Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

33. You can easily obtain the delight you seek, if you will but betake yourself to the service of holy man; and keep company with the tolerant and wise souls, arguing with them on spiritual subjects. 34. Or you may continue to remain in your grotto, in this forest living on the simple food of holy men; and by forsaking the evil propensities of your mind, abide here as an insect in a hole under the ground. 35. Vasishtha related: - Being thus awakened to sense by his wife - the Divine boy - Sikhidhwaja, melted into tears; and with his face bathed in water, spoke to the lad as follows: - 36. Sikhidhwaja said: - O Divine child! it is after a long time, that I am awakened by thee to my senses; and I perceive now that it was my weak-headedness, which drove me from the society of respectable to this lonely forest. 37. Ah! I find now that my mind is purged to-day of its endless sins, which has brought thee to my presence here, and remonstrate with me on my past misconduct. 38. O beauteous boy! I deem thee henceforward as my monitor and father and my best friend forever, and acknowledge myself as thy pupil; wherefore I bow down at thy feet and pray thee to take piety on me.

39. Please admonish me now on the subject of Divine knowledge, as you are best acquainted with it; and whereby I may be freed from all my sorrows, and be settled with perfect peace and bliss of my mind. 40. You said at first, that knowledge is the supreme bliss or summum bonum of mankind; now tell me, which is that knowledge which saves us from misery; whether it is the knowledge of particulars which lead us to the acquaintance of specials, or that of the general which brings us to the transcendental. (The former is the inductive knowledge of ascending from particulars to the universal, and the latter is deductive knowledge of deducing everything from the primitive one). 41. Chúdálá replied: - I will tell thee prince as far as I know about it, and what may be best acceptable to thee; and not throw away my words in vain, like crowing ravens about a headless trunk. 42. Because the words that are uttered to the impertinent questions of a person and not heeded by him, are thrown in vain; and become as useless to him, as her eye sight in the dark.

43. Sikhidhwaja said: - Sir, your words are as acceptable to me as the ordinances of veda (gospel truth); and though you utter them without previous meditation (extempore), yet I have full faith in them. 44. Chúdálá replied: - As a boy obeys the words of his father, knowing it to be pronounced for his certain good; so must you receive my words (knowing them to tend to your best welfare). 45. Think my advices to be all good for you, after you hear them with proper attention; and hear unto my words, as you hear music without inquiring into their reason or rhyme. 46. Hear me now relate to you an interesting story of a certain person, whose conduct and character resembled in every way to thine; and who was brought back to his sense after his long aberration. This is a tale to dispel the worldly cares and fears of the intelligent.

THE TALE OF THE CRYSTAL GEM. Argument: - The slipping of a precious stone in ignorance, and picking of a glossy glass in view of it. Chúdálá related: - There lived once a rich man, combined with opposite qualities (of charity and penury) in his character; as the sea contains the water and the submarine fire in its depth. 2. He was as skilled in arts, as he was practiced in arms; and was trained up in all dealings, as he was expert in business. But his great ambition in all his pursuits, kept him from the knowledge of the most high. (His excess of worldliness, was a preventive to spiritual knowledge). 3. He employed all his endeavours to obtain the imaginary gem of the philosopher's stone chintámani (by means of his pujas and prayers and other sacred rites); as the submarine fire wants to devour the waters, and dries up the bed of the sea. 4. His great avidity and persevering patience, succeeded after a lapse of a long time to obtain the precious gem at last; because there is nothing which may not be effected by the ardent zeal of man. (Omnia vincit labor).

5. He succeeded in his attempts by his unwearied labour, joined with his firm resolution and well directed plan; as the meanest man is favoured with a fortune, by his employment of these means. (Fortune crowns all strenuous efforts with success). 6. He saw the stone as lying before him, and ready to be grasped in his hand; as a hermit sitting on the peak of a mountain, thinks the rising moon as easy to be grasped by his hand. (Too ardent desire presents the shadow of the object to one's view). 7. He saw the brilliant gem before him, but became mistrustful of his sight and the reality of the object before it; as a poor man hearing of his sudden elevation to royalty, mistrusts the report and doubts its being meant for him. 8. He was then immerged in himself to think with amazement for a long time, he overlooked and neglected to lay hold on his great gain, and kept dubitating in his mind in the following manner. 9. Whether this stone is gem or not, and if so, whether it be the philosopher's stone or any other; shall I touch it or not, for I fear lest it fly away from my touch or be soiled by it.

10. No one hath until this time obtained the long sought philosopher's stone, and if ever it was obtained by any one, it was, says the sastra, in his next life. 11. It is no doubt that my miserliness only, that makes me view aslant this brilliant gem before me with my eyes; as a purblind man sees a flashing fire-brand and deep-laid moon in the sky. 12. How could the tide of my fortune run so high at once, that I should succeed so soon to obtain the precious stone, that is the pink and acme of perfection and productive of all treasure. 13. There must be few and very few indeed of those fortunate men, who can expect their good fortune to court and wait on them; at a little pains in a short time. 14. I am but a poor and honest man, and one possest of very little qualification nor of any worth and account among mankind; and it is impossible that so miserable a wretch, could ever be blessed with this masterpiece of perfection.

15. The incredulous man hung for a long time in a state of suspense, between his certainty and uncertainty; and was infatuated by his mental blindness, that he did not even stretch out his hand to lay hold on the jewel lying open before him. 16. Hence whatever is obtainable by anyone at any time, is often missed and lost sight of by either his ignorance or negligence of it; as the precious gem in the parable, which was proffered and lay palpable in full view. 17. As the undetermined man hung in the balance of his suspicion, the precious gem flew away and vanished from his sight; as the merited man avoids his slighter, and as the shaft flies from its string or the stone from its sling. (Fly from the fool as the arrow flies from the bow-string). 18. When prosperity appears to one, she confers on him her blessings of wisdom and prudence &c.; but as she forsakes her foolish votary, she deprives him of all his discretion. (Such is the case with this once wise and afterwards foolish devotee of prosperity). 19. The man tried again to invoke and recall the precious gem to his presence, because the persevering spirit is never tired to try again and again for his expected success.

20. He came to behold before him a brittle piece of glass, shining with its false glare as the former gem; and this was placed in his presence by the invisible hands of the siddha that had come to tempt him and deride his folly. 21. The fool thought this brittle thing to be the real gem now lying before him, as the ignorant sot believes the sparkling sands to be the dusts of the purest gold. 22. Such is the case with the deluded mind, that it mistakes the eight for six and a foe for a friend; it sees the serpent in the rope and views the desert land as the watery expanse, it drinks the poison for the nectar and spies another moon in the sky in the reflexion of the true one. 23. He took up that sham trumpery for a real gem, and thought it as the philosopher's stone that would confer on him whatever he desired; with this belief he gave up in charity all he had, as they were no more of any use to him.

24. He thought his country to be devoid of all that was delightsome to him and its people as debasing to his society; he thought his lost house was of no use to him, and his relatives and friends to be averse to his happiness. 25. Thus thinking in his mind, he determined to remove himself to a distant country and enjoy his rest there; and then taking his false gem with him, he went out and entered an uninhabited forest. 26. There his deceptive gem proving of no use to him loaded him all imaginable calamities, likening to the gloomy shadow of the black mountain and the horrid gloom of deep ignorance. 27. The affections which are brought to one by his own ignorance, are by far greater than those which are caused by his old age and the torments of death. The calamity of ignorance supercedes all other earthly affections, as the black hairs rise on the top of the body and cover the crown of the head.

THE PARABLE OF AN ELEPHANT. Argument: - Freedom of the Incarcerated Elephant; and his falling again into the Pit. Chúdálá said: - Hear O holy hermit! another very interesting story of mine, which well applies to your case; as the ruler of a land and to serve to awaken your understandings: (from its present theory). 2. There lived a large elephant in the Vindhya mountains, which was the head and leader of a great number of elephants; and had as clear an understanding in its big and elevated head, as the lofty summit of the mountain was humbled down at the bidding of Agastya - the sage. (Agastya is recorded as the first Aryan emigrant, who crossed the Vindhya and settled in southern India, and civilized the wild mountainous and rude people of Deccan by his wise law and instructions). 3. His two tusks were as strong as the thunderbolts of heaven, and as long and stunning as the far reaching flashes of lightning; they were as destructive as the flames of final desolation (kalpánta), and as piercing as to bore and uproot a mountain.

4. He came to be caught by an iron trap laid by elephant catchers in his way, and was fast held in it as the Vindhya by the Muni's charm; and as the giant Bali was bound in the chains of India. (Vindhya and its people were spell bound by the Agastya sage). 5. The captive and patient elephant was tormented by the iron goad in his proboscis, and suffered the excruciating pains of his torture; like the Tripura giant under the burning fire of Hara. (Siva is called Tripura-hara for his quelling that giant by his fire arms). 6. The elephant lay in this sad plight in the net for three days together, and was thus watched over by his hunter for a distance. (See the paper of elephant catching in the Asiatic Researches). 7. The great suffering of the elephant made him open his mouth widely, and utter a loud scream that growled about like the loud noise of roaring clouds. 8. Then he exerted the force of both his tusks, and succeeded thereby to break asunder the iron bar; as the Titan of old, broke open the bolts at the gate of heaven.

9. The hunter saw the breaking of his hard fetters by the infuriate beast from a distance, as Hara beheld the breaking of the demon Bali (Belos) from his subterranean cell beneath the mountain, in order to invade his heaven on high. 10. The elephant catcher then mounted a tall tála (palm) tree, and leaped from its top in order to fall down on its head; but haplessly he fell down on the ground, as the demon was hurled down to hell by victorious Hara. 11. The hunter missed the head of the huge animal, and fell headlong upon his legs on the ground; as a ripe fruit, is dropped down by the hurrying winds. 12. The great elephant took pity in seeing him falling, and lying prostrate before him; as the mind of the noble, is compassionate on others even in their own piteous state. 13. The noble animal thought in his mind, that it was no valour on his part to trample over the self-fallen; and had thus the magnanimity of sparing the life of his own enemy. 14. He broke only the chains in two pieces, and took his way before him; leaving away all obstacles and barriers, as the rushing waters bear down the strongest bridge.

