YOGA VÁSISHTHA
BOOK III.
UTPATTI-KHANDA.
EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
CAUSES OF BONDAGE TO IT.
SECTION I.
Exordium (Bhúmiká.)
It is both by means of words and lights (Vágbhábhis i.e. the words of the scripture and the lights of nature and reason), that the knower of the Great God (Brahmavid), perceives the spirit of Brahma appearing within himself as in a dream. And he also knows him as such, who understands him according to the purport of the holy text. “What this is, that is the self.” (i.e. He is all in all).
2. This passage shows in short, the visible world to reside in the vacuous bosom of Brahma at its creation: it is now to be known in length, what this creation is, whence it takes its rise, and wherein it becomes extinct at last.
3. Hear me, O intelligent Ráma! now expound to you all things according to my best knowledge of them, and agreeably to their nature and substance in the order of creation.
4. One conscious of himself as a spiritual and intelligent being, views the passing world as a Somnum (swapnam) dream: and this dreaming simile of the passing world, applies equally to our knowledge of ego and tu or non-ego (which is as false as our cognitions in a dream).
5. Next to the book describing the conduct of the seekers of liberation (mumukshu-vyavahára), then follows the book of evolution (utpatti), which I am now going to propound to you.
SECTION II.
Worldly Bondage.
6. Bondage consists in our belief of the reality of the visible world (and our relation with its phenomena, Gloss). So our release depends on the negation of phenomenals. Now hear me tell you how to get rid of the visible (fetters of our minds).
7. Whoever is born in this world, continues to progress, till at last he obtains his final liberation (his ultimum and optimum perfection); or rises towards heaven or falls into hell (under the subjection of his righteous and unrighteous actions (Gloss)).
8. I shall therefore expound for your understanding every thing relating to the production and continuance of things, and their prior states as they were.
9. Hear me Ráma, now give you an abstract of this book in brief, and I will here-after dilate upon it, as you may wish to know more of this (theory of production).
SECTION III.
Phases of the Spirit.
10. Whatever appears either as moving or unmoving in this world, know them all as appearances in a dream in a state of sound sleep (susupti); which become extinct at the end of a Kalpa-age. (The events of a Kalpa or day of Brahmá are as his day dream).
11. Then there remains a nameless and undeveloped something, in a state of deep, dark and dank abyss, without any light or thick-spread (nebulae) over it. (The Teo and Beo of Moses, the tama = teom of Manu and Veda, and the Moisture of Thales).
12. This great self-existence is afterwards attributed with the titles of Reality (Rita), self (Átma), Supreme (Param), Immense (Brahma), Truth (Satyam) and so forth by the wise, as expressions for the Great Spirit (mahátman) for popular use. (Vide Gloss for definitions of these terms).
13. This self-same spirit next shows itself in another form, which is called the living soul (Jívátmá), and comes afterwards to be understood in the limited sense of life. (Jíva, Jív, Zeu or Zeus; Ji and Ján; Zoa Protozoa &c.). (But it is the undivided and universal soul of which the divided, individual and particular souls are but parts and particles. Gloss).
14. This inert living principle (Jíva-Life or the Protozoa), becomes according to its literal signification the moving spirit (ákulátma), which afterwards with its power of thinking (manana) becomes the Mind, and lastly the embodied soul (Bhútátmá). (So says the Sruti; Etasmát Jáyate pránah, manah, sarvendriyánicha, Kham, Váyurúp, Prithiví &c. (i.e. From Him—the Spirit, is derived the life, mind and the organs of sense or body, whence he is styled the Living, Thinking and All acting Deity)).
15. Thus the mind is produced and changed from the quiescent nature of the Great Supreme Spirit to a state of restlessness (asthirákára) like that of a surge, heaving itself in the (Pacific) Ocean (i.e. the restful spirit of God-Brahma is transformed to the restless state of the Mind, personified as Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha, called the Atmabhu—the son of the spirit of God or God the Son, Demiurge).
