Válmíki says:--You have heard the relation of the subject of Stoicism or composure of the soul; attend now to that of Nirvána, which will teach you how to attain the final liberation of yourselves[A].

[A] Note. Nirvána or ultimate annihilation of the living or animal soul, being the aim and end of Buddhism, it is doubtful whether Vasishtha had derived his doctrine from the Buddhists or they from him.

2. As the chief of Sages was saying his magniloquent speech in this manner, and the princes remained mute with their intense attention to the ravishing oration of the Sage:

3. The assembled chiefs remained there as silent and motionless portraits, and forgot their devotions and duties, by being impressed in their minds with the sense and words of the Sage's speech.

4. The assemblage of Saints, was reverently pondering upon the deep sense of the words of the Sage, with their curled brows and signs of their index fingers (indicating their wonder).

5. The ladies in the Seraglio were lost in wonder, and turned upward their wondering eyes, resembling a cluster of black bees, sucking intently the nectarious honey of the new blown flowers (of the Sage's speech).

6. The glorious sun sank down in the sky, at the fourth or last watch of the day; and was shorn of his radiant beams as he was setting in the west (as a man becomes mild with his knowledge, of truth at the end of his journey through life).

7. The winds blew softly at the eve of the day, as if to listen to the sermon of the Sage, and wafted about the sweets of his moving speech, like the fragrance of the gently shaking mandara flowers.

8. All other sounds were drowned in the deep meditation of the audience, as when the humming of the bumble bees, is pushed in their repose, amidst the cell of blooming flowers at night.

9. The bubbling waters of the pearly lakes, sparkled unmoved amidst their embordered beds; as if they were intently attentive to listen to the words of the Sage, which dropped as strings of pearls from his flippant lips. (So the verse of Hafiz affixed to the title page of Sir William Jones' Persian grammar: "Thou hast spoken thy verse, and strung a string of pearls").

10. The pencil of the declining ray penetrating the windows of the palace, bespoke the halting of the departing sun, under the cooling shade of the royal canopy, after his weary journey all along the livelong day.

11. The pearly rays (or bright beams) of the parting day, being covered by the dust and mist of the dusk, it seemed to be besmeared as the body of a dervish with dust and ashes; and had gained its coolness after its journey under the burning sun (The cool and dusky eve of the day is compared with the dust-sprinkled body of the ascetic approaching to his cell).

12. The chiefs of men with their heads and hands decorated with flowers, were so regaled with the sweet speech of the Sage, that they altogether remained enrapt in their senses and minds.

13. The ladies listening to the sage, were now roused by the cries of their infants and the birds in their cages, to get up from the place and to give them their suck and food. (It means that the birds and boys, were alone insensible of the Sage's discourse).

14. Now the dust flung by the pinions of fluttering bees, covered the petals of the night blooming kumuda flowers; and the flapping chouries were now at rest, with the tremulous eyelids of the princes.

15. The rays of the sun, fearing to be waylaid by the dark night shade, which had now got loose from the dark mountain caves, fled through the windows to the inner apartment of the palace (which was already lighted with lamps).

16. The time watches of the royal palace, knowing it to be passed the fourth watch of the day, sounded aloud their drums and trumpets, mingled with the sound of conch-shells, loudly resounding on all sides.

17. The high-sounding speech of the sage, was drowned under the loud peal of the jarring instruments; as the sonorous sound of the peacock, is hushed under the uproar of roaring clouds.

18. The birds in the cages, began to quake and shake their wings with fear; and the leaves and branches of the lofty palm trees, shook in the gardens, as by a tremendous earthquake.

19. The babes sleeping on the breasts of their nurses, trembled with fear at the loud uproar; and they cried as the smoking clouds of the rainy season, resounding between the two mountain craigs resembling the breasts. (It is common in Indian poetry to compare the swelling breasts to rising hills, and say Kucha giri).

20. This noise made the helmets of the chieftains, shed the dust of their decorating flowers all about the hall; as the moving waves of the lake, sprinkle the drops of water upon the land.[A]

[A] In this verse there is the continuation of the world shaking understood through the intermediate steps. Thus the noise startled the chiefs, which shook their bodies, and these shook their heads, which caused their helmets to shake: these again shook the garlands of flowers upon them, and at last shed their dust on the ground. This kind of figure is called Krama mála corresponding with Metalepsis gradation; as we have in the following instance of Dido's exclamation in Virgil. "Happy, Oh truly happy had I been; if Trojan ships these coasts had never seen." Here the first seeing is that of the ships and then of the Trojans in them, and afterwards of Æneas as one among them, and then of her seeing him, and his seeing her, and lastly of her passion at his sight.

21. Thus the palace of Dasharatha being full of trepidation at the close of the day, regained its quiet at the gradual fall of the fanfare of sounding conch shells, and the hubbub of drum beatings at the advance of night.

22. The Sage put a stop to his present discourse, and addressed Ráma then sitting in the midst of the assembly, in a sweet voice and graceful language. (Mudhura-Vritti is the middle or graceful style between the high and low).

23. Vasishtha said:--O Rághava! I have already spread before you the long net of my verbosity; do you entrap your flying mind in the same way, and bring it to your bosom and under your subjection.

24. Take the purport of my discourse in such manner, as to leave out what is unintelligible, and lay hold on its substance; as the swan separates and sucks the milk which is mixed with water.

25. Ponder upon it repeatedly, and consider it well in thy mind, and go on in this way to conduct yourself in life (viz by suppression of your desires, weakening the mind, restraining the breathing, and acquiring of knowledge).

26. By going on in this manner, you are sure to evade all dangers; or else you must fall ere long like the heavy elephant, in some pitfall of the Vindhya mountain. (Pitfalls are the only means of catching elephants).

27. If you do not receive my words with attention, and act accordingly, you are sure to fall into the pit like a blind man left to go alone in the dark; and to be blown away like a lighted lamp, exposed in the open air.

28. In order to derive the benefit of my lectures, you must continue in the discharge of your usual duties with indifference, and knowing insouciance to be the right dictum of the sástras, be you regardless of everything besides.

29. Now I bid you, O mighty monarch, and ye, princes and chiefs, and all ye present in this place, to get up and attend to the evening services of your daily ritual. (Abnika).

30. Let all attend to this much at present, as the day is drawing to its close; and we shall consider the rest, on our meeting in the next morning.

31. Válmíki related:--After the Sage had said so far, the assembly broke, off; and the assembled chiefs and princes rose up, with their faces blooming as the full blown lotuses at the end of the day.

32. The Chiefs having paid their obeisance to the monarch, and made their salutation to Ráma, they did their reverence to the sage, and departed to their respective abodes.

33. Vasishtha rose up from his seat with the royal sage Viswámitra, and they were saluted on their departure by the aerial spirits, who had attended the audience all along.

34. The Sages were followed closely, by the king and chieftains a long way, and they parted after accosting them, according to their rank and dignity on the way;

35. The celestials took their leave of the sage, and betook to their heavenward journey; and the munis repaired to their hermitages in the woods, when some of the saints turned about the palace, like bees flying in about the lotus bush (different directions).

36. The king having offered handfuls of fresh flowers at the feet of Vasishtha, entered the royal seraglio with his royal consorts.

37. But Ráma and his brother princes, kept company with the sage to his hermitage; and having prostrated themselves at his feet, they returned to their princely mansions.

38. The hearers of the sage having arrived at their houses made their ablutions; then worshipped the gods, and offered their offerings to the manes of their ancestors. They then treated their guests and gave alms to beggars.

39. Then they took their meals with their Brahman guests, and members of the family; and their dependants and servants were fed one after the other, according to the rules and customs of their order and caste.

40. After the sun had set down, with the diurnal duties of men, there rose the bright moon on high, with impositions of many nocturnal duties on mankind.

41. At last the great king and the princes, and chiefs of men and the munis, together with the sages and saints, and all other terrestrial beings, betook themselves to their several beds, with silken coverlets and bed cloths of various kinds.

42. They lay thinking intensely in themselves, on the admonitions of the sage Vasishtha; on the mode of their passing over the boisterous gulf of this world, by means of this spiritual knowledge.

43. Then they slept and lay with their closed eyelids, for one watch of the night only; and then opened their eyes, like the opening buds of lotuses, to see the light of the day.

44. Ráma and his brother princes, passed full three watches of the night in waking; and pondering over the deep sense of the lectures, of their spiritual guide--Vasishtha. (The present ritual allots three watches of the night to sleep, while formerly they gave but one watch to it).

45. They slept only one and a half watch of the night, with their closed eye lids; and then they shook off the dullness of their sleep, after driving the lassitude of their bodies by a short nap.

46. Now the minds of these, being full of good will, raised by the rising reason in their souls, and knowledge of truth; they felt the crescent of spiritual light lightening their dark bosoms, as the sextant of the moon, illumes the gloom of night; which afterwards disappeared at the approach of daylight, and the gathering broils of daytime.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

II. ON THE PERFECT CALM AND COMPOSURE OF THE MIND

Argument.--The sages joining the assembly the next morning, and preaching of Divine knowledge to it.

Válmíki related: Then the shade of night, with her face as dark as that of the darkened moon, began to waste and wane away; as the darkness of ignorance and the mists of human wishes, vanish before the light of reason.

2. Now the rising sun showed his crown of golden rays, on the top of the eastern mountain, by leaving his rival darkness to take its rest, beyond the western or his setting mount of astáchala (the two mountains mean the eastern and western horizons).

3. Now the morning breeze began to blow, being moistened by the moon-beams, and bearing the particles of ice, as if to wash the face and eyes of the rising sun.

4. Now rose Ráma and Lakshmana, with their attendants also, from their beds and couches; and after discharging their morning services, they repaired to the holy hermitage of Vasishtha.

5. There they saw the Sage coming out of his closet, after discharge of his morning devotion; and worshipped his feet with offerings of arghya (or flowers and presents worthy of him).

6. In a moment afterwards, the hermitage of the Sage was thronged by munis and Bráhmans, and the other princes and chiefs, whose vehicles and cars and horses and elephants, blocked the pathways altogether.

7. Then the Sage being accompanied by these, and attended by their suite and armies; and followed by Ráma and his brothers, was escorted to the palace of the Sovereign King Dasaratha.

8. The king who had discharged his morning service, hastened to receive the Sage before hand; and walked a great way to welcome him, and do him honour and pay his homage.

9. They entered the court hall, which was adorned with flowers and strings of gems and pearls; and there they seated themselves on the rich sofas and seats, which were set in rows for their reception.

10. In a short time the whole audience of the last day, composed both of the terrestrial men and celestial spirits, were all assembled at the spot, and seated in their respective seats of honor.

11. All these entered that graceful hall, and saluted one another with respect; and then the royal court shone as brilliant as a bed of blooming lotuses, gently moved by the fanning breeze.

12. The mixed assemblage of the munis and rishis or the saints and Sages, and the Vipras and Rájas or the Bráhmans and Kshatriyas, sat in proper order, on seats appropriated for all of them.

13. The soft sounds of their mutual greetings and welcomes, gradually faded away; and the sweet voice of the panegyrists and encomiasts, sitting in a corner of the hall, was all hushed and lulled to silence.

14. The sun-beams appearing through the chinks in the windows, seemed to be waiting in order to join the audience, and to listen to the lectures of the Sage. (Another translation has it thus:--The audience crept in the hall, no sooner the sun-beams peeped through the windows).

15. The jingling sound of bracelets, caused by the shaking of hands of the visitors in the hall; was likely to lull to sleep the hearers of the sage. (It was a custom in olden times, to make a tinkling sound to ear, in order to lull one to sleep, as by a kind of mesmerism).

16. Then as Kumára looked reverently on the countenance of his sire Siva, and as Kacha looked with veneration upon the face of the preceptor of the God or Brihaspati; and as Prahlada gazed upon the face of Shukra--the preceptor of demons, and as Suparna viewed the visage of Krishna.

17. So did Ráma gloat upon the countenance of Vasishtha, and his eye-balls rolled upon it, like the black bees fluttering about a full blown lotus.

18. The sage resumed the link of his last lecture, and delivered his eloquent speech to Ráma, who was well versed in eloquence also.

19. Vasishtha said:--Do you remember Ráma! the lecture that I gave yesterday, which was fraught with deep sense and knowledge of transcendental truth?

20. I will now tell you of some other things for your instruction, and you shall have to hear it with attention, for consummation of your spiritual wisdom.

21. Whereas it is the habit of dispassionateness, and the knowledge of truth; whereby we are enabled to ford over the boisterous ocean of the world, you must learn therefore, O Ráma! to practice and gain these betimes.

22. Your full knowledge of all truth, will drive away your bias in untruth; and your riddance from all desire, will save you from all sorrow. (Desire is a burning fire, but want of yearning is want of pain and sorrowing).

23. There exists but one Brahma, unbounded by space and time; He is never limited by either of them; and is the world himself, though it appears to be a distinct duality beside Him.

24. Brahma abides in all infinity and eternity, and is not limited in any thing; He is tranquil and shines with equal effulgence on all bodies; He cannot be any particular thing, beside his nature of universality.

25. Knowing the nature of Brahma as such, be you freed from the knowledge of your egoism (personality); and knowing yourself as the same with him, think yourself as bodiless and as great as he; and thus enjoy the tranquillity and felicity of your soul.

26. There is neither the mind nor the avidyá (or ignorance), nor the living principle, as distinct things in reality; they are all fictitious terms (for the one and same nameless Brahma himself).

27. It is the self-same Brahma, that exhibits himself in the forms of our enjoyments, in the faculties of enjoying them, in our desires and appetites for the same, and in the mind also for their perception. The great Brahma that is without beginning and end, underlies them all, as the great ocean surrounds the earth (and supplies its moisture to every thing upon it).

28. The same Brahma is seen in the form of his intellect (or wisdom) in heavens, on earth and in the infernal regions, as also in the vegetable and animal creations; and there is nothing else beside him.

29. The same Brahma, who has no beginning nor end, spreads himself like the boundless and unfathomable ocean, under all bodies and things; and in whatever we deem as favourable and unfavourable to us, as our friends and our enemies.

30. The fiction of the mind, like that of a dragon, continues so long, as we are subject to the error and ignorance of taking these words for real things; and are unacquainted with the knowledge of Brahma (as pervading all existence).

31. The error of the mind and its perceptibles, continues as long as one believes his personality to consist in his body; and understands the phenomenal world as a reality; and has the selfishness to think such and such things to be his (since there is nothing which actually belongs to any body, besides its temporary use).

32. So long as you do not raise yourself, by the counsel and in the society of the wise and good; and as long as you do not get rid of your ignorance; you cannot escape from the meanness of your belief in the mind.

33. So long as you do not get loose of your worldly thoughts, and have the light of the universal spirit before your view; you cannot get rid of the contracted thoughts of your mind, yourself and the world.

34. As long as there is the blindness of ignorance, and one's subjection to worldly desires; so long there is the delusion of falsehood also, and the fictions of the fallacious mind.

35. As long as the exhalation of yearnings infest the forest of the heart, the chakora or parrot of reason will never resort to it; but fly far away from the infected air.

36. The errors of thought disappear from that mind, which is unattached to sensual enjoyments; which is cool with its pure inappetency, and which has broken loose from its net of avarice.

37. He who has got rid of his thirst and delusion of wealth, and who is conscious of the inward coolness of his soul, and who possesses the tranquillity of his mind; such a person is said to have fled from the province of his anxious thought.

38. He who looks upon unsubstantial things, as unworthy of his regard and reliance; and who looks upon his body as extraneous to himself; is never misled by the thoughts of his mind.

39. He who meditates on the infinite mind, and sees all forms of things as ectypes of the universal soul; and who views the world absorbed in himself; is never misled by the erroneous conception of the living principle.

40. The partial view of a distinct mind and a living principle, serves but to mislead a man (to the knowledge of erroneous particulars); all which vanish away, at the sight of the rising sun of the one universal soul.

41. Want of the partial view of the mind, gives the full view of one undivided soul; which consumes the particulars, as the vivid fire burns away the dry leaves of trees, and as the sacrificial fire consumes the oblations of ghee or clarified butter.

42. Those men of great souls, who have known the supreme one, and are self-liberated in their lifetime; have their minds without their essences, and which are therefore called asatwas or nonentities. (These minds, says the gloss, are as the watermarks on the sand, after a channel is dried up (or its waters have receded); meaning that the mind remains in its print but not in its substance).

43. The body of the living liberated man, has a mind employed in its duties, but freed from its desires; such minds are not chittas or active agents, but mere sattwas or passive objects. They are no more self-volitive free agents, but are acted upon by their paramount duties. (Free will is responsible for its acts, but compulsion has no responsibility).

44. They that know the truth, are mindless and unmindful of everything save their duty; they rove about at pleasure and discharge their duties by rote and practice, in order any object to gain.

45. They are calm and cold with all their actions and in all their dealings; they have the members of their bodies and their senses under full control, and know no desire nor duality.

46. The saint having his sight fixed upon his inner soul, sees the world burnt down as straws by the fire of his intellect; and finds his erroneous conceptions of the mind, to fly far away from it, like flitting flies from a conflagration.

47. The mind which is purified by reason, is called the sattwa as said above, and does not give rise to error; as the fried paddy seed, is not productive of the plant (The sattwa mind is spiritless and dead in itself).

48. The word Sattwa means the contrary of Chitta, which latter is used in lexicons to mean the mind, that has the quality of being reborn on account of its actions and desires. (The chitta is defined as the living seed of the mind, and productive of acts and future regenerations, which the Sattwa or deadened mind cannot do).

49. You have to attain the attainable Sattwa or torpid state of your mind, and to have the seed of your active mind or chitta, singed by the blaze of your spiritual mind or sattwa.

50. The minds of the learned, which are lighted by reason, are melted down at once to liquidity; but those of the ignorant which are hardened by their worldly desires, will not yield to the force of fire and steel; but continue still to sprout up as the grass, the more they are mowed and put on fire. (The over-growing grass in the fields, though set on fire, will grow again from their unburnt roots, and became as rank as before).

51. Brahma is vast expanse, and such being the vastness of the universe too there is no difference between them; and the intellect of Brahma is as full as the fulness of his essence.

52. The Divine Intellect contains the three worlds, as the pepper has its pungency within itself. Therefore the triple world is not a distinct thing from Brahma, and its existence and inexistence (i.e., its creation and dissolution), are mere fictions of human mind. (It is ever existent in the eternal mind).

53. It is the use of popular language, to speak of existence and non-existence as different things; but they are never so in reality to the right understanding. Since whatever is or is not in being, is ever present in the Divine Mind.

53a. This being a vacuity, contains all things in their vacuous state (which is neither the state of sensible existence, nor that of intellectual inexistence either). God as the Absolute, Eternal, and Spiritual substance, is as void as Thought. (The universe is a thought in the mind of God, and existence is thought and activity in the Divine Mind. Aristotle).

