Yoga Vasistha (Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana)

11. Meditation in worldly life, must be too sensitive and variable; while its intensity or trance stupifies a man to a stone; but true liberation consists neither in the changeableness of mind, nor in its stone like insensibility. 12. I think nothing is obtainable from the stone like apathetic trance, as there is nothing to be <had> from the drowsy stupor <for> anybody. (Hence both fickleness as well as mental torpor are repugnant to meditation and self-liberation). 13. It is therefore by means of consummate knowledge only, that reasoning men can dispel their ignorance; and there is no chance of his being born again, who has secured his liberation in his life time. 14. Inflexible abstraction is said to have no bounds, and it consists in sitting steadfast in profound meditation, without distraction or diversion, such a posture is said to be all illuminating, or eternal sunshine to the Yogi. 15. It is called the endless hypnotism or absorption of the soul, and is the fourth or last state of contemplativeness. It is also styled as nirvána self-extinction, or losing one’s self in his reveries; and this is what they designate moksha or liberation from all bonds and cares of the world. (This is the abstract Platonism of the ancients).

16. It is the density or depth of pansophy, and the intensity of excogitation; and there being an entire absence of the retrospect of the phenomenals in it, it is known as the state of perfect transcendentalism or glory. 17. It is not the stone like inertness of some philosophers (Gautama and Kanada), nor the hypnotism or sound sleep of others (Hiranya garbas); it is neither the unoptativeness or want of option of the Pátanjalas, nor is the inexistence or utter annihilation of the Buddhist. 18. It is the knowledge of Brahma as the prime source of all, and nihility of the visible creation; it is knowing God as all and yet nothing that exists; and therefore it is to know Him as He is - in his all pervading spirit. 19. It is the consummate knowledge of all (as nothing), that gives us our positive rest of nirvána (in our nothingness); and in knowing that the world as it is, equal to its inexistence. 20. That all this variety is no variety at all, nor all these any entity in reality; all apparent realities are mere unrealities, and it is the end of all our conceptions and inductions, that is the only reality (i.e. God the first and last of all - the Alpha and Omega).

21. The entire nihility of the visible world, is the state of its nirvána or extinction; and the settled knowledge of this in any one, constitutes his supreme felicity. 22. This state is attainable by one’s pure understanding, and his habit of constant reconsideration; joined with a knowledge of the sástras, and scrutiny into the right sense of significant words and their significates. 23. This work is the best guide to liberation, by means of its constant study; or else it is attainable by no other means, save by enlightenment of the understanding. ज्ञानतोमुक्तिरेब । 24. Neither pilgrimage nor charity, nor sacred ablutions or learning; nor meditation or Yoga contemplation, nor religious austerities nor sacrifice of any kind (is liberation ever attainable by mankind, except by means of divine knowledge). 25. The world is only a delusion, causing the unreal <to> appear as real; it is the empty vacuum only which presents the appearance of the world, which is as a dream in the vacancy of the Intellect. 26. No religious austerity nor pilgrimage, is ever able to remove our error of the world; they can at the best procure for us the reward of heaven, but never secure unto us our liberation or final beatitude.

27. Our error is extirpated only, by the light of the sástras and of our good understanding; but above all, it is spiritual knowledge alone, which is the best means to our liberation and final salvation. 28. But it is the vivid light of the scriptures, which is sure to destroy our error of the world; as the sunshine serves to dispel the gloom of night. 29. The light, clearness and shade, of creation, preservation and destruction respectively, appear by turns in the clear vacuous mirror of the Intellect; as the ventilation of breeze in air, and fluctuation of waves in water. 30. As the rudiment of the future form, is contained in the heart or embryo of every thing; and as the air contains in its incessant motion (sadágati) within itself; such is the existence of the world, inherent in the Divine Intellect, and so has it its evolution and dissolution therein, like the rise and fall of wind in empty air.

PARAMÁRTHA GÍTÁ OR LECTURE ON TRANCENDENTALISM OR THE SOLITY. Argument: - The appearance of the world in our Ignorance, and its Disappearance before the light of true knowledge. Vasishtha continued: - The vacuity of the Intellect which presented the shadow of a dream at first, could not possibly assume the form of a causal and sensible body (as that of Brahmá), in order to be visible and form the visible world. For how is it possible for the intellectual vacuum, to have a bodily form at all. 2. In the beginning of creation, O Ráma, there was nothing except a shadow dream in the Intellect. And neither was there this creation nor the next world in visible existence. 3. The world appeared only in the form, of an unsubstantial notion of it; and the vacuous intellect remained as quiet with its ideal world, as the mind rests quietly with the nightmare in its dream. 4. Such is the essence of the Intellect, which is translucent and without its beginning and end; and though it is a clear void in itself, yet it bears the ideal model of the world in its mirror.

5. So long as this is unknown, the world appears as a gross substance; but being known as contained in the Divine spirit, it becomes a spiritual substance also; because how is it possible for any gross matter, to attach itself to the transcendent vacuum, of which there is no beginning and end? 6. This pure and abstract knowledge of the world, is as that of a city in dreaming; and such being the state of the world ere its creation, how can any earthly or other matter, be ever joined with the same? 7. The light of the Divine soul, shining amidst the vacuity of the Intellect, is termed cosmos or the universe; consisting as it is supposed, of matter, mind and faculties. 8. It is want of understanding only, which makes us suppose a thing, which is turning round like a whirlpool, and having the force of the wind in it as the stable earth, although it has no basis or stability of it. 9. Afterwards the same Divine spirit (jíva), wishing to display its own glory (thought in its personality of Brahmá), of the ideal forms of the earth and other things (in its imagination).

10. Then the great minds of (Brahmá), shone with a purer light of itself; and this is called his creation which is of an aerial form and no other. (Light being the first work of creation). 11. That pure light, was nothing substantial of itself; but the brightness of the Intellect only, shining with the effulgence of the Divine spirit. (This was the psychic light of the soul in itself). 12. This light is the body of the spirit, which shone as intellectual light in the void of the Intellect; and it presented the appearance of the world in it, in the manner of dreams floating before the empty mind. 13. There being no other inference to be derived, nor any other cause to be possibly assigned (to the production of the world), or of its being produced of itself; it is certain that the divine spirit, sees itself in the form of creation, within the vacuum of its Intellect in the beginning. (As anything cannot come by itself or from nothing; the world must therefore be either a nothing or a form of something that is ever existent of itself).

14. This body of the world (corpus mundi), having no property of a tangible body, is never fragile in its nature; but it is as void as the emptiness of the Intellect, and as inane as the empty air. 15. Its form is that of the supreme Being, which is without any form whatever; and identic with the Divine form, it comprehends all bodies in itself, and extends undivided as all in all in its ownself. 16. This will be better understood in the instance of a dream, which rises of itself and shows itself in various forms; but as all these varieties are nothing but empty visions, so the diverse scenes and sights of the world, are no more than shows of the Divine spirit. 17. The Divine soul of Brahma, assumed to itself the state of the living spirit; and without forsaking its transparent form, became of the form of mind (in the person of the great Brahmá - the creative Power). 18. This power extends the universe in its aerial form in air; which appears to be changed from its unchangeable state of transparency, to that of a gross nature (i.e. the visible and material world).

19. The Mind is Brahmá himself, who gives an external and visible form to the world, that was seated invisible in his heart; and is continually employed in the process of repeated creation and destruction of all. 20. The immaterial mind of Brahma, evolved the world from its protoplasm, which was originally seated in his heart; and thence it appeared in a different form as a counterpart of the original, or as the formless representation of something in a dream. 21. The God Brahmá though in himself dwelling with his formless mind, in his embodied form of the triple world, and of being diffused in endless forms of sensible and insensible beings therein. 22. But there was neither the earth, nor any material form, nor even anything of a visible appearance therein; it was only his mind which exhibited itself, in the form of the formless and vacuous world. (The Divine hypostasis of the personified mind of Brahma, was only a mental and aerial form, and not a material one).

23. Then the lord Brahmá thought that, this mental form of his, was nothing in substance, as it did not appear to sight; it was the Intellect only, which shone in this manner within itself, and had no solidity or substantiality in it. (The Intellect is the omniscience of God, and the Mind is the intelligence of Brahmá). 24. This mental conception or abstract contemplation of the world, is inexpressible by words, and makes the meditator remain in mute astonishment; and causes him to continue as dumb in this ordinary conduct in life. (This is the state of platonic supineness or insouciance). 25. The Intellect being infinite and unlimited, the mind is lost in infinity in its reflection; hence Brahmá having long remained in his silence, became awakened to his knowledge at last. (Brahmá the Demiurgic Mind having recovered itself from its wonder and bewilderment, becomes detached at last from the divine mind). 26. After the insensible mind of Brahmá, had come to its sense, it revolved in itself with its thoughts; as the liquid waters of the sea, turns in whirlpools by agitation.

27. So the insensible air is put to ventilation by its internal motion, and so all living souls which are identic with the calm and quiet supreme soul, slide away like the gliding waters, from their main source. 28. And as the winds and waves, which are identical with the calm air and still water, blow and flow in all directions of themselves, so the minds of living beings which are same with supreme Intellect, run in several ways in their own accord. 29. Hence the vacuous intellect of all living beings, is the same with the Divine intellect; and this, O most intelligent Ráma, is otherwise known as the supreme soul also. 30. The Divine soul appears unto us, to have its twinklings like the vacillation of air; its closing causes the close or end of the world, as its flashing exposes the creation to view. 31. Its glancing causes the visibility of creation, and its winking makes it invisible or extinct to view, while the want of both these acts (opening and closing of its sight), is tantamount to the formless void of the world.

32. But the view of the opening and shutting of its sight, or the visibility and disappearance of the world in one unvaried light, makes the equality of existence and non-existence in the mind, and bespeaks the perfection of the soul. 33. Seeing and not seeing, and their results of creation and extinction, make no difference in the Divine Intellect which is always the same. (The veda says Íkshati or glancing of God, and not his will or word is the cause of the world). 34. Know therefore this world, to be as calm and quiet as the Divine soul; and that it is of the nature of the uncreated vacuum, which is ever the same and no decay. 35. The sensuous and conscious intellect, exhibits itself as the insensible and unconscious vacuum; the very intellect shows itself in the form of the world, which is in a manner its body and residence. 36. The Intellect is neither born or made, nor does it ever grow or decay; it is never visible nor perceptible, nor have we any notion of it; it displays its wonders in itself, without any extraneous substance in it.

