Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

6. I saw the trees and plants and all sorts of vegetables, were fading away with the decay of their growth; and all creation seemed to come to its end in a short time. 7. It seemed that the stupendous body of Virát, which contained the whole universe, was sick in every part; and the great earth which was borne in his body, was now falling insensibly into decline and decay. 8. She is now stricken with years, and grown dull and dry without her genial moisture, and is wasting away as a withered tree in the cold season (lit.—in the cold month of Christmas, when the icy breath of winter withers every green). 9. As the insensibility of our hearts, stupifies the members of our bodies; so did the anesthesia of One produce the obtuseness of all things in the world. (The creative power failing, all creation dwindles away). 10. The world was threatened by many a portent and ill omen on all sides, and men were hastening to hell-fire; and burning in the flame of their sins. (The end of Kali or sinful age, is the precursor to its final doom of the dooms-day).

11. The earth was a scene of oppression and famine, troubles, calamities and poverty, waited on mankind every where; and as women trespassed the bounds of decorum, so did men transgress the bounds of order and conduct. 12. The sun was obscured by mist and frost, resembling gusts of ashes and dust; and the people were greatly and equally afflicted by the excess of heat and cold, the two opposites which they knew not how to prevent. (i.e. All beings were tormented by the inclemencies of weather). 13. The Pamaras or Pariahs, were tormented by burning fires on one side, and floods and draughts of rain water on the other; while waging wars were devastating whole provinces altogether. 14. Tremendous portents were accompanied, with the falling mountains and cities all around; and loud uproars of the people rose around, for the destruction of their children and many good and great men under them. (i.e. under the falling rocks and edifices). 15. The land burst into deep ditches, where there was no water course before; and the peoples and rulers of men, indulged themselves in promiscuous marriages. 16. All men living as way-farers or peddlers, and all paths full of tailor shops; all women dealing in their hairs and head-dressess, and all rulers imposing head taxes on their people.

17. All men living by hard labour, and the reyets living upon litigation only; women living in impiety and impurity, and the rulers of men addicted to drinking. 18. The earth was full of unrighteousness, and its people were misled by heretical doctrines and vicious sástras; all wicked men were wealthy and fortunate, and good people all in distress and misery. 19. The vile non-áryans, were the rulers of earth, and the respectables and learned men had fallen into disrepute and disregard; and the people all were guided by their evil passions of anger, avarice and animosity, envy, malice and the like. 20. All men were apostates from their religion, and inclined to the faith of others; the Bráhmanas were furious in their dehortation, and the vile borderers were persecutors of others. (i.e. they robbed themselves). 21. Robbers infested the cities and villages, and robbed the temples of gods and the houses of good people; and there were parasites, pampered with the dainties of others, but short lived and sickly with their gluttony. 22. All men indulging themselves in their idleness and luxury, and neglecting their rituals and duties; and all the quarters of the globe, presented a scene of dangers and difficulties, woe and grief.

23. Cities and villages were reduced to ashes, and the districts were laid waste on all sides; the sky appeared to be weeping with its vaporous clouds, and the air disturbed by its whirling tornadoes. 24. The land resounded with the loud crying and wailing of widows and unfortunate women, and they who remained at last, compelled to live by beggary. 25. The country was dry and anhydrous, and lying bare and barren in all parts; the seasons were unproductive of season-fruits and flowers; so every part of this earthly body of Brahmá, was out of order and painful to him. 26. There was a great dearth on earth, upon her approaching dissolution, and the body of Brahmá grew senseless, owing to the loss of the watery element, in all its canals of rivers and seas. 27. The spirit of Brahmá being disturbed, there occurred a disorder in the course of nature; and it brought on a transgression of good manners, as when the waters of rivers and seas overflowed their boundaries. 28. Then the furious and sounding surges begin to break down their bounds, and run mad upon the ground; and the floods overflow the land, and lay waste the woodlands.

29. There were whirlpools, whirling with hoarse noise, and turning about on every side, with tremendous violence; and huge surges rose as high, as to wash the face of the heavy clouds in the sky. 30. The mountain caverns, were resounding to the loud roars of huge clouds on high, and heavy showers of rain fell in torrents from the sky, and overflooded the mountain tops afar and nigh. 31. Gigantic whales, were rolling along with the whirling waves of the ocean; and the bosom of the deep appeared as a deep forest, with the huge bodies of the whales floating upon the upheaving waves. 32. The mountain caves were strewn over with the bodies of marine animals, which were killed there by rapacious lions and tigers; and the sky glittered with marine gems, which were borne on high by the rising waters. 33. The dashing of the rising waves of the sea, against the falling showers of the sky; and the dashing of the uplifted whales with elephantine clouds on high, raised a loud uproar in the air.

34. The elephants floating on the diluvian waters, washed the faces of the luminaries, with the waters spouted out of their nozzles; and their justling against one another, hurled the hills aground. (Or they clashed on one another, as two hills dashed over against the other). 35. The sounding surges of the sea, dashed against the rocks on the shore, emitted a noise like the loud roar of elephants, contending in the caverns of mountains. 36. The nether sea invaded the upper sky, and its turbulent waves drove the celestials from their abode; as an earthly potentate attacks another, and his triumphant host, dispossesses the inhabitants with loud outcry. 37. The overflowing waters covered the woods, both in the earth and air; and the overspreading waves filled the skies like the winged mountains of yore. 38. High sounding winds were breaking the breakers of the sea, and driving them ashore as fragments of mountains; while their splashing waters, dashed against the rocks on the shore, and washed the fossil shells on the coast. 39. Whirling whirlpools, were hurling the huge whales into them; and ingulphing the falling rocks in their fathomless depth.

40. Big water elephants or whales were carried with the torrents, and drowned in the depths of the caverns on the mountain tops; and these they attempted to break, with their hideous teeth or tusks. 41. The tortoise and crocodile hang suspended on the trees, and extended their full length and breadth thereon; and the vehicles of Yama and Indra (i.e. the buffalo and elephant), stood aghast with their erect ears. 42. They listened <to> the fragments of rocks, falling with hideous noise on the sea-shore; and beheld fishes with their broken fins, tossed up and down by the falling stones. 43. The forests shook no more in their dancing mood, and the waters on earth were all still and cold; but the marine waters were flaming with the submarine fire, emitting a dismal glare. 44. The sea elephants or whales being afraid of the extinction of marine fire, by the primeval waters (which were the seat of Náráyana); fell upon the waters on the mountain tops, and contended with the earthly and mountainous elephants. 45. The rocks carried away by the rapid current, appeared as dancing on the tops of the waves; and there was a loud concussion of the swimming and drowned rocks (mainákas), as they dashed against the mountains on land.

46. Large mountains and woods, were now resorted to by men and wild animals; and the driving droves of wild elephant, were roaring as loud, as the high sounding trumpets at a distance. 47. The infernal regions were disturbed by the torrents of water, as by the infernal demons; and the elephants of the eight quarters, raised loud cries with their uplifted trunks and nozzles. 48. The nether world emitted a growling noise, from their mouths of infernal caverns; and the earth which is fastened to its polar axis, turned as a wheel upon its axle. 49. The over flowing waters of the ocean, broke their bounds with as much ease, as they tear asunder the marine plants; and the breathless skies resounded to the roaring of the clouds all around. 50. The sky was split into pieces, and fell down in fragments; and the regents of the skies fled afar with loud cries. And comets and meteors were hurled from heaven, in the forms of whirlpools. 51. There were fires and firebrands, seen to be burning on all sides of the skies, earth and heaven; and flaming and flashing as liquid gold and luminous gems, and as snakes with colour of vermilion.

52. My flaming and flying portents, with their burning crests and tails, were seen to be flashing all about, and flung by the hands of Brahmá, both in the heaven above and earth below. 53. All the great elementary bodies, were disturbed and put out of order; and the sun and moon and the regents of air and fire, with the gods of heaven and hell (name by Pavana and Agni, and Indra and Yama), were all in great confusion. 54. The gods seated even in the abode of Brahmá, were afraid of their impending fall; when they heard the gigantic trees of the forests falling headlong, with the tremendous crash of pata-pata noise. 55. The mountains standing on the surface of the earth, were shaking and tottering on all sides; and a great earthquake shook the mountains of Kailása and Meru, to their very bottom and caverns and forests. 56. The ominous tornadoes at the end of the kalpa period, overthrew the mountains and cities and forests, and overwhelmed the earth and all in a general ruin and confusion.

DESCRIPTION OF NIRVÁNA OR FINAL EXTINCTION. Argument:—Brahmá’s suppression of his Respiration; his settling on the wings of air and his form of Virát. Vasishtha continued:—Now the self-born Brahmá, having compressed his breath in his form of Virát (or the heart); the aerial or atmospheric air, which is borne on the wings of wind, lost its existence. 2. The atmospheric air, which is the very breath of Brahmá being thus compressed in his breast; what other air could there remain, to uphold the starry frame and the system of the universe. 3. The atmospheric air, being compressed with the vital breath of Brahmá; the perturbed creation (as described before), was about to come to its ultimate quietus. 4. The firmament being no more upheld by its support of the air, gave way to the fiery bodies of meteors, to fall down on earth, as starry flowers from the arbour of heaven. 5. The orbs of heaven, being unsupported by the intermediate air, were now falling on the ground; like the unfailing and impending fruits of our deserts, or the flying fates falling from above.

6. The gross desire or the crude will of Brahmá, being now at its end at the approach of dissolution; there was an utter stop, of the actions and motions of the siddhas, as that of the flame of fire before its extinction. 7. The world-destroying winds were winding in the air, like the thin and flying scraps of cotton; and then the siddhas fell down mute from heaven, after the loss of their strength and power of speech. 8. The great fabrics of human wishes, fell down with the cities of the Gods; and the peaks of mountain were hurled headlong, by shocks of tremendous earthquakes. 9. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, if the world is but a representation of the ideal in the mind of the great God Brahmá or Virát; then what is the difference of earth, heaven and hell to him (who encompasses the whole in his body or mind). 10. How can these worlds be said, to be the members of his body; or can it be thought, that the God resides in them with his stupendous form.

11. I well know that Brahmá is wilful spirit of God, and has no form of himself; and so do I take this world, for a formless representation of the will or idea in the Divine Mind. Please sir, explain this clearly unto me. 12. Vasishtha replied:—In the beginning this world was not in existence, nor inexistence either; because there was the eternal Intellect, which engrossed all infinity in itself, and the whole vacuity of space with its essence. 13. This vacuity of it (the subjective chit), is known as the objective chetya or thought; and the intellect without forsaking its form, becomes chetana or the power of intellection (or the mind) itself. 14. Know this intellection as the jíva or living soul, which being condensed (with feelings &c.) becomes the gross mind; but none of these essences or forms of existence, have any form whatever. 15. The vacuity of the intellect, remains as the pure vacuum in itself forever; and all this which appears as otherwise, is no other and nothing without the self-same soul. 16. The very soul assumes to it its egoism (or personality), and thinking itself as the mind, becomes sullied with its endless desires, in its vacuous form. (The pure soul is changed to the impure spirit or volitive mind).

