XX. EXPLICATION OF THE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER OF BHUSUNDA…

XX. EXPLICATION OF THE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER OF BHUSUNDA

Argument.--The stability of the world even at the change and dissolution of the worldly objects; and the immortality of Bhusunda even after the Demise of his Brethren.

Bhusunda continued. This world has existed by the prior and bygone kalpa, in the very same state as it does at present, and there is no variation in the formation or location of any thing in any wise. (The ante-diluvean world alike the post-diluvean).

2. Therefore O great Sage! I am accustomed to look to the past and present with an equal eye, and will relate the events of my passed life and by gone ages for your information, as if they are existent with me even at present. (It is the fashion of the old chroniclers, to describe the long past as if it is actually present before them).

3. I find to-day, O great Sage! the fruit of my pious acts of my passed life, that have rewarded me with your blessed presence in this my humble cell.

4. This nest of mine, this branch of the tree, this kalpa arbour and this myself, are all blessed by your propitious presence in this place. (The sight of a superior is a great favour).

5. Deign Sir, to accept of this seat and this honorarium, which are here offered to you by a suppliant bird; and having purified us by your kind acceptance of our poor offerings, please command what other service can we render unto you. (i.e., what more can I relate to you).

6. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! after Bhusunda had again presented the seat and honorarium to me, I proffered to him another request in the following words.

7. I said, tell me, O thou senior among birds, why don't I see here those brethren of yours, who must be equally senile and strong in their bodies and intellects, as thou showest thyself to be.

8. Bhusunda answered and said:--I am here destined to remain alone, O Muni! to witness the continuous course of time, and to count and recount the revolutions of ages, as they reckon the succession of days and nights.

9. During this length of time, I had the misfortune to witness all my juniors and younger brothers, to their mortal frames as trifling straws, and find their rest in the blessed state (Of eternity).

10. I saw, O great Sage! the very long lived, and the very great indignity, the very strong and very wise, to be all gorged in the unconscious bowels of bodiless death. (The great and small equally fall; and time at last devours them all. Non semper erit æstas).

11. Vasishtha said:--Say, O venerable father! how you remained unmolested by the deluvian tempest, which outstripped the winds in its velocity, and bore the great bodies of the sun and moon and stars as jewels hanging about its neck.

12. (The deluvian tempest is called tufani nuh or hurricane of Noah in the Koran. The Khandapralaya is a partial deluge of the earth, but the mahápralaya is the aggregate of all the cosmic revolutions of the whole world).

12a. Say, O primeval seer! how you escaped unscorched by the burning flame of solar rays, which melted down the uprising mountains, and consumed there the woods in one all devouring conflagration. (The burning sun on the day of the last dissolution, is said in the Koran, to come down and stand at a lance's distance above the heads of men).

13. Say, O senile sire, how you remained unfrozen under the cold moon beams, that froze the limpid waters to hard stone; and how you fled unhurt from the showers of hail, which were poured in profusion by the deluvian clouds.

14. Say, O ancient bird! why you were not crushed under the snows, which fell from the deluvian clouds as thickly as huge trees, when they are felled by axes from the tops of high hills.

15. Say, why this kalpa tree which rises higher than all other forests, was not broken down, when all other arbors on earth, were levelled to the ground by the universal tornado.

16. Bhusunda replied:--Our station, O Bráhman! in the open and empty air, is quite supportless and without any solid or fixed support. It is either unnoticed or looked upon with disregard and contempt by all, and our living and livelihood is the most despicable among all living beings. (All this is meant of the soul, which is here personified as a bird--a dark crow, and named as the amara Bhusunda, a contemptuous word often applied to senile people).

17. Thus has the Lord of beings appointed these aerial beings, to remain free from disease and death in these forests, or fly about in the empty air in their aerial course. (The forests mean the living bodies, and the empty air is the field for the rambles of disembodied spirits).

18. How then, O venerable sir, can any sorrow or sickness betide us here, where we are born to be immortal, and rove freely in open air; and are free from those pains and sorrows, which betake those birds that are bound in snares of their desires, and are subject to their hopes and fears.

19. We sir, have always placed our reliance on the peace and contentment of our souls, and never allow ourselves to fall into error, of taking the insubstantials for substantial.

20. We are quite content with what simple nature requires and affords, and are entirely free from those cares and endeavours which are attended with pain. We live only to pass our time in this our own and lonely lodging (which is allotted to us by providence).

21. We neither wish to live long to wallow in our bodily enjoyments nor desire death to avoid the retribution of our acts; but live as long as we have to live, and die when death comes upon us. (Neither love thy life nor hate, but live well how long or short permit to heaven. Milton).

22. We have seen the changeful states of mankind, and witnessed many instances of the vicissitudes of human affairs, and have thereby banished all sorts of levity from our bodies and minds. (Lit. the restlessness of body and mind).

23. By the constant light of our internal spirit, we are kept from the sight of all sorrow and grief; and from our seat on the height of the kalpa tree, we clearly see the course of the world and the changes of time. (The kalpa tree of desire is at once the tree of life and knowledge of the garden of paradise, because both of them are equally desirable to man; and any one who is seated above this tree, must know all things by his all knowingness and immortality as the soul of Bhusunda).

24. Though we are wholly unacquainted with the changes of days and nights, on this high pinnacle of our heavenly mountain (where there is the eternal sunshine of Divine presence); yet we are not ignorant of the vicissitudes of the times and events, in the solar and sublunary worlds which roll incessantly below us.

25. Though our habitation in the cell of this Kalpatree, is ever illumined by the light of gems which are inlaid in it; yet we can know the course of time by the respirations of our breath, which as a chronometer informs us with the regular course of time. (The ajapá or breathings indicate the succession of time, as any time piece or the course of days and nights).

26. Knowing what is real from all that is unreal, I have desisted from my pursuit after unrealities, and settled in my knowledge of the true reality; and by forsaking its natural fickleness, my mind is practised to rest at all times in its perfect peace and tranquillity. (The mind is no more troubled with the tempting trifles of the world, after it has come to know their falsity and vanity).

27. We are not led to the snare of false worldly affairs, nor frightened like earthly crows in our hankering after food by the hissings of men.

28. It is by the serene light of the supreme felicity of our souls, and by the virtue of the unalterable patience of our minds, that we look into the errors and delusions of the world, with out falling in them ourselves.

29. Know great sage, that our minds remain unruffled, even under the shock of those dangers and perils, which ruffle the tempers and understandings of ordinary people; just as the pure crystal remains unstained by the blackest hues that environ it all around.

30. The course of the world, appears very smooth and pleasant in its first beginning; but upon mature consideration, it proves to be frail, fickle and false, as one goes on in it.

31. Thus all living beings are seen to pass away, and whether to return here again or not, no body can tell; what then is it that we must fear (knowing death and demise to be the unavoidable doom of nature).

32. As the course of streams runs continually to the ocean, so the progress of life tends incessantly to the depth of eternity; but we that stand on the border of the great ocean of eternity, have escaped from being carried away by the current of time.

33. We neither cling to our life nor fling it away, but bear it as well as we may, and remain as airy orchids, lightly touching and unattached to their supporting arbour.

34. It is more over by the good of the best sort of men, who are beyond the reach of fear, sorrow and pain like yourself; that we have been set free from all sorts of malady.

35. From the examples of such persons, our minds have become cold, and unconcerned about the affairs of busy life; and are employed only in scanning truth and the true nature of things. (Blessed are they that meditate on the laws of God both day and night).

36. Our souls finding their rest in their unchangeable and unperturbed state, have the fullness of their light and delight, as the sea has its flux of floodtide at the rising of the full and new moon upon its bosom. (The flood of spiritual light in the soul, resembling the flood of hightide in the sea).

37. Sir, we were as highly pleased at your presence here at this time, as the milky ocean was overflown at its churning by the Mandara mountain. (The Mandara mountain is said to have been the resort of the remnants of men at the great deluge, and was used by them as their churning stick, to recover their lost properties from the depth of the waters. The recovery was rather joyous to the men than it could be to the sea).

38. Sir, We do not account any thing as more precious and more favourable unto us, than that the holy saints that have nothing to desire, should take pains to pay their kind visit to our humble cell.

39. What do we gain from our enjoyments, which are pleasant for the time being, and lose their zest the next moment; it is the company of the great and good only, that gives the best gifts like the philosopher's stone.

40. You sir, who are cool and grave in your nature, and soft and sweet and slow in your speech, are like the beneficent bee, that sits and sips the juice from the flowers in the three worlds, and converts it to the sweet balm of honey.

41. I ween, O spiritual Sage! all my sins to be removed at your blessed sight, and the tree of my life to be blest with its best fruit of spiritual bliss, which results from the society of the virtuous, and whose taste removes all diseases and dangers.

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XXI. EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSE OF THE CROW'S LONGEVITY

Argument.--The eminence of the kalpa tree, and its durability in all ages. The doings of destiny, and the results of past reminiscence.

Vhusunda continued. This kalpa tree whereon we dwell remains firm and unshaken amidst the revolutions of ages and the blasts of all destroying cyclones and hurricanes. (Figuratively said of human desires, which continue with the soul through all the vicissitudes of life, and all its endless transmigrations, so says ([Sanskrit: kálah krínati gacchatyáyustadapi namunchatyásárbayuh]).)

2. This arbor of desire is inaccessible to other people dwelling in all worlds; it is therefore that we reside here in perfect peace and delight, and without disturbance of any kind. (i.e. We dwell on the firm rock of our secret hopes and expectations, where no body can obtrude upon us, and of which no external accident has the power to despoil us).

3. When Heranyákha the gigantic demon of antediluvian race, strove to hurl this earth with all its septuple continents into the lowest abyss, even then did this tree remain firm on its roots, and on the summit of this mountains.

4. And then as this mountainous abode of the gods, stood trembling with all other mountains of this earth (on the tusk of the divine Varáha or boar), even then did this tree remain unshaken on its firm basis.

5. When Náráyana supported this seat of the gods on his two arms (i.e. the Meru), and uplifted the mandara mount on the other two, even then did this tree remain unshaken.

6. When the orbs of the sun and moon, shook with fear, at the tremendous warfare of the gods and demons, and the whole earth was in a state of commotion and confusion, even then did this tree stand firm on its root.

7. When the mountains were up-rooted by the hail-storms blowing with tremendous violence, and sweeping away the huge forest trees of this mount of Meru, even then was this tree unshaken by the blast.

8. When the mount Mandara rolled into the milky ocean, and gusts of wind filling its caverns (like canvases of a vessel), bore it afloat on the surface of the water; and the great masses of diluvian clouds rolled about in the vault of heaven, even then did this tree remain steadfast as a rock.

9. When this mount of Meru was under the grasp of Kálanemi and was going to crush by his gigantic might (with its inhabitants of the gods), even then this tree remained steady on its roots.

10. When the siddhas were blown away by the flapping wings of Garuda--the king of birds, in their mutual warfare for this ambrosial fare, even then this remained unmoved by the wind.

11. When the snake which upholds the earth, was assailed by Rudra in the form of Garuda, who shook the world by the blast of his wings, even then was this tree unshaken by the wind.