54. If you disbelieve in the intellectual, you can have no belief in your spirituality also; then why fear to die for fear of future retribution, when you leave your body behind to turn to dust. Tell me Ráma! how can you imagine the existence of the world in absence of the intellectual principle. (There can be no material world, without the immaterial mind; nor can you think of it, if you have no mind in you).

55. But if you find by the reasoning of your mind, all things to be mere intellections of the intellect at all times; then say why do you rely on the substantiality of your body.

56. Remember Ráma, your pellucid intellectual and spiritual form, which has no limit nor part of it, but is an unlimited and undivided whole; and mistake not yourself for a limited being by forgetting your true nature.

57. Thinking yourself as such, take all the discreet parts of the universe as forming one concrete whole; and this is the substantial intellect of Brahma.

58. Thou abidest in the womb of thy intellect, and art neither this nor that nor any of the many discrete things interspersed in the universe. Thou art as thou art and last as the End and Nil in thy obvious and yet thy hidden appearances.

59. Thou art contained under no particular category, nor is there any predicable which may be predicated of thee. Yet thou art the substance of every predicament in thy form of the solid, ponderous and calm intellect; and I salute thee in that form of thine.

60. Thou art without beginning and end, and abidest with thy body of solid intellect, amidst the crystal sphere of thy creation, and shining as the pure and transparent sky. Thou art calm and quiet, and yet displayest the wondrous world, as the seed vessel shows the wooden of vegetation.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

III. ON THE UNITY AND UNIVERSALITY OF BRAHMA

Argument.--Showing the identity of Brahma with the Mind, Living Soul, the body and the world and all things and extirpation of all dualisms, by the establishment of one universality.

Vasishtha continued:--As the countless waves, which are continually rising and falling in the Sea, are no other than its water assuming temporary forms to view; so the intellect exhibits the forms of endless worlds heaving in itself; and know, O sinless Ráma! this intellect to be thy very self or soul. (All personal souls are selfsame with the impersonal Self; because it is in the power of both the finite and infinite souls to produce and reduce the appearance of the worlds in them, which proves them beyond any doubt as the Chidátmá or the Intellectual soul).

2. Say thou that hast the intellectual soul, what relation doth thy immaterial soul bear to the material world, and being freed from thy earthly cares, how canst thou entertain any earthly desire or affection in it. (The spiritual soul has no concern with the material world).

3. It is the Intellect which manifests itself in the forms of living soul or jíva, mind and its desires, and the world and all things; say then what else can it be, to which all these properties are to be attributed (if not to the eternal intellect).

4. The intellect of the Supreme Spirit, is as a profound sea with its huge surges; and yet, O Ráma! it is as calm and cool as thy soul, and as bright and clear, as the transparent firmament.

5. As the heat is not separate from fire, and the fragrance not apart from the flower; and as blackness is inseparable from collyrium, and whiteness from the ice; and as sweet is inborn in the sugarcane, so is intellection inherent in, and unseparated from the intellect.

6. As the light is nothing distinct from the sun-beams, so is intellection no other than the intellect itself; and as the waves are no way distinct from the water; so the universe is in no ways different or disjoined from the nature of the intellect, which contains the universe. (The noumenon contains the phenomenon, and become manifest as the world).

7. The ideas are not apart from the intellect, nor is the ego distinct from the idea of it; the mind is not different from the ego, nor is the living soul any other than the mind.

8. The senses are not separate from the mind, and the body is not unconnected with the senses; the world is the same as the body, and there is nothing apart from the world. (The body is the microcosm of the cosmos [Sanskrit: shuddhabrahmánanda]).

9. Thus the great sphere of universe, is no other than the unbounded sphere of intellect; and they are nothing now done or made, or ever created before (for whatever there is or comes to pass, continues forever in the presence of the intellect).

10. Our knowledge of every thing, is but our reminiscence of the same; and this is to continue for evermore, in the manner of all partial spaces, being contained in infinity, without distinction of their particular localities. (All spaces of place occupied by bodies, are contained in the infinite and unoccupied vacuity of Mind).

11. As all spaces are contained in the endless vacuity, so the vastness of Brahma is contained in the immensity of Brahma; and as truth resides in verity, so in this plenum contained, is the plenitude of Divine mind. (Here Brahma the great means by figure of metonymy, the Brahmánda or vastness of his creation).

12. Seeing the forms of outward things, the intelligent man never takes them to his mind; it is the ignorant only, that set their minds to the worthless things of this world.

13. They are glad to long after what they approve of, for their trouble only in this world; but he who takes these things as nothing, remains free from the pleasure and pain of having or not having them. (So said the wise Socrates:--How many things are here, which I do not want).

14. The apparent difference of the world and the soul of the world, is as false in reality, as the meaning of the words sky and skies, which though taken in their singular and plural senses, still denote the same uniform vacuity. (So the one soul is viewed as many in appearance only).

15. He who remains with the internal purity of his vacant mind, although he observes the customary differences of external things, remains yet as unaffected by the feelings of pain and pleasure, as the insensible block of wood and stone (with his stoical indifference in joy and grief).

16. He who sees his blood-thirsty enemy in the light of a true friend, is the person that sees rightly into the nature of things. (Because the killers of our lives, are the givers of our immortality).

17. As the river uproots the big trees on both its sides, by its rapid currents and deluge; so doth the dispassionate man destroys the feelings of his joy and grief to their very roots.

18. The sage that knows not the nature of the passions and affections, and does not guard himself from their impulse and emotions, is unworthy of the veneration, which awaits upon the character of saints and sages.

19. He who has not the sense of his egoism, and whose mind is not attached to this world; saves his soul from death and confinement, after his departure from this world. (There is a similar text in the Bhagavadgítá, and it is hard to say which is the original one and which is the copy).

20. The belief in one's personality, is as false as one's faith in an unreality, which does not exist; and this wrong notion of its existence, is removed only by one's knowledge of the error, and his riddance from it.

21. He who has extinguished the ardent desire of his mind, like the flame of an oilless lamp; and who remains unshaken under all circumstances, stands as the image of a mighty conqueror of his enemies in painting or statue.

22. O Ráma! that man is said to be truly liberated, who is unmoved under all circumstances, and has nothing to gain or lose in his prosperity or adversity, nor any thing to elate or depress him in either state.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter IV

Argument.--Vasishtha exposes the evils of selfish views parág-drishti, and exalts the merit of elevated views pratyag-drishti.

Vasishtha continued:--Ráma! knowing your mind, understanding, egoism and all your senses, to be insensible of themselves, and deriving their sensibility from the intellect; say how can your living soul and the vital breaths, have any sensation of their own.

2. It is the one great soul, that infuses its power to those different organs; as the one bright sun dispenses his light, to all the various objects in their diverse colours.

3. As the pangs of the poisonous thirst after worldly enjoyments, come to an end; so the insensibility of ignorance, flies away like darkness at the end of the night.

4. It is the incantation of spiritual knowledge only, that is able to heal the pain of baneful avarice; as it is in the power of autumn only, to dispel the clouds of the rainy-season.

5. It is the dissipation of ignorance, which washes the mind of its attendant desires; as it is the disappearance of the rainy weather, which scatters the clouds in the sky.

6. The mind being weakened to unmindfulness, loses the chain of its desires from it; as a necklace of pearls being loosened from its broken string, tosses the precious gems all about the ground.

7. Ráma! they that are unmindful of the sástras, and mind to undermine them; resemble the worms and insects, that mine the ground wherein they remain.

8. The fickle eye-sight of the idle and curious gazer on all things, becomes motionless after their ignorant curiosity is over and has ceased to stir; as the shaking lotus of the lake becomes steady, after the gusts of wind have passed away and stopped.

9. You have got rid, O Ráma! of your thought of all entities and non-entities, and found your steadiness in the ever-steady unity of God; as the restless winds mix at last with the calm vacuum (after their blowing and breathing over the solid earth, and in the hollow sky).

10. I ween you have been awakened to sense, by these series of my sermons to you; as kings are awakened from their nightly sleep, by the sound of their eulogists and the music of timbrels.

11. Seeing that common people of low understandings, are impressed by the preachings of their parish parsons; I have every reason to believe that my sermons must make their impression, upon the good understanding of Ráma.

12. As you are in the habit of considering well, the good counsel of others in your mind; so I doubt not, that my counsel will penetrate your mind, as the cool rain-water enters into the parched ground of the earth.

13. Knowing me as your family priest, and my family as the spiritual guides of Raghus race for ever; you must receive with regard my good advices to you, and set my words as a neck-chain to your heart.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter V

Argument.--Ráma's relation to Vasishtha, of his perfect rest in godliness.

Ráma said:--O my venerable guide! My retrospection of your sermons, has set my mind to perfect rest, and I see the traps and turmoils of this world before me, with a quite indifferent and phlegmatic mind.

2. My soul has found its perfect tranquillity in the Supreme Spirit, is as the parched ground is cooled by a snow or of rainfall after a long and painful drought.

3. I am as cool as coldness itself, and feel the felicity of an entire unity in myself; and my mind has become as tranquil and transparent, as the limpid lake that is undisturbed by elephants.

4. I see the whole plenum of the universe, O sage! in its pristine pure light; and as clear as the face of the wide extended firmament, without the dimness of frost or mist.

5. I am now freed from my doubts, and exempted from the mirage of the world; I am equally aloof from affections, and have become as pure and serene, as the lake and sky in autumn.

6. I have found that transport in my inmost soul, which knows no bound nor decay; and have the enjoyment of that gusto, which defies the taste of the ambrosial draught of gods.

7. I am now set in the truth of actual existence, and my repose in the joyous rest of my soul. I have become the delight of mankind and my own joy in myself, which makes me thank my felicitous self, and you also for giving me this blessing. (The Sruti says, Heavenly bliss is the delight of men, and the heartfelt joy of every body).

8. My heart has become as expanded and pure, as the expanse of limpid lakes in autumn; and my mind hath become as cold and serene, as the clear and humid sky in the season of autumn.

9. Those doubts and coinings of imagination, which mislead the blind, have now fled afar from me; as the fear of ghosts appearing in the dark, disappear at the light of day-break.

10. How can there be the speck or spot of impurity, in the pure and enlightened soul; and how can the doubts of the objective nature, arise in the subjective mind? All these errors vanish to naught, like darkness before moon light.

11. All these appearances appearing in various forms, are but the diverse manifestations of the self-same soul; it is therefore a fallacy to suppose, this is one thing and that another, by our misjudgment of them.

12. I smile to think in myself, the miserable slave of my desires that I had been before; that am now so well satisfied without them. (The privation of desire gives greater satisfaction than its fulfilment).

13. I remember now how my single and solitary self, is one and all with the universal soul of the world; since I received my baptism with the ambrosial fluid of thy words.

14. O the highest and holiest station, which I have now attained to; and from where I behold the sphere of the sun, to be situated as low as the infernal region.

15. I have arrived at the world of sober reality and existence, from that of unreality and seeming existence. I therefore thank my soul, that has became so elevated and adorable with its fulness of the Deity.

16. O venerable Sage:--I am now situated in everlasting joy, and far removed from the region of sorrow; by the sweet sound of the honeyed words, which have crept like humming bees, into the pericarp of my lotus-like heart.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter VI

Argument:--Prevalence and influence of delirium (moha).

Vasishtha Continued--Hear me moreover to tell you, my dear Ráma, some excellent sayings for your good, and also for the benefit of every one of my audience here.

2. Though you are unlike others, in the greater enlightenment of your understanding; yet my lecture will equally edify your knowledge, as that of the less enlightened men than yourself.

3. He who is so senseless as to take his body for the soul, is soon found to be upset by his unruly senses; as a charioteer is thrown down by his head-strong and restive horses. (So says the Sruti also. "The soul is the charioteer of the vehicle of the body, and the senses are as its horses").

4. But the Sapient man who knows the bodiless soul and relies therein, has all his senses under the subjection of his soul; and they do not overthrow him, as obstinate horses do their riders.

5. He who praises no object of enjoyment, but rather finds fault with all of them, and discerns well their evils; enjoys the health of his body without any complaint. (The voluptuary is subject to diseases, but the abstinent is free from them; for in the midst of pleasure there is pain).

6. The soul has no relation with the body, nor is the body related with the soul; they are as unrelated to each other as the light and shade. (And are opposed to one another as sun-light and darkness).

7. The discrete soul is distinct from concrete matter, and free from material properties and accidents; the soul is ever shining and does not rise or set as the material sun and moon (and it never changes as the everchanging objects of changeful nature and mind).

8. The body is a dull mass of vile matter, it is ignorant of itself and its own welfare; it is quite ungrateful to the soul, that makes it sensible; therefore it well deserves its fate of diseases and final dissolution. (The body is frail, and is at best but a fading flower).

9. How can the body be deemed an intelligent thing, when the knowledge of the one (i.e., the soul) as intelligence, proves the other (i.e., the body) to be but a dull mass. They cannot both be intelligent, when the nature of the one is opposite to that of the other; and if there is no difference between them, they would become one and the same thing (i.e. the soul equal with the body, which is impossible).

10. But how is it then, that they mutually reciprocate their feelings of pain and pleasure to one another, unless they are the one and the same thing, and participating of the same properties? (This is a presumptive objection of the antagonistic doctrine, touching the co-relation of the mind and body).

11. It is impossible, Ráma, for the reciprocation of their feelings, that never agree in their natures; the gross body has no connection with the subtile soul, nor has the rarefied soul any relation with the solid body. (It is the gross mind that sympathises with the body, and not the unconnected spirit or soul).

12. The presence of the one, nullifies the existence of the opposite other; as in the cases of day and night, of darkness and light, and of knowledge and ignorance (which are destructive of their opposites).

13. The unbodied soul presides over all bodies, without its adherence to any; as the omnipresent spirit of Brahma, pervades throughout all nature, without coalescing with any visible object. (The spirit of God resides in all, and is yet quite detached from everything).

14. The embodied soul is as unattached to the body, as the dew drop on the lotus leaf is disjoined with the leaf; and as the divine spirit is quite unconnected with everything, which it fills and supports.

15. The Soul residing in the body, is as unaffected by its affections, as the sky remains unmoved, by the motion of the winds raging in its bosom. It is figuratively said, that tempests rend the skies, and the passions rend their recipient bosom; but nothing can disturb the empty vacuity of the sky or soul.

16. Knowing your soul to be no part of your body, rest quietly in it to eternity; but believing yourself as the body, be subject to repeated transmigrations of it in endless forms.

17. The visibles are viewed as the rising and falling waves, in the boundless ocean of the Divine soul; but reliance in the supreme soul, will show the light of the soul only.

18. This bodily frame is the product of the Divine soul, as the wave is produced of the water of the sea; and though the bodies are seen to move about as waves, yet their receptacle the soul is ever as steady as the sea;--the reservoir of the moving waves.

19. The body is the image of the soul, as the sun seen in the waves is the reflection of that luminary; and though the body like the reflected sun, is seen to be moving and waving, yet its archetype--the soul, is ever as steady as the fixed and unfluctuating sun in the sky.

20. The error of the substantiality and stability of the body is put to flight, no sooner the light of the permanent and spiritual Substratum of the soul, comes to shine over our inward sight. (Knowledge of the immaterial and immortal soul, removes the blunder of the material and mortal body).

21. The body appears to be in the act of constant motion and rotation like a wheel, to the partial and unspiritual observers of materialism; and it is believed by them to be perpetually subject to birth and death, like the succession of light and darkness. (Lit.:--As candle light and darkness follow each other, so is the body produced and dissolved by turns).

22. These unspiritual men, that are unconscious of their souls; are as shallow and empty minded, as arjuna trees; which grow without any pith and marrow within them.

23. Dull headed men that are devoid of intelligence, are as contemptible as the grass on the ground; and they move their limbs like the blades of grass, which are moved by force of the passing wind (and by direction of the Judging mind). Those that are unacquainted with the intelligent soul, resemble the senseless and hollow bamboos, which shake and whistle by breath of the winds alone. (The internal air moves the body and the limbs, as the external breeze shakes the trees).

24. The unintelligent body and limbs, are actuated to perform and display their several acts, by action of the vital breath; as the vacillation of the insensible trees and leaves, is caused by the motion of the breeze; and both of them cease to move, no sooner the current airs cease to agitate them.

25. These dull bodies are as the boisterous waves of the sea, heaving with huge shapes with tremendous noise; and appearing to sight as the figures of drunken men, staggering with draughts of the luscious juice of Vine.

26. These witless men resemble the rapid currents of rivers, which without a jot of sense in them, keep up on their continual motion, to no good to themselves or others.

27. It is from their want of wit, that they are reduced to utmost meanness and misery; which make them groan and sigh like the blowing bellows of the blacksmith.

28. Their continued motion is of no real good to themselves, but brings on their quietus like the calm after the storm; they clash and clang like the twang of the bowstring, without the dart to hit at the mark.

29. The life of the unintelligent man, is only for its extinction or death; and its desire of fruition is as false, as the fruit of an unfruitful tree in the woody forest.

30. Seeking friendliness in unintelligent men, is as wishing to rest or sleep on a burning mountain; and the society of the unintellectual, is as associating with the headless trunks of trees in a forest (The weak headed man like the headless tree, can neither afford any sheltering shade, nor nourishing fruit to the passenger. So the verse: It is vain to expect any good or gain, from men of witless and shallow brain).

31. Doing any service to the ignorant and lack witted men goes for nothing; and is as vain as beating the bush or empty air with a stick: and any thing given to the senseless, is as something thrown into the mud. (Or as casting pearls before the swine, or scattering grains in the bushes).

32. Talking with the ignorant, is as calling the dogs from a distance (which is neither heard nor heeded by them). Ignorance is the seat of evils, which never betide the sensible and the wise. (So the Hitopadesa--A hundred evils and thousand fears, daily befall to the fool, and not to the heedful wise).

33. The wise pass over all errors in their course amidst the world; but the ignorant are exposed to incessant troubles, in their ceaseless ardour to thrive in the pleasures of life.

34. As the carriage wheel revolves incessantly, about the axle to which it is fixed; so the body of man turns continually about the wealthy family, to which the foolish mind is fixed for gain.

35. The ignorant fool can never get rid of his misery, so long as he is fast bound to the belief of taking his body as his soul, and knowing no spiritual soul besides.

36. How is it possible for the infatuated, to be freed from their delusion; when their minds are darkened by illusion, and their eyes are blind-folded, by the hood-wink of unreal appearance.

37. The seeing man or looker on sights, that regales his eyes with the sight of unrealities; is at last deluded by them, as a man is moonstruck by fixing his eyes on the moon, and becomes giddy with the profuse fragrance of flowers.

38. As the watering of the ground, tends to the growth of grass and thorns and thistles; so the fostering of the body, breeds the desires in the heart, as thick as reptiles grow in the hollow of trees; and they invigorate the mind in the form of a rampant lion or elephant.

