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).