51. You have said all that you had to impart to me, and I have known all that is worth my knowing; Now sir, take your rest with the Goddess of speech, who has done her utmost for the instruction of us all.
52. I have known the unknown and knowable One, that is only to be known by us as the true reality; and knowing this all as the One Brahma, I am freed from my knowledge of the duality (of the living and supreme soul); and having got rid of the deception of the diversity of the visibles, I am released from my reliance in all worldly things.
CHAPTER CCIV.
Identity of abstract Intellectuality and Vacuity.
Argument:—The abstraction and intellection of all knowledge, merging in the infinite vacuum.
Vasishtha resumed and said:—Hear me moreover, O Ráma, to tell thee, a few words on transcendental knowledge, that the mirror of the mind shines more brightly, by expurgation of the external images that are reflected on it, than when it is eclipsed by those outward shadows. (i.e. Wipe off visibles from the mind).
2. Again the significant words that <are> the symbols of the objects of our knowledge, are as insignificant as the hissing murmurs of waters and waves, and the phenomenal is but a semblance of the noumenal, as a dream is the réchauffé or reflexion of the mind, and the visible world, is but a recast of the visionary dream.
3. The waking state is that of dreaming, and its scenes are those of our dreams; and presenting themselves before us in both these states from our remembrance of them: they are the inward concept of our consciousness, and appearing to be situated without it. (i.e. They are the innate ideas of our minds, and not perceptions of our outward organs of sense).
4. As I am conscious of the clearness of my intellectual sphere, notwithstanding the view of the fairy lands in its state of dreaming; so I find my mind, to be equally clear in my waking also of all its imaginary forms of the three worlds and their contents, which in reality <are> a formless vacuity only.
5. Ráma rejoined:—If all things are formless amidst the formless void of the universe, as in empty vacuity of the intellect; then tell me sir, whence arise these endless shapes and forms, as those <of> earth, water, fire and those of these hills, rocks and pebbles?
6. Tell me why the elements are of different forms and qualities and why the empty air, space and time have no forms nor properties of theirs; what makes the wind so very fleet, and what is the cause of the motions and actions of waving bodies.