39. The ignorant foster their hopes of heaven on the death of their bodies; as the farmer expects a plenteous harvest, from his well cultivated fields (i.e. expectation of future heaven is vain, by means of ceremonial acts in life).

40. The greedy hell-hounds are glad to look upon the ignorant, that are fast-bound in the coils of their serpentine desires; as the thirsty peacocks are pleased to gaze on the black clouds, that rise before their eyes in the rainy season.

41. These beauties with their glancing eyes, resembling the fluttering bees of summer, and with lips blooming as the new blown leaves of flowers; are flaunting to catch hold of ignorant men; as poisonous plants are displayed, to lay hold on ignorant flies.

42. The plant of desire, which shoots out of the goodly soil of ignorant minds, shelters the flying passions under its shady foliage; as the coral plants foster the coral insects in them. (The corallines are known to be the formation of coral insects).

43. Enmity is like a wild fire, it consumes the arbour of the body, and lets out the smoke through the orifice of the mouth in the desert land of the heart, and exhibits the rose of the heath as the burning cinders.

44. The mind of the ignorant is as a lake of envy, covered with the leaves of spite and calumny: jealousy is its lotus-bed, and the anxious thoughts are as the bees continually fluttering thereupon.

45. The ignorant man that is subjected to repeated births, and is rising and falling as waves in the tumultuous ocean of this world, is exposed also to repeated deaths: and the burning fire which engulphs his dead body, is as in the submarine fire of this sea.

46. The ignorant are exposed to repeated births, attended by the vicissitudes of childhood, youth, manhood and old age, and followed at last by a painful death and cremation of the beloved body on the funeral pile.

47. The ignorant body is like a diving bucket, tied by the rope of transmigration to the Hydraulic machine of acts; to be plunged and lifted over again, in and over the dirty pool of this world.

48. This world which is a plane pavement and but narrow hole (lit., a cow foot-cave) to the wise, by their unconsciousness of it; appears as a boundless and unfathomable sea to the ignorant, owing to their great concern about it. (The wise think lightly of the world; but the worldly take it heavily upon themselves).

49. The ignorant are devoid of their eye-sight, to look out beyond their limited circle; as the birds long confined in their cages, have no mind to fly out of them.

50. The revolution of repeated births, is like the constant rotation of the wheel of a chariot; and there is no body that is able to stop their motion, by restraining his earthly desires; which are ever turning as the spokes affixed to nave of the heart.

51. The ignorant wander at large, about the wide extended earth; as huntsmen rove amidst the forest, in search of their prey; until they become a prey at the hand of death, and make the members of their bodies as morsels, to the vultures of their sensual appetites.

52. The sights of these mountainous bodies, and of these material forms made of earthly flesh, are mistaken by the ignorant for realities; as they mistake the figures in painting for real persons.

53. How flourishing is the arbour of this delusion, which is fraught with the endless objects of our erroneous imagination; and hath stretched out these innumerable worlds from our ignorance of them.

54. How flourishing is the kalpa tree or all fruitful arbour of delusion; which is ever fraught with endless objects of our imaginary desire, and stretches out the infinite worlds to our erroneous conception as its leaves.

55. Here our prurient minds like birds of variegated colours, rest and remain and sit and sport, in and all about this arbour.

56. Our acts are the roots of our repeated births as the stem of the tree is of its shoots; our prosperity and properties are the flowers of this arbor, and our virtues and vices are as its fruits of good and evil.

57. Our wives are as the tender plants, that thrive best under the moon-light of delusion; and are the most beautiful things to behold in this desert land of the earth.

58. As the darkness of ignorance prevails over the mind, soon after the setting of the sun light of reason; there rises the full moon of errors in the empty mind, with all her changing phases of repeated births. (This refers to the dark ages of Puránic or mythological fictions, and also to the Dárshanic or philosophical systems which succeeded the age of Vedántic light, and were full of changeable doctrines, like the phases of the moon; whence she is styled dwija or mistress of digits. There is another figure of equivocation in the word doshah, meaning the night as well as the defect of ignorance).

59. It is under the influence of the cooling moon-light of ignorance; that our minds foster the fond desire of worldly enjoyments; and like the chakora birds of night, drink their fill of delight as ambrosial moon-beams. (The ignorant are fond of pleasures, and where ignorance is bliss, it is foolish to be wise).

60. It is under this delusion, that men view their beloved ones as buds of roses and lotuses, and their loose glancing eyes, as the black bees fluttering at random; they see the sable clouds in the braids and locks of their hair, and a glistening fire in their glowing bosoms and breasts.

61. It is delusion, O Ráma! that depicts the fairies with the beams of fair moon-light nights; though they are viewed by the wise, in their true light of being as foul as the darkest midnight.

62. Know Ráma, the pleasures of the world, to be as the pernicious fruits of ignorance; which are pleasant to taste at first, but prove to be full of bitter gall at last. It is therefore better to destroy this baneful arbour, than to lose the life and soul by the mortal taste of its fruits. (It is the fruit of the tree of ignorance rather than that of knowledge, which brought death into the world and all our woe. Milton).

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter VII

Argument:--The effects of ignorance, shown in the evils brought on by our vain desires and fallacies or erroneous judgments.

Vasishtha continued. These beauties that are so decorated with precious gems and jewels, and embellished with the strings of brilliant pearls, are as the playful billows in the milky ocean of the moon-beams of our fond desires.

2. The sidelong looks of the beautiful eyes in their faces, look like a cluster of black bees, sitting on the pericarp of a full blown lotus.

3. These beauties appear as charming, to the enslaved minds of deluded men; and as the vernal flowers which are strewn upon the ground in forest lands.

4. Their comely persons which are compared with the moon, the lotus flower, and sandal paste for their coolness by fascinated minds; are viewed as indifferently by the wise, as by the insensible beasts which make a prey of them. (Lit. by the rapacious wolves and dogs and vultures which devour them).

5. Their swollen breasts which are compared with lotus-buds, ripe pomegranates and cups of gold, are viewed by the wise as a lump of flesh and blood and nauseous liquor.

6. Their fleshy lips, distilling the impure saliva and spittle, are said to exude with ambrosial honey, and to bear resemblance with the ruby and coral and vimba fruits.

7. Their arms with the crooked joints of the wrists and loins, and composed of hard bones in the inside, are compared with creeping plants, by their infatuated admirers and erotic poets.

8. Their thick thighs are likened to the stems of lumpish plantain trees, and the decorations of their protuberant breasts, are resembled to the strings of flowers, hung upon the turrets of temples.

9. Women are pleasant at first, but become quarrelsome afterwards; and then fly away in haste, like the goddess of fortune; and yet they are desired by the ignorant. (But when the old woman frets, let her go alone).

10. The minds of the ignorant, are subject to many pains and pleasures in this life; and the forest of their misdeeds, shoots forth in a thousand branches, bearing the woeful fruits of misery only. (The tree of sin brought death into the world and all our woe. Milton).

11. The ignorant are fast bound in the net of their folly, and their ritual functions are the ropes, that lead them to the prison-house of the world. The words of their lips, like the mantras and musical words of their mouths, are the more for their bewilderment. (The ignorant are enslaved by their ritualistic rites; but the Sages are enfranchised by their spiritual knowledge).

12. The overspreading mist of ignorance, stretches out a maze of ceremonial rites, and envelopes the minds of common people in utter darkness; as the river Yamuná overflows its banks with its dark waters.

13. The lives of the ignorant, which are so pleasant with their tender affections, turn out as bitter as the juice of hemlock, when the affections are cut off by the strong hand of death (i.e., the pleasures of life are embittered by the loss of relatives).

14. The senseless rabble are driven and carried away, like the withered and shattered leaves of trees, by the ever blowing winds of their pursuits; which scatter them all about as the dregs of earth, and bespatter them with the dirt and dust of their sins.

15. All the world is as a ripe fruit in the mouth of death, whose voracious belly is never filled with all its ravages, for millions and millions of kalpa ages. (The womb of death is never full).

16. Men are as the cold bodies and creeping reptiles of the earth, and they crawl and creep continually in their crooked course, by breathing the vital air, as the snakes live upon the current air. (Serpents are said to live a long time without food, simply by inhaling the open air).

17. The time of youth passes as a dark night, without the moon-light of reason; and is infested by the ghosts of wicked thoughts and evil desires.

18. The flippant tongue within the mouth, becomes faint with cringing flattery; as the pistil rising from the seed vessel, becomes languid under the freezing frost.

19. Poverty branches out like the thorny Sálmali tree, in a thousand branches of misery, distress, sorrow, sickness, and all kinds of woe to human beings. (Poverty is the root of all evils in life).

20. Concealed covetousness like the unseen bird of night, is hidden within the hollow cavity of the human heart, resembling the stunted chaitya trees of mendicants; and then it shrieks and hoots out from there, during the dark night of delusion which has overspread the sphere of the mind.

21. Old age lays hold on youth by the ears, as the old cat seizes on the mouse, and devours its prey after sporting with it for a long while.

22. The accumulation of unsubstantial materials, which causes the formation of the stupendous world, is taken for real substantiality by the unwise; as the foaming froths and ice-bergs in the sea, are thought to be solid rocks by the ignorant sailor. (So all potential existences of the Vedantist, are sober realities of the positive philosophy).

23. The world appears as a beautiful arbour, glowing with the blooming blossoms of Divine light; which is displayed over it; and the belief of its reality, is the plant which is fraught with the fruitage of all our actions and duties. (The world is believed as the garden of the actions of worldly men, but the wise are averse to actions and their results).

24. The great edifice of the world, is supported by the pillars of its mountains, under its root of the great vault of heaven; and the sun and moon are the great gateways to this pavilion. (The sun and moon are believed by some as the doors leading the pious souls to heaven).

25. The world resembles a large lake, over which the vital breaths are flying as swarms of bees on the lotus-beds of the living body; and exhaling the sweets which are stored in the cell of the heart (i.e., the breath of life wafts away the sweets of the immortal soul).

26. The blue vault of heaven appears as a spacious and elevated dome to the ignorant who think it to contain all the worlds, which are enlightened by the light of the sun situated in the midst. But it is an empty sphere, and so the other worlds beyond the solar system, to which the solar light doth never reach.

27. All worldly minded men, are as old birds tied down on earth by the strong strings of their desires; and their heart moves about the confines of their bodies, and their heart strings throb with hopes in the confines of their bodies, as birds in cages in the hope of getting their release.

28. The lives of living beings are continually dropping down, like the withered leaves of trees, from the fading arbours of their decayed bodies, by the incessant breathing of their breath of life. (The respiration of breath called ajapá, is said to be the measure of life).

29. The respectable men, that are joyous of their worldly grandeur for a short time, are entirely forgetful of the severe torments of hell, awaiting on them afterwards.

30. But the godly people enjoy their heavenly delights as gods, in the cooling orb of the moon; or range freely under the azure sky, like heavenly cranes about the limpid lakes.

31. There they taste the sweet fruits of their virtuous deeds on earth; and inhale the fragrance of their various desires, as the bees sip the sweetness of the opening lotus.

32. All worldly men are as little fishes (shrimps), swimming on the surface of this pool of the earth; while the sly and senile death pounces upon them as a kite, and bears them away as his prey without any respite or remorse.

33. The changeful events of the world, are passing on every day, like the gliding waves and the foaming froths of the sea, and the ever changing digits of the moon.

34. Time like a potter, continually turns his wheel, and makes an immense number of living beings as his pots; and breaks them every moment, as the fragile play-things of his own whim.

35. Innumerable kalpa ages have been incessantly rolling on, over the shady quiescence of eternity; and multitudes of created worlds have been burnt down, like thick woods and forests, by the all desolating conflagrations of desolation. (According to the Hindus the universal destruction, takes place by the Violent concussion of all the elements, and by the diluvian floods also).

36. All worldly things are undergoing incessant changes, by their appearance and disappearance by turns; and the vicissitudes of our states and circumstances, from these of pleasure and prosperity to the state of pain and misery and vice versa, in endless succession. (Pain and pleasure succeed one another).

37. Notwithstanding the instability of nature, the ignorant are fast bound by the chain of their desire, which is not to be broken even by the thunder bolt of heaven. (Man dies, but his desires never die, they keep their company wherever he may fly).

38. Human desire bears the invulnerable body of the Jove and Indra, which being wounded on all sides by the Titans of disappointment, resumed fresh vigour at every stroke. (So our desires grow stronger by their failure, than when they are allayed by their satisfaction).

39. All created beings are as particles of dust in the air, and are flying with the currents of wind into the mouth of the dragon-like death, who draws all things to his bowels by the breath of his mouth. (Huge snakes are said to live upon air, and whatever is borne with it into his belly).

40. As all the crudities of the earth, and its raw fruits and vegetables, together with the froth of the sea and other marine productions, are carried by the currents to be consumed by the submarine heat, so all existence is borne to the intestinal fire of death to be dissolved into nothing.

41. It is by a fortuitous combination of qualities, that all things present themselves unto us with their various properties; and it is the nature of these which exhibits them with those forms as they present to us; as she gives the property of vibration to the elementary bodies, which show themselves in the forms of water and air unto us.

42. Death like a ferocious lion, devours the mighty and opulent men; as the lion kills the big elephant with his frontal pearls.

43. Ambitious men are as greedy birds of air upon earth, who like the voracious vultures on the tops of high hills, are born to live and die in their aerial exploits, as on the wings of clouds in search of their prey.

44. Their minds liken painter's paintings on the canvas of their intellects, showing all the variegated scenes of the world, with the various pictures of things perceptible by the five senses (i.e., the images of all sensible objects are portrayed in the intellect).

45. But all these moving and changeful scenes, are breaking up and falling to pieces at every moment; and producing our vain sorrow and griefs upon their loss, in this passing and aerial city of the world.

46. The animal creations and the vegetable world, are standing as passive spectators, to witness and meditate in themselves the marvelous acts of time, in sparing them from among his destruction of others.

47. How these moving creatures are subject every moment, to the recurrent emotions of passions and affections, and to the alterations of affluence and want; and how they are incessantly decaying under age and infirmity, disease and death from which their souls are entirely free. (Hence the state of torpid immobility is reckoned as a state of bliss, by the Hindu and Buddhistic Yogis and ascetics).

48. So the reptiles and insects on the surface of the earth, are continually subjected to their tortuous motions by their fate, owing to their want of quiet inaction, of which they are capable in their subterranean cells. (The Yogis are wont to confine themselves in their under-ground retreats, in order to conduct their abstract meditations without disturbance. So Demosthenes perfected himself in his art of eloquence in his subterrene cave).

49. But all these living bodies are devoured every moment, by the all destructive time in the form of death; which like the deadly and voracious dragon lies hidden in his dark-some den (Here the word kála is used in its triple sense of time, death, and snake all which being equally destructive and hidden in darkness, it is difficult to distinguish the subject from its comparison. Hence we may say, time like death and snake or death like time and snake or the snake like time and death, devours all living creatures, insects and other reptiles also).

50. The trees however are not affected by any of these accidents, because they stand firm on their roots, and though suffering under heat and cold and the blasts of heaven, yet they yield their sweet fruits and flowers for the supportance and delight of all living creatures. (So the Yogis stand firm on their legs, and while they suffer the food and rest privations of life and the inclemencies of weather, they impart the fruits of divine knowledge to the rest of mankind, who would otherwise perish like the insects of the earth, without their knowledge of truth and hope of future bliss).

51. The meek Yogis that dwell in their secluded and humble cells, are seen also to move about the earth, and imparting the fruits of their knowledge to others; as the bees residing in the cells of lotuses, distribute their stores of honey after the rains are over. (The Yogis and the bees remain in their cells during the four months of the rainy season (varshá-chátur másya), after which they be-take to their peregrinations abroad).

52. They preach about the lectures as the bees chaunt their rhyme all about, saying; that the earth which is as a big port; it supplies the wants of the needy, for making them a morsel in the mouth of the goddess of death (i.e., the earth supports all beings for their falling into the bowels of death).

53. The dreaded goddess Káli wearing the veil of darkness over her face, and eying all with her eyeballs, as bright as the orbs of the sun and moon, gives to all beings all their wants, in order to grasp and gorge them in herself. (The black goddess Káli or Hecate, nourishes all as mátriká or matres, and then devours them as death, like the carnivorous glutton, that fattens the cattle to feed and feast upon them).

54. Her protuberant and exuberant breasts are as bountiful as the bounty of God, to suckle the gods and men and all beings on earth and hills and in the waters below. (But how can death be the sustainer of all).

55. It is the energy of the Divine intellect, which is the mátriká-mater or mother (mater or materia of all, and assumes the forms of density and tenuity and also of motion and mobility; the clusters of stars are the rows of her teeth, and the morning and evening twilights, are the redness of her two lips).

(She is called Ushá and sandhyá or the dawning and evening lights, because of her existence in the form of the twilights, before the birth of the solar and lunar lights. The Vedas abound with hymns to ushá and sandhyá and these form the daily ritual of the Brahmans to this day under the title of their Tri-sandyá--the triple litany at sun-rise, sun-set and vertical sun).

56. Her palms are as red as the petals of lotuses, and her countenance is as bright as the paradise of Indra; she is decorated with the pearls of all the seas, and clad with an azure mantle all over her body (Hence the goddess Kálí is represented as all black from her blue vest).

57. The Jambudwípa or Asia forms her naval or midmost spot, and the woods and forests form the hairs of her body. She appears in many shapes and again disappears from view, and plays her part as the most veteran sorceress in all the three worlds. (The text calls her an old hag, that often changes her paints and garments to entice and delude all men to her).

58. She dies repeatedly and is reborn again, and then passes into endless transformations, she is now immerged in the great ocean or bosom of Kála or Death her consort, and rises up to assume other shapes and forms again. (Hence the mother-goddess is said to be the producer and destroyer of all by their repeated births and deaths in their everchanging shapes and forms).

59. The great Kalpa ages are as transitory moments in the infinite duration of Eternity, and the mundane eggs (or planetary bodies in the universe); are as passing bubbles upon the unfathomable ocean of infinity; they rise and last and are lost by turns.

60. It is at the will of God, that the creative powers rise and fly about as birds in the air; and it is by his will also, that the uprisen creation becomes extinct like the burning flash of the lightning. (The flaming worlds shoot forth, and are blown out as sparks of fire).

61. It is in the sunshine of the divine Intellect, and under the canopy of everlasting time, that the creations are continually rising and falling like the fowls of forestlands, flying up and down under the mist of an all encompassing cloud of ignorance.

62. As the tall palm tree lets to fall its ripened fruits incessantly upon the ground; so the over topping arbor of time, drops down the created worlds and the lords of Gods perpetually into the abyss of perdition. (There is an alliteration and homonym of the words, tála and páttála meaning both tall and the tála or palm tree).

