Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

DESCRIPTION OF THE MIND. Argument: - On the liberation of the living soul, and description of the mind as the miniature of the world. The Lord continued: - Now Arjuna, forsake your sympathy for your friends, by the coldheartedness that you have acquired from the abandonment of your desires and cares, and the liberation that you have attained to in this your living state. 2. Be dispassionate, O sinless Arjuna! by forsaking your fear of death and decay of the body; and be as clear as the unclouded sky in your mind, by driving away the clouds of your cares from it, and dispelling all your aims and attempts either of good or evil for yourself or others. 3. Discharge your duties as they come to you in the course of your life, and do well whatever is proper to be done, that no action of yours may go for nothing (i.e. Do well or do nothing). 4. Whoso does any work that comes to him of itself in the course of his life, that man is called to be liberated in his life time; and the discharge of such deeds, belongs to the condition of living liberation.

5. That I will do this and not that, or accept of this one and refuse the other, are the conceits of foolishness; but they are all alike to the wise (who have no choice in what is fit and proper for them). 6. Those who do the works which occur to them, with the cool calmness of their minds, are said to be the living liberated; and they continue in their living state, as if they are in their profound sleep. 7. He who has contracted the members of his body, and curbed the organs of his senses in himself, from their respective outward objects, resembles a tortoise, that rests in quiet by contracting its limbs within itself. 8. The universe resides in the universal soul, and continues therein in all the three present, past and future times, as the painting-master of the mind, draws the picture of the world in the aerial canvas. 9. The variegated picture of the world, which is drawn by the painter of the mind in the empty air, is as void as the vacant air itself, and yet appearing as prominent as a figure in relief, and as plain as a pikestaff.

10. Though the formless world rests on the plane of vacuity, yet the wonderous error of our imagination shows it as conspicuous to view; as a magician shows his aerial cottage to our deluded sight. 11. As there is no difference in the plane surface of the canvas, which shows the swelling and depression of the figures in the picture to our sight; so there is no convexity or concavity in the dead flat of the spirit, which presents the uneven world to view. (i.e. All things are even in the spirit of God, however uneven they may appear to us). 12. Know, O red eyed Arjuna! the picture of the world in the empty vacuum is as void as the vacuity itself; it rises and sets in the mind, as the temporary scenes which appear in imagination at the fit of a delirium. 13. So is this world all hollow both in the inside and outside of it, though it appears as real as an air drawn city of our imagination, by our prejudice or long habit of thinking it so. (A deep rooted prejudice cannot soon be removed).

14. Without cogitation the truth appears as false, and the false as true as in a delirium; but by excogitation of it, the truth comes to light, and the error or untruth vanishes in nubila. 15. As the autumnal sky, though it appears bright and clear to the naked eye, has yet the flimsy clouds flying over it, so the picture drawn over the plane of the inane mind, presents the figures of our fancied objects in it. (Such is the appearance of our imaginary world and our fancied friends in the perspective of the mind). 16. The baseless and unsubstantial world which appears on the outside, is but a phantasy and has no reality in it; and when there is nothing as you or I or any one in real existence, say who can destroy one or be destroyed by another. 17. Drive away your false conception of the slayer and slain from your mind, and rest in the pure and bright sphere of the Divine spirit; because there is no stir or motion in the intellectual sphere of God, which is ever calm and quiet. All commotions appertain to the mental sphere, and the action of the restless mind.

18. Know the mind to contain every thing in its clear sphere, such as time and space, the clear sky, and all actions and motions and positions of things; as the area of a map presents the sites of all places upon its surface. 19. Know the mind to be more inane and rarefied than the empty air, and it is upon that basis the painter of the intellect, has drawn the picture of this immense universe. 20. But the infinite vacuum being wholly inane, it has not that diversity and divisibility in it, as they exhibit themselves in the mind, in the rearing up and breaking down of its aerial castle. (The imagination of the mind raises and erases its fabrics; but those of vacuum are fixed and firm for ever). 21. So the earthly mortals seem to be born and die away every moment, as the chargeful thoughts of the all-engrossing mind, are ever rising and subsiding in it. 22. Though the erroneous thoughts of the mind, are so instantaneous and temporary; yet it has the power of stretching out the ideas of the length and duration of the world, as it has of producing new ideas of all things from nothing. (So God created every thing out of nothing).

23. The mind has moreover the power of prolonging a moment to a kalpa age; as of enlarging a minim to a mountain, and of increasing a little to a multitude. 24. It has the power also of producing a thing from nothing, and of converting one to another in a trice; it is this capacity of it, which gives rise to the erroneous conception of the world, in the same manner, as it raises the airy castle and fairy lands of its own nature in a moment. 25. It has likewise brought this wonderous world into existence, which rose out in the twinkling of an eye, as a reflexion and not creation of it. (Because the disembodied mind can not create any material thing). 26. All these are but ideal forms and shadowy shapes of imagination, though they appear as hard and solid as adamant; they are the mistaken ideas of some unknown form and substance.

27. Whether you desire or dislike your worldly interests, show me where lies its solidity, both in your solicitude as well as indifference about it; the mind being itself situated in the intellect of the Divine contriver, the picture of the world, can not have its place any where else. (The world being in the mind, and this again in the Divine intellect, the world must be situated also in the same, which is the main receptacle of the world also). 28. O how very wonderous bright is this prominent picture, which is drawn on no base or coating, and which is so conspicuous before us, in various pieces without any paint or color whereof it is made. 29. O how pleasant is this perspicuous picture of the world, and how very attractive to our sight. It was drawn on the inky coating of chaotic darkness, and exhibited to the full blaze of various lights (of the sun, moon, stars and primeval light). 30. It is fraught in diverse colors, and filled with various objects of our desire in all its different parts; it exhibits many shows which are pleasant to sight, and presents all things to view of which have the notions in our minds.

31. It presents many planets and stars before us, shining in their different shapes and spheres all about. The blue vault of heaven resembling a cerulean lake, brightens with the shining sun, moon and stars liking its blooming and blossoming lotuses. 32. There are the bodies of variegated clouds, pendant as the many coloured leaves of trees on the azure sky; and appearing as pictures of men, gods and demons, drawn over the domes of the three regions (of earth, heaven and hell below, in their various appearances of white, bright and dark). 33. The fickle and playful painter of the mind, has sketched and stretched out the picture of the sky, as an arena for the exhibition of the three worlds, as its three different stages; where all deluded peoples are portrayed as joyful players, acting their parts under the encircling light of the supreme Intellect. (The world is a stage, and all men and women its players, Shakespeare).

34. Here is the actress with her sedate body of golden hue, and her thick braids of hair; her eyes glancing on the people with flashes of sunshine and moon-beams, the rising ground is her back and her feet reaching the infernal regions; and being, clothed with the robe of the sástra, she acts the plays of morality, opulence and the farce of enjoyments. 35. The Gods Brahmá, Indra, Hari and Hara, form her four arms of action, the property of goodness is her bodice, and the two virtues of discretion and apathy, are her prominent breasts. The earth resting on the head of the infernal Serpent, is her lotus like foot-stool upheld by its stalk; She is decorated on the face and forehead with the paints of mineral mountains, whose valleys and caves form belly and bowels. 36. The fleeting glances of her eyes dispelling the gloom of night, and the twinkling of stars are as the erection of hairs on her body; the two rows of her teeth emitted the rays of flashing lightnings, and all earthly beings are as the hairs on her person, and rising as piles about the bulb of a Kadamba flower.

37. This earth is filled with living souls, subsisting in the spacious vacuum of the Universal soul, and appearing as figures in painting drawn in it. This the skilful artist of the mind, that has displayed this illusive actress of the Universe, to show her various features as in a puppet show.

ON ABANDONMENT OF DESIRE AND ITS RESULT OF TRANQUILLITY. Argument: - The final lecture to Arjuna on the Peace of mind resulting from its want of desire. The Lord said: - Look here, O Arjuna! The great wonder which is manifest in this subject; it is the appearance of the picture, prior to that of the plane of the plan upon which it is drawn. (The appearance of the mind or painting, before that of Viráj or the spirit of God which exhibits the painting. Gloss). 2. The prominence of the painting and the non-appearance of its basis, must be as wonderous as the buoyancy of a block of stone, and the sinking down of gourd shell as is shown in a magic play. 3. The Universe resting in the vacuity of the Divine spirit, appears as a picture on the tablet of the mind; say then how does this egoism or self knowledge of your substantiality, arise from the bosom of the vacuous nullity. (i.e. How can substantial spring from the unsubstantial, or some thing come out of nothing). 4. All these being the vacant production of vacuum, are swallowed up likewise in the vacuous womb of an infinite vacuity; they are no more than hollow shadows of emptiness, and stretched out in empty air.

5. This empty air is spread over with the snare of our desires, stretching as wide as the sphere of these outstretched worlds; it is the band of our desire that encircles the worlds as their great belt. 6. The world is situated in Brahmá as a reflexion in the mirror, and is not subject to partition or obliteration; owing to its inherence in its receptacle, and its identity with the same. 7. The indissoluble vacuum being the nature of Brahma, is inseparable from his essence; for nobody is ever able to divide the empty air in twain or remove it from its place. 8. It is owing to your ignorance of this, that your concupiscence has become congenial with your nature; which it is hard for it to get rid of, notwithstanding its being fraught with every virtue. 9. He who has sown the smallest seed of desire in the soul of his heart, is confined as a lion in the cage, though he may be very wise and learned in all things. 10. The desire which is habitual to one, grows as rank as a thick wood in his breast; unless it is burnt away in the seed by the knowledge of truth, when it cannot vegetate any more.

11. This mind is no more inclined to any thing, who has burnt away the seed of his desire at once; he remains untouched by pleasure and pain, like the lotus-leaf amidst the water. 12. Now therefore, O Arjuna! do you remain calm and quiet in your spirit, be undaunted and devoid of all desire in your mind; melt down the mist of your mental delusion by the heat of your nirvána devotion, and from all that you have learnt from my holy lecture to you, remain in perfect tranquillity with your reliance in the Supreme spirit.