12. When the flame of the last conflagration, threatened to consume the world with the seas and mountains; and made the snake which supported the earth on his hoods, throw out living fire from all his many mouths, even then this tree was neither shaken nor burnt down by the gorgeous and all devouring fire.

13. Such being the stability of this tree, there is no danger O Sage! that can betake us here, as there is no evil than can ever betide the inhabitants of heaven. How can we, O great Sage! be ever exposed to any danger, who are thus situated in this tree which defies all casualties. We are out of all fear and danger as those that are situated in heaven. (The object of one's desire is in a manner his highest heaven).

14. Vasishtha rejoined: But tell me, O Sagely bird! that has borne with the blasts of dissolution, how could you remain unhurt and unimpaired, when many a sun and moon and stars have fallen and faded away.

15. Bhusunda said: When at the end of a kalpa period, the order of the world and laws of nature are broken and dissolved; we are then compelled to forsake our nest as an ungrateful man alienates his best friend.

16. We then remain in the air freed from our fancies, the members of the body become defunct of their natural functions, and the mind is released from its volitions.

17. When the zodiacal suns shine in their full vigour, and melt down the mountains by there intense heat, I then remain with my understanding; under the influence of Varuna's mantra or power. (Varuna the god of water is said to be allied with the human soul, which is a watery substance).

18. When the diluvian winds blow with full force, and shatter and scatter the huge mountains all around, it is then by minding the párvatí mantra, that I remain as fixed as a rock. (Vasishtha has explained the meaning of this mantra in the latter part of the Nirvána prakarana).

19. When the earth with its mountains is dissolved into water, and presents the face of an universal ocean over its surface; it is then by virtue of the váyu mantra or my volatile power, that I keep myself aloft in the air.

20. I then convey myself across this visible world, and rest in the holy state of the spotless spirit; and remain in a state of profound sleep, without any agitation of the body and mind.

21. I remain in this torpid state, until the lotus-born Brahmà is again employed in his work of creation, and then I re-enter into the limits of the re-created world, where I settled again on this arbour of desire. (The departed soul is free from desire, which it re-assumes to itself upon its re-entrance into life).

22. Vasishtha said: Tell me, O lord of birds, why the other Yogis do not remain as steady as you do by your dháraná or fixed attention.

23. Bhusunda replied, O venerable sir! It is because of the inseparable and overruling power of destiny, which no body can prevent or set aside; that I am doomed to live in this wise and others in their particular modes of life.

24. None can oppose or remodel what must come to pass on him; it is nature's law that all things must be as they are ordained to be. (There is no helping for what is destined to happen, what is allotted, can not be averted).

25. It is because of my firm desire that things are so fixed and allotted to my share, that they must so come to pass to my lot at each kalpa and over again, and that this tree must grow on the summit of this mountain, and I must have my nest in its hollow. (The heart is the hollow of the tree of the body, and the soul is the bird that is confined there of its own desire).

26. Vasishtha said: You sir, are as longeval as our salvation is diuturnal, and are able to guide us in the paths of truth; because you are sapient in true wisdom, and sedate in your purpose of Yoga or deep meditation.

27. Sir, you have seen the many changes of the world, and have been experienced in all things in the repeated course of creations; must be best able to tell me the wonders that you have witnessed during the revolution of ages.

28. Bhusunda replied--I remember, O great sage! the earth beneath this mount of Meru to have been once a desolate land, and having no hill or rock, nor trees, plants or even grass upon it. (This was the primeval state of the earth, when nothing grew upon it, and agrees with what the Persian sophist thinks with regard to the priority of the soul to all other created things, as "manan wakt budam ke nechak nabud" I existed when there is nothing in existence).

29. I remember also the earth under me, to have been full of ashes for a period of myriads and centuries of years. (This was the age after the all devouring conflagration on earth).

30. I remember a time when the lord of day--the sun was unproduced, and when the orb of the moon was not yet known, and when the earth under me was not divided by day and light, but was lighted by the light of this mount of Meru.

31. I remember this mountain throwing the light of its gems on one side of the valley below it, and leaving the other in utter darkness; and resembling the lokáloka mount presenting its light and dark side to the people on either side of the horizon. (The sun is said to turn round the Meru, and the day and night as he is on one or the other side of this mountain).

32. I remember to have seen the war rising high between the gods and demons, and the flight and slaughter of people on all sides of the earth.

33. I remember to have witnessed the revolution of the four yuga-ages of the world, and the revolt of the haughty and giddy assyrians--asuras all along; I have also seen the Daitya--demons driven back to the wall.

34. I remember the spot of the earth, which was borne away beyond the boundaries of the universal flood; and recollect the cottage of the world, to have only the increate three (the Holy triad) left in it.

35. I remember to have seen no other creature on earth, except the vegetable creation for the long duration of one half of the four yuga-ages. (The earth was covered with jungle for a long period after the great flood).

36. I also remember this earth to be full of mountains and mountainous tracts, for the space of full four yugas; when there were no men peopled on earth, nor their customs and usages got their ground in it.

37. I remember to have seen this earth filled with the bones of dead Daityas and other fossil remains, rising in heaps like mountains, and continuing in their dilapidated and crumbling state for myriads of years. (These are the fossil remains of the monsters of the former world).

38. I remember that formless state of the world, when darkness prevailed over the face of the deep, when the serpentine support of the earth fled for fear, and the celestials left their etherial courses; and the sky presented neither a bird or the top of a tree in it.

39. I remember the time when the northern and southern divisions (of India), were both included under the one boundary mountain (of Himalaya); and I remember also when the proud vindhyan vied to equal the great Meru.

40. I remember these and many other events, which will be too long to relate; but what is the use of long narrations, if you will but attend to my telling you the main substance in brief.

41. I have beheld innumerable Munis and manwantaras pass away before me, and I have known hundreds of the quadruple yugas glide away one after the other, all of which were full of great deeds and events; but which are now buried in oblivion.

42. I remember the creation of one sole body named Virát in this world, when it was entirely devoid of men and asuras in it.

43. I remember that age of the world, when the Brahmans were addicted to wine and drunkenness, when the Sudras were out casted by the Suras (Aryans); and when women had the privilege of polyandry (which is still practised among the Pariahs of Deccan).

44. When the surface of the earth presented the sight of one great sheet of water (after the deluge), and entirely devoid of any vegetable produce upon it; and when men were produced without cohabitation of man and woman, I remember that time also (when Bhrigu and the patriarchs were born in this manner).

45. I remember that age of the world, when the world was a void, and there was no earth or sky nor any of their inhabitants in it, neither men nor mountains were in existence, nor were there the sun and moon to divide the days and nights.

46. I remember the sphere of heaven shrouded under a sheet of darkness, and when there was no Indra nor king to rule in heaven or earth, which had not yet its high and low and middle classes of men.

47. It was after that, the Brahmá thought of creating the worlds, and divided them into the three spheres of the upper, lower and the intermediate regions. He then settled the boundary mountains, and distinguished the Jambudvípa or the continent of Asia from the rest.

48. Then the earth was not divided into different countries and provinces, nor was there, the distinctions of cast and creed, nor institutions for the various orders of its people. There was then no name for the starry frame, nor any denomination for the polar star or its circle.

49. It was then that the sun and moon had their birth, and the gods Indra and Upendra had their dominions. After this occurred the slaughter of Hiranya-Kasipu, and the restoration of the earth by the great Varaha or boar like incarnation of Vishnu.

50. Then there was the establishment of kings over the peoples on earth, and the revelation of the Vedas given to mankind; after this the Mandara mountain was uprooted from the earth, and the ocean was churned by the gods and giant races of men.

51. I have seen the unfledged Garuda or bird of heaven, that bore Vishnu on his back; and I have seen the seas breaking in bays and gulfs. All these events are remembered by me as the latest occurrences in the course of the world, and must be in the memory of my youngsters and yourself likewise.

52. I have known in former ages the god Vishnu with his vehicle of Garuda, to have become Brahmá with his vehicle of swan, and the same transformed to Siva having the bull for his bearer and so the vice-versa. (This passage shows the unity of the Hindu trinity, and the interchangeableness of their persons, forms and attributes).

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XXII. ACCOUNT OF PAST AGES

Argument.--The various Events of bygone days, and the changes in the order of things in the world.

Bhusunda continued:--Moreover I will tell you sir, many other things that I remember to have occurred in the course of the world, and under the flight of by gone times. I remember the births of the seers Bharadwája, Pulasta, Atri, Nárada, Indra, the Maríchis and yourselves also.

2. I bear in my mind the venerable Pulaha, Uddálaka, kratu, Bhrigu, Angiras and Sanatkumára, Bhringi and Ganesa, and Skanda and others in their train, who were known as Siddharshis or consummate sages of yore.

3. I retain the memory of Guarí, Sarasvatí, Laxmí, Gayatrí and many more famous females, who are reckoned as female personifications of divine attributes. I have seen the mountains Meru, Mandara, Kailása, the Himalayas and the Dardura hills.

4. I carry in my memory the exploits of the demons Hiranyáksha, Kálanimí, Hayagríva, Hiranya Kasipu, Vati and Prahláda and many others of the Dánava or Demoniac race.

5. I keep in my mind the remembrance of the renowned Sibi, Nyanku, Prithu, Vainya, Nala, Nábhága, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilipa and Nahusa kings of men and rulers of earth.

6. I know by heart the names of Atriya, Vyasa, Válmíki, Sukadeva, Vátsyayana and other sages, and know by rote the names of Upamanyu, Manimanki, Bhagíratha and other pious princes of old.

7. So there are many things of remote past times, and others of later ages and some relating to the present age; all of which are imprinted in the memory, wherefore it is needless to recount them over again.

8. O thou Sagely son of Brahmá! I remember thy eight births, in the eight different epochs of the world, and this is verily thy eight births in which thou hast become a guest to my nest.

9. You are at one time born of air, and at another of heavenly fire; you are some time produced from water, and at others from empty vacuity or of the solid rock. (i.e., formed of one or other of these elementary bodies at different periods of the world).

10. The constitution of created bodies, conforms us with the nature of the principle elements of which they are formed; and the positions of heavenly bodies, have a great influence on their production. I have witnessed three such formations of the world composed of igneous, aqueous and terrene substances at different times.

11. I remember ten repeated creations, in which the usages of people were uniform and alike; and the gods were settled in their abodes (i.e., the Aryans led nomadic life). They were coeval with the Asuras whom they braved in battle, and were located in their homestead.

12. I saw the earth sinking five times under, and lifted up as many times by the divine Kurmamanantara, or incarnation of Vishnu in the form of the tortoise, from below the overflowing ocean.

13. I witnessed the great tumult of Suras and Asuras or the Gods and demi-gods, in uprooting and uplifting the Mandara mountain, for churning out the last ambrosia from underneath the ocean for twelve times over. (The meaning of Samudara manthana or churning of the sea, seems to be the refining of the salt water of the deluging sea).

14. Thrice have seen the imposing Hiranyáksha, that levied his tax upon the gods in heaven, hurling the fruitful earth with all her balmy and medicinal plants underneath the ocean.

15. I beheld Hari to have come down six times in the shape of Renuka's son or Parashuráma, and extirpate the Kshetriya race at the intervals of very long periods.

