Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

43. It is the net work of our thoughts and desires, that is interwoven with the threads of our repeated births; but the winds of our apathy and indifference blow off this web, and settle us in the state of supreme felicity. 44. Avarice is a thorny plant, that has taken deep root in the human heart; it is fostered under the shade of the arbor of desire, root out this tree of desire, and the thorny bush of avarice will fade away of itself. 45. The world is a shadow and a pseudoscope, and rises to view and disappears by turns; it is an error of the brain that presents the sight of the course of nature (sansriti), like that of the fairy land presented to us in a dream. 46. The king that forgets his nature of the Lord, mistakes himself for a prince, or that he is born or become the ruler of the land; this concept of his which springs from ignorance of his divine nature, vanishes soon after he comes to the real knowledge of himself. 47. The king in possession of his present royalty, has no reminiscence of his past and former state; as we do not recollect the foulness of the past rainy weather, in the serenity of the present autumn.

48. The thought that is predominant in the mind, naturally prevails over the fainter and weaker ones, as the highest pitch in music suppresses the bass tones, and takes possession of the ear. 49. Think in yourself that you are one (unit or the unity), and that you are the soul (or supreme soul); keep this single reflection before you, and holding fast to it, you will become the object of your meditation. (This is called [Sanskrit: átmapújá] spiritual adoration, or assimilating one's self to the supreme soul). 50. Such is the spiritual meditation of spiritualists like yourself, who aspire to the highest felicity of the supreme Being; while the external form of worship, is fit only for ungoverned minds, that rapt only for their temporal welfare. In formal worship composed of the worshipper, the formalities of the ritual and the articles of offerings, are symbolical of ignorant minds, and too insignificant to the wise.

SERMON OF SIVA ON THE SAME SUBJECT. Argument. - The divine state, above the quadruple conditions of waking, sleeping, dreaming and profound sleep. The god continued: - Such is the constitution of this world, composed of reality and unreality, and bearing the stamp of the almighty; it is composed both of unity and duality, and yet it is free from both. (To the ignorant it appears as a duality, composed of the mind and matter; but the wise take it neither as the one or the other, but the whole to pan - the root of pantheism). 2. It is the disfigurement of the intellect by foul ignorance, that views the outer world as distinct from its maker; but to the clear sighted there is no separate outer world, but both blend together in the unity. 3. The perverted intellect which considers itself as the body, is verily confined in it; but when it considers itself to be a particle of and identic with the divine, it is liberated from its confinement. (In the mortal and material frame). 4. The intellect loses its entity, by considering the duality of its form and sense; and be combined with pleasure and pain, it retains no longer its real essence.

5. Its true nature is free from all designation, and application of any significant term or its sense to it; and the words pure, undivided, real or unreal, bear no relation to what is an all pervasive vacuity. 6. Brahma the all and full (to pans plenum), who is perfect tranquillity, and without a second, equal or comparison, expands himself by his own power as the infinite and empty air; and stretches his mind in three different directions of the three triplicates. (Namely 1 of creation, preservation and destruction of the universe - 2 the three states of waking, sleeping, and dreaming - 3 the union of the three powers - the supernal, natural and material agencies. [Sanskrit: srishti, sthiti, pralaya, jágrat, nidra, sapta | ádhidaiva, ádhibhautika, ádhibhauvikanca].) 7. The mind being curbed with all its senses and organs in the great soul, there appears a dazzling light before it, and the false world flies away from it, as the shade of night disappears before the sunlight. (This verse is explained in the gloss to refer both to the supreme spirit before creation, as also to the yogi who distracts his mind and senses from the outer world, and sees a blazing light stretched over his soul).

8. The imaginary world recedes from view, and falls down like a withered leaf; and the living soul remains like a fried grain, without its power of vegetation or reproduction. 9. The intellect being cleared from the cloud of illusion, overhanging the deluded mind, shines as clearly as the vault of the autumnal sky; and is then called pashyanti or seeing from its sight of the supernatural, and utsrijanti also from its renunciation of all worldly impressions. (This is called also the cognoscent soul, from its cognition of recondite and mysterious truths). 10. The Intellect being settled in its original, pure and sedate state, after it has passed under the commotions of worldly thoughts; and when it views all things in an equal and indifferent light, it is said to have crossed over the ocean of the world. (The course of worldly life is compared to a perilous sea voyage, and perfect apathy and indifference to the world, is said to secure the salvation of the soul).

11. When the intellect is strong in its knowledge of perfect susupti or somnolence over worldly matters; it is said to have obtained its rest in the state of supreme felicity, and to be freed from the doom of transmigration in future births. (The perfect rest of the next world, is begun with one's ecstasis in this). 12. I have now told you, O great Vipra, all about the curbing and weakening of the mind, which is the first step towards the beatification of the soul by yoga; now attend to me to tell you, concerning the second step of the edification and strengthening of the intellect. 13. That is called the unrestricted power of the intellect, which is fraught with perfect peace and tranquillity; which is full of light, clear of the darkness of ignorance, and as wide stretched as the clear vault of heaven. 14. It is as deep as our consciousness in profound sleep, as hidden as a mark in the heart of a stone; as sweet as the flavour in salt, and as the breath of wind after a storm. (All these examples show the strength of the soul, to consist in its close compactness).

15. When the living principle comes to its end at any place, in course of time; the intellect takes it flight like some invisible force in open air, and mixes with the transcendent vacuum. 16. It gets freed from all its thoughts and thinkables, as when the calm sea is freed from its fluctuation; it becomes as sedate as when the winds are still, and as imperceptible as when the flower-cup emits its fragrance. 17. It is liberated from the bonds and ideas of time and place (by its assimilation to infinity and immortality); it is freed from the thought of its appertaining to or being a part of anything in the world; it is neither a gross or subtile substance, and becomes a nameless essence. (The intellect or soul bears distinctive mark or peculiarity of its own, except that it is some thing which has nothing in common with anything in the world). 18. It is not limited by time and space, and is of the nature of the unlimited essence of God; it is a form and fragment of the quadruple state of Brahma or Virát [Sanskrit: túryya túryyamása], and is without any stain, disease or decay.

19. It is some thing witnessing all things with its far seeing sight, it is the all at all times and places, it is full light in itself, and sweeter far than the sweetest thing in the world. (Nothing sweeter than one's self). 20. This is what I told you the second stage of yoga meditation, attend now, O sage! that art true to your vows, and dost well understand the process of yoga, to what I will relate to you regarding its third stage. 21. This sight of intellect is without a name, because it contains like the Divine Intellect all the thinkables (or objects of thought) within its ample sphere, as the great ocean of the world, grasps all parts of the globe within its spacious circumference. It extends beyond the meaning of the word Brahmátma or the ample spirit of the god Brahmá in its extension ad infinitum. (It resembles the comprehensive mind of God). 22. It is by great enduring patience, that the soul attains in course of a long time, this steady and unsullied state of its perfection purushártha; and it is after passing this and the fourth stage, that the soul reaches to its supreme and ultimate state of felicity.

23. After passing the successive grades and until reaching the ultimate state, one must practice his yoga in the manner of Siva the greatest of the yogis; and then he will obtain in himself the unremitting holy composure of the third stage. 24. By long continuance in this course, the pilgrim is led to a great distance, which transcends all my description, but may be felt by the holy devotee who advances in his course. 25. I have told you already of the state, which is beyond these three stages; and do you, O divine sage! ever remain in that state, if you wish to arrive to the state of the eternal God. 26. This world which seems as material, will appear to be infused with the spirit of God when it is viewed in its spiritual light, but upon right observation of it, it is neither the one nor the other (but a reflexion of divine mind). 27. This what neither springs into being nor ceases to exist; but is ever calm and quiet and of one uniform lustre, and swells and extends as the embryo in the womb. (The embryo is to be understood in a spiritual sense from God's conception of the world in his mind).

28. The undualistic unity of God, his motionlessness and the solidity of his intelligence, together with the unchangeableness of his nature, prove the eternity of the world, although appearing as instantaneous and evanescent. (The solid intelligence is shown in the instances of solidified water in ice and snow, and in the froth and salt of sea water). 29. The solidity of the intellect produces the worlds in the same manner as the congealed water causes the hail-stones, and there is no difference between the existent and nonexistent, since all things are ever existent in the divine mind. (Though appearing now and then to me or you as something new). 30. All is good (siva or solus) and quiet, and perfect beyond the power of description; the syllable om is the symbol of the whole, and its components compose the four stages for our salvation. (All is good. And God pronounced all was good. See the quadruple stages comprised in the letter om, in our introduction to the first volume of this work).

ADORATION OF THE GREAT GOD MAHÁ-DEVA. Argument. - Of Mahádeva, the father of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva and the manner of his worship. Vasishtha said: - Then Hara, who is the lake of the lotus of Gaurí (i.e. her husband), being desirous of my enlightenment, glanced on me for a minute, and gave utterance to his lecture. 2. His eyes flashed with light under his heavenly forehead, and were as two caskets of his understanding, which scattered its rays about us. (The eyes are the indexes of men's understanding in Physiognomy). 3. The god said: - O sage, call your thoughts home, and employ them soon to think of your own essence; and to bring about your ends, as the breezes of heaven convey the fragrance to the nostrils. (The mind is usually compared in its fleetness with the winds, and therefore the task of the breezes is imposed upon the thoughts, which are as vagaries unless they answer one's purposes). 4. When the object long sought for is got in one's possession, what else is there for one to desire any more. I who have known and come to the truth, have nothing to expect as desirable nor any thing to reject as despicable. (When one is possest of his sole object, he is indifferent about all others, whether they be good or bad).

5. When you have got your mastery over yourself, both in the states of your peace and disquiet; you should apply yourself to the investigation of yourself or soul, without attending to any thing besides. (Nothing better than self-culture, and the advancement and salvation of one's own soul). 6. You may at first depend on your observations of the phenomenal, (as preparatory to your knowledge of the noumenal), which you will now learn from my lecture, if you will attend to it with diligence. 7. After saying in this manner, the holder of the trident told me, not to rely on my knowledge of the externals, but to attend to the internal breathings, which move this abode of the body, as the physical forces move a machine. 8. The lifeless body being without its breathing, becomes dull and dull and dumb as a block; its power of movement being derived from the air of breath, but its powers of thought and knowledge are attributed to the intellect. 9. This intellect has a form more rare and transparent than the vacuous air, it is an ens which is the cause of all entities; and is not destroyed by destruction of the living body for want of vital breath.

