looking at the crow flying there upon the offerings, left on the lingam or phallus of Siva on yonder bank; and there appearing to sight to tell its tale to people, saying; “Behold me on high, with all my degrading sin” (of stealing from the altars of deities).

63. Thou croaking crow, that crowest so harshly, and treadst the marshy lake; it is no wonder that thou wouldst vex us with thy cries, that hast put down the sweet buzz of humming bees.

64. We see the greedy rook, devouring ravenously the dirty filth, in preference to the sweet lotus stalk. It is no wonder that some would prefer sour to sweet, from their long and habitual taste of it.

65. A white crow sitting in a bush, of white lotus flowers and their snowy filaments, was taken at first for a hansa or heron, but as it began to pick up worms, it came to be known as a crow.

66. It is difficult to distinguish a crow, sitting in company with a cuckoo, both being of the like sable plumes and feathers;[Pg 634] unless the one makes itself known as distinct from the other, by giving out its own vocal sound.

67. The crow sitting on a forest tree, or on a mould of clay or high built building, looks on all sides for its prey; as a nightly thief mounts on a chaitta tree; and sits watching there from the ways of people.

68. It is impossible for a crow, to abide with cranes and storks by the side of a lake, which abounds in lotus flowers, that diffuse their sombre farina all about.

69. For shame that the noisy crow, should have a seat on the soft lotus bed in company with silent swans, and play his disgraceful part and tricks among them. (i.e. It is impudence on the part of the ignorant, to open their mouths, where the learned hold their silence).

70. Thou crow that criest as the hardest saw, say where hast thou left or lost thy former reservedness to-day. Why dost thou brood over the young cuckoo, the sweetness of whose voice thou canst never attain, and whom thou canst not retain as thy young.

71. One seeing a dark crow sitting as a black steg, in a bed of white lotuses, and crowing aloud with delight at that place, said unto him saying:—It is better for thee O clamorous crow to rend ears of those with thy cracking voice, that are not tired with splitting the head of others with their wily verbiage.

72. It is well when the cunning consort with the cunning, as the crow and the crab meeting at a pool; or the rook and the owl joining in an arbour; for the two rogues though seemingly familiar, will not fail to foil one another by their natural enmity (ká ko lu kiká).

73. The cuckoo associating with the crow, and resembling him in figure and colour; is distinguished by his sweet notes from the other; as the learned man makes himself known by his speech in the society of the ignorant.

74. The blossoming branch is well able to bear, the spoliation of its flowers by the cuckoo; and will not yet suffer the association of crows and cranes, and cocks and vultures upon[Pg 635] its twigs. (i.e. It is possible to bear with an injury from the good, but not to tolerate the society of bad people).

75. How delightfully do people listen to the sweet notes of the cuckoo, which unites the separated lovers together; but who can brook to hearken unto the jarring cries of the crow or hooting of the owl, without disgust.

76. When the sweet notes of the young kokila, serve to ravish the ears of hearers, with the gladsome tidings of the vernal season; there is the grating cry of the crow, immediately obtruding upon their ears, and demanding the melodious cuckoo as its foster child. (It is well known to all here, that young cuckoos are fostered in the nests of crows).

77. Why and what hast thou been cooing so long, O thou tender cuckoo, with so much joy and glee in yonder grove; lo! thy pleasant vernal season is too soon over with its fading flowers, and behold the stern winter approaching fast, to blast the blossoming trees with its icy breath, and bidding thee to hide thy head in thy nest.

78. A separated mistress seeing a sweet kokila, pour forth his notes to the tender blossoms of the vernal season thus address to him saying: “say, O sweet cuckoo! who taught thee to tell, that vernal season is tava tava tua tua, i.e. “for thee and thy enjoyment,” this is verily a woeful lie thou tellest me, instead of saying “it is mine and mine” that art enjoying thy companion.” (It would better rendering in English to reverse the application of the words mine and thine).

79. The cuckoo sitting silent in an assemblage of crows, appears as one of them in its form and colour of its feathers; and the graceful gait of the cuckoo, makes it known from the rest, as the wise man is marked in the company of fools. It is hence that every body is respected by his inward talents and outward deportment, more than by outer form and feathers.

80. O brother kokila! it is in vain that thou dost coo so sweetly, when there is none to appreciate its value; it is far better therefore, that thou shouldst sit quiet in thy secluded[Pg 636] covert under the shady leaves, when these flocks of crows are so loud in their cries; and when it is time for the falling dews, and not of vernal flowers.

81. It is to be wondered, that the young cuckoo forsakes its mother for its fostering crow; which on her part begins to prick it with its bill and claws. As I reflect on these, I find the young cuckoo growing in its form to the likeness of its mother; and hence I conclude, that the nature of a person prevails over his training every where.

The companions said:—Behold there, O lord! the lotus lake on the tableland of the mountain; reflecting the sky in its bosom, and resembling the pleasure pond of Káma or Cupid. Behold there the beds of white, red and blue lotuses, with their protruding stalks; and listen to the mingled sounds of the water fowls sporting thereon.

2. Lo the full blown lotus standing on its stalk with its thousand petals, and the royal gander or swan resting on its pericarp; it is crowded by double streaked bees, and birds of various kinds, as if it were the abode of the lotus-seated Brahmá himself.

3. All the sides are overspread by mists and fearful frost, and the red dust of the farina of full blown flowers and lotuses, have been flying all about; the bees and birds giddy with the odours spread around, are humming and warbling their tunes and notes in the open air; and the clouds are spreading above as an aerial canopy.

4. There is the lashing sound of the breaking waves, beating against the shore; and here is the rumbling noise of the humming bees, vying with one another; somewhere the silent waters are sleeping in the deep, and elsewhere the fair lotus of the lake, are lying hid in the bushes.

5. The pearly particles of water, are lulling away the heat of the people; wild beasts are prowling on the bank, overgrown by wild thickets all around; the waves are laving the stones on the bank, and the land appears as the clear sky on the earth.

6. The bosom of the lake displays the rays of lightnings, from the redness of the clouds by the dust of flowers borne above by the winds; and one side of it is obscured by a dark[Pg 638] rainy cloud hanging over it, while the other side exhibits the variegated rays of the evening skies above it.

7. There is a fragment of the autumnal cloud, borne aloft by the driving winds; and appearing as it were a part of the sky supported upon the air.

8. The rippling waves of the lake by gentle breeze, and the wettish humming bees fluttering over the bed of the lotus lake, made a noise all around; like the falling of flowers from the branches of trees, lying on the bank of a river.

9. The large lotus leaves are waving like fans made of palm leaves, and the foaming froths were puffing as the snowy chowries of princes; the buzzing bees and cooing cuckoos, were singing to and lauding the lake which lay like a lord, in the assemblage of lotuses, resembling the consorts of his harem. (The lake is likened to a lord).

10. Lo the chorus of black bees, singing their charming chimes before him; and the yellow farina of the lotus flowers, have strewn his waters with dust of gold. The yellowish froths are floating like fragments of its gold coloured flowers; and the flowery furzes on the bank, decorate it as its headdress.

11. The deep fountain, having the beautiful lotuses on its bosom; enjoys their sweet fragrance, as princes derive from the assemblage, of talented men in their courts.

12. The pellucid lake, reflecting the clear autumnal sky on its surface; resembles the mind of the wise man, which is ever clear and composed, with the light of the true sástra.

13. The limpid lake is little discernible in winter, when the keen blasts have covered it with hoar frost, and converted its blueness to white.

14. So the world appears to the wise, a vast sheet of the glory of God; and all these distinct forms of things, like waves of the sea are lost at last, into the bright element of Eternity.

15. It is by one’s own exertion, that every body should try to raise himself above the sea of error, or else he must be continually whirling in the whirlpool of blunder, like all other ignorant men.

[Pg 639]

16. As the waters of wells, tanks, lakes and seas, differ from one another in their quality; so the persons of men and women, are different from each other in their respective dispositions.

17. Who can count the aquatic plants and lotuses, which grow in the lakes as plentifully, as the passions and desires spring in the fountain of the human heart; and which are carried away by the waves of accidents, or hurled into the whirlpool of perdition.

18. Oh, the wonderful effect of bad company, that the lotus growing in the company of aquatic plants, loses its fragrance in the current waters, and shows its thorny stalks to view.

19. The good qualities of a person like those of the lotus, are lost under the assemblage of vicious faults in the same; such as the pores, the hollowness and the too fine and fragile fibres of the lotus stalks, make them entirely useless to any body.

20. But the lotus which adorns its natal waters, and fills the air with its fragrance; is as a nobleman born with the noble qualities of a noble family, and whose virtues are impossible for the hundred hooded serpent—Vásuki also to relate. (Such a person is called the lotus of his family).

21. What other thing can equal the lotus in its praise, which in form of Laxmí, rests on the bosom of Hari, and graces his hand in the manner of a bouquet or nose gay.

22. The white and blue lotuses, are both esteemed for their quality of sweet scent, though they differ in their colour; and hence the one is sacred to the sun and the other to the moon.

23. The blooming beauty of the lotus-bed, is not comparable to that of the full blown flowers of the forest; nor does the lotus-lake bear comparison with the starry heaven also; but they are to be compared with the comely and smiling face of the dancing girl in her fete.

24. Blessed are bees, that have all along enjoyed their lives in revelling over the sweets of flowers, without having any other thing to care about.

[Pg 640]

25. Blest are the bees and cuckoos, that feast upon the flavour of mango fruits, and regale themselves with the fragrance of their flowers; all others not so blest, are born only to bear the name of the species.

26. The bees cloyed with honey, and giddy with the flavour of lotuses, in the lake where they revel; laughed to scorn some others of their tribe, that led their humble lives on the common farina of flowers.

27. The black bee that buzzed to the lotus, lived and sported in its company and slept in its honey cup at night; was in trouble at the approach of autumn, not knowing what flower to choose for its fare, and were to resort for its rest.

28. A black bee sitting on the unblown bud of a flower, appeared as a black man placed over a trident by kála.

29. O thou insatiate bee! that ever rovest over hills and dales, and suckest the sweets of all kinds of flowers; why wanderest thou still, unless it were for thy restless discontent.

30. Thou soft bodied bee, that art bred up in sweets, and feedest upon the farina of flowers; it is better for thee to resort to the lotuses of the lake, than bruise thy body in thorns and thistles.

31. O humble bee, if thou art deprived of thy mellifluous food and thy fair fare of the farina of flowers in stern winter; thou shouldst yet repair as wise men do to such as may suit thy taste, and be congenial to thy nature; rather than be mean and debase thyself, by thy attendance upon the base and mean.

32. Look there, O lord! the assemblage of milk white swans, swimming in the lake, and feeding upon the silvery fibres of lotus stalks, and guggling as gravely, as the chaunters of the Sáma Veda.

33. Here the gander pursuing the geese, seated in their cradles of lotus bushes; thinks the limpid lake as the blue sky, and the lotus cradle as a cloud, and stops from his pursuit (for fear of falling down on earth). (Mistake of the terrestrial lake, for the aerial mandákiní).

34. Let no body be so unfortunate, O lord, as was this gander, which <was> in pursuit of the shadow of the goose.

[Pg 641]

35. The sweet music of the swan as it sings of its own accord, is inimitable by the crow or crane, although they are taught to learn it for many years in its society.

36. Although the swan and drake are both of the same kind, and of like form and figure, and live upon the same sort of food; yet they differ widely from one another in their respective species and qualities.

37. The swan soaring in the sky, with his snow white wings and feathers; appears as the hoary lotus sitting upon its stalk; and then it gladdens the minds of men, as the full-moon with her icy beams.

38. The elevated stalks of lotuses, rising as the lofty stems of plantain trees, with the lotuses sitting as the goddess Flora upon them, afford delight to swans only, and to no other bird.

39. Lo, how the lake is adorned like a beauteous lady, with the waves resembling her waving bracelets, and the ripples likening her necklaces; while the aquatic plants and flowers, represent wreaths and garlands on her bosom.

40. The strings of fluttering bees, are as streaks of black spots on her person; the swelling of cranes and storks are as the tinklings of her anklets, and the rippling waves are as the glances of her eyes.

41. The lake is graced like a lady, by the young swans crying by her side as her young ones; and looking up to the mountain as her lord, for a fresh supply of fresh water from his profluent cascade.

42. Don’t you, O harmless swan, says one, reside with the malicious water fowls and birds of prey, in one and the same lake; it is better that thou dost remain with thy own kind, that may assist thee in distress.

43. Look to thy end, O silly bee, says one, that art now so giddy with thy drink of the sweet honey of flower, and treadst on the heads of elephants, to sip and suck their exuding ichor, and ramblest at large among the blooming lotuses, that the winter of scarcity is fast approaching to thee, when thou shalt be constrained to live upon the dewdrops drizzling on blades of grass or dripping from stones.

[Pg 642]

44. O lord! the milk white swan with wide stretched wings entered into the lotus bush, to see after his young ones, they on seeing him, begin to cackle, as a child does on seeing his father before him. The young ones said, O father, it is all delusion, like white pearl in silver and one sees fog over his head at mid-day.

45. The swan is as silently floating over the limpid waters of the lake, as the bright moon is gently gliding along the translucent atmosphere of the firmament; and as it passes through, the beds of lotuses, its wings bruise against the blossoms, causing them to distil their fragrant fluid, which is gulped in by fishes, in the manner of the holy water of Ganges.

Some companion said:—Behold the crane, which notwithstanding its destitution of all good qualities, has one special instinct of uttering the onomatopoeia signifying the rain.

2. O crane that resemblest the swan in the colour of thy feathers, thou mightest well be taken for a young swan, wert thou but without the rapacity of the king-fisher (mudgu).

3. So there is a line of king-fishers, that are expert in diving amidst deep waters, and catching the fishes in its wide extended beaks, now sitting idle on the shore, and not venturing to dart themselves into the water, for fear of the sharks, floating there with their open mouths and wide stretched jaws.

4. Thus murderers also dart upon men, in the manner of diving king-fishers, and cry out saying, “madgu madguru, this king-fisher is our instructor in killing.”

5. Seeing a white heron with its long neck and uplifted head, sitting silently and watching on the shore, the people took it at first for a hansa or hernshaw; but finding it afterward to catch a shrimp from the marsh water, they came to know it as a heron at last.

6. A crane was observed by a woman, to be sitting on the shore like a devotee the live long day, while it was in reality watching for prey, until the evening shade, as the day labourers are wont to do for their bread.

7. Look there, says a wayfaring woman to her companion, how these rustic women are culling the lotuses amidst the frosty lake; if you like you can follow them, but I will fall back from you.

[Pg 644]

8. Look there, O lord! (says the companion to the king), how that traveller appeases his angry mate, and leads her to the flowery bower of the weedy bush.

9. Look then, O lord, at the dalliance of the lady, and at her smiling face mixed with her frowning looks; and hearken to her speech to her associate.

10. The crane, king-fisher and other rapacious birds, that live together in the same place, are all of the same mind and purpose; but the fool and wise man can never agree, though they abide together in the same society for ever.

11. As the cricket caught under the bill of wood pecker, whistles to his face; so the retribution of our past misdeeds, flies as a flag before us, and unfolds itself unto us (wherever we may happen to go, or chance to be reborn).

12. As long as the cruel crane of fate, keeps clucking upon the tall tree on the shore; so long doth the fearful shrimp (of the living soul), keep itself concealed in the bog (of the body) with its inward trepidation. Hence there is no rest or quiet of the body and soul, until the ultimate quietus of both.

13. The bodies of animals, which are devoured by rapacious beasts and birds, and then disgorged unhurt and entire out of their bowels; resemble I ween to their rising from the lap of sleep, or a state of profound trance.

14. The fear that overtakes the fishes in their native waters, at the sight of rapacious animals, is far greater than those of thunder claps or thunder bolts falling upon them; and this I know from remembrance of my past life of a fish, and cannot be denied by the wise.

15. Behold there the herd of deer before thus reposing in raptures over the bed of flowers, under the shade of trees on the borders of the lake; and look also at the hive of the bees about the new blown flowers of the grove.

16. Look the high minded and lofty headed peacock craving and crying aloud for rain water, to the great god of the clouds and rains; and the god Indra in return pours in floods to fill[Pg 645] the whole earth with water; for the greatness of gods looks to the general and individual good.

17. The peacocks like suckling babes, attend on the clouds as their wet nurses; or it may be, that the black peacocks are the offspring of dark clouds (that endears and unites them thus to one another).

18. Lo the wanderer looking with wonder on the eyes of the antelope, and finding their resemblance with those of his dear one at home, remains stupified as statue at the sight of the objects exposed to his view.

19. The peacock instead of drinking water from the ground, snatches by force the snake from underneath; wherefore I am at a loss to know which of these to blame for its malice. (The peacock kills the snake, but this one destroys all living creatures).

20. Why is it that the peacock shuns to drink in the large lake, which is as liberal as the minds of great men; and is content to swallow the drops of rain water, spit out and spirted by the cloud; unless it be for shame of stooping down his head, to drink the water of the lake.

21. See the peacock dancing, with displaying his gaudy train to the clouds; and oscillating their starry plumage in the rain, as if they were the offspring of the rainy season.

22. The rainy dark cloud which was carried by the wind from the bed of ocean, appeared over the forest lake and met with the gleeful dancing peacock below.

23. It is better for thee, O chátaka! to pick up the blades of grass for thy food, and drink the water of the fountains, and rest in the shady plantain grove of the forest; than to dwell in the hollow cave of a withered tree in sultry heat, by thy pride of never stooping down for thy subsistence.

24. Think not, O peacock! this cloud to be a sea and the abode of sharks; but know to be a watery cloud, born of the smoke of wild fire, and of the vapours of the mountain and ascending to the sky. (Therefore thou canst not fear to dance before it).

[Pg 646]

25. The peacock seeing the cloud that was so profuse of rain even in autumn, becoming sometimes so scant of its supply as not even to fill a tank (such as in times of drought), sustains its thirst with patience, in gratitude to the past favours of the cloud; nor does it fain to blame its former supporter for failing, nor deigns to drink any other earthly water like the common people.

26. The peacock that was wont to drink the crystal drops of the clouds, would not now stoop to drink the dirty water of the ditch, though pressed and pinched by drought and thirst; because the sweet remembrance of his past beverage, supports him from fainting, and the expectation of fresh draughts, preserves him from dying.

27. Travellers mitigate the toils of their journey, by mutual conversation on the way; as the ignorant that cannot commune with themselves, communicate their thoughts with others, to beguile the tediousness of their lives.

28. Look there, O lord! to the slender stalks of the lotuses, supporting the burden of the water on the lotus leaves; like yon tender damsels carrying the water pots on their heads.

29. Being asked why they were carrying those of lotus flowers and leaves and for what use; they replied, to make cooling beds for assuaging the fever heat of the love sick wives of travellers from their homes.

30. These impassioned damsels, with their swollen breasts and youthful dalliance, and the motions and gestures of their bodies, served to excite the remembrance of the separated brides, whom the travellers had left behind at their far distant abodes.

31. Ah surely, says a traveller, that dear one of mine, must now be weeping and wailing, or falling down and rolling on the ground, at the sight of yonder dark cloud in the sky in my absence.

32. Lo there the lines of black bees, fluttering on the cups of lotuses, and the little bees giddy with the dulcet[Pg 647] liquor of flowers; the gentle breezes are blowing on all sides, and wafting the fragrance of the opening blossoms; while the leaves of trees are dancing to the tunes of the rustling winds.

The companions continued:—The traveller having returned home, and finding his beloved one by the arbour of mandara trees, began to relate to her the pangs of his protracted separation.

2. Listen to my marvellous tale, said he, and what happened to me one day, when I sought to send some one to thee with my tidings.

3. I sought long but sought in vain, at the time of my painful separation, to send one to thee at this house of mine; but where such a one be found in the world, who would take a severe interest in the affliction of another, for the sake of charity or mere friendship?

4. Lo, I came to behold even then and there, a big cloud on the top of a mount, resembling the steed of cupid, that appeared jocundly before me, accompanied by the swift lightening as his precursor.

5. I advanced before him and addressed unto him, saying: ah brother cloud, thou bearest the rainbow of Indra, as a collar about thy neck, and are graceful in thy course, have pity on me for a moment. Please go to my dear one and tell her my tidings, with thy low voice, sympathetic tears and breath of sighs; because the tender form of the pliant creeper, will not be able to bear thy loud uproar.

6. I know not, O dark cloud! to what abode to direct thee to find my beloved one, who is pictured in the plate of my heart by the pencil of my mind, and is forever situated in my bosom.

7. But now, O my friendly cloud! my distracted mind has lost that figure of my beloved in my breast, together with the[Pg 649] sight of her person from my eyes; and now having lost the freedom of my body in a foreign country, I have become but a wooden framework without my love, which is its living soul: for what living body can bear the pangs of separation.

8. People then thought me dead, and with tears in their eyes, began to prepare my obsequies and collect wood for my funeral.

9. I was borne away to be burnt on a dreadful funeral pile, which was horribly crackling with the cracking wood, of the blazing fire on the burning ground.

10. There, O my lotus eyed love, I was laid on the pile by some persons with their weeping eyes; and the pyre was surrounded by a number of men, who stood as spectators of the horrible sight.

11. At that time the curling smoke of the pyre, began to enter into my nostrils like the creepers or stalks of lotus plants; and as when the dark and lengthy body of the curvilinear snake, enters into a hole in the ground.

12. But <in> all this, I was defended by the strong armour of my firm love to thee; as the unborn or selfborn son of god Brahmá, was defended from the showers of darts, of the whole host of demons and thinking myself to be plunged in the cooling pool of thy love within my heart; I was untouched by the flames of fire burning all about me.

13. All this time I lay in the ecstacy of my love to thee, and I felt raptures of joy rise in my breast, from my fancied association with thee. I deemed myself as drowned in an ambrosial lake, while I was in that state of rapture, and thought sovereignty of the whole world, too insignificant before my ecstatic transport.

14. Methought I felt raptures of inexpressible delight fill my whole soul, at the thought of all thy blandishments and graces, and in the allurements of thy speech, sweet smiles and sidelong glances, and all the gestures and motions of thy person, that spread an ambrosial charm all around me.

15. Methought we clasped in mutual embraces, and together in amorous folds; till exhausted with surfeit, I lay[Pg 650] upon the cool soft bed, as if I was drowned in the cold and icy ocean of the lunar disc.

16. At this moment as I lay long in my bed, bedewed with cool sandal paste, and the cooling beams of the full-moon; I heard a thundering noise accompanied with flames of fire, rising from the burning pile of woods under me, as it was the submarine fire, proceeding from the milky ocean wherein I was lying.

17. The companions resumed:—When the husband had said so far, his listening spouse cried out aloud; saying “Ah me! I am dead, I am gone,” and for fear of hearing the sad consequence, fell into a swoon and became senseless.

18. The husband finding her fainting, began to wave over her <a> fan of lotus leaves, besprinkled with water; and taking her up to his bosom, tried to restore her to her senses.

19. Being then desired by her to finish his tale, he began to relate the remainder by holding her chin with his hand.

20. As I felt the pain of the burning flame touching my body, I cried out and groaned in affliction; the spectators hastened to extinguish the blazing pile, and felt delighted to find me alive.

21. The attendants then with loud shouts of joy, like the sound of drums &c. and with garlands of flowers, raised and embraced me to their bosoms; and went on shouting and singing and dancing and laughing with exultation.

22. I then saw the funeral ground resembling the formidable body of Bhairava—the god of destruction. It was equally covered with ashes, wreathed with snakes and studded with human skulls: and the scattered bones that were strewn over the ground, seemed as the beams of the moon crowning the head of Siva.

23. Here hot winds were blowing from the funeral piles, as from the burning fire on Hara’s head; and bearing the burnt ashes of the dead bodies, as a dark mist all around; they bore stink of the rotten bones to the air, and carried about the rustling noise of the bones jostling against one another.

24. The burning piles and their flashing flames and flying sparks, and the fiery winds scorching the trees and herbage;[Pg 651] give this place the appearance of the play ground, of the gods of wind and fire, and of the sons of sun—Yama and Saturn.

25. Thus I saw the funeral ground full of terrors, and covered with skeletons of half-burnt bodies and putrid carcasses also; it is infested by hungry dogs and howling jackals, and other voracious beasts, and the ravenous ravens and vultures. It is a place where the Vetála—demons and Pisácha—hobgoblins, revel with fearful shrieks and jarring sounds.

26. I beheld there the biers of dead bodies, borne by their mourning friends, with loud cries and lamentations that filled the air all about. I saw the beasts and birds, that tore their entrails and arteries, yet moist with blood, and I saw the ground strewn over with half burnt logs of wood and bushes.

27. In some places the glaring pyres, gave a gloomy light, and in others the tufts of hair, were heaped as spots of clouds; somewhere the ground was besmeared with blood, and looked like a lurid sheet of cloth; and elsewhere the clouds were roaring, as the setting sun went down the western hill (or horizon).

The companions continued:—Thus the loving pair after taking to one another in the aforesaid manner; began to sip their delicious wine. And now attend, O lotus eyed lord to the other things of things of this place.

2. Lo, there the winds, shaking the plantain leaves and clusters of their flowers, and blowing to all sides, with the dust of various sorts of flowers, with which they have adorned themselves.

3. There the breezes are blowing, loaded with odours exhaled by the flowers of the forest; and there the gentle zephyrs are wafting the perfumes, which they have stolen from the locks of their favourite fairies.

4. Here are the blasts blowing from the salt sea on the south; and driving as fastly as the stern lion rushes into the fastness of woods and mountain caves; and as forcibly, as the fierce giants attacked the gods on the top of Mount Meru.

5. Again there is the high wind playing and shaking with the high tamála, tála and other palma trees; while the gentle gales, are softly gliding over the waves, and wafting their moisture to the tender plants below.

6. There the soft breezes are wheezing, with the dust thrown out by the flowers; while gentle zephyrs are moving about as princes amidst the bowers and flower gardens.

7. There the god Aeolus plays his sweet sylvan pipe, in the holes of the hollow bamboo; in the manner of the female sweet musicians, tuning their reeds in the city of Pándu or Hastinápura. (Here is a palpable anachronism with regard to the anterior of prince Pándu).

[Pg 653]

8. Here every plant is fraught with bees, except the karnikara flower; which is avoided by them, on account of its disregard of the god of air, by withholding to pay him the tribute odour and farina.

9. The tála or palm tree, that rises as high as a column but yields no fruit nor flower to the hungry passenger, owing to its inaccessible height, is as disgraceful in itself as the uncharitable rich man.

10. Ignorant and unworthy people, build their pride on outward show, as the kinsuka flower displays the beauty of its colour to view, in absence of its fragrance.

11. Look at the Karnikara flower, blooming only to decay; because its want of fragrance makes it as worthless and despicable, as unworthy and ignorant men are disregarded by all.

12. So the tamála tree with its blushing blossoms, beguile the thirsty chátaka by its false appearance of a rainy cloud, so the fair outside of the foul, deceives the unwise by his inward foulness.

13. Look at these robust, woody, shady and cloud-capt hills, which afford shade and shelter to others; and are possessed of many more qualities, befitting the kings of men; are standing in the manner of lofty bamboos (having all these qualities in them).

14. Look at yonder cloud on the mountain top, resting as it were upon the seat of its table land of bright gold, and twirling its yellow mantle of lightnings; appearing as the god Hari clad in his vest of aureate yellow.

15. Look on the blooming kinsuka flower, with the flutter-bees and birds about them appearing as a fighting warrior, pierced by flying arrows, and besmeared with crimson blood.

16. Lo the golden mandára flowers, touching the amber-coloured clouds of heaven; appearing as the giddy Gandharva lads, lying on the top of the Mahendra mountain.

17. Behold the weary wayfarers, laying and lulling themselves to rest, under the shade of the Kalpa trees in the garden[Pg 654] of paradise; while the siddhas and Vidyádharas are sitting there at ease, and singing their songs to the tune of their stringed instruments.

18. Behold also the celestial nymphs, stretched there at ease, tittering and singing in the groves-bowers of the Kalpa arbour of Eden.

19. There is the silent abode of the great sage Mandapala, famed in the legends; and the cave of the celebrated vulture said to be his wife.

20. See there the line of hermitages of the ancient sages; where the envious animals forget their mutual animosities, and <live> together in perfect concord and amity.

21. There are the coral plants, growing with other shrubs and bushes, by the side of the sea coast; and the drops of water trickling upon them, glisten as gems by the solar rays.

22. The waves are rolling with precious gems, on the bosom of the ocean; like playful damsels rocking on with their ornaments on the breasts of their lovers.

23. Here the jingling noise of the jewelleries of the celestial nymphs, sauntering from the celestial regions, to the infernal abodes of the serpents through the midway skies.

24. Here those hollow mountain caves, whistling with a sound resembling the buzzing of wild bees, falling down giddy with drinking the ichor exuding from the forehead of elephants.

25. Lo the sea ebbing with the waning moon during the dark fortnight of the month; and the receding tides describing and leaving the linear marks of their regression upon the sands on the shore.

26. Lo the woodland decorated as a beauty, with clusters of flowers hanging as wreaths and garlands on every side; breathing fragrance all about, and attired in the robe of its cooling shade.

27. The variegated foliage from its party-coloured dress, and the waterfalls seem as its sweet smiles; and the flowers strewn about, appear as the flowery bed of the happy woodland[Pg 655] dame. (The word vana means the vana-devi or woodland goddess, corresponding with a dryad, sylva or Flora).

28. Here the high-minded sages and hermits, are as highly delighted with their quiet sylvan retreats; as the celestials are joyous in gardens of Eden. (Eden and Udyána are both the same).

29. The placid and indifferent minds of sages, are equally delighted with these solitary woodlands, as the restless and impatient minds of lovers and worldly people.

30. The waters of the sea, whether running into the land, or washing the foot of the rock on the sea-shore; are equally shining and sounding as their tinkling ornaments or anklets (nupurs).

31. The punnága flowers blooming on mountains, appear as golden mines upon them; and the goldfinch birds flying over them, look like winged angels in the aerial course.

32. The mountain forests appear to be in a conflagration, with their full blown champaka flowers blazing as fire, and the bees and clouds hovering over them as smoke; while the current winds are spreading above their dust and petals like the sparks of fire.

33. Lo the kokila swinging and singing, on his seat of the topmost stalk of a karavira tree; when his mate comes and embraces him there, and sings responsive to his songs with her clamorous chattering. (It is a sarcasm on pettish wives, that often interrupt the silent musings of their consorts with their tastelessness).

34. See the salt waters of the briny ocean, roaring aloud against shore; but the coast-lands are kept in subjection under the hands of their able masters. (The rule of kings stretched to the seashore).

35. O lord! deign to make this earth (i.e. the continent of Jambudwípa or Asia), stretching to the four seas on the four sides, as thy footstool; and establish thy rule over the remaining potentates, that escaped the brunt of thy valour; appoint rulers over all the provinces on all sides; and provide them[Pg 656] with proper force and arms, which are necessary to keep them in order; and continue to govern thy realms with mercy and moderation.

Vasishtha related:—Then the king Vipaschit and his companions, sat on the coast of the sea, and did whatever was requisite for the establishment of his sovereignty.

2. They then chose spots for their abodes at that place, and made houses for themselves according to their positions; they settled the boundaries of the provinces, and set guards for their defence.

3. At last they went down into the ocean, and then proceeded to the other side of the world; in order to show his glory; like that of Vipaschit, to other parts of the world.

4. Then came on the dark night, in the form of an all overshading cloud; and the people all sank into the lap of sleep, after finishing their daily works and rituals.

5. They were amazed to think in themselves, how insensibly they were led to so great a distance in so short a space of time, and to meet the ocean like currents of rivers falling into it.

6. They said: “It is a wonder that we have come so far, without any attempt on our part; and therefore this great velocity must be attributed, to the swiftness of the vehicles of the great god Agni (or Electricity itself)”.

7. Lord! say they, how extensive is the view that lies before our sight; stretching from one end of the Jambudwípa to its other extremity of the vast salt ocean, and thence again to the islands in it, and other lands and seas beyond them.

8. There are islands and seas beyond these, and others again beyond them; how many such and many more, may there be of this kind, and how inscrutable is the delusion which is thus spread before our minds. (i.e. All these are but our mental delusions).

[Pg 658]

9. Let us therefore pray the god of fire (electricity), that we may see at once every thing on all sides by his favour, and with<out> any exertion of or pain on our sides.

10. So saying and thinking in this manner, they all reflected on the god with one accord, and meditated on him, as they sat in their respective places.

11. The god appeared to them, and stood manifest before their sight in his tangible form, and spoke to them saying:—“Ask ye my sons, what favor you desire of me.”

12. They said: O lord of gods, that abidest beyond this visible and elemental world, ordain, that by means of the vedic mantra and our purified minds, we may know the knowables in our minds.

13. Give us, O God, this great and best boon, that we ask of thee; that we may know by thy light, whatever is knowable by either the external senses; mind or by our self-consciousness. (i.e. By the three means of knowledge).

14. Enable us to see with our eyes O lord! the paths, which lead the siddhas and yogis to the sight of the invisibles; and make us also to perceive in our minds the things, that <are> imperceptible to them.

15. Let not death overtake us, till we have reached to the ways of the siddhas; and let thy grace guide us in the paths, where no embodied being can pass (i.e. in our journey to the next world, when we have shuffled our mortal coil).

16. Vasishtha said:—“So be it”, said the igneous god, and instantly disappeared from their sight; as the submarine fire bursts forth, and vanishes at once in the sea.

17. As the fiery god disappeared, there appeared the dark night after him; and as the night also fled after a while, the sunshine returned with the reviving wishes of the king and his men, to survey the wide ocean lying before them.

Vasishtha related:—Rising then in the morning, they regulated the affairs of the state according to the rules prescribed by law; and were eager to see the sea, as if they were impelled by some preternatural force, which nothing less than the power of ministerial officers could restrain.

2. But they were so exasperated by their mad ambition, that they forgot their affection for their families, and forsook them all weeping before them, for undertaking their perilous sea voyage.

3. They said, “we will see what there is on the other side of the sea, and then return instantly to this place.” Saying so they muttered the invocatory mantras of the Fire god, who inspired them with the power of walking on foot and dryshod over the sea.

4. All the representatives of the king, being followed by their companions on all sides, proceeded to the borders of the several seas, and then walked on their feet over to watery maze.

5. They walked on foot upon the waters, as if they were walking upon the surface of the ground, and all the four bodies of the quadruple king, now met together in one place, and immediately afterwards they separated apart with all their forces.

6. Marching on foot over the vast expanse, they surveyed all that was in and upon the sea; and disappeared altogether from the sight of the people on the shore, as a spot of cloud, vanishes from view in autumn.

7. The forces travelled on foot all over the watery path of[Pg 660] the ocean, with as much fortitude; as the elephants of the king, traverse with patience on land, when they are bound to a distant journey.

8. They mounted high and went down, along with the rising and lowering waves; as when men climb upon and descend from steep mountains, and as one rides and goes galloping on horseback, or in the manner of Hari floating upon the billowy ocean, or in his act of churning the sea.

9. They paced over the whirlpools, as the straws float upon waters; and they promenaded as gracefully amidst the encompassing waves, as the beauteous moon passes through the surrounding clouds.

10. The brave soldiers that were so well armed with weapons in their hands, and so well protected by the power of their mantras and amulets; that they were as often disgorged from bowels of the sharks, as they came to be devoured by them: (because they could neither masticate nor digest them).

11. Pushed onward by the waves, and driven forward by the winds, their bodies were carried to the distance of many a league in a moment.

12. The huge surges which lifted them to great heights, represented the enormous elephants, on which they used to mount, and ride about in their native land.

13. The vast expanse of water appears as the void space of the sky; and the succession of heaving waves in it, represents the folds of gathering clouds in heaven, and as they were dashing against one another, they emitted the flash of lightnings anon.

14. The loose and loud surges of the sea, resembled the loosened elephants in the battle field; and though they dashed against the shore with all their force; yet they were unable to break them down, as the elephants are baffled in their attempt to break down a stone built rampart.

15. The waving waves reflecting the rays of the brilliant pearls and gems, which they bore with them from shore to shore; resemble the eminent men, who though they pass alone[Pg 661] from place to place, appear yet to be accompanied by their train and glory every where.

16. The surf tramples over the mass of hoary froth with contempt, as the snowy white swan treads upon the bed of whitish lotuses in disdain. (The surf and the swan, being whiter far than the froth and the lotus).

17. The sounding main, which was as loud as the roaring clouds, and the re-billowing billows, which were louder than they, bore no terror to them that stood as rocks thereon.

18. The cloud-kissing waves of the ocean, now rising above the mountains, and now falling low at their feet, were likely to touch the solar orb, and then sink into the infernal.

19. They were not afraid of the rising or falling waters; but passed over the sea as upon sheet of cloth; and shrouded by the drizzling clouds, which formed a canopy over them.

20. Thus the companions of the king crossed the ocean, which was full of sharks and alligators, and tremendous eddies; they were sprinkled by water like showers of flowers, and adorned with marine gems and pearls; and they crossed over on foot, as others do in navies.

Vasishtha related:—Thus they proceeded onward, to explore into the visible phenomena, exposed before them by Ignorance (avidyá or external nature); and continued to walk on foot, over the watery maze and the islands it contained.

2. They passed over the ocean to some island, and then from that island to the sea again; and in this manner they traversed on foot, over many a mountain and wilderness in interminable succession.

3. Then as the king was proceeding towards the western main, he was seized and devoured by a voracious fish, which was as the undying breed of Vishnu’s fish, and as fleet as a boat in the stream of Bitasta Beyah. (Vishnu’s fish was the deathless incarnation of himself).

4. The fish fled with him in his belly to the milky ocean; but finding him too hard for his digestion, he bore him in his bowels to a great distance in another direction.

5. He was then borne to the saccharine ocean on the south, and was there cast out in the island of Yakshas; where he was overpowered to the love of a female fiend by her art of enchantment, (or) where he was enchanted into the amour of a female Yakshí, by her skill in sorcery. (The yakshas are the present yakhas of Ceylon, or Egypt, and are said to be equally adept in the art of máyá or magic).

6. He then went towards the east, and passing by the Ganges, he killed a shark that had pursued him, and arrived at last at the district of Kánya Kubja the modern Cawnpore.

7. Then proceeding towards the north, he came to the country, of Uttara-kurus, where he was edified by his adoration of[Pg 663] Siva, and became exempted from the fear of death, in all his wanderings on all sides of the earth.

8. In this way, travelling long and afar, both by land and sea; he was often attacked by wild elephants on the boundary mountains, and repeatedly gorged and disgorged by sharks and alligators in the seas.

9. Then proceeding towards the west, he was picked up by an eagle and set upon his back; and the bird took to his golden pinions, and bore him in an instant to the Kusa-dwípa across the ocean.

10. Thence he passed to the Krauncha-dwípa on the east; where he was seized and devoured by a Rákshasa of the mountain, but whom he killed afterwards by ripping up his belly and its entrails.

11. Roving then in the south, he was denounced to become a yaksha by curse of Daksha the king of that part: until he was released from that state by the king of the Saca-dwípa after some years.

12. He then passed over the great and smaller seas lying in the north, and after passing over the great frigid ocean, he arrived at the country of gold, where he was changed to a stone by the siddhas of that place.

13. In this state he remained a whole century, till by the grace of his god Agni—ignis, he was released from the curse of the siddha, who received him again into his favour.

14. Then travelling to the east, he became king of the country of cocoanuts; and after reigning there for full five years, he was restored to the remembrance of his former state.

15. Then passing to the north of the Meru Mountain, he dwelt among the Apsaras, in the groves of kalpa trees for ten years, and subsisted on the bread fruits of cocoanuts.

16. Going afterwards to the Salmali-dwípa in the west, which abounds in trees of the same name, he dwelt in the society of birds for many years, having been previously instructed in their language, when he had been carried away by Garuda.

17. Thence journeying in his westerly course, he reached to[Pg 664] the Mandara Mountain which abounded in verdure and madára forests; and here he sojourned for a day in company with Mandarí—a Kinnera female.

18. He then journeyed to the Nandana garden of the gods, which abounded in kalpa trees rising as high as the waves of the milky ocean; and he remained in the company of the woodland gods for a septenary, sporting with the Apsara damsels in their amorous dalliance.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether the different states and acts of the prince, relate particularly to any one part of his quadripartite body, or generally or severally to all and each part of himself; because it is equally impossible that all and every part should act the same part, as that the several parts of the same person, could act differently from the other. (It is unnecessary to be multipartite to act alike, as well as impossible for the same personality to act differently in its many persons or parts or forms, which are all one and the same being).

2. Vasishtha replied:—Any person that is conscious of his self identity, and its invariability and indivisibility, may yet think himself as another person and doing different things, as a man does in his dream.

3. Again it is the clearness of the soul, that shows the abstract images of things in itself, as it did in that of Vipaschit or the wise prince; and as a mirror reflects the discrete figures of objects, and of the sky and sea, in its clear and empty bosom.

4. As reflectors made of the same metal, reflect one another in themselves; so all things which are in reality but of an intellectual or ideal nature, reflect themselves in the intellect. (The mind is the repository of the ideal forms of things, and it is mental fallacy only which makes them appear as real ones. This is the idealistic theory of Berkeley).

5. Hence whatever object presents itself, to any one of the senses of any body, is no other than the concretion or density of his intellectual idea of the same in its nature. (Hence the sensibles are but solidified ideas, and ectypes of the ideal; and not as causes or prototypes of our eternal ideas).

6. It is the one and self same thing <that> appears as many, and[Pg 666] the varied ones are but the invariable one in reality; there is no positive variety nor uniformity either in esse, because all apparent variety is positive unity (i.e. all is one, and the one in all).

7. Hence whatever part of the prince, was conscious of anything, which presented itself before him of any time; the same is said to be the state of his being during that time. (i.e. Whatever a man is conscious of doing or suffering at any time, the same forms the state or mode of living for the time being).

8. And as it is possible to a yogi, who sits secluded in one place; to see all present, past and future events at one view before him; so it is possible for a prince, sitting retired in his palace, to manage all affairs of his whole domain; and much more for the king Vipaschit, who delegated his viceroys, as members of his body to all parts. (This passage explains the quadripartite kings, to mean himself and his three viceroys on three sides).

9. So doth a cloud stretch itself to all the quarters of the sky, and perform at once the several functions of quenching the parched earth with its water, and of growing the vegetables and fructifying the trees. So also doth a man boast of his manifold acts at the same time.

10. So also are the simultaneous acts of the lord God, and those of the lords of men and yogis; who design and perform at the same time, the multifarious acts relating to the creation, preservation and management of the world.

11. So doth the one and selfsame Vishnu, with his four arms and as many forms, act many parts and separably also, as the preservation of the world on the one hand, and the enjoyment of his fair consorts on the other.

12. Again though the two hands of a person, are enough to discharge the ordinary affairs of life; yet it is requisite to have many arms, in order to wield many weapons in warfare.

13. It was in the same manner, that the self same monarch was situated with his fourfold persons, in all the four sides of the earth; where though they were impressed with the consciousness[Pg 667] of their self identity, yet they all acted their several parts as quite distinct and apart from others.

14. They were all alike conscious of the pains and pleasures attending on their lying down on naked grounds, their passing to distant islands and their travelling to different forests and groves, and desert lands also.

15. They all remembered their journeys over hills and mountains, as well as their voyages by water and air; they knew how they floated on the seas, and rested on clouds.

16. They knew how they mounted upon waves of seas, and rode on the back of flying wind; and how they lay on the shores of seas, and at the foot of mountains.

17. Again the prince proceeding to Scythea, or the land of sacas on the east; passed into the enchanted city of the yakshas, lying at the foot of the Eastern mountain or Udaya-giri; where being spellbound by their sorcery, he lay asleep for full seven years in the wood of the leafless mansá sijá trees.

18. Rising afterwards from his drowsiness, he was converted to the torpid state of a stone by his drinking some mineral water, and was condemned to remain for seven years more with the mineral substances of the earth.

19. He was then confined in a cave of the western mountain—Astáchala, which reaches to the region of the clouds and is shrouded by darkness; and he became enamoured of the company, of Pisácha and Apsara females.

20. He then arrived at a region which was free from fear, and where there rose a high mountain with water-falls in all sides of it; here the prince was lost in the forest of haritaki or chebula—myrobalans, and become invisible for years.

21. The prince that had erewhile been spellbound by the yaksha, travelled afterwards to the frigid climate; and there being transformed to a lion, he roved about the Raivata hills for ten days and nights.

22. And then being deluded by the black art of Pisáchas, he was changed to the form of a frog, and lived in that state in the caves of the golden mountain for a decad of years.

23. Travelling afterwards to the country of Kumárika (Cape[Pg 668] Comorin), he dwelt at the bottom of the northern ridge of the Black mountain. Then going to the saca country, he was transformed to a hog, and lived in a dark hole for a hundred years in that shape.

24. He lived for fourteen years as a squint-eyed, in the land of marivaca; when the western form of the prince was turned to a Vidyádhara, by virtue of his skill in learning various lore.

25. There he enjoyed sexual intercourse at his full satisfaction under the scented bower of alá, and passed his time in amusement.

Vasishtha continued:—Now of the quadripartite bodies of the prince, that which was transformed to a tree, in the valley called the vale of fearlessness in sacadwípa: supported itself by sucking the better water of the rock which it drew by its roots.

2. It was then that the western part of the royal person, came up to the relief of the former or eastern part, and released it from the curse of its vegetable state of full seventy years, by the power of its incantations.

3. Again the western person of the king, passing to the frigid clime, was there transformed to a stone by curse of the chief of the Pisácha tribe; but was released afterwards from that state by <a> southern personage, by his offering of meat food to the carnivorous Pisácha.

4. At another time as this western personage, was settled beyond the western horizon, it was changed to the form of a bull by a female fiend, that had assumed on her the form of a cow, and was freed at last from that state by the southern person.

5. Again the southern figure of the prince, was doomed to live as a demon on a mountain tree in the Kshemaka, and was liberated at last from it by the yaksha prince.

6. Then again, the eastern person of the prince, was metamorphosed to the shape of a lion, on a mountain in the province of Vrishaka, and was delivered for its metamorphoses by the western personality.

7. Ráma rejoined:—How is it sir, that the single individuality of the prince, which was confined in one spot as that of a yogi; could be ubiquious at one and the same time, could perform[Pg 670] the various acts of different times and places at once, by the all comprehensive universality of the mind.

8. Vasishtha replied:—O Ráma! Let the unenlightened think whatever they may, respecting this world (i.e. let them take its unreality for positive reality); but do you attend to what I say, regarding the light in which it is viewed by the enlightened yogis (who view it in its spiritual light, and conduct all their operations in the mind only).

9. According to spiritualists, there is no other essence, except one universal Intellect; the phenomenal are an utter inexistence, and the creation or increate entity of the world, blends into nothing. (The intellect is a formless and all-pervading essence, and acts in many ways in all places).

10. This universal Intellect is the eternal residence of and one with the eternal and universal soul; and it is this that constitutes the essentiality and universality of the Supreme soul at all times.

11. Say, who can obstruct any where or by any force the course of the great mind, which is ubiquious and all comprehensive, and exhibits itself in various forms in the endless varieties of its thoughts. (Hence there is nothing in reality, except they be but representations of the inward thoughts of the mind; or manifestations of the omnipresent One in various shapes).

12. What is it to us and what can we call to be ours, when all these sights are exhibited in the supreme soul or Intellect in all places and times; and all that is present, past and future, are comprised <in> that all-comprehending mind.

13. So that the far and near, a moment and an age, are the same to it, which is never altered in its nature (so says the sruti:—It is both near and afar, the past and the present &c.).

14. All things are situated in the soul, and yet look at the act of Ignorance, that they appear to be placed without it, as we behold them with our naked eyes (as phantasms of the hidden soul).

15. The soul is the substantial omniscience of vacuous form, and exhibits the three worlds in its vacuity, without changing[Pg 671] its vacuousness (but shows like the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria of these in itself).

16. The universal soul appears in the universe, as both its viewer and the view in itself, or as the subjective and objective in its self-same nature; but how is it possible for the inherent soul of the apparent world, to admit of a visible form in any way, unless it be by the delusion of our understanding to think it so.

17. But tell me thou sage that knowest the truth, what thing is impossible to the active agency of the selfsame Deity, to whom all things are alike possible at all times and places; and so also to the wise king Vipaschit, who was alike conscious of his self identity in all his quadruple forms. (The Lord that spreads unspent, and acts alike in all. Pope).

18. The enlightened Intellect of the yogi, that has not yet arrived at its transcendent state of unity with the Deity; and retains the sense of its individuality; can yet readily unite itself with the souls of others in all places.

19. There is nothing impossible to the supreme soul; but the half enlightened soul, that lingers between its knowledge and ignorance, and has not attained to transcendent wisdom, is confounded in its intellect regarding the true knowledge of things.

20. The soul that is some what advanced in its knowledge, is said to have partly progressed towards its perfection (siddhi); hence the four parts of Vipaschit situated on the four sides, made up a perfect whole. (The whole number in common calculation, is usually divided into and made up of four quarters).

21. These four parts were as so many states or degrees of perfection, which lighted on Vipaschit like the rays of heavenly light; and these states mutually helped and healed each other, as the members of the body assist and supply to the defects of one another.

22. Ráma said:—Tell me, O venerable Bráhman, why the quadruple king Vipaschit, ran on all sides like brutes, if he was so enlightened in every part, and why he did not sit collected in himself as he was.

[Pg 672]

23. Vasishtha replied:—What I have related to you regarding enlightenment, applies only to the case of yogis, who though they are combined of many parts in their minds, do yet remain sedate in themselves in the same state.

24. But the Vipaschitas were not so wholly enlightened as the holy yogis, but being partly enlightened, they remained in the midmost state between the two, as if hanging betwixt both state of enlightenment and ignorance at the same time.

25. They bore upon them the marks of both at once, namely of the one by their discretion and discernment, and of the other by the passions and affections of their minds, that led them to the two different ways of liberation as well as of bondage.

26. Those who are ever vigilant in the discharge of their pious acts, and are wavering between their temporal and eternal concerns, as the Vipaschitas continued in their course of action, such persons cannot be perfect and esoteric yogis in this life.

27. The devotees that are devoted to their devotion of a particular deity as the Vipaschitas were of the god of fire, are styled as the dháraná yogis; and not transcendent or param yogis, unless they attain to transcendental knowledge (or jnána yoga, which removes the avidyá—ignorance).

28. The learned yogi does not see any mist of ignorance, to obstruct his sight of the lights of truth; but the ignorant devotee is blind to truth, though he may be received into the favour of his favorite deity.

29. The Vipaschitas were all of them subject to ignorance, and they rejected the knowledge of the true soul, by their attachment to gross material bodies, which are at best but vain unrealities. Listen therefore to what I will now relate, regarding those that are liberated from their grossness even in their lifetime.

30. The yogis retain of course their knowledge of the concrete, in their conduct of the external affairs of life; but liberation is the virtue of the mind, consisting in its freedom from subjection to gross materials, and subsisting in the mind only, and not in the body or its sensibility.

[Pg 673]

31. But as the bodily properties are inseparably connected with the body, and its sensibility can in no way be separated from it; the liberated soul is therefore <in> no way attached to it, nor doth the yogi ever take any heed of it in his mind (his thoughts being solely fixed in the solity of the soul).

32. The mind of the liberated yogi, is never reunited with his body, any more than pollen is ever rejoined with its parent stalk; although the bodily properties of the living liberated yogi, ever remain the same as those of worldly persons. (Freedom consists in the minds and soul, and not in the bonded body).

33. The bodies of both are of course equally perceptible by all, but not the minds which are hidden in them; the liberated soul cannot be seen by others; but the incarcerate spirit is known to every body, by its addictedness to the discharge of its bounded duties.

34. Self-liberation is as well perceptible to oneself, as his perception of the sweetness of honey and the taste of other things, are well known to himself; and one is well acquainted with his liberation and bondage, from his consciousness of pleasure and pain from the one or other.

35. It is thus by one’s inward perception of his liberation, that he is called the liberate; and it is also the inward coolness of his soul, as well as the indifference of his mind, that constitute his liberation even in his life time.

36. Neither the bondage, or liberation of the soul, nor the pleasure or painfulness of one’s mind can be any how known to another; whether you divide the body into pieces or place it upon a royal throne. (Though the features of the face, are said to be indicators of the inward mind).

37. Whether laughing or crying, the liberated soul feels no pleasure or pain therein; because it is situated in both states in the unalterable spirit of God.

38. The minds of liberated persons, are settled in the divine spirit and no where else, even when they are in the act of receiving or doing any thing with their bodies: But the learned men of the different schools, are seen to be quite otherwise[Pg 674] from their unacquaintance with liberation (and being moved by the circumstances of life).

39. The bodies of liberated persons, are not affected by external events, and though such a one may appear to be weeping, yet he never weeps in grief; nor does he die, with the death of his mortal body.

40. The great man that is liberated in his life time, does not smile though he has a smiling face; nor is he affected by nor angry at any thing, though he seems to be moved by affections and anger. (i.e. His feelings are never lasting).

41. Undeluded he sees the delusions of the world, and unseen by any he sees the failings of others; and all pleasure and pain seem as ideal unto him.

42. Every thing is as nil to the liberate, as flowers growing in the garden of the sky; and the existence of the world is non-existence unto him, who sees the unity alone in all existence. (The One being all and all being one; all others are lost in the only One).

43. The words pleasure and pain, are as aerial flowers to him, who are indifferent to them, who have become victorious over their feelings, by their liberation from all sensations in their life time.

44. They that have known the truth, are unaltered in their natures; as the mouths of Brahmá, are unflinching in the recital of Vedas. (?)

45. And as Siva ripped the upper head of Brahmá, as a bud of lotus, with the nail of his hand; and the god neither resented it, nor grew another head instead, which he was well able to do: so the meek yogi remains unresentful at any harm done to him.

46. Of what use is the upward or sky-looking face to him, whose inner or intellectual eye shows him the voidness of all things around; hence the possession of the external organ of sight, is useless to him, who sees everything within himself.

47. Every one gets as it is allotted to him by his fate, in retribution of his past actions; and his fatality (of retributive justice), does not betide mortals only; but binds the god Siva[Pg 675] also to the sweet embraces of Gaurí, as well as to his melancholy contemplation for ever; and so also doth the milky ocean, bear the ambrosial moon in his ample bosom. (An irrevocable binds even Jove himself, as Hara to his nakedness, and Hari to his serpent bed).

48. Good minded men are seldom seen to abandon their passions, though they are capable of doing so in their life time; but they become quite dispassionate upon their death, when the five elemental principles of their bodies, are burnt away upon the funeral pile. (All lie level with the dust in their silent graves).

49. But the living liberated man, gains nothing by his doing anything, nor loses aught by his doing of naught; nor has he any concern with any person, nor interest whatever with anything here on earth.

50. What avails one’s passionateness or dispassionateness in this world; since what is fated in this life, cannot be averted by any means.

51. The god Hari, who is liberated in his life, does not yet cease from his work of slaying the Asuras, or to have them slain by the hands of Indra &c.; he becomes incarnate, to die himself or by hands of demons; and is repeatedly born and grown up, to be extinct at last. (Such is the general doom of all).

52. No one can give up his alternate activity and rest at once, nor is there any good to be reaped by his attachment to the one, or relinquishment of the other.

53. Therefore let a man remain in whatever state he may be, without having any desire of his own; because the god Hari is without any desire in himself, being the form of pure Intellect or Intelligence only. (Desire subsists in the mind, and not in the intellectual soul).

54. The changing time changes and moves the steady soul, like a ball on every side; as it turns about the fixed sun round the world in appearance (and not in reality).

55. The lord of the day, is not able to restrain his body, from its apparent course; though he is seated in his nirvána as he is, without any desire of changing his place.

[Pg 676]

56. The moon also appears to be waning under her wasting disease, though she remains ever the same in all kalpa ages of the world; so the soul of the liberated person continues the same, though his body is subject to decay by age.

57. The fire too is ever free and liberated in itself, because nothing can extinguish its latent heat at any time; and though it was suppressed by the sacrificial butter of marutta, and the seminal liquid of Siva for a while, yet it revived again as it was before. (Light and heat are coeternal elements).

58. Vrihaspati and Sukra the preceptors of the gods and demigods, were liberated in their life time, and with all their ambitious views of predominance, they <appeared>as dull and miserable persons.

59. The sagely prince Janaka is perfectly liberated in his mind, and yet he is not loathe to rule over his princedom, and to quell his enemies in battle. (Liberation consists in the mind, and not in cessation from action).

60. The great kings Nala, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilípa, Nahusa and others, were all liberated in their lives; and yet they reigned and ruled over their realms, with all the vigilance of sovereigns.

61. A man acting either wisely or foolishly in life, is neither bound to or liberated in this world; but it is his ardent desire of or apathy to worldliness, that constitutes his bondage to or liberation from it.

62. The demoniac princes Vali, Namuchi, Vritra, Andhaka, Mura and others, lived quite liberated in their lives; though they acted as unwisely, as if they were elated by their ambition and passions.

63. Therefore the existence or disappearance of the passions, in the conduct of any body, makes no difference in his spiritual character; but it is the pure vacancy of the human soul and mind, that constitutes his liberation in this world.

64. Being possest of the knowledge of God as pure vacuum, the living liberated person is assimilated to the likeness of vacuity itself; and is freed from the duality of thinking himself otherwise than the divine spirit. (The sense of self personality,[Pg 677] is lost in the knowledge of the universality of the divine soul).

65. He is conscious of the fallacy of phenomenal appearances, which he knows to be no more than as the variegated rainbow reflected in empty air (by the ineffable light of the glory of God).

66. As the various colours are seen to shine in the rainbow, in the field of empty air; so these myriads of brilliant worldly bodies, are but vacuous particles appearing in infinite space. (The great worlds are as minute atoms in the sight of great God).

67. This world is an unreality, appearing as a reality in view; it is unborn and increate, and yet it is irresistibly conspicuous to our sight, like the appearance of the sky in the empty firmament.

68. It is without its beginning or end, and yet appearing to have both of these; it is a mere void, and seeming as a real substantiality; it is increate, and yet thought to be a created something; it is indestructible, though thought to be subject to destruction.

69. Its creation and destruction are phenomena occurring in the vacuous essence of God, as the structure of a wooden post and statue, takes place in the substance of the wood. (Here the Divine essence is considered as the material cause of the world, and the one being void the other is considered equally void also).

70. The mind being freed from its imagination, and drowned in deep meditation (samádhi), as in the state of a sleepless sleeper; it comes to the sight of an even intellectual vacuity, engrossing the sights of all the worlds, as if absorbed in it.

71. As a man passing from one place to another, is unmindful of the intermediate scenes; so the attention being directed solely to the sight of the intellectual void, the thought of all the world and other existences is wholly lost in the same. (Such sight of the single point in view is called the sakhá chandra darsana. Nyáya).

72. In this state of intense meditation, the thought of a[Pg 678] duality is lost in that of the unity; and this idea of oneness disappears in that of a vast void, which terminates to a state of conscious bliss (which is the summum bonum of yoga philosophy).

73. In this state of insouciance, the duality of the world is lost in the nullity of vacuity; the knowledge of self personality is dwindled to spirituality, and all futurity presents itself clearly to the view of the clairvoyance of the enrapt yogi. (This forms the púrnatá or perfectibility of yoga practice).

74. The perfect yogi remains with his mind, as clear as the vacuous sky, enveloping the phenomenals in its ample sphere; he sits silent and as still and cold as a stone; he views the world in himself, and remains quiet in rapturous amazement at the view.

Ráma said:—Now tell me sir, what the Vipaschitas did, being cast in the seas, islands and forests, in the different parts of the earth.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear now, Ráma, of the Vipaschitas, in all their wanderings amidst the forests of tála and tamála trees, upon the hills and in the islands of different sides.

3. One of the Vipaschitas, that was roving about the westerly ridge of a mountain in Kraunchadwípa, was crushed to death by the tusk of an elephant, as it tears a lotus in the lake.

4. Another of these was smashed in his contest with a Rákshasa, who bore his mangled body aloft in air, and then cast it amidst the marine fire, where it was burnt to ashes.

5. The third was taken up by a Vidyádhara, to the region of the celestials; where he was reduced to ashes by curse of the god Indra, who was offended at the prince’s want of respect towards him.

6. The fourth that went to the farthest edge of a mountain in the Kusadwípa, was caught by a shark on the sea shore, which tore his body to eight pieces.

7. In this manner did all these four lose their lives on all sides, and they all fell as sorrowfully as the regents of the four quarters, at the last dissolution of the world on the doomsday.

8. After they were reduced to the state of vacuity amidst the vast vacuum, their vacuous and self-conscious souls, were led by the reminiscence of their former states to behold the earth (to which they had been so much attached).

9. They saw the seven continents with their belts of the seven oceans, and also the cities and towns with which they were decorated every where.

[Pg 680]

10. They beheld the sky above, with the orbs of the sun and moon forming the pupils of its eyes; and also the clusters of stars, that were hanging as chains of pearls about its neck, and the flaky clouds that formed its folded vest.

11. They saw with their intellectual eye, the stupendous bodies that rose out of chaos at the revolutions of past kalpa cycles, and filled the amplitude of the sky and all sides of the horizon with the gigantic forms. (These were the big bodies of the many Unitarian Saivas that appeared at the beginning of repeated creations).

12. Being possest of their consciousness in their spiritual forms, they descended to observe the manners of elemental bodies that were exposed before them.

13. All the four Vipaschitas were actuated by their previous impressions, to the inquiry into the measure and extent of the ignorance, which led people to the belief of the body as soul itself, in want of their knowledge of the spiritual soul (as it is the case with gross materialists).

14. They roved from one continent to another, to witness in what part of this ideal globe of the earth was this ignorance (avidyá) most firmly seated, so as to give it the appearance of a visible substance.

15. Then passing over the seven continents and oceans, the western Vipaschit, happened to meet with the God Hari standing on a parcel of firm land.

16. Receiving then the incomparable knowledge of divine truth from him, he remained in his samádhi meditation at that spot for full five years.

17. Finding afterwards his soul to be full with divine presence, he relinquished even his spiritual body, he fled like his vital breath, to the transcendent vacuum of final extinction nirvána.

18. The eastern Vipaschit was translated to the region of moon (by his adoration of that luminary), and was seated beside that full bright orb (for his great purity and piety). But the prince, though placed in the exalted sphere of the moon,[Pg 681] continued ever afterwards to lament for the loss of his former body. (So heavenly souls are said to long for their bodies).

19. The southern prince being forgetful of his spiritual nature, thinks himself to be reigning in the Salmalidwípa, and employed in the investigation of external and sensible objects.

20. The northern one dwelling amidst the limpid waters of the seventh ocean, thought himself to be devoured by a shark, which retained him in his belly for the space of a thousand and one years.

21. There he fed upon the bowels of the shark, which killed the animal in a short time; and then he came out of its belly, as if it gave birth to a young shark.

22. Then he passed the frigid ocean of snows and over its icy tracts, stretching to eighty thousand yojanas (or leagues) in dimension.

23. He next arrived <at> a spot of solid gold, which was the haunt of gods, and stretched to ten thousand yojanas, and here he met with his end.

24. In this land the prince Vipaschit attained the state of a Godhead, in the same manner as a piece of wood is turned to fire in a burning furnace.

25. Being one of the principal gods, he went to the Lokáloka or polar mountain, which surrounded the globe of the earth, as an aqueduct begirds the base of a tree.

26. It rises to the height of fifty thousand yojanas, and has the inhabited earth on one side of it which faces the sunlight, and eternal darkness reigning on the other.

27. He ascended to the top of the polar mount, which pierced the starry sphere; and as he was seated upon it, he was beheld in the light of a star by the beholders below.

28. Beyond that spot and afar from this highest mountain, lay the deep and dark abyss of infinite void.

29. Here was the end of the globular form of this earth, and beyond it was the vacuity of the sky, of fathomless depth, and full of impervious darkness.

30. There reigns a darkness of the hue of a swarm of black[Pg 682] bees, and as the shade of the black tamála trees; there is neither the stable earth nor any moving body under the extended sky; this great void is devoid of support, nor does it support anything whatever at any time. (This is chaos).

Ráma said:—Please, tell me sir, how this globe of the earth is situated, how and where the polar mountain stands upon it, and do the stars revolve about the same.

2. Vasishtha replied:—As boys build their fancied castles in empty air, so is this world the creation of the imagination of the mind of Brahmá, and no more than this.

3. As the dimsighted man sees the shadow of the moon, and other false sights before his eyes, so the creative Power—Brahmá sees in the beginning, the phantoms of the phenomenal world in the vacuity of its Intellect (like a shadow of the prototype in the Divine mind).

4. As an imaginary city is situated in the mind, and is invisible to the eye; so the notion of the world is posited in the intellect, and not exhibited in actuality.

5. Whenever there is the reflexion of anything whatever in the mind, and arising spontaneously of its own nature (from previous reminiscence); the same presents itself even then and in that state before the sight (as in a dream).

6. As the dimsighted eye, sees false sights in the sky; so the deluded mind, sees the earth and the orbs of heaven (i.e. the heavenly bodies).

7. As the current water flows on the surface of rivers, and there resides the latent fire underneath; so the notions of things presenting themselves as dreams of the mind, are manifested as real ones before the sight.

8. Hence as thoughts and notions of things, occur and subside continually in the mind; so the earth and heavenly bodies, appear incessantly to revolve in their spheres (and the stars to rise and set in endless succession).

[Pg 684]

9. The world is entirely inexistent, to dull and inanimate beings; it is visible to those that have the visual organs but utterly invisible to the blind, and altogether unknown to them that are born as such. It is imperceptible to the insensible, and perceptible only in the same manner as it is presented in the mind. So it is in the power of the mind alone, to represent it in some form or other to one’s self.

10. It is thus according to the mental conception (of some astronomers), that the bodies of stars, are considered to be as large as the earth; and the unreal world (of spiritualist), is believed as a real entity (by the materialist).

11. The world has both light and darkness, owing to the presence or absence of the sun; beyond which there is the great abyss of vacuity, which is a vast expanse of darkness, except where there is a glimpse of Zodiacal light.

12. The polar circle is called the polar mountain, from the protuberance of the poles at both ends; it is termed also the Lokáloka or having a light and another dark side, owing to the course of the sun towards or away from it. Its distance from the starry circle, derives it also of Zodiacal light.

13. Beyond the polar circle, and afar from the sphere of the sky, there is the sphere of the starry frame, which revolves around them at a great distance on all the ten sides.

14. This starry (zodiacal) belt, girds the firmament up and down, from the heavens above to the infernal regions below, in the vast vacuity of space; and extends to all sides.

15. The starry sphere (or belt of the zodiac), turns round the polar circle of the earth, and its nether regions, as it appears to our imagination, and not otherwise (as fixed and motionless).

16. The sphere of zodiacal stars, is twice as distant from the poles, as those are distant from the middle of the earth; in the same manner as the covering crust of a ripe walnut is aloof from the sheath of its seeds.

17. Thus the starry belt is settled at double the distance from the poles, as the polar circle is situated from the equator;[Pg 685] and it turns all about the ten sides, as a bel fruit whirls in the sky.

18. The aspect of the world is according to the modality, in which it is situated in the imagination of Brahmá, and as it is reflected from its archetype in the Divine mind (or its consciousness of it).

19. There is another sphere of the heavens, which is afar from the starry frame, and twice in its extent than that; this is lighted by the zodiacal light and beyond it there reigns a thick darkness.

20. At the end of this sphere, there is the great circle of the universe; having one half of it stretching above and one below, and containing the sky in the midst of them. (This is called the Brahmánda kharpara, or the mundane sphere).

21. It extends to millions of yojanas, and is compact with all its contents; it is a mere work of imagination, and formed of vacuity in the immensity of vacuum (which is the mind of God).

22. The sphere of light turns on every side, of the great circle of vacuity, with all the lightsome bodies of the sun, moon and stars in its circumstance: there is no upside nor downward in it, but are all the same herein.

23. There is no actual ascending, descending nor standing, of any planetary body therein; they are mere manifestations of the intellect, which exhibits these variations in the workings of the mind.

Ráma! I have told you all these by my personal perception of them, and not by any guess-work of mine, because it is by means of their purely intelligent bodies, that yogis like ourselves have come to the clear sight of these things in nature, which are otherwise unknowable to the material body or mind.

2. Thus the world of which I have spoken, appears to us as in a dream, and not in any other aspect as it is viewed by others (As either an imaginary or solid material body).

3. Now whether the world is viewed in the light of a dream or any other thing, it is of no matter to us; since it is the business of the learned, to speak of its situation and what relates thereto (and not of its nature or essence).

4. There are the two poles (merus) situated at the utmost extremities of the north and south of the world; and it is the business of the learned, to enquire into the endless kinds of beings lying between them.

5. These varieties are well known to the people of those particular parts; and not to us here, where they do not appear in their native beauty.

6. The two poles (as said before), standing at the farthest extremities of the globe, limit the earth with its seven continents and seas, and stretch no farther beyond them.

7. Now hear, O Ráma, that the whole body of water on earth, is ten times as much, as the extent of the two continents (lit., valves), which are surrounded by it.

8. The two continents attract the circumambient waters[Pg 687] around them, as the magnet attracts the needles about it; and the water (in its turn), upholds the continents (and islands), as the Kalpa tree supports the fruits upon it.

9. All things on earth are supported by it, as the fruits of a tree are supported by its stem; wherefore every thing on earth falls down on it, as fruits fall upon the ground.

10. Far below the surface of the water, there is a latent heat underneath, which is ever burning without any fuel, which is as still as air, and clear as the flame of fire.

11. At the distance of ten times from it, there is the vast region of air; and as many times afar from that, there is the open space of transparent vacuum.

12. At a great distance from that, there is the infinite space of the vacuity of Divine spirit; which is neither dark nor bright, but is full of Divine Intelligence.

13. This endless void of the supreme spirit, is without its beginning, middle or end; and is named as the universal soul, the great Intellect and perfect bliss (nirvána or insouciance).

14. Again there are myriads of orbs, in the distant parts of these spheres; that appear to and disappear from view by turns.

15. But in reality, there <is> nothing that either appears or disappears, in the uniformly bright soul of Brahma; where every thing continues in the same manner, throughout all eternity.

16. I have thus related to you, Ráma, all about the phenomenal worlds, that are perceptible to us; hear me now to tell you, what became of Vipaschit in the polar region.

17. Being led by his former impressions and accustomed habit, he kept wandering about the top of the mountain (as he was wont to do before); but fell down afterwards in the dark and dismal pit therein.

18. He found himself lying as dead at that spot, when the birds of air, as big as mountain peaks, alighted upon his dead body, which they tore to pieces and devoured at last.

19. But as he died on the holy mount, and had a spiritual body of himself; he did not feel the pains and pangs which are[Pg 688] inevitable upon the loss of the material body, but retained his clear consciousness all along.

20. Yet as his self-consciousness, did not attain the transcendent perceptivity of his soul; he remembered the grossness of his past acts and deeds, and was sensible of them, as any living body.

21. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, for the unembodied mind, to perform the outward actions of the body; and how can our spiritual consciousness, have any kind of perception of any thing?

22. Vasishtha replied:—As desire drives the home-keeping man from his house, and as imagination leads the mind to many places and objects, so the mind of this prince was led from place to place (as his reminiscence portrayed them before it).

23. As the mind is moved or led by delusion, dream, imagination and by error or misapprehension and recital of stories, (to the belief of things); so the mind of the prince was led to the credence (of whatever appeared before him).

24. It is the spiritual or intellectual body (or the mind), which is subject to these fallacies (and not the corporeal body); but the human mind, forgets in course of time, its spiritual nature; and thinks on its materiality (i.e. takes it for a material substance).

25. But upon disappearance of these fallacies, in the manner of the mistaken notion of the snake in a rope; there appears the spiritual body only, in lieu of the corporeal one.

26. Consider well, O Ráma! that the spiritual body is the only real substantiality; because all that appears to exist here beside the intellect, is no existence at all (without the mind, which makes and unmakes them).

27. As the mind of a man going from one place to another, passes on quietly over the intermediate places, and is quite unconscious of them; such is the case with the intellect, which passes to endless objects, without ever moving from its fulcrum, or changing itself to any other form.

[Pg 689]

28. Say therefore, where is there a duality, and what object is there deserving your amity or enmity, when all this totality is but one infinite Deity, and known as the transcendent understanding.

29. The transcendental understanding is that calm and quiet state of the Intellect, which is without the workings of the mind; and though the prince Vipaschit was settled in his spiritual body, he had not yet attained to that state of transcendentalism. (This is Platonism or musing of the soul in itself).

30. He being in want of this percipience, found his mind on the stretch; and with his spiritual body, he saw a dark gloom, as it appears to a foetus confined in the embryo.

31. Amidst this gloom, he beheld <the> mundane egg split in twain, and perceived the surface of the earth, situated in the lower valve thereof. It was a solid substance, as bright as gold, and extending to millions of yojanas.

32. At the end of this he saw the waters, eight times in extent to that of the land; and these in the form of crusts of the oceans, formed the two valves (continents) of the earth (i.e. the Eastern and Western hemispheres).

33. After passing over this, he reached to the region of light, blazing with the sun and stars; emitting flames of conflagration issuing from the vault of heaven.

34. Having passed that region of fire, without being burnt or hurt in his spiritual body; he was led by his mind to another region, where he thought and felt himself to be borne aloft by the winds to his former habitation.

35. As he was carried in this manner, he felt himself to be of a spiritual body; for what is it beside the mind, that can lead any body from one place to another.

36. With this conviction of himself, the patient prince passed over the region of the winds; and got at last to the sphere of vacuum, which was ten times in extent to that of the former.

[Pg 690]

37. Passing over this, he found the infinite space of the vacuum of Brahma; wherein all was situated, and whence all had proceeded, which is nothing and yet something, of which nothing can be known or predicated.

38. Moving along this empty air, he was carried far and farther onward in his aerial journey; until he thought in his mind, he could see from there, all the other spheres of the earth and water, and of fire and air, which he had passed over before.

39. There were again the formations of worlds, and repeated creations and dissolutions of them to be seen in it; and trains of gods and men, and those of hills and all other things; going on in endless succession therein.

40. There was a recurrence of the primary elements, and their assuming of substantial forms; and repetitions of creations, and reappearances of worlds and the sides of the compass.

41. Thus the prince is still going on in his journey through the infinite void of Brahman; and finds the succession of creations and their dissolutions in it to no end.

42. He has no cessation from his wanderings, owing to his conviction and assuetude of thinking the reality of the world; nor does he get rid of his ignorance, which is from God also. (Man is created in ignorance, and barred from tasting the forbidden fruit of knowledge).

43. Whatever you view in your waking, or see in your dream; is the perspicacity of the Divine soul, and ever displays these sights in itself.

44. This world is an apparition of our ignorance, like the spectres that are seen amidst deep darkness; but know that it is the transparent intellect of God which represents it so, and will ever do the same.

45. And as the dark sight of the gross world, as well as the clear light of its transparency, do both of them proceed alike from the selfsame mind of God; it is impossible to conceive, whether it is the one or the other, or both alike.

[Pg 691]

46. Hence, O Ráma, this prince being uncertain of the transparency of the Divine spirit has been wandering for ever more, in the dark maze of his preconceived worlds; as a stray deer, roves amidst the tangled wilderness.

I have heard of the liberation of two Vipaschitas, by grace of Vishnu; and want now to know what became of the two brothers, that have <been> wandering all about.

2. Vasishtha replied:—One of these two, learnt by long habit to subdue his desires, and by his wandering in many islands, had at last settled in one of them, and obtained his rest in God.

3. Having relinquished the sight, of the outward livery of the world, he saw millions of orbs rolling in the vacuity and is still enrapt with the view.

4. The second one (or other) of them, was released from his personal wanderings, by his continuance in the contiguity of the moon, where his constant association with the stag-like mark on the disc of that luminary, changed his form to that of that animal, which he still retains in his situation upon a hill.

5. Ráma asked:—How is it sir, that the four persons of Vipaschit, having but one mind, and the same desire and aim in view, could differ so much in their acts, that brought upon them such different results of good and evil?

6. Vasishtha replied:—The habitual desire of a person, becomes varied according to the various states of his life, in course of time and in different places; it becomes weaker and stronger in degree, though it is never changed in its nature.

7. It is according to circumstances that the selfsame desire or object of a person, is modified in different forms; and whatever of these is greater in its intensity, the very same takes the precedence of others, and comes to pass in a short time.

8. In this divided state of their desires, the four persons of the prince, arrived to four different states in their modes in[Pg 693] life; so that two of them were immerged in their ignorance, the third became a deer, and the last gained his liberation at last.

9. The two former have not yet arrived at the end of their nescience, but have been grovelling in darkness by their blindness to the light of truth; which can hardly dispel the darkness, that is continually spread by ignorance.

10. It is only the light of philosophy, that is able to drive the gloom of ignorance; which however deep rooted it is, then flies at a distance, as the shade of night is dispersed before the light of day.

11. Attend now to what this Vipaschit did in the other world, where he was cast on the coast of gold, across the far distant ocean of sweet waters, and which he mistook for the habitable earth.

12. Beyond this he beheld an orb in the vacuity of Brahmá, which was as he thought the vacuum of the great Brahma himself.

13. Here he was led by his excellent virtues, amidst the society of the learned; and learning from them the visible world in its true light, he was amalgamated into the state of Brahma himself.

14. No sooner had he arrived at that state, than his ignorance and his body disappeared from him, as the sea in the mirage vanishes before the closer view, and as falsehood flies before truth.

15. Thus I have related to you all the acts of Vipaschit, and about the eternity of ignorance as that of Brahma, because it is coeval with him (because the positive idea of knowledge, is always blended with that of its counterpart or the negative idea of ignorance).

16. See the millions of years, that have been passing in eternity, but the mind by its nature, is quite unmindful of their course and number. (So also is the idea of eternity, of which we have no definite idea).

17. As the knowledge of horses is said to be false, when known, so the knowledge of the world (as a separate[Pg 694] existence) is a falsity, but being truly known, it is found to be Brahma himself. (?)

18. There is no difference of avidyá or ignorance, from the essence of Brahma; because the one subsists in the other; for Brahma is the perfect Intellect himself that shows the difference in the modes of intellection. (All differences are displayed in the Divine Mind).

19. Another Vipaschit, that was wandering all about in the universal sphere, could not come to the end of his ignorance (avidyá), in his course of a millennium.

20. Ráma said:—How was it, sir, that he could not reach to the utmost pole of the universe, nor could he pierce its vault to get out of it? Please explain this fully to me, which you have not yet done.

21. Vasishtha replied:—When Brahma was born at first in mundane egg, he broke the shell with both his hands, into the upper and lower halves.

22. Hence the upper valve of the shell, rose too far upwards from the lower half; and so the lower valve, descended as far below the upper part.

23. Then there are the circles of earth, water and air, which are supported upon these valves; while these two serve as bases for the support of other spheres.

24. In the midst of these there is the vacuous sky, which is infinite in its extent, and which appears unto us, as the blue vault of heaven.

25. It is not bounded by the circles of earth and water, but is a pure void, and basis of all other spheres that rest upon it.

26. He passed by that way into the infinite void, as the circles of the starry frame revolve amidst the same; in order to examine the extent of ignorance and to obtain his release from it, as he was taught to find.

27. But this avidyá or ignorance being coalescent with Brahma, is as infinite as the Deity himself; and there she is as unknowable as God, as yet nobody has been able to know her nature. (God and Nature are both unknowable).

[Pg 695]

28. Vipaschit continuing to mount afar and higher in the heavens, found the nature of avidyá or ignorance to be coextensive with the extent of the worlds, through which he traversed on high.

29. Now see how one of these persons was liberated, and another grazing about as a stag; see the other two fast bound to their former impressions, and constrained to rove about the worlds, which they took for realities in their ignorance.

30. Ráma said:—Tell me kindly, O sage, where and how far and in what sorts of worlds, have these Vipaschitas been still roaming, with getting their intermission.

31. At what distance are those worlds, where they are born over and over again; all this is very strange to me, as they have been related by you.

32. Vasishtha said:—The worlds to which the two Vipaschitas are carried, and where they have been roving; are quite invisible to me, notwithstanding all my endeavours to look into them. (It is the terra incognita).

33. So the place where the third Vipaschit is roving as a deer, is also in a land which is known to nobody on earth.

34. Ráma said: you have <said> sir, that the Vipaschit who is transformed to a deer, has been roving on a hill; tell me therefore, o most intelligent seer, where is that hill situated, and how far is it from here.

35. Vasishtha answered:—Hear me tell you, how far off is that world from here, where Vipaschit has entered after passing through the vast vacuity of the supreme spirit; and has been wandering there in his form of a deer.

36. Know it to be somewhere amidst these three worlds, where he has been roving as a stray deer; because this is the vast vacuity of the Divine spirit; in which all these worlds are interspersed at great distances from one another.

37. Ráma rejoined:—How is it consistent, sir, to say with good reason, that Vipaschit was born and dead in this world, and is still roving as a deer in it? (Why did he wander about in infinity, if he were to remain a finite being herein? gloss).

38. Vasishtha replied:—As the whole must well know all[Pg 696] the parts of which it is composed, so do I know every thing every where, which is situated in the all comprehensive soul of God, whereto I have assimilated myself. (Vasishtha means to say, that he knew all in his svánubhava or all knowing mind. Gloss).

39. I know the absent (i.e. all things past and future), and all that is destroyed, as well as all forms of things whether small or great, are all interwoven together and exhibited before me, as if they were the production of this earth of ours.

40. Hence all that I have told you, O Ráma, regarding the adventures of the prince, was the work of his fancy, and took place in some part of this world, where he lived and died.

41. The Vipaschitas all wandered about the other worlds in empty air, and all this was the work of their imagination, which is unrestricted in its flight through boundless space.

42. One of these has happened to be born here as a deer, and it is in the dale of a mountain, somewhere upon this earth. (It is believed that all mortal souls transmigrate to this again, after their wanderings are over in other spheres).

43. The place where the prince is reborn in his form of a stag, after all his wanderings in other spheres were over; is in this orb of earth, where he is placed on a certain spot by an act of unaccountable chance (káka táliya).

44. Ráma said:—If it is so, then tell me sir, in what region of this earth, on what hill and in what forest of it, is this stag placed at present.

45. What is he doing now, and how does he nibble the grass in the verdant plain; and how long will it be, before that veteran seer may come to the remembrance of his former state and past actions.

46. Vasishtha replied:—It is the same stag, which has been presented to you by the ruler of the province of Trigarta; and is kept close in your pleasure garden for your sport.

47. Válmíki said:—Ráma was quite surprised with all the people sitting at the court, upon hearing the sage say so; and ordered his attendant lads in the hall to bring it forthwith before his presence there.

[Pg 697]

48. Then the brute stag was brought and placed before the open court, when the court-people found it plump and fat, and quite tame and gentle. (Lit.: content with its own state).

49. Its body was spotted all over, as with the stars of heaven; and its eyes were as outstretched as the petals of lotus flowers, and by far more handsome than the eyes of beauteous damsels.

50. It looked with its timorous glances, on the blue sapphires which decorated the court; ran to bite them with its open month, thinking them to be blades of grass.

51. Then as it gazed at the assemblage, with its raised neck, uplifted ears and staring eyes through fear; so they raised their heads, pricked up their ears, and looked upon the animal with their open eyes, for fear of its leaping and jumping upon them.

52. At last the king with all his ministers and courtiers, were all amazed at the sight of the animal, and thought it was all a magic, which they saw before them.

53. The wondering eyes of the assembled people, and the shining gems on the persons of the princes, made the court hall appear, as if it were studded with full blown lotuses all around. (The simile of blooming eyes and blossoming lotuses, is common in all Indian poetry).

Válmíki related:—Ráma then asked Vasishtha, to tell him by what means Vipaschit was released from his brutish shape and restored to his human form again.

2. Vasishtha said:—The way by which a person has had his rise, is the only means that conduces to his success, welfare and happiness in life (and a departure from this course, brings on his ruin).

3. Vipaschit had been a worshipper, and it is by his re-entrance into the refuge of that deity only; that his changed form of the stag, may be altered and restored to its former figure, of bright and unalloyed gold.

4. I will now try the means of his restoration in your presence, as you may all witness it with your open eyes; and this stag will of itself enter into the fire before your sight.

5. Válmíki related:—Saying so, the benevolent sage, touched his water pot with his hand, and muttered his mantras upon it in the proper form (i.e. with fixed attention).

6. He thought intently upon the god of fire, with his flashing flames all around him; and immediately there sprang a blaze of fire, upon his reflection on it (in the midst of the royal hall).

7. This was a pure flame, kindled without any coal or fuel, and burning with a rumbling noise, without emitting any smoke or soot or sloe.

8. Brighter and brighter it burnt in its beauty, and shone as a dome of gold, by shedding a golden lustre all about; it was as flushing as the blushing kinsuka blossom, and as glowing as the evening clouds of heaven.

9. The assembled hosts receded backward, upon beholding[Pg 699] the spreading flame; but the stag flushed with the fervour of its former faith, on seeing its adored deity manifest before its sight.

10. As it looked on the fire with its ardent desire, he got rid of his sins, as if they were burnt away by its flames; and then advancing slowly towards it, he jumped at once amidst the blaze, as a lion springs aloft on his prey.

11. At this moment, the Muni moved his mind to meditation, and found the sins of the prince were burnt away from his soul; and then addressed the god, saying:—

12. O lord, that bearest the sacrificial butter to the celestials, recall to thy mind the past acts of the prince, in his faith to thee; and kindly restore him, to his former handsome figure again.

13. As the sage was praying in this manner, he saw the stag to be released from the flame, and running towards the assembled princes, with the velocity of an arrow flying towards its butt end or mark.

14. Having entered into the burning fire, he appeared as a flaming body, and was seen by the assembly to be of a form, as bright as the appearance of an evening cloud.

15. Thus the stag was changed to the form of a man, before the sight of the assembled princes; as a spot of cloud is seen to assume another figure in the face of the bright vault of heaven.

16. It was seen amidst the flame, to assume a figure as that of pure gold; which afterwards took the form of a man, of handsome shape and appearance. (So the funeral fire purifies the soul of its impurities, and gives it a brighter form afterwards).

