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Title: The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 1 (of 4)

Author: Valmiki

Translator: Viharilala Mitra

Release date: August 3, 2023 [eBook #71326]

Language: English

Original publication: India: Low Price Publications, 1899

Credits: Mark C. Orton, Juliet Sutherland, Édith Nolot, Krista Zaleski, windproof, readbueno and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOGA-VASISHTHA MAHARAMAYANA OF VALMIKI, VOL. 1 (OF 4) ***

Transcriber’s Notes

Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.

Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations have not been modified.

- Pages 30 & 31 - Headings referred to “CHAPTER”, but all other sections are simply numbered. Format of these section headings was modified to match the rest of the chapters.

- Page 201 - Chapter XVIII heading “Ascertainment of the Example Or Major Proposition” added to match table of contents.

- Page 353 - Chapter XXVI heading “Meeting the Siddhas” added to match table of contents.

- Page 403 - Section number changed from III to II, to match table of contents.

The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.

The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of poor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya Publishing House, Delhi 1978.

A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.

The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive classical commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati (only available in Sanskrit).

Angle brackets <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate light editing of the text to insert missing words.

THE

YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.

VOL. I

PROSPECTUS.

Plato advised the Athenians to betake themselves to the study of Mathematics, in order to evade the pestilence incident to the international war which was raging in Greece; so it is the intention of this publication, to exhort our countrymen to the investigation of Metaphysics, in order to escape the contagion of Politics and quasi politics, which has been spreading far and wide over this devoted land.

V. L. M.

THE

YOGA-VÁSISHTHA

MAHÁRÁMÁYANA

OF

VÁLMÍKI

in 4 vols. in 7 pts.

(Bound in 4.)

Vol. 1

Containing

The Vairagya, Mumukshu, Prakaranas and

The Utpatti Khanda to Chapter L.

Translated from the original Sanskrit

By

VIHARI-LALA MITRA

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Reprinted in LPP 1999

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PREFACE.

In this age of the cultivation of universal learning and its investigation into the deep recesses of the dead languages of antiquity, when the literati of both continents are so sedulously employed in exploring the rich and almost inexhaustible mines of the ancient literature of this country, it has given an impetus to the philanthropy of our wise and benign Government to the institution of a searching enquiry into the sacred language of this land. And when the restoration of the long lost works of its venerable sages and authors through the instrumentality of the greatest bibliomaniac savants and linguists in the several Presidencies,[1] has led the literary Asiatic Societies of the East and West to the publication of the rarest and most valuable Sanskrit Manuscripts, it cannot be deemed preposterous in me to presume, to lay before the Public a work of no less merit and sanctity than any hitherto published.

The Yoga Vasishtha is the earliest work on Yoga or Speculative and Abstruse philosophy delivered by the venerable Vedic sage Vasishtha to his royal pupil Ráma; the victor of Rávana, and hero of the first Epic Rámáyana, and written in the language of Válmiki, the prime bard in pure Sanskrit, the author of that popular Epic, and Homer of India. It embodies in itself the Loci Communes or common places relating to the science of Ontology, the knowledge of Sat—Real Entity, and Asat—Unreal Non-entity; the principles of Psychology or doctrines of the Passions and Feelings; the speculations of Metaphysics in dwelling upon our cognition, volition and other faculties of the Mind (ज्ञान, ज्ञेय, ज्ञाता, इच्छा, द्वेषादि) and the tenets, of Ethics and practical morality (धर्म्म कर्म्म). Besides there are a great many precepts on Theology, and the nature of the Divinity (आत्मानात्म विवेक), and discourses on Spirituality and Theosophy (जीवात्मा परमात्मा ज्ञान); all delivered in the form of Plato’s Dialogues between the sages, and tending to the main enquiry concerning the true felicity, final beatitude or Summum bonum (परम निःश्रेयस्) of all true philosophy.

These topics have singly and jointly contributed to the structure of several separate Systems of Science and Philosophy in succeeding ages, and have formed the subjects of study both with the juvenile and senile classes of people in former and present times, and I may say, almost among all nations in all countries throughout the civilized world.

It is felt at present to be a matter of the highest importance by the native community at large, to repress the growing ardour of our youth in political polemics and practical tactics, that are equally pernicious to and destructive of the felicity of their temporal and future lives, by a revival of the humble instructions of their peaceful preceptors of old, and reclaiming them to the simple mode of life led by their forefathers, from the perverted course now gaining ground among them under the influence of Western refinement. Outward peace (शान्ति) with internal tranquility (चित्त प्रशान्ति) is the teaching of our Sastras, and these united with contentment (सन्तोष) and indifference to worldly pleasures (वैराग्य), were believed according to the tenets of Yoga doctrines, to form the perfect man,—a character which the Aryans have invariably preserved amidst the revolutions of ages and empires. It is the degeneracy of the rising generation, however, owing to their adoption of foreign habits and manners from an utter ignorance of their own moral code, which the publication of the present work is intended to obviate.

From the description of the Hindu mind given by Max Müller; in his History of the Ancient Literature of India (p. 18) it will appear, that the esoteric faith of the Aryan Indian is of that realistic cast as the Platonic, whose theory of ontology viewed all existence, even that of the celestial bodies, with their movements among the precepta of sense, and marked them among the unreal phantoms (मिथ्या दृष्टि) or vain mirage, (मरीचिका) as the Hindu calls them, that are interesting in appearance but useless to observe. They may be the best of all precepta, but fall very short of that perfection, which the mental eye contemplates in its meditation-yoga. The Hindu Yogi views the visible world exactly in the same light as Plato has represented it in the simile commencing the seventh book of his Republic. He compares mankind to prisoners in a cave, chained in one particular attitude, so as to behold only an ever varying multiplicity of shadows, projected through the opening of the cave upon the wall before them, by certain unseen realities behind. The philosopher alone, who by training or inspiration is enabled to turn his face from these visions, and contemplate with his mind, that can see at-once the unchangeable reality amidst these transient shadows.

The first record that we have of Vasishtha is, that he was the author of the 7th Mandala of the Rig Veda (Ashtaka v. 15-118). He is next mentioned as Purohita or joint minister with Viswámitra to king Sudása, and to have a violent contest with his rival for the (पौरोहित्य) or ministerial office (Müll. Hist. S. Lit. page 486, Web. Id. p. 38). He is said to have accompanied the army of Sudása, when that king is said to have conquered the ten invading chiefs who had crossed over the river Parushni—(Hydroates or Ravi) to his dominions (Müll. Id. p. 486). Viswámitra accompanied Sudása himself beyond Vipása,—Hyphasis or Beah and Satadru—Hisaudras-Sutlej (Max Müller, Ancient Sanscrit literature page 486). These events are recorded to have occurred prior to Vasishtha’s composition of the Mandala which passes under his name and in which they are recorded. (Müll. Id. p. 486).

The enmity and implacable hatred of the two families of Vasishthas and Viswámitras for generations, form subjects prominent throughout the Vedic antiquity, and preserved in the tradition of ages (Müll. Id. p. 486, Web. Id. p. 37). Another cause of it was that, Harischandra, King of Ayodhyá, was cursed by Vasishtha, whereupon he made Viswámitra his priest to the annoyance of Vasishtha, although the office of Bráhmana was held by him (Müller Id. page 408 Web. pp. 31-37). In the Bráhmana period we find Vasishtha forming a family title for the whole Vasishtha race still continuing as a Gotra name, and that these Vasishthas continued as hereditary Gurus and purohitas to the kings of the solar race from generation to generation under the same title. The Vasishthas were always the Brahmanas or High priests in every ceremony, which could not be held by other Bráhmanas according to the Sáta patha Bráhmana (Müll. Id. page 92); and particularly the Indra ceremony had always to be performed by a Vasishtha, because it was revealed to their ancestor the sage Vasishtha only (Web. Ind. Lit. p. 123); and as the Sátapatha Bráhmana-Taittiriya Sanhitá mentions it.

ऋषयो वा इन्द्रं प्रत्यक्षं नापश्यन् । तं वशिष्ठः प्रत्यक्षमपश्यत् ।

सोऽब्रवीत् ब्रह्माणं ते वक्ष्यामि । यथात्वत् पुरोहिताः प्रजाः प्रजनिष्यन्ते ।

“The Rishis do not see Indra clearly, but Vasishtha saw him. Indra said, I will tell you, O Bráhman, so that all men who are born, will have a Vasishtha for his Purohita” (Max Müll. Anc. Sans. Lit. p. 92. Web. Id. p. 123). This will show that the Sloka works, which are attributed to Vasishtha, Yájnavalkya or any other Vedic Rishi, could not be the composition of the old Rishis, but of some one of their posterity; though they might have been propounded by the eldest sages, and then put to writing by oral communication or successive tradition by a distant descendant or disciple of the primitive Rishis. Thus we see the Dráhyáyana Sutras of the Sama Veda is also called the Vasishtha Sutras, from the author’s family name of Vasishtha (Web. Id. p. 79). The ásvaláyana Grihya Sutra assigns some other works to Vasishtha, viz., the Vasishtha pragáthá, probably Vashishtha Hymni of Bopp; the Pavamánya, Kshudra sukta, Mahásukta &c. written in the vedic style. There are two other works attributed to Vasishtha, the Vasishtha Sanhitá on Astronomy (Web. Id. p. 258) and the Vasishtha Smriti on Law (Web. Id. p. 320), which from their compositions in Sanscrit slokas, could not be the language or work of the Vedic Rishi, but of some one late member of that family. Thus our work of Yoga Vasishtha has no claim or pretension to its being the composition of the Vedic sage; but as one propounded by the sage, and written by Válmiki in his modern Sanskrit. Here the question is whether Vasishtha the preceptor of Ráma, was the Vedic Vasishtha or one of his descendants, I must leave for others to determine.

Again in the later Áranyaka period we have an account of a theologian Vasishtha given in the Árshikopanishad, as holding a dialogue on the nature of átmá or soul between the sages, Viswámitra, Jamadagni, Bharadwája, Gautama and himself; when Vasishtha appealing to the opinion of Kapila obtained their assent (Weber Id. p. 162). This appears very probably to be the theological author of our yoga, and eminent above his contemporaries in his knowledge of the Kapila yoga sástra which was then current, from this sage’s having been a contemporary with king Sagara, a predecessor of Rama.

In the latest Sútra period we find a passage in the Grihya-Sútra-parisishta, about the distinctive mark of the Vasishtha Family from those of the other parishads or classes of the priesthood. It says;

दक्षिणकपर्दोवशिष्ठाः आत्रेयास्त्रिकपद्दिनः ।

आङ्गिरसः पञ्चचूडाः मुण्डाभृगवः शिखिनोऽन्ये ॥

“The Vasishthas wear a braid (lock of hair) on the right side, the Átreyas wear three braids, the Angiras have five braids, the Bhrigus are bald, and all others have a single crest,” (Müller Id. p. 53). The Karma pradípa says, “the Vasishthas exclude meat from their sacrifice; वसिष्ठोक्तविधिः कृत्स्नो द्रष्टव्यात्र निरामिषः ।” (Müller A. S. Lit. p. 54), and the colour of their dress was white (Id. p. 483). Many Vasishthas are named in different works as; वशिष्ठ चेकितायनः, वशिष्ठ आरिहणीयः, वशिष्ठ मैत्रावरणिः, वशिष्ठः राणायणः, वशिष्ठ लाठ्यायनः, वशिष्ठ द्राह्यायनः, वशिष्ठकौण्डिन्यः, वशिष्ठइन्द्रप्रमदः, वशिष्ठः आभरद्बसुः, and some others, bearing no other connection with our author, than that of their having been members of the same family (Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 44).

Without dilating any longer with further accounts relating to the sage Vasishtha of which many more might be gathered from various sastras, I shall add in the conclusion the following notice which is taken of this work by Professor Monier Williams in his work on Indian Wisdom p. 370.

“There is,” says he, “a remarkable work called Vasishtha Rámáyana or Yoga Vásishtha or Vasishtha Mahárámáyana in the form of an exhortation, with illustrative narratives addressed by Vasishtha to his pupil the youthful Ráma, on the best means of attaining true happiness, and considered to have been composed as an appendage to the Rámáyana by Válmiki himself. There is another work of the same nature called the Adhyátma Rámáyana which is attributed to Vyása, and treat of the moral and theological subjects connected with the life and acts of that great hero of Indian history. Many other works are extant in the vernacular dialects having the same theme for their subject which it is needless to notice in this place.”

Vasishtha, known as the wisest of sages, like Solomon the wisest of men, and Aurelius the wisest of emperors, puts forth in the first part and in the mouth of Ráma the great question of the vanity of the world, which is shown synthetically to a great length from the state of all living existences, the instinct, inclinations, and passions of men, the nature of their aims and objects, with some discussions about destiny, necessity, activity and the state of the soul and spirit. The second part embraces various directions for the union of the individual with the universal Abstract Existence—the Supreme Spirit—the subjective and the objective truth—and the common topics of all speculative philosophy.

Thus says Milton; “The end of learning is to know God.”

So the Persian adage, “Akhiral ilm buad ilmi Khodá.”

Such also the Sanskrit, “Sávidyá tan matir yayá.”

And the sruti says, “Yad jnátwá náparan jnánam.”

i.e. “It is that which being known, there is nothing else required to be known.”

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra in Bengal, Benares and Orissa; Dr. Buhler in Guzrat; Dr. Kielhorn in the Central Provinces; Dr. Burnell and other Collectors of Sanskrit manuscripts in the Presidencies of Bombay, Madras and Oudh, whose notices and catalogues have highly contributed to bring the hidden treasures of the literature of this country to light.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

PROLEGOMENA.

PROL.

PAGE.

1. The Yoga Philosophy

”

1

2. The Om Tat Sat

”

34

VAIRÁGYA KHANDA.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

Page

INTRODUCTION.

SECTION I.

Divine Adoration

1

SECTION II.

Narrative of Sutíkshna

1

SECTION III.

Anecdote of Kárunya

2

SECTION IV.

Story of Suruchi

3

SECTION V.

Account of Arishtanemi

3

SECTION VI.

History of Ráma

6

CHAPTER II.

Reason of writing the Rámáyana

8

SECTION I

Persons entitled to its Perusal

8

SECTION II.

Brahmá’s Behest

9

SECTION III.

Inquiry of Bharadwája

10

CHAPTER III.

Válmíki’s Admonition

12

SECTION I.

On True Knowledge

12

SECTION II.

Early History of Ráma

13

SECTION III.

Ráma’s Pilgrimage

15

CHAPTER IV.

Ráma’s Return from Pilgrimage

17

CHAPTER V.

Of Ráma’s Self-Dejection and its Cause

19

CHAPTER VI.

Advent of Viswámitra to the Royal Court

21

SECTION II.

Address of King-Dasaratha

24

CHAPTER VII.

Viswámitra’s Request for Ráma

26

CHAPTER VIII.

Dasaratha’s Reply to Viswámitra

29

CHAPTER IX.

Viswámitra’s Wrath and his Enraged Speech

33

CHAPTER X.

Melancholy of Ráma

36

CHAPTER XI.

Consolation of Ráma

41

CHAPTER XII.

Ráma’s Reply

45

CHAPTER XIII.

Vituperation of Riches

48

CHAPTER XIV.

Depreciation of Human Life

50

CHAPTER XV.

Obloquy of Egoism

53

CHAPTER XVI.

The Ungovernableness of the Mind

56

CHAPTER XVII.

On Cupidity

59

CHAPTER XVIII.

Obloquy of the Body

64

CHAPTER XIX.

Blemishes of Boyhood

70

CHAPTER XX.

Vituperation of Youth

73

CHAPTER XXI.

Vituperation of Women

77

CHAPTER XXII.

Obloquy of Old Age

81

CHAPTER XXIII.

Vicissitudes of Times

85

CHAPTER XXIV.

Ravages of Time

90

CHAPTER XXV.

Sports of Death

91

CHAPTER XXVI.

The Acts of Destiny

95

CHAPTER XXVII.

Vanity of the World

100

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Mutability of the World

105

CHAPTER XXIX.

Unreliableness of Worldly Things

109

CHAPTER XXX.

Self-Disparagement

112

CHAPTER XXXI.

Queries of Ráma

115

CHAPTER XXXII.

Praises of Ráma’s Speech

118

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Association of Aerial and Earthly Beings

121

BOOK II.

MUMUKSHU KHANDA.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Liberation of Sukadeva

127

CHAPTER II.

Speech of Viswámitra

132

CHAPTER III.

On the Repeated Creations of the World

135

CHAPTER IV.

Praise Of Acts and Exertions

139

CHAPTER V.

Necessity of Activity

142

CHAPTER VI.

Refutation of Fatalism

145

CHAPTER VII.

On the Necessity of Activity

150

CHAPTER VIII.

Invalidation of Destiny

154

CHAPTER IX.

Investigation of Acts

157

CHAPTER X.

Descension of Knowledge

161

CHAPTER XI.

On the qualifications of the Inquirer and Lecturer

166

CHAPTER XII.

Greatness of True Knowledge

173

CHAPTER XIII.

On Peace and Tranquility of mind

176

CHAPTER XIV.

On the Ascertainment of an argument

184

CHAPTER XV.

On Contentment

189

CHAPTER XVI.

On Good Conduct

191

CHAPTER XVII.

On the Contents of the Work

195

CHAPTER XVIII.

Ascertainment of the Example or Major Proposition

201

CHAPTER XIX.

Ascertainment of True Evidence

208

CHAPTER XX.

On Good Conduct

212

BOOK III.

UTPATTI KHANDA.

EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD.

CHAPTER I.

C AUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.

SECTION I.

Page

Exordium

215

SECTION II.

Worldly Bondage

216

SECTION III.

Phases of The Spirit

216

SECTION IV.

Nature of Bondage

218

CHAPTER II.

D ESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST CAUSE.

SECTION I.

Narrative of the Air-born and Aeriform Bráhman

223

SECTION II.

State of the Soul

224

CHAPTER III.

Causes of Bondage in the Body

229

CHAPTER IV.

SECTION I.

Description of the Night-Fall

234

SECTION II.

Nature of the Mind

237

SECTION III.

Kaivalya or Mental Abstraction

239

CHAPTER V.

On the Original Cause

243

CHAPTER VI.

Admonition for attempt of Liberation

246

CHAPTER VII.

Recognition of the Nihility of the Phenomenal World

249

CHAPTER VIII.

Nature of good Sástras

255

CHAPTER IX.

On the Supreme cause of All

257

CHAPTER X.

Description of the Chaotic State

266

CHAPTER XI.

Spiritual View of Creation

273

CHAPTER XII.

The Idealistic Theo-Cosmogony of Vedánta

277

CHAPTER XIII.

On the Production of the Self-Born

281

CHAPTER XIV.

Establishment of Brahma

288

CHAPTER XV.

Story of the Temple and its Prince

299

CHAPTER XVI.

Joy and Grief of the Princess

303

CHAPTER XVII.

Story of the Doubtful Realm or Reverie of Lílá

309

SECTION I.

Description of the Court House and the Cortes

313

CHAPTER XVIII.

Exposure of the Errors of this World

315

CHAPTER XIX.

Story of a Former Vasishtha and his Wife

319

CHAPTER XX.

SECTION I

The Moral of the Tale of Lílá

322

SECTION II.

State of The Human Soul after Death

325

CHAPTER XXI.

Guide to Peace

328

CHAPTER XXII.

Practice of Wisdom or Wisdom in Practice

336

SECTION I.

Abandonment of Desires

336

SECTION II.

On the Practice of Yoga

338

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Aerial Journey of Spiritual Bodies

340

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Aerial Journey (continued)

342

SECTION II.

Description of the Heavens

343

CHAPTER XXV.

Description of the Earth

349

CHAPTER XXVI.

Meeting the Siddhas

353

CHAPTER XXVII.

Past lives of Lílá

359

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SECTION I.

Exposition of Lílá’s Vision

365

SECTION II.

Description of the Mountainous Habitation

366

CHAPTER XXIX.

Account of the Previous Life of Lílá

372

CHAPTER XXX.

Description of the Mundane Egg

378

CHAPTER XXXI.

SECTION I.

Alighting of the Ladies on Earth

382

SECTION II.

Sight of a Battle Array in Earth and Air

383

CHAPTER XXXII.

Onset of the War

386

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Commingled Fighting

389

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Description of the Battle

392

CHAPTER XXXV.

Description of the Battlefield

398

CHAPTER XXXVI.

SECTION I.

Collision of Equal Arms and Armigerents

401

SECTION II.

Catalogue of the Forces

403

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Catalogue of the Forces (continued)

408

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Cessation of the War

414

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Description of The Battle Field Infested by Nocturnal Fiends

420

CHAPTER XL.

Reflections on Human Life and Mind

423

CHAPTER XLI.

Discrimination of Error

431

CHAPTER XLII.

Philosophy of Dreaming

438

CHAPTER XLIII.

Burning of the City

442

CHAPTER XLIV.

Spiritual Interpretation of the Vision

448

CHAPTER XLV.

Theism consisting in True Knowledge

454

CHAPTER XLVI.

Onslaught of Vidūratha

457

CHAPTER XLVII.

Encounter of Sindhu and Vidūratha

461

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Description of Daivástras or Supernatural Weapons

465

CHAPTER XLIX.

Description of other kinds of Weapons

473

CHAPTER L.

Death of Vidūratha

477

Conclusion

482

Genealogy

485

THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.

The Yoga or contemplative philosophy of the Hindus, is rich, exuberant, grand and sublime, in as much as it comprehends within its ample sphere and deep recesses of meditation, all that is of the greatest value, best interest and highest importance to mankind, as physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual beings—a knowledge of the cosmos—of the physical and intellectual worlds.

It is rich in the almost exhaustless treasure of works existing on the subject in the sacred and vernacular languages of the country both of ancient and modern times. It is exuberant in the profusion of erudition and prolixity of ingenuity displayed in the Yoga philosophy of Patanjali, commensurate with the extraordinary calibre of the author in his commentary of the Mahábháshya on Pánini (Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 235). Its grandeur is exhibited in the abstract and abstruse reflections and investigations of philosophers in the intellectual and spiritual worlds as far as human penetration has been able to reach. And its sublimity is manifested in its aspiring disquisition into the nature of the human and divine souls, which it aims to unite with the one self-same and all pervading spirit.

It has employed the minds of gods, sages, and saints, and even those of heroes and monarchs, to the exaltation of their natures above the rest of mankind, and elevation of their dignities to the rank of gods, as nothing less than a godly nature can approach and approximate that of the All-perfect Divinity. So says Plato in his Phaedras; “To contemplate these things is the privilege of the gods, and to do so is also the aspiration of the immortal soul of man generally; though only in a few cases is such aspiration realized.”

The principal gods Brahmá and Siva are represented as Yogis, the chief sages Vyása, Válmiki, Vasishtha and Yájnavalkya were propounders of Yoga systems; the saints one and all were adepts in Yoga; the heroes Ráma and Krishna were initiated in it, and the kings Dasaratha and Janaka and their fellow prince Buddha were both practitioners and preceptors of Yoga. Mohammed held his nightly communions with God and his angels, and Jesus often went over the hills—there to pray and contemplate. Socrates had his demon to communicate with, and in fact every man has his genius with whom he communes on all matters. All this is Yoga, and so is all knowledge derived by intuition, inspiration and revelation, said to be the result of Yoga.

II. SCIENCES CONNECTED WITH YOGA

The yoga philosophy, while it treats of a variety of subjects, is necessarily a congeries of many sciences in itself. It is the Hindu form of metaphysical argument for the existence of the ‘One Eternal’—the Platonic “Reality.” It is ontology in as much as it teaches a priori the being of God. It is psychology in its treatment of the doctrine of feelings and passions, and it is morality in teaching us to keep them under control as brutal propensities, for the sake of securing our final emancipation and ultimate restoration into the spirit of spirits. Thus it partakes of the nature of many sciences in treating of the particular subject of divinity.

The Yoga in its widest sense of the application of the mind to any subject is both practical, called kriyá Yoga, as also theoretical, known as Jnána Yoga; and includes in itself the two processes of synthesis and analysis alike, in its combination (Yoga) of things together, and discrimination (Viveka) of one from the other, in its inquiry into the nature of things (Vastuvichára), and investigation of their abstract essence called Satyánusandhánná. It uses both the a priori (púrvavat) and a posteriori (paravat) arguments to prove the existence of the world from its Maker and the vice versa, as indicated in the two aphorisms of induction and deduction Yatová imani and Janmadyasya yatah &c. It views both subjectively and objectively the one self in many and the many in one unto which all is to return, by the two mysterious formulas of So ham and tat twam &c.

It is the reunion of detached souls with the Supreme that is the chief object of the Yoga philosophy to effect by the aforesaid processes and other means, which we propose fully to elucidate in the following pages; and there is no soul we think so very reprobate, that will feel disinclined to take a deep interest in them, in order to effect its reunion with the main source of its being and the only fountain of all blessings. On the contrary we are led to believe from the revival of the yoga-cult with the spiritualists and theosophists of the present day under the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and the lectures of Col. Olcott, that the Indian public are beginning to appreciate the efficacy of Yoga meditation, and its practice gaining ground among the pious and educated men in this country.

Notwithstanding the various significations of Yoga and the different lights in which it is viewed by several schools, as we shall see afterwards, it is most commonly understood in the sense of the esoteric faith of the Hindus, and the occult adoration of God by spiritual meditation. This is considered on all hands as the only means of one’s ultimate liberation from the general doom of birth and death and the miseries of this world, and the surest way towards the final absorption of one’s-self in the Supreme,—the highest state of perfection and the Summum bonum of the Hindu. The subject of Yoga Vasishtha is no other than the effecting of that union of the human with the Divine Soul, amidst all the trials and tribulations of life.

III. THE YOGA OF ENGLISH WRITERS.

The yoga considered merely as a mode or system of meditation is variously described by European authors, as we shall see below.

Monier Williams says “According to Patanjali—the founder of the system, the word yoga is interpreted to mean the act of “fixing or concentration of the mind in abstract meditation”. Its aim is to teach the means by which the human soul may attain complete union with the Supreme Soul, and of effecting the complete fusion of the individual with the universal spirit even in the body”, Indian Wisdom p. 102.

Weber speaking of the yoga of the Atharvan Upanishads says; “It is the absorption in átman, the stages of this absorption and the external means of attaining it.” Again says he; “The yoga in the sense of union with the Supreme Being, is absorption therein by means of meditation. It occurs first in the latter Upanishads, especially the tenth book of the Taittiríya and the Katha Upanishads, where the very doctrine is itself enunciated”, Hist. Ind Lit p. 153-171.

Müllins in his prize essay on Vedanta says, the Sankhya yoga is the union of the body and mind, p. 183. In its Vedantic view, it is the joining of the individual with the Supreme Spirit by holy communion of the one with the other through intermediate grades, whereby the limited soul may be led to approach its unlimited fountain and lose itself in the same.

IV. YOGA-CHARACTERISTIC OF THE HINDUS.

Max Müller characterises the Hindu as naturally disposed to Yoga or a contemplative turn of his mind for his final beatitude in the next life, amidst all his cares, concerns and callings in this world, which he looks upon with indifference as the transient shadows of passing clouds, that serve but to dim for a moment but never shut out from his view the full blaze of his luminous futurity. This description is so exactly graphic of the Hindu mind, that we can not with-hold giving it entire as a mirror of the Hindu mind to our readers on account of the scarcity of the work in this country.

“The Hindu” says he “enters the world as a stranger; all his thoughts are directed to another world, he takes no part even where he is driven to act, and even when he sacrifices his life, it is but to be delivered from it.” Again “They shut their eyes to this world of outward seeming activity, to open them full on the world of thought and rest. Their life was a yearning for eternity; their activity was a struggle to return to that divine essence from which this life seemed to have severed them. Believing as they did in a really existing and eternal Being to ontos-onton they could not believe in the existence of this passing world.”

“If the one existed, the other could only seem to exist; if they lived in the one they could not live in the other. Their existence on earth was to them a problem, their eternal life a certainty. The highest object of their religion was to restore that bond by which their own self (átman) was linked to the eternal self (paramátman); to recover that unity which had been clouded and obscured by the magical illusions of reality, by the so-called Máyá of creation.”

“It scarcely entered their mind to doubt or to affirm the immortality of the soul (pretya-bháva). Not only their religion and literature, but their very language reminded them daily of that relation between the real and seeming world.” (Hist A. S. Lit. p. 18). In the view of Max Müller as quoted above, the Hindu mind would seem to be of that realistic cast as the Platonic, whose theory of Ontology viewed all existence as mere phantoms and precepta of sense, and very short of that perfection, which the mind realizes in its meditation or Yoga reveries.

The Hindu Yogi views the visible world exactly in the same light as we have said before, that Plato has represented it in the simile commencing the seventh book of his Republic. “He compares mankind to prisoners in a cave, chained in one particular attitude, so as to behold only an ever-varying multiplicity of shadows, projected through the opening of the cave upon the wall before them, by some unseen realities behind. The philosopher alone, who by training or inspiration, is enabled to turn his face from these visions, and contemplate with his mind, that can at once see the unchangeable reality amidst these transient shadows”, Baine on Realism pp. 6 and 7.

V. VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS OF YOGA.

The Váchaspati lexicon gives us about fifty different meanings of the word Yoga, according to the several branches of art or science to which it appertains, and the multifarious affairs of life in which the word is used either singly or in composition with others. We shall give some of them below, in order to prevent our mistaking any one of these senses for the special signification which the term is made to bear in our system of Yoga meditation.

The word Yoga from the root “jung” (Lat.) Jungere means the joining of any two things or numbers together. Amara Kosha gives five different meanings of it as, संयोगे मेलने ध्याने धारने उपायेच; the other Koshas give five others, viz., भैषज्ये देह स्थैर्ये कर्म्मकौशले विश्वासघातकेच ।

1. In Arithmetic it is अङ्क योग or addition, and योग बिभाग is addition and subtraction. 2. In Astronomy the conjunction of planets and stars ग्रहनक्षत्रादि संयोगः 3. In Grammar it is the joining of letters and words सन्धिः समासः । 4. In Nyáya it means the power of the parts taken together अबयब शक्तिः, तर्क दीपिका । 5. In Mímánsa it is defined to be the force conveyed by the united members of a sentence.

In contemplative philosophy it means; 1. According to Pátanjali,—the suppression of mental functions चित्तवृत्ति निरोधः । 2. The Buddhists mean by it—the abstraction of the mind from all objects. सर्ब्बबिषयेभ्यः चित्तनिबृत्ति निरोधः । 3. The Vedanta meaning of it is—जीबात्मा परमात्मनोरैक्यं the union of the human soul with the Supreme spirit. 4. Its meaning in the Yoga system is nearly the same, i. e., the joining of the vital spirit with the soul; संयोगं योगमित्याहुर्ज्जीबमात्मनोरिति । 5. Every process of meditation is called also as Yoga. योगाङ्ग योग उच्यते ।

Others again use it in senses adapted to their own views and subjects; such as the Vaiseshika philosophy uses it to mean, the fixing of the attention to only one subject by abstracting it from all others आत्मनो व्यावृत्त मनसः संयोगो योग उच्यते । 2. The Rámánuja sect define it as the seeking of one’s particular Deity स्वस्व देवतानु सन्धानमिति रामानुजाः ।

In this sense all sectarian cults are accounted as so many kinds of Yogas by their respective votaries. 3. According to some Buddhists it is the seeking of one’s object of desire अप्राप्तस्यार्थस्य प्राप्तये पर्यानुयोगः । 4. And with others, it is a search after every desirable object. 5. In Rhetoric it means the union of lovers कामुक कामिनी सम्मेलनं ।

In Medicine it means the compounding of drugs under which head there are many works that are at first sight mistaken for Yoga philosophy. Again there are many compound words with Yoga which mean only “a treatise” on those subjects, such as, works on wisdom, on Acts, on Faith &c., are called ज्ञान योग, क्रिया योग, भक्त्ति योग इत्यादि । .

Moreover the words Yoga and Viyoga are used to express the two processes of synthesis and analysis both in the abstract and practical sciences for the combination and disjoining of ideas and things.

VI. THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF YOGA.

The constituent parts and progressive steps of Yoga, are composed of a series of bodily, mental and spiritual practices, the proper exercise of which conduces to the making of a perfect man, as a moral, intellectual and spiritual being, to be united to his Maker in the present and future worlds. These are called the eight stages of Yoga (अष्टाङ्ग योग), of which some are external (बहिरङ्ग) and others internal (अन्तरङ्गानि). The external ones are:

- 1st. Yama (यम); Forbearance or restraint of passions, feelings &c., including the best moral rules in all religions.

- 2nd. Niyama (नियम ); Particular rules and vows for the observance of the Yogi.

- 3rd. Asana (आसन); sedate position of the body to help deep meditation.

- 4th. Pránáyáma (प्राणायाम); Suppression and suspension of breath.

- 5th. Pratyáhára (प्रत्याहार), Restraint or control of senses and organs.

Among the internal practices are reckoned the following; viz.;

- 6th. Dhyána (ध्यान); Inward contemplation and meditation.

- 7th. Dháraná (धारणा); Steadiness of the mind in study.

- 8th. Samádhi (समाधि), Trance, the last stage of Yoga.

These again comprise some other acts under each of them, such as;

I. Yama (समयम) Restraint includes five acts under it;

- 1st. Ahimsá (अहिंसा); Universal innocence or hurting no animal creature.

- 2nd. Asteyam (अस्तेयं); Avoidance of theft or stealth.

- 3rd. Satyam (सत्यं); Observance of truth.

- 4th. Brahmacharyam (ब्रह्मचर्यं); consisting in purity and chastity.

- 5th. Aparigraha (अपरिग्रह); Disinterestedness.

II. Niyama (नियम पञ्चधा); Moral rules consisting of five-fold acts. Viz.;

- 1st. Saucham (शौचं); Personal cleanliness.

- 2nd. Santosha (सन्तोषः); contentment.

- 3rd. Tapas (तपस्); Devotion including self denial and self mortification.

- 4th. Sádhyáya (साध्याय); knowledge of all nature.

- 5th. Pranidhána (ईश्वर प्रनिधानं); Adoration of God.

III. Asana (आसन); Different modes of postures, tranquil posture (पद्मासन) &c.

IV. Pránáyáma (प्राणायामः); Rules of Respiration, three sorts, viz.;

- 1st. Rechaka (रेचकं); Expiration or Exhalation.

- 2nd. Púraka (पूरकं); Inspiration or Inhalation.

- 3rd. Kumbhaka (कुम्भकं अष्टधा); Suppression of breathing, eight ways.

V. Pratyáhára (प्रत्याहारः इन्द्रिय निग्रहः) Restraining the senses from their gratifications in many ways.

VI. Dhyána (ध्यान चित्तनिरोधः); Abstract contemplation, apart from the testimonies of:—

- 1. Pratyaxa (प्रत्यक्ष); Perceptions.

- 2. Pramána (प्रमाणं); Apprehensions.

- 3. Anumána (अनुमान); Inference.

- 4. Sabda (शब्दः); Verbal testimony.

VII. Dháraná (धारणा); Retentiveness.

VIII. Samádhi (समाधि); Absorption in meditation, in two ways;

- 1. Savikalpa (सबिकल्पः); With retention of self volition.

- 2. Nirvikalpa (निर्बिकल्पः); With loss of volition.

The Upáyas (उपायाः); Or the means spoken of before are;

- 1. Uposhana (उपोषणं); Abstinence.

- 2. Mitásana (मिताशनं); Temperance.

- 3. Ásrama (आश्रमः); Sheltered abodes.

- 4. Visráma (बिश्रामः) Rest and repose from labor.

- 5. Avarodha (अबरोधः); Self confinement in closets.

- 6. Asanam (अशनं); Subsistence on light food.

Beside these there are many vices called Apáyas or dóshas (अपायादोषाः) which are obstacles to meditation, and which we omit on account of their prolixity.

VII. NATURE OF THE SOUL.

Now as the end and aim of Yoga is the emancipation of the Soul, it is necessary to give some account of the nature of the soul (átmatatwa) as far as it was known to the sages of India, and formed the primary subject of inquiry with the wise men of every country according to the sayings; “Gnothe seauton,”

“Nosce teipsum,” “Know thyself”, “Khodra bedan,” and Arabic

“Taalam Nafsaka,” आत्मानु सन्धीयताम् &c.

“The word Atman,” says Max Müller, “which in the Veda occurs as often as “twan,” meant life, particularly animal life” (Vide Rig Veda I. 63, 8.) Atmá in the sense of self occurs also in the Rig Veda (I. 162. 20), in the passage मात्वा-तपत् प्रिय आत्मापियन्तं. It is also found to be used in the higher sense of soul in the verse सूर्य्यो आत्मा जगतस्तष्टूषश्च “The sun is the soul of all that moves and rests (R. I. 115. 1). The highest soul is called paramátman (परमात्मा) of which all other souls partake, from which all reality in this created world emanates, and into which every thing will return.”

Atman originally meant air as the Greek atmos, Gothic ahma, Zend tmánam, Sanscrit त्मानं and आत्मानं, Cuniform adam, Persian dam, whence we derive Sans. अहं Hindi हम् Uria and Prakrit अमू and Bengali आमि, मुइ &c. The Greek and Latin ego and German ich are all derived from the same source. The Romance je and Hindi ji are corruptions of Sanskrit जीब meaning life and spirit. Again the Páli अत्ता and the Prakrit आप्पा is from the Sanscrit आत्मा, which is आप् in Hindi, आपन in Bengali and अप्पन in Uria &c. The Persian “man” is evidently the Sátman by elision of the initial syllable.

These meanings of átman = the self and ego form the basis of the knowledge of the Divine soul both of the Hindu as of any other people, who from the consciousness of their own selves rise to that of the Supreme. Thus says Max Müller on the subject, “A Hindu speaking of himself आत्मन् spoke also, though unconsciously of the soul of the universe परमात्मन्, and to know himself, was to him to know both his own self and the Universal soul, or to know himself in the Divine self.”

We give below the different lights in which the Divine soul was viewed by the different schools of Hindu philosophy, and adopted accordingly in their respective modes of Yoga meditation. The Upanishads called it Brahma of eternal and infinite wisdom नित्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म ।

The Vedantists;—A Being full of intelligence and blissfulness सच्चिदानन्द स्वरूपं ।

The Sánkaras;—A continued consciousness of one self. सनित्योपलब्धि स्वरूपोऽहमात्मा । The doctrine of Descartes and Malebranche.

The Materialists—convert the soul to all material forms देहमात्रमिति प्रकृत्यः ।

The Lokáyatas—take the body with intelligence to be the soul; चैतन्यबिशिष्टः देहमात्मां ।

The Chárvákas—call the organs and sensations as soul; इन्द्रियान्येबात्मेति ।

Do. Another sect—take the cognitive faculties as such; चेतनान्यात्मेत्यपरे चार्ब्बाकाः ।

Do. Others—Understand the mind as soul मनो एबात्मेत्यन्ये ।

Do. Others—call the vital breath as soul प्राण एबात्मा ।

Do. Others—understand the son as soul पुत्र एबात्मा ।

The Digambaras—say, the complete human body is the soul देहपरिमानमात्मा ।

The Mádhyamikas—take the vacuum for their soul शून्यमेबात्मेति ।

The Yogácháris—understand the soul to be a transient flash of knowledge in the spirit in meditation. क्षणं विज्ञाणं ।

The Sautrántas—call it a short inferior knowledge. ज्ञानाकारानुमेय क्षणिक बाह्यार्थः ।

The Vaibháshikas—take it to be a momentary perception क्षणिक बाह्यार्थमिति वैभाषिकाः ।

The Jainas—take their preceptor to be their soul अध्यापक आत्मा इति जैनाः ।

The Logicians—A bodiless active and passive agency देहाद्यतिरिक्त्त संसारी कर्त्ता भोक्त्तेति ।

The Naiyáyikas—understand the spirit to be self manifest प्रकाश्य इति नैयायिकाः ।

The Sánkhyas,—call the spirit to be passive, not active भोक्त्तेब नकर्त्तेति सांख्या ।

The Yogis—call Him a separate omnipotent Being अस्ति तद्ब्यतिरिक्त ईश्वरः सर्ब्बज्ञः सर्ब्बशक्तिरिति ।

The Saivas,—designate the spirit as knowledge itself अनुक्षेत्रज्ञादि पद बेदनीय इति शैबाः ।

The Mayávádis,—style Brahma as the soul ब्रह्मैबात्मेति मायाबादिनः ।

The Vaiseshikas,—acknowledge two souls—the Vital and Supreme जीबात्मा परमात्मा च प्रत्यक्ष एब ।

The Nyayá says—because the soul is immortal there is a future state आत्म नित्यत्वे प्रेत्यभाबसिद्धः ।

And thus there are many other theories about the nature of the soul.

The Atmávádis—spiritualists, consider the existence of the body as unnecessary to the existence of the soul.

VIII. FINAL EMANCIPATION OR BEATITUDE.

The object of Yoga, as already said, being the emancipation of the soul from the miseries of the world, and its attainment to a state of highest felicity, it is to be seen what this state of felicity is, which it is the concern of every man to know, and which the Yogi takes so much pains to acquire. The Vedantic Yogi, as it is well known, aims at nothing less than in his absorption in the Supreme Spirit and loosing himself in infinite bliss. But it is not so with others, who are averse to loose the sense of their personal identity, and look forward to a state of self existence either in this life or next, in which they shall be perfectly happy. The Yogis of India have various states of this bliss which they aim at according to the faith to which they belong, as we shall show below.

The Vedantic Yogi has two states of bliss in view; viz.; the one inferior which is attained in this life by means of knowledge तत्रामरः जीबन्मुक्ति लक्षणं तत्वज्ञानान्तरमेव, and the other superior, obtainable after many births of gradual advancement to perfection परं निःश्रेयसं क्रमेण भबति ।

The Chárvákas say, that it is either independence or death that is bliss. स्वातन्त्र्यं मृत्युर्ब्बा मोक्षः ।

The Mádhyamikas say; it is extinction of self that is called liberation आत्मोच्छेदो मोक्षः ।

The Vijnáni philosophers—have it to be clear and elevated understanding निर्मलज्ञानोदयः ।

The Arhatas have it in deliverance from all veil and covering आबरण बिमुक्तिर्मुक्तिः ।

The Máyávádis say, that it is removal of the error of one’s separate existence as a particle of the Supreme spirit ब्रह्मांशिकजीबस्य मिथ्याज्ञान निबृत्तिः ।

The Rámánujas called it to be the knowledge of Vásudeva as cause of all, बासुदेब ज्ञानं ।

The Mádhyamikas have it for the perfect bliss enjoyed by Vishnu बिष्णोरानन्दं ।

The Ballabhis expect it in sporting with Krishna in heaven कृष्णेण सह गोलके लीलानुभाबः ।

The Pásupatas and Máheswaras place it in the possession of all dignity परमैश्वर्य्यं ।

The Kápálikas place it in the fond embraces of Hara and Durga हरपार्ब्बत्यालिङ्गनं ।

The Pratyabhijnánis call it to be the perfection of the soul. पूर्णात्मालाभः ।

The Raseswara Vádis have it in the health of body produced by mercury पारदेन देहस्थैर्य्यं ।

The Vaisesikas seek it in the extinction of all kinds of pain दुःखः निबृत्तिरिति कणादादयः ।

The Mimánsakas view their happiness in heavenly bliss स्वर्गादि सुख भोगः ।

The Sarvajnas say that, it is the continued feeling of highest felicity नित्य निरतिशय सुखबोधः ।

The Pánini philologers find it in the powers of speech ब्रह्म रूपाया बाण्या दर्शनं ।

The Sánkhyas find it in the union of force with matter प्रकृतौ पुरुषस्याबस्थानं ।

The Udásína Atheists have it as consisting in the ignoring of self identity अहंङ्कर निबृत्तिः ।

The Pátanjalas view it in the unconnected unity of the soul पुरुषस्य निर्लेप कैबल्यं ।

The Persian Sufis call it ázádigi or unattachment of the soul to any worldly object.

IX. ORIGIN OF YOGA IN THE VEDAS.

Not in the Vedic Period.      The origin of yoga meditation is placed at a period comparatively less ancient than the earliest Sanhita or hymnic period of vedic history, when the Rishis followed the elementary worship of the physical forces, or the Brahmanic age when they were employed in the ceremonial observances.

Some Traces      of it.There are however some traces of abstract contemplation “dhyána yoga” to be occasionally met with in the early Vedas, where the Rishis are mentioned to have indulged themselves in such reveries. Thus in the Rig Veda—129. 4. सतो वन्धुमसति निरविन्दन् हृदि प्रतीष्य कवयो मनीषा ।

“The poets discovered in their heart, through meditation, the bond of the existing in the non-existing.” M. Müller. A. S. Lit. (p. 19.)

The Gáyatrí Meditation.      We have it explicitly mentioned in the Gáyatrí hymn of the Rig Veda, which is daily recited by every Brahman, and wherein its author Viswámitra “meditated on the glory of the Lord for the illumination of his understanding” भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि । But this bespeaks a development of intellectual meditation “jnana yoga” only, and not spiritual as there is no prayer for (मुक्ति) liberation.

Áranyaka Period.      It was in the third or Áranyaka period, that the yoga came in vogue with the second class of the Atharva Upanishads, presenting certain phases in its successive stages, as we find in the following analysis of them given by Professor Weber in his History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. This class of works, he says, is chiefly made up of subjects relating to yoga, as consisting in divine meditation and giving up all earthly connections. (Ibid p. 163).

Yoga Upanishads.      To this class belong the Jábála, Katha—sruti, Bhallavi, Samvartasruti, Sannyása, Hansa and Paramhansa Upanishads, Srimaddatta, the Mándukya and Tarkopanishads, and a few others, (Ibid. p. 164). It will exceed our bounds to give an account of the mode of yoga treated in these treatises, which however may be easily gathered by the reader from a reference to the Fifty two Upanishads lately published in this city.

Their different modes of yoga.      Beside the above, we find mention of yoga and the various modes of conducting it in some other Upanishads, as given below by the same author and analyst. The Kathopanishad or Kathavallí of the Atharva Veda, treats of the first principles of Deistic Yoga. Ibid. p. 158.

The Garbhopanishad speaks of the Sánkhya and Pátanjali yoga systems as the means of knowing Náráyana. (Ibid. p. 160). The Brahmaopanishad, says Weber, belongs more properly to the yoga Upanishads spoken of before. (Ibid. p. 161).

The Nirálambopanishad exhibits essentially the yoga stand point according to Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra (Notices of S. Mss. II 95. Weber’s Id. p. 162). The yoga tatwa and yoga sikhá belong to yoga also, and depict the majesty of Átmá. (Ibid. p. 165).

Among the Sectarian Upanishads will be found the Náráyanopanishad, which is of special significance in relation to the Sánkhya and Yoga doctrines (Ibid. p. 166).

Sánkhya and Pátanjala Yogas.      It is plain from the recurrence of the word Sánkhya in the later Upanishads of the Taittiríya and Atharva vedas and in the Nirukta and Bhagavad Gítá, that the Sánkhya Yoga was long known to the ancients, and the Pátanjala was a further development of it. (Ibid. p. 137).

Yoga Yájnavalkya.      Along with or prior to Pátanjali comes the Yoga Sástra of Yogi Yájnavalkya, the leading authority of the Sátapatha Bráhmana, who is also regarded as a main originator of the yoga doctrine in his later writings. (Ibid. p. 237). Yájnavalkya speaks of his obtaining the Yoga Sástra from the sun, ज्ञेयञ्चारण्यकमहं यदादित्यादबाप्तबान । योगशास्त्रञ्च मत् प्रोक्तं ज्ञेयं योगमभीप्सता ॥

“He who wishes to attain yoga must know the Áranyaka which I have received from the sun, and the Yoga sástra which I have taught.”

X. RISE OF THE HERETICAL YOGAS.

The Buddhist and Jain Yogas.      Beside the Orthodox yoga systems of the Upanishads, we have the Heterodox Yoga Sastras of the Buddhists and Jains completely concordant with those of Yájnavalkya in the Brihad áranyaka and Atharvan Upanishads, (Weber’s Id. p. 285).

The concordance with the Vedantic.      The points of coincidence of the vedánta yoga with those of Buddhism and Jainism, consist in as much as both of them inculcate the doctrine of the interminable metempsychosis of the human soul, as a consequence of bodily acts, previous to its state of final absorption or utter annihilation, according to the difference in their respective views. Or to explain it more clearly they say that, “The state of humanity in its present, past and future lives, is the necessary result of its own acts “Karma” in previous births.”

The weal or woe of mankind.      That misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable sequence of conduct in former states of existence, and that our present actions will determine our states to come; that is, their weal or woe depending solely on the merit or demerit of acts. It is, therefore, one’s cessation from action by confining himself to holy meditation, that secures to him his final absorption in the supreme according to the one; and by his nescience of himself that ensures his utter extinction according to the other.

The Puránic yoga.      In the Puránic period we get ample accounts of yoga and yogis. The Kurma purana gives a string of names of yoga teachers. The practice of yoga is frequently alluded to in the Vana parva of Mahábhárata. The observances of yoga are detailed at considerable length and strenuously enjoined in the Udyoga parva of the said epic. Besides in modern times we have accounts of yogis in the Sakuntala of Kálidása (VII. 175) and in the Mádhava Málati of Bhava-bhúti (act V.). The Rámayana gives an account of a Súdra yogi, and the Bhágavatgítá treats also of yoga as necessary to be practiced (chap. VI. V. 13).

The Tántrika yoga.      The Tantras or cabalistic works of modern times are all and every one of them no other than yoga sastras, containing directions and formulas for the adoration of innumerable deities for the purpose of their votaries’ attainment of consummation “Yoga Siddhi” through them. It is the Tántrika yoga which is chiefly current in Bengal, though the old forms may be in use in other parts of the country. It is reckoned with the heretical systems, because the processes and practices of its yoga are mostly at variance with the spiritual yoga of old. It has invented many múdras or masonic signs, monograms and mysterious symbols, which are wholly unintelligible to the yogis of the old school, and has the carnal rites of the pancha-makára for immediate consummation which a spiritualist will feel ashamed to learn (See Wilson. H. Religion).

The Hatha Yoga.      This system, which as its name implies consists of the forced contortions of the body in order to subdue the hardy boors to quiescence, is rather a training of the body than a mental or spiritual discipline of a moral and intelligent being for the benefit of the rational soul. The votaries of this system are mostly of a vagrant and mendicant order, and subject to the slander of foreigners, though they command veneration over the ignorant multitude.

The Sectarian yogas.      The modern sectarians in upper Hindustan, namely the followers of Rámánuja, Gorakhnáth, Nának, Kabir and others, possess their respective modes of yoga, written in the dialects of Hindi, for their practice in the maths or monasteries peculiar to their different orders.

Yoga an indigene of India.      Lux-ab-oriens. “Light from the east:” and India has given more light to the west than it has derived from that quarter. We see India in Greece in many things, but not Greece in India in any. And when we see a correspondence of the Asiatic with the European, we have more reason to suppose its introduction to the west by its travellers to the east, since the days of Alexander the Great, than the Indians’ importation of any thing from Europe, by crossing the seas which they had neither the means nor privilege to do by the laws of their country. Whatever, therefore, the Indian has is the indigenous growth of the land, or else they would be as refined as the productions of Europe are generally found to be.

Its European forms &c.      Professor Monier Williams speaking of the yoga philosophy says; “The votaries of animal magnetism, clairvoyance and so called spiritualism, will find most of their theories represented or far outdone by corresponding notions existing in the yoga system for more than two thousand years ago.” In speaking of the Vedanta he declares; “The philosophy of the Sufis, alleged to be developed out of the Koran, appears to be a kind of pantheism very similar to that of the Vedanta.” He has next shewn the correspondence of its doctrines with those of Plato. Again he says about the Sánkhya; “It may not be altogether unworthy of the attention of Darwinians” (Ind. Wisdom).

The yoga &c. in Greece.      The Dialectic Nyáya in the opinion of Sir William Jones expressed in his Discourse on Hindu philosophy, was taken up by the followers of Alexander and communicated by them to Aristotle: and that Pythagoras derived his doctrine of Metempsychosis from the Hindu yoga in his travels through India. His philosophy was of a contemplative cast from the sensible to the immaterial Intelligibles.

The Gnostic yoga.      Weber says; “The most flourishing epoch of the Sánkhya-yoga, belongs most probably to the first centuries of our eras, the influence it exercised upon the development of gnosticism in Asia Minor being unmistakable; while further both through that channel and afterwards directly also, it had an important influence upon the growth of Sophi-philosophy” (See Lassen I. A. K. & Gildemeister, Scrip. Arab. de rebus indicis loci et opuscula.)

Yoga among Moslems.      It was at the beginning of the 11th century that Albiruni translated Pátanjali’s work (Yoga-Sútra) into Arabic, and it would appear the Sánkhya Sútras also; though the information we have of the contents of these works, do not harmonize with the sanskrit originals. (Reinaud Journal Asiatique and H. M. Elliot Mahomedan History of India. Weber’s Ind. Lit. p. 239).

Buddhistic Yoga in Europe.      The Gnostic doctrines derived especially from Buddhistic missions through Persia and Punjab, were spread over Europe, and embraced and cultivated particularly by Basilides, Valentinian, and Bardesanes as well as Manes.

Manechian Doctrines.      It is, however, a question as to the amount of influence to be ascribed to Indian philosophy generally, in shaping these gnostic doctrines of Manes in particular, was a most important one, as has been shown by Lassen III. 415. Beal. I. R. A. S. II. 424. Web. Ind. Lit. p. 309.

Buddhist and Sánkhya yogas.      It must be remembered that Buddhism and its yoga are but offshoots of Sánkhya yoga, and sprung from the same place the Kapila Vástu.

XII. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF YOGA.

Varieties of yoga.      The Yoga system will be found, what Monier Williams says of Hinduism at large, “to present its spiritual and material aspects, its esoteric and exoteric, its subjective and objective, its pure and impure sides to the observer.” “It is,” he says, “at once vulgarly pantheistic, severely monotheistic, grossly polytheistic and coldly atheistic. It has a side for the practical and another for the devotional and another for the speculative.” Again says he; “Those, who rest in ceremonial observances, find it all satisfying; those, who deny the efficacy of works and make faith the one thing needful, need not wander from its pale; those, who delight in meditating on the nature of God and man, the relation of matter and spirit, the mystery of separate existence and the origin of evil, may here indulge their love of speculation.” (Introduction to Indian Wisdom p. xxvii.)

We shall treat of these seriatim, by way of notes to or interpretation of the above, as applying to the different modes of yoga practised by these several orders of sectarians.

1. Spiritual yoga. अध्यात्म योगः ।       That the earliest form of yoga was purely spiritual, is evident from the Upanishads, the Vedánta doctrines of Vyása and all works on the knowledge of the soul (adhyátma Vidyá). “All the early Upanishads”, says Weber, “teach the doctrine of atmá-spirit, and the later ones deal with yoga meditation to attain complete union with átmá or the Supreme Spirit.” Web. Ind. Lit. p. 156. “The átmá soul or self and the supreme spirit (paramátmá) of which all other souls partake, is the spiritual object of meditation (yoga).” Max Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 20. Yajnavalkya says; आत्माबारे द्रष्टब्य ओतब्य मन्तब्य निदिध्यासितब्यः ।

“The Divine Spirit is to be seen, heard, perceived and meditated upon &c.” If we see, hear, perceive and know Him, then this whole universe is known to us. A. S. Lit. p. 23. Again, “Whosoever looks for Brahmahood elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned. Whosoever looks for Kshatra power elsewhere than in the Divine Spirit, should be abandoned. This Brahmahood, this Kshatra power, this world, these gods, these beings, this universe, all is Divine Spirit.” Ibid. The meaning of the last passage is evidently that, the spirit of God pervades the whole, and not that these are God; for that would be pantheism and materialism; whereas the Sruti says that, “God is to be worshipped in spirit and not in any material object.” आत्मा आत्मन्येबोपासितव्यः ।

2. The Materialistic yoga. सांख्य बा प्राकृतिक योगः ।       The materialistic side of the yoga, or what is called the Prákritika yoga, was propounded at first in the Sánkhya yoga system, and thence taken up in the Puránas and Tantras, which set up a primeval matter as the basis of the universe, and the purusha or animal soul as evolved out of it, and subsisting in matter. Weber’s Ind. Lit. p. 235.

Of Matter—Prakriti.      Here, the avyakta—matter is reckoned as prior to the purusha or animal soul; whereas in the Vedánta the purusha or primeval soul is considered as prior to the avyakta-matter. The Sánkhya, therefore, recognizes the adoration of matter as its yoga, and its founder Kapila was a yogi of this kind. Later materialists meditate on the material principles and agencies as the causes of all, as in the Vidyanmoda Taranginí; प्रकृतिस्तेमहत्तत्वं सम्बर्द्धयतुसर्ब्बदा ।

Of Spirit—Purusha.      These agencies were first viewed as concentrated in a male form, as in the persons of Buddha, Jina and Siva, as described in the Kumára Sambhava आत्मानमात्मन्यबलोकदन्तः; and when in the female figure of Prakriti or nature personified, otherwise called Saktirupá or the personification of energy, as in the Devi máhátmya; या देबी सर्ब्बभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता &c. They were afterwards viewed in the five elements panchabhúta, which formed the elemental worship of the ancients, either singly or conjointly as in the pancha-bháutiká upásaná, described in the Sarva darsana sangraha.

Nature worship in eight forms.      The materialistic or nature worship was at last diversified into eight forms called ashta múrti, consisting of earth, water, fire, air, sky, sun, moon, and the sacrificial priest, which were believed to be so many forms of God Ísa, and forming the objects of his meditation also. The eight forms are summed up in the lines; जलं सूर्य्योमहीबह्णिः बायुराकाशमेबच । दीक्षितोब्राह्मणः सोमः इत्यष्टौ तनवः स्मृताः । or as it is more commonly read in Bengal, क्षितिर्जलं तथा तेजो वायुराकाशमेव च । याज्ञिकार्कस्तथा चन्द्रो मूर्तिरष्टौहरस्यच । That they were forms of Ísa is thus expressed by Kálidása in the Raghu-vansa; अवेहि मां किङ्करमष्ट मूर्तेः । कुम्भोद्भबो नाम निकुम्भमित्रं; and that they were meditated upon by him as expressed by the same in his Kumára Sambhava;

तत्राग्निमाधाय समित् समिद्धं । स्वमेब मूर्त्यन्तरमष्ट मूर्तिः ॥

The prologue to the Sakuntalá will at once prove this great poet to have been a materialist of this kind; thus;

या सृष्टिः स्रष्टु राद्या बहति बिधि हुतं या हबिर्याचहोत्री ।

ये द्वेकालं बिधत्तः श्रुतिबिषयगुणा यास्थिताब्याप्यविश्वमं ॥

या माहुः प्रकृतिरिति यया प्रणिनः प्रणबन्तः ।

प्रसन्नस्तनुभिरबतु बस्ताभिरष्टाभिरीशः ॥

“Water the first work of the creator, and Fire which receives the oblations ordained by law &c. &c. May Ísa, the God of Nature, apparent in these forms, bless and sustain you.”

Besides all this the Sivites of the present day, are found to be votaries of this materialistic faith in their daily adoration of the eight forms of Siva in the following formula of their ritual;

१

सर्ब्बाय क्षिति मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

२

भबाय जल मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

३

रुद्र ।य अग्नि मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

४

उग्राय बायु मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

५

भीमाय आकाश मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

६

पशुपतये यजमान मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

७

महादेबाय सोम मूर्त्तिये नमः ।

८

ईशानाय सूर्य मूर्त्तिये नमः ॥

Both the Sánkhya and Saiva materialism are deprecated in orthodox works as atheistic and heretical, like the impious doctrines of the modern positivists and materialists of Europe, on account of their disbelief in the existence of a personal and spiritual God. Thus says, Kumárila; सांख्ययोग पाञ्चरात्न पाशुपत शाख्य निर्ग्रन्थपरिगृहीत धर्म्माधर्म्म निवन्धनानि (Max Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 78.)

3. The Esoteric “Jnána yoga     .” It is the occult and mystic meditation of the Divinity, practised by religious recluses after their retirement from the world in the deep recesses of forests, according to the teachings of the Áranyakas of the Vedas. In this sense it is called “Alaukika” or recluse, as opposed to the “laukika” or the popular form. It is as well practicable in domestic circles by those that are qualified to practise the “Jnána yoga” (ज्ञानयोग) or transcendental speculation at their leisure. Of the former kind were the Rishis Súka deva, Yájnavalkya and others, and of the latter sort were the royal personages Janaka and other kings and the sages Vasistha, Vyása and many more of the “munis.”

4. The Exoteric Rája yoga     . This is the “laukika” or popular form of devotion practised chiefly by the outward formulae—vahirangas of yoga, with observance of the customary rites and duties of religion. The former kind called Vidyá (विद्या) and the latter Avidyá (अविद्या), are enjoined to be performed together in the Veda, which says: यत्तद्वेदोभयं सह &c. The Bhagavadgitá says to the same effect, नकर्मणामनारम्भ्यनैष्कर्म्मं पुरुषोश्नुते. The yoga Vásishtha inculcates the same doctrine in conformity with the Sruti which says: अन्धतमम्प्रबिशन्ति येउबिद्यायांरताः । ततोभूयएबतेतमो ये उअबिद्यायांरताः ।

5. The Subjective or Hansa yoga     . The hansa or paramahansa yoga is the subjective form, which consists in the perception of one’s identity with that of the supreme being, whereby men are elevated above life and death. (Weber’s Ind. Lit. p. 157.) The formula of meditation is “soham, hansah” (सोऽहं हंसः) I am He, Ego sum Is, and the Arabic “Anal Haq”; wherein the Ego is identified with the absolute.

6. The objective word Tattwamasi     . The objective side of yoga is clearly seen in its formula of tat twam asi—“thou art He.” Here “thou” the object of cognition—a non ego, is made the absolute subjective (Weber. Ind. Lit. p. 162). This formula is reduced to one word tatwam तत्वं denoting “truth,” which contained in viewing every thing as Himself, or having subordinated all cosmical speculations to the objective method.

7. The Pure yoga-Suddha Brahmacharyam.      The pure Yoga has two meanings viz.; the holy and unmixed forms of it. The former was practised by the celibate Brahmacháris and Brahmachárinis of yore, and is now in practice with the Kánphutta yogis and yoginis of Katiyawar in Guzerat and Bombay. Its unmixed form is found among the Brahmavádis and Vádinis, who practise the pure contemplative yoga of Vedánta without any intermixture of sectarian forms. It corresponds with the philosophical mysticism of saint Bernard, and the mystic devotion of the Sufis of Persia. (See Sir Wm. Jones. On the Mystic Poetry of the Hindus, Persians and Greeks.)

8. The Impure or Bhanda yoga     . The impure yoga in both its significations of unholiness and intermixture, is now largely in vogue with the followers of the tantras, the worshippers of Siva and Sakti, the modern Gosavis of Deccan, the Bullabhácháris of Brindaban, the Gosains, Bhairavis and Vaishnava sects in India, the Aghoris of Hindustan, and the Kartábhajás and Nerá-neris of Bengal.

9. The Pantheistic or Visvátmá yoga     . This is well known from the pantheistic doctrines of Vedánta, to consist in the meditation of every thing in God and God in every thing; “Sarvam khalvidam Brahama” सर्ब्बं खल्विदं ब्रह्म । एतद्धैतत; and that such contemplation alone leads to immortality. भूतेषु भूतेषु बिचिन्त्य धीरः प्रेत्यास्माल्लोकादमृता भबन्ति । It corresponds with the pantheism of Persian Sufis and those of Spinoza and Tindal in the west. Even Sadi says; “Hamán nestand unche hasti tui,” there is nothing else but thyself. So in Urdu, Jo kuch hai ohi hai nahin aur kuchh.

10. The Monotheistic or Adwaita Brahma yoga.      It consists in the meditation of the creed ओं एकमेवबाद्बितीयं of the Brahmans, like the “Wahed Ho” of Moslems, and that God is one of Unitarian Christians. The monotheistic yoga is embodied in the Svetáswatara and other Upanishads (Weber p. 252 a). As for severe monotheism the Mosaic and Moslem religions are unparalleled, whose tenet it is “la sharik laho” one without a partner; and, “Thou shalt have no other God but Me.”

11. The Dualistic or Dwaita yoga     . The dualistic yoga originated with Patanjali, substituting his Isvara for the Purusha of Sánkhya, and taking the Prakriti as his associate. “From these,” says Weber, “the doctrine seems to rest substantially upon a dualism of the Purusha male and avyakta or Prakriti—the female.” This has also given birth to the dualistic faith of the androgyne divinity—the Protogonus of the Greek mythology, the ardhanáriswara of Manu, the undivided Adam of the scriptures, the Hara-Gauri and Umá-Maheswara of the Hindu Sáktas. But there is another dualism of two male duties joined in one person of Hari-hara or Hara-hari; whose worshippers are called dwaita-vádis, and among whom the famous grammarian Vopadeva ranks the foremost.

12. The Trialistic or Traita-yoga     . The doctrines of the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, and that of the Platonic triad and Christian Holy Trinity are well known to inculcate the worship and meditation of the three persons in one, so that in adoring one of them, a man unknowingly worships all the three together.

13. The Polytheistic yoga or Sarva Devopásana     . This consists of the adoration of a plurality of deities in the mythology by every Hindu, though every one has a special divinity of whom he is the votary for his particular meditation. The later upanishads have promulgated the worship of several forms of Vishnu and Siva (Web. I. Lit. p. 161); and the Tantras have given the dhyánas or forms of meditation of a vast member of deities in their various forms and images (Ibid. p. 236).

14. The Atheistic or Niríswara      yoga. The Atheistic yoga is found in the niriswara or hylo-theistic system of Kapila, who transmitted his faith “in nothing” to the Buddhists and Jains, who having no God to adore, worship themselves, in sedate and silent meditation. (Monier Williams, Hindu Wisdom p. 97).

15. The Theistic or Ástikya yoga     . The Theistic yoga system of Patanjala: otherwise called the seswara yoga, was ingrafted on the old atheistic system of Sánkhya with a belief in the Iswara. It is this system to which the name yoga specially belongs. (Weber’s Ind. Lit. pp. 238 and 252).

16. The Practical Yoga Sádhana     . “The yoga system,” says Weber, “developed itself in course of time in outward practices of penance and mortifications, whereby absorption in the Supreme Being was sought to be obtained. We discover its early traces in the Epics and specially in the Atharva upanishads.” (Ind. Lit. p. 239). The practical yoga Sádhana is now practised by every devotee in the service of his respective divinity.

17. The devotional or Sannyása yoga     . The devotional side of the yoga is noticed in the instance of Janaka in the Mahábhárata, and of Yájnavalkhya in the Brihadáranyaka in the practice of their devotions in domestic life. These examples may have given a powerful impetus to the yogis in the succeeding ages, to the practice of secluded yoga in ascetism and abandonment of the world, and its concerns called Sannyása as in the case of Chaitanya and others.

18. The Speculative Dhyána yoga     . It had its rise in the first or earliest class of Upanishads, when the minds of the Rishis were employed in speculations about their future state and immortality, and about the nature and attributes of the Supreme Being.

19. The Ceremonial or Kriyá yoga     . This commenced with the second class or medieval upanishads, which gave the means and stages, whereby men may even in this world attain complete union with the Átma (Web. I. Lit. p. 156). The yogáchara of Manu relates to the daily ceremonies of house-keepers, and the Kriyá yoga of the Puránas treats about pilgrimages and pious acts of religion.

20. The Pseudo or Bhákta yoga     . The pure yoga being perverted by the mimicry of false pretenders to sanctity and holiness, have assumed all those degenerate forms which are commonly to be seen in the mendicant Fakirs, strolling about with mock shows to earn a livelihood from the imposed vulgar. These being the most conspicuous have infused a wrong notion of yoga into the minds of foreigners.

21. The Bhakti      yoga. The Bhakti yoga first appears in the Swetáswatara Upanishad where the Bhakti element of faith shoots forth to light (Web. Ind. Lit. pp. 252 and 238). It indicates acquaintance with the corresponding doctrine of Christianity. The Bhágavad Gítá lays special stress upon faith in the Supreme Being. It is the united opinion of the majority of European scholars, that the Hindu Bhakti is derived from the faith (fides) of Christian Theology. It has taken the place of श्रद्धा or belief among all sects, and has been introduced of late in the Brahma Samájas with other Vaishnava practices.

The other topics of Prof. Monier Williams being irrelevant to our subject, are left out from being treated in the present dissertation.

XIII. THE CONSUMMATION OF YOGA (SIDDHI).

22. By assimilation to the object.      The Yogi by continually meditating on the perfections of the All Perfect Being, becomes eventually a perfect being himself,just as a man that devotes his sole attention to the acquisition a particular science, attains in time not only to a perfection in it, but becomes as it were identified with that science. Or to use a natural phenomenon in the metamorphoses of insects, the transformation of the cockroach to the conchfly, by its constant dread of the latter when caught by it, and the cameleon’s changing its colour for those of the objects about it, serve well to elucidate the Brahmahood ब्रह्मभूयः of the contemplative yogi.

But to illustrate this point more clearly we will cite the argument of Plotinus of the Neo-Platonic school, to prove the elevation of the meditative yogi to the perfection of the Being he meditates upon. He says, “Man is a finite being, how can he comprehend the Infinite? But as soon as he comprehends the Infinite, he is infinite himself: that is to say; he is no longer himself, no longer that finite being having a consciousness of his own separate existence; but is lost in and becomes one with the Infinite.”

By identification with the object     . Here says Mr. Lewes, “If I attain to a knowledge of the Infinite, it is not by my reason which is finite, but by some higher faculty which identifies itself with its object. Hence the identity of subject and object, of the thought and the thing thought of ज्ञाताज्ञानयोरैक्यं is the only possible ground of knowledge. Knowledge and Being are identical, and to know more is to be more”. But says Plotinus; “If knowledge is the same as the thing known, the finite as finite, can never know the Infinite, because he cannot be Infinite”. Hist. Phil. I. p. 391.

By meditation of Divine attributes.      Therefore the yogi takes himself as his preliminary step, to the meditations of some particular attribute or perfection of the deity, to which he is assimilated in thought, which is called his state of lower perfection; until he is prepared by his highest degree of ecstacy to lose the sense of his own personality, and become absorbed in the Infinite Intelligence called his ultimate consummation or Samádhi, which makes him one with the Infinite, and unites the knower and the known together; ज्ञाताज्ञेययोरैक्यं ।

The Sufi Perfection.      The perfection of the yogi bears a striking resemblance with maarfat of the Sufis of Persia, and it is described at length by Al-Gazzali, a famous sophist, of which we have an English translation given by G. K. Lewes in his History of Philosophy. (Vol. II. p. 55). “From the very first the Sufis have such astonishing revelations, that they are enabled, while waking, to see visions of angels and the souls of prophets; they hear their voices and receive their favours.”

Ultimate consummation      “Afterwards a transport exalts them beyond the mere perception of forms, to a degree which exceeds all expression, and concerning which one cannot speak without employing a language that would sound blasphemous. In fact some have gone so far as to imagine themselves amalgamated with God, others identified with Him, and others to be associated with Him.” These states are called स्वारुप्य, सायुज्य &c., in Hindu yoga as we shall presently see.

XIV. THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF PERFECTION.

The Eight perfections. अष्ट सिद्धिः ।       “The supernatural faculties” says Wilson, “are acquired in various degrees according to the greater or lesser perfection of the adept.” H. Rel. p. 131. These perfections are commonly enumerated as eight in number (अष्ट सिद्धिः ।), and are said to be acquired by the particular mode in which the devotee concentrates himself in the Divine spirit or contemplates it within himself.

1. Microcosm or Animá     . The specific property of the minuteness of the soul or universal spirit, that it is minuter than the minutest (अण रणीयान्). By thinking himself as such, the yogi by a single expiration of air, makes his whole body assume a lank and lean appearance, and penetrates his soul into all bodies.

2. Macrocosm or Mahimá     . This also is a special quality of the soul that it fills the body, and extends through all space and encloses it within itself (महतो महीयान्); by thinking so, the yogi by a mere respiration of air makes his body round and turgid as a frog, and comprehends the universe in himself.

3. Lightness or Laghimá     . From thinking on the lightness of the soul, the yogi produces a diminution of his specific gravity by swallowing large draughts of air, and thereby keeps himself in an aerial posture both on sea and land. This the Sruti says as (लघोर्लघीयान्).

4. Gravity or Garimá     . This practice is opposed to the above, and it is by the same process of swallowing great draughts of air, and compressing them within the system, that the yogi acquires an increase of his specific gravity or garimá (गुरोगरीयान्). Krishna is said to have assumed his बिश्बम्भर मूर्त्ति in this way, which preponderated all weights in the opposite scale.

5. Success or Prápti     . This is the obtaining of desired objects and supernatural powers as by inspiration from above. The yogi in a state of trance acquires the power of predicting future events, of understanding unknown languages, of curing divers diseases, of hearing distant sounds, of divining unexpressed thoughts of others, of seeing distant objects, or smelling mystical fragrant odours, and of understanding the language of beasts and birds. Hence the prophets all dived into futurity, the oracles declared future events, Jina understood pasubháshá, and Christ healed diseases and infirmities. So also Sanjaya saw the battles waged at Kurukshetra from the palace of king Dhritaráshtra.

6. Overgain—PraKámya      Prakámya is obtaining more than one’s expectations, and consists in the power of casting the old skin and maintaining a youth-like appearance for an unusual period of time, as it is recorded of king Yayáti (Japhet or Jyápati); and of Alcibiades who maintained an unfading youth to his last. By some writers it is defined to be the property of entering into the system of another person; as it is related of Sankaráchárya’s entering the dead body of prince Amaru in the Sankara Vijaya.

7. Subjection Vasitwam     . This is the power of taming living creatures and bringing them under control. It is defined also to be the restraint of passions and emotions as रागादि बशित्वं, and likewise the bringing of men and women under subjection. This made Orpheus tame the wild animals and stop the course of rivers by the music of his lyre, and gave Pythagoras (who derived it from India) the power of subduing a furious bear by the influence of his will or word, as also of preventing an ox from eating his beans, and stopping an eagle in its flight. It was by this that Prospero subdued the elements and aerial spirits with his magic wand, and Draupadi and Mahommed obtained the powers of stopping the courses of the sun and moon. The Magis of Persia are said to have derived their magical powers from the Máyis of India who first cultivated the magical art.

8. Dominion or Ishitwam     . It is the obtaining of universal dominion either in this life or next by means of yoga, as it is recorded of Rávana, Mándhátá and others in the traditions. It is also said to be the attainment of divine powers, when the yogi finds himself in a blaze of light.

XV. THE STATE OF A PERFECT YOGI.

Authority of H. H. Wilson      When the mystic union is effected, he (the yogi) can make himself lighter than the lightest substance, and heavier than the heaviest; can become as vast or as minute as he pleases; can traverse all space, can animate any dead body by transferring his spirit into it from his own frame. He can render himself invisible, can attain all objects, become equally acquainted with the present, past and future, and is finally united with Siva, and consequently exempted from being born again upon earth. (See Wilson’s Hindu Religion p. 131).

Ditto of Plato.      We find the same doctrine in Plato’s Phaedrus where Socrates delivers a highly poetical effusion respecting the partial intercourse or the human soul with eternal intellectual Realia. He says moreover that, all objects which are invisible can be apprehended only by cogitation (yoga); and that none but philosophers (yogis), and a few of them can attain such mental energy during this life (जीबन्मुक्ति); nor even they fully and perfectly in the present state. But they will attain it fully after death; if their lives have been passed in sober philosophical training (ध्यानज्ञान). And that all souls enjoyed it before birth, before junction with the body, which are forgotten during childhood, but recalled in the way of reminiscence by association. The revival of the divine elements is an inspiration of the nature of madness (trance or ecstasy of the yoga). The soul becoming insensible to ordinary pursuits, contracts a passionate tendency to the universal. (Baine on Realism. pp. 6 and 7).

Authority of Plotinus.      “It is ecstasy the faculty by which the soul divests itself of its personality. In this state the soul becomes loosened from its material prison, separated from individual consciousness, and becomes absorbed in the Infinite Intelligence from which it emanated. In this ecstasy it contemplates real existence; and identifies itself with that which it contemplates.” (Lewes. Hist. of Philosophy Vol. I. p. 389).

XVI. CRITICISM ON YOGA PRACTICE.

Disbelief in yoga.      Notwithstanding all that we have said and the authorities we have cited in the preceding article on the efficacy of yoga, we find some scholars in Europe and many educated men in this country, are disposed to discredit the efficiency of yoga to effect supernatural results or to be good for any thing. We shall state some of these objections which will be found to bear their own refutation on the grounds of their misrepresentation and self-contradiction.

Its painful practices.      Professor Monier Williams says that, “yoga system appears, in fact, to be a mere contrivance of getting rid of all thought, or at least of concentrating the mind with the utmost intensity upon nothing in particular. It is a strange compound of mental and bodily exercises consisting of unnatural restraint, forced and painful postures, twistings and contortions of the limbs, suppression of breath and utter absence of mind”. (Indian wisdom p. 103) (so also Wilson’s Hindu Religion p. 132).

Its questionable Features.      He then starts the question, “How is it that faith in a false system can operate with sufficient force upon the Hindu, to impel him to submit voluntarily to almost incredible restraints, mortifications of the flesh and physical tortures? How is it that an amount of physical endurance may be exhibited by an apparently weakly and emaciated Asiatic, which would be impossible to a European, the climate and diet in one case tending to debilitate and in the other to invigorate?” (Ibid p. 104).

Their Illegitimacy.      Professor Monier’s statement of the existence of the aforesaid self mortifications and voluntary contortions of the limbs of the yogis for two thousand years or since the invention of yoga philosophy, is open to refutation on the ground of there being no mention of them in the old systems of yoga inculcated either in the Vedánta or Patanjali’s philosophy, or even in the yoga Vásishtha, as it is evident from the practices and processes of yoga we have already given before. Those processes are seen to be simply moral restraints, and no physical torture of any kind, and such moral restraints must be acknowledged on all hands, to be indispensable to the concentration of the mind on any subject of far less importance than the contemplation of the inscrutable nature of the Divinity.

Abuses of Hatha yoga.      The abuses he speaks of must be those of the arduous practices of the Hatha yoga, which have been in vogue with pseudo yogis of the later times, from their superstitious belief in bodily tortures as their best penance and only means, (as the author himself avows), “of their fancied attainment of extraordinary sanctity and supernatural powers.” (Ibid). But such practices as have degenerated to deceptive tricks in this country, and are carried on by the cheating and cheated fools under the false name of yoga, present their counterparts also in the trickeries of the fanatics and fakirs under every form of faith on earth, without affecting the true religion or creating any misconception of the yoga doctrine.

Sacrifice of the spirit.      In vindication of our spiritual yoga we have to say that it is no exoteric religion, and requires no bodily mortification or sacrifice in any shape whatever, as it is the usual practice of all forms of religion among mankind. The yoga is the speculative training of the human soul, and concerns the castigation of the spirit and not the mortification of flesh. It has nothing to do with the body which is of this earth, and which we have to leave here behind us.

Sacrifice of the Body.      The universal doom of death pronounced on the original guilt of man, is not to be averted by physical death or any deadly torture of the body, as it is commonly believed by the bulk of mankind, to consist in bodily mortifications and sacrifices; but in the contrition and penitence of the spirit, and sacrifice of the soul as the only sin-offering for the atonement of our original and actual transgressions. The Purusha medha sacrifice of the Veda which is misunderstood for the offering of a male-being, a man, a horse, a bull or a he-goat or male of any animal, meant originally the sacrifice of the human soul, or self-immolation of the purusha or embodied intelligence to the Supreme Spirit, by means of its concentration into the same through the instrumentality of yoga abstraction. Dr. K. M. Banerjia’s interpretation of the Purusha medha as typical of the crucifixion of Christ, is more conformable with his Christian view of the mysticism, than the spiritual sense of self-sacrifice, in which it is generally understood by the speculative Yogi and the philosophical Vedantist.

THE OM TAT SAT.

1. Preamble of Om tat sat.      After consideration of Yoga the title of our work, and all its component parts tending to the exercise of meditation, together with an investigation into the nature of Átman or soul, as the agent of the act of meditating and procuring its salvation, we are led by a natural and coherent train of thought to an inquiry into the nature of that grand object of our holy and profound meditation, which is the only means of our emancipation, and which is presented at once to our view in the exordium of the work in the mystical characters of Om Tat Sat = On Id Est.

2. Ambiguity of the word Om     . The word Om forming the initial of the said epigraph standing prominent at the top of the opening page of the work, and being more than a multinymous term and ambiguous in its acceptations, requires to be treated at some length, in order to discover the hidden meaning lying buried under that mystic emblem of the grand arcanum of Brahmanical and Universal religion, from amidst a variety of significations which are heaped upon it in the sacred writings and holy speculations of the early sages of India.

THE SRUTI SAYS:—

3. In the beginning was the word Om     . ॐमित्येवमग्रमासीत् । प्रथम मोङ्कारात्मकमासीत् । तस्माच्च निःसृताः सर्ब्बे, प्रलीयन्ते तत्रवै । So saith the Holy scripture:—

“In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. All this was made by him, and without him was not anything made, that was made and” St. John 1.1-3.

Om, the light of the world.      And again says the Sruti दीप्यतोँ ज्योतिः । तत्तेजोऽनेनैवोमित्येव तदुद्बुध्न्यति । मैत्री उप ७ ।११

“That Om shone forth as light, but they received it not, and hid it in darkness.” So the Scripture:—

“That was the light of the world, and the light shone upon the world, but the world knew it not &c.” St. John, Ch 1, V. 5. 9. 10.

5. Its Revelation to mankind.      Again says the Scripture:—“God sent one to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe.” Id 1.7. So Brahmá the god revealed its meaning to his first begotten son Atharvan, and Atharvan, the Prajápati, gave instruction on the subject to Pippaláda, Sanatkumára and Angira (Weber A. S. L., p. 164). Again Angiras, who communicated it to Saunaka, had obtained it from Bharadvája Satyaváha, and the latter again from Ángira, the pupil of Atharvan, to whom it was revealed by Brahmá himself (Weber A. S. L., p. 158).

6. Works on its Disquisition.      Hence it is the Atharva Sikhá Upanishad in which the investigation of the sacred word Om is principally conducted apart from those of the Mándukya, Maitrí and Táraka Upanishads. (Web. Id., p. 164). These together with their Bháshyas by Sankara, the Kárikás of Gaudapáda, and the commentaries of Ánandagiri on them, are chiefly devoted to the scrutiny of the sacred syllable, beside the partial disquisition of every other Upanishad and theological work into the hidden sense of this mystic word. Weber points out the Saunaka and Pranava Upanishads among the number (A. S. L., p. 165).

7. Mode of our Investigation.      We shall proceed in this prolegomena first to investigate into the orthographical character and structure of this syllable, and then to inquire into the designations and etymological synonyms or the word, with the lexical meanings that we can get of them, and lastly to treat of the many mystical interpretations which this single word is made to bear as a common emblem of them.

II. ORTHOGRAPHY OF OM.

1. The letter ॐकारः      Firstly: Om with respect, to its name and utterance is called Onkára, that is, the nasal On in combination with the adjunct kára (signifying a sound) and meaning the letter On. For all sounds whether vocal (स्वरबर्ण) or sonant (व्यञ्जन), nasal (सानुनासिक) or not-nasal (निरनुनासिक), articulate (ब्यक्तस्फुट) or onomatopoeia (अब्यक्तास्फुट), are denominated letters; as the letters a &c. (अकारादि) are called vowels, the letters Ka &c. (ककारादि) consonants; so the nasals Án, in (आं इँ) &c., as also the inarticulate ones (फङ्कार) &c., are all letters; but the Onkára is the root of all; thus ॐकारेण सर्ब्बबाक् सस्तणोति । माण्डुक्योपनिषद् । Manu calls it a letter in the passage:—“This one letter is the emblem of the Most High”. II.83. Vide Dr. Mitra’s Ch’hánd Up, p. 4.

2. A conjunct Letter युक्ताक्षरः      But here a question is raised as to whether a conjunct vowel or consonant may with propriety be styled a single letter or not. To this says Dr. R. L. Mitra in a foot-note to his translation of the Ch’hándogya Upanishad that—“It is true that this emblem conveys two sounds, that of O and m, nevertheless it is held to be one letter in the above sense; and we meet with instances even in the ancient and modern languages of Europe that can justify such privileges, such as xi and psi, reckoned single letters in Greek, and Q. W. X. in English and others.” (Ch 1. Sec. 1. p. 4). So is lámálif in Persian &c. The Sanskrit conjunct ksha (क्ष) is considered a single consonant, when they say, ककारादि क्षकारान्तं ब्यञ्जनं परिकीर्त्तितं ।

3. The Syllable Om ओमक्षरं ।      It is also like every other single or conjoint letter of the alphabet (युक्तायुक्त बर्ण) termed an akshara (अक्षर) or syllable, which forms either a word by itself when standing alone, or part of a word followed by an adjunct as ॐ, ॐकार, ओमक्षर &c.; where the first is a word of one syllable or monosyllabic term एकाक्षर, and the others as dissyllabic and trisyllabic words (द्ब्यक्षर, त्र्यक्षर शब्द), according as they are uttered by the help of one or more articulations of the voice. Om akshara apart from its other signification of the Imperishable and the like, and its symbolism of the Supreme Spirit, is also used in the sense of a syllable in the original writings and their translations. Thus says the Kathopanishad; एतद्ध्येबाक्षरंब्रह्म एतद्ध्येबाक्षरंपरं । एतद्ध्येबाक्षरं ज्ञात्वा ब्रह्मलोकेमहीयते ।

Manu says:—“That which passeth not away is declared to be the syllable om, thence called akshara.” He calls it also a triliteral monosyllable. II. 84. So says Mon. Wm: “Om is a most sacred monosyllable significant of the Supreme Being.” (Indian Wisdom p. 103 note 1).

4. The character Om ॐकार ।     Omkára likewise indicates the written character Om, because the suffix Kára like Ákára is used to signify its written form or sign (आकार चिह्न), and in this sense the Bengali ও, corresponds with Greek character w omega the inverted ও, or the Omikron = English O, and Oao Persian, and likens to the Sanskrit bindu O, which is but another name of Om (ओंकारः ब्रह्मबिन्दुः). But the ও is formed by the union of two dots or cyphers (O bindu) like Greek Omega of two omicrons and the English w of two u’s. So says the Gáyatrí Tantra, ॐकारो ब्रह्म बिन्दुर्बिन्दुद्वय बिनिर्म्मतः । अधोर्द्ध बिन्दुरित्यादि । And again: समनुः परमाराध्या संयुक्ता ब्रह्म बिन्दुना. “It is the union of two circlets, one being the symbol of one’s own divinity and the other that of Brahma.” This character by itself is regarded with high veneration as an emblem of the Infinite, independent of its meaning or utterance, and is marked on the forehead of every devotee in the form of a spot or crescent.

5. The Symbol ॐ बिन्दुः ।      The symbolical Om is represented by four cyphers as placed over one another अधोर्द्धबिन्दु चतुष्टयं, and each designated by a different name in the aforesaid Tantra, and supposed to form the cavities of the heart and mouth of Brahm, चतुर्वर्ग प्रदा बिद्या चतुर्बिन्द्वात्मिकासदा । आद्यन्ते प्रणवंदत्वा गायत्रीं प्रजपेद्दिज । बामाधर्म्म प्रदा बिन्दुर्ज्येष्ठा अर्थ प्रदा तथा । रौद्रीकाम प्रदाबिन्दुः श्रीबिन्दुः मोक्षदायिनी ॥ महेश्वर बदनं बिन्दुः श्रीबिष्णोः हृदयंतथा ॥ मोक्षदाताच श्रीबिन्दुः चतुर्बिन्दु बिनिर्णयः ॥ These bindus or cyphers are differently named in the Vedánta, as we shall shortly come to see under the denominations of omkára. (No. IV).

6. Symbolized as Jagannátha.

The best representation of Om is the image of the god Jagannátha, which is said to be an incarnation of the mystic syllable प्रणबाबतार, or made in the form of Om, and not in that of Buddha, as some of our antiquarians have erroneously supposed it to be. There is a learned dissertation on the subject of Jagannátha’s representation of Onkára to be found in one of the early articles of the Asiatic Society’s Researches, where the reader will get much more light on this mysterious subject.

7. Comparison of om and on     . It will further be found on comparison that ॐ bears not only a great resemblance to the Greek on written as ȣ with the nasal above the O, but their perfect agreement with each other in sense will leave no ground of suspecting their identity with one another, as it will be fully treated of afterwards.

III. THE ORTHEOPY OR ANALYSIS OF Om.

1. A Monad.      We have already seen that the circular form of the letter O in Om, called a bindu dot or cypher, was used like a geometrical point to denote a monad without parts, and represent the Supreme Being subsisting as the central point of the great circle of Universe, and filling the infinity of its circumference with his own life and light. The Vedas and the early theology of the Upanishads invariably understood the Om as synonymous with One, and expressive of the unity of the God-head; as in the motto ओमेकमेबाद्वितीयं ब्रह्म । ओमेकामेवैतत् । of the Vedantists, corresponding with the monotheistic creed of Christians and Mahomedans “God is one” and “without an equal” “Wahed Ho la Sharik laho” “The unity of the God-head is the dictum of the Koran and Vedánta.” (Mon. Wm’s. Hindu Wisd. p. XLI. 1).

The Manduka and similar Upanishads describe the majesty of the one. (Weber, p. 161). “That one breathed breathless by itself” &c. Max Müller’s A. S. Lit. p. 560.

2. Om a Duad.      Formerly the letter O of om, on, and One was considered a pure and simple sound, and made to represent a monad or Unity; but in course of time and with the progress of language it was found out to be a compound letter (सन्ध्यक्षर), formed by the union of a + u = o (अ + उ = ओ), and two o’s in w omega or two u’s in w. (See. S. Gr. & Baine’s grs). Then the perfect figure of the great circle was considered to be composed of two semicircles which the w = उ was made to represent. This gave rise to the conception of a duality in the divine person, and hence grew the theory of the male and female पुरुष प्रकृति in the original androgyne of the Sankhya and Hara Gauri (हर गौरी and उमा महेश्वर) of the Tantra. Hence it is said; अनइत्यक्षरं ब्रह्म शब्द प्रकृति कुण्डली । अनन्यं हिबिनाब्रह्मनास्ति कुत्रापि सुन्दरि । इति गायत्री तन्त्रं ।

The syllable ov = on is a word for Brahma (God), and the other cypher represents nature (the world). There is no Brahma, but ov = ॐ or ओम् । The dualism of Sankhya yoga is too well known to require an explanation.

3. Om a Triad.      At a later period and posterior to the dualistic doctrines of the aforesaid Tantra and Pátanjala yoga systems, the Om branched out into a Triad by the union of the nasal letter m or n with the उ or w, and forming the conjoined character ॐ and wn in Sanskrit and Greek. Henceforward Onkára is regarded as a triliteral word composed of a+u+m to represent a triplicate deity. Thus says Monier Williams:—

“Om is supposed to be composed of three letters A, U, M, which form a most sacred monosyllable (एकाक्षर), significant of the Supreme Being as developing himself in the Triad of gods, Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva” (Indian Wisdom p. 103 note I). So we have in Manu II. 83 and 84:—

अकारञ्चाप्युकारञ्च मकारञ्च प्रजापतिः ।

बेवदत्रयाग्निरुदहत भूर्भुबः स्वरितीति ॥

अकारो विष्णुरुद्दिष्टः उकारस्तु महेश्वरः ।

मकारउच्यते ब्रह्मा प्रणबेन त्रयोमतः ॥

So also the Bhagavad Gitá. VIII. 13.

Here the two halves of the circle उ comprise Vishnu and Siva as joined in the bipartite body of Hari Hara alias Hara Hari, adored by the dualists called द्वैतवादिनः, or more fully as हरिहराद्वैतवादिनः and Brahmá the god of Manu, is placed in the circlet above the great circle of his created world. We need but hint to our readers in this place, to observe how the original word Om or Ov and One developed itself into the existing faith of trinity. The Tántrica Sivites however place their god Siva in the upper semicirclet formed by म = m the initial of Maheswara (महेश्वर), and say:—

ॐकारपूर्ब्बमुद्धृत्य ब्रह्मबिष्णुशिबात्मकं ।

अधोबिन्दु ब्रह्मबिष्णुरुर्द्धबिन्दु शिबात्मकं ॥

This is more reasonable to believe from both the letter m’s and its god Siva’s amalgamation with the early Aryan duality to form the present faith of triality at a much later period.

4. Om the Tetrad.      We next see a further progress of Om in its development from the triliteral to a quadriliteral form, by its assumption of a crescent or half circlet (कुण्डली) according to the Tantra, or a half Mátrá (अर्द्ध मात्रा) of the Vedánta. The Tantra says तदूर्द्ध कुण्डलीकारा शक्तिः । The Maitrí Upanishad mentions only of the three Mátrás of Om (Ch. vi Sec. 3).

“But the Mundak Upanishad” says Weber, “refers to the half Mátrá (mora), to which the word Om here appearing in its full glory, is entitled in addition to its three Mátrás (morae) a. u. m. This is evidently a later addition by some one who did not like to miss the mention of the subject in the Atharvana Upanishad in which it occurs.” p. 160. Again says he—“The Mándukya Upanishad which treats of the three and half Mátrás of the word Om, is to be looked upon as the real Mándukya, all the rest is the work of the Gaudapáda, whose pupil Govinda was the teacher of Sankaráchárya about the seventh century A. D.”

5. Om the Pentad.      We find next a quinquiliteral figure of Om in its component parts of the three mátrás, m, and the bindu or चन्द्र बिन्दु the fifth.

6. Om the Hexad.      And then again with a sextuple or Hexaliteral Om composed of the sixth member of Náda (नाद) over and above the aforesaid five parts.

7. Om the Heptad.      The septuple Om is described in the Ramatápaniya upanishad as consisting of अ, उ, म, नाद, बिन्दु, शक्ति and नम । Weber’s A. S. Lit. p. 312.

8. Om the Octad.      This consists of the aforesaid seven parts, which together with Sánti called in Persian Sákat complete the number, Weber. Id. p. 315.

IV. THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS OF OM.

1. The Initial of the Veda.      The om is denominated the heading of the Veda (बेदशिरः) as the Gáyatrí hymn is termed to be its parent (बेदमाता). It stands at the top (शिरस्) of every book (मण्डल), chapter (अष्टक), and hymn (ऋच्) of every Veda either alone by itself or two or three oms put together, as ओमग्निमीले on ignem aiede of the Rigveda, ॐ त्रिसप्ता On triseptem &c. of the Atharvan; again ॐ ॐ ॐ ऋग्वेदाय स्वाहा on I salute thee O Rigveda &c.

It is hence used at the head (शिरस्) of every book on any branch of knowledge (बिद्या) which is a paronym of and derived from the same root (बिद् Video) with Veda (बेद्). The Tantra calls it as the heading of the Gáyatrí which begins with the syllable;

तसेतन्महा गुह्यं गायत्र्याः शीर्षमुच्यते ।

ॐ भूर्भुबः स्वरित्यादिः । गायत्रीतन्त्रं ॥

2. The sacred Syllable. पूर्णाक्षरं      It is called the sacred syllable because it is used in sacred writings and in the sacred Vedic and Sanskrit languages only, and never in the popular vernacular tongues, which are known as unsacred and impure (असंस्कृतं). Moreover it is used in sacerdotal functions of the sacerdotal class (संस्कारेसंस्कृतात्मनां) or regenerate classes of men, and never by the impure Súdra on pain of damnation (ॐकारोच्चारणाद्धोमात् श्रुद्रोहिनरकंब्रजेत्), unless he is sacrified by investiture of the sacred or sacrificial thread, (यज्ञोपवीतं). Thus says the Sástra; श्रुद्रोऽपि अधीकारीस्यात् यज्ञसूत्रप्रदानतः । गायत्री तन्त्रं, ४र्थ पटलः ।

The sacredness of the word Om, as the expression for the eternal position of things, is specially emphasised in the Katha Upanishad (Weber. p. 158).

3. The Holy syllable पबित्रं      It is held as the most holy syllable being an appellation of the Most High, and must not be uttered in unholiness even by the holy orders of men: so says the Katha Up;—“This is the most holy syllable, this the supreme syllable, whosoever knoweth this syllable getteth whatever he desireth.” (Cowell’s Maitrí Upanishad. Ch. VI. S. 4) note.

4. The Mystic Syllable गुह्यं      This is styled the mystic syllable because the most recondite and abstruse doctrines of Brahmanical theism are hidden under its symbolical garb, and form the foundation of those wonderful structures of the mystic poetry and philosophy of nations, which have been beautifully illustrated by Sir W. Jones in his “Mystic Poetry of the Hindus, Persians, and Greeks.” It was this mysticism which invited a Pythagoras of old to India. Manu says;—“He knows the Veda, who distinctly knows the mystic sense of this word.” Chap XI. 266.

These senses are recommended to be deeply studied by the Upanishads themselves, saying;—“The om is a subject of deep study” (Web. p. 163), and forms of itself “as another triple Veda.” (Manu XI. 265). It is enjoined to be carefully kept in secrecy by the Tantras and Smritis.

तत्त्वमेतन्महा गुह्यं गायत्र्याः कुक्षिरुच्यते ।

तदेन्महामन्त्रं गोप्यं गोप्यं हि यत्नतः ॥

5. The Mysterious syllable गूढ़ाक्षर      Om again as a symbol of the eternal position of things प्रकृतिः कुण्डालाकारा, presents to us a mysterious round of the mystic dance of myriads of spheres, emitting an inaudible sound reaching beyond its utmost limit to the unknown One who sitteth above the circumference of its visible horizon; or as the sacred writer expresses it; “He that sitteth on the circle of the earth.” Isaiah. Chap. X. 1. The Tantra speaks of its encompassing the world; ब्यापकत्वादि तत्त्वाच बिन्दुस्तेनैब कथ्यते, अनुस्वारस्वरूपासा बिन्दुरुपाचिदाकृतिः । गायत्रीतन्त्रं ।

6. The sphere of sound नादबिन्दुः      That om contains within it the whole sphere of sounds (नाद) is beautifully illustrated in twenty slokas or stanzas in an Upanishad of that name the नादबिन्दूपनिषद् । (Weber, p. 165). It shows how the eternal sound om emitted by Brahma pervaded throughout the Universe, and the manner in which all other sounds are propelled by continual vibrations of air like curves upon the surface of water (बीचितरङ्गन्यायेन) to the auditory of the other. The Vindu is a Mudrá in Tantra ब्यपकत्त्वाद्बिन्दुमुक्तं । कुण्डलिनी स्वार सर्ब्ब ब्यापिनी । Compare the Pythagorean music of the spheres.

7. The Focus of light तेजो बिन्दुः ।      The Tejovindu Upanishad describes Om as the source and focus of light in fourteen slokas, and the empyrean above it as the abode of pure ineffable light (परं ज्योतिः) of God that illumines the other spheres. (Web. p. 165). This light is viewed in the orb of the sun and in fire by their worshippers. Compare Milton’s hymn to light; “Hail holy light” &c.

8. The spot of immortality अमृत बिन्दुः      Again Om is termed the reservoir of immortality or endless life in the Amritavindu Upanishad which describes it in thirty stanzas, to be the eternal fountain of the infinity of lives that fills all animated nature, and is drawn back to it. Its circumference extends to the regions of light and life, and beyond it is the region of death and darkness. “In this word there is light and life” (John 1) ॐज्योतिश्च प्राणश्च । इति तत्र ६ । ४ see Weber’s A. S. Lit. pp. 69, 154, 165.

9. The centre of Meditation ध्यान बिन्दुः      Therefore Om is called the centre of meditation in the Dhyánavindu Upanishad of twenty one stanzas, which direct the concentration of our thoughts to that centre for the attainment of perpetual light and life which flow from it. (Weber p. 165). The Tantra takes a चक्र or मुद्रा and the Buddhist a chink in the wall to fix the sight in meditation.

10. The Position of Brahma ब्रह्म बिन्दुः      And lastly Om is styled the receptacle of the great God, whose essence fills, pervades, and encompasses the whole orbit of the Universe, as it is described in twenty two slokas of the Brahma Vindu-Upanishad. It is called Brahma Mudrá in the Tantra. (Weber, p. p. 99, 158, 165).

V. ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD Om.

1. Etymology of the Om     . ॐ शब्द Having thus far seen the mysterious nature of the letter and syllable Om in its Orthography, we shall now consider it as a word, and see that not a less but much greater mystery is attached to its etymology than has been hitherto thought of by any, and which will be found upon examination to be more inscrutable in its nature than the mysteries of Eleusis and the inexplicable hieroglyphics of the Egyptian priests.

2. Its symbolism of Brahmanism तद्ब्रह्मण्य ।      These secret and sacred treasures of Brahmanic enigmas and symbols, have been carefully preserved by the Brahmahood in their cabalistic writings of the Tantras, which serve to be a secure safeguard of their religion amidst the ravages of foreigners in their liberty and literature, and require to be diligently searched into for a thorough mastery of these mysticisms.

3. Its derivation तदुत्पत्तिः      Om is denominated a word (शब्द) in the Veda and other sacred scriptures, and explained as a noun also (संज्ञा) in the Nirukta and other lexicons. It is derived in the Koshas from the root aba or ava to protect, or save (रक्षणे) with the Unadi suffix मन् an anomalous formation into om to denote “protection.” Dr. Mitra too derives it from the radical अब “to preserve” with the suffix मन to denote the Most High according to Manu and Gítá. (Translation of Ch’hándogya Up. p. 4).

4. Its Primary sense धात्वर्थः      Apart from the symbolical significations of Om (of which there are several as we shall come to notice afterwards), its primary and literal sense would make us give different interpretations of it according to the derivation of the term both in its verbal and nominal forms. अव as a verb in the imperative mood means “save” as मातरब, त्रातरब, दबऽब &c. in the Mugdhabodha, corresponding with the expressions, Ave Maria, salve salvator, salve Deus, save O God &c.

5. Its Nominal sense ब्युत्पत्यर्थ      But aba to protect or preserve gives us the nominal (कृदन्त) forms of aba, ába, ábu, and ábuka (अब, आब, आबु, आबुक), meaning a father or preserver in the Prákrit Speech of Sanskrit dramas, and these are found to agree in both respects of sound and sense with the words áb, ábá, ábu, ábuka, abi as ábuka &c. in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac and Arabic languages. This gives us the original meaning of अब of which ॐ is a derivative form, and shows the close affinity which the Aryan root bears to the Semitic, both in its sound and signification of “Father” (पाता and पिता) applied to the Great God.

6. The word Om ॐ शब्दः ।      But our question being Om and not the root अब, we ought to know to what part of speech it belongs and what sense we are to give of it here. It is said to be a word indicative of auspiciousness when used at the beginning; (आदौ ॐ शब्द प्रयोगो माङ्गलिकः). But whether as a verb or noun or any other part of speech, we know nothing of, and we are utterly at a loss what word to substitute for it in its translation. This is the reason why the word Om, is used by itself in the translations of Sanskrit works by Europeans and our countrymen also for want of a proper term, as it is seen in the English versions of Vedas and Upanishads.

7. An aptot noun अब्यय शब्दः ।      Om is enlisted as an indeclinable word in grammar having no inflection of its own in gender, number, case or person, and agreeing with all words in its unchanged state, as in the examples:— ओमीश्वर, ॐ दुर्गा, ॐ ब्रह्मन्, ॐ देबेभ्यो जुहोमि, ओमुपेत्वा ऊर्जेत्वा &c. It is included in the (स्वरादिगण) as an aptot noun, and with indeclinable particles (निपातन), as an adverb, conjunction and interjection also with various significations.

8. The initial Om      आद्योमार्थः । The anomalous and multinymous particle Om was first discovered by Ram Mohun Roy to be no other than the participal noun on=being which as Max Müller says is to on ontws the Being of Beings A. S. Lit. pp. 321 et passim. The Latin ens and the French on as t’on, bear close affinity to On and ॐ both in their sound and sense.

9. The Final Om      अन्त्योमार्थ । Dr. Rájendra Lála Mitra has in one of his works pointed out the Vedic Om, to correspond with the Hebrew “Amen,” and this will be found so true of the final Om of Brahmanical prayers, that its corresponding word Amin invariably forms the last word of every prayer in Arabic, Persian and all other Mahomedan and Semitic languages. Thus it is to be seen how intimately are both of these grand families of mankind connected with each other in the main point of their different creeds.

VI. LEXICAL MEANINGS OF Om.

Adverbial Meanings. आभिधानिक निपातनार्थः ।      After the etymological and philological interpretations that we have been given of the word Om, it is worthwhileto attend to its meanings given in the current lexicons for the information of the majority, with whom the evidence of the history of philology is of little weight and value. Táranáth’s Sanskrit dictionary (वाचस्पत्याभिधान) presents us with following adverbial meanings of the word.