16. I remember, O Sage! the return of a hundred kaliyuga ages, and a hundred incarnations of Hari in the form of Buddha, and as the son of royal Suka or Suddhadana in the land of Kirata.

17. I bear in my remembrance the overthrow of tripura thrice ten times by Siva, and the discomfiture of Dakhas' ceremony for more than once by the irritated Hara; and I recall to my mind the downfall of ten Indras by the offending God, who bears the crescent moon on his forehead (and the confinement of their thunder-bolts within the caverns of volcanoes glass).

18. I recollect the battle that has been fought eight times between Hari and Hara, and the first appearance of Vishnu and Siva, jvaras or the cold typhoid fevers in these conflicts. (This means the rising of the malarious fevers of Dinajpur, which raged among the belligerent forces on both sides).

19. I remember, O silent Sage! the difference in the intellects of men at every succeeding age, and the various readings of vedas at the ceremonial observances of mankind. (This means the varieties of reading of the vedas as pointed in the prati sákha, and the difference of phonetic intonation as shown in the sikshas, have greatly tended to the depravity of vedic recitation, and consequently to their inefficacy in producing their desired consequence also).

20. O sinless saint! The Puránas also though they agree in the main substance, are so full of interpolations, that they have been greatly multiplied in successive ages. (It is quite true of works in manuscript and without their gloss).

21. I remember also many historical works, which have been composed by authors learned in the vedas in the succeeding ages. (These works are called Itihásas or legendary accounts, as the epics of Rámáyana and Mahábhárata by Válmíki and Vyása respectively).

22. I have the recollection of the other wondrous composition of legendary accounts, under the title of the Mahárámáyana a work comprising one hundred thousand slokas or tetrastichs, and replete with sound wisdom. (This was revealed by Brahmá to Vasishtha and Viswámitra).

23. This work presents the conduct of Ráma for the imitation of the men, and sets the misbehaviour of Rávana to the opprobrium of mankind. This precept contains the essence of all wisdom, and serves as the luscious fruit of the tree of knowledge, placed in the palm of all people. (The substance of these instances is, that virtue is true happiness below and vice is bane of life).

24. This work is composed by Válmíki, who will compose some others also in time; and these you will come to know, when they will be presented to world in time (as I have known them before hand by my foreknowledge of things, gloss) (This work is called Vasishtha Ráma samváda in the form of a dialogue as those of Socrates and Plato).

25. This work whether it is a composition of Válmíki, or the composition of some other person, is published for the twelve times, and is now going to be almost forgotten by men.

26. The other work of like importance, is known under the name of Bhárata; I remember it to have been written by Vyása at first, but is becoming obsolete at present.

27. Whether it is the composition of person known by the name of Vyása, or a compilation of some other person, it has up to this time undergone its seventh edition, and is now going fastly to be forgotten.

28. I remember also, O chief of Sages! many tales and novels and other sástras, composed in every age and Yuga; which have been written in a variety of styles and diction.

29. O good sage! I remember to have seen also many new productions and inventions, following one another in succeeding age; and it is impossible to enumerate this innumerable series of things.

30. I remember the Lord Vishnu descending many times on earth, for the destruction of ferocious Ráksasas, and is now to appear here the eleventh time under the appellation of Ráma.

31. I know the lord Hari to have thrice come down in his form of Nrisinha or leonine man, and thrashed the demon Hiranyakasipu as many times, as a lion kills a gigantic elephant. (i.e. Although the gods are of smaller forms and figures, yet they got the better of the giants, by means of their better arms and knowledge of warfare).

32. Vishnu is yet to be born in his sixteenth incarnation at Vasudeva's abode, for the purpose of rescuing the earth from the burthen of the oppression of its tyrannic lords and despots.

33. This cosmic phenomenon is no reality, nor it is even in existence; it is but a temporary illusion, and appears as bubble of water to disappear in next moment.

34. This temporary illusion of the phenomenals, rises and sets in the conscious soul of its own accord; as the boisterous billows heave and subside themselves in the bosom of the waters.

35. I have known the world to be sometimes uniform in its course and in the state of things, at others there is a partial difference in their nature and order, and again total change has also been observed to take place in the constitution of things. (Nature is never uniform, but all are subject to change more or less from its original state).

36. I remember the former nature and state of things, and the manner and actions of bygone people and the usages of those times; I saw them give room to others in their turn and those again to be displaced by others. (He that wants an even uniformity to see, expects what never had been, nor ever will be).

37. Every Manwantara or revolution of time; is attended O Brahman! with a reversion in the course of the world; and a new generation is born to supplant the old men of renown.

38. I have then a new set of friends and a new train of relatives; I get a new batch of servants, and a new habitation for my dwelling.

39. I had to remain some times in my solitary retreat by the side of the Vindhyan range, and some times on the ridge of the Sahya Mountain. I had at other times my residence on the Dardura Hills, and so my lodging is ever shifting from one place to another and never fixed in any spot forever. (The Dardura is the Dardue Hill in Afghanistan).

40. I have often been a resident of the Himalayas, and of the Malaya Mountain in the South of India, and then led by destiny as described before, I have found my last abode on this mount of Meru.

41. By getting to it, I built my nest on the branch of an Amra or mango tree, and continued to live there, O chief of the Munis! for ages and time without end.

42. It is by my pristine destiny that this tree has grown here for my residence, therefore, O sage! I can have no release from this body of mine to come to my desirable end. (i.e. the soul like a bird is destined by its prior acts, to endless transmigrations in material bodies, which are compared to its habitable trees, and from which it can have no release, although it pines for its dis-embodied liberation, as a decrepit old man wishes to get loose of his loathsome body).

43. It is by appointment of the predestination, that the same tree has grown here in the form of the kalpa arbour, which preserves the beauty even now, as it did at the time when my father Chanda had been living.

44. Being thus pre-ordained by destiny I was settled in this place, when there had been no distinction of the quarters of heaven as the north or east, nor of the sky or mountain.

45. Then the north was on another side, and this Meru was in another place; I was then one and alone, and devoid of any form or body, and was as bright as the essence, which is never shrouded by the darkness of night.

46. After awaking from the insensibility of my trance (at the beginning of another kalpa creation or of my generation), I saw and recognized all the objects of creation (as one comes to see and know the things about him after waking from the forgetfulness of his sleep); and knew the situations of the Meru and other hills and dales from the positions of the stars, and the motions of heavenly bodies.

47. The site of the polar circle of Meru and the course of the planets being changed in different creations, there ensues an alteration of the points of the compass, and a difference in the sides of the quarters; therefore there is nothing as a positive truth, except our conception of it such and such.

48. It is the vibration of the soul, that displays these wonderful conceptions in the mind; and excites the various phenomena in nature. It converts a son to a father and makes a son of the father, and represents a friend as a foe and again shows a foe in the light of a friend. (Hence there is no such thing as a positive certainty, but becomes transmutable to one in opposite nature, as the father supports the child in its youth, and is supported by the boy in his dotage).

49. I remember many men to become effeminate, and many women also to grow quite masculine; and I have seen the good manners of the golden age to prevail in Kali [yuga], and those of Iron-age gaining ground in its preceding ages.

50. I have seen also many men in the Tretá and Dwápara Yugas or the silver and brazen ages of the world, that were ignorant of the Vedas and unacquainted with their precepts; and followed the fictions of their own invention which led them to heterodoxy.

51. I remember also O Brahman! the laxity of manners and morals among the gods, demi gods and men since the beginning of the world.

52. I remember after the lapse of a thousand cycles of the four Yuga ages, that Brahmá created from his mind some aerial beings of unearthly forms; and these spiritual beings occupied a space extending over ten cycles of creations.

53. I remember likewise the varying positions and boundaries of countries, and also the very changing and diversified actions and occupations of their people. I remember too the various costumes and fashions and amusements of men, during the ceaseless course of days and nights in the endless duration of time.

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XXIII. DESIRE OF TRANQUILLITY AND QUIESCENCE OF THE MIND

Argument.--Relation of the vices and virtues which hasten and prevent death, and the peace and rest of the mind which is sought after by mankind.

Vasishtha rejoined:--I then besought the chief of the crows, that was stationed on one end of a branch of the kalpa tree, to tell me how he was not liable to fall into the hands of death, when all other animals moving about the expanse of the world, are doomed to be crushed under its all devouring jaws.

2. Bhusunda replied, You sir, that know all things and would yet ask me to tell that you know full well. Such bidding of my master emboldens your servant to speak out where he should otherwise hold his tongue.

3. Yet when you desire me to tell, I must do it as well as I can, because it is deemed to be the duty of a dependant, to carry out the commands of their kind masters.

4. Death will not demolish the man, who does not wear on his bosom the pearl-necklace of his vicious desires; as a robber does not kill a traveller that has not the pernicious chain of gold hanging on his breast.

5. Death will not destroy the man whose heart is not broken down by sorrows, whose breast is not sawed as a timber by the friction of his sighs, and whose body is not worsted by toil like a tree by canker worms.

6. Death will not overtake the man, whose body is not beset by cares like a tree by poisonous snakes, lifting their hoods above its head; and whose heart is not burnt by its anxieties, like a wood by its enraging fire.

7. Death will not prey upon the person, which is not vitiated by the poison of anger and enmity, and cavity of whose heart does not foster the dragon of avarice in its darkness, and whose heart is not corroded by the canker of cares.

8. He is not carried away by the cruel hand of death, whose body is not already fried by the fire of his resentment, which like hidden heat of the submarine fire, sucks up the waters of reason in the reservoir of the mind.

9. Death will not kill the person whose body is not inflamed by the fiery passion of love; which like the wild fire consumes the hoarded corn of good sense, and as a pair of sharp scissors rives the heart strings of reason.

10. Death doth not approach the man, that puts his trust in the one pure and purifying spirit of God, and hath the rest of his soul in the lap of the supreme soul.

11. Death does not lay hold on the person that is firm and sedate in the same posture and position, and does not ramble like an ape from one tree to another, and whose mind is a foreigner to fickleness.

12. Thus then the mind being settled in unalterable state of calm repose in its Maker, it is no more possible for the evils and diseases of this world, to overtake it at any time.

13. The fixed and tranquil mind, is never overtaken by the sorrows and diseases of the world; nor it is liable to fall into the errors and dangers, which betide the restless mob here below.

14. The well composed mind, hath neither its rising nor setting, nor its recollection nor forgetfulness at any time or other. It has not its sleeping or waking state, but has its heavenly revery which is quite distinct from dreaming.

15. The vexatious thought which take their rise from vitiated desire and feelings of resentment and other passions, and darken the region of the heart and mind, can never disturb the serenity of those souls, which have their repose in the Supreme Spirit.

16. He whose mind is enrapt in holy meditation, neither gives away to nor receives anything from others, nor does he seek or forsake whatever he has or has not at any time. He does his duties always by rote as he ought without expectation of their reward or merit.

17. He whose mind has found its repose in holy meditation, has no cause of his repentance, for doing any misdeed for his gain or pleasure at any time.

18. He has enough of his gain and an excess of his delight and a good deal of every good, whose mind has met with the grace of his God. (He that has the grace of God, has every thing given and added to him).

