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

by Valmiki

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).