16. The mind soon evolves itself as a self-volitive power which exercises its desires at all times whereby this extensive magic scene of the world is displayed to our view. This scene is figured as Virájmúrti, or manifestation of the desires of the will of Divine mind, and represented as the offspring of Brahmá in the Indian Theogony. (Vide Manu on Genesis, chap I).
17. As the word golden bracelet signifies no other thing than a bracelet made of gold, so the meaning of the word world is not different from its source—the Divine will. (The difference is formal and not material, and consists in form and not in the substance, the divine will being the substratum of the formal world).
18. Again as the word gold bears the idea of the substance of which the bracelet is made, so the word Brahma conveys the meaning of immensity which contains the world in it; but the word world contains no idea of Brahma nor bracelet that of gold. (The substance contains the form as a stone does the statue, but the form does not contain the substance, as the statue may be of earth or metal or of wood).
19. The unreality of the world appears as a reality, just as the heat of the sun presents the unreal mirage in the moving sands of the desert as real waves of the sea. (So the phantasm of the mind-Brahmá, presents the phantasmagoria of the world (Viswarúpa) as a sober reality).
20. It is this phantasy (of the reality of the unreal world), which the learned in all things, designate as ignorance—avidyá, nature—sansriti, bondage—bandha, illusion—máyá, error-moha, and darkness—tamas. (To denote our mental delusion and deception of senses. Gloss).
SECTION IV.
Nature of Bondage.
21. Now hear me relate to you, O moon-faced Ráma! about the nature of this bondage, whereby you will be able to know the mode and manner of our liberation from it (as the diagnosis of a disease being known, it is not difficult to heal it).
22. The intimate relation of the spectator with the spectacle is called his bondage to the same, because the looker’s mind is fast bound to the object of his sight. It is the absence of the visible objects, therefore, from the mirror of the mind, which is the only means of his liberation. (So also is the removal of the objects of the other senses from the mind).
23. The knowledge of the world, ego and tu (as separate existences) is said to be an erroneous view of the soul (which is one and the same in all); and there can be no liberation of one, as long as he labours under this blunder of bheda-jnána or knowledge of individualities. (This is called savikalpa-jnána or cognition of biplicity, which cannot lead to Kaivalya mukti or the felicity derived from a knowledge of universal unity).
24. To say that the soul is neither this nor that (nedam-nedam) is but false logomachy, which cannot come to an end. The discrimination of alternatives serves only to increase the ardour for the visibles. (i.e. The ardour of induction spreads the infection of materialism. The idle neti-neti and tanna-tanna of Vedanta Philosophy is mere amphilogy and prevarication of both, as idem et non idem).
25. It is not to be obtained by sophists by the chopping of logic or by pilgrimage or ceremonial acts, any more than by a belief in the reality of the phenomenal world. (All these are observances of the esoteric faith and blind persuasion, but do not appertain to the science of esoteric spiritualism. Gloss).
26. It is hard to avoid the sight of the phenomenal world, and to repress one’s ardour for the same. But it is certain that, the visibles can not lead us to the Reality, nor the Real mislead us to unreality (i.e. the spiritual and physical knowledge are mutually repugnant to each other).
27. Wherever the invisible, inconceivable and intelligent spirit is existent, there the beholder views the visible beauty of God shining even in the midst of atoms. (i.e. Every particle of matter manifests the beauty of its maker; unless there be a dull material object to intercept the sight of the intelligent soul).
28. The phenomenal world has its rise from Him, yet those ignorant people that depart from Him to the adoration of others, resemble fools, that forsake rice to feed upon gruel. (i.e. They take the shadow for the substance).
29. Although this visible world is apparent to sight, yet O Ráma! it is but a shadow of that Being, who resides alike in the smallest atom as in the mirror of the mind, that receives the image of the largest as well as minutest things. (Compare. As full and perfect in a hair as heart. Pope.)