17. Then this intellectual principle, thinks itself as the air, by its own volition; and by this false supposition of itself, it becomes of an aerial form in the open air. 18. Then it thinks of its future gross form, and immediately finds itself transformed to an aerial body, by its volition or sankalpa. (The will being master to the thought). 19. Though the soul, spirit and mind, are vacuous in their natures; yet they can assume aerial forms to themselves by their will, as the mind sees its imaginary cities; and so doth the Lord take upon Him any form it pleases. 20. And as the knowledge of our minds, is purely of an aerial nature, so the intelligence of the all-intelligent Lord is likewise of an intellectual kind; and he takes and forsakes any form as he supposes and pleases for himself. 21. As we advance to the knowledge of recondite truth, so we come to lose the perception of size and extension; and to know this extended world as a mere nullity, though it appears as a positive entity.

22. By knowledge of the real truth, we get rid of our desires, as it is by our knowledge of the unity and the absence of our egoism or personality, that we obtain our liberation. (i.e. The knowledge of our nothingness). 23. Such is He—the supreme One, and is Brahma the entity of the world. And know Virát, O Ráma, to be the body of Brahma, and the form of the visible world. (Brahma, Brahmá and Virát, are the triple hypostasis of the One and same God). 24. The desires or will, is of the form of empty vacuum, and the erroneous conceptions which rise in it; the same give birth to the world, which is thence called the mundane egg. 25. Know all this is non esse, and the forms you see, are but formation of your fancy; in reality there is nothing in esse; and tuism and egoism are no entities at any time. 26. How can the gross world be ever attached to the simple Intellect, which is of the nature of a void; how can a cause or secondary causality, be ever produced in or come out from a mere void?

27. Therefore all this production is false, and all that is seen a mere falsity; all this is a mere void and nothing, which erroneously taken for something. 28. It is the Intellect only which exhibits itself, in the forms of the world and its productions, in the same manner as the air begets its pulsations (in the form of winds), in the very calm air itself. 29. The world is either as something or as nothing at all, and devoid of unity and duality; know the whole to lie in the empty vacuity of the Intellect, and is as void and transparent as the same. 30. I am extinct to all these endless particulars and distinctions, and whether you take them as real or unreal, and be with or without your egoism, it is nothing to me. 31. Be without any desire and quiet in your mind, remain silent and without fickleness in your conduct; do whatever you have to do, or avoid to do it without anxiety.

32. The eternal One, that is ever existent in our notion of Him, is manifest also in the phenomenal, which is no other than Himself. But our imperfect notion of God, has many things in it which are unknown to us and beyond our comprehension; and such are the phenomenals also, that are so palpable unto us. (We have the innate idea of God, but no knowledge of his inner or outer nature and attributes, which are displayed in all existence).

DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON OF VIRÁT—THE GOD OF NATURE. Argument:—If there is no truth or untruth in the creation, how can both be true or false at once. Ráma said:—Sir, you have said at length regarding our bondage and liberation, and our knowledge of the world as neither a reality nor an unreality also; and that it neither rises nor sets, but is always existent as at first and ever before. 2. I have well understood Sir, all your lectures on the subjects, and yet wish to know more of these, for my full satisfaction with the ambrosial drops of your speech. 3. Tell me sir, how there is no truth nor any untruth, either an erroneous view of the creation as a reality, or its view as a mere vacuum: 4. In such a case, I well understand what is the real truth; yet I want you to tell more of this, for my comprehension of the subject of creation. 5. Vasishtha replied:—All this world that is visible to us, with all its moving and unmoving creatures; and all things with all their varieties, occasioned by difference of country and climate. 6. All these are subject to destruction, at the great dissolution of the world; together with Brahmá, Indra, Upendra, Mahendra and the Rudras at the end.

7. Then there remains something alone, which is unborn and increate and without its beginning; and which is ever calm and quiet in its nature. To this no words can reach, and of which nothing can be known. 8. As the mountain is larger and more extended than a mustard seed, so is the sky much more than that; but the entity of vacuity is the greatest of all. 9. Again as the dusts of the earth, are smaller than the great mountain; so the stupendous universe, is a minute particle in comparison with the infinite entity of the vacuity of God. 10. After the long lapse of unmeasured time, in the unlimited space of eternity (i.e. at the end of a Kalpa age); and after the dissolution of all existence in the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind (lit., thinking soul). 11. At this time the great vacuous intellect, which is unlimited by space and time, and is quite tranquil by being devoid of all its desire and will; looks in itself by its reminiscence, the atomic world in aeriform state (as the soul ruminates over the past in its dream).

12. The intellect reconnoitres over this unreality within itself, as it were in its dream; and then it thinks on the sense of the word Brahma or enlargement, and beholds the dilation of these minutiae in their intellectual forms (i.e. the developed ideas). 13. It is the nature of the intellect to know the minute ideas, which are contained in its sensory; and because it continues to look upon them, it is called their looker. (i.e. The subjective principle of the objective thoughts). 14. (In order to clear how the intellect can be both the subjective and objective at once, it is said that:) As a man sees himself as dead in his dream, and the dead man sees his own death; so doth the intellect see the minute ideas in itself. (Hence it is not impossible for the contraries to subsist together). 15. Hence it is the nature of the intellect, to see its unity as a duality within itself; and to remain of its own nature, as both the subjective and objective by itself. 16. The intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and therefore formless in itself; and yet it beholds the minute ideas to rise as visibles before it, and thereby the subjective viewer becomes the duality of the objective view also.

17. It then finds its minute self, springing out distinctly in its own conception; just as a seed is found to sprout forth in its germ. (This is the first step of the conception of personality of the universal spirit). 18. It has then the distinct view of space and time, and of substance and its attributes and actions before its sight; but as these are yet in their state of internal conceptions, they have as yet received no names for themselves. 19. Wherever the particle of the intellect shines (or that which is perceptible to it); is called the place (or object), and whenever it is perceived the same is termed as time, and the act of perception is styled the action. 20. Whatever is perceived (by the intellect), the same is said as the object; and the sight or seeing thereof by it, is the cause of its perception, just as the light of a luminary, is the cause of ocular vision. 21. Thus endless products of the intellect appear before it, as distinct from one another by their time, place, and action; and all these appearing as true, like the various colours of the skies in the sky.

22. The light of the intellect shines through different parts of the body, as the eye is the organ whereby it sees; and so the other organs of sense for its perception of other objects. (All these are called axas answering the sight of the eyes). 23. The intellectual particle, shining at first within itself, bears no distinct name except that of tanmátra or its inward perception; which is as insignificant a term as empty air. 24. But the shadow of the atomic intellect falling upon the empty air, becomes the solid body; which shoots forth into the five organs of sense, owing to its inquest into their five objects of form and the rest. 25. The intellectual principle, being then in need of retaining its sensations in the sensorium, becomes the mind and understanding (which is called the sixth or internal organ of sense). 26. Then the mind being actuated by its vanity, takes upon it the denomination of egoism, and is inclined to make imaginary divisions of space and time. 27. Thus the minute intellect comes to make distinctions of time, by giving them the different denomination of the present, past and future.

28. Again with regard to space, it denominates one place as upper and another as lower; and goes on giving different appellations of sides (or the points of compass), to one invariable space in nature. 29. It then comes to understand the meanings of words, and invent the terms signifying time and space, action and substance. 30. Thus the intellect bearing a vacuous form in the primordial vacuum, became the spiritual or lingadéha of its own accord, until it was diffused all over the world (which is thence called the mundane God). 31. Having long remained in that state as it thought, it took upon it the compleately concrete material form through which it was transfused. 32. Though formed originally of air in the original air, and was perfectly pure in its nature; yet being incorporated in the false corporeal form, it forgot its real nature; as the solar heat in conjunction with sand, is mistaken for water. 33. It then takes upon itself and of its own will, a form reaching to the skies; to which it applied to the sense of the word head to some part, and that of the word feet to another. (The highest heaven is the head and the earth the foot-stools of God).

34. It applied to itself the sense of the words breast, sides and to other parts, by adopting their figurative sense and rejecting the literal ones. (Virát is the human figure for the macrocosm of the universe). 35. By thinking constantly on the forms of things, as this is a cow and that is a horse &c., as also of their being bounded by space and time; it became conversant with the objects of different senses. 36. The same intellectual particle, saw likewise the different parts of its body; which it termed its hands, feet &c., as its outward members; and the heart &c., as the inner members of the body. 37. In this manner is formed the body of Brahmá, as also those of Vishnu and the Rudras and other Gods; and so also the forms of men and worms are produced from their conception of the same. 38. But in fact there is nothing, that is really made or formed; for all things are now, as they have been ever before. All this is the original vacuum, and primeval intelligence; and all forms are the false formations of fancy.

39. Virát is the seed producing the plants of the three worlds, which are productive of many more, as one root produces many bulbs under it. Belief in the creation, puts a bolt to the door of salvation; and the appearance of the world, is as that of a light and fleeting cloud without any rain. 40. This Virát is the first male, rising unseen of his own will. He is the cause of all actions and acts. 41. He has no material body, no bone or flesh, nor is he capable of being grasped under the fist of anybody. 42. He is as quiet and silent, as the roaring sea and cloud, and the loud roar of lions and elephants, and the din of battle, is unheard by the sleeping man. 43. He remains neither as a reality, nor entirely as an unreality; but like the notion of a waking man, of a warrior seen to be fighting in his dream. (i.e. As the faint idea of an object seen in dream). 44. Although his huge body stretches to millions of miles, yet it is contained in an atom with all the worlds that lie hid in every pore of his body. (Meaning—the cosmos contained in a grain of the brain).

45. Though thousands of worlds and millions of mountains compose the great body of the unborn Virát, yet they are not enough to fill it altogether, as a large quantity of grain, is not sufficient to fill a winnowing basket. 46. Though myriads of worlds are stretched in his body, yet they are but an atom in comparison with its infinity; and the Virát is represented to contain all in his body, yet it occupies no space or place, but resembles a baseless mountain in a dream. 47. He is called the self-born and Virát also, and though he is said to be the body and soul of the world, yet he is quite a void himself. 48. He is also named as Rudra and Sanatana, and Indra and Upendro also; he is likewise the wind, the cloud and the mountain in his person. 49. The minute particle of the Intellect, like a small spark of fire, inflates and spreads itself at first; and then by thinking its greatness, it takes the form of chitta or the thinking mind, which with its self-consciousness becomes the vast universe. 50. Then being conscious of its afflation, it becomes the wind in motion; and this is the aeriform body of Virát.