17. He appeared as the orb of the sun, or as the disc of the moon in the sky; or as the god Varuna in the waters of the deep, or as the evening cloud or rising moon.

18. There was the reflexion of the sun in the pupils of his eyes, as it was reflected on the surface of water, or on a mirror or bright gem; and the fire of his faith, blazed serenely in the sockets of his eyeballs.

19. Shortly afterwards this blaze of light disappeared from[Pg 700] the court, as the light of a lamp is blown away by the breath of wind; or as the tinges of evening clouds vanish in the sky under the shades of night.

20. The man then stood as plainly in the hall, as the idol of a deity is seen to stand in a dilapidated temple (without its brightness); or as an actor is seen behind the scene (without his dress).

21. He stood silent holding a rosary on his hand, and having his sacred thread, hanging down a chain of gold about his neck; he wore a robe of pure white blanched by the fiery heat; and appeared as the bright moon, rising before the assembly.

22. On seeing the brightness of his person and attire, the courtiers all and every one, cried out saying, “O to the lustre”; and because he was as lustrous as day light, he was named, “Lustre” by all.

23. The courtiers also confirmed it by saying that, because he is as bright as brightness itself, let him be styled the “bright or Bhása”, the name that he bore on him ever afterwards.

24. He sat in the hall in his meditative mood, and remembered all the incidents of his past life and former body.

25. The assembly was struck with wonder, and remained quite motionless and speechless and absorbed in thought; as Bhása was reflecting in his mind the adventures of his past life.

26. Then the prince rose from his reverie after a short while, and advanced towards the assembly, under his newly obtained title of Bhása or the light.

27. He advanced at first towards Vasishtha, and saluted him with delight; and then addressed him saying:—“I bow down, sir, before thee, as the giver of my life and light of knowledge of myself.”

28. Vasishtha raised him by touching his head with his hand; and said: “May thy protracted ignorance, O prince, dissipate this day and for ever after”.

29. Victory to Ráma, said Bhása, and bowed down to Dasaratha; who rising a little from his seat, thus accosted him smilingly and said:—

30. Dasaratha said:—You are welcome, O prince! be seated[Pg 701] on this seat; you have wandered through many difficulties of the world, now take your rest here.

31. Válmíki related:—Thus accosted by the king, the prince now bearing the name of Bhása, took his seat on a cushion, after making his salutation, to the venerable sages Visvámitra and others.

32. Dasaratha exclaimed:—O the pains, that Vipaschit has so long undergone, under the thraldom of Ignorance; in the manner of a wild elephant, tied in fetters at his feet by ruthless huntsmen.

33. O to what miseries is man exposed, owing to his want of precise understanding, and by his false knowledge of the reality of these worlds, that are seen to be revolving in empty shape.

34. How wondrous are these worlds, so extensive and so remote, which Vipaschit has traversed out, and how incredible are the pains, through which he has passed so long.

35. O how wonderful is the nature and glory, of the inane Intellect of the vacuous spirit of the Supreme, that exhibits in empty air, the blank thoughts of his all comprehensive mind, as sole and substantial ones (to the apprehension of ignorant mortals).

Dasaratha said:—I understand that Vipaschit has acted unwisely, in taking so much pains in his wanderings for a knowledge of the spheres; because it is all in vain to inquire into unrealities and useless matters, and it was his ignorance or avidyá alone, that led him to the search.

2. Válmíki related:—At this moment the sage Viswámitra, who was sitting beside the king; oped his mouth and said on the subject now under consideration.

3. Viswámitra said:—O king, there are many such men, who without a good understanding, and for want of best knowledge; are apt to think that all things are possible to be known by them.

4. Hence it is that the sons of king Vatadhána, have been wandering in this manner, and for very many years, in search of true knowledge, all over this earth, and without ever being able to arrive at it.

5. It is for exploring the limits of this earth, that they have been employed with ceaseless toil and unwearied labour, as a river runs in its incessant course for ever.

6. This great world (the earth), is situated as an orb in the air, like an imaginary tree of boys growing in the sky, or as a toy ball of fanciful Brahmá, rolling about in empty air.

7. As creeping emmets move about a sugar ball, without falling off from it; so do all living bodies move about their support of this earth, which is sustained in the empty air.

8. Those that are situated on the lower surface of this globe, are moving thereabouts as erectly, as those that are on its[Pg 703] upper side (and though this earth is turning up and down yet no one sides away from it).

9. The sun, moon and planets, together with the starry frame and the heavenly stream (the milky way); are attracted to turn round it incessantly, without ever coming in contact with it.

10. The sky girds and surrounds it on all sides, though the firmament appears to be above our heads, and the earth below our feet.

11. The living beings below the earth, are both moving downward or flying upward, as the beasts and birds on the upper side of it; and the region to which they fly is called the upper sky (whether it be in this or that side of it).

12. There is on some part of this earth, a warrior race by name of Vatadhánas; and there were born three princes of this royal family, in days of yore (and are said to be living still).

13. They were firmly intent like Vipaschit, to know the limits of the visible world; and set out in their journey to explore the same, with a firm and unfailing resolution.

14. They passed from the land to water, and the waters to other lands again; and thus they passed many lives and ages, in their repeated inquiries with their resuscitated bodies in reiterated births (because the steady pursuit of one, follows him in his successive births).

15. Thus wandering for ever all about the earth, they like ants moving on a sweet cake, found no end of it, nor reached to any other spot, beyond the same even in their thought of another one.

16. They are still turning around it in the air, like busy emmets about a roll; and they are yet in the same search without being tired of it. (Alexander said, “Earth is this thy end?” but these princes found no end of it).

17. Because whoever stands on any part of the globe, thinks it as the uppermost, and all other places on every side of it, to be lower than it; and so the antipodes below think themselves as upmost.

[Pg 704]

18. They then said among themselves that, if they could not find the end of the earth all their toil, they must give up the pursuit and remove themselves elsewhere.

19. So it is with this world, O king! which is no more than display of the thoughts of Brahmá; it is a work or creation of the mind only, and a delusion as that of a protracted dream.

20. The mind is the Supreme Brahma, and Brahma is self-same with his very mind; they are both of the form of the intellect, and there is no <more>difference between them, than that of open air and the sky.

21. The intellect operates in itself, like the running waters in whirlpools; and as the eddies and their swelling bubbles, are no other than the very water, so the operations of the mind, are modifications of the mind itself.

22. The sky which is but vacuum, and was a void in the beginning; shows itself in the form of the world; which is neither created nor ever destroyed.

23. Whatever the intellect suggests (from its preconceptions and predilections); the mind (which is the active principle), obeys the same and is inclined in the same way; and continues to view the outer world, as it has ever existed in thought.

24. The visible world is of the same form, and equally imperishable as the intellectual; it is the eternal God that manifests himself in this manner, which is otherwise nothing of itself.

25. There is an atom of the divine Intellect, an infinity of minuter atoms in the shape of ideas, just as there are innumerable stones in the body of a rock; they reside in the spirit of God, and are as translucent as the divine spirit.

26. They abide in their own natures in the unexpanded spirit of God; but they do not live independent of themselves, as there <is> nothing that is separate from the supreme spirit.

27. Therefore this world is said to be the manifestation of the Divine Mind; and this conclusion <is> arrived at by the learned, by means of their logical consideration of the antecedent[Pg 705] and subsequent (i.e. by both their a priori as well as a posteriori arguments).

28. It is strange therefore that the human soul, should sorrow for its degradation and think itself as a different thing, though it is inseparable from the one universal soul.

29. Now let the so called prince Bhása, who is otherwise known as the mighty monarch Vipaschit by his former appellation; what other strange things, he remembers to have seen, in all his wanderings through worlds.

30. Bhása replied:—I have seen many sights, and wandered untired through many regions; and remember also to have felt various vicissitudes in my life.

31. Hear O king, how much I have known and felt, in my course through remote regions in the spacious firmament on high; and know the joys and griefs, which I have enjoyed and suffered, in my transmigrations in different bodies and distant worlds, from a long long time out of mind.

32. It was by favour of the god of fire, and by the good and bad turns of fate; that I have seen a great many scenes, in my course in various forms and lives, like the revolving waters in a whirlpool, with a calm and constant and resolute mind.

33. Actuated by past reminiscence and misled by mistaken view of visibles; I was impelled by my firm zeal to inquire into all worldly things, in the different forms and changes of my body.

34. I had been an arbour for a thousand years, having my senses undeveloped in me, and feeling the rigours of all climates and seasons within myself. I had no mind nor mental action, save those of drawing the sap of the earth by my roots, and expanding myself into fruits and flowers.

35. I had been a mountain stag for a hundred years, with my skin of golden hue, and my ears as flat as leaves of trees; I fed on blades of grass, was charmed with all kinds of music, and being the weakest of all animals of the forest, I could do no injury to any one.

36. I lived for half a century as a Sarabha, a wild animal[Pg 706] with eight legs; I dwelt in the caves of Krancha mountain, and brought on my death by falling down from a craig, in attempting to fight with the raining clouds on high. (The Sarabha is a fabulous beast that dies by jumping down the hill).

37. I had also been born once as Vidyádhara, and had lived upon the table land of Malaya mountains, and amidst the happy bowers of Mandara, redolent with the sweet scent of sandal woods and kadamba flowers. Here I have breathed the sweet air perfumed by gum agallochum, and enjoyed the company of Vidyádharí-fairies.

38. I was born as a cygnet of the swan of Brahmá, and tasted the honey of aureate lotuses for more than a century, and sported on the banks of the heavenly stream of Mandakiní, on the celestial mount of Meru.

39. For a hundred years, I remained by the side of milky ocean, feeling the cooling breezes wafting the moisture of its waves, and the fragrance of the forests and listening to the songs of the songsters of springs, which join to vanish the infirmities and sorrows of life.

40. I was once born as a jackal, in the woods of Kalenjara mountains, and roved about the blossoming gunja and karanja forests; here I was trodden down by an elephant, and was about to expire, when I beheld that elephant to be killed by a lion in his turn.

41. I was at one time transformed to the form of a celestial nymph, and accursed by a siddha to dwell alone in some other sphere; where I lived for the period of half a yuga upon the sahya mountain, smiling with the blooming blossoms of santanaka arbours.

42. I next lived as a Valmika bird of raven, in my nest amidst the karavíra plants, growing on the marshy grounds at the foot of a mountain; and there I passed my solitary life of a hundred years, with a fearful breast and ceaseless scrambles on the dreary rocks.

43. I saw afterwards a level plain somewhere, with shady bowers of sylvan creepers under the shade of sandal trees; and[Pg 707] beheld some females amusing there with swinging, like fruits on the branches of trees, and to be ravished away by the passing siddhas.

44. At another time, I passed my days as an anchorite, under the shade of Kadamba trees at the foot of a mountain; where I dwelt on the meditation of the single object of my devotion, and thus foolishly met my end with the pain of not meeting my object.

45<a>. I saw also this universe to be full of beings, which fill it as fishes people the ocean on every side; the air, sky and light, are all inhabited by beings, as well as this earth of ours.

45<b>. There is another wonder which fills this universe, as the shadow of the sky fills the ocean on all sides; it pervades in the air, water, sky and light, as well in all forms of things on earth. (This is the reflexion of Brahma in all creation, as that of the sky in water. Gloss).

46. I also <saw> another wonder in a woman, who contains the three worlds in her ample womb; and who is pictured with the forms of hills and all things, resembling their reflexions in a mirror.

47. I asked her saying: O thou big bodied and big bellied one! tell me who thou art; to which she replied and said:—know me sir, to be the pure and clear Intellect, that contains all these worlds within herself.

48. She added and said:—O sir, as you see me so wondrous in my form, so must you know all things in the world to be of the same kind; but people who view them in their natural form find them otherwise, unless they look into them in their spiritual light, when the gross forms vanish into nothing.

49. These numberless beings on earth, are continually hearing, even without the directions of the Vedas and sástras, a warning voice arising from some part of their bodies, bidding them what is right or wrong for them to do. (This is called anáhata dhwani or the voice of conscience).

[Pg 708]

50. Nature reigns over all elements like anáhata dhwani. The elements appear immovable at sight, but in fact, they possess inherent mobile forces; no one can assign any cause over them except delusion or máyá.

51. I once went to a place, where there were no females to be found, nor had the people any desire for them; and yet many among the living there were fastly passing away, and many others newly coming to existence.

52. I have seen the wonder of some portentous clouds in the sky, charging against each other with a jarring noise; and pouring down their rains with fragments of things on all sides, which were picked up and used as weapons by men.

53. I have <seen> another wonder somewhere that, these earthly cities and buildings, were passing in their aerial course, amidst a mist of thick darkness; and then vanishing in the air, returning to be your habitations here below.

54. Another wonder that I saw was, that all these men and gods and reptiles, having left their differences of species, came to be of one kind in common with all other beings. (All distinctions are lost in the end). Because all things proceed at first from vacuum, and to this they return at last.

55. I also beheld a spot which was full of light, and shone forth brightly without the lights of the sun, moon and stars. I remember well that effulgent glory, before which there was <neither> darkness nor day and night, and nothing else in existence.

56. I saw also a place never seen before, which was devoid of gods and demons, men and animals of all kinds, it was without the vegetable creation, and habitation of any kind of being; and a world where the present and future, and all worlds are blended into eternity.

57. In short, there is no place which I have not seen, nor any side (of the compass) where I have not been; there is no act or event which I have not known, and in a word there is nothing unknown to me, that is unknown to the knower of all. (The soul that becomes one with Omniscient soul, becomes all-knowing like the same).

[Pg 709]

58. I remember to have heard the jingling sound of the armlets of Indra, which resembled the noise of the rattling clouds on high; or likened the jangling jar of the gems, which glistened on the peaks of the Mandara mountain, in its trepidation of churning the milky ocean.

Bhása continued:—It was once at the foot of the Mandara mountain, that I dwelt as a siddha under the shady bower of Mandára trees; and had been sleeping in the sweet embrace of an Apsara, Mandará by name; when it happened, that the current of a river bore us both away, as it carries down a straw in its course.

2. I supported my partner now floating on the water, and asked her to tell me how could it happen to be so; when she with her tremulous eyes answered me thus, saying:—

3. Here it occurs at the full moon, that this mountain which is sacred to the moon, gives rise to its outlets, which then rush out as rapidly, as ladies run to meet their consorts at the rising of the moon.

4. It was owing to my rapture in your company, that I forgot to tell you of this; saying so she lifted me up, and fled with me into the air, as a female bird mounts into the sky with her young.

5. I was to the top of that mountain, where I remained seven years, with my dried and unsoiled body, as a bee remains unsullied on the pericarp of a lotus flower growing in the bed of the Ganges.

6. I thence saw some other worlds beyond the starry circle, which were encircled by one another like the coatings of a plantain tree. They were bright by their own light, and were peopled by luminous bodies.

7. There were no distinctions of directions nor divisions of daytime (for want of the sun); there <were> no sástras or rules of conduct, nor vedas for religious guidance; there was no[Pg 711] difference of the gods and demigods, but the whole was bright with its own light.

8. I was next born as a Vidyádhara, and lived for twice seven years as an ascetic under the name of Amarasoma, dwelling in the grove of kadamba trees, at the foot of a cloud-capt mountain, which was frequented by aerial cars of the celestials, for their pleasure, the sport and diversion.

9. Then I was borne with the velocity of winds, afar amidst the etherial regions on high; whence I beheld numberless elephants and horses, lions and deer, and woods and forests filled with beasts and birds, all moving along in the form of clouds beneath.

10<a>. It was thus with the force of the bird of heaven—Garuda, that I mounted up to heaven from earth, and passed through infinite space, by favour of the god of fire, in order to see the extensive range of the delusion of Avidyá or Ignorance, which was displayed all around.

10<b>. It was thus by favour of the god of fire, and the fervour of my desire to see the extensive range of the delusion of Avidyá or Ignorance; that I mounted up to heaven from earth, with the force of the bird of heaven—Garuda; and passed through the infinite space, that was spread all around.

11. I felt in myself to fall off once, away and afar from the solar world; it seemed to be an etherial ocean inhabited by stars, amidst which I was situated as one, with the consciousness of my fall and course of time.

12. With the only consciousness of my fall from the sky on high, I felt in myself the sense of falling fast asleep from fatigue; and then in that state of sound sleep of my body, I thought I saw the sensible world in my mind, as if it were in my waking state.

13. I saw again the same world within the horizon, and the same mandára mountain of the gods amidst it; whilst I had been fluttering in the midst of its abyss, as a bird sitting on a slender twig, is shaken and tossed about by the blowing wind.

14. I saw with my eyes to the utmost extent of the sensible[Pg 712] world, and again and again I was led to the sight of the visibles, and enjoyment of the sensibles only (in the repeated transmigrations of my soul).

15. Thus I passed a long series of years, in viewing the visible and invisible objects (both of my waking and dreaming hours); as well as in passing through the passable and impassable paths (of this and other worlds).

16. I could not find anywhere, the limit of this Avidyá or Ignorance, which showed unto me the visibles only (in my waking and dreaming, and in this world and others). It is a fallacy that has taken the possession of our minds, as the apparition of a goblin takes a deep root in the breasts of boys.

17. This and this (i.e. the visible) are not realities, is the firm conviction of all in their right reasoning; and yet the false sight of this and this as a reality, is never to be removed from any body.

18. We find our pleasures and pains, occurring to us every moment, with the changes of time and place; their course is as constant as the currents of rivers, which are ceaselessly succeeding one another.

19. I remember to have seen a world, with all kinds of moving and unmoving beings in it; and a verdant mountain top in the midst, rustling with the blowing breeze, and shining of itself without the light of the luminaries. (This is the pinnacle of the glory of God).

20. This mountain peak is delightsome to solitary recluses, it is quite free, alone and unlimited, and beyond all fear of change or decay. I have never seen in this brightsome world, a glory which is comparable to this divine effulgence.

Vipaschit said:—I saw another great wonder, in some part of some other world, which I will now rehearse unto you; it was a horrible sight that attends on sin, and which I had to see by my blind attachment to ignorance.

2. There is somewhere amidst the vast vacuum, a wonderfully bright sphere, which is quite impassable by you; it is situated in a vacuity like this of ours, and so different from it, as a city in dream differs from one in sight. (Because the romantic view of the vision is not realizable to ocular sight).

3. As I saw rambling in that sphere, in search of the object that I have in my heart, and looking to all sides of the void; I saw a huge and unmoving shadow, like that of a body of locusts spread over the earth.

4. I saw astonished at the sight, and cast my eyes on all sides to see what it was; I came to find the mountainous form of a man, falling fast from the sky; and hurling down like a whirlpool upon the earth.

5. Who can be this person? said I, is it the lord Virát with his mountainous body, or a mountain falling from the clouds? It fills the sky and the whole space of heaven, and hides the light of the day under its all developing shadow?

6. As I saw pondering in me what might this portent mean; (as whether it was the figure of Virát or the form of Brahmá himself); I saw soon after, the bulky body of the sun falling down from heaven, it seemed to be hurled down by the hurricane of desolation and dashing with a hideous crash against the backbone or great belt of the mundane egg of Brahmá.

7. Soon as this hideous and prodigious body, fell down upon[Pg 714] the earth, it filled its whole surface, and covered the face of the seven continents and oceans.

8. I dreaded my imminent destruction, together with that of whole earth under its blow; and determined to enter into the ever burning fire by my side.

9. Then the lord fire—the source of vedas, and my adored divinity in a hundred repeated births, appeared manifest before me in his cooling moon-like form, and said, fear not, no evil will betide thee.

10. I then addressed the god, saying: be victorious, O my lord and adored one in repeated births; save me from this untimely desolation, which is now impending on all.

11. Thus invoked by me, the god responded again saying the same words: “Fear thou not, but rise, O sinless one, and follow me to my region of the empyrean”.

12. Saying so, he made me sit on the back of his parrot, and flew with me up to heaven; by burning athwart a part of the falling body.

13. Getting to the upper sky, I found the body as if it were made of wood, and it was this which struck so much terror below, as it is attended with the falling of a portent—a comet or meteor from above.

14. Then as it felt down in full force, the earth shook beneath its weight, with all trembling waters and tottering mountains, and shaking woods and forests. The mountains burst forth in cataracts, which overflowed on the land, and bored it to horrible holes.

15. The earth groaned from her bowels, and the sky roared on all its four sides; the heavens resounded to the roar, and mountains growled with the fearful howling of all beings, as at the approach of their last doom.

16. The earth groaned under the burden, and all the quarters trembled with fear; the vacuum was filled with the echo of cries rising from the earth, and the Garuda-eagles were on their flight through fear.

17. There arose a harsh and hideous uproar on high, from the loud bursting of the mountains below; and like the crashing[Pg 715] and clattering of the dark and dense clouds of deluge, when they are shattered and scattered, by the blasts of diluvian winds.

18. The earth trembled and roared at the impetuous fall of the hideous carcass, and the resounding sky re-bellowed to the sound from its hundred mouths; the mountains burst out on all sides, and their falling fragments and pinnacles, were hurried headlong, and buried underneath the ground.

19. Its fall was as the breaking down of a mountain pinnacle or fragment, smashing the tops of the lower hills, rending and splitting the ground, and levelling all things on earth with the dust.

20. It perturbed the waters of the deep, and hurled down the hills to the ground; it crushed all living beings, and gave ample range to the sport of the agents of destruction (the Rudras).

21. The falling of the sun upon the earth, and his hiding the face of the continents under him; the crushing of mountains and the breaking down of towering cities.

22. The celestials saw all these from above this earth, which forms one half of the mundane egg, turning to a vacuum form; (i.e. vanishing into the air).

23. As I was looking on that mountainous body of flesh, (i.e. the huge carcass); I observed that the ample space of all the seven continents of the earth was not enough to contain this single body.

24. Seeing this, I applied to the good grace of the god of fire; and asked him saying, Lord what is this and what does it mean.

25. Why did the sun also fall down from heaven, along with that corpse; and how is it that the space of the whole earth and all its oceans, has not sufficient room to compass it?

26. The God of fire replied:—Hold your patience, my son, for a while, until this portentous event passes away; when I will explain this marvellous matter fully to you.

27. Soon as the God had said these words, there flocked an assemblage of the celestials all around us; and it consisted of all[Pg 716] kinds of beings that are born and move about in the aerial regions.

28. There were the siddhas, sadhyas, Apsaras, Daityas, Gandharvas and Kinnaras among them; together with the Munis, Rishis, yakshas and Patres, Matres and the gods also with them.

29. All these celestials then, bowed down their heads in veneration; and all joined with their prostrate bodies to praise the dark goddess of Night, who is the refuge and resort of all.

30. The celestials said:—May that goddess protect us her protégés, who is immaculate and incomparable, and has the grey braids of Brahmá’s hairs, tied at the top of her khattanga ensign, and the heads of the slain Daityas, strung to the neck-chain hanging on her breast; who wears the feathers of Garuda on her head, and who after devouring the world, drinks off the deep also at the end.

Vipaschit continued:—All this time I was looking at the carcass, that had fallen from above, and covered the whole surface of the earth under it.

2. I distinguished that part of its body which was its belly, and had hid in it the whole earth, with all its seven continents and immeasurable mountain.

3. I was then told by the god of fire, that there was no limitation of its arms and thighs, and of the extent of its head; and that it had fallen from beyond the polar region, which <is> inaccessible to mankind.

4. The Goddess who is so much lauded by the celestials, is the manifestation of vacuum, which of itself becomes dry (i.e. is naturally empty and void).

5. She is represented as accompanied by ghosts and furies, as followed by demons and hobgoblins, which walk in her train, and shine as stars and meteors in the open firmament.

6. Her long and muscular arms, are stretched to the skies as the tall pines of the forest; and her eyeballs flash forth with living fire, and scatter the solar beams all around.

7. The flashing weapons in her hands, were jangling in the sky; and her missiles were darting like flocks of birds flying from their aerial nests.

8. Her flaming body and flashing eyes and limbs, glistened with the glare of a bush of reeds set on fire, or as the sparkling of a flight of arrows in the midway air.

9. Her glittering teeth, shed the lustre of the beaming moon, and brightened the faces of the four quarters of heaven, with a milk white splendour; while her tall slender stature, reached to and touched the sky.

[Pg 718]

10. She stood supportless, like the stretching clouds of the evening sky; and was mounted on a dead body, as if she rested on the blessed seat of Brahmá. (Brahma pada the throne of God, Elysium, Valhalla or Nirvána).

11. She shone in her brilliant form, like the crimson clouds of evening; and added to the ocean of the etherial expanse, the burning blaze of submarine fire.

12. She was flaunting in her decorations of human skeleton and bones, and flourishing her weapons of the mallet and others; and darting her arrows all around, as a mountain scatters its flowers all about.

13. She mounted aloft in the air, with her neckchain of human skulls, sounding with a harsh clattering noise; resembling the rattling of stones, falling down a mountain with the precipitate rains.

14. The gods then prayed to her saying: O mother goddess! we make an offering of this carcass to thee; do thou join with thy adherents, and soon take this corpse for your food, and make an end of it.

15. Upon this prayer of the gods unto her, the goddess began to draw in with her inhaling breath, the blood and pith of the carcass into her bowels and intestines.

16. As the goddess was absorbing the dead blood, by her inhalation of it, the red fluid rushed into her wide open month, like the entrance of the evening clouds, into the cavity of the western mountain (of the setting sun).

17. The etherial goddess drank the blood, thus drawn in by her breath; as long as her lean skeleton-like frame, grew fat from her satiety, and she stood confest in her form of Chandika.

18. Being thus filled and fattened, by full draughts of the sanguineous beverage; she had the appearance of a blood red cloud, with flashing lightenings shooting from her eyes.

19. The pot bellied goddess, being then giddy with her bloody drink; became loose in her attire, began to flounce her ornaments, and flourish all her weapons in the empty air.

20. She began to dance and toss about in the air, which was almost filled by the bulk of her body; while the gods kept[Pg 719] watching on her movements, from their seats on the distant border or boundary mountains.

21. Immediately upon this, the whole host of her female ghosts and goblins, composed of Rupikas and others, flew upon the carcass, as the rainy clouds alight upon mountains.

22. The mountainous carcass, was laid hold by the clutches of Kumbhandas, and torn to a thousand pieces by them; while the Rupikas bored its belly, and the yakshas gored its back with their elephantine tusks.

23. But they could not get or break its arms, shoulders and thighs; because these members of its body, stretched far beyond the limits of the mundane or solar system.

24. They could not therefore be reached unto by the ghosts, who are confined within the limits of this world, and could not go beyond, where those parts were rotten away of themselves.

25. As the goddess was dancing in the air, and her hobgoblins were prancing over the carcass; the celestials remained sitting on the mountain tops, and kept looking on this dreadful scene.

26. The disgusting morsels of putrid flesh, and the stench of the rotten carcass filled the air and blood red clouds shrouding the scene, seemed as burning bushes, forming the fuel of the furnace (for roasting the rancid meat).

27. The chopping of the fetid flesh, raised a sap-sap sound; (meaning the sap of the carcass); and the breaking of its hard bones, sent forth a kat-kat noise (purporting to cut them to pieces).

28. The concourse of the demons, caused a clashing sound; resounding as the clashing occasional by the collision and concussion of rocks and mountains against one another.

29. The goddess devoured her mouthfuls of flesh, roasted in the fire that flashed forth from her mouth, and the offals and fragments that fell down from it, covered the earth below with filth; while the drops of blood that distilled from the draughts she had drank, reddened the ether with tints of vermilion hue.

30. The celestial spectators saw their premises, within the[Pg 720] precincts of the visible horizon; and the surface of the continents of the earth, to present the sight of an universal ocean of blood.

31. All the mountains on earth, were covered with blood, which reflected their redness to the cloud on high; which gave the appearance of a red mantling veil, spreading over the faces of the female regent deities of all sides of heaven.

32. The sky below blazed with the flash of the weapons, which brandished in the hands of the goddess all around; and there was no vestige of any city or habitation to be seen on earth. (Lit.: they were lost to sight, but retained in memory: i.e. things absent from sight, are present in the mind).

33. It was an incredible sight to see, that all the moving and unmoving objects of nature should be engrossed and absorbed in the bodies of the ghosts of insatiate death.

34. The dancing demons were waving their arms in air, in a manner as if they <were> weaving nets for catching the aerial birds; and were lifting and dropping them up and down, so as they seemed to measure the height and depth of the firmament.

35. They stretched out the entrails of their victims, from the earth below to the solar circle above; and appeared to measure the distance with lines and cords.

36. The gods seeing the earth thus endangered by the portentous carcase and its surface converted to an extensive sheet or ocean of blood.

37. They felt themselves dismayed and distressed, from their seat above the polar mountain; and beyond the boundary of the seven continents, where the stench of the putrid carcass could not stink into their nostrils.

38. Ráma asked:—How is it sir, that the stench of the carcass could not infect the gods, in their seats on the polar mountain; when the fallen dead body is said to extend even beyond the limits of the mundane system?

39. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O Ráma, that the dead body stretched beyond the limits of the mundane sphere; but its belly lay within the boundaries of seven continents, and that its head and thighs and its head and feet were without it.

[Pg 721]

40. But from its breasts and the two sides and its loins and waist, which lay out of this sphere, one could have a clear view of the polar circle, as well as that of its mountainous top.

41. Sitting in those parts and places, the gods could well behold the pinnacles of the mountain; which were surely bright to sight, and as white as the rainless clouds of the skies (i.e. white as fleecy clouds).

42. Then the maters of furies of heaven, kept on dancing on the wide spread dead body; while the hosts of ghosts were devouring its flesh, as the corpse lay its face turned downwards (i.e. upside down or topsy turvy).

43. Seeing now the streams of reddish blood running around and the putrid stink of rotten body spreading on all sides; the gods all felt sorrowful at heart, and grieved among themselves with exclaiming (as follows).

44. Ah alas! whither hath that earth disappeared, with all the bodies of waters upon her; where are those multitudes of men fled from it, and where are the mountains swept away from its surface.

45. Alas for those forest of sandal, mandara and kadamba woods which had so ornamented the earth! and woe for the flower gardens, and the happy groves of Malaya mountains!

46. Where are those uplands of the lofty and gigantic snowy mountains of Himálaya which appear now to be reduced to lurid clay, by ire of the redhot blood, of the bloody ghost of the carcass.

47. Even the gigantic Kalpa trees, that grew below the Krauncha mountains, in the continent of the Krauncha dwípa; and which had spread its branches up to the Brahma-loka, are now reduced to dirt.

48. O thou lordly milky ocean! where art thou now, that hast produced the moon and the goddess Laxmí from thy bosom; and that didst yield the párijata flower and the celestial ambrosia of the gods of yore.

49. O thou ocean of cards! what has become of thee, that was full with thy waving forest of billows; which rose as high as[Pg 722] mountains, and bore about sweet butter with their foaming froth.

50. O thou mellifluous sea of honey, which was bordered by mountains studded by cocoa-nut trees; whose fruits afforded sweet liquor for the beverage of goddesses, where hast thou and they fled at present.

51. O Krauncha dwípa! that didst abound in Kalpa arbour which were inseparably clasped by the twining ivy of golden hue; say where art <thou> hid with thy towering Krauncha mountain.

52. O Puskara dwípa! where art thou now with thy limpid fountains, which were ever decked with beds of lotus bushes, sported upon by the silvery swans of Brahmá?

53. O where are thy Kadamba groves gone, with their outstretched branches on all sides; and whose sheltered coverts were frequented by aerial nymphs, for their secluded amusements.

54. O where is the Gomedha dwípa gone with its springs of sweet waters, and the flowery gardens about its holy places? And where <are> those vales and dales, which were beautified by Kalpa trees and their golden creepers?

55. Ah! where is the Saka dwípa with its forests of heavenly and ever verdant arbours, the very remembrance of whose fair spectacles, raises in the minds the sense of holiness and the sensations of heavenly bliss.

56. Ah! where are those tender plants, which waved their leaves at the gentle breeze; and where are those blooming flowers, which had brightened the scene all around.

57. The devastation of all these beauties of the landscape, fills our mind with pity and grief; and we know not how much more piteous and painful must it be to the majority of mankind.

58. Ah! when shall we see again, the sugar-cane field beside the sea of saccharine waters; and the hardened sugar candy on the dry lands about; when shall we see the sweetmeats made of molasses and confectionary dolls of sugar.

59. When shall we see again, sitting on our golden seats on Mount Meru the merry dance of the beauteous Apsaras[Pg 723] daubed with sandal paste in their arbours of tála and tamála trees; and wafted by the cooling breeze of Kadamba and Kalpa trees on sylvan mountains?

60. Ah! we remember the memorable Jambuvatí river, which flows with the sweet juice of jambu fruits, and passes through the Jambudwípa to its boundary ocean (i.e. the Indian ocean in the south).

61. I oft remember said one, the giddy song and dance of celestial nymphs, in the thick and shady groves of sailendra-trees, and in the coverts of mountains beside the heavenly stream; and it rends my heart like the lotus flower, as it opens its petals in the morning.

62. Another one said:—Look at this ocean of blood, sparkling like the melted gold on the top of the golden mountain of Meru; and brightening the beams of the rising and setting sun, or as the moon-beams spread over the face of all sides of heaven.

63. Alas! we know not where the earth is gone, with all her circumambient oceans about the continents; nor do we know where that high hill of Himálaya has fled, which was the resort of many rainy clouds, and yielded the lotus flowers on its summit.

64. We know neither where those rivers, forests and groves have gone, which decorated the earth before; and pity for the cities and villages and their people, that are now to be seen no more.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—After the corpse had been partly devoured by the demons, the gods who had been sitting on the polar mount, with Vásava or Indra at their head spoke to one another in the following manner.

2. Lo! the voracious goblins have not yet wholly devoured the corpse; but flung its fat and flesh into the air to prove the paths of vehicles of Vidyádharas; and these being wafted away and scattered about by the winds, appear as huge masses of clouds overspreading the skies.

3. See them also throwing away the relics of their food and drink, over the seven continents and oceans of the earth, and making it again to reappear to view (in the forms of its mud and waters).

4. Alas! that the once delightsome earth, is now polluted by the impure carrion and blood; and covered under the garniture of its forests, as the sky is over shadowed by clouds.

5. The big bones of its bulky body, form the mountains of this earth; and what is this high Himálaya, but the huge back bone of <the> gigantic skeleton.

6. Vasishtha said:—As the gods were speaking in this manner, the demons were employed in the meantime to construct the earth anew with the materials of the carcass, after which they flew in the air, and kept on dancing and flouncing there.

7. As the ghosts were disporting in their giddy dance in the air, the god commanded the liquid portion of the dead body, to be collected together in one great basin of the ocean the abodes of whales and sharks.

[Pg 725]

8. And as this ocean was from the pleasure (gaudium) of the gods, it is thenceforth styled the ocean of wine (or merriment of the deities; in distinctions from the oceans of milk and other beverages).

9. The demons having done their dancing in the pandemonium in air, come down to drink their full draughts of that Stygian pool; after which they repair to their aerial abysm to dance again.

10. The demoniac orgies are still wont, to indulge themselves in drinking of that bloody pool; and to dance in their airy circles, in company with their co-partners. (It refers to strong drink and drunken sots).

11. And because the earth was besmeared, with the fat and flesh (medhas) of the corpse, it is thenceforward termed the mediní or corpus. (The earth is said to have been formed of the flesh of the dead body of the demon Madhu, killed by Hari in the beginning of creation).

12. At <the> last disappearance of the dead body of the demon, there appeared again the succession of day and night; and the lord of creatures having formed all things anew, restored the earth to its former shape. (This is event of the war between the gods and titans of yore).

Bhása said:—Hear now, O lord of the earth, what I then said to the god of fire, from my seat under the wing of his riding parrot, and the answer which the god made to my query.

2. I said, O lord, of the sacrificial fire and sacrifice, deign to explain unto me the mystery of the carcass, and the accompanying events (of the goddess and her demons).

3. The god <of> fire replied:—Attend, O prince, and I will tell you all of what has happened; and relate to you all about the carcass, as it is well known in all the three worlds (i.e. in the traditions of all people).

4. Know there is an eternal formless and transcendent Intellect, in the form of the boundless and formless vacuity; wherein there are countless worlds, subsisting as minute atoms in endless space.

5. This intellectual void, which contains all and every thing in itself; happened of its own spontaneity, to be conscious of its contents in course of time.

6. I conceived by its innate knowledge, the abstract idea of igneous particles of in itself, just as you find yourself to be in the state of travelling in your dream; by thinking yourself as such in the state of your waking. (One dreams whatever he thinks in himself).

7. It was thus that the Divine Intellect saw the particles of fire, as in the unconscious state of its dream; and as one sees the lotus dust (for any thing,) before him in his imagination.

8. Then as this Intellect reflected on the expansion of these particles, it became itself assimilated with them; and evolved[Pg 727] itself in the thought in the shape of powers and organs of sense, in those particles of its body.

9. It then beheld the sensible organs, as receptacles of their particular faculties; and saw the world with all its beings, appearing before it as in its dream; and as we see a city in our dreaming state.

10. There was one among the living by name of Asura, who became haughty and proud of his dignity, he was vain and addicted to vanities, and had no parents nor forefathers of his own.

11. Being elated with giddiness, he entered once into the holy hermitage of a sage, and destroyed and defiled the sacred asylum in his rage.

12. The sage denounced his curse upon him and said “whereas thou hast demolished my abode with thy gigantic figure, be thou now be born as a contemptible gnat, by thy immediate death under my curse.”

13. The burning fire created by the rage of the sage, burnt down the Asura to ashes, even at that moment and on the very spot, as the wild fire consumes the woods, and as the submarine fire dries up a channel.

14. Then the Asura became as air, without his form and its supporting body; and his heart and mind became as insensible as in a swoon.

15. His sensibilities fled from him, and became mixed with the etherial air; and were hurled up and down thereabouts, by the course of the flying winds.

16. They existed in the form of the intelligent and airy soul, which was to be the living soul in connection with the body; composed of particles of the undivided elements, of earth, fire, water and air (or the air in motion as distinguished from the vacuous air).

17. The quintessence of five elements being joined with a particle of the intellect, begets a motion of their own accord as the vacuity of the sky, produces the wind by its breath and of its own nature.

[Pg 728]

18. At last the particle of intellect, is awakened in the airy soul; as the seed developes its germs in connection with the earth, water and air, and in course of time.

19. The understanding (or intellectual part) of the Asura, being fully occupied with the thought of the sage’s curse and that of its having the nature of a gnat; brooded over the reflection of the parts of its body, and became the very gnat in its shape.

20. This puny insect which is born by daylight in dirt, and is blown away by the breath of wind, is the short-lived ephemeral of a day.

21. Ráma asked:—How can living animals be born from other sources (as dirt &c.), if they are but the creatures of our dream as you said before? So please to tell me, whether they have really their birth; or be anything otherwise.

22. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, all living beings from the great Brahmá to the animalcule and vegetable below, have two kinds of birth; the one is that they are all full of Brahma, and the other that they are the creatures of our errors.

23. The false but rooted knowledge of the previous existence of the world, and of all creatures besides, leads to the belief of the regeneration of beings from the reminiscence of the past; and this called the erroneous conceptions of births in the visible world.

24. The other is the viewing of the representation of Brahma, in all things appearing to exist in this non-existent and unreal world; and this called the pantheistic view of the world, and not as a production either by birth or creation of it.

25. Thus the gnat being produced by its delusive knowledge of the world, and its continuance in the same state of blunder; did not allow it to see the one Brahma in all, but led to different views and attempts, as you shall hear just now.

26. It passed half a day of its lifetime in whistling its faint voice, among the humming gnats in the bushes of reeds and long grass; and drank merrily their juice and dews, and sported and flew all about.

[Pg 729]

27. The next day it kept fluttering over a pool of mud and mire, in company with its female copartner.

28. Being then tired with its swinging, it rested on a blade of grass in some place, where it was trodden over by the foot of a deer, which killed him on the spot, as it was by the fall of a rock upon him.

29. Now as it died by looking <at> the face of a deer, it was reborn in the shape and with the senses of the same (from its reminiscence of them).

30. The deer grazing in the forest, was killed by arrow of an archer; and as he saw the countenance of the huntsman in his dying moment, he came to be born next in the same form.

31. The huntsman roaming in the forest, happened to enter into the hermitage of a hermit, by whom he was reclaimed from his wickedness, and awakened to the light of truth.

32. The muni said:—O erring man! why did you roam so long, afflicting the innocent deer with your arrows; why do <you> not rather protect them, and observe the law of universal benevolence in this transitory world?

33. Life is but a breath of air, and overhung by the clouds of calamities, and is as frail as a drop of falling water; our enjoyments are a series of clouds interspersed by fickle and flickering lightnings; youth is fleeting and its pleasures are as the gliding waters, and the body is as transient as a moment; therefore O my child! attain thy felicity while in this world, and expect thy nirvána-extinction at the end.

The Huntsman said:—Instruct me now, O sage, the way to my salvation from misery; and teach me the best mode of conduct, which may neither be too difficult nor too facile to practice.

2. The sage replied:—Now be submissive to me, and throw away your bow and arrows; and betaking yourself to taciturnity and conduct of sages, be free from trouble and remain herein.

3. Vasishtha related:—Being thus advised by the sage, the huntsman threw away his bow and arrows; and betaking himself to the conduct of sages, remained still even without asking for food.

4. In course of a few days, his mind turned to the investigations of sástras; as a full blown flower enters into the minds of men, by means of its far smelling fragrance.

5. Once he asked his preceptor, O Ráma, to tell him, how and in what manner, outward objects come to be seen within us in our dream.

6. The sage said:—This very question, O my good fellow, had also arisen at first under my scrutiny; how these shadows of things beyond us, rise like the bodies of clouds in our sleeping hours in the sphere of our minds.

7. I then applied to my meditation, and practiced the closeness of my attention for my introspection into this matter; and steadily sat in my padmásana posture of folded legs, and intensely intent upon investigation of this incident.

8. Sitting in this manner, I stretched my thought all about[Pg 731] and afar; and then retracted them, into the recess of my mind; as the rising sun stretches out his beams in the morning, and afterwards draws them back into its disc in the evening.

9. I sent forth my breathings in quest of knowledge, and then called to myself; and thus continued in exhaling and inhaling my breaths, as flowers let out and contract their fragrance by turns.

10. My breath being accompanied with my mind, was reposed in the air before me; and then it was with the air inhaled by the pupil sitting before me, and intromitted into his nostrils.

11. Thus my breath being mixed with his, was admitted into his heart; as a snake is drawn in by the breath of a bear, sitting with his wide open mouth at the entrance of his hole.

12. Thus I entered into his heart, by means of my vehicle of my breath; and was put into difficulty of being confined therein, by my folly of following my breath in its passage into his breast.

13. I passed there amidst the arteries and aorta, and was led through all the conduits and blood-vessels into all the nerves and veins, both large and small and inside and outside the body.

14. I was at last confined in the cage of the ribs on both sides of the body, and had the fleshy masses of the liver and spleen presented before me. This was the painful habitation of my living soul, and these were as potfuls of meat set before it.

15. My intestines kept coiling within me with a hissing sound, and were surrounded by a flood of red hot blood continually flowing and boiling, like the waves of the ocean heated under the hot sunshine.

16. I had fresh supplies of sweet scents, incessantly borne to my nostrils by the blowing breeze; and these tended to infuse both life to my body, and sensibility to my soul.

17. But then I was tormented as in hell-fire, by the boiling blood, bile and phlegm; in my dark and dismal dungeon. (Which was moreover infected by the stink of dirt within).

[Pg 732]

18. It is the free and slow passage of the vital airs through the lungs, that regulates the circulation of blood in all parts of the body; and this determines the state of the bodily humours, a derangement of which tends to generation of future diseases.

19. The vital airs pushing against each other, burst forth in explosion within their cavities; while the culinary fire is burning as the submarine blaze, through the tubular stomach, resembling the hollow pipe of a lotus stalk.

20. The external air carries the particles of things, through the outer organs of sense into the body; and these then enter into the mind, either in their gross or pure state, as thieves enter into a house at night.

21. The chyle is carried with a chyme by the internal winds, to all parts of the body by the passage of the intestines; as the outer air bears the low and loud sounds of songs in all direction.

22. I then entered into his heart, which is difficult of access, and I passed therein with as much jostling, as a strong man makes his way amidst a thickly crowded throng of men.

23. Soon afterwards I found the sight of some shining substance, at a distance from the heart (i.e. the culinary fire); as a man scorched by sun shine, finds the sight of cooling moon in the gloom of night.

24. It was the spiritual light, which reflected like a mirror all this triple worlds in itself, and threw its rays upon all things therein; it was the essence of whatever there is in existence; and the receptacle of all living souls.

25. The living soul or life, says the sruti pervades the whole body, as the fragrance of a flower runs through all parts of it. Yet it is the heat of the heart in which it chiefly resides, as the perfume of the flower dwells in the pistils, after the blossom is expanded by the solar heat.

26. I then crept unperceived into that heat, which was the cell of the living soul; and was there preserved by the vital airs from extinction, as a burning lamp in a lantern, is preserved by its interior airs from its being blown out or extinguished. (Because the light is put out in a receptacle).

[Pg 733]

27. I entered into that heat as fragrance passes into the air, or as the hot wind pushes into the cold air, or as water rushes into a pot (i.e. I pass through several sheaths, to the seat of bliss).

28. I passed into the second sheath, which is as bright as moon light and as clear as a spot of white cloud; and thence I ascend to the fair sheaths known by the names of the cells of butter, sweets and milk-white water.

29. Being tired with my arduous passage through these sheaths, I returned and rested in the genial warmth of my breast, where I saw the full view of the world, appearing as a dream before my sight.

30. It showed the images of the sun and moon, and the pictures of the seas and hills, with the shapes of gods and demigods and human forms; it presented also the sights of cities and countries, and the face of the sky on all sides around.

31. It exhibited also the oceans with their islands, and the course of time and seasons and all moving and unmoving objects to my view.

32. This vision of my dream, continued steadfast and quite alike even after I was awake, wherefore I remained in the same state after my sleep as I had been when sleeping, because the view recurred to me in my waking state, as it had occurred to me in my sleep. (i.e. The world is but a waking dream).

33. Now listen to me, O huntsman, what then I did. I said to myself, “what, is this a waking dream I see before me?” and as I was thinking in this manner, I had this knowledge of it awakened in me.

34. Verily it is the representation of the Divine Intellect, and it is the manifestation of the Deity himself; and all these objects under the different names, are but manifestations of the Divine spirit in various shapes in the world.

35. Wherever there is the substance of Intellect, there is the cosmical image of the Deity impressed upon it; in its empty vacuous form, which it never forsakes (for aught of a gross nature).

36. Ah! it is now I perceive, said I to myself, that all these[Pg 734] appearances passing under the names of the world; are mere representations of the intellect, in the form of a passing dream.

37. It is a little expansion of the essence of the intellect, which is termed a dream (or an imperfect view of things); and it is also a greater expansion and extension of the same, which is said to <be> waking; both being the display of the self-same intellectual essence.

38. A dream is said to be dream in the waking state, and not while one continues in his dreaming state, when it appears as waking; so our waking is but a dream, whence the two states of our waking and sleeping dream.

39. Even our death is a dream, which continues with our intellect even after our death; because the intellect which resides in the body, does not die even in a hundred deaths of the body; for who has ever heard of the death of the soul (which is same with intellect) of any body.

40. This Intellect is a void and vacuous substance, dwelling in and expanding with the body; it is infinite and undivided, and remains indivisible and indestructible, both with as well as without the destructible body.

41. The vacuous particle of the intellect, which is indestructible by its nature, and shines forth eternally and ad infinitum by itself; has the so called world for its pith and sap and ever attached to itself.

42. The vacuum of the intellect, contains within its bosom, the minute particles of ideas; each of which represents a part of the great variety of objects, that compose its totality (“as parts of an undivided whole”).

43. The soul breaking off from its view of the visibles, rests in its receptacle of heart; and sees the various sights in its dream, which are unfolded by the intellect before it.

44. Again the soul being inclined to the outer mind of sights, exposed before it by its own intellect; it comes to see the visions of the external objects, which pass under the phenomenal world.

45. The soul sees in itself and in the same state, the sights of all things both within and without it; such as, this earth and[Pg 735] sky, the winds and waters, the hills and cities, and all things spread on all sides.

46. As the solar disc which is situated in the heaven above, appears also in the waters below in full blaze; so the soul is situated both in the inside and outside, in the form of the world, (or with the form of imprest ideas in it).

47. Therefore knowing that it is the intellectual soul, that sees the internal dream and the external world in itself; whoso abstains from craving anything is surely blest (because he has every thing in himself. Every soul or mind being full of the thoughts and sights of all things in itself, can be no more in want of anything).

48. The soul is both inseverable and uninflammable (i.e. it can neither be cut asunder nor burnt away); and whoso says otherwise, he must be betrayed by the delusion of duality, as a boy is decoyed by the deceitful yaksha (hocus-pocus).

49. He who sees his inward soul, to view the world internally in itself, is said to be dreaming in himself; and whoso finds his soul looking outwardly on the external world, is known to be waking.

50. Thinking so for regarding the dreaming and waking states, I was inquisitive to know the state of sound sleep, and went on making my inquiries therein.

51. But I thought of what good is the sight of the visible to me? Better remain quiet in myself, because it is the thoughtless oblivion, and consciousness of self, <that> is true insouciance or the stupor or susupti—somnum or hypnotism.

52. As the hair and nails of the body, are never thought of, though they are well known to belong to and to be attached to it; so the mind is quite unconscious of all material and immaterial objects in nature, in its state of sound sleep when it rests in its self-consciousness alone.

53. Tired with the rambles and sights of my waking and dreaming states, I sought my quiet rest in the state of my thoughtless self-consciousness; and this being the sole aim and end of sound sleep, there is no other meaning of the susupti hypnotism.

[Pg 736]

54. It is possible even in the waking state, to have this sound sleep of susupta hypnotism; by our determination of thinking of naught, save that of sitting quiet in one and same state (of abstractedness).

55. The state of abstraction being arrived at, is termed susupti—sound sleep; but when the sleep is light (Vikshepa), it is called swapnam—somnum or dream.

56. Having ascertained my torpor to the hypnotic susupti, I was resolved to seek after the turíya or fourth state of supreme bliss; and with this resolution, I set out in search of it with my best introspection and diligence.

57. I tried my utmost, but could get no indication of its true form and feature: and found out at last, that it was not to be had without our clearsightedness, as the sunlight is imperceptible to the dimsighted eye.

58. That is called clearsightedness, wherein our view of the world, as it appears unto us is utterly lost; and whereby we see in that light in which it exists in the Divine Mind.

59. Therefore the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are all included under this fourth state; wherein the world is seen as it exists, in the light of a nihility.

60. This then is the turya or ultimate view of the world, that it is produced by no cause and from nothing; but it is Brahma himself that exists in this state of tranquillity, from all eternity.

61. The impossibility of the pre-existent and primordial causes, precludes the possibility of the production of anything and of the creation itself; it is the Intellection of the intellect only, that gives rise to the conception of creation; as it is the nature of water to assume its fluidity and exhibit its dilation.

The ascetic sage continued:—I then thought of being united with his consciousness, and breathed out the breath of my life to be joined with his, as the ripe mango sends forth its flavour, to mix with the fragrance of lotus flowers.

2. I did not forsake my vital heat (or energy), until I entered into his intellect; and began with infusing my outward sensations, into the organs of his external senses.

3. I then attracted my outward sensations, by the internal sensibility of my heart, and mixed them with those of his, as a drop of oil is mixed with and diluted in water.

4. As my sensuousness was intermingled with his sensations, I became sensible of a duplex feeling of all external objects, which appeared in their reduplicated forms to my senses.

5. All things on all sides seemed to be doubled about me, and there appeared two suns and two moons to be presented to my sight. So the heaven and earth appeared in their two fold forms before me.

6. As one face is seen as two in some glasses, so all things presented their double forms to the mirror of my eyes. And all these biplex shapes seemed to be as closely united together as the world (i.e. the body and mind).

7. And as the same intellect resides in the form of oil in two sesame seeds, so I saw the two worlds mixed up together with my intellect united with his in his body.

8. And though my consciousness was united with his in the same body, yet it was not wholly assimilated with his (owing[Pg 738] to the difference of our desires); but they view the world respectively, in the different lights of milk and water (i.e. as appearing pleasant to the one and painful to the other).

9. Yet as I looked awhile into his consciousness, and compared and measured it with mine; they were both found to be the same thing and of the self same essence. (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves in connection with others).

10. My consciousness was joined with his in the same manner, as one season joins with another (at its end); or as the confluence of two rivers runs together, and as the smoke mixes with the clouds, or the wind carries the fragrance of flowers with it.

11. This our consciousness being mixed up together, the double view of the world now became one; just as the erroneous sight of the two moons in the sky, is soon changed to one upon aright its right view.

12. Then my power of discernment which was in his person, became finer and finer without wholly losing itself in his, and resided together in his very body.

13. Afterwards the faculties of the mind which resided in his breast, were found to be directed to the observation of external objects; and to take delight in noticing the occurrences of the day (i.e. the present objects).

14. He being at rest from his weariness, after taking his meal and drink; felt drowsy and inclined to sleep, as the lotus flower shuts its petals at nightfall, after sucking the nectarious liquid of the lake.

15. He withdrew his mind from observing occurrences, that circulated all about the busy scene of the external world; as the setting sun retrenches his rays from the face of the world, as he goes to take his rest in the evening.

16. The functions of his senses receded into heart, and the operations of his mind retired to his brain, and remained hidden therein, like the members of a tortoise drawn inside its shell.

17. His eyelids were closed, as his heart had shut up; and he remained as dead as a lifeless block or as a figure in painting or statuary.

[Pg 739]

18. I also followed the course of his mental faculties, and settled with them in his mind, and my senses being under the direction of the mind were reposed in the recess of his heart. (The sensations are said to pass from their organs, and run through the veins and arteries to the recess of the heart).

19. Then insensible of all outward perceptions, and their conceptions too in my mind; I remained with that heat (or spirit) in me, as sleeping on a soft bed, and perceiving naught but a void all about me. (This is termed the blissful state of ánanda-maya—felicity).

20. And as the breathing of our vital breath, was neither obstructed in the aorta, nor passed with rapidity through the lungs, as it does in cases of excess in eating and drinking and fatigue, it passed evenly by its passage of the nostrils.

21. Then our souls remained with the supreme soul in the breast, and kept the course of the naturally ungovernable mind under subjection (of the blissful soul).

22. The soul is then employed in its consciousness of supreme bliss in itself, and takes no notice of the actions of others; and the body also then rests in perfect blissfulness, in that state of sound sleep. (Sound sleep of hybernation or hypnotism is the perfect rest of the body and soul, when undisturbed by dreams).

23. Ráma asked:—Say sir, what does the mind do now in its subjection under the vital breath, which was the cause of its operations in the waking state? The mind has no form also beside the breath, how then does it subsist without the same.

24. Vasishtha replied:—Even so, there is neither the body beside its being the notion of one’s self; it is the imagination of the mind alone that makes the body, just as the dream causes the appearance of a mountain and other things. (There is no existence of the mind independent of the vital air of breathing. Gloss).

25. So there is not the mind also in absence of its idea or thought of something; as there is no production of the visible world, for want of its causes at the beginning of creation.[Pg 740] (Therefore the phenomenal world is only the effect of our previous reminiscence. Gloss).

26. Therefore all these are forms of Brahma, as he is the soul of all; and the world itself is not otherwise than the image of God. (Hypothesis of theological Pantheism, that all things are manifestations of God).

27. The mind and body are both Brahma, to them that know the truth; though they are otherwise to our knowledge of them, than what they are in theirs. (The common knowledge of them, is that of Soulism).

28. The manner in which the triple world is Brahma, and how he is the soul of all these varieties; is as you, O intelligent prince, shall now hear me to relate unto you.

29. There exists for ever the only pure Intellect (or Intelligence), which is of the form of infinite vacuum; and it is that alone which shows itself always in all forms, without being either the world itself or its visible appearance. (The formless God exhibits all forms).

30. The Lord being omniscient, took upon him the form of hypostasis of the mind, without forsaking his nature of pure intelligence, and exemption from disease and decay (which the material body is subject to).

31. Then as the Lord thought upon the movement of his mind, he assumed the substantivity of the vital breath upon himself; and know, O Ráma, that best knowest the knowable, that these are but modalities of the selfsame being of God.

32. Now as this inflation of the air, appears to be a model form of the Divine essence; so the sensations and bodily perceptions, and the entities of space and time, are but various modifications of the same being.

33. Thus the whole world is entirely the formation of the Divine Mind, and as this mind is the very intellect of the supreme Brahma; so the totality of creation is only the expansion of the mind of Brahma himself.

34. The formless Brahma who is without his beginning and end, who has no reflexion of himself, and is free from disease and decay, is the quiet intellect and the only quiescent Ens of[Pg 741] Brahma, that was the whole universe for its body. (Whose body nature is, and God the soul. Pope).

35. The supreme being <is> omnipotent, and so the mind also retains its potency every where, though it remains as empty air.

36. The volitive mind is Brahma, which immediately produces in itself, whatever it wills at any time; and the reproduction of every thing in the mind, is a truth too well known even to boys.

37. Now behold, O Ráma the almighty power of the mind, which at first made itself (or became) a living being by its breathing; and then an intelligent being, by its power of thinking; and next became the living soul, with its body; it made the three worlds, and became the prime male in the form of Brahmá; it became embodied from its aerial form, in the shape of Virát; thus it created every thing in itself of its own will, as men produce all things in their imagination, and see the cities of their fancy in dream.

Vasishtha related:—Whatever the mind wills, regarding the creation of the world, the same immediately appears before it; whether it be the production of the non-existent to view, or annihilation of existing ones, or the representation of one as the other—pratibháshika.

2. [Now in an answer to Ráma’s question, “how does the mind subsist or have its action or thought without being moved by the vital breath”, he says that] whenever the mind fancies itself as the vital breath, and can neither subsist nor do any thing without its being actuated by the air of respiration; it is then said to be subject to vitality (i.e. to exist with the breath of a living being and no more).

3. It thinks it cannot live long without the association of respiration (as in the state of transient and breathless dream) but must come back to its life and living action (of thinking) with the return of breathing. (The thinking power of the mind is suspended with the breathing, in the states of dreaming and wondrous sight seeing).

4. Again as the mind fancies itself to be accompanied with the vital breath in some living body; it finds itself instantly joined with same, and beholds the world rising as an enchanted city to view.

5. The mind thinks of the convenience of its union with the vital breath and body; and with this persuasion it is pleased to remain for ever as a triplicate being, combined with its intellectuality, vitality and corporeality.

6. Know now that the uncertainty of knowledge, which, keeps the mind in suspense, is the cause of great woe to mankind;[Pg 743] and that there is no way of getting rid of it except of the true knowledge of tattwajnána.

7. He who has the knowledge of the distinction of his self and another (i.e. of the ego and nonego—the subjective and objective as different from another); can have no redress from his error, save by means of his spiritual knowledge of the only spirit.

8. There is no way to true knowledge, except by means of the investigations of liberation; therefore be employed with all vigilance to inquire into the means of liberation.

9. Verily the very conceptions of ego and alias I and another are erroneous, and proceed from utter ignorance; and there is no other means to remove them, except by means of liberation. (The knowledge of ego and tu is the bondage of the soul: and the want of egoism and tuism, leads it to its liberation from all).

10. Hence any thought which is habitual to the mind, comes to be firmly impressed upon it in time; and hence the idea that the vital breath is one’s life and all, makes his mind dependent upon the breath. (i.e. As the thought of one’s being this or that, makes him as such; so the firm belief of the mind as breath, makes it subject to the same).

11. So also when the body is in a healthful state with its vitality, the mind is dependent on it and has its free play; but being in ill health, it feels its life embittered and forgets to know itself in its true nature.

12. When the respiration is quick in discharging the duties of the body, and the mind is engaged in its busy thoughts, then neither of them <is> capable of meditation, unless they are repressed in the breast.

13. These two the mind and respiration, stand in relation of the car and driver to one another, and what living being is there, that is not driven along by them in their train?

14. It was in this manner that the supreme spirit, hath ordained the mind and vital breath, in the very beginning of creation; and therefore this law of their co-operation, continues unaltered to this day.

15. Hence the mind and vital airs are acting in concert in[Pg 744] all living bodies, and conducting them at all times in all places in their stated course or action all along (except those of yogis who have repressed them under their subjection).

16. The co-equal course of both, serves to the regular conduct of the functions of life (as in the waking state); but their unequal course, produces dissimilar effects (as that of dreaming when the mind alone is active); and the inactivity of both causes the inertness of the body and soul (as in the state of sound sleep).

17. When the intestines are blocked by the chyle of food taken into them, and the breathing becomes dull and slow; the mind also becomes calm and quiet, and then ensues the blissful state of sound sleep.

18. When the stomach is filled with food, and the lungs are languid with weariness, the breathing then remains without its inflation, and brings on <a> state of sweet and sound sleep of susupti or hypnotism.

19. Again when the intestinal parts are cool and phlegmatic, or exhausted by effusion of blood owing to some sore or wound, and the breathing being stopped in the body, there comes the state of numbness of sleep.

20. The ascetic said:—Then I had entered into his heart, it became all dark to me as night; and he fell into a sound sleep, from his satiety with the fulness of his food.

21. I was there assimilated into one with his mind, and lay in deep sleep with himself without any effort of my own.

22. Then as the passage of his lungs was re-opened, after digestion of the food in his stomach; his breathings resumed their natural vibration, and he began to breathe out slowly and softly in his slumbering state.

23. After the sound sleep had become light and airy, I beheld the sunny world arising out of my breast, and appearing manifest before me in my dream.

24. This world seemed to rise out of the troubled ocean, and to be filled with water (seas) upon its surface; it was released from the darkness of diluvian clouds, which had enveloped it, like the mists overhanging on oceans.

[Pg 745]

25. There was a hurricane blowing over it, bearing aloft the rocks and stones, in its whirling and uproarious course; and carrying away uprooted arbours, with the furze and grassy turfs along with them.

26. It was carrying away and casting all about, the fragments and remains of the last conflagration of desolation; and hurling down the detachments of celestial cities from high.

27. Then as I was looking at a certain place, I found my self situated with my consort in one of the abodes of a splendid city rising at that spot.

28. And there as I was sitting in company with my consort and children, and attended by my friends and servants, and supplies with dishes and cups of food and drink, I was all on a sudden carried away by the waves of the deluging waters.

29. The flood swept me away together with the edifice and the city, wherein we were situated; and we were floating on the tops of mountainous waves, and buffeting in the water.

30. There arose a loud dashing noise louder than the roaring sea; I was stunned by the stridor, and was insensible of the fates of my family.

31. Men were driven away and hurled down into the whirling eddies, and were buried deep into the dreadful mud, with their wailings and loud cries, with the beating of their breasts.

32. The houses and huts were breaking and cracking, their beams and posts were splitting, the pillars and supports were bursting, and the roofs and coverings were falling down, while the females were looking out with their faces fixed at the windows. (i.e. Women stared from within the doors and windows and dared not to stir without).

33. As I was looking awhile at all this, being affected at the sight; and was weeping sorrowfully at the event, I saw the whole edifice falling down on the ground.

34. The walls on the four sides broke down, and buried the old and young and female inmates under them; and these were borne away by the waves at last, as the impetuous waterfall carries away the shattered and scattered stones to a hundred different ways.

[Pg 746]

35. I was then blown away into the waters of the deluge, leaving behind me my family and friend; and accompanying only my mind and vital breath with me.

36. I was tossed about by the waves, and borne away to the distance of leagues after leagues; and was thrown upon the floating woods, which roasted me by their inburning wildfire.

37. I was dashed against the floating planks and timbers, and slashed in many parts of my body, then falling into a whirlpool I was hurled into the abyss of pátála.

38. Being thus tossed all about, and hurled up and down, I had been for a long time, buffeting amidst the waves and waters, and their gurgling, roaring and rumbling sounds.

39. I was then buried under the mud, caused by the friction of the drowned mountains against one another; and was again lifted upward like an elephant, by the influx of a flood of water.

40. As I was halting on a hill covered with foam and froth; immediately I was run over by a rush of water, as a man is overtaken by his enemy.

41. Being then ingulfed in the water, and carried away by the waves and current wheresoever they pleased, I lost the sight of whatever I was seeing, and was greatly dejected in my mind.

42. At this moment there, I had come to know by my reminiscence, that <a> certain muni will lecture to the public, the Vasishtha’s address of Ráma hereafter.

43. I remembered my former state of holy trance (samádhi) and exclaimed; O, had I been an ascetic in another world.

44. I have entered into the body of another person, in order to see the sights in his dreaming; and all that I am now seeing (of this flood and others), is no more than a dream, and mere error of the mind and falsehood.

45. It is from our habitual bias in the present scene, that I believed these falsehoods as true in me; and though I was troubled to see myself to be borne away by the flood in my[Pg 747] dream; yet I feel myself happy at present to find, it was but the unreality of a dream.

46. What I saw as water, was the whirling eddy in the ocean of the universal deluge, and as false as the water of mirage; and the hills and woods, and the cities and towns, that were swept away by the flood, were as false as any visual deception.

47. There were the gods and aerials, men and women, and huge snakes also borne away by the flood; and the great cities and mansions of the rulers of men (i.e. royal edifices), all floating upon the waters.

48. I saw the mountain merged in and mixed up with the waters, and being battered and shattered by the waves; I saw the approaching dissolution of the world, and thus considered within myself.

49. There is even the god Siva with his three eyes, swimming upon and swept away as a straw by the waves: O fie for shame! that there is nothing impossible for the fates.

50. Fragments of houses floating upon the waters, looked like lotus flowers flaunting under the sun-beams.

51. It was astonishing to see the bodies of Gandharvas, Kinnaras, and of men and Nágas, floating on the waters, like swarms of bees fluttering over lotus-beds in the lake.

52. The fragments of the splendid edifices of the gods and demigods and others, decorated with the ornamental works of the vidyádharas, were floating like golden vessels on the wide expanse of the ocean.

53. The god Indra was floating on the glassy water, as if he were lying in his crystal palace; he mounted over the waves, as if he rode on his elephant; and was swinging on the surges as upon his cradle.

54. The waves rising to the sky, were washing the faces of the stars, and the winds were scattering them all about; as they drop down the flowers of the garden of Eden on the mansions of the gods, and as men strew the ground with fried rice.

55. Waves as high as mountains rose to the sky, and then their breakers flying aloft like stones flung by ballistas, fell[Pg 748] upon the lotus seat of Brahmá, and turned it about with the god also, who was sitting upon it in his deep meditation.

56. The clouds were roaring aloud with deep and appalling thunder, and the billows were flashing like frightful lightnings in the air; elephants, horses, and ferocious lions were wandering in the atmosphere, and forests as large as the earth, were floating in the sky.

57. The dark blue waves of over-flowing waters, pushed with such violent force against one another; as if the god of destruction was propelling them one after another to the act, of utter annihilation (or as the powers of destruction were propelling one another).

58. The waves were carrying down into the deep, the gods, men, and Nágas, together with their abodes in heaven, earth and the regions below.

59. The irresistible flood having flooded over all sides, of earth, heaven and the infernal region, the bodies of the gods and demigods, were all floating together like shoals of fishes; and their heavenly cars and vehicles were swimming over on the surface of the waters, as in the field of battle.

60. The body of dark blue waters, resembled the azure form of Krishna; and their foaming froths, likened the milk white calves about him. (The text is utterly meaningless).

61. The waves pushed one another, with the burber sound for drowning every thing; and the females both of the gods and giants were heard to wail aloud with cries of hola and howling. (Hola is the exclamation of wailing, corresponding with waílá in Persian).

62. The loud cries raised by all, at the falling down of their houses, were resounded by the waters on all sides; and the clouds roving over the rolling waves, appeared as the covers of fallen and floating domes.

63. Ah it was piteous to behold, how the whirling waters of whirlpools, hurled down even the gods into the deep; and how Indra, Yama, and Kubera, breathed out their last breaths in the form of flying and flimsy clouds.

64. There the learned and saintly persons, were carried[Pg 749] away with the ignorant, in the shape of dead bodies and devoid of their pride; and the cities of the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, and Indra, were swept away, all broken and crushed to pieces.

65. The bodies of weak women, were washed and carried over by the waves, and there was no body left to save them from the grasp of death; which devoured them altogether under his horrid jaws.

66. The floods which flowed at first with their serpentine course into the caves of mountains, overflooded them to their tops at last; and the cities of the gods, which floated at first as boats upon the waters on mountain tops, were hurled to the bottom at last.

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

The Huntsman said:—Tell me sir, how a sage as yourself, could be exposed to that state (of the dream or delusion of the Deluge); and why were you not delivered from your meditation.

2. The sage replied:—At the end of the Kalpa age, all kinds of beings meet with their destruction; namely, there is a termination of the erroneous forms of the worlds, and a cessation of the luminous bodies in the heaven.

3. Sometimes the dissolution takes place gradually at the end of a kalpa; and at others it comes on all on a sudden, with a simultaneous turmoil and disorganization on all sides.

4. So when there was an outbreak of waters on every side, and the gods were repairing to Brahmá the first cause of all; for redress from the impending danger, they were all swept away by the overflowing tide.

5. Moreover, O forester! know time to be the most mighty destroyer of all things; and every thing must occur in its time, as it is predestined at the beginning. (Time devours all things).

6. The time of one’s dissolution being nigh, there ensues a detriment in the strength, intellect and prowess of everybody not excepting even the great. (Nothing is of any avail before fate).

7. I have told you also, O fortunate forester! that all that is seen in a dream is mere dreaming; and nothing of it, comes to take place in reality herein.

8. The forester responded:—Sir, if the dream is a mere falsity and error of imagination; then what was the good of your[Pg 751] relating all this, that know well what is good and useful for mankind.

9. The sage replied:—There was much use of my relating all this to you, O intelligent huntsman, for improvement of your understanding; and as you have come to know, that the visibles are all as false as the sights in sleep, you shall now know what is real and true.

10. Now as long as the waters of deluge lasted, I remained seated in the heart of the said medium, and saw some other false sights in his dream.

11. I saw the waters of the deluge, to recede to the unknown region from where they had overflown; and the huge waves disappeared altogether, as when the winged mountains fled away for fear of the thunders of Indra. (Who lopped of their pinions of yore. See the legend in stanza—Book I. Kumára sambhava of Kálidása).

12. I was borne aloft by my good fate to some distant shore, where I was seated as firmly as upon the elevated peak of a high and solid mountain.

13. Thence I saw the waters to subside in their basins, and the stars of heaven shining upon them, like the sparkling particles of their splashing billows, or as their foaming and floating froths.

14. The reflexions of the stars in water, seemed as the shining gems in the bosom of the ocean; and the stars that shone above in the firmament, appeared as the nightly flaming bushes on the tops of mountains. (There are the medicinal plants that are said to burn by night. Vide Kumára Sambhava Stanza—Book I.).

15. The firmament studded with lustrous stars, and had the appearance of an island beaming with gold; and the azure sky seemed wrapt over with the blue garments of celestial dames.

16. The blue diluvian clouds that floated in the sky, resembled a bed of cerulean lotuses in the etherial lake; and the lightnings that flashed in their bosoms, likened the yellow farina of flowers, flying all about the midway sky.

[Pg 752]

17. Masses of mountain-like clouds flushed with frost, and poured down showers of rain on all sides; the floods of the deluge rolled down with their reflexions, as bearing the huge Kalpa forests in their bosom.

18. Afterwards the basin of the universal ocean was dried up, and turned to an empty and dry hollow on all around; and the mountain of the Mandara and Sahya hills, that had been drowned under the waters were found to be melted down to mud or washed away by the receding flood.

19. Here the sun and moon were found to be sunk in the slough, and there the gods Yama and Indra to be hid under the soil; somewhere the serpents and takshakas were rolling in the mire, and elsewhere the Kalpa woods lay buried with their tops and branches underneath the mud.

20. In some places the heads and hands of people were scattered over the ground, and looked like lotus buds and flowers torn from their stalks and strewn about the bare and barren land.

21. There were the Vidyádhara females drowned up to their necks in the slime, and crying in their piteous chimes in one place; and there were the big bodied buffaloes of Yama lying in another, and resembling the huge bodies of dead elephants appearing in dream. (The buffalo of Yama is no less bulky than the Airávata elephant of Indra).

22. In some place the bulky body of Garuda, bulged out like the huge mountain of the gods; and in others the embankments were swept away; as if they were slashed by the mace of Yama fallen upon the ground.

23. There were the remains of the dead hansa of Brahmá, muddled in the mire somewhere, and the relics of Indra’s elephant were huddled in the mud in another place.

24. In the meanwhile I found a flat land in one spot, where I resorted for rest from my weariness; and was there overtaken by sound sleep, that insensibility stole upon me.

25. Then waking from my sound sleep, I found myself seated in the heart of the hunter; and retaining the possession[Pg 753] of my sensibility, I was led by my innate desire to see the similar sights of desolation as before.

26. I beheld upon my waking, the said flat land to lie in the very heart of the hunter where I was situated; and was seized with greater grief and sorrow at my sight of the spectacle. (The reproduction of the world being but the renovation of our woe, and happy are they who work no more to the sight).

27. I saw therefrom the rising of the bright and beautiful sun on the next day; and by means of the solar light, I came to the sight of the worlds and the sky, of this earth and its hills, which presented themselves to my view.

28. But I soon found that, the earth and sky, the air and all its sides, together with the hills and rivers, were all but the reproduction of my mind (from its previous ideas of them); as the leaves shoot forth from the trees. (Because the insensible stones, have no perception of the visibles).

29. Then on seeing the things, as they were exposed to my sight on the earth; I began to manage with them in a manner as I had somewhat forgotten their right and proper use. (Reminiscence of the past being often liable to obliteration).

30. After my birth I passed sixteen years at that spot, and had the knowledge of this person as my father, and that one as my mother, and this spot as my dwelling place, and all this knowledge rising spontaneously from my self-cogitation.

31. I then saw a village and the hermitage of a Bráhman at that place; and there I beheld a house and found a friend therein, and many more other places.

32. Thus I remained in the society of my friends, in the village huts and hamlets; and passed many days and nights, in the states of repeated watchfulness and returning sleep.

33. Remaining thus in company with these, I came to lose in course of time the light of the understanding I had attained before, and forgot myself as one of them by my habitual mode of thinking, as the man forgot himself to a fish (as it is related before in the story of Dama, Vyála and Kata).

34. In this manner, I remained as a village Bráhman (or[Pg 754] parish-person) for a long time; relying only in my body as begotten by a Bráhman, and quite forgetful of other.

35. I believed my material body only to constitute my person, and my wife alone as my copartner; I understood my desires only to be the essence of my soul, and thought that riches only were the sole object of gain in life.

36. I had an old cow only for my treasure, and the greens of my garden as my only provision; my collections were only the sacred fire and sacrificial animals, and my utensil an only water pot. (Kines constituted the wealth of the ancient Indians, as the pecus or sheep were reckoned as riches by the old Latins; hence godhana means kine money, as pancha godhanam—the value of five cows corresponding with the penta pecuniae of the Romans).

37. My hopes were as frail as perennial plants, and my conduct the same with that of other men; and the state of my living was as mean, as of the mud and mire about my dwelling.

38. I passed my days in pruning and weeding the garden of my greens; and in performing my daily ablutions, in the rills and rivulets reckoned as holy by men.

39. I was employed in providing my food and drink, and in procuring the fuel and cow-dung for fire; and remained entangled in the snare, of scrutinizing about what was right or wrong for daily observance.

40. In this way a whole century of my life time, passed away at that place, when it happened on a time that a holy hermit passed by that way from a great distance, and became my guest in my humble abode.

41. Being welcomed and honoured by me, he entered in my dwelling, and took his rest after washing and bathing himself. Then after his meal he sat on his bed, and began to tell his fate at the approach of night.

42. He spoke of many climes and countries, and of many lands and mountains; and talked of their different customs and manners, which were pleasant to hear, and related to various subjects.

43. All these, he said, are the display of the One Intellect,[Pg 755] which is infinite and immutable in its nature; and manifests itself in the form of cosmos, which is for ever present with it as it is now seen to be.

44. Being thus enlightened by him, I was filled as it were with a flood of light, and remained listening to him with attention, all whatever he said on this and other subjects.

45. I heard also my own tale from him, and learning that the person which contained me within its womb, is no less than the body of Virát himself, I was eager to come out of the same.

46. So long as I was not aware, that its mouth is the only door way for my exit of that body; I kept moving through it, as if I were wandering amidst the vast extent of the earth and oceans.

47. I then left that spot, beset as it was by my friends and relations; and entered into his vital part, in order to make my egress with the vital breath.

48. Intending then to see both the inside and outside of the Viráta’s body, in which I resided, I continued to mark well the process of its outer movements as also of its inner thoughts.

49. I fixed my attention to my consciousness, and remained settled at my station without changing its spot; and then breathed out with his breath, as the fragrance of flowers accompanies the wind.

50. The rising with his respiration, I reached the cavity of his mouth; and mounting afterwards on the vehicle of the wind, I went on forward, and beheld all that lay before me.

51. I observed there the hermitage of a sage, situated in the grotto of a mountain at a distance; and found it full with anchorites, and myself sitting in my padmásana among them. (He saw the sight to which he was habituated all along his life).

52. These anchorites stood before me as my pupils, and were employed in their duty of taking care of my person in its state of anaesthesia.

53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I had been residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back, after taking some food which he got in the adjacent village.

[Pg 756]

54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thing about it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body for my own amusement.

55. I got to <the> region of vitality which was situated within the heart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before, and I left behind.

56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching with its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together with the positions of the world.

57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state, the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed <to> be dislocated from its place.

58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark the situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it lay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I know where they were taken.

59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a sight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew to view.

60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining all at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down the high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water.

61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of conflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with all the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them save in the memory of men.

62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers on all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all away.

63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth in flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe flushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening sky.

64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a flame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving[Pg 757] bee is closed up in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and unscathed by the burning flame.

65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered as the flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered over the burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus of the lands (sthala padma).

The sage continued:—Though repeatedly burning amidst those fires, yet I was neither consumed nor felt the least pain therein; and though falling from one fire into another; yet I thought all this as a dream in my dreaming (i.e. one dream in another).

2. The fires flew aloft, and filled the vault of heaven with flames; and I was flying as a fire-brand amidst and all about it. (So the sinless soul soars in the highest empyrean of heaven).

3. As I was wandering with my spiritual light and unwearied soul amidst this universal conflagration, there arose on a sudden a tremendous hurricane (raised by the rarefied air on all sides).

4. It howled and growled aloud like the roaring of clouds on high; and blew fiercely all along, bearing down and carrying away every thing before it.

5. The whirling and howling tornado, raged with redoubled force in the forest; lifting aloft large tracts of woods in the form of clouds, and intermixed with rolling firebrands, resembling the revolving suns above.

6. Flames of fire flashed above, like the evening clouds of heaven, and blazed like hundreds of fiery pools on high; and the earth with the habitation of men, giants and gods, burned as burning mountains on all sides.

7. The burnt, unburnt and half burnt devils and demons, were roving together throughout the heated air, and grappling each other in the etherial streams.

8. The gods and goddesses, were falling down as flames of[Pg 759] fire; and the abode of the celestials, were melted down in showers of fire.

9. Flashes of fire were flickering as lightnings, from the burning vault of heaven; and clouds of dark smoke hid the face of the vertical sky in darkness.

10. The faces of the earth and sky and of all sides of heaven, were wrapt in a flaming veil like that of the evening cloud; and the whole universe with its seven spheres, appeared as a massive mountain of flaming fire.

11. On one side the sparks of flaming fire, were flashing over the head; and on another a huge mountainous mist of smoke hid the hemisphere from sight. In the midst there appeared a mountainous body of fire as that of Hara—the god of destruction, dancing amidst the destructive winds of the Rudras blowing on all sides.

The sage resumed and said:—Continuing thus in the vagaries of my false imagination, I was led to many such painful sights, until they raised in me the feelings of woe and sorrow, and my curiosity gave way to weariness.

2. I then thought in my mind that it is a mere dream in the mind of another person, which I have come to see from my seat within his breast; therefore I must refrain from such sights, and restrain my sorrow for them in vain.

3. The Huntsman asked:—It was for the investigation of the nature of dream, that you had entered into the bosom of another person; say then what have you come to know about it, and how are your doubts removed (with respect to its false phantasms).

4. How came you to see the ocean in the breast, which never exists therein, and how did you see the conflagration in the heart and the tornado in the bowels, which are never to be found in any of those places.

5. You said you saw the earth and sky, and the rivers and mountains and many other things in the mind; but how can these and the world itself, be in any manner situated therein.

6. The sage replied:—All these things and the world also are mere non-entities, as there was no pre-existent material cause for the production of the world, before its coming to existence; therefore neither the term creation nor its sense, is in any way applicable to this world or it is seen by us. (It is therefore but the mere phantasm of an everlasting dream).

7. Hence the world creation and its meaning, proceed from ignorance of the supreme soul, which is immutable in its nature; and it is ignorance of this truth (lit. true knowledge), that[Pg 761] produces the fallacy (lit. the false knowledge) of creation. (Therefore the world (i.e. the idea of the world), is ever present in the Divine mind).

8. Therefore I say, O thou fortunate one, that after you come to your knowledge in this respect (i.e. of the nature of God), and your ignorance of His supremely pure nature is removed:—

9. You will no more believe like myself, the false impression of your consciousness (of the existence of the world); but must come to know that, this causeless and uncreated world, is only the expanded reflexion of your own mind.

10. Where is the body and the heart, and where are these elements of water &c.; what is this dream and what are these conceptions and perceptions, and what is life or death or anything else? (All which are nothing in reality).

11. There is but one transpicuous Intellect everywhere, before which the subtile ether is opalescent, and the biggest mountain is but a mite.

12. It is of its own nature that this intellectual vacuity, reflects on something in its thought; and sees the same as its aeriform body; and this it is what is called the world.

13. As it is our intellect alone, which reflects itself in various forms in our dream; and as there is nothing besides it that then presents itself to our view, so this world is no other than the aerial form of the intellect only.

14. This universe is a quiet vacuity without any stir or shadow of anything in it; and it is the dimness of the purblind eye of the intellect, that presents these false shapes to sight, as blind men see black spots in the clear sky.

15. To my sight the world is neither an entity nor a non-entity, nor is it a mere void or the shadow or reflexion of anything; but the formless infinity of the vacuous intellect only: (or the infinite vacuity of the formless intellect only).

16. As it is in the state of our sleep, that the pure intellect sees itself in the various forms of its dream, without any cause whatsoever; so doth it view every thing in its own vacuum in[Pg 762] waking also; without the external objects of sight or its act of seeing them.

17. It is something that is unspeakable and without its beginning and end; it is apparent with its own conceptions which are one with it and make no duality in its nature (Lit., whose nature is free from unity or duality, or as Sádi says:—azchunin O chunan, from this & that and so & such).

18. As there is but one endless duration, embracing the periods both of creation as well as annihilation; and as the tree comprehends all its parts, blossoms and fruit under it; so is Brahma the Soul of all. (These are but parts of one stupendous whole. Pope).

19. As the great edifice of one, appears as an empty space to another; so as one’s sight of a castle in a mirage, appears as nothing to another; so this visible world of waking people, is the dream of sleeping persons, and rising on the ground of their imagination.

20. It is as the transpicuous vacuity of the intellect, exhibits itself from time to time in itself; that we see the things in our dream, as we behold them when we are awake; and so also we see the sights in our waking state, as we behold them in our dreams in sleep.

21. As the fragrance of flowers, lies hid in the invisible air; so the world lies concealed in the invisible intellect, which sees through every pore of it.

22. It is by shutting out your thoughts of all and everything from your mind, that thou mayst <be> quite pure in thyself; and it is then only that thy infinite soul has its everlasting peace and rest, when it is freed from all cares, both within and without itself.

23. The Huntsman said:—Tell me sir, how can men get rid of their thoughts and cares of life, when they <are> invariably accompanied by the acts and reminiscences of their past lives. Tell me also what kind of men are subject to the tendencies of their past conduct, and who are they that are released from them.

[Pg 763]

24. The sage replied:—Those souls that are full of intelligence and have their spiritual bodies, are never subject to renewed births nor to the consequences of their past actions; and such were the bodies of Brahmá, and Kapila and others, that became manifest of themselves (suam-bhávah), and such were the supernatural bodies of the gods and divine incarnations.

25. Their bodies were not of this world, nor were they subject to its dualistic illusory imaginations; but they were forms of pure intelligence and of a subtile and spiritual nature.

26. In the beginning of creation, there was no primordial act of any body, to fashion his form or frame of mind; but there existed the sole and self-existent Brahma only, who manifested himself in the form of the world (which is therefore a manifestation of the Deity himself, and is thence called tanmaya or full of the Divine essence).

27. As the great Brahmá and others, were the manifestations of the supreme Brahma in the beginning, so there have been many thousands more that were manifested from the same divine essence, which are known as pure intelligences, and superior orders of beings. (Such are the gods and angels and spirits of different denominations).

28. But these persons who are deluded by their ignorance of truth, to think themselves other than or apart from Brahma, and as dull and unintellectual beings, and as a distinct duality from the nature of God:—

29. They are seen to be born again the next time, in consequence of their past actions, and accompanied with the results of those acts, whereby they are confined in their unintellectual bodies, in order to lead their unspiritual lives, quite forgetful of their divine nature, and subjected to the false belief of their materiality.

30. But such as preserve the purity of their divine character, by thinking themselves as inseparable from the Divine soul, are known here as uncontaminated by their former acts, as the persons of the divine Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva or the holy trinity.

[Pg 764]

31. All those that know the true nature of the soul, remain with its purity in the spirit of God; but such as understand it in the light of the living spirit, live in themselves as detached from the Divine soul.

32. Whenever one knows himself as a mere living being, he is then certainly accompanied by his ignorance or avidyá; and the soul takes the name of the animal spirit or life, which is conversant only with the world wherein it is situated.

33. But as he comes to know in course of time, the true and divine nature of his soul, he is then reinstated in his real state and becomes one with the supreme soul of all.

