Argument.—Of Mahádeva, the father of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva and the manner of his worship.
VASISHTHA said:—Then Hara, who is the lake of the lotus of Gaurí (i.e. her husband), being desirous of my enlightenment, glanced on me for a minute, and gave utterance to his lecture.
2. His eyes flashed with light under his heavenly forehead, and were as two caskets of his understanding, which scattered its rays about us. (The eyes are the indexes of men's understanding in Physiognomy).
3. The god said:—O sage, call your thoughts home, and employ them soon to think of your own essence; and to bring about your ends, as the breezes of heaven convey the fragrance to the nostrils. (The mind is usually compared in its fleetness with the winds, and therefore the task of the breezes is imposed upon the thoughts, which are as vagaries unless they answer one's purposes).
4. When the object long sought for is got in one's possession, what else is there for one to desire any more. I who have known and come to the truth, have nothing to expect as desirable nor any thing to reject as despicable. (When one is possest of his sole object, he is indifferent about all others, whether they be good or bad).
5. When you have got your mastery over yourself, both in the states of your peace and disquiet; you should apply yourself to the investigation of yourself or soul, without attending to any thing besides. (Nothing better than self-culture, and the advancement and salvation of one's own soul).
6. You may at first depend on your observations of the phenomenal, (as preparatory to your knowledge of the noumenal), which you will now learn from my lecture, if you will attend to it with diligence.
7. After saying in this manner, the holder of the trident told me, not to rely on my knowledge of the externals, but to attend to the internal breathings, which move this abode of the body, as the physical forces move a machine.
8. The lifeless body being without its breathing, becomes dull and dull and dumb as a block; its power of movement being derived from the air of breath, but its powers of thought and knowledge are attributed to the intellect.
9. This intellect has a form more rare and transparent than the vacuous air, it is an ens which is the cause of all entities; and is not destroyed by destruction of the living body for want of vital breath.