Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

26. The knowledge that the ego pervades this universe, which is the representation of the "one that is"; and whose essence is displayed equally in all things, is what is meant by the state of sleepy silence. (i.e. the man that has known this grand truth, remains dumb and mute and has nothing to say). 27. Now as it is the consciousness which constitutes all and everything, how can you conceive your distinction from others, who are actuated by the same power, dwelling alike in all? It is this knowledge which is called the ever lasting sleep, and forms the ground work of every kind of silence. 28. This is the silence of profound sleep, and because it is an endless sleep in the ever wakeful God, this sleep is alike to waking. Know this as the fourth stage of Yoga, or rather a stage above the same. 29. This profound trance is called hypnotism or the fourth state of entranced meditation; and the tranquillity which is above this state, is to be had in one's waking state.

30. He that is situated in his fourth stage of yoga, has a clear conscience and quiet peace attending on him. This is practicable by the adept even in his waking state, and is obtainable by the righteous soul, both in its embodied as well as disembodied states. 31. Yes, O Ráma! Be you desirous to be settled in this state, and know that neither I or you nor any other person is any real being in this world, which exists only as a reflexion of our mind, and therefore the wise man should rely only in the bosom of the vacuous intellect, which comprehends all things in it.

UNION OF THE MIND WITH THE BREATH OF LIFE. Argument. - Willful existence of the attendants of Rudra, and the elevation of yogis after their Demise. Ráma said: - Tell me, O chief of sages, how the Rudras came to be a hundred in their number, and whether the attendants of Rudra, are Rudras also or otherwise. 2. Vasishtha replied: - The mendicant saw himself in a hundred forms in a hundred dreams, which he dreamt one after another; these I have told you on the whole before, though I have not specially mentioned them to you. 3. All the forms that he saw in the dream, became so many Rudras, and all these hundred Rudras remained as so many attendants on the principal Rudra. 4. Ráma asked: - But how could the one mind of the mendicant, be divided into a hundred in so many bodies of the Rudras; or was it undivided like a lamp, that lightens a hundred lamps, without any diminution of its own light. 5. Vasishtha answered: - Know Ráma, that disembodied or spiritual beings of pure natures, are capable of assuming to themselves any form of their fancy, from the aqueous nature of their souls (which readily unite with other liquids). (The Sruti says, "the soul is a fluid"; corresponding with the psychic fluid of Stahl).

6. The soul being omnipresent and all pervading (like the all diffusive psychic fluid); takes upon it any form whatever, and whenever and wherever it likes, by virtue of its intelligence: (which the ignorant spirit is unable to do). 7. Ráma rejoined: - But tell me Sir, why the Lord Rudra or Siva wore the string of human skulls about his neck, daubed his body with ashes, and stark naked; and why he dwelt in funeral ground, and was libidinous in the greatest degree. 8. Vasishtha replied: - The Gods and perfect beings as the siddhas &c. are not bound down by the laws, which the weak and ignorant men have devised for their own convenience. 9. The ignorant cannot go on without the guidance of law, on account of their ungovernable minds; or else they are subject to every danger and fear, like poor fishes (which are quite helpless, and entirely at the mercy of all voracious animals). 10. Intelligent people are not exposed to those evils in life, as the ignorant people of ungoverned minds and passions, meet with by their restless and vagrant habits.

11. Wise men discharge their business as they occur to them at times, and never undertake to do any thing of their own accord, and are therefore exposed to no danger. (Graha in the text means a shark and calamities also). 12. It was on the impulse of the occasion that the God Vishnu, engaged himself in action, and so did the God with the three eyes (i.e. Siva), as also the God that was born of the lotus (i.e. The great Brahmá). (All of them took human forms on them, whenever the Daityas invaded the Bráhmans, and never of their own will). 13. The acts of wise men are neither to be praised or blamed nor are they praiseworthy or blameable; because they are never done from private or public motives (but on the expediency of the occasion). 14. As light and heat are the natural properties, of fire and sun shine; so are the actions of Siva and the Gods, ordained as such from the beginning, as the caste customs of the twice born dwijas (Aryans).

15. Though the natures of all mankind are the same, as they are ordained in the beginning; yet the ignorant have created differences among them, by institution of the distinction of castes and customs; and as their institutions are of their own making, they are subjected by them to the evils of future retribution and transmigration. (Men are bound down by their own laws, from which the brute creation is entirely free). 16. I have related to you, Ráma! the quadruple reticence of embodied beings, and have not as yet expounded the nature of the silence of disembodied souls (as those of the Gods, siddhas and departed saints). 17. Hear now how men are to obtain this chief good (summum bonum) of theirs, by their knowledge of the intellectual souls in the clear sphere of their own intellect, which is clearer far than the etherial sphere of the sky. 18. It is by the knowledge of all kinds of knowledge, and constant devotion to meditation; and by the study of the numerical philosophy of particulars in the sánkhya system, that men became renowned as Sánkhya yogis or categorical philosopher. (The Sánkhya is opposed to the Vedánta, in as much as it rises from particulars to general truths).

19. The yoga consists in the meditation of Yogis, of the form of the eternal and undecaying One; by suppression of their breathings, and union with that state, which presents itself to their mind. 20. That unfeigned and undisguised state of felicity and tranquillity, which is desired as the most desirable thing by all, is obtainable by some by means of the Sánkhya Yoga, and by the Jnána Yoga by others. 21. The result of both these forms of Yoga, is the same, and this is known to anybody that has felt the same; because the state arrived at by the one, is alike to that of the other also. 22. And this supreme state is one, in which the actions of the mental faculties and vital breath, are altogether imperceptible; and the network of desires is entirely dispersed. 23. The desire constitutes the mind, which again is the cause of creation; it is therefore by the destruction of both of these, that one becomes motionless and inactive. (Forgets himself to a stone. Pope). 24. The mind forgets its inward soul, and never looks towards it for a moment; it is solely occupied with its body, and looks at the phantom of the body, as a child looks at a ghost. (Thinking it a reality).

25. The mind itself is a false apparition, and an unsubstantial appearance of our mistake; and shows itself as the death of some body in his dream, which is found to be false upon his waking. 26. The world is the production of the mind, else what am I and who is mine or my offspring; it is custom and our education that have caused the bugbears of our bondage and liberation, which are nothing in reality. 27. There is one thing however, on which is based the bias of both systems; that it is the suppression of breath, and the restriction of mind, which form the sum and substance of what they call their liberation. 28. Ráma rejoined: - Now sir, if it is suppression which constitutes the liberation of these men; then I may as well say that all dead men are liberated, as well as all dead animals also. 29. Vasishtha replied: - Of the three practices of the restriction of the breath, body and mind, I ween the repression of the mind and its thoughts to be the best; because it is easily practicable and I will tell you how it is to be done to our good.

30. When the vital breaths of the liberated souls, quit this mortal frame; it perceives the same in itself, and flies in the shape of a particle in the open sky, and mixes at last with etherial air. 31. The parting soul accompanies with its tanmátras or elementary principles; which comprise the desires of its mind, and which are closely united with breath, and nothing besides. 32. As the vital breath quits one body to enter into another, so it carries with it the desires of the heart, with which it was in the breast of man, as the winds of the air bear the fragrance of flowers. These are reproduced in the future body for its misery only. 33. As a water pot thrown in the sea, does not lose its water, so the vital breath mixing with the etherial air, does not lose the desires of the mind, which it bears with it. They are as closely united with it, as the sun-beams with the sun. 34. The mind cannot be separated from the vital breath (i.e. the desires are inseparable from life), without the aid of the knowledge; and as the bird Titterí cannot be removed from one nest without an other (so the soul never passes from one body without finding and entering into another).

35. Knowledge removes the desires, and the disappearance of desires destroys the mind; this produces the suppression of breath, and thence proceeds the tranquillity of the soul. 36. Knowledge shows us the unreality of things, and the vanity of human desires. Hence know O Ráma, that the extinction of desires, brings on the destruction of both the mind and vitality. 37. The mind being with its desires, which form its soul and life, it can no more see the body in which it took so much delight; and then the tranquil soul attains its holiest state. 38. The mind is another name for desire, and this extirpated and wanting, the soul comes to the discrimination of truth, which leads to the knowledge of the supreme. 39. In this manner, O Ráma, we came to the end of our erroneous knowledge of the world, as it is by means of our reason, that we come to detect our error of the snake in the rope. 40. Learn this one lesson, that the restraining of the mind and suppression of breath, mean the one and same thing; and if you succeed in restraining the one, you succeed in the restraint of other also. (So it is said, that our thoughts and respirations go together).

41. As the waving of the palm leaved fan being stopped, there is a stop of the ventilation of air in the room; so the respiration of the vital breath being put to a stop, there ensues a total stoppage of the succession of our thoughts. (It is believed that our time is measured by succession of our breath and thoughts ajápas, and the more are they suppressed, the greater is the duration of our life prolonged). 42. The body being destroyed, the breath passes into the vacuous air; where it sees everything according to the desires, which it has wafted along with it, from the cells of the heart and mind. 43. As the living souls find the bodies (of various animals) in which they are embodied, and act according to their different natures; so the departed and disembodied spirits - pránas, see many forms and figures presented before them, according to their several desires. They enter into the same, and act agreeably to the nature of that being.

44. As the fragrance of flowers ceases to be diffused in the air, when the breezes have ceased to blow; so the vital breath, ceases to breathe, when the action of the mind is at a stop. (Hence is the concentration of the mind, to one object only strongly enjoyed in the yoga practice).[A]

Swedenborg saw the intimate connection between thought and vital life. He says: - Thought commences with respiration. The reader has before attended to the presence of heaving over the body; now let him feel his thoughts, and he will see that they too heave with the mass. When he entertains a long thought, he draws a long breath, when he thinks quickly, his breath vibrates with rapid alternations; when the tempest of anger shakes his mind, his breath is tumultuous; when his soul is deep and tranquil, so is his respiration; when success inflates him, his lungs are as timid as his concepts. Let him make trial of the accuracy, let him endeavour to think in long stretches, at the same time that he breathes in fits, and he will find that it is impossible; that in this case the chopping will needs mince his thoughts. Now this mind dwells in the brains, and it is the brain, therefore, which spares the varying fortunes of the breathing. It is strange that this correspondence between the states of the brain or mind and the lungs has not been admitted in science, for it holds in every case, at every moment. "He says moreover - Inward thoughts have inward breaths, and purer spiritual thoughts have spiritual breaths hardly mixed with material."

