Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

25. As a man sees a fair city in his dream by night, so is the sight of this world to him, in his dream by day light. (The Sanskrit word Bhano in the text meaning reflexion, corresponds with the Greek Phano to see, and hence phantom or false sights). 26. Think not the solid rock to have any solidity in it, nor the fluid waters any fluidity in them; do not think the empty firmament to be a vacuity, nor the passing time to have any flight or counting of it. (All these are seemingly so, but they are nothing in reality). 27. All things are fixed in their formless, invariable and ideal states in the divine intellect; but it is the fallacious and fickle nature of the human mind, to give and view them in different forms, according to its own fancy. 28. The mind views the non-created eternal ideas of the intellect, as created objects before its sight, just as it sees rocks where there are no rocks, and the sky in a skyless place in its dream.

29. As the formless and insensible mind, sees the formal world in its sleep, as if it were in its waking state; so does it see the invisible and formless world in its visible form, during its waking hours of the day also. 30. As the motion of air always takes place amidst the air at rest (i.e. as the winds fluctuate amidst the still air); so also doth the spirit of Brahma, oscillate in his own spirit incessantly, and without its rise or fall. 31. This world resides in the same manner in the divine spirit of Brahma as the property of fluidity is inherent in water; and vacuity appertains to vacuum; and as substantiality is essential to all substances in the abstract. 32. The world is neither adventitious nor extraneous to the soul, and does not occur to or transpire from it, in the life or deaths of any body; it is causeless and comes from no cause, and is neither joined with nor set separate from the divine spirit.

33. The One that has no beginning nor end; nor has any indication of itself; that is formless and is of the manner of the intellectual vacuum only, can never become the cause of the visible and material creation. (Therefore the world is to be supposed to exist in its ideal and immaterial form, in the vacuity of the divine intellect). 34. Thus as the forms and features of a whole body, are but parts and properties of its entirety tout ensemble; so is this vacuous world situated, in the undivided and formless vacuity of Brahma (“as parts of one undivided whole”, Pope). 35. All this is a hiatus and quietus, without its support and substratum, it is but pure intelligence, without any grossness or foulness herein; there is no entity nor nonentity here, nor can anything be said to exist or not exist (independent of the Divine Mind). 36. All this is but an air drawn city, of our imagination and dream; and everything here, appears to be stretched out in a fairy dance all about us; but in reality it is only a calm and quiet vacuity, full with the unchanging and undecaying spirit of God.

37. The whole is the hollowness of the divine heart, and the vacuous sphere of the Omniscient Intellect; it is its intellection, that reflects many a transparent image in its own sphere and to no end. This it is which is called the world or the image of the divine soul, which continues forever and ever, (and is said - the world without end. Amen).

THE GREAT INQUIRY, OR QUESTIONS OF THE BUDDHIST. Argument: - Entity of Brahma and non-entity of the world, illustrated in the story of the king of Kushadwípa. Vasishtha resumed: - The uncreated phenomenon of creation, that appears to view, is nothing in reality. It is the transcendental principle of supreme Brahma, that is the only true reality. 2. It was on this subject, that I was once asked by some one, to my reply to a certain question of his; which I will now relate to you, O high-minded Ráma, for strengthening your understanding to the full knowledge thereof. 3. There is the great island of Kushadwípa, surrounded by the seas on all sides; like a watery belt about it, and this land is renowned (for its beauty), all over the three regions of the world. 4. There is the city called Ilávatí, situated on its north eastern side, and is beset by a colonnade of pillars, gilded all over with gold, and glittering with radiant beams, reaching from earth to the skies. 5. There formerly reigned a prince, known by the name of Prajnapti; who ruled on earth as the god Indra in heaven; and to whom this earth or land paid its homage (as the skies do to the regent of heaven).

6. It was on one occasion, that I happened to alight at the presence of this prince; as the sun descends on earth on the last day of desolation. 7. The prince hailed and adored me with offerings of flowers and presents, made me sit by him with due reverence; then in the course of my conversation with him, he fondly asked me as follows. 8. Tell me sir, said he, what becomes of the world after the destruction of all things; and when the causalities of recreation are all extinct and annihilated, in the undefinable vacuum of desolation. 9. What then becomes the prime cause of the causation of things, at the recreation of the world; and what are accompanying elements for the reproduction of objects, and how and whence they take their rise. 10. What is the world and what was the beginning of its creation; what was the primeval chaos, and whence is this earth? What is the air the support of the seas, and what is hell, which is filled by worms and insects? (i.e. Whence are these varieties from the one source of Brahma?)

11. What be the creatures contained in the womb of air (i.e. the celestials), and what are they that are contained in <the> bosom of the mountains (i.e. the demons); what are the elementary bodies and their productions, and how the understanding and its faculties have come to existence? 12. Who is the maker of all these, and who is their witness; what is the support of the universe, and what are these that are contained therein? I am quite certain, that the world can never have its ultimate destruction. 13. All the Vedas and sástras are opposed to one another, in their different views and interpretations; and every one of them has made a supposition, according to its particular view. 14. From our knowledge of the world, we know not whether it is indestructible or an unreality in itself. (i.e. If it is an ideal unreality, it needs have no cause nor is it destructible at all; but should it be a reality and destructible thing, then what must be the cause of the production and destruction thereof? Gloss). 15. Again tell me, O thou chief of sages, what is the form and cause of those bodies that are doomed to dwell in hell; after the demise of men on earth, and cremation and destruction of their bodies here.

16. What are the accompanying causes of the regeneration of bodies, after their destruction on death? The virtues and vices of departed souls, being both of them formless things, cannot be their accompanying causes, towards the formation of their corporeal frames. 17. It is quite an absurd reasoning, that want of matter could possibly produce a material body; just as it is impossible to believe, that there should be an offspring, without the seminal cause of its parents. 18. Tell me sir, what else should be the cause, of the production of material bodies (after death); and for want of any such cause, it is improper also, to deny the existence of a future state. 19. It is contrary to the dictates of Vedas and sástras, as also to the conviction and common sense of mankind, to deny the future state of our existence. The resurrection of our bodies is as unavoidable as our transportation to a distant land by decree of law, though it be against our wish or will.

20. How are beings born and actuated in the course of their lives, by invisible causes which are quite unconnected with them (i.e. by the merit or demerit of the acts of their past lives, which are altogether detached from their present bodies?). Just as the pillars of stone were converted to gold (by word of the Bráhman), and without being gilded over by it. Say, sir, how this vast treasure was obtained in a moment by the Bráhman. (i.e. What could be the cause of this preternatural event). 21. How that to be called a great one, which remains for a moment only? further what necessity is there to frame strict laws for the present to reap harvest in future, when that does not stand good on sound reasoning? 22. Tell me sir, how do you reconcile such discordances in the Vedas, which mention the existence of a being and not being in the beginning; and tell us also that, the Not being existed before creation, and then the Being or creation was born of the not being. (The discordant passages are असद्बा इदमग्र आसीत् उतो सदजायत । again असदेब इदमग्र आसीत् सदेब सोम्य इदमग्र आसीत् ।).

23. How could the primeval nonentity become Brahmá, or how could the latter be produced from the former; or if it were the mighty vacuity which gave birth to Brahmá, then tell me sir, why there were no other Brahmás also, born of its spacious womb. 24. Tell me how the vegetable and other creations, could be produced without their different sources; and how they derived their nature of propagating their kinds, by their own seeds and property. 25. Tell me why the life and death of one man, are coeval with those of his friend or adversary; and do people happen to obtain their wishes in their next lives by dying in the holy places of Prayága &c. 26. Should the wishes of men, be crowned with success in their next lives; then tell me sir, why the sky is not filled with myriads of moons, when the worshippers of that luminary, are daily seen to be dying with the expectation, of becoming a brilliant orb like it, in the next state of their existence in heaven.

27. Say how can men succeed to their wishes in future, when most of them desire to gain the same object, and it falls to the lot of one of them; just as a maid expected to be wedded by many, is destined to and secured by one man only. 28. Again how can a woman be called a wife, who is either unchaste, or leads a life of celibacy even when dwelling in her husband’s house? 29. Say sir, what is the difference between the blessing and curse, which are pronounced on the Bráhman brothers, for their sovereignty over the seven continents on the one hand, and their having no such thing on the other; when they remained thinking themselves as monarchs of the world in their very house. 30. The acts of piety consisting of charities, austerities and obsequious ceremonies, which are productive of unknown rewards in the next world, and are of no benefit to their observers on earth; then what is the good derived from them, if they are not attended with any earthly benefit to the earthly body, but to a future body with which no one here has any concern. (Lit. to which none bears any affection).

31. Should it be said that the soul of the pious observer, reaps the reward in its future state; this also is impossible because the disembodied soul is incapable of enjoyment; and should it have another body to enjoy hereafter, but of what use is that distant body to the person of the present observer (of the pious acts)? 32. Should these acts be accompanied with any reward, either in this life or in the next, they could be known to the actor, but in want of this, their observance appears to be an irreconcilable incongruity. 33. These are my doubts (in the sástras and practices of men), which I beg you will kindly remove by your cool and clear reasoning, as the moon-light disperses the evening twilight. 34. Now sir, deign to dispel my doubts in my inquiry after transcendental truth, that it may conduce to my good in both worlds; because the company of the righteous, is ever fraught with very great blessings to all people.

REPLIES TO THE AFORESAID QUERIES (OF THE BUDDHIST). Argument: - Desultory replies of the sage to the foregoing questions in the three following chapters. Vasishtha replied: - Hear me prince, and I will clearly expound to you the doctrine, which will root out your doubts all at once. 2. All these entities in the world, are inexistent nullities for ever; though they appear as realities in our consciousness. 3. Whatever appears in any manner in our consciousness, (either as existing or non-existent, or as so and so); the same is thought as real as it seems to be, without our consideration of its true nature of a reality or otherwise. 4. Such is the nature of this consciousness, that it is thought to be one and same with the bodiless soul, by every one who knows what it is (by his acquaintance with the science of psychology). 5. It is this knowledge (or the idea) of a thing in the mind, either in waking or dreaming, that they call to be its body; hence it is this erroneous consciousness of anything, that is believed as its body, and there is nothing else beside this that they call a solid body.