30. The spirit is reflected in every thing like a figure in the mirror, and it shines equally in rocks and seas, in the land and water, as it does in the mirror of the mind. (compare: Wherever I cast my eyes, thy beauty shines).
31. The visible world is the scene of incessant woes, births, decay and death, and the states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are presenting by turns the gross, subtile and evanescent forms of things for our delusion.
32. Here I sit in my meditative mood (anirúdha), having wiped off the impressions of the visibles from my mind; but my meditation is disturbed by the recurrence of my remembrance of the visibles: and this is the cause of the endless transmigrations of the soul. (i.e. The reminiscence of the past is the cause of our everlasting bondage in life).
33. It is hard to have a fixed (nirúdha) and unalterable (nirvikalpa) meditation (samádhi), when the sight of the visible world is present before our bodily and mental vision. Even the fourth stage of insensible samádhi called the turíya, in the state of sound sleep (susupti), is soon succeeded by one’s self-consciousness and external intelligence.
34. On rising from this state of deep meditation, one finds himself as roused from his sound sleep, in order to view the world full of all its woes and imperfections opening wide before him. (Compare, “I wake to a sea of troubles, how happy they who wake no more”. Young).
35. What then, O Ráma! is the good of this transient bliss which one attains by his temporary abstraction (Dhyána), when he has to fall again to his sense of the sufferings to which the world is subject as a vale of tears. (Compare, “When the cock crew I wept &c.” Young’s Night Thoughts).
36. But if one can attain to a state of unalterable abstraction of his thoughts from all worldly objects, as he has in his state of sound sleep (susupti), he is then said to have reached the highest pitch of his holiness on earth. (For it is the entire oblivion of the world that is necessary for our spiritual perfection, as it is said, “forget the present for the future”).
37. No body has ever earned aught of reality in the scene of unreal vanities; for whenever his thoughts come in contact with any outward thing, he finds it inseparable from the blemishes of existence. (“Vanity of vanities, the world is vanity”. Ecclesiastes.)
38. Should any body (in the practice of the fixedness of his attention), fix his sight for a while on a stone, by forcibly withdrawing it from visible objects, he is sure to be carried away afterwards by the visibles pressing upon his sight.
39. It is well known to all that an unflinching meditation, having even the firmness of a rock, can have no durability, in the practice of the Yogi owing to his worldly propensities.
40. Even the nirúdha or steadfast meditation which has attained the fixedness of a rock, cannot advance one step towards the attainment of that tranquillity which has no bounds to it. (i.e. The everlasting bliss of liberation or moksha).
41. Thus the sight of phenomena being altogether irrepressible, it is a foolish supposition of its being suppressed by practices of Jap-tap or prayers and austerities and the like acts of devotion.
42. The idea of the phenomena (drisyadhi), is as inherent in the mind of the spectator of the visible world, as the seeds of the lotus flower are contained in the inner cells of the pericarp.
43. The ideal of the phenomenal world (drisyadhi), lies as hidden in the minds of the spectators of the outer world, as are the in-born flavour and moisture of fruits, the oil of sesamum seeds; and the innate sweet scent of flowers.
44. As the fragrance of camphor and other odoriferous substances inheres in their nature, so the reflexion of the visible world resides in the bosom of the intellect.
45. As your dreams and desires rise and subside of themselves under the province of your intellect, so the notions of things always recur to your mind from the original ideas of them impressed in the seat of the visibles (the mind).
46. The mental apparition of the visible world, deludes its beholder in the same manner, as the visual appearance of a spectre or hobgoblin, misleads a child (to its destruction).
47. The notion of the visible world gradually expands itself, as the germ of the seed shoots forth in time, and spreads itself afterwards in the form of a plant.
48. As the minute germs and animalcules, which are contained within the bosoms of fruits and embryos of animals, expand themselves to wonderfully beauteous forms afterwards, so the seed of this world (originally) lying hid in the Divine Mind, unfolds itself in wonderful forms of the visible phenomena in nature.