1. An Inceptive Particle. आरम्भार्थकः ।      The Medinikosha says he, expounds it as an inchoative particle (आरम्भार्थक शब्द) to mean the beginning of a thing (उपक्रम), and we find it accordingly used in the form of a proemial monogram at the exordium of a book or Vedic hymn, sacred rite or lecture, in the Sanhitas, Bráhmanas and Upanishads according to the passage quoted by Táránátha in his dictionary; तस्मादोमित्युदाहृत्य कृता बेदवादिनाम । यज्ञाद्याक्रिया शास्त्रोक्ताः सततं सम्प्रबर्त्तिते ॥ It answers the अथ of the Purána and the words now and then in English as in the passage of the Kathavalli; ॐ उशन् हवै बाजश्रबस इत्यादि ।

It is synonymous with beginning (आदि) in the Ch’hándogya Upanishad, whereupon the poet has well said. आसीत् महीक्षितामाद्यः प्रणवश्छन्दसा मिब । रघुवंशः । १ सर्गः ।

2. Illustrations of Ditto तदुदाहरणानि ।      Krishna (under the conception of the identity of his soul with that of the Divine), speaks of himself in the Bhágavadgítá that, he was the letter a of the alphabet, and the Om of words (वर्णानामकारोऽहं शब्दानाञ्चोङ्कारः). This is shown in the latest English translation of the work to be a doctrine derived from Christianity and corresponds with the passage “I am Alpha &c.” in the book of Revelations (Ch. I. V. 8). There is a similar passage in the Koran which says “He (God) is the first; Ho al awl corresponding with the Greek” Ho esten arche; and this passage and sometimes its initial Ὁ (Gr.) and our ॐ, is used by Moslems at the top and commencement of their books and other writings. Again like Alpha of the holy Scripture we find the use of Alif upon the head of all writings in Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Hebrew in daily practice. Hence it is hard to say who is the borrower, though every one will boast itself to be the lender. (Vide Weber’s paper on the Rám Tap Up. pp. 276, and 360).

3. An Initiatory Particle मङ्गलार्थ ।      The Kosha adds the sense of auspiciousness and prosperity (मङ्गलेशुभे) to the above, and this as we have already observed forms like the names of gods, the initiatory vocable of meritorious undertakings (आदाबोम शब्दः माङ्गलिकः). “Om” says the Ch’hándogya, “is also prosperity” (I, 8.) To this the scholiast Sankara says; “the letter Om is called prosperity, because it is possessed of the property and attribute of prosperity. The prosperous alone can pass the word Om” (Chh. up. Ch. 1, p. 8).

Its use is not confined to the sacred and antiquated language of Vedic writing and the liturgy, but is to be met with in the classic Sanskrit of ancient bards and modern poets. Thus we have in the Rámáyana of our author (रामायण ५ । ८१ । ११ । प्राज्यस्वर्विजयोङ्कारश्चक्रे). In this sense we discover a curious affinity of the Aryan Om with the Semitic Áman Amán and Aiman, as in the Persian phrase Aiman buád corresponding with ॐ or शुभं भूयात् ।

4. Gratulatory, Particle नमस्कारार्थः ।      The word has been rendered in our translation by the salutatory term “Hail”, from a supposed similarity of its meaning with that of namo नमस् which is used by women and Súdras in lieu of the sacred Om in their salutations to gods and superior beings, owing to the denunciation pronounced upon their utterance of the sacred syllable (स्त्रीशूद्रयोः प्रणवं नेच्छन्ति). We find its use in the same sense in Dr. Roer’s Translation of the Aitareya Upanishad, where it is rendered by “salutation to the Supreme Soul” and by “adoration” in Cowell’s version of the Maitrí Upanishad. We are however at a loss of authority to warrant our adoption of namo as a synonym of Om. We meet with instances of the use of Om and namo together to mean salutation, as, ॐन्नमः शिबाय and शिबायोँ न्नमः in the Mugdhabodha, where namo, expresses obeisance and governs शिबाय in the dative, and not Om which has no governing power.

5. Invocatory particle सम्बोधनार्थ ।      Om in the sense of invocation is an absolute monoptot like भोः, भगो, अघो, अहो &c., without the power of governing the following word, as ॐ नारायणा, and its double use as ॐ हरिः ॐ in the Aitareya Upanishad (1); so भो रक्ष, भगोरक्ष in the Mugdhabodha; but नमो and its synonyms स्वाहा, स्वाघा, बषट्, श्रौषट govern the dative as नमो हरये, स्वाहाग्नये, स्वघा पित्रे, &c. The invocatory Om is synonymous with the interjections O, ओ, अहो, हो and all other single vowels whether nasal or not (सानुनासिकनिरणुनासिकाः), all of which are ungoverning particles in this sense.

6. A Laudatory particle प्रणबः ।      Om is usually termed as pranava प्रणबः or praise or word of praise, from the root nu (प्र + नु + अप) to laud, and in this sense it might mean the glorification of Te Deum. Thus “Om is the pranava or initial word of the Rigveda priests, and it is termed the Udgítha (उद्गीथः) of Sáma Veda choristers सामगा who chaunt it”. (छन्दोग्यउपनिषद् १ । ३). But it is made to signify the object of the verb, or the Being that is lauded (यंनौति); and in this sense it means, “The Purusha or spirit who is unaffected by works, affections &c., and having the appellation of Pranava” (see Monier Williams’ Wisdom of the Hindus p. 103), so says Gaudapáda in his Káriká. In the former sense, Pranava corresponds with halleluyas and hosannas of Christians, and hamd o Salaut of Moslems, which are deemed sacred by their votaries. The Káriká has the following stanzas on it:—प्रणबोह्यपरं ब्रह्म प्रणबश्च परः स्मृतः । प्रणबं हीश्वरं बिद्यात् सर्ब्बस्य हृदि संस्थितः ॥ युञ्जीतप्रणवे चेतः प्रणवे ब्रह्मनिर्भयं । प्रणवे नित्ययुक्तस्यनभयं बिद्यते क्वचित ॥

7. A Permissive Particle अनुमत्यर्थः ।      It is used in a permissive sense both in Vedic and classic Sanskrit, and expressed in English by the words “on” “go on” and the like. We have an instance of it in the Mágha Kávya, in the passage: ओमित्युक्तबतोथशार्ङ्गिनः इतिब्याहृत्यबाचंनमः ।

(a.     ) An Injunctive अनुज्ञार्थः । “Verily this is an injunctive term (अनुज्ञाक्षरं), signifying injunction, order, and whatever is enjoined, and ultimately the letter Om.” (Ch’hándogya Upanishad). The scholium (भाष्य) explains it by saying that, “Whatever is enjoined by the learned or wealthy regarding learning and wealth, it is done by saying “Om”.” (Ibid I. 8. p. 8.)

8. A Particle of assent अङ्गीकारः ।      It bears also the sense of assent and consent (अङ्गीकारश्वीकारौ) meaning “ay” “aye” “yea” and “yes”, and in Bengali and Vernaculars हाँ and हुं. So says Sankaráchárya:—“Whatever is assented to by the learned and wealthy, it is done by saying “Om”.” Thus in the Vedic tradition; Yájnavalkya having been asked by Sákalya as to how many gods there were, said; “Thirty-three.” Sákalya assented by saying “Om.” Among modern writings, the Sáhitya Darpana cites the following instance of Om being used in this sense:—भ्रातर्द्विरेफ भवता भ्रमता समन्तात् । प्राणाधिका प्रियतमा ममबीक्षिता किं । ब्रुतेकिमोमित्यादि ।

9. A Particle of Repulse. अपाकृतिः ।      It is used as the interjectional particle हुँकार expressive of repelling or driving off another from one like “Avaunt” in English. We meet with an instance of its use in this sense in the Vetála Panchavinsati of Lassen (VI.) Thus, कृतोङ्कार बेतालेत्यादि ।

10. Do. of Ratifying. दृढीकरणे ।      It occurs in the sense of confirmation at the end of hymns and prayers in the Vedic writings, and corresponds with the words “Amen” and “Amin” at the conclusion of Christian and Moslem sermons and prayers as we have said long before. We have a verse of Hafiz to this effect, where he says bishnow O Ámin bogo i. e. “Hear and say amen.” There are many instances of it in the Upanishads, such as शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ओं हरिः ओं, and so in the Gáyatrí hymn which begins and ends with Om, agreeably to the precept which says; आद्यन्ते प्रणबं दत्त्वा गायत्रीं प्रजपेद्द्विजः । चतुर्बर्ग प्रदा बिद्या चतुर्बिद्यात्मिका सदा । गायत्री तन्त्रं ।

VII. THE NOMINAL MEANINGS OF Om.

1. Nominal Meanings of Om     . संज्ञार्थः । Besides the meanings already given of Om as a particle, there are many other nominal significations attached to it as a significant noun or rather symbol to express certain attributes belonging to the nature of the Deity, that bear little or no connection with the etymology of the word.

2. Om      the Creator जगत् स्रष्ठा । Om is used to denote the creative power of God in Sankara’s scholium. This sense is had from the primordial word logos the ov = be or fiat भुयात् buad uttered by God in his creation of the world, as we have in the scripture. “And god said, “Let there be” and there was”. Latin Fiat-et-fit; and Arabic Kom fa Kána.

3. Om is God      ईश्वरः भिधानं । Pátanjala takes it as denotative of God himself तस्येश्वर वाचकतेति पातञ्जलः; and others as a denotation of the Supreme God ॐ परमेश्वरेच । एतद्ध्येबाक्षरं परं । इति कठः । तारानाथ वाचस्पत्याभिधानं ।

4. Om is Brahma. ब्रह्म ।      Om is the verbal symbol of Brahma signifying the Universal spirit ॐ ब्रह्मणि च । ब्रह्मणः नामबिशेषः तारानाथः so says the Katha Upanishad एतद्ध्येबाक्षरं ब्रह्म । This meaning is obtained from ॐ = om signifying being or existence, and referring to the totality of existence expressed by the word Brahma (formed of बृह + मन) universal pervasion.

5. Greatness of Brahma ब्रह्मत्वं बृहत्वञ्च ।      Om is used also to denote the vast magnitude of Brahma (ब्रह्मत्वं बाबृहत्वं) in the Maitrí Upanishad, which says “Om is the greatness of Brahman, says one who continually meditates thereon.” (See Cowell’s Translation of Id. IV. 4. p. 253). This idea is naturally suggested by the infinity of the Universe pervaded and encompassed by the spirit of God. सर्ब्बं बिन्दु गतं ह्यैतत् ब्रह्माण्डञ्चापिकोटिशः । गायत्री तन्त्रं । The Ch’hándogya Upanishad speaks of the greatness and effects of Om (I. 9). To this the scholium raises the question, what are its greatness and effects? Then answers it by saying;—“by the greatness of Om is implied the existence of priests, the institutions of sacrifices &c. &c. Therefore is its greatness.”

6. Om is the way to Brahma ब्रह्मज्ञानोपायः ।      “Om,” says the Mándukya Upanishad, “is the means (symbol) leading to Brahma,” as a hieroglyphic character to its significate. Here says the commentator Ánandagiri (p.336.) ओङ्कारो ब्रह्म वुद्ध्योपास्य मानो ब्रह्म प्रतिपत्युपायो भबतीति । आनन्दगिरि टीका । “It is known in all the Vedántas as the best means towards the accomplishment of one’s adoration.” (Ch’hándogya Upanishad p. 5 note.)

7. Immutable & Imperishable ॐ अक्षरः ।      It is immutable, undecayable, imperishable, indestructible and immortal (अक्षरं). Thus in the Mándukya; ओमित्येतदक्षरमिदं बिकार रहितमित्यादि । The circle of O is considered the most perfect of all geometrical figures, as it was held by the Pythagoreans to be the best symbol to represent the perfections of the Supreme Being. It is the sign of divine immutability from the fact of every other figure changing its shape by its constant rotation round the centre and becoming a spheroid which is no more susceptible of change. Such is the changeable nature of all things until they become one with the Divinity.

Om Knowable. ज्ञेयं ।      Om the symbol of God is said to be the knowable, because every part of its circumference is equidistant from the central observer. So is God said to be knowable (ज्ञेय) in Yoga philosophy for his knowableness to every one by means of meditation. Hence the Yoga system is called gnosticism contrary to the unknowableness of agnosticism.

8. Eternity नित्यं ।      Om is called eternal (नित्यं), because its circular form is the representation of eternity, having neither its beginning nor end (अनाद्यनन्तं): so it is the symbol of infinity, the circle being described by an infinite line. Thus Gaudapáda; अपूर्व्वोऽनन्तरोऽनन्तः नपरः प्रणबाब्यय । इति माण्डुक्य कारिकायां । १६ ।

9. The First and Last.      Again Om is said to be the first and last of all things, because, says Táránátha, every thing proceeds from its centre as its source, and returns to that centre as its reservoir. तस्मान्निःसृताः सर्व्वेप्रलीयन्त तत्रबै । वाचस्पत्याभिधानं; or that every thing like the line of the circle meets at the same point from where it is drawn and stretched. Moreover Om as has been already said, is used both as the initial and final word of Mantras and prayers, so it is understood to be the beginning and end of all motions and utterances. In these senses it answers the Alpha and Omega of the Revelation, and the initium and finem—Hoal awl Hoal ákher of the Koran.

10. The First, Last and Midst. आद्यन्त मध्यं ।      But Om is declared again to be the first, last and midst of things, from its being uttered in the beginning, middle and end of prayers and recitals of sacred hymns according to the ordinance which says that, Om is to be repeated thrice at every recital in the beginning, middle and end:—प्रशस्तं ब्राह्मणे नित्यं प्रणवत्रय संयुतं । मध्येच प्रणवं गुप्तंचाकारानुमं प्रिये । इति गायत्री तन्त्रं । This rule is said to bear reference to the triple state of the progression of mortal beings,—their evolution, sustentation and dissolution. यतोबाइमानि भूतानि जायन्ते येन जातानि । जीबन्ति यत् प्रयन्त्यभिसम्बिशन्ति तद्ब्र्ह्मेति ॥ The triple utterance of Om has given rise to the triplicate invocation of Hari, आदाबन्तेच मध्येच हरिः सर्ब्बत्र गीयते, and with what Milton has expressed in his glorious hymn in the Paradise Lost.

“Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end.”

The reverend Gaudapáda enjoins the same ordinance in his versified commentary or Káriká to the Mándukya Upanishad, where he says (verse 27):—सर्ब्बस्य प्रणबो ह्यादिर्मध्यमान्तस्तथैबच । एवं हि प्रणवं ज्ञात्वा ब्यश्नुते तदनन्तरं ।

VIII. APPLICATION OF Om IN THE VEDAS AND VEDANTA.

1. Pranava = Adorable.      “O venerable, let me enter thee (viz. the word Om)—the sheath of Brahmá, swáhá. O venerable do thou enter me, swáhá. O venerable, I shall be purified by thee.” (Taittiríya Up. IV. 3).

2. The Burden of song.      “Om, the hymns of the Sáma Sing, Om, Som, the hymns proclaim.”

3. Commanding and assenting.      “By Om, the Adhwarju gives his reply:—By Om the Brahmá commands;—By Om he gives his orders for the burnt offering” (Ibid VIII. Anuvák).

4. Beginning.      “Om, says the Bráhman, when he commences to read the Veda.” (Ibid).

5. Om is Multinymous.      “Om is Brahman, it is immortal, it is light, it is truthful, and a portion of holy light.”

“It is the sun, the truthful, the Yajur, devotion, fire, wind and air.”

“It is the moon, strength, immortality, and the means of attaining Brahma” (Maitrí Upanishad VI. 35.) ॐ ब्रह्म अमृतं ज्योतिस्तेज सोहंश मात्रं । आदित्य मध्ये उदुत्वा मयूखे भबतः । ॐकारानुज्ञापणात् ॥ एतत् सवित् सत्यधर्म्म एतद्यजुरेतत्तयः एतदग्निरेतद्वायुरेतदापः । एतच्चन्द्रमा एतच्छुक्रमेतदमृतमेतद्ब्रह्म बिषयं ॥

6. It is all significant.      But apart from all the particular objects to which this word is severally applied, Om is found from its general sense of “a being” at large, to be significant of “all things,” as its archetype Brahman is made to stand for universal existence both collectively as well as singly (in toto et per singulatim), as it is said in the Mándukya Upanishad, ओमित्येतदक्षरमिदं सर्ब्बं तस्योपव्याख्यानं भूतं भविष्यदिति सर्ब्बमोङ्कार एव, यच्चान्यत् त्रिकालातीतं तदप्योङ्कार एव ॥

7. Om includes all things.      “Om” says the Sruti, “is immortal.” Its explanation is “this all”; what was, what is, and what will be, all is verily the word “Om”; and every thing else which is beyond the three-fold time is also verily the word “Om.” For this all (represented by “Om”) is Brahma, and Brahma is “all.” (Mándukya Upanishad Bháshya verse 1 and 2). ओमिति ब्रह्मएबेदमोङ्कारः सर्ब्बमित्यादिश्रुतिभ्यः । अभिधानस्यचोङ्कारव्यतिरेकादोङ्कार एबेदं सर्ब्बं ।

8. Scholium on the above.      According to Sankara’s explanation the rendering would be as follows:—“Om” this sound (or immortal) is this “All,” and its explanation is “what was, what is, and will be, all is verily the word “Om”.” (Sankara’s Bháshya of the above). Ánandagiri’s explanation is to the same purport; thus says he:—

सर्ब्बास्पदत्वादोङ्कारस्य ब्रह्मणश्च तथात्वादेक लक्षणत्वादन्यत्वासिद्धेरोङ्कार प्रतिपत्ति ब्रह्म प्रतिपत्तिरेबेति ॥

IX. THEOLOGY OF OM IN THE MONADS OF MONOTHEISTIC CREEDS.

1. Monads or Unities. एकार्थकः ।      We have seen that Om expresses all things (Sarvamonkára), by virtue of the word like its kindred Greek and Latin on and ens (B. haon), signifying “a being” by synecdoche (laxaná) of a part for the whole. And this is done of all things whether concrete or discrete and taken either singly or by groups of two or more things together; as it is said—“Ekasadvisastrisas” &c., i. e. Singulatim, dualiter, pluraliter &c. We shall first come to see the monads expressed by Om and leave it to the reader to discover the relation which the significates may bear to the symbol, or rest satisfied with the idea of their being meaningless or arbitrary.

2. Om is speech or voice बाक् ।      Om, says the Sruti is Sarvávák “all voice and speech”; and we shall come to see below that it is applied alike to denote both human and brute speech, and words belonging to all the different parts of speech.

3. Om is sound and word शब्द ।      “All things are united with words which express them, and all words are contained in the mystical syllable Om, (ओङ्कार शब्द म ।त्रं). Om, pervades all sounds; he rises above all objects which are expressed by sounds, who repeats this sound Om” (Ch’hándogya II.23.) (Maitrí p. 253).

4. Om is Brahman ॐ शब्द ब्रह्म ।      “Om is Brahman called sound (sabda). By means of Om rising above all things, a man merges in the Supreme called Para Brahma.” “Om is the emblem of the Most High.” (Ch’hándogya p. 4. Manu II. 83. Bhágavad Gítá). So says the Maitrí Upanishad (VI. 22) शब्द ब्रह्मणि निष्णातः परं ब्रह्माधिगच्छति । ६ ।२२

5. Om is Fire and its splendour ओमग्निश्च तेजश्च ।      “Om was splendour and fire at first. By this syllable Om the splendour germinates, it shoots upward, it expands, and becomes the vehicle of divine worship. The splendour germinates in the form of the mystic syllable Om, as a seed germinates; i. e. It is manifested as the primeval form of the Veda, it next shoots upward as the internal sound Om itself.” Maitrí Up. VII. 11. तेजो प्रथममोङ्कारात्मकमासीत् । तत्तेजोऽनेनैबोमित्येब तदुद्बुध्यति । मैत्री उप ७ ।११ । Fire was the first object of adoration of the Rigveda and of the fire worshippers of India and Persia. It is believed to be the arche or beginning of all things according to Heraclitus.

6. Om is light. ॐ ज्योतिः ।      “Om is light and manifest as light, the sleepless, deathless and sorrowless light.” Again; “Om is light which shines in yonder sun, and in the moon, fire, and lightning” (Maitrí Upanishad VI. 25.). So says the Bhágavad Gítá, “That splendour which abiding in the sun illumines the whole world, which abides in the moon and in fire, that splendour know to be mine” (XV. 12.) Light was the first work of creation and the “first born” of Heaven. God said “Lux fiat et lux fit.”—“Let there be light and there was light.”

दीप्यतोम् ज्योतिः । प्रकाशणाज्ज्योतिः । प्रणबाख्य प्रणेतारमरूपो बिगतनिद्रो बिजरो बिमृत्युर्बिशोको भबतीत्येबं ह्याह । मैत्री उप ६ ।२५ तथा । यदमुस्मिन्नादित्येऽथंसोमोऽग्नौ विद्युति बिभात्यथखल्वेनं दृष्ट्वा मृतत्वं गच्छतीत्याह । ६ ।२५ ।

7. Om      is Lightening. बिद्युज्ज्योतिः । “The Veda is called lightening, since the moment when it is uttered (as Om), it enlightens every incorporated being; therefore by the syllable Om let a man adore the infinite splendour of Brahman” (Maitrí Upanishad VII. 11.) यस्मादुच्चरितमात्र एब सर्ब्बं शरीरं बिद्योतयति । तस्मादोमित्यनेनैता उपासीतापरिमितं तेजः । मैत्री उप ७ ।११ ।

8. Om is the Brahman light. ॐ ब्रह्म ज्योति ।      “The syllable Om is the Brahman light or pure intelligence, veiled behind the fire and breath, and manifested itself at first as the one undivided sound Om.” Thus the Maitrí Upanishad Tíká (VII. 11). यस्मात् प्रणबात्मकमिदं ब्रह्मासीत् तस्मादोमित्यनेनैतत् ब्रह्म तेजो उपासीत् । मैत्री ७ ।११ ।

9. Om      is Water. ओमापः । “Om shines in the waters” (Maitrí Upanishad VI. 35). आपो ज्योतिरसोऽमृतं ब्रह्मभूर्भुबःस्वरोम् । मैत्री ६ ।३५ । दीप्यतोमापः । ओङ्कारोऽनुज्ञापनादाप्यायनादापः । इति तट्टीका । Water is said to be the first work of God (आप एबमसजादौ ।) “and the Spirit of God floated on the surface of the waters” hence called नारायणः (Genesis and Manu). Thales found water to be the origin of all things.

10. Om      is Flavour &c. रसोबैतत् । “Om is Rasa, moisture, flavour, taste, relish and love (Maitrí Up. VI. 35). The goodness of God is flavour, a man having attained flavour, becomes possessed of joy” (Taittiríya Up II. 7.) ॐ रसोबैतत् । रसः कर्म्म परिपाक निवृत्तत्वात् आदित्यस्य रसतं? सर्ब्ब कर्म्म फलाश्रय इत्यर्थः । By flavour rasa they mean love also and love is believed to be the formative power according to Empedocles.

11. Om is Ambrosia. ओममृतं मधु ।      “Om is ambrosia the food of gods. (Gr. He ambrosia est setos theon). It is also honey and all sweet.” So the Sruti; अमृतं देबानामोदन हेतुत्वात् ।मैत्री उप ६ ।३५ । असौबामधु । छान्दोग्यं तैत्तिरीयञ्च । १ ।७ ।

12. Om Udgítha. ओमुद्गीथः ।      “Om, this letter the Udgítha, should be adored, Om is chaunted.” (Ch’hándogya I. 1).

“The Udgítha of Sáma Veda, corresponds with the pranava of the Rig Veda.” (Cowel’s Mait VI. 3).

“The Udgítha is the principle part of the Sáma verse, and sung by Udgátri priests.”

“It is chaunted (Udgíyate), and is therefore called Udgítha and is a Karmángávayava or part of the liturgy.”

“What is Udgítha, that is Om; what is Om, that is Udgítha.” (Maitrí. Ch’chándogya).

13. Om      is breath. ॐ स्वासः । “Om called the Udgítha is breath,” (Ch’hándogya Upanishad p. 12).

14. Om      is sun. आदित्य । “The sun is Om, Om is Udgítha, the sun is Udgítha, he is Om.” (Maitrí IV. 4).

“The splendour of Brahman is yonder sun, and it too is the splendour of Om.” (Ibid). यद्ब्र्हम ज्योतिः यज्ज्योतिः सआदित्यः । यत् सबितृतदादित्यः । मैत्री उप ।

15. Om the soul. ओमात्मेति ।      “The soul is looked upon as Om.” (Ch’hándogya Upanishad. p. 12). “For this all represented by Om is Brahma. This soul is Brahma.” (Mándukya V. 2). ॐकार एब आत्म स्वरूपमेब । तस्यैतस्य परापर ब्रह्मरूपस्याक्षरस्योपब्याख्यानं ।

16. Om the Supreme spirit. ॐ परमात्मा ।      “Om is the most appropriate name for the Supreme Spirit paramátman.” (Ch’hándogya I. 1). “The Universal soul is the totality of individual souls.” (समष्टि ब्यष्टि).

17. Om is Mind. ओं मनस् ।      “Om is mind manas, the self consciousness or ahankára of the Sánkhya.” (Ibid p. 3).

18. Om is Body. ॐ कायः ।      “Om is corporeal.” (Ch’hándogya p. 3).

19. Om is Adorable ओमुपास्यं ।      “The letter Om is eulogised for its adorableness, and is an inducement to its worship.” (Ch’hándogya I. 9. p. 8).

20. Om a Vehicle ॐ रथः ।      “Om is the vehicle of the worship and knowledge of the superior and inferior Brahma.” (Maitrí Up. 260).

21. Om is a Raft. ॐमुड़ुपः ।      “Om is a raft of Brahman to cross over the torrents of the world.” (Swetáswatara II. 8. p. 53).

22. Om an arrow. ॐ शरः ।      “The body is the bow, Om is the arrow, with which one pierces the mark Brahma through darkness.” धनुच्छरीरमोमित्येतच्छरः । शिखास्य मनस्तमो लक्षणं भित्वात्मानमागच्छतीति ।

23. Om a Bridge. ॐ सेतुः ।      And so Om is used to represent many other single objects. (Maitrí Up. p. 271).

It is represented as a bridge in the Atharva Veda (VI. 10 and VIII. 4).

X. DUADS OR DUPLES OF THE BIPARTITE OM IN DUALISTIC THEORIES.

Duads. Om a couple. ॐ मिथुनं ।      “Om unites couples together and gratifies the wish of the adorer.” (Ch’hándogya I. 6). Again “couples being incorporated with the letter Om, establish the all-gratifying power and attribute of Om.” (Sankara’s Scholium to Ch’hándogya).

1. The Couple Udgítha & Pranava. उद्गीथप्रणबौ ।      Om combines the Udgítha of the Sáma with the pranava of the Rig Veda, the first couple; and therefore speech (Vák) and breath (prána) the sources of the Rik and Sáma, the second couple; and lastly the said two Vedas themselves as the third couple. (Ch’hándogya I. 1-8), and consequently the Hotri and Udgátri priests the fourth couple.

2. Brahma and Para Brahma. परापर ब्रह्म ।      Om is the superior and inferior Brahma conjointly. The superior or Para Brahma is the one eternal and infinite God; and the inferior or Apara Brahmá is the finite God:—the demiurge of Plato, and the Prajápati and Indra of Vedanta theology. The Aitareya reckons the pentad of the five elementary bodies, under the latter category. (V. 3). Kálidása speaks of this as the pancha mahá bhúta samádhi in the first book of his Raghu Vansa.

3. The two pronunciations. स्वर द्वयं ।      “Om is pronounced as svarati in the Rigveda and Svara in the Yajur Veda.” (Ch’hándogya IV. 4. Manu XI. 265).

4. The Human & Divine Souls. जीबात्मा परमात्मा ।      “Om is átman or soul. Two souls are said to enter the body; the individual and the undivided or universal soul.” (Ait. III. 1). “Two birds (the supreme and individual souls) dwell upon the same tree of the body.” (Svetásvatara Upanishad).

5. The Soul and Matter. प्रकृतीश्वरौ ।      “Om is both spirit and matter,” viewed as the same thing in the materialistic light of the Sánkhya, and dualistic view of others. Spinoza defines them both as the “Substantia cogitans, et substantia extensa, una eademque est substantia, quae jam sub hoc, jam sub illo attributo comprehenditur.” (Ethics. 1 Pr. 7 schol).

6. The Male and Female. प्रकृति पुरुषौ ।      “Om Strípum the divine male and female”; the original androgyne or bisex being combined in the person of the first human being, Brahmá or Adam, and called the Prakriti-purusha or pradhána &c., in the Yoga and Puranic Systems. So says Manu also (I, 32). “The power became half male half female or nature active and passive, and divided itself in twain.” (Ibid).

7. The cause and effect. कार्य कारणं ।      “Om implies the two states of mundane existence, viz, the cause dynamic and the effect energy. The effect also is two fold, the gross and subtile.” (स्थूल सूक्ष्मञ्च).

8. The Two Elements. स्थूल सूक्ष्मौ ।      The subtile elements (सूक्ष्मतन्मात्रं) and the gross elements (स्थूलभौतिकं) forming the Sthúla or gross body and the linga Saríra or subtile body,—the two component parts of all living bodies.

9. Knowledge & Ignorance. बिद्या बिद्ये ।      The two states of the soul, knowledge and ignorance (बिद्या अबिद्या) and the two states of knowledge; namely that which is known (बिज्ञात), and what is unknown (अबिज्ञात), corresponding with two others—the (ब्यक्ताब्यक्त) the manifest and unmanifest.

10. The two states of Life. कर्म्म तथा ज्ञानकाण्डं ।      Knowledge and action or Jnána and Karman,—theory and practice, are the two inseparable conditions of life; the one leading to the other, which is the result of the former, and according to others its cause, in the celebrated dispute ज्ञान जन्य कर्म्म अथबा कर्म्मजं ज्ञानं between theorists and practitioners.

11. Other Pairs.      In this way many other pairs are joined together forming as they were the two halves of the great circle of Om, and whether diametrically or obversely opposed or attached to each other, they form together, the same circle of which each of them is but an imperfect part or half.

12. Geometry of Om     . Hence we see the mystery of the cypher of Om to be no less wonderful and efficacious in the investigation of theological truths, than the great instrument of Euclid’s compass in the bisection and   13. Logical Use of Om     . measurement of geometrical dimensions. And as the circle is latterly found to be made use of in the demonstration of propositions in Logic, how much must we wonder to reflect on the use and application of the sacred instrument of Om by the ancient Rishis of India, to all things of the physical, intellectual and spiritual world (Sarvamonkára eva) as their common measure.

14. Dualism overthrown द्वतोच्छेदः      Having thus observed the deficiency of dualities and the imperfection of dualistic theories, by the instrumentality of Om, and the application of its cypher of unity to them, to make up that unity which is essential to the true knowledge of God, whose nature is a perfect unity and without divisibility (Ekamevádwitía), the sages next proceeded to the investigation of trialities and pluralities of tri-une doctrines and so forth, which had been gaining ground even in those early stages of society, by the application of the same test of the unity of Om to them, till at last all these partitions are lost in the cypher of One indivisible whole.

15. The Metrical Sense of Om     . Om in the sense of a compass or metrical instrument, is derived from O the cypher, letter or circle, and ma to measure, meaning the circle of measurement.

XI. TRIADS OR TRIPLES OR TRIPARTITE OM IN TRINITARIAN SYSTEMS.

1. Triads or Triples of Om      त्रिमूर्त्ति । “But when considered as a triliteral word consisting of a, u, m, (अ, उ, म), Om implies, the three Vedas, the three states of human nature; the three divisions of the Universe; the three deities, agents of the three states of things—the creation, preservation and destruction; or properly speaking; the three principle attributes of the Supreme Being. In this sense it implies in fact the Universe controlled by the Supreme Being.” Rám Mohun Roy.

2. Their External Manifestations. ब्याहृतिः ।      The idea of the trisection of the circle of Om followed that of its bisection, together with that of the three fold division of Divine nature, much earlier in the minds of the Aryans of India, than the three sectors of the circle were unfolded by Euclid, and the mystery of the tri-une nature of the Divinity was discovered by the divine Plato, or that of the three persons in the God-head was revealed by the Gospel. But not content with this discovery, the ancient sages applied this triplicate division of Om to many other things as the three fold manifestations of the One Deity represented by the triliteral and trilateral figure of Om, and fell to their adoration, until they were recalled to the worship of the invisible unity of Om by the Vedánta doctrines. We shall now see these triples called the Vyáhritís (व्याहृति) or three fold manifestations in their order.

1. The 3 Vedas. त्रयो बिद्या बेदत्रयः ।      Om represents the three Vedas by its three letters, viz; the Rik, Yajur and Sáman, consisting of the Hymns, Ceremonies and Psalms. The first like the hymns of Hesiod and Orpheus, the second like the Levitican laws, and the third resembling the Psalms of David, all of which are said to be of Divine origin.

2. The 3 States. ॐ गुणत्रयं ।      These have no apposite terms in English, and are variously rendered to express the states of quietism, action and passion or excess of a feeling, leading to error.

3. The 3 Worlds. ॐ भूर्भुबः स्वर् ।      The earth, sky and heavens, called the three great evolutions (महा ब्याहृति) of Om. But those were afterwards subdivided into twenty one (3×7) each named as Om (ॐ त्रिसप्तं) as in the beginning of Atharva Sanhitá ॐ त्रिसप्ता ये परियन्ति बिश्वाः—“The Universe composed of thrice seven worlds.”

4. The 3 states of things. श्रवस्थात्रयं ।      These are the creation, preservation, and destruction of all things (सृष्टि, स्थिति, प्रलय), or as philosophically called their evolution, sustentation and dissolution (उत्पत्ति, स्थिति, ध्वंस), and their agents, Brahmá the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva the destroyer of each and all, corresponding with Jupiter, Neptune   5. The 3 Agencies Personified त्रि मूर्त्ति ।     and Pluto, and Osiris, Horus and Typhon (ब्रहमाबिष्ण्वीशाः). But this trinity is refuted by the Vedántic doctrine of unity, which repudiates a secondary cause. (सृष्टि स्थिति लयादीनां नान्य कर्त्ता द्वितीयकं). The Maitrí Upanishad makes mention of many more triads which were glorified with the aforesaid hallowed epithet Om (VI. 5.) Viz. the following:—

1. The Trisex Divinity.      Om composed of the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter (स्त्रीपुन्नपुं). But the Vedánta refutes the generic distinctions of the One unknown (नपण्डनपुमान् शक्तिः).

2. The 3 Elemental forms.      The fire, wind and sun, (सूर्य्याग्नि बायु), the three powerful manifestations of the Deity each of which had its votaries in the early fire, wind and sun worshippers of India.

3. The 3 Agencies as above.      The creation, preservation and destruction of things in the forms of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva as said above.

4. The 3 Fires. अग्नित्रयः ।      Om the three sacrificial fires called the दक्षिणा, गार्हपत्य and आह्वनीयाग्न्यः, which were continually preserved in families.

5. The 3 Vedas. त्रयोबिद्या ।      Om the triple learning contained in the Rik, Yajur and Sáman, which were identified with God for their being his words.

6. The 3 Intelligences.      The three Intellectual faculties consisting of the Mind, Intellect or Reason, and the conscious soul.

7. The 3 Times. त्रिकाल ।      Present, past and future composing the circle of the eternity of Om (कालत्रयं).

8. The 3 Aliments. अन्न ब्रह्म ।      Food and water and moon. The water and food are eulogised as Om in Bhrigu Valli as अन्न ब्रह्म, and the moon is reckoned as such for its containing the ambrosial beverage of the gods.

9. The Mental Powers. मनोवृत्तिः ।      The three intellectual faculties, the mind, intellect and consciousness as the spiritual manifestations of the Invisible Spirit.

10. The three Vital Airs. प्राणादि ।      Those of respiration, circulation and secretion called प्राणामान समाणाः the respiratory breath or air and others: there are two others which with these three will be found among the pentads (पञ्चप्राणाः).

11. The three feet of God. त्रिपादाः ।      These are the different hypostases of God or rather of the Divine soul in its three states of universality, individuality and external appearances, each of which is subdivided into three states.

12. The 3 Totals.      The Sútrátmá, Taijana and Hiranyágarbha (universal soul) (सूत्रात्मा तैजन हिरण्यगर्भः); The three emanations of infinite Intelligence from the Unity of God.

13. The three Specials.      The Visva, Taijasha, and Prajná (Individual Souls) (विश्व तैजस प्रज्ञा). The three emanations of finite souls from Divine Intelligence.

14. The three externals.      The Vaiswánara, Visvarúpa and Virát the three manifest and visible forms; (बैश्वानर बिश्वरूप बिराट्). Hence the nature of God is a triplicate threefold unity or the thrice three hypostases of the One Being.

15. The three Forms of Devotion.      The three forms of our devotion and Communion with God, that he is praised, worshipped and ascribed with attributes.

16. The Triple man.      His body—the bow, his mind—the arrow, and his soul—the aim. (Mándukya II. 4. p. 159).

17. The 3 States of the Soul.      Of waking, dreaming and sound sleep of the soul. (जाग्रत् स्वप्न सुसुप्ति).

18. The 3 Humours of the Body.      The bile, phlegm and choler or flatulence (वात पित्त कफ) are the preservatives of the body and life.

19. Three Matrás. त्रिमात्रा ।      The three moræ or vowels, the long, short and prolated. (ह्रस्व दीर्घ प्लूत त्रिमात्रा).

20. Three Accents. त्रिस्वरः ।      The acute, grave and circumflex. उदात्तानुदात्त स्वरितः.

21. Three Utterances of speech. बाणि ।      Human speech consisting of letters, words and sentences treated of in Orthography, Etymology and Syntax. (ध्वणिः पश्यन्ति मध्यमा बैस्वरी).

22. Three Pronunciations स्फूर्तिः ।      Distinct, indistinct and half distinct. (Anquetil). (स्फुट अस्फुट अर्द्धस्फुट).

23. Do. of Three Vedas.      The Swaratí of Rik, the Swara of Yajus, and Swánvatí of Sáma. (स्वरती स्वर स्वानबत्यः).

24. The 3 Letters.      Of Om viz. a, u, m, agree with the first, second and third word of every triad, i.e., each to each.

25. The 3 Merits.      Of the meditation of the three letters of Om described at length in the Upanishads.

XII. THE TETRADS OR QUADRUPLES OF OM.

I. Tetrads of Om.      We have next to consider the tetrads or quadruple divinities in the quadrants or four fold divisions of the circle of Om consisting of its four letters a, u, or crescent of Om, and the circlet of entire Om styled Chandravindu as given by Professor Monier Williams from the Nirukta of yaska. (Indian Wisdom p. 169).

II. In sciences.      1. The Om of orthographers consisting of the four stages of speech; namely, ध्वनि पश्यन्ती मध्यमा and बैस्वरी ।

2. Of Grammarians; the four parts of speech, nouns, verbs, prepositions and particles.

3. Of Ritualists; The hymns, liturgical precepts, Bráhmanas and ordinary language.

4. Of philologers or Sábdikas; the speech of serpents, beasts, birds and vernaculars.

5. Of Etymologists; The Rik, Yajur and Sáma Vedas and current language.

6. Of Spiritualists; The language of beasts, wild animals, musical instruments and soul.

7. Of Manu (IV. 126). The Pranava and the three Vyahrtis. (ॐ भूर्भ्रुवः स्वर्).

8. Of Manu (IV. 124). The Rik sacred to the gods, the Yajur relating to mankind and the Sáma concerning the manes, and its sound.

9. Of Smártas; The four stages;—of students, householders, mendicants and ascetics.

10. Of Puránas. The four Ages;—Satya, Tretá, Dwápara and Kali. The four castes &c.

III. In Divinity      A for ápta or Vyápta—pervading all worlds, represents the divine hypostasis of Viswa.

1. The 4 Conditions of Brahma.      U—for Utkarshat, i. e., more elevated than A; as the Taijas than Visva. (तैजस).

M—for mána or measure, as the prajná like a prastha measures the above two. (प्रज्ञा).

Om—i. e., the entire and without parts, is the fourth and perfect condition of Brahma. (ब्रह्म).

2. The 4 states of the Soul.      Á for the waking (Jágrat) state, when the soul is subject to gross senses.

U—for the swapna or dreaming state, when the soul is withdrawn from visible objects.

M—the susupta or sound sleeping state, in which the soul is unconscious of itself.

Om—the absolute and perfect state of the soul viewing all in itself.

3. The 4 Manifestations of God.      A—is external manifestation of the Universal soul in objects.

U—Internal manifestation perceived in the operations of the soul in dream.

M—unmanifested existence; or the self consciousness of the soul.

Om—Unmanifest state of the soul, unmodified and inactive state.

4. The 4 Titles of the soul.      A—Viswa or Vaiswánara who abides manifest in the waking state.

U—Taijasa; abiding in dreams and knowing all without objects.

M—Prajná, the perfect wise abiding in deep sleep.

Om—Absolute Brahma called Turíya which is perfect and all knowing.

The Four fold Tetrads:

I.

II.

A—Áptah , pervading.

Jágrat , Waking.

U—Utkarsha , Exalted.

Swapna , Dreaming.

M—Mána , Measure.

Susupti , Sleeping.

Om—Brahma , Absolute.

Sthira , Calm.

III.

IV.

A—Vyakta , external state.

Viswa , the visible world.

U—Antar , internal state.

Taijasa , the thinking soul.

M—Avyakta , unmanifested.

Pragná , Consciousness.

Om Ananta , Infinity.

Turíya , Omniscience.

XIII. THE PENTADS &C., OF Om.

The Pentads of Om.      The quintuples of om are composed of five letters or divisions of the symbolical circle, standing for so many different things each of which forms a part of the whole, and is called an Om. The five parts are, A, U, M, O and the náda—the nasal half circle above.

1. The Five Vital Airs. पञ्च प्राणाः ।      Respiration, flatulence, circulation, pulsation and assimilation, commonly known by the names of Prána, Apána, Vyána, Udána and Samána.

2. The Five Caverns. पञ्च कोषाः ।      Pancha koshas or sheaths of the soul, folding one over the other “like the coats of an onion”. 1. The sheath of the intellect. 2. The sheath of the mind. 3. The sheath of breathing. 4. The subtle and corporeal bodies. 5. The sheath of Supreme bliss, not admitted by all. (बिज्ञानमय, मनोमय, प्राणमय, अन्नमय, आनन्दमय कोषाः ।)

3. The Five Internal organs, senses and their objects. पञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि ।      The ear, eye, skin, nose and tongue, of hearing, sight, feeling, smell and taste. Their five objects—sound, colour, touch, savour and smell. (श्रोत्रत्वक् चक्षु जिह्व घ्राणानि तथा शब्द स्पर्षरूप रसगन्धानि ।)

4. The Five external Do. पञ्च कर्म्मेन्द्रियानि ।      The voice, hands, feet, the organs of generation and secretion are organs of action. बाक्पाणि पाद पायूपस्थानि बहिरिन्द्रियाणि । पूर्ब्बोक्तानि अन्तर बा बुद्धीन्द्रियाणि ।

5. The Five Elements. पञ्च भूतानि ।      Earth, air, fire, water and ether. क्षित्यप् तेजो मरुद्व्योम पञ्च महाभूतानि ।

6. The Five classes of Ignorance.      1. Obscurity (तमस्), 2. Illusion(मोह), 3. Extreme illusion(महामोहः), 4. Gloom (तमिस्र), 5. Utter gloom (अन्ध तमसः).

1. The six letters of Hexads or sextuples.      The sextuples of Om are composed of a, u, o, m, the Vindu, cypher, and the náda; and according to another account, the Ardha mátrá of Om is the fourth and the Vindu and náda the fifth and sixth aksharas. (Weber’s Ráma Tapaníya p. p. 292, & 312. Cowell’s Maitrí Up. p. 271).

2. The 6 Organs.      The five organs of sense; viz the nose, tongue, the eye, ear, skin and the mind. (Gotama Sutra I. 1, 12). But according to others the mind is not reckoned an organ.

3. Other Sextuples      The six seasons (षडृतवः), the six flavours (षड्रसाः), the six musical modes (षड्रागः), the six Vedángas; but I never met a passage of their being preceded by Om.

1. The Heptads or Septuples.      The Septuples are formed by a, u, o, m, Vindu, náda and Sánta or ultimate silence, and these are used to symbolise the pantheistic form of the god Viráj, in the following description of him given by Sankara.

2. The 7 Parts of Viráj Body.      “His head—the heavens; his eye—the sun; his breath—the wind; his center—the ether; his urine—the water; his feet—the earth; his mouth the fire.” Anquetil gives the five senses, the mind and intellect as his seven members. (Weber’s Indian Studien. Vol. II. p. 107).

3. The Other Heptads.      According to other accounts there is a sevenfold septuples included in the figure Om comprising the Universe. The first trisaptaka or triplex septuple comprises the seven spheres of heaven, the seven pátálas or infernal regions, and the seven Bhuvanas of earth. The second trisapta consists of the sapta dwípas or seven continents of the earth, the seven oceans, and the seven planets; and lastly the sapta swara or the seven notes emitted by the planetary motions.

The Octads or octuples.      The octuples consist of the aforesaid seven parts and the sákti or word namo added to them at the end, and are used as symbols of Viráj for the five vital airs, or the five organs of action and those of intellect i. e. the mind, intellect and self consciousness or chítta.

The Nonads.      These are nine cavities of the body नबद्वारगृह the abode of Brahma.

The Decads     . These are the ten internal and external organs (पञ्चकर्म्मेन्द्रिय and पञ्चबुद्धीन्द्रिय) of the body—the seats of Brahma.

XIV. PHILOSOPHY OF THE NUMERICAL GROUPS CONTAINED UNDER THE MYSTIC SYLLABLE OM.

1. Inquiry into the numerical groups.      After the lengthy account we have given of the various classes of words contained under the different numbers and divisions and subdivisions of the mysterious letter Om, it must be asked by the inquisitive reader, what do these clusters of concrete and abstract terms which are numerically jumbled together under the unintelligible character Om serve to mean, and of what use are they to the contemplative Yogi in his meditation on the attributes of his Maker by that symbol?

2 (a     ). Enlargement of the understanding. In answer to this query we are bound to repeat the definition of yoga, that it is the process of joining the ideas in the mind, and practicing the limited powers of the understanding to rise by degrees from their grasping the ideas of unities or single objects at a time, to the comprehension of dualities and pluralities for the enlargement of the intellect, till at last the mind is fraught with a clear and distinct idea of every thing in the universe comprised under the several groups or generalizations of particulars.

2 (b     ). Their Pantheistic view. And also as we have more than once mentioned in the preceding articles, that God is aham bahushyám—one in many, to on to pan of the Greeks, or the unity divided into and containing an Infinity of parts; so His symbol the holy Om is one circle and emblem of infinity, which for the sake of our conception and convenience is viewed in its Finite parts of monads &c., and their ever increasing multiples by all other numbers. But the monad like the prime number one whether multiplied or divided by any number in arithmetic, remains still the same simple one. Thus (1 × 2 = 2 × 1); (and 1/2 = 1 ÷ 2, or 1/2 = 1 × 1/2). This is the root of the pantheistic doctrine of the Vedánta. सर्ब्बं खल्विदं ब्रह्म This One is all: and the whole being taken from the whole the remainder is whole. पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेबाबशिष्यते ।

3. The Numerical Philosophy.      It was the oldest Sánkhya or numerical school of philosophy in India, like the ancient Ionian school of Greece, that first made a classification of all objects in nature under certain co-ordinate groups for our contemplation of them under those classes; which its later development of the yoga system has converted to the objects of our meditation as same with or pervaded by the Deity; or in other words, has recommended the meditation of nature’s God in nature itself as in Natural Theology. It was the Tantra worship of later ages that divided the symbol of unity and infinity of the divine om into a decad of parts, as it is the custom of mathematicians to divide the great circle of infinity into 360 degrees, though it might be divided into an infinity of parts.

4. The Sánkhya and Pythagorean.      The Sánkhya system of evolution which is closely allied to that of the Darwinian, views the monad as the elementary protozoa, which combined with other monads make up the duads, triads &c. we have mentioned before, and all which are resolvable to the primary monad. Om is always ‘one’ thing; nothing can destroy that numerical existence, combine the thing in every possible variety of ways, and it still remains ‘one.’ It cannot be less than one, it cannot be more. As (2 = 1 + 1 = II & 3 = 1 + 1 + 1 = III). Resolve it into its minutest particles, and each particle is one. As (½, ⅓, ¼ &c.). One is the only absolute number; all others are but relations to it. The Infinite therefore must be one, and if you take infinity and the infinitesimals from the infinite, there remains also the same infinity; according to the Vedánta paradox पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदुच्यते । and all modes of existence are but finite aspects of the Infinite.

5. Different aspects of the soul.      The soul being a self moved monad, is one, whether it connects itself with two or with three; in other words the essence remains the same whatever its manifestations may be. The one soul may have two aspects, Intelligence and Passion, as in brutes; or it may have three aspects, as in man &c. For more of this see Lewes’ History of Philosophy (Vol. I p. 33 and p. 34).

6. Query concerning Nature Worship.      There rises another question of some importance in this place as, what has the Yogi or worshipper of God to do with the objects presented to him in the different groups under the partitions of Om, when his business is solely to meditate on the nature and attributes of the Deity?

7. Spiritual Worship.      To this it may be answered that, the Hindu Yogi or meditative sage is enjoined to meditate on the Supreme Spirit in Spirit, “átmá átmanyeva chintayet”. (आत्मा आत्मन्येबचिन्तयेत्). He does not adore any visible object, but contemplates his creator with all his attributes as displayed in creation, which he sums up abstractedly in his own spirit and mind. There can be no contemplation of the inscrutable and incomprehensible nature of God apart from the light we derive from the abstract meditation of all sensible and intellectual natures. “Observe every thing in thyself and so shalt thou behold the Supreme.” सर्ब्बमात्मगतं पश्यतेनात्मानं परिपश्यसि ।

8. Self knowledge. What?      The old rule of self knowledge आत्मतत्त्व or know thyself आत्मानं जानीहि, which was believed to constitute highest wisdom, and which has given rise to different interpretations in various schools of philosophy, does not mean the knowledge of one’s state and nature to be sufficient for him; but that of his soul which makes him truly great. The wise Socrates looked inwards, and there discovered the moral and psychological truths the world has derived from him. His pupil the divine Plato looked within him, and there found the eternal ideas of which sense awakened reminiscence.

9. Knowledge of the Soul.      The Hindu Yogi too looks inward and views within the circle of his cranium symbolized as Om, his soul seated as a ray and figure of the Divinity, and encompassed by the abstract ideas of all things whose impressions he has received by sense and mind. He then learns to distinguish by his discriminative power called the átmánátma viveka, (आत्मानात्मविवेक) the soul of the Universe from all the representations which it presents to his mind.

10. Of one in Many.      The Platonic system had also a sort of classification in which the search for One in Many and Many in One, together with the detection of the One in the Many was the constant aim, consult for further information on this head in Lewes’ History of Philosophy. (Vol. 1. p. 237 and p. 405).

XV. THE UNITARIAN FORMULA ॐ तत् सत् ONE THAT IS.

1. Om the one.      From all our investigation into the origin, rise, and extent of meaning of the word Om in its orthography, etymology and theology, it is evident that the Indo-Aryan mind was early infused with the idea of an absolute Om corresponding with the Greek On and ôn, and En and also Aeon of the Gnostics, Latin Ens, Unum and Entity, Romance On and un, and one in English, whose unity was the source of all diversity in the plurality of creation, agreeably to the text aham bahu Syám = Ego multus sim of the Sruti.

2. The Universal soul, = Vìswátman.      It was at first known as one and then as the self or soul by the silent and innate intuition of the intellect, as it is declared in the Mandukya Upanishad II. 2, 5. तमेबैकंजानथआत्मानमन्यावाचो, बिमुञ्चथअमृतस्यैब सेतुः । मण्डूकं २ । २१५ ।

Max Müller says (A. S. Lit. p. 23 and p. 322): “The Átman was next conceived as the Spirit = air, átmá and anime.” “That one breathed breathless by itself: other than it nothing since has been.” Thus says the Sruti (Müller p. 560). “This one Átman (atmos) fills, animates and pervades the whole”; as the poet sings “spreads unspent” throughout the infinity of worlds:

“Which are but parts of one undivided whole whose body nature is, and God the soul.” (Pope).

एकमेवाद्वितीयं ब्रह्म । रूपं रूपं प्रतिरूपं विभाति ॥

3. Called as Tat      = that The inherent one of all ones “to on ontwn,” the unit of unities, the Ens of entities, the soul of the world “Viswátman” was yet without a name, nor did they know how to call him, than by the designation of tat = “that,” which they say is expressive of the idea of Brahma तदिति ब्रह्मणोऽभिधानमुदाहृतं । Because says Váchaspati, the nature of the one Om, was unknown even to the learned बिदुषां परोक्षत्वाच्च तच्छब्दो ब्रह्मणो नाम; and therefore it was specified by the demonstrative pronoun that “tat,” which sometimes preceded the एक as तदेकं &c. (Greek to on). The necessity of pronouncing Om with tat sat in the beginning of every Vedic rite, is strictly enjoined in Bhágavad-Gítá. ॐ तत्सदिति निर्द्देशो ब्रह्मनस्त्रिविधः स्मृतः । ब्राह्मणश्चैब बेदाश्च यज्ञाश्चबिहिताः पुरा । बैदिके कर्म्मणि तेषां प्रथमतो निर्द्देशः । इति तां बाचस्पतिः ।

4. The Impersonal and Personal God.      The word “tat” in the neuter gender, was used for the one self, which as an element or material cause, had evolved all things out of its immaterial essence, and expressed an impersonal God, which the creed of the early philosophers had established in the Vedas. It was at a much later period that the belief of a personal God, is said to have been introduced by the sage Sándilya in the Ch’hándogya and Swetásvatara Upanishads, where the self आत्मा is used in the masculine gender, and the masculine pronoun Sa and tam (Greek “ho and ton,” Lat “is”), was substituted for tat (Greek to Lat id) in the subjective mantra सोऽहं हंस; but in the objective mantra it is neuter as तत्त्वमसि ।

5. Of the Bráhma Somája      The Bráhma Samáj has preserved both the formula of the Impersonal God (ॐ तत् सत्) as their motto, as well as addressed their prayers to the personal God by use of the masculine pronoun sa and tam instead of tat. Thus in the opening hymn of Ram Mohun Roy’s Prayer Book तमेकं शरण्यं तमेकं बरेण्यं तमेकं जगत् कारणं विश्वरूपं । तमेकं जगत् कर्त्तृपातृ प्रहर्तृ तमेकं विश्वरूपं निर्बिकल्पं भजामि । So in Devendra Natha Thákur’s hymn तमेकं स्मरामो तमेकंभजामो । This is in accordance to the creed of all civilized nations to apply the masculine pronoun to the Deity. The Koran has “ho=he” in its formulas of “Ho’lahad” “Ho’lghani” &c., and so also the ho of the Bible. Tat like On is sometimes used alone and by itself for God, at the opening of books and chapters, and upon the tops of pages with the Sat following it as तत् सत्.

6. Ditto in the Feminine Gender.      But those who have heard the preachings of Keshub Chandra Sen, may well remember his exclamations as तुमि पिता तुमि माता, तुमि पुरुष तुमि प्रकृति, in imitation of the Roman idolatrous philosopher’s acclamation to God, “tu pater, tu mater, tu mas, tu femme” &c., in Cudworth’s Intellectual System. There is no masculine or feminine representative of the pronoun tat or any other pronoun in the vernaculars, where they are all of the common gender, hence तिनि, उनि, ओ, से &c., used for tat by the Heathen Hindus, are applied alike to their gods and goddesses, while the Sanskrit sah = ho in Greek, Arabic and Hebrew designates the masculine Deity only. Mahommed says in the Koran, “ye are ashamed of your female children, but not of assigning female attributes to the Deity.”

7. Ditto in the Neuter Gender.      The following passages will serve to show the early creed of the impersonal God, from the application of the neuter pronoun tat to him in the Mándukya Upanishad. (11. 2)

तदेतदक्षरं ब्रह्मसप्राणस्तदबाङ्गनः ।

तदेतत् सत्यं तदमृतं तद्वोद्धव्यं सौम्यबिद्धि ॥

तदेतत् सर्ब्बाश्रयः आयम्य तद्भाब गतेन चेतसा ।

लक्ष्यं तदेबाक्षरं सौम्य बिद्धि ॥

तद्विज्ञानेन परिपश्यन्ति धीराः ।

आनन्द रूपममृतं यद्बिभाति ॥

तत् शुभ्रं तद् ज्योतिषां ज्योतिस्तदात्मबिदो बिदुः ।

तमेवभान्तमनुभाति सर्ब्बं, तस्य भाषा सर्ब्बमिदम्बिभाति ॥

Meaning:—“The sun, moon and stars what are they? But a glimpse of light caught from That (Tat).” &c.

XVI. ONTOLOGY OF THE SELF EXISTENT Sat = BEING.

Philology of Sat.      1. The last word of the formular motto of Vedánta is sat, which derived from the root asa, Lat. esse—to be, makes the present participle Sat and means a being, like the Latin ens and Greek On, the participial noun of eimi meaning a being. Thus the knowledge of sat which is Satyam = reality, is the doctrine of On—the real being, which as said before is to on onton—the being of beings and prime cause of all existences, and forms the main subject of Ontology. This primary and fundamental truth of the existence of a first cause, led the Rishi a priori to deduce all other existences from it by the text अहं वहुस्यां Ego in multis et pluribus—the one in many: or in other words, when the Bráhman believes in but one real being in the Universe, he believes also that this being constitutes the Universe. (M.W. Indian Wisdom p. 36).

2. Etymology of Sat.      2. The noun Sat in its verbal form is equivalent to asti, corresponding with Lat. est, Gr. esti, Persic ast and hast, Bengali-áchhe, Uria achchhe &c. Eng. is, Ger. Ist and the like. And tat sat together makes the Greek to estin, Lat. Id est French Il est &c.; Arabic alast, Persic ost, and Hindi Ohihae. The Om Tat Sat is either an identic proposition, meaning the “Being that is” or a definitive one, expressing Om that (is) existent.

3. The Ontology of Sat      or Being. 3. The Ch’hándogya Upanishad says; “In the beginning there was the mere state of sat—being (to on)—the one only without a second.” Some however say that, “in the beginning there was a state of asat—not being; (Lat. non est, Gr. to mi on), the one without a second. Hence out of a state of non-being would proceed a state of being. But how can this be? How can sat = being, proceed out of asat not being?” It is logically absurd by the well known maxim Ex nihilo nihil fit of Lucretius. “Hence in the beginning there was a mere state of being (the om). One only without a second. (om eka mevá dvitíyam ओमेकमेवाद्वितीयं). He willed and became many” (Chánd. VI. 2. M. W. Ind. Wisdom p. 41).

4. A Priori Argument of Vedánta.      4. The Original text runs thus.

सदेवइदमग्र आसीत्, एकमेवाद्वितीयं ।

तदाह एकेआहुः असदेवइदमग्रमासीत् एकमेवाद्वितीयं ॥

तस्मादसतः सज्जायेत ।

कुतस्तुखलु स्यादिति । कथमसतः सज्जायेत इति ॥

तत्त्वेवइदमग्रआसीत्, एकमेवाद्वितीयं ॥

तदैक्षत वहुस्यां प्रजायेय ।

The above cited passage and numerous other texts of the Vedánta such as the following, यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते येन जातानि । and जन्माद्यस्ययतोऽन्वयात् &c., unanimously prove a priori and by deductive reasoning that Brahma is the primary cause from which all others are derived and deduced by reason. This is called the Púrva vat or a priori reasoning in the Nyaya philosophy, which is shewn to be the logical inference of the effect from its cause. यत्रकारणेन कार्य्यमनुमीयते यथा मेघोन्नत्या भविष्यतिबृष्टिरिति । वात्स्यायनः ।१ ।१ ।६ ।

5. Evidences of the First cause.      5. The priori inference of a pre-existent cause is supported by many other modes of reasoning as we shall state below. 1. By the Cosmological reasoning of Humboldt, Leibnitz and others, it is evident that some being was uncaused, or was of itself without a cause. Therefore God is the first cause of all things. (Leibnitz). 2. By the Anthropological reasoning founded on certain observed facts or phenomena of human consciousness, its knowledge of the subjective ego and objective non ego &c. 3. By the Ontological, we find the existence in the mind of a clear and distinct idea of God, as a perfect Being or Ens or entity (sat) perfectly eminent. 4. Psychological Intuitive reasoning shows us clearly that “we may form the idea of a supremely perfect being of whom we have a conscious proof. And as in the exercise of our intellect we become conscious of a subjective unity underlying the external diversity, so by the unvarying revelations of reason, we are led to recognize the existence of a Deity who, amidst all the shifting phenomena of the universe remains one and Immutable.” Vide Devendra Náth Tagore’s Ontology p. 14.

6. A Posteriori Argument.      The Vedánta philosophy pursues also a course of inductive reasoning in its aphorism of जन्माद्यस्ययतः । अस्यविश्वस्य जन्मादि यतः, rising from the creation to its maker. This is the process of परबत् or a posteriori reasoning of the Nyáya philosophy, in its inference of the cause fire from its effect the smoke (पर्ब्बतोवन्हिमान् धुमात्), or of the major term व्यपकाग्नि from the middle व्यप्यधूम । This is the physical reasoning of modern inductive science, which infers from the facts of existence an author of these facts. The Universe exists, therefore it has a cause, which is prior to all other causes. There are some who attempt to prove the posteriori परवत् argument of the Veda from a different construction of the Gáyatri hymn, ascending from the Vyáhritis or creation of the worlds (भूर्भुवःस्वर्) to their creator तत् सविता; but this mode of reasoning is not justified by others, by reason of the initial Om = God.

7. Ambiguity of the word Sat     . We shall now take notice of the other meanings which the lexicons assign to sat, beside the being and entity of God परमार्थ सत्व we have so long dwelt upon. It means the goodness and excellence of a thing. साधुत्वप्रशस्तादिभिः सच्छब्दोऽपि । वाचस्पत्याभिदानं ॥

In this sense the phrase Om tat sat would mean “God The Good”, which is quite correct on all hands. In English the etymology of God is good, and so the Sanskrit sat means both God and good; thus also all systems of philosophy predicate the attribute of goodness of the nature of God. The Persian term Khoda though so nearly allied to God and sat in sound, will be found to bear no affinity with either; but to owe its derivation to the Sanskrit स्वदा (from स्वदत्तः) meaning self-produced; swa स्व being invariably rendered into kha in Persian, as swata स्वत khod, swasri स्वसृ khwahir &c.

8. Another sense of Sat     . Sat appears moreover in the sense of sitting in composition with an objective word preceding it, as diri-shad a celestial, sabhásat a courtier. It is from the root sad, Latin sedo—to sit, with the suffix kwip. Thus we have in the Kathá Vallí: (V. 2.) हंसः शुचिसद्वसुरन्तरीक्षः । सद्धेता वेदिषदतिथिर्द्दूरोन सत् । नृषद्वरसदृतसद्व्योमसद् । सद् अब्जा गोजा ऋतजा अद्रिजाऋतं बृहत् ।५ ।२ ।

“The Hansa, (God) sits above the heavens, it dwells in the atmosphere, as invokers it dwells in temples, and as guests it is not afar from us. It dwells in man, in truth, in the ether, in water, mountains &c. &c.”

XVII. THE CONCLUSIVE LESSON ON THE PRACTICE OF YOGA.

After our long and lengthy discussion on the subject of Yoga, and the sacred and mysterious words wherewith it is conducted, our treatise will be deemed incomplete until we set a form or praxis of the manner in which it is to be conducted; and particularly by those who are fully persuaded of its efficacy, and prepared for its practice, but are prevented from it for want of proper guides to initiate them into it, or deterred by the arduousness of the rites imposed upon them by false Yogis, as to give up the exercise in disgust and hopelessness of their possibility ever to master it.

We shall set to these a short lesson from the Upanishad with directions from the Bhágavad Gítá, works which are believed to be of the highest authority and sanctity by every Hindu, and which can never be suspected of misleading any body; but on the other hand universally acknowledged as the only luminaries amidst the intellectual gloom of superstition and ignorance. The Kathopanishad says that the light of truth is to be gained by yoga only योगीनां योगगम्यं, and the Bhágavad Gítá declares, that knowledge, faith and practice are the only means of its attainment ज्ञानकर्म च भक्तिश्च नोपायनास्ति कुत्रचित्. It directs all men of competence to betake themselves to the acquisition of learning, and the incompetent to the practice of acts thus: निर्ब्बिन्नानां ज्ञानयोगोऽन्वासिनामिहकर्म्मसु । तेष्यनिर्ब्बिण चित्तानां, कर्म्मयोगश्च कामिनां ॥

The Maitrí Upanishad gives the following directions for the practice of yoga. “In the same way (is declared) the rule for the exercise of these means (for the concentration of the mind). This concentration (yoga) has six parts:—restraint of the breath (pránáyáma), restraint of the senses (pratyáhára), meditation (dhyána), attention (dháraná); self examination (tarka), and absorption (samádhi). When beholding by this manner of contemplation, he beholds the golden coloured, the doer, the lord, the spirit, Brahman, the cause; then the seer abandoning his merits and sins, reduces every thing to unity in the Supreme indestructible (soul). Thus says the Sruti;—As beasts and birds approach not a blazing mountain, so faults never approach those who know Brahman”. (18).

“It has been also said elsewhere when the sage, conditioned as prána, has obtained the mastery over his mind, and left outside all the objects of the senses, then let him remain void of all volition. Since the individual soul called prána springs from the non-prána (Supreme Intelligence); hence let the (apparent) prána fix itself in the fourth stage (of pure intelligence). Thus saith the Sruti;—“That which is itself apart from intellect, which yet abides in the midst of intellect, the inconceivable, the supremely secret, on this let him fix his intellect (chitta); thus this subtle body having no object, is merged (in the Supreme).” (19).

“It hath also been said elsewhere; there is yet a higher exercise of attention (dháraná) for the sage; after pressing the end of his tongue against his palate and restraining his voice, mind and breath, he beholds Brahman by contemplation. When thus by the annihilation of the mind, he beholds the self-manifesting soul, the less than the least, as identified with the supreme soul, then having seen the soul thus identified, he becomes divested of self. Being thus divested, he becomes unlimited, destitute of material support, only an object of pure thought. This is the great secret,—final emancipation. Thus saith the Sruti;—By the serenity of the intellect he destroys all action, good or bad; with serene soul, abiding in the Divine Soul, he enjoys undying bliss.” (20).

“It hath been said also; the artery, called sushumná, which supplies the passage for the vital air, rises upward (from the heart) and is interrupted in the middle of the palate. By means of this artery, conjoined with the prána (brought under subjection), the mind merged by contemplation into its object Brahman, and the repetition of the mystic syllable Om, let him rise upwards turning the end of his tongue on the palate, and uniting the senses (with the prána and mind) ]. Let the absence of limitation contemplate itself (i. e. let him contemplate on the unlimited Brahman). Then he attains freedom from all organs; and becomes no longer capable of pain or pleasure. He gains absolute unity.” Thus saith the Sruti:—

“First having mastered prána, then having fixed it on the palate, having crossed the state of limitation, let him in the crown of his head, merge (the soul) in the unlimited Brahman.” (21).

“Thus he may contemplate Om as the sound and non-sound &c. (22 and 23). Then Om as light, and all other significates of Om.” (24 &c.).

Those who may think the English version of the lesson on Yoga as not very explicit, will do well to consult the subjoined text in the original.

तथा तत् प्रयोगकल्पः । प्राणायामः प्रत्याहारोध्यानंधारणातर्कः समाधिः । षड्वर्गो इत्युच्यते ।—

अनेन यदा पश्यन् पश्यति रुक्भवर्णं कर्त्तारमीशं पुरुषं ब्रह्मयोनिं । तदाबिद्बान् पुण्य पापे विहाय परेऽव्यये सर्ब्बमेकी करोतीत्येबं ह्याह । यथा पर्ब्बत मादीप्त माश्रयन्ति मृगद्विजाः । तद्वद्ब्रह्मविदो दोषानाश्रयन्ति कदाचन ॥१८

अथान्यत्राप्युक्तं । यदावैवहिर्विद्वान् मनोनियम्य इन्द्रियार्थांश्च प्राणोनिवेशयित्वा निःसङ्कल्पस्ततस्तिष्ठेत् । अप्राणादिह यस्मात् सम्भूतः प्राणसंज्ञको जीवस्तस्मात् प्राणोवैतुर्याख्ये धारयेत् । अचित्तं चित्तमध्यस्तमचिन्त्यं गुह्यमुत्तममं । तत्र चित्तं निधायेत तच्च लिङ्गं निराश्रयं ॥

XVIII. SYMBOLICAL YOGA CULT OF MUDRÁ OR CHAKRA DIAGRAMS.

Om the object of Yoga meditation, being already described in sections IX. &c. of this article as symbolical of Divine nature, and its different divisions as emblematical of the eternal attributes or hypostases of the Self—same Unity, they are as shown before, represented by the component letters of that mystic syllable, and meditated upon by the mental arithmetic of the speculative theosophist, the vedántist and yogi. But as the majority of people of grosser understandings are more dependant on ocular and sensible symbolism than abstract idealism, the Tantras have purposely contrived many a figure and diagram (Mudrás and Chakras) for their guidance, of which we will give a few below with their geometrical names and notations.

It will appear from the diagrams described hereafter that Om the symbol of Brahman the Universal Sat or existence, serves to show us as a chart of the world, or representation of the cranium, everything existing in the physical and intellectual world, which is expressed by the word Om (ॐ शब्द सर्ब्बार्थ वाचकः), in its different divisions and partitions for our meditation and contemplation. The pious and religious spiritualist may employ them in Divine contemplation, but the majority are at liberty to use them in the meditation of every other subject which comes to be comprised within the compass of their thought, in the groups of significations which the letters are said to convey. Hence the Yoga of old, meant only an intense application of the mind to all subjects of thought and knowledge. Thus the end of our Yoga philosophy is not only the abstruse meditation of Divine attributes, but the mental reflection of every thing besides.

XIX. MATHEMATICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIAGRAMS OF OM.

Correctness of the Diagrams.      We have seen from the diagrams given in the following section, that the Tántrika formulists have spared no pains to divide the great circle of the Universe, filled by the omnipresence of Brahma and represented by the figure om, into several parts for the purpose of meditating His different hypostases, and contemplation o£ the various orders of creation. We are now to inquire as to whether these several divisions of a mathematical circle of 360 degrees are geometrically correct, or mere arbitrary partitions made by ignorant priests for their own amusement and deception of their proselytes.

The Heptagon and Nonagon.      Now for instance, the problem of inscribing a heptagon or a nonagon in a circle will at once startle a student of Euclid as altogether impossible, and identical with that which was celebrated among Greek geometricians as the problem of the trisection of the angle. If treated algebraically, it leads to a cubic equation with three real roots, the arithmetical value of which can be found only approximately.

The Lílávatí’s solution.      The author of the Lílávatí has solved the problems, but given no account of the way in which he got the numbers stated by him; if they had been obtained by solution of the above mentioned equation, they would probably have been more accurate than they are. He only lays down an arbitrary rule, that the side of the heptagon is 52055/120000 of the diameter, and that of the nonagon 41081/120000 of the same. Neither of these is very far from the truth. The accurate value of the side of the heptagon lies between 82/182 and 105/242. The side of the nonagon lies between 13/38 and 105/307.

Commentators on Lílávatí.      Among the commentators on Lílávatí, Rámakrishna, Gangádhara, and Ranganátha have not attempted any demonstration of the problems in question, and have contented themselves with merely repeating the figures contained in the text. Ganesa confesses that the proof of the sides of the regular pentagon, heptagon and nonagon cannot be shown in a manner similar to that of the triangle, square and octagon.

The Pentagon.      But this is untrue of the pentagon; its side can be geometrically found as shown in Euclid Book IV. Prop 11; and the admission of Ganesa serves only to prove, that he was unacquainted with the Sanskrit translation of Euclid which contains a solution of this problem. Ganesa cannot mean only that the side of the pentagon is incommensurable with the diameter; for that is equally true of the triangle, square and octagon, inscribed in a circle.

THE FIGURES.

OF OM (ON OR EN) OF HINDU ONTOLOGY.

I.

Mudrá, Madawar, Sphere or Sphaira.

A Symbol of the Universe and Universalia.

A System of the Universal Religion.

ॐकार मुद्रा । अखण्डमण्डलाकारं व्याप्तयेनचराचर स्वरूपं ।

II.

The circle O, An Emblem of infinity and Eternity.

A Type of the Catholic Theism of Hindus.

ॐकार वृत्तं । अनाद्यनन्तसनातन व्राह्मधर्म्मस्वरूपञ्च ।

III.

The convexity of O. A Type of the Extramundane,

Unknowable and Absolute Supreme Brahma.

Significant of Agnoism and Agnosticism.

ॐवृत्तपरिधेःपरं । अपरिमेयाज्ञेयतुरीयपरव्रह्म स्वरूपं ।

IV.

The concavity of O. Emblem of Intramundane

Immensity of knowable Nature and its God Brahma .

And Indicative of Gnosticism and Pantheism.

ॐकारबृत्तमध्यं । प्रज्ञेय निर्गुणब्रह्मतथाज्ञेयब्रह्माण्डस्वरूपं ।

V.

The circle with the Central point or Monad.

A Symbol of the Definite and known world and its God.

And signifying the Monotheism of all nations.

ॐबृत्तं सविन्दुमध्यं । सगुणब्रह्मविन्दुब्रह्माण्डवीजमपर तैजस ब्रह्मस्वरूपं ।

1.

The circle with the central A, अ Alif or Unit.

Emblematical of the unity of a Personal God.

And the Primary unity of all things in Nature.

And significant of unitarianity or Advaita matam .

ॐकार बृत्त केन्द्रस्थअकार सहितं । सोपाधिक एकमेवाद्वितीयमतरूपं ।

2.

The two Semicircles of O. Symbolical of Duad or Duality .

In the dualism of Persons in the God-head as Dvaitam .

And the Duads of Co-ordinate Principles in Nature.

And signifying the Ditheism of all Dualistic creeds.

ॐ वृत्तार्द्धद्वयं । सोपाधिकेश्वरस्यभेदद्वयं । जीवव्रह्म पुम्प्रकृत्यादि दैतमतरूपं ।

3.

The Trisected circle of Om . A symbol of the Triad or Trinity.

Indicative of a Triality of Persons in the God-head as Traitam .

And the co-ordinate Triples of the Principles in Nature.

And signifying the Tritheism of Trinitarianity.

त्रिभक्त वृत्तं । अउमयुक्तं । त्रिगुणात्मक व्रह्मादित्रिमूर्त्ति । व्याहृति त्रयादि । त्रैतमतरूपं ।

3.

(a ) The Tripartite circle. With the Inscribed Triangle Euclid (IV. 2).

A symbol of the Holy Trinity (Trimúrti  on the three sides).

And the Triangular female emblem of God-mother in the midst.

And Indicating the Materialistic Trinitarianism of Hindus.

ॐ वृत्तान्तर्गत त्रिभुजं । अव्यक्तशक्ति वा प्रकृत्यात्मकत्रिमूर्त्तिरूपं । त्रैतं मतं ।

4.

The Four Quadrants of the circle of Om  or a square.

Emblematical of the Tetrad of the Divinity.

And the co-ordinate Quadruples of Things.

And signifying the Quaternity of certain creeds.

ॐकारवृत्तपादाः । अउमविन्दुयुक्ताः । विश्वादितुरीय ब्रह्म । वा सप्रकृतित्रिमूर्त्तिरूपं ।

5.

The Pentagon Inscribed in the circle. Denoting the Pentad.

The Angular Points A. B. C. D. & E. Meeting at the Centre O (Euclid IV. 11).

Indicative of the Quintuple Hypostases of the Deity.

The Quintessence and the Five fold co-ordinates of Elementary bodies.

ॐ वृत्तस्य पञ्चभुजं । अउमविन्दुनादयुक्तं । पञ्चकोश पञ्चप्राण पञ्चभूतमयं ।

6.

The Hexagon in the Circle. Significant of the Hexad.

The Angular Points A.B.C.D.E.F. Meeting at the centre (Euclid IV. 15).

Denotative of the sextuple Evolutions of the Monad O.

And Indicative of the Six Internal and External Organs of sense.

वृत्तस्य षड्भुजं । ॐ नमो षोढ़ारूपं । अउम॰ ৺नमषडिन्द्रिय षड्रस षडङ्गादिस्वरूपं ।

7.

The Heptagon. Inscribed in the circle O. Indicates the Heptad.

The Angular Points A. B. C. D. E. F. G. Meeting at the centre O.

According to the Process of Lílávatí mentioned below.

Indicates the septuple Hypostases of Divine Essence, viz ;

The Five External senses, mind and intellect. (Anquetil).

And the seven fold co-ordinate bodies in creation, viz ; the seven Worlds, seven Planets, seven Continents and Oceans.

ॐवृत्तस्य सप्तभुजं । अउम॰ ৺ नमःयुक्तं । प्रज्ञादि आत्मारूपं । सप्तभुवनमयविराजरूपं । सप्त ग्रह सप्त द्वीप सप्त समुद्रञ्च ।

8.

The Octagon (A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H). Inscribed in the circle O.

By Bisection of the Quadrants (in Figure 4).

Indicative of the Octad or Octuple states of Spirit and Body.

viz , the five Vital airs or the five external or five Internal senses with the Mind, Intellect and consciousness (Chittam). All forms of the Spirit.

And the eight material forms of Earth &c., treated of in the Ashta Múrti.

ॐ वृत्तस्याष्टभुजं । ॐ नमोयुक्तं अउओम॰ ৺ नमः । अष्ट बुद्धीन्द्रिय तथा ईश्वराष्टमूर्तिरूपं ।

9.

The Nonagon A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I. Inscribed in the circle O.

By Trisection of the three sections of a Tripartite circle.

Symbolical of a nonad  or nine fold nature of the Deity.

And the nine doors or organs of Animal bodies.

ॐ वृत्तस्य नव भुजं । त्रिभुजस्यत्रिभक्तभुजत्रयं । ओन्नमो शान्ति युक्तं । अउओम॰ ৺ नमः शान्ति ।

आत्मनः नवधारूपाणि । तथाजीवदेहस्य नवद्वारानिच । आत्मनः नव रूपाणि यथा—

अ-जाग्रत् बैश्वानरः । उ-स्वप्नजतैजनः । म-सुसुप्त प्रज्ञा । ओ-तुरीयपरात्पर व्रह्म ।

৺ नाद समष्टि सूत्रात्मा । ॰ विन्दुव्यष्टि हिरण्य गर्भः । नमः स्थूलविश्वः । शक्ति विश्वरूपः ।

शान्तिविराजरूपं । सर्ब्बमोङ्कारस्य नव रेखभिः दर्शितं । यथा ॐ

10.

The Decagon in a Circle. Emblematical of the Decad.

The Decagon A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J. By Bisection of the Pentagon.

Significant of the Five Internal and five External Senses.

And the Ten Directions of space. All filled by Divine Spirit.

ॐवृत्तस्य दशभुजं । वृत्तस्य पञ्च भुजंद्विर्बिभक्तं । दशदिग्व्यापि ईश्वरात्माज्ञापकं ।

ॐन्नमः शक्तिःयुक्तं । यथा अ, उ, ओ, म, ৺, ॰, नमः, शान्तिः, ।

वा अ, उ, ओ, म, ৺, ॰, नमः शान्तिः, शान्तिः, शान्तिः ।

These figures might be multiplied ad infinitum, as there is no limit of created things and the attributes of the Creator; but as neither Infinity nor Immensity is comprehensible by the limited understanding of man, the Yogi takes some definite ideas and determinate objects for his meditation, as he is directed by the Natural Religion of mankind.

NOTE TO FIGURE 7.

Solution of the Problem of inscribing a heptagon in a circle, or dividing the circle into seven equal parts. According to Súryadása’s commentary on Lílávatí. वृत्तान्तर्गत सप्तभुजाङ्कनं सूर्य्यदासमतं ।

“For the heptagon समवाहुक सप्तभुजः describe a circle, and an equilateral heptagon in it, then a line being drawn between the भुजाग्ररेखा extremities of any two sides—at pleasure, and three lines from the centre of the circle वृत्तान्तर्गत केन्द्रं to the angles indicated by those extremities भुजाग्रचिन्हित कोणं, an unequal quadrilateral विषम चतुर्भुजं is formed. The greater sides and the least diagonal क्षुद्रतरकर्णं thereof are equal to the semi-diameter व्यसार्द्धतुल्यं”. The value of the greater diagonal, which is assumed arbitrarily, is the chord of the arc चापस्य पूर्णज्या encompassing the two sides. Its arrow शरः being deduced in the manner before directed, is the side of a small rectangular triangle एकजात्य त्रिभुजं ।

Thus the greater diagonal बृहत्तरकर्णं, being arbitrarily assumed to be 93,804, is the chord sought इष्टज्याः; its arrow found in the manner directed is 22,579; this is the side, and half the base or chord जीवारूप भूम्यर्द्ध कोटि is the upright 46,902; their squares are 509711241 and 21997604; the square root of the sum of which is the side वर्गमूलं of the heptagon or 52,055 योगमूलं ।

These numbers are given from the copy of Súryadása’s commentary on the Lílávatí in the library of the As. Society. There are two obvious errors in them, probably of the copyist लिपिकर प्रमादः; viz. 22,579 should be 22.581, and 21997604 should be 2199797604.

NOTE TO FIG. 9.

To inscribe a nonagon in a circle, वृत्तान्तर्गत नवभुजं i. e., to divide it into nine parts. “A circle being described as before, inscribe a triangle वृत्तान्तर्गत त्रिभुजं in it. Thus the circle is divided into three parts. Three equal chords समान पूर्णज्या being drawn in each of these portions, a nonagon is thus inscribed in it वृत्तस्य नव भुजक्षेत्रं; and three oblongs वृत्तस्य चतुर्भुज क्षेत्रं are formed within the same; of which the base is equal to the side of the (inscribed) triangle भूमिवृत्तस्य त्रिभुजभुजतुल्यं । Then two perpendiculars लम्बपातद्वयं being drawn in the oblong, it is divided into three portions, the first and last of which are triangles परपूर्ब्बांश त्रिभुजं; and the intermediate one is a tetragon. मध्यांश चतुर्भुजं । The base in each of them is a third part of the side of the inscribed triangle त्रिभुजवाहोस्त्रितीयांशः(?). It is the upright (of a rectangular triangle) जात्यत्रिभुजकोटि; the perpendicular is its side; and the square root of the sum of their squares भुजकोटिवर्गयोगमूलं is the hypotenuse कर्णः, and is the side of the nonagon नवभुजं.

“To find the perpendicular लम्बं, put an assumed chord कल्पितज्या equal to half the chord पूर्णज्यार्द्धं of the (inscribed) tetragon; find its arrow in the manner aforesaid, and subtract that from the arrow of the chord तत्रिभुजस्यशर of the (inscribed) triangle, the remainder is the perpendicular. लम्बपरिमाणं । Thus the perpendicular लम्बं comes out 21,989: it is the side of a rectangular triangle. The third part of the inscribed एकजात्य त्रिभुजं triangle is 34,641: it is the upright. कोटि । The square root of the sum of their squares वर्गयोग मूलं is 41,031: and is the side of the inscribed nonagon.” वृत्तस्यनवभुजं ।

YOGA VÁSISHTHA.

BOOK I.

ON MORAL APATHY

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

SECTION I.

DIVINE ADORATION

Hail The Eternal.

OM, salutation to the self-same Reality, from whom all beings proceed, by whom they are manifest, upon whom they depend, and in whom they become extinct (in the end).

2. He is the knower, the knowledge and all that is to be known. He is the seer, the (act of) seeing, and all that is to be seen. He is the actor, the cause and the effect: therefore salutation to Him (who is all) knowledge himself.

3. Salutation to Him (who is) supreme bliss itself, from whom flow the dews of delight (as water springs from a fountain) both in heaven and earth, and who is the life of all.

SECTION II.

NARRATIVE OF SUTÍKSHNA.

4. One Sutíkshna, a Bráhmana, whose mind was full of doubts, went to the hermitage of Agasti and asked the sage respectfully:—

5. Oh great sage! that art informed in all the ways and truths of virtue, and knowest with certainty all the Sástras, I am in a great doubt (about something) which I pray you will kindly remove.

6. Tell me whether a man’s acts or his knowledge or both of these, is in your opinion, the cause of his emancipation.

7. Agasti replied:—

As the flight of birds in the air is effected by means of both their wings, so the highest state of emancipation is attained through the instrumentality of both knowledge and acts.

8. It is neither our acts nor knowledge alone that produces emancipation, but both together are known as the means of it.

SECTION III.

ANECDOTE OF KÁRUNYA.

9. I will recite to you an instance on this subject from the old traditions, relating a Bráhman named Kárunya, who was learned in the Vedas in days of yore.

10. He was the son of Agnivesya and accomplished in the Vedas and all their branches, and after finishing his studies at the preceptor’s, returned to his own abode.

11. He remained a sceptic at home, holding his taciturnity and inertness to acts: when his father Agnivesya saw his son so slack in his duties, he upbraided him thus for his good.

12-13. Agnivesya said:—

Why my son do you not discharge your duties, tell me how can you succeed (in anything) if you remain inactive, and tell me also the reason of your cessation from acts.

14. Kárunya replied:—

The offering of daily oblations, and performance of morning and evening devotions during life, are inculcated in the Veda and law as the active duties (of men).

15. But it is neither by acts or riches, nor by means of progeny, that one obtains his liberation, it is solely by self-denial that Stoics taste the ambrosia (of emancipation).

16. Tell me my father! which of these two ordinances is to be observed by me? Doubtful of this I have become indifferent to acts.

17. Agasti said:—

Hear me my son, that Kárunya after saying so held his silence; when his father seeing him thus, rejoined his speech.

18. Agnivesya said:—

Hear me relate a narrative (to you) my son, and you having fully considered its purport in your mind, may do as you may choose (best for you).

SECTION IV.

STORY OF SURUCHI.

19. There was a damsel named Suruchi, the best of the Apsará nymphs, who was seated on the mountain peak of Himálaya, beset by peacocks around.

20. Here Kinnaras inflamed by love sported with their mates, and the fall of heavenly streams (Gangá and Yamuná), served to expurgate the gravest sins (of men).

21. She beheld a messenger of Indra making his way through the sky; and then this most fortunate and best of Apsarás, addressed him thus:

22. Suruchi said:—

O thou herald of gods, tell me kindly whence thou comest and whither art thou destined at present.

SECTION V.

ACCOUNT OF ARISHTANEMI.

23. The divine Ariel replied:—Well hast thou asked Oh pretty browed maid, and I will tell thee all as it is. Know, Arishtanemi the royal sage, who has made over his realm to his son.

24. He has (now) with religious indifference (to the world), set out to the forest for (practice of) asceticism, and is performing his austerities on the Gandha Mádana mountains.

25. I am now returning from there after discharge of my errand, and repairing to Sakra’s (palace) to report the matter.

26. Suruchi said:—

Tell me, my Lord, what matter has taken place there. I am with submission (much) inquisitive after it, nor shouldest thou cause me (the pain of) anxiety.

27. The messenger replied:—

Hear me gentle maid, relate to thee in length (everything) as it has occurred.

28. On hearing that the king was practising the utmost rigors of asceticism in that forest, Indra, the lord of gods, desired me to take this heavenly car and repair at once to the spot.

29. “Take this car,” said he, “bearing the (dancing) Apsarás equipped with all their musical instruments, and furnished with a band of Gandharvas, Siddhas, Yakshas and Kinnaras.”

30. “Convey them,” said he, “with all their wired instruments, flutes and drums to the auspices of the Sylvan mount of Gandha Mádana.

31. “There having placed the Prince Aristanemi in the vehicle, bring him to the enjoyment of heavenly delight in this city of Amarávati (the seat of immortals).”

32. The messenger added:—

Receiving this injunction of Indra and taking the car with all its equipments, I proceeded to that mountain.

33. Having arrived at the mountain and advancing to the hermitage of the king, I delivered to him the orders of the great Indra.

34. Hearing my words, Oh happy damsel! the king spoke to me with reluctance and said: “I wish to ask thee something O messenger, which (I hope) thou wilt deign to answer.

35. “Tell me what good and what evils there are in heaven, that knowing them (beforehand), I may think of settling there as I may choose.”

36. I answered, saying:—

In heaven there is ample reward for merit, conferring perfect bliss (to all); but it is the degree of meritoriousness that leads one to higher heavens.

37. By moderate virtue, one is certainly entitled to a middle station, and virtue of an inferior order, leads a person to a lower position (in the heavens).

38. But one’s virtue is destroyed by his impatience at the excellence of his betters, by his haughtiness to his equals, and by his joy at the inferiority of others.

39. When one’s virtue is thus destroyed, he must enter the abode of mortals. These and the like are the effects of merit and demerit (with us) in heaven.

40. Hearing this, Oh good maiden, the king answered and said: “I do not, Oh divine messenger! like the heaven that is of such like conditions.

41. “I will henceforth practise the most austere form of devotion, and abandon this my unhallowed human frame in the same way, as the snake abandons his time-worn-skin (slough).

42. “Be thou pleased, Oh delegate of the gods! to return with thy heavenly car to the presence of the great Indra whence thou comest, and fare thee well.”

43. The celestial emissary resumed:—

Thus being bid, I went Oh goodly dame to the presence of Sakra to report the matter. Who upon my rehearsal of the matter, was struck with great wonder.

44. Then the great Indra again spoke to me with a sweet voice and said: “Go you my herald again to that king, and take him to the hermitage of Válmíki.

45. “He is well acquainted with every truth, tell him my errand for the instruction of the dispassionate prince, saying:—

46. ‘Oh thou great sage! remonstrate with this prince who is humble and dispassionate, and dislikes the enjoyments of heaven.

47. ‘So that this prince who is aggrieved at the miseries of the world, may gradually come to attain his emancipation.’”

48. I then went and explained my mission to the royal hermit, took him to the sage Válmíki (who had grown amidst the ant-hills), and to whom I delivered great Indrá’s charge for the king’s practice (of the means) for his final liberation.

49. Then the sage (named after the ant-hill in which he had grown), welcomed the King with gentle inquiries regarding his welfare.

50. The prince replied:—

“Oh great seer, that art informed in all the truths of religion, and art the greatest of them that know the knowable, thy very sight has given me all that I desired, and therein is all my welfare.

51. “Great sire, I wish to learn from thee how I may escape the miseries which arise from one’s connection with this world, and which (I hope) thou wilt reveal to me without reserve.”

52. Válmíki said:—

Hear me Oh king! I will relate to you the entire Rámáyana, by the hearing and understanding of which you will be saved even while in this life.

SECTION VI.

HISTORY OF RÁMA.

53. Hear me Oh great and intelligent king, repeat to you the sacred conversation which took place between Ráma and Vasishtha relating the way to liberation, and which I well know from my knowledge (of human nature).

54. The prince said:—

“O thou best of sages, tell me precisely who and what this Ráma was, what was his bondage and how he got freed from it.”

55. Válmíki said:—

Hari was proscribed under an imprecation to take upon himself the form of a prince, with an assumed ignorance as that of a man of little understanding.

56. The prince said: “Tell me who was the author of that imprecation, and how it could befal on Ráma, who was the personification of consciousness and felicity, and the very image of wisdom.”

57. Válmíki replied: Sanat-kumára, who was devoid of desires, had been residing at the abode of Brahmá, to which Vishnu, the Lord of the three worlds, was a visitor from Vaikuntha.

58. The Lord God was welcomed by all the inhabitants of the Brahmaloka as well as by Brahmá himself, except by Sanat-kumára who was thus beheld and addressed to by the god.

59. “Sanat-kumár, it is ignorance that makes thee forsake thy desires for fear of regeneration (on earth), therefore must thou be born under the name of Sara-janmá to be troubled with desires.”

60. Sanat-kumára in return denounced Vishnu by saying:—“Even all discerning as thou art, thou shalt have to sacrifice thine omniscience for some time, and pass as an ignorant mortal (on earth).”

61. There was another anathema pronounced upon Vishnu by the sage Bhrigu, who seeing his wife killed (by him), became incensed with anger and said: “Vishnu thou shalt have also to be bereft of thy wife.”

62. He was again cursed by Vrindá to be deprived of his wife, on account of his beguiling her (in the form of her husband).

63. Again when the pregnant wife of Deva-datta was killed (with fear) on seeing the man-lion figure of Vishnu;

64. The leonine Hari was denounced by the husband, who was sorely afflicted at the loss of his consort, to be thus separated from his wife also.

65. Thus denounced by Bhrigu, by Sanat-kumára, Deva-datta and Vrindá, he was obliged (to be born in this earth) in the figure of a human being.

66. I have thus explained to you the causes of all the imprecations (which were passed on Vishnu), and will now relate to you all other things which you shall have carefully to attend to.

CHAPTER II.

REASON OF WRITING THE RÁMÁYANA.

SECTION I.

PERSONS ENTITLED TO ITS PERUSAL.

SALUTATION to the Lord, the universal soul, shining manifest in heaven, earth and the sky, and both within and without myself.

2. One convinced of his constraint (in this mortal world), and desiring his liberation from it, and, who is neither wholly ignorant of, nor quite conversant with divine knowledge, is entitled to (the perusal of) this work.

3. The wise man, who having well considered the narrative (of Ráma) as the first step, comes afterwards to think on the means of liberation (as are expounded herein), he shall verily be exempt from transmigration (of his soul).

4. Know, O destroyer of thy enemies! that I have first embodied the history of Ráma in this Rámáyana (as the preparatory step to salvation).

5. And I have given the same to my attentive pupil the obedient and intelligent Bharadwája, as the sea yields his gems to their seeker.

6. These historical preparatories were rehearsed by the learned Bharadwája in the presence of Brahmá, seated in a certain forest of the Sumeru Mountain.

7. Then the lord Brahmá, the great grandfather of the inhabitants (of the three worlds), was so highly pleased with him that he addressed him saying: “Oh my son! ask the best boon that thou wishest for.”

8. Bharadwája said:—“Oh thou lord, that art master of the past and future times, grant me the desired boon of communicating to me the means whereby people are liberated from their miseries.”

SECTION II.

BRAHMÁ’S BEHEST.

9. Brahmá said:—“Go ask diligently of thy preceptor Válmíki, to complete the faultless Rámáyana that he has undertaken (to write).

10. “By the hearing of which men will get over their manifold errors, in the same manner as they pass over the sea by the bridge built over it by the great Ráma, who was fraught with all good qualities.”

11. Válmíki said:—Saying this to Bharadwája, the supreme maker of all beings (Brahmá) accompanied him to my hermitage.

12. In right earnest was the god welcomed by me with the argha and offerings of water and the like, when the lord of truth spoke to me for the good of all creatures.

13. Brahmá spake to me saying:—“Do not Oh sage! give up your undertaking until its final completion. No pains ought to be spared to make the history of Ráma as faultless as it ought to be.

14. “By this work of yours men will forthwith pass over this hazardous world, in the same manner as one crosses the sea in a vessel.”

15. Again said the increate Brahmá to me:—“I come to tell this very thing to you, that you complete the work for the benefit of mankind.”

16. Then Oh king, the God disappeared from my sacred hermitage in a moment, just as the wave subsides in the water no sooner it has heaved itself.

17. I was struck with wonder at the disappearance of that (deity), and then being composed in my mind, I inquired of Bharadwája, saying:—

18. Tell me, Bharadwája, what Brahmá spoke (to me) in the hermitage; to which he answered saying:—

19. “The God commanded you to complete the Rámáyana for the good of men, and as a means of their crossing over the gulf of the world.”

SECTION III.

INQUIRY OF BHARADWÁJA.

20. “Now Sir”, said Bharadwája, “explain to me how the great minded Ráma and Bhárata conducted themselves amidst the troubles of this world.

21. “Tell me also how did Satrughna, Lakshmana, and the renowned Sítá, and all those who followed Ráma, as also the ministers and their highly intelligent sons, conduct themselves (on earth).

22. “Tell me clearly how they escaped all its miseries, that I may do the same with the rest of mankind: (for our salvation).”

23. Being thus respectfully addressed by Bharadwája, I was led, Oh great King! to carry out the behest of my lord (Brahmá), and to narrate the Rámáyana to him; saying:—

24. Hear my son Bharadwája, I will tell you all that you have asked, and by the hearing of which you shall be enabled to cast away the dross of errors (under which you labour).

25. You are wise and have to manage yourself in the manner of the felicitous and lotus-eyed Ráma, with a mind free from (worldly) attachments.

26. (Know that) Lakshmana, Bhárata, the great minded Satrughna, Kausalyá, Sítá, Sumitrá as well as Dasaratha;—

27. With Kritástra and the two friends of Ráma, and Vasishtha and Vámadeva, and the eight ministers of state as well as many others, had reached the summit of knowledge (by this means).

28. Their names are Dhrishta, Jayanta, Bhása, Satya, Vijaya, Vibíshanah, Sushena and Hanumána. And also Indrajíta (who had attained his highest knowledge).

29. These were the eight ministers of Ráma, who are said to have been equally dispassionate in their minds, and content with what was their lot. They were great souls, and free in their lives.

30. Well my son, if you follow the manner in which these men observed sacrificial rites, gave and received their offerings, and how they lived and thought, you are at once freed from the turmoils (of life).

31. One fallen in this boundless ocean of the world, may enjoy (the bliss of) liberation by the magnanimity of his soul. He shall not come across grief or destitution, but remain ever satisfied by being freed from the fever of anxiety.

CHAPTER III.

VÁLMÍKI’S ADMONITION.

SECTION I.

ON TRUE KNOWLEDGE.

BHARADWÁJA said, O Bráhman! relate to me first about Ráma, and then enlighten me by degrees with the conditions of attaining liberation in this life, that I may be happy for ever.

2. Válmíki replied:—Know, holy Saint! all worldly conceptions to be as erroneous as the various hues that taint the clear firmament. It is better therefore to efface them in oblivion, rather than revive their reminiscence (in repeated states of existence).

3. All visible objects are absolute negation; we have no idea of them save from sensation. Inquire into these apprehensions, and you will never find them as real.

4. It is possible here (on earth) to attain to this knowledge (of worldly vanities) which is fully expounded herein: if you will listen to it attentively, you shall get at the truth and not otherwise.

5. The conception of this world is a mistake, and though we actually see it, it is never in existence. It appears in the same light, O sinless saint, as the variegated colours in the sky.

6. The conviction of the non-existence of the objects of vision, leads to efface their impressions from the mind. Thus perfected, there springs in it the supreme and eternal bliss of self-extinction.

7. Otherwise there is no quietism to be had herein by men like you, rolling in the depths of science for thousands of years and unacquainted with the true knowledge.

8. Complete abandonment of desires, styled as the best state of liberation, is the only pure step towards beatitude.

9. The absence of desires leads to the extinction of mental actions, in the same manner as the absence of cold conduces to the dissolution of small particles of ice.

10. Our desires which uphold our living bodies (and minds), bind us fast as by strings to our bodily prison. These being loosened, the inward soul is liberated (as a bird from its cage).

11. Desires are of two kinds, pure and impure. The impure ones are the cause of transmigration, while the pure ones serve to destroy it.

12. An impure desire is of the form of a mist of ignorance, consisting in the feeling of an obdurate egoism. This is said by the wise to be the cause of birth (transmigration).

13. A pure desire is like a parched seed incapable to bring forth the germ of transmigration, and only supports the present body (in its dry rigidity).

14. The pure desires which are unattended with transmigration, reside in the bodies of living-liberated men, like unmoving wheels (unable to move them to action).

15. Those that have the pure desires are not liable to transmigration, and are said to be knowing in all things that ought to be known. These are called the living-liberated and are of superior intelligence.

16. I will explain to you how the high minded Ráma attained the state of liberation in life, hear you this that old age and death may not come upon you.

SECTION II.

EARLY HISTORY OF RÁMA.

17. Hear, Oh highly intelligent Bharadawája, the auspicious course and conduct of Ráma’s life: whereby you shall be enabled to understand everything at all times.

18. The lotus-eyed Ráma after coming out of his school, remained for many days at home in his diversions, and without anything to fear.

19. In the course of time as he took the reins of the Government, (in his hand), his people enjoyed all the bliss that absence of grief and diseases could impart (to them).

20. At one time Ráma’s mind virtuous as he was, became anxious to see the different places of pilgrimage, the cities and hermitages (that lay about).

21. So Rághava with this view, approached his father’s feet, he touched the nails (of his toes) as a swan lays hold on the buds of lotus.

22. “Oh my father”, he said, “my mind is desirous to see the different places of pilgrimage, temples of gods, forests and abodes (of men).

23. “Grant me my lord this my petition, as there is no petitioner of thine on earth whom didst thou ever dishonor.”

24. Thus solicited (by Ráma), the king consulted with Vasishtha, and after much reflection granted him the first request he ever made.

25. On a day of lucky stars Ráma set out (on his journey) with his two brothers (Lakshmana and Satrughna), having his body adorned with auspicious marks, and (receiving the) benedictions which were pronounced on him by the priests.

26. Accompanied also by a body of learned Bráhmans whom Vasishtha had chosen on the occasion, and a select party of his associate princes;

27. He started from home towards his pilgrimage after he received the benedictions and embraces of his mothers.

28. As he went out of his city, the citizens welcomed him with the sounds of trumpets, while the bee-like fickle eyes of the city ladies were fixed upon his lotus like face.

29. He was bestrewn with handfuls of fried paddy thrown over his body by the beautiful hands of village-women, that made him appear like the Himálaya covered over with snow.

30. He dismissed the Bráhmans with honor, and went on hearing the benedictions of the people, and taking a full view of the landscape around him until he proceeded towards the forest.

31. He went on distributing alms after making his holy ablutions and performing his devotion and meditation, as he gradually passed the limits of Kosala after starting from his palace.

SECTION III.

RÁMA’S PILGRIMAGE.

32. He went about seeing the many rivers and their banks, visiting the shrines of gods, sacred forests and deserts far and remote from the resorts of men, as also the hills, seas and their shores.

33. He saw the Mandákiní bright as the moon, the Kálindi, clear as the lotus, and also the following rivers, Sarasvatí, Satadru, Chandrabhágá and Irávatí.

34. Also Vení, Krishnavení, Nirvindhyá, Saraju, Charmanvatí, Vitastá, Vipásá and Báhúdaká.

35. He saw also the (holy places of) Prayága, the Naimisha, the Dharmaranya, Gyá, Varánasí, Srígiri, Kedára and Pushkara.

36. He saw the Mánasa and the northern Mánsaravara lakes, and many fiery lakes and springs, the Báda, the Vindhyá range and the sea.

37. He saw the fiery pool of Jwálámukhí, the great shrine of Jagannátha, the fountain of Indradumna and many other reservoirs, rivers and lakes.

38. He visited the shrine of Kártikeya and the Gandak river of Sálagrámas, and also the sixty four shrines sacred to Hari and Hara.

39. He saw various wonders, the coasts of the four seas, the Vindhyá range, the groves of Hara, and the boundary hills and level lands.

40. He visited the places of the great Rájarshis and the Brahmarshis, and went wherever there was any auspicious sanctuary of the gods and Bráhmans. 41. Thus they all honouring Ráma, travelled far and wide in company with his two brothers, and traversed all the four quarters on the surface of the earth.

42. Honoured by the gods, Kinnaras and by men, and having seen all the places on earth, the descendant of Raghu returned home, like Siva when he returns to the Sivaloka.

CHAPTER IV.

RÁMA’S RETURN FROM PILGRIMAGE.

RÁMA strewn over with handfuls of flowers by the citizens (surrounding him) entered the palace, as when the beauteous Jayanta (son of Indra) enters his celestial abode.

2. On his first arrival he bent himself in reverence before his father, before Vasishtha, before his brothers, his friends, the Bráhmanas and the elderly members of the family.

3. Repeatedly embraced as he was by friends, by his father, mothers and by the Bráhmanas, the son of Raghu bowed down his head to them with joy.

4. The assembled people after their familiar conversation with Ráma in the palace, strolled about on all sides highly delighted with his speech, resembling the music of a flute.

5. Thus eight days were passed in festive mirth consequent to the arrival of Ráma, and shouts of joy were sent forth by the elated multitude.

6. Thenceforth Rághava continued to dwell happily at home, with relating to his friends, the different customs and manners of the countries (he visited) on all sides.

7. He rose early in the morning and performed his morning service according to law. He then visited his father seated as Indra in his Council.

8. He next passed a fourth part of the day in company with Vasishtha and other sages, and was greatly edified by their conversations which were full of instruction.