6. The world shines (or shows itself) before us, like the sights seen in a dream; and the privation of all causes towards the production of the (material) world, prove it to be not otherwise than the phantom of a dream. 7. Thus this pure and immaculate knowledge of the universe, is termed the very Brahma himself (because God is said to be infinite knowledge only. सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं व्रह्म). The very same shines as the world, which is not otherwise than that. 8. Thus doth the world remain quite pure and unchanged, from ever before and forever more; and so it is thought and said to be, by the Vedas and all good and great sástras, as also by the joint assent of all thinking men, in all ages and countries. 9. They are the most ignorant fools, and resemble the croaking frogs dwelling in the recess of dark caves and pits; who deny the sole existence of the beings which is impressed in the consciousness of all beings, which is full and perfect every where, and is acknowledged by all great souls.

10. There are many at present, who are deluded by their notions of the appearances of things, and the evidence of their senses, and have fallen into the error of understanding the gross body, as the cause of consciousness and inward impressions (i.e. they maintain the objectivity of their knowledge as derived from without, and deny the subjective consciousness derived from within). 11. They are giddy with their wrong notions, and are not worthy of our discourse; because no conversation can be held with them that are intoxicated without intoxication, and are learned with their ignorance or learned fools. 12. When the discourse of the learned, is not capable of removing the doubts of men in all places; such discourse is to be understood as the foolish talk of the universe. 13. He who relies in his belief in the sensibles only, and regards the believer of the invisible as a fool; such a man (i.e. the Buddhist or Charvaka), is considered for his unreasonable reasoning, as a block of stone or stony block head.

14. The fool that maintains this (materialistic) doctrine, in opposition to all rational philosophy, is said to be a frog of the dark cave (or as a blind mole of the hole); because he is blind both to the past which is out of his sight, as also to the invisible future and is concerned only what is present before him. 15. It is the veda and the sayings of wisemen, and the inferences of their right reasoning (in support of the invisible), as I have maintained in these lectures, that can remove the doubts in these matters. 16. If the sensible body (i.e. its sensation) be consciousness (according to the Buddhist); then why is the dead body unconscious of anything? (To this the Buddhist retorts by saying:) Should the conscious and all pervading soul be the body, then why doth not the dull corpse think as the living body? In reply to this foolish question, it is thus said in the veda: 17. This world is an imaginary city of the divine mind, in its form of Brahmá - the creator; and it is hence that the phenomenon of the world, appears to our minds as a phantom in our dream (or as a reflex of the same).

18. Therefore all this that you see, is but the creation of the divine intellect, and an intellectual entity in itself; and you are not amiss in your judgement, if you consider them as phantoms in your dream, and appearing in the vacuity of your mind. 19. Hence this earth and the skies, these hills and cities, are all but appearances in the void of the intellect, and conception of your mind, as those appearing in the reveries of dream, or as air built castles. 20. It is the dense vacuum of self-consciousness, which is called the great Brahmá or the personal god of creation; and it is the display of his will in the concrete, which is known as Virát or the visible universe; thus is the pure and discrete consciousness of Brahma, condensed into the form of the world. 21. Whatever is imagined in the imaginary city of Brahma, the same is conceived as existent in reality; as you conceive the objects of your desire or fancy, to be present before you in actuality (i.e. The thought of a thing appears as the thing itself).

22. So whatever is thought of in the fancied city, or fairy land of one’s imagination at any time; the same seems to be present before him for the time being, as you see in the air-drawn castle of your fancy. 23. Hence as Brahma in his form of the mind, thinks of the action of living and quietus of death bodies; so are they thought of by all mankind. 24. After the great dissolution of the world (and dissolution of all things), it is said to be reproduced and renovated anew from nothing; but as the want of any material cause, cannot produce the material world, it is certain there is no material being in existence. 25. Brahmá - the lord of creatures, having got rid of the world upon its dissolution, was freed also from all his remembrance and ideas of creation for ever; therefore it is the reflexion of divine light only which appears as the world before us. 26. Thus the supreme soul of Brahma, reflected itself in itself in the beginning, in the manner of an imaginary castle of his will, which was air-drawn as the visible sky in the invisible vacuum, and known as the cosmos or world subsisting in empty space.

27. As an imaginary castle is the creation of the brain or intellect, and presents to our minds only its intellectual form alone; so does the world appear to us in its intellectual form, and only as an evolution of the intellect, and without having any other cause for its appearance. 28. Whether there be any body or not any where, there is the vacuous intellect which is every where (i.e. the hollow space of the mind comprehends both the plenum as well as the vacuum of the world). And know the divine spirit to pervade all over this totality, whether it be the embodied duality or vacuous unity. 29. Hence the vacuous mind of a dead body, beholds the figure of the whole world within its vacuity; the empty mind of a living being, sees the shapes both of solid and subtile bodies, in its imagination or dream. (It means to say that, the death of the body does not involve the death of the mind). 30. As the living man thinks this immaterial world, to be a solid mass of dull matter; so doth the dead person think this vacuous universe, as a solid and substantial existence lying exposed before him in its mind.

31. But as the enlightened or awakened soul of a living body, sees no trace of scenes of its dream upon its waking; so the redeemed soul of a dead being sees no trace of the objects-sight in this world, upon its redemption and beatification in the next world. 32. The very same is the case with the enlightened soul, of every body in this world; that it bears only the inward conception of it within itself; but no outward perception thereof without. Therefore there is no material reality in existence, as there is no substantial causality in vacuity. 33. As the sleeping man sees the visionary world of his dream, in the light of a real existence; so the unenlightened person views the phenomenal world, as a sober reality before him; and so do the souls of the dead, deem the empty void of air as the world of their departed spirits. (Thus there are three different worlds, for the sleeping, waking and departed souls of men). 34. The unpeopled or open air, appears as the earth and heaven, and full of mountains &c. as before to the souls of the departed (from their bearing those impressions with them even to the next world, and so on throughout all their future transmigration).

35. The departed soul perceives its separation from a dead body, and thinks of its regeneration in another frame on earth; where it will have its enjoyments and suffering again as before. 36. The soul never gets rid of this delusion of its regeneration, (and of its desire of renovation also), so long as it neglects to resort to the means, of obtaining its salvation and final liberation; it is by means of its knowledge of truth and absence of desire, that is freed from its error of reproduction. 37. Hence it is the consciousness of the soul, of its righteous or unrighteous desire; that represents the picture of this airy world, in the hollow sphere of the mind. (Thus the world is only the picture and production of one’s own desire). 38. The world is therefore neither of a substantial nor vacuous form, but the display of divine intelligence; the want of this knowledge is the source of all misery to man, but its true knowledge as representation of divine wisdom, is fraught with all bliss and joy.

SOLUTION OF THE GREAT QUESTION. Argument: - Answer to the question of future rewards and punishment of departed souls in another world. Vasishtha continued: - Hear me now to tell you, why men happen to meet with their (unexpected) good or fortune at home; and in the same manner how rewards and retributions, come to attend on departed souls from unforeseen causes in the far distant (or next) world. 2. You know the whole world to be the volitional city (or fabric) of Divine will, and appearing as phenomenal to our outward sight, and as noumenal in the light of our inward insight of it, and as Brahma himself in its spiritual light. (i.e. God has so willed the world, as to be viewed in the triple light of the physical, intellectual and spiritual also). 3. In this volitional city, everything appears in the same light, as one would behold it in any of its different aspects. 4. As in your own house, you are master of the direction of your offspring, and of the disposal of your things and affairs as please; so is the Lord the sole disposer and dispensator of all things in this world of his will, as he likes of his own accord.

5. As in the desired dwelling of your liking, you find everything to be as well disposed as you wish it to be; so doth he direct and dispose all things in this world of his. 6. The disorder that there appears to take place in the order of nature, is to be attributed to the Divine Will as the sovran law of all. 7. The good or evil which waits on men, owing to the obedience to or transgression of law; is both attributable to the Divine Will (which has originated the laws and ordained their results). 8. It is the dispensation of the Divine will also, whereby all living bodies have their perceptions of worldly things; just as they have the conception of the existence of the world, which in reality has no entity of it. 9. It is by will of the divine intellect, that everything appears to be existent before us; as it is the oscitation and occlusion or the gaping and closing of the intellect, which causes the appearance and disappearance of the world to our view.

10. The king said: - Tell me sir, if the world was the production of the divine will, why was it not known to exist before with the eternity of the Will divine, and why and when it came to be manifested and known to others afterwards; tell me also, whether the world is an unstable and vanishing appearance in the air, or it has any fixity in the divine mind or stability in nature. 11. Vasishtha replied: - Such is the nature of the vacuous and volitional city of divine intellect; that it comes to being and not being in succession, in the states of repeated waking dreams of creation, and in the sleeping oblivion of its desolation. 12. Like the mud built house of playful boys, and the air drawn castles of fanciful men, do the appearances of creation, appear both as real and unreal in the divine intellect as well as to our minds. 13. As you build and break your imaginary city in the air, and make and unmake a fabric of your will elsewhere; whether it be of your own or choice or for any other reason, so it is with the Divine will, to construct and protract or retract or annul any of its works ad libitum.

14. Thus are all beings, continually rising and falling, in this vacuous city of the divine will; which is ever shining in its nature, with the pure light of the divine mind. (God throws his own light on the work of his will). 15. The whole plenum of the world is a vacuum, and full with the dense intelligence of omniscience; therefore it is this omniscient intelligence, which doth still whatever it thinks upon and wills. (This passage shows that the Vedánta Brahma, is not inactive or Nishkriya as many believe; but the living God, and sole agent of all things and director of all accidents in this world). 16. Therefore it is not the hidden but self manifest God, that does all things even at the distance of Millions of miles, and myriads of ages, as if they lay before him at the present time. 17. So there is nothing in any country or in any world, which is not known nor thought of by the sole and unhidden soul of all. (The gloss applies it to every individual soul, which is conscious of its merits and demerits everywhere).