63. The gods also are dying away like the twinklings of their eyes, and old time is wearing away with all its ages, by its perpetual tickings. (The ever wakeful eyes of gods are said to have no twinkling; but time is said to be continually twinkling in its ticking moments).

64. There are many Rudras existing in the essence of Brahma, and they depend on the twinkling of that Deity for their existence. (The immortal gods are mortal, before the Eternal God).

65. Such is Brahmá the lord of gods, under whom these endless acts of evolutions and involutions are for ever taking place, in the infinite space of his eternal Intellect and omnipotent will.

66. What wonderous powers are there that cannot possibly reside in the Supreme spirit, whose undecaying will gives rise to all positive and possible existences. It is ignorance therefore to imagine the world as a reality of itself.

67. All these therefore is the display of the deep darkness of ignorance, that appears to you as the vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity, and as the changes of childhood, youth, old-age and death; as also the occurrences of pain and pleasure and of sorrow and grief. (All of which are unrealities in their nature).

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

VIII. ALLEGORY OF THE SPREADING ARBOUR OF IGNORANCE

Argument:--Description of ignorance as a wide spreading tree.

Vasishtha continued. Hear me now relate to you Ráma, how this poisonous tree of ignorance has come to grow in this forest of the world, and to be situated by the side of the intellect, and how and when it came to blossom and bloom. (The Divine intellect is the stupendous rock, and the creation is the forest about it, in which there grew the plant of error also).

2. This plant encompasses all the three worlds, and has the whole creation for its rind, and the mountains for its joints (Here is a play of the word parva and parvata which are paronymous terms, signifying a joint and mountain; Hence every mountain is reckoned as the joint or land-mark of a country dividing it from another tract of land).

3. It is fraught with its leaves and roots, and its flowers and fruits, by the continuous births and lives and pleasures and pains and the knowledge and error of mankind. (All these are the productions of human ignorance).

4. Prosperity gives rise to our ignorance of desiring to be more prosperous in this or in our next lives (by means of our performance of ceremonial rites), which are productive of future welfare also. So doth adversity lead us to greater error of practising many malpractices to get rid of it; but which on the contrary expose us to greater misfortunes. (Hence it is folly to make choice of either, which is equally pernicious).

5. One birth gives rise to another and that leads to others without end; hence it is foolishness in us to wish to be reborn again. (All births are subject to misery; it is ignorance therefore to desire a higher or lower one, by performance of páratrika acts for future lives).

6. Ignorance produces greater ignorance, and brings on unconsciousness as its effect: so knowledge leads on to higher knowledge, and produces self-consciousness as its result. (Good tends to best, and bad to the worst. Better tends to best, and worse to the worst).

7. The creeping plant of ignorance, has the passion for its leaves, and the desires for its odours; and it is continually shaking and shuffling with the leafy garment on its body.

8. This plant falls sometimes in its course, on the way of the elephant of Reason; it then shakes with fear, and the dust which covers its body, is all blown away by the breath of the elephant's trunk; but yet the creeper continues to creep on by the byways according to its wont.

9. The days are its blossoms, and the nights are the swarms of black bees, that overshadow its flowers; and the continued shaking of its boughs, darts down the dust of living bodies from it, both by day and night. (i.e., Men that live upon their desires and hopes, are daily dying away).

10. It is overgrown with its leaves of relatives, and overloaded with the shooting buds of its offspring; it bears the blossoms of all seasons, and yields the fruits of all kinds of flowers.

11. All its joints are full of the reptiles of diseases, and its stem is perforated by the cormorants of destruction; yet it yields the luscious juice of delight to those that are bereft of their reason and good sense.

12. Its flowers are the radiant planets, that shine with the sun and moon every day in the sky; the vacuum is the medium of their light, and the rapid winds are vehicles, that bear their rays as odours unto us. (Vacuity is the receptacle of light, but the vibrations of air transmit it to our sight).

12a. Ignorance blossoms every day in the clusters of the bright planetary bodies, that shine with the sun and moon by day and night; and the winds playing in the air, bear their light like perfumes to us. (i.e. It is the spirit that glows in the stars, and breathes in the air, but ignorance attributes these to the planets and breezes, and worships them as the navagrahas and marut ganas, both in the vedas and the popular Puranic creeds).

12b. Ignorance blossoms in the clusters of stars and planets, shining about the sun and moon every day; and breathes in the breezes blowing at random amidst the vacuous firmament. (Hence the ignorant alone adore the stars and winds in the vedas, but the sapient know the light of God to glow in the stars, and his spirit to breathe in the air).

13. These innumerable stars that you see scattered in the vault of heaven, O son of Raghu's race, are the blooming blossoms of this arbor of ignorance (i.e. ignorance shows them as twinkling stars to us, while they are numberless shining worlds in reality).

14. The beams of the sun and moon, and the flames of fire, which are scattered about us like the crimson dust of flowers; resemble the red paint on the fair body of ignorance, with which this delusive lady attracts our minds to her.

15. The wild elephant of the mind, ranges at large under the arbour of Ignorance; and the birds of our desires, are continually hovering and warbling upon it; while the vipers of sensual appetites, are infesting its stem, and avarice settles as a huge snake at the root. (The text has the words "and greediness decorates its bark" which bear no meaning).

16. It stretches with its head to the blue vault of the sky, forming as a canopy of black arbour of black Tamála trees over it. The earth supports its trunk, and sky overtops its top; and it makes a garden of the universe (with its out stretched arms).

17. It is deeply rooted underneath the ground, and is watered with milk and curds, in the canals of the milky and other oceans, which are dug around its trunk.

18. The rituals of the three vedas, are fluttering like the bees over the tree, blooming with the blossoms of beauteous women, and shaking with the oscillations of the mind; while it is corroded in the inside by the cankering worms of cares and actions. (It means to say, that the vedic rites, the love of women, the thoughts of the mind and the bodily actions, are all attendants of ignorance; and he is wise who refrains from them in toto).

19. The tree of ignorance, blossoming like the flowers of the garden of paradise, exhales the sweet odours of pleasure around; and the serpent of vice twining round it, leads the living souls perpetually to evil deeds, for the supportance of their lives.

20. It blooms with various flowers, to attract the hearts of wise; and it is fraught with various fruits, distilling their sweets all around. (These fruits and flowers are the sensual pleasures, which allure the ignorant to them).

21. With the aqueducts about, it invites the birds of the air to drink of them; and being besmeared with the dust of its flowers, it appears to stand as a rock of red earth or granite to sight. (The water beds below it, are mistaken for the salsabil or streams of Paradise, and its rock-like appearance, shows the grossness of ignorance crasse or tabula rasa).

22. It shoots out with buds of mistakes, and is beset by the briars of error; it grows luxuriant in hilly districts, with exuberance of its leafy branches. (Meaning that the hill people are most ignorant).

23. It grows and dies and grows again, and being cut down it springs out anon; so there is no end of it. (It is hard to extirpate ignorance at once).

24. Though past and gone, yet it is present before us, and though it is all hollow within, it appears as thick and sound to sight. It is an ever fading and ever green tree, and the more it is lopped and cropt, the more it grows and expands itself.

25. It is a poisonous tree, whose very touch benumbs the senses in a moment; but being pressed down by reasoning, it dies away in a trice.

26. All distinctions of different objects, are dissolved in the crucible of the reasoning mind; but they remain undissolved in their crude forms in the minds of the ignorant, who are employed in differentiating the various natures of men and brutes, and of terrene and aquatic animals.

27. They distinguish the one as the nether world, and the other as the upper sky; and make distinctions between the solar and lunar planets, and the fixed starry bodies. (But there are no ups and downs, nor any thing as fixed in infinite vacuity).

28. Here there is light, and there is darkness on the other side, and this is empty space and that is the solid ground; these are the sástras and these are the Vedas, are distinctions unknown to the wise.

29. It is the same spirit that flies upward in the bodies of birds, or remains above in the form of gods; the same spirit remains fixed in the forms of fixed rocks or moves in continued motion with the flying winds.

30. Sometimes it resides in the infernal regions, and at others it dwells in the heavens above; sometimes it is exalted to the dignity of gods, and some where it remains in the state of mean insects and worms.

31. In one place it appears as glorious as the god Vishnu, and in another it shows itself in the forms of Brahmá and Siva. Now it shines in the sun, and then it brightens in the moon; here it blows in the blowing winds, and there it sways in the all-subduing yama. (Some Europeans have conjectured and not without good reason, the relentless god of death the yama of Hindus, to be same with as the ruthless king Jamshed of prehistoric Persia. So says Hafiz Ayineye, Sekendar Jame jamast bingars).

32. Whatever appears as great and glorious, and all that is seen as mean and ignoble in their form, from the biggest and bright sun down to the most contemptible grass and straw; are all pervaded by the universal spirit: it is ignorance that dwells upon the external forms; but knowledge that looks into the inner soul, obtains its sight up the present state.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

IX. ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE

Argument.--Division of the three gunas or qualities. Pure essence of the Gods Hara and others, nature of knowledge and ignorance, and other subjects.

Ráma said, You said sir, that all formal bodies are representations of illusion or ignorance (Avidyá); but how do you account for the pure bodies of Hari, Hara and other divinities, and god-heads who are of pure essence in their embodied forms, and which cannot be the creation of our error or delusion. Please, sir, explain these clearly to (spun) me and remove my doubts and difficulties on the subject (The exhibition of gross bodies is the deception of our sense, but the appearance of pure spiritual forms, can not be production of ignorance or sensible deception. We may ignore the forms of material substances, but not those immaterial essences which are given in the sástras. gloss).

2. Vasishtha replied,--The perceptible world represents the manifestation of the one quiescent and all inherent soul, and exhibits the glory (ábhásha) of the essential intellect (sach-chit), which is beyond conception or thought divine.

3. This gives rise to the shape of a partial hypostasis, or there rises of itself hypostatics ([Sanskrit: kalákalarúpiní]), resembling the rolling fragment of a cloud appearing as a watery substance or filled with water. (This original fiction of the glory of God giving rise to the watery mist like a lighted lamp emitting the inky smoke, is represented in the common belief of dark ignorance ([Sanskrit: avidyá]) proceeding from the bright light of divine knowledge ([Sanskrit: vidyá]), and exhibited by the allegory of the black goddess of ignorance and illusion ([Sanskrit: avidyá] and [Sanskrit: máyá]) gushing out of the white and fair god lying inactive and dormant under her; she is hence designated by the various epithets of ([Sanskrit: shyámá, kálí, jaladha] and [Sanskrit: níradavaraná]) and so forth, and this is the whole mystery of the Sákta faith).

4. This hypostatic fragment is also conceived in its three different lights or phases, of rarity, density and rigidity or grossness, ([Sanskrit: sukhsmá; madhyá, sthúlá]) resembling the twilight, midday light, and darkness of the solar light. The first of these is called the mind or creative will, the second styled the Brahmá Hiranyagarbha or the creative power, and the third is known as Virát, the framer of the material frame, and as identic with creation itself.

5. These are again denominated the three qualities (trigunas), according to their different states, and these are the qualities of reality, brightness and darkness satva, rajas and tamas, which are designated also as the triple nature of things or their swabhávas or prakriti.

6. Know all nature to be characterised by ignorance of the triple states of the positive and comparative and superlative degrees; these are inbred in all living beings, except the Being that is beyond them, and which is the supreme one.

7. Again the three qualities of satva, rajas, and tamas or the positive, comparative and superlative, which are mentioned in this place, have each of them its subdivisions also into three kinds of the same name.

8. Thus the original Ignorance ([Sanskrit: avidyá]), becomes of nine kinds by difference of its several qualities; and whatever is seen or known here below, is included under one or of the various kinds. (Hence the saktas reckon ten different forms of [Sanskrit: mahávidyá], comprising the primary ignorance and its nine fold divisions).

9. Now Ráma, know the positive or satwika quality of ignorance, to comprise the several classes of living beings known as the Rishis, Munis, the Siddhas and Nágas, the Vidyádharas and Suras. (All of these are marked by the positive quality of goodness inborn in their nature).

10. Again this quality of positive goodness comprises the Suras or gods Hara and others of the first class that are purely and truly good. The sages and Siddhas forming the second or intermediate class, are endued with a less share of goodness in them, while Nágas or Vidyádharas making the last class possess it in the least degree.

11. The gods being born with the pure essence of goodness, and remaining unmixed with the properties of other natures, have attained the state of purity (Holiness) like the divine Hari Hara and others. (i.e. So long the divine nature of a god is not shrouded under the veil of ignorance (avidyá ávarana), he is to be held in the light of a divinity as a Christ or Buddha); otherwise rajasha or qualified states of Hari Hara as they are represented by the vulgar, are neither to be regarded as such.

12. Ráma! whoever is fraught with the quality of goodness in his nature, and acquainted with divine knowledge in his mind, such a one is said to be liberated in this life, and freed from further transmigration.

13. It is for this reason, O high minded Ráma! that the gods Rudra and others who possess the properties of goodness in them, are said to continue in their liberated state to the final end of the world.

(Hence the immortals never die and being released from their earthly coil, their good spirits rove at large in open air; last and until the last doomsday rorqucamat or final resurrection of the dead).

14. Great souls remain liberated, as long as they continue to live in their mortal bodies; and after the shuffling of their frail bodies, they become free as their disembodied spirits; and then reside in the supreme spirit. (i.e. They return to the source from which they had proceeded).

15. It is the part of ignorance to lead men to the performance of acts, which after their death, become the roots of producing other acts also in all successive states of transmigration. (Ignorance leads one to interminable action in repeated births, by making the acts of the prior life to become the source of others in the next, so the acts of ignorance, become the seeds and fruits of themselves by turns, and there is no cessation nor liberation from them).

16. Ignorance rises from knowledge, as the hollow bubble bursts out of the level of liquid water; and it sets and sinks in knowledge likewise, as the bubble subsides to rest in the same water. (Ignorance and its action which are causes of creation, have both their rise from the omniscience and inaction of God until they are dissolved at the dissolution of the world. Physical force rises from and rests in the spiritual. Ignorance--avidyá being but a negation of knowledge--vidyá, is said to proceed from:--the negative being but privation of the positive).

17. And as there is no such thing as a wave; but a word coined to denote the heaving of water; so there is nothing as ignorance but a word fabricated to express the want of knowledge. (Hence the believers in ignorance are mistaken in relying their faith in a power which has no existence whatever).

18. As the water and waves are identic in their true sense, and there is no material difference between them; so both knowledge and ignorance relating to the same thing, and expressing either its presence or absence, there can be no essential difference in their significance.

19. Leaving aside the sights of knowledge and ignorance, there remains that which always exists of itself (that is, the self-existent God exists, beyond both the knowledge and ignorance of men, or whether they know him or not). It is only the contradiction of adverse parties ([Sanskrit: pratiyogi byavaccheda]) that has introduced these words. (i.e., calling the opponents as ignorant and themselves as the knowing, in their mutual altercation with one another).

20. The sights of knowledge and ignorance are nothing; (i.e., they are both blind to the sight of truth): therefore be firm in what is beyond these, and which can neither be known nor ignored by imagination of it.

21. There is some thing which is not any thing, except that it exists in the manner of the intellect and consciousness chit-samvit, and this again has no representation of it, and therefore that ens or sat is said to be inevident avidyá the unknowable.

22. That One Sat being known as this or such, is said to be the destroyer of ignorance; whereas it is want of this knowledge, that gives rise to the false conception of an Avidyá or ignorance. (Avidyá, mithyá, kalpaná signifies ignorance to be a false imagination and personification also, as it is seen in the images of the ten Avidyás here).

23. When knowledge and ignorance are both lost in oblivion within one in the intellect as when both the sun-shine and its shadow are lost in shade of night. (i.e., both the knowledge of the subjective ego and objective non-ego which is caused by ignorance being concentrated in the consciousness of the intellect only within one's self).

24. Then there remains the one only that is to be gained and known, and thus it is, that the loss of ignorance tends to the dissipation of self-knowledge likewise (which is caused by it); just as the want of oil extinguishes the lamp. (Egoism and ignorance being akin to one another, both of them rise and remain and die together [Sanskrit: ajnánahámkarayoreko satitayorút pattináshau yúgavadeba]).

25. That what remains afterwards, is either nullity or the whole plenum, in which all these things appear to subsist, or it is nothing at all. (The one is the view of atheists who deny all existence, and the other of máyikas who maintain the visible nature as mere illusion. ([Sanskrit: máyámayamidamakhilam])).

26. As the minute grain of the Indian fig-tree contains within it the future arbor and its undeveloped state, so the almighty power of omnipotence is lodged in the minute receptacle of the spirit before its expansion into immensity. (The developed and undeveloped states of the supreme power, are called its vyákrita and avyákrita forces).

27. The divine spirit is more rarefied than the subtile air, and yet is not a vacuity having the chit or intellect in itself. It is as the sun-stone with its inherent fire and the milk with the latent butter unborn in it. (Hence the spirit of God is said to be embryonic seed of the universe. [Sanskrit: brahmándavíjam]).

28. All space and time reside in that spirit for their development, as the spark proceeds from the fire and light issues from the sun in which they are contained. (The will or word of God produces all things from his spiritual essence).

29. So all things are settled in the Supreme intellect, and show themselves unto us as the waves of the sea and as the radiance of gems: and so our understandings also are reflexions of the same.

30. The Divine intellect is the store-house of all things, and the reservoir of all consciousness (i.e., the fountain-head of the understandings of all living beings). It is the Divine essence which pervades the inside and outside of every thing. (All things are dependent to the entity of God for their existence, and there is no independent particle whatever).

31. The Divine soul is as imperishable as the air within a pot which is not destroyed by breaking of the vessel, but mixes and continues forever with the common and its surrounding air. Know also the lives and actions of living beings to be dependent upon the will of the God, as the mobility of the iron depends upon the attraction of the loadstone. (This passage negatives the free agency of man, and allows him an activity in common with that of all living beings, under the direction of the great magnet of the Divine spirit and will).

32. The action of the inactive or quiescent spirit of God, is to be understood in the same manner, as the motion of the lead is attributed to the causality of magnetic attraction, which moves the immovable iron. So the inert bodies of living beings, are moved by force of the intellectual soul.

33. The world is situated in that mundane seed of the universe, which is known under the name of intellect attributed to it by the wise. It is as void and formless as empty air, it is nothing nor has any thing in it except itself, and represents all and everything by itself, like the playful waves of the boundless ocean.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

X. REMOVAL OF IGNORANCE

Argument.--Ignorance and its bonds of Erroneous conceptions, and reliance on temporal objects, and the ways of getting release from them, by means of good understanding and right reasoning.

Vasishtha continued:--Therefore this world with all its moving and unmoving beings is nothing (or no being at all). There is nothing that has its real being or entity, except the one true Ens that thou must know. (all beings are not being except the one self-existing Being. So says Sadi. All this is not being and thyself art the only being. Haman nestand anchi hastitue, so also the sruti Toam asi nányadasti. Tu est nullum est).