51. Then it becomes the vital breath, from the consciousness of its inspiration and expiration in the open air. 52. It then imagines of an igneous particle in its mind, as children fancy a ghost where there is none; and this assumes the forms of luminous bodies (of the sun, moon, and stars) in the sky. 53. The vital breath of respiration, are carried by turns through the respiratory organs into the heart; whence it is borne on the wings of air to sustain the world, which is the very heart of Virát. 54. This Virát is the first rudiment of all individual bodies in the world, and in their various capacities forever. 55. It is from this universal soul, that all individual bodies have their rise, and according to their sundry desires; and as these differ from one another in their outward shapes, so they are different also in their inward natures and inclinations. 56. As the seed of Virát sprang forth at first, in the nature and constitution of every individual being; it continues to do so in the same manner in the heart of every living, agreeably to the will of the same causal principle.

57. The sun, moon and the winds, are as the bile, phlegm in the body of Brahmá; and the planets and stars, are as the circulating breath and drops of the spittle of phlegm of that deity. 58. The mountains are his bones, and the clouds his flesh; but we can never see his head and feet, nor his body and skin. 59. Know, O Ráma, this world to be the body of Virát, and an imaginary form by his imagination only. Hence the earth and heaven and all the contents, are but the shadow of his Intellectual vacuity.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COSMICAL BODY OF VIRÁT (CONTINUED). Argument:—Description of the several parts and Members of the body of Virát. Vasishtha continued:—Hear now more about the body of Virát, which he assumed to himself of his own will in that Kalpa epoch, together with the variety of its order and division, and its various customs and usages. 2. It is the transcendent vacuous sphere of the intellect, which makes the very body of Virát; it has no beginning, middle or end, and is as light as an aerial or imaginary form. 3. Brahmá who is without desire, beheld the imaginary mundane-egg appearing about him, in its aerial form (of a chimera). 4. Then Brahmá divided this imaginary world of his in twain. It was of a luminous form, from which he came out as a luminary, like a bird matured in its egg. (This is hence called Brahmánda or egg of Brahmá). 5. He beheld one half (or the upper hemisphere) of this egg, rising high in the upper sky; and saw the other half to constitute the lower world, and both of which he considered as parts of himself. 6. The upper part of Brahmá’s egg, is termed as the head of Virát; the lower part is styled his footstool, and the midway region is called his waist.

7. The midmost part of the two far separated portions, is of immense extent, and appearing as a blue and hollow vault all around us. 8. The heaven is the upper roof of this hollow, likening to the palate of the open mouth, and the stars which are studded in it, resemble the spots of blood in it. The breath of the mouth is as vital air, which supports all mortals and the immortal Gods. 9. The ghosts, demons and ogres, are as worms in his body; and the cavities of spheres of the different worlds, are as the veins and arteries in his body. 10. The nether worlds below us, are the footstools of Virát; and the cavities under his knees, are as the pits of infernal regions. 11. The great basin of water in the midst of the earth, and surrounding the islands in the midst of them; is as the navel and its pit in the centre of the body of Virát. 12. The rivers with the purling waters in them, resemble the arteries of Virát with the purple blood running in them; and the Jam-bu-dvípa is as his lotiform heart, with the mount Meru as its pericarp.

13. The sides of his body, are as the sides of the sky; and the hills and rocks on earth, resemble the spleen and liver in the body of Virát; and the collection of cooling clouds in the sky, is like the thickening mass of fat in his body. 14. The sun and the moon are the two eyes of Virát, and the high heaven is his head and mouth; the moon is his marrow, and the mountains are the filth of his person. 15. The fire is the burning heat, and bile in his bowels; and the air is the breath of his nostrils (and so the other elements are humours of his body). 16. The forests of Kalpa trees and other woods, and the serpentine races of the infernal regions, are the hairs and tufts of hairs on his head and body. (All these are parts of the one undivided whole of Virát’s body). 17. The upper region of the solar world, forms the capt head of Virát’s body; and the zodiacal light in the concavity beyond the mundane system, is the crest on top of Virát’s head.

18. He is the universal Mind itself, has no individual mind of his own; and he being the sole enjoyer of all things, there is nothing in particular that forms the object of his enjoyment. 19. He is the sum of all the senses, therefore there is no sense beside himself; and the soul of Virát being fully sensible of every thing, it is a mere fiction to attribute to him the property of any organ of sense. (It is a mere figure of speech to say God hears and sees, when the omniscient soul knows all without the aid of the organs of seeing and hearing). 20. There is no difference of the property of an organ (as the hearing of the ear); and its possessor—the mind, in the person of Virát, who perceives by his mind all organic sensations, without the medium of their organs. 21. There is no difference in doings of Virát and those of the world; it is his will or thought alone which acts with many (or active) force (on the passive world), both in their transitive as well as in their causal forms.

22. All actions and events of the world, being said to be same with his, our lives and deaths in this world, are all conformable to his will. (This passage is explained in four different ways in the gloss). 23. It is by his living that the world lives, and so it dies away with his death; and just as it is the case, with the air and its motion, so it is with the world and Virát to act or subside together. (But Virát being the god of nature in general, he acts by general and not by partial laws, and is therefore neither affected by particular events nor ever directs any particular accident at any place or time). (Both of which are the one and the samething). 24. The world and Virát are both of the same essence, as that of air and its motion in the wind; that which is the world, the same is Virát; and what Virát is, the very same is the world also. (The same thing personified as another).

25. The world is both Brahmá as well as Virát, and both of which are its synonyms according to its successive stages; and are but forms of the will of the pure and vacuous intellect of God. (The will was at the beginning, Aham bahu syam; i.e. I will become many). 26. Ráma asked:—Be it so that Virát is the personified will of God, and of the form of vacuum; but how is it that he is considered as Brahma himself in his inner person? 27. Vasishtha replied:—As you consider yourself as Ráma and so situated in your person also; so Brahmá—the great father of all, is the wilful soul only in his person. 28. The souls of holy men also, are full with Brahma in themselves; and their material bodies, are as mere images of them. 29. And as your living soul is capable, of fixing its residence in your body; so the self-willed soul of Brahma, is by far more able to reside in his body of the Brahmánda-Universe. 30. If it is possible for the plant, to reside in its seed, and for animal life to dwell in the body; it must likewise be much more possible for the spirit of Brahma, to dwell in a body of its own imagination.

31. Whether the Lord be in his consolidated form of the world, or in his subtile form of the mind, He is the same in his essence, though the one lies inside and the other outside of us, in his inward and outward appearance. 32. The holy hermit who is delighted in himself, and continues as mute as a log of wood and as quiet as a block of stone; remains with his knowledge of I and thou (i.e. of the subjective and objective as well as of the general and particular) fixed in the universal soul of Virát. 33. The holy and God knowing man, is passionless under all persecution, as an idol which they make with ligatures of straw and string; he remains as calm as the sea, after its howling waves are hushed; and though he may be engaged in a great many affairs in the world, yet he remains as calm and quiet in his mind, as a stone is unperturbed in its heart.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FINAL CONFLAGRATION OF THE WORLD. Argument:—Destruction of the world by the great fire, produced by a dozen of suns at the behest of Brahmá. Vasishtha continued:—Then sitting in my meditation of Brahmá, I cast my eyes around, I came to the sight of the region before me. 2. It being then midday, I beheld a secondary sun behind me, appearing as a conflagration over a mountain (or a burning mountain), at the furthest border of that side. 3. I saw the sun in the sky as a ball of fire, and another in the water burning as the submarine fire; I beheld a burning sun in the south east corner, and another in the southern quarter. 4. Thus I saw four fiery suns on the four sides of heaven, and as many in the four corners of the sky also. 5. I was astonished to find so many suns all at once in all the sides of heaven; and their flame-fire which seemed to burn down their presiding divinities—the Agni, Váyu, Yama, Indra &c. (The twelve suns of Hindu Astronomy, are the so many solar mansions in the twelve signs of the zodiac, which encircle all the sides of the compass, together with the personified climates under the same).

6. As I was looking astonished at these unnatural appearances, in the heavens above; there appeared on a sudden a terrestrial sun before me, bursting out of the submarine regions below. 7. Eleven of these suns were as reflexions of the one sun, seen in a prismatic mirror; and they rose out of the three suns of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, in the vacuity of the different sides of heaven. (The gloss explains the eleven suns, as the eleven Rudra forms of Siva—the god of destruction amidst the Hindu Trinity). 8. The same form of Rudra with its three eyes, shone forth in the forms of the twelve burning suns of heaven. (As Siva with the eleven Rudras, makes the number twelve, so doth the sun with the other eleven signs of the zodiac, make the same number). 9. In this manner the sun burnt down the world, as the flame of fire burns away dry wood of the forest; and the world was dried up of its moisture, as in the parching days of summer season. 10. The solar fire burnt away the woods, without any literal fire or flame; and the whole earth was as dry as dust by this fireless incendiarism.

11. My body became heated and my blood boiled as by the heat of a wild fire; and I left that place of torrid heat, and ascended to the remoter and higher regions of air. 12. I beheld the heavenly bodies hurling as tops, flung from the string held by a mighty hand; and I saw from my aerial seat, the rising of the blazing suns in heaven. 13. I beheld the twelve suns burning in the ten sides of it, and I saw also the extensive spheres of the stars, whirling with incredible velocity. 14. The waters of the seven oceans were boiling, with a gurgling noise; and burning meteors were falling over the cities in farthest worlds. 15. The flame flashed upon distant mountains, making them flare with vermeil hue, and splitting noise; and continued lightnings flashed upon the great edifices on every side, and put the canopy of heaven in a flame. 16. The falling buildings emitted a cracking and crackling noise all around, and the earth was covered with columns of dark smoke, as by the thickening clouds and mists. 17. The fumes rising as crystal columns, appeared as turrets and spires upon the towers on earth; and the loud noise of wailing beasts and men, raised a gurgling (gharghara) clangor all over the ground.

18. The falling of cities upon men and beasts, made a hideous noise and huge heaps of omnium gatherum on earth; and the falling stars from heaven, strewed the earth with fragments of gems and jewels. 19. All human habitations were in flames, with the bodies of men and beasts, burning in their respective homes and houses; and the noiseless skirts of villages and towns, were filled with the stink of dead and burning bodies. 20. The aquatic animals were stewed, under the tepid waters of the seas: and the cry of people within the city, was hushed by the howling of the ambient flames on all sides. 21. The elephants of the four quarters of heaven, fell down and rolled upon the burning ground, and uplifted the hills with their tusks (to shelter themselves from the falling fires); while the caverns of the mountains, were emitting gusts of smoke, from the subterranean fire. 22. The burning hamlets and habitations, were crushed and smashed under the falling stones and hills; while the mountain elephants yelled aloud, with their deadly groans and agonies. 23. Heated by sunheat, all living beings rushed to and splashed the hot waters of seas, and the mountainous vidyádharas fell down into the hollow bosom of mountains, bursting by their volcanic heat.

