Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

20. The Great king has placed his sentinel of the Yaksha of egoism as a guard of this house; and this guard is as ferocious as a Bhairava in dark (ignorance), and as timorous as a Bhairava by the day (i.e. egoism brags in ignorance, but flies before the day-light of reason). 21. The masters of these locomotive bodies, play many pranks in them, as a bird plays its frolics in its own nest. 22. This triformed prince (the mind) is always fickle, and never steady in any; he resides in many bodies and plays his gambles there with his guard of egoism, and leaves one body for another at will, as a bird alights from one branch upon another. 23. This fickle minded prince is ever changeful in his will; he resides in one city and builds another for his future habitation. 24. Like one under the influence of a ghost, he stirs up from one place and runs to another, as a man builds and breaks and rebuilds his aerial castle at his hobby. 25. The Mind sometimes wishes to destroy its former frame and remove to another, and effects its purpose at will.

26. It is produced again as the wave of the sea, after it had subsided to rest; and it pursues slowly and gradually a different course in its renewed course of life. 27. This prince sometimes repents of his own conduct and acts in his new life, and then laments for his ignorance and miseries and knows not what to do. 28. He is sometimes dejected by sorrow and at others elated by success, like the current of a river, now going down in the hot season, and again overflowing its banks in the rains. 29. This king is led by his hobbies like the waters of the sea by the winds; it puffs and swells, falls and rises, runs fast and ceases to flow at once as in a calm.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MUNDANE CITY. Argument. Interpretation of the Parable of the Air-born prince, and exposition of the Universe as the production of our Desires. Vasishtha continued:—The boy then asked his holy sire, who was sitting reclined on his sacred Kadamba tree, in the midst of the forest of the great Jambudvípa in the gloom of the night. 2. The son said:—Tell me Sir, who is this Air-born prince of Supernatural form, about whom you related to me just now; I do not fully comprehend its meaning, and want it to be explained to me clearly. 3. You said sir, that this prince constructs for himself a new abode, whilst residing in his present body; and removes to the same after he has left the old frame. This seems impossible to me, as the joining of one tense with another, the present with the future. 4. Dásúra replied:—Hear me tell you my son, the meaning of this parable, which will explain to you the nature of this revolutionary world in its true light. 5. I have told you at first that a non-entity sprang in the beginning from the entity of God, and this non-entity being stretched out afterwards (in the form of illusion), gave rise to this illusory world called the cosmos.

6. The vacuous spirit of the Supreme Deity, gives rise to his formless will, which is thence called Air-born (or the mind). It is born of itself in its formless state from the formless Spirit, and dissolves itself into the same; as the wave rising from and falling in the bosom of the sea. (Thus in the beginning was the Will and not the Word, and the Will was in God, and the will was God; and it rises and sets in the Spirit of God). 7. It is the will which produces every thing, and there is nothing produced but by the Will. The Will is self-same with its object, which constitutes and subsists in it; and it lives and dies also along with its object. (The will of the willful mind, dwells on some subject or other while it is living; but it perishes when it has no object to think upon, and melts into insensibility; or else it continues to transmigrate with its thoughts and wishes for ever). 8. Know the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra, Siva and the Rudras, as offspring of the willful Mind; as the branches are the offshoots of the main tree, and the summits are projections of the principal mountain.

9. This Mind builds the city of the triple world, in the vacuum of Brahma (like an air-drawn castle); by reason of its being endowed with intelligence from Omniscience, in its form of Virinchi (vir-incho-ativus). 10. This city is composed of fourteen worlds (planetary spheres) containing all their peoples; together with chains of their hills and forests and those of gardens and groves. 11. It is furnished with the two lights of the sun and moon, (to shine as two fires by day and night); and adorned with many mountains for human sports. (Hence the mountainous Gods of old, are said to be the sportive Devas; divi deváh divayanti). 12. Here the pearly rivers are flowing in their winding courses, and bearing their swelling waves and rippling billows, shining as chains of pearls under the sunbeams and moonlight. 13. The seven oceans appear as so many lakes of limpid waters, and shining with their submarine fires, resembling the lotus-beds and mines of gems beneath the azure sky. 14. It is a distinguished place of gods, men and savages, who make their commerce here, with commodities (of virtue and vice), leading either to heaven above or to the hell below.

15. The self-willed King (the mind), has employed here many persons (as dramatis personae), to act their several parts before him for his pleasure. 16. Some are placed high above this stage to act as gods and deities, and others are set in lower pits of this earth and infernal regions, to act their miserable parts—as men and Nágas. (The Nágas are snakes and snake worshippers, living in subterraneous cells like the serpentine race of Satan. The Bara and Chhotá Naghores, and the Naga hill people of Assam are remnants of this tribe). 17. Their bodies are made of clay, and their frame work is of white bones; and their plastering is the flesh under the skin as a pneumatic machine. 18. Some of these bodies have to act their parts for a long while, while others make their exits in a short time. They are covered with caps of black hairs, and others with those of white and grey on their heads. 19. All these bodies are furnished with nine crevices, consisting of the two earholes, two sockets of the eyes, and two nostrils with the opening of the mouth, which are continually employed in inhaling and exhaling cold and hot air by their breathings. (These airs are the oxygen and nitrogen gases).

20. The earholes, nostrils and the palate, serve as windows to the abode of the body; the hands and feet are the gate ways, and the five inner organs are as lights of these abodes. 21. The mind then creates of its own will the delusion of egoism, which like a yaksha demon takes possession of the whole body, but flies before the light of knowledge. 22. The mind accompanied by this delusive demon, takes great pleasure in diverting itself with unrealities (until it comes to perceive their vanity by the light of reason). 23. Egoism resides in the body like a rat in the barn-house, and as a snake in the hollow ground. It falls down as a dew drop from the blade of a reed, upon advance of the sunlight of reason. 24. It rises and falls like the flame of a lamp in the abode of the body, and is as boisterous with all its desires, as the sea with its ceaseless waves. 25. The Mind constructs a new house for its future abode, by virtue of its interminable desires in its present habitation; and which are expected to be realized and enjoyed in its future state.

26. But no sooner it ceases to foster its desires, than it ceases to exist, and loses itself in that state of Supreme bliss of which there can be no end. (Freedom from desire, is freedom from regeneration). 27. But it is born and reborn by its repeated desires, as the child sees the ghost by its constant fear of it. (Every desire rises as a spectre to bind). 28. It is egoism (or the belief of one’s real entity), that spreads the view of this miserable world before him; but absence of the knowledge of self-entity, removes the sight of all objects from view, as the veil of thick darkness hides all things from sight. (Without the subjective there can be no knowledge of the objective). 29. It is by one’s own attempt in this way, that he exposes himself to the miseries of the world; and then he wails at his fate like the foolish monkey, that brought on its own destruction, by pulling out the peg from the chink of the timber (which smashed its testes. See Hitopadesa). 30. The mind remains in eager expectation of the enjoyment of its desired objects, as the stag stood with its lifted mouth, to have a drop of honey fall into it, from a honey-comb hanging on high.

31. The wistful mind now pursues its desired objects, and now it forsakes them in disgust; now it longs for joy, and then grows sulky at its failure like a fretful child. 32. Now try diligently, my boy, to extricate thy mind from all outward objects, and fix thy attention to the inward object of this meditation. 33. The willful mind takes at its will its good, bad and moderate or sober forms; known under the names of satva, rajas and tamas (as defined before). 34. The bad or vitiated form of the mind delights in worldliness, and by bemeaning itself with all its greedy appetites, reduces itself to the state of worms and insects in its future births. 35. The good disposition of the mind is inclined towards virtuous deeds, and the acquisition of knowledge; and by these means advances both to its soleness and self enjoyment (i.e. to its full liberation and the state of the highest Brahma). 36. In its form of moderation, it is observant of the rules and laws of society, and conducts itself in the world in the company of friends and members of the family. 37. After relinquishment of all these three forms, and abdication of egoism and desires, it reaches to the state of the absolute Supreme Being.

38. Therefore shun the sight of the visibles, and repress your fleeting mind by your sober intellect; and diminish your desires for all internal as well as external goods. (i.e. Both mental qualifications and outward possessions). 39. For though you may practice your austerities for a thousand years, and crush your body by falling from a precipice upon stones;— 40. Or although you burn your body alive on a flaming pyre, or plunge yourself into the submarine fire; or if you fall in a deep and dark pit or well, or rush upon the edge of a drawn and sharp sword;— 41. Or if you have Brahmá himself or even Siva for your preceptor, or get the very kind and tender hearted ascetic for your religious guide;—(The guru of this nature probably alludes to Buddha, or Jina according to some, or to Dattátreya or Durvásá according to others. Gloss). 42. Whether you are situated in heaven or on earth, or in the regions of pátála—the antipodes below; you have no way of liberation, save by keeping your desires under subjection. 43. Exert your manliness therefore, in domineering over your irresistible and violent desires and passions, which will secure to you the pure and transcendent joy of peace and holiness.

44. All things are linked together under the bandage of cupidity; and this band being broken asunder, makes the desired objects vanish into nothing. 45. The real is unreal and the unreal is real, as the mind may make it appear to be; all reality and unreality consists in our conception of them, and in nothing besides. 46. As the mind conceives a thing to be, so it perceives the same in actuality; therefore have no conception of anything, if you want to know the truth of it. 47. Do you act as the world goes, without your liking or disliking of any thing; and thus the desires being at an end, the intellect will rise to the inscrutable beyond the knowledge of the mind. 48. The mind which having sprung from the Supreme Soul in the form of goodness, is inclined afterwards towards the unrealities of the world; surely alienates itself from the Supreme, and exposes itself to all sorts of misery. 49. We are born to the doom of death, but let us not die to be reborn to the miseries of life and death again. It is for the wise and learned to betake themselves to that state, which is free from these pains.

50. First learn the truth, and attain to the true knowledge of your soul; and then abandon all your desire and dislike of the world. Being thus prepared with a dead-like insensibility of your internal feelings, you will be enabled to come to the knowledge of that transcendental state, which is full of perfect bliss and blessedness.

CORRECTIVE OF DESIRES. Argument. The rise, progress and decline of Human Wishes. The Son asked:—What is this desire, father? how is it produced and grown, and how is it destroyed at last? 2. Dásúra replied:—The desire or will is situated in the mind or mental part of the one eternal, universal and spiritual substance of God. 3. It gets the form of a monad from a formless unit, and then by its gradual expansion extends over the whole mind, and fills it as a flimsy cloud soon covers the sky. 4. Remaining in the divine Intellect, the mind thinks of thinkables, as they are distinct from itself; and its longing after them is called its desire, which springs from it as a germ from its seed. 5. The desire is produced by the desiring of something, and it increases of itself both in its size and quantity, for our trouble only, and to no good or happiness at all. 6. It is the accretion of our desires which forms the world, as it is the accumulation of waters which makes the ocean; you have no trouble without your desire, and being free from it, you are freed from the miseries of the world (wherein one has to buffet as in the waves and waters of the sea).