15. His strength broke the strong net, but his piety spared the life of the weak man; he went off as the sun sets, after dispelling the evening clouds. 16. The hunter rose up from the ground after he saw the elephant had gone away; and he found himself to be as same and sound after his fall as he had been before it; and as the elephant was relieved from his pains, after his liberation from the chains. 17. Notwithstanding with great shock which the man had felt by his fall from the tall palm tree, he felt no hurt with any part of his body; whence I ween, the bodies of scoundrels are fortified against every harm. 18. The wicked gain greater strength by execution of their repeated crimes, as the rainy clouds gather the more by their frequent showers. Thus the hunter went after his fresh excursion. 19. The elephant catcher felt very sorry, at the escape of the elephant and unsuccessfulness of his attempt; as one in dejected mind, is to lose a treasure that has fallen into his hand.

20. He sought about and beat the forest, to find out the hiding elephant amidst the thickets; as the ascending node of Rahu rises in the sky, to lay hold on the moon covered under the clouds. 21. After a long search, he came in sight of the elephant halting under a tree; as when a warrior returns from the battlefield, and breathes the air under a shady arbour. 22. The cunning huntsman collected a great many tools, capable to entrap the elephant at his resting place. 23. He dug a circular ditch round about that place in the forest, as the great creator of the world had stretched the ocean encircling this earth. 24. He then covered the great pit, with green branches and soft leaves of trees; as the season of autumn covers the face of the empty sky with fleecy and flimsy clouds. 25. The elephant roaming at large in the forest, happened to fall down into the pit one day; as the fragment of a rock on the coast, falls headlong on the dried bed of the sea.

26. The big elephant was thus caught in the circular pit, which was as deep as the dreadful depth of the sea; and lay confined in it, as some treasure is shut up in the hollow womb of a chest. 27. Being thus confined at the bottom of that far extending pit, still passes his time in endless trouble and anxiety; like the demon Bali in his dark cave under the grounds. 28. This is the effect of the silly elephant, letting unhurt his cruel hunter who had fallen ere long before him; or else he would not be thus pent up in the pit, if he made an end of him in time. 29. Hence all foolish people that had not foresight to prevent their future mishaps, and provide against their coming mischances by their precautions at present, are surely to be exposed like the calamity as the vindhyan elephant. (Hence all unforeseeing men are designated as gaja murkha or elephantine fools). 30. The elephant was glad with the thought of his freedom from the hunter's chains, and thought no more of any future mishap; which was the sole cause of his being by another mischance, which lay at a long distance from him.

31. Know, O great soul! that there is no bondage of man except his own ignorance; and the jail prisoners are not under such thraldom, as the intellectual servitude of freemen under their errors and prejudice. The enlightenment of the soul and the knowledge of the cosmos as one universal soul, is the greatest freedom of man; while the ignorance of this truth, is the root of the slavery of mankind to the errors of this world.

WAY TO OBTAIN THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. Argument: - Chúdálá's Interpretation of the Parable of the Precious stone and the Glassy Gewgaw. Sikhidhwaja said: - Please explain unto me, O Divine boy! the purport of the parables of the true and false gems; and the unfettered and pent up elephant, which you have spoken before to me. 2. Chúdálá replied: - Hear me now expound to you the meaning of my stories, and the purport of the words and their senses; which I have stored in your heart and mind, for the enlightenment of your understanding. 3. That searcher after the philosopher's stone, was undoubtedly acquainted with science, but had no knowledge of the truth (tatwajnána); he searched the gem but knew not what it was, and the same man is thyself. 4. You are versed in the sciences as he, and shinest above others as the shining sun on the mountain tops; but you have not that rest and quiet, which is derived from the knowledge of truth; and are immerged in your errors, as a block of stone in the water.

5. Know O holy man! that it is relinquishing of errors, which is said to be the philosopher's stone (because they are the only men that have set themselves above the reach of error). Try to get that O holy man! in your possession, and set yourself thereby above the reach of misery. 6. It is the relinquishment of gross objects, that produces the pure joy of holiness; it is the abandonment of the world, that gives one the sovereignty over his soul, and which is reckoned as the true philosopher's stone. 7. Abandonment of all is the highest perfection, which you must practice betimes; because it is contemning of worldly grandeur, that shows the greatest magnanimity of the soul. 8. You have O prince! forsaken your princedom together with your princess, riches, relatives and friends, and have rested in your resignation; as Brahmá the lord of creatures, rested at the night of cessation of the act of his creation. 9. You have come out too far from your country, to this distant hermitage of mine; as the bird of heaven the great Garuda lighted with his prey of the tortoise, on the farthest mount of the earth. (The legend of Gaja-kachchhapa borne by Garuda, is narrated at length in the Purána).

10. You have relinquished your egotism, with your abandonment of all worldly goods; and you purged your nature from every stain, as autumnal winds disperse the clouds from the sky. 11. Know that it is only by driving away the egoism of the mind as well as all desires from the heart, that one gets his perfection and has the fulness of the world or perfect bliss in himself. But you have been labouring under the ignorance of what is to be abandoned and what is to be retained, as the sky labours under the clouds. (It is not the abandonment of the world, but the greedy desires of the mind, that is attended with true felicity). 12. It is not your abandonment of the world, which can give you that highest felicity the summum bonum that you seek; it is something else that must be yet sought after by you. (True happiness is a thing of heavenly growth, and is to be obtained by the grace of God only). 13. When the mind is overflown by its thoughts, and the heart is corroded by the canker of its desire; all its resignation flies from it, as the stillness of a forest flies before the tempest.

14. Of what avail is the abandonment of the world to one, whose mind is ever infested by his troublesome thoughts; it is impossible for a tree to be at rest, that is exposed to the tempests of the sky. (Inward passions disturb the breast, as tempests rend the sky). 15. The thoughts constitute the mind, which is but another name for will or desire; and so long as these are found to be raging in one, it is in vain to talk of the subjection of the mind. 16. The mind being occupied by its busy thoughts, finds the three worlds to present themselves before it in an instant; of what avail therefore is the abandonment of this world to one, when the infinite worlds of the universe are present before his mind. 17. Resignation flies on its swift pinions, soon as it sees a desire to be entertained in it; as a bird puts on its wings, no sooner it hears a noise below. 18. It is insouciance and want of care, which is the main object of the abandonment of the world; but when you allow a care to rankle in your breast, you bid a fair adieu to your resignation; as one bid farewell to his honoured and invited guest.

19. After you have let slip the precious gem of resignation from your hand, you have chosen the false glossy gewgaw of austerity for some fond wish in your view. (All outward observances of rites and austerities proceed from some favourite object fostered in the mind, while the pure bliss of holiness is obtained from the purity of the heart only, and without any need of outward acts). 20. I see thy mind is fixed in wilful pains of thy austerities, as the sight of a deluded man is settled on the reflexion of the moon in the waters (from his error of its being the true moon). 21. Forsaking the indifference of your mind, you have become a follower of the prurience of your heart; and chosen for yourself the mortification of an anchorite, which is full of from its first to last. 22. He who forsakes the easy task of his devotion to God, which is fraught with infinite bliss; and betakes himself to the difficult duties of painful austerity, is said to make a suicide of his own soul. (The sruti calls them self-suicides (átmaghanojánah); who neglect the felicity of their souls).

23. You betook yourself to the vow of self-resignation, by your relinquishment of all earthly possessions; but instead of observing the forbearance of resignation, you are bound to the painful austerities of your asceticism in this dreary wilderness. 24. You broke the bonds of your princedom, and decamped from the bounds of your realm thinking them as too painful to you; but say are you not constrained here to the faster and far more irksome toils of your asceticism, and the unbearable chains of its rigid incarceration. 25. I think you are involved in much more care to defend yourself from heat and cold in the defenceless forest, and have come to find yourself to be more fast bound to your rigours than you had any idea of this before. 26. You thought in vain to have obtained the philosopher's stone before, but must have come to find at last; that your gain is not worth even a grain of glassy bauble. 27. Now sir, I have given you a full interpretation of the avidity of a man to pocket the invaluable gem; you have no doubt comprehended its right meaning in your mind, and will now store its purport in the casket of your breast.

INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE ELEPHANT. Argument: - Ignorance which is the cause of worldly desire, flies with loss of wishes. Chúdálá continued: - Hear me, O great prince! now explain to you the meaning of the story of the Vindhyan elephant, which will be as useful as it will appear wonderful to you. 2. That elephant of the vindhyan range, is thy very self in this forest; and his two strong tusks are no other than the two virtues of reasoning and resignation, on which you lay your strength. (Viveka and vairágya i.e. reason and resignation are the most potent arms of men). 3. The hunter that was the enemy of the elephant and waylaid him in his free rambles, is the personification of that great ignorance, which hath laid hold of thee for thy misery only. 4. Even the strong is foiled by weak, and lead from one danger to another and from woe to woe; as the strong elephant was led to by the weak huntsman, and as you O mighty prince! are exposed by your imbecile ignorance in this forest. 5. As the mighty elephant was caught in the strong iron chain, so are you held fast in the snare of your desire (of a future reward); which has brought all this calamity on you.

6. The expectation of man is the iron chain, that is stronger and harder and more durable than the other; the iron rusts and wastes away in time, but our expectations rise high and hold us faster. 7. As it was in the hostility of the huntsman, that he marked the elephant by his remaining unseen in his hiding place, so thy ignorance which lurks after thee, marks thee for his prey from a distance. 8. As the elephant broke the bonds of the iron chains of his enemy, so have you broken asunder the ties of your peaceful reign and the bonds of your royalty and enjoyments. 9. It is sometimes possible, O pious prince! to break down the bonds of iron fetters; but is impossible, O holy prince, to put a stop to our growing desires and fond expectations. 10. As the huntsman that had caught the elephant in the trap, fell down himself from on high to the ground; so was thy ignorance also levelled to the ground, seeing thee deprived of thy royalty and all thy former dignity. (The pride and ignorance of a man sinks down with his misfortune).

11. When the man who is disgusted with the world, wants to relinquish his desire of enjoyment, he makes his ignorance tremble in himself, as the demon that dwells on a tree, quakes with fear when the tree is felled. 12. When the self-resigned man, remains devoid of his desire for temporal enjoyments; he bids farewell to his ignorance, which quits him as the demon departs from the fallen tree. 13. A man getting rid of his animal gratifications, demolishes the abode of his ignorance from the mind; as a woodcutter destroys the bird-nests of the tree, which he has sawn or cut down on the ground. 14. You have no doubt put down your ignorance, by your resignation of royalty and resorting to this forest; your mind is of course cast down by it, but it is not yet destroyed by the sword of your resignation. (A cast down or sunken spirit or mind is not really killed, but revives and lives again in time). 15. It rises again and gains renewed strength and minding its former defeat, it has at last over powered on you by confining you in this wilderness; and restraining you in the painful dungeon of your false asceticism.