See Col. Olcott's Yoga Philosophy Page 283. 45. Hence the course of the thoughts, and respiration of all animals, is known too closely united with one another; as the fragrance is inseparable from the flower, and the oil from the oily seeds. 46. The breath is vacillation of the mind, as the mind is the fluctuation of the breath; and these two go together for ever, as the chariot and its charioteer. 47. These perish together without the assemblage of one another, as the container and the contained are both lost at the loss of either (like that of the fire and its heat). Therefore it is better to lose them for the liberation of the soul, than losing the soul for the sake of the body. 48. Keeping only one object or the unity in view will stop the course of the mind; and the mind being stopped, there will follow as a matter of course, an utter suppression of the breath as its consequence. 49. Investigate well into the truth of the immortality of thy soul, and try to assimilate thyself into the eternal spirit of God; and having absorbed thy mind in the divine mind, be one with the same.

50. Distinguish between thy knowledge and ignorance, and lay hold on what is more expedient for you; settle yourself on what remains after disappearance of both, and live while you live relying on the Intellect alone. 51. Continue to meditate on the existence of all things in one firm and ever existent entity alone, until by your constant habit of thinking so, you find all outward existence disappear into non existence (and present the form of the self-existent only to view). 52. The minds of the abstinent are mortified, with their bodies and vitality, for want of food and enjoyments; and then there remains the consciousness of the transcendent one alone. 53. When the mind is of one even tenor, and is habituated to it by its constant practice; it will put an end to the thought of the endless varieties and particulars, which will naturally disappear of themselves. 54. There is an end of our ignorance and delusion (avidyá), as we attempt to the words of wisdom and reason; we gain our best knowledge by learning, but it is by practice alone, that we can have the object of our knowledge.

55. The mirage of the world will cease to exist, after the mind has become calm and quiet in itself; as the darkness of the sky is dispersed, upon disappearance of the raining clouds. 56. Know your mind alone as the cause of your delusion, and strive therefore to weaken its force and action; but you must not Ráma! weaken it so much, as to lose the sight of the supreme spirit, which shines as the soul of the mind. 57. When the mind is settled with the supreme soul for a moment, know that to be the mature state of thy mind, and will soon yield the sweets of its ripeness. 58. Whether you have your tranquillity, by the Sánkhya or Vedánta Yoga; it is both the same if you can reduce yourself to the supreme soul; and by doing so for a moment, you are no more to be reborn in this nether world. 59. The word divine essence, means the mind devoid of its ignorance; and which like a fried seed is unable to reproduce the arbor of the world, and has no interruption in its meditation of God.

60. The mind that is devoid of ignorance, and freed from its desires, and is settled in its pure essence; comes to see in an instant, a full blaze of light filling the sphere of the firmament in which it rests and which absorbs it quite. 61. The mind is said to be its pure essence, which is insensible of itself, and settled in the supreme soul; it never relapses into the foulness of its nature, as the copper which is mixed with gold, never becomes dirty again.

INTERROGATORIES OF VETÁLA. Arguments: - Conversation of a prince and a Vetála, and Dissipation of Error and manifestation of truth. Vasishtha resumed: - Life becomes no life (becomes immortal), and the mind turns to no mind, immerges in the soul; no sooner is the cloud of ignorance dispersed by the bright sun beams of right reason. This is the state which is termed moksha or liberation (from error) by the wise. 2. The mind and its egoism and tuism (subjectivity and objectivity), appear as water in the mirage, but all these unrealities vanish away, no sooner we come to our right reason; 3. Attend now to the queries of a vetála, which I come to remember at present, concerning our erroneous and dreaming conception of the phenomenal world, and which will serve to example by the subject of our last lecture. 4. There lived a gigantic vetála in the vast wilderness of the Vindhya mountains, who happened to come out on an excursion to the adjoining districts in search of his prey of human beings. 5. He used to live before in the neighbourhood of a populous city, where he lived quite happy and well satisfied with the victims; which were daily offered to him by the good citizens.

6. He never killed a human being without some cause or harm, although he roved through the city, pinched by hunger and thirst. He walked in the ways of the honest and equitable men in the place. 7. It came to pass in course of time that he went out of the city, to reside in his woody retreat; where he never killed any man, except when pressed by excessive hunger, and when he thought it was equitable for him to do so. 8. He happened to meet there once a ruler of the land, strolling about in his nightly round; to whom he cried out in a loud and appalling voice. 9. The vetála exclaimed: - Where goest thou, O prince, said he, thou art now caught in the clutches of a hideous monster, thou art now a dead man, and hast become my ration of this day. 10. The ruler replied: - Beware, O nocturnal fiend! that I will break thy skull into a thousand pieces, if you will unjustly attempt to kill me by force at this spot, and make thy ration of me.

11. The vetála rejoined: - I do not tell thee unjustly, and speak it rightly unto thee; that as thou art a ruler, it is thy duty to attend to the petition of every body (wherein if thou failest, thou surely diest before me). 12. I request thee, O prince! to solve the questions that I propose to thee; because I believe thou art best able to give a full and satisfactory answer to every one of them. (These questions are dark enigmas, which are explained in the next chapter). 13. Who is that glorious sun, the particles of whose rays, are seen to glitter in the surrounding worlds: and what is that wind (or force), which wafts these dusts of stars, in the infinite space of vacuum. 14. What is that self-same thing, which passes from one dream to another, and assumes different forms by hundreds and thousands, and yet does not forsake its original form. 15. Tell me what is that pithy particle in bodies, which is enveloped under a hundred folds or sheaths, which are laid over and under one another, like the coats or lamina of a plantain tree.

16. What is that minute atom which is imperceptible to the eye, and yet produces this immeasurable universe, with its stupendous worlds and skies, and the prodigious planets on high and mountains below, which are the minutest of that minute particle. 17. What is that shapeless and formless thing atom, which remains as the pith and marrow under the rocks of huge mountains, and which is the substratum of the triple world (of heaven, earth and infernal regions). 18. If you, O wicked soul, fail to answer to these queries, then shalt thou be a killer of thyself, by your being made my food this moment. And know that at the end, I will devour all thy people, as the regent of death destroys every body in the world.

THE PRINCE'S REPLY TO THE FIRST QUESTION OF THE VETÁLA. Arguments: - Answer to the first question regarding the Prime cause of all, shows the infinite worlds to be the trees and fruits of that original root. Vasishtha related: - The Rájá smiled at hearing these questions of the Demon, and as he opened his mouth to give the reply, the lustre of his pearly teeth, shed a brightness on the white vault of the sky. (This shows how much the early Hindus prized their white teeth, though latterly they tinged them with blue vitriol). 2. This world was at first a rudimentary granule (in the Divine mind), and was afterwards encrusted by a dozen of elemental sheaths as its pellicles, skin and bark. (Does it mean the component elements or layers Bhúta-tatwa or Bhú-tatwa). 3. The tree which bears thousands of such fruits, is very high also with its equally out stretching branches, and very long and broad leaves likewise. 4. This great tree is of a huge size and very astounding to sight; it has thousands of prodigious branches spreading wide on every side. 5. There are thousands of such trees, and a dense forest of many other large trees and plants in that person. 6. Thousands of such forests stretch over it, abounding in thousands of mountains with their elevated peaks.

7. The wide extended tracts which contain these mountains, have also very large valleys and dales amidst in them. 8. These wide spread tracts contain also many countries, with their adjacent islands and lakes and rivers too. 9. These thousands of islands also contain many cities, with varieties of edifices and works of art. 10. These thousands tracts of lands, which are sketched out as so many continents, are as so many earths and worlds in their extent. 11. That which contains thousands of such worlds, as the mundane eggs, is as unlimited as the spacious womb of the firmament. 12. That which contains thousands of such eggs in its bosom, bears also many thousands of seas and oceans resting calmly in its ample breast. 13. That which displays the boisterous waves of seas, is the sprightly and sportive soul, heaving as the clear waters of the ocean. 14. That which contains thousands of such oceans, with all their waters in his unconscious womb, is the God Vishnu who filled the universal ocean with his all pervasive spirit. (And the spirit of God floated on the face of the waters, Moses. The waters were the first abode of Náráyana). 15. That which bears thousands of such Gods, as a string of pearls about the neck, is the Great God Rudra.

16. That which bears thousands of such Great Gods Mahádevas, in the manner of the hairs on his person; is the supreme Lord God of all. 17. He is that great sun that he shines in a hundred such persons of the Gods, all of whom are but frictions of the rays of that Great source of light and life. 18. All things in the universe are but particles of that uncreated sun; and thus have I explained to you that Intellectual sun, who fills the world with his rays, and shows them light. 19. The all knowing soul is the supreme sun that enlightens the world, and fills all things in it with particles of its rays. (The soul is the sun, whose light of knowledge manifests all things unto us). 20. It is the Omniscient soul, which is that surpassing sun, whose rays produce and show everything to light; and without which as in the absence of the solar light, nothing would grow nor be visible in the outer world. (The sun's heat and light are the life and shower of the sight of the world).

21. All living beings who have their souls enlightened by the light of philosophy, behold the sphere of the universe to be a blaze of the gemming sun of the intellect; and there is not the least tinge of the erroneous conceptions of the material world in it. Know this and hold your peace.[A]

ANSWERS TO THE REMAINING QUESTIONS. Argument: - The Rájah's replies to the five remaining questions of the Demon. The Rájah replied: - The essences of time, vacuum and of force, are all of intellectual origin; it is the pure intellect which is the source of all, as the air is the receptacle of odours and dusts. (The mind contains all things). 2. The supreme soul is as the universal air, which breathes out the particles contained in the intellect; as the etherial air bears the fragrance from the cells of flowers. (The soul is called átmá corresponding with the Greek atmos air, in which sense it is the same with the spirit). (This is the answer to the second question). 3. The great Brahma of the conscious soul, passing through the dreaming world (it being but a dream only passes from one scene to another without changing its form). (The soul is conscious of the operations of the mind, but never changes with the mental phenomena). 4. As the stem (stambha) of plantain tree, is a folding of its pellicles plaited over one another, and having its pith hidden in the inside; so everything in the world presents its exterior coats to the view, while its substance of Brahma is deeply hid in the interior.