7. It is by mere chance, that we come to meet with the objects of our desire; as it is by an act of unavoidable chance also, that we are liable to lose them. They appear before us as secondary luminaries in the sky, and then fly away as the mirage vanishes from view. 8. As a man who has the jaundice by eating a certain fruit, sees every thing as yellow as gold with his jaundiced eye; so the desire in the heart of man, pictures the unreal as a reality before him. 9. Know this truth that you are an unreality yourself, and must become an unreality afterwards. (Because there is but one self-existent entity, and all besides is but suppositions not entities). 10. He who has learnt to disbelieve his own existence and that of all others, and knows the vanity of his joy and grief, is not troubled at the gain or loss of any thing (which is but vanity of vanities, the world is vanity). 11. Knowing yourself as nothing, why do you think of your birth and your pleasures here? You are deluded in vain by the vanity of your desires.

12. Do not entertain your desires, nor think of anything which is nothing; it is by your living in this manner, that you may be wise and happy. 13. Try to relinquish your desire, and you will evade all difficulties; and cease to think of anything, and your desire for it will disappear of itself. 14. Even the crushing of a flower is attended with some effort, but it requires no effort to destroy your desire, which vanishes of itself for want of its thought. 15. You have to expand the palm of your hand, in laying hold of a flower; but you have nothing to do in destroying your frail and false desire. 16. He that wants to destroy his desire, can do it in a trice, by forgetting the thought of his desired object. 17. The thoughts being repressed from other objects, and fixed in the Supreme Spirit, will enable one to do what is impossible for others to effect. 18. Kill your desire by desiring nothing, and turn your mind from all things, by fixing it in the Supreme, which you can easily do of yourself. 19. Our desires being quieted, all worldly cares come to a stand still, and all our troubles are put to a dead lock.

20. Our wishes constitute our minds, hearts, lives, understandings and all our desiderative faculties; all which are but different names for the same thing without any difference in their signification. 21. There is no other business of our lives than to desire and to be doing, and when done to be desiring again: and as this restless craving is rooted out of the mind, it sets it free from all anxiety. 22. The world below is as empty, as the hollow sky above us; both of those are empty nothings, except that our minds make something or other of them, agreeably to its desire or fancy. 23. All things are unsubstantial and unsubstantiated by the unsubstantial mind; thus the world being but a creation of our fancy a desideratum, there is nothing substantial for you to think about. 24. Our reliance on unrealities proving to be unreal, leaves no room for our thinking about them; the suppression of their thoughts produces that perfection, insouciance, than which there is nothing more desirable on earth. Forget therefore all that is unreal. 25. The nice discernment of things, will preserve you from the excess of joy and grief, and the knowledge of the Vanity of things, will keep out your affection for or reliance on any person or thing.

26. The removal of reliance upon the world, removes our attachment to it; and consequently prevents our joy or sorrow at the gain or loss of any thing. 27. The mind which becomes the living principle, stretches out his city of the world by an act of its imagination; and then turns it about as the present, past, and future worlds, (i.e. the mind produces, destroys and reproduces the world, as it builds and breaks and rebuilds its aerial castles). 28. The mind being subject to the sensational, emotional and volitive feelings; loses the purity of its intellectual nature, and plays many parts by its sensuousness. 29. The living soul also forgets the nature of the universal soul from which it is derived, and is transformed to a puny animalcule in the heart of man, where it plays its pranks like an ape in the woods. 30. Its desires are as irrepressible, as the waves of the ocean, and they rise and fall by turns like the waves, in expectation of having every object of the senses. 31. Our desire like fire, is kindled by every straw; and it burns and blows out in its invisible form within the mind.

32. Our desires are as fickle as flashes of lightning, and proceed from the minds of the ignorant, as the lightning darts itself from the watery clouds (জলদ); they are equally fleeting and misguiding, and must be speedily avoided by the wise. 33. Desire is undoubtedly a curable disease, as long as it is a transient malady of the mind; but it becomes incurable, when it takes a deep root in it. 34. The knowledge of the unreality of the world, quickly cures the disease of desire; but the certainty of worldly knowledge, makes it as incurable as the impossibility, of removing the blackness of a coal. 35. What fool will attempt to wash a coal white, or convert a materialist to a spiritualist? Or turn a raven or Negro to whiteness? 36. But the mind of a man, is as a grain of rice covered under its husk, which is soon unhusked upon the threshing-floor. 37. The worldliness of the wise, is as soon removed as the husk of rice, and the blackness of a cooking kettle. 38. The blemishes of a man, are blotted out by his own endeavours; wherefore you must try to exert yourself to action at all times.

39. He who has not been able to master over his vain desires, and hobby whims in this world, will find them vanish of themselves in course of time, as nothing false can last for ever. 40. The light of reason removeth the false conception of the world, as the light of the lamp dispels the darkness from the room at sight, and night vision removes the secondary moon (of optical deception). 41. The world is not yours, nor are you of this world; there is no body nor anything here akin to you, nor are you so to any; never think otherwise, nor take the false for true. 42. Never foster the false idea in your mind, that you are master of large possessions and pleasant things; for know yourself and all pleasant things, are for the delight of the Supreme Maker and Master of all.

MEETING OF VASISHTHA AND DÁSÚRA. Argument. Dásúra’s reception of Vasishtha, their conversation and Parting. Vasishtha said:—Hear me, Ráma, that art the delight of Raghu’s race, and shinest as the moon in the firmament of Raghu’s family; that after I heard the conversation that was going on between Dásúra and his son:— 2. I alighted from the sky on the top of the Kadamba tree, which was decorated with its verdant leaves, and beautiful fruits and flowers; and then with my spiritual body, I sat myself slowly and silently on the top of the tree, as a light cloud alights on the summit of a mountain. 3. I beheld Dásúra there, sitting as a giant by subduing the organs of his body, and shining with the lustre of his devotion, as the fire blazing with its flame. 4. The lustre issuing from his body, had strewn his seat with purple gold, and lighted that spot, as the sun-beams emblazon the world. 5. Seeing me presenting myself before him, Dásúra spread a leafy seat for me to sit down, and then honoured me according to the rules of ceremonial law. 6. Then I joined with the luminous Dásúra in continuation of his discourse, which was meant for the edification of his son, and salvation of mankind from the miseries of life.

7. I then with permission of Dásúra, looked into the hollow of the tree, and the herds of stags pasturing fearlessly about it, and grazing and gathering about it. 8. It was as delightful as a bower overhung with creepers, where the smiling flowers were shedding their light, and breathing their fragrance to the winds. 9. The choury deer flapped their long hairy and moon-bright tails, against the herbaceous arbour, as the white flimsy clouds sweep over the sky. 10. The tree was adorned with fringes of pearly dewdrops, and arrayed all over with the flowery garb of his blossoms. 11. Smeared with the dust of its flowers, it appeared to be anointed with sandal paste; while its blowsy bark mantled it in roseate red. 12. Decorated with flowers, the tree seemed to stand in its bridal attire; and resembled the bridegroom in mutual embrace with the twining brides. 13. The bowers of shrubberies all around, resembled the leafy huts of hermits, which with their overtopping blossoms, seemed as a city, flaring with flying flags (or banners) in festivity. 14. Shaken by the stages in the act of rubbing their bodies, the trees darted their flowers in abundance upon the ground; and the border-lands were as shattered, as if they were broken by the horns of fighting bulls.

15. Peacocks daubed with dust of flowers, and flying on the top of the adjacent hill, appeared as evening clouds gliding over it. 16. Here the goddess Flora seemed to be sporting in the lawns, with the roseate flowers in her hands, and smiling sweetly in the blooming blossoms; she revelled with the nectarine honey of flowers; and shed her beauty on all sides. 17. The closing buds resembling her eyelids, were lulled to sleep by the forest breeze, breathing incessantly with the fragrance of the flowers. The clusters of flowers forming her breasts, were hid under the bodice of leaves. 18. She sat at the window of her alcove, formed by the twining plants and creepers, and was dressed in the purple garb of the flying farina of flowers. 19. She swang in her swinging cradle of bluish blossoms, and was adorned with various floral ornaments from her head to foot. 20. She moved about the flowers in the garb of the sylvan goddess and looking with her cerulean eyes of fluttering blue-bees on all sides; and sang to them in the sweet notes of the black kokila in the arbours.

21. The bees tired with their labour of love, refreshed themselves with sipping the dew-drops trickling on the tops of the flowers, and then making their repast on the farinaceous meal, slept together with their mates, in the cells of the flower cups. 22. The couples of bees dwelling in the cells of flowers, and giddy with sipping the honey of the flower cups; were humming their love tunes to one another. 23. The sage remained attentive for a moment to the murmur, proceeding from the village beyond the forest; and now he listened with pricked up ears, to the busy buzz of blue-bees and flies at a distance. 24. The sages then beheld with their down cast looks on moon-beams, which were spread like a sheet of fine linen on the blades of grass upon the ground below. 25. They beheld the beautiful antelopes, which slept in their leafy beds on the ground, below the stretching boughs of shady trees, as if they were the progeny of their native forest. 26. They saw the fearless birds chirping upon the branches, and others sleeping confident in their nests; and they beheld the ground covered by living creatures, feasting on the ripe fruits fallen below.

27. They saw the long lines of black-bees, lying mute on the ground like strings of beads, and blackening it with their sable bodies. 28. The forest was redolent with fragrance, and the sky was overhung by a cloud of flowers; the dust of Kadamba blossoms tinged the ground with ambergrees, and the Kadamba fruits covered the face of the land. 29. What need is there of saying more, than that there was no part of the tree, which was not useful to living beings. 30. Here the deer were sleeping on the fallen leaves and there were others resting on the barren ground; the birds sat on the banks and beaches of the rivulets all about that lofty tree. 31. As they were viewing in this manner the beauties of the forest, the night passed away as soon as a night of festivity. 32. The son of the hermit kept conversing with me on many subjects, and derived many useful instructions from my teaching. 33. As we had been conversing with one another on different subjects, the night passed away as soon as that of a conjugal pair. 34. Now it began to dawn, and the blushing flowers commenced to ope their petals; while the host of the stars on high, disappeared from their arena of the sky.

