Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

66. Before her (i.e. in the infinite space), there is no heaven or earth (i.e. up or down); but the one becomes the other, by its constant rotation like the wheel of a vehicle. 67. Her wide open nostrils constantly breathe out hoarse currents of her breath, which give rise to the winds of air, and their loud sufflations and whistlings. 68. Her hundred fold arms revolving in all the four directions, give the sky the appearance of a forest; filled with the tall heads of trees and their branches, shaken by a furious tornado in the air. 69. At last my steady eye-sight grew tired, with viewing the varieties of productions from her body; and their motions and movements, resembling the manners of an army in warfare. 70. Mountains were seen to be rolling as by an engine, and the cities of the celestials falling downward; and all these appearances were observed to take place in the mirror of her person. 71. The Meru mountains were torn and borne away as branches of trees, and the Malayas were tossed about as flying leaves; the Himálayas fell down as dewdrops, and all earthly things are scattered as straws.

72. The hills and rocks fled away, and the Vindhyas flew as aerials in the air; the woods rolled in the whirlpools, and the stars floated in the sea of heaven, as swans and geese in the lakes below. 73. Islands floated as straws in the ocean of her body, and the seas were worn as circlet on it; the abodes of the gods were like lotus-flowers, blooming in the large lake of her person. 74. As we see the images of cities in our dream, and in the darkness of night, as clearly we behold them in the fair sky light; so I beheld all things in her dark body, as vividly as they shone in broad sunlight. 75. All things though immovable, as the mountains and seas and arbours; appear to be moving in and dancing about in her person.

76. So the wandering worlds are dancing about in the great circle of her spacious body, as if they were mere straws in the vast ocean of creation. Thus the sea rolls on the mountain, and the high hills pierces the hollow of the heaven above. This heaven also with its sun and moon, are turning below the earth; and the earth with all its islands and mountains, cities, forests and flowery gardens; is dancing in heaven round about the sun. (Describing the harmonious dance of the planetary spheres in empty air). 77. The mountains are wandering (with the earth), amidst the surrounding sky; and the sea passes beyond the horizon (with the rotation of the earth); and so the cities and all human habitations, traverse through other skies; and so also the rivers and lakes pass through other regions, as objects reflecting themselves in different mirrors, and as swiftly as the leaf of a tree torn by a tempest, is hurled on and borne afar to distant parts.

78. Fishes skim in the desert air (or etherial desert), as they swim in the watery plain; and cities are situated in empty air, as firmly as they are fixed on solid earth. The waters are raised to heaven by the clouds, which are again driven back by the winds, to pour their waters on mountain tops. 79. The groups of stars are wandering about, like lustres of a thousand lamps lighted in the sky; they seem to shed gems with their rays as they roll, or scatter flowers from all sides on the heads of gods and aerial beings. 80. Creations and destructions accompany her, as fleeting days and nights, or as jewels of brilliant and black gems on her person. They are as the two fortnights resembling her white and black wings on either side. 81. The sun and moon are the two bright gems on her person, and the clusters of stars form her necklaces of lesser gems; the clear firmament is her white apparel, and the flashes of lightnings form the brocaded fringes of her garment. 82. As she dances in her giddy dance of destruction, she huddles the worlds under her feet as her anklets, raising thereby a jingling sound as that of her trinkets.

83. In her warfare with the jarring elements, rolling on like waves of the ocean, and darkening the daylight as by the waving swords of warriors, she listens to the tumult of all the worlds and their peoples. 84. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, together with the regents of sun and moon and fire, and all other gods and demigods, that shine in their respective offices; are all made to fly before like a flight of gnats, and with the velocity of lightning. 85. Her body is a congeries of conflicting elements and contrary principles, and creation and destruction, existence and non-existence, happiness and misery, life and death, and all injunctions and prohibitions (i.e. the mandatory and prohibitory laws, do all abide conjointly and yet separately in her person). 86. The various states of production and existence, and continuance of action and motion, and their cessation which appear to take place in her body, as in those of all corporeal beings, together with the revolution of the earth and all other worlds in empty air; are all but false delusions of our minds, as there is nothing in reality except a boundless vacuity.

87. Life and death, peace and trouble, joy and sorrow, war and truce, anger and fear, envy and enmity, faith and distrust and all other opposite feelings; are concomitants with this worldly life, and they dwell together in the same person, as the various gems stored in a chest. 88. The intellectual sphere of her body, teems with notions of multifarious worlds; which appear as phantoms in the open air, or as fallacies of vision to the dim sighted man. 89. Whether the world is quiescent in the intellect, or a passing phenomenon of outward vision; it appears both as stable as well as moving, like the reflexion of objects in a standing or shaking mirror. 90. All worldly objects are as fluctuating, as the changing shows in a magic play; they forsake their forms and assume others as quickly, as the fickle desires of whimsical boys are ever shifting from one object to another. 91. It is the combination of causal powers, which cause the production of bodies; and it is their separation which effects their dissolution; as it is the accumulation of grains, which makes a granary, and their abstraction which tends to its disappearance.

92. The Goddess now appears in one form, and then in another; she becomes now as small as the thumb finger, and in a moment fills the sky (with the bigness of her body). 93. That goddess is all in all, she is changed through every thing in world, and is the cosmos itself and the power of the intellect also; she fills the whole concavity of the sky with her form of pure vacuity. 94. She is the intellect, which embraces all, whatever is contained in the three worlds and in all the three times (of the past, present, and future). It is she that expands the worlds which are contained in her, as a painter draws out the figures which are pictured in the receptacle of his mind. 95. She is the all comprehensive and plastic nature or form of all things; and being one with the intellectual spirit, she is equally as calm and quiet as the other. Being thus uniform in her nature, she is varied to endless forms in the twinkling of her eye.

96. All these visibles appear in her, as marks of lotuses and carved figures are seen in a hollow stone (or in the perforated sáligram stones of gunduk). Her body is the hollow sphere of heaven, and her mind is full of all forms, appearing as waves in the depth of sea, or as the sights of things in the bosom of a crystal stone (as reflected in it by the Divine Intellect). 97. The very furious goddess Bhairaví—the consort of the dread god Bhairava—the lord of destruction, was thus dancing about with her fierce forms filling the whole firmament. 98. On one side the earth was burning with the fire, issuing from the eye on the fore-head of all destroying Rudra; and on the other was his consort Rudraní, dancing like a forest blown away by a hurricane. 99. She was armed more over with many other weapons, (beside those that are mentioned before); such as a spade, a mortar and pestle, a mallet, a mace &c.; which adorned her body as a garland of flowers. 100. In this manner, she danced and scattered the flowers of her garlands on all sides; in her acts of destructions and recreation (as preliminaries on one another).

101. She hailed the god Bhairava—the regent of the skies, who joined her in dancing with his form as big and high as hers. 102. May the god Bhairava, with his associate Goddess of Kálarátri or chaotic night, preserve you all in their act of heroic dance, with the beating of high sounding drums, and the blowing of their buffalo horn, as they drink their bowls of blood and are adorned with wreaths of flowers, hanging down from their heads to the breasts.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON OF THE GOD SIVA. Argument:—Description of the perfection and personality of Siva as an undivided whole. Ráma rejoined:—Who is this goddess, sir, that is dancing thus in her act of destruction, and why is it that she bears on her body the pots and fruits as her wreaths of flowers? 2. Say, whether the worlds are wholly destroyed at the end, or they become extinct in the goddess Káli, and reside in her person, and when doth her dance come to an end. 3. Vasishtha replied:—Neither is he a male, nor is she a female; nor was there a dancing of the one, or a duality of the two (in their spirit); such being the case (of their unity), and such the nature of their action (of destruction); neither of them any form, or figure of their own (except that they are personified as such). 4. That which is without its beginning or end, is the divine Intellect alone; which in the manner of infinite vacuity, is the cause of all causes. (In the beginning all was void, which caused all things).

5. It is the increate and endless light, that exists from eternity, and extends over all space. This calm and quiet state of the etherial space is known as Siva or tranquil, and its change to confusion at the end, is denominated Bhairava or the dreadful. (i.e. the Lord acting his dreadful part in the theatre of the universe). 6. It is impossible for the pure and formless intellect, to remain alone and aloof from its association with plastic nature; as it is not likely to find any gold to exist without some form or other. (So the sruti:—The creation and absorption of the world, require a formal agent and recipient also). 7. Say ye who know, how the intellect may subsist without its intelligence, and where a pepper may be had without its pungency? (There is nothing without its necessary property, nor the formal world without a formal cause). 8. Consider how can there be any gold, without its form of a bracelet or any other; and how doth a substance exist without its substantial property or nature? 9. Say what is the extract of the sugar-cane, unless it is possessed of its sweetness; you can not call it the juice of sugar-cane, unless you find the saccharine flavour in the same.

10. When the intellect is devoid of its intellection, you can not call it as the intellect any more; nor is the vacuous form of the intellect, ever liable to any change or annihilation. (A void is devoid of all accidents). 11. Vacuity admits of no variety, besides its retaining the identity of its inanity; and in order to assume a diversity, the void must remain a void as ever. (Or else it becomes a solid, which is no more itself). 12. Therefore the unchanged and unagitated essence, which is essential to it, must be without beginning and unlimited, and full of all potency in itself (since vacuum is the medium both of creation as well as of annihilation also). 13. And therefore the creation of the three worlds and their destruction, the earth, firmament and the sides of the compass; together with all the acts of creation and destruction, are the indiscriminate phenomena of vacuum. 14. All births, deaths, delusions and ignorance, being and not being, together with knowledge and dullness, restraint and liberty, and all events whether good or evil. 15. Knowledge and its want, the body and its loss, temporariness and diuturnity; together with mobility and inertia, and egoism and tuism and illism.

16. All good and evil, goodness and badness, ignorance and intelligence; together with durations of time and space, substance and action, and all our thoughts, fancies and imagination. 17. The sight of the forms of things and the thoughts of the mind, the action of the body, understanding and senses; with those of the elements of earth and water, fire, air, and vacuum extending all about us. 18. These and all others, proceed from the pure intellectual vacuity of the Divine spirit; which resides in its vacuous form in everything and is always without decay and decrease. 19. All things subsist in pure vacuum, and are as pure as the void itself; there is nothing beside this empty air, though they appear as real as doth a mountain in our hollow dream. 20. The intellectual spirit, which I have said to be transcendent void; is the same which we call as jíva—the sempiternal and Rudra—the august. 21. He is adored as Hari or Vishnu by some, and as Brahmá the great progenitor of men by others; he is called the sun and moon, and as Indra, Varuna, Yama, the Viráta and the God of fire also.