24. Some being tired with crying, and others resorting to their yoga meditation, remained quiet in some places; and the serpent races were left to roll on the burning cinders, both below as well as upon the earth. 25. The voracious marine beasts as sharks and whales; being baked in the drying channels, were driven to the whirlpools of the deep; and the poor fishes attempting to evade the smart fire, flew into the airs by thousands and thousands. 26. The burning flames, then clad as it were, in crimson apparel, rose high in the air; and there leaping as it were in dancing, caught the garments of the Apsaras in heaven. 27. The desolating Kalpa fire, being then wreathed with its flashing flames, began to dance about all around; with the loud sound of bursting bamboos and cracking trees, as it were with the beating of drums and timbrels. 28. The sportive fire danced about like a playful actor, in the ruinous stage of the world. 29. The fire ravaged through all lands and islands, and desolated all forests and forts; it filled all caves and caverns and the hollow vault of sky, till at last it over reached the tops of the ten sides of heaven.

30. It blazed in caverns and over cities and in all sides of dales, and the lands; it blazed over hills and mountain tops, and the sites of the siddhas and on the seas and oceans. 31. The flames flashing from the eyes of Siva, and the Rudras, boiled the waters of the lakes and rivers; and burned the bodies of devas and demons, and those of men and serpent races; and there arose a hoarse whispering sound from everywhere. 32. With column of flaming fire over their head, they began to play by throwing ashes upon one another; like the playful demon’s flirtation with dust and water. 33. Flames flashed forth from subterranean cells and caves on earth, and all things situated amidst them, were reddened by their light. 34. All the sides of heaven lost their azure hue, under the vermilion colour of the clouds which hung over them; and all things and the rubicund sky, lost their respective hues, and assumed the rosy tint of the red lotus (sthala padma—growing on land). 35. The world appeared to be covered under a crimson canopy, by the burning flames which overspread it all around, and resembled the evening sky under the parting glories of the setting sun.

36. Overspread with the flaming fires, the sky appeared as an overhanging garden of blooming Asoka flowers, or as a bed of the red kinsuka blossoms hanging aloft in the sky. 37. The earth appeared to be strewn over with red lotuses and the seas seemed to be sprinkled with red dye; in this manner the fire blazed in many forms, with its tails and crests of smoke. 38. The fire of conflagration, raged with its youthful vigour in the forest, where it glared in variegated colours, as a burning scenery is shown in a painting. 39. The vicissitudes of sunrise and sunset (i.e. the succession of day and night), now disappeared from the vindhyan mountain, owing to the continual burning of the woods upon its summit. 40. The flying fumes had the appearance of the blue sahya mountain in the south (Deccan), from their emitting the flashes of fire in the midst, like the lustre of the gems in that mountain. 41. The blue vault of the sky seemed as a cerulean lake, decorated with lotus like fire brands all over it, and the flames of fire flashed over the tops of the cloudy mountains in air (like the brisk dancing of actresses in a play).

42. Flames of fire with their smoky tails, resembling the train of a comet, danced about on the stage of the world, in the manner of dancing actresses, with the loosened and flouncing hair. 43. The burning fire burst the parched ground, and flung its sparkling particles all around, like the fried rice flying all about the frying pan in various colours. 44. Then the burning rocks and woods exhibited a golden hue on the breast of the earth, with their bursting and splitting noise (as if the earth was beating her breast at her impending destruction). 45. All lands were crushed together with the cry of their inhabitants, and all the seas dashed against one another, with foaming froths in their mouths. 46. The waves shone in their faces, with the reflexion of the shining sun upon them; they clashed against each other, as if they were clapping their hands; and dashed with such force against the land, that they beat and broke down the rocks on the sea shore. 47. The raging sea with his billowy arms, grasped the earth and stone, as foolish men do in their anger; and devoured them in his hollow cell with a gurgling noise, as fools swallow their false hopes with vain bawling.

48. The all destroying fire with a hoarse sound, melted down the rivers with their banks, and the regents of the sphere fell before the geysers. 49. The ten sides of the compass, were out of order and confounded together; and all the mountains were reduced to the form of liquid gold (fire), with their woods and abodes and caves and caverns. 50. By degrees the prodigious mountain Meru, was dissolved to snow by the heat of fire; and soon after the great mount of Himálaya, was melted down as lac-dye by the same fire. 51. All things were cold and pinched in themselves, as good people are thawed by the awe of the wicked; except the Malaya mountain, which yielded its fragrance even in that state (of its tribulation). 52. The noble minded man never forsakes his nobleness, though he is exposed to troubles; because the great never afflict another, though they are deprived of their own joy and happiness. 53. Burn the sandal wood, yet it will diffuse its fragrance to all living beings; because the intrinsic nature of a thing, is never lost or changed into another state.

54. Gold is never consumed nor disfigured, though it is burnt in the fire of a conflagration; thus there are two things, namely, aura and vacuum, that cannot be consumed by the all destroying fire. 55. Those bodies are above all praise, which do not perish at the perdition of all others; such as the vacuum is indestructible on account of its omnipresence, and gold is not subject to any loss owing to its purity. 56. The property of goodness (sattwa) alone is true happiness, and neither rajas nor ostentation or passion. Then the fiery clouds moved aloft as a moving forest, ashed showers of vivid flame. 57. Mountainous clouds of fire, accompanied with flame and fume, poured liquid fire around; and burnt away all bodies, already dried up by heat and for want of water. 58. The dried leaves of trees ascending high in the air, were burnt away by the flame instead of the rain of heavy clouds. (Now the clouds were heavy with fire, and not with rain water). 59. The ambient and gorgeous flame passed by the Kailása mountain without touching it, knowing it to be the seat of the dread God Siva; in the manner of wise men, flying from the mud and mire of sin (knowing it to be attended with their perdition).

60. Then the God Rudra growing furious, at the final destruction of the world, darted the direful flame of his igneous eyes, and burnt down the sturdy arbours and robust rocks to ashes, with their stunning cracklings. 61. The hills at the foot of mountains, being crowned with flames of fire, moved forward as it were, to fight against the fire, with their stones and clubs of the clumps of trees. 62. The sky became as a bed of full blown lotuses, and creation became a mere name as that of Agastya, that departed and disappeared for ever from sight. 63. The suffering idiot on remembering into his mind the Kalpánta, took the world to be at an end; as the fire consumes all objects like the unreality of the world. 64. The falling thunderbolts pierced all bodies, and the glittering flames inflamed all the trees and plants; the winds too blew with fiery heat, and scorched the bodies of even the gods, and singed all things on every side.

65. Here the wild fire was raging loose among the arbours in the forest, and there were clouds of hot ashes flying in the air; and smoky mists emitting red hot embers and fiery sparks. Again darknesses were rising upward with faggots of fire falling from amidst them, and gusts of wind blew with speed and force, to befriend the destructive fire. (The air enkindled and spread the wild fire all about).

THE STRIDOR OF PUSHKARÁVARTA CLOUDS. Argument:—Description of the Devouring fire below, and the Deluging clouds above. Vasishtha added:—Now blew the destroying winds, shaking the mountains by their force: and filling the seas with tremendous waves, and rending the skies with cyclonic storms. 2. The bounded seas broke their bounds, and ran to the boundless oceans by impulse of the wind, as poor people run to the rich, by compulsion of their driving poverty. 3. The earth being fried by the fire, went under the overflowing waters; and joined with the infernal regions, lying below the waters of the deep. 4. The heaven disappeared into nothing, and the whole creation vanished into the air. The worlds were reduced to vacuum, and the solar light dwindled to that of a star in the starry sphere. 5. There appeared from some cavity of the sky some hideous clouds, called Pushkara Avartaka and others in the forms of dreadful demons, and roaring with tremendous noise. 6. The noise was as loud as the bursting of the mundane-egg, and the hurling down of a large edifice; and as the dashing of the waves against one another, in a furiously raging sea.

7. The loud peal resounding through the air and water, and reechoing amidst the city towers, was deafening and stunning to the ear; and the swelling at the tops of mountains, filled the world with uproar. 8. The sound swelling as it were, in the conch-shell of the mundane-egg, was returned with triple clangor, from the vaults of heaven and sky and the infernal world. 9. The supports of all the distant sides, were tottering at their base; and the waters of all the seas were mixed up together, as if to quench the thirst of the all devouring doomsday. 10. The doomsday advanced as the God Indra, mounted on the back of his elephantine clouds; which roared aloud amidst the waters, contained in the etherial ocean from the beginning. 11. The great doomsday was attended with a hubbub, as loud as that of the churning of the ocean before; or as that emitted by the revolving world or a hydrostatic engine of immense force. 12. Hearing this roaring of the clouds, amidst the surrounding fires, I became quite astonished at the stridor, and cast my eyes on all sides to see the clouds.

13. I saw no vestige of a cloud in any part of the heavens, except that of hearing their roar and finding flashes of firebrands flaming in the sky, with showers of thunderbolts falling from above. (i.e. It was a thunderstorm preceding the rain). 14. The flaming fire spread over millions of miles, on all the sides of earth and heaven; and burnt away every thing in them, to a horrid devastation. 15. After a little while I descried a spot at a great distance in the sky; and felt a cool air blowing to my body from it. 16. At this time I observed the Kalpa clouds, appearing and gathering at a great distance in the sky, where there was no relic of the living fire perceptible to the naked eye. 17. Then there breathed the Kalpa airs, from the watery corner or western side of the sky; which burnt at last in blasts, capable of blowing and bearing away the great mountains of Meru, Malaya and Himálaya. 18. These winds blew away the mountainous flames, and put to flight the burning cinders as birds to a distance; they bore down the spreading sparks, and drove away the fire from all sides.

19. The clouds of fire disappeared from the air, as evening clouds; then clouds of ashes rose to the sky, and the atmosphere was cleared of every particle of fire. 20. The air was blowing with fire, and passing every where as the fire of incendiarism; and melted down the golden citadels on the flying mountain of Meru. 21. The mountains on earth being put on fire, their flames spread all about as the rays of the twelve suns. 22. The waters of oceans were boiling with rage, and the trees and leaves of the forest were burning with blaze. 23. The cities and celestials sitting on their happy seats, in the highest heaven of Brahmá, fell down below with all their inhabitants of women and young and old people, being burnt by the flames. 24. The Kalpánta or chaotic fire was mixed with the water, in the lake of Brahmá. 25. The strong winds uprooted the deep rooted mountains and rocks, and plunged them headlong into the fiery mire of the infernal regions. 26. The chaotic clouds advanced as a troop of sable camels, moving slowly in the azure sky with a grumbling noise.