5. The words ens, soul and Brahma by which God is designated, are not significant of his nature, who is devoid of all designations like the empty void, and indescribable (avyapadesa) in any word in use. (So the sruti: na tatra vak gachchhate, to Him no words can approach; i.e. no words can express Him). 6. Whatever essence is perceived by one as the product of another, is like the upper fold or plait of the plantain tree, produced by the inner one; and all such coating are but developments of the Divine Intellect lying at the bottom. (As the essence of the cloth is the thread, which is the product of cotton produced by the pod of the cotton plant, which is produced from the seed grown by the moisture of the water &c., the last of which has the Divine essence for its prime cause and source.) 7. The supreme soul is said to be a minute atom, on account of the subtility and imperceptibility of its nature; and it is said also to be the base of mountains and all other bodies, owing to the unboundedness of its extent. (This is in answer to the fifth question).

8. The endless being though likened to a minute atom, is yet as large as to contain all these worlds as its minutest particles; which are as evident to us as the very many aerial scenes appearing in our minds in the state of dreaming. (The small grain of the soul contains the universe, as the particle of the mind contains the worlds in it). 9. This being is likened to an atom owing to its imperceptibleness, and is also represented as a mountain on account of its filling all space; though it is the figure of all formal existence, yet it is without any form or figure of its own. (The Sruti says: "neti-neti, He is neither this nor that"). 10. The three worlds are as the fatty bulb of that pithy intelligence; for know thou righteous soul! that it is that Intelligence which dwells in and acts in all the worlds. (The Sruti says: the vacuity of the heart is the seat of intelligence, which is the pith of the mássa or muscular body, and the vacuous air is the seat of the soul, whose body is the triple world).

11. All these worlds are fraught with design of Intelligence, which is quiet in its nature, and exhibits endless kinds of beautiful forms of its own, know, O young vetála, that irresistible power, reflect this in thyself and keep thy quiet.

END OF THE STORY OF THE VETÁLA DEMON. Arguments: - After part of Vetála's tale and Preamble to the tale of Bhagíratha. Vasishtha resumed: - After hearing these words from the mouth of the prince, the vetála held his peace and quiet, and remained reflecting on them in his mind, which was capable of reasoning. 2. Being then quite calm in his mind, he reflected on the pure doctrines of the prince; and being quite absorbed in his fixed meditation, he forgot at once his hunger and thirst. 3. I have thus related to you, Ráma, about the questions of the vetála, and the manner in which these worlds are situated in the atom of the intellect and no where else. 4. The world residing in the cell of the atomic intellect, ceases to subsist by itself upon right reasoning; so the body of a ghost exists in the fancy of boys only, and there remains nothing at last except the everlasting one. 5. Curb and contract thy thought and heart from every thing, and enclose thy inward soul in itself; do what thou hast to do at any time, without desiring or attempting any thing of thy own will, and thus have the peace of thy mind.

6. Employ your mind, O silent sage! to keep itself as clean as the clear firmament, remain in one even and peaceful tenor of thy soul, and view all things in one and the same light (of tolerance and catholicism). 7. A steady and dauntless mind with its promptness in action, is successful in most arduous undertakings, as was the prince Bhagíratha with his unsevering perseverance. 8. It was by his perfectly peaceful and contended mind, and by the lasting felicity of the equanimity of his soul, that this prince succeeded to bring down the heavenly Ganges on earth, and the princes of Sagar's line were enabled to perform the arduous task of digging the bay of Bengal. (Where they were buried alive by curse of the sage Kapila, for disturbing his silent meditations).

ACCOUNT AND ADMONITION OF BHAGÍRATHA. Argument: - Conduct and character of Bhagíratha, his private reflexion and the Instructions of his tutor. Ráma said: - Please sir, to relate unto me, the wonderful narrative of prince Bhagíratha, how he succeeded to bring down the heavenly stream of Gangá on the earth below. 2. Vasishtha replied: - The prince Bhagíratha was a personage of eminent virtues, and was distinguished as a crowning mark (Tilaka), over all countries of this terraqueous earth and its seas. 3. All his suitors received their desired boons, even without their asking; and their hearts were as gladdened at the sight of his moon-bright countenance, as were it at the sight of a precious and brilliant gem. 4. His charities were always profusely lavished upon all good people, for their maintenance and supportance; while he carefully collected even straws (for his revenue), and prized them as they were gems unto him. (i.e. He earned as he gave). 5. He was as bright in his person, as the blazing fire without its smoke, and was never weak even when he was tired in the discharge of his duties. He drove away poverty from the abodes of men, as the rising sun dispels the darkness of night from within their houses.

6. He spread all around him the effulgence of his valour, as the burning fire scatters about its sparks; and he burned as the blazing midday sun, among all his hostile bands. 7. Yet he was gentle and soft in the society of wisemen, and cooled their hearts with his cooling speech. He shone amidst the learned, as the moon-stone glistens under the moon light. 8. He decorated the world with its triple cord of the sacrificial thread, by stretching out the three streams of the Ganges, along the three regions of heaven, earth and infernal regions. (Hence Gangá is called the tripathagá or running in the trivium in heaven, earth and hell). 9. He filled the ocean that had been dried up by the sage Agastya, with the waters of Ganges; as the bounteous man fills the greedy beggar with his unbounded bounty. 10. This benefactor of mankind, redeemed his ancestral kinsmen from the infernal region (in which they were accursed by the indignant sage;) and led them to the heaven of Brahmá, by the passage of the sacred Gangá (which ran through the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell).

11. He overcame by his resolute perseverance, all his manifold obstacles and troubles, in his alternate propitiations of the god Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu, for their discharging the course of the stream. (The holy Gangá was first confined in Brahmá's water pot, and then restricted in Hara's crown, and lastly locked up under Jahnu's seat, whence the river has the nickname of Jáhnaví). 12. Though he was yet in the vigour of his youth, he seemed even then to feel the decay of age, coming fastly upon him, at his incessant thoughts on the miseries of human life. 13. His excogitation of the vanities of the world, produced in him a philosophical apathy to them; and this sang froid or cold heartedness of his in the prime of his youth, was like the shooting forth of a tender sprout on a sudden in a barren desert. (So great was the early abstractedness from the world, prized by the ancient Aryans, that many monarchs are mentioned to have became religious recluses in their youth). 14. The prince thought in his retired moments on the impropriety of his worldly conduct, and made the following reflections, on the daily duties of life in his silent soliloquy.

15. I see the return of day and night, in endless succession after one another; and I find the repetition of the same acts of giving and taking (receipts and disbursements), and lasting the same enjoyments, to have grown tedious and insipid to me. (So it was with Rasselas the prince of Abyssinia, who felt disgusted at the daily rotation of the same pleasures and enjoyments and one unvaried course of life). 16. I think that only to be worth my seeking and doing, which being obtained and done, there is nothing else to desire or do in this transitory life of troubles and cares. 17. Is it not shameful for a sensible being, to be employed in the same circuit of business every day, and is it not laughable to be doing and undoing the same thing, like silly boys day by day? 18. Being thus vexed with the world, and afraid of the consequence of his worldly course, Bhagíratha repaired in silence to the solitary cell of his preceptor Tritala, and bespoke to him in the following manner. 19. Bhagíratha said: - My Lord! I am entirely tired and disgusted with the long course of my worldly career, which I find to be all hollow and empty within it, and presenting a vast wilderness without.

20. Tell me lord, how can I get over the miseries of this world, and get freed from my fear of death and disease and from the fetters of errors and passions, to which I am so fast enchained. (The Hindu mind is most sensible of the baneful effects of the primeval curse pronounced on man, and the accursedness of his posterity and of this earth for his sake; and is always in eager search of salvation, redemption or liberation from the same by mukti, moksha, and paritrána). 21. Tritala replied: - It is to be effected by means of the continued evenness of one's disposition (obtained by his quadruple practice of devotion sádhana); the uninterrupted joyousness of his soul (arising from its communion with the Holy spirit); by his knowledge of the knowable true one, and by his self sufficiency in everything (tending to his perfection). (The quadruple devotion consists in one's attendance to holy lectures and in his understanding, reflection and practice of the same lessons, called the sádhana chatushtaya). 22. By these means the man is released from misery, his worldly bonds are relaxed, his doubts are dissipated, and all his actions tend to his well being in both worlds.

23. That which is called the knowable, is the pure soul of the nature of intelligence; it is always present in everything in all places and is eternal - having neither its rising or setting (i.e. its beginning or end). The animating soul of the world, is identified with the supreme and universal soul of God. The vedánta knows no duality of the animal and animating souls. 24. Bhagíratha rejoined: - I know, O great sage! the pure intelligent soul to be perfectly calm and tranquil, undecaying and devoid of all attributes and qualities; and neither the embodied spirit, nor the animal soul, nor the indwelling principle of material bodies. 25. I cannot understand sir, how I can be that intelligence, when I am so full of errors, or if I be the selfsame soul, why is it not so manifest in me as the pure divine soul itself. 26. Tritala replied: - It is by means of knowledge only, that the mind can know the truly knowable one in the sphere of one's own intellect, and then the animal soul finding itself as the all-pervading spirit, is released from future birth and transmigration. (The belief of the difference of one's soul from the eternal one, is the cause of his regeneration).

27. It is our unattachment to earthly relations, and unaccompaniment of our wives, children and other domestic concerns, together with the equanimity of our minds, in whatsoever is either advantageous or disadvantageous to us, that serve to widen the sphere of our souls and cause their universality. 28. It is also the union of our souls with the supreme spirit, and our continual communion with God; as also our seclusion from society and remaining in retirement that widen the scope of our souls. 29. It is the continued knowledge of spirituality, and insight into the sense of the unity and identity of God, which are said to constitute our true knowledge; all besides is mere ignorance and false knowledge. 30. It is the abatement of our love and hatred, that is the only remedy for our malady of worldliness; and it is the extinction of our egoistic feelings, that leads to the knowledge of truth. 31. Bhagíratha responded: - Tell me, O reverend sir, how is it possible for any body to get rid of his egoism, which is deep rooted in our constitution, and has grown as big with our bodies as lofty trees on mountain tops.