18. As a brilliant gem reflects its light and shade within itself, so doth the gem of the intellect reflect by its own light the various vicissitudes of the world in itself. (i.e. The human mind is sensible of its deserts). 19. Laws and prohibitions, which are necessary for the preservation of people, are implanted in the human soul. (As they are the eternal varieties of the divine mind), and accompany it every where with their just rewards. 20. The soul never sets nor rises (i.e. It neither dies nor revives, but supposes itself as such by its error only); It is Brahma himself and his reflexion in others, and emanating always from the divine soul its source and origin. 21. As from being the viewer, it supposes itself to be the view, and thinks its imaginary world as a visible phenomenon; (i.e. believes itself both as the subjective as well as objective); so it thinks itself to be born, living and dying (by the like error of its own).

22. When the soul of its own nature ceases to cast its reflexion, or suppresses it within itself, and remains quietly in the vacuous sphere of divine intellect, by assimilating itself with the universal soul of Brahma, it is then said to be quietus of quiet in death. (The word for death in the text is Sánta-Samita or extinct, or instinct in the divine soul). 23. The emission and intromission of its reflexion, are as natural to the ignorant and imperfect living soul of animal beings; as oscillation and calm are congenital with air (or as respiration and inspiration with breath). 24. Now as you see in the city of your imagination, the growth, decay and death of people, at different times and places; - 25. So it is the nature of this imaginary city of God, to exhibit these changes everywhere, as in the cases of animals, vegetables and all things in all the three worlds. 26. But God neither wills nor does everything himself, in this creation of his will, but he acts by general laws and secondary causes, as in the cricket play of boys, and growth of grass from grass, and production of trees and their fruits &c. from seeds.

27. It is the nature of the almighty intellect of God, to bring forth forthwith to being whatever it wills to be and appear. (The almighty thought, will or word, is variously said to be the prime cause of all). 28. All things being originally of intellectual form, appear afterwards in various forms, and with different natures; as the almighty intellect invests them with. 29. Hence everything here, is verily of an intellectual form, by their originating from the divine intellect; and as the intellect includes all things in itself, it is omniform and shows itself in any form it likes. 30. This very intellect is the omniscient and universal soul, without having its beginning, middle or end; it is omnipotent and something which is nothing, and an entity appearing as non-entity; It appears such as it remains anywhere, and shows itself as anything; it is the origin of all things and beings, and the source of all vegetables and grass.

ON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OR INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXTRANEOUS EXISTENCES. Argument: - Reconciliation of the opposite results of virtuous and sinful acts, on one and same person at the same time. Vasishtha continued saying: - The life of a person is dear and useful to him, as long as he lives and not afterwards; but hear me tell you the good of a man’s dying in some holy place, with a wish for future reward in his next life. 2. God has ordained certain virtues and merits to certain places, even from the beginning of his imaginary city of this world (as to all other things at their very beginning). 3. Whatever merit is assigned to any place, the same awaits on the soul of the person, after its release from bondage, by his performance of the acts of piety enjoined by the sástras. 4. Hence any great sin that is committed by any body anywhere, is either partly or wholly effaced by the good act of the person, according to comparative merit of the holy place, or the degree of absolution in the mind of the penitent sinner.

5. In any case of the insignificance of the sin, with regard to the greater sacerdotalism of the place; there the sinner is quite absolved from his guilt, and attains the object of his wish (in his future life). 6. But in case of the equality of the merits of penitence, with the holiness of the place; the penitent man receives two bodies in his next life, that is both a physical body and spiritual soul. 7. Such is the effect of the primeval guilt and merit of mankind, that they are endowed with double bodies, consisting of their physical frames and spiritual souls (the one maculate and the other immaculate) and such the divine soul even from before. 8. The principle is called Brahma in its sense of the whole, and as Brahmá - the totality of the living soul jíva; and also as aham or the ego, meaning any living soul in particular; and as he remains in any manner of the whole or part, so he manifests himself in his semblance of the world.

9. The reflexion of purity acquired in some holy place, appears to the penitent soul in the same manner; as it appears in its contrary light to the guilty soul, which is not so absolved from its sin in any holy place. (These different reflexions, present the appearance of heavenly bliss to the soul of one, and that of hell torments to the other, as in their visions of paradise and Styx in dream). 10. The one sees the visions of his own death, and the weeping of his living relatives; and deems himself as a departed ghost to the next world, all alone and without a single soul beside him. 11. He sees also the deaths of his friends there, and thinks also that he hears the wailings of their relations at that place; he sees the chimeras of all these in his phrensy, as a man of deranged humours sees the spectres of bugbears in his delirium. 12. So it happens with great souls also, to see the sights both of good grace and affright, according to the measure of their merit or guilt in this life; and thus thousands of hopeful and hideous shapes, float about in the imaginations of men, owing to the purity and depravity of their natures.

13. The friends of the dying man, lying insensible as a dead body; weep and wail over his corpse, and then take him to the funeral ground for his cremation. 14. But the guiltless man being accompanied by his self-conscious and righteous soul sees the approach of his decrepitude and death, with firmness and without any feeling of sorrow (as if he had no decay nor death). 15. With his present body he sees himself to be a living being; and with his invisible part or inward soul, he sees his conquest over death by the merit of his holy pilgrimage (and the immortality of his soul in the future world). 16. The guiltless man is in fear of his death for a moment only, but is conscious of the indestructibility of his inward soul, as a man clad in mail, is dauntless of the shafts of his unarmoured antagonist. (The pure soul is invulnerable to the shafts of death). 17. In this manner the relatives of the deceased, find his pure soul, to obtain its immortality after his death; and that life and death are indifferent to the virtuous and purified person.

18. The sights of all the three worlds, are equally fallacious both in their tangible and intangible forms; as the vision of one object in a dream, is as false as another in their visionary nature. (The gloss says that, one error succeeds another, in the same way as one lie is followed by another). 19. We have clear conceptions of the fallacies, arising in our minds, both in our dreams and imagination; but the fallacies of our waking dreams by broad daylight, are more obvious and never less conspicuous to our apprehension than either of them (the latter being more general and lasting than the former ones). 20. The king said: - But tell me sir, how virtue and vice, both of which are bodiless things (as being the abstract qualities of our actions), assume to themselves the bodily forms of living beings, in the course of the transmigration of our souls. (Virtuous souls being blessed with human bodies, while vicious spirits are doomed to suffer in various brutish forms).

21. Vasishtha replied: - There is nothing impossible to the creative power of Brahmá, to be produced in the imaginary fabric of this world of his mind; nor is it impracticable to the substantive divine will to give substantial forms to understand things. (The substantive will is called satyasankulpa which brings the inexistent to real existence). 22. There is nothing which is unimaginable, and cannot be produced by the mind of Brahmá; as it is with us to have no idea of anything and nothing in being, of which we have no imagination in our finite minds. (Brahmá has given forms to all the imaginary ideas of his mind, which we cannot do to our formless and abstract idea of any). 23. A visionary city in the dream and an imaginary castle of fancy, do both present the like ideal form to the mind; and yet both of them are composed of a train of ideas, which appear as real objects for the time being. (So the ideal seems as real for a time). 24. All the numerous thoughts, which lie as a dead and dormant mass, in the states of our deep and sound sleep; appear to us in endless forms in the vision of our dream and waking our imagination and leave their traces in the memory.

25. Who is there that has not had the notion, of the aerial castles of his dream and imagination; and found them not to be composed of our concepts only, in the airy world of our vacuous consciousness. 26. Therefore what thing is there, that is not capable of being produced in this ærial world, which is the production of the airy imagination of the vacuous intellect; and what thing also which is substantially produced therefrom? (The creatures of the mind, have mental forms only). 27. Therefore it is this fallacy only, which appears in the form of the visible universe; where there is nothing in real existence or inexistence; but all things appear to be in esse and non esse, in the Nabhas and in the Nubibus of the divine mind. 28. Anything that is perceived in any manner, the same is thought as a manifestation of its Áker in the same manner; and the enlightened seekers of truth, find no impropriety in their belief as such. (These as they change, are the varied God. Thomson’s “The Seasons”).

29. Hence when a man is taught by the tenets of his religion, to hope for the enjoyment of flowery banks (lit. - hills), and streams flowing with nectar in paradise (lit. - heaven); it is very probable that he will meet with the same things, in his future life in the next world. (So the Moslem is taught to expect the gratification of all his carnal desires in heaven, as the promised rewards of his holy Koran. The Hindus likewise have bodily delights to expect in their different heavens). 30. Hence the acts that are done in this world by any body, are attended with their like rewards unto him in the next; and there is no inconsistency in this belief, though it appears so to the unbeliever (The adage - as you sow, so shall you reap, holds equally true in every religion with regard to future retribution, as in every case here below).

31. Should there be anything, which may be said to be permanent in this world, it must be ever present in the view of its viewer; let then any man say upon this criterion, which he does not lose the sight of all other things before his eye sight, except the ideas of things in his mind, which are ever present in his knowledge, and never lost sight of in his consciousness. 32. I have given you the analogy of our dreams and thoughts, to prove the essentiality of our notions and ideas; and whereas the worlds appertain to the will and subsists in the mind of omniscience, they are not otherwise than the essence of the Great Brahma Himself. 33. As there is nothing wanting or impossible to be produced, in the ærial castle of your imagination; so there is nothing which does not and cannot exist in the will and mind of the almighty. 34. Whatsoever is thought of in any form, in the Divine Mind, the same remains fixed therein in the very form; and the same appears to be situated in the same nature before our views in its photo or in a scenography.