37. All that is called the phenomenal, is the brightness of the blazing gem of the great Intellect, and proceeding from the quarry of its vacuum; as the sunshine which illumines the world, issues from the orb of that luminary. 38. It is Brahma himself that shines forth as the creation, just as our sleep exhibits the visionary world in its dream; so is all this creation as quiet as sleep, and yet full with the bustle of the slumbering world. 39. Whatever is known in any manner in the mind, either as existent or inexistent in the world; the same is the reflexion of the Intellect, whether it be an entity or non-entity. 40. Should the impossibility of existence, lead us to the supposition of some cause as of the primary atoms and the like; then what cause can there be assigned to the appearance of sights in our dream (and of fabrics without their foundation). 41. If the origin of the world is not ascribed to Brahma, as the origination of dreams to the Intellect; then neither is there any truth in the existence of the one, or in the appearance of <the> other, which is never true.

42. The minds of men are inclined towards the particular objects of their fancy; hence those that believe and delight in God, take him as the origin of all things that appear unto them. 43. Whatever is in the minds of men, and to whatever their hearts are constantly devoted; they know the same as the only objects of their lives, and the very gist of their souls. 44. He who delights in Brahma, becomes of the same mind in a moment; and so any one who is gratified in any thing, is incorporated with the same in his mind. 45. The man who has obtained his rest in God, has found the highest bliss in his mind; though he shows himself as otherwise in his outward conduct and social dealings. 46. There is no reason for the supposition of unity or duality herein, when the whole existence is as I have propounded, and it is in vain to look at anything else. 47. There <is> nothing as visible or invisible, or anything as formless or having a form herein; there is nothing as subject or object, nor aught of reality or unreality here, when the whole is the very Brahma himself.

48. This world is without a beginning and end, and is known to the world as soul; but in fact, one Brahma rules over all without any fixed rule, like a path without a name. 49. That which is conceived as the serene Brahma, is considered as the bright Brahmá or Demiurgus also; just as what is known as the calm and clear firmament, the very same is said <to be> the empty void likewise. 50. As the nebulae which seem to bedim the face of the sky, are something in appearance and nothing in substance; just <so> do our mental faculties appear to flutter in and obscure the clear atmosphere of the Intellect, and seem to be as dualities or otherwise than the serene intellectual principle. 51. But the mental, bodily and all other perceptive and active powers of living beings, are the common properties of the intellectual soul; just as the very many gaps and hollows in various bodies, are in common with the vacuity of the one universal vacuum only. (i.e. All these are the aerial powers of psychic principle). 52. As the quiet soul passing from its sleeping to the dreaming state, retains its identity and invariableness; so the divine soul passing into creation after its quiescence, remains the very unchanged unity as ever.

53. Thus the supreme spirit reflects the shadow of its great Intellect, in the forms of creation and dream; hence neither is this creation nor the vision in dreaming, any thing in its substance than a mere shadow (of the picture in the Divine Mind). 54. It is the bright picture of the Divine Mind, that exhibits its form in the vacuity of the Great Intellect; and so the ideal appearance as the visible creation, like the fairy land in dream (and the airy castle of imagination). (The word cháya - shadow means both the glory of God, as also the darkness of illusion. Gloss). 55. From the impossibility of the appearance of the world, by any means as it is conjectured by different schools, and from its want of a prior cause; it must be that the intellect saw itself thus exhibited in its own vacuity. 56. In the beginning of creation, the formless void of the Intellect, showed itself in this visible and intangible form; and represented itself as a picture of its mind or dream or its imagination.

57. Like the dream it was a blank and without any attribute; it is changeable but not frangible, and although it was the substance of intellectual voidness, yet it was vitiated with the stain of our misapprehension of it, called avidyá. (The world is purely of an intellectual form, and it is our ignorance which imputes a gross form to it). 58. Like the dream, it seems to possess some properties in its appearance; but is wholly devoid of any in its substance; it is never different from the spiritual nature of the Lord, though it appears otherwise to our misconception of it. 59. The phenomenal world likens a mountain seen in dream, and is inseparable from the soul wherein it resides; therefore the visibles appearing in the vacuity of the Intellect, are more vacuous than the vacuum of the firmament. 60. That which is the supreme soul; and devoid of all form; the very same and of the same nature is all this, that we call the visible world. 61. Whatever conception we have in our dream, the same is the display of our intellect; so the cities and castles that we see in the dreams, are no real existences; but appearances presented unto us by the intellect.

62. As the recognizance of our acquaintances in dream, and the remembrance of the impressions in our memory, are altogether unsubstantial (owing to the absence of their prototypes in us); so the sight of the visibles and the perception of perceptibles quite unreal also (because none of those things are present in us). 63. Therefore leaving <these> unrealities of our recognitions, perceptions and remembrances, which are so much relied upon by the ignorant; we should take them in the light of the direct manifestations of the Deity in those forms. 64. As the waves of the sea, continue to roll incessantly on the surface of the waters; so innumerable worlds that are continually revolving, on the surface of the supreme soul, are of the same nature with itself. 65. All laws and their anomalies, as well as all varieties and complexities unite in harmony in the Divine nature. (There all discord is concord, and all partial evil is universal good). 66. Therefore that Brahma is all in all, and there is none and nothing besides; He alone is the soul of all, as all these live in Him.

67. The roving mind thinks the world to be roving about with all its contents; but the steady minded take it to be quite sedate and quiet; hence it is impossible for the learned also, to settle their minds without the habitual sedateness of their attention. 68. There is no other means, for suppressing the mind from the sight of the visibles; without the constant habit of attending to the lectures (of the preceptor) on this sacred sástra. 69. Though it is difficult to repress the mind from its thoughts of this world, either in its states of living or death, (i.e. either in its waking or sleeping states); yet it is possible to do so by effacing its impressions at once, from the study of this spiritual sástra. 70. The knowledge of the nihility of the visible body, and that of the mind also in want of the body; both in this world as well as in the next world, will always serve to preserve our peace and quietism (and this is attainable by means of studying this sástra). 71. The mind, body and the visibles, are all three of them suppressed under the sense of their nothingness; as the mind, its force and the moving clouds, do all disappear in absence of their cause (i.e. motion).

72. The cause of restlessness is ignorance only, which is altogether dispelled by the study of this sástra; and those whose minds are a little enlightened, have their composure from attending to the recital and preaching. 73. The unintelligent will be able to understand the teachings of the former part from the latter; and he that understands the words and purports of these lectures, will never return disappointed (in his expectation of nirvána or ultimate rest). 74. Then know this sástra as the best means, to the dispersion of the error; and to the production of an universal indifference or insouciance everywhere. 75. Therefore try your best, to weigh well the precepts of this sástra; and whether you study one or both parts of this work, you will doubtless be freed from your misery thereby. 76. Should this sástra prove unpalatable, owing to its being the composition of a holy sage; in that case the student may consult the sacred srutis, for the perfection of his spiritual knowledge. 77. Do not spend your time in false reasoning, nor offer your precious life to flames and ashes; but let your sapient understanding commit the visibles to the invisible soul (i.e. view them in their spiritual light, and bury the gross phenomenal in utter oblivion and appear in the noumenal soul only).

78. No one can buy a jot or moment of his lifetime, at the cost of all the gems in the world; and yet how many are there, who foolishly misspent their time in their worldly dream? 79. Though we have a clear conception of the world, yet it is a false sight together with that of its beholder - the living soul; it is as false as the dream of one’s own death in his sleep, and his hearing the wailing of his friend at his demise.

BRAHMA GÍTA. ACCOUNT OF BRAHMÁNDA OR MUNDANE SYSTEM. Argument: - The world resembling a dream and an atom of the Divine mind, and Brahmá’s account of it. Ráma rejoined: - There <are> innumerable worlds in the universe, many of which have gone before, many are in existence, and many as yet to be; how then is it sir, that you persuade me to the belief of their nullity. 2. Vasishtha replied: - you well know, Ráma, the relation which the world bears to a dream, in that they both mean a passing scene; and this sense of it, can be denied by no one of this audience. 3. The words which are spoken by the wise, who know their application and sense; are neither understood nor received in the hearts of common people, though they are in common use. 4. When you will come to know the knowledge <of> One, then you will discern the three times clearly and behold them as present before you. 5. As it is the intellect alone, that displays itself in the form of the world in our dream; so doth the Divine Intellect also, exhibit the worlds in itself, in the beginning of creation; and there is no other cause of their production.

6. Hence there are innumerable worlds, revolving like atoms in the infinite space of air; and there is no one who can count their number, and descry their modes and natures. 7. It was of old that my venerable sire - the lotus-born Brahmá, and all besmeared with the fragrant dust of that flower, has delivered a discourse on this subject, which I will now relate unto you. 8. It was of old that my sire Brahmá, told me about the number of worlds, and their respective situations in the heavens, whence they thus appear unto us. To this he said (as follows). 9. Brahmá said: - O sage, all this is Brahma, that is manifested as the world; it is infinite entity of the Deity in its abstract essence; but viewed in the concrete, the world is a nonentity. 10. Attend to this narration of mine, which is as felicitous to the soul, as it is pleasant to the ear; it is called the narrative of <the> mundane egg, or of the mundane body or mass. 11. There is in the infinite vacuum, a vacuous substance known as the vacuity of the Intellect, in the form of a minute atom only. (Such as the grain of the mind is, in the hollow cerebrum of the head).

12. It saw as in a dream in itself, of its being as the living soul, resembling the oscillation of the wind in empty air. (The living principle or spirit, is a breath of air). 13. The Lord thus became the living being, with forsaking its vacuous form; and thought itself to become the ego, in its aeriform form. 14. He had then his egoism, and egoistic sense in himself; and this was the knowledge of himself as an unit, which is an act of delusion only. 15. Then he thought himself, as changed to the conditions of the understanding, mind and ego, as in his dream; and was inclined of his own option, to impose mutability upon his immutable nature. 16. He then saw in his mind as if in dream, the five senses attached to his body; these are as formless as the appearance of a mountain in dream, which the ignorant are apt to take as a solid body. (The five formless faculties of sense, are thought to be composed of the five organs of sense by the gross corporealist).

