The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)

by Valmiki

40. Kumbha said:—Tell me O prince, what is that great foulness, which thou feelest to be attached to thee, which makes thee act as a man of the world, and whether thou thinkest it as something or a mere delusion.

41. Sikhidhwaja replied:—The sense of my egoism, which is the root of the tree of my mind, is the great foulness that attaches to me; I know not how to get rid of it, for however I try to shun it, the more it clings about me.

42. Kumbha said:—Every effect is produced from some cause or other, and this is the general law of nature everywhere; anything otherwise is as false as the sight of a second moon in the sky, which is nothing but a reflexion of the true moon.

43. It is the cause which produces the effect, whether it be a big one or the small rudiment of it; therefore explore into the cause of your egoism, and tell me what it is.

44. Sikhidhwaja replied:—I know my sagely guide, that it is mere illusion—máyá, which is the cause of the fallacy of my egoism; but tell me sir, how this error of mine is to subside and vanish away from one.

45. It is from the proclivity of the mind towards the thinkables, that I am suffering all these pains and pangs within myself; now tell me O muni, about the means of suppressing my thoughts, in regard to external objects.

46. Kumbha said:—Tell me whether your thinking and knowing, are the causes of your thinkables and knowables, or these latter actuate your thinking and knowing powers. If you can tell me this, then shall I be able to explain to you the process of the cause and effect.

47. Now tell me which do you think to be the cause and not the cause, of knowing and knowable, and of thinking and the thinkable, which are the subjects of my question to you.

48. Sikhidhwaja answered:—I think, O sage, that the sensible objects of the body &c., are the causes of the thinking and thinkable (thoughts), and of knowing and the knowables or knowledge. (Because unless there be things in actual existence, we can neither think of or know anything, nor have any idea or knowledge of it at all).