10. The intellectual is more rarefied and translucent than the ethereal air, and never perishes with the body; because it remains as the power of intellection, in the mental (percipient) and living body. (The sruti says: it is the life of life, and mind of the mind). 11. As the clear shining mirror, receives the reflexion of external things; so the mind of God reflects all images from within itself, and from nothing situated without. 12. As the soiled glass receives no reflexion of outward things, so the lifeless body has no reflexion of any thing, though it is preserved to our view. (And so are all thoughtless persons considered as dead bodies). 13. The all-pervasive intellect, though it is formless itself, is yet prone towards the movement of sensible objects owing to its sensuous perceptions; but coming to the pure understanding of its spiritual nature, it becomes the supreme Siva again. 14. The sages then called this immaculate intellect by the several names of Hari, Siva, Brahmá, and Indra, who are the givers of the objects of desire to all living beings.

15. It is also styled the fire and air, the sun and moon, and the supreme Lord; and it is this which is known as the ubiquious soul and the intellect, which is the mine of all intelligence. 16. It is the lord of gods, the source of celestials, the Dháta or Brahmá, the lord of gods, and the lord of heaven. Any body who feels the influence of this great intellect in himself, is never subject to illusion. 17. Those great souls that are known in this world, under the names of Brahmá, Vishnu, Hara and others, are all but offspring of the supreme Intellect, and endowed with a greater portion of it. 18. They are all as sparks of hot iron, and as particles of water in the immense ocean of creation; so all those that are mistaken for gods, have sprung from the source of the supreme Intellect. 19. As long as there exist the seeds of error, and the sources of endless networks of imagination; so long the arbour of gross illusion does not cease, to sprout in endless ramifications. 20. The veda, its exposition and the vedic literature, are but tufts of the tree of ignorance for the bondage of men; and these again produce many other clumps, to hold men fast in their ignorance.

21. Who can describe the productions of nature, in the course of time and place; the gods Hari, Hara, and Brahmá are among the number, and have all their origin in the supreme Being - their common father. (So says the Atharva Sera Sruti: [Sanskrit: sarvvamidram brahmávishnurudrendráste sampamúyate sarvvani cíndráyánisahamúteh sakáranam káranánáma.]) 22. Mahádeva the great god is the root of all, as the seed is the source of the branches of trees; He is called the All (sarva), because He is the essence of all things, and the sole cause of our knowledge of all existence. (The Purána says to the same effect). [Sanskrit: trayaste káranátmánah játáh máhámaheshvarát | tapasá topathitvá tam pitaram parameshvaram |] 23. He is the giver of strength to all beings, he is self manifest in all, and is adorable and hallowed by all. He is the object of perception to them that know him, and is ever present in all places. (The word Mahádeva commonly applied to Siva, originally meant the great god, as in the definition of the term in the gloss. [Sanskrit: mahatyaparicchinne átmajnána yogaishvartye mahíyate pújyate iti mahádevah] So the sruti also: [Sanskrit: yo átmajnána yogaishvaryye mahati mahívate tasmáducyate mahádevah].)

24. There is no need of addressing invocatory mantras unto the Lord, who being omniscient and omnipresent, knows and sees all things as present before him at all places and times. 25. But being always invoked (or prayed unto) in the mind, this god who resides in every thing is attainable by us in every place; and in whatever form doth one's intellect appear to him, it is all for his good. (This passage means the visible form in which the deity makes his manifestation to the devotee). 26. He takes upon him the visible form, according to the thought in the mind of the worshipper, and this form is to be worshipped first of all with proper homage, as the most adorable Lord of gods. 27. Know this as the ultimate of the knowables of the greatest minds; and whoso has beheld this self-same soul, is freed from fears and sorrows and the complaints of old age, and is released from future transmigration, like a fried grain which vegetates no more. 28. By worshipping this well known and unborn first cause in one's self and at ease (i.e. without the formal rite); every one is freed from his fears, and attains his supreme felicity, why then do you bewilder yourselves amidst the visible vanities of the world.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SUPREME DEITY PARAMESWARA. Argument. - Description of god as the Producer of all, and present in every form; his purity from his intangibleness and his great grandeur. The god added: - Know now the lord god Rudra, who in the form of one self-same intellect, is situated within every form of being, as is of the nature of self-conscious (Swanubhiati) in every one. 2. He is the seed of seeds, and the pith and marrow of the course of nature; know it also as the agent of all actions, and the pure gist of the intellect also. 3. He is the pure cause of all causes, without any cause of himself; he is the producer and sustainer of all, without being produced or supported himself by another. 4. He is the sensation of all sensible beings, and the sense of all sensitive things; he is the sensibility of all sensuous objects, and the highest object of our sensuousness, and the source of endless varieties. 5. He is the pure light of all lights (of the sight, luminaries &c.), and yet invisible by all of them. He is the increate and supernatural light, the source of all sources of light and the great mass of the light of Intellect.

6. He is no positive (or material) existence, but the real (or essential) entity; he is all quiet and beyond the common acceptations of reality and unreality (Being no absolute or relative entity or non-entity). And among the positive ideas of the great entity &c. (mahásattwádi), know him as the Intellect alone and no other. (Many kinds of Entities are enumerated in Indian philosophy, such as: - [Sanskrit: matyena chávahárikena | satyena prátibha sikenábasthátva yena |] Again [Sanskrit: mahásatta, jagat satta, ádisattá karana vyáktatasattá |]) 7. He becomes the colour, colouring and colouror; He becomes as high as the lofty sky, and as low as the lowly hut. (The colour - rága means the passion and feelings also; and the sky and hut mean the empty space and decorated cottage). 8. There are in the expanded mind of this Intellect millions of worlds like sands in the desert, likewise many of these like blossoms of trees, have blown away, others are full blown, and many more will come to blow here after. 9. It is ever burning, as an inextinguishable flame by its own inherent fire; and though it is ever emitting innumerable sparks of its essence all about, yet there is no end of its light and heat and fire.

10. It contains in its bowels the great mountains, likening the particles of dust (or rather as the roes of a fish); it covers also the highest mountains, as the lofty sky hides the dusts on earth. So the sruti - Greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest. [Sanskrit: aníraníyan mahatimahiyát] 11. It comprehends the great - mahákalpa millennium, like a twinkling of the eye; and is also contained in a kalpa age, in its quick motion of a twinkling. (i.e. He is eternity as well as jot of time). 12. Though minuter than the point of a hair, yet it encompasses the whole earth (as its boundary line); and the seven oceans that encircle the earth with their vests, cannot gird the great Infinity. 13. He is called the great creator of the universe, though he creates nothing (Like the makers of other things); and though he does all actions, yet he remains as doing nothing (by his calm quietness).

14. Though the deity is included under the category of substance, yet he is no substance at all; and though there be no substantiality in him, yet his spirit is the substratum of all things. (All along he is the figure of vaiparitya or opposition, which well applies to Brahma who is all and nil or the omnium et nullum, Sarvamasarvam. (Though bodiless, he is the great body of the universe corpus mundi - viswarúpa or virát).) 15. He is adya - (hodie) today, and prátar - practer tomorrow, and though the preter and future, yet he is always present. Wherefore he is neither now or then, but sempiternal and for ever. 16. He is not in the babbling and prattling of babes and boys, nor in the bawling of beasts and brutes, nor in the jargon of savages; but equally understood by all in their peculiar modes of speech. (This is the interpretation of the gloss; but the words of the text are unintelligible and meaningless). 17. These words are meaningless and are yet true, like the obsolete words occurring in the vedas. Therefore no words can truly express what is God, because they are not what he is (but mere emblems). These difficult passages are not explained in the gloss and left out in the Calcutta edition.

18. I bow down to him who is all, in whom all reside and from whom they all proceed, and who is in all place and time, and who is diffused through all and called the one and all - to pan. 19. In this verbiology of obscure words, there will be found some fully expressive of the meaning, as in a forest of thick wood we happen to fragrant flowers, which we pluck and bear with us in handfuls. (The entangled phraseology of the stanza will bear no literal translation).

THE STAGE PLAY AND DANCE OF DESTINY. Argument. - Of the endless powers or saktis of Siva, among whom the power of Destiny is described in this. The God joined: - The beauty of the words said before is palpable, and their senses all allude to the truth, that the Lord of all is the rich chest of gems of all things in existence. (The gloss is too verbose in the explanation of this passage). 2. How very bright are the rays of the gems contained in the receptacle of the supreme Intellect, that shines forth with the collected light of all the luminous worlds in it. (It means to say, that the Divine intellect must be brighter far than all the orbs of light contained in it). 3. The essence of the intellect flies in the air in the form of the granular farina, and becomes the embryotic corpuscula; which in the manner of the vegetable seed, sprouts forth into the germ in its proper time, soil, moisture and temperature. (The gloss explains the essence satta to mean the energy - sakti, which is represented as the female attribute of the Divinity).

4. This power of the intellect, moves in the forms of froth and foam, and eddies and whirl pools in the sea; and rolls its waters against the hard stones of the beach. (The liquid waters are moving things that are hard to touch). 5. It is settled in the form of flavour in the clusters of flowers; it makes them full blown, and carries their fragrance to the nostrils. 6. Seated on bodies of stone (stony rocks), it makes them produce unstone-like substances (as the trees and their foliage and flowers of various hues); and makes the mountains to support the earth without their actually upholding it. (The mountains are called bhudharas or supports of the earth.) 7. The intellect takes the form of the air, which is the source of all vibrations, and touches the organ of touch (skin); with as much tenderness as a father touches the body of his child. 8. As the divine power extends itself in every thing, so it contracts the essences of all things in a mass within itself; and having absorbed the whole in the divine entity, makes all nature a vacuous nullity.

9. It casts the reflexion of its own clear image, in the transparent mirror of vacuum; and takes upon itself the pellucid body of eternity, containing all divisions of time. 10. Then there issues the power of Destiny, which predominates over the five principal divinities; and determines the ultimate fate of all that "this is to be so, and this other wise." 11. It is in the presence of the bright light of the all witnessing eye of the great God, that the picture of the universe presents itself to our sight; as the presence of the lighted lamp in the room, shows us the lights of the things contained in it. 12. The universal vacuum contains the great theatre of the universe, wherein the Divine powers and energies are continually playing their parts, and the spirit of God is the witness there of. 13. Vasishtha asked - What are the powers of that Siva (Jove), my lord! who are they and where are they situated; what is number, and how are they employed and who is their witness. 14. The god replied - The god Siva is the benignant, incomprehensible and tranquil supreme soul; He is gracious and formless and of the nature of the pure intellect only.