ARJUNA'S SATISFACTION AT THE SERMON. Argument: - The knowledge of truth dispels the doubts, and leads to display his valorous deeds in warfare. Arjuna said: - Lord! it is by thy kindness, that I am freed from my delusion, and have come to the reminiscence of myself. I am now placed above all doubts, and will act as you have said. 2. The Lord replied: - when you find the feelings and faculties of your heart and mind, to be fully pacified by means of your knowledge; then understand your soul to have attained its tranquillity, and the property of goodness or purity of its nature. (Sattwa Swabháva). 3. In this state, the soul becomes insensible of all mental thoughts, and full of intelligence in itself; and being freed from all inward and outward perceptions, it perceives in itself the one Brahma who is all and everywhere. 4. No worldly being can observe this elevated state of the soul, as no body can see the bird that has fled from the earth into the upper sky. 5. The pure soul which is devoid of desire, becomes full of intelligence and spiritual light; and it is not to be perceived by even the foresighted observer. (It is the soul's approximation to the Divine state).

6. No body can perceive this transcendental and transparent state of the soul, without purifying his desires at first; it is a state as imperceptible to the impure, as the minutest particle of an atom, is unperceivable by the naked eye. 7. Attainment of this state, drives away the knowledge of all sensible objects as of pots, plates, and others. What thing therefore is so desirable, as to be worth desiring before the Divine presence. 8. As the frost and ice melt away before a volcanic mountain, so doth our ignorance fly afar, from the knowledge of the intellectual soul. (i.e. Intellectual knowledge drives away all ignorance before it). 9. What are these mean desires of us, that blow away like the dust of the earth, and what are our possessions and enjoyments but snares to entangle our souls? 10. So long doth our ignorance (avidyá) flaunt herself in her various shapes, as we remain ignorant of the pure and modest nature of our inmost souls in ourselves. (Self-knowledge is shy and modest, while ignorance is full of vanity and boast). 11. All outward appearances fade away and faint (before the naked eye), and appear in their pellucid forms in the inmost soul, which grasps the whole in itself, as the vacuum contains the plenum in it.

12. That which shows all forms in it, without having or showing any form of itself; is that transcendent substance which is beyond description, and transcends our comprehension of it. 13. Now get rid of the poisonous and cholic pain of your desire of gain, as also of the permanence of your own existence; mutter to yourself the mantra of your resignation of desirables, and thus prosper in the world without fear for anything. 14. Vasishtha said: - After the Lord of the three worlds had spoken the words, Arjuna remained silent for a moment before him; and then like a bee sitting beside a blue lotus, uttered the following words to the sable bodied Krishna. 15. Arjuna said: - Lord! Thy words have dispelled all grief from my heart, and the light of truth is rising in my mind; as when the sun rises to awaken the closed and sleeping lotus. 16. Vasishtha said: - After saying so, Arjuna being cleared of all his doubts, laid hold on his Gándíva bow, and rose with Hari for his charioteer, in order to proceed to his warlike exploits.

17. He will transform the face of the earth to a sea of blood, gushing out of the bodies of combatants, their charioteers and horses and elephants that will be wounded by him; the flights of his arrows and thickening darts, will hide the disk of the sun in the sky, and darken the face of the earth with flying dust.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE LATENT AND INSCRUTABLE SOUL. Argument: - The incomprehensible nature of God, expressed by indefinite predicates, and his Latency in the works of creation. Vasishtha continued: - Keep this lesson in view, O Ráma! and know it as the purifier of all sins; remain in your resignation of all attachments, and resign yourself to God. 2. Know the Supreme soul, in which all things reside, from which everything has issued, and which is everything itself on all sides of us; it is changed through all, and is ever the same in itself. 3. It seems to be afar though it is nearest to us, it appears to be ubiquitous though ever situated in everything. It is by that essence thou livest, and it is undoubtedly what thou art thyself. (There is but one unity pervading over all varieties). 4. Know that to be the highest predicament, which is above the knowables, and is knowledge or intelligence by itself; which is beyond our thoughts and thinkables, and is the thinking principle or intellect itself. (Beyond thought Divine. Milton). 5. It is preeminent consciousness and that supreme felicity, and passing wonder of our sight; which surpasses the majesty of majesties, and is the most venerable of venerables.

6. This thing is the soul and its cognition, it is vacuum which is the immensity of the supreme Brahma; it is the chief good (summum Bonum) which is felicity and tranquillity itself; and it is full knowledge or omniscience, and the highest of all states. 7. The soul that abides in the intellect, and is of the form of the conception of all things: that which feels and perceives every thing, and remains by its own essence. 8. It is the soul of the universe, like the oil of the sesame seed; it is the pith of the arbor of the world, its light and life of all its animal beings. 9. It is the thread connecting all beings together like pearls in a necklace, which is suspended on the breast of empty air; (the sutrátma that connects all nature). It is the flavour of all things like the pungency of pepper. 10. It is the essence of all substance (ens entium) and a verity which is the most excellent of all the truth of truths; it is the goodness of whatever is good, and the great or greatest good in itself.

11. Which by its omniscience becomes the all that is present in its knowledge, and which we take by our misjudgment for real entities in this world (when our ignorance mistakes the manifest world for its latent cause). 12. We take ourselves the world in mistake of the soul, but all these mistaken entities vanish away before the light of reason. 13. The vacuum of Brahma or the space occupied by the Divine spirit, is without its beginning and end, and cannot be comprehended within the limited space of our souls; knowing this for certain, the wise are employed in their outward duties. 14. That man is freed from his rising and setting (ups and downs), who rests always in the equanimity of his soul, and whose mind is never elated nor dejected at any event, but ever retains the evenness of its tenor. 15. He whose mind is as vacant as the empty air, is called a mahátmá or great soul, and his mind resting in the state of unity, remains with the body in a state of sound sleep. (But this evenness is inadmissible in business and behaviour to a preceptor. So it is said, [Sanskrit: mostly illegible].)

16. The man of business also who preserves the evenness of his mind, remains as undisturbed under the press of his duties, as the reflexion of one in a mirror. They are both the same, being but shadows of reality. 17. He who retains the impression in his mind, in their even and unvaried state, like images in a mirror, is himself as a reflexion in the Divine Intellect. (All beings live and move inseparably in the intellect of God. Gloss). 18. So let a man discharge the customary duties of life as they occur to him, with the pure transparent of his mind; as all the creatures of God perform their several parts, like images imprinted in the divine intellect. 19. There is no unity nor duality in the divine intellect, (where the images are neither inseparably attached to nor detached from it); the application of the words I and thou to one or the other is all relate to the same, and they have come to use from the instruction of our elders. (Human language is learned by imitation).

20. The intellect which of itself is tranquil in itself (i.e. in its own nature), acts its wonders in itself (i.e. displays or developes itself in the very intellect); it is the pulsation of intellect which displays the universe, as its vivarta or development, and this pulsation is the Omnipotence of God. 21. The pulsation of the Divine Intellect being put to a stop, there ensues a cessation of the course of the universe, and as it with the supreme Intellect, so it is with its parts of individual intellects, whose action and inaction spread out and curb the sphere of their thoughts. 22. What is called consciousness or its action, is a non entity in nature; and that which is a mere vacuum, is said to be the subtile body of the Intellect. (i.e. The intellectual powers have no material forms). 23. The world appears as an entity, by our thinking it as such; but it vanishes upon our ceasing to think as such, like the disappearance of figures in a picture, when it is burnt down to ashes.

24. The world appears as one with the Deity, to one who sees the unity only in himself; it is the vibration of the intellect only, that caused the revolution of worlds, as the turning of a potters wheel (is caused by the rotatory motion given to it). 25. As the measure, shape and form of the ornament are not different from the gold, so the action of the intellect, is not separate from it; and it is this which forms the world, as the gold, becomes the ornament and the world and intellect are the same thing, as the ornament and its gold. 26. The mind is the pulsation of the intellect, and it is want of this knowledge that frames a separate world; as it is ignorance of the gold work, that makes the jewel appear as another thing. 27. The mind being wholly absorbed in the intellect, there remains this pure intellect alone; as the nature of one's self or soul being known, there is an end of worldly enjoyments. (He that has known the intellectual world, is not deluded by his sensuous mind; and whoever has tasted his spiritual bliss, does not thirst for sensual pleasures).

28. Disregard of enjoyments is an education of the highest wisdom; hence no kind of enjoyments is acceptable to the wise: (cursed are they that hunger and thirst for enjoyments of this world). 29. Know this to be another indication of wisdom, that no man that has eaten to satiety has ever a zest for any bad food that is offered to him. (i.e. No sensual pleasure is delectable before spiritual bliss). 30. Another sign of wisdom is our natural aversion, to enjoyments, and is the sense of one's perception of all pleasures, in the vibrations of his intellect (i.e. the mind is the store house of all pleasures). 31. He is known as a wise man, who has this good habit of his deeply rooted in his mind, and he is said to be an intelligent man, who refrains from enjoying whatever is enjoyable in this world. (For thy shall hunger hereafter, who stuff themselves with plenty here below. St. Mathew Ch. v).

32. Again whoso pursues after his perfection, in pursuance of the examples of others, doth strike the air with a stick, or beat the bush in vain in search of the same, because it requires sincerity of purpose to be successful in anything (and not the bodily practices of the ignorant, as they do in Hatha Yoga). 33. Some times they emaciate and torture the body in order to have a full view of the inner soul (because they think to be an envelope of the soul, and an obstruction to its full sight); but the intellectual soul, being settled in a thousand objects of its intelligence, it sees only errors instead of the light of the soul. (So the hermits, ascetics, monks, and friars emaciate their bodies, and the religious fanatics torture their persons in vain). 34. So long doth the unconscious spirit flutter in its fickleness, and goes on roving from one object to another; as the light of the understanding do not rise and shine within it. (The ignorant are strangers to rest and quiet). 35. But no sooner doth the light of the tranquil intellect, appear in its brightness within the inward soul; than the flattering of the fickle spirit is put to flight, like the flickering of a lamp after it is extinguished.