34. As the fluidity of water exhibits itself in the form of whirlpools in some waters; so the divine intellect shows the in-existent world as existent, to those understandings which are ignorant of the nature of the supreme soul. (It is the nature of the omniscient mind, to picture in itself, the appearances of things that are not in actual existence).

35. The world is the reflexion of omniscience, and not the representation of our dreaming or waking states; therefore it can have no action or property of itself, when it is nothing in reality.

36. In fact neither the knowledge of the world nor ignorance of it, or its action or motion or any of its properties, is anything in reality; all these are the results of our thought, that represents the unreal as real one unto us.

37. In truth Brahma being the very creation or the great cosmos itself, is verily the soul of all beings; it is in vain therefore to suppose our prior acts as cause of our births. That God is the creator of the universe, is a mere assumption made from his omnipotence (which is supposed to make everything out of nothing; but as ex nihilo nihil fit, God is himself diffused throughout all nature).

38. It is impossible for any body to have the bindings of his prior acts upon him, at his first creation in the world; it was only afterwards through his ignorance that he fabricated to himself a fate or causality of his actions for his fruitions in afterlives[Pg 765] (i.e. in his subsequent and succeeding births or transmigrations in the world).

39. Say whether the vortex of sea has any body or action of its own; it is but the whirling water, as Brahma himself is apparent in the form of this seeming world.

40. As the persons appearing in our dream have no prior acts for their appearance; so were the living beings in their first formation, endued with pure understanding only (for want of their prior acts to actuate them at first).

41. It is a mere supposition, that they had their causal acts at first creation; and that all living beings have been roving ever since (in repeated births), being fast bound by the chain of their prior acts. (Man was pure in his creation, but since his first act of transgression or original sin, and then his actual sins, have subjected him to the miserable doom of undergoing repeated births).

42. But this creation is no act of creation, but verily the manifestations of Brahma himself; and such being the case (that the world is the selfsame Brahma), say what can acts mean, whence they proceed and where they lie.

43. It is only the ignorance of the supreme soul, which binds us to the bondage of acts; but its fetters fall off from the believer of Brahma by his knowledge of truth. (Those who rely on their acts of faith, are subjected to them; but the believer in One is released from their bonds).

44. Know the outward acts of faith, to proceed from ignorance of the universe; but as the wise man advances in his knowledge, he extricates himself from the bondage of all religions and ceremonial acts and observances.

45. Whereas the external acts of faith <are> entirely devoid of any substantiality or meritoriousness in them, it is no way difficult to get <rid> of them at once; it is solely our spiritual bond which is our chief concern, beside which there is no bond whatsoever.

46. So long there is the dread of the dreadful illusion of this world, as long as you do not attain to your wisdom; and so long[Pg 766] do you exhibit your wisdom, that you do not fall into the vertiginous eddy of worldly affairs. Therefore try always, ye men of pure hearts and soul, to acquire your wisdom and learning; because there is no other way of your flying from the fears of the world, save by means of your right understanding.

The sage continued:—The wise man shines in the assembly of the learned, as the sun illumines the assemblage of lotuses, in his investigation of the duties of religion and ceremonial acts, leading to the welfare of men in both worlds.

2. The heavenly felicity which is attained by the learned and wise by means of their spiritual knowledge, is as an ocean of bliss; before which the prosperity of god Indra even, appears to dwindle away as rotten straws amidst the billows.

3. I find no such felicity or prosperity, in the three regions of this earth or heaven above or in the pátála below, which is greater or comparable with the blissfulness of learning and wisdom.

4. The learned have as clear a sight of the true state of all things, as the moon-light gives a clear view of the sphere of stars in the cloudless sky.

5. The visible world, soon vanishes from sight, and turns to the invisible Brahma, by the sapience of the wise; as a rosary of cord, appearing at first as a snake, is soon found to be a line upon its inspection.

6. That Brahmá—the god is ever situated in his Brahma-hood or godhead is a truth evident by itself; and that it is his nature that gives rise to the terms creation, destruction, body and others. (Gloss: that the words creation &c., appertain to his very nature, and are not distinct from him).

7. He to whom the existence of the world is nil and naught, has no care or concern for acts and duties, which are no more than blank letters to him.

8. It is possible to believe in the production of the material[Pg 768] world, from the prior existence of its material cause; but in want of such there can be no world, nor can there be a cause of it, when it is itself null and void.

9. It is only the reflection of Brahma, that takes the names of the earth and all other things; wherefore it is not necessary for these mere reflexions to have any cause at all. (The substance of God, being the cause of the shadow).

10. As the men seen in a dream, have no real cause except the imagination of the dreamer; such are the persons seen in our waking dreams, but mere reflexions of our imaginations, and not the production of their parents.

11. As there is not the causality of the prior acts, for the appearance of persons in human forms in our dream; so neither is there any actual cause for people seen in waking dream, to assume the garb of humanity upon them.

12. Both prior acts as well as desires, are equally false in their causality, of framing living beings in different shapes in their repeated births, just as they are no causes of producing the persons seen in our dreams.

13. Men appear as dreams and their impressions, in the course of their births and deaths; and they are conscious of this state or that as they think themselves either as the one or the other (i.e. we seem to be or not, as we think ourselves to be).

14. People appear to be as they think of their being, from their consciousness of themselves; and they seem to be in the same state in their dream, as they appear in the waking state, both in their intents and actions. (The dreamer and the dreamt do not differ from their waking states).

15. The desires and sensations of the dreaming man, are alike those of the waking, and differing only in the dimness of the former, from the distinctness of the latter. Thus a dreaming man is sensible of deriving the same satisfaction, in obtaining the object of his wish as the waking man; though the one is of a concealed and the other of an overt nature. (Therefore there is no difference between the states).

16. Whenever our pure consciousness of things, shines forth[Pg 769] of its own nature in either of its two states of clearness or faintness; it is then the reflexion of the one <that> takes the appellation of waking, and the other is known as the dreaming state.

17. As long as this consciousness continues to glare in any body, since his first creation until his final emancipation, he is said to be a living being, under his repeated births and deaths.

18. The import of the words waking and dreaming, is not at all different from that of consciousness; whose irrepressible reflexion constitutes the essence of both states, as light is the essentiality of luminaries.

19. As heat is the gist of fire, and motion the marrow of the sufflated air or wind; or as the fluidity of water is the pith of the billows, and coolness the quiddity of breeze (so is consciousness the quintessence of both our waking and dreaming states).

20. The whole universe is an unruffled chasm, and an unchanging unreality; and this seeming reality of the world, is even united with its negative sense of nihility.

21. Brahma in its exoteric sense, is both the production as well as the destruction of the world, and equally alike its visible form and its notion also; but being viewed in its esoteric light, it <is> only of the nature of the pure Intellect, and the One alone, that is for ever calm and quiet and undecaying in itself.

22. Whatever thought of causality or effect, passes in the mind of Brahma at any time, the same comes to take place immediately, as men construct their houses as they please in cities.

23. The whole creation abides in the mind of God, as the city you dream of is in your thought; the cause and effect herein, being the same in one case as in the other.

24. The causality and effectuality are both contained in the womb of the dense Intellect; and these are exerted in the same manner in the act of creation of the world, as in that of the construction of thy imaginary castle.

25. The Divine Intellect employs its will, in the causation of its intended creation; as you form the plan for the construction of your projected edifice: Thus the causality and its effect are combined together in the one and same mind.

[Pg 770]

26. The divine mind develops itself in its own form of the sky, and the world that is for ever situated therein, is then called the creation and lying in the expanse of that sky. (Gloss. The srutis deny the existence of the outer and visible world).

27. The light which the sun of our consciousness, cast upon the imaginary city in the mind; is of its own nature what is signified by the terms causality and its effect. (i.e. Our consciousness is the cause of our knowledge of the world—the false creation of our imagination).

28. The forms in which the mind displayed itself at first, the same continue to exist ever since in the same state; and these are invariably designated by the terms of time, space and the rest.

29. Whatever names are borne by the things, which are exhibited in the vacuity of the Intellect; they are ever after viewed as realities under the designations of some as causes and others as their effect (as the cow is the cause of the production of milk, and the pot is the cause of its reception, and so forth).

30. The creation which was miraculously displayed in its ideal form in the Intellect, consisted at first of mere ideas, which received the name of the (material) world afterwards. (So the sruti: whatever is thought of in the mind at first, receives a name (or a word) for its designation afterwards).

31. This triple world is of a vacuous form, and is situated in the vacuity of the intellect; just as the clear air contains its insufflation inbred in it. (The inherence of vibration inborn in it).

32. As the vapours and clouds covering the face of the sky, give the appearance of blueness to it; so the dizziness of ignorance, misrepresents the clear intellect in the form of the gross world.

33. But on receiving the true reflexion of the spirit in the intellect, by means of intense meditation, the notion of the creation turns to that of non-creation; as the false notion of the snake in the rope, is changed to that of the rope upon its revision.

[Pg 771]

34. The dead find the future world, as what they used to see in their dream; but that world as well as this, are equally as formless as the vacuum of the Intellect. (Both this world and the next, are situated in the Divine-Mind, and are of the same form as that).

35. The Huntsman said:—Tell me sir, why are men regenerated in new bodies; for their sufferings and enjoyments in future births; and tell me also what are the principal and accompanying causes of our reproduction in this world.

36. If it is on account of the pious or impious acts, which are done in our present destructible bodies, that we are destined to their retributions afterwards; then say why our indestructible souls, should be brought to feel their results in other bodies, which seems to be very absurd to me.

37. The sage replied:—The words piety and impiety, our desires and acts, are words of the same import, and significant of their causality in framing the living soul according to their own stamp; but these are mere suppositions, and neither true causes of the schesis of our souls, nor of the modes of our lives.

38. It is the mind which is situated in the vacuous intellect, and is possest of the power of intellection that imagines in itself the various states of things (and the happiness and miseries of life), and gives names to them accordingly. (So says the sruti:—The sapient seeing the different form and states of things, coin words to designate them and their various modes also).

39. The conscious soul comes to know by means of its intellection, its own body in its vacuous self; and after death it sees the same to exist as in its dream or imagination (i.e. in its ideal form).

40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewise in the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soul continues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.

41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or the creator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it, then can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and how can this body be what the dead[Pg 772] person had before, and as for his intellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body into another.

42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be reborn afterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was so and am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again <in>some form or other.

43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men are impressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasion and scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which is altogether false and fanciful.

44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to the phantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spacious vacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitions in this world.

45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, which is spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoy everything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing.

46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantly rising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomena in its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove to be the display of One all pervading Brahma only.

47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them ever exist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreads undivided through all, and knows all these <to be> an undivided whole, and yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is full and perfect in each and all of these).

48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another in a common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realities to the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light, they proved to be self-same with the unborn One.

49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knower of the knowable (i.e. to him who knows the truth), and what is understood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is[Pg 773] believed to be true by the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both).

50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because they are all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcile these opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universal catholicism (of One, to pan).

51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is real or unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely on its verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothing can upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness).

52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute its dictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference or identity of things, or their unity or duality.

53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to us is right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with his knowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identic with the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge. (i.e. God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God).

54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One is not distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finite understanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, that have no knowledge of the knowable One.

55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge of him; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledge increases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls.

56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real ones before the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight.

57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the one intellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousand shapes to the understanding of gross instincts.

58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as it exhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into[Pg 774] one, or the single form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soul appear in one or more forms to our intellects also.

59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appears in various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; and are either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of our imagination.

60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of our minds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of the mind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its pralaya or anaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them.

61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions of the mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought in any manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself in reality before us even then and there.

62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in the forms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and in the beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner of dreams and the phantoms of its imagination.

63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preserved in the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together of themselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view it in our presence.

64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as well as permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, but continues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as our transient lives also.

65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain or go; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards the east or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can never lose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as you proceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, is never effaced from it).

66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced to do or think upon is never effaced from consciousness,[Pg 775] unless it be from numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss to realize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them to effect).

67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, and you will find your consciousness to continue <the> same, and never changing with the change of your place. (So doth one’s consciousness accompany him even after his death).

68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the object or state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrary the unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (i.e. his wished for object together with the consciousness of himself).

69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both states whether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady in himself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and his object). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connections with others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what it wills).

70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven and earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is placed in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and west, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the man of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks one way or the other (but stands in the middle).

71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone pervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and many thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.

72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or indestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine intellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream of the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The indestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the destruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).

73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is[Pg 776] evident from the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that are invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past lives.

74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt down to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering their errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.

75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the living as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they not reckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This argument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of the reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of absent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead at the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).

76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not be equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of the idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.

77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the established and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quite compatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained in Indian philosophy.

78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as realities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality in them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks—kalankas though to all appearance they seem as habitable parts—chandra-loka).

79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts of the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being composed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only, and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.

80. All these are immutable and quiet, and lie quiescent in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect; they are irremovable[Pg 777] and unconspicuous of themselves, and lie immanent in the Divine soul.

81. It is the steady consciousness, that is conscious of whatever is fixed upon at any time or place; and represents all things whether real or unreal, that is inbred or inherent in it.

82. Let our bodies rise or fall, and our destinies overtake us as they will; let happiness or misery befall on us as they are decreed, they cannot affect the serenity of the indifferent soul.

83. Hence it is of no matter unto us, whether these are realities or otherwise, or whether it may be so and so or not; avoid your desire for any thing, and be wise and at rest after all your wanderings.

The sage continued:—The visible world is being a something in nothing an entity based upon non-entity (i.e. a substance based upon the intellect), resembles our consciousness of things seen in our dream only. And as all things are eternally situated in the Divine Mind, there can be no meaning in our being bound to or liberated from them.

2. These worlds that appear to rove before us, are seen as the mites flying about in the solar rays (or as the bright circlets seeming to swim before our closed eyes); they are but evanescent phantoms in the air, and appearing as stable bodies in the minds of the ignorant.

3. Whatever is seen to be placed before us in any form or state, is soon found to change its mode and manner before us; so likewise is the changeful state of all things herein, that are continually rotating like the waters in a whirlpool.

4. The earth, air, water &c., are the materials that combine to form frail bodies, that are doomed to decay and dissolve in a short time; and yet they are computed by the ignorant to last for ages—as yugas & kalpas. (Everything is changing and nothing lasting).

5. The world is a dream, and the totality of existence a mere nihility; and yet the notion of entity that we <have> of this nullity, is no other than a reflexion of the one Eternal Intellect.

6. Like this solar world of ours, there are hundreds and thousand others to be seen in the skies; nor is it incredible that others have the like notions of other peoples.

7. We see the seas and lakes, teeming with living beings of various kinds, and find the pools and bogs full of frogs everywhere;[Pg 779] but none of them know anything about the other reservoirs, nor of their inhabitants neither beside those of their own.

8. As a hundred men sleeping in one and the same room; see as many air built castles differing from another in their dream; so there appear different worlds in the airy intellects of some, which are seen and unknown to others.

9. As many aerial cities are seen, in the dreams of many men, sleeping together in the same room; so do these aerial worlds appear in empty sphere of our minds, and are said to be in being and not being in the same time (i.e. being but a dream which is no-being or nothing).

10. The sky is a miracle of the mind, and a phenomenon of itself; it is visible without its form, and appears as limited without its limitation, and as created without its creation. (vacuity being increate).

11. The vacuum bearing the nature of the vacuous mind, is vainly styled the firm firmament; it presents to view the forms of fleeting objects in it, as the understanding represents its ideas and passing thoughts to our knowledge.

12. The remembrance of a thing, is the cause of its dream by night, as the desire of something causes its conception in the mind; and as the apprehension of one’s death, proceeds from his seeing in the instances of others.

13. In the beginning of creation, the world appears as an image in the mind; which is no other than a flash or reflexion of the Divine Intellect, and to which no other name than a réchauffé of the Divine Intellect, can be properly assigned.

14. The saying that Brahma shines as the very world means to say that, he did not shine anew in the form of the world, but has this form eternally subsisting in his omniscience.

15. It is said that the cause is (identic with) the effect, because the common cause of all, is specialized in its form of the effect (i.e. the one becomes as many). The action which was confined in the cause at first (as vegetation in the seed), becomes evolved in the germ of creation afterwards.

[Pg 780]

16. When such things (or conditions) occur in the mind in dreams, as have not been seen or known before, they are called sanskáras or pristine impressions in the mind (as our inward-passions and feelings), and not the external objects of sense, which are not inbred in the mind.

17. These mental impressions or reminiscences, are perceptible to us in our dreaming and not in the waking state; and though they are unseen in our waking; yet they are not lost unto us so long as we retain those impressions in the mind. They naturally appear in the soul in dreaming, as the visibles appear to sight in the waking state.

18. Thus the vedántist comes to know the inexistence of the outer world, and by knowing the knowable One, they come to attain the consummation of their object (which is the attainment of their final emancipation or moksha).

19. The impressions of the waking state, which occur in the state of dreaming, are the newly made imprints of the waking hours on the memory; and these make the sleeping hours seem as waking to the dreaming soul.

20. These recent ideas fluctuate in the mind, as by the breath of the wind, and they occur and recur of themselves, without the agency of pristine impressions.

21. There is one sole Intellect only, possessed of its many multitudes of airy dreams; and being dispossessed of them at last, it remains solely by and in itself.

22. The consciousness that we have of the dreams, ranging at large in the empty sphere of our Intellect, is verily what is denominated the world by us; and the want of this consciousness in our sound sleep, is what is termed the extinction of world by ourselves. This analogy applies also to the nature of the self-existed One.

23. There exists only the infinite sphere of one eternal Intellect, and there appears an infinity of shapes, perpetually rising and setting in its open in the manner of dreams. These are born of its own nature and are called the world, and bear the same intellectual form with itself.

24. Thus the atomic particle of the Intellect, contains the[Pg 781] form of the whole cosmos within its bosom; which is an exact ectype of its archetype, as the shadow under a mirror, is the true representation of the prototype.

25. The cavity of the Intellect contains the consciousness which is diffused in it like the dilution of an atom; and extends throughout without beginning and end, and this is called the cosmos.

26. Hence as far as the vacuity of the Intellect extends to all infinity, there is the appearance of the wide world connected with it, as immanent in and identic with itself at all times. (The intimate connection of the subjective mind and objective world together).

27. The intellect is selfsame with the world, and therefore all minds and intellectual beings as myself and thyself, are worlds or microcosm also; and it <is> for this reason that the great macrocosm of the world, is said to be comprised in the corpuscle of the mind.

28. Therefore I who am a minute soul, am of the form of the whole world also (being its container in the mind); hence I abide everywhere likewise, even in the midst of an atom also.

29. Being in the form of the minutiae of the intellect, I am also as great as the universal soul, and as expanded as the open air all around; I also see all the three worlds about one, wherever I abide or move. (All things are present in the mind, at all places and times).

30. I am an atom of the intellectual soul, and am joined with the intellectual soul of the universe; it is my sight of the supreme spirit in my meditation, that I am lost in it as a drop of water is lost in the ocean.

31. Having entered into the Divine spirit, and feeling its influence in me, I am filled with its cognition; and behold the three worlds within me, as the seed lies hid in the pericarp or in the seed vessel (to be developed in its future foliage).

32. I see the triple world expanding within myself (according to our reminiscence of the same which is engraven in the mind), beside which there is no outer world on the outside[Pg 782] of any body. (The world lies in the conception of mind only, and the exterior one is but a reflexion of the same).

33. Whenever the world appears in any form, whether of a gross or subtile nature, as in the states of our waking or dreaming; both these forms of the interior or exterior worlds, are to be known as the reflexion of the ideal one imprinted in the intellect.

34. When the living soul indulges itself in the sight of the world, in the state of its dreaming; it is to be known as a reflexion of the expanded particle of the intellect, which the sleeping soul delights to dote upon.

35. The Huntsman rejoined:—If the visible world is causeless or without its maker, then how could it come into existence, and if it be a caused or created exterior world, how could we have any knowledge of it in the sleeping and dreaming of the soul.

36. The sage replied:—All this is without a cause, and the world proceeded at first without any causality whatever. (The Muni means to say that there cannot be any independent or instrumental cause of creation save the emanation of One oneself).

37. It is verily impossible for gross and perishable bodies and transient beings, to come to being without a cause; but that which is a facsimile or shadow only of the antitype and original model of the eternal mind, cannot possibly have any cause at all.

38. It is Brahma himself that thus shines refulgent, by nature of his intellectual effulgence; hence the world’s creation and destruction are utterly inapplicable to what is without its beginning and end.

39. Thus the uncaused creation, abides in the substance of the great God, and shines forth with divine glory to all infinity. It is to gross minds only, which are prepossessed with the grosser ideas of materiality, that it appears in the form of a gross material body.

40. What numberless varieties do there appear in the unvaried Brahma, and what un-numbered diversities of shapes and[Pg 783] forms are seen in the formless One, that is ever unchanged and imperishable.

41. Brahma is formless in his person (which is of a spiritual form); yet he exhibits himself in many forms, in his being the mind (or mirror of all ideal forms); where he represents his spiritual self or soul, in all the various forms of moving and immovable bodies.

42. He makes the gods, sages and seers in his likeness, and directs them to their different degrees and duties also; he stablishes the laws and prohibitions of conduct, and appoints the acts and observances at all times and places.

43. All existences and privations, productions and destructions, of moving or unmoving bodies, whether great or small ones, are subject to his decree, and can never transgress any of his general laws.

44. Ever since the general decree, nothing takes place without its proper special cause; as you can never expect to exude oil from sand (save from oily seeds).

45. The destined decree of providence, is the leader of all events in the world; it is as one part of the body of Brahma, by which he represses the other part of himself (i.e. his will); as we restrain the action of one hand by the other. (One over-ruling fate governs even Jove himself).

46. This unavoidable destiny overtakes us, against our prudence and will, like the sudden fall of a fruit on a flying crow (काकतालीय) and drives us along with its course, as the tide or eddy bears down the waters with it.

47. The preordination of certain effects from certain causes, is what is called destiny; without which there result all disorder and disturbance, and in want of which the great Brahma even cannot abide. It is therefore the imperishable soul of all existence.

48. Thus then this destiny is the cause of all, and although it is unseen and unknown, yet it acts on all as it is destined for them ever since their very production. (This is no more than the unchangeable law of nature).

49. The uncausing Brahma that causes nothing, is believed[Pg 784] by the ignorant as the causal agent of creation; which they mistake as the production of its maker by error of their judgment.

50. The wise man however, seeing the sudden appearance of world before him, like the rotation of a wheel, considers its causes as such and such or this and that, as they have been determined by their preordained destiny.

51. So all existent bodies have their special causes, in their primordial destiny, which determines their subsequent lots in endless succession. Hence the occurrences, of our waking state, resembling the visions in our dream, are never without their antecedent causes.

52. Thus when I dreamt the erroneous dream of the destruction of the world, caused by concussion of the elements and waters I had its cause inbred in me, in my reminiscence of the great deluge I had heard of in traditional narration.

53. In this manner we see the reflexions of almighty power in all things that come under own reflection (or observation), just as we see the crystals and shell-fishes shining with their intrinsical brightness. May this Omnipotent power that is ever-living soul of souls, and known to us in our imperfect notion of him, be glorified for ever and ever.

The sage continued:—The living soul (or man) perceives the dream of the outer world, by means of the external organs of sense; and that of the inner world by the internal senses; but the quickness of both the internal and external senses, gives the sensations of both these worlds to the soul.

2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward objects, then the perceptions of mental objects and inner functions become faint and fainter by degrees.

3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside, and the inner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the object of thought and the idea of the world however minute they had been before, assume gradually a more expanded form, and present their extended appearances to the soul. (Brooding upon a thought, dilates it the more).

4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being once thought upon as something however small in its idea, dilates itself to an enormous size in the mind, which cast at last its reflexion on the external organs of sense also, and make it appear so big and vast to sight.

5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied with outer objects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form of the exterior world only (so the external senses carry their impressions to the mind also).

6. The intellectual and aeriform soul, is composed of the congeries of all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing, touch or feeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the four internal sensations of will or volition.

7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place,[Pg 786] accompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airy intellect is to be ever unobstructed, because it always knows and sees every where.

8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills the veins and arteries of the living person; the soul is then lulled to sleep and to see false visions in its dream.

9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the moonlight sky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled with full blown lotuses and their blooming buds.

10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season, and mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled sky, and resounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of humming humble bees.

11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and the merry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound; and views its court-yard filled with provisions of food and drink (to its heart’s content).

12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens, running sportfully to join the distant sea; girt with the swimming flowers and smiling with their flashy foams; and darting about their fickle glances, in flitting motion of the shrimps, fluttering on the surface of the water.

13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits of the Himálayan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the frigid climes); and having their white washed walls, appearing as if they were varnished with moon-beams.

14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy season, or as hid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the showering clouds of the rainy weather, and views the ground below overgrown with herbaceous plants, and the muddy marshes grown over with blue lotuses.

15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers, and resorted to by droves of deer and the weary traveller; that halted under the cooling umbrage of the thickening foliage of the forest, and were soothed by soft breezes of the sylvan spot.

[Pg 787]

16. The flowery arbour had all its alleys and arcades, bestrewn over with the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson dusts of Kunda, Kadamba and Mandara blossoms, were blushing and mantling the scenery all around.

17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and the ground wore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands were clear of clouds, and the firmament was clear and cold under the autumnal sky.

18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of Kunda, Kadamba and Kadalí or plantain trees, which waved their leafy fans on their exalted heads, which appeared to nod at the dancing of the leaflets.

19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with the unblown buds and blossoms upon them; appeared as young damsels dancing gracefully, with strings of pearls on their slender persons.

20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as brightly as the blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also the fanning white chouries and waving over them, like the feathered tribe, flapping their wings over the floral lake (or lotus beds).

21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful mood, with curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their currents; and murmuring along with mixed music of birds on the spray beside them.

22. The dhará—terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dhára or torrents of water falling from the adharas or cataracts, of dharádharas or mountains; and all the sides of heaven were obscured by the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its vault.

23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with the fluid of bile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor as an atom in its cell, and then sees the dreams of the following nature in itself.

24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red kinsuka flowers upon its withered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also the forms of red lotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.

[Pg 788]

25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric juice, as when the limpid streams turn to dry sand banks; and there appear flames of wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the darkened face of nature.

26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of the sun seems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in forests, the withered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas, instead of their limpid waters.

27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning to beds of hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry winds, and the forests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared quite desolate all about.

28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a flight of storks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise than before, and the former verdure of the trees, are no more coming to sight.

29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning sand of the parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant tree by the way side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade over the parched ground.

30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all its lands and places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of dust covering the face of the sky on all sides.

31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its planetary bodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and forests and the open air, all which seem to be burning in a blaze.

32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons, that serve to favour the fires instead of quenching them; and beholds the lands below covered with grass and leafy creepers, which entrap them as vestures of clouds.

33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the waters of the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all tepid and hot.

34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of the gastric juice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and the soul retaining its vigour, sees various dreams of the following description.

[Pg 789]

35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees the earth and the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in dream, quite different from what they appeared before.

36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the hills and hilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as that of the whirling of the wheels of a chariot.

37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a camel or eagle or on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot drawn by ganders or swans.

38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing before it; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the water.

39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some great danger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill.

40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination of all the three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence; then the soul is led by the windy humour to see several dreams of the following nature.

41. It sees rainfalls flowing down the mountains, and hailstones hurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting of the hills and edifices, and sees the trees to be moving about.

42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon; which is over cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants and lions.

43. The palm and támala trees, appear to be burning around; and the hollow caves and caverns, to resound with the harsh noise of the flashing fire and falling trees.

44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing against one another, and the caverns resounding to their hoarse and harsh crackling.

45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other, and emit a harsh and hideous noise about them; and the streams running amidst them, appear as wearing necklaces with the loosened creepers and bushes which they bore away.

46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the[Pg 790] mountain streams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which they carried down, seemed to spread as far as the utmost pole.

47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their denticulated edges, and crashed and split themselves with their harsh and hideous sounds.

48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around by the strong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain made their bed over the moss below.

49. The tall tála trees fell to the ground with marmara sound, like the wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all birds flew with a harsh scream, like the crying of men at the last day of desolation of the world.

50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one mass, like jaríkrita jíva in dream.

51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth, and frog underneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed within the fruit.

52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and the sapling within the wall of a pillar.

53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are blamed, as if they are encased within the hollow of the earth.

54. Deep darkness reigned there, and susupti appeared like deep dark well within the cavern of a mountain.

55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the body, and afterward by a separate juice a new energy comes within, so the vital air which once disappeared, makes its appearance again.

56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within the body in the shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall therein.

57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so the combination of triple humours, composes the inward and outward essence of the body.

58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds of the body, and led by force of the triple humours (phlegm etc.); sees (by means of its internal senses), the dreams of the absent[Pg 791] world, as it beholds the visions of the visible phenomena, with its external organs of sense.

59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the senses, by the greater or less irritation of the humours, that the mind is liable to view its internal vision, in a greater or less degree; but the action of the humours being equable, the tenor of the mind runs in an even course.

60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours (from the effects of intoxication, mantras or poison and the like), looks abroad over the wide world, and sees the earth and sky and the mountains to be turning round; and flames of fire issuing from burning piles.

61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the rising moon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees and hills, and floods of water washing the face of heaven.

62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters, or rambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places, and finds itself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of hoary clouds.

63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky, and sees the false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing and crushing of sinful bodies.

64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel, and rising instantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of people, and thinks itself as diving in the waters upon the land.

65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere at night, the sun shining then as in the day time; and a thick darkness overspreading the face of the day.

66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the land is seen to be full of holes and ditches; rows of edifices are seen in the air, and amity is found to be combined with enmity (friends turning to foes and vice versa).

67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are taken for friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land, and flats and planes appear as caves and caverns.

[Pg 792]

68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and crystal gems, and resonant with the melody of birds; and limpid lakes are seen to glide below, with their water as sweet as butter.

69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses adorned with females, appearing as lotuses fraught with bees.

70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in itself; yet perceives all these sights without, as if it were awake to them. (Thus the derangement of the humours, causes these errors of sensation of perceiving what is not present to the senses).

71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to represent many such sights of external objects, in the forms of dream to the minds of people.

72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see many extraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and without them (i.e. in their dreaming and outward sight also).

73. When the internal organs are equable in their action, then the course of nature and the conduct of people, appear in the usual state.

74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the positions of woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear and unperturbed state, as they are known to exist, agreeably to the natural order of things; such as cool and clear streams, shady forests, and countries and paths traversed by passengers.

75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of the sun and moon, and the rays of the starry array; and all other appearances, however unreal in their nature, appear as wonders to the sight and other senses.

76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind, as vacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal as real, and the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as separate and extrinsic or derived from without, is the essential property of its nature.

[Pg 793]

77. It is the calm and quiet spirit of Brahma, that gives rise to all things which are equally calm and quiet also; the world is mere vacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous mind that represents endless varieties of such forms in the sphere of its own vacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous person.

The Huntsman said:—Tell me, O great sage, what did you do and see afterwards, from your seat in the erroneous spirit of that person.

2. The sage replied:—Hear me tell you next, what I did and saw afterwards, by my union with and my situation in the spirit of that infatuated person.

3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion of the last doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane, which blew away the mountains as straws, on the day of the final desolation of the world.

4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from the mountain tops; which bore away the woods and hills in the torrent.

5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality of the individual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual minuteness, the falling rains and hailstones from the mountain tops.

6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into a state of sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me all over.

7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was gradually raised from my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of the night, unfolds its petals in the morning.

8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some circular disks appearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy dreams flying about and hovering upon me.

9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain of dreams; and saw a hundred shapes of things, arising in my[Pg 795] spirit, as the shapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in the bosom of the sea.

10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell of my consciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to be volitant in the still and motionless air.

11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in water, and as fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency is immanent in pepper &c.; so is the world inborn in Brahma.

12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame in itself; the phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream of a new born child, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping man. (Sight is here applied to the mind’s eye).

13. The Huntsman rejoined:—Tell me sir, how is it possible for the Intellect to have the sight of anything in its state of sound sleep, since dreams never occur in the mind except in the state of slight and light sleep.

14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as also of the person in whose heart you dwelt; how could the sight of the creation appear to you (or has the term sound sleep any other sense than the state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep is the state of utter insensibility or anaesthesia—gloss).

15. The sage replied:—Know that creation is expressed by the words, viz. jáyati is born, bháti appeareth, and kachati shineth; and are applied indiscriminately to all material things, as pots and pictures (घट पट) as well as to the world also; all these words are used to express a duality (or something different as proceeding from Unity), by men whose brains are heated with dualism, or the notion of a duality (as different from the nature of the Unity or the only One).

16. Know that the word játa or born means only being (sattwa), and its synonyms are prádurbháva—manifestation, which is derived from the root bhu to be.

17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the sense of being born also, and the sarga meaning production or creation, it is same with being also.

18. With us learned men, there is nothing as jáyáti or what[Pg 796] is made or may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one calm and quiet unborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity).

19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma alone (the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of existence, is the Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then what hypostasis or unsubstantiality is there that can be positively affirmed or denied of it, which is of them alike.

20. That which is called sakti or the active energy of God, resides literally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separate power of itself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence, which is self same with Brahma, and not as an attribute or part of him. (Vedánta ignores the predicates of potentiality as predicable of Brahma, who is the very essence of Omnipotence).

21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong to the nature of God, according to the cognition of men learned in divine Knowledge; because God never sleeps nor dreams, nor does he wake in the manner of His creature. (No changing property appertaining to finite beings can ever be attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is).

22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also anything that we either know or have any notion of, can have any relation to the nature of the Inscrutable One; any more than the impossibility of our having any idea of the world before its creation. (So the Persian mystic Berun Zátash, aztohmate chunan to chunin. His nature is beyond our comprehension and presumption of it as so and such).

23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines the creation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible in its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning of creation.

24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (i.e. neither the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something as nothing, perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature.

25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agent of the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine[Pg 797] Mind, and exists for ever in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle of imagination.

26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as a duality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorant men like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is painted upon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to be marked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwise than their own person.

27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without its beginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to the unreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing so changeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet and serene prospect in itself.

The sage continued:—Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awoke from my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just <as> a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys the heavens above him.

2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheld the terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all, to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by my visual organs or ocular deception only.

3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of the arbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vast ocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight.

4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to have proceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonry carved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and also as a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus.

5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of its feelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity, as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as the produce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of the earth.

6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planes of level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon the smooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members and organs of their bodies.

7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part of Infinity, and to have presented themselves to our view, like flying herds of distant regions coming to our sight; or as presents[Pg 799] are brought to the presence of prince from different parts of lands, or as the retributions and rewards of one’s <good> or bad deeds in this life, meet him in the next and successive transmigration.

8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of Brahma, or a little billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a sculpture on the colossal pillar of the Intellect, without being carved out or cast upon it. (It is the macrocosm moulded in the mind of God).

9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity of worlds, appearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of air; the mind wanders at random all over it as an infuriate elephant, with an airy empty life, as fickle and fleeting as a breath of air.

10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without its foundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing so bright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its own; it is the magical power of the great magician, that has displayed these wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over the ignorant and infatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man has rather eaten the fruit of the tree of ignorance).

11. Though the creation seems so exuberant, at all places and in all times; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by any limitation of space and time; and though it appears as multitudinous yet it is the single unity; and though seemingly multifarious, yet is all but one invariable uniformity.

12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of this world, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is the same error which occurs to us in our dream, <that> possesses us also even in our waking state of dreaming. (Equality of day and night dreams).

13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the absent past, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already present before it; whether they relate to aught of time or place, or substance or action or anything relating to its creation or its destruction.

14. There are numberless beings contained under every[Pg 800] species of animals, which contain others ad infinitum in their ovaries, bearing animalcules like seeds of pomegranate fruits.

15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset by clouds of the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of heaven; and the sea is heard to resound with the loud larum of battle drums, raised by the warring winds with the conflicting currents.

16. I then beheld there a visible sphere before me, amidst which I saw the village of my prior dream, and recognized the spot of my former residence therein.

17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the very spot and of the same age as I had seen them before; I saw my wife and my very children seated in the very same house.

18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes, my heart wished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves swell to meet the shore.

19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy at my joining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of seeing more and more, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the past.

20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present before it, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the objects of its future desires, and becomes unmindful of the past.

21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge of everything; nor is there any other principle of understanding beside the intellect, which ever subsists by itself.

22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance of himself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism or doubt, to think of a duality.

23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant inquiry into truth and divine knowledge, and by his study of good sástras and attendance on divine sages, does not forget his enlightenment any more (nor relapses to his former ignorance).

24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose mind is bound down by worldly desires; is liable to lose his[Pg 801] good understanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable planet or inauspicious star.

25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also, which is not yet cultivated by association with the wise, is liable to fall into error of duality, and involve thee thereby to repeated difficulties.

26. The Huntsman answered:—It is all very true, O sage, that notwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does not find its rest in the knowledge of only true One.

27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to whether it is so or not; and though I rely in my conception of the truth as you have declared, yet my mind finds no rest in it.

28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you have preached, yet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my ignorance reigns supreme in me.

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

The Huntsman said:—If the sight of the world is no more than a vision in dream, then tell me, O great sage, where lies its truth or falsehood, which is a matter of great doubt and difficulty to me.

2. The sage replied:—That dream is true and comes actually to take place, which rises in our consciousness under the conditions of proper place and time, and right actions and things. (These are the morning dreams relating to pious acts and sacred things in some adjacent place).

3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or by effect of some mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu, whether it is favourable or not to the dreamer.

4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the shape of a dream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by accident by law of chance.

5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness, the same is sure as fate, we are sure to see and become the same (by the natural tendency and constitution of our minds).

6. Certainty removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches there, the other falls down absolutely.

7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside of any body; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to itself the various forms of worldly things, and remains in the same state as it knows itself to be.

8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the sástras, that the phenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it to be believed as so indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one a sceptic, who wanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without coming to a settled belief).

[Pg 803]

9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding his belief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to be reckoned as a visionary one only.

10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the strong consciousness of any body in his waking state; the same comes to be known as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time and change of place either sooner or later.

11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect, and was represented in its subtile and incompressible form; It had its essence in the mind of God, and then extended its tenuous substance to any length ad libitum.

12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of the intellect of Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal, and lasting and transient also. (They are real as reflexion of the Divine Mind, and unreal and transitory in their phenomenal aspects.)

13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens and soul of all, there can be no other that may be styled as such; say therefore what else is there, that may be called a reality or non reality either.

14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at anytime, it cannot be deemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant or enlightened part of mankind.

15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion of our senses and misconception of our consciousness; the visible worlds commonly passed under the name of illusion (máyá), hath naught of reality or certainty in it.

16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind, with the glare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be thrilling and flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.

17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards; so doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking state, and then falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep. (This refers to the alternate creation and annihilation of the world).

18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous to that of dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be[Pg 804] as that of waking, and that both these states are but the two phases of the one and same Brahma (as the liquid and condensed states of ghee or butter are both the same).

19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible entity, and the spacious universe is its reflexion only; the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple hypostases of the same being (or Divine Existence).

20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how can you determine any rule for ascertaining the results of various dreams.

21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams (either in sleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries; therefore the sage must wipe off their impressions from his consciousness.[1]

22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams, like pulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no other cause of dreams nor any laws for governing them; except the sound sleep (or insouciance), when these appearances entirely subside or vanish away.

23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of the impressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of this thing or that (or ghata patadi &c.); but relying on the doctrine of the causelessness of external objects (or the objective), they prove to be no other than mere imaginations of the subjective mind (or noumenal only).

24. In this therefore there is <no> other law with respect to this, than the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally granted as such by the common sense of mankind (vyávahárikam).

25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some times some truth in some dreams, and at others there is no[Pg 805] truth in any of them at all; and in want of any constancy, it is only a fortuitous occurrence.

26. Whatever appears subjectively to one’s self, either from his own nature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever one is habituated to think of anything in himself, he sees the same in the very form, both in his dreaming as well as waking states.

27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking states of men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and they remain the same whether when one is waking or lying in the visionary city of his dreams.

28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because the dream also appears as waking to the waking soul that never sleeps. (The soul is ever wakeful).

29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called by that name; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind, which sees sleeping and waking in the same light.

30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two states of waking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of <a> dead person, continues to behold the visibles; even after its separation from the body, and resurrection after death.

31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise than what it is, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless duration never changes with the course of time, and the ocean continues alike under its rolling waves, and the airy space remains unchanged above the changing clouds.

32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul, whether it exists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations and marks in a stone are never distinct from it; so are the states of waking and sleeping coincident with the soul Divine.

33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the four forms of bodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who though devoid of all forms, is still of the form of whole creation, cosmos and the mundane soul.

34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all space is visible to us in only form of infinite space or sky; the[Pg 806] endless vacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect, it is no way different from it.

35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the earth and clouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation, and subsist in their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma alone.

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

The Huntsman said:—Tell me, O sage! What then became of the world that you saw in your dream; relate in full all its accounts until its final extinction (or nirvána).

2. The sage replied:—Hear me then tell thee, O honest fellow, what then passed in the heart of the person wherein I had entered, and listen to the wondrous tale with proper attention.

3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation, I saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its train of months, seasons and years, passing imperceptibly by me.

4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and happy with enjoyment of my conjugal bliss.

5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage, came as a guest to my house, and I received the venerable and austere devotee with honour within my doors.

6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he took his meal and he rested himself at ease, when I made him the following inquiry regarding the weal and woe of mankind.

7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and know well the course of the world; and are therefore known neither to fret at adversity, nor delight in prosperity.

8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged in busy life in the world; so as the husbandman reaps good or bad crops in autumn, according to the manner of his cultivation of the field (such is the common belief of men).

9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place, are equally faulty in their actions at the one and same time;[Pg 808] that they are brought to suffer and fall under some severe calamity or general doom all at once.

10. We see alternate famine and drought, portents and catastrophes repeatedly overtaking a large portion of mankind at the same time; say then is it owing to the wickedness of the people at the one and very time.

11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked as if he was taken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in his mind; and then he uttered these words of equal reverence and ambrosial sweetness.

12. The sagely guest said:—O well spoken! these words of yours bespeak thy highly enlightened mind; and that you have well understood the cause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal one, tell me; how you came to know it.

13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added); Remember the universal soul only, and think naught what thou art and where thou sittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I and from whence, and what is the phenomenals, whether it is anything substantial or ideal of the mind only.

14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you do not know it as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you are the phantom of a dream before me.

15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing, and mere formation of your imagination; it glares with the glare of the glassy Intellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself.

16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as you must know; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any form whatsoever, you think or take it to be any where.

17. Now in assigning a causality to things, you will find that the Intellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing one cause to anything, you have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for everything.

18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in whom all living beings reside, that is known as virajátma or common soul of all; and the same viewed as residing in us, is known as sútrátmá or individual souls linked together in a series (composed of all souls).

[Pg 809]

19. There will be other living beings in future, with the virajan soul pervading in all of them, and causing their weal or woe according to their desires. (Lit. causing the affluence and want of men according to their respective acts).

20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours of the body and then the limbs and members of the bodies of men, become perturbed likewise.

21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind or subside of themselves; because:—

22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons living together, <who> are equally guilty of some crime at the same time; who wait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as the fire of heaven on a forest at the same time.

23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to feel the effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from such expectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to its result.

24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any place or time; the same occurs to him in the same proportion as he expected it; whether that object be with or without its cause (i.e. actual or not).

25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way accompanied with their immediate or accessory causes, as all actual existences are; therefore this visionary world is the appearance of the everlasting Intellect of Intelligence, which is Brahma itself.

26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless unreality only; but considering it as the appearance of Brahma, it has both its cause and reality (Hence it is called sadasadátmaka i.e. both a reality and unreality also).

27. The casual occurrence of dreams, deludes our consciousness of them; and so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is equally delusive of our apprehension of it. Its extension is a delusion, as the expansion of a dream.

28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as casual or causal as we take it to be (hence while we deem[Pg 810] our dreams as causeless delusions, we are apt to believe the equally visionary world, as a caused and sober reality).

29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the visionary world, as the product of a real causality. It is natural to the waking state to <take> it for a reality, what appears as quite calm and unreal in our sleep and dreams.

30. Now hear me tell you, O great minded sage, that the one satya—Ens or Brahma is the sole cause of existences; or else what other thing is it that is the cause of all nature and this all pervading vacuum.

31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth, and the rarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance, and what is the cause of the self born Brahma.

32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the origin of the winds, and fire and water; and what is the source of our apprehensions of things than mere vacuum or the vacuous intellect.

33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of departed souls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in this manner that the course of creation is going on in this manner from the beginning (without any assignable cause).

34. Thus are all things seen to be going on, and recurring in this world, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air; from our constant habit of thinking and seeing them as such.

35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of Brahmá or creator, spreads and moves throughout the world; and receives afterwards as many different names, as the different phases and forms of that he displays in nature, such as the earth, air &c.

36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds, in the spacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives of itself various forms of things in its own imagination.

37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same receives the very form as a decree of fate; and because these forms are the very images or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are deemed to form the very body of the Deity.

38. In whatever likeness was anything designed at first by[Pg 811] the Divine Intellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to this day (and so will it continue to bear for evermore).

39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient, it is able to alter them and make others anew, by its great efforts again (i.e. God can unmake what he has made, and make others again).

40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is thought also to be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever there is no supposition of a cause, there is no apprehension nor capability of its alteration also. (i.e. The world is both as changeable as well as unchangeable, according as it is believed to be made by or selfsame with its Maker).

41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the ideal of the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before, so it continues ever still.

42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits of their pious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or bad rewards or results thereof in this life. There are others who are crushed under a thousand calamities, falling upon them like showers of hailstones or the thunderbolts of heaven.

The house keeping sage then said as follows:—It was by this kind of reasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated with me, and made <me> acquainted with whatever was worth knowing.

2. I then restrained my guest, to remain longer with me by entreaties; and he consented to abide at mine, which resembled the abode of a dead (ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to reason, are called dead people).

3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which were as bright and cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the venerable personage, that is now sitting beside you.

4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal of my ignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of fire, being pleased with my sacrifice.

5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded with wonder; and could not know the sage that expounded the theory of dreaming, now sitting confest before me.

6. The Huntsman said: O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable in my mind, that the sage that expounded the nature of dreams, is now manifest before me.

7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you saw in your dream, and who explained the cause of dreams to you, should now be seen in this waking state.

8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy dream, come to appear in a solid body, and sit sedate at this place, like the fancied ghost of boys.

9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours, in due order; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he comes in this questionable form.

[Pg 813]

10. The sage replied:—Hear me patently, O fortunate man, to relate to you about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this briefly to you, but you must not be hasty about it.

11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for my acquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has come hither now with his tale too long to relate.

12. He said these words, saying, that he remembered his former nature, which was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at the end of the foggy season (of the month of mágh).

13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards, with an expanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and remained bathed (amazed) at my wondrous change.

14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of the enjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger, pursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water.

15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world, should so allure even the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell, deceive mankind only to deceive them.

16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my ignorance, that I was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the world, to this state of life, which is utterly devoid of every good.

17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only, and there is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error of errors and the greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled and betrayed by unrealities.

18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and yet it is a wonder, that all these false appearances, should appear as realities.

19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to these falsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and this tear off and cast away from me.

20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the world; she can do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself; It is now that I must try to get rid of my error, of deeming the unreal as real.

21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all[Pg 814] a mistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person sitting here by me, is as the man in the moon or in the cloud.

22. Then thought I of speaking to that great sage of enlightened understanding; and so thinking, I addressed him saying:—

23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out of the body of this person), in order to see what I may be doing there.

24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah! where are those bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in their ashes.

25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the matter yourself; and by seeing their present state, you will know every thing relating to them.

26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my former body.

27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come back to this place, after seeing my former body; so saying I became a breath of air, and fled from my abode.

28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through the air, and was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a flower, carried rapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a long time.

29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body, by the passage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any other passage, I kept floating in the air.

30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and became tied again to that stake of the world, by my returning affections to it.

31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and asked him intensely in the following manner in my house in this place.

32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future; and knowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing sight.

33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered,[Pg 815] as also my own body likewise, could neither of them be found anywhere.

34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the sphere of this earth, and searched amidst all fixed and living bodies herein, but could not find that opening of the throat from which I had come out.

35. Being thus addressed by me, that high minded muni or sage then said unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy bright and brilliant eyes to find it out unaided by my advice.

36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yoga meditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, as one sees a lotus placed in his palm.

37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then attend to my advice, and I will tell thee all about it.

38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the lotus blossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of Brahmá only that developes the lotus of understanding, and that you can know nothing of yourself.

39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you dreamt in your reverie, of entering into the heart of another person, and were confirmed in your consciousness of that belief.

40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you believed to have seen the three worlds therein; and the great sphere of heaven and earth contained in its bosom.

41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and thought yourself to reside in the body of another person; you happened to fall asleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly caught fire and was burnt down.

42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky, and the blazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon.

43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud or ash coloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was spread over as with a canopy.

44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns, sent forth horrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting sparks filled the horizon.

45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and[Pg 816] appeared as trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked as the clattering cloud.

46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as fixed lightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face as that of molten gold.

47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled the number of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the bosom of the sky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight of fire works).

48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the hollow sky; startled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who rushed out of their caves and caverns, and wandered about in the forest.

49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves and nests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river waters boiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by the fumes.

50. The young chauri bulls, were parched in the flames; and the stink of the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts, filled the air with a nasty stench.

51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or diluvian fire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your hermitage, as a serpent devours its prey.

52. The Huntsman asked:—Tell me sir, what was the real cause of this fire; and why the Bráhman lads that dwelt in their pupilage there, were burnt down also.

53. The sage replied:—It is the vibration or effort of the volitive or designing mind, that is the true cause or incentive of the production or demolition of the desired object; and so its quiescence is the cause of the absence of the three worlds.

54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation of the heart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile force (or primum mobile) for the causation of the three worlds.

55. It is the pulsation of the Divine Mind, that is the cause of the imaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of population and of rains and draughts.

56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative[Pg 817] mind of Brahmá, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of the first patriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression, all of which proceed from the first quiet and calm intellect, through the medium of vacuum.

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

The other sage rejoined:—Afterwards the whole village together with all its dwellings and trees, were all burnt down to ashes like the dried straws.

2. All things being thus burnt away, the two bodies of you two, that had been sleeping there, were also scorched and burnt, as a large piece of stone, is heated and split by fire.

3. Then the fire set after satiating itself with devouring the whole forest, as the sea sat below in its basin, after its waters were sucked up by the sage Agastya.

4. After the fire was quenched and the ashes of the burnt cinders had become cold; they were blown away by gusts of wind, as they bear away the heaps of flowers.

5. Then nothing was known, as to where the hermit’s hut and the two bodies were borne away; and where was that visionary city, which was seen as vividly as in waking, and was populous with numbers of people.

6. In this manner the two bodies having disappeared, their existence remains in the conscious soul, as the memory of externals remains in the mind, at the insensibility of the body in the state of dreaming.

7. Hence where is that passage of the lungs, and where is that Virajian soul any more? They are burnt away together with the vigour and vitality of the dead body.

8. It is on account of this, O sage, that you could not find out those two bodies; and wandered about in this endless world of dreams, as if you were in your waking state.

9. Therefore know this mortal state, as a mere dream appearing as waking, and that all of us are but day dreams, and seeing one another as we see the visionary beings in our dreams.

[Pg 819]

10. You are a visionary man to me, and so am I also to you; and this intellectual sphere, wherein the soul is situated within itself.

11. You have been ere while a visionary being in your life, until you thought yourself to be a waking man in your domestic life.

12. I have thus related to you the whole matter, as it has occurred to you; and which you well know by your conception, perception and meditation of them.

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

The sage resumed:—Saying so the sage held his silence, and lay himself in his bed at night; and I was as bewildered in my mind, as if blown away by the winds.

2. Breaking then my silence after a long time, I spoke to that sage and said: sir, in my opinion, such dreams appear <to have> some truth and reality in them.

3. The other muni replied:—If you can believe in the truth of your waking dreams, you may then rely on the reality of your sleeping dreams likewise; but should your day dreams prove to be false, what faith can you then place on your night dreams (which are as fleet as air).

4. The whole creation from its very beginning, is no more than a dream; and it appears to be comprised of the earth etc., yet it is devoid of everything.

5. Know the waking dream of this creation is more subtile, than our recent dreams by night; and O lotus eyed preceptor of the huntsman, you will shortly hear all this from me.

6. You think that the object you see now, in your waking state in the day time, the same appear to you in the form of dream in your sleep; so the dream of the present creation, is derived from a previous creation, which existed from before as an archetype of this, in the vacuum of the Divine Mind.

7. Again seeing the falsity of your waking dream of this creation, how do you say that you entertain doubts regarding the untruth of sleeping dreams, and knowing well that the house in your dream is not yours, how do you want to dote upon it any more?

[Pg 821]

8. In this manner, O sage, when you perceive the falsity of your waking dream of this world; how can you be doubtful of its unreality any more?

9. As the sage was arguing in this manner, I interrupted him by another question; and asked him to tell me, how he came to be the preceptor of the huntsman.

10. The other sage replied:—Hear me relate to you this incident also; I will be short in its narration, for know O learned sage, I can dilate it likewise to any length.

11. I have been living here, as a holy hermit for a long time; and solely employed in the performance of my religious austerities; and after hearing my speech, I think you too will like to remain in this place.

12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake me here alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein.

13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in the course of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine in this place, and all its people will be wholly swept away.

14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs, when this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinned of their occupants.

15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and in perfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, by our knowledge of the knowable.

16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; and perform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moon perform their revolutions in the solitary sky.

17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, many kinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonely place.

18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing bird sitting upon them; and the waters will be filled[Pg 822] with lotus beds, with the humming bees and chakoras chirping amidst them. There shall we find happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for our repose.

The other sage said:—When both of us shall dwell together in that forest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there will appear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue in pursuing after a deer.

2. You will then reclaim and enlighten him, by means of your meritorious remonstrance; and he then will commence and continue to practice his austerities, from his aversion to the world.

3. Then continuing in his austere devotion, he will be desirous of gaining spiritual knowledge, and make inquiries into the phenomena of dreaming.

4. You sir, will then instruct him fully in divine knowledge, and he will be versed in it by your lectures on the nature of dreams.

5. In this manner you will become his religious instructor, and it is for this reason that I have accosted you with the epithet or title of the huntsman’s guru or religious guide.

6. Now sir, I have related to you already regarding our errors of this world; and what I and you are at present, and what we shall turn to be afterwards.

7. Being thus spoken to by him, and learning all these things from him, I became filled with wonder, and was he more amazed as I remonstrated with him on these matters.

8. Thus we passed the night in mutual conversation, and after we got up in the morning, I honoured the sage with due respect, and he was pleased with me.

9. Afterwards we continued to live together in the same homely hut of the same village, with our steady minds and our friendship daily increasing.

[Pg 824]

10. In this manner time glided on peacefully upon us, and the revolutions of his days and nights, and returns of months, seasons and years; and I have been sitting here unmoved under all the vicissitudes of time and fortune.

11. I long not for a long life, nor desire to die ere the destined day; I live as well as I may, without any care or anxiety about this or that.

12. I then looked upon the visible sphere, and began to cogitate in my mind; as to what and how and whence it was, and what can be the cause of it.

13. What are these multitudes of things, and is the cause of all these; it is all but the phenomena of a dream, appearing in the vacuity of the Intellect.

14. The earth and heaven, the air and the sky, the hills and rivers, and all the sides of firmament; are all but pictures of the Divine mind, represented in empty air.

15. It is the moonlight of the Intellect, which spreads its beams all round the ample space of vacuum; and it is this which shines as the world, which is an ineffaceable fac-simile or cartography of the supreme Intellect in the air.

16. Neither is this earth nor sky, nor are these hills and dales really in existence; nor am I anything at all; it is only the reflexion of the supreme Mind in empty air.

17. What may be the cause of aggregation of solid bodies, when there is no material cause for the causation of material bodies in the beginning.

18. The conception of matter and material bodies, is a fallacy only; but what can be the cause of this error, but delusion of the sight and mind.

19. The person in the pith of whose heart, I remained in the manner of his consciousness, was burnt down to ashes together with myself.

20. Therefore this vacuum which is without its beginning and end, is full with the reflexion of the Divine Intellect; and there is no efficient or instrumental or material cause of creation, except its being a shadow of the substance of the Divine Mind.

[Pg 825]

21. All these pots and pictures, these prints and paints before us, are but the prints of the Divine Mind; nor can you ever get anything, without its mould therein.

22. But the Intellect too has no brightness of it, except its pure lucidity; for how can a mere void as vacuum have any light, except its transparency.

23. The Intellect is the pure Intelligence, of the extended entity of Brahma; which shows in itself the panorama of the universe, what else are the visibles, and where is their view besides.

24. There is but one Omnipresent soul, who is uncaused and uncausing, and without its beginning, middle and end; He is the essence of the three worlds and their contents. He is something as the universal intelligence, and shows all and every thing in itself (and reflects them in all partial intelligences according to their capacities).

The sage continued:—Having thus considered the vanity of the visibles, I remained free from my anxious cares about the world; and became passionless and fearless, and extinct in nirvána, from insensibility of my egoism.

2. I became supportless and unsupporting, and remained without my dependence upon any body; I was quite calm with my self-composure, and my soul was elevated and rested in heaven.

3. I did as my duty called, and did nothing of my own accord; and remained as void and blank as vacuum, which is devoid of all action and motion.

4. The earth and heaven, the sky and air, the mountains and rivers, and all that lies on all sides and the sides themselves, are not but shadow in the air, and all living bodies are no more than the embodied (died) Intellect or Intellectual bodies.

5. I am quiet and composed, and manage myself as well as I can; I am quite happy in myself; having no injunction nor prohibition to obey, nor to act an inner or outer part (i.e. not having a double part to play, nor any duplicity in the heart).

6. Thus I resided here in my even temper, and the same tenor of my mind and actions; and it is by mere chance, that you have come to meet me here.

7. Thus I have fully explained to thee about the nature of dream and my personal self; together with that of the phenomenal world and thyself.

8. Hence thou hast well understood, what is this visible world that lies before thee; as also what these beings and these people are, and what Brahma is after all.

[Pg 827]

9. Now knowing these things, O thou huntsman, to be mere false, <you> must now have your peace of mind, with the conviction that, all this is the representation of the Intellect in empty air. Yea, it is this that is dimly seen in these, and naught besides.

10. The hunts-man rejoined:—If so it be then both me and thee and the gods even, you say to be nullity; and that all of these are but the phantoms of a dream, and that all men are no men, and all existence as non existence (sadasat).

11. The sage replied:—It is verily so, and all and every one of us is situated as the spectre of a dream to one another, and as phasma in the cosmorama of the world.

12. These spectres appear in forms, according to one’s conception of them; and the only One appears as many, like the rays of light. All these radiations cannot be wholly true or untrue, nor a mixture of both of them.

13. The visionary city of the world that appears in our waking state, is but a waking dream or an apparition of our minds, and appears as the prospect of a distant city before us, that we never saw before.

14. I have fully explained all this to you already, and you have been enlightened in the subject to no end; now you have grown wise and well known all and everything; do therefore as you may like best for you.

15. Though thus awakened and enlightened by me, your reprobate mind is not yet turned to reason, nor found its rest either in transcendental wisdom, or in the transcendent state of the most high.

16. Without assuetude you cannot concentrate your vagrant mind into your heart; nor can you without the practice of constant reflexion attain the acme of wisdom.

17. It is impossible to attain the summit of perfection, without your habitual observance of wisdom; as it is incapable for a block of wood to contain any water in it, unless it is scooped out in the form of a wooden vessel.

18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to the precepts of the sástras and preceptors, tend to the removal[Pg 828] of the mind’s suspense between unity and duality (i.e. between God and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss of nirvána—anaesthesia in quietism.

19. Insensibility of one’s worth and state and inertness to all worldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, and abstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart—

20. These joined with one’s deliverance from the fetters of dualities, and enfranchisement from all pleasurable and painful associations, are the surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterable bliss—nirvána (which is ever attendant on the Deity).

The God Agni said:—Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost in wonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in the very forest.

2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, and appeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into a sea.

3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed him onward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by an alligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of his meditation.

4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of his nirvána or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but was tossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness.

5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but he came to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, to be the production (display) of Providence.

6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning; and this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body, which I have gained by means of devotion.

7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of the existent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, which is above the etherial space (i.e. in heaven).

8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, and set his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictated to him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without its constant practice.

9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied[Pg 830] himself to the observance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers.

10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagely seers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, for very many years and seasons.

11. Remaining long in the discharge of his austere duties, and suffering all along the severities of his rigorous penance; he asked once his sagely guide, as to when he shall obtain his rest and respite from these toils, to which the muni responded unto him in the following manner.

12. The muni said:—The little knowledge that I have imparted unto thee, is a spark fire and able to consume a forest of withered wood; though it has not yet burnt down the impression of this rotten world from your mind.

13. Without assuetude you cannot have your beatitude in knowledge; and with it, it is possible to attain it in course of a long time. (i.e. No knowledge is efficacious without its long practice, hence a novice in yoga is no yogi or adept in it).

14. Such will verily be your case, if you will rely in my assurance of this to you, and wear my words as a jewel about your ears, knowing them to be oracular in this world.

15. You praise the unknown spirit of God, in your ignorance of his nature; and your mind is hanging in suspense between your knowledge and ignorance of (divine nature).

16. You are led <of> your own accord to inquire into the nature and extent of the cosmos, which is but a phantom of delusion. (The world being but a delusion, it is in vain to investigate about it).

17. You will be thus employed for ages, in your arduous understanding of making this research, until Brahmá—the creative power will appear before you, being pleased at your investigation into his works.

18. You will then ask the favour of thy favouring god, to release you from your ponderous doubt of the reality or delusiveness of the world, saying:—

19. Lord! I see the cosmorama of the phenomenal world, is spread out every where as a delusion before our sight; but[Pg 831] I want to see a spot, which exhibits the true mirror of the Divine mind, and which is free from the blemish of the visibles.

20. The mirror of the vacuous mind, though as minute as an atom, represents yet the reflexion of this vast universe in some part or other within it. (i.e. The minute atom of the mind, is the reflector of vast universe).

21. It is therefore to be known, how far this boundless world extends to our woe only; and how far does the sphere of the etherial sky stretch beyond it.

22. It is for this that I ask your good grace, to make me acquainted with the infinite space of the universe; accept my prayer, O thou lord of gods, and readily grant this my request.

23. Strengthen and immortalize this body of mine, and make it mount upon the regions of sky, with the velocity of the bird of heaven (Garuda or Phoenix).

24. Make my body increase to the length of a league each moment; until it encircles the world in the manner of its outer and surrounding sky.

25. Let this pre-eminent boon be granted to me, O great and glorious God, that I may reach beyond the bounds of the circumambient sky, which surrounds the sphere of the visible world.

26. Being thus besought by thee, O righteous man, the Lord will say unto thee, “Be it so as though desirest,” and then he will disappear as a vision from thy sight, and vanish into the air, with his attendant gods along with him.

27. After the departure of Dis Pater with his accompanying deities, to their divine abodes in heaven; thy thin and lean body emaciated by thy austerities, will assume a brightness as that of the brilliant moon.

28. Then bowing down to me and getting my leave, thy brightsome body will mount to the sky in an instant, in order to see the object of thy desire, which is settled in thy mind.

29. It will rise high into the air as a second moon, and higher still as the luminous sun itself; and blaze above as[Pg 832] brightly as a burning fire, in defiance of the brightness of the luminaries.

30. Then it will fly upwards in the empty sky, with the force of the strong winged phoenix; and run forward with the rapidity of a running current, in order to reach at the bounding belt of the world.

31. Having gone beyond the limit of the world, thy body will increase in its bulk and extent; and become as swollen as the diluvian ocean, that covered the face of the whole universe.

32. There thou wilt find thy body, growing bigger and bigger still; and filling like a big cloud the empty space of air, which is devoid of all created things.

33. This is the great vacuum of the Divine spirit, filled with the chaotic confusion of elements, flying about as whirlwinds; and the unbounded ocean of the infinite Mind, swelling with the waves of its perpetual thought.

34. You will find within this deep and dark vacuity, numberless worlds and created bodies, hurling headlong in endless succession; just as you perceive in your consciousness, a continued series of cities and other objects appearing in your dream.

35. As the torn leaves of trees, are seen to be tossed about in the air by the raging tempest; so you will see multitudes of worlds, hurled to and fro in the immensity of the Divine Mind.

36. As the passing world presents a faint and unsubstantial appearance to one looking down at it on the top of a high citadel; so do these worlds appear as mere shades and shadows when viewed in their spiritual light from above.

37. As the people of this world view the black spots attached to the disk of the moon, which are never observed by the inhabitants of that luminary; so are these worlds supposed to subsist in the Divine spirit, but they are in reality no other than the fleeting ideas of the infinite Mind.

38. You will thus continue to worlds after worlds, moving in the midst of successive spheres and skies; and thus pass a long time viewing the creation stretching to no end.

39. After viewing the multitudes of worlds, thronging in the[Pg 833] heavens like the leaves of trees; you will be tired to see no end of them in the endless abyss of Infinity.

40. You will then be vexed in yourself, at this result of your devotion, as also at the distention of your body, and stretch of your observations all over the immensity of space.

41. Of what good is this big body, which I bear as a ponderous burthen upon me; and in comparison with which millions of mountain ranges, as the great Meru etc., dwindle away into lightsome straws.

42. This boundless body of mine, that fills the whole space of the sky; answers no purpose whatever, that I can possibly think of.

43. This ponderous body of mine, that measures the whole space of the visible world; is quite in the darkness—ignorance without its spiritual knowledge, which is the true light of the soul.

44. I must therefore cast off this prolated body of mine, which is of no use to me, in the acquisition of knowledge or in keeping company with wise and holy men.

45. Of what good is this big and bulky body of mine, to scan the unknowable infinity of the endless and supportless Brahma, whose essence contains and supports the whole of this universe, and is hard to be ascertained.

46. Thinking so in yourself, you will shrivel your bloated body, by exhaling your breath (as you had expanded it by your inhalation of it), and then shun your frame as a bird cast off the outer crust of a fruit after suction of its juicy sap.

47. After casting off the mortal clod and coil of your body, thy soul will rest in empty air accompanied with its respirative breath of life, which is more tenuous than the subtile ether (over which it floats).

48. Thy big body will then fall down on earth, as when the great mount of Meru fell on the ground, being cleft of its wings by ire of Indra; and will crush all earthly beings, and smash the mountains to dust underneath it.

49. Then will the dry and starved goddess Kálí, with her[Pg 834] hungry host of Mátris and furies, devour thy prostrate body, and restore the earth to its purity, by clearing it of its nuisance.

50. Now you heard me fully relate unto your future fate, go therefore to yonder forest of palm trees, and remain there in practising your austerities as well as you may like.

51. The huntsman rejoined:—O sir, how great are the woes that are awaiting upon me, and which I am destined to undergo in my vain pursuit after knowledge (of the infinite nature and works of God).

52. Pray tell me sir, if you have anything to say, for my averting the great calamity that you have predicted; and tell me also, if there be no expedient to avoid the destined evil.

53. The sage replied:—There is no body nor any power whatever, that is ever able to prevent the eventualities of fate; and all attempts to avert them, are thrown on one’s back.

54. As there is no human power to the left on the right, or fix the feet on the head; so there is no possibility to alter the decree of fate.

55. The knowledge of the science of astrology, serves only to acquaint us with the events of our fate; but there is nothing in it, that can help us to counteract the shafts of adverse fortune.

56. Therefore those men are blest, who with their knowledge of sovran predestination are still employed in their present duties; and who after the death and burning of their bodies, rest in the eternal repose of Brahma in their consciousness.

The Huntsman said:—Tell me Sir, what will then become of my soul in its aerial position, and of my body in its situation on earth.

2. The sage replied:—Hear me attentively to tell you, about what is to become of your lost body on earth, as also of your living soul sustained in the air.

3. The body being subducted from thy whole self, thy soul will assume an aerial form, and will remain in empty air, united with its vital breath.

4. In that airy particle of your soul, you will find the surface of the earth, situated in the recess of your mind; and you will behold it as clearly, as you view the world in your dream.

5. Then from the inward desire of your heart, you will see in the amplitude of your mind, that you have become the sovereign lord of this wide extended globe.

6. The will of this idea rises of itself in your mind, that you have become a king by name and in the person of Sindhu, who is so highly honoured by men.

7. After eight years of thy birth, thy other will depart from this mortal world, and leave to thee this extensive earth, reaching to its utmost boundaries of the four seas.

8. You will find in the border of your realm, a certain lord of the land by name of Vidúratha, who will rise as thy enemy, and whom it will be difficult for thee to quell.

9. You will then reflect in yourself, of your past and peaceful reign of a full century; and think of the pleasures you have so long enjoyed in company with your consort and attendants.

10. Woe unto me, that this lord of the bordering land, has[Pg 836] now risen against me in my old age; and has put me to the trouble of waging a formidable warfare against him.

11. As thou shalt be thinking in this wise, there will occur the great war between thee and that lord of the land; in which all your quadruple armaments, will be greatly worsted and thinned.

12. In that great war, thou wilt succeed to slay that Vidúratha, by striking him with thy sword, and keeping thy stand on thy war-car.

13. You will then become the sole lord of this earth, to its utmost of the four oceans; and become to be dreaded and honoured by all, like the regents of all the sides of heaven.

14. Having thus become the sovereign monarch of the earth, and reigning over it and the name of the mighty Sindhu, thou wilt pass thy time in conversation with the learned pandits and ministers of thy court.

15. The minister will say, It is a mighty wondrous deed, O lord, that thou hast achieved, by slaying the invincible Vidúratha in thy single combat.

16. Then thou wilt say, tell me O good man, how this Vidúratha waxed so very rich, and possessed his forces as numerous as the waves of ocean; and what cause impelled him to rise against me.

17. The Minister will reply:—This lord has Lílá as his lady, who had won the favour of the fair goddess Sarasvatí; who is the supportress of the world, by her extreme devotion to her. (Sarasvatí is the goddess of wisdom and hand-maid of God. See Sir Wm. Jones’ prayer).

18. The benign goddess took this lady for her foster-daughter, and enabled her to achieve all her actions, and even obtain her liberation with ease. (Wisdom facilitates all human act).

19. It is by favour of this goddess, that this lady is able to annihilate thee at a single nod or word of hers; wherefore it is no difficult task to her to destroy thee all at once.

20. Sindhu then will answer him saying:—If what thou sayest is true, it is wondrous indeed, how then could the invincible Vidúratha come to be slain by me in warfare.

[Pg 837]

21. And why he being so highly favoured by the goddess, could not get the better of me in this combat (by slaying me with his hand).

22. The Minister will reply:—Because he always prayed the goddess with earnestness of his heart, to give him liberation from the cares and troubles of this world.

23. Now then, O lord, this goddess that knows the hearts of all men, and confers to all the objects of their desire, gave thee the victory thou didst seek, and conferred <on> him the liberation he sought by thy hands.

24. Sindhu then, will respond to it; saying:—If it is so, then I must ask, why the goddess did not confer the blessing of liberation on me also, that have been so earnestly devoted to her at all times.

25. The Minister will then say in his reply:—This goddess resides as intelligence in the minds of all men, and as conscience also in the hearts of all individual beings, and is known by the title of Sarasvatí to all.

26. Whatever object is constantly desired by any one, and earnestly asked of her at all times; she is ever ready to confer the same to him, as it is felt in the heart of everyone.

27. You lord never prayed for your liberation, at the shrine of this goddess; but craved for your victory over your enemies, which she has accordingly deigned to confer unto you.

28. Sindhu will then respond to it and say:—why is it that prince did not pray the goddess of pure wisdom for his obtaining a kingdom like me; and how was it that I slighted to pray her for my final liberation as he did?

29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart for liberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek after the same? (i.e. Why does the goddess give us the knowledge of what is good, without enabling us to exist and persist after its attainment)?

30. To this the minister will reply saying:—The propensity of doing evil (or slaughter), being inherent in your nature (from your past profession of huntsmanship), you neglected to[Pg 838] stoop down to the goddess, and pray unto her for your liberation.

31. It is well known since the creation of the world, that the intrinsic gist forms the nature of man; and this truth being evident to all from their boyhood to age, there is no body to ignore or repudiate it at any time.

32. The purity or impurity of the inner heart, to which one is habituated by his long practice or custom, continues to predominate over all his qualities and actions to the very last, and there is no power to contravene it in any manner.

Then Sindhu will say:—Tell me sir, what kind of a vile-person and how ignorant I had been before whereby I still retain the evil propensities of my past life, and am doomed to be reborn in this earth (the vale of misery).

2. The minister will say in his reply:—“Hear me attentively, O king, for a while; and I will tell you this secret, which you require me to relate, and will surely remove your ignorance.”

3. There is a self existent and undecaying Being from all eternity, which is without its beginning or end, which is designated the great Brahma, and passes herein under the little of I and thou, and of this and that &c.

4. I am that self same Brahma, by the consciousness of my self cogitation (ego cogito ergo sum). This becomes the living principal with the power of intellection (vivo qui intellego I live because I think). This power does not forsake its personality; (but retains its persona of I am that I am).

5. Know this Intellect to be a spiritual or supernatural substance, having a form rarer and more transparent than that of the subtile ether; it is this which is the only being in existence, nor is there anything which is of a material substance. (This passage maintains the immateriality of the world).

6. This formless takes the form of the mind, by its being combined, with volition and its views of this and the next world, (i.e. its worldly enjoyments and future bliss), in its state of life and death, and of waking and sleep. (That is the mind is sensible of these passing and alternate phenomena).

7. The mind, though formless, stretches itself into the form of the phenomenal world; just as the formless air dilates itself, in the form of force or oscillation in all material bodies.

[Pg 840]

8. The world is identic with the mind, as the seeming and visible sky is the same with empty vacuity; so the corporeal is alike the incorporeal, and there is no difference whatever, between the material and mental worlds.

9. This net work or least of worlds resides in the mind, in their immanent impressions in it, and the outer world is in reality. And that the cosmos consists of ideas in the formless mind, its formal appearance has no real substance in it. (The immaterial ideas of the mind are real, and not the material objects or the sober reality of the subjective only).

10. There arose at first the pure (satya) personality of the impersonal and universal spirit of God (Brahma), in the person of the creative power known under the title of Brahmá. This personal god assumed to himself the appellation of ego from his will of creation, and the undivided spirit, was divided into many impure personalities (rájasa and támasa), from its desire of becoming many (aham bahu syam-sim multa and plurimá).

11. The sindhu will say: Tell me sir, what you mean by rájasa and támasa bodies (or impure personalities); and how and whence are these appellations at first in primo to the supreme being—parapada—the Indefinite One.

12. The monitor will reply saying:—As all embodied beings herein, are possessed of members and limbs of their bodies; so the bodiless spirit is comprised of an infinite variety of minor spiritual forms under it, which are known as the good or bad spirits.

13. The selfsame spirit then designates all these several parts of itself by various appellations, and the incorporeal spirit assumes to itself, an endless variety of material and terraqueous natures and names. (That changed through all, yet in all the same; known by this or that or one or other nature and name).

14. Thus the universal spirit continues to exhibit in itself, all the various forms of this visionary world at its own will; and gives a distinct name and nature to each and every one of these representations of itself.

15. When the Divine spirit, deigned to covert itself into the personality of Brahmá, and in those of me or thee and other[Pg 841] individualities; it became altered from its state of original holiness and purity to those impurity and foulness, known as rájasí and támasí. (When God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam, it lost its purity and sanctity by contamination of flesh).

16. The unalterable pure nature of the holy spirit of God, being thus transformed to unholiness, it passed into different states of impurity in the living souls of beings. (The same living soul passing different degrees of purity and impurity).

17. The spirit of God being blown at first as the living soul (in an animal body); the soul that comes to perceive its incarceration in flesh and its doom to suffering, is said to be of the pure nature of sáttikí.

18. Those who while they are living in the world, are possest of politeness and good qualities; they are said to be merely of a good nature Kevala sáttiki.

19. Those who being born in repeated regenerations are destined to the enjoyments of life, and to their final liberation at last, are designated as the राजस राजसी.

20. Those again who being born in this nether world, are inclined to the practice of their manly virtues only; such souls are famed as the merely rájasí (shining), and are few in their number.

21. Those souls which have been undergoing their repeated regenerations, ever since the beginning of creation; and are continually roving in the bodies of inferior beings, are said by the wise, to belong to the species of the most impure támasa támasí; though it is possible from them to attain their salvation at last.

22. Those which have been wandering in many births, in the forms of vile animals, and until they attain their salvation at the end; such souls are designated as merely vile Kevala tamasi by the wise, who are versed in the science of psychology.

23. In this manner have these philosophers classed the emanated soul of beings into many grades and species; among which O my respected sir, your soul is reckoned among the vilest of the vile tamasa tamasí.

[Pg 842]

24. I know you to have passed through many births of which you know nothing; and these have been as various as they were fraught with the variegated scenes of life.

25. You have in vain passed all your lives in doing nothing that is useful; and more particularly your late aeronautic life, with that gigantic body of yours.

26. Being thus born with the vile species of thy soul, it is difficult for thee to obtain thy liberation from the prison house of this world.

27. Sindhu will then say in his response:—Tell me sir, how can I divest myself of this inborn vile nature of my soul; that I may learn to abide by thy counsel, and try to purify my soul and rectify the conduct of my life.

28. There is nothing in all these three worlds, which is hard to be acquired by means of earnest endeavour and intense application.

29. As a fault or failure of the previous day, is corrected by its rectifications to day; so can you purify your pristine impure soul by your pious acts of the present day.

30. Whoever earns for any thing and labours hard to earn it, is sure to gain it in the end, wherein the remiss are sure to meet with failure.

31. Whatever a man is intent upon doing, and tries to effect at all times; and whatsoever one desires with earnestness, and is constantly devoted to the same pursuit, he is to succeed in it, and have his object without fail.

32. The sage related:—The king being thus remonstrated by his minister, was resolved to resign the burthen of his state, and to renounce his realm and royalty even at that very moment.

33. He wished to retire to some far distant forest, and prayed his ministers to support his realm; but he declined to take the charge, though the state was free from all its enemies (i.e. though it was a peaceful realm).

34. He then remained in the company of wisemen, and was enlightened by their discourses; as the sesame seeds became odorous by being placed amidst a heap of flowers.

[Pg 843]

35. Then from his inquiries into the mysteries of his life and birth, and into the causes of his confinement in this world, he obtained the knowledge of his liberation from it.

36. It was thus by means of his continued inquiries into truth, and his continual association with the wise and good, that the soul of Sindhu attained a holy sanctity in comparison with which, the prosperity of Brahma even, is as a straw or the dried leaf of a withered tree, which the winds of the sky toss about to and fro.

The sage resumed and said:—I have thus related these future events, as if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thou wishest and thinkest best for thyself.

2. Agni the god of fire said:—Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising with the sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool.

3. In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religious austerities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms of disinterested friendship with one another.

4. After some time the muni met with his final extinction—nirvána, and by casting off his mortal body, obtained his last repose in the state of transcendent tranquility.

5. In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahma to give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of his desire.

6. The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing, begged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage had predicted to him.

7. Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode; and the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy the fruition of his austere devotion.

8. He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space, which lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of an incalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filled the regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched along and across this lower world.

[Pg 845]

9. He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagle of Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulk of his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process of an indefinite period of time.

10. Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuated in the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself.

11. From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respiration of his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in the air, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.

12. His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the air into the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, and the great antagonist of Vidúratha.

13. His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became a huge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering of thunders, as one earth falling upon another.

14. At a certain time, it shines as a Kesandraka, at others it appears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky.

15. I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this huge carcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe of this earth.

16. The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen, resembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as a city in our dream.

17. The dry and big bellied goddess chandí, then devoured this carcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrails with its red hot blood.

18. The earth is called mediní or fleshy from the flesh of this corpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.

19. It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance of the earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from the dust of this body.

[Pg 846]

20. This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and the fossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath the ground, which grew everything useful to men.

The god of fire added:—Go now O sapient Vipaschit, to your wished for abodes, and with the steadiness of your mind, conduct with propriety every where on earth.

2. Indra the lord of the assemblage of creatures, has been performing his hundred fold sacrifices in his celestial abode; and there I am invited to attend by an invocation of him.

3. Bhása said:—Saying so, the lord Agni disappeared from that place; and passed through the transparent ether like the electric fire of lightning.

4. I was then led by my predestination to roam about in the air; and direct my mind into the investigation of my allotted acts, and the termination of my ignorance.

5. I beheld again an innumerable host of heavenly bodies, roving about in the air; holding their positions at different stations of the firmament, and containing inhabitants of different natures and customs.

6. Some of these were of one and same form, resembling floating umbrellas in the sky; and attracting the hearts of men, by their shining appearance and slow motion. (The great velocity of heavenly bodies, appear to be slow when they are seen by the naked eyes of men from this distant earth).

7. Some of them are of earthy substance, but shining and moving onward like mountains in motion.

8. Some were of woody appearance, and others of stony substance; but they are all lightsome bodies, and all moving onward in their uninterrupted course.

9. I beheld also some figures like carved statues of stone, standing in the open space of my mind, and talking together all their live-long days.

[Pg 848]

10. In this manner I beheld for a long while, many such figures like images in my dream, and was quite bewildered in my utter ignorance of them.

11. I then intended to perform my austere devotion, in order to obtain my liberation; when the god Indra appeared unto me and said: “no Vipaschit, you are doomed to become a stag again, and not entitled to your liberation now.”

12. You are propelled by your previous predilection to prefer the pleasures of heaven; therefore I must direct you to dwell in my paradise, and wander there amidst my gardens of mandara trees.

13. Being thus bid by him, I rejoined and said to him: I am weary, O lord, with the troubles of the world, and want to get my release from them; ordain therefore my immediate emancipation from them.

14. The god listened to my prayer and said: emancipation attends on the pure soul, which is purged from all its desires; and this had been already expounded to you by the god of fire (in his narrative of the sage and hunter); ask therefore some other boon, said he, and I begged him to tell me of my next and future state.

15. Indra replied and said:—I find you to be fated to be changed to the state of a deer hereafter, from the fond desire of your heart, to wander about and feed freely in the fields.

16. By becoming a deer, you will have to enter the holy assembly (of Dasaratha); where another deer like you, has obtained his liberation before, by listening to the spiritual instructions formerly delivered there by me.

17. Therefore be born as a deer in some forest on earth with your pensive soul; and you will then come to recollect your past life from its relation by Vasishtha (in the court of king Dasaratha).

18. You will learn there, that all this existence is but the delusion of a dream, and the creation of imagination; and the account of your future life depicted in its true colour.

19. After being released from the body of the deer, you shall[Pg 849] regain your human form, and perceive the rays of holy light shining in your inward spirit.

20. This light will then dispel the long prevailing gloom of ignorance from your mind, and then you shall attain your nirvána supineness, as the calm and breathless wind.

21. After the god had said so, I had the presentiment of being a deer in this forest, and entirely forgot my human nature, under my firm conviction of having become a beast.

22. I have been ever since residing in the recess of these woods, under the impression of my being changed to a stag; and feeding ever since upon the grass and herbs growing on the mountain top.

23. Here I saw once a body of troopers coming to a hunting excursion; and being then affrighted at the sight, I betook myself to flight.

24. They then laid hold of me, and took me to their place; where they kept me for some days for their pleasure, and at last brought me hither before Ráma.

25. I have thus related to you all the incidents of my life; and the magical scenes of the world, too full of marvelous events.

26. It is the production of our ignorance, which pervades over all things, and branches out into innumerable forms in everything that presents itself to our view; and there is nothing whatever to dispel this darkness, except by the light of spiritual knowledge.

27. Válmíki relates:—Then as Vipaschit had held his silence after speaking in this manner; he was accosted by the well minded Ráma with the following words.

28. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how a person without any desire of his own, sees the object of another’s desire in himself; and could the deer thought of by yourself, come to the sight of others in Indra’s Paradise?

29. Vipaschit replied:—Let me tell you that the earth where upon the huge carcass had fallen, was once before trodden upon by Indra, with the pride of his performance of a hundred sacrifices.

[Pg 850]

30. There strutting along in his haughty strides, he met the anchorite Durvásas sitting still in his meditative mood; and believing him to be a dead body lying on his way, he knocked it down with his feet.

31. At this the angry anchorite threatened the proud god with saying:—O Indra! as you have dashed me with your feet by thinking me a lifeless corpse, so will a huge carcass shortly fall upon this ground and slash it to pieces and reduce it to dust.

32. And as you have spurned me as a dead body, so art thou accursed to be crushed under the falling carcass on earth.

33. He transformed into a deer, as he was king of kings before, and remained in his appearance according to his ideas.

34. In truth neither is the actual world a reality, nor the imaginary one an unreality; it is in fact the one and same thing, whether we conceive it as the one or other (i.e. either as the real or unreal).

35. Listen now, O Ráma, to another reason, which appertains to this subject, and clearly settles the point in question. (That God being Almighty and all in all, it makes no difference whatever, whether the world is viewed as his creation or as a pantheon).

36. He in whom all things reside, and from whom everything proceeds; who is all in all; and who is every where in all must be the One that you may call all, and beside whom there <is> none at all.

37. It is equally possible to him, to bring forth whatever he wills to produce; as also not to produce, whatever he does not wish to bring to existence.

38. Whatever is desired in earnest by any body, must eventually come to pass to him in reality (as the desired doership of Vipaschit); and this is as true as the instance of light, being ever accompanied by its shade.

39. If it is impossible for the desire and its act, which are opposite in their nature, to meet together in fact; then it would be impossible for the omnifarious God to be all things both in[Pg 851] being and not being; therefore the objects of our desire and thought, are equally present with us as the real ones.

40. There is a reality (or entity of God) attached to every form of existence, and there is nothing which of itself is either an entity or nullity also.