35. I then took my departure, and was followed by the hermit and his son to some distance from their Kadamba tree, where I left them for my aerial course to the heavenly stream. 36. There having performed my holy ablution, I came down under the vault of heaven, and then entered the celestial region of the sages, which is situated in the midway sky. 37. Now I have related to you, Ráma, this story of Dásúra, that you may learn from his instance the unreality of the apparent world, and as it is but a shadow of the ideal one (in the Divine mind). 38. It was for this reason, that I have given you the narrations of Dásúra, by way of explanation of the phenomenal world, as a shadow of the noumenal. 39. Now therefore know the Spirit like Dásúra, and imitate his example in the magnanimity of your soul. Forsake the unreal, and pursue the reality for your permanent delight. 40. Rub out the dirt of desire from your mind, and see the image of truth in it as in a mirror; you will thus attain to the highest state of knowledge, and be honoured in all worlds as a perfect being.

ON THE SOUL AND ITS INERTNESS. Argument. Consideration of the activity and inactivity of the Soul, and the Vanity of the Visibles. Vasishtha continued:—Knowing the world as a nihility, you must cease to take any delight in it; for what reasonable being is there in it that would delight in its unreality. 2. If you take the phenomenal world for a reality, you may continue to enslave yourself to the unreal material; and lose the spiritual nature of your soul. 3. Or if you know it to be a temporary existence, why then should you take any interest in what is so frail and unstable, rather than care for your immortal soul? 4. The world is no substantial existence, nor are you a being of its unsubstantiality; it is only a clear reflection of the divine mind, and extending over all infinity. (And which is refracted into all individual minds as in prismatic glasses). 5. The world is neither an agent itself, nor is it the act of any agent at all; it is simply the reflexion of the noumenal, without any agency of its own. 6. Whether the world is with or without an agent, or has a maker or not, yet you can not tell it as a real substance, except that it appears so to your mind.

7. The soul is devoid of all organs of action, and with all its activity, it remains motionless and without action, as anything that is inactive and immovable. 8. The world is the production of a fortuitous chance (Kákatáliya Sanyoga), and none but boys place any reliance in it. (The world here means our existence in it, which is an act of chance). 9. The world is neither stable nor fragile, but it is mutable from one state to another, as it is known by its repeated reproductions and visibility to us. 10. It is neither everlasting, nor is it a momenting thing; its constant mutability contradicts its firmness; and its nihility, (as stated before) is opposed to its temporarity. (The dictum of the Veda of the eternity of asat—nullity, nullifies its temporariness). 11. If the soul is the active power without its organs of action, it must be unfailing and entire; because the continuance of its inorganic operations can not weaken its powers. (i.e. The performance of bodily actions debilitates the body; but the immaterial mind is not impaired by its activity). 12. Therefore there is an irresistible destiny, which is absolutely overruling; it is existence and inexistence itself, it is sedate and continuous, and all visible perturbations are but false appearances.

13. The limit of a hundred years of human life, is but a very small portion of unlimited duration; it is therefore very astonishing that any one should be concerned with this small portion of his existence, here (in utter disregard of his eternal life). 14. Granting the durability of worldly affairs, yet they are not deserving of your reliance; for what faith can you rely on the union of two such opposites as the mind and matter? (The one being sensible and the other insensible, the one being infinite and imperishable, and the other a finite and frail substance). 15. But if the state of worldly things be unsteady and uncertain, it can not be deserving of your confidence. Say, can you be sorry at the dissolving of the foam and froth of the milk or water, then why should you lament at the loss of the perishable? (So said the Grecian philosopher: yesterday I saw a fragile breaking, and today I saw a mortal die). 16. Know, O strong armed Ráma! that reliance on the world, is the fetter of the soul to it; it does not behove any body to join the perishable and imperishable together like the water and its froth. (The one being lasting and the other a transient thing).

17. Although the soul is the agent (or source) of all actions, yet it remains as no agent at all; it is unconnected with its actions, as the lamp with its light. (The mind being the doer of actions and not the soul). 18. Doing all it does nothing, but like the sun directs the business of the day without doing anything by itself. It moves like the sun without moving from its place, but retains its station in its own orbit. (The sun is the causal agent of diurnal duties, but men are the active agents of their actions). 19. There is some other hidden cause guiding the course of the world, beside the soul and body; as there is an unknown cause of the course of the Aruna river, notwithstanding its being blocked by stones. 20. When you have known this for certain, O Ráma by your own proficience, and have well ascertained this truth by its clearest evidence:— 21. You ought no more to place any reliance on material things, which are as false as an ambient flame, or a vision in dream, or as any falsehood whatever.

22. As a stranger is not to be taken into your friendship, on his first appearance; so you must never trust or rely on anything of this world through your ignorance. 23. Never place your reliance on anything of this world, with that fond desire, as the heated man looks to the moon, the cold stricken to the sun, and the thirsty doth to the water in the mirage. 24. Do you look upon this ideal world (which is born of your brain), as you view a creature of your conception, a vision in your dream, or an apparition or the appearance of two moons in the sky, by your visual deception. 25. Shun your reliance on the fair creation of your imagination (the objects of sight &c.), and without minding what you are, conduct yourself cheerfully in your sphere. 26. Shun your desires and the thought of your agency, even when you are doing any thing at all. (The soul residing in the body, is yet aloof from all its acts, though its presence in the body, justifies its being accessary to if not the accomplice of them. (Gloss)).

27. It is a general law (niyati, or nature of things), that the propinquity of the cause, causes the act, even without the will of the actor; as the presence of the lamp, enlightens the room without the will of the lamp. (An involuntary action is no less the act of the actor than a voluntary one). 28. Look at the kurchi tree blooming and blossoming under the influence of heavy clouds, and not of its own accord. So it is destined for the three worlds to appear to sight, under the influence of the Supreme Being (though he may not will or ordain it so). (So also the presence of matter, effects the work by material laws, without the special behest or employment of the matter to the performance of same. Gloss). 29. As the appearance of the sun in the sky, employs all beings to their diurnal duties without his will or injunction, so the omnipresence of God causes the actions of all beings of their own spontaneity, and without his will, act or fiat. (This is called the overruling and universal destiny).

30. And as a bright gem reflects its light, without any will on its part; so the mere existence of the Deity, causes the existence of all worlds (as they are in attendance upon His presence). 31. Thus are causality and its want also both situated in your soul, which is thence called the cause of your actions, because of its presence in the body; and as no cause likewise owing to its want of will (which is the property of the mind; and not of the soul). 32. The entity of the soul being beyond the perception of sense, it is neither the agent nor recipient of any action; but being confined in the sensible body, it is thought to be both an active and passive agent. 33. Thus the properties both of causality and its want, reside in the soul; you may take it in any light, you may choose for your purpose, and rest content with your belief. 34. But by firmly believing yourself to be situated in the body, and your doing of actions without thinking yourself as their author, will save you from the culpability of all your acts.

35. The man that does not employ his mind to his actions, becomes indifferent (virága) to the world; and he is freed from it, who is certain of his being no agent of his actions. 36. Whether a man is fond of his enjoyments, or forsakes them in disgust; it is all the same to him, if he but think himself to be no actor of them. (Set not your mind to act, if you want to be set free in fact). 37. But if you wish to remain, Ráma, with your high ambition of doing every thing in the world, that is also good, and you may try to do the same. 38. But if I do not fall to so great an error, as to have this high aspiration of yours, I am never liable to the passions of anger and enmity, and other violent emotions in this world. 39. The bodies that we bear, are nourished by some and immolated by others: such being the state of our own being; we have no cause for our joy or sorrow in it.

40. Knowing ourselves to be the authors of our own happiness and misery, and as causes of the rise and dissolution of the world from our view, we have no reason to be joyous or sorry in it. 41. Then there is an end of the joys and sorrows of our own making, when we have that sweet composure, which is a balm to all the diseases in our soul. 42. Fellow feeling to all living beings, makes the best state of the mind; and the soul that is so disposed, is not subject to transmigration. 43. Or make this the best lesson, Ráma! for your conduct in life, that with all your activities, you continue to think yourself as no actor at all. (Because the belief of one’s agency, leads him to the fruition of this act in repeated births). 44. Remain quiet and steady as thou art, by resigning all things to themselves; and never think that it is thou that dost or undoest anything (which is destined to be so or otherwise by the Divine will). 45. But if you look to the different modes of your doing one thing or the other, you can have no rest or quiet, but must run in the way leading to the trap of perpetual toil and misery.

46. The belief of a man’s corporeality, that he is a destructible body, and no spiritual being, is to him but a bed of thorns; it must therefore be avoided by all means, in order to evade the danger of his imminent destruction. 47. Corporeality is to be shunned as a hell-hound feeding on canine meat; and after disappearance of the cloud of corporeity from view, the light of spirituality will appear before the sight. 48. The pure light of spirituality; presents the appearance of the bright moon-beams of holiness, after dispersion of clouds of corporeal desires; and it is by the help of this light, that the spiritualist is enabled to steer across the ocean of this world. 49. Do you, O Ráma, remain in that best and blessed state, wherein the wisest, best and holiest of men have found their rest; and it is the constant habit of thinking yourself as nothing nor doing anything; or that you are all things and doing every thing; as the Supreme soul knows itself to be; and that you are some person, having a personality of your own, and yet no body (i.e. not the body in which thou dost abide); but a spiritual and transcendent being.

NATURE OF VOLLEITY AND NOLLEITY. Argument. The bondage of volition causing our perdition, and the freedom of Nolition as leading to salvation. Ráma said:—Thy words, O Bráhman! are true and well spoken also. I find the soul to be the inactive agent of actions, and the impassive recipient of their effects, as also the spiritual cause of the corporeal. 2. I find the soul to be the sole lord of all, and ubiquitous in its course; it is of the nature of intelligence and of the form of transparency. It resides in all bodies, as the five elements compose the terraqueous bodies. 3. I now come to understand the nature of Brahma, and I am as pacified by thy speech, as the heated mountain is cooled by rain waters. 4. From its secludedness and nolleity, it neither does nor receives any thing; but its universal pervasion, makes it both the actor and sufferer. 5. But sir, there is a doubt too vivid and rankling in my mind, which I pray you to remove by your enlightened speech, as the moon-beams dispel the darkness of the night.

6. Tell me Sir, whence proceed these dualities, as the reality of one and the unreality of the other, and that this is I and this not myself. And if the soul is one and indivisible, how is this one thing and that another. 7. There being but one self-existent and self-evident soul from the beginning, how comes it to be subjected to these oppositions, as the bright disk of sun comes to be obscured under the clouds. 8. Vasishtha answered:—Ráma! I will give the right answer to this question of yours, as I come to the conclusion; and then you will learn the cause of these biplicities. 9. You will not be able, Ráma! to comprehend my answers to these queries of yours, until you come to be acquainted with my solution of the question of liberation. 10. As it is the adult youth only, who can appreciate the beauty of a love-song; so it is the holy man only, who can grasp the sense of my sayings on these abstruse subjects. 11. Sayings of such great importance, are as fruitless with ignorant people, as a work on erotic subjects is useless to children.