CHAPTER II.
Description of the First Cause.
SECTION I.
Narrative of the air-born and aeriform Bráhman.
Vasishtha resumed:—Hear me Ráma; now relate to you the narrative of one Ákásaja or air-born Bráhman, which will be a jewel to your ears, and enable you the better to understand the drift of the book of Genesis.
2. There lived a Bráhman Ákásaja by name, who sat always reclined in his meditation, and was ever inclined to the doing of good to all creatures.
3. Finding him long-lived, Death thought within himself saying:—It is I alone that am imperishable, and devour all things one by one.
4. How is it that I cannot cram myself with this air-born, wherein I find my teeth as blunt in him, as the edge of a sword is put to the bluff by the solid rock.
5. So saying, he proceeded to the abode of the Bráhman, intent upon making an end of him; for who is of so dull a nature as is not alert in his practice.
6. But as he was about to enter the house, he was opposed by a gorgeous flame of fire, like the conflagration of final destruction on the last day of the dissolution of the world.
7. He pierced the ambient flame and entered the dwelling, where seeing the Bráhman before him, he stretched his hand to lay hold on him with all avidity.
8. He was unable even with his hundred hands (i.e. with all his might) to grasp the Bráhman, as it is impossible for the strongest to withstand the resolute man in his wonted course.
9. He then had recourse to Yama—his lord to clear his doubt, and to learn why he could not devour the air-born (being).
10. Yama replied saying:—Death, trust not too far thy own might, that makes thee mighty to destroy the living. It is the act of the dying person that is the chief cause of his death and naught otherwise.
11. Therefore do thou be diligent to find out the acts of the person thou intendest to kill; because it is by their assistance only that thou canst seize thy prey.
12. Hereupon Death betook himself gladly to wander about in all places under the horizon. He roved over the habitable parts, as also throughout the lacunal and fluvial districts.
13. He traversed the forests and jungles, marshy and rocky grounds and maritime coasts, and passed to foreign lands and islands, and pried through their wildernesses, cities and towns.
14. He searched through kingdoms and countries, villages and deserts; and surveyed the whole earth to find out some act of the Bráhman in any part of it.
15. At last Death with all his search and effort, came to find the acts of the air-born Bráhman, to be as nil as the offspring of a barren woman; and his mind as transfixed (in meditation) as if it were a rock.
16. He then returned from his reconnoitering to his all-knowing master Yama, and besought his advice, as servants do in matters of doubt and difficulty (how to proceed).
17. Death addressed him saying:—“Tell me my lord, where the acts of the Air-born Bráhman are to be found;” to which Yama after a long head-work, replied as follows.
SECTION II.
State of the Soul.
18. Know, O Death! that this air-born seer has no acts whatever; for as he is born of empty air so his doings are all null and void. (i.e. The bodiless spirit or mind is devoid of acts requiring physical means and appliances).
19. Whoso is born of air, is as pure as air itself, and has no combination of cause or acts like all embodied (beings).
20. He has no relation with acts of his prior existence. He is nil as the child of an unprolific woman, and as one unborn, uncreated and unbegotten.
21. Want of causes has made him a pure vacuous being, and the privation of prior acts has made him as nil as an etherial arbor.
22. His mind is not ruffled as those of others, by reason of the privation of his former acts; nor is there any such act of his present state, whereby he may become a morsel to death.
23. Such is the soul seated in the sheath of vacuity, and remaining for ever as the simple form of its own causality (káranadeha), and not guided by any extraneous causation whatever.
24. It has no prior deed, nor does it do any thing at present; (i.e. neither led by predestination, nor actuated by present efforts); but continues as something in the shape of aeriform intelligence.
25. Our inference of the actions of breathing and motion by the agency of the soul, is a mere supposition; because the soul is devoid of every thought of or tendency to action.