36. There is no such thing as vibration nor suspension of the tranquil spirit; because the quiescent soul neither moves forward or backward, nor has its motion in any direction. 37. The soul that is neither unconscious of itself, nor has any vibration in it, is said to be calm and quiet; and as it remains in the state of its indifference to vibrations, and gains its forms of pure transparence, it is no more liable to its bondage in life, nor inquires its moksha liberation to set it free from regeneration. 38. The soul that is settled in itself (or the supreme soul), has no fear of bondage nor need of its liberation also; and the intellect being without its intellection, or having no object to dwell upon, becomes unconscious both of its Existence as well as extinction. (One that is absorbed in his self meditation, is unconscious of everything in-esse et non-esse). 39. He that is full in himself with the spirit of God, is equally ignorant both of his bondage and liberation; because the desire of being liberated, indicates want of one's self sufficiency and perfection (or rather the sense of his bondage, from which he wants to be liberated).

40. "Let me then have my equanimity and not my liberation." This desire is also a bondage in itself; and it is the unconsciousness of these, which is reckoned as our chief good. For know the Supreme state to be that, which is pure intelligence and without a shadow. 41. The restoration of the intellect to its proper form consists in divesting it of all its intelligibles; and that form of it (which is marked by desire or the prurient soul), is no more than the oscillation of the great Intellect. (All animal souls are vibrations of the Divine spirit). 42. That only is subject to bondage and liberation, which is seen and destructible in its nature (i.e. the visible and perishable body); and not the invisible soul, which take the name of ego, and has no position nor form or figure of itself. 43. We know not what thing it is, that is brought under or loosened from bondage by any one. It is not the pure desire which the wise form for themselves, and does not affect the body. (It is the vibration of mind acting upon the body, and causing its actions that subjects to Bondage).

44. It is therefore, that the wise practise the restraint of their respiring breath, in order to restraint their desires and actions; and being devoid of these, they become as the pure Intellect. 45. These being suppressed, the idea of the world is lost in the density of the intellect; because the thoughts of the mind, are caused by the vibration of the intellect only (and set in also in the same). 46. Thus there remains nothing, nor any action of the body or mind, except the vibration of the intellect; and the phenomenal world is no other, than a protracted dream from one sight to another. The learned are not deluded by these appearances, which they know to be exhibitions of their own minds. 47. Know in thy meditation within thyself that recondite soul, which gives rise to our consciousness of the essences of things, appearing incessantly before us; and in which all these phantasms of our brain, dissolve as dirt in the water; and in which all our perceptions and conceptions of the passing world are flowing on as in a perpetual stream.

OF THE MAJESTY AND GRANDEUR OF GOD. Argument. - Manifestation of mysterious magic of the one, uniform and pure Monad in multiform shapes, as a display of his all Comprehensive plenitude fullness. Vasishtha continued: - Such is the first great truth concerning the solidity or of the Divine Intellect, that contains the gigantic forms of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva in it. 2. It is by means of the greatness of God, that all people are as gaudy as great princes in their several spheres; and are ever exulting in their power of floating and traversing in the regions of open air. (This means both the flight of bird, as well as aerial rambles of Yogis). The Taittiríya Upanishad says: - God has filled the world with joy, and the minute insect is as joyous as the victorious prince: meaning hereby, that God has given to every being its particular share of happiness. 3. It is by their dwelling in the spirit of God, that the earth born mortals are as happy as the inhabitants of heaven; (That have nothing to desire); nay they are free from the pain of sorrow and released from the pangs of death, that have come unto the Lord - (O death where is thy sting, O grave where thy victory? Pope).

4. Yes, they live in Him that have found him, and are not to be restrained by any body; provided they have but taken their refuge under the overspreading umbrage of the supreme spirit. 5. He who meditates for a moment, on the universal essence of all (as the ens entium); he becomes liberated in an instant, and lives as a liberal minded sage or muni on earth. (The sage that sees his God in all and every where through out all nature). 6. He does what are his duties in this world, and never grieves in discharging them. Ráma said: - How is it possible, Sir, to meditate on the universal soul in all things, when the sage has buried his mind, understanding and his egoism and himself in the unity of God? And how can the soul be viewed in the plurality, when all things have been absorbed in the unity? 7. Vashistha replied: - The God that dwells in all bodies, moves them to their actions, and receives their food and drink in himself, that produces all things and annihilates them at last, is of course unknowable to our consciousness (which is conscious of itself only).

8. Now it is this indwelling principle in every thing, that is without beginning and end, and inherent in the nature of all; is called the common essence of all, because it constitutes the tattwa identity (or essential nature or the abstract property) of everything in the world. 9. It dwells as vacuity in the vacuum, and as sonorousness in sound; it is situated as feeling in whatever is felt, and as taction in the objects of touch. 10. It is the taste of all tastables, and the tasting of the tongue; it is the light of all objects of sight, and vision of the organs of seeing. 11. It is the sense of smell in the act of smelling, and the odour in all odorous substance; it is the plumpness of the body, and the solidity and stability of the earth. 12. It is the fluidity of liquids and the flatulence of air; it is the flame and flash of fire, and the cogitation of the understanding. 13. It is the thinking principle of the thoughtful mind, and the ego of our egoism; it is the consciousness of the conscious soul, and the sensible heart.

14. It is the power of vegetation in vegetables, and the perspective in all pictures and paintings; it is the capacity of all pots and vessels, and the tallness of stately trees. 15. It is the immobility of immovables, and the mobility of movable bodies; it is the dull insensibility of stones and blocks, and the intelligence of intelligent beings. 16. It is the immortality and god-head of the immortal gods, and humanity of human beings; it is the curvedness of crooked beasts, and the supine proneness of crawling and creeping insects. 17. It is the current in the course of time, and the revolution and aspects of the seasons; it is the fugacity of fleeting moments, and the endless duration of eternity. 18. It is the whiteness of whatever is white, and blackness of all that is black; it is activity in all actions, and it is stern fixity in the doings of destiny. 19. The supreme spirit is quiescent in all that is sedate, and lasting and evanescent in whatever is passing and perishing; and he shows his productiveness in the production of things. 20. He is the childhood of children, and the youth of young men; he shows himself as fading in the decay and decline of beings, and as his extinction in their death and demise.

21. Thus the all pervading soul, is not apart from anything, as the waves and froths of the foaming sea, are no way distinct from its body of waters. 22. These multiformities of things are all unrealities, and taken for true in our ignorance of the unity; which multiplies itself in our imagination, as children create and produce false apparitions from their unsound understandings. (These as they change are not the varied god as it is generally supposed to be, but various workings of the intellect). 23. It is I, says the lord, that am situated every where, and it is I that pervade the whole; and fill it with all varieties at pleasure; know therefore, O high minded Ráma! that all these varieties are but creatures of imagination in the mind of God, and are thence reflected into the mirror of our minds. Knowing this rest in the calm tranquillity of your soul, and enjoy the undisturbed solace and happiness of your high mind. 24. Válmíki said: - As the sage was saying these things, the day passed away under its evening shade; the sun sank down in its evening devotion, and the assembly broke with mutual salutations to the performance of their eventide ablutions, until they reassembled on the next morning.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AS A PASSING DREAM. Argument: - How our firm faith arises over this entity, and its answer. Ráma said: - As we are, Oh sage! a dream drawn house, the body of the lotus-born Brahmá - the first progenitor, is the same no doubt. 2. And if this world is a non-entity - asat, we must know our existence the same, then how is it possible to arise the firm faith over this entity - sat. 3. Vasishtha responded: - We are shining here as a created being by the previous birth of Brahmá, but in fact, the reflexion of soul shines for ever, nothing besides. 4. Owing to the omnipresence of consciousness, all beings exist as reality every where, and if she rises from unreal knowledge, she as real knowledge destroys the unreal one. (vice-versa). 5. Therefore whatever comes from these five elements, is but transitory, but owing to the firm belief on ego, we enjoy a firm faith for the same. 6. In a dream, we see good many things as reality; but as soon the dream is over, we do not find the things dreamt of; so we see the reality of the world; as long we remain in ignorance.

7. Oh Ráma! as the dreaming man counts his dream as reality, owing to his faith on it; so this world appears a reality, like the supreme God who has no beginning and end. 8. That which is to be created by the dreaming man, is to be called his own; as we can say by guessing knowledge, what is in the seed, is in the fruit. 9. Whatever comes from non-entity, is to be called non-entity; and that which is unreal though it can be workable, is not reasonable to think good. 10. As the thinking result of unreality is to be given up, so the firm faith which is arising by the dreaming man; is to be given up likewise. 11. Whatever soul creates in dream is our firm belief, but that remains only for a time being (hence it is asat - non-entity). 12. Brahmá's long drawn portion is this entity, hence we think also the same, but in fact, this entity is a moment to Brahmá. 13. Consciousness is the creator of all elements, she creates every thing according to her model, hence creator and creation are one and the same.

14. As the backward and forward whirling motion of water, makes the deep to swell, and as also fairy comes near in a dream, so all these are in reality nothing. 15. So this entity with its change (of creation, sustentation and destruction) is nothing. In whatever manner we look [at the] object, that will appear in return in the same manner. 16. The rule of the erroneous dream is not to reproduce (in waking state, what it produces in sleeping state, though it has a power to create something out of nothing) as the production is not in the world, but owing to ignorance it appears so. 17. In the three worlds we see wondrous objects, as we see fire burning in the water like a sub-marine fire. 18. Good many cities exist in vacuity, as birds and stars remain in the sky. We find lotus in a stone like trees growing without an earth. 19. One country gives every kind of object to the seeker, like a tree that gives all objects to the seeker (Kalpa taru) and also we see in a stone and rows of jewels (that is counting beads) giving fruits like fruitful trees. 20. Life exists within a stone (Sálgram) as frog exists. Stone gives water as moon-stone gives.

21. In a dream within a minute good many things can be made and unmade, which in fact, are unreal like one's death in a dream. 22. The natural water of the elements remains in the sky, (that is, in the cloud), when the heavenly river Mandákiní remains in vacuity. 23. The heavy stone flies in the air, when the winged mountain does so. Every thing to be got in stone, when every thing can be secured from the philosopher's stone. 24. In the garden of bliss of Indra every desired object to be got, but in salvation such kind of desired object is wanting. 25. Even dull matter acts like machine, hence every object acts like wonderful erroneous magic. 26. By magical art (that is, Gandharva vidyá) we see even impossible objects such as two moons, Kavandhas, mantras, drugs, and pishacha. All these are the works of wonderful erroneous magic, which are in fact nothing. 27. We see impossibility as real as we see possibility, hence impossibility becomes real by our erroneous ideas only. 28. The erroneous dream though it appears as real is in fact unreal, as that which is not real does not exist, which is real does exist (unity is real, duality is unreal, hence existence and non-existence are one and the same).