12. There is a time for the seasonableness of every subject to men, as it is the season of autumn which produces the harvest and not the vernal spring. 13. The preaching of a sermon is selectable to old men, as fine colourings are suitable to clean canvas; and so a spiritual discourse of deep sense, suits one who has known the Spirit. 14. I have ere while mentioned something, which may serve to answer your question, although you have not fully comprehended its meaning, to remove your present doubts. 15. When you shall come to know the Spirit in your own spirit, you will doubtlessly come to find the solution of your query by yourself. 16. I will fully expound to you the subject matter of your inquiry, at the conclusion of my argument; when you shall have arrived to a better knowledge of these things. 17. The spiritualist knows the spirit in his own spirit; and it is the good grace of the Supreme spirit, to manifest itself to the spirit of the spiritualist. 18. I have already related to you Ráma! the argument concerning the agency and inertness of the soul, yet it is your ignorance of this doctrine, that makes you foster your doubts.

19. The man bound to his desires is a bondsman, and one freed from them is said to be set free from his slavery; do you but cast away your desires, and you will have no cause to seek for your freedom (as you are then perfectly free yourself). 20. Forsake first your foul (támasi) desires, and then be freed from your desire of worldly possessions; foster your better wishes next, and at last incline to your pure and holy leanings. 21. After having conducted yourself with your pure desires, get rid of these even at the end; and then being freed from all desires, be inclined to and united with your intellect (i.e. knowing all and longing for nothing). 22. Then renounce your intellectual propensity, together with your mental and sensible proclivities; and lastly having reached to the state of staid tranquility, get rid of your mind also in order to set yourself free from all other desires. 23. Be an intellectual being, and continue to breathe your vital breath (as long as you live); but keep your imagination under controul, and take into no account the course of time, and the revolution of days and nights.

24. Forsake your desire for the objects of sense, and root out your sense of egoism, which is the root of desire. Let your understanding be calm and quiet, and you will be honoured by all. 25. Drive away all feelings and thoughts from your heart and mind; for he that is free from anxieties, is superior to all, (who labour under anxious thoughts and cares). 26. Let a man practice his hybernation or other sorts of intense devotion or not, he is reckoned to have obtained his liberation, whose elevated mind has lost its reliance on worldly things. 27. The man devoid of desires, has no need of his observance or avoidance of pious acts; the freedom of his mind from its dependence on anything, is sufficient for his liberation. 28. A man may have well studied the sástras, and discussed about them in mutual conversation; yet he is far from his perfection, without his perfect inappetency and taciturnity. 29. There are men who have examined every thing and roved in all parts of the world; yet there are few among them that have known the truth. 30. Of all things that are observed in the world, there is nothing among them which may be truly desirable, and is to be sought after by the wise.

31. All this ado of the world, and all the pursuits of men, tend only towards the supportance of the animal body; and there is nothing in it, leading to the edification of the rational soul. 32. Search all over this earth, in heaven above and in the infernal regions below; and you will find but few persons, who have known what is worth knowing. (The true nature of the soul and that of God, is unknown to all finite beings every where). 33. It is hard to have a wise man, whose mind is devoid of its firm reliance on the vanities of the world; and freed from its desire or disgust of something or others, as agreeable or disagreeable to its state. 34. A man may be lord of the world, or he may pierce through the clouds and pry in heaven (by his Yoga); yet he can not enjoy the solace of his soul without his knowledge of it. 35. I venerate those highminded men, who have bravely subdued their senses; it is from them that we can have the remedy to remove the curse of our repeated births. (It is by divine knowledge alone that we can avoid the doom of transmigration).

36. I see every place filled by the five elements, and a sixth is not to be seen any where in the world. Such being the case every where, what else can I expect to find in earth or heaven or in the regions below. 37. The wise man relying on his own reason and judgment, outsteps the abyss of this world, as easily as he leaps over a ditch; but he who has cast aside his reason, finds it as wide as the broad ocean. (The original word for the ditch is gospada—the cove of a cows hoof—a cul-de-sac). 38. The man of enlightened understanding, looks upon this globe of the earth, as the bulb of a Kadamba flower, round as an apple or a ball—teres atque rotundus; he neither gives nor receives nor wants of aught in this world. 39. Yet fie for the foolish that fight for this mite of the earth, and wage a warfare for destruction of millions of their fellow creatures. 40. What, if any one is to live and enjoy the blessings of this world for a whole Kalpa when, he can not escape the sorrow, consequent on the loss of all his friends during that period.

41. He who has known the self, has no craving for heavenly bliss within himself; because he knows his gain of all the three worlds, can never conduce to the strengthening of his soul. 42. But the avaricious are not content with all they have, and like the body of this earth, is not full with all its hills and mountains and surrounding seas. (The earth is never full with all its fullness). 43. There is nothing in this earth or in the upper and lower worlds, which is of any use to the sage acquainted with spiritual knowledge. 44. The mind of the self-knowing sage, is one vast expanse like the spacious firmament, it is tranquil and sedate and unconscious of itself. 45. It views the body as a net work of veins and arteries, pale and white as frost, and all cellular within. 46. It sees the mountains floating as froth, on the surface of the pellucid ocean of Brahma; it looks upon the intellect blazing as brightly as the sun, over the mirage of existence. 47. It finds the nature of the soul, to be as extensive as the vast ocean, containing the creations as its billows; and it considers the all-pervasive soul as a big cloud, raining down in showers of sástras or knowledge.

48. The fire, moon and the sun, appear as the fuel in a furnace, requiring to be lighted by the blaze of the intellect, as every opaque atom in nature. 49. All embodied souls of men, gods and demigods, rove in the wilderness of the world, for feeding upon their fodder of food, as the deer graze in their pasturage. 50. The world is a prison house, where every one is a prisoner with his toilsome body. The bones are the latches of this dungeon, the head is its roof, and the skin its leather; and the blood and flesh of the body, are as the drink and food of the imprisoned. 51. Men were as dolls covered with skin for the amusement of boys, and they are continually roving in quest of sustenance, like the cattle running towards their pasture grounds. 52. But the high minded man is not of this kind; he is not moved by worldly temptations, as the mountain is not to be shaken by the gentle breeze. 53. The truly great and wise man, rests in that highest state of eminence; where the stations of the sun and moon, are seen as the nether regions.

54. It is by the light of the Supreme Spirit, that all the worlds are lighted, and the minds of all are enlighted. But the ignorant are immerged in the ocean of ignorance, and nourish their bodies only in disregard of their souls. 55. No worldly good can allure the heart of the wise, who have tested the vanity of temporal things; and no earthly evil can obscure their souls, which are as bright as the clear sky which no cloud can darken. 56. No worldly pleasure can gladden the soul of the wise man, as the dance of monkeys can give no joy to the heart of Hara, that delights in the dancing of Gaurí. 57. No earthly delight can have its seat in the heart of the wise, as the sun-light is never reflected in a gem hidden under a bushel. 58. The material world appears as a solid rock to the stolid ignorant; but it seems as the evanescent wave to the wise. The ignorant take a great pleasure in the transitory enjoyments of the world; but the wise take them to no account, as the swan disdains to look upon the moss of the lake.

THE SONG OF KACHA. Argument. The Pantheistic views of the soul as the one in all, is shown in the song of Kacha. Vasishtha said:—On this subject I will tell you, Ráma! the holy song which was sung of old by Kacha, the son of Vrihaspati—the preceptor of the gods. 2. As this son of the divine tutor, resided in a grove in some part of the mount Meru (the Altain chain—the homestead of the gods); he found the tranquility of his spirit in the Supreme soul; by means of his holy devotion. 3. His mind being filled with the ambrosial draughts of divine knowledge, he derived no satisfaction at the sight of the visible world, composed of the five elemental bodies. 4. Being rapt in his mind with the vision of the Holy Spirit, he saw nothing else beside him, and then fervently uttered to himself in the following strain. 5. What is there for me to do or refuse or to receive or reject, and what place is there for me to resort or refrain from going to, when this whole is filled by the Divine Spirit (to pan), as by the water of the great deluge.

6. I find pleasure and pain inherent in the soul, and the sky and all its sides contained in the magnitude of the soul. Thus knowing all things to be full of the holy spirit, I forget and sink all my pains in my spirit. 7. The spirit is inside and outside of all bodies, it is above and below and on all sides of all. Here, there and every where is the same spirit, and there is no place where it is not. 8. The spirit abides every where and all things abide in the spirit; all things are self-same with the spirit, and I am situated in the same spirit. 9. There is nothing intelligent or insensible which is not the spirit, all is spirit and so am I also. The spirit fills the whole space and is situated in every place. 10. I am as full of that spirit and its ineffable bliss, as the all encompassing water of the great deluge. In this manner was Kacha musing in himself in the bower of the golden mountain. (The Altain chain is called the golden mountain for its abounding in gold mines).

11. He uttered the sound Om (on or amen), and it rang on all sides as the ringing of a bell; he first uttered a part of it the vocal part—o, and then the nasal—n, which tops it as a tuft of hair. He remained meditating on the spirit in his mind, not as situated in or without it (but as the all pervasive soul). 12. Thus Ráma! did Kacha continue to muse in himself and chant his holy hymn, being freed from the foulness of flesh, and rarefied in his spirit like the breath of the wind. His soul was as clear as the atmosphere in autumn, after dispersion of the dark clouds of the rainy season.

WORKS OF BRAHMÁ’S CREATION. Argument. Vanity of the World born of Brahmá’s conception. Its Disappearance and Liberation. Vasishtha continued:—There is nothing in this world except the gratification of the carnal appetites, and the pleasure of eating, drinking and concupiscence with the vulgar; but it is the lasting good of men, which is desired by the good and great. 2. The crooked and creeping beings and things, and beasts and wicked men and ignorant people only are gratified with carnal pleasures; they are all fond of everything conducing to their bodily enjoyments. 3. They are human asses, who dote on the beauty of female bodies, which are no better than lumps of flesh, blood and bones. 4. This may be desirable to dogs and devouring animals, but not to man (who is a rational and spiritual being). All animals have their fleshy bodies, as the trees have their trunks of wood, and the minerals their forms of earth. 5. There is the earth below and the sky above, and nothing that is extraordinary before us; the senses pursue the sensible objects, but human reason finds no relish in them. 6. The consciousness (or intuition) of men, leads them only to error; and true happiness, which is desired by all is situated beyond all sensible objects and gratifications.