41. O the great magic or illusion, which is overspread every where, and pervades over all nature in every form and at all times; and binds all beings in inextricable delusion.

42. The nature of the great God comprises the community of spirits in his spirit, and combines in itself all laws whether permissive or prohibitive acting in concert and eternal harmony.

43. It is his infinite power that has displayed the ignorance or Illusion, which spreads over all the three worlds from time with or without its beginning; and it is our delusion only, which depicts all things in their various forms to our view.

44. Or how could the creation that was once destroyed by the great deluge, come to resuscitate again; unless it were a réchauffé of the reminiscence of the past one, else the elementary bodies of air, fire and earth, could not possibly be produced from nothing.

45. Therefore the world is no other than a manifestation of the divine nature; and this is the verdict of the sástras, and the conviction of mankind from the very beginning of creation.

46. Things which admit of no sufficient proof for their material existence, are easily proved to exist, by their being considered under the light of the understanding.

47. Things of a subtile nature, which are imperceptible by the senses, are known in their essence by the understanding of the learned; hence the essence of Brahma is pure understanding, of which we are quite ignorant owing to our ignorance of the Intellect.

48. The world is obvious to us from its figure, as the air is evident by its vibration; hence no body is born or dies herein, (save that it appears to or disappears from our sight).

49. That I am living and the other is dead, are conceptions of our mind; hence death being but the total disappearance of[Pg 852] the visible world from our view, it must be as pleasing to us as our sound sleep itself.

50. If it be the recognition of the visibles, which is called the life or revivification of man; then there are no such things in the world, as are commonly termed the life and death of beings.

51. At a time, the intellect appears a duality, and at other an unity, both are nothing but intellect.

52. It is the Intellection of the Divine Intellect, that infuses its intelligence into all minds; hence what is life without the intellect and the faculty of intellection.

53. The intellect being free from pain, there is no cause of complaint in any intellectual being; since the word world and all that it means to express, are but manifestations of vacuous intellect.

54. It is wrong to say, that the intellect is one thing and the body another; since the unity is the soul of all and pervades all multiformity; and as the waves and whirlpools are seen in the waters, so are all these bodies known to abide in the Supreme being.

55. The universal pervasion of divine essence, as that of the subtile air, is the cause of causes and the sole cause of all; hence the world is a subtile substance also, being but a reflexion of the Divine Intellect.

56. It is wonderful, how this subtile world appears as a solid body to us; it is only our conception of it as such that makes it appear so unto us; but conception is no substance at all, therefore the world has no substantiality in it.

57. It is the demon of error that reigns over us in its aerial form, deludes us to take the shadowy world for the substance; while in fact this creation of error is as nil and void, as the vacuous creation of the intellect. (i.e. The sensible world is as void and null as the ideal one).

58. Hence this nether world below and the etherial worlds above, are as void as the hyperphysical world of the Divine Intellect; and all these being but reflexions of the Divine mind, are exhibited in various ways.

[Pg 853]

59. The Intellect being a subtile entity, there is nothing as a solid substance anywhere; the phenomenals are all unsubstantial rarities, though they appear to us solidified realities.

60. The knowledge of the true verity and that of the unreality, are so blended together; that we must remain in mute silence like a block of wood or stone, to pronounce anything in the affirmative or negative about either.

61. The visible whole is the infinite Brahma, and this universe displays the majesty of the great God; and all these bodies are the various forms, exhibiting the infinite attributes of the deity.

62. In this manner, is the substance of the Divine Intellect displayed in itself; and it is the vacuous spirit of God, that manifests this unsubstantial world in its own vacuity.

63. The number of living beings, since the beginning of creation, is unlimited in every place; and of these there are many, that exist either in their corporeal or incorporeal forms.

64. There are other siddha and spiritual beings, abiding with their subtile natures and tenuous forms in the supreme Being; they live in groups in all elements, but never come to see one another of their own kind.

65. The exuberance of the visible world, being purely of aerial and vacuous form; they are never seen in their true and intellectual light, except when they appear to us in their aerial shapes in our dreams.

66. The world being well known, remains as it does in our inward conception of it, in the form of a hazy mist appearing to our sight at the end of night (i.e. dark and obscure).

67. It is a dark and indistinct maze, with nothing distinguishable in it when seen from a distance; it becomes clearer at a nearer view, and by keeping yourself afar you lose sight of it altogether.

68. As the particles of water fly off, and fall again into the sea; so do the atoms of intellect in all living beings, continually rise and subside, in the vast ocean of the Divine Mind. (So doth every thing proceed from and recede into the Divine Spirit).

69. This grandeur of creation is as the crowding throng of[Pg 854] our dreams, which ere before lay slumbering; in the hollow space of the Divine Mind, therefore know these effusions of the divine Intellect, as calm and quiet as the unruffled spirit of God (that ever reposes in its calm felicity).

70. I have seen the infinite glories of creation, and have felt the various results of my deeds to no end; I have wandered in all quarters of the globe for ages; but I found no rest from the toils and troubles of the delusive world, except in the knowledge of my vanities of the world.

Válmíki related:—As Vipaschit was going on saying these things, the sun wishing to put an end to his speech, proceed with his rapid strides to enlighten another world.

2. Loud trumpets gave the alarum of the departing day, and filled the air on all sides with their swelling sound: and all the quarters of heaven seemed to re-echo in their joy, the fanfare of victory.

3. The king Dasaratha gave Vipaschit, many gifts in money, maidservants and houses; and bestowed on him many rich and royal presents worthy of kings, and then rose from his seat.

4. The king, Ráma and Vasishtha, having taken leave of the assembly, and saluted one another in their proper order, retired to their respective abodes.

5. Then having bathed and refreshed themselves, they passed the night in ease and repose; then resorted to the assembly in the morning, and were seated in their respective seats.

6. The sage Vasishtha then resumed the subject of the last discourse; and spoke his sweet words with such complacence of his countenance, as if the comely moon was shedding her ambrosial beams, from her bright and cooling face.

7. Let me tell you, O king, that Vipaschit has not been able with all his endeavours, to ascertain the true nature of Ignorance; nor is it an error of the mind which makes the unreal appear as real.

8. The nature of Ignorance as long as it is unknown, appears to be eternal and endless; but being understood, it proves to be as null and nothing, as the limpid water in a mirage.

9. You have already heard, O wise monarch, the narration[Pg 856] of Bhása the minister of Vipaschit; and shall now hear of his liberation in his living state.

10. It is likely that he will come to be acquainted with truth from some other source or discourse, and then he will be liberated in his life time; by being freed from his ignorance.

11. And because this ignorance or Avidyá, is ever accompanied with Intellect of the Lord himself, it is for this very reason, that the unreality is erroneous by taken for the reality itself.

12. If this ignorance—avidyá—nescience, be an attribute of God, then it is no other than the very God; and the unknown or the mysterious nature, is not otherwise than the inscrutable nature of God.

13. This ignorance is infinity (in the infinity of created things), and is productive of endless shoots like the sprouts of spring, some of which are insipid and others sapid, some are luscious, while others are mellow and inebriating.

14. Some growing as thorny plants, all hollow within and hollow without, while others are straight and herbaceous as the succulent reeds or sugar cane.

15. Some of them are unfruitful and unprofitable, and others are attractive of the heart by their untimely blossoming, which is predicative of evil only and no desirable good. (Early blossoms are ominous).

16. Avidyá or Nescience has no form nor shape, save that of its shapeless bulk, which fills all worlds; it is a long and broad mass of darkness, and infested by demons and devils (that take in the dark and at night).

17. Like false light and phantasms in the open air, and like the linked and twisted motes of light curling about in the sky; do all these visibles appear to our view in the clear firmament, and are in reality but fallacies of our vision.

18. The variegated views which are stretched all about the empty air, without any connecting chain or link between them; are as the many coloured rainbows of heaven, which are described by the falling rains and melt into the empty air.

[Pg 857]

19. The world resembles a rainy river, with all its orbs appearing as the countless waves of water, with the dirty and foaming froths floating over it; and the fearful eddies and whirlpools, resembling the revolving planetary bodies.

20. The world is a vast and dreary desert, ever exhibiting the waters of mirage on its surface; while in reality but a body of dust, and filled with the ashes of dead bodies.

21. As a man wandering in the fairyland of his dream, finds no terminus of his journey; so have I been roving forever in the land of my waking dream, without finding any end to my travelling.

22. The web of desires that I have been fondly weaving so long, proved at last to be fragile and frail; hence men of firm minds learn betimes, to abandon their desires for the whole range of visible objects.

23. All those objects (ideas) that are contained in the empty space of the Intellect, are as precious germs safely stored in the casket of the mind; and appear by our misconception of them, as visible objects placed in the open space of air.

24. Those worlds are as the celestial cities of the siddhas, which are situated in the air and are quite invisible to us; but these that appear to our view, are non-entities, and mere phantoms of our fancy.

25. The heavenly abodes of the siddhas or godly souls, are feigned as teeming in gold, precious gems and rubies, with rivers yielding pearls and fields of diamonds; they abound with victuals and eatables, and rivers running with limpid and drinkable waters.

26. They are said to abound in honey and wines, in milk and curds, in butter and clarified butter also; there are streams of sweet beverage, and celestial nymphs in groups.

27. There fruits and flowers grow in the gardens at all seasons, and heavenly damsels sport in the bowers at all times; and all sorts of gains and enjoyments, readily attends on the immediate desire of every body.

28. There a hundred suns are shining, on one side, and a thousand moons on another; and some inhabitants are dressed in[Pg 858] gold and purple, while others are quaffing their fill of ambrosial draughts.

29. There is a spontaneous darkness in one place, and full sunshine in another, and an everlasting joy in some place; and the siddhas or perfected spirits are continually wafted as by a breeze, from one of these to another, with their light and ponderous bodies.

30. Some meet with their birth and death at each moment, while there are others that live to enjoy their everlasting joys of heaven.

31. There are magnificent palaces and great dignities of all sorts; it is fraught with the delights of all seasons, and filled with whatever is desirable to mind, and delectable to the spirit.

32. But these desirable blessings, attending upon the pious deeds of virtuous; find no place in the quiet minds of the righteous (which fixed divine felicity alone).

33. There is nothing that is desirable to the soul, which is devoted to the contemplation of Brahma only; say therefore, O ye unholy, of what good are all these blessings, if they do not lead to divine felicity.

34. If in the beginning there was no creation at all, owing to its want of a creator; say then what is this world, of what it is composed, and how came it to existence.

35. If the world is not the act of causality and nothing in reality, then how does <it> appear to be existent? It is the everlasting will of God, that manifests itself in the manner in the Divine Mind; just as we see the display of our rising thought and wishes in our mind.

36. It is even so, O ye simpletons, that you or I or he, come to see our imaginary castles in the air; by the stretch of our imagination, or the liveliness or flight of our fancy.

37. He who has the single object of divine felicity, for his sole pursuit in life; comes to attain the same supreme bliss, after he forsakes his mortal body.

38. But whoso pursues after the two fold objects of heaven and heavenly bliss, by means of his religious rites and sacrifices[Pg 859] in this life; acquires both of them afterwards, as the unity of purpose secures one only to one.

39. The siddhas reign in the said manner, according to the thoughts in their minds; while the unholy are doomed to the torments of hell, owing to the sinful thoughts of their minds.

40. Whatever one thinks upon, he feels the same in himself, as long as he possesses his mortal body; and after he loses his material body, he feels it in his mind, which is but a part of the body.

41. When a living person quits one body for another, he carries with him the same mind into the other that he had in the prior one, and sees the same things in its thoughts, which he was accustomed to look upon before.

42. A good conscience has all goodly prospects before it, as a vitiated soul meets with ghastly aspects on all sides; the airy mind sees only such aerial shapes in its vacuity.

43. Pure souls only come to enjoy the sights of these siddha cities in the air, but impure spirits are subjected to suffer their torments in hell.

44. There is a continual rotation of the unwieldy stones of grinding mills, for crushing the vicious souls; and the hurling of wicked into blind wells or dark pits, out of which they can rise no more.

45. There some bodies are cast amidst the frozen snows, where they are petrified to stones; and many are thrown into the burning coals of devils, or led amidst the burning sands of trackless deserts.

46. The clouds dropped down living fire, and the skies poured forth fiery showers; and red-hot bolts and arrows darted down from heaven.

47. Stones and disks and swords, were floating on the running stream of the sky; and falling like fragments of clouds upon the breasts of the accurst, and breaking them as with the strokes of felling axes.

48. The hot iron sleets and brimstones, falling with a hissing[Pg 860] sound; and weapons were hurled from engines, with a loud tremendous noise.

49. Missiles and bolts and discs, together with pikes and clubs, and swords and shafts were falling in showers; and traps and tackles and malls and mallets were striking in hundred.

50. There the hot and burning sands, buried the passengers under the ground; and there burning meteors were falling like torches; while large ravens were devouring the dead bodies around.

51. Blazing piles also ingulfed the dead, from which they could never get out; while darts and spears and bolts and arrows, were piercing the other bodies all about.

52. Hunger and dismay and excruciating pains, tormented by turns, the bodies of dead apostates; while others were hurled down from high hills and heights, on rough and hard stones below.

53. Some were weltering in blood, and rolling in pools of dirt, rotten flesh and disgusting pus; and others were crushed under stones and weapons, and beneath the feet of horses and elephants.

54. Hungry vultures and owls, were picking up and tearing the dead bodies, out of caves and places; and their limbs and members, were mangled and scattered all over the ground.

55. It is thus that men are prepossessed, with these thoughts of the punishment of their guilt, from the sacred writings; and thereby come to suffer the same, both in their bodies and minds, from their inward impressions of them.

56. Whatever form or figure, ever appears in the vacuum of the Intellect; or whatsoever is dreamt or thought of at anytime; the same holds fast the imagination, and presents itself before the mirror of the mind of its own accord.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether these various events incidental to the lives of the hermit and hunter, were owing to any cause, or of their own spontaneity (i.e. whether they were the effects of any cause, or of their spontaneous occurrence as mere dreams and phantasies).

2. Vasishtha replied:—These occurrences are as the appearance of eddies, in the vast ocean of the unknown soul (or mind); and are known to be in their continual rotation in the vortex of the soul, of their own accord and in their airy forms.

3. As the oscillating particles of air, are ever in motion in the air; so the current of thoughts is continually in action, in the vast vacuity of intellect (or mind).

4. Whatever issues from its source in any shape, retains its original form unless it is converted to and restrained in any other form; so the aerial thoughts of the vacuous mind are always aerial, unless they are drawn in painting or exhibited in another form. (Just so a clod of earth is always the earth, till it is moulded to the form of a pot or any other thing).

5. It is the vacuous essence of the Divine Intellect, that inheres in every form that is exhibited by and derived from it; so it is the substance of the body, that permits through out all its members and limbs; as it is the woody substance of the tree, that is diffused through all the leaves and branches, that shoot forth from it. (Gloss. The difference consists in the permanence of the permeating principle, and the temporiety of the pervaded growth).

6. Brahma appears to remain permanent in some existences, as in the four elemental forms of earth etc.; while he seems to be transcient and evanescent in others, as in the frail bodies of[Pg 862] mortal bodies, all of which abide in their aerial state in the vacuous spirit.

7. All these various objects therefore, being but reflections of the Intellect impressed upon the soul; it is impossible for us to determine which of these is substantial or unsubstantial or real or unreal.

8. All these are altogether unknowable except that we know them as reflexions in the inanity of the Intellect; say ye therefore that are wholly ignorant of all what you think this visible world to be, whether a reality or unreality.

9. Whatever you behold anywhere in the universe, is but an exhibition in the vacuum of the Divine Intellect; and what avails it to you that know the truth, whether you believe it as such or not. Rely therefore in your belief of it as it is.

10. These forms of reflexions rise of themselves in the Divine Mind, as the waves and billows exhibit themselves on the surface of the sea; they are the spontaneous offspring of the Divine Spirit, and are of themselves both their causes as well as effects (or self caused effects).

11. It is the display of the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind, that passed under the appellations of its will or volition, or its imagination and creation, or the creation of its imagination; hence this world is to be understood under any one of these senses, and not of its being composed of earth and water.

12. It is this appearance of the Divine Mind, that appears in this manner and nothing besides; it is the Divine itself that resides in the Divinity, and passes under the title of Avidyá or Ignorance, from our ignorance of its nature.

13. There is no material grossness in the integrity of the Divine Intellect; which is purely vacuous and immaterial; and composes the whole universe, this is transcendental knowledge, and its perfection is liberation.

14. It is the reflexion of the vacuous Intellect, which spreads over the whole universe; it is rare and uncompressed, and ever calm and quiet, and passes by the name of the world.

15. The meditative man whose eye-sight is fixed in his[Pg 863] musing, whose body is emaciated in devotion, and whose mind is abstracted from the concrete, and is absorbed in intellection, is only capable of seeing the Intellectual world.

16. Whatever the vacuous essence of the intellect, exhibits in any form at any place; the same appears to be present there of its own nature.

17. The unthinking man and unreasonable soul, sees only erroneous sights in the midst of skies; as one who is dim-sighted and purblind by birth, does not cease from seeing the double moon in the sky.

18. Whatever is seen anywhere, is no other than the unpolluted Brahma himself; and the vacuous sphere of the Intellect being for ever clear and transparent, is never sullied by any foulness (of gross matter).

19. The intellect without forsaking its pure form of self-consciousness, exhibits varieties of gross objects in the form of dreams within itself. So also is our consciousness of the world, in the manner of our dreams.

20. By comparing the dicta of the sástras with one another, and weighing them well with acute judgement, one will find his rest in himself; but the man of shallow understanding will not find it so.

21. The ignorance which floats upon the sea of your understanding, does not contaminate my mind, in the manner of dirt polluting a pure and clear stream.

22. As there is neither the earth nor any earthly thing, to be met with in our sleep, though we are conscious of them in our dream; so also the phenomenal world has no real existence, though we are conscious of it in our waking.

23. As the clearness of the Intellect, like sunlight or flaming fire, shows us many things in our sleeping dreams, so doth its light exhibit the visibles to our view in our waking dreams also by day.

24. There is no difference between the two states of dreaming and waking, they are both of the same nature, and the difference lies in the modes of our apprehension of them.

[Pg 864]

25. The waking man never apprehends his waking state to be a dream; but the dead man that rises again to life in the next world, thinks his past life to have been but a state of dreaming.

26. The shortness and length of time, occupied by the two states of dreaming and waking, is generally considered to constitute the difference between them; but during the time of their presence, they are both considered alike the other (i.e. the dreaming man thinks himself as waking).

27. The sleeping and waking dreams, bearing alike the same quality of presenting false objects to view, are necessarily of the same nature; and there is no difference whatever in their outward features, as there is neither elder and younger of two twin brothers. (Dreaming and waking are twin brothers, like sleep and death neither of which is more or less).

28. Whatever is the waking dream, just so is the waking in dream also; neither of which leaves anything—being, behind the two states of waking and dreaming. (They present many things when present, but leave nothing lasting in their absence or when they are past and gone).

29. As we know the inconstancy of hundreds of dreams, all along the length of our life time; so the unredeemed and unenlightened soul, sees hundreds of waking states (in its repeated transmigrations in life, i.e. in this living world).

30. As the living mortals may well recollect the very many sleeping dreams, they have seen throughout their lives; so the immortalized souls of siddhas well remember, the number of waking dreams which they had seen, in their past transmigrations in different bodies.

31. Thus our waking is equipollent with our dreaming, and our dreams are equivalent with waking, in their correlation with one another in like quality, and our perception of both alike.

32. As the word worlds and phenomenal, are significant of the one and same meaning; so the terms dreaming and waking are homonymous, and interchangeable to one another—mutatis mutandis.

[Pg 865]

33. As the fairy-land in a dream, is as clear as the open space of the Intellect; so is this world an inane void and blank, and without the grossness of avidyá which ignorance imputes to it. (Ignorance views the fair ideal world as a foul material one).

34. The world is a vacuous substance, and represented as a gross stuff by ignorance; so I am as free as air and any airy thing in the world, and it is my imagination only, that binds me to my grossness.

35. Therefore do not confine your free and unconfined nature, in the bondage of gross matter; and never change the pure vacuum of your person to a material stuff, nor disfigure your formless and intellectual self in a gross and finite form.

36. There can be no bondage nor liberation, of aught whatever in this visible world of our ignorance or avidyá; because all things herein are mere reflexions of the formless void of the Divine Intellect.

37. Here there is no display of ignorance, nor any misconceptions of ours of any thing; there is neither any bondage nor release of aught whatever, and nothing that is either existent or inexistent (since all are but reflexions of Divine Intellect).

38. There is nescience, nor knowing of anything here by us; because it is the uncreated Intellect alone, that manifests itself in this manner; it reflects all forms in itself, as if they are all its dreams or creations.

39. As a man passing from one place to another, has his mind kept in abeyance in the interim; so should we keep our minds quiet and still betwixt our sight of the visibles and our dreams. (In action of the mind is reckoned as nirvána).

40. As one has his body and mind, quite quiet and calm in his sleep at night; and in the respite of his sights and thoughts, in the states of his waking and dreaming; this very state of insensibility is called nirvána of the yogi.

41. Know our knowledge of the difference of objects (as the one is immaterial and the other material), is equally untrue as that of our waking and dreaming states; because it is impossible[Pg 866] for us to conceive any other thing as matter, to consist in the immaterial Intellect.

42. Our knowledge of identity and diversity, proceed however from the same vacuous intellect; which combines the unity and duality also, in unbroken union or harmony in itself.

43. Knowing all as parts of undivided whole, all these are the same whatever they appear to be; hence the visible however diversified they may appear, are all one and the same principle.

44. Hence the etherial sphere of Brahma, contains all in itself; and who as an aerial point concentrates all in it; and the creation is the unity of Brahma, together with all its varieties.

45. Knowing all things as full of God, you must however reject them all (as mere reflexions of the Deity); and rest yourself at last in the vacuous Intellect, as the great rock of your refuge.

46. Now, O fortunate Ráma, remain to act in conformity with the rules of your order, and laws of society and the statues of your position and dignity; continue to go on, eat and drink and rest in your usual course, rely in your desired object, and ever recline in the glorious and holy lord of your intellect, and the supreme God of all.

Vasishtha continued:—All objects being convertible to the conceptions of the vacuous intellect, the whole universe is supposed to have its seat in the hollow mind; and therefore both the outward sights of things, as also the inward thoughts of their forms, are all but ideal images in the empty mind.

2. The world being but a dream, and of the form of an ideal city in the mind, has nothing substantial in it; and is therefore a quiet vacuity in itself, without having anything of any kind, or any diversity whatsoever contained therein.

3. It is the uniform display of the Intellect, appearing as multiform unto us; and this variety though unsubjective to the soul, is looked upon by it within itself, as we view the fairy-land of our dream, rising from ourselves. (Query:—whether our dreams are subjective or objective to us?)

4. In the beginning this world appeared, as the aerial castle of a dream in the vacuum of the Intellect; it was a mere reflexion of the Divine Mind, and though it was of the form of a false shadow, remained as substantive to the supreme spirit.

5. The knowing theosophist well knows this mystery, which is mysterious to the unknowing ignorant; because the word creation bears the sense of both the reality as well as unreality in it.

6. The knowing spiritualist as well as the unknowing agnostic, both acknowledge the reality of creation; but they can neither understand how it exists, nor communicate to one another their right conception of it.

7. They both know the meaning, of the word creation in their minds; the one having the sense of its sedateness ever[Pg 868] wakeful in their minds (from their spiritual view of it); and the other having the sense of its unsteadiness always waking in them (from their sight of the changeful scenes of the outer world); so they resemble the sober and drunken men, that view the world in its steady and shaking states.

8. As the liquid waters in a river, rise incessantly in restless waves; so the rolling worlds, push forward into being, in the vast expanse of the Divine Mind.

9. These creations which are not of the nature of the intellect, have yet their sites in the Intellect, like the thoughts that rise and fall in it; and these though they are invisible in their nature, appear as visible things, like the fair objects and fairy cities in our dream.

10. It is spreading shadow of the divine Intellect, which pass under the name of the world; and this formless in itself, appears as having a form, like the shadow of anything else.

11. It is a gross error, to take the unsubstantial shadow for a substantial body; as it is a gross error to suppose the empty shadow of a ghost as an embodied being.

12. The world is as unreal as an imaginary city, and as false as a string of rain drops; why then do you rely in an unreality, which is palpable from the testimonies of both the ignorant and knowing men.

13. The words then that are used to express this thing and that, are mere empty sounds, as those emitted by a splitting block of wood or a bamboo; or those heard in the dashing of waves or blowing of winds; it is the current air which conveys the empty sound into the open vacuum of the sky, but they are all unreal and meaningless, and bear but a conventional sense, with which it has no connection whatsoever.

14. It is light of the lord that reflects itself in his creation, and the reflexion of his fiat that reverberates through the whole; while in reality there is neither any sound nor substance, that is to be heard or seen in the universe (except the voice and the sight of the Lord).

15. Whatever shines or exists herein, is the transcendent reality of the Lord; otherwise there is nothing that could[Pg 869] appear at first without its cause (all being but parts of the one undivided whole—to pan).

16. Therefore from (thy knowledge of) the distinctions of words and things; know the one as all in all, and remain as quiet and calm as the indefinite and infinite void itself.

17. Forsake the fickleness of thy mind, by means of the calm repose of thy soul; the purity of thy understanding, and by an even tenor of thy disposition; because an inconstant soul is troublesome in life.

18. It is one’s self that is a friend or enemy to himself, and if one will not try to guard and save himself by his own self, there is no other to do so for him. (He who is no friend to himself, is his own enemy himself).

19. Get over the ocean of the world while you are young, and make your good understanding the ferry boat, to bear your body safely to the other shore.

20. Do what is good for you today, and why defer till tomorrow; you can do nothing in oldage, when your body becomes a burden to yourself.

21. Know your<self> as oldage (if it is fraught with learning); and account decrepitude as death itself in your lifetime. Youth is verily the life of the living, provided it is fraught with learning.

22. Having obtained thy life in this living world, which is as transient as the fleeting lightning; you must try to derive the essence from this dirty earth, by availing yourself of the benefit of good sástras and the company of the wise.

23. Woe to the ignorant! that will not seek their salvation in life; that are sinking in the pits of mud and mire; and never striving to lift themselves above them.

24. As the ignorant rustic is afraid at the sight of the earthen images of ghosts, and bends down to them; which those that are acquainted with the meaning of the word ghost never do.

25. So those that see God in an idol or in his visible creation, are misled to think it their god and adore it as such; but[Pg 870] those that know the true meaning of the term, never pay their adoration to any visible object.

26. As things in motion come to rest afterwards, and the visible disappear from the sight of the learned, who are acquainted with their true meaning. (The world recedes, and the light of God opens to their view).

27. As the sights in a dream, seeming to be true in the state of dreaming, disperse at last upon waking, and upon the knowledge of their unreal nature.

28. So doth this world, which is conceived as something existing in the vacuum of the understanding; melts at last into empty air and nothing, upon our knowledge of its intellectual nature.

29. This living world is as a wilderness, burning with the conflagration of various evils attendant on life; and here we are exposed as weak antelopes, living upon our precarious sustenances; and here we are governed by our ungovernable minds and restless passions and senses of our bodies; all these require to be subdued in order to obtain our liberation from repeated births and deaths.

Ráma rejoined:—I know sir, all knowledge to be in vain and useless, without proper government of ourselves and senses; tell me therefore how these may be kept under control, in order to give us the true knowledge of things unbiased by the senses.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Addictedness to enjoyments and display of manhood, and devotedness to the acquisition of the means of life or wealth; are preventives of self-controul and liberation of one’s self, as blindness is an obstruction to one’s sight of a light.

3. Then listen to this least advice of mine as the shortest and best means, for the government of yourself and your senses; and this is sure to lead one to his successfulness, by his own endeavour and with no toil or trouble.

4. Know the intellect as the man that mans you, and its power of intellection which makes you a living man; and whatever the living soul thinks of within itself, it verily becomes the very same (but the ignorant man becomes effeminate).

5. Let the strength of your consciousness, ply the pointed goad of your acute good sense; and you will doubtless subdue your ungovernable elephantine mind, and come off victorious shortly at last.

6. The mind is the captain of the army of your bodily and mental senses; subdue therefore this leading mind, and you will conquer the whole host of your senses. Just so does a man walking on boots, tread over the thorns lying by his way.

7. [In order therefore to subdue your mind], you must settle your self-consciousness in your consciousness of the omnipresent[Pg 872] vacuum of the Divine soul, and rest yourself quiet in the recess of your heart; and then your mind will sit quiet of itself, as the snows of winter settle down of themselves in autumn.

8. Thus by stopping the action of your consciousness, you will also shut up your mind, and put a stop to the operation of all its faculties; as you can never been able to do by means of all your devotion and austerities, your pilgrimages, your knowledge and sacrifice, and all other ceremonies and acts and duties.

9. Whatever comes to occur in the consciousness, the same must be forgot or buried in the consciousness of the great God alone; and so the forgetfulness of all enjoyments and their objects, amounts to our victory over them. (The way to overcome the pleasures of life, is to bury their remembrance in oblivion).

10. We must try by all means, to shut out the objects of sense from our consciousness; and this state of our unconsciousness of them, is tantamount to the state of godliness or heavenly bliss.

11. Again the contentment which arises, from our acting in conformity with the rules of our order, is another cause of preserving the steadiness of the mind; therefore remain firm in the practice of your particular duties, and seek no happiness besides.

12. He who relinquishes his inclination, towards the attainment of what is unlawful for him; and remains content with earning his lawful gains, is verily said to be a man of subdued appetites, and one who has governed.

13. He who is pleased with his inward and conscious gratification, and is not grieved at the unpleasant things all about him, is said to have well governed and benumbed his mind.

14. By suspension of the action of consciousness, the mind too comes to forget and forsake its activity, and the sensations also being relaxed from their restlessness, pursue their discrimination and judgement.

15. The discriminative and judging soul, becomes ennobled and magnanimous, and keeps its command over the feelings and[Pg 873] senses; and is not impelled by the waves of its desires, to be tossed about on the surface of the wide ocean of this world.

16. The man of well governed senses comes, by his association with the wise, and his constant study of religious works, to know all things in the world in their true light.

17. All worldly errors are dispelled by the light of truth; or else one must fall into the pit of misery, by his mistake of falsehood for truth; as the ignorant traveller is ingulfed in the dreary sands, by his mistake of the mirage for water.

18. Knowing this world as the unknowable intellect itself, that is the knowledge of the material world as the immaterial mind of God; is the true light in which the cosmos is viewed by the wise, who have neither the fear of their falling into the snare of error, nor require their release from it.

19. As the dried up waters of a river, are seen no more to glide even slightly in their course; so the formless phenomenals of the world, never appear in the sight of the wise, nor leave their slightest vestiges behind in their mind.

20. The knowledge of the world as an infinite void, and freed from the erroneous individualities of myself and thyself; leads to the knowledge of a supreme-self, which is apart from all, and the only ego that fills the whole.

21. All this conception of our subjective egoism and the objective world, are but errors of our brain proceeding from ignorance; they are all situated in the void of Intellect, and are void of themselves; and all bodies are but empty shadows in air, and as quiet as quietus or nullity itself.

22. This world appears as a shadow of the Intellect, in the vacuity of the very Intellect; it is a void amidst the void of the Intellect, which is certainly a void itself.

23. No body can deny its similitude, to the shadowy sight in a dream; it is an unreal notion, and as unsubstantial as all notions can be, and as the notion of a void is void itself.

24. This dream is no other than our consciousness of it, and the airy realms that it presents to our view for the time; so doth the Intellect show us the sight of the world, without any action or passion or instrumentality of itself.

[Pg 874]

25. So I am of the substance of the very Intellect, which is without its activity, passivity and instrumentality; and the world being unassignable to any causality or instrumentality, subsists only in our simple conception of it.

26. As the conception of one’s death in a dream, is no reality at all; and the sight of water in the mirage, is a visual deception only (so the sight of the world appearing to view, is no real existence or entity at all).

27. The vacuous intellect reflects its thoughts at first, in the clear mirror of its vacuity (or concavity); which is a mere hap-hazard of chance, and has no firm base or support (nor any form or figure of itself).

28. The world appears as fixed and firm, without its foundation anywhere; and seems to be shining brightly, with its darksome opacity; know then this fixity and this brightness of it, to be the diuturnity and glory of the eternal and glorious God.

29. The vivacity of living beings, displays the spirit of the ever living God; the air is his vacuity, and the running waters, show the vortiginous current of the eternal soul.

30. As every member of the body is constituent part of the whole frame; so all the various parts of animated and inanimate nature, constitute the entirety of the one cosmical deity. (These are but parts of one undivided whole, whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).

31. As the crystal mirror shows the shade of everything in itself, so doth the transparency of Divine soul, exhibit the reflexions of all things in it; the silent soul is as quiet as the mute crystal, but shows the varying scenes of nature, as interminably as a clear mirror reflects everything.

32. There is no beginning or end of the supreme being (nor of his acts and attributes, which are displayed in nature); it is the intermediate of the two that is dimly seen by us, the rest is all enveloped in ignorance, though there is no ignorance in the Omniscient.

33. The living soul wakes from its sleeping dream, to fall back to its waking dream again; and thus it continues for ever[Pg 875] in its dreaming whether waking or sleeping which are both alike to it.

34. The soul finds its rest only, while it remains in the fourth state of its sound sleep; or else it passes all along from dreaming to dreaming, in both its state of sleeping and waking, which continually haunt after it, unless it is drowned in its susupti or sound sleep of hynotism, the only resort of the wise.

35. But waking and sleeping and dreaming and sound sleep, are all alike to the enlightened soul; which is equally indifferent in all states, and whether it is asleep or awake, is never infested by dreams nor set beside itself.

36. The knowledge of unity or duality, and that of Ego and tu or the subjective and objective; never disturbs the enlightened; who views the whole as an empty void, and is alike insensible of all as well as null.

37. The distinction of unity and duality, made in the meaningless speech of the unwise, is laughed at by the enlightened and wise, as the aged and intelligent men laugh to scorn, at the pranks and prattlings of young lads.

38. The controversy of unity and duality, is of spontaneous growth in the heart like an indigenious plant; which without its pruning will not put forth its blossoms, to perfume the atmosphere of the understanding.

39. The discussion of unity and duality, is as benificial to man as his best friend; in sweeping away the dirt and dross of ignorance from their minds, as they drive away the dust from within the doors of their houses.

40. Then the minds of men are settled in the Divine Mind, when there ensues a mutual communion between themselves, and a communication and participation of their reciprocal joys and felicity with one another.

41. These men being always joined together in their fellowship, and serving one another with the mutual delight and obligingness of their hearts; attain to that state of the enlightenment of their understandings, whereby they are admitted into their communion with the Most High.

[Pg 876]

42. It is possible for a man to be benefited, even by his careful preservation of a trifle (at some time or other); but it is never possible for any body, to attain the most recondite knowledge of God, without his diligent inquiry into the same.

43. Whatever highest position one may enjoy in this material world, is to be recognised by all as nothing, provided that one does not remain aloof from all kind of vices.

44. What is that happiness which is gained by the possession of a kingdom, which at last is no better than mere botheration of the mind; while the mind that has gained its peace and tranquility in truth and Divine knowledge, spurns at the state of gods and kings as mere straws to him.

45. The sleepy as well as the wakeful, are alike apt to see the visibles, and are rapt with the sight; but the saints that are calm and quiet and at rest with themselves, are averse to sight-seeing, and see the only one in themselves.

46. Without painstaking, and your continued practice of contemplation, you can not succeed to attain this state of infinite felicity; for know this state of transcendent bliss, is the fruit of intense devotion only.

47. Thus have I said at length, to impress in you the necessity of intense devotion; but to what good is all this say the evil-minded to me, and thus slight and take no heed of all that I have been so long delivering unto you.

48. It must be by means of steady attention to these lectures, and by long and repeated practice of devotion; as also by hearing these sermons and discoursing upon them that the ignorant can come to the right light of truth.

49. He who having once read this spiritual work, slights it afterwards as already perused by him; and turns to the study of unspiritual books, is a vile wretch that collects the burnt ashes after the fire is extinguished. (Irreligious works are the ashes of the fiery religious ones).

50. This excellent work is to be read always, like the recital of the vedas, which are embodied herein; and this is calculated to reward the labor of the student, by its being constantly read with reverence, and rightly explained with diligence.

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51. The student will learn from this sástra all that he expects to find in the vedas; because it embodies both the practical as well as spiritual doctrines of the sacred scriptures, and a knowledge of both of them, is available by proper perusal of this work.

52. By learning this book, one may have a knowledge of the doctrines of the vedánta, tarka and siddhánta sástras, because this is the only work, that treats of the tenets of all schools. (Here the word drishti is homonymous with darsana, which is rendered as a school of philosophy by Colebrooke).

53. It is from my sympathy for you all, that I propound these doctrines to you; and by way of imposture, that I impose these lessons on your credulity. You are best judges of my discourse and can well detect, whether there is anything as deception in my prolusions.

54. The knowledge that you may derive, by weighing well the instructions given in this great work; will serve you as salt, in order to season and relish the teachings of other sástras, that are at best but sundry dishes before it.

55. The materialist who is conversant with the visibles, disparages this book for its occult teachings of spiritualism; but don’t you be the killer of your souls as to neglect your eternal salvation, in order to revisit this material world, and to be busied with your temporal affairs.

56. Biased minds cling to the dogmas of exploded systems, and ignoble men drink the foul water of tanks, dug by their ancestors; you are reasoning men yourselves, therefore do not remain for ever fast bound to your ignorance.

Vasishtha continued:—The atoms of living souls in the world, are as the particles of rays in the orb of the sun (or as the sparks of fire in a furnace); and as all these parts taken collectively, make the one undivided whole; so there is no division of the unity of the Deity, throughout the whole creation.

2. By attaining the transcendental knowledge of all being the One, and the One as all; every thing loses its shape and form before us, and there remains nothing whatever as a distinct being or duality.

3. The true believer or knower of truth, sees the self-same object in all states and forms of things; and this is the transcendent and translucent Brahma only, and nothing else whatsoever at any time.

4. He is the same, that is known to the ignorant, as their objects of sense; but we do not recognize either ourselves or others, or the sensible objects of the ignorant as such.

5. The belief of the ignorant man in the reality of himself, thyself and all others, does not affect the knower of truth, as the delusion of mirage never overtakes the man on Mount Meru: (where the deceptive sands of the deserts are wanting).

6. As the man intent upon one object, has no consciousness of any other thing in his mind; so one enrapt at the sight of God alone, is conscious of nothing besides.

7. There neither is nor was nor shall ever be, any such thing as the material world at any time; the world in esse is the image of Brahma himself, and abides in his spirit.

8. The world is the splendour of the chrystalline vacuum of the Divine Intellect, and subsists in the vacuity of the supreme[Pg 879] soul itself; it is in this light that the universe is seen in the dhyána yoga or abstruse contemplation of <the> yogi.

9. As there is nothing in an empty dream or in the aerial castle of imagination except the clear atmosphere of the Intellect; so there is no essence or substance nor form or figure of this world, that we view in our present waking state.

10. At first there was no creation of any kind, nor this world which appears to us (in its material form); it exists in its aerial form in the Divine Mind from all eternity; and there being no primary or secondary cause of it, how is it possible to call it a material thing of its own spontaneous growth.

11. Therefore there is nothing that sprang itself out of nothing at first, nor was there ever a creator called Brahmá or other by the ignorant, in the beginning; there is nothing but an infinite void from eternity to eternity, which is filled by the self-born or increate spirit, whose intellect exhibits this creation, contained for ever and ever in its vacuity.

Vasishtha continued:—In the state of waking dream the dream passes under the name of waking; and in the state of dreaming wakefulness, this waking goes by the name of sleeping.[2]

2. The dream terminates into waking, and the waking man rises from his dreaming, and falls back into it again; so one awakened from his dream like waking, falls afterwards to his waking dreams.

3. The dream of the waking dreamer, is to be called a dream also, as the waking dream of this world; and so the waking (or consciousness) of the sleeping waker, is to be styled his waking state.

4. Therefore that wakefulness (or consciousness) of one, remains in his dreaming state, is to be called his waking likewise and not his dreaming; so also the waking dream (of the existence of the world), and the imaginations of airy castles while one is waking, is to be designated his dreaming and never as his waking.

5. Whatever lasts for a short while, as a temporary delusion or flight of imagination, passes under the name of a dream even in one’s waking state; and so the short watchfulness of consciousness in the state of dreaming, is known as dreaming and never as waking.

[Pg 881]

6. Therefore there is no difference whatever, between the two states of waking and dreaming, beside the absence of one of these two in the other (i.e. the absence of shortness in waking, and that of durability in the dream). Again they are both unreal, owing to their blending with one another (i.e. dreaming blended with the view of the phenomenals in waking; and the wakeful consciousness blending with dreaming).

7. The waking dream of the world, vanishes under its unconsciousness in death; and the consciousness of dreaming is lost, under the knowledge of its being an airy nothing. (The world recedes as heaven opens to view. Pope).

8. The dying person that does not come to perceive the vanity of the visionary world at his death-bed can have no sight of the state of his waking (or resurrection), in the next or future world.

9. Whoever believing himself as alive, among the varying scenes of this vacuous world, lives content with them; he can never come to the sight of the visions, which await upon him.

10. As the intellect displays its wonders, in the exhibitions of the various scenes of worlds, to the sight of one in his dream; so doth this universe appear before the minds of men, at the time of their waking.

11. These creations which are so conspicuous to sight, are at best but nothing in their transcendental light and all the forms of things, are as the empty shadows of them appearing in our dreams.

12. As the world with all its varieties of visible objects, appear in its inane and shadowy form in the dream; so it is seen in its vacuous and intellectual form only, in our waking state (although it seems to be tangible body).

13. It is the nature of the vacuous Intellect, to show the form of the world in its own firmament; so doth this earth appear unto us, amidst the spacious atmosphere, like the orbs of light in the skies.

14. It is the wondrous display of the Intellect, that shines before us under the name of universe; and these wonders are as[Pg 882] inborn and innumerable in itself, as the watery and earthly particles, are connate with, and diffused throughout nature.

15. What thing is there in it, which you can mistake for a reality in this unreal world; that is situated as a vacuous body in the infinite womb of vacuity.

16. The words recipient, receipt and reception, or the percipient, perceived and perception (i.e. the subject, object and attribute), are all meaningless with regard to this vacuous world; and whether it is a reality or unreality, we have no perception of it. (Because the presence of everything is lost, at the absence of its properties, which are adscititious only).

17. Whether it is so or not or be it anything otherwise (as others may have it); yet why should mistake it for anything at all, in whatever light you take it, it will amount to your mistake of an empty ball for a fruit (so says the vedánta:—जगद्ब्रह्म स्वरूपत्वात् प्रागभाब तथा प्रध्रंसाभाब एबं अन्यान्य भाबानाम दुर्निरूप्यत्वात् केबलात्यन्ताभाबोऽस्ति ।).

Vasishtha continued:—The true sense of the word soul or self, is to be understood from the title which is applied to it; and this title of the soul is borne out by the simile, of the solid and transparent blue stone.

2. It is from the beginning of creation, that the vacuous soul is thus diffused in itself; and the reflexion which it casts in its own vacuity, the same passes under the name of this world or creation.

3. There runs no river in it, nor there rises nor sinks any rock in the same; it is the mere vacuum subsisting in its infinite void, wherein the intellect reflects itself without any action or bidding or fiat of it.

4. This reflexion of the Divine Intellect, was without its utterance of “word” and quite without its “will” or “thought”. It was also without the appliance of any subsequent material (as matter), and this is the true sense of the word soul or self.

5. The soul itself is the whole world, which has no other expression for it; and being devoid of a name, it is expressible by no other name though they give many names to it.

6. Its name being nameless, whatever appellation they put to it, is not opposite but inappropriate to it; what is the good therefore of giving it a name or no name at all.

7. Its namelessness or giving it a misnomer or improper expression, is all the same; since all what is visible, is no other than a display of the wondrous fabric of the Divine Mind.

8. Whatever shines in any manner, in the empty space of the Divine mind at any time; the same shines forth even then[Pg 884] and in that manner, as the rays of that Intellect (emanating therefrom, and concentrating into all other minds).

9. It is denominated by one as soul, by another as asat, and by some as nothing; all these are the mystery of intellect only, but in fact, all are the attributes of soul.

10. The word itself conveys the meaning of self—soul. It is without beginning and end, and no language can express it; in fact, it is an undivided whole.

11. Now listen to a long narrative which hangs on this subject, and which will serve to gladden your hearts and ears, by removing the duality from your sight, and by enlightening your understanding (with knowledge of the unity).

12. Know that there is a very large crystal stone, extending itself to thousands of leagues in space; and stretching like the solid cerulean fabric of the firmament, or as the blue sky all around us.

13. It is all of a piece without any joining of parts in it, and is as dense and compact as the hard adamant; it is thick, big and bulky in its size, but at the same time as clear and far as the face of the sky.

14. It continues from countless times, and endures to endless duration; and with its comely and pellucid body, it appears as the clear firmament, or the blank vacuum on high.

15. No one ever knows its nature or genus, from his having never seen anything of the same kind, nor does any body know from when and where, it hath come to existence. (All know it is, but none knows how and whence it is).

16. It does not contain anything substantial, as the material elements within itself; and yet it is as dense and solidified in itself as a crystalline, and indissoluble as an adamant.

17. Yet it is composed of innumerable streaks and strokes, which are embodied in itself; and these resemble the veins and fibres on lotus leaves, and the marks of conches etc. in Hari’s feet.

18. These marks are named as air, water, earth, fire and vacuum, though there are no such things to be found therein;[Pg 885] except that the stone was possest living soul, which it imparted to its marks.

19. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how that stone of yours, could have life or sensibility in it; the stone is an insensible thing, and could not give names to the marks on its body.

20. Vasishtha replied:—That immense and luminous stone, is neither a sentient nor inert body; no body knows its nature and state, and there is no other like it.

21. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks, which are imprinted in the bosom of that stone; and how could any one ever break that stone, in order to see its contents and its marks.

22. Vasishtha replied:—It is hard to break this hard stone, nor has anybody been ever able to break it; by cause of its extending over infinite space, and encompassing all bodies within its bosom. (So says the sruti:—There is nothing but is encompassed by it—the all pervading soul).

23. It is full of numberless spots in its spacious cavity; and these consist of the marks of mountains and trees, and of countries, towns and cities.

24. There are also small and large dots in it, with any form or figure of them; but serve to represent the forms of men, and gods and demigods in them, as an outline shows the images of things.

25. There is a long line drawn in it in the form of a circle, which represents the great circle of the visible sky or horizon; and this contains the two central points, signifying the sun and moon.

26. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks of such forms; and how it is possible for any body, to look into the cell of a solid or hollow ball.

27. Vasishtha replied:—It is I, O Ráma, that beheld those marks of different forms in that impenetrable block; and it is possible for you to look into it, if you will but like to do so.

28. Ráma said:—How could you sir, look into those marks inside that solid stone, which you say, is as stiff as adamant, and incapable of being broken or perforated by any means.

[Pg 886]

29. Vasishtha replied:—It was by means of my being seated, in the very heart of that stone; that I came to see those marks, as also to penetrate into their meanings.

30. Who else is able to penetrate into that rigid stone beside myself, who have been able by my penetration, to pry and pierce into the mysteries of those hidden marks.

31. Tell me sir, what is that stone and what are you yourself; explain to me where you are and what you are speaking, and what are those things that you have seen and known to mean.

32. Vasishtha replied:—It is the supreme soul, which is the sole entity and sober reality; and this is represented by figure of speech, as the great stone, of which I have been speaking to you.

33. We are all situated in the cavity of this supreme spirit, and the three worlds form the flesh of this Great being, who is devoid of all substantiality.

34. Know the spacious firmament to be a part of this solid rock, and the ever flying winds as fragment of its body; the fleeting time and evanescent sounds together with all our varying actions and desires, and the imaginations of our minds, to be but the fugacious particles of its substance.

35. The earth, air, water and fire, and the vacuum and understanding also, together with our egoism and sensibilities, are the portions and sections of its totality.

36. We are all but bits and parcels of the great rock of the supreme soul, and every thing whatever there is in existence, proceeds from that source, and we know of no other cause or causality whatsoever.

37. This large stone is the great rock of Divine Intellect, and there is nothing whatever, which is beside and beyond its intelligence. Say then if there be any such thing and what it bears.

38. All things are but mere notions of them, as those of a pot or cot, a picture and all others; they appear in us as our dreams, and rise before us as the waves of water (which are no other but water).

[Pg 887]

39. It is all the substance of Brahma and the essence of the great Intellect, which fills and pervades the whole; know therefore all these as one, with the substantiality of the Supreme spirit, and all as quiet and calm as itself.

40. Thus all this plenum is situated, in the bosom of the great rock of the intellect; which is without its beginning, middle and end, and without any hole therein, or doorway thereto. Therefore it is the Supreme soul only which contemplates in itself, and produces (as the object of its thought), this ideal creation of the universe (or the one converted into many), and which passes under the title of the visible or phenomenal world.

Vasishtha continued:—The four titles, namely, the self-styled, the misnamed, the nameless, and the otherwise named, under which the world passes in their different senses; are all meaningless to the spiritualist (who view the world in its spiritual light, and as selfsame with the Supreme spirit, as it is related in the preceding chapter).

2. These different words do not disturb the mind of the spiritualist, whose soul is at rest in the Supreme spirit, and who pays no regard to the use of words (or terminology of theology).

3. All these visibles rise from the Intellect only, and bear no names of their own; they are of the nature of pure vacuum, and appear unto us in their simple vacuous forms (as phantoms in the air).

4. This is the soul, and this its title (that is giving a name to a nameless spiritual thing), is an erroneous conceit or coinage of the brain. The spirit admits of no expressions; therefore take heed of no word but mind its meaning.

5. Whatever appears to be moving or staying or doing any action, is as calm and clear as the void air, and devoid of action as the Divine soul.

6. All things however sounding, are as silent as the still stone said before; and though they seem to be ever moving, they are ever as quiet as the void of the sky, and as still as the quiescent stone.

7. Though all things appear to be acting in their various ways, yet they are as motionless as the unmoving vacuum; and though the world appears to be formed of the five elements, yet it is but a void and devoid of its quintessence.

[Pg 889]

8. The world with its fulness of things, is but a congeries of your conceptions; it is full with the all pervasive and pellucid Intellect, which shows the visions of great cities, like the vacant sights in our dream (or as a dumb and shadowy show, without any sound or substance in it).

9. It is full of action and motion, without any activity or mobility in it, like the passing city of our imagination; it is the air built castle of our error, and as the fairy land in our dream.

10. It is a false conception or notion of the mind, and as the fading shadow of a fairy; it is creation of our fancies, but altogether unsubstantial in its substantiality.

11. Ráma rejoined:—I ween this world as a waking dream, and reproduction of our remembrance of it; because it is reminiscence of the past only, that presents the absent to our view, and brings the outer objects to our knowledge. (Hence remembrance is the cause of resolving everything to our knowledge of them).

12. Vasishtha replied:—No Ráma, it is the reflexion which the glassy mirror of the Intellect, casts before us at anytime, the same appears to us even then in its vacuous form; and there is no idea or thought of anything, that lays a firm hold on the mind, or has its foundation there. (Refutation of innate conceptions and prior reminiscence).

13. Therefore the phenomenon always belongs, to the noumenon of the Supreme spirit; and the fluctuating phenomenals ever abide in it, as the undulating waves play in the calm waters of the sea.

14. The uncaused world, exists of itself in the Supreme soul; and becomes extinct of itself, in the vacuity of the universal soul.

15. The world is viewed in the same light by every one, as it is reflected in himself, hence the ignorant are always in fault in having a wrong view of it; but not so the wise, who know it as nothing.

16. Again the lord god Brahma himself, has exhibited the lucid nature of his being, according to the four states or conditions, which are natural to the soul.

[Pg 890]

17. These are the three states of waking, dreaming and sleep, together with a fourth called-the turíya or the state of sound sleep, and these names are applied to the soul by the Supreme soul itself.

18. But in reality none of these quadruple states, belongs either to the Divine or the living soul, which is always tranquil, and which is of the nature of an indefinite void.

19. Or it may be said in respect to the soul, that it is either always wakeful, or in its ever dreaming state; or in a state of continuous rest and sleep. (The Divine soul never sleeps. Sir W. Jones. The ever wakeful eyes of Jove. Homer).

20. Or it is ever in its fourth state of turya, which is beyond all these triple states; but whether it is in this or that or what state, we know nothing of, being ourselves always in a state of disquiet and continued agitation.

21. We know nothing of the inanity of the vacuous soul, as to whether it is as the chasm in the foam or froth, or whether it is as the air in a bubble or spray; or whether it is as the gap amidst waves of the sea or what it is at all.

22. As a thing is known to be in its imagination, so it is impressed also in our conception of the same; and as anything appears either as real or unreal in the dream, we retain the like idea of it in our waking also.

23. All this is the display of our consciousness, and whatever reflexion it exhibits unto us it is but an empty shadow in the hollow of the vacant mind, which resides in the vacuity of the vacuous intellect, that pervades the infinite vacuum of the soul.

24. Consciousness is the pith and marrow of vacuous Intellect, and retains this form (of its quiddity) at all times; it neither rises nor sets, and this world is inherent in it (i.e. it is subjective and derived from within).

25. The creations on the beginning, and the dark nights of dissolution, are but parts of its body, and resemble its nails and hairs. (i.e. The light which was the first work of creation, likened the whiteness of its nails, and the darkness of the universal deluge, equalled the blackness of its hairs).

[Pg 891]

26. Its appearance and disappearance, that is its clearness and dimness; are no other than as the breathing air of the great Intellect. (i.e. The exhaling and inhaling breaths of the Intellect, are causes of its expansion and contraction).

27. Therefore what means the waking, sleeping or dreaming of the soul, and what signifies the term sound sleep or the turíya of the soul (which is ever awake) So the word volition and nolition are meaningless when applied to the soul, which is always composed and indifferent. (These attributes belong to the mind only).

28. It is the inward consciousness, that exhibits its inner concepts as outward objects; how then is there a duality or anything objective, and what means this remembrance of extraneous matter.

29. Therefore all these that appear to our sight, are without their base or foundation; they are the reflexion of our consciousness in open air, which is wholly devoid of any material object.

30. Though the external world is said to be a reality, it is because of its being a concept of the divine mind, out of which it has risen to view; and reminiscence is said to be its cause also, by reason of our remembrance of the first creation, which continue all along with us.

31. But there is no outward object at all, owing to the absence of material elements; and the want of the five principles of matter, before and at the time of first creation.

32. As there are no horns of hares, and no trees growing in the air, and as there is no son of a barren woman, nor a dark moon shining in the sky.

33. So this visible world, and these personalities of ourselves; which are mere misrepresentations of our ignorance, are things invisible and inexistent in themselves, and are seen and known by ignorant only.

34. To them the world appears as an erroneous body, and our personalities and abstractions of persons; but there is nothing as fictile or abstract to the spiritualist, who view them all in one undivided whole—the Divine spirit or soul.

[Pg 892]

35. It is consciousness the pith and marrow of the soul, that exposes all these concepts of it to light; and the manner in which it displays them to the imagination, so do they make their appearance to our sight.

36. Whenever our misconception portrays its concept in a material form, or gives a name and form to an airy nothing; we come to see the same form in our imagination, in the empty void of our mind.

37. The great Intellect has the appearance of the sky for itself, which in the ordinary use of language, is expressed by the word matter, as consisting of the four elements, and the endless void which is devoid of them.

38. The unchanging and undecaying intellect, bears to itself the form of air only; which it conceives by mistake as the stable earth; just as imaginary men believe the air built castle to a reality.

39. The intellect being an incorporeal substance, has neither this form nor that nor of any kind at all; it has its pulsation and rest of itself, like the breath and stillness of winds in the air.

40. As the intellect manifests itself in its own sphere in the two states of its volition and nolition (or action or inaction); so the world seems to be in its states of motion and quiescence; which take place in the bosom of vacuum.

41. As the sphere of the Intellect remains unchanged, at the rise and subsidence of its thought; so doth the sphere of air remain unvaried, with all the creation and its dissolution in its bosom.

42. The world is always in the same unvaried state, whether you call it so or otherwise; and the seeming revolutions of bodies and succession of events, are well known to be nothing to the learned and wise, and not to others.

43. Because the wise soul dwells in the hearts of all, which it views alike as its own self; but the ignorant soul is unconscious of its identity, from its sight of the outer world, and its knowledge of the difference of bodies from one another.

44. What is there the interior or exterior of it, and that what is visible and invisible in it; all this is in the Lord[Pg 893] whether active or quiescent, know all to be the om or on and rest quiet.

45. There can be no reasoning, without an insight into the meanings of the significant terms and their significates; and it is consideration of both sides of the question that leads to our right judgment. Hence it is reasoning that leads us to truth, as the light guides us amidst the darkness of night.

46. Therefore drive off the multitudes of multifarious desires and doubts from your mind, by means of the clearness (light) of your understanding (obtained by your habit of right reasoning), and also by your attention to the true interpretation of the sástras; and then rise and fly aloft to the higher region of light and truth, and attain the highest, best and most perfect state of Divine felicity and self-liberation.

Vasishtha continued:—As the unconscious tree, displays various forms in its branches; so doth the unconcerned spirit of God, exhibit the airy semblance of creation in air.

2. And as the ocean describes the whirlpools, insensibly upon its surface; so doth the spirit of God, exhibit this rotatory worlds unconcernedly, on the surface of its own vacuum, and as they are seen by all.

3. The Lord gives also to the sensible part of his creation, their internal faculties of the mind, understanding and egoism, as also many other powers under different appellations.

4. The phenomenal world is the production of the insensible Intellect, whose volitive faculties are as loose as the rolling eddies of rivers and seas.

5. The mind and understanding and all mental faculties, proceed from the Divine Intellect; in the same manner as the whirlpools and eddies, and waves and surges rise on the surface of the sea.

6. As a picture is nothing except its canvas, so the world which is no more than a painting, is drawn on the substratum of the intellect; and this is a vacuous substance, with the lustre of the world in it.

7. What I have said before of the insensibility of the tree and sea, in the production of the branches and whirlpools by them; the same instance applies to Intellect also, which shows the creation rising in its vacuity, not by an act of its intention or will, but by ordinance of fate, which governs all things, (and rules over Jove himself). This is the doctrine of fatalism.

8. And as a tree exhibits its various forms, receiving the[Pg 895] several names of a plant, a shrub, a creeper &c.; so doth the intellect display its many features, like its flowers &c., and called by the different appellations of earth, air, water &c.

9. And as the branches and leaves of a tree, are not different from the tree itself; so the productions of the great Intellect, are no other than its very substance (or are essentially the same with itself).

10. And as there are many things, made of the substance of a tree, bearing different names to themselves; so the productions of the Intellect, and the offspring of a living being, pass under several forms and appellations (of boy, girl, infant, adult and the like).

11. The offshoots of the Intellect are all these creatures, which grow in and rise from the mind (of their own spontaniety); they appear to be the works of the mind as their cause, but are no better than the dreams (arising of themselves in the mind).

12. Should you say, why these conceptions of creation rise in vain in the mind (if the creation is nothing in substance); I answer that they rise in the manner of dreams in the state of sleeping, which you cannot deny to enjoy. (The thoughts of creation like those of imagination and the conception in our dreaming, are not unattended by a certain degree of delight, during the time of our enjoyment of them. Gloss).

13. As the tree displays various forms in the productions, and the imagination presents different shapes to our mental sights; so the intellect is employed in realizing many such creations in empty air.

14. As the odours of flowers fly about invisible in the open air, and as pulsation abides inherent in the wind; so the intellectual powers, are intrinsic in the very nature of the soul.

15. These creations likewise are ingrained in the Divine spirit, as fragrance is inborn in flowers and vacuity is ingenite in the air; and as vacillation and velocity are innate in the winds.

16. As the air, wind and the flower, are receptacle of inanity, oscillation and odours respectively; so the Intellect is container of creation, although it is literally but an empty vacuity.

[Pg 896]

17. Vacuity is no other than vacuum itself, as fluidity is not separate from liquids; fragrance is as inseparable from flowers, as pulsation is never to be the disjoined from the wind.

18. Heat is not disparate from fire, nor is coldness apart from snow; know thus the world to be no way different nor disengaged from the transparence of the vacuous Intellect.

19. In the beginning, the Divine Intellect sees the creation appear in itself, as a dream rising in the mind; thus the world having no extraneous cause, and being subjective to the Intellect (as derived from within itself); is no way a heterogeneous mass or different from the Divine mind.

20. The instance of the dream is the best illustration of creation, and you can judge it well by the nature of the dream you dream every night; say what is there substantial in it, beside its being essential to the universal soul.

21. The dream is not the effect of any impression in the mind, nor the result of remembrances stored in the memory; because it shows us many sights, unseen and unthought of before; say therefore how these come to pass.

22. If what is seen in a dream, comes to present itself at the time of our remembrance of the dream?

23. Therefore these revolving worlds; are as the rotatory whirlpools (in the wide ocean of the infinite mind); they are the fortuitous appearances of chance, and whatever occurs in the mind, passes afterwards for its dreams.

24. The creations being insensibly produced from the Divine Mind, like the waves and whirlpools in the ocean; receives its stability and continuity afterwards, in the manner of the continuation of the whirling waters and ever rolling billows.

25. Whatever is born without its cause, is equal to the unborn; because the unborn are forever similar to those, which have no cause for their birth.

26. As the precious gems growing insensibly of themselves, have their lustre inherent in them; and as this brilliance is no substance or anything real at all, so the appearance of the world has no substantiality of itself.

27. Some how or other, the world has its rise, like the wave[Pg 897] or eddy in a river; and then it continues to go on as the continuous course of the stream.

28. There are numberless worlds of intellectual forms, gliding in the vast vacuity of the Intellect; and passing as aerial dreams without any cause whatsoever.

29. All these again become causes and productive of others, and they <are> all of vacuous forms including even the great Brahmá and the gods and angels (all of whom are aerial beings, and others of the same kind).

30. All that is born in and produced from void, are null and void also; they grow in the void or air, and return also into vacuity.

31. It is the vacuum that appears as the plenum, as in the instance of an empty dream seeming as something; the man that denies his own percipience of it, is no better than a boor or brute.

32. The unreal appearing as real, is the fabrication of error and ignorance; but the spiritualist who knows the truth, views the world as the wondrous display of the Divine Mind and falsification.

33. It is the longstanding and deep rooted prejudice, that produces the erroneous conceptions of the creation and destruction of the world; it is wisdom to know it in its true light, and foolishness to take the wrong view of it.

34. The light of the Divine spirit, being once seen in this causeless void of the visible world, it continues for ever before our sight; as the dream that we see in our vacant minds in sleep, remains ever afterwards in our remembrance.

35. It happens that the intellect comes to present, the adventitious appearance of the world to our minds; in the same manner, as the sea shows its whirls and waves to our sight, of its own nature.

36. Such is the nature of the Intellect also, that it shows itself in this manner (as the sea); and exhibits the revolving worlds, in its own etherial essence only (of its own accord).

37. Then the aerial Intellect, by a retrospective view in itself, invented certain worlds afterwards, significant of the mental[Pg 898] and intellectual powers as well as of material elements and their properties.

38. Ráma said:—If it is so sir, that all these powers are the spontaneous growth of chance, how can the mental power of memory be produced on a sudden, when it is well known to be the product of remembrance or former impressions in the mind. Please explain me this.

39. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me Ráma, and I will destroy your doubt, as the lion kills an elephant; and will establish the one invariable unity as the broad day light of the sun.

40. There is an only universal soul, that is invisible amidst the vacuum of his Intellect; as the uncarved doll remains unseen, in the wood of every forest tree. (All things are contained in the Divine soul, as the future images in blocks of wood and stone. Aristotle, Addison).

41. We see the carpenter that carves out the puppet, from the wood of the tree (and the mason who hues out the statue from the block of stone); but we know not the soul, which chisels out the figure of the world from the great bulk of Instinct.

42. The statue does not appear in the rugged block, unless and until it <is> hewn out by the skill of carver, so the hidden world does not make its appearance in the Intellect, till it is brought to view by the ingenuity of the Mind (the universal architect).

43. The uncarved body of the world (Corpus-mundi), does yet appear <in> its aeriform state; which is original and genuine form in the Divine Intellect (until <it> is moulded in this its fictitious shape by creative mind).

44. In the beginning of creation, the inventive Intellect forms of its natural originality, the concept of the future world; appearing as an airy dream in the sight of the soul (and then the imaginative mind frames it according to its conceit in various forms).

45. The vacuous Intellect conceives in its empty bosom, the airy ideal of the world; as if it were a toy or doll gliding of itself in itself.

[Pg 899]

46. It conceives itself as the essential part of the great Brahma, and the seed of the mundane system; and then imagines itself as the source of life and the living soul, and the receptacle of egoism.

47. It imagines itself as the understanding and the mind also; and to be the reservoir of space and time. It deems itself as the root of the knowledge of I, thou, he, and others, and as the quintessence of the quintuple elements.

48. It sees in itself the congeries of the inward and outward senses, as also of the eight faculties of the mind; and both the spiritual as well as the elemental bodies contained in itself.

49. It thinks itself as the great trinity, consisting of the three persons of Brahmá, Vishnu, and Siva; and sees the sun, moon and stars all in itself. It considers itself as the whole creation and the interior and exterior part of everything.

50. All these being the imaginary creations of the Intellect; there is nothing whatever beside itself; but it is quite transparent in its essence, there is no concrete matter in it; and neither remembrance of gross materials is ever attached to it, nor any duality whatsoever subsisting in the unity of its nature.

51. The world is a causeless, uncaused and increate thing; and a nothing at all in reality; its creation is a dream, and its appearance, is as that of a delusive shadow in empty air.

52. It appears as a phantom in vacuum, and as an intelligence in the Intellect; it is intelligible as it is, and that is in the sense of a nihility.

53. What is the remembrance of a thing, any more than the dream of something, which is nothing in reality; and what is time of which we have no conception, except it be an imagination or devise of the mind in empty air.

54. What is contained in the inside of the compact intellect, the very same appears on the outside of it; but in reality there is no substantiality in the exterior object of sight, as there is naught in the interior object of thought; all which are but the glitterings of the Intellect.

[Pg 900]

55. Whatever issues out of the bodiless and nameless something, which is forever quiescent and calm in its nature; are deemed as causeless and uncaused productions, appearing before the blinded sight.

56. Know therefore that this world, is to be viewed in the same intellectual light; as you see the supreme Brahma himself; and know it to be the very aerial castle of your dream, as it is represented in the vacuous space of your mind in your sleeping state.

57. There is no such thing, as the visible or phenomenal world at any time; where can you find any dust on the watery surface of the sea; and how can you see anything visible, in the invisible spirit of Brahma.

58. If the world should appear as anything at all to your sight, you must view it as the manifestation of God himself, in his unthinkable and incomprehensible nature. (Nature is the body of God).

59. The world is full of the glory of God, from the fullness of Divine glory; nor is the one derived from the other; but a full representation of Divine splendour on the face of nature.

60. Though I have been repeatedly giving these lectures, yet the deluded minds of men are far from receiving them; they believe the world of their dream as if it were in waking, and knowing even its unreality they will never get rid of their rooted prejudice.

Vasishtha continued:—He who is <neither> delighted with his delights, nor dejected in his distress; who looks only within himself for his peace and solace, is verily called the liberated man in his life time.

2. He is called the self-liberated man, whose mind is <not> moved from its steadiness in solid rock of intellectuality, towards the worldly enjoyments that are spread before him (and which are ever attractive of unrestrained minds).

3. That is called the liberated soul, which reclines in its intellectuality, and has its mind ever fixed in it; which delights in intellectual culture, and has repose therein.

4. He is verily styled the liberated soul, who reposes in the supreme soul; whose mind does not slide from divine contemplation, nor takes any delight in visible objects all around.

5. Ráma said:—Sir, I ween the man that feels no pain in pain, nor derives any pleasure from what is pleasurable, and is entire insensible of both, to be a mere block, and devoid both his senses and sensibility.

6. Vasishtha replied:—We call him the self reposed, who rests in his vacuous intellect only; and whose soul derives a spontaneous delight from the purity of his understanding, such as it finds in nothing and no where besides.

7. He is said to have his rest in the supreme soul, whose mind is cleansed of its doubts in all things; and who has obtained by means of his discrimination, the true and certain knowledge of everything. (So says the sruti: No doubts disturb the mind of one, whose soul confides and has found its rest in God).

8. He is said to rest and have his repose in God, who takes[Pg 902] no delight in any earthly thing whatever; and though he is outwardly employed in discharging the duties of his life, yet his soul is fixed in his god.

9. He is known to have his quiescence, whose activities are all without any aim or expectation; and he goes on and lives content, with whatever he gets and offers itself to his lot.

10. He alone is happy and successful, in this world of woe and misery; who in his long restless, helpless and tedious journey in it, has found his repose in the supreme spirit, by means of his intellectual improvements.

11. They who after running their long race, in the active course of worldly life; have come at last to set themselves at ease and quiet, at the latter end of their lives, are as men that appear to fall fast asleep, and enjoy their repose after the vexatious dreams of their busy days.

12. They shine and pass as brightly, in the open sphere of their intellects, as the glorious sun rises in the sky, and runs his daily course without stopping any where.

13. Good people seem to be sleepy in their minds, though they are seen to be wakeful and employed in business with their bodies; they remain as inactive as any inert body, though they are never dormant in their souls (which are ever awake to their eternal concerns).

14. They who lie asleep on their beds, and are drowned in their reveries and dreams; are said and believed to be sleeping: though they are not insensible of the workings of their minds.

15. When the tired traveller, halts after his long and wearisome journey, and ceases to utter a word owing to his hard breathing, such dumbness does not bespeak his dead silence or torpidity.

16. The man of transcendent knowledge, and perfect peace and tranquility of his mind and soul; remains as blind to the splendours of day as the purblind owl, and as quiet as any body in the darkness of night, when the whole creation sleeps in the gloom of ignorance and unconsciousness.

17. That man is happy, who sleeps over the varied scenes of this visible world, and does not sights of woe, which it[Pg 903] presents to view at the time of waking. (The gloss quotes a corresponding passage from the Bhagavad Gítá).

18. He who pays no regard to ceremonial rites, and remains sincere to the welfare of his soul; such a man is said to be self satisfied, from his communion with himself, and is never, O Ráma, deemed as dead himself.

19. He who has passed over the miseries of this world, and got to the other side of it (next world); remains supremely blest in himself, by his sense of heavenly bliss in his inward soul.

20. He who is fatigued with his long and tiresome journey in this world, and is ever deluded by four senses and sensible objects; gets weary of and cloyed with his enjoyments in life, and meets with the spectres of despair at the end.

21. Being overtaken by hoary old age, he is battered and shattered by the hoar-frost of diseases; and then like the old and worn-out antelope, he wishes in vain to traverse his native forests and plains.

22. Forsaken by the supreme soul, the sole and faithful guide in our journey through life; we are exposed to the intricate maze of thorns and thickets, till the weary traveller is at a loss of the shady grove whereto take his rest.

23. Here we are robbed of our passport and passage money, by the highway men of our sins and sensualities; till we are overcome by our weakness, and exposed to numberless dangers and difficulties on the way.

24. He that is possest of his soul by means of his spiritual knowledge, gets over the ocean of the world to the spiritual regions; where he rests calmly in the bedstead of his spirit, and without the bedding of his body.

25. The man who moves about, without any aim or attempt of himself and without his dream and sound sleep; whose mind is ever wakeful and whose eyes are never closed in sleep, such a man sleeps softly in the lap of his soul.

26. As a horse of real breed, sleeps in his standing as well as running; so the self-possest person sleeps in himself, even though he <is> employed in the acts of life among mankind.

27. How very sound and profound, is the trance or reverie[Pg 904] of the philosophic mind, that it is not disturbed, even at the crackling of thunders or cracking of volcanoes.

28. How exquisite is the ecstasy of the right discerner of truth, who sees all within himself, which the external observer with his open eyes, finds as lying afar without himself.

29. The man who with his open eyes, sees the world disappear from his sight; is giddy with his ecstatic views, and not with ebriety liquor. (He sleeps calmly in the trance of ecstacy).

30. Ah! how happily he sleeps in his reverie, whose soul is satiate and at rest, after it has swallowed the visible world in itself, and drank the ambrosial draught of self satisfaction.

31. How happily doth the self-possest man sleep in his solity, who is ever joyous without any joy or anything to enjoy; who is joyful in enjoying the everlasting felicity of unity, and who sees effulgent light of his inward spirit, without any mortal thing on the outside.

32. Happy is the self-possest soul, which is blind to the objects of common desire, and rejoices in the blaze of transcendent light in itself; which delights in subtile and spiritual joys, as much as others luxuriates in their solid food and gross enjoyments.

33. Happily sleeps the spiritual man, with the inward peace of his mind; who shuts his eyes against the outer world, which abounds only in sights of woe, and restlessness of the giddy mob.

34. The self-possest rest in perfect peace of their minds, who bemean themselves as the meanest of the mean in their outer demeanour; but deem themselves as the greatest of the great in the greatness of their souls; they have their repose in the lap of the vast void of their selves.

35. The spiritualist sleeps happily in the universal soul, with its body resting in its vast vacuity; which contains an infinity of worlds in every atom of it.

36. The spiritualist rests perfectly blest in Supreme Spirit, which is full of ineffable light, and in which he sees the[Pg 905] repeated creation and dissolution of the world, without being destroyed himself.

37. Blest is the godly man, that seeing the world as a dream in his sleep, rests in the Spirit of his god, where he sees everything as clear as day light, and as bright as open sky.

38. How blest is the psychist with his musings, who contemplates on the essences of all substances, and engrosses the entity of whole nature in himself; and whose comprehensive mind grasps the cosmos in itself, as the vacuity of the sky, comprehends the whole universe within its ample womb.

39. How happily does the self-communing sage, sleep in his abstract contemplation of the clear and bright heavens in himself; and who views the whole universe in the light of the clear firmament, resounding with the sound of his own breathings or snoring.

40. How happily doth the self-communist, rest in the depth of his inmost thoughts; who finds himself as null and void, as the infinite vacuum itself, and views the universe hovering as a dream, in a corner of that vacuity.

41. How cheerfully does the self-musing sage, lie down in his humble bedstead, which he finds as a matting made of straws, swept before him by the tide of time, and the current contented circumstances.

42. The sage, who by his diligent self-consultation, has come to know the true nature of himself (i.e. of his soul); lives in his lifetime as in the state of dreaming, and deems as an aerial figure of his dream subsisting in empty air.

43. The sage who by his diligent self-cogitation, has come to the knowledge of his own vacuousness; comes to the same knowledge of all nature at large, till at last he comes to reduce and assimilate himself to vacuity.

44. The waking man falls to sleep, and the sleeping person rises to wake again, and in this manner they pass their time in endless turns; but the sound sleeper alone is ever wakeful to his true friend of spirituality (because sound sleep is one’s absorption in the quiet of Divine Spirit).

45. He who having passed his days in this life, in company[Pg 906] with his best friend of self-liberation (jívan mukti) in his lifetime; comes to enjoy the sweet companionship of that friend (amurta-mukti), in his future life for a long period of time, he is verily entitled to his perpetual rest and everlasting bliss, in the list of the Divinity itself forever.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who is that friend with whom he lives, and what is the nature of this enjoyments, whether it is subjective or objective, that is whether derived from within oneself, or from external objects.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Our own conduct alone is our only true friend, whether it is ingenite in our nature, or derived by our extrinsic training and education from others. (The two words svaprabáha and swapráya in the text, are explained in the gloss as sahaja—innate and abhyasta or learnt.)

3. Our inborn good conduct is as infallibly and friendly to us, as the natural beneficence of our parents; and our extraneous good behaviour, is as overruling upon us, as the controul and restraints by a faithful wife in the intricate maze of life.

4. A fearless course of life, and a well earned livelihood, and a well regulated mode of living; together with a dispassionate temper and coolness of mind, are replete with unrestricted and ambrosial sweets.

5. An unblemished life acquired from early youth, is able to save a person from all dangers and difficulties in the world, and render him confidential for every trust, and a repository of all wealth and treasures.

6. It is able to preserve men from all evils, as a father prevents his boys from daubing their bodies with dust and dirt; and hinder them from all acts of wickedness.

7. Such a life gives a man the fervour of fire, and the sweet of flowers; it adds a clearness to his mind and countenance, as the sunlight brightens the face of the day.

8. It supports a man as the father feeds and fondles his[Pg 908] child, and protects him from every accident, as the father is ever ready to shield his children from all harm.

9. As fire purifies the body of gold from alloy, and separates the gross that is to be rejected; so does it show the good qualities, from whatever is to be shunned and avoided.

10. It gladdens the hearts of men with polite speech, which is policed from rusticity; and is a repository of all laudable pursuits, as a treasury is full of moneybags and precious gems.

11. As the sun never shows darkness to view, so the good man never exposes his dark side to sight; as the loving wife shows only her affection to her beloved, so does he show his tenderness only to people.

12. He speaks and behaves kindly with all men, and doth them good only; and his words are always sweet and cooling, and without interested or selfish view.

13. He is the well-wisher of men, and is therefore revered by them all; he speaks smilingly to all without any craving of his own, and bears the form of goodness only to all beings.

14. Should he happen to meet an enemy in a contest, who is ready to strike the first blow on him; he tries to evade it by eluding his opponent by some artifice or sleight of art or skill.

15. He is the patron of gentle and polite men, and protector of women and his family; and is as the nectarious physic to the souls, of all those that ailing under sickness and sick-heartedness.

16. He is particularly a patron of learning, and patronizer of the learned; he is a servitor of venerable men, and a favourer of the eloquent and argumentative. He is a compeer and alter ego to his equals in births and breeding.

17. He conciliates the favour of princes, noblemen and the liberal towards him; and in conducting all sacrifices, acts of charities, austerities of devotion and pilgrimages, by contribution of his honest means.

18. He partakes of his good food and drink, in company with his friends and Bráhmans; and joining with his wife and children, and all the dependants and inmates of his family (i.e.,[Pg 909] he never eats alone), and he never keeps company save with the good and great.

19. He abstains from all enjoyments, deeming them as straws and causes of disease; and indulging himself in conversing upon good subjects, with his view to the edification and beatification of mankind.

20. In this manner he passes his time, in company with his friends and family; he is content with his own state, and glad at what fortune has provided for him (i.e., his own lot and profession).

21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, in short, who are his wives and children and his friends also; what are their different forms, and what are the qualities and virtues they are respectively possessed of.

22. Vasishtha replied:—Sacred ablutions and charities, religious austerities and meditation are his so many sons; that are all of great souls, and entirely devoted to him.

23. His wife is named Chandra-lekha, who is like a digit of the moon in her appearance, and whose very sight delights the eyes; she is his constant companion, always loving to him and content in herself.

24. She is the ravisher of his heart, and dispeller of the gloom of his mind, by reason of her loving kindness to him; she is the delight and delighter of his soul, and is ever a faithful helpmate unto him.

25. He has another consort by name of Samata (i.e. of the same mind) with herself; who is dear to his heart, and keeps at the door to his house, and pleases him by her very appearance.

26. She fixes her mind always, at the mansions of virtue and patience; and runs before and guides the steps of her emburdened lord, to the abode of the blessed and felicitous.

27. That strong man has another wife named Maitri or friendship, whom he bears along with Samata on his either shoulder; and who advises him how to quell the enemies of his king’s states (in royal service).

28. She is his clever counsellor in all honourable acts, and[Pg 910] gave proof of the veracity of her advices; by augmenting his wealth and rendering him honourable before all.

29. Being thus employed in the discharge of his duties, in the circle of his friends, family and advisers, the sapient man <is> always pleased in himself, and never frets nor grumbles at any person or anything whatever.

30. The wise man ever remains as he is, silent and sedate in his mind; he remains always as unmoved as a picture in painting; though he may be moving about in the ordinary affairs of life.

31. He remains as dumb as a stone in fruitless discussions; and feigns himself as a deaf man in useless conversation.

32. He continues as a dead body, in acts which are against the social usage; but in conversations regarding polity and good manners, he is as eloquent as the wise Brihaspati, and as fluent as the snake Vásuki (with its hundred tongues).

33. When engaged in some righteous discourse, he exposes the fallacy of sophistical reasoners; and clears all doubts in a moment, by the versatility of his conversation on various subjects all at once.

34. He is tolerant and magnanimous, bounteous and charitable; he is pliant and gentle, sweet in his speech and handsome in his look, and famed for his pious acts.

35. Such is the character of enlightened men of their own nature, and no practice nor education can ever make any one as such; as the sun and moon and fire are bright by themselves, and there is none and nothing else, that can ever make them shine.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—It is the manifestation of our vacuous consciousness, that exhibits the phenomenal world unto us; whereas there is in reality no such thing as this world, or its appearance, or a vacuum in nature or a thing as consciousness in ourselves.

2. Whatever is apparent before us, is the manifestation of the Intellect, and vainly styled the world; just as the open air called the sky, is no other than the air itself. (So the vacuum known as the world, is not otherwise than the very vacuum).

3. As a man going from one place to another, sees a gap and blank between; and yet thinks of the place he has seen and left behind, so is the world a mere gap and thought of the mind.

4. Before creation there was nothing, how then could this something appear from that nothing; the latter having no material cause, is no material or visible thing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit. So the sruti: sat eva asit, na kinchit idam agra asit).

5. Then there was not an atom—the origin of the world in existence; how then and from where, could this revolving world, have its rise and form?

6. Therefore this formal and visible world, could not have sprung from it, as no child could ever be born of a barren woman. Hence there is nothing as the visible world, and the conception thereof must be entirely false (as that of a ghost or goblin).

7. Whatever then appears as visibly present before us, is only the blank vacuity of the Intellect; and this is the[Pg 912] transcendental state, in which the supreme unity appears unto us (according to the doctrine of srutis).

8. As it is in depth of our sound sleep, there appears a fleeting dream before us; so it is with the supreme Intellect, which never forsakes the serene and unalterable tranquility of its divine nature.

9. But exists of itself in itself, and in its calm and quiet state, ever before the appearance of creation; and manifests intellectual vacuity, in the form of the visible world, as it appears unto us.

10. As the idle thoughts of the mind, present themselves as airy castles in our sleep; so doth the vacuum of the supreme Intellect, exhibit the appearance of the creation in its own empty space.

11. As the empty air evolves itself, in the manner of whirlwinds in itself; so does the intellectual vacuum exhibit the phenomenal world, subsisting in its very self (in the noumenon).

12. Hence the three worlds that appear so visibly to our view, are quite unintelligible and unexposed to our sight in their very nature; it is the Supreme Deity itself, that appears in this manner of its subsistence in its own vacuous substance.

13. There is nothing as the formal earth, or anything whatever at any time; or be it anything either formal or formless, (i.e., whether as plastic nature or subtile air or spirit, or whatsoever you may choose to call it; it is the Great Deity alone, that manifests itself in this manner).

14. As the formless mountain appearing in dream, disappears in air upon waking; and as the visible world in waking becomes invisible in sleep, so does the triple world appear and disappear by turns, in the transparent and tranquil intellect only.

15. To the watchful and enlightened mind, the world appears as identic with God; but however intelligent we may be, can never know that we are all along sleeping in our waking.

16. As the mind is unoccupied with any object, in the interim of one’s journey from one place to another; so the[Pg 913] minds of all livings beings, are naturally unoccupied with any preconceived idea; and this blankness is the true state of the intellect. (This passage contradicts the doctrine of innate ideas in the mind).

17. That unemployed state of mind, which one has in the interval of his journey from place to place, is what bears the name of transcendent void, wherein all existence is contained. (This passage is opposed to the preceding one. To say the intellect to be a perfect void and blank, and again the container of all, is quite contradictory).

18. Now this void of the mind, and the vacuity of the world, are similar to one another as regards the similarity of their contents; as neither of them contains anything besides the principles of the five elements, either in their ideal or gross forms of elemental bodies, called as the real and unreal ones. (Sadasadátmaka).

19. The ideal or unreal ones, are the inward conceptions of the mind, and are called as manaskáras; while the real or gross forms of them, are styled the rúpalokas or visible objects, and both of these are but different modes of divine essence. All of them are like the eddies and waves, rising on the surface of the infinite ocean of the Deity.

20. Hence there is no such thing as the objectivity of the world, except that it be of the nature of that vacancy of the mind, as a traveller has in the interim of his journey from one place to another.

21. As the rising and setting of the passions and affections in the mind, are mere modes of it; so the being and not being of anything, and the presence and absence of the world, are mere modalities of the Divine Mind.

22. The chasm that there is between one thought and another, is truly characteristic of the voidness of the Divine Mind, (which reposes forever, in its everlasting and tranquil intellectual felicity sachchidánanda); the visible world is but a wave in the ocean of Eternity, or as the mirage in a sandy desert.

23. The Divine spirit never changes from its state of calm repose, and vacant mindedness, as that of a traveller in the[Pg 914] interval of his journey from one place to another. Such is the state of this world which is ever calm and quiet.

24. From the beginning or since the time of the first creation of the world, nothing was made, that seems to be made; it is only a magic show that appears so palpably to sight.

25. Alas! all this is nothing, that is so bright to sight; and yet it is something right, when viewed in the light of Brahma himself; and then it affords us fresh delight.

26. Ah! where shall I go, and what can I get from this ungodly world, which is ever prone to unrighteousness; it is an unsubstantial sight, and passes for substantial, and yet no body understands that it is Brahma the very god, that exhibits himself in this mode and manner.

27. It is no production nor reflexion, neither the archetype nor its ectype; what then are these phenomenals, and how and from where? All these that appear to view, are of the vacuity of Brahma, who exhibits himself in this manner (in all shapes).

28. As a gem shines itself of its own lustre, and not derived from without; so does the vacuous Intellect shine of its own splendour, shown forth in the creation, which is selfsame with itself.

29. It is in that calm and quiet vacuity, that this sun shines with all his glory; or rather a spot of that vacuum shines in the shape of the sun, which is but a modicum or molecule of it, and nothing beside.