22. He is the marut or wind, the cloud and sea, the sky, and everything that there is or is not; all whatever manifests itself in the empty sphere of the Intellect. 23. In this manner all things appearing under different names, and taken to be true by the ignorant eye; vanish into nothing in their spiritual light, which shows them in their pure intellectual natures. 24. In the understanding of the ignorant, the world appears as apart from the spirit; but to the intellectual soul, the vacuity of the intellect is known to be situated in the Divine spirit; therefore there is no distinction of unity and duality to the knowing mind (in which all multiplicities blend into unity). 25. So long is the living soul tossed about as a wave in the ocean of the world, and running the course of its repeated births and deaths in it; until it comes to know the nature of the supreme spirit, when it becomes as immortal and perfect as the eternal soul and self-same with it.

26. By this knowledge of the universal soul, the human soul attains its perfect tranquility; as to find itself no more, as the fluctuating wave in the ocean of the world, but views itself and everything beside, to be as calm and quiet, as the eternal and infinite spirit of God.

SIGHT OF THE MUNDANE GOD. Argument:—Siva is the Representation of the Pure Intellect; but Bhairava & Káli are not so. Explanation of the causes of such representations and Personifications. Vasishtha added:—I have already related to you, that Siva is the representation of the vacuous intellect; but not so is Rudra, whom I have described as dancing all about. 2. The form that is attributed to him (or to the goddess kálí); is not their real figure; but a representation of the grosser aspect of intellectual vacuity (which is of a dark complexion). 3. I saw with my intellectual and clear vision (clair-voyance), that sphere of the intellect in its clear, bright and clear light (as that of Siva’s body); but it did not appear so to others, who beheld it in their ignorance, to be as dark as the black complexion of the associate goddess. (There is shadow under the lamp). 4. I saw at the end of the kalpa cycle, the two spectres of delusion, appearing before me; the one was the furious Rudra, and the other—the ferocious Bhairava; and knew them both to be but delusion, and creatures of my mistaken fancy.

5. The great chasm which is seen to exist in the vacuous sphere of the Intellect, the same is supposed to be conceived under the idea of a vast void, represented as the dreadful Bhairava. 6. We can have no conception of anything, without knowing the relation, the significant term and its signification; it is for that reason that I related this to you, as I found it to be. 7. Whatever idea is conveyed to the mind by the significant term, know Ráma, the very same to be presently presented before the outward sight by the power of delusion and as a magical appearance. 8. In reality there is no destruction, nor the destructive power of Bhairava or Bhairaví (in the masculine or feminine gender); all these are but erroneous conceptions fleeting in the empty space of the intellect. (It is the bias of the mind, which presents these hobgoblins to sight). 9. These appearances are as those of the cities seen in our dream, or as a warfare shewn in our fancy; they are as the utopian realms of one’s imagination, or as the fits of our feelings on some pathetic and heart stirring description.

10. As the fairy castle is seen in the field of fancy, and strings of pearls hanging in the empty air; and as mists and vapours darken the clear atmosphere, so are there the troops of fallacies flying all about the firmament of the intellect. 11. But the clear sky of the pure intellect, shines of itself in itself; and when it shines in that state, it shows the world in itself. 12. The soul exhibits itself in its intellectual sphere, in the same manner as a figure is seen in picture; and the soul manifests also in the raging fire of final destruction. (The same soul is equally manifest in the subjective, as well as in the objective, i.e. both in itself as in all other things whatsoever). 13. I have thus far related to you, regarding the formlessness of the forms of Siva and his consort Sivání; hear me now to tell you concerning their dance, which was literally no dancing.

14. Sensation cannot exist any where (in any person), without the action of the power (lit, element) of intellection; as it is not possible for anything to be a nothing or appear otherwise than what it is. (Gloss. There can be no sensation without action of the power of intellection, as there can be no pearl-shell without the appearance of silver in it). 15. Therefore the powers of sensations and perception, are naturally united with all thing, as Rudra and his consort, who are blended together as gold and silver appearing as one and the same metal. 16. Whatever is sensation and wherever it exists, the same must be a sensible object, and have action or motion for its natural property. 17. Whatever is the action of the Intellect, whose consolidated form is called by the name Siva, the same is the cause of our motions also; and as these are actuated by our will and desires, they are called the dance or vacillations (of the intellectual power). 18. Therefore the furious form of Rudra, which is assumed by the god Siva at the end of a kalpa; which is said to dance about at that time, is to be known as vibration of the divine intellect.

19. Ráma rejoined:—This world being nothing in reality, in the sight of the right observer; and anything that there remains of it in any sense whatever, the same is also destroyed at the end of the kalpa. 20. How then does it happen at the end of the kalpa, when everything is lost in the formless void of vacuity, that this consolidated form of intellect, known as Siva remains and thinks in itself. 21. Vasishtha replied:—O Ráma! if you entertain such doubt, then hear me tell you, how you can get over the great ocean of your doubts, respecting the unity and duality of the deity:—that all things being extinct at the end, there remains the thinking and subjective intellect alone, without anything objective to think upon. 22. The subjective soul then thinks of nothing, but remains quite tranquil in itself; as the unmoving and mute stone, and resting in the solid vacuity of its omniscience. 23. If it reflects at all on anything, it is only on itself; because it is the nature of the intellect to dwell calmly in itself.

24. As the intellect appears itself, like the inward city it sees within itself in a dream; so there is nothing in real existence any where, except the knowledge thereof, which is inherent in the intellect. (So it is with the divine intellect, whose omniscience comprehends the knowledge of every thing in itself). 25. The divine soul knowing everything in itself, and in its vacuous intellect, sees the manifestation of the universe at the time of creation, by simple development of itself. 26. The intellect developes itself of its own nature, within its vacuous cell at first; and then in a moment envelopes this erroneous universe in itself, and at his will at the time of its destruction. 27. The intellect expands itself, in itself in its natural state of vacuum; and devolves itself likewise into its conceptions of I and thou and all others (which are but false ideas and creatures of its imagination). 28. Therefore there exists no duality nor unity, nor an empty vacuity either; there is neither an intelligence or its want or the both together; so is there neither my meism nor thy tuism either.

29. There is nothing that ever thinks of anything, nor aught whatever which is thought of or object thereof of its own nature; therefore there is nothing that thinks or reflects, but all is quite rest and silence. 30. It is the unalterable steadiness of the mind, which is the ultimate samádhi or perfection of all sástras; therefore the living yogi aught to remain, as the mute and immovable stone in his meditation. 31. Now Ráma, remain to discharge your ordinary duties, as they are incumbent on you by the rules of your race; but continue to be quiet and steady in your spiritual part, by renouncing all worldly pride and vanity; and enjoy a peaceful composure in your mind and soul, as that of the serene and calm and clear concavity of the sky.

RELATION OF SIVA AND SAKTI OR OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND ITS POWER. Argument:—The definition of the term Sakti and her elucidation. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the goddess Káli is said to be dancing about, and why is she armed with axe and other weapons, and arrayed with her wreaths of flowers. 2. Vasishtha replied:—It is the vacuum of the intellect, which is called both as Siva and Bhairava; and it is this intellectual power or force, which is identic with itself, that is called Káli and its consorting mind. 3. As the wind is one with its vacillation, and the fire is identic with its heat; so is the intellect identical with its oscillation. (The mind is ever fleeting and active as dull matter is inert and inactive). 4. As the wind is invisible even in its act of vacillations, and the heat is unseen even in its act of burning; so the intellect is imperceptible notwithstanding its acting, and is therefore called Siva—the calm and quiet.

5. It is because of the wondrous power of his vibration, that he is known to us, and without which we could have no knowledge of his existence; know therefore this Siva to be the all powerful Brahma, who is otherwise a quiescent being, and unknowable even by the learned and wise. 6. His oscillation is the power of his will, which has spread-out this visible appearance; as it is the will of an embodied and living man, that builds a city according to his thought (or just as it depends on the option of a living person, to erect a city according to the model in his thought or mind). 7. It is the will of Siva or Jove that creates all this world from its formless state, and it is this creative power which is the Intelligence of God, and the intellection of living being. 8. This power takes also the form of nature in her formation of the creation, and is called the creation itself, on account of her assuming on herself the representation of the phenomenal world.

9. She is represented with a crest of submarine fire on her head, and to be dry and withered in her body; she is said to be a fury on account of her furiousness, and called the lotiform from the blue-lotus-like complexion of her person. 10. She is called by the names jayá and siddha (victory and fortune), owing to her being accompanied by victory and prosperity at all times. 11. She is also designated as Aparájitá or invincible, viryá the mighty and Durgá—the inaccessible, and is like wise renowned as umá, for her being composed of the powers of the three letters of the mystic syllable Om. (In the birth of umá, the subject of the first canto of Kumára Sambhaba, Kálidása says, “Tapasa nibrita je umeti námná prakírtitá,” she was termed umá for prevention of austerities. The glossarists have all explained the passage in the sense of the mythic personification of umá, and nobody has ever known its mystic interpretation of sacred syllable Om itself, whose utterance precludes the necessity of all formal devotions: i.e. to say, umá-is-om the divine mantra itself).

12. She is called the gáyatrí (hymn) from its being chanted by every body, and Sávitrí also from her being the progenitrix of all beings; she is named Sarasvatí likewise, for her giving us an insight into whatever appears before our sight. 13. She bears the appelation of Gaurí from her gaura or fair complexion, and of Bhavání from her being the source of all beings, as also from her association with the body of Bhava—or Siva. She is also termed the letter अ (a) to signify her being the vital breath of all waking and sleeping bodies. 14. Umá means moreover the digit of the moon, which enlightens the worlds from the forehead of Siva; and the bodies of the God and Goddess are both painted as black and blue, from their representing the two hemispheres of heaven. 15. The sky appears as dark and bright from the two complexions of these divinities, who are situated in the vacuous forms in the bosom of the great vacuum itself. 16. Though they are formless as empty airs, yet they are conceived as the first-born of the void; and are figuratively attributed with more or less hands and feet, and holding as many weapons in them.