29. So this dreaming creation is looked by all worldly being here as real, as dreamer takes his dream a reality. 30. By passing from one error to another error, from one dream to another, one firm faithful being comes out. 31. As a stray deer falls into the pit repeatedly for green grass, so ignorant man repeatedly falls into the pit of this world, owing to his ignorance.

IN THE NARRATION OF JIVATA AN EXAMPLE OF DOMESTIC AND MENDICANT LIFE Argument: - Narration of the mendicant Jiváta, in illustration of the transmigration of the soul in various births, according to the variety of its insatiable Desire. Vasishtha resumed: - Hear me relate to you, Ráma, the story of a certain mendicant, who fostered some desire in his mind, and wandered through many migrations of his soul. 2. There lived a great mendicant at one time, who devoted his life to holy devotion, and passed his days in the observance of the rules of his mendicancy. (The state of mendicancy is the third stage of life of a Brahman, which is devoted to devotion, and supported by begging of the simple subsistence of life. This story applies to all men, who are in some way or other devoted to some profession for acquiring the necessaries of life and the more so, as all men have some ultimate object of desire, which is an obstruction to their Nirvána or final extinction in the Deity. For the lord says in the Gospel, He that loveth anything more than me, is not worthy of me).

3. In the intensity of his Samádhi devotion, his mind was purged of all its desires; and it became assimilated to the object of its meditation, as the sea water, is changed to the form of waves. (Samádhi is defined by Patanjali, as the forgetting of one's self in the object of his meditation). 4. Once as he was sitting on his seat after termination of his meditation, and was intent upon discharging some sacred functions of his order, there chanced to pass a thought over his clear mind (like the shadow of cloud over the midday sky). 5. He looked into the reflexion of the thought, that rose of itself in his mind; that he should reflect for his pleasure, upon the various conditions of common people, and the different modes of their life. (the proper study of man is man, and the manner of each rightly). 6. All this thought his mind passed from the reflexion of himself and his God, to that of another person; and he lost the calm composure of his mind, as when the quiet sea is disturbed by whirlpool or whirl wind. (This desire of the sage disturbed his breast, like the doubt of Parnell's Hermit).

7. Then he thought in himself to become an ideal man of his own accord, and became in an instant the imagined person Jivátá by name. (Imagination shapes one to what he imagines himself to be). 8. Jivátá, the ideal man, now roved about like a dreaming person, through the walks of the imaginary city, which he had raised to himself, as a sleeping man, builds his aerial abodes in dream. (So every man thinks himself as some one, and moves about in his air built city). 9. He drank his fill at pleasure, as a giddy bee sips the honey from lotus cups; he became plump and hearty with his sports, and enjoyed sound sleep from his want of care. 10. He saw himself in the form of a Brahman in his dream, who was pleased with his studies and the discharge of his religious duties; and as he reflected himself as such he was transformed to the same state, as a man is transplanted from one place to another at a thought. (He makes the man, and places him in every state and place).

11. The good Brahman who was observant of his daily ritual, fell asleep one day into a deep trance, and dreamt himself doing the duties of the day, as the seed hid in shell, performs inwardly its act of vegetation. 12. The same Brahman saw himself changed to a chieftain in his dream, and the same chief ate and drank and slept as any other man in general. 13. The chief again thought himself as a king in his dream, who ruled over the earth extending to the horizon; and was beset by all kinds of enjoyments, as a creeper is studded with flowers. 14. Once as this prince felt himself at ease, he fell into a sound sleep free from all cares, and saw the future consequences of his actions, as the effect is attached to the cause, or the flowers are the forth-comings of the tree. 15. He saw his soul assuming the form of a heavenly maid, as the pith of a plant puts forth itself in its flowers and fruits, (what is at the bottom, comes out on the top; and what is the root, sprouts forth in the tree).

16. As this heavenly maid was lulled to sleep by her weariness and fatigue, she beheld herself turn into a deer, as the calm ocean finds itself disturbed into eddies and waves (by its inner caves and outward winds). 17. As this timorous fawn with her fickle eyes, fell into a sound sleep at one time; she beheld herself transformed to a creeping plant (which she likes to browse upon so fondly in her pasture). 18. The crooked beasts of the field and the creeping plants of forest, have also their sleep and dream of their own nature; the dreams being caused by what they saw and heard and felt in their waking states. 19. This creeper came to be beautified in times, with its beautiful fruits, flowers and leaves, and formed a bower for the seat of the floral goddess of the woods. 20. It hid in its heart the wishes that grew in it, in the same manner as the seed conceals in its embryo the germ of the would be tree; and at last saw itself in its inward consciousness, to be full of frailty and failings.

21. It had remained long in its sleep and rest, but being disgusted with its drowsy dullness, it thought of being the fleeting bee its constant guest, and found itself to be immediately changed to a fluttering bee (which it had fed with its farinaceous food). 22. The bee roved at pleasure over the tender and blossoming creepers in the forest, and let on the petals of blooming lotuses, as a fond lover courts his mistresses. 23. It roved about the blossoms, blooming as brightening pearls in the air; and drank the nectarious Juice from the flower cups, as a lover sips the nectar from the rubied lips of the beloved. 24. He became enamoured of the lotus of the lake, and sat silent upon its thorny stalk on the water; for such is the fondness of fools, even for what is painful to them. 25. The lake was often infested by elephants, who tore and trampled over the beds of lotus bushes; because it is a pleasure to the malignant base, to lay waste the fair works of God. (The black big and bulky elephants, are said to be invidious of the fair and pretty lotuses; hence the elephant is used as symbolical of the devil, the destroyer of all good).

26. The fond bee meets the fate of its fondling lotus, and is crushed under the tusk of the elephant, as the rice is ground under the teeth. (Such is the fate of overfondness for the fair). 27. The little bee seeing the big body and might of the mighty elephant, took a fancy of being as such; and by his imagining himself as so, he was instantly converted to one of the like kind (not in its person but in the mind). (Thus is a lesson, that no one is content with himself, but wishes to be the envied or desired being). 28. At last the elephant fell down into a hollow pit, which was as deep and dry as the dried bed of a gulf; as a man falls into the profound and inane ocean of this world, which is overcast by an impervious darkness around. (The troublesome world is always compared with a turbulent and darksome ocean). 29. The elephant was a favourite of the prince for his defeating the forces of his adversaries; and he routed about at random with his giddy might, as the lawless Daitya robbers wander about at night.

30. He fell afterwards under the sword of the enemy, and pierced all over his body by their deadly darts; as the haughty egoism of the living body, drops down in the soul under the wound of right reason. 31. The dying elephant having been accustomed to see swarms of bees, fluttering over the proboscis of elephants, and sipping the ichor exuding from them, had long cherished the desire of becoming a bee, which he now came to be in reality. 32. The bee rambled at large amidst the flowery creepers of the forest, and resorted again to the bed of lotuses in the lake; because it is hard for fools to get rid of their fond desire, though it is attended with danger and peril. 33. At last the sportive bee was trampled down and crushed under the feet of an elephant, and become a goose, by its long association with one in the lake. 34. The goose passed through many lives, till it became gander at last, and sported with the geese in the lake. 35. Here it came to bear, the name of the gander that served as the vehicle of Brahmá, and thenceforth fostered the idea of his being so, as the yolk of an egg fosters a feathered fowl in it.

36. As it was fostering this strong desire in itself, it grew old and decayed by disease, as a piece of wood is eaten up by inbred worms; then as he died with his consciousness of being the bird of Brahmá, he was born as the great stork of that God in his next birth. 37. The stork lived there in the company of the wise, he became enlightened from the views of worldly beings; he continued for ages in his disembodied liberation, and cared for nothing in future. (The soul that rests in the spirit of God, has nothing better to desire).

DREAM OF JÍVÁTA. Arguments: - All living souls are occupied with the thought of their present state, forgetful of the past, and altogether heedless of the future. Vasishtha continued: - This bird that sported beside the stalk of the lotus seat of Brahmá, once went to the city of Rudra with his god on his back, and there beheld the God Rudra face to face. (The inferior Gods waited upon the superior deities). 2. Seeing the God Rudra he thought himself to be so, and the figure of the God was immediately imprest upon his mind, like the reflexion of an outward object in the mirror. 3. Being full of Rudra in himself, he quitted his body of the bird, as the fragrance of a flower forsakes the calyx, as it mixes with the breeze and flies in the open air. 4. He passed his time happily at that place, in the company with the attendants and different classes of the dependant divinities of Rudra. 5. This Rudra being then full of the best knowledge of divinity and spirituality; looked back in his understanding into the passed accounts of his prior lives, that were almost incalculable.

6. Being then gifted with clear sightedness and clairvoyance, he was astonished at the view of naked truths, that appeared to him as sights in a dream, which he recounted to him as follows. 7. O! how wonderful is this over spreading illusion, which is stretched all about us, and fascinates the world by its magic wand; it exhibits the palpable untruth as positive truth, as the dreary desert presents the appearance of limpid waters, in the sun beams spreading over its sterile sands. 8. I well remember my primary state of the pure intellect, and its conversion to the state of the mind; and how it was changed from its supremacy and omniscience, to the bondage of the limited body. 9. It was by its own desire that the living soul assumed to itself a material body, formed and fashioned agreeably to its fancy, like a picture drawn in a painting; and became a mendicant in my person in one of its prior births, when it was unattached to the objects exposed to view all around. 10. The same mendicant sat in his devotion, by controlling the actions of the members of his body, and began to reflect on outward objects, with great pleasure in his mind.