17. Then he beheld in the atom of his intellect, that his mental body (or his mind), was comprised of the three worlds; in their aerial or abstract forms, apparent to view, but without their substance or solidity or any basis at all. (This is the mental form of Virát - cosmos). 18. This stupendous form was composed of all beings, whether of the moving or unmoving kinds. 19. He beheld all things comprised in himself, as they are seen in dream or reflected in a mirror; and the triple world appeared in his person, as the picture of a city newly printed on a plate. 20. He saw the three worlds in his heart, as they are seen in a looking glass; together with all things contained therein, in their vivid colours of many kinds (viz. the view, viewer and the act of viewing; - the doer, deed and the action of doing; - the enjoyer, enjoying and the enjoyment). 21. He observed minuter atoms subsisting within the minute atoms; and stupendous worlds also on high, clustering together in groups and rings. 22. These being seen in ignorance of their natures; appear as gross material bodies; but viewed in the clear light of their essence, they prove to be the display of the divine mind only.

23. Thus the viewer who views the world, in the light of Brahma, finds this view of it, as a vision in this dream; and comes to know that there is no real viewer to view of it, nor any cause thereof nor any duality whatsoever. 24. All these that appear all around us, are quite quiescent in their nature, and in the Divine spirit alone as their main substratum; they are all situated in the universal soul from eternity to eternity. 25. Myriads of worlds that are situated in the Divine spirit, appear to be settled without the same; just as the waves of the sea, rise above its waters and scatter its salt spray in the air.

BRAHMA-GÍTÁ. DESCRIPTION OF DIVINE NATURE. Argument: - The fallacy of assigning a cause to the causeless world; which is likened to a dream of the Divine Mind. Ráma rejoined: - If the world is without a cause, and proceeds of itself from the essence of Brahma, as our dreams, thoughts and imaginations, proceed of themselves from the nature of our minds. 2. And if it be possible for anything to proceed from no cause, then tell me sir, why we can never have anything without its proper causes. (Such as the production of paddy without its cultivation). 3. Vasishtha replied: - Ráma, I am not speaking of common practice of men, for the production of anything by application of its proper causalities; but of the creation of the world, which is not in need of the atomic principle and material elements, as it is maintained by atomist. (Text). (Whatever invention is adopted by any one, in order to produce a certain end, is never effected without the application of its proper means and appliances). 4. In whatever light this visible world is imagined by anybody, he views it in the same light; while another sees it in a different manner, according to his own imagination of it.

5. There are some who imagine it as the diffusion of the Divine soul, and think it as one with the nature of the Deity; while others think it as the living body of Virát, with the insensible parts of it, resembling the hairs and nails growing upon his body. 6. The meanings of the words causality and not causality do both of them belong to the deity; because the Lord being almighty, has the power to be either the one or other as he likes. 7. If there be anything whatever, which is supposed to be beside Brahma in its essence; it is then reasonable to suppose him as the cause of the same, which could not otherwise come to existence. 8. But when all things, that appear so different from one another, are all of them without their beginning or end or co-eternal with the Eternal One. Then say, which of these can be the cause of the other. (Hence the world is one with the lord and has no cause of it). 9. Here nothing comes to exist or desist at any time; but are all eternally existent in the self-existent One; as one and the same with his vacuous self.

10. What is the cause of anything, and to what purpose should any be caused at any time; the Lord expects nothing from his creatures, and therefore their creation is equal to their not being created at all. 11. Here there is no vacuum or plenum, nor any entity nor non-entity either, nor any thing between them; as there is nothing predicable of the infinite vacuity of Brahma (as either this or that). 12. Whatever is is, and what not may not be; but all is Brahma only, whether what is or is not (i.e. what is past or gone or yet to be, i.e. all what is present, past or to be in future). 13. Ráma rejoined: - Tell me sir, how the Divine spirit is not the cause of all, when it is believed to be the sole cause, by all who are ignorant of its quiescent nature (as you maintain). 14. Vasishtha replied: - There is no one ignorant of God, since every one has an innate conviction of the Divinity as the consciousness of himself; and whoso knows the vacuous entity of the Deity, knows also that this nature admits of no scrutiny or discussion.

15. Those who have the knowledge of the unity of God, and his nature of quiescence and as full of intelligence; know also, his unknowable nature is beyond all scrutiny. 16. Ignorance of God, abides in the knowledge of God (because one acknowledges the existence of God, when he says he is ignorant of his nature); and this is as our dreaming is included under the state of sleeping. (Gloss. Philosophers dream many false ungodly theories of causation, while they are sleeping in the quiescent spirit of God.) 17. It is for the instruction of the ignorant, concerning the omnipresence of God, that I say, He is the soul of all or as all in all; while in reality his holy spirit is perfectly pure and undecaying. 18. All existences are thought either as caused or uncaused, according to the view that different understandings entertain respecting them. (But neither of these views, refutes the doctrine of the unity of the Deity. Gloss.) 19. Those that have the right conception of things (as manifestations of the unity in different forms); have no cause to assign any cause to them whatever (as the atomic principles or elements): therefore the creation is without any cause whatever.

20. Therefore the assigning of a cause to this creation, either as matter - prakriti or spirit - purusha, by undermining one’s self-consciousness of Divine pervasion; is mere verbiage of sophists for their own confusion only. 21. In absence of any other cause of creation (save that of our consciousness of it), it is naught beside an appearance in our dream; and there is nothing as the gross material form or its visible appearance whatsoever. 22. Say what cause can the ignorant assign, to their sight of the land in their dream, than to the nature of the Intellect, which exhibits such phenomena to minds. Say if there can be any other meaning of dreams. 23. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of dreams, are deluded to believe them as realities; but those that are acquainted with their falsehood, are not misled to believe them or this world as real ones. 24. It is the impudence of fools to broach any hypothesis of causality, either by their supposition, arrogance or in the heat of their debate (as it is the case with all the different schools of philosophy).

25. Is the heat of fire, the coldness of water, and the light of luminous bodies, and the natures of things their respective causes, as the ignorant suppose them to be? (Or is it the attribute of Brahma that is so manifested in these their several causes? The entity of Divine unity, is the prime sole cause of causes). 26. There be hundreds of speculative theorists, that assign as many causes to creation without agreeing in any; let them but tell the cause of the aerial castle of their imagination. 27. The virtues and vices of men are formless things, and are attended with their fruitions on the spiritual body in the next world; how can they be causes of our corporeal bodies in this world. (As it is maintained by Mímámsá philosophers). 28. How can our finite and shapeless knowledge of things, be the cause of the incessant rise and fall, of endless, and minute bodies in the world, as it is maintained by vijnána váda or gnostic school. (These assert the existence of things depends upon our knowledge or perception of them as such).

29. It is nature says the naturalist, which is the cause of all events but as nothing result from the nature of anything, without its combination with another; it is too indeterminate in its sense. 30. Therefore all things appear as causeless illusions to the ignorant, and their true cause to be a mystery to them; while they are known to the intelligent as the wondrous display of the Divine Intellect, that shows everything in itself. 31. As one knowing the falsehood of dreams, is never sorry at his loss of anything in dream; so those that have the knowledge of truth in them, never feel any sorrow even at the possession or separation of their lives. 32. In the beginning there was no production of the visible world, nor is it anything more than the vacuum of the intellect; in its own and true form it appears as a dream, and is no other than that in its essence. 33. There is no other supposition, which is more apposite to it: than its resemblance to the dream; and our conception of the world, has the great Brahma only for its ground work.

34. As fluidity, waves and whirlpools, are the inherent properties of pure water; such are the revolutions of worlds, but appearances on the surface of the Divine Mind, and have the Divine spirit of Brahma at their bottom. 35. As velocity and ventilation, are inborn in the nature of pure air; the creation and preservation of the world, are ingrained and intrinsical in the nature of God. 36. As infinity and vacuity are the inherent properties of the Great vacuum, so is the knowledge of all things existent and non-existent, and of creation and annihilation immanent in the Divine Mind. 37. All things in existence and lying dormant in the Divine Mind, are yet perceptible to us, because we participate of the very same mind. 38. This creation and its destruction also, both abide side by side in the dense intellect of the Divine Soul; as the thickening dreams and sound sleep, both reside together in the calm sleeping state of our soul. 39. As a man passes from one dream to another, in the same dormant state of his soul; so doth the supreme soul see the succession of creations, taking place alternately in its own essence.

40. The clear atmosphere of Divine Soul, which is devoid of earthy and other material substances; yet appears in their utter absence, to be possessed of them all, in the same manner as the human soul, sees many things in its dream, without having any of those things in itself. 41. As the human mind sees at a thought the forms of a pot, or painting rising before it; so the all seeing mind of God, sees at a glance of its thought, worlds upon worlds appearing at once in its presence. 42. The all seeing soul, sees all things as they are in itself; and finds them to be of the same intellectual nature with its own intellect; and as all things are equivalent to the words expressive of them. (As there is a mutual correspondence between the significant words and their significates). 43. Of what use then are sástras, and of what good is the reasoning upon their verbiage, when our inappetency is the best way to felicity; and there being no creation without its cause, we have nothing to do with what appears but seemingly so.

44. It being proved, that the want of want is our best bliss below; the sensation of want or desire, must be the source of perpetual misery to man; and though our desires are many, yet the feeling of it is one and the same, and betrays the prurient mind, as the various dreams by night, disclose the cupidinous nature of the soul.

BRAHMA-GÍTA. NARRATIVE OF AINDAVA. Argument: - The formlessness of the world, for its formation from the formless mind. Ráma rejoined: - The world is known to consist of two sorts of beings, namely the corporeal or solid substances and the incorporeal or subtile essences. 2. They are styled the subtile ones, which do not strike against one another; and those again are said to be solid things, which push and dash against each other. 3. Here we see always the dashing of one solid body against another; but know nothing of the movement of subtile bodies, or of their coming in contact with another. 4. We know yet something, about the quick motion of our subtile senses to their respective objects, and without coming in contact with them, as we find in our perception of the distant orb of the moon (without touching it). 5. I repudiate the theory of the half-enlightened, who maintain the material world to be the production of the will or imagination; nor can I believe that the immaterial intellect, can either produce or guide the material body. 6. It is the will I ween, that the material breath of life, moves the living body to and fro; but tell me sir, what is that power which propels, the living breath both in and out of the beings.