27. They appeared from a corner of the sky, like a huge mountain flashing with lightnings of gorgeous flame; and fraught with the waters of the seven oceans. 28. These clouds were capable of rending the great vault of the world (heaven), with their loud uproar; and splitting all the sides of heaven, standing upon their solid snow white and impregnable walls. 29. The doomsday was as the raging ocean, and the planets were the rolling islands in the whirlpools of their orbits; the flitting lightnings likened its shifting aquatic animals, and the roaring of the clouds was as the howling of its waters. 30. The moon being devoured by Ráhu, and burnt away by the fiery comet, rose to heaven again and assumed the colder form of the cloud, to pour down more moisture than her nightly beams and dews. 31. Lightning like golden sphere in the shape of frigidity of the sort of Himalaya, held all stupefied waters, woods and hills. 32. After the clouds had split the vault of heaven, by their harsh crackling and thunders; they dropped down the solid snows at first, which were then melted down in the form of liquid rain.

33. There was a jarring of dissonant sounds, that grated upon the ear, and proceeded from the bursting of woods by wild fire, and the stridor of thunder-claps in the rebellowing air; and the cracking and crackling and dashing and crashing of every thing in the shattering world. 34. There was a sharp and shrill noise, arising from the warring winds blowing in a hundred ways, and the drift of bleak cold showers of driving snows, covering the face of heaven. 35. The vault of heaven which is supported by the blue and sapphire-like pillars of the azure skies on all sides, shattered the earth and its props of the mountains, with big and heavy showers of diluvian rain. 36. The earth was bursting and splitting sound, by the blazing furnaces of fire on all sides; and the hearts of all living beings, were rent by the loud rattling of thunderbolts from heaven. 37. The rain that reigned long over the realm of the fiery earth, was now going upward in the form of smoke, which the burning earth heaved from her bosom, as her sighs towards heaven.

38. Now the vault of heaven, appeared to be overspread with a network, studded with red lotuses of the flying fires on high; while the dark showers had the appearance of swarms of black bees, and the rain drops likened their fluttering wings. 39. All the sides of heaven resounded to the mingled clatter of hailstone and fire brands, falling down simultaneously from the comingled clouds of dire and dreadful appearance; and the scene all around was as diresome to behold, as the mingled warfare of two dreadful forces, with dire arms and commingled bloodshed.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD OVERFLOODED BY THE RAINS. Argument:—The world presenting the scene of one universal sheet of water caused by the deluging clouds. Vasishtha continued:—Hear now of the chaotic state of the world, which was brought on by conflict of the earth, air, water, and fire with one another; and how the three worlds were covered under the great diluvian waters. 2. The dark clouds flying in the air as pitchy ashes, overspread the world as a great ocean, with whirlpools of rolling smoke. 3. The dark blaze of the fire glimmered amidst the combustibles, and converted all of them to heaps of ashes, which flew and spread over all the world. 4. The swelling sound of the hissing showers rose as high, as they were blowing aloud the whistle of their victory. 5. There was the assemblage of all the five kinds of clouds and all of them pouring their waters in profusion upon the ground; these were the ashy clouds, the grey clouds, the kalpa clouds, and the misty and the showering clouds. 6. The howling breezes, tottered the foundations of the world; the high wind rose high to heaven, and filled all space; and bore the flames to burn down the regencies of the gods on every side.

7. The winds dived deep into the depths of water, and bore and dispersed their frigidity to all sides of the airs, which numbed the senses, and deafened the ears of all (by their coldness). 8. A loud hubbub filled the world, raised by the incessant fall of rain in columns from the vault of heaven; and by the roaring and growling of the kalpa fire. 9. The whole earth was filled with water as one ocean, by waterfalls from the clouds of heaven, resembling the torrents of Ganges and the currents of all rivers. 10. The canopy of the kalpa or diluvian clouds, pierced by the shining sun-beams above them, appeared as the leafy tuft at the top of the nigrescent tamála tree, with clusters of lurid flowers, peeping through the sable leaves. 11. The all destroying tornado bore away the broken fragments, of trees and rocks, and the top of towers and castles aloft in the air; dashed them against the skycapt mountains, and broke them asunder to pieces. 12. The swift stars and planets, clashing with the rapid comets and meteors, struck sparks of fire and flame by their mutual concussion, which burned about as igneous whirlpools in the air.

13. The raging and rapid winds, raised the waves of seas, as high as mountains; which striking against the rocks on the sea-shore, broke and hurled them down with tremendous noise. 14. The deep dusty and showering clouds, joined with the wet kalpa clouds, cast into shade the bright light of the sun; and darkened the air under their sable shadows. 15. The seas over flowed their beds and banks, and bore down the broken fragments of the rocks under their bowels; and they became dreadful and dangerous by the falling and rolling down of the stones with their current. 16. The huge surges of the sea, bearing the fragments of the rocks in their bosom, were raised aloft by the cloud rending winds; and they dashed against and broke down the shores with deep and tremendous noise. 17. The diluvian cloud then broke asunder the vault of heaven, and split the bosom of the sky with its loud rattling; and then clapped together its oaklike hands, to see the universal ocean which it had made. 18. The earth, heaven and infernal regions, were rent to pieces, and tossed and loosed in the all devouring waters; and the whole nature was reduced to its original vacuity, as if the world was an unpeopled and vast desert.

19. Now the dead and half dead, the burnt and half burnt bodies, of gods and demigods, of Gandharvas and men beheld one another in the general ruin, and fled and fell upon each other with their lifted arms and weapons, with the velocity of the winds. (It is a dogma of spiritualism, that tribal and personal animosities &c., continue to the death bed and in after life, if there is no reconciliation made in the present state). 20. The diluvian winds, were flying as the funeral ashes from the piles; or as the arjuna humour of choler, drives a person up and down in the air like a column of ashes. 21. The heaps of stones that were collected in the air, fell forcibly on the ground, and broke down whatever they struck upon; just as the falling hailstones from heaven, clatter out of season, and shatter every thing wherever they fall. 22. The rustling breezes howling in the caverns of mountains, resounded with a rumbling noise from the fall of the mansions of the regents of every side. 23. The winds growled with harsh sounds, resembling the jarring noise of demons; and these blowing amidst the woods, appeared to be passing through the windows.

24. The cities and towns burning with the demoniac fire, and the mountains and abodes of the gods, flaming with solar gleams, and their sparks in the air, flying like swarms of gnats. 25. The sea was roaring with its whirling rain waters on the surface, and boiling with the submarine fire below; and destroying alike both the big mountains below, as also the abodes of the gods above. 26. The conflict of the waters and rocks, demolished the cities of the rulers of earth on all sides; and hurled down the abodes of the deities and demons, and of the siddhas and gandharvas also. 27. The stones and all solid substances were pounded to powder, and the fire-brands were reduced to ashes: when the flying winds blew them as dust all about. 28. The hurling down of the abodes of gods and demons, and the dashing together of their walls emitted a noise as that of the crashing of clouds, or gingling of metallic things in mutual contact. 29. The sky was filled with peoples and edifices, falling from the seven regions of heaven; and the gods themselves were whirling in air, as anything fallen in a whirlpool in the sea.

30. All things whether burnt or unburnt, were swimming up and down in the etherial ocean, as the winds toss about the dry leaves of trees in the air. 31. The air was filled with the jarring and gingling sounds, rising from the fallen edifices of various metals and minerals in all worlds. 32. Then the smoky and ashy clouds all flew upward, while the heavy watery clouds lowered upon the earth; again the swelling billows were rising high upon the water, and the hills and all other substances were sinking below. 33. The whirlpools were wheeling against one another, with gurgling noise, and the old ocean was rolling on with gigantic mountains, floating upon it like groups of leaves and shrubs. 34. The good deities were wailing aloud, and the weary animals were moving on slowly; the comets and other portents were flying in the air, and the aspect of the universe, was dreadful and diresome to behold. 35. The sky was full of dead and half dead bodies, borne by the breezes into its bosom; and it presented a grey and dingy appearance, as that of the dry and discoloured foliage of trees (in the fading autumn).

36. The world was full of water, falling in profuse showers from the mountain peaks; and hundreds of streams flowed down by the sides of mountains, and were borne all about by the breeze. 37. The fire now ceased to rage with its hundred flames, and the swelling sea now run over its boundary hills; and over flowed its banks. 38. Mass of gramineous plant mixed with mud and mire, appeared as large island; and intellect in the far distant vacuity, appeared as lighting over a forest. 39. The rains closing extinguished the fire, but the rising fume and smoke filled the air and hid the heaven, so that the existence of the prior world and the former creation was altogether forgotten from remembrance. 40. Then there rose the loud cry of the extinction of creation, and there remained only the One being, who is exempt from creation and destruction (i.e. who is increate and imperishable). 41. Now the winds abated also, that had been incessantly struggling to upset the world; and continually filling the universe with their particles, as with an unceasing supply of grains.

42. The bodies of comets clashing against one another, were reduced to sparks of fire resembling the dust of gold; and these extinguishing at last to ashes, filled the vault of heaven with powdered dust. 43. The orb of the earth being shattered to pieces, with all its contents of islands &c., was rolling in large masses together with the fragments of the infernal worlds. 44. Now the seven regions of heaven and those of the infernal worlds, being mixed up in one mass with the shattered mass of the earth and its mountains, filled up the universal space with the chaotic waters and diluvian winds. 45. Then the universal ocean, was swollen with the waters of all its tributary seas and rivers; and there was a loud uproar of the rolling waters, resembling the clamour of the enraged madman. 46. The rain fell at first in the form of fountains and cascades, and then it assumed the shape of falling columns or water spouts; at last it took the figure of a palm tree, and then it poured down its showers in torrents. 47. Then it ran as the current of a river, and flooded and overflowed on all sides; and the raining clouds made the surface of the earth one extended sheet of water.

48. The flamefire was seen to subside at last, just as some very great danger in human life, is averted by observance of the precautions given in the sástras, and advice of the wise. 49. At last the vast vault of the mundane world, became as desolate of all its contents and submerged in water; as a goodly bel fruit loses its substance by being tossed about in playful mood from the hands of boys.

DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSAL OCEAN. Argument:—Rain waters running as rivers, and these meeting together and making an universal ocean. Vasishtha continued:—The rain storm and falling hails and snows, shattered the surface of the earth to parts and parcels; and the violence of the waters was increasing, like the oppression of kings in Kali or last days of the world. 2. The rain water falling upon the stream of the etherial Ganges, make it run in a thousand streamlets, flowing with huge torrents, higher than the mountains of Meru and Mandara. 3. Here the waves rose to the path of the sun, and there the waters sank down and lay dull in the mountain caves; and then the dull element made the universal ocean, as when a fool is made the soveran lord of earth. 4. The great mountains were hurled down as straws, in the deep and broad whirlpools of water; and the tops of the huge surges, reached to the far distant sphere of the sun. 5. The great mountains of Meru and Mandara of Vindhya, Sahya and Kailása, dived and moved in as fishes and sea monsters; the melted earth set as its soil, and large snakes floated thereon like stalks of plant with their lotus like hoods.