15. His essences are volition, vacuity, duration and destiny; and also the qualities of infinity and fulness. 16. Beside these he has the properties of intelligence and action, as also of causality and quietude; and there are many other powers in the spirit of Siva, of which there is no reckoning nor end. 17. Vasishtha rejoined - Whence came these powers to him, and how had they their variety and plurality; tell me, my lord! whence they arose, and how they were separated (from omnipotence which comprehends them all). 18. The god replied: - The god Siva who is intellect only of himself, has endless forms also (according to his endless attributes), and the powers that I have said to belong to him, are little and no way different essentiality. (The properties that are predicated of god, belong to his intrinsical nature and not derived from without). 19. It is the discrimination of the powers of intelligence, action, passion, vision and others; that the powers of God are said to be many and different from one another, like the waves of the sea (which appears in the different shapes of billows, surges &c.).

20. Thus do those different powers act their several parts for ever, in the grand stage of the universe; as the ages, years, months and weeks and days, play their parts under direction of time - the manager of the stage. 21. That power which appears as the one or another, is called the divine powers of destiny; and is distinguished by the several appellations of action, energy or will of God, or the dispensation of his Time. (Time is said to be the producer, sustainer and leveller of all things. [Sanskrit: kálí prabhavati dháryyte, pralíyate sarvvam tasmát kálí hi valavattarah]). 22. That power which determines the states of gods, and those of the great Rudras as so and so, and what regulates the conduct of all things from a mean straw to the great Brahmá, is called the predominant doom or destiny. 23. This destiny continues to dance about the great arena of the universe, until the mind is cleared of her bugbear and freed from anxiety by the knowledge of truth (that it is the Divine will which destines the destiny).

24. The play of destiny is very pleasing to behold, owing to the variety of its characters and contrivances, and the quick changes of the scenes, and the repeated entrances and exits of its players and actors. It is conducted all along with the music of the drums and trumpets of the roaring clouds of the Kalpánta-doomsday. (i.e. On the last day of universal dissolution, when the dance of destiny and her play are over). 25. The vault of heaven is the canopy over this stage, the season flowers are its decorations, and the showers of rain serve for the sprinkling of rose waters in it. 26. The dark clouds hung about the heavens are, the blue hanging screens around this stage, and the sexcentenary as of the earth with the shining gems in their bosom, serve for the ornamented pits and galleries of this playhouse. 27. The shining sky with its sight of the days and watches, and its eyes of the twinkling stars; is witnessing the continual rise and fall of all being, and the plunging and up heaving of mountaintops at the great deluge.

28. The revolving luminaries of the sun and moon, and the rolling currents of the Ganges, appear as the pearly jewels on the person of this actress, and the lustre of the twilight seems as the red red-dye of her palms. 29. The incessant motion of the upper and nether worlds, with the continued gingling of their peoples; resemble the footsteps of this dancing destiny, with the ringing trinkets and anklets fastened to her feet. 30. The sunshine and moonbeams, represent the lustre of her smiling face; and the twinkling stars in the sky, resemble the drops of sweat trickling on her face. 31. These very many worlds are supposed as so many apartments of this great theatre. 32. The two states of pleasure and pain or joy and grief, which are destined to the lot of all living beings, show the different shows of comic and tragic representations. 33. The changing scenes, that are always seen to take place in the play of destiny, at the great stage of this world; are continually witnessed by the great God himself, who is neither distant, or distinct from this, nor is this so from that.

ON THE EXTERNAL WORSHIP OF THE DEITY. Argument. - The External worship of God in his outward temple, with bodily acts and service. And also of Internal adoration in spirit or the Way to Liberation. The god continued: - This god who is the supreme Lord, is the adorable one of the wise; in the form of the intellect and conscious soul, and as all pervading and support of all. 2. He is situated alike in the pot and painting, in the tree and hut, in the vehicle and in all men and brute animals; under the several names of Siva, Hara, and Hari, as also of Brahmá, Indra, Agni, and Yama. 3. He is in the inside and outside of all as the universal soul, and always dwells in spirit and in the soul of every wise person. This Lord is worshipped in various forms by different people in the many modes as described below. 4. Hear me first relate to you, O great sage! how this god is worshipped in the outward form and formulas; and you will next hear me relate unto you, the inward form in which he is worshipped in spirit.

5. In all forms of worship you must cease to think of your body, and separate your mind from your person, however purified it may be (By your ablution and the like). You must then apply your mind diligently to think of the pure and bodiless soul, which witnesseth the operations of the body from its inside. 6. His worship consists in his inward meditation only, and in no other mode of outward worshipping, therefore apply your mind in the adoration of the universal soul, in its meditation in your soul only. 7. He is of the form of the intellect, the source of all light and glorious as millions of suns; He is the light of the inward intellect, and the receptacle (origin) of egoism and tuism. (i.e. of the subjective and objective). 8. His head and shoulders reach above the heaven of heavens, and lotus like feet descend far below the lowest abyss of vacuity. 9. His arms extend to the endless bounds of all sides and space; and hold in them the many worlds in the infinite firmament as their wielding weapons and arms.

10. The worlds rolling over one another, rest in a corner of his capacious bosom; His effulgence passes beyond the limit of the unlimited vacuum, and his person stretches beyond all imaginable bounds. (Extends through all extent, Pope). 11. Above, below, in all four quarters and in all sides of the compass, he extends unspent and without end; and is beset in all sides by the host of gods, Brahmá, Rudra, Hari and Indra, and the demi gods also. 12. These series of creatures are to be considered as the rows of hairs on his body; and the different courses of their actions, are as the strings binding the machines of the world together. 13. His will and destiny are powers proceeding from his person, as his active agencies in nature, such is the Lord - the supreme one, who is always to be worshipped by the best of men. 14. He is the intellect only and the conscious soul, the all pervading and the all supporting spirit; and resides alike in the pot and painting, as in the moving car as also in living animals. 15. He is Siva, Hari, and Hara, Brahmá, Indra, Fire, and Yama; He is the receptacle of endless beings, and the aggregate body of all essences or the sole entity of entities.

16. He contains this mundane sphere, together with all the worlds with their mountains and all other contents in himself; and the all powerful time which hurls them ever onward, is the warder at the doorway of his eternity. 17. The great god Mahádeva, is to be thought upon as dwelling in some part of this body of eternity and infinity, with his body and its members, and with a thousand ears and eyes. (This is same with the macrocosm of virát in the vedas). 18. This figure has moreover a thousand heads and a thousand hands with their decorations. It has as many eyes all over its body with their powers of sight and so many ears also with their power of hearing. 19. It has the powers of feeling or touch and taste all over its person, as also, the power of hearing in the whole body, and that of thinking in its mind within. 20. It is however wholly beyond all conception, and is perfectly good and gracious to all. It is always the doer of all things that are done, and the bestower of every blessing on all beings.

21. It is always situated in the inside of all beings; and is the giver of strength and energy to all. Having thought upon the Lord of Gods in this manner, the devotee is to worship him in the usual method of the ritual. 22. Now hear me tell you, that are best acquainted with Brahma, of the mode of worshipping him in spirit; which consists only in adoring him in the conscious soul, and not in presenting offerings unto him. 23. It requires no illumination nor fumigation of incense; It has no need of flowers or decorations, nor does require the oblations of rice or sprinkling of perfumes or sandal paste. 24. It needs no exhalation of saffron or camphor, nor any painting or other things (as chouriflappers and the like); nor has it any need of pouring the water, which is easily obtainable every where. 25. It is only by effusion of the nectareous juice of the understanding, that the god is worshipped; and this is styled the best kind of meditation and adoration of deity by the wise. 26. The pure intellect which is known to be always present within one's self, is to be constantly looked into and sought after, heard about, and felt both when one is sleeping or sitting or moving about.

27. By constantly talking on the subject, and resuming the inquiry after leaving it off, one becomes fully conscious of himself; and then he should worship his lord the self-same soul in his meditation of it. 28. The offering of the heart in meditation of the Lord, is more delectable to him than the sweetest articles of food, offered with the choices and most fragrant flowers. 29. Meditation joined with self-consciousness or contriteness of soul, is the best pádya and arghya water and offering that is worthy of the Lord; because the best meditation is that which is accompanied with the flower - self offering to the Lord. (For naught avails the most intense meditation of the mind, when the heart and soul are not devoted to the service of the Lord). 30. Without this kind of meditation, it is impossible the supreme soul in one's self; and therefore spiritual meditation is said to abound with the grace of God and the greatest enjoyment of happiness and prosperity. (So the sruti: - Meditation in spirit is attended with all enjoyment and felicity).

31. As the animal or irrational soul enjoys all its pleasures, in the abode of its body; so the rational and spiritual soul derives all its happiness from meditation. (Because the Lord being full of felicity, pours out the same into the spirit of his devotee). 32. The ignorant man that meditates on the Lord, for a hundred twinklings of the eye; obtains in reward thereof, the merit of making the gift of a milch-cow to a Brahman. 33. The man who worships the Lord in his soul, for half an hour in this manner; reaps the reward of making a horse sacrifice (according to law). 34. He who meditates on the Lord in spirit and in his own spirit, and presents the offering of his reflections unto him, is entitled to the merit of making a thousand horse sacrifices. 35. Whoso worships the Lord in this manner for a full hour, receives the reward of making the Raj sacrifice; and by worshipping him in this form in the midday; he obtains the merit of making many thousands sacrifices of such kind. 36. The man who worships him in this way for a whole day, settles in the abode of the deity.

37. This is called the superior yoga meditation, and the best service of the Lord, as also the external adoration of the soul. 38. This mode of holy adoration destroys all sins; and whoso practices it for a minute with a steady mind, he is certainly entitled to the venerations of gods and demigods, and placed in the rank of emancipated spirits like myself.