7. Tell me sir, how the intangible intellect moveth the tangible body; and carries it about, as a porter bears a load all about. 8. Should the subtile intellect, be capable of moving the solid body at its will; then tell me sir, why cannot a man move a mountain also by his own will? 9. Vasishtha replied: - It is the opening and closing of the mouth of the aorta in the breast, that lets in and out the vital breath, through the passage of its hole and the lungs. 10. As you see the bellows of ironsmiths about you, having a hollow inside them, so it is the hollow of the aorta, which lets in and out the vital air, by the breathing of the heart. 11. Ráma rejoined: - It is true that the ironsmith closes and expands the valves of the bellows; but tell me sir, what power blows the wind pipe of the heart, and lets the air in and out of the inner lungs. 12. How the single breath of inhalation becomes a centuple (in order to pass into a hundred channels of the arteries), and how these hundreds combine again into one (in their exhalation); and why are some as sensible beings, and others as insensible as woods and stones.

13. Tell me sir, why the immovables have no oscillation at all; and why the moving bodies alone are possessed of their pulsation and mutation (and why <is> the vegetable creation deprived of motion, when it is possessed of sensibility in common with the animal creation). 14. Vasishtha replied: - There is an internal percipience (inner man), which moves the interior cords of the body; just as the ironsmith plies his bellows in the sight of men. 15. Ráma rejoined: - Say sir, how is it possible for the subtile and intactile soul, to move the vital airs and tangible entrails in the animal body. 16. If it be possible for the imperceptible perceptive soul, to put in motion the intestinal and tactual entrails of the body; then it may be equally possible for the thirsty soul, to draw the distant water to it. (In order to quench its thirst, instead of going to the watery pool). 17. If it be possible for the tangible and intangible, to come together in mutual contact at their will; then what is the use of the active and passive organs of action (if the will alone be effective of any purpose).

18. As the intangible powers of the soul or spirit, bear no connection whatever with the outward objects of the world; some think they can have no effect on the internal organs of the body (in putting them to action). So please explain it more fully to me. 19. Tell me, how you yogis perceive the outward corporeal things in your inner incorporeal souls; and how your formless souls, can have any command over or any contact with solid bodies. 20. Vasishtha replied: - Hear me tell you for rooting out all your doubts, and these words will not only be pleasing to your ears, but give you a conception of the unity of all things. 21. There is nothing here, at any time, what you call as a solid substance or tangible body, but all is a wide and extended vacuum of the rare and subtile spirit. 22. This spirit is of the nature of the pure Intelligence, quite calm and intangible; and all material things as the earth, are as visionary as our dreams, and the creatures of imagination.

23. There was nothing in the beginning, nor shall there be anything at the end; for want of a cause for its creation or dissolution; the present existence is an illusion, as any fleeting shape and shadow appearing before the dreaming mind. 24. The earth and sky, the air and water, and the hills and rivers that appear to sight; are lost sight of by the abstracted yogi; who by means of his abstraction, sees them in their ideal and intangible forms. 25. The outer elements and their inner perceptions, the earth, the wood and stones; are all but empty ideas of the intellect, which is the only real substratum of the ideas, and there is no reality besides. 26. Attend now to the narrative of Aindava, in elucidation of this doctrine; this will not fail to gratify your ears, though I have once before related this to you. (In the former narration the world was identified with the mind, and here it is represented as identical with the Intellect itself). 27. Attend yet to the present narration, which I am going to relate in answer to your question; and whereby you will come to know these hills and others, to be identic with your intellect.

28. There lived once in days of yore, a certain Bráhman in some part of the world, who was known under the name of Indu, and was famed for his religious austerities and observance of vedic ceremonies. 29. He had ten sons by whom he was surrounded like the world by its ten sides (of the compass); who were men of great souls, of magnanimous spirits, and were revered by all good and great men. 30. In course of time the old father met with his demise, and departed from his ten sons as the eleventh Rudra, at the time of the dissolution of the world. 31. His chaste wife followed his funeral (by concremation), for fear of the miseries of widowhood; just as the evening twilight follows like a faithful bride, the departing daylight with the evening star shining upon her forehead (in token of the vermeil spot on women’s forehead). 32. The sons then performed the funeral ceremonies, and in sorrow for their deceased sire, they left their home and domestic duties and retired to the woods for holy devotion.

33. They practiced the best method for the intensity of their attention, and which is best calculated to secure the consummation of their devotion; and was the constant reflection of their identity with Brahma (in the formula we are the lords of all, about us). 34. Thinking so in themselves, they sat in lotus like posture; and wishing to gain the knowledge of the unity of all things, they did what you shall be glad to learn from me. 35. They thought they sustained in them the whole world, which is presided over by the lotus-born Brahmá; and believed themselves to be transformed, to the form of the mundane God in an instant. 36. Believing themselves as Brahma, they sat long with the thought of supporting the world; and remained all along with their closed eyes, as if they were mere figures in painting. 37. With this belief they remained fixed and steady at the same spot, and many a month and year glided over their heads and motionless bodies. 38. They were reduced to dry skeletons, parts of which were beaten and devoured by rapacious beasts; and some of their <limbs> were at once severed and disappeared from their main bodies, like parts of a shadow by the rising sun.

39. Yet they continued to reflect that they were the God Brahmá and his creation also, and the world with all its parts, were contained in themselves (i.e. They considered themselves as Virát the form of macrocosm). 40. At last their ten bodiless minds, were thought to be converted to so many different worlds, in their abstract meditation of them. (i.e. Each of them viewed himself as a cosmos). 41. Thus it was by the will of their intellects, that each of them became a whole world in himself; and remained so in a clear or abstract view of it, without being accompanied by its grosser part. 42. It was in their own consciousness, that they saw the solid earth with all its hills &c. in themselves; because all things have reference to the intellect, and are viewed intellectually only (or else they are nothing). 43. What is this triple world, but its knowledge in our consciousness, without which we have no perception of it, and with which we have a clear conception of every thing. So all things are of the vacuous nature of our consciousness, and not otherwise. 44. As the wave is no other than the water of the sea, so there is nothing movable or immovable whatever, without our conscious knowledge of it.

45. As the Aindavas remained in their vacuous forms of intellectual worlds in the open air; so are these blocks of wood and stone also, pure intellectual beings or concept in the sphere of our minds. 46. As the volitions of the Aindavas, assumed the forms of the world, so did the will of lotus-born Brahmá take the form of this universe. (So says the veda: The divine will produced the world, just as the adage goes, the will is the mother of the act). 47. Therefore this world together with all these hills and trees; as also these great elements and all other bodies, appertain to the intellect only, which is thus spread out to infinity. 48. The earth is the intellect, and so are its trees and mountains, and heaven and sky also the intellect only; there is nothing beside the intellect, which includes all things in itself, like the intellectual worlds of the Aindavas. 49. The intellect like a potter, forms every thing upon its own wheel; and produces this pottery of the world, from the mud of its own body (out of its own intellectual substance).

50. The sensible will being the cause of creation, and framer of the universe, could not have made any thing, which is either insensible or imperfect in its nature, and neither the mineral mountains nor the vegetable production, are devoid of their sensations. 51. Should the world be said to be the work of design, or of the reminiscence or former impression or of the Divine will; yet as these are but different powers of the Intellect, and are included under it; the world then proves to be the production of the intellect, under some one of its attributes as it is said before. (Hence there is no gross body as the product of intelligent Intellect). 52. Therefore there cannot be any gross substance in the Divine Intellect which blazes as a mine of bright gems, with the gemming light of consciousness in universal soul of God. 53. Anything however mean or useless, is never apart from the Divine soul; and as it is the nature of solar light to shine on all objects, so doth the light of intellect, take everything in the light of the Great Brahma, which pervades alike on all.

54. As the water flows indiscriminately upon the ground, and as the sea laves all its shores, with its boisterous waves; so doth the intellect ever delight, to shed its lustre over all objects of its own accord, and without any regard to its near or distant relation. 55. As the great creator evolves the world, like the petals of his lotiform navel, in the first formative period of creation; so doth the divine intellect, unfold all the parts of the mundane system from its own penetralia, which are therefore not distinct from itself. 56. The Lord is unborn and increate, and unconfined in his nature and purely vacuous in his essence; he is calm and quiescent, and is immanent in the interim of ens and nil (i.e. of existence and non-existence). This world therefore is no more than a reflexion of the intellectual or its ideal pattern in Divine Mind. 57. Therefore the ignorant man, who declares the insensibility of inanimate objects, is laughed at by the wise, who are sensible of their sensibility in their own kinds. Hence the rocks and trees which are situated in this ideal world, are not wholly devoid of their sensations and feelings.

58. The learned know these ideal worlds in the air, to be full with the Divine soul; and so they know this creation of Brahmá’s will, to be but an airy utopia only, and without any substantiality in them. 59. No sooner is this material world, viewed in its aerial and intellectual light, than the distresses of this delusive world betake themselves to flight, and its miseries disappear from sight. 60. As long as this intellectual view of the world, does not light to the sight of a man, so long do the miseries of the world, beset him thicker and thicker and closer on every side. 61. Men besotted by their continued folly, and remaining blind to their intellectual view of the world, can never have its respite from the troubles of the world, nor find their rest from the hardness of the times. 62. There is no creation, nor the existence or inexistence of the world, or the birth or destruction of any one here; there is no entity nor nonentity of any thing (beside the essence of the One). There is the Divine soul only, that glows serenely bright with its own light in this manner; or there is no light whatever except the manifestation of the divine spirit.

63. The cosmos resembles a creeper, with the multitude of its budding worlds; it has no beginning nor end, nor is it possible to find its root or top at any time, or to discover the boundless extent of its circumference. Like a crystal pillar, it bears innumerable statues in its bosoms, which are thickly studded together without having their initium or end. 64. There is but one endless being, stretching his innumerable arms to the infinity of space; I am that vacuous soul embracing every thing ad infinitum, and I find myself as that stupendous pillar, in my uncreated and all comprehensive soul, which is ever as quiescent and transparent and without any change in itself.

THE DOCTRINE OF PANTHEISM OR THE ONE AS ALL. Argument: - The intellectuality and incorporality of the World, preclude the idea of its materiality. Vasishtha continued: - Now as the triple world is known, to be a purely intellectual entity; there is no possibility of the existence of any material substance herein, as it is believed by the ignorant majority of mankind. 2. How then can there be a tangible body, or any material substance at all; and all these that appear all around to our sight, is only an intactile extension of pure vacuity. 3. It is the emptiness of our intellectuality, and contained in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect; it is all an extension of calm and quiet intelligence, subsisting in the serene intelligence of the supreme One. 4. All this is but the quiescent consciousness, and as a dream that we are conscious of in our waking state; it is a pure spiritual extension, though appearing as a consolidated expanse of substantial forms.