6. The half burnt woods and floating plants, were as its moss and bushes, and the wet ashes of the burnt world, were as the dirty mud underneath the waters. 7. The twelve suns shone forth, as so many fullblown lotuses, in the large lake of the sky; and the huge and heavy cloud of Puskara, with its dark showers of rain, seemed as the blue lotus bed, filled with the sable leaves. 8. The raging clouds roared aloud from the sides of mountains, like the foaming waves of the ocean; and the sun and moon rolled like two pieces of sapphires over cities and towns (being darkened by the clouds). 9. The gods and giants and people at large, were blown up and borne into the air; till at last they flew up from their lightness and fell into the disc of the sun. (i.e. From their want of gravity on earth, they were attracted to the sun—the centre of gravity of the solar system). 10. The clouds rained in torrents with loud clattering noise, and their currents carried down the floating rocks, as if they were mere bubbles of water, into the distant sea.

11. The deluging clouds were rolling in the air, after pouring their water in floods on earth; as if they were in search after other clouds, with their open mouths and eyes (as if to see whether there remained any raining cloud still). 12. The rushing tornado filled the air with uproar, and with one gust of wind, blasted the boundary mountain from its bottom into the air. (So were the mountainous clouds, flung by the hands of Titans to the skies). 13. The furious winds collected the waters of the deep to the height of mountains; which ran with a great gurgling noise all about, in order to deluge the earth under them. 14. The world was torn to pieces by the clashing of bodies, driven together by the tempestuous winds; which scattered and drove millions of beings pell-mell, and over against one another. 15. The hills floated on the waves as straws, and dashing against the disc of the sun, broke it into pieces as by the pelting of stones. 16. The great void of the universe, spread as it were, the great net of waters in its ample space, and caught in them the great hills, resembling the big eels caught in fishing nets.

17. The big animal bodies that were rising or plunging in the deep, either as living or dead described the eddies made by whirlpools and whales on the surface of the waters (i.e. the one sinking downwards, and the other rising upward). 18. Those that have been yet alive, were floating about the tops of the sinking mountains, which resembled the floating froths of the sea; while the gods were fluttering as gnats and flies over them. 19. The spacious firmament on high, filled with innumerable rain drops, shining as bubbles of water in the air; appeared as the thousand eyes of Indra, looking on the rains below. 20. Indra the god of heaven, with his body of the autumnal sky, and his eyes of the bubbling raindrops; was looking on the floating clouds in the midway skies, flowing as the currents of rivers on high. 21. The Pushkara and Avartaka clouds with their world overflowing floods; met and joined together in mutual embrace, as two winged mountains flying in air, and clashing against one another. 22. These clouds being at last satisfied with their devouring the world, under their all swallowing waters; were now roaring loudly and flying lightly in the air, as if they were dancing with their uplifted hilly arms.

23. The clouds were pouring forth their floods of water above, and the mountain tops were flaming in the midway sky; and the huge snakes that had supported the earth, were now diving deep into the mud of the infernal regions (owing to the destruction of the earth). 24. The incessant showers filled the three regions, like the triple stream of Ganges running in three directions; they drowned the highest mountains, whose tops floated as froths in the universal ocean. 25. The floating mountains struck against the sphere of heaven, and broke it into fragments; when the fairies of heaven, floated as pretty lotuses on the surface of waters. 26. The universe was reduced to an universal ocean, which roared with a tremendous noise; and the three worlds being split to pieces, were borne away into the waters of the endless deep. 27. There remained no one to save another, nor any one that was not swept away by the flood; for who is there that can save us, when the all devouring time grasps us in his clutches. 28. There remained neither the sky nor the horizon, there was no upside nor downward in the infinite space; there was no creation nor a creature any where, but all were submerged under one infinite sheet of water.

MAINTENANCE OF INAPPETENCY OR WANT OF DESIRE. Argument:—Nirvána-Extinction Compared with Waking from the Dream of Existence. Vasishtha resumed:—Seeing the end of all I still retained my seat in infinite vacuity; and my eyes were detained by the sight of a glorious light, shining as the morning rays of the rising luminary of the day. 2. While I was looking at that light, I beheld the great Brahmá sitting as a statue carved in stone, intent upon his meditation of supreme One, and beset by his transcendent glory all about him. 3. I saw there a multitude of gods, sages and holy personages, with Vrihaspati and Sukra—the preceptors of gods and demigods, together with the regent deities of wealth and death. 4. There were likewise the regent divinities of water, fire and the other deities also; so were there companies of rishis and siddhas and sádhyas, gandharvas and others. 5. All these were as figures in painting, and all sitting in their meditative mood; they all sat in their lotiform posture, and appeared as lifeless and immovable bodies. 6. Then the twelve ádityas or suns (of the twelve signs), met at the same centre (with the same object in their view); and they sat in the same lotiform posture (of devotion, as the other deities).

7. Then awhile after, I beheld the lotus born Brahmá; as if I came to see the object of my dream before me after my waking. 8. I then lost the sight of the deities, assembled in the Brahma-loka or in the world of Brahmá, as when great minded men, lose the sight of the most prominent objects of their desire from their minds. Nor did I perceive the aerial city of my dream before me, upon my waking (from the trance of my illusion). 9. Then the whole creation, which is but the ectype of the mind of Brahmá; appeared as void as an empty desert to me; and as the earth turning to a barrenwaste upon the ruin of its cities. 10. The gods and sages, the angels and all other beings, were no where to be seen any more; but were all blended in and with the same void every where. 11. I then seated in my etherial seat, came to know by my percipience, that all of them have become extinct (lit. obtained their nirvána extinction, like Brahmá in Brahma himself).

12. It is with the extinction of their desires, that they have become extinct also; as the sleeping dreamers come to themselves after they are awakened from their illusive vision. (Coming to one’s self Swasiarúpa one’s own nature or essence, means in vedánta, the holy and pure nature of the human soul, as an emanation or image of the divine). 13. The body is an aerial nothing, appearing as a substantial something, from our desire (or imagination of it only), and disappearing with the privation of our fancy for it, like a dream vanishing from the sight of a waking man. 14. The aerial body appears as real as any other image in our dream; and there remains nothing of it, upon our coming to their knowledge of its unreal nature, and the vanity of our desires. 15. We have no consciousness also, of either our spiritual or corporeal bodies, when we are fixed in our samádhi or intense meditation in the state of our waking (from sleep).

16. The notion of a thing seen in our dream, is given here as an instance (to prove the unreality of our idea of the body); because it is well known to boys and every body, and adduced to us both in the srutis and smritis tradition (that the objects of sight, are as false as those of dreams). 17. Whoever denies the falsity of the notions he has in his dream, and goes on to support the reality of these as well as other visible sights; must be a great impostor; and such a one deserves to be shunned, for who can wake the waking sleeper. 18. What is the cause of the corporeal body? Not the dream; since the bodies seen in a dream, are invisible (to the naked eye); and this being true it follows, that there is no solid body in the next world (as it is expected by means of sacrifices and pious acts). 19. Should there be other bodies after the loss of the present ones (by death); then there would be no need of repeated creation (of corporeal bodies by Brahmá); if the pristine bodies were to continue for ever.

20. Anything having a form and figure and its parts and members, is of course perishable in its nature; and the position (of Jaimini), that there was another kind of world before, is likewise untenable (since there could be nothing at any time, without its definite form and parts). 21. If you say (in the manner of the chárvákas), that the world was never destroyed; and that the understanding is produced of itself in the body, in the same manner as the spirit is generated in the fermented liquor. 22. This position of yours is inconsistent with the doctrines, of the puránas and histories as well as those of the vedas, smritis and other sástras, which invariably maintain destructibility of material things. 23. Should you, O intelligent Ráma, deny with the chárvákas the indefeasibility of these sástras; say what faith can be relied on those heretical teachings, which are as false as the offspring of a barren woman. 24. These heretical doctrines are not favoured by the wise, owing to their pernicious tendencies; there are many discrepancies in them, as you shall have it, from the few that I am going to point out to you.

25. If you say the human spirit to liken the spirit of liquors, (which is generated in and destroyed with the liquor); then tell me what makes the destroyed or departed spirit of a deceased person, who is dead in a foreign country, revisit his friends at home in the shape and form of a fiend (pisácha). 26. To this it is answered, that the apparition which thus appears to view is a false appearance only; granting it as such, why not own our appearances to be equally false also? 27. It being so, how can you believe the bodies, that the departed souls of men are said in the sástras, to assume in the next world, to be true also? (Any more than their being mere apparitions only). 28. There is no truth in the proof of a ghost (pisácha), as there is in that of the spirit in liquor; hence if the supposition of the former is untrue, what faith is there in future body in the next world? 29. If the existence of spirits be granted, from the common belief of mankind in them; then why should not the doctrine of a future state of the dead, be received as true upon the testimony of the sástras?

30. If the prepossession of a person’s being possessed on a sudden by an evil spirit, be any ground of his reliance in it, why then should he not rest his belief in his future state, wherein he is confirmed by the dogmas of the sástras? 31. Whatever a man thinks or knows in himself, he supposes the same as true at all times; and whether his persuasion be right or wrong, he knows it correct to the best of his belief. 32. A man knowing well, that the dead are to live again in another world, relies himself fully upon that hope; and does not care to know, whether he shall have a real body there or not. 33. Therefore it is the nature of men, to be prepossessed with the idea of their future existence; and next their growing desire for having certain forms of bodies for themselves, leads them to the error of seeing several shapes before them. 34. It is then the abstaining from this desire, that removes the maladies of our errors of the looker, looking and the look (i.e. of the subjective and the objective); while the retaining of this desire leads us, to the viewing of this apparition of the world ever before us.

35. So it was the feeling of desire at first, which led the supreme spirit of Brahmá to the creation of the world; but its abandonment causes our nirvána-release, while its retention leads us to the error of the world. 36. This desire sprang at first in the Divine mind of Brahmá, and not in the immutable spirit of Brahma; and I feel this desire rising now in me, for seeing the true and supreme Brahma in all and every where. 37. All these knowledge that you derive here from, is said to form what is called the nirvána-extinction by the wise; and that which is not learnt herein, is said to constitute the bondage of the world. 38. This is the true knowledge to see God every where, it is self-evident in our inmost soul, and does not shine without it; (for all without is error and ignorance—avidyá). 39. The self-consciousness of our liberation—muktásmi, is what really makes us so; but the knowledge that we are bound to this earth—baddhásmi, is the source of all our woe, which require great pains to be removed.