16. If you can but now kill your fallen ignorance in any way, it will not be able to destroy you at once in your rigorous penance; though it has reduced you to this plight by your abdication of royalty. 17. The ditch that the huntsman had dug to circumvent the elephant, is verily this painful pit of austerity, which thy ignorance has scooped to enthral you in. 18. The many provisions and supplies with which the huntsman had filled the hollow, in order to entice the elephant; are the very many expectations of future reward, which your ignorance presents before you, as the recompense of your penitence. 19. O prince, though you are not the witless elephant (gaja-murkha); yet you are not unlike the same, by your being cast in this forest by your incorrigible ignorance. 20. The ditch of the elephant, was verily filled with the tender plants and leaves for the fodder of the elephant; but your cave is full of rigorous austerities, which no humanity can bear or tolerate. 21. You are still encaged in this prison house of the ascetic's cell, and doomed to undergo all the imaginative torments of your penance and martyrdom. You verily resemble the fallen Bali, that is confined in his subterranean cell.

22. You are no doubt the empty headed elephant, that art fast bound in the chain of false rigours, and incarcerated in this cave of your ignorance; thus I have given the full exposition of the parable of the elephant of Vindhyan mountain, and now glean the best lesson for thyself from this.

THE PRINCE'S ABJURATION OF HIS ASCETICISM. Argument. - The prince coming to his sense, took all his relics of asceticism and set them on fire. Chúdálá continued: - Tell me prince, what made you decline to accept the advice of the princess Chúdálá, who is equally skilled in morality, as well as in Divine knowledge. 2. She is an adept among the knowers of truth, and actually practices all what she preaches to others; her words are the dictates of truth, and deserved to be received with due deference. 3. If you rejected her advice, by your over confidence in your own judgment; yet let me know, why she prevented you not, from parting with your all to others. (There is a proverb that men should rely on their own judgment and that of their elders; but never on those of other people and women). 4. Sikhidhwaja replied: - But I ask you another question, and hope you will reply to it, i.e. how do you say that I have not relinquished my all, when I have resigned my realm, my habitation and my country all together; and when I left my wife and all my wealth behind.

5. Chúdálá replied: - You say truly O prince! that you have forsaken your kingdom and habitation, and your lands and relatives, and even your wife and wealth, but that does not make your relinquishment of all, since none of these truly belong to thee; they come of themselves and go away from man; it is your egoism only which is yours, and which you have not yet got rid of. 6. You have not yet abandoned your egoism, which is the greatest delight of your soul; you cannot get rid of your sorrows, until you are quite freed from your egoistic feelings. 7. Sikhidhwaja said: - If you say that my kingdom and possession, were not my all, and that this forest which I have resorted to forms my all at present; and these rocks and trees and shrubs form my present possessions, then I am willing to quit all these even, if that would constitute resignation of all. 8. Vasishtha said: - Hearing these words of the Bráhman boy - Kumbha, the cold blooded prince Sikhidhwaja held silence for a while, and returned no answer.

9. He wiped off his attachment to the forest from his heart, and made up his mind to slide away from it; as the current of a stream in the rainy weather, glides along and carries down the dust and dirt of the beach. 10. Sikhidhwaja said: - Now sir, I am resolved to leave this forest, and bid adieu to all its caves and arbours; say now does not this relinquishment of all, form my absolute abnegation of all things. 11. Kumbha replied: - The foot of this mountain with all its wood-lands, arbours and caverns are no properties of yours, but the common fells and dales of all; how then can your forsaking of them, form your self-abnegation at all? 12. The best boon of your egoism which has fallen to your lot, is still unforsaken by you; you must get rid of this, in order to be freed from the cares and sorrows of this sublunary world of woes. 13. If none of these things is mine, then my hermit's cell and grove, which I own as mine are what I am willing to resign, if that would make my total abnegation.

14. Vasishtha said: - The self-governed Sikhidhwaja being awaked to his sense, by these admonitions of Kumbha - the Bráhman boy; he remained silent for a moment, with the light that shone within him. 15. His pure conscience returned to his mind, and the blaze of his right knowledge, burnt away the dross of his attachment to the hermitage; as a gust of wind drives the dusts from the ground. 16. Sikhidhwaja said: - Know me sir, to have now taken away my heart from this hermitage, and forsaken my attachment to all its sacred bowers and arbours; now therefore consider me to have resigned my all and every thing in world. 17. Kumbha replied: - How can I consider you as fully resigned, by your resigning these groves and arbours and everything appertaining to them; none of which belong to you, nor are you their master or deserter in anyway. (Know there is but one being, who is the sole master of all).

18. Thou hast another thing to be forsaken by thee, and that is the greatest and best thing that has fallen to thy lot in this world; it must be by your resignation of that thing, that you can set yourself free from all. (The prince was so very infatuated with his knowledge of the gross sensibles, that he would never come to know what egoism meant). 19. Sikhidhwaja said: - If this even be not the all that I have, and which you want me to resign; then take these earthen pots and basins, these hides and skins and this my cell also, and know me to forgo all these forever and betake myself elsewhere. 20. Vasishtha said: - So saying the dispassionate prince rose from his seat, with his composed and quiet mind; as when an autumnal cloud rises on the top of a mountain, and disperses elsewhere. 21. Kumbha saw from his seat, the motions and movements of the prince, with her smiles and amazement, as when the sun laughs from above, to see the foolish attempts of men on the earth below.

22. Kumbha looked steadfastly on Sikhidhwaja, and sat silently with the thought, "Ah! let him do whatever he likes for his sanctification and renunciation of the temporal articles of this world, which do not serve for his spiritual edification at all." 23. Sikhidhwaja then brought out all his sacred vessels and seats from his grotto, and collected them all in one spot; as the great ocean yielded up all her submerged treasures, after the diluvian flood was over. 24. Having collecting them in a pile, he set fire to them with dried fuel; as the sun-stone or sun-glass burns down the combustible by its fire. 25. The sacred vessels and chattels which were set on fire and burnt down by it, were left behind by the prince who sat on a seat beside Kumbha; as the sun sets on the mount Meru, after he had burnt down in the world by the fire of dissolution. 26. He said to his rosary, you have been confident to me your master, as long as I turn you on my fingers as my counting beads. 27. And though I have turned you over and over, with my sacred mantras in this forests; yet you have been of no service to me at all.

28. And though I have travelled with you, Oh my reliquary! and seen many holy places in thy company; but as you proved of no good to me, I now resign you to the flames. 29. The burning fire rose in flames and flashes in the sky, and they appeared as stars glittering in it; he then cast his seat of the deer's skin on the fire, and said: I have borne you about me so long on my back as an ignorant stag. 30. It was by my ignorance, that I held you so long with me; and now you are at liberty to go your own way; where may peace and bliss attend on you forever. 31. Ascend with the rising fire to heaven, and twinkle there as the stars on high; so saying he took off his hide garment from his body with his hands, and committed it to the flames. 32. The funeral pyre of the prince spread as a sea of fire and it was driven about as a conflagration by the winds blowing from the mountains; when the prince thought of throwing his water pot also into the fire.

33. And said to it, you sir, that bore the sacred water for all my sacerdotal functions; O my good water pot, it is true that I have not the power of rendering the proper recompense of your past services. 34. You were the best model of true friendship, good nature, benevolence and constancy to me; and the best exemplar of goodness and all good qualities in thy great bounty. 35. O thou! (my water pot), that wast the receptacle of all goodness to me; now depart your own way, by your purification in the same sacred fire, as thou wast at first found by me (from the potter's fire). Be thy ways all blissful to thee! so saying he cast his water pot into the consecrated fire. 36. Because all good things are to be given to the good or to the fire; but all bad things are cast off, like the dust of the earth; and as foolish men fall to the ground, by their secret craft. 37. It is well for thee, my low mattress, to be put to fire and reduced to worthless ashes; so saying, he took up his wet matted seat, and cast it into the flaming fire.

38. The seat on which he used to sit in his pure meditation on God (i.e. his kusásana or his seat made of kusa-grass), he soon committed to the flames; because it is better to give up a thing betimes, of which one must get rid shortly afterwards. 39. This my alms-pot which contained the best articles of food, which were presented to me by good people; I now commit to this flame with whatever it has in it. 40. The fire burns a thing but once, and the burnt article ceases to burn any more; hence I shun all the implements to my ceremonial rites, in order to set me free from the bondage of all actions for ever more. 41. Be ye not sorry therefore, that I forsake you thus; for who is there, that will bear about him things that are unworthy of himself. 42. So saying, he threw into the fire all his cooking vessels, and the plates and dishes of his kitchen; and all things whatever he had need of in his hermitage. And these began to burn in a blaze, us the world was burnt down by the all destructive fire of the kalpánta.

ADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA. Argument: - As the prince was going to immolate himself after this, he is recalled from his rashness by the wisdom of his young monitor, who admonishes him to the relinquishment of his mind and not of the body. Vasishtha said: - He then rose up and set fire to his hut of dry leaves and grass, as it is the case with foolish men very often to demolish the structure of their own fancy and caprice. (i.e. To undo the doings of their own hobbies and wild imagination). 2. Whatever else there was left beside aught of the chattels and goods of the hermit Sikhidhwaja took them all one after another, and set fire to them with his composed and unconcerned mind, and observing a strict taciturnity all the while. 3. He burnt and broke down every thing, and then flung away from him his eatables and preserved condiments; his clothings and all, with a quite content state of his mind. (This unconcerned state of the mind is called avahittha or insouciance; which cares for no mortal thing).

4. The hermitage was now turned to a desolation, for its having been a human habitation awhile before; and resembled the relics of the sacrificial pavilion of Daksha, after its devastation by the all-devouring fire of Vírabhadra. (The legend of Daxa-yajna-bhanga, forms the subject of many Puránas, poems and dramas, but the mystery and allegory of the fable remains as dark and inexplicable as the Runic characters). 5. The timorous fawns being affrighted at the lighted fire, left their lairs where they lay chewing the cud at their ease; and fled afar to distant deserts, as the townsmen free from a burning quarter to distant abodes. 6. Seeing the vessels and utensils to be all in a blaze, with the fuel of the dry woods on all sides; the prince seemed to remain quite content and careless amidst the scene, with the possession of his body only. 7. Sikhidhwaja said: - I am now become an all abandoning saint, by my abandonment of all desire and every object; and wonder that I should after so long a period of my life, be awakened to my right knowledge, by the holy lectures of my heavenly child.