32. Tritala replied: - All egoistic feelings subside of themselves under the abandonment of worldly desires, which is to be done by the very great efforts of fortitude, in our exercise of the virtues of self-abnegation and self-command, and by the expansion of our souls to universal benevolence. 33. We are so long subjected to the reign of our egoism, as we have not the courage to break down the painful prison house of shame at our poverty, and the fear at our exposure to the indignity of others. (Poverty is shameful to worldly people, but graceful to holy men). 34. If you can therefore renounce all your worldly possessions and remain unmoved in your mind (although in actual possession of them); you may then get rid of your egoism, and attain to the state of supreme bliss. 35. Bereft of all titular honors, and freed from the fear of falling into poverty (and its consequent indignity); being devoid of every endeavour of rising, and remaining as poor and powerless among invidious enemies; and rather living in contemptible beggary among them, without the egoistic pride of mind and vanity of the body; if you can thus remain in utter destitution of all, you are then greater than the greatest.

SUPINENESS OF BHAGÍRATHA. Argument: - Great bounty of Bhagíratha and his indigence in consequence; and his recourse to asceticism with his tutor. Vasishtha related: - Having heard these monitions from the mouth of his religious monitor, he determined in his mind what he was about to do, and set about the execution of his purpose. 2. He passed a few days in devising his project, and then commenced his agnishtoma sacrifice to the sacred fire, for consecrating his all to it, for the sake of obtaining his sole object (of Nirvána or being extinct in the essence of God). 3. He gave away his kine and lands, his horses and jewels, and his monies without number, to the twice born classes of men and his relatives, without distinction of their merit or demerit. 4. During three days he gave away profusely all what he had, till at last he had nothing for himself, except his life and flesh and bones. 5. When his exhaustless treasures were all exhausted, he gave up his great realm like a straw to his neighbouring enemies, to the great mortification of his subjects and citizens (paurakas). 6. As the enemy overran his territories and kingdom, and seized his royal palace and properties; he girt himself in his undergarb, and went away beyond the limits of his kingdom.

7. He wandered afar through distant villages and desert lands, till at last he settled himself where he was quite unknown to all, and nobody knew his person or face or his name and title. 8. Remaining there retired for some time, he became quite composed and blunt to all feelings from within and without himself; and he obtained his rest and repose in the serene tranquillity of his soul. 9. He then roved about different countries and went to distant islands (to see the various manners of men); till at last he turned unawares to his natal land and city, which was in the grasp of his enemies. 10. There while he was wandering from door to door, as he was led about by the current of time; he was observed by the citizens and ministers to be begging their alms. 11. All the citizens and ministers recognized their ex-king Bhagíratha, whom they honoured with their due homage, and whom they were very sorry to behold in that miserable plight. 12. His enemy (the reigning prince) came out to meet him, and implored him to receive back his neglected estate and self-abandoned kingdom; but he slighted all their offers as trifling straws, except taking his slender repast at their hands.

13. He passed a few days there and then bent his course to another way, when the people loudly lamented at his sad condition saying: "Ah! what has become of the unfortunate Bhagíratha". 14. Then the prince walked about with the calmness of his soul, and with his contended mind and placid countenance; and he amused himself with his wandering habits and thoughts, until he came to meet his tutor Tritala on the way. 15. They welcomed one another, and then joining together, they both began to wander about the localities of men, and to pass over hills and deserts in their holy peregrinations. 16. Once on a time as both the dispassionate pupil and his preceptor, were sitting together in the cool calmness of their dispositions, their conversations turned on the interesting subject of human life. 17. What good is there in our bearing the frail body, and what do we lose by our loss of it. (Since neither reap nor lose any real advantage, either by our having or losing of it at any time, yet we should bear with it as it is, in the discharge of the duties that have come down unto us by the custom of the country).

18. They remained quiet with this conclusion, and passed their time in passing from one forest to another; without feeling any joy above their inward bliss, or knowing any sorrow or the intermediate state of joy and grief (which is the general lot of humanity), and the rotatory course of pleasure and pain in this world. 19. They spurned all riches and properties, the possession of horses and cattle, and even the eight kinds of supernatural powers (Siddhis) as rotten straws before the contentedness of their minds. 20. This body which is the result of our past acts, must be borne with fortitude, whether we wish it or not, as long as it lasts; with his continued conviction in the discharge of their duties (of asceticism). 21. They like silent sages, hailed with complaisance, whatever of good or evil, or desirable or undesirable befell to their lot, as the unavoidable results of their prior deeds; and had their repose in the heavenly felicity, to which they had assimilated themselves. (So the sruti: The Divine are one with Divine felicity).

THE DESCENT OF GANGÁ ON EARTH. Argument: - Reinstatement of Bhagíratha in his Kingdom, and his bringing down the heavenly stream by means of his austere Devotion. Vasishtha continued: - It came to pass at one time as Bhagíratha was passing through a large metropolis, he beheld the ruler of that province, who was childless to be snatched away by the hand of death, as a shark seizes a fish for its prey. 2. The people being afraid of anarchy and lawlessness for want of a ruler, were in search of a proper person joined with noble endowments and signs to be made their future king. 3. They met with the silent and patient prince in the act of begging alms, and knowing him as the king Bhagíratha himself, they took him with them escorted by their own regiments, to install him on the throne as their king. 4. Bhagíratha instantly mounted on an elephant, and was led by a large body of troops, who assembled about him as thickly, as the drops of rain water fall into and fill a lake. 5. The people then shouted aloud, "Here is Bhagíratha our lord; may he be victorious for ever", and the noise thereof reached to the furthest mountains, and filled their hollow caves (which reached to the sound).

6. Then as Bhagíratha remained to reign over that realm, the subjects of his own and former kingdom came reverently to him, and thus prayed unto their king saying: - 7. The people said: - Great king! the person who thou didst appoint to rule over us, is lately devoured by death as a little fish by a large one. 8. Therefore deign to rule over thy realm, nor refuse to accept an offer which comes unasked to thee (so it is said: - It is not right to slight even a mite, that comes of itself to any body, but it is to be deemed as a God-sent blessing). 9. Vasishtha said: - The king being so besought accepted their prayer, and thus became the sole manager of the earth, bounded by the seven seas on all sides. 10. He continued to discharge the duties of royalty without the least dismay or disquietude, though he was quite calm and serene in his mind, quiet in his speech, and devoid of passions and envy or selfishness.

11. He then thought of the redemption of his ancestors, who excavated the coast of the sea (and made this bay of Bengal); and were burned alive underneath the ground (by the curse of sage Kapila); by laving their bones and dead bodies with the waves of Ganges, which he heard, had the merit of purity and saving all souls and bodies. (The ancestors of Bhagíratha were the thousand sons of sagara, who were masters of Saugar islands in the bay of Bengal). 12. The heavenly stream of the Ganges did not till then run over the land, it was Bhagíratha that brought it down, and first washed his ancestral remains with its holy waters. The stream was thence forth known by his name as Bhagíratha. 13. The king Bhagíratha was thenceforward resolved, to bring down the holy Gangá of heaven to the nether world. (The triple Ganges is called the Tripathagá or fluvium trivium or running in three directions). 14. The pious prince then resigned his kingdom to the charge of his ministers, and went to the solitary forest with the resolution of making his austere devotion, for the success of his undertaking.

15. He remained there for many years and under many rains, and worshipped the Gods Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu by turns, until he succeeded to bring down the holy stream on the earth below. (It is said that Gangá was pent-up at first in the water pot of Brahmá, and then in the crown of Siva and lastly under the thighs of Jahnu, all which are allegorical of the fall of the stream from the cascade of Gangotri in Haridwar). 16. It was then that the crystal wave of the Ganges, gushed out of the basin of Brahmá the lord of the world and rushed into the moony crest of Hara; and falling on earth below it took a triple course, like the meritorious acts of great men (which were lauded in all three worlds of their past, present and future lives). 17. It was thus the trivium river of Gangá, came to flow over this earth, as the channel to bear the glory of Bhagíratha to distant lands. Behold her running fast with her upheaving waves, and smiling all along with her foaming froths; she sprinkles purity all along with the drizzling drops of her breakers, and scatters plenty over the land as the reward of the best deserts of men.

NARRATIVE OF CHÚDÁLÁ AND SIKHIDHWAJA. Argument: - Story of the Princess Chúdálá and her marriage with Sikhidhwaja and their youthful sports. Vasishtha related: - Ráma! do you keep your view fixed to one object, as it was kept in the mind of Bhagíratha; and do you pursue your calling with a calm and quiet understanding, as it was done by that steady minded prince in the accomplishment of his purpose! (For he that runs many ways, stands in the middle and gets to the end of none). 2. Give up your thoughts of this and that (shilly-shallying), and confine the flying bird of your mind within your bosom, and remain in full possession of yourself after the example of the resolute prince Sikhidhwaja of old. 3. Ráma asked: - Who was this Sikhidhwaja, sir, and how did he maintain the firmness of his purpose? Please explain this fully to me for the edification of my understanding. 4. Vasishtha replied: - It was in a former Dwápara age, that there lived a loving pair of consorts who are again to be born in a future period, in the same manner and at the same place.

5. Ráma rejoined: - Tell me, O great preacher! how the past could be the same as at present, and how can these again be alike in future also. (Since there can be no cause of the likeness of past ages and their productions with those of the present or future. It is reasonable to believe the recurrence of such other things, but not of the same and very things as of yore). 6. Vasishtha replied: - Such is the irreversible law of destiny and the irreversible course of nature, that the creation of the world must continue in the same manner by the invariable will of the creative Brahmá and others. (i.e. The repeated creation of worlds must go on in the same rotation by the inevitable will (Satya Sankalpa) of the creative power; wherefore bygone things are to return and be re-born over and over again). 7. As those which had been plentiful before come to be as plenteous again, so the past appears at present and in future also. Again many things come to being that had not been before, and so many others become extinct in course of time (e. g. as past crops return again and again and vegetables grow where there were none, and as a lopped off branch grows no more).

8. Some reappear in their former forms and some in their resemblance also; others are changed in their forms, and many more disappear altogether (see, for example, the different shapes of the waves of the ocean). 9. These and many other things are seen in the course of the world; and therefore the character of the subject of the present narrative will be found to bear exact resemblance to that of the bygone prince of the same name. 10. Hear me tell you, also, that there is yet to be born such another prince, as valiant as the one that had been in the former dwápara age of the past seventh manvantara period. 11. It will be after the four yugas of the fourth creation, past and gone, that he will be born again of the Kuru family in the vicinity of the Vindhyan mountains in the Jambudwípa continent. (This extravagant sloka is omitted in other editions of this work). 12. There lived a prince by name of Sikhidhwaja in the country of Malava, who was handsome in his person, and endowed with firmness and magnanimity in his nature, and the virtues of patience and self control in his character.