MODE OF THE INTERNAL WORSHIP OF THE DEITY. Argument. - The inward form in which, He is worshipped in spirit. The God resumed: - I will now relate to you, the form of the inward worship of the spirit in spirit; which is reckoned as the holy of holies, and dispeller of all darkness. 2. This mode of worship depends also on mental meditation, and is conducted in every state of life, whether when one is sitting or walking, or waking or sleeping. 3. It requires the supreme Siva, who is always situated in the body of man; and who is the cause of the perception of all things, to be worshipped in spirit and in the spirit of man. 4. Whether you think him, as sleeping or rising, walking or sitting; or whether conceive him touching or intangible contact with any thing, or quite unconnected and aloof from every thing about him. 5. Or whether you take him as enjoying the gross objects, or shunning them all by his spiritual nature; or as the maker of all outward objects, and the ordainer of all forms of action. -

6. Or whether you consider him as remaining quiescent in all material bodies, or that he is quite apart from all substantial forms; you may worship him in whatever form your understanding presents him to you, or what you can best conceive of him in your consciousness. 7. Whoever has fallen in and is carried away by the current of his desires and who is purified from his worldliness by the sacred ablution of his good sense; should worship the Siva lingam as the emblem of understanding with the offering of his knowledge of it. (The Lingam is the type of unity, represented by the figure, as the syllable om is the type of trinity expressed by its three letters). 8. He may be contemplated in the form of the sun, shining brightly in the sky; as also in that of the moon, which cools the sky with its benign moon beams. (Because the sun and moon are included under the eight forms of [God] as we see in the Prologue to Sakuntala. [Sanskrit: ye he kálah vidharttah] etc.). 9. He is always conscious in himself of all sensible objects, which are ever brought under his cognizance by means of his senses, as the breath brings fragrance to the nostrils.

10. He gives flavour to all sweets, and enjoys the sweetness of his felicity (ánanda) in himself; and employs the breathings as his horses, and borne in the car of respiration, sleeps in the cell of the heart. 11. Siva is the witness of all sights, and actor of all actions; he enjoys all enjoyments, and remembers all what is known. 12. He is well acquainted with all the members of his body, and knows all that is in existence and inexistence; he is brighter than all luminous objects, and is to be thought upon as the all-pervading spirit. 13. He is without parts and the totality of all parts, and being situated in the body, he resides in the vacuity of the heart; he is colourless himself and yet paints all things in their variegated colours, and is the sensation of every member of the body. 14. He dwells in the faculty of the mind, and breathes in the respirations of the beings; he resides within the heart, throat and palate of the mouth, and has his seat amidst the eyebrows and nostrils (as intelligence and breath of life).

15. He is situated beyond the limit of the thirty six categories of the saiva sástras, as also of the ten saktis ([Sanskrit: dashamahávidyá]) that are known to the saktas; he moves the heart and gives articulation to sounds, and makes the mind to fly about as a bird of the air. 16. He resides both in equivocal and alterative words, and is situated in all things as the oil in sesame seeds. 17. He is without the blemish of parts (being a complete whole in himself), and is compact with all the parts of the world taken together. He is situated alike in a part of the lotus-like heart of the wise, as well as in all bodies in general. 18. He is as clear as the pure and spotless intellect, and the imputation of parts to him is the work of mere imagination only. He is as palpably seen in everything at all places, as he is perceptible to us in our inward perception of him. 19. Though originally of the nature of universal intelligence yet he appears in the form of the individual soul according to the desire of men; and residing in every individual, he is divided into endless dualities (of universal and particular souls).

20. Then this God (the intelligent individual soul) thinks himself as an embodied being, endued with hands and legs, and the other parts and members of the body, with its hairs, nails, and teeth. 21. He thinks of being possest of manifold and various powers and faculties, and is employed in a variety of actions according to the desires of the mind. He feels glad on being served by his wives and servants (and thinking himself as their master). 22. He thinks the mind as a porter at the gate, and conductor of the information of the three worlds unto him; and his thoughts are as the chambermaids, waiting at his door with their pure attires. 23. He believes his knowledge of egoism as his greatest power and consort (sakti), and his power of action as his mistress; he thinks his knowledge of various lores to be his decorations only. 24. He knows his organs of sense and action to be the doors of the abode of his body, and is conscious of his being the infinite soul and inseparable from the same. 25. He knows himself to be full of the universal spirit; filled by and filling others with the same; and bears his admirable figure of the body, by his dependance on the Divine spirit.

26. That he is filled with the god-head within him, and is therefore no contemptible soul himself. He never rises nor sets nor is he glad or displeased at any time. (But enjoys the serenity of the Eternal soul). 27. He never feels himself satiate or hungry, nor longs after nor forsakes anything; he is ever the same and of an even tenor, temper and conduct and form at all times. 28. He retains the gracefulness of his person, the clearness of his mind, and the calmness of his views at all times; he is ever the same since his birth, and the equanimity of his soul never forsakes him at any time. 29. He is devoted to the adoration of his God, for longsome days and nights, and the mind abstracted from his body, becomes the object of his worship. (The gloss explains it otherwise, and makes the mindless body the worshipped object). 30. This God is worshipped with whatever offerings are available by the devotee, and with all the powers of the understanding, employed in the adoration of the sole Intellectual spirit. 31. He is to be worshipped with all things agreeably to the received ritual, and no attempt is to be made to make any offering, which was never made at any time before.

32. Man being endued with the body, should worship the Lord with his bodily actions (as prostration, genuflexion &c.); and with all things that conduce to bodily enjoyment. 33. So is Siva to be worshipped with eatables and victuals, food and drink of the best and richest kind; and with beddings and seats and vehicles as one may afford to offer. 34. Men must also entertain their souls, which are the abodes of the Divine spirit in their bodies; with all kinds of things that they think pleasurable to themselves; such as excellent food and drink and all things affording enjoyment and pleasure. 35. They must diligently serve the supreme soul in their souls, under any calamity, difficulty, danger or disease that may befall on them, as also when they are overtaken by illusions of their understandings. 36. The ends of all the attempts of mankind in this world, being no more than life, death and sleep, they are all to be employed in the service of the soul of nature. 37. Whether reduced to poverty or elevated to royalty, or carried by the currents of casualty; men must always serve their souls, with the flowers of their best endeavours.

38. Whether overwhelmed by broils, or buffeting in the waves of mishaps, whether undergoing the troubles or enjoying the comforts of domestic life, men must serve their souls at all times. 39. When the gentle beams of fellow feeling, overspread the breast of kind hearted men, and when the sweet influence of sympathy melts the heart, it is then must meet to serve the soul seated in it. 40. When a man has restrained the turbulent passions of his breast, by the power of his right judgment; and spread the vest of soft tenderness and sweet content over his heart and mind; let him then worship in its serene aspect within himself. 41. Let men worship the soul, on the sudden changes of their fortunes; both when they come to the possession, or loss of their enjoyments. (Because the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken them away). 42. The soul should be adhered to and adored, both when you lose or abandon your legal or illegal possession and enjoyment, of anything on earth. 43. Isha - the lord of wealth is to be worshipped with relinquishment of all wealth, which one may have got by his own exertion or otherwise. (Give your all to the giver of all).

44. Regret not for what is lost, and make use of what you have got; and adore the supreme soul without any inconstancy in your mind and soul. 45. Retain your constancy amidst the scene of the wicked pursuits of men, and maintain your vow of the holy devotion of the supreme spirit at all times. 46. Every thing appears as good in the sight of the Godly, who view all things in God; and they all seem to be mixed with good and evil to the worshipper of God and Mammon. Therefore look on all things as situated in the divine spirit, and continue in your vow of the adoration of the supreme soul. 47. Things which appear as pleasant or unpleasant at first sight, are all to be taken in an equal light, by those that are firm in their vow of the adoration of the one universal soul. 48. Give up thinking yourself as such or not such a one, forsake all particularities, and knowing that all is the universal One, continue in your vow of adoring the supreme soul. 49. Worship the supreme spirit as it always resides in all things, in their various forms and multifarious changes, and that it is all and all in their modifications also.

50. Forsake both your pursuit after or avoidance of any thing, and remaining in your indifference of both extremes, continue in your adoration of the soul at all times. 51. Neither seek nor forsake any thing, but receive what comes to thee of itself or by thy own lot; and enjoy all things as the sea does the streams of water, which fall to it of their own accord. 52. Fallen (placed) in this wide world of misery, man should take no heed of the lesser or greater sights of woe, that incessantly present themselves to his view. They are as the fleeting tincts and hues that paint the vacuous vault of the skies, and soon vanish into nothing. 53. All good and evil betide us by turns at the junction of their proper time, place and action; therefore take them with unconcern to you, and serve your own soul. (Which is same with the soul of souls). 54. Whatever things are mentioned as fit offerings of the service of the supreme spirit, it is the equanimity of your soul which is deemed the best and fittest offering. (A contrite spirit is most acceptable unto the Lord).

55. Things of different tastes, as the sour, bitter, acid, sharp and pungent, are useless in the service of the spirit; it is the calm and sweet composure of the soul, which is delectable to the holy spirit. 56. Equanimity is sweet to taste, and has the supernatural power of transforming every thing to ambrosia. (The man of an even mind, enjoys the sweetness of contentment in every state of life). 57. Whatever a man thinks upon with the ambrosial sweetness of his disposition, the same is immediately changed to ambrosia, as the nectarious dew drops under the moon beams. 58. Equanimity expands the soul, and gladdens the minds, as the sunlight fills the vault of heaven; and it is the unchangeable sedateness of the mind, which is reckoned as the highest devotion. 59. The mind of man must shine with an even lustre, as the bright moon beams in their fullness, and it must blaze with the transparent light of the intellect, as a bright crystal in the sunlight. 60. He who is employed in his outward actions of life, with his mind as bright as the clear sky; and which is freed from the mist of worldly affections, is said to be the full knowing devotee.

61. The true devotee shines as brightly, as the clear autumnal sky, when the worldly impressions are quite effaced from the heart, and are not seen even in dream, when the cloud of ignorance is cleared away, and the fog of egoism is utterly scattered. 62. Let your mind be as clear as the moon, and as spotless as the blazing sun; let it hide the thoughts, of the measurer and measured (i.e. of the creator and created) in it; let it have the simple consciousness of itself, like a newborn child (without its innate ideas); and perceiving only the steady light of the intellect the seed of all intelligence; you will then come to attain the state of highest perfection in your life time. 63. Living amidst the fluctuations of pain and pleasure, attending on the lot of all living beings, and occurring at their fixed times and places and actions of man, do you remain in the steady service of your soul - the leader of your body, by tranquilizing all the passions and desires of your heart and mind.

INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE DEITY. Argument - That the God Siva is beyond his formular adoration and his nature as that of the pure Intellectual soul. The God continued: - It is of no consequence, whether the spiritualist observe formal adoration in its proper time and manner or not; it is enough if he adore Siva in his form of the intellect within himself, which is equivalent to the worship of the átmá or soul. (i.e. Worshipping the spirit in spirit). 2. This is attended with a delight, which becomes manifest within himself; and thus full of spiritual light and delight, the devotee is assimilated to and self same with his God. (This is the state of ecstacy, in which the adept loses himself in his God). 3. The meanings of the words affection and hatred, do not belong to the holy soul as separate properties of it; but they blend together and die in it as sparks in fire.

4. The knowledge that the dignity and poverty of men, as also the happiness and misery of one's self or others, proceed from God, is deemed as the worship of the supreme spirit, which ordains them all. (The gloss explains, that the attribution of all accidents of life to God, in his adoration also, as it is done by the offering of flowers unto him). 5. The consciousness of the world as manifestation of the Divine spirit, is reckoned as his devotion also, as a pot or other taken for the spirit of God, owing to its residence in it, forms his worship also. 6. The quiet and lightless spirit of Siva, being manifest in his works of creation, the whole sensible world is believed to be the form of the supreme spirit. 7. It is astonishing that every soul should forget its own nature, and think itself as a living soul residing in the body, as they believe the supreme soul to be confined in a pot or painting. 8. It is astonishing also, how they should attribute false ideas of worship, worshipper and the worshipped to the god Siva, who is the infinite soul of all and a pure spirit.

9. The ritual of worship and adoration, which applies to the finite forms of gods (their idols); cannot be applied to the worship of the infinite spirit of God. 10. The pure spirit of the eternal, infinite and all powerful, cannot be the object of ritualistic worship, which relates to finite gods or idols. 11. Know, O Brahman! that the spirit of God, which pervades the three worlds, and is of the nature of pure intellect, is not to be circumscribed by any form or figure. (As that of an idol or any natural object). 12. Know, O wisest of the wise! that those that have their god, as circumscribed by time and place (i.e. represented as limited and finite beings), are not regarded by us among the wise. 13. Therefore O sage! retract your sight from idols and idolatrous worship, and adopt your view to spiritual adoration; and be of an even, cool and clear mind, be dispassionate and freed from decay and disease. 14. Do you continue to worship the supreme spirit with an unshaken mind, by making him offerings of your desires, and all the good and evil that occur to you at any time. (i.e. submit to the dispensations of Providence).

15. O sage, that art acquainted with the sole unity, in the one uniform tenor of thy soul and mind, thou art thereby set above the reach of the miseries attending his frail life, as the pure crystal is clear of the shade and dross of all worldly things.

VANITY OF WORLD AND WORLDLY THINGS. Argument. - Refutation of Received Doctrines. Vasishtha asked: - What is called the god Siva, and is meant by supreme Brahma; and what is the meaning of soul, and what is its difference from the supreme soul? 2. That the tat sat - Id. est is the true entity, and all else is non entity; what is vacuum that is nothing, and what is philosophy that knows everything. Explain to me these differences, for thou lord! knowest them all. 3. The god replied: - There exist a sat ens, which is without beginning and end; and without any appearance, or reflexion of its own; and this entity appears as a non entity, owing to its imperceptibility by the senses. 4. Vasishtha rejoined - If this entity, lord! is not perceptible by the organs of sense, and unknowable by the understanding, how then, O Isána! is it to be known at all. 5. The god replied: - The man that desires his salvation, and yet sticks to his ignorance, is a sage by name only; and such men are subjected to greater ignorance, by the sástras they are guided by. 6. Let one ignorance removes another, as washerman cleanses one dirt by another. (i.e. Let the erroneous and mutually discordant theories of the sástras, refute the errors of one another).

7. When the error of ignorance, are removed by the opposition to each other; it is then that the soul appears of itself to view as a matter of course. 8. As a child daubs his fingers by rubbing one piece of coat against another (so is a man darkened the more by the tenets of contradictory sástras); but gets them cleansed by washing off his hands from both of them. 9. As they examine both sides of a question in a learned discussion, and the truth comes out from amidst them both, so the knowledge of the soul, appears from midst of the mist of ignorance. 10. When the soul perceives the soul, and scans it by itself; and as it comes to know it in itself, it is said to get rid of its ignorance, which is then said to be utterly destroyed. 11. The paths of learning and the lectures of a preceptor, are not the proper means to the knowledge of the soul, until one comes to know the unity of this thing by his own intuition.

12. All the preceptors of sástras, place the soul amidst the bodily senses; but Brahmá is situated beyond the senses, and is known after subjection of sensible organs. So the thing which is obtainable in absence of something, is never to be had in the presence of that thing (such is the antipathy of the soul and senses against one another). 13. It is seen however, that many things are used as causes of what they are no causes at all; as they make use of the lectures of the preceptor and the like, as means for the attainment of spiritual knowledge. 14. A course of lectures is of course calculated, to throw light on the student's knowledge of the knowables; but in matters of abstract knowledge and invisible soul, it is the soul itself that must throw its own light. 15. No explanation of the sástras, nor the lectures of the preceptor, are calculated to give light on spiritual knowledge, unless it is understood by the intuitive knowledge of the spirit itself. 16. Again the soul is never to be known without learning and lectures, and therefore both of them must combine with our inquiry to bring us to the light of the soul.

17. It is therefore the combination of bookish knowledge with the instruction of the preceptor, joined with the investigation of the inquirer, that is calculated to enlighten us on spiritual knowledge, as the appearance of the day with the rising sun and waking world, gives an impetus to the rise of duties of the rising world. 18. After subsidence of the senses and actions of bodily organs, together with the imperceptibility of our sensations of pain and pleasure; that we come to the knowledge of Siva, other wise known as the soul, the tat sat, He that is, and under many other designations. 19. When there was not this plenum of the world, or it existed in its spiritual or ideal forms; it is since then that this infinite entity has existed, in its vacuous form which is rarer than the ether. 20. Who is continually meditated upon by the nice discernment of the seekers of salvation, and is variously represented by the pure minded and those of vitiated minds. 21. There are others who are situated in the sight of, and not far from the path of living liberation, who are employed in leading others to salvation, and in the exposition of the sástras in their works.

22. There have been many thinking and learned men, who have used the words Brahmá, Indra, Rudra, and the names of the regents of worlds (for God), in order to justify the doctrines of the Puránas, Vedas and Siddhántas. 23. Others have applied the fictitious titles of chit or intellect, Brahmá, Siva, Átmá the soul or spirit, Ísha - the Lord, the supreme spirit and Íshvara-god, to the nameless god head that is apart and aloof from all. 24. Such is the truth of nature and of thyself also, which is styled the siva of felicitous; and which always confers all felicity to the world and to thyself also. (The word siva means jovus or solas and is meant to express the joviality and soliety which always attends on all beings). 25. The words siva, soul, supreme Brahmá and some others, have been coined by the ancients to express the supreme being; and though they differ in sound, there is no difference of them in sense and signification. 26. Know, O chief of sages! that wise men always adore this god whom we serve also, and unto when we return as the best and ultimate states of all. (Siva is a hypostasis of the infinite deity).

27. Vasishtha said: - Please Lord! explain to me in short, how the ever existent Deity remains as non-existent, and could it come to existence from its prior state of nihility? 28. The god replied: - Know the meaning of the words Brahmá &c. to bear relation to our consciousness only, and this though it is as clear as the sky, and as minute as an atom, has the great bulk of the mount Meru contained in it. 29. Although this is unintelligible to us, and far beyond our conception and comprehension of it; yet it becomes intelligible to us when we take it the form of our intellect. 30. By taking it objectively, it becomes intelligible to us in the manner of our Egoism; and by thinking on its personality we have the same idea of it, as one has of a wild elephant from its sight in a dream. 31. These ideas of its egoism and personality, being limited by time and space, give rise to many aerial forms as attendants upon it. (These aerial forms are the different attributes of God). 32. Accompanied with these, there proceeds the entity called the Jíva or living spirit, which is conversant with its oscillation and respiration, in the form of a pencil of air.

33. After the power of vitality is established and has come in force; there follows the faculty of understanding; which remains in utter ignorance at first. 34. It is followed by the faculties of bearing, action and perceptions; all of which operate inward by without their development in outward organs. 35. All these powers uniting together, conduce to the excitement of memory, which exhibits itself soon in the form of the mind; which is the tree of desires. 36. Hear now what is called the spiritual body by the learned, it is the inward power of God of the form of the conscious soul, and seeing the divine soul in itself. 37. There rise afterwards the following powers in the mind; which develop themselves in the outer organs, although their powers may be wanting in them. (Such as the blind eyes, deaf ears &c.). 38. These are the essences of air and motion, and of feeling also, together with the senses of touch and heat emitted by the eyes. 39. There are the essences of colour, water and taste also, and likewise the essences of smell and flavour too. 40. There are the essences of earth and gold, and the essences of thick mass; and also the essences of time and space, all of which are without form and shape.

41. The spiritual body contains all these essences in itself as its component parts, as the seed of a fruit contains the leaves and germ of the future tree in its cell. 42. Know this to be ativáhika or spiritual body, and containing the eight elementary senses, wherefore it is called the puryashtaka also; and these are developed afterwards in the organs of sense. 43. The primary or spiritual body which is formed in this manner, is actually nobody at all; since it is devoid of understanding, intellect, senses and sensibility. 44. It is the supreme Being only, which contains the essence of the soul, as it is the sea which contains the limpid waters. 45. The soul is that which is possessed of its consciousness and knowledge, all besides this is dull and insensible matter; and which is viewed by the soul, as the sight of a fairy land in the dream. 46. It is therefore by consciousness and knowledge that Siva can be known, and what is not to be known by these can be nothing at all. 47. The supreme soul sees all things within itself, as parts of itself (produced from its will of becoming or dividing itself into many); and beholds particles of his atomic self, formed into innumerable bodies.

48. These soon increased in bulk and became big bodies, and bore the marks of the organs upon them. 49. Then it became of the form of a man, from his thought of being so; and this soon grew up in its size of a full grown man. 50. So do our bodies appear to us in our living state, as the fairyland appears to one in his dream. 51. Vasishtha said: - I see the appearance of the human body, to resemble the vision of the fairyland in the dream; and I see also the miseries awaiting on human life in this world. Now tell me, my Lord! how all this misery is to be removed from it. 52. The god replied - All human woe is owing to their desires, and belief of the reality of the world; but it must be known to be all as unreal, as waves of water seen in a sea in the mirage. 53. There why such desire, and for what good and use, and why should the dreaming man be deluded to drink the show of water in the mirage?