17. Now know the reason of attributing the Goddess with many weapons and instruments, to be no more, than of representing her, as the patron of all arts and their employments. 18. She was self-same with the supreme soul, as its power of self-meditation from all eternity; and assumed the shapes of the acts of sacred ablutions, religions, sacrifices, and holy gifts, as her primal forms in vedas. (i.e. The intellectual power (chit-sakti) evolves itself to meditation and action—dhyána and Karma). 19. She is of the form of the azure sky, comely in appearance and is the beauty of the visibles; she is the motion of all objects, and the varieties of their movements are the various modes of the dancing of the goddess. (the divine power or force—sakti, is always personified as his female agent, as it is evident in the words potentia, energia, exergasia, qudrat, taquat &c.). 20. She is the agent of Brahmá in his laws of the birth, decay, and deaths of beings; and all cities and countries, mountains and islands, hang on her agency as a string of gems about her neck.

21. She holds together all parts of the world, as by her power of attraction; and infuses her force as momentum in them all, as it were into the different limbs and members of her body, she bears the various appellations of Kálí, Kálika &c., according to her several functions denoted by those terms (in the glossary). 22. She as the one great body of the cosmos, links together all its parts like her limbs unto her heart; and moves them all about her; though this formless body of force, has never been seen or known by any body. (We always see the moving bodies about us, but never the moving force which moves them all about). 23. Know this ever oscillant power to be never different or unconnected, from the quiescent spirit of Siva the changeless god; nor think the fluctuating winds to be ever apart from the calm vacuum, in which they abide and vibrate for ever. 24. The world is a display of the glory of God, as the moonlight is a manifestation of the brightness of that luminary; which is otherwise dark and obscure; so the lord God is ever tranquil and quiet and without any change or decay without his works.

25. There is not the least shadow, of fluctuation in the supreme soul; it is the action of this agency, that appears to be moving us. (Gloss. The inactive spirit of God is the true reality, and the passing phenomena are all but vanity). 26. That is said to be the tranquil spirit of Siva—the god, which reverts itself from action, and reposes in its understanding; and apart from the active energy which possesses the intellect as its goddess. (Hence the state of the soul in perfect rest and repose is called Siva—salvus or felicity). 27. The intellect reposing in its natural state of the understanding, is styled Siva—salvus or felix; but the active energy of the intellectual power, is what passes under the name of the great goddess of action. 28. That bodiless power, assumes the imaginary forms of these worlds, with all the peoples that are visible in them in the day light.

29. It is this power which supports the earth, with all its seas and islands, and its forests, deserts and mountains, it maintains the vedas with its angas, upangas, the sástras, sciences and the psalms. (The vedas are four in number, its angas or branches called the six vedángas namely, the siksha, kalpa, nirukta, vyákarana, chhanda and jyotisha. The upangas or subsidiary branches are the four arts, viz., áyurveda or medicine, dhanurveda—archery, gandharva—music &c. The vidyas are the sciences and philosophy, and the gítás are sámagiti or the psalm of sámaveda). 30. It ordains the injunctions and prohibitions (of law), and gives the rules of auspicious and inauspicious acts and rites; it directs the sacrifices and sacrificial fires, and the modes of offering cakes and oblations. 31. This goddess is adorned with the sacrificial implements, as the mortar and pestle, the post and ladle &c.; and is arrayed with the weapons of warfare also, as the spear, arrows and the lance. 32. She is arrayed with the mace and many missile weapons also; and accompanied by horse and elephants and valiant gods with her. In short she fills the fourteen worlds, and occupies the earth with all its seas and islands.

33. Ráma said:—I will ask you sir, to tell me now, whether the thoughts of creation in the divine mind, subsisted (in their ideal forms) in the Divine soul; or they were incorporated in the forms of Rudra and which are false and fictitious. 34. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, she is verily the power of the Intellect (Divine mind), as you have rightly said; and all these that there are being thought of by her, they are all true as her thoughts (and not in their visible appearances). 35. The thoughts that are subjective and imprinted in the inner intellect (from preconceived desire or reminiscence), are never untrue; just as the reflection of our face cast in a mirror from without, cannot be a false shadow. 36. But those thoughts are false, which enter into the mind from without, as the whole body (lit. city of our desires and false imaginations); and the fallacies of these are removed upon our right reflection and by means of our sound judgment.

37. But in my opinion, the firm belief and persuasion of the human soul in anything whatever, is reckoned as true by every one; such as the picture of a thing in a mirror, and the representations of things seen in a dream or the forms of things seen in a picture or in dream, and the creatures of our imagination are all taken for true and real by every one for the time, and for their serviceableness to him. 38. But you may object and say that, things that are absent and at a distance from you, are no way serviceable to you, and yet they cannot be said to be inexistent or unreal; because they come to use when they are present before us. 39. As the productions of a distant country, become of use when they are presented before us; so the objects of our dreams and thoughts, are equally true and useful when they are present in view; so also every idea of a definite shape and signification, is a certain reality (as that of the goddess Kálí).

40. As an object or its action passing under the sight of any one, is believed to be true by its observer; so whatever thought passes in his mind, is thought to be true by him. But nothing that is seen or thought of by another, is ever known to or taken into belief by any one else, or accounted as true to him. 41. It is therefore in the power of the Divine Intellect, that the embryo of the creation is contained for ever; and the whole universe is ever existent in the divine soul, it is wholly unknown to others. 42. All that is past, present, and ever to be in future, together with all the desires and thoughts of others; are for ever really existent in the divine spirit, else it would not be the universal soul. (The meaning of the universal soul is the contained of all and not that it is contained in them). 43. There are the adepts only in yoga practice, who acquire the power of prying into the hearts and minds of others; just as others come to see different countries, by passing over the barriers of hills and dales. (As the divine soul is the knower of the hearts of others, so is the pure soul of the holy divine also).

44. As the dream of a man fallen into fast sleep, is not disturbed by the shaking of his bedstead or sleeping couch; so the fixed thought of any body, are never lost by his removing from place to place (or by his departure from this life to the next, or by his transmigration from one into another). 45. So the movements of the dancing body of Káli (the creative energy of God) cause no fluctuation in the world which is contained within it; just as the shaking of a mirror, makes no alternation in the reflection which is cast upon it. 46. The great bustle and commotion of the world though seeming as real to all appearance, yet it being but a mere delusion in sober reality, it were as well whether it moveth all or not all (as it were the same whether we are hurried or kept sedate in a dream). 47. When is the dreaming scene or the city seen in our dream, said to be a true one, and when is it pronounced as a falseone; and when is it said to be existent and when dilapidated? (supply how for when to give it some sense).

48. Know the phenomenal world that is exposed before you, to be but mere illusion; and it is your sheer fallacy, to view the unreal visibles as sure realities. 49. Know your conception of the reality of the three worlds to be equally false, as the aerial castle of your imagination or the air drawn city of your fond desire; it is as the vision in your dream, or any conception of your error. 50. That this is I the subjective, and the other is the objective world, is the interminable error that binds fast the mind for ever; it is a gross mistake as that of the ignorant, who believe the endless sky to be bounded, and take it for black or blue; but the learned are released from this blunder (and rest in the only existent One).

RELATION OF NATURE AND SOUL, OR THE PRIME MALE AND FEMALE POWERS. Argument:—The dancing goddess embraces the steady god, and is joined with him in one body. Vasishtha continued:—Thus the goddess was dancing with her outstretched arms, which with their movements appeared to make a shaking forest of tall pines in the empty sky. (The Briarean arms of Kálí). 2. This power of the intellect, which is ignorant of herself and ever prone to action, continued thus to dance about with her decorations of various tools and instruments. (The mental power acts by means of the mechanical powers). 3. She was arrayed with all kinds of weapons in all her thousand arms, such as the bow and arrows, the spear and lance, the mallet and club, and the sword and all sort of missiles. She was conversant with all things whether in being or not being, and was busy at every moment of passing time. (i.e. Ever active in body and mind). 4. She contained the world in the vibration of her mind, as airy cities and castles consist in the power of imagination; it is she herself that is the world, as the imagination itself is the imaginary city—the utopia.

5. She is the volition of Siva, as fluctuation is innate in the air; and as the air is still without its vibration, so Siva is quite quiet without his will or volition (represented as his female energy in the form of Kálí). 6. The formless volition becomes the formal creation in the same manner, as the formless sky produces the wind which vibrates into sound; so doth the will of Siva bring forth the world out of itself. 7. When this volitive energy of Kálí, dances and sports in the void of the Divine mind; then the world comes out of a sudden, as if it were by union of the active will with the great void of the supreme Mind. 8. Being touched by the dark volitive power (or volentia), the supreme soul of Siva is dissolved into water; just as the sub-marine fire is extinguished by its contact with the water of the sea. (Water the first form of God: “and the spirit of God moved upon the surface of water”). 9. No sooner did this power come in contact with Siva—the prime cause of all, the same power of volentia, inclined and turned to assume the shape of nature, and to be converted to some physical form.

10. Then forsaking her boundless and elemental form, she took upon herself the gross and limited forms of land and hills; and then became of the form of beautiful arbours and trees. (i.e. Of the forms of minerals and vegetables). 11. (After taking various other forms), she became as the formless void, and became one with the infinite vacuity of Siva; just as a river with all its impetuous velocity, enters into the immensity of the sea. 12. She then became as one with Siva, by giving up her title of sivaship; and this Siva—the female form became the same with Siva—the prime male, who is of the form of formless void and perfect tranquility (called samana—quietus which means both death and the quiet, which follows the other. Samana like somnum is both extinction of life, and cessation of care and labour). 13. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how that sovran Goddess Siva, could obtain her quiet by her coming in contact with the supreme God Siva (and forget her former activity altogether). 14. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, the Goddess Siva to be the will of the God Siva; she is styled as nature, and famed as the great Illusion of the word.

15. And this great God is said the lord of nature, and the prime male also; he is of the form of air and is represented in the form of Siva, which is as calm and quiet as the autumnal sky. 16. The great Goddess is the energy of the Intellect and its will also, and is ever active as force put in motion; she abides in the world in the manner of its nature, and roves all about in the manner of the great delusion (of holding out external nature as the true reality, instead of her lord the spirit). 17. She ranges through out the world, as long as she is ignorant of her lord Siva; who is ever satisfied with himself, without decay or disease, and has no beginning or end, nor a second to himself. 18. But no sooner is this Goddess conscious of herself, as one and same with the god of self-consciousness; than she is joined with her lord Siva, and becomes one with him. (Force has its rest in inertia). 19. Nature coming in contact with the spirit, forsakes her character of gross nature; and becomes one with the sole unity, as a river is incorporated in the ocean.