13. He was brave but silent, and even inclined to good acts with all his great virtues; he was engaged in the performance of the religious sacrifices, as also in defeating bowyers in archery. 14. He did many acts (of public endowments), and supported the poor people of the land; he was of a graceful appearance and complacent in his countenance, and loved all men with his great learning in the sástras. 15. He was handsome, quiet and fortunate, and equally as valiant as he was virtuous. He was a preacher of morality and bestower of all benefits to his suitors. 16. He enjoyed all luxuries in the company of good people, and listened to the lessons of the Srutis. He knew all knowledge without any boast on his part, and he hated to touch women as straws. 17. His father departed to the next world, leaving him a lad of sixteen years in age; and yet he was able at that tender age to govern his realm, by defeating his adversaries on all sides. 18. He conquered all other provinces of the country by means of the resources of his empire; and he remained free from all apprehension by ruling his subjects with justice and keeping them in peace.

19. He brightened all sides by his intelligence and the wisdom of his ministers, till in the course of years he came to his youth, as in the gaudy spring of the year. 20. It was the vernal season, and he beheld the blooming flowers glistening brightly under the bright moon-beams; and he saw the budding blossoms, hanging down the arbours in the inner apartments. 21. The door ways of the bowers were overhung with twining branches, decorated with florets scattering their fragrant dust like the hoary powder of camphor; and the rows of the guluncha flowers wafted their odours all around. 22. There was the loud hum of bees, buzzing with their mates upon the flowery bushes; and the gentle zephyrs were wafting the sweet scent amidst the cooling showers of moonbeams. 23. He saw the banks decorated with the kadalí shrubbery glistening with their gemming blossoms under the sable shade of kadalí (plantain) leaves; which excited his yearning after the dear one that was seated in his heart.

24. Giddy with the intoxication of the honey draughts of fragrant flowers, his mind was fixed on his beloved object, and did not depart from it, as the spring is unwilling to quit the flowery garden (so says Hapiz, - no pleasant sight is gladsome to the mind without the face of the fair possessor of the heart: see Sir Wm. Jones' version of it). 25. When shall I in this swinging cradles of my pleasure garden, and when will I in my sports in this lake of lotuses, play with my love-smitten maid with her budding breasts resembling the two unblown blossoms of golden lotuses? 26. When shall I embrace my beloved one to my bosom on my bed daubed with the dust of powdered frankincense, and when shall we on cradles of lotus stalks, like a pair of bees sucking the honey from flower cups? 27. When shall I see that maiden lying relaxed in my arms, with her slender body resembling a tender stalk, and as fair as a string of milk-white kunda flowers, or as a plant formed of moon-beams? 28. When will that moonlike beauty be inflamed with her love to me? With these and the like thoughts and ravings he roved about the garden looking at the variety of flowers.

29. He then went on rambling in the flowery groves and skirts of forests, and thence strayed onward from one forest to another, and by the side of purling lakes blooming with the full blown lotuses. (The lotus is the emblem of beauty in the east, as the rose is in the west). 30. He entered in the alcoves formed by the twining creepers, and walked over the avenues of many garden grounds and forest lands, seeing and hearing the descriptions of woodland sceneries (from his associates). 31. He was distracted in his mind, and took much delight in hearing discourses on erotic subjects, and the bright form of his necklaced and painted beloved was the sole idol in his breast. 32. He adored the maiden in his heart, with her breasts resembling two golden pots on her person; and this ween was soon found by the sagacious ministers of the state. 33. As it is the business of ministership to dive into matters by their signs and prognosis, so these officers met together to deliberate on his marriage.

34. They proposed the youthful daughter of the king of Syrastra (Surat) for his marriage, and thought her as a proper match for him, on account of her coming to the full age of puberty (lit. to the prime of her youth). 35. The prince was married to her who was a worthy image (or like co-partner) of himself; and this fair princess was known by the name of Chúdálá all over the land. 36. She was as joyous in having him, as the new blown lotus at the rising sun; and he made the black-eyed maid to bloom, as the moon opens the bud of the blue lotus. (Lotuses are known as helio-solenus, the white ones opening at sun rise and the blue kind blooming with the rising moon). 37. He delighted her with his love, as gives the white lotus to bloom; and they both inflamed their mutual passions by their abiding in the heart of one another.

38. She flourished with her youthful wiles and dalliance, like a new grown creeper blooming with its flowers, and he was happy, and careless in her company by leaving the state affairs to the management of the ministers. (The words háv Chavavilasa, implying amorous dalliance, are all comprised in the couplet "quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods and becks and wreathed smiles". - Pope). 39. He disported in the company of his lady love, as the swan sports over a bed of lotuses in a large lake; and indulged his frolics in his swinging cradles and pleasure ponds in the inner apartments. 40. They reveled in the gardens and groves, and in the bowers of creepers and flowering plants; and amused themselves in the woods and in walks under the sandalwood and a gulancha shades. 41. They sported by the rows of mandára trees, and beside the lines of plantain and kadalí plants; and regaled themselves wandering in the harem, and by the sides of the woods and lakes in the skirts of the town. 42. He roved afar in distant forests and deserts, and in jungles of Jám and Jám bira trees; they passed by paths bordered by Játí or jasmine plants, and, in short they took delight in everything in the company of one another.

43. The mutual attachment to one another was as delightsome to the people as the union of the raining sky with the cultivated ground; both tending to the welfare of mankind by the productiveness of the general weal. (This far-fetched simile and the mazy construction of the passage is incapable of a literal version). 44. They were both skilled in the arts of love and music, and were so united together by their mutual attachment, that the one was a counterpart of the other. 45. Being seated in each others heart, they were as two bodies with one soul; so that the learning of the sástras of the one, and the skill in painting and fine arts of the other, were orally communicated to and learnt by one another. 46. She from her childhood was trained in every branch of learning, and he learned the arts of dancing and playing on musical instruments, from the oral instructions of Chúdálá. 47. They learned and became learned in the respective arts and parts of one another; as the sun and moon being set in conjunction (amavasyá), impart to and partake of the qualities of each other.

48. Being mutually situated in the heart of one another, they became the one and the same person and both being in the same inclination and pursuit, were the more endeared to one another (as a river running to the milky ocean is assimilated to the ocean of milk, so all souls mixing with the supreme soul form one universal and only soul). 49. They were joined in one person, as the androgyne body of Umá and Siva on earth; and were united in one soul, as the different fragrances of flowers are mixed up with the common air. Their clearness of understanding and learning of the sástras led them both in the one and same way. 50. They were born on earth to perform their parts, like the God Vishnu and his consort Lakshmí; they were equally frank and sweet by their mutual affection, and were as informed as communicative of their learning to others. 51. They followed the course of the laws and customs, and attended to the affairs of the people; they delighted in the arts and sciences, and enjoyed their sweet pleasures also. They appeared as the two moons, shining with their beams.

52. They tasted all their sweet enjoyments of life, in the quiet and solitary recesses of their private apartments, as a couple of giddy swans sporting merrily in the lake of the azure sky.

BEATIFICATION OF CHÚDÁLÁ. Argument: - The distaste and indifference of the happy pair to worldly enjoyments. Vasishtha continued: - In this manner did this happy pair, revel for many years in the pleasures of their youth, and tasted with greater zest, every new delight that came on their way day by day. 2. Years repeated their reiterated revolutions over their protracted revelries till by and by their youth began to give way to the decay of age; as the broken pitcher gives way to its waters out (or rather as the leaky vessel gives way to the waters in). 3. They then thought that their bodies are as frail as the breakers on the sea; and as liable to fall as the ripened fruits of trees, and that death is not to be averted by any body. 4. As the arrowy snows rend the lotus leaves, so is our old age ready to batter and shatter our frames; and the cup of our life is drizzling away day by day, as the water held in the palm falls away by sliding drops. 5. While our avarice is increasing on our hand, like the gourd plant in the rainy weather, so doth our youth glide away as soon as the torrent falls from the mountain cliffs to the ground.

6. Our life is as false as a magic play, and the body a heap of rotting things; our pleasures are few and painful, and as fleeting as the flying arrows from the archers bow. 7. Afflictions pounce upon our hearts, as vultures and kites dart upon fish and flesh; and these our bodies are as momentary as the bursting bubbles of dropping rains (or of rain drops). 8. All reasoning and practice are as unsound, as the unsolid stem of the plantain tree; and our youth is as evanescent, as a fugacious woman that is in love with many men. 9. The taste of youthful pleasure, is soon succeeded by a distaste to it in old age; just as the vernal freshness of plants, gives room to the dryness of autumn; where then is that permanent pleasure and lasting good in this world; which never grows stale, and is ever sweet and lovely. 10. Therefore should we seek that thing, which will support us in all conditions of life, and which will be a remedy of all the maladies (evils), which circumvent us in this world.

11. Being thus determined, they were both employed in the investigation of spiritual philosophy; because they thought their knowledge of the soul to be the only healing balm of the cholic pain of worldliness. (Because spiritual knowledge extricates the soul from its earthly bondage). 12. Thus resolved, they were both devoted to their spiritual culture, and employed their head and heart, their lives and souls in the inquiry, and placed all their hope and trust in the same. 13. They remained long in the study and mutual communication of their spiritual knowledge; and continued to meditate upon and worship the soul of souls in their own souls. 14. They both rejoiced in their investigations into Divine knowledge, and she took a great delight in attending incessantly, to the admonitions and sermons of the Divine prelates. 15. Having heard the words of salvation, from the mouths of the spiritual doctors, and from their exposition of the Sástras; she continued thus to reflect about the soul by day and night. (Blessed is the man, that meditates on the laws of God by day and night. Psalm.)

16. Whether when engaged in action or not, I see naught but the one soul in my enlightened and clear understanding; what then, am I that very self, and is it my own self? (The yogi, when enrapt in holy light, loses the sense of his own personality. So lost in Divine light, the saints themselves forget). 17. Whence comes this error of my personality, why does it grow up and where does it subsist (in the body or in the mind)? It cannot consist in the gross body which knows not itself and is ignorant of everything. Surely I am not this body, and my egoism lies beyond my corporeality. 18. The error then rises in the mind and grows from boyhood to old age, to think one's self as lean or fat as if he were the very body. Again it is usual to say I act, I see &c., as if the personality of one consists in his action; but the acts of the bodily organs, being related with the body, are as insensible and impersonal as the dull body itself.