9. He used also to go out for sport under orders of his father; and surrounded by a large number of troops, to forests full of (wild) boars and buffaloes.

10. Then after returning home and performing his bath and other rites with his friends, he took his meal with them, and passed the night in company with his beloved companions.

11. In these and similar practices did he pass his days with his brothers at his father’s house, after his return from the pilgrimage.

12. Oh sinless (Bharadwája), with his conduct becoming a prince, Ráma passed his days with giving delight to the good men that surrounded him, in the manner of the moon that gladdens mankind with his soothing ambrosial beams.

CHAPTER V.

OF RÁMA’S SELF-DEJECTION AND ITS CAUSE.

VÁLMÍKI said:—

Afterwards Ráma attained the fifteenth year of his age, and so also Satrughna and Lakshmana who followed Ráma (in birth), attained also the same age.

2. Bhárata continued to dwell with joy at the house of his maternal grandfather, and the king (Dasaratha) ruled the whole earth as usual.

3. The most wise king Dasaratha (now) consulted his ministers day after day about the marriage of his sons.

4. But as Ráma remained at home since his return from pilgrimage, he began to decay day by day as the translucent lake in autumn.

5. His blooming face with its out-stretched eyes, assumed by degrees a paleness like that of the withering petals of the white lotus beset by a swarm of bees.

6. He sat silent and motionless in the posture of his folded legs (Padmásana), and remained absorbed in thought with his palm placed under his cheek and neck.

7. Being emaciated in person, and growing thoughtful, sad and distracted in his mind, he remained speechless as a mute picture in painting.

8. On being repeatedly requested by the anxious inmates of the family to perform his daily rites, he discharged them with a melancholy countenance (literally—with his faded lotus-like face).

9. Seeing the accomplished Ráma—the mine of merits in such a plight, all his brothers likewise were reduced to the same condition with him.

10. The king of the earth observing all his three sons thus dejected and lean, gave way to anxiety together with all his queens.

11. Dasaratha asked Ráma repeatedly and in a gentle voice (to tell him) what his anxiety was, and what was the cause of his thoughtfulness; but he returned no answer to it.

12. Then being taken up in his father’s lap, the lotus-eyed Ráma replied, that he had no anxiety whatever, and held his silence.

13. Afterwards the king Dasaratha asked Vasishtha, the best of speakers and well informed in all matters, as to the cause why Ráma was so sorrowful.

14. The sage Vasishtha thought over the matter (for a while), and then said, “There is Oh king! a cause of Ráma’s sadness, but you need not be anxious about it.

15. “Wise men, Oh king! never entertain the fluctuations of anger or grief, or a lengthened delight from frivolous causes, just as the great elements of the world do not change their states (of inertness) unless it were for the sake of (some new) production.”

CHAPTER VI.

ADVENT OF VISWÁMITRA TO THE ROYAL COURT.

THE king was thrown into sorrow and suspense at these words of the prince of sages (Vasishtha); but kept his silence for sometime, and waited (that time might work a change).

2. (Meanwhile) the queens of the palace, kept themselves watchful of the movements of Ráma with anxious carefulness.

3. At this very time the famous Viswámitra, the great sage came to visit the king of men at Ayodhyá.

4. The intelligent and wise seer had his sacrificial rites disturbed by the Rákshasas, who were deceitfully powerful and giddy with their strength.

5. It was for the security of his sacrifice that the sage waited on the king, because he was unable to accomplish it in peace (by himself).

6. It was also for the purpose of their destruction, that the illustrious Viswámitra, who was the gem of austere devotion had come to the city of Ayodhyá.

7. Desirous of seeing the king, he spoke to the guards at the gate, to report the arrival of Kausika the son of Gádhi to the king with despatch.

8. On hearing these words, the guards were struck with fear in their minds, and ran as they were bid to the palace of the king.

9. Coming to the Royal abode, the door-keepers informed the chief-warder of the arrival of Viswámitra the royal sage.

10. The staff-bearer immediately proceeded to the presence of the king, seated among the princes and chiefs (under him) in the Court house, and gave his report saying:—

11. “Please your majestic, there is waiting at the door a mighty personage of majestic appearance, bright as the morning sun, with his pendant locks of hair (red and ruddy) as sunbeams.

12. “The brilliancy of his person has brightened the place from the top-most flag down to the ground, and made the horses, men and armory shine as with a golden hue.”

13. No sooner had the warder appeared (before the king), and with hurried words announced the arrival of the sage Viswámitra:

14. Then the best of kings as he heard the herald say so, rose at once from his throne of gold with all the ministers and chiefs that surrounded him.

15. He walked immediately on foot with the staff of princes and chiefs by whom he was held in honour and regard, and in company with Vasishtha and Vámadeva.

16. He went to the spot where the great sage was waiting, and saw Viswámitra the chief of sages standing at the gateway.

17. His priestly prowess joined with his military valour, made him appear as the sun descended on earth on some account.

18. He was hoary with old age, rough-skinned by the practice of austerities, and covered down to his shoulders by red-bright braids of hair, resembling the evening clouds over topping a mountain brow.

19. He was mild looking and engaging in his appearance, but at the same time as brilliant as the orb of the sun. He was neither assuming nor repulsive, but possessed of an ineffable gravity and majesty in his person.

20. He was attractive yet formidable (in his look), clear yet vast (in his mind), deep and full (in knowledge), and shining (with his inward light).

21. His life time had no limit, nor his mind any bound to it, nor had age impaired his understanding. He held the ascetics pot in one hand, that went (through life) as his only faithful companion.

22. The compassionateness of his mind, added to the sweet complacency of his speech and looks, pleased the people as if they were actually served with nectar drops, or sprinkled over with ambrosial dews.

23. His body decorated by the sacred thread, and his white prominent eyebrows, made him appear as a wonder to the eyes of his beholders.

24. On seeing the sage, the lord of earth lowly bent himself at a distance, and then bowed down to him (so low), that the ground was decorated by the gems pendant upon his crown.

25. The sage also in his turn greeted the Lord of the earth on the spot with sweet and kind words, like the sun greeting the lord of the gods.

26. Afterwards the assembled Bráhmans (of the court) headed by Vasishtha, honoured him with their welcomes.

27. The king said:—We are as highly favoured, Oh holy sage! by thine unexpected appearance and thy glorious sight, as a bed of lotuses at the sight of the luminous sun.

28. Oh sage, I have felt at thine appearance the happiness which knows no bounds, and which has no diminution in it.

29. This day we must be placed at the front rank of the fortunate, as we have become the object of thine advent.

30. With these and similar conversations that went on among the princes and the sages, they proceeded to the court-hall where they took their respective seats.

31. The king finding the best of sages (Viswámitra) so very prosperous in his devotion, felt some hesitation to offer him the arghya (honorarium) himself with his cheerful countenance.

32. He (the sage) accepted the arghya offered him by the king, and hailed him during his act of turning round (the sage), according to the rules of Sástra.

33. Thus honoured by the king, he with a cheerful countenance asked the Lord of men about the good health (of himself and family), and the fulness of his finance.

34. Then coming in contact with Vasishtha, the great sage saluted him as he deserved with a smile, and asked him about his health (and of those in his hermitage).

35. After their interview and exchange of due courtesies had lasted for a while to the satisfaction of all in the royal assembly;

36. They both took their respective seats; when every one (in the court) respectfully greeted the sage of exalted prowess.

37. After the sapient sage (Viswámitra) was seated, they made various offerings of pádya, arghya and kine to him.

38. Having honoured Viswámitra in due form, the lord of men condescended to address him with a gladdest mind and in submissive terms, with his palms folded over each other.

SECTION II.

ADDRESS OF KING DASARATHA.

39. He said, “Sir, your coming here is as grateful to me as the obtaining of nectar by one, as a rainfall after a drought, and as the gaining of sight by the blind.”

40. Again it is as delightful to me as the getting of a son by a childless man in his beloved wife, and coming in possession of a treasure in a dream.

41. Your advent is no less pleasing to me than one’s meeting with the object of his wishes, the arrival of a friend, and the recovery of thing that was given for lost.

42. It gives me the joy that is derived from the sight of a deceased friend suddenly returning by the way of the sky. It is thus Oh Bráhman, I welcome your visit to me.

43. Who is there that is not glad to live in the heaven (Brahma-loka)? I feel myself as happy Oh sage! at your advent, and this I tell you truly.

44. (Now tell me) what is your best pleasure, and what I may do for you; O Vipra, that are the best of the virtuous, and most properly deserving of my services.

45. Formerly had you been famed under the title of Rájarshi (or royal sage); but since, made glorious by dint of your asceticism, you have been promoted to the rank of a Brahmarshi (or Brahman sage). Wherefore you are truly the object of my worship.

46. I am so glad at your sight that it soothes my inmost soul, in the same manner as an ablution in Gangá’s stream cheers the mind.

47. Free as you are from fears and desires, from wrath and passions and the feelings of pleasure, pain and disease, it is very wonderful, Oh Bráhman, that you should have recourse to me (for anything).

48. I consider myself as situated at a holy sanctuary, and absolved from all my sins, or as merged in the lunar sphere (by your presence), Oh! best of the learned in the truths of the Vedas.

49. I understand your appearance as that of Brahmá himself before me, and I confess myself, O sage! to be purified and favoured by your advent.

50. I am indeed so gratified at your arrival, that I deem myself fortunate in this birth, and that I have not lived in vain but led a truly good life.

51. My heart cannot contain within itself, but overflows (with joy) like the sea at the sight of the moon, since I beheld your person here and made my respectful obeisance to you.

52. Whatever is your commission, and whatsoever may be the object, O greatest of sages! which has brought you hither, know it as already granted (by me); for your commands are always to be obeyed by me.

53. You need not hesitate to communicate to me your hest, O progeny of Kausika, there is nothing, with me which is to be kept from you, if you should ask for it.

54. You need not dubitate about my performance of the act. I tell it solemnly that I will execute your behest to the last item, as I take you in the light of a superior divinity.

55. Upon hearing these sweet words (of the king), which were pleasing to the ears, and delivered with a humility worthy of one knowing himself, the far famed and meritorious chief of the sages felt highly gratified in himself.

CHAPTER VII.

VISWÁMITRA’S REQUEST FOR RÁMA.

AFTER the illustrious Viswámitra had heard the aforesaid unusually lengthy speech of the lion among kings, his hairs stood erect with joy, and he said (in reply).

2. This speech is worthy of thee, O best of kings on earth, and one descended from a royal race, and guided by the sage Vasishtha himself.

3. Consider well O king about the performance of the act which I have in mind, and support (the cause of) virtue.

4. I am employed, O chief of men, in religious acts for attainment of my consummation, whereto the horrible Rákshasas have become my great obstructions.

5. Whenever I betake myself to offer sacrifices (to the gods) at any place, instantly do these nocturnal demons appear to destroy my sacrificial rites.

6. The chiefs of the Rákshasas fling heaps of flesh and blood on the sacrificial ground (before me), on very many occasions that I commence my ceremonies.

7. Being thus obstructed in my sacrificial duties, I now come to thee from that spot and with a broken spirit, after having laboured in vain (for completion of the rites).

8. I have no mind O king, to give vent to my anger by imprecations, which have no room in my conduct (of religious life).

9. Such being the sacrificial law, I expect to gain its great object in peace by thy favor.

10. Being thus oppressed I have recourse to thy protection, and thou shouldst protect me (from wrongs); otherwise it is an insult to solicitors to be put to disappointment by the best of men (as thyself).

11. Thou hast a son, the beauteous Ráma, powerful as the fierce tiger, and strong as the great Indra himself. He it is who is able to destroy the Rákshasas.

12. Now mayst thou deliver to me that Ráma thy eldest son, having his youthful locks of hair like the sable plumage of a crow, but possessing the true valour of a hero.

13. Protected under my sacred authority, he will be able by his personal prowess, to sever the heads of the malicious Rákshasas.

14. I will do him an infinity of good services, whereby he will in the end become adored by the inhabitants of the three worlds.

15. The night-wandering Rákshasas cannot abide in the field before Ráma, but must fly like stags in the wilderness before the furious lion.

16. No other man than Ráma can make bold to fight with the Rákshasas; as no animal other than the furious lion can stand to fight with the wild elephants.

17. Elated with their strength these vicious beings have become (as deadly) as poisoned shafts in fighting, and being delegates of Khara and Dushana, they are as furious as death itself.

18. They cannot, Oh thou tiger among kings! be able to sustain the arrows of Ráma, but must set down like the flying dust under the ceaseless showers of his arrows.

19. Let not paternal affection prevail over thee O king (to withhold thy son), as there is nothing in this world, which the high-minded will refuse to part with (to their suitor).

20. I know it for certain, and so shouldst thou know also, that the Rákshasas must be destroyed by him; and (believe me) that wise men like ourselves will never undertake to engage in an uncertainty.

21. I well know the great soul of the lotus-eyed Ráma, and so does the illustrious Vasishtha, and all other far-seeing (sages and seers).

22. Should the sense of greatness, duty and renown, have a seat in thy soul, thou shouldst deliver my desired object—thy son to me.

23. It will take me ten nights to perform the rites of my sacrifice, at which Ráma shall have to stay with me and kill the Rákshasas, who are obnoxious to my rites and enemies of the sacrifice.

24. Let the ministers, Oh Kákutstha! headed by Vasishtha join to give their assent (to it), and deliver thy Ráma to me.

25. Thou O son of Raghu, that knowest the times (of religious observances) must not allow my time to slip, so do as I may have Ráma. Be blest and give not way to sorrow.

26. Even the smallest service appears to be much if done in good time, and the best service is of no avail if done out of season.

27. The illustrious and holy chief of the sages Viswámitra, paused after saying these words fraught with a virtuous and useful intention.

28. Hearing these words of the great sage, the magnanimous king held his silence for some time, with a view to prepare a fitting answer; because no man of sense is ever satisfied with talking unreasonably either before others or to himself.

CHAPTER VIII.

DASARATHA’S REPLY TO VISWÁMITRA.

VÁLMÍKI added:—On hearing these words of Viswámitra, the tiger among kings remained speechless for a moment, and then besought him in the lowliness of his spirit.

2. Ráma my lotus-eyed boy is only of fifteen years of age. I do not see he is a match for the Rákshasas.

3. Here is a full akshauhiní legion of my soldiers; of whom, Oh my Lord! I am the sole commander; surrounded by them I will offer battle to the Rákshasas cannibals.

4. Here are my brave generals who are well disciplined in warfare; I will be their leader in the height of war with my bow in hand.

5. Accompanied with these, I can offer fight to the enemies of the gods, and to the great Indra himself, in the same manner as the lion withstands the wild elephants.

6. Ráma is but a boy who has no knowledge of the strength of our forces, and whose experience has scarcely stretched to the battle field beyond the inner apartments (of the house).

7. He is not well trained in arms, nor is he skilled in warfare. He does not know to fight with a foe, arrayed in the order of battle.

8. He only knows how to walk about in the gardens of this city and amidst the arbours and pleasant groves.

9. He only knows how to play with his brother princes, in the flowery parks set apart for his play within the precincts of the palace.

10. Nowadays, Oh Bráhman! he has become by a sad reverse of my fortune, as lean and pale as the withering lotus under the dews.

11. He has no taste for his food, nor can he walk from one room to another, but remains ever silent and slow brooding over his inward grief and melancholy.

12. In my great anxiety about him, O chief of sages, I have been, with my family and dependants, deprived of the gist of our bodies, and become as empty clouds of autumn.

13. Can my boy, so young as he is, and thus subjected to distemper, be fit to fight at all, and again with those marauders who rove about at nights.

14. Oh thou high-minded sage! it is one’s affection for his son that affords him far greater pleasure than his possession of a kingdom, or his connection with beauteous females, or even his relish for the juice of nectar.

15. It is from paternal affection that good people (engage to) perform the hardest duties and austerities of religion, and any thing which is painfull in the three worlds.

16. Men are even prepared under certain circumstances to sacrifice their own lives, riches and wives; but they can never sacrifice their children: this is the nature with all living beings.

17. The Rákshasas are very cruel in their actions and fight deceitful warfares: so that Ráma should fight them, is an idea which is very painful to me.

18. I that have a desire to live, cannot dare to live for a moment in separation from Ráma; therefore thou shouldst not take him away (from me).

19. I have O Kausika! passed nine thousand rains in my lifetime, ere these four boys were born to me after much austerity.

20. The lotus-eyed Ráma is the eldest of these without whom the three others can hardly bear to live.

21. This Ráma is going to be conveyed by thee against the Rákshasas; but when I am deprived of that son, know me certainly for dead.

22. Of my four sons he is the one in whom rests my greatest love. Therefore do not take away Ráma—my eldest and most virtuous son from me.

23. If thy intention Oh sage, is to destroy the force of night wanderers, take me there accompanied by the four kinds (elephants, horse, chariots and foot soldiers) of mine army.

24. Describe to me clearly what these Rákshasas are, how strong they are, whose sons they be and what their size and figure.

25. Tell me the way in which the Rákshasas are to be destroyed by Ráma or my boys or by myself, when they are known to be treacherous in warfare.

26. Tell me all these, Oh great sage! that I can calculate the possibility of our making a stand against the fiercely disposed Rákshasas in the open field, when they are certainly so very powerful.

27. The Rákshasa named Rávana is heard as being very powerful, he is brother of Kubera himself, and is the son of the sage Visravas.

28. If it is he, the evil minded Rávana, that stands in the way of thy rites, we are unable to contend with that pest.

29. Power and prosperity in all their flourish come within the reach of the living at times, but they disappear at others.

30. Nowadays we are no match for such foes as Rávana and some others. Such is the decree of destiny.

31. Therefore, O thou, that art acquainted with law, do this favour to my son (as not to take him away); unlucky as I am, it is thou that art the arbiter of my fate.

32. The gods, and Asuras, the Gandharvas and Yakshas, the huge beasts, birds and serpents are unable to fight with Rávana: what are we human beings in arms to him.

33. That Rákshasa holds the prowess of the most powerful, we cannot afford to fight with him, nor even with his children.

34. This is a peculiar age in which good people are made powerless; I am moreover disabled by old age and want that spirit (that I was expected to possess) derived as I am from (the most powerful) race of the Raghus.

35. Tell me O Bráhmana! if it is Lavan the son of Madhu (the notorious Asúra) that disturbs the sacrificial rites; in that case also I will not part with my son.

36. If it be the two sons of Sunda and Upasunda terrible as they are like the sons of the sun, that disturb your sacrifice, in that case also I will not give my son to thee.

37. But after all, O Bráhman, shouldest thou snatch him from me (by dint of the supernatural power that thou possessest), then I am also dead and gone with him. I do not see any other chance of a lasting success of thy devotion (except by my death).

38. Saying these gentle words, the descendant of Raghu was drowned in the sea of suspense with regard to the demand of the sage, but being unable to arrive at a conclusion, the great king was carried away by the current of his thoughts as one by the high waves of the sea.

CHAPTER IX.

VISWÁMITRA’S WRATH. AND HIS ENRAGED SPEECH.

VÁLMÍKI said:—On hearing this speech of the king with his piteous look and eyes full of tears, the son of Kausika became highly incensed and replied.

2. Thou art about to break thy promise after pledging thyself to its performance, and thus wishest to behave as a deer after having been a lion (before).

3. This is unbecoming of the race of Raghu, it is acting contrary (to the rules) of this great family. Hot rays must not proceed from the cool beamed moon.

4. If thou art so impotent Oh king! let me return as I came. Thou promise-breaking Kákustha live happily with thy friends.

5. As the high spirited Viswámitra now moved with ire, the earth trembled under him, and the gods were filled with fear.

6. Vasishtha the meek and wise and observant of his vows, perceiving the great sage and friend of the world thus influenced by ire, gave vent to his speech (as follows).

7. Oh king that art born of the race of the Ikshákus, and art a form of virtue itself, and called Dasaratha the fortunate, and art adorned with all the good qualities known in the three worlds.

8. Being famed for thy meekness and strictness to thy vows, and renowned in all three worlds for thy virtues and fame, thou canst not break thy plighted faith.

9. Preserve thy virtue and think not to break thy faith, comply with the request of the sage who is honoured in all the three worlds.

10. Saying, thou wilt do it, if thou retract thy promise, thou losest the object of thy yet unfulfilled desires. Therefore part with Ráma from thee.

11. Descended from the race of Ikshaku, and being Dasaratha thyself, if thou failest to perform thy promise, who else on earth will ever keep his word?

12. It is in pursuance of the conduct of great men like thee, that low people even do not dare to transgress the bounds of their duty, how then dost thou wish to violate it thyself.

13. Guarded by this lion-like man (Viswámitra) in the manner of ambrosia by fire, no Rákshasa will have power to prevail over Ráma, whether he be accoutered and armed or not.

14. Behold him here as the personification of virtue, the mightiest of the mighty, and superior to all in the world in his intelligence, and devotedness to asceticism.

15. He is skilled in all warlike arms that are known in the three worlds, no other man knows them so well nor shall ever be able to master them like him.

16. Among the Gods, the Sages, the Asuras, the Rákshasas, the Nágas, the Yakshas and Gandharvas, there is none equal to him (in might).

17. In bygone days when this son of Kaushika used to rule over his realm, he was furnished with all the arms by Krisáswa, and which no enemy can baffle.

18. These arms were the progeny of Krisáswa, and were equally radiant and powerful as the progeny of the Prajápati, and followed him (in his train).

19. Now Daksha (the patriarch) had two beauteous daughters Jayá and Suprajá (alias Vijayá), who had a hundred offspring (as personifications of the implements), that are invincible in war.

20. Of these the favoured Jayá has given birth to fifty sons of old, who are implacable agents of the destruction of Asúra forces.

21. In like manner, Suprajá gave birth to fifty sons of very superior qualities, who are very powerful and terrible in their appearance, and indomitably aggressive.

22. Thus Viswámitra is strengthened and grown powerful (by means of these). He is acknowledged as a sage in the three worlds, Thou therefore must not think otherwise than deliver Ráma to him.

23. This mighty and virtuous man and prince of sages being nigh, any one even at the point of death in his presence, is sure to attain his immortality (on earth): therefore be not disheartened like an insensible man.

CHAPTER X.

MELANCHOLY OF RÁMA.

VÁLMÍKI related:—After Vasishtha had done saying in this manner, king Dasaratha was glad to send for Ráma with Lakshmana, and said:

2. Go you chamberlain, and bring here quickly the truly mighty and long armed Ráma with Lakshmana, for the meritorious purpose of removing the impediments (in the way of religious acts).

3. Thus sent by the king he went to the inner apartment, and coming back in a moment informed the king.

4. Oh sire! Ráma, whose arms have crushed all his foes, remains rapt in thoughts in his room like the bee closed in the lotus at night.

5. He said, he is coming in a moment, but is so abstracted in his lonely meditation that he likes no body to be near him.

6. Thus acquainted by the chamberlain, the king called one of the attendants of Ráma to him, and having given him every assurance, asked him to relate the particulars.

7. On being asked by the king how Ráma had come to that state, the attendant thus replied to him in a sorrowful mood.

8. Sir, we have also become as lean as sticks in our persons, in sorrow for the fading away of your son Ráma in his body.

9. The lotus-eyed Ráma appears dejected ever since he has come back from his pilgrimage in company with the Bráhmanas.

10. When besought by us with importunity to perform his daily rites, he sometimes discharges them with a placid countenance, and wholly dispenses with them at others.

11. He is averse, Oh Lord! to bathing, to worshipping the gods, to the distribution of alms, and to his meals also; and even when importuned by us he does not take his food with a good relish.

12. He no longer suffers himself to be rocked in the swinging cradles by the playful girls of the harem, nor does he divert himself under the showering fountains like the chátaka (in rain water).

13. No ornaments beset with the bud-shaped rubies, no bracelets nor necklace, Oh king, can please him now, in the same manner as nothing in heaven can please its inhabitants who expect their fall from it (after the expiration of their terms).

14. He is sorrowful even while sitting in the arbours of creepers, regaled by flowery breezes, and amidst the looks of damsels playing around him.

15. Whatever thing Oh king! is good and sweet, elegant and pleasing, to the soul, he looks at them with sorrowful eyes, like one whose eyes are already satiate with viewing them heaped up in piles (before him).

16. He would speak ill of the girls that would dance merrily before him, and exclaim out saying, “why should these ladies of the harem flutter about in this way causing grief in me.”

17. His doings are like those of a madman, who takes no delight at his food or rest, his vehicles or seats, his baths and other pleasures, however excellent they be.

18. As regards prosperity or adversity, his habitation or any other desirable things, he says of them to be all unreal, and then holds his silence.

19. He cannot be excited to pleasantry nor tempted to taste of pleasures; he attends to no business, but remains in silence.

20. No woman with her loosened locks and tresses, and the negligent glances of her eyes, can please him any more than the playful fawn can please the trees in the forest.

21. Like a man sold among savages, he takes delight in lonely places, in remotest skirts, in the banks (of rivers) and wild deserts.

22. His aversion to clothing and conveyance, food and presents, bespeaks O king! that he is following the line of life led by wandering ascetics.

23. He lives alone, Oh lord of men! in a lonely place, and neither laughs nor sings nor cries aloud from a sense of their indifference to him.

24. Seated in the posture of folded legs (Padmásana), he stays with a distracted mind, reclining his cheek on his left palm.

25. He assumes no pride to himself nor wishes for the dignity of sovereignty; he is neither elated with joy nor depressed by grief or pain.

26. We do not know where he goes, what he does, what he desires, what he meditates upon, whence and when he comes and what he follows.

27. He is getting lean every day, growing pale day by day, and like a tree at the end of autumn, he is becoming discoloured day after day.

28. Satrughna and Lakshmana are, Oh king! the followers of all his habits, and resemble his very shadows.

29. Being repeatedly asked by his servants, his brother-princes and his mothers (as to the cause of his dementedness), he says he has none, and then resumes his taciturnity and indifference.

30. He would lecture his companions and friends saying, “do not set your mind to sensual enjoyments which are only pleasing for the time being.”

31. He has no affection for the richly adorned women of the harem, but rather looks upon them as the cause of destruction presented before him.

32. He often chaunts in plaintive notes, how his life is being spent in vain cares, estranged from those of the easily attainable state of (heavenly bliss).

33. Should some dependant courtier speak of his being an emperor (one day), he smiles at him as upon a raving madman, and then remains silent as one distracted in his mind.

34. He does not pay heed to what is said to him, nor does he look at any thing presented before him. He hates to look upon things even the most charming (to sight).

35. As it is chimerical to suppose the existence of an etherial lake, and lotus growing in the same, so it is false to believe the reality of the mind and its conceptions. Saying so Ráma marvels at nothing.

36. Even when sitting amidst beauteous maids, the darts of Cupid fail to pierce his impenetrable heart, as showers of rain the (unimpregnable) rock.

37. That “no sensible man should ever wish for riches which are but the seats of dangers”; making this his motto, Ráma gives away all that he has to beggars.

38. He sings some verses to this effect that “it is an error to call one thing as prosperity and the other adversity, when they are both but imaginations of the mind”.

39. He repeats some words to this purport that, “though it is the general cry, “O I am gone, I am helpless grown,” yet it is a wonder, that no body should betake himself to utter indifference.”

40. That Ráma, the destroyer of enemies, the great Sála (oak) that is grown in the garden of Raghu, should get into such a state of mind is what causes grief in us.

41. We do not know, Oh great armed and lotus-eyed king! what to do with him in this state of his mind. We hope only in thee.

42. He laughs to scorn the counsels of the princes and Bráhmans before him, and spurns them as if they were fools.

43. He remains inactive with the conviction, that the world which appears to our view is a vanity, and the idea of self is also a vanity.

44. He has no respect for foes or friends, for himself or his kingdom, mother or riches, nor does he pay any regard to prosperity or adversity.

45. He is altogether quiescent, without any desire or effort, and devoid of a mainstay; he is neither captivated by any thing nor freed from worldly thoughts. These are the reasons which afflict us most.

46. He says, “what have we to do with riches, with our mothers, with this kingdom and all our activities.” Under these impressions, he is about to give up his life.

47. As the chátaka (swallow) grows restless at the obstruction of rains (by hurricanes), so has Ráma become impatient (under the restraint) of his father and mother, his friends and kingdom, his enjoyments and even his own life.

48. Now in compassion on thy son, incline to root out this chagrin which like a noxious creeper has been spreading its branches (in his mind).

49. For notwithstanding his possession of all affluence, he looks upon the enjoyments of the world as his poison under such a disposition of his mind.

50. Where is that potent person in this earth, who can restore him to proper conduct (as by a potent medicine?).

51. Who is there, that like the sun removing the darkness of the world by his rays, will remove the errors that have been the cause of grief in Ráma’s mind, and thereby make his generosity effectual in his case.

CHAPTER XI.

CONSOLATION OF RÁMA.

VISWÁMITRA said:—If such is the case, you who are intelligent, may go at once, and persuade that progeny of Raghu to come hither; as they do one deer by others (of the train).

2. This stupor of Ráma is not caused by any (external) accident or (inward) affection; it is I think the development of that superior intellect which rises from the right reasoning of dispassionate men.

3. Let Ráma come here for a while, and here shall we in a moment dispel the delusion (of his mind), as the wind drives away the clouds from the mountain-tops.

4. After his hebetude is removed by my reasoning, he shall be enabled to repose in that happy state of mind, to which we have arrived.

5. He shall not only attain to pure truth and a clear understanding of uninterrupted tranquility, but secure to himself a plumpness and beauteousness of his figure and complexion, as one derives from a potion of ambrosia.

6. He will then attend with all his heart to the full discharge of the proper course of his duties without remission, which will redound to his honour.

7. He will become strong with a knowledge of both worlds, and his exemption from the states of pleasure and pain, and then he will look upon gold and stones with an indifferent eye.

8. After the chief of the sages had spoken in this manner, the king resumed the firmness of his mind, and sent heralds after heralds to bring Ráma to him.

9. By this very time Ráma was preparing to rise from his seat in the palace to come over to his father, in the manner that the sun rises from the mountain in the east.

10. Surrounded by a few of his servants, he came with his two brothers to the hallowed hall of his father, resembling the heaven of the king of gods.

11. He saw at a distance his kingly sire seated amidst the assemblage of princes, as Indra surrounded by the gods.

12. He was accompanied on either side by the sages Vasishtha and Viswámitra, and respectfully attended by his staff of ministers, all well versed in the interpretation of all Sástras.

13. He was fanned by charming damsels, waving the fine chauri flappers in their hands, and equalling in beauty the goddesses presiding over the quarters of heaven.

14. Vasishtha, Viswámitra and the other sages, with Dasaratha and his chiefs, saw Ráma coming at a distance as beautiful as Skanda himself.

15. He appeared by his qualities of mildness and gravity to resemble the mount Himálaya (with his cooling frost and firmness), and was esteemed by all for the depth and clearness (of his understanding).

16. He was handsome and well proportioned (in his features), auspicious in his look, but humble and magnanimous in his mind. With loveliness and mildness of his person, he was possessed of all manly prowess.

17. He was just developed to youth, yet he was as majestic as an elderly man. He was neither morose nor merry, but seemed to be fully satisfied with himself, as if he had obtained all the objects of his desire.

18. He was a good judge of the world, and possessed of all holy virtues. The purity of his mind was the attraction for all the virtues which met in him.

19. The receptacle of his mind was filled by his magnanimity and honourable virtues, and the candour of his conduct showed him in the light of perfection (to every body).

20. Endowed with these various virtues and decorated by his necklace and fine apparel, Ráma the support of Raghu’s race, approached (his father) with a smiling countenance.

21. He bowed his head to his father with the sparkling gems trembling in his locks, and imparting to his head the graceful appearance of the mountain Sumeru shaken by an earth-quake.

22. The lotus-eyed Ráma came up to salute the feet of his father, when the lord of the sages (Viswámitra) was speaking with him.

23. First of all Ráma saluted his father, and then the two honorable sages, he next saluted the Bráhmanas, and then his relations, and lastly his elders and well wishing friends.

24. He then received and returned the salutations of the chiefs and princes, bowing to him with graceful motion of their heads and respectful addresses.

25. Ráma of god-like beauty and equanimity of mind, approached the sacred presence of his father, with the blessings of the two sages.

26. During the act of his saluting the feet of his father, the lord of the earth repeatedly kissed his head and face, and embraced him with fondness.

27. At the same time, he the destroyer of his enemies, embraced Lakshmana and Satrughna, with as intense an affection as the swan embracing the lotus flowers.

28. “Be you seated my son upon my lap”, said the king to Ráma, who however, took his seat on a fine piece of cloth spread on the floor by his servants.

29. The king said “O my son and receptacle of blessings, you have attained the age of discretion, so put not yourself to that state of self-mortification, as the dull-headed do from their crazy understandings.

30. “Know that it is by following the course of his elders, guides and Bráhmanas, that one attains to meritoriousness, and not by his persistence in error.

31. “So long will the train of our misfortunes lie at a distance, as we do not allow the seeds of error to have access to us.”

32. Vasishtha said, Oh strong armed prince! you are truly heroic to have conquered your worldly appetites, which are at once as difficult to be eradicated as they are fierce in their action.

33. Why do you allow yourself like the unlearned, to be drowned in this rolling sea of errors, causing such dull inactivity in you?

34. Viswámitra said “why are your eyes so unsteady (with doubts) as the tremulous clusters of blue lotuses. You ought to do away with this unsteadiness, and tell us what is that grief (which rankles) in your mind.

35. “What are these thoughts, and what are their names and natures, their number and causes, that infest your mind like its maladies (in the same manner) as the mice undermine a fabric.”

36. I am disposed to think, that you are not the person to be troubled with those evils and distempers, to which the base and vile alone are subject.

37. Tell me the craving of your heart, O sinless Ráma! and they will be requited in a manner, as will prevent their recurrence to you.

38. Ráma—the standard of Raghu’s race having listened to the reasonable and graceful speech of the good-intentioned sage, shook off his sorrowing, like the peacock at the roaring of a cloud, in the hope of gaining his object.

CHAPTER XII.

RÁMA’S REPLY.

VÁLMÍKI related:—Being thus asked with soothing words by the chief of the sages, Ráma made his answer in a soft and graceful speech replete with good sense.

2. Ráma said, Oh venerable sage! I will tell thee in truth, untutored though I am, all the particulars as asked by thee; for who would disobey the bidding of the wise?

3. Since I was born in this mansion of my father I have all along remained, grown up and received my education (in this very place).

4. Then O leader of sages! being desirous to learn good usages (of mankind), I set out to travel to holy places all over this sea-girt earth.

5. It was by this time that there arose a train of reflections in my mind of the following nature which shook my confidence in worldly objects.

6. My mind was employed in the discrimination of the nature of things which led me gradually to discard all thoughts of sensual enjoyments.

7. What are these worldly pleasures good for, (thought I), and what means the multiplication (of our species) on earth? Men are born to die, and they die to be born again.

8. There is no stability in the tendencies of beings whether movable or immovable. They all tend to vice, decay and danger; and all our possessions are the grounds of our penury.

9. All objects (of sense) are detached from each other as iron rods or needles from one another; it is imagination alone which attaches them to our minds.

10. It is the mind that pictures the existence of the world as a reality, but the deceptiveness of the mind (being known) we are safe from such deception.

11. If the world is an unreality, it is <a> pity that ignorant men should be allured by it, like the deer tempted by a distant mirage (appearing) as water.

12. We are sold by none (to any one) and yet we remain as if enslaved to the world; and knowing this well, we are spellbound to riches, as it were by the magic wand of Sambara.

13. What are the enjoyments in this quintessence (of the world) but misery; and yet we are foolishly caught in its thoughts, as if clogged in honey (like bees).

14. Ah! I perceive after long that we have insensibly fallen into errors, like senseless stags falling into caverns in the wilderness.

15. Of what use is royalty and these enjoyments to me? What am I and whence are all these things? They are but vanities, and let them continue as such without any good or loss to any body.

16. Reasoning in this manner Oh Bráhman, I came to be disgusted with the world, like a traveller in (his journey through) a desert.

17. Now tell me, O venerable sir! whether this world is advancing to its dissolution, or continued reproduction, or is it in course of its endless progression.

18. If there is any progress here, it is that of the appearance and disappearance of old age and decease, of prosperity and adversity by turns.

19. Behold how the variety of our trifling enjoyments hastens our decay, they are like hurricanes shattering the mountain trees.

20. Men continue in vain to breathe their vital breath as hollow-bamboo wind-pipes having no sense.

21. How is (human) misery to be alleviated, is the (only) thought that consumes me like wild fire in the hollow of a withered tree.

22. The weight of worldly miseries sits heavy on my heart as a rock, and obstructs my lungs to breathe out. I have a mind to weep, but am prevented from shedding my tears for fear of my people.

23. My tearless weeping and speechless mouth, give no indication of my inward sorrow to any body, except my consciousness the silent witness in my solitude.

24. I wait to think on the positive and negative states (of worldly bliss), as a ruined man bewails to reflect on his former state of affluence (and present indigence).

25. I take prosperity to be a seducing cheat, for its deluding the mind, impairing the good qualities (of men), and spreading the net of our miseries.

26. To me, like one fallen into great difficulties, no riches, offspring, consorts or home afford any delight, but they seem to be (so many sources of) misery.

27. I, like a wild elephant in chains, find no rest in my mind, by reflecting on the various evils of the world, and by thinking on the causes of our frailties.

28. There are wicked passions prying at all times, under the dark mist of the night of our ignorance; and there are hundreds of objects, which like so many cunning rogues, are about all men in broad day-light, and lurking on all sides to rob us of our reason. What mighty champions can we delegate (now) to fight with these than our knowledge of truth?

CHAPTER XIII.

VITUPERATION OF RICHES.

RÁMA said:—It is opulence, Oh sage! that is reckoned a blessing here; it is even she that is the cause of our troubles and errors.

2. She bears away as a river in the rainy season, all high-spirited simpletons overpowered by its current.

3. Her daughters are anxieties fostered by many a malpractice, like the waves of a stream raised by the winds.

4. She can never stand steady on her legs any where, but like a wretched woman who has burnt her feet, she limps from one place to another.

5. Fortune like a lamp both burns and blackens its possessor, until it is extinguished by its own inflammation.

6. She is unapproachable as princes and fools, and likewise as favourable as they to her adherents, without scanning their merits or faults.

7. She begets only evils in them by their various acts (of profligacy), as good milk given to serpents, serves but to increase the poignancy of their poison.

8. Men (by nature) are gentle and kind hearted to friends and strangers, until they are hardheartened by their riches, which like blasts of wind, serve to stiffen (the liquid) frost.

9. As brilliant gems are soiled by dust, so are the learned, the brave, the grateful, the mild and gentle, corrupted by riches.

10. Riches do not conduce to one’s happiness, but redound to his woe and destruction, as the plant aconite when fostered, hides in itself the fatal poison.

11. A rich man without blemish, a brave man devoid of vanity, and a master wanting partiality, are the three rarities on earth.

12. The rich are as inaccessible as the dark cavern of a dragon, and as unapproachable as the deep wilderness of the Vindhyá mountain inhabited by fierce elephants.

13. Riches like the shadow of night, overcast the good qualities of men, and like moon-beams brings to bloom the buds of their misery. They blow away the brightness of a fair prospect as a hurricane, and resemble a sea with huge surges (of disquiet).

14. They bring upon us a cloud of fear and error, increase the poison of despondence and regret, and are like the dreadful snakes in the field of our choice.

15. Fortune is (as a killing) frost to the bondsmen of asceticism, and as the night to the owls of libertinism; she is an eclipse to the moonlight of reason, and as moonbeams to the bloom of the lilies of folly.

16. She is as transitory as the Iris, and alike pleasant to view by the play of her colours; she is as fickle as the lightening, which vanishes no sooner it appears to sight. Hence none but the ignorant have reliance in her.

17. She is as unsteady as a well born damsel following a base-born man to the words; and like a (deceptive) mirage that tempts the run-aways to fall to it as the doe.

18. Unsteady as the wave, she is never steady in any place; (but is ever wavering to all sides) like the flickering flame of a lamp. So her leaning is known to nobody.

19. She like the lioness is ever prompt in fighting, and like the leader of elephants favourable to her partizans. She is as sharp as the blade of a sword (to cut off all obstacles), and is the patroness of sharp-witted sharpers.

20. I see no felicity in uncivil prosperity, which is full of treachery, and replete with every kind of danger and trouble.

21. It is pity that prosperity, like a shameless wench will again lay hold on a man, after being abandoned by him in his association with (her rival) Poverty.

22. What is she with all her loveliness and attraction of human hearts, but momentary thing obtained by all manner of evil means, and resembling at best a flower shrub, growing out of a cave inhabited by a snake, and beset by reptiles all about its stem.

CHAPTER XIV.

DEPRECIATION OF HUMAN LIFE.

HUMAN life is as frail as a pendant drop of water tripling on the tip of a leaflet; and as irrepressible as a raving madman, that breaks loose from its bodily imprisonment out of its proper season.

2. Again the lives of those whose minds are infected by the poison of worldly affairs, and who are incapable of judging for themselves, are (verily) but causes of their torment.

3. Those knowing the knowable, and resting in the all-pervading spirit, and acquiescing alike to their wants and gains, enjoy lives of perfect tranquility.

4. We that have certain belief of our being but limited beings, can have no enjoyment in our transient lives, which are but flashes of lightenings amidst the cloudy sky of the world.

5. It is as impossible to keep the winds in confinement, to tear asunder the sky to pieces, and wreathe the waves to a chaplet, as to place any reliance in our lives.

6. Fast as the fleeting clouds in autumn, and short as the light of an oilless lamp, our lives appear to pass away as evanescent as the rolling waves in the sea.

7. Rather attempt to lay hold on the shadow of the moon in the waves, the fleeting lightenings in the sky, and the ideal lotus blossoms in the ether, than ever place any reliance upon this unsteady life.

8. Men of restless minds, desiring to prolong their useless and toilsome lives, resemble the she-mule conceiving by a horse (which causes her destruction abortion or unfructification).

9. This world (Sansára) is as a whirlpool amidst the ocean of creation, and every individual body is as (evanescent) as a foam or froth or bubble, which can give me no relish in this life.

10. That is called true living, which gains what is worth gaining, which has no cause of sorrow or remorse, and which is a state of transcendental tranquility.

11. There is a vegetable life in plants, and an animal life in beasts, and birds: man leads a thinking life, but true life is above (the succession of) thoughts.

12. All those living beings are said to have lived well in this earth, who being once born herein have no more to return to it. The rest are no better than old asses (of burthen).

13. Knowledge is an encumbrance to the unthinking, and wisdom is cumbersome to the passionate; intellect—is a heavy load to the restless, and the body is a ponderous burden to one ignorant of his soul.

14. A goodly person possessed of life, mind, intellect and self-consciousness and its occupations, is of no avail to the unwise, but seem to be his over-loadings as those upon a porter.

15. The discontented mind is the great arena of all evils, and the nestling place of diseases which alight upon it like birds of the air: such a life is the abode of toil and misery.

16. As a house is slowly dilapidated by the mice continually burrowing under it, so is the body of the living gradually corroded by the (pernicious) teeth of time boring within it.

17. Deadly diseases bred within the body, feed upon our vital breath, as poisonous snakes born in caves of the woods consume the meadow air.

18. As the withered tree is perforated by minutest worms residing in them, so are our bodies continually wasted by many inborn diseases and noxious secretions.

19. Death is incessantly staring and growling at our face, as a cat looks and purrs at the mouse in order to devour it.

20. Old age wastes us as soon as a glutton digests his food; and it reduces one to weakness as an old harlot, by no other charm than her paint and perfumes.

21. Youth forsakes us as soon, as a good man abandons his wicked friend in disgust, after his foibles come to be known to him in a few days.

22. Death the lover of destruction, and friend of old age and ruin, likes the sensual man, as a lecher likes a beauty.

23. Thus there is nothing so worthless in the world as this life, which is devoid of every good quality and ever subject to death, unless it is attended by the permanent felicity of emancipation.

CHAPTER XV.

OBLOQUY ON EGOISM.

RÁMA continued:—

Egoism springs from false conceit, and it is vanity (or vain glory) which fosters it; I am much afraid of this baneful egotism which is an enemy (to human kind).

2. It is under the influence of egotism that all men in this diversified world, and even the very poorest of them, fall into the dungeon of evils, and misdeeds.

3. All accidents, anxieties, troubles and wicked exertions proceed from egoism or self-confidence; hence I deem egoism as a disease.

4. Being subject to that everlasting arch-enemy—the cynic egoism, I have refrained from my food and drink. What other enjoyment is there for me to partake of?

5. This world resembles a long continuous night, in which our egoism like a hunter, spreads the snare of affections (to entrap us in it).

6. All our great and intolerable miseries, growing as rank as the thorny plants of the catechu, are but results of our egoism.

7. It overcasts the equanimity of mind as an eclipse overshadows the moon; it destroys our virtues as a frost destroys the lotus flowers; it dispels the peace of men as the autumn drives away the clouds. I must therefore get rid of this egoistic feeling.

8. I am not Ráma the prince, I have no desire nor should I wish for affluence; but I wish to have the peace of my mind and remain as the self-satisfied old sage Jina.

9. All that I have eaten, done or offered in sacrifice under the influence of egoism, have gone for nothing; it is the absence of egoism which (I call) to be real good.

10. So long, O Bráhman! as there is (the feeling of) egoism in one, he is subject to sorrow at his difficulties; but being devoid of it, he becomes happy; hence it is better to be without it.

11. I am free from anxiety, O sage! ever since I have got the tranquility of my mind after giving up my (sense of) egoism; and known the transitoriness of all enjoyments.

12. As long, O Bráhman! as the cloud of egoism overspreads (the region of our minds), so long our desires expand themselves like the buds of kurchi plants (in the rains).

13. But when the cloud of egoism is dispersed, the lightning of avarice vanishes away, just as the lamp being extinguished, its light immediately disappears.

14. The mind vaunts with egoism, like a furious elephant in the Vindhyan hills, when it hears the thunder-claps in the clouds.

15. Again egoism residing like a lion in the vast forest of all human bodies, ranges about at large throughout the whole extent of this earth.

16. The self-conceited are decorated with a string of pearls about their necks, of which avarice forms the thread, and repeated births—the pearls.

17. Our inveterate enemy of egoism, has (like a magician) spread about us the enchantments of our wives, friends and children, whose spells it is hard to break.

18. As soon as the (impression of the) word (ego) is effaced from the mind, all our anxieties and troubles are wiped out of it.

19. The cloud of egoism being dispelled from the sky of our minds, the mist of error which it spreads to destroy our peace, will be dispersed also.

20. I have given up my (sense of) egoism, yet is my mind stupified with sorrow by my ignorance. Tell me, O Bráhman! what thou thinkest right for me under these circumstances.

21. I have with much ado given up this egoism, and like no more to resort to this source of all evils and perturbation. It retains its seat in the breast for our annoyance only, and without benefiting us by any good quality of its own. Direct me now, you men of great understandings! (to what is right).

CHAPTER XVI.

THE UNGOVERNABLENESS OF THE MIND.

OUR minds are infested by evil passions and faults, and fluctuate in their observance of duty and service to superiors, as the plumes of a peacock fluttering at the breeze.

2. They rove about at random with ardour and without rest from one place to another, like the poor village dog running afar and wide in quest of food.

3. It seldom finds any thing any where, and happening even to get a good store some where, it is as little content with it as a wicker vessel filled with water.

4. The vacant mind, Oh sage! is ever entrapped in its evil desires, and is never at rest with itself; but roves at large as a stray deer separated from its herd.

5. Human mind is of the nature of the unsteady wave, and as light as the minutest particle. It can therefore have no rest in spite of (the fickleness and levity of) its nature.

6. Disturbed by its thoughts, the mind is tossed in all directions, like the waters of the milk-white ocean when churned by the Mandara mountain.

7. I can not curb my mind, resembling the vast ocean (in its course), and running with its huge surges (of the passions), with whirlpools (of error), and beset by the whales of delusion.

8. Our minds run afar, O Bráhman! after sensual enjoyments, like the deer running towards the tender blades of grass, and unmindful of falling into the pits (hid under them).

9. The mind can never get rid of its wavering state owing to the habitual fickleness of its nature, resembling the restlessness of the sea.

10. The mind with its natural fickleness and restless thoughts, finds no repose at any place, as a lion (has no rest) in his prison-house.

11. The mind seated in the car of delusion, absorbs the sweet, peaceful and undisturbed rest of the body, like the gander sucking up pure milk from amidst the water.

12. O chief of sages! I grieve much to find the faculties of the mind lying dormant upon the bed of imaginary delights, from which it is hard to waken them.

13. I am caught, O Bráhman! like a bird in the net by the knots (of my egoism), and held fast in it by the thread of my avarice.

14. I burn in my mind, O sage, like the dried hay on fire, by the flame of my anxieties and under the spreading fumes of my impatience.

15. I am devoured, O Bráhman! like a clod of cold meat, by the cruelty and greediness of my heart, as a carcase is swallowed by a hungry dog and its greedy mate.

16. I am borne away, O sage! by the current of my heart, as a tree on the bank is carried away by the waters and waves beating upon it.

17. I am led afar by my (greedy) mind, like a straw carried off by the hurricane, either to flutter in the air or fall upon the ground.

18. My earthly mindedness has put a stop to my desire of crossing over the ocean of the world, as an embankment stops the course of the waters (of a stream).

19. I am lifted up and let down again by the baseness of my heart, like a log of wood tied to a rope dragging it in and out of a well.

20. As a child is seized by the false apparition of a demon, so I find myself in the grasp of my wicked mind, representing falsities as true.

21. It is hard to repress the mind, which is hotter than fire, more inaccessible than a hill, and stronger than a thunder bolt.

22. The mind is attracted to its objects as a bird to its prey, and has no respite for a moment as a boy from his play.

23. My mind resembling the sea both in its dullness as well as restlessness, in its extent and fulness with whirlpools and dragons, keeps me far from advancing towards it.

24. It is more difficult to subdue the mind than to drink off the ocean, or to upset the Sumeru mountain. It is ever harder than the hardest thing.

25. The mind is the cause of all exertions, and the sensorium of the three worlds. Its weakness weakens all worldliness, and requires to be cured with care.

26. It is the mind from which arise our pains and pleasures by hundreds, as the woods growing in groups upon a hill; but no sooner is the scythe of reason applied to them, than they fall off one by one.

27. I am ready to subdue my mind which is my greatest enemy in this world, for the purpose of mastering all the virtues, which the learned say depend upon it. My want of desires has made me averse to wealth and the gross pleasures it yields, which are as tints of clouds tainting the (clear disk of the) moon (of our mind).

CHAPTER XVII.

ON CUPIDITY.

I SEE our vices like a flock of owls flying about in the region of our minds, under the darkness of our affections, and in the lonesome night of our avarice.

2. I am parched by my anxieties like the wet clay under solar rays, infusing an inward heat in it by extraction of its soft moisture.

3. My mind is like a vast and lonesome wilderness, covered under the mist of errors, and infested by the terrible fiend of desire is continually floundering about it.

4. My wailings and tears serve only to expand and mature my anxiety, as the dews of night open and ripen the blossoms of beans and give them a bright golden hue.

5. Avarice by raising expectations in men, serves only to whirl them about, as the vortex of the sea wallows the marine animals in it.

6. The stream of worldly avarice flows like a rapid current within the rock of my body, with precipitate force (in my actions), and loud resounding waves (of my speech).

7. Our minds are driven by foul avarice from one place to another, as the dusty dry hays are borne away by the winds, and as the Chátakas are impelled by thirst to fly about (for drink).

8. It is avarice which destroys all the good qualities and grace which we adopted to ourselves in good faith, just as the mischievous mouse severs the wires (of a musical instrument).

9. We turn about upon the wheel of our cares, like withered leaves (floating) upon the water, and like dry grass uplifted by the wind, and as autumnal clouds (moving) in the sky.

10. Being over powered by avarice, we are disable to reach the goal (of perfection), as a bird entangled in the snare, is kept from its flight.

11. I am so greatly burnt by the flame of avarice, that I doubt whether this inflammation may be assuaged even by administration of nectar itself.

12. Avarice like a heated-mare takes me far and farther still from my place, and brings me back to it again and again. Thus it hurries me up and down and to and fro in all directions for ever.

13. We are pulled up and cast down again like a bucket in the well, by the string of avarice (tied about our necks).

14. Man is led about like a bullock of burthen by his avarice, which bends his heart as fast as the string does the beast, and which it is hard for him to break.

15. As the huntress spreads her net to catch birds in it, so does our affection for our friends, wives and children stretch these snares to entrap us every day.

16. Avarice like a dark night terrifies even the wise, blindfolds the keen-sighted, and depresses the spirit of the happiest of men.

17. Our appetite is as heinous as a serpent, soft to feel, but full of deadly poison, and bites us as soon as it is felt.

18. It is also like a black sorceress that deludes men by her magic, but pierces him in his heart, and exposes him to danger afterwards.

19. This body of ours shattered by our avarice is like a worn out lute, fastened by arteries resembling the wires, but emitting no pleasing sound.

20. Our avarice is like the long fibered, dark and juicy poisonous creeper called Kaduka, that grows in the caverns of mountains, and maddens men by its flavour.

21. Avarice is as vain and inane, fruitless and aspiring, unpleasant and perilous, as the dry twig of a tree, which (bears no fruit or flower) but is hurtful with its prickly point.

22. Venality is like a churlish old woman, who from the incontinence of her heart, courts the company of every man, without gaining the object of her desire.

23. Greediness as an old actress plays her various parts in the vast theatre of world, in order to please the different tastes of her audience.

24. Parsimony is as a poisonous plant growing in the wide wilderness of the world, bearing old age and infirmity as its flowers, and producing our troubles as its fruits.

25. Our churlishnesss resembles an aged actress, attempting a manly feat she has not the strength to perform, yet keeping up the dance without pleasing (herself or any body).

26. Our fleeting thoughts are as fickle as pea-hens, soaring over inaccessible heights under the clouds (of ignorance); but ceasing to fly in the day light (of reason).

27. Avarice is like a river in the rains, rising for a time with its rolling waves, and afterwards lying low in its empty bed. (Such are the avaricious by the flux and reflux of their fortunes).

28. Avarice is as inconstant as a female bird, which changes her mates at times, and quits the arbor that no longer bears any fruit.

29. The greedy are as unsteady as the flouncing monkey, which is never restive at any place, but moves to places impassable by others, and craving for fruits even when satiate.

30. The acts of avarice are as inconstant as those of chance, both of which are ever on the alert, but never attended with their sequence.

31. Our venality is like a black-bee sitting upon the lotus of our hearts, and thence making its rambles above, below and all about us in a moment.

32. Of all worldly evils, avarice is the source of the longest woe. She exposes to peril even the most secluded man.

33. Avarice like a group of clouds, is fraught with a thick mist of error, obstructing the light of heaven, and causing a dull insensibility (in its possessor).

34. Penury which seems to gird the breasts of worldly people with chains of gems and jewels, binds them as beasts with halters about the necks.

35. Covetousness stretches itself long and wide and presents to us a variety of hues as the rainbow. It is equally unsubstantial and without any property as the iris, resting in vapour and vacuum and being but a shadow itself.

36. It burns away our good qualities as electric fire does the hay; it numbs our good sense as the frost freezes the lotus; it grows our evils as autumn does the grass; and it increases our ignorance as the winter prolongs the night.

37. Greediness is as an actress in the stage of the world; she is as a bird flying out of the nest of our houses; as a deer running about in the desert of our hearts; and as a lute making us sing and dance at its tune.

38. Our desires like billows toss us about in the ocean of our earthly cares; they bind us fast to delusion as fetters do the elephant. Like the ficus indicus they produce the roots of our regeneration, and like moon beams they put our budding woes to bloom.

39. Avarice like (Pandora’s) box is filled with miseries, decrepitude and death, and is full of disorder and disasters like a mad bacchanal.

40. Our wishes are sometimes as pure as light and at others as foul as darkness; now they are as clear as the milky way, and again as obscure as thickest mists.

41. All our bodily troubles are avoided by our abstaining from avarice, as we are freed from fear of night goblins at the dispersion of darkness.

42. So long do men remain in their state of (dead like) dumbness and mental delirium, as they are subject to the poisonous cholic of avarice.

43. Men may get rid of their misery by their being freed from anxieties. It is the abandonment of cares which is said to be the best remedy of avarice.

44. As the fishes in a pond fondly grasp the bait in expectation of a sop, so do the avaricious lay hold on any thing, be it wood or stone or even a straw.

45. Avarice like an acute pain excites even the gravest of men to motion, just as the rays of the sun raise the lotus blossoms (above the water).

46. It is compared with the bamboo in its length, hollowness, hard knots, and thorny prickles, and yet it is entertained in expectation of its yielding the manna and a pearly substance.

47. Yet it is a wonder that high-minded men, have been able to cut off this almost unseverable knot of avarice, by the glittering sword of reason:

48. As neither the edge of the sword, nor the fire of lightening, nor the sparks of the red-hot iron, are sharp enough to sever the keen avarice seated in our hearts.

49. It is like the flame of a lamp which is bright but blackening and acutely burning at its end. It is fed by the oily wicks (of years), is vivid in all, but never handled by any body.

50. Penury has the power of bemeaning the best of men to (the baseness of) straws in a moment, notwithstanding their wisdom, heroism and gravity in other respects.

51. Avarice is like the great valley of the Vindhyá hills, that is beset with deserts and impenetrable forests, is terrible and full of snares laid by the hunters, and filled with the dust and mist (of delusion).

52. One single avarice has every thing in the world for its object, and though seated in the breast, it is imperceptible to all. It is as the undulating Milky ocean in this fluctuating world, sweeping all things yet regaling mankind with its odorous waves.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OBLOQUY OF THE BODY.

THIS body of ours that struts about on earth, is but a mass of humid entrails and tendons, tending to decay and disease, and to our torment alone.

2. It is neither quiescent nor wholly sentient, neither ignorant nor quite intelligent. Its inherent soul is a wonder, and it is reason (and its absence) that makes it graceful or otherwise.

3. The sceptic is doubtful of its inertness and intellection: and the unreasonable and ignorant people are ever subject to error and illusion.

4. The body is as easily gratified with a little, as it is exhausted in an instant, hence there is nothing so pitiable, abject and worthless as our bodies.

5. The face is as frail as a fading flower: now it shoots forth its teeth like filaments, and now it dresses itself with blooming and blushing smiles as blossoms.

6. The body is as a tree, having its arms resembling the branches, the shoulder-blades like stems, the teeth as rows of birds, the eye-holes like its hollows, and the head as a big fruit.

7. The ears are as two wood-peckers, the fingers of both hands and feet as so many leaves of the branches, the diseases as (parasite) plants, and the acts of the body are as axes felling this tree, which is the seat of the two birds the soul and intelligence.

8. This shady arbor of the body, is but the temporary resort of the passing soul, what then whether it be akin to or apart from anybody, or whether one would rely in it or not.

9. What man is there, O venerable fathers! that would stoop to reflect within himself, that this body is repeatedly assumed only to serve him as a boat to pass over the sea of the world.

10. Who can rely any confidence in his body, which is as a forest full of holes, and abounds in hairs resembling its trees?

11. The body composed of flesh, nerves and bones, resembles a drum without any musical sound, and yet I sit watching it as a cat (for the squeaking of mice).

12. Our bodies are as trees growing in the forest of the world, bearing the flowers of anxiety, and perforated by the worms of woe and misery, and mounted upon by the apish mind.

13. The body with its smiling face appears a goodly plant, bearing the fruits both of good and evil; but it has become the abode of the dragon of avarice, and a rookery of the ravens of anger.

14. Our arms are as the boughs of trees, and our open palms like beautiful clusters of flowers, the other limbs are as twigs and leaves, and are continually shaken by the breath of life.

15. The two legs are the erect stems (of the arbor of the body), and the organs are the seats of the birds of sense. Its youthful bloom is a shade for the passing traveller of love.

16. The hanging hairs of the head resemble the long grass growing on the tree (of the body); and egoism like a vulture (in hollow), cracks the ear with its hideous shrieks.

17. Our various desires like the pendant roots and fibres of the fig tree, seem to support its trunk of the body, though it is worn out by labour to unpleasantness.

18. The body is the big abode of its owner’s egoism, and therefore it is of no interest to me whether it lasts or falls (for egoism is the bane of happiness).

19. This body which is linked with its limbs like beasts of burthen labour, and is the abode of its mistress Avarice—painted over by her taints of passions, affords me no delight whatever.

20. This abode of the body which is built by the frame-work of the back-bone and ribs, and composed of cellular vessels, tied together by ropes of the entrails, is no way desirable to me.

21. This mansion of the body, which is tied with strings of the tendons, and built with the clay of blood and moisture, and plastered white with old age, is no way suited to my liking.

22. The mind is the architect and master of this bodily dwelling, and our activities are its supports and servants; it is filled with errors and delusions which I do not like.

23. I do not like this dwelling of the body with its bed of pleasure on one side, and the cries of pain as those of its children on the other, and where our evil desires are at work like its bawling hand-maids.

24. I cannot like this body, which like a pot of filth, is full of the foulness of worldly affairs, and mouldering under the rust of our ignorance.

25. It is a hovel standing on the two props of our heels, and supported by the two posts of our legs.

26. It is no lovely house where the external organs are playing their parts, while its mistress the understanding sits inside with her brood of anxieties.

27. It is a hut which is thatched over with the hairs on the head, decorated with the turrets of the ears, and adorned with jewels on the crest, which I do not like.

28. This house of the body is walled about by all its members, and beset by hairs growing like ears of corn on it. It has an empty space of the belly within (which is never full), and which I do not like.

29. This body with its nails as those of spiders, and its entrails growling within like barking dogs, and the internal winds emitting fearful sounds, is never delightsome to me.

30. What is this body but a passage for the ceaseless inhaling and breathing out of the vital air? Its eyes are as two windows which are continually oped and closed by the eyelids. I do not like such a mansion as this.

31. This mansion of the body with its formidable (wide-open) door of the mouth, and (ever-moving) bolt of the tongue and bars of the teeth, is not pleasant to me.

32. This house of the body, having the white-wash of ointments on the outer skin, and the machinery of the limbs in continued motion, and the restless mind burrowing its base like the mischievous mouse, is not liked by me.

33. Sweet smiles like shining lamps, serve to lighten this house of the body for a moment, but it is soon darkened by a cloud of melancholy, wherefore I cannot be pleased with it.

34. This body which is the abode of diseases, and subject to wrinkles and decay, and all kinds of pain, is a mansion wherewith I am not pleased.

35. I do not like this wilderness of the body, which is infested by the bears of the senses. It is empty and hollow within, with dark groves (of entrails) in the inside.

36. I am unable, O chief of sages! to drag my domicile of the body, just as a weak elephant is incapable to draw out another immerged in a muddy pit.

37. Of what good is affluence or royalty, this body and all its efforts to one, when the hand of time must destroy them all in a few days.

38. Tell me, O sage! what is charming in this body, that is only a composition of flesh and blood both within and without it and frail in its nature.

39. The body does not follow the soul upon death; tell me Sir, what regard should the learned have for such an ungrateful thing as this.

40. It is as unsteady as the ears of an infuriate elephant, and as fickle as drops of water that trickle on their tips. I should like therefore to abandon it, before it comes to abandon me.

41. It is as tremulous as the leaves of a tree shaken by the breeze, and oppressed by diseases and fluctuations of pleasure and pain. I have no relish in its pungency and bitterness.

42. With all its food and drink for evermore, it is as tender as a leaflet and is reduced to leanness in spite of all our cares, and runs fast towards its dissolution.

43. It is repeatedly subjected to pleasure and pain, and to the succession of affluence and destitution, without being ashamed of itself as the shameless vulgar herd (at their ups and downs).

44. Why nourish this body any longer, when it acquires no excellence nor durability of its state, after its enjoyment of prosperity and exercise of authority for a length of time.

45. The bodies of the rich as well as those of the poor, are alike subject to decay and death at their appointed times.

46. The body lies as a tortoise in the cave of avarice amidst the ocean of the world. It remains there in the mud in a mute and torpid state, without an effort for its liberation.

47. Our bodies floating as heaps of wood on the waves of the world, serve at last for the fuel of funeral fire (on the pile); except a few of these which pass for human bodies in the sight of the wise.

48. The wise have little to do with this tree of the body, which is beset by evils like noxious orchids about it, and produces the fruit of perdition.

49. The body like a frog, lies merged in the mire of mortality, where it perishes no sooner it is known to have lived and gone.

50. Our bodies are as empty and fleeting as gusts of wind, passing over a dusty ground, where nobody knows whence they come, and whither they go.

51. We know not the course of our bodies (their transmigrations), as we do not know those of the winds, light and our thoughts; they all come and go, but from where and whither, we know nothing of.

52. Fie and shame to them, that are so giddy with the ebriety of their error, as to rely on any state or durability of their bodies.

53. They are the best of men, O sage! whose minds are at rest with the thought, that their ego does not subsist in their bodies, nor are the bodies theirs at the end (of their lives).

54. Those mistaken men that have a high sense of honor and fear dishonor, and take a pleasure in the excess of their gains, are verily the killers both of their bodies and souls.

55. We are deceived by the delusion of egoism, which like a female fiend (sorceress) lies hid within the cavity of the body with all her sorcery.

56. Our reason unaided (by religion) is kept in bondage like a female slave within the prison of our bodies, by the malicious fiend of false knowledge (or sophistry).

57. It is certain that whatever we see here is unreal, and yet it is a wonder, that the mass of men are led to deception by the vile body, which has injured the cause of the soul.

58. Our bodies are as fleeting as the drops of a water-fall, and they fall off in a few days like the withered leaves of trees.

59. They are as quickly dissolved as bubbles in the ocean; it is in vain therefore that it should hurl about in the whirlpool of business.

60. I have not a moment’s reliance in this body, which is ever hastening to decay; and I regard its changeful delusions as a state of dreaming.

61. Let those who have any faith in the stability of the lightning, of the autumn clouds, and in glacial castles, place their reliance in this body.

62. It has outdone all other things that are doomed to destruction in its instability and perishableness. It is moreover subject to very many evils; wherefore I have set it at naught as a straw, and thereby obtained my repose.

CHAPTER XIX.

BLEMISHES OF BOYHOOD.

ONE receiving his birth in the unstable ocean of the world, which is disturbed by the billows of the bustle of business, has to pass his boyhood in sufferings only.

2. Want of strength and sense, and subjection to diseases and dangers, muteness and appetence, joined with longings and helplessness, are the concomitants of infancy.

3. Childhood is chained to fretting and crying, to fits of anger, craving and every kind of incapacity, as an elephant when tied to the post by its shackles.

4. The vexations which tease the infant breast, are far greater than those which trouble us in youth and old age, or disturb one in disease, danger or at the approach of death.

5. The acts of a boy are as those of young animals, that are always restless and snubbed by every body. Hence boyhood is more intolerable than death itself.

6. How can boyhood be pleasing to any body, when it is but a semblance of gross ignorance, and full of whims and hobbies, and ever subject to miscarriages.

7. It is this silly boyhood which is in constant dread of dangers arising at every step from fire, water and air, and which rarely betide us in other states of life.

8. Boys are liable to very many errors in their plays and wicked frolics, and in all their wishes and attempts beyond their capacities: hence boyhood is the most perilous state (of life).

9. Boys are engaged in false pursuits and wicked sports, and are subject to all foolish puerilities. Hence boyhood is fit for the rod and not for rest.

10. All faults, misconduct, transgressions and heart-aches, lie hidden in boyhood like owls in hollow caves.

11. Fie to those ignorant and foolish people, who are falsely led to imagine boyhood as the most pleasant period of life.

12. How can boyhood appear pleasing to any one, when the mind swings like a cradle towards every object of desire, however wrong it is deemed to be in both worlds.

13. The minds of all living beings are ever restless, but those of young people are ten times more at unrest.

14. The mind is naturally unsteady, and so is boyhood also. Say what can save us from that state of life, when both these vagrant things combine to our destruction.

15. The glances of women, the flashes of lightning, the flame of fire, and the ever-rolling waves, have all imitated the fickleness of boyhood.

16. Minority seems to be a twin brother to the mind, and resembles it in the unsteadiness and frailty of all its purposes.

17. All kinds of miseries, misdeeds and miscarriages await on boyhood, as all sorts of men hang upon the rich (for their supportance).

18. Boys are fond of fresh things at all times, and on their failing to get the same, they fall to a fainting fit, as if from the effect of poison.

19. A boy like a dog, is as easily tamed as he is irritated at a little, and he is as glad to lie in the dust, as to play with dirt.

20. A foolish fretful boy with his body daubed in mire with the tears in his eyes, appears as a heap of dry clay soiled by a shower of rain.

21. Boys are subject to fear and voracity; they are helpless but fond of every thing they have seen or heard, and equally fickle in their bodies and mind. Hence boyhood is a source of troubles only.

22. The foolish and helpless child, becomes as sad and sour when he fails to get the object of his fancy, as when he is thwarted from the thing desired.

23. Children have much difficulty to get at the things they want, and which they can ask only by indistinct words. Hence no one suffers so much as boys.

24. A boy is as much irritated by the eagerness of his whimsical desires, as a patch of ground in the desert is parched by the summer heat.

25. A boy on entering his school, is subjected to corrections, which are as painful to him as the goading and fetters to the elephant.

26. A great many whims and hobbies, and a variety of false fancies, tend continually to afflict boyhood, which is ever fond of toys and trifles.

27. How can senseless childhood be said to be a happy state of life, when the child is led by its ignorance to swallow everything in the world, and to wish to lay hold on the moon in the sky.

28. Say great sage! what difference is there between a child and a tree, both of which have sensitiveness, but unable to defend themselves from heat and cold.

29. Boys are of the nature of birds, being both subject to fear and hunger, and ready to fly about when impelled by them.

30. Again boyhood is the abode of fear from all sides; such as from the tutor, father, mother, elder brother and elderly boys, and from every body besides.

31. Hence the hopeless state of childhood, which is full of faults and errors, and addicted to sports and thoughtlessness, cannot be satisfactory to any body.

CHAPTER XX.

VITUPERATION OF YOUTH.

RÁMA continued:—

The boy having passed his state of blemishes, gladly steps to his youth with hopes of gaining his objects that tend only to his ruin.

2. The insensible youth feels at this time the wanton inclinations of his loose mind, and goes on falling from one tribulation to another.

3. He is overcome as one subdued by the power of delusive Cupid, lying hidden in the cavity of the heart (hence called Manoja).

4. His ungoverned mind gives rise to loose thoughts like those of voluptuous women, and these serve to beguile him like the magic collyrium (in the hand) of boys (called Siddhánjana).

5. Vices of the most heinous kind betake persons of such (perverse) minds in their youth, and lead them to their ruin.

6. The paths of youth lead them to the gate of hell through a maze of errors. Those that have been left uncorrupt by their youth, are not to be corrupted by anything else.

7. Whoso has passed the dreadfully enchanted coast of youth, fraught with various flavours and wonders, are said to be truly wise.

8. I take no delight in our unwelcome youth, which appears to us in the form of a momentary flash of lightning, and soon succeeded by the loud roaring of the clouds (of manhood).

9. Youth like rich wine is sweet and delicious (at first), but becomes bitter, insipid and noxious in a short time. Hence it is not delectable to me.

10. Youth appearing (at first) as a reality, is found to be a false, transient thing, as deceptive as a fairy dream by night. Hence I like it not.

11. It is the most charming of all things to men, but its charm is soon lost and fled. Therefore the phantasmagoria of youth is not pleasing to me.

12. Youth as an arrow-shot is pleasant to see, but painful to feel its smart. Hence I do not like youth that produces blood heat (in the veins).

13. Youth as a harlot is charming at first sight, but turning heartless soon after. Hence it is not to my liking.

14. As the efforts of a dying man are all for his torment, so the exertions of the young are portentous of his destruction.

15. Puberty advances as a dark night spreading the shadow of destruction. It darkens the heart and mind by its hedious appearance, and intimidates even the god (Siva himself).

16. Errors growing in youth, cause copious mistakes in life, by upsetting good sense and setting at naught the approved good manners (of society).

17. The raging fire in the hearts of the young, caused by separation of their mates, burns them down like trees by a wild fire.

18. As a clear, sacred and wide stream, becomes muddy in the rains, so doth the mind of man however clear, pure and expanded it may be, gets polluted in his youth.

19. It is possible for one to cross over a river made terrible by its waves, but no way possible to him to get over the boisterous expanse of his youthful desires.

20. O how (lamentably) is one’s youth worn out with the thoughts of his mistress, her swollen breasts, her beautiful face and her sweet caresses.

21. The young man afflicted with the pain of soft desire, is regarded by the wise in no better light than a fragment of (useless) straw.

22. Youth is the stake of haughty self-esteem, as the rack is for the immolation of the elephant giddy with its frontal pearl.

23. Youth is a lamentable forest, where the mind as the root of all, gives growth to jungles of (love sick) groans and sighs, and tears of sorrow. The vices of this time, are as venomous snakes of the forest.

24. Know youthful bloom of the person to resemble the blooming lotus of the lake:—the one is full of affections, bad desires and evil intents, as the other is fraught with bees, filaments, petals and leaves.

25. The new bloom of youth is the resort of anxiety and disease, which like two birds with their (black and white) plumage of vice and virtue, frequent the fountain of the young man’s heart.

26. Early youth resembles a deep sea, disturbed by the waves of numberless amusements, transgressing all bounds, and regardless of death and disease.

27. Youth is like a furious gust of wind, over-loaded with the dust of pride and vanity, and sweeps away every trace of the good qualities (early acquired by one).

28. The rude dust of the passions of youths, disfigures their face, and the hurricane of their sensualities cover their good qualities (as flying leaves overspread the ground).

29. Youthful vigour awakens a series of faults, and destroys a group of good qualities, by increasing the vice of pleasures.

30. Youthful bloom confines the fickle mind to some beauteous person, as the bright moon-beams serve to shut the flitting bee in the dust of the closing lotus.

31. Youth like a delightsome cluster of flowers, growing in the arbour of human body, attracts the mind as the bee to it, and makes it giddy (with its sweets).

32. The human mind anxious to derive pleasure from the youthfulness of the body, falls into the cave of sensuality, as a deer running after the mirage of desert heat, falls down into a pit.

33. I take no delight in moony youth, which guilds the dark body with its beams, and resembles the stern mane of the leonine mind. It is a surge in the ocean of our lives (that tosses us all about).

34. There is no reliance in youth, which fades away as soon as summer flowers in this desert of the body.

35. Youth is as a bird, and as soon flies away from our bodily cage as the philosopher’s stone, which quickly disappears from the hands of the unfortunate.

36. As youth advances to its highest pitch, so the feverish passions wax stronger for our destruction only.

37. As long as the night (delusion) of youth does not come to its end, so long the fiends of our passion do not cease to rage in the desert of the body.

38. Pity me, O sage! in this state of youth, which is so full of perturbations, as to have deprived me of the sight (light) of reason. O pity me as thou wouldst for thy dying son.

39. The foolish man who ignorantly rejoices at his transient youth, is considered as a human beast.

40. The foolish fellow who is fond of his youth which is flushed with pride and fraught with errors, comes to repent (of his folly) in a short time.

41. Those great minded men are honoured on earth, who have safely passed over the perils of youth.

42. One crosses over with ease the wide ocean which is the horrible habitation of huge whales; but it is hard to pass over our youth, that is so full of vices and the billows (of our passions).

43. It is very rare to have that happy youth which is fraught with humility, and spent in the company of respectable men; which is distinguished by feelings of sympathy, and is joined with good qualities and virtues.

CHAPTER XXI.

VITUPERATION OF WOMEN.

RÁMA added:—

What beauty is there in the person of a woman, composed of nerves, bones and joints? She is a mere statue of flesh, and a frame of moving machinery with her ribs and limbs.

2. Can you find any thing beautiful in the female form, separated from its (component parts of the) flesh, skin, blood and water, that is worth beholding? Why then dote upon it?

3. This fairy frame consisting of hairs in one part and blood in the other, cannot engage the attention of a high-minded man to its blemishes.

4. The bodies of females, that are so covered with clothing and repeatedly besmeared with paints and perfumes, are (at last) devoured by carnivorous (beasts and worms).

5. The breasts of women decorated with strings of pearl, appear as charming as the pinnacles of Sumeru, washed by the waters of Ganges falling upon them.

6. Look at these very breasts of the woman becoming at last a lump of food, to be devoured by dogs in cemeteries and on the naked ground.

7. There is no difference between a woman and a young elephant that lives in the jungle, both of them being made of blood, flesh and bones. Then why hunt after her.

8. A woman is charming only for a short time, and does not long last to be so. I look upon her merely as a cause of delusion.

9. There is no difference between wine and a woman, both of them tending equally to produce high-flown mirth and jollity, and creating revelry and lust.

10. Uxorious men are like chained elephants among mankind, that will never come to sense however goaded by the hooks of reason.

11. Women are the flames of vice, their black-dyed eye and hairs are as their smoke and soot. They are as intangible as fire, though pleasing to the sight. They burn the man as fire consumes the straw.

12. They burn from afar (more than fire), and are as dry as bones (in their hearts), though appearing as soft and juicy to sight. They serve as fuel to the fire of hell, and are dangerous with their charmingness.

13. The woman resembles a moon-light night, veiled over by her loosened locks, and looking through her starry eyes. She shows her moon-like face amidst her flowery smiles.

14. Her soft dalliance destroys all manly energy, and her caresses overpower the good sense of men, as the shade of night does the sleeping (world).

15. The woman is as lovely as a creeper in its flowering time. Her palm are the leaves and her eyes as the black-bees (on the flower). Her breasts are as the uplifted tops of the plant.

16. The lovely damsel is like a poisonous creeper, fair as the filament of a flower but destructive of life, by causing inebriation and insensibility.

17. As the snake-catcher entices the snake by his breath and brings it out of its hole, so does the woman allure the man by her officious civilities, and gets him under her control.

18. Concupiscence as a huntsman, has spread his nets in the forms of women, for the purpose of ensnaring the persons of deluded men like silly birds.

19. The mind of man though as fierce <as> that of a furious elephant, is tied fast by the chain of love to the fulcrum of women, just as an elephant is fastened (by his leg) to the post, where he remains dull and dumb for ever.

20. Human life is as a pool in which the mind moves about in its mud and mire (as a fish). Here it is caught by the bait of woman, and dragged along by the thread of its impure desires.

21. The beauteous-eyed damsel is a bondage to man, as the stable is to the horse, the fastening post to the elephant, and as spells are to the snakes.

22. This wondrous world, with all its delights and enjoyments, began with woman and depends on women for its continuance.

23. A woman is the casket of all gems of vice (Pandora’s box), she is the cause of the chain of our everlasting misery, and is of no use to me.

24. What shall I do with her breast, her eyes, her loins, her eyebrows, the substance of which is but flesh, and which therefore is altogether unsubstantial.

25. Here and there, O Bráhman! her flesh and blood and bones undergo a change for the worse in course of a few days.

26. You see sir, those dearly beloved mistresses, who are so much fondled by foolish men, lying at last in the cemetery, and the members of their bodies all mangled and falling off from their places.

27. O Bráhman! those dear objects of love—the faces of damsels, so fondly decorated by their lovers with paints and pastes, are at last to be singed on the piles (by those very hands).

28. Their braided hairs now hang as flappers of chouri on the arbors of the cemetery, and their whitened bones are strewn about as shining stars after a few days.

29. Behold their blood sucked in by the dust of the earth, voracious beasts and worms feeding upon their flesh, jackals tearing their skin, and their vital air wafted in the vacuum.

30. This is the state to which the members of the female body must shortly come to pass, you say all existence to be delusion, tell me therefore why do you allow yourselves to fall into error?

31. A woman is no other than a form composed of the five elements, then why should intelligent men be fondly attached to her (at the risk of their ruin)?

32. Men’s longing for women is likened to the creeper called Suta, which stretches its sprigs to a great length, but bears plenty of bitter and sour fruits.

33. A man blinded by avarice (for the supportance of his mate) is as a stray deer from its herd; and not knowing which way to go, is lost in the maze of illusion.

34. A young man under the control of a young woman, is as much lamentable as an elephant fallen into a pit of the Vindhya mountain in pursuit of his mate.

35. He that has a wife, has an appetite for enjoyment on earth; but one without her has no object of desire. Abandonment of the wife amounts to the abandoning of the world, and forsaking the world is the path to true happiness.

36. I am not content, O Bráhman! with these unmanageable enjoyments which are as flickering as the wings of bees, and are as soon at an end as they are born (like the ephemerids of a day). I long only for the state of supreme bliss, from my fear of repeated-births (transmigration), decay and death.

CHAPTER XXII.

OBLOQUY OF OLD AGE.

BOYHOOD has scarcely lost its boyishness when it is overtaken by youth, which is soon followed by a ruthless old age, devouring the other two.

2. Old age withers the body like a frost freezing the lake of lilies. It drives away the beauty of the person as a storm does the autumnal clouds; and it pulls down the body, as a current carries away a tree on the bank.

3. The old man with his limbs slackened and worn out by age, and his body weakened by infirmity, is treated by women as a useless beast.

4. Old age drives a man’s good sense, as a good wife is driven away by her step dame.

5. A man in his state of tottering old age, is scoffed at as a dotard by his own sons and servants, and even by his wife, and all his friends and relations.

6. Insatiable avarice like a greedy vulture alights on the heads of the aged, when their appearance grows uncouth, and their bodies become helpless, and devoid of all manly qualities and powers.

7. Appetite the constant companion of my youth, is thriving along with my age, accompanied with her evils of indigence, and heart-burning cares and restlessness.

8. Ah me! what must I do to remove my present and future pains? It is this fear which increases with old age, and finds no remedy.

9. What am I that am brought to this extremity of senselessness, what can I do in this state. I must remain dumb and silent. Under these reflections there is an increased sense of helplessness in old age.

10. How and when and what shall I eat, and what is sweet to taste? These are the thoughts which trouble the mind of one when old age comes upon him.

11. There is an insatiable desire for enjoyments, but the powers to enjoy them are lacking. It is the want of strength which afflicts the heart in old age.

12. Hoary old age sits and shrieks as a heron on the top of the tree of this body, which is infested within it by the serpents of sickness.

13. As the grave owl—the bird of night, appears unexpectedly to our sight soon as the evening shades cover the landscape, so does the solemn appearance of death overtake us in the eve of our life.

14. As darkness prevails over the world at the eve of the day, so doth death overtake the body at the eve of the life.

15. Death overtakes a man in his hoary old age, just as an ape alights on a tree covered with pearly flowers.

16. Even a deserted city, a leafless tree and parched up land may present a fair aspect, but never does the body look well that is pulled down by hoary age.

17. Old age with its hooping cough lays hold on a man, just as a vulture seizes its prey with loud shrieks in order to devour it.

18. As a girl eagerly lays hold on a lotus flower whenever she meets with one, and then plucks it from its stalk and tears it to pieces, so does old age overtake the body of a person and break it down at last.

19. As the chill blast of winter shakes a tree and covers its leaves with dust, so does old age seize the body with a tremor and fill all its limbs with the rust of diseases.

20. The body overtaken by old age becomes as pale and battered, as a lotus flower beaten by frost becomes withered and shattered.

21. As moon-beams contribute to the growth of Kumuda flowers on the top of mountains, so does old age produce grey hairs resembling casla flowers on the heads of men (with inward phlegm and gout).

22. Death the lord of all beings, views the grey head of a man as a ripe pumpkin seasoned with the salt of old age, and devours it with zest.

23. As the Ganges upsets a neighbouring tree by its rapid course, so does old age destroy the body, as the current of our life runs fast to decay.

24. Old age which preys on the flesh of the human body, takes as much delight in devouring its youthful bloom as a cat does in feeding upon a mouse.

25. Decrepitude raises its ominous hoarse sound of hiccough in the body, as the jackal sends forth her hideous cry amidst the forest.

26. Dotage as an inward flame consumes the living body as a wet log of wood, which thereupon emits its hissing sounds of hiccough and hard breathing, and sends up the gloomy fumes of woe and sighs.

27. The body like a flowering creeper, bends down under the pressure of age, turns to grey like the fading leaves of a plant, and becomes as lean and thin as a plant after its flowering time is over.

28. As the infuriate elephant upsets the white plantain tree in a moment, so does old age destroy the body that becomes as white as camphor all over.

29. Senility, O sage! is as the standard bearer of the king of death, flapping his chouri of grey hairs before him, and bringing in his train an army of diseases and troubles.

30. The monster of old age, will even overcome those that were never defeated in wars by their enemies, and those that hide themselves in the inaccessible caverns of mountains.

31. As infants cannot play in a room that has become cold with snow, so the senses can have no play in the body that is stricken with age.

32. Old age like a juggling girl, struts on three legs at the sound of coughing and whiffing, beating as a tymbal on both sides.

33. The tuft of grey hairs on the head of the aged body, represents a white flapper (chouri) fastened to the top of a handle of white sandal wood, to welcome the despot of death.

34. As hoary age makes his advance like moon-light on the site of the body, he calls forth the hidden death to come out of it, as the moon-light makes the nilumbium to unfold its buds.

35. Again as the white wash of old age whitens the outer body, so debility, diseases and dangers become its inmates in the inner apartment.

36. It is the extinction of being that is preceded by old age; therefore I as a man of little understanding, can have no reliance in old age (though extolled by some)[1]

37. What then is the good of this miserable life, which lives under the subjection of old age? Senility is irresistable in this world, and defies all efforts to avoid or overcome it.

CHAPTER XXIII.

VICISSITUDES OF TIMES.

MEN of little understandings are found to fall into grave errors in this pit of the world, by their much idle talk, ever doubting scepticism, and schisms (in religion).

2. Good people can have no more confidence in the net work of their ribs, than little children may have a liking for fruits reflected in a mirror.

3. Time is a rat that cuts off the threads of all thoughts (prospects), which men may entertain here about the contemptible pleasures of this world.

4. There is nothing in this world which the all-devouring time will spare. He devours all things as the submarine fire consumes the over-flowing sea.

5. Time is the sovran lord of all, and equally terrible to all things. He is ever ready to devour all visible beings.

6. Time as master of all, spares not even the greatest of us for a moment. He swallows the universe within himself, whence he is known as the universal soul.

7. Time pervades all things, but has no perceptible feature of his own, except that he is imperfectly known by the names of years, ages and kalpas (millenniums).

8. All that was fair and good, and as great as the mount of Meru, have gone down in the womb of eternity, as the snakes are gorged by the greedy Garuda.

9. There was no one ever so unkind, hard-hearted, cruel, harsh or miserly, whom time has not devoured.

10. Time is ever greedy although he should devour the mountains. This great gourmand is not satiated with gorging every thing in all the worlds.

11. Time like an actor plays many parts on the stage of the world. He abstracts and kills, produces and devours and at last destroys every thing.

12. Time is incessantly picking up the seeds of all the four kinds of living beings from this unreal world, as a parrot picks up the seeds from under the cracked shell of a pomegranate. (Viz. the ovipari, vivipari, vegetables and the ephemerids).

13. Time like a wild elephant uproots all proud living beings in this world, as the other pulls up the trees of the forest with their tusks.

14. This creation of God is like a forest, having Brahmá for its foundation and its trees full of the great fruits of gods. Time commands it throughout its length and breadth.

15. Time glides along incessantly as a creeping plant, composed of years and ages as its parts, and the sable nights as black bees chasing after them.

16. Time, O sage, is the subtlest of all things. It is divided though indivisible, it is consumed though incombustible, it is perceived though imperceptible in its nature.

17. Time like the mind is strong enough to create and demolish any thing in a trice, and its province is equally extensive with it.

18. Time is a whirlpool to men; and being accompanied with desire his insatiable and ungovernable mistress and delighting in illicit enjoyments, he makes them do and undo the same thing over and again.

19. Time is prompted by his rapacity to appropriate every thing to himself, from the meanest straw, dust, leaves and worms, to the greatest Indra and the mount Meru itself.

20. Time is the source of all malice and greediness, and the spring of all misfortunes, and intolerable fluctuations of our states.

21. As boys with their balls play about their play-ground, so does time in his arena of the sky, play with his two balls of the sun and moon.

22. Time at the expiration of the kalpa age, will dance about with a long chain of the bones of the dead hanging from his neck to the feet.

23. The gale of desolation rising from the body of this desolator of the world at the end of a kalpa age, causes the fragments of mount Meru to fly about in the air like the rinds of the bhoja-petera tree.

24. Time then assumes his terrific form of fire (प्रलयाग्नि), to dissolve the world in empty space, when the gods Brahmá and Indra and all others cease to exist.

25. As the sea shows himself in a continued series of waves rising and falling one after another, so it is time that creates and dissolves the world, and appears to rise and fall in the rotation of days and nights.

26. Time plucks the gods and demigods as ripe fruits, from their great arbor of existence, at the end of the world (to make them his food).

27. Time resembles a large fig tree (Ficus religiosus), studded with all the worlds as its fruits, and resonant with the noise of living beings like the hissing of gnats about them.

28. Time accompanied by Action as his mate, regales himself in the garden of the world, blossoming with the moon-beams of the Divine Spirit.

29. As the high and huge rock supports its body upon the basis of the earth, so does time rest itself in endless and interminable eternity.

30. Time assumes to himself various hues of black, white and red (at night, day and midday) which serve for his vestures.

31. As the earth is the great support of hills which are fixed upon it, so is time the support of all the innumerable ponderous worlds that constitute the universe.

32. Hundreds of great kalpa ages (of the creation and dissolution of the world) may pass away, yet there is nothing that can move eternity to pity or concern, or stop or expedite his course. It neither sets nor rises (as time).

33. Time is never proud to think, that it is he who without the least sense of pain and labor, brings this world into play and makes it to exist.

34. Time is like a reservoir in which the nights are as mud, the days as lotuses, and the clouds as bees.

35. As a covetous man, with worn out broom sticks in hand, sweeps over a mountain to gather the particles of gold strewn over it, so does time with his sweeping course of days and nights, collect in one mass of the dead all living beings in the world.

36. As a miserly man trims and lights a lamp with his own fingers, to look into his stores at each corner of the room; so does time light the lamps of the sun and moon to look into the living beings in every nook and corner of the world.

37. As one ripens the raw fruits in sun and fire in order to devour them, so does time ripen men by their sun and fire worship, to bring them under his jaws at last.

38. The world is a dilapidated cottage and men of parts are rare gems in it. Time hides them in the casket of his belly, as a miser keeps his treasure in a coffer.

39. Good men are like a chaplet of gems, which time puts on his head for a time with fondness, and then tears and tramples it down (under his feet).

40. Strings of days, nights and stars, resembling beads and bracelets of white and black lotuses, are continually turning round the arm of time.

41. Time (as a vulture) looks upon the world as (the carcase of) a ram, with its mountains, seas, sky and earth as its four horns, and the stars as its drops of blood which it drinks day by day.

42. Time destroys youth as the moon shuts the petals of the lotus. It destroys life as the lion kills the elephant: there is nothing however insignificant that time steals not away.

43. Time after sporting for a Kalpa period in the act of killing and crushing of all living beings, comes to lose its own existence and becomes extinct in the eternity of the Spirit of spirits.

44. Time after a short rest and respite reappears as the creator, preserver, destroyer and remembrancer of all. He shows the shapes of all things whether good or bad, keeping his own nature beyond the knowledge of all. Thus doth time expand and preserve and finally dissolve all things by way of sport.

CHAPTER XXIV.

RAVAGES OF TIME.

RÁMA rejoined:—Time is a self-willed sportsman as a prince, who is inaccessible to dangers and whose powers are unlimited.

2. This world is as it were a forest and sporting ground of time, wherein the poor deluded worldlings are caught in his snare like a body of wounded stags.

3. The ocean of universal deluge is a pleasure-pond of time, and the submarine fires bursting therein as lotus flowers (serve to beautify that dismal scene).

4. Time makes his breakfast of this vapid and stale earth, flavoured with the milk and curd of the seas of those names.

5. His wife Chandi (Hecate) with her train of Mátris (furies), ranges all about this wide world as a ferocious tigress (with horrid devastation).

6. The earth with her waters is like a bowl of wine in the hand of time, dressed and flavoured with all sorts of lilies and lotuses.

7. The lion with his huge body and startling mane, his loud roaring and tremendous groans, seems as a caged bird of sport in the hand of time.

8. The Mahákála like a playful young Kokila (cuckoo), appears in the figure of the blue autumnal sky, and warbling as sweet as the notes of a lute of gourd (in the music of the spheres).

9. The restless bow of death is found flinging its woeful arrows (darts of death) with ceaseless thunder claps on all sides.

10. This world is like a forest, wherein sorrows are ranging about as playful apes, and time like a sportive prince in this forest, is now roving, now walking, now playing and now killing his games.

CHAPTER XXV.

SPORTS OF DEATH.

TIME stands the foremost of all deceitful players in this world. He acts the double parts of creation and destruction, and of action and fate (utility and fatality).

2. Time has no other character but those of action and motion by which his existence is known to us, and which bind all beings (in the succession of thoughts and acts).

3. Fate is that which frustrates (the necessary consequences of) the acts of all created beings, as the solar heat serves to dissolve the conglomeration of snows.

4. This wide world is the stage wherein the giddy mob dance about (in their appointed times).

5. Time has a third name of a terrifying nature known as Kritántah (Fate), who in the form of a Kápálika (one holding human skulls in his hand), dances about in the world.

6. This dancing and loving Kritántah (Fate), is accompanied by his consort called Destiny to whom he is greatly attached (as his colleague).

7. Time (as Siva), wears on his bosom of the world, the triplicate white and holy thread composed of the serpent named Ananta and the stream of Ganges, and the digit of the moon on his forehead (to measure his course). (Viz:—the Zodiacal belt; the milky way, and the lunar mansions).

8. The sun and the moon are the golden armlets of time, who holds in his palm the mundane world as the paltry plaything of a nosegay.

9. The firmament with its stars appears like a garment with coloured spots in it; the clouds called Pushkara and Avarta are as the skirts of that garment, which are washed by Time in the waters of the universal deluge.

10. Before him, dances his beloved Destiny with all her arts for ever, to beguile the living that are fond of worldly enjoyments.

11. People hurry up and down to witness the dance of Destiny, whose unrestrained motion keeps them at work, and causes their repeated births and deaths.

12. The people of all the worlds are studded about her person as her ornaments, and the sky stretching from the heaven of gods to the infernal regions, serves for the veil on her head.

13. Her feet are planted in the infernal regions, and the hell-pits ring at her feet like trinkets, tied by the string of evil deeds or sins (of men).

14. She is painted all over from head to foot by the god Chitra Gupta with ornamental marks prepared by her attendants (the deeds of men), and perfumed with the essence of those deeds.

15. She dances and reels at the nod of her husband at the end of the Kalpas, and makes the mountains crack and crash at her foot-falls.

16. Behind her dance the peacocks of the god Kumára; and Kála the god of death staring with his three wide open eyes, utters his hideous cries (of destruction).

17. Death dances about in the form of the five headed Hara, with the loosened braids of hair upon him; while Destiny in the form of Gaurí, and her locks adorned with Mandára flowers keeps her pace with him.

18. This Destiny in her war-dance, bears a capacious gourd representing her big belly, and her body is adorned with hundreds of hollow human skulls jingling like the alms-pots of the Kapáli mendicants.

19. She has filled (reached) the sky with the emaciated skeleton of her body, and gets terrified at her all destructive figure.

20. The skulls of the dead of various shapes adorn her body like a beautiful garland of lotuses, which keep hanging to and fro during her dance at the end of a Kalpa age.

21. The horrible roaring of the giddy clouds Pushkara and Avarta at the end of the Kalpa, serves to represent the beating of her Damaru drum, and put to flight the heavenly choir of Tumburu.

22. As death dances along, the moon appears like his ear-ring, and the moon-beams and stars appear like his crest made of peacocks’ feathers.

23. The snow-capt Himálaya, appears like a circlet of bones in the upper loop of his right ear, and the mount Meru as a golden areola in that of the left.

24. Under their lobes are suspended the moon and the sun, as pendant ear-rings glittering over his cheeks. The mountain ranges called the lokáloka are fastened like chains around his waist.

25. The lightnings are the bracelets and armlets of Destiny, which move to and fro as she dances along. The clouds are her wrappers that fly about her in the air.

26. Death is furnished with many weapons, as clubs, axes, missiles, spears, shovels, mallets and sharp swords, all of which are sure weapons of destruction.

27. Mundane enjoyments are no other than long ropes dropped down by the hand of death, and keeping all mankind fast bound to the world; while the great thread of infinity (ananta) is worn by him as his wreath of flowers.

28. The belts of the seven oceans are worn about the arms of Death as his bracelets resplendent with the living sea-animals, and the bright gems contained in their depths.

29. The great vortices of customs, the successions of joy and grief, the excess of pride and the darkness of passions, form the streaks of hair on his body.

30. After the end of the world, he ceases to dance, and creates anew all things from the lowest animal that lives in the earth, to the highest Brahmá and Siva (when he resumes his dance).

31. Destiny as an actress, acts by turns her parts of creation and destruction, diversified by scenes of old age, sorrow and misery.

32. Time repeatedly creates the worlds and their woods, with the different abodes and localities teeming with population. He forms the moveable and immovable substances, establishes customs and again dissolves them, as boys make their dolls of clay and break them soon afterwards.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE ACTS OF DESTINY.

RÁMA said:—Such being the all destructive conduct of time and others (as already described), what confidence, O great sage, can men like me, have upon them?

2. We all remain here, O sage! as slaves sold to Fate and Destiny, and are deceived by their allurements as beasts of the forest.

3. This Fate whose conduct is so very inhuman, is always up to devour all beings, and is incessantly throwing men into the sea of troubles.

4. He is led by his malicious attempts to inflame the mind with inordinary desires, as the fire raises its flames to burn down a habitation.

5. Destiny the faithful and obedient wife of Fate, is naturally fickle on account of her being a female, and is always bent on mischief and disturbing the patience (even of the wisest of men).

6. As the heinous serpent feeds upon the air, so does cruel Death ever swallow the living. He ripens the body with old age to create his zest, and then devours all animals warm with life.

7. Death is called a relentless tyrant, having no pity even for the sick and weak; nor any regard for any one in any state of life.

8. Every one in this world is fond of affluence and pleasures, not knowing that these are only calculated to lead him to his ruin.

9. Life is very unsteady. Death is very cruel. Youth is very frail and fickle, and boyhood is full of dullness and insensibility.

10. Man is defiled by his worldliness, his friends are ties to the world, his enjoyments are the greatest of his diseases in life, and his avarice and ambition are the mirage that always allures him (to ruin).

11. Our very senses are our enemies, before which even truth appears as falsehood; the mind is the enemy of the mind and self is the enemy of self. (i.e. They are all deceptive).

12. Self-esteem is stained (with the name of selfishness), intelligence is blamed for its fallaciousness, our actions are attended with bad results, and our pleasures tend only to effeminacy.

13. All our desires are directed to enjoyments; our love of truth is lost; our women are the ensigns of vice, and all that were once so sweet, have become tasteless and vapid.

14. Things that are not real, are believed as real, and have become the cause of our pride, by hardening us in untruth, and keeping us from the light of truth.

15. My mind is at a loss to think what to do; it regrets at its increased appetite for pleasure, and for want of that self-denial (which I require).

16. My sight is dimmed by the dust of sensuality: the darkness of self-esteem prevails upon me: the purity of mind is never reached to, and truth is far off from me.

17. Life is become uncertain and death is always advancing nigh; my patience is disturbed, and there is an increased appetite for whatever is false.

18. The mind is soiled by dullness, and the body is cloyed with surfeit and ready to fall; old age exults over the body, and sins are conspicuous at every step.

19. Youth flies fast away with all our care to preserve it; the company of the good is at a distance; the light of truth shines from no where; and I can have recourse to nothing in this world.

20. The mind is stupified within itself, and its contentment has fled from it: there is no rise of enlightened sentiments in it, and meanness makes its advance to it from a distance.

21. Patience is converted into impatience; man is liable to the states of birth and death; good company is rare, but bad company is ever within the reach of every body.

22. All individual existences are liable to appear and disappear; all desires are chains to the world, and all worldly beings are ever seen to be led away perforce where no body can tell.

23. What reliance can there be on human life, when the points of the compass become indistinct and undiscernible; when the countries and places change their positions and names, and when mountains even are liable to be dilapidated?

24. What reliance can there be on man, when the heavens are swallowed in infinity, when this world is absorbed in nothingness, and the very earth loses her stability?

25. What reliance can there be on men like ourselves, when the very seas are liable to be dried up, when the stars are doomed to fade away and disappear, and when the most perfect of beings are liable to dissolution?

26. What reliance can there be on men like us, when even the demigods are liable to destruction, when the polar star is known to change its place, and when the immortal gods are doomed to mortality?

27. What reliance can there be on men like us, when Indra is doomed to be defeated by demons; when even death is hindered from his aim, and when the current air ceases to breathe?

28. What reliance can there be on men like us, when the very moon is to vanish with the sky, when the very sun is to be split into pieces, and when fire itself is to become frigid and cold?

29. What reliance can there be on men like us, when the very Hari and Brahmá are to be absorbed into the Great One, and when Siva himself is to be no more.

30. What reliance can there be on men like us, when the duration of time comes to be counted, when Destiny is destined to her final destiny, and when all vacuity loses itself in infinity?

31. That which is inaudible, unspeakable, invisible, and unknowable in his real form, displays to us these wondrous worlds by some fallacy (in our conceptions).

32. No one conscious of himself (his egoism), can disown his subjection to that Being, that dwells in the hearts of every one.

33. This sun—the lord of worlds, is impelled (by that power) to run over hills, rocks and fields, like an inert piece of stone, hurled down from a mountain and borne away by a current stream.

34. This globe of earth, the seat of all the Suras and Asuras, and surrounded by the luminous sphere in the manner of a walnut covered by its hard crust, subsists under His command.

35. The gods in the heavens, the men on earth and the serpents in the nether world, are brought into existence and led to decay by His will only.

36. Káma (Cupid) that is arbitrarily powerful, and has forcibly overpowered on all the living world, has derived his unconquerable might from the Lord of worlds.

37. As the heated elephant regales the air with his spirituous exudation, so does the spring perfume the air with his profusion of flowers, unsettling the minds of men (at the will of the Almighty).

38. So are the loose glances of loving damsels directed to inflict deep wounds in the heart of man, which his best reason is unable to heal.

39. One whose best endeavour is always to do good to others, and who feels for others’ woes, is really intelligent and happy under the influence of his cool judgment.

40. Who can count the number of beings resembling the waves of the ocean, and on whom death has been darting the submarine fire of destruction.

41. All mankind are deluded to entrap themselves in the snare of avarice, and to be afflicted with all evils in life, as the deer entangled in the thickets of a jungle.

42. The term of human life in this world, is decreased in each generation in proportion to (the increase of their wicked acts). The desire of fruition is as vain as the expectation of reaping fruits from a creeper growing in the sky: yet I know not why men of reason would not understand this truth.

43. This is a day of festivity, a season of joy and a time of procession. Here are our friends, here the pleasures and here the variety of our entertainments. Thus do men of vacant minds amuse themselves with weaving the web of their desires, until they become extinct.

CHAPTER XXVII.

VANITY OF THE WORLD.

RÁMA said:—O sage! this seemingly pleasing but actually unpleasant world, has nothing in it that is productive of such a thing as can afford tranquility to the soul.

2. After the playful boyhood is over, the mind wastes itself in the society of women like the deer fallen in a cavern, then the body bends down under old age, and the man has only to grieve (for his folly).

3. As the body is stricken with the frost of old age, its beauty flies afar from it like the bloom of the fading lotus, and then the fountain of man’s worldliness is at once dried up.

4. As the body gets towards its decline, so much doth death rejoice in it. The body grows lean with grey hairs upon the head, just as a creeper fades away with the flowers upon it.

5. All living creatures are borne away by the stream of avarice, which upsets the tree of contentment growing on the bank and flows on for ever in this world.

6. Human body is like a vessel covered with skin; and glides over the ocean of the world (without its helmsman of reason). It is tossed about by sensual pleasures, and goes down under the water by the pressure of its whale-like passions.

7. The world is a wilderness abounding in creepers of avarice and trees of sensuality, with hundreds of desires as their branches. Our minds like monkeys pass their time in roving about this forest without getting the fruits (they seek).

8. Those that do not yield to grief in troubles, that are not elated with prosperity, nor smitten at heart by women, are rare in this world.

9. Those who fight boldly in the battle fields and withstand the war-elephants, are not so very brave in my opinion, as those who withstand the surges of the mind amidst the streams of carnal appetites.

10. I see no such deeds in the world which endure to the last (or final emancipation) of men. Actions proceeding from a desire of fruition in fools, serve only for their restlessness on earth.

11. Such men are rare in the world, that have filled the corners of the world with their fame and valour, who have filled their houses with true riches acquired by honest means and an unwavering patience.

12. Good and bad fortune always overtake a man, even if he were living in an aperture of the rock or within the walls of mountains, or even if he were enclosed within an iron built closet.