19. Therefore employ your mind, to what is attended with your ultimate good and lasting welfare; and wherein there is nothing of doubt or difficulty, and which is exempt from false expectation.

20. Exalt your mind above the multiplicities of worldly possessions, which the impure and unseen demon of evil presents for the allurement of your heart, and settle it in the unity of the Divinity. (So did Satan attempt in vain to tempt our Lord to worldly vanities and all its possessions).

21. Set your heart to that supreme felicity which is pleasant both in the beginning and end, and even delectable to taste; that is pleasant to sight, sweet to relish, and is wholesome in its effect.

22. Fix your mind to what is sought by all the good and godly people, which is the eternal truth and the best diet of the soul, from its beginning and during its course in the middle and end and throughout its immortality.

23. Apply your mind to what is beyond your comprehension, which is the holy light, which is the root and source of all, and wherein consists all our best fortune and the ambrosial food for our souls.

24. There is no other thing so very permanent or auspicious among immortals or mortals, and among the gods and demigods, Asuras and Gandharvas, and Kinnaras and Vidyádharas, nor among the heavenly nymphs, as the spiritual bliss of the soul.

25. There is nothing so very graceful or lasting, to be found in cities and mountains and in the vegetable creation, nor among mankind and their king, nor any where in earth or heaven as this spiritual felicity.

26. There is nothing steady or graceful, among the Nága-snake or Asura races and their females, and in the whole circles of infernal region.

27. There is nothing so lovely and lasting in the regions above and below and all around us, and in the spheres of all other worlds, so very graceful and durable as the lasting peace of mind.

28. There is nothing that is felicitous or persistent in this world, amidst all its sorrows and sicknesses and troubles which encompass all about. All our actions are for trivial matters and all our gains are but trifles at best.

29. There is nothing of any lasting good, in all those thoughts which employ the minds of men and gladden their hearts, and which serve at best to delude the sapient to the fickleness of their spirits.

30. No permanent good is derived from the ever busy thoughts and volitions and nolitions of mankind, which tend at best to trouble their minds, as the Mandara mountain disturbed the waters of the deep, at the time of its churning by the gods and demons.

31. No lasting good results to any body from his continuous exertions, and various efforts about his gain and loss even at the edge of the sword (i.e., even at the peril of one's life).

32. Neither is the sovereignty of the whole earth so great a boon, nor is one's elevation to the rank of a deity in heaven so great a blessing; nor even is the exaltation of one to the position of the world supporting serpent so great a gain, as the sweet peace of mind of the good.

33. It is of no good to trouble the mind, with its attention to all the branches of learning, nor is it of any advantage to one to employ his wits and enslave his mind to the service of another, nor of any use to any body, to learn the histories of other people, when he is ignorant of himself and his own welfare.

34. It is of no good to live long, under the trouble of disease and the sorrow of life. Neither is life or death, nor learning nor ignorance, nor heaven or hell any advantage or disadvantage to any body, until there is an end of his desires within himself.

35. Thus these various states of the world and all worldly things, may appear gratis to the ignorant vulgar, but they afford no pleasure to the learned who knows their instability. (Hence longevity and stability depend on one's reliance in the eternal God, and not on the transient world).

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XXIV. INVESTIGATION OF THE LIVING PRINCIPLE

Argument.--Disquisition of the Arteries and organs of the body. The seat of life and its actions.

Bhusunda continued:--All things being thus unstable, unprofitable and unpleasant to man, there is one reality only in the view of the wise, which is beyond all error and imperishable, and which though present in all things and all places, transcends the knowledge of all.

2. This essence is the soul or self, and its meditation is the remover of all sorrow and affliction. It is also the destroyer of the erroneous vision of the world, which has passed every man, and biased his understanding by his long habit of thinking this phantom of his dream as a sober reality.

3. Spiritual contemplation dawns in the clear atmosphere of the unpolluted mind, and traverses amidst its whole area like the solar light, and it destroys the darkness of all sorrows and erroneous thought which over spreads it.

4. Divine meditation being unaccompanied by any desire or selfish view, penetrates like the moon-beams through the darkness of the night of ignorance.

5. This spiritual light is easily obtainable by Sages like you, and too difficult to be retained (dháraná) by brutes like ourselves. Because it is beyond all imaginable resemblance, and is known by the ravished Sages as the transcendent light.

6. How can a man of common understanding come to the knowledge of that thing, which is an associate to the clear understanding of the meditative Sage only.

7. There is a little resemblance of this spiritual light, with the intellectual light of philosophers, whose minds are enlightened by the cooling moon-beams of philosophy, as those of the inspired saints are illumed with spiritual light.

8. Among the associates of spiritual knowledge, there is one particularly friendly to me, which alleviates all my sorrows, and advances my prosperity, and this relates to the investigation of the vital breath which is the cause of life.

9. Vasishtha said: After speaking in this manner the Sagely bird Bhusunda held his silence, when I calmly joined my rejoinder, and adduced my question to him by way of amusement, though I was full well acquainted with the subject.

10. I addressed him saying, O thou long living bird, and remover of all my doubts, tell me truly, my good friend, what you mean by meditation of the vital breath (which you say to be the cause of vitality).

11. Bhusunda replied: You sir, who are learned in the knowledge of Vedánta, and sure remover of all doubts in spiritual science, are now by way of joke only, putting this question to me who am but a brute bird and an ignorant crow.

12. Or it may be to sound my shallow knowledge of the subject, and to instruct me the rest in which I am imperfect, that you like to have my answer to the question, wherein I can lay no objection (as no body is unprepared to know more and better of a subject).

13. Hear me, tell you some thing relating to cogitation of vital breath, which has the cause of Bhusunda's longevity and the giver of Bhusunda's spiritual knowledge.

14. You see sir, this beautiful fabric of the body, supported upon the three strong pillars or posts of the three humours; and having nine doorways about it. (The three humours are the bile, phlegm and wind, and the nine openings are the earholes, nostrils, the sockets of the eyes, the mouth).

15. This abode is occupied by its owner or the haughty house holder--Ahankára or egoism, who dwells in it with his favourite consort Puryashtaká, and his dependants of the Tanmátras at all times. (These terms have been explained before).

16. You well know the inside of this house which I need not describe, its two ears are as its two upper storied rooms, the two eyes are as its two windows, and the hairs on the head are as its thatched covering on the top of the house.

17. The opening of the mouth is the great door way to the house, the two arms are as its two wings; and the two sets of teeth answer the strings of flowers, which are hung on the gate way for its decoration.

18. The organs of sense are the porters to this house, and convey the sights and sounds, flavours and feelings of things in to it. These are enclosed by the great wall of the body, and the two pupils keep watch on tower of this edifice.

19. The blood, fat and flesh form the plaster of this wall, and the veins and arteries answer the strings to bind the bamboos of the bones together, and the thick bones are the big posts that uphold this fabric.

20. There are two tender nerves called Idá and Pingalá, which lie and stretch along the two sides of this building.

21. There are three pairs of lotus like organs formed of soft flesh and bones, and these stretch up and down perpendicularly in the body, and are attached to one stalk like artery connecting them with one another.

22. Then the etherial air which is inhaled through the nostrils, supplies these lotiform organs with moisture, as if it poured water at their roots, and makes them shoot out in soft leaflets, shaking gently at the breath of air, passing incessantly through the lungs and nostrils.

23. The shaking leaves agitate the vital air, as the moving leaves of the trees in the forest, increase the force of the current air in the firmament.

24. The inflated vital air then passes in many ways, through the holes of the entrails inside the body, and extends to and fills all the pores and canals of the frame from top to bottom.

25. These then receive different appellations, according to their course through the several, and are denominated as the five fold vital airs of prána, apána, samána, udána, and vyána; by them that are skilled in science of pneumatic. (The prána-váyu is the breathing of the nostrils, the apána is the wind in ano, samána is the air circulating through the whole body, udána is the air of speech, and the vyána is the air let out through the pores of the whole body).

26. All the vital powers reside in the triple lotiform organ of the heart, and thence extend up and down and on all sides like beams from the lunar disk.

27. These vital powers are employed in passing in and out, in taking in and letting out, in rising and falling, and also in moving throughout the body.

28. The prána or air of life is said by the learned to be situated in the lotus formed organ of the heart, which has also the power of moving the eyelids in their twinklings. (Hence one's life time is measured both by the numbers of his breathings, as also by that of the twinklings of his eye).

29. This power some times assumes the form of touch or the feeling of perception, and at others it takes the shape of breath by blowing through the nostrils. Some times it is seated in the stomach for culinary action, and oft-times it gives utterance to speech.

30. What more shall I say, than that it is our lord--the air, that moves the whole machine of the body, as a mechanic models everything by means of his machinery.

31. Among these there are two principal airs, by name of prána and apána, which take their two different courses upward and downward, the one is the breath of life and the other is the vitiated which is let out.

32. It is by watching the course of these airs that I remain quiet at this place, and undergo the vicissitudes of heat and cold, as it is destined to the lot of the feathered tribe.

33. The body is a great machine, and the two airs are its indefatigable mover. It has the sun and moon or the fire and moonlight, shining in the midst of its heart.

34. The body is a city and the mind is its ruler, the two airs are as the car and wheel of the body; while Egoism is the monarch of this city, and the eight members are as so many horses attached to the car of the body.

35. Thus by watching the motion of those airs (i.e. of the prána and apána--inspiration and expiration for the whole of my lifetime); I find the course of my life to be as interminable, as that of the continuity of my breathings. (The thought of continuity prolongs the course of life).

36. The airs serve the body alike in all its states of waking, dreaming, and sound sleep, and his days glide on imperceptibly who remains in his state of profound sleep. (so the yogi remaining in his trance is utterly insensible of the course of time).

37. These breaths being divided into a thousand threads, according as they pass through the many canals of the body, are as imperceptible as the white fibres passing inside the stalks of lotus plants.

38. By watching the incessant course of vital airs, as also by attending to the continued course of time, and thinking in one self of the interminable course of his respirations, and the moments of time and train of his thoughts, as also by attempting to restrain their course by the habit and practice of pránáyáma, that he is sure to lengthen the duration of his life in this world; and attain to his eternal life in the next.

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XXV. ON SAMÁDHI

Argument.--On the Breathings of Inspiration, Respiration and Expiration, and their rise and fall from and in the spirit of Brahma the origin and end of all.

Vasishtha said:--Hear Ráma, when the bird had said so far, I interrupted him and said, tell me, O ancient seer, how and what is the nature of the course of vital airs.

2. Bhusunda replied:--How is it, O sage! that you who know everything, should propose this question to me as if it were in jest, but as you ask this of me, I must tell you all I know about it.

3. The vital breath, O Brahman! is a moving force by its nature, and is always suo motu in its own motion, and pervades both in the inside and outside of bodies which its animates.

4. The apána or the emitting air also is a self motive power, and in its incessant motion; and is both within and without the living body, in its downward or receding direction.

5. It is good for livings being to restrain these vitals breaths both in their waking and sleeping states, and now hear me tell you, O learned sage, how it is to be effected for their best gain.