40. The awakening of our consciousness of the world, is the cause of our being enslaved to it; and its hybernation in the trance of samádhi, is our highest felicity. By being awake to the concerns of the world, you only find the unreal appearing as real to you (for every thing here, is but deception and delusion). 41. Lying dormant in holy trance, without the torpidity of insensibility, is termed our moksha or spiritual liberation; while our wakefulness to the outer world, is said to be the state of our bondage to it. 42. Now let your nirvána be devoid of all desire, and from trouble, care and fear; let it be a clear and continuous revery without any gap or cessation, without the scruples of unity and duality; and be of the form of spacious firmament, ever calm and clear and undisturbed in itself.

THE WORLD PROVED TO BE A DELUSION. Argument:—Description of ultimate Dissolution according to Rational and Materialistic Philosophy. Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards the celestials that were present in the heaven of Brahmá, vanished away and became invisible, as a lamp with its weakened (i.e. burnt out), wick or thread. 2. Now the twelve suns, having disappeared in the body of Brahmá; their burning beams burnt away the heaven of Brahmá, as they had burnt down the earth and other bodies. 3. Having consumed the seat and abode of Brahmá, they fell into the meditation of the supreme Brahma, and became extinct in him like Brahmá, as when a lamp is extinguished for the want of its oil. 4. Then the waters of the universal ocean, invaded the celestial city of Brahmá, and over flooded its surface, as the shade of night fills the face of the earth darkness. 5. Now the whole world was filled by water, from the highest seat of Brahmá, to the lowest pit of hell; and became as full with that liquid, as a grape is swollen with its juice, when it is perfectly ripe (i.e. cold and darkness filled the place, where there was no heat or light).

6. The waving waters rising as mountain tops, plied with the flying birds of air; and washed the seats and feet of the gods hovering over them. They touched the kalpa or diluvian clouds, which deluged over them. 7. In the meantime I beheld from my aerial seat, something of a dreadful appearance in the midst of the skies, which horrified me altogether. 8. It was of the form of deep and dark chaos, and embraced the whole space of the sky in its grasp and appeared as the accumulation of the gloom of night, from the beginning to the end of creation. 9. This dark form radiated the bright beams; of millions of morning suns, and was as resplendent as three suns together; and as the flashing of many steady lightnings at once. 10. Its eyes were dazzling and its countenance flashed with the blaze of a burning furnace, it had five faces and three eyes; its hands were ten in number, and each of them held a trident of immense size. 11. It appeared manifest before me, with its outstretched body in the air; and stood transfixed in the sky, as a huge black cloud extending all over the atmosphere.

12. It remained in the visible horizon, below and out of the universal ocean of waters; and yet the position and features of the hands and feet and other members of its body, were but indistinctly marked in the sky. 13. The breath of its nostrils, agitated the waters of the universal ocean; as the arms of Govinda or Hari churned of yore the milky ocean (after the great deluge). 14. Then there arose from the diluvian waters, a male being called afterwards the first male (Ádipurusha). He was the personification of the collective ego, and the causeless cause of all. 15. He rose out of the ocean, as a huge mountainous rock; and then flew into the air with his big flapping wings, extending over and enclosing the whole space of infinite vacuity. 16. I knew him from a distance, and by the indications of his triple eyes and trident, to be the Lord Rudra himself; and then bowed down to him, as the great God of all. 17. Ráma asked:—Why sir, was the Lord Rudra of that form, why was he of such gigantic form and of so dark a complexion? Why had He ten arms and hands, and why had He the five faces and mouths upon his body?

18. Why had he his three eyes, and so fierce a form; was he absolute in himself or delegated by any other? What was his errand and his act; and was it a mere shadow or having a shadow (helpmate) of its substance (i.e. máya or Illusion)? 19. Vasishtha replied:—This being is named Rudra or fierce, for his being the aggregate of Egoism. He is full of his self-pride, and the form in which I beheld him, was that of a clear vacuity. 20. This lord was of the form of vacuum, and of the hue and resplendence of vacuity; and it is on account of his being the essence of the vacuous intellect, that he is represented as the cerulean sky. 21. Being the soul of all beings, and being present in all places, he is represented in his gigantic form; as his five faces, serve as representations of his five internal organs of sense. 22. The external organs of sense (together with their objects and faculties), and the five members of his body, are represented by his ten arms on both sides of his body.

23. This Lord of creation together with all living bodies and mankind, are resorbed in the supreme One at the final dissolution of the world; and when he is let out to pass from the unity, he then appears in this form. 24. He is but a part of the eternal soul, and has no visible body or form of his own; but is thought of in the said form by the erroneous conception of men. 25. Having proceeded from the vacuum of the Intellect, the lord Rudra is posited in the material vacuum or firmament; and has his residence also in the bodies of living beings in the form of air (or vital breath). 26. The aeriform Rudra comes to be exhausted in course of time, and then by forsaking the animated bodies, he returns to resort to the reservoir of eternal rest and peace. 27. The three qualities, the three times, the three intellectual faculties of the mind, understanding and egoism; the three vedas, and the three letters of the sacred syllable of om, are the three eyes of Rudra. 28. The trident of Rudra is the symbol of his sceptre, and it is held in his hand, to imply his having the dominion of the three worlds under his hold.

29. He is represented as having a living body and soul, to indicate his being the personality and personification of the egoism of all living beings, and that there is no living body apart from himself. 30. It is his nature and business, to provide to all living creatures, according to their wants and desert; and is therefore manifested in the form of Siva, which is the divine Intellect in the form of air. 31. This Lord having at last destroyed and devoured the whole creation, rests himself in perfect peace, and becomes of the form of pure air and of the blue firmament. 32. After affecting the destruction of the world, he drinks down and drenches up the universal ocean; and then being quite satiate, he rests himself in perfect peace and inaction. 33. Afterwards as I beheld him drawing the waters of the ocean into his nostrils, by the force of his breath. 34. I saw a flame of fire flashing out from his mouth, and thought it to be the flash of the latent fire of the water, which was drawn in him, by the breath of his nostrils.

35. Rudra the personified Ego, remains in the form of latent heat in the submarine fire; and continues to suck up the waters of the ocean, until the end of a kalpa epoch. 36. The waters then enter into the infernal regions, as snakes enter in the holes beneath the ground; and the diluvian winds entered into his mouth, in the form of the five vital airs; just as the winds of heaven have their recess in hollow sky. 37. The lord Rudra then goes on to swallow and suck up the marine waters, as the bright sunlight swallows the gloom of the dark fortnight. 38. There appears at last a calm and quiet vacuity as the azure sky, and resembling the wide ocean filled with flying dust and smoke; and devoid of any being or created thing, and stretching from the Empyrean of God to the lowest abyss or infernum. 39. I described amidst it four different spheres of empty void, bearing no vestige of anything moving or stirring in them. Listen to me, O son of Raghu, and you will hear what they were.

40. One of these lay in the midst of the air, and was sustained in it without any prop or support like the particles of fragrance floating in the air. This was Rudra of the form of the azure sky. 41. The second was lying afar, and appeared as the concavity of the sky over this earth; it was a part of the mundane system and below the seven spheres of the infernal regions. 42. The third was a region above the mundane sphere, and was invisible to the naked eye, owing to its great distance beyond the azure sky. 43. Then there was the surface of the earth, with its lower hemisphere of the watery regions; it was traversed by the great mountain which was the seat of gods—the Himálayas; and beset by islands, and sea-girt sands and shores. 44. There is another sphere, lying at the furthest distance from the other circles of the world; and comprises the infinite space of vacuum, which extends unlimited like the unbounded and transparent spirit of God. 45. This was the remotest sphere of heavens, that could be observed by me; and there was nothing else observable on any side, beside and beyond the limits of these four spheres or circles.

46. Ráma interrogated, saying:—I ask you to tell me, O venerable sir; whether there is any sphere or space, beyond what is contained in the mind of Brahmá; then tell me what and how many of them are there, what are their boundaries, and how are they situated, and to what end and purpose. 47. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are ten other spheres beyond this world (and each of them ten times greater that the preceding one). Of these the first is the sphere of water, lying beyond the two parts (or continents) of the earth. It is ten times greater than the land which it covers, as the shadow of evening overspreads the sky. 48. Beyond that is the sphere of heat, which is ten times greater in its extent than that of water; and afar from this is the region of the winds, whose circle is ten times larger than that of solar heat and light. 49. Next to these is the sphere of air, which is ten times as wide as the circuits of the winds; It is the highest sphere of transparent air, and is said to comprise the infinite vacuity of the divine spirit.

50. Afar and aloft from these, there are some other spheres also, whose circles extend to the distance of ten times above one another in the vast infinity of space. 51. Ráma said:—Tell me, O chief of sages, who is it that upholds the water of the deep below, and supports the air of the firmament above the world; and in what manner they are held aloof. 52. Vasishtha replied:—All earthly things are upheld by the earth, as the waters support the leaves of lotuses upon it; and every part depends upon the whole, as a babe depends upon its mother (or as the young of an ape, clings to the breast of its dam, and never falls off from it). 53. Hence everything runs to, and is attracted by whatever is larger than it, and situated nearer to it than others; just as the thirsty man runs to, and is attracted by the adjacent water. (Here we find the discovery of the theory of attraction, some thousands of years before it was discovered by Newton, and known to moderns). 54. So all metallic and other bodies, depend upon the close union of their parts, which being joined together, are as inseparable from one another, as the limbs and members of a person are attached to the main body.

55. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how do the parts of the world subsist together; in what manner they are joined with one another, and how are they disjoined from one another, and destroyed at last. 56. Vasishtha replied:—Whether the world is supported by some one or not, and whether it remains fixed (by attraction) or falls off (by its gravity); it is in reality an unsubstantial form, like that of a city in a dream. 57. What is it falls away or remains fixed on some support, it is viewed in the same manner, as our consciousness represents it unto us. 58. The world is contained in and represented by the intellect, in the same manner, as the wind is contained in and let out of air; and as the sky presents the blueness of the firmament, and other airy appearances. 59. These habitable worlds forming the universe, are but imaginary cities and creations of the Intellect; they are but airy representations of the airy mind, as the formless sky is represented in empty vacuity, and appearing in various forms unto us. 60. As it is the nature of our Intellect, to give many things to our consciousness, so it is its nature also, to make us unconscious of their disappearance by day and night.