30. Though situated therein, yet neither does the sun nor the moon shine of itself; it is that God that illumes those luminaries, neither of whom can illumine that transcendent Being the supreme Lord unto us.

31. It is his lustre, that enlightens this visible (the mundane) sphere; and it is he alone that is the enlightener of the sun, moon, and stars and fire as also of all other shining bodies, that shine with their borrowed light from him.

32. Whether He is formless or fictile, bodiless or embodied, is the verbal disquisition of the ignorant only at all times; whereas it is well known to the learned, that any supposititious form of Him, is as unreal as the potentiality of a sky flower[Pg 915] growing in empty air. (Here are ákás-latas—sky-plants or orchids in air, but no ákás-pushpa or sky-flower, which must grow on the plant and not in the air.)

33. As a ray of sunbeams, a particle of sand or sunstone, shine brightly in sunshine; but the sun and moon also do not shine even as conspicuously as those particles, before the great glory of their Maker. (The sun is a grain of sand, and the moon a molecule, before the glory of the Great God).

34. The shining sun, moon, and stars being but offshoots, of the flaming gem of the vacuous Intellect of the Deity; say how can they be otherwise than flashes of the same gem, from which they are emitted. (The flash is not separate from the gem).

35. The divine state or hypostasis being divested of intellectuality, and being devoid of its voidness also, becomes deprived of its essentiality, as also destitute of all quality; being thus drained of all its properties and attributes, it becomes full of the plenum and totally of all existences.

36. The earth and all elemental bodies reside in it, in a manner as they are absent therein, and all living beings living by it, do not abide in the same. (All these opposites meet in its nature).

37. All things combine therein in unity, and in their atomic forms, without forsaking their grossness without; while the Divine never forsakes its uniformity, without any mixture of duality in its pure entity of unity.

38. Anything here is nothing, nor is anything a nothing altogether; therefore it is too difficult to say, what thing it is and what not. (The nature of God is inscrutable).

39. There is one thing which is infinite, and without any intersection, and is ever extended in everywhere; and this is the essence of the vacuous intellect, containing the germ and gist of the universe in itself.

40. As the mind is vacant and still, in the interim of its passing from one thought to another; such is the nature and[Pg 916] form of the world (i.e., of a quiet void), although it appears so variegated to view.

41. Though it appears to be multifarious, yet it is the uniform intellect only, which extends invariably over all vacuity; and sees as in its dream, the forms of the five elemental bodies hovering about it.

42. As the intellect passes from its rest of sleep, to the sights in its dream; so it passes from the state of pralaya or the void of universal desolation to the commotion of creation. (The sleeping and waking of the soul causing the extinction and resuscitation of the world. Manu I).

43. As sleep and dream recur to every soul, so the extinction and renovation of the world, occur to all alike; so also is waking akin to the turíya, or enlightened state of the soul: hence the world is no other than a phenomenon in the intellectual vacuum. (The words waking and enlightenment are synonymous terms).

44. Thus the whole universe is no more, than a stage of waking, sleeping and dreaming and turíya scenes; such is the understanding of the learned on this subject; and we know nothing in what light, it is viewed by the ignorant.

45. The Lord is inscrutable amidst the living brute and all inert creation; nor can we come to any conclusion, in respect to the nature of that Being, who is beyond the knowledge, of our mind and understanding.

46. This much is knowable of Him, that he is of the pure Intellect, and that all things are full of Him; yet they are not of the form of that Reality, which manifests itself in the form of the universe.

47. The words permeation and diffusion, of the Divine spirit in creation; are used by the learned only, for explanation of the Omnipresence of the Deity; else there is no scent, i.e. nothing of the import of the word pervasion (of Divine essence) in all nature. (Nature is the mere body; but God its soul is a bodiless Being).

48. It is since the first creation of the world, that this great[Pg 917] essence of the vacuous Intellect, is situated of itself, in the souls of great souled (or high minded men).

49. The all pervading Intellect is ever situated, in the minds of the sages, whose souls are full with the presence of the One supreme spirit; and it is that Intellect, which conceived in itself the idea, which passes under the name of the world.

50. The knowledge of the felicity of the world, like that of a dream upon waking, is attained with delight, but the want of this knowledge, as of some bad dream at the time of sleeping, makes us uneasy all the while.

51. The silent saint that knows the truth, is always in the selfsame state of tranquility, whether he be walking or sitting any where, or remain in the states of waking and sleeping.

52. The wise man that remains indifferent to everything, and sits content even in his distress; and cares not whether he lives or dies, has nothing whatever either to gain or lose.

53. The wise man, who is outwardly employed in worldly affairs, without taking any thing to heart, and neither parts with nor craves anything; remains inactive in his active life.

54. Utter indifference is characteristic of the wise man, just as heat and cold, are natural to fire and snow, and this habit of the mind, is not acquired by practice or education.

55. He who is not by his nature, of this disposition of his mind, is ever ignorant of truth; and ignorance of this truth, is the sign of a character, that <is> inclined to base desires.

56. The truly wise man, remains perfect and pithy in his own good nature; he is quite satiate with the sweet ambrosial draught, of his transcendent tranquility; he is sedate in his mind, and without his varying desires of this thing or that.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is devoid of any material element, as the earth and others; and I ween the first creator to be the Mind only, which is the fruitful tree of desires.

2. The word mind derived from the act of minding, came to be used afterwards as a name for the thinking power, as it was from the whirling of waters, that is got the name of a whirlpool.

3. It is by its connection with the Intellect, that it has its understanding and the other faculties; or else it would <be> as blank as the void of the air, which could have no dust were it not for the earth underlying it.

4. The mind is neither the body nor heart, nor the senses nor desires nor even has it any of these; and though these are commonly attributed to it, yet in its true sense, it is devoid of all properties.

5. How can reminiscence be the cause of reproduction of the world? The former creator or Brahmá, being liberated or extinct with the extinction of that world, could not have retained his reminiscence of it; nor could the new creator of the new world, possibly have any remembrance of what he knew not all. (There have been many by gone Brahmás before).

6. The holy and liberated souls, have neither their bodies nor reminiscences any more; nor the passing currents of other rivers, return or whirl back, like the whirlpools of some. (So the sruti:—The liberated souls, return no more to mortality).

7. Or if he have any body at all, owing to the reminiscence of his former state; it must be an unearthly and immaterial[Pg 919] body, quite still and rarefied as in imaginary forms. (Such are the spiritual bodies of gods and angels).

8. As our imagination presents to us, a visionary mountain to the mind’s eye; such is the air-drawn body of the all engrossing Virát; presented unto us without any earthly form. (Virát is Pantheon).

9. There is therefore no such thing as reminiscence, at any time whatsoever; it is merely built on popular belief, and not upon the reason of wise men. (Because the creator had no remembrance of a prior creation in his first formation of the world).

10. Ráma rejoined:—How do you say sir, that rememberest everything that there was no previous remembrance in the first creator; who must have remembered the creation of a first kalpa or learnt it, O inspired sage, by his inspiration also. (So says the sruti:—Brahmá performed austerities and was inspired by the Lord, see Manu I).

11. Vasishtha replied:—The pre-existence of reminiscence is possible in the outward or visible world, which admits of cause and effect; but can it be where there is no such world, but a mere vacuum only.

12. There is nothing visible here, from the highest heaven to the lowest pit; if it <were> so a nullity only, then what is its reminiscence and to what use is it.

13. The remembrance of the prior world in its absence, is called its reminiscence; but when there never was nor is any visible world at all, how can you think of its reminiscence; even in fancy.

14. The entire absence of the phenomenals at all times, makes it identic with the invisible Brahma himself; and this being the truth of it, say how can you fancy the reminiscence of anything.

15. Therefore the prime creator, could have no remembrance of a prior existence; nor could he have any bodily form, being of a spiritual form of pure intelligence only.

16. We should remember the past from our present state, that we are mortal beings undergoing repeated transmigrations,[Pg 920] and not bring other persons and things to our remembrance, as others think it to mean. (We should remember ourselves only).

17. Reminiscence means the retention of past things, in our remembrance or inward memory; but what can we remember, when there nothing was nor is, nor shall ever be anything.

18. All this stupendous fabric, is the supreme Brahma itself; who remains as immovable as a mountain, and without its beginning, middle or end. What then is the reminiscence or presence of it?

19. The Lord being the universal soul, is the soul or essence of all things; and shines like the lustre of the vacuous Intellect; outwardly he is quite calm, as I may say he is reposing in our remembrance.

20. So the remembrance of the Lord, is as he is seen in the light of nature; hence the habitual meditation of the lord, corresponds with the contemplation of external nature. (Because apart from nature we have no idea of God, unless we think as the Lord of nature. This is called the natural religion, or the worship of God in nature, the ancient vedic religion).

21. Whatever is known to us is nature, and the same is the object of our meditation. Hence the appearance of any thing (in the mind), is called to be its remembrance.

22. And as anything which is absent or inexistent, appears visible (by error) before our sight, like the false appearance of water in the mirage: such is the case with our misleading memory also (which is hence called a treacherous memory).

23. Again any prejudice which is rooted in the minds of men, and appears as right by long habit of thinking it as such; this also passes for memory also (though it is a wrong impression in the mind).

24. Any sudden accident or passing event, that strikes the mind for a moment; pass also under the name of memory; though it may or may not happen any more.

25. Any idea that rises of itself in the mind, becomes so impressed in it, by its being fostered for any length of time; that any other thing bearing resemblance thereto, passes for an object of our memory.

[Pg 921]

26. Any thing whether obtained or not by any means, passes also for an object of memory; as the ventilation of wind by means of a fan. (It means a negative idea is ever accompanied with its affirmative one in thought and memory).

27. Again whatever occurs in the mind, by parts of the whole subject, is also called its memory (how imperfect so ever it may be); just as any part of the body is called the body also.

28. There are also many chimeras, rising of themselves before the mind, like magic shows appearing before our sight; and if the remembrance of these be called memory, then say what truth or reliance is there in it.

29. Consider then how very imperfect and erroneous, this faculty of memory is to man; and as there is no visible creation at all, its memory therefore is altogether meaningless.

30. Hence then the world being but a display, of the density or volume of the Divine Intellect; it is reflected at present as a visible object in the minds of the ignorant, who have given them the name of memory, which in reality is nothing at all.

31. I cannot tell you about the means of liberation, nor do I know wherein it consists; yet however to clear the doubt of the inquirer, I will relate something about it at present.

32. Until there is an end of the sight of the visibles, and an oblivion of the remembrance of past events; and a cessation of avidyá, ignorance and delusion, it is hard to be attained. (i.e. A slave to this world and errors, is never emancipated in this life—jívan mukta).

33. The ignorant have a belief, in whatever is quite unknown to us; since they can never conceive whatever is imperceptible to their senses (i.e. whose minds never rise beyond sensible objects.)

34. The enlightened are unacquainted with the gross errors, which lurk in the darkness of ignorant minds; as the ever luminous sun, knows nothing of what passes in the gloom of night.

35. Whatever likeness of any thing, ever appears to be impressed in the mirror of the mind; the same being habitual[Pg 922] to thought, as any thing studied or stored in the mind, receives the name of reminiscence from its impression in the memory.

36. But these glaring impressions in the imagination, being rubbed out of the mind like the colours of a painting, there remains no more any tinge of the mistaken world therein, as in the clear minds of the learned.

37. The mirage shows the appearance of water in it, which is a mere delusion and never true; so is the dream that shows this creation to view, which is no more in reality than a false vision.

38. It is the vacuous Intellect, which contains the creation in it; and shows its representation in ourselves; thus the world appears in the void of the Intellect only, and not any thing as fallen or detached from it. (It is a picture in the plate of the mind).

39. The supreme soul shows this form in itself, and makes its unreality appear as a reality unto us; and though this form was manifested at the beginning, yet it is no more than the display of an unreality. (i.e. Being seen in God it is real, but without him it is unreal and nothing).

40. Then say, whence and where is this world, with all its pleasant as well as unpleasant things; it is never anything of a plastic form, nor an appearance proceeding from reminiscence.

41. The world having no cause (either material or instrumental), in the beginning, appears as the very form of the supreme, it is to our woe only, that we view its visible form, or search in our memory (for a pristine pattern of it).

42. Both of these views are wrong, and tend to our bondage in the world; but the view of its voidness in the vacuity of the Intellect, is the only means to our release and liberation from it.

43. The view of the apparent world in its vacuous form, and as situated in the vacuity of the Intellect, and its identity with swarúpa or self same spirit of God, and as undetached in their essence from the divine essence (is the only means of our liberation herein).

44. The view of the situation of the visible bodies, as those[Pg 923] of the sun, moon, and mountains &c., in the empty space of the Divine Intellect; like those of the invisible ones, as space, time, and other ideal objects therein, is the only means of our release from the bondage of this world.

45. The view of the self same spirit, situated or dwelling in the recess of the Intellect, and identic with its own notion of itself, and bearing resemblance to the nature of the dream, which proceeds from its essence, is the only means of our emancipation from our temporal bondage.

46. How can any earthly or other elemental body, have its place in the spirit of God, which is not of the form of the earth or any other element; it shines of itself and in itself, in and as the quiet void of the Intellect itself.

47. How and from where could the earth and other elements, proceed in the beginning as in the state of our dreaming; unless they were inherent in and coeval with the divine essence, as the many objects of our dream rise from our own nature.

48. These effusions of the spirit, as named afterwards as the earth &c., and deemed as material objects; but say, how could the spiritual emanations or mnemonic effluences, assume such corporal and tangible forms.

49. The world is neither the production of our error, nor is it a representation of our delusion or as a magic show; nor is it the permeation of the spirit as pervading all nature, but it is the very essence of the selfsame deity itself.

50. It is the Divinity Brahma itself that shines in the form of this wondrous world; it is the self-same unity, which appears to manifest, and yet so very obscure as mysterious unto us. What is visible is only pure light, and that of the serene clearness of open air, which glows and grows dim by turns, by the vicissitudes of the light and shade of creation and destruction. (These as they change are but the varied God. Thomson’s Seasons).

Ráma rejoined:—If the nature of the Divine spirit is, as the notion which is Universally entertained of it; that it is common soul of all, and infinite in its pervasion, why then is it supposed to be the soul of the living body only, and called the Ego or a personal being?

2. How does the Intellect become inert, as a block of wood or stone in the state of our sleep, and why is it said to exist or become extinct in the state of its numbness (when it is said to be universal in its nature).

3. Vasishtha replied:—It is by common usage and mode of speech, that the universal soul is said to reside as the ego or personal being in the body; as it is by common use of language only, to take the hands of the body as hands, and not to understand the feet as such. (So the embodied soul only is called the ego).

4. As the leaf of a tree is considered only as a leaf or part of the tree, so the universal soul residing in the tree (as vegetable life), passes under the designation of a tree only.

5. And as vacuity in the sky, is styled the sky also; so the universal soul dwelling in matter, is designated as that matter likewise. (And so the common vacuum indwelling a pot, passes under the name of the pot also).

6. And as an aerial castle in a dream, appears as a tangible castle to the dreamer for the time; so the universal soul living in our sleep, dream, and waking, is thought to be sleeping, dreaming or being awake at that time.

7. As stony trees or cliffs are seen to rise on mountains, and[Pg 925] waves on the surface of waters; so the huge mountain also rises as a stony tree, from the bosom of the all pervading spirit.

8. As the living body gives growth, to dull and dead nails and hairs, so the living soul of the universe, grows the insensible stones and trees upon it. (So the spirit produces the matter, and the insensible rises from sensibles).

9. As the conscious soul becomes unconscious, as a stone or block of wood in its sleep; so the universal soul becomes inert, before creation and after its dissolution. And again as the sleeping soul, sees the train of dreams rising out of it, so the tranquil spirit of God, beholds the lustre of creation issuing out of it.

10. And as the sensible and insensible soul of man, produces both sensible offspring and insensible excrements from its body; so the universal soul, produces both living beings and inert bodies from itself.

11. The sensible as well as the insensible, are both embodied in the person of the universal soul; which is possessed of both the movables and immovables in itself, although it is formless in its substance.

12. All these contraries in nature, disappear before the sight of the truly learned; as the false sights in dream, disappear from view of the awakened man, who knows the falsity of dreams.

13. All this is the vacuity of the Intellect, where there is no sight, view nor its viewer; as a dreamer being awakened from his dreaming, neither sees his dream nor his dreaming sights any more.

14. Millions and millions of creations, are appearing in and disappearing from the vacuum of the Intellect, in the manner of recurring waves, and the revolving whirlpools in the sea.

15. As the waters of the ocean, show various shining forms in the rising waves; so the Intellect raises many creations, bearing different names in its own intellectuality.

16. The world as it is, appears as the very Brahma to the[Pg 926] truly learned, while to the ignorant mass of men, it appears as many and changing, for want of the precise knowledge of it.

17. The wave that knows its nature, of calm and cool water only, thinks no more of its being a fluctuating wave (so the man that knows himself as Brahma, thinks no longer of his frail and mortal state).

18. The conception of the undulation of the divine spirit, from the fluctuating appearance of creation, is a mistaking of the calmness of the Divine nature; the fluctuation belongs to the powers residing in the Divinity.

19. The vacuous Intellect never forsakes its tranquility; and the variety of knowledge that rises in it, like the varying train of dreams, is attributable to the mind, which they call Brahma or the great progenitor of all.

20. Thus the prime lord of creatures, was the formless and undecaying mind; it was of intellectual form like an imaginary being, and supposed as the cause of all.

21. Who says “thou art nothing,” that saying is like the word gold, which has no form of itself, but whose purity is gold.

22. The increate Brahma, being of an intellectual and vacuous form, and an imaginary body endued with volition, appeared as the prime Ego or a personal being, and containing the world in his person.

23. It is the empty void of the Intellect, which displays these wonders that are known to constitute the continued bustle, of the alternate creation, sustentation, and destruction of the world.

24. The clear and increate light, to which the intellect evolves itself of its own accord; and which bears resemblance to the evolution of airy dreams from the mind; is termed the first father of all. (Light was the first work of God, or coeternal with the Eternal spirit. Hail holy light Heaven’s first-born, or the Eternal coeternal beam. Milton).

25. As a wave assumes one form or other, and rolls on[Pg 927] interminably over the vast expanse of the sea; so runs the heavenly mind, in the forms of the revolving creations and their dissolutions.

26. The light of the intellectual vacuum, which passes under the name of Virát; is of the same mind as Brahma, and stretches out the creation, like a castle or city of imagination.

27. Virát is the combined form of the triple states of waking, dreaming and sleep; the two first are analogous to the creation and supportance of the universe, and the last is similar to the utter darkness of dissolution.

28. From the chaotic state of his dissolution, there sprang light and darkness (in the forms of days and nights), like dark and white hairs growing on his head; and the rotations of time resembling the joints of his body.

29. His mouth represented the fire, his head the upper sky, and the air below his navel; his foot-stool was the earth, his eyes were the sun and moon, and the east and west were his two ears. In this manner did the Lord Virát manifest himself, in the imagination of his mind (Virát represents the concrete universe).

30. Thus did the expanded vacuous form of Virát, represent the whole visible world in his ideal person; which was a figure of his own imagination, as any of the unsubstantial forms of our dream or fancy.

31. Whatever is thought of in the vacuity of the Intellect, the same comes to be vividly exhibited therein; such is verily the form of this world, which we conceive in ourself.

32. Virát is verily an aeriform being in himself, and appears to be as wide extended as the vast extent of the universe; and is in his own nature, like a city or mountain, that we see in our dreams.

33. Whatever one thinks himself to be, he conceives in him to have become the same, without his actually being as such, so an actor is seen to play his part in dream, from the concept of his acting on the stage.

[Pg 928]

34. Whatever be the tenets of the Vedánta, Buddhism, Sánkhya and Saugata systems of the philosophy; and whatsoever may be the doctrine of Tryaksha, Pashupati and other propounders of Ágama sástras; they all agree in acknowledging Brahma, as the giver of the boons that they respectively desire; and all of them obtain the particular object of bliss from the same. Such is the glory of the great God, whose soul fills all bodies, and whose bounty supports them all (lit., whose body comprehends the whole).[3]

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect alone glistened in the beginning, with its thought of creation, appearing as the vision of a dream before it. This was the representation of the three worlds, and a reflexion of the light of Brahma Himself. (The Divine spirit was the archetype, of which the world was an ectype or réchauffé).

2. These creations were as the endless billows in the ocean of the Divine Mind, and rising from the fluidity of his omniscience; hence there is no difference between the creation and its absence, nor is there any woe in the one or bliss in the other.

3. As the dream and sound sleep of the soul, do both of them appertain to its sleeping state; when the mind remains as vacant as empty air; so the visible and invisible creation (i.e. its presence and absence) are both of them alike in the vacuity of the Intellect (where they both resemble but an empty dream).

4. This world appearing like a city seen in our dream, in our waking state; is not worthy of reliance of the wise, who are well acquainted with its nature of a visionary appearance.

5. And as we find the falsity of the visionary city in the dream, upon our waking, so we come to find our mistake of the reality of the world at last.

6. As upon waking, we come to find the falsity of all our efforts and desires; in the visionary city of our dream; so do we find at last, all our aims and attempts in our waking state in this world, to be equally false and fleeting.

7. If any one assigns any other cause, then why that one does not admit, what he said, is mere fancy.

[Pg 930]

8. When guessing knowledge is no better than a dream of the world; so ocular authority is more strong than inocular one.

9. It is better to judge the soul and other attribute by near example, than by the far off; otherwise it is like a fall from the top of a hill in a dream.

10. Perfect insensibility is entire inertness, and a changeless state of body and mind; while the nature of the world, and the state of things herein, are incessantly restless and changeful; therefore it is incapable to conduct samádhi or intense meditation in either of these two states.

11. Meditation in worldly life, must be too sensitive and variable; while its intensity or trance stupifies a man to a stone; but true liberation consists neither in the changeableness of mind, nor in its stone like insensibility.

12. I think nothing is obtainable from the stone like apathetic trance, as there is nothing to be <had> from the drowsy stupor <for> anybody. (Hence both fickleness as well as mental torpor are repugnant to meditation and self-liberation).

13. It is therefore by means of consummate knowledge only, that reasoning men can dispel their ignorance; and there is no chance of his being born again, who has secured his liberation in his life time.

14. Inflexible abstraction is said to have no bounds, and it consists in sitting steadfast in profound meditation, without distraction or diversion, such a posture is said to be all illuminating, or eternal sunshine to the Yogi.

15. It is called the endless hypnotism or absorption of the soul, and is the fourth or last state of contemplativeness. It is also styled as nirvána self-extinction, or losing one’s self in his reveries; and this is what they designate moksha or liberation from all bonds and cares of the world. (This is the abstract Platonism of the ancients).

16. It is the density or depth of pansophy, and the intensity of excogitation; and there being an entire absence of the retrospect of the phenomenals in it, it is known as the state of perfect transcendentalism or glory.

[Pg 931]

17. It is not the stone like inertness of some philosophers (Gautama and Kanada), nor the hypnotism or sound sleep of others (Hiranya garbas); it is neither the unoptativeness or want of option of the Pátanjalas, nor is the inexistence or utter annihilation of the Buddhist.

18. It is the knowledge of Brahma as the prime source of all, and nihility of the visible creation; it is knowing God as all and yet nothing that exists; and therefore it is to know Him as He is—in his all pervading spirit.

19. It is the consummate knowledge of all (as nothing), that gives us our positive rest of nirvána (in our nothingness); and in knowing that the world as it is, equal to its inexistence.

20. That all this variety is no variety at all, nor all these any entity in reality; all apparent realities are mere unrealities, and it is the end of all our conceptions and inductions, that is the only reality (i.e. God the first and last of all—the Alpha and Omega).

21. The entire nihility of the visible world, is the state of its nirvána or extinction; and the settled knowledge of this in any one, constitutes his supreme felicity.

22. This state is attainable by one’s pure understanding, and his habit of constant reconsideration; joined with a knowledge of the sástras, and scrutiny into the right sense of significant words and their significates.

23. This work is the best guide to liberation, by means of its constant study; or else it is attainable by no other means, save by enlightenment of the understanding. ज्ञानतोमुक्तिरेब ।

24. Neither pilgrimage nor charity, nor sacred ablutions or learning; nor meditation or Yoga contemplation, nor religious austerities nor sacrifice of any kind (is liberation ever attainable by mankind, except by means of divine knowledge).

25. The world is only a delusion, causing the unreal <to> appear as real; it is the empty vacuum only which presents the appearance of the world, which is as a dream in the vacancy of the Intellect.

26. No religious austerity nor pilgrimage, is ever able to remove our error of the world; they can at the best procure[Pg 932] for us the reward of heaven, but never secure unto us our liberation or final beatitude.

27. Our error is extirpated only, by the light of the sástras and of our good understanding; but above all, it is spiritual knowledge alone, which is the best means to our liberation and final salvation.

28. But it is the vivid light of the scriptures, which is sure to destroy our error of the world; as the sunshine serves to dispel the gloom of night.

29. The light, clearness and shade, of creation, preservation and destruction respectively, appear by turns in the clear vacuous mirror of the Intellect; as the ventilation of breeze in air, and fluctuation of waves in water.

30. As the rudiment of the future form, is contained in the heart or embryo of every thing; and as the air contains in its incessant motion (sadágati) within itself; such is the existence of the world, inherent in the Divine Intellect, and so has it its evolution and dissolution therein, like the rise and fall of wind in empty air.

Vasishtha continued:—The vacuity of the Intellect which presented the shadow of a dream at first, could not possibly assume the form of a causal and sensible body (as that of Brahmá), in order to be visible and form the visible world. For how is it possible for the intellectual vacuum, to have a bodily form at all.

2. In the beginning of creation, O Ráma, there was nothing except a shadow dream in the Intellect. And neither was there this creation nor the next world in visible existence.

3. The world appeared only in the form, of an unsubstantial notion of it; and the vacuous intellect remained as quiet with its ideal world, as the mind rests quietly with the nightmare in its dream.

4. Such is the essence of the Intellect, which is translucent and without its beginning and end; and though it is a clear void in itself, yet it bears the ideal model of the world in its mirror.

5. So long as this is unknown, the world appears as a gross substance; but being known as contained in the Divine spirit, it becomes a spiritual substance also; because how is it possible for any gross matter, to attach itself to the transcendent vacuum, of which there is no beginning and end?

6. This pure and abstract knowledge of the world, is as that of a city in dreaming; and such being the state of the world ere its creation, how can any earthly or other matter, be ever joined with the same?

7. The light of the Divine soul, shining amidst the vacuity[Pg 934] of the Intellect, is termed cosmos or the universe; consisting as it is supposed, of matter, mind and faculties.

8. It is want of understanding only, which makes us suppose a thing, which is turning round like a whirlpool, and having the force of the wind in it as the stable earth, although it has no basis or stability of it.

9. Afterwards the same Divine spirit (jíva), wishing to display its own glory (thought in its personality of Brahmá), of the ideal forms of the earth and other things (in its imagination).

10. Then the great minds of (Brahmá), shone with a purer light of itself; and this is called his creation which is of an aerial form and no other. (Light being the first work of creation).

11. That pure light, was nothing substantial of itself; but the brightness of the Intellect only, shining with the effulgence of the Divine spirit. (This was the psychic light of the soul in itself).

12. This light is the body of the spirit, which shone as intellectual light in the void of the Intellect; and it presented the appearance of the world in it, in the manner of dreams floating before the empty mind.

13. There being no other inference to be derived, nor any other cause to be possibly assigned (to the production of the world), or of its being produced of itself; it is certain that the divine spirit, sees itself in the form of creation, within the vacuum of its Intellect in the beginning. (As anything cannot come by itself or from nothing; the world must therefore be either a nothing or a form of something that is ever existent of itself).

14. This body of the world (corpus mundi), having no property of a tangible body, is never fragile in its nature; but it is as void as the emptiness of the Intellect, and as inane as the empty air.

15. Its form is that of the supreme Being, which is without any form whatever; and identic with the Divine form, it comprehends all bodies in itself, and extends undivided as all in all in its ownself.

16. This will be better understood in the instance of a[Pg 935] dream, which rises of itself and shows itself in various forms; but as all these varieties are nothing but empty visions, so the diverse scenes and sights of the world, are no more than shows of the Divine spirit.

17. The Divine soul of Brahma, assumed to itself the state of the living spirit; and without forsaking its transparent form, became of the form of mind (in the person of the great Brahmá—the creative Power).

18. This power extends the universe in its aerial form in air; which appears to be changed from its unchangeable state of transparency, to that of a gross nature (i.e. the visible and material world).

19. The Mind is Brahmá himself, who gives an external and visible form to the world, that was seated invisible in his heart; and is continually employed in the process of repeated creation and destruction of all.

20. The immaterial mind of Brahma, evolved the world from its protoplasm, which was originally seated in his heart; and thence it appeared in a different form as a counterpart of the original, or as the formless representation of something in a dream.

21. The God Brahmá though in himself dwelling with his formless mind, in his embodied form of the triple world, and of being diffused in endless forms of sensible and insensible beings therein.

22. But there was neither the earth, nor any material form, nor even anything of a visible appearance therein; it was only his mind which exhibited itself, in the form of the formless and vacuous world. (The Divine hypostasis of the personified mind of Brahma, was only a mental and aerial form, and not a material one).

23. Then the lord Brahmá thought that, this mental form of his, was nothing in substance, as it did not appear to sight; it was the Intellect only, which shone in this manner within itself, and had no solidity or substantiality in it. (The Intellect is the omniscience of God, and the Mind is the intelligence of Brahmá).

[Pg 936]

24. This mental conception or abstract contemplation of the world, is inexpressible by words, and makes the meditator remain in mute astonishment; and causes him to continue as dumb in this ordinary conduct in life. (This is the state of platonic supineness or insouciance).

25. The Intellect being infinite and unlimited, the mind is lost in infinity in its reflection; hence Brahmá having long remained in his silence, became awakened to his knowledge at last. (Brahmá the Demiurgic Mind having recovered itself from its wonder and bewilderment, becomes detached at last from the divine mind).

26. After the insensible mind of Brahmá, had come to its sense, it revolved in itself with its thoughts; as the liquid waters of the sea, turns in whirlpools by agitation.

27. So the insensible air is put to ventilation by its internal motion, and so all living souls which are identic with the calm and quiet supreme soul, slide away like the gliding waters, from their main source.

28. And as the winds and waves, which are identical with the calm air and still water, blow and flow in all directions of themselves, so the minds of living beings which are same with supreme Intellect, run in several ways in their own accord.

29. Hence the vacuous intellect of all living beings, is the same with the Divine intellect; and this, O most intelligent Ráma, is otherwise known as the supreme soul also.

30. The Divine soul appears unto us, to have its twinklings like the vacillation of air; its closing causes the close or end of the world, as its flashing exposes the creation to view.

31. Its glancing causes the visibility of creation, and its winking makes it invisible or extinct to view, while the want of both these acts (opening and closing of its sight), is tantamount to the formless void of the world.

32. But the view of the opening and shutting of its sight, or the visibility and disappearance of the world in one unvaried light, makes the equality of existence and non-existence in the mind, and bespeaks the perfection of the soul.

33. Seeing and not seeing, and their results of creation and[Pg 937] extinction, make no difference in the Divine Intellect which is always the same. (The veda says Íkshati or glancing of God, and not his will or word is the cause of the world).

34. Know therefore this world, to be as calm and quiet as the Divine soul; and that it is of the nature of the uncreated vacuum, which is ever the same and no decay.

35. The sensuous and conscious intellect, exhibits itself as the insensible and unconscious vacuum; the very intellect shows itself in the form of the world, which is in a manner its body and residence.

36. The Intellect is neither born or made, nor does it ever grow or decay; it is never visible nor perceptible, nor have we any notion of it; it displays its wonders in itself, without any extraneous substance in it.

37. All that is called the phenomenal, is the brightness of the blazing gem of the great Intellect, and proceeding from the quarry of its vacuum; as the sunshine which illumines the world, issues from the orb of that luminary.

38. It is Brahma himself that shines forth as the creation, just as our sleep exhibits the visionary world in its dream; so is all this creation as quiet as sleep, and yet full with the bustle of the slumbering world.

39. Whatever is known in any manner in the mind, either as existent or inexistent in the world; the same is the reflexion of the Intellect, whether it be an entity or non-entity.

40. Should the impossibility of existence, lead us to the supposition of some cause as of the primary atoms and the like; then what cause can there be assigned to the appearance of sights in our dream (and of fabrics without their foundation).

41. If the origin of the world is not ascribed to Brahma, as the origination of dreams to the Intellect; then neither is there any truth in the existence of the one, or in the appearance of <the> other, which is never true.

42. The minds of men are inclined towards the particular objects of their fancy; hence those that believe and delight in God, take him as the origin of all things that appear unto them.

[Pg 938]

43. Whatever is in the minds of men, and to whatever their hearts are constantly devoted; they know the same as the only objects of their lives, and the very gist of their souls.

44. He who delights in Brahma, becomes of the same mind in a moment; and so any one who is gratified in any thing, is incorporated with the same in his mind.

45. The man who has obtained his rest in God, has found the highest bliss in his mind; though he shows himself as otherwise in his outward conduct and social dealings.

46. There is no reason for the supposition of unity or duality herein, when the whole existence is as I have propounded, and it is in vain to look at anything else.

47. There <is> nothing as visible or invisible, or anything as formless or having a form herein; there is nothing as subject or object, nor aught of reality or unreality here, when the whole is the very Brahma himself.

48. This world is without a beginning and end, and is known to the world as soul; but in fact, one Brahma rules over all without any fixed rule, like a path without a name.

49. That which is conceived as the serene Brahma, is considered as the bright Brahmá or Demiurgus also; just as what is known as the calm and clear firmament, the very same is said <to be> the empty void likewise.

50. As the nebulae which seem to bedim the face of the sky, are something in appearance and nothing in substance; just <so> do our mental faculties appear to flutter in and obscure the clear atmosphere of the Intellect, and seem to be as dualities or otherwise than the serene intellectual principle.

51. But the mental, bodily and all other perceptive and active powers of living beings, are the common properties of the intellectual soul; just as the very many gaps and hollows in various bodies, are in common with the vacuity of the one universal vacuum only. (i.e. All these are the aerial powers of psychic principle).

52. As the quiet soul passing from its sleeping to the dreaming state, retains its identity and invariableness; so the[Pg 939] divine soul passing into creation after its quiescence, remains the very unchanged unity as ever.

53. Thus the supreme spirit reflects the shadow of its great Intellect, in the forms of creation and dream; hence neither is this creation nor the vision in dreaming, any thing in its substance than a mere shadow (of the picture in the Divine Mind).

54. It is the bright picture of the Divine Mind, that exhibits its form in the vacuity of the Great Intellect; and so the ideal appearance as the visible creation, like the fairy land in dream (and the airy castle of imagination). (The word cháya—shadow means both the glory of God, as also the darkness of illusion. Gloss).

55. From the impossibility of the appearance of the world, by any means as it is conjectured by different schools, and from its want of a prior cause; it must be that the intellect saw itself thus exhibited in its own vacuity.

56. In the beginning of creation, the formless void of the Intellect, showed itself in this visible and intangible form; and represented itself as a picture of its mind or dream or its imagination.

57. Like the dream it was a blank and without any attribute; it is changeable but not frangible, and although it was the substance of intellectual voidness, yet it was vitiated with the stain of our misapprehension of it, called avidyá. (The world is purely of an intellectual form, and it is our ignorance which imputes a gross form to it).

58. Like the dream, it seems to possess some properties in its appearance; but is wholly devoid of any in its substance; it is never different from the spiritual nature of the Lord, though it appears otherwise to our misconception of it.

59. The phenomenal world likens a mountain seen in dream, and is inseparable from the soul wherein it resides; therefore the visibles appearing in the vacuity of the Intellect, are more vacuous than the vacuum of the firmament.

60. That which is the supreme soul; and devoid of all form;[Pg 940] the very same and of the same nature is all this, that we call the visible world.

61. Whatever conception we have in our dream, the same is the display of our intellect; so the cities and castles that we see in the dreams, are no real existences; but appearances presented unto us by the intellect.

62. As the recognizance of our acquaintances in dream, and the remembrance of the impressions in our memory, are altogether unsubstantial (owing to the absence of their prototypes in us); so the sight of the visibles and the perception of perceptibles quite unreal also (because none of those things are present in us).

63. Therefore leaving <these> unrealities of our recognitions, perceptions and remembrances, which are so much relied upon by the ignorant; we should take them in the light of the direct manifestations of the Deity in those forms.

64. As the waves of the sea, continue to roll incessantly on the surface of the waters; so innumerable worlds that are continually revolving, on the surface of the supreme soul, are of the same nature with itself.

65. All laws and their anomalies, as well as all varieties and complexities unite in harmony in the Divine nature. (There all discord is concord, and all partial evil is universal good).

66. Therefore that Brahma is all in all, and there is none and nothing besides; He alone is the soul of all, as all these live in Him.

67. The roving mind thinks the world to be roving about with all its contents; but the steady minded take it to be quite sedate and quiet; hence it is impossible for the learned also, to settle their minds without the habitual sedateness of their attention.

68. There is no other means, for suppressing the mind from the sight of the visibles; without the constant habit of attending to the lectures (of the preceptor) on this sacred sástra.

69. Though it is difficult to repress the mind from its thoughts of this world, either in its states of living or death, (i.e. either in its waking or sleeping states); yet it is possible[Pg 941] to do so by effacing its impressions at once, from the study of this spiritual sástra.

70. The knowledge of the nihility of the visible body, and that of the mind also in want of the body; both in this world as well as in the next world, will always serve to preserve our peace and quietism (and this is attainable by means of studying this sástra).

71. The mind, body and the visibles, are all three of them suppressed under the sense of their nothingness; as the mind, its force and the moving clouds, do all disappear in absence of their cause (i.e. motion).

72. The cause of restlessness is ignorance only, which is altogether dispelled by the study of this sástra; and those whose minds are a little enlightened, have their composure from attending to the recital and preaching.

73. The unintelligent will be able to understand the teachings of the former part from the latter; and he that understands the words and purports of these lectures, will never return disappointed (in his expectation of nirvána or ultimate rest).

74. Then know this sástra as the best means, to the dispersion of the error; and to the production of an universal indifference or insouciance everywhere.

75. Therefore try your best, to weigh well the precepts of this sástra; and whether you study one or both parts of this work, you will doubtless be freed from your misery thereby.

76. Should this sástra prove unpalatable, owing to its being the composition of a holy sage; in that case the student may consult the sacred srutis, for the perfection of his spiritual knowledge.

77. Do not spend your time in false reasoning, nor offer your precious life to flames and ashes; but let your sapient understanding commit the visibles to the invisible soul (i.e. view them in their spiritual light, and bury the gross phenomenal in utter oblivion and appear in the noumenal soul only).

78. No one can buy a jot or moment of his lifetime, at the[Pg 942] cost of all the gems in the world; and yet how many are there, who foolishly misspent their time in their worldly dream?

79. Though we have a clear conception of the world, yet it is a false sight together with that of its beholder—the living soul; it is as false as the dream of one’s own death in his sleep, and his hearing the wailing of his friend at his demise.

Ráma rejoined:—There <are> innumerable worlds in the universe, many of which have gone before, many are in existence, and many as yet to be; how then is it sir, that you persuade me to the belief of their nullity.

2. Vasishtha replied:—you well know, Ráma, the relation which the world bears to a dream, in that they both mean a passing scene; and this sense of it, can be denied by no one of this audience.

3. The words which are spoken by the wise, who know their application and sense; are neither understood nor received in the hearts of common people, though they are in common use.

4. When you will come to know the knowledge <of> One, then you will discern the three times clearly and behold them as present before you.

5. As it is the intellect alone, that displays itself in the form of the world in our dream; so doth the Divine Intellect also, exhibit the worlds in itself, in the beginning of creation; and there is no other cause of their production.

6. Hence there are innumerable worlds, revolving like atoms in the infinite space of air; and there is no one who can count their number, and descry their modes and natures.

7. It was of old that my venerable sire—the lotus-born Brahmá, and all besmeared with the fragrant dust of that flower, has delivered a discourse on this subject, which I will now relate unto you.

8. It was of old that my sire Brahmá, told me about the number of worlds, and their respective situations in the[Pg 944] heavens, whence they thus appear unto us. To this he said (as follows).

9. Brahmá said:—O sage, all this is Brahma, that is manifested as the world; it is infinite entity of the Deity in its abstract essence; but viewed in the concrete, the world is a nonentity.

10. Attend to this narration of mine, which is as felicitous to the soul, as it is pleasant to the ear; it is called the narrative of <the> mundane egg, or of the mundane body or mass.

11. There is in the infinite vacuum, a vacuous substance known as the vacuity of the Intellect, in the form of a minute atom only. (Such as the grain of the mind is, in the hollow cerebrum of the head).

12. It saw as in a dream in itself, of its being as the living soul, resembling the oscillation of the wind in empty air. (The living principle or spirit, is a breath of air).

13. The Lord thus became the living being, with forsaking its vacuous form; and thought itself to become the ego, in its aeriform form.

14. He had then his egoism, and egoistic sense in himself; and this was the knowledge of himself as an unit, which is an act of delusion only.

15. Then he thought himself, as changed to the conditions of the understanding, mind and ego, as in his dream; and was inclined of his own option, to impose mutability upon his immutable nature.

16. He then saw in his mind as if in dream, the five senses attached to his body; these are as formless as the appearance of a mountain in dream, which the ignorant are apt to take as a solid body. (The five formless faculties of sense, are thought to be composed of the five organs of sense by the gross corporealist).

17. Then he beheld in the atom of his intellect, that his mental body (or his mind), was comprised of the three worlds; in their aerial or abstract forms, apparent to view, but without their substance or solidity or any basis at all. (This is the mental form of Virát—cosmos).

[Pg 945]

18. This stupendous form was composed of all beings, whether of the moving or unmoving kinds.

19. He beheld all things comprised in himself, as they are seen in dream or reflected in a mirror; and the triple world appeared in his person, as the picture of a city newly printed on a plate.

20. He saw the three worlds in his heart, as they are seen in a looking glass; together with all things contained therein, in their vivid colours of many kinds (viz. the view, viewer and the act of viewing;—the doer, deed and the action of doing;—the enjoyer, enjoying and the enjoyment).

21. He observed minuter atoms subsisting within the minute atoms; and stupendous worlds also on high, clustering together in groups and rings.

22. These being seen in ignorance of their natures; appear as gross material bodies; but viewed in the clear light of their essence, they prove to be the display of the divine mind only.

23. Thus the viewer who views the world, in the light of Brahma, finds this view of it, as a vision in this dream; and comes to know that there is no real viewer to view of it, nor any cause thereof nor any duality whatsoever.

24. All these that appear all around us, are quite quiescent in their nature, and in the Divine spirit alone as their main substratum; they are all situated in the universal soul from eternity to eternity.

25. Myriads of worlds that are situated in the Divine spirit, appear to be settled without the same; just as the waves of the sea, rise above its waters and scatter its salt spray in the air.

Ráma rejoined:—If the world is without a cause, and proceeds of itself from the essence of Brahma, as our dreams, thoughts and imaginations, proceed of themselves from the nature of our minds.

2. And if it be possible for anything to proceed from no cause, then tell me sir, why we can never have anything without its proper causes. (Such as the production of paddy without its cultivation).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, I am not speaking of common practice of men, for the production of anything by application of its proper causalities; but of the creation of the world, which is not in need of the atomic principle and material elements, as it is maintained by atomist. (Text). (Whatever invention is adopted by any one, in order to produce a certain end, is never effected without the application of its proper means and appliances).

4. In whatever light this visible world is imagined by anybody, he views it in the same light; while another sees it in a different manner, according to his own imagination of it.

5. There are some who imagine it as the diffusion of the Divine soul, and think it as one with the nature of the Deity; while others think it as the living body of Virát, with the insensible parts of it, resembling the hairs and nails growing upon his body.

6. The meanings of the words causality and not causality do both of them belong to the deity; because the Lord being almighty, has the power to be either the one or other as he likes.

7. If there be anything whatever, which is supposed to be[Pg 947] beside Brahma in its essence; it is then reasonable to suppose him as the cause of the same, which could not otherwise come to existence.

8. But when all things, that appear so different from one another, are all of them without their beginning or end or co-eternal with the Eternal One. Then say, which of these can be the cause of the other. (Hence the world is one with the lord and has no cause of it).

9. Here nothing comes to exist or desist at any time; but are all eternally existent in the self-existent One; as one and the same with his vacuous self.

10. What is the cause of anything, and to what purpose should any be caused at any time; the Lord expects nothing from his creatures, and therefore their creation is equal to their not being created at all.

11. Here there is no vacuum or plenum, nor any entity nor non-entity either, nor any thing between them; as there is nothing predicable of the infinite vacuity of Brahma (as either this or that).

12. Whatever is is, and what not may not be; but all is Brahma only, whether what is or is not (i.e. what is past or gone or yet to be, i.e. all what is present, past or to be in future).

13. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how the Divine spirit is not the cause of all, when it is believed to be the sole cause, by all who are ignorant of its quiescent nature (as you maintain).

14. Vasishtha replied:—There is no one ignorant of God, since every one has an innate conviction of the Divinity as the consciousness of himself; and whoso knows the vacuous entity of the Deity, knows also that this nature admits of no scrutiny or discussion.

15. Those who have the knowledge of the unity of God, and his nature of quiescence and as full of intelligence; know also, his unknowable nature is beyond all scrutiny.

16. Ignorance of God, abides in the knowledge of God (because one acknowledges the existence of God, when he says[Pg 948] he is ignorant of his nature); and this is as our dreaming is included under the state of sleeping. (Gloss. Philosophers dream many false ungodly theories of causation, while they are sleeping in the quiescent spirit of God.)

17. It is for the instruction of the ignorant, concerning the omnipresence of God, that I say, He is the soul of all or as all in all; while in reality his holy spirit is perfectly pure and undecaying.

18. All existences are thought either as caused or uncaused, according to the view that different understandings entertain respecting them. (But neither of these views, refutes the doctrine of the unity of the Deity. Gloss.)

19. Those that have the right conception of things (as manifestations of the unity in different forms); have no cause to assign any cause to them whatever (as the atomic principles or elements): therefore the creation is without any cause whatever.

20. Therefore the assigning of a cause to this creation, either as matter—prakriti or spirit—purusha, by undermining one’s self-consciousness of Divine pervasion; is mere verbiage of sophists for their own confusion only.

21. In absence of any other cause of creation (save that of our consciousness of it), it is naught beside an appearance in our dream; and there is nothing as the gross material form or its visible appearance whatsoever.

22. Say what cause can the ignorant assign, to their sight of the land in their dream, than to the nature of the Intellect, which exhibits such phenomena to minds. Say if there can be any other meaning of dreams.

23. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of dreams, are deluded to believe them as realities; but those that are acquainted with their falsehood, are not misled to believe them or this world as real ones.

24. It is the impudence of fools to broach any hypothesis of causality, either by their supposition, arrogance or in the heat of their debate (as it is the case with all the different schools of philosophy).

[Pg 949]

25. Is the heat of fire, the coldness of water, and the light of luminous bodies, and the natures of things their respective causes, as the ignorant suppose them to be? (Or is it the attribute of Brahma that is so manifested in these their several causes? The entity of Divine unity, is the prime sole cause of causes).

26. There be hundreds of speculative theorists, that assign as many causes to creation without agreeing in any; let them but tell the cause of the aerial castle of their imagination.

27. The virtues and vices of men are formless things, and are attended with their fruitions on the spiritual body in the next world; how can they be causes of our corporeal bodies in this world. (As it is maintained by Mímámsá philosophers).

28. How can our finite and shapeless knowledge of things, be the cause of the incessant rise and fall, of endless, and minute bodies in the world, as it is maintained by vijnána váda or gnostic school. (These assert the existence of things depends upon our knowledge or perception of them as such).

29. It is nature says the naturalist, which is the cause of all events but as nothing result from the nature of anything, without its combination with another; it is too indeterminate in its sense.

30. Therefore all things appear as causeless illusions to the ignorant, and their true cause to be a mystery to them; while they are known to the intelligent as the wondrous display of the Divine Intellect, that shows everything in itself.

31. As one knowing the falsehood of dreams, is never sorry at his loss of anything in dream; so those that have the knowledge of truth in them, never feel any sorrow even at the possession or separation of their lives.

32. In the beginning there was no production of the visible world, nor is it anything more than the vacuum of the intellect; in its own and true form it appears as a dream, and is no other than that in its essence.

33. There is no other supposition, which is more apposite[Pg 950] to it: than its resemblance to the dream; and our conception of the world, has the great Brahma only for its ground work.

34. As fluidity, waves and whirlpools, are the inherent properties of pure water; such are the revolutions of worlds, but appearances on the surface of the Divine Mind, and have the Divine spirit of Brahma at their bottom.

35. As velocity and ventilation, are inborn in the nature of pure air; the creation and preservation of the world, are ingrained and intrinsical in the nature of God.

36. As infinity and vacuity are the inherent properties of the Great vacuum, so is the knowledge of all things existent and non-existent, and of creation and annihilation immanent in the Divine Mind.

37. All things in existence and lying dormant in the Divine Mind, are yet perceptible to us, because we participate of the very same mind.

38. This creation and its destruction also, both abide side by side in the dense intellect of the Divine Soul; as the thickening dreams and sound sleep, both reside together in the calm sleeping state of our soul.

39. As a man passes from one dream to another, in the same dormant state of his soul; so doth the supreme soul see the succession of creations, taking place alternately in its own essence.

40. The clear atmosphere of Divine Soul, which is devoid of earthy and other material substances; yet appears in their utter absence, to be possessed of them all, in the same manner as the human soul, sees many things in its dream, without having any of those things in itself.

41. As the human mind sees at a thought the forms of a pot, or painting rising before it; so the all seeing mind of God, sees at a glance of its thought, worlds upon worlds appearing at once in its presence.

42. The all seeing soul, sees all things as they are in itself; and finds them to be of the same intellectual nature with its own intellect; and as all things are equivalent to the words[Pg 951] expressive of them. (As there is a mutual correspondence between the significant words and their significates).

43. Of what use then are sástras, and of what good is the reasoning upon their verbiage, when our inappetency is the best way to felicity; and there being no creation without its cause, we have nothing to do with what appears but seemingly so.

44. It being proved, that the want of want is our best bliss below; the sensation of want or desire, must be the source of perpetual misery to man; and though our desires are many, yet the feeling of it is one and the same, and betrays the prurient mind, as the various dreams by night, disclose the cupidinous nature of the soul.

Ráma rejoined:—The world is known to consist of two sorts of beings, namely the corporeal or solid substances and the incorporeal or subtile essences.

2. They are styled the subtile ones, which do not strike against one another; and those again are said to be solid things, which push and dash against each other.

3. Here we see always the dashing of one solid body against another; but know nothing of the movement of subtile bodies, or of their coming in contact with another.

4. We know yet something, about the quick motion of our subtile senses to their respective objects, and without coming in contact with them, as we find in our perception of the distant orb of the moon (without touching it).

5. I repudiate the theory of the half-enlightened, who maintain the material world to be the production of the will or imagination; nor can I believe that the immaterial intellect, can either produce or guide the material body.

6. It is the will I ween, that the material breath of life, moves the living body to and fro; but tell me sir, what is that power which propels, the living breath both in and out of the beings.

7. Tell me sir, how the intangible intellect moveth the tangible body; and carries it about, as a porter bears a load all about.

8. Should the subtile intellect, be capable of moving the solid body at its will; then tell me sir, why cannot a man move a mountain also by his own will?

9. Vasishtha replied:—It is the opening and closing of the[Pg 953] mouth of the aorta in the breast, that lets in and out the vital breath, through the passage of its hole and the lungs.

10. As you see the bellows of ironsmiths about you, having a hollow inside them, so it is the hollow of the aorta, which lets in and out the vital air, by the breathing of the heart.

11. Ráma rejoined:—It is true that the ironsmith closes and expands the valves of the bellows; but tell me sir, what power blows the wind pipe of the heart, and lets the air in and out of the inner lungs.

12. How the single breath of inhalation becomes a centuple (in order to pass into a hundred channels of the arteries), and how these hundreds combine again into one (in their exhalation); and why are some as sensible beings, and others as insensible as woods and stones.

13. Tell me sir, why the immovables have no oscillation at all; and why the moving bodies alone are possessed of their pulsation and mutation (and why <is> the vegetable creation deprived of motion, when it is possessed of sensibility in common with the animal creation).

14. Vasishtha replied:—There is an internal percipience (inner man), which moves the interior cords of the body; just as the ironsmith plies his bellows in the sight of men.

15. Ráma rejoined:—Say sir, how is it possible for the subtile and intactile soul, to move the vital airs and tangible entrails in the animal body.

16. If it be possible for the imperceptible perceptive soul, to put in motion the intestinal and tactual entrails of the body; then it may be equally possible for the thirsty soul, to draw the distant water to it. (In order to quench its thirst, instead of going to the watery pool).

17. If it be possible for the tangible and intangible, to come together in mutual contact at their will; then what is the use of the active and passive organs of action (if the will alone be effective of any purpose).

18. As the intangible powers of the soul or spirit, bear no connection whatever with the outward objects of the world; some think they can have no effect on the internal organs of[Pg 954] the body (in putting them to action). So please explain it more fully to me.

19. Tell me, how you yogis perceive the outward corporeal things in your inner incorporeal souls; and how your formless souls, can have any command over or any contact with solid bodies.

20. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me tell you for rooting out all your doubts, and these words will not only be pleasing to your ears, but give you a conception of the unity of all things.

21. There is nothing here, at any time, what you call as a solid substance or tangible body, but all is a wide and extended vacuum of the rare and subtile spirit.

22. This spirit is of the nature of the pure Intelligence, quite calm and intangible; and all material things as the earth, are as visionary as our dreams, and the creatures of imagination.

23. There was nothing in the beginning, nor shall there be anything at the end; for want of a cause for its creation or dissolution; the present existence is an illusion, as any fleeting shape and shadow appearing before the dreaming mind.

24. The earth and sky, the air and water, and the hills and rivers that appear to sight; are lost sight of by the abstracted yogi; who by means of his abstraction, sees them in their ideal and intangible forms.

25. The outer elements and their inner perceptions, the earth, the wood and stones; are all but empty ideas of the intellect, which is the only real substratum of the ideas, and there is no reality besides.

26. Attend now to the narrative of Aindava, in elucidation of this doctrine; this will not fail to gratify your ears, though I have once before related this to you. (In the former narration the world was identified with the mind, and here it is represented as identical with the Intellect itself).

27. Attend yet to the present narration, which I am going to relate in answer to your question; and whereby you will come to know these hills and others, to be identic with your intellect.

28. There lived once in days of yore, a certain Bráhman in[Pg 955] some part of the world, who was known under the name of Indu, and was famed for his religious austerities and observance of vedic ceremonies.

29. He had ten sons by whom he was surrounded like the world by its ten sides (of the compass); who were men of great souls, of magnanimous spirits, and were revered by all good and great men.

30. In course of time the old father met with his demise, and departed from his ten sons as the eleventh Rudra, at the time of the dissolution of the world.

31. His chaste wife followed his funeral (by concremation), for fear of the miseries of widowhood; just as the evening twilight follows like a faithful bride, the departing daylight with the evening star shining upon her forehead (in token of the vermeil spot on women’s forehead).

32. The sons then performed the funeral ceremonies, and in sorrow for their deceased sire, they left their home and domestic duties and retired to the woods for holy devotion.

33. They practiced the best method for the intensity of their attention, and which is best calculated to secure the consummation of their devotion; and was the constant reflection of their identity with Brahma (in the formula we are the lords of all, about us).

34. Thinking so in themselves, they sat in lotus like posture; and wishing to gain the knowledge of the unity of all things, they did what you shall be glad to learn from me.

35. They thought they sustained in them the whole world, which is presided over by the lotus-born Brahmá; and believed themselves to be transformed, to the form of the mundane God in an instant.

36. Believing themselves as Brahma, they sat long with the thought of supporting the world; and remained all along with their closed eyes, as if they were mere figures in painting.

37. With this belief they remained fixed and steady at the same spot, and many a month and year glided over their heads and motionless bodies.

38. They were reduced to dry skeletons, parts of which were[Pg 956] beaten and devoured by rapacious beasts; and some of their <limbs> were at once severed and disappeared from their main bodies, like parts of a shadow by the rising sun.

39. Yet they continued to reflect that they were the God Brahmá and his creation also, and the world with all its parts, were contained in themselves (i.e. They considered themselves as Virát the form of macrocosm).

40. At last their ten bodiless minds, were thought to be converted to so many different worlds, in their abstract meditation of them. (i.e. Each of them viewed himself as a cosmos).

41. Thus it was by the will of their intellects, that each of them became a whole world in himself; and remained so in a clear or abstract view of it, without being accompanied by its grosser part.

42. It was in their own consciousness, that they saw the solid earth with all its hills &c. in themselves; because all things have reference to the intellect, and are viewed intellectually only (or else they are nothing).

43. What is this triple world, but its knowledge in our consciousness, without which we have no perception of it, and with which we have a clear conception of every thing. So all things are of the vacuous nature of our consciousness, and not otherwise.

44. As the wave is no other than the water of the sea, so there is nothing movable or immovable whatever, without our conscious knowledge of it.

45. As the Aindavas remained in their vacuous forms of intellectual worlds in the open air; so are these blocks of wood and stone also, pure intellectual beings or concept in the sphere of our minds.

46. As the volitions of the Aindavas, assumed the forms of the world, so did the will of lotus-born Brahmá take the form of this universe. (So says the veda: The divine will produced the world, just as the adage goes, the will is the mother of the act).

47. Therefore this world together with all these hills and trees; as also these great elements and all other bodies, appertain to the intellect only, which is thus spread out to infinity.

[Pg 957]

48. The earth is the intellect, and so are its trees and mountains, and heaven and sky also the intellect only; there is nothing beside the intellect, which includes all things in itself, like the intellectual worlds of the Aindavas.

49. The intellect like a potter, forms every thing upon its own wheel; and produces this pottery of the world, from the mud of its own body (out of its own intellectual substance).

50. The sensible will being the cause of creation, and framer of the universe, could not have made any thing, which is either insensible or imperfect in its nature, and neither the mineral mountains nor the vegetable production, are devoid of their sensations.

51. Should the world be said to be the work of design, or of the reminiscence or former impression or of the Divine will; yet as these are but different powers of the Intellect, and are included under it; the world then proves to be the production of the intellect, under some one of its attributes as it is said before. (Hence there is no gross body as the product of intelligent Intellect).

52. Therefore there cannot be any gross substance in the Divine Intellect which blazes as a mine of bright gems, with the gemming light of consciousness in universal soul of God.

53. Anything however mean or useless, is never apart from the Divine soul; and as it is the nature of solar light to shine on all objects, so doth the light of intellect, take everything in the light of the Great Brahma, which pervades alike on all.

54. As the water flows indiscriminately upon the ground, and as the sea laves all its shores, with its boisterous waves; so doth the intellect ever delight, to shed its lustre over all objects of its own accord, and without any regard to its near or distant relation.

55. As the great creator evolves the world, like the petals of his lotiform navel, in the first formative period of creation; so doth the divine intellect, unfold all the parts of the mundane system from its own penetralia, which are therefore not distinct from itself.

56. The Lord is unborn and increate, and unconfined in his[Pg 958] nature and purely vacuous in his essence; he is calm and quiescent, and is immanent in the interim of ens and nil (i.e. of existence and non-existence). This world therefore is no more than a reflexion of the intellectual or its ideal pattern in Divine Mind.

57. Therefore the ignorant man, who declares the insensibility of inanimate objects, is laughed at by the wise, who are sensible of their sensibility in their own kinds. Hence the rocks and trees which are situated in this ideal world, are not wholly devoid of their sensations and feelings.

58. The learned know these ideal worlds in the air, to be full with the Divine soul; and so they know this creation of Brahmá’s will, to be but an airy utopia only, and without any substantiality in them.

59. No sooner is this material world, viewed in its aerial and intellectual light, than the distresses of this delusive world betake themselves to flight, and its miseries disappear from sight.

60. As long as this intellectual view of the world, does not light to the sight of a man, so long do the miseries of the world, beset him thicker and thicker and closer on every side.

61. Men besotted by their continued folly, and remaining blind to their intellectual view of the world, can never have its respite from the troubles of the world, nor find their rest from the hardness of the times.

62. There is no creation, nor the existence or inexistence of the world, or the birth or destruction of any one here; there is no entity nor nonentity of any thing (beside the essence of the One). There is the Divine soul only, that glows serenely bright with its own light in this manner; or there is no light whatever except the manifestation of the divine spirit.

63. The cosmos resembles a creeper, with the multitude of its budding worlds; it has no beginning nor end, nor is it possible to find its root or top at any time, or to discover the boundless extent of its circumference. Like a crystal pillar, it bears innumerable statues in its bosoms, which are thickly studded together without having their initium or end.

[Pg 959]

64. There is but one endless being, stretching his innumerable arms to the infinity of space; I am that vacuous soul embracing every thing ad infinitum, and I find myself as that stupendous pillar, in my uncreated and all comprehensive soul, which is ever as quiescent and transparent and without any change in itself.

Vasishtha continued:—Now as the triple world is known, to be a purely intellectual entity; there is no possibility of the existence of any material substance herein, as it is believed by the ignorant majority of mankind.

2. How then can there be a tangible body, or any material substance at all; and all these that appear all around to our sight, is only an intactile extension of pure vacuity.

3. It is the emptiness of our intellectuality, and contained in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect; it is all an extension of calm and quiet intelligence, subsisting in the serene intelligence of the supreme One.

4. All this is but the quiescent consciousness, and as a dream that we are conscious of in our waking state; it is a pure spiritual extension, though appearing as a consolidated expanse of substantial forms.

5. What are these living bodies and their limbs and members, what are these entrails of theirs, and these bony frames of them? Are they not but mere shadows of ghosts and spirits, appearing as visible and tangible to us. (Or very likely they resemble the phantoms of our dreams, and the apparitions that we see in the dark. Gloss).

6. The hands, the head, and all the members of the body, are seats of consciousness or percipience; where it is seated imperceptible and intangible, in the form of the sensorium or sensuousness.

7. The cosmos appears as a dream in the vacuum of the Divine Mind; and may be called both as caused and uncaused in its nature, owing to its repeated appearance and eternal inherence in the eternal Mind.

[Pg 961]

8. It is true that nothing can come out from nothing, or without its cause; but what can be the cause of what is eternally destined or ordained in the eternal mind. (Predestination and Preordination being the uncaused cause of all events).

9. It is possible for a thing to come to existence, without any assignable cause or causality of it; and such is the presence of every thing that we think of in our minds (and so also is the appearance of this world in its intellectual light).

10. If it is possible for things, ever to appear in their various forms in our dreams, and even in the unconscious state of our sleep; why should it <be> impossible for them to appear also in the day dream of our waking hours, the mind being equally watchful in both states of its being.

11. Things of various kinds, are present at all times, in the all comprehensive mind of the universal soul; these are uncaused entities of the Divine Mind, and are called to be caused also, when they are brought to appearance.

12. As each of the Aindavas, thought himself to have become a hundred in his imagination; so every one of these imaginary worlds, teemed with millions of beings—the mere creatures of our fancy.

13. So is every body conscious of his being many, either consecutively or simultaneously at the same time; as we think of our multiformity in the different parts and members of our bodies. (Or as the king Vipaschit viewed himself, as dilated in the sun, moon and stars, so also one man thinks himself as many, in different states of his life).

14. As the one universal body of waters, diverges itself into a thousand beds and basins, and branches into innumerable channels and creeks, and as one undivided duration, is divided into all the divisions of time and seasons (so doth the one and uniform soul become multiform and many). (As the sruti says:—aham-bahu-syam).

15. All compact bodies are but the airy phantoms of our dream, rising in the empty space of our consciousness; they are as formless and rarefied, as the hollow mountain in a dream, and giving us a void notion of it.

[Pg 962]

16. As our consciousness consists of the mere notions and ideas of things, the world must therefore be considered, as a mere ideal existence; and it appears in the sights of it and observes in the same light; as the fleeting notions of things glide over the void of the intellect. (The mind is conversant only with the ideas and not with the substance of things).

17. Our knowledge and nescience of things, resemble the dreaming and sleeping states of the soul; and the world is same as the intellect, like the identity of the air with its breeze.

18. The noumenon and the phenomenon, are both the one and same state of the Intellect; being the subjectivity of its vacuous self, and the objectivity of its own intellections and reveries; Therefore this world appears as a protracted dream, in the hollow cavity of the sleeping mind.

19. The world is a non-entity, and the error of its entity, is caused by our ignorance of the nature of God from the very beginning of creation. In our dream of the world, we see many terrific aspects of ghosts and the like; but our knowledge of its non-entity, and of the vanity of worldliness, dispel all our fears and cares about it.

20. As our single self-consciousness, sees many things in itself; so does it behold an endless variety of forms, appearing in the infinite vacuity of the Divine Mind.

21. As the many lighted lamps in a room, combine to emit one great blaze of light; so the appearance of this multiform creation, displays the Omnipotence of one Almighty Power.

22. The creation is as the bursting bubble, or foam and froth of the mantling ocean of omnipotence; it appears as a wood and wilderness in the clouded face of the firmament, but disappears in the clear vacuous atmosphere of the Divine Mind; and there is no speck nor spot of creation in the infinite ocean of the Supreme Intellect.

Ráma rejoined:—I pray you sir, to remove the shade of a doubt from my mind, as the sunshine dispels the darkness from before it; in order to bring to light whatever is dark and obscure in the world.

2. I beheld once a self-governed ascetic, who came to the seminary, where I was sitting amidst the synod of the sages and learned men, and conversing on subjects of theology and divinity.

3. He was a learned Bráhman, and of a godly appearance; he came from the land of the Videhas or the Mithilas, and was practiced in religious austerities, and was as unbearable in the lustre of his person as the terrific seer Durvásas self.

4. On entering the assembly, he made his obeisance to the illustrious persons; when we also saluted him in return and advanced his seat for him to sit down.

5. The Bráhman being well seated, I picked up many discourses with him from the Vedánta, Sánkhya, and Siddhánta philosophy, and when his weariness was gone, I made this question to him, saying:—

6. Sir, you seem to be tired with your long journey to this place, please tell me, O eloquent sir, from where you have started here today.

7. The Bráhman replied:—so it is, O fortunate prince, I have taken great pains to come up to this place; and now hear me to tell you the reason, that brings me hither to you.

8. There is a district here, known by the name of Vaideha, it is equally populous as well as prosperous in all respects; and is a resemblance of its semblance of the heavenly paradise.

[Pg 964]

9. There I was born and educated, and held my residence at the same place; and named as Kundadanta from the whiteness of my teeth, bearing resemblance to the buds of Kunda flowers.

10. I resigned afterwards my worldly concerns, and betook myself to travel far and wide about this earth; and resorted to the asylums of holy sages and saints, and to the shrines of gods to rest from my fatigue.

11. I retired next to <a> sacred mountain, where I sat silent for a long period, practicing my devotional austerities.

12. There I found a desert, which was devoid of grassy pastures and woody trees; and where the light of the sun and the shade of night, reigned by turns, as it was the open sky on earth.

13. There is in the midst of it a branching tree, with little of its verdant leaves and leaf-lets; and the luminous sun dispensed his gentle beams, from the upper sky and through cooling foliage.

14. There hung suspended under one of its boughs, a man of a holy mien; who blazed as the resplendent sun pendent in the open air, by the cords of his wide extending beams and radiating rays.

15. His feet were tied upwards by a clotted cord of munja grass, and his head hung downward towards the ground beneath; and this gave him the appearance of an offshoot of the banian tree rooted in the earth below.

16. Having then after a while, approached to him at that place, I saw him to have his two folded palms affixed to his breast (as if he was intent upon the meditation of the lord, with the devoutness of his heart).

17. Advancing nearer to the body of the Bráhman, I found it to be alive by its respiration, and from its having the feeling of touch, and the perception of heat and cold, and that of the breeze and change of weather.

18. Afterwards I employed myself solely, in my attendance on that devout personage only; and underwent all the rigours of the sun and seasons, until I was received into his confidence.

[Pg 965]

19. I then asked him saying; who art thou lord, that hast thus betaken thyself to this sort of painful devotion; say, O long sighted seer, what is the aim and object of this thy protracted state of self-mortification at the peril-expense of thy precious life.

20. He then replied to my question saying:—Tell me first O devotee, what is the object of thy devotion and those of all other persons, that are devoted to the particular objects of their pursuit. (So it is useless to inquire into the aim and object of another, when there is no body without his particular end in view).

21. This he said as introductory to his speech to me; but being pressed further by my importunate inquiries, he gave the following answer to my questions.

22. I was born, said he, at Mathura where I grew up from childhood to youth in the house of my father; and acquired my knowledge of philology and the arts in course of this time.

23. I then learnt this also, that princes are the receptacles of all pleasures and enjoyments, and that it is the early bloom of youth, that is capable of the fruitions of life.

24. Since then I began to reflect on my being the possessor of the seven continents of the earth; and to foster the ardent expectation, of the gratification of all my desires of this life.

25. It is for this purpose that I have come to this place, and have employed myself in this state of devotion, for attainment of objects of my desire.

26. Therefore, O thou disinterested and self offered friend of mine, do thou now return to thy own country and desired abode; and leave me to remain in this state, with my firm resolution for the accomplishment of my desired object.

27. Being thus bid by him to depart from that place, listen you now to what I replied unto him; this you will wonder at its rehearsal, and the wise will be gladdened in their hearts to learn.

28. I addressed him saying:—O holy saint, let me remain here at thy service, and underneath this holy tree, until you obtain the desired boon of your devotion.

[Pg 966]

29. On my saying so, the meek minded devotee, remained as cool and quiet as a block of stone, and with his closed eye lids, he persisted in his dormancy as a dead body, without any motion in his outer limbs.

30. I too continued to stay before him, as quiet and quiescent as a block of wood, and endured without shrinking the rigours of the climate and seasons, for full six months at that spot.

31. I saw at one time, effulgent as the blazing sun, descending from the solar orb, and then standing in presence of the devotee.

32. As this deific personage was adored mentally by the ascetic, and by bodily prostration of myself; he uttered his words, in a tone as sweet as the exudation of ambrosial sweetness.

33. He said: O painstaking Bráhman, that hast long been pendent on the projected bough of this branching banian tree, suspend thy severe austerities, and accept thy desired boon, which I am ready to confer on thee.

34. Thou shalt as thou wishest, reign over the seven oceans and continents of this earth; and with this present body, thou shalt rule over it, for seven thousand years.

35. In this manner did this secondary sun, give his blessing to the devout ascetic; and was prepared to plunge into the bosom of the ocean out of which he rose of himself. (The sun is usually said to rise from and set in the mountain top, but he is made to rise out of and sink in the sea, according to the Grecian mythology).

36. The Deity having departed, I accosted the ascetic hanging below the branch, and said to him I witnessed to day what I had heard from before, that the gods are ever propitious to their suppliants.

37. Now O Bráhman, as you have gained the object of your desire, it is desirable that you should give up your austerity, and pursue the proper callings and the course of your life.

38. He having assented to my proposal, I ascended on the tree and loosened his feet therefrom; as they let loose the feet of an elephant from the fetters tied to its prop and post.

39. Having then bathed himself, he made his offerings with[Pg 967] his pure hands for the remission of his sins; and then with the fruits which he was fortunate to pluck from the tree, he broke the fast of his long lent.

40. It was by virtue of his meritorious devotion, that we obtained plenty of the delicious fruits of that holy tree; where upon we refreshed ourselves, and subsisted for three days.

41. Thus this Bráhman being desirous of obtaining the sovereignity of the earth, consisting of the septuple continents girt by the seven oceans all around, made his painful maceration with his uplifted feet and downward head, until he obtained desired boon from the god of day, and refreshed himself for three days at the spot, till at last both of us set out on our journey towards the city of Mathurá.

The guest Kunda-danta resumed his narration and said:—We then betook ourselves to our homeward journey, and bent our course towards the holy city of Mathurá, which was as fair and splendid as the solar and lunar mansions, and the celestial city of Amaravati of Indra.

2. We reached at the rustic habitation of Raudha, and halted at the mango forest over an adjacent rock. Then we turned towards the city of Salísa, where we remained two days in the cheerfulness of our spirits.

3. We passed our itinerant time, with that hilarity of our hearts, which ever attends on travelling through unknown places and scenes; and the succeeding season of our halting, was passed in our repose under the cooling shade of woodland arbours, and refreshing ourselves in the cooling brooks and breezes.

4. The faded flowers which were thrown down in profusion, from the flowery creepers growing on the banks of rivers; the dashing of the waves, the humming of the bees, and the singing of birds, are delightsome to the souls of passing travellers.

5. The thickening and cooling shades of beachening trees, the droves of deer and the flights of chirping birds; and the frozen ice and dew drops, hanging tremulously as pearls on the leaves of verdant trees, and at the ends of the blades of green grass (are refreshing to the soul of the weary passenger.)

6. We passed many days through woods and forests, and over hills and dales, through caves and defiles, over marshes and dry lands, and in cities and villages; and also crossed over a great many rivers and channels and running waters.

7. We passed our nights under the arbours of thick plantain[Pg 969] forests; and being weary with walking over snow and dew, we laid ourselves on beds made of plantain leaves.

8. On the third we came to a jungle full of gigantic woods and trees, which for want of human habitation, seemed to have divided the empire of heaven between themselves (meaning that there was to be seen nothing, except the skies above and woods below).

9. Here that devotee left the right path, and entered into another forest, with uttering these useless words to me (which were discursive and preventive of our returning to our respective habitations).

10. He said:—Let us go to the sanctuary of Gaurí here, which is the resort of many munis and sages from all quarters; and is the asylum to which my seven brothers, have repaired for attainment of their objects.

11. We are eight brothers in all, and all of us have fostered great ambitions in various respects; we are all equally resolved to devote ourselves to rigorous austerities, for the success of our determined purposes.

12. It is for that purpose that <they> have sought their shelter in this holy asylum, and with fixed determination practiced various acts of self mortification, whereby they have been expurgated from their sins.

13. Ere this I accompanied my brothers to this place, and remained here with them for six months together; and now I find this same sanctuary of Gaurí in the same state as I had seen it before.

14. I see the piece of ground, overhung by the shady flower of trees; under the shade of which I see the young fauns to be reposing in this their peaceful retreat; I see also the leafy bowers with the sprays of birds thereon, listening to the recital of the sástras, conducted by the sages underneath.

15. Let us therefore go to the asylum of the sages, which resembles the seat of Brahmá crowded by the Bráhmans on all sides; here shall our bodies be purified of their sins, and our hearts will be sanctified by the holiness of the place.

16. It is by sight of these holy men of superior understanding,[Pg 970] that the minds of even the learned and saintlike persons, and even those of the knowers of truth are purified (wherefore it must be sanctifying to us also).

17. Upon his saying so, we both went together to that asylum of the recluses of sages and hermits; but to our great disappointment, we saw nothing but the appearance of a total desolation.

18. There was not a tree nor plant, and neither a shrub nor creeper to be seen on the spot; nor was there any man or muni or a boy or child was met thereabouts; nor any altar or priest was there anywhere.

19. It was only a vast desert, all void and devoid of bounds; an unlimited space of burning heat, and appeared as the blank expanse of the sky, had fallen down on the ground below.

20. Ah wœ to us! what is all this come to be! said we to one another; and saying so, we continued to rove about for a long while, until we chanced to espy an arbour at some distance.

21. It presented a thickly shady and cooling aspect, resembling that of a dark and drizzling cloud in the sky; and there was observed an aged hermit, sitting in his meditation beneath it.

22. We two sat upon the grassy spot, spread out in front of the eremite; and though we kept sitting there for a long time, yet we could find no respite in the abstracted meditation of the muni.

23. Then feeling uneasy at my staying there for a long while, I broke my silence in impatience, and cried out in a loud voice, saying, suspend, O sage, the life-long musings of your mind.

24. My loud cry awakened the muni from the trance of his reverie, as the roaring of a raining cloud wakens the sleeping lion, rising straight with his yawning mouth (and stretched out limbs).

25. He then said unto us, who are ye pious persons, that are in this desert; say where is that sanctuary of Gaurí gone, and who is it that has brought me hither. Tell me what means this change and what time is this.

[Pg 971]

26. Upon his saying so, I replied to him saying, you sir, know all this and not we; say how is <it> that you being a sage and seer do not know yourself?

27. Hearing this the holy man betook himself to his meditation again, and there saw all the events that had occurred to himself and us also.

28. He remained a moment in deep thought, and then coming to himself from his abstraction, he said unto us, learn now about this marvelous event, and know it to be a delusion only by your good common sense.

29. This young kadamba tree, that you are seeing in this desert, and that gives me a shelter underneath it, and is now flowering in kindness to me.

30. It was for some reason or other, that the chaste goddess Gaurí, dwelt for full ten years upon it, in the form of the goddess of speech, and underwent all the inclemencies of the seasons sitting there upon.

31. It was by her that a goodly grove, and an extensive forest was stretched out at this place, which became therefore known by her name, and was decorated by the flora of all the seasons.

32. It was a romantic spot to all grades of gods and men, who kept singing and sporting here in concert with the melody of tuneful and sportive birds; the air was filled with clouds of flowers, which brightened as myriads of moon in the sky; while the flying dust of full blown lotuses, perfumed the air on all sides of the forest.

33. The pollen of mandara and other flowers, perfumed the air around; and the opening bud and blooming blossoms brightened as moons; the flowering creepers sent forth their fragrance all about, and the whole courtyard of the forest, seemed to <be> strewn over with perfumery.

34. Its bowers were the seats of the god of the vernal season and flora; and the orchestra of black-bees, sitting and singing in concert with their mates on the top of flowers; the flower beds were spread as the outstretched sheet of moon[Pg 972] light, and as cradles for the swinging sports of siddha and celestial damsels.

35. Here were brooks frequented by cranes and herons, and aquatic birds of various kinds; and there spacious lawns on the ground, graced by cocks and peacocks, and land birds of various hues.

36. The gandharvas and yakshas, siddhas and the hosts of celestials, bowed down to this kadamba tree, and their coronets rubbed against the branch, which was sanctified by the touch of the feet of the goddess Sarasvatí alias Gaurí. And the flowers of the tree, resembling the stars of heaven, exhaled their fragrance all around.

37. Gentle zephyrs were playing amidst the tender creeper, and diffusing a coldness throughout the secret bowers, even in the light and heat of the blazing sunshine; while the flying dust of the kadamba and other flowers, spread a yellow carpet all over the ground.

38. The lotus and other aquatic flowers, were blooming in the brooks, frequented by storks and cranes and herons and other watery birds, that sported upon them; while the goddess regaled herself amidst the flowery groves, which displayed her wondrous powers in the variety of their flowers.

39. It was in such a forest as this, that the goddess Gaurí the consort of the god Hara, resided at this spot for a long time, for some cause known to her godly mind; and then by changing her name and form to that of kadamba—Sarasvatí, she waved as gracefully as a kadamba flower, on the crown of the head of her spoused partner Hara or Siva.

The old anchorite resumed and said:—The goddess Gaurí dwelt for a full decade of years, on this very Kadamba tree of her own accord; and then she left this arbour of her own will, in order to join her lord Hara on his left side.

2. This young Kadamba tree, being verified by the ambrosial touch of the goddess, never becomes old, nor fades or withers; but ever remains as fresh as a child in the lap of her mother.

3. After the goddess had left this place, that great garden was converted to a common bush, and was frequented only by woodmen, who earned their livelihood by woodcutting.

4. As for myself, know me to be the king of the country of Malwa, and to have now become a refugee in this hermitage of holy ascetics, by abdication of my kingdom.

5. On my resorting to this place, I was honoured here by the inhabitants of this holy asylum; and have taken any abode beneath this kadamba tree, where I have been in my meditative mood ever since that time.

6. It was some time ago, that you sir, had come here in company with seven brethren, and betaken yourselves to the practice of your religious austerities.

7. So did you eight persons reside here as holy devotees since that time, and were respected by all the resident devotees of this place.

8. It came to pass in process of time, that one of them removed from here to the Srí mountain; and then the second among them, went out to worship the lord Kártikeya in another place.

9. The third has gone to Benares and the fourth to the[Pg 974] Himálayas; and the remaining four remained at this place, and employed themselves to their rigorous austerities.

10. It was the earnest desire of each and every one of them, to become the sovran lord of all the seven continents of the earth.

11. At last they all succeeded to accomplish their objects of their self same desire, by the grace and boon which obtained from the respective deity of their adoration, that was pleased with the austerity of his particular devotee.

12. The brethren returned to their habitation, when you had been employed in your devotion; and after their enjoyment of the fruition of this earth in golden age, they have ascended to the empyrean of Brahmá.

13. O sir, those brothers of yours, finding their respective gods propitious to them, and willing to confer blessings upon them, had made the following request of them saying:—

14. Ye gods! make our seven brothers, the lords of the seven continents of the earth; and let all our subjects be truthful and sincere, and attached to the occupations of their respective orders.

15. The gods that were adored by them, gladly occupied their prayer; and having assented to their request, disappeared from them, and vanished in the open sky.

16. They all went afterwards to their respective habitation, and met death except this one who is now here.

17. I only have been sitting alone, devoutly intent upon meditation; and have remained as motionless as a stone, beneath this kadamba tree, which is sacred to the goddess of speech.

18. Now as the seasons and years, have been rolling on upon my devoted head, I have lived to see this forest, to be broken and cut down by woodmen, living in the skirts of these woods.

19. They have spared only this unfading kadamba tree, which they had made an object of their veneration, as the abode of the goddess of speech; and me also whom they believe to be absorbed in inflexible meditation.

20. Now sirs, as you seem to have newly come to this place,[Pg 975] and bear the appearance of aged ascetics; I have therefore related to you all that I have come to know by my cogitation only.

21. Rise then ye righteous men, and proceed to your native homes; where you will meet your brothers in the circle of their family and friends.

22. You will find eight of your brothers, remaining in their abode; and resembling the eight high minded Vasus, sitting in the high heaven of Brahmá.

23. After that great devotee had said so far, I interrupted him saying:—I have a great doubt in this wondrous relation of yours, which you will be pleased to expound it to me.

24. We know this earth to be composed of seven continents only, how then is it possible for eight brothers, to be the lord of them all, at the one and same time.

25. The kadamba ascetic said:—It is not inconsistent what I have related to you, there are many such are seemingly incongruous, but become evident when they are explained.

26. These eight brothers, having passed their periods of asceticism, will all of them become lords of the seven continents of the earth, in their domestic circles. (i.e. Each thinks himself as such).

27. All these eight brothers, will remain in their respective houses on the surface of the earth; and will there become the lords of the septuple continents, in the manner as you shall now hear from me.

28. Every one of these eight persons had each a wife at home, who were of unblemished character and persons withal; and resembled the eight stars or planets of heavens, in the brightness of their bodies. (They were equally chaste and fair and loving wives also).

29. After these eight brothers have departed, to conduct their protracted devotion abroad; their love lorn wives became disconsolate at their separation, which is altogether intolerable to faithful wives.

30. They in their great sorrow of spirit, made painful austerities to the memory of the absent lords; and conducted a[Pg 976] hundred Chándráyana vows and rites, to the satisfaction of the goddess Párvatí. (The Olympian Juno, and the patroness of chastity).

31. Invisibly the goddess appeared to them, and spake her words to them separately in their inner apartments; after each and every one of them had performed her daily devotion to <the> goddess.

32. The goddess said:—O Child, that hast been long fading away by thy austerities, like the tender shoot under the scorching sun; now accept this boon to thy heart’s desire, both for thyself as also for thy husband.

33. Hearing this voice of the goddess of heaven, the lady Chirantiká, offered her handfuls of flowers to her, and began to address her prayer to the goddess, to her heart’s satisfaction.

34. The reserved and close tongued damsel, uttered her words in a slow flattering voice flushed with joy; and addressed the heavenly goddess, as the peahen accosts the rising cloud.

35. Chirantiká said:—O goddess, as thou bearest eternal love to Siva—the god of gods, such is the love I bear also to my husband, O make him immortal.

36. The goddess replied:—Know, O goodly minded lady, that it is impossible to gain immortality, from the inflexible decree of destiny, ever since the creation of the world. No devotion, austerity nor charity can buy life, ask therefore some other blessing.

37. Chirantiká said:—O goddess! if it be impossible to attain immortality, then ordain it thus far; that he being dead, his soul may not depart beyond the confines of this house of his.

38. When the body of my husband, falls dead in this house; then confer me this boon, that his parted soul may never depart from this place.

39. Be it so, O daughter, that your husband being gone to <the> other world, you may still continue to be his beloved wife, even after his demise.

40. Saying so, the goddess Gaurí held her silence in the midst of the air; as the sound of the clouds is stopped, after its betokening the welfare of the world.

[Pg 977]

41. After disappearance of the goddess in air, the husbands of these ladies returned to them from all sides, and at the lapse of some time after they had received their desired blessings.

42. Now was there a mutual interview of the wives with their husbands, and general meeting of the brothers with each other, and with their friends and relatives.

43. Hear now a wonderful event, which happened to them at this time; and which presented itself as an obstacle, towards the achievement of their noble purpose.

44. It was at the time when the brothers were employed in their devotion, that their parents had gone out with their wives in search of them, and were wandering about the hermitages of saints, with their sorrowful hearts.

45. Unmindful of their personal pains and pleasures, for the sake of the welfare of their sons, they intended to see the village of Kalapa, which lay on their way.

46. Passing by the village of munis or saints, they espied on their way a white man of short stature, with grey and erect hairs on his head, and his body bedaubed with ashes.

47. Thinking him to be an ordinary old passenger, the parents forgot to do him due honour, and let the dust of the ground they trod upon, fly unwarily to his sacred person. This irritated the old passenger, who thus bespake to him in his ire.

48. You great fool that are going on pilgrimage in company with thy wife and daughters-in-law; don’t you heed me the sage Durvásas, that you slight to do me due reverence.

49. For this act of thy negligence, the boons so dearly earned by thy sons and daughters in law will go for nothing, and will be attained with their contrary effect.