13. Our sons and riches are mere objects of delight to us. It is as erroneous to suppose them to be of any good to us at the end, as to expect any benefit from the decoction of poison.

14. Old people being reduced to calamitous circumstances at the pitiable state of the decay of their bodies and decline of life, have greatly to be tormented at the thoughts of the impious deeds (of their past lives).

15. Men having passed their early days in the gratification of their desires and other worldly pursuits at the expense of the acts of virtue and piety, are as much troubled with anxieties at the end, that their minds are seized with a tremor like that of the plumage of a peacock shaken by the breeze. How then can a man attain to tranquility at any time?

16. Wealth whether forthcoming or unattainable, whether got by labour or given by fortune, is all as deceitful to the worldly minded, as the high waters of rivers (swelling only to subside).

17. That such and such desirable acts are to be done, are the constant thoughts of men, who desire to please their sons and wives, until they are worn out with age and become crazy in their minds.

18. Like leaves on trees that grow to fall, and falling make room for others to shoot forth, are those men who devoid of reason, die away daily to be born again.

19. Men having travelled here and there and far and near, return to their homes at the end of the day; but none of them can have rest by day or night, except the virtuous few that live by honest dealings.

20. After quelling his enemies and getting enough of riches in his clutches, the rich man just sits down to enjoy his gains; when death comes upon him, and interrupts his joy.

21. Seeing the vile trash of worldly gains earned and accumulated by the basest means to be but transitory, the infatuated mob do not perceive their approaching dissolution.

22. Men loving their own lives, and making mouths at the demise of others, are like a herd of sheep bound to the stake, and staring at the slaughter of their fellows, yet feeding themselves to fall as fattened victims to death.

23. The multitude of people on earth, is ever seen to appear in and disappear from it as fast as the passing waves of the sea, but who can tell whence they come and whither they return.

24. Women are as delicate as poisonous creepers, that with their red petaled lips and garments, and their eyes as busy as fluttering bees, are killers of mankind and stealers of their ravished hearts.

25. Men are as passengers in a procession, repairing from this side and that to join at the place of their meeting. Such is the delusive union of our wives and friends here (for our meeting in the next world).

26. As the burning and extinguishing of the lamp depend on the wick and its moistening oil; so does our course in this transitory world (depend on our acts and affections only). Nobody knows the true cause of this mysterious existence.

27. The revolution of the world is comparable with that of the potter’s wheel and the floating bubbles of rain water; that appear to be lasting to the ignorant observer only.

28. The blooming beauty and graces (of youth), are destined to be snatched away at the approach of old age. The youthful hopes also of men fly at a distance like the bloom of lotus buds in winter.

29. The tree which is ordained to be useful to mankind by the loads of fruits and flowers that it bears upon its body, is fated also to be hewn down by the cruel axe at last. How then can beneficent men expect to avoid the cruel hand of death.

30. Society with relatives is (of all others) as perilous as that of a poisonous plant; it is pleasant for its domestic affections, which are in reality but delusions of the soul.

31. What is that thing in the world, which has no fault in it; and what is that which does not afflict or grieve us; what being is born that is not subjected to death, and what are those acts that are free from deceit?

32. Those living a Kalpa age are reckoned as short-lived, compared with those living for many Kalpas, and they again are so in respect to Brahmá. Hence the parts of time being all finite, the ideas of their length or shortness are altogether false.

33. Things that are called mountains are made of rocks, those that are called trees are made of wood, and those that are made of flesh are called animals, and man is the best of them. But they are all made of matter, and doomed to death and decay.

34. Many things appear to be endued with intelligence, and the heavenly bodies seem to be full of water; but physicists have found out by analysis that, there is no other thing any where except (minutiæ of) matter.

35. It is no wonder that this (unreal world) should appear a miraculous (reality) to the wise, and seem marvelously striking in the minds of mankind; since the visions in our dreams also appear so very fascinating to every one in their state of dreaming.

36. Those that are corrupted in their greediness (after worldly enjoyments), will not even in their old age, receive the sermons on their eternal concerns, which they think to be false chimeras as those of a flower or a creeper growing in the sky.

37. People are still deluded in their minds in wishing to attain the state of their superiors; but they fall down still lower like beasts (goats) from the top of a hill, in wishing to lay hold on the fruits of a verdant creeper out of their reach.

38. Young men spending their wealth in personal gratifications, are as useless as plants growing in the bowels of a deep and inaccessible cavern, which spread their fruits and flowers, leaves and branches and their shades to the use of nobody.

39. Men are found to resemble the black antelopes (in their wanderings): some of them roving about the sweet, soft and beautiful sceneries of the country, and others roaming in sterile tracts and parts of boundless forests. (i.e. Some living in the society of men, and others as recluses from it).

40. The daily and diversified acts of nature are all pernicious in their nature; they appear pleasant and ravishing to the heart for a time, but are attainded with pain in the end, and fill the mind of the wise with dismay.

41. Man is addicted to greediness, and is prone to a variety of wicked shifts and plots; a good man is not now to be seen even in a dream, and there is no act which is free from difficulty. I know not how to pass this state of human life.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

MUTABILITY OF THE WORLD.

RÁMA said:—

Whatever we see of all moveable or immovable things in this world, they are all as evanescent as things viewed in a dream.

2. The hollow desert that appears as the dried bed of a sea to-day, will be found to-morrow to be a running flood by the accumulation of rain-water in it.

3. What is to-day a mountain reaching the sky and with extensive forests on it, is in course of time levelled to the ground, and is afterwards dug into pit.

4. The body that is clothed to-day with garments of silk, and decorated with garlands and fragrance, is to be cast away naked into a ditch to-morrow.

5. What is seen to be a city to-day, and busy with the bustle of various occupations, passes in course of a few days into the condition of an uninhabited wilderness.

6. The man who is very powerful to-day and presides over principalities, is reduced in a few days to a heap of ashes.

7. The very forest which is so formidable to-day and appears as blue as the azure skies, turns to be a city in the course of time, with its banners hoisted in the air.

8. What is (to-day) a formidable jungle of thick forests, turns in time to be a table-land as on the mount Meru.

9. Water becomes land and land becomes water. Thus the world composed of wood, grass and water becomes otherwise with all its contents in course of time.

10. Our boyhood and youth, bodies and possessions are all but transient things, and they change from one state to another, as the ever fluctuating waves of the ocean.

11. Our lives in this (mortal) world, are as unsteady as the flame of a lamp placed at the window, and the splendour of all the objects in the three worlds, is as flickering as the flashing of the lightning.

12. As a granary stored with heaps of grains is exhausted by its continued waste, so is the stock of life spent away by its repeated respirations.

13. The mind of man is as fluctuating as a flag waving in the air and filled with the dust of sin, to indicate its wavering between the paths of heaven and hell.

14. The existence of this delusive world, is as the appearance of an actress on the stage, shuffling her vests as she trudges along in her dancing.

15. It’s scenes are as changeful and fascinating as those of a magic city; and its dealings as bewitching and momentary as the glances of a juggling girl.

16. The stage of the world presents us a scene of continued dancing (of the sorceress of deception), and the deceptive glances of her eyes resembling the fleeting flashes of lightning.

17. The days, the great men, their hey-days and deeds (that are past and gone), are now retained in our memory only, and such must be our cases also in a short time.

18. Many things are going to decay and many coming anew day by day; and there is yet no end of this accursed course of events in this ever-changeful world.

19. Men degenerate into lower animals, and those again rise to humanity (by metempsychosis), gods become no-gods, and there is nothing that remains the same.

20. The sun displays every thing to light by his rays, and watches over the rotations of days and nights, to witness like time the dissolution of all things.

21. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva and all material productions, are reduced to nothingness, like the submarine fire subsiding under the waters of the deep.

22. The heaven, the earth, the air, the sky, the mountains, the rivers, and all the quarters of the globe, are subject to destruction like the dry fuel by the all-destroying fire of the last day.

23. Riches and relatives, friends, servants and affluence, are of no pleasure to him who is in constant dread of death.

24. All these are so long delightful to a sensible man, as the monster of death does not appear before the eye of his mind.

25. We have prosperity at one moment, succeeded by adversity at another; so we have health at one time, followed by sickness soon after.

26. What intelligent being is there, that is not misled by these delusions of the world, which represent things otherwise than what they are, and serve to bewilder the mind?

27. (The world is as varying) as the face of the skies; it is now as black as dark clay, and in the next moment bright with the golden hues of fair light.

28. It is now over-cast by azure clouds resembling the blue lotuses of the lake, and roaring loudly for a time and then being dumb and silent on a sudden:

29. Now studded with stars, and now glowing with the glory of the sun; then graced by the pleasant moonbeams, and at last without any light at all.

30. Who is there so sedate and firm, that is not terrified at these sudden appearances and their disappearance, and the momentary durations and final dissolution of worldly things?

31. What is the nature of this world, where we are overtaken by adversity at one moment, and elated by prosperity at another, where one is born at a time, and dies away at another?

32. One that was something else before, is born as a man in this life, and is changed to another state in course of a few days; thus there is no being that remains steadily in the same state.

33. A pot is made of clay, and cloth is made of cotton, and they are still the same dull materials of which they are composed: thus there is nothing new in this world that was not seen or known before, and that changes not its form. (i.e. All is but a formal and no material change).

34. The acts of creation and destruction, of diffusion, production, and sustentation follow one another, as the revolution of day and night to man.

35. It happens sometimes, that an impotent man slays a hero, and that hundreds are killed by one individual; so also a commoner becomes a noble man, and thus every thing is changeful in this varying world.

36. These bodies of men that are always changing their states, are as bodies of waters rising and falling in waves by motion of the winds.

37. Boyhood lasts but a few days, and then it is succeeded by youth which is as quickly followed by old age: thus there being no identity of the same person, how can one rely on the uniformity of external objects?

38. The mind that gets delighted in a moment and becomes dejected in the next, and assumes likewise its equanimity at another, is indeed as changeful as an actor.

39. The creator who is ever turning one thing into another in his work of creation, is like a child who makes and breaks his doll without concern.

40. The actions of producing and collecting (of grains), of feeding (one’s self) and destroying (others), come by turns to mankind like the rotation of day and night.

41. Neither adversity nor prosperity is of long continuance in the case of worldly people, but they are ever subject to appearance and disappearance by turns.

42. Time is a skilful player and plays many parts with ease; but he is chiefly skilled in tragedy, and often plays his tragic part in the affairs of men.

43. All beings are produced as fruits in the great forest of the universe, by virtue of their good and bad acts (of past lives): and time like a gust of wind blasts them day by day before their maturity.

CHAPTER XXIX.

UNRELIABLENESS OF WORLDLY THINGS.

THUS is my heart consumed by the wild-fire of those great worldly evils, and there rises in me no desire of enjoying them, as there rises no mirage from a lake.

2. My existence upon earth gets bitter day by day, and though I have got some experience in it, yet its associations have made me as sour as the Nimba plant by its immersion in water.

3. I see wickedness on the increase, and righteousness on the decline in the mind of man, which like the sour Karanja (crab) fruit, becomes sourer every day.

4. I see honour is eaten up every day by mutual altercations of men, using harsh words to each other as they crack the nuts under their teeth.

5. Too much eagerness for royalty and worldly enjoyments, is equally prejudicial to our welfare; as we loose our future prospects by the former, and our present happiness by the latter.

6. I take no delight in my gardens nor have any pleasure in women; I feel no joy at the prospect of riches, but enjoy my solace in my own heart and mind.

7. Frail are the pleasures of the world, and avarice is altogether intolerable; the bustle of business has broken down my heart, and (I know not) where to have my tranquility.

8. Neither do I hail death nor am I in love with my life; but remain as I do, devoid of all anxiety and care.

9. What have I to do with a kingdom and with all its enjoyments? Of what avail are riches to me, and what is the end of all our exertions? All these are but requirements of self-love, from which I am entirely free.

10. The chain of (repeated) births is a bond that binds fast all men by its strong knots of the senses; those striving to break loose from this bondage for their liberation, are (said to be) the best of men.

11. These haughty damsels whom the god of love employs to ravage the hearts of men, resemble a group of elephants subverting a lotus bed under their feet.

12. The treatment of the mind with pure reason being neglected now (in youth), it is hard to heal it afterwards (in age), when it admits of no cure.

13. It is the worldliness of man that is his true poison, while real poison is no poison to him. It is the poison of worldliness which destroys his future life, while real poison is only locally injurious to him (in his present state).

14. Neither pleasure nor pain, nor friends nor relatives, nor even life and death, can enchain (affect) the mind that has received the light of truth.

15. Teach me, Oh Bráhman! that art the best of the learned in the mysteries of the past and future, teach me so that I may soon become like one devoid of grief and fear and worldly troubles, and may have the light of truth beaming upon me.

16. The forest of ignorance is laid over with the snare of desire, it is full of the thorns of misery, and is the dreadful seat of destruction and the danger (of repeated births and deaths).

17. I can rather suffer myself to be put under the jaws of death with his rows of teeth like saws, but cannot bear the dreadly pains of worldly cares and anxieties.

18. It is a gloomy error in this world to think that I have this and have not the other; it serves to toss about our minds as a gust of wind disperses the dust of the earth.

19. It is the thread of avarice that links together all living beings like a chaplet of pearls; the mind serves to twirl about this chain, but pure consciousness sits quiet to observe its rotation.

20. I who am devoid of desires, would like to break this ornamental chain of worldliness, hanging about me as a deadly serpent, in the same manner, as a lion breaks asunder the net (which is laid to ensnare him).

21. Do you now, O most learned sage, scatter the mist which has overspread the forest of my heart, and the darkness which has overcast my mind, by the light of true knowledge.

22. There are no anxieties, O sage! which cannot be put to an end by the society of good minded men; the darkness of night can be well removed by moon-beams.

23. Life is as fickle as a drop of water pending on a mass of clouds blown away by the winds. Our enjoyments are as unsteady as the lightning that flickers in the midst of clouds. The pleasures of youth are as slippery as water. With these reflections in my mind, I have subdued them all under the province of peace and tranquility.

CHAPTER XXX.

SELF-DISPARAGEMENT.

SEEING the world thus ingulphed amidst the abyss of hundreds of rising dangers and difficulties, my mind is immerged in the mire of anxieties.

2. My mind is wandering everywhere and I am struck with fear at every thing; my limbs are shaking with fear like the leaves of a withered tree.

3. My mind is bewildered by impatience for its want of true contentment, just as a young woman is afraid in a desert for want of the company of her strong handed husband.

4. The thoughts of my mind are entangled in my desire for worldly enjoyments, as stags are caught in the pit strewn with grass over it.

5. The senses of an unreasonable man, ever run astray to the wrong and never turn to the right way; so the eyes of a blind man lead him but to fall into the pit.

6. Human thoughts are linked to the animal soul as consorts to their lords. They can neither sit idle nor ramble at liberty, but must remain as wives under the control of their husbands.

7. My patience is almost worn out, like that of a creeper under the winter frost. It is decayed, and neither lives nor perishes at once.

8. Our minds are partly settled in worldly things, and partly fixed in their giver (the Supreme soul). This divided state of the mind is termed its half waking condition.

9. My mind is in a state of suspense, being unable to ascertain the real nature of my soul. I am like one in the dark, who is deceived by the stump of a fallen tree at a distance, to think it a human figure.

10. Our minds are naturally fickle and wandering all about the earth. They cannot forsake their restlessness, as the vital airs cannot subsist without their motion.

11. Tell me Oh sage, what is that state of life which is dignified above others, which is unassociated with the troubles (incident to birth and death), unqualified by the conditions of humanity, and apart from errors, and wherein griefs are unknown.

12. (Tell me also) how Janaka and the other good men, who are conspicuous for their ceremonious acts, and distinguished for their good conduct, have acquired their excellence (in holy knowledge).

13. (Tell me likewise) Oh source of my honor, how a man, who is besmeared all over his body with the dirt of worldliness, may yet be cleansed and get rid of it.

14. Tell me what is that knowledge, by resorting to which, the serpents of worldliness, may be freed from their worldly crookedness, and become straight in their conduct.

15. Tell me how the foulness of my heart may regain its clearness, after it is so much soiled by errors and tainted with evils, like a lake disturbed by elephants and polluted with dirt.

16. How is it possible for one engaged in the affairs of the world, to be untainted with its blemishes, and remain as pure and intact as a drop of water on the lotus leaf.

17. How may one attain his excellence by dealing with others as with himself, and minding the goods of others as straws, and by remaining aloof from love.

18. Who is that great man that has got over the great ocean of the world, whose exemplary conduct (if followed) exempts one from misery.

19. What is the best of things that ought to be pursued after, and what is that fruit which is worth obtaining? Which is the best course of life in this inconsistent world.

20. Tell me the manner by which I may have a knowledge of the past and future events of the world, and the nature of the unsteady works of its creator.

21. Do so, that my mind which is as the moon in the sky of my heart, may be cleared of its impurities.

22. Tell me what thing is most delectable to the mind, and what most abominable to it; as also how this fickle and inconstant mind may get its fixedness like that of a rock.

23. Tell me what is that holy charm, which can remove this cholic pain of worldliness, that is attended with numberless troubles.

24. Tell me how can I entertain within my heart, the blossoms of the arbor of heavenly happiness, that sheds about it the coolness of the full-moon beams.

25. Oh ye good men! that are present and learned in divine knowledge, teach me so that I may obtain the fullness of my heart, and may not come to grief and sorrow any more.

26. My mind is devoid of that tranquility which results chiefly from holy happiness, and is perplexed with endless doubts, that disturb my peace as the dogs molest smaller animals in the desert.

CHAPTER XXXI.

QUERIES OF RÁMA.

RÁMA said:—I have no reliance on the durability of life, which is as transient as a drop of water that sticks to the point of a shaking leaf on a lofty tree; and as short as the cusp of the moon on Siva’s forehead.

2. I have no credit in the durability of life, which is transient as the swelling that take place in the pouch of a frog while it croaks in the meadow. Nor have I any trust in the company of friends, which are as dangerous as the treacherous snare of hunters.

3. What can we do under the misty cloud of error (overhanging our minds), and raising our tempestuous desires which flash forth in lightnings of ambition, and burst out in the thunder claps of selfishness?

4. How shall we save ourselves from the temptations of our desires dancing like peacocks (and displaying their gaudy train) around us; and from the bustle of the world breaking in upon us as thickly as the blossoms of the Kurchi plant.

5. How can we fly from the clutches of cruel Fate, who like a cat kills the living as poor mice, and falls unwearied and unexpectedly upon his prey in the twinkling of an eye.

6. What expedient, what course, what reflections, and what refuge must we have recourse to, in order to avoid the unknown tracks of future lives?

7. There is nothing so trifling in this earth below, or in the heavens above, which ye gifted men cannot raise to consequence.

8. How can this accursed, troublesome and vapid world, be relished by one unless he is infatuated by ignorance?

9. It is the fusion of desires, which produces the milky beverage of contentment, and fills the earth with delights as the spring adorns it with flowers.

10. Tell me O sage, how the mist of our desires, which darkens the moon of our intellects, is to be dispelled from our minds, so as to make it shine forth in its full brightness.

11. How are we to deal in this wilderness of the world, knowing well that it is destructive both of our present and future interest?

12. What man is there that moves about in this ocean of the earth, who has not to buffet in the waves of his passions and diseases, and the currents of his enjoyments and prosperity.

13. Tell me, O thou best of sages, how one may escape unburnt like mercury (in its chemical process), when fallen upon the furnace of the earth.

14. (How can one get rid of the world) when it is impossible for him to avoid dealing in it, in the same manner as it is not possible for aquatic animals to live without their native element.

15. Our good deeds even are not devoid (of their motives) of affection and hatred, pleasure and pain, similarly as no flame of fire is unaccompanied by its power of burning.

16. As it is not possible to restrain the mind from thinking on worldly matters, without the process of right reasoning, deign to communicate to me therefore, the dictates of sound reason for my guidance.

17. Give me the best instruction for warding off the miseries (of the world), either by my dealing with or renouncing (the affairs of life).

18. Tell me of that man of enlightened understanding who had attained to the highest state of holiness and tranquility of his mind of yore, and the deeds and manner by which he achieved the same.

19. Tell me good sir, how the saints (of old) fled out of the reach of misery, that I may learn the same for suppression of my erroneous conceptions.

20. Or if there be no such precept (as I am <in> need of) in existence, or being in esse, it is not to be revealed to me by any body.

21. And should I fail of myself (by intuition) to attain that highest state of tranquility, then I must remain inactive (as I am), and avoid my sense of egoism altogether.

22. I will refrain from eating and drinking even of water, and from clothing myself with apparels; I will cease from all my actions of bathing and making my offerings, as also from my diet and the like.

23. I will attend to no duty, nor care about prosperity or calamity. I will be free from all desires except that of the abandonment of this body.

24. I must remain aloof from all fears and sympathies, from selfish feelings and emulation, and continue to sit quietly as a figure in painting.

25. I will gradually do away with the inspiration and respiration of my breath and outward sensations; till I part with this trifle—the seat all of troubles—this the so called body.

26. I do not belong to this body, nor does it belong to me, nor is any thing else mine; I shall be null and void like the oil-less lamp, and abandon every thing with this body.

27. Válmíki said:—Then Ráma who was as lovely as the moon, and whose mind was well fraught with reasoning, became silent before the assemblage of the eminent men, as the peacock ceases from his screaming before the gathering clouds in awe.

CHAPTER XXXII.

PRAISES ON RÁMA’S SPEECH.

VÁLMÍKI said:—When the prince Ráma (having his eyes resembling the petals of a lotus), had concluded his speech calculated to remove all ignorance from the mind.

2. All the men in the assembly had their eyes beaming forth with wonder, and the hairs on their bodies stood erect and pierced through their garments, as if wishing to hear the speech.

3. The assembly seemed for a moment to have lost their worldly desires in their eagerness after a stoic indifference, and to be rolling in the sea of nectar.

4. The audience remained (motionless) as the figures in a painting, being enraptured with internal delight at hearing the sweet words of the fortunate Ráma.

5. There were Vasishtha and Viswámitra with other sages, and the prime minister Jayanta and other counsellors (of the king) then seated in that assembly.

6. There were also king Dasaratha and his subordinate rajas, with the citizens and foreign delegates, the chieftains and princes, together with Bráhmans and men learned in the Vedas and divine knowledge.

7. These accompanied by their friends and allies, with the birds in the cages and the royal antelopes and steeds of sport (about the palace), listened to Ráma with fixed and mute attention.

8. There were likewise the queen Kausalyá and other ladies adorned with their best jewels, and seated at the windows, all mute and motionless.

9. Besides these the birds on the trees and creepers of the princely pleasure garden, were listening to Ráma without fluttering their wings or making any motion or sound.

10. There were the Siddhas and ærial beings, and the tribes of Gandharvas and Kinnaras, together with Nárada, Vyása and Pulapa the chiefs of sages (present at that place).

11. There were also some of the gods and chiefs of gods, Vidyádharas and the Nágas, who heard the speech of Ráma which was full of meaning and clearness.

12. As Ráma whose eyes were beautiful as the lotus, whose face was as lovely as the moon, and who likened the nocturnal luminary in the atmosphere of Raghu’s family, held his silence.

13. Flowers were cast upon him from heaven in showers by the hands of the divine personages with their loud cheers and blessings.

14. The people in the assembly were highly regaled with the sweet scent and beauty of these flowers of paradise fraught with humming bees in their cells.

15. These flowers when blown in the air by the breeze of heaven, appeared as they were clusters of stars, which after their fall brightened the ground with their beauty as with the beaming smiles of heavenly maids.

16. They appeared in the form of rain drops falling from the clouds, and blazing by the light of mute lightenings, and scattering about like balls of fresh butter.

17. They resembled also as particles of snow-balls, or as the grains of a necklace of pearls or as beams of moon-light, or as the little billows of the sea of milk, or like drops of ice-cream.

18. There were also borne by the loose and sweet winds of heaven, some lotuses with long filaments, and attended by clusters of bees humming and flying about them.

19. There were also to be seen heaps of ketaki and Kairava, Kunda and blue lotus flowers, falling and shining brightly among them.

20. These flowers covered the court hall and the roofs of houses and their courtyards. The men and women in the city raised their heads to behold them falling.

21. The sky was quite unclouded when the flowers fell incessantly from above. A sight like this that was never seen before struck the people with wonder.

22. The shower of flowers fell for quarter of an hour, but the Siddhas from whose hands they fell were unseen all the while.

23. The falling of the flowers having ceased after the assembly was covered with them, they heard the following words, coming to them from the divine personages in the sky.

24. “We have been travelling every where in whole bodies of the Siddhas from the beginning of creation; but never have we heard any where so sweet a speech as this.

25. “Such a magnanimous speech of indifference as has been just now spoken by Ráma—the moon of Raghu’s race, was never heard even by gods like ourselves.

26. “We account ourselves truly blessed to hear this highly charming and wondrous speech from the mouth of Ráma himself to-day.

27. “Indeed we are awakened and edified by attending diligently to this truly excellent speech, delivered by Ráma on the ambrosial bliss of asceticism, and leading to the highest felicity of men”.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ASSOCIATION OF AERIAL AND EARTHLY BEINGS.

THE Siddhas said:—

It behoves us to hear the decision of the great sages, in reply to the holy sermon, already delivered by the chief of Raghu’s race.

2. Come forward you great chiefs of the sages, you Nárada, Vyása, Pulaha and all ye great sages, and be ready (to hear).

3. Let us descend to the full open court of Dasaratha, which is as bright as gold and free from stain, in the manner of bees alighting on the aureate and immaculate lotus.

4. Válmíki said:—

So saying, the whole company of divine sages alighted themselves in that court from their aerial abode.

5. There Nárada the chief of sages, sat foremost playing on his lute, and in the midst was Vyása, with his dark blue complexion resembling a rainy cloud.

6. It was more over adorned with the presence of the chief sages Bhrigu, Angiras, Pulastya and others, with Chyavana, Uddálaka, Usira, Saraloman and many more about them.

7. Their garments of deer skins hang loosely down as they embraced one another. Their beads of rudráksha moved in one hand, and their water pots shook in the other.

8. Their bodies shed a lustre in the Court-hall, resembling the yellow light of the stars in the sky, and like the beams of so many suns blazing upon one another.

9. They appeared as a shower of moon beams or as a halo about the full moon, or as a circle about the orb of the sun out of its season.

10. They looked like a circlet of gems of varied colors, or like a belt of pearls of great lustre.

11. Vyása appeared at the place where he sat, to be as a dark cloud amidst the stars; and Nárada was beheld upon his seat as the white orb of the moon amongst the starry group.

12. Here Pulastya shone as Indra among the gods, and there Angirá blazed as the sun amidst the heavenly bodies.

13. On seeing the body of Siddhas descending from the sky on earth, the whole court of king Dasaratha rose up (to greet them).

14. There was a promiscuous assemblage of the aerial and earthly sages, whose commingled glory spread a lustre to the ten sides of the Court.

15. Some of them held bamboo sticks in their hands, and others had lotuses in theirs. Some had put the sacred grass in their crests, while others had inserted some gems to the braids of their hair.

16. Some had matted and tawny brown hairs on their heads, and others wore garlands of flowers on theirs. Some had strings of beads for their bracelets and others wore wristlets made of the jasmine flowers.

17. Some were clothed in tatters, and others wore garments made of bark, while there were others who wore raiments of silk. Some were girt with girdles of grass and skin about their waists, and others wore waist bands with pendant strings of pearl.

18. Vasishtha and Viswámitra honoured the aerials one by one; with respectful offerings and water and courteous address.

19. The great body of the etherials also honored Vasistha and Viswámitra in their turn, with water and offerings worthy of them and with polite speeches.

20. The king also honoured the gods and the body of the Siddhas, who in return greeted the monarch with inquiries about his welfare.

21. Then the heavenly and earthly saints interchanged their greetings with one another with cordial welcomes and gestures, and were all seated afterwards on seats made of the kusa grass.

22. They next honoured Ráma, who lay bowing before them, with gentle words and congratulations accompanied with shedding of flowers.

23. There were seated in that assembly the sages:—Viswámitra, Vasishtha, Váma Deva and the ministers of state.

24. There were also Nárada, the son of Brahmá, Vyása the greatest of sages, Maríchi, Durvása and Angirá.

25. There were Kratu, Pulastya, Pulaha, Saraloma, the great sage Vátsáyana, Bharadwája, Válmíki the great bard and sage.

26. There were also Uddálaka, Richika, Sarjati as well as Chyavana.

27. These and many others versed in the Vedas and their branches, and knowing all things worth knowing, were the leading members (of the assembly).

28. Then Nárada and others joined with Viswámitra and Vasishtha in addressing Ráma, who was sitting silent with his face turned downwards; and said:—

29. We admire the blest and graceful speech of the prince which is dignified with the spirit of stoicism that breathes through the whole of it.

30. It is full of thought, perspicuous, elegant, clear, dignified, sweet and worthy of noble minded men, by its lucid style and wants of faults.

31. Who is there that is not struck with admiration at the speech of Ráma? It is well expressive of his thoughts, correct in its diction plain and sweet and agreeable to all:

32. It is rare to find one man among a hundred who is so eloquent as to combine dignity and force with a clearness and sweetness, that may command the admiration of all.

33. Who has such a clear head as our prince, a head which is as penetrating as the best pointed arrow, and as fruitful and beauteous as the creeping plant.

34. He is truly a man whose intellectual light like that of Ráma’s, burns as the flame of a lamp within himself and enlightens all about him.

35. Man’s blood, flesh, and bones with other (parts of his body) serve as machines to supply him with sensations of external object; but there is no intelligence in them.

36. Life and death, old age and troubles, repeatedly overtake every man; but they are beasts who are so infatuated as never to think of these.

37. There is scarcely any man to be seen, who is of so clear an understanding as Ráma (the destroyer of his enemies), who is able to judge of the future by the past.

38. Ráma is the most excellent, admirable, useful, and well shaped person amongst men, as is the mango tree (in the vegetable world).

39. It is only to-day that we see that a man of Ráma’s age has acquired so much experience of the world, and such extraordinarily mature an understanding.

40. There are many such trees found growing in every place as are beautiful to see, easy of ascent, abundant in flowers and leaves; but there is no tree of paradise growing on earth.

41. There may grow in every forest, trees with goodly flowers and leaves; but the extraordinary and fair clove tree is not always to be met with.

42. Ráma has displayed the wonder of his knowledge, as the moon displays her cooling beams and good trees their clusters of blossoms, and as the flowers diffuse their fragrance all about.

43. It is very difficult to get the essence of true knowledge in this accursed world, which is constructed by the ungovernable and dominant predestination (of our past acts for misleading us to error and misery).

44. Those only are reckoned the best of men, and leaders of the good, who try their best to gain the essence of truth, and whose minds are fixed on glory as their best treasure.

45. We do not see any one in all this world, who is equal to Ráma in discrimination and magnanimity; nor shall there be one like him in future. This is our firm conviction.

46. If this speech of Ráma, which has filled every one here with admiration, fail to get its reply to the satisfaction of Ráma’s mind, it is certain that all of us here, must pass for senseless sages (on earth).

YOGA VÁSISHTHA.

BOOK II.

MUMUKSHU KHANDA

OR

THE MEANS OF FINAL LIBERATION.

CHAPTER I.

Liberation of Sukadeva.

AFTER Ráma had delivered his speech in an audible voice before the assembly, he was tenderly accosted by the sage Viswámitra who sat before him; saying:—

2. Ráma! that art the best of the most intelligent, and hast nothing more to learn besides all that thou hast come to know by thy nice observation.

3. Thou hast an understanding clear as the mirror by its own nature (reflecting every image within itself); and yet thy queries about the same, serve as the cleansing of the reflector (in order to refract its light to others).

4. Thou hast a mind like that of Suka—the son of the great Vyása, who knowing the knowable by intuition, was yet in need of some precepts for confirmation of his belief.

5. Ráma said: How was it sir, that Suka—the son of the great Vyása—who did not rest assured at first of his knowledge of the knowable, came to be settled in his belief afterwards.

6. Viswámitra answered: “Hear me relate to thee Ráma, the narrative of Sukadeva, whose case was exactly like thine, and the narration of which is a preventive of future births (in this world).”

7. There is the great Vyása sitting on his seat of gold by thy father’s side, swarthy in his complexion like a coal-black hill, but blazing as the burning sun (by his brilliancy).

8. His son was named Suka, a boy of great learning and wisdom, of a moon-like countenance, and a stature sedate as the sacrificial altar.

9. He reflected in his mind the vanity of worldly affairs like thyself, and became equally indifferent to all its concerns.

10. It was then that this great minded youth was led by his own discriminative understanding to a long inquiry after what was true, which he found out at last by his own investigation.

11. Having obtained the highest truth, he was still unsettled in his mind, and could not come to the belief of the certainty of his knowledge.

12. His mind grew indifferent to its perceptions of the transitory enjoyments of the world, and like the Chátaka thirsted only after the dew drops of heavenly bliss.

13. Once upon a time the clear sighted Suka finding his father the sage Krishna-Dwaipáyana—Vyása, sitting quietly alone by himself, he asked him with reverence; saying:—

14. Tell me, O sage! whence this commotion of the world had its rise, and how it may subside. What is its cause, how far is it to extend, and where is it to end?

15. The sage Vyása who knew the nature of the soul, being thus asked by his son, explained to him clearly all that was to be said (on the subject).

16. Suka thought that he already knew all this by his good understanding, and did not therefore think much of his father’s instructions.

17. Vyása understanding the thoughts of his son, replied to him saying that, he knew no better the true nature of these things.

18. But that there was a prince named Janaka in this land, who well knew the knowledge of the knowable, and from whom Suka could learn every thing.

19. Suka being thus directed by his father, repaired to the city of Videha at the foot of mount Sumeru, which was under the rule of Janaka.

20. The club-bearer (door keeper) informed the high minded Janaka of his coming, telling him that Suka the son of Vyása was waiting at the gate.

21. Janaka who understood that Suka had come to learn from him, gave no heed to the informant, but held his silence for seven days afterwards.

22. The prince then ordered him to be brought in the outer compound, where he had to remain in the vexation of his spirit for seven days more as before.

23. Suka was then commanded to enter the inner apartment, where he continued a week more without seeing the prince.

24. Here Janaka entertained the moon-faced Suka with abundance of eatables, perfumeries and lusty damsels.

25. But neither those vexations nor these entertainments could affect the tenor of Suka’s mind, which remained firm as a rock at the blasts of wind.

26. He remained there as the full moon (without any wane or increase), tranquil in his desires, silent and contented in his mind.

27. The prince Janaka having thus known the (unalterable) disposition of Suka’s mind, had him introduced to his presence, where seeing the complacency of his soul, he rose up and bowed down to him.

28. Janaka said: “You have accomplished to the full all your duties in this world, and obtained the object of your heart’s desire to its utmost extent; what is it that you now desire for which you are welcome at mine”.

29. Suka said: “Tell me my guide whence sprang all this bustle (of worldly life); and tell me also how it may soon come to its subsidence.”

30. Viswámitra said: Being thus asked by Suka, Janaka spoke to him the same things which he had learned from his great souled father.

31. Suka then said: “All this I have come to know long before by my own intuition, and then from the speech of my father in answer to my query.

32. “You sir, who are the most eloquent of all, have spoken to the same purport, and the same is found to be the true sense of the Sástras.

33. “That the world is a creation of volition, and loses itself with the absence of our desires; and that it is an accursed and unsubstantial world after all, is the conclusion arrived at by all sages.

34. “Now tell me truly you long armed prince, what you think this world to be (whether a reality or unreality); that my mind may be set at rest by you from its wandering all about the world (in search of truth).”

35. Janaka replied: “There is nothing more certain, O sage! than what you have known by yourself and heard from your father.

36. “There is but one undivided intelligent spirit known as the universal soul and nothing besides; it becomes confined by its desires, and freed by its want of them.

37. “You have truly come to the knowledge of the knowable, whereby your great soul has desisted from its attachment to objects of enjoyment and vision.

38. “You must be a hero to have overcome your desire in the lengthening chain of attractive enjoyments from your early youth. What more do you want to hear?

39. “Even your father, with all his learning in every science, and devotedness to austerities, has not arrived to the state of perfection like you.

40. “I am a pupil of Vyása, and you are his son; but you are greater than both of us, by your abandonment of the taste for the enjoyments of life.

41. “You have obtained whatever is obtainable by the comprehensiveness of your mind; and as you take no interest in the outer and visible world, you are liberated from it, and have nothing to doubt of.”

42. Being thus advised by the magnanimous Janaka, Suka remained silent with his mind fixed in the purely supreme object.

43. Then being devoid of sorrow and fear, and released from all efforts, exertions and doubts, he repaired to a peaceful summit of the mount Meru to obtain his final absorption.

44. There he passed ten thousands of rains in a state of unalterable meditation, till at last he broke his mortal coil, and was extinguished in the supreme soul like a lamp without oil.

45. Thus purified from the stain of transmigration by abstaining from earthly desires, the great souled Suka sank into the holy state of the Supreme Spirit, as a drop of water mixes with the waters or merges into the depth of the ocean.

CHAPTER II.

SPEECH OF VISWÁMITRA.

VISWÁMITRA said:—

Ráma! it now becomes you to have your mind properly purified from its doubts, as it was done in the case of the son of Vyása.

2. You see, O great sages! how perfectly the knowable is known to Ráma, whose good understanding has learnt to feel a distaste for worldly enjoyments, as if they were diseases unto him.

3. You well know that the fixed principle in the mind of one knowing the knowable, is to have an aversion to all the enjoyments of life.

4. It is the desire of fruition that chains down a man fastly to the earth; but the knowledge of the frailties here serves to dispel his darkness.

5. Know Ráma that it is the curtailing of desires which the wise call liberty, and the fastening of our desires to earthly objects, is what is termed our confinement here.

6. Spiritual knowledge is easily obtainable by most men here, but a distaste to (pleasurable) objects is hard to be had (however painful it is to procure them).

7. He who fully comprehends a thing, is said to know it, and who so knows what is knowable, is called a learned man; no earthly enjoyments can be delectable to such high minded men.

8. The mind that has no zest for earthly pleasures, except the glory of disinterested deeds, is said to be liberated even in the present life.

9. As there grows no vegetable in a sterile soil, so there grows no disinclination to worldliness, until one comes to know the knowable reality (i.e. to say: neither the godly can be worldly, nor the worldly be godly).

10. Hence know this supporter of Raghu’s race to have verily known the knowable, which has made him disgusted with his princely enjoyments.

11. I tell you great sages that, whatever Ráma has come to know by his intuition, requires to be confirmed by Vasishtha for the tranquility of his mind.

12. It is only a reliance in the Unity, that Ráma now requires for his repose, just as the beauty of autumn depends on the clearness of the firmament.

13. Let the venerable Vasishtha then reason with the high minded Ráma, and restore the peace of his mind.

14. For he is the master and family preceptor of the whole race of the Raghus; besides he is all knowing and all seeing; and has a clear insight (into all things) of the three times (present, past and future).

15. Then addressing himself to Vasishtha he said:—you well remember sir, the instruction given us of old, for pacifying our mutual enmity, and promoting the welfare of the high minded sages.

16. When our lord the lotus-born Brahmá, seated on the table land of Nishadha mountain, and shaded by the Sarala trees, delivered his wise lectures to us and the sages.

17. It is by means of that knowledge of liberation that our worldly desires are dispelled like the darkness of night by sun-beams.

18. Please now, O Bráhman, to communicate that rational knowledge of the knowable to your pupil Ráma, whereby he may gain the peace of his mind.

19. It will be no difficult task for you to teach the spotless Ráma, whose mirror-like mind is quite clear to take the reflection.

20. The wisdom of the holy, their learning of the Sástras, and the scholarship of the learned, are then only praiseworthy, when they are communicated to a good student, and those who are disgusted with the world.

21. But instruction given to one who is no student nor disgusted with the world, becomes as polluted as milk put in a hide vessel.

22. Again the instruction imparted by one devoid of passions and affections, fear and anger, pride and sin, serves to infuse tranquility into the mind.

23. At these words of Viswámitra the son of Gadhi, the assembled sages Vyása, Nárada and others, honoured his saying with the exclamation “bravo”, “well said” &c.

24. Then the venerable Vasishtha brilliant as Brahmá his father, and seated by the side of the king, spoke in reply:

25. O sage, I will perform without fail, what you have commanded me to do, for who, though mighty, can refuse to perform the behests of the good and wise?

26. I will destroy the mental darkness of the princes Ráma and others by the light of knowledge, as we dispel the gloom of night by the light of a lamp.

27. I well remember the instructions which were given of yore by the lotus-born Brahmá on the Nishadha mountain, for dispelling the errors of the world.

28. Having said so, the high-minded Vasishtha made up his mind as one girds up his loins, to deliver his lecture to Ráma for dispelling his ignorance, and showing him the state of supreme felicity.

CHAPTER III.

ON THE REPEATED CREATIONS OF THE WORLD.

VASISHTHA said:—

“I will now expound to you Ráma! the knowledge that was imparted of old by our lord the lotus-born (Brahmá), after creation of the world, for the peace of mankind.”

2. Ráma said:—I know sir, you will expound to me the subject of liberation in full length; but remove first my fallacy about the frailty of this world.

3. And how it was that, the great sage Vyása—the father and guide of Suka, did not attain to disembodied emancipation (after his death) with all his omniscience, while his son did so.

4. Vasishtha said:—(Hear me Ráma), there is no counting of the atoms proceeding from the spirit and forming the three worlds both before and after the birth of the glorious sun.

5. There is no body even who can count the millions of orbs which at present form the three worlds.

6. Nor can any one say by calculation, what numbers of creation will rise from the (unlimited) ocean of divine existence, like its interminable waves (for ever).

7. Ráma said:—It is needless to talk of worlds gone by or yet to come; say what you will of the present (state of existence).

8. Vasishtha said:—This world consists of brute, human and heavenly beings, whose lives when they are said to perish in any part of it are really existent in the same part.

9. The mind is called to be ever-fluctuating, and gives rise to (all things in) the three worlds in itself. It resides in vacuity in the form of the heart, and the increate (God) also residing in the vacuous soul (gives the mind the power to realize the latent ideas of the soul).

10. The millions of beings that are dead, those that are dying and will die hereafter, are all to be reborn here according to the different desires in their minds.

11. The external world appearing as a reality, is in truth but a creation of our desires; it is an ideal castle in the air, and a magic view spread before us.

12. It is as false as an earthquake in a fit of delirium, as a hobgoblin that is shown to terrify children, as a string of pearls in the clear firmament, and as the moving trees on the bank to a passenger in the boat.

13. It is an illusion as the phantom of a city in a dream, and as untrue as the imagination of a flower growing in the air. The unreality of the world best appears to one at the point of and after his death.

14. But this knowledge of (the unreality of the world) becomes darkened upon one’s being reborn on earth, when the shadow of this world falls again on the mirror of his sentient soul.

15. Thus there is a struggle for repeated births and deaths here, and a fancy for the next world after one’s death.

16. After one’s shuffling off his body, he assumes another and then another form, and thus the world is as unstable as a stool made of plantain leaves and its coatings.

17. The dead have no sensation of the earth and other elementary bodies, nor of the course of the world; but they fall again to these errors upon their being reborn here.

18. There is an interminable ignorance resembling an immense river enveloping the face of creation, and breaking into streamlets of unfordable ignorance.

19. The Divinity like a sea shoots forth in the various waves of creation, which rise incessantly and plentifully one after the other.

20. All beings here are but the waves of this sea, of which some are alike to one another in their minds and natures, while others are half alike, and some quite different from the rest.

<21.> I reckon yonder sagely Vyása as one of the thirty two of these waves, on account of his vast knowledge, and good looking appearance.

22. There were twelve of them possessed of a lesser understanding, they were the patriarchs of men, and endued with equal energy. Ten of them were men of subdued spirits, and the rest were adepts in their family duties.

23. There will be born again other Vyásas and Válmíkis, and likewise some other Bhrigus and Angirás, as well as other Pulastyas and others in different forms.

24. All other men, Asuras and gods with all their hosts are repeatedly born and destroyed either in their former or different shapes.

25. Like this there are seventy two Tretá cycles in a Kalpa age of Brahmá, some of which have passed by and others to follow. Thus will there be other people like those that have gone by, and as I understand, another Ráma and Vasishtha like ourselves (by the eternal rotation of ideas in the Divine mind).

26. There have been ten successive incarnations of this Vyása, who has done such wondrous acts, and is famed for his vast knowledge.

27. Myself and Válmíki have been contemporaries many a time, as also born in different ages and very many times.

28. We have been many times, and there were others also like myself, and so was I born also in many forms (in many ages).

29. This Vyása will again be born eight times hereafter, and again will he write his Mahábhárata and the Purána histories.

30. He having divided the Vedas and described the acts of Bhárata’s race (in the Mahábhárata), and established the knowledge of Brahm (in the Vedánta), is to attain to his disembodied liberation (after his final termination).

31. This Vyása who is devoid of fear and sorrow, and has become tranquil and emancipate in himself after subduing his mind and discarding the worldly desires is said to be liberated even in his present life time.

32. The living emancipate may sometimes be associated by his relatives and estates, his acts and duties, his knowledge and wisdom, and all his exertions like other men’s, or he may forsake them all at once.

33. These beings are either reborn a hundred times in some age or never at all (as in the case of divine incarnations), and depending on the inscrutable will (Máyá) of God.

34. There souls undergo the like changes by repetition, as a bushel of grain, which is collected to be sown repeatedly, and to be reaped again and again (in the same or some other field).

35. As the sea heaves its incessant surges of different shapes, so are all beings born incessantly in various forms in the vast ocean of time.

36. The wise man who is liberated in his life time, lives with his internal belief (of God) in a state of tranquility, without any doubt in his mind, and quite content with the ambrosia of equanimity.

CHAPTER IV.

PRAISE OF ACTS AND EXERTIONS.

VASISHTHA said:—

I know gentle Ráma that, liberation of the soul, whether in its embodied or disembodied state is both alike, as the sea-water and its waves are the same liquid substance.

2. The liberation whether of embodied or disembodied spirits, consists in their detachment from the objects of sense: hence the soul unattached to sensual gratification, is (said to be) liberated, having no idea of sensible objects.

3. And though we see before us the living liberated sage (Vyása) as an embodied person, yet we have no doubt of the detachment of his inward soul from the (mortal coil of his) body.

4. The difference between the embodied and disembodied souls, when they are equally enlightened and liberated, is like that of the sea-water in its calm and billowy states.

5. There is no more difference between bodily and unembodied liberation than there is betwixt the air in motion and at rest.

6. Liberation whether with or without the body, is productive of unselfishness; we have lost our selfishness ever since we have come to the knowledge of an undivided unity (of the soul).

7. Now therefore attend to the true doctrine that I am going to deliver to you, which will be a jewel to your ears as it will dispel the darkness of ignorance (from your mind).

8. Know, O son of Raghu, that every thing in this world is obtainable by our efforts being properly employed (to our purposes).

9. This (knowledge of truth) rises as the moon (in the human mind), and sheds its cooling and delightsome influence to the heart, that there is no other way to gain the fruits of our exertions but by our efforts.

10. We evidently see the results of the exercise of our efforts, and nothing coming out from what the dull and mistaken call as chance or fate.

11. An effort when directed according to the counsel and conduct of the good in the exercise of the action of the body and mind, it is attended with success, otherwise it is as vain as the freak of a madman.

12. Thus he who wishes to acquire riches, and perseveres in its acquisition, surely succeeds in gaining them; or else he stops short in the midway.

13. It was by means of the exertion of their efforts that some particular persons have obtained the paramount dominion of Indra over the three worlds.

14. It is by the exertion of one’s efforts that he attains to the rank of the lotus-born (Brahmá); and some even gain the inward joy of the state of Brahm by it.

15. It was by virtue of his self-exertion that some body has become the best among men, even as he who bears the ensign of the eagle (Vishnu among the gods).

16. It was by the exertion of one’s efforts that some persons succeeded to obtain the form of Siva accompanied by his female power, and adorned by the semi-circle of the moon in his crest.

17. Know our actions to be of two kinds namely, those of former and present lives: and that acts of the <present> life generally supersede those of the past.

18. Know also that energy joined with constant practice, and supported by wisdom and some stimulating force, is able to break down the mount of Meru, and the demerits of acts in the former lives of men.

19. The exertions of a man proceeding from his good efforts and countenanced by the law, lead to his success, or else they either go for nothing or turn to his disadvantage.

20. So a man laid up in a state of disability, is unable to twist his fingers in order to hold a little water in the hollow of his palm for drink: while there is another who (by his well directed efforts) gets the possession of seas and islands, mountains and cities for himself, supports all his dependents and relations, and does not think this earth too great for him.

CHAPTER V.

NECESSITY OF ACTIVITY.

VASISHTHA said:—

It is the will or inclination that is the prime instrument of all actions done even according to the rules of law and sástras, as it is the reflection of light that gives various hues to things.

2. Whoever wishes to do anything desirable to him by unlawful acts, it becomes as fruitless as the endeavours of a madman.

3. As you try so you get both of good and evil: and fortune and exertion are the joint causes of acts according to fatalists.

4. Human exertions are either lawful or unlawful; the former leading to success, and the latter to dangerous consequences.

5. Fortune and exertions contend with each other like two rams of unequal strength, wherein the mightier overcomes the other.

6. Therefore should man apply himself diligently (to his duties), and employ his skill and promptness after them in such a way, as his to-day may overcome the morrow (i.e., do the works of to-morrow to-day).

7. When two unequal forces (of two persons) contend with one another like two rams, the stronger force whether of this or that man, overcomes the other.

8. When one incurs a failure or danger even by his lawful exertions, he should know it to be the result of his misapplied exertions.

9. One by his utmost exertion in the right way, as by the gnashing of his teeth (and the like), can overcome his misfortune and so does his bad luck sometimes baffle his exertions.

10. When one finds himself to be led astray by the demerit of his acts of a former state of existence, he must attempt to subdue the same by greater energy of his present state.

11. So far should one diligently endeavour to exercise his exertions, as he may be able to beat down the evils resulting from his bad fortune (or predestination).

12. The evils of bad fortune are undoubtedly removed by the meritorious acts of the present life, as the bad consequence of an act of yesterday is averted by its remedy of today.

13. Having trampled over an unfavorable fortune by one’s reliance on his continuous energy, he must attempt to secure to himself every good for his well-being in his present life.

14. Know that tranquility is not to be found by the effortlessness of dull ass-like men; it is the lawful energy of men which is said to secure his welfare in both worlds.

15. And that one should make his way out of the pit of this world by force of his energy and diligence, just as the lion breaks out from his cage.

16. One must ponder in himself every day that his body is subject to corruption, his beastly acts must be kept backward and man like acts put forward.

17. It is our good exertions that are attended by good results as the bad ones are followed by bad consequences. Chance is a mere meaningless word.

18. Do not make your bloom of youth useless as ashes by sitting idly at home and enjoying the bliss of the harem like a worm in the sore.

19. He who has no reliance on present objects, but depends upon suppositions of the past, is as a man flying for fear of his own hands supposing them as snakes.

20. It is a pleasure to men of perverted understandings to think themselves guided by their fortunes, prosperity flies away far off from such men who depend on their fortunes.

21. Therefore let a man diligently apply himself first to (the cultivation of) his reason, and then investigate into the works of abstruse spiritual knowledge.

22. Those who do not set their hearts to acts according to the dictates of the sástras, but exert themselves otherwise to gain (their ends), are accursed as mad men for their vain attempts.

23. Thinking there is no end of exertions one declines to take the pains (after anything), and says that, no pains can bring out a gem from a stone (or oil from water).

24. Know that there is a limitation both of human lot and exertion, as of all other things as a pot or picture having a (limited capacity and length).

25. And that it is by means of good conduct derived from best precepts and the company of the good, that one succeeds to his object, and a disposition that breaks loose of these (bounds), is sure to fall to the contrary (extreme of) ruin.

26. Again any man who conducts himself in the right course of action, never fails in his attempts at any time.

27. Some among the best of men, who had been reduced to misery by their poverty and helplessness, have again risen to the eminence of Indra by exertion of their manhood.

28. By learning the Sástras well from boyhood, by keeping company with the good, and by possession of good qualities, as also by diligent application, a man is sure to gain his object.

29. It has been seen, known, heard, and experienced (by us) that acts are rewarded with success; and they are dull-headed who think of obtaining it from fortune or by chance.

30. Had there not been the folly of idleness in this world, what man would fail either to be rich or learned? It is by reason of idleness that this earth is filled to its utmost limit of the sea with indigent and beastly men.

31. Let a man after passing his childhood, and getting rid of its false and idle playfulness and when he has attained the age of youthful vigour, apply himself diligently to the company of wise men, and to the cultivation of his understanding by a knowledge of the Sástras and their meanings, and by scanning well his own faults and qualities.

32. Válmíki said:—After the sage had said these sayings, the day passed away, and the sages went to bathe after taking leave of the assembly, where they joined again with the rising beams of the sun dispelling the gloom of night.

CHAPTER VI.

REFUTATION OF FATALISM.

VASISHTHA resumed saying:—

Now fate being no other than the result of our actions of the former state of our existence, it is possible to leave it at a distance, and to extricate one’s self (from its fetters) by betaking himself to good company and study of moral Sástras.

2. Whatever one attempts to do, he readily meets with its reward: this being the effect of exertion. Fate is no other but the same thing.

3. Men laboring hard, are heard to exclaim “O how painful it is”: so men suffering under fate cry out “O hard is fate!” (so the one is as bad as the other).

4. Thus then fate being no other than a name for our past actions, it is as easily overcome (by present acts) as a boy (is subdued) by an adult youth.

5. As some bad conduct of yesterday is corrected by proper behaviour of the present day, so the anterior fate is removed by (posterior) acts.

6. Those carnal minded libertines who do not try the means (of reforming their fate), but depend upon the favor of fortune, are perverted in their nature and marked for misery.

7. Thus if the acts of manliness are capable of forefending one’s misfortunes, it must be acknowledged that manliness which destroys the other, is the mightier of the two.

8. As of two fruits growing on the same fore-stalk, the one is found to be empty within and the other full of juice, so the fruit of fate is rendered abortive by that of manliness.

9. Seeing the decay of the best things in the world, we must own the predominant power of the cause of this decay.

10. Like two rams our fate and exertions are fighting with one another, wherein the victory is always on the side of the stronger.

11. In the case of the royal elephant’s taking up a beggar boy for being made the ruler (of a country), its cause is to be attributed more to the vote of the country-men and citizens (than to chance or fortune).

12. As a man takes his food and grinds it under his teeth, so is one (depending on fate) crushed by the stronger party relying on his exertions.

13. Inferior servants are thus employed like clods of earth by their more active masters in any work they like.

14. Silly and impotent men seeing the strong thriving by their exertions whether apparent or unseen, are apt to attribute it to their good fortune (instead of their diligence).

15. The strong efforts of men truly constitute their presiding fortune, and these two are viewed alike by the wise.

16. In the case of the (aforesaid) beggar boy’s installation to the ruling and protection of the people of a realm, the unanimous concurrence of the law and ministers, of the elephant and citizens (is to be taken as the chief cause).

17. Should the beggar boy be ever elected for a ruler by the royal elephant itself (without the assent of men), in that case it is to be attributed to the boy’s good fortune only (because there was no sensible exertion on his side).

18. Present acts destroy those of the past life and so also the vice-versa comes to pass; but the exertions of a man are undoubtedly successful (at all times).

19. Of these two powers that of the present state is manifestly superior to the other; hence it is as possible to overcome the past by the present, as to lick a boy by an adult.

20. As a hail shower lays waste the cultivation of a whole year, so also doth the predominant fate sometimes overpower the attempts of this life.

21. However it does not behoove us to be sorry at the loss of our long earned treasure (as of the harvest), for what avails our sorrow at what is beyond our control.

22. If I should sorrow for what I have not the power to prevent, I must then weep all the days of my life because I am not to be spared by death.

23. All our acts are subject to their proper time and place, and to the modes of their operation and combination according to the course of nature; hence it is that the more diligent are the most successful (everywhere).

24. We ought therefore to rely in our exertions and clearness of understanding by the help of Sástras and association with the wise, for fording over the ocean of this world.

25. Actions of the past and present lives are the two fruit trees growing in the garden of humanity; of which the one that is cultivated best, thrives and fructifies the most.

26. He who is unable to overcome his false fate by his best exertions (in this life), is no better than an ignorant beast that has no power over its pain or pleasure.

27. He who thinks of going to heaven or hell by the will of the Maker, is also a slave to destiny and no better than a beast.

28. The man of a noble mind and one employed in acts of goodness, breaks off from the errors of the world as a lion from its cage.

29. Those who vainly imagine themselves to be led about by some (supernatural power), and so slight their necessary duties, are to be shunned at a distance as the mean and base.

30. There are thousands of acts that are attended with gain or loss to their doers; but it is the duty of man to do what is right whether they are pleasant or painful.

31. He who does not transgress the bounds of law, nor forsake the duties (of his race), is attended by every blessing abundant as the pearls in the sea.

32. Devoted diligence in acts leading to one’s object, is termed to be his manliness by the wise; and that being guided by the Sástra leads to his success.

33. An act accompanied by exertion, is of itself the accomplisher of one’s object, and the company of the wise and study of good books serve to raise a man by brightening his understanding.

34. The infinite happiness or a tranquil spirit is known as the Summum bonum by the wise; and those good works are fit for study which lead to that state.

35. The acts of our former lives constitute what we call our destiny, and they return to us from the region of the gods, for our good in both worlds.

36. We blame the fate which is a creation of the fancy of the ignorant, who by their adoration of the same come to meet their destruction.

37. One benefits himself always by his activity in both worlds, as his good acts of to-day gives a grace to those of yesterday.

38. Whoso therefore applies himself with diligence to his acts, reaps their fruits like that of an Amalaki in his palm, which though it is within his grasp, yet it could not be obtained without the cost of some labour:

39. It is the ignorant only that depart from the beaten path, and fall into the error of fatalism. Therefore give up that false faith in an unreal fate, which is a mere creation of the imagination and devoid of any cause or effect; and apply to your manly exertions.

40. The fruit of following the Sástras and observing the good customs and local usages, is long known (to be wholesome), as exciting the heart and the exertion of the limbs to action. This it is what they called “manly activity.”

41. All wise men after discussion of the subject of fate and acts, have applied themselves to activity by utter rejection of fatality, and accomplished their ends by attendance on the good and wise.

42. Knowing the efficacy of activity, every one should betake himself to his personal exertions, and attain to his highest perfection by attending to good Sástras and the wise counsels of learned men.

43. And knowing the bondage of our births to be full of pain, let people strive for the exercise of their activities, and obtain the true and sweet blessing of tranquility by their attendance on the wise.

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE NECESSITY OF ACTIVITY.

HAVING obtained a body free from disease and a mind free from trouble, one should try to know the knowable to prevent his further birth (in this world).

2. Whoso wishes to avert his destiny by means of his activity, obtains the acme of his wishes both in this world as well as in the next.

3. But whoever is averse to assiduity and relies in his luck, he is an enemy to his own soul, and sacrifices all his virtues, riches and hopes (to his idleness).

4. It is the exercise of our sensuous and mental faculties as also of the members of the body, which are the different modes of our exertions, that leads us to success.

5. Our perceptions are the cause of our mental activity, and this actuates the body to action, whereby we obtain the fruits of our desire.

6. In whatever case there is some act (enjoined in the Sástra), it points us to our exertions and never to destiny. Even children are well aware of this.

7. It was by the exercise of their exertions that Divaspati (Jupiter) became the lord of gods, and Sukra obtained the preceptorship of demons.

8. There have been many weak, poor and miserable men, who have by means of their manly exertions become equal to Indra himself.

9. So also there have been many great men on earth, who after enjoyment of a great many extraordinary things and luxuries here, have become guests in hell for want of the exercise of their manly virtues.

10. In this manner have all beings evaded the effects of their various states of want and opulence by means of their own exertions (in the right way).

11. There are three fold benefits derived from the study of books, from lectures of a preceptor, and from one’s own industry, all of which are attendant on our exertions and not destiny.

12. This is the long and short of all the Sástras, that diligence preserves our minds from all evils, by employing them to whatever is good and right.

13. To apply with diligence to whatever is excellent, not low or mean and not liable to loss or decay, is the precept of parents and preceptors to their sons and pupils.

14. I get the immediate fruit of my labour in proportion to my exertion: hence I say, I enjoy the fruit of my labour and not of fortune.

15. Activity gives us success and it is this that elevates the intelligent. But men of little understandings rely only in fortune in their miserable state.

16. We have ocular evidence (of the efficacy) of activity every day, in the instances of men travelling in distant countries (for the sake of gain).

17. He that eats becomes satiate and not who starves: so he who walks is said to proceed and not one who rests: and in like manner whoso speaks is called a speaker and not the silent man: thus action makes the man.

18. Wise men escape from great difficulties by means of their exertions; but not so the mistaken fatalist by his fruitless inertness.

19. Whoso acts in any manner, gets his reward accordingly; but the restive man has nothing to expect anywhere.

20. By well directed industry a man reaps the best reward, as he meets with its reverse by his misapplied labour: think upon this O Ráma! and do as you like.

21. The reward of industry which a man meets with sooner or later at any time or place, the same is said by the wise to be his fortune.

22. No one can see his fortune, nor has any body ever seen the same, nor is there such a thing to be found in any world: it is but the merit of our acts here which they place in the other world.

23. A man is born on earth to grow up and decay in his time, and no destiny is seen therein in the same way as his childhood, youth and old age.

24. One’s application to diligence and action for the attainment of an object, is known by the term exertion by the wise, whereby all things are accomplished (and which is no destiny).

25. One’s going from one place to another, his holding a thing in the hand, and the movement of his limbs, are all the acts of his exertion and not his destiny.

26. There is another kind of propensity to acts productive of evil; this sort of action is likened to the attempt of a mad man which yields no good.

27. Men of acute understandings raise themselves to elevation, by their association with the virtuous, study of good works and active employment to duties tending to their own good.

28. The boundless joy arising from equanimity, is said to constitute one’s Summum bonum (upon earth). This blessing also results from a man’s diligent application to the Sástras (and not from his destiny).

29. It is the understanding that leads to the knowledge of the Sástras, as it is the other that tends to our right understanding of things. Just so does the lotus serve to beautify a lake, as it is the lake which lends its grace to the lotus. (i.e. They serve mutually to assist each other).

30. It is also by virtue of one’s deep study and good company in youth, that a man attains his desirable objects afterwards (which are the results of his exertions).

31. It was by means of his activity that Vishnu had conquered the demons, and established the order of the world. It was by this that he created the worlds none of which could be the work of fate.

32. Now, O lord of Raghu’s race! employ your efforts to the exertion of your manly activities in such a way in this earth, that you may live free from fear of being bitten by the serpentine people in this arbor of the world (i.e. crush the malice of your enemies).

CHAPTER VIII.

INVALIDATION OF DESTINY.

VASISHTHA continued saying that:—

What does destiny mean, which has no form, nor act, no motion nor might, but is a false notion rooted in the (minds) of the ignorant.

2. It is a word that has come into vogue from the idea of the future retribution of one’s past actions (or retributive justice) and the like, which is designated “destiny”.

3. From this the ignorant are led to believe that there is a thing as destiny: the inscrutability of which has led them to the fallacy as that of the supposition of a snake in a rope.

4. As a past misdeed of yesterday is rectified by a good action of the following day, let this day therefore supercede the past, and employ yourself to-day to action.

5. The perverted understanding that believes in a destiny grounded on its erroneous conception, may well enter into the fire from his conviction that it will not burn him unless it is so destined.

6. If destiny is the sole cause of every thing, why then should a man betake himself to his actions of bathing and making his offerings, sitting and walking, all of which may be done by his destiny.

7. What then is the necessity of one’s advising another to do a thing when destiny is the director of all? Let then all be silent and say nothing to nobody.

8. There is no one to be seen on earth that is motionless except the bodies of the dead; and if it is action that produces anything, it is useless to believe in destiny.

9. Nor is there any co-operative power of the invisible destiny perceptible in the actions of men, whence it is but a meaningless word.

10. Two things as the implements and members of the body being joined together, have each their several action (as that of the pen and razor and the hand in writing and shaving); but the hand being wanted, nothing can be done by destiny (with its having those tools).

11. There is no such clear idea of a destiny like those of the mind and intellect, even in the (illiterate) cow-herd or in the (learned) pandit. Hence it is a mere non-entity.

12. If the concept of destiny be other (than that of an agent), it must mean something else; or if it be the same thing (with the agent) why then give it a different name (as destiny)? If it be proved to be an imaginary term, then why not imagine your exertion to be agent (of your action)?

13. The immaterial destiny like vacuity has no connection with the material body. If it had a form or figure it would be visible (to some one or other); hence destiny is a nullity.

14. If destiny is the main spring of the movements of all beings in the three worlds, then let all creatures rest at ease (with the assurance) that destiny will perform their parts.

15. The belief that we are guided by destiny and do as we are led to do, is a deception and an allegation (of self excuse); in fact there is no such thing as destiny.

16. It is the fool that fancies to himself a destiny and relies on it to his own disadvantage; while the intelligent raise themselves to better states by means of their exertion.

17. Say who is there among the mighty and brave, the intelligent and learned, that looks or waits upon destiny in this world?

18. Destiny may be said good, if it can have the power of saving a man from being beheaded, whom fortune-tellers had pronounced by their calculation to be long lived.

19. Again, O Rághava, should one who is foretold by his fortune-teller to become a learned man, attain his learning without being taught in it, then may we believe fortune to be true.

20. Mark, O Ráma! how the sage Viswámitra has cast away his destiny at a distance; and attained to Brahmahood by his own exertions.

21. Look at us and others who have become sages, that it was by our industry we became aeronauts or wanderers in the etherial regions.

22. Remember, O Ráma, how the chiefs of the Dánava race, have established their empires on earth by their prowess, and by discarding their destinies altogether.

23. Look again how the chiefs of gods have wrested the extensive earth from those demons by their valourous deeds of slaying and harassing them (in battle).

24. See Ráma! how they make handsome wicker vessels (of bamboo work) for the holding of water by their own industry, and without the aid of any destiny to the completion of the same.

25. In all our works of giving and receiving, walking, resting and the like, we see no causality of destiny in their completion, as we see of medicines (in healing diseases).

26. Therefore O Ráma, give up this destiny of your mistaken fancy; which is in reality devoid of its cause or effect, and is a false and ideal nullity; and betake yourself to your best exertions.

CHAPTER IX.

INVESTIGATION OF ACTS.

RÁMA asked:—

“Will you Sir, that art versed in all knowledge, kindly explain the true sense of destiny in popular use.”

2. Vasistha replied:—It is a man’s activity and no other, O Rághava, that is the cause of all his actions, and the recipient of their consequence, wherein destiny has nothing to do.

3. Destiny is a mere imaginary thing, which neither exists nor acts nor feels (their effects). It is neither seen nor regarded (by any body).

4. The good or bad result which proceeds from the accomplished acts of successful activity, is expressed by the word destiny.

5. The wished for and unwished for consequences resulting from the good and bad deeds of human activity, are termed the effects of destiny by people.

6. Human activity which is the only cause of some unavoidable future consequence, is called as destiny by the majority of mankind.

7. Truly, O Rághava! destiny though void as vacuity, appears as real to some body, who thinks it to be an active agent, while others know it to be inactive.

8. Again destiny is a mere saying uttered by men upon the result of some good or bad effect of their actual exertion, that “it is this which has produced the other.”

9. It is my belief and I have known it for certain that, destiny is no more than the word uttered by people upon their attainment of the object of their exertions.

10. Destiny is that word of consolation which is uttered by men, as significant of the good or evil which they meet with and which they call to be the effect of the other.

11. Ráma asked:—How is it sir, that you who are all wise, do now contradict your own assertion that destiny is the result of the stock of our former acts (of past life)?

12. Vasishtha answered saying:—Well said O Ráma! you know every thing; but hear me tell you the whole of it, whereby you will have a firm belief in the nullity of destiny.

13. All the various desires which men may have entertained in their minds before, even those come to be accounted as his deeds (or mental actions) at last.

14. All animals are seen also to act according to their desires, and to do nothing to which an inclination was wanting in their natures.

15. As the villager goes to his village and the townsman comes to the town: so it is the nature of the desire that leads men to their particular acts.

16. The keen and firm resolution with which an act was done in the former state of life, that verily is termed destiny in the successive births, or generations of living beings.

17. Thus are the acts of all active beings conformable with their natures, and the actions of men are in accordance to their desires, the desire is no other than the mind itself, and the mind is self-same with the human soul.

18. The mind is the soul and cause of all acts which they call the doings of destiny, certainly there is no other thing as destiny beside the mind.

19. This mind is verily the living soul, which acts as it desires, and enjoys accordingly the fruits thereof, and is same with destiny.

20. Know Ráma that the mind, the heart, desire, action and destiny are synonymous terms, and applied by the virtuous to the unascertainable soul (evolved in these forms).

21. Now whatever the so named soul undertakes to do continually and with a firm resolution, it obtains the fruit thereof accordingly.

22. It is by means of the activity or exertion of this soul, and by no other means, O support of Raghu’s race, that it obtains everything, and may it lead you to your good only.

23. Ráma said:—Being caught in the net of my pre-existent desire, I remain a captive to them and do as they lead me to. Say then, O sage what else I can do.

24. Vasishtha replied:—So then O Ráma, you will be able to reach to your lasting good, if you will but exert your activity for it, without which there is no other way to it.

25. These desires are of two kinds, some leading to good and others to evil. Hence the desire of one’s prior state must have been of one kind or other.

26. If you will be guided now by the pure desires (of your nature), you will be gradually led by means of your good acts to attain the state of your lasting welfare.

27. But if your wrong inclinations tend to lead you to difficulties, you must try your best to overcome such propensities perforce.

28. You Ráma are wise and perfectly intelligent, and not composed of a dull (material) body only; now if you should be in need of another’s guidance to waken your intellect, say where lies your own intelligence.

29. If you would have one to enlighten your understanding, say where is that another to illumine him, and who is the other to illuminate him also. Hence as no one is wholly devoid of understanding, let him improve it himself.

30. The current of our desires is flowing betwixt the two channels of good and evil; it must be by exertion of our activity that we must turn it to the right course.

31. You who are the mightiest of the mighty, must exert the force of your activity to turn your mind to a profitable course from its direction to the profitless.

32. By directing the mind to the right way from the wrong, it will take the right course and so the vice versa. But as human mind is as (tender as) a child, it must not be employed by force (but gentle measures).

33. The training of the child like that of the mind, is effected slowly by gentleness and indulgence, and not by force and hurry.

34. You have already by your constant practice, got a mastery over all your good and bad desires; you have hence forward to direct your tendencies to good only.

35. O victorious Ráma! When by your pristine habits you have an aptitude to do what is good, learn that it is the result of your good nature.

36. O sinless Ráma, your desires are at present lying dormant in your mind, and require some practice to be employed only to the doing of good.

37. If you will not exert yourself at present to improve your dormant desires by constant practice, you can never expect to be happy.

38. When it is doubtful (to know the nature of the innate propensity), do you incline to what is good, and as you thrive in this, you shall have no evil to fear.

39. Whatever one practices, he becomes perfect in that in time; as studying from childhood makes the learned free from error.

40. When you have the good will in you, you must accomplish your purpose, by means of your activity and subjection of the organs of your body.

41. So long as your mind is imperfect and unacquainted with the state of divine truth, you must attend to your teacher, books and reasoning, and act according to their directions (in the paths of truth).

42. Having first finished your acts and known the truth, you must abandon even your meritorious deeds, and all your desires with them.

43. Having known by your good understanding, that the virtuous course led by honorable men is truly good, give particular attention to know the nature of God, then forsake even that (enquiry), and remain (silent) as a saint (muni).

CHAPTER X.

DESCENSION OF KNOWLEDGE.

VASISTHA resumed:—

This thing called destiny is as true as the reality of God. It is the cause of causes and effect of effects. (It is an attribute of God).

2. Now attend to my words and depend on your exertions, and intently apply your ever confident mind to the attainment of your chief good.

3. Try your exertions to turn to your subjection the misleading senses from pursuing their objects.

4. I will now propound to you a code containing of the essence of the best means of liberation, which will confer the fruits of your exertions and lead you to your welfare in both worlds.

5. Let them that have great minds, forsake their worldly desires in order to avoid their future births, and attend to these lectures with calm contentment (in their minds).

6. Weigh well the meanings of the antecedent and subsequent propositions, repress your mind from its worldly cares, and dispose your self to equanimity for its inquiry after truth.

7. Hear me relate to you Ráma, the way to emancipation, which will remove your feelings of pain and pleasure, and become the surest means to lead you to supreme happiness.

8. On hearing this lecture on liberation in the company of all those reasonable men, you will know that highest state which is free from pain, and of which there is no termination.

9. This was spoken of old in a former Kalpa age by Brahmá abiding in the Supreme spirit. It is the remover of all anxiety and giver of all comfort to the soul.

10. Ráma asked saying:—Say O Bráhman—that art my guide, what cause moved Brahmá himself of old to reveal this knowledge, and in what manner was it obtained by you.

11. Vasishtha replied:—The supreme soul of infinite manifestations exists by itself; it passes through and supports the whole in the form of vacuity and understanding, and as light to all living beings.

12. From him who remains the same (unaltered being) in his rest and motion, the great Vishnu was born, like a moving wave on the quiet waters of the sea.

13. Then was Brahmá produced from the lotus of his heart, having the mount Meru for its pericarp, and the points of the compass for its petals, and the stars for its pistils.

14. He being beset by gods and sages acquainted with the Vedas and their significations, created all the worlds and the minds with their various thoughts.

15. He then created the groups of men in the Bhárata division (India) in a corner of Jambudwípa (Asia), and subjected them to all manner of diseases and afflictions.

16. They are also troubled with the possession and want of many things, and their subjection to dangers and diseases. Here all species of created beings are subjected to a variety of tribulations and afflictions.

17. The lord and creator of worlds, seeing the misery of these people, felt compassion for them, as a father does for his children.

18. He then pondered within himself for a moment with intensity of thought and for the good of all creatures, how to exterminate the misery of these beings who were subjected to death and despair.

19. With this thought the lord god (Brahmá), established himself the rules of austerity, piety, charity, veracity and pilgrimage.

20. Having established these, the lord and creator again thought within himself, how to make an end of the many miseries of the men he had created.

21. He thought upon self-extinction as the Supreme bliss, which was obtainable only through a knowledge of the Deity, and whereby man might be exempted from repeated births and deaths.

22. It was divine knowledge, he thought, the only means of men’s crossing over (the ocean) of this world; but austerity, charity and pilgrimage were no means to it. (But mere preparatives to knowledge).

23. Upon this said he “I will immediately make a new and sure bridge for the salvation of men and for their liberation from pain.”

24. Having thought so, the lord Brahmá sitting on the lotus, meditated in his mind, and produced me from himself.

25. Being thus produced, I stood forthwith in the presence of my progenitor, as a wave rising from the sea leans towards it.

26. I then bowed down to the god who held a water-pot in one hand and a rosary in the other, with a pitcher and a bead of seeds in my either hand, and was thus addressed by him.

27. Come my son said he, and then holding me with his hand, made me sit on the northern petal of his lotus of truth, which shone as bright as the moon amidst the silvery clouds.

28. Wearing the skin of an antelope, Brahmá my father, spoke to me who was in the like habit, with the voice of a gander addressing a stork (i.e. a talkative person addressing a mute one).

29. He said “I will for a moment overpower thy ficklemindedness under a mist of insensibility, as a dark cloud overshadows the disk of the moon.”

30. It was under this imprecation that I lost my reason and forgot every thing, even the clear idea I had of God.

31. I then became as helpless as one out of his wits, and came to be afflicted with distress and sorrow like an indigent person.

32. Ah woeful is this world! said I, and how came evil to dwell in it? With these thoughts I remained in silence (pondering on the origin of evil).

33. Then he my father spoke to me saying: Ah my son, why art thou so afflicted? Ask of me the remedy for thy affliction, and thou shalt become happy.

34. Then the lord creator of all peoples was asked by me, seated as I had been on the gold-coloured leaflet of the lotus, about the medicine of worldly woes.

35. How came, said I, O my lord, this world to be so full of misery, and how can people get rid of it, is what I ask of thee (to know).

36. I then learnt the most holy wisdom which Bráhman my father delivered to me, and following his advice, I became quite composed (in my mind).

37. Then the Creator of the world and revealer of all causes, seeing me knowing the knowable and restored to my own natural state said:—

38. I had turned thee to insanity my son, by an illusion, in order to make thee an enquirer into the essence of true knowledge for the welfare of mankind.

39. Now art thou released from the curse of illusion, and arrived to thy highest state of understanding. Thou hast become as one soul (with the Supreme), and art as pure gold (after its purification from dross).

40. Now shut thy heart against the world, and proceed to the land of Bharata on the surface of the earth for the good of mankind.

41. There employ thyself to ceremonial duties to the best of thy knowledge; and advise others to ritual acts in their proper order (of exoteric faith).

42. But such as are disgusted (with the world) in their hearts, and are rational with their elevated understandings, are to be counseled to esoteric knowledge which confers true felicity (to man).

43. Being thus appointed by him who was born in the lotus, I continue to abide herein throughout the succession of beings. (i.e. for ages).

44. I have no duty to perform here, but live while I have to live free from all cares. I do my acts always with as tranquil a mind as it were in a state of sleep; I do my works with the body; but I do nothing here with my soul (which is fixed in God).

CHAPTER XI.

ON THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE INQUIRER AND LECTURER.

VASISHTHA continued:—

I have thus related to you fully about the descent of knowledge on earth, with the reason of my birth and the intention of the lotus born Brahmá (in making me his apostle).

2. Now Ráma, as you are eager to learn the transcendental knowledge, and feel so great an anxiety for it in your mind, it must be the effect of your pristine merit.

3. Ráma said:—How was it sir, that the Supreme lord felt a desire to send down knowledge on earth after his creation of it (and not along with it?)

4. Vasishtha replied:—This Brahmá is in his own nature the same with the Supreme Brahm, and is born in him, as a billow is born of the waters of the deep. (The co-eternal logos).

5. This great lord saw the imperfection of his creation, and saw its whole course (at one view) in times past, present and future. (The perversion of mankind subsequent to their fall).

6. He saw the decay of ceremonial rites after the end of the Satya (golden) and other ages, and considering the error to which men were to fall afterward, he felt pity for their states (for want of sacrifices).

7. Then the Lord thought of endowing me with true knowledge, and sent me on the surface of the earth for dispelling the ignorance of mankind.

8. Like me he has sent also some other great sages here, as Sanat Kumára, Nárada and many others also.

9. He has sent them all for the redemption of mankind from the fetters of their ignorance by a series of meritorious acts, and their progress in divine knowledge also.

10. These great sages seeing at the end of the past golden age, the gradual decay of the holy ritualistic rites on earth:

11. They created the rulers of earth at different divisions of the land, for regulating the course of duties, and observing their proper limits (of action).

12. They have made many works on the traditional law and sacrificial rules to be observed on earth, and many appropriate provisions for the accomplishment of religious and temporal duties (in the smritis).

13. But in the revolution of time, all these duties became slack in their course, and men have no other thought except that of seeking their daily maintenance.

14. Every day disputes are rising among the land-owners on account of their estates and properties, and the people are subjected to various penalties in large numbers.

15. In such a state, it is not possible for the rulers to rule over their states without fighting with one another, when they with their subjects are inevitably reduced to wretchedness (by warfare).

16. In order to remove the impotence (of such princes), and to lead them to a comprehensive view of things, we have prescribed to them many excellent precepts of knowledge.

17. It was the spiritual knowledge which had been at first propounded to princes; but it came afterwards to be known under the title of royal science (polity).

18. This royal science is of a recondite nature, and is also the best kind of spiritual knowledge. Many kings have been set beyond the reach of calamity by a knowledge of this science.

19. It is after many such fair-famed princes that have gone by, that your mighty self was begotten by the present king Dasaratha.

20. O slayer of your enemies, I find a very agreeable and holy kind of apathy growing spontaneously in your most clear understanding.

21. There is another kind of cold-heartedness, O Ráma, which is caused (by some sorrow) in the minds of the virtuous and reasonable men, that is styled their casual indifference.

22. But your unprecedented and astonishing apathy, which is produced without any cause and by your reason only, is called real stoicism by the wise.

23. Seeing the obnoxiousness of worldly things, what man will not grow averse to them? The best displacency to them, is what rises in the mind of one from his own judgment.

24. They are reckoned as great men and greatly wise also, whose indifference springs without any cause (of detestation to the world), and whose minds are clear (of all gloomy thoughts).

25. One whose mind feels a disgust (to the world) from its own judgement and nice discrimination (of things), is as graceful to see as the youthful bridegroom adorned with chaplets of flowers.

26. They are esteemed as the best of men, who betake themselves to indifference after judicious consideration of the worldly troubles.

27. It must be by one’s repeated and judicious examination of the inward and outward illusions (of this world), that he should forcibly withdraw himself from them.

28. Who is there that feels not an aversion to worldliness at the doleful sight of a funeral event? It is that aversion however, which is born of itself that is highly commendable.

29. I see you are sincerely indifferent, and reaching the acme of true greatness. You are worthy of the best knowledge as is the moist earth of receiving the seeds.

30. It is by the grace of the Lord God and Supreme spirit, that a lucky understanding like yours, naturally inclines to reason.

31. It is by performance of ritual duties and observance of the prescribed rules, that the demerits of former births are expunged.

32. Upon expurgation of former demerits, the understanding turns of itself to take cognizance of spiritual matters, like the simultaneous flight of the crow towards the falling fruit of the palm.

33. But those that are devoted only to ritual acts, are like persons plunged in an eddy, wherein they are whirled up and down until they come to perceive the state of supreme (felicity).

34. Seeing this (illusory) state of the world, a man must shake off the delusion of his worldly-mindedness, just as the elephant breaks loose from his fetters.

35. It is too intricate, O Ráma! to understand the course of this boundless world, and not even the greatest of embodied beings (as man) can know it without true knowledge.

36. Know, O support of Raghu’s race! that men of great understandings have got over the unfordable ocean of the world by means of the raft of their knowledge and reason.

37. Now hear with attention and steadiness of your mind, this rational knowledge for your deliverance from the flood of this world.

38. The unceasing excitements of the senses and the fears and miseries of the world, will continually disturb the mind, without the remedy of right reason.

39. There is naught beside rational knowledge, that can enable holy men to endure the afflictions of the opposite extremes of heat and cold and wind and rain.

40. The incessant cares and miseries which befal to men at every step, serve sometimes to torment the ignorant mind as a flame of fire burns away the straw.

41. But the troubles of this world can not afflict the wise man, who knows the knowable, and discerns all things (in their true light); just as it is impossible for the flame of fire to burn down a wood drenched by the rains.

42. The man knowing the truth resembles the firm arbor of the oak (Kalpa), which no whirlwind of disease or distress, raised by the hot winds of this desert of the world, has the power to upset.

43. The intelligent man who has a mind to know the truth, must diligently serve his wise preceptor with loving regard.

44. The sayings of the well-minded preceptor who is asked about anything, must be carefully preserved in the mind, as a piece of fine muslin receives the dye (with which it is dyed).

45. O best of the eloquent, you must not receive the instruction of one unacquainted with truth himself; whoever asks him anything is the greatest of fools.

46. Whoever does not carefully attend to the words of the truth-telling preceptor who is asked about anything, is the basest of men.

47. He is the best inquirer who makes his enquiry of one after ascertaining by his deeds whether he knows the knowable or not.

48. But he is reckoned a vile inquirer and incapable of knowing great things, who makes a boyish query without ascertaining the lecturer’s (qualifications).

49. The wise man when asked, will reply to him who is able to comprehend the antecedent and subsequent propositions, and is possessed of a good understanding; but he should make no answer to a vile brutish being.

50. The preceptor who gives his lecture without examining the capacity of the inquirer to grasp his meaning, is pronounced unwise by the learned.

51. O delight of Raghu’s race! this our meeting is a very congenial one and well adapted to each other, wherein you as inquirer are an admirer of virtue, and I the speaker, am well acquainted (with the subject).

52. You that understand the meaning of words, should well consider all what I tell you, and take them to your heart.

53. You are truly great and disgusted with the world, and know the truth among mankind; whatever is spoken to you must be impressed in your mind as the red dye on muslin.

54. You by your attention to what I say and discrimination of spiritual matters, can make your understanding receive my instruction as the waters reflect the sun-light.

55. Receive all that I say and store them diligently in your mind; or else it is useless to ask me anything.

56. The mind, O Ráma! is as fickle as an ape in the forest, correct it carefully and attend to spiritual instruction.

57. Keep yourself always from the injudicious and ignorant, and those addicted to the company of wicked people, and honour the virtuous.

58. It is by association with good people that we can gain wisdom, which resembles a tree yielding the fruits both of enjoyment and liberation (i.e., both of worldly and future good).

59. There are four guards said to keep watch at the gate of Liberation, namely: peace, judgment, contentment and the society of the good.

60. All these or three or two of them are to be attended with care, because they shall open to you the door leading to the abode of liberation.

61. Or at last one of them is to be resorted to with diligence and even at the expense of one’s life; because by securing one of these a man can reconcile and gain all the four (to his favour).

62. The wise man is the receptacle of all Sástras and Srutis, of all knowledge and austerity, and is a gem on earth, as the sun is the receptacle of light (and gem of heaven).

63. The dull understanding of the senseless man becomes as stiff as a (motionless) block, and like the frozen water becoming as hard as stone.

64. Your good nature and good qualities, O Ráma! and the counsels of the learned in the Sástras, have made you sit here with a heart blooming like lotus at the rising sun.

65. Your lifted ears to hear these wise lectures, have enabled you to repress your thoughts; as the music of the lute attracts the mind of the deer.

66. Now secure, O Ráma! the treasures of peace and good nature by your practice of indifference of which there is no decay.

67. Your knowledge of the attainment of liberation will be increased by your attending to the Sástras and the society of good men, as also by your practice of austerity and self subjection.

68. You must know that, it is the study of divine knowledge with a clear understanding, that is a sure remedy against ignorance.

69. Know this world to be a poisonous plant and seat of dangers. It infects the ignorant at all times, unless one will take the pains to dispel his darkness.

70. Avarice accompanied by ignorance moves within the heart in a serpentine course, and expands and contracts it by turns like the bellows of a blacksmith.

71. The true light of things dawns only in the minds of the wise, as the gentle moon appears to sight only in the clear and cloudless sky.

72. He is truly called a man who can judge (the truth) by the major and minor propositions, whose mind is expanded and fraught with brilliant ingenuity.

73. Ráma! the clear wisdom of your mind, makes you shine as the full moon dispelling the darkness of the cloudless sky by her cooling and translucent beams.

CHAPTER XII.

GREATNESS OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE.

VASISHTHA said:—

Ráma! I honor you as one of a perfect mind. You know what to ask, and understand what is spoken to you. I will therefore go on speaking respectfully to you.

2. Be still to attend to knowledge by keeping your mind fixed in yourself, and being freed from pride and passions, incline yourself to pure truth.

3. You are possessed of all the qualities of an enquirer, and I those of the speaker, in as much as there are gems in the ocean.

4. You have gained my son the insouciance which is cognate with reason, like the humidity of the moonstone bearing its correlation with the gentle beams of the moon.

5. Ráma! your long and early practiced pure virtues and good qualities, have raised your fame, as the long stretching white fibers of the stalk exalt the spotless lotus.

6. Now hear the words I tell you Ráma; for you alone are fit to receive them, as the moon only is able to open the Kumuda petals.

7. Whatever business or investigation is undertaken by any body, it must be brought to a happy close, tending to his peace and tranquility (or to his rest and quiet).

8. Had not there been the solace of philosophy for men of good understanding, what rational being could dare to bear the misery brought on in this world by ignorance.

9. All the faculties of the mind are absorbed in the contemplation of the Supreme, like the dissolution of the rocks of boundary mountains by the solar heat at the end of the (Kalpa) world.

10. Ráma! the intolerable cholic pain caused by this venomous world, is healed only by yoga meditation, as the poison of snake-biting is removed by Garuda incantations.

11. The capacity of yoga is obtained by discussion of the Sástras in the company of good people, which alone can furnish us with the great charm of spiritual knowledge.

12. It must be owned that we lessen our woes by acting with reason: therefore reasonable men are never to be looked upon with disregard.

13. The reasoning man gets released from his worldly sickness, and quits his frame which is full of diseases, as a snake casts off his time worn slough; and looks with a placid mind and calm composure upon the magic scenes of the world. Hence the fully wise man is not subject to the misery of the imperfectly wise.

14. The rough and uneven pleasure of the world is but a disease to men, and stings them like a snake. It cuts them as a sword, and pierces them as a spear. It binds them fast as by a rope, and burns them as with the fire, and blindfolds their understanding as in the darkness of the night. It makes them as prostrate and dull as a slab of stone. It destroys one’s prudence and lowers his position. It casts them into the pit of error, and torments them with avarice. Thus there is almost no kind of trouble which does not betide worldly minded men.

15. Worldliness is as dangerous a disease as cholera, which unless it is healed in time, is sure to trouble its patient with the torments of hell:—

16. Such as those caused by the eating of stones, wounds of swords and spears; being pelted with stones, burnt by fire, and numbed by frost; loosing of limbs, besmearing the body with blood as with sandal paste; by being bored by worms as worm-eaten trees, and pricked in the body by pikes and broomsticks, or pierced by the fiery shafts and bolts continually falling in battle. By toiling and moiling in the sun and working in cold and rain as in a summer fountain house; or remaining dumb and deaf and without rest or sleep, and finally by loosing the head (in war or penalty).

17. Under thousands of such intolerable pangs of worldly life, no one should remain negligent of his release from this state; but ought to think that it is his reflection in the Sástras only, that can produce his real good.

18. Look here Ráma! on these great sages and Rishis, these Bráhmans and princes, who having fortified themselves by the armour of wisdom, and being liable to no pain or grief; have yet engaged themselves to the arduous affairs of this world with minds as placid as yours.

19. Moreover there are many of the best of men, who with their spiritual light and pure understandings, reside in this world as the gods Hari, Hara and Brahmá, who were above all concerns and fluctuating desires of life.

20. The journey of this world is delightful to one, who after the removal of his errors and dispersion of the cloud of his ignorance, has come to the knowledge of truth.

21. That the serenity of the mind and calm repose of the heart being secured, all the senses are subjected to peace, and every thing is viewed in an equal light; and this knowledge of the truth gives a delight to our journey in this world.

22. Know also that, this body of ours is the car, and these organs are its horses, our breathings are the winds blowing upon it, and the mind is the driver that feels the delight of driving; the atomic soul is the rider who is conscious of wandering about the world. The knowledge of this truth makes our earthly journey a pleasant one.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON PEACE AND TRANQUILITY OF MIND.

INTELLIGENT men that have seen the spirit, fix their sight upon it, and rove about in the world as persons of great and elevated souls.

2. They (that are liberated in this life), neither grieve nor wish nor ask for aught of good or evil (in this world). They do their works as if doing nothing (i.e. with indifference).

3. Those that rely on theirselves, remain both quietly, as well as act their parts with a calm serenity (of their minds); and take no concern either for what is noxious or delectable to them.

4. Their coming and not coming, going and not going, doing or not doing, and speaking or not speaking are alike indifferent to them.

5. Whatever acts or sights may appear pleasant or disgusting to any body, cease to affect them in any way after they have come to know their God (as the Author of all good).

6. The mind getting rid of its desires feels a sweet composure associated with a bliss as if descending from the heavenly orb of the moon all about it.

7. By being unmindful of worldly affairs and regardless of all its excitements, the soul is filled with a felicity resembling the ambrosial waters in the moon.

8. He who ceases to act his magical parts (in this playground of the earth), and desists from following his inclinations and childish pranks, shines forth in his spiritual light.

9. Such are the powers gained from spiritual knowledge, and by no other means whatever.

10. Therefore should a man try to seek and know and adore the Supreme soul, by means of his reasoning powers during life.

11. It is the concordance of one’s belief with the precepts of the Sástra and his instructor, joined with his constant meditation, that can give him a full view of the Supreme spirit.

12. The fool slighting the Sástra and its instructions, and disregarding the counsels of great men, are exposed to difficulties and dangers from which they can have no release.

13. There is no disease nor poison, nor trouble nor affliction, so painful to one in this earth, as the ignorance which is bred in himself.

14. Those whose intellects are a little purified, will find this work to be of greater efficacy to dispel their ignorance than any other Sástra.

15. This Sástra with its beautiful examples and pleasing lessons and want of discordance, should be diligently attended to by every body who is a friend to good sayings and their senses.

16. Want of dignity, inextricable difficulties, baseness and degeneracy, are all offsprings of ignorance, as the thorns are the offshoots of the prickly Ketaki plant.

17. It is far better, O Ráma! to rove about a begging with a pot in hand to the abodes of the vile Chandálas, than lead a life deadened by ignorance.

18. Rather dwell in dark dismal cells or dry dreary wells, and in the hollow of trees, or remain as solitary blind worms (under the ground), than labour under the miseries of ignorance.

19. The man receiving the light leading to his liberation, will never fall into the darkness of error or gloom of death.

20. So long will chill frost of penury continue to contract the lotus of humanity, as the clear light of reason does not shine upon the mind like the sun.

21. One must know the true nature of the soul both from his preceptor and the evidence of the Sástras, as also from friends like ourselves, for the sake of liberating himself from the misery of the world.

22. Try O Ráma! to imitate those that are liberated in their life time, who are free to roam about like the gods Hari, Hara, and others, and as the holy sages among Bráhmans.

23. Here (on earth) our miseries are as endless as atoms, and our happiness as little as a drop of water on the stalk of a straw; therefore do not fix your sight upon that little happiness which is beset by misery.

24. But let the intelligent man diligently apply himself to the attainment of that state of endless happiness which is free from pain and constitutes his highest consummation.

25. They are reckoned the best of men and deserving of consummation, whose minds are freed from the fever (of worldly cares), and attached to the transcendental state (of ultimate beatitude).

26. Those base minded mortals that are satisfied with their enjoyments, eating and drinking, and the pleasures of their worldly possessions, are reckoned as stark-blind frogs (in a well).

27. All who are attached to the company of imposters and wicked men, as of those that are addicted to the practice of evil deeds, and are enemies in the garb of friendship, and are given up to gluttony:—

28. Such foolish men of mistaken and stupid minds fall into the hardest of hardships, to the misery of miseries, and the horror of horrors and the hell of hells.

29. Happiness and misery destroy and succeed each other by turns, and are as fleeting as flashes of lightnings. Hence it is impossible to be happy for ever.

30. Those great souls who are indifferent and well judging like yourself, are known as the most honourable of men, and worthy alike both of temporal enjoyments and spiritual emancipation.

31. By reliance upon right reasoning joined with a habit of dispassionateness, men are enabled to get over the dark and dangerous torrents of this world.

32. No man of reason should allow himself to sleep (in negligence) amidst the illusions of the world, well knowing their noxious property to derange the understanding.

33. Whoso remains neglectful in his worldliness, resembles a man sleeping negligent on a grassy bed when his house is on fire.

34. What being arrived at, there is no returning from it; and what being gained, there is no cause of sorrowing; that state is undoubtedly attainable by divine knowledge only; and is a certain truth.

35. Should there be no such future state, yet there is no harm to believe in it; but if there be such a state, its belief will save you from the (dreadful) ocean of this world.

36. Whenever a man is inclined to think on the means of his salvation, he is sure to be soon entitled to his liberation.

37. The undecaying, unerring and fearless state of tranquility, is no where to be had in the three worlds, without one’s union (with the Supreme).

38. Having gained that best of gains, no one is liable to the pain from which no wealth, friend or relation can save any body.

39. Neither the actions of one’s hands and feet in his offerings and pilgrimage to distant lands, nor the bodily pains of asceticism, nor his refuge in a holy place can serve his salvation.

40. It is only by means of one’s best exertions and the fixing of his mind to one object, as also by the subjection of his desires, that the ultimate state (of bliss) can be arrived at.

41. So it is by means of discrimination, reasoning and ultimate ascertainment of truth, that a man may avoid the snares of misery, and attain his best state.

42. One sitting at ease in his seat and meditating within himself (the nature of the soul), attains the blissful state, which is free from sorrow and future birth.

43. All holy men are known to be situated beyond the bounds of the frail pleasures (of this life); their optimum quiescence is reckoned the ultimate bliss.

44. They have given up all thoughts both of humanity and heaven (i.e. of both worlds), which are devoid of true felicity as the mirage is void of water.

45. Therefore should one think of subduing his mind, and resort to peace and contentment as the means (to happiness); these joined with an unbounded equanimity produce true happiness.

46. It is not to be had by sitting (quietly at home), or going up and down (from place to place); and neither by wandering (in pilgrimage), nor prostrating (before the altar). It is not to be acquired by the Rákshasas, demons, deities or ignorant-men.

47. That ultimate felicity is born of and obtainable from the peace of mind: it is the fruit of the high arbor of reason from its blossom of peace.

48. Those that are engaged in worldliness but do not mix in it like the all-illumining sun, are known as the best of men.

49. The mind that is at peace and rest, that is clear and free from errors, and without any attempt or desire, doth neither forsake nor wish for the world.

50. Hear me tell you of the warders at the gate of salvation in their order, some one of which being secured, one may have his entrance into it.

51. Thirst after pleasure is a state of protracted disease, and this world is full of mirage (all parched and dry). It is equanimity alone that can cool this dryness as the moistening beams of the moon.

52. It is quiescence which leads to all good and is reckoned the best state of being. Quietism is felicity, it is peace and the preventive of error.

53. The man who lives content with his quiet and a calm clearness of his soul, with a mind fraught with stoicism, makes friends of his enemies.

54. Those whose minds are adorned with the moon light of quietism, feel a flux of the beams of purity rising in them like the hoary waves of the milky ocean.

55. Those holy men who have the lotus-like flower of quietism growing in the lotiform receptacle of their hearts, are said to have a secondary heart like the two pericardiums of the god Hari (holding Brahmá in one of them).

56. They whose untainted faces shine as the moon with the lustre of quiescence, are to be honoured as the luminaries of their families, and ravishers of the senses of others by the charming beauty of their countenance.

57. Whatever is beautiful in the three worlds, and in the shape of imperial prosperity and grandeur, there is nothing in them that can afford a happiness equal to that of quietism.

58. Whatever misery, anxiety and intolerable difficulty (may overtake a man), they are lost in the tranquil mind like darkness in the sun.

59. The mind of no living being is so delighted with moon beams, as that of the peaceful man from his heart-felt joy.

60. The virtuous man that is calm and quiet, and friendly to all living beings, feels the benign influence of highest truths appearing of themselves in his mind.

61. As all children whether good or bad, have a strict faith in their mother, so all beings here have a reliance on the man of an even disposition.

62. Neither does a cooling ambrosial draught nor the kind embrace of prosperity, afford such gratification to the soul, as one’s inward satisfaction of the mind.

63. Whether afflicted by diseases or disasters, or dragged by the rope of avarice, do you bear up yourself, O Ráma, by the equanimity of your mind.

64. Whatever thou dost and eatest with the calm coolness of thy mind, all that is sweeter far to the soul than anything sweet to taste.

65. The mind that is overpowered by the ambrosial flavour of quietism and desists from activity, may have the body lacerated (for a time), but it will be filled up shortly.

66. Neither imps nor goblins, demons or enemies, nor tigers nor snakes, ever annoy a peaceful man.

67. He who has his mind and body well guarded by the invulnerable armour of meekness, can never be pierced by the shafts of adversity; but remains as the thunder-stone impenetrable by arrows.

68. The king seated in his palace is not so graceful to sight, as the quiet peaceful man is graced by his equanimity and clearness of understanding.

69. No one is so delighted at seeing a thing dearer than his life, as by the satisfaction which he feels at the sight of a contented and peaceful man.

70. He who lives a holy life with his gentle and peaceful conduct, is said to be truly living in this world and no other.

71. The sober minded, meek and honest man pleases every one by all that he does, and as it were captivates all beings to himself.

72. He is called the meek who neither feels pleasure or pain at the sight, touch or hearing and tasting of anything good or bad (to the senses).

73. He who is indifferent to all objects, and neither leaves nor longs for any thing; but keeps his senses and appetites under subjection, is called a saint.

74. Whoso knowing all things both internally as well as externally with a clear understanding, attends and looks to his own concerns, he is verily said to be a saint.

75. He whose mind is as calm as moon beams both at the approach of a feast or fighting, and even at the moment of death, is said to be a saint.

76. Who though present at a place, neither rejoices nor murmurs at any thing, but remains as if he were absent from it, and conducts himself as quietly as if he were fast asleep; such a one is called a saint.

77. He whose complaisant look casts a graceful nectarious radiance on all around him, is said to be a saint.

78. Who feels a cool calmness within himself, and is not disturbed or immerged in any state of life, and who though a layman is not worldly minded, such a man is termed a saint.

79. He who takes not to his mind the tribulations of this life, however long or great they may be, nor thinks this base (bodily frame) to be himself, is known to be a saint.

80. The man of the world who has a mind clear as the firmament, and not tainted (by worldliness), is said to be a saint.

81. The quiet Platonic shines forth among sages and ascetics, among priests and princes, and among the mighty and learned.

82. Great and meritorious men, whose minds are attached to Quietism, feel a rest rising in their souls like the cooling beams of the moon.

83. Quietism is the utmost limit of the assemblage of virtues, and the best decoration of manliness; it shines resplendent in all dangers and difficulties.

84. Do you now, O Ráma! follow for your perfection in the way in which high-minded men have attained their perfect state, by holding fast on quietism as an imperishable virtue, preserved by the respectable, and never to be lost or stolen by any.

CHAPTER XIV.

ON THE ASCERTAINMENT OF AN ARGUMENT.

IT must be the duty of one, whose understanding is cleared and purified by a knowledge of the Sástras, to argue incessantly with a guide knowing how to reason aright.

2. The understanding when sharpened by reasoning, comes to view the transcendent state. It is reasoning which is the only best medicine for the chronic disease of worldliness.

3. The world is of the form of a wood of troubles, shooting in sprouts of endless desires which being once felled under the saw of reason, will germinate no more.

4. O wise Ráma! our understandings are shrouded under unconsciousness at the loss of our friends, at times of danger, and even of quiet. It is reason that is our only companion (at these times).

5. There is no expedient for the learned and wise except reason; it is by means of reason that the minds of good people can avoid evil and secure their good.

6. All our strength and understanding, our valour and renown, and the ends of our actions, result from our reasoning with the intelligent.

7. Reason is the lamp to show us the right and wrong, and the instrument for accomplishment of our desires:—by reliance on right reason, one crosses over easily the wide ocean of the world.

8. Pure reasoning like a strong lion, tears asunder the elephants of great error, which ravage the lotus beds of the mind (or mental faculties).

9. If ignorant men have at any time attained a better state in life, it was all owing to the light of the lamp of their reasoning.

10. Know O Rághava that, dominion and fair prosperity, together with our enjoyments and eternal salvation, are all but fruits of the celestial Kalpa plant of reasoning.

11. The minds of great men, which are expanded by reasoning here, are never liable to be immerged under the currents of calamity (but float above them) like gourds upon water.

12. Those who conduct themselves with their intellects shining forth with reason, become the recipients of its most liberal gifts.

13. Want of reason is like the thorny and sour plant of Karanja sprouting forth with blossoms of woe, and growing in the brakes of ignorant minds in order to shut out their hopes and prospects.

14. Do you, O Rághava! shake off the lethargy caused by your neglect of reasoning. This torpor darkens your vision as it were by the inky powder of collyrium, and maddens your mind as it were, by the ebriety of wine.

15. The man of right judgment is not liable to fall into the long and dangerous maze of error (like others); but remains as a blaze of light amidst the gloom (of ignorance).

16. The reasoning faculties shine, as a bed of lotuses in the limpid lake of the mind: whoso has such a reasoning mind, exalts his head as high as the Himálayan height.

17. The man having a dull mind and incapable of reasoning (of reason) as a flash of lightening, and like boys, sees false apparitions about him.

18. Ráma, you must shun at a distance the base unreasonable man, who grows as plump as a Khanda cane to cause sorrow and resembles the spring season to grow fresh weeds of evil.

19. Whatever misdeeds, misconducts and mischances present themselves to man, they are all the effects of his want of the light of reason, and lay hold on him like ghosts appearing in the dark.

20. O support of Raghu’s race, do you shun at a distance the unreasonable man of the nature of a solitary wild tree, which comes to no good use (to mankind).

21. The mind that is fraught with reason and devoid of the impatience attendant on worldly desires, feels the light of transcendent quietism shining in the soul with the full lustre of the moon.

22. When the light of reason shines in any person, it imparts the coolness and good grace of moon-beams to all things around him.

23. The reasoning power of man accompanied with the flag of divine knowledge and the silvery flapper of good understanding, shines as moon-light in the darkness of night.

24. Men with the good grace of their reason, throw a radiance like that of the sun on all sides about them, and dispel the gloom of worldliness.