5. What are these living bodies and their limbs and members, what are these entrails of theirs, and these bony frames of them? Are they not but mere shadows of ghosts and spirits, appearing as visible and tangible to us. (Or very likely they resemble the phantoms of our dreams, and the apparitions that we see in the dark. Gloss). 6. The hands, the head, and all the members of the body, are seats of consciousness or percipience; where it is seated imperceptible and intangible, in the form of the sensorium or sensuousness. 7. The cosmos appears as a dream in the vacuum of the Divine Mind; and may be called both as caused and uncaused in its nature, owing to its repeated appearance and eternal inherence in the eternal Mind. 8. It is true that nothing can come out from nothing, or without its cause; but what can be the cause of what is eternally destined or ordained in the eternal mind. (Predestination and Preordination being the uncaused cause of all events). 9. It is possible for a thing to come to existence, without any assignable cause or causality of it; and such is the presence of every thing that we think of in our minds (and so also is the appearance of this world in its intellectual light).

10. If it is possible for things, ever to appear in their various forms in our dreams, and even in the unconscious state of our sleep; why should it <be> impossible for them to appear also in the day dream of our waking hours, the mind being equally watchful in both states of its being. 11. Things of various kinds, are present at all times, in the all comprehensive mind of the universal soul; these are uncaused entities of the Divine Mind, and are called to be caused also, when they are brought to appearance. 12. As each of the Aindavas, thought himself to have become a hundred in his imagination; so every one of these imaginary worlds, teemed with millions of beings - the mere creatures of our fancy. 13. So is every body conscious of his being many, either consecutively or simultaneously at the same time; as we think of our multiformity in the different parts and members of our bodies. (Or as the king Vipaschit viewed himself, as dilated in the sun, moon and stars, so also one man thinks himself as many, in different states of his life).

14. As the one universal body of waters, diverges itself into a thousand beds and basins, and branches into innumerable channels and creeks, and as one undivided duration, is divided into all the divisions of time and seasons (so doth the one and uniform soul become multiform and many). (As the sruti says: - aham-bahu-syam). 15. All compact bodies are but the airy phantoms of our dream, rising in the empty space of our consciousness; they are as formless and rarefied, as the hollow mountain in a dream, and giving us a void notion of it. 16. As our consciousness consists of the mere notions and ideas of things, the world must therefore be considered, as a mere ideal existence; and it appears in the sights of it and observes in the same light; as the fleeting notions of things glide over the void of the intellect. (The mind is conversant only with the ideas and not with the substance of things). 17. Our knowledge and nescience of things, resemble the dreaming and sleeping states of the soul; and the world is same as the intellect, like the identity of the air with its breeze.

18. The noumenon and the phenomenon, are both the one and same state of the Intellect; being the subjectivity of its vacuous self, and the objectivity of its own intellections and reveries; Therefore this world appears as a protracted dream, in the hollow cavity of the sleeping mind. 19. The world is a non-entity, and the error of its entity, is caused by our ignorance of the nature of God from the very beginning of creation. In our dream of the world, we see many terrific aspects of ghosts and the like; but our knowledge of its non-entity, and of the vanity of worldliness, dispel all our fears and cares about it. 20. As our single self-consciousness, sees many things in itself; so does it behold an endless variety of forms, appearing in the infinite vacuity of the Divine Mind. 21. As the many lighted lamps in a room, combine to emit one great blaze of light; so the appearance of this multiform creation, displays the Omnipotence of one Almighty Power.

22. The creation is as the bursting bubble, or foam and froth of the mantling ocean of omnipotence; it appears as a wood and wilderness in the clouded face of the firmament, but disappears in the clear vacuous atmosphere of the Divine Mind; and there is no speck nor spot of creation in the infinite ocean of the Supreme Intellect.

BRAHMA GÍTÁ OR THE STORY ON AUSTERE DEVOTEE. Argument: - Vasishtha’s elucidation of the story of Kunda-danta at the request of Ráma. Ráma rejoined: - I pray you sir, to remove the shade of a doubt from my mind, as the sunshine dispels the darkness from before it; in order to bring to light whatever is dark and obscure in the world. 2. I beheld once a self-governed ascetic, who came to the seminary, where I was sitting amidst the synod of the sages and learned men, and conversing on subjects of theology and divinity. 3. He was a learned Bráhman, and of a godly appearance; he came from the land of the Videhas or the Mithilas, and was practiced in religious austerities, and was as unbearable in the lustre of his person as the terrific seer Durvásas self. 4. On entering the assembly, he made his obeisance to the illustrious persons; when we also saluted him in return and advanced his seat for him to sit down. 5. The Bráhman being well seated, I picked up many discourses with him from the Vedánta, Sánkhya, and Siddhánta philosophy, and when his weariness was gone, I made this question to him, saying: -

6. Sir, you seem to be tired with your long journey to this place, please tell me, O eloquent sir, from where you have started here today. 7. The Bráhman replied: - so it is, O fortunate prince, I have taken great pains to come up to this place; and now hear me to tell you the reason, that brings me hither to you. 8. There is a district here, known by the name of Vaideha, it is equally populous as well as prosperous in all respects; and is a resemblance of its semblance of the heavenly paradise. 9. There I was born and educated, and held my residence at the same place; and named as Kundadanta from the whiteness of my teeth, bearing resemblance to the buds of Kunda flowers. 10. I resigned afterwards my worldly concerns, and betook myself to travel far and wide about this earth; and resorted to the asylums of holy sages and saints, and to the shrines of gods to rest from my fatigue. 11. I retired next to <a> sacred mountain, where I sat silent for a long period, practicing my devotional austerities.

12. There I found a desert, which was devoid of grassy pastures and woody trees; and where the light of the sun and the shade of night, reigned by turns, as it was the open sky on earth. 13. There is in the midst of it a branching tree, with little of its verdant leaves and leaf-lets; and the luminous sun dispensed his gentle beams, from the upper sky and through cooling foliage. 14. There hung suspended under one of its boughs, a man of a holy mien; who blazed as the resplendent sun pendent in the open air, by the cords of his wide extending beams and radiating rays. 15. His feet were tied upwards by a clotted cord of munja grass, and his head hung downward towards the ground beneath; and this gave him the appearance of an offshoot of the banian tree rooted in the earth below. 16. Having then after a while, approached to him at that place, I saw him to have his two folded palms affixed to his breast (as if he was intent upon the meditation of the lord, with the devoutness of his heart).

17. Advancing nearer to the body of the Bráhman, I found it to be alive by its respiration, and from its having the feeling of touch, and the perception of heat and cold, and that of the breeze and change of weather. 18. Afterwards I employed myself solely, in my attendance on that devout personage only; and underwent all the rigours of the sun and seasons, until I was received into his confidence. 19. I then asked him saying; who art thou lord, that hast thus betaken thyself to this sort of painful devotion; say, O long sighted seer, what is the aim and object of this thy protracted state of self-mortification at the peril-expense of thy precious life. 20. He then replied to my question saying: - Tell me first O devotee, what is the object of thy devotion and those of all other persons, that are devoted to the particular objects of their pursuit. (So it is useless to inquire into the aim and object of another, when there is no body without his particular end in view). 21. This he said as introductory to his speech to me; but being pressed further by my importunate inquiries, he gave the following answer to my questions.

22. I was born, said he, at Mathura where I grew up from childhood to youth in the house of my father; and acquired my knowledge of philology and the arts in course of this time. 23. I then learnt this also, that princes are the receptacles of all pleasures and enjoyments, and that it is the early bloom of youth, that is capable of the fruitions of life. 24. Since then I began to reflect on my being the possessor of the seven continents of the earth; and to foster the ardent expectation, of the gratification of all my desires of this life. 25. It is for this purpose that I have come to this place, and have employed myself in this state of devotion, for attainment of objects of my desire. 26. Therefore, O thou disinterested and self offered friend of mine, do thou now return to thy own country and desired abode; and leave me to remain in this state, with my firm resolution for the accomplishment of my desired object. 27. Being thus bid by him to depart from that place, listen you now to what I replied unto him; this you will wonder at its rehearsal, and the wise will be gladdened in their hearts to learn.

28. I addressed him saying: - O holy saint, let me remain here at thy service, and underneath this holy tree, until you obtain the desired boon of your devotion. 29. On my saying so, the meek minded devotee, remained as cool and quiet as a block of stone, and with his closed eye lids, he persisted in his dormancy as a dead body, without any motion in his outer limbs. 30. I too continued to stay before him, as quiet and quiescent as a block of wood, and endured without shrinking the rigours of the climate and seasons, for full six months at that spot. 31. I saw at one time, effulgent as the blazing sun, descending from the solar orb, and then standing in presence of the devotee. 32. As this deific personage was adored mentally by the ascetic, and by bodily prostration of myself; he uttered his words, in a tone as sweet as the exudation of ambrosial sweetness. 33. He said: O painstaking Bráhman, that hast long been pendent on the projected bough of this branching banian tree, suspend thy severe austerities, and accept thy desired boon, which I am ready to confer on thee.

34. Thou shalt as thou wishest, reign over the seven oceans and continents of this earth; and with this present body, thou shalt rule over it, for seven thousand years. 35. In this manner did this secondary sun, give his blessing to the devout ascetic; and was prepared to plunge into the bosom of the ocean out of which he rose of himself. (The sun is usually said to rise from and set in the mountain top, but he is made to rise out of and sink in the sea, according to the Grecian mythology). 36. The Deity having departed, I accosted the ascetic hanging below the branch, and said to him I witnessed to day what I had heard from before, that the gods are ever propitious to their suppliants. 37. Now O Bráhman, as you have gained the object of your desire, it is desirable that you should give up your austerity, and pursue the proper callings and the course of your life. 38. He having assented to my proposal, I ascended on the tree and loosened his feet therefrom; as they let loose the feet of an elephant from the fetters tied to its prop and post.