11. He buried all his former thoughts in oblivion, and thought only of the object that he was employed to reflect upon; and this thought so engrossed and worked upon his mind, that it prevented the rise of any other thought in it. 12. The phenomenon which appears in the mind, offers itself solely to the view also (by supplanting the traces of the past); as the brownness of fading autumn, supercedes the vernal verdure of leaves and plants, so the man coming to his maturity, forgets the helpless state of his boyhood, and is thoughtless of his approaching decay and decline. 13. Thus the mendicant became the Brahman Jivátá by his fallible and fickle desire, which laid him to wander from one body to another, as little ants enter into the holes of houses and things. 14. Being fond of Brahmahood and reverential to Bráhmans in his mind, he became the wished for person in his own body; because the reality and unreality have the power of mutually displacing one another, according to the greater influence of either. (The weaker yields and makes room to the stronger, like the survival of the fittest).

15. The Bráhman next obtained the chieftainship, from his strong predilection for the same; just as the tree becomes fruitful by its continuous suction of the moisture of earth. (The common mother of all). 16. Being desirous of dispensing justice, and discharging all legal affairs, the general wished for royalty, and had his wishes fulfilled by this becoming a prince; but as the prince was over fond of his courtesans, he was transformed to a heavenly nymph that he prized above all in his heart. 17. But as the celestial dame prized the tremulous eye sight of the timorous deer, above her heavenly form and station; she was soon metamorphosed to an antelope in the woods, and destined to graze as a miserable beast for her foolish choice. 18. The fawn that was very fond of browzing the tender blades and leaves, became at last the very creeping plant, that had crept into the crevice of her lickerish mind. 19. The creeper being long accustomed to dote on the bee, that used to be in its company; found in its consciousness to be that insect, after the destruction of its vegetable form.

20. Though well aware of its being crushed under the elephant, together with the lotus flower in which it dwelt, yet it was foolish to take the form of the bee, for its pleasure of roving about the world. (So the living soul enters into various births and bodies only to perish with them). 21. Being thus led into a hundred different forms, said he, I am at last become the self-same Rudra; and it is because of the capriciousness of my erratic mind in this changeful world. 22. Thus have I wandered through the variegated paths of life, in this wilderness of the world; and I have roamed in many aerial regions, as if I trod on solid and substantial ground. 23. In some one of my several births under the name of Jiváta, and in another I became a great and respectable Bráhman, I became quite another person again, and then found myself as a ruler and lord of the earth. (So every man thinks and acts himself, now as one person and in the stage of his life. Shakespeare).

24. I had been a drake in the lotus-bush; and an elephant in the vales of Vindhya; I then became a stag in the form of my body, and fleetness of my limbs (and in the formation of mind also). 25. After I had deviated at first from my state of godliness, I was still settled in the state of a devotee with devotedness to divine knowledge; and practicing the rites befitting my position (such as listening to holy lectures, meditating on the mysteries of nature and so forth). 26. In this state I passed very many years and ages, and many a day and night and season and century, glided on imperceptibly in their courses over me. (It is said that the sedate and meditative are generally long living men, as we learn in the accounts of the ancient patriarchs, and in those of the yogis and lamas in our own times). 27. But I deviated again and again from my wonted course, and was as often subjected to new births and forms; until at last I was changed to Brahmá's vehicles of the hansa - or anser, and this was by virtue of my former good conduct and company.

28. The firm or wonted habit of a living being, must come out unobstructed by any hindrance whatsoever; and though it may be retarded in many intermediate births for even a millennium; yet it must come and lay hold on the person some time or other. (Habit is second nature, and is inbred in every being; and what is bred in the bone, must run in the blood). 29. It is by accident only, that one has the blessing of some good company in his life; and then his inborn want may be restrained for a time, but it is sure to break out with violence in the end, in utter defiance of every check and rule. 30. But he who betakes himself to good society only, and strives always for his edification in what is good and great, is able to destroy the evil propensities which are inbred in him; because the desire to be good, is what actually makes one so. (Discipline conquers nature).

31. Whatever a man is accustomed to do or think upon constantly, in this life or in the next state of his being; the same appears as a reality to him in his waking state of day dream, as unreality appears as real in the sleeping or night dream of a man. (It is the imagination that figures unrealities in divers forms both in the day as also in the night dreams of men). 32. Now the thoughts that employ our minds, appoint our bodies also to do their wished for works; and as these works are attended with some temporary good as well as evil also; it is better therefore to restrain and repress the rise of those tumultuous thoughts, than cherish them for our pleasure or pain. 33. It is only the thought in our minds, that makes us to take our bodies for ourselves or souls; and that stretches wide this world of unrealities, as the incased seed sprouts forth and spreads itself into a bush. (The thought bears the world in it, as the will brings it to view). 34. The world is but the thought in sight or a visible form of their visible thought, and nothing more in reality besides this phantasm of it, and an illusion of our sight.

35. The illusive appearance of the world, presents itself to our sight, like the variegated hues of the sky, it is therefore by our ignoring of it, that we may be enabled to wipe off those tinges from our minds. 36. It is an unreal appearance, displayed by the supreme Essence (of God or His intelligence); as a real existence at his pleasure only, and can not therefore do any harm to any body. 37. I rise now and then to look into all these varieties in nature, for the sake of my pleasure and curiosity; but I have the true light of reason in me, whereby I discern the one unity quite apart from all varieties. 38. After all these recapitulations, the incarnate Rudra returned to his former state, and reflected on this condition of the mendicant, whose body was now lying as a dead corpse on the barren ground. 39. He awakened the mendicant and raised his prostrate body, by infusing his intelligence into it; when the resuscitated Bhikshu came to understand, that all his wanderings were but hallucinations of his mind.

40. The mendicant finding himself the same with Rudra standing in his presence, as also with the bygone ones that he recollected in his remembrance; was astonished to think how he could be one and so many, though it is no wonder to the intelligent, who well know that one man acts many parts in life. 41. Afterwards both Rudra and the mendicant got up from their seats, and proceeded to the abode of the Jivátá, situated in corner of the intellectual sphere (i.e. the mundane world which lies in the divine intellect). 42. They then passed over many Continents, Islands, provinces and districts, until they arrived at the abode of Jívata, where they found him lying down with a sword in hand. 43. They saw Jivátá lying asleep and insensible as a dead body, when Rudra laid aside his bright celestial form, in order to enter into the earthly abode of the deceased. (The Gods are said to assume human shapes in order to mix with mankind). 44. They brought him back to life and intelligence, by imparting to him portion of their spirit and intellect; and thus was this one soul exhibited in the triple forms of Rudra, Jivátá and the mendicant.

45. They with all their intelligence, remained ignorant of one another, and they marvelled to look on each other in mute astonishment, as if they were the figures in painting. 46. Then the three went together in their aerial course, to the air built abode of the Brahman; who had erected his baseless fabric in empty air, and which resounded with empty sounds all around. (The open air being the receptacle of sounds, the aerial abodes of celestials are incessantly infested by the sounds and cries of peoples rising upwards from the nether world). 47. They passed through many aerial regions, and barren and populous tracts of air; until they found out at last the heavenly residence of the Brahman. 48. They saw him sleeping in his house; beset by the members of his family about him; while his Brahmaní folded her arms about his neck, as if unwilling to part with her deceased husband. (The Brahman in heaven, was seen in the state of his parting life). 49. They awakened his drowsy intelligence, by means of their own intelligence, as a waking man raises a sleeping soul, by means of his own sensibility.

50. Thence they went on in their pleasant journey to the realms of the chief and the prince mentioned before; and these were situated in the bright regions of their intellectual sphere, and illumined by their effulgence of the intellect. (It means to say, that all these journeys, places and persons, were but reveries of the mind, and creations of fancy). 51. Having arrived at that region and that very spot, they observed the haughty chief lying on his lotus like bed. 52. He lay with his gold coloured body, in company with the partner of his bed of golden hue; as the honey sucking bee lies in the lotus cell, enfolded in the embrace of his mate. 53. He was beset by his mistresses, hanging about him, like the tender stalks and tufts of flowers pendent upon a tree; and was encircled by a belt of lighted lamps, as when a golden plate is studded about by brilliant gems. 54. They awakened him shortly by infusing their own spirit and intelligence in his body and mind, and then they sat together marvelling at each other, as the self-same man in so many forms (or the self-same person in so many bodies).

55. They next repaired to the palace of the prince, and after awakening him with their intelligence, they all roamed about the different parts of the world. 56. They came at last to the hansa of Brahmá, and being all transformed to that form in their minds (i.e. having come to know the ahamsa I am he or their self-identity); They all became the one Rudra Personality in a hundred persons. 57. Thus the one intellect is represented in different forms and shapes, according to the various inclinations of their minds, like so many figures in a painting. Such is the unity of the deity represented as different personalities, according to the various tendencies of individual minds. (There is the same intellect and soul in all living beings, that differ from one another in their minds only). 58. There a hundred Rudras, who are the forms of the uncovered intellect (i.e. unclouded by mists of error); and they are acquainted with the truths of all things in the world, and the secrets of all hearts (antaryámin).

59. There are a hundred and some hundreds of Rudras, who are known as very great beings in the world; among whom there are eleven only (Ekádasa Rudras), that are situated in so many worlds (Ekádasa Bhubanas). (The Vedas have thousands and thousands of Rudras in their hymns as to them, as, [Sanskrit: sahashrena sahashrasah ye rudrá adhibhúmyá]). 60. All living beings that are not awakened to reason, are ignorant of the identity of one another; and view them in different and not in the same light; they are not farsighted to see any other world. That which is the most proximate to them. 61. Wise men see the minds of others and all things to rise in their minds, like the wave rising in the sea; but unenlightened minds remain dormant in themselves, like the inert stones and blocks. (Another explanation of it is, that all wise men are of the same mind as Birbal said to Akbar: - Sao Siyane ekmatá). 62. As the waves mix with themselves, by the fluidity of their waters; so the minds of wise unite with one another, by the solubility of their understandings, like elastic fluids and liquids. (So says Mrityunjaya: - the oily or serous understanding ([Sanskrit: tailavat vunvih]) readily penetrates into the minds of others).

63. Now in all these multitudes of living beings, that are presented to our sight in this world; We find the one invariable element of the intellect to be diffused in all of them, and making unreal appear as real ones to view. 64. This real but invisible entity of the Divine intellect remains for ever, after all the unreal but visible appearances disappear into nothing; as there remains an empty space or hollow vacuity, after the removal of a thing from its place, and the excavation of the ground by digging it. (This empty vacuum with the chit or Intellect in it, is the universal God of the vacuist Vasishtha). 65. As you can well conceive the idea of existence, of the quintuple elemental principles in nature; so you can comprehend also the notion of the Omnipresence of the Divine intellect, which is the substratum of the elemental principles. 66. As you see various statues and images, carved in stone and woods, and set in the hollows of rocks and trees; so should you see all these figures in the hollow space of the universe, to be situated in the self-same intellect of the Omnipresent Deity.