8. I have now become a pure and perfect unit, and quite conscious of the ineffable joy in myself; of what use and to what good, are all these appendages of my ever varying desires to me. (No temporal object, leads to our permanent good; save our own bodies, which feel the inward bliss of the soul). 9. As the knots of the chain that bind the soul to this world, are cut asunder and fall off one after another; so the mind comes to feel its quiet composure, until it attains to its ultimate rest and inaction. 10. I am quite composed, and in perfect ease with the extinction of my desires; I am joyous and rejoice in myself, that my ties are all broken and fallen off from me; and that I have at last, fully accomplished the abandonment of all things (sarva tyaga). 11. I am become as nude as the open sky, and as roofless as the vault of vacuity; I view the wide world as an expanse of vacuum, and myself as a nullity within the whole inanity; say, O divine boy! is there anything still wanting to my complete renouncement of all.

12. Kumbha replied: - Yet you must be aware! O prince Sikhidhwaja! that you are never released from all the bonds of this life, by your renunciation of every mortal thing; appertaining to this your mortal and transitory state of your being. 13. I see the gravity and purity of the nature of your soul, which is placed far above the reach and track of the commonality; by its abandonment of the innumerable seeds and sprouts of fond desires, which incessantly rise as thistles and thorns on the human breast. (If virtue we plant not, vice will fill the place; and the rankest weeds, the richest soils deface). 14. Vasishtha said: - On hearing these words of Kumbha, the prince Sikhidhwaja reflected on its purport within himself for a short while; he spoke these words in reply as you shall, oh mighty armed Ráma, now hear from me. (i.e. The prince was not so very easily prevailed upon by his eloquent monitor). 15. Sikhidhwaja said: - Tell me, O heaven born child! what else dost thou see remaining in me; except the serpentine entrails within myself, and supporting the body composed of a heap of flesh, blood and bones.

16. And if this body reckoned an appendage to myself, I will then ascend to the top of this mountain, and let it fall to be dashed to pieces on the ground; and thus get rid of my mortal part for ever. 17. Saying so, as he was proceeding to immolate his body on the craggy hill before him; he was interrupted by his monitor Kumbha, who spoke to him as follows: - 18. Kumbha said: - What is it prince that you are going to do, why do you attempt to destroy this innocent body of yours from this hideous height, as the enraged bull hurls its calf below the hill? 19. What is this body, but a lump of dull and gross matter, a dumb and poor painstaking thing; it never does you any harm, nor can you ever find any fault in it; why then do you wish in vain to destroy so harmless and faultless a thing? 20. It is of itself a dull and dumb thing (as your beast of burden); it ever remains in its torpid meditative mood, and is moved to and fro by other agencies; as a plank is tossed up and down, by the adverse current and waves in the sea.

21. He who hurts or annoys his inoffensive body, deserves to be put to torturous punishment; like the ruffian rogue who robs and annoys the holy saint, sitting in his solitary cell. 22. The body is quite guiltless of all the pain and pleasure, which betide the living soul by turns; as the tree is wholly unconcerned with the fall of its fruits and leaves, which are dropped down by the blowing winds. 23. You see the gusts of winds dropping down the fruits, flowers and leaves of trees; then tell me, O holy men! how you can charge your innocent tree, with the fault of letting fall its best produce. 24. Know it for certain, O lotus eyed prince! that the immolation of your body even, is not enough to make your total renouncement of all things, sarva tyága you must know is not an easy matter. 25. It is in vain that you intend, to destroy this inoffensive body of yours on this rock; your quitting or getting rid of your body, does not cause your renunciation and freedom from all. (Death releases us from the bondage of the body, but not from the stings of conscience).

26. There is an enemy of this body which agitates it, as an elephant shakes a huge tree; if you can but get rid of that mortal enemy of your body and soul, you are then said to be freed from all. 27. Now prince, it is by avoiding this inveterate enemy of yours, that you are freed from the bondage of your body, and everything besides in this world; or else however you may kill your body, you can never put a stop to its regrowth (in some form or other). 28. Sikhidhwaja rejoined: - What is it then that agitates the body and what is the root of our transmigrations and of the doings and sufferings of our future lives? And what is it by the avoidance of which, we avoid and forsake everything in the world? 29. Kumbha replied: - Know, holy prince, that it is neither the forsaking of your realm nor that of your body, nor the burning of your hut and chattels, nor all these things taken together, that can constitute your renouncement of all and everything. 30. That which is all and every where, is the one only cause of all; it is by resigning everything in that sole existent being, that one becomes the renouncer of all.

31. Sikhidhwaja said: - You say that there is an all - to-pan, which is situated in all to whom all things are to be resigned at all times. Now sir, you that know all, what this all or omnium can be. 32. Kumbha replied: - Know, O holy man, this all pervading being is known under the various appellations of the living soul jíva, the life Prána and many more also; it is neither an active or inactive principle, and is called the mind which is ever liable to error. 33. Know the mind to be the seat of illusion, and to make the man by itself; it is the essential constituent of every person, and the speculum of all these worlds in itself. 34. Know the mind, as the source of your body and estates; and know it also, as the root of your hermitage and everything else; just as one tree bears the seed of another. (The ingrained desire of the mind is the seed of all extraneous accidents). 35. It is therefore by your giving up this seed of all events, that you really resign everything in the world, which is contained in and depends on this primary seed and mainspring of the mind. All possible as well as impossible renunciations, depend on the resignation of the mind.

36. The man that is under the subjection of his mind, is ever subject to cares, both when he is attentive to his duties or negligent of them; as also when he rules his realm, or flies from it to a forest; but the man of a well governed mind, is quite content in every condition of life. 37. It is the mind which revolves incessantly in the manner of the rotatory world, and evolves itself in the form of the body and its limbs; as the minute seed displays itself in the shape of a tree and its branches and leaves. 38. As the trees are shaken by the blowing winds, and as the mountains are shook by the bursting earthquakes; and as the bellows are blown by the inflated air, so is the animated body moved about by the mobile force of the mind. 39. These miserable mortals that are born to death and decay, and those happy few that live to enjoy the pleasures of life; and the great sages of staunch hearts and souls, are all of them bound alike to the thraldom of their minds. (The mind governs all, and there are few to govern it).

40. The mind acts its several parts, in all the various forms and figures of the stage of the world; it shows its gestures in the motions of the body, it lives and breathes in the shape of the living spirit, and it thinks and cogitates in the form of the mind. (The mind and the heart, the living soul and the active body, are all the one and same thing). 41. It takes the different epithets of the understanding buddhi, consciousness mahat, egoism ahamkára, the life or prána and the intellect, agreeably to its sundry internal functions in the body, or else it is the silent soul, when it is without any action to be assigned to it. 42. The mind is said to be all in all, and by getting release of this, we are released of all diseases and dangers; and then we are said to have avoided and abandoned all and every thing. 43. O ye, that want to know what resignation is, must know that it is the resignation of the mind, which makes your renunciation of all things. If you succeed in the abnegation of your mind, you come to know the truth, and feel the true felicity of your soul.

44. With the riddance of your mind, you get rid of the unity and duality of creeds, and come to perceive all diversities and pluralities blend in one universal whole; which is transcendental tranquillity, transparent purity and undiminished felicity: (which is anámaya without alloy). 45. The mind is the field for the course of every body, in his career in this world; but if this field be over grown with thorns and brambles, how can you expect to grow rice in it? 46. The mind shows its manifold aspects, and plays its many parts at will; it turns and moves in the forms of things, as the waters roll in the shapes of waves. 47. Know young prince, that your abandonment of all things by the resignation of your mind, will redound to your joy, not unequal to that of your gaining a kingdom to your self. 48. In the matter of self-abnegation, you are on the same footing with other men; in that you resign whatever you dislike, and want to have some thing that you have a liking for.

49. He who connects all the worlds with himself, as the thread that connects the pearls in a necklace, is the man that possesses everything, by renouncing all things from himself. (This is the attribute of sutrátmá - the connecting thread of the supreme soul, which unites all units to it, by living all things as apart from it). 50. The soul that is unattached to all things, doth yet connect and pass alike through them all; as the thread of the divine soul, connects the world as a string of pearls. (It spreads unspent). 51. The soul that bears no attachment to the world, is like an oilless lamp that is soon extinguished to darkness; but the spirit that is warm with its affections, likens an oily lamp, that burns with universal love, and enlightens all objects about it. 52. The lord that lives aloof from all, resembles the oilless lamp in dark obscurity; but the same Lord manifesting himself in all things, resembles the oily lamp that lights every object. (The two hypostases of the supreme spirit - the unknowable and the Manifest, the aprakásátmá and the saprakásátmá).

53. As after the relinquishment of all your possessions (both in your estate as also in this forest), you still remain by yourself; so after your resignation of your body, mind and all, you have still your consciousness by you, which you can never get rid of. 54. As by the burning of your articles, you have burnt no part of your body; so by your resignation of all things, you can not resign yourself or your soul, which would then amount to nirvána or utter extinction (which is tantamount to moksha or ultimate absorption in the supreme spirit). 55. Sarvatyága or total abnegation, means the voidance of the soul of all its worldly attachment, when it becomes the seat of all knowledge; and likens to the etherial paradise of the hosts of celestial beings. 56. Sarvatyága or self-abnegation is like the water immortality, which drives away all fear of disease and death by a single draught of it; and it remains untouched by the cares of the world, as the clear firmament is untinged by the spots of clouds.

57. Sarvatyága again is the entire abandonment of all affections, gives a man his true greatness and glory; and as you get rid of your temporary affections, so you get the stability of your understanding, and the firmness of your determination. 58. Sarvatyága or abandonment of all, is fraught with perfect delight; as its contrary is attended with extreme misery. This is a certain truth, and knowing as such, choose what you think best for you. 59. He who gives away his all in this life, comes to be in possession of them in his future state; as the rivers which pour their waters into the sea, are again filled by its flood tide. 60. After resignation of all things from the mind, its hollowness is filled with full knowledge of them, which is highly gratifying to the soul; as an empty box, is stored with rich gems and jewels in it. 61. It was by virtue of his resignation of all things, that Sákyamuni became dauntless amidst the troubles of the Kali-age, and sat as firm as a rock. (Hence the yogis of prior ages, have remained as pure air).

62. Total resignation of all things, is tantamount to the acquisition of all prosperity; because the lord gives every thing to him, who dedicates and devotes his all unto Him. 63. You have now, O prince, become as quiet as the calm atmosphere, after your abandonment of all things; now try to be as graceful as the lightsome moon, by the complaisance of your manners. 64. Now, O high minded prince, forget at once your past abdication of your crown and kingdom, as also your subsequent of all things in this hermitage; drive away the pride of your total abandonment of all you had, and be of a clear and complacent countenance.

ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA. Argument: - On the abandonment of the affections of the mind. Vasishtha continued: - As the disguised boy was admonishing in this manner on the relinquishment of mind (i.e. the mental passions and affections); the prince ruminated inwardly on its sense, and then spoke as follows. 2. Sikhidhwaja said: - I find my mind fluttering always, as a bird in the open sky of my bosom; and lurking incessantly as an ape, in the wilderness of my heart. 3. I know how to restrain my mind, as they do the fishes in the net; but know not how to get rid of it, when it is so much engaged with the objects of sense. 4. Please sir acquaint me first with the nature of the mind, and then teach me the method of relinquishing it for ever from me. 5. Kumbha replied: - Know great prince, cupidity to be the intrinsic nature of the mind; and know the word desire to be used as a synonym for the mind. (The mind and will are synonymous terms). 6. The abandonment of the mind is very easy, and more facile than the stirring of it; it is attended with a greater delight, than the possession of a kingdom can afford, and is more pleasant than the scent of fragrant flowers.

7. But it is very difficult for the ignorant, to get rid of or forsake the desires of their minds; it is as hard to them as it is for a boor to wield the reins of a kingdom, and for a heap of grass to be as high as a mountain. 8. Sikhidhwaja said: - I understand the nature of the mind, to be replete with its desires; but I find my riddance from it, to be as impossible as the swallowing of an iron-bolt by anybody. 9. I find the mind as the fragrant flower in the great garden of the world, and the crater of the fire of all our woes; it is the stalk of the lotus of the world, and it is the bag that bears and blows the gusts of delusion all over the world. Now tell me how this thing may be easily removed from us. 10. The mind is the locomotive engine of the body, it is the bee that flutters about the lotus of the heart; now tell me how I may with ease get rid of this mind.

11. Kumbha answered: - The total extirpation of the mind, consists in the entire extinction of the world from it; the learned and the men of long foresight, call this to be the abandonment of the mind (i.e. when it is cast out with all its thoughts and cares). 12. Sikhidhwaja rejoined: - I think the extinction of the mind, is better than our abandonment of it, on account of securing the success of our purposes; but how can we know the gradual expurgation of the mind, from the hundreds of diseases to which it is subject. 13. Kumbha replied: - Egoism is the root (seed) of the arbour of the mind, with all its branches and leaves and fruits and flowers; therefore root out the mind with its very root of egoism, and have thy breast as clear as the empty and lurid sky. 14. Sikhidhwaja rejoined: - Tell me, O sage, what is the root of the mind, what are its sprouts and fruits; tell me also how many stems and branches it has, and how is it possible to root it out at once. 15. Kumbha replied: - Know prince that egoism and all the words expressive of the self as meity &c., and indicative of the mind, are the seeds of the tree of the mind.

16. The field of its growth is the supreme soul, which is the common source of all entities; but that field being filled with illusion, the mind is deluded to believe itself as the first born sprout springing out of this field. (The first born germ of the Divine spirit being the living soul, which originates in the mind). 17. The certain knowledge of the mind in its discrete state, is called its understanding (which in its concrete state is known as sensation); the buddhi or understanding is the state of maturity of the germ or sprout of the mind. (The infant mind is ripens into the understanding). 18. The understanding or buddhi, being subject to various desires, takes the name of chitta or wasteful mind; and this mind makes the living being, which is as hollow within it, as a carved image of stone (or moulded metal), and a mere false conception. 19. The body is the stem of this tree of the mind, and is composed of the skin and bones and juicy matters. 20. The branches of the tree of the mind, extend to a great distance all about it; and so the sensible organs of the body, protruding wide about it, perish at last in seeking for its enjoyment.

21. Now try to lop off the branches of the tree of thy mind, and try also to root out the noxious tree at once. 22. Sikhidhwaja said: - I can some how or other lop off the branches of the tree of mind, but tell me, O my sagely monitor, how I may be able to pull it out by its very root at once. 23. Kumbha replied: - All our desires are the several branches of this tree, which are hanging with loads of fruits; and are lopped off by the axe of our reason. 24. He alone is able to lop off the plant of his mind, who is unattached to the world, who hold his taciturnity and inward tranquillity, who is judicious in all discussions, and does whatever offers of itself to him at any time. 25. He who lops off the branches and brambles of the arbour of his mind, by his manliness of reason and discretion; is able also to root out this tree at once from his heart. 26. The first thing to be done with the mind, is to root it out at once from the heart and the next process is to lop off its branches; therefore employ thyself more to its eradication, than to the severing of its boughs and branches.

27. You may also burn it as the first step, instead of lopping the branches; and thus the great trunk of the tree of mind being reduced to ashes, there remains an entire mindlessness at last. 28. Sikhidhwaja said: - Tell me O my sagely guide, what is that fire which is able to burn away the seed of the tree of mind, which is covered all over with the cuticle of egoism. 29. Kumbha replied: - Prince, the fire which is able to consume the seed of the noxious plant of the mind, is the expostulation of the question, "what am I that bear this corporeal form upon me." 30. Sikhidhwaja said: - O sage! I have repeatedly considered the questions in my own understanding, and found that my egoism does not consist in aught of this world, or this earth, or the woods which form its garniture. 31. That my ego lay no where in the hills and forests where I resided, nor in the shaking of the leaves before me; nor did it lie in any part of my gross body, or in its flesh, bones or blood.

32. It does not lie in any of the organs of action, nor in the organs of sensation; it does not consist in the mind or in the understanding, or in any part of the gross body. 33. As we see the form of the bracelet in gold, so do I conceive my egoism to consist in the intelligent soul; because it is impossible for any material substance, to have anything as intelligence (as I perceive my egoism to be possest of). 34. All real existence depends on the supreme soul for its subsistence, so all real entities subsist in the supreme essence; or else it is impossible for any thing to exist in a nullity, as there is no possibility for a forest to subsist in a vacuity (without a firm ground). 35. Thus sir, knowing it full well, that my egoism is an aspect or shadow of my internal soul and worthy to be wiped off from it; yet I regret at my ignorance of the intrinsic spirit from which it is to be wiped off, and the internal soul be set in full light. 36. Kumbha replied: - If you are none of these material objects as you say, nor doth your egoism consist in materiality; then tell me prince, what you think yourself to be in reality.

37. Sikhidhwaja answered: - I feel myself O most learned sir, to be that intelligent and pure soul, which is of the form of intelligence, which acquaints me of all existence, and which discriminates their different natures. 38. I perceive thus my egoism to be attached to my body, but whether it is a caused or causeless principle, is what I am perfectly ignorant of. 39. I am unable O sage, to rub out this sense of my egoism as an unreality and unessentiality; and it is on that I greatly regret in myself (for my inability to get rid of my egoism as you led). 40. Kumbha said: - Tell me O prince, what is that great foulness, which thou feelest to be attached to thee, which makes thee act as a man of the world, and whether thou thinkest it as something or a mere delusion. 41. Sikhidhwaja replied: - The sense of my egoism, which is the root of the tree of my mind, is the great foulness that attaches to me; I know not how to get rid of it, for however I try to shun it, the more it clings about me.

42. Kumbha said: - Every effect is produced from some cause or other, and this is the general law of nature everywhere; anything otherwise is as false as the sight of a second moon in the sky, which is nothing but a reflexion of the true moon. 43. It is the cause which produces the effect, whether it be a big one or the small rudiment of it; therefore explore into the cause of your egoism, and tell me what it is. 44. Sikhidhwaja replied: - I know my sagely guide, that it is mere illusion - máyá, which is the cause of the fallacy of my egoism; but tell me sir, how this error of mine is to subside and vanish away from one. 45. It is from the proclivity of the mind towards the thinkables, that I am suffering all these pains and pangs within myself; now tell me O muni, about the means of suppressing my thoughts, in regard to external objects. 46. Kumbha said: - Tell me whether your thinking and knowing, are the causes of your thinkables and knowables, or these latter actuate your thinking and knowing powers. If you can tell me this, then shall I be able to explain to you the process of the cause and effect.

47. Now tell me which do you think to be the cause and not the cause, of knowing and knowable, and of thinking and the thinkable, which are the subjects of my question to you. 48. Sikhidhwaja answered: - I think, O sage, that the sensible objects of the body &c., are the causes of the thinking and thinkable (thoughts), and of knowing and the knowables or knowledge. (Because unless there be things in actual existence, we can neither think of or know anything, nor have any idea or knowledge of it at all). 49. Our knowledge of the entity of things, appears only in the sensible forms of bodies; or else the mere abstract thought of a thing, is as empty as an airy nothing. 50. As I can not conceive the non-entity of a positive entity, nor the abstract nature of a concrete body; so I know not how my egoism, which is the seed of my mind, can be at once ignored by me. 51. Kumbha said: - If thou rely on thy material body as a real existence, then tell me, on what does your knowledge depend, when your soul is separated from the body.

52. Sikhidhwaja replied: - The body which is evident to view, and a real entity, cannot be taken for an unreality by any body; as the palpable sun light, cannot be called darkness by any man of common sense. 53. Who can ignore the body, which is replete with its hands and feet and other members; which is full of activity and vivacity, and whose actions are so palpable to sight; and which is so evident to our perception and conception. 54. Kumbha said: - Know prince, that nothing can be said to exist, which is not produced by some cause; and the knowledge or consciousness that we have of it, cannot be but the product of mistake and error. 55. There can be no product without a similar cause, and no material form can come out from a formless and immaterial agent. How can any thing come to existence, without having its seed of the like nature? 56. Whatever product appears to present itself to anyone without its true cause, is as false an appearance as the mirage in the sand, before its deluded observer. 57. Know thyself to be no real existence, but a false shape of your error only; and with whatever earnestness you took to it, you will never get any water from this delusive mirage.

58. Sikhidhwaja said: - It is as useless to inquire the cause of a nonentity, as it is fruitless to look into the origin of the secondary moon which is but false reflex of the true one. Believing in a nullity, is as decorating the person of a barren woman's son. 59. Kumbha replied: - The body with its bones and ribs, are products of no assignable cause; therefore know it as no entity, because it is impossible for the frail body to be the work of an Everlasting Maker. 60. Sikhidhwaja said: - Now tell me sir, why we should not reckon our fathers the causes and producers of our bodies, with all their members and parts, since they are known as the immediate causes of these. 61. Kumbha replied: - The father can be nothing and no cause, without his having another cause for himself; because whatever is without a cause is nothing in itself. 62. The causes of all things and effects are called as their seeds, and when there is no seed in existence, it is impossible for a germ to be produced in the earth from nothing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit).