39. Having then bathed himself, he made his offerings with his pure hands for the remission of his sins; and then with the fruits which he was fortunate to pluck from the tree, he broke the fast of his long lent. 40. It was by virtue of his meritorious devotion, that we obtained plenty of the delicious fruits of that holy tree; where upon we refreshed ourselves, and subsisted for three days. 41. Thus this Bráhman being desirous of obtaining the sovereignity of the earth, consisting of the septuple continents girt by the seven oceans all around, made his painful maceration with his uplifted feet and downward head, until he obtained desired boon from the god of day, and refreshed himself for three days at the spot, till at last both of us set out on our journey towards the city of Mathurá.

BRAHMA-GÍTÁ CONTINUED. Argument: - The guest’s description of <the> sanctuary of the goddess Gaurí. The guest Kunda-danta resumed his narration and said: - We then betook ourselves to our homeward journey, and bent our course towards the holy city of Mathurá, which was as fair and splendid as the solar and lunar mansions, and the celestial city of Amaravati of Indra. 2. We reached at the rustic habitation of Raudha, and halted at the mango forest over an adjacent rock. Then we turned towards the city of Salísa, where we remained two days in the cheerfulness of our spirits. 3. We passed our itinerant time, with that hilarity of our hearts, which ever attends on travelling through unknown places and scenes; and the succeeding season of our halting, was passed in our repose under the cooling shade of woodland arbours, and refreshing ourselves in the cooling brooks and breezes. 4. The faded flowers which were thrown down in profusion, from the flowery creepers growing on the banks of rivers; the dashing of the waves, the humming of the bees, and the singing of birds, are delightsome to the souls of passing travellers.

5. The thickening and cooling shades of beachening trees, the droves of deer and the flights of chirping birds; and the frozen ice and dew drops, hanging tremulously as pearls on the leaves of verdant trees, and at the ends of the blades of green grass (are refreshing to the soul of the weary passenger.) 6. We passed many days through woods and forests, and over hills and dales, through caves and defiles, over marshes and dry lands, and in cities and villages; and also crossed over a great many rivers and channels and running waters. 7. We passed our nights under the arbours of thick plantain forests; and being weary with walking over snow and dew, we laid ourselves on beds made of plantain leaves. 8. On the third we came to a jungle full of gigantic woods and trees, which for want of human habitation, seemed to have divided the empire of heaven between themselves (meaning that there was to be seen nothing, except the skies above and woods below). 9. Here that devotee left the right path, and entered into another forest, with uttering these useless words to me (which were discursive and preventive of our returning to our respective habitations).

10. He said: - Let us go to the sanctuary of Gaurí here, which is the resort of many munis and sages from all quarters; and is the asylum to which my seven brothers, have repaired for attainment of their objects. 11. We are eight brothers in all, and all of us have fostered great ambitions in various respects; we are all equally resolved to devote ourselves to rigorous austerities, for the success of our determined purposes. 12. It is for that purpose that <they> have sought their shelter in this holy asylum, and with fixed determination practiced various acts of self mortification, whereby they have been expurgated from their sins. 13. Ere this I accompanied my brothers to this place, and remained here with them for six months together; and now I find this same sanctuary of Gaurí in the same state as I had seen it before. 14. I see the piece of ground, overhung by the shady flower of trees; under the shade of which I see the young fauns to be reposing in this their peaceful retreat; I see also the leafy bowers with the sprays of birds thereon, listening to the recital of the sástras, conducted by the sages underneath.

15. Let us therefore go to the asylum of the sages, which resembles the seat of Brahmá crowded by the Bráhmans on all sides; here shall our bodies be purified of their sins, and our hearts will be sanctified by the holiness of the place. 16. It is by sight of these holy men of superior understanding, that the minds of even the learned and saintlike persons, and even those of the knowers of truth are purified (wherefore it must be sanctifying to us also). 17. Upon his saying so, we both went together to that asylum of the recluses of sages and hermits; but to our great disappointment, we saw nothing but the appearance of a total desolation. 18. There was not a tree nor plant, and neither a shrub nor creeper to be seen on the spot; nor was there any man or muni or a boy or child was met thereabouts; nor any altar or priest was there anywhere. 19. It was only a vast desert, all void and devoid of bounds; an unlimited space of burning heat, and appeared as the blank expanse of the sky, had fallen down on the ground below.

20. Ah wœ to us! what is all this come to be! said we to one another; and saying so, we continued to rove about for a long while, until we chanced to espy an arbour at some distance. 21. It presented a thickly shady and cooling aspect, resembling that of a dark and drizzling cloud in the sky; and there was observed an aged hermit, sitting in his meditation beneath it. 22. We two sat upon the grassy spot, spread out in front of the eremite; and though we kept sitting there for a long time, yet we could find no respite in the abstracted meditation of the muni. 23. Then feeling uneasy at my staying there for a long while, I broke my silence in impatience, and cried out in a loud voice, saying, suspend, O sage, the life-long musings of your mind. 24. My loud cry awakened the muni from the trance of his reverie, as the roaring of a raining cloud wakens the sleeping lion, rising straight with his yawning mouth (and stretched out limbs).

25. He then said unto us, who are ye pious persons, that are in this desert; say where is that sanctuary of Gaurí gone, and who is it that has brought me hither. Tell me what means this change and what time is this. 26. Upon his saying so, I replied to him saying, you sir, know all this and not we; say how is <it> that you being a sage and seer do not know yourself? 27. Hearing this the holy man betook himself to his meditation again, and there saw all the events that had occurred to himself and us also. 28. He remained a moment in deep thought, and then coming to himself from his abstraction, he said unto us, learn now about this marvelous event, and know it to be a delusion only by your good common sense. 29. This young kadamba tree, that you are seeing in this desert, and that gives me a shelter underneath it, and is now flowering in kindness to me. 30. It was for some reason or other, that the chaste goddess Gaurí, dwelt for full ten years upon it, in the form of the goddess of speech, and underwent all the inclemencies of the seasons sitting there upon.

31. It was by her that a goodly grove, and an extensive forest was stretched out at this place, which became therefore known by her name, and was decorated by the flora of all the seasons. 32. It was a romantic spot to all grades of gods and men, who kept singing and sporting here in concert with the melody of tuneful and sportive birds; the air was filled with clouds of flowers, which brightened as myriads of moon in the sky; while the flying dust of full blown lotuses, perfumed the air on all sides of the forest. 33. The pollen of mandara and other flowers, perfumed the air around; and the opening bud and blooming blossoms brightened as moons; the flowering creepers sent forth their fragrance all about, and the whole courtyard of the forest, seemed to <be> strewn over with perfumery. 34. Its bowers were the seats of the god of the vernal season and flora; and the orchestra of black-bees, sitting and singing in concert with their mates on the top of flowers; the flower beds were spread as the outstretched sheet of moon light, and as cradles for the swinging sports of siddha and celestial damsels.

35. Here were brooks frequented by cranes and herons, and aquatic birds of various kinds; and there spacious lawns on the ground, graced by cocks and peacocks, and land birds of various hues. 36. The gandharvas and yakshas, siddhas and the hosts of celestials, bowed down to this kadamba tree, and their coronets rubbed against the branch, which was sanctified by the touch of the feet of the goddess Sarasvatí alias Gaurí. And the flowers of the tree, resembling the stars of heaven, exhaled their fragrance all around. 37. Gentle zephyrs were playing amidst the tender creeper, and diffusing a coldness throughout the secret bowers, even in the light and heat of the blazing sunshine; while the flying dust of the kadamba and other flowers, spread a yellow carpet all over the ground. 38. The lotus and other aquatic flowers, were blooming in the brooks, frequented by storks and cranes and herons and other watery birds, that sported upon them; while the goddess regaled herself amidst the flowery groves, which displayed her wondrous powers in the variety of their flowers.

39. It was in such a forest as this, that the goddess Gaurí the consort of the god Hara, resided at this spot for a long time, for some cause known to her godly mind; and then by changing her name and form to that of kadamba - Sarasvatí, she waved as gracefully as a kadamba flower, on the crown of the head of her spoused partner Hara or Siva.

BRAHMA GÍTÁ CONTINUED. SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS. Argument: - Meeting of the Kadamba Hermit with his brothers, their bane and blessing and final success. The old anchorite resumed and said: - The goddess Gaurí dwelt for a full decade of years, on this very Kadamba tree of her own accord; and then she left this arbour of her own will, in order to join her lord Hara on his left side. 2. This young Kadamba tree, being verified by the ambrosial touch of the goddess, never becomes old, nor fades or withers; but ever remains as fresh as a child in the lap of her mother. 3. After the goddess had left this place, that great garden was converted to a common bush, and was frequented only by woodmen, who earned their livelihood by woodcutting. 4. As for myself, know me to be the king of the country of Malwa, and to have now become a refugee in this hermitage of holy ascetics, by abdication of my kingdom. 5. On my resorting to this place, I was honoured here by the inhabitants of this holy asylum; and have taken any abode beneath this kadamba tree, where I have been in my meditative mood ever since that time.

6. It was some time ago, that you sir, had come here in company with seven brethren, and betaken yourselves to the practice of your religious austerities. 7. So did you eight persons reside here as holy devotees since that time, and were respected by all the resident devotees of this place. 8. It came to pass in process of time, that one of them removed from here to the Srí mountain; and then the second among them, went out to worship the lord Kártikeya in another place. 9. The third has gone to Benares and the fourth to the Himálayas; and the remaining four remained at this place, and employed themselves to their rigorous austerities. 10. It was the earnest desire of each and every one of them, to become the sovran lord of all the seven continents of the earth. 11. At last they all succeeded to accomplish their objects of their self same desire, by the grace and boon which obtained from the respective deity of their adoration, that was pleased with the austerity of his particular devotee. 12. The brethren returned to their habitation, when you had been employed in your devotion; and after their enjoyment of the fruition of this earth in golden age, they have ascended to the empyrean of Brahmá.

13. O sir, those brothers of yours, finding their respective gods propitious to them, and willing to confer blessings upon them, had made the following request of them saying: - 14. Ye gods! make our seven brothers, the lords of the seven continents of the earth; and let all our subjects be truthful and sincere, and attached to the occupations of their respective orders. 15. The gods that were adored by them, gladly occupied their prayer; and having assented to their request, disappeared from them, and vanished in the open sky. 16. They all went afterwards to their respective habitation, and met death except this one who is now here. 17. I only have been sitting alone, devoutly intent upon meditation; and have remained as motionless as a stone, beneath this kadamba tree, which is sacred to the goddess of speech. 18. Now as the seasons and years, have been rolling on upon my devoted head, I have lived to see this forest, to be broken and cut down by woodmen, living in the skirts of these woods. 19. They have spared only this unfading kadamba tree, which they had made an object of their veneration, as the abode of the goddess of speech; and me also whom they believe to be absorbed in inflexible meditation.