50. On hearing this malediction the old parents and their daughters in law, were proceeding to do him reverence, when the ancient sage disappeared from their sight and vanished in air.

51. At this the parents and their daughters, were greatly dismayed and disheartened; and returned disappointed to their home, with their melancholy countenances.

52. Therefore I say, there was not the only inconsistency,[Pg 978] in each of the brothers reigning over the seven continents all at once; but there were many other odds awaiting upon them as on all human wishes; and these occurring as thickly one after the other as the sores and ulcers growing on goitres. (Or pouches on the throat).

53. There are as many oddities and vanities, always occurring in the wishes, and aerial castles of the vacuous mind; as the numberless portents and comets and meteors and unnatural sights, are seen to appear in the empty sky.

Kunda-Danta rejoined:—I then asked the hermit of Gaurí’s asylum, whose head was hoary with age, and whose hair resembled the dried blades of withered grass.

2. There are but seven continents only, that composed this earth; how then could every one of the eight brothers, become the sole lord of earth at one and the same time.

3. Again how could a person, that had no egress from his house, conquer the seven continents abroad, or govern them himself (by sitting quietly at home).

4. How could they that had the boon on one hand, and its contrary curse on the other, go in either way which are opposed to one another, as the cool shade of trees and the heat of sunshine?

5. How can opposite qualities reside together at the same time, which is as impossible as the container and contained to become the same thing? (Here the blessing of the gods and the curse of the sage, must counteract one another, and neither of them could effect anything).

6. The Hermit of the asylum returned:—Attend, O holy man, to my relation of the sequel of their tale; and you will come to see the sequence of their contrary fates.

7. As for you two, you will reach to your home, after eight days from this place; and there meet with your relatives, with whom you will live happily for some time.

8. These eight brothers also, having joined with their families at home: will breathe their last in course of time; and have their bodies burnt by their friends and relations.

9. Then their conscious souls, will remain separately in air[Pg 980] for a little while; and there continue in a state of torpidity, as in the insensibility of sleep.

10. All this interval their acts will appear, in the vacuous space of their minds, for the sake of receiving their retributive justice; and also the blessing of gods and the curse of the sage, will wait on them at this time.

11. The acts will appear in the shapes of the persons to whom they were done and the blessings and imprecation likewise will assume their particular forms, in order to make their appearance before them.

12. The blessings will assume the forms of fair moon-bright bodies, having four arms on each, and holding a lotus bud, a club and other weapons in each of them.

13. The curse will take the forms of Siva with his three eyes, and holding the lance and mace in his either hand; and having a dark terrific body, with a surly grim and frowning countenance.

14. The Blessings will vauntingly say:—Avaunt thou accursed curse! it is now our time to work; as it is with the seasons to act their parts at their proper times.

15. The curse will say in his turn:—Be afar from here; ye blessed blessings, and do not intrude upon my time; it will take effect as any one of the seasons, nor is there any body capable of counteracting its wonted course.

16. The blessings will rejoin and say; Thou cured curse, art but a creature of an human sage; but we are messengers of the God of day; now as preference is given to the first born God of light, over a human being (who is the last work of God); it is proper that we should have our precedence here (in the present case).

17. Upon the blessings saying so, the personified curse of the sage got enraged, and returned in reply saying, I am no less the creation of a God than you are since we are born of the God Rudra by his consort Rudrání—the Fury.

18. Rudra is the greatest of gods, and the sage was born with a portion of Rudra’s prowess; saying so the accursed curse lifted up its head, as high as the exalted summit of a mountain.

[Pg 981]

19. On seeing the haughty high-headedness of the personation of curse; the personified image of the boon smiled scornfully at him, and then made his reply in his speech of well weighed words.

20. O thou miscreant curse, leave thy wickedness and think on the end of this affair; as also about what is to be done, after termination of all this altercation of ours.

21. We must have recourse to the father of the gods, for his favourable decision of the case, is it not therefore better for us to do even now what must come to be finally determined by him.

22. The curse on hearing these words of the personified boon replied, well, I agree to what you say; because a fool even cannot decline to accept the reasonable proposal of a person.

23. Then the curse agreed to resort to the abode of Brahmá; in company with the divine Blessing; because the great-minded gods are always resorted to by the wise, for the dissipation of their doubts.

24. They bended down before Brahmá, and related all that had occurred between them; and the god on hearing the whole on both sides, replied to them in the following manner.

25. Brahmá said:—Hearken unto me, ye master of blessing and curse, and let him have the precedence of the other, that is possessed of intrinsic merit and essence.

26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they both entered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to sound their understandings, and descry their respective parts.

27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of one another, and having known their respective characters; came out in presence of the God, and besought him by turns.

28. The curse said:—I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this my adversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding the curses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock and the strong thunderbolt.

29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but[Pg 982] intellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of at any time.

30. The Blessing replied:—The intellectual blessing, which its giver (the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Bráhmans, is here present before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be delivered unto them).

31. The body of every one is the evolution of one’s intelligence, and it is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessing that is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it is in his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all his wandering at all times and places. (i.e. The consciousness of one’s merits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes him enjoy or suffer their results accordingly).

32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mind of the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one’s self, overcomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (i.e. Firm good will, turns away the evil ones).

33. The donor’s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it; becomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and duly fostered in one’s self. (i.e. A good given us by others, is of no good, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).

34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness, and by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these become perfected in one’s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (It is the habitual mode of the mind’s thought, that makes the future man, be it a holy or accursed one).

35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one’s consciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded, never finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Bráhmans’ thoughts of the blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that of the curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter, though it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture, supersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule;—

36. Nor force of pride to counteract this law. (Hence the[Pg 983] blessing of the god, being prior to the curse of the sage, must have its precedence over the latter).

37. But where both sides are of equal force, there both of them have their joint effect upon the same thing; so the curse and blessing being conjoined together, must remain as the commingling of milk with water.

38. The equal force of the blessing and curse, must produce a double or divided effect on the mind of man; as a person dreaming of the fairy city in his sleep, thinks himself as turned to one of its citizens (without losing the idea of his own personality: so a man has a different idea of himself, in different states of his life).

39. Now pardon me, O Lord for my repetition of the same truths before thee that I have learnt from thee, and permit me now to take leave of thee, and depart to my place.

40. Upon his saying so, the curse felt ashamed in itself, and fled away from the presence of the god; as the ghosts and goblins fly away from the air, at the dispersion of darkness from the sky.

41. Then the other blessing (which was given by the goddess Gaurí to the ladies of these brothers), concerning the restriction of their departed ghosts, to the confines of their house, came forward and presented itself before Brahmá in lieu of the curse, and began to plead his case, as a substitute does for his constituent.

42. He said:—I know not, O Lord of gods, how human souls can fly over the seven continents of the earth, after their separation from their dead bodies (Deign to explain this therefore unto me.)

43. I am the same blessing of the goddess, that promised unto them their dominion over the seven continents in their own house; and also their conquest of the whole earth within its confines.

44. Now tell me, O Lord of gods, how am I to restrain their spirits to the narrow limits of their own abodes; and at the same time confer the domain of the septuple earth, to each[Pg 984] and every one of them (as it is destined to them by the blessing of the God of day.)

45. Brahmá responded:—Hear me, O thou blessing of conferring the realms of the seven continents on each of them; and thou the boon of detaining their departed spirits within the confines of these mansions; that both of you are successful in executing your respective purposes on them.

46. Now do you retire from this place with full assurance in yourselves, that the delivered ghosts of these brothers; will never quit nor ever depart from their present abodes after their demise; but continue to reside there forever more; with the belief of their being the Lords of the seven regions of this earth. (It is the firm belief of the mind of the possession of anything, that makes it the true possessor thereof, much more than its actual enjoyment of the same).

47. Their souls will remain at proper distances from each other, after the loss and extinction of their frail bodies; and will deem themselves as lords of the seven regions of earth, though dwelling in the empty air of their own abodes.

48. How could there be the eight regions and seven continents of the earth, when to all appearance the surface of the earth, presents but a flat level everywhere.

49. Tell us Lord! where are these different divisions of the earth situated, and in what part of their petty abode; and is it not as impossible for the small place of their house to contain this wide earth in it, as it is for the little cell of a lotus bud to hide an elephant in its pericarp.

50. Brahmá replied:—It being quite evident to you as to ourselves also, that the universe is composed of an infinite vacuity only; it is not impossible for its being contained within the hollow of the human heart, as in the minute particle of the vacuous mind, which contains all things in it in the manner of its dreams.

51. If it were possible for the minute granule of their vacuous minds, to contain the figures of their houses and their domestic circles within itself, why should it be thought[Pg 985] impossible for them, to compress the greater and lesser circle of this earth also, within their ample space.

52. After the demise of a person, the world exhibits itself in the same form as it is, in the minute atom of his mind; and this is but a vacuous mass of the visible and material world, in its invisible and imaginary figure.

53. It is in this invisible particle of the mind, that the world is seen in its abstract form, within the precincts of the body and abode of every body; and this earth appears to be drawn in it as in a map, with all its sevenfold continents and the contents thereof.

54. Whatever is manifest in the mind, is a mere mental conception and inborn in the mind, and there is no such thing as an extraneous or material world in reality. It is the vacant mind that presents these vagaries of the world and all other visibles before its vision, as the vacuous firmament shows the variety of atmospherical appearances to our sight.

55. The personified benediction, having learnt this abstract truth, from the mouth of the divine Brahmá, who had conferred this boon to the Bráhmanical brothers, abandoned his erroneous conception of the material world, and repaired to the abode of the deceased brethren, that had been released from the mistake of their mortal bodies.

56. The personated blessing bowed down to the bounteous Brahmá, and departing from his presence with speed, entered into the parlour of the eight brother kings, in his eight-fold spiritual personality (called the ashta siddhi).

57. They beheld the brothers there in their respective residences, each sitting as the Lord of the earth with its septuple continents, and all of them employed in the performance of their sacrifices and enjoyment of their blessings, like the eight Lordly Manus for the whole period of a day of Brahmá.

58. They were all friendly to each other, though unacquainted with the respective provinces of one another; each of them was employed in his concern with the world, without clashing with the authority of another over it.

59. One of them who was handsome in the bloom of his[Pg 986] youth; held his happy reign over the great city of Ujjain, which was situated in the precincts of his own house, or rather in the environs of his own mind.

60. Another one of them had his domain over the country of Scythia (sáka), where he settled himself for his conquest of the Nágas (saccae); he cruises as a corsair in the wide outlandish seas, for his victory on every side.

61. Another reigns secure in his capital of Kusadwípa, and confers perfect security to his subjects from all alarm; and like a hero who has quelled his enemies, he rests in peace on the bosom of his beloved, after all his conquest.

62. Some one of them indulges himself to sport, in company with the celestial Nymphs of Vidyádhara; in skimming over the waters of the lakes on mountain tops, and in the gushing water falls on their side.

63. Another one is engaged these eight days in conducting his horse sacrifice in his royal abode at Krauncha dwípa, which he has greatly aggrandised with his accumulated gold, from the other continents.

64. Another one is employed in waging a battle in the Sálmali continents, where his war elephants have assembled, and have been uprooting the boundary mountain from their bases with robust tusks.

65. The Monarch of the Gomedha continent, who had been the eighth and last of the Bráhman brothers, was smitten with love for the princess of the Pushkara dwípa; upon which he mustered a large armament for ravishing her in warfare.

66. The monarch of the Pushkara continent, who was also the master of the Mountainous regions of Lokáloka; set out with his deputy to inspect the land of the gold mines.

67. Thus every one of these brothers, thought himself to be the Lord of his respective province, as his imagination portrayed unto him in the region of his mind.

68. The Blessings then, having relinquished their several forms and personalities, became united and one with the consciousness of the Bráhmans, and felt and saw whatever passed in them, as if they were passing in themselves likewise.[Pg 987] (The divine blessing on them being no other than the approbation of their conscience).

69. So these brothers became and found in themselves, what they had long been longing after, in their respective lordship over the seven regions of the earth, which they continued to enjoy ever since to their heart’s content.

70. It was in this manner that these men of enlarged understandings, obtained what they sought in their minds, by means of their austere devotion and firm devotedness to their purpose. So it is with the learned that they find everything beside them, whatever they are intent upon in their minds, by means of their acting upon the same principle, and using the proper means conducing to that end.

Kunda-danta said:—I then asked <the> devotee sitting beneath the kadamba tree, to tell me how the seven large continents of the globe, could be contained within the narrow limits of the abodes of each of these brothers (which is next to an impossibility).

2. The kadamba devotee replied:—The essence of the intellect though so very vacuous in itself, is notwithstanding the most capacious and ubiquious of any thing in existence; and is present in its own nature with every thing, wherever it is known to exist.

3. The soul sees itself in the form of the triple world, and every thing besides in its different nature and figure, without changing itself to any one of them. (i.e. The soul remains unchanged in all the changeful scenes of nature).

4. Kunda-danta rejoined:—But how do you attribute the quality of variety or multiplicity, to the purely simple and immutable nature of the Supreme soul, as you see them appertaining to the intrinsic character of everything else in nature. (Or as Pope says:—That changed through all, yet in all the same; great in the earth, as in the etherial frame).

5. The kadamba devotee replied:—The sphere of the intellectual vacuum, is all quiet and serene, and there is nothing as any variety or multiformity in it; the changes that are apparent in its face, are no more, than the waves and eddies, whirling on the surface of the changeless main.

6. It is in the immensity of intellectual vacuity, that infinite creations seem to be continually purling about, as the rising waves are seen to be whirling in the sea; and it is in its fathomless[Pg 989] depth that they appear to sink, like the waters subsiding in the hollow of the deep.

7. The substantial forms of things, that rise in the unsubstantial essence of the intellect, are as the various forms of substances, seen in the dreaming state of the soul, and all which are utterly forgotten in its state of sound sleep—susupti.

8. As a Hill seen in dream is no hill at all, and as things appearing to be in motion in dreaming, are found afterwards to be perfectly motionless; so are all things in nature but mere unrealities, and though as real from the real nature of soul itself. (i.e. It is the intellect that fashions everything in its own manner, and its imagination gives a form to an airy nothing).

9. The intellect is an immaterial substance, and neither creates nor perceives any thing material by itself; but conceives everything as it is manifested to it in its idea in the beginning. (i.e. The ideas of things are inborn in the mind).

10. As the intellect sees a great variety of objects in <its> dream, which it takes for realities for the time; so its belief in the reality of its ideas, causes it to conceive them as real entities.

11. The vacuous intellect, which glitters of itself in its own state of transparence; comes to find the world shinning in the same light within itself. (i.e. The world is subjective with the intellect, and not a part from our intellectual light of the same).

12. As we have the consciousness of heat in the fire, even when it is seen in a dream; so we are conscious of the presence of everything in our minds, even in the absence of the thing itself from us. (It was thus that the Bráhman brothers were conscious of their lordship, even in their want of the realms themselves).

13. And as we have the idea of the solidity of a pillar, from our dream of it in sleep; so have we the idea of the great variety of things in existence; although there is no diversity or difference in the nature of the One unvaried unity that pervades the whole. (And that shows its unchangeable self, as many and changed through all—Aham-bahusyam).

[Pg 990]

14. In the beginning all substances were as pure and simple, as the essence of their maker by and after which they were made; and they still continue to be in the same state of their ideal purity, as they were originally made out of that airy entity and unity.

15. As the tree is diversified in the various forms of its roots and fruits, and its leaves, flowers and the trunk; so is the Supreme unity varied in all and everywhere in his self-same and undivided essence.

16. It is in the fathomless ocean of the Supreme essence, that the immensity of creation is subsisting like the waters of the deep; and it is in the boundless space of that transcendent vacuum, that the infinity of the worlds have been rolling on, in their original vacuous and apparently visible forms.

17. The transcendental and comprehensible i.e. the immaterial soul and the material world, are but commutual terms as the tree and arbour, and their difference lies in the intelligibleness of the one and unintelligibility of the other; but true intelligence leads us to the unconceivable One, while our ignorance of the same, deludes us to the knowledge of many, and tends to our distress only. (True happiness in our reliance on the unknown One only).

18. The mundane and supermundane is surely the One and same thing, according to the deduction of spiritual philosophy; and the knowledge of this sublime truth, is sure to lead one to his ultimate liberation.

19. The world is the product of the will of God, and the will is a power or faculty appertaining to the personality of the Deity; and the same being transmuted to the form of the world, it is proved that the world is the formal part of the Supreme soul. (Whose body nature is, and God the soul).

20. He whom no words can define, and yet who defines the senses of words; who is subject to no law or prohibition, or to any state or condition of being, but appoints them for all sorts of beings, is indeed the only Lord of all.

21. He that is ever silent but speaks through all, who is[Pg 991] inactive as a rock but acts in all; who is always existent and appears as inexistent, is the Supreme Lord of all.

22. That subtile essence that constitutes the solidity of all gross bodies, and remains undecayed in all frail bodies, is the pure Brahma himself; He has no volition or nolition of creation or destruction, and there is no possession or want of the property of anything.

23. It is the one and invariable soul, that rests always in its state of rest and sleep, and perceives the succession of creation and destruction of the world, in its alternate states of dream and sound sleep, which present themselves as two pictures before its sight.

24. It is also in the substratum of the intellect, that unnumbered worlds seem to rise and set in succession; they appear as passing pictures before the mind, without being rooted or painted therein.

25. As the mixing of one thing with another, produces a different effect in the mixture; so doth the union of the mind with the organs of sense, cause a variety of impressions to be imprinted in the intellect. (So the commixture of curd and sugar creates a different flavour in the condiment, gloss).

26. All things have their existence in the essence of the intellect only, without which nothing is knowable to any body; hence there is nothing anew in nature, except its being but a representation of the original idea in the mind (and this is evident from the identity and similarity of the ectypes with its antitypes, gloss).

27. Hence our consciousness of the identity of things with the essence of our intellect, proves them to be as immaterial and immovable as their fixed ideas in the mind.

28. Thus the world which is so visible and perceptible to us, is nothing but a mere nullity in reality; and whatever appears as existing herein, together with the great gods and angels, are no more than the false visions in our dream and fancy.

29. We see the various fluctuations and phenomena, rising in the waters of the vast ocean of the intellect; and appearing[Pg 992] in the forms of our joy and grief, and those of moving and unmoving bodies in creation.

30. O that the nature and course of the world, should so obscure the bright mirror of the intellect; as to hide it under the dirt of our passions, and cover it under the clouds and snows of our ignorance.

31. As spectres and dissolving views appear in the air, before the sight of the dimsighted; so doth this shadow of the world appear as substance, to the view of the unspiritual myopist.

32. Whatever we imagine, the same we find, and seem to enjoy for the time; and as we are delighted with the view of our imaginary city, so do we indulge ourselves in the sight of this air-drawn utopia of the world.

33. As we seem to enjoy our ecstasy, in the fairy land of our fancy; so we are betaken by the delusion of this unreal world, under the belief of its reality.

34. There is one eternal destiny, which ever runs apace in its wonted course; and destines all beings to continue in their allotted careers as ever before.

35. It is destiny that produces the moving bodies from living beings, and the motionless ones from the unmoving; it is that predestination which has destined the downward course of water and fluids, and the upward motion of the flames of fire.

36. It is that blind impulse, that impels the members of the body to their respective actions; and makes the luminous bodies to emit their light; it causes the winds to wind about in their continuous course, and makes the mountains to stand unmoved in their proper places.

37. It makes the luminaries of heaven, to roll on in their regular revolutions, and causes the rains and dews of the sky, to pour down in their stated seasons; and it is this eternal destiny that directs the courses of years, ages and cycles, and the whole curricle of time to run its wonted course.

38. It is the divine ordinance, that has ordained the limits of the earth and the distant ocean and seas, and has fixed the position of the hills and rocks in them; it has allotted the[Pg 993] natures and powers of all things, and prescribed the laws of rights and duties for all and every one.

39. Kunda-danta rejoined:—The reminiscence of the scenes of past life, occurs in the present state of existence, in the forms of our imagination and of desire for the same; and these inward thoughts become the gist and marrow to frame our lives in their fashion; but tell me sir, how could the first created beings in the beginning of creation have any reminiscence, whereupon their lives and natures were moulded?

40. The devotee replied:—All these that offer themselves to our view, are quite unprecedented and without their original patterns in the mind, and resemble the sight of our own death that we happen to see in a dream. It is the omniscience of Brahmá, that caused the first creation, and not his memory of the past as it is with us and other created beings.

41. It is the nature of our intellect, to represent the imaginary city of the world in its empty vacuity; it is neither a positive reality, nor a negative unreality either; being now apparent and now lost to sight by itself.

42. It is the clearness of the intellect, which represents the imaginary world in the manner of a dream; but the pure vacuous intellect, neither sees nor bears the remembrance of the world in itself. (It is the sight of a thing, that leaves its traces in the mind afterwards; but when there is no sight of a thing, there can be no remembrance of it).

43. The wise that are devoid of joy and grief, and remain unchanged in prosperity and adversity; are men of right integrity and equanimity in their nature, and move on as equably as the wheel of fortune leads them onward.

44. As the intellect retains in it, the remembrance of what it has seen in its dream; so does it bear in itself the false impression of this triple world to its end.

45. It is only the reflexion of our consciousness, which passes under the name of the world; now knowing the nature of your consciousness as mere vacuousness, you will blot out the impression of the world also.

46. That which is all and everything, and from which all[Pg 994] have issued and in which they exist; know that All as all which fills all space, wherein all things are situated.

47. I have thus fully explained to you, how you may come to know this creation as its creator—the Great Brahmá Himself; and have also expounded to you the means, whereby you may get rid of your impression of the phenomenal world.

48. Now rise ye Bráhmans and repair to your abodes, as the bees resort to their cells and calyxes of lotuses at the dusk of the day; go and perform your evening services, while I remain here in my pensive meditation, and absorbed in my spiritual ecstasy forever.

Kunda-danta rejoined:—The old sage having said so far, closed his eyes in meditation; and he became as motionless as a statue or picture, without any action of his breath and mind.

2. And we prayed him with great fondness and endearment, yet he uttered not a word unto us; because he seemed to be so rapt in his abstraction, as to have become utterly insensible of the outer world.

3. We then departed, from that place, with our broken hearts and dejected countenances; and were received after a few days journey, by our gladsome friends at home.

4. We live there in joyous festivity, as long as the seven brothers were living; and passed our time in narrations of our past adventures, and relations of the old accounts of by gone times.

5. In course of time the eight brothers disappeared (perished) one by one, like the seven oceans at the end of the world, in the vast ocean of eternity; and were released like many of my friends also, from their worldly cares.

6. After sometime, the only friend that I had, sunk also like the setting sun in darkness; and I was left alone to bewail their loss in sorrow and misery at their separation.

7. I then repaired in the sorrow of my heart, to the devotee under the Kadamba tree; in order to derive the benefit of his advice, to dissipate my dolor.

8. There I waited on him for three months, until he was released from his meditation, when upon my humble request of him, he deigned to answer me as follows.

9. The devotee replied:—I can not pass a moment, without[Pg 996] my employment in meditation; and must without any loss of time, resort to my wonted devotion again.

10. As for you, you can not derive the benefit of my transcendent advice to you; unless you engage yourself to practice my precepts with all diligence.

11. Now I tell you to repair to the city of Ayodhyá (Oudh), where the king Dasaratha reigns, and remains with his son Ráma (and other children and members of his royal family).

12. Do you now go to this Ráma, who has been attending on the lectures of the sage Vasishtha, the preceptor and priest of the royal family, and delivered before the princes assembled in the imperial court.

13. You will there hear the holy sermon, on the means of attaining our final emancipation; and will thereby obtain your best bliss in the divine state like that of mine.

14. Saying so, he was absorbed in the cooling ocean of his meditation; <after> which I directed my course to this way, and arrived at last before Ráma and this princely assembly.

15. Here am I, and all these are the incidents of my life, as I have related herein, regarding all what I have heard and seen, as also all that has passed on me.

16. Ráma said:—The eloquent Kunda-danta that made this speech to me, has been ever since sitting by my side in this assembly.

17. This very Brahmin bearing the name of Kunda-danta, that has sat here all along by me; has heard the whole of the sermon, which has been delivered by the sage, on the means of obtaining our liberation.

18. Now ask this Kunda-danta, that is sitting here by me at present, whether he has well understood the context of this lecture, and whether his doubts are wholly dissipated or not.

19. Vasishtha said:—Upon Ráma saying so to me, I looked upon Kunda-danta, and made him the following interrogatory, saying:—

20. Tell me, Oh you goodly Bráhman Kunda-danta, what you have learnt and understood, by your long attendance upon[Pg 997] and hearing of my lecture, calculated to confer liberation on men.

21. Kunda-danta replied:—Sir, your lecture has wholly removed the doubts of my mind, and I find myself now as perfect master of myself, by my victory over all selfish passions, and by my knowledge of the knowable One.

22. I have known the immaculate One that is to be known, and seen the undecaying One that is worth our seeing; I have obtained all that is worth our obtaining, and I have found my repose in the state of transcendent felicity.

23. I have known this plenum, to be the condensation of that transcendental essence; and that this world is no other than a manifestation of this sel-fsame soul.

24. The universal soul being also the soul of every individual, is likewise the soul inherent in all forms of things; it is only the self-existent soul, that becomes apparent in all existences and all places.

25. It is possible for the human mind, which is minuter than the molecule of a mustard seed, to contain the whole world in itself; though it is naught but a mere zero, before the clear sight of the intelligent.

26. It is possible also for a little room, to contain the seven continents of the earth (in its map or picture); though the room itself is no more than a mere empty space.

27. Whatever object is perceptible to us at any time or place, is only the concrete form of the divine spirit; which is quite apart from every thing in the discrete.

Válmíki said:—After Kunda-danta had finished his saying in the said manner, the venerable Vasishtha delivered his edifying speech on spiritual knowledge and said:

2. Whereas the elevated soul of this person, has found his rest in the paradise of spiritual philosophy; he will see the world like a globe in his hand, and glowing with the glory of the great God.

3. The phenomenal world is a false conception, it is verily the increate Brahma himself shining in this manner; this erroneous conception is the very Brahma, that is one and ever calm and undecaying.

4. Whatever thing appears any where, in any state, form or dimension; it is the very Deity, showing himself in that condition of his being, form and mode of extension.

5. This unborn or self-existent Deity, is ever auspicious, calm and quiet; he is undecaying, unperishing and immutable, and extends through all extent, as the extensive and endless space.

6. Whatever state of things he proposes in his all-knowing intellect, the same is disposed by him in a thousand ways, like the branching out of a plant in the rains.

7. The great mundane egg, is situated as a particle in the bosom of the great intellect of God; and this world of ours is a particle also, being comprised in a grain of our brains.

8. Know therefore, my good friend, thy intellectual sphere to be boundless, and without its beginning or end; and being absorbed in the meditation of thy personal extinction, do thou[Pg 999] remain as quiet as thou art sitting, relying in thy unperturbed and imperishable soul.

9. Wherever there is anything in any state or condition in any part of the world, there you will find the presence of the divine spirit in its form of vacuity; and this without changing its nature of calm serenity, assumes to itself whatever form or figure it likes (or rather evolves them from within itself at its free will).

10. The spirit is itself both the view and its viewer; it is equally the mind and the body, and the subjective and objective alike; It is something and yet nothing at all, being the great Brahma or universal soul, that includes and extends throughout the whole.

11. The phenomenal is not to be supposed as a duality of, or any other than the self-same Brahma; but it is to be known as one and the same with the divine self, as the visible sky and its vacuity.

12. The visible is the invisible Brahma, and the transcendent One is manifest in this apparent whole (because the noumenon shows the phenomenon, as this exhibits the other): therefore it is neither quiescent nor in motion, and the formal is altogether formless.

13. Like dreams appearing to the understanding, do these visions present themselves to the view; the forms are all formless conceptions of the mind, and more intangible ideas of the brain.

14. As conscious beings come to be unconscious of themselves, in their dormant state of sleep; so have all these living and intelligent beings, become unconscious and ignorant of themselves and their souls, and turned to torpid trees that are lost to their sensibility.

15. But the intellect is capable to return to its sensibility, from its state of vegetable torpidity in time; as the dormant soul turns to see its dreams in sleep, and then to behold the vivid outer world after its wakening.

16. Until the living soul is liberated from its charm of self delusion, it is subjected to view its guileful reveries of elemental[Pg 1000] bodies, appearing as a chain of airy dreams, before the mind’s eye in sleep.

17. The mind gathers the dross of dullness about it, as the soul draws the sheath of sleep upon itself; this dullness or dimness of apprehension is not intrinsic in the mind, but an extraneous schesis contracted by it from without.

18. The intellect moulds the form of one, who is conversant with material and insensible things, into a motionless and torpid body; and it is the same intellect, which shapes the forms of others, that are conscious of their intellectual natures, into the bodies of rational and moving being. (The dull soul is degraded to the state of immovable things and rooted trees, but intelligent souls, are elevated to the rank of moving men and other locomotive animals).

19. But all these moving and unmoving beings, are but different modifications and aspects of the same intellect; as the nails and other parts of the human body, are but the multifarious modalities of the same person.

20. The order and nature of things has invariably continued the same, as they have been ordained by the Divine will ever since its first formation of the world; and because the creation is a transcript of its original mould in the Divine mind; it is as ideal as any working of imagination or a vision in dreaming, both in its states of being and not being.

21. But the intangible and quiescent Brahma, is ever calm and quiet in his nature; he is never permeated with the nature of things, nor is he assimilated with the order of nature.

22. He appears as the beginning and end of creation, or as the cause of its production and dissolution; but these are the mere dreams of the Divine intellect, which is always in its state of profound sleep and rest.

23. The world is ever existent in his spiritual nature, and without any beginning or end of himself; the beginning and end of creation, bear no relation with his self-existent and eternal nature.

24. There is no reality in the nature of the visible creation, or in its existence or dissolution; all these are no other than[Pg 1001] representations shown in the spirit of God, like figures described in a picture.

25. As a legion drawn in painting, does not differ from its model in the mind of the painter; so these tangible objects of creation, with all other endless varieties, are not different from their prototype in the mind of God.

26. Notwithstanding the want of any difference, between the noumenal and phenomenal worlds; yet the mind is prone to view the variance of its subjectivity and objectivity, as it is apt to differentiate its own doings and dreams, in the states of its sleep and ignorance. It is the profound sleep and insouciance of the soul, that cause its liberation from the view, as its sensibility serves to bind it the more to the bondage of the visibles.

27. It is the reflexion of the invisible soul, that exhibits the visible to view, just as the subtile sunbeam, displays a thousand solid bodies glaring in sight; and shows the different phases of creation and dissolution as in its visions in dreaming.

28. The dreaming state of the sleeping intellect is called its ideality, and the waking state of the self-conscious soul is termed its vitality, as in the instances of men and gods and other intellectual beings.

29. After passing from these, and knowing the unreality of both these imaginative and speculative states, the soul falls into its state of profound sleep or trance, which is believed as the state of liberation by those that are desirous of their emancipation.

30. Ráma said:—Tell me, O venerable sir, in what proportion doth the intellect abide in men, gods and demons respectively; how the soul reflects itself during the dormancy of the intellect in sleep, and in what manner does it contain the world within its bosom.

31. Vasishtha replied:—Know the intellect to abide alike in gods and demons, as well as in all men and women; it dwells also in imps and goblins, and in all beasts and birds, reptiles and insects, including the vegetables and all immovable things (within its ample sphere).

[Pg 1002]

32. Its dimension is boundless and also as minute as an atom; and it stretches to the highest heaven, including thousands of worlds within itself.

33. The capacity that we have of knowing the regions beyond the solar sphere, and even of penetrating into the darkness of polar circles; is all the quality of our intellect, which extends all over the boundless space, and is perfectly pellucid in its form and nature.

34. So very great is the extent of the intellect, that it comprehends the whole universe in itself; and it is this act of his comprehension of the whole, that is called the mundane creation, which originates from it.

35. The intellect spreads all around like the current of a river, which glides all along over the ground both high and low, leaving some parts of it quite dry, and filling others with its waters. So doth the intellect supply some bodies with intelligence, while it forsakes others and leaves them in ignorance.

36. It is intelligence which constitutes the living soul of the body, which is otherwise said to be lifeless and insensible; it resides in all bodies like the air in empty pots, and becomes vivid in some and imperceptible in others as it likes.

37. It is its knowledge of the soul (i.e. the intellectual belief in its spiritual), that removes the error of its corporeity; while the ignorance of its spiritual nature, tends the more to foster the sense of its corporeality, like one’s erroneous conception of water in the mirage.

38. The mind is as minute as the minutest ray of sunbeams; and this is verily the living soul, which contains the whole world within it.

39. All this phenomenal world is the phenomenon of the mind, as it is displayed in its visionary dreams; and the same being the display of the living soul, there is no difference at all between the noumenal and the phenomenal.

40. The intellect alone is assimilated into all these substances, which have substantiality of their own; whatever is seen without it, is like its visionary dream, or as the forms of jewelleries[Pg 1003] made of the substance of gold. (i.e. The intellect is the intrinsic essence of all external substances).

41. As the same water of the one universal ocean, appears different in different places; and in its multifarious forms of waves and billows; so doth the divine intellect exhibit the various forms of visibles in itself. (i.e. Nothing is without or different from the divine essence).

42. As the fluid body of waters, rolls on incessantly in sundry shapes within the basin of the great deep; so do these multitudes of visible things, which are inherent in and identic with the divine intellect, glide on forever in its fathomless bosom.

43. All these worlds are situated as statues, or they are engraved as sculptures in the aerial column of the divine intellect; and are alike immovable and without any motion of theirs through all eternity.

44. We see the situation of the world, in the vacuous space of our consciousness; as we see the appearances of things in our airy dreams. We find moreover everything transfixed in its own sphere and place, and continuing in its own state, without any change of its position or any alteration in its nature. (The invariable course of nature, is not the fortuitous production of blind chance).

45. The exact conformity of everything in this world, with its conception in the mind of man, with respect to their invariable equality in form and property, proves their identity with one another, or the relation of one being the container of the other. (i.e. The mind is either same with or container of the world).

46. There is no difference between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds, as there <is> none between those in our dream and imagination. They are in fact, the one and same thing, as the identity of the waters, contained in tanks, rivers and seas, and between the curse and blessing of gods.

47. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether a curse or blessing, is the effect of any prior cause or the causation of subsequent consequences; and whether it <is> possible for any effect to take[Pg 1004] place without its adequate causality. (Here is a long legend of the transformation of Nundi and Nahusha given in illustration of this passage in the commentary).

48. Vasishtha replied:—It is the manifestation of the clear firmament of the divine intellect in itself, that is styled as the world; just as the appearance and motion of waters in the great deep, is termed the ocean and its current.

49. The revolution of the eternal thoughts of the divine mind, resembles the rolling waves of the deep; and these are termed by sages, as the will or volitions of the ever wilful mind of God.

50. The clear minded soul comes in course of time, to regard this manifestation of the divine will, in its true spiritual light; by means of its habitual meditation and reasoning, as well as by cause of its natural good disposition and evenness of mind.

51. The wise man possest of consummate wisdom and learning, becomes acquainted with the true knowledge of things; his understanding becomes wholly intellectual, and sees all things in their abstract and spiritual light; and is freed from the false view of duality (or materiality).

52. The philosophic intellect, which is unclouded by prejudice, is the true form of the Great Brahma himself; who shines perspicuous in our consciousness, and has no other body besides.

53. The enlightened soul sees this whole plenitude of creation, as the display of the Divine Will alone; and as the exhibition of the tranquil and transparent soul of the Divinity, and naught otherwise.

54. This manifestation of the Divine Will, in the boundless space of the universe; likens to the aerial castle of our imagination, or the city of palaces seen in our dream.

55. This all productive will, is selfsame with the Divine Soul; and produces whatever it likes to do any place or time. (Lit. Whatever it wills, the same takes place even then and there).

56. As a boy thinks of his flinging stones, at the aerial castle of his imagination; so the Divine will is at liberty to[Pg 1005] scatter, myriads of globular balls, in the open and empty space of boundless vacuity.

57. Thus everything being the manifestation of the Divine will, in all these three worlds; there is nothing as a blessing or curse (i.e. good or evil) herein, which is distinct from the Divine Soul.

58. As we can see in our fancy, the gushing out of oil from a sandy desert; so can we imagine the coming out of the creation, from the simple will of the Divine Soul.

59. The unenlightened understanding, being never freed from its knowledge of particulars and their mutual differences: It is impossible for it to generalize good and evil, under the head of universal good. (“All partial evil is but universal good”. Pope).

60. Whatever is willed in the beginning, by the omniscience of God; the same remains unaltered at all times, unless it is altered by the same omniscient will.

61. The contraries of unity and duality, dwell together in the same manner in the formless person of Brahma; as the different members of an embodied being, remain side by side in the same person. (The knowledge of all contrarieties, blends together in omniscience. Gloss).

62. Ráma said:—Why some ascetics of limited knowledge, are so very apt to confer their blessings, as also to pour their imprecations on others; and whether they are attended with their good or bad results or not.

63. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is disposed in the beginning, by the Divine will which subsists in Brahma; the very same comes to pass afterwards, and nothing otherwise. (Lit. there is no other principle besides).

64. Brahmá the Lord of creation, knew the Supreme Soul in himself, and thereby he became the agent of the Divine will; therefore there is no difference between them (i.e. betwixt Brahmá and Brahma); as there is none between the water and its fluidity.

65. Whatsoever the Lord of creatures—Brahmá, proposes to[Pg 1006] do at first as inspired in him by the Divine will; the same takes place immediately, and the very same is styled this world.

66. It has no support nor receptacle for itself, but appears as vacuous bubble in the great vacuity itself; and resembles the chain of pearls, fleeting before the eyes of purblind men in the open sky.

67. He willed the productions of creatures, and institution of the qualities of justice, charity and religious austerities; He stablished the Vedas and sástras, and the five system of philosophical doctrines. (Namely; the four Vedas and the Smritis, forming the five branches of sacred knowledge, and the five branches of profane learning—consisting of the Sánkhya yoga, Pátanjala, Pásupata, and Vaishnava systems. Gloss).

68. It is also ordained by the same Brahmá, that whatever the devotees-learned in the Vedas, pronounce in their calmness or dispute, the same takes place immediately (from their knowledge of the Divine will).

69. It is he that has formed the chasm of vacuum in the inactive intellect of Brahma, and filled it with the fleeting winds and heating fire; together with the liquid water and solid earth.

70. It is the nature of this intellectual principle, to think of everything in itself; and to conceive the presence of the same within it, whether it be a thought of thee or me or of anything beside (either in general or particular).

71. Whatever the vacuous intellect thinks in itself, the same it sees present before it; as our actual selves come to see, the unreal sights of things in our dreams.

72. As we see the unreal flight of stones, as realities in our imagination; so we see the false appearance of the world, as true by the will of God, and the contrivance of Brahma.

73. Whatever is thought of by the pure intellect, must be likewise of a purely intellectual nature also; and there is nothing that can do it otherwise (or convert it to grossness), as they defile the pure metal with some base alloy.

74. We are apt to have the same conceptions of things in our consciousness, as we are accustomed to consider them, and[Pg 1007] not of what we are little practiced to think upon; hence we conceive all that we see in our dreams to be true, from our like conceptions of them in our waking state. (It is thus that we conceive this purely ideal world as a gross body, from our habit of thinking so at all times).

75. It is by uniting one’s intellectuality, with the universal and divine intellect, and by the union of the subjective and objective and their perceptibility in one’s self, by means of the tripúti yoga, that we can see the world in its true light.

76. One universal and vacuous intellect, being all pervading and omnipresent, is the all seeing subject and all seen objects by itself; hence whatever is seen or known to be anywhere, is the very verity of the intellect and no other.

77. As oscillation is inherent in air, and fluidity is immanent in water; so is amplitude intrinsical in Brahma, and the plentitude is innate in the Divine mind.

78. Even I am Brahma also in his self manifest form of Virát, which embodies the whole world as its body; hence there is no difference of the world from Brahma, as there is none between air and vacuity.

79. As the drops of water as a cataract, assume many forms and run their several ways; so the endless works of nature take their various forms and courses, at different places and times.

80. All beings devoid of their senses and understanding, issue as waters of the waterfall, from the cascade of the divine mind; and remain forever in their uniform courses, with the consciousness of their existence in Brahma.

81. But such as come forth from it, with the possession of their senses and intellects in their bodies, deviate in different ways like the liquid waters, in pursuit of their many worldly enjoyments.

82. They are then insensibly led, by their want of good sense, to regard this world as theirs (i.e. the sphere of their actions, कर्म्मक्षेत्र); being ignorant of its identity with the uncreated spirit of God.

[Pg 1008]

83. As we see the existence and distribution of other bodies in us, and the inertness of stones in our bodies; so the Lord perceives the creation and annihilation of the world, and its inertia in himself.

84. As in our state of sleep we have both our sound sleep and our dreams also; so doth the divine soul perceive the creation as well as its annihilation, in its state of perfect rest and tranquility.

85. The divine soul perceives in its state of tranquility, the two phases of creation and destruction, succeeding one another as its day and night; just as we see our sleep and dreams recurring unto us like darkness and light.

86. As a man sees in his mind, both the dream of moving bodies as well as immovable rocks in his sleep; so does the Lord perceive the ideas, both of the stable and unstable in his intellectual tranquility. (i.e. It is possible for the intellect to conceive the ideas of gross bodies also).

87. As a man of absent mind, has no heed of the dust flying on any part of his body; so the divine spirit is not polluted, by his entertaining the ideas of gross bodies within itself.

88. As the air and water and stones, are possessed of the consciousness of their airy, watery and solid bodies, so are we conscious of our material, intellectual and spiritual bodies likewise.

89. As the mind that is freed from seeing the objects of sight, and liberated from entertaining all their thoughts and desires also, flows along like a stream of limpid waters; so doth the current of the divine spirit glide on eternally, with the waves and eddies of creation and dissolution, perpetually rolling on and whirling therein.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how can one paramount destiny, guide the fates of these endless chains and varieties of beings; and how can one uniform nature, be the predominant feature of all these various kinds of beings.

2. Say why is the sun so very shining among the myriads of gods, and cause is it that lengthens and shortens, the durations of days and nights (in summer and winter).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever the Lord has ordained at first of himself (i.e. of his own will and wisdom); the same appearing as the fortuitous formation of chance, is called the very system of the universe.

4. All that is manifested in any manner by omnipotence, is and continues as real in the same manner; because what is made of the pith of divine will and intelligence, can never be unreal; nor is it possible for the manifest and obvious to be evanescent.

5. All that is situated or appears to us in any manner, being composed of the divine intellect, must continue to remain for ever in the same manner; this appearance of creation and its disappearance in its dissolution, are both attributed to the unseen power of its destiny.

6. To say this one is such and that is otherwise, is to attribute them to the manifestation of Brahma as so and so; and these formations of theirs, together with their ultimate dissolution, are called the acts of their destiny.

7. The three states of waking, sleeping and dreaming, appearing to the nature of the soul, are no way separated from it; as the fluidity and motion of water, are not otherwise than properties of the same limpid liquid.

[Pg 1010]

8. As vacuity is the property of air, and warmth of the sunshine, and as odour is the quality of camphor; so the states of waking, sleeping and dreaming, appertain to the very nature of the soul, and are inseparable from it.

9. Creation and dissolution follow one another, in the one and same current of the Divine Intellect; which in its vacuous form, subsists in the vacuous spirit of Brahma.

10. What is believed as creation, is but a momentary flash of the Divine Intellect; and that which is thought to be a kalpa period, is but a transient glare of the same. (A kalpa age is but a fleeting moment in the eternal duration of Brahma).

11. The sky and space and the things and actions, that come to our knowledge at any time; are as mere dreams occurring unto us, by a flash of the glaring nature of the Divine Intellect.

12. The sights of things and the eternal thoughts, and whatever occurs at any time or place; are all presented unto us by our minds, from their formless shapes or ideas in the vacuous intellect of God. (The mind derives the formal images, from their ideals subsisting in the Divine Intellect).

13. Whatever is thus manifested by the mind or designed by it at any time, the same is termed its destiny, which is devoid of any form like the formless air.

14. The uniform state of things for a whole kalpa age, measuring but a moment of Brahma; is what is expressed by the word nature, by natural philosophers that know all nature.

15. The one soul—consciousness or universal intelligence (of God), is diversified into a hundred varieties of living beings; and every portion of this general intelligence, retains the same intellection like its original, without forsaking its nature (Note: As the one element of fire, diversifies itself into many forms of sparks, without losing its properties of heat and burning).

16. The intelligences that appertain to and manifest themselves, in the supreme intelligence of God, do some of them imagine to assume to themselves some embodied forms, in utter ignorance of their intellectual natures.

[Pg 1011]

17. The earth, air, water and fire and vacuum, are severally the receptacles of many properties; but it is the vacuous intellect which is the great repository of these, that appear as dreams hovering all about it.

18. This place contains the vast receptacle, for the reception of all tangible and solid bodies; and this spacious earth with all the population on its surface, is seated in the midst of it.

19. It has a place for the vast body of waters, or the great ocean in it; and affords a seat to the sun—the source of light; it has a space for the course of the winds, and a vacuum containing all the worlds in it.

20. It is the reservoir of the five elements, which are the quintuple principles of our knowledge; and it being thus the container of the quintessence of Brahma, what is seen or anything else before it.

21. The learned call this intelligence as the intellect and omniscience; it is omniform, uniformed and all-pervading, and is perceived by all owing to its greatness and its great magnitude.

22. Brahmá the son or offspring of Brahma; is the selfsame Brahma himself; who by expanding his intelligence, has expanded the vacuum under the name of firmament; and as an awning of silk in cloth. (In fact nothing was made by the father but by the son).

23. When delusion rules over the intellect of Brahmá and over the subtile and gross matters; then how is it possible for other things, that are but parts of them, to stand good in law?

24. It is simply by his will (and without any external appliance), that this god Brahma stretched the network of the universe, as a spider weaves its web out of itself; it revolves like a disc or wheel in the air, and whirls like a whirlpool in the hollow depth of the intellect, appearing as it were a sensible sphere in the heavens.

25. These spheres present some bodies of great brightness, and others of a lesser light; which there are some scarcely visible to us, and all appearing as figures in a painting.

26. All created objects appear in this manner and those[Pg 1012] that are not created never appear to view; but they all appear as visions in a dream, to the sight of the learned.

27. The intellect is the selfsame soul, and the Lord of All, and the seeming visibles are all really invisible; they are all evanescent for their want of lasting bodies; and neither are they visible by themselves, nor are they ever perceptible to or seen by us.

28. The vacuous intellect, sees these as its dreams in the great vacuity of the intellect, and this world being no other than a phenomenon of the vacuous intellect, can have no other form than that of mere vacuum.

29. Whatever is manifested by the intellect in any manner, the same is called its form and body; and the countenance of that manifested form for a certain period, is termed its nature or destiny.

30. The first manifestation of the divine intellect, in the form of vacuum and as the vehicle of sound; became afterwards the source of the world, which sprouted forth like a seed, in the great granary of vacuity. (The conveying of sound and the containing of worlds are the nature of vacuum).

31. But the account given of the genesis of the world, and of the creation of things one after the other, are mere fabrication of sages for instruction of the ignorant, and has no basis on truth. (Because no reason can be assigned for the Lord’s production of the material world).

32. There is nothing that is ever produced of nothing, nor reduced to nothingness at any time; all this is as quiet and calm as the bosom of a rock, and ever as real as it is unreal. (The world is real in the ideal, but an utter unreality in its materiality).

33. As there existed no separate body before, so there can be no end of it also; all things exist as inseparable infinitesimal with the spirit of God, and can therefore neither rise nor set in it where they are always present.

34. The vacuous world existing in vacuum of the divine spirit, is a pure vacuity or blank only; how is it possible then to rise or set in it, or go beyond it to rise or set elsewhere.

[Pg 1013]

35. What is the world, but a ray of the ever shining gem of divine intellect; before whose omniscience, every thing shines for ever in its own light and nature.

36. The Divine spirit though unknown to all, makes itself some what conceivable to us in our consciousness of it, and in our thinkableness of it, and by means of our reasoning and reflection.

37. We can get some knowledge of it by our reason, as we can draw inferences of future events by means of our reasoning; this knowledge is rarer than that of the subtile element of air, and fainter than our prescience into the future of all things.

38. Then this transcendental essence of the divine spirit, being about to reflect in itself, becomes the thinking principle called the intellect, which is somewhat intelligible to us.

39. Having then the firm conviction of its consciousness in itself, it takes the name of the living soul, which is known by the title of Anima, meaning the supreme spirit or soul.

40. This living soul embodied in itself the nameless avidyá or ignorance, which shrouded the atmosphere of its intellect, and superceded the title of the pure intelligence. (The living soul jívátmá is involved in ignorance máyá, of its original state of Chiddáta or the intelligent soul).

41. It is then employed in the thoughts, of its bodily conduct and worldly carrier only; and being forgetful of its spiritual nature, is engaged in the discharge of his temporal functions.

42. Being thus forgetful of its nature of vacuum, which possesses the property of conveying the sound, it becomes prepossessed with the error of taking the future material bodies for real, in lieu of the reality of the intellect.

43. It gets next the motion of its egoism, with the idea of time, in its spiritual body; and then these two run together, in quest of the material elements, which are the seeds for the growth of the forth coming world.

44. Then the thinking power of the living soul, begets the sense of consciousness within itself; and produces therein the conviction of the unreal world, as a positive reality.

[Pg 1014]

45. After this the thinking principle or the mind, bursts out like a seed into a hundred sprouts of its wishes; and then by reflecting on its egoism, thinks as a living being at the very moment.

46. Thus the pure spirit passing under the name of living soul, is entangled in the maze of its erroneous and unreal reality, has been rolling like a heaving wave in the depth of the universal spirit. (All living souls of animate beings, are as bursting bubbles in the ocean of the eternal spirit).

47. The mind by constantly reflecting at first on the vacuous nature of the living soul; is stultified at last to think it as solidified into the nature of animal life or the vital air or breath of life.

48. This being became the source of articulate sounds or words, which were expressive of certain meanings, and significant of things, that were to be created afterwards; and were to be embodied in the wording of the Vedas. (The Lord spake and all things came out at his bidding, which were afterwards stated in the Book of Genesis).

49. From him was to issue forth the would be world, by virtue of the words which he spake to denote the things he meant; the words that he invented were fraught with their meanings, and productive of the things which they expressed.

50. The intellect being employed in this manner (in the thoughts of creation), takes upon it the title of a living being; which being garbed in significant words, was productive of all existent entities. (The volitive principle of the divine intellect, takes the name of the living soul or Brahmá the creative agent).

51. It was this self-existent entity that produced the fourteen spheres, which fill the whole space of vacuity; and which give rise to so many worlds that subsist therein.

52. But before this being had the power of his speech, and of the use of his limbs and body, it remained to reflect only on the significations of words, having had his mind alone the only active part of himself. (So the mind alone of a living body, is[Pg 1015] the only active part of it in its embryonic state, before its attainment of the functions of all its other parts and members).

53. As the air devolopes a seed to a plant, by exhaling on its outer coat, so doth the intellect develope the bodily functions of living beings, by working in its internal parts. (i.e. The mind actuates the action of the body).

54. And as the oscillating intellect or mind, happens to come across the idea of light; it beholds the same appearing to view; as it is conveyed before it by its significant sound (i.e. as meant by the word).

55. Light is only our intellection or notion of it, and nothing without it; as feeling is our consciousness of it, and not the perception derived by means of the touch of anything. (This is theory of Berkeley).

56. So is sound but our consciousness of it, and a subjective conception of our mind; as vacuum is a conception of the vacuous mind, and as the receptacle of sound caused by itself.

57. As in this state of sound it is known to be the product of air in its own vacuity, so everything else is the product of our consciousness, and there nothing as a duality beside it.

58. So the properties of odour and flavour, are as well as the substances of sound and air; and these unrealities seem as real ones, like the dreams that are seen and thought of in our minds.

59. Heat which is the seed or seat of the arbor of light, and evolves itself in the radiance and other luminous bodies; are the forms of the same intellect, that shows itself in all things.

60. So is flavour a mere quality of empty air, is thought of as a reality in every article of our food and drink; and is a mere name without its substance.

61. All other things, which were hereafter to be designated by different names as fragrance &c., are but so many forms of the thoughts and desires existing in the mind of this living being or Brahmá.

62. This being had in his mind the seed of all forms and dimensions, from which was to proceed this terrestrial globe, that was to become afterwards the support of all creatures.

[Pg 1016]

63. All things yet unborn, appeared as already born in this divine mind, which was filled with the models of all future existences of every kind; and all these formless beings had their forms afterwards, as it thought and willed them to be (i.e. The ideal became the real at last).

64. These forms appeared to view as by an act of chance, and the organs whereby they came to be seen, were afterwards called by name of eyes, or the visual organs of sight.

65. The organs which gave the perception of sounds, were named the ears; and those which bore the feeling of touch to the mind, were called the organs of feeling or त्वक्.

66. The organ of perceiving the flavours, was styled the tongue or organ of taste; and that which received the perception of smell, were termed the nose or organ of scent.

67. The living soul being subjected to its corporeal body, has no perception of the distinctions of time and place by means of its bodily organs, which are so imperfect and soulless on the whole. (i.e. He is not thoroughly diffused all over the body, but has its seat in the mind also, which perceives the abstract ideas of time and space and all other abstract natures of things).

68. In this manner are all things but imageries of the soul, and ideals of the intellect, and wholly confined in the soul; they neither appear nor set on the out side of it, but are set as silent engravings in the stony and stiff bosom of the same.

Vasishtha continued:—The fiction of the first rise of the living soul; from the calm and quiet spirit of God as said before, is merely fictitious and not a true one; but was meant to elucidate the nature of the animate soul, as the same with and not distinct from the Supreme soul.

2. In this manner the fiction (of the living soul) means that, this being a part of the supreme soul is verily the same with it. (As the air in the pot or cot, is the same as universal air or vacuum). It is when the subjective soul is employed with the thoughts of the objective, that it is termed the living God or spirit. (Hence the quiescent and creative souls, are but the states or hypostases of the same soul).

3. The inclination of the self-intelligent or subjective soul, towards thinkable objects of thought, garbs it under a great many fictitious names or epithets, which you shall now hear me, O Ráma, relate to you in all their varieties.

4. It is called the living soul or jíva, from its power of living and thinking; and from its addictedness towards the thinkables, it is termed the thinking principle and the intellect.

5. It is termed intelligence for its intellection of this thing as that, as well as for its knowledge of what is what; and it is called the mind from its mending, willing and imagining of many things. (The three powers of the mind are here reckoned, as retention, volition and imagination).

6. The reliance in self that, “I am” is what is called egoism; and the principle of percipience called the mind by the vulgar, is when freed from everything, styled the intellect by the wise and those acquainted with the sástras.

[Pg 1018]

7. It is called the aggregate of the octuple principles or totality of existence, when it is combined with all its wishes of creation; and then named as subtile nature, before its production of the substantial world.

8. Being absent from or imperceptible to our perception, it is called the hidden nature; and in this manner many other fictitious names are given to it by way of fiction or fabrication of our imagination. (The word avidyá here meant as absent, is elsewhere explained as unknown and as ignorance and illusion also).

9. All these fictitious appellations that I have told thee here, are mere inventions of our fancy, for the one formless and changeless eternal being.

10. In this manner are all these three worlds, but the fairy lands of our dream and the castles of our imagination; they appear as objects made for our enjoyment and bliss, but are in reality an intactible vacuity.

11. So must you know, O best of embodied beings, that this body of yours is of a spiritual or intangible nature; it is the intellectual body formed of the vacuous intellect, which is rarer than the rarified air.

12. It never rises nor sets (i.e. it is neither born nor dies) in this world, but continue with our consciousness of ourselves, until our final liberation from the sense of our personalities. This mental body or mind of ours, is the recipient of the fourteen worlds and all created objects.

13. It is in the extensive regions of our minds, that millions of worlds continue to be created and dissolved in the course of time; and an unnumbered train of created beings, are growing and falling as fruits in it in the long run of time. (The mind and time, contain all things).

14. This intellectual body beholds the world, both inside and outside of it; as the looking glass reflects and refracts, the outward and its inward images both in as well as out of it; and as the open air reflects and shows us the upper skies.

15. The mind must bear these images in its mirror, until its final dissolution with all things at the end of the world; when[Pg 1019] all minds and bodies and all the world and their contents, are to be incorporated in the great vacuum of the Divine Mind.

16. The compactness of the Divine Mind, which comprehends all images or ideas in itself, imparts them partly in all individual minds, which are but parts of itself, and which are made to think likewise. (This passage maintains the innate ideas derived immediately from God).

17. This spiritual body that was employed in viewing the inborn world in itself; is turned as the form of the Great Brahmá by some, and as that of the God Virát by others.

18. Some call him the sanátana or sempiternal, and others give him the name of Náráyana or floating on the surface of the waters. Some style him as Ísha and by his name as Prajápati—the Lord of creatures (Patriarch).

19. This being chanced to have, his five organs of sense on a sudden, and these were seated in the several parts of his body, where they still retain there seats as before.

20. Then his delusion of the phenomenal, seemed to extend too far and wide, without any appearance of reality therein, all being a vast waste and void. (The noumenal only is the true reality).

21. It was all the appearance of that eternal and transcendental Brahma, and not of the unreal phenomenal which is never real; it is the very Brahma, which is without its beginning and end, and appearing in a light quite unintelligible to us. (Being imperceptible in his person, his reality is hid under the garb of unreality).

22. Our inquiry into the spiritual form of the deity, leads us to take the delusive world as such; just as the longing of the ardent lover after his loved one, leads him to the view of its bloated phantom in his dream (i.e. in our search after the spiritual, we are misled to take the corporeal as such).

23. As we have the blank and formless notion of a pot, presented in the real shape of the pot in our minds; so have we the notions of our bodies and the world also, represented as realities in dreams and imagination.

24. As the dreamed objects of our vacuous minds, seem to[Pg 1020] be real ones for the time in our sleep; so all these aerial objects in nature, appear as solid substances in the delusion of our dreams by daylight.

25. This spiritual and formless body (of the deity), comes to be gradually perceived in us and by itself also; as we come to see the aerial forms presenting themselves unto us in our dream.

26. It is then embodied in a gross body, composed of flesh and bones, and all its members, and its covering of the skin and hairs; and in this state it thinks (of its carnal appetites and enjoyments).

27. It then reflects on its birth and acts in that body, and upon the duration and end of that body also; and entertains the erroneous ideas of the enjoyments and incidents of its life.

28. It comes to know its subjection to decay, decrepitude and death, and of its wanderings on all sides of the wide sphere of this globe; it gets the knowledge of the knower and known, and also of the beginning, middle and of all acts and things.

29. And thus the primordial spirit, being transformed to the living soul, comes to know the elementary bodies of earth, air, and water &c, and the varieties of created beings and conduct of men and finds itself as contained and confined within the limits of its body and of this earth, after its having been the container of all bodies and space before. (The difference here spoken of, is that of the personal soul of the jíva or living being, and that of the impersonal soul of Brahma—the universal spirit).

Vasishtha continued:—This spiritual body (or the personal spirit), as that of Brahma—the primeval creator of all; being possessed of its volition, comes as by an act of chance and of its own motion, to think and brood on its thoughts; (which it had derived from the eternal spirit of Brahma).

2. It continues to remain in the same state, as it is ever conscious of in itself; and sees of its own nature, this universe exposed before it as it had in his mind, nor is there and wonder in this.

3. Now this viewer—Brahma, and his viewing and the view of the world, must either all be false (as there is no duality in nature); or they must all be true, having the spirit of Brahma at the bottom.

4. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, please to tell me, how this spiritual and shadowy sight of the primeval Lord of creation, could be realized in its solidified state, and reality can there be in the vision of a dream.

5. Vasishtha replied:—The spiritual view is ever apparent by itself within ourselves; and our continuous and ceaseless sight of it, gives it the appearance of a solid reality.

6. As the visionary sights of our dreams, come to be realized in times, by our continuous poring upon them; so doth the spiritual appear as real, by our constant habit of thinking them as such. (So it is recorded in the case of King Harischandra of old).

7. The constant thought of the reality of our spiritual body, makes appear as a real object to our sight; as the constant craving of deer after water, makes it appear in the mirage of the parched desert before them.

[Pg 1022]

8. So the vision of this world, has like every other fallacy, misled us like the poor and parching deer, to the misconception of water in the mirage; and does this and all other unrealities appear as real ones in our ignorance.

9. Many spiritual and intellectual objects, like a great many unreal things, are taken for the material and real, by the avidity of their desires and ignorant admirers.

10. The impression that I am this, and that one is another, and that this is mine and that is his; and that these are the hills and skies about us; are all as erroneous as the conception of reality in our dreams and false phantoms of the brain.

11. The spiritual body which was at first conceived, by the prime creator of all—Brahmá, assumed a material form as that of a globe under his sight. (Meaning the Mundane egg).

12. The living soul of Brahma, being born of the mundane egg in a corporeal body; forgot or rather forsook to think of its incorporeal intellectuality, and thought himself as composed of his present material body only. He looked into it and thought, that this was his body and the recipient of his soul: (instead of the souls being the fountain of the body).

13. Then it becomes confined in that body, by its belief of the unreality as a sober reality; and then it thinks of many things within itself, and goes on seeking and running after them all. (But the steady soul is sedate, and has all within itself, without seeking them elsewhere without).

14. This God then makes many symbolical sounds and forms (invents) words for names and actions; and at last upon his utterance of the mystic syllable Om or (on) the Vedas rang out and sang in currents of verbiage.

15. Then through the medium of those sacred words, the god ordained the ordinances for the conduct of all mankind; and everything turned to be, as he wished and thought it to be in his own mind. (Hence Brahmá is said the creative mind of God).[4]

[Pg 1023]

16. Whatever exists in any manner, the same is the self same Brahmá itself; and yet no body perceives it as such, owing to the predominant error of all, of believing the unreal world as a real existence.

17. All the things from the great Brahmá down to all, are but false appearances as those of dreams and magical show; and yet the spiritual reality is utterly lost to sight, under the garb of material unreality (i.e. The unreal matter is taken for real spirit).

18. There is nothing as materiality anywhere and at any time; it is the spiritual only which by our habitual mode of thinking and naming, is said to be substantial, elemental and material.

19. This our fallacy of materiality, has come to us from our very source in Brahmá—the creator; who entertained the false idea of the material world, and transmitted this error even into the minds of the wise and very great souls.

20. How is it possible, O Ráma, for the intelligent soul, to be thus confined in a clod of earth, all this must either be an illusory scene, or a representation of Brahma himself.

21. There can be no other cause of this world, except the eternal causality of Brahma; who is self-existent, only without any action or causation of himself; thus the Supreme soul being wholly devoid of the attributes of cause and effect, what can this world be, but an extension of the Divine essence?

Vasishtha continued:—Gaining the knowledge of knowables, is called our bondage in this world; but it is our release from the bonds of knowable objects, that is termed our liberation from it.

2. Ráma rejoined:—But how can it be possible, sir, to get our escape from the knowledge of the knowables, and how can our rooted knowledge of things, and our habitual sense of bounden to them, be removed from us.

3. Vasishtha replied:—It is the perfection of our knowledge, and feeling of it as such, that removes our misjudgment; and then we get our liberation from error, after disappearance of our inborn bias.

4. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is that simply uniform feeling, and what is called that complete and perfect knowledge said to be, which releases the living soul entirely, from its fetters of error.

5. Vasishtha replied:—The soul is full with its subjective knowledge of intuition, and has no need of the objective knowledge of the knowables from without; and perfect knowledge is our inward sense of the same, and not expressible in words.

6. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, whether the knowableness of knowledge, that is whether the internal knowledge of the knowing soul, is the same or separate from itself; and whether the word jnána or knowledge, is taken in its instrumental or abstract sense (i.e. whether it is used to mean the power by means of which we derive our knowledge, or the so derived knowledge itself).

[Pg 1025]

7. Vasishtha replied:—All perception is knowledge, and this term is denotative of its causality also (as we say, my knowledge is my guide, i.e. the instrumentality of my guidance). Hence there is no difference between knowledge and the known or the knowable, as there is none between the air and its ventilation.

8. Ráma rejoined:—If it be so (that there is no difference between them); then tell me, whence arises the error of difference in our conception of them; the conception of the materiality of the perceptible or objective world, must be as erroneous as that of the horns of a hare, which had never been in esse, nor are likely to be at any time in future.

9. Vasishtha replied:—The error of the reality of external objects, gives rise to the error of the reality to our knowledge of them also; but there is no inward object of thought, nor of the outward senses, has ever any reality in it.

10. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O sage, how can you deny the existence of those objects, which are evident to the senses of mine, thine and all others alike; and which are ever present in their thoughts in the minds of sensible beings.

11. Vasishtha replied:—It was at the time of the first creation of the world, that the self manifested God Virát, exhibited the outline of the cosmos in a corner of his all-comprehensive mind; but as nothing was produced in reality, there is no possibility of our knowing any as a knowable or real entity.

12. Ráma rejoined:—How can our common sight, of the present, past and future prospects of this world; and our daily perception of things, which are felt by all in general, be regarded as nothing by your teaching. (Common sense can not be controverted by abstruse philosophy).

13. Vasishtha replied:—Just as the dreamer’s vision in sleep, the deer’s mistake of water in the mirage in sand, the illusory sight of a moon in the sky, and the prospects of our delusive fancies, do all disappear on right observation; so the false perceptions of worldly things, and the mistaken conceptions of our own entities, are as erroneous as the sights of the false lights in[Pg 1026] the empty air. (These dissolve as dreams upon waking, and the testimony of one waking man, is enough to disperse the deceptive sights of all dreamers and sleepers).

14. Ráma rejoined:—If our knowledge of I and thou and of this and that, is as false as that of all other things in the womb of the world; why then were these brought into existence, not left to remain in their ideas in the mind of their creator, as they had existed before his creation of them?

15. Vasishtha replied:—It is certain that everything springs from its cause, and not otherwise; what then could there be the (material) cause, for the creation of the world therefrom, after the dissolution of everything at the universal destruction?

16. Ráma replied:—Why sir, cannot that being be the cause of recreation, which remains undestroyed and indestructible, after destruction of the prior creation?

17. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever substance there abides in the cause, the same is evolved in effect also; hence the essence of Brahma being composed of his intellect only, it could not give rise to the material world from itself; as the substance of a pot, cannot produce that of a picture or cloth.

18. Ráma replied:—Why sir, the world existed in its subtile (or ideal) state, in the person (mind) of Brahma (God); from which it issued forth anew and again, after dissolution of the former creation.

19. Vasishtha said:—Tell me, O intelligence Ráma, how could the Lord God (whose nature is composed of pure intelligence), conceive the entity or quintessence of the world in himself, and which like the productive seed, sprang out in the form of the future creation. Say what sort of entity was it.

20. Ráma replied:—It is an entity of Divine intelligence, and is situated in the subjective soul of God in that form. It is neither a vacuous nullity, nor an unreal entity.

21. Vasishtha said:—If it be so, O mighty armed Ráma, that the three worlds are Divine intelligence only; then tell me why bodies formed of pure intelligence (as those of the[Pg 1027] gods and angels), and those having the intelligent soul in them (as those of human beings), are subject to their birth and death.[5]

22. Ráma said:—If then there has been no creation at all at any time from the beginning; then tell me sir, whence has this fallacy of the existence of the world come to be in vogue.

23. Vasishtha replied:—The inexistence of cause and effect, proves the nullity of being and not being (i.e. its annihilation also); all this that is thought of to exist, is the thought and thinking of the divine soul, which is the triputi or triple entity of thinker, thinking and the thought together. (i.e. The soul is both the subjective and objective, as also their connecting predicate by itself).

24. Ráma rejoined:—The thinking soul thinks about the implements and the acts, as the looker looks on the objects of his sight; but how can the divine looker be the dull spectacle (and the object the same with the subject); unless you maintain that the objective fuel burns the subjective fire (which is impossible).

25. Vasishtha replied:—The viewer is not transformed to the view, owing to impossibility of the existence of an objective view; it is the all seeing soul, that shows itself as one solid plenum in itself.

26. Ráma rejoined:—The soul is the pure intellect only, and is without its beginning and end; it thinks only on its eternal and formless thoughts; how then can it present the form and appearance of the visible world.[6]

27. Vasishtha replied:—The thinkables being all causeless of themselves, have none of them any cause whatsoever; and it is the privation of the thinkables, that bespeaks the liberation of the intellect. (The production of the thinkables, is as impossible as the birth of the offspring of a Barren woman. Gloss).

[Pg 1028]

28. Ráma rejoined:—If it is so, then say how and whence have we the thought of our conception of ourselves; and our knowledge of the world, and our sense of motion and the like; (as they are suggested to us by our common sense, and the universal testimony of all people).

29. Vasishtha replied—The impossibility of cause, precludes the possibility of any production; how and whence could the thinkables proceed, when all is quite calm and quiet everywhere, and the knowledge of creation is but an error and a delusion.

30. Ráma rejoined:—Here tell us sir, how this error comes to overshadow the unknowable, unthinkable and the immovable being, that is selfmanifest and ever untainted and clear by itself (Swaprakása or Swayamprakása).

31. Vasishtha replied:—there is no error or mistake herein, owing to its want of any causation also; our knowledge of egoism and tuism, is drowned altogether in that of one unevanescent Unity.

32. Ráma replied:—O venerable sir, I am so bewildered in the error of my consciousness, that I know not what other question I am here to make; I am not so enlightened as the learned, to argue any more on this point.

33. Vasishtha replied:—Do not desist, O Ráma, from making your inquiries concerning the causality of Brahma; until you are satisfied with the proof of his causelessness, as they test the purity of gold on the stone; and then by knowing this, you will be able to repose yourself, in the blissful state of the supremely Blest.

34. Ráma rejoined:—I grant sir, as you say, that there is no creation for want of its cause, but tell me now whence is this my error of the thinkable and its thought (so rooted in me that I can not get rid of it).

35. Vasishtha replied:—There is no error in the belief of the uncaused creation, and in its perfect calmness; but it is for want of your habit of thinking it so (and your bias of the reality of the world), that really makes you so restless.

36. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, whence rise this habit as[Pg 1029] well as the desuetude of this mode of our thinking; and how does our rest proceed from the one, and our disquiet from the other mode of thought.

37. Vasishtha replied:—Belief in the eternal God, breed no error in that of the eternity of the world; it is the habit of thinking it otherwise, that creates the error of creation. Be you therefore as sound in your mind, as the solid minded sages have been.

38. Ráma rejoined:—Please to tell me sir, in your preaching of these lectures to your audience, what other mode of practice there may be, in our attainment of a quietude like that of the living liberated sages.

39. Vasishtha replied:—The lesson that we preach, is to know one’s self as Brahma and resting in the spirit of Brahma; and this knowledge is sure to release the soul, both from its longing for liberation, as also from its dread of bondage in this world.

40. Ráma rejoined:—This doctrine of yours, by its all negative distinctions of our knowledge of time and space, and of our actions and thing, serves to drive away our consciousness of all existence whatsoever from the mind.

41. Vasishtha replied:—Yes, because all our objective knowledge, of the distinctions of time and place and of actions and things in our minds; is the effect of our ignorance of the subjectivity of the soul, beside which there is no other substance—before the liberated spirit.

42. Ráma rejoined:—The absence of our knowledge of an intelligent agent, and also of an intelligible object; deprives us altogether of any intelligence at all; the impossibility of the union of the unity and duality together, must preserve our distinct knowledge of the knowing principle and the known or knowable object. (The transitive verb to know must have an object, and cannot like a neuter or intransitive verb, be confined to or reflect upon its agent. Gloss).

43. Vasishtha replied:—It is by your act of knowing of God, that you have or get your knowledge of Him; therefore the word is taken in its active sense by you and others (Who[Pg 1030] have to know a thing before it is known to them). But with us (or sages like ourselves), who are possest of our intuitive knowledge of ourselves as the deity, it is but a self-reflexive verb. (Gloss. Buddhi with the ignorant, means knowing; but with the sapient, it means feeling).

44. Ráma rejoined:—But how do you feel your finite selves or egoism, and your limited knowledge, as same with the infinite soul and omniscience of the deity; unless it were to ascribe your imperfections to the transcendental divinity, who is purer than the purest water, and rarer than the rarefied ether.

45. Vasishtha replied:—It is the feeling of the perfections of the divine soul in ourselves, that we call our egoism; and not the ascription of our imperfect personalities unto him. And here the duality of the living and divine souls, bears resemblance to the unity of the ventilating breeze with the universal and unfluctuating air. जीबब्रक्षनोरैक्यं ।

46. As the waves of the ocean, have been continually rising and subsiding in it; so the objective thoughts of one’s egoism and the world besides, must be always rising and falling in the subjective soul of the supreme being, as well as self-liberated persons (Hence the subjective and objective cannot be the one and same thing).

47. Vasishtha replied:—If so it be, then say what is the fault, that is so much reprehended in the popular belief of a duality; and in disregarding the creed of the Unity, which is eternal and infinite, full and perfect in itself, quite calm and quiet in its nature, and is termed the transcendent One.

48. Ráma rejoined:—If it be so (that the living soul, is as the breeze or breath of the calm air of Brahma and same with it), then tell me sir, who and what power is it, which conceives the ego, tu and others, which feels and enjoys all as their agent, if the fundamental fallacy of the world be the root of all. (The whole being false, there is nothing as one or an another or as bondage or liberation).

49. Vasishtha replied:—The knowledge of the reality of the objective or knowable things, is the cause of our bondage[Pg 1031] (in this world); true knowledge does not recognise their reality, and full intelligence which assumes the forms of (and shows) all things in itself, sees no difference of bondage or liberation before it. (All things are alike in the full light of intelligence).

50. Ráma rejoined:—Intelligence like light, does not show us all things in the same light; it shows us the difference between a pot and a picture, as light shows the white and black to view. Again as the light of our eye sight shows us the different forms of outward objects, so does our intelligence confirm and attest the reality of our visual perceptions.

51. Vasishtha replied:—All outward objects having no cause of their creation, nor any source of their production, are as incredible as the offspring of a barren woman; and the appearance of their reality which is presented to our sight, is as false as that of silver in a conchshell or in the glittering sands, and not otherwise. (The phenomenal is a mirage, and deception of sight).

52. Ráma rejoined:—The sight of the miserable world, whether it be true or false, is like the startling apparition in a dream, and attended with pain only for the time; tell me therefore the best means, how to avoid and get rid of this error.

53. Vasishtha replied:—The world being never the better than a dream, it is the reflection of the idea of its reality, that is the best method of getting rid of the snare of its tempting joys and sorrows.

54. Ráma rejoined:—But how to effect this object, which may redound to our bliss and rest; say how to put an end to the sight of the world, which shows the sights of falsities as realities, in the continuous train of its deluding dreams.

55. Vasishtha replied:—It is the due consideration of the antecedent and subsequent states of things, which must remove the erroneous impression of their reality; just as the conception of the substantiality of sights seen in our dreams, is eliminated upon reflection of their subsequent disappearance (and bearing no trace of former forms behind).

[Pg 1032]

56. Ráma rejoined:—But how do the rising apparitions of the world, disappear in the depth of our minds, and what do we then come to perceive, after the vestiges of our gross remembrances have faded away? (The mind is never vacant of its thoughts of visible objects).

57. Vasishtha responded:—After the false appearance of the world, has vanished like the faded sight of a city from view; the unconcerned mind of the unconcerned soul, looks upon it as a painting, wholly washed out by the rain (i.e. as a clear blank or vacuity).

58. Ráma asked:—What then becomes of the man, after subsidence of the worldly sights and desires from his mind; like the gross looking objects of a dream; and after the mind rests in its state of listless indifference.

59. Vasishtha replied:—Then the world recedes from his sight, and then this predilection of it, and his desire for its enjoyment depart and die away along with it.

60. Ráma rejoined:—How can this blind and deep rooted predilection, which has accompanied the soul from many previous births, and branched out into multifarious desires, resign its hold of the human heart all at once?

61. Vasishtha replied:—As the knowledge of truth, serves to disperse the rooted error of the material world from the mind, so the sense of the vanity of human desires, and of the bitterness of their enjoyment, dissipate their seeds at once from the heart (where they can take root no more).

62. Ráma rejoined:—After dissipation of the error of materiality, of the visible spheres of worlds; say, O sage, what is that state of the mind which follows it, and how its peace and tranquility at last?

63. Vasishtha replied:—After dissipation of the error of the material world, the mind reverts to its seat in the immaterial soul; where it is released from all its earthly bonds, and finds its rests in the state of an indifferent insouciance—vairágya.

64. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, if the error of the world is as little, as that of a child’s idea of sorrow, then what trouble there is for a man to remedy it?

[Pg 1033]

65. Vasishtha replied:—All our desires, like the fond wishes of boys, being wholly extinct in the mind, there remains no more any cause of any sorrow in it; and this you may well know from the association of desires in all minds.

66. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is the mind, and how are we to know its nature and workings; and what good do we derive, by our best investigation of the mental powers and properties.

67. Vasishtha replied:—The inclination of the intellect towards the intelligibles, is called the mind, for its mending the thinkables only; and the right knowledge of its workings, leads to the extinction of all our worldly desires. (i.e. The thoughts of things, are productive of our desires for them; banish your thoughts, and you get rid of your desires at once).

68. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how long continues this tendency of the intellect towards the thinkables, and when does the mind come to have its unmindfulness, which causes our coma or anæsthesis of Nirvána.

69. Vasishtha replied:—There being a total absence of thinkable things, what is then left for the intellect to be intent upon; the mind dwells upon its thoughts only, but the want of thinkable objects, leaves nothing for it to think upon.

70. Ráma rejoined:—How can there be the absence of thinkables, when we have the ideas in store to think and reflect upon; nor is there any one who can deny the existence of ideas, which are ever imprinted in the mind (i.e. the eternal ideas).

71. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is the ideal world of the ignorant, has no truth in it and is denied by the learned; and the conception which the sapient have of it, is that of a nameless and formless unity only.

72. Ráma rejoined:—What is that knowledge of this triple world of the ignorant, which has no truth or reality therein; and what is the true knowledge of the wise about it, which is inexpressible in words?

73. Vasishtha replied:—The knowledge of the ignorant, regarding the duality of the world, is wholly untrue from first[Pg 1034] to last; but the true knowledge of the wise, neither recognizes a duality herein; nor acknowledges the production hereof; (but views it in the light of a nullity and void).

74. Ráma rejoined:—Whatever is not produced in the beginning, can not of course exist at any time; but how is it, that this unreal and unapparent nothing, could come to produce in us its conception of a something?

75. Vasishtha replied:—This causeless and uncaused unreality of the world, appears unto us as a real entity; like the daydream that presents the false sight of the cosmos as a reality in our waking.

76. Ráma rejoined:—The sights that we see in our dreams, and the images that we conceive in our imagination; are but perceptions derived from our impressions of them in our waking state.

77. Vasishtha replied:—Tell me, O Ráma, whether the things that you see in your dream, or conceive in your imagination, are exactly of the same forms, that you see in your waking state.

78. Ráma replied:—The things that we see in our dream, and conceive of in our fancy or imagination; do all of them appear unto us in the same light, as they show themselves to us in our waking state.

79. Vasishtha questioned:—If the impressions of the waking state, come to represent themselves in our dreaming (and if our dreams are alike our waking sights), then tell me Ráma! why do you find your house standing entire in the morning, which you beheld to have fallen down in your dream.

80. Ráma answered:—I see that the things seen in waking, do not appear the same in dreaming; but tell me sir, why they seem to resemble those that have been seen before.

81. Vasishtha replied:—It is neither the notion nor idea of anything, that appears as a reality in our minds; but the inherent impression of the world in the soul, that exhibits it to us from first to last.

82. Ráma said:—I find it now, that this world is no better[Pg 1035] than a dream; but tell me sir, how to remedy our fallacy of its reality, which holds us fast as a goblin.

83. Vasishtha replied:—Now consider how this dream of the world has come into vogue, and what may be the cause thereof; and knowing that the cause is not different from its effect, view this visible creation in the light of its invisible origin.

84. Ráma said:—But as the mind is the cause of the sights, seen in our dreams in sleep, it must therefore be the same with its creation of this world, which is equally unsubstantial and undecaying as itself. (The world is the permeation of the Divine mind—its maker or pervader).

85. Vasishtha replied:—So it is, O most intelligent Ráma, the world is verily the manas—mens or the mind of God, which is no other than the consolidation of the Divine Intellect or intelligence. Thus the world being situated in the mind, and this in that, it is this mind only that exhibits these dreamlike shows, which originate from it, and have no other source besides.

86. Ráma rejoined:—But why am I not to think the identity of the world with Brahma himself, as there is the identity of the divine mind with him, and that of the mind with the creation. And likewise as the relation of sameness subsists between a component part and its ensemble or the integral whole, as there is between the branch of a tree and the tree itself? (because these are but parts of one undivided whole). But it would be absurd to identify the undivided and formless Brahma, with the divided and formal world.

87. Vasishtha replied:—It is impossible, O Ráma, to identify this frail world with the eternal Brahma, who is increate to identify this perishable, quite calm and quiescent and intact in his nature.

88. Ráma added:—I come to find at last and by a haphazard, my erroneous conception of the world from first to last; as also the error of my attributing the qualities of activity and passivity, to the nature of the transcendent being.

89. Vasishtha concluded with saying:—Now I have fully[Pg 1036] exposed the erroneous views of the world (entertained both by the wise and ignorant), both by the elegance of my poetical diction, as also by the enlightening reasonings of the learned; both of which are calculated to remove the mistaken views of the vacuity and delusion of the world, by establishment of the truth of the whole, as being composed of essence of the One sole and Supreme entity.

Ráma rejoined:—If it is so sir, as you say, the world must be a great riddle; as it can neither be said to be in existence with all its contents, or it is a perfect nullity with every thing quite extinct in it.

2. This existence that shows itself as the world to sight, appears as a delusion or deception of vision in view; though it cannot properly be called an illusion, if it is composed of divine essence as you mean to say.

3. Vasishtha replied:—The fortuitous appearance in which Brahma, manifests himself of his own accord; is known to him as the world and subsisting in himself.

4. Ráma rejoined:—How does Brahma manifest himself as the world, before existence of space and after its extinction (at the ultimate dissolution of creation); and how does the divine spirit shine itself as the world in want of the light of the luminaries?

5. Vasishtha replied:—The world shines in this manner in the light of the Divine Intellect; and know this light to proceed from the Divine spirit, which is thus diffused all over the universe.

6. As the light of the lamp or chandelier, enlightens the house with its lustre; it was thus the holy light of the Divine spirit that shone itself, without presenting its outward appearance, or having any one to look upon it (before creation).

7. Thus it is an immaterial and imperishable entity, without any appearance of or looker on it; it shines with the light of the intellect, upon the basis or stand of the Divine spirit.

8. It shines in its visible appearance, in the sight of the[Pg 1038] spirit only, that constantly looks upon it, as it sees its dreams in sleep.

9. It shines only in the light of the intellect, and appears as the created world before its creation; all its visible and shining sheen being derived from the Supreme.

10. The One supreme intellect alone, assumes the triple forms of the sight, seer and seeing (i.e. the subjective, objective and the attribute), in the beginning of creation; and shows itself as the created world of its own nature and accord.

11. We have the resemblance of such like appearance, presenting unto us in our dreams and creatures of our fancy; and it is in the same manner, that this creation shines before us with the light of the intellect.

12. This world (shining so bright and fair), is like a vacuous body appearing in the vacuity of the intellect; the creation has neither its beginning nor end, it is a development of the intellect, which is distributed through it.

13. It has become habitual to our nature, to suppose the existence of the world, but the false impression of its visibility, is lost in the consciousness of high-minded men.

14. To them this creation presents no visible forms, nor any sensible appearance at all; it is to them a representation of fallacy only, as the mistake of a man in a statue, or taking a false apparition as real.

15. In this manner the blunder of a duality in the soul, produces a dualism in the mind; but ere the existence of creation, there existed no dualism of the creator and the created, or of the manifester and the manifested.

16. The want of a cause causes the appearance of a duality (i.e. of the causal agency and its effect, in the vacuity of the intellect); but tell me how could there be a cause when there is no creation in existence. (The creation presupposes a cause, but not otherwise nor its absence).

17. It is the Divine intellect alone, that manifests itself in the manner of the world, in the total absence of all visible objects; and though this seems to be the waking state of the[Pg 1039] Supreme soul, yet it is neither its waking, sleeping nor dreaming state.

18. The visible world is no production of dream, but a manifestation of Brahma himself; and there existed the Divine intellect only, in the manner of the infinite void, before the birth of the atmospheric vacuum of the world.

19. The intellect which beholds this universe as its body, without being distributed or changed in the form of the world; is purely of a spiritual or vacuous form, that manifested itself in this visible form before it came to existence.

20. And this visible world that is so manifest to view, is as void and vacuous as the empty air.

21. Now knowing this in your own understanding, you must remain devoid of all dualism in your mind; be as mute as a block of stone, nor give heed to the words of the universe in your heart, nor care for their sayings of earthly enjoyments, (for fear of losing your spiritual bliss).

Ráma rejoined and said:—Alas! that I have so long strayed about, in the erroneous maze of the world; without the knowledge of its being a mere void and vacuum.

2. I now come to know the fallacy of my conception of the world, which is but a mere nullity; which never is nor was, nor shall ever prove to be a positive reality.

3. It is all still and supportless, and existing in our false knowledge of it; it is an endless formation of the solid intellect, and a mere vacuous conception of ours, without any figure or form or colour or mark of its own.

4. It is the transcendental vacuum and of a wholly inconceivable nature; and yet how wonderous it is, that we call this our world, our earth and the sphere of our action.

5. How it appears as a duality (apart from the unity of God), and how these worlds and mountains seen as separate and solid bodies of themselves; when they are in reality but the pellucid sky appearing as thick and opaque to our misconception of them.

6. This creation and the future world, are as the dreams that we see, but working of our imagination; while it is the intellect only that shows itself as these intelligible objects, which could not otherwise present their visible aspects to our conceptions of them.

7. The thought that I am situated in heaven or hell in this life, makes this world appear as such unto us; because the visibles are all objects or creatures of our consciousness of them. (It is the mind that makes a heaven or hell).