61. An innumerable train of thoughts, are incessantly employing our minds when we are sitting and at rest; and so they are flying off and returning to us by day and night. 62. All things appear to approach to their dissolution, to one who knows their destructibility and their ultimate extinction at the end of a kalpa period or millennium; and they seem as ever growing to one, who is conversant with their growth only in the vacuity of the mind. 63. All our thoughts appear in the vacuum of our minds, as the vaporous chains of pearls are seen in the autumn sky; they are both as erroneous and fleeting as the other, and yet they press so very thick and quick on our sight and minds, that there is no reckoning of them.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAST NIGHT OF DEATH OR GENERAL DOOM. Argument:—Rudra dancing as Bhairava on the last day, in company with his shadow the last night. Vasishtha related:—I beheld afterwards, O Ráma! the same Rudra standing in the same firmament, and dancing with a hideous form in the same part of the sky. 2. This body then became as big as to fill the whole atmosphere, and as deep and dark black as to cover the ten sides of the sky, under the shadow of its sable appearance. 3. Its three eye-balls flashed with the flaming lights of the sun, moon and fire; and the body which was as black as the fumes of a dark flame, was as mute as the ten sides of the naked sky. 4. The eyes were blazing with the flame of the submarine fire, and the arms were as ponderous as the huge surges of the sea; and the blue body, seemed as the consolidated form of waters rising from the blue universal ocean. 5. As I was looking upon this enormous body, I saw a form like that of its shadow rising from it; and jumping about in the manner of dancing.

6. I was thinking in my mind, as to how could this appear in this dark and dreary night; when the heavens were hid under darkness, and there was no luminary shining in the sky (to cause the shadow). 7. As I was reflecting in this manner, I beheld on the foreground of that etherial stage, the stalwart phantom of a dark dingy female with three eyes, prancing and dancing and glancing all about. 8. She was of a large and lean stature, and of a dark black complexion; with her flaming eye-balls burning as fire, and girt with wild flowers all over her body. 9. She was as inky black as pasted pitch, and as dark as the darkest night or Erebus; and with her body of darkness visible, she appeared as the image of primeval night. 10. With her horrid and wide open jaws, she seemed to view the spacious vacuum of air; and with her long legs and outstretched arms, she appeared to measure the depth and breadth of open space on all sides.

11. Her frame was as faint as it was reduced by long enduring fast, and it stooped lower and lower as if pressed down by hunger; it was wavering to and fro, as a body of sable clouds is driven backward and forward by the driving winds. 12. Her stature was so lean and long, that it could not stand by itself; and was supported like a skeleton, by the ligaments of the ribs, and ligatures of arteries, which uphold it fast from falling. 13. In a word her stature was so tall and towering, that it was by my diurnal journey in the upper and lower skies, that I came to see the top of her head, and the base of her feet. 14. After this I beheld her body, as a bush of tangling thickets and thistles, by the complicate ligatures of the tendons and arteries, which fastened all its members together. 15. She was wrapped in vests of various hues, and her head was decked by the luminaries belike her head-dress of lotus flowers. She was beset by the pure light of heaven, and her robe flashed as fire, enflamed by the breath of winds.

16. The lobes of her long ears, were adorned with rings of snakes, and pendents of human skulls; her kneebones were as prominent as two dried gourd shells, and her two dark dugs hung down loosely upon her breast. 17. The braid of hair on the top of her head, was adorned with feathers of male and young peacocks; and defied the crowned head of the lord of Gods (i.e. Indra), and the circlet of his discus (Khattánga). 18. Her moon like teeth, cast their lustre like moon beams; and it glistened amidst the dark ocean of chaotic night, as the moon beams play upon the surface, and rising waves of the dark blue deep. 19. Her long stature rose as a large tree in the sky, and her two kneepans resembled two dry gourds growing upon it; and these clattered like the rustling of a tree by the breeze, as she turned about in the air. 20. And as she danced about in the air, with her sombre arms lifted on high; they resembled the rising of the waves of dark ocean of eternity. (The words Kála and Kálí—implying both the black goddess and dark eternity).

21. Now she lifts one arm and then many more, and at last she displays her countless hands; to play her part in the playhouse of the universe. 22. Now she shows but one face and then another, and afterwards many more ad infinitum; in order to represent her various and infinite parts, in the vast theatre of the world. 23. Now she dances on one foot, and instantly on both her feet; she stands on a hundred legs in one moment, and on her numberless feet at another. 24. I understood this person to be the figure of chaotic, and the same which the wise have ascertained as the goddess known under the designation of Kálior eternal night. Or I presently recognized her as the figure of kála-rátri or dark night; which the wise have ascertained to be the image of dark eternity, as designated as the goddess Kálí—Hecate or chaotic night. (But Kálias in Greek, means Sundarí or fair and beautiful also). 25. The sockets of her triple eyes flashed with a flame, like that of the furnace of a fire engine; and her forest was as glaring and flaring, as the burning Indra-níla mountain.

26. Her cheek-bones were as frightful as two high hills, projecting over her hideous open mouth; appearing as a mountain cavern, and capable of ingulfing the whole world in it. (Hence Káli the type of time, is said to be the devourer of all things, and restorer of them in unconscious womb). 27. Her shoulder-blades were as high as two mountain peaks, piercing the starry frame; where they were decorated by the clusters of stars, as with strings of pearls. 28. She danced with her outstretched arms, resembling the waving branches of trees; and displayed the brightness of her nails, like that of blooming blossoms upon them; or as so many full moons shining under the azure sky. 29. As she turned and tossed her sable hands on every side, she seemed as a dark cloud moving about in the sky; and the lustre of her nails, appeared to shed the splendour of stars all around. 30. The face of the sky resembled a forest ground, occupied by the black arbours of her two sable arms; and her outstretched fingers resembling the twigs of the trees, were covered over by the blossoms of their pearly nails, which waved as flowers in azure sky.

31. With her legs taller than the tallest tála and tamála trees, she stalked over the burning earth, and put to shame the largest trees that grew upon it (and kept burning without being able to move). 32. The long and flowing hairs on her head, reached to and spread over the skies; and seemed about to form black vestures for the dark elephantine clouds, moving about in the empty air. 33. She breathed from her nostrils a rapid gale of wind, which bore the mountains aloft in the air; and blew great gales in the sky; resounding with loud repeals from all sides of its boundless spheres. 34. The breath of her nostrils and mouth, blew in unison all about the circle of the universe; and kept the great sphere in its constant rotation, as it were in its enharmonic progression. 35. I then came to perceive, as I looked on her with attention, that her stature was enlarging with her dancing, till at last I found it to fill the whole space of the air and sky. 36. And as long I continued to behold her in her dancing state, I saw the great mountains pendant all about her body, as if they were a string of jewels around her person.

37. The dark diluvian clouds formed a sablegarb about her body, and the phenomena of the three worlds appeared as the various decorations, that adorned her person. 38. The Himálaya and Sumeru mountains, were as her two silver and golden ear-rings, and the rolling worlds, resembled the ringing trinkets and belts about her waist. 39. The ranges of boundary mountains, were as chains and wreaths of flower upon her person; and the cities and towns and villages and islands, were as the leaves of trees scattered about her. 40. All the cities and towns of the earth, appeared as adornments on her person; and all the three worlds and their seasons and divisions of time, were as ornaments and garments upon her body. 41. She had the streams of holy rivers of Gangá and Yamuná, hanging down as strings of pearls from the ears of her other heads. So the virtues and vices (recorded in the srutis), formed decorations of her ears also. 42. The four vedas were her four breasts, which exuded with the sweet milk (of religion) in the manner of her sweat; and the doctrines of other sástras, flowed as milk from their nipples.

43. The armour and arms, and the various weapons as the sword and the shield, the spear and the mallet, which she bore on her body; decorated her person as with wreaths of flowers. 44. The Gods and all the fourteen kinds of animal beings, were all situated as lines of hair on her person, in her form of animated nature itself. 45. The cities and villages and hills, which were situated in her person; all joined in their merry dance with herself, in the expectation of their resurrection, in the same forms again. 46. The unstable moving creation also, which rested in her, appeared to me as if they were situated in the next world, and dancing with joy in the hope of their revivification. (The living that are dead and buried in the chaotic Kálí, are to be revivified to life again). 47. The chaotic Kálí, having devoured and assimilated the world in herself; dances with joy like the peacock, after gorging a snake in its belly, and at the appearance of a dark cloud. 48. The world continues to remain and exhibit its real form, in her wide extended figure; as the shadow of a thing is seen in a mirror, and the situations of countries are shown in a map.

49. I saw her sometimes to stand still, with the whole world and all its forests and mountains; to be moving and dancing in her person; and all forms to be repeatedly reduced in and produced from her. 50. I beheld the harmonious oscillation of the whole, in the mirror of that person; and I saw the repeated rising and setting of the world in that circle, without its utter extinction. 51. I marked the revolution of the stars, and the rising of mountains within its circumference, and I observed the throngs of gods and demigods, to assemble and disperse on her in time, as flights of gnats and flies, are driven to and fro by the winds in open air. 52. All these heavenly bodies and these islands in the ocean, are moving around her, like the flying wheels of a broken warcar; and they whirl up and down about her, like the rocks and woods in a whirlpool. 53. She is clad in the robes of the blue clouds, which are furled and folded by the breezes of air; and the cracking of wood and bones under feet, answer the sound of her foot-steps and anklets below.

54. The world is filled with the noise of the concussion and separation of its objects, and the tumult of worldly people; appearing as passing shadows in a mirror, or as the entrance and exits of actors in a play on the stage. 55. The high-headed Meru and the long armed (ranged) boundary mountains, seem to be dancing about her in their representations in the moving clouds; and the forest trees seen in the clouds, seem to perform their circuitous dance all around. 56. The high-swelling seas were heaving their waves to heaven, bearing with them the uprooted woods of the coasts on high, and again hurling them down, and sinking them in the waters below. 57. The cities were seen to be rolling with a tremendous noise in the waters below, and no relics of houses and towers and the habitations of human kind, were found to be left beneath. 58. As the chaotic night (kála-rátri) was thus roving at random, the sun and moon with their light and shade, found shelter in the tops of her nails, where they sparkled as threads of gold. (i.e. The flash of her nails, afforded the only light amidst the universe of gloom).

59. She was clad in the blue mantle of the clouds, and adorned with necklaces of frost and icicles; and the worlds hung about her, like the trickling dewdrops of her perspiration. 60. The blue sky formed her covering veil about her head, the infernal region her footstool, the earth her bowels, and the several sides (or points of the compass) were so many arms on her. 61. The seas and their islands, formed the cavities and pimples in her person; the hills and rocks made her rib bones, and the winds of heaven were her vital airs. 62. As she continues in her dancing, the huge mountains and rocks swing and reel about her gigantic body, as her attendant satellites. 63. The mountain trees turning around her, appear to weave chaplets and dance about, in congratulation of her commencing a new cycle or kalpa. 64. The gods and demigods, the hairless serpents and worms, and all hairy bodies; are all but component parts of her body; and being unable to remain quiescent while she is in motion, are all turning round with her. 65. She weaves the three fold cord of the sacred thread—trivrit, consisting of acts, sacrifices and knowledge, which she proclaims aloud in the thundering voice of the triple vedas.