20. The river falling into the sea, is no more the river but the sea; and its water joining with sea water, becomes the same briny water. 21. So the mind that is inclined to Siva, is united with him and finds its rest therein; as the iron becomes sharpened by returning to its quarry (as the knife or razor is sharpened on the white stone). 22. As the shadow of a man entering into a forest, is lost amidst the shade of the wilderness; so the shades of nature (or natural propensities), are all absorbed in the umbrage of the Divine spirit. (It also means as the nature of a woman, is changed to that of her man). 23. But the mind that remembers its own nature, and forgets that of the eternal spirit; has to return again to this world, and never attains its spiritual felicity. 24. An honest man dwells with thieves, so long as he knows them not as such; but no sooner he comes to know them as so, then he sure to shun their company and fly from the spot.

25. So the mind dwells with unreal dualities, as long as it is ignorant to the transcendent reality; but as it becomes acquainted with the true unity, he is sure to be united with it (by forsaking his dualistic creed). 26. When the ignorant mind, comes to know the supreme felicity, which attends on the state of its self-extinction or nirvána; it is ready to resort to it, as the inland stream runs to join the boundless sea. 27. So long doth the mind roam bewildered, in its repeated births in the tumultuous world; as it does not find its ultimate bliss in the Supreme; unto whom it may fly like a bee to its honeycomb. 28. Who is there that would forget his spiritual knowledge, having once known its bliss; and who is there that forsakes the sweet, having had once tasted its flavour. Say Ráma, who would not run to relish the delicious draughts, which pacifies all our woes and pains, and prevents our repeated births and deaths, and puts an end to all our delusions in this darksome world.

THE CONVERTIBILITY OF THE WORLD TO THE SUPREME SPIRIT. Argument:—The huge body of Rudra, that absorbs the world in it, is at last dissolved in empty air and vacuity. Vasishtha added:—Hear now Ráma, how this whole world resides in the infinite void; and how the airy Rudra which rises from it, is freed from his deluded body, and finds his final rest in it. 2. As I stood looking on upon that block of stone, I beheld the aerial Rudra and the two upper and nether worlds, marked over it (as in a map), and remaining quite at rest. 3. Then in a moment that airy Rudra, beheld the two partitions of the earth and sky within the hollow of vacuum, with his eye balls blazing as the orb of the sun. 4. Then in the twinkling of an eye, and with the breath of his nostrils, he drew the two partitions unto him, and threw them in the horrid abyss of his mouth. 5. Having then devoured both the divisions of the world, as if they were a morsel of bread or paste food to him; he remained alone as air, and one with the universal air or void about him.

6. He then appeared as a piece of cloud, and then as a small stick, and afterwards as little as digit. (A stick is the measure of cubit, and a digit is that of a span). 7. I beheld him afterwards to become transparent as a piece of glass, which at last became as minute as to melt into the air, and vanish altogether from my microscopic sight. 8. Being reduced to an atom, it disappeared at once from view; and like the autumnal cloud became invisible altogether. 9. In this manner did the two valves of heaven (the earth and sky), wholly disappear from my sight; the wonders of which I had erelong been viewing with so much concern and delight. 10. The cosmos being thus devoured as grass by the voracious deer; the firmament was quite cleared of everything, it became as pellucid, calm and quiet as the serene vacuum of Brahma himself. 11. I saw there but one vast expanse of intellectual sky, without any beginning, midst or end of it; and bearing its resemblance to the dreary waste of ultimate dissolution, and a vast desert and desolation.

12. I saw also the images of things drawn upon that stone, as if they were the reflexion of the things in a mirror; and then remembering the heavenly nymph and seeing all these scenes, I was lost in amazement. 13. I was amazed as a clown upon his coming to a royal city, to see that stone again clearer far than ever before. 14. This I found to be the body of goddess Kálí, in which all the worlds seemed to be inscribed as in a slab of stone; I saw these with my intellectual eyes, far better than they appear to the supernatural sight of deities. 15. I beheld therein every thing that there ever existed in any place, and though it seemed to be situated at a distance from me, yet I recognized it as the very stone (which was represented as the Divine Intellect). 16. This stone alone is conspicuous to view, and there was nothing of the worlds it contained so perspicuous in it. The stone remained for ever in the same unvaried state, with all the worlds lying concealed in it. 17. It was taintless and clean, and as fair and clear as the evening cloud; I was struck with wonder at the sight, and then fell to my meditation again.

18. I looked to the other side of the stone with my contemplative eye, and found the bustle of the world lying dormant at that place. 19. I beheld fully the great variety of things, as described before; and then I turned my sight to look into another side of it. 20. I saw it abounding with the very many creations and created worlds, accompanied with their tumults and commotions as I observed before; and whatever place I thought of and sought for, I found them all in the same stone. 21. I saw the fair creation, as if it were an ectype cast upon a reflector; and felt a great pleasure to explore into the mountainous source of this stone. 22. I searched in every part of the earth, and traversed through woods and forests; until I passed through every part of the world, as it was exhibited therein. 23. I saw them in my understanding, and not with my visual organs (which are both delusive and incapable of reaching so far); and beheld somewhere the first born Brahmá—the lord of creatures.

24. I then beheld his arrangement of the starry frame, and the spheres of the sun and moon; as also the rotations of days and nights, and of the seasons and years; and I saw likewise the surface of the earth, with its population here and there. 25. I saw some where the level land, and the great basins of the four oceans elsewhere; I saw some places quite unpeopled and unproductive, and others teeming with Sura and Asura races. 26. Somewhere I saw the assemblage of righteous men, with their manners and conduct as those of the pure golden age; and elsewhere I beheld the company of unrighteous people, following the practices and usages of the corrupt iron age. 27. I saw the forts and cities of the demons in certain places, with fierce and continuous warfares going on all along among them. 28. I saw vast mountainous tracts, without a pit or pool in them any where; and I beheld elsewhere the unfinished creation of the lotus-born Brahmá. 29. I saw some lands where men were free from death and decay; and others with moonless nights and bare headed Sivas in them. (The moon being the coronet of Siva’s head, it must be bare for want of the moon on it).

30. I saw the milky ocean unchurned, and filled with the dead bodies of gods; and the marine horse and elephant, the Kámadhenu cow, the physician Dhanvantari and the goddess Laxmí; together with the submarine poison and ambrosia, all lying hidden and buried therein. 31. I saw in one place the body of gods, assembled to baffle the attempts of the giants and the devices of their leader Sukra; and the great god Indra in another, entering into the womb of Deity—the mother of demons, and destroying the unborn brood therein. 32. It was on account of the unfading virtue (or unalterable course) of nature, that the world was brilliant as ever before; unless that somethings were placed out of their former order. 33. The ever lasting vedas ever retain their same force and sense, and never did they feel the shock of change, by the revolution of ages or even at the kalpánta dissolution of the world. 34. Sometimes the demons have despoiled, some parts of the heavenly abodes of gods; and sometimes the paradise of Eden (udyána), resounded with the songs of Gandharvas and Kinnaras. (Hence some part of the Himálayas, is said to have been the site of the garden of paradise).

35. Sometimes an amity was formed between the gods and giants, and I saw in this manner, the past, present, and future commotions of the world. 36. I then beheld in the person of the great soul of worlds, (i.e. in the face of nature which is the body of God); the meeting of the Pushkara and Avarta clouds together. 37. There was an assemblage of all created things, in peaceful union with one another in one place; and there was a joint concussion, of the gods, and demigods and sovereigns of men, in the one and same person. 38. There was the union of the sunlight and deep darkness in the same place, without their destroying one another; and there were the dark clouds, and their flashing lightnings also in the very place. 39. There were the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, residing together in the same navel-string of Brahmá; and there were the infant Brahmá and the lotus bud in the same navel of Vishnu. 40. In the ocean of the universal deluge, where Mádhava (the divine spirit), floated on the leaf of the bata tree (ficus religiosus); there reigned the chaotic night along with him, and spread its darkness over the face of the deep.

41. There was then but one vast void, wherein all things remained unknown and undefined, as if they lay buried and asleep, in the unconscious womb of a stony grave. 42. Nothing could be known or inferred of anything in existence, but everything seemed to be submerged in deep sleep every where; and the sky was filled by darkness, resembling the wingless crows and unwinged mountains of old. 43. On one side the loud peals of thunder, were breaking down the mountains, and melting them by the fire of the flashing lightnings; and in another, the overflowing waters were sweeping away the earth into the deep. 44. In certain places there were the warfares of the giants, as those of Tripura, Vritra, Andha, and Valí, and in others there were terrible earthquakes, owing to the trepidation of the furious elephant in the regions below. (This elephant is said so be one of the supports of the earth). 45. On one hand the earth was tottering on the thousand hoods on the infernal serpent Vásuki, which trembled with fear at the kalpánta deluge of the world; and on the other the young Ráma killing the Rákshas, with their leader Rávana (an event which was yet to occur).

46. On one side was Ráma foiled by his adversary Rávana; and I saw these wonders, now standing upon my legs on earth, and then lifting my head above the mountain tops. 47. I saw kála-nemi invading the sky one side, where he stationed the demons, by ousting the gods from their heavenly seats. 48. In one place I found the Asuras foiled by the gods, who preserved the people from their terror; and in another the victorious son of Pandu—Arjuna, protecting the world from the oppression of Kauravas, with the aid of lord Vishnu. I saw also the slaughter of millions of men in the Bharatic war. 49. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how I had been before in another age, and who had been these Pandavas and Kauravas too, that existed before me. (Wheeler in his India dates the Pandavas prior to Ráma). 50. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! all things are destined to revolve and return, over and over again as they had been before. (In the same manner as the impressions in the mind, recur repeatedly to it every where; and the present state of the world, is no more than a reminiscence of the past ones).

51. As a basket is filled repeatedly with grains of the same kind, or mixed sometimes, with some other sorts in it; so the very same thoughts and ideas, with their self-same or other associations, recur repeatedly in our minds. 52. Our ideas occur to us in the shape of their objects, as often as the waters of the sea run in their course, in the form of waves beating upon the banks; and thus our thoughts of ourselves, yourselves and others, frequently revert to our minds. 53. There never comes any thought of anything, whereof we had no previous idea in the mind; and though some of them seem to appear in a different shape, it is simply owing to our misapprehension of them, as the same sea water seems to show the various shapes of its waves. 54. Again there is a delusion, that presents us many appearances which never come to existence; and it is this which shows us an infinite train of things, coming in and passing and disappearing like magic shows (or máyá) in this illusive world. 55. The same things and others also of different kinds, appear and reappear unto us in this way (either by our reminiscence of them, or by illusion of our minds).