54. The viewer of truth, who is freed from his views of egoism and tuism, and has got off from the deluded and its delusive thoughts, doth verily behold the true entity of God in his presence, in the utter absence of all worldly thoughts from his mind. 55. Where there is no desirer or desire or the desired object, but the only thought of the one unity, there is an end of all error and misery. 56. He whose mind is freed from the true and false bugbears of common and imaginary error, and is settled in the thought of one unity alone, sees nothing but the unity before him. 57. The desires of the mind, rise as goblins in the midway sky; and the thoughts of the world rove about the sphere of the mind, as the numerous worlds revolve in the sky hence there is no peace of the soul, unless these subside to rest. 58. It is useless to advise the man to wisdom, who is elated by his egoism, and is deluded by the waters of the mirage of this evanescent world.

59. Wise men should advise the prudent only, and throw away their instruction to boys that are wandering in error, and are shunned by good people. To give good counsel to the ignorant, is as offering a fair daughter in marriage to the spectre of man seen in a dream.

THE SUPREME SOUL AND ITS PHASES AND NAMES Argument. - The various Processes whereby the supreme soul becomes the animal soul; and this again extending in all beings. Vasishtha said: - Tell me Lord! what is the state of the living soul, after its situation in the open air, and its observation of the vanity of the elemental and material body on its first creation. 2. The god replied - The living soul having sprung from the supreme, and being situated in the open firmament, views the body formed in the aforesaid manner, as a man sees a vision in his dream. 3. The living soul being ubiquitous, enters and acts in every part of this body, according to the behest of the embodied intellect, as a sleeping man acts his parts in a dream, and bears his body still. 4. It was the indiscrete infinite soul before, and then became the discrete spirit called the first male, and this spirit was the primary cause of creation in itself. 5. Thus this animated spirit became as Siva, at the beginning of the first creation; it was called Vishnu in another, and became the lotus born Brahmá or the great patriarch in the other.

6. This great progenitor of one creation, became the intellect in another, this became the volitive male agent of creation afterwards, and at last look upon it a male form according to its volition. 7. The primary volition of ideal creation becoming compact in time, it takes the form of the mind; which feels itself able to effect in act, whatsoever it wills in itself. (This form of the Mind is called Hiranyagarbha or Brahmá - the creative power of God). 8. This creation of the world by Brahmá is mere visionary, as the sight of a spectre in the air or in a dream; but it appears as a positive reality, to the erroneous sight of the realist. (i.e. The world is ideal to the idealist, but a sober reality to the positivist). 9. The prime male agent that becomes the beholder of his creation, retains in him the power of exhibiting himself (or displaying his will) in the empty air every moment, or to retract them in himself into time. 10. To him a Kalpa or great Kalpa age, is a mere twinkling of his eye; and it is by the expansion or contraction of himself, that the world makes its appearance or disappearance.

11. Worlds come to appear and disappear at his will, at each moment of time, in each particle of matter, and in every pore of space, and there is no end of this successions in all eternity. 12. Many things are seen to occur one after another, in conformity with the course of our desires; but we never find any thing to take place, in concurrence with our sight of the holy spirit. (i.e. Nothing is both temporally as well as spiritually good). 13. All things are created (and vanish) with this creation, which do not occur to the unchanging Siva; and these are like the shadowy appearances in empty air, which rise of themselves and disappear in air. 14. All real and unreal appearances vanish of themselves, like mountains appearing in dreams; all these creations have no command over their causality, space or time. 15. Therefore all these phenomenals are neither real, potential or imaginary or temporary appearances; nor is there any thing, that is produced or destroyed at any time. 16. All these are the wondrous phenomena of our ideas and wishes (sankalpas), exhibited by the intellect in itself; and this world is like the appearance of an aerial castle in the dream, and subject to its rise and fall by turns.

17. The visible which appears to be moving about in time and space, has actually no motion whatever in either; but remains as fixed as an ideal rock in the mind for ever. (The unreal world can have no actual motion). 18. So also the extension of the unreal world, is no extension at all; as the magnitude of an ideal rock has no dimension whatever. (Things in the abstract, have no imaginable measure). 19. The situation and duration of the unreal world, conform exactly with the ideas of its time and place, which exist in the mind of the maker of all (or the great Archetype). 20. It is in this manner that he is instantly changed to a worm (from his idea of it), and so are all the four orders of living beings born in this world. 21. Thus the curative power becomes all things, from the great Rudras down to the mean straws in a minute (from his ideas of these); and even such as are as minute as atoms and particles of matter (i.e. in the forms of the protozoa and small animalcula).

22. This is the course of the production of the past and present creations, and it is the reminiscence of the past, which is the cause of the delusion of taking the world for a real existence. 23. After giving away the thought of the difference between the creator and the created, and by the habit of thinking all as the unity, one becomes Siva in a minute, and by thinking so for a longer period, one is assimilated to the nature of the supreme Intellect. 24. The intellect proceeds from the original intellect (of God), and rises without occupying any place. It is of the nature of understanding, and resides in the soul in the manner of empty air in the midst of a stone. 25. The soul which is of the manner of eternal light, is known under the denomination of Brahmá and the intellect which seated in this (soul), becomes weakened as the creative power increase, and strengthens in it. (i.e. The power of the thinking intellect decreases in proportion, as the power of the creative mind is on its increase). 26. Next the particles of time and place, join together in the formation of minute atoms; which by forming the elementary bodies, have the living principle added to them. (These are called the protozoa or animalcules).

27. These then become vegetables and insects, and beasts, brutes and the forms of gods and demigods; and these being stretched out in endless series, remain as a long chain of being, connected by the strong and lengthening line of the soul, (called the sútrátmá). 28. Thus the great god that pervades over all his works in the world, connects all things in being and not being, as pearls in a necklace by the thread of his soul. He is neither near us nor even far from us; nor is he above or below anything whatever. He is neither the first nor last but ever lasting (having neither his beginning nor end). He is neither the reality or unreality, nor is he in the midst of these. 29. He is beyond all alternatives and antitheses, and is not to be known beyond our imaginary ideas of him. He has no measure or dimension, nor any likeness, form or form to represent him. Whatever greatness and majesty are attributed to him by men, they are all extinguished in his glory as the fire is cooled in the water.

30. Now, I have related to you all what you asked me about, and will now proceed to my desired place. Be you happy, O sage, and go your way; and rise, O Párvatí and let us take our way. 31. Vasishtha said: - When the god with his blue throat had spoken in this manner, I honoured him with throwing handfuls of flowers upon him. He then rose with his attendants, and pierced into the vacuity of heaven. 32. After departure of the lord of Umá, and master of the three worlds, I remained for some time reflecting on all I had heard from the god, and then having received the new doctrine with the purity of my heart, I gave up the external form of my worshipping the Deity.

ON REST AND TRANQUILLITY. Argument. - Ráma admits before Vasishtha the removal of his doubt in dualistic doctrine. Vasishtha said: - I well understand what the god said, and you too, O Ráma! know very well the course of the world. 2. When the false world appears in a false light to the fallacious understanding of man, and all proves to be but vanity of vanities, say what thing is there that may be called true and good and what as untrue and bad. (There is nothing what ever which is really good). 3. As the alternative of something is not that thing itself, so the optional form of the soul, though not the soul itself, yet it serves to convey some idea of the soul. (As the explanation of the gloss is; - The similitude of a thing though not the thing itself, yet it gives some idea of the original). 4. As fluidity is the nature of liquids, and fluctuation is that of the winds, and as vacuity is the state of the sky, so is creation the condition of the spirit or divine soul. 5. I have ever since (hearing the lecture of Sivá), betaken myself to the worship of the spirit in spirit; and have since then, given up my eagerness for the outward adoration of gods.

6. It is by this rule that I have passed these days of my life, though I am tamely employed in the observance of the prescribed and popular ritual. 7. I have worshipped the Divine spirit, in all modes and forms and offering of flowers, as they presented of themselves to me; and notwithstanding the interruptions, I have uninterruptedly adored my god at all times, both by day and night. 8. All people in general, are concerned in making their offerings acceptable to their receiver (god), but it is the meditation of the yogi, which is the true adoration of the spirit. 9. Having known this, O lord of Raghu's race, do you abandon the society of men in your heart, and walk in your lonely path amidst the wilderness of the world, and thereby remain without sorrow and remorse. 10. And when exposed or reduced to distress, or aggrieved at the loss or separation of friends, rely on this truth, and think on the vanity of the world. 11. We should neither rejoice nor regret, at the acquisition or loss of friends and relations; because all things almost are so frail and unstable, in this transitory world.

12. You well know, Ráma! the precarious state of worldly possessions and their pernicious effects also; they come and go away of their own accord, but overpower on the man in both states (of prosperity and adversity). 13. So uncertain are the favours of friends and fortune, and so unforeseen is their loss also, that it is no way possible for any body to account for them. (i.e. to assign any plausible cause to either). 14. O sinless Ráma! such is the course of the world, that you have no command over it nor is it ever subject to you; if the world is so insubordinate to you, why is it then that you should be sorry for so unmanageable a thing? 15. Ráma! mind your spiritual nature, and know yourself as an expanded form of your intellect. See how you are pent up in your earthly frame, and forsake your joy and grief at the repeated reiterations and exits of your corporeal body. 16. Know my boy, that you are of the form of your intellect only, and inherent throughout all nature; therefore there is nothing that you can resume to or reject from you in the world.

17. What cause of joy or grief is there in the vicissitudes of things in the world, which are occasioned by the revolutions of the mind on the pivot of the intellect; and resemble the whirling waters of the sea, caused by an eddy or vortex in it. 18. Do you, O Ráma! betake yourself to the fourth stage of susupta or hypnotism hence forth, as the even tenor of the intellect, is attended by its trance at the end. 19. Be you as cold and composed with your placid countenance and expanded mind, as the quiet spirit of God is diffused and displayed through out all nature; and remains as full as the vast ocean, in the contemplation of that soul, whose fulness fills the whole. 20. You have heard all this already, Ráma! and are fraught with the fulness of your understanding, now if you have any thing else to ask with regard to your former question, you can propose the same. (This was a question regarding the observance of ceremonial rites). 21. Ráma said: - Sir, my former doubts are all dispersed at present, and I have nothing more to ask you regarding the same (i.e. the dualistic doctrine that raised the doubts).