25. Reasoning serves to destroy the false apparitions of errors which present themselves to the minds of boys like ghosts in the sky at night.

26. All things in the world appear as charming (as if they were realities); but they are (in fact) but unrealities, and liken the clods of earth that are broken (to pieces) by the hammering stone of reason.

27. Men are theirself tormenters by the false imagination of their own minds; it is reason alone that can drive away this inveterate spectre from the mind.

28. Know the fruit of the high arbor of reason, to be the even, unobstructed, interminable and independent happiness called Kaivalya.

29. It is by means of reason and its evident influence on the deprivation of (physical) gratifications, that there rises an unshaken and exalted disinterestedness in the mind, like the cooling beams of the moon.

30. When the saint has reached his perfection by means of the elixir of judgment seated in his mind, he neither desires for more nor leaves (what he has).

31. The mind relying on that state of equanimity and perceiving the clear light (of truth within itself), has neither its fall nor elevation, but enjoys its inward expansion as that of vacuum for ever.

32. One unconcerned with the world, neither gives nor receives any thing, nor feels himself elated or depressed at any event, but views every thing as an indifferent spectator.

33. He is neither torpidly cold nor does he dwell on anything internally or externally. He is neither inactive nor merged in activity.

34. He slights the loss of anything, and lives content with what he has; he is neither depressed nor elevated; but remains as full as the (tideless) sea.

35. It is in this manner that the high-souled and high-aspiring Yogis conduct themselves in this world, with their fullness (of joy) and living as they are liberated in this life.

36. These saintly sages having lived as long as they like (in this earth), abandon it at last, and gain their कैवल्य eternal unity (after death).

37. The sapient man should intently consider within himself, who and whose he is, what is his family and by whom he is surrounded, and think on the remedy (of his worldliness).

38. It is the king, O Ráma! who well knows the difficult and doubtful state of the business (before him); and his success or failure depends solely on his right judgment and on nothing else.

39. It is the dicta and data established by the Veda and Vedánta that form the grounds of our evidence, and these are to be ascertained by our reason as by the help of a lamp in the gloom of night.

40. The bright eye-sight of reason, is neither blinded by the darkness (of night), nor dimmed by the full blaze (of the day), even when it has to view things (situated) at a distance.

41. He who is blind to reason is as one born blind, and a demented man is an object of universal pity; but the man with a reasoning soul is said to be possessed of divine eye-sight, and becomes victorious in all things (he undertakes).

42. The miraculous power of reason is acknowledged to be a divine attribute and an instrument to highest felicity; wherefore it is not to be lost sight of for a moment.

43. The man graced by reason is loved even by the great, as the delicious and ripe mango fruit is delectable to all.

44. Men with their minds illumed by the light of reason, are like travellers acquainted with their way, and are not liable to pit falls of incessant danger and misery.

45. Neither doth the sickman nor one beset by a hundred evils wail so bitterly, as the ignorant man whose soul is deprived of reason.

46. Rather leap as a frog in the mud, or creep as a worm in the dirt, rather lie as a snake in a dark cell or crawl on the ground, than walk as a man devoid of reason.

47. Therefore get rid of unreasonableness which is the abode of all your dangers, is reprobated by the wise (as the bane of mankind), and is the terminus of all your calamities.

48. Great men must always be in full possession of their reasoning, because those unsupported by their reason are liable to fall into the pits of darkness.

49. Let every one keep his soul under the control (of his own reason), and by this means, deliver the fawn of his mind from falling into the mirage of this world.

50. It is the province of reasoning to consider logically in one’s self, whence the evil, known as worldliness, had its rise.

51. The thick mist of error is only for the continued misery of man, and it prevails on the stony minds of those that are demented by the loss of reason.

52. The wise that hold fast on the truth and forsake all untruth in this world, are yet unable to discern their true natures without the aid of reason.

53. It is by means of reason that one comes to the knowledge of truth; and by means of truth that he gets the peace of his mind; and it is the tranquility of the mind that dispels the misery of men.

54. Now Ráma, do you take delight in such acts as may be productive of utility to the world, and whereby you may arrive to perfection. Weigh all things with the clear eye of reason, which will make you blessed for ever.

CHAPTER XV.

ON CONTENTMENT.

VASISHTHA continued:—Contentment is the chief good; contentment is called the (true) enjoyment; and the contented man, O thou destroyer of enemies, gets the best repose.

2. Those who are happy with their prosperity of contentment, and possess the calm repose of their souls, are as holy saints, and think a sovereignty no better than a bit of rotten straw.

3. Whoever retains a contented mind amidst all the affairs of the world, he is never disturbed O Ráma, in adverse circumstances nor ever dejected (in his spirit).

4. The saints that are satisfied with the ambrosial draught of contentment, think the highest affluence and enjoyments (of the rich) but poison (to their souls).

5. Even the waves of liquid nectar fail to afford that pleasure, which the sweetest taste of contentment—the healer of all evils; gives to its possessor.

6. Abandonment of unfruitful desires and calmness in those that are obtained, feeling no pain at and having no sense of pleasure (in any thing), constitute what is called contentment here below.

7. Until the mind can enjoy the contentment rising spontaneously in the soul of itself, so long will troubles continue to grow in it as briars and brambles in a bog.

8. The mind cooled by calm contentment, and purified by the light of philosophy, is always in its full bloom as the lotus under sun-beams.

9. The ungoverned mind which is under the subjection of desires and devoid of contentment, does not receive the light of knowledge, as a soiled mirror takes no reflection of the face.

10. The man whose mind is always bright with the sunshine of contentment, does not shrivel itself like the lotus in the dark night of ignorance (or adversity).

11. A man though poor, enjoys the happiness of sovereignty, who is devoid of diseases and anxieties, and whose mind is contented.

12. He is called a contented man, who does not long after what he is not possessed of, and enjoys what he has in its right manner, and is always graceful in his manners.

13. There is a beauty shining in the face of one, whose mind has the satisfaction of contentment, the fulness of magnanimity and the purity of thoughts like that of the milky ocean in it.

14. Let a man entertain his self-possession within himself, and abandon his craving of all things, by reliance on his manly exertions.

15. He whose mind is full with the ambrosia of contentment and a calm and cool understanding, acquires a perpetual composure within himself, as it were by the cooling beams of the moon.

16. All great fortunes wait on him whose mind is strengthened by contentment, as if they were his servants, and as they remain in attendance upon a king.

17. One remaining content and composed in himself, quells all his anxieties and cares, as the rains set down the dust of the earth.

18. Ráma! a man shines by the contentment of his mind and the purity of his conduct, as the cooling and spotless moon when she is full.

19. No one receives so much delight from his accumulation of wealth, as he derives from the sight of the beautiful placid countenance (of a contented person).

20. Know, O thou delight of Raghu’s race! that the best of men who are decorated with grace of equanimity (the only quality that adorns the wise), are more honoured both by gods and sages than any.

CHAPTER XVI.

ON GOOD CONDUCT.

VASISHTHA resumed saying:—

Know, O highly intelligent Ráma! that the company of the virtuous is everywhere of the greatest benefit to men for their crossing over the ocean of the world.

2. It is the arbour of virtuous company that produces the fresh blossom of discrimination; which being cherished by high-souled men, yields to them its fruits of prosperity.

3. The society of the learned makes solitude appear as company, and the evil of death as good as a festivity; and converts a difficulty to ease.

4. It is the society of the virtuous which wards off all disasters, that like the frost, invade the lotus beds of our hearts; and baffle the icy breath of ignorance (which deadens our souls).

5. Know the society of the virtuous to be the best improver of the understanding, the destroyer of the tree of ignorance; and remover of all our mental diseases.

6. The society of the virtuous produces the light of reason, which is as charmingly fair as a cluster of flowers after its being washed by rain-water.

7. It is the influence of virtuous company that teaches us the best mode of life, which is never impaired or obstructed by anything, and is ever full in itself.

8. Let no man ever keep himself from the association of the virtuous, though he is involved in utmost distress, and cast in irremediable circumstances.

9. The society of the virtuous, lends a light to the right path. It destroys the internal darkness of man, by the rays of the sun of knowledge.

10. Whoever has bathed in the cold and clear stream of good company is not in need of the merit derived from acts of charity, pilgrimage, austerity and sacrifice.

11. Whoever has the society of virtuous men, and whose lives are free from passions and sins, and doubts and the knots (of scruples in their hearts), of what use is (the observance of) austerity, or (performance of) pilgrimage (to him)?

12. Blessed are the peaceful in their minds, who are viewed with as great an ardour by people, as poor men fondly dote upon gems and jewels.

13. The intelligent mind with its gracefulness derived from good company, shines always as the goddess of riches in the company of fairy nymphs.

14. Therefore that blessed man is renowned as having attained the crown of a clear understanding, who never abstains himself from the company of the holy.

15. Hence all unscrupulous believers, holy men and those who are revered by people, are to be served by all means for crossing over the ocean of the world.

16. Surely do they serve as dry fuel to hell-fire, who neglect the company of the saints, which is known as rain water to extinguish the flames of hell.

17. The medicine of holy association, serves to allay entirely all the afflictions consequent to poverty and death and tribulations of worldly affairs.

18. Contentment, society of the virtuous, ratiocination and quietism, are the several means for crossing over the ocean of the world by mankind.

19. Contentment is reckoned as the best gain, good company the right course, reasoning the true knowledge, and quietism the highest bliss (of man).

20. These are the four surest means to break off the trammels of the world, and whoever is practiced in these, has surely passed over the erroneous waters of the terrestrial sea.

21. Learn, O best of the intelligent! that the practice of some one of these pure virtues, leads to an assuetude of all the four (cardinal virtues).

22. Every one of these separately is a leader to the others; wherefore diligently apply yourself to one of these for your success in getting them all.

23. Association with the good, contentment, right reasoning, and good judgment, joined with peace and tranquility, serve as cargo-ships in the ocean of the world.

24. All prosperity attends on him who is possessed of reason, contentment, quietism and the habit of keeping good company, like the fruits of the kalpa tree (satisfying every desire).

25. The man possessed of reasoning, contentment, quietude, and a proclivity to keep good company, is attended by every grace, as all the digits unite in the full moon.

26. The happy mind which is fraught with contentment, quietness, reasoning power, and a tendency to good company, meets with the prosperity and success, as they attend on kings (who are) guided by (the counsels of) good ministers.

27. Therefore, O delight of Raghu’s race! do you bravely govern your mind, and always practise with diligence some one of these virtues (for your conduct in life).

28. Exert your best manliness to subdue your elephantine mind, and know that until you have mastered one of these cardinal virtues, you can make no progress (in holiness).

29. It must be, O Ráma! that you shall have to set your heart to work by the exertion of your manliness and the gnashing of your teeth, for your success in meritorious deeds.

30. For whether you be a god or yaksha or a man or an arbor, you cannot, O long-armed Ráma! have a better course till then (i.e. before mastering one of these qualities).

31. As soon as one of these virtues is strengthened and made fruitful in you, it will serve to weaken the force of the faults of your ungovernable mind.

32. The cultivation of virtues leads to their full growth and suppression of vice; but the fostering of vice will (on the other hand) conduce to the increase of vices and suppression of good qualities.

33. The mind is a wilderness of errors, in which the stream of our desires is running with full force, amidst its two banks of good and evil whereon we hold our stand.

34. It bears away and throws the man on that bank which he strives to reach by his own exertion, therefore O Ráma, do as you like to reach to either shore.

35. Now try by degrees with all the exertion of your manly force, to turn the course of your desires towards the happy shore in the forest of your mind; and know, O high-minded Ráma; that one’s own disposition is as a rapid current to him, which must not be permitted to bear him away (to the perilous coast).

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE CONTENTS OF THE WORK.

THUS, O progeny of Raghu! it is the reasoning soul that is worthy of attending to the words of wisdom, as a prince (is inclined to listen) to a discourse on polity.

2. The clear and high-minded man, who has renounced the company of stupid folks, is capable of fair reasoning, as the clear sky has the capacity of receiving the moon-light.

3. You who are replete with the entire grace of this quality, should now attend to the words, that I say, to remove the errors of your mind.

4. He, the arbour of whose merits is bending down with the load of its fruits, feels a desire to hear these words for the sake of his salvation.

5. It is the noble minded only and not the base, that are receptacles of grand and holy sermons conferring the knowledge of their future state.

6. This collection consisting of thirty-two thousand stanzas, is deemed as containing the essence of the means conducing to liberation, and conferring the final annihilation (of our being).

7. As a lighted lamp presents its light to every waking man, so does this work effect the ultimate extinction of every person whether he would like it or not.

8. One’s knowledge of this work whether by his own perusal or hearing of it from the rehearsal of others, tends to the immediate obliteration of his errors and augmentation of his delight, as it is done by the holy river of heaven (Ganges).

9. As the fallacy of a snake in the rope is removed by examining it, so the fallacy of the reality of the world is removed by perusal of this work, which gives peace to one who is vexed with and tired of the world.

10. It contains six books all fraught with sentences full of reason, and each distinct from the other in its import. It has many verses containing chosen examples on all subjects.

11. The first book treats of Indifference, and causes the growth of apathy (in the mind) like that of a tree in the desert soil.

12. It contains one thousand and five hundred stanzas, which being well considered in the mind, must impart a purity to it like the lustre of a gem after its polish.

13. The next book dwells on the conduct of one longing after his liberation, and contains a thousand slokas arranged in judicious order.

14. It describes the nature of men desiring their liberation. Then follows the book on the creation of the world, and filled with narratives and examples (of various kinds).

15. It has seven thousand stanzas teaching sound philosophy about the spectator and spectacle of the world in the forms of—I and thou, designated the ego and non-ego.

16. It contains a description of the production of the world from its state of non-existence. A diligent attention to this chapter will convey a full knowledge of this world into the mind of the hearer.

17. This ego and non-ego, and this vast expanse with all the worlds, space and mountains, are (to be viewed) as having no form nor foundation, and as there are no such things (in reality).

18. There are no elements as the earth and others which exist in our fancy only, and are like phantoms appearing in a dream, or as aerial castles and chimeras of the mind.

20. They resemble the moving hills on the shore to one passing in a boat, without any actual movement in them; or liken the hobgoblins appearing to an unsound mind. Such is the appearance of the world without any seed or source or origin of its own.

21. It is as the impression of a tale in the mind, or the sight of a chain of pearls in the sky, or taking a bracelet for its gold or a wave for the water. (i.e. Taking the appearance for its cause, or the phenomena for the noumena).

22. Or as the blueness of the sky is always apparent to sight without its reality, and evercharming to behold without the existence of any colour in it.

23. Thus whatever unreal wonders always appear to us in our dreams or in the sky, they are but the resemblances of a fire in a picture, which seems to be burning without having any fire in it.

24. The word “jagat” or passing, is appropriately applied to the transitory world, which passes like the sea with its heaving waves, appearing as a chain of lotus flowers in dancing.

25. It is (as false) as one’s imagination of a body of waters at a spot, from the sound of the ruddy geese (that live by rivers); and (as useless) as a withered forest in autumn, when the leaves and fruits fall off, and yield neither shade nor luscious nutriment, (to the traveller).

26. It is full with delirious cravings as of men at the point of death, and as dark as caverns in the mountains. Hence the efforts of men are but acts of their phrensy.

27. It is better to dwell in the clear sky of the autumnal (atmosphere of) philosophy, after subsidence of the frost of ignorance, than to view at this world, which is no more than an image at a post or a picture upon the wall.

28. Know all sensible and insensible things to be made of dust (to be reduced to dust again). Next follows the book on Existence.

29. It contains three thousand stanzas full of explanations and narratives, showing the existence of the world to be a form (or development) of the essence of the Ego (in a subjective light).

30. It treats of the manner in which the spectator (Ego) is manifest as the spectacle (non-ego), and how the ten-sided sphere of the arbour of the world is manifest both as the subjective and objective (at the same time).

31. It has thus arrived at its development which is said to be everlasting. Next follows the book on quietude consisting of five thousand stanzas.

32. The fifth is styled the book on holiness, containing a series of excellent lectures, and shewing the erroneous conception of the world, as I, thou and he (as distinct existences).

33. It is the suppression of this error, which forms the subject of this book; and the hearing of the chapter on quietude, serves to put an end to our transmigration in this world.

34. After suppression of the train of errors, there still remain slight vestiges of it to a hundredth part, as the dispersed troops in a picture afford us some faint idea of them.

35. Aiming at the object of another person is as vain as looking at the beauty of an imaginary city, and sitting in expectation of an unattainable object. It is as a noisy fighting for something in sleep.

36. It is as vain as a man of unsubdued desires, bursting into a roaring like that of the loud and tremendous thunder-claps, and as the raising of a city on the model of one’s effaced impressions in a dream.

37. It is as vain as a would-be city, with its garden and flowers and fruits growing in it: and as a sterile woman bragging of the valorous deeds of her unborn and would-be sons.

38. Or when a painter is about to draw the picture of an imaginary city on the ground work of a chart, by forgetting to sketch a plan of it beforehand.

39. It is as vain as to expect evergreen herbage and fruitage of all seasons, and the breeze of an ungrown arbour; or to it in a future flowery parterre, pleasant with the sweets of spring.

40. Then follows the sixth book entitled annihilation, which is as clear as the waters of a river after subsidence of its billows within itself.

41. It contains the remaining number of slokas (i.e. 14500 Stanzas of the aggregate number of 32000 Slokas composing the entire work), a knowledge of these is pregnant with great meanings, and the understanding of them leads to the chief good of utter extinction and pacification of desires.

42. The intellect being abstracted from all its objects, presents the manifestation of the soul, which is full of intelligence and free from all impurity. It is enveloped in the sheath of infinite vacuity, and is wholly pure and devoid of worldly errors.

43. Having finished its journey through the world and performed its duties here, the soul assumes a calmness as that of the adamantine column of the sky, reflecting the images of the tumultuous world (without changing itself).

44. It rejoices exceedingly at its being delivered from the innumerable snares of the world, and becomes as light as air by being freed from its desire of looking after the endless objects (of its enjoyments).

45. The soul that takes no notice of the cause or effect or doing of any thing, as also of what is to be avoided or accepted (i.e. which remains totally indifferent to every thing), is said to be disembodied though encumbered with a body, and to become unworldly in its worldly state.

46. The intelligent soul is compared to a solid rock, compact and without any gap in it. It is the sun of intelligence which enlightens all people, and dispels the darkness of ignorance.

47. (This soul) though so very luminous, has become grossly darkened (in its nature), by being confined to the vile fooleries of the world, and wasted by the malady of its cravings.

48. When freed from the chimera of its egoism, it becomes incorporeal even in its embodied state, and beholds (the glory of) the whole world as it was placed at the point of one of the myriads of hairs (on its body), or like a bee sitting on a flower upon the Sumeru mountain.

49. The intelligent and vacuous soul contains and beholds in its sphere a thousand glories of the world, shining in each atom, as it was in a mirror.

50. It is not even possible to thousands of Haris, Haras and Brahmás, to equal the great minded sage in the extent of his comprehensive soul; because the liberated have their chief good (of internal joy) stretched to a far greater limit than any.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ASCERTAINMENT OF THE EXAMPLE OR MAJOR PROPOSITION

VASISHTHA said:—

The several parts of this work as already related, give rise to the understanding, as seeds sown in a good field never fail to produce good fruitage.

2. Even human compositions are acceptable when they are instructive of good sense; otherwise the Vedas also are to be renounced (as unreliable); because men are required always to abide by reason.

3. Words conformable with reason are to be received even if spoken by boys; otherwise they are to be rejected as straws though pronounced by the lotus-born (Brahmá himself).

4. Whoever drinks from a well by reason of its being dug by his ancestors, and rejects the holy water of the Ganges even when placed before him, is an incorrigible simpleton.

5. As early dawn is invariably accompanied by its train of light, so is good judgment an inevitable attendant on the perusal of this work.

6. Whether these lessons are heard from the mouth of the learned, or well studied by one’s self, they will gradually make their impressions upon the mind by one’s constant reflection on their sense.

7. They will first furnish (to the learner) a variety of Sanskrit expressions, and then spread before him a series of holy and judicious maxims, like so many ornamental creepers to decorate the hall.

8. They will produce a cleverness joined with such qualifications and greatness, as to engage the good grace of gods and kings.

9. They are called the intelligent who know the cause and effect of things, and are likened to a torch-bearer who is clear sighted in the darkness of the night. (Like the stoa of the Stoics).

10. All their erroneous and covetous thoughts become weaker by degrees, as the regions of the sky are cleared of their mists at the approach of autumn.

11. Your thoughts require only the guidance of reason (to hit the right), as every action needs be duly performed to make it successful.

12. The intellect becomes (by culture) as clear as a great lake in autumn, and it gets its calmness (by reason), like that of the sea after its churning by the Mandara mountain.

13. Like the flame of a chandelier cleansed of its sootiness and dispelling the shroud of darkness, the refined intellect shines forth in full brightness, and distinguishes (the different natures of) things.

14. The evils of penury and poverty cannot overpower on them, whose strong sight can discern the evils of their opposites (wealth and riches); as no dart can pierce the mortal parts of a soldier clad in full armour.

15. No worldly fears can daunt the heart of the wise man, however nearest they may approach to him. Just as no arrow can pierce through a huge solid stone.

16. Such doubts as “whether it is destiny or our own merit that is the cause of our births and actions,” are removed (by learning), as darkness is dispelled by day-light.

17. There is a calm tranquility attending upon the wise at all times and in all conditions (of life); so also does the light of reason like solar rays, follow the dark night of error.

18. The man of right judgment has a soul as deep as the ocean and as firm as a mountain, and a cool serenity always shines within him like that of moon-light.

19. It is he who arrives slowly at what is called “living-liberation;” who remains calm amidst the endless turmoils (of the world), and is quite aloof from common talk (i.e. unnoticed by the world).

20. His mind is calm and cool at every thing; it is pure and full of heavenly light; shining serenely as the autumnal night with the radiance of moon-beams.

21. When the sun of reason illumines the cloudless region of the mind, no portentous comet of evil can make its appearance (within its sphere).

22. All desires are at rest with the elevated; they are pure with the steady, and indifferent to the inert, like the body of light clouds in autumn.

23. The slanders of envious ill-wishers are put out of countenance (by the wise), as the frolics of goblins disappear at the approach of day.

24. The mind that is fixed on the firm basis of virtue, and placed under the burthen of patience, is not to be shaken by accidents; but remains as a plant in a painting (unmoved by winds).

25. The knowing man does not fall into the pit-falls lying all about the affairs of this world: for who that knows the way will run into the ditch?

26. The minds of the wise are as much delighted in acting conformably to the precepts of good books and the examples of the virtuous, as chaste women are fond of keeping themselves within the bounds of the inner apartments.

27. Of the innumerable millions of atoms which compose this universe, every one of them is viewed in the light of a world in the mind of the abstracted philosopher.

28. The man whose mind is purified by a knowledge of the precepts of liberation, neither repines nor rejoices at the loss or gain of the objects of enjoyment.

29. Men of unfettered minds look upon the appearance and disappearance of every atomic world, as the fluctuating wave of the sea.

30. They neither grieve at unwished-for occurrences nor pine for their wished-for chances; and knowing well all accidents to be the consequences of their actions, they remain as unconscious as trees (totally insensible of them).

31. These (holy men) appear as common people, and live upon what they get; whether they meet with aught of welcome or unwelcome to them, their minds remain unconquered.

32. They having understood the whole of this Sástra, and having read and considered it well, as well as pondered (on its purport), hold their silence as in the case of a curse or blessing (which is never uttered by saints).

33. This Sástra is easy to be understood, and is ornamented with figures (of speech). It is a poem full of flavours and embellished with beautiful similes.

34. One may be self taught in it who has a slight knowledge of words and their senses; but he who does not understand the purport well, should learn it from a pandit.

35. After hearing, thinking and understanding this work, one has no more need of practising austerities, or of meditation and repeating the Mantras and other rites: and a man requires nothing else in this world for the attainment of his liberation.

36. By deep study of this work and its repeated perusal, a man attains to an uncommon scholarship next to the purification of his soul.

37. The ego and the non-ego, that is, the viewer and the view, are both but chimeras of the imagination, and it is their annihilation alone, that leads insensibly to the vision of the soul.

38. The error of the reality of ego and the perceptible world, will vanish away as visions in a dream; for who, that knows the falsehood of dreams, will fall into the error (of taking them for truth?)

39. As an imaginary palace gives no joy or grief to any body, so it is in the case of the erroneous conception of the world.

40. As no body is afraid of a serpent that he sees in painting, so the sight of a living serpent neither terrifies nor pleases one who knows it.

41. And as it is our knowledge of the painted serpent that removes our fear of it as a serpent, so our conviction of the unreality of the world, must disperse our mistake of its existence.

42. Even the plucking of a flower or tearing of its (tender) leaflet, is attended with a little exertion (of the nails and fingers), but no (bodily) exertion whatever is required to gain the blessed state (of Yoga meditation).

43. There is an action of the members of body, accompanied with the act of plucking or pulling off a flower; but in the other case (of Yoga), you have only to fix your mind, and make no exertion of your body.

44. It is practicable with ease by any one sitting on his easy seat and fed with his usual food, and not addicted to gross pleasures, nor trespassing the rules of good conduct.

45. You can derive happiness at each place and time, from your own observations, as also from your association with the good wherever it is available. This is an optional rule.

46. These are the means of gaining a knowledge of the highest wisdom, conferring peace in this world, and saving us from the pain of being reborn in the womb.

47. But such as are afraid of this course, and are addicted to the vicious pleasures of the world, are to be reckoned as too base, and no better than faeces and worms of their mother’s bowels.

48. Attend now, Ráma, to what I am going to say with regard to the advancement of knowledge, and improvement of the understanding in another way.

49. Hear now the recent method in which this Sástra is learnt (by people), and its true sense interpreted to them by means of its Exposition.

50. That thing which serves to explain the unapparent meaning (of a passage), by its illustration by some thing that is well known, and which may be useful to help the understanding (of the passage) is called a simile or Example.

51. It is hard to understand the meaning given before without an instance, just as it is useless to have a lampstick at home without setting a lamp on it at night.

52. Whatever similes and examples I have used to make you understand (the precepts), are all derived from some cause or other, but they lead to knowledge of the uncaused Brahma.

53. Wherever the comparisons and compared objects are used as expressive of the cause and effect, they apply to all cases except Brahma (who is without a cause).

54. The examples that are given to explain the nature of Brahma, are to be taken in their partial (and not general) sense.

55. Whatever examples are given here as explanatory of divine nature, they are to be understood as appertaining to a world seen in a dream.

56. In such cases, no corporeal instance can apply to the incorporeal Brahma, nor optional and ambiguous expressions give a definite idea of Him.

57. Those who find fault with instances of an imperfect or contradictory nature, cannot blame our comparison of the appearance of the world to a vision in dream.

58. A prior and posterior non-entity is considered as existent at the present moment (as is the visible world which was not, nor will be afterwards). So the waking and dreaming states are known to be alike from our boyhood.

59. The simile of the existence of the world with the dreaming state is exact in all instances, as our desires, thoughts, our pleasures and displeasures, and all other acts are alike in both states.

60. Both this work and others which have been composed by other authors on the means of salvation, have all pursued the same plan in their explanation of the knowable.

61. The resemblance of the world to a dream is found also in the Srutis or Vedánta. It is not to be explained in a word, but requires a continued course of lectures (on the subject).

62. The comparison of the world to an imagery in the dream or an imaginary Utopia of the mind, is also adduced in examples of this kind in preference to others.

63. Whenever a causality is shown by a simile of something which is no cause, there the simile is applied in some particular and not all its general attributes.

64. The partial similitude of this comparison with some property of the compared object, is unhesitatingly acknowledged by the learned in all their illustrations.

65. The light of the sense (of some thing) is compared with a lamp in its brightness only, in disregard of its stand or stick, the oil or the wick.

66. The compared object is to be understood in its capacity of admitting a partial comparison (of the properties); as in the instance of sense and light, the simile consists in the brightness of both.

67. When the knowledge of the knowable thing is derived from some particular property of the comparison, it is granted as a suitable simile, in understanding the sense of some great saying (passage in the scriptures).

68. We must not overshadow our intellect by bad logic, nor set at naught our common sense by an unholy scepticism.

69. We have by our reasoning well weighed the verbosity of our opinionative adversaries, and never set aside the holy sayings of the Vedas, even when they are at variance with the opinions of our families.

70. O Ráma! we have stored in our minds the truths resulting from the unanimous voice of all the Sástras, whereby it will be evident that we have attained the object of our belief, apart from the fabricated systems of heretical Sástras.

CHAPTER XIX.

ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE EVIDENCE.

IT is the similarity of some particular property (of one thing to that of another) which constitutes a simile; whereas a complete similitude between the comparison and compared object, destroys their difference (and makes them the one and same thing).

2. From the knowledge of parables follows the cognition of the one soul treated of in the Sástras (Vedánta); and the peace which attends on the meditation of the Holy Word, is styled Extinction.

3. It is therefore useless to talk of either (the complete or partial) agreement (of the properties) of the example and the exemplar; it is enough to the purpose to comprehend the purport of the holy word in some way or other.

4. Know your peace to be the chief good, and be diligent to secure the same. When you have got the food for your eating, it is useless to talk about how you came by it.

5. A cause is compared with (or shewn for its explication by) something which is no cause at all: so is a comparison given to express its partial agreement in some respect with the compared object.

6. We must not be so absorbed in the pleasures of the world as to be devoid of all sensibility; like some blind frogs which are generated and grow fat amidst the stones.

7. Be attentive to these parables and learn your best state from them; all reasonable men should abide by the lessons of religious works for their internal peace.

8. As also by the precepts of the Sástras, by the rules of humanity, prudence and spiritual knowledge; and also by the continued practice of the acts of religious merit.

9. Let the wise continue their inquiries until they can obtain their internal peace, and until they may arrive at the fourth stage (turya) of felicity known by the name of indestructible tranquility.

10. Whoso has gained this fourth state of tranquil felicity, he has really passed beyond the limits of the ocean of the world, whether he is alive or not, or a house-holder or an ascetic.

11. Such a man remains steady at his place like the calm sea undisturbed by the Mandara mountain, whether he has performed his duties according to the Srutis and Smritis or not.

12. When there is a partial agreement of the comparison with the nature of the compared object, it is to be considered maturely for the well understanding of the point in question, and not to be made a matter of controversy.

13. From every form of argument you are to understand the intelligible (that is explained to you); but the confounded disputant is blind both to right and false reasoning.

14. The notion of self (soul or God) being clear (self-evident) in the sphere of our consciousness within the mind. Any one who prattles meaninglessly about this truth, is said to be defective in his understanding (i.e. our consciousness of self-existence according to the maxim “Ego sum qui cogito,” is an undeniable truth).

15. It is partly by pride and partly by their doubts, that the ignorant are led to altercate about their cognitions, and thereby they obscure the region of their inward understanding, as the clouds overshadow the clear firmament.

16. Of all sorts of proofs it is the evidence of perception which forms their fountain-head, as the sea is the mainspring of all its waters. It is this alone which is used in this place as you shall learn below.

17. The substance of all sensations is said to be the supersensible apprehension (or inward knowledge of things) by the wise; and it is verily their right concept which is meant by their perception.

18. Thus the notion, knowledge and certainty (of things) as derived from words, are styled the triplicate perception as we have of the living soul.

19. This soul is consciousness and egoism, and is of the masculine termination, and the cognition of the object whereby it is manifested to us, is called a category. (Viz. samvid, samvitti and padártha).

20. It becomes manifest in the form of the passing world by the multifarious acts and shifts of its volition and option, as the water exhibits itself in the shape of its waves and bubbles.

21. It was uncausal before, and then developed itself as the cause of all in its act of creating at the beginning of creation, and became perceptible by itself.

22. The causality was a product of the discrimination of the living soul, that was in a state of inexistence (before); until it became manifest as existent in the form of the material world.

23. Reason says, that the self-same being destroys the body which was produced of itself, and manifests itself in its transcendental magnitude (of intelligence).

24. When the reasoning man comes to know the soul, he finds by his reason the presence of the indescribable being, before him.

25. The mind being free from desire, the organs of sense are relieved from their action, the soul becomes devoid of the results of its past actions as of those it has left undone.

26. The mind being set at ease and freed from its desires, the organs of action are restrained from their acts, as an engine when stopped in its motion.

27. It is sensuousness which is reckoned as the cause that puts the machinery of the mind to work, just as the rope tied to the log and fastened about the neck of a ram, propels him to fighting.

28. The sight of external objects and the purposes of the internal mind, set all men at play, as the inward force of the air puts the winds to motion.

29. All spiritual knowledge is holy wherever it is found in any one: it adds a lustre to the body and mind like that of the expanded region of the sky.

30. He sees the appearances of all visible objects, and maintains his own position among them. He views the spirit in the same light in which it presents itself in any place.

31. Wherever the universal soul appears itself in any light, it remains there and then in the same form in which it exhibits itself unto us.

32. The universal soul being alike in all, the looker and the object seen are both the same being. The looker and the looked being one, their appearance as otherwise is all unreal.

33. Hence the world is without a cause (because it is an unreality and not caused by any one). All existence is evidently Brahma himself, the perceptible cause of all. Hence perception (pratyaxa) is the basis of evidence, and inference and others as analogy and verbal testimony are but parts of it (anumána, upamá, sábdah).

34. Now let the worshippers of fate who apply the term destiny to all their exertions, cast off their false faith; and let the brave exert their manliness to attain their highest state.

35. Continue O Ráma, to consider the true and lucid doctrines of the successive teachers (of mankind), until you can arrive to a clear conception of the infinitely Supreme being in your own mind.

CHAPTER XX.

ON GOOD CONDUCT.

IT is the society of the respectable and reasoning with them, that leads most efficiently to the improvement of the understanding, and next to the making of a great man, with all the characteristics of greatness.

2. Whatever man excels in any quality here, he becomes distinguished by it: therefore learn it from him, and improve your understanding by the same.

3. True greatness consists in quietness and other virtues, without a knowledge of which it is impossible, O Ráma! to be successful in anything.

4. Learning produces quiet and other qualities, and increases the virtues of good people; all which are praised by their good effects on the mind, as the rain is hailed for its growing the new sprouts of plants.

5. The qualities of quietude and other virtues serve to increase the best knowledge (of men); as sacrifice with rice serves to produce felicitous rains for the harvest.

6. As learning produces the qualities of quiet and the like, so do these qualities give rise to learning; thus they serve to grow each other, as the lake and lotuses contribute to their mutual benefit (excellence).

7. Learning is produced by right conduct as good conduct results from learning; thus wisdom and morality are natural helps to one another.

8. The intelligent man who is possessed of quietude, meekness and good conduct, should practise wisdom, and follow the ways of good people.

9. Unless one should bring to practice his wisdom and good conduct in an equal degree, he will never be successful in either of them.

10. Both of these should be conjoined together like the song united with percussion, as it is done by the husbandman and his wife in sowing the seeds and driving away the (seed-picking) birds from their fields of grain.

11. It is by practice of wisdom and right conduct (as causes of one another), that good people are enabled to acquire both of them in an equal degree.

12. I have already expounded to you, O Ráma, the rule of good conduct, and will now explain to you fully the way of gaining learning.

13. Learning conduces to renown, long life and to the acquisition of the object of your exertion; therefore should the intelligent learn the good sciences from those who have studied and mastered them.

14. By hearing (these lectures) with a clear understanding, you will surely attain the state of perfection, as dirty water is purified by infusion of the Kata fruits.

15. The sage who has known the knowable, has his mind drawn insensibly to the blissful state; and that highest state of unbounded felicity being once known and felt (in the mind), it is hard to loose its impression at any time.

YOGA VÁSISHTHA

BOOK III.

UTPATTI-KHANDA.

EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD.

CHAPTER I.

CAUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.

SECTION I.

EXORDIUM (BHÚMIKÁ.)

IT is both by means of words and lights (Vágbhábhis i.e. the words of the scripture and the lights of nature and reason), that the knower of the Great God (Brahmavid), perceives the spirit of Brahma appearing within himself as in a dream. And he also knows him as such, who understands him according to the purport of the holy text. “What this is, that is the self.” (i.e. He is all in all).

2. This passage shows in short, the visible world to reside in the vacuous bosom of Brahma at its creation: it is now to be known in length, what this creation is, whence it takes its rise, and wherein it becomes extinct at last.

3. Hear me, O intelligent Ráma! now expound to you all things according to my best knowledge of them, and agreeably to their nature and substance in the order of creation.

4. One conscious of himself as a spiritual and intelligent being, views the passing world as a Somnum (swapnam) dream: and this dreaming simile of the passing world, applies equally to our knowledge of ego and tu or non-ego (which is as false as our cognitions in a dream).

5. Next to the book describing the conduct of the seekers of liberation (mumukshu-vyavahára), then follows the book of evolution (utpatti), which I am now going to propound to you.

SECTION II.

WORLDLY BONDAGE.

6. Bondage consists in our belief of the reality of the visible world (and our relation with its phenomena, Gloss). So our release depends on the negation of phenomenals. Now hear me tell you how to get rid of the visible (fetters of our minds).

7. Whoever is born in this world, continues to progress, till at last he obtains his final liberation (his ultimum and optimum perfection); or rises towards heaven or falls into hell (under the subjection of his righteous and unrighteous actions (Gloss)).

8. I shall therefore expound for your understanding every thing relating to the production and continuance of things, and their prior states as they were.

9. Hear me Ráma, now give you an abstract of this book in brief, and I will here-after dilate upon it, as you may wish to know more of this (theory of production).

SECTION III.

PHASES OF THE SPIRIT.

10. Whatever appears either as moving or unmoving in this world, know them all as appearances in a dream in a state of sound sleep (susupti); which become extinct at the end of a Kalpa-age. (The events of a Kalpa or day of Brahmá are as his day dream).

11. Then there remains a nameless and undeveloped something, in a state of deep, dark and dank abyss, without any light or thick-spread (nebulae) over it. (The Teo and Beo of Moses, the tama = teom of Manu and Veda, and the Moisture of Thales).

12. This great self-existence is afterwards attributed with the titles of Reality (Rita), self (Átma), Supreme (Param), Immense (Brahma), Truth (Satyam) and so forth by the wise, as expressions for the Great Spirit (mahátman) for popular use. (Vide Gloss for definitions of these terms).

13. This self-same spirit next shows itself in another form, which is called the living soul (Jívátmá), and comes afterwards to be understood in the limited sense of life. (Jíva, Jív, Zeu or Zeus; Ji and Ján; Zoa Protozoa &c.). (But it is the undivided and universal soul of which the divided, individual and particular souls are but parts and particles. Gloss).

14. This inert living principle (Jíva-Life or the Protozoa), becomes according to its literal signification the moving spirit (ákulátma), which afterwards with its power of thinking (manana) becomes the Mind, and lastly the embodied soul (Bhútátmá). (So says the Sruti; Etasmát Jáyate pránah, manah, sarvendriyánicha, Kham, Váyurúp, Prithiví &c. (i.e. From Him—the Spirit, is derived the life, mind and the organs of sense or body, whence he is styled the Living, Thinking and All acting Deity)).

15. Thus the mind is produced and changed from the quiescent nature of the Great Supreme Spirit to a state of restlessness (asthirákára) like that of a surge, heaving itself in the (Pacific) Ocean (i.e. the restful spirit of God-Brahma is transformed to the restless state of the Mind, personified as Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha, called the Atmabhu—the son of the spirit of God or God the Son, Demiurge).

16. The mind soon evolves itself as a self-volitive power which exercises its desires at all times whereby this extensive magic scene of the world is displayed to our view. This scene is figured as Virájmúrti, or manifestation of the desires of the will of Divine mind, and represented as the offspring of Brahmá in the Indian Theogony. (Vide Manu on Genesis, chap I).

17. As the word golden bracelet signifies no other thing than a bracelet made of gold, so the meaning of the word world is not different from its source—the Divine will. (The difference is formal and not material, and consists in form and not in the substance, the divine will being the substratum of the formal world).

18. Again as the word gold bears the idea of the substance of which the bracelet is made, so the word Brahma conveys the meaning of immensity which contains the world in it; but the word world contains no idea of Brahma nor bracelet that of gold. (The substance contains the form as a stone does the statue, but the form does not contain the substance, as the statue may be of earth or metal or of wood).

19. The unreality of the world appears as a reality, just as the heat of the sun presents the unreal mirage in the moving sands of the desert as real waves of the sea. (So the phantasm of the mind-Brahmá, presents the phantasmagoria of the world (Viswarúpa) as a sober reality).

20. It is this phantasy (of the reality of the unreal world), which the learned in all things, designate as ignorance—avidyá, nature—sansriti, bondage—bandha, illusion—máyá, error-moha, and darkness—tamas. (To denote our mental delusion and deception of senses. Gloss).

SECTION IV.

NATURE OF BONDAGE.

21. Now hear me relate to you, O moon-faced Ráma! about the nature of this bondage, whereby you will be able to know the mode and manner of our liberation from it (as the diagnosis of a disease being known, it is not difficult to heal it).

22. The intimate relation of the spectator with the spectacle is called his bondage to the same, because the looker’s mind is fast bound to the object of his sight. It is the absence of the visible objects, therefore, from the mirror of the mind, which is the only means of his liberation. (So also is the removal of the objects of the other senses from the mind).

23. The knowledge of the world, ego and tu (as separate existences) is said to be an erroneous view of the soul (which is one and the same in all); and there can be no liberation of one, as long as he labours under this blunder of bheda-jnána or knowledge of individualities. (This is called savikalpa-jnána or cognition of biplicity, which cannot lead to Kaivalya mukti or the felicity derived from a knowledge of universal unity).

24. To say that the soul is neither this nor that (nedam-nedam) is but false logomachy, which cannot come to an end. The discrimination of alternatives serves only to increase the ardour for the visibles. (i.e. The ardour of induction spreads the infection of materialism. The idle neti-neti and tanna-tanna of Vedanta Philosophy is mere amphilogy and prevarication of both, as idem et non idem).

25. It is not to be obtained by sophists by the chopping of logic or by pilgrimage or ceremonial acts, any more than by a belief in the reality of the phenomenal world. (All these are observances of the esoteric faith and blind persuasion, but do not appertain to the science of esoteric spiritualism. Gloss).

26. It is hard to avoid the sight of the phenomenal world, and to repress one’s ardour for the same. But it is certain that, the visibles can not lead us to the Reality, nor the Real mislead us to unreality (i.e. the spiritual and physical knowledge are mutually repugnant to each other).

27. Wherever the invisible, inconceivable and intelligent spirit is existent, there the beholder views the visible beauty of God shining even in the midst of atoms. (i.e. Every particle of matter manifests the beauty of its maker; unless there be a dull material object to intercept the sight of the intelligent soul).

28. The phenomenal world has its rise from Him, yet those ignorant people that depart from Him to the adoration of others, resemble fools, that forsake rice to feed upon gruel. (i.e. They take the shadow for the substance).

29. Although this visible world is apparent to sight, yet O Ráma! it is but a shadow of that Being, who resides alike in the smallest atom as in the mirror of the mind, that receives the image of the largest as well as minutest things. (Compare. As full and perfect in a hair as heart. Pope.)

30. The spirit is reflected in every thing like a figure in the mirror, and it shines equally in rocks and seas, in the land and water, as it does in the mirror of the mind. (compare: Wherever I cast my eyes, thy beauty shines).

31. The visible world is the scene of incessant woes, births, decay and death, and the states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are presenting by turns the gross, subtile and evanescent forms of things for our delusion.

32. Here I sit in my meditative mood (anirúdha), having wiped off the impressions of the visibles from my mind; but my meditation is disturbed by the recurrence of my remembrance of the visibles: and this is the cause of the endless transmigrations of the soul. (i.e. The reminiscence of the past is the cause of our everlasting bondage in life).

33. It is hard to have a fixed (nirúdha) and unalterable (nirvikalpa) meditation (samádhi), when the sight of the visible world is present before our bodily and mental vision. Even the fourth stage of insensible samádhi called the turíya, in the state of sound sleep (susupti), is soon succeeded by one’s self-consciousness and external intelligence.

34. On rising from this state of deep meditation, one finds himself as roused from his sound sleep, in order to view the world full of all its woes and imperfections opening wide before him. (Compare, “I wake to a sea of troubles, how happy they who wake no more”. Young).

35. What then, O Ráma! is the good of this transient bliss which one attains by his temporary abstraction (Dhyána), when he has to fall again to his sense of the sufferings to which the world is subject as a vale of tears. (Compare, “When the cock crew I wept &c.” Young’s Night Thoughts).

36. But if one can attain to a state of unalterable abstraction of his thoughts from all worldly objects, as he has in his state of sound sleep (susupti), he is then said to have reached the highest pitch of his holiness on earth. (For it is the entire oblivion of the world that is necessary for our spiritual perfection, as it is said, “forget the present for the future”).

37. No body has ever earned aught of reality in the scene of unreal vanities; for whenever his thoughts come in contact with any outward thing, he finds it inseparable from the blemishes of existence. (“Vanity of vanities, the world is vanity”. Ecclesiastes.)

38. Should any body (in the practice of the fixedness of his attention), fix his sight for a while on a stone, by forcibly withdrawing it from visible objects, he is sure to be carried away afterwards by the visibles pressing upon his sight.

39. It is well known to all that an unflinching meditation, having even the firmness of a rock, can have no durability, in the practice of the Yogi owing to his worldly propensities.

40. Even the nirúdha or steadfast meditation which has attained the fixedness of a rock, cannot advance one step towards the attainment of that tranquillity which has no bounds to it. (i.e. The everlasting bliss of liberation or moksha).

41. Thus the sight of phenomena being altogether irrepressible, it is a foolish supposition of its being suppressed by practices of Jap-tap or prayers and austerities and the like acts of devotion.

42. The idea of the phenomena (drisyadhi), is as inherent in the mind of the spectator of the visible world, as the seeds of the lotus flower are contained in the inner cells of the pericarp.

43. The ideal of the phenomenal world (drisyadhi), lies as hidden in the minds of the spectators of the outer world, as are the in-born flavour and moisture of fruits, the oil of sesamum seeds; and the innate sweet scent of flowers.

44. As the fragrance of camphor and other odoriferous substances inheres in their nature, so the reflexion of the visible world resides in the bosom of the intellect.

45. As your dreams and desires rise and subside of themselves under the province of your intellect, so the notions of things always recur to your mind from the original ideas of them impressed in the seat of the visibles (the mind).

46. The mental apparition of the visible world, deludes its beholder in the same manner, as the visual appearance of a spectre or hobgoblin, misleads a child (to its destruction).

47. The notion of the visible world gradually expands itself, as the germ of the seed shoots forth in time, and spreads itself afterwards in the form of a plant.

48. As the minute germs and animalcules, which are contained within the bosoms of fruits and embryos of animals, expand themselves to wonderfully beauteous forms afterwards, so the seed of this world (originally) lying hid in the Divine Mind, unfolds itself in wonderful forms of the visible phenomena in nature.

CHAPTER II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST CAUSE.

SECTION I.

NARRATIVE OF THE AIR-BORN AND AERIFORM BRÁHMAN.

VASISHTHA resumed:—Hear me Ráma; now relate to you the narrative of one Ákásaja or air-born Bráhman, which will be a jewel to your ears, and enable you the better to understand the drift of the book of Genesis.

2. There lived a Bráhman Ákásaja by name, who sat always reclined in his meditation, and was ever inclined to the doing of good to all creatures.

3. Finding him long-lived, Death thought within himself saying:—It is I alone that am imperishable, and devour all things one by one.

4. How is it that I cannot cram myself with this air-born, wherein I find my teeth as blunt in him, as the edge of a sword is put to the bluff by the solid rock.

5. So saying, he proceeded to the abode of the Bráhman, intent upon making an end of him; for who is of so dull a nature as is not alert in his practice.

6. But as he was about to enter the house, he was opposed by a gorgeous flame of fire, like the conflagration of final destruction on the last day of the dissolution of the world.

7. He pierced the ambient flame and entered the dwelling, where seeing the Bráhman before him, he stretched his hand to lay hold on him with all avidity.

8. He was unable even with his hundred hands (i.e. with all his might) to grasp the Bráhman, as it is impossible for the strongest to withstand the resolute man in his wonted course.

9. He then had recourse to Yama—his lord to clear his doubt, and to learn why he could not devour the air-born (being).

10. Yama replied saying:—Death, trust not too far thy own might, that makes thee mighty to destroy the living. It is the act of the dying person that is the chief cause of his death and naught otherwise.

11. Therefore do thou be diligent to find out the acts of the person thou intendest to kill; because it is by their assistance only that thou canst seize thy prey.

12. Hereupon Death betook himself gladly to wander about in all places under the horizon. He roved over the habitable parts, as also throughout the lacunal and fluvial districts.

13. He traversed the forests and jungles, marshy and rocky grounds and maritime coasts, and passed to foreign lands and islands, and pried through their wildernesses, cities and towns.

14. He searched through kingdoms and countries, villages and deserts; and surveyed the whole earth to find out some act of the Bráhman in any part of it.

15. At last Death with all his search and effort, came to find the acts of the air-born Bráhman, to be as nil as the offspring of a barren woman; and his mind as transfixed (in meditation) as if it were a rock.

16. He then returned from his reconnoitering to his all-knowing master Yama, and besought his advice, as servants do in matters of doubt and difficulty (how to proceed).

17. Death addressed him saying:—“Tell me my lord, where the acts of the Air-born Bráhman are to be found;” to which Yama after a long head-work, replied as follows.

SECTION II.

STATE OF THE SOUL.

18. Know, O Death! that this air-born seer has no acts whatever; for as he is born of empty air so his doings are all null and void. (i.e. The bodiless spirit or mind is devoid of acts requiring physical means and appliances).

19. Whoso is born of air, is as pure as air itself, and has no combination of cause or acts like all embodied (beings).

20. He has no relation with acts of his prior existence. He is nil as the child of an unprolific woman, and as one unborn, uncreated and unbegotten.

21. Want of causes has made him a pure vacuous being, and the privation of prior acts has made him as nil as an etherial arbor.

22. His mind is not ruffled as those of others, by reason of the privation of his former acts; nor is there any such act of his present state, whereby he may become a morsel to death.

23. Such is the soul seated in the sheath of vacuity, and remaining for ever as the simple form of its own causality (káranadeha), and not guided by any extraneous causation whatever.

24. It has no prior deed, nor does it do any thing at present; (i.e. neither led by predestination, nor actuated by present efforts); but continues as something in the shape of aeriform intelligence.

25. Our inference of the actions of breathing and motion by the agency of the soul, is a mere supposition; because the soul is devoid of every thought of or tendency to action.

26. It sits meditating on itself as inseparable from the Supreme Intelligence, just as the images (in painting and statuary), are inseparable from the mind of the painter and sculptor.

27. The self-born Bráhman is as intimately connected with the objects of his thought, as fluidity is associated with water and vacuity with the firmament.

28. His soul is as immanent in the supreme, as motion is inherent in the winds. It has neither the accumulated acts of past lives, nor those of its present state. (i.e. It is neither a passive nor active agent of prior or present acts; but is an indifferent witness of the acts of the body and mind).

29. It is produced without the co-operation of accompanying causes, and being free from prior motives, it is not subjected to the vicissitudes concomitant with human life.

30. It is found to be no other than its own cause; and having no other cause for itself, it is said to be self-produced.

31. Say, how can you lay hold on that being that has done no act before, nor is in the act of doing any thing at present? It is then only subjected to thee when it thinks itself mortal. (But he that knows his soul to be immortal is not subject to death).

32. Whoso believes his soul to be of this earth, and thinks himself to be an earthly being, he may be easily overtaken by thee (whose power extends over earth-born mortals only).

33. This Bráhman is a formless being, by reason of his disowning the material body. Hence it is as hard for thee to enthral him, as to entwine the air with a rope.

34. Death rejoined saying:—Tell me my lord! how may the unborn Aja or the self-born swayambhu, be produced out of vacuum, and how can an earthly or other elemental body be and not be (at the same time).

35. Yama replied:—This Bráhman is neither born nor is nil at any time; but remains for ever the same, as the light of intelligence of which there is no decay.

36. There remains nothing at the event of the great Doomsday, except the tranquil, imperishable and infinite Bráhman himself in his spiritual form.

37. This is the nature of the everlasting vacuum, too subtile in its essence, and devoid of all attributes; but viewing present before its mind, the stupendous cosmos in the form of a huge mountain in the beginning of recreation. (The mind is the noumenon—Brahma, and the phenomena of the world is the gigantic macrocosm known as Virájmúrti).

38. Being of the nature of intelligence it is imperishable; but those who view the spirit in the form of any phenomenal body, are liable to perish with it like all embodied beings.

39. Thus this Bráhman remained in the womb of vacuity in the beginning, in his state of unalterable, vacuous intelligence.

40. It is purely of the nature of the inane understanding, and of the form of a vast expanse of omniscience; having neither body nor organism; no acts nor agency, nor desire of any kind in itself.

41. That which is simply of the form of vacuum and pure light, is never beset by the snare of pristine desires, as a corporeal being.

42. It has nothing to know or see without itself (i.e. beyond its self-consciousness). The only conception that we have of it, is what resembles an extended intelligence (i.e. an all-diffusive omniscience).

43. Under these circumstances, how is it susceptible of any earthly or other external form? Therefore O Death! desist from thy attempt to lay hold on the same.

44. Hearing these words of Yama, Death thought upon the impracticability of laying hold on empty vacuity by any body, and sorrowfully returned to his own abode.

45. Ráma said: you said sir, that Brahmá is your great grand-sire; I think it is he that you mean to say as the unborn, self-born, universal soul and intelligence.

46. So is this Brahmá, Ráma! as I have spoken to you, and it was with regard to the same, that the aforesaid discussion was held of yore between Death and Yama (Pluto).

47. Again when Death had made an end of all living beings at the interval of a manwantará, he thought himself strong enough to make an attempt to bear down upon the lotus-born Brahmá also.

48. It was then that he was admonished by Yama, saying:—It is your habit that makes you go on your wonted course of killing.

49. But the super-etherial form of Brahmá too is beyond your reach: it being simply of the nature of the mind having connection with its thoughts only, and no concern with the actual forms of things.

50. It is of the form of the wonderfully vacuous intellect, having the faculty of cognition in it. Thus the intellect being but vacuum, has neither any cause for it, nor any effect produced by it.

51. As the aeriform volitive principle in men, manifests itself without being connected with material forms, so is the self-born (Brahmá) manifest to all in his own immaterial nature.

52. Like strings of pearl appearing to view in the clear firmament, and forms of cities seen in a dream, the self-born (Brahmá) is manifest of himself without relation to external objects.

53. As there is no beholder nor any thing beholden of the solitary Supreme spirit which is the intellect itself; so is the mind manifest of itself (without its looking at or being looked upon by any body).

54. It is the volitive mind which is called Brahmá and volition being a spiritual faculty, has no connection with any material substance.

55. As the mind of the painter is fraught with images of various things, so is the mind of Brahmá full of figures of all created beings.

56. The self-born Brahmá is manifest in his own mind as Brahmá is manifested in the vacuous sphere of his intellect. He is without beginning, middle and end, and appears to have a figure like that of a male being, while in reality he has no body, as the offspring of a barren woman.

CHAPTER III.

CAUSES OF BONDAGE IN THE BODY.

RÁMA said:—It is even so as you have said, that the mind is a pure essence, and has no connection with the earth and other material substances; and that it is verily Brahmá itself.

2. Now tell me, O Bráhman! Why the remembrance of his former states (in the past and previous Kalpas), is not (to be reckoned as) the cause of his birth, as it is in the case of mine and yours and of all other beings.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Whoever had a former body, accompanied with the acts of his prior existence, retains of course its reminiscence, which is the cause of his being (reborn on earth).

4. But when Brahmá is known to have no prior acts, how is it possible for him to have his reminiscence of any thing?

5. Therefore he exists without any other cause except the causation of his own mind. It is by his own causality that the Divine spirit is self-born, and is himself his own spirit.

6. He is everlasting, and his body is born of itself from the self-existent Brahma. This unborn or self-born Brahmá has no material body whatever, except his subtile átiváhika or linga deha.

7. Ráma said:—The everlasting body is one thing (called the Súkshma saríra or subtile or immaterial body), and the mortal body is another (called the sthúladeha or the gross and material frame). Now tell me sir, whether all created beings have a subtile body also as that of Brahmá?

8. Vasishtha replied:—All created beings that are produced of a cause, have two bodies (the súkshma and the sthúla or the subtile and the gross). But the unborn being which is without a cause, has one body only (which is called the átiváhika or the everlasting spiritual body).

9. The increate Brahmá is the cause of all created beings, but the uncreated spirit having no cause for itself, has one body for it.

10. The prime lord of creatures has no material body; but manifests himself in the vacuous form of his spiritual body.

11. His body is composed of the mind alone, and has no connection with the earth or any other material substance. He is the first lord of creatures, that stretched the creation from his vacuous body (or spiritual essence).

12. All these are but forms of the images or ideas in his vacuous mind, and having no other patterns or originals in their nature. And that every thing is of the same nature with its cause, is a truth well known to all (from the identity of the effect and its material cause).

13. He is an inexistent being and of the manner of perfect intelligence. He is purely of the form of the mind, and has an intellectual and no material entity.

14. He is prime (cause) of all material productions in the physical world, and is born of himself with his prime mobile force in the form of the mind.

15. It was by the first impulse given by the prime moving power, that this expanse of creation came to be spread in the same ratio, as the currents of air and water (or the velocity of winds and tides), are in proportion to the impetus given to them.

16. This creation shining so bright to our sight, has caught its light from the luminous mind of the formless Brahmá, and appears as real to our conceptions (as they are ideal in the Divine mind).

17. Our vision in a dream is the best illustration of this (unreality of worldly things): as that of the enjoyment of connubial bliss in dreaming. It is then that an unreal object of desire, presents itself as an actual gain to our fond and false imagination.

18. The vacuous, immaterial and formless spirit, is now represented as the self-born and corporeal lord of creatures in the form of the first male. (Protogonus or the only begotten son of God).

19. He remains undiscerned in his state of pure intelligence; but becomes manifest to all by the evolution of his volition. He is indiscernible in his absolute state (of inaction); but becomes conspicuous to us in the display of his nature (in creation).

20. Brahmá is the divine power of volition (or the will of God). He is personified as the first male agent of creation, but devoid of a corporeal body. He is only of the spiritual form of the mind, and the sole cause of the existence of the triple world.

21. It is his volition that makes the self-born (Brahmá) to exert his energies, as human desires impel all mankind to action: and the vacuous mind manifests itself as a mountain of desires.

22. It then forgets its everlasting and incorporeal nature, and assumes to itself the solid material body, and shows itself in the shape of a delusive apparition (in his creation).

23. But Brahmá, who is of an unsullied understanding, is not involved in oblivion of himself, by the transformation of his unknowable nature to the known state of volition (or change of the nirguna to saguna).

24. Being unborn of material substance, he sees no apparition like others, who are exposed by their ignorance to the misleading errors of falsehood, appearing in the shape of a mirage before them.

25. As Brahmá is merely of the form of the mind, and not composed of any material substance, so the world being the product of the eternal mind, is of the same nature with its original archetype.

26. Again as the uncreated Brahmá is without any accompanying causality with himself, so his creation has no other cause beside himself (i.e. There is no secondary cause of the universe).

27. Hence there is no difference in the product from its producer; because it is certain, that the work must be as perfect as its author (so says the Sruti:—Púrnat púrnam &c.).

28. But there is nothing as a cause and effect to be found in this creation, because the three worlds are but the prototypes of the archetype of the divine mind.

29. The world is stretched out in the model of the Divine mind, and not formed by any other holy spirit. It is as immanent in the mind of God, as fluidity is inherent in water.

30. It is the mind which spreads out this extended unreality of the world like castles in the air, and builds Utopian cities (by its imagination only).

31. There is no such thing as materiality, which is as false a conception as that of a snake in a rope. Hence it is no way possible for Brahma and other beings to exist as individual bodies.

32. Even spiritual bodies are inexistent to enlightened understandings. As for the material body, it has no room in existence. (Matter or a corporeal substance or an unseen substratum is a non-entity. Berkeley).

33. Man (manu) who derives his name from his mind (mana) is a form of the volitive soul called Verinchi (Lat. vir—inchoare the inchoative spirit of Brahma); and has for his dominion the mental or intellectual world mano-rajyam (Lat. mentis regio vel regnum) where all things are situated in the form of realities.

34. The mind is the creative Brahma called Verinchitvas (Lat. Virinchoativus), by the exercise of its inherent sankalpa or the volition of incipience or creation—sisriksha; and displays itself in the form of the visible universe by development of its own essence.

35. This Virinchi or the creative power is of the form of the mind manas, as the mind itself is of the form of Virinchi also. It has no connection with any material substance, which is a mere creation of the imagination. (That is to say, matter is an imaginary substance or substratum of qualities only).

36. All visible things are contained in the bosom of the mind, as the lotus-bud and blossom reside in the seed of the lotus. Hence there is no difference between the mental and visible appearances of things, nor has any one ever doubted of it any where.

37. Whatever things you see in a dream, whatever desires you have at heart and all the ideals of your fancy, together with your ideas, notions and impressions of the visibles, know your mind to be the receptacle of them all.

38. But the visible objects relating to the option of the mind (i.e. which are desirable, to every one), are as baneful to their beholder, as an apparition is to a child (i.e. they are equally tempting and misleading to all).

39. The ideal of the phenomenal drisyadhi, developes itself as the germ contained in the seed and becomes in its proper time and place a large tree (comparable with the great arbor of the world known as sansáramahí ruha or Vriksha).

40. If there is no rest with what is real, there can be no peace with the phenomenals which are full of troubles, and give no solace to the mind. It is impossible that the feeling of the perception of visibles will be ever lost to their perceiver (observer), though its subsidence only is said to constitute liberation.

CHAPTER IV.

SECTION I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NIGHT-FALL.

VÁLMÍKI related:—

While Vasistha—the leading sage, was thus going on with his lecture without interruption, the whole assembly was intent upon listening to it with a fixed tone and tenor of their minds.

2. The string of bells (tied to the waists of warriors) ceased to jingle, every one was motionless, and even the parrots in the cages ceased to warble and flutter.

3. The ladies forgot their dalliance and were quietly attentive to the sermon: and all in the royal hall, were fixed in attention as they were paintings and statues.

4. There remained but an hour to the closing of the day, and the sun-beams became agreeable to all. The busy bustle of the world was dwindling away with the glimmering light of the setting sun.

5. The beds of full-blown lotuses exhaled their fragrance all around, and soft Zephyrs were playing about, as if to attend the audience.

6. The sun glided away from his diurnal course, and advanced to the top of his solitary setting mountain, as if he meant to reflect on all that he had heard.

7. The shades of night began to cover the landscape, and the frost to overspread the forest-lands; as if they were cooled by the cooling lectures on philosophy.

8. Now failed the concourse of the people in all directions, as if they had availed themselves of the instructions of the sage to abate the fervour of their exertions.

9. All objects on earth cast their lengthened shadows, as if they stretched their necks to hear the preaching of Vasishtha.

10. The chamberlain then advanced lowly to the monarch of the earth, and begged to inform, that the time for evening ablution and service, was about to expire.

11. Upon this the sage Vasishtha, curbed his sweet speech and said:—Let thus far, mighty king! be your hearing of this day, and I will resume my lecture, and speak of other things to-morrow.

12. Here the sage held his silence, when the king responded “Be it so as you will,” and rose from his seat.

13. He honoured for his own good, that godly sage and the other seers and Bráhmans, with due respects and offerings of flowers, water, worthy honorariums, fees, gifts and homage.

14. Then rose the whole assembly with the king and the assemblage of sages; and the gems and jewels that decked the persons of the princes and people, shed their lustres on the faces of all.

15. There was a commingled tinkling of the bracelets and armlets of the throng caused by the collision of their bodies (in their egress), and mixed flashing of the necklaces and brocades that decorated their persons.

16. The jewels attached to the tufts and crests of hair on the tops of their heads, emitted a jingling sound resembling the humming of bees amidst their flowery braids.

17. The face of the sky on all sides, that shone with a purple hue reflected by the golden ornaments on their persons, seemed as it was pleased with the wise sayings and sense of the sage.

18. The aerial visitants vanished in the air, and the earthly guests repaired to their respective habitations on earth where they all performed their daily (evening) services in their own residences.

19. In the meantime sable night made her appearance on earth, and like a bashful young lady, withdrew to the closet apart from the rest of mankind.

20. The lord of the day passed to other lands to shine upon them, for verily it is the avowed duty of every good person to give the benefit of equal light to all.

21. The shade of evening veiled all sides, and uplifted the canopy of the starry sphere on high, which like the vernal atmosphere, was emblazoned with the starlike flowers of kinsuka.

22. The birds of air took to their repose in the hollows of mango trees, or on the tops of Kádamba arbours, as honest people of fair dealing, find their rest in the purity of their minds, and contriteness of their inward hearts.

23. The skirts of the clouds tinged with red by the slanting beams of the setting sun, and with a shade of yellow hue upon them, decorated the western hills with vests of yellow garb while the sky crowned their heads with gemming wreaths of starry groups.

24. The Goddess of evening (Vespera), having departed after receiving her homage (by the vespers of mankind), was followed by her train of dark night shades, appearing as black-bodied fiends—Vetálas (night roving nisácharas of deserts).

25. A gentle and cooling breeze was blowing softened by the dew drops of night, and opening the petals of the Kumuda flowers (nylumbium), and bearing their fragrance all around.

26. A thick gloom covered the face of nature, and the stars were hid under the mists of night, and all the quarters of the skies, seemed with their overhanging loose and hairy mists, as the faces of widows shrouded by the dark dishevelled hair of mourning (for their departed lord the sun).

27. Now appeared the moist orb of the moon in her ambrosial form in the milky ocean of the sky, to moisten the mundane heat with her milk-white beams (sudhá-subhra-dídhiti).

28. On her rising, the thick mists of darkness fled from the eastern hemisphere, and became invisible in the air; as the darkness of ignorance is put to flight from the minds of monarchs, by their attendance to the sayings of wisdom.

29. Then the sages and seers, the rulers and priests of the people, took their rest in their respective beds, as the words of Vasishtha which were full of meaning, reposed in the recesses of their hearts.

30. As the thick darkness of night, resembling the dark complexion of death, receded from the arena of the skies, there followed close on its foot-steps the dewy dawn of the day with her slow moving pace.

31. The twinkling stars now disappeared from the sky, as the flowers on the trees were blown away by the breeze, and strewn on the ground as the fallen stars of heaven.

32. The sun became visible to the eyes, which his rays had roused from their sleep, as the new-rising faculty of reason becomes conspicuous in the minds of enlightened great souls.

33. Fragments of clouds shining with solar gleams, spread a yellow mantle over the eastern hills, which were still decorated with strings of stars, pendant on the crests of their lofty heads (like strings of pearls suspended to the crowns of kings).

34. All the terrestrial and celestial congress assembled again at the royal hall, in the order and manner (of their meeting) of the day before, after the performance of their morning services. (Originally prátastanáh matins or matutinal ceremonies).

35. The whole assemblage took their seats as on the previous day, and sat unmoved in their places, as a lotus-lake in its calmness after a storm.

SECTION II.

NATURE OF THE MIND.

36. Then Ráma addressed the most eloquent of sages Vasishtha, with his mellifluent words regarding the subject under investigation (the nature of the mind).

37. He said:—Tell me plainly, O venerable sir! about the form of the mind, which developed itself in all things of the universe, as they were offshoots of it (or manifestations of the mind).

38. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! there is no form whatever of the mind, that may be seen by any body. It has nothing substantial besides its name as that of the formless and irremovable vacuity: (with which it is compared in its all-comprehensiveness, all-diffusiveness and all-pervasiveness).

39. The mind as an ens or entity (sat), is not situated in the outer body (or any part of it), nor is it confined in the cavity of the inward heart or brain. But know it O Ráma, to be situated everywhere, as the all encompassing vacuum. (Being all-pervading and all-diffusive in its nature as vacuity itself).

40. This world is produced from it, and likens to the waters of the mirage. It manifests itself in the forms of its fleeting thoughts, which are as false as the appearance of secondary moons in the vapours.

41. The thinking principle is generally believed as something intermediate between the positive and negative, or real and unreal, you must know it as such and no other (i.e. neither material as the body, nor immaterial as the soul, but a faculty appertaining to the nature of both).

42. That which is the representative of all objects is called the mind: there is nothing besides to which the term mind is applicable.

43. Know volition to be the same as the mind, which is nothing different from the will, just as fluidity is the same with water, and as there is no difference between the air and its motion in the wind. (The inseparable property answering for its substance).

44. For wherever there is any will, there is that attribute of the mind also and nobody has ever taken the will and the mind for different things.

45. The representation of any object whether it is real or unreal is mind, and that is to be known as Brahma the great father of all.

46. The incorporeal soul in the body is called the mind, as having the sensuous knowledge or everlasting ideas of the corporeal world in itself. (i.e. The sentient and thinking soul is the same with mind).

47. The learned have given the several names of ignorance, intellect, mind, bondage, sin and darkness, to the visible appearance of creation.

48. The mind has no other image than that (of a receptacle and reflector of the ideas) of the visible world, which, I repeat to say, is no new creation (but a reflexion of the mind).

49. The visible world is situated in an atom of the great mind, in the same manner, as the germ of the lotus plant is contained within its seed.

50. The visible world is as innate in the all-knowing mind, as the light is inherent in the sun-beams, and velocity and fluidity are inborn in the winds and liquids.

51. But the visionary ideas of the visibles are as false and fleeting in the minds of their observers, as the form of a jewel in gold, and water in the mirage; and as wrong as the foundation of a castle in the air, and the view of a city in a dream.

SECTION III.

KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION.

52. But as the phenomenals appear as no other than real to their observer, I will O Ráma! cleanse them now from thy mind as they do the soil from a mirror.

53. As the disappearance of an appearance makes the observer no observer of it, know such to be the state of the abstraction of the mind from whatever is real or unreal in the world. (This is called Kevalíbháva or non-chalance of all things).

54. This state being arrived, all the passions of the soul, and the desires of the mind, will be at rest, as torrents of rivers at the calm ensuing upon the stillness of the wind.

55. It is impossible that things having the forms of space, earth and air (i.e. material objects) will present the same features in the clear light (of induction), as they do to our open sight.

56. Thus when the observer comes to know the unreality of the phenomena of the three worlds, as well as of his own entity, it is then that his pure soul attains to the knowledge of kaivalya or solity of divine existence.

57. It is such a mind that reflects the image of God in itself as in a mirror; while all others are as blocks of stone, and incapable of receiving any reflexion at all.

58. After suppression of the sense of ego and tu (or both the subjective and objective knowledge), and the error of the reality of the outer world the beholder becomes abstracted and remains without vision of external things in his sitting posture.

59. Ráma rejoined:—If the perception of entity is not to be put down, nor an entity become a non-entity nor when I cannot view the visibles (which are the causes of our error), as non-entities;

60. Then tell me O Bráhman! how to uproot this disease of our eagerness for the visibles from the mind, which bewilders the understanding, and afflicts us with a train of troubles.

61. Vasishtha replied:—Now hear my advice, Ráma, for the suppression of this phantom of phenomenon, whereby it will surely die away and become utterly extinct.

62. Know Ráma, that nothing that is, can ever be destroyed or become extinct; and though you remove it, yet it will leave its seed or trace in the mind.

63. This seed is the memory of such things, which reopens the ideas of the visibles in the mind, expanding themselves in the fallacious notions of the forms of big worlds and skies, mountains and oceans.

64. These (wrong notions) called doshas or faults and defects of understanding, are obstacles in the way to liberation; but they do not affect the sages who are found to be liberated.

65. Again if the world and all other things are real existences (as the Sánkhyas maintain): yet they cannot confer liberation on any one; because the visibles, whether they are situated within or without us are perishable themselves.

66. Learn therefore this dreadful proposition (solemn truth), which will be fully explained to you in the subsequent parts of this work. (Note:—A dreadful dogma it is to physicists and “ádivádis” or asserters of the encipientes mundi or beginning of the world).

67. That all things appearing in the forms of vacuity, elementary bodies, the world, and ego et tu, are non-entities, and have no meanings in them.

68. Whatever is seen apparent before us, is no other but the supreme Brahma himself, and his undecaying and imperishable essence.

69. The plenitude of creation is an expansion of his plenum, and the quiet of the universe rests in his quietude. It is his beom which is the substance of vacuum, and it is his immensity that is the substratum of the immense cosmos.

70. Nothing visible is real, and there is neither any spectator nor spectacle here. There is nothing as vacuity or solidity in nature, but all this is but a piece of extended Intelligence.

71. Ráma rejoined:—The adages relating the grinding of stones by the son of a barren woman, the horns of a hare, and the dancing of a hill with its extended arms;

72. And the oozing of oil from sand, the reading (of books) by dolls of marble, and the roaring of clouds in a painting, and such others are applicable to your words (of the reality of an unreal essence of God).

73. I see this world to be full of diseases, deaths and troubles, mountains, vacuities and other things, and how is it sir, that you tell me of their non-existence?

74. Tell me Sir, how you call this world to be unsubstantial, unproduced and inexistent, that I may be certain of this truth.

75. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that I am no inconsistent speaker, and hear me explain to you how the unreality appears as real, as the son of a barren woman has come to rumour.

76. All this was unproduced before, and did not exist in the beginning of creation. It comes to appearance from the mind like that of a city in a dream. (i.e. They are all but creations of the mind and fancy).

77. The mind also was not produced in the beginning of creation and was an unreality itself. Hear me tell you therefore, how we come to a notion of it.

78. This unreal mind spreads by itself the false and changing scenes of the visible world, just as we dream of changeful unrealities as true in a state of dreaming. (Here the dreaming philosopher sees dreams in his dream).

79. It then exerts its volition in the fabrication of the body and spreads far and wide the magic scene of the phenomenal world.

80. The mind by its potentiality of vacillation has many actions of its own, as those of expansion, saltation, and motion, of craving, roving, diving and seizing, and many other voluntary efforts (the causes of physical operations).

CHAPTER V.

ON THE ORIGINAL CAUSE. (MÚLA-KÁRANA).

RÁMA said:—Tell me, O chief of the sages! what cause is it that leads to our misconception of the mind, how it is produced and what is the source of its illusion.

2. Tell me sir, in brief of the first production (of the mind), and then, O best of the eloquent, you may tell the rest, that is to be said on the subject.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Incident to the universal dissolution, when all things were reduced to nothing, this infinity of visible objects remained in a state of calm and quiet before their creation.

4. There was then the only great God in existence, who is increate and undecaying, who is the creator of all at all times, who is all in all, and supreme soul of all, and resembling the sun that never sets.

5. He whom language fails to describe, and who is known to the liberated alone; who is termed the soul by fiction only, and not by his real nature (which is unknowable).

6. Who is the prime Male of Sánkhya philosophers and the Brahma of Vedánta followers; who is the Intelligence of gnostics and who is wholly pure and apart from all (personalities).

7. Who is known as vacuum by vacuists, who is the enlightener of solar light, who is truth itself, and the power of speech and thought and vision, and all action and passion for ever.

8. Who though ever existent everywhere appears as inexistent to the world, and though situated in all bodies, seems to be far from them. He is the enlightener of our understanding as the solar light (of the world).

9. From whom the gods Vishnu and others are produced as solar rays from the sun; and from whom infinite worlds have come into existence like bubbles of the sea.

10. Unto whom these multitudes of visible creations return as the waters of the earth to the sea, and who like a lamp enlightens the souls and bodies (of all immaterial and material beings).

11. Who is present alike in heaven as in earth and the nether worlds; and who abides equally in all bodies whether of the mineral, vegetable or animal creation. He resides alike in each particle of dust as in the high and huge mountain ranges; and rides as swift on the wings of winds, as he sleeps in the depths of the main.

12. He who appoints the eight internal and external organs (Paryashtakas) of sense and action to their several functions; and who has made the dull and dumb creatures as inert as stones, and as mute as they are sitting in their meditative mood.

13. He who has filled the skies with vacuity and the rocks with solidity; who has dissolved the waters to fluidity, and concentrated all light and heat in the sun.

14. He who has spread these wonderful scenes of the world, as the clouds sprinkle the charming showers of rain; both as endless and incessant, as they are charming and dulcet to sight.

15. He who causes the appearance and disappearance of worlds in the sphere of his infinity like waves in the ocean; and in whom these phenomena rise and set like the running sands in the desert.

16. His spirit the indestructible soul, resides as the germ of decay and destruction in the interior (vitals) of animals. It is as minute as to lie hid in the body, and as magnified as to fill all existence.

17. His nature (Prakriti) spreads herself like a magic creeper (máyá latá) all over the space of vacuity, and produces the fair fruit in the form of the mundane egg (Brahmánda); while the outward organs of bodies, resembling the branches of this plant, keep dancing about the stem (the intelligent soul), shaken by the breeze of life which is everfleeting.

18. It is He, that shines as the gem of intelligence in the heart of the human body; and it is he from whom, the luminous orbs constituting the universe, continually derive their lustre.

19. It is that colossus of intelligence, which like a cloud sheds ambrosial draughts of delight to soothe our souls, and showers forth innumerable beings as rain drops on all sides. It bursts into incessant flashes showing the prospects of repeated creations which are as (momentary as) flashes of lightenings.

20. It is his wondrous light which displays the worlds to our wondering sight; and it is from his entity that both what is real and unreal, have derived their reality and unreality.

21. It is the insensible and ungodly soul, that turns to the attractions of others against its purpose; while the tranquil soul rests in itself (as in the spirit of God).

22. He who transcends all existences, and by whom all existent beings are bound to their destined actions in their proper times and places, and also to their free actions and motions and exertions of all kinds.

23. It is he who from his personality of pure consciousness, became of the form of vacuum (pervading all nature), and then by means of his vacuous mind and empty thoughts filled it with substances, wherein his soul was to reside, and whereon his spirit had to preside.

24. Having thus made the infinite hosts of worlds in the immense sphere of the universe, he is yet neither the agent of any action nor the author of any act in it; but remains ever the same as the sole one alone, in his unchangeable and unimpairing state of self-consciousness, and without any fluctuation, evolution or inhesion of himself, as he is quite unconcerned with the world.

CHAPTER VI.

ADMONITION FOR ATTEMPT TO LIBERATION.

Mumukshu Pratyopadesa.

VASISHTHA said:—It is by the knowledge of this transcendent supreme spirit and God of gods, that one may become an adept (in divine service), and not by the rigour of religious austerities and practices. (Proficiency by theoretic knowledge).

2. Here nothing is needed than the culture and practice of divine knowledge, and thereby the truth being known, one views the errors of the world, as a satiate traveller looks at a mirage in a clear light.

3. He (God) is not far from nor too near us, nor is he obtainable by what he is not (as the adoration of images and ceremonial acts). He is the image of light and felicity, and is perceivable in ourselves.

4. Here austerities and charities, religious vows and observances, are of no good whatever. It is the calm quietude of one’s own nature only that is serviceable to him in his services to God.

5. Fondness for the society of the righteous and devotedness to the study of good books, are the best means of divine knowledge; while ritual services and practices, serve only to strengthen the snare of our in-born delusions, which true knowledge alone can sever.

6. No sooner one has known this inward light of his as the very God, than he gets rid of his miseries, and becomes liberated in this his living state.

7. Ráma said:—Having known the Self in himself, one is no more exposed to the evils of life and even to death itself.

8. But say how is this great God of gods to be attained from such great distance (as we are placed from him), and what rigorous austerities and amount of pains are necessary for it.

9. Vasishtha replied:—He is to be known by means of your manly exertions (in knowledge and faith), and by the aid of a clear understanding and right reasoning, and never by the practice of austerities and ablutions, nor by acts attended with bodily pain of any kind. (Hence the mistake of Hatha yoga).

10. For know, O Ráma! all your austerities and charities, your painstaking and mortification are of no efficacy, unless you wholly renounce your passions and enmity, your anger and pride, your selfishness and your envy and jealousy.

11. For whoever is liberal of any money which he has earned by defrauding others, and with a heart full of vile passions, the merit of such liberality accrues to the rightful owner of the property and not to its professed donor.

12. And whoever observes any vow or rite with a mind actuated by passions, he passes for a hypocrite and reaps no benefit of his acts.

13. Therefore try your manly exertions in securing the best remedies of good precepts and good company, for putting down the diseases and disturbances of the world.

14. No other course of action except that of the exertion of one’s manliness, is conducive to the allaying of all the miseries and troubles of this life.

15. Now learn the nature of this manliness for your attainment to wisdom, and annihilation of the maladies of passions and affections and animosity of your nature.

16. True manliness consists in your continuance in an honest calling conformable with the law and good usage of your country; and in a contented mind which shrinks from smelling the enjoyments of life.

17. It consists in the exertion of one’s energies to the utmost of his power, without bearing any murmur or grief in his soul; and in one’s devotedness to the society of the good and perusal of good works and Sástras.

18. He is styled the truly brave who is quite content with what he gets, and spurns at what is unlawful for him to take; who is attached to good company, and ready at the study of unblamable works.

19. And they who are of great minds, and have known their own natures and those of all others by their right reasoning, are honoured by the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra and Siva.

20. He who is called a righteous man by the majority of the good people of the place, is to be resorted to with all diligence as the best and most upright of men.

21. Those religious works are said to compose the best Sástra, which treat chiefly of Spiritual knowledge; and one who constantly meditates on them, is surely liberated (from the bonds of this world).

22. It is by means of right discrimination derived from the keeping of good company and study of holy works, that our understanding is cleared of its ignorance, as dirty water is purified by Kata seeds, and as the minds of men are expurgated by the Yoga philosophy.

CHAPTER VII.

RECOGNITION OF THE NIHILITY OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD.

(Drisyásattá Pratijnánam).

RÁMA said:—

Tell me, O Bráhman! where is this God situated and how can I know him, of whom you spoke all this, and whose knowledge you said, leads to our liberation.

2. Vasishtha replied:—This God of whom I spoke, is not at a distance from us. He is situated in these our bodies, and is known to be of the form of mere Intellect (chinmátra) to us. So says Fichte: The Infinite Reason (chit) alone exists in himself—the finite in him. Lewis vol. II. p. 563.

3. He is all in all, though all this world is not the omnipresent Himself. He is one alone and is not termed the all that is visible (to us). So Fichte: God is infinite and embraces the finite, but the finite can not encompass the Infinite. Lewis vol. II. p. 573.

4. It is this Intellect which is in Siva, that wears the cusp of the moon in his crest; the same is in Vishnu that rides on his eagle Garuda, and in Brahmá that is born of the lotus. The sun also is a particle of this Intellect (but they are not the self-same Intellect themselves).

5. Ráma rejoined:—So it is; and even boys say this also, that if the whole world is mere Intelligence (chetana mátrakam); then why call it by another name (as the world), and what is the use of giving admonition of it to anybody (when every one is full of intelligence).

6. Vasishtha replied:—If you have known the mere Intellect (Chinmátram), to be the same with the intelligent world (chetana viswa), you have then known nothing for getting rid of this world.

7. The world is verily intelligent, O Ráma (with the mundane soul); but the animal soul (Jíva) is called pasu or brutish observer of things pasyati, on account of its looking after sensual gratifications only as brutes, and giving rise only to the fears of disease, decay and death (from its love of itself, and care for self-preservation).

8. The animal soul (Jíva), though an incorporeal substance, is an ignorant thing and subject to pain and sorrow. The mind manas also, though it is capable of intelligence—chetaníyam, has become the root of all evils. (i.e. With its power of intellection and nature of intelligence (chetanam), it is yet ever inclined to the wrong side by itself).

9. Intellectual liberation (chetya mukta) from thoughts of the world, is one state (of the soul), and unintelligent gazing (unmukhatá) at it, is another. He who knows the better of these two the states of the soul, has no cause of sorrow (i.e. the rational from the irrational soul).

10. He who has seen the all surpassing Supreme Being, has his heartstrings all cut asunder, and the doubts of his mind all driven away. The sequences of his acts are washed away (and leave no fear of his transmigration).

11. The longing after perceptibles (Chetyas) does not cease, unless the perception of the visibles is effaced from the mind.

12. How then is this perception to be effaced? How is it possible to have a longing after the unintelligible Intelligence, without suppression of our longing for the visibles? It is only to be effected by avoiding the external perceptions of the mind.

13. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, where and how is that vacuous soul called pasu, by the knowledge of which no one can get rid of his transmigration (i.e. the worshippers of the jívátmá or animal soul called jívavádis, are not entitled to their final liberation—mukti).

14. Tell me also, who is that man, who by his company with the good and study of good works, has gone over the ocean of the world, and beholds the Supreme soul in himself.

15. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever animal souls being cast in the wilderness of this life, long after this intelligent soul (chetanátman), they are truly wise, and know him (in themselves).

16. Whoso believes the animal soul as the life of the world (or mundane soul), and thinks (the knowledge of the) Intelligence to be attended with pain only, he can never know Him anywhere (in this world).

17. If the Supreme soul be known to us, O Ráma! the string of our woes is put to an end, like the fatal cholera after termination of its cholic pain or extraction of its poison.

18. Ráma said:—Tell me, O Bráhman! the true form of the Supreme soul, by light of which the mind may escape from all its errors.

19. Vasishtha replied:—The Supreme soul is seen in the same way in ourselves and within our bodies, as we are conscious of our minds to be seated within us, after its flight to distant countries.

20. Our notion of the Supreme spirit is often lost in the depth of our minds, in the same way, as the existence of the outer world (objective knowledge), becomes extinct in our consciousness in yoga meditation.

21. It is He in whose knowledge we lose our sense of the beholder and visibles, and who is an invacuous vacuum or a substantive vacuity himself. (i.e. Who being known, we forget our knowledge both of the subjective and objective, and view his unity as the only to on or substratum of all). So Fichte: In thee, the Incomprehensible, does my own existence, and that of the world become comprehensible to me. Lewis. Phil. vol. II. P. 563.

22. He whose substance appears as the vacuum, and in whom subsists the vacuous plenum of the universe; and who appears as vacuity itself, notwithstanding the plenitude of his creation subsisting in him, is verily the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).

23. Who though full of intelligence, appears to stand as an unconscious huge rock before us; and who though quite subtile in his nature, seems as some gross body to our conception: such is the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).

24. That which encompasses the inside and outside of every thing, and assumes the name and nature of the very thing to itself, is verily the form of the Supreme (that you want to know).

25. As light is connected with sunshine and vacuity with the firmament and as Omnipresence is present with every thing and every where: such is the form of the Supreme spirit (that you want to know).

26. Ráma asked:—But how are we to understand that He who bears the name and nature of absolute and infinite reality should yet be compressed within any thing visible in the world, which is quite impossible to believe?

27. Vasishtha replied:—The erroneous conception of the creation of the world, resembles the false impression of colours in the clear sky; wherefore it is wrong, O Ráma! to take a thing as real, of which there is an absolute privation in nature.

28. It is the knowledge of Brahma that constitutes his form, or else there is no act of his whereby he may be known to us (the universe being but a development of himself). He is entirely devoid of any visible form, and therefore there is no better course for any one than to know him as truth.

29. After an absolute negation of the visibles comes to be known (i.e. after disappearance of the traces of phenomenals from the mind), there remains a pre-eminent object of conception, which is inborn and manifest of itself.

30. This concept (of the Super-eminent) has oftentimes no reflexion, owing to its having no visible appearance; and at others it is not without its reflexion on the mirror of the mind (which has received its image).

31. No body has ever conceived this transcendent verity in himself, who has not at the same time been convinced of the impossibility of the existence of the visible world. (i.e. Conviction of the nullity of the phenomenal alone, leads to the perception of the Reality).

32. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O sage! how the existence of so many extensive worlds composing the visible Universe, can be thought of as unreal, or comprised in the chinmátram (or minutiae of the divine mind), as the mount Meru in the sesamum seed.

33. Vasishtha replied:—If you will but stay a few days in the company of holy men, and study the sacred Sástras with a steady mind with me:

34. Then I will purge away this false view of the visibles from your understanding, like the delusive mirage from one’s sight. This absence of the view will extinguish your sense of being the viewer, and restore you to your intelligence alone.

35. When the viewer is united with the view, and the view with the viewer, there then turns out an unity of the duality, and the duality blends into an inseparable unity.

36. Without union of the two there is no success of either; and this union of both the viewer and the view having disappeared at last, there remains an only one unity (which is indissoluble).[2]

37. I will now cleanse away the dross of all your sense of egoism and tuism, with that of the world and all other things from the mirror of your mind, by bringing you to your consciousness of self, and total negation of every thing besides.

38. From nothing never comes a something, nor from something ever proceeds a nothing; and there is no difficulty whatever in removing what does not exist in nature (i.e. That a nil is nil is self evident, and no argument is required to prove it so).

39. This world which appears so very vast and extensive, was not in being at the beginning. It resided in the pure spirit of Brahma, and was evolved from the mind (Chitta) of Brahmá.

40. The thing called the world was never produced, nor is it in being nor in actual appearance. It is as the form of a bracelet in gold, which it is not difficult to alter and reduce to its gross metallic state.

41. I will explain it fully by other reasons, whereby this truth may appear of itself, and impress irresistibly in your mind.

42. How can that be said to have its being, which was not brought into being before, and how can there be a rivulet in the mirage, or the ring of an eclipse in the moon?

43. As a barren woman has no son nor a mirage any water in it; and as the firmament has no plant growing in it, so there is no such thing which we erroneously call the world.

44. Whatever you see, O Ráma! is the indestructible Brahma himself: this I have many times shown you with good reasons, and not in mere words (as my ipse dixit only).

45. It is unreasonable, O intelligent Ráma! to disregard what a learned man speaks to you with good reasons; because the dull-headed fellow who neglects to listen to the words of reason and wisdom, is deemed as a fool, and is subject to all sorts of difficulties.

CHAPTER VIII.

NATURE OF GOOD SÁSTRAS.

RÁMA asked:—How can it be reasonably shewn and established, that there is nothing to be known and seen in this world, although we have evident notions of it supported by sense and right reasoning?

2. Vasishtha answered:—It is from a long time, that this endemic of the fallacious knowledge (of the reality of the world), is prevalent (among mankind); and it is by means of true knowledge only that this wrong application of the word world, can be removed from the mind.

3. I will tell you a story, Ráma! for your success in (the attainment of) this knowledge; if you will but attend to it, you will become both intelligent and emancipate.

4. But if from the impatience of your nature like that of brute creatures, you get up and go away after hearing half of this (narrative), you shall then reap no benefit from it.

5. Whoever seeks some object and strives after it, he of course succeeds in getting the same; but if he become tired of it he fails therein.

6. If you will betake yourself, Ráma! to the company of the good and study of good Sástras, you will surely arrive at your state of perfection in course of a few days or mouths, according to the degree of your diligence.

7. Ráma said:—O you, that are best acquainted with the Sástras, tell me which is the best Sástra for the attainment of spiritual knowledge, and a conversancy with which may release us from the sorrows of this life.

8. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O high minded Ráma! this work (the Vásishtha Sanhitá) to be the best of all others on spiritual knowledge. It is the auspicious Great Rámáyana and the Sástra of sástras.

9. The Rámáyana is the best of histories, and serves to enlighten the understanding. It is known as containing the essence of all histories.

10. But by hearing these doctrines one easily finds his liberation coming of itself to him; wherefore it is reckoned as the most holy record.

11. All the existing scenes of the world will vanish away upon their mature consideration; as the thoughts occurring in a dream, are dispersed upon the knowledge of the dreaming state after waking.

12. Whatever there is in this work, may be found in others also, but what is not found here, cannot be found elsewhere (in other works); and therefore the learned call it the thesaurus (sanhitá) or store-house (of philosophy).

13. Whoever attends to these lectures every day, shall have his excellent understanding undoubtedly stored with transcendent knowledge of divinity day by day.

14. He who feels this Sástra disagreeable to his vitiated taste, may take a fancy to the perusal of some other sástra that is more wordy and eloquent.

15. One feels himself liberated in this life by the hearing of these lectures, just as one finds himself healed of a disease by a potion of some efficacious medicine.

16. The attentive hearer of these sermons, perceives their efficacy in himself, in the same way as one feels the effects of the curses or blessings pronounced upon him which never go for nothing (but have their full effects in time).

17. All worldly miseries are at an end with him, who considers well these spiritual lectures within himself, and which is hard to be effected by charities and austerities, or performance of the acts ordained in the srautá or ceremonial vedas, or by hundreds of practices in obedience to the ordinances appointed by them.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE SUPREME CAUSE OF ALL. (PARAMA KÁRANA).

VASISHTHA continued:—

They are truly delighted and gratified (in their souls), who are ever devoted with all their hearts and minds in holy conversation among themselves.

2. Those that are devoted to the acquisition of knowledge and investigation of spiritual science, enjoy the same bliss of liberation in their living state, as it is said to attend on disembodied souls.

3. Ráma said:—Tell me O Bráhman! the distinct natures of the living and disembodied liberations, that I may try to learn the same, with an understanding enlightened by the light of Sástras (literally, having the eye-sight of Sástras).

4. Vasishtha said:—Who ever remains as he is (i.e. without any perturbation in his worldly course), and continues intact as vacuity amidst society: such a one is called the living liberated (Jívan mukta).

5. Who so is employed in his intellection only and seems to be sleeping in his waking state, though while conducting his worldly affairs: such a one is called the living liberated.

6. Whose countenance is neither flushed nor dejected in pleasure or pain (in joy or grief and such other reverses); and who remains contented with what he gets: such a one is called liberated while he is living.

7. Whose waking is as a state of sound sleep, and who is not awake to the accidents of the waking state, and whose waking state is insensible of the desires incident to it: such a one is called liberated in his life.

8. Who though actuated by the feelings of affection, enmity, fear and the like, is at rest, and as clear and undisturbed as vacuity within himself: such a one is called liberated while he is alive.

9. Who has not an air of pride in him, and is not conceited (with a notion of his greatness) when he does or refrains to do anything: such a one is called self-liberated in his life time.

10. Who at one glance or winking of his eye, has a full view of the whole creation and final destruction of the world, like the Supreme self (to which he is assimilated): such a one is said to be liberated in his life time.

11. Who ever is not feared by nor is afraid of any body, and who is freed from the emotions of joy, anger and fear: such a one is liberated in life.

12. Who is quiet and quietly disposes his business of this world, and who though he stands as an individual in the sight of men, attaches no individuality to himself; and who though a sentient being, is insensible to all impressions: such is the living liberated soul.

13. Who being full of all possessions, and having every thing present before him, remains cold and apathetic to them, as if they were useless to him: such a man is liberated in his life.

14. Now leaving the subject of “living liberation,” I will tell you what they call the “disembodied liberation,” which like a breath of wind enters into the soul, after it has fled from the mortal body.

15. The disembodied free spirit neither rises nor sets (like the sun), nor is it subject to wane (like the moon); it is neither manifest nor hidden; it is not at a distance, nor is it in me, thee or in any other person.

16. It shines forth in the form of the sun, and preserves the world in the manner of Vishnu. It creates the world in the shape of the lotus-born Brahmá, and destroys all as Rudra or Siva.

17. It takes the form of the sky supported on the shoulders of air, which supports all living beings, the gods, sages and demigods in the three worlds. It takes the form of boundary mountains and separates the different regions (of the earth and skies).

18. It becomes the earth and supports these numerous sets of beings, it takes the forms of trees, plants and grass, and yields fruits and grains for supportance (of all living creatures).

19. It takes the forms of fire and water and burns and melts in them by itself. It sheds ambrosia in the form of the moon, and causes death in the shape of poison.

20. It becomes light wherewith it fills the space of the firmament, and spreads darkness in the form of Erebus (tama or Teom). It becomes vacuum (vyom or beom) to leave empty space for all, while in the form of hills it obstructs their free passage on earth.

21. In the form of the fleet mind, it moves the self-moving animals, and in that of dull matter it settles the unmoving immovables. It girds the earth by its form of the ocean, as a bracelet encircles the arm.

22. The bodiless spirit takes upon it the great body of the sun, and illumes all the worlds with their minute particles, while it remains quiet in itself.

23. Whatever is shining in this universe or ever was or is to be so, in any of the three—past, present and future times, know them all O Ráma! as forms of the Divine Spirit (which is free to take any shape it likes).

24. Ráma said:—Tell me, O Bráhman! why this view of liberation, appears so very difficult to me, as to make me believe it altogether incomprehensible to and unattainable by any body.

25. Vasishtha replied:—This (disembodied) liberation is called nirvána or total extinction of self-consciousness, and is styled Brahma also (in whom the human soul is finally absorbed). Attend now to the means of its attainment.

26. All such visible objects known as I, thou, this &c., being unproduced (anutpanna) from the eternal sat or entity of God, it is impossible to have any conception of them in our minds.[3]

27. Ráma said:—Methinks, O best of them that know the knowable! that the bodiless souls of the liberated, when they pass through the bounds of the three worlds, have again to be born according to the course of nature.

28. Vasishtha replied:—Those that retain the reminiscence of the three worlds have to move about in them, but such as have lost the idea of their existence, are absorbed in infinity.

29. For how can one derive the knowledge of the unity of God from his belief in the duality of the separate existence of the world? Therefore the figurative sense of cosmos as God (Viswa) can not give the spiritual and infinite idea of Brahma.

30. He is no other but himself, of the nature of pure intellect, and of the form of the clear and tranquil vacuum (that pervades all things). Brahma is said to be the world, to signify his manifestation of its unreality as a reality unto us.

31. I have well considered about a golden bracelet, and found nothing as a bracelet in it save its gold. (The form is changeable, but the substance is real).

32. I observed the billows, and found nothing in them but water; and where there was no water I saw no billow to rise. (It is the substance and not its shape or shadow that is to be looked into).

33. I see no oscillation any where except in the winds, which are no other than this force in motion, and moving all things in the world. (Thus the spirit of God is the fountain or primum mobile of all forces, which are but forms of the main force).

34. As vacuity abides in air, and water appears in the burning deserts, and as there is light spread over all creation; so is the spirit of Brahma manifest in the three worlds in the forms of the very worlds.

35. Ráma said:—Tell me, O sage! the cause which makes this world with its nature of absolute negation or non-existence, to exhibit such distinct appearances in its phenomena.

36. Tell me also, how the viewer and the view (of these worlds) being both extinct (as they are equally unreal in their nature), there remains their nirvána or absorption in the Deity without their personalities.

37. Again as it is impossible to conceive the existence of the visible objects, say how is it possible to conceive the existence of the invisible Brahma in his own nature (of incomprehensibility).

38. Say by what mode of reasoning this truth may be known and ascertained, and this being accomplished, there remains nothing else to be inquired into.

39. Vasishtha replied:—This false knowledge or prejudice of the reality of the world, has been long prevalent like a chronic disease (among mankind); and requires to be removed by the specific charm (mantra) of reasoning only.

40. It can not however be expelled quickly and in a minute, but requires length of time, like the ascent and descent of an even sided precipice.

41. Therefore hearken to what I say, for dispelling your fallacy of the world, by means of arguments, logical inferences, and habitual meditation (about the nature of God).

42. Attend now Ráma! to a tale that I am to tell you for your attainment of this knowledge, and by the hearing of which you will become intelligent, wise and liberated.

43. I will even now relate to you the subject of the production of the world, in order to show you, that all that is produced serves to bind our souls to the earth, and that you may live quite free from the same.

44. I will tell you at present under this topic of creation, that the erroneous conception of the world is as unsubstantial as Vacuum itself. (i.e. All this is null and void).

45. Because this world which appears to contain these moving and unmoving beings, and abounds in various races of gods, Asura—giants and Kinnara—pigmies.

46. All these together with the Rudras and other demigods, become invisible and lose themselves in nothing at the ultimate dissolution of the world. (This final disappearance tirobháva of all things, proves their present appearance ávirbháva to be mere phantoms of our brain. Gloss).

47. Then there remains a moist and hollow deep, without light and thick spread with mist; all undefinable and undeveloped, save something which is Real and lasts for ever.

48. There was no air nor form of any thing, no sight nor any thing to be seen. There were not these multitudes of created and material beings, that appear to be endless and everlasting to view.

49. There was a nameless self, the fullest of the full in its form; it was no ens nor non ens, no entity nor non-entity, no reality nor unreality neither.

50. It was mere intellect without its intellection, infinite without decay, auspicious and full of bliss. It was without its beginning, middle and end, eternal and imperishable.

51. In him this world is manifest as a pearly goose in painting; He is and yet is not this (creation), and is the soul of both what is real as well as unreal. (Sadasadátman).

52. He is without ears, tongue, nose, eyes and touch, yet he hears, tastes, smells, sees and feels every thing in all places and at all times.

53. He is also that (intellectual) light (chidáloka), whereby the form of that real as well as unreal Being—sadasadátma is discerned by us in his perspective of creation, as one without beginning or end, and presenting a representation that is without any colour or shade.

[4]54. He is that vacuous Soul who views the worlds as clearly, as the yogi beholds Him in the form of ineffable light, with his half closed eyes, and fixing his sight to the midst of his eyebrows (in his khecharí mudrá or aerial mode of meditation).

55. He is the cause of all, and whose cause is as nil as the horns of a hare; and whose works are all these worlds, like so many waves of the sea.

56. His light is ever shining every where, and he has his seat in the human heart; and it is from the candle light of his intellect, that all the worlds derive their light.

57. It is He without whose light the sun would dwindle into darkness; and whose existence alone gives the world its appearance of a mirage.

58. It is his pulsation that vibrates throughout the universe, and it is his inertia that stops the course of the whole; it is on that pivot that the world has its revolution, just as the turning round of a fire brand describes a circle.

59. His nature is pure and unchangeable; and the works of creation and destruction, are mere acts of his volition (Vilása), in the persons of Brahma and Hara.

60. It is his inertia and force that gives rest and motion to all things, like the ubiquious course of the winds. But this is the common belief that he moves, while in reality his nature is free from all mutability (like the immovable rock).

61. He is always awake in his ever sleeping state, and therefore can neither be said to be waking nor sleeping any where or at any time, but is both awake and asleep every where and at all times.[5]

62. His quiescence is attended with bliss and tranquillity, and his agitation puts the world in motion and in its course of action; which is said to remain unaltered in both states which unite in him.

63. He is inherent in all things as fragrance is innate in the flower, and is indestructible as its odour at the destruction of the flower. He pervades all things, and is yet as intangible as the whiteness of linen.

64. Who though speechless, is the author of all speech and sound, and who though he appears to be as incogitant as a stone, is full of cogitation (being the intellect itself). Who though fully satisfied with his bliss, enjoys all things, although he requires nothing for himself.

65. Who though bodiless actuates all the members of the body; and is attributed with a thousand arms and eyes (in the Veda); and who having no support for himself, is yet the support of all, and pervades the whole without being seated any where.

66. Who having no organs nor organic power, is the organ of organs, and performs the functions of innumerable organs; and who without a sensorial mind, exhibits endless designs of his Divine mind in the infinity of creation.

67. It is for want of our (knowledge) of him, that we are in constant dread of this delusive world as in that of a dragon or hydra; but it is at his sight (or by our knowledge of him), that all our fears and desires fly away afar from us.

68. It is in the presence of the clear light of that God of Truth, that all the wishes of our minds have a better play, just as actors dance the best as long as they have the lights.

69. It is by him that a hundred series of visible objects (as pots and plates—ghata-patádí), rise every moment to our view, like the ceaseless series of waves, billows and surges rising on the surface of the waters.

70. It is he that exhibits himself otherwise than what he is, in hundreds of different shapes to our mistaken minds, as the substance of gold is made to appear to our view in the various forms of bracelets, armlets, and a hundred other sorts of trinkets.

71. He who manifests himself as the soul, abiding in me, thee and in this or that person, and is neither myself, thyself, himself nor itself, is the Supreme soul or Self, that is the same with and apart from all.

72. It is he and the self-same being, whether you view him in one or more objects, as it is the same water that heaves itself in this one or the other wave. Thus all visible phenomena have their rise from him.

73. He from whom time has its counting and the visibles have their view; by whom the mind exercises its thinking powers, and by whose light the world is enlightened; is the Supreme.

74. Whatever forms, figures and their actions, whatsoever flavours and odours, and what sounds, touch, feelings and perceptions soever, you are sensible of, know them all and their cause also to be the Supreme.

75. You will be able to know your soul, O good Ráma! if you will take it in the light of the sight or faculty of vision, that lies between the looker and the object looked upon.

76. Know it as increate and indestructible, and without beginning and end. It is the eternal and everlasting Brahma and bliss itself. It is immaculate and infallible, highly adorable and unblamable in its nature. It is beyond all description and a mere void in its form. It is the cause of causes and a notion of something that is unknowable. It is the understanding, and the inward faculty of the intellect or the mind. (i.e. It is a spiritual substance and must be known in the spirit).

CHAPTER X.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CHAOTIC STATE.

RÁMA said:—That which remains incident to the Universal dissolution (mahá-pralaya), is commonly designated by the term “formless void.”