7. The end of worldly pleasure is sorrow and misery, as the product of a flame is soot and blackness; and the functions of the mind and senses, are all fleeting having their rise and fall by turns. All enjoyments are short lived, owing to the fugacity of the objects, and the decay of the powers of our enjoying. 8. Prosperity fades away as plant encircled by a poisonous viper; and our consorts die away as soon as anything born of blood and flesh. (Fortune is fleeting and life a passing dream). 9. The delusion of love and lust, makes one body to embrace another, both of which are composed of impure flesh and blood. Such are the acts, O Ráma! that delight the ignorant. 10. Wise men take no delight in this unreal and unstable world, which is more poisonous than poison itself, by infecting them that have not even tasted the bitter gall. 11. Forsake therefore your desire of enjoyment, and seek to be united with your spiritual essence; because the thought of your materiality (or being a material body), has taken possession of your mind (and separated you from yourself and the spirit of God).

12. Whenever the thought of making the unreal world, rises in the mind of Brahmá the creator, he takes an unreal body upon him of his own will. 13. It becomes as bright as gold by his own light, and then he is called Virinchi (virincipiens) on account of his will; and Brahmá also for his being born of Brahmá. (He is represented as of red colour, as Adam is said to be made of red earth). 14. Ráma asked:—How does the world become a solid substance, from its having been of a visionary form in the spirit or mind of God? 15. Vasishtha replied:—When the lotus-born male (Brahmá), rose from his cradle of the Embryo of Brahmá, he uttered the name of Brahmá whence he was called Brahmá. (The word Brahm answers the Hebrew Brahum—create them, and corresponds with the Latin ficet—bhuya ভুযাৎ). 16. He then had the conception (Sankalpa) of the world in his own imagination, and the same assumed a visible and solid form by the power of his will, called the conceptional or conceived world. (Sankalpasrí). 17. He conceived at first luminous idea of light, which having assumed a visible form spread on all sides, as a creeping plant is outstretched all about in autumn. (Light was the first work of creation).

18. The rays of this light pierced all sides like threads of gold; they shone and spread themselves both above and below. 19. Concealed amidst this light, the lotus-born Hiranyagarbha, conceived in his mind a figure like his luminous form, and produced it as the four faced Brahmá. 20. Then the sun sprung forth from that light, and shone as a globe of gold amidst his world encircling beams. 21. He held the locks of his flaming hair on his head, which flashed as fire all around him; and filled the sphere of heaven with heat and light. 22. The most intelligent Brahmá, produced afterwards some other luminous forms from portions of that light, which proceeded from it like the waves of the ocean (and these are thence called the Maríchis or rays, who were the first patriarchs of other created beings). 23. These most potent and competent beings, were also possessed of their concepts and will, and they produced in a moment the figures as they thought of and willed. 24. They conceived the forms of various other beings also, which they produced one after the other, as they desired and willed. 25. Then did Brahmá bring to his recollection the eternal vedas and the many ceremonial rites, which he established as laws in his house of this world.

26. Having taken the gigantic body of Brahma, and the extensive form of the mind—manas, he produced the visible world as his own offspring—Santati. (Brahmá means brihat—great; and santate derived from the root tan. Latin—leoreo means continuation of race). 27. He stretched the seas and mountains, and made the trees and upper worlds. He raised the Meru on the surface of the earth, and all the forests and groves upon it. 28. It was he who ordained happiness and misery, birth and death and disease and decay; and he created the passions and feelings of living beings, under their threefold divisions of satva, rajas and tamas. 29. Whatever has been wrought by the hands (faculties) of the mind of Brahma before, the same continues to be still perceived by our deluded vision. 30. He gave the mind and laws to all beings, and makes the worlds anew as they are situated in his mind. 31. It is error, that has given rise to the erroneous conception of the eternity of the world, whereas it is the conception of the mind alone that creates the ideal forms. (The world is neither material nor substantial, but a conceptual and ideal creation of the mind).

32. The acts of all things in the world, are produced by their conception and wishes; and it is the concept or thought, that binds the gods also to their destiny. 33. The great Brahmá that was the source of the creation of the world, sits in the meditative mood, contemplating on all that he has made. 34. It was by a motion of the mind, that the wonderful form of the living principle was formed; and it was this that gave rise to the whole world, with all its changeful phenomena. 35. It made the gods Indra, Upendra and Mahendra and others, and also the hills and seas in all the worlds above and below us, and in the ten sides of the heaven above:— 36. Brahmá then thought in himself, “I have thus stretched out at large the net work of my desire, I will now cease from extending the objects of my desire any further”. 37. Being so determined, he ceased from the toil of his creation, and reflected on the eternal spirit in his own spirit. (According to the Sruti:—the spirit is to be reflected in the spirit).

38. By knowing the spirit, his mind was melted down by its effulgence, and reclined on it with that ease, as one finds in his soft sleep after long labour. 39. Being freed from his selfishness and egoism, he felt that perfect tranquility which the soul receives by resting in itself, and which likens the calmness of the sea by its subsidence in itself. 40. The Lord sometimes leaves off his meditation, as the reservoirs of water sometimes overflow their banks and boundaries. 41. He beholds the world as a vale of misery, with very little of happiness in it; and where the soul is fast bound to its alternate passions, and led by the changes of its hopes and fears. 42. He takes pity on the miserable condition of man, and with a view of their welfare, promulgates the sacred sástras and rites, which are full of meaning for their guidance. 43. He propounds the Vedas and their branches—the Vedángas, which are fraught with spiritual knowledge, and precepts of wisdom, and he revealed the Puránas and other sástras for the salvation of mankind. 44. Again the spirit of Brahmá reclined on the supreme spirit, and was relieved from its toil; and then remained as tranquil as the becalmed ocean, after its churning by the Mandara.

45. Brahmá having observed the efforts of mankind on earth, and prescribed to them the rules of their conduct, returned to himself, where he sat reclined on his lotus seat. 46. He remains some times entirely devoid of all his desires; and at others he takes upon him his cares for mankind from his great kindness to them. 47. He is neither simple in his nature, nor does he assume or reject his form in the states of his creation and cessation. He is no other than intelligence, which is neither present in nor absent from any place. 48. He is conversant with all states and properties of things, and is as full as the ocean without intermixture of any crude matter in him. 49. Sometimes he is quite devoid of all attributes and desires, and is only awakened from his inertness, by his own desire of doing good to his creatures. 50. I have thus expounded to you concerning the existence of Brahmá (Bráhmi Sthiti), and his real states of Sátwika, Vidhyanika and Suranikas creation. (The first is the creation of his intellectual nature, and the second that of his mind or will or mental form).

51. The intellectual creation is what rises of itself in the Spirit of Brahma, and the mental is the result of his mind and will. The first is the direct inspiration of Brahmá into the Spirit of Brahmá. 52. After creation of the material world by the rájasika nature of Brahmá, there rises the visible creation in the air by the will of the creator. (This is called the madhyanika, because it is the intermediate creation, between the elemental and animal creations). 53. In the next step of animal creation, some were born as gods (angels) and others as Yakshas—demigods, and this is called the suranika, because the suras or gods were created in it. 54. Every creature is born in the shape of its inherent nature, and then it is either elevated or degraded, according to the nature of its associations. It lays also the foundation of its future state of bondage to birth or liberation, by its acts, commenced in the present life.

55. In this manner, O Ráma! has the world come to existence. Its creation is evidently a work of labour, as it is brought to being by various acts of motion and exertion of the body and mind; and all these products of the god’s will, are sustained also by continuous force and effort on his part.

PRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS. Argument. Production of the bodies of Living Beings, according to the degrees of their Reason. Vasishtha continued:—O strong armed Ráma! after the great father of creation, he took himself to his activity, he formed and supported the worlds by his energy and might. 2. All living and departed souls, are tied like buckets by the rope of their desire, and made to rise and fall in this old well of the world, by the law of their predetermined destiny (or Fate that binds Siva or Jove himself). 3. All beings proceeding from Brahmá, and entering the prison house of the world, have to be concentrated into the body of the air-born Brahmá; as all the waters of the sea have to be whirled into the whirlpool in the midst of the sea. (All things were contained in and produced from Brahmá the Demiurge). 4. Others are continually springing from the mind of Brahmá, like sparks of fire struck out of a red-hot iron; while many are flying to it as their common centre. 5. Ráma! all lives are as the waves in the ocean of the everlasting spirit of Brahma; they rise and fall in him according to his will.

6. They enter into the atmospheric air, as the smoke rises and enters the clouds, and are at last mixed up together by the wind, in the spirit of Brahma. 7. They are then overtaken by the elementary particles, or atoms flying in the air, which lay hold on them in a few days; as the demons seize the host of gods with violence. (These become the living and embodied souls, joined with the many properties of the elements). 8. Then the air breathes the vital breath in these bodies; which infuses life and vigour in them. 9. Thus do living beings manifest themselves on earth, while there are other flyings in the form of smoke as living spirits. (So the spiritualists view the spirits in the etherial clouds). 10. Some of them appear in their subtle elemental forms in their airy cells in the sky, and shine as bright as the beams of the luminous moon. (These are lingadehas or individual spiritual bodies). 11. Then they fall upon the earth like the pale moonbeams falling upon the milky ocean. 12. There they alight as birds in the groves and forests, and become stiffened by sipping the juice of fruits and flowers.

13. Then losing their aerial and bright forms of the moon-beams, they settle on those fruits and flowers: and suck their juice like infants hanging upon the breasts of their mothers. (These are the protozoa, the first and embryonic state of living beings). 14. The protozoa are strengthened by drinking the juice of the fruits, which are ripened by the light and heat of the sun, and then they remain in a state of insensibility; until they enter the animal body. 15. The animated animalcules, remain in the womb with their undeveloped desires; in the same manner as the unopening leaves, are contained in the seed of the bata or Indian fig tree. 16. All lives are situated in the Great God, as fire is inherent in the wood, and the pot resides in the earth; and it is after many processes that they have their full development. 17. One that has received no bodily form, and yet moves on without manifesting itself, is said to be a satya or spiritual being, and has a large scope of action (as the gods). 18. He is said to have a sátvika birth, who gets his liberation in or after his life-time; but whoever is obliged to be reborn by his acts, is said to belong to the rájas-sátvika class.

19. Any one of this class who is born to rule over others, becomes giddy with pride (tamas), he is said to be of the nature of ignorance támasika, and I will now speak of this class of beings. 20. Those who are born originally with their sátwika nature, are pure in their conduct and have never to be born again. 21. Men of rája-sátwika temperament have to be reborn on earth; but being elevated by their reasoning powers, they have no more to be born in this nether world. 22. Those who have directly proceeded from the Supreme Spirit (without any intermixture of these natures), are men fraught with every quality, and are very rare on earth. 23. The various classes of támasa creatures of ignorance, are both insensible and speechless; and are of the nature of immovable vegetables and minerals, that need no description. 24. How many among the gods and men, have been reborn to the cares of the world, owing to the demerit of their past action; and I myself though fraught with knowledge and reason, am obliged to lead a life of the rájasa-sátwika kind (owing to my interference in society).