6. The internal vital air (prána), extends from the lotus-like heart to the crevice in the cranium, its effort to come out (by the mouth and nostrils), is termed by the wise as rechaka or exhaled air. (The expiration coming out of the heart, and reaching the cerebrum is called the rechaka breath).

7. The meeting of breaths at the distance of twelve inches from and below the nostrils, is called the puraka or inhaling-breath. (This is termed the [Sanskrit: váhyapúraka] or external inspiration).

8. It is also called Puraka, when the breath passes from without, and enters within the inner apána without any effort, and fills the inside from the heart to the cerebrum.

9. When the apána air has subsided in the heart, and prána breath does not circulate in the breast, it is called the Kumbhaka state, and is known to the yogis only.

10. All these three sorts of breaths, are perceived at the place from where the apána takes its rise, and this is at the distance of twelve inches below on the outside of the tip of the nose.

11. Hear now, O great minded sage! what the clear minded adepts have said, respecting the natures of the ever continuative and effortless. (i.e. self respiring) breathings.

12. Know sir, that the air which is inhaled from the distance of twelve inches on the out side of the tip of the nose, the same receives of its own nature the name of puraka or that of another.

13. As the outer part of a pot planted in the earth appears to sight, so the apána breath stretching to the distance of twelve inches just opposite to the tip of the nose in the air on the out side, is perceptible to the yogi, and is called Kumbhaka by the learned.

14. The exhaling air which rises from the heart, and extends to the tip of the nose, is styled the primary and external puraka breath ([Sanskrit: ádyah váhyapúrakam]) by the adepts in Yoga practice.

15. There is another (or secondary) external puraka air known to the wise, which takes its rise from the tip of the nose, and extends to the distance of twelve inches out-side of it.

16. After the prána breath sets out-side the nostrils, and before the apána breath has yet its rise, this interval of the entire abeyance of both, is known as the state of perfect equalization, and termed the external Kumbhaka.

17. The air which breathes out in the heart or pulsates within it, and without the rising of the apána breath; is styled the external rechaka in the Yoga system; and its reflection confers perfect liberation to man.

18. And this rising at the distance of twelve inches, in another kind of it and called the strong rechaka.

19. There is another kind of puraka, which is on the outside of the apána; and when it stretches to the inside of the navel within, it is known under the names of Kumbhaka &c.

20. The intelligent man who meditates by day and night on the octuple nature, and course of the prána and apána or the inhaling and exhaling airs, is not doomed to be reborn any more in this miserable earth.

21. I have thus related to you the various courses of the bodily airs, a restraint of which in the waking and sleeping states of man, as also in his states of sitting and waking, is productive of his liberation.

22. Though these are very fleeting in their natures, yet they are restrained by the good understanding of man, even when he is employed in his work or is in his act of eating.

23. The man that practises the Kumbhaka or suppression of his breathing within himself, cannot be employed in any action; but must remain calmly in this act of suppression, by giving all external thoughts and actions. (i.e., as in a state of torpidity).

24. A few days practice of this Yoga, by abnegation of all outward objects from the mind, enables a man to attain to the state of his solity, or his unity with the sole entity of the Deity.

25. Intelligent men have no fondness for worldly things, but bear an aversion to them as a holy Brahmán has against the sweet milk contained in a flask of skin. They remain regardless of visible objects, with his eyes closed against them, as a blind man takes no heed of out-ward appearances.

26. They are in possession of all, which is the sum total (tout ensemble) of what is to be had as the best gain; and whether when they are awake or asleep or walking or sitting, they never lose sight of that true light which leads them to the other world.

27. Those who have obtained the knowledge of the course of his breathings, have got rid of all delusion and rest in quiet within themselves (i.e. In watching their inspirations and over-looking the external phenomena).

28. And whether the intelligent people are employed in busy life, or sit inactive at home; they are always quiet and at rest by following the course of their respiration (neither breathing hard or being out breath).

29. I know, O Brahman! the exhaling breath, to rise from its source of the lotus like heart, and stretch to the distance of twelve inches out of it, where it sets or stops. (As is mixed up with the current air).

30. The apána or inhaling breath is taking in from the same distance of twelve inches, and is deposited in the cup of the lotus situated in the human heart.

31. As the prána respiration is exhaled out in the air, to the distance of twelve inches from the heart, so the inhaled air of apána is taken into the breast, from the same distance of the open sky.

32. The prána or exhaling breath runs towards the open air, in the form of a flame of fire, and the inhaled breath turns inward to the region of the heart, and goes downward like a current of water.

33. The apána or inhaled breath is like the cooling moon light, and refreshes the body from without; while prána respiration resembling the sunshine or a flame of fire, warms the inside of the body.

34. The prána breath warms every moment the region of the heart, as the sunshine inflames the region of the sky; and then it torrifies the atmosphere before it, by the exhalation of breath through the mouth.

35. The apána air is as the moonlight before the moon, and being inhaled inward, it washes the sphere of the heart as by a deluge; then it refreshes the whole inside in a moment.

36. When the last digit of the moon-like apána or inhaling breath, is swallowed by the sun of the prána or exhaling breath; it meets with the sight of supreme spirit, and has no more any cause of affliction.

37. So also when the last portion of the sunlike prána or exhaling breath, is swallowed by the moon-like apána or inhaling breath; then there ensues the same visitation of Brahmá in the inside, and the soul is emancipated from further transmigration in this world. (The meeting of the two is a yoga or junction of the human and Divine spirits).

38. The prána or exhaling breath assumes the nature of the solar heat, both in the inside and outside of the body; and afterwards it becomes and remains as the cooling moonlight. (It is the one and same breath of air, that takes the two names, according to its two different natures of inspiration and expiration. gloss).

39. The prána expiration forsakes its nature of the cooling moon, and turns in a moment to assume the nature of the hot sun, that dries and sucks up everything before it.

40. As long as the prána exhalation is not converted to the nature of the moon, after forsaking its solarity, it is so long considered as unconditioned by time and place, and freed from pain and grief. (The prána being peculiarised by time, place and number, is long or short and subject to misery; but its extinction in the interval, is instinct with the supreme spirit. Patanjali Yoga sutra II 50).

41. He who sees the seat of his soul in the mind situated within his heart, and at the confluence of the sol-luni prána and apána breathings in the Kumbhaka or retained breath, is no more subjected to be reborn and die.

41_a_. He who feels the sun and moon of his prána and apána breaths, ever rising and setting in the kumbhaka or retained breath with his heart, verily sees the seat of his mind and soul placed at their confluence, and is freed from further birth and death. (The plain meaning is that, the mind and soul consist in the air deposited in the heart by the two inhaling and exhaling breaths of prána and apána).

42. He verily sees the soul in its full light, who beholds this bright sun [Sanskrit: prána] shining in the sphere of his heart, in conjunction with the rising and setting moon beams apána in his mind.

43. This light never fades nor grows faint at any time, but dispels the darkness of the heart, and produces the consummation--Siddhi of the meditative mind.

44. As the dispersion of outward darkness presents the world to view, so the disappearance of inward obscurity gives out the light of the spirit before the mental sight.

45. The removal of intellectual darkness, produces the liberation of the soul, and shows the rising and setting sun of the vital breath vividly to view.

46. When the moon of the apána or inspired breath, sets in the cavity of the heart, the sun of the prána or expiratory breathing, rises immediately to gush out of the same.

47. The apána or inhaling breath having set in the cell of the lotus like heart, the exhaling breath of prána rises at the very moment to come out of it, as the shadow of the night being dispersed from sight, the bright sun of the day ushers his light.

48. As the prána expiration expires in the open air, the inhaling breath rises and rushes in a moment; just as the light having fled from the horizon, is succeeded immediately by deep darkness.

49. Know ye intelligent men, that the apána breath becomes extinct, where the prána comes to be born; and the prána respiration is lost, where the apána takes its rise.

50. When the prána breathing has ceased and the apána has its rise, it is then that one supports himself upon the Kumbhaka retained air, and does not depend on two other passing breaths.

51. On the extinction of apána, and the rise of the prána breath, one relying on the Kumbhaka air which is deposited within himself, is exempted from his pain and sorrow.

52. By depending on the rechaka breath, and practicing the suppression of Kumbhaka breath, at the great distance of sixteen inches from the apána; a man has no more to be sorry for any thing.

53. By making the apána a receptacle of rechaka, and filling the prána in the inside, and finding himself filled with the puraka all within his body, a man has no more to be born on earth.

54. When a man finds the perfect tranquillity of his soul, by subsidence of both the prána and apána within himself; he has no longer to sorrow for any thing whatever.

55. When a man reflects his prána breath to be devoured by the apána air both within as well as without himself, and loses his thoughts of time and space, he has no more any cause for sorrow.

56. He who sees his prána breath devouring the apána air, both within and without himself, together with his sense of space and time, has no more his mind to be reborn on earth.

57. When the prána is swallowed up by the apána, or the apána by the prána, both in the in-side and out-side of the adept; together with his thoughts of time and place;

58. At this moment the Yogi finds his prána to set down, and his apána to rise no more, and the interval between the two, is common to all animals though it is known to Yogis alone.

59. The Kumbhaka taking place of itself on the out-side, is known as the divine state, but when it happens to occur in the in-side, and without any efforts on the part of the adept, it is said to be the state of the most supreme. (Because God does not breathe).

60. This is the nature of the divine soul, and this is the state of the supreme intellect, this is the representation of the eternal spirit, and one attaining to this state, is never subject to sorrow.

61. Like fragrance in the flower, there is an essence indwelling within the vital breath also, and this is neither the prána nor apána, but the intellectual soul which I adore. (As the true God).

62. As taste indwells in the water, so is there an essence immanent in the apána; and this is neither the apána nor the not apána, but the intelligent soul which I adore.

63. There is at the end of the extinction of prána, and beyond the limit of the exhaustion of apána, and situated in the interval between the extremities of both of these, which I ever adore.

64. That which forms the breathing of breath, and is the life of life, what is the support and bearer of the body, is the intellectual spirit which I ever adore.

65. That which causes the thinking (power) of the mind, and the cogitation of the understanding; as also the egotism of egoism, is the intellectual soul, which I have learnt to adore.

66. That which contains and produces all things, which is all (or permeated in all things, as every thing is (evolved from) itself; and what is changed to all at all times, is that mind which I adore for ever.)

67. What is the light of lights, what is holiness and the holy of holies, and what is unchangeable in its nature, is the intellect which I adore.

68. I adore that pencil of pure intellectual light, which rises at the juncture of the setting of the apána and springing up of the prána breath. (This sloka occurs in the Kashmere Mss).

68_a_. I adore that intellect which trolls on the tip of the nose, at the point where the prána sets in, and the apána has not yet taken its rise.

69. I adore the intellect which rises at the time when both the prána and apána breaths have stopped, and when neither of them has taken its rise.

70. I adore that intellect which appears before the Yogi, and supports him at the point which he has reached unto upon the setting of the prána and apána breaths, both within and without himself.

71. I adore that intellect which is force of all forces, and rides in the car of prána and apána breaths, and when both of them are compressed in the heart of the yogi.

72. I adore the lord intellect, which is the Kumbhaka breath in the heart, and the apána Kumbhaka on the outside; and a part of the puraka left behind.

73. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is attainable by reflection of the breathings, and which is the formless cause of our intelligence of the natures of the prána and apána breaths, as also the motive principle of their actions.

74. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is the cause of the causes, and the main spring of the oscillations of vital airs, and giver of the felicity derived from the vibrations of breath.

75. I adore that prime and supreme Being Brahma, who is worshipped by the gods bowing down before him, who makes himself known to us by his own power, and who is, by the particles of vital breaths, under the name of Spirit.

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XXVI. RELATION OF THE CAUSE OF LONGEVITY

Argument.--Reflection and Restraint of Respiration leading to the tranquillity of the soul, and the steadiness of the spirit, conducing to long life and felicity on earth.

Bhusunda continued. This is the tranquillity of the mind, which I have attained by degrees, by means of my meditation of the nature and course of the vital breath in myself.

2. I sit quiet at all times, with view fixed at the movement of my breath; and never stir a moment from my meditative mood, though the mount Meru may shake under me.

3. Whether I am awake or asleep, or move about or remain unmoved in my seat, I am never at a loss of this meditation even in dream, nor does it slide a moment from my steadfast mind. (For who can ever live without breathing, or be unconscious of its ceaseless course, or that the breath is both the cause and measure of life).

4. I am always calm and quiet and ever steady and sedate, in this ever varying and unsteady world; I remain always with my face turned inward in myself, and fixed firmly in the object I have at heart. (This is the soul--the life of the life situated in the heart).

5. The breeze may cease to blow, and the waters may stop to flow but nothing can prevent my breathing and meditation of them, nor do I remember ever to live without them. (The gloss explains by metonymy the air to mean the planetary sphere, which rests and moves in it, the waters as the ever flowing [Sanskrit: váyu] currents of rivers, and the samádhi [Sanskrit: jyotichakraha] meditation as composed of breath and thought, to be in continuous motion and resistless in their course).

6. By attending to the course of my inhaling and exhaling breaths of life, I have come to the sight of the soul (which is their life), and have thereby become freed from sorrow by seeing the prime soul of all souls. (i.e. The highest soul of God).

7. The earth has been sinking and rising repeatedly, since the great deluge, and I have been witnessing the submersion and immersion of things, and the perdition and reproduction of beings, without any change of the sedateness of my soul and mind.

8. I never think of the past and future, my sight is fixed only on the present, and my mind sees the remote past and future as ever present before it. (Meditation makes a man a seer of all time).

9. I am employed in the business that presents itself to me, and never care for their toil nor care for their reward. I live as one in sleep and solely with myself. (This is the state of Kaivalya or solity).

10. I examine all what is and is not, and what we have or have not, and consider likewise all our desires and their objects; and finding them to be but frailties and vanities, I refrain from their pursuit and remain unvexed by their cares for ever.

11. I watch the course of my inspiration and expiration, and behold the presence of the super excellent (Brahma) at their confluence; whereby I rest satisfied in myself, and enjoy my long life without any sorrow or sickness.

12. This boon have I gained this day, and that better one shall I have on another, are the ruinous thoughts of mortal men, and unknown to me whereby I have so long living and unailing.

13. I never praise or dispraise any act of myself or others, and this indifference of mine to all concerns; hath brought me to this happy state of careless longevity. (Platonic imperturbability).

14. My mind is neither elated by success, nor it is depressed by adversity, but preserves its equanimity at all times, and is what has brought this happy state on me. (A sane and sound old age).

15. I have resorted to my religious relinquishment of the world, and to my apathy to all things at all times; I have also abandoned the desire of sensuous life and sensible objects, and these have set me free from death and disease.

16. I have freed my mind, O great muni! from its faults of fickleness and curiosity, and have set it above sorrow and anxiety, it has become deliberate calm and quiet, and this has made me longlived and unsickly.

17. I see all things in an equal light, whether it be a beauty or a spectre, a piece of wood or stone, a straw or a rock, or whether it is the air, water or fire, and it is this equanimity of mine that has made me sane and sound in every state of life.

18. I do not think about what I have done today, and what I shall have to do tomorrow, nor do I ail under the fever of vain thoughts regarding the past and future, and this has kept me forever sound and sane.

19. I am neither afraid of death, disease or old age, nor am I elated with the idea of getting a kingdom in my possession; and this indifference of mine to aught of good or evil, is the cause of my length of my life and the soundness of my body and mind.

20. I do not regard, O Brahman! any one either in the light of a friend or foe to me; and this equality of my knowledge of all persons, is the cause of my long life and want of my complaint.

21. I regard all existence as the reflexion of the self-existent one, who is all in all and without his beginning and end; I know myself as the very intellect, and this is the cause of my diuturnity and want of disease and decay.

22. Whether when I get or give away any thing, or when I walk or sit, or rise and breathe, or am asleep or awake; I never think myself as the gross body but its pure intelligence, and this made me diuturnal and durable for ever. (The intelligent soul never dies).

23. I think myself as quite asleep, and believe this world with all its bustle to be nothing in reality (but the false appearance of a dream); and this has made me long-lived and undecaying.

24. I take the good and bad accidents of life, occurring at their stated times, to be all alike to me, like my two arms both of which are serviceable to me; and has made me longeval and imperishable.

25. With my fixed attention, and the cool clearness of my mental vision, I see all things in their favourable light (that they are all good, and adapted to their various uses); I see all things as even and equal, and this view of them in the same light, has made me lasting and wasteless. (So says the Bharata: "All crookedness leads to death, and evenness to the one even Brahma").

26. This material body of mine to which I bear my moiety, is never viewed by me in the light of my ego; and this has made me undying and undecaying. (The deathless soul is the ego, and the dying body the non-ego).

27. Whatever I do and take to my food, I never take them to my heart; my mind is freed from the acts of my body, and this freedom of myself from action, has caused my undecaying longevity. (Because action being the measure of life, its want must make it measureless and imperishable).

28. Whenever, O Sage, I come to know the truth, I never feel proud of my knowledge, but desire to learn more about it; and this increasing desire of knowledge, has increased my life without its concomitant infirmity. (Knowledge is unlimited, and one needs be immortal in order to know all).

29. Though possessed of power, I never use it to do wrong or injure to another; and though wronged by any one, I am never sorry for the same; and though ever so poor, I never crave any thing of any body; this hath prolonged my life and kept me safe and sound. (It is the Christian charity not to retaliate an injury, but rather to turn to him the right cheek who has slapped on the left).

30. I see in these visible forms the intellect that abides all bodies, and as I behold all these existent bodies in an equal light, I enjoy an undecaying longevity.

31. I am so composed in my mind, that I never allow its faculties, to be entangled in the snare of worldly desires and expectations; nor do I allow these to touch even my heart, and this conferred on me the bliss of my unfading longevity.

32. I examine both worlds as two globes placed in my hands, and I find the non-existence of the visible world as it appears to a sleeping man; while the spiritual and invisible world appear full open to my view, as it does to a waking person, and this sight of mine has made me as immortal as the world of immortality.

33. I behold the past, present and future as set before me; and I see all that is dead and decayed, and all that is gone and forgotten, as presented anew in my presence. This prospect of all keeps me alive and afresh to them alike.

34. I feel myself happy at the happiness of others, and am sorry to see the misery of other people; and this universal fellow feeling of mine with the weal and woe of my fellow creatures, has kept me alive and afresh at all times.

35. I remain unmoved as a rock in my adversity, and am friendly to every one in my prosperity; I am never moved by want or affluence, and this steadiness of mine is the cause of my undecayed longevity.

36. That I am neither related to nor belong to any body, nor that any one is either related or belongeth to me; is the firm conviction that has laid hold of my mind, and made me live long without feeling sick or sorry for another.

37. It is my belief that I am the one Ego with the world, and with all its space and time also, and that I am the same with the living soul and all its actions; and this faith of mine has made me longeval and undecaying.

38. It is my belief that I am the same Intelligence, which shows itself in the pot and picture; and which dwells in the sky above and in the woods below. That all this is full of intelligence is my firm reliance, and this has made me long abiding and free from decay.

39. It is thus, O great sage! that I reside amidst the receptacle of the three worlds, as a bee abides in the cell of a lotus flower, and am renowned in the world as the perennial crow Bhusunda by name.

40. I am destined to dwell here forever in order to behold the visible world, rising and falling in tumultuous confusion, in the infinite ocean of the immense Brahma, and assuming their various forms like the waves of the sea at their alternate rise and fall for all eternity.

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XXVII. CONCLUSION OF THE NARRATIVE OF BHUSUNDA

Argument.--Vasishtha's praise of Bhusunda, and his homage to the sage, Whose return to Heaven through the midway-sky is described at length.

Bhusunda added:--I have thus far related to you, O sage! what I am and how I am situated at this place. It was by your behest only, that I was lead to the arrogance of speaking so far to one of superior intelligence.

2. Vasishtha replied:--O sir, it is a wondrous relation that you have given of yourself; O excellent! it is a jewel to my ears and fills me with admiration. (It beggars description, and is mirabile dictu).

3. Blessed are those eminent souls (great men), that have the good fortune to behold your most venerable person, which in respect of antiquity is next to none, expect the great grandfather of the gods the lotus born Brahmá himself.

4. Blest are my eyes, that are blessed this day with the sight of your holy person, and thrice blest are my ears that are filled with the full recital of your sacred knowledge and all purifying sermon.

5. I have in my peregrinations all about the world, witnessed the dignity and grandeur of the great knowledge of gods and learned men; but have never come to see any where, so holy a seer as yourself.

6. It may be possible by long travel and search, to meet with a great soul some where or other; but it is hard to find a holy soul like yourself any where. (Man may be very learned and wise as a sapient (savant), but never so holy and godly as a saint).

7. We rarely come to find the grain of a precious pearl in the hollow of a lonely bamboo tree, but it is rarer still to come across a holy personage, like yourself in any part of this world.

8. I have verily achieved an act of great piety, and of sanctity also at the same time; that I have paid a visit to your holy shrine, and seen your sacred person and liberated soul this very day.

9. Now please to enter your cell, and fare you well in this place; it is now the time of midday devotion, and the duties of my noontide service, call my presence to my heavenly seat.

10. Hearing this Bhusunda rose from his arborescent seat, and held out a golden twig of the tree with his two fictitious hands. (Holy persons have the power to add to the members of their bodies).

11. The accomplished (lit. full knowing) crow made a vessel with his beak and hands, and filled it with the snow-white leaves, and flowers and pistils of the Kalpa plant, and put a brilliant pearl in it to be offered as an honorarium--arghya worthy of the divine sage.

12. The prime-born (ancient) bird, then took the arghya with some water and flowers; and sprinkled and scattered them over me even from my head to foot, in as great a veneration, as when they adore the three eyed god Siva.

13. Then said I, it is enough, and you need not take the pains to walk after me (in token of your respect). So saying I rose from my seat and made a lift, as when a bird puts to its wings for its aerial flight. (Bishtára--a seat, means also a bedding like the Persian bistar and Urdu bistara derived from the root strí to spread).