67. The knowledge of the known and the visible world, in the pure intellect of the unknown and invisible deity, resembles the view of the variegated skies, with their uncaused and insensible figures, in the causeless substratum of ever lasting and all pervading vacuity. 68. The knowledge of the phenomenal is the bondage of the soul, and the ignoring of this conduces to its liberation; do therefore as you like, either towards this or that (i.e. for your liberation and bondage). 69. The cognition and nescience of the world, are the causes of the bondage and liberation of the soul, and these again are productive of the transmigration and final emancipation of the animal spirit. It is by your indifference to them that you can avoid them both, do therefore as you may best choose for yourself. (Here are three things offered to view, namely, the desire of heaven and liberation, and the absence of all desires. [Sanskrit: svargakáma mokshakámau nishkámashchatra yah]).

70. What is lost at its disappearance (as our friends and properties), is neither worth seeking or searching after, nor sorrowing for when it is lost and gone from us. That which is gained of itself in our calm and quiet without any anxiety or assiduity on our part, is truly reckoned to be our best gain. (so says the Moha-Mudgura: - Be content with what offers of itself to thee. [Sanskrit: yatvabhase nijakarnmípáttam| bittam tena vinodaya chittam|]). 71. That which is no more than our knowledge of it (as the object of our senses and the objective world), is no right knowledge but mere fallacy; the true knowledge is that of the subjective consciousness, which is always to be attended to. 72. As the wave is the agitation of the water, so is this creation but an oscillation of the divine intellect; and this is the only difference between them, that the one is the production of the elements in nature, and the other is that of the divine will.

73. Again the undulation of waves occurs, in conjunction with the existing elements at certain spots and times; but the production of the world is wholly without the junction of the elemental bodies, which were not in existence at its creation. (It means to say, that the world is only an ideal formation of the divine mind). 74. The shining worlds shine with the light of the divine intellect, in which they are situated as the thoughts in its consciousness. It transcends the power of speech to define what it is, and yet it is expressed in the veda in the words that, "It is the supreme soul and perfect felicity" (Siva Parátmá).

75. Thus the world is the form of its consciousness in the divine intellect, and they are not different from one another, as words are never separable from their senses. It is said that the world is the undulation of the Divine spirit, and none but the ignorant inveigh against, by saying that the wave and water are two different things. (Kálidása in the commencement of Raghuvansa, uses the same simile of words and their meanings, to denote the intimate union of Párvatí and Siva, which is done to express the inseparability of the world with its maker; corresponding with the well known line of Pope: "whose body nature is, and God the soul").

ON THE ATTAINMENT OF ATTENDANTSHIP ON THE GOD RUDRA. Argument: - The remainder of the former story; and the manner of becoming the attendant Rudras on Siva. Ráma said: - Tell me sir, what became of the many forms, which the mendicant saw in his dream; and whether the several forms of Jívata, the Brahman, the gander and others return to themselves, or remained as Rudras for ever more. 2. Vasishtha replied: - They all remained with Rudra, as parts and compositions of himself; and being enlightened by him, they wandered all about the world, and rested contented with themselves. 3. They all beheld with Rudra, the magic scenes which were displayed before them; till at last they were dismissed from his company, to return to their own states and places. 4. Rudra said: - Go you now to your own places, and there enjoy your fill with your family; and return to me after some time, having completed the course of your enjoyments and sufferings in the world. 5. You will then become as parts of myself, and remain as my attendants to grace my residence; till at last we return to the supreme at the end of time, and be absorbed in last Omega of all.

6. Vasishtha said: - So saying, the Lord Rudra vanished from their sight, and mixed in the midst of the Rudras, who viewed all the worlds in their enlightened intellects. (These are celestial and angelic beings). 7. Then did Jívata and others return to their respective residences, where they have to share their shares of domestic felicity in the company of their families, during their allotted times. 8. Having then wasted and shuffled off their mortal coil, at the end of their limited periods, they will be promoted to the rank of Rudras in heaven, and will appear as luminous stars in the firmament. 9. Ráma rejoined: - All those forms of Jiváta and others, being but creations of the empty imagination of the mendicant; I cannot understand, how they could be beings, as there is no substantiality in imaginary things. 10. Vasishtha replied: - The truth of the imagination lies partly in our consciousness, and partly in our representation of the image; though the imagery or giving a false shape to anything, is as untrue as any nihility in nature. But what we are conscious of must be true, because our consciousness comprehends everything in it.

11. Thus what is seen in the dream, and represented to us by imagination, are all impressed in our consciousness at all times and for ever. (Therefore neither is our consciousness nor the images we are conscious of are untrue, though the imagery and the work of imagination are utterly false). 12. As a man when going or carried from one country to another, and there again to some other place, has no knowledge of the distance of his journey, unless he is conscious of its length and duration in space and time; so we are ignorant of the duration of our dream, and our passing from one dream to another, without our consciousness of it in our sleeping state. 13. Therefore it is our consciousness that contains all things, that are represented to it by the intellect; and it is from our intellection that we have the knowledge of everything, because the intellect is full of knowledge and pervades everywhere. 14. Imagination, desire and dream, are the one and same thing, the one producing the other and all lodged in the cell of the intellect. Their objects are obtained by our intense application to them. Desire produces imagination which is the cause of dream; they are the phenomena of mind, and their objects are the results of deep meditation.

15. Nothing is to be had without its practice and meditation of it, and men of enlightened minds gain the objects by their Yoga or meditation of them alone. (These are the Yoga siddhas or adepts in Yoga as Siva &c). 16. These adepts view the objects of their pursuit in all places, such as the god Siva and others of the Siddha Yogis, such was my aim and attempt also, but it was not attended with success. 17. I was unsuccessful in want of my fixed resolvedness, but failed in both for my attending to both sides. It is only the firm resolution of one in one point, that gives him success in any undertaking. 18. As one going in southerly direction, cannot arrive at his house in the north, so it is the case with the pursuers after their aims; which they well know to be unattainable without their firm determination in it. 19. Whoever is resolved to gain his desired objects, must fix his view on the object before him; the mind being fixed on the object in view, brings the desire into effect. (So says Hafiz: If thou want the presence of the object, never be absent from it).

20. So the mendicant having the demi God Rudra, for the sole object in his view, became assimilated to the very form of his wish; because whoso is intent on one object, must remove all duality from before him. (So says the mystic Sadi: I drove the duality from my door, in order to have the unity alone before my view). 21. The other imaginary forms of the mendicant, were all different persons in their different spheres; and had obtained their several forms, according to their respective desires from one state to another (as said before). 22. They did not know or look on one another, but had all their thoughts and sights fixed on Rudra alone; because those that are awakened to their spiritual knowledge, have their sight fixed on their final liberation, while the unenlightened mortals are Subjected to repeated births, by the repetition of their wishes (to be born in some form or other). 23. It was accordingly to the will of Rudra, that he took this one form and many others upon him, such as he wills to become a Vidhyadhara in one place and a pandit in another.

24. This instance of Rudra serves for an example, of the efficacy of intense thought and practice of all men; who may become one or another or many more, as also learned or ignorant, agreeably to their thought and conduct. (One to be many, means the versatility of parts, to act as many). 25. So one has his manhood and Godhead also (i.e. acts as a man and a God likewise), by his manly and Godlike actions at different times and places; and to be both at the one and same time, requires much greater ability and energy both of the mind and body (as it is seen in the persons of deified heroes). 26. The living soul being one with the Divine, has all the powers of the same implanted in it; the infinite being ingrafted in the finite, It is of the same nature by innate nature. 27. The living soul has its expansion and contraction in its life and death, as the Divine soul has its evolution and involution; in the acts of creation and dissolution; but the Divine soul destroys no soul, because it is the soul of souls and the aggregate of all souls; therefore any one that would be godly, must refrain from slaughter.

28. So the yogis and yoginís continue in the discharge of their sacred rites, as enjoined by law and usage, and either remain in this or rove about in other worlds at large at the free will and liberty. 29. A yogi is seen in several forms at once, both in this world and in the next, according to his desert and the merit of his actions; as the great yogi and warrior Karta Vírya Arjuna, became the terror of the world as if he were ubiquitous, while he remained quite at home. (i.e. though confined in one place, yet he seemed to be present every where). 30. So also doth the god Vishnu appear in human forms on earth, while he sleeps at ease in the milky ocean; and the yoginis of heaven hover over animal sacrifices on earth, while they reside in their groups in the etherial sphere. 31. Indra also appears on earth, to receive the oblations of men, when he is sitting in his heavenly seat on high, and Náráyana takes the forms of a thousand Rámas upon him, in his conflict with the myriads of Rakhasa legions.

32. So did one Krishna become a hundred, to receive the obeisance of his reverential princes; and he appears as a thousand in the company of many thousand monarchs in the Kuru assembly. 33. So the god became incarnate in many forms, with parts and particles of his own spirit for the preservation of the world; and the one lord became many in the company of his mistresses in a moment. (This was the company of milk maids in the rásalílá sport of Krishna). 34. In this manner did the forms of Jívata and others, which were the creatures of the mendicant's imagination, retire at the behest of Rudra, to the particular abodes of their own and respective desires. 35. There they enjoyed all their delights for a long time, until they entered the abode of Rudra; where they became the attendants of the demigod, and remained in his train for a great length of time.

36. They remained in the company of Rudra, dwelling in the groves of the evergreen and ever blossoming Kalpa creepers of paradise, blooming with clusters of their gemming florets; and roving at pleasure to different worlds, and to the celestial city of Siva on the Kailása mountain, and sporting in the company of heavenly nymphs, and bearing the crowns of immortality on their heads. (This is the description of the heaven of Hindus).