35. Hence this semblance of the Divine Mind, is perceived only by our internal senses, and not perceptible to the external organs, or to both of these at once; because it is for our minds only to perceive the impressions of the eternal mind, and to impel the internal organs (by their inward efforts), to receive those reflexions. 36. As the lord has willed everything at first, so it lasts with him to the very last of his creation (i.e. from the very beginning of his Sankalpa, to the end of the kalpa epoch); when his will of creating the world anew, gives another form to the state of things in future. 37. The Lord manifests himself as he wills, in the manner of his will, and in the form of another world in every kalpa duration of creation; as the minds of men come to see another world and another state of things in their each successive dream. 38. There is nothing which does not exist, in this worldly city of Divine will, and all that exists therein is naught but the production of the Divine Intellect; therefore this world is to be known, as full of the forms of the productive mind of God.

REFUTATION OF THE CONCEPTION OF A DUALITY IN UNITY. Argument: - End of Vasishtha’s Replies to the important queries, and his showing the unity of the world with Brahma himself. Vasishtha resumed and said: - Now hear me tell you in reply to the question, why the heaven is not filled with a hundred full moons, if it were the wish of a hundred persons to shine as such a luminary on future, and if the wishes of all are crowned with success in their next state of being. (The souls of the pious are said to twinkle as stars in heaven). 2. Those that aspired to become as bright as the full moon of heaven, became actually so in their conception of themselves as such in the sphere of their minds; and not by their situation in the vault of the sky or in the orb of that luminary. 3. Say who has ever and anywhere, got into the imaginary city of another; and who has ever got any fancied treasure, except the framer of the fancy and the fabricator of the wished for wealth. (Every one is the master of his own Utopia and delights in his hobby horse).

4. Every one has a heaven of his own, in the utopia of his creation; wherein he is situated and shines as a full bright moon, and without its phases of the wane and waste. 5. All those aspirants to luminosity, had thought of entering into the moon of his own mind; and there he found himself to rest at last, with full light of that luminary and delight of his conscious soul. 6. Each of them thought of entering into the disc of the moon shining in their minds, and felt themselves glad in their situation, as if they were seated in the orb of the celestial moon. 7. Whatever one seeks and searches after, the same becomes con-natural with his consciousness; and in the case of his firm belief in the same state, he thinks and feels himself to be the very same. 8. As every aspirer to the state of the full moon, came to be such in his respective conception of that luminary; so the suitors of the same bride in marriage, became wedded to her according to his own conception of hers. (Every one imagines his doxy, as a fairy paragon of beauty).

9. The one pure maiden that is thought of being taken to wife, by many men in their minds; is never defiled by any one of them in her character, by their simple enjoyment of her ideal only. (The ideal is not tangible possession). 10. As the sovereign ruler of the seven continents, holds his sway over them, without ever going out of his city; so the soul passes to them all, by remaining in the precincts of its body: and so does every man see his imaginary castle, in the sphere of his own house. 11. When the whole universe owes its origin to the imagination of its omniscient originator - the self born Brahma; what can it be otherwise, than an intangible vacuum and quite calm and quiet in itself. (The moving bodies are the fixed figures of the divine mind, and appear to be turning round like the pictures in a panorama or the objects in a scenograph). 12. Now hear me tell you of the unknown and invisible results of the acts piety, such as charity, obsequeous rites, religious austerities and the mutterings of holy mantras, which accrue to the departed ghosts of bodily beings in the next world.

13. The souls marked with traces of pious acts in them, come to view them vividly as their actual works, and painted in as lively colours as their dreams, by fabrications of their lively intellects. 14. The carnal mind distrusting the reality of these impressions of consciousness, and disregarding the internal operation of the inward intellect; becomes restless for its sensuous enjoyment and exercise of the outward organs of action, until by abatement of this fervour, it is restored to its inward peace and tranquility. 15. It is the theme of early poets which tells us, that the impressions of the acts of piety and charity which are imprinted in the intellect, are reflected over the passive soul in the next world, when the conscious soul continues to keep the gratification of those acts. 16. Thus the rewards of charity and uncharitableness, are equally felt in the gratification and dissatisfaction of the soul in this world also, where everything is by our feeling of it. 17. Thus have answered fully to whatever you have asked of me; and now know from all this, that the sensible world is an intangible dream, and an air drawn spectacle of the mind.

18. The prince rejoined: - But please to tell me sir, how could the intellect alone and itself before the production of the body; and how can a light subsist without its receptacle of a lamp or lantern. 19. Vasishtha replied: - The sense in which you use the world body, is quite unknown to the spiritualist, who discard the material meaning of the term, as they reject the idea of the dancing of stones in air. (The learned know the spiritual body only). 20. The meaning of the word body, is the same as that of Brahma (who is all in all); and there is no difference in the meaning of the two, as there is none between the words fluid and liquid. 21. The body is a visionary appearance, and the great body of Brahma, is likened unto the figure of a phantom in vision, which represents the forms of all things as in dream in the stupendous fabric of the universe. [Brahma is more likely the phantasmagoria that shows all forms in it. Gloss].

22. But the difference between thy dream or vision and spectrum of Brahma, consist in the former representing the figures of thy previous thoughts alone, which disperse and vanish upon thy waking; but the universe which is exhibited in spectrum of Brahma, is not so evanescent as that of other. 23. What is thing then we call the body, and how does it appear into us in the shape of something in our dream; and why doth anything appearing as a reality in dream, appear as nothing and vanish as an error upon our waking. 24. There is no waking, sleeping or dreaming, nor any other condition of being, in the Turíya or transcendent state of Brahma [as in those of the divine hypostases of Brahmá, Virát and others]. It is something as the pure and primeval light and as the transparent air, all quiet and still, [as the infinite eternity]. 25. It is the same as the unknown and inscrutable light, which shows and glows before us to this day; It is the same primeval and primordial light, that showed first the sight of the world to view, as if it were a dream in the gloom of night. (Light was nature’s first born, and brought forth all nature from it).

26. As in passing from one district to another, the body though proceeding onward, is ever in the midst of its circuit, and yet never fixed at any spot; so are all things in their endless rotation in this world, whether singly or collectively. 27. The sight of the world, like that of a dream, presents <a> favourable aspect to some minds, but it presents a clear and serene prospect to men of unclouded intellects. 28. The vacuum as well as the plenum of objects, and the reflexion as likewise the eclipse or adumbration of things; the existence and inexistence of the world and matter, and the unity and duality of the divine entity, are all but the extraneous phases or aspects of the same vacuous intellect. 29. The world is entirely or completely evolution from the fulness of the deity; and stands as a complete counterpart of the original; it is neither a shining or unshining body by itself, but is as bright as the contents of a crystal within its bowels.

30. Wherever there is the evolution of the world in the intellect, there is the presence of the subtile soul also at that place, and whenever there is a jot of thought anywhere, it is attended with the thought of the world also. (The mind and soul are one with creation, and the same thing). 31. The vacuum of intellect is present everywhere (pervading and comprehending the whole). And this omnipresence is the divine presence (which engrosses and envelopes this all) which is termed the world. [The word world-jagat passing [in our right], is spiritually sánta or quiet]. 32. The divine soul is as quiet and unchangeable, as this universe is stable and stationary; and it is the fluctuation of the supreme mind, which causes these variations in the face of the city of the divine will [or the world]. 33. The impossibility of any other inference [of the world’s duality or its being aught otherwise than the divine entity]; proves it necessarily to be of the very same essence. Any unreasonable hypothesis of sophists is inconsistent with this subject [of the absolute unity].

34. The joint assent of the common belief of mankind, the testimony of the sástras, and the dicta of the Vedas, are established and incontrovertible truths. Hence nobody can have any doubt in regard to the real entity of the Divine spirit. 35. This being confessed it becomes evident, that the world is the deity itself; and when the world appears as one with the deity, it is seen in our clairvoyance to be extinct in the Divine essence. (Clairvoyance is charama-sákshat kára or the last sight of creation at one’s dying moment; when the world disappears, and eternity appears full open to view. Gloss). 36. From this analogy of the ultimate evanescent sight of the world, it will be evident to the living soul, that the sight of the phenomenal is wholly lost before it in the noumenal. This is the doctrine of cosmotheism, wherein whole nature is seen in nature’s God.

37. He who is acquainted with the sphere of his intellect, is not unacquainted with the fact of the dependency of the arbour of the world to it, he sees the three worlds in himself, in either of his two states of bondage and liberation. (The fettered soul is fastened to the sight of the material and temporal world; but the liberated soul views it in its spiritual light). 38. The visible world though so manifest to view, is entirely lost to sight upon its right knowledge; and the knower thereof in its light, becomes like the setting sun, wholly invisible to public sight, and remains as mute as a clod of silent stone. 39. The way that is established by the Vedas, and received by the general assent of wisemen; is to be acknowledged, as the right path leading to sure success (vox populi vox dei). 40. He who adheres steadily to his own purpose, by utter disregard of all other objects in his view; is said to be firmly fixed to his point, and is sure to reap his success at the end.

41. Everything appears to one in the same light, as he is accustomed to view and take it for; and whether this object of his faith is a true or false one, it appears just the same to any body as he is wont to believe it. 42. This is the conclusion of your question, as I have determined and delivered to you; now be quick and walk your way with perfect ease of your mind, health of your body and agility of your limbs.

LECTURE ON TRANSCENDENT TRUTH. Argument: - Relation of Brahma as the all-pervading spirit, and of the means of the presentation of spiritual being before one. Vasishtha resumed: - As I was sitting relating these things to the prince, he honoured me with his obeisance; and then thinking I had dispensed my task to him, rose up to proceed on my aerial journey (from the Ilávrita-Varsha of Kushadwípa). 2. Thus I have related unto you this day, O most intelligent Ráma, regarding the omnipresence of the Divine spirit; keep this vacuous view of Brahma before your sight, and proceed everywhere with the peace of your mind (as you are ever living and moving in the Lord). 3. Know all this to be Brahma itself, and a nameless and unsubstantial void only; it is something unborn and increate, all calm and quiet, and with out its beginning, middle and end. (It is infinity in space and eternity in duration). 4. It is said to be the reflexion of the intellect, and named as Brahma from its immensity, it is termed the most transcendent, and something without any designation at all.