56. Know all creatures, as drops of water in the ocean of the world; and are composed of the period of their existence, their respective occupations, understanding and knowledge; and accompanied by their friends and properties and other surroundings. 57. All beings are born, with every one of these properties at their very birth; but some possess them in equal or more or less shares, in comparison with others. (That some are and must be greater (or less) than the rest. Pope). 58. But all beings differ in these respects, according to the different bodies in which they are born; and though some are equal to others, in many of these respects, yet they come to vary in them in course of time. 59. Being at last harassed in their different pursuits, all beings attain either to higher or lower states in their destined times; and then being shackled to the prison houses of their bodies, they have to pass through endless varieties of births in various forms. Thus the drops of living beings, have to roll about in the whirlpool of the vast ocean of worldly life, for an indefinite period of time, which no body can gainsay or count.

THE INFINITY OF THE WORLD SHOWN IN THE MATERIAL BODY. Argument:—In the preceding chapter the world was shewn to consist in thought or a grain of the brain; in this it is demonstrated to be contained in the body or an atom of dust. Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards as I directed my attention to my own body for a while; I saw the undecaying and infinite spirit of God (lit.—the vacuous Intellect, surrounding every part of my material frame). 2. Pondering deeply, I saw the world was seated within my heart, and shooting forth therein; as the grains put out their sprouts in a granary, by help of the rain water dropping into it. 3. I beheld the formal world, with all its sentient as well as insensitive beings, rising out of the formless heart, resembling the shapeless embryo of the seed (i.e. the plastic nature from the amorphous spirit), by moisture of the ground. 4. As the beauty of the visibles appears to view, on one’s coming to sense after his sleep; so it is the intellect only which gives sensation to one, who is waking or just risen from his sleep: (and so it was the intellectual wakefulness of Vasishtha and other inspired men, which made them sensible of outward objects, even in the trance of their meditation). (Samádhi).

5. So there is conception of creation in the self-same soul, ere its formation or bringing into action; and the forms of creations are contained in the vacuum of the heart, and in no other separate vacuity whatever. 6. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, your assertion of the vacuum of the heart, made me take it in the sense of infinite space of vacuity, which contains the whole creation; but please to explain to me more clearly, what you mean by your intellectual vacuum, which you say, is the source of the world. (i.e. whether the heart or mind or infinite space, is the cause and container of the cosmos). 7. Vasishtha replied:—Hear Ráma, how I thought myself once in my meditation, as the self-born Swayambhu or the god who is born of himself, in whom subsisted the whole, and there was nothing born but by and from him; and how I believed the unreal as real in my revelry, or as an air-built-castle in my dreaming. 8. As I had been looking before, at that sight of the great kalpa-dissolution, with my aeriform spiritual body; I found and felt the other part of my person (i.e. my material frame), was likewise infused with the same sensibility and consciousness. (The body being the counter part or réchauffé of the mind).

9. As I looked at it for a while, with my spiritual part; I found it as purely aerial, and imbued with a slight consciousness of itself. (So says the Sruti:—In the beginning the spirit became or produced the air with its oscillation). 10. The vacuous Intellect found this elastic substance, to be of such a subtile and rarefied nature, as when you see the external objects in your dream, or remember the objects of your dream upon your waking. 11. This etherial air, having its primary powers of chit and samvid—intellect and conscience, becomes the intellection and consciousness also; then from its power of reflecting (on its existence in space and time), it takes the name of reflection (chittam). Next from its knowledge of itself as air, it becomes the airy egoism, and then it takes the name of buddhi or understanding, for its knowledge of itself as plastic nature, and forgetfulness of its former spirituality. At last it becomes the mind, from its minding many things that it wills or nils. 12. Then from its powers of perception and sensation it becomes the five senses, to which are added their fivefold organs; upon the perversion of the nice mental perceptions to grossness.

13. As a man roused from his sound sleep, is subject to flimsy dreams; so the pure soul losing its purity upon its entrance in the gross body, is subjected to the miseries that are concomitant with it. 14. Then the infinite world; appearing at once and at the same time (before the view of the mind and outer sight, both in state of dream and on waking); it is said to be an act of spontaneity by some, and that of consecution by others. (Some texts say: God willed,) and it was (so aikshata, fiatet fit, kunfa káná &c.); while others represent the world to be not the work of a day, but of many consecutive days. (Such as so atapshata—God laboured and rested from his labour). 15. I conceived the whole (space and time), in the minutiae of my mind; and being myself as empty air, thought the material world, to be contained in me in the form of intelligence. 16. As it is the nature of vacuum, to give rise to the current air; so it is natural to the mind, to assign a form and figure to all its ideas, by the power of its imagination (whence it is called the creative mind, or inventive imagination, that gives a shape to airy nothing).

17. Whatever imaginary form, our imagination gives to a thing at first, there is no power in the mind to remove it any more from it. 18. Hence I believed myself as a minute atom, although I knew my soul to be beyond all bounds; and because I had the power of thinking, I thought myself as the thinking mind, and no more. (So one knowing himself as the body, at once knows him to be a corporeal being only; as the lion thinking himself as a sheep, bleated and grazed as one of them. So we forget our higher nature). 19. Then with my subtile body of pure intelligence, I thought myself as a spark of fire; and by thinking so for a long time, I became at length of the form of a gross body. (The angels are to be of a bright and fiery body (muri and atashi), and the human body to be of a gross and earthy substance (khaki and martya)).

20. I then felt a desire of seeing all what existed about me, and had the power of sight immediately supplied to my gross body. (Just as a child coming out as blind, deaf and dumb from the embryo, has the powers of seeing and hearing and crying, immediately furnished to it afterwards) (so says Adam in Milton, “As I came to life, I looked at this light and beautiful frame”). 21. In this manner I felt other desires, and had their corresponding senses and organs given to me; and I will tell you now, O race of Raghu, their names and functions and objects, as they are known amongst you. 22. The two holes of my face through which I began to see, are termed the two eyes with their function of sight; and having for their objects the visible phenomena of nature. 23. When I see that I call time, and as I see that is called its manner; the place where I see an object is simple vacuity, and the duration of the sight is governed by destiny.

24. The place where I am situated, is said to be my location; and when I think or affirm any thing, that I say the present time; and as long I feel the twinkling of my intellect, so long do I know myself as the intellectual cause of my action. 25. When I see anything, I have its perception in me; and I have my conviction also, that what I behold with my two eyes, are not empty vacuity, but of a substantial nature. 26. The organs wherewith I saw and felt the world in me, are these two eyes—the keys to the visible world; then I felt the desire of hearing, what was going about me, and it was my own soul, which prompted this desire in me. (Sensible perceptions are the natural appetites of the soul, and finding their way through the external organs of sense). 27. I then heard a swelling sound, as that of a sonorous conch; and reaching to me through the air, where it is naturally born and through which it passes. 28. The organs by which I heard the sound, are these two ears of mine; it is born by the air to ear, and then enters the earholes with a continuous hissing.

29. I then felt in me the desire of feeling, and the organ whereby I came to it, is called the touch or skin. 30. Next I came to know the medium, whereby I had the sensation of touch in my body; and found it was the air which conveyed that sense to me (i.e. from the object to the skin). 31. As I remained sensible of the property of feeling or touch in me, I felt the desire of taste within myself, and had there upon the organ of tasting given to me. 32. Then my vacuous self, contracted the property of smelling, by the air of its breath, I had thereby the sense of smelling given to me, through the organs of my nostrils. Being thus furnished with all the organs of sense, I found myself to be imperfect still (because none of them could lead me to the knowledge of the truth). 33. Being thus confined in the net of my senses, I found my sensual appetite increasing fast in me (and the possession of sensuous perceptions (vidah), tending to no conscientious verity samvidah). 34. The bodily sensations of sound, form, taste, touch and smell, are all formless and untrue, and though appear to be actual and true; yet they are really false and untrue.

35. As I remained ensnared in the net of my senses, and considered myself a sensible being; I felt my egoism in me, as that with which I am now addressing to you. 36. The sense of egoism growing strong and compact, takes the name of the understanding; and this being considered and mature, comes to be designated as the mind. 37. Being possessed of my eternal senses, I pass for a sentient being; and having my spiritual body and soul, I pass as an intellectual being in a vacuous form. 38. I am more rare and vacuous than the air itself, and am as the empty void itself; I am devoid of all shapes and figures, and am irrepressible in my nature. 39. As I remained at that spot, with this conviction of myself; I found myself endowed with a body, and it was as I took me to be. 40. With this belief (of my being an embodied being), I began to utter sounds; and these sounds were as void, as those of man, dreaming himself as flying in the air in his sleep. 41. This was the sound of a new born babe, uttering the sacred syllable om at first; and thence it has become the custom to pronounce this word, in the beginning of sacred hymn.

42. Then I uttered some words as those of a sleeping person, and these words are called the vyahrites, which are now used in the Gáyatrí hymn. 43. Methought I now became as Brahmá, the author and lord of creation; and then with my mental part or mind, I thought of the creation in my imagination. 44. Finding myself so as containing the mundane system within me, I thought I was not a created being at all; because I saw the worlds in my own body, and naught besides without it. 45. Thus the world being produced, within this mind of mine; I turned to look minutely into it, and found there was nothing in reality, except an empty void. 46. So it is with all these worlds that you see, which are mere void, and no other than your imagination of them; and there is no reality whatever, in the existence of this earth and all other things that you see. 47. The worlds appear as the waters of the mirage, before the sight and to the knowledge of our consciousness; there is nothing outside the mind, and the mind sees every thing, in the pure vacuity of the divine mind.

48. There is no water in the sandy desert, and yet the mind thinks it sees it there; so the deluded sight of our understanding, sees the baseless objects of delusion, in the burning and barren waste of infinite void. 49. Thus there is no world in reality in the divine spirit, and yet the erring mind of man, sees it erroneously to be situated therein; it is all owing to the delusion of human understanding, which naturally leads us to groundless errors and fallacies. (Errors in the mind breed errors in thoughts). 50. The unreal appears, as the real extended world to the mind; in the same manner as the imaginary utopia appears before it, and as a city is seen in the dream of a sleeping man. 51. As one knows nothing of the dream of another sleeping by his side, without being able to penetrate into his mind; while the yogi sees it clearly, by his power of prying into the hearts of others. 52. So doth one know this world, who can penetrate into the mundane stone; where it represented as the reflexion of some thing in a mirror, which in reality is nothing at all.