2. Seek him O Ráma! who is beyond our thought and imagination, and comprises all entity and non-entity in himself, and cease to seek any living being or any thing in existence. (In Him is all life and every thing, that is or is not in Being and he is the source of life and light).

3. I would not have my heart to be enticed and deceived by the false attachments and affections of this world; all which are as delusive, as our misconception of a snake in a rope. (All our earthly relations with our relatives and properties, are deception that are soon detected by our good sense and reason, and they vanish as soon as our mistake of the snake in rope. Therefore let no worldly tie bind down thy heart to this earth).

4. Ignorance of the soul is the cause of our error of conceiving the distinctions of things; but the knowledge of the selfsame soul puts an end to all distinctions of knowledge of the reality of things, distinctive knowledge of existences--bheda jnána is erroneous; but their generalization--abheda jnána leads to right reasoning.

5. They call it ignorance avidyá, when the intellect is vitiated by its intellection of the intelligibles or chetyas, but the intelligibles being left out, it comes to know the soul which is free from all attributes.

6. The understanding only is the embodied soul purusha, which is lost upon the loss of the understanding; but the soul is said to last as long as there is understanding in the body, like the ghatambare or air in the pot lasts with the lasting of the pot, and vanishes upon the loss or breaking of the vessel. (The soul lasts with the intellect in the body, but flies away upon the intellect's desertion of it. This is maintained by sruti).

7. The wandering intellect sees the soul to be wandering, and the sedate understanding thinks, it to be stationary, as one perceives his breath of life to be slow or quick, according as he sits still or runs about. In this manner the bewildered understanding finds the soul to be distracted also. (The temperament of the mind is attributed to the soul, which is devoid of all modality).

8. The mind wraps the inward soul with the coverlet of its various desires, as the silkworm twines the thin thread of its desires round about itself; which its wants of reason prevent it from understanding. (The word in the text is bálavat boyishness, which is explained in the gloss to mean nirvivekatwa or want of reason, and applied to the mind, means puerile foolishness).

9. Ráma said:--I see sir, that when our ignorance becomes too gross and solid, it becomes as dull and solid as stone; but tell me O venerable sir, how it becomes as a fixed tree or any other immovable substance.

10. Vasishtha replied:--The human intellect not having attained its perfect state of mindlessness, wherein it may have its supreme happiness and yet falling from its state of mindfulness, remains in the midmost position of a living and immovable plant or of an insensible material substance. (The middle state is called tatastha bháva, which is neither one of perfect sensibility nor impassivity).

11. It is impossible for them to have their liberation, whose organs of the eight senses lie as dormant and dumb and blind and inert in them as in any dull and dirt matter: and if they have any perception, it is that pain only. (The puryastaka are the eight internal and external organs of sense instead of the ten organs casandria. By dormancy is meant their want of reason, and muteness and blindness express respectively the want of their faculties of sensation and action, inertness means here the want of mental action).

12. Ráma rejoined:--O sir, that best knowest the knowables! that the intellect which remains as unshaken as a fixed tree, with its reliance in the unity and without its knowledge of duality, approximates its perfection and approaches very near to its liberation (contrary to what thou sayest now, regarding impossibility of the dormant minds arriving to its freedom).

13. Vasishtha replied: Ráma! we call that to be the perpetual liberation of the soul, which follows persuasion of one common entity, after its rational investigation into the natures of all other things and their false appearances. (or else the blind torpidity of the irrational yogi, amounts rather to his bondage to ignorance than the liberation of his soul from it).

14. A man is then only said to have reached to his state of solity kaivalya, when he understands the community of all existence in the unity, and forsakes his desire for this thing and that. (But is said in sundry places of this work that the abandonment of the knowledge of the subjective and as well as of the objective, which constitutes the true liberation of the soul; which means the taking of the subject and object of thought and all other duties in nature in one self-existent unity and not to forget them all at once). (So says Sadi, when I turned out duality from my door I came to knowledge of one in all).

15. One is then said to recline in Brahma who is inclined to his spiritual Contemplation, after his investigation of divine knowledge in the sástras, and his discussion on the subject in the company of the learned doctors in divinity. (The unlearned religionist is either a zealot or an opiniatre--abhakta tatwa jnáni).

16. One who is dormant in his mind and has the seed of his desire lying latent in his heart, resembles an unmoving tree, bearing the vegetative seed of future regenerations (transmigrations) within its bosom.

17. All those men are called blocks who liken the blocks of wood and stone, and to be like brains who lack their brain work, and whose desires are gone to the rack. These men possessing the property of dulness as of dull matter, are subject to the pains of repeated births, recurring like the repetends of their remaining desires. (The doctrine of transmigration is, that the wish being father to the thought, every one meets with his lot in his next birth, as it is thought of or fostered by him in his present life. [Sanskrit: vásaná eva pratyávrittikáranam]).

18. All stationary and immovable things, which are endowed with the property of dull matter, are subject to repeated reproductions. (Owing to the reproductive seed which is inborn in them, like the inbred desire of living beings), though they may long continue in their dormant state (like images of saints in their trance).

19. Know O pure hearted Ráma! the seed of desire is as inbred in the breasts of plants, as the flowers are inborn in the seeds and the earthenwares are contained in the clay. (The statue says, Aristotle lies hid in the wood, and the gem in the stone, and require only the chisel of the carver and statuary to bring them out).

20. The heart that contains the fruitful seed of desire in it, can never have its rest or consummation even in its dormant state; but this seed being burnt and fried to its unproductiveness (by means of divine knowledge), it becomes productive of sanctity, though it may be in its full activity.

21. The heart that preserves the slightest remnant of any desire in it, it again filled with its full growth to luxuriance; as the little remainder of fire or the enemy, and of a debt and disease, and also of love and hatred, is enough to involve one in his ruin as a single drop of poison kills a man. (This stanza occurs in Chánakyá's Excerpta in another form, meaning to say that, "No wise man should leave their relic, lest they grow as big as before" [Sanskrit: punasva bhavati tasmádyasmát sesam na kárayet]).

22. He who has burnt away the seed of his desire from any thing, and looks upon the world with an even eye of indifference, is said to be perfectly liberated both in his embodied state in this earth, as also in his disembodied or spiritual form of the next world, and is no more subjected to any trouble: (Subjection to desire is deadly pain and freedom from it is perfect bliss. Or as it is said:--Desire is a disease and its want is ease. [Sanskrit: áshabhai param dukham nairáshyam paramamsukham]. Again our hopes and fears in constant strife, are both the bane of pig man life [Sanskrit: bhayáshá jívapásháh] &c.)

23. The intellectual power which enveloped by the seed of mental desire, supplies it with moisture for its germinating both in the forms of animals and vegetables every where (i.e. The divine power which inheres in the embryos of our desires, causes them to develope in their various forms).

24. This inherent power resides in the manner of productive power in the seeds of living beings, and in that of inertness in dull material bodies. It is of the nature of hardness in all solid substances, and that of tenuity in soft and liquid things. (i.e. The divine power forms the particular properties of things, and causes them to grow and remain in their own ways).

25. It exhibits the ash colour in ashes, and shows the particles in the dust of the earth; it shows the sableness of all swarthy things, and flashes in the whiteness of the glittering blade.

26. It is the spiritual power which assumes the communal form and figure, in which it resides in the community of material things, as a picture, a pot (ghata-pata) and the like. (The vanity of the unity is expressed in the words of Veda "the one in many." [illegible Sanskrit])

27. It is in this manner that the divine spirit fills the whole phenomenal world, in its universally common nature, as overspreading cloud, fills the whole firmament in the rainy season.

28. I have thus expounded to you the true nature swarúpa--of the unknown Almighty power, according to my best understanding, and as far as it had been ascertained by the reasoning of the wise: that it fills all and is not the all itself, and is the true entity appearing as no entity at all.

29. It is our want of the sight of this invisible spiritual power, that leads us to erroneous conception of the entity of the external world, but a slight sight of this almighty Ens, removes all our pains in this scene of vanity.

30. It is our dimsightedness of Almighty power, which is styled our blindness or ignorance [Sanskrit: avidyá] by the wise. It is this ignorance which give rise to the belief of the existence of the world, and thereby produces all our errors and misery.

31. Who is so freed from this ignorance and beholds the glorious light of God full in his view; he finds his darkness disappear from his sight, as the icicles of night melt away at the appearance of solar light.

32. The ignorance of a man flies off like his dream, after he wakes from his sleep, and wishes to recall his past vision of the night.

33. Again when a man betakes himself to ponder well the properties of the object before him, his ignorance flies away from before his face, as darkness flies at the approach of light.

34. As darkness recedes from a man, that advances to explore into it with a lamp in his hand, and as butter is melted down by application of heat, so is one's ignorance dispelled and dissolved by application of the light and the rise of reason.

35. As one pursuing after darkness sees a lighted torch in his hand, sees but a blaze of light before, and no shadow of darkness about him; so the inquirer after truth perceives the light of truth, shining to his face and no vestige of untruth left behind him.

36. In this manner doth ignorance (Avidyá) fly away and disappear at the sight of the light of reason; and although an unreal nothing, she appears as something real, wherever there is the want of reason. (Hence all unreasoning men are the most ignorant).

37. As the great mass of thick darkness, disappears into nothing at the advance of light; it is in the same manner that the substantiality of gross ignorance, is dissolved into unsubstantiality at the advancement of knowledge. (so the advancement of inductive science, has put flight the dogmatic doctrines of old).

38. Unless one condescends to examine in a thing, it is impossible for him to distinguish it from another (as the shell from silver and rope for the snake); but upon his due examination of it, he comes to detect the fallacy of his prejudgment (as those of the silver and snake in the shell and the rope).

39. He who stoops to consider whether the flesh or blood or bones of his bodily frame, constitutes his personality, will at once perceive that he is none of these, and all these are distinct from himself. (The personality of a man consisting in his soul, and not in any part or whole of his body).

40. And as nothing belonging to the person makes the persons, but something beyond it that forms one's personality; so nothing in the world from its first to last is that spirit, but some thing which has neither its beginning nor end, is the eternal and infinite spirit. (The same is the universal soul).

41. Thus ignorance being got over there remains nothing whatever, except the one eternal soul which is the adorable Brahma and substantial whole.

42. The unreality of ignorance is evident from the negative term of negation and ignoring of its essentiality, and requires no other proof to disprove its essence; as the relish of a thing is best proved by the tongue and no other organ of sense. (The term Avidyá signifying the want of vidyá--knowledge and existence [Sanskrit: vidyámánatá]).

43. There is no ignorance nor inexistence except the intelligence and existence of God, who pervade over all visible and invisible natures, which are attributed with the appellations of existence and inexistence. (The whole being God (to Pan--the All) there is no existence or inexistence without Him).

44. So far about Avidyá, which is not the knowledge but ignorance of Brahma; and it is the dispersion of this ignorance which brings us to the knowledge of God.

45. The belief of this, that and all other things in the world, are distant and distinct from Brahma, is what is called Avidyá or ignorance of him; but the belief that all things visible in the world, is the manifestation of omnipresence, causes the removal of ignorance, by presenting us to the presence of God.

NOTE TO CHAPTER X.

The following lines of the English poet, will be found fully to illustrate the divine attribute of omnipresence in the pantheistic doctrine of Vedánta and Vasishtha, as shown in this chapter et passen.

All are but parts, of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the soul; That, changed through all, and yet in all the same; Great in the earth, as in the etherial frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze; Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent; Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part. As full as perfect, in a pair as heart: As full as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As in the rapt seraph, that adores and burns; To him no high, now, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all.

Pope's Mortal Essays I. IX.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XI. ASCERTAINMENT OF LIVING LIBERATION

Argument.--Instances of Living Liberation in Hari, Hara and others, and its consisting in the oecumenical knowledge of the one Brahma in all and every thing.

Vasishtha said:--I tell you again and repeatedly O pious Ráma! for your understanding, that you can never know the spirit without your constant habit, of contemplating on it in your self-cogitation. (So the Sruti. Atmá vára, mant avyam, "the soul is to be constantly thought upon" and so also the Vedánta aphorism "asakrit upadesat" the soul is known by repeated instructions on spiritual knowledge).

2. It is gross ignorance which is known as nescience, and it becomes compact by the accumulated erroneous knowledge of previous births and past life (namely; the errors of the dualities of matter and spirit and of the living and Supreme soul, and the plurality of material and sensible objects).

3. The perceptions of the external and internal senses of body, both in the states of sensibility and insensibility, are also the causes of great errors or ignorance crasse of embodied beings. (i.e. The sensible perceptions are preventives of spiritual knowledge which transcends the senses and is called [Sanskrit: atíndriya]).

4. Spiritual knowledge is far beyond the cognizance of the senses, and is only to be arrived at after subjection of the five external organs of sense, as also of the mind which is the sixth organ of sensation.

5. How then is it possible to have a sensible knowledge of the spirit, whose essence is beyond the reach of our faculties of sense, and whose powers transcend those of all our sensible organs? (i.e. Neither is the spirit perceptible by our senses, nor does it perceive all things by senses like ours). So the Srutis He is not to be perceived by the faculties of our sense, who does and perceives all with our organs. ([Sanskrit: na tatra vaggacchati namani ápanipádau yavanagtahítá]).

6. You must cut off this creeper of ignorance, which has grown up in the hollow of the tree of your heart, with the sharp sword of your knowledge, if you should have your consummation as an adept in divine wisdom.

7. Conduct yourself Ráma! in the same manner in the practice of your spiritual knowledge, as the king Janaka does with his full knowledge of all that is knowable to man.

8. He is quite confident in his certain knowledge of the main truth, both when he is employed in his active duties, in his waking state as well as when he remains quiet at his leisure. (The end of knowledge is to know God, and to rely on him both in busy and in active life).

9. It was by his reliance on this certain truth, that Hari was led to the performance of his various acts in his repeated births or incarnations. (A god in human flesh does his works as a god).

10. May you, Ráma! be certain of the main truth, which conducted the three-eyed god Siva in the company of his fair consort; and which led the dispassionate Brahmá to the act of creation. (i.e. the passionate and unimpassioned and those that are active or inactive are equally assured of this truth).

11. It was the assurance of this eternal verity, which led the preceptors of the gods and demons, even Brihaspati and Bhargava, in their duties; and which guide the sun and moon in their courses, and even directs the elements of fire and air in the wonted ways.

12. This truth was well known to the host of Sages, including Narada and Pulastya, Angira and Pracheta, and Bhrigu Krutu, Atri and Suka, as it is known to me also.

13. This is the certainty which has been arrived at by all other learned Brahmans and Sages, and this is the firm belief of every body, that has been liberated in his life time.

14. Ráma said:--Tell me truly, O venerable sir, the true nature of the truth, on which the great gods and wisest sages, have grounded their belief, and became freed from their sorrow and grief (in this world of sorrow and tears).

15. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me tell you! O worthy prince that art great in arms as in thy knowledge of all things, the plain truth in reply to your question, and the certitude arrived at by all of them (named above).

16. All these spacious worlds, that you behold to be spread all about you, they are all that One or on, and are situated in the immensity of Brahma. (In their real or spiritual nature, and after obliteration of the erroneous forms in which they appear to you. Their phenomenal appearances, being but the misconceptions of our errors).

17. Brahma is the intellect, and the same is this world and all its animate and inanimate creatures also; Myself and Brahma and so art thou thyself, and such are all our friends and foes beside us.

18. Brahma is the tripletime of the past, present and future, all which are comprehended in his eternity; in the manner of the continuity of waves, billows and surges, contained in the immensity of the ocean.

19. It is thus the same Brahma that appears to us in all the various forms of our perception, and in the different shapes of the actor, action and its act, as those of the feeder, feeding and the food, and of the receiver, reception and the thing received. (There being but the only unity of God, the same is changed to all forms of action and passion and so says the poet "that change through all and yet in all the same" and also unvaried in all with a varied name. This the vedánta says to be the vivarta rúpa or the one changed in many form vividha many, and varta let vertuus changed [Sanskrit: paribatta].)

20. Brahma expands in himself by his power of evolution, or unfolding himself by his vivarta sakti; Hence He would be our enemy if he would do any thing unfavourable into us. (God is good and never does any evil to any one: all he does in and to himself)?

21. Thus Brahma being situated and employed with himself, does nothing aught of good or evil to any other. The attribution of passions to him, is as the planting of a tree in empty air. (God is not capable of any human attribute, as it is usual with anthropomorphists to load him with).

22. How very delighted are they that are dead to their desires, to reflect on this truth, that they are continually living and moving in the all pervading Brahma. (In Him we live and move).

23. All things are full of Brahma, and there is naught of pleasure or pain herein; Brahma resides in his self-same all and is pleased with all in himself. (The one is full of bliss with all in himself).

24. The Lord is manifest in his Lordship, and I am no other person beside himself; this pot and that painting and I myself, are full with the self-same Brahma.

25. Hence it is in vain to speak of our attachment or aversion to worldliness, since we bear our bodies and dare to die in Brahma only. (It is that something, for which we bear to live, and dare to die, Pope).

26. Our bodies being the abodes of Brahma, it is as false to think to our bodily pains, as also of our pleasure in bodily enjoyments, as to take a rope for a serpent. (Hence we can have no sense of our pleasure or pain, as long we know ourselves to be situated in Brahma and He in us).

27. How say you, that this or that is your doing, when you have the power of doing nothing. (The fluctuation of the billows on the surface of the sea, cannot agitate the waters of the deep below.)

28. Myself, thyself and himself, and all others, are but the breaths of the universal spirit; and they heave and then subside to rest as waves of the sea; but the spirit of God, like the water of the deep, neither rises nor falls as ourselves or the fleeting waves at any time.

29. All persons returning to Brahma after their death, have their bodies also reduced into Him and retain their personal identity in Him in the same manner, as the moving and unmoving waters rest alike in the sea.

30. All moving and unmoving souls and bodies, rest alike in the supreme Brahma; as the Jíva and its form reside in God, and the whirling and still waters remain in the same sea.

31. The soul and the body, are the two states of the likeness and unlikeness of Brahma, the one is the living soul of bodies, and the other is the gross body itself.

32. Irrational souls, that are ignorant of this truth, are verily subject to delusion; but the rational souls are not so, but enjoy their full bliss on earth, while the other is ever doomed to misery.

33. The blind behold the world all dark, while the eye-sighted find it fully bright and shining; so the wise are blessed with the knowledge of the one soul of the whole, while the ignorant are immerged in misery, by their want of such knowledge.

34. As the darkness of the night, presents its goblins and spectres, to the sight of children only, and not those of the grown up and adult; so the world presents its delusions to ignorant and never to the wise, who behold one Brahma only in all things before them.

35. There is nothing here that lives of itself, nor dies away to nothing; all equally exist in God at all time, and nothing is doomed to be born or perish herein to happiness or misery.