26. It sits meditating on itself as inseparable from the Supreme Intelligence, just as the images (in painting and statuary), are inseparable from the mind of the painter and sculptor.
27. The self-born Bráhman is as intimately connected with the objects of his thought, as fluidity is associated with water and vacuity with the firmament.
28. His soul is as immanent in the supreme, as motion is inherent in the winds. It has neither the accumulated acts of past lives, nor those of its present state. (i.e. It is neither a passive nor active agent of prior or present acts; but is an indifferent witness of the acts of the body and mind).
29. It is produced without the co-operation of accompanying causes, and being free from prior motives, it is not subjected to the vicissitudes concomitant with human life.
30. It is found to be no other than its own cause; and having no other cause for itself, it is said to be self-produced.
31. Say, how can you lay hold on that being that has done no act before, nor is in the act of doing any thing at present? It is then only subjected to thee when it thinks itself mortal. (But he that knows his soul to be immortal is not subject to death).
32. Whoso believes his soul to be of this earth, and thinks himself to be an earthly being, he may be easily overtaken by thee (whose power extends over earth-born mortals only).
33. This Bráhman is a formless being, by reason of his disowning the material body. Hence it is as hard for thee to enthral him, as to entwine the air with a rope.
34. Death rejoined saying:—Tell me my lord! how may the unborn Aja or the self-born swayambhu, be produced out of vacuum, and how can an earthly or other elemental body be and not be (at the same time).
35. Yama replied:—This Bráhman is neither born nor is nil at any time; but remains for ever the same, as the light of intelligence of which there is no decay.
36. There remains nothing at the event of the great Doomsday, except the tranquil, imperishable and infinite Bráhman himself in his spiritual form.
37. This is the nature of the everlasting vacuum, too subtile in its essence, and devoid of all attributes; but viewing present before its mind, the stupendous cosmos in the form of a huge mountain in the beginning of recreation. (The mind is the noumenon—Brahma, and the phenomena of the world is the gigantic macrocosm known as Virájmúrti).
38. Being of the nature of intelligence it is imperishable; but those who view the spirit in the form of any phenomenal body, are liable to perish with it like all embodied beings.
39. Thus this Bráhman remained in the womb of vacuity in the beginning, in his state of unalterable, vacuous intelligence.
40. It is purely of the nature of the inane understanding, and of the form of a vast expanse of omniscience; having neither body nor organism; no acts nor agency, nor desire of any kind in itself.
41. That which is simply of the form of vacuum and pure light, is never beset by the snare of pristine desires, as a corporeal being.
42. It has nothing to know or see without itself (i.e. beyond its self-consciousness). The only conception that we have of it, is what resembles an extended intelligence (i.e. an all-diffusive omniscience).
43. Under these circumstances, how is it susceptible of any earthly or other external form? Therefore O Death! desist from thy attempt to lay hold on the same.
44. Hearing these words of Yama, Death thought upon the impracticability of laying hold on empty vacuity by any body, and sorrowfully returned to his own abode.
45. Ráma said: you said sir, that Brahmá is your great grand-sire; I think it is he that you mean to say as the unborn, self-born, universal soul and intelligence.
46. So is this Brahmá, Ráma! as I have spoken to you, and it was with regard to the same, that the aforesaid discussion was held of yore between Death and Yama (Pluto).
47. Again when Death had made an end of all living beings at the interval of a manwantará, he thought himself strong enough to make an attempt to bear down upon the lotus-born Brahmá also.
48. It was then that he was admonished by Yama, saying:—It is your habit that makes you go on your wonted course of killing.
49. But the super-etherial form of Brahmá too is beyond your reach: it being simply of the nature of the mind having connection with its thoughts only, and no concern with the actual forms of things.
50. It is of the form of the wonderfully vacuous intellect, having the faculty of cognition in it. Thus the intellect being but vacuum, has neither any cause for it, nor any effect produced by it.