20. Now sirs, as you seem to have newly come to this place, and bear the appearance of aged ascetics; I have therefore related to you all that I have come to know by my cogitation only. 21. Rise then ye righteous men, and proceed to your native homes; where you will meet your brothers in the circle of their family and friends. 22. You will find eight of your brothers, remaining in their abode; and resembling the eight high minded Vasus, sitting in the high heaven of Brahmá. 23. After that great devotee had said so far, I interrupted him saying: - I have a great doubt in this wondrous relation of yours, which you will be pleased to expound it to me. 24. We know this earth to be composed of seven continents only, how then is it possible for eight brothers, to be the lord of them all, at the one and same time. 25. The kadamba ascetic said: - It is not inconsistent what I have related to you, there are many such are seemingly incongruous, but become evident when they are explained. 26. These eight brothers, having passed their periods of asceticism, will all of them become lords of the seven continents of the earth, in their domestic circles. (i.e. Each thinks himself as such).

27. All these eight brothers, will remain in their respective houses on the surface of the earth; and will there become the lords of the septuple continents, in the manner as you shall now hear from me. 28. Every one of these eight persons had each a wife at home, who were of unblemished character and persons withal; and resembled the eight stars or planets of heavens, in the brightness of their bodies. (They were equally chaste and fair and loving wives also). 29. After these eight brothers have departed, to conduct their protracted devotion abroad; their love lorn wives became disconsolate at their separation, which is altogether intolerable to faithful wives. 30. They in their great sorrow of spirit, made painful austerities to the memory of the absent lords; and conducted a hundred Chándráyana vows and rites, to the satisfaction of the goddess Párvatí. (The Olympian Juno, and the patroness of chastity). 31. Invisibly the goddess appeared to them, and spake her words to them separately in their inner apartments; after each and every one of them had performed her daily devotion to <the> goddess.

32. The goddess said: - O Child, that hast been long fading away by thy austerities, like the tender shoot under the scorching sun; now accept this boon to thy heart’s desire, both for thyself as also for thy husband. 33. Hearing this voice of the goddess of heaven, the lady Chirantiká, offered her handfuls of flowers to her, and began to address her prayer to the goddess, to her heart’s satisfaction. 34. The reserved and close tongued damsel, uttered her words in a slow flattering voice flushed with joy; and addressed the heavenly goddess, as the peahen accosts the rising cloud. 35. Chirantiká said: - O goddess, as thou bearest eternal love to Siva - the god of gods, such is the love I bear also to my husband, O make him immortal. 36. The goddess replied: - Know, O goodly minded lady, that it is impossible to gain immortality, from the inflexible decree of destiny, ever since the creation of the world. No devotion, austerity nor charity can buy life, ask therefore some other blessing. 37. Chirantiká said: - O goddess! if it be impossible to attain immortality, then ordain it thus far; that he being dead, his soul may not depart beyond the confines of this house of his.

38. When the body of my husband, falls dead in this house; then confer me this boon, that his parted soul may never depart from this place. 39. Be it so, O daughter, that your husband being gone to <the> other world, you may still continue to be his beloved wife, even after his demise. 40. Saying so, the goddess Gaurí held her silence in the midst of the air; as the sound of the clouds is stopped, after its betokening the welfare of the world. 41. After disappearance of the goddess in air, the husbands of these ladies returned to them from all sides, and at the lapse of some time after they had received their desired blessings. 42. Now was there a mutual interview of the wives with their husbands, and general meeting of the brothers with each other, and with their friends and relatives. 43. Hear now a wonderful event, which happened to them at this time; and which presented itself as an obstacle, towards the achievement of their noble purpose. 44. It was at the time when the brothers were employed in their devotion, that their parents had gone out with their wives in search of them, and were wandering about the hermitages of saints, with their sorrowful hearts.

45. Unmindful of their personal pains and pleasures, for the sake of the welfare of their sons, they intended to see the village of Kalapa, which lay on their way. 46. Passing by the village of munis or saints, they espied on their way a white man of short stature, with grey and erect hairs on his head, and his body bedaubed with ashes. 47. Thinking him to be an ordinary old passenger, the parents forgot to do him due honour, and let the dust of the ground they trod upon, fly unwarily to his sacred person. This irritated the old passenger, who thus bespake to him in his ire. 48. You great fool that are going on pilgrimage in company with thy wife and daughters-in-law; don’t you heed me the sage Durvásas, that you slight to do me due reverence. 49. For this act of thy negligence, the boons so dearly earned by thy sons and daughters in law will go for nothing, and will be attained with their contrary effect. 50. On hearing this malediction the old parents and their daughters in law, were proceeding to do him reverence, when the ancient sage disappeared from their sight and vanished in air.

51. At this the parents and their daughters, were greatly dismayed and disheartened; and returned disappointed to their home, with their melancholy countenances. 52. Therefore I say, there was not the only inconsistency, in each of the brothers reigning over the seven continents all at once; but there were many other odds awaiting upon them as on all human wishes; and these occurring as thickly one after the other as the sores and ulcers growing on goitres. (Or pouches on the throat). 53. There are as many oddities and vanities, always occurring in the wishes, and aerial castles of the vacuous mind; as the numberless portents and comets and meteors and unnatural sights, are seen to appear in the empty sky.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS. Argument: - Brahmá’s relation of the contending sides of blessing and imprecation. Kunda-Danta rejoined: - I then asked the hermit of Gaurí’s asylum, whose head was hoary with age, and whose hair resembled the dried blades of withered grass. 2. There are but seven continents only, that composed this earth; how then could every one of the eight brothers, become the sole lord of earth at one and the same time. 3. Again how could a person, that had no egress from his house, conquer the seven continents abroad, or govern them himself (by sitting quietly at home). 4. How could they that had the boon on one hand, and its contrary curse on the other, go in either way which are opposed to one another, as the cool shade of trees and the heat of sunshine? 5. How can opposite qualities reside together at the same time, which is as impossible as the container and contained to become the same thing? (Here the blessing of the gods and the curse of the sage, must counteract one another, and neither of them could effect anything). 6. The Hermit of the asylum returned: - Attend, O holy man, to my relation of the sequel of their tale; and you will come to see the sequence of their contrary fates.

7. As for you two, you will reach to your home, after eight days from this place; and there meet with your relatives, with whom you will live happily for some time. 8. These eight brothers also, having joined with their families at home: will breathe their last in course of time; and have their bodies burnt by their friends and relations. 9. Then their conscious souls, will remain separately in air for a little while; and there continue in a state of torpidity, as in the insensibility of sleep. 10. All this interval their acts will appear, in the vacuous space of their minds, for the sake of receiving their retributive justice; and also the blessing of gods and the curse of the sage, will wait on them at this time. 11. The acts will appear in the shapes of the persons to whom they were done and the blessings and imprecation likewise will assume their particular forms, in order to make their appearance before them. 12. The blessings will assume the forms of fair moon-bright bodies, having four arms on each, and holding a lotus bud, a club and other weapons in each of them.

13. The curse will take the forms of Siva with his three eyes, and holding the lance and mace in his either hand; and having a dark terrific body, with a surly grim and frowning countenance. 14. The Blessings will vauntingly say: - Avaunt thou accursed curse! it is now our time to work; as it is with the seasons to act their parts at their proper times. 15. The curse will say in his turn: - Be afar from here; ye blessed blessings, and do not intrude upon my time; it will take effect as any one of the seasons, nor is there any body capable of counteracting its wonted course. 16. The blessings will rejoin and say; Thou cured curse, art but a creature of an human sage; but we are messengers of the God of day; now as preference is given to the first born God of light, over a human being (who is the last work of God); it is proper that we should have our precedence here (in the present case). 17. Upon the blessings saying so, the personified curse of the sage got enraged, and returned in reply saying, I am no less the creation of a God than you are since we are born of the God Rudra by his consort Rudrání - the Fury.

18. Rudra is the greatest of gods, and the sage was born with a portion of Rudra’s prowess; saying so the accursed curse lifted up its head, as high as the exalted summit of a mountain. 19. On seeing the haughty high-headedness of the personation of curse; the personified image of the boon smiled scornfully at him, and then made his reply in his speech of well weighed words. 20. O thou miscreant curse, leave thy wickedness and think on the end of this affair; as also about what is to be done, after termination of all this altercation of ours. 21. We must have recourse to the father of the gods, for his favourable decision of the case, is it not therefore better for us to do even now what must come to be finally determined by him. 22. The curse on hearing these words of the personified boon replied, well, I agree to what you say; because a fool even cannot decline to accept the reasonable proposal of a person. 23. Then the curse agreed to resort to the abode of Brahmá; in company with the divine Blessing; because the great-minded gods are always resorted to by the wise, for the dissipation of their doubts.

24. They bended down before Brahmá, and related all that had occurred between them; and the god on hearing the whole on both sides, replied to them in the following manner. 25. Brahmá said: - Hearken unto me, ye master of blessing and curse, and let him have the precedence of the other, that is possessed of intrinsic merit and essence. 26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they both entered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to sound their understandings, and descry their respective parts. 27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of one another, and having known their respective characters; came out in presence of the God, and besought him by turns. 28. The curse said: - I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this my adversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding the curses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock and the strong thunderbolt. 29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but intellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of at any time.

30. The Blessing replied: - The intellectual blessing, which its giver (the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Bráhmans, is here present before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be delivered unto them). 31. The body of every one is the evolution of one’s intelligence, and it is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessing that is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it is in his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all his wandering at all times and places. (i.e. The consciousness of one’s merits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes him enjoy or suffer their results accordingly). 32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mind of the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one’s self, overcomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (i.e. Firm good will, turns away the evil ones). 33. The donor’s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it; becomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and duly fostered in one’s self. (i.e. A good given us by others, is of no good, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).

34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness, and by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these become perfected in one’s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (It is the habitual mode of the mind’s thought, that makes the future man, be it a holy or accursed one). 35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one’s consciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded, never finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Bráhmans’ thoughts of the blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that of the curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter, though it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture, supersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule; - 36. Nor force of pride to counteract this law. (Hence the blessing of the god, being prior to the curse of the sage, must have its precedence over the latter). 37. But where both sides are of equal force, there both of them have their joint effect upon the same thing; so the curse and blessing being conjoined together, must remain as the commingling of milk with water.