5. Ráma rejoined: - Tell me sir, how can we have the sights of the celestial, and of the Siddha and Sádhya spirits, of Yama, Brahmá and of the heavenly Vidyádharas and choristers; and tell me also sir, how the people of the other spheres can be visible to us. 6. Vasishtha replied: - The celestial siddhas, Sádhyas, the gods Yama and Brahmá, and the Vidyádhara demigods; these together with all other beings of great souls and wondrous might; - 7. Are all visible to you both by day and night, and above, below, behind and ever before you, if you will but look at them with the eyes of your mind; but if you shut your mental eye against spirituality, you can never have the sight of spirit presented before your view. (This passage is illustrated in the story of Chudaloka. Gloss). 8. These beings being habituated to be viewed in our minds, are never afar from us, and as they are represented to be volitive or self willed beings, they are said to be ever roving everywhere. (The spirits are of two kinds; some stationary in their particular lokas or spheres; and others to be wandering about. Gloss).

9. These volitional beings are as fickle as the living creatures of this earth of ours; and as the volatile winds, which are blowing at random in every direction. 10. These resemble the airy creatures of your imagination and dream, which hover and gather about you by day and night; while the others are devoid of their volition and motion, and are settled stationary in their respective spheres. 11. If you can in the calm quietness of your mind and soul, secure the reflexion of any of these spirits in your silent and steadfast meditation; you can without fail, have the visitation of the same in the inmost recess of your soul (and hold your secret communion with it also. Gloss). 12. In this manner do men see the gods as they see the siddhas, arrayed with all their majesty and glory, as they are feigned to be in their intense meditations. (Dhyánenaivapara-devah).

13. Now as men of steady minds, find themselves to be soaring to heaven, in the company of the siddhas and clad in all their glory; those of fickle and unsubdued minds, have to take great pains, in order to confine the fleeting object of their contemplation under their control. (It is often dangerous to the unadept novice in meditation, to let slip the object of his contemplation from his grasp). 14. The world is altogether an unsubstantial and imperceptible thing; and is ever as silent and a serene void, as the vacuum of the intellect (or the Divine mind). It appears however as a solid and compact mass, according as the notion we have of it in our consciousness. (i.e. This nothing is thought of <as> something, according to our mistaken notion or conception of it). 15. It does not exist in our unconsciousness, nor does it appear to be in existence or otherwise it is not dull, insensible and unthinking beings; it is a vacuity and nullity, and utterly an intangible and imperceptible thing in our sensibility and unconsciousness of it.

16. It is the nature of the intellect to reflect in itself, and all that is seen about us, is the shadow of that reflexion; the knowledge of substantiality in this shadowy reflection, proceeds from the vanity of the intellect, and not from its nature which <is> free from mistake. 17. There can be no talk of causation, production or vegetation, in the nature of the universe; which being an absolute void, is entirely devoid of the elements of cause and effect. (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.). 18. That which appears to be produced, is only a void in the midst of primeval vacuum (teo et beo); nor can there be the attribution of unity or duality to the infinite vacuity. 19. Yet the world appears as something existent in your mind; and as visible before your eyes; and this happens in the same manner as you have the consciousness and sight of your dreams; in the unruffled calm of your hollow sleep. 20. As imagination causes the mountains and mountainous regions, to rise in the hollow sphere of our minds; but neither is the one nor the other found to be really existent therein; such is this creation an airy working of the divine mind (and leaving no trace of it left behind).

21. Hence it is the nature of the wise and sapient, to remain as quiet and mute as motionless blocks of wood or stone; and the character of great minds, to manage themselves as wooden puppets, moving wholly as they are moved by the prime mobile power of God alone (Without being actuated by their own desire, or deeming themselves as free agents). 22. As the waves are seen to roll about on the surface waters, and as the eddies are whirling round and hurling headlong into the deep; so the whole creation and all created things, turn about the pivot of the great Brahma alone. (Not an atom herein, has an excentric course of its own). 23. As vacuity is inborn in the firmament, and undulations are immanent in the air; so are these creations inherent and inseparably connected with the divine spirit, in their amorphous or formless and ideal shapes. (This passage maintains the idealistic theory of the ancients). 24. As an air drawn castle of our will or imagination, presents a substantial shape before us with all its unsubstantialness; so does this world appear as a compact frame exhibited before us, notwithstanding its situation in the formless mind of Brahma.

25. All these three worlds, that we are accustomed to believe as real ones, and as seats of our temporal as well as spiritual concerns; are all void and formless, and as unreal ones as the airy castles of our imagination. 26. As it is the thought of our minds, that creates full populous cities in them; so it is the thought of the mind of God, that creates these numerous worlds, and presents them to our minds and eyes. 27. Though ever and all along thought as a reality, this visible world bears no meaning at all; and resembles the sight of a man’s own death in his dream. 28. As a man sees the funeral of his dead body, conducted by his son in his dream; so the unreal world is seen as a reality, in as much as it is reflected as such by its supreme contriver. 29. Both the entity and non-entity of the cosmos or world, constitute the corpus of the immaculate deity; just as a fictitious name applied to a person, makes no difference in his personage.

30. Whether what I have said is true or not (that the siddhas and others are mere imaginary or spiritual beings), you have nothing to lose or gain therefrom (because we have no concern whatever with them); and as it is useless for wise men to expect any reward by casting fruits into the Phálgu river, so it is of no good to the intelligent who have known the true God, to take the pains of invoking the aid of the minor gods instead of Him.

ON ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUTH. Argument: - Thinking God as the Ego, Brahmá and the creation, and the description of God. Vasishtha resumed: - The man that considers himself as the Ego, from his possession of the intellect and intellectual powers in him; elevates him to the rank of Brahmá and contains the whole world in himself. 2. As the Lord Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha remained in this state (of the totality of souls) he was not then the creator of the world; but was alike the increate Brahma - the everlasting God, as he continued from all eternity. (Brahmá assimilating himself to the impersonal God, had no personality of himself, so the holy trinity was all One, before the Lord caused his coeternal son to create the world; as nothing was created but by the son). 3. It is in our consciousness, that the world appears in this manner, and is like the mirage in a desert, where its very unreality shows itself as a reality. (Hence our consciousness, is not always the test of truth). 4. It is since the creation, that the primeval vacuum began to present, the blunder or falsity of the world in itself; but how and whence arose this blunder, unless it were the presentation of Brahma himself. (Delusion is God also).

5. The world is a whirlpool (a revolving sphere), in the vast ocean of Brahma (i.e. in the great expanse of vacuum). Where then is the question of unity or duality in this, or the talk of the dualism of the eddy from the waters of the deep, or how can there be the topic of unity in want of a duality. (The world is therefore Brahma-dharma or an hypostasis of God. Gloss). 6. The great Brahma is profoundly quiet, and having his intellect inherent in himself, he is conscious of his being the great or sole Ego (or the totality of beings) in his mind, and sees himself as the midst of the vast expanse of vacuity. 7. As fluctuation is inherent in air, and heat is inbred in fire; and as the moon contains its coolness in itself, so does the Great Brahma brood over the eternal ideas of things, contained in the cavity of his fathomless mind.

8. Ráma rejoined: - Tell me sir, how does the divine mind come to think of and brood upon his creation; when the eternal intellect is ever employed in its process of intellection. The course of Divine thought being unobstructed from eternity to eternity, its even tenor cannot be supposed to be now and then turned to the act of creation, or even said to be brought in its action and motion, since the time that this creation first began to exist (There can be no talk of the beginning or end of the world before eternity). 9. Vasishtha replied: - It is even so, O Ráma! the great Ego of God always thinks of everything in itself; and the increate and ever existent spirit of God, has never anything unknown to his knowledge. (The evolution and involution of the world, are known by the terms of its creation and annihilation). 10. The vacuous is ever and every where present both in creation and non-creation (i.e. both before as well as after it); and there is nothing that is known to him as existent or nonexistent at any time (since the ignorant know the world as existent, and the learned consider it a nihility; but the Lord knows them all in himself).

11. As the mind is conscious of its fluctuation, and the moon of her coldness; and as the air knows its voidness, so doth Brahma know himself as the Ego, and never thinks himself without the other. (They are Misra or combined together). 12. Such is the entity of God, and never unlike to or otherwise than this; and whereas the world is without its beginning and end, it must be as imperishable as Brahma himself. (The world is without end). 13. It is only from your want of sufficient intelligence, and hearing of or prejudice in the word non-ego; that you are led to the belief of a duality, in the undualistic unity of the Deity. 14. Never does any body nor anything here, think of itself of anything whatever; there is none and naught whatsoever, that can think unless it is the same with the Divine Ego. 15. The apparent threefold world, ever appears in this manner; as one with and inseparable from God that dwells alike and evenly in all, which composes one uniform whole, without admixture of any diversity or duality (all which blend together in harmony in one universal unity).

16. Know O Ráma, that is nothing like a rock or tree, is produced in empty vacuity; so these seeming solid worlds, can never be produced in the vacuous spirit of Brahma (but are all mere phantoms of what they appear to be) know this, and go on freely in your own way. 17. Precepts to men of little intelligence and doubtful minds, fail to persuade them to the knowledge of truth; and so long as they can not comprehend the unity, they are ever apt to believe in the multiplicity of objects. 18. Neither precepts nor sástras, can lead the ignorant to the knowledge of truth, unless they can get rid of their prejudice of diversity, which the creator Brahmá, has spread over the minds of men. 19. Ráma rejoined: - I understand sir, what you say (regarding the ego as the agent); but I beseech you to explain it by some illustration, for my clear knowledge of it. 20. What does the supreme Brahma do, by his assuming the title of ego or thinking agent to himself; you know all this (by your vast knowledge), though it is not quite satisfactory to your audience.