RÁMA'S WONDER AT THE ERROR OF MEN. Argument. - Application of the mendicant's case to all men, who are equally mistaken in their choice. Vasishtha Continued: - As the mendicant saw this transient scene of error in his mind; so it is the case with all living beings, to look on their past lives and actions apart from themselves, and in the persons of other men. 2. The past lives, actions and demise of all reflective souls, are as fast imprinted in them, as any thought is preserved in the retentive mind and vacuous intellect. 3. Distant and separate things are mingled together, in the present sphere of one's soul; and all persons appear as distinct figures in the dream. 4. And the human soul, though it is a form of the divine, yet being enclosed in its frail and mortal body, is doomed to misery until its final liberation from birth and body. Thus I have related to you the fate of all living souls, in the state and tale of the mendicant Bhikshu. 5. Now know, O Ráma! that the souls of all of us like that of the mendicant, are vibrated and moved by the impulse of the supreme spirit; and are yet fallible in their nature, and falling from error to error every moment (as we find in our dreams).

6. As a stone falling from a rock, falls lower and lower to the nether ground; so the living soul once fallen from its height of supreme spirit, descends lower and lower to the lowest pit. 7. Now it sees one dream, and then passes from it to another; and thus rolling for ever in its dreaming sleep, it never finds any substantiality whatsoever. 8. The soul thus obscured under the illusion of errors, happens some times to come to the light of truth, either by the guidance of some good instructor, or by the light of its own intuition; and then it is released from the wrong notion of its personality in the body, and comes to the true knowledge of itself. 9. Ráma said: - O! the impervious gloom of error that ever spreads on the human soul, causes it to rely in the mist of its errors, as a sleeping man enjoys the scenery of his dreams.

10. It is shrouded by the thick darkness of the night of erroneous knowledge, and falls into the pit of illusion which over spreads the world (máyá or error is the fruit of the forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world, while knowledge is the fruit of the tree of immortality, which liberates the soul from the bonds of birth and death). 11. O the egregious error of taking a thing for our own, which in reality belongs to no body but the lord and master of all. 12. It behoves you, sir, to explain to me, whence this error takes its rise, and how the mendicant with his share of good and right understanding, could fall into the error (of wishing himself to become another, that was as frail and mortal as himself). Tell me also that knowest all, whether he is still living or not. 13. Vasishtha replied: - I will explore into the regions of the three worlds in my samádhi meditation this night, and tell you tomorrow morning, whether the mendicant is living or not, and where he may be at present.

14. Válmíki said: - As the sage was saying in this manner, the royal garrison tolled the trumpet of the departing day with beat of drum; which filled the sky with the loud roar of diluvian clouds. 15. The princes and the citizens assembled in the court, threw handfuls of flowers at his feet, as the trees drop down their flowers in the ground, wafted by the odoriferous breeze. 16. They honoured the great sages also, and rose from their respective seats; and the assembly broke afterwards, with mutual salutations to one another. 17. Then all the residents of the earth and air, went to their respective residences with the setting sun; and discharged their duties of the departing day, in obedience to the ordinance of the sástras. 18. They all performed their services as prescribed in their liturgies, in which they placed their strong faith and veneration. (This shows the division of caste and creed even in the heroic age of Ráma; which being more marked in later ages, prevented the people from participating in a common cause).

19. All the mortals and celestials, that formed the audience of "Vasishtha", began now to reflect on the lecture of the sage, and the night passed as short as a moment with some, and as long as an age with others. (Gloss. They that took the subject for study, found time too short for their deep meditation of it, while those that were light minded and eager to hear more, felt time to roll on heavily on them. A very good lesson for lightening time by the practice of patient enquiry, and avoiding the troublesomeness of impatience). 20. As the morning rose with the returning duties of men, and employed all beings of heaven and earth to discharge their matin in services; the court reopened for the reception of the audience, who assembled there with mutual greetings and salutations to their superiors.

THE WANDERINGS OF THE MENDICANT. Arguments: - The wanderings of men agreeably to their pursuits, described in the character of the mendicant. Válmíki related: - After the sages Vasishtha and Viswámitra had taken their seats in the court hall, there met the groups of celestials and siddhas of air, and the monarch of earth and chiefs of men. 2. Then came Ráma and Lakshmana with their companions in the court; which shone as a clear lake of lotus-beds unshaken by the gentle breeze, and brightened by the moonbeams glistening amidst it. 3. The sire of sages opened his mouth unasked by any body, and not waiting for the request of any one; because wise men are always kind hearted, and ready to communicate their knowledge to others of their own accord. (Here the sage spoke impromptu, to keep his promise of answering to Ráma's query in the preceding chapter, on a future occasion. Gloss). 4. Vasishtha said: - O. Ráma! that art the moon in the sphere of Raghu's family, I have yesternight came to see the mendicant, with the all seeing eye of my intellectual vision after a long time.

5. I revolved over in my mind, and wandered wide and afar to find out where that man was, and so I traversed through all the continents and islands, and passed over all the hills and mountains on earth. 6. I had my head running upon the search, but could not meet anywhere a mendicant of that description; because it is impossible to find in the outer world, the fictions of our air built castle. 7. I then ran in my mind at the last watch of the night, and passed over the regions on the north, as the fleet winds fly over the waves of the ocean. 8. There I saw the extensive and populous country of Jina (China) lying beyond the utmost boundaries of Valmika (Bhalika or Bulkh); where there is a beautiful city, called as Vihara by the inhabitants. 9. There lives a mendicant, named Dírgha drik or foresighted whose head was silvered over with age, and who continues in his close meditation confined in his homely and lovely cottage. 10. He is used to sit there in his meditative mood, for three weeks together at a time, and keep the door of his cell quite fast, for fear of being disturbed in his silent devotion, by the intrusion of outsiders.

11. His dependants are thus kept out of doors for the time, that he is absorbed in meditation. 12. He thus passed his three weeks of deep meditation in seclusion, and it is now a thousand years, that he has been sitting in this manner, in communion with his own mind only. 13. It was in olden times, that there had been a mendicant of his kind, as I have already related unto you; this is the living instance of that sort, and we know not where and when a third or another like this may be found to exist. 14. I was long in quest like a bee in search of flowers, to find such another, in the womb of this lotus like earth, with all possible inquiry on my part. 15. I passed beyond the limit of the present world, and pierced through the mist of future creations, and there I met with what I sought of the resemblance of the present one. 16. As I looked into the world lying in the womb of futurity, and deposited in the intellectual sphere of Brahma; I met with a third one resembling to Brahmá in his conduct.

17. So passing through many worlds one after another, I saw many things in futures, which are not in esse in the present world. 18. There I beheld the sages that are now sitting in this assembly, and many more Brahmans also, that are of the nature of these present, as also different from them. 19. There will be this Nárada with his present course of life, as also differing from the same; so likewise there will be many others also, with their various modes of life. 20. So likewise there will appear this Vyása and this Suka; and these Saunaka, Pulaha and Krutu, will reappear in future creations, with their very same natures and characters. (This doctrine of reappearance in a future world, is disbelieved in the sense of the transmigration of souls, but it is taken as strict article of faith by all Christians and Moslems, in the name of regeneration and resurrection which imply the same thing). 21. The same Agastya and Pulastya and the self-same Bhrigu and Angirasa, all of them and all others, will come to re-existence, with their very forms and traits of character. (The dead will rise again in their very bodies &c. Gospel).

22. They will be born and reborn sooner and later, so long as they are under the subjection of this delusion of regeneration and resuscitation; and will retain their similar births and modes of life, like all others to be reborn in this or the future world. (As a Brahman who is twice born on earth, retains his habits as before). 23. So the souls of men revolve repeatedly in the world, like waves rolling for ever in the waters of the sea; some of which retain their very same forms, while others are very nearly so in their reappearance. 24. Some are slightly altered in their figures, and others varying entirely in their forms, never regain their original likeness; so doth this prevailing error of regeneration, delude even the wise to repeated births (from which can never get their liberations). (The desire of revivification or regeneration, is so deeply implanted in all living souls, that no body wants to die but with desire to live again in some future state. "Ye shall not die." Gospel). 25. But what means the long meditation, of twenty days and nights of the mendicant, when a moment's thought of ours, and the results of our bodily actions, are productive of endless births and transformations.

26. Again where is the reality of these forms, which are mere conceptions of the mind; and these ideas and reflexions, growing ripe with their recapitulation, appear as full blown flowers to sight; and resemble the water lily at morn, beset by the busy murmur of humming bees. 27. The gross form is produced from pure thought (i.e. the material from the immaterial mind); as a pile of flaming fire is kindled by a minute spark or a ray of sun beam. Such is the formation of the whole fabric of the world. 28. All things are manifest as particles of divine reflexion, and each particle exhibiting in it a variety of parts (in its atoms and animalcules); nor are these nor those together are nothing at all, but they all exist in the universal, which is the cause of all cause, and the source of all sources.

UNITY OF GOD. Argument. - The liberation of the mendicant's soul and destruction of his body, and the application of this instance in the cases of the confinement and liberation of all souls in and from the bondage of their bodies. Dasaratha said: - O great sage, let these attendants of mine, repair immediately to the cells of the mendicant, and having roused him from his hypnotism, bring him hither in my presence. 2. Vasishtha replied: - Great king! the body of that mendicant, is now lying lifeless on the ground; it is now pale and cold and daubed with dirt, and has no jot of its vitality left in it. 3. His life has fled from his body, like odour from the lotus of the lake; he is now liberated from the bond of this life, and is no more subject to the cares of this world. 4. It is now a whole month that his servants have opened the latch of his door, and standing at a distance looking at his emaciated frame. 5. They will afterwards take out the body and immerge it in water, and then having anointed it, they will place it for their adoration, as they do a deified idol. (The bodies of saints are sanctified by their votaries among all nations, and their tombs are visited with religious veneration).

6. The mendicant being in this manner freed from his body, cannot be brought back to his senses, which have entirely quitted their functions in his mortal frame. 7. It is hard to evade the enchanting delusion of the world, so long as one labours under the darkness of his ignorance; but it is easily avoided by one's knowledge of truth at all times. 8. The fabrication of the world is untrue, as the making of ornaments from gold; it is the error of taking the form for the substance, that appears as the cause of creation. 9. This delusion of the world, appears to be so situated in the supreme soul, as the rows of waves are seen to roll upon the surface of the calm waters of the sea. So it is said in the very words of the Vedas, that the moving worlds are as the fluctuation of the Divine Soul. 10. The intelligent soul, taking the form of the living or human soul, sees the phenomenal world, as one sees one dream after another, but all these vanish away upon his waking to sense and right reason.