25. It is by your ignorance of the Supreme, that you behold the vast extension of the world; but by considering it rightly you will soon find all this to be but the One Unity. NOTES ON THE SURANIKA, SÁTWIKA &C. 1. The Vidhyanika; is the sphere of the eternal laws of God, presided over by Brahmá, who is thence styled the Vidhi or dispensator of the laws of the creation of the mundane system. 2. The Suranika; is the sphere of the Supernatural powers or the divine agencies, governing and regulating the management of created nature. This is the angelic sphere of deities. 3. Naráníka; is the sphere of human being, consisting also of the subordinate orders of beings, placed under the dominion of man. This is the sublunary sphere wherewith we are concerned. 4. The Sátwika; are righteous men, endued with the quality of goodness. 5. The Rájasika; is the body politic, guided by the laws of society. 6. The Támasika; is the ignorant rabble, and infatuated people.

ON BIRTH, DEATH AND EXISTENCE. Argument. The Liberation of the Rájasa-sátwika natures, and description of knowledge and Indifference. Vasishtha continued:—Those that are born with the nature of Rájasa-sátwika, remain highly pleased in the world, and are as gladsome in their faces, as the face of the sky with the serene light of the moon-beams. 2. Their faces are not darkened by melancholy, but are as bright as the face of heaven; they are never exposed to troubles, like the lotus flowers to the frost of night. 3. They never deviate from their even nature, but remain unmoved as the immovable bodies; and they persist in their course of beneficence, as the trees yield their fruits to all. 4. Ráma! the rája and sátva natured man, gets his liberation in the same manner, as the disk of the moon receives its ambrosial beams. 5. He never forsakes his mildness, even when he is in trouble; but remains as cool as the moon even in her eclipse. He shines with the lovely virtue of fellow-feeling to all. 6. Blessed are the righteous, who are always even tempered, gentle and as handsome as the forest trees, beset by creepers with clusters of their blossoms.

7. They keep in their bounds, as the sea remains within its boundaries, and are meek like yourself in their even tempers. Hence they never desire nor wish for any thing in the world. 8. You must always walk in the way of the godly, and not run to the sea of dangers; thus you should go on without pain or sorrow in your life. 9. Your soul will be as elevated as the rájasa and sátwika states, by your avoiding the ways of the ungodly, and considering well the teachings of the sástras. 10. Consider well in your mind the frail acts, which are attended with various evils; and do those acts which are good for the three worlds, both in their beginning and end, and forever to eternity. 11. The intelligent think that as dangerous to them, and not otherwise; by reason of their being freed from narrow views, and the false spectres—the offspring of ignorance. 12. You should always consider in yourself for the enlightenment of your understanding, and say: O Lord! what am I, and whence is this multiplicity of worlds? 13. By diligently considering these subjects in the society of the wise and righteous, you must neither be engaged in your ceremonial acts, nor continue in your unnecessary practices of the rituals.

14. You must look at the disjunction of all things in the world from you (i.e. the temporaneousness of worldly things); and seek to associate with the righteous, as the peacock yearns for the rainy clouds. 15. Our inward egoism, outward body and the external world, are the three seas encompassing us one after the other. It is right reasoning only which affords the raft to cross over them, and bring us under the light of truth. 16. By refraining to think of the beauty and firmness of your exterior form, you will come to perceive the internal light of your intellect hid under your egoism; as the thin and connecting thread is concealed under a string of pearls. (The hidden thread underlying the links of souls, is termed Sútrátmá.) 17. It is that eternally existent and infinitely extended blessed thread, which connects and stretches through all beings; and as the gems are strung to a string, so are all things linked together by the latent spirit of God. 18. The vacuous space of the Divine Intellect, contains the whole universe, as the vacuity of the air, contains the glorious sun; and as the hollow of the earth, contains an emmet.

19. As it is the same air which fills the cavity of every pot on earth, so it is the one and the same intellect and spirit of God, which fills, enlivens and sustains all bodies in every place. (The text says, “The Intellect knows no difference of bodies, but pervades alike in all”). 20. As the ideas of sweet and sour are the same in all men, so is the consciousness of the Intellect alike in all mankind (i.e. we are all equally conscious of our intellectuality, as we are of the sweetness and sourness of things). 21. There being but one and only one real substance in existence, it is a palpable error of your ignorant folks to say, “this one exists, and the other perishes or vanishes away”. (Nothing is born or extinct, but all exist in God. So is Malebranche’s opinion of seeing all things in God). 22. There is no such thing, Ráma, which being once produced, is resolved into naught at any time; all these are no realities nor unrealities, but representations or reflexions of the Real One.

23. Whatever is visible and of temporary existence, is without any perceptible substantiality of its own; it is only an object of our fallacy, beyond which it has no existence. (Hence they are no more than unrealities). 24. Why, O Ráma! should any body suffer himself to be deluded by these unrealities? All these accompaniments here, being no better than causes of our delusion. 25. The accompaniment of unrealities, tends only to our delusion here; and if they are taken for realities, to what good do they tend than to delude us the more. (It is better to let the unreal pass as unreal, than to take them for real, and be utterly deceived at last).

SPEECH OF THE DIVINE MESSENGER. Argument. Relation of the virtues of Ráma as dictated in the sástras, and of the advancement of others, by means of good company and self-exertion. The diligent and rationalistic inquirer after truth, has a natural aptitude to resort to the society of the sapient and good natured Guru, and discusses on matters of the sástras by the rules of the sástras he has learnt before and not talk at random. 2. It is thus by holding his argumentation on the abstruse science of yoga, with the good and great and unavaricious learned, that he can attain to true wisdom. 3. The man that is thus acquainted with the true sense of the Sástra, and qualified by his habit of dispassionateness in the society of holy men, shines like yourself as the model of intelligence. 4. Your liberal mindedness and self-reliance, combined with your cool-headedness and all other virtues, have set you above the reach of misery and all mental affliction; and also freed you from future transmigration, by your attainment of liberation in this life. 5. Verily have you become as the autumnal sky, cleared of its gloomy clouds; you are freed from worldly cares, and fraught with the best and highest wisdom.

6. He is truly liberated, whose mind is freed from the fluctuations of its thoughts, and the flights and fumes of its thickening fancies, and ever crowding particulars. (The ultimate generalization of particulars into unity, is reckoned the highest consummation of man). 7. Henceforward will all men on earth, try to imitate the noble disposition of the equanimity of your mind, which is devoid of its passions of love and hatred, as also of affection and enmity. 8. Those who conform with their customs of the country, and conduct themselves in the ordinary course of men in their outward demeanour, and cherish their inward sentiments in the close recesses of their bosoms, are reckoned as truly wise, and are sure to get over the ocean of the world on the floating raft of their wisdom. 9. The meek man who has a spirit of universal toleration like thine, is worthy of receiving the light of knowledge; and of understanding the import of my sayings. 10. Live as long as you have to live in this frail body of yours, and keep your passions and feelings under the sway of your reason; act according to the rules of society, and keep your desires under subjection.

11. Enjoy the perfect peace and tranquility of the righteous and wise, and avoid alike both the cunning of foxes and silly freaks of boys. 12. Men who imitate the purity of the manners and conduct of those, that are born with the property of goodness, acquire in process of time the purity of their lives also. (Men become virtuous by imitation of virtuous examples). 13. The man who is habituated in the practice of the manners, and the modes of life of another person, is soon changed to that mode of life, though it be of a different nature, or of another species of being. (Habit is second nature). 14. The practices of past lives accompany all mankind in their succeeding births, as their preordained destiny; and it is only by our vigorous efforts that we are enabled to avert our fates, in the manner of princes overcoming the hostile force, by greater might of their own. 15. It is by means of patience only, that one must redeem his good sense; and it is by patient industry alone, that one may be advanced to a higher birth from his low and mean condition.

16. It is by virtue of their good understanding, that the good have attained their better births in life; therefore employ yourself, O Ráma! to the polishing of your understanding. 17. The godfearing man is possessed of every good, and exerts his efforts for attainment of godliness; it is by means of manly efforts only, that men obtain the most precious blessings. 18. Those of the best kind on earth, long for their liberation in future, which also requires the exertion of devotion and meditation for its attainment. 19. There is nothing in this earth, below, or in the heaven of the celestials above, which is unattainable to the man of parts, by means of his manly efforts. 20. It is impossible for you to obtain the object of your desire, without the exercise of your patience and dispassionateness, and the exertion of your prowess and austerities of Brahmacharya. Nor is it possible to succeed in any without the right use of reason. 21. Try to know yourself, and do good to all creatures by your manliness; employ your good understanding to drive all your cares and sorrows away; and you will thus be liberated from all pain and sorrow.

22. O Ráma! that art fraught with all admirable qualities, and endued with the high power of reason; keep thyself steady in the acts of goodness, and never may the erroneous cares of this world betake thee in thy future life. YOGA VÁSISHTHA.

THE ÁHNIKA OR DAILY RITUAL. Argument. The Book on calm quiet and rest, necessarily follows those of Creation and sustentation; as the sleeping time of night succeeds the working time of the Day, and as the rest of God followed his work of Creation and supportance. Vasishtha said:—Hear me, Ráma, now propose to you the subject of quietude or rest, which follows that of Existence and sustentation of the universe; and the knowledge of which will lead you to nirvána or final extinction (as the evening rest, leads to sound sleep at night, and quietude is followed by quietus). 2. Válmíki says:—As Vasishtha was delivering his holy words, the assembly of the princes remained, as still as the starry train, in the clear sky of an autumnal night. 3. The listening princes looking in mute gaze, at the venerable sage amidst the assembly, resembled the unmoving lotuses looking at the luminous sun from their breathless beds. 4. The princesses in the harem forgot their joviality, at hearing the sermon of the sage; and their minds became as cool and quiet as in the long absence of their consorts.

5. The fanning damsels with flappers in their hands, remained as still as a flock of flapping geese resting on a lotus-bed; and the jingling of the gems and jewels on their arms, ceased like the chirping of birds on the trees at night. 6. The princes that heard these doctrines, sat reflecting on their hidden meanings, with their index fingers sticking to the tip of their noses in thoughtfulness; and others pondered on their deep sense, by laying the fingers on their lips. 7. The countenance of Ráma flushed like the blushing lotus in the morning, and it brightened by casting away its melancholy, as the sun shines by dispelling the darkness of night. 8. The king of kings—Dasaratha felt as delighted in hearing the lectures of Vasishtha, as the peacock is gladdened at the roaring of raining clouds. 9. Sarana the king’s minister removed his apish fickle mind from his state affairs, and applied it intensely to attend to the teachings of the sage. 10. Laxmana who was well versed in all learning, shone as a digit of the bright crescent moon, with the internal light of Vasishtha’s instructions, and the radiance of his Spiritual knowledge.