53. And although the world appears, as an elemental substance to the naked eye; yet when it is observed in its true light, it disappears like the Otaria of the polar region, which is hidden under ever lasting darkness. 54. He who views the creation with his spiritual body, and with his eyes of discernment, finds it full of the immaculate spirit of God, which comprehends and pervades throughout the whole. 55. The percipient or judicious eye, sees the extinction or absence of the world every where; because they have the presence of the Divine Spirit alone before their view, and naught that is not the spirit and therefore nothing. 56. Whatever is perceived by the clear-sighted (yogi), by his conclusive reasoning; that transcendent truth is hard to be seen by the triple-eyed Siva, or even by the god Indra with his thousand eyes. 57. But as I looked into the vacuity of the sky, replete with its myriads of luminous bodies; so I beheld the earth full with the variety of its productions; and then I began to reflect in myself, that I was the lord of all below (and even as Brahmá himself).

58. Then thinking myself as the master of the earth, I became amalgamated with the earth as if it were one with myself; and having forsaken my vacuous intellectual body, I thought myself as the sovereign of the whole. 59. Believing myself as the support and container of this earth, I penetrated deep into its bowels; and thought all its hidden mines were parts of myself, so I took whatever it contained both below and above it to be self same with me. 60. Being thus warped in the form of the earth, I became changed to all its forests and woods, which grew as hairs on its body. My bowels were full of jewels and gems, and my back was decorated by many a city and town. 61. I was full of villages and valleys, of hills and dales, and of infernal regions and caverns; I thought I was the great mountain chain, and connected the seas and their islands on either side. 62. The grassy verdure was the hairy cover of my body, and the scattered hills as pimples on it; and the great mountain tops, were as the crests of my coronet, or as the hundred heads of the infernal snake (Vásuki).

63. This earth which was freely enjoined by all living beings, came to be parcelled by men and at last oppressed by belligerent kings, and worsted by their lines of fighting elephants. 64. The great mountains of Imaus, Vindhya and Sumeru, had all their tops decorated with the falling streams of Ganges and others, sparkling as their pearly necklaces. 65. The caves and forests, the seas and their shores, furnished it with beautiful scenes; and the desert and marsh lands, supplied it with clean linen garments. 66. The ancient waters of the deluge, have receded to their basins, and left the pure inland reservoirs, decorated by flowery banks, and perfumed by the odorous dust of falling flowers. 67. The earth is ploughed daily by bullocks, and sown in the dewy and cold season; it is heated by the solar heat, and moistened by rain water. 68. The wide level land or plain, is its broad breast; the lotus-lakes its eyes, the white and black clouds are its turbans, and the canopy of heaven is its dwelling. 69. The great hollow under the polar mountain, forms its wide open mouth; and the breathing of animated nature, makes the breath of its life.

70. It is surrounded all about, and filled in its inside, by beings of various kinds; it is peopled by the devas, demons and men on the outside, and inhabited by worms and insects in its inner parts. 71. It is infested in the organic poles and cells of its body, by snakes, Asuras and reptiles; and peopled in all its oceans and seas, with aquatic animals of various kinds. 72. It is filled in all its various parts with animal, vegetable and mineral substances of infinite varieties; and it is plenteous with provisions for the sustenance of all sorts of beings.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH. Argument:—Relation of other wonders, which Vasishtha in his earthly body. Vasishtha related:—Hear ye men, what I conceived afterwards in my consciousness, as I had been looking in my form of the earth, and considered the rivers running in my body. 2. I beheld in one place a number of women, lamenting loudly on the death of some body; and saw also the great rejoicing of certain females, on the occasion of their festive mirth. 3. I saw a direful dearth and famine in one place, with the rapine and plunder of the people; and I beheld the profusion of plenty in another, and the joy and friendliness of its people. 4. In one place I saw a great fire, burning down every thing before me; and in another a great flood deluging over the land, and drowning its cities and towns, in one common ruin. 5. I beheld a busy body of soldiers somewhere, plundering a city and carrying away their booty; and I observed the fierce raxas and goblins, bent on afflicting and oppressing the people.

6. I saw the beds of waters brimful with water, and running out to water and fertilize the land all around; I saw also masses of clouds issuing from mountain caverns, and tossed and borne by the winds afar and aloft in the sky (to pour their rains in other quarters). 7. I saw the out pourings of rain-water, the uprising of verdure, and the land smiling with plenty; and I felt within myself a delight, which made the hairs on my body stand upright; (as if they were the rising shoots of plants growing out of my body). 8. I saw also many places, having hills, forests and habitations of men; and also deep and dreadful dens, with wild beasts, bees in them. Here there were no foot prints of human beings, who avoid those places, for fear of falling in those diresome caves. 9. Some places I saw, where warfares were waged between hostile hosts, and some others also, where the armies were sitting at ease, and gladsome conversation with one another. 10. I saw some places full of forests, and others of barren deserts with tornadoes howling in them; and I saw marshy grounds, with repeated cultivations and crops in them.

11. I saw clear and purling lakes, frequented by cranes and herons, and smiling with blooming lotuses in them; and I saw likewise barren deserts, with heaps and piles of grey dust, collected together by the blowing breezes. 12. I saw some places where the rivers were running, and rolling and gurgling in their sport; and at others, the grounds were moistened and sown, and shooting forth in germs and sprouts. 13. I saw also in many places, little insects and worms moving slowly in the ground; and appeared to me to be crying out, O sage, save us from this miserable state. 14. I saw the big banian tree, rooting its surrounding branches in the ground; and I saw many parasite plants growing on and about these rooted branches. 15. Huge trees were growing in some places, upon rocks and mountain tops; and these embracing one another with their branching arms, were shaking like the billows of the sea. 16. I saw the raging sun darting his drying rays, and drawing the moisture of the shady trees; and leaving them to stand with their dried trunks, and their withered and leafless branches.

17. I saw the big elephants dwelling on the summits of mountains, piercing the sturdy oaks with the strokes of their tusks, which like the bolts of Indra, broke down and felled and hurted them with hideous noise below. 18. There grew in some places, many a tender sprout, of plants, shooting forth with joy as the green blades of grass; or as the erect hairs of horripilation rising on the bodies of saints, enrapt in their reveries and sitting with their closed eyelids. 19. I saw the resorts of flies and leeches and gnats in the dirt, and of bees and black bees on the petals of lotus flowers; and I saw big elephants destroying the lotus bushes, as the plough-share overturns the furrows of earth. 20. I saw the excess of cold, when all living beings were shrivelled and withered in their bodies; when the waters were congealed to stone, and the keen and cold blasts chilled the blood of men. 21. I have seen swarms of weak insects, to be crushed to death under the feet of men; and many diving and swimming and skimming in the waters below, and others to be born and growing therein.

22. I have seen how the water enters in the seeds, and moistens them in the rainy season; and these put forth their hairy shoots on the out side, which grow to plants in the open air. 23. I smile with the smiling lotuses, when they are slightly shaken in their beds by the gentle winds of heaven; and I parade with the gliding of rivers, to the ocean of eternity for final extinction. (i.e. As the river bearing all things is lost in the ocean; so doth the human body become extinct in the Deity, with the world that it contains within itself).

THE PHENOMENAL AS THE REPRODUCTION OF REMINISCENCE. Argument:—The situation of the World in the womb of the Vacuous Intellect; and its outward appearance as the Imagination of the Mind. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether in your curiosity to observe the mutations of earthly things and affairs, you beheld them in their earthly shapes with your corporeal body; or saw them in their ideal forms, in the imagination of your mind. 2. Vasishtha replied:—It was in my mind, that I thought myself to have become the great earth; and all what I saw as visible, being but simple conceptions of the mind, could not possibly have a material form. 3. It is impossible for the surface of the earth to exist, without its conception in the mind; whatever thou knowest either as real or unreal, know them all as the work of your mind. 4. I am the pure vacuous Intellect, and it is that which is the essence of my soul; it is the expansion of this intellectual soul, which is called its will also. (This will is the eternal predicate of the Divine Spirit).

5. It is this which becomes the mind and the creative power Brahmá, and takes the form of the world and this earth also; and this vacuous mind being composed of its desires, assumes to itself whatever form it likes to take. 6. It was thus that my mind stretched itself at that time, and put forth its desires in all those forms as it liked: and from its habitual capacity of containing every thing, it evolved itself in the shape of the wide-stretched earth. 7. Hence the sphere of the earth, is no other than the evolution of the selfsame mind; it is but an unintelligent counterpart of the intelligent intellect. 8. Being thus a void in itself, it continues to remain forever as such in the infinite void; but by being considered as a solid substance by the ignorant, they have altogether forgotten its intellectual nature. 9. The knowledge that this globe of earth is stable, solid and extended, is as false as the general impression of blueness in the clear and vacuous firmament, and this is the effect of a deeprooted bias in the minds of men.

10. It is clear from this argument, that there is no such thing as the stable earth; it is of the same ideal form as it was conceived in the mind, at the first creation of the world. (The primary idea of creation is of its subtile and not gross form. “And the earth was without form and void”). 11. As the city is situated in a dream, and the intellect resides in vacuity; so the Divine Intellect dwelt in the form of the creation in the very vacuum. 12. Know the three worlds in their intellectual light, likening the aerial palace of puerile fancy and hobby; and know this earth and all visible appearances, to be the creatures of imagination. 13. The world is the ectype city or reproduction of the intellectual Spirit of God, and not a different kind of production of the Divine Will; it is in fact no real or positive existence at all, although it may appear as solid and substantial to the ignorant. 14. The unreal visible world is known only to the ignorant, who are unacquainted with its real intellectual nature, and it is he only that is acquainted with its true nature, who knows well what I have been preaching to you ere long.

15. All this is the intellection of the Divine Intellect, and manifestation of the supreme self in itself; the visible world which appears as some thing other than the supreme soul, is inherent in the very soul. (All this being selfsame with the Divine spirit, it is exempt from the imputation of its duality or unity with it). 16. As a gemming stone exhibits of itself, the various hues of white, yellow and others, without their being infused therein; so the Divine Intellect shows this creation in all its various aspects within its vacuous sphere. 17. Whereas the spirit neither does anything, nor changes its nature (on account of its immutability); therefore this earth is neither a mental nor material production of it (but a phantasmagoria only). 18. The vacuous Intellect appears as the surface of the earth, but it is of itself without any depth or breadth, and transparent in its surface (wherefore it is not the fathomable or opaque body of the earth). 19. It is of its own nature, that it shows itself as anything wherever it is situated; and though it is as clear as the open air, yet it appears as the earth, by its universal inherence into and pervasion over all things.