11. As every man of understanding sees the original in its image, so the man of reason views the archetype of the soul in its representation of the creation; while the ignorant man that sees the world as a thorny bush or confused jungle, can have no idea of the all designing framer of his frame work of the universe. (Right reason points out to spiritual source of the world). 12. The world is represented to the view of every living being, as it was seen in the vision of the dreaming mendicant, in the form of the undulations of the supreme spirit, like the fluctuation of waves on the surface of the sea. 13. As the world appeared to be presented at first in its visionary form, before the view of the universal or collective mind of the creative Brahmá; so does it rise in its shadowy form in the opacous minds of all individual persons. (The world appears in its unspiritual form, to the minds of the great Brahmá and all other living beings).

14. But to the clear mind this world appears as an evanescent dream, as it appeared to Brahmá at first; and the multitudes of worlds that are discovered one after the other, are no more than the successive scenes of passing dreams in the continuous sleep of ignorance. 15. So do all living beings in their various forms, are subject to the error of believing the unreal world as a reality, though they well know it in their minds, to be no better than a continuous dream or delusion. (The varieties of living souls are included under the unintelligible terms of universal and individual: - general and particular &c.). 16. The animal soul, though possessed of intellego (or the property of the intellect); is yet liable to transgress from its original nature (of holiness and purity); and thereby becomes subject to decay, disease and death and all kinds of awe. (It is the chyuty of the fall of man from his primary purity, that brought on him all his miseries on earth). 17. The godly intellect frames the celestial and infernal regions in our dreams, by the slight vibration of the mind at its pleasure; and then takes a delight in rambling over and dwelling in them.

18. It is this divine intellect, which by its own motion, takes the form of living soul upon itself; and wanders from itself to rummage over the false objects of the deceptive senses. 19. The mind also is the supreme soul, and if it is not so it is nothing; the living and embodied is likewise a designation of the same, likening to the shadow of the substance. 20. So the supreme Brahma is said to reside in the universal Brahmá, according to the distinct view of men, with regard to the one Brahma, in whom all these attributes unite, like the water with water and the sky with air. (All these attributive words apply to and unite in the unity of Brahma). 21. Men residing in this mundane form of Brahma, and yet think it otherwise than a reflexion of the deity; just as a child looking at its own shadow in a glass, startles to think it as an apparition standing before it. 22. It is the wavering understanding that causes these differences, which disappear of themselves, after the mind resumes its steadiness in the unity of the Deity, wherein it is lost at last, as the oblation of butter is consumed in the sacred fire.

23. There is no more any vacillation or dogmatism, nor the unity or duality, after the true knowledge of the deity is gained; when all distinctions are dissolved in an indistinct intellect, which is as it is and all in all. 24. When it is known from the sum and substance of all reasoning, that it is the one Intellect, which is the subject of all appellations which are applied to it; there remains no more any difference of religious faith in the world. (That is one and all, is the catholic religion of all). 25. Difference of faith, creates difference in men; but want of distinction in creed, destroys all difference, and brings on the union of all to one common faith in the supreme being. 26. Ráma, you see the variety from your want of understanding, and you will get rid of the same (and recognise their identity), as you come to your right understanding; ask this of any body and you will find the truth of what I say and be fearless at any party feeling and enmity. (Confession of faith in one Divinity, that is acknowledged and adored by all alike, is the root of catholicity, and brings on unity in philosophy of religion).

27. In that state of fearlessness, the Brahmavádí finds no difference in the states of waking, dreaming, sound sleep or the fourth stage of devotion; nor in his earthly bondage or liberation from it, all which are equal to him. (So says the sruti: - The Brahmavádí is ever blest and is afraid of nothing in any state of life, in all of which he sees the presence of his God). 28. Tranquillity is another name of the universe, and God has given his peace to everything in the world; therefore all schisms are the false creations of ignorance, as none of them has ever seen the invisible God. 29. The action of the heart and the motion of the vital air, cannot move the contented mind to action; because the mind which is devoid of its desire, is indifferent about the vibrations of his breath and heart strings. 30. The intellect which is freed from the dubitation of unity and duality, and got rid of its anxious cares and desires; has approached to a state, which is next to that of the deity.

31. But the pure desire which subsists in the intellect, like the stain which sticks to the disk of the moon; is no speck upon it, but the coagulation of the condensed intellect. (As the fluid water is congealed in the forms of snow and ice). 32. Do you, Ráma! ever remain in the state of your collected intellect, because it concentrates (the knowledge of) everything (that is sat) in itself, and leaves nothing (that is not asat) beyond it. (This is the most faultless undefective form of faith, that I have abstracted from all religions). 33. The moon like disk of the intellect, having the mark of inappetency in it, is a vessel of ambrosia, a draught of which drowns the thoughts of all that is and is not (in esse - et non-esse) into oblivion. (Contentment is the ambrosial draught for oblivion of all cares). 34. Refer thy thoughts of whatever thou hast or wantest, to the province of thy intellect (i.e. think of thy intellectual parts and wants only); and taste thy inward delight as much as thou dost like. (Pleasure of intellectual culture, is better than physical enjoyments).

35. Know Ráma, that the words vibration and inaction, desire and inappetency and such others of the theological glossary, serve only to burden and mislead the mind to error; do you therefore keep yourself from thinking on these, and betake yourself to your peace and quiet, whether you attain to your perfection or otherwise.

ON THE VIRTUES OF TACITURNITY. Argument: - Four kinds of Reticence, and their respective qualities. Vasishtha said: - Ráma! remain as taciturn as in your silent sleep, and shun at a distance the musings of your mind; get rid of the vagaries of your imagination, and remain firm in the state Brahma. 2. Ráma said: - I know what is meant by the reticence of speech, and the quietness of the organs, and the muteness of a block of wood; but tell me what is sleep like silence, which you well know by practice. 3. Vasishtha replied: - It is said to be of two kinds, by the mute like munis and the reserved sages of old; the practiced by the wood like statues of saints, and the other observed by those that are liberated in their life time (jívan mukta). 4. The wood like devotee is that austere ascetic, who is not meditative in his mind, and is firmly employed in the discharge of the rigorous rites of religion; he practises the painful restraints of his bodily organs, and remains speechless as a wooden statue.

5. The other kind of living liberated Yogi is one, who looks at the world ever as before (with his usual unconcern); who delights in his meditation of the soul, and passes as any ordinary man without any distinctive mark of his religious order or secular rank. 6. The condition of these two orders of saintly and holy men, which is the fixedness of their minds and sedateness of their souls, is what passes under the title of taciturnity and saintliness (mauna and muni) (who hold their tongue and their peace, and walk sub silentio and incognito on earth). 7. Thus the taciturn sages reckon four kinds of latitancy, which they style severally by the names of reservedness in speech, restriction of the organs, woodlike speechlessness and dead like silence as in one's sleep. 8. Oral silence consists in keeping one's mouth and lips close, and the closeness of the senses implies the keeping of the members of the body under strict control; the rigorous muteness means the abandonment of all efforts, and the sleepy silence is as silent as the grave. 9. There is a fifth kind of dead-like silence, which occurs in the austere ascetic in his state of insensibility; in the profound meditation of the dormant Yogi, and in the mental abstraction of the living liberated.

10. All the three prior states of reticence, occur in the austere devotee, and the sleepy or dead silence is what betakes the living liberated only. 11. Though speechlessness is called silence, yet it does not constitute pure reticence, in as much as the mute tongue may brood evil thoughts in the mind, which lead to the bondage of men. 12. The austere devotee continues in his reticence, without minding his own egoism, or seeing the visibles or listening to the speech of others; and seeing nothing beside him, he sees all in himself, like living fire covered under ashes. 13. The mind being busy in these three states of silence, and indulging its fancies and reveries at liberty; makes munis of course in outward appearance, but there is no one, who understands the nature of God. 14. There is nothing of that blessed divine knowledge in any of these, which is so very desirable to all mankind; I vouch it freely that they are not knowers of God, be they angry at it or not as they may. (Vasishtha being a theoretic philosopher, finds fault with every kind of practical Yoga or pseudo hypnotism).

15. But this dormant or meditative silent sage, who is liberated from all bonds and cares in his life time, is never to be born in any shape in this world, and it is interesting to know much of them as I will recite to you. 16. He does not require to restrain his respiration, nor needs the triple restraint of his speech; he does not rejoice at his prosperity, nor is he depressed in adversity, but preserves his equanimity and the evenness of his sensibility at all times. (He sticks to what is natural, and does not resort to anything artificial). 17. His mind is under the guidance of his reason, and is neither excited by nor restrained from its fancies, it is neither restless nor dormant, and exists as it is not in existence. (owing to its even mindedness). 18. His attention is neither divided nor pent up, but fixed in the infinite and eternal one, and his mind cogitates unconfined the nature of things. Such a one is said to be the sleeping silent sage. 19. He who knows the world as it is, and is not led to error by its deluding varieties, and whoso scans everything as it is without being led to scepticism, is the man that is styled the sleeping silent sage.

20. He who relies his faith and trust, on the one endless and ever felicitous Siva, as the aggregate of all knowledge, and the displayer of this universe, is the one who is known as the sleeping silent sage. 21. He who sees the vacuum as the plenum, and views this all omnium as the null and nullum; and whose mind is even and tranquil, is the man who is called the sleeping silent sage. 22. Again he who views the universe as neither reality nor unreality either, but all an empty vacuum and without a substratum, but full of peace and divine wisdom, is said to be in the best state of his taciturnity. 23. The mind that is unconscious of the effects, of the different states of its prosperity and adversity and of its plenty and wants, is said to rest in its highest state of rest and quiet. 24. That perfect equanimity of the mind and evenness of temper, which is not liable to change or fluctuation; with a clear conscience and unflinching self-consciousness, are the source of an unimpairing reticence. 25. The consciousness that I am nothing, nor is there anything besides; and that the mind and its thoughts, are no other in reality (than fictions of the intellect); is the real source of taciturnity.