36. All beings are situated in the universal soul, as the waves in the vast expanse of the ocean, therefore it is erroneous to say the one reside in the spirit, and another to be beside it.

37. As there is an inborn light in the crystal, which is capable of reflecting a variety of rays, so the spirit of God dwells in his own spirit in the form of the universe, showing various shapes to view by the inner light of the spirit.

38. As the particles of water flying from the waves, fall into the sea and mix with its body of water; so the bodies of dying people, fall into the body of Brahma, wherein they subsisted in their life time. (So there is neither an increase or diminution of the essence of Brahma, by the birth or death or increase or decrease of beings in the world).

39. There is nobody nor being beside the being of Brahma, as there is no wave nor foam or froth of the sea beside the water of the deep.

40. As the billows and waves, the surges and eddies, and their froths and foams, and bubbles and minute particles, are all formations of water in the great body of waters; so are all beings but productions of the spirit in the Infinite spirit. (All matter is reduced to the spirits, and the spirits are consolidated to material substances by chemical process).

41. All bodies with their various modes, and organs of sense and their several functions, and all visible objects and their growth and decay, together with every thing conducing to our happiness and misery, and all other energies and their gains, are the works of Brahma in himself. (i.e. they are the self reflective acts of gods and not done for the sake of others).

42. The production of these various beings in esse, is from the essence of Brahma; as the formation of different ornaments, is from the substance of gold. There is no other formal cause or formation distinct from Brahma, and the distinction of the cause and its creation, is the erroneous conception of the ignorant.

43. The mind, understanding, egoism, and the elemental atoms, and the organs of sense, are all the various forms of Brahma; wherefore there is cause of our joy or grief.

44. The words I, thou, he, and this and that, as also the terms of the mind and matter, are all significant of the self-same Brahma átmátmani, in the same manner as the roaring of a cloud in the hills, resounds in a hundred echoes through their caverns. (All words applied to every thing, relate to the one self-same Brahma who is all in all to pan).

45. Brahma appears as an unknown stranger to us, through our ignorance of him, as the visions seen in a dream by our mind itself, appear foreign to us. (i.e. Our belief in the visibles is the cause of our disbelief in the invisible God; as our familiarity with the objects of our waking state, makes us reject our visionary dreams as false).

46. Ignorance of Brahmá as Brahma or what he is, makes men to reject divine knowledge altogether; as our ignorance of the quality of gold causes us to cast it off dross. (Brahma to the brute is, as the gem in the dung hill cast away by the silly cock).

47. Brahma is known as the Supreme spirit and sole Lord, by those who are acquainted with divine knowledge; but he is said to be unknown and involved in ignorance by them that are ignorant of Him.

48. Brahma being known as Brahma, becomes manifested such in a moment; just as gold when known as such, is taken in due esteem.

49. Those who are versed in divine knowledge, know Brahma as without a cause and causing nothing by himself, and that he is free from decay, and is the Supreme spirit and sole Lord of all.

50. He who can meditate in himself, on the omnipotence of Supreme spirit of Brahma; comes to behold him as such in a short time, even without a leader to guide him in his spiritual knowledge (one's own faith in Divine Omnipotence, is the surest means to the sight of his Maker).

51. The want of divine knowledge, that is called the ignorance of the ignorant; whereas it is the knowledge of God, that constitutes the true knowledge which removes the ignorance.

52. As an unknown friend is no friend at all, until he is recognized as such, after removal of one's forgetfulness; so God is no God to one, as long he continues in ignorance of Him.

53. We can then only know God, when the mind comes to perceive the unconnection of the soul with the body; and whereby it alienates itself from all worldly connections in disgust.

54. It is then that we come to know the one true God, when the mind is freed from its knowledge of duality; and by its distaste of dualism, it abandons its attachment to the world.

55. We then come to the knowledge of God, when we come to know ourselves to be other than our persons; and when by getting rid of our personal egoism, we forsake our affection for this unkindred world.

56. It is then that the thought of God rises in our minds, when we come to the true knowledge of thinking ourselves the same with Brahma; and when the mind is absorbed in the meditation of the divine truth in one's self. (This is the sublimation of the Yogi to the divine state; or when the Yogi loses himself, in his rapturous vision on the one God. This kind of meditation is indicated in the formula "Soham" in Vedánta and an ald Huq in sufism).

57. God being known as the tout ensemble or comprising the whole plenum, we come to believe the same as Brahma; and losing our egoism and tuism in the same, we come to the knowledge of that entity only comprising the entire universe. (This belief of the entirety of the Deity, is expressed in the words "Tat Sat" corresponding with to on, idest, alast, that is, He in the creeds of other people).

58. When I come to know this true and omniform Brahma, as all in all, and forming the entire whole; I become released from all my sorrow and grief, and am set free from all my delusion and desire, and the responsibility of my duties (from the belief of God's agency in all things).

59. I am quite calm and at ease and without any sorrow or grief, by my knowledge of the truth, that I am no other than Brahma Himself; I am as cool as the moon, without her spots and phases in me, and I am the all entire, without any disease, decay or diminution in me. (This is said with regard to the universal soul, which engrosses all souls and things in itself).

60. It is true that I am the all pervading Brahma, and therefore I can neither wish to have or leave any thing from me; being of myself the blood, bones and flesh of my body. (The soul is the source of the body, and the spirit its life, without which it decays and dies away).

61. It is true that I am Brahma the universal soul, and therefore the intellect, mind and sensibility also; I am the heaven and sky with their luminaries and quarters and the nether worlds also.

62. It is true that I am Brahma, composing this pot and painting, these bushes and brambles, these forests and their grass, as also the seas and their waves. (One God is manifest in many forms).

63. The unity of Brahma is a certain truth, and it is the ego which is manifest in the seas and mountains and all living beings; and in the qualities of reception and emission, and of extension and contraction in all material bodies. (It is the Divinity that actuates the physical powers in nature).

64. All things of extended forms situated in the intellectual spirit of Brahma, who is the cause of the growth of creepers and plants, and of the germination of vegetative seeds.

65. The supreme Brahma resides in his sheath of the intellectual soul, in the manner of flavour in the cup of the flower; and thence diffuses itself on all sides in the form of everything everywhere.

66. He that is known as only soul of all, and who is ascertained as the supreme spirit, and who is designated by the appellations of the intellectual soul, Brahma the great, the only entity and reality, the Truth and Intelligence and apart from all.

67. He is said to be the all-inhering element, and Intelligence only without the intelligibles in it; He is the pure light that gives every being its consciousness of itself.

68. He appears to the spiritualist to be existent everywhere, as the tranquil and intelligent Brahma; and contains in himself the powers of all the faculties of the mind and body, such as the understanding and the organs of sense, so the sruti; "He is the mind of the mind, the sight of the eye." [Sanskrit: yascat?u sascat?unmanásá manoyadityádi].

69. Give up the thought of thy difference from Brahma by knowing thyself as the reflexion of the intelligent soul; which is the cause of the causes of the existence of the world. Such as vacuum and others, which are causes of sound and are caused by vacuous spirit of God (and not as the vacuists and materialists belief them, to be increate essences from eternity).

70. The intellect of Brahma is the transparent receptacle of all essences, and my ego is of the same essence, which exudes continually as a shower of rain, from the transparent spirit of God.

71. I am that light which shines in the souls of yogis, and I am that silent spirit which is supported by the ambrosial drops of Divine Intellect; which continually distils its nectarious juice into our souls, as we may feel in ourselves.

72. I am as a wheel or circle without having the beginning or end of myself, and by having the pure intellect of Brahma in me. I am quiet in my deep sleep of samádhi meditation, and I perceive holy light shining within me. (The yogi in his devotion is absorbed in the calmness of his soul and is wrapt in divine light).

73. The thought that I am Brahma, affords afar greater delight to the soul, than the taste of any sweet meat, which gives but a momentary delight, so the sruti:--God is all sweetness [Sanskrit: rasobetat] (sweet is the memory of a friend, and sweeter far must be the thought of God, who is best and greatest friend).

74. One knowing his soul and intellect, knows the indestructible Brahma and himself as identic with the same; as one whose mind is possessed with the image of his beloved, beholds her bright countenance in the shining orb of the moon.

75. As the sights of earthly people are fixed in the etherial moon, so the sight of intellectual beings, is fixed in the supreme and indestructible soul, which he knows as self-same with himself.

76. The intellectual power which is situated in the vacuity of the heart, is verily the verity of the immaculate Brahma himself. Its pleasure and pain, and mutability and divisibility, are attributed to by ignorance only.

77. The soul that has known the truth, knows himself as the supreme Intellect, as the pilgrim on the way sees only his saint before him, and no intermediate object besides.

78. The belief that I am the pure and all pervading intellect, is attended with the purity and holiness of the soul, and the knowledge of the Divine power as the cause of the union of earth, air and water in the production of the germ of creation, is the main creed of all creeds.

79. I am that intellect of Brahma which is inherent in all things as their productive power; and I am that soul which causes the sweetness of the beal and bitterness of nimba fruits.

80. I am that divine intellect which inheres alike in all flavours, which is devoid of pain and pleasure and which I perceived in my mind by my consciousness.

81. I am the undecaying intellect of Brahma, and deem my gain and loss in equal light of indifference; while I view this earth and sky, and the sun and moon displayed before my eyes in all their glory.

82. I am that pure and serenely bright Brahma, whose glory is displayed alike in all of these, and which I behold to shine vividly before me, whether when I am awake or asleep or whenever I am in the state of dreaming or profound sleep.

83. I am that Brahma who is without beginning and end, who is known by his four fold hypostases, and is ever indestructible and undecaying. He resides in the souls of men in the form of sweetness in the sugarcane through all their transmigrations.

84. I am that intellect of Brahma, which like the sunshine pervades equally in the form of transparent light in and above all created beings.

85. I am that all pervasive intellect of Brahma, which like the charming moon light fills the whole universe; and which we feel and taste in our hearts, as the delicious draught of ambrosia.

86. I am that intellect of Brahma, which extends undivided over the whole and all parts of the universe, and which embraces all existence as the moving clouds of heaven encompasses the firmament.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter XII

Argument.--Investigation in the doubts respecting living liberation.

Vasishtha said:--Great minded men that are certain of these truths, are purified from their sins, and finding their tranquillity in the reliance on truth, enjoy the delight of the even equanimity of their souls, both in their prosperity and adversity. (Truthfulness and equanimity are god-like attributes).

2. So the wise men of perfect understandings, being evenly dispassionate in their minds; feel themselves neither glad nor sad, either in the enjoyment or deprivation of their lives (which are alike to them, because death is but the beginning or continuance of life in another state or world).

3. They remain as unseen and marvelously mighty, as the arms of Náráyana (god); and as straight and firm and yet as low and fragile as the body and broken rocks of mount Meru on earth.

4. They roam about at pleasure in woodlands and over islands and amidst cities also, and like the gods of paradise they wander about the beautiful groves and sceneries of nature.

5. They roved in flowery gardens shaken by the playful breezes, and also in the romantic forests on the skirts and tops of mountains.

6. They conquer also their enemies, and reign in their realms with the chouri and umbrella ensigns of their royalty; they enjoy the various produce and wealth of their kingdom, and observe the various customs and usages of their country. (The wise man freely enjoy all things without being bound into them).

7. They follow all the rules and rites, established by the laws of their countries; and inculcated as duties for the observance of all.

8. They do not disdain to taste the pleasures, that would make the beauties smile at; nor are they averse to the enjoyment of luxuries, that they can rightly use and enjoy.

9. They smell the fragrance of mandara-flowers, and taste the sweet juice of mango-fruits; they regale themselves with the sweet songs of Apsaras, and revel in the arbours of Nandara or pleasure garden.

10. They never disregard the duties that bind all mankind to them, nor neglect to perform the sacrifices and observe the ordinances that are imperious on domestic life.

11. But they are saved from falling into dangers and evils of all kinds, and escape the danger of falling under the feet of murderous elephants, and avoid the uproar of trumpets and the imminent death in battle-fields (i.e. Wise men avoid the dangers to which the ignorant are liable).

12. They abide with those that are afflicted in their hearts, as among the marauding plunderers of the country; they dwell among the oppressed cowardly people, as also amongst their oppressors. Thus they are conversant with the practices of all opposing parties, without mixing with any one of them.

13. But their minds are clear of doubts and free from errors unaffected by passions and affections, and unattached to any person or thing. They are quite discrete and disengaged, free and liberated, tranquil and serene, inclined to goodness reclining and resting in Supreme spirit.

14. They are never immerged in great dangers, nor are they ever involved in very great difficulties. But remain as the boundary mountains, remaining unimmersed amidst the water of a circumjacent lake.

15. They are never elated with joy, at the fluctuating favours of fond and fascinating fortune; nor are they swollen, like the sea at the increasing digits of the moon.

16. They do not fade away under sorrow or sickness, like plants under the scorching sun beams, nor are they refreshed by refreshments, like medicinal plants under the refreshing dews of night.

17. They are employed calmly and without anxiety in the discharge of their duties and in the acts of fruition karma, and neither long for nor relinquish the fruition, which is attendant upon them (i.e. They do what is to be done, not for reward but as a matter of course).

18. They are neither elated with the success of their undertakings, nor are they depressed by the mishap of their efforts, they are not joyous at their joy and hey-day, nor do they sink under in danger and difficulty.

19. They do not droop down under despondence, nor are they dejected in despair, they are not merry in their prosperity, nor do they wail and weep in their adversity.

20. They discharge their customary duties as prescribed by law and usage, but their minds remain as firm and unmoved, as a mountain at all the efforts of the body.

21. Now Ráma! Remove your sight for thy own egoism, and keep it fixed on the true ego which is a destroyer of all sins; and then go on with your ordinary course of conduct as thou mayest like.

22. Look at these creations and their various creatures, as they have existed in their successive stages and phases; but do you remain as firm as rock and as deep as the sea, and get rid of your errors. (i.e. Your observation of nature can only remove your errors).

23. Know this grand whole as the reflexion of one sole Intellect, beside which there is nothing as a reality or unreality, or as some thing or nothing. (Jo kuch hai ohi hai, nehinaur kuch'he. Whatever there is, is he himself, and there is nil beside his ens or self).

24. Ráma! have thy greatness as the great Brahma, and preserve the dignity of human nature about thee; reject all whatever as unworthy of thee, and with an unattached heart to every thing, manage thyself with gentleness every where, and thus pass the days here. (As an heir of eternity).

25. Why dost thou weep with thy heart full of sorrow and grief, and why dost thou lament like the deluded, and why rovest thou with thy wandering mind, like a swimming straw to the whistling eddy.

26. Ráma replied--Verily sir, the dart of my doubts is now rubbed out of my mind, and my heart is awakened to its good senses by thy kindness, as the lotus is enlivened by thy rising sun-light.

27. My errors are dispersed as the morning fog in autumn; and my doubts are set down by your lectures; which I will always adhere to.

28. I am now set free from the follies of pride, vanity, envy and insensibility; and I feel lasting spiritual joy rising within me after the subsidence of all my sorrows. And now if you are not tired, please deliver your lectures with your clear understanding, and I will follow and practice them without fear or hesitation.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XIII. THE TWO YOGAS OF KNOWLEDGE AND REASONING

Argument.--The two yogas or Habits of restraining the Desires and Respiration herein before described, are followed by two others: viz. the Acquisition of knowledge and the Training to reasoning which are yogas also.

Ráma said:--I am verily becalmed and set at ease, O Brahman! by relinquishing all my desires, from my full knowledge of their impropriety; and by my being staid in the state of the liberated, even in this my present life. (The heaven of the holy, commences in their earthly life).

2. But tell me, sir, how a man can have his liberation, by restraining his respirations for a time; and how the restraint of one's breathings, can put a restriction to his desires, which reside and rise from the mind; while it belongs to the body and comes in and out of the heart and lungs. (Nostrils).

3. Vasishtha said:--The means of fording over the ocean of this earth is known, O Ráma! by the word Yoga or union, which is composed of the quality of pacifying the mind in either of the two ways or processes (as shown below).

4. The one is the acquisition of religious instruction, leading to the knowledge of the soul and of the Supreme soul, and the other is the restraining of respiration, which you will learn from the lecture that I am about to deliver.

5. Here Ráma interrupted and said:--Tell me, sir, which of the two is more delectable, owing to its facility and unpainfulness; and the knowledge or practice whereof, releases us from all fear and trouble whatsoever.

6. Vasishtha replied:--Ráma! although I have mentioned here of two kinds of Yoga, yet the common acceptation of the term, restricts it to the restriction of breathing. (The vulgar have no idea of esoteric occultism or jnana Yoga, but call him a Yogi, who is employed in his exoteric practices, of asceticism and austerities, suppression of breath; and all kinds of wilful pains).

7. The true Yoga is the concentration of the mind in God, which is the only means of our salvation in this world; and this is achieved in either way of the regulation of breathing, or perfection in learning, both of which tend to the one and same effect, of fixing the attention in divine meditation.

8. The practical yoga by the regulation of respiration, appears as too arduous a task to some persons, while proficiency in knowledge seems to be too difficult of attainment to others. But to my understanding the ascertainment of truth by theoretical knowledge seems to be far better than practice. (The theoretical meditation is known as the rája yoga, and the forced contraction of the breath is called the hatha yoga or forced devotion, and is the device of Dattátreya who was an ancient Rishi also).

9. Ignorance is ever ignorant of truth, which does not lend its light to us in either our walking or sleeping states. So the ignorant practiser is always in ignorance both when he is in his meditative trance [Sanskrit: yogavidyá] or otherwise; but knowledge is always knowing, both when the knower is awake or asleep.

10. The practical yoga which stands in need of fixed attention, painful postures, and proper times and places, is impossible to be practiced, owing to the difficulty of getting all these advantages at all times.

11. I have thus described to you, O Ráma! both the two kinds of yoga propounded in the sástras, and the superiority of the pure knowledge, which fills the intellect with its unfading light.

12. The regulation of the breathings, the firmness of the body and dwelling in sequestered cells, are all I ween as pregnant of consummation--siddhi; but say, which of these is capable of giving knowledge [Sanskrit: vritti] to the understanding, which is the greatest perfection in human nature.

13. Now Ráma! if you think it possible for you, to sit quiet with utter suppression of your breaths and thoughts; then can you attempt to sit in your sedate posture of meditation without uttering a single word.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XIV. NARRATIVE OF BHUSUNDA AND DESCRIPTION OF MOUNT MERU

Argument.--Vasishtha's visit to Meru in expectation of seeing Bhusunda and his description of the Mountain.

Vasishtha related:--The vast universe, O Ráma! is but an evolution of the will of the Infinite Brahmá, just as the various representations in the mirage, are but eversions of solar rays. (Or these are the reflexions of the self-same Deity, as the Fata Morgana are the reflex of solar light).