22. I have known all that is to be known, and felt a heartfelt satisfaction at this, and now I am free from the foulness of the objective, and of dualism and fictions. (Knowledge of the objective being unspiritual, the dualism of matter and mind as unscriptual, and the fictions of the gods etc., as mere vagaries of imagination). 23. The foulness of the soul, proceeds from ignorance of the soul; and this ignorance (of the subjective self), which had darkened my soul, is now removed by the light of spirituality. 24. I was under the error (of the mortality and materiality of the soul), which I have now come to understand, is neither foul matter, nor is it born or dies at any time. (i.e. It is immaterial, unproduced and immortal). 25. I am now confirmed in my belief, that all this is Brahmá diffused through out nature (in his all pervasive form vivartarúpá); and I have ceased from all doubts and questions on the subject, nor have I the desire of knowing any thing more about it. (He desires to know nothing, who beholds the lord in every thing).

26. My mind is now as pure, as the purified water of filtering machine; and am no more in need of learning any thing, from the preachings and moral lessons of the wise. 27. I am unconcerned with all worldly affairs, as the mount Sumeru is insensible of the golden ores in its bosom and having all things about me, I am quite indifferent to them; because I have not what I expect to have, nor do I possess the object of my fond desire. 28. I expect nothing that is desirable, nor reject any thing which is exceptionable; nor is there a mean in the interim of the two in this world, because there is nothing that is really acceptable or avoidable in it, nor anything which is truly good or bad herein. 29. Thus, O sage, the erroneous thought of these contraries, is entirely dissipated from me; wherefore I neither care for a seat in heaven, nor fear the terrors of the infernal regions. 30. I am as fixed in the selfsame spirit, as the mount Mandárá is firmly seated amidst the sea, and which scatters its particles throughout the three worlds, as that mountain splashed the particles of water in its state of churning the ocean.

31. I am as firm as the fixed Mandárá, while others are wandering in their errors of discriminating the positive and negative and the true and false, in their wrong estimation. 32. The heart of that man must be entangled with the weeds of doubts, who thinks in his mind the world to be one thing, and the Divine spirit as another. (This duality is the root of doubts in the one ultimate unity). 33. He that seeks for his real good in any thing in this world, never finds the same in the unsubstantial material world, which is full of the confused waves of the eternity. 34. It is by your favour, O venerable sir, that I have got over the boisterous ocean of this world; and having the limits of its perilous coasts, have come to the shore of safety and found the path of my future prosperity. 35. I am no more wanting in that supreme felicity, which is the summum bonum of all things; and am full in myself as the lord of all. And I am quite indomitable by any body, since I have defeated the wild elephant of my covetousness.

36. Being loosened from the chain of desire, and freed from the fetters of option, I am rich and blest with the best of all things, and this is the internal satisfaction of my soul and mind, which gives me a cheerful appearance in all the triple world.

INQUIRY INTO THE ESSENCE OF THE MIND. Argument. - On the means of forsaking all connections and desires, and the subjection of the mind by spiritual knowledge. Vasishtha said: - Ráma! whatever acts you do with your organs of action and without application of the mind to the work in hand, know such work to be no doing of yours. (An involuntary action is not accounted as the act of one, in absence of his will in it). 2. Who does not feel a pleasure at the time of his achieving an action, which he did not feel a moment before, nor is likely to perceive the next moment after he has done the work. (Therefore it is the attention of the mind which gives pleasure to an action, and which is not to be felt in absence of that attention, both before and after completion of the act). 3. The pleasure of a thing is accompanied only with the desire of its passion, and not either prior or posterior to the same; therefore it is boyish and not manliness to take any delight in a momentary pleasure. (All pleasure and pain are concomitant with their thoughts only; and these being fleeting there is no lasting pleasure or pain in anything).

4. Whatever is pleasant during its desire, has that desire only for the cause of its pleasantness: hence the pleasurableness of a thing lasting till its unpleasurableness is no real pleasure; wherefore this frail pleasure must be forsaken together with its temporary cause of desire by the wise. 5. If you have arrived to that high state (of knowing the universality of the soul); then be careful for the future, and merge yourself no more in the narrow pit of your personality. 6. You who have now found your rest and repose, in being seated in the highest pinnacle of spiritual knowledge (by cognoscence of yourself); must not allow your soul any more, to plunge in the deep and dark cave of your egoistic individuality. 7. Thus seated on the pitch of your knowledge, as on the top of the Meru mountain; and remembering the glorious prospect all around you; you cannot choose to fall down into the hellpit of this earth, and to be reborn in the darksome cave of a mother's womb. (Because the living soul is doomed to transmigration and regeneration until its final liberation).

8. It appears to me, O Ráma! that you are of an even temperament, and have the quality of truth (satyaguna) full in your nature; I understand you have weakened your desires, and have entirely got over your ignorance. 9. You appear to be settled in your nature of purity, and the temperament of your mind appears to me to be as calm and quiet as the sea, when it is full and untroubled by the rude and rough winds of heaven. 10. May your expectations set at ease, and your wants terminate in contentment, let your dementation turn to rightmindedness, and live unconnected with and aloof from all. 11. Whatever objects you come to see placed before you, know the same as full of the Divine intellect, which is consolidated and extended through all, as their common essence. (The solid intellect forming the body, and its rarity the mind. "That extended through all yet in all the same; great in the earth as in the etherial frame", Pope). 12. One ignorant of the soul, is fast bound to his ignorance; and one acquainted with the soul, is liberated from his bondage. Hence, O Ráma! learn to meditate constantly and intensely, the supreme soul in your own soul.

13. It is indifference which wants to enjoy nothing, nor yet refuses the enjoyment of whatever presents of itself to any body; and know inappetency to consist in the cool calmness of the mind, resembling the serenity of the sky. (Insouciance is the want of desire and renunciation of prurience and not the abdication of enjoyment). 14. Preserve the cold listlessness of your mind, and discharge your duties with the cool application of your organs of action; and this unconcernedness of your mind, will render you as steady as the sky at all accidents of life. 15. If you can combine the knower, knowable and the knowledge (i.e. all the three states of the subjective, objective and the intermediate percipience) in your soul alone; you will then feel the tranquillity of your spirit and shall have no more to feel the troubles of sublunary life. 16. It is the expansion and contraction of the mind, that causes the display and dissolution of the world; try therefore to stop the action of thy mind, by restraining the breaths of thy desire in thyself.

17. So it is the breath of life, which conducts and stops the business of the world, by its respiration and rest; restrain therefore the breathing of the vital air, by thy practice of the regulation of thy breathing (as dictated before). 18. So also it is the act of ignorance to give rise to ceremonious works, as it is that of knowledge to repress them; Do you therefore boldly put them down by your own forbearance, and the instructions you derive from the sástras and your preceptors. 19. As the winds flying with dust, darken the fair face of the sky; so the intellect being daubed with the intelligibles (the subjective soiled with the objective), obscure the clear visage of the soul. 20. The action of the relation between the vision and visibles (i.e. the mutual of the eyesight and outward objects on one another), causes the appearance of the world and its course; as the relation that there exists between the solar rays and formations of things, makes them appear in various colours to the eye. (Neither the course of the world, nor the appearance of colour is in real being, but is owing to the relative combination of things).

21. But the want of this relativity removes the phenomenals from sight, as the want of light takes away the colours of things. (The former is an instance of the affirmative kind (anvayi); and the latter a vyatireki or negative one). 22. The oscillation of the mind causes the illusions, as the palpitation of the heart raises the affections, and they are all at a stop at the suspension of the actions of these organs. So the waves raised by motion of waters and action of the winds, subside in the deep, by cessation of the actions of these elements. (The question is whether the affections are not causes of the palpitation of the heart?). 23. The abandonment of every jot of desire, the suspension of respiration, and the exercise of intellection, will contract the actions of the heart and mind, and thereby prevent the rise of the passions and affections and of illusions also. (Entire dispassionateness is the perfection of yoga asceticism). 24. The unconsciousness which follows the inaction of the heart and mind, in consequence of the suspension of the vital breath is the highest perfection (of yoga philosophy).

25. There is a pleasure in respect to the vision of visibles, which is common to all living being; but this being felt spiritually, amounts to holy pleasure paramánanda. But the sight of God in one's consciousness, which is beyond the province of the mind; transcends the mental pleasure, and affords a divine ecstacy, called the Brahmánanda. 26. The mind being dormant and insensible, affords the true rapture of the soul; and such as it is not to be had even in heaven, as it is not possible to have a refrigeratory or cooling bath in the sandy desert. 27. The inertness of the heart and mind is attended with a delight, which is felt in the inmost soul and cannot be uttered in words; it is an everlasting joy that has neither its rise nor fall, nor its increase or decrease. (It is the lasting sunshine and unchanging moonlight of the soul). 28. Right understanding weakens the sensuous mind (by the blaze of rationality), but wrong understanding serves to increase its irrational sensuousness only. It then sees the thickening mists of error, rising as spectres and apparitions before the sight of boys.

29. Though the sensational mind is existent in us, yet it seems as quite inexistent and extinct before the light of our rationality, as the substance of copper appears to disappear by being melted with gold. (The carnal mind is converted to the rational understanding by its association with it). 30. The mind of the wise is not the sensuous mind, because the wise mind is an essence of purity by itself; thus the sensible mind is changed in its name and nature to that of the understanding, as the copper is converted to the name and nature of gold. 31. But it is not possible for the mind to be absorbed at once in the intellect, its errors only are moved by right understanding, but its essence is never annihilated. (As the alloy of copper in gold). 32. Things taken as symbols of the soul, are all unsubstantial as the mind and vital principle; all which are as unreal as the horns of a hare (which are never known to grow). They are but reflexions of the soul, and vanish from view after the soul is known. (The mind is said to be an expansion of the soul [Sanskrit: átmanívivartta rúpam|]).

33. The mind has its being for a short time only, during its continuance in the world; but after it has passed its fourth stage of insensibility, it arrives to the state of comatosity which is beyond the fourth stage. 34. Brahmá is all even and one, though appearing as many amidst the errors that reign over the world; He is the soul of all and has no partial or particular form of any kind. He is not the mind or any thing else, nor is He situated in the heart (as a finite being). (Gloss: - The Divine Soul like the human mind has conceptions of endless things, which are neither situated in it nor parts of itself, but are as empty phantoms in the air).