[Pg 1041]

8. There is nothing as visible or its vision, nor this world or its creation, unless it is caused as such, by the intellect within us; it is neither a scene in our waking or sleeping, nor is this anything as real in its nature.

9. If this be but an erroneous sight, how could the negative error produce this positive spectacle, should it <be> but a false conception of the mind, then tell me, O sage, how could this blank fallacy bring forth the thought of this real existence.

10. It is not possible for error, to creep into the infallible mind of omniscience; nor is it probable that error should reign over this perfect creation at large; it is therefore the Lord himself, that exhibits his glory in this manner.

11. What can we think otherwise of the continuity of space, infinity of vacuum and infinity of time, than they are the attributes of omnipotence; and how are we to look on the transparency of the air and crystal, without thinking them as manifestation of his nature?

12. An erroneous notion is as false, as the sight of one’s own death in a dream; but how can this world which is so palpable to sight, be lost to or expunged from our sight, without losing our sight of its great manifester also? (To ignore the world is to ignore its maker also, as the denial of God leads to that of the world).

13. The sights of the mirage, fairy cities and double moons in the sky, are of course deceptions of vision and productions of our error; but the same analogy does not apply to our sight of the world.

14. The boys’ apparitions of ghosts, never lay hold on adults and the waking, nor on any one in the day light and open air; this and similar errors arise in our ignorance only, but they vanish upon our second thought and true knowledge of them.

15. It is improper in this place to raise the question, regarding whence this bug bear of error could rise among mankind; since it is evident from our own reasoning, that there is no such thing as avidyá or ignorance (which is the[Pg 1042] cause of error) ever in existence, nor an asat or not being even in being. (Because the Veda says सदेवईदमग्र आसीत् the existence existed from before).

16. It is evident by rational reasoning, that whatever is invisible and imperceptible to us, the same is called as asat or not being, and the conception of idea or that is termed an error.

17. That which is not clearly obtained by any proof or reasoning, and is as impossible as the sky-flower or the horn of a hare, how can that be believed to be as anything in existence.

18. And a thing however apparent to sight, but having no cause or evidence of its reality, cannot be believed as <a> thing in existence, but it must be a nullity like the issue of a barren woman.

19. Therefore there can no error at any time, nor can an error ever produce anything whatever; it is therefore the manifest omniscience of Providence, that is conspicuous in every part of this wide and grand display.

20. Whatever then is seen now to shine before us, is the manifestation of Supreme being itself; the same Supreme spirit fills this plenitude, and is full with it in itself. (So the Veda पूर्ण मदः पूर्णमिदं &c.).

21. There is nothing that is either shining or unshining here at any time, unless it be the calm and quiet and transparent spirit of God, that inheres in its body of the mundane world.

22. It is the one unborn, undying and unchanging everlasting Being, that is the most adorable and ever adored Lord of all, that fills and pervades the whole with his essence. He only is the word ego, selfmanifest—pure and all pervading, while I and all others are without our egoism, and shine only in that unity (literally, without our duality).

Ráma rejoined:—There is the only One alone whom neither the gods nor the rishis know or comprehend; He is without beginning, middle and end, and it is that being that thus shines himself, without this world and these phenomena.

2. It is useless to us to mind the difference, between the unity and duality, and to be led to the doubts created by the misleading verboilogy of erroneous doctrines; without relying in the state of one tranquil and unvarying Spirit.

3. The world is as clearly a vacuous body, appearing in the womb of vacuity; as the string of pearls and the aerial castles, that are seen in the open sky.

4. The world is attached in the same manner, to the solidity of the invisible intellect; as vacuity is inherent in vacuum, lapidity in the stone, and fluidity in water.

5. Though the world, appears to be spread on all sides of space; yet it is no more than an empty vacuity, lying calm and quiet, in the hollow womb of the great intellect.

6. This world appearing so fair and perspicuous, to the sight of ignorant people; vanishes as a phantom into nothing, at the sight of the boundless glory of the transcendent God.

7. The impression of difference and duality, existing between the creator and creation, among worldly men; vanishes upon reflection, like waves into the waters of the sea.

8. The existence of the world, together with all our miseries in it, before the light of our liberation; as the darkness of night flies away at sunrise, and the light of the day disappears, before the gloom of night.

9. Whether in plenty or poverty, or in birth, death or disease; or in the troubles and turmoils of the world, the wise[Pg 1044] man remains unshaken, though he may be overpowered by them.

10. There is no knowing nor error in this world, nor any pain or pleasure, or distress or delight in it; but they are all attributes of the deity, whose pure nature is unsullied by them.

11. I have come to know, that this existence is the immaculate Brahma himself; and is the want of our knowledge, which says anything to be beside the spirit of the Great God.

12. I am awakened to, and enlightened in divine knowledge; and find external existence cease to exist in any presence.

13. Perfect knowledge tells us, all these worlds to be but Brahma himself; but want of this knowledge says, I was no Brahma before, but have now become so by my knowledge.

14. The known and the unknown, the dark and the bright are all but Brahma, as vacuity and unity, and brightness and blueness, do all appertain to the one and same sky.

15. I am extinct in the deity (in my divine knowledge), and sit dauntless of anything; I am devoid of all desire, with my leaning in perfect blessedness; I am as I am, ravished in my infinite bliss, without my sensibility of what or which.

16. I am wholly that one and sole entity, which is naught but perfect tranquility; I see nothing but a calm and quiet, which utterly absorbs and enrapts me quite.

17. Knowing the knowable (the unknown One) is to unknow one’s self and ignore the visible; as this cognition continues to dawn in the soul, the whole cosmos sinks into oblivion and seems a block of stone, without the name and sign of anything being known.

Ráma said:—In whatever manner and form, the living or individual soul conceives the universal soul within itself; it has the same conception or idea presented before it, agreeably to its concept thereof. (i.e. The divine spirit appears in the same form in us, as we think it to be).

2. All these worlds lie in concert in their spiritual state, in the boundless spirit of the great Brahma; but they appear to us in various lights, like the different rays, radiating from the one and same gem.

3. The great and bright quarry of the Divine Mind, contains all these gemming worlds in its unbounded bosom; all of which unite to shed and scatter their conjoined light upon us, like the commingled rays of the gems contained in the womb of a vast mine.

4. All these several worlds, shining together like so many lamps of a lustre; are clearly perceived by some and are imperceptible to others, as the blaze of day light is dazzling to the clear-sighted, but quite dim to the blind.

5. As the rushing of the contrary currents, describe the whirlpools in the waters of the deep; so do the contact and conflict of the elementary atoms, produce the consolidation and dissolution of worlds, which are no acts of creation.

6. The creation is everywhere but a coagulation, of the drizzling drops of the gelid intellect; who can therefore count the countless watery particles, that are incessantly oozing out of it, and are condensed in the forms of worldly spherules.

7. As the part is not different in its substance, from that of the whole; so the creation is not otherwise than its creator,[Pg 1046] except in the difference of the two terms of devious significations.

8. The causeless and uncausing unity, being the archetype of infinite variety; these numberless multiplicities are only ectypes of that sole moiety, and neither a duality nor pluralities whatever; nor do these copies and counterparts, ever rise or fall apart from their original prototype (but the both are showing the same).

9. It is that intelligence which shows the intelligibles in itself; it produces these unproduced productions to view, as the sun light exposes the visibles to light.

10. It is from my inappetency of all things in existence, that I have accomplished that perfection, and acquired that prosperity for myself, which is termed insouciance or the nirvána extinction.

11. It is not by our understanding this bliss, nor can we have any knowledge of it by our percipience; neither is there any knowledge whereby we may know, the unknown one which is alone to be known. (Here is a pun and play of the word bódha or knowledge, which is explained in the gloss to a great length).

12. It is a knowledge that rises of itself, and a waking of the soul resembling its somnolence; it throws a light as that of the midday sun in the inmost soul, and is neither confined in or absent from any place or time. (i.e. The full blaze of spiritual light, fills the soul at all times and places or as Pope says: It wraps my soul, and absorbs me quite).

13. It is after the subsidence of all desire within, and desistance from all actions without accompanied with one’s desistance from all wishes, that this stillness attends upon the enlightened soul.

14. The saint of awakened understanding, that is confined in himself, and absorbed in his meditation; is neither inclined to the prurience of any thing, nor to the avoidance of aught whatever. (“Have what I have, and dare not leave, enamoured of the present day.” Young).

15. In this state of rapture, the mind of the saint, though[Pg 1047] in full possession of its mental faculties; remains yet as fixed and inactive, and unmindful of all worldly things and bodily actions; as a burning taper, that consumes itself while illumes others, without any shaking or motion of its own. (i.e. Thoughtful and inactive).

16. The soul becomes as Viswarúpa or incorporated with the world, in its condition of thoughtfulness, when it is called the Viswátma or the mundane soul; or else it is said to be situated in the state of the immense void of Brahma, when it is devoid of and unoccupied with its thoughts. Hence creation and its cessation, both appertain to the Divine Intellect, in its states of activity or thoughtfulness and its wants or stupor.

17. He who is enrapt in divine ecstasy, and settled in his belief of the identity of the Deity with his excogitation of him, remains closely confined in himself with his rapture and secure from distraction of his mind (and perturbation of worldly thoughts).

18. He who relies only in the cogitation of his self, regardless of all other things in the world; comes to find the reality of his self-cognition alone, and else beside, to be as nil as empty air. (Literally: as empty air is not distinct from vacuity).

19. The man of enlarged understanding, has an unbounded store of knowledge in himself; but this ultimately ends in the knowledge of the unspeakable one. (The end of all knowledge is the knowledge of God).

20. It is therefore in our quietism, that we feel the very best entity of our consciousness, to be either dormant or extinct; and this state of tranquility of the mind, is unutterable in words.

21. That which is the acme of all knowledge, is the abstract and abstruse knowledge of all as the true One; hence the world is a real entity, in as much as it abides in the eternal One (in its abstract light).

22. The felicity of Nirvána—ecstasy, with the utter extinction of all desire, and the consciousness of a cool and calm composure of one’s self, is the summum bonum or highest state of bliss and perfection; that is aimed at to be attained even by the gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva.

[Pg 1048]

23. All things (desirable to the soul), are always present with it, in all places and at all times; they are ever accompanied with our concepts of them in the intellect, which is the only pure entity that is ever in existence, and is never dissolved. (The thought survives the thing it represents).

24. Too hot is the busy bustle of the world, and very cooling is the bliss of Nirvána insensibility; it is therefore far better to have the cold heartedness of insouciance, than the heart burning heat of worldliness.

25. As an artist conceives in himself, the contrivance of a statue sculptured in relief, in the slab of his mind; so the Great Brahma sees this universe inscribed in him, in rilievo and not carved out of him.

26. Just as the spacious ocean looks upon the waves, heaving upon the surface of its waters; so doth the great Brahma see the myriads of worlds, rolling about in the midst of its intellect.

27. But ignorant people of dull understandings, behold those fixed inseparable spectacles, in the light of separate spectres, appearing in various shapes and forms, in the spheres of their intellect.

28. In whatever manner doth any body conceive anything in his mind, he verily thinks and beholds it in the same light, by his habitual mode of thinking the same as such.

29. As a man waking from his sleep, finds no truth in aught he saw in his dream; whether it be the death or presence or absence of a friend or other; so the enlightened soul sees no reality in the Life or death, of any living being seen in this visible world because none lives by himself, nor dies or departs away of himself, but all are deputed alike in the tablet of the eternal mind.

30. The thought and conviction of this truth in the mind, that whatever appears to pass under and away from our sight, is the fixed inert and quiescent réchauffé of its divine original, is sure and enough to forfend the mind, from its falling into the error of taking the copy for its mould.

[Pg 1049]

31. This lesson will certainly tend to lessen the enjoyments of your body, that none of them will ever serve to prevent its fall to naught; as also to protect you from the error of accounting for the reality of these numberless, that are at best but passing sights in your dream.

32. Inappetency of earthly enjoyments increases our wisdom, as wisdom serves to diminish our worldly desires, thus they mutually serve to augment one another, as the open air and sunshine.

33. The knowledge which tends to create your aversion to riches, and to your family and friends, is of course averse to your ignorance and dullness; and the one being acquired and accomplished by you, serves to put an end to your ignorance at once.

34. That is the true wisdom of wise men, which is unalloyed by avarice, and that is the true learning of the learned, which is not vitiated by any yearning.

35. But neither wisdom and inappetency, singly and simply, nor their combined and augmented states, are of no good unless they have attained their perfection, but prove as vain as the blaze of a sacrificial fire in a picture, which has not the power of consuming the oblation offered upon it.

36. The perfection of wisdom and inappetence, is a treasure which is termed liberation also; because any body who has reached to, and remains in that state of infinite bliss, is freed from all the bonds of care.

37. In this state of our emancipation, we see the past and present, and all our sights and doings in them as present before us; and find ourselves situated, in a state of even calm and tranquility, of which there is no end nor any breach whatever.

38. The self-contented man who finds all his happiness in himself, is ever cool and calm and tranquil in his soul, and is devoid of all desire and selfishness in his mind. He relies in his cool hearted indifference and apathy to all worldly objects, and sees only a clear void stretched before him.

39. We scarcely find one man, among a hundred thousand human beings, who is strong enough and has the bravery, to[Pg 1050] break down the trammels of his earthly desires, as the lion alone breaks of the iron bars of his prison house. (The adamantine chain of avarice, binds us all alike to this nether earth).

40. It is the inward light of the clear understanding, that dispels the mist of desires that overcasts the cupidinous mind; and melts down the incrassated avarice, as the broad sunshine dissolves the thickened ice in autumn.

41. It is the want of desire that is the knowledge of the knowable, (or what is best and most worthy of being known), and stands above all things that are desirable or worth our desiring; it bears its resemblance to the breath of air, without any external action of it. (i.e. The man that is without any desire of his, lives to breathe his vital breath only, without doing any external action of his; but breathes as the current mind, to no purpose whatsoever).

42. He sits quiet and firm in himself, with his thoughts fixed in ascertaining the truths and errors of the world; and looks all others in the light of himself, without having to do with or desire of them.

43. He sits reclined in the immensity of Brahma, with his enlightened view of the visibles as subsisting in Him; he remains indifferent to all things, and devoid of his desire for anything, and sits quiet in the quiescence of his liberation; which is styled as moksha by the wise.

Vasishtha said:—Bravo Ráma! that you are awakened to light and enlightened in your understanding; and the words you have spoken, are calculated to destroy the darkness of ignorant minds, and rejoice the hearts of wise.

2. These phenomenals that ever appear so very bright to our sight, lose their gloss at our want of desire and disregard of them; it is the knowledge of this truth, that is attended with our peace and tranquility, and our liberation and inexcitability.

3. All these imaginary sights vanish from our view, at the suppression of our imagination of them; just as the want of ventilation in the winds, reduces them to the level of the one common, and calm still air.

4. The enlightened man remaining unmoved as a stone, or moving quietly in his conduct in life (i.e. who is ever unruffled in his disposition), is verily said to have his clear liberation.

5. Look at yogis like ourselves, O Ráma, that having attained this state of liberation, have been cleansed from all our iniquities; and are now set at quiet rest, even in the conduct of our worldly affairs.

6. Know the great gods Brahmá, Vishnu and others, to have been situated in this state of quiet and freedom, that they are remaining as pure intelligences, even while discharging the offices of their godship.

7. Do you, O Ráma, attain the enlightenment of holy sages, and remain as still as a stone like ourselves.

8. Ráma replied:—I see this world as a formless void, situated in the infinite vacuity of Brahma; it is an uncreated and unsubstantial nihility, and with all its visibility, it is an invisible nothing.

[Pg 1052]

9. It is as the appearance of water in the mirage, and as a whirlpool in the ocean; its glare is as glitter <of> gold in the dust, and of sands in the sandy shores of seas in sunshine.

10. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! if you have become so enlightened and intelligent, then I will tell you more for the edification of your understanding; and put some questions for your answer to them, in order to remove my doubts regarding them.

11. Tell me, how can the world be a nullity, when it shines so very brightly all about and above our heads; and how can all these things, which are so resplendent to sight, and always perceptible to our senses.

12. Ráma replied:—The world was never created in the beginning, nor was anything ever produced at any time, it is therefore as nil as the offspring of an unprolific woman and a creation of our imagination only.

13. It is true that there is no result without its cause, or that nothing comes from nothing, but can be the cause of the world when it is a nullity, and a production of our error only.

14. The immutable and everlasting deity, cannot be the creator, without changing itself to a finite form; how can therefore be there a cause of this frail and finite form?

15. It is the unknown and nameless Brahma, that shows himself as the cause of the world, which having proceeded from him is his very self, nor does the word world bear any other sense at all (nor it can be made to bear any other sense).

16. The first intelligence named as the God Brahmá, rises from and abides for a little while, that unknown and nameless category of the universal spirit, as the conscious soul and having a spiritual body. (This is called the jívátmá or the living soul with a personal body of it).

17. It then comes to see on a sudden, the luminaries of the sun and moon and the heavenly hosts, rising in the infinity of the Divine Mind, and thinks a small moment as a long year as its reverie of a dream. (The Morning and evening of the creation of Brahmá, occupying many a year of mortals).

18. It then perceived the ideas of space and time, together[Pg 1053] with those of their divisions and motions also; and the whole universe appearing to its sight, in the vast immensity of vacuity: (of the Divine Mind).

19. Upon the completion of the false world in this manner, its false contriver the soi-disant Brahmá, was employed in wandering all over the world as his creation.

20. So the living soul of every body, being deluded by its mistaken conception of the world as a positive reality, traverses up and down and all about it, in its repeated wanderings amidst its false utopia.

21. And though the events of life, takes place according to the wishes of the soul; yet these are mere accidents of chance; and it is a mistake to think them as permanent result of fixed laws.

22. Because it is as wrong to suppose the substantiality of the world, and the permanency of the events; as to grant the birth of a child born of a barren woman, and the feeding of it with the powder of the pulverized air.

23. Nothing can be positively affirmed or denied, regarding the existence of the world; except that whatever it is, it is no other than the diffusion of the all pervasive spirit of the Eternal one.

24. The world is as clear as the transparent atmosphere, and as solid as the density of a rock; it is as mute and still as a stone, and quite indestructible in its nature.

25. The world is originally ideal, from the ideas of the eternal mind; and then it is spiritual, from the pervasion of the all pervading spirit of Virát; it is thus a mere void, appearing as a solid body to us.

26. Thus Brahma being the great vacuum and its fulness, where is any other thing as the world in it, the whole is a dead calm as quietus, and a void devoid of its beginning and end (i.e. a round sphere).

27. As the waves have been ever heaving and diving, in the bosom of the waters of the deep; and as the waves are not distinct from those waters, so the worlds rolling in the breast of[Pg 1054] the vacuous Brahma, are no other than the selfsame essence of Brahma himself.

28. The few that are versed in their superior or esoteric, as well as in the inferior or exoteric knowledge; live as long as they live and then dive at last in this Supreme, as drops of water mix into the sea.

29. The exoteric (or phenomenal) world, abides in the esoteric (or the noumenal) Brahma; and is of the same transcendent nature as the Divine Mind; for it is never possible for the gross, changeful and transitional nature, to subsist in the pure, unchanged and quiet state of the deity.

30. For who that knows the nature of dream as false, and that of mirage as a fallacy can ever believe them as realities; so any one that knows the visible Nature to be of the nature of Brahma, can ever take it for dull and gross material substance. (Nature being one with its God, is equally of a spiritual nature).

31. The enlightened sage, that has the esoteric knowledge of the world, and reflects it in its spiritual sense; cannot be misled to view it in its gross (material) light, as the holy man that tastes ambrosia, is never inclined to drink the impure liquor of wine.

32. He who remains in his Nirvána meditation, by reverting his view from the sight of the visibles, to the excogitation of his self; and represses his mind from the thoughts of thinkables, he is verily seated in the tranquility of Supreme spirit.

33. Vasishtha said:—If the visible creation is situated in Brahma—their cause and origin, as the germ or sprout of a plant is seated in its producing seed; how then can you ignore the substantiality or distinction of either of them from their originating source the seed or God (who is said in the sruti, as the seed of the arbor of the world,—sansáramahirúpavíja &c.).

34. Ráma replied:—The germ does seem to be seated or situated in the seed (as a separate or different substance); but as it is produced from the essence of the seed, it appears to be the same substance with itself. (Were it not so, the germ would become another plant than that of the seed).

[Pg 1055]

35. If the world as it appears to us is inherent in Brahma, then it must be of the same essence and nature as Brahma; and these being eternal and imperishable in Brahma, needs have the world to be so also (and not of the seed and sprout, or the begetter and begotten).

36. We have neither seen nor ever heard, that any finite, formal or perishable, has ever proceeded from an infinite, formless and imperishable cause (therefore this world is not as it appears to us).

37. It is impossible for a formless thing, to remain in any form or other whatsoever; as it is never possible for an atom, to contain a mountain in its bosom.

38. It is the voice of an idiot only who says, that the stupendous world with its gigantic form, abides in the formless abyss of Brahma; as bright gems are contained in the hollow of a box or basket. (The basket has a base to support any thing, whereas the vacuity of Brahma has no basis at all).

39. It does not befit any body to say that, the transcendence and tranquility of God, supports the material and moving world upon it; nor that a corporeal body (the corpus mundi), is an imperishable thing (as the divine spirit).

40. Our perception of the world having a form, is no proof of its reality; because there is no truth whatever in the many curious forms, that present themselves before us in our dreams. (This is a refutation of the Buddhists’ reliableness in perception).

41. It is an unprecedented dream, that presents us the sight of the world, of which we had no innate or preconceived idea in us; while our usual dreams are commonly known, to be the reproduced representations, of our former impressions and perceptions, and the results of our past remembrances of things &c.

42. It is not a day dream as some would have it to be, because the night dreams disappear in the day time; but how does a dreamer of his own funeral at night, come to see himself alive upon his waking in the day? (This continuous sight of the world day by day, is not comparable to a transient dream[Pg 1056] by day or night, but a permanent one in the person of the Great God himself).

43. Others again maintain that, no bodiless things can appear in our dream, since we dream of certain bodies only; but this tenet has no truth in it, since we often dream of, as well as see the apparitions of bodiless ghosts both by day and night.

44. Therefore the world is not as false as a dream, but an impression settled like a dream in our very conscious soul; it is the formless deity, that manifests itself in the various forms of this world, to our understandings.

45. As our intellect remains alone and in itself, in the forms and other things, appearing as dreams unto us in our sleep; so doth Brahma remain solely in himself in the form of the world we see: for God being wholly free and apart from all, can not have any accompaniment with him.

46. There is nothing that is either coexistent or inexistent in him (that is what can be either affirmed or denied of him); because we have no concept or conception of him ourselves, nor do we <have> any notion or idea we are to form of him.

47. What is this nameless thing, that we can not know in our understanding; it is known in our consciousness (i.e. we are conscious of it), but it is in esse or non-esse, we know nothing of (this world).

48. It is an inexistence appearing as existent, as also an existence seeming to be unexistent; all things are quite manifest in it at all times and in all forms (but how and whence they are is quite unknown).

49. It is the development of Brahma in Brahma, as the sky is evolved in vacuity; for nothing can be found to fill the vacuum of Brahma, except Brahma himself (or his own essence).

50. There I, my seeing and my sight of the world, is all mere fallacy; it is the calm and quiet extension of the Divine intellect only, that fills the infinite vacuity of his own spirit, and naught beside.

51. As the ærial castle of our imagination, has no building nor reality in it; so is this world but a calm and quiet vacuity, and unfailing vacant ideality.

[Pg 1057]

52. It is a boundless space full with the essence of the Supreme spirit, it is without its beginning and end, wholly inscrutable in its nature, and quite calm and quiet in its aspect.

53. I have known my own state also, to be without its birth and death, and as calm and quiet, as that of the unborn and immortal Brahma himself; and I have come to know myself (i.e. my soul) also, to be as formless and undefinable, as the Supreme soul or spirit.

54. I have now given expression, to all that I find to be impressed in my consciousness; just as whatever is contained in the seed, the same comes to sprout forth out of it.

55. I know only the knowledge that I bear in my consciousness, and nothing about the unity or duality (of the creation and creator); because the question of unity and duality rises only from imagination (of the one or other).

56. All these knowing and living liberated men, that have been liberated from the burthen of life by their knowledge of truth; are sitting silent here, and devoid of all their earthly cares, like the empty air in the infinite vacuity.

57. All their efforts of mixing with the busy bustle of the world, are here at an end; and they are sitting here as quiet and silent as yon mute and motionless picture on the wall, medalling on the bright regions in their minds.

58. They are as still as the statues engraven in a rock, or as people described in fancy tales, to dwell in the ærial city built by Sambara in air (i.e. as the inhabitants dwelling in the Elysian of Plato, or in the utopia of Sir Thomas Moore); or as the airy figures in our dream.

59. This world is verily a phantom appearing in our dream of the creation; it is a structure without its base, and a figure intangible to our touch. Where then is its reality? (Its tangibleness is a deception of our sense).

60. The world appears as a positive reality to the blinded ignorant, but it <is> found to be a negative nullity by the keen-sighted sage; who sees it in the light of Brahma and a manifestation of himself, and as still as the calm air, reposing in the quiet vacuity of that transcendent spirit.

[Pg 1058]

61. All these existences, with their moving and unmoving beings, and ourselves also, are mere void and vacant nullities, in the knowledge of the discerning and philosophic mind.

62. I am void and so are you too, and the world beside but mere blanks; the intellect is a void also, and by having all several voids in itself, it forms the immense intellectual vacuum, which is the sole object of our adoration (being as infinite and eternal, as well as all pervading and containing all as the supreme spirit).

63. Being thus seated with my knowledge of the infinite vacuity of Brahma, I take thee also, O thou best of biped beings, as indistinct from the knowable One, who is one and same with the all comprehending vacuum, and so make my obeisance to thee.

64. It is from the all comprehensiveness (i.e. omniscience) of the vacuous intellect, that this world rises and sets in it by turns; it is as clear as the transparent air, and has no other cause of it but the undulation of the same.

65. This hypostasis of Brahma is beyond all other existences, and above the reach of all sástras, it is by attaining to this state of transcendentalism, that one becomes as pure and superfine as empty air.

66. There is nothing as myself, my feet and hands, or this pot or aught else that I bear, as any material existence; all is air and empty and inane as air, and knowing this, let us turn ourselves to our airy intellects only. (i.e. I think ourselves as intellectual and spiritual beings only, in utter disregard of our bodies and earthly things).

67. You have shewn me sir, the nullity of the world and the vanity of all worldly things; and the truth of this doctrine is evident in the light of our spiritual knowledge, in defiance of the sophistry of our opponents.

68. The sophist that discomfits the silent sage with his sophistry, can never expect to see the light of spiritual knowledge to gleam upon him (spirituality is got by silent meditation and not by wrangling).

69. The Being that is beyond our perception and conception,[Pg 1059] and without any designation or indication; can be only known in our consciousness of him, and not by any kind of reasoning or argumentation.

70. The Being that is without any attribute, or sight or symbol of his nature, is purely vacuous and entirely inconceivable by us, save by means of our spiritual light of him.

Válmíki relates:—After the lotus-eyed Ráma, had said these words, he fell into a trance and remained silent, with his mind reposing in the state of supreme bliss. (The ecstatic state of rapture and transport of the devout).

2. He felt himself supremely blest at his repose in the Supreme spirit, and then awaking after a while from his holy trance, he wistfully asked his sagely preceptor, saying:—

3. Ráma said:—O Venerable sir, that art the dispeller of my doubts, as the clear autumn is the scatterer of dark clouds; that the doubt which had so long rankled in my breast, has at last quite set at rest.

4. I find this knowledge of mine to be the best and greatest of all, and capable of saving me from the boisterous ocean of this world; it transcends all other doctrines, which are mere verbiology to ensnare the heedless minds of men.

5. If all this is certainly the very Brahma, and our consciousness of him; then O Venerable sir, he must be unspeakable and inexpressible in words, even by the most learned and wisest of men.

6. Remaining thus in the meditation of the knowable One, and without any desire in our minds of any earthly good; we are enabled to attain the consciousness of our highest bliss (The Turíya state), which is unattainable by learning and unutterable in words. (The divine state is only known <to> one’s self, but never to be spoken or expressed).

7. How can this certain and invariable state of felicity, be obtained from the dogmas of the sástras; which are at variance with each other, and are employed in the enumeration of[Pg 1061] their several categories. (The ever varying sástras cannot give us any knowledge of this invariable felicity).

8. We can gain no true knowledge from the tenets of the different sástras, that are <at> best but contradictory of one another; it is therefore in vain to expect any benefit from them, that are based upon mere theories of our pretended leaders.

9. Tell me therefore, O Venerable sir, whether it is of any good to us, to learn the doctrines of the sástras or attend to the teaching of our preceptors (when our true knowledge is derived from within ourselves: i.e. from our intuition, self-consciousness and our personal experiences).

10. Vasishtha replied:—So it is, O mighty armed Ráma, the sástras are not the means to divine knowledge; those being profuse in wordy torrents, and this beyond the reach of words.

11. Yet hear me to tell you, O thou best of Raghu’s race, how the dictates of the sástras and the lectures of your preceptors, are of some avail towards the improvement of your understanding.

12. There lived in a certain place some wood-cutters, who had been ever unfortunate and miserable in this lives (or who were miserably poor all their lives). They pined and faded away in their poverty, like the withering trees in summer heat.

13. Excessive poverty made them cover themselves with patched up rags, and they were as emaciated in their despair as the fading lotus flowers for want of their natal water.

14. Being parched by famine, and despairing of their lives; they only thought of the means of filling their bellies.

15. In this state of their distress and despondence, one thought gleamed in their minds; and it was to carry the woods day by day to the town, and to live upon the profits of their sale as fuel.

16. Thus determined they went to the forest to fell down the woods, because any plan that is hit upon in distress, is best to be availed of, for the preservation of life.

17. Thus they continued daily to go to the forest to fell the[Pg 1062] woods, and fetch them to the town for sale; and to fill their bellies and support their bodies with the sale proceeds thereof.

18. It happened that the skirts of the forest whither they went, were full of woods with hordes of treasures, consisting of gold and precious gems, lying hidden under the trees, and also exposed to view.

19. It then turned out that some of the log-bearers, happened by their good luck to espy the brilliant gems, which they took with them to their homes from the forest.

20. Some saw the valuable sandalwood trees, and others beheld beautiful flowers in some place; some found fruit trees somewhere, all which they took and sold for their food and livelihood.

21. Some men of dull understanding, slighted all these goods; and kept collecting the blocks of wood, which they bore to the way side of the forest, and there sold at trifling prices. (Nothing is valued at home unless it is taken to a distance).

22. Among all these wood men, who were employed in common in collection of woods, some of them happened by their good luck, to find some precious gems there, which set them at ease for every care.

23. Thus amongst all of these that had been toiling and moiling in the same field of labour; now it happened to obtain their desired boon the Philosopher’s gem. (That converts all things to gold, and is desired by all but found by few).

24. Now they having obtained the desirable gem, which bestowed upon them all the blessings of affluence and prosperity; they became preeminently happy with their fortune, and remained quite content in the very woods.

25. So the seekers and sellers of worthless wooden blocks, being gainers of the all bounteous gem of their heart’s desire (Chintámani); remained happily with themselves, as the gods dwelling together in harmony in the Elysian field.

26. Thus the Kir woodmen, having obtained their best gains of what forms the pith and gist of every good in the main, remained in quiet and quite content in themselves, and[Pg 1063] passed their days without any fear or grief, in the enjoyment of their everlasting equanimity and felicity.

27. This world is compared to the wilderness, and all its busy people are as the day-labouring Kiri foresters, daily toiling and moiling in their hard work, for their help of daily bread. Some amongst them are happy to find the precious treasure of true knowledge, which gives them the real bliss of life and lasting peace of mind.

Ráma said:—Do thou, O greatest of sages, deign to give me the best treasures of knowledge, as the wood-cutter obtained their precious treasures of the Philosopher’s stones, and whereby I may attain to the full, perfect and indubitable knowledge of all things.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The woodmen that I have mentioned bear allusion to all mankind in general and their great poverty that I have described, refers to the extreme ignorance of men which is the cause of all their woe (three fold miseries—tritapas of the body, mind and soul, or of this world and the next. Gloss).

3. The great forest which is said to be the place of their residence, is the vast wilderness of knowledge, which the human kind have to traverse under the guidance of their preceptors and the sástras; and their labour in felling and selling the wood for their daily food, is the hard struggle of human kind in their life time for their simple fare and supportance.

4. The unavaricious men that are unemployed in business, and are yet desirous of the enjoyments of life; are the persons that devote themselves to the acquisition of learning. (Such is the literary body of students and scholars).

5. And those people also, who pursue their callings for the provisions of life, and are dependents <on> others for their supportance; become successful in the acquirement of learning in their minds, by their practice of the precepts and studious habits.

6. As the wood-cutters, who sought for the worthless wood at first, get the very valuable gems at last; so men prosecuting their studies for a paltry maintenance and self supportance,[Pg 1065] succeed to gain divine knowledge at the end. (Secular knowledge often leads to the spiritual).

7. There are some sceptics who say by way of derision, what is the good to be derived from poring upon books? but these have been found to have turned to true believers at last. (Those who came to deride, returned believers at the end and confessed the truth).

8. Worldly men devoted to the objects of their fruition in life, and acquainted with the objects of mental and spiritual truths; coming distrustfully to listen to the doctrines of the sástras, have become fully convinced of their truths at last.

9. Men are led away to many ways by the different tenets of the sástras, and by direction of their various desires and inclinations; but they come to meet at last in the same path of glory, as the gemming forest of the woodmen.

10. He who is not inclined to the injury of others, but goes on in his own beaten course; is called the upright man, and it is his judgement which is sought and followed by every one.

11. But men ignorant of truth, are dubious of the result of righteous conduct, in earning their livelihood; and are doubtful also of the benefit, which is derived from the study of the sástras. (Hence they fall to misconduct and neglect their studies also, in order to earn their bread by foul means).

12. But men persisting in their righteousness, gain both their livelihood and liberation at once; as the honest woodmen obtained their wood as well as the gems together, and in the same place.

13. Among these some succeeded to get the sandal woods, and some to gain the precious gems, while others met with some common metals, and a great number of them, found the wood of the forest trees only. (So are our lots differently cast among different individuals, according to our respective deserts).

14. Some of us gain the objects of our desire, and some acquire riches or deeds of virtue and merit; others obtain their liberation; and attain their proficiency in the sástras.

15. Know, O Ráma, that the sástras deal only with instructions for the acquirement of the triple blessings of our[Pg 1066] livelihood, riches and virtue; but they give no direction for our knowing the supreme One, who is inexpressible in words. (Because no word nor thought can ever approach to the unknowable One).

16. The words and their significations (which are used in the sástras), serve only to express the intelligible objects which are signified by them, as the seasons denote the seasonal fruits and flowers which they bear; but the knowledge of the supreme being, is derived from one’s intuition, and is felt in our consciousness alone.

17. Divine knowledge is said in the sástras, to transcend the knowledge of all other things; and the transparency of the Divine person, surpasses the brightness of all objects, as the beauty of the female body excels the lustre of the brightest gems. (The personal grace of females, transcends the beauty of all their decorations).

18. The transcendental knowledge of the Deity, is not to be derived from the doctrine of the sástras, nor from the teachings of our preceptors; it cannot be had by means of our gifts and charities; nor by divine service and religious observances, can we ever know the unknowable One.

19. These and other acts and rites, are falsely said to be the causes of divine knowledge, which can never be attained by them; now attend to me, O Ráma, and I will tell you the way to your rest in the Supreme soul.

20. The study of the sástras, serves of course to purify the mind from vulgar errors and prejudices; but <it> is the want of desire or aversion to worldly enjoyments, that makes the mind look within itself, wherein it sees clearly the image of God shining in it.

21. This sástra stablishes right understanding in lieu of ignorance, and this right reasoning serves to drive away all gross errors from the mind at once.

22. The sástra or learning serves principally to cleanse the mirror of the mind, from its dross of errors at first, and then it purifies the person of its possessor, by the force of its doctrines.[Pg 1067] (So the sástra has the power of purifying both the body and mind of the learned man).

23. As the rising sun casts his image spontaneously, on the dark bosom of the ocean; so doth the luminary of sástra or learning, shed of its own accord the bright light of truth, in the minds of ignorant.

24. As the sun enlightens all objects, by his presence before them; so doth the light of learning illume the dark understandings of the illiterate, by its benign appearance therein.

25. In this manner there is an intimate relation, between the learning derived from the sástra, and the mind of the man that is desirous of his liberation; in as much as the sástra alone affords the knowledge of the otherwise unknowable One to our minds.

26. As the sight of the sun and the ocean, shows us the blue waters of the one, turning to a bright expanse by the rays of the other; so the instance of the sástra and its doctrines, shows the enlightenment of human intellect by means of the other.

27. As boys in their play with pebbles, rub them against one another in the water, and have their hands cleansed of dirt by abrasion of the stones; so the discussion of the sástras, clears the minds of the disputants of their errors, by refutation of discordant opinions.

28. So also do learned men, by their confutation of repugnant doctrines, clear their minds of doubtful questions; and become perfected in forming right principles, and ascertaining the truth from falsehood.

29. The sástras distil with sweetness of the holy texts, and infuse the sweet balm of true knowledge into the mind; they are as profuse of dulcitude, as the sugarcane exudes with its saccharine juice, which is so delectable to taste.

30. As the rays of sunlight falling on the walls of houses, become perceptible to us, by means of our visual organs; so the light of spiritual knowledge, pierces into the souls of men, by means of our hearing the sástras through the medium of our ears.

[Pg 1068]

31. Learning acquired for the acquisition of the triple good of this world, namely virtue, wealth and the objects of our desire; is no learning at all without the knowledge of the sástras leading to our liberation. Much learning both in theory and practice, is worth nothing without the salvation of our souls.

32. That is the best learning, which gives us the knowledge of truth; and that is true knowledge, which causes our equanimity in all states of our being; and that is called perfect equanimity, which produces our hypnotism in waking (i.e. whereby we may sleep in insensibility over the waking and tumultuous world).

33. Thus are all these blessings obtained from learning of the sástras, therefore let every one devote himself to the study of the sástras with all diligence.

34. Hence know, O Ráma! that it is the study of the sástras, and meditation of their recondite meanings; together with one’s attendance on his preceptor, and audience of his lectures and counsels, as well by his equanimity, and observance of his vows and discipline, that he can attain his supreme bliss, in the everlasting God, who is beyond all worldly things, and is the supreme lord God of all.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear me Ráma, to tell you again for the perfection of your understanding (after what I have said already in praise of the virtue of equanimity); because the repetition of a lesson, serves to impress it the more in the memory of inattentive persons.

2. Ráma! I have told you before about the existence of the world, after I had related to you in length regarding its creation or production; whereby you have come to know, that both the appearance and subsistence of the world (i.e. its coming to and being in existence), are mere fallacies of our understanding.

3. I have next explained to you also, in the Upasama-Prakarana or my lecture on Insouciance, of the necessity of observing and maintaining a total indifference in regard to the whole creation (which is here repeated as leading to our nirvána or lukewarmness in this our living state).

4. In my discourse on indifference, I have described to you the different stages of nonchalance; the attainment of the highest pitch of which, will conduce ultimately to your obtaining the blissfulness of the nirvána numbness, which is treated of in this book on anæsthesia. (From the stage of Upasama or allaying of all excitements to that of upasánti or absence of excitability, there are some intermediate states spoken of before).

5. You shall have here to hear (or learn) from me, regarding the manner in which the learned are to conduct themselves in this phenomenal world, after they have learnt and obtained, whatever there is to be known and obtainable herein (i.e. after their attainment of divine knowledge and wisdom).

[Pg 1070]

6. A man having received his birth in this world, should habituate himself from his boyhood, to view the phenomenals as they are of themselves, and without any concern with himself; in order to have his security and happiness apart from all others. (i.e. Constrain yourself to yourself, and without any concern of yours with any).

7. Regard all in the one and same light with yourself, and observe a universal benevolence towards all beings, and then placing your reliance in your own equanimity, conduct yourself safely and securely every where.

8. Know the plan of your even-mindedness, to be productive of the fruits of purest and most delicious taste; and bearing the blossoms of unbounded prosperity, and the flowers of our unfading good fortune.

9. Meekness of disposition, yields the fruit of universal benevolence, and makes the prosperity of the whole world wait at its service. (Blessed are the meek; for they shall enjoy all the blessing &c.).

10. Neither the possession of a kingdom on earth, nor the enjoyment of the best beauties herein; can yield that undecaying and essential happiness, which is derived from the equanimity of the meek.

11. The utmost limit of a cool disposition, and the entire want of all anxious cares, are the two antidotes that set at naught the fervour and vapours of sorrow from the human mind.

12. It is very rare to meet a person, amidst the spheres of all these worlds; who is fraught with the ambrosia of cool insouciance, who is friendly to his enemies and whose enemies are his friends, and who looks on all alike as he does to himself.

13. The mind of the enlightened man, shines as brightly as the luminous moon; and dazzles with drops of ambrosial dews; the sages all lived to drink the cooling draught of immortality, as you learn from the lives of the royal sage Janaka and others of immortal fame.

14. The man practising his demureness, has his faults[Pg 1071] described as his qualities, his sorrows seem as his pleasure (i.e. he rejoices in his misery); and his death is eternal life unto him.

15. Sámyam or stoicism is ever accompanied, with a good grace, good lot and placidness; all of which are constant attendants on the stoic sage, as faithful wives fondly cling to the sides of their beloved husbands.

16. Equanimity is the perpetual prosperity of the soul, and not the transitory hilarity of the mind; therefore there is no treasure (i.e. spiritual bliss) whatsoever, which is a stranger to the meekness of spirit.

17. He that is honest in all his dealings, and steady in his own professions; and liberal in his minds (i.e. taking no heed of the faults of others); are men as valuable as richest gems, and are deemed and desired by all as gods upon earth. (Because men with godly virtues, are deemed and deified as gods).

18. The even minded man, that is righteous and upright in all his doings and dealings, who is magnanimous in his soul and benevolent in his mind; such a man is neither burnt by fire, nor ever soiled or sullied by water (i.e. nothing can alter the even tenor of his mind and the smoothness of his conduct).

19. Who can foil that man that does what is right, and observes things in their true light; who is not susceptible of joy or grief (but goes on in the even course of his life).

20. The righteous and unflinching man, is relied upon and esteemed by all his friends and enemies also; he is honoured by his king and master, and loved by all wisemen with whom he has any dealing.

21. The wise and even sighted men are of indifferent minds, and do not try to flee from evil, nor rejoice to receive any good; they are content with whatever comes to pass upon them, as aught of good or bad, they care for naught.

22. These meek minded men are unmindful of any good or desirable thing, which they may happen either to lose or leave from them; because they have to resort to the happy state of their equanimity (Samatá or stoic sameness); of which no calamity or chance can deprive them.

[Pg 1072]

23. Men enjoying the felicity of equanimity, laugh to scorn at the tribulations of the world; and live uninjured under all the varying circumstances of life; they are venerated by the gods also, for the invariable samatá or sameness of their minds, (as those of the gods themselves).

24. If the (unfavorable) course of events, ever happened to ruffle the countenance of the forbearing man; yet the inward equanimity of his mind, serves to shed the ambrosial beams, of a placid moon light within himself.

25. Whatever the even minded man acts or does for himself, and whatsoever he says in opprobrium of the misdeeds of others; are all lauded with applause by the majority of men (who like to see the goodness of others, and to learn of and correct their own faults).

26. Whatever good or evil is known or seen to be done by the impartial observer, at any time whether past or present; are all approved of by the public (under the impression of their being done for common good).

27. The man that sees all things in the same light (of indifference), is never displeased or dejected in his countenance at any calamity or danger, that may betide him at any time.

28. The prince Sibi of old, is recorded in history to have passed pieces of flesh from his own body, and to have fed a hawk therewith, in order to save the life of a captive pigeon from his claws. (This is an instance of samadristi or fellow feeling even towards the brute creation).

29. Again mind the impassible prince, who did not sink into despondence seeing his beloved consort to be maltreated before his sight. (This is an instance of unimpressible fortitude).

30. Mind also how the king of Trigarta, offered his only son who was accomplished and successful in all his desires to the horrible Rákshasa; upon his being vanquished by the fiend, at a certain wager he had laid with him.

31. Look at the great king Janaka, how he remained undismayed and undejected, at the burning of his well decorated city of Mithila.

32. Look at the quiet and submissive prince of Sályadesa,[Pg 1073] how he calmly struck off his head from his body, as if it were the plucking off of a lotus leaf or flower from its stem, in order to satisfy the demand of a deity for the same.

33. The Sauvíra sovereign, who had won the big Airávata elephant of the god Indra, in a combat with him; made at last a gift of him to the very god, with as much unconcern, as one offers a heap of white kundu flowers, or huge heaps of rotten straws upon the sacrificial fire.

34. You have heard how the elephant named kundapa, employed his trunk in sympathy to the Bráhman’s kine, in lifting them from being plunged in the mud; and afterwards devoted his body to the service of the Bráhman; wherefore he was taken up to heaven in a celestial car.

35. Let your continued observance of toleration, preserve you from acts of intolerance, which tend at best to the oppression of others; and know that the spirit of intolerance, is as the goblin of the kadamba forest (whose business was the havoc and depredation of all living beings). (i.e. By want of forbearance, you make yourself an enemy to all, and make them as enemies to you).

36. Remember the young and gentle Jadabharata, who by the natural hebetude of his mind, devoured the firebrand that was thrown into his almspot, thinking as a piece of meat, and without any injury to himself (To the meek and tolerant, a furnace of fire, becomes a bed of roses and flowers).

37. Think of the soberminded kura, who notwithstanding his following the profession of a huntsman all his lifetime, was at last translated to heaven, and placed by the souls of the righteous men after his demise.

38. Think of the listlessness and want of concupiscence, in the person of the royal sage Kapardana, who being seated in the garden of paradise in his youth, and beset by celestial damsels all about, felt no desire for any of them.

39. Know how many princes and Lords of peoples have from the unperturbed apathy of their souls, resigned their realms and society of mankind, and betaken themselves to[Pg 1074] lonely forests and solitary caves of Vindhyan Mountains, and there spent their lives in motionless torpidity.

40. Think of the great sages and saints, and of divine and devoted adepts, who were adored by even the gods, for the steadiness of their holy devotion, that have passed away in the observance of their rigid and unruffled vows of an universal indifference.

41. Call to your mind the instances of many a monarch, of ordinary men and of base and mean huntsmen also, that have been honoured in all ages and countries, for their observance of an unimpressed equality in all states and circumstances of their lives.

42. All intelligent men strictly observed the rule, of preserving their equanimity in their course through life; whether it be for the achievement of their acts for this life or the next, as also for the success of their understandings of every kind.

43. They neither long for longevity nor desire their death in difficulties; but live as long as they have to live, and act as they are called to act, without any grudge or murmur.

44. It is the business of the wiseman, to conduct himself in the career of his life, with a contented mind and placid countenance, both in his favourable and unfavourable circumstances, as well as in the happiness or misery of himself or others.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the wise and liberated man is not freed from his subjection to the prescribed rules of conduct, when his soul is beatified with the spiritual light, and his mind is emancipated from all earthly cares.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The observance and avoidance of all ritual and pious acts, are equal and of no avail to the truly enlightened man; who is indifferent to aught of good or evil to his life (i.e. who is neither solicitous to have anything desirable or leave what is unfavourable to him into the world).

3. There is nothing whatever in this frail world, which may be desirable to the man of right understanding, not aught of positive evil, which deserves the avoidance and abhorrence of the wise man.

4. The wise man derives no positive nor permanent good, by his doing of any act prescribed by custom or usage; nor does he lose anything by his neglect of them; wherefore it is best for him to stand in the middle course, and according to the common rules of society and his country.

5. As long as there is life in the body, it is called a living body and has its motion also; therefore measure your movements according to the breathings of your life, nor accelerate nor slacken them beyond their just measure (i.e. neither outrun thy breath, nor halt in thy course).

6. If it is equal to any one, to walk either by this way or that to his journey’s end, yet it is much better for him, to walk by the beaten path, than in a strange and unknown one. (So if it be the same thing to sleep at home or abroad; yet it must be[Pg 1076] safer and more comfortable to every one to sleep at his own lodge than elsewhere).

7. Whatever actions are done at any time, with meekness and mildness of disposition, and with a placid frankness of the mind, is ever held as perfectly pure and contrite in its nature, and never blameable in anywise.

8. We have seen many wise, learned and farsighted men, to have conducted themselves very honorably and blamelessly in this world, which is full of faults and pitfalls, and beset by traps and snares on every way.

9. Every one is employed with perfect compliance of his mind, in discharging the duties of the particular sphere in which he is placed; some commencing their career in life, in the state of householdership and others ascending gradually to state of living liberation (when they are not exempted from observances of particular duties also).

10. There are many wise and well discerning kings and princes, like yourself and those sitting in this assembly who are vigilantly employed in the ruling of their respective states, without their attachment or tenacity to them, and without their desire of reaping any fruition from them, and by way of the disinterested discharge of duty.

11. There are some that follow the usages, according to the true sense of the Vedas, and take their food from what is left after their daily offerings to the sacrificial fire. (The early Aryans ever fed upon cooked food, after their first offerings to the gods by their mouth of the fire (Agner vaidevanam Mukham)).

12. All men belonging to any of the four classes, are employed in the observance of their respective rites and duties, and in the acts of the worship of the gods, and in their meditations with different ends and views (Kamya-karma).

13. Some men of magnanimous minds, and higher aims of future liberation or Moksha, have renounced all their ritual acts karma kánda; and remain inactive as ignorant people, with their spiritual knowledge of the only One.

14. Some are seen to be sitting silent and insensitive, in[Pg 1077] their posture of deep and unbroken meditation; in dreary and dismal deserts untraversed by the deer and wild beasts; and in distant and lovely solitudes, where no trace of a human being was never seen even in a dream.

15. Some are found to resort to some sacred place of pilgrimage, and there to perform their acts for future rewards; while others are known to recline in some holy hermitage or sacred shrine of saints, and there to pass their lives in the practice of resignation and indifference and quite unknown to men.

16. Many are seen to leave their own houses, and quit their native countries, in order to avoid the enmity and scorn of their fellow countrymen; and betake themselves to other lands, where they settle as strangers.

17. There are many who being dissatisfied with their families, forsake their company and desert their homes; and rove about as wanderers, from forest to forest, over hills and dales, and cities and towns, without being settled any where.

18. How many are there that travel to the great city of Benares, and to the holy city of Allahabad and visit the holy hills and cities, and the sacred shrine of Badarikásrama (for performance of their acts of righteousness there).

19. How many are seen to resort <to> the holy places at Sálagrama, and to the sacred cell in Kalapagráma, how many are on their way to the holy city of Mathura, and the sacred hill at Kalinjar.

20. See the numbers of pilgrims thronging in the woodlands on Mahendra mountains, and upon table lands of Gandhamádana hills; see also the pilgrims on the plains of Dardura hills; as those also upon the level lands of Sahya Mountains.

21. See the pilgrims thronging on the craigs of the Vindhyan range, and those dwelling in the hollows of the Malaya Mountains; see them that dwell in the happy groves of Kailása, and those in the caverns of Rikshavata mounts.

22. In these as well as many other holy places and mounts, you will find a great many hermits and far-sighted devotees dwelling in peace, and wholly devoted to their holy devotion.

[Pg 1078]

23. Those among them that have become sannyasins, are deserters of their prescribed duties, while they that are Brahmacharins, are strict observers of the law and their sacred rites: but those that have the faith of Buddha, are apostates from the holy faith, and fanatics in their practices.

24. Some of these have left their native homes, and others have quitted their natal lands altogether; some have their settled habitations in some place, and others leading their nomadic lives from place to place.

25. Among these, O Ráma, that dwell in the sublunar sphere of this globe, as also among them that live at the antipodes, and are known as daityas:—

26. Some are of clear understandings, and well acquainted with the civil laws of their society; some are of enlightened understanding, and others again are acquainted with the past, and have a foresight of the future.

27. Some are of unenlightened understandings, and are always in suspense, and suspicion of their minds; they are addicted to vice, and unable to govern themselves, are always under the government of others.

28. Some there are who are half-enlightened, and proud withal of their knowledge of truth; they break loose from the observance of customary duties, and are not yet the esoteric yogi or spiritualist.

29. Thus among these great multitudes of men, that are wading in the vast ocean of life, every one is striving to get the end, according to his different aim and object.

30. But it is neither one’s confining himself at home, or remaining in his native country, nor his betaking him to hermitage or dwelling in some solitary forest; nor the observance of customary duties; nor practice of painful austerities, whereby one may ford over the unfordable gulf of this world.

31. Neither dependence on righteous acts nor the forsaking of them; nor one’s employment in the observance of customary usages, or his attainment of great powers, can be of any avail to him, in saving him from the turmoils of the world.

32. It is one’s self-control only, that is the means of his[Pg 1079] salvation (lit., getting over the sea of the world); and the man whose mind is not attached, or tied down to anything in this world, is said to have got or gone over it.

33. It is no matter whether a man does or neglects, the righteous deeds of his religion and society; provided he keeps the contriteness of his mind in both, and is never attached to nor affected by either: such a man is deemed a sage and saved from his return to this nether world.

34. The man that does neither any righteous or unrighteous action in his life, but has his mind fixed in this earth, and attached to earthly objects, is deemed a hypocrite, and destined to revisit this earth in his repeated births.

35. Our minds again are of the nature of nasty flies, which are prone to fly about and pour upon the sores of worldly pleasures; from which it is hard for us to deter them, as it is impossible for us to kill them at once for attainment of our salvation (or, our minds are as surfeited bees, cloyed with the honey of their cells from which they cannot fly away. Gloss).

36. It sometime comes to happen and by the good fortune of a person, that his mind turns of itself towards its perfection; and then by a flash of inward light within itself, comes to see the presence of the divine spirit in the very soul.

37. The mind being enlightened by the flash of spiritual light in the soul, becomes enrapt at the sight, and losing all earthly attachment, is unified with the supreme unity.

38. Being unmindful of everything, and conscious of thy entity as a particle of the infinite vacuity, remain perfectly happy with thyself, and in the everlasting felicity of thy soul.

39. Being replete with the knowledge of transcendental truth, and devoid of the faults and frailties of thy nature, have the magnanimity of thy soul, with the equanimity of thy mind and elevation of thy spirit; and thus remain O thou support of Raghu’s royal race, without sorrow and fear of death and rebirth, and be as holy as the holy of holies.

40. Know the translucent state of the most Holy Brahma, to be quite clear of all the grossness and foulness of nature, and free from all the qualities and properties that are attributed to[Pg 1080] Him. He is beyond our conception and above the reach of our thought. He is increate and ever existent of Himself, and manifest in his abode of our intellect. Knowing him then as thyself, remain quite free and dauntless for ever.

41. There is nothing more that can be gleaned, from greater verbosity on this subject; nor is there anything remaining to be communicated to you, for your best instruction in divine knowledge. You are roused, O Ráma, to your full knowledge of the essential doctrines of divinity, and you have become cognizant, of whatever is knowable and recondite in nature.

42. Válmíki says:—After the chief of sages had spoken so far, he saw Ráma rapt in his ecstasy and bereft of his mental efforts; and the whole assembly sitting fixed in the one and same tenor of their meditation. They were all entranced in their reveries and musings, in the mysterious nature of the Divinity; as the humming bees ramble over the lotus petals with their soft and silent murmur, and revel upon the sweetness of the honey cups of flowers.

Válmíki continued:—Upon the termination of the holy sermon on Nirvána—anesthesia, there arose loud hubbub without the court house, which put a stop to the sage’s proceeding further in continuation of his discourse.

2. But the whole audience in the court hall, was immerged in a state of stead fast hypnotism, and settled intentiveness in the Supreme; and the faculties of their mind were quite clear, and their workings at rest.

3. The whole audience on hearing the lecture on investigation after intellect, became passengers on the raft of sat, and they all gained their salvation.

4. Immediately there arose a loud chorus of applause, from the mouths of the emancipated sages or siddhas, dwelling in the upper regions of the skies, and it filled the concave of heaven, with the acclamations of praise to the venerable sage.

5. In the same manner there rose shouts of praise also, from the holy sages seated in the assembly; together with the loud acclamation given by the son of Gádhi—Viswámitra, who sat at their head.

6. Then was heard a swelling sound, filling the face of the four quarters of the firmament; just as the blasts of wind filled the hollows of the withered bamboos in the forest, and make them resound with a sound with a soft sweet melody.

7. Next arose a flourish of trumpets from the celestials, mingling with the hosannahs of the siddhas; which rumbled together and resounded loudly, amidst the hollow caves of distant mountains and dale.

[Pg 1082]

8. Along with the flourish of celestial trumpets, there fell showers of flowers from above, resembling the driving rain of snows, which blocked the faces on all sides of heaven.

9. The floor of the court hall was strewn over with flowers, and the fanfare of the drums and timbals, filled the mouths of hollow caves and caverns; the flying dust covered the face of the sky, and the rising odours after the rain were borne upon the wings of the winds to all sides.

10. Then there rose a mingled rumble of the shouts of applause, and the peal of heavenly trumpets; joined with the whistle of the hissing showers of flowers, and the rustling of the winds all about.

11. The courtiers all looked around with their uplifted faces and eyes, and were struck in their minds with wonder and surprise; while the beasts all about the palace and in the parks, remained amazed at the event with their pricked up ears.

12. The women and children in the inside, sat staring with their wonder stricken eyes; and the princes sitting in the court hall, looked astonished on one another with their smiling faces.

13. The face of the firmament became exceedingly brightened, by the falling showers of flowers from above; and the great concavity of the world, was filled with the hissing sound of the falling rains.

14. The showers of flowers and drizzling rain drops, with their hissing sounds, made the royal palace an appearance of festivity. (With the scattering of fried rice, sprinkling of rose water and blowing of conchshells).

15. Not only the palace, but all places in the worlds, seem to celebrate their festive mirth, with tossing of flower garlands, joined with celestial music.

16. The shouts of the siddhas and their ejaculations of joy, rolled and growled as high in the upper sky; as the rolling billows and rebillowing waves, howled in the depth of the ocean and sea.

[Pg 1083]

17. After the hubbub of the heavenly hosts had subsisted, (in the lull of the rains and rackets); the following words of the siddhas proceeded from above, and were heard to be uttered in an audible and distinct voice.

18. The siddhas said:—We have erewhile since time erst began, listened to delivered thousands of sermons, in the assembly of siddhas or perfect beings, on the means of attaining liberation, (which is the highest pitch of perfection of the living soul); but never heretofore heard a lecture so impressive on the mind, as this last locution of the sage.

19. We see boys and women and the bending brute creatures, together with the creeping and crawling animals, are all enrapt by this soothing speech, which will doubtless enrapture its readers and hearers in future.

20. The sage has used every argument and example, for rousing Ráma to his beatification; such as it is doubtful whether he had ever shewn such affection to his Arundhatí or not.

21. Hearing this lecture on liberation, even the brute creation of beasts and birds, become emancipated from the burthen of their base bodies; and as for men, they forget altogether the trammels of their bodies in their embodied state.

22. Our draught of these ambrosial drops of divine knowledge, through the vessels of our ears; has not only satiated our appetite for wisdom, but renovated our understandings, and added a fresh beauty to our spiritual bodies.

23. On hearing these words of the heavenly host of siddhas, were struck with wonder, and looked upward with full open eyes; and then as they cast their looks below, they beheld the surface of the court-hall, to be strewn over with flowers and lotuses, falling in showers from above.

24. They saw heaps of mandara and other celestial flowers, piled up to the roof of the lofty hall; and observed the court yard to be covered over with blossoming plants and creepers, and with wreaths and garlands of flowers without an interstice.

25. The surface of the ground, was strewn over with buds and blossoms of Párijata plants; and thick clouds of Santanaka[Pg 1084] flowers, shadowed over the heads and shoulders of the assembled people in the court.

26. The saffron flowers of Harichandana (yellow sandal wood), hung over the jewelled crests of the princes; and seemed as an awning of rainy clouds, spread over the glittering chandeliers of the court hall. (Harichandana is a tree in the garden of Paradise).

27. Seeing these events in the court, the people all gave vent to the repeated shouts of their loud applause; and talked to one another of this and that, as was fitted to the solemnity of occasion.

28. They then adored the sage with the prostration of their bodies and limbs, and made him their obeisances, with offerings of handfuls of flowers.

29. After the loud peals of applause had somewhat abated; the king also rose and prostrated himself down and then worshipped the sage, with the tray of his presents and wreaths of flowers held in his hands.

30. Dasaratha said:—It was by your admonition, O thou Lord of Arundhati; that I was released from this my mortal frame; and gained the transcendent knowledge which filled my soul, and joined it with the supreme essence in perfect bliss.

31. We have nothing in this nether earth, nor is there anything with the gods in heaven, which I ween is worthy enough to be given, as a proper offering in thine adoration.

32. Yet I beg to pray you something in order to acquit myself of my duty to you, and to render my services to thee prove effectual to me, and hope you will not be irritated at this address of mine.

33. That I adore you myself with my queens and my weal in both worlds, together with all these dominions and servants of mine (all which I now offer humbly at your venerable feet).

34. All these possessions of mine are yours entirely at present, so my lord take them as yours, and make them as parts of your hermitage; please to dispose of these as you please, or use them as you like.

[Pg 1085]

35. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O great king, that we Bráhmans are pleased, only with the mere obeisances of people; we are verily satisfied with receiving reverence of men, and these you have already done and shown to me.

36. You know to rule the earth, and therefore its sovereignty is suitable to thee; nor can you show a Brahmin to have ever reigned as a king, keep therefore what is yours to yourself and prosper therein.

37. Dasaratha answered:—What is this trifle of a realm to me, which I am ashamed to call and own as mine; it cannot lead me to the knowledge of its true Lord, therefore do so as I may clearly and truly know the most high.

38. Válmíki relates:—As the king was saying so, Ráma rose from his seat, and threw handfuls of flowers on the sacred person of his preceptor; and then lowly bending himself before him, he addressed him as follows.

39. Venerable sir, as you have made the king speechless, by telling him that you are pleased with mere obeisance of men; so I am taught to wait here, with my bare prostration at your venerable feet.

40. Saying so, Ráma bowed down his head, lowly at the feet of his guide; and then scattered handful of flowers on his pure person, as the trees on the sides of a mountain, sprinkle their dew drops at the foot and base of the mount. (Gloss. The branches of trees serving as their hands, and the leaves as their palms).

41. Then the pious prince made his repeated bows of reverence to his venerable preceptor; while his lotus like eyes were suffused with the tears of his inward joy and piety. (Ánandásru—tears issuing from pious and joyous feelings).

42. Next rose the brother princes, of Dasaratha’s royal race; namely Bharata, Satrughna and Lakshmana, together with their equals in kith and kin; and they all advanced to the sage, and bowed down to him with their respectful reverence.

43. The other chiefs and nobles and regents, that sat in their order at a distance; together with the saints, sages and[Pg 1086] the clergy at large, rose in groups from their seats, and did their homage to the sage, with flinging handfuls of flowers upon him.

44. At this instant the sage was almost covered with and hid under the heap of flowers, that were poured upon him from all sides; in the same manner as the snowy mountain of Himálaya, is wrapped and concealed under the snows of water.

45. After clangor of the assembly was over, and the peals of their pranáma-hailings had ended; Vasishtha remembered his saying with the assembled sages, of proving to them the truth of his doctrines, and of removing the doubts of his audience regarding the miracles he had wrought.

46. He then shoved off with both his arms, the heaps of flowers from about his sides; and showed out his fair face from amidst them, as when the disc of the moon, shines forth from within the hoary clouds.

47. Then there ensued a hush over the flourish of the trumpets, and a silence upon the fanfare of applauses; the falling of flowers was at a stop, and the murmur of siddhas above, ceased with the clamour of the assemblage below.

48. After the princes and assembled nobles, had made their obeisances and greetings, there occurred a calm stillness in the assembly, as when a lull takes place in the atmosphere after a storm.

49. Then the chief of sages Vasishtha, upon hearing the applauses poured upon him from all sides; spoke softly to the royal sage Viswámitra, from the unblemished purity of his soul.

50. Hear me, O sage, that art the lotus of the princely race of Gádhi, and ye sages that are assembled here, namely Vámadeva, Nimi and Kruta, together with Bharadwája, Pulastya, Atri, Nárada and Ghrishti, and Sándilya.

51. Hear me also, O ye sages Bhása, Bhrigu, Bharanda, Vatsa and Vátsyáyana, with all others that are assembled here at present, and had the patience to listen to this contemptible discourse of mine.

52. Please now with your well known affability to me,[Pg 1087] point out to me whatever you have found as meaningless or unintelligible and ambiguous in my discourse.

53. The audience responded:—O Venerable sir, we have never heard or marked in <a> single word in this spiritual and divine discourse of thine, that is meaningless or unintelligible to anybody.

54. We confess that whatever foulness was inbred in our natures, by our repeated births in this sinful world; has been all purged out by your holy lecture, as the alloy in gold is burnt away by the purifying fire.

55. O sir, our minds are as expanded by your divine sermon, as the blue lotus buds are opened to bloom, by the cold and ambrosial beams of moon light.

56. We all bow down to thee, O thou chief of sages, as our best guide in divine knowledge; and the giver of true wisdom to us, with regard to all things in nature.

57. Válmíki relates:—The sages said so far and then hailed and bowed down to Vasishtha again, and their united applause of him, rose as high as the loud roar of raining clouds.

58. Then the speechless siddhas, poured down again their showers of flowers from above; and these hid the body of the sage under them, as the clouds of winter cover the rocks under ice and snows.

59. Afterwards the intelligent and learned men in the court, gave their praises to King Dasaratha and to Ráma also; saying that the four princes were no other than the four fold incarnation of the God Mádhava or Vishnu himself.

60. The siddhas said:—We hail the four princes of Dasaratha line, who are the quadruple forms of the self incarnate Vishnu, and are quite liberated from the bonds of flesh, in these their living states of humanity.

61. We hail king Dasaratha, as having the mark of the sovereignty of the whole world. (Imprinted in his person); that is of this world which extends to the limits of the four oceans, and lasts forever in his race.

62. We hail the sage Vasishtha, who is as bright as the sun,[Pg 1088] and stands at the head of the whole host of sages; and also the royal sage Viswámitra of renowned fame and dignity.

63. It is through their means (i.e. because of their assemblage in this court), that we had this fair opportunity of hearing this divine discourse, which is so full of knowledge and fraught with reason, that it serves to dispel the great gloom of error at once.

64. So saying the siddhas of heaven again let fall their handfuls of flowers in showers; and made the assembly look up to them in silence, with their uplifted eyes and gladdened minds.

65. And then there was a mutual greeting of the siddhas from above, and of the assembled people to them from below.

66. At last the assembly broke, with their respectful greetings to one another, accompanied with their mutual offerings of flowers and salutations. And the celestial and terrestrial, the great Munis and sages, the Pandits and Bráhmans; together with the princes and nobles, bade adieu to and took leave of one another (in order to repair to their respective abodes).

Válmíki related:—After the assembly had rejoined the next day, there was observed a profound silence over it; and there appeared a cheerfulness in the countenances of princes from the enlightenment by the last lecture.

2. The people seemed to be smiling in their faces, by reflecting on their former errors and follies, after their coming to the light of truth. (The reminiscence of the freaks and follies of boyhood, is a source of delight in old age).

3. The wisemen in the assembly, appeared to be sitting fixed in their steadfast meditation, by having the feelings and passions of their minds, curbed and subdued upon their access to the relish of true knowledge.

4. At this time, Ráma sat with his brothers, in their posture of padmásana—having their legs crossed upon one another; had the palms of their hands folded together, and their eyes fixed steadfastly upon the face of their preacher.

5. The king Dasaratha remained in a sort of entranced meditation, and thought himself as liberated in his life time, and placed in a state of infinite bliss.

6. The sage after holding his silence, as long as he was adored by his reverential audience, spoke to them at last in distinct words, and wanted to know what they would now like to hear about.

7. He said, O lotus eyed Ráma, that art as the cooling moon in the clear sphere of thy race, tell me what thou now wishest to hear, as most desirable and delightsome to your mind.

8. Tell me the state in which you find yourself at present,[Pg 1090] and in what light you view the appearance of the appearance of the world now before you.

9. Being thus addressed by the sage, Ráma looked at his face; and then bespoke to him in his distinctly audible voice, and his plain and unfaltering accents.

10. Ráma said:—It is all owing to thy favour only, O Venerable sir, that I have attained to my state of perfect holiness, and become as pure as the clear atmosphere in autumnal calm and serenity.

11. I am entirely freed from all the errors, which are so detrimental to the right course of our lives in this world, and an act as pure as the clear sky, in the true and very state of finite vacuity. (The very state of the deity).

12. I am set free from all bonds, and released from all attributes and adjuncts; I find myself situated in a crystalline sphere, and shining there as clear as crystal.

13. I am quite pacified in my mind and am neither willing to hear or do anything else; I am quite satiate in myself, and require nothing more for my satisfaction. I am quite at rest as in the state of hypnotism.

14. My mind is quite calm in its thoughts, and entirely pacified in its wishes; all my desires have fled from it, and I find my mind to rest in its perfect peace and supreme bliss.

15. I am staid in all my thoughts and allayed in my desires, whilst living in this waking world; I am enrapt and entranced, while I am quite sane and sound and sleepless at all hours by day and night.

16. With my soul devoid of all wishes and expectations, I live while I am destined to live in this material body of mine; and remain smiling (i.e. rejoicing) as long as I sit to listen to your inspiring lessons.

17. Now I am no more in need of admonition or instruction of the sástras, or of the acquisition of riches or friends; nor am I willing either to get rid of them at any time. (Because of my utter indifference to them as is theirs also to me).

18. I have found and am in the enjoyment of that unalloyed[Pg 1091] happiness, which attends on one in heaven or Paradise, or in his attainment of the sovereignty of the whole world.

19. The world which I perceive within myself by my outward senses, is conceived to be brighter far and more transparent than the outward atmosphere, by being viewed in the light of the intellect, and considered as a part of its infinite vacuous sphere.

20. This world I ween, is certainly a vacuum; and it is by my belief in the nihility of the phenomenal, that I am awaked to my immortality. (The visible world is a passing and vanishing sight, and it is by our belief in the spiritual only, that we see the everlasting scene).

21. Let me remain content with all that is, or comes to pass on me, whether they are desirable to me or occur themselves; and let me act as the law enacts to its full extent and without fail, but without any object of mine or expectation of reward.

22. I am neither content nor discontented with anything, nor rejoice nor repine at any event; I do what is my duty in society, without retaining the erroneous conception of reaping their reward.

23. Let this creation be otherwise or go to perdition, let the winds of the last destruction blow with their fury also; or let the land smile in its plenty and beauty, yet I sit unmoved by them, and remain in the divine self or spirit.

24. I rest in myself which is unseen or dimly seen by others, and is undecaying and untainted in itself; I am not enchained to my wishes, but am as free as air, which you cannot compress in your clutches.

25. As the fragrance of flowers upon the trees, is wafted by the breeze and deposited in the air, so is my soul borne away from the confines of my body, and posited in empty vacuity (where it ranges at large in its freedom).

26. As these princes and rulers of people, live and enjoy themselves in their realms at pleasure; and whether they are enlightened or not, they are employed in their respective occupations.

27. So do I enjoy myself with the steadiness and equanimity[Pg 1092] of my mind, which is freed from all fear, grief or joy and desire.

28. I am happy above all happiness (derived from this frail world); my happiness is in the everlasting One, than which there is no happiness to be preferred by me. But because I live here as a human being, you are at liberty to appoint me to any duty, in common with all mankind and becoming to humanity.

29. I cannot be averse, to manage myself with the trifles of this world, as long as I am destined to them; in the same manner as boys are never to be blamed, for indulging themselves in their playthings in their boyhood. So long sir, as I shall have to live in this body of mine, I must do my bodily acts, with my mind fixed in the sole One only.

30. I must live to eat and drink, and continue in the course of my business in life; but I am freed from all fear of my failings in them, by the kind counsels to me. (That the liberated man is at liberty to do or undo his duties).

31. Vasishtha replied:—O Bravo Ráma! that you have chosen for yourself the most meritorious course of life; wherein you shall never have to repent, from the beginning to the end of your career.

32. By this cold indifference in thy self, and complete equanimity in every state, you have verily secured to the unbroken rest in your life, as the visible firmament has found in infinite vacuity.

33. It is by your good fortune, that you have got rid of your sorrows, and it is fortunate to you to be set so well composed in yourself; it is your good luck to be freed from the fears of both worlds, and it is happy for you to be at your heart’s ease and rest.

34. You are lucky, my lord, to be so fraught with your holy knowledge; and to have purified the lineage of Raghu, with your knowledge of the present, past and future.

35. Now prepare yourself to accomplish the object, of the chief of sages—The great Viswámitra’s request and by completion of his holy sacrifice at your sire’s behest, continue to enjoy[Pg 1093] the sovereignty of the earth; in subordination to your royal parent.

36. May the mighty king reign for ever in prosperity, over this prosperous realm of his; in conjunction with yourself and his other sons, relatives and nobles and in possession of all his infantry, cavalry, his chariots and his lines of elephants &c., and without any disease and fear of his enemies.

Válmíki related:—Upon hearing these words of the sage, the assembled princes and lords of men in the court, felt a sang froid or coolness in their souls, as if they were all besprinkled with ambrosial waters upon them.

2. Ráma with his lotus like eyes and moon like face, remained as resplendent, as if they were filled with ambrowaters, or the nectarious liquid of the Milky ocean.

3. Then the sage Vámadeva and others, who were fraught with divine knowledge, exclaimed with their admiration for the preacher; O the holy instruction, that you have imparted unto us this day!

4. The King with his pacified soul and joyous mind, shone as shining in his countenance, as if he had a new light infused in himself (and causing the hairs on his body to stand on their ends, from his inward gladness).

5. After many other sages, who were well acquainted with the knowledge of the knowable One, had thus pronounced their praises; the enlightened Ráma (lit. who was purged from his ignorance), oped his mouth again, and spoke in the following manner.

6. Ráma said:—O thou seer, that knowest the past and future; thou hast cleansed away all our inward dross, as fire serves to purge gold from its impurity.

7. Venerable sir we have now become cosmognostics or all knowing, by our knowledge of the universal soul, though we are confined in these visible bodies of ours, and seeming to all appearance, as knowing nothing beyond them.

8. I feel myself now as perfect and full in all, and to have[Pg 1095] become quite undecaying in myself; I am freed from all fear and apprehension, and am quite cognoscent with all things.

9. I am overjoyed to no end, and am happy beyond all measure; I have risen to a height from which there is no fear of falling, and am elevated to the supreme acme of eminence and perfection. (Parama-purushártha).

10. Alack! how am I cleansed by the holy and cooling water of divine knowledge, which you have so kindly poured forth in me, and whereby I am as joyous, as a full blown lotus in the lake of my heart.

11. I am now set, sir, by your favour to a state of happiness, which brightens to me the face of universe with ambrosial delight.

12. I now hail myself, that have become so fair within myself with the clearness of my mind, and by disappearance of all sorrow from it. I have received a grace in my face, from the peace of mind and purity of my wishes. I am joyous in myself with my inward joy, and I <am> wholly pure with the purity of my soul.

Válmíki related:—As Ráma and the sage had been remonstrating in this manner, the sun advanced towards the zenith, to listen to their holy conversation in <its> royal dome.

2. The solar beams spread on all sides, with greater force and effulgence; as if to expose to clearer and greater light the sense of Ráma’s speech.

3. Then the lotus beds in the tanks of the pleasure gardens, all about the royal palace, began to expand their embosomed buds to bloom before him, as the princes shone forth in brightness amidst the royal hall.

4. The air was exhilarated with joy at hearing the holy lectures of the sage; and seemed to be dancing with the sunbeams, glistening in the strings of pearls, suspended at the windows of the palace.

5. The premature gleams of the sun, glistened as bright at the glittering glass doors and shining chandeliers of the court hall; as the gladdened hearts of the audience, glowed at enlightening speech of the sage.

6. After Ráma was settled in his sedateness, his face shone as bright as a blooming blue lotus by its reflexion of the rays of the sage’s look upon it. (Here the blue complexion of Ráma, is compared to a blue lotus, blooming under the moon bright look of fair Vasishtha’s countenance).

7. The sun advancing towards the summit of the horizon, like the marine fire rising on the surface of the blue ocean; sucked or dried up by his darting flames the dewy humidity of the sky, as the submarine heat resorbs the waters of the deep.

[Pg 1097]

8. The cerulean sphere of heaven, appeared as the lake of blue lotuses, and the shining sun seemed as the golden pericarp of the flower; his bright beams resembled the aureate farina of flowers, and his slanting rays likened the aslant pistils in the air.

9. He shone as the dazzling crown upon the head of the azure queen of the worlds; and was hanging down like the resplendent earring, pendant on the ear of heaven; while the little lay hid under his glaring light, like bits of diamonds lying concealed under the effulgence of a blazing ruby.

10. The ethereal maids of all the quarters of heaven, held out the mirrors of silvery clouds before his face, with their uplifted arms of the mountain peaks all around; and these are emblazoned by solar rays, like the rainless clouds on mountain tops.

11. The sun stones in the quarries on earth emitted a fury blaze, which emblazoned the skies around, with a greater light than that of the sun.

12. The trumpets sounded aloud, with the wind blown by the mouths of trumpeters; and the conchshells blew as loudly at midday, as the winds of the last deluge, set the sea waves to their tremendous uproar.

13. Then the spherules of sweat, appeared on the faces of the princes, as the dew drops falling on lotus leaves; and they were so closely connected together, as to give them the appearance of strings of pearls.

14. The thickening noise of the hurry and flurry of men, resounded as hoarsely within the hollow walls of the hall, that they filled the ears of men, as the dashing waves fill the concave of the hollow sea.

15. The waiting maids then came forward with cups of liquid camphor in their hands; in order to sprinkle them on the persons of the princes; to assuage their fervour of the solar heat.

16. Then the assembly broke, and the king rose from his seat in company with Ráma and the princes and Vasishtha,[Pg 1098] together with all the lords and nobles, that were present in the assembly.

17. The assembled lords and princes, the ministers of the state and religion, together with the high priests and sages; rose from their seats, and having gladly made their greetings to one another, took their leave and departed to their respective abodes.

18. The front of the royal inner apartment, was fanned with flappers of palm leaves, wafting the clouds <of> camphor powder, that was scattered for allaying the midday heat.

19. Then the chief of sages—Vasishtha, oped his mouth and spoke out to Ráma, amidst the sonata of noonday music, that resounded amidst the walls of the royal hall.

20. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! you have heard whatever is worth hearing, and known also all that is worth your knowing; and now I see nothing further, that is worth communicating to you for your higher knowledge.

21. Now you have to reconcile in yourself, and by your best understandings, all that you have been instructed by me, and what you have read and learnt in the sástras, and harmonise the whole for your guidance.

22. Now rise to do your duties, while I hasten to the performance of sacred ablutions; it is now midday, and the proper time of our bathing is fastly passing away.

23. And then whatever else you have to enquire about, for the satisfaction of your wishes, you can propose the same to me tomorrow morning, when I shall be happy to expatiate on the subject.

24. Válmíki related:—After the sage had spoken in this manner, the mighty king Dasaratha saluted the parting chiefs and sages, and honoured them according to their proper ranks and degrees.

25. And then being advised by Vasishtha, the virtuous king with Ráma by his side, proceeded to give their due honours, to the sages and siddhas and to the Bráhmanas also one after the other.

26. He gave them gems and jewels, and monies and[Pg 1099] bouquets of flowers; and he gave to others riches equivalent to the values of the gems and jewels; while he gave strings of pearls and necklaces to some also.

27. He honoured some with his respects and civilities, and others with monies suited to their worth and degree, while he gave his gifts of cloths and seats, food and drink, and of gold and lands to others.

28. He saluted others with perfumeries and aromatic spices and wreaths of flowers; he honoured the elders with due respects, and gave his bare regards to others.

29. Then the king rose from amidst the assembly, with the whole body of his courtiers, and the holy sages and Vasishtha with him; as the splendid moon rises in the sky, with the train of stars about him. (The moon is masculine in Sanskrit, and twin brother of the sun).

30. The rising of the assembly and its people, was attended with a rumbling noise, as it is heard in the treading of men, over a bog of knee deep mud and mire.

31. The clashing of the concourse against one another, and the cracking of their armlets and wristlets by their friction with each other; joined with the broken jewels and scattered pearls, slipped from the torn necklaces of the nobles, gave the floor of the court hall, the appearance of the spangled heaven.

32. There was a close concussion of the bodies, of sages and saints, of Bráhmans and princes and nobles all jumbled together; and there was a rapid undulation of the chourie flappers, waving in the hands of fanning maid servants.

33. But there was no huddling or dashing or pushing one against the other; as they were intent upon reflecting on the sense of the sages preaching, and rather asking excuses of one another, with the gestures of their bodies, when they came in contact with others.

34. At last the king and the sages and nobles, accosted one another with sweet and soft words; and took their parting leave (for repairing to their respective abode for the day).

35. They then left the palace, and proceeded to their residences, with their gladdened faces and contented minds; as[Pg 1100] when the immortals repair to all parts of heaven, from the synod of the king of gods—Indra or Sakra.

36. After every one had taken leave of others, and arrived at his house; he employed himself in the discharge of his ritual services of the day.

37. Thus the king and all, performed their daily ablutions and services as usual, until the end of the day.

38. As the day ended with the discharge, of the duties of the daily ritual; so the sojourner of the etherial path—the tired sun, sat down to rest in the west (as the birds of air repair at eve, to their respective nests). (The sun is said to be the unka or falcon of heaven; resting at his aspiand or nest in the west, by a poet of Persia).

39. After the performance of their vespers, the prince Ráma and the people at large, passed their nights awake and fastly, with talking about and thinking upon the discourse of the day.

40. Then the rising sun advanced in the east, with sweeping away the dust of darkness from before his path, and strewing about the starry flowers on his way, in order to fix his seat in the midst of his dome of the universe.

41. The infant or rising sun, reddened the skies with his rays, resembling the crimson hue of kusambha flowers; and then he embarked on the board of his bright orb, amidst the wide ocean of the etherial region. (The sun sailed in the etherial sea, through the scattered island of the hidden stars and planets on his way. Gloss).

42. Then the regnant princes and lords of men, together with the nobles, peers and their ministers, met at the court hall of King Dasaratha; when there gathered also the great saints and sages, with Vasishtha at their head.

43. They entered into the court and took their seats, according to their different degrees and ranks; just as the stars of heaven appear and occupy their places, in their respective constellations and circles in the expanse of heaven.

44. Then the king and his ministers, advanced and bowed down to Vasishtha, and ushered him to his high seat or pulpit;[Pg 1101] and they all poured forth their praises to him, after that sage was seated in the rostrum.

45. Now the lotus-eyed Ráma, who sat before the king and the holy sage, oped his lotus like mouth, and spoke in the following manner, with his natural good sense, and usual elegance of speech.

46. Ráma said:—O Venerable sir, that art acquainted with all religions, and art the great ocean of knowledge; thou art the axe of all knotty questions and doubts, and remover of the griefs and fears of mankind.

47. Please tell us whatever more is worth our hearing and knowing; for thou knowest best whatever there remains to be said, for the edification of our knowledge.

48. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma you have gained your full knowledge, and have nothing more to learn; you have attained the perfection of your understanding, and obtained the summum bonum which is sought by all (but found by few), and wherewith you are quite content in yourself.

49. You better consider in yourself and say, how do you find yourself and your inner mind at present; and what else is there, that you wish to know and hear from me.

50. Ráma rejoined:—Why sir, I find myself fully perfected in my understanding; and being possest of the peace and tranquility of my mind, with the blessing of Nirvána or ultimate beatitude of my soul, I have nothing to ask or desire of thee.

51. You have said all that you had to impart to me, and I have known all that is worth my knowing; Now sir, take your rest with the Goddess of speech, who has done her utmost for the instruction of us all.

52. I have known the unknown and knowable One, that is only to be known by us as the true reality; and knowing this all as the One Brahma, I am freed from my knowledge of the duality (of the living and supreme soul); and having got rid of the deception of the diversity of the visibles, I am released from my reliance in all worldly things.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—Hear me moreover, O Ráma, to tell thee, a few words on transcendental knowledge, that the mirror of the mind shines more brightly, by expurgation of the external images that are reflected on it, than when it is eclipsed by those outward shadows. (i.e. Wipe off visibles from the mind).

2. Again the significant words that <are> the symbols of the objects of our knowledge, are as insignificant as the hissing murmurs of waters and waves, and the phenomenal is but a semblance of the noumenal, as a dream is the réchauffé or reflexion of the mind, and the visible world, is but a recast of the visionary dream.

3. The waking state is that of dreaming, and its scenes are those of our dreams; and presenting themselves before us in both these states from our remembrance of them: they are the inward concept of our consciousness, and appearing to be situated without it. (i.e. They are the innate ideas of our minds, and not perceptions of our outward organs of sense).

4. As I am conscious of the clearness of my intellectual sphere, notwithstanding the view of the fairy lands in its state of dreaming; so I find my mind, to be equally clear in my waking also of all its imaginary forms of the three worlds and their contents, which in reality <are> a formless vacuity only.

5. Ráma rejoined:—If all things are formless amidst the formless void of the universe, as in empty vacuity of the intellect; then tell me sir, whence arise these endless shapes and forms, as those <of> earth, water, fire and those of these hills, rocks and pebbles?

6. Tell me why the elements are of different forms and qualities[Pg 1103] and why the empty air, space and time have no forms nor properties of theirs; what makes the wind so very fleet, and what is the cause of the motions and actions of waving bodies.

7. How came the sky to be a vacuum only, and why is the mind of the same nature also; these are all the various natures and properties of things, <that> require to be well explained from my knowledge therein.