2. Here the divine Brahmá that is born of the lotiform navel of Brahmá, takes the title of the creator and preserver of all, that has been produced by the supreme spirit; and is called also the great father of all, for his producing the prime progenitors of mankind. (Here Brahmá resembles Adam of the scriptures).

3. This divine being brought me forth from his mind, where fore I am called the mánasaputra or progeny of the mind, of the mind of this holy personage. He made me settle first in the fixed polar circle of the starry frame, I viewed the revolutions of the planetary spheres, and the successive Manvantaras before me. (The Manus were all the progeny of the divine mind, whence they bear their name of Manu or mind-born).

4. Residing once in the imperial court of the lord of gods--Indra, I heard the accounts of many long living persons and people, from the mouths of Nárada and other messengers of the gods. (Nárada is the Mercury of Hindu mythology, and answers an angel of the scriptures).

5. There was once on a time the sage Sálatapá among them; who was a person of great understanding, a man of honor and taciturn in his speech; and said by way of conversation:--

6. That there was in the north east summit of Mount Meru, a spot full of sparkling gems, where there was a kalpa tree of the chuta or mango kind, which yielded its fruits in all seasons of the year.

7. The tree was covered all over with fresh and beautiful creepers, and a branch of it extending towards the south, had a large hollow in its top, containing the nest of birds of various kinds.

8. Among them there was a crow's nest, belonging to one old raven by name of Bhusunda, who lived quite happy with himself; as the god Brahmá dwells content in his lotus-bed.

9. There is no one in the womb of this world so long lived as he, nor even the gods in heaven, can boast a greater longevity than he among the feathered tribe; and it is doubtful whether there may be another as old as he in times to come. (Old as Adam and as old as Methuselah).

10. This crony crow was beauteous even in old age, and had become passionless and great-minded by his long experience. He remained quiet with the tranquillity of his mind, and was as graceful as he was full of knowledge of all times. (Achromatic as old Nestor of the present, past and future--trikálajna).

11. If any one may have the long life of this crow, his life becomes meritorious, and his old age is crowned with sapience. (The vigour of life is productive of meritorious works, and its decay is fraught with wisdom).

12. In this manner, he related the virtues of the bird in full, at the request of the gods in heaven; and did not utter any thing more or less, before the assembly of the deities who knew all things.

13. After the gods had been satisfied with the narration of the veteran crow, I felt a great curiosity in me, to see and know more of this superannuated bird (for who is it that has not an eager desire to learn the art of longevity).

14. With this desire, I hastened to the spot, where the crow was said to rest in his happy nest; and I reached in a short time, to the summit of Meru, which was shining with its precious stones. (The descent from heaven to the lofty top of Meru could not be long, since the gods are said to be all situated on this high mountain. ([Sanskrit: tasminnadrau trayasvimsat vasatihiga nadevatah]), and again ([Sanskrit: yávatmerausyitadeváh]).)

15. The peak of the mountain was flaming as fire, with the glare of its gems and red earth--gairika, and these painted the upper sky, with the bright hue of florid honey and sparkling wine.

16. The mountain shone as brightly as it were burning with the blaze of the last conflagration, and the sky was reddened by their reflexion with shades of clouds; appearing as the smoke of fire or the blue lustre of sapphire.

17. The mountain appeared to be formed by a collection of all kinds of colours on earth, which gave it the appearance of the variegated sky in west at the time of the setting sun.

18. The flame of fire proceeding from its crater, and emitted through the crevice on its top, seemed as the culinary fire of the Yogi, carried up from his bowels to the cranium in Yoga. (This is styled the Utkranti Yoga or lifting the physical powers, and concentrating them all in the head--the seat of intellect).

19. The ruddy peaks and pinnacles of Sumeru, resembled his arms and fingers painted with lac-dye; in order to lay hold on his consort the fair moon by way of sport. (It means the mountain tops reaching to and touching the orb of the moon. So Kálidása makes his Himalaya transcend the sphere of the sun).

20. The lurid flame of wild fire on this mountain, seemed as the burning blaze of sacrificial fires, which are fed with clarified butter were rising to heaven. (Hence fire is styled the bearer of our offerings to the gods above--havya-váhana, because there is nothing on the earth except the flames of fire--that has the power of rising upwards, whence they are termed Urdha--jwalana--havir--bhujas. ([Sanskrit: urdha jvalana havirbhujam]).)

21. The mount with its elevated summit seemed to kiss the face of the sky, and to raise its fingers in the form of its peaks and pinnacles, with their blazing gems resembling the nails of the fingers, in order to count the scattered stars.

22. The clouds were roaring on one side of it with the loud noise of the drums, and the young plants and creepers were dancing in the happy arbours on another, clusters of flowers were smiling as blooming beauties on this side, and the swarms of humming bees were hovering on them on that.

23. Here the lofty palm trees seemed to be smiling with shewing their teeth in their denticulated leaves, on seeing the giddy groups of Apsaras, swinging and strolling about loosely in their amorous dalliances under their shade.

24. There the celestials were resorting in pairs to their grottos in the mountain, in order to relieve themselves of their trouble of trudging over the rugged paths of the craggy mountain; and they were clothed in the white vest of the open sky (nudity), and having the stream of Ganges falling from high for their sacred thread. (Here Meru means any mountain and Ganga is put for any stream descending from it).

25. The hoary mountain stood as a grey headed hermit, holding the reeds (with which it abounded) as canes in his hand; and the celestial inhabitants of the mount, rested in the coverts of the creepers, being lulled to sleep by gurgling sound of the waters falling from precipice to precipice.

26. The mountain king was crowned by the full blown lotuses that grow on its top, and was regaled by the sweet fragrance; which the odoriferous breezes bore from them. It was decorated with the gems of the starry frame on its crown, and charmed with the sweet songs of the gandharvas playing their strains on it.

27. His hoary head pierced the silvery region of heaven, and was one with it in being the abode of the gods.

28. The many coloured tops of Meru, emitting the various colours of the red, white, black, blue, yellow, and gray stones that are embodied in its body, lent the sky its variegated hues in the morning and evening, while the versicolor blossoms on its tops, invited the Heavenly nymphs to their rambles and sports over them.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XV. VASISHTHA'S VISIT TO BHUSANDA

Argument.--Description of the scenery on the top of Mount Meru. Allegory of the arbour of desire, the resort of all living beings. Description of Birds of the mountainous region, and lastly the character of káka bhusanda.

Vasishtha continued:--I saw the kalpa tree on the top of one of these peaks, which was girt by its branches on all sides; and covered with flowers appearing as tufts of hairs on its head.

2. This tree was covered with the dust of its flowers, which shrouded it as a thick mist or cloud; and its flowers shown as bright as brilliant gems upon it; its great height reaching to the sky, made it appear as a steeple or pinnacle standing upon the peak. (Allegorically the Kalpatree is the tree of Desire, which branches out into the various objects of our wish. Its flowers are all our sanguine hopes and expectations, which are hidden under the dark mist of futurity. The crown dwelling in its dark hollow, is the undwelling obscure soul, which is hid under the impervious gloom of our ignorant minds and false egoism. Its nest is in the highest divinity, and it is immortal because it is a particle of Eternal spirit).

3. Its flowers were twice as much as the number of stars in heaven, and its leaves redoubled the clouds in their bulk and thickness. Its filaments were more shining than the flash of lightnings, and the pollen of the flowers were brighter far than the circumambient beams of the radiant sun. (The flowers of the tree of Desire being our hopes and expectations, they are of course more numerous than the countless stars in the sky, but it is to say, what things are meant under the allegory of their leaflets farina and pistils).

4. The songs of the sylphs dwelling on the branches of this tree, resounded to the buzz of the humming bees, and the nimble feet and waving palms of the Apsaras in their sportive dance on every leaflet, reduplicated the number of the leaves as much again. (The feet and palms are always compared with the leaves of trees, so these meeting on every leaf is the lightsome leaping and skipping of the airy sylphs over them, increased the number of leaves to more than ever so many).

5. The spirits of the aerial siddhas and gandharvas hovering on this tree, far out-numbered the number of birds that flocked and fluttered about it; and the greyish frost which wrapped it as a gemming mantle, out-shone the glossy rind which served for its raiment of fine linen.

6. The top of this tree touches the lunar sphere, and by deriving its moisture from that humid planet, yields its fruits of larger size than the orb of the moon itself. And the clouds gathering about its trunk, have doubled the size of its joints. (i.e. The fruits of high desire are fairer and larger and more cooling than even the orb of the moon, and its sections are as bright as the bodies of clouds).

7. The gods rested on the trunk of this tree, and the Kinnaras reposed themselves on its leaves, the clouds covered its arbours, and the Asuras slept on its banks.

8. The Fairies repelled their mates by the sound of their bracelets, as the bees put the beetles to flight by their busy buzzing, and sucked the honey from the flowercup to their fill. (It means that females very often taste the sweets of their desire, while men are driven to labour).

9. The arbour of desire extends on all sides of the sky, and fills the space of the whole world, by embodying the gods and demigods and men and all kinds of living beings in it. (It is some desire or other that tends both the mortals and immortals in the course of their lives. Desire is the in-being of active life, and its want is either dulness or death).

10. It was full of its blooming buds and blossoms, and was covered with its tender leaves and leaflets, it was fraught with its flourishing flowers, and had graced the forest all around.

11. It flushed with its filaments, and abounded with its gemming florets; it was replete with its radiant vestures and ornamented trappings, to afford to the wants of its votaries, and it was ever in a flurry with sportive dance of the tender plants and creepers all around it.

12. It was full laden with flowers on all aides, and was abundant with its fruits on all its branches, and being fraught with the copious farina of its flowers, which it lavished and scattered on all its sides, it became charming and attractive of all hearts towards it.

13. I saw flock of the feathered tribe fluttering about the happy bowers, or resting about the broad boughs and branches of the tree; some of these were reposing in the coverts of the leafy arbour, and others pecking the flowers and fruits with their bills.

14. I saw the storks and geese which are the vehicles of Brahmá, feeding on fragments of lotus-stalks, resembling the digits of the bright moon in whiteness; and picking the bulbous roots of the arjuna and lotus plants in the lakes.

15. The goslings of the geese of Brahmá, muttered the omkára, the initial syllable of the Veda, as they were addicted in it by their preceptor the god--Brahmá himself.

16. I saw the parrots with their blue pinions resembling the blue clouds of heaven, and beheld their red dusk beaks shining as the flash of lightnings, and uttering their shrill sound in the manner of the swáhá of the veda. (The parrot is the vehicle of the god of fire, wherefore it is fit for him to utter the syllable swáhá; which is used in the invocation of fire: as swáhá agnaye).

17. I saw also the green parrots of the god of fire, scattered all about like the green kusa grass lying scattered on the sacrificial alter of the gods; and I beheld the young peacocks with their crests glowing as the glistening flames of fire.

18. I saw there the groups of peacocks fostered by the goddess Gaurí (The peacocks of Juno), as also the big peacocks belonging to the god Kumára; I beheld likewise the vehicle of skanda, which are versed in knowledge. (One of these is said to be the expounder of a grammar, known by the name of Kaumári Kalápa Vyakarana).

19. I saw there many bulky and big bodied birds, that are born to live and breed and die away in their natal air, and never alight on the nether ground. These were as white as the clouds of autumn and nestles with their mates in air, and are commonly known under the name of Aerial Birds.

20. I saw the goslings of the breed of Brahma's geese, and the younglings of the brood of Agni's parrots. I beheld the big breed of the peacocks forming the vehicles of war god; (Skanda, Alexander)?

21. I saw the Bharadwája and I saw there many other kinds of big birds. (Charui, birds with two mouths and gold finches with their golden crests). I saw also kalavinca sparrows, the little cranes and pelicans and cuckoos and vultures likewise and cranes and cocks.

22. I saw likewise a great variety of other birds as the Bhushus, Chushus and partridges of many kinds, whose numbers are no less than all the living animals of this earth taken together. (That is to say, the air and water abound with fowls and fishes of as great a variety and number as the animals on earth, and all of them dwell in tree of Desire as mankind and other terrestrial animals. Nemo sine desiderium).

23. I then began to pray from my etherial seat, and through the thickening leaves of the tree to the nest of the bird; amidst the hollows of far distant boughs towards the south.

24. After some time I came to descry at a distance a body of ravens, sitting in rows like leaves of the branches, and resembling the streaks of sable clouds on either sides of the Lokáloka--horizon. (The Lokáloka mountain is a fictitious name for the horizon, which has light and darkness ever attendant on its either side. The term lokáloka or light and shade, is also used to represent vicissitudes of life).

25. Here I beheld awhile afterwards, a lonely branch with a spacious hollow in it. It was strewn over with various flowers and redolent with a variety of perfumes. (The houses of great men are always scented with odours. ([Sanskrit: subásit harmmatalam manoramam]).)

26. It was as the happy abode of virtuous women in heaven, which are perfumed with sweet scenting clusters of flowers, and there the crows were sitting in rows, as they were perfectly freed from all cares and sorrows.

27. Their great group appeared as the big body of a cloud, separated from the tumultuous air of the lower atmosphere and resting on the calm firmament of the upper sky; and the venerable Bhusunda was seen sitting quietly with his exalted body.

28. He sat there as an entire sapphire shining prominent amongst fragments of glass, and seemed to be of a stout heart and mind, and of a dignified mien and graceful appearance.

29. Being heedful of the rule of the restriction of his respiration and suppression of his voice, he was quite happy with his long longevity, and was renowned every where as a long lived passe (seer).

30. He witnessed the course of ages and periods, and marked their advent and exodus in repeated succession; and was thereby known as the time worn Bhusunda in this world, and a being of stout and unflinching mind.

31. He was weary with counting the revolutions of the Kalpa cycles, and with recounting the returns of the preserving divinities of the world; such as the Sivas, Indras, the gods of the winds and other.

32. He was the chronicler of all antiquity, and the recorder of the wars of the gods and demons, and the hurling of the high hills in heaven; and yet he was of a clear countenance and profound mind; he was complacent to all, and his words are as sweet as honey.

33. This old seer related distinctly all that was unknown and indistinct to others, he was wanting in his egotism and selfishness, and was the lord over all his friends and children, and his servants and their seniors and he was the true narrator of all things at all times.

34. His speech was clear and graceful, sweet and pleasing, and his heart was as tender as the cooling lake, and as soft as the lotus-flower; he was acquainted with all usages and customs and the depth and profoundness of his knowledge, ever the serenity of his appearance.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XVI. CONVERSATION OF VASISHTHA AND BHUSUNDA

Argument.--Reception of Vasishtha by Bhusunda, and the Inquiries of the sage regarding the life and acts of the crow.

Vasishtha Continued:--I then alighted before the veteran crow with my brilliant etherial body, as a bright meteor falling from the sky on the top of a mountain; and this my sudden appearance startled the assembly, as if they were disturbed by my intrusion.

2. The assembly of the black birds trembled like the lotuses of the lake, at the shaking of the gentle breeze; and the agitation of the air at my slow descent, troubles them as much as an earthquake troubles the waters of the deep.

3. But Bhusunda who was a seer of the three times, was not at all disturbed at my arrival; but know me as Vasishtha, now in attendance upon him. (Like a flimsy cloud from the mount).

4. He then rose from his leafy seat, and advancing slowly before me, he said with sweet sounds distilling as honey. I welcome thee great sage to my humble cell.

5. Then he stretched both hands to me, holding clusters of flowers that he had at his will and then strewed them in hand-fulls upon me, as a cloud scatters the dewdrops over the ground. (The comparison of raindrops with the shedding of flowers is common in India and well known by the compound term pushpa-vrishti).

6. Take this seat said he, and stretched with his hand a newly shorn rind of the Kalpa tree; this he had plucked with his own hand, nor needed the help of his attendant crows in this gladsome task.

7. On the rising of Bhusunda, the menials also arose from their seats, and then on seeing the sage seated on his seat, they looked to and betook themselves to their respective seats and posts.

8. Then having refreshed myself with the sweet scent of the Kalpa creepers all about me, I was surrounded by all the birds that gathered round me, and had their chief sitting face to face in front of me. (This time worn etiquette of old India is still in vogue in the politest courts of the world).

9. Having offered me the water and honey for my refreshment, together with the honorarium worthy of me, the high minded Bhusunda felt the cheer of his mind, and then accosted me with complaisance and in words sweet as honey. (The serving of honey and water to guests of yore served the offering of brandy and water of modern fashion).

10. Bhusunda said:--O lord! thou hast after long favoured us with your kind visit, which has by its ambrosial influence resuscitated our arbor and ourselves. (Such is the visit of a superior to an inferior).

11. I ween, O great Muni! that art honoured of the honourable, that it is by virtue of my long earned virtues that you are now brought to this place, and want to be informed from where your course is bent to my humble abode.

12. You sir, that have long wandered amidst the great gloom of this world, and know its errors by your infallible experience, must have at last in the peace of your mind. (Peace after broils and strife. Pax post turba).

13. What is it that makes you take this trouble on yourself today, is what we wished to be informed at present; and your answer to those that are expectant of it, will be deemed as a great favour by them.

14. It is by the sight of your holy feet, O venerable sage! that we are put to the knowledge of every thing; and yet our obligation at this uncalled for call of yours here, emboldens us to ask this farther favour of yours. (Nobody asks nobody, that has nothing to do with him).

15. We know that it is your remembrance of us among the long living, that has directed your attention towards us, and made your holiness to sanctify this place by your gratuitous visit to us.

16. Though thus we know this as the cause of your calling into us; yet it is our desire of satisfying ourselves with the sweetness of your nectarious words, that has prompted to propose this query to you at present.

17. In this manner did the longival crow, that was clear sighted with his knowledge of the three times, deliver his inquiry by way of formality.

18. Vasishtha answered--Yes, O king of birds! it is true as thou sayst, that I have come here thus to see thy diuturnal self; (because the aged are honoured as sages, and their shrines are visited as those of saints).

19. You are verily very fortunate with your cold heartedness, and your sagacity has haply saved you from falling into the dangerous snares of this world.

20. Now sir, deign to remove my doubt regarding to your anility, and tell me truly of what family you are born, and how you come to know what is worth knowing (respecting the origin and end of beings, and their good or bad lot afterwards).

21. Tell me sir, if you remember the length of life that you have passed, and if you recollect by your long sightedness how you came to be settled in this lodging. (Lit. who appointed this place for your habitation).

22. Bhusunda replied, I will relate to you all, O great sage! that you ask of me, and your great soul shall have to hear it attentively without any inadvertence of your mind.

23. It is certain, O venerable sir! that the topics, which deserve the attention of great minded souls like yourselves; will prove effective of destroying the evils of the world, as the influence of the clouds and their propitious rains remove the heat of the sun.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XVII. DESCRIPTION OF BHUSUNDA'S PERSON

Argument.--Vasishtha relates to Ráma of the perfections of Bhusunda's Body and Mind, which entitled him to the enjoyment of his liberation in his living time.