2. How then said you, there was no void, and how could there be no light nor darkness neither?

3. How could it be without the intellect and the living principle, and how could the entities of the mind and understanding be wanting in it?

4. How could there be nothing and not all things? Such like paradoxical expressions of yours, have created much confusion in me.

5. Vasishtha said:—You have raised a difficult extra-question, Ráma! but I shall have no difficulty to solve it, as the sun is at no pains to dispel the nocturnal gloom.

6. On the occasion or the termination of a great kalpa age, when there remains That Entity (the Tat sat) of God, it cannot be said to be a void, as I will now explain to you. Attend Ráma and hear.

7. Like images carved in bas-relief upon a pillar, was this world situated in relievo of That Entity, and cannot be said to have been a void.[6]

8. Again when there was the representation of the plenitude under the appellation of the world at any place (in the essence of God), and be it real or unreal, it could not have been a void and vacuity.

9. As a pillar with carved or painted figures, cannot be said to be devoid of them; so Brahma exhibiting the worlds contained in him, can not become a void. (i.e. As a pillar is not devoid of figures which has carved images on it; so Brahma is not a void, having the worlds contained in him. This is a negative enthymem).

10. But the world contained in Brahma, becomes both something and nothing; as billows in calm waters may either exist or not exist. (So the appearance and disappearance of the worlds in Brahma, like those of the little billows in a quiet lake, prove their existence and non-existence at the same time, as it is predicated of the Chaos or the Mahápralaya. Gloss).[7]

11. Again it happens that certain figures are marked on some insensible trees in some places by the hand of time, which people mistake for images; so it comes to pass that certain figures of evanescent matter, occur in the eternal mind, which men mistake for the real world.

12. This comparison of the figured pillar and tree and the world, is a partial and not complete simile; the similitude here referring only to the situation of the transient world in the substance of the permanent Brahma (like the appearance of false figures in the firmly fixed pillar and on the standing tree).

13. But this appearance of the world is not caused by another (as in the case of the pillar, figures and pictures carved and painted by the hands of the statuary and painter). It rises, lasts and sets spontaneously and of itself in the self-same essence of Brahma (as the figures in the tree or the waves of the Ocean). It is the property of the divine soul and mind to raise and set such imageries in them by turns, like the creations of our imagination.[8]

14. The meaning of the word void (súnya) instead of no void (asúnya) or existence, is a fiction as false as inanity is a nullity in nature. Something must come out of something, and never from a void nothing; and how can nothing be reduced to nothing in the end—mahápralaya (súnyatá súnyate katham)? (Ex nihilo nihil fit, et in nihilum nihil reverti posse).

15. In answer to your second question it has been said “there was darkness neither.” Because the divine light of Brahma (which existed before creation), was not like the light of a material luminary (which is followed by darkness). The everlasting light was not to be obscured by darkness, like the sunshine, or moon-light or the blazing of fire or the twinkling of stars or our eyes.

16. It is the absence of the light of the great celestial luminaries, that is called darkness, and there being no material property in the immaterial essence of God, there could be no such light or darkness with him before creation.

17. The light of the vacuous Brahma is an internal perception of the soul, and is only felt and perceived within one’s self, and never externally by any body; nor is this spiritual light ever clouded by any mist or darkness of temporal objects.

18. The indestructible Brahma is beyond and free from external and visible light and darkness; and is above the region of vacuum which is contained, as it were, within his bosom, and contains the universe as sheathed within its hollow womb.

19. As there is no difference between the outside and inside of a fruit (both of which is the same thing); so there is no shade of difference betwixt Brahma and the universe (the one pervading and the other pervaded by his spirit).

20. As the billow is contained in and composed of the water and the pot of the earth, so the world being contained in Brahma, it can not be said as null and void, but full of the spirit of God.

21. The comparison of earth and water does not agree corporeally with the spiritual essence of God, whose vacuous spirit contains and comprises the whole (Visva) within itself, as those elements do their component parts and productions.

22. Now as the sphere of the intellect is clearer and brighter far than the spheres of air and empty space; so the sense and idea of the word world as situated in the divine mind, is clearer in a far greater degree than this visible world appears to us.

23. (In answer to the third question with regard to the want of intellect), it is said thus:—As the pungency of pepper is perceived by one who tastes it, and not by him who has never tasted it; so the minutiae of the Intellect are known in the intellectual sphere by a cultivated intelligence, and by none who is without it.

24. Thus the Intellect appears as no intellect to one who is devoid of intelligence in himself (i.e. one having the Intellect, does not perceive it without a cultivated understanding). So this world is seen in the spirit of God or otherwise, according as one has cultivated or neglected his spiritual knowledge.

25. The world as it is, is seen either in its outward figure or in a spiritual light, as other than or the same with Brahma (by the materialist and spiritualist); but the Yogi views it in its fourth (turíya) state of susupta or utter extinction in his unconscious soul.

26. Therefore the Yogi, though leading a secular life, remains somnolent (Susupta) in his soul, and tranquil (Sánta) in his mind. He lives like Brahma unknown to and unnoticed by others, and though knowing all and full of thoughts in himself, he is as a treasury of Knowledge, unknown to the rest of mankind.

27. (In answer to the question how corporeal beings could proceed from the incorporeal Brahma). Vasishtha says:—As waves of various shapes rise and fall in the still and shapeless breast of the sea, so innumerable worlds of various forms, float about in the unaltered and formless vacuity of Brahma’s bosom.

28. From the fullness of the Divine soul (Brahmátmá), proceeds the fullness of the living soul (Jívátmá), which is formless also (nirákriti). This aspect of Brahma is said to be owing to the purpose of manifesting himself (as living in all living beings).

29. So the totality of worlds proceeding from the plenum of Brahma, there remains the same sum total also as the plenitude of Brahma himself.

30. Considering the world as synonymous with Brahma in our minds, we find their identity (in the same manner), as one finds by taste the pepper and its pungency to be the same thing.

31. Such being the state of the unreality of the mind and its cognizables, their reflexions upon each other (i.e. of the mind upon the object and those of the object on the mind), are equally untrue as the shadow of a shadow. (Here is an utter negation of perception and perceptibles. There being no material subtratum, the shadowy scene of the world is a mere mental synthesis. Berkeley).[9]

32. Know Brahma to be smaller than the smallest atom, and minutest of minutest particles. He is purer than air, and more tranquil than the subtile ether which is embosomed in him.

33. Unbounded by space and time, his form is the most extensive of all. He is without beginning and end, and an ineffable light without brightness in it. (He is the light of lights).

34. He is of the form of intellect—chit and life eternal, without the conditions and accidents of vitality—jívatá. The Divine Mind has its will eternal, and is devoid of the desires of finite minds—chittata.

35. Without the rise of the intellect (i.e. its development), there is neither vitality nor understanding, no intellection nor any organic action or sensation, and no mental desire or feeling whatever (all of which are but products of the intellect or Ego).

36. Hence the Being that is full of these powers (and without which no power has its display), and who is without decline or decay, is seen by us to be seated in his state of tranquil vacuity, and is rarer than the rarefied vacuum of the etherial regions.

37. Ráma said:—Tell me again and more precisely of the form of this transcendental Being, who is of the nature of infinite intelligence, and which may give more light to my understanding.

38. Vasistha said:—I have told you repeatedly, that there is one supreme Brahma, the cause of causes, who remains alone by himself, when the universe is finally dissolved or absorbed in him. Hear me describe Him fully to you.

39. That which the Yogi sees within himself after forgetting his personality, and repressing the faculties and functions of his mind, in his Samádhi—meditation, is verily the form of the unspeakable Being.

40. As the Yogi who is absorbed in his meditation in absence of the visible world, and in privation of the viewer and visibles, and sees the light shining in himself, even such is the form of that Being.

41. Who having forgotten the nature of the living soul—jíva, and his proclivity towards the intelligibles, remains in the pure light and tranquil state of his intellect (as in Yoga), such is the form of the Supreme Spirit.

42. He who has no feeling of the breathing of the winds, or of the touch or pressure of any thing upon his body; but lives as a mass of intelligence in this life; is verily the form of the Supreme.

43. Again that state of the mind, which a man of sense enjoys in his long and sound sleep, that is undisturbed by dreams and gnats, is verily the form of the Supreme.

44. That which abides in the hearts of vacuum, air and stone, and is the intellect of all inanimate beings, is the form of the Supreme.

45. Again whatever irrational and insensible beings live by nature, as without the soul and mind (as vegetables and minerals), the tranquil state of their existence is the nature of the Supreme Soul.

46. That which is seated in the midst of the intellectual light of the soul, and what is situated in the midst of the etherial light of the sun, and that which is in the midst of our visual light, is verily the form of the Supreme. (This passage admits of an occult interpretation in the Yoga system).

47. The soul which is the witness of our knowledge, of solar and visual lights and darkness, is without beginning and end, and is the form of the Supreme.

48. He who manifests this world to us, and keeps himself hidden from view, be he the same with or distinct from the world, is the form of the Supreme.

49. Who though full of activity, is sedate as a rock, and who though not a vacuum (being the plenum of all), appears yet as an empty vacuity, such is the form of the Supreme.

50. He who is the source and terminus of our triple consciousness of the knower, known and knowledge (i.e. from whom they rise and in whom they set by turns); is most difficult of attainment.

51. He who shines forth with the lustre of the triple conditions of the knowable, knower and their knowledge, and shows them to us as a large insensible mirror, is verily the form of the Supreme, who is here represented not as the cause—nimitta, but as the source—vivarta of the triple category.

52. The mind that is liberated from bodily activities (as in the waking Jagrat state) from its dreaming (as in the swapna or sleeping state), and is concentrated in the intellect (as in the state of susupti or sound sleep), and abides alike in all moving as well as unmoving bodies (as in the turíya or fourth state of the soul), is said to remain in the end of our being.

53. The intelligent mind which is as fixed as an immovable body, and freed from the exercise of its faculties, is comparable with the Divine Mind.[10]

CHAPTER XI.

SPIRITUAL VIEW OF CREATION.

RÁMA said:—Tell me, O Bráhman, wherein this world abides at its last dissolution, when it does not retain its present form, nor this resplendent show (as we see in it now).

2. Vasishtha answered:—Tell me, Ráma, what is the form of the barren woman’s son, and wherefrom he comes and where he goes, tell me also from where comes the sky-arbour (aerial castle), and where it remains.

3. Ráma replied:—There never was, nor is, nor ever will be the son of a barren woman or an arbour in the sky; why then ask about the form and figure of what is nothing?

4. Vasishtha said:—As there never was a barren woman’s son or a forest in the air, so there existed no such scene as that of the world before.

5. That which has no existence at all, could have neither its production before, nor can it have its dissolution afterwards. What shall I then tell you regarding its genesis or exit.

6. Ráma rejoined:—The son of a barren woman and a forest in the sky are mere fictions, but the visible world is not so, which has both its beginning and end.

7. Vasishtha replied:—It is hard to have a comparison of the compared object, agreeing in all respects with what it is compared. The comparison of the world, is as a simile of those objects, which admit of no comparison (but with themselves).

8. The appearance of the world, is compared with that of a bracelet, because the one is as false as the other, and neither of them is real.

9. And as there is nothing in the sky except a negative emptiness, so the existence of the world in Brahma, is but a negative idea.

10. As the collyrium is no other than blackness, and as there is no difference between frost and its coldness, so the world is not otherwise than the great Brahma himself.

11. As coldness can not be negatived of the moon and frost, so creation can not be negated of God. (Literally, creation is no negative property of Brahma, but essential to his nature).

12. As there is no water in a sea of the mirage, nor light in the new moon, so this world, as it is, does not abide in the pure spirit of God (in its gross state).

13. That which did not exist at first owing to its want of a cause, has neither its existence at present, nor can it be destroyed (when it is a nil itself).

14. How is it possible for a dull material object to have any other cause but a material one; just as it is not the light (but some solid substance), that is the cause of a shadow.

15. But as none of these works, has come into existence without some cause, that cause whatever it is, is situated in these productions of it: (i.e. the author is displayed in his works).

16. Whatever appears as ignorance or delusion (as this world), has some appearance of intelligence or truth (of the Divinity) in it, as the delusion of the world seen in a dream, is the effect of the intellect within us. (Consciousness is awake in our dreams also).

17. As the illusion of the world in a dream, is not without our inward consciousness of it, in like manner Brahma was not unconscious of the expansion of the world, at the beginning of creation.

18. All this that we behold about us, is situated in the divine soul (in the same manner as the visions in our dreams, are but archetypes of our souls); there is no other world that rises and sets (but what is imprinted in our minds).

19. As fluidity is another name for water, and fluctuation the same with wind; and as sunshine is no other than light, so the world is naught but Brahma (displayed in nature).

20. As the figure of a city, resides in the inward intellect of one, who is conscious of his dreaming, in the same manner this world, is displayed in the Supreme soul.

21. Ráma said:—If it is so, then tell me, O Bráhman! whence is this our belief of its substantiality, and how this unreal and visionary ideal, presents its baneful visible aspect unto us.

22. For the view being in existence, there must be its viewer also, and when there is the viewer, there is the view likewise. As long as either of these is in existence, there is our bondage, and it is on the disappearance of both, that our liberation chiefly depends: (which can hardly take place).

23. It is entirely impossible to be so, as long as our notion of the view, is not lost in our minds, for unless the view is vanished both from the vision of the eyes and mind, no one can even form an idea of liberation in his mind.

24. Again the representation of the view at first, and its obliteration afterwards, is not enough for our liberation, because the remembrance of the view, is bondage of the soul.

25. Moreover when the picture of the view, is settled in the soul, and reflected in the mirror of the mind, there is no necessity of its recollection (for what is deeply rooted in the soul, comes out of itself).

26. The intellect which was without the notion of the visibles at first, would be entitled to liberation, were it not owing to the nature of the viewer (to imbibe the ideas of visibles).

27. Now sir, please to remove by your reasoning, my hopelessness of liberation, which I ween, is unattainable by any.

28. Vasishtha said:—Hear me, Ráma! explain to you in length, how the unreal world with all its contents, appears as real to us.

29. For unless it is explained to you by my reasoning, and the narratives and instances (of the practice of others), this doubt will not subside in your breast, as dirt sets down in the lake.

30. Then Ráma, you will be able to conduct yourself on earth, as one under assurance of the erroneous conception of the creation and existence of the world.

31. You will then remain as a rock against the impressions of affluence and want, and of gain and loss, and your relation with whatever, is fleeting or lasting and the like.

32. Mind, that there is that only one spirit, which is self-existent, and all besides is mere fiction. I will now tell you, how the triple world was produced and formed.

33. It was from Him, that all these beings have come to existence; while He of himself, is all and every thing in it. He likewise appears to us and disappears also, both as forms and their appearances, and as the mind and its faculties, and as figures and their shapes, and as modes and motions of all things.

CHAPTER XII.

THE IDEALISTIC THEO-COSMOGONY OF VEDÁNTA.

VASISHTHA said:—

From the state of perfect quiescence and tranquillity of the supremely Holy spirit, the universe rose to being in the manner, which you must hear with your best understanding and attention.

2. As sound sleep displays itself in visionary dreams, so does Brahma manifest himself in the works of creation, of which he is the soul and receptacle: (i.e. who contains and forms and enlivens the whole).

3. The world, which of its nature is continually progressive in its course, is identic with the essence of that Being, whose form is selfsame with the ineffable glory of his eternally gemming Intellect (chin-mani).

4. This chit or Intellect, then (i.e. after its inert quiescence), gets of itself an intellection (chetyá) in itself, before assuming to itself consciousness or the knowledge of egoism. (This is the first stage of the percipient soul).

5. Then this thinking Intellect (chetya-chit), gets the notions (bodhas) of some faint images (úhita-rúpas), which are purer and lighter than air, and which have received their names and forms afterwards. (The innate ideas are born in it before the embryonic mind or soul).

6. Afterwards this transcendent essence (Intellect), becomes an intelligent principle (sacheta), and eager for intelligence (chetana). It is now worthy of its name as Intellect or chit, on account of its attaining to what is called intelligence.

7. Lastly it takes the form of gross consciousness (ghana-samvedana), and receives the name of the living soul—jíva. It now loses its divine nature by reflecting on itself: (i.e. its own personality).

8. This living principle, is then involved in thoughts relating to the world only; but depends by its nature on the divine essence: (as the fallacy of the snake, depends on the substance of the rope).[11]

9. Afterwards there rises a void space into being, called Kham—vacuum (Arabic Kháviyetun), which is the seed or source of the property of sound, and which became expressive of meaning afterwards. (It is called ákása or sky-light from kása to shine, as light was the first work of God).

10. Next in order are produced the elements of egoism and duration in the living soul (i.e. the simultaneousness of the ideas of self-entity and duration in the living principle). And these two terms, are the roots of the subsistence of future worlds. (i.e. The individuality and durability of things).

11. This ideal knowledge, of the unreal forms of the net-work of world, in divine Spirit, was made to appear as a reality by the Omnipotent power. (i.e. The ideal world appeared afterwards as real).

12. Thus the ideal self-consciousness became the seed (or root) of the tree of desires, which were vacillated by egoism in the form of air.

13. The intellect in the form of the airy ego, thinks on the element of sounds (sabda tanmátram); it becomes by degrees denser than the rarefied air, and produces the element of mind.

14. Sound is the seed (or root) of words, which were afterwards diversified in the forms of names or nouns and significant terms; and the assemblage of words, as shoots of trees, is varied in padas or inflected words, vákyas or sentences, and the collections of Vedas and Sástras.

15. It is from this Supreme spirit, that all these worlds derived their beauty afterwards; and the multitude of words (which sprang from the sounds), and were full of meaning, became widely spread at last.

16. The Intellect having such a family as its offspring, is expressed by the word jíva (zoa) or the living soul, which became afterwards the arbor (or source) of all forms of beings, known under a variety of expressions and their significations. (i.e. The living god Brahmá became the cause of the formal world, from the tanmátra elements produced by Brahma).

17. The fourteen kinds of living beings, which fill the cells in the bowels of all worlds, sprang afterwards from this living soul. (These include all vegetable and animal life and all such as increase in bulk and growth).

18. It was then, that the Intellect by a motion and inflation of itself, and at an instantaneous thought, became the element tanmátra of touch and feeling (the air), which was yet without its name and action. (The Spirit breathed breathless. Sruti). This breath caused air, which expanded itself and filled all bodies, which are objects of touch and feeling.

19. The air, which is the seed (root) of the tree of tangibles, then developed itself into branches, composed of the (49) various kinds of winds, that are the causes of the breathings and motions of all beings.

20. Then the Intellect produced at pleasure and from its idea of light, the elemental essence of lustre, which received afterwards its different names (from the light of the sun and moon and the stars, as also from those of fire and lightning).

21. Then the sun, fire, lightning and others, which are the seeds (or roots) of the tree of light, caused the various colours of bodies that filled the world. (That light is the cause of colour, was known to the ancient Rishi).

22. It reflected on the want of fluidity, and produced the liquid body of waters, whose taste constitutes the element (tanmátra) of flavour.

23. The desire of the soul for different flavours (rasas), is the seed of the tree of taste, and it is by the relish of a variety of tastes, that the world is to go on in its course.

24. Then the self-willed Brahmá, wishing to produce the visible earth, caused the property of smell to appertain to it from his own element of it.

25. He made his elementary solidity, the seed or source of the tree of forms (morphology); as he made his own element of rotundity the substratum of the spherical world.

26. Those elements being all evolved from the Intellect, are again involved of themselves in it, as the bubbles of water rise and subside in itself.

27. In this manner, all those beings remain in their combined states, until their final dissolution into their simple and separate forms.

28. All those things, which are but forms and formations of pure Intellect, remain within the sphere of Divine Intelligence, as the germs of the big banian tree, reside in the forms of pollen and the seed.

29. These sprouted forth in time, and burst out into a hundred branches: and after having been concealed in an atom, became as big as they were to last for ever.

30. Such is the growth and multiplication of things by pervasion of the Intellect, until they are put to a stop by its contraction and when weakened in their bodies by its desertion, they droop down in the end.

31. Thus is this class of elementary tanmátras, produced in the Intellect out of its own volition, and are manifested in the form of formless minutiæ to sight.[12] (trasaranus).

32. These five-fold elements are verily the only seeds of all things in the world. They are the seeds of the primary momentum that was given to them (in the beginning). In our notions, they are the seeds of elementary bodies, but in their real nature, they are the increate ideal shapes of the Intellect replenishing the world.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE SELF-BORN.

VASISHTHA said:—

Ráma! When the Supreme Brahma remains in his resplendent and tranquil state (before creation), there is no essence of etherial light or heat or even darkness produced in the intellectual spirit. (But they lie hidden there as if buried in oblivion).

2. The Sat-God has the attribute of Chetya—intellectuality at first, and it is from the intellection (Chetana) of his intellectual part (Chetyánsa), that the epithet of mind (Chitta) is attributed to him. The faculties (Sakti) of his intellect (Chit), are called its intelligence (Chetaná).

3. The Chit or intellect has then the attribute of the Living soul (Jíva), from its intelligence (Chetaná), and connection with the chetya or intelligible objects in nature. It is next attributed with the title of máyá or illusion, from the subjection of its Chetya or cognizable objects only to itself—Aham mátra.

4. It has then the attribute of understanding (buddhi), from the excess of its egoism (ahantá), which is full with the purposes of its mind and the elements of sound &c. (i.e. with a desire for all sensible objects).

5. This (living, deluded and self reflecting) ego, is puffed up with thoughts of (possessing) all things, and looks upon the great arbour of the visible world (as the great garden for its pleasure and gain).

6. But the living souls, like so many evanescent objects seen in a dream, are made to rise and fall one after the other, in this great forest of the world surrounded by the skies.

7. But the world is (as continuous) as the grove of Karajna plants, growing from unsown seeds; and its elementary bodies of the water, fire, earth and air, have no regard for any body; (that is living or dead).

8. The intellect which is the soul of the universe, creates afterwards the earth and all other things, as one remembering the objects of his dream (recalls them to his memory).

9. Wherever there is the germ of the world, it develops itself even at that place; the live elements are the five fold seed of the world, but the undecaying intellect is the seed of the quintuple (pancha-bhúta).

10. As is the seed so is its fruit; hence know the world to be a form and full of God; and the spacious firmament to be the reservoir of the quintuple elements in the beginning of creation.

11. The soul like the body, is composed of the powers of the Intellect, and does not subsist of itself; but being inflated by the same, it extends its bulk.

12. But the vacuous form of the intellect, which is seated in the spiritual body of the soul, cannot be composed of solid reality (as the primary elements of matter). This is not possible; hence nothing can come out from an impossibility.

13. Again that which is changeable in its form, cannot have its sameness at all times: hence if the essence of the quintuple elements, be attributed to Brahma, from the idea of their being the quintessence of his spirit, there can be no immaterial and immutable Brahma.

14. Therefore know this quintuple to be the developed Brahma himself, as he evolved them in the beginning, and as he is their producer for the creation of the world.

15. Thus He being the prime cause of their production, there is nothing that is produced (without) him, and the world is no product of itself.

16. The unreal appears as real as a city seen in a dream, and as a castle built in air by our hopes: so we place the living soul in ourselves, which has its foundation in the vacuous spirit of God.

17. Thus the brilliant spirit, which is situated in the Divine Intellect, being no earthly or any other material substance, is styled the living soul, and remains in vacuum as a luminous body rising in the sky.

18. Hear now how this vacuous living soul, comes to be embodied in the human body, after its detachment as a spark from the totality of vital spirits, in the empty sphere of divine Intellect.

19. The soul thinks itself as “a minute particle of light” at first, and then it considers itself as growing in the sphere of its consciousness.

20. The unreal appearing as real, proves to be unreal at last; as the fictitious moon becomes a nullity afterwards; so the soul continues to view itself subjectively and objectively both as the viewer and the view.

21. Thus the single self becomes double as one sees his own death in a dream; and thus it waxes into bigness and thinks its vital spark as a star. (This is the form of the lingadeha or sentient soul within the body).

22. As the soul goes on thinking itself the microcosm of the world (Viswarúpa), so it falsely thinks itself as such in reality, as it is expressed by the dictum “Soham” “so am I.”

23. By thinking himself as such, man comes to believe it as true, as one believes himself as a traveller in his dream. So by thinking the soul as a star, he views it so within himself.

24. By continued meditation of his soul as such, he loses his external sensations, and views this star in his cranium.

25. He sees the soul within him though it be without him; just as the mirror reflects the distant hill in itself; and the soul remains confined within him, as a body is confined in a well, and as a sound is shut up in the hollow of a cave.

26. The consciousness of our dreams and desires, is but a particle (attribute) of the living soul, whose real form is that of a star waking (keeping watch) within us. (Consciousness of external objects in our dream and desire, is compared to the reflection of outward images in a glass or bubble of water, and to the echo of a distant sound in a hollow cave).

27. Now this vacuous life, which is composed of the essences of the mind, understanding and knowledge, resides in the hollow sheath of the star. (The star is supposed to be the eye-sight and residence of life. Gloss).

28. It appears to me to take its flight to the sky, to see what is passing there (i.e. the manner in which the mental eye of the Yogi penetrates the regions of air). And then it enters the body by two holes, which have the names of the external organs (of sight) given them afterwards. (The whole sphere of air is thought to teem with life or living souls and spirits, which rove free in the air, until they are made to enter and pass out of the body by two unknown holes, whether of the nostrils or sockets or glottis, remains undefined and undetermined).

29. The organs by which the embodied living soul, is to see (external objects), are called the eyes-netras (from their receiving (nayana) the light of the soul). That by which it is to feel, is styled the skin (twak or touch); and those whereby it is to hear, are termed the ears (srutis from sru to hear, corresponding with suna or shunu in vernaculars and Persian).

30. The organ of smelling is the nose—ghrána from its bearing the scent—ghrána to the soul; and that of taste is named as tongue rasaná, for its conducting the rasa taste or flavour to the spirit.

31. Then there is the breathing air (the air of breath or breath of life), which actuates the energies of the organs of action. It is this air which is the cause—of vision, and mover of the internal organs of the mind and thought.

32. This (vital breath) supports the embodied and all supporting soul (átiváhika-dehátmá) in the vacuity of the body, and fills and kindles it as the air does a spark of fire.

33. The word Jíva or the living soul (zoa), is brought under a figurative sense, ‘to mean something real in the unreal body’. Hence Brahmá is said to be the life and soul of the unreal world.

34. The gross embodied soul, is of the form of vacuum like the mind and yet it imagines itself to reside in an ovum in the body, as Brahmá is supposed to be seated in the mundane egg. (i.e. The soul loses its light airy shape and free range, by being confined in the body).

35. Some view the spirit of God as floating on the surface of the (ante-mundane) waters (in the form of Náráyana); and others view it in the person of the Lord of creatures (Brahmá); while there are others, who look at it as infused throughout the creation in the figure of viráj. These are called the subtile and gross bodies of the soul (sthúla and súkshma saríras).

36. The soul or spirit is the spacious womb of productions, and the means of executing its own purposes, and of knowing the proper time and place, and the article and the manner of action (modus operandi).

37. The mind is the inventor of words, expressive of ideas (in the soul), and subjects itself to the arbitary sounds of its own invention. Hence God is erroneously said to be embodied in words (sabda Brahma of Mimánsá philosophy) in this world of errors.

38. The unproduced and self-born Brahmá, that has risen of himself (and represents the mind), is as unreal as the soaring of a man in the sky in his dream.

39. This all supporting-embodied soul, is the prime Lord of creatures, who is said to have formed this illusory frame of the world.

40. But there was nothing formed or born in it (in reality); nor is there any substance to be found in the world. It is the same vacuous form of Brahma still, whose essence is known to extend as the infinite space itself.

41. Things appearing as real, are as unreal as an imaginary city (Utopia), which presents a variety (of forms and colours) to the fancy, without being built or painted by any body. (The phenomenal appearance of the world, is likened to a phantasmagoria).

42. Nothing that is unmade or unthought of, can be real (either in substance or idea); and the gods Brahmá and others, being freed from their avocations at the universal dissolution of existence, could neither resume their functions nor have materials for the same.

43. The self-born Brahmá, having then neither his remembrance of the past, nor any material appliance at hand, could neither form an ideal or material world out of nothing. Therefore production of Brahmá and formation of the universe are alike (chimerical).

44. The earth and all other existences, are but the eternal ideas of the divine mind, and they appear to us as objects of a dream in our waking state: (when they vanish into airy nothing).

45. The divine spirit is known to be vacuum only, and so also is the world ever known to be: (because the like produces the like). So all waters are alike liquid bodies, though they are made to pass under different names.

46. This creation is every where the same in the Supreme Spirit. It is but an evolution of the same (though presenting different aspects to us); and the creator is always and everywhere immutable in his nature.

47. The vacuous universe, under the name of the mundane egg, shines as clearly as the Divine Spirit: it is calm in its appearance, and becomes disturbed by causes born in itself. (Nature is uniform, but ruffled by accidents).

48. It is supported by the supportless supporter of all, who is one and without a second, but devoid of unity in (the variety of his) creation. All this is born in his consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that is produced anew.

49. He, who is of the form of unlimited space, and without any vacuity in it (because nature abhors a vacuum); who is transparent yet teeming with abundance; who is the whole world (God in nature), without any worldliness in him; is verily the substratum of all.

50. He, who is neither the container nor the contained, nor the view of the world; who is neither the world nor its creator (Brahmá), and about whom there can be no dispute nor disputant; is verily the unknown God.

51. He, who is neither the passing world nor any of its passing things; who is quite at rest, yet situated in all things, (whether moving or quiescent); is the only Brahma that shines of himself in himself (as the soul of and all in all).

52. As we form in ourselves the image of a whirlpool, by the idea of the fluidity of water in our minds; so the sight of the world produces the false notion of its reality in the mind.

53. All unrealities become extinct at the end, as we see the death of our frail bodies in dreams. So we find on the contrary the essential part of our soul, to be unscathed by its own nature of indestructibility, and remaining in the form of everlasting consciousness in the atmosphere of our intellects.

54. Brahmá the prime Lord of creatures, is ever manifest by himself in the form of vacuity in the Supreme spirit; and he being of a spiritual form as the mind, has no material body formed of earth as all other corporeal beings; and is therefore both real and unborn (in his essence).

CHAPTER XIV.

ESTABLISHMENT OF BRAHMA.

VASISHTHA added:—

In this manner the visible world, myself, thyself and all other things are nothing; all these being unmade and unborn are inexistent: it is the Supreme spirit only that is existent of itself.

2. The primeval vacuous soul is awakened at first of itself, and by its own energy from its quietness, and begins to have a motion in itself like the troubled waters of the deep.

3. It then begins to reflect in itself, as in a dream or in imagination, without changing its vacuous form, which is likened to a rock with the inward faculty of thought.

4. The body of the Great Viráj also, is devoid of any material form, either of earthly or any other elemental shape, (as it is viewed in the Vedas). It is purely a spiritual, intellectual and etherial form, and as transparent as the ether itself.

5. It is undecaying and steady as a rock, and as airy as a city seen in a dream. It is immovable as the line of a regiment represented in a picture.

6. All other souls are as pictures of dolls and puppets, painted and not engraven on the body of Viráj as upon a huge pillar; and he standing as an uncarved column in the empty sphere of Brahmá, represents all souls (and not bodies) as they are mere pictures on it.

7. The prime Lord of creatures is said to be self-born at first, and he is known as the increate (Brahmá), for want of his prior acts to cause his birth. (He is coeternal with the eternal Brahma, and is therefore not subject to birth and death).

8. The primeval patriarchs, who obtain their ultimate liberation at the final dissolution of the world, have no antecedent cause to be reborn as unliberated mortals. (So the emancipate souls of the living and dead, are freed from the doom of regeneration.)

9. Brahma, who is the reflector of all souls, is himself invisible in the inward mirror of other souls: (i.e. he reflects all images in himself, but never casts his own reflexion upon any). He is neither the view nor the viewer, and neither the creation nor the creator himself. (These being the functions of the creative and representative powers of Brahmá and Viráj).

10. Though thus negated of all predicates, yet is Brahma the soul of all predicables, that may be affirmed or denied of him (since he is all in all). He is the source of these chains of living beings, as light is the cause of a line of lighted lamps in illuminations.

11. The will of the gods (Brahmá and Viráj), proceeding from the volition of Brahma, is of that spiritual nature as the other; just as one dream rising in another, is equally unsubstantial as the first: (i.e. the products of spiritual causes, are also spiritual, by the rule of the homogeneity of the cause and effect).

12. Hence all living souls, which are evolved from the breathing of the Supreme Spirit, are of the same nature as their origin for want of an auxiliary causality. (God made man in his own image, and as perfect as himself: and this man is manas the Brahmá, or as he is named Adam, corresponding with Adima or Adyam purusham—the first male or Protogonus).

13. Want of a secondary agency, produces the equality of effects with their cause (as the fruits and flowers of trees, are of the same kind with the parent tree, unless there rises a difference in them by cause of engraftments). Hence the uniformity of created things, proves the conception of their creation by a secondary cause, to be wholly erroneous.

14. Brahma himself is the prime soul of Viráj and self-same with him, and Viráj is the soul of creation and identical with it. He is the vacuous vitality of all; and it is from him that the unreal earth and other things have their rise. (Viráj is the spirit of God diffused in nature).

15. Ráma said:—Tell me, whether the living soul, is a limited thing or an unlimited mass of life; or does the unbounded spirit of God, exist in the shape of a mountainous heap of living souls: (i.e. whether it is to be taken in a collective or integral sense, and whether it forms a totality—samashti existent in the Divinity, of which all individual souls are either as parts vyashti or separate existences).

16. Are these living souls like showers of rain-water falling from above, or as the drizzling drops of waves in the vast ocean of creation, or as the sparks of fire struck out of a red-hot iron, and from whence they flow, and by whom they are emitted.

17. Tell me sir, the truth concerning the profusion of living souls, and though I have a partial knowledge of it, I require it to be more fully and clearly explained by you.

18. Vasishtha replied:—There being but one living soul of the universe, you can not call it a multitude. Your question therefore is quite out of place, as the query about the horns of hares (which do not exist in nature).

19. There are no detached living souls, O Ráma, nor are they to be found in multitudes any where, nor was there a mountainous heap of souls known to have existed at any time.

20. Living soul is but a fictitious word, and it is heaped with many fictions, all of which, you must know for certain, do not apply to the soul.

21. There is but one pure and immaculate Brahma, who is mere Intellect (chinmátram) and all pervasive. He assumes to himself all attributes by his almighty power. (Here Brahma is represented not only as Omniscient and Omnipotent; but as saguna also by his assumption of all attributes).

22. The living soul is viewed by many to evolve itself from the intellect into many visible and invisible forms (múrta-mútam); just as a plant is seen to develope itself into its fruits and flowers.

23. They add to their knowledge of the soul the attributes of the living principle, understanding, action, motion, mind and unity and duality, as if these appertain to its nature.

24. But all this is caused by ignorance, while right understanding assigns them to Brahma. The ignorant are bewildered by these distinct views (of the soul), and will not be awakened to sense.

25. These different believers are lost (in their various views), as the light is lost under darkness. They will never come to the knowledge of truth as it is the case with the ignorant.

26. Know Brahma himself as the living soul without any divisibility or distinction. He is without beginning or end. He is omnipotent, and is of the form of the great Intellect which forms his essence.

27. His want of minuteness (i.e. his fulness) in all places, precludes his distinctive appellations every where. Whatever attributes are given him (by fiction), are all to be understood to mean Brahma himself.

28. Ráma asked:—How comes it, O Bráhman? that the totality of the living souls in the world, is guided by the will of one universal soul, which governs the whole, and to which all others are subject.

29. Vasishtha replied:—Brahma the great living soul and Omnipotent power, remained from eternity with his volition (satya sankalpa—fixed determination) of creation, without partition or alteration of himself.

30. Whatever is wished by that great soul, comes to take place immediately. The wish it formed in its unity at first, became a positive duality at last. Then its wish “to be many” (Aham bahu syam), became the separate existences afterwards.

31. All these dualities of his self-divided powers (the different living souls), had their several routines of action allotted to them, as “this is for that”; meaning “this being is for that duty, and such action is for such end”.

32. Thus though there can be no act without exertion (by the general rule as in the case of mortals), yet the predominant will of Brahmá, is always prevailing without its exertion to action, (as in the case of saints whose wills are effective of their ends without the aid of action).

33. Though they that bear the name of living beings, effect their purposes by exertion of their energies, yet they can effect nothing without acting according to the law appointed by the predominant power.

34. If the law of the predominant power, is effective of its end (i.e. the law of action for production of acts); then the exertions of the subordinate powers (the living souls), must also be attended with success: (i.e. the attainment of the like result of the like action).

35. Thus Brahma alone is the great living soul that exists for ever and without end; and these millions of living beings are no other in the world (than agents of the divine energies).

36. It is with a consciousness of the intellectual soul (i.e. the inward knowledge of the divinity within themselves), that all living souls are born in this world; but losing that consciousness (their knowledge of God) afterwards, they became alienated from him.

37. Hence men of inferior souls, should pursue the course of conduct led by the superior souls, for regaining their spiritual life átmajívatwam, as the copper becomes transformed into gold (by chemical process).

38. Thus the whole body of living beings, that had been as inexistent as air before, come into existence, and rise resplendent with the wonderful intellect.

39. Whoso perceives this wondrous intellect in his mind, and gets afterwards a body and the consciousness of his egoism, he is then said to be an embodied living soul.

40. The mind that is gratified with intellectual delights, becomes as expanded as the intellect itself, and thinks those pleasures to constitute the sum total of worldly enjoyments.

41. The Intellect is said to remain unchanged in all its succeeding stages; and though it never changes from that state, yet it wakes (developes) by a power intrinsic in itself.

42. The uninterrupted activity of the Intellect, indulges itself in the amusement of manifesting the intelligibles in the form of the world (i.e. Of evolving the knowables from its own knowledge of them. Or it is the pleasure of the intellect to unfold the secrets of nature to view).

43. The extent of the intellectual faculty, is wider and more rarefied than the surrounding air, and yet it perceives its distinct egoism by itself and of its own nature. (The subjective knowledge of ego—self).

44. Its knowledge of self, springs of itself in itself like the water of a fountain; and it perceives itself (its ego) to be but an atom amidst the endless worlds.

45. It perceives also in itself the beautiful and wondrous world, which is amazing to the understanding, and which is thereafter named the universe. (i.e. The one existing in the other and not without it: meaning, the soul to be the seat of both the subjective and objective knowledge).

46. Now Ráma, our egoism being but a conception of the intellect is a mere fiction (kalpaná); and the elementary principles being but creatures of egoism, they are also fictions of the intellect.

47. Again the living soul being but a resultant of our acts and desires, you have to renounce these causes, in order to get rid of your knowledge of ego and tu (i.e. of the existence of yourself and that of others); and then you attain to the knowledge of the true one, after discarding the fictions of the real and unreal.

48. As the sky looks as clear as ever, after the shadows of clouds are dispersed from it, so does the soul look as bright as it existed at first in the intellect, after its overshadowing fictions have been removed.

49. The universe is a vacuum, and the world is a name for the field of our exertions. This vacuity is the abode of the gods (Viswa and Viráj, both of whom are formless). The wonderful frame of plastic nature, is but a form of the formless intellect and no other.

50. What is one’s nature never leaves him at any time; how then can a form or figure be given to the formless Divinity?

51. The divine intellect is exempt from all the names and forms which are given to unintelligent worldly things, it being the pervader and enlivener, of all that shines in the world. (Intellect is the power of understanding).

52. The mind, understanding and egoism, with the elements, the hills and skies, and all things that compose and support the world, are made of the essences proceeding from the intellect. (The intellect from interlegere contains all things).

53. Know the world to compose the mind-chitta of the intellect-chit of God, because the mind does not subsist without the world. Want of the world would prove the inexistence of the mind and intellect which consist of the world. (Hence the identity of the intelligent world with the mind and intellect of God).

54. The intellect like the pepper seed, is possest of an exquisite property within itself, and bears like the flavour of the other, the element of the living soul, which is the element of animated nature.

55. As the mind exerts its power and assumes its sense of egoism, it derives the principle of the living soul from the Intellect, which with its breath of life and action, is called a living being afterwards. (The mind is what thinks, moves and acts).

56. The intellect (chit), exhibiting itself as the mind (chitta), bears the name of the purpose it has to accomplish, which being temporary and changeable, is different from the chit and a nullity. (The mind being the principle of volition, is applied also to the object of the will, as we say, I have a mind to play; which is equal to the expression, I have a playful mind: and this state of the mind being variable, is said to be null).

57. The distinction of actor and act, does not consist in the intellect, it being eternal, is neither the author or the work itself. But the living soul, which is active and productive of acts, is called the purusha or the embodied soul residing in the body—purau-sete. It is action which makes the man-purusha, from which is derived his manhood-paurusha.

58. Life with the action of the mind constitutes the mind of man. The mind taking a sensitive form, employs the organs of sense to their different functions. (The sensitivity of the mind bears an active and not the passive sense of sensitiveness or sensibility).

59. He, the radiance of the light of whose intellect, is the cause of infinite blessings to the world, is both its author and workmanship from all eternity, and there is none beside him. (He is the Pratyagátmá the all-pervading soul).

60. Hence the ego or living soul is indivisible, uninflammable, unsoilable and undriable in its essence; it is everlasting and infinite (ubiquious), and as immovable as a mountain. (The living soul is viewed in the light of the eternal soul).

61. There are many that dispute on this point, as they dispute on other matters, in their error, and mislead others into the same; but we are set free from all mistake. (The disputants are the dualists, who make a distinction between the eternal and created souls. (Jívátmá-paramátmá-dvaita-vádis)).

62. The dualist relying on the phenomena, is deceived by their varying appearances; but the believer in the formless unity, relies in the everlasting blessed spirit (which he views in his intellect).

63. Fondness for intellectual culture, is attended with the vernal blossoms of intellect, which are as white as the clear firmament, and as numberless as the parts of time.

64. The intellect exhibits itself in the form of the boundless and wonderful mundane egg, and it breathes out the breath of its own spirit in the same egg. (The breathing soul is called the sútrátmá one of the ten hypostases of Brahma, the vital air is the first of the elementary bodies, in the order of emanation alias creation).

65. It then showed itself in the wondrous form of the antimundane waters, not as they rise from springs or fall into reservoirs, as also in those of the substances constituting the bodies of the best of beings.

66. It next shone forth with its own intellectual light, which shines as bright as the humid beams of the full moon.

67. Then as the intellect rises in full light with its internal knowledge, upon disappearance of the visibles from sight; so also it is transformed to dullness by dwelling upon gross objects, when it is said to be lie dormant. In this state of the intellect, it is lowered to and confined in the earth.

68. The world is in motion by the force of the Intellect, in whose great vacuity it is settled; it is lighted by the light of that Intellect, and is therefore said to be both existent as well as inexistent by itself.

69. Like the vacuity of that Intellect, the world is said now to exist and now to be inexistent; and like the light of that Intellect, it now appears and now disappears from view.

70. Like the fleeting wind which is breathed by that Intellect, the world is now in existence and now inexistent; and like the cloudy and unclouded sphere of that Intellect, the world is now in being and now a not being.

71. Like the broad day light of that Intellect, the world is now in existence, and like the disappearance of that light, it now becomes nothing. It is formed like collyrium from the particles of the oil of the rajas quality of the Intellect.

72. It is the intellectual fire that gives warmth to the world, and it is the alabaster (conch) of the intellect that causes its whiteness; the rock of intellect gives it hardness, and its water causes its fluidity.

73. The sweetness of the world, is derived from the sugar of the intellect, and its juiciness from the milk in the divine mind; its coldness is from the ice, and its heat from the fire contained in the same. (i.e. The divine Intellect is the material cause (upádána kárana) of the world).

74. The world is oily by the mustard seeds contained in the Intellect; and billowy in the sea of the divine mind. It is dulcet by the honey and aureate by the gold contained in the same.

75. The world is a fruit of the tree of Intellect, and its fragrance is derived from the flowers growing in the arbour of the mind. It is the ens of the Intellect, that gives the world its entity, and it is the mould of the eternal mind, that gives its form.

76. The difference is, that this world is changeful, while the clear atmosphere of the Intellect has no change in it; and the unreal world becomes real, when it is seen as full of the Divine spirit.

77. The invariable self-sameness of the Divine spirit, makes the entity and non-entity of the world alike (because it has no existence of its own, but in the Supreme soul). And the words ‘part and whole’ are wholly meaningless, because both of these are full with the divine spirit.

78. Fie to them, that deride notions as false talk; because the world with its hills, and seas, earth and rivers, is all untrue without the notion of God’s presence in it. (The Buddhists are perceptionalists, and have no faith in any thing beyond their sensible perceptions (pratyaksha); but the Vedantic spiritualists, on the contrary, are abstract conceptionalists, and believe nothing to be true, of which they have no notion or inward conception).

79. The intellect being an unity, cannot be mistaken for a part of any thing; and though it may become as solid as a stone, yet it shines brightly in the sphere of its vacuity.[13]

80. It has a clear vacuous space in its inside, as a transparent crystal, which reflects the images of all objects, though it is as clear as the sky.

81. As the lines on the leaves of trees, are neither the parts of the leaves nor distinct from them, so the world situated in the Intellect, is no part of it nor separate from it.

82. No detached soul is of heterogeneous growth, but retains in its nature the nature of the intellect, and Brahmá is the primary cause of causes. (Hence called Hiranyagarbha.)

83. The mind is of its own nature a causal principle, by reason of its notion of the Intellect; but its existence is hard to be proved, when it is insensible and unconscious of the intellect.

84. Whatever is in the root, comes out in the tree, as we see the seed shoot forth in plants of its own species.

85. All the worlds are as void as vacuity, and yet they appear otherwise, as they are situated in the Great Intellect. All this is the seat of the Supreme, and you must know it by your intellection.

86. As the Muni spake these words, the day declined to its evening twilight. The assembly broke with mutual salutations, to perform their vesperal ablutions, and met again at the court hall with the rising sunbeams, after dispersion of the nocturnal gloom.

CHAPTER XV.

STORY OF THE TEMPLE AND ITS PRINCE.

VASISHTHA said:—The world is a void and as null as the pearls in the sky (seen by optical delusion). It is as unreal as the soul in the vacuity of the intellect.

2. All its objects appear, as unengraven images on the column of the mind, which is without any engraving or engraver of it.

3. As the intermotion of the waters in the sea, causes the waves to rise of themselves, so the visibles as they appear to us, are as waves in the calm spirit of the Supreme. (The variety of the waves, with the pearls, shells and froth they pour out, resemble the multiformity of worldly productions).

4. As sun-beams seen under the water, and as water appearing in the sands of the desert (mirage); so it is the fancy, that paints the world as true to us; and its bulk is like that of an atom, appearing as a hill (when seen through the microscope).

5. The fancied world is no more than a facsimile of the mind of its Maker, just as the sun beams under the water, are but reflexions of the light above; and no other than a negative notion (a false idea).

6. The ideal world is but an aerial castle, and this earth (with its contents), is as unreal as a dream, and as false as the objects of our desire.

7. The earth appearing as solid, is in the light of philosophy, no better than the liquid water of a river, in the mirage of a sandy desert, and is never in existence.

8. The illusive forms of the visibles, in this supposed substantial form of the world, resemble at least, but aerial castles and rivers in the mirage.

9. The visionary scenes of the world being taken to the scales, will be found when weighed, to be light as air and as hollow as vacuum.

10. The ignorant that are taken away by the sound of words in disregard of sense, will find when they come to sense, that there is no difference between the world and Brahma: (the one being but the reflection of the other).

11. The dull world is the issue of the Intellect, like the beams of the sun in the sky. The light of the intellect, is as light as the rarefied rays of the sun; but it raises like the other, the huge clouds, to water the shooting seeds of plants.

12. As a city in a dream, is finer than one seen in the waking state, so this visionary world is as subtile as an imaginary one.

13. Know therefore the insensible world to be the inverse of the sensible soul, and the substantive world as the reverse of the unsubstantial vacuum. The words plenum and vacuum are both as inane as airy breath, because these opposites are but different views of the same Intellect.

14. Know therefore this visible world to be no production at all; it is as nameless as it is undeveloped, and as inexistent as its seeming existence.

15. The universe is the sphere of the spirit of God in the infinite space; it has no foundation elsewhere except in that Spirit of which it is but a particle, and filling a space equal to a bit of infinity.

16. It is as transparent as the sky, and without any solidity at all; it is as empty as empty air, and as a city pictured in imagination.

17. Attend now to the story of the Temple which is pleasant to hear, and which will impress this truth deeply in your mind.

18. Ráma said:—Tell me at once, O Bráhman, the long and short of the story of the temple, which will help my understanding of these things.

19. Vasishtha said:—There lived of yore a prince on the surface of the earth, whose name was Padma from his being like the blooming and fragrant lotus of his race; and who was equally blessed with wisdom, prosperity and good children.

20. He observed the bounds of his duties, as the sea preserves the boundaries of countries; and destroyed the mist of his adversaries, as the sun dispels the darkness at night. He was as the moon to his lotus-like queen, and as burning fire to the hay of evils and crimes.

21. He was the asylum of the learned, as the mount Meru was the residence of the gods; he was the moon of fair fame risen from the ocean of the earth; and was as a lake to the geese of good qualities; and like the sun to the lotuses of purity.

22. He was as a blast to the creepers of his antagonists in warfare; and as a lion to the elephants of his mind (appetites). He was the favourite of all learning, and a patron of the learned, and a mine of all admirable qualities.

23. He stood fixed as the mount Mandara, after it had churned the ocean of the demons. He was as the vernal season to the blossoms of joy, and as the god of the floral bow to the flowers of blooming prosperity.

24. He was the gentle breeze to the vacillation of the playful creepers, and as the god Hari in his valour and energy. He shone as the moon on the florets of good manners, and as wildfire to the brambles of licentiousness.

25. His consort was the happy Líla, playful as her name implied, and fraught with every grace, as if the goddess of prosperity, had appeared in person upon earth.

26. She was gentle with her submissiveness to her lord, and was sweet in her speech without art; she was always happy and slow in her movements, and ever smiling as the moon.

27. Her lovely lotus-white face was decorated with painted spots, and her fair form which was as fresh as a new blown bud, appeared as a moving bed of lotuses.

28. She was buxom as a playful plant, and bright as a branch of kunda flowers, and full of glee and good humour. With her palms red as corals, and her fingers white as lilies, she was in her person a congeries of vernal beauties.

29. Her pure form was sacred to touch, and conferred a hilarity to the heart, as the holy stream of the Ganges, exhilarates the flock of swans floating upon it.

30. She was as a second Rati, born to serve her lord, who was Káma in person on earth to give joy to all souls.

31. She was sorry at his sorrow, and delighted to see him delightful; and was thoughtful to see him pensive. Thus was she an exact picture of her lord, except that she was afraid to find him angry.

CHAPTER XVI.

JOY AND GRIEF OF THE PRINCESS.

THIS single wived husband, enjoyed the pleasure of an undivided and unfeigned love, in company with his only consort, as with an Apsará (or heavenly nymph) on earth.

(The Apsaras are the Abisares of Ptolemy and Absairs of the Persians: a term applied to the fairy race in the watery valley of Cashmere, supposed to be the site of Paradise-Firdous, and the scene of innocent attachment).

2. The seats of their youthful sports were the gardens and groves, the arbours of shrubberies, and forests of Tamála trees. They sported also in the pleasant arbours of creepers and delightful alcoves of flowers.

3. They delighted themselves in the inner apartments, on beds decked with fragrant flowers, and on walks strewn over with fresh blossoms. They amused in their swinging cradles in their pleasure gardens in spring, and in rowing their tow-boats in summer heat.

4. Hills overgrown with sandal woods and shades of shady forests; the alcoves of Nípa and Kadamba trees, and coverts of the Páribhadra or Devadáru-cedars, were their favourite resorts in summer.

5. They sat besides the beds of kunda and Mandára plants, redolent with the fragrance of full-blown flowers; and strayed about the vernal green-woods, resounding with the melody of kokilas’ notes.

6. The glossy beds of grassy tufts, the mossy seats of woods and lawns, and water-falls flooding the level lands with showers of rain (were also their favourite resorts).

7. Mountain layers overlaid with gems, minerals and richest stones; the shrines of gods and saints, holy hermitages and places of pilgrimage, were oft visited by them.

8. Lakes of full-blown lotuses and lilies, smiling Kumudas of various hues, and wood-lands darkened by green foliage, or overhung with flowers and fruitage, were their frequent haunts.

9. They passed their time in the amorous dalliances of godlike youths; and their personal beauty, was graced by the generous pastimes, of their mutual fondness and affection.

10. They amused each other with bon-mots and witticisms and solution of riddles; with story telling and playing the tricks of hold-fists mushti-bandha (purmuthi), and the various games of chess and dice.

11. They diverted themselves with the reading of dramas and narratives, and interpretation of stanzas difficult even to the learned. And sometimes they roamed about cities, towns and villages.

12. They decorated their persons with wreaths of flowers and ornaments of various kinds; fared and feasted on a variety of flavours, and moved about with playful negligence.

13. They chewed betel leaves mixed with moistened mace and camphor, and saffron; and hid the love marks on their bodies, under wreaths of flowers and corals, with which they were adorned.

14. They played the frolics of “hide and find” (Beng. lukichuri), tossing of wreaths and garlands, and swinging one another in cradles bestrewn with flowers.

15. They made their trips in pleasure-boats, and on yokes of elephants and tame camels; and sported in their pleasure-ponds by pattering water upon one another.

16. They had their manly and womanly dances, the sprightly tándava and the merry lásya; and songs of masculine and effeminate voices the Kalá and gíta. They had symphonious and euphonious music, and played on the lute and tabor, (the wired and percussive instruments).

17. They passed in their flowery conveyances through gardens and parterres, by river sides and highways, and amidst their inner apartments and royal palaces.

18. The loving and beloved princess being thus brought up in pleasure and indulgence, thought at one time with a wistful heart within herself:—

19. “How will this my lord and ruler of earth, who is in the bloom of youth and prosperity, and who is dearer to me than my life, be free from old age and death.

20. “And how will I enjoy his company on beds of flowers in the palace, possessed of my youth and free-will, for the long long period of hundreds of years.

21. “I will therefore endeavour with all my vigilance and prayers, and austerities and endeavours, how this moon-faced prince, may become free from death and decline.

22. “I will ask the most knowing, and the most austere and very learned Bráhmans, how men may evade death.”

23. She accordingly invited the Bráhmans and honoured them with presents, and asked them lowly, to tell her how men might become immortal on earth.

24. The Bráhmans replied:—“Great queen! holy men may obtain success in every thing by their austerities, prayers and observance of religious rites; but no body can ever attain to immortality here below.”

25. Hearing this from the mouths of the Bráhmans, she thought again in her own mind, and with fear for the demise of her loving lord.

26. “Should it happen, that I come to die before my lord, I shall then be released from all pain of separation from him, and be quite at rest in myself.

27. “But if my husband happen to die before me, even after a thousand years of our lives, I shall so manage it, that his soul (the immortal part of his body), may not depart from the confines of this mansion (the charnel-house).

28. “So that the spirit of my lord, will rove about the holy vault in the inner apartment, and I shall feel the satisfaction of moving about in his presence at all times.”

29. “I will commence even from this day, to worship Sarasvatí—the goddess of Intelligence, and offer my prayers to her for this purpose, with observance of fasts and other rites to my heart’s content.”

30. Having determined so, she betook herself to observe the strict ceremonials of the Sástra, and without the knowledge of her lord.

31. She kept her fasts, and broke them at the end of every third night; and then entertained the gods, Bráhmans, the priests and holy people, with feasts and due honours.

32. She was then employed in the performance of her daily ablutions, in her act of alms-giving, in the observance of her austerities and in meditation; in all of which she was painstaking, an observant of the rules of pious theism.

33. She attended also to her incognizant husband at stated times, and ministered unto him to the utmost, her duties as required by law and usage.

34. Thus observant of her vows, the young princess passed a hundred of her trinoctial ceremony, with resolute and persevering pains-taking and unfailing austerities.

35. The fair goddess of speech, was pleased at the completion of her hundredth trinoctial observance, in which she was honoured by her, with all outward and spiritual complaisance, and then bespoke to her.

36. Sarasvatí said:—“I am pleased my child! with thy continued devotion to me, and thy constant devotedness to thy husband. Now ask the boon that thou wouldst have of me.”

37. The princess replied:—“Be victorious, O moon-bright goddess! that puttest to an end all the pains of our birth and death, and the troubles, afflictions and evils of this world; and that like the sun, puttest to flight the darkness of our affections and afflictions in this life.

38. “Save me O goddess, and thou parent of the world, and have pity on this wretched devotee, and grant her these two boons, that she supplicates of thee.

39. “The one is, that after my husband is dead, his soul may not go beyond the precincts of this shrine in the inner apartment.

40. “The second is, that thou shalt hear my prayer, and appear before me, whenever I raise my voice to thee, for having thy sight and blessing.”

41. Hearing this, the goddess said, “Be it so;” and immediately disappeared in the air (whence she came); as the wave subsides in the sea whence it rises to view.

42. The princess being blessed by the presence and good grace of the goddess, was as delighted as a doe at the hearing of music.

43. The wheel of time rolled on its two semicircles of the fort-nights. The spikes of months, the arcs of the seasons, the loops of days and nights and the orbit of years. The axle composed of fleeting moments; giving incessant momentum to the wheel.

44. The perceptions of the prince, entered into the inner man within the body (lingadeha); and he looked in a short time, as dry as a withered leaf without its juicy gloss.

45. The dead body of the warlike prince, being laid over the sepulchre, in the inside of the palace, the princess began to fade away at its sight, like a lotus flower without its natal water (of the lake).

46. Her lips grew pale by her hot and poisoned breath of sorrow; and she was in the agony of death, as a doe pierced by a dart (in her mortal part).

47. Her eyes were covered in darkness at the death of her lord, as a house becomes dark at the extinction of the light of its lamp.

48. She became leaner every moment, in her sad melancholy; and turned as a dried channel covered with dirt in lieu of its water.

49. She moved one moment and was then mute as a statue; she was about to die of grief, as the ruddy goose at the separation of her mate.

50. Then the etherial goddess Sarasvatí, took pity on the excess of her grief, and showed as much compassion for her relief, as the first shower of rain, does to the dying fishes in a drying pond.

CHAPTER XVII.

STORY OF THE DOUBTFUL REALM OR REVERIE OF LÍLÁ.

SARASVATÍ said:—Remove my child, the dead body of thy husband to yonder shrine! and strew those flowers over it, and thou shalt have thy husband again.

2. Never will this body rot or fade as long as the flowers are fresh over it, and know thy husband will shortly return to life again. (The strewing of flowers over the dead body and the grave, is a practice common in many religions).

3. His living soul which is as pure as air, will never depart from this cemetery of thy inner apartment. (The departed soul is believed to hover about the crypt or cairn until the day of resurrection).

4. The black-eyed princess, with her eyebrows resembling a cluster of black-bees, heard this consolatory speech of the goddess, and was cheered in her spirit, as the lotus-bed on return of the rains.

5. She placed the corpse of her husband there, and hid it under the flowers, and remained in expectation of its rising, as a poor man fosters the hope of finding a treasure.

6. It was at midnight of the very day, when all the members of the family had fallen fast asleep, that Lílá repaired to the shrine in the inward apartment.

7. There she meditated on the goddess of knowledge, in the recess of her understanding, and called her in earnest in the sorrow of her heart, when she heard the divine voice thus addressing to her.

8. “Why dost thou call me, child, and why art thou so sorrowful in thy countenance? The world is full of errors, glaring as false water in a mirage.”

9. Lílá answered:—“Tell me goddess, where my husband resides at present, and what he has been doing now. Take me to his presence, as I am unable to bear the load of my life without him.”

10. The goddess replied:—“His spirit is now roving in the sky, of which there are three kinds:—one the firmament or region of the sensible worlds; the other is the region of the mind, the seat of volition and creation; and third is the region of Intellect, which contains the two others.

11. “Your husband’s soul is now in the sheath of the region of Intellect (being withdrawn both from the regions of the visible world and sensuous mind). It is now by seeking in the region of the Intellect, that things which are inexistent here, are to be found there.

12. “As in passing from one place to another, you are conscious of standing in the mid spot (which is neither the one nor the other); so you will arrive in an instant at the intermediate region of the intellectual world (lying between this sensible and spiritual worlds).

13. “If you will abide in that intellectual world, after forsaking all your mental desires, you will certainly come to the knowledge of that spiritual Being who comprehends all in himself.

14. “It is only by your knowledge of the negative existence of the world, that you can come to know the positive existence of that Being, as you will now be able to do by my grace, and by no other means whatever.” (Forget the sensible to get to the Spiritual. Hafiz).

15. Vasishtha said:—so saying, the goddess repaired to her heavenly seat; and Lílá sat gladly in her mood of steadfast meditation. (Platonism).

16. She quitted in a moment the prison house of her body, and her soul broke out of its inner bound of the mind, to fly freely in the air, like a bird freed from its cage: (so Plato compares the flight of the parting soul with that of a bird from its cage).

17. She ascended to the airy region of the Intellect, and saw (by her intellectual light) her husband seated there in his seat, amidst a group of princes and rulers of the earth (who had received various forms and states according to their acts and desires).

18. He was seated on a throne, and lauded with the loud acclamations of “Long live the king,” and “Be he victorious.” His officers were prompt in the discharge of their several duties.

19. The royal palace and hall were decorated with rows of flags, and there was an assemblage of unnumbered sages and saints, Bráhmans and Rishis at the eastern entrance of the hall.

20. There stood a levy of innumerable princes and chiefs of men at the southern porch, and a bevy of young ladies standing at the western door-way.

21. The northern gateway was blocked by lines of horse, carriages and elephants; when a guard advanced and informed the king of a warfare in Deccan.

22. He said that the chief of Karnatic, has made an attack on the eastern frontier; and that the chieftain of Surat, has brought to subjection the barbarous tribes on the north; and that the ruler of Malwa, has besieged the city of Tonkan on the west.

23. Then there was the reception of the ambassador from Lanká, coming from the coast of the southern sea.

24. There appeared next the Siddhas, coming from the Mahendra mountains bordering the eastern main, and traversing the numerous rivers of their fluvial districts; as also the ambassador of the Guhyaka or Yaksha tribes, inhabiting the shores of the northern sea.

25. There were likewise the envoys, visiting the shores of the western main, and relating the state of affairs of that territory to the king. The whole courtyard was filled with lustre by the assemblage of unnumbered chieftains from all quarters.

26. The recitals of Bráhmans on sacrificial altars, died away under the sound of the timbrels; and the loud shouts of panegyrists, were re-echoed by the uproar of elephants.

27. The vault of heaven, resounding to the sound of the vocal and instrumental music; and the dust raised by the procession of elephants and chariots, and the trotting of horses’ hoofs, obscured the face of the sky as by a cloud.

28. The air was perfumed by the fragrance of flowers, camphor and heaps of frankincense; and the royal hall was filled with presents sent from different provinces.

29. His fair fame shone forth as a burning hill of white camphor, and raised a column of splendour reaching to the sky, and casting into shade the solar light.

30. There were the rulers of districts, who were busily employed in their grave and momentous duties, and the great architects who conducted the building of many cities.

31. Then the ardent Lílá entered the court-hall of the ruler of men, and unseen by any, just as one void mixes with another void, and as air is lost in the air.

32. She wandered about without being seen by any body there; just as a fair figure, formed by false imagination of our fond desire, is not to be perceived by any one without ourselves.

33. In this manner she continued to walk about the palace unperceived by all, as the aerial castle built in one’s mind, is not perceived by another.

34. She beheld them all assembled in the royal court in their former forms, and saw all the cities of the princes, as concentrated in that single city of her lord’s.

35. She viewed the same places, the same dealings, the same concourse of boys, and the same sorts of men and women, and the same ministers as before.

36. She saw the same rulers of earth, and the very same Pandits as before; the identic courtiers and the self-same servants as ever.

37. There was the same assemblage of the learned men and friends as before, and the like throng of citizens pursuing their former course of business.

38. She saw on a sudden, the flames of wild fire spreading on all sides even in broad midday light; and the sun and moon appearing both at once in the sky, and the clouds roaring with a tremendous noise, with the whistling of the winds.

39. She saw the trees, the hills, the rivers and the cities flourishing with population; and the many towns, and villages and forests all about.

40. She beheld her royal consort as a boy of ten years of age after shaking off his former frame of old age, sitting amidst the hall with all his former retinue, and all the inhabitants of his village.

SECTION I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COURT HOUSE AND THE CORTES.

41. Lílá having seen all these began to reflect within herself, whether the inhabitants of this place were living beings or the ghosts of their former living souls.

42. Then having recovered her sense at the removal of her trance, she entered into her inner apartment at midnight, and found the inmates fast bound in sleep.

43. She raised one by one her sleeping companions, and said she was anxious to visit the royal hall.

44. She wanted to be seated beside the throne of her lord, and to clear her doubt by seeing the courtiers all alive.

45. The royal menials rose up at her call, and obedient to her command they said “Be it so,” and attended to their respective duties.

46. A train of club-bearers ran to all sides to call the courtiers from the city, and sweepers came and swept the ground as clean as the sun had shed his rays upon it.

47. A better set of servants cleansed the court-yard as clean, as autumn days clear the firmament of its rainy clouds.

48. Rows of lights were placed about the court-yard, which looked as beautiful as clusters of stars in the clear sky.

49. The ground of the court-yard was filled by throngs of people, as the earth was covered of yore by floods of the great deluge.

50. The dignified ministers and chiefs attended first and took their respective seats, and appeared as a set of the newly created rulers of people of the world on all sides, or the regents of the quarters of the sky.

51. The cooling and fragrant odour of thickly pasted camphor filled the palace, and the sweet-scented zephyrs breathed profusely the fragrance of the lotus flowers, which they bore from all sides.

52. The chamberlains stood all around in their white garbs, and appeared as an assemblage of silvery clouds, hanging over the burning hills under the equator.

53. The ground was strewn over by the morning breeze with heaps of flowers, bright as the beaming dawn dispelling the gloom of night, and etiolated as clusters of stars fallen upon the ground.

54. The palace was crowded by the retinue of the chiefs of the land, and seemed as it was a lake full of full-blown lotuses, with the fair swimming swans rambling about them.

55. There Lílá took her seat on a golden seat by the side of the throne, and appeared as the beauteous Rati seated in the joyous heart of Káma (i.e. as Venus sitting in the lap of aureate lighted Phoebus).

56. She saw all the princes seated in their order as before, and the elders of the people and the nobles of men and all her friends and relatives, seated in their proper places.

57. She was highly delighted to behold them all in their former states, and shone forth as the moon with the brightness of her countenance, to find them all alive again.

CHAPTER XVIII.

EXPOSURE OF THE ERRORS OF THIS WORLD.

SHE said, “I have much consolation in you, and now will I console my sorrowing heart.” So saying, she made a sign for the assembly to break, and rose from her royal seat.

2. She entered the inner apartment and sat by the side of the dead body of her lord, hidden under the heap of flowers, and thus began to reflect within herself.

3. She exclaimed:—“O the wondrous magic! that presents these people of my place situated in the same manner without myself, as they were seen to be seated within me.

4. “O how great is the extent of this delusion, as to contain the same high hills, and the same spacious forests of palm and Hintála trees, both in the outside as well as they are situated in the inside of myself.

5. “As the mirror shows the reflexion of the hills within itself as they are without it, so the reflector of the intellect presents the whole creation inwardly as it has outwards of itself.

6. “I must now invoke the goddess of wisdom to ascertain which of these is illusion, and which the sober and certain reality.”

7. So saying, she worshipped and invoked the goddess, and beheld her immediately present before herself, in the form of a virgin.

8. She made the goddess sit on the elevated seat, and having seated herself low upon the ground before her, asked that divine power to tell her the truth.

9. Lílá said:—“Vouchsafe, O goddess, and clear this doubt of thy suppliant; for it is thy wisdom which has framed this beautiful system of the universe at first and knows the truth. (Divine wisdom is the prime cause of all).

10. “Tell me, O great goddess, about what I am going to lay before thee at present, for it is by thy favour alone that I may be successful to know it.

11. “I saw the pattern of this world in the intellect, which is more transparent than the etherial sphere, and as extensive as to contain millions and millions of miles in a small space of it.

12. “It is what no definite words can express, and what is known as the calm, cool and ineffable light. This is called the unintelligible intelligence, and is without any cover or support (nirávarana nirbhitti).

13. “It exhibits the reflexions of space and the course of time, and those of the sky and its light, and the course of events concentrating in itself.

14. “Thus the images of the worlds, are to be seen both within and without the intellect, and it is hard to distinguish the real and unreal ones between them.”

15. The goddess asked:—Tell me fair lady, what is the nature of the real world, and what you mean, by its unreality.

16. Lílá replied:—I know the nature of the real to be such as I find myself to be sitting here, and looking upon you as seated in this place.

17. And I mean that to be unreal, as the state in which I beheld my husband in the etherial region erewhile; because vacuity has no limit of time or place in it.

18. The goddess rejoined:—The real creation cannot produce an unreal figure, nor a similar cause produce a dissimilar effect.

19. Lílá replied:—But we often see, O goddess! dissimilar effects to be produced from similar causes: thus, the earth and earthen pot though similar in their substance, yet the one is seen to melt in water, and the other to carry water in it.

20. The goddess said:—Yes, when an act is done by the aid of auxiliary means, there the effect is found to be somewhat different from the primary cause. (Thus the earthen pot being produced by the auxiliary appliances of fire, the potter’s wheel and the like, differs in its quality from the original clay).

21. Say O beauteous lady! what were the causes of thy husband’s being born in this earth? The same led to his birth in the other world also (i.e. the merit of the acts and desires of men, are the causes of their transmigrations in both worlds).

22. When the soul has fled from here, how can the earth follow him there any more, and what auxiliary causes can there be in connection with this cause?

23. Wherever there arises a coaction with its apparent causality, it is usually attributed by every one to some unknown antecedent cause or motive.

24. Lílá said:—Methinks goddess, that it was the expansion of my husband’s memory that was the cause of his regenerations; because it is certain that reminiscence is the cause of the reproduction of objects before us.

25. The goddess replied that, memory is an aerial substance, and its productions are as unsubstantial as itself.

26. Lílá said:—Yes I find reminiscence to be an airy thing, and its reproduction of my husband and all other things within me to be but empty shadows in the mind.

27. The goddess replied:—So verily was this reproduction of thy husband and all those things which appeared to thy sight in thy reverie; and so, my daughter, is the appearance of all things I see in this world.

28. Lílá said:—Tell me goddess for the removal of my conception of the reality of the world, how the false appearance of my formless lord, was produced before me by the unreal world, (since nothing unsubstantial can cast a shadow).

29. The goddess replied:—As this illusive world appeared a reality to thee before thy reminiscence of it, so must thou know all this to be unreal from what I am going to relate to thee.

30. There is in some part of the sphere of the Intellect the great fabric of the world, with the glassy vault of the firmament for its roof on all sides.

31. The Meru (the polar axle or mountain) is its pillar, beset around by the regents of the ten sides, as statues carved upon it. The fourteen regions are as so many apartments of it, and the hollow concavity containing the three worlds, is lighted by the lamp of the luminous sun.

32. Its corners are inhabited by living creatures resembling ants and emmets, which are surrounded by mountains appearing as ant-hills in the sight of Brahmá, the prime lord of creatures and the primeval patriarch of many races of men.

33. All animal beings are as worms confined in the cocoons (prison houses) of their own making. The azure skies above and below are as the soot of this house, beset by bodies of Siddhas (or departed spirits), resembling groups of gnats buzzing in the air.

34. The fleeting clouds are the smoke of this house or as webs of spiders in its corners, and the hollow air is full of aerial spirits, like holes of bamboos filled with flies.

35. There are also the playful spirits of gods and demigods, hovering over human habitations, as swarms of busy and buzzing bees about vessels of honey.

36. Here there lay amidst the cavity of heaven, earth and the infernal regions, tracts of land well watered by rivers, lakes and the sea on all sides.

37. In a corner of this land, there was situated a secluded piece of ground (a vale or village), sheltered by hills and craigs about it.

38. In this secluded spot thus sheltered by hills, rivers and forests, there lived a Bráhman with his wife and children, free from disease and care of gain and fear of a ruler, and passed his days in his fire-worship and hospitality, with the produce of his kine and lands.

CHAPTER XIX.

STORY OF A FORMER VASISHTHA AND HIS WIFE.

THIS Bráhman was equal to his namesake—the sage Vasishtha, in his age and attire, in his learning and wealth, and in all his actions and pursuits, except in his profession. (The one being a secular man, and the other the priest of the royal family).

2. His name was Vasishtha, and that of his wife Arundhatí; who was as fair as the moon, and as the star of the same name on earth.

3. She resembled her namesake the priestess of the solar race, in her virtues and parts and in all things, except in her soul and body.

4. She passed her time in true love and affection in his company, and was his all in the world, with her sweet smiling face resembling the Kumuda flower.

5. This Bráhman had been sitting once under the shady sarala trees, on the table land of his native hill, when he saw the ruler of the land, passing with his gaudy train below.

6. He was accompanied by all the members of the royal family and his troops and soldiers, and was going to a chase, with a clamour that resounded in the hills and forests.

7. The white flappers shed a stream of moon light, and the lifted banners appeared as a moving forest, and the white umbrellas made the sky a canopy to them.

8. The air was filled with dust raised by the hoofs of horses from the ground, and lines of elephants with their high haúdás, seemed as moving towers, to protect them from the solar heat and sultry winds.

9. The wild animals were running on all sides at the loud uproar of the party, resembling the roaring of a whirlpool, and shining gems and jewels were flashing all about on the persons of the party.

10. The Bráhman saw the procession and said to himself, “O how charming is royalty, which is fraught with such splendour and prosperity.”

11. Ah! how shall I become the monarch of all the ten sides, and have such a retinue of horse and elephants and foot soldiers, with a similar train of flags and flappers and blazing umbrellas.

12. When will the breeze waft the fragrance of kunda flowers, and the farina of lotuses to my bed-chamber, to lull me and my consorts to sleep.

13. When shall I adorn the countenances of my chamber maids with camphor and sandal paste, and enlighten the faces of the four quarters with my fair fame, as the moon-beams decorate the night.

14. With these thoughts, the Bráhman was thenceforth determined to apply himself with vigilance, to the rigid austerities of his religion for life.

15. He was at last overtaken by infirmities which shattered his frame, as the sleets of snowfall, batter the blooming lotuses in the lake.

16. Seeing his approaching death, his faithful wife was fading away with fear, as a creeper withers at the departure of spring, for fear of the summer heat.

17. This lady then began to worship me (the personification of Wisdom) like thyself, for obtaining the boon of immortality which is hard to be had.

18. She prayed saying:—Ordain, O goddess! that the spirit of my lord may not depart from this sepulchre after his demise: and I granted her request.

19. After sometime the Bráhman died, and his vacuous spirit remained in the vacuity of that abode.

20. This aeriform spirit of the Bráhman, assumed the shape of a mighty man on earth, by virtue of the excessive desire and merit of acts in his former state of existence.

21. He became the victorious monarch of the three realms, by subjugating the surface of the earth by his might, by laying hold on the high steeps (of the gods) by his valour, and his kind protection of the nether lands (watery regions) under his sway.

22. He was as a conflagration to the forest of his enemies, and as the steadfast Meru amidst the rushing winds of business on all sides. He was as the sun expanding the lotus-like hearts of the virtuous, and as the god of the makara ensign (Kama or Cupid) to the eyes of women.

23. He was the model of all learning, and the all giving Kalpa tree to his suitors; he was the footstool of great Pandits, and as the full-moon shedding the ambrosial beams of polity all around.

24. But after the Bráhman was dead, and his dead body had disappeared in the forms of elementary particles in air, and his airy spirit had reposed in the aerial intellectual soul within the empty space of his house.

25. His Bráhmanic widow (born of the priestly class), was pining away in her sorrow, and her heart was rent in twain as the dried pod of Simbi.

26. She became a dead body like her husband, and her spirit by shuffling off its mortal coil, resumed its subtile and immortal form, in which it met the departed ghost of her husband.

27. She advanced to her lord, as rapidly as a river runs to meet the sea below its level; and became as cheerful to join him, as a cluster of flowers to inhale the vernal air.

28. The houses, lands and all the immovable properties and movable riches of this Bráhman, are still existent in that rocky village, and it is only eight days past, that the souls of this loving pair, are reunited in the hollow vault of their house.

CHAPTER XX.

THE MORAL OF THE TALE OF LÍLÁ.

THE goddess said:—That Bráhman whom I said before, had become a monarch on earth, is the same with thy husband, and his wife Arundhati, is no other than thyself—the best of women.

2. You two are the same pair now reigning over this realm, and resembling a pair of doves in your nuptial love, and the deities Siva and Párvati in your might.

3. I have thus related to you the state of your past lives, that you may know the living soul to be but air, and the knowledge of its reality is but an error.

4. The erroneous knowledge (derived from sense), casts its reflection in the intellect, and causes its error also (errors in the senses breed errors in the mind); and this makes you doubtful of the truth and untruth of the two states (of the sensible and intellectual worlds).

5. Therefore the question, ‘which is true and which is untrue,’ has no better solution than that all creations (whether visible or invisible, mental or ideal), are equally false and unsubstantial.

6. Vasishtha said:—Hearing these words of the goddess, Lílá was confused in her mind, and with her eyes staring with wonder, she addressed her softly.

7. Lílá said:—How is it, O goddess! that your words are so incoherent with truth, you make us the same, with the Brahmanic pair, who are in their own house, and we are sitting here in our palace.

8. And how is it possible that the small space of the room in which my husband’s body is lying, could contain those spacious lands and hills and the ten sides of the sky: (as I already saw in my trance—Samádhi).

9. It is as impossible as to confine an elephant in a mustard seed, and as the fighting of a gnat with a body of lions in a nut-shell.

10. It is as incredible as to believe a lotus seed containing a hill in it, and to be devoured by a little bee; or that the peacocks are dancing on hearing the roaring of clouds in a dream.

11. It is equally inconsistent to say, O great goddess of gods! that this earth with all its mountains and other things, are contained within the small space of a sleeping room.

12. Deign therefore, O goddess to explain this mystery clearly unto me; because it is by thy favour only that the learned are cleared of their doubts.

13. The goddess said:—Hear me fair lady! I do not tell thee a lie; because transgression of the law is a thing unknown to us. (The law is nánritam vadeta—never tell an untruth).

14. It is I that establish the law when others are about to break it; if then I should slight the same, who else is there who would observe it.

15. The living soul of the village Bráhman, saw within itself and in the very house, the image of this great kingdom, as his departed spirit now views the same in its empty vacuity. (Therefore both these states are equally ideal).

16. But you have lost the remembrance of the states of your former lives after death, as they lose the recollection of waking events in the dreaming state.

17. As the appearance of the three worlds in dream, and their formation in the imagination; or as the description of a warfare in an epic poem and water in the mirage of a maru or sandy desert (are all false):

18. So were the hills and habitations which were seen in the empty space of the Bráhman’s house, which was no other than the capacity of his own mind to form the images of its fancy, and receive the external impressions like a reflecting mirror (all mere ideal).

19. All these though unreal, yet they appear as real substances on account of the reality of the intellect, which is seated in the cavity of the inmost sheath of the body and reflects the images.

20. But these images, which are derived from the remembrance of unreal objects of the world, are as unreal as those objects which cast their reflexions in the intellect; just as the waves rising in the river of a mirage, are as unreal as the mirage itself.

21. Know this seat (sadana) of yours, which is set in this closet (kosha) of the house, as well as myself and thyself and all things about us, to be but the reflections of our intellect only, without which nothing would be perceptible, as to one who is devoid of his intellect.

22. Our dreams and fallacies, our desires and fancies, as also our notions and ideas, serve as the best evidences, that afford us their light for the understanding of this truth: (that nothing is true beside the subjective mind, which creates and forms, produces and presents all objects to our view).

23. The spirit of the Bráhman resided in the vacuity of his house (the body), with the seas and forests and the earth (i.e. their impressions) within itself, as the bee abides in the lotus.

24. Thus the habitable globe with every thing it contains, is situated in a small cell in one corner of the intellect, as a spot of flimsy cloud in the firmament.

25. The House of the Bráhman was situated in the same locality of the intellect, which contains all the worlds in one of its atomic particles.

26. The intelligent soul contains in every atom of it, unnumbered worlds within worlds, enough to remove your doubt; of the Bráhman’s viewing a whole realm within the space of his intellect.

27. Lílá asked:—How can the Bráhmanic pair be ourselves, when they are dead only eight days before, and we have been reigning here for so many years?

28. The goddess replied:—There is neither any limit of space or duration, nor any distance of place or length of time in reality: hear me now tell you the reason of it.

29. As the universe is the reflexion of the divine mind, so are infinity and eternity but representations of himself.

30. Attend to what I tell you about the manner in which we form the idea of time, and its distinct parts of a moment and an age, in the same way as we make the distinction of individualities in me, thee and this or that person (which are essentially the same undivided spirit and duration).[14]

SECTION II.

State of the Human soul after death.

31. Hear now, that no sooner does any one come to feel the insensibility consequent to his death, than he forgets his former nature and thinks himself as another being.

32. He then assumes an empty form in the womb of vacuity in the twinkling of an eye, and being contained in that container, he thinks within himself in the same receptacle.

33. “This is my body with its hands and feet.” Thus the body he thinks upon, he finds the same presented before him.

34. He then thinks in himself: “I am the son of this father and am so many years old; these are my dear friends and this is my pleasant abode.”

35. “I was born and became a boy, and then grew up to this age. There are all my friends and in the same course of their lives.”

36. Thus the compact density of the sphere of his soul, presents him many other figures, which appear to rise in it as in some part of the world.

37. But they neither rise nor remain in the soul itself, which is as transparent as the empty air; they appear to the intellect as a vision seen in a dream.

38. As the view beheld in a dream, presents the sights of all things in one place, so does every thing appear to the eye of the beholder of the other world as in his dream.

39. Again whatever is seen in the other world, the same occurs to men in their present states also; wherefore the reality of this and unreality of the other world, are both alike to a state of dreaming.

40. And as there is no difference in the waves of the same sea-water, so the produced visible creation is no other than the unproduced intellectual world, both of which are equally indestructible: (the one being but a copy of the other).

41. But in reality the appearance is nothing but a reflection of the intellect; and which apart from the intelligible spirit, is merely an empty vacuity.

42. The creation though presided by the intelligible spirit, is itself a mere void, its intelligible soul being the only substance of it as the water of the waves.

43. The waves though formed of water, are themselves as false as the horns of hares; and their appearance as natural objects: is altogether false (because they are the effects of the auxiliary cause of the winds which have raised them).

44. Hence there being no visible object in reality (except a false appearance of such), how can the observer have any idea of the visible, which loses its delusion at the moment of his death.

45. After disappearance of the visible outer world from sight, the soul reflects on its reminiscence of the creation in its inner world of the mind, according to the proper time and place of every thing.

46. It remembers its birth, its parents, its age and its residence, with its learning and all other pursuits in their exact manner and order.

47. It thinks of its friends and servants, and of the success and failure of its attempts. And thus the increate and incorporeal soul, ruminates on the events of its created and corporeal state in its intellectual form.

48. It does not however remain long in this state, but enters a new body soon after its death, to which the properties of the mind and senses, are added afterwards in their proper times.

49. It then becomes a baby, and finds a new father and mother, and begins to grow. Thus whether one may perceive it or not, it is all the product of his former reminiscence.

50. Then upon waking from this state of trance, like a fruit from the cell of a flower, it comes to find that a single moment appeared to it as the period of an age.

51. So King Harish Chandra of yore thought one night as a period of twelve years; and so one day seems as long as a year to them that are separated from their beloved objects.

52. Again as the birth or death of one in his dream, or his getting a begotten father in infancy, or a hungry man’s faring on dainty food in thought, is all false:

53. So when a sated man says he is starving, or one declares he is an eye witness of a thing he has not seen, or an empty space is full of people, or that he has got a lost treasure in his dream, who is there to believe him?

54. But this visible world rests in the invisible spirit of God, as the property of pungency, resides in the particles, of the pepper seed, and as the painted pictures on a column. But where are the open and clear sighted eyes to perceive the same?

INTERPRETATION OF LÍLÁ’S VISION.

55. The vision of Lílá, called samádhi in Yoga and clairvoyance of spiritualism, was the abstract meditation of her lord in her memory. Which presented her with a full view of every thing imprinted in it. The memory is taken for the whole intellect chit, which is identified with God, in whose essence the images of all things, are said to be eternally present.

CHAPTER XXI.

GUIDE TO PEACE.

SOON after the insensibility occasioned by one’s death is over, there appears to him (soul) the sight of the world, as he viewed it with his open eyes when he was living.

2. It presents before him the circle of the sky and its sides with the cycle of its seasons and times, and shows him the deeds of his pious and secular acts, as they were to continue to eternity.

3. Objects never seen nor thought of before, also offer themselves to his view, as the sight of his own death in a dream, and as they were the prints in his memory.

4. But the infinity of objects, appearing in the empty sphere of the immaterial intellect, is mere illusion, and the baseless city of the world, like an aerial castle, is but the creation of imagination.

5. It is the remembrance of the past world, that makes it known to us (because it is impossible to recognise any thing without a previous impression of its kind in the mind). Hence the length of a kalpa age and the shortness of a moment, are but erroneous impressions proceeding from the rapidity and slowness of our thoughts.

6. Therefore knowledge, based upon previous notions or otherwise, is of two kinds, and things known without their cause, are attributed to Divine Intelligence (as the hidden cause of all).

7. We are conscious also of thoughts, unthought of before in our minds, as we often have in our dreams; and think of our parents after their demise by mistake of other persons as such.

8. Sometimes genius supercedes the province of memory, as in the first creation or discovery of a thing, which is afterwards continued by its remembrance.

9. According to some, those visible worlds are said to have remained in their ideal state in the Divine mind; and according to others, that there were no pre-existent notions of these in the mind of God.

10. According to some others, the world manifested itself not from the memory, but by the power and will of God; while others maintain it to be the production of a fortuitous combination, of intelligence and atomic principles on a sudden (Kákatálíya sanyoga).

11. It is the entire forgetfulness of the world, which is styled liberation, and which can not be had from attachment to what is desirable or aversion of the undesirable.

12. It is difficult to effect an entire negation, both of one’s subjective as well as objective knowledge of his self, and the existence of the outer world; and yet no body can be freed without obliteration of both.

13. As the fallacy of taking a rope for a snake, is not removed until the meaning of the world snake, is known to be inapplicable to the rope; so no one can have rest and peace of his mind, unless he is convinced of the illusive nature of the world.

14. One party, who is at peace with himself (by his abandonment of the world), can not be wholly at rest without divine knowledge; as the ghost of his inward ignorance, may overtake him after his getting rid of the devil of worldliness.

15. The world is certainly a monster in itself without the knowledge of its Author; but the difficulty of knowing the first cause, has rendered it an impassable wilderness.

16. Lílá said:—If reminiscence be the cause of one’s reproduction, then say, O goddess! what were the causes of the birth of the Bráhmanic pair, without the vestiges of their past remembrance.

17. The goddess replied:—Know that Brahmá the first progenitor of mankind, who was absolute in himself, did not retain any vestige of his past remembrance in him.

18. The first born, who had nothing to remember of a prior birth, was born in the lotus with his own intelligence—chaitanya; (and not because of his remembrance).

19. The lord of creatures being thus born by chance of his own genius or creative power, and without any assignable cause or design on his part, reflected within himself “now I am become another and the source of creation.”

20. Whatever is thus born of itself, is as it were nothing and never produced at all, but remained as the absolute intellect itself in nubibus (chinnabhas).

21. It is the Supreme being that is the sole cause of both states of reminiscence (i.e. the one caused by vestiges of prior impressions, and the other produced by prior desires); and both the conditions of cause and effect combine in Him in the sphere of his intellect.

22. Thus it is the knowledge of the union of the cause and effect, and the auxiliary cause in Him, that gives us our tranquillity and naught otherwise.

23. Causality and consequence are mere empty words of no significance, since it is the recognition of the universal intellect, which constitutes true wisdom.

24. Hence nothing is produced that is seen in the phenomenal, or known in the noumenal or intellectual world (Chid-jagat); but every thing is situated within the space of the sphere of the intellect in one’s own soul.

25. Lílá said:—O! wonderful was the sight thou hast shown me, O goddess; it was a fair prospect of the world as in its morning light, and as brilliant as in the glare of a lightning.

26. Now goddess! deign to satisfy my curiosity, until I become conversant with it by my intense application and study.

27. Kindly take me to that dwelling where the Bráhman pair dwelt together, and show me that mountainous spot of their former residence.

28. The goddess replied:—If you want to see that sight, you shall have to be immaculate, by forsaking the sense of your personality (mana or meum), and betaking yourself to the clairvoyance or clear sightedness of seeing the unintelligible Intellect (achetya-chit) within the soul.

29. You shall then find yourself in a vacuous atmosphere (vyomátman), and situated in the sky (nabhas-nubibus), resembling the prospects of earthly men, and the apartments of the firmament (i.e. all nil and void).

30. In this state we shall be able to see them with all their possessions without any obstruction; otherwise this body is a great barrier in the way of spiritual vision.

31. Lílá said:—Tell me kindly, O goddess! the reason, why do we not see the other world with these eyes, nor go there with these bodies of ours.

32. The goddess replied:—The reason is that you take the true futurity for false, and believe the untrue present as true. For these worlds which are formless, appear as having forms to your eyes, as you take the substance gold in its form of a ring.

33. Gold though fashioned as a circlet, has no circularity in it; so the spirit of God appearing in the form of the world, is not the world itself.

34. The world is a vacuity full with the spirit of God; and whatever else is visible in it, is as the dust appearing to fly over the sea. (Hence called máyá or illusion of vision, as specks peopling the summer skies).

35. This illusory quintessence of the world is all false, the true reality being the subjective Brahma alone; and in support of this truth we have the evidence of our guides in Vedánta philosophy, and the conviction of our consciousness.

36. The Brahma believer sees Brahma alone and no other anywhere, and he looks to Brahma through Brahma himself, as the creator and preserver of all, and whose nature includes all other attributes in itself.

37. Brahma is not known only as the author of his work of the creation of worlds, but as existent of himself without any causation or auxiliary causality (i.e. as neither the creator or created, nor supporter of nor supported by another).

38. Until you are trained by your practice of Yoga, to rely in one unity, by discarding all duality and variety in your belief, so long you are barred from viewing Brahma in his true light.

39. Being settled in this belief of unity, we find ourselves by our constant practice of Yoga communion, to rest in the Supreme spirit.

40. We then find our bodies mixing with the air as an aerial substance, and at last come to the sight of Brahma with these our mortal frames.

41. Being then endued with pure, enlightened and spiritual frames, like those of Brahmá and the gods, the holy saints are placed in some part of the divine essence.

42. Without practice of yoga, you can not approach God with your mortal frame. The soul that is sullied by sense, can never see the image of God.

43. It is impossible for one to arrive at the aerial castle (objects of the wish) of another, when it is not possible for him to come to the castle (wished for object), which he has himself built in air.

44. Forsake therefore this gross body, and assume your light intellectual frame; then betake yourself to the practice of yoga, that you may see God face to face.

45. As it may be possible to realize an aerial castle by the labour of building it, so it is possible to behold God, either with this body or without it, by practice of yoga only and not otherwise.

46. And as the erroneous conception of the existence of the world, has continued since its first creation (by the will of Brahma); so it has been ever since attributed to an eternal fate—niyati (by fatalists), and to an illusory power (máyá sakti of Máyá vadis).

47. Lílá asked:—Thou saidst O goddess? that we shall go together to the abode of the Brahman pair, but I ask thee to tell me, how are we to effect our journey there?

48. As for me, I shall be able to go there with the purer part of my essence the sentient soul (after leaving this my gross body here). But tell me how wilt thou that art pure intellect (chetas), go to that place?

49. The goddess replied:—I tell thee lady, that the divine will is an aerial tree, and its fruits are as unsubstantial as air, having no figure nor form nor substance in them.

50. And whatever is formed by the will of God from the pure essence of his intelligent nature, is only a likeness of himself, and bears little difference from its original.

51. This body of mine is of the like kind, and I will not lay it aside, but find out that place by means of this as the breeze finds the odours.

52. And as water mixes with water, fire with fire and air with air, so does this spiritual body easily join with any material form that it likes.

53. But a corporeal body cannot mix with an incorporeal substance, nor a solid rock become the same with an ideal hill.

54. And as your body, which is composed both of its spiritual and mental parts, has become corporeal by its habitual tendency to corporeality.

55. So your material body becomes spiritual (átiváhika), by means of your leaning to spirituality, as in your sleep, in your protracted meditation, insensibility, fancies and reveries.

56. Your spiritual nature will then return to your body, when your earthly desires are lessened and curbed within the mind.

57. Lílá said:—Say goddess, what becomes of the spiritual body after it has attained its compactness by constant practice of yoga; whether it becomes indestructible, or perishes like all other finite bodies.

58. The goddess replied:—Any thing that exists is perishable, and of course liable to death; but how can that thing die which is nothing, and is imperishable in its nature? (Such is the spirit).

59. Again the fallacy of the snake in a rope being removed, the snake disappears of itself, and no one doubts of it any more.

60. Thus, as the true knowledge of the rope, removes the erroneous conception of the snake in it, so the recognition of the spiritual body, dispels the misconception of its materiality.

61. All imagery is at an end when there is no image at all, as the art of statuary must cease for want of stones on earth. (Thus they attribute materiality to the immaterial spirit from their familiarity with matter).

62. We see clearly our bodies full of the spirit of God, which you can not perceive owing to your gross understanding.

63. In the beginning when the intellect—chit, is engrossed with the imagination of the mind—chitta, it loses thenceforth its sight of the only one object (the unity of God).

64. Lílá asked:—But how can imagination have any room or trace out anything in that unity, wherein the divisions of time and space and all things, are lost in an undistinguishable mass?

65. The goddess replied:—Like the bracelet in gold and waves in water, the show of truth in dreams, and the resemblance of aerial castles:—

66. As all these vanish on the right apprehension of them, so the imaginary attributes of the unpredicable God, are all nothing whatever.

67. As there is no dust in the sky, so there can be no ascribing of any attribute or partial property to God; whose nature is indivisible and unimaginable, who is an unborn unity, tranquil and all-pervading.

68. Whatever shines about us, is the pure light of that being, who scatters his lustre like a transcendental gem all around.

69. Lílá said:—If it is so at all times, then tell me, O goddess! how we happened to fall into the error of attributing duality and diversity to His nature.

70. The goddess replied:—It was your want of reason that has led you to error so long; and it is the absence of reasoning that is the natural bane of mankind, and requires to be remedied by your attending to reason.

71. When reason takes the place of the want of reason, it introduces in a moment the light of knowledge in the soul, in lieu of its former darkness.

72. As reason advances, your want of reason and knowledge and your bondage to prejudice, are put to flight; and then you have an unobstructed liberation and pure understanding in this world.

73. As long as you had remained without reasoning on this subject, so long were you either dormant or wandering in error.

74. You are awakened from this day both to your reason and liberation, and the seeds for the suppression of your desires, are sown in your heart.

75. At first neither was this visible world presented to you nor you to it, how long will you therefore reside in it, and what other desires have you herein?

76. Withdraw your mind from its thoughts of the visitor, visibles and vision of this world, and settle it in the idea of the entire negation of all existence, then fix your meditation solely in the supreme Being, and sit in a state of unalterable insensibility (by forgetting yourself to a stone).

77. When the seed of inappetency has taken root in your heart, and begun to germinate in it, the sprouts of your affections and hatred (literally—pathos and apathy), will be destroyed of themselves.

78. Then the impression of the world will be utterly effaced from the mind, and an unshaken anesthesia will overtake you all at once.

79. Remaining thus entranced in your abstract meditation, you will have in process of time a soul, as luminous as a luminary in the clear firmament of heaven, freed from the concatenation of all causes and their consequences for evermore.

CHAPTER XXII.

PRACTICE OF WISDOM OR WISDOM IN PRACTICE.

(VIJNÁNA-BHYÁSA).

SECTION I.

ABANDONMENT OF DESIRES.

Básaná Tyága.

THE goddess continued:—

As objects seen in a dream, prove to be false as the dream, on being roused from sleep and upon knowing them as fumes of fancy; so the belief in the reality of the body, becomes unfounded upon dissolution of our desires.

2. As the thing dreamt of disappears upon waking, so does the waking body disappear in sleep, when the desires lie dormant in the soul.

3. As our corporeal bodies are awakened after the states of our dreaming and desiring, so is our spiritual body awakened after we cease to think of our corporeal states.

4. As a sound sleep succeeds the dormancy which is devoid of desires (i.e. when we are unconscious of the actions and volition of our minds); so does the tranquillity of liberation follow the state of our inappetency even in our waking bodies.

5. The desire of living-liberated men (jívan-muktas), is not properly any desire at all, since it is the pure desire relating to universal weal and happiness.

6. The sleep in which the will and wish are dormant, is called the sound sleep susupta, but the dormancy of desires in the waking state, is known as insensibility moha or múrchhá.

7. Again the sleep which is wholly devoid of desire, is designated the turíya or the fourth stage of yoga, and which in the waking state is called samádhi or union with Supreme.

8. The living man, whose life is freed from all desires in this world, is called the living liberated—jívan-mukta, a state which is unknown to them that are not liberated (amukta).

9. When the mind becomes a pure essence (as in its samádhi), and its desires are weakened, it becomes spiritualised (ativáhika), and then it glows and flows, as the snow melts to water by application of heat.

10. The spiritualised mind, being awakened (as if it were from its drowsiness or lethargy), mixes with the holy spirits of departed souls in the other world.

11. When your egoism is moderated by your practice of yoga, then the perception of the invisible, will of itself rise clearly before your mind.

12. And when spiritual knowledge gains a firm footing in your mind, you will then behold the hallowed scenes of the other world more than your expectation.

13. Therefore O blameless lady! try your utmost to deaden your desires, and when you have gained sufficient strength in that practice, know yourself to be liberated in this life.

14. Until the moon of your intellectual knowledge, comes to shine forth fully with her cooling beams, so long you shall have to leave this body of yours here, in order to have a view of the other world.

15. This fleshy body of yours, can have no tangible connection with one which is without flesh; nor can the intellectual body (lingadeha), perform any action of the corporeal system.

16. I have told you all this according to my best knowledge, and the state of things as they are: and my sayings are known even to boys, to be as efficacious as the curse or blessing of a deity.

17. It is the habitual reliance of men in their gross bodies, and their fond attachment to them, that bind their souls down, and bring them back to the earth; while the weakening of earthly desires serve to clothe them with spiritual bodies.

18. No body believes in his having a spiritual body here even at his death bed; but every one thinks the dying man to be dead with his body for ever.

19. This body however, neither dies, nor is it alive at any time; for both life and death are mere resemblances of aerial dreams and desires in all respects.

20. The life and death of beings here below, are as false as the appearances and disappearance of persons in imagination, (or a man in the moon), or of dolls in play or puppet shows.

21. Lílá said:—The pure knowledge, O goddess! that thou hast imparted to me, serves on its being instilled into my ears, as a healing balm to the pain caused by the phenomenals.

SECTION II.

ON THE PRACTICE OF YOGA.

22. Now tell me the name and nature of the practice, that may be of use to Spiritualism, how it is to be perfected and what is the end of such perfection.

23. The goddess replied:—Whatever a man attempts to do here at any time, he can hardly ever effect its completion, without his painful practice of it to the utmost of his power.

24. Practice is said by the wise, to consist in the conference of the same thing with one another, in understanding it thoroughly, and in devoting one’s self solely to his object.

25. And those great souls become successful in this world, who are disgusted with the world, and are moderate in their enjoyments and desires, and do not think on the attainment of what they are in want of.

26. And those great minds are said to be best trained, which are graced with liberal views, and are delighted with the relish of unconcernedness with the world, and enraptured with the streams of heavenly felicity.

27. Again they are called the best practised in divine knowledge, who are employed in preaching the absolute negation of the knower and knowables in this world, by the light of reasoning and Sástras.

28. Also the knowledge, that there was nothing produced in the beginning, and that nothing which is visible, as this world or one’s self, is true at any time, is called to be practical knowledge by some.

29. The strong tendency of the soul towards the spirit of God, which results from a knowledge of the nihility of visibles, and subsidence of the passions, is said to be the effect of the practice of Yoga.

30. But mere knowledge of the inexistence of the world, without subduing the passions, is known as knowledge without practice, and is of no good to its possessor.

31. Consciousness of the inexistence of the visible world, constitutes the true knowledge of the knowable. This habitude of the mind is called the practice of Yoga, and leads one to his final extinction—nirvána.

32. The mind thus prepared by practice of Yoga, awakens the intelligence which lay dormant in the dark night of this world, and which now sheds its cooling showers of reason, like dew drops in the frosty night of autumn.

33. As the sage was sermonizing in this manner, the day departed as to its evening service, and led the assembled train to their evening ablutions. They met again with their mutual greetings at the rising beams of the sun after the darkness of night was dispelled.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE AERIAL JOURNEY OF SPIRITUAL BODIES.

VASISHTHA said:—

After this conference between the goddess and that excellent lady on that night, they found the inmates of the family fast asleep in the inner apartment.

2. They entered the charnel-house which was closely shut on all sides by latches fastened to the doors and windows, and which was perfumed with the fragrance of heaps of flowers.

3. They sat beside the corpse decorated with fresh flowers and garments, with their faces shining like the fair full-moon; and brightening the place.

4. They then went to the cemetery and stood motionless on the spot, as if they were sculptures engraven on marble columns, or as pictures drawn upon the wall.

5. They shook off all their thoughts and cares, and became as contracted as the faded blossoms of the lotus at the decline of the day, when their fragrance has fled from them.

6. They remained still, calm and quiet and without any motion of their limbs, like a sheet of clouds hanging on the mountain top in the calm of autumn.

7. They continued in fixed attention without any external sensation, like some lonely creepers shrivelled for want of the moisture of the season.

8. They were fully impressed with the disbelief of their own existence, and that of all other things in the world, and were altogether absorbed in the thought of an absolute privation of every thing at large.

9. They lost the remembrance of the phantom of the phenomenal world, which is as unreal as the horn of a hare.

10. What was a non ens at first, is even so a not-being at present, and what appears as existent, is as inexistent as the water in a mirage.

11. The two ladies then became as quiet as inert nature herself, and as still as firmament before the luminous bodies rolled about in its ample sphere.

12. They then began to move with their own bodies, the goddess of wisdom in her form of intelligence, and the queen in her intellectual and meditative mood.

13. With their new bodies they rose as high as one span above the ground, then taking the forms of the empty intellect, they began to mount in the sky.

14. The two ladies then with their playful open eyes, ascended to the higher region of the sky, by their nature of intellectual knowledge.

15. Then they flew higher and higher by force of their intellect, and arrived at a region stretching millions of leagues in length.

16. Here the pair in their etherial forms, looked about according to their nature in search of some visible objects; but finding no other figure except their own, they became much more attached to each other by their mutual affection.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE AERIAL JOURNEY.

VASISHTHA continued:—

Thus ascending higher and higher and reaching by degrees the highest station, they went on viewing the heavens, with their hands clasped in each other’s.

2. They saw a vast expanse as that of the wide extended universal ocean, deep and translucent within; but soft with etherial mildness, and a cooling breeze infusing heavenly delight.

3. All delightsome and pleasant was the vast Ocean of vacuity, into which they dived, and which afforded them a delight far greater in its purity, than what is derived from the company of the virtuous.

4. They wandered about all sides of heaven, under the beams of the full moon shining above them; and now halted under the clear vault of the clouds, covering the mountain tops of Meru, as if under the dome of a huge white washed edifice.

5. And now they roved by the regions of Siddhas and Gandharvas, breathing the charming fragrance of Mandára chaplets; and now passing the lunar sphere, they inhaled the sweet scent exhaled by the breeze from that nectarious orb (Sudhákara).

6. Now tired and perspiring profusely, they bathed in the lakes of showering clouds, fraught with the blushing lotuses of lurid lightnings flashing within them.

7. They promenaded at random of their free will on all sides, and now alighted like fluttering bees on the tops of high mountains, appearing as filaments of the lotus-like earth below.

8. They roved also under the vaults of some fragments of clouds, which were scattered by the winds, and raining like the cascade of Ganges, thinking them as shower-bath-houses in the air.

9. Then failing in their strength, they halted in many places, with their slow and slackened steps, and beheld the vacuum full of great and wondrous works.

SECTION II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAVEN.

10. They saw what they had never seen before, the tremendous depth of vacuity, which was not filled up by the myriads of worlds which kept revolving in it.

11. Over and over and higher and higher, they saw the celestial spheres filled with luminous orbs adorned with their ornamental stars, roving one above and around the other.