51. As the aeriform volitive principle in men, manifests itself without being connected with material forms, so is the self-born (Brahmá) manifest to all in his own immaterial nature.
52. Like strings of pearl appearing to view in the clear firmament, and forms of cities seen in a dream, the self-born (Brahmá) is manifest of himself without relation to external objects.
53. As there is no beholder nor any thing beholden of the solitary Supreme spirit which is the intellect itself; so is the mind manifest of itself (without its looking at or being looked upon by any body).
54. It is the volitive mind which is called Brahmá and volition being a spiritual faculty, has no connection with any material substance.
55. As the mind of the painter is fraught with images of various things, so is the mind of Brahmá full of figures of all created beings.
56. The self-born Brahmá is manifest in his own mind as Brahmá is manifested in the vacuous sphere of his intellect. He is without beginning, middle and end, and appears to have a figure like that of a male being, while in reality he has no body, as the offspring of a barren woman.
CHAPTER III.
Causes of Bondage in the Body.
Ráma said:—It is even so as you have said, that the mind is a pure essence, and has no connection with the earth and other material substances; and that it is verily Brahmá itself.
2. Now tell me, O Bráhman! Why the remembrance of his former states (in the past and previous Kalpas), is not (to be reckoned as) the cause of his birth, as it is in the case of mine and yours and of all other beings.
3. Vasishtha replied:—Whoever had a former body, accompanied with the acts of his prior existence, retains of course its reminiscence, which is the cause of his being (reborn on earth).
4. But when Brahmá is known to have no prior acts, how is it possible for him to have his reminiscence of any thing?
5. Therefore he exists without any other cause except the causation of his own mind. It is by his own causality that the Divine spirit is self-born, and is himself his own spirit.
6. He is everlasting, and his body is born of itself from the self-existent Brahma. This unborn or self-born Brahmá has no material body whatever, except his subtile átiváhika or linga deha.
7. Ráma said:—The everlasting body is one thing (called the Súkshma saríra or subtile or immaterial body), and the mortal body is another (called the sthúladeha or the gross and material frame). Now tell me sir, whether all created beings have a subtile body also as that of Brahmá?
8. Vasishtha replied:—All created beings that are produced of a cause, have two bodies (the súkshma and the sthúla or the subtile and the gross). But the unborn being which is without a cause, has one body only (which is called the átiváhika or the everlasting spiritual body).
9. The increate Brahmá is the cause of all created beings, but the uncreated spirit having no cause for itself, has one body for it.
10. The prime lord of creatures has no material body; but manifests himself in the vacuous form of his spiritual body.
11. His body is composed of the mind alone, and has no connection with the earth or any other material substance. He is the first lord of creatures, that stretched the creation from his vacuous body (or spiritual essence).
12. All these are but forms of the images or ideas in his vacuous mind, and having no other patterns or originals in their nature. And that every thing is of the same nature with its cause, is a truth well known to all (from the identity of the effect and its material cause).
13. He is an inexistent being and of the manner of perfect intelligence. He is purely of the form of the mind, and has an intellectual and no material entity.
14. He is prime (cause) of all material productions in the physical world, and is born of himself with his prime mobile force in the form of the mind.
15. It was by the first impulse given by the prime moving power, that this expanse of creation came to be spread in the same ratio, as the currents of air and water (or the velocity of winds and tides), are in proportion to the impetus given to them.
16. This creation shining so bright to our sight, has caught its light from the luminous mind of the formless Brahmá, and appears as real to our conceptions (as they are ideal in the Divine mind).
17. Our vision in a dream is the best illustration of this (unreality of worldly things): as that of the enjoyment of connubial bliss in dreaming. It is then that an unreal object of desire, presents itself as an actual gain to our fond and false imagination.
18. The vacuous, immaterial and formless spirit, is now represented as the self-born and corporeal lord of creatures in the form of the first male. (Protogonus or the only begotten son of God).