Vasishtha said:--Now Ráma, know this Bhusunda, who was of a complexion as black as that of a cloud heavy with water in the rainy season; to have a countenance which neither merry nor sorry, and a mind free from guile and cunning.

2. His voice was grave and mild, and his words were accompanied by a gentle smile, and he spoke of the three worlds, as if he balanced three beal fruits in his hands. (His knowledge of the worlds, was as that of the globe in his hands).

3. He looked on all things as they were mere straws before him, and weighted the lives of men in proportion to their enjoyments, and by the ratio of their rations on earth, he had the knowledge of the knowables and the unknowable one (called the common and transcendental knowledge-paránara).

4. He was big bodied grave and quiet, and sedate as the mount Mandara; and his mind was as full and clear as the calm ocean after a storm.

5. His mind was perfectly tranquil and quite at ease; and full of joy within itself; and acquainted with the appearance and dis-appearance of all beings born in this world.

6. His countenance was delightsome with his inward delight, and his voice was as sweet as the melody of a sweet song; he seemed to have taken a new born form on himself, and his joyfulness dispelled the fears of men.

7. After he had respectfully received and accosted me, with his pure and dulciate words; he began to recite to me his own narration, as the rumbling of a rainy cloud, delights the hearts of the thirsty world.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XVIII. MANNERS OF THE MÁTRIKA GODDESSES

Argument.--Bhusunda traces his origin from the Mátres, whose manners and revelries he describes in length.

Bhusunda related:--There is in this world, the god of gods Hara (Horus?) by name; who is the chief among the celestials, and honoured by all the divinities of heaven.

2. He had his consort Gaurí constituting the better half of his body, and by whom he is embraced in the manner of an ivy clasping the young Amra tree. Her bosom likened a cluster of blooming blossom, and her eyes resembled the lines of black bees fluttering in the summer sky.

3. The hoary locks of hair on the braided head of Hara, were entwined as with a white lace, by the snow white stream of Ganges, whose billows and waves as clusters of flowers on the hair-band.

4. The crown of his head was decorated with the gemming milk-white disk of the moon, which sprung from the bosom of the milky ocean; and spread her bright radiance and ambrosial dews about his person. (The streams of ganguari are represented as consorts of Hara, and the moon as forming the discus on the braces of the hairs on his head).

5. The incessant effusion of ambrosial draughts, from the disk of the moon on his crest, has made him immortal by assuaging the heat of the deadly poison which he swallowed, and has marked his throat with the bluish hue of the sapphire or lapis lazuli, whence he named the blue gulletted Níla Kantha. (Hara is said to have swallowed the kála-kuta poison, as Hercules drank his full bowl of henbane).

6. The god is besmeared with powdered ashes on his body, as emblematical of the particles of dust, to which the world was reduced by the flame of his all destructive conflagration; while the stream of water flowing from the Ganges on his head, is typical of the current of his clear knowledge of all things. (Others make the burning fire of his frontal eye bhála netra to represent the flash of his cognoscence--jnánágni).

7. His body is decorated with strings of blanched bones, which are brighter far than the silvery beams of fair moon, and these serve as necklaces of argent and pearly gems about his person. (Hence he is named as Jala-padda-málika).

8. His vest is the open sky with its plates of folded clouds, which are washed by the milk white beam of the moon, and studded with the variegated spots of the stars. (This means the nudity of the god, hence called Digamvara or sky attired).

9. He is beset by the prowling shakals, devouring the burnt carcasses on funeral grounds, and holds his abode beyond the habitations of men, in cemeteries and mortuaries in the outer skirts of cities. (Whence his name of Smashána sáyí).

10. The god is accompanied by the Mátres, who are decorated with strings of human skulls about their necks, and girt with the threads of their entrails on their bodies; while the fat and flesh of dead bodies, and the blood and moisture of putrid carcasses, form their delectable food and drink.

11. Their bodies are soft and shining as gold, and moving about with sparkling gem on their heads and bracelets of snakes curled round their wrists.

12. The acts of this god are dreadful to relate, and strike terror in hearts of the gods and demons, and all beings beside. One glance of his eye (coup d'oeil) is enough to set the mountains in a blaze, and his hunger grasps the whole world in one morsel.

13. The perpetual rest of his meditative mind in holy trance samádhi, hath restored the world to rest; and the movement of his arms at intervals, is attended with the destruction of demons.

14. His forms of the elements are intently lent on their fixed purposes, without being deterred from them by the impulses of his anger, enmity or affection; and the wind of his breath makes the mountains to tremble, and turn the humid earth to arid ground.

15. His playmates are the devils with their heads and faces, resembling those of bears and camels, goats and serpents; and such as have their heads for hoofs, and their hoofs as their hands, and whose hands serve as their teeth, and who have their faces and mouths set upon their bellies and breasts.

16. His face shone brightly with the rays of his three eyes (whereby he is denominated the triple eyed god trinetra); and the mátres were dependant on him as his dependant demoniac bands--gana-devatás.

17. The Mátres joined with the bands of demons, dance about him lowly at his bidding, and feed upon the living bodies, that are born and dead in all the fourteen regions of creation.

18 The Mátres having their faces as those of asses and camels, rove at great distances from him; and are fond of feeding on the flesh and fat, and drinking the red hot blood of bodies as their wine. They have the fragments and members of dead bodies, hanging about their persons as strings of pearls.

19. They reside in the hollows of hills, in the open sky and in other regions also; they dwell also in the holes underneath the grounds, and like to abide in cemeteries and in the holes and pores of human and brute bodies.

20. There are the goddesses known under the names of Jayá and Vijayá, jayantí and Aparajitá; and again siddha Raktá and Alambushá, and also another bearing the name of utpatá.

21. These eight are denominated the Nayikai of leaders, of the whole body of Mátrikas; the others are subordinate to these, and there are others again subordinate to them.

22. Among all these venerable Mátres, there one by name of Alambushá, that is the source of my birth; and this I have revealed to you on account of your great favour to me, by your kind call to my cell.

23. She had the crow by name of Chanda for her vehicle, which had its bones and bills as strong as the bolts of Indra's thunder; it was as dark as a mountain of jetblack or blue agate, and served her goddess as Garuda served the consort of Vishnu.

24. This octad of Mátri goddess were once assembled together, and bent their course in the ethereal firmament on some of their malevolent purposes.

25. They made their merry makings and religious revels in the air, and then turned their course to the left side where they halted at the shrine of Tumburu, which was sacred to Siva.

26. They there worshipped the forms of Tumburu and Bhairava, which are adored in all the worlds; and then regaled themselves with a variety of discourses, seasoned with drinking and to ping.

27. Then they look up the topic among other subjects of their conversation, as to whether they were slighted and disliked by their paramour--the spouse of Umá, who is taken to share one half of his body. (In the shape of androgyne--Umá--Maheswara or Hara--Gaurí; having the male and female bodies joined in two halves in one bisex forms).

28. We shall now show him our prowess, that he may never think of despising our great powers even by a contemptuous look, for though the god feigns to be single and naked, yet we know he is bipartite with his consorts Umá forming his better half.

29. Thus determined the goddesses overpowered on Umá by some potent charm of theirs, and by sprinkling a little water upon her, as they do to captivate a beast, which they are going to sacrifice before the altar, and by this spell they succeeded both to change the fine features of Durga, as also to enervate her frame.

30. They succeeded also by their power of enchantment, to detach Umá from the body of Hara, and set her before them, with an imprecation of converting her fair form to their meat food.

31. They made great rejoicings on the day of their execration of Párvati; when they all joined in dancing and singing, and making their giddy revelries before her.

32. The shouts of their great joy and loud laughter resounded in the sky, and the jumping and hopping of their big bodies, laid open their backs and bellies to sight.

33. Some laughed as loudly with the deafening clappings of their palms, that they rebounded in the sky as the roarings of lions and clouds. They showed the gestures of their bodies in their warlike dance, and the sound of their singing rang through the forests and reached in the mountains.

34. Others sang as loud as it rang through the mountain caves, and ran to the depth of the ocean; which rebillowed with its surges as at the time of the full-moon tide.

35. Others drank their bowls, and daubed their bodies from head to foot with liquor; and muttered their drunken chatters, that chattered in the sky.

36. They drank over and sang louder and louder, they turned about as tops, and uttered and muttered as sots. They laughed and sipped and chopped and fell down and rolled and prattled aloud. Thus they reeled in fits, and bit the bits of their flesh meats, till these Bacchanal goddesses did all their orgies in their giddy revels.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XIX. BHUSUNDA'S NATIVITY AND HABITATION

Argument.--Account of the birth of Bhusunda.

Bhusunda continued. Thus while the goddesses were in the acts of their merriment, their bonny vehicles or carrier birds also caught the infection, and indulged themselves in their giddy jigs and giggles, and in tippling the red blood of their victims for their liquor.

2. Then giddy with their drink the gabbling geese, that were fit vehicles for Brahmá's consorts, danced and frolicked in the air, in company with the crow Chanda the carrying bird of Alambushá.

3. Then as the geese darted down, and kept dancing and drinking and tittling on the banks of streams, they felt impassioned and inflamed by lust: because the borders of waters are excitants of concupiscence.

4. Thus the geese being each and all excited by their carnal desire, dallied with that crow in their state of giddiness, which is often the cause of unnatural appetites.

5. Thus that single crow--Chanda by name, became spoused to seven geese at once on that bank; and cohabited one by one with every one of them, according to their desire.

6. Thus the geese became pregnant after gratification of their lust, and the goddesses being satisfied by their merry dance, held their quiet and took to their rest.

7. Then these goddesses of great delusion (mahá máyá), advanced towards their consort Siva, and presented unto him his favorite Umá for his food.

8. The god bearing the crescent moon on his fore-head, and holding the trident spike in his hand; coming to know that they had offered his beloved one for his meat, became highly incensed on the Mátres.

9. Then they brought out the parts of the body of Umá, which they had taken in as their food from their bodies; and presented her entire for her remarriage with the moon-headed deity.

10. At last the god Hara and his consorts being all reconciled to one another together with their dependants and vehicles, retired to their respective quarters with gladness of their minds.

11. The geese of Brahmá perceiving their pregnancy, repaired to the presence of their goddess, and represented to bear their case, as I have, O chief of sages! already related unto you.

12. The Devi on hearing their words, spake kindly unto them and said:--you my menials, cannot now be capable of bearing my car in the air as before; but must have the indulgence of moving about at your pleasure, until you have delivered of your burthens.

13. After the kind goddess had said these words to her geese, that were ailing under the load foetuses, she betook herself to her wonted meditation, and remained in her irreversible rest with the gladness of her mind.

14. The geese that were now big with the burden of their embryos, grazed in the lotus bed of Vishnu's navel, which had been the birth place of the great Brahmá before. (Brahmá the creative power, owed his birth to the lotiform navel of Vishnu, and the same place was all owed for the pasture of the geese and the nativity of the goslings).

15. The geese then being matured in their pregnancy, by feeding upon the lotus-like navel of Vishnu, brought forth their tender eggs in time, as the calmly creepers shoot out in sprouts in the spring.

16. They laid thrice seven eggs in their proper time, which afterwards split in twain, like so many mundane eggs in their upper and lower valves or canals.

17. It was these eggs, O great sage! that gave birth to thrice seven brethren of ours, all of whom are known under the appellation of the fraternity of chanda crows.

18. These being born in the lotus bed of Vishnu navel, were fostered and bred up in the same place, till they were fledged and enabled to fly and flutter in the air.

19. We then joined with our mother geese in the service of our Mátri-goddess, who after our long services unto her, was roused from her intense meditation at last.

20. Now sir, it was in course of time, that the goddess inclined of her own complaisance, to receive us into her good grace, and favour us with the gift (of foresight), whereby we are quite liberated in this life. (It is over one's blindness of the future, that is the cause of the error and mischief of life).

21. Thought in ourselves of remaining in peace, and in the tranquillity of our minds; and being determined to betake ourselves to solitary contemplation, we went to our sire the old crow Chanda for his advice. (In the Vindhyan mountain).

22. We were received into the embrace of our father, and favoured with the presence of his goddess Alumbusha; they looked on us with kindness, and allowed us to remain near them with our self restricted conduct.

23. Chanda said:--O my darlings! Have ye obtained your release from weaving the web of your desires? You are then set free from the snare of this world, which binds fast all beings in it.

24. If not so, then I will pray unto this goddess of mine, who is always propitious to her devotees, to confer on you the blessing of consummate knowledge (which alone can save you from all worldly evils).

25. The crows replied--O sir! we have known whatever is knowable, by the good grace of the Goddess Brahmá, it is only a good solitary place, which we now seek for the sake of undisturbed meditation.

26. Chanda returned--I will point it out to you, in the high mountain of Meru in the polar region; which is the seat of all the celestials, and the great receptacle of all the treasures and gems on earth.

27. This mountain stands as the lofty pillar of gold, in the midst of the great dome of the universe; it is lightet by the luminous orbs of the sun and moon as its two lamps, and is the residence of all kinds of animals.

28. This lofty mountain stands as the lifted arm of this orb of the earth, with its gemming peaks and pinnacles resembling its fingers and their jewels, and having the moonbeam, as a golden canopy raised over its head, and the sounding main girding the islands for its bracelets.

29. The mount Meru is situated in the midst of the Jambudwípa (Asia) as its sole monarch, and is beset by the boundary mountains as its chieftains on all sides. With its two eye balls of the rolling sun and moon, it glances over the surrounding hillocks, as the king seated in the centre, looks on the courtiers sitting all about him.

30. The clusters of stars in the sky, hangs as wreaths of málati flowers around his neck, and the bright moon that leads the train of stars, forms the crowning jewels over his head, the firmament on the ten sides girds him as his vest, and the nágas of both kinds (i.e. the elephants and serpents) are warders at his gates.

31. The nymphs of heaven are employed in fanning him with the breeze from all quarters, and flapping over him their chouries of the passing clouds, with their hands decorated with the variegated hues of heaven as their ornaments.

32. His huge body stretched over many leagues, and his feet are rooted fast many fathoms underneath the earth; where they are worshipped by the nágas, Asuras and large serpents. (That dwell at the foot of the mount, while the races of gods are situated on its top).

33. It has thousands of ridges and steeps, craigs and cliffs, below its two eyes of sun and moon; and these are lauded as celestial regions by the Gods, gandharvas and kinnaras that inhabit in them.

34. There are fourteen kinds of superior beings, inhabiting the supernal sphere of this mountain; and these dwell there with their households and relatives, in their respective circles, without ever seeing the city or citadel of another. (This means the great extent and distance of the several separate ridges from one another. Its fourteen ridges or regions are known as the chaturdasa--vhuvanas, and fourteen peoples are included under the title of thirteen classes of celestials--troadasa-gana-devatás. These are the brahmarshis, Rajarshis, Devarshis, Devas, Pitris, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Apsaras, Vidyádharas, Yakshas, Rakshas, Pramathas, Guhyakas and Nágas (the last of whom are not recognized among celestial beings).)

35. There is a large ridge on the north east corner of this mount, with its gemming summit rising as high and bright as the shining sun.

36. There stands a large kalpa tree on the out side of that ridge, which is peopled with living beings of various kinds; and appears to present a picture of the whole world in miniature.

37. The southern stem of this tree has a protruding branch with its aureate leaves, and its blossoms blooming as clusters of brilliant gems; and presenting its fruit as lucid and luscious to view, as the bright and cooling orb of the moon.

38. I had formerly built my nest on that branch, and decorated it with all sorts of shining gems; and there it was, oh my offspring! that I sported and enjoyed myself, as long as my goddess sat in her meditative mood.

39. My nest was hid under the gemming flowers, and stored with luscious fruits, and its door was fastened with bolts of precious gems.

40. It was full of young crows, who knew how to behave properly with one another; Its inside was strewn over with flowers, and was cooling at all times and seasons.

41. Repair therefore, my children! to that nest, which is inaccessible even to the gods; because by remaining there, you will obtain both your livelihood and liberation without any molestation. (Livelihood with liberty, is the best blessing on earth).

42. Saying so, our father kissed and embraced everyone of us; and presented to us the meat food, which he had got from his goddess.

43. After taking our repast, we prostrated ourselves at the feet of our father and his goddess, and then flew in the air, from the Vindhyan range which is sacred to the divinity of Alumbusha.

44. We passed over the nether sky, entered into the region of the clouds; then coming out of their hollow caves, we flew aloft on the wings of the winds to the vacuous void of the etherial gods to whom we paid our homage.

45. Having then passed the solar world, we arrived at another sphere of the fixed stars above, where we saw the heaven of the immortals and thence reached the empyrean of Brahmá.

46. There we bowed down to the goddess Bráhmí, and our mother (the goose) which was her vehicle; and related in length to them the behest of our father unto us.

47. They endeared and embraced us with kind affection, and then bade us to do as we were bid by our sire. At this we bowed down to them, and took our departure from the seat of Brahmá.

48. We then directed our flight to Meru where we found out this kalpa tree and our appointed nest in it. Here we line apart and remote from all, and hold our silence in all matters.

49. We passed the region of the regents of the skies, which shone to a great distance with the blaze of solar rays; we fled through the empty air with the velocity of winds.

50. I have thus related to you in length in answer to your query, regarding the manner of our birth and how we are settled in this place; I have told you also how we came to the knowledge of truth, whereby we have come to this state of undisturbed peace and tranquillity, now bid us, O great Sage! what more can we relate to satisfy your curiosity about us.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Opening…

Cite this passage

MLA

APA

Chicago

Opening

Book VI

I. PAGE

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XIX

Chapter XX

Chapter XXI

Chapter XXII

Chapter XXIII

Chapter XXIV

Chapter XXV

Chapter XXVI

Chapter XXVII

Chapter XXVIII

Chapter XXIX

Chapter XXX

Chapter XXXI

Chapter XXXII

Chapter XXXIII

Chapter XXXIV

Chapter XXXV

Chapter XXXVI

Chapter XXXVII

Chapter XXXVIII

Chapter XXXIX

Chapter XXXX

Chapter XXXXI

Chapter XXXXII

Chapter XXXXIII

Chapter XXXXIV

Chapter XXXXV

Chapter XXXXVI

Chapter XXXXVII

Chapter XXXXVIII

Chapter XXXXIX

Chapter L

Chapter LI

Chapter LII

Chapter LIII

Chapter LIV

Chapter LV

Chapter LVI

Chapter LVII

Chapter LVIII

Chapter LIX

Chapter LX

Chapter LXI

Chapter LXII

Chapter LXIII

Chapter LXIV

Chapter LXV

Chapter LXVI

Chapter LXVII

Chapter LXVIII

Chapter LXIX

Chapter LXX

Chapter LXXI

Chapter LXXII

Chapter LXXIII