12. Huge mountainous bodies as the Meru moved about in the vacuous space, and emitted a rubicund glare, like a flame of fire from within their bowels on all sides.

13. There were beautiful table-lands, like those of the Himálayas, with their pearly peaks of snow; and also mountains of gold, spreading an aureate hue over the land.

14. They saw in some place mountains of emerald, tinging the landscape with verdant green, as it were a bed of grass; and in others some dark cloud, dimming the sight of the spectator, and hiding the spectacle in dark blackness.

15. They beheld also tracts of blue sapphire, with creepers of párijáta flowers, blooming with their blossoms as banners in the azure skies.

16. They saw the flights of Siddhas (or departed holy spirits), the flight of whose minds outstripped the swiftness of the winds; and heard the vocal music of the songs of heavenly nymphs in their aerial abodes.

17. All the great bodies in the universe (the planetary system), were in continual motion; and the spirits of the gods and demigods, were moving about unseen by one another.

18. Groups of spiritual beings, as the Kushmándas, Rákshasas and Pisáchas, were seated in aerial circles at the borders; and the winds and gales blowing with full force in their etherial course.

19. Loud roarings of clouds, as those of the crackling wheels of heavenly cars, were heard in some places; and the noise of rapid stars, resembled the blowing of pneumatic engines.

20. There the half burnt Siddhas, were flying from their burning cars under the solar rays, by reason of their nearness to the Sun; and the solar embers were flung afar by the breath of the nostrils of his horses. (It means the falling of the burning meteors and meteorolites from the sky).

21. In some places they beheld the rulers of men, and trains of Apsaras, hurrying up and down the air; and in others, the goddesses roving amidst the smoky and fiery clouds in the firmament.

22. Here they saw some sparks of light, falling like the jewels of celestial nymphs, in their hurried flight to their respective spheres; and there they beheld the lightsome spirits of lesser Siddhas dwindling into darkness.

23. Flakes of mists were falling off from the clouds, as if by friction of the bodies of turbulent spirits, rushing up and down the skies; and shrouding the sides of mountains as with sheets of cloth.

24. Fragments of clouds, beset by groups in the shapes of crows, owls and vultures, were flying about in the air; and there were seen some monsters also, as Dákinis heaving their heads in the forms of huge surges, in the cloudy ocean of the sky.

25. There were bodies of Yoginís too, with their faces resembling those of dogs, ravens, asses and camels, who were traversing the wide expanse of the heavens to no purpose.

26. There were Siddhas and Gandharvas, sporting in pairs in the coverts of dark, smoky and ash coloured clouds, spread before the regents of the four quarters of the skies.

27. They beheld the path of the planets (the zodiac), which resounded loudly with the heavenly music of the spheres; and that path also (of the lunar mansions), which incessantly marked the course of the two fortnights.

28. They saw the sons of gods moving about in the air, and viewing with wonder the heavenly stream of Ganges (the milky way), which was studded with stars, and rolling with the rapidity of winds.

29. They saw the gods wielding their thunderbolts, discuses, tridents, swords and missiles; and heard Nárada and Tumburu singing in their aerial abodes on high.

30. They beheld the region of the clouds, where there were huge bodies of them mute as paintings, and pouring forth floods of rain as in the great deluge.

31. In some place they saw a dark cloud, as high as the mountain-king Himálaya, slowly moving in the air; and at others some of a golden hue as at the setting sun.

32. In some place there were flimsy sheets of clouds, as are said to hover on the peaks of the Rishya range; and at another a cloud like the calm blue bed of the Sea, without any water in them.

33. There were tufts of grass seen in some places, as if blown up by the winds and floating in the stream of air; and swarms of butterflies at others with their glossy coats and wings.

34. In some place, there was a cloud of dust raised by the wind, and appearing as a lake on the top of a mountain.

35. The Mátris were seen, to be dancing naked in their giddy circles in some place, and the great Yoginís sat at others, as if ever and anon giddy with intoxication.

36. There were circles of holy men, sitting in their calm meditation in one place; and pious saints at others, who had cast away their worldly cares at a distance.

37. There was a conclave of celestial choristers, composed of heavenly nymphs, Kinnaras and Gandharvas in one place; and some quiet towns and cities situated at others.

38. There were the cities of Brahmá and Rudra full with their people, and the city of illusion (Máyá) with its increasing population.

39. There were crystal lakes in some places and stagnant pools at others; and lakes with the Siddhas seated by them, and those embosomed by the rising moon.

40. They saw the sun rising in one part, and the darkness of night veiling the others; the evening casting its shadow on one, and the dusky mists of dusk obscuring the other.

41. There were the hoary clouds of winter in some places, and those of the rains in others; somewhere they appeared as tracts of land and at another as a sheet of water.

42. Bodies of gods and demigods, were roving from one side to the other; some from east to west, and others from north to the south.

43. There were mountains heaving their heads to thousands of miles in their height; and there were valleys and caves covered in eternal darkness.

44. There was a vast inextinguishable fire, like that of the blazing sun in one place; and a thickly frost covering the moon-light in another. (The burning heat of the tropics and the cold of the frigid zone).

45. Somewhere there was a great city, flourishing with groves and arbours; and at another big temples of gods, levelled to the ground by the might of demons.

46. In some place there was a streak of light, described by a falling meteor in the sky; in another the blaze of a comet with its thousand fiery tails in the air.

47. In one place there was a lucky planet, rising with its full orb to the view; in another there spread the gloom of night, and full sunshine in another.

48. Here the clouds were roaring, and there they were dumb and mute; here were the high blasts driving the clouds in air, and there the gentle breeze dropping the clusters of flowers on the ground.

49. Sometimes the firmament was clear and fair, and without an intercepting cloud in it, and as transparent as the soul of a wise man, delighted with the knowledge of truth.

50. The vacuous region of the celestial gods, was so full with the dewy beams (himánsu) of the silvery orb of the moon (sweta-váha), that it appeared as a shower of rain, and raised the loud croaking of the frogs below.

51. There appeared flocks of peacocks and goldfinches, to be fluttering about in some place, and vehicles of the goddesses and Vidyádharis thronging at another.

52. Numbers of Kártikeya’s peacocks were seen dancing amidst the clouds, and a flight of greenish parrots was seen in the sky appearing as a verdant plain.

53. Dwarfish clouds were moving like the stout buffaloes of Yama; and others in the form of horses, were grazing on the grassy meadows of clouds.

54. Cities of the gods and demons, appeared with their towers on high; and distinct towns and hills, were seen at distances, as if detached from one another by the driving winds.

55. In some place, gigantic Bhairavas were dancing with their mountainous bodies; and great garudas were flying at another, as winged mountains in the air.

56. Huge mountains also, were tossed about by the blowing of winds; and the castles of the Gandharvas, were rising and falling with the celestial nymphs in them.

57. There were some clouds rising on high, and appearing as rolling mountains in the sky, crushing down the forests below; and the sky appeared in some place, as a clear lake abounding in lotuses.

58. The moon-beams shone brightly in one spot, and sweet cooling breezes blew softly in another. Hot sultry winds were blowing in some place, and singeing the forest on the mountainous clouds.

59. There was a dead silence in one spot, caused by perfect calmness of the breeze; while another spot presented a scene of a hundred peaks, rising on a mountainlike cloud.

60. In one place the raining clouds, were roaring loudly in their fury; and in another a furious battle was waging between the gods and demons in the clouds.

61. In some place the geese were seen gabbling in the lotus lake of the sky, and inviting the ganders by their loud cackling cries.

62. Forms of fishes, crocodiles and alligators, were seen flying in the air, as if they were transformed to aerial beings, by the holy waters of their natal Ganges.

63. They saw somewhere the eclipse of the moon, by the dark shadow of the earth, as the sun went down the horizon; and so they saw the eclipse of the sun by the shadow of the moon falling on his disk.

64. They saw a magical flower garden, exhaling its fragrance in the air; and strewing the floor of heaven, with profusion of flowers, scattered by showers of morning dews.

65. They beheld all the beings contained in the three worlds, to be flying in the air, like a swarm of gnats in the hollow of a fig tree; and then the two excellent ladies stopped in their aerial journey, intent upon revisiting the earth.

NOTE. Most part of the above description of the heavens, consists of the various appearances of the clouds, and bears resemblance to Shelly’s poetical description of them. All this is expressed by one word in the Cloud-Messenger of Kálidása, where the cloud is said to be “Káma rúpa” or assuming any form at pleasure.

CHAPTER XXV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EARTH.

THESE ladies then alighted from the sky in their forms of intelligence, and passing over the mountainous regions, saw the habitations of men on the surface of the earth.

2. They saw the world situated as a lotus, in the heart of the first male Nara (Brahmá); the eight sides forming the petals of the flower, the hills being its pistils, and the pericarp containing its sweet flavour.

3. The rivers are the tubes of its filaments, which are covered with drops of snow resembling their dust. The days and nights rolling over it, like swarms of black-bees and butterflies, and all its living beings appearing as gnats fluttering about it.

4. Its long stalks which are as white as the bright day light, are composed of fibres serving for food, and of tubes conducting the drink to living beings.

5. It is wet with moisture, which is sucked by the sun, resembling the swan swimming about in the air. It folds itself in sleep in the darkness of night in absence of the sun.

6. The earth like a lotus is situated on the surface of the waters of the ocean, which make it shake at times, and cause the earthquake by their motion. It is supported upon the serpent Vásuki serving for its understalk, and is girt about by demons as its thorns and prickles.[15]

7. The mount Meru (and others) are its large seeds, and the great hives of human population; where the fair daughters of the giant race, propagated (the race of men), by their sweet embrace (with the sons of God).[16]

8. It has the extensive continent of Jambudwípa situated in one petal, the petioles forming its divisions, and the tubular filaments its rivers.

9. The seven elevated mountains, forming the boundary lines of this continent, are its seeds; and the great mount of Sumeru reaching to the sky, is situated in the midst. (i.e. The topmost north pole).

10. Its lakes are as dewdrops on the lotus-leaf, and its forests are as the farina of the flower; and the people inhabiting the land all around, are as a swarm of bees about it.

11. Its extent is a thousand yojanas square, and is surrounded on all sides by the dark sea like a belt of black bees.

12. It contains nine varshas or divisions, which are ruled by nine brother kings, resembling the regents of its eight petalled sides, with the Bhárata-varsha in the midst.

13. It stretches a million of miles with more of land than water in it. Its habitable parts are as thickly situated as the frozen ice in winter.

14. The briny ocean which is twice as large as the continent, girds it on the outside, as a bracelet encircles the wrist.

15. Beyond it lies the Sáka continent of a circular form, and twice as large as the former one, which is also encircled by the sea.

16. This is called the milky ocean for the sweetness of its water, and is double the size of the former sea of salt.

17. Beyond that and double its size is the Kusadwípa continent, which is full of population. It is also of the size of a circle, and surrounded by another sea.

18. Around it lies the belt of the sea of curds, delectable to the gods, and double the size of the continent which is encircled by it.

19. After that lies the circle of the Krauncha dwípa, which is also twice the size of the former one, and surrounded by a sea in the manner of a city by a canal.

20. This sea is called the sea of butter, and is twice as large as the continent which is girt by it. Beyond it lies the Sálmali dwípa, girt by the foul sea of wine.

21. The fair belt of this sea resembles a wreath of white flowers, like the girdle of the Sesha serpent, forming the necklace hanging on the breast of Hari.

22. Thereafter is stretched the Plaxa dwípa, double the size of the former, and encircled by the belt of the sea of sugar, appearing as the snowy plains of Himálaya.

23. After that lies the belt of the Pushkara dwípa, twice as large as the preceding one, and encircled by a sea of sweet water double its circumference.

24. Hence they saw at the distance of ten degrees, the descent to the infernal regions; where there lay the belt of the south polar circle, with its hideous cave below.

25. The way to the infernal cave is full of danger and fear, and ten times in length from the circle of the dwípas (continents).

26. This cave is encompassed on all sides by the dreadful vacuum, and is half covered below by a thick gloom, appearing as a blue lotus attached to it.

27. There stood the Lokáloka Kumeru or South Polar mountain, which is bright with sun-shine on one side, and covered by darkness on the other, and is studded with various gems on its tops, and decked with flowers growing upon it.

28. It reflected the glory of the three worlds (in the everlasting snows), which are clapped as a cap of hairs on its top.

29. At a great distance from it, is a great forest, untrodden by the feet of any living being; and then proceeding upward, they saw the great northern ocean encompassing the pole on all sides.

30. Further on they beheld the flaming light of the aurora borealis, which threatened to melt the snowy mountain to water.

31. Proceeding onward, they met with the fierce Boreas or north winds, blowing with all their fury and force.

32. They threatened to blow away and uproot the mountains, as if they were dust or grass; and traversed the empty vacuum with their noiseless motion.

33. Afar from these they saw the empty space of vacuum, stretching wide all about them.

34. It spreads around to an unlimited extent, and encompasses the worlds as a golden circlet encircles the wrist (i.e. the belt of the zodiac).

35. Thus Lílá, having seen the seas and mountains, the regents of the worlds, the city of the gods, the sky above and the earth below in the unlimited concavity of the universe, returned on a sudden to her own land, and found herself in her closet again.

CHAPTER XXVI.

MEETING THE SIDDHAS

VASISHTHA said:—After the excellent ladies had returned from their visit of the mundane sphere, they entered the abode where the Bráhman had lived before.

2. There the holy ladies saw in that dwelling, and unseen by any body, the tomb or tope of the Bráhman.

3. Here the maid servants were dejected with sorrow, and the faces of the women were soiled with tears. Their countenances had faded away, like lotuses with their withered leaves.

4. All joy had fled from the house, and left it as the dry bed of the dead sea, after its waters were sucked by the scorching sun (Agastya). It was as a garden parched in summer, or a tree struck by lightening.

5. It was as joyless as the dried lotus, torn by a blast or withering under the frost; and as faint as the light of a lamp, without its wick or oil; and as dim as the eyeball without its light.

6. The house without its master, was as doleful as the countenance of a dying person, or as a forest with its falling and withered leaves, and as the dry and dusty ground for want of rain.

7. Vasishtha continued:—Then the lady with her gracefulness of divine knowledge, and the elegance of her perfections, and her devotedness to and desire of truth, thought within herself, that the inmates of the house might behold her and the goddess, in their ordinary forms of human beings.

9. The dwellers of the house then beheld the two ladies as Laxmí and Gaurí together, and brightening the house with the effulgence of their persons.

10. They were adorned from head to foot, with wreaths of unfading flowers of various kinds; and they seemed like Flora—the genius of spring, perfuming the house with the fragrance of a flower garden.

11. They appeared to rise as a pair of moons, with their cooling and pleasant beams; infusing a freshness to the family, as the moonlight does to the medicinal plants in forests and villages.

12. The soft glances of their eyes, under the long, loose and pendant curls of hair on their foreheads, shed as it were a shower of white málati flowers, from the dark cloudy spots of their nigrescent eyes.

13. Their bodies were as bright as melted gold, and as tremulous as the flowing stream. The current of their effulgence, cast a golden hue on the spot where they stood, as also over the forest all around.

14. The natural beauty of Laxmí’s body, and the tremulous glare of Lílá’s person, spread as it were, a sea of radiance about them, in which their persons seemed to move as undulating waves.

15. Their relaxed arms resembling loose creepers, with the ruddy leaflets of their palms, shook as fresh Kalpa creepers in the forest.

16. They touched the ground again with their feet, resembling the fresh and tender petals of a flower, or like lotuses growing upon the ground.

17. Their appearance seemed to sprinkle ambrosial dews all around, and made the dry withered and brown boughs of tamála trees, to vegetate anew in tender sprouts and leaflets.

18. On seeing them, the whole family with Jyeshtha Sarmá (the eldest boy of the deceased Bráhman), cried aloud and said, “Obeisance to the sylvan goddesses,” and threw handfuls of flowers on their feet.

19. The offerings of flowers which fell on their feet, resembled the showers of dew-drops, falling on lotus leaves in a lake of lotuses.

20. Jyeshtha Sarmá said:—Be victorious, ye goddesses! that have come here to dispel our sorrow; as it is inborn in the nature of good people, to deliver others from their distress.

21. After he had ended, the goddesses addressed him gently and said, tell us the cause of your sorrow, which has made you all so sad.

22. Then Jyeshtha Sarmá and others related to them one by one their griefs, owing to the demise of the Bráhman pair.

23. They said:—Know O goddess pair! there lived here a Bráhman and his wife, who had been the resort of guests and a support of the Bráhminical order.

24. They were our parents, and have lately quitted this abode; and having abandoned us with all their friends and domestic animals here, have departed to heaven, and left us quite helpless in this world.

25. The birds there sitting on the top of the house, have been continually pouring in the air, their pious and mournful ditties over the dead bodies of the deceased.

26. There the mountains on all sides, have been lamenting their loss, in the hoarse noise (of the winds) howling in their caverns, and shedding showers of their tears in the course of the streams issuing from their sides.

27. The clouds have poured their tears in floods of rainwater, and fled from the skies; while the quarters of the heavens have been sending their sighs in sultry winds all around.

28. The poor village people are wailing in piteous notes, with their bodies mangled by rolling upon the ground, and trying to yield up their lives with continued fasting.

29. The trees are shedding their tears every day in drops of melting snow, exuding from the cells of their leaves and flowers, resembling the sockets of their eyes.

30. The streets are deserted for want of passers-bye, and have become dusty without being watered. They have become as empty as the hearts of men forsaken by their joys of life.

31. The fading plants are wailing in the plaintive notes of Cuckoos and the humming of bees; and are withering in their leafy limbs by the sultry sighs of their inward grief.

32. The snows are melt down by the heat of their grief and falling in the form of cataracts, which break themselves to a hundred channels by their fall upon stony basins.

33. Our prosperity has fled from us, and we sit here in dumb despair of hope. Our houses have become dark and gloomy as a desert.

34. Here the humble bees, are humming in grief upon the scattered flowers in our garden, which now sends forth a putrid smell instead of their former fragrance.

35. And there the creepers that twined so gayly round the vernal arbors, are dwindling and dying away with their closing and fading flowers.

36. The rivulets with their loose and low purling murmur, and light undulation of their liquid bodies in the ground, are running hurriedly in their sorrow, to cast themselves into the sea.

37. The ponds are as still in their sorrow, as men sitting in their meditative posture (Samádhi), notwithstanding the disturbance of the gnats flying incessantly upon them.

38. Verily is that part of the heaven adorned this day by the presence of our parents, where the bodies of heavenly choristers, the Kinnaras, Gandharvas and Vidyádharas, welcome them with their music.

39. Therefore, O Devis! assuage this our excessive grief; as the visit of the great never goes for nothing.

40. Hearing these words, Lílá gently touched the head of her son with her hand, as the lotus-bed leans to touch its offshoot by the stalk.

41. At her touch the boy was relieved of all his sorrow and misfortune, just as the summer heat of the mountain, is allayed by the showers of the rainy season.

42. All others in the house, were as highly gratified at the sight of the goddesses, as when a pauper is relieved of his poverty, and the sick are healed by a draught of nectar.

43. Ráma said:—Remove my doubt, sir, why Lílá did not appear in her own figure before her eldest son—Jyeshta Sarmá.

44. Vasishtha answered:—You forget, O Ráma! to think that Lílá had a material body, or could assume any at pleasure. She was in her form of pure intellect (lingadeha), and it was with her spiritual hand that she touched the inner spirit of the boy and not his body. (Gloss). Because whoso believes himself to be composed of his earthly body only, is verily confined in that; but he who knows his spirituality, is as free as air: (and it was in this aerial form that Lílá was ranging about and touched her son).

45. Belief in materialism leads one to think his unreal earthly frame as real, as a boy’s belief in ghosts makes him take a shadow for a spirit.

46. But this belief in one’s materiality, is soon over upon conviction of his spirituality; as the traces of our visions in a dream, are effaced on the knowledge of their unreality upon waking.

47. The belief of matter as (vacuous) nothing, leads to the knowledge of the spirit. And as a glass door appears as an open space to one of a bilious temperament, so does matter appear as nothing to the wise.

48. A dream presents us the sights of cities and lands, of air and water, where there are no such things in actuality; and it causes the movements of our limbs and bodies (as in somnambulation) for nothing.

49. As the air appears as earth in dreaming, so does the non-existent world appear to be existent in waking. It is thus that men see and talk of things unseen and unknown in their fits of delirium.

50. So boys see ghosts in the air, and the dying man views a forest in it; others see elephants in clouds, and some see pearls in sun-beams.

51. And thus those that are panic-struck and deranged in their minds, the halfwaking and passengers in vessels, see many appearances like the aforesaid ghosts and forests, as seen by boys and men in the air, and betray these signs in the motions and movements of their bodies.

52. In this manner every one is of the form of whatever he thinks himself to be; and it is habit only that makes him to believe himself as such, though he is not so in reality.

53. But Lílá who had known the truth and inexistence of the world, was conscious of its nothingness, and viewed all things to be but erroneous conceptions of the mind.

54. Thus he who sees Brahma only to fill the sphere of his intellect, has no room for a son or friend or consort to abide in it.

55. He who views the whole as full with the spirit of Brahma, and nothing produced in it, has no room for his affection or hatred to any body in it.

56. The hand that Lílá laid on the head of Jyeshtha Sarmá—her eldest son, was not lain from her maternal affection for him, but for his edification in intellectual knowledge.

57. Because the intellect being awakened, there is all felicity attendant upon it. It is more subtile than ether and far purer than vacuum, and leads the intellectual being above the region of air. All things beside are as images in a dream.

CHAPTER XXVII.

PAST LIVES OF LÍLÁ.

THE two ladies then disappeared from that place, leaving the Bráhman family at their house in the mountainous village.

2. The family exclaimed “We are highly favoured by the sylvan goddesses;” and then forgetting their grief, they betook themselves to their domestic employments.

3. Then the etherial goddess spake to the aerial-Lílá, who stood fixed in air, over the mansion of the Bráhman, in a state of mute astonishment.

4. They then conversed as familiarly with each other, as persons having the same thoughts and desires, agree with one another in their views and acts; and as the dreamers of the same dream hold their mutual correspondence, like Usha and Aniruddha (the Cupid and Psyche of India).

5. Their conversation in their immaterial forms, was of the same intellectual (psychical) kind, as we are conscious of in our dreams and imaginations.

6. Sarasvatí said:—Now you have fully known the knowable, and become acquainted with whatever is visible and invisible: such is the essence of Brahma; say now what more you want to know.

7. Lílá said:—Tell me the reason why I was seen by my son, and not where the spirit of my departed lord is reigning over his realm.

8. Sarasvatí replied:—Because you were not then perfect by your practice of Yoga to have your wish fulfilled, nor had you then lost your sense of duality, which is a preventive of perfection.

9. He who has not known the unity, is not entitled to the acts and benefits of his faith in the true God; as no one sitting in the sun, can enjoy the coolness of shade.

10. You were not practiced to forget your identity as Lílá, nor learnt that it is not your will, but the will of God that is always fulfilled.

11. You have afterwards become of pure desire, and wished that your son might see you, whereby he was enabled to have your sight.

12. Now if you should return to your husband, and do the like, you will undoubtedly be successful in your desire.

13. Lílá said:—I see within the sphere of this dome (of my mind), the Bráhman to have been my husband before; and I see also in it, that he died and became a ruler of the earth afterwards.

14. I see in it that spot of the earth, that city and that palace of his where I sat as his queen.

15. I see within myself my lord to be reigning in that place, and I see even there how he died afterwards.

16. I see herein the glory of the sovereign of so many countries on earth, and I see also the perfect frankness of his conduct through life.

17. I see the worlds in the inner sky of my mind, as they are placed in a casket, or as the oil is contained in a mustard seed.

18. I see the bright orb of my husband ever roving before me, and now I pray you to contrive any how to place me by his side.

19. The Goddess replied:—Tell me Lílá, to what husband you shall go, as there are hundreds of them that you had, and shall have in your past and future lives, and now there are three of them confined in this earth.

20. The nearest of the three, is the Bráhman who is here reduced to ashes; the next is the prince lying in state and covered with flowers in the inner apartment.

21. The third is now a reigning prince in this earth, and has been buffeting in the waves of error in the vast ocean of the world.

22. His intellect is darkened and disordered by the splashing waves of worldliness, his intelligence is perverted to stupidity, and he is converted to a tortoise in the ocean of the world.

23. The management of his very many disordered state affairs, has stultified him to a lubbard, and he is now fast asleep amidst the turmoils of business.

24. He is fast bound to subjection by the strong chain of his thoughts, that he is a lord, is mighty, accomplished, and that he is happy and is to enjoy his estates for ever.

25. Now say, O excellent lady! to what husband you wish to be led, in the manner of the fragrance of one forest borne by the breeze to another.

26. Here you are in one place, and there they in others amidst this vast world; and the state of their lives and manners differs widely from one another.

27. These orbs of light in the heaven, though they appear to be placed so near us (both to our eyesight and in the mind), are yet situated millions of leagues apart from one another; and the departed souls are carried in them (in their endless transmigrations).

28. And again all these bodies are as vacuous as air, though they contain the great mounts Meru and Mandara in themselves.

29. All bodies are formed by the combination of atoms, incessantly proceeding from the Great Intellect, like particles of sun-beams over the universe.

30. The great and stupendous fabric of the world, is no more (in the eye of intelligence), than a quantity of paddy weighed in the balance.

31. As the spangled heavens appear like a forest full of brilliant gems in it, so the world appears as full of the glory of God to the contemplative mind, and not as composed of earth or other material bodies in it.

32. It is intelligence alone, that shines in the form of world in the intelligent soul, and not any material body, which was never brought into being before.

33. As billows in the lake, rise and set and rise again, so the rising and falling days and nights present these various scenes to our knowledge.

34. Lílá said:—So it is, O mother of mankind! and so I come to remember now, that my present birth (state) is of a royal (rájasika) kind, and neither of too pure nor gross a nature. (Sattvika or Támasika).

35. I having descended from Brahmá, had undergone a hundred and eight births (in different shapes); and after passing various states, I find myself still in existence.

36. I recollect, O goddess! to have been born in another world before, and to have been the bride of a Vidyádhara, when I used to rove about as freely as a bee over flowers.

37. Being debased by my libertinism, I was born in this mortal world, and became the mate of the king of the feathered tribe (an eagle).

38. And then having been a resident in the woods, I was turned to a woodman’s mate, wearing a vest of leaves on my loins.

39. Growing fond of my life, I sported wantonly about the forest, and was changed to the guluncha plant, delighting the woods with my leafy palms and flowering eyes.

40. This arboret of the holy hermitage, was held sacred by the society of saintly sages; and then I was regenerated in the form of an anchorite’s child, after the woods were burnt down by a wild-fire.

41. Here I was initiated in the formularies for removing the curse of womanhood, and became as a male being in the person of the handsome prince of Suráshtra (Surat), where I reigned for a hundred years (or for a whole century).

42. I was then denounced to become a weasel, and covered with leprosy, in the lowlands of Táli, on account of my misconduct in the government.

43. I remember, O goddess! how I became a bullock at Surat, and was goaded by thoughtless cowherd boys, in their merry sport for full eight years.

44. I bear in mind when I was transformed to a bird, and with what difficulty I broke the net, that was laid by birdcatchers for my destruction. It was in the same manner as we release ourselves from the snares of sinful desires.

45. I remember with pleasure when as a bee, I lighted lightly on the leaflets of blossoms, sipped the honey of the blooming buds, dined on the pistils, and slept in the cups of lotus flowers.

46. I wandered about in pleasant wood-lands and lawns, with my exalted and branching horns and beautiful eyes, in the form of an antelope, till I was killed by the dart of a huntsman in my mortal part.

47. I have been in the form of a fish, and was lifted up by the waves of the sea above the surface of the water. I saw how a tortoise was killed by the blow of a club on the neck, when it failed to break its back-bone.

48. I was a Chandála huntsman once, roving by the side of Charmanvatí (the river Chenab), when I used to quench my thirst with cocoa water, as I was tired with roaming.

49. I became a stork also, delighting in lakes with my mate, and filling the air with our sweet cries.

50. In another birth, I rambled about in groves of palm and tamála trees, and fixed my eyes with amorous looks and glances upon my lover.

51. I had next been a fairy Apsará, with a form as bright as melted gold, and features as beautiful as those of the lotus and lily, in which the celestials like bees and butterflies, used to take delight.

52. I remember to have decked myself in gold and pearls, and in gems and rubies upon earth, and to have sported with my youthful consorts in pleasure gardens and groves, and on hills and mountains.

53. And I remember also to have lived long as a tortoise on the borders of a river, and to have been carried away by the waves, sometimes under an arbour of creepers, over-hung with clusters of beautiful flowers; and at others to some wild cave washed by the waves.

54. I see how I acted the part of a goose with my covering of feathers, swimming on the high heaving waves on the surface of a lake.

55. Then seeing a poor gnat hanging on the moving leaf of a Sálmali branch, I became its associate and as contemptible a thing like itself.

56. I became an aquatic crane also, skimming playfully over the waters gushing from the hills, and slightly kissing the crests of the waves rising over the rapid torrent.

57. I remember also how I slighted the loves of amorous youths, and spurned off from me the Vidyádhara boys on the Gandha Mádana and Mandara hills.

58. I remember likewise the pangs of a lovelorn lass, when I lay pining in my bed, strewn over with the fragrance of camphor, and how I was decaying like the disk of the waning moon.

59. Thus I passed through many births, in the wombs of higher and lower animals, and found them all to be full of pain. And my soul has run over the billows of the irresistible current of life, like the fleet antelope, pacing its speed with the swiftness of the wind (Vátapramí).

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SECTION I.

EXPOSITION OF LÍLÁ’S VISION.

RÁMA said:—Tell me sir, in what manner the goddesses broke out of the strongholds of their bodies, and the prison-house of this world (where their souls were pent up), and passed through infinite space, to survey the scenes beyond its confines. (i.e. How does the mind and the flight of imagination, reach to regions unknown and unseen before).

2. Vasishtha replied:—Where is the world and where is its support or solidity? They were all situated in the region within the minds of the goddesses.

3. They saw in it the hilly tract, where the Bráhmana Vasishtha had his abode and his desire of royalty (pictured it in their minds).

4. They saw in a corner of it the deserted mansion of the Bráhman, and they saw in it the surface of the earth stretching to the seas (i.e. in their mental view).

5. They beheld in that imaginary spot of earth the city of the prince, and the royal palace which he had enjoyed with Arundhati his consort (in his imagination).

6. How she was born under the name of Lílá, and worshipped the goddess of wisdom—Sarasvatí; by whom she was miraculously conveyed to the delightful region of the sky.

7. It was in the mansion situated in that hilly village, that she beheld the world placed within the space of a span of her mind.

8. Having come out of her vision of the world, she found herself seated in her house, as one finds himself lying in his own bed, after his rambling from one dream to another.

9. All that she saw was mere vision and void; there was no world nor earth, nor a house nor the distance thereof.

10. It was the mind which showed them these images, as it presents the objects of our desire to our view; or else there was neither any world nor earth in actuality.

11. The sphere of intelligence is infinite, and without any covering; and being agitated by the powers of one’s intellect, it presents all the objects of nature to his view, as the sky when agitated by heat produces the winds.

12. The sphere of the intellect is uncreated (being a mode of the Divinity itself); it is ever calm everywhere; and is supposed as the world itself by deluded minds.

13. He who understands rightly, views the world to be as unsubstantial as air; but whoso is misled by his wrong judgment takes it to be as a solid mountain.

14. As a house and a city are manifested to us in our dream, so is this unreal world presented as a reality to our understandings.

15. As is the misconception of water in the mirage, and the mistake of gold in a bracelet; so does all this unreality appear as a substantiality to the mistaken mind.

16. Discoursing in this manner between themselves, the two charming ladies, walked out of the house with their graceful steps.

SECTION II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINOUS HABITATION.

17. Being unseen by the village people, they viewed the mountain which stood before them, kissing the vault of heaven, and touching the orb of the sun with its lofty peaks.

18. It was decorated with flowers of various colours, and covered with a variety of woods of various hues. There were waterfalls gushing with their tremendous roarings on one side, and groves resounding with the warbling of birds in another.

19. The clouds were variegated by the many coloured clusters of flowers sweeping over them, and cranes and storks sat screeching on the cloud-capt top of gulancha trees.

20. There were the robust reeds, hedging the banks of rivers with their wide stretching stems and roots, and the strong winds tossing about the tender creepers, growing out of the rocky caves, for want of support.

21. The tops of trees covered with flowers, were over-topped by the sheds of clouds hanging from the vault of heaven; which shed profusely their pearly drops of rain water upon them, and formed the current streams below.

22. The banks of the streamlets were continually laved by the waves, raised by the winds playing upon the shaking arbours on them; and a continued cooling shade was spread by the branching trees all around.

23. Standing on that spot, the ladies beheld the hilly hamlet in the lawn, likening a fragment of heaven fallen upon the ground.

24. There the purling rills were softly gliding by, and here the brimming brooks wabbled in the ground. The birds of the air were chirping on the sprays and aquatic fowls were flying about the holes of the sea shore.

25. There they saw the herds of kine slowly moving and grazing in the plains, and filling the echoing woods with their loud lowing; and beheld the space, interspersed with shady groves and arbours and verdant meadows all about.

26. The cliffs were whitened with snow, impenetrable by sun-beams; and the tops of hills were covered with bushy brambles, forming as braids of hair upon their craggy heads.

27. Cascades falling in torrents in the cavities of rocks, and scattering their pearly particles afar, memorialized the churning of the milky ocean by the Mandara mountain.

28. The trees in the glens, loaded as they were with their fruits and flowers, appeared as waiters upon the goddesses, and standing to welcome their approach with their rich presents.

29. Shaken by gusts of roaring winds, the forest trees, were shedding showers of their mellifluent flowers, as offerings to the sylvan gods and people.

30. The birds that approached fearlessly to drink the water dropping from the hill, now fled for fear of their seeming as sleets, shells and shots of archers.

31. The birds parched by thirst, and wishing to drink the water dashed by the waves of the rivulet, were hovering upon it as stars in the sky.

32. There were rows of crows sitting on the tops of the tall tála (or palm) trees, from whose sight the boys were hiding the remains of their sweetmeat.

33. There they beheld the rustic lads with garlands of flowers on their heads and garments; and roaming in the cooling shades of the date, jam and nimba trees.

34. They saw the lean and hungry beggar woman passing slowly by the way, and clad in her flaxen robe, with chaplets of blossoms for her ear dress.

35. They saw the lazy rustics sitting retired in their lonely retreats, and conversing afar from the noisy brooks where they could hardly hear one another.

36. They saw the naked mendicant boys, besmeared in their face and hands with curd, and with cow-dung upon their bodies, and holding the flowery branches of plants in their hands, and crowding in the compound.

37. The bushes on the verdant banks of the river, were shaken to and fro as in a swing by the dashing of the waves, which left their marks on the sandy shore, as the waters receded to their bed.

38. The house was full of flies cloyed with the sweets of milk and curds; but the children were moaning with cries for their want of sufficient food.

39. The herdswomen were observed to be fretting, at seeing their wristlets daubed by the cow-dung (which they were pasting); and the men were seen to be smiling, at seeing the eagerness of women, for tying the loosened knots of their hair.

40. The crows were alighting from the tops of hills, to pick up the offerings of the holy sages; and the paths about their houses, were strewn over with the sacred kuru and kurunta leaves.

41. The floral plants growing in the caverns of the hills, and about the precincts of the house, covered the ground every morning, with heaps of flowers to the depth of the heels.

42. There were the chouri kine and antelopes, grazing in one part of the forest; and also the tender fawn sleeping on the bed of grass under the gunja groves.

43. There were the young calves lying on one side, and shaking their ears to drive the flies away; which were fluttering on their faces, and upon the milk exuding from the sides of their mouths.

44. The rooms were stored with honey, which had been collected by driving the bees from the hives; the gardens were full of flowering asokas (asoka Jonesia); and their rooms were painted with lacdye.

45. The winds moistened by the showers of rain, had given the arboretum to bloom, and the blooming buds of Kadamba, overhung like a canopy, the beds of green grass below.

46. The Ketaka (keya) arbour was blooming white by removal of its weeds, and the water-course was gliding along with its soft murmuring tune.

47. The winds whistled in the windows of the caves, and the clouds rested on the roofs of the mountain tops; the ponds were brimful of water, and filled with lotuses like so many lightsome moons.

48. The green arbour cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the ground, where the dew-drops trembling on the blades of grass, glistened like twinkling stars in the azure sky.

49. The trees incessantly dropped down their ripened fruits, and dried flowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on the whitened ground.

50. There some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household compound, like the chirinti (or kulína) girls, that never forsake the abode of their parents; while there were others hovering over the roof of the house, and flashing in lightenings that supplied the place of lights.

51. The altar here, re-echoed to the loud roaring of the winds, confined in the caverns of the mountains; and the temple there, was graced by the twittering swallows and parrots, that alighted upon it in their numerous flights.

52. Soft breezes were moving slowly, loaded with the fragrance exhaled by the sleepy flowers (in the evening), and gently shaking the leaves of trees as they passed along the lawn.

53. There the ladies were attentive to the prattling and playful parrots and partridges, and here they listened to the melodious notes of the Kokila, responsive to the jarring crows on the branches.

54. The palma and tamála trees were loaded with fruits, and the forest trees were entwined by creepers, which waved their leafy palms around them.

55. There were the tender ivy creepers, clasping the branches on one side, and the fragrance of the efflorescent Kandala and silindhra plants, exhaled on the other. The tapering tála and tamála trees rising as high as spires, and a cooling breeze was blowing amidst the flower plants in the gardens.

56. There were the kine hastening to drink the water in the troughs, and garden trees hanging with loads of green unripe fruits and beautiful flowers; the running streams were hidden under rows of trees on the banks, and the stalks of plants were studded with flowers without alternation.

57. The gardens were perfumed with the nectarious fragrance of kunda flowers, and the lakes were redolent with the odour of lotuses, hiding the humble bees giddy with liquor, in their honied cells. The air was reddened with the roseate pollen, flying from the crimson lotuses (sthala padmas) of the land, and mocked the redness of Indra’s palace in the sky.

58. The gargling noise of the rivulets running down precipitately from the hills, and the whiteness of the hoary cloud, hanging with the hue of kundu flowers over them; the beauty of the flowery parterres in the compound of the house, and the melodious warbling of musical birds singing joyous in the air, enchanted the scene.

59. The youths were sporting on their beds of flowers, and the playful damsels were decked with flowery wreaths hanging down to their feet. The ground was adorned every where with sprouting and prickly shrubs and blades of grass; and there was a beauty displayed in the clasping of creepers about the clumps of reeds.

60. The new shooting buds and blossoms covered the trees around, and fragments of clouds shrouded the houses below; the ground was decorated by wreaths of icicles, and the flash of lightnings in the clouds over the houses, terrified the women within.

61. There was the fragrance of blue lotuses exhaling its sweets about, and the hoarse lowings of the kine, hastening to their green grazing ground. The confident deer and does were lying tamely in the house-yard, and the peacocks dancing merrily before the water-falls, as if they were the showers of rain water.

62. The odoriferous breezes were blowing giddily, with the flavour of the fragrance they bore about; and the medicinal plants were lending their lights like lamps at night. The nests of birds were resonant with ceaseless warblings, and the noise of the cataracts deafened the ears of men on the bank.

63. The pearly dew drops, that were continually dropped on the ground, from the leaves of trees and blades of grass; and the gleaming beauty of the ever blooming blossoms above, form with others, the everlasting charms of mountainous habitations, and baffle the description of poets.

CHAPTER XXIX.

ACCOUNT OF THE PREVIOUS LIFE OF LÍLÁ

A Description of the Domestic Duties of a Hindu Lady.

THE two goddesses then alighted in that cooling village seat, as the two states of felicity and liberation, meet in the tranquil spirit of the man knowing the Divine spirit.

2. Lílá, who had by this time, become personified to the form of pure intelligence, by her knowledge of yoga, now became a seer of the three times presenting themselves before her.

3. She remembered the whole course of her past life, and derived pleasure in relating the events of her former life and death.

4. Lílá said:—I recollect by thy favour, O goddess! and by sight of this place, all what I did and thought of in my past life.

5. Here I had grown up to old age, and here I had withered and become lean and thin as a skeleton. I was a Bráhmaní here, and had my body scratched by the dried sacrificial grass (kusa), which I had to meddle with.

6. I was the legal wife of my lord, and producer of his race, and was employed in the acts of milking the kine, and churning the curd (for butter and ghee). I had been mother of many sons, and a kind hostess to my guests.

7. I was devoted to the service of the gods, Bráhmans and good people, and rubbed my body with cow milk and ghee: I was employed in cleaning the frying pans and the boiling kettles of the house.

8. I boiled the food daily with a single bracelet of glass and one of conch-shell in my wrists; and served my father, mother, brother and daughters and sons-in-law with their daily victuals.

9. I was emaciated in my body like a domestic servant, by working all day and night; and ‘haste and hasten,’ were the words I used to repeat to myself.

10. Being thus busied and employed, I was so silly and ignorant, that I never thought within myself, even in a dream, about what I was and what was this world, although I had been the wife of a Bráhman.

11. Wholly engaged in the collection of fuel, cow-dung, and sacrificial wood and vegetables, I became emaciated in my body, which was wrapt in a worn out blanket.

12. I used to pick out the worms from the ears of the milch cow, and was prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand.

13. I used to go to the swelling lake every day, and get the fresh green grass for the fodder of my tender calves. I used to wash and clean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white tints of pasted and powdered rice (gundi).

14. I had to correct my domestics with gentle rebukes, and tell them to keep within their bounds like the billows in the rivers.

15. With my infirm body and ears shaking as dried leaves of trees, and supporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age.

16. As she was speaking in this manner, and walking in company with Sarasvatí about the village, in the valley of the mountain, she was astonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and showed them to the goddess.

17. This was my flowery arbour, decorated by these torn pátala plants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering Asokas.

18. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to the trees; and this is my pet calf Karniká, which has refrained from browzing the leaves (in my absence).

19. This is my watering woman, now so languid and dirty in her appearance; and weeping these eight days in my absence, with her eyes daubed in tears.

20. This, O goddess, is the place, where I used to eat and sit, and where I slept and walked; and these are the places where I gave and received the things to and from my attendants.

21. This is my eldest son Jyeshtha Sarmá, weeping in the house; and this is my milch cow, now grazing on the grassy plain in the forest.

22. I see this portico and these windows, once dear to me as my person, and besmeared with the dry powder of the huli festival of the vernal season.

23. I see these pulpy plants of gourd planted with my own hands, and dear to me as myself, now spreading themselves over the oven place.

24. I see these relatives of mine, who had been the bonds of my life before, now smoking in their eyes with tears, and carrying the fuel for fire, with beads of rudráksha seeds on their bodies.

25. I see that stony shore, baffling the force of the waves, which have been pelting their pebbles against it, now covered by bushes of the beach.

26. The verdant meadows were full of leafy plants, with pendant dew drops on their tips; and the plains were whitened by the hailstones falling on them in showers.

27. The mid-day was mantled by sun beams, as by a white mist of frost, and the arbours resounded with the humming of bees, fluttering about their clustering flowers.

28. The blooming palása glowing as reddish corals, had covered the trees and the land with heaps of crimson flowers.

29. The village rill was flowing with the floating fruits, which it bore from shore to shore; and the rustic lads jumbled together with loud noise, eager to lay hold on them.

30. The cool shady beach of the rill, was strewn over with pebbles, washed and carried away by the current, and covered by leaves falling from the trees.

31. There I see the altar of my house, which is so beautifully ornamented with the flowering creepers, and which is overhung on its windows by clusters of fruits and flowers.

32. Here lived my husband, whose life has fled to the sky in its aerial form, and became afterwards the lord of the earth, reaching to the surrounding seas.

33. I remember, how he had fostered the fond wish of obtaining royal dignity, and how ardently he looked forward on its attainment.

34. I see, O goddess! his royal dignity of eight days, which had seemed to be of so long a duration (as eighty years) before.

35. I see the soul of my Lord, residing in the empty space of this mansion, as in his former kingly state; although it is invisible to all as the current air in the sky, and as the odours borne by the winds.

36. It is in this vacuous space, that his soul is contained in the form of a thumb; which contains in its bosom, the whole extent of the realm of my lord, stretching to thousands of leagues in its circumference.

37. I see also O goddess! the spacious kingdom of my lord, in the space of my intellect, which makes room for thousands of mountains by the miraculous power of God, styled as illusion. (máyá).

38. I wish now, O Goddess! to see the earthly city of my lord again; let us therefore turn our course that way, as no place is distant to the resolute.

39. Vasishtha said:—Having said so, she bowed down to the goddess and entered into the shrine, and then like a bird, she flew into the air with the goddess.

40. It was a region devoid of darkness, and as fair as a sea of moonlight. And then it was as azure as the person of Náráyana, and as bright as the back of a locust.

41. They passed above the regions of the clouds and winds, as also beyond the spheres of the orbits of the sun and moon.

42. They passed beyond the path of the north polar star, and the limits of the circuits of the sádhyas and siddhas and other celestial beings.

43. Thence they ascended to the higher heavens of Brahmá and the Tushita divinities, and then upward to the sphere of Golaka (the zodiac); and thence again to the Sivaloka, and the sphere of the Pitris or the departed souls of the dead.

44. Passing thus beyond the spheres of the embodied living beings, and bodiless souls of the dead, they proceeded far and farther to the unknown regions of empty space.

45. Having passed the etherial sphere, they beheld nothing there, except the sun, moon and the stars shining below them.

46. There was only a deep darkness to be seen, filling the whole vacuity of space, and appearing as the basin of the waters of universal deluge, and as compact as the impenetrable cavity of a rock.

47. Lílá said:—Tell me, O goddess! what became of the light of the sun and other luminaries, and whence came this dense darkness as to be compressed under the fist (mushti-gráhya).

48. The goddess replied: you have got to a spot so remote from the spheres of heaven, that the light of the luminaries can never reach to it.

49. And as one in a deep dark pit, can see no light of a fire fly flitting over it; so the solar light is invisible to one behind the great belt of heaven.

50. Lílá said:—Oh! the great distance that we have come to, whence the great luminary of the sun also, appears as small as an atom below.

51. Tell me mother, what sort of a place is that which lies beyond this region, and how can we come to it after traversing this gloomy expanse.

52. Sarasvatí said:—Behind this is the great pole of the universe, which is scattered over with innumerable nebular stars in the form of the particles of dust.

53. Vasishtha said:—As they were talking in this manner, they glided imperceptibly to that pole, as the bee saunters over the solitary hut on the height of a mountain.

54. They then were at no pains to come down from that precipice, as there is no pains to effect what must certainly come to pass in the end, though it appeared difficult at first. (Or) that which is certain must come to pass, however hard it might seem at first.

55. They saw the system of the universe, laid naked to their sight, as the bold navigator beholds a world exposed to his view beyond the wide expanse of waters.

56. They saw the watery expanse to be ten times greater than the earth, and enveloping it in the shape of the crust of the walnut fruit.

57. Then there is a latent heat which is ten times as great as the water, and the circumambient air which is as much greater than the water; and then the all encompassing vacuum of which there is no end.

58. There is no beginning, middle or end of that infinite space; and it is productive of nothing, like a barren woman of her offspring.

59. It is only an extended expanse, infinite, calm and without beginning, middle or end, and is situated in the Supreme spirit.

60. Its immensity is as immeasurable as if a stone is flung with full force from its top, or if the phœnix would fly up to it with all his might, or if he would traverse through it in full velocity, it is impossible for him to reach from one end to the other, in a whole Kalpa age.

CHAPTER XXX.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MUNDANE EGG—(BRAHMÁNDA).

THEY passed in a moment beyond the regions of the earth, air, fire, water, and vacuum, and the tracks of the ten planetary spheres.

2. They reached the boundless space, whence the universe appeared as an egg (ovum).

3. They beheld under its vault millions of luminous particles floating in the air (nebulæ).

4. These were as innumerable bubbles, floating on the waters of the unlimited ocean of the sphere of the Intellect.

5. Some of them were going downward, and others rising upward; some turning round, and others appeared to their understanding to remain fixed and immovable.

6. These different motions appeared to them with respect to their own situations, as they saw them in their different sides.

7. Here there were no ups and downs and no upside or below, nor any going forward or backward. Here there are no such directions as men take to be by the position of their bodies.

8. There is but one indefinite space in nature, as there is but one consciousness in all beings; yet everything moves in its own way, as wayward boys take their own course.

9. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why do we call upward and downward, forward and backward, if there are no such things in space and nature.

10. Vasishtha said:—There is but one space enveloping all things, and the worlds which are seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of vacuity, are as worms moving on the surface of water.

11. All these bodies that move about in the world by their want of freedom (i.e. by the power of attraction), are thought to be up and down by our position on earth.

12. So when there is a number of ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below which are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs.

13. Such is this ball of the earth in one of these worlds, covered by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by devas, demons and men walking upon it.

14. It is covered also by cities, towns and mountains, and their inhabitants and productions, like the walnut by its coat.

15. Like elephants appearing as pigmies in the Vindhyan mountains, do these worlds appear as particles in the vast expanse of space.

16. Every thing that is any where, is produced from and subsists in space. It is always all in all things, which are contained as particles in it.

17. Such is the pure vacuous space of the Divine understanding, that like an ocean of light, contains these innumerable worlds, which like the countless waves of the sea, are revolving for ever in it.

18. Some of these are hollow within, and others as dark as the darkness in the end of a kalpa age: and they are all moving about in the ocean of vacuity, like the waves of the sea.

19. Some of these are whirling about with a jarring noise for ever, which is neither heard by nor known to any body. It is like the motion of men addicted to earthly pursuits by their nature.

20. Some of these are now growing in form, as if they were newly created, and are in the course of their development, like sprouts in the cells of seeds newly sown in the ground.

21. Some of these are melting away as icicles under heat, like the mountains that were melted down by the burning sun and heavenly fire, at the dissolution of the world.

22. Others have been continually falling downward without gaining the ground, till at last they dwindle away, and melt into the divine Intellect.

23. Others are as immovable in the air, as the animalculae in the water, which are moved to and fro by the wind, without any sign of motion or sensation in them.

24. Again nothing is stable in nature, but every thing is as changeful as the acts and usages enjoined in the Vedas and sástras, are altered and succeeded by others.

25. There are other Brahmás and other patriarchs, and many Vishnus and many Indras one after the other. We have different kings of men, and sometimes no ruler of them.

26. Some are as men and lords of others (Ishas), in this multiform creation, and some are creeping and crooked living beings on earth; some kinds are as full as the waters of the ocean, and others have become quite extinct in the world.

27. Some are as hard as solid stones, and others as soft as the poor insects and worms; some are of godly figures as the giants, and others of puny human forms.

28. Some are quite blind and suited to darkness (as owls and moles and bats); others are suited to light (as men, birds and beasts), and some to both (as cats and rats).

29. Some are born as gnats sucking the juice of the fruits of the fig tree; while others are empty within, and fly about and feed upon the air.

30. The world is thus filled with creatures beyond the conception of Yogis, and we can not form even a guess-work of the beings that fill the infinite vacuum.

31. This world is the sphere of these living beings; but the great vacuum spreading beyond it, is so extensive, that it is immeasurable by the gods Vishnu and others, were they to traverse through it, for the whole of their lives.

32. Every one of these etherial globes, is encircled by a belt resembling a golden bracelet; and has an attractive power like the earth to attract other objects.

33. I have told you all about the grandeur of the universe to my best knowledge, any thing beyond this, is what I have no knowledge of, nor power to describe. 34. There are many other large worlds, rolling through the immense space of vacuum, as the giddy goblins of Yakshas revel about in the dark and dismal deserts and forests, unseen by others.

CHAPTER XXXI.

SECTION I.

ALIGHTING OF THE LADIES ON EARTH.

VASISHTHA said:—After having seen the worlds in their aerial journey, the ladies alighted from there, and quickly entered the inner apartment of the king.

2. There they saw the dead body of the king lying in state amidst heaps of flowers, accompanied by the spiritual body of Lílá, sitting beside the corpse.

3. It was the dead of night, and the inmates had fallen into sound sleep one by one; and the room was perfumed with the incense of resin, camphor and sandalwood and saffron.

4. Lílá, seeing the house of her latter husband, and wishing to enter into it, alighted in her assumed body (sankalpadeha) on the spot of his sepulchre.

5. She then passed through the fictitious spacious palace of her lord (sankalpasansára), by breaking out of the confines of her body and cranium called the earthly and worldly environs in Yoga terminology (sansára and Brahmánda-ávaranas).

6. Then she went again with the goddess to the bright and spacious temple of the world (Brahmánda-mandapa), in which she quickly entered.

7. She saw her husband’s imaginary world to lie as a dirty and mossy pool, as the lioness beholds the mountain cave covered by darkness and clouds.

8. The goddesses then entered into that vacuous world with their airy bodies, as weak ants make their passage through the hard crust of the wood-apple or bel-fruit.

9. There they passed through regions of cloudy hills and skies, and reached the surface of the earth, consisting of tracts of land and basins of water.

10. They then came to the Jambudwípa (Asia), situated amidst the ninefold petals of the other dwípas (or continents), and thence proceeded to the territories of Lílá’s husband in the varsha land of Bharata (India).

11. At this interval of time they beheld a certain prince—(the ruler of Sinde), strengthened by other chiefs, making an attack on this part which was the beauty of the world.

12. They beheld the air crowded by people of the three worlds, who had assembled there to see the conflict.

13. They remained undaunted, and saw the air crowded by aerial beings in groups like clouds.

14. There were the Siddhas, Cháranas, Gandharvas, Vidyádharas, Súras, celestials and Apsarás in large bodies.

15. There were also the goblins of Bhútas and Pisáchas, and Rákshasa cannibals; while the Vidyádhara females were flinging handfuls of flowers like showers of rain on the combatants.

16. The Vetálas, Yakshas and Kushmánds, that were looking at the affray with pleasure, took themselves to the shelter of hills, to avoid the flying darts and weapons.

17. The imps were flying from the air, to keep themselves from the way of the flying weapons; and the spectators were excited by sound of the war-whoop of the combatants.

18. Lílá who was standing by with a flapper (or fan) in her hand, was frightened at the imminent dreadful conflict, and smiled to scorn their mutual vauntings.

SECTION II.

SIGHT OF A BATTLE ARRAY IN EARTH AND AIR.

19. Virtuous people who were unable to endure the horrid sight, betook themselves to prayers, with the chief priests for averting the calamity.

20. The messengers of Indra, were ready with their decorated elephants (called loka-pálas), for bearing the souls of mighty heroes to grace the seats of heaven.

21. The cháranas and Gandharvas, were singing praises of the advancing heroes; and heavenly nymphs that liked heroism, were glancing at the best combatants.

22. Voluptuous women were wishing to embrace the arms of the brave; and the fair fame of the heroes, had turned the hot sunshine to cool moonlight.

23. Ráma asked:—Tell me, sir, what sort of a warrior is called a hero, that becomes a jewel in heaven, and who is an insurgent.

24. Vasishtha answered:—He who engages in a lawful warfare, and fights for his king, and whether he dies or becomes victorious in the field, is called a hero, and goes to heaven.

25. Whoever kills men otherwise in war and dies afterwards, in an unjust cause, is called an insurgent, and goes to hell at last.

26. Whoever fights for unlawful property, and dies in battle, becomes subject to everlasting hell fire.

27. Whoso wages a just warfare, that is justified by law and usage, that warrior is called both loyal as well as heroic in deed.

28. Whoever dies in war, for the preservation of kine, Bráhmans and friends with a willing mind, and whoso protects his guest and refugee with all diligence, he verily becomes an ornament in heaven after his death.

29. The king who is steadfast in protecting his subjects and his own country, is called the just, and those that die in his cause are called the brave.

30. They that die fighting on the side of riotous subjects, or in the cause of rebellious princes or chiefs, are doomed to fire.

31. They that die fighting unjustly against their kings, lawgivers and rulers, are subjected to the torments of hell.

32. A war which is just, serves to establish order; but the giddy that are fearless of the future, destroy all order (by their unjust warfare).

33. The hero dying, goes to heaven, is the common saying; and the sástras call the lawful warrior only a hero, and not otherwise.

34. They who suffer wounds on their bodies, for the protection of the righteous and good, are said to be heroes, or else they are insurgents (dimbhavas).

35. It was in expectation of seeing such heroes that the damsels of the gods, were standing in the air, and talking to themselves of becoming the spouses of such warriors.

36. The air was as decorated as by an illumination on high, and by rows of the beautiful heavenly cars of gods and Siddhas, and presence of celestial maidens, who sang in sweet notes, and decorated their locks with mandára flowers.

CHAPTER XXXII.

ONSET OF THE WAR.

VASISHTHA said:—Lílá standing with the goddess of wisdom in air, saw the Apsarás dancing there, at the eagerness of the combatants for war below.

2. She beheld the assemblage of the forces in her own territory once governed by her lord; and saw the field of the air not less formidable by the assembled ghosts (and its encircling belt composed of the lion, scorpion, crab and the archer).

3. The meeting of the two forces made the ground appear as a billowy sea; like the meeting of two clouds in the sky, giving it the appearance of two hostile forces.

4. The battle array of armoured warriors, flashing as the fire of heaven, was succeeded by their commingled blows, resembling the rattling of thunders above, deafening the ears and dazzling the sight.

5. Then darts and javelins, spears and lances, and many other missiles (prásas) began to fall on both sides, like showers of raindrops, hailstones and meteorolites from the skies.

6. Showers of shafts fell with a force, that would pierce the pinions of garuda, and struck out the glare of sunbeams, by hitting at the armours of the warriors.

7. The combatants standing face to face with their lifted arms, and staring at each other with steadfast looks, seemed as they were pictures in a painting.

8. The armies drawn in long regiments, standing in lines opposite to each other, were heard to answer one another by their repeated shouts.

9. The battalia of both armies, and the drums on both sides, were put to a stop by the warnings of their leaders, against striking the first blow.

10. The intermediate space of the breadth of two bows, that separated the hostile forces like a bridge from one another, appeared as the gap, caused by the winds in the midst of the ocean at the universal deluge. (Or more like the partition of the waters of the Red sea by the rod of Moses).

11. The leaders were drowned in thoughts for fear of bloodshed and massacre; and the cowardly soldiers groaned in their hearts, with the hoarse noise of croaking frogs.

12. There were numbers of bravoes, eager to yield up their precious lives in a trice; and the bowyers stood with their bowstrings drawn to the ear, and ready to let loose their pointed arrows at the foe.

13. Others stood dreadfully fixed to strike their arms upon the enemy, and many were looking sternly at their adversaries, with their frowning looks.

14. The armours were clashing by mutual concussion, the countenances of the bravoes were burning with rage, and the faces of cowards were turned towards sheltered retreats for flight.

15. The lookers stood in doubt of their lives until the end of the war, and old men like big elephants, were covered with horripilation on their bodies.

16. The silence which ensued at the expectation of the first blow, resembled the calm of the stormy main, and the deep sleep of a city at the dead of night.

17. The musical instruments, the drum and conch-shell were all silent, and a thick cloud of dust, covered the face of the earth and sky.

18. The retreaters were flying from their stronger assailants, who kept running after them, in the manner of sharks pursuing the shoals of fishes in the sea.

19. The glittering fringes of the flags, put the etherial stars to blush, and the lifted goads in the hands of the elephant-drivers, made a forest of tapering trees in the sky.

20. The flinging arrows were flying like flocks of the winged tribe in air, and the loud beating of drums and blowing of pipes, resounded amidst the air.

21. There was a phalanx in a circular form, attacking a host of wicked demons, and here was a squadron in the form of Garuda, with its right and left wings, attacking a body of elephants.

22. Somewhere a great howling was heard to rise from the vanguard of a body of troops, disconcerted by a cohort in the form of eagles: and at another many were seen to fall upon one another with mutual shouts.

23. Thus a tremendous noise was raised by the warriors of the many legions, and a multitude of big mallets were seen to be raised on high by the hands of the combatants.

24. The glaring of sable steel, shaded the sunbeams like a cloud, and hissing darts in the air, emitted a sound, resembling the rustling of breeze amidst the dry leaves of trees.

25. Now the brunt of battle, began like the dashing of clouds upon clouds at the end of a Kalpa, and the war raged like the raging sea ruffled by a hurricane.

26. Big elephants were falling in the field like coal-black rocks, hurled down by gusts of wind.

27. It seemed that the infernal spirits were let loose from their caves of hell, to rage in the battle field with their horrid and dismal figures.

28. The day light was obscured by the sable cloud of swords, and the mallets and lances were raised up by the black Kunta warriors, who seemed bent upon converting the earth to an ocean of bloodshed.

CHAPTER XXXIII.[17]

COMINGLED FIGHTING.

RÁMA said:—Sir, relate to me in short and promptly, about this warfare, as my ears are delighted with narratives of this kind.

2. Vasishtha said:—These ladies then, in order to have a better view of the battle below, ascended in their imaginary aerial cars vimánas, to a more retired spot in the higher regions of the sky.

3. At this interval, there began a mingled fight of the forces face to face, with a commingled shout of the two armies, as the dashing of the waves against one another in the raging sea.

4. At this instant, Vidúratha the lord of the realm, (formerly Padma—the husband of Lílá), seeing a daring warrior of the hostile force attack one of his soldiers, struck him impatiently on the breast, with the blow of a ponderous mallet.

5. Then the battle raged with the impetuosity of the rolling waves of the stormy main, and the arms on both sides, flamed with living fire and flash of fiery lightnings.

6. Now the edges of waving swords (larattarat), glittered in the sky, and cracking and clashing noise (Kanakana), filled the air with a hideous crackling (kadkada).

7. Then flew the winged arrows, overshadowing the beams of the sun, and emitting a booming noise (hunkára), which hushed the rattling clamour (gharghara) of summer clouds.

8. Armours clashed against armours (Kankata), with a clanking noise (tankára), and shot forth the sparks of glistening fire (Kanatkana); and arms, hashing (ch’hina-bhinna) and slashing (Khanda-khanda) against arms, filled the air with their fragments flying like birds in the air.

9. The shaking (dodulya) shanks and arms of the army, appeared as a moving forest (dordruma) on the land, and the twangings of their bows (tankára), and rumbling of the disks (krenkára), drove away the birds of the air, and crackled like the rattling drive of wheels (dravat) in heaven.

10. The hissing of their loosened strings (halhala), resembled the (ghunghuna) buzzing of bees, heard in the samádhi yoga (by shutting the ears).

11. Iron shafts like sleets of hailstones, pierced the heads of the soldiers, and the (ranat) crashing of armours (sanghatta), broke the arms of the warriors in mail (Kankata sankata).

12. Weapons struck on brazen armours with a howling noise (hunkára), made a clanking sound by the stroke (tánkára), and flying like drifts of rain water (tartara), pierced the face of the air on all sides: (literally, denticulated—dantura dingmukha).

13. The striking of steel on one another (sanghatta), made the hands ring with a jingling sound (jhanjhanat); and the continued rapping on the arms (ásphota), and clapping of hands, (karasphota), raised a pattering and chattering sound (chat chat and pat pat).

14. The whizzing noise of unsheathing the sword (shitkára), and the hissing of the sparks of fire (sansana); the flinging of arrows in all ways (sadatkára), and the flying of darts, likened the rustling of falling leaves (Kharkhara) in autumn.

15. The spouting of life blood (dhakdhak), from the throats separated from the bodies, the mangled limbs and heads, and the broken swords filled the whole space.

16. The flame of fire flaring (sphurat) from the armours; emblazoned the hairs of the warriors, and the fighting and falling (ranatpatat) of swordsmen, raised a giddy and loud jingling of their weapons (jhanjhana).

17. The lofty elephants pierced by the spears of the Kunta lancers, poured out torrents of red-hot blood; while the tusky tribe was goring whole bodies of them with their shrill cries (chitkára).

18. Others crushed by the ponderous maces of their antagonists, creaked grievously under the blows; while the heads of the slain soldiers, swam in the rivers of blood over the plain.

19. Here the hungry vultures were pouncing from above, and there the sky was covered by a cloud of dust; and the weaponless combatants, were engaged in Kesákesí fighting, by holding each other down by the hairs.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE.

NOW the generals and ministers of the belligerent powers, and the aerial spectators of the war, were thus talking among themselves.

2. Lo! here the ground has become a lake of blood, with the heads of the slaughtered hosts floating as lotuses upon it; and there the air has become as the starry heaven, glittering with broken weapons, flying like birds in the sky.

3. Behold the air is reddened with the particles of vermeil blood, borne above by the winds, and the sky presenting the evening clouds, with the glow of the setting sun at midday.

4. What are these, says one, that are flying as straws in the firmament? They are, says the other, no straws, but the flight of arrows, that have filled the atmosphere.

5. As long as the dust of the earth, cries another, is moistened by the bloodshed of the brave, so long are the heroes entitled to glory, and have their abode in heaven for myriads of years.[18]

6. Fear not these sable swords, says the sástra, whose blades are worn by the brave like petals of blue lotuses about their necks and breasts; and bravoes are favourites in the eyes of the goddess of fortune. (Fortune favours the brave).

7. The heavenly nymphs that beheld the fighting, felt a desire to embrace the brave, and the god of the flowery bow (Káma or Cupid), was busy to loosen their waist bands. (Cupid by inversion is Dípuc, another name of the Indian Káma. And Fairies or Paries and Huries are said to fall to the lot of the fighters in Jehad-battle. So says Dryden: “None but the brave deserve the fair”).

8. They beckoned their welcome by the waving of their reddish palms, in the shaking of the ruddy leaves of trees, and by the round glances of their eyes, in the blooming blossoms of plants, and by the perfume of their breath in the honied fragrance of flowers.

9. The geniuses of the garden of Paradise, were singing sweetly in the notes of the sylvan choir, and betook themselves to dancing in the wagging tails of peacocks.

10. As the brave warrior was breaking the line of the enemy with his hardy axe; so was his beloved breaking his hard heart and spirit, with the soft glances of her eyes.

11. It is by my lance, says the lancer, that I have severed the head of my adversary with the rings in his ears, like the head of the ascending node of Ráhu, approaching the disk of the sun.

12. Lo! There is a champion, hurling the blocks of stones, attached to the end of a chain reaching his feet; and another whirling his wheel with a wondrous log of wood, held in his uplifted arm.

13. There comes that combatant in the form of Yama, appearing from the region of Pluto (Preta), and spreading a horrid devastation all around. Come let us go hence as we came.

14. Look there the ravenous birds, greedily plunging their long necks in the cells of bodies just separated from their heads, and glutting themselves with the gushing blood; and see there the headless trunk of the slain, moving to and fro in the field of battle.

15. The eloquent among the spectators were talking to one another, about the frailty of human life, and the uncertainty of the time of their meeting in the next world.

16. Oh! the stern cannibal of death, says one, that devours in one swoop, whole bodies of the assembled armies, now weltering in blood; and levels the levelling hosts to the ground.

17. The showers of arrows falling on the bodies of elephants, resemble the showers of rain drops on mountain tops; and the darts sticking to their frontal bones, liken the bolts of lightening piercing the peaks of cliffs.

18. While the headless body of the beheaded, was groveling grievously on the ground for want of its head, the pate flying on high as a bird of air, proclaimed its immortality in heaven.

19. The army harassed by stones slung on their heads, cried to entrap the enemy in the snares set at their feet.

20. Wives that had become Apsarás (heavenly nymphs) after death, were now eager to claim their husbands, who were restored to their youth, by virtue of their falling in the field of battle.

21. The glaring light of the line of lances that had reached the skies, seemed as a flight of stairs or golden vistas, for the ascent of the brave to the gates of heaven.

22. The wife of the slain soldier, seeing now a heavenly goddess, taking possession of her husband’s fair gold-like breast, was looking about in search of another.

23. Generals, wailing loudly with their uplifted arms, over their fallen armies in the field, appeared as the cliffs of rocks, resounding to the clamorous surges below.

24. They cried out to fight the foremost in war, and to remove the wounded to the rear; and not to trample over the bodies of their own soldiers, now lying low on the ground.

25. Behold! there the Apsarás eagerly tying their loosened locks, and advancing with sobbing bosoms to receive the departed warriors, joining their company in their celestial forms.

26. Ah! receive them says one, who are our guests from afar, on the banks of the rivers of Paradise, decorated with lotus blossoms of golden hue, and entertain them with fresh water and cooling breeze.

27. Look! there the groups of weapons, broken into pieces like bones by their concussion, are huddled in the air with a jingling sound (kanatkára), and shining as stars in the sky.

28. Lo! the stream of deceased souls, flowing in arrowy currents and rolling in whirlpools of the flying disks, is rapidly gliding with the pebbles and stones, flung from the slings in the air.

29. The sky is become as a lake of lotuses with the lotiform heads of warriors flung aloft in the air, while the flying weapons are floating like their stalks in it, with the broken swords as their thorns all around.

30. The flying fragments of the flags, forming the folia of the plants, and the darts sticking to them, appear as big black bees fluttering about the flowers moving with the breeze.

31. The arrows sticking to the dead bodies of elephants, are as emmets on mountain tops, and as timid girls clinging to the bosoms of men.

32. The winds unfurling the curling locks of Vidyádhara females, indicate their approaching spousals, as the unfolding plumage of fowls are predictions of success in augury.

33. The lifted umbrellas are shining as so many moons on high and the moon shining above in the form of fair fame, spreads her light as a white canopy on earth.

34. The brave warrior, soon after his death, assumes a celestial form framed by his own merit, as a man in his sleep, attains to a state, he has imagined to himself in his waking.

35. The flying spears and lances and clubs and disks are hurtling in the air, like shoals of restless fishes and sharks, moving about incessantly in the troubled waters of the sea.

36. The milk-white rags of umbrellas, tattered and shattered by arrowy shafts, are flying as cranes in the crowded air, and appearing as the disk of the moon broken into a thousand pieces.

37. These waving flappers flying in the air with a hoarse gurgling (gharghara), seem as the waves of the sea lifted in the air, and undulating with a babbling noise in the ocean of the sky.

38. Those slips of the flappers and umbrellas, hashed by the slashing arms, appear as the laurels of glory flung aloft and flying in the regions of air.

39. Behold ye friends! how these flying arrows and showering spears, are approaching to us with hits of their spoil, like bodies of locusts, bearing away their verdant booty in the air.

40. Hearken to the clanking sound of the striking steel, in the uplifted arm of the armoured soldier, resounding like the loud larum of the regent of death.

41. Hear the tremendous blows of weapons, like the blowing of an all destroying tornado, throwing down the elephants like craigs of mountains, with their long stretching tusks lying like water falls on the ground.

42. Lo! there the drivers of war chariots are stopped in their course, and striving to make their way through the puddles of blood, in which the wheels and horses of the car, are huddled together as in a bog of quagmire.

43. The jingling of arms and armours, and the jangling of swords and steel, resound, as the tinkling of the lute at the dancing of the dire and dreaded dame of death.

44. See the skirts of the sky reddened by the roseate particles, borne by the winds from the streams of blood, issuing out of the wounds in the bodies of men, horses and elephants lying dead in the field.

45. Look at the array of arrows formed in the air as a wreath of blossoms, and falling as the rays of lightnings from the dark black clouds of weapons hanging on high.

46. Lo! the surface of the earth filled with blood-red weapons, appearing as faggots of fire strewn over the ground in an universal conflagration.

47. The multitudes of commingled weapons, clashing with and breaking one another into pieces, are falling down in showers, like the innumerable rays of the sun.

48. The fighting of one man among the motionless many, is like the magic play of a magician[19] where the conjurer acts his parts amidst the bewitched beholders, Lo! there the indifferent spectators viewing the warfare as a dream (by their prajna or inward vision of the mind).

49. The field of battle, where all other sounds are hushed under the clashing of arms, resembles the stage of the martial god Bhairava, chanting his pitiless war song in jarring cacophony.

50. The battlefield is turned to a sea of blood, filled with the sands of pounded weapons, and rolling with the waves of broken discuses.

51. All the quarters under the regents of the sky, are filled with martial music loudly resounding on all sides; and the rebellowing hills seem to challenge one another, in their aerial flight and fighting (as in contest of the gods and titans of old).

52. Alas for shame! says one, that these arrows flung with such force from the bow strings, and flying with such loud hissing, and glittering as red hot lightnings in the air, are foiled in their aim of piercing the impenetrable armours, and driven back by them to hit at the stony hills.

53. Hear me friend, that art tired with the sight, that it is time for us to depart from this place, ere we are pierced in our bodies by these sharp arrows flashing as fire, and before the day runs its course of the fourth watch (evening).

CHAPTER XXXV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLEFIELD.[20]

VASISHTHA said:—Then the waves of horse troops mounting to the sky, made the battlefield appear as a raging sea.

2. The moving umbrellas floated as its foam and froth, and the feathered silvery arrows glided like the finny pearly fishes in it, while the high flight and rush of the cavalry, heaved and dashed as surges of the sea.

3. The rushing of the weapons resembled the running of its currents, and the circles of the soldiers were as vortices of its waters. The elephants were as its islets and their motions resembled the moving rocks in it.

4. The whirling disks were as its eddies, and the flying hairs on the heads likened its floating weeds. The sparkling sands were as its shining waters, and the flash of swords like its glassy spray.

5. The gigantic warriors were its whales and alligators, and the resounding caverns like its gurgling whirlpools.

6. The flying arrows were like its swimming fishes, and the floating flags likened its uprising waves and bores.

7. The shining weapons formed the waters of this ocean and their whirlpools also, while the long lines of forces appeared as the huge and horrible bodies of its whales.

8. Soldiers clad in black iron armour, were as the dark blue waters of the deep, and the headless bodies groveling in dust were as the eddies of the sea, with the encircled equipments as the sea weeds.

9. The showers of arrows had obscured the skies with a mist, and the confused rattlings of the battlefield, were as the roarings of the clouds.

10. The flying and falling heads of the slain soldiers, resembled the large drops of rain, and their bodies were as pieces of wood, whirling in the eddies of the disks.

11. The bold bowyer, bending his strong bow in the form of a curve, and leaping above the ground, resembled the spouting sea, rising from underneath the ground with his heaving waves on high.

12. The unnumbered umbrellas and flags, that were moving up and down in the field, were as the foaming and frothing sea, rolling in waves of blood, and carrying away the beams and timbers of the broken cars in its current.

13. The march of the army resembled the flowing of the sea waters, and the blood spouting from the wounds of the elephants likened its bubbles, while the moving horses and elephants represented the sea animals in their motion.

14. The battlefield had become like the wondrous field of the air, where the furious war, like a tremendous earthquake, shook the hills like moving clouds in the sky.

15. Here the waves were undulating like flights of birds in the air, and the groups of elephants falling aground like rocks, and the cowardly ranks were murmuring like herds of the timorous deer.

16. The field is turned to a forest of arrows, and wounded soldiers are standing fixed on the ground as trees, with the arrows flying as locusts, and the horses moving like antelopes in it.

17. Here the loud drum sounded as the humming of bees in the hollows of trees, and the army appearing as a mist, with the bold warrior sprawling like a lion in it.

18. The dust was rising in clouds and the forces falling as rocks; the huge cars broken down as hills, and the flaming swords shining on all sides.

19. The rise and fall of the foot soldier’s feet flitted like the falling flowers on the ground, and the flags and umbrellas o’ertopped it as clouds; it was overflown by streams of blood, and the high-sounding elephants falling as thundering showers of rain.

20. The war was as the last doom of death ready to devour the world, and destroy the flags and banners, the umbrellas and chariots in a confused chaos.

21. The shining weapons were falling like fragments of the refulgent sun, and burning all things as a burning pain inflames the soul and mind.

22. The out-stretched bows were as rainbows, and the falling arrows as showers of rain; the flying sabres resembled the forky lightnings, and their falling fragments like the sparkling hailstones.

23. The dire massacre made a sea of blood, with the hurling stones as its shoals and rocks; while the flying arms resembled the falling stars from heaven.

24. The sky was as a sea full of the whirlpools of the groups of disks and circlets, that were hurled in the air; and there were the burning fires, that performed the funerals of the slain.

25. The missiles were as bolts of thunder, which struck the rock-like elephants dead in the field, to block the passage of men.

26. The earth and sky were obscured by a thick cloud of showering arrows, and the army below was a sea of tempestuous warfare and bloodshed.

27. The destructive weapons were flying on all sides, like huge dragons of the sea, carried aloft by gusts of wind from the stormy main.

28. The flying arms of bolts and swords, disks, pikes and lances, were blazing and breaking one another in the air with such hideous noise, that it seemed to be a second deluge, when the last tornado blew up everything on high scattering them in all directions, and crushing and smashing them with a tremendous peal.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

SECTION I.

COLLISION OF EQUAL ARMS AND ARMIGERENTS.

THE heaps of arrows rising in spires above the ground, drove the cowards and the wounded afar from the field.

2. The hills of the dead bodies of men, horses and elephants, heaving in promiscuous heaps, and appearing as clouds fallen upon earth, invited the Yakshas and Rákshasas, and the carnivorous Pisáchas, to come and sport in the wide ocean of blood.

3. Now there commenced a commutual contest, betwixt men of rank and virtue, and those of good character, valour and strength on both sides; not excepting even the holy and household people, all of whom took part in the combat (that is, no condition of life, nor age nor sex, could escape the contagion of a warfare).

4. Duels were fought between these, like the clashing of one cloud with another; and like the confluence of two streams discharging their fury against each other.

5. As a rib is joined to another, and one side with the other, so met the horse against the horse, and elephant opposed the elephant in mutual conflict.

6. As one forest clasps and clings to another, and one hill is linked with the other in a range, so the duelists strove together, as one wave dashes against the other.

7. Footmen fought with footmen, as the reeds crush the reeds, and bamboos clash against one another, and the contrary winds struggle between themselves.

8. Cars falling upon cars, and chariots running against chariots, broke one another to pieces; and the citizens beat the rustics, as the Devas smote the demons of old.

9. The sky which had been erewhile clouded by the flight of arrows, was now emblazoned by the banner of the bowyer, resembling the rainbow of various colours.

10. At last the warriors who were overpowered in their conflict with unequal arms, fled away from the field, as they do from the fire of a conflagration.

11. Now the armigerents with discuses, met the thwarters of disks (chakras) in contest; and bowyers were opposed to bowmen, and swordsmen challenged the sword fighters in the field. So met the hookers and crookers with their co-rivals with crowbars (bhusundis) in hand.

12. Maces were opposed to maces (musalas), and lancers were set against the lance bearers (kuntas) in fighting. Spearmen braved the spearmen (rishtis), and the throwers of missiles were crossed with missives (prásas) in hand.

13. Mallets militated against mallets (mudguras), and clubs were contravened by clubmen in the conflict. Combatants with pikes (saktis), encountered the pikemen (sakti-dharas) face to face; and iron rods were crossed to pointed rods (súlas) in the strife.

14. Pugilists with missive weapons, counteracted the missiles of their antagonists (prásas), and those fighting with battle axes (parasus), baffled the poleaxes and pickaxes (paraswadhas) of their foes.

15. Trappers with their traps and snares, attacked the darters of nooses and lassos (pásas); and the darters of javelins (sankus), withstood the darts of the dartsmen on the other side. Daggers were opposed to daggers (kshurikas), and cudgels were presented before the cudgels (bhindipálas of the enemy).

16. Combatants with iron gloves contravened the boxers with iron fistcuffs (Vajramushtis), and those with iron cranes, pursued the fighters with crooked goads (ankusas) in hand. Warriors with ploughshares attacked the ploughmen, and those with tridents, fell upon the trident holders (trisúlins) in contest.

17. Champions with chained armours set upon the soldiers attired in mail (srinkhala jála); and they poured upon the field as flights of locusts, or as the waves in the troubled sea.

18. The air also seemed as a sea, with flying disks whirling as whirlpools (chakravartas), and the flight of reeds whistling like gusts of wind; while the range of running weapons seemed as sharks and dolphins moving about it.

19. The hollow of the heaven became as the great deep of the sea, impassable by the celestials, owing to the waving weapons, moving as sea monsters in the air.

20. Thus the armies of the two belligerent potentates, each composed of eight ranks or battalions, were furiously engaged with one another, as described below.

SECTION II.

CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES.

21. Now hear me relate to you, the forces on the side of Padma, now named Vidúratha, and the allied powers that came to his side, from the Central and Eastern districts.

22. There came the hardy warriors of Kosala (Oudh) and Kási (Benares); those of Magadha (Behar) and Utkala (Orissa), situated in the east; and the Mekhalas (of Vindhya range), the Karkars (of Karnatic), and the Madras (of Madura) in the south.

23. The chiefs of Hema (Imaus) and Rudras and the Támraliptas (Tamils) from the south; the Prágjyotishas (of east Assam), and the horse faced Osmuks and Ambashtha cannibals.

24. Then there joined the Varna-koshthas and Viswotras, and the eaters of raw food and flesh and the fish eaters (piscivori); and those with faces like tigers, the Kiratas (Kirrhoids and Kira-antis), with the Sauviras and one legged people.

25. Next came the mountaineers of Mályavána, Sibira and Anjanagiri; and others having the ensigns of bulls and lotuses, and the people of the sun rising mountain (Udaya-giri) in the east.

26. Those that joined from the south east (prágdaxina), are the following, namely; the Vindhyaris, the Chedis, the Vatsas, the Dasárnas (near the confluence of the ten streams); and the Angas, Bangas and Upabangas (of Upper and Lower Bengal).

27. They that met from the south were, Kalingas and Pundras, the Jatharas, Vidarbhas and the hill people (on the Karnatic coast); the Sabaras, the outcasted savages, the Karnas and the Tripura people.

28. Those named Kantakas from their thorny district, the unenlightened Komalas (of Comilla?); the Karnas (Canarese), the Ándhras, the Cholas and the people on the borders of the Charmanvati river.

29. The Kakos or bald-headed and bearded people, and those of the Hema-kuta hills; the frizzled and long necked people, and the inhabitants of Kishkindha and cocoa forests.

30. The princes that joined with Lílá’s husband from the south, were as follows viz. the Vindhyans, the Kusumians (of Patna), the Mahendras and the Darduras (of the hills of the same names).

31. The Malays and the solar race, and the Prince of the (33) united states and the rich and united cities of Avanti and Sámbavati.

32. And those of Dasapura (or ten cities) of Katha (Kota), Chakra, Reshika Cutch and others, and the foresters of Upagiri and Bhadragiri hills.

33. The prince of Nagore and the chiefs of Dandaka forest, and the joint states of the people; the Sahas, Saivas, and the hill people of the Rishyamuka and Karkota and the Vimbila foresters.

34. Then came the inhabitants from the banks of Pampá, the Kerakas and Karkaviras; with the Kherikas, Asikas and the people of Dhrumapattana.

35. Next came the Kásikas and Khallukas, the Yadas and Tamraparnikas; the Gonardas, the Kanakas and the people of Dinapattam.

36. The Tamris (Tamils), Kadambharas, Sahakáras and Enakas (or deer hunters); the Vaitundas, Tumba-vanalas, and those attired in deer and elephant skins.

37. Then came the lotus-like Sibis and Konkans and the inhabitants of Chitrakuta mountains; with the people of Karnata, the Mantas, Batakas and those of Cattak.

38. The Andhras and Kola hill people (Koles), the Avantis and Chedis; with the Chandas and Devanakas and Kraunchavahas.

39. At last came the people from the three peaks of Chitrakúta mountains, called the Silákhára, Nanda mardana and Malaya, which were the seats of the guardian Bákshasas of Lanká.

40. Then those of the southwest where there is the great realm of Surástra (Surat), with the kingdoms of Sindhu (Sinde) Sauvira, Abhíra, and Dravidas (in Deccan).

41. Also those of the districts of Kikata, Siddha Khanda, and Káliruha, and the mount Hemagiri or golden hills and the Raivataka range.

42. Then the warriors of Jaya Kachchha (the victorious Cutch), and Mayavara (Mewar); as also the Yavanas (Ionians), the Bahlikas (Balkhs), the Marganas (nomads), and the grey coloured Tumbas (on the north).

43. Then there came Lahsa races and many hill peoples, inhabiting the borders of the sea (Caspian), forming the limit of the dominion of Lílá’s husband (Hindu Government) on the north.

44. Now know the names of the countries belonging to the enemy in the west, and of those composed of the following mountain ranges, viz.

45. The mount Manimán and the Kurar-pana hills, with the hillocks of Vanorka, Megha-bhava, and the Chakra-vana mountain.

46. There is the country of the five peoples limiting the territory of the Kása Brahmans, and after that the Bháraksha, the Páraka and Sántika countries.

47. Thence stretch the countries of the Saivyas, Amarakas, the Pachchyas (Páschátyas) and Guhutwas; and then the Haihaya country, and those of the Suhyas, Gayas and Tajikas and Hunas (Huns).

48. Then along the side of some other countries, there is the range of Karka hills, inhabited by barbarous people, devoid of caste, customs and limits of moral duties.

49. Thence stretches a country hundreds of leagues in length, to the boundary mountain of Mahendra, abounding in rich stones and gems.

50. After that stands the Aswa range with hundreds of hills about it; and extending to the dread ocean on the north of the Pariyátra range. (Paropamisus).

51. On the north western side, there are countries beyond the boundary mountains (of Asia), where Venupati was the king of the land.

52. Then there are the countries of the Phálgunakas and Mándavayas and many other peoples; and those of Purukundas and Paras (Paris?) as bright as the orb of the sun.

53. Then the races of Vanmilas and Nalinas and the Dirghas; who are so called, from their tall statures and long arms and hairs. Then there are the Rangas (Red men), Stánikas with protuberant breasts, and the Guruhas and Chaluhas.

54. After that is the kingdom of women (ruled by a queen), where they feed upon bullocks and heifers. Now about the Himálayas and its hills in the north (of India):—

55. These are the Krauncha and Madhumán hills; and the Kailása, Vasumán and the Sumeru peaks; at the foot of which are the people, known under many names.

56. Beside these there met the warlike tribes of India consisting of the Madrawars, Malavas and Sura-senas. The Rajputs of the race of Arjuna, the Trigartas and the one legged people and Khudras.

57. There were the Abalas, Prakhalas, and Sakas (Saccæ or Scythians). The Khemadhúrtas, the Dasadhanas, the Gavásanas and Dandahanas (club fighters).

58. The Dhánadas and Sarakas and Bátadhánas also, with the islanders and Gándháras and Avanti warriors of Malwa.

59. The warlike Takshasilas (Taxilas), the Bílavas, Godhanas and the renowned warriors of Pushkara (Pokhra).

60. Then there were the Tíkshas and Kálavaras, and the inhabitants of the cities of Káhaka and Surabhúti likewise.

61. There were the people of the Ratikádarsa and Antarádarsa also; and the Pingalas, the Pandyas, Yamanas and Yátudhánas Rákshasas too.

62. There were also the races of men, known as Hematálas and Osmuks, together with the hilly tribes, inhabiting the Himalaya, Vasumán, Krauncha and Kailasa mountains.

63. Hear me now relate to you the peoples that came from the north east quarter, which extends a hundred and eighty leagues in its circumference.

64. There came also the Kalutas and Brahmaputras, the Kunidas and Khudinas, with the warlike Malavas and the champions of the Randhra and forest states.

65. Then there were the Kedavas and Sinhaputras of dwarfish statures; the Sabas (Sabæ or Sabians?), the Kaccæs, the Pahlavis (ancient Persians), the Kamiras and the Daradas (the present Darduis or Himalayan hills).

66. There were also the people of Abhisa, the Jarvakas, the Pulolas and Kuves; the Kirátas and Yamupatas, together with the poor and rich people of desert lands and tracts of gold.

67. Thus Lílá saw in one view, the residences of the devas; the forest lands and the earth in all their beauty. She saw all the seats of opulence (viswavasus), and the edifices with which they were adorned; she beheld the summit of Kailása, and the delightful groves at its foot, and the level lands traversed by the aerial cars of Vidyádhara and celestial beings.[21]

CHAPTER XXXVII

CATALOGUE OF THE FORCES CONTINUED.[22]

VASISHTHA said:—Thus the ravaging war was making a rapid end of men, horse, elephants and all; and the bravos coming foremost in the combat, fell in equal numbers on both sides.

2. These (as named before), and many others were reduced to dust and ashes; and the bravery of the brave, served but to send them like poor moths to the fire and flame of destruction.

3. Know now the names of the central districts, not yet mentioned by me, that sent their warriors to the field, in favour of the consort prince of Lílá.

4. These were the inland forces of Sursena (Muttra), the Gudas (Gaudas?), and the Asganas (?); the Madhymikas and they that dwell under sunlight (the tropics).

5. The Sálukas and Kodmals, and Pippaláyanas; the Mándavyas, Pandyans, Sugrívas and Gurjars.

6. The Páriyátras, Kurashtras, Yamunas and Udumvaras; the Raj-waras, the Ujjainas, the Kálkotas (Calicuts) and the Mathuras (of Muttra).

7. The Pánchálas (Pánjábis), the Northern and Southern Dharmakshetras; the Kurukshetriyas, Pánchálakas and Sáraswatas.

8. The line of war chariots from Avanti, being opposed by the arms of the warriors of the Kunta and Panchanada districts, fell in fighting by the sides of the hills.

9. Those arrayed in silken attire, being dismantled by the enemy, fell upon the ground, and were trodden down by the elephants.

10. The bravadoes of Daspura, being hacked in their breasts and shoulders by the hostile weapons, were pursued by the Banabhuma warriors, and driven to the distant pool.

11. The Sántikas being ripped in their bellies, lay dead and motionless in naked field, and wrapped in their mangled entrails, which were torn and devoured by the voracious Pisáchas at night.

12. There the veteran and vociferous warriors of Bhadrasiri, who were well skilled in the battle field, drove the Amargas to the ditch, as they drive the tortoises to their pits.

13. The Haihayas were driving the Dandakas, who like fleet stags were flying with the swiftness of winds, and all gushing in blood by the pointed and piercing arrows of the enemy.

14. The Daradas were gored by the tusks of the elephants of their enemies, and were borne away in floods of their blood, like the broken branches of trees.

15. The Chínas (Chinese) were mangled in their bodies by darts and arrows, and cast their tortured bodies in the water, as a burden they could no longer support.

16. The Asúras, pierced in their necks by the flying lances of the Karnatic lancers, fled in all directions like the faggots of fire, or as the flying meteors of heaven.

17. The Sákas and Dásakas were fighting together, by holding down one another by the hair on their heads, as if the whales and elephants were struggling mutually from their respective elements.

18. The flying cowards were entrapped in the snares cast by the Dasárna warriors, as dolphins hiding under the reeds, are dragged out by nets on the blood-red shore.

19. The lifted swords and pikes of the Tongas (Tonguise), destroyed the Gurjara (Guzrati) force by hundreds, and these like razors balded the heads (i.e. made widows) of hundreds of Gurjara women. (It is their custom to remain baldheaded in widowhood).

20. The lustre of the lifted weapons of the warriors, illumined the land as by flashes of lighting; and the clouds of arrows were raining like showers of rain in the forest.

21. The flight of the crowbars (bhusundis), which untimely obscured the orb of the sun, affrighted the Abhíra (cowherd) warriors with the dread of an eclipse, and overtook them by surprise, as when they are pursued by a gang of plunderers of their cattle.

22. The handsome gold collared army of the Támras or tawny coloured soldiers, were dragged by the Gauda warriors, as captors snatch their fair captives by the hair.

23. The Tongons were beset by the Kanasas, like cranes by vultures with their blazing weapons, destroying elephants and breaking the discuses in war.

24. The rumbling noise (gudugudurava), raised by the whirling of cudgels by the Gauda gladiators, frightened the Gándháras to a degree, that they were driven like a drove of beasts, or as the dreading Drávídas from the field.

25. The host of the Sáka or Scythian warriors, pouring as a blue torrent from the azure sky, appeared by their sable garb as the mist of night, approaching before their white robed foes of the Persians.

26. The crowded array of lifted arms in the clear and bright atmosphere, appeared as a thick forest under the milk white ocean of frost, that shrouds the mountainous region of Mandara.

27. The flights of arrows which seemed as fragments of clouds in the air from below, appeared as waves of the sea, when viewed by the celestials from above.

28. The air appeared as a forest thickly beset by the trees of spears and lances, with the arrows flying as birds and bees; and innumerable umbrellas, with their gold and silver mountings, appearing as so many moons and stars in the sky.

29. The Kekayas made loud shouts, like the war whoops of drunken soldiers, and the Kankas covered the field like a flight of cranes, and the sky was filled with dust over their heads.

30. The Kiráta army made a purling noise (kulakula) like the effeminate voice of women; causing the lusty Angas to rush upon them with their furious roar.

31. The Kásas (Khasias) covering their bodies with kusa grass (in their grassy garbs), appeared as birds with feathers, and raised clouds of dust by flapping their feathered arms.

32. The giddy warriors of Narmada’s coasts, came rushing in the field unarmed with their weapons, and began to fleer and flout and move about in their merry mood.

33. The low statured Sálwas came with the jingling bells of their waist bands, flinging their arrows in the air, and darting showers of their darts around.

34. The soldiers of Sibi were pierced with the spears hurled by the Kuntas. They fell as dead bodies in the field, but their spirits fled to heaven in the form of Vidyádharas.

35. The Pándu-nagaras were laid groveling on the ground in their quick march, by the mighty and light footed army, who had taken possession of the field.

36. The big Páncha-nadas (Punjabis), and the furious warriors of Kási (Benares), crushed the bodies of stalwart warriors with their lances and cudgels, as elephants crush the mighty trees under their feet and tusks.

37. The Burmese and Vatsenis were cut down on the ground by the disks of the Nípas (Nepalese); and the Sahyas were sawn down with saws as withered trees.

38. The heads of the white Kákas (Caucasians), were lopped off with sharp axes; and their neighbouring prince of the Bhadras was burnt down by the fiery arrows (fire arms).

39. The Matangajas (of Elephanta) fell under the hands of Káshthayodhas (of Katiawar), as old unchained elephants falling in the miry pit; and others that came to fight, fell as dry fuel into the blazing fire.

40. The Mitragartas falling into the hands of the Trigartas, were scattered about as straws in the field, and having their heads struck off in their flight, they entered the infernal regions of death.

41. The weak Vanila force, falling into the hands of the Magadha army, resembling a sea gently shaken by the breeze, went down in the sands, as lean and aged elephants.

42. The Chedis lost their lines in fighting with the Tongans, and lay withered in the field of battle, as flowers when scattered in the plains, fade away under the shining sun.

43. The Kosalas were unable to withstand the war cry of the deadly Pauravas, and were discomfited by showers of their clubs, and missile arrows and darts.

44. Those that were pierced by pikes and spears, became as coral plants red with blood all over their bodies, and thus besmeared in bloodshed, they fled to the sheltering hills like red hot suns to the setting mountains (astáchala).

45. The flight of arrows and weapons borne away by the rapid winds, moved about in the air as fragments of clouds, with a swarm of black bees hovering under them.

46. The flying arrows seemed as showering clouds, and their feathers appeared as the woolly breed; their reedy shafts seeming as trees, were roving with the roar of elephants.

47. The wild elephants and people of the plains, were all torn to pieces like bits of torn linen.

48. War chariots with their broken wheels, fell into the pits like the broken craigs of mountains, and the enemy stood upon their tops as a thick mist or cloud.

49. The multitude of stalwart warriors meeting in the field, had given it the appearance of a forest of tála and tamála trees; but their hands being lopped off by weapons, they made it appear as a mountainous wood, with its clumps of tapering pine trees.

50. The youthful damsels of Paradise were filled with joy and glee, to find the groves of their native hill (Meru), full of the brave champions (fallen in the field).

51. The forest of the army howled in a tremendous roar, until it was burnt down by the all devouring fire of the enemy.

52. Hacked by the Pisáchas (Assamese), and snatched of their weapons by the Bhutas (Bhoteas), the Dasárnás (at the confluence of the ten streams of Vindhya) threw off their staffs, and fled as a herd of heifers (nikuchya karnidhavati—bolted with their broken staves. Pánini).

53. The Kásias were eager to despoil the tinsels from the dead bodies of the chiefs by their valour, as the summer heat robs the beauty of lotuses in a drying pool.

54. The Tushákas were beset by the Mesalas, with their darts, spears and mallets; and the sly Katakas were defeated and driven away by the Narakas in battle.

55. The Kauntas were surrounded by Prastha warriors, and were defeated like good people by the treachery of the wily.

56. The elephant drivers, that struck off the heads of their hosts in a trice, were pursued by the harpooners, and fled with their severed heads, as they do with the lotus-flowers plucked by their hands.

57. The Sáraswatas fought on both sides with one another until it was evening, and yet no party was the looser or gainer, as in a learned discussion between pandits and among lawyers.

58. The puny and short statured Deccanese, being driven back by the Rákshas of Lanka, redoubled their attack on them, as the smothering fire is rekindled by fuel.

59. What more shall I relate Ráma about this war, which baffles the attempt of the serpent Vásuki even, to give a full description of it with his hundred tongues and mouths.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

CESSATION OF THE WAR.

VASISHTHA continued:—Now as the war was waging fiercely, with mingled shouts on both sides, the sun shrouded his burnished armour under the mist of darkness, and was about to set.

2. The waters of the limpid streams glided with the showers of stones flung by the forces, and falling on the fading clusters of lotuses growing in them.

3. Flashes of fire glittered in the sky, by the clashing of the shafts and darts below; and waves of arrows were seen, now approaching nigh and now receding at a distance.

4. Severed heads like loose lotuses, floated and whirled in the whirlpools of blood below, and the sea of heaven was filled with flying weapons, moving as marine animals above.

5. The rustling of the breeze and the whistling of the overshadowing clouds of weapons, frightened the aerial Siddhas and sylvan apes, with the fear of an approaching rain.

6. The day declined after it had run its course of the eight watches (Yámárdhas), and assumed the graceful countenance of a hero, returning in glory, after he has fought his battle.

7. The army like the day, declined in splendour, being battered in its cavalry, and shattered in its force of elephants.

8. Then the commanders of the armies, in concert with the ministers of war, sent envoys to the hostile parties for a truce to the fighting.

9. Both parties agreed to the armistice, seeing how much they were harassed in the engagement; and the soldiers with one voice, gave their assent to it.

10. They hoisted their soaring banners of truce on the pinnacles of the highest chariots (rathas); and a crier on each side, mounted over one, to give proclamation to the armies below.

11. They furled the white flags on all sides, which like so many moons in the gloom of night, proclaimed peace on earth by cessation from contention.

12. Then the drums sent their loud peals around, which were resounded by roarings of the clouds (Pushkarávartas) above and all about.

13. The flights of arrows and weapons, that had been raging as fire in the atmosphere, now began to fall in torrents, like the currents of the lake Mansaravara on the ground below.

14. The hands and arms of the warriors were now at rest like their feet; as the shaking of trees and the surges of the sea are at an end after the earthquake is over.

15. The two armies now went their own ways from the field of battle, as the arms of the sea run into the land in different directions.

16. The armies being at rest, there was an end of all agitation in the field; as the waves of the ocean are lulled to rest, on its calm after a storm (literally, after its churning by the Mandara mountain).

17. It became in an instant as dreadful as the dismal womb of death (Pútaná); and as deep and dark as the hollow pit of the sea, after its waters were sucked up by Agastya (the sun).

18. It was full of the dead bodies of men and beasts, and flowed in floods of purpling blood; it was resonant with the sounds of insects, like a heath with the humming of beetles.

19. The gory bodies were gushing with blood, and gurgling as the waves of the sea; and the cries of the wounded who wished to live, pierced the ears, and throbbed the heart strings of the living.

20. The dead and wounded weltering side by side in streams of blood, made the living think the dead as still alive like themselves.

21. Big elephants lying dead in piles in the field appeared as fragments of clouds, and the heaps of broken chariots seemed as a forest dispersed by the storm.

22. Streams of blood were running with the dead bodies of horses and elephants, and heaps of arrows and spears and mattocks and mallets, flowing together with broken swords and missiles.

23. Horses were lying girt in their halters and harnesses, and the soldiers wrapt in their mails and armours; and flags and flappers and turbans and helmets lay scattered in the field.

24. The winds were rustling in the orifice of the quivers, like the hissing of arrowy snakes, or as the whistling of the breeze in the holes of bamboo trees; and the Pisáchas were rolling on beds of dead bodies, as upon their beddings of straws.

25. The gold chains of the helmets and the head ornaments of the fallen soldiers, glittered with the various colours of the rainbow, and greedy dogs and jackals were tearing the entrails of the dead like long ropes or strings.

26. The wounded were gnashing their teeth in the field of blood, like the croaking of frogs in the miry pool of blood.

27. Those clad in party coloured coats with a hundred spots on them, had now their arms and thighs gushing in a hundred streams of blood.

28. The friends of the dead and wounded, were wailing bitterly over their bodies; lying amidst the heaps of arrows and weapons, the broken cars and the scattered trappings of horses and elephants, which had covered the land.

29. Headless trunks of the goblins were dancing about with their uplifted arms touching the sky; and the stink of the carrion, fat and blood, filled the nostrils with nausea.

30. Elephants and horses of noble breed, lay dead and others gasping with their mouths gaping upwards; and the dashing of the waving streams of blood, beat as loud as drums against their rock-like bodies.

31. The blood gushing out of the pores of the wounded horses and elephants, ran like that of a wounded whale into a hundred streams. And the blood spouting from the mouths of the dying soldiers flowed into a hundred channels.

32. Those who were pierced with arrows in their eyes and mouths, were uttering an inaudible voice in their last gasp of death; and those pierced in their bellies, had their bowels gushing out with a horrible stench; while the ground was reddened with thickened blood issuing out of the wounds.

33. Half dead elephants grasped the headless trunks with their uplifted trunks (proboscis), while the loose horses and elephants, that had lost their riders, were trampling over the dead bodies at random.

34. The weeping, crying and tottering wives of the fallen soldiers, fell upon their dead bodies weltering in blood, and embracing them fast by their necks, made an end of themselves with the same weapons.

35. Bodies of soldiers were sent with their guides on the way, to fetch the dead bodies from the field; and the hands of their lively companions, were busily employed in dragging the dead.

36. The field had become a wide river running with waves of blood, and breaking into a hundred whirling streams, carrying the severed heads, as lotuses swimming in them, and the torn braids of hair floating as bushes on them.

37. Men were busy to extract the weapons from the bodies of the wounded, who lamented loudly on account of their dying in a foreign land, and losing their arms and armours and horses and elephants in the field.

38. The dying souls remembered their sons and parents, their dear ones and their adored deities, and called out by their names; and began to sigh and sob with heart-rending heigh-hos and alacks.

39. The brave that died cursed their fates, and those falling in their fighting with elephants, blamed the unkind gods they had adored in vain.

40. The cowards fearing to be killed betook themselves to base flight; but the dauntless brave stepped forward amidst the whirlpools of blood.

41. Some suffering under the agony of arrows piercing their mortal parts, thought upon the sins of their past lives, that had brought this pain upon them; while the blood sucking Vetálas, advanced with their horrid mouths for drinking the blood of the headless trunks (Kabandhas).

42. The floating flags and umbrellas and flappers, seemed as white lotuses in the lake of blood below, while the evening stretched her train of stars like red lotuses in the etherial sea above.

43. The battle field presented the appearance of an eighth sea of blood; the rathas or warcars forming its rocks, and their wheels its whirlpools; the flags being its foam and froth, and the white flappers as its bubbles. (There are seven seas only on record).

44. The field of blood with the scattered cars, appeared as a track of land plunged in mud and mire, and covered over with woods broken down and blown away by a hurricane.

45. It was as desolate as a country burnt down by a conflagration, and as the dry bed of the sea sucked up by the sage Agastya (the sun). It was as a district devastated by a sweeping flood.

46. It was filled with heaps of weapons, as high as the bodies of big elephants lying dead about the ground.

47. The lances which were carried down by the streams of blood, were as big as the palm trees growing on the summits of mountains. (Compare the description in Ossian’s poems).

48. The weapons sticking in the bodies of the elephants, seemed as the shining flowers growing on verdant trees: and the entrails torn and borne up by vultures, spread a fretted network in the sky.

49. The lances fixed beside the streams of blood, were as a woody forest on the bank of a river; and the flags floating on the surface, appeared as a bush of lotuses in the liquid-blood.

50. Dead bodies of men were drawn up by their friends, from the bloody pool in which they were drowned, and the embedded bodies of big elephants were marked by men by the jutting weapons sticking in them.

51. The trunks of trees which had their branches lopped off by the weapons, appeared as the headless bodies of slain soldiers, and the floating carcasses of elephants seemed as so many boats swimming in the sea of blood.

52. The white garments that were swept down by the current, seemed as the froth of the pool of blood, and were picked up by the servants sent to search them out.

53. The demoniac bodies of headless soldiers, were rising and falling in the field, and hurling large wheels and disks upon the flying army on all sides.

54. The dying warriors were frothing forth floods of blood from their throats, and stones stained with blood were inviting the greedy vultures to devour them.

55. Then there were groups of Sutála, Vetála and Uttála demons dancing their war dance about the field, and whirling the rafts of the broken cars upon the flying soldiers on all sides.