19. The part is not different from the whole, nor is the product of the one otherwise than that of the others. (As the branch and the tree are the same thing, and the fruit of the one the same as that of the other. Hence the actions of both the outward and inward organs of the body, are as passive and impersonal as the body itself). 20. The mind moves the body as the bat drives the ball, and therefore it must be dull matter also, being apart of the material body, and differing from it in its power of volition only. (The mind is called the antah-karana or an inward organ of the material body, and also material in its nature). 21. The determination of the mind impels the organs to their several actions, as the sling sends the pebble in any direction; and this firmness of resolution is no doubt a property of matter. (Like the solidity of current).

22. The egoism which leads the body forward in its action, is like the channel that carries the current of a stream in its onward course. This egoism also has no essence of its own and is therefore as inert and inactive as a dead body. (The ego [Sanskrit: aham] is subjective and really existent in Western philosophy). But egoism or egotism [Sanskrit: ahamkára] is the false conception of the mind as the true ego. 23. The living principle (Jíva or zoa) is a false idea, as the phantom of a ghost; the living soul is one principle of intelligence and resides in the form of air in the heart. (That life is a produce of organism, acted by external physical stimuli). 24. The life or living principle lives by another inner power, which is finer and more subtile than itself, and it is by means of this internal witness (the soul), that all things are known to us, and not by means of this gross animal life. (Because there is a brute life, and a vegetable life also, which are as insensible as dull matter. Hence there is a distinct principle to direct vitality to all vital functions).

25. The living soul lives in its form of vitality, by the primordial power of the intellect, the vital soul which is misunderstood as an intelligent principle, subsists by means of this intellectual power. (Life is the tension of the power, imparted by the intellect). 26. The living soul carries with it the power, which is infused in it by the intellect; as the wind wafts in its course the fragrance of flowers, and the channel carries the current of the stream to a great distance. (Hence life also is an organism and no independent active power by itself). 27. The heart which is the body or seat of the intellect, is nothing essential by itself; it is called chitta or centre for concentrating chayana of the powers of the intellect, and also the hrid or heart, for its bearing harana of these powers to the other parts of the body; and therefore it is a dull material substance. (The heart is the receiver and distributor of force to the members of the body, and therefore a mere organism of itself).

28. All these and the living soul also, and anything that appears real or unreal, disappear in the meditation of the intellect, and are lost in it as the fire when it is immerged in water. (So the appearances at a ghata or pot and that of a pata or cloth, are lost in their substances of the clay and thread). 29. It is our intelligence Chaitanya alone, that awakens us to the knowledge of the unreality and inanity of gross material bodies. With such reflections as these, Chúdálá thought only how to gain a knowledge of the all-enlightening Intellect. 30. Long did she cogitate and ponder in this manner in herself; till at last she came to know what she sought and then exclaimed, "O! I have after long known the imperishable one, that is only to be known". (The knowledge of all things else, is as false as they are false in themselves).

31. No one is disappointed in knowing the knowable, and what is worth knowing; and this is the knowledge of the intellectual soul and our contemplation of it. All other knowledge of the mind, understanding and the senses and all other things, are but leading steps to that ultimate end. (The end of learning is to know God, Milton, or: nosce te ipsum; know thyself which is of the supreme self or soul). 32. All things besides are mere nullities, as a second moon in the sky; there is only one Intellect in existence, and this is called the great entity or the ens entium or the sum total of all existence. 33. The one purely immaculate and holy, without an equal or personality of the form of pure intelligence, the sole existence and felicity and everlasting without decay. 34. This intellectual power is ever pure and bright, always on the zenith without its rise or fall, and is known among mankind under the appellations of Brahma - supreme soul, and other attributes. (Because beyond conception can have no designation beside what is attributed to Him). 35. The triple appellations of the Intellect, Intelligence, and Intelligible, are not exactly definitive of His nature; because He is the cause of these faculties, and witness of the functions of Intellections.

36. This unthinkable intellect which is in me, is the exact and undecaying ectype of the supreme intellect; and evolves itself in the different forms of the mind, and the senses of perception. 37. The intellect involves in itself the various forms of things in the world, as the sea rolls and unrolls the waves in its bosom. (The intellect either means the Divine intellect, or it is the subjective view of the intellect, as evolving the objective world from itself). 38. This world is verily the semblance of that great intellect, which is like the pure crystal stone and is manifest in this form. (The world reflects the image of the intellect, which again reflects the image of the mundane world, the one in the form of its visible appearance múrta; and the other, in its invisible form amúrta. Gloss). 39. The same power is manifest in the form of the world, which has no separate existence except in the mind of the ignorant; because it is impossible for any other thing to exist except the self-existing one. 40. As it is the gold which represents the various forms of jewels, so the intellect represents everything in the world as it sees in itself. (The Divine is the source and store house of all figures and forms).

41. As it is the thought of fluidity in the mind, that causes us to perceive the wave in the water, whether it really exists or not (as in our dream or magic); so is the thought in the Divine mind, which shows the picture of the world, whether it is in being or in not esse. 42. And as the divine soul appears as the wave of the sea, from its thought of fluidity; so am I the same intellect without any personality of myself. (Because the one impersonal soul pervades everywhere). 43. This soul has neither its birth nor death, nor has it a good or bad future state (Heaven or Hell); it has no destruction at any time; because it is of the form of the various intellect, which is indestructible in its nature. 44. It is not to be broken or burnt (i.e. though every where, yet it is an entire whole, and though full of light; yet it is not inflammable); and it is the unclouded luminary of the intellect. By meditating on the soul in this manner, I am quite at rest and peace.

45. I live free from error and rest as calm as the untroubled ocean; and meditate on the invisible one, who is quite clear to me, as the unborn, undecaying and infinite soul of all. 46. It is the vacuous soul, unrestricted by time or place, immaculate by any figure or form, eternal and transcending our thought and knowledge. It is the infinite void, and all attempts to grasp it, are as vain as to grasp the empty air in the hand. 47. This soul pervades equally over all the Sura as well as the Asura races of the earth; but is none of those artificial forms, in which the people represent it in their images of clay, likening the dolls of children. 48. The essences of both the viewer and the view (i.e. of both the subjective and the objective), reside at once in the unity of the intellect; though men are apt to make the distinctions of unity and duality, and of the ego and non ego through their error only.

49. But what error or delusion is there, and how, when and whence can it overtake me, when I have attained my truly spiritual and immortal form, and seated in my easy and quiet state. (This is calmness of the soul attending the thought of one's immortality begun in this life). 50. I am absorbed and extinct in eternity, and all my cares are extinct with my own extinction in it. My soul is in its entranced state between sensibility and insensibility, and feels what is reflected upon it. (i.e. the inspiration which is communicated to the ravished soul). 51. The soul settled in the great intellect of God, and shining with the light of the supreme soul, as the sky is illumed by the luminary of the day. There is no thought of this or that or even of one's self or that of any other being or not being; all is calm and quiet and having no object in view, except the one transcendent spirit. 52. With these excogitations, she remained as calm and quiet as a white cloudy spot in the autumnal sky; her soul was awake to the inspiration of Divine truth, but her mind was cold to the feelings of love and fear, of pride and pleasure, and quite insusceptible of delusion.

PRINCESS COMING TO THE SIGHT OF THE SUPREME SOUL. Argument: - The prince's wonder of the sight of the princess, and her relation of her Abstract meditation. Vasishtha continued: - Thus did the princess live day by day in the rapture of her soul; and with her views concentrated within herself, she lived as in her own and proper element. 2. She had no passion nor affection, nor any discord nor desire in her heart; she neither coveted nor hated anything, and was indifferent to all; but persistent in her course, and vigilant in her pursuit (after her self perfection). 3. She had got over the wide gulf of the world, and freed herself from the entangling snare of doubts (and the horns of dilemmas); she had gained the great good of knowing the supreme soul, which filled her inward soul. 4. She found her rest in God after her weariness of the world, and in her state of perfect bliss and felicity; and her name sounded in the lips of all men, as the model of incomparable perfection. 5. Thus this lady - the princess Chúdálá, became in a short time, acquainted with the true God (lit. knowing the knowable one), by the earnestness of her inquiry.

6. The errors of the world subside in the same manner, under the knowledge of truth, as they rise in the human mind by its addictedness to worldliness. (The world is an abode of errors and illusion. Persian Proverb). 7. After she had found her repose in that state of perfect blessedness, wherein the sight of all things is lost in its dazzling blaze, she appeared as bright as a fragment of autumnal cloud, that is ever steady in its place. 8. Apart from and irrelated with all, she continued in the meditation of the spirit in her own spirit, as the aged bull remained careless on the mountain top, where he happened to find a verdant meadow for his pasture. 9. By her constant habit of loneliness, and the elevation of her soul in her solitude, she became as fresh as the new grown plant, with her blooming face shining as the new blown flower. 10. It happened to pass at one time, that the prince Sikhidhwaja came in sight of the unblamable beauty, and being struck with wonder at seeing her unusual gracefulness of her person, he addressed her saying: -

11. How is it, my dear one, that you are again your youthful bloom like the flowery plant of the vernal season; you appear more brilliant than the lightsome world under the bright beams of full moon. 12. You shine more brightly, my beloved, than one drinking the ambrosia or elixir of life, and as one obtaining the object of her desire, and filled with perfect delight in herself. 13. You seem quite satisfied and lovely with your graceful person, and surpass the bright moon in the beauty of thy body; methinks you are approaching to me as when the Goddess of love or Laxmí draws near her favourite Káma. 14. I see thy mind disdaining all enjoyments and is parsimonious of its pleasures; it is tranquil and cool, and elated with spiritual ardour, and is as deep as it is tranquil in its nature. 15. I see thy mind spurning the three worlds as if they were straws before it, and tasted all their sweets to its full satisfaction; it is above the endless broils of the world, and is quite charming in itself.