21. Vasishtha replied: - The supreme One that was quite indistinct before (as the undistinguishable chaos); becomes after his assumption of the title ego to himself, divided and distinguished into the distinct essences of vacuum, space and its directions and time with all its divisions. (The ego itself is diversified into these various forms). 22. The ego then assuming its personality, finds many such distinctions appearing before itself; which are quite imperceptible in its state of impersonality. (The personal soul only, is conscious of these). 23. The knowledge of these vacuous principles, their qualities and attributes, which is preserved in the soul in the forms of their abstract ideas; is expressed afterwards by certain symbolical sounds or words, which are also as void as air. (A word is a breath, and the breath is air). 24. It is thus the formless and vacuous principle of the ego, entertains in itself or its soul, the notions or knowledge of times and space in their ideal forms. 25. This universe which appears as the réchauffé or reflex of the ideal of the ego, and seems as the visible and substantial world, is in reality but the intangible Brahma, and appearing as the tangible non Brahma to view.

26. The world is verily the quiet spirit of Brahma, it is one with Him, and without its beginning, middle or end; it is verily the void of Brahma, who assumes to himself the titles of Ego and the living soul, vacuous himself in his own vacuous self, as this vast and extensive phenomenon, and as something otherwise than what He is. (The world is the mirror of the divine Mind and its thoughts).

NARRATION OF RÁMA’S PRIOR PUPILAGE UNDER VASISHTHA. Argument: - Vasishtha’s relation of a lecture delivered to Ráma in a former birth. Vasishtha continued: - O Ráma, the destroyer of thy enemies, this very question that you have asked me today, was put to me once before, when you had been a pupil under my discipline. 2. In a former age, there was once this spiritual discourse betwixt ourselves, when you had been a pupil of mine in a certain forest (according to Metempsychosis), the present is but a repetition of a past life. The wheel of life rolls and revolves incessantly from age to age. 3. As I sat there as your preceptor, and your sitting in my presence as my pupil; you then had put this very question to me, with the gravity of your understanding. 4. The Pupil said: - You sir that know all things, now deign to remove this doubt and difficulty of mine, regarding what things die and perish at the great deluge, and what things are not liable to destruction. 5. The Preceptor replied saying: - Know my son, that the relics of all things are utterly destroyed at the last deluge; as your thickening dreams disappear in your sound sleep.

6. The hills and rocks on all the ten sides of the earth, are all destroyed without any distinction, and of the actions of men and routine of their business, there remains nothing behind. 7. All beings are destroyed at the end, and the great void (that is the receptacle of all bodies), becomes a perfect void. 8. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra, Rudra and others, that are the prime causes of the causal agencies of this world, do all become extinct at the end of the world, and there remains no vestige of them at last. 9. There remains only the great vacuity of the divine intellect, which is ever existent and undecaying; and this appears from the divine spirits remaining as the witness both of annihilations as also of the regeneration of the past and future worlds. 10. The entity never becomes a non-entity, nor the non-entity never comes to be an entity; tell me therefore where the past world disappears, and from whence the future world comes to existence. 11. The Preceptor replied: - This world, my boy, is not wholly destroyed nor does it become altogether extinct; and it is quite true that nothing ever goes to nothing, nor does anything, nor does anything ever proceed from a nihility.

12. That which is an entity in reality, never becomes a non-entity in anywise, and how can that which is inexistent of itself, ever become a nil and null afterwards (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.). 13. Where is water to be had in the mirage, and when are the two seeming moons to be seen in the sky; where are the delusive hairs found to be floating in the air, and when does a false conception prove to be true. (So the seeming world is a nullity, although it appears awhile as something to our deluded sight). 14. Know my son, all these phenomenals to be mere delusions, and without any reality in them; they appear as cities and towns in our dreams, and are ever obtrusive on us. 15. They are however liable to vanish away quite out of our sight at last, as our dreams disappear upon our waking, and as our waking scenes are lost and hid under the veil of our sleep. 16. As we know nothing where the city of our dreaming, vanishes away at last upon our waking; so we are quite ignorant about that chaotic void, wherein the universe submerges upon its exit.

17. The Pupil rejoined: - If the world is a nullity as you say, then sir, be pleased to tell what is it that thus appears to and disappears from us by turns; and what is that vacuous intellect which presents this extensive view before us; as also how does the void present its reflexion of the plenum and to what purpose. 18. The Preceptor replied: - It is the vacuous sphere of the intellect, my boy, that thus shines with its transparency; and it is this reflexion of it which is called the world, which is no other than this. 19. It is the reflexion of the widely extended substance of the great void of the intellect; and this apparently solid figure of it, is no other than the same transpicuous form of that intellect. (So says the sruti, Brahmá reflects his twofold forms to us, the one opaque and seen with our naked eye, and the other translucent and viewed by our mental sight).

20. The incorporeal Brahmá like all corporeal bodies, presents both a fair as well as a dark complexion (the one being his clear or intellectual form seen by the clear sighted, and the other his hazy figure viewed by gross understandings). He also discloses himself some times and closes at another, which cause the creation and annihilation of the world. (Manu calls it the waking and sleeping of God, and others the evolution and involution of the divine spirit). 21. The clearness of the divine spirit, ever remains the same and unaltered, both before and after the creation and its dissolution; as a fountain of limpid waters is always clear, whether it reflects the shadows of its bordering arbours or not. (No change in nature can affect the spirit of God). 22. As a man remains unchanged in his sleep, whether he be dreaming or enjoying his sound rest; so the spirit continues alike in its intellect, whether it is in the act of creation or annihilation. 23. As the ideal world appears to be calm and quiet, both in the dream of the dreamer, as well as in the sound sleep of the sleeper; so this visible world of ours is ever viewed in its calmness, in the tranquil spirit of the Lord and of the contemplative saint.

24. Hence I do not recognize the existence of a vacuum or sky, anywhere and independent of our soul; nor can we expect the same sphere appearing in the souls of others, as it does in ours according to our view of it. 25. If we can perceive the light of our intellect, even at the point of our death, and disappearance of the world from us; why should we not conceive the same to be the case with others, and that they do not perceive the same intellectual light also in their consciousness. (This is an evidence of the immortality in our souls). 26. The Pupil rejoined: - If such is the case, that others who are awake, have the same view of the world, as the dreamer has in his dream; then I believe that all those that are living, have the same view of the world as those that are dying, (i.e. A mere faint idea of it and not a substantial one). 27. The preceptor replied: - So it is, O my intelligent lad, the world then does not appear in its real form (of a solid body to the dreamer and the dying), as it appears as a reality to the intellects of others (that are waking and living). Idealism presents the true picture of the world.

28. The world does not appear and is not anything, and nothing that is real or has any reality in it; it is a mere reflexion of the intellect, and there can be no reality in our false sight of it. 29. It is apparent everywhere, and seems to be in every way at all times; but it does not exist <in reality> in anyway, anywhere or at anytime. 30. And because it is both the real and unreal form of Brahma, it is both a reality as well as unreality likewise; and being of the intellectual void, is never destructible nor ever destroyed. 31. The vacuous entity of the supreme intellect, which exhibits the phenomena of creation and its destruction (in repeated rotation), abounds with our misery only, if we attend to its occurrences with any degree of concern; but it does not affect us at all, if we can but remain altogether unconcerned with its casualties. 32. All these appearances exist every where at all times, in the same manner as they appear to the ignorant; but in truth, they appear in no where, in any manner or at any time to the wise and learned (who know the nature of worldly delusions).

33. It is the one self-same Being that appears as a god in one place, and as a pot or clod in another. Here he is seen as a hill and there as a rill or dale; He is an arbour here, of furze or bush there, and the spreading grass in another. He is the moving and movable some where and the unmoving and unmovably else where; and He is the fire and all other elements also everywhere. 34. He is entity and nonentity, and both vacuity and solidity also; He is action and duration, and the earth and sky likewise. He is the being and not being, and their growth and their destruction likewise, and He is good as well as the evil, that attends on one and forefends another. 35. There is nothing that is not He, who though one is always all things in all places; He is in and out of everything, and extends along the beginning, middle and end of all things. He is eternity and duration and the three divisions of time also; (i.e. the present, past and future, called the triple time).

36. He is all, and existent in all things, in all places and times; and yet He is not the All, and neither existing with anything at any time or place (but is but dimly seen in these His lowest works. Milton). 37. Know now, Ráma, that Brahma being the universal soul, He is all in all places and times; and because Brahma is the conscious soul, He exhibits all things to our consciousness, as if they were images in our dreams or the creatures of our imagination. (i.e. A corporeal God only can form a formal and plastic world; but the intellectual soul of God, can make only a formless and immaterial creation, as we see in our dream and phantasies). 38. The maker of the terrene world, must have an earthly body; and the framer of the woody arbours must have a wooden frame, but the Lord God of all, has neither a corporeal body nor a material shape. (Thus they frame a fire, air and water God, but the true God is none of these elements). 39. Others make a mountain God as the Lord of all; and some even make and worship a human figure as the supreme God (and so are all the heathen gods represented in human figures).

40. Some make a picture the Lord and maker of all; and others make some image as such, and worship it as the great God of all. 41. But there is only one supreme Being, who is the maker, supporter and the Lord God of all others; He is without beginning and end, and the Lord Brahma, whose spirit upholds and supports all others. 42. A straw made image or an earthen pot, is attributed with divine powers, and represented as the Most high; and so the formless God is shown in frail images, which are made and destroyed by human hands. 43. An outward object is made the actor and enjoyer of acts; but the wise know intelligence only, as the active and passive agent of all actions. 44. But the truly wise (i.e. the vacuist) acknowledges no active nor passive agent of creation; although many among the wise (i.e. the Páshupatas) recognize one God alone, as the only actor, and enjoyer of all.

45. All these views may be probable, and well apply to the most high, who is the sole object of all these theories; and as there is nothing, which can be positively affirmed or denied of Him. (Here the vacuist Vasishtha is a tolerator of all faiths, as suited to the capacities of the different understanding of men). 46. All these believers look to their desired objects, as manifest to their view in the vacuous space of their intellects, and by viewing the whole world in themselves, they remain undecayed at all times. 47. All visibles and all laws and prohibitions, together with all desires and designs of men; are confined with their knowledge of them in themselves. Hence those that are true to their faiths, and firm in the observance of their duties and performance of their acts, are verily of the nature of the divine soul, by their viewing all nature in themselves. 48. This very doctrine was inculcated to before, when you had been a pupil under my preceptorship; but as you could not fully comprehend it then, you are doomed to another birth, to learn it again from me. (Vasishtha means to say that he is immortal, though Ráma may have his transmigration in many incarnations).