56. The stir and last gasp of those that were yet alive, were fearful to behold, and the faces of the dying and the dead that were covered in dust and blood, were pitiful to the beholder.

57. The devouring dogs and ravenous ravens beheld the last gasp of the dying with pity; while the feeders on carrions were howling and fighting on their common carcass, till many of them became dead bodies by their mutual fighting.

58. Now I have described the sea of blood, which flowed fast with the gore of unnumbered hosts of horses, elephants and camels, and of warriors and their leaders, and multitudes of cars, and war chariots; but it became a pleasure garden to the god of death, delighting in his bed of bloodshed, and grove of the weapons beset all around.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE-FIELD INFESTED BY NOCTURNAL FIENDS.

NOW the blood-red sun set down in the west, like a hero red with blood; and hid his lustre, which was dimmed by the brightness of the weapons of war in the western main.

2. The sky which had reflected the blood-red flush of the field of blood, was now dimmed by the setting of the glorious sun, and darkened by the veil of evening.

3. Thick darkness overspread the face of heaven and earth like the waters of the great deluge, and there appeared a body of ghosts (Vetálas), dancing in a ring and clapping their hands.

4. The face of the day like that of an elephant, being besmeared with the blackness of night fall, was again painted by the light of evening with the pearly spots of stars on the cheeks.

5. The busy buzz of Creation being silent in the dead darkness of night, like the humming of bees over the surface of the waters, the hearts of men were closed in sleep as in death, like the petals of the lotus at night.

6. The birds lay with their folded wings and fallen crests in their nests, as the dead bodies were lying in the field, covered with their wounds and weapons.

7. Then the fair moonbeams shone above, and the white lotuses were blown below; the hearts of men were gladdened, and the victors felt joyous in themselves.

8. The ruddy evening assumed the shape of the blood-red sea of battle, and the fluttering bees now hid themselves like the faces of the fallen soldiers.

9. There was an etherial lake above spangled with stars like the white lotuses on high; and here was the earthly lake below, beset by lotuses resembling the stars of heaven.

10. The bodies that were thought to be lost in darkness, were now recovered in light, as the gems hid under the water, are found scattered about in moonlight.

11. The battle field was filled by the Vetála demons, howling with their hideous cry; while bodies of vultures, crows and owls, were tearing the carcasses and sporting with the skeletons.

12. Then blazed the funeral piles as brightly as the starry frame on high, and the fire consumed the dead bodies together with their bones and raiments.

13. The fire burnt the bodies with their bones to ashes, after which it extinguished itself as if sated with plenty. The female fiends now began to sport in the water.

14. There arose a mingled cry of dogs and crows, of Yakshas and Vetálas, with the clapping of their hands; and bodies of ghosts were moving about as woods and forests.

15. The Dákinis (Dáyinis) were eager to steal away the flesh and fat from the piles, and the Pisáchas delighted in sucking the blood and the flesh and bones of the dead.

16. The demons were now looking and now lurking about the funeral piles, and the Rákshasas that rushed in, bore away the carcasses on their shoulders.

17. There came also bodies of ferocious Kumbhándas, and big Dámaras, uttering their barbarous cries of chumchum, and hovering over the fumes of fat and flesh in the shapes of clouds.

18. Bodies of Vetálas stood in the streams of blood like earthly beings, and snatched the skeletons with hideous cries.

19. The Vetála younglings slept in the bellies and chests of the elephants, and the Rákshasas were drinking their fill in the bloody field.

20. The giddy Vetálas fought with one another with the lighted faggots of the piles, and the winds were wafting the stench of the putrid carcasses on all sides.

21. The female fiends (Rúpikás), filled the baskets of their bellies with carrion, with a rat-a-tat (ratarata) noise; and the Yaksha cannibals were snatching the half-burnt carcasses from the funeral piles, as their roasted meat and dainty food (S. kali A. Kul).

22. Aerial imps (khagas) attacked the dead bodies of the big Bangas and black Kalingas, and flouted about with their open mouths, emitting the blaze of falling meteors.

23. The Vetála goblins fell down in the dark and discoloured blood-pits, lying hid in the midst of the heaps of dead bodies; while the Pisácha ogres and the leaders of Yogini sprites, laughed at them for their false step (vetála).

24. The pulling of the entrails (antras-ánts), vibrated as by striking the strings of wired instruments (tantras—or tánts); and the ghosts of men that had become fiends from their fiendish desires, fell a-fighting with one another.

25. Valiant soldiers were affrighted at the sight of the spectres (Rúpíkás); and the obsequies were disturbed by the Vetála and Rákshasa goblins.

26. The hobgoblins of the night (nisácharas), got frightened at the fall of the carcasses from the shoulders of the elves (Rúpíkás), who were carrying them aloft in the air; where they were waylaid by a throng of ghostly demons (bhúta-sankata).

27. Many dying bodies, that were lifted aloft with labour by the bogies (Dánas), were let to fall down dead on the ground, being found unfit for their food.

28. Pieces of blood-red flesh, fallen from the fiery jaws of jackals, resembled clusters of asoka flowers, strewn all around the funeral ground.

29. Vetála urchins were busy in putting on the scattered heads over the headless bodies of kabandhas (acephali); and bodies of Yaksha, Raksha and Pisácha ogres, were flashing as firebrands in the sky.

30. At last a thick cloud of darkness, covered the face or the sky, and the view of the hills and valleys, gardens and groves, was hid under an impenetrable gloom. The infernal spirits got loose from their dismal abodes, and ranged and ravaged at large over the field, as a hurricane under the vault of heaven.

CHAPTER XL.

REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN LIFE AND MIND.

VASISHTHA related:—The nocturnal fiends were thus infesting the gloomy field, and the myrmidons of death (Yama), roaming about it as marauders in the day time.

2. The naked and fleeting ghosts, were revelling on their provision of carrion in their nightly abode, and under the canopy of thick darkness, which was likely to be laid hold upon under the clutches of one’s hand (hasta-gráhya).

3. It was in the still hour of the gloomy night, when the host of heaven seemed to be fast bound in sleep, that a sadness stole in upon the mind of Lílá’s magnanimous husband (the belligerent prince Vidúratha by name).

4. He thought about what was to be done on the next morning, in council with his Counsellors; and then went to his bed, which was as white as moonlight, and as cold as frost. (A cold bed in the east vs. a warm one in the west).

5. His lotus-eyes were closed in sleep for a while in his royal camp, which was as white as the moonbeams, and covered by the cold dews of night.

6. Then the two ladies, issued forth from their vacuous abode, and entered the tent through a crevice, as the air penetrates into the heart and amidst an unblown bud of flower.

7. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, that the gross bodies of the goddesses, with their limited dimensions, could enter the tent through one of its holes, as small as the pore of a piece of cloth?

8. Vasishtha answered saying that:—Whoso mistakes himself to be composed of a material body, it is no way possible for him to enter a small hole with that gross body of his.

9. But he who thinks himself to be pent up in his corporeal body as in a cage, and obstructed by it in his flight, and does not believe himself to fill his frame, or to be measured by its length; but has the true notion of his inward subtle spirit, it is no way impossible for him to have his passage any where he pleases to go.

10. He who perceives his original spiritual state, as forming the better half of his body, may pass as a spirit through a chink; but whoso relies in his subsequent half of the material body, cannot go beyond it in the form of his intellect.

11. As the air never rises upward, nor the flame of fire ever goes downward; so it is the nature of the spirit to rise upward, as that of the body to go down; but the intellect is made to turn in the way in which it is trained.

12. As the man sitting in the shade, has no notion of the feeling of heat or warmth; so one man has no idea of the knowledge or thoughts of another person.

13. As is one’s knowledge so is his thought, and such is the mode of his life; it is only by means of ardent practice (of yoga and learning), that the mind is turned to the right course.

14. As one’s belief of a snake in a rope, is removed by the conviction of his error; so are the bent of the mind and course of conduct in life, changed from wrong to right by the knowledge of truth.

15. It is one’s knowledge that gives rise to his thoughts, and the thoughts that direct his pursuits in life: this is a truth known even to the young and to every man of sense.

16. Now then the soul that resembles a being seen in a dream or formed in fancy, and which is of the nature of air and vacuum, is never liable to be obstructed any where in its course: (for who can constrain the flight of his imagination?).

17. There is an intellectual body, which all living beings possess in every place. It is known both by consciousness, as well as the feelings of our hearts.

18. It is by the divine will, that the intellect rises and sets by turns. At first it was produced in its natural, simple and intellectual form, and then being invested with a material body, it makes together an unity of the person out of the duality (of its material and immaterial essences).

19. Now you must know the triple vacuity, composed of the three airy substances—the spirit, mind and space, to be one and the same thing (all the three being equally all pervasive); but not so their receptacle (of the material body), which has no pervasion.

20. Know this intellectual body of beings, to be like the air, present with every thing and every where (over which it extends and which it grasps in itself); just as your desire of knowing extends over all things in all places, and presents them all to your knowledge.

21. It abides in the smallest particles, and reaches to the spheres of heavens (which it grasps within itself): it reposes in the cells of flowers, and delights in the leaves of trees. (i.e. It stretches over all these things in its knowledge of them).

22. It delights in hills and dales, and dances over the waves of the oceans; it rides over the clouds, and falls down in the showers of rain and hailstones of heaven.

23. It moves at pleasure in the vast firmament, and penetrates through the solid mountains. Its body bears no break in it, and is as minute as an atom.

24. Yet it becomes as big as a mountain lifting its head to heaven, and as large as the earth, which is the fixed and firm support of all things. It views the inside and outside of every thing, and bears the forests like hairs on its body.

25. It extends in the form of the sky, and contains millions of worlds in itself; it identifies itself with the ocean, and transforms its whirlpools to spots upon its person.

26. It is of the nature of an uninterrupted understanding, ever calm and serene in its aspect; it is possessed of its intellectual form, from before the creation of the visible world, and being all comprehensive as vacuity itself, it is conversant with the natures of all beings.

27. It is an unreality as the appearance of water in the mirage, but manifests itself as a reality to the understanding by its intelligence. Without this (intellection), the intellectual man is a nil as the son of a barren woman, and a blank as the figure of a body seen in a dream.

28. Ráma asked:—How is that mind to which you attribute so many powers, and what is that again which you say to be nothing? Why is it no reality, and as something distinct from all what we see?

29. Vasishtha replied:—All individual minds are indued with these faculties, except all such individualities, whose minds are engrossed with the error (of the reality) of the outer world.

30. All the worlds are either of a longer or shorter duration, and they appear and disappear at times; some of these vanish in a moment, and others endure to the end of a Kalpa. But it is not so with the mind, whose progress I will now relate to you.

31. There is an insensibility which overtakes every man before his death; this is the darkness of his dissolution (mahá-pralaya-yáminí).

32. After the shocks of delirium and death are over, the spiritual part of every man, is regenerated anew in a different form, as if it was roused from a state of trance, reverie or swoon; (the three states of insensibility—avidyá-trayam).

33. And as the spirit of God, assumes his triune form with the persons of Brahmá and Viráj, after the dissolution of the world for its recreation; so every person receives the triplicate form of his spiritual, intellectual and corporeal beings, after the termination of his life by death.

34. Ráma said:—As we believe ourselves to be reproduced after death by reason of our reminiscence; so must we understand the recreation of all bodies in the world by the same cause. Hence there is nothing uncaused in it (as it was said with regard to the unproduced Brahmá and others).

35. Vasishtha replied:—The gods Hari, Hara and others, having obtained their disembodied liberation or videha-mukti, (i.e. the final extinction of their bodies, their minds and spirit as in nirvána), at the universal dissolution, could not retain their reminiscence to cause their regeneration.

36. But human beings having both their spiritual and intellectual bodies entire at their death, do not lose their remembrance of the past, nor can they have their final liberation like Brahmá, unless they obtain their disembodied state, which is possible to all in this life or hereafter, by the edification of their souls, through yoga meditation alone.

37. The birth and death of all other beings like yourself, are caused by their reminiscence, and for want of their disembodied liberation or eternal salvation.

38. The living soul retains its consciousness within itself, after its pangs of death are over; but remains in its state of insensibility by virtue of its own nature (called pradhána).

39. The universal vacuum is called nature (prakriti). It is the reflexion of the invisible divine mind (chit prativimbam); and is the parent of all that is dull or moving (Jadá-Jada), which are so produced by cause of their reminiscence or its absence (sansmriti and asmriti); the former causing the regeneration of living beings, and the latter its cessation as in inert matter.

40. As the living principle or animal life begins to have its understanding (bodha), it is called mahat or an intelligent being, which is possessed of its consciousness (ahankára). It has then the organs of perception and conception, added to it from their elements (tanmátras) residing in the vacuous ether.

41. This minutely intelligent substance, is next joined with the five internal senses, which form its body, and which is otherwise called its spiritual body (átivahika or lingadeha).

42. This spiritual being by its long association with the external senses, comes to believe itself as a sensible being; and then by imagining to have the sensible form, it finds itself invested with a material body (ádhibhautika-deha) as beautiful as that of a lotus.

43. Then seated in the embryo, it reposes in a certain position for sometime, and inflated itself like the air, until it is fully expanded.

44. It then thinks itself to be fully developed in the womb, as a man dreams of a fairy form in his sleep, and believes this illusion as a reality.

45. He then views the outer world, where he is born to die, just as one visits a land where he is destined to meet his death; and there remains to relish its enjoyments, as prepared for him.

46. But the spiritual man soon perceives every thing as pure vacuum, and that his own body and this world are but illusions and vain vacuities.

47. He perceives the gods, and human habitations, the hills and the heavens resplendent with the sun and stars, to be no more than abodes of disease and debility, decay and ultimate death and destruction.

48. He sees nothing but a sad change in the natures of things, and all that is movable or immovable, great or small, together with the seas, hills and rivers and peoples of this earth and the days and nights, are all subject to decay sooner or later.

49. The knowledge that I am born here of this father, and that this is my mother, these my treasures, and such are my hopes and expectations, is as false as empty air.

50. That these are my merits and these my demerits, and these the desires that I had at heart; that I was a boy and am now young; are the airy thoughts of the hollow mind.

51. This world resembles a forest, where every being is like a detached arbor; the sable clouds are its leaves, and the stars its full blown flowers.

52. The walking men are as its restless deer, and the aerial gods and demons its birds of the air; the broad day light is the flying dust of its flowers, and the dark night the deep covert of its grove.

53. The seas are like its rills and fountains, and the eight boundary mountains as its artificial hills; the mind is the great tank in it, containing the weeds and shrubs of human thoughts in abundance.

54. Wherever a man dies, he is instantly changed to this state, and views the same things every where; and every one thus rises and falls incessantly, like the leaves of trees in this forest of the world.

55. Millions of Brahmás, Rudras, Indras, Maruts, Vishnus and Suns, together with unnumbered mountains and seas, continents and islands, have appeared and disappeared in the eternal course of the world.

56. Thus no one can count the numbers of beings that have passed away, are passing and shall have to pass hereafter, nor such as are in existence and have to become extinct in the unfathomable eternity of Brahma.

57. Hence it is impossible to comprehend the stupendous fabric of the universe any how except in the mind, which is as spacious as the infinite space itself, and as variable as the course of events in the world.

58. The mind is the vacuous sphere of the intellect, and the infinite sphere of the intellect, is the seat of the Supreme.

59. Now know the whirlpool and waves of the sea to be of the same element, as the sea in which they rise and fall, though they are not of the same durable nature as the sea water, by reason of their evanescence. So the phenomena are the same with the Noumena, though none of these is a reality.

60. The etherial sphere of heaven, is but a reflexion of the intellectual sphere of the Divine mind, and the bright orbs of the firmament, are as gems in the bosom of Brahma. Its concavity is the cave of the mind of the Eternal One.

61. The world according to the sense in which I take it, as the seat of God, is highly interesting, but not so in your sense of its being a sober reality. So the meaning of the words “I and thou,” refers according to me to the intellectual spirit, and according to you to the living soul and body.

62. Hence Lílá and Sarasvatí, being in their vacuous intellectual bodies, were led by the pure desire of their souls, to every place without any obstruction or interruption.

63. The intellectual spirit has the power, to present itself wherever it likes, on earth or in the sky, and before objects known or unknown and wished to be known by it. It was by this power that they could enter into the tent of the prince.

64. The intellect has its way to all places and things, over which it exercises its powers of observation, reflection and reasoning to their full extent. This is known as the spiritual and unconfined body (Átiváhika), whose course cannot be obstructed by any restriction whatever.

CHAPTER XLI.

DISCRIMINATION OF ERROR.

VASISHTHA said:—Upon the entrance of the ladies in the tent, it appeared as a bed of lotuses; and its white vault, seemed as graceful as the vault of heaven with two moons rising at once under it.

2. A pure and cooling fragrance spread about it, as if wafted by the breeze from the Mandara flowers; and lulled the prince to sleep, with every body lying in their camps.

3. It made the place as pleasant as the garden of Eden (Nandana), and healed all the pains and cares of the people there. It seemed as a vernal garden, filled with the fragrance of the fresh blown lotuses in the morning.

4. The cooling and moon-bright radiance of the ladies, roused the prince from his sleep, as if he was sprinkled over with the juice of ambrosia.

5. He beheld upon his rising the forms of two fairies (apsarás), seated on two stools, and appearing as two moons risen on two pinnacles of the mount Meru.

6. The prince beheld them with wonder, and after being composed in his mind, he rose up from his bed, as the god Vishnu rises from his bed of the serpent.

7. Then advancing respectfully to them, with long strings of flowers in his hands, he made offerings of them to the ladies, with handfuls of flowers flung at their feet.

8. Leaving his pillowed sofa in the midst of the hall, he sat with his folded legs on the ground; and lowly bending his head, he addressed them saying:—

9. Be victorious, O moon-bright goddesses! that drive away all the miseries and evils and pains and pangs of life, by your radiance, and dispellest all my inward and outward darkness by your sunlike beams.

10. Saying so he poured handfuls of flowers on their feet, as the trees on the bank of a lake, drop down their flowers on the lotuses growing in it.

11. Then the goddess desiring to unfold the pedigree of the prince, inspired his minister, who was lying by, to relate it to Lílá.

12. He upon waking, saw the nymphs manifest before him, and advancing lowly before them, threw handfuls of flowers upon their feet.

13. The goddess said:—Let us know, O prince! who you are and when and of whom you are born herein. Hearing these words of the goddess, the minister spake saying:—

14. It is by your favour, O gracious goddesses! that I am empowered to give a relation of my prince’s genealogy to your benign graces.

15. There was a sovereign, born of the imperial line of Ixaku, by name of Mukunda-ratha, who had subjugated the earth under his arms.

16. He had a moon-faced son by name of Bhadraratha; whose son Viswaratha was father to the renowned prince Brihadratha.

17. His son Sindhuratha was the father of Sailaratha, and his son Kámaratha was father of Maháratha.

18. His son Vishnuratha was father of Nabhoratha, who gave birth to this my lord of handsome appearance.

19. He is renowned as Vidúratha, and is born with the great virtues of his sire, as the moon was produced of the milky ocean, to shed his ambrosial beams over his people.

20. He was begotten by his mother Sumitrá, as the god Guha of Gauri; and was installed in the realm at the tenth year of his age, owing to his father’s betaking himself to asceticism.

21. He has been ruling the realm since that time with justice; and your appearance here to night, betokens the blossoming of his good fortune.

22. O goddesses! whose presence is hard to be had, even by the merit of long devotion, and a hundred austerities, you see here the lord of the earth-famed Vidúratha, present before you.

23. He is highly blessed to-day by your favour. After saying these words, the minister remained silent with the lord of the earth.

24. They were sitting on the ground with their folded legs (padmásana), and clasped hands (kritánjali), and downcast looks; when the goddess of wisdom told the prince, to remember his former births, by her inspiration.

25. So saying, she touched his head with her hand, and immediately the dark veil of illusion and oblivion was dispersed from over the lotus of his mind.

26. It opened as a blossom by the touch of the genius of intelligence, and became as bright as the clear firmament, with the rays of his former reminiscence.

27. He remembered by his intelligence his former kingdom, of which he had been the sole lord, and recollected all his past sports with Lílá.

28. He was led away by the thoughts of the events of his past lives, as one is carried away by the current of waves, and reflected in himself, this world to be a magic sea of illusion.

29. He said: I have come to know this by the favour of the goddesses, but how is it that so many events have occurred to me in course of one day after my death.

30. Here I have passed full seventy years of my lifetime, and recollect to have done many works, and remember also to have seen my grand-sire.

31. I recollect the bygone days of my boyhood and youth, and I remember well all the friends and relatives and all the apparels and suite, that I had before.

32. The goddess replied:—Know O king! that after the fit of insensibility attending on your death was over, your soul continued to remain in the vacuum of the same place, of which you are still a resident.

33. This royal pavilion, where you think yourself to abide, is situated in the vacuous space, within the house of the Bráhman in that hilly district.

34. It is inside that house that you see the appearances of your other abodes present before you: and it was in that Bráhmana’s house, that you devoted your life to my worship.

35. It is the shrine within the very house and on the same spot, that contains the whole world which you are seeing all about you.

36. This abode of yours is situated in the same place, and within the clear firmament of your mind.

37. It is a false notion of your mind, which you have gained by your habitual mode of thinking, that you are born in your present state, of the race of Ixáku.

38. It is mere imagination, which has made you to suppose yourself to be named so and so, and that such and such persons were your progenitors, and that you had been a boy of ten years.

39. That your father became an ascetic in the woods, and left you in the government of the realm. And that you have subjugated many countries under your dominion, and are now reigning as the lord paramount over them.

40. And that you are ruling on earth with these ministers and officers of yours, and are observant of the sacrificial rites, and a just ruler of your subjects.

41. You think that you have passed seventy years of your life, and that you are now beset by very formidable enemies.

42. And that having waged a furious battle, you have returned to this abode of yours, where you are now seated and intend to adore the goddesses, that have become your guests herein.

43. You are thinking that these goddesses will bless you with your desired object, because one of them has given you the power of recollecting the events of your former births.

44. That these goddesses have opened your understanding like the blossom of a lotus, and that you have the prospect of getting your riddance from all doubts.

45. That you are now at peace and rest, and enjoy the solace of your solity; and that your long continued error (of this world), is now removed for ever.

46. You remember the many acts and enjoyments of your past life, in the body of prince Padma, before you were snatched away by the hand of death.

47. You now perceive in your mind, that your present life is but a shadow of the former, as it is the same wave, that carries one onward, by its rise and fall.

48. The incessant current of the mind flows as the stream of a river, and leads a man, like a weed, from one whirlpool into another.

49. The course of life now runs singly as in dreaming, and now conjointly with the body as in the waking state, both of which leave their traces in the mind, at the hour of death.

50. The sun of the intellect being hid under the mist of ignorance, there arises this network of the erroneous world, which makes a moment appear as a period of hundred years.

51. Our lives and deaths are mere phantoms of imagination, as we imagine houses and towers in aerial castles and icebergs.

52. The world is an illusion, like the delusion of moving banks and trees to a passenger in a vessel on water, or a rapid vehicle on land; or as the trembling of a mountain or quaking of the earth, to one affected by a convulsive disease.

53. As one sees extraordinary things in his dream, such as the decapitation of his own head; so he views the illusions of the world, which can hardly be true.

54. In reality you were neither born nor dead at any time or place; but ever remain as pure intelligence in your own tranquility of soul.

55. You seem to see all things about you, but you see nothing real in them; it is your all seeing soul, that sees every thing in itself.

56. The soul shines as a brilliant gem by its own light, and nothing that appears beside it, as this earth or yourself or any thing else, is a reality.

57. These hills and cities, these people and things, and ourselves also, are all unreal and mere phantoms, appearing in the hollow vault of the Bráhmana of the hilly district.

58. The kingdom of Lílá’s husband, was but a picture of this earth, and his palace with all its grandeur, is contained in the sphere of the same hollow shrine.

59. The known world is contained in the vacuous sphere of that shrine, and it is in one corner of this mundane habitation, that all of us here, are situated.

60. The sphere of this vaulted shrine, is as clear as vacuity itself, which has no earth nor habitation in it.

61. It is without any forest, hill, sea or river, and yet all beings are found to rove about in this empty and homeless abode (i.e. in the Divine Mind).

62. Here there are no kings, nor their retinue, nor any thing that they have on earth. Vidúratha asked:—If it is so, then tell me goddess! how I happened to have these dependants here?

63. A man is rich in his own mind and spirit, and is it not so ordained by the Divine mind and spirit also? If not, then the world must appear as a mere dream, and all these men and things are but creatures of our dreams.

64. Tell me goddess, what things are spiritually true and false, and how are we to distinguish the one from the other.

65. Sarasvatí answered:—Know prince that, those who have known the only knowable one, and are assimilated to the nature of pure understanding, view nothing as real in the world, except the vacuous intellect within themselves.

66. The misconception of the serpent in a rope being removed, the fallacy of the rope is removed also; so the unreality of the world being known, the error of its existence, also ceases to exist.

67. Knowing the falsity of water in the mirage, no one thirsts after it any more, so knowing the falsehood of dreams, no one thinks himself dead as he had dreamt. The fear of dreaming death may overtake the dying, but it can never assail the living in his dream.

68. He whose soul is enlightened with the clear light of the autumnal moon of his pure intellect, is never misled to believe his own existence or that of others, by the false application of the terms I, thou, this &c.

69. As the sage was sermonizing in this manner, the day departed to its evening service with the setting sun. The assembly broke with mutual greetings to perform their ablutions, and it met again with the rising sun, after dispersion of the gloom of night.

CHAPTER XLII.

PHILOSOPHY OF DREAMING. SWAPNAM OR SOMNUM.

THE man who is devoid of understanding, ignorant and unacquainted with the All-pervading principle, thinks the unreal world as real, and as compact as adamant.

2. As a child is not freed from his fear of ghosts until his death; so the ignorant man never gets rid of his fallacy of the reality of the unreal world, as long as he lives.

3. As the solar heat causes the error of water in the mirage to the deer and unwary people, so the unreal world appears as real to the ignorant part of mankind.

4. As the false dream of one’s death, appears to be true in the dreaming state, so the false world seems to be a field of action and gain to the deluded man.

5. As one not knowing what is gold, views a golden bracelet as a mere bracelet, and not as gold (i.e. who takes the form and not the substance for reality); so are the ignorant ever misled by formal appearances, without a knowledge of the causal element.

6. As the ignorant view a city, a house, a hill and an elephant, as they are presented before him; so the visibles are all taken only as they are seen, and not what they really are.

7. As strings of pearls are seen in the sunny sky, and various paints and taints in the plumage of the peacock; so the phenomenal world, presents its false appearances for sober realities.

8. Know life as a long sleep, and the world with myself and thyself, are the visions of its dream; we see many other persons in this sleepy dream, none of whom is real, as you will now learn from me.

9. There is but one All-pervading, quiet, and spiritually substantial reality. It is of the form of unintelligible intellect, and an immense outspreading vacuity.

10. It is omnipotent, and all in all by itself, and is of the form as it manifests itself everywhere.

11. Hence the citizens that you see in this visionary city, are but transient forms of men, presented in your dream by that Omnipotent Being.

12. The mind of the viewer, remains in its self-same state amidst the sphere of his dreams, and represents the images thought of by itself in that visionary sphere of mankind. (So the Divine Mind presents its various images to the sight of men in this visionary sphere of the world, which has nothing substantial in it).

13. The knowing mind has the same knowledge of things, both in its waking as well as dreaming states; and it is by an act of the percipient mind, that this knowledge is imprinted as true in the conscious souls of men.

14. Ráma said:—If the persons seen in the dream are unreal, then tell me sir, what is that fault in the embodied soul, which makes them appear as realities.

15. Vasishtha replied:—The cities and houses, which are seen in dreams are in reality nothing. It is only the illusion (máyá) of the embodied soul, which makes them appear as true like those seen in the waking state, in this visionary world.

16. I will tell you in proof of this, that in the beginning of creation the self-born Brahmá himself, had the notions of all created things, in the form of visionary appearances, as in a dream and their subsequent development, by the will of the creator; hence their creator is as unreal as their notions and appearances in the dream.

17. Learn then this truth of me, that this world is a dream, and that you and all other men have your sleeping dreams, contained in your waking dreams of this visionary world. (i.e. The one is a night dream and the other a day dream, and equally untrue in their substance).

18. If the scenes that are seen in your sleeping dream, have no reality in them, how then can you expect those in your day dreams to be real at all?

19. As you take me for a reality, so do I also take you and all other things for realities likewise, and such is the case with every body in this world of dreams.

20. As I appear an entity to you in this world of lengthened dreams; so you too appear an actual entity to me; and so it is with all in their protracted dreaming.

21. Ráma asked:—If both these states of dreaming are alike, then tell me, why the dreamer in sleep, does not upon his waking, think the visions in his dream, to be as real as those of his day dreaming state?

22. Vasishtha replied:—Yes, the day dreaming is of the same nature as night dreams, in which the dreamt objects appear to be real; but it is upon the waking from the one, as upon the death of the day dreamer, that both these visions are found to vanish in empty air.

23. As the objects of your night dreams do not subsist in time or place upon your waking, so also those of your day dream, can have no subsistence upon death.

24. Thus is every thing unreal, which appears real for the present, and it disappears into an airy nothing at last, though it might appear as charming as a fairy form in the dream.

25. There is one Intelligence that fills all space, and appears as every thing both within and without every body; It is only by our illusive conception of it, that we take it in different lights.

26. As one picks up a jewel he happens to meet with in a treasure house, so do we lay hold on any thing, with which the vast Intellect is filled according to our own liking. (Here we find the free agency of human will).

27. The goddess of intelligence, having thus caused the germ of true knowledge, to sprout forth in the mind of the prince, by sprinkling the ambrosial drops of her wisdom over it, thus spake to him in the end:—

28. I have told you all this for the sake of Lílá, and now, good prince, we shall take leave of you, and these illusory scenes of the world.

29. Vasishtha said:—The intelligent prince, being thus gently addressed by the goddess of wisdom, besought her in a submissive tone.

30. Vidúratha said:—Your visit, O most bounteous goddess, cannot go for nothing, when we poor mortals cannot withhold our bounty from our suppliant visitants.

31. I will quit this body to repair to another world, as one passes from one chain of dreams into another.

32. Look upon me, thy suppliant, with kindness, and deign to confer the favour I ask of thee; because the great never disdain to grant the prayers of their suppliants.

33. Ordain that this virgin daughter of my minister, may accompany me to the region, where I shall be led, that we may have spiritual joy in each other’s company hereafter.

34. Sarasvatí said:—Go now prince to the former palace of your past life, and there reign without fear, in the enjoyment of true pleasure. Know prince, that our visits never fail to fulfil the best wishes of our supplicants.

CHAPTER XLIII.

BURNING OF THE CITY.

THE goddess added:—Know further, O prince! that you are destined to fall in this great battle, and will have your former realm, presented to you in the same manner as before.

2. Your minister and his maiden daughter will accompany you to your former city, and you shall enter your lifeless corpse, lying in state in the palace.

3. We shall fly there as winds before you, and you will follow us accompanied by the minister and his virgin daughter as one returning to his native country.

4. Your courses thereto will be as slow or swift as those of horses, elephants, asses, or camels, but our course is quite different from any of these.

5. As the prince and the goddess were going on with this sweet conversation, there arrived a man on horse back before them in great hurry and confusion.

6. He said:—Lord! I come to tell that, there are showers of darts and disks, and swords and clubs, falling upon us as rain, from the hostile forces, and they have been forcing upon us as a flood on all sides.

7. They have been raining their heavy weapons upon us at pleasure, like fragments of rocks hurled down from the heads of high hills, by the impetuous gusts of a hurricane.

8. There they have set fire to our rock-like city, which like a wild fire, is raging on all sides. It is burning and ravaging with chat chat sounds, and hurling the houses with a hideous noise.

9. The smoke rising as heaving hills, have overspread the skies like diluvian clouds; and the flame of fire, ascending on high, resembles the phœnix flying in the sky.

10. Vasishtha said:—As the royal marshal was delivering with trepidation this unpleasant intelligence, there arose a loud cry without, filling the sky with its uproar (hallahalloo-kolá halam).

11. The twanging (tankára) of bow strings drawn to the ears, the rustling (sarsara) of flying arrows flung with full force; the loud roaring (bringhana) of furious elephants, and the shrieks (chitkára) of frightened ones.

12. The gorgeous elephants bursting in the city with a clattering (chatchata) sound; and the high halloos (halahala) of citizens, whose houses have been burnt down on the ground:—(Here dagdhadára Arabic daghdaghad-dár, means both a burnt house and also a burnt wife).

13. The falling and flying of burnt embers with a crackling noise (tankára); and the burning of raging fire with a hoarse sound (dhaghdhaga Arabic daghdagha, Bengali dhakdhak):—

14. All these were heard and seen by the goddesses and the prince and his minister, from an opening of the tent; and the city was found to be in a blaze in the darkness of the night.

15. It was as the conflagration or fiery ocean of the last day, and the city was covered by clouds of the hostile army, with their flashing weapons, waving on all sides.

16. The flame rose as high as the sky, melted down big edifices like hills by the all dissolving fire of destruction.

17. Bodies of thick clouds roared on high, and threatened the people, like the clamour (kala-kala) of the gangs of stout robbers, that were gathered on the ground for plunder and booty.

18. The heavens were hidden under clouds of smoke, rolling as the shades of Pushkara and Ávarta, and the flames of fire, were flashing, like the golden peaks of Meru.

19. Burning cinders and sparks of fire, were glittering like meteors and stars in the sky; and the blazing houses and towers glared as burning mountains in the midst.

20. The relics of the forces were beset by the spreading flames of clouds of fire, and the half burnt citizens (with their bitter cries), were kept from flight, for fear of the threatening enemy abroad.

21. Sleets of arrowy sparks flying in the air on all sides, and showers of weapons falling in every way, burnt and pierced the citizens in large numbers.

22. The greatest and most expert champions, were crashed under the feet of elephants in fighting; and the roads were heaped with treasures, wrested from the robbers in their retreat.

23. There were wailings of men and women at the falling of fire-brands upon them; and the splitting of splinters and the slitting of timbers emitted a phat-phat noise all around.

24. Big blocks of burning wood were blown up, blazing as burning suns in the air; and heaps of embers filled the face of the earth with living fire.

25. The cracking of combustible woods and the bursting of burning bamboos, the cries of the parched brutes and the howling of the soldiers, re-echoed in the air.

26. The flaming fire was quenched after consuming the royalty to ashes, and the devouring flame ceased after it had reduced everything to cinders.

27. The sudden outbreak of the fire was as the outburst of house breaking robbers upon the sleeping inhabitants; and it made its prey of everything (whether living or lifeless), that fell in its way.

28. At this moment the prince Vidúratha heard a voice, proceeding from his soldiers, at the sight of their wives flying from the scorching flames.

29. Oh! the high winds, that have blown the flames to the tops of our household trees, with their rustling sound (kharakhara) and hindered our taking shelter under their cooling umbrage.

30. Woe for the burning of our wives, who were as cold as frost to our bodies before (by their assuaging the smart of every pain); and whose ashes now rest in our breasts, like the lime of shells, i.e. in the sublimated state of spiritual bodies (súkshma-dehas).

31. Oh! the mighty power of fire, that has set to flame the forelocks of our fair damsels, and is burning the braids of their hair, like blades of grass or straws.

32. The curling smoke is ascending on high, like a whirling and long meandering river in the air, and the black and white fumes of fire, resemble the dark stream of Yamuná in one place, and the milky path of the etherial Gangá in another.

33. Streams of smoke bearing the brands of fire on high, dazzled the sight of the charioteers of heaven by their bubbling sparks.

34. There are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, relations and suckling babes, all burnt alive in the livid flames; and here are we burning in grief for them in these houses, which have been spared by the devouring fire.

35. Lo! there the howling fire is fast stretching to these abodes, and here the cinders are falling as thick as the frost of Meru.

36. Behold the direful darts and missiles dropping down as the driving rain, and penetrating the windows, like bodies of gnats in the shade of evening.

37. The flashing spears and flaming fire, flaring above the watery ocean of the sky, resemble the submarine fire ascending to heaven.

38. The smoke is rising in clouds, and the flames are tapering in the form of towers, and all that was humid and verdant, is sucked and dried up, as the hearts of the dispassionate.

39. The trees are broken down by the raging element, like posts of enraged elephants; and they are falling with a cracking noise (kata-kata), as if they were screaking at their fall.

40. The trees in the orchards, now flourishing in their luxuriance of fruits and flowers, are left bare by the burning fire, like householders bereft of their properties.

41. Boys abandoned by their parents in the darkness of the night, were either pierced by flying arrows or crushed under the falling houses, in their flight through the streets.

42. The elephants posted at the front of the army, got frightened at the flying embers driven by the winds, and fled with loud screaming at the fall of the burning houses upon them.

43. Oh! the pain of being put to the sword, is not more grievous, than that of being burnt by the fire, or smashed under the stones of the thundering engine.

44. The streets are filled with domestic animals and cattle of all kinds, that are let loose from their folds and stalls, to raise their commingled cries like the confused noise of battle in the blocked up paths.

45. The weeping women were passing as lotus flowers on land, with their lotus like faces and feet and palms, and drops of tears fell like fluttering bees from their lotiform eyes and wet apparel upon the ground.

46. The red taints and spots of alakávali, blazed as asoka flowers upon their foreheads and cheeks.

47. Alack for pity! that the furious flame of fire, should singe the black bee-like eyelids of our deer-eyed fairies; like the ruthless victor, that delights in his acts of inhumanity.

48. O the bond of connubial love! that the faithful wife never fails to follow her burning lord, and cremates herself in the same flame with him (this shows the practice of concremation to be older than the days of Válmíki and Viswámitra).

49. The elephant being burnt in his trunk, in breaking the burning post to which he was tied by the leg, ran with violence to a lake of lotuses, in which he fell dead. (Here is a play upon the homonymous word “pushkara,” in its triple sense of a lake, a lotus and the proboscis of an elephant).

50. The flames of fire flashing like flitting lightnings amidst the clouds of smoke in the air, were darting the darts of burning coals like bolts of thunder in showers.

51. Lord! the sparks of fire sparkling amidst the dusky clouds, appear as glittering gems in the bosom of the airy ocean, and seem by their twirling to gird the crown of heaven with the girdle of Pleiades.

52. The sky was reddened by the light of the flaming fires, and appeared as the courtyard of Death dyed with purple hues in joy for reception of the souls of the dead.

53. Alas! the day and want of manners! that the royal dames are carried away by these armed ruffians by force. (O tempores O mores).

54. Behold them dragged in the streets from their stately edifices, and strewing their paths with wreaths of flowers torn from their necks; while their half burnt locks are hanging loosely upon their bare breasts and bosoms.

55. Lo! their loose raiments uncovering their backs and loins, and the jewels dropt down, from their wrists, have strewn the ground with gems.

56. Their necklaces are torn and their pearls are scattered about; their bodies are bared of their bodices, and their breasts appear to view in their golden hue.

57. Their shrill cries and groans rising above the war cry, choked their breath and split their sides; and they fell insensible with their eyes dimmed by ceaseless floods of tears.

58. They fell in a body with their arms twisted about the necks of one another, and the ends of their cloths tied to each other’s; and in this way they were dragged by force of the ruffians, with their bodies mangled in blood.

59. “Ah! who will save them from this state,” cried the royal soldiers, with their piteous looks on the sad plight of the females and shedding big drops of their tears like lotuses.

60. The bright face of the sky turned black at the horrible sight, and it looked with its blue lotus-like eyes of the clouds, on the fair lotus-like damsels thus scattered on the ground.

61. Thus was the goddess of royal prosperity, decorated as she was with her waving and pendant locks, her flowing garments, flowery chaplets and gemming ornaments brought to her end like these ladies, after her enjoyment of the pleasures of royalty and gratification of all her desires.

CHAPTER XLIV.

SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THE VISION.

VASISHTHA said:—At this instant the great queen, who was in the bloom of youthful beauty, entered the camp of Vidúratha, as the goddess of grace pops upon the lotus flower.

2. She was decorated with pendant wreaths of flowers and necklaces, and accompanied by a train of her youthful companions and handmaids, all terrified with fear.

3. With her face as bright as the moon and her form as fair as the lily, she appeared as a luminary of heaven, with her teeth shining as sets of stars, and her bosom throbbing with fear.

4. Then the king was informed by one of her companions about the fate of the warfare, which resembled the onset of demons upon the Apsará tribe.

5. Lord! this lady, said she, has fled with us from her seraglio, to take refuge under thy arms, as a tender creeper seeks the shelter of a tree, from a rude gust of wind.

6. Behold! the ravishers ravishing the wives of the citizens with their uplifted arms, like the swelling waves of the sea carrying away the arbours of the bank in their rapid current.

7. The guards of the royal harem are all crushed to death by the haughty marauders, as the sturdy trees of the forest are broken down by the furious tornado.

8. Our armies frightened by the enemy from afar, dare not approach the falling city, as nobody ventures to rescue the lotus beds from a flood, under the threatening thunders of a rainy night.

9. The hostile force have poured upon the city in terrible numbers, and having set it on fire, are shouting loudly under the clouds of smoke, with their weapons brandishing on all sides.

10. The handsome ladies are dragged by the hair from amidst their families, in the manner of screaming cranes, caught and carried away by the cruel fowlers and fishermen.

11. Now we have brought this exuberant tender creeper to thee, that thou mayst save her from similar fate by thy might.

12. Hearing this, he looked at the goddesses and said, now will I go to the war from here, and leave this my lady as an humble bee at your lotus feet.

13. Saying so, the king rose in a rage from his seat and sprang like the enraged lion from the den, when pierced and pressed by the tusk of a furious elephant.

14. The widowed Lílá beheld the queen Lílá to be exactly of her form and features, and took her for a true inflexion of herself in a mirror.

15. Then said the enlightened Lílá to Sarasvatí:—Tell me, O goddess! how this lady here is exactly as myself, she is what I have been before, and how she came to be as myself.

16. I see this prime minister with all these soldiers and citizens, these forces and vehicles, to be the same as mine, and situated in the same place and manner as before.

17. How is it then, O goddess! that they came to be placed in this place. I see them as Images situated within and without the mirror of my mind, and know not whether these be living beings (or the false chimeras of my imagination).

18. Sarasvatí replied:—All our external perceptions of things, are the immediate effects of our internal conceptions of them. The intellect has the knowledge of all the intelligibles in it, as the mind has the impressions of mental objects in itself. (Or in other words:—the intellect is possessed of all intelligence, like the mind of its thoughts, as they present themselves in dreams. Gloss).

19. The external world appears in an instant in the same form and manner to one, as he has its notion and impression in his intellect and mind; and no distance of time or place, nor any intermediate cause can create any difference in them.

20. The inward world is seen on the outside, as the internal impressions of our minds, appear to be seen without us in our dreams. Whatever is within us, the same appears without us, as in our dreams and desires, and in all our imaginations and fancies of objects.

21. It is the constant habitude of your mind, that presented these things as realities to your sight, and you saw your husband in the same state in which you thought him to be, when he died in that city of yours.

22. It is the same place wherein he exists at present, and is presented with the same objects of his thought at present as he had at that moment. Any thing that appears to be different in this state, proceeds from the turn of his mind of thinking it so before.

23. All that appears real to him, is as unreal as his dream or desire, and the creation of his fancy; for every thing appears to be the same as it is thought of in the mind. (All external objects are representations of their prototypes in the mind).

24. Say therefore what truth can there be in these visionary objects, which are altogether unsubstantial as dreams, and vanish in the end into airy nothing.

25. Know then every thing to be no better than nothing; and as a dream proves to be nothing upon waking, so is waking also a dream and equally nothing at death.

26. Death in life time is a nullity, and life in death becomes null and extinct; and these extinctions of life and death, proceed from the fluctuating nature of our notions of them.

27. So there is neither any entity nor nonentity either, but both appear to us as fallacies by turns. For what neither was before, nor will be, after a Kalpa = creation or dissolution, the same cannot exist to-day or in any Yuga = age, whether gone before or coming afterwards.

28. That which is never inexistent, is the ever existent Brahma, and the same is the world. It is in him that we see everything to rise and fall by our fallacy, and what we falsely term as the creation or the created.

29. As phantoms appearing in the vacuum, are all vacant and void, and as the waves of the sea, are no other than its water; so do these created things exist and appear in Brahma only.

30. As the minutiæ appearing in the air, vanish in the air; and as the dust driven by the winds, are lost in the winds; so the false notions of yourself and myself, are lost in that Supreme self, in which all things rise and fall like waves of the ocean.

31. What reliance can there be in this dust of creation, which is no more than the water of the mirage? The knowledge of individualities is mere fallacy, when every thing is united in that sole unity.

32. We see apparitions in the dark, though the darkness itself is no apparition; so our lives and deaths are the false notions of our error, and the whole existence is equally the production of gross error (máyá).

33. All this is Himself, for He is the great Kalpa or will which produces every thing; it is He that exists when all things are extinct in Him; and therefore these appearances, are neither real nor unreal of themselves.

34. But to say both (the real and unreal) to be Brahma, is a contradiction; therefore it is He, who fills the infinity of space, and abides equally in all things and their minutest particles.

35. Wherever the spirit of Brahma abides, and even in the minute animalcule, it views the whole world in itself; like one thinking on the heat and cold of fire and frost, has the same sensation within himself at that moment. (Vide Hume).

36. So doth the pure intellect perceive the Holy Spirit of God within itself, just as one sees the particles of light flying in his closet at sunrise.

37. So do these multitudes of worlds, move about as particles in the infinite space of the Divine mind, as the particles of odoriferous substances oscillate in the empty air.

38. In this manner does this world abide in its incorporeal state in the mind of God, with all its modifications of existence and inexistence, emanation and absorption, of its condensation and subtilization and its mobility and rest.

39. But you must know all these modes and these conditions of being to belong to material bodies only and not to the spirit, which is unconditioned and indivisible (i.e. without attributes and parts).

40. And as there is no change or division of one’s own soul, so there is no partition or variation of the Supreme Spirit. It is according to the ideas in our minds, that we view things in their different aspects before us.

41. Yet the word world—visva—all, is not a meaningless term; it means the all as contained in Brahma (who is to pan). Therefore it is both real and unreal at the same time like the fallacy of a snake in a rope.

42. It is the false notion (of the snake), that makes the true (rope) to appear as the untrue snake to us, which we are apt to take for the true snake itself, so we take the Divine Intellect, which is the prime cause of all, as a living soul (like ours), by mistake.

43. It is this notion (of the living soul), that makes us to think ourselves as living beings, which whether it be false or true, is like the appearance of the world in empty air.

44. Thus these little animals delight themselves with their own misconceived idea of being living beings, while there are others who think themselves so, by their preconceived notions as such.

45. Some there are that have no preconceived notions, and others that retain the same as or somewhat different notions of themselves than before. Somewhere the inborn notions are predominant, and sometimes they are entirely lost.

46. Our preconceived notions of ourselves, represent unrealities as realities to our minds, and present the thoughts of our former family and birth, and the same occupations and professions before us (as also the enjoyments we had before and no more existent at present).

47. Such are the representations of your former ministers and citizens, imprinted as realities in your soul, together with the exact time and place and manner of their functions, as before.

48. And as the intelligence of all things, is present in the omniscient spirit of God, so is the idea of royalty inherent in the soul of the prince (i.e. like the ex-king Lear, he thinks himself every inch a king).

49. This notion of his goes before him as his shadow in the air, with the same stature and features, and the same acts and movements as he had before.

50. In this manner, Lílá! Know this world to be but a shadowy reflexion of the eternal ideas of God; and this reflection is caught by or refracted in the consciousness of all animal souls as in a prismatic mirror.

51. Everything shows itself in every place in the form in which it is; so whatever there is in the living soul, casts out a reflexion of itself, and a shadow of it is caught by the intellect, which is situated without it. (The mind is a mirror of the images in the soul).

52. Here is the sky containing the world, which contains this earth, wherein you and myself and this prince are situated, as reflexions of the One Ego only. Know all these to be contained within the vacuous womb of the Intellect, and to remain as tranquil and transparent as vacuity itself.

CHAPTER XLV.

THEISM CONSISTING IN TRUE KNOWLEDGE.

SARASVATÍ continued:—Know Lílá! this Vidúratha, thy husband, will lose his life in this battle-field; and his soul will repair to the sepulchre in the inner apartment, where it will resume its former state.

2. Upon hearing these words of the goddess, the second Lílá, who was standing by, bent herself lowly before the goddess, and addressed her with her folded palms.

3. The second Lílá’s speech. Goddess! the genius of intelligence is ever adored by me, and she gives me her visits in my nightly dreams.

4. I find thee here exactly of her likeness; therefore give me thy blessing, thou goddess with the beauteous face.

5. Vasishtha said:—The goddess being thus addressed by the lady, remembered her faith and reliance in her, and then spake with complacence to the lady standing suppliant before her.

6. The goddess said:—I am pleased my child, with thy unfailing and unslakened adoration of me all thy lifetime; now say what thou askest of me.

7. The second Lílá said:—Ordain O goddess, that I may accompany my husband with this body of mine to whatever place he is destined to go, after his death in the war.

8. The goddess replied:—Be it so my child; that hast worshipped me with all diligence and without fail, with flowers, incense and offerings.

9. Vasishtha said:—The second Lílá being gladdened by this blessing of the goddess, the first Lílá, was much puzzled in her mind at the difference of their states.

10. The first Lílá said:—Those who are desirous of truth, and they whose desires lean towards godliness, have all their wishes fulfilled without delay and fail.

11. Then tell me, goddess! why could I not keep company with my Bráhmana husband with my body of the Bráhmaní, but had to be taken to him in the hilly mansion after my death, (and reproduction in the present form).

12. The goddess answered saying:—Know O excellent lady! that I have no power to do anything; but every thing happens to pass according to the desire of the living being.

13. Know me only as the presiding divinity of wisdom, and I reveal everything according to my knowledge of it. It is by virtue of the intellectual powers as exhibited in every being, that it attains its particular end.

14. It is according to the development of the mental powers of living beings in every state, that it obtains its object in the manner and in the same state as it aims at.

15. You had attained the powers of your understanding by your devotedness to my service, and have always desired of me for being liberated from flesh.

16. I have accordingly awakened your understanding in that way, whereby you have been able to arrive at your present state of purity.

17. It was by cause of your constant desire of liberation, that you have gained the same state, by enlargement (of the powers) of your intellect.

18. Whoever exerts his bodily powers according to the dictates of his understanding, is sure to succeed in gaining his object sooner or later.

19. Performance of austerities and adoration of gods, are as vain without cultivation of the intellect, as to expect the falling of fruits from the sky.

20. Without cultivation of the intellect and exertion of manly powers, there is no way to success; do therefore as you may choose for yourself.

21. It is verily the state of one’s mind, that leads his internal soul to that state which it thinks upon, and to that prosperity which it attempts to obtain. 22. Now distinguish between what is desirable or disagreeable to you, and choose that which is holy and perfect, and you will certainly arrive to it.

CHAPTER XLVI.

ONSLAUGHT OF VIDÚRATHA.

RÁMA said:—Relate to me the acts of Vidúratha, after he went out enraged from the camp, and left the ladies and the goddess talking in that manner.

2. Vasishtha said:—Vidúratha left his camp in company with a large body of his companions like the bright moon beset by a host of stars.

3. He was in armour and girt by laces and girdles, and thus attired in his martial habit, he went forth amidst the loud war cry of vae victis, like the god Indra going to battle.

4. He gave orders to the soldiers and was informed of the battle array; and having given directions to his captains, he mounted his chariot.

5. It was adorned with mountings resembling the pinnacles of mountains and beset by five flags fringed with strings of pearls and gems, resembling a celestial car.

6. The iron hoops of its wheels flashed with their golden pegs, and the long and beautiful shaft of the car, rang with the tinkling of pearls which were suspended to it.

7. It was drawn by long necked, swift and slender horses of the best breed and auspicious marks; that seemed to fly in the air by their swiftness and bearing aloft a heavenly car with some god in it.

8. Being impatient of the swiftness of the winds, they spurred them with their hinder heels and left them behind, and sped the forepart of their bodies as if to devour the air, impeding their course.

9. The car was drawn by eight coursers with their manes hanging down their necks like flappers, and white spots or circlets resembling the disks of moon on their foreheads, and filling the eight sides around with their hoarse neighing. 10. At this time there rose a loud noise of the elephants, resounding like drums from the hollows of the distant hills.

11. Loud clamours (kala-kalas) were raised by the infuriate soldiers, and the tinkling of their belted trinkets (kinkini), and clashing of their weapons, rang afar in the open air.

12. The crackling (chatachata) of the bows, and the wheezing (shitkara) of the arrows, joined with the jangle (jhanjhana) of armours, by their clashing against one another, raised a confused hubbub all around.

13. The sparkling (kanatkara) of blazing fire, and the mutual challenge of the champions; the painful shrieks of the wounded and the piteous cry of captives, were seen and heard on all sides.

14. The mingled sounds thickened in the air, and filled its cavity and its sides as with solid stones and capable of being clutched in the hands.

15. Clouds of dust flew as fast and thick into the air, that they seemed to be the crust or strata of the earth, rising upward to block the path of the sun in the sky.

16. The great city was hid in the dark womb of the overspreading dust (rajas), as the ignorant state of man is covered in darkness by the rising passion (rajas) of juvenescence.

17. The burning lights became as dim, as the fading stars of heaven by day light, and the darkness of night became as thick, as the devils of darkness gather their strength at night.

18. The two Lílás saw the great battle with the virgin daughter of the minister from the tent; and they had their eyes enlightened with farsightedness by favour of the goddess.

19. Now there was an end of the flashing and clashing of the hostile arms in the city, as the flash and crash of submarine fires were put to an end by the all-submerging floods of the universal deluge.

20. Vidúratha collected his forces and without considering the superiority of the hostile power pressed himself forward amidst them, as the great Meru rushed into the waters of the great deluge.

21. Now the twanging of the bow strings emitted a clattering (Chatachata) sound; and the forces of the enemy advanced in battle array, like bodies of clouds with rainbows amidst them.

22. Many kinds of missiles flew as falcons in the air; and the black steel waved with a dark glare owing to the massacres they made.

23. The clashing swords flashed with living flames of fire by their striking against one another; and showers of arrows whistled like hissing rainfalls in the air.

24. Two edged saws pierced the bodies of the warriors; and the flinging weapons hurtled in the air by their clashing at and crashing of each other.

25. The darkness of the night was put to flight by the blaze of the weapons; and the whole army was pierced by arrows, sticking as the hairs on their bodies.

26. Headless trunks moved about as players in the horrid solemnity of the god of death (Yama); and the furies fled about at the dint of war, like the raving lasses at Bacchanal revelries.

27. Elephants fighting with their tusks, sent a clattering noise in the air; and the stones flung from the slings, flew as a flowing stream in the sky.

28. Bodies of men were falling dead on the ground, like the dried leaves of forests blown away by blasts; and streams of blood were running in the field of battle, as if the heights of war were pouring down the floods of death below.

29. The dust of the earth was set down by the floods of blood, and the darkness was dispelled by the blaze of weapons; all clamour ceased in intense fighting, and the fear for life, was lost under the stern resolution of death.

30. The fighting was stern without a cry or noise, like the pouring of rain in the breezeless sky, and with the glitter of swords in the darkened air, like the flashes of forky lightnings amidst the murky clouds.

31. The darts were flying about with a hissing noise (khad-khada); and the crow-bars hit one another with a harsh (taktaka) sound; large weapons were struck upon one another with a jarring noise (jhanjhana), and the dreadful war raged direfully in the dim darkness (timitimi) of the night.

CHAPTER XLVII.

ENCOUNTER OF SINDHU AND VIDÚRATHA.

VASISHTHA said:—As the war was waging thus furiously between the two armies, the two Lílás addressed the goddess of knowledge and said:—

2. “Tell us, O goddess! what unknown cause prevents our husband to gain the victory in this war, notwithstanding your good grace to him, and his repelling the hostile elephants in the combat”.

3. Sarasvatí replied:—Know ye daughters, that I was ever solicited by Vidúratha’s enemy to confer him victory in battle, which your husband never craved of me.

4. He lives and enjoys his life as it was desired by him, while his antagonist gains the conquest according to his aim and object.

5. Knowledge is contained in the consciousness of every living being, and rewards every one according to the desire to which it is directed.

6. My nature like that of all things is as unchangeable as the heat of fire (which never changes to cold). So the nature of Vidúratha’s knowledge of truth, and his desire of liberation lead him to the like result (and not to victory).

7. The intelligent Lílá also will be liberated with him, and not the unintelligent one, who by her nature is yet unprepared for that highest state of bliss.

8. This enemy of Vidúratha, the king of Sinde, has long worshipped me for his victory in war; whereby the bodies of Vidúratha and his wife must fall into his hands.

9. Thou girl wilt also have thy liberation like hers in course of time; but ere that, this enemy of yours,—the king of Sinde, will reign victorious in this earth.

10. Vasishtha said:—As the goddess was speaking in this manner, the sun appeared on his rising hill to behold the wondrous sight of the forces in fighting.

11. The thick mists of night disappeared like the hosts of the enemy (Sinde); and left the forces of Vidúratha to glitter as stars at the approach of night.

12. The hills and dales and the land and water gradually appeared to sight, and the world seemed to reappear to view from amidst the dark ocean of the (deluge).

13. The bright rays of the rising sun radiated on all sides like the streams of liquid gold, and made the hills appear as the bodies of warriors besmeared with (blood).

14. The sky seemed as an immense field of battle, stretched over by the radiant rays of the sun (Karas), likening the shining arms (Karas) of the warriors, shaking in their serpentine mood.

15. The helmets on their heads raised their lotus-like tops on high, and the rings about their ears blazed with their gemming glare below.

16. The pointed weapons were as fixed as the snouts of unicorns, and the flying darts fled about as butterflies in the air. The bloody field presented a picture of the ruddy dawn and dusk, and the dead bodies on the ground, represented the figures of motionless saints in their Yoga.

17. Necklaces like snakes overhung their breasts, and the armours like sloughs of serpents covered their bodies. The flags were flying like crests of creepers on high, and the legs of the warriors stood as pillars in the field.

18. Their long arms were as branches of trees, and the arrows formed a bush of reeds; the flash of weapons spread as a verdant meadow all around, while their blades blazed with the lustre of the long-leaved ketaka flowers.

19. The long lines of weapons formed as rows of bamboos and bushes of brambles, and their mutual clashing emitted sparks of fire like clusters of the red asoka flowers.

20. The bands of Siddhas were flying away with their leaders from the air, to avert the weapons which were blazing there with the radiance of the rising sun, and forming as it were, a city of gold on high.

21. The sky re-echoed to the clashing of darts and discuses, of swords and spears and of mallets and clubs in the field; and the ground was overflown by streams of blood, bearing away the dead bodies of the slain.

22. The land was strewn with crowbars, lances and spears, and with tridents and stones on all sides; and headless bodies were falling hideously, pierced by poles and pikes and other instruments of death.

23. The ghosts and goblins of death were making horrible noise above, and the shining cars of Sindhu and Vidúratha, moved with a loud rumbling below.

24. They appeared as the two luminaries of the sun and moon in heaven, and equipped with their various weapons of disks and rods, of crowbars and spears, and other missiles besides.

25. They were both surrounded by thousands of soldiers, and turned about as thy liked, with loud shouts of their retinues.

26. Crushed under heavy disks, many fell dead and wounded with loud cries; and big elephants were floating lightly on the currents of blood.

27. The hairs on the heads of dead bodies, floated like weeds in the stream of blood, and the floating discuses glided like the disks of the moon, reflected in the purple streamlet.

28. The jingling (jhanat) of gemming ornaments, and the tinkling (ranat) bells of war carriages, with the flapping (patat) of flags by the wind, filled the field with a confused noise.

29. Numbers of valiant as well as dastardly soldiers followed their respective princes, some bleeding under the spears of Kuntas and others pierced by the arrows of bowyers.

30. Then the two princes turned round their chariots in circling rings over the ground, and amidst phalanxes armed with all sorts of destructive weapons.

31. Each confronted the other with his arms, and having met one another face to face, commenced showering forth his arrows with the pattering sound of hailstones.

32. They both threatened one another with the roaring of loud surges and clouds, and the two lions among men, darted their arrows upon one another in their rage.

33. They flung their missiles in the air in the form of stones and malls, and some faced like swords, and others headed as mallets.

34. Some were as sharp edged disks, and some as curved as battle axes; some were as pointed as pikes and spears, and others as bars and rods in their forms, and some were of the shape of tridents, and others as bulky as blocks of stones.

35. These missives were falling as fully and as fast as blocks of stones, which are hurled down from high and huge rocks, by gusts of blustering hurricanes. And the meeting of the two armigerent powers, was as the confluence of the Indus and the sea, with tremendous roaring, and mutual collision and clashing.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

DESCRIPTION OF DAIVÁSTRAS OR SUPERNATURAL WEAPONS.[23]

VASISHTHA said:—Rájá Vidúratha, finding the high shouldered Sindhu-rája before him, was enraged like the raging sun, in his mid-day fury.

2. The twanging of his bow resounded in the air on all sides, and growled as loudly as the howling of winds in the caverns of mountains.

3. He drew his arrows from the dark quiver, and darted them like the rays of the sun rising from the womb of night.

4. Each arrow flung from the bowstring, flew as thousands in the air, and fell as millions on the ground. (The arrow or bána is a name given to bombs which burst out into unnumbered shells).

5. The king Sindhu was equally expert in his bowmanship, as both of these bowyers owed their skill in archery to the favour of Vishnu.

6. Some of these darts were called bolts, which blocked the aerial passages as with bolts at their doors, and fell down on the ground with the loud roar of thunderbolts.

7. Others begirt with gold, flew hissing as if blown by the winds in the air, and after shining as stars in the sky, fell as blazing meteors on the ground.

8. Showers of shafts poured forth incessantly from the hands of Vidúratha, like the ceaseless torrents of rivers or billows of the sea, and the endless radiation of solar rays.

9. Shells and bullets were flying about as sparks of fire struck out of the balls of red-hot iron, and falling as flowers of forests, blown away by gusts of wind.

10. They fell as showers of rainwater, and as the rush of water-falls; and as plentifully as the sparks of fire which flew from the burning city of Vidúratha.

11. The jarring sound (chatchat) of their bowstrings, hushed the clamour of the two armies, as a calm quiets the roaring of the raging sea.

12. The course of the arrows, was as the stream of Ganges (the milky path) in heaven, running towards the king Sindhu, as the river runs to meet the sea (Sindhu).

13. The shower of arrows flying from the golden bow of the king, was as the flood of rain falling under the variegated rainbow in the sky.

14. Then Lílá the native of that city, saw from the window the darts of her husband, rushing like the currents of Ganges, against the forces of Sindhu resembling a sea.

15. She understood the flight of those darts to promise victory to her lord, and then spoke gladly to Sarasvatí, with her lotus like face (Lit.—by opening her lotus like mouth).

16. Be victorious O goddess! and behold victory waiting on the side of my lord, whose darts are piercing the rocks, and breaking them to pieces.

17. As she was uttering these words full of affection (to her lord), the goddesses eyed her askance, and smiled at her womanish tenderness of heart.

18. The flaming (Agastian) fire of Sindhu swallowed the raging sea of Vidúratha’s arrows, as the submarine fire consumes the water, and as Jahnu drank the stream of Ganges.

19. The missive weapons of Sindhu, thwarted the thickening arrows of his adversary, and drove them back broken and flying as dust in the empty air.

20. As an extinguished lamp loses its light in the air, so the flashes of the fire arms disappeared in the sky, and nobody knew where they fled.

21. Having thus dispelled the shower of arrows, he sent a thick cloud of his weapons, appearing as hundreds of dead bodies flying in the air.

22. Vidúratha repelled them quickly by means of his better bolts, as a hurricane disperses the frightening clouds in the air.

23. Both the kings being thus baffled in their aims by the opposing arms, which were indiscriminately let loose against one another, laid hold on more potent missiles (which they had got as gifts of their gods to them).

24. Sindhu then let fly his magic missile the gift of a Gandharva to him, which kept his hostile army all spell-bound except Vidúratha’s self.

25. Struck with this weapon, the soldiers became as mute as moonstruck, staring in their looks, and appearing as dead bodies or as pictures in a painting.

26. As the soldiers of Vidúratha remained exorcised in their files, the king employed his instruments of a counter-charm to remove the spell.

27. This awakened the senses of Vidúratha’s men as the morning twilight discloses the bed of lotuses, and the rising sun opens their closed petals to light; while Sindhu like the raging sun darted his rage upon them.

28. He flung his serpentine weapons upon them, which bound them as fast as a band all about their bodies, and encircled the battle ground and air, like snakes twining round the craigs and rocks.

29. The ground was filled with snakes as the lake with the spreading stalks of lotuses, and the bodies of gigantic warriors were begirt by them, like hills by huge and horrible hydras.

30. Everything was overpowered by the poignant power of the poison, and the inhabitants of the hills and forests were benumbed by the venomous infection.

31. The smart poison spread a fiery heat all around, and the frozen snows like fire-brands sent forth their burning particles which were wafted by the hot winds in the air.

32. The armigerous Vidúratha who was equally skilled in arms, had then recourse to his Garuda or serpivorous weapons, which fled like mountainous eagles to all sides.

33. Their golden pinions spread in the sky on all sides, and embroidered the air with purple gold; and the flapping of their wings wheezed like a breeze, which blew away the poisonous effluvia afar in the air.

34. It made the snakes breathe out of their nostrils with a hissing, resembling the gurgling (ghurghur) of waters in a whirlpool in the sea.

35. The flying Garuda weapons devoured the creeping terrene serpents with a whistling noise (salsala), like that of the rising waters (water-spouts), in the act of their suction by Agastya—the sun.

36. The face of the ground delivered from its covering of these reptiles, again appeared to view, as the surface of the earth re-appeared to light, after its deliverance from the waters of the deluge.

37. The army of Garudas disappeared afterwards from sight, like a line of lamps put out by the wind, and the assemblage of clouds vanishing in autumn.

38. They fled like flying mountains for fear of the bolts of the thundering Indra; and vanished like the evanescent world seen in a dream, or as an aerial castle built by fancy.

39. Then king Sindhu shot his shots of darkness (smoke), which darkened the scene like the dark cave under the ground.

40. It hid the face of the earth and sky, like the diluvian waters reaching to the welkin’s face; making the army appear as a shoal of fishes, and the stars as gems shining in the deep.

41. The overspreading darkness appeared as a sea of ink or dark quagmire, or as the particles of Anjanagiri (Inky mountain) wafted by the breeze over the face of nature.

42. All beings seemed to be immersed in the sea or darkness, and to lose their energies as in the deep gloom of midnight.

43. Vidúratha the best of the most skilful in ballistics, shot his sun-bright shot which like the sun illumined the vault of the sky.

44. It rose high amidst the overspreading darkness like the sun (Agastya) with his effulgent beams, and dispelled the shades of darkness, as autumn does the rainy clouds.

45. The sky being cleared of its veil of darkness, manifested itself with its reddish clouds, resembling the blowzy bodices of damsels before the king. (Here is a pun upon the word payodhara which means both a cloud and the breast of a woman).

46. Now the landscape appeared in full view, like the understanding (good sense) of men coming in full play after the extinction of their avarice.

47. The enraged Sindhu then laid hold on his dreadful Rákshasa weapon, which he instantly flung on his foe with its bedeviled darts.

48. These horrid and destructive darts flew on all sides in the air, and roared as the roaring sea and elephantine clouds (dighastis) of heaven.

49. They were as the flames of lambent fire, with their long licking tongues and ash-coloured and smoky curls, rising as hoary hairs on the head, and making a chat-chat sound like that of moist fuel set up on fire.

50. They wheeled round in circles through the air, with a horrible tangtang noise, now flaming as fire and now fuming as smoke, and then flying about as sparks of fire.

51. With mouths beset by rows of sprouting teeth like lotus stalks, and faces defaced by dirty and fusty eyes, their hairy bodies were as stagnate pools full of moss and weeds.

52. They flew about and flashed and roared aloud as some dark clouds, while the locks of hairs on their heads glared as lightnings in the midway sky.

53. At this instant Vidúratha the spouse of Lílá, sent forth his Náráyana weapon, having the power of suppressing wicked spirits and demons.

54. The appearance of this magic weapon, made the bodies of the Rákshasas, disappear as darkness at sun rise.

55. The whole army of these fiends was lost in the air, as the sable clouds of the rainy season, vanish into nothing at the approach of autumn.

56. Then Sindhu discharged his fire arms which set fire to the sky, and began to burn down every thing, as by the all destroying conflagration of the last day.

57. They filled all the sides of air with clouds of smoke, which seemed to hide the face of heaven under the darkness of hell.

58. They set fire to the woods in the hills, which burned like mountains of gold; while the trees appeared to bloom with yellow champaka flowers all around.

59. All the sides of the sky above, and the hills, woods and groves below, were enveloped in the flames, as if they were covered under the red powder of huli, with which Yama was sporting over the plain.

60. The heaven-spreading flame burnt down the legions in one heap of ashes, as the submarine fire consumes whole bodies of the fleet and navy in the sea.

61. As Sindhu continued to dart his firearms against his vanquished adversary, Vidúratha let off his watery arms with reverential regard.

62. These filled with water, flew forward as the shades of darkness from their hidden cells; and spread up and down and on all sides, like a melted mountain gushing in a hundred cataracts.

63. They stretched as mountainous clouds or as a sea in the air, and fell in showers of watery arrows and stones on the ground.

64. They flew up like large tamála trees, and being gathered in groups like the shades of night, appeared as the thick gloom beyond the lokáloka or polar mountains.

65. They gave the sky the appearance of subterraneous caves, emitting a gurgling sound (ghurghura) like the loud roaring of elephants.

66. These waters soon drank (cooled) the spreading furious fire, as the shades of the dark night swallow (efface) the surrounding red tints of the evening.

67. Having swallowed the fires above, the waters overflooded the ground and filled it with a humidity which served to enervate all bodies, as the power of sleep numbs every body in death-like torpidity.

68. In this manner both the kings were throwing their enchanted weapons against each other, and found them equally quelling and repelling one another in their course.

69. The heavy armed soldiers of Sindhu and the captains of his regiments were swept away by the flood, together with the warcars which floated upon it.

70. At this moment, Sindhu thought upon his anhydrous weapons (soshanástre—thermal arms), which possessed the miraculous power of preserving his people from the water, and hurled them in the air.

71. These absorbed the waters as the sun sucks up the moisture of the night, and dried up the land and revived the soldiers, except those that were already dead and gone.

72. Their heat chased the coldness as the rage of the illiterate enrages the learned, and made the moist ground as dry, as when the sultry winds strew the forest land with dried leaves.

73. It decorated the face of the ground with a golden hue, as when the royal dames adorn their persons with a yellow paint or ointment.

74. It put the soldiers on the opposite side to a state of feverish (or blood heated) fainting, as when the tender leaves of trees are scorched by the warmth of a wild fire in summer heat.

75. Vidúratha in his rage of warfare laid hold on his bow (kodanda), and having bent it to a curve, let fly his cloudy arms on his antagonist.

76. They sent forth columns of clouds as thick as the sable shades of night, which flying upward as a forest of dark tamála trees, spread an umbrage heavy with water on high.

77. They lowered under the weight of their water, and stood still by their massive thickness; and roared aloud in their circles all over the sky.

78. Then blew the winds dropping the dewdrops of the icy store they bore on their pinions; and showers of rain fell fast from the collections of the clouds on high.

79. Then flashed the fiery lightnings from them like golden serpents in their serpentine course or rather like the aslant glances of the eyes of heavenly nymphs.

80. The roarings of the clouds rebounded in the mountainous caverns of the sky, and the quarters of heaven re-echoed to the same with the hoarse noise of elephants and the roaring of lions and growling of tigers and bears.

81. Showers of rain fell in floods with drops as big as musalas—malls or mallets, and with flashes of lightnings threatening as the stern glancings of the god of death.

82. Huge mists rising at first in the form of vapours of the earth, and then borne aloft by the heated air into the sky, seemed like titans to rise from the infernal regions (and then invade heaven with their gloomy armament).

83. The mirage of the warfare ceased after a while; as the worldly desires subside to rest upon tasting the sweet joys attending on divine knowledge.

84. The ground became full of mud and mire and was impassable in every part of it; and the forces of Sindhu were overflown by the watery deluge, like the river Sinde or the sea.

85. He then hurled his airy weapon which filled the vault of heaven with winds, and raged in all their fury like the Bhairava-Furies on the last day of resurrection.

86. The winds blew on all sides of the sky, with darts falling as thunder bolts, and hailstones now piercing and then crushing all bodies as by the last blast of nature on the dooms-day.

CHAPTER XLIX.

DESCRIPTION OF OTHER KINDS OF WEAPONS.

THEN blew the icy winds of winter, blasting the beauty of the foliage of forest trees, and shaking and breaking the beautiful arbors, and covering them with gusts of dust.

2. Then rose the gale whirling the trees like birds flying in the air, dashing and smashing the soldiers on the ground, and hurling and breaking the edifices to dust.

3. This fearful squall blew away Vidúratha and his force, as a rapid current carries away the broken and rotten fragments of wood.

4. Then Vidúratha who was skilled in ballistics hurled his huge and heavy arrows, which stretched themselves to the sky, and withstood the force of the winds and rain.

5. Opposed by these rock-like barriers, the airy weapons were at a stand still, as the animal spirits are checked by the firm stoicity of the soul.

6. The trees which had been blown up by the winds and floating in the breezy air, now came down and fell upon the dead bodies, like flocks of crows upon putrid carcasses.

7. The shouting (shitkára) of the city, the distant hum (dátkára) of the village, the howling (bhánkára) of forests, and the rustling (utkára) of the trees, ceased on all sides like the vain verbiology of men.

8. Sindhu saw burning rocks (rockets?) falling from above like leaves of trees, and flying about as the winged Mainákas or moving rocks of the sea or Sinde (sindhu).

9. He then hurled his thundering weapons, falling as flaming thunderbolts from heaven, which burnt the rocks away as the flaming fire destroys the darkness.

10. These falling bolts broke the stones with their pointed ends, and hewed down the heads (tops) of the hills, like a hurricane scattering the fruits of trees on the ground.

11. Vidúratha then darted his Brahmá weapon to quell the thunderbolts, which jostling against one another, disappeared in their mutual conflict.

12. Sindhu then cast his demoniac weapons (Pisáchástras) as black as darkness, which fled as lines of horrid Pisácha demons on all sides.

13. They filled the firmament with the darkness of their bodies, and made the daylight turn to the shade of night, as if it were for fear of them.

14. They were as stalwart in their figures as huge columns of smoke, and as dark in their complexion as the blackest pitch, and tangible by the hand.

15. They were as lean skeletons with erect hairs on their heads and bearded faces, with looks as pale as those of beggars, and bodies as black as those of the aerial and nocturnal fiends.

16. They were terrific and like idiots in their looks, and moved about with bones and skulls in their hands. They were as meagre as churls, but more cruel than either the sword or thunderbolt.

17. The Pisáchas lurk about the woods, bogs and highways, and pry into empty and open door houses. They hunt about as ghosts in their dark forms, and fly away as fast as the fleeting lightning.

18. They ran and attacked with fury the remaining forces of the enemy, that stood weaponless in the field, with their broken and sorrowful hearts.

19. Frightened to death they stood motionless, and dropped down their arms and armours, and stood petrified as if they were demon-struck, with staring eyes, open mouths, and unmoving hands and feet.

20. They let fall both their lower and upper garments, loosened their bowels and slakened their bodies through fear, and kept shaking as fixed trees by the winds.

21. The line of the Pisáchas then advanced to frighten Vidúratha out of his wits, but he had the good sense to understand them as the mere Mumbo-jumbos of magic.

22. He knew the counter charm to fight out the Pisáchas from the field, and employed his charmed weapons against the Pisácha army of his enemy.

23. He darted in his ire the Rúpiká weapon, which gave comfort to his own army, and deluded the Pisácha force of his adversary.

24. These Rúpikás flew in the air with erect hairs on their heads; their terrific eyes were sunk in their sockets, and their waists and breasts moved as trees with bunches of fruit.

25. They had past their youth and become old; and their bodies were bulky and worn out with age; they had deformed backs and hips, and protuberant navels and naves.

26. They had dark dusky bodies, and held human skulls in their hands all besmeared with blood. They had bits of half devoured flesh in their mouths, and pouring out fresh blood from their sides.

27. They had a variety of gestures, motions and contortions of their bodies, which were as hard as stone, with wry faces, crooked backs and twisted legs and limbs.

28. Some had their faces like those of dogs, crows, and owls, with broad mouths and flat cheek-bones and bellies, and held human skulls and entrails in their hands.

29. They laid hold of the Pisáchas as men catch little boys, and joined with them in one body as their consorts. (i.e. The Rúpiká witches bewitching the demoniac Pisáchas, got the better of them).

30. They joined together in dancing and singing with outstretched arms and mouths and eyes, now joining hand in hand and now pursuing one another in their merry sport.

31. They stretched their long tongues from their horrid mouths, and licked away the blood exuding from the wounds of the dead bodies.

32. They plunged in the pool of blood with as much delight, as if they dived in a pond of ghee, and scrabbled in the bloody puddle with outstretched arms and feet, and uplifted ears and nose.

33. They rolled and jostled with one another in the puddle of carrion and blood, and made it swell like the milky ocean when churned by the Mandara mountain.

34. As Vidúratha employed his magic weapon against the magic of Sindhu, so he had recourse to others from a sense of his inferiority.

35. He darted his Vetála weapon, which made the dead bodies, whether with or without their heads, to rise up in a body in their ghastly shapes.

36. The joint forces of the Vetálas, Pisáchas and Rúpikás presented a dreadful appearance as that of the Kavandhas, and seemed as they were ready to destroy the earth.

37. The other monarch was not slow to show his magical skill, by hurling his Rákshasa weapon, which threatened to grasp and devour the three worlds.

38. These with their gigantic bodies rose as high as mountains, and seemed as hellish fiends appearing from the infernal regions in their ghostly forms.

39. The ferocious body of the roaring Rákshasas, terrified both the gods and demigods (surásuras), by their loud martial music and war dance of their headless trunks (Kavandhas).

40. The giddy Vetálas, Yakshas and Kushmándas, devoured the fat and flesh of dead bodies as their toast, and drank the gory blood as their lurid wines in the coarse of their war dance.

41. The hopping and jumping of the Kushmándas, in their war dance in streams of blood, scattered its crimson particles in the air, which assembled in the form of a bridge of red evening clouds over the sparkling sea.

CHAPTER L.

DEATH OF VIDÚRATHA.

VASISHTHA said:—As the tide of war was rolling violently with a general massacre on both sides, the belligerent monarchs thought on the means of saving their own forces from the impending ruin.

2. The magnanimous Sindhurája, who was armed with patience, called to his mind the Vaishnava weapon, which was the greatest of arms and as powerful as Siva (Jove) himself.

3. No sooner was the Vaishnava weapon hurled by him with his best judgment (mantra), than it emitted a thousand sparks of fire from its flaming blade on all sides.

4. These sparks enlarged into balls, as big and bright as to shine like hundreds of suns in the sky, and others flew as the lengthy shafts of cudgels in the air.

5. Some of them filled the wide field of the firmament with thunderbolts as thick as the blades of grass, and others overspread the lake of heaven, with battle axes as a bed of lotuses.

6. These poured forth showers of pointed arrows spreading as a net-work in the sky, and darted the sable blades of swords, scattered as the leaves of trees in the air.

7. At this time, the rival king Vidúratha, sent forth another Vaishnava weapon for repelling the former, and removing the reliance of his foe in his foible.

8. It sent forth a stream of weapons counteracting those of the other, and overflowing in currents of arrows and pikes, clubs and axes and missiles of various kinds.

9. These weapons struggled with and justled against one another. They split the vault of heaven with their clattering, and cracked like loud thunder claps cleaving the mountain cliffs.

10. The arrows pierced the rods and swords, and the swords hewed down the axes and lances to pieces. The malls and mallets drove the missiles, and the pikes broke the spears (saktis).

11. The mallets like Mandara rocks, broke and drove away the rushing arrows as waves of the sea, and the resistless swords broke to pieces by striking at the maces.

12. The lances revolved like the halo of the moon, repelling the black sword-blades as darkness, and the swift missiles flashed as the destructive fires of Yama.

13. The whirling disks were destroying all other weapons; they stunned the world by their noise, and broke the mountains by their strokes.

14. The clashing weapons were breaking one another in numbers, and Vidúratha defeated the arms of Sindhu, as the steadfast mountain defies the thunders of Indra.

15. The truncheons (Sankus) were blowing away the falchions (asis); and the spontoons (súlas) were warding off the stones of the slings. The crow bars (bhusundis) broke down the pointed heads of the pikes (bhindhipálas).

16. The iron rods of the enemy (parasúlas) were broken by tridents (trisúlas) of Siva, and the hostile arms were falling down by their crushing one another to pieces.

17. The clattering shots stopped the course of the heavenly stream, and the combustion of powder filled the air with smoke.

18. The clashing of dashing weapons lightened the sky like lightnings, their clattering cracked the worlds like thunderclaps, and their shock split and broke the mountains like thunderbolts.

19. Thus were the warring weapons breaking one another by their concussion, and protracting the engagement by their mutual overthrow.

20. As Sindhu was standing still in defiance of the prowess of his adversary, Vidúratha lifted his own fire-arm, and fired it with a thundering sound.

21. It set the war chariot of Sindhu on fire like a heap of hay on the plain, while the Vaishnava weapons filled the etherial sphere with their meteoric blaze.

22. The two Kings were thus engaged in fierce fighting with each other, the one darting his weapons like drops of raging rain, and the other hurling his arms like currents of a deluging river.

23. The two Kings were thus harassing each other like two brave champions in their contest, when the chariot of Sindhu was reduced to ashes by its flame.

24. He then fled to the woods like a lion from its cavern in the mountain, and repelled the fire that pursued him by his aqueous weapons.

25. After losing his car and alighting on the ground, he brandished his sword and cut off the hoofs and heels of the horses of his enemy’s chariot in the twinkling of an eye.

26. He hacked every thing that came before him like the lean stalks of lotuses; when Vidúratha also left his chariot with his asi (ensis) in hand.

27. Both equally brave and compeers to one another in their skill in warfare, turned about in their rounds, and scraped their swords into saws by mutual strokes on one another.

28. With their denticulated weapons, they tore the bodies of their enemies like fishes crushed under the teeth, when Vidúratha dropt down his broken sword, and darted his javelin against his adversary.

29. It fell with a rattling noise on the bosom of Sindhu (the king), as a flaming meteor falls rumbling in the breast of the sea (Sindhu).

30. But the weapon fell back by hitting upon his breast plate, as a damsel flies back from the embrace of a lover deemed an unfit match for her.

31. Its shock made Sindhu throw out a flood of blood from his lungs, resembling the water spout let out from the trunk of an elephant.

32. Seeing this, the native Lílá cried with joy to her sister Lílá: see here the demon Sindhu killed by our lion-like husband.

33. Sindhu is slain by the javelin of our lion-like lord, like the wicked demon by the nails of the lion-god Nrisinha, and he is spouting forth his blood like the stream of water, thrown out by the trunk of an elephant from a pool.

34. But alas! this Sindhu is trying to mount on another car, although bleeding so profusely from his mouth and nostrils, as to raise a wheezing (chulchulu) sound.

35. Lo there! our lord Vidúratha breaking down the golden mountings of his car with the blows of his mallet, as the thundering clouds—Pushkara and Ávarta break down the gold peaks of Sumeru.

36. See this Sindhu now mounting on another carriage, which is now brought before him, and decorated as the splendid seat of a Gandharva.

37. Alack! our lord is now made the mark of Sindhu’s mallet darted as a thunder bolt against him; but lo! how he flies off and avoids the deadly blow of Sindhu.

38. Huzza! how nimbly he has got up upon his own car; but woe is to me! that Sindhu has overtaken him in his flight.

39. He mounts on his car as a hunter climbs on a tree, and pierces my husband, as a bird-catcher does a parrot hidden in its hollow, with his pointed arrow.

40. Behold his car is broken down and its flags flung aside; his horses are hurt and the driver is driven away. His bow is broken and his armour is shattered, and his whole body is full of wounds.

41. His strong breast-plate is broken also by slabs of stone and his big head is pierced by pointed arrows. Behold him thrown down on earth, all mangled in blood.

42. Look with what difficulty he is restored to his senses, and seated in his seat with his arm cut off and bleeding under Sindhu’s sword.

43. See him weltering in blood gushing out profusely from his body, like a rubicund stream issuing from a hill of rubies. Woe is me! and cursed be the sword of Sindhu that hath brought this misery on us.

44. It has severed his thighs as they dissever a tree with a saw, and has lopped off his legs like the stalks of trees.

45. Ah! it is I that am so struck and wounded and killed by the enemy. I am dead and gone and burnt away with my husband’s body.

46. Saying so, she began to shudder with fear at the woeful sight of her husband’s person, and fell insensible on the ground like a creeper cut off by an axe.

47. Vidúratha though thus mutilated and disabled, was rising to smite the enemy in his rage, when he fell down from his car like an uprooted tree, and was replaced there by his charioteer ready to make his retreat.

48. At this instant, the savage Sindhu struck a sabre on his neck, and pursued the car in which the dying monarch was borne back to his tent.

49. The body of Padma (alias Vidúratha), was placed like a lotus in the presence of Sarasvatí, shining with the splendour of the sun; but the elated Sindhu was kept from entering that abode, like a giddy fly from a flame.

50. The charioteer entered in the apartment, and placed the body in its death-bed, all mangled and besmeared with blood, exuding from the pores of the severed neck, in the presence of the goddess, from where the enemy returned to his camp.

(Gloss). Here Padma fighting in the person of Vidúratha, and falling bravely in the field, obtained his redemption by his death in the presence of the goddess; but the savage Sindhu, who slew his foiled foe in his retreat, proved a ruffian in his barbarous act, and could have no admittance into the presence of the goddess and to his future salvation.

CONCLUSION.

The whole vision of Lílá, like that of Mirza, shows the state of human life, with its various incidents and phases to its last termination by death. It is not so compact and allegorical as that of the western essayist; but as idle effusions of those ideal reveries or loose vagaries which are characteristic of the wild imagination of eastern rhapsodists. The discontented Bráhmana longs for royal dignity, imagines to himself all its enjoyments in the person of Padma, and sees at last all its evils in the character of Vidúratha; which serves as a lesson to aspirants from aiming at high worldly honours which end in their destruction.

Lílá by her wisdom sees in her silent meditation, the whole course and vicissitudes of the world, and the rise and fall of human glory in the aspirations of her husband. These parables serve to show the nature of Yoga philosophy to be no other, than an absolute idealism or mental abstraction, consisting in the abstract knowledge of all things appertaining to our temporal as well as Spiritual concerns.

The knowledge is derived either by intuition as that of the Bráhmana and Padma, or by inspiration like that of the genius of wisdom to her votary Lílá. It may also be had by means of communication with others, as in the discourse of Ráma and his preceptor; as also from the attentive perusal of such works as the present one, treating both of temporal and spiritual subjects, and reviewing them with the eye of the mind.

The Yogi is said to know all things through the medium of his intellectual eye (jnána chakshu), apart from his connection with every thing in the world called nihsanga, as it is expressed by the Persian sophist;—“amokhteh Oniamekhteh az harche hast”.—“Knowing and not mixing with all that is.”

From this view of Yoga, it will appear that, all kinds of knowledge, whether as it existed among the ancients, or is in the course of its improvement in modern times, forms a subject of the Yoga or meditative philosophy, which embraces and comprehends in itself a knowledge of all practical arts and sciences, as the military art and other things treated of in this work. Hence it is evident, that a large fund of learning forms the greatest Yoga, and the most learned among men, were the greatest thinkers or Yogis amongst mankind in all ages. No rational being therefore can either refrain from thinking, or employing his mind to the acquisition of knowledge, both of which are termed Yoga in Indian philosophy.

But the yogi is commonly believed to be an inspired sage or seer, viewing all things appearing before him in his dream and vision. These are sometimes retrospective, and resultants of the vibrations of waking feelings and imagination, as in the case of the Bráhmana’s anticipation of royalty as a coming reality.

In many instances they are believed as prospective and prophetic of future events, as in Padma’s dread of his future life and fate. In Lílá’s case however they were “no dreams but visions strange” of supernatural sights, and prophetical of the future state of her husband, as it was revealed to her by the goddess.

But as there are few that rely any faith “in the baseless fabric of a vision”, they require to be told that the books of revelation in all religions are based upon these dreams and visions, which are believed to be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the souls of saints, in the sacred records of all nations.

The holy scriptures furnish us with many texts on the divine origin of dreams and visions as the following.

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God. I shall pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

“And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy;

“And I will shew wonders, in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire and vapour of smoke:

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood &c.”

The Book of Acts, Chap II. v. 16-20.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

GENEALOGY

I.

Kálí Mitra.[24]

II.

Srídhara Mitra.

III.

Sukti Mitra.

IV.

Sauveri Mitra.

V.

Hari Mitra.

VI.

Soma Mitra.

VII.

Kesava Mitra.

VIII.

Mrityunjaya Mitra.

IX.

Dhui Mitra.[25]

X.

Nísápati Mitra.

XI.

Lambodara Mitra Alias Kuvera.

XII.

Parameswara Mitra.[26]

XIII.

Dánapati Mitra.

XIV.

Jayadeva Mitra.

XV.

Shashthivara Mitra.

XVI.

Sríkánta Mitra.

XVII.

Sivaráma Mitra.

XVIII.

Krishnaráma Mitra.

XIX.

Sítáráma Mitra.[27]

XX.

Gocula Chandra Mitra.

XXI.

Jagamohana Mitra.

XXII.

Rasika Lála Mitra

XXIII.

Vihári Lála Mitra.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cicero “De senectute.”

[2] Kant says:—‘The pure Ego is the condition of all consciousness, the condition of the sum total of experience, consequently the Ego is the source from which the universe is to be deduced.’ Again: “The thing per se underlying all phenomena, is one and the same substance with Ego. We know not wherein the Ego is different from it. This identity of both is only an affirmation of Monism, not of Idealism.” Lewis: Hist.-Phil. Vol. II. pp. 356-7. Fichte says:—The Non-Ego is a product of the Ego. It is the Ego which thus creates the necessity for a Non-Ego and the Non-Ego wanted. Ibid. p. 358.

[3] Because the visible and destructible bodies could not proceed from the invisible and indestructible essence of God, nor the invisible and indestructible souls of persons, which are utpanna or produced from the essence of the eternal and infinite spirit, can have their extinction except in their main source, when they become instinct in and identic with the supreme spirit.

[4] The khecarí or aerial mode of meditation is said to confer liberation from sickness and acts and the grasp of death. Thus;

Napídyate rogena nacha lipyate karmaná, Bádhyate sa na kalena, yo mudrám-vetti khecarím.

The mode of conducting it is described as follows.

Kapála kuhare jihvá, pravesitá viparítagá, Bhruvorantargatá drishtir, mudrá-bhavati khecarí.

[5] This passage contradicts the belief of his rising and sleeping by turns at the end of each kalpa of the creation and dissolution of the world, as well as the popular faith of Hari’s, sayana and Utthána at the opposite tropics.

[6] The pre-existent substratum is the Noumenon underlying all phenomena. It is the support of qualities, and something in which all accidents inhere. Berkeley.

[7] It contradicts the well known axiom of Locke, that, “it is impossible for the same thing to be and not be at the same time.”

[8] The unknown substance is the known cause, a spiritual substance—God. Berkeley.

[9] The venerable Vasishtha would not raise question “where is the shadow of a shadow?” (prativimbasya prativambam kutak), had he known the discoveries of the modern science of Optics, and the achievements of photography and phonography, the refractions of prismatic lens and the vibrations of musical wires.

[10] The gods Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Sun, Indra and all others, are assimilated into the Supreme Spirit in their state of rest. He is beyond all attribute and out of the sphere of the universe, and is of the form of an immutable Intellect.

[11] The living soul is the creative spirit of God, represented by the divine hypostasis of Hiranyagarbha or Demiurgus, which is dependent on the Supreme spirit.

[12] Tanmátra or tat-mátra might be rendered from its affinity as “that matter,” but the idealistic theory of vedánta being opposed to that of the materialistic, it expresses only the idea and not the matter.

[13] The conceptualism of Europe, is a doctrine between Realism and Nominalism and betwixt Idealism and Relationism. The realist says, universal genera are real and independent existences; but the nominalist (like the Pratyaksávádi) says that, things only exist and universals are Flatus venti-pralápa.

[14] Note. It is the mind that lengthens time by the quick succession of its thoughts, and shortens it by its quiescence.

[15] This means the demons to have first peopled the borders and skirts of the earth. See Hesiod. Works and Days. Book I. v. 200.

[16] That the Meru or Altain chain in Scythia, was the great hive of human race is an undisputed truth in history. So Moses speaks of the giant race in Genesis chapter VI. v. 2 and 4. “And there were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that. And when the sons of God saw the daughters of men fair, they took them to wives, of all which they chose.”

And again: “when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown”.

[17] The whole of this chapter abounds in onomatopoeian alliterations, and is more a play upon words than display of sense. It is interesting however, for these jingling words in the language, as also for the names of the warlike weapons in use among the ancients.

[18] Notwithstanding the reward of heavenly abodes promised to the slayer and slain in war, in the Sástra and Koran, the Asiatics are far backward now-a-days, both to kill and to be killed than the Europeans, who are forbidden by the Holy writ, to slay and shed human blood. Thus there is a laxity of the injunction and prohibition on both sides.

[19] P. mujosi S. Yátudhána, H. Jádugar = juggler.

[20] The battle ground is compared firstly with the sky, then with the sea, next with a forest, and lastly with the last dooms-day.

[21] It was easy for the lively Lílá, to learn about these peoples and their native lands in her lonely Yoga meditation, by the help of the goddess of learning; but it is hard for us to identify them without subjecting ourselves to a long labour of love, which is a sort of Yoga also, called vidya Yoga, or intense application and self devotion to learning.

[22] Note. It is not easy to say, whether this continuation and lengthy description of the warfare, is Vasishtha’s or Válmíki’s own making; both of them being well acquainted with military tactics: the former having been the general of King Sudása against the Persians, and the latter the epic poet of Ráma’s wars with Rávana in the celebrated Ramáyana.

These descriptions are left out in the vernacular translations of this work as entirely useless in Yoga philosophy, without minding, that they formed the preliminary step to Ráma’s military education, which he was soon after called to complete under the guidance of Viswámitra in the hermitage.

[23] I have always thought the Daivástras or superhuman arms, described in the Ramáyana and Mahábhárata epics, as a display of pyrotechnic contrivances much in use in early warfare. Or they may have been some kinds of electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and steam engines emitting gusts of fire, water, wind and smoke in the field of war. Halhead in his Gentoo Laws, tells them to be shot from a kind of cross-bow used by the Crusadiers of old.

[24] He was formerly an inhabitatnt of Kánya Kubjya, North Western Provinces, India. He being invited on an occasion of a ceremony (yajna) by Ádisura, Rájá of Gour Bengal, paid a visit at his court on Thursday 12th Kartick (October-November) Sakábda 994 (Tenth-Eleventh Century A.D.), and on his request he settled there and became the founder of Gour Mitra Family, at Maldah in Bengal.

[25] Barisá, Twenty four Pargannahs, District Alipur, Bengal.

[26] Báli. Boro Pargunah, District Hugli.

[27] Bágbázar, Calcutta.

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Table of Contents

Transcriber’s Notes

THE YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.

PROSPECTUS.

THE YOGA-VÁSISHTHA MAHÁRÁMÁYANA OF VÁLMÍKI

PREFACE.

FOOTNOTES:

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.

II. Sciences Connected With Yoga

III. The Yoga of English Writers.

IV. Yoga-characteristic of the Hindus.

V. Various Significations of Yoga.

VI. The Different Stages of Yoga.

VII. Nature of the Soul.

VIII. Final Emancipation Or Beatitude.

IX. Origin of Yoga in the Vedas.

X. Rise of the Heretical Yogas.

XII. Different Aspects of Yoga.

XIII. The Consummation of Yoga (Siddhi).

XIV. The Different Degrees of Perfection.

XV. The state of a Perfect yogi.

XVI. Criticism on yoga Practice.

THE OM TAT SAT.

II. Orthography of Om.

III. The Ortheopy Or Analysis of Om.

IV. The Different Denominations of Om.

V. Etymology of the Word Om.

VI. Lexical Meanings of Om.

VII. The Nominal Meanings of Om.

VIII. Application of Om in the Vedas and Vedanta.

IX. Theology of Om in the Monads of Monotheistic Creeds.

X. Duads Or Duples of the Bipartite Om in Dualistic Theories.

XI. Triads Or Triples Or Tripartite Om in Trinitarian Systems.

XII. The Tetrads Or Quadruples of Om.

XIII. The Pentads &c., of Om.

XIV. Philosophy of the Numerical Groups Contained Under the Mystic Syllable Om.

XV. The Unitarian Formula ॐ तत् सत् One That Is.

XVI. Ontology of the Self Existent Sat = Being.

XVII. The Conclusive Lesson on the Practice of Yoga.

XVIII. Symbolical Yoga Cult of Mudrá Or Chakra Diagrams.

XIX. Mathematical Investigation Into the Diagrams of Om.

THE FIGURES.

Note to Figure 7.

Note to Fig. 9.

YOGA VÁSISHTHA.

BOOK I. ON MORAL APATHY CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.

Section I. DIVINE ADORATION

SECTION II. Narrative of Sutíkshna.

SECTION III. Anecdote of Kárunya.

SECTION IV. Story of Suruchi.

SECTION V. Account of Arishtanemi.

SECTION VI. History of Ráma.

CHAPTER II. Reason of Writing the Rámáyana.

SECTION I. Persons Entitled to its Perusal.

SECTION II. Brahmá’s Behest.

SECTION III. Inquiry of Bharadwája.

CHAPTER III. Válmíki’s Admonition.

SECTION I. On True Knowledge.

SECTION II. Early History of Ráma.

SECTION III. Ráma’s Pilgrimage.

CHAPTER IV. Ráma’s Return from Pilgrimage.

CHAPTER V. Of Ráma’s self-dejection and its cause.

CHAPTER VI. Advent of Viswámitra to the Royal Court.

SECTION II. Address of King Dasaratha.

CHAPTER VII. Viswámitra’s Request for Ráma.

CHAPTER VIII. Dasaratha’s Reply to Viswámitra.

CHAPTER IX. Viswámitra’s Wrath. And His Enraged Speech.

CHAPTER X. Melancholy of Ráma.

CHAPTER XI. Consolation of Ráma.

CHAPTER XII. Ráma’s Reply.

CHAPTER XIII. Vituperation of Riches.

CHAPTER XIV. Depreciation of Human Life.

CHAPTER XV. Obloquy on Egoism.

CHAPTER XVI. The Ungovernableness of the Mind.

CHAPTER XVII. On Cupidity.

CHAPTER XVIII. Obloquy of the Body.

CHAPTER XIX. Blemishes of Boyhood.

CHAPTER XX. Vituperation of Youth.

CHAPTER XXI. Vituperation of women.

CHAPTER XXII. Obloquy of Old Age.

CHAPTER XXIII. Vicissitudes of Times.

CHAPTER XXIV. Ravages of Time.

CHAPTER XXV. Sports of Death.

CHAPTER XXVI. The Acts of Destiny.

CHAPTER XXVII. Vanity of the world.

CHAPTER XXVIII. Mutability of the world.

CHAPTER XXIX. Unreliableness of worldly things.

CHAPTER XXX. Self-disparagement.

CHAPTER XXXI. Queries of Ráma.

CHAPTER XXXII. Praises on Ráma’s Speech.

CHAPTER XXXIII. Association of Aerial and Earthly Beings.

YOGA VÁSISHTHA.

BOOK II. MUMUKSHU KHANDA OR THE MEANS OF FINAL LIBERATION. CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II. Speech of Viswámitra.

CHAPTER III. On the repeated creations of the world.

CHAPTER IV. Praise of Acts and Exertions.

CHAPTER V. Necessity of Activity.

CHAPTER VI. Refutation of Fatalism.

CHAPTER VII. On the Necessity of Activity.

CHAPTER VIII. Invalidation of Destiny.

CHAPTER IX. Investigation of Acts.

CHAPTER X. Descension of Knowledge.

CHAPTER XI. On the Qualifications of the Inquirer and Lecturer.

CHAPTER XII. Greatness of True Knowledge.

CHAPTER XIII. On Peace and Tranquility of Mind.

CHAPTER XIV. On the Ascertainment of an Argument.

CHAPTER XV. On Contentment.

CHAPTER XVI. On Good Conduct.

CHAPTER XVII. On the Contents of the Work.

CHAPTER XVIII. Ascertainment of the Example Or Major Proposition

CHAPTER XIX. Ascertainment of True Evidence.

CHAPTER XX. On Good Conduct.

YOGA VÁSISHTHA

BOOK III. UTPATTI-KHANDA. EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.

SECTION I. Exordium (Bhúmiká.)

SECTION II. Worldly Bondage.

SECTION III. Phases of the Spirit.

SECTION IV. Nature of Bondage.

CHAPTER II. Description of the First Cause.

SECTION I. Narrative of the air-born and aeriform Bráhman.

SECTION II. State of the Soul.

CHAPTER III. Causes of Bondage in the Body.

CHAPTER IV.

SECTION I. Description of the Night-fall.

SECTION II. Nature of the Mind.

SECTION III. Kaivalya or Mental Abstraction.

CHAPTER V. On the Original Cause. (Múla-Kárana).

CHAPTER VI. Admonition for Attempt to Liberation.

CHAPTER VII. Recognition of the Nihility of the Phenomenal World.

CHAPTER VIII. Nature of Good Sástras.

CHAPTER IX. On the Supreme Cause of All. (Parama Kárana).

CHAPTER X. Description of the Chaotic State.

CHAPTER XI. Spiritual View of Creation.

CHAPTER XII. The Idealistic Theo-cosmogony of Vedánta.

CHAPTER XIII. On the Production of the Self-Born.

CHAPTER XIV. Establishment of Brahma.

CHAPTER XV. Story of the Temple and its Prince.

CHAPTER XVI. Joy and Grief of the Princess.

CHAPTER XVII. Story of the Doubtful Realm or Reverie of Lílá.

SECTION I. Description of the Court house and the Cortes.

CHAPTER XVIII. Exposure of the Errors of this World.

CHAPTER XIX. Story of a former Vasishtha and his wife.

CHAPTER XX. The Moral of the Tale of Lílá.

SECTION II. State of the Human soul after death.

CHAPTER XXI. Guide to Peace.

CHAPTER XXII. Practice of Wisdom or Wisdom in Practice.

SECTION I. Abandonment of Desires.

SECTION II. On the Practice of Yoga.

CHAPTER XXIII. The Aerial Journey of Spiritual Bodies.

CHAPTER XXIV. The Aerial Journey.

SECTION II. Description of the Heaven.

CHAPTER XXV. Description of the Earth.

CHAPTER XXVI. Meeting the Siddhas

CHAPTER XXVII. Past Lives of Lílá.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SECTION I. Exposition of Lílá’s Vision.

SECTION II. Description of the Mountainous Habitation.

CHAPTER XXIX. Account of the Previous Life of Lílá

CHAPTER XXX. Description of the Mundane Egg—(Brahmánda).

CHAPTER XXXI.

SECTION I. Alighting of the Ladies on Earth.

SECTION II. Sight of a Battle Array in Earth and Air.

CHAPTER XXXII. Onset of the war.

CHAPTER XXXIII.[17] Comingled Fighting.

CHAPTER XXXIV. Description of the Battle.

CHAPTER XXXV. Description of the Battlefield.[20]

CHAPTER XXXVI.

SECTION I. Collision of Equal Arms and Armigerents.

SECTION II. Catalogue of the Forces.

CHAPTER XXXVII Catalogue of the Forces continued.[22]

CHAPTER XXXVIII. Cessation of the War.

CHAPTER XXXIX. Description of the Battle-field Infested by Nocturnal Fiends.

CHAPTER XL. Reflections on Human Life and Mind.

CHAPTER XLI. Discrimination of Error.

CHAPTER XLII. Philosophy of Dreaming. Swapnam or Somnum.

CHAPTER XLIII. Burning of the City.

CHAPTER XLIV. Spiritual Interpretation of the Vision.

CHAPTER XLV. Theism Consisting in True Knowledge.

CHAPTER XLVI. Onslaught of Vidúratha.

CHAPTER XLVII. Encounter of Sindhu and Vidúratha.

CHAPTER XLVIII. Description of Daivástras or Supernatural Weapons.[23]

CHAPTER XLIX. Description of Other Kinds of Weapons.

CHAPTER L. Death of Vidúratha.

CONCLUSION.

GENEALOGY

FOOTNOTES:

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