14. Yet the bird followed me a few miles (yojana) in the air, when I hindered his proceeding farther by compelling him to return after shaking our hands. (The custom of shaking hands both on meeting and parting; is mentioned to have been in fashion with the ancients).

15. The chief of birds looked up for some time, as I soared upward in my ethereal journey, and then he returned with reluctance, because it is difficult to part from the company of the good (or of good people).

16. Then both of us lost the sight of one another in the intermediate air, as the sight of the waves is lost after they sink down in the sea; and I full with the thoughts of the bird and his sayings, proceeded upward to meet the munis there. I arrived at last at the sphere of the Pleiades, where I was honorably received by Arundhatí my wife.

17. It was in the beginning of the golden age (satya yuga) before, and after two hundred years of it had passed away that I had been at Bhusunda's, and sat with him upon the tree on the summit of Sumeru.

18. Now, O Ráma! that golden age has gone by, and the Tretá or silver age has taken its place; and it is now the middle of this age, that thou art born to subdue thy enemies.

19. It is now only eight years past that (or the eight years since) I met with him again on the same mountain, and found him as sound and same as I had seen him long before.

20. Now I have related unto you the whole of the exemplary character of Bhusunda; and as you have heard it with patience, so should you consider it with diligence, and act according to his sayings. (In order to be as longlived as he).

21. Válmíki says:--The man of pure heart, that considers well the narrative of the virtuous Bhusunda, will undoubtedly pass over the unstable gulf of this world, which is full of formidable dangers on all sides.

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XXVIII. LECTURE ON THEOPATHY OR SPIRITUAL MEDITATION

Argument.--Learning from examples and parables. Falsity of phenomenal and reliance in the noumenal.

Vasishtha said:--I have thus far related to you, O sinless Ráma! the narrative of Bhusunda; who had passed over the perilous sea of delusion, by means of his intelligence and wisdom.

2. Keeping this instance in view, and following his practice of pránáyáma or regulation of breath; you will also, O mighty armed Ráma! pass over the wide ocean of this hazardous ocean.

3. As Bhusunda has obtained the obtainable one, by means of his knowledge and by virtue of his continued practice of yoga; so do you strive to gain the same by imitation of his example.

4. Men of uninfatuated understanding may attain the stability of Bhusunda, and their reliance in the transcendental truth like him by their attending to the practice of pránáyáma or restraining of their breath.

5. Thus you have heard me relate to you many things, relating to true knowledge; it now depends on your own understanding to do as you may like to choose for yourself. (Either to betake yourself to spiritual knowledge or the practice of pránáyáma or either as the gloss explains it, either to esoteric contemplation yoga or exoteric adoration upasana).

6. Ráma replied:--you sir, that are the luminous sun of spiritual light on earth, have dispelled the thick gloom of unspiritual knowledge from my mind at once (by transcendental light of your holy lectures).

7. I am fully awake to and joyous in my divine knowledge, and have entered into my state of spirituality; I have known the knowable, and am seated in my divine state like yourself.

8. O the wondrous memoir of Bhusunda that you have narrated! It fills me with admiration, and is fraught with the best instruction. (Lit. it is instructive of the highest wisdom).

9. In the account that you have given of Bhusunda, you have said that the body is the abode of the soul, and is composed of flesh and blood, and of the inner bones and outer skin (as its materials and plaster).

10. Please tell me sir, who made this fabric and how it came to be formed; how it is made to last, and who abides therein.

11. Vasishtha answered: Listen now Ráma, to what I will relate to you for the instruction of the supreme knowledge, as also for removal of the evils which have taken root instead of true knowledge.

12. This dwelling of the body, Ráma! which has the bones for its posts, and the blood and flesh for its mortar, and the nine holes for so many windows, is built by no one: (but is formed of itself).

13. It is a mere reflection, and reflects itself so to our vision; as the appearance of two moons in the sky by illusion, is both real as well as unreal. (This vedantic doctrine is opposed to the popular faith of the creatorship of God).

14. It may be right to speak of two moons from their double appearance to our sight, but in reality there is but one moon and the other its reflection. (So are all phenomenal bodies but reflections of the noumenal).

15. The belief of the existence of body makes it a reality, the unreal seems as real, and therefore it is said to be both real and unreal at the same time. (The perception is real but the object of perception an unreality. Just so the perception of a snake in the rope may be true, though the snake in the rope is quite untrue).

16. Any thing seen in a dream is true as a dream, and appears to be so in the state of dreaming, but afterwards it proves to be untrue, so a bubble of water is true as a bubble, which comes to be known afterwards to be false in reality. (So all things appearing to be true to sight, vanish into nothing when they are judged aright, and even a judge may deem a thing as just, which upon further and right investigation is known as unjust).

17. The body seems to be substantiality in the doing of bodily actions, but it proves otherwise when we view the essentiality of the spirit only; so the reflection of the sun on the sandy desert, makes the mirage appear as water, whose reality proves to be unreal the next moment: (so it is of the body).

18. The body existing as a reflexion disappears the next moment. It is no more than a reflexion, and so it reflects itself.

19. It is your error to think that you are the material body which is made of flesh and bones. It is the inward thought of your mind that is situated in the body, and makes you to think yourself as so and so and such a one. (The reminiscence of the mind of its former body, causes to think itself as an embodied being, in all its repeated transmigrations. Gloss).

20. Forsake therefore the body that you build for yourself at your own will, and be not like them, who while they are asleep on their pleasant beds, deport themselves to various countries with their dreaming bodies: (which are all false and unreal).

21. See, O Ráma! how you deport yourself to the kingdom of heaven even in your waking state, in the fanciful reverie of your mind; say then where is your body situated. (It neither accompanies the mind to heaven, nor is it on earth being unperceived and unaccompanied by the mind).

22. Say Ráma, where is your body situated, when your mind wanders on the Meru in your dream, and when you dream to ramble with your body about the skirts of this earth.

23. Think Ráma, how you seem to saunter about the rich domains (of the gods) in the fancied kingdom of your mind, and tell me whether you are then and there accompanied with your body, or is it left behind.

24. Tell me, where is that body of yours situated; when you think of doing many of your bodily and worldly acts without your body, in the fancied realm of your mind.

25. Tell me, O strong armed Ráma! where are those members of your body situated; with which you think to coquette and caress your loving courtezans in the court of your painful mind.

26. Where is that body of yours, with which you seem to enjoy anything; the enjoyment belongs to the mind and not to the body, and both of them are real as well as unreal, owing to their presence at one time and absence at another.

27. The body and the mind are known to be present with coeval with their actions, and they participate with one another in their mutual acts (without which they are said to be inexistent). Therefore it is erroneous to say that, I am this body and am situated here, and these things are mine, all which are illusory and caused by illusion. (Egoism and meity are illusive ideas).

28. All this is the manifestation of the will or energy of the mind, and you must know it either as a long dream or lengthened fallacy of the mind.

29. Know this world, O son of Raghu's race, to be a display of the vast kingdom of your imagination, and will vanish into nothing, when you will come to your good understanding by the grace of your God.

30. You will then see the whole as clearly as in the light of the rising sun, and know this world to be like a creation of your dream or volition. (i.e. as you wish to have a thing for yourself).

31. So is this world a display of the will of the lotus-born Brahmá, as I have said before in length in the book of creation.

32. There rises of itself a willful creation within the mind, and out of its own accord as if it were so ordained by destiny; and the mind being fully possest of the great variety of forms, is lost at last into the error of taking them for true.

33. It is a creation of the will only and a display of it in the same manner, as the fancied chimera of Brahmanship had possessed the minds of the sons of Indu. (See the narrative of Indu's sons in the upasama Prakarana).

34. After the soul has passed from its former frame, it receives the same form which it has in view before it after the fancy of the mind, which is either of the kind, to which it has been long used and accustomed, or what it fondly longs in the mind.

35. The body shows itself in the form as it is shaped by the prior acts of a person, and is also convertible to the intellect by the manly exertions of some: (whose corporeal bodies may become intellectual beings, as some persons have mere brutal, while others are highly intellectual).

36. He that thinks himself as another, is transformed to the nature of that air (as it is the pattern that moulds a thing after its own model): and the thought that you are this or that, and have this thing or others for yourself, is what actually makes you so in this world. (The metamorphose of the natures and forms of things and persons to other kinds in Ovid, were all owing to their tendencies and inclinations towards them).

37. Whatever is thought upon keenly and firmly, the same comes to take place accordingly; and whatever is thought of with intense and great force of thought, the same must occur in a short time: (so are all things done to which we set our minds).

38. We see every day the objects of our desire, presenting their fair forms to our view, like the comely faces of our beloved ones present before our sight, in the same manner as the sights in a dream and distant objects, are recalled to the mind of men; with their closed and half-shut eyes. (This is the doctrine of reminiscence which reproduces our long remembered bodies to us).

39. This world is said to be a creation of the thoughts of men, and appears to sight from habitual reflection of it, in the same manner as the sights in a dream, appear to the mind of a man in the day time.

40. The temporary world appears to be as lasting, as the river which appears in the sky under the burning sunshine. (Though in fact both of them are equally evanescent).

41. This inexistent earth also appears as existent in our cogitation, as there appears bundles of peacock's feathers in the sky to the vitiated or purblind eye.

42. It is only the vitiated understanding that dwells upon the beauties of creation, as the vitiated eye sight looks upon the various tinges in the sky. But to the clear sighted understanding the one is as evanescent, as the other is to the clear sighted eye.

43. The sharp sighted man is never led away by the display of worldly grandeur, as even the most timid man is never afraid of a tiger in his imagination.

43a. This great show of worldly grandeur can never mislead the penetrating sight of the wise, as a monstrous creature of imagination cannot terrify even the most timid. (Because the one knows the falsity of the show as well as the other does that of imaginary monster).

44. The wise man is never afraid of his imaginary world, which he knows to be the production of his own mind, from its nature of self-evolution bahir mukhata. (The mind is naturally possessed of both its power of self involution in the interior soul, as also that of its evolving itself in the form of the exterior world).

45. He that has stood in the path of this world, needs not fear for any thing in it, and he that is afraid of it for fear of falling into its errors, should learn to purify his understanding from all its dross and impurity. (Stretch your mind, and the world will appear to light, curb it in yourself and every thing will disappear from view).

46. Know Ráma, that the soul is free from the erroneous conception of the world, and from the errors which pervade all over it. Look well into these things, and you will have a nature as pure as your inward soul.

47. The soul is not soiled by impurity, as a pure gold is not spoiled by dirt; and though it may sometimes appear to be tarnished as copper, yet it soon resumes its colour after its dirt is cleansed or burnt away. Thus the world being a reflexion of the omnipresent Brahma, is neither an entity nor a nonentity of its own nature.

48. Thus the abandonment of all other thoughts, besides that of the universal soul or Brahma, is called the true discernment of the mind; which derives the thoughts of life and death, heaven and hell into nothing, and proves all knowledge to be ignorance alone.

49. The knowledge of the nullity of everything, except its being a reflexion of the Intellect, is called the individuality and right discernment of the mind, which removes the thought of the separate and independent existence of the ego and tu, and also of this world and its ten sides: (i.e. of the subjective as well as the objective).