63. So when you cannot trace out the cause of an event, account the event as no event at all; because there can be no thing without its seed, and the knowledge of a causeless effect or eventuality, is an utter impossibility and fallacy of the understanding. 64. It is an egregious error to suppose the existence of a thing without its cause or seed, such as to suppose the existence of two moons in the sky, of water in the mirage and of the son of a barren woman. 65. Sikhidhwaja said: - Now tell me sir, why should not our parents be taken as the causes of our production, who had our grandfathers and grandmothers for the causes or seeds of their birth likewise; and why should we not reckon our first great grandfather (Brahmá), as the prime progenitor of the human race? 66. Kumbha replied: - The prime great grandfather, O prince, cannot be the original cause, since he also requires a cause for his birth, or else he could not come into existence. 67. The great grandfather of creation even Brahmá himself, is the cause of production by means of the seeds of the supreme spirit which produced him; or else the visible form in which he appeared, was no more than a mere delusion.

68. Know the form of the visible world, to be as great a fallacy as the appearance of water in the mirage; and so the creativeness of the great grandfather Brahmá, is no more than an erroneous misconception. 69. I will now wipe off the dark cloud of your error, that our great grandfather Brahmá was conceived in the womb of the supreme spirit (whereby he is styled the padma-yoni or born of the lotus like navel string of God); and this will be the salvation of your soul. (And Adam's ancestors without end. Young). 70. Now therefore know, O prince, that the lord God shines forever with his intelligent soul and mind in Himself; it is from him that the lotus born Brahmá and the whole universe, are manifest to our view, and that there is nothing which exhibits itself without Him.

THE anaesthetic PLATONISM OF SIKHIDHWAJA. Argument: - Dispersion of the gloom of ignorance from the mind of Sikhidhwaja. His coming to the Light of Truth and the Tranquillity of his soul. Sikhidhwaja said: - If the view of the whole universe is but a phantom, and our knowledge of myself, thyself and of this and that, is but an error of our mind, then why is it that we should be concerned about or sorry for anything. 2. Kumbha replied: - The erroneous impression of the existence of the world, has so firmly laid hold of the minds of men; as the frozen water appearing as crystal, is believed as dry land by people. 3. It is said by the learned, that the knowledge of gross matter is lost with the dispersion of ignorance; and that there is no other way of getting rid of this long contracted prejudice, without our riddance from ignorance. 4. It is the acuteness of the understanding, which is the only means of our coming to the knowledge of truth; that the creation and dissolution of the world, are dependant on the will and causality of the supreme Being. 5. He whose understanding becomes, is sure to lose his rooted prejudice by degrees; and come to the knowledge of the nihility of the material world.

6. In this way of refining your mind from its prepossession of gross ideas, you will come to find the erroneous conception of a prime male (ádipurusha), as that of Brahmá (or Adam) as the first creative power, to be as false as the water in the mirage. 7. The great grandfather of the world being a nullity, the creation of all creatures by him (who is thence called Prajápatih or lord of creatures); is likewise as false and null, as it is absurd for an impossibility to come into being. 8. The perception of a thing in esse, is as false as the conception of water in the mirage; a little reflexion is enough to remove this error, like the mistake of silver in cockles and conch-shells. 9. Any work which appears to exist without its cause, is only a phantom of fallacy, and has no essential form whatever in reality. 10. Whatever is done by one's erroneous knowledge or mistake of a thing, comes to be of no use to him; as the attempt to fill a pot with the water of the mirage, proves to be utterly vain.

11. Sikhidhwaja said: - Why can't we call the supreme Brahma, to be the cause of Brahmá - the first creator of the world who is called the son of God, the one unborn and without end, and the inexpressible and everlasting. 12. Kumbha replied: - The God Brahma, being neither the cause nor the effect of any action, is but an invariable unity and transcendent spirit, and is never the cause or effect of anything. 13. How can the incomprehensible and unknowable Brahma, be designated as the creator, when he is not predicable by any of the predicates of the creator or created or as the instrument or cause of anything. 14. The world having no separate cause, is no separate product of any causality whatever; it is no duality but one with the unity, without its beginning or end, and co-eternal with the eternal one. (To pan - God is all in all). 15. He that is inconceivable and unknowable, is perfect felicity, tranquillity and ever undecaying, and can never be the active or passive agent of anything, on account of the immutability of his nature. 16. Hence there is nothing as a creation, and the visible world is but a nihility, and the Lord God is neither an active nor passive agent, but quite still and full of bliss.

17. There being no causal power, the world is not the production of any body; it is our error only that this world as a production without any assignable cause. 18. The uncaused world is the product of nothing, and therefore nothing in itself; for if it be the production of nobody, it is a nullity like its cause also. 19. The non-existence of anything or the not being of everything (except that of the supreme Being), being proved as a certain truth; we can have no conception of anything, and the absence of such conception, it is in vain to suppose the existence of an egoism or tuism. 20. Sikhidhwaja said: - Sir, I now perceive the truth, and find the reasonableness of all that you have said; I see now that I am the pure and free soul, and quite aloof of any bondage or its liberation from bonds. 21. I understand Brahma as no cause of anything, for his entire want of causality; and the world is a nullity for its want of a cause, and therefore there is no being whatever which we reckon as a category.

22. Thence there is no such category as the mind or its seed, nor its growth nor decay; I therefore bow down to myself of which alone I have a consciousness in me. 23. I am alone conscious of myself, existence in myself and have no real knowledge of any thing else beside me, and which appear as fleeting clouds in the womb of the sky. 24. The distinct knowledge of the different categories of time, place, action in the world, is now entirely blended in the knowledge of the unity of the tranquil spirit of Brahma (which composes all varieties in itself). 25. I am tranquil, calm and quiet and settled in the spirit of God; I do not rise nor fall from nor move about this prop. I remain as you do in immovable spirit of God, which is all quiet, holiness and felicity in itself.

ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA. Argument: - Kumbha's Lecture on Effacing the Impression of Phenomenals from the mind of Sikhidhwaja or vanity of the visible world. Vasishtha said: - Sikhidhwaja having thus found his rest in the spirit of Brahma, remained quiet for some moments, as the steady and unflagging flame of a lamp in a calm. 2. And as he was about to be absorbed in his unwavering meditation, he was suddenly roused from his trance by the diverting voice of Kumbha. 3. Kumbha said: - Prince, I see you are not to wake from the sleep of your entranced meditation, wherein you are situated in your perfect bliss; you must neither be absorbed in your contemplation, nor be a stranger to your abstract meditation altogether (but must observe your middle course between Platonism and perturbation). 4. The mind that is undivided in its attention, is cleansed from all duplicity; and being freed from its knowledge of parts and particulars, becomes emancipated in its living states. 5. Being thus enlightened by Kumbha, the prince became full of enlightenment; and being roused from his trance, he shone as brightly as a rich gem when taken out of its cover. 6. The prince who in his state of quietism, beheld the unreality of visible things; and now perceived them spread all about him, thus spoke about them to Kumbha.

7. Sikhidhwaja said: - Though I know full well about all these things, yet I want to propose some queries regarding them; to which I hope you will give your answers, for my correct and perfect knowledge of them. 8. Tell me, how can we intermingle the impure conception of the universal or mundane soul representing the mundees or universe, with the pure idea of the supreme soul, which is ever calm, quiet and transparent. (The universal soul, is called viswátmá, viswarúpa and viráta, and is opaque with its contents; while the supreme is quite pure and clear, and untinged with the shade of creation). 9. Kumbha replied: - You have asked well, O prince, and this shows the clearness of your understanding; and if this is all that you want to know, hear me then explain it fully to you. 10. Whatever is seen here and every where together, with all the moving and unmoving beings which it contains, are all of them perishable, and are extinct at the end of every kalpa age (in which the creator wishes to create a new world). 11. Then there remains the true and essential reality at the end of the kalpa age, amidst an obscure chaotic state, which is deprived both of light and darkness.

12. This essential reality is the divine intellect, which is pure and quiet and as clear as the transparent air; it is free from all attributes and imputations, and full of transcendental intelligence. 13. The one that remains at the end of a kalpa, is the supreme soul which extends over all space, and is purely bright, transparent and quiet; it is enveloped in light and is pure intelligence. 14. It is inscrutable and unknowable, it is even and quiet, and full of bliss; it is called Brahma - the great, the final extinction of all bodies and is full of all knowledge. 15. It is the minutest of the minute, and the largest of whatever is large in the universe; it is the greatest and greatest of aught that is great and heavy, and it is the best of whatever is good and excellent. 16. It is so very small, that if you place this sky beside it, the latter will appear as big as the great mount of Meru by the side of a small mite. 17. It is again so very big and bulky, that this stupendous world being placed side by side to it, the latter must appear as an atom before it or vanish into nothing.

18. This is attributed with the epithet of universal soul, for its pervading all over the universe and being its intrinsic soul; while its extrinsic appearance, is called by the title of Virát. 19. There is no difference between this attribute and its attributive, as there is none between the air and the wind or the air in motion; and as the sky and vacuum are synonymous words, so the very same intellect is the phenomenal world, and the same consciousness is manifested in the forms of egoism and tuism. 20. As the water becomes the wave at a certain time and place, by cause of the current wind; so the world rises and falls at times in the supreme soul, without any external cause (except the will of the supreme spirit). 21. As gold is transformed to bracelets at certain times and place, by means of some or other; so the spirit of God is transformed to the visible world at certain times, without any other assignable cause whatever (save by the supreme will). 22. The most glorious God, is the Lord of his Kingdom of the world; He is one with his creation, ever pure, quiet and undecaying, and pervades over all these worlds which are scattered as turfs of grass all around us.

23. This transcendentally good and great God is the only real existence, and comprises all temporary and finite existences within himself; and we know by our reason, that this glorious creation of the universe is all derived from him. 24. Know him, O prince, to be the essence of the extended universe, and to extend over all in his form of an entire intellect, and an unity that never admits of a duality (under all the varieties and diversities in nature). 25. There is no reason therefore, for our conceiving a duality beside his unity; since it is the sole principle of the supreme soul, that is fully manifest in all in its ever undiminished and unextinguished state. 26. The Lord always remains as the all in all, and as manifest in all the various forms; and being neither visible nor perceptible by us, he can neither be said to be the cause or effect of anything (but is the unknown all in himself). 27. The Lord being neither perceptible nor conceivable by us is something super-eminently good and superfine; He is all and the soul of all, too fine and transparent, and is known only by our conception of him; and no sensible perception whatever. (The knowledge of God, is innate and inborn in us. Locke).