38. The equal force of the blessing and curse, must produce a double or divided effect on the mind of man; as a person dreaming of the fairy city in his sleep, thinks himself as turned to one of its citizens (without losing the idea of his own personality: so a man has a different idea of himself, in different states of his life). 39. Now pardon me, O Lord for my repetition of the same truths before thee that I have learnt from thee, and permit me now to take leave of thee, and depart to my place. 40. Upon his saying so, the curse felt ashamed in itself, and fled away from the presence of the god; as the ghosts and goblins fly away from the air, at the dispersion of darkness from the sky. 41. Then the other blessing (which was given by the goddess Gaurí to the ladies of these brothers), concerning the restriction of their departed ghosts, to the confines of their house, came forward and presented itself before Brahmá in lieu of the curse, and began to plead his case, as a substitute does for his constituent.

42. He said: - I know not, O Lord of gods, how human souls can fly over the seven continents of the earth, after their separation from their dead bodies (Deign to explain this therefore unto me.) 43. I am the same blessing of the goddess, that promised unto them their dominion over the seven continents in their own house; and also their conquest of the whole earth within its confines. 44. Now tell me, O Lord of gods, how am I to restrain their spirits to the narrow limits of their own abodes; and at the same time confer the domain of the septuple earth, to each and every one of them (as it is destined to them by the blessing of the God of day.) 45. Brahmá responded: - Hear me, O thou blessing of conferring the realms of the seven continents on each of them; and thou the boon of detaining their departed spirits within the confines of these mansions; that both of you are successful in executing your respective purposes on them.

46. Now do you retire from this place with full assurance in yourselves, that the delivered ghosts of these brothers; will never quit nor ever depart from their present abodes after their demise; but continue to reside there forever more; with the belief of their being the Lords of the seven regions of this earth. (It is the firm belief of the mind of the possession of anything, that makes it the true possessor thereof, much more than its actual enjoyment of the same). 47. Their souls will remain at proper distances from each other, after the loss and extinction of their frail bodies; and will deem themselves as lords of the seven regions of earth, though dwelling in the empty air of their own abodes. 48. How could there be the eight regions and seven continents of the earth, when to all appearance the surface of the earth, presents but a flat level everywhere. 49. Tell us Lord! where are these different divisions of the earth situated, and in what part of their petty abode; and is it not as impossible for the small place of their house to contain this wide earth in it, as it is for the little cell of a lotus bud to hide an elephant in its pericarp.

50. Brahmá replied: - It being quite evident to you as to ourselves also, that the universe is composed of an infinite vacuity only; it is not impossible for its being contained within the hollow of the human heart, as in the minute particle of the vacuous mind, which contains all things in it in the manner of its dreams. 51. If it were possible for the minute granule of their vacuous minds, to contain the figures of their houses and their domestic circles within itself, why should it be thought impossible for them, to compress the greater and lesser circle of this earth also, within their ample space. 52. After the demise of a person, the world exhibits itself in the same form as it is, in the minute atom of his mind; and this is but a vacuous mass of the visible and material world, in its invisible and imaginary figure. 53. It is in this invisible particle of the mind, that the world is seen in its abstract form, within the precincts of the body and abode of every body; and this earth appears to be drawn in it as in a map, with all its sevenfold continents and the contents thereof.

54. Whatever is manifest in the mind, is a mere mental conception and inborn in the mind, and there is no such thing as an extraneous or material world in reality. It is the vacant mind that presents these vagaries of the world and all other visibles before its vision, as the vacuous firmament shows the variety of atmospherical appearances to our sight. 55. The personified benediction, having learnt this abstract truth, from the mouth of the divine Brahmá, who had conferred this boon to the Bráhmanical brothers, abandoned his erroneous conception of the material world, and repaired to the abode of the deceased brethren, that had been released from the mistake of their mortal bodies. 56. The personated blessing bowed down to the bounteous Brahmá, and departing from his presence with speed, entered into the parlour of the eight brother kings, in his eight-fold spiritual personality (called the ashta siddhi). 57. They beheld the brothers there in their respective residences, each sitting as the Lord of the earth with its septuple continents, and all of them employed in the performance of their sacrifices and enjoyment of their blessings, like the eight Lordly Manus for the whole period of a day of Brahmá.

58. They were all friendly to each other, though unacquainted with the respective provinces of one another; each of them was employed in his concern with the world, without clashing with the authority of another over it. 59. One of them who was handsome in the bloom of his youth; held his happy reign over the great city of Ujjain, which was situated in the precincts of his own house, or rather in the environs of his own mind. 60. Another one of them had his domain over the country of Scythia (sáka), where he settled himself for his conquest of the Nágas (saccae); he cruises as a corsair in the wide outlandish seas, for his victory on every side. 61. Another reigns secure in his capital of Kusadwípa, and confers perfect security to his subjects from all alarm; and like a hero who has quelled his enemies, he rests in peace on the bosom of his beloved, after all his conquest. 62. Some one of them indulges himself to sport, in company with the celestial Nymphs of Vidyádhara; in skimming over the waters of the lakes on mountain tops, and in the gushing water falls on their side.

63. Another one is engaged these eight days in conducting his horse sacrifice in his royal abode at Krauncha dwípa, which he has greatly aggrandised with his accumulated gold, from the other continents. 64. Another one is employed in waging a battle in the Sálmali continents, where his war elephants have assembled, and have been uprooting the boundary mountain from their bases with robust tusks. 65. The Monarch of the Gomedha continent, who had been the eighth and last of the Bráhman brothers, was smitten with love for the princess of the Pushkara dwípa; upon which he mustered a large armament for ravishing her in warfare. 66. The monarch of the Pushkara continent, who was also the master of the Mountainous regions of Lokáloka; set out with his deputy to inspect the land of the gold mines. 67. Thus every one of these brothers, thought himself to be the Lord of his respective province, as his imagination portrayed unto him in the region of his mind. 68. The Blessings then, having relinquished their several forms and personalities, became united and one with the consciousness of the Bráhmans, and felt and saw whatever passed in them, as if they were passing in themselves likewise. (The divine blessing on them being no other than the approbation of their conscience).

69. So these brothers became and found in themselves, what they had long been longing after, in their respective lordship over the seven regions of the earth, which they continued to enjoy ever since to their heart’s content. 70. It was in this manner that these men of enlarged understandings, obtained what they sought in their minds, by means of their austere devotion and firm devotedness to their purpose. So it is with the learned that they find everything beside them, whatever they are intent upon in their minds, by means of their acting upon the same principle, and using the proper means conducing to that end.

A LECTURE ON THE ALL COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE SOUL. Argument: - Nature of the unenlightened soul, to represent unnumbered worlds within itself. Kunda-danta said: - I then asked <the> devotee sitting beneath the kadamba tree, to tell me how the seven large continents of the globe, could be contained within the narrow limits of the abodes of each of these brothers (which is next to an impossibility). 2. The kadamba devotee replied: - The essence of the intellect though so very vacuous in itself, is notwithstanding the most capacious and ubiquious of any thing in existence; and is present in its own nature with every thing, wherever it is known to exist. 3. The soul sees itself in the form of the triple world, and every thing besides in its different nature and figure, without changing itself to any one of them. (i.e. The soul remains unchanged in all the changeful scenes of nature). 4. Kunda-danta rejoined: - But how do you attribute the quality of variety or multiplicity, to the purely simple and immutable nature of the Supreme soul, as you see them appertaining to the intrinsic character of everything else in nature. (Or as Pope says: - That changed through all, yet in all the same; great in the earth, as in the etherial frame).

5. The kadamba devotee replied: - The sphere of the intellectual vacuum, is all quiet and serene, and there is nothing as any variety or multiformity in it; the changes that are apparent in its face, are no more, than the waves and eddies, whirling on the surface of the changeless main. 6. It is in the immensity of intellectual vacuity, that infinite creations seem to be continually purling about, as the rising waves are seen to be whirling in the sea; and it is in its fathomless depth that they appear to sink, like the waters subsiding in the hollow of the deep. 7. The substantial forms of things, that rise in the unsubstantial essence of the intellect, are as the various forms of substances, seen in the dreaming state of the soul, and all which are utterly forgotten in its state of sound sleep - susupti. 8. As a Hill seen in dream is no hill at all, and as things appearing to be in motion in dreaming, are found afterwards to be perfectly motionless; so are all things in nature but mere unrealities, and though as real from the real nature of soul itself. (i.e. It is the intellect that fashions everything in its own manner, and its imagination gives a form to an airy nothing).

9. The intellect is an immaterial substance, and neither creates nor perceives any thing material by itself; but conceives everything as it is manifested to it in its idea in the beginning. (i.e. The ideas of things are inborn in the mind). 10. As the intellect sees a great variety of objects in <its> dream, which it takes for realities for the time; so its belief in the reality of its ideas, causes it to conceive them as real entities. 11. The vacuous intellect, which glitters of itself in its own state of transparence; comes to find the world shinning in the same light within itself. (i.e. The world is subjective with the intellect, and not a part from our intellectual light of the same). 12. As we have the consciousness of heat in the fire, even when it is seen in a dream; so we are conscious of the presence of everything in our minds, even in the absence of the thing itself from us. (It was thus that the Bráhman brothers were conscious of their lordship, even in their want of the realms themselves).

13. And as we have the idea of the solidity of a pillar, from our dream of it in sleep; so have we the idea of the great variety of things in existence; although there is no diversity or difference in the nature of the One unvaried unity that pervades the whole. (And that shows its unchangeable self, as many and changed through all - Aham-bahusyam). 14. In the beginning all substances were as pure and simple, as the essence of their maker by and after which they were made; and they still continue to be in the same state of their ideal purity, as they were originally made out of that airy entity and unity. 15. As the tree is diversified in the various forms of its roots and fruits, and its leaves, flowers and the trunk; so is the Supreme unity varied in all and everywhere in his self-same and undivided essence. 16. It is in the fathomless ocean of the Supreme essence, that the immensity of creation is subsisting like the waters of the deep; and it is in the boundless space of that transcendent vacuum, that the infinity of the worlds have been rolling on, in their original vacuous and apparently visible forms.