16. O fortunate princess, there are no such gratifications in the enjoyment of earthly possessions, which may equal the spiritual joy of thy tranquil mind. The one is as dry as the dryness of the sandy desert, compared with the refreshing water of the milky ocean. 17. Being born with thy tender limbs resembling the tendrils of young plantains, and the soft shoots of lotus stalks, thou seemest now to have grown strong and stout in thy frame of body and mind. (It is the spirit and spiritual power that strengthens both the body and mind). 18. With the same features and figure of thy body as before, thou hast became as another being, like a plant growing up to a tree, under the influence of the revolving seasons. 19. Tell me, whether thou hast drunk the ambrosial draught of the Gods, or obtained thy sovereignty over an empire; or whether thou hast gained thy immorality by drinking the elixir of life, or by means of thy practice of yoga meditation in either of its forms of Hatha or Rája yoga.

20. Hast thou got a Kingdom or found out the philosopher's stone (which converts everything to gold); hast thou gained aught that is more precious than the three worlds, or that thou hast obtained, O my blue eyed lady! something that is not attainable to mankind. 21. Chúdálá responded: - I have not lost my former form, nor am I changed to a new one to come before thee at present; but am as ever thy fortunate lady and wife. (There is a far fetched meaning of this passage given in the gloss). 22. I have forsaken all that is untrue and unreal, and have laid hold of what is true and real; and it is thus that I remain thy fortunate consort as ever before. 23. I have come to know whatever is something, as also all that which is nothing at all; and how all these nothings come to appearance, and ultimately disappear into nothing, and it is thus that I remain thy fortunate lady as ever. 24. I am as content with my enjoyments as I am without them, as also with those that are long past and gone away; I am never delighted nor irritated at anything whether good or bad, but preserve my equanimity at all events and thus I remain for ever thy fortunate consort.

25. I delight only in one vacuous entity, that has taken possession of my heart, and I take no pleasure in the royal gardens and sports, and thence I am thy fortunate princess as ever. 26. I rely constantly in myself (or soul) only, whether when sitting on my seat or walking about in the royal gardens or palaces; I am not fond of enjoyments nor ashamed at their want, and in this manner I continue thy fortunate wife as ever. 27. I think myself as the sovereign of the world, and having no form of my own; thus I am delighted in myself, and appear as thy fortunate and beauteous lady. 28. I am this and not this likewise, I am the reality yet nothing real of any kind; I am the ego and no ego myself, I am the all and nothing in particular, and thus I remain your charming lady. 29. I neither wish for pleasure nor fear any pain, I covet no riches nor hail poverty; I am constant with what I get (knowing my god is the great giver of all), and hence I seem so very gladsome to thee.

30. I disport in the company of my associates, who have governed their passions by the light of knowledge, and by the directions of the sástras, and therefore I seem so very pleasing to thee. 31. I know, my lord, that all that I see by the light of my eyes, or perceive by my senses, or conceive in my mind, to be nothing in reality; I therefore see something within myself, which is beyond the perception of the sensible organs, and the conception of the mind; and this bright vision of the spirit, hath made me appear so very brightsome to thy sight.

DISPLAY OF THE QUINTUPLE ELEMENTS. Argument: - Description of the five siddhis or modes of consummation. Vasishtha related: - Hearing these words of the beauteous lady, her husband had not the wit to dive into the meaning of what she said, or to understand what she meant by her reliance in the soul, but jestingly told to her. 2. Sikhidhwaja said: - How incongruous is thy speech, and how unbecoming it is to thy age, that being but a girl you speak of great things, go on indulging your regal pleasures and sports as you do in your royal state. 3. Leaving all things you live in the meditation of a nothing (i.e. leaving all formal worship, you adore a formless Deity); and if you have all what is real to sense, how is it possible for you to be so graceful with an unreal nothing? (Nothing is nothing, and can effect nothing). 4. Whoso abandons the enjoyments of life, by saying he can do without them; is like an angry man refraining from his food and rest for a while, and then weakens himself in his hunger and restlessness, and can never retain the gracefulness of his person.

5. He who abstains from pleasures and enjoyments, and subsists upon empty air, is as a ghost devoid of a material form and figure, and lives a bodiless shadow in the sky. 6. He that abandons his food and raiment, his bedstead and sleep, and all things besides; and remains devoutly reclined in one soul only, cannot possibly preserve the calmness of his person. (The yogis are emaciated in their bodies, and never look so fresh and plump as the princess). 7. That I am not the body nor bodiless, that I am nothing yet everything; are words so contradictory, that they bespeak no sane understanding. 8. Again the saying, that I do not see what I see, but see something that is quite unseen; is so very inconsistent in itself, that it indicates no sanity of the mind. 9. From these I find thee an ignorant and unsteady lass still, and my frolicsome playmate as before; it is by way of jest that I speak so to you, as you jestingly said these things to me. 10. The prince finished his speech with a loud laughter, and finding it was the noon time of going to bath, he rose up and left the apartment of his lady.

11. At this the princess thought with regret in herself and said, O fie! that the prince has quite misunderstood my meaning, and has not understood what I meant to say by my rest in the spirit, she then turned to her usual duties of the day. 12. Since then the happy princess continued in her silent meditation in her retired seclusion, but passed her time in the company of the prince in the enjoyments of their royal sports and amusements. 13. It came to pass one day, that the self-satisfied princess pondered in her mind, upon the method of flying in the air; and though she was void of every desire in her heart, wished to soar into the sky on an aerial journey. 14. She then retired to a secluded spot, and there continued to contemplate about her aerial journey by abstaining from her food, and shunning the society of her comrades and companions. (During the absence of the prince from home. Gloss). 15. She sat alone in her retirement keeping her body steadily on her seat, and restraining her upheaving breath in the midst of her eye-brows (this is called the Khecharí mudrá or the posture of aerial journey).

16. Ráma asked: - All motions of bodies in this world whether of moving or unmoving things, are seen to take place by means of the action of their bodies and the impulse of their breathing; how is it possible then to rise upwards by restraint of both of them at once? 17. Tell me sir; by what exercise of breathing or the force of oscillation, one attempts the power of volitation; and in consequence of which he is enabled to make his aerial journey (as an aeronaut). 18. Tell me how the adept in spirituality or yoga philosophy, succeeds to attend his consummation in this respect, and what processes he resorts to obtain this end of his arduous practice. 19. Vasishtha replied: - There are three ways, Ráma, of attaining the end of one's object, namely; the upádeya or effort for obtaining the object of pursuit; second, heya or disdain or detestation of the thing sought for; and the third is upeksha or indifference to the object of desire. (These technical terms answer the words positive, negative and neutrality in western terminology, all which answer the same end; such as the having, not having of and unconcernedness about a thing, are attended with the same result of rest and content to everybody).

20. The first or attainment of the desirable upádeya, is secured by employing the means for its success, the second heya or detestation hates and slights the thing altogether; and the third or indifference is the intermediate way between the two (in which one is equally pleased with its gain or loss. It is a curious dogma, that the positive, negative and the intermediate tend all to the same end). 21. Whatever is pleasable is sought after by all good people, and anything that is contrary to this (i.e. painful), is avoided by every one; and the intermediate one is neither sought nor shunned by any body. (Pleasure is either immediate or mediate, as also that which keeps or wards off pain at present or in future). 22. But no sooner doth the intelligent, learned devotee, come to the knowledge of his soul and become spiritualized in himself, than all these three states vanished from his sight, and he feels them all the same to him. 23. As he comes to see these worlds full with the presence of God, and his intellect takes its delight in this thought, he then remains in the midmost state of indifference or loses sight of that also.

24. All wise men remain in the course of neutrality (knowing that an eternal fate overrules all human endeavours), which the ignorant are in eager pursuit of their objects in vain, but the dispassionate and recluse shun every thing (finding the same satisfaction in having of a thing as in its want). Hear me now tell you the ways to consummation. 25. All success is obtained in course of proper time, place, action and its instruments (called the quadruple instrumentalities to success); and this gladdens the hearts of a person, as the vernal season renovates the earth. 26. Among these four, preference is given to actions, because it is of highest importance in the bringing about of consummation. (The place of success siddhi is a holy spot, its time - a happy conjunction of planets and events, action is the intensity of practice, and its instruments are yoga, yantra, tantra, mantra, japa &c.). 27. There are many instruments of aerostation, such as the use of Gutika pills, application of collyrium, the wielding of sword and the like; but all these are attended with many evils, which are prejudicial to holiness.

28. There are some gems and drugs, as also some mantras or mystic syllables, and likewise some charms and formulas prescribed for this purpose; but these being fully explained, will be found prejudicial to holy yoga. (These magical practices and artifices are violations of the rules of righteousness). 29. The mount Meru and Himálaya, and some sacred spots and holy places, are mentioned as the seats of divine inspiration; but a full description of them, will tend to the violation of holy meditation or yoga. (Because all these places are full of false yogis, who practice many fulsome arts for their gain). 30. Therefore hear me now relate unto you, something regarding the practice of restraining the breath, which is attended with its consequence of consummation; and is related with the narrative of Sikhidhwaja, and is the subject of the present discourse. (Here Vasishtha treats of the efficacy of the regulation of breath towards the attaining of consummation for satisfaction of Ráma, in disregard of false and artificial practices).

31. It is by driving away all desires from the heart, beside the only object in view, and by contracting all the orifices of the body; as also by keeping the stature, the head and neck erect, that one should attend the practices enjoined by the yoga sástra (namely: fixing the sight on the top of the nose and concentrating it between the eye-brows and the like). 32. Moreover it is by the habit of taking pure food and sitting on clean seats, that one should ponder into the deep sense and sayings of the sástras, and continue in the course of good manners and right conduct in the society of the virtues, by refraining from worldliness and all earthly connections. 33. It is also by refraining from anger and avarice, and abstaining from improper food and enjoyments, that one must be accustomed to constrain his breathings in the course of a long time. 34. The wise man that knows the truth, and has his command over his triple breathings of inspiration, expiration and retention (púraka, rechaka and kumbhaka), has all his actions under his control, as a master has all his servants under his complete subjection. (because breath is life, and the life has command over all the bodily actions, as well as mental operations of a person).