50. That all things are but reflexions of the soul, is what is known as the true and right discernment of the mind; and is derived from its observation of true nature of things in this real and unreal world. (The real is the spiritualistic view of the world, and the unreal is illusory phenomenal appearance).

51. That nothing rises or sets or appears or disappears in this world, is what the mind perceives by its right discernment of things; and by its investigation into the true and apparent natures of all. (In their true light all things are in a state of continued revolution, and nothing rises anew to view or disappears into nothing).

52. Right discernment gives the mind its peace and tranquillity, and its freedom from all desires; and makes it indifferent to joy and grief, and callous to all praise and censure.

53. The mind comes to find this truth as the cooling balsam of the heart, that we are all doomed to die one day or other, with all our friends and relations in this world of mortality.

54. Why therefore should we lament at the demise of our friends, when it is certain that we must die one day sooner or later (and without the certainty of when or where).

55. Thus when we are destined to die ourselves also, without having any power in us to prevent the same; why then should we be sorry for others when we can never prevent also.

56. It is certain that any one who has come to be born herein, must have some state and property for his supportance here; but what is the cause of rejoicing in it (when neither our lives nor their means are lasting for ever).

57. All men dealing in worldly affairs, gain wealth with toil and pain for their trouble and danger only; what is the reason therefore for pining at its want, or repining at its loss.

58. These spheres of worlds enlarge, expand and rise to our view, like bubbles of water in the sea which swell and float and shine for a time, and then burst and subside in the water of eternity.

59. The nature of reality (the entity of Brahma), is real at all times, and the condition of the unreal world is unsubstantial for ever, and can never be otherwise or real, though it may? appear as such for a time. Why then sorrow for what is nil and unreal.

60. I am not of this body nor was I in it, nor shall I remain in it; nor is it any thing, even at present, except a picture of the imagination. Why then lament at its loss.

61. If I am something else beside this body, that is a reflexion of the pure intellect; then tell me of what avail are these states of reality and unreality to me, and wherefore shall I rejoice or regret.

62. The Sage who is fully conscious of the certainty of this truth in himself, does not feel any rise or fall of his spirits at his life or death, nor doth he rejoice or wail at either in having or losing his life.

63. Because he gains after the loss of his gross body, his residence in the transcendental state of Brahma or spiritual existence; as the little bird tittera builds its nest of tender blades, after its grassy habitation is broken down or blown away.

64. Therefore we should never rely in our frail and fragile bodies, but bind our souls to the firm rock of Brahma by the strong rope of our faith, as they bind a bull to the post with a strong cord.

65. Having thus ascertained the certitude of this truth, rely thy faith on the reality of thy spiritual essence, and by giving up thy reliance on thy frail body, manage thyself with indifference in this unreal world.

66. Adhere to what is thy duty here, and avoid whatever is prohibited to thee; and thus proceed in thy course with an even tenor of thy mind, without minding at all about thy reliance on the one and miscreance of the other.

67. He gets a cool composure of his mind; like the coolness at the close of a hot summer-day, who shuts out from his view the reflexions of all worldly objects.

68. Look on this universe, O sinless Ráma, as one common display of Divine light, like the appearance of day light which is common to all; it is the mind which taints it with various forms, as the sun-beams are reflected in sundry piece by objects.

69. Therefore forsake all reflexions, and be without any impression in thy mind, be of the form of pure intellectual light, which passes through all without being contaminated by any.

70. You will be quite stainless by your dismissal of all taints and appearances from your mind, and by your thinking yourself as nothing and having no true enjoyment in this world.

71. That these phenomena are nothing in reality, but they show themselves unto us for our delusion only; and that yourself also are nothing will appear to you, by your thinking the whole as a display of the Divine Intellect.

72. Again the thought that these phenomena are not false, nor do they lead to our illusion since they are the manifestation of the supreme Intellect, is also very true and leads to your consummation.

73. It is well Ráma, and for your good also if you know either of these; because both of these views will tend equally to your felicity.

74. Conduct yourself in this manner, O blessed Ráma! and lessen gradually all your affection and dislike to this world and all worldly things. (i.e. Neither love nor hate aught at any time).

75. Whatever there exists in this earth, sky and heaven, is all obtainable by you, by means of the relinquishment of your eager desire and hatred.

76. Whatever a man endeavours to do, with his mind freed from his fondness for or hatred to it, the same comes shortly, to take place, contrary to the attempts of the ignorant: (whose excessive desire and dislike turn to their disadvantage).

77. No good quality can have its abode in the heart that is troubled by the waves of faults; as no stag will set its foot on the ground, heated by burning sands and wild fires.

78. What acquisitions does he not make, in whose heart there grows the kalpa tree of desire, and which is not infested by the snakes of ardent desire or dislike (the two cankers of human breast).

79. Those men who are wise and discreet, learned and attentive to their duties, and at the same time influenced by the feelings of love and hatred, are no better than jackals (or jack asses) in human shape, and are accursed with all their qualifications.

80. Look at the effects of these passions in men, who repine both at the use of their wealth by others, as also in leaving their hard earned money behind them. (This proceeds from excessive love of wealth on the one hand, and hatred of family and heirs on the other as is said [Sanskrit: putrádapi ghanabhajam bháti], the monied miser, dislikes even his son).

81. All our riches, relatives and friends, are as transitory as the passing winds: why then should a wise man rejoice or repine at their gain or loss.

82. All our gains and wants and enjoyments in life, are mere illusion or máyá, which is spread as a net by Divine power, all over the works of creation, and entraps all the worldlings in it.

83. There is no wealth, nor any person, that is real or lasting to any one in this temporary world; it is all frail and fleeting, and stretched out as a false magic show to sight.

84. What wise man is there that will place his attachment on anything, which is an unreality both in its beginning and end, and is quite unsteady in the midst. No one has any faith in the arbour of his imagination or aerial castle.

85. As one fancies he sees a fairy in a passing cloud, and is pleased with the sight of what he can never enjoy, but passes from his view to the sight of distant peoples; so is this passing world, which passes from the sight of some to that of others, without its being fully enjoyed or long retained in the possession of any one. (The passing world passes from hand to hand, without its standing still at any one's command).

86. The bustle of these fleeting bodies in the world, resembles the commotion of an aerial castle, and the appearance of a city in an evanescent dream and fancy.

87. I see the world as a city in my protracted dream, with all its movables and immovable things, lying as quiet and still as in profound sleep.

88. Ráma, you are wandering in this world, as one rolling in his bed of indolence, and lulled to the long sleep of ignorance; which lends you from one error to another, as if dragged by a chain of continuous dreaming.

89. Now Ráma, break off your long chain of indolent ignorance, forsake the idol of your errors, and lay hold on the inestimable gem of your spiritual and divine knowledge.

90. Return to your right understanding, and behold your soul in its clear light as a manifestation of the unchangeable luminary of the Intellect; in the same manner as the unfolding lotus beholds the rising sun.

91. I exhort you repeatedly, O Ráma! to wake from your drowsiness, and by remaining ever wakeful to your spiritual concerns; see the undecaying and undeclining sun of your soul at all times.

92. I have roused you from your indolent repose, and awakened you to the light of your understanding, by the cooling breeze of spiritual knowledge, and the refreshing showers of my elegant diction.

93. Delay not Ráma, to enlighten your understanding even now, and attain your highest wisdom in the knowledge of the supreme being, to come to the light of truth and shun the errors of the delusive world.

94. You will not be subject to any more birth or pain, nor will you be exposed to any error or evil, if you will but remain steady in your soul, by forsaking all your worldly desires.

95. Remain steadfast, O high minded Ráma, in your trust in the tranquil and all soul of Brahma, for attainment of the purity and holiness of your own soul, and you will thereby be freed from the snare of your earthly desires, and get a clear sight of that true reality, wherein you will rest in perfect security, as were in profound sleep.

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XXIX. PANTHEISM

or

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AS FULL WITH THE SUPREME SOUL.

Argument.--Elucidation of the same subject, and further Instruction to Ráma.

Válmíki relates:--Hearing this discourse of the sage, Ráma remained sedate with the coma (sama) of his mind, his spirits were tranquil, and his soul was full of rapture.

2. The whole audience also that was present at the place, being all quiet, calm and silent (comatose-upasánta), the sage withheld his speech for fear of disturbing their spiritual repose: (which converted them to stock and stone).

3. The sage stopped from distilling the drops of his ambrosial speech any more, after the hearts of the audience were lulled to rest by their draughts, as the clouds cease to rain drops, having penetrated into the hearts of ripened grains.

4. As Ráma (with the rest of the assembly) came to be rose from their torpor after a while; the eloquent Vasishtha resumed his discourse in elucidation of his former lecture. (On spirituality).

5. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! you are now fully awakened to light, and have come to and obtained the knowledge of thyself; remain hence forward fixed to the only true object, wherein you must rely your faith, and never set your feet on the field of the false phenomenal world.

6. The wheel of the world is continually revolving round the centre of desire, put a peg to its axis, and it will stop from turning about its pole.

7. If you be slack to fasten the nave (nábhi) of your mind, by your manly efforts (purushártha; it will be hard for you to stop the wheel of the world, which runs faster as you slacken your mind.)

8. Exert your manly strength (courage), with the aid of your mental powers and wisdom, stop the motion of your heart, which is the centre of the wheeling course of the world.

9. Know, that everything is obtainable by means of manly exertion, joined with good sense and good nature, and assisted by a knowledge of the sástras; and whatever is not obtained by these, is to be had nowhere by any other.

10. Relinquish your reliance on destiny which is a coinage of puerile imagination; and by relying on your own exertions, govern your heart and mind for your lasting good.

11. The unsubstantial mind which appears as a substantiality, has had its rise since the creation of Brahmá; and taken a wrong and erroneous course of its own. (The human understanding is frail from first to beginning, it is a power, and no positive reality).

12. The unreal and erroneous mind, weaves and stretches out a lengthening web of its equally unreal and false conceptions, which it is led afterwards to mistake for the substantial world.

13. All these bodies that are seen to move about us, are the products of the fancies and fond desires of the mind; and though these frail and false bodies cease to exist forever, yet the mind and its wishes are imperishable; and either show themselves in their reproduction in various forms, or they become altogether extinct in their total absorption in the supreme spirit. (The doctrine of eternal ideas, is the source of their perpetual appearance in various forms about bodies).

14. The wise man must not understand the pain or pleasure of the soul from the physiognomy of man, that a sorrowful and weeping countenance is the indication of pain; and a clear (cheerful) and tearless face is the sign of pleasure. (Because it is the mind which moulds the face in any form it likes).

15. You see a man in two ways, the one with his body and the other in his representation in a picture or statues, of these the former kind is more frail than the latter; because the embodied man is beset by troubles and diseases in his fading and mouldering, decaying and dying body, whereby the other is not. (The frame of the living man, is frailer than his dead resemblance).

16. The fleshy body is assuredly doomed to die, notwithstanding all our efforts for its preservation; but a body in the portrait being taken good care of, lasts for ages with its undiminished beauty.

17. As the living body is sure to die in despite of all your care for it, the pictured body must be deemed far better, than the false and fancied fleshy body, produced by will of the mind (sankalpa deha