28. Being inexpressible by words, and manifest in all without manifestation or appearance of himself; cannot be the cause of whatever is real or unreal. (Anything that is indefinite in itself, cannot cause another of a definite or indefinite form). 29. That which has no name of itself, cannot be the seed of another; no nameless nothing can grow anything, nor can a commensurable world spring out of an incommensurable spirit. (A material and measurable thing, must have a material mensurator for its origin. Hence it is wrong to say: God measured the seas without a measuring rod). 30. The exhaustless mass of divine intellect, is indeed no cause or casual instrument or effect of any thing; because the product of the divine soul, must be some thing of the form of the invisible soul, which is its everlasting consciousness or intelligence. 31. So, O sage, nothing is produced by the supreme Brahma nor does anything arise from Him, like the waves from water which have their winds for their causality. (But the spirit of Brahma, is as the still water and has no stir or perturbation in it).

32. All distinction of time and place, being absent in the uniform and unchanging spirit of Brahma, there can be no creation or destruction of the world from him, and hence the world is increate and without any cause. 33. Sikhidhwaja said: - I know that the waves of water, have their cause in the winds of the air, and so I understand this world and our egoism &c., have their causality in the supreme spirit (which produces the worlds by its will, and acquaints me of my egoism by its intelligence). 34. Kumbha replied: - Know now the positive truth, O prince as I tell you after all, that there is nothing as a separate world or our egoism &c. existent in supreme spirit; though the world and the Ego exist as one with the divine spirit, without bearing their distinct names and personalities at all. (i.e. The world and its gods as one and the same thing). 35. As the subtile ether, contains the subtle element of vacuum in its bosom; so the divine soul entertains in itself, the fine spun idea of the mundane system without its substance.

36. Whether you behold this world in its true form of divine intelligence, or in any other form of gross matter; it is to be understood rightly as no other than a representation of the divine intellect. 37. The full knowledge of a thing, makes it sweet to the understanding, though it be as bitter as gall to taste; but the imperfect knowledge of a thing, as that of the world makes it appear as full of woe, though it is no such thing in reality. (Hence the crying and laughing philosophers took two different views of the world). 38. Ambrosia the water of life being taken in the light of poison, will act as poison in the constitution of the patient; so the lord of the intellect appears in a favourable or unfavourable light, as knowledge and ignorance of him represents him to our understanding. 39. The blessed lord God appears to us in the propitious or unpropitious aspect, as our true and false knowledge paints him to our minds, just as the blinding eye sees many a false sight in the light of the sun.

40. The essence of Brahma, always remains the same in his essential form of the intellect; though the turpitude of our understanding, will now represent him in one form and then in another at a different time and under different circumstances. 41. In fact the body and the embodied soul, appear as any other sensible object in the world; but being viewed in reality in their abstract light, they blend in the spiritual form of God. 42. Therefore it is in vain to make any inquiry, concerning the nature of the world and our egoism &c.; because what is really existent is to be inquired into, and not that which is a nullity in itself. 43. It is vain to ask about an appearance, which being looked into vanishes into nothing; as it is in vain to speak of the essence of gold, when it presents us no figure of it. 44. Therefore there is no entity of the world and our egoism, without the existence of God, these things having no cause, are self-same with the one self-existent Deity. 45. The world does not appear to be prominent, and to rest by itself to view; it rests in relief in the spirit of God, and shows itself as separate to us by illusion only.

46. These existences being composed of the five elements, produce many other beings; as the copulations of the male and female, produce their offspring in infinity; so the divine intellect being joined with the illusory intelligence, presents endless form to our view. 47. It is by the inherent knowledge of the divine soul, that it represents itself the shapes of many things that are comprised in his omniscience. He is full in himself and manifests his fullness in himself, and is never wanting in his fullness which always subsist in Him. (So the sea is ever full with its waves and waters, which roll for ever in its bosom). 48. The fullness or plenum of the world is derived from the fullness of God; and yet the divine fullness remains entire, as when you deduct the infinite, that remains the infinite also as the remainder. 49. The divine intellect though forever the same and serene, appears to shine forth in the creation with our knowledge of the same, and set at its dissolution with our imperceptibility of it; so our egoism being the same with the divine ego, appears to be different from it, as our fluctuating minds depict it in various lights.

50. The ego never becomes many, nor forsake its undecaying state; it is of a luminous form and having no beginning nor end of its essence; but assumes as many forms, as the ever varying mind imposes upon it. (The unchanging soul assumes many forms with the changeful mind). 51. The self-same soul believes itself as Virát - the lord of the world at one time, and as contemptible being at another; it sometimes sees itself in its true form of a divinity, and its thought makes it think as some other thing at another time. 52. The world appears as a vast and extended space, perfectly quiet in its nature, inexpressible by words and their senses, (as its real nature). All its objects are of wonderful shape to view, and appear to us according to our conceptions or without showing their real nature's unto us. (The true nature of things is hidden from our knowledge).

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PRINCE IN THEOSOPHY. Argument: - Effacing the impression of visibles from the mind continued. Kumbha continued: - Know that nothing is produced from, nor destroyed by the ever tranquil spirit of God at any time; but everything appears as the panorama of the one all (topan) God; like the various kinds of ornaments made of the same metal of gold. 2. Brahma remains forever in his own essence, and never becomes the seed or cause of any other thing; he is ever of the form of our innate conception of him, and therefore never becomes any other than our simple idea of him. 3. Sikhidhwaja said: - I grant, Oh sagely monitor, that there subsists no separate world nor any other egoism in the one pure Siva (Zeus or Jove), except his own essence of omniscience; but please to tell me, what thing is this world and individual egoisms that seem to be infinite in number, and appear as distinct creations of God? 4. Kumbha replied: - The essence of God is without its beginning and end, and extends to infinite space and time. 5. The same also is this transparent cosmos, and the very same is the body of this world; which is simple and of the form of divine intelligence, and neither a void nor any extraneous thing.

6. The essential property of God being his intelligence, he is said to be of essence of intellect; and as fluidity is the property of water, so is intelligence the essential property of everything; and there is no reason to suppose an unintelligent principle as the prime cause of all. 7. The Lord is infinite in himself and is so situated in his infinitude for ever, without the grossness of the infinitesimals ever attaching to their pure intelligence in the subjective soul. 8. We cannot attribute the creation of the impure world, to the pure essence of the divine spirit; because the purity of the divine soul, cannot admit the impurity of creation, which would amount to a duality of purity and impurity in the supreme soul: (which is altogether absurd to believe). 9. The Lord can never be supposed as the seed or cause of the universe, since his nature is inscrutable and beyond our conception, and cannot be thought of as the root of anything whatever. 10. Therefore there is no creation or production of an effect, without its cause or seed; nor does reason point out to us, any other source of creation.

11. Therefore there is no gross creation whatsoever, except of the form of the intellect itself; and hence all that is visible to us, is no other than the solid intellect itself. 12. The feeling of egoism and the term world, are meaningless words and mere inventions of men; because nothing whatever can be called an effect or product, which has no cause assigned to it. 13. The duality of the world appears in the unity of God, in the same manner as a flower called the sky flower appears in the hollow vacuum of the sky (by mere delusion). And all things being perishable in their nature, exist only in the intellect in which they live and die. (If the world be of the solid intellect, then the very intellect becomes the cause of the same, by means of the solidification of its own substance; but it is not so, because it is impossible for the same thing to be both the cause and effect of something by itself). 14. Destruction is not the giver of life to destruction, nor is it a giver of life to perishable things; hence intellect is the giver of light to all: but you may call whatever you like the best.

15. What difficulty you have, provided all things are to be called one, when all have come from the intellect; the duality what you call, that is the mystery of intellect-chit only. 16. The intellect therefore is the only true entity, which admits no unity nor duality in it. And therefore, O prince, you must know the nullity of all other entities beside it. 17. The feeling of thy egoism, is as false as thy conception of any other thing; and thus the idea of egoism proving to be false, what else can there be except the only entity of the intellect. 18. Thus egoism (being) no other than a form of the intellect, there is no difference whatever between them; hence the words I, thou &c. are mere human inventions to distinguish one from another (when there is in reality no difference in the personality of any body). 19. Whether you remain in your embodied or disembodied state, continue to remain always as firm as a rock; by knowing yourself only as the pure intellect, and the nullity of all things besides.

20. By thinking yourself always as the intellect, you will lose the sense of your egoism and personality; and so will your reflexion on the contexts of the texts of the vedas, lead you to the same conclusion. (There are numerous texts to the effect that God is the only entity, and this all is naught but God). 21. From all these know thyself as the pure essence, which is uncaused and unmade, and the same with the first and original principle; that thou art same with the emancipate and everlasting Brahma, and multiform in thy unity; that thou art as void as vacuity, having neither thy beginning, middle or end; and that this world is the intellect and that intellect is the very Brahma himself.

ADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA CONTINUED. Argument: - The non-entity of the mind, proved from the non-existence of sensible objects, and the want of these proving only the entity of one Brahma only. Sikhidhwaja said: - I understand, that there is no such thing as the mind also; but as I have no clear and correct knowledge of this subject, I beg of you to tell me, whether it is so (as I believe) or not. 2. Kumbha replied: - You have truly said, O prince, that there is no such real entity as the mind at any time and in any space whatever; and that which appears as the mind, is no other than a faculty of the only one everlasting Brahma. 3. Anything besides which is fallible or unconscious of itself, as the mind or anything of this world, can never be a positive or self-existence substance; therefore the words I, thou and this or that are only coinings of our imagination, and have no existence in reality. 4. There is no reality of the cosmos or any of its contents; and all that seem to be in existence, are no more than the various representations of the one self-existent Brahma himself. (Because there is no duality beside the unity of Brahma).

5. It is said that there was no mind or its personification of Brahmá, and the final dissolution of the world, and this proves the unreality of both of them. Again it is said that the mind took the form of Brahmá and created the world in the beginning, which proves also the mind to be the divine mind, and represented by substitution of the metaphor of Brahmá. 6. As there can be no material object without the prior existence of a material cause, so it is impossible to believe the existence of the sensible mind and the myriads of the sensible objects in absence of their material cause, which never existed from before. (The spirit alone was the pre-existent thing, which could not create anything except in its own immaterial form). 7. Hence there is no such thing, as a dull and unconscious world; and all that appears to exist as such, is no other than a representation of the Divine spirit (which reflects itself in various ways) as the gold exhibits its ornaments to view. 8. It is entirely false to believe, that the nameless and formless Deity does this all; and because the world is visible, yet there is no proof of its reality in our subjective knowledge of it.