8. Vasishtha replied:—You have well asked these questions, Ráma, as they naturally suggest themselves to every inquirer after truth; but tell me in one word, why do you see the varieties of earth and sky, as well as of all other things that you see in your dream.

9. Whence do you see the waters in your sleep, and how are the pebbles scattered about you in your dream; why do you see the flaming fires in your vision, and all sides of heaven appearing before your sight.

10. Say how you have the idea of time in your dreaming, and perceive the actions and motions of persons and things at that time; and tell me from where do all those accidents proceed, that you see to occur in your sleeping and dreaming moments.

11. What is it that creates, produces and gives the formless dream its fascinating form, and then dissolves it to nothing at last; you find it produced and presented to your view, but cannot say how it acts and of what stuff it is composed.

12. Ráma replied:—The dream of the dreaming world, has no form nor position of its own; its soul and substance is mere void, and the earth and rocks which it presents to sight, are nil and in nubibus (and leave not a rack behind).

13. The vacuous soul only, is its sole cause, which is likewise as formless and supportless like itself; The formless void is never in need of a support for it.

14. Nothing whatsoever of it is ever produced, nor bear any relation with our consciousness; they are the reflexions of the intellect only, and are situated in the recess of the mind.

15. The mind is the evolution of the intellect, which reflects the images of things in the form of ideas upon the mind; hence[Pg 1104] the notions of time and space, and of air, water, hills and mountains, are all reflexions of the intellect upon the mind.

16. Our consciousness is also a void, and receives the impressions of vacuum in the form of its vacuity; and those of the stone, air and water, in the forms of their solidity, fluidity and liquidity. (i.e. The vacuous mind receives and retains only the abstract ideas of all concrete bodies in the universe).

17. In reality there is nothing as the earth or any solid body or its form or sight in existence; but they all exist in their abstract states in the great void of the intellect, and are equally void in their natures with itself.

18. In fact there is nothing in reality, nor anything which is visible to sight, there is only the infinite vacuity of intellect, which represents all things in itself, and is identic with all of them.

19. The intellect has the notion of solidity, in the abstract in it; and thereby conceives itself in the forms of the earth, rocks and hills. (The idea or conception of solidity, gives rise to the perception of solid bodies, and not the perception of solids, that produces the abstract idea of their solidity; or that the innate ideas, give birth to appearances in the concrete).

20. So by its conception of oscillation and fluidity, it perceives the form of air and water in itself; and so also by its inward conception of heat, it feels the fire in itself without forsaking its intellectual form.

21. Such is the nature of this intellectual principle, in its airy and vacuous form of the spirit, soul or mind; that developes itself in all these various modalities and schemes, without any cause or incentive. (These modes or states of being, are here called nishkáranaguna, and Akárana gunotpannaguna in Nyáya philosophy, and same with the Vibhu-nishthaguna of Vedánta; all meaning them to be the increate and eternal qualities or attributes of the supreme soul or deity).

22. There is nothing any where in nature, beside these intellectual attributes of itself; as there is no sky or vacuum without its vacuity, nor the vast expanse of the ocean, devoid of the body of waters in it.

[Pg 1105]

23. Know then there is nothing else anywhere, nay not even the sense of thyself or myself or any other, except in the recess of intellectual vacuity; so commit thyself to that all teeming void; and remain quite sedate in thyself.

24. As you see the earth and heaven and all their contents, in thy dream and creation of thy fancy, in the recess of thy mind and in the midst of this house of thine; so should you behold everything in their incorporeal forms to be contained in the ample space of the infinite vacuum of the divine intellect and its all-knowing intelligence.

25. The vacuum of the intellect shines forth as the substratum of all bodies, but without a body of its own in the beginning of creation; because nothing having any prior material cause for its corporeal existence, it is the intellect alone which must be understood, to exhibit all formal existence in its vacuous space and to our ignorance.

26. Know your immaterial mind, understanding and egoism, together with the material existences of the elemental bodies, these hills, skies and all others, to be situated as dull and dumb stones, in the quiet, calm and clear sphere of the infinite intellect.

27. Thus you see there is nothing produced nor destroyed, nor anything, that may be said to exist of itself; this world as it appears to exist, exists in this very form (of its immateriality); in the vacuity of the divine intellect.

28. It is the sunshine of the intellect, that manifests the world in its visible shape and form; as the sunlight shows the hidden objects of darkness to view, and as the fluidity of water, gives rise to the waves and bubbles.

29. This appearance of the world, is no real appearance; it is the representation of the intellectual vacuum only, in its true and proper senses and light, as it is viewed by the wise; though the ignorant may view it in any light as they please.

Ráma rejoined:—If it is so, sir, that the whole plenum is vacuum, as the phenomenon in our dreams; it must follow therefrom, that the world we see in our wakings is vacuity also, and there can be no doubt in it.

2. But tell me sir, in answer to this important question of mine; how the formless and bodiless intellect appears to become embodied in all these various forms of bodies, that we see in the state of our waking dream. (i.e. The vanishing visions of our sleeping dreams, prove them to be quite vacuous and nil; but not so the lasting scenes of our waking state which appear to be substantially positive; and how does the negative intellect assume this positive form).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, the visibles that appear to view in our waking dream by day light, are all vacuous bodies; owing to their being born, resting and supportance in empty vacuity; hence you cannot on any reason doubt about their vacuousness (whose or when their production, sustentation, substance and supportance, do all depend on the infinite and all comprehending vacuum, which is the very attribute of the unity of the formless deity. Gloss).[7]

4. This infinite and eternal void, being entirely devoid of all the material causes (i.e. earth, air, water and fire, which are necessary for the production of anything); it is impossible that[Pg 1107] creation could come out from this nothing in the beginning. (Ex nihilo nihil fit).

5. And as the formless intellect could not bring forth the earth &c., for the formation of solid bodies; it is impossible to believe this phenomenal appearance, to have their real existence in nature. (The subtile mind cannot make or become any solid body).

6. Therefore the airy intellect sees the visibles in the day time, in the manner that it sees the visions in its dreams by night. It sees them all rising, in their intellectual light within itself; but appearing as real and formal objects, set without it by its delusion. (Máyá or Illusion).

7. It is the reflexion of the workings of the intellectual soul, that appears as real within the hollow sphere of the intellect; it resembles the representations of the memory in the mind in our sleep, and takes the name of the visible world.

8. It is the clear perception of these intellectual representations, in the vacuum of the mind only, that is styled by us as a vision or dream, while it is the gross conception of them in the mind, that is called the gross or material world.

9. It is thus the different views, of the same internal thought and ideas, have different names and appellations, given to them by the very intellect itself; the finer and purer ones being called as thoughts, and the grosser ones, as sensible and material objects.

10. Thus it is the same reflexion of the intellectual, which takes the names both of the dream as also of the world; the working of the mind and its reflexion in itself are natural to intellect, and though the visions subside with the disappearance of the dream upon waking, yet the working and reflecting of the mind are never at rest, either in waking or dreaming.

11. Many such visions of creation rise and set alternately, in the vacuity of Brahma’s mind, and are never apart from it; just as the empty air is either in motion or at rest in the hollow of the great void, and always inseparable from it. (Hence the[Pg 1108] air, vision, dream &c., are all void, and the world is but a phantom in it).

12. Ráma said:—Sir, you have spoken of millions of worlds to me before; tell me now which of them are situated within the sphere of the mundane egg, and which of them are beyond this egg (or supermundane ones).

13. Which of them are the terrestrial globes and which the vacuous spheres; which of them are igneous bodies in the sphere of fire, and what are the airy bodies in the regions of air.

14. Which are the superfices of the earth, situated in the midst of vacuity; of which the hills and forests set at the antipodes, are opposed to one another on both sides, and hang up and down perpendicular in empty air.

15. Which are the aerial bodies with their living souls, and which the inhabitants of darkness with their darksome shapes; what are they that are formed of vacuum only, and what can they be, whose bodies are full of worms and insects.

16. What sorts of beings settle the etherial sphere, and what are they that live in the midst of rocks and stones; what are they that dwell in the vessels and basins of water, and what be they that people the air like the aerial fowls of air.

17. Tell me, O thou greatest of philosophers, how this mundane egg of ours is situated among them. (These are questions of cosmogony, and bear no relation to theology).

18. Vasishtha replied:—These wondrous unknown, unseen and unheard of worlds, are mentioned and described in the sástras with their exemplifications also; and they have been received and believed as true by their students.

19. Ráma, the cosmology of the world, has been described—given by gods and sages, in hundreds of their sástras called the Ágamas; all of which you are well acquainted with.

20. Now as you are well acquainted with the descriptions, that are given of them in the sástras; it is not necessary to relate them again in this place. (The cosmology of the world has been given before in the narrative of Lílá).

[Pg 1109]

21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me yet, O Venerable sir, how the great void of the intellect came to be produced from divine spirit; tell moreover its extent and duration in time and space.

22. Vasishtha replied:—The great God Brahma, is without beginning and ever existent and without decay; there is no beginning, midst nor end of him, nor are there any shapes of figures in his transcendent vacuum.

23. The vacuum of Brahma is without its beginning and end, and is spread unspent and unbounded to all eternity; it is this which makes the universe, which is ever without its beginning and end.

24. The reflexion of the intellectual vacuum in its own vacuity, is called the universe by itself to no purpose (by itself or the human mind, which views the world in the wrong light of creation, and not as the Divine Mind itself. Gloss).

25. As a man sees a fair city in his dream by night, so is the sight of this world to him, in his dream by day light. (The Sanskrit word Bhano in the text meaning reflexion, corresponds with the Greek Phano to see, and hence phantom or false sights).

26. Think not the solid rock to have any solidity in it, nor the fluid waters any fluidity in them; do not think the empty firmament to be a vacuity, nor the passing time to have any flight or counting of it. (All these are seemingly so, but they are nothing in reality).

27. All things are fixed in their formless, invariable and ideal states in the divine intellect; but it is the fallacious and fickle nature of the human mind, to give and view them in different forms, according to its own fancy.

28. The mind views the non-created eternal ideas of the intellect, as created objects before its sight, just as it sees rocks where there are no rocks, and the sky in a skyless place in its dream.

29. As the formless and insensible mind, sees the formal[Pg 1110] world in its sleep, as if it were in its waking state; so does it see the invisible and formless world in its visible form, during its waking hours of the day also.

30. As the motion of air always takes place amidst the air at rest (i.e. as the winds fluctuate amidst the still air); so also doth the spirit of Brahma, oscillate in his own spirit incessantly, and without its rise or fall.

31. This world resides in the same manner in the divine spirit of Brahma as the property of fluidity is inherent in water; and vacuity appertains to vacuum; and as substantiality is essential to all substances in the abstract.

32. The world is neither adventitious nor extraneous to the soul, and does not occur to or transpire from it, in the life or deaths of any body; it is causeless and comes from no cause, and is neither joined with nor set separate from the divine spirit.

33. The One that has no beginning nor end; nor has any indication of itself; that is formless and is of the manner of the intellectual vacuum only, can never become the cause of the visible and material creation. (Therefore the world is to be supposed to exist in its ideal and immaterial form, in the vacuity of the divine intellect).

34. Thus as the forms and features of a whole body, are but parts and properties of its entirety tout ensemble; so is this vacuous world situated, in the undivided and formless vacuity of Brahma (“as parts of one undivided whole”, Pope).

35. All this is a hiatus and quietus, without its support and substratum, it is but pure intelligence, without any grossness or foulness herein; there is no entity nor nonentity here, nor can anything be said to exist or not exist (independent of the Divine Mind).

36. All this is but an air drawn city, of our imagination and dream; and everything here, appears to be stretched out in a fairy dance all about us; but in reality it is only a calm and quiet vacuity, full with the unchanging and undecaying spirit of God.

[Pg 1111]

37. The whole is the hollowness of the divine heart, and the vacuous sphere of the Omniscient Intellect; it is its intellection, that reflects many a transparent image in its own sphere and to no end. This it is which is called the world or the image of the divine soul, which continues forever and ever, (and is said—the world without end. Amen).

Vasishtha resumed:—The uncreated phenomenon of creation, that appears to view, is nothing in reality. It is the transcendental principle of supreme Brahma, that is the only true reality.

2. It was on this subject, that I was once asked by some one, to my reply to a certain question of his; which I will now relate to you, O high-minded Ráma, for strengthening your understanding to the full knowledge thereof.

3. There is the great island of Kushadwípa, surrounded by the seas on all sides; like a watery belt about it, and this land is renowned (for its beauty), all over the three regions of the world.

4. There is the city called Ilávatí, situated on its north eastern side, and is beset by a colonnade of pillars, gilded all over with gold, and glittering with radiant beams, reaching from earth to the skies.

5. There formerly reigned a prince, known by the name of Prajnapti; who ruled on earth as the god Indra in heaven; and to whom this earth or land paid its homage (as the skies do to the regent of heaven).

6. It was on one occasion, that I happened to alight at the presence of this prince; as the sun descends on earth on the last day of desolation.

7. The prince hailed and adored me with offerings of flowers and presents, made me sit by him with due reverence; then in the course of my conversation with him, he fondly asked me as follows.

8. Tell me sir, said he, what becomes of the world after the destruction of all things; and when the causalities of recreation[Pg 1113] are all extinct and annihilated, in the undefinable vacuum of desolation.

9. What then becomes the prime cause of the causation of things, at the recreation of the world; and what are accompanying elements for the reproduction of objects, and how and whence they take their rise.

10. What is the world and what was the beginning of its creation; what was the primeval chaos, and whence is this earth? What is the air the support of the seas, and what is hell, which is filled by worms and insects? (i.e. Whence are these varieties from the one source of Brahma?)

11. What be the creatures contained in the womb of air (i.e. the celestials), and what are they that are contained in <the> bosom of the mountains (i.e. the demons); what are the elementary bodies and their productions, and how the understanding and its faculties have come to existence?

12. Who is the maker of all these, and who is their witness; what is the support of the universe, and what are these that are contained therein? I am quite certain, that the world can never have its ultimate destruction.

13. All the Vedas and sástras are opposed to one another, in their different views and interpretations; and every one of them has made a supposition, according to its particular view.

14. From our knowledge of the world, we know not whether it is indestructible or an unreality in itself. (i.e. If it is an ideal unreality, it needs have no cause nor is it destructible at all; but should it be a reality and destructible thing, then what must be the cause of the production and destruction thereof? Gloss).

15. Again tell me, O thou chief of sages, what is the form and cause of those bodies that are doomed to dwell in hell; after the demise of men on earth, and cremation and destruction of their bodies here.

16. What are the accompanying causes of the regeneration of bodies, after their destruction on death? The virtues and vices of departed souls, being both of them formless things,[Pg 1114] cannot be their accompanying causes, towards the formation of their corporeal frames.

17. It is quite an absurd reasoning, that want of matter could possibly produce a material body; just as it is impossible to believe, that there should be an offspring, without the seminal cause of its parents.

18. Tell me sir, what else should be the cause, of the production of material bodies (after death); and for want of any such cause, it is improper also, to deny the existence of a future state.

19. It is contrary to the dictates of Vedas and sástras, as also to the conviction and common sense of mankind, to deny the future state of our existence. The resurrection of our bodies is as unavoidable as our transportation to a distant land by decree of law, though it be against our wish or will.

20. How are beings born and actuated in the course of their lives, by invisible causes which are quite unconnected with them (i.e. by the merit or demerit of the acts of their past lives, which are altogether detached from their present bodies?). Just as the pillars of stone were converted to gold (by word of the Bráhman), and without being gilded over by it. Say, sir, how this vast treasure was obtained in a moment by the Bráhman. (i.e. What could be the cause of this preternatural event).

21. How that to be called a great one, which remains for a moment only? further what necessity is there to frame strict laws for the present to reap harvest in future, when that does not stand good on sound reasoning?

22. Tell me sir, how do you reconcile such discordances in the Vedas, which mention the existence of a being and not being in the beginning; and tell us also that, the Not being existed before creation, and then the Being or creation was born of the not being. (The discordant passages are असद्बा इदमग्र आसीत् उतो सदजायत । again असदेब इदमग्र आसीत् सदेब सोम्य इदमग्र आसीत् ।).

23. How could the primeval nonentity become Brahmá, or how could the latter be produced from the former; or if it were the mighty vacuity which gave birth to Brahmá, then[Pg 1115] tell me sir, why there were no other Brahmás also, born of its spacious womb.

24. Tell me how the vegetable and other creations, could be produced without their different sources; and how they derived their nature of propagating their kinds, by their own seeds and property.

25. Tell me why the life and death of one man, are coeval with those of his friend or adversary; and do people happen to obtain their wishes in their next lives by dying in the holy places of Prayága &c.

26. Should the wishes of men, be crowned with success in their next lives; then tell me sir, why the sky is not filled with myriads of moons, when the worshippers of that luminary, are daily seen to be dying with the expectation, of becoming a brilliant orb like it, in the next state of their existence in heaven.

27. Say how can men succeed to their wishes in future, when most of them desire to gain the same object, and it falls to the lot of one of them; just as a maid expected to be wedded by many, is destined to and secured by one man only.

28. Again how can a woman be called a wife, who is either unchaste, or leads a life of celibacy even when dwelling in her husband’s house?

29. Say sir, what is the difference between the blessing and curse, which are pronounced on the Bráhman brothers, for their sovereignty over the seven continents on the one hand, and their having no such thing on the other; when they remained thinking themselves as monarchs of the world in their very house.

30. The acts of piety consisting of charities, austerities and obsequious ceremonies, which are productive of unknown rewards in the next world, and are of no benefit to their observers on earth; then what is the good derived from them, if they are not attended with any earthly benefit to the earthly body, but to a future body with which no one here has any concern. (Lit. to which none bears any affection).

31. Should it be said that the soul of the pious observer,[Pg 1116] reaps the reward in its future state; this also is impossible because the disembodied soul is incapable of enjoyment; and should it have another body to enjoy hereafter, but of what use is that distant body to the person of the present observer (of the pious acts)?

32. Should these acts be accompanied with any reward, either in this life or in the next, they could be known to the actor, but in want of this, their observance appears to be an irreconcilable incongruity.

33. These are my doubts (in the sástras and practices of men), which I beg you will kindly remove by your cool and clear reasoning, as the moon-light disperses the evening twilight.

34. Now sir, deign to dispel my doubts in my inquiry after transcendental truth, that it may conduce to my good in both worlds; because the company of the righteous, is ever fraught with very great blessings to all people.

Vasishtha replied:—Hear me prince, and I will clearly expound to you the doctrine, which will root out your doubts all at once.

2. All these entities in the world, are inexistent nullities for ever; though they appear as realities in our consciousness.

3. Whatever appears in any manner in our consciousness, (either as existing or non-existent, or as so and so); the same is thought as real as it seems to be, without our consideration of its true nature of a reality or otherwise.

4. Such is the nature of this consciousness, that it is thought to be one and same with the bodiless soul, by every one who knows what it is (by his acquaintance with the science of psychology).

5. It is this knowledge (or the idea) of a thing in the mind, either in waking or dreaming, that they call to be its body; hence it is this erroneous consciousness of anything, that is believed as its body, and there is nothing else beside this that they call a solid body.

6. The world shines (or shows itself) before us, like the sights seen in a dream; and the privation of all causes towards the production of the (material) world, prove it to be not otherwise than the phantom of a dream.

7. Thus this pure and immaculate knowledge of the universe, is termed the very Brahma himself (because God is said to be infinite knowledge only. सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं व्रह्म). The very same shines as the world, which is not otherwise than that.

8. Thus doth the world remain quite pure and unchanged, from ever before and forever more; and so it is thought and[Pg 1118] said to be, by the Vedas and all good and great sástras, as also by the joint assent of all thinking men, in all ages and countries.

9. They are the most ignorant fools, and resemble the croaking frogs dwelling in the recess of dark caves and pits; who deny the sole existence of the beings which is impressed in the consciousness of all beings, which is full and perfect every where, and is acknowledged by all great souls.

10. There are many at present, who are deluded by their notions of the appearances of things, and the evidence of their senses, and have fallen into the error of understanding the gross body, as the cause of consciousness and inward impressions (i.e. they maintain the objectivity of their knowledge as derived from without, and deny the subjective consciousness derived from within).

11. They are giddy with their wrong notions, and are not worthy of our discourse; because no conversation can be held with them that are intoxicated without intoxication, and are learned with their ignorance or learned fools.

12. When the discourse of the learned, is not capable of removing the doubts of men in all places; such discourse is to be understood as the foolish talk of the universe.

13. He who relies in his belief in the sensibles only, and regards the believer of the invisible as a fool; such a man (i.e. the Buddhist or Charvaka), is considered for his unreasonable reasoning, as a block of stone or stony block head.

14. The fool that maintains this (materialistic) doctrine, in opposition to all rational philosophy, is said to be a frog of the dark cave (or as a blind mole of the hole); because he is blind both to the past which is out of his sight, as also to the invisible future and is concerned only what is present before him.

15. It is the veda and the sayings of wisemen, and the inferences of their right reasoning (in support of the invisible), as I have maintained in these lectures, that can remove the doubts in these matters.

16. If the sensible body (i.e. its sensation) be consciousness (according to the Buddhist); then why is the dead body unconscious of anything? (To this the Buddhist retorts by saying:)[Pg 1119] Should the conscious and all pervading soul be the body, then why doth not the dull corpse think as the living body? In reply to this foolish question, it is thus said in the veda:

17. This world is an imaginary city of the divine mind, in its form of Brahmá—the creator; and it is hence that the phenomenon of the world, appears to our minds as a phantom in our dream (or as a reflex of the same).

18. Therefore all this that you see, is but the creation of the divine intellect, and an intellectual entity in itself; and you are not amiss in your judgement, if you consider them as phantoms in your dream, and appearing in the vacuity of your mind.

19. Hence this earth and the skies, these hills and cities, are all but appearances in the void of the intellect, and conception of your mind, as those appearing in the reveries of dream, or as air built castles.

20. It is the dense vacuum of self-consciousness, which is called the great Brahmá or the personal god of creation; and it is the display of his will in the concrete, which is known as Virát or the visible universe; thus is the pure and discrete consciousness of Brahma, condensed into the form of the world.

21. Whatever is imagined in the imaginary city of Brahma, the same is conceived as existent in reality; as you conceive the objects of your desire or fancy, to be present before you in actuality (i.e. The thought of a thing appears as the thing itself).

22. So whatever is thought of in the fancied city, or fairy land of one’s imagination at any time; the same seems to be present before him for the time being, as you see in the air-drawn castle of your fancy.

23. Hence as Brahma in his form of the mind, thinks of the action of living and quietus of death bodies; so are they thought of by all mankind.

24. After the great dissolution of the world (and dissolution of all things), it is said to be reproduced and renovated anew from nothing; but as the want of any material cause, cannot[Pg 1120] produce the material world, it is certain there is no material being in existence.

25. Brahmá—the lord of creatures, having got rid of the world upon its dissolution, was freed also from all his remembrance and ideas of creation for ever; therefore it is the reflexion of divine light only which appears as the world before us.

26. Thus the supreme soul of Brahma, reflected itself in itself in the beginning, in the manner of an imaginary castle of his will, which was air-drawn as the visible sky in the invisible vacuum, and known as the cosmos or world subsisting in empty space.

27. As an imaginary castle is the creation of the brain or intellect, and presents to our minds only its intellectual form alone; so does the world appear to us in its intellectual form, and only as an evolution of the intellect, and without having any other cause for its appearance.

28. Whether there be any body or not any where, there is the vacuous intellect which is every where (i.e. the hollow space of the mind comprehends both the plenum as well as the vacuum of the world). And know the divine spirit to pervade all over this totality, whether it be the embodied duality or vacuous unity.

29. Hence the vacuous mind of a dead body, beholds the figure of the whole world within its vacuity; the empty mind of a living being, sees the shapes both of solid and subtile bodies, in its imagination or dream. (It means to say that, the death of the body does not involve the death of the mind).

30. As the living man thinks this immaterial world, to be a solid mass of dull matter; so doth the dead person think this vacuous universe, as a solid and substantial existence lying exposed before him in its mind.

31. But as the enlightened or awakened soul of a living body, sees no trace of scenes of its dream upon its waking; so the redeemed soul of a dead being sees no trace of the objects-sight in this world, upon its redemption and beatification in the next world.

[Pg 1121]

32. The very same is the case with the enlightened soul, of every body in this world; that it bears only the inward conception of it within itself; but no outward perception thereof without. Therefore there is no material reality in existence, as there is no substantial causality in vacuity.

33. As the sleeping man sees the visionary world of his dream, in the light of a real existence; so the unenlightened person views the phenomenal world, as a sober reality before him; and so do the souls of the dead, deem the empty void of air as the world of their departed spirits. (Thus there are three different worlds, for the sleeping, waking and departed souls of men).

34. The unpeopled or open air, appears as the earth and heaven, and full of mountains &c. as before to the souls of the departed (from their bearing those impressions with them even to the next world, and so on throughout all their future transmigration).

35. The departed soul perceives its separation from a dead body, and thinks of its regeneration in another frame on earth; where it will have its enjoyments and suffering again as before.

36. The soul never gets rid of this delusion of its regeneration, (and of its desire of renovation also), so long as it neglects to resort to the means, of obtaining its salvation and final liberation; it is by means of its knowledge of truth and absence of desire, that is freed from its error of reproduction.

37. Hence it is the consciousness of the soul, of its righteous or unrighteous desire; that represents the picture of this airy world, in the hollow sphere of the mind. (Thus the world is only the picture and production of one’s own desire).

38. The world is therefore neither of a substantial nor vacuous form, but the display of divine intelligence; the want of this knowledge is the source of all misery to man, but its true knowledge as representation of divine wisdom, is fraught with all bliss and joy.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear me now to tell you, why men happen to meet with their (unexpected) good or fortune at home; and in the same manner how rewards and retributions, come to attend on departed souls from unforeseen causes in the far distant (or next) world.

2. You know the whole world to be the volitional city (or fabric) of Divine will, and appearing as phenomenal to our outward sight, and as noumenal in the light of our inward insight of it, and as Brahma himself in its spiritual light. (i.e. God has so willed the world, as to be viewed in the triple light of the physical, intellectual and spiritual also).

3. In this volitional city, everything appears in the same light, as one would behold it in any of its different aspects.

4. As in your own house, you are master of the direction of your offspring, and of the disposal of your things and affairs as please; so is the Lord the sole disposer and dispensator of all things in this world of his will, as he likes of his own accord.

5. As in the desired dwelling of your liking, you find everything to be as well disposed as you wish it to be; so doth he direct and dispose all things in this world of his.

6. The disorder that there appears to take place in the order of nature, is to be attributed to the Divine Will as the sovran law of all.

7. The good or evil which waits on men, owing to the obedience to or transgression of law; is both attributable to the Divine Will (which has originated the laws and ordained their results).

8. It is the dispensation of the Divine will also, whereby all living bodies have their perceptions of worldly things; just as[Pg 1123] they have the conception of the existence of the world, which in reality has no entity of it.

9. It is by will of the divine intellect, that everything appears to be existent before us; as it is the oscitation and occlusion or the gaping and closing of the intellect, which causes the appearance and disappearance of the world to our view.

10. The king said:—Tell me sir, if the world was the production of the divine will, why was it not known to exist before with the eternity of the Will divine, and why and when it came to be manifested and known to others afterwards; tell me also, whether the world is an unstable and vanishing appearance in the air, or it has any fixity in the divine mind or stability in nature.

11. Vasishtha replied:—Such is the nature of the vacuous and volitional city of divine intellect; that it comes to being and not being in succession, in the states of repeated waking dreams of creation, and in the sleeping oblivion of its desolation.

12. Like the mud built house of playful boys, and the air drawn castles of fanciful men, do the appearances of creation, appear both as real and unreal in the divine intellect as well as to our minds.

13. As you build and break your imaginary city in the air, and make and unmake a fabric of your will elsewhere; whether it be of your own or choice or for any other reason, so it is with the Divine will, to construct and protract or retract or annul any of its works ad libitum.

14. Thus are all beings, continually rising and falling, in this vacuous city of the divine will; which is ever shining in its nature, with the pure light of the divine mind. (God throws his own light on the work of his will).

15. The whole plenum of the world is a vacuum, and full with the dense intelligence of omniscience; therefore it is this omniscient intelligence, which doth still whatever it thinks upon and wills. (This passage shows that the Vedánta Brahma, is not inactive or Nishkriya as many believe; but the living[Pg 1124] God, and sole agent of all things and director of all accidents in this world).

16. Therefore it is not the hidden but self manifest God, that does all things even at the distance of Millions of miles, and myriads of ages, as if they lay before him at the present time.

17. So there is nothing in any country or in any world, which is not known nor thought of by the sole and unhidden soul of all. (The gloss applies it to every individual soul, which is conscious of its merits and demerits everywhere).

18. As a brilliant gem reflects its light and shade within itself, so doth the gem of the intellect reflect by its own light the various vicissitudes of the world in itself. (i.e. The human mind is sensible of its deserts).

19. Laws and prohibitions, which are necessary for the preservation of people, are implanted in the human soul. (As they are the eternal varieties of the divine mind), and accompany it every where with their just rewards.

20. The soul never sets nor rises (i.e. It neither dies nor revives, but supposes itself as such by its error only); It is Brahma himself and his reflexion in others, and emanating always from the divine soul its source and origin.

21. As from being the viewer, it supposes itself to be the view, and thinks its imaginary world as a visible phenomenon; (i.e. believes itself both as the subjective as well as objective); so it thinks itself to be born, living and dying (by the like error of its own).

22. When the soul of its own nature ceases to cast its reflexion, or suppresses it within itself, and remains quietly in the vacuous sphere of divine intellect, by assimilating itself with the universal soul of Brahma, it is then said to be quietus of quiet in death. (The word for death in the text is Sánta-Samita or extinct, or instinct in the divine soul).

23. The emission and intromission of its reflexion, are as natural to the ignorant and imperfect living soul of animal beings; as oscillation and calm are congenital with air (or as respiration and inspiration with breath).

[Pg 1125]

24. Now as you see in the city of your imagination, the growth, decay and death of people, at different times and places;—

25. So it is the nature of this imaginary city of God, to exhibit these changes everywhere, as in the cases of animals, vegetables and all things in all the three worlds.

26. But God neither wills nor does everything himself, in this creation of his will, but he acts by general laws and secondary causes, as in the cricket play of boys, and growth of grass from grass, and production of trees and their fruits &c. from seeds.

27. It is the nature of the almighty intellect of God, to bring forth forthwith to being whatever it wills to be and appear. (The almighty thought, will or word, is variously said to be the prime cause of all).

28. All things being originally of intellectual form, appear afterwards in various forms, and with different natures; as the almighty intellect invests them with.

29. Hence everything here, is verily of an intellectual form, by their originating from the divine intellect; and as the intellect includes all things in itself, it is omniform and shows itself in any form it likes.

30. This very intellect is the omniscient and universal soul, without having its beginning, middle or end; it is omnipotent and something which is nothing, and an entity appearing as non-entity; It appears such as it remains anywhere, and shows itself as anything; it is the origin of all things and beings, and the source of all vegetables and grass.

Vasishtha continued saying:—The life of a person is dear and useful to him, as long as he lives and not afterwards; but hear me tell you the good of a man’s dying in some holy place, with a wish for future reward in his next life.

2. God has ordained certain virtues and merits to certain places, even from the beginning of his imaginary city of this world (as to all other things at their very beginning).

3. Whatever merit is assigned to any place, the same awaits on the soul of the person, after its release from bondage, by his performance of the acts of piety enjoined by the sástras.

4. Hence any great sin that is committed by any body anywhere, is either partly or wholly effaced by the good act of the person, according to comparative merit of the holy place, or the degree of absolution in the mind of the penitent sinner.

5. In any case of the insignificance of the sin, with regard to the greater sacerdotalism of the place; there the sinner is quite absolved from his guilt, and attains the object of his wish (in his future life).

6. But in case of the equality of the merits of penitence, with the holiness of the place; the penitent man receives two bodies in his next life, that is both a physical body and spiritual soul.

7. Such is the effect of the primeval guilt and merit of mankind, that they are endowed with double bodies, consisting of their physical frames and spiritual souls (the one maculate and the other immaculate) and such the divine soul even from before.

[Pg 1127]

8. The principle is called Brahma in its sense of the whole, and as Brahmá—the totality of the living soul jíva; and also as aham or the ego, meaning any living soul in particular; and as he remains in any manner of the whole or part, so he manifests himself in his semblance of the world.

9. The reflexion of purity acquired in some holy place, appears to the penitent soul in the same manner; as it appears in its contrary light to the guilty soul, which is not so absolved from its sin in any holy place. (These different reflexions, present the appearance of heavenly bliss to the soul of one, and that of hell torments to the other, as in their visions of paradise and Styx in dream).

10. The one sees the visions of his own death, and the weeping of his living relatives; and deems himself as a departed ghost to the next world, all alone and without a single soul beside him.

11. He sees also the deaths of his friends there, and thinks also that he hears the wailings of their relations at that place; he sees the chimeras of all these in his phrensy, as a man of deranged humours sees the spectres of bugbears in his delirium.

12. So it happens with great souls also, to see the sights both of good grace and affright, according to the measure of their merit or guilt in this life; and thus thousands of hopeful and hideous shapes, float about in the imaginations of men, owing to the purity and depravity of their natures.

13. The friends of the dying man, lying insensible as a dead body; weep and wail over his corpse, and then take him to the funeral ground for his cremation.

14. But the guiltless man being accompanied by his self-conscious and righteous soul sees the approach of his decrepitude and death, with firmness and without any feeling of sorrow (as if he had no decay nor death).

15. With his present body he sees himself to be a living being; and with his invisible part or inward soul, he sees his conquest over death by the merit of his holy pilgrimage (and the immortality of his soul in the future world).

[Pg 1128]

16. The guiltless man is in fear of his death for a moment only, but is conscious of the indestructibility of his inward soul, as a man clad in mail, is dauntless of the shafts of his unarmoured antagonist. (The pure soul is invulnerable to the shafts of death).

17. In this manner the relatives of the deceased, find his pure soul, to obtain its immortality after his death; and that life and death are indifferent to the virtuous and purified person.

18. The sights of all the three worlds, are equally fallacious both in their tangible and intangible forms; as the vision of one object in a dream, is as false as another in their visionary nature. (The gloss says that, one error succeeds another, in the same way as one lie is followed by another).

19. We have clear conceptions of the fallacies, arising in our minds, both in our dreams and imagination; but the fallacies of our waking dreams by broad daylight, are more obvious and never less conspicuous to our apprehension than either of them (the latter being more general and lasting than the former ones).

20. The king said:—But tell me sir, how virtue and vice, both of which are bodiless things (as being the abstract qualities of our actions), assume to themselves the bodily forms of living beings, in the course of the transmigration of our souls. (Virtuous souls being blessed with human bodies, while vicious spirits are doomed to suffer in various brutish forms).

21. Vasishtha replied:—There is nothing impossible to the creative power of Brahmá, to be produced in the imaginary fabric of this world of his mind; nor is it impracticable to the substantive divine will to give substantial forms to understand things. (The substantive will is called satyasankulpa which brings the inexistent to real existence).

22. There is nothing which is unimaginable, and cannot be produced by the mind of Brahmá; as it is with us to have no idea of anything and nothing in being, of which we have no imagination in our finite minds. (Brahmá has given forms to[Pg 1129] all the imaginary ideas of his mind, which we cannot do to our formless and abstract idea of any).

23. A visionary city in the dream and an imaginary castle of fancy, do both present the like ideal form to the mind; and yet both of them are composed of a train of ideas, which appear as real objects for the time being. (So the ideal seems as real for a time).

24. All the numerous thoughts, which lie as a dead and dormant mass, in the states of our deep and sound sleep; appear to us in endless forms in the vision of our dream and waking our imagination and leave their traces in the memory.

25. Who is there that has not had the notion, of the aerial castles of his dream and imagination; and found them not to be composed of our concepts only, in the airy world of our vacuous consciousness.

26. Therefore what thing is there, that is not capable of being produced in this ærial world, which is the production of the airy imagination of the vacuous intellect; and what thing also which is substantially produced therefrom? (The creatures of the mind, have mental forms only).

27. Therefore it is this fallacy only, which appears in the form of the visible universe; where there is nothing in real existence or inexistence; but all things appear to be in esse and non esse, in the Nabhas and in the Nubibus of the divine mind.

28. Anything that is perceived in any manner, the same is thought as a manifestation of its Áker in the same manner; and the enlightened seekers of truth, find no impropriety in their belief as such. (These as they change, are the varied God. Thomson’s “The Seasons”).

29. Hence when a man is taught by the tenets of his religion, to hope for the enjoyment of flowery banks (lit.—hills), and streams flowing with nectar in paradise (lit.—heaven); it is very probable that he will meet with the same things, in his future life in the next world. (So the Moslem is taught to expect the gratification of all his carnal desires in heaven, as the promised rewards of his holy Koran. The Hindus likewise have bodily delights to expect in their different heavens).

[Pg 1130]

30. Hence the acts that are done in this world by any body, are attended with their like rewards unto him in the next; and there is no inconsistency in this belief, though it appears so to the unbeliever (The adage—as you sow, so shall you reap, holds equally true in every religion with regard to future retribution, as in every case here below).

31. Should there be anything, which may be said to be permanent in this world, it must be ever present in the view of its viewer; let then any man say upon this criterion, which he does not lose the sight of all other things before his eye sight, except the ideas of things in his mind, which are ever present in his knowledge, and never lost sight of in his consciousness.

32. I have given you the analogy of our dreams and thoughts, to prove the essentiality of our notions and ideas; and whereas the worlds appertain to the will and subsists in the mind of omniscience, they are not otherwise than the essence of the Great Brahma Himself.

33. As there is nothing wanting or impossible to be produced, in the ærial castle of your imagination; so there is nothing which does not and cannot exist in the will and mind of the almighty.

34. Whatsoever is thought of in any form, in the Divine Mind, the same remains fixed therein in the very form; and the same appears to be situated in the same nature before our views in its photo or in a scenography.

35. Hence this semblance of the Divine Mind, is perceived only by our internal senses, and not perceptible to the external organs, or to both of these at once; because it is for our minds only to perceive the impressions of the eternal mind, and to impel the internal organs (by their inward efforts), to receive those reflexions.

36. As the lord has willed everything at first, so it lasts with him to the very last of his creation (i.e. from the very beginning of his Sankalpa, to the end of the kalpa epoch); when his will of creating the world anew, gives another form to the state of things in future.

37. The Lord manifests himself as he wills, in the manner of[Pg 1131] his will, and in the form of another world in every kalpa duration of creation; as the minds of men come to see another world and another state of things in their each successive dream.

38. There is nothing which does not exist, in this worldly city of Divine will, and all that exists therein is naught but the production of the Divine Intellect; therefore this world is to be known, as full of the forms of the productive mind of God.

Vasishtha resumed and said:—Now hear me tell you in reply to the question, why the heaven is not filled with a hundred full moons, if it were the wish of a hundred persons to shine as such a luminary on future, and if the wishes of all are crowned with success in their next state of being. (The souls of the pious are said to twinkle as stars in heaven).

2. Those that aspired to become as bright as the full moon of heaven, became actually so in their conception of themselves as such in the sphere of their minds; and not by their situation in the vault of the sky or in the orb of that luminary.

3. Say who has ever and anywhere, got into the imaginary city of another; and who has ever got any fancied treasure, except the framer of the fancy and the fabricator of the wished for wealth. (Every one is the master of his own Utopia and delights in his hobby horse).

4. Every one has a heaven of his own, in the utopia of his creation; wherein he is situated and shines as a full bright moon, and without its phases of the wane and waste.

5. All those aspirants to luminosity, had thought of entering into the moon of his own mind; and there he found himself to rest at last, with full light of that luminary and delight of his conscious soul.

6. Each of them thought of entering into the disc of the moon shining in their minds, and felt themselves glad in their situation, as if they were seated in the orb of the celestial moon.

7. Whatever one seeks and searches after, the same becomes con-natural with his consciousness; and in the case of his firm[Pg 1133] belief in the same state, he thinks and feels himself to be the very same.

8. As every aspirer to the state of the full moon, came to be such in his respective conception of that luminary; so the suitors of the same bride in marriage, became wedded to her according to his own conception of hers. (Every one imagines his doxy, as a fairy paragon of beauty).

9. The one pure maiden that is thought of being taken to wife, by many men in their minds; is never defiled by any one of them in her character, by their simple enjoyment of her ideal only. (The ideal is not tangible possession).

10. As the sovereign ruler of the seven continents, holds his sway over them, without ever going out of his city; so the soul passes to them all, by remaining in the precincts of its body: and so does every man see his imaginary castle, in the sphere of his own house.

11. When the whole universe owes its origin to the imagination of its omniscient originator—the self born Brahma; what can it be otherwise, than an intangible vacuum and quite calm and quiet in itself. (The moving bodies are the fixed figures of the divine mind, and appear to be turning round like the pictures in a panorama or the objects in a scenograph).

12. Now hear me tell you of the unknown and invisible results of the acts piety, such as charity, obsequeous rites, religious austerities and the mutterings of holy mantras, which accrue to the departed ghosts of bodily beings in the next world.

13. The souls marked with traces of pious acts in them, come to view them vividly as their actual works, and painted in as lively colours as their dreams, by fabrications of their lively intellects.

14. The carnal mind distrusting the reality of these impressions of consciousness, and disregarding the internal operation of the inward intellect; becomes restless for its sensuous enjoyment and exercise of the outward organs of action, until by abatement of this fervour, it is restored to its inward peace and tranquility.

[Pg 1134]

15. It is the theme of early poets which tells us, that the impressions of the acts of piety and charity which are imprinted in the intellect, are reflected over the passive soul in the next world, when the conscious soul continues to keep the gratification of those acts.

16. Thus the rewards of charity and uncharitableness, are equally felt in the gratification and dissatisfaction of the soul in this world also, where everything is by our feeling of it.

17. Thus have answered fully to whatever you have asked of me; and now know from all this, that the sensible world is an intangible dream, and an air drawn spectacle of the mind.

18. The prince rejoined:—But please to tell me sir, how could the intellect alone and itself before the production of the body; and how can a light subsist without its receptacle of a lamp or lantern.

19. Vasishtha replied:—The sense in which you use the world body, is quite unknown to the spiritualist, who discard the material meaning of the term, as they reject the idea of the dancing of stones in air. (The learned know the spiritual body only).

20. The meaning of the word body, is the same as that of Brahma (who is all in all); and there is no difference in the meaning of the two, as there is none between the words fluid and liquid.

21. The body is a visionary appearance, and the great body of Brahma, is likened unto the figure of a phantom in vision, which represents the forms of all things as in dream in the stupendous fabric of the universe. [Brahma is more likely the phantasmagoria that shows all forms in it. Gloss].

22. But the difference between thy dream or vision and spectrum of Brahma, consist in the former representing the figures of thy previous thoughts alone, which disperse and vanish upon thy waking; but the universe which is exhibited in spectrum of Brahma, is not so evanescent as that of other.

23. What is thing then we call the body, and how does it appear into us in the shape of something in our dream; and[Pg 1135] why doth anything appearing as a reality in dream, appear as nothing and vanish as an error upon our waking.

24. There is no waking, sleeping or dreaming, nor any other condition of being, in the Turíya or transcendent state of Brahma [as in those of the divine hypostases of Brahmá, Virát and others]. It is something as the pure and primeval light and as the transparent air, all quiet and still, [as the infinite eternity].

25. It is the same as the unknown and inscrutable light, which shows and glows before us to this day; It is the same primeval and primordial light, that showed first the sight of the world to view, as if it were a dream in the gloom of night. (Light was nature’s first born, and brought forth all nature from it).

26. As in passing from one district to another, the body though proceeding onward, is ever in the midst of its circuit, and yet never fixed at any spot; so are all things in their endless rotation in this world, whether singly or collectively.

27. The sight of the world, like that of a dream, presents <a> favourable aspect to some minds, but it presents a clear and serene prospect to men of unclouded intellects.

28. The vacuum as well as the plenum of objects, and the reflexion as likewise the eclipse or adumbration of things; the existence and inexistence of the world and matter, and the unity and duality of the divine entity, are all but the extraneous phases or aspects of the same vacuous intellect.

29. The world is entirely or completely evolution from the fulness of the deity; and stands as a complete counterpart of the original; it is neither a shining or unshining body by itself, but is as bright as the contents of a crystal within its bowels.

30. Wherever there is the evolution of the world in the intellect, there is the presence of the subtile soul also at that place, and whenever there is a jot of thought anywhere, it is attended with the thought of the world also. (The mind and soul are one with creation, and the same thing).

31. The vacuum of intellect is present everywhere (pervading and comprehending the whole). And this omnipresence[Pg 1136] is the divine presence (which engrosses and envelopes this all) which is termed the world. [The word world-jagat passing [in our right], is spiritually sánta or quiet].

32. The divine soul is as quiet and unchangeable, as this universe is stable and stationary; and it is the fluctuation of the supreme mind, which causes these variations in the face of the city of the divine will [or the world].

33. The impossibility of any other inference [of the world’s duality or its being aught otherwise than the divine entity]; proves it necessarily to be of the very same essence. Any unreasonable hypothesis of sophists is inconsistent with this subject [of the absolute unity].

34. The joint assent of the common belief of mankind, the testimony of the sástras, and the dicta of the Vedas, are established and incontrovertible truths. Hence nobody can have any doubt in regard to the real entity of the Divine spirit.

35. This being confessed it becomes evident, that the world is the deity itself; and when the world appears as one with the deity, it is seen in our clairvoyance to be extinct in the Divine essence. (Clairvoyance is charama-sákshat kára or the last sight of creation at one’s dying moment; when the world disappears, and eternity appears full open to view. Gloss).

36. From this analogy of the ultimate evanescent sight of the world, it will be evident to the living soul, that the sight of the phenomenal is wholly lost before it in the noumenal. This is the doctrine of cosmotheism, wherein whole nature is seen in nature’s God.

37. He who is acquainted with the sphere of his intellect, is not unacquainted with the fact of the dependency of the arbour of the world to it, he sees the three worlds in himself, in either of his two states of bondage and liberation. (The fettered soul is fastened to the sight of the material and temporal world; but the liberated soul views it in its spiritual light).

38. The visible world though so manifest to view, is entirely lost to sight upon its right knowledge; and the knower thereof in its light, becomes like the setting sun, wholly invisible to public sight, and remains as mute as a clod of silent stone.

[Pg 1137]

39. The way that is established by the Vedas, and received by the general assent of wisemen; is to be acknowledged, as the right path leading to sure success (vox populi vox dei).

40. He who adheres steadily to his own purpose, by utter disregard of all other objects in his view; is said to be firmly fixed to his point, and is sure to reap his success at the end.

41. Everything appears to one in the same light, as he is accustomed to view and take it for; and whether this object of his faith is a true or false one, it appears just the same to any body as he is wont to believe it.

42. This is the conclusion of your question, as I have determined and delivered to you; now be quick and walk your way with perfect ease of your mind, health of your body and agility of your limbs.

Vasishtha resumed:—As I was sitting relating these things to the prince, he honoured me with his obeisance; and then thinking I had dispensed my task to him, rose up to proceed on my aerial journey (from the Ilávrita-Varsha of Kushadwípa).

2. Thus I have related unto you this day, O most intelligent Ráma, regarding the omnipresence of the Divine spirit; keep this vacuous view of Brahma before your sight, and proceed everywhere with the peace of your mind (as you are ever living and moving in the Lord).

3. Know all this to be Brahma itself, and a nameless and unsubstantial void only; it is something unborn and increate, all calm and quiet, and with out its beginning, middle and end. (It is infinity in space and eternity in duration).

4. It is said to be the reflexion of the intellect, and named as Brahma from its immensity, it is termed the most transcendent, and something without any designation at all.

5. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how can we have the sights of the celestial, and of the Siddha and Sádhya spirits, of Yama, Brahmá and of the heavenly Vidyádharas and choristers; and tell me also sir, how the people of the other spheres can be visible to us.

6. Vasishtha replied:—The celestial siddhas, Sádhyas, the gods Yama and Brahmá, and the Vidyádhara demigods; these together with all other beings of great souls and wondrous might;—

7. Are all visible to you both by day and night, and above, below, behind and ever before you, if you will but look at them[Pg 1139] with the eyes of your mind; but if you shut your mental eye against spirituality, you can never have the sight of spirit presented before your view. (This passage is illustrated in the story of Chudaloka. Gloss).

8. These beings being habituated to be viewed in our minds, are never afar from us, and as they are represented to be volitive or self willed beings, they are said to be ever roving everywhere. (The spirits are of two kinds; some stationary in their particular lokas or spheres; and others to be wandering about. Gloss).

9. These volitional beings are as fickle as the living creatures of this earth of ours; and as the volatile winds, which are blowing at random in every direction.

10. These resemble the airy creatures of your imagination and dream, which hover and gather about you by day and night; while the others are devoid of their volition and motion, and are settled stationary in their respective spheres.

11. If you can in the calm quietness of your mind and soul, secure the reflexion of any of these spirits in your silent and steadfast meditation; you can without fail, have the visitation of the same in the inmost recess of your soul (and hold your secret communion with it also. Gloss).

12. In this manner do men see the gods as they see the siddhas, arrayed with all their majesty and glory, as they are feigned to be in their intense meditations. (Dhyánenaivapara-devah).

13. Now as men of steady minds, find themselves to be soaring to heaven, in the company of the siddhas and clad in all their glory; those of fickle and unsubdued minds, have to take great pains, in order to confine the fleeting object of their contemplation under their control. (It is often dangerous to the unadept novice in meditation, to let slip the object of his contemplation from his grasp).

14. The world is altogether an unsubstantial and imperceptible thing; and is ever as silent and a serene void, as the vacuum of the intellect (or the Divine mind). It appears however[Pg 1140] as a solid and compact mass, according as the notion we have of it in our consciousness. (i.e. This nothing is thought of <as> something, according to our mistaken notion or conception of it).

15. It does not exist in our unconsciousness, nor does it appear to be in existence or otherwise it is not dull, insensible and unthinking beings; it is a vacuity and nullity, and utterly an intangible and imperceptible thing in our sensibility and unconsciousness of it.

16. It is the nature of the intellect to reflect in itself, and all that is seen about us, is the shadow of that reflexion; the knowledge of substantiality in this shadowy reflection, proceeds from the vanity of the intellect, and not from its nature which <is> free from mistake.

17. There can be no talk of causation, production or vegetation, in the nature of the universe; which being an absolute void, is entirely devoid of the elements of cause and effect. (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).

18. That which appears to be produced, is only a void in the midst of primeval vacuum (teo et beo); nor can there be the attribution of unity or duality to the infinite vacuity.

19. Yet the world appears as something existent in your mind; and as visible before your eyes; and this happens in the same manner as you have the consciousness and sight of your dreams; in the unruffled calm of your hollow sleep.

20. As imagination causes the mountains and mountainous regions, to rise in the hollow sphere of our minds; but neither is the one nor the other found to be really existent therein; such is this creation an airy working of the divine mind (and leaving no trace of it left behind).

21. Hence it is the nature of the wise and sapient, to remain as quiet and mute as motionless blocks of wood or stone; and the character of great minds, to manage themselves as wooden puppets, moving wholly as they are moved by the prime mobile power of God alone (Without being actuated by their own desire, or deeming themselves as free agents).

[Pg 1141]

22. As the waves are seen to roll about on the surface waters, and as the eddies are whirling round and hurling headlong into the deep; so the whole creation and all created things, turn about the pivot of the great Brahma alone. (Not an atom herein, has an excentric course of its own).

23. As vacuity is inborn in the firmament, and undulations are immanent in the air; so are these creations inherent and inseparably connected with the divine spirit, in their amorphous or formless and ideal shapes. (This passage maintains the idealistic theory of the ancients).

24. As an air drawn castle of our will or imagination, presents a substantial shape before us with all its unsubstantialness; so does this world appear as a compact frame exhibited before us, notwithstanding its situation in the formless mind of Brahma.

25. All these three worlds, that we are accustomed to believe as real ones, and as seats of our temporal as well as spiritual concerns; are all void and formless, and as unreal ones as the airy castles of our imagination.

26. As it is the thought of our minds, that creates full populous cities in them; so it is the thought of the mind of God, that creates these numerous worlds, and presents them to our minds and eyes.

27. Though ever and all along thought as a reality, this visible world bears no meaning at all; and resembles the sight of a man’s own death in his dream.

28. As a man sees the funeral of his dead body, conducted by his son in his dream; so the unreal world is seen as a reality, in as much as it is reflected as such by its supreme contriver.

29. Both the entity and non-entity of the cosmos or world, constitute the corpus of the immaculate deity; just as a fictitious name applied to a person, makes no difference in his personage.

30. Whether what I have said is true or not (that the siddhas and others are mere imaginary or spiritual beings),[Pg 1142] you have nothing to lose or gain therefrom (because we have no concern whatever with them); and as it is useless for wise men to expect any reward by casting fruits into the Phálgu river, so it is of no good to the intelligent who have known the true God, to take the pains of invoking the aid of the minor gods instead of Him.

Vasishtha resumed:—The man that considers himself as the Ego, from his possession of the intellect and intellectual powers in him; elevates him to the rank of Brahmá and contains the whole world in himself.

2. As the Lord Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha remained in this state (of the totality of souls) he was not then the creator of the world; but was alike the increate Brahma—the everlasting God, as he continued from all eternity. (Brahmá assimilating himself to the impersonal God, had no personality of himself, so the holy trinity was all One, before the Lord caused his coeternal son to create the world; as nothing was created but by the son).

3. It is in our consciousness, that the world appears in this manner, and is like the mirage in a desert, where its very unreality shows itself as a reality. (Hence our consciousness, is not always the test of truth).

4. It is since the creation, that the primeval vacuum began to present, the blunder or falsity of the world in itself; but how and whence arose this blunder, unless it were the presentation of Brahma himself. (Delusion is God also).

5. The world is a whirlpool (a revolving sphere), in the vast ocean of Brahma (i.e. in the great expanse of vacuum). Where then is the question of unity or duality in this, or the talk of the dualism of the eddy from the waters of the deep, or how can there be the topic of unity in want of a duality. (The world is therefore Brahma-dharma or an hypostasis of God. Gloss).

6. The great Brahma is profoundly quiet, and having his intellect inherent in himself, he is conscious of his being the[Pg 1144] great or sole Ego (or the totality of beings) in his mind, and sees himself as the midst of the vast expanse of vacuity.

7. As fluctuation is inherent in air, and heat is inbred in fire; and as the moon contains its coolness in itself, so does the Great Brahma brood over the eternal ideas of things, contained in the cavity of his fathomless mind.

8. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how does the divine mind come to think of and brood upon his creation; when the eternal intellect is ever employed in its process of intellection. The course of Divine thought being unobstructed from eternity to eternity, its even tenor cannot be supposed to be now and then turned to the act of creation, or even said to be brought in its action and motion, since the time that this creation first began to exist (There can be no talk of the beginning or end of the world before eternity).

9. Vasishtha replied:—It is even so, O Ráma! the great Ego of God always thinks of everything in itself; and the increate and ever existent spirit of God, has never anything unknown to his knowledge. (The evolution and involution of the world, are known by the terms of its creation and annihilation).

10. The vacuous is ever and every where present both in creation and non-creation (i.e. both before as well as after it); and there is nothing that is known to him as existent or nonexistent at any time (since the ignorant know the world as existent, and the learned consider it a nihility; but the Lord knows them all in himself).

11. As the mind is conscious of its fluctuation, and the moon of her coldness; and as the air knows its voidness, so doth Brahma know himself as the Ego, and never thinks himself without the other. (They are Misra or combined together).

12. Such is the entity of God, and never unlike to or otherwise than this; and whereas the world is without its beginning and end, it must be as imperishable as Brahma himself. (The world is without end).

13. It is only from your want of sufficient intelligence, and hearing of or prejudice in the word non-ego; that you are led to the belief of a duality, in the undualistic unity of the Deity.

[Pg 1145]

14. Never does any body nor anything here, think of itself of anything whatever; there is none and naught whatsoever, that can think unless it is the same with the Divine Ego.

15. The apparent threefold world, ever appears in this manner; as one with and inseparable from God that dwells alike and evenly in all, which composes one uniform whole, without admixture of any diversity or duality (all which blend together in harmony in one universal unity).

16. Know O Ráma, that is nothing like a rock or tree, is produced in empty vacuity; so these seeming solid worlds, can never be produced in the vacuous spirit of Brahma (but are all mere phantoms of what they appear to be) know this, and go on freely in your own way.

17. Precepts to men of little intelligence and doubtful minds, fail to persuade them to the knowledge of truth; and so long as they can not comprehend the unity, they are ever apt to believe in the multiplicity of objects.

18. Neither precepts nor sástras, can lead the ignorant to the knowledge of truth, unless they can get rid of their prejudice of diversity, which the creator Brahmá, has spread over the minds of men.

19. Ráma rejoined:—I understand sir, what you say (regarding the ego as the agent); but I beseech you to explain it by some illustration, for my clear knowledge of it.

20. What does the supreme Brahma do, by his assuming the title of ego or thinking agent to himself; you know all this (by your vast knowledge), though it is not quite satisfactory to your audience.

21. Vasishtha replied:—The supreme One that was quite indistinct before (as the undistinguishable chaos); becomes after his assumption of the title ego to himself, divided and distinguished into the distinct essences of vacuum, space and its directions and time with all its divisions. (The ego itself is diversified into these various forms).

22. The ego then assuming its personality, finds many such distinctions appearing before itself; which are quite imperceptible[Pg 1146] in its state of impersonality. (The personal soul only, is conscious of these).

23. The knowledge of these vacuous principles, their qualities and attributes, which is preserved in the soul in the forms of their abstract ideas; is expressed afterwards by certain symbolical sounds or words, which are also as void as air. (A word is a breath, and the breath is air).

24. It is thus the formless and vacuous principle of the ego, entertains in itself or its soul, the notions or knowledge of times and space in their ideal forms.

25. This universe which appears as the réchauffé or reflex of the ideal of the ego, and seems as the visible and substantial world, is in reality but the intangible Brahma, and appearing as the tangible non Brahma to view.

26. The world is verily the quiet spirit of Brahma, it is one with Him, and without its beginning, middle or end; it is verily the void of Brahma, who assumes to himself the titles of Ego and the living soul, vacuous himself in his own vacuous self, as this vast and extensive phenomenon, and as something otherwise than what He is. (The world is the mirror of the divine Mind and its thoughts).

Vasishtha continued:—O Ráma, the destroyer of thy enemies, this very question that you have asked me today, was put to me once before, when you had been a pupil under my discipline.

2. In a former age, there was once this spiritual discourse betwixt ourselves, when you had been a pupil of mine in a certain forest (according to Metempsychosis), the present is but a repetition of a past life. The wheel of life rolls and revolves incessantly from age to age.

3. As I sat there as your preceptor, and your sitting in my presence as my pupil; you then had put this very question to me, with the gravity of your understanding.

4. The Pupil said:—You sir that know all things, now deign to remove this doubt and difficulty of mine, regarding what things die and perish at the great deluge, and what things are not liable to destruction.

5. The Preceptor replied saying:—Know my son, that the relics of all things are utterly destroyed at the last deluge; as your thickening dreams disappear in your sound sleep.

6. The hills and rocks on all the ten sides of the earth, are all destroyed without any distinction, and of the actions of men and routine of their business, there remains nothing behind.

7. All beings are destroyed at the end, and the great void (that is the receptacle of all bodies), becomes a perfect void.

8. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra, Rudra and others, that are the prime causes of the causal agencies of this world, do all become extinct at the end of the world, and there remains no vestige of them at last.

9. There remains only the great vacuity of the divine intellect,[Pg 1148] which is ever existent and undecaying; and this appears from the divine spirits remaining as the witness both of annihilations as also of the regeneration of the past and future worlds.

10. The entity never becomes a non-entity, nor the non-entity never comes to be an entity; tell me therefore where the past world disappears, and from whence the future world comes to existence.

11. The Preceptor replied:—This world, my boy, is not wholly destroyed nor does it become altogether extinct; and it is quite true that nothing ever goes to nothing, nor does anything, nor does anything ever proceed from a nihility.

12. That which is an entity in reality, never becomes a non-entity in anywise, and how can that which is inexistent of itself, ever become a nil and null afterwards (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).

13. Where is water to be had in the mirage, and when are the two seeming moons to be seen in the sky; where are the delusive hairs found to be floating in the air, and when does a false conception prove to be true. (So the seeming world is a nullity, although it appears awhile as something to our deluded sight).

14. Know my son, all these phenomenals to be mere delusions, and without any reality in them; they appear as cities and towns in our dreams, and are ever obtrusive on us.

15. They are however liable to vanish away quite out of our sight at last, as our dreams disappear upon our waking, and as our waking scenes are lost and hid under the veil of our sleep.

16. As we know nothing where the city of our dreaming, vanishes away at last upon our waking; so we are quite ignorant about that chaotic void, wherein the universe submerges upon its exit.

17. The Pupil rejoined:—If the world is a nullity as you say, then sir, be pleased to tell what is it that thus appears to and disappears from us by turns; and what is that vacuous intellect which presents this extensive view before us; as also how does the void present its reflexion of the plenum and to what purpose.

[Pg 1149]

18. The Preceptor replied:—It is the vacuous sphere of the intellect, my boy, that thus shines with its transparency; and it is this reflexion of it which is called the world, which is no other than this.

19. It is the reflexion of the widely extended substance of the great void of the intellect; and this apparently solid figure of it, is no other than the same transpicuous form of that intellect. (So says the sruti, Brahmá reflects his twofold forms to us, the one opaque and seen with our naked eye, and the other translucent and viewed by our mental sight).

20. The incorporeal Brahmá like all corporeal bodies, presents both a fair as well as a dark complexion (the one being his clear or intellectual form seen by the clear sighted, and the other his hazy figure viewed by gross understandings). He also discloses himself some times and closes at another, which cause the creation and annihilation of the world. (Manu calls it the waking and sleeping of God, and others the evolution and involution of the divine spirit).

21. The clearness of the divine spirit, ever remains the same and unaltered, both before and after the creation and its dissolution; as a fountain of limpid waters is always clear, whether it reflects the shadows of its bordering arbours or not. (No change in nature can affect the spirit of God).

22. As a man remains unchanged in his sleep, whether he be dreaming or enjoying his sound rest; so the spirit continues alike in its intellect, whether it is in the act of creation or annihilation.

23. As the ideal world appears to be calm and quiet, both in the dream of the dreamer, as well as in the sound sleep of the sleeper; so this visible world of ours is ever viewed in its calmness, in the tranquil spirit of the Lord and of the contemplative saint.

24. Hence I do not recognize the existence of a vacuum or sky, anywhere and independent of our soul; nor can we expect the same sphere appearing in the souls of others, as it does in ours according to our view of it.

25. If we can perceive the light of our intellect, even at the[Pg 1150] point of our death, and disappearance of the world from us; why should we not conceive the same to be the case with others, and that they do not perceive the same intellectual light also in their consciousness. (This is an evidence of the immortality in our souls).

26. The Pupil rejoined:—If such is the case, that others who are awake, have the same view of the world, as the dreamer has in his dream; then I believe that all those that are living, have the same view of the world as those that are dying, (i.e. A mere faint idea of it and not a substantial one).

27. The preceptor replied:—So it is, O my intelligent lad, the world then does not appear in its real form (of a solid body to the dreamer and the dying), as it appears as a reality to the intellects of others (that are waking and living). Idealism presents the true picture of the world.

28. The world does not appear and is not anything, and nothing that is real or has any reality in it; it is a mere reflexion of the intellect, and there can be no reality in our false sight of it.

29. It is apparent everywhere, and seems to be in every way at all times; but it does not exist <in reality> in anyway, anywhere or at anytime.

30. And because it is both the real and unreal form of Brahma, it is both a reality as well as unreality likewise; and being of the intellectual void, is never destructible nor ever destroyed.

31. The vacuous entity of the supreme intellect, which exhibits the phenomena of creation and its destruction (in repeated rotation), abounds with our misery only, if we attend to its occurrences with any degree of concern; but it does not affect us at all, if we can but remain altogether unconcerned with its casualties.

32. All these appearances exist every where at all times, in the same manner as they appear to the ignorant; but in truth, they appear in no where, in any manner or at any time to the wise and learned (who know the nature of worldly delusions).

33. It is the one self-same Being that appears as a god in[Pg 1151] one place, and as a pot or clod in another. Here he is seen as a hill and there as a rill or dale; He is an arbour here, of furze or bush there, and the spreading grass in another. He is the moving and movable some where and the unmoving and unmovably else where; and He is the fire and all other elements also everywhere.

34. He is entity and nonentity, and both vacuity and solidity also; He is action and duration, and the earth and sky likewise. He is the being and not being, and their growth and their destruction likewise, and He is good as well as the evil, that attends on one and forefends another.

35. There is nothing that is not He, who though one is always all things in all places; He is in and out of everything, and extends along the beginning, middle and end of all things. He is eternity and duration and the three divisions of time also; (i.e. the present, past and future, called the triple time).

36. He is all, and existent in all things, in all places and times; and yet He is not the All, and neither existing with anything at any time or place (but is but dimly seen in these His lowest works. Milton).

37. Know now, Ráma, that Brahma being the universal soul, He is all in all places and times; and because Brahma is the conscious soul, He exhibits all things to our consciousness, as if they were images in our dreams or the creatures of our imagination. (i.e. A corporeal God only can form a formal and plastic world; but the intellectual soul of God, can make only a formless and immaterial creation, as we see in our dream and phantasies).

38. The maker of the terrene world, must have an earthly body; and the framer of the woody arbours must have a wooden frame, but the Lord God of all, has neither a corporeal body nor a material shape. (Thus they frame a fire, air and water God, but the true God is none of these elements).

39. Others make a mountain God as the Lord of all; and some even make and worship a human figure as the supreme God (and so are all the heathen gods represented in human figures).

[Pg 1152]

40. Some make a picture the Lord and maker of all; and others make some image as such, and worship it as the great God of all.

41. But there is only one supreme Being, who is the maker, supporter and the Lord God of all others; He is without beginning and end, and the Lord Brahma, whose spirit upholds and supports all others.

42. A straw made image or an earthen pot, is attributed with divine powers, and represented as the Most high; and so the formless God is shown in frail images, which are made and destroyed by human hands.

43. An outward object is made the actor and enjoyer of acts; but the wise know intelligence only, as the active and passive agent of all actions.

44. But the truly wise (i.e. the vacuist) acknowledges no active nor passive agent of creation; although many among the wise (i.e. the Páshupatas) recognize one God alone, as the only actor, and enjoyer of all.

45. All these views may be probable, and well apply to the most high, who is the sole object of all these theories; and as there is nothing, which can be positively affirmed or denied of Him. (Here the vacuist Vasishtha is a tolerator of all faiths, as suited to the capacities of the different understanding of men).

46. All these believers look to their desired objects, as manifest to their view in the vacuous space of their intellects, and by viewing the whole world in themselves, they remain undecayed at all times.

47. All visibles and all laws and prohibitions, together with all desires and designs of men; are confined with their knowledge of them in themselves. Hence those that are true to their faiths, and firm in the observance of their duties and performance of their acts, are verily of the nature of the divine soul, by their viewing all nature in themselves.

48. This very doctrine was inculcated to before, when you had been a pupil under my preceptorship; but as you could not fully comprehend it then, you are doomed to another birth,[Pg 1153] to learn it again from me. (Vasishtha means to say that he is immortal, though Ráma may have his transmigration in many incarnations).

49. The world representing the longsome dark and dreary winter night, presents the pure light of knowledge, shining with the serene and cooling beams of the autumnal lunar disk; now O Ráma! as you <are> edified by your pure intelligence, shake off the dross of dull ignorance from you, and continue in the discharge of your duties, as they have lineally descended to you and to your royal race.

50. Do you remain released from your attachment, to all things of this temporal world; and relying solely in the One supreme and universal soul, whose pure nature is perceptible throughout all nature; then be as lucid as the pellucid sky, with the peace of your mind and transport of your soul, and learn to rule your realm with justice and equity.

Válmíki related:—As the sage had finished saying these things, or so far, the celestials sounded their trumpets from heaven, as the clouds resounded in the rainy skies, with showers of nectarious rain drops (on the earth below). The face of the sky was whitened on all sides, as by drifts of snowfalls in hoary winter, and the surface of the earth was covered by rain drops, dropping like showers of flowers. (The sound of celestial trumpets, is ever accompanied with or followed by a shower <of> refreshing rain).

2. The earth appeared to be blessed with prosperity in the beauty of the flowers, stretching their pistils and peduncles like beauties in their evening decorations, and sending afar the fragrance of their farinacious dust, like the perfumery on the persons of fairies, their outer garniture and inner cool sweetness are verily the gifts of the gods.

3. The falling flowers of heavenly arbors, dropped down from their dried boughs, by the rampant and apish hurricane of heaven, are now vying with the glittering stars, scattered all over the face of the firmament, and deriding at their grim laughter with their bashful and blushing smiles.

4. The lowering clouds accompanied with sounds of trumpets, and drizzling rain drops and falling of flowers (which bore resemblance to one another); next lighted upon the court hall, like the shadowy snow fall on Himálaya’s head, and filled the assembly with wonder, and gaping mouths and staring eyes.

5. The assembly seated in their order, took hold of handfuls of these heavenly flowers; and poured them upon Vasishtha with their obeisance, and cast away all their earthly cares and[Pg 1155] woes with those celestial offerings to the sage. (Every offering confers and recurs, with an equivalent blessing to the offerer).

6. The King Dasaratha said:—O wonder! that we are so lightly released of our cares and woes, in this wide extended vale of miseries of the world; and that our souls are now lightened of their throws by your grace, like the heavy clouds lightened of their weight, and floating lightly at last on Himálayas.

7. We have reached to the goal of our acts, and seen the end of our miseries of this life; we have fully known the knowable One (that is only to be known), and have found our entire rest in that supreme state (by your good grace alone).

8. We have known to rest in the ultimate void in our meditation, and to get rid of our erroneous thoughts of bodies, by means of our intense application to the abstract (or Platonic abstraction).

9. It is by our riddance from the coinage and vagaries of our imagination, and by our escape from the feverish fervour for the sights of the dreaming world; as also by our ceasing to mistake the shells and cockles for silver, and by our deliverance from misdeeming ourselves as dead either in our sleep or dream, (that we may be enabled to the true knowledge of ourselves &c.).

10. It is by our knowledge of the identity of the wind and its oscillation, and of the sameness of the water with its fluidity; as also by our distrust in this talismanic world, and in this fairy land of our fancy (that we can attain to the knowledge of truth &c.).

11. It must be by our discredit in the magical scenes of this world, and in the aerial castles of fairies; as also by our mistrust in the limpid currents of the mirage, and in the aerial groves and double moons of heaven (that we can come to know the truth).

12. It is no earthquake, if our tottering foot steps should shake and slip in our drunkenness; nor can we view a ghost in a shadow as boys do, nor see the braids of hair hanging down from the clouds in heaven.

13. From these and other instances, which you have given[Pg 1156] for our instruction; you have sir, at once effaced our credit in the visible sights of this world.

14. Ráma added:—My ignorance is dispelled, and I have come to the knowledge of truth by your good grace; and O thou chief of sages, I acknowledge thee to have brought me to light from my impervious darkness.

15. I am freed from my doubts, and set to the light of the true nature of God; and I will now act as thou sayst, in acknowledging the transpicuous truth (or viewing God as manifest in nature, and not as hidden under her veil).

16. Remembering and reconsidering thy words, that are so fraught with ambrosial sweetness and full of delightsome taste; I am filled with fresh delight, though already satisfied and refreshed by their sense (i.e. the more I think of them, the happier I seem to feel my-self).

17. I have nothing to do for myself at present, nor is there any left undone or remaining to be done by me. I am as I am and have ever been, and always without any craving for me. (This state of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency, is the highest bliss for man).

18. What other way to our true felicity can there be, than this that has been shown by thee? or else I find this wide-extended field of the earth, to be so full of our woe and misery.

19. I have no foe to annoy me nor a friend to give any joy to me; I have no field to work in, nor an enemy to fear nor a good soul to rely in. It is our misunderstanding that makes this world appear so troublesome to ourselves, while our good sense makes it all agreeable to us. (If the world will not suit thee, suit thyself to it).

20. How could we know all this (for our happiness) without thy good grace unto us; as it is never possible for a boy, to ford and cross over a river, without the assistance of a boat or bridge.

21. Lakshmana said:—It is by reason of your removing the doubts, that had been inherent in and inherited by me in my repeated births; and it is by virtue of the merit, that I had acquired in my former births; that I have come to know[Pg 1157] the truth this day, by the divine sermon of the holy sage; and to feel the radiance of a holy light in me, shining as brightly as the cooling beams of moonlight.

22. It is strange that in disregard of this heavenly bright and vivid light, that men should be entangled in a thousand errors, and be burnt at last as dried wood or fuel, by their foul mistake and great misfortune.

23. Viswámitra said:—O! it is by our great merit, that we have come this day, to hear this holy lecture from the mouth of the sage; and which has at once expurgated our inner souls, as a thousand lavations in the clear stream of Ganges.

24. Ráma rejoined:—We have seen the highest pitch of all prosperity, and the best of all that is to be seen; we have known the end of all learning, and the last extremity of adversity; we have seen many countries and heard many speeches; but never have we heard, nor seen nor known anything better than the discourse on the beauty of the soul, which the sage has shown to us to-day.

25. Nárada added:—Our ears are purified to-day, by the hearing of what we have never heard heretofore; to be preached by Brahmá or the gods above or men below.

26. Lakshmana rejoined:—Sir, you have entirely dissipated all our inner and outer darkness also; and have shewn us the transcendent light, of the bright sun of the Divine soul.

27. Satrughna said:—I am satisfied and tranquilized, and uncomposed in the supreme soul; I am for ever full and perfect in myself, and sit quite content with my solity.

28. Dasaratha repeated:—It is by the merit of our deeds, done and acquired in our repeated lives, that we have been, O thou chief of sages, sanctified this day by thy sacred and sanctifying speech.

29. Válmíki related:—As the king and his courtiers, were speaking in this manner, the sage oped his mouth again, and thus bespoke his words fraught with pure and purifying knowledge.

30. Vasishtha said:—Hear me, O thou moon like king of Raghu’s race, and do as I bid you to do; Rise now and honour[Pg 1158] the assembled Bráhmans, who deserve their due honour at the close of a discourse.

31. Rise therefore, and satisfy their desires with thy ample gifts; and thou will obtain thereby, the merit that attends on the learning of the vedas, and doing thy duties according to their dictates.

32. It is incumbent on even a mean worm-like man, to honor the Bráhmans to their utmost at the termination of a sermon on salvation; how much more important must it then be on the part of a monarch to acquit himself of this necessary duty.

33. Hearing this behest of the sage, the king held his reverential silence; and beckoned to his heralds to proceed to all the ten sides of his dominions, and invite thousands of Bráhmans, that are acquainted with the vedas forthwith (to the royal court).

34. He bade them to go to Mathura, Suráshtra and Gauda, and to bring with them with due respect all the Bráhmans, that are born of Vedic families, and are abiding in those districts and lands.

35. There then assembled more than ten thousands of Bráhmans to the royal palace, and the king fed them all alike and paying particular regard to the more learned among them.

36. He treated them with the best sorts of food and rice, honoured them with their honorariums, and gave them a good many gifts; and after honouring them in this manner, he offered his oblations to the manes of his ancestors, and gave his offerings to the tutelar gods of his house. (A Bráhman has his precedence in a feast to the gods and patres; but the merit of giving a feast is lost unless it is followed by other gifts).

37. The king next treated his friends and relatives with proper repast, and then fed his companions and servants and the citizens all on the same day. His attention was at last directed to the feeding of the poor and needy, and of the lame and blind and lunatics.

38. Having discharged to his utmost the duties of the festival, he commanded a great festivity to be held in his hall, all[Pg 1159] over decorated with silk and embroidery, and with gold, gems and pearls.

39. The city then being adorned and lighted, like the ever bright mount of Meru, there went on a merry dance and ball of giddy girls and players in every house (as a sign of general joy).

40. There was a ringing of bells and sounding of cymbols all about, with the beating of drums and trimbrels at every door; flutes and wind instruments were blowing on every side, and guitars and wired instruments were playing with loud gingling, and vying with each other.

41. The markets were closed, and the marketers stopped in their course; the air appeared as an arbour of plants, shaking with the uplifted and quavering and waving arms of the merry dancers in the streets; and it seemed as the starry heaven, by the glittering light of the teeth of strolling players, displayed in their comic dance and loud laughter.

42. There was the heroic dance attended by the loud shouts of the players, and melodramas accompanied with the soft and sweet strains of the performers, there was also a staggering and strutting dance on one foot and leg, and thumping the ground with the other.

43. Here they flung wreaths of flowers glittering like stars and falling down in showers; and there the scattered flowers, which were strewn over the ground as rain drops, were indiscriminately trodding down under the feet of passersby.

44. Here the actresses dance about with their loose ornaments and gestures of love; and there the bards chanted their hymns with clearness, as the Bráhmans recited them and the songstresses sang.

45. Here the sots and topers drank their fill of wine; and the food mongers fed upon their eatables of various kinds (i.e. some were seen to be indulging their drink and others in their eating).

46. The insides of houses were daubed with wine, as the outer bodies of the princes with ointment of moon light hue.

47. The attendent servants and waiting maids on the king,[Pg 1160] sauntered about trimmed in gaudy attires of various colours; and graced the royal festival with their decorations of necklaces and sweet perfumes on their persons.

48. The sprightly ballet girls, being besmeared with a paste of all perfumeries (called the yaksha dust), and decorated with glittering ornaments, repaired to the ball at the royal hall with all alacrity.

49. Thus the king Dasaratha held his entertainment for a whole week, and passed full seven nights in festive mirth and rejoicing; while he distributed his gifts and food for as many days, which redounded to exhaustless prosperity on earth.

Válmíki said:—O most intelligent Bharadwája, and the chief of my pupils, you have now heard how the great Ráma and others, came to the knowledge of the knowable One (that is only to be known), and passed across this vale of misery and sorrow, by their attention to these lectures.

2. Do you thus fix your sight to the light of Brahma, and conduct yourself gladly, by abandoning all your affections and cares of this world, and by remaining dauntless with your living liberation and tranquility of mind.

3. Know, O thou sinless one, that the learned and the meek, that do not mix with the society of worldly men, but remain steady as Ráma and others in their right principles, are never liable to be deluded although they are beset by temptations on all sides.

4. Thus these men of great natures, as the king Dasaratha and the prince Ráma and his brothers, together with companions, have attended to the state of the living liberated (even in their life time).

5. Thou my son Bharadwája! that art naturally of a liberal mind, hast now become more liberated at present, by thy hearing of these sermons on the salvation of our souls.

6. It is possible even for boys to obtain their liberation, by their attention to those holy lectures, as the most evident and surest means to salvation; and cannot therefore fail to convince thee of the truth thereof.

7. As the high minded and sinless and sorrowless sons of Raghu’s race, have attained to their holy state of perfection[Pg 1162] and self-liberation; so do thou also obtain that best and highest state, by your attending to the lectures of the divine sage Vasishtha.

8. It is by advice of the good and service under the great, as also by means of humble inquiries to and explications of the learned; that weak men of good understandings, can know the knowable, as the Rághavas and others did under Vasishtha.

9. The ties of avarice and affection that have fast bound the hearts of the ignorant (to this world); do all tend to debar them like playful boys from inquiring into the means of their liberation, until they become too old to benefit by their knowledge.

10. Those that can discern the minds of high minded men, can only come to their knowledge of truth; and such men only have no more to return to this world of woe; and this is the substance of all that I can speak to thee (i.e. know and have the minds of the great, in order to become as great thyself, so says Gay in his Fables. (Hast thou fathomed Tully’s mind, and the vast sense of Plato’s head)).

11. Having first received your instruction from the preceptor, you must weigh well and digest its meaning in yourself; and then communicate its sense, to the most sensible and intelligent student. This is said by sages and saints, as the trivium of science; know this and you need no more, to become wise when your boyhood is over.

12. Whoso will read this book, not without understanding its sense and whoever will manuscript it without the expectation of getting its fee; as also anybody who will recite or cause it to be recited (to a public audience), either with or without any desire of reward, shall have his ample recompense in the land of Áryas (both in his present and future lives). (So it is with the public preaching of its doctrine).

13. These men receive the reward, awaiting on the performance of the Rájasúya sacrifice, and are entitled to their heavenly seats in their pure essence; as often as they ascend to it after their demise on earth, and until they attain their final liberation, which attains on them as prosperity does on the[Pg 1163] meritorious (after the third transmigration of their expurged souls).

14. It was at first that the god Brahmá of unknowable form, had composed this work in his excellent diction; and then considering it as the only means to the liberation of mankind, had revealed it to the assemblage of saints (of which Vasishtha or Válmíki has made this version). Let nobody therefore take the truthfulness of this saying for an untruth.

15. At the close of the recital of these lectures, on the means of human salvation, it becomes every sensible man of good sense, to honour the Bráhmans with diligence; and to serve them with their desirable gifts of food and drink, and furnish them with goodly houses for their lodging.

16. They should also be rewarded with their honorariums, and supplied with monies to their hearts’ desire, and to the utmost capacity of the donor; and then the giver or master of the ceremony should rest himself assured, of having acquitted his duty to and reaped its merit to the intent of the sástras.

17. I have thus rehearsed to you the great sástra, in elucidation of divine knowledge and its pure truth; with addition of a great many tales and stories, serving as example and illustrations of the abstruse doctrines for your clear understanding of them. May your hearing of these, serve to lead you to your utter indifference of this world, and to the desire of your liberation in it, while you are alive herein. May this tend also to your continued prosperity, in order to engage your attention towards the perfection of your knowledge and devotion, and to the discharge of the duties of your station without failing.

Válmíki continued to say:—I have thus related to you, O prince, whatever the pot born Vasishtha had taught and preached to the princes; and it is certain that you will attain the same elevated state, as they did by the hearing of these lectures on sacred knowledge.

2. The Prince Arishtanemi replied:—O Venerable sir, your kind look is enough to extricate us from bondage in this world; and it is hence that I am not only brought to light, but saved from the ocean of this world by your favour.

3. The Heavenly Messenger said:—After saying so, the said prince seemed to look amazed in his look; and then he began to speak these words to me with a graceful voice.

4. The Prince said:—I bow down to thee, O Messenger divine, and wish all safety to attend on thee; it is said that the friendship of the good is attended with seven benefits, all which hast thou conferred upon me.

5. Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra, and well know that, I am both gladdened as well as grown insouciant of worldly concerns, by hearing this discourse of thine.

6. I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without feeling any anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the sense of all that I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O Lady! that I was quite surprised (to see so much civility on the part of a prince).

7. He said:—I have never heard before, such words and fraught with so much knowledge, as I have come now to hear[Pg 1165] from thee; It has filled my inward spirit with as much joy, as if I have drunk my fill of an ambrosial draught just now.

8. I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the bidding of Válmíki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou hast asked of me. And now I shall bend my course, towards the celestial city of Sakra.

9. The fairy said:—I must thank thee now, O thou very fortunate emissary of the gods! for all that thou hast related to me; and my knowledge whereof, has entirely composed my spirit, by its benign influence.

10. I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain from sorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may now to your destination at Indras, with all speed attending on your journey thither.

11. So saying Suruchi—the best of fairies, continued to keep her seat on the slope of the Himálayas, and contiguous to the Gandhamádana mount of fragrance, and reflect on the sense of what she had heard (of divine knowledge).

12. Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts of Vasishtha, you are at liberty to do as you like, by your weighing well their purport. (For the effecting of your liberation which is the main object of man, both in this life as well as in the next).

13. Kárunya said:—The remembrance of the past, the sight of the present, and the talk of future events, together with the existence of the world; are all as false as the sights in our dreams or of water in mirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren woman.

14. I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what is left undone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse of the occasion and without any assiduity on my part.

15. Agasti said:—Kárunya—The worthy son of Agnibesya, said in the aforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time in the discharge of his duties, as they occured to him from time to time.

16. And you O Sutikshana! should never entertain any doubts regarding the acts, that you shall have to perform after[Pg 1166] your attainment of divine knowledge (Lest they entail their retribution on you afterwards). Because dubitation destroys the virtue of the deed, as selfishness takes away its merit.

17. Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles the duplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of their combination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows with due submission to him.

18. Sutíkshana said:—Any action done in ignorance of the actor, is reckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full knowledge to be taken into account. (So the brute activities of the giddy mob, bear no value or blame in them before the wise). But actions done with reason and reasonable men, are invaluable in their nature. All our acts are best seen by the light of the intellect as the actions of stage-players are seen only in the candle light. (So are all our mental and corporeal acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).

19. It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the action of our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it is the malleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms of jewelleries. (Hence we should never reject the one for the other).

20. As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to the boisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave and move in our sight; so it is the inbeing of the great soul, that fills all the great and small alike.

21. I submit to and bear with all that befalls to me, because there is no escape from destiny, nor slighting of the sound sayings of sages; and I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to owe my knowledge of the knowable One to thy good grace only.

22. I own myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and bow down prostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me up from the doleful pit of the world; because there is no other way to repay my gratitude to my venerable preceptor.

23. Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression to his obligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world, save by means of offering himself to his services; with his whole body and mind and the words of his mouth.

[Pg 1167]

24. It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have passed over the Rubicon of this world; I am filled with infinite joy amidst all these worlds, and am set free from all my doubts.

25. I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung in the Sáma-veda, as filling all this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill the boundless deep; and whose remembrance fills our soul with ecstasy.

26. I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the form of incarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the joyous bliss of divine felicity; who is beyond all duality and sees the only One in the unity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever alike the pure and immaculate One, and witnesseth the inmost of all minds; who is beyond all states and conditions (of so and so or of such and such); and who is quite devoid of the three qualities (which belong to all bodies) i.e. There is no known quality or property that can be predicated to the Deity. The qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar and unique as own nature.

27. Here ends the Mahárámáyana of the sage Vasishtha, with its continuation by his recorder Válmíki, and the speech of the celestial messenger at the latter end of the Book on Nirvána or the ultimate Extinction of the living soul.

FINIS.