49. The world representing the longsome dark and dreary winter night, presents the pure light of knowledge, shining with the serene and cooling beams of the autumnal lunar disk; now O Ráma! as you <are> edified by your pure intelligence, shake off the dross of dull ignorance from you, and continue in the discharge of your duties, as they have lineally descended to you and to your royal race. 50. Do you remain released from your attachment, to all things of this temporal world; and relying solely in the One supreme and universal soul, whose pure nature is perceptible throughout all nature; then be as lucid as the pellucid sky, with the peace of your mind and transport of your soul, and learn to rule your realm with justice and equity.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE ASSEMBLY. Argument: - Demonstration of the exceeding exultation of the audience at the close of the long winded lengthy lecture. Válmíki related: - As the sage had finished saying these things, or so far, the celestials sounded their trumpets from heaven, as the clouds resounded in the rainy skies, with showers of nectarious rain drops (on the earth below). The face of the sky was whitened on all sides, as by drifts of snowfalls in hoary winter, and the surface of the earth was covered by rain drops, dropping like showers of flowers. (The sound of celestial trumpets, is ever accompanied with or followed by a shower <of> refreshing rain). 2. The earth appeared to be blessed with prosperity in the beauty of the flowers, stretching their pistils and peduncles like beauties in their evening decorations, and sending afar the fragrance of their farinacious dust, like the perfumery on the persons of fairies, their outer garniture and inner cool sweetness are verily the gifts of the gods. 3. The falling flowers of heavenly arbors, dropped down from their dried boughs, by the rampant and apish hurricane of heaven, are now vying with the glittering stars, scattered all over the face of the firmament, and deriding at their grim laughter with their bashful and blushing smiles.

4. The lowering clouds accompanied with sounds of trumpets, and drizzling rain drops and falling of flowers (which bore resemblance to one another); next lighted upon the court hall, like the shadowy snow fall on Himálaya’s head, and filled the assembly with wonder, and gaping mouths and staring eyes. 5. The assembly seated in their order, took hold of handfuls of these heavenly flowers; and poured them upon Vasishtha with their obeisance, and cast away all their earthly cares and woes with those celestial offerings to the sage. (Every offering confers and recurs, with an equivalent blessing to the offerer). 6. The King Dasaratha said: - O wonder! that we are so lightly released of our cares and woes, in this wide extended vale of miseries of the world; and that our souls are now lightened of their throws by your grace, like the heavy clouds lightened of their weight, and floating lightly at last on Himálayas. 7. We have reached to the goal of our acts, and seen the end of our miseries of this life; we have fully known the knowable One (that is only to be known), and have found our entire rest in that supreme state (by your good grace alone).

8. We have known to rest in the ultimate void in our meditation, and to get rid of our erroneous thoughts of bodies, by means of our intense application to the abstract (or Platonic abstraction). 9. It is by our riddance from the coinage and vagaries of our imagination, and by our escape from the feverish fervour for the sights of the dreaming world; as also by our ceasing to mistake the shells and cockles for silver, and by our deliverance from misdeeming ourselves as dead either in our sleep or dream, (that we may be enabled to the true knowledge of ourselves &c.). 10. It is by our knowledge of the identity of the wind and its oscillation, and of the sameness of the water with its fluidity; as also by our distrust in this talismanic world, and in this fairy land of our fancy (that we can attain to the knowledge of truth &c.). 11. It must be by our discredit in the magical scenes of this world, and in the aerial castles of fairies; as also by our mistrust in the limpid currents of the mirage, and in the aerial groves and double moons of heaven (that we can come to know the truth).

12. It is no earthquake, if our tottering foot steps should shake and slip in our drunkenness; nor can we view a ghost in a shadow as boys do, nor see the braids of hair hanging down from the clouds in heaven. 13. From these and other instances, which you have given for our instruction; you have sir, at once effaced our credit in the visible sights of this world. 14. Ráma added: - My ignorance is dispelled, and I have come to the knowledge of truth by your good grace; and O thou chief of sages, I acknowledge thee to have brought me to light from my impervious darkness. 15. I am freed from my doubts, and set to the light of the true nature of God; and I will now act as thou sayst, in acknowledging the transpicuous truth (or viewing God as manifest in nature, and not as hidden under her veil). 16. Remembering and reconsidering thy words, that are so fraught with ambrosial sweetness and full of delightsome taste; I am filled with fresh delight, though already satisfied and refreshed by their sense (i.e. the more I think of them, the happier I seem to feel my-self).

17. I have nothing to do for myself at present, nor is there any left undone or remaining to be done by me. I am as I am and have ever been, and always without any craving for me. (This state of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency, is the highest bliss for man). 18. What other way to our true felicity can there be, than this that has been shown by thee? or else I find this wide-extended field of the earth, to be so full of our woe and misery. 19. I have no foe to annoy me nor a friend to give any joy to me; I have no field to work in, nor an enemy to fear nor a good soul to rely in. It is our misunderstanding that makes this world appear so troublesome to ourselves, while our good sense makes it all agreeable to us. (If the world will not suit thee, suit thyself to it). 20. How could we know all this (for our happiness) without thy good grace unto us; as it is never possible for a boy, to ford and cross over a river, without the assistance of a boat or bridge.

21. Lakshmana said: - It is by reason of your removing the doubts, that had been inherent in and inherited by me in my repeated births; and it is by virtue of the merit, that I had acquired in my former births; that I have come to know the truth this day, by the divine sermon of the holy sage; and to feel the radiance of a holy light in me, shining as brightly as the cooling beams of moonlight. 22. It is strange that in disregard of this heavenly bright and vivid light, that men should be entangled in a thousand errors, and be burnt at last as dried wood or fuel, by their foul mistake and great misfortune. 23. Viswámitra said: - O! it is by our great merit, that we have come this day, to hear this holy lecture from the mouth of the sage; and which has at once expurgated our inner souls, as a thousand lavations in the clear stream of Ganges.

24. Ráma rejoined: - We have seen the highest pitch of all prosperity, and the best of all that is to be seen; we have known the end of all learning, and the last extremity of adversity; we have seen many countries and heard many speeches; but never have we heard, nor seen nor known anything better than the discourse on the beauty of the soul, which the sage has shown to us to-day. 25. Nárada added: - Our ears are purified to-day, by the hearing of what we have never heard heretofore; to be preached by Brahmá or the gods above or men below. 26. Lakshmana rejoined: - Sir, you have entirely dissipated all our inner and outer darkness also; and have shewn us the transcendent light, of the bright sun of the Divine soul. 27. Satrughna said: - I am satisfied and tranquilized, and uncomposed in the supreme soul; I am for ever full and perfect in myself, and sit quite content with my solity. 28. Dasaratha repeated: - It is by the merit of our deeds, done and acquired in our repeated lives, that we have been, O thou chief of sages, sanctified this day by thy sacred and sanctifying speech.

29. Válmíki related: - As the king and his courtiers, were speaking in this manner, the sage oped his mouth again, and thus bespoke his words fraught with pure and purifying knowledge. 30. Vasishtha said: - Hear me, O thou moon like king of Raghu’s race, and do as I bid you to do; Rise now and honour the assembled Bráhmans, who deserve their due honour at the close of a discourse. 31. Rise therefore, and satisfy their desires with thy ample gifts; and thou will obtain thereby, the merit that attends on the learning of the vedas, and doing thy duties according to their dictates. 32. It is incumbent on even a mean worm-like man, to honor the Bráhmans to their utmost at the termination of a sermon on salvation; how much more important must it then be on the part of a monarch to acquit himself of this necessary duty. 33. Hearing this behest of the sage, the king held his reverential silence; and beckoned to his heralds to proceed to all the ten sides of his dominions, and invite thousands of Bráhmans, that are acquainted with the vedas forthwith (to the royal court).

34. He bade them to go to Mathura, Suráshtra and Gauda, and to bring with them with due respect all the Bráhmans, that are born of Vedic families, and are abiding in those districts and lands. 35. There then assembled more than ten thousands of Bráhmans to the royal palace, and the king fed them all alike and paying particular regard to the more learned among them. 36. He treated them with the best sorts of food and rice, honoured them with their honorariums, and gave them a good many gifts; and after honouring them in this manner, he offered his oblations to the manes of his ancestors, and gave his offerings to the tutelar gods of his house. (A Bráhman has his precedence in a feast to the gods and patres; but the merit of giving a feast is lost unless it is followed by other gifts). 37. The king next treated his friends and relatives with proper repast, and then fed his companions and servants and the citizens all on the same day. His attention was at last directed to the feeding of the poor and needy, and of the lame and blind and lunatics.

38. Having discharged to his utmost the duties of the festival, he commanded a great festivity to be held in his hall, all over decorated with silk and embroidery, and with gold, gems and pearls. 39. The city then being adorned and lighted, like the ever bright mount of Meru, there went on a merry dance and ball of giddy girls and players in every house (as a sign of general joy). 40. There was a ringing of bells and sounding of cymbols all about, with the beating of drums and trimbrels at every door; flutes and wind instruments were blowing on every side, and guitars and wired instruments were playing with loud gingling, and vying with each other. 41. The markets were closed, and the marketers stopped in their course; the air appeared as an arbour of plants, shaking with the uplifted and quavering and waving arms of the merry dancers in the streets; and it seemed as the starry heaven, by the glittering light of the teeth of strolling players, displayed in their comic dance and loud laughter.