11. Satrughna the subduer of his enemies, was so full of delight in his heart at the teaching of the sage; that his face glowed with joy, like the full moon replete with all her digits. 12. The other good ministers, whose minds were absorbed in the cares of state affairs; were set at ease by the friendly admonition of the sage, and they glowed in their hearts like lotus-buds expanded by the sunbeams. 13. All the other chiefs and sages, that were present in that assembly, had the gems of their hearts purged of their dross by the preachings of Vasishtha; and their minds glowed with fervour from his impressive speech. 14. At this instant there rose the loud peal of conch shells, resembling the full swell of the sounding main, and the deep and deafening roar of summer clouds, filling the vault of the sky, and announcing the time of midday service. (The trisandhya services are performed at the rising, setting and vertical sun). 15. The loud uproar of the shells, drowned the feeble voice of the muni under it, as the high sounding roar of rainy clouds, puts down the notes of the sweet cuckoo. (It is said, the cuckoo ceases to sing in the rains. भद्रं कृतं कृतं मैनं कोकिलेः जलदागमे ।)

16. The muni stopped his breath and ceased to give utterance <to> his speech; because it is in vain to speak where it is not heeded or listened to. (The wise should hold their tongue, when it has lost its power to hold people by their ears). 17. Hearing the midday shout, the sage stopped for a moment, and then addressed to Ráma! after the hubbub was over and said:— 18. Ráma! I have thus far delivered to you my daily lecture for this day; I will resume it the next morning, and tell you all that I have to say on the subject. 19. It is ordained for the twice born classes to attend to the duties of their religion at midday; and therefore it does not behove us to swerve from discharging our noonday services at this time. 20. Rise therefore, O fortunate Ráma! and perform your sacred ablutions and divine services, which you are well acquainted with, and give your alms and charities also as they are ordained by law. 21. Saying so, the sage rose from his seat with the king and his courtiers, and resembled the sun and moon, rising from the eastern mountain with their train of stars.

22. Their rising made the whole assembly to rise after them, as a gentle breeze moves the bed of lotuses, with their nigrescent eyes of the black bees sitting upon them. 23. The assembled princes rose up with their crowned heads, and they marched with their long and massive arms like a body of big elephants of the Vindhyan hills with their lubberly legs. 24. The jewels on their persons rubbed against each other, by their pushing up and down in hurry, and displayed a blaze like that of the reddened clouds at the setting sun. 25. The jingling of the gems on the coronets, resembled the humming of bees; and the flashing rays of the crowns, spread the various colours of the rainbow around. 26. The beauties in the court hall resembling the tender creepers, and holding the chouri flappers like clusters of blossoms in their leaf-like palms, formed a forest of beauties about the elephantine forms of the brave princes. (It means the joint egress of a large number of damsels employed to fan the princes in the Court hall). 27. The hall was emblazoned with the rays of the blazing bracelets, and seemed as it was strewn over with the dust of mandára flowers, blown away by the winds.

28. There were crystal cisterns of pure water, mixed with ice and pulverized camphor; and the landscape around was whitened by the kusa grass and flowers of autumn. 29. The gems hanging down the head-dresses of the princes, cast a reddish colour over the hollow vault of the hall; and appeared as the evening twilight preceding the shade of night, which puts an end to the daily works of men. 30. The fair faces of the fairy damsels, were like lotuses floating on the watery lustre of the strings of pearls pendant upon them; and resembling the lines of bees fluttering about the lotuses; while the anklets at their feet, emitted a ringing sound as the humming of bees. 31. The large assemblage of the princes, rose up amidst the assembled crowds of men; and presented a scene never seen before by the admiring people. 32. The rulers of the earth bowed down lowly before their sovereign, and departed from his presence and the royal palace in large bodies; likening the waves of the sea, glistening as rainbows by the light of their gemming ornaments.

33. The chief minister Sumantra and others, that were best acquainted with royal etiquette, prostrated themselves before their king and the holy sage, and took their way towards the holy stream; for performance of their sacred ablutions. 34. The Rishis Vámadeva, Viswámitra and others, stood in the presence of Vasishtha; and waited for his leave to make their departure. 35. King Dasaratha honored the sages one by one, and then left them to attend to his own business. 36. The citizens returned to the city, and the foresters retired to their forests, the aerials flew in the air, and all went to their respective abodes for rejoining the assembly on the next morning. 37. The venerable Viswámitra, being besought by the king and Vasishtha, stayed and passed the night at the abode of the latter. 38. Then Vasishtha being honoured by all the princes, sages and the great Bráhmanas, and adored by Ráma and the other princes of king Dasaratha’s royal race:— 39. Proceeded to his hermitage, with the obeisance of the assembled crowd on all sides; and followed by a large train, as the god Brahmá is accompanied by bodies of the celestials.

40. He then gave leave to Ráma and his brother-princes, and to all his companions and followers, to return to their abodes from his hermitage in the woods. 41. He bade adieu to the aerial, earthly and the subterraneous beings, that kept company with him with their encomiums on his merits; and then entering his house, he performed his Bráhmanical rites with a duteous disposition.

RÁMA’S RECAPITULATION OF VASISHTHA’S LECTURES. Argument. Performance of Daily Rites, and Ráma’s Reflection of Vasishtha’s Teaching at night. Válmíki continued his relation to Bharadwája and said:—After the moon-bright princes had got to their residence, they discharged their daily services according to the diurnal ritual. 2. Even Vasishtha and the other saints, sages, and Bráhmans not excepting the king and the princes, were all engaged in their holy services at their own houses. 3. They bathed in the sacred streams and fountains, filled with floating bushes of lotuses and other aquatic plants, and frequented by the ruddy geese, cranes and storks on their border. 4. After they had performed their ablutions, they made donations of lands and kine, of seats and beddings and of sesamum grains, with gold and gems, and food and raiments to the holy Bráhmans. 5. They then worshipped the gods Vishnu and Siva in their temples, and made oblations to the sun and regents of the skies in their own houses, with offerings of gold and gems; which are sacred to particular deities and the planets. (Particular gems and metals are sacred to their presiding divinities).

6. After their offerings were over, they joined with their sons and grandsons, friends, and relatives, and their guests also, in partaking of their lawful food. (Unlawful food is hateful to the faithful). 7. Shortly after this, the daylight faded away at the eighth watch (yamárdha) of the day; and the charming scene of the city began to disappear from sight. 8. The people then employed themselves to their proper duties at the decline of the day, and betook to their evening service with the failing beams of the setting sun. 9. They recited their evening hymn (Sandhyá), repeated their japamantras, and uttered their prayer for the forgiveness of sins (agha marshana); they read aloud their hymns and sang their evening song of praise. 10. Then rose the shade of night to allay the sorrow of lovelorn damsels, as the moon arose from the milky ocean of the east, to cool the heat of the setting sun. 11. The princes of Raghu’s race then reclined on their downy and flowery beds, sprinkled over with handfuls of camphor powder, and appearing as a sheet of spreading moon-light.

12. The eyes of all men were folded in sleep, and they passed the live-long night as a short interval; but Ráma kept waking in his bed, meditating on all things he had heard from the sage. 13. Ráma continued to reflect on the lectures of Vasishtha, which appeared as charming to him, as the cry of the parent elephant, is gladsome to its tender young (karabha). 14. What means this wandering of ours, said he, in this world, and why is it that all these men and other animals, are bound to make their entrances and exits in this evanescent theatre? 15. What is the form of our mind and how is it to be governed? What is this illusion (Máyá) of the world, whence hath its rise and how is it to be avoided? 16. What is the good or evil of getting rid of this illusion, and how does it stretch over and overpower on the soul, or is made to leave it by any means in our power? 17. What does the muni say with regard to the means, and effect of curbing the appetites of the mind? What does he say regarding the restraining of our organs, and what about the tranquility of the soul?

18. Our hearts and minds, our living souls and their delusion, tend to stretch out the phenomenal world before us; and our very souls make a reality of the unreal existence. 19. All these things are linked together in our minds, and are weakened only by the weakening of our mental appetites. But how are these to be avoided in order to get rid of our misery. 20. The slender light of reason is over-shadowed, like a single crane in the air, by the dark cloud of passions and appetites; how am I then to distinguish the right from wrong, as the goose separates the milk from the water? 21. It is as hard to shun our appetites on the one hand, as it is impossible to avoid our troubles here, without the utter annihilation of our appetency. Here is the difficulty in both ways. 22. Again the mind is the leader to our spiritual knowledge on the one hand, and our seducer also to worldliness on the other. We know not which way to be led by it. The difficulty is as great as a man’s mounting on a mountain, or a child’s escaping from the fear of a yaksha.

23. All worldly turmoil is at an end, upon one’s attainment of true felicity; as the anxieties of a maiden are over, after she has obtained a husband. 24. When will my anxieties have their quietism, and when will my cares come to an end? When will my soul have its holiness, and my mind find its rest from acts of merit and demerit? 25. When shall I rest in that state of bliss, which is as cooling and complete in itself; as the full-moon with all her digits, and when shall I rove about the earth at large, free from worldly cares and ties? 26. When will my fancy stop from its flight, and concentrate into the inward soul? When will my mind be absorbed in the Supreme soul, like the turbulent wave subsiding in the breast of the quiet sea? 27. When shall I get over this wide ocean of the world, which is disturbed by the turbulent waves of our desires, and is full of the voracious crocodiles of our greedy avarice, and get rid of this feverish passion? 28. When shall I rest in that state of complete quiescence and unfeelingness of my mind, which is aimed at by the seekers of liberation, and the all-tolerant and indifferent philosopher.

(It is the sullen apathy of stoicism, which constitutes the true wisdom and happiness of asceticism also). 29. Ah! when will this continuous fever of my worldliness abate, which has irritated my whole body by its inward heat, and deranged my humours out of their order! 30. When will this heart of mine cease to throb from its cares, like the light of the lamp ceasing to flutter without the wind; and when will my understanding gain its light, after dispersion of the gloom of my ignorance. 31. When will these organs and members of my body, have their respite from their incessant functions; and when will this parched frame of mine get over the sea (flame?) of avarice, like the phœnix rising from its ashes. 32. When will the light of reason like the clear atmosphere of the autumnal sky, dispel this dark cloud of my ignorance, that envelopes my heavenly essence under the veil of this sorry and miserable form. 33. Our minds are filled with the weeds of the mandára plants of the garden of paradise (i.e. desiring the enjoyments of heaven). But my soul pants for its restitution in the Supreme spirit.