20. This terraqueous orb, appearing as something other than the Great Intellect; appears in the very form as it pictured in the mind, like the shapes of things appearing in our dream (agreeably to their forms preserved in our memory). 21. The world subsists in the vacuous spirit, and the Divine Spirit being vacuous also, there is no difference in them, it is the ignorant soul which makes the difference, but it vanishes at once before the intelligent soul. 22. All material beings, that have been or are to be in the three past, present and future times; are mere errors of vision, like the false appearances in our dreams, and the air built cities of imagination. 23. The beings that are existent at present, and such as are to come into existence in future; and the earth itself, are of the same nature of an universal fallacy, in lieu of the Divine spirit pervading the whole. 24. I myself and all others that are included in this world, have the visible perceptions of all things as they are preserved in our reminiscence.

25. Know Ráma the Divine Intellect only, as the supreme soul and undecaying essence of all existence; and this it is that sustains the whole in its person, without forsaking its spirituality. Knowing therefore the whole world as contained in thyself, which is not different from the supreme soul, thou shalt be exempt and liberated from all.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WATERY CREATION. Argument:—Description of the Waters and Islands on the surface of the Earth, and Watery things in all nature. Ráma Said:—Tell me Sir, what other things (lit.—worlds), you saw on the surface of the earth. 2. Vasishtha replied:—With my waking soul, I thought as it were in my sleep that I was assimilated to land, and saw many groups of lands scattered this earth: I saw them in my mysterious vision, and then reflected them in my mind. 3. As I beheld those groups of lands, lying every where before my intellectual vision; the outer world receded from my sight, all dualities were quite lost and hushed in my tranquil soul. 4. I saw those groups as so many spots, lying in the expanded spirit of Brahma; which was a perfect void, quite calm, and inert to all agitations. 5. I saw every where large tracts, as great and solid as the earth itself: but found them in reality to be nothing more, than the empty dreams appearing in the vacant mind. 6. Here there was no diversity nor uniformity neither, nor was there any entity or nihility either; there was no sense of my egoism also, but all blinded in an indefinite void.

7. And though I conceived myself to be something in existence; yet I perceived it had no personality of its own, and its entity depended on that of one sole Brahma, who is increate and ever undecaying (or never decays). 8. Thus these sights being as appearances of dream, in the empty space of the intellect; it is not known how and in what form they were situated in the divine mind, before they were exhibited in creation. 9. Now as I saw those tracts of land in the form of so many worlds, so I beheld large basins of water also (surrounding them on all sides). 10. Then my active spirit, became as the inert element of water in many a great (or reservoirs of water); and these are called as seas and oceans, in which lay and played with a gurgling noise. 11. These waters are incessantly gliding on, bearing upon them loads of grass and straw, and bushes of plants and shrubs and trunks of trees; which float upon them, as the bugs and leeches crawl and creep on your body. 12. These are borne by the circling waters, like small insects and worms into the crevices of waves; and thence hurled into the womb of the whirlpools, whose depth is beyond all comparison.

13. The currents of the waters were gliding, with the leaves and fruits of trees in their mouths; while the floating creepers and branches, described the encircling necklaces about them. 14. Again the drinkable water being taken by the mouth, goes into the hearts of living beings; and produces different effects on the humours of animal bodies, according to their properties at different seasons. 15. Again it is this water which descends in the form of dews, sleeps on leafy beds in the shape of icicles, and shines under the (moon-beams on all sides), all the time and without interruption. 16. It runs with irresistible course to many a lake and brook as its home, it flows in the currents of rivers, unless it is stopped by some bridge or embankment. 17. The waters of the sea like ignorant men on earth, ran up and down in search of the proper course; but failing to find the same, they tumbled and turned about in eddies and whirlpools (of doubts).

18. I saw the water on the mountain-top, which thought it rested on high, yet it fell owing to its restlessness in the form of a water-fall in the cataract, where it was dashed to a thousand splashes. (So I found myself to be hurled down by my sins, from my high position in heaven, to a thousand devious paths on earth). 19. I saw the water rising from the earth in the form of vapour on high, and then mixing with the blue ocean of the azure sky, or appearing as blue sapphires among the twinkling stars of heaven. 20. I saw the waters ascending and riding on the back of the clouds, and there joining with the lightnings as their hidden consorts, shining as the cerulean god Vishnu, mounted on the back of the hoary serpent—Vásuki. 21. I found this water both in the atomic and elementary creations, as well as in all gross bodies on earth, and I found it lying unperceived in the very grain of all things, as the omnipresent Brahma inheres in all substances.

22. This element resides in the tongue; which perceives the flavour of things from their particles, and conveys the sense to the mind. Hence I ween the feeling of taste relates to the soul and its perception, and not to the sensibility of the body. (The Divine Spirit is said to be flavour—rasovaitat, and it is the human soul only that perceives it). 23. I did not taste this spiritual savour, by means of the body or any of its organs; it is felt in the inner soul only, and not by the perceptions of the mind, which are misleading and therefore false and unreal. 24. There is this flavour scattered on all sides, in the sapidity of the season’s fruits and flowers; I have tasted them all and left the flowers to be sucked by the bees and butterflies. 25. Again the sentient soul abides in the form of this liquid, in the bodies and limbs of all the fourteen kinds of living bodies (in some of which it appears in the form of red hot blood).

26. It assumes the form of the showers of rain, and mounts on the back of the driving winds; and then it fills the whole atmosphere, with a sweet aromatic fragrance. (This sweet scent is called in Bengali সেঁদোগন্ধ, which is a corruption of স্বাডু swádu or sweet). 27. Ráma! remaining in that state of my sublimated abstraction, I perceived the particulars of the world in each individual and particular particle. 28. Remaining unknown to and unseen by any body, I perceived the properties of all things, as I marked those of water, with this my sensible body, appearing as gross matter. 29. Thus I saw thousands of worlds, and the repeated rising and fallings, like the leaves of plantain trees (or rather the barks of those trees, which grow upon and envelop one another). 30. Thus did this material world, appear to me in its immaterial form; as a creation of the Intellect, and presenting a pure and vacuous aspect. 31. The phenomenal is nothing, and it is its mental perception only that we have all of this world; and this also vanishes into nothing, when we know this all to be a mere void.

DESCRIPTION OF IGNEOUS, LUMINOUS AND BRILLIANT OBJECTS IN NATURE. Argument:—Vasishtha’s Identity of his soul with light, and his observation of it in all lightsome substances. Vasishtha related:—I then believed myself as identical with light, and beheld its various aspects in the luminous bodies of the sun and moon, in the planets and stars, and in fire and all shining objects. 2. This light has by its own excellence, and it becomes the light of the universe; it is as brilliant as the mighty monarch, before whose all surveying sight, the thievish darkness of night flies at a distance. 3. This light like a good prince, takes upon it the likeness of lamps, and reigns in the hearts of families and houses in a thousand shapes (of chandeliers &c.), to drive off the thievish night, and restore the properties of all before their sight. 4. Being glad to lighten all peoples (worlds), it enkindles the orbs of the sun, moon and stars; who with their rays and beams, dispel afar the shade of night from the face of the skies. 5. It impoverishes the darkness, that bereaves all beings from their view of the beauties of nature, and dispenses the useful light, which brings all to the sight of the visibles.

6. It employs the axe at the root of the nigrescent arbour of night, and adds a purity and price to all things; it is this that gives value to all metals minerals, and makes them so dear to mankind. 7. It shows to view all sorts of colours, as white, red, black and others. It is light that is the cause of colours as the parent is the cause of the progeny. 8. This light is in great favour, with every one upon this earth; wherefore it is protected with great fondness in all houses, as they foster their children in them, by means of earthen walls (in order to preserve them from inclement winds). 9. I beheld a slight light, even in the darkness of the infernal region (i.e. the dismal hell fire); and I saw it partly in the particles of dust, which compose all bodies on the surface of the earth. 10. I saw light, which is the first and best of the works of God, to be eternally present in the abodes of the celestial; and observed it as the lamp of the mansion of this world, which was the great deep of waters and darkness before. (“And darkness reigned over the face of the deep”).

11. Light is the mirror of the celestial nymphs of all the quarters of heaven (i.e. it shows and points out the face of the heavens to us); it scatters like the winds the dust of frost from before the face of night, it is the essence of the luminous bodies of the sun, moon and fire, and the cause of the red and bright hue of the face of heaven. 12. It discloses the cornfields to day-light, and ripens their corn, by dispelling darkness from the face of the earth. It washes also the glassy bowl of heaven, and glitters in the dewy waters upon its face. 13. It is by reason of its giving existence to, and bringing to view all things in the world, it is said to be the younger brother, of the transcendent light of divine Intellect. (The gross light is the reflexion of holy light). 14. It is the light of the sun, which is the reviver of the lotus bed of the actions of mortals; and which is the life of living beings on earth; it is the source of our sight of the forms of all things, as the intellect is that of all our thoughts and perceptions.

15. Light decorates the face of the sky, with numberless gems of shining stars; and it is the solar light that makes the divisions of days, months, years and seasons in the course of time, and makes them appear as the passing waves in the ocean of eternity. 16. This immense universe bears the appearance of the boundless ocean, wherein the sun and moon are revolving as the rolling waves, over the scum of this muddy earth. 17. Light is the brilliancy of gold, and the colour of all metals; it is the glitter of glass and gems, the flash of lightnings, and the vigour of men in general. 18. It is moon shine in the nocturnal orb, and the glittering of glancing eye lids; it is the brightness of a smiling countenance, and the sweetness of tender and affectionate looks. 19. It gives significancy to the gestures, of the face, arms, eyes and frownings of the eye-brows; and it adds a blush to maiden faces, from the sense of their invincibleness. (Laughter spring from pride). 20. The heat of this light, makes the mighty to spurn the world as a straw, and break the head of the enemy with a slap; and strike the heart of the lion with awe.