STORY OF THE VILVA OR BELFRUIT. Argument. - God represented as the Belfruit or Wood apple; containing the Worlds as its seeds. Vasishtha said: - Attend now, O Ráma! to a pleasant story, which was never told before, and which I will briefly narrate to you for your instruction and wondrous amusement. 2. There is a big and beautiful vilva or bel fruit, as large as the distance of many myriads of miles, and as solid as not to ripen or rot in the course of as many many ages. 3. It bears a lasting flavour as that of sweet honey or celestial ambrosia; and though grown old yet it increases day by day like the crescent new moon, with its fresh and beautiful foliage. 4. This tree is situated in the midst of the universe, as the great Meru is placed in the middle of the earth; it is as firm and fixed as the Mandara mountain, and is immovable even by the force of the diluvian winds. 5. Its root is the basis of the world, and it stretches to the distance of immeasurable extent on all sides.

6. There were millions of worlds all within this fruit as its un-countable seeds; and they were as minute in respect to the great bulk of the fruit, that they appeared as particles of dust at foot of a mountain. 7. It is filled and fraught with all kinds of delicacies, that are tasteful and delicious to the six organs of sense; and there is not one even of the six kinds of savoury articles, that is wanting in this fruit. 8. The fruit is never found in its green or unripe state, nor is it ever known to fall down ever over-ripened on the ground; it is ever ripe of itself, and is never rotten or dried or decayed at any time by age or accident. 9. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Rudra, are not sempiternal with this tree in their age, nor do they know aught of the origin and root of this tree, nor anything about its extent and dimensions. 10. None knows the germ and sprout of this tree, and its buds and flowers are invisible to all. There is no stem or trunk or bough or branch, of the tree that bears this great fruit.

11. This fruit is a solid mass of great bulk, and there is no body that has seen its growth, change or fall. (It is ever ripe without ripening or rotting at any time). 12. This is the best and largest of all fruits, and having no pith nor seed, is always sound and unsoiled. 13. It is as dense as the inside of a stone in its fullness, and as effluent of bliss as the disk of the moon, drizzling with its cooling beams; it is full of flavour and distils its ambrosial draughts to the conscious souls of men. 14. It is source of delight in all beings, and it is the cause of the cooling moon-beams by its own brightness; It is the solid rock of all security, the stupendous body of felicity, and contains the pith and marrow that support and sustain all living souls, which are the fruits of the prior acts of people. (i.e. The souls of all beings are as fruits formed according to the nature and merit of their previous acts - karma, and all these souls are filled with delight by the great soul of God).

15. Therefore that transcendent pith which is the wonder of souls, is contained in the Infinite spirit of God, and deposited and preserved in that auspicious fruit - sriphala - the bel or wood apple. 16. It is deposited with its wondrous power in that small bel fruit, which represents the human as well as the divine soul, without losing its properties of thinness and thickness and freshness for ever. (i.e. All the divine powers - of evolution are lodged in the soul). 17. The thought that 'I am this', clothes the unreality with a gross form (as the thought of a devil gives the unreal phantom a foul figure); and though it is absurd to attribute differences to nullities, yet the mind makes them of itself and then believes its fictitious creatures as real ones. 18. The Divine ego contains in itself the essential parts of all things set in their proper order, as the vacuity of the sky is filled with the minute atoms, out of which the three worlds did burst forth with all their varieties. (So the substance of the bel fruit, contains the seeds of the future trees and all their several parts in it).

19. In this manner there grew the power of consciousness in its proper form, and yet the essence of the soul retains its former state without exhausting itself. (It means that notwithstanding the endless evolutions of the Divine soul, its substance ever continues the same and is never exhausted). 20. The power of consciousness being thus stretched about (from its concentration in itself), makes it perceive the fabric of the world and its great bustle in its tranquil self. (It means how the subjective consciousness is changed to the objective). 21. It views the great vacuum on all sides, and counts the parts of time as they pass away; it conceives a destiny which directs all things, and comes to know what is action by its operation. 22. It finds the world stretching as the wish of one, and the sides of heaven extending as far as the desires of men; it comes to know the feelings of love and hatred, and the objects of its liking and dislike.

23. It understands its egoism and non-egoism or tuism, or the subjective and objective and views itself in an objective light, by forgetting its subjectivity. It views the worlds above and being itself as high as any one of them, finds itself far below them. (The human soul though as elevated as the stars of heaven, becomes as low as a sublunary being by its baseness). 24. It perceives one thing to be placed before, and another to be situated beside it; it finds some thing to be behind, and others to be near or afar from it; and then it comes to know some things as present and others as past or yet to come before it. (The soul losing its omniscience has a partial view of things). 25. Thus the whole world is seen to be situated as a play house in it, with various imaginary figures brightening as lotuses in a lake. 26. Our consciousness is seated in the pericarp of the lotus of our hearts, with the knowledge of our endless desires budding about it, and viewing the countless worlds turning round like a rosary of lotus seeds.

27. Its hollow cell like the firmaments is filled with the great Rudras, who rove about in the distant paths of the midway sky, like comets falling from above with their flaming tails. (The vedas describe the Rudras as blue necked &c. (nílagríváh). These worshipful gods of the vedas are found to be no other than wondrous phenomena of the vacuity which are deified in the Elementary religion of the ancients). 28. It has the great mount of Meru situated in its midst, like the bright pericarp amidst the cell of the lotus flower. The moon capt summit of this mount is frequented by the immortals, who wander about it like wanton bees in quest of the ambrosial honey distilled by the moon beams on high. (The gloss places the Meru in the northern region of the distant pole, while the Puránas place it in the midst of the earth). It was the resort of the gods as also the early cradle of the pristine Aryans, who are represented as gods.

29. Here is the tree of the garden of Paradise with its clusters of beautiful flowers, diffusing their fragrance all around; and there is the deadly tree of the old world, scattering its pernicious farina for culling us to death and hell. (The gloss explains rajas or flower dust as our worldly acts, which lead us to the hell torments of repeated transmigrations). 30. Here the stars are shining, like the bright filaments of flowery arbors, growing on the banks of the wide ocean of Brahma; and there is the pleasant lake of the milky path, in the boundless space of vacuity. 31. Here roll the uncontrolled waves of the ceremonial acts, fraught with frightful sharks in their midst, and there are the dreadful whirlpools of worldly acts, that whirl mankind in endless births for ever more. 32. Here runs the lake of time in its meandering course for ever, with the broad expanse of heaven for its blooming blossom; and having the moments and ages for its leaves and petals, and the luminaries of sun, moon and stars for its bright pistils and filaments.

33. Here it sees the bodies of living beings fraught with health and disease, and teeming with old age, decay and the torments of death; and there it beholds the jarring expositions of the sástras, some delighting in their knowledge of spiritual Vidyá, and others rambling in the gloom of Ignorance - Avidyá (which leads them from error to error). 34. In this manner doth our inner consciousness, represent the wonders contained in the pulp of the vilva fruit; which is full of the unsubstantial substance of our desires and wishes, and the pithless marrow of our false imagination. 35. It sees many that are tranquil, calm, cool and dispassionate, and who are free from their restraints and desires; they are heedless of both their activity and inactivity, and do not care for works whether done or left undone by them. 36. Thus this single consciousness presents her various aspects, though she is neither alone nor many of herself, except that she is what she is. She has in reality but one form of peaceful tranquillity; though she is possest of the vast capacity of conceiving in herself all the manifold forms of things at liberty.

PARABLE OF THE STONY SHEATH OF THE SOUL. Argument. - The divine mind is the substratum of the totality of existence. Ráma said: - Venerable sir, that knowest the substance of all truths; I understand the parable of bel fruit which you have just related to me to bear relation to the essence of the compact intellect, which is the only unit and identic with itself. 2. The whole plenitude of existence together with the personalities of I, thou, this and that form the plenum (or substance), of the intellect; and there is not the least difference between them, as this is one thing and that another. (All this is but one undivided whole, whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope). 3. Vasishtha answered - As this mundane egg or universe is likened to a gourd fruit, containing the mountains and all other things as its inner substance; so doth the intellect resemble the bel fruit or the grand substratum, that contains even the universe as the kernel inside it.

4. But though the world has no other receptacle beside the Divine intellect, yet it is not literally the kernel inside that crust (i.e. the substance of that substratum in its literal sense). Because the world has its decay, decline and dissolution also in time, but none of these belong to the nature of the everlasting mind of God. 5. The intellect resembles the hard coating of the pepper seed, containing the soft substance of its pith inside it, and is likened also to block of stone, bearing the sculptured figures peacefully sleeping in it. (All things are engraven in the divine mind). 6. Here me relate to you, O moon faced Ráma! another pleasant story in this place which will appear equally charming as well as wondrous to you. (It is the story of stone like Brahma). 7. There is a huge block of stone somewhere, which is as big as it is thick and solid; it is bright and glossy, and cold and smooth to touch; it never wastes or wears out, nor becomes dark and dim.

8. There are many full blown lotuses, and unnumbered buds of water lilies, growing amidst the limpid lake of water, contained within the bosom of this wondrous stone. (It means that the mind of God has all these images of things engraved in it as in a stone). 9. There are many other plants growing also in that lake, some with their long and broad caves and others with their alternate and joint foliums likewise. 10. There are many flowers with their up lifted and down cast heads, and others with their petals hanging before them; some having a combined or common footstalk, and others growing separate and apart from one another; some are concealed and others manifest to view. 11. Some have their roots formed of the fibres of the pericarp, and some have their pericarps growing upon the roots (as orchids), some have their roots on the tops and others at the foot of trees, while there are many without their roots at all: (as the parasite plants). 12. There are a great many conch shells about these, and unnumbered diseases also strewn all about.

13. Ráma said: - All this is true, and I have seen this large stone of sálgráma in my travels; and I remember it to be placed in the shrine of Vishnu, amidst a bed of lotus flowers. (The sálgráma stone is perforated by the vajra-kíta, and contains many marks inside it, resembled to the map of the world in the mundane egg of the divine mind. See vajra-kíta in the works of Sir William Jones). 14. Vasishtha replied: - You say truly, that you have seen that great stone and know its inside also; but do you know the unperforated and hollowless stone of the divine mind, that contains the universe in its concavity, and is the life of all living beings (and not the dull, lifeless and hollow sálagráma stone which they worship as an emblem of the divine mind). 15. The stone of which I have been speaking to you, is of a marvelous and supernatural kind; and contains in its voidless bosom all things as nothing. (i.e. the ideas and not substances of things). 16. It is the stone like intellect of which I have spoken to you, and which contains all these massive worlds within its spacious sphere. It is figuratively called a stone from its solidity, cohesive impenetrability and indivisibility like those of a block.