34. The dispassionate man is said to be set in the pure light of reason; it is therefore that passionless state of my mind which I long to attain. 35. But my restless mind has made me a prey to the dragon of despair, and I cry out in my sorrow, O my father and mother! help me to get out of this difficulty. 36. I exclaim also saying:—O my sister understanding! condescend to comply with the request of thy poor brother; and consider well the words of the wise sage for our deliverance from misery. 37. I call thee also, O my good sense to my aid, and beg of thee, O progeny of thy virtuous mother! to remain firm by my side, in my struggle of breaking the bonds of the world. 38. Let me first of all reflect on the sayings of the sage on Resignation (Vairágya), and then on the conduct of one who longs for his liberation, and next about the creation of the world, (in the Srishti Prakarana). 39. Let me remember afterwards all that he has said on the Existence of the universe (Sthiti Prakarana), together with its beautiful illustrations; all of which are replete with sound wisdom and deep philosophy.

40. Although a lesson may be repeated a hundred times over, it proves to be of no effect, unless it is considered with good understanding and right sense of its purport. Otherwise it is as the empty sound of autumn clouds without a drop of rain.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ROYAL ASSEMBLY. Argument. The Meeting of the next morning, and the concourse of attendants. Válmíki continued:—Ráma passed in this manner the live-long night, in his lengthened chain of reflection; and in eager expectation of dawn, as the lotus longs for the rising sun at day break. 2. Gradually the stars faded away at the appearance of aurora in the east, and the face of the sky was dimly pale, before it was washed over with the white of twilight. 3. The beating of the morning and the alarm of trumpets, roused Ráma from his reverie; and he rose with his moonlike face, blooming as the full-blown lotus in its leafy bed. 4. He performed his morning ablution and devotion, and joined with his brothers and a few attendants, in order to repair to the hermitage of the sage Vasishtha. 5. Having arrived there, they found the sage entranced in his meditation in his lonely solitude; and lowly bent down their heads before him from a respectful distance. 6. After making their obeisance, they waited on him in the compound, until the twilight of morning brought the day-light over the face of the sky.

7. The princes and chiefs, the saints, sages and Bráhmans, thronged in that hermitage, in the manner of the celestials meeting at the empyrean of Brahmá. 8. Now the abode of Vasishtha was full of people, and the crowds of the cars, horses and elephants waiting at the outside, made it equal to a royal palace in its grandeur. 9. After a while the sage rose from his deep meditation, and gave suitable receptions to the assembled throng that bowed down before him. 10. Then Vasishtha accompanied with Viswámitra, and followed by a long train of munis and other men, came out of the hermitage, and ascended and sat in a carriage, in the manner of the lotus-born Brahmá sitting on his lotus seat. 11. He arrived at the palace of Dasaratha, which was surrounded by a large army on all sides, and alighted there from his car, as when Brahmá descends from his highest heaven to the city of Indra, beset by the whole host of the celestials. 12. He entered the grand court hall of the king, and was saluted by the courtiers lowly bending down before him; as when the stately gander enters a bed of lotuses, amidst a body of aquatic birds (all staring at him).

13. The king also got up, and descended from his high throne; and then advanced three paces on barefoot to receive the venerable sage. 14. Then there entered a large concourse of chiefs and princes, with bodies of saints and sages and Bráhmans and hori, potri priests. 15. The minister Sumantra and others came next with the learned pandits Saumya and others; and then Ráma and his brothers followed them with the sons of royal ministers. 16. Next came the ministerial officers, the ministerial priests (hotripotris), and the principle citizens, with bodies of the Málava wrestlers and servants of all orders, and townsmen of different professions. 17. All these took their respective seats, and sat in the proper order of their ranks, and kept looking intently on the sage Vasishtha, with their uplifted heads and eyes. 18. The murmur of the assembly was hushed, and the recitation of the panegyrists was at a stop; the mutual greetings and conferences were at an end, and there ensued a still silence in the assembly. 19. The winds wafted the sweet fragrance from the cups of full blown lotuses; and scattered the dulcet dust of the filaments in the spacious hall.

20. The clusters of flowers hung about the hall, diffused their odours all around; and the whole court house seemed, as it were sprinkled over with perfumes of all sorts. 21. The queens and princesses sat at the windows, and upon their couches in the inner apartment, which was strewn over with flowers, and beheld the assemblage in the outer hall. 22. They saw everything by the light of the sun, which shed upon their open eyes through the net-work on the windows; and also by the radiance of the gems, which sparkled on their delicate persons. The attendant women remained silent, and without waving their fans and chouries (for fear of the sounding bracelets on their arms). 23. The earth was sown with orient pearls by the dawning sun-beams, and the ground was strewn over with flowers glistening at the sun-light. The lightsome locusts did not light upon them, thinking them to be sparks of fire, but kept hovering in the midway sky as a body of dark and moving cloud. 24. The respectable people sat in mute wonder, to hear the holy lectures of Vasishtha; because the agreeable advice, which is derived from the society of the good, is beyond all estimation.

25. The Siddhas, Vidyádharas, saints, Bráhmans and respectable men, gathered from all sides of the sky and forests, and from all cities and towns round about Vasishtha, and saluted him in silence, because deep veneration is naturally mute and wanting in words. 26. The sky was strewn over with the golden dust, borne by the fluttering bees from the cups of farinaceous lotuses; wherein they were enclosed at night; and the soft airs blew sonant with the tinkling sounds of ringing bells, hanging in strings on the door ways of houses. (The Gloss says: it is usual in Nepal and at Deccan, to suspend strings of small bells over the gate ways). 27. The morning breeze was now blowing with the fragrance of various flowers, and mixing with the perfume of the sandal paste; and making the bees fly and flutter on all sides, with their sweet humming music.

INQUIRIES OF RÁMA. Argument. Dasaratha’s Praise of Vasishtha’s speech, and Ráma’s Queries by behest of the sage. Válmíki continued:—Then king Dasaratha made this speech to the chief of sages, and spoke in a voice sounding as a deep cloud, and in words equally graceful as they were worthy of confidence. 2. Venerable sir, said he, your speech of yesterday bespeaks of your intellectual light, and your getting over all afflictions by your extremely emaciating austerities. 3. Your words of yesterday, have delighted us by their perspicacity and gracefulness, as by a shower of enlivening ambrosia. 4. The pure words of the wise, are as cooling and edifying of the inward soul; as the clear and nectarious moon-beams, serve both to cool and dispel the gloom of the earth. 5. The good sayings of the great, afford the highest joy resulting from their imparting a knowledge of the Supreme, and by their dispelling the gloom of ignorance all at once. 6. The knowledge of the inestimable gem of our soul, is the best light that we can have in this world; and the learned man is as a tree beset by the creepers of reason and good sense.

7. The sayings of the wise serve to purge away our improper desires and doings, as the moon-beams dispel the thick gloom of night. 8. Your sayings, O sage, serve to lessen our desires and avarice which enchain us to this world, as the autumnal winds diminish the black clouds in the sky. 9. Your lectures have made us perceive the pure soul in its clear light, as the eye-salve of antimony (collyrium antigoni nigrum); makes the born-blind man to see the pure gold with his eyes. 10. The mist of worldly desires, which has overspread the atmosphere of our minds, is now beginning to disperse by the autumnal breeze of your sayings. 11. Your sayings of sound wisdom, O great sage! have poured a flood of pure delight into our souls, as the breezy waves of nectarious water, or the breath of mandára flowers infuse into the heart. 12. O my Ráma! those days are truly lightsome, that you spend in your attendance on the wise; otherwise the rest of the days of one’s life time, are indeed darksome and dismal. 13. O my lotus-eyed Ráma! propose now what more you have to know about the imperishable soul, as the sage is favourably disposed to communicate everything to you.

14. After the king had ended his speech, the venerable and high-minded sage Vasishtha, who was seated before Ráma, addressed him saying:— 15. Vasishtha said:—O Ráma—the moon of your race, do you remember all that I have told you ere this, and have you reflected on the sense of my sayings from first to the last. 16. Do you recollect, O victor of your enemies? the subject of creation, and its division into the triple nature of goodness &c.; and their subdivision into various kinds? 17. Do you remember what I said regarding the One in all, and not as the all, and the One Reality ever appearing as unreality; and do you retain in your mind the nature and form of the Supreme Spirit, that I have expounded to you? 18. Do you, O righteous Ráma, that art deserving of every praise, bear in your mind, how this world came to appear from the Lord God of all? 19. Do you fully retain in your memory the nature of illusion, and how it is destroyed by the efforts of the understanding; and how the Infinite and Eternal appears as finite and temporal as space and time? (These though infinite appear limited to us).

20. Do you, O blessed Ráma! keep in your mind, that man is no other than his mind, as I have explained to you by its proper definition and arguments? 21. Have you, Ráma! considered well the meanings of my words, and did you reflect at night the reasonings of yesterday in your mind? (As it behoves us to reflect at night on the lessons of the day). 22. It is by repeated reflection in the mind, and having by heart what you have learnt, that you derive the benefit of your learning, and not by your laying aside of the same in negligence. 23. You are then only the proper receptacle of a rational discourse and a holy sermon, when you retain them like brilliant pearls in the chest of your capacious and reasoning breast. 24. Válmíki said:—Ráma being thus addressed by the sage—the valiant progeny of the lotus-seated Brahmá, found his time to answer him in the following manner. (Vasishtha’s valour is described in his services to king Sudása). 25. Ráma replied:—You Sir, who are acquainted with all sástras and creeds have expounded to me, the sacred truths, and I have, O noble Sir, fully comprehended their purport.

26. I have deposited every thing verbatim that you said in the casket of my heart, and have well considered the meaning of your words during the stillness of my sleepless nights. 27. Your words like sun-beams dispel the darkness of the world, and your radiant words of yesterday, delighted me like the rays of the rising sun. 28. O great sir, I have carefully preserved the substance of all your past lectures in my mind, as one preserves the most valuable and brilliant gems in a casket. 29. What accomplished man is there, that will not bear on his head the blessings of admonitions, which are so very pure and holy, and so very charming and delightful at the same time? 30. We have shaken off the dark veil of the ignorance of this world, and have become as enlightened by your favor, as the days in autumn after dispersion of rainy clouds. 31. Your instructions are sweet and graceful in the first place (by the elegance of their style); they are edifying in the midst (by their good doctrines); and they are sacred by the holiness they confer at the end.

32. Your flowery speech is ever delightsome to us, by the quality of its blooming and unfading beauty, and by virtue of its conferring our lasting good to us. 33. O sir, that are learned in all sástras, that art the channel of the holy waters of divine knowledge, that art firm in thy protracted vows of purity, do thou expurgate us of the dross of our manifold sins by your purifying lectures.