9. That the nameless and formless spirit of God, which has no shelter nor support for itself, should make this world for the abode of others, is a laughable assumption of the ignorant only (therefore this world is his own abode and the stage of his own action). 10. From these reasons it is plain that there is no world in existence, nor even the mind, which is but a part of it; the world being a non-entity, there can be no mind which is conversant alone with it. 11. The mind means no more than the wish, and then only there is said to be a wish in any one, when there is an object to be wished for; but this world which appears to be so very desirable, being a nullity itself, how can there be the mind to desire it. (The mind is a nullity for want of any of its objects to dwell upon or engage its attention). 12. That which is manifested unto us under the name of the Mind, is no other than a manifestation of the spirit of God in itself, and is designated by various appellations.

13. This visible which is so desirable to everybody, is no production of any one; it is an uncaused entity ever existent in the divine mind, from before its production by the mind of Brahmá the creator. (Being prior to the mind, it is no production of it). 14. Therefore the divine soul, is of the form of an intellectual vacuum, and is a void as the transcendent air; it is full with the light of its intelligence, and having no shadow of the gross world in it. 15. The slight light which shines in the divine soul, is like the twilight that fills the etherial sphere; is the reflexion of the mirror of the supreme intellect, and is neither the dim light of the mind, nor any reflexion of the phenomenal world. (The nature of spiritual light, as quite distinct from the mental and physical lights). 16. Our knowledge of I, thou and this world (i.e. of the subjective and objective), are never real nor reliable; it is like the appearance of our dreams, that serve only to delude us to mistake. 17. As the absence of the desirable world, removes our desire of it; so the privation of our desire, displaces the mind which is the seat of our wishes.

18. The ignorant believe that this visible world is the mind, (because it is the display of the divine mind and the mind dwells upon it); but the unreal and formless mind had not this visible form, before it developed itself in the form of creation. (The world is not the mind because it is posterior in the order of creation, being created by the mind of the great Brahmá). 19. But this world is said to be coeval with the eternal mind, which is altogether impossible; because we read nowhere in the sástras, nor find in the ordinary course of nature, that a visible object has ever come into existence without some cause or other, either in the beginning of creation or at any time afterwards. (Hence the visible world is not coeval with the mind its maker). 20. How can eternity, uncreatedness and everlastingness be predicated of this visible world, which is a gross material substance, and subject to decay and dissolution. 21. There is no testimony of the sástras, nor ocular evidence nor any reasonable inference, to show any material thing to be uncaused by some agent or other, and to survive the final dissolution of the world.

22. There is no written testimony of the vedas, and of other sástras and Siddhántas to show, that any material thing is ever exempt from its three conditions of birth, growth and decay, and is not perishable at the last dissolution. 23. He that is not guided by the evidence and dictates of the sástras and vedas, is the most foolish among fools, and is never to be relied upon by good and sensible men. 24. It is never possible for any one to prevent the accidents, that are incidentals to perishable things, nor can there be any cause to render a material object an immaterial one. 25. But the immaterial view of this world, identifies it with the unchangeable Brahma, and exempts it from the accidents of action and passion, and of growth and decay. 26. Therefore know this world to be contained, in the undivided and unutterable vacuity of the Divine Intellect; which is infinite and formless void, and is for ever more in its undivided and undivisible state. 27. Brahma who is omniform and ever tranquil in himself, manifests his own self in this manner in the forms of creation and dissolution all in himself.

28. The lord now shows himself to our understanding, as embodied in his body of the world, and now manifests himself unto us, as the one Brahma in his spiritual form. 29. Know after all, that this world is the essence of the one Brahma only, beside which there is no separate world or any thing else in existence; and it is our imagination only which represents it sometimes in one form and then in another. 30. All this is one, eternal and ever tranquil soul, which is unborn and without any support and situated as it is. It shows itself as various without any variation in its nature, and so learn to remain thyself with thyself as motionless as a block of wood, and with thy dumb silence in utter amazement at all this. (The principles of vedánta philosophy being abstraction and generalisation, it takes the world and all things in their abstract light, and generalises them all under the general spirit of God).

REMONSTRATION OF SIKHIDHWAJA. Argument. - Further exhortations to spiritual knowledge and its confirmations. Sikhidhwaja said: - O sage, it is by thy good grace, that I am freed from my ignorance, and brought under the light of truth; my doubts are removed, and I am situated with my tranquillity of my spirit. 2. I have become as one knowing the knowable, and sits taciturn after crossing over the sea of delusion; I am quiet by quitting my egoism, and am set out of all disquiet by my knowledge of true self. 3. O! how long a time have I wandered, amidst the mazy depths of the world; after which I have now arrived to the safe harbour of my peace and security. 4. Being so situated, O sage, I perceive neither my egoism, nor the existence of the three worlds; it is ignorance to believe in their existence, but I am taught to believe in Brahma alone. 5. Kumbha replied: - How is it possible for the egoism, tuism or suism of any body, to exist anywhere; when this universe, this air and sky, have not their existence anywhere. 6. Sit quiet as usual be calm and as silent as a sage; and remain as still as the calm ocean, without the perturbation of the waves and whirl pools within its bosom.

7. Such is the quiet and tranquil state of Brahma, who is always one and the same as he is; and the words I, thou, this and that, and the world, are as void of meaning, as the universal vacuity, is devoid of anything. 8. What you call the world is a thing, having neither its beginning nor its end; it is the wonder of the Intellect, to shine as the clear light, which fills the etherial firmament. 9. The changes that appear to take place in the spirit of God, are as extraneous as the different colours that paint the vault of heaven, and the various jewelleries which are wrought upon gold; these have no intrinsic essentiality, and never affect the tranquillity of the divine spirit, nor the uniform serenity of the empty sky, nor the nature of the pure metal of gold. 10. As the Lord is self-born, so is his eternal will inherent in and born with himself; and what we call as free will or fate, depend on the nature of our knowledge of them. 11. Think yourself as something, and you become a bondsman to your desires; but believe yourself as nothing, and you are as free and enfranchised as free air itself.

12. It is the certain knowledge or conviction of thyself as a reality, and that thou art subject either to bondage or freedom, that constitutes thy personality. 13. It is the privation of thy knowledge of thyself or thy egoistic personality, that leads thee to thy consummation; whereas thy knowledge of thy personality exposes thee to danger; therefore think thyself as himself and not thyself (according to the formula ("so ham ana ham," i.e. I am he and not myself) and thou art safe from all calamity. (This is no more than one's self resignation to God)). 14. No sooner you get rid of the conviction of yourself, than your soul is enlightened by the light of true knowledge; and you lose the sense of your personality, and become consummated in your knowledge of yourself as one with the Holy spirit. 15. The inscrutable nature of God admits of no cause, because causality refers only to what is caused and cannot come to existence without a cause, and not to the uncaused cause of all.

16. As we have no knowledge of an object which is not in existence, so we cease to have any knowledge of our personality, if we but cease to consider ourselves as caused and created beings. (The sophists to think themselves as increate and say - man an wakt budam ke hichak nabud, i.e. I exist from a time when there was nothing in existence). 17. What is this world to us if we are unconscious of ourselves, and if we are freed from our knowledge of the objective world, we see but the supreme soul remaining after all. 18. Whatever is manifest here before us, is all situated in the spirit of the lord; all these are transcendent, and are situated as such and same with the full and transcendental spirit of God. (The fulness of the world, abides in the fulness of the divine spirit). 19. Therefore all these that are protuberant to view, are as figures carved on a rock; and the light that pervades the whole, is but the glory of the great God. 20. In absence of this visionary world from view, its light which is more pellucid than that of the transparent firmament will vanish away into nothing.

21. The insensible world seems to move about as a shadow or phantom in the air, whence it is called jagat or the moving world; but he alone sees it in its true light, who views it as motionless and without its sense of mobility, and as perfectly sedate and stationary in the spirit of God. 22. When the sight of the visibles, together with the sense of sensibles and the feelings of the mind, become insipid to the torpid soul that is absorbed in divine meditation; it is then called by the wise as nirvána absorption or the full light and knowledge of God. 23. As the breezeless winds sink in the air, and the jewellery melts in its gold; so doth the protruding form of the world, subside in the even spirit of God. 24. The sight of the world and the perceptions of the mind, which testify the existence of the world unto us, are but the representations of Brahma; as the false mirage, represents the water in the desert sands. 25. As when the vast body of water subsists without a wave to ruffle its surface, so doth the spirit of God remain in its state of calmness, when it is free from its operation of creation.

26. The creation is identic with Brahma, as the lord is the same with his creation, and this is true from the dictum of the veda, which says, "All this is Brahma, and Brahma is this (to pan)". 27. The meaning of the word Brahma or immensity, equally establishes the existence of the world; as the signification of the word world or cosmos, establishes the entity of Brahma. 28. The meaning of all words taken collectively, expresses a multitude; which is synonymous with Brahma - the great and immense aggregate of the whole. 29. And if we reject the sense of the greatness of God and of the world, as they are usually meant to express, yet the little or minuteness of God that remains at last, is so very minute that words cannot express it. (So the sruti, neither the greatness nor minuteness of God is expressible by words). 30. The lord that remains as the inherent and silent soul of all bodies, is yet but one soul in the aggregate; he remains as a huge mountain of his intelligence, as in the form of the whole of this universal cosmos.

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT. Argument: - Difference of Brahma from the world, consisting in the indestructibility of his essence. Sikhidhwaja said: - If it is so, O most intelligent sir, that the work is alike to the nature of its maker; and therefore the world resembles Brahma in every respect. 2. Kumbha replied: - Where there exists a causality, there is an effectuality also accompanied with it; so where there is no cause whatever, there can be no effect also following the same. 3. Therefore there is no possibility of any cause or its effect in this world, which is manifest before us as the self-same essence of the ever tranquil and the unborn spirit of God. 4. The effect that comes to pass from a cause, is of course alike to the nature of its causality; but what similarity can there exist between one, which is neither the cause nor effect of the other? 5. Say how can a tree grow which has no seed for its growth, and how can God have a seed whose nature is inscrutable in thought, and inexpressible in words.