35. Know Ráma, that all the well being of a man being under the command of his vital breath; it is equally possible for every one, both to gain his sovereignty on earth, as also to secure his liberation for the future by means of his breath. (So says the proverb, "as long as there is breath, there every hope with it" [Sanskrit: yábat shusah tábat áshah] So in Hindi: - jan hai to Jehan hai i.e. the life is all in all &c. So it is said in regard to the kumbhaka or retentive breath, "repress your breath and you repress all," because every action is done by the repression of the breath). 36. The breath circulates through the inner lung of the breast, which encircles the entrails (antra) of the whole inner frame; it supplies all the arteries with life, and is joined to by all the intestines in the body as if they to that common channel. 37. There is the curved artery resembling the disc at the top of lute, and the eddy of waters in the sea; it likens the curved half of the letter Om, and is situated as a cypher or circlet in the base or lower most gland. (It is called the kundaliní or kula kundaliní nárhí in the original).

38. It is deep seated at the base of the bodies of the Gods and demi Gods, of men and beasts, of fishes and fowls, of insects and worms, and of all aquatic molluscs and animals at large. 39. It continues curved and curbed in the form of a folded snake in winter, until it unfolds its twisted form under the summer heat (or the intestinal heat of its hunger Jatharágní), and lifts its hood likening the disk of the moon. (The moon in the yoga sástra, means the loti-form gland under the upper most crown of the head). 40. It extends from the lower base, and passing through the cavity of the heart, touches the holes between the eye brows; and remains in its continued vibration by the wind of the breath. 41. In the midst of that curvilineal artery (kundaliní nárhí), there dwells a mighty power like the pith within the soft cell of the plantain tree, which is continually vibrating, like thrilling wires of the Indian lute (or as the pendulum of a machine). 42. This is called the curvilineal artery (kundaliní) on account of its curviform shape, and the power residing in it is that prime mobile force, which sets to motion all the parts and powers of the animal body.

43. It is incessantly breathing like hissing of an infuriate snake and with its open mouths, it keeps continually blowing upwards, in order to give force to all the organs. 44. When the vital breath enters into the heart, and is drawn in by the curved Kundaliní; it then produces the consciousness of the mind, which is the ground of the seeds of all its faculties. 45. As the Kundaliní thrills in the body, in the manner of a bee fluttering over a flower; so doth our consciousness throb in the mind, and has the perception of the nice and delicate sensations. (Such as the lungs and arteries receive the crude food and drink; so doth our consciousness perceive their various tastes and flavour). 46. The Kundaliní artery stirs as quickly to grasp its gross objects, as our consciousness is roused at the perception of the object of the finer senses of sight &c. These come in contact with one another, as an instrument lays hold of some material.

47. All the veins in the body are connected with this grand artery, and flow together like so many cellular vessels into the cavity of the heart, where they rise and fall like rivers in the sea. (It shows the concentration of blood in the heart by all the veins and arteries, and its distribution to them in perpetual succession, to have been long known to the sages of India, before its discovery by Harvey in Europe). 48. From the continued rise and fall (or heaving and sinking) of this artery, it is said to be the common root or source of all the sensations and perceptions in the consciousness. (It rises and falls with the inhaling and exhaling breaths up to the pericranium and thence down to the fundament). 49. Ráma regained: - How is it sir, that our consciousness coming from the infinite intellect at all times and places, is confined like a minute particle of matter, in the cellular vessel of the curved Kundaliní artery, and there it rises and falls by turns.

50. Vasishtha replied: - It is true, O sinless Ráma, that consciousness is the property of the infinite intellect, and is always present in all places and things with the all pervading intellect; yet it is sometimes compressed in the form of a minute atom of matter in material and finite bodies. 51. The consciousness of the infinite intellect, is of course as infinite as infinity itself; but being confined in corporeal bodies, it is fused as a fluid to diffuse over a small space. So the sunshine that lightens the universe, appears to flush over a wall or any circumscribed place. (Such as human consciousness, which is but a flush of the Divine omniscience). 52. In some bodies it is altogether lost, as in mineral substances which are unconscious of their own existence; and in others it is fully developed, as in the Gods and human species; while in some it is imperfectly developed, as in the vegetable creation, and in others it appears in its perverted form, as in the inferior animals. So everything is found to have its consciousness in some form or other. 53. Hear me moreover to explain you, the manner in which consciousness (or other), appears in its various forms and degrees, in the different bodies of animated beings.

54. As all cavities and empty spaces are comprised under the term air, so are all intelligent as well as unintelligent beings comprehended under the general category of the one ever existent intellect, which pervades all things in the manner of vacuum. (Here is another proof of the vacuistic theory of the theosophy of Vasishtha). 55. The same undecaying and unchanging entity of the intellect, is situated some where in the manner of pure consciousness, and elsewhere in the form of the subtile form of the quintuple elements. (i.e. As the simple soul and the gross body or the mundane soul. So says Pope: Whose body nature is, and God the soul). 56. This quintuple element of consciousness is reduplicate into many other quintuples, as a great many lamps are lighted from one lamp; these are the five vital airs, the mind and its five fold faculties of the understanding; the five internal and the five external senses and their five fold organs, together with the five elementary bodies; and all having the principles of their growth, rise and decay, as also their states of waking, dreaming and sleeping ingrained in them.

57. All these quintuples abide in the different bodies of the Gods and mortals, according to their respective natures and inclinations (which are the causes of their past and present and future lives in different forms). 58. Some taking the forms of places, and others of the things situated in them; while some take the forms of minerals, and others of the animals dwelling on earth. 59. Thus is this world the production of the action of the said quintuples, having the principle of intellectual consciousness, presiding over the whole and every part of it. 60. It is the union of these quintuples in gross bodies, that gives them their intelligence; hence we see the mobility of some dull material bodies, as also the immobility of others (as of mineral and vegetable creations). 61. As the wave of the sea is seen to roll in one place, and to be dull and at a lull in another; so is this intellectual power in full force in some bodies, and quite quiescent in others.

62. As the sea is calm and still in one place, and quite boisterous in another; so is the quintuple body either in motion or at rest in different places. (Hence rest and motion are properties of gross bodies and not of the intellectual soul, which is ever quiescent). 63. The quintuple body is mobile by means of the vital airs, and the vital life (jíva) is intelligent by cause of its intelligence; the rocks are devoid of both, but the trees have their sensibility by reason of their being moved by the breath of winds; and such is the nature of the triple creation of animals, minerals and vegetables. 64. Different words are used to denote the different natures of things (or else the same word is used for things of the same kind); thus fire is the general name for heat, and frost is that of coldness in general. 65. (Or if it is not the difference in the disposition of the quintuple elements in bodies, that causes the difference in their natures and names). It is the difference in the desires of the mind, which by being matured in time, dispose the quintuple elements in the forms of their liking.

66. The various desires of the mind, that run in their divers directions, are capable of being collected together by the sapient, and employed in the way of their best advantage and well being. 67. The desires of men tending either to their good or evil, are capable of being roused or suppressed, and employed to their purposes by turns. (The changeful desires always run in their several courses). 68. Man must direct his desires to that way, which promises him the objects of his desires; or else it will be as fruitless, as his throwing the dust at the face of the sky. 69. The great mountains are but heaps of the pentuples, hanging on the tender and slender blade of consciousness, and these moving and unmoving bodies, appear as worms on the tree of knowledge (i.e. before the intelligent mind). 70. There are some beings with their desires lying dormant in them, as the unmoving vegetable and mineral productions of the earth; while there are others with their ever wakeful desires, as the deities, daityas and men. 71. Some are cloyed with their desires, as the worms and insects in the dirt; and others are devoid of their desires as the emancipate yogis, and the heirs of salvation.

72. Now every man is conscious in himself of his having the mind and understanding, and being joined with his hands, feet and other members of his body, formed by the assemblage of the quintuple materials. 73. The inferior animals have other senses, with other members of their bodies; and so the immoveables also have some kind of sensibility, with other sorts of their organs. (The members of brute bodies are, the four feet, horns and tails of quadrupeds; the birds are biped and have their feathers, bills and their tails also; the snakes have their hoods and tails; the worms have their teeth, and the insects their stings &c. And all these they have agreeably to the peculiar desire of their particular natures. Gloss). 74. Thus my good Ráma! do these quintuple elements, display themselves in these different forms in the beginning, middle and end of all sensible and insensible and moving and unmoving beings. 75. The slightest desire of any of these, be it as minute as an atom, becomes the seed of aerial trees producing the fruits of future births in the forms of the desired objects. (Every one's desire is the root of his future fate).

76. The organs of sense are the flowers of this tree (of the body), and the sensations of their objects are as the fragrance of those flowers, our wishes are as the bees fluttering about the pistils and filaments of our fickle efforts and exertions. 77. The clear heavens are the hairy tufts, resting on the stalks of the lofty mountains; its leaves are the cerulean clouds of the sky, and the ten sides of the firmament, are as the straggling creepers stretching all about it. 78. All beings now in being, and those coming into existence in future, are innumerable in their number, and are as the fruits of this tree, growing and blooming and falling off by turns. 79. The five seeds of these trees, grow and perish of their own nature and spontaneity, also perish of themselves in their proper time. 80. They become many from their sameness, and come to exhaust their powers after long inertness; and then subside to rest of their own accord like the heaving waves of the ocean.

81. On one side, there swelling as huge surges, and on the other sinking low below the deep, excited by the heat of the dullness on the one hand, and hushed by the coolness of reason on the other (like the puffing and bursting of the waves in the sea). 82. These multitudes of bodies, that are the toys or play things of the quintuple essences, are destined to remain and rove for ever in this world, unless they come under the dominion of reason, and are freed from further transmigration.

INQUIRY INTO AGNI, SOMA OR FIRE AND MOON Argument: - Investigation into the Kundaliní artery, as the source of consummation. Vasishtha continued: - The seeds of these pentuples are contained in the inside of the great artery, and are expanding every moment by the vibration of the vital breath in the beings. 2. The vibration of the Kundaliní being stopped, it roused the intellect by its touch, and the rising of the intellect is attended with rising of the intellectual powers as follows. 3. This intellect is the living principle from its vitality, and the mind from its mental powers; it is the volitive principle from its volition, and is called the understanding, from its understanding of all things. 4. It becomes egoism with its octuple properties called the puryashtakas, and remains as the principle of vitality in the body in the form of the Kundaliní artery. (The gloss gives no explanation of the psychological truths). 5. The intellect abides in Kundaliní entrails in the form of triple winds. Being deposited in the bowels and passing downwards, it takes the name of the apána wind; moving about the abdomen it is called the samána wind; and when seated in the chest it rises upwards, it is known by the name of the udána wind.