21. It is this heat which makes the hardy and bold combatants, engage in mutual fighting with drawn and jangling swords; and clad in armours clanking on their bodies. 22. It gives the gods their antagonism against the demons, and makes the demoniac races also antagonistic to the gods; it gives vigour to all beings, and causes the growth of the vegetable kingdom. 23. All these appeared to me as the mirage in a desert, and I beheld them as phantasms in my mind; and this scene of the world was situated in the womb of vacuum, and I beheld these sceneries, O bright eyed Ráma, all these sceneries seem to resemble the appearances of a phantasmagoria to me. 24. I then beheld the glorious sun above, stretching his golden rays to all the ten sides of the universe, and himself flying as the phoenix in the sky; and I saw also this speck of the earth, resembling a villa beset by the walls of its mountains. 25. The sun turned about and lent his beams to the moon, and to the submarine fire beneath the dark blue ocean; and stood himself as the great lamp of the world on the stand of the meridian, to give the light of the day.

26. I saw the moon rising as the face of the sky, with a lake of cooling and sweet nectar in it; the moonlight appearing as the soft and sweet smile of the sable goddess of night, and as the glow of the nightly stars. 27. The moon is the comparison of all beautiful objects in the world, and is the most beloved object at night, of females, and of the blue lotus, and companion of the vesper or evening star. 28. I beheld the twinkling stars likening to the clusters of flowers in the arbour of the skies, and delighting the eyes and faces (of their spectator); and they appeared to me as flocks of butterflies, flying in the fair field of the firmament. 29. I saw many shining gems washed away by the waters, and tossed about by the waving arms of the ocean;and I saw many jewels also in the hands of jewellers, and balanced by them in their scales.

30. I looked into the submarine fire lying latent in the sea, and the eddies whirling the silvery shrimps in the whirlpools, I saw the golden rays of the sun, shining as filaments of flowers upon the waters, and I saw also the lightnings flashing in the midst of clouds. (There is a play upon the words abdhi and abda which mean the sea, the eddy, the marine fire, the cloud &c.). 31. I witnessed the auspicious sacrificial fire, blazing with ineffable light; and marked its burning flame, splitting and cracking the sacred wood, with a crackling and clattering noise. 32. I saw the lustre of gold and other metals and minerals, and I found also how they are reduced to ashes by the act of calcination, like learned men overpowered by the clownish ignorant. 33. I observed the brightness of pearls, which gave them a place on the breasts of women in the form of necklaces; as also on the necks and chests of men and giants, and of Gandharvas and chiefs of men. 34. I beheld the firefly, with which the beauties adorn their fore heads with bright spots; but which are trod upon on the way by ignorant passers as worthless; hence the value of things depends on their situation and not real worth.

35. I saw the flickering lightning in the unmoving cloud, and the fickle shrimps skimming upon the waters of the calm ocean; I heard also the hoarse noise of whirlpools in the quiet and unsounding main, and marked how restlessness consorted with restive and sedate. 36. Some times I saw the soft petals of flowers, were used as lamps to light the bridal beds in the inner apartments. 37. Being then exhausted as the extinguished lamp, I became as dark as collyrium; and slept silently in my own cell, like a tortoise with its contracted limbs. 38. Being tired with my travel throughout the universe, at the kalpánta end of the world; I remained fixed amidst the dark clouds of heaven, as the elephant of Rudra abides there in company with (his lightning). 39. At the end when the worlds were dissolved, and the waters were absorbed by the submarine fires; I kept myself dancing in the etherial space, which devoid of its waters. 40. Sometimes I was borne on high by the burning fire, with its teeth of the sparks and its flaming arms, and its flying fumes resembling the dishevelled hairs on its head.

41. The conflagration burnt down the straw-built houses before it, and fed upon the animal bodies on its way; and consumed the eight kinds of wood, that are ordained in sacrificial rites. 42. I saw the sparks of fire, emitted by the strokes of hammer, from the red hot iron of blacksmiths, were rising and flying about like golden brickbats, to hit the hammerer. 43. In another place I saw the whole universe, lying invisible for ages in the womb of stony mundane egg. 44. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how you felt yourself in that state of confinement in the stone; and whether it was a state of pleasure or pain, to you and the rest of beings. 45. Vasishtha replied:—As when a man falls into sleep with the dulness of his senses, and has yet his airy intellect fully awake in him; so was that outward insensibility filled with intellectual sensibility. (So a man assimilating himself to Brahma, is full of his internal light and felicity). 46. The great Brahma awakens the soul, when the body lies as insensible as the dull earth; so the sleeping man remaining in his torpid state, has his internal soul full with the divine spirit (which fills it with true intellectual delight sachchidánanda).

47. Because the earthly or corporeal body of man, is verily a falsity and has no reality in it; it appears as visual phantom to the sight of the spectator, but in reality it is one with unchanged spirit of God. 48. Knowing this certain truth, whoso views these all as an undivided whole; sees the quintessence as one essence, and the subjective and the objective as the same (Lit.:—He does not fall into the blunder of the viewer and the view). 49. I then having assimilated myself to the pure spirit of Brahma, viewed all things in and as Brahma, because there is none beside Brahma, that is or can be or do anything from naught. 50. When I viewed all these visibles as manifestation of the self-same Brahma, then I left myself also situated in the state of divinity of Brahma himself. 51. When on the other hand, I reflected myself as combined with the pentuple material elements; I found myself reduced to my dull nature, and was incapable of my intellectual operation of excogitation, and the conception of my higher nature.

52. I thought myself as asleep, notwithstanding my power of intellection (which lay dormant in me); and being thus overtaken by the conception of my sleepy insensibility, how could I cogitate of anything otherwise; which is of a transcendental nature. 53. He whose soul is awakened by knowledge, loses the sense of his corporeal body, and raises himself to his átiváhika or spiritual form, by means of his purer understanding. 54. A man having his sentient and spiritual body, either in the form of a minute particle or larger size as one may wish, remains perfectly liberated from the fetters of his body and his bondage in this world. 55. With his intelligent and spiritual body, a man is enabled to enter into the impenetrable heart of a hard stone, or to rise to heaven above or descend to the regions below. 56. Hence, O Ráma, I having then that intelligent and subtile body of mine, did all that I told you, with my essence of infinite understanding. 57. In my entrance into the hard stone, and my passages up and down the high heaven and the nether world, I experienced no difficulty from any side. 58. With my subtile and intelligent body, I passed every where, and felt everything, as I used to do with material body.

59. One going of his own accord in one direction, and wishing to go in another, immediately finds himself even then and there, by means of his spiritual body. 60. Know this spiritual and subtile body, to be no other than your understanding only; and now you can well perceive yourself to be of that imperishable form, by means of your intelligence also. 61. Thinking one’s self as the vacuous Intellect, abiding in the sun and all visible objects; the spiritualist comes to know the existence of his self only, and all else that is beside himself as nothing. 62. But how is it possible to view the visible world as inexistent, to which it is answered that it appears as real as the unreal dream to the sleeping person, but vanishes into nothing upon his waking (scholium). Reliance in the inexistent world, is as the belief of the ignorant man in falsehoods; and this reliance is confirmed by habit, although it is not relied upon by others that know the truth.

63. But this reliance is as vain as the vanity of our desires, and the falsity of our aerial castle building; all which are as false as the marks of waves, left on the sea sands; or as the marking of anything with a charcoal, which is neither lasting nor perceptible to any body. 64. We see the woodlands, blooming with full blown flowers and blossoms; but these sights are as deluding, as the sparks of fire, presenting the appearance of a flower garden in fire works. 65. These pyrotechnical works, which are prepared with so much labour; burst on a sudden at the slight touch of fire, and then they are blown away as soon, as the prosperity of sharpers (which is transient). 66. Ráma, I beheld the flourish of the world, to be as false and fleeting, as the appearance of light in the particles of dust; all these appearing as so many things of themselves, are in fact no other than the appearances of hills and cities, in the vacuity of the mind in our dreams at sleep.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT AIR, AS THE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT. Argument:—Vasishtha’s assuming the form of Air, and his finding its pervasion all over the world as its vital spirit. Vasishtha continued:—Now in my curiosity to know the world, I thought myself as transformed to the form of the current air; and by degrees extended my essence, all over the infinite extent of the universe. 2. I became a breeze with a desire, to view the beauty of the lovely plants all about me; and to smell the sweetness of the fragrant blossoms of kunda, jessamine as lotuses. 3. I bore about the coolness of the falling rains and snows and dew drops, with a view to restore freshness to the languid limbs of the tired and weary labourer. 4. My spirit in the form of the current winds, bore about the essences of medicinal plants and the fragrance of flowers; and carried away the loads of grass, herbs, creepers and the leaves of plants all around. 5. My spirit travelled as the gentle zephyr, in the auspicious hours of morn and eve; to awaken and lull to sleep the lovely maids; again it takes the tremendous shape of a tornado in tempest, to break down and bear away the rocks.

6. In paradise it is florid, with the reddish dust of mandára flowers; in the mountains it is hoary with hoar frost and snows; and in hell it burns in the infernal fires. 7. In the sea it has a curvilinear motion, with the curling waves and revolving whirlpools; and in heaven it bears aloft and moves the clouds, both to cover and uncover the mirror of moon hid under them. 8. In heaven it has the name of the prabáha air, to hold aloft the starry frame; and guide the course of the starry legions and the cars of their commanding generals—the post of Gods. 9. It is accounted as the younger brother of thought, owing to its great velocity; it is formless but moveth over all forms; and though intangible, yet its touch is as delightsome, as the cooling paste of sandal wood. 10. It is hoary old with the hoar frost, it bears on its head; it is youthful with wafting the fragrance of vernal flowers, and it is young when it is quiet and still. 11. Here it roves at large, loaded with the fragrance of the garden of Eden; and there it moves freely bearing the perfumes of the grove of the Gandharva Chitra-ratha, to tired persons and worn out lovers.

12. Though fatigued with its toil, of raising and moving the incessant waves, of the cooling and purifying stream of Ganges; yet it is ever alert to lull the toil of others, being quite forgetful of its own weariness. 13. It gently touches its brides of vernal plants, bending down under the load of their full blown flowers; which are ever shaking their leafy hands, and flitting eyes of fluttering bees, to resist its touch. 14. The fleeting air buried its weariness in its soft bed of clouds; after drinking dew drops exuding from the disc of the moon; and being fanned by the cooling breath of lotuses (growing in lakes of heaven). 15. Like the swiftest steed of Indra, he bears the farina of all flowers to him in heaven; and becomes a compeer with Indra’s elephant, who is giddy with the fragrance of his ichor. 16. Then blew the winds, with the soft breath of the shepherd’s horns; and drove away the clouds like cattle, and blasted the showering rain drops; that served to set down the dust of the earth.