19. He remains undiscerned in his state of pure intelligence; but becomes manifest to all by the evolution of his volition. He is indiscernible in his absolute state (of inaction); but becomes conspicuous to us in the display of his nature (in creation).
20. Brahmá is the divine power of volition (or the will of God). He is personified as the first male agent of creation, but devoid of a corporeal body. He is only of the spiritual form of the mind, and the sole cause of the existence of the triple world.
21. It is his volition that makes the self-born (Brahmá) to exert his energies, as human desires impel all mankind to action: and the vacuous mind manifests itself as a mountain of desires.
22. It then forgets its everlasting and incorporeal nature, and assumes to itself the solid material body, and shows itself in the shape of a delusive apparition (in his creation).
23. But Brahmá, who is of an unsullied understanding, is not involved in oblivion of himself, by the transformation of his unknowable nature to the known state of volition (or change of the nirguna to saguna).
24. Being unborn of material substance, he sees no apparition like others, who are exposed by their ignorance to the misleading errors of falsehood, appearing in the shape of a mirage before them.
25. As Brahmá is merely of the form of the mind, and not composed of any material substance, so the world being the product of the eternal mind, is of the same nature with its original archetype.
26. Again as the uncreated Brahmá is without any accompanying causality with himself, so his creation has no other cause beside himself (i.e. There is no secondary cause of the universe).
27. Hence there is no difference in the product from its producer; because it is certain, that the work must be as perfect as its author (so says the Sruti:—Púrnat púrnam &c.).
28. But there is nothing as a cause and effect to be found in this creation, because the three worlds are but the prototypes of the archetype of the divine mind.
29. The world is stretched out in the model of the Divine mind, and not formed by any other holy spirit. It is as immanent in the mind of God, as fluidity is inherent in water.
30. It is the mind which spreads out this extended unreality of the world like castles in the air, and builds Utopian cities (by its imagination only).
31. There is no such thing as materiality, which is as false a conception as that of a snake in a rope. Hence it is no way possible for Brahma and other beings to exist as individual bodies.
32. Even spiritual bodies are inexistent to enlightened understandings. As for the material body, it has no room in existence. (Matter or a corporeal substance or an unseen substratum is a non-entity. Berkeley).
33. Man (manu) who derives his name from his mind (mana) is a form of the volitive soul called Verinchi (Lat. vir—inchoare the inchoative spirit of Brahma); and has for his dominion the mental or intellectual world mano-rajyam (Lat. mentis regio vel regnum) where all things are situated in the form of realities.
34. The mind is the creative Brahma called Verinchitvas (Lat. Virinchoativus), by the exercise of its inherent sankalpa or the volition of incipience or creation—sisriksha; and displays itself in the form of the visible universe by development of its own essence.
35. This Virinchi or the creative power is of the form of the mind manas, as the mind itself is of the form of Virinchi also. It has no connection with any material substance, which is a mere creation of the imagination. (That is to say, matter is an imaginary substance or substratum of qualities only).
36. All visible things are contained in the bosom of the mind, as the lotus-bud and blossom reside in the seed of the lotus. Hence there is no difference between the mental and visible appearances of things, nor has any one ever doubted of it any where.
37. Whatever things you see in a dream, whatever desires you have at heart and all the ideals of your fancy, together with your ideas, notions and impressions of the visibles, know your mind to be the receptacle of them all.
38. But the visible objects relating to the option of the mind (i.e. which are desirable, to every one), are as baneful to their beholder, as an apparition is to a child (i.e. they are equally tempting and misleading to all).
39. The ideal of the phenomenal drisyadhi, developes itself as the germ contained in the seed and becomes in its proper time and place a large tree (comparable with the great arbor of the world known as sansáramahí ruha or Vriksha).
40. If there is no rest with what is real, there can be no peace with the phenomenals which are full of troubles, and give no solace to the mind. It is impossible that the feeling of the perception of visibles will be ever lost to their perceiver (observer), though its subsidence only is said to constitute liberation.