42. There was the heroic dance attended by the loud shouts of the players, and melodramas accompanied with the soft and sweet strains of the performers, there was also a staggering and strutting dance on one foot and leg, and thumping the ground with the other. 43. Here they flung wreaths of flowers glittering like stars and falling down in showers; and there the scattered flowers, which were strewn over the ground as rain drops, were indiscriminately trodding down under the feet of passersby. 44. Here the actresses dance about with their loose ornaments and gestures of love; and there the bards chanted their hymns with clearness, as the Bráhmans recited them and the songstresses sang. 45. Here the sots and topers drank their fill of wine; and the food mongers fed upon their eatables of various kinds (i.e. some were seen to be indulging their drink and others in their eating). 46. The insides of houses were daubed with wine, as the outer bodies of the princes with ointment of moon light hue. 47. The attendent servants and waiting maids on the king, sauntered about trimmed in gaudy attires of various colours; and graced the royal festival with their decorations of necklaces and sweet perfumes on their persons.

48. The sprightly ballet girls, being besmeared with a paste of all perfumeries (called the yaksha dust), and decorated with glittering ornaments, repaired to the ball at the royal hall with all alacrity. 49. Thus the king Dasaratha held his entertainment for a whole week, and passed full seven nights in festive mirth and rejoicing; while he distributed his gifts and food for as many days, which redounded to exhaustless prosperity on earth.

EULOGY ON THIS WORK AND THE MODE OF ITS RECITAL. Argument: - Válmíki speaks in praise of this work to this pupil Bharadwája, and blesses him to be as blessed as the divine Ráma with the hearing of it. Válmíki said: - O most intelligent Bharadwája, and the chief of my pupils, you have now heard how the great Ráma and others, came to the knowledge of the knowable One (that is only to be known), and passed across this vale of misery and sorrow, by their attention to these lectures. 2. Do you thus fix your sight to the light of Brahma, and conduct yourself gladly, by abandoning all your affections and cares of this world, and by remaining dauntless with your living liberation and tranquility of mind. 3. Know, O thou sinless one, that the learned and the meek, that do not mix with the society of worldly men, but remain steady as Ráma and others in their right principles, are never liable to be deluded although they are beset by temptations on all sides. 4. Thus these men of great natures, as the king Dasaratha and the prince Ráma and his brothers, together with companions, have attended to the state of the living liberated (even in their life time).

5. Thou my son Bharadwája! that art naturally of a liberal mind, hast now become more liberated at present, by thy hearing of these sermons on the salvation of our souls. 6. It is possible even for boys to obtain their liberation, by their attention to those holy lectures, as the most evident and surest means to salvation; and cannot therefore fail to convince thee of the truth thereof. 7. As the high minded and sinless and sorrowless sons of Raghu’s race, have attained to their holy state of perfection and self-liberation; so do thou also obtain that best and highest state, by your attending to the lectures of the divine sage Vasishtha. 8. It is by advice of the good and service under the great, as also by means of humble inquiries to and explications of the learned; that weak men of good understandings, can know the knowable, as the Rághavas and others did under Vasishtha. 9. The ties of avarice and affection that have fast bound the hearts of the ignorant (to this world); do all tend to debar them like playful boys from inquiring into the means of their liberation, until they become too old to benefit by their knowledge.

10. Those that can discern the minds of high minded men, can only come to their knowledge of truth; and such men only have no more to return to this world of woe; and this is the substance of all that I can speak to thee (i.e. know and have the minds of the great, in order to become as great thyself, so says Gay in his Fables. (Hast thou fathomed Tully’s mind, and the vast sense of Plato’s head)). 11. Having first received your instruction from the preceptor, you must weigh well and digest its meaning in yourself; and then communicate its sense, to the most sensible and intelligent student. This is said by sages and saints, as the trivium of science; know this and you need no more, to become wise when your boyhood is over. 12. Whoso will read this book, not without understanding its sense and whoever will manuscript it without the expectation of getting its fee; as also anybody who will recite or cause it to be recited (to a public audience), either with or without any desire of reward, shall have his ample recompense in the land of Áryas (both in his present and future lives). (So it is with the public preaching of its doctrine).

13. These men receive the reward, awaiting on the performance of the Rájasúya sacrifice, and are entitled to their heavenly seats in their pure essence; as often as they ascend to it after their demise on earth, and until they attain their final liberation, which attains on them as prosperity does on the meritorious (after the third transmigration of their expurged souls). 14. It was at first that the god Brahmá of unknowable form, had composed this work in his excellent diction; and then considering it as the only means to the liberation of mankind, had revealed it to the assemblage of saints (of which Vasishtha or Válmíki has made this version). Let nobody therefore take the truthfulness of this saying for an untruth. 15. At the close of the recital of these lectures, on the means of human salvation, it becomes every sensible man of good sense, to honour the Bráhmans with diligence; and to serve them with their desirable gifts of food and drink, and furnish them with goodly houses for their lodging.

16. They should also be rewarded with their honorariums, and supplied with monies to their hearts’ desire, and to the utmost capacity of the donor; and then the giver or master of the ceremony should rest himself assured, of having acquitted his duty to and reaped its merit to the intent of the sástras. 17. I have thus rehearsed to you the great sástra, in elucidation of divine knowledge and its pure truth; with addition of a great many tales and stories, serving as example and illustrations of the abstruse doctrines for your clear understanding of them. May your hearing of these, serve to lead you to your utter indifference of this world, and to the desire of your liberation in it, while you are alive herein. May this tend also to your continued prosperity, in order to engage your attention towards the perfection of your knowledge and devotion, and to the discharge of the duties of your station without failing.

CONCLUSION OF THE CELESTIAL MESSENGER’S MESSAGE OF LIBERATION. Argument: - Acknowledgment of the obligation of Arishtanemi and others, to their preceptors and preachers. Válmíki continued to say: - I have thus related to you, O prince, whatever the pot born Vasishtha had taught and preached to the princes; and it is certain that you will attain the same elevated state, as they did by the hearing of these lectures on sacred knowledge. 2. The Prince Arishtanemi replied: - O Venerable sir, your kind look is enough to extricate us from bondage in this world; and it is hence that I am not only brought to light, but saved from the ocean of this world by your favour. 3. The Heavenly Messenger said: - After saying so, the said prince seemed to look amazed in his look; and then he began to speak these words to me with a graceful voice. 4. The Prince said: - I bow down to thee, O Messenger divine, and wish all safety to attend on thee; it is said that the friendship of the good is attended with seven benefits, all which hast thou conferred upon me. 5. Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra, and well know that, I am both gladdened as well as grown insouciant of worldly concerns, by hearing this discourse of thine.

6. I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without feeling any anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the sense of all that I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O Lady! that I was quite surprised (to see so much civility on the part of a prince). 7. He said: - I have never heard before, such words and fraught with so much knowledge, as I have come now to hear from thee; It has filled my inward spirit with as much joy, as if I have drunk my fill of an ambrosial draught just now. 8. I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the bidding of Válmíki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou hast asked of me. And now I shall bend my course, towards the celestial city of Sakra. 9. The fairy said: - I must thank thee now, O thou very fortunate emissary of the gods! for all that thou hast related to me; and my knowledge whereof, has entirely composed my spirit, by its benign influence. 10. I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain from sorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may now to your destination at Indras, with all speed attending on your journey thither.

11. So saying Suruchi - the best of fairies, continued to keep her seat on the slope of the Himálayas, and contiguous to the Gandhamádana mount of fragrance, and reflect on the sense of what she had heard (of divine knowledge). 12. Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts of Vasishtha, you are at liberty to do as you like, by your weighing well their purport. (For the effecting of your liberation which is the main object of man, both in this life as well as in the next). 13. Kárunya said: - The remembrance of the past, the sight of the present, and the talk of future events, together with the existence of the world; are all as false as the sights in our dreams or of water in mirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren woman. 14. I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what is left undone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse of the occasion and without any assiduity on my part. 15. Agasti said: - Kárunya - The worthy son of Agnibesya, said in the aforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time in the discharge of his duties, as they occured to him from time to time.

16. And you O Sutikshana! should never entertain any doubts regarding the acts, that you shall have to perform after your attainment of divine knowledge (Lest they entail their retribution on you afterwards). Because dubitation destroys the virtue of the deed, as selfishness takes away its merit. 17. Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles the duplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of their combination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows with due submission to him. 18. Sutíkshana said: - Any action done in ignorance of the actor, is reckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full knowledge to be taken into account. (So the brute activities of the giddy mob, bear no value or blame in them before the wise). But actions done with reason and reasonable men, are invaluable in their nature. All our acts are best seen by the light of the intellect as the actions of stage-players are seen only in the candle light. (So are all our mental and corporeal acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).

19. It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the action of our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it is the malleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms of jewelleries. (Hence we should never reject the one for the other). 20. As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to the boisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave and move in our sight; so it is the inbeing of the great soul, that fills all the great and small alike. 21. I submit to and bear with all that befalls to me, because there is no escape from destiny, nor slighting of the sound sayings of sages; and I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to owe my knowledge of the knowable One to thy good grace only. 22. I own myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and bow down prostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me up from the doleful pit of the world; because there is no other way to repay my gratitude to my venerable preceptor.

23. Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression to his obligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world, save by means of offering himself to his services; with his whole body and mind and the words of his mouth. 24. It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have passed over the Rubicon of this world; I am filled with infinite joy amidst all these worlds, and am set free from all my doubts. 25. I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung in the Sáma-veda, as filling all this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill the boundless deep; and whose remembrance fills our soul with ecstasy.

26. I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the form of incarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the joyous bliss of divine felicity; who is beyond all duality and sees the only One in the unity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever alike the pure and immaculate One, and witnesseth the inmost of all minds; who is beyond all states and conditions (of so and so or of such and such); and who is quite devoid of the three qualities (which belong to all bodies) i.e. There is no known quality or property that can be predicated to the Deity. The qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar and unique as own nature. 27. Here ends the Mahárámáyana of the sage Vasishtha, with its continuation by his recorder Válmíki, and the speech of the celestial messenger at the latter end of the Book on Nirvána or the ultimate Extinction of the living soul. FINIS. FOOTNOTES: The mind involved in ignorance, is said to be waking, and the uncontrouled mind is styled as dreaming: the mind subdued by weariness is said to be asleep, and when brought under subjection by any effort, is called samádhi or meditation, lastly its liberation from ignorance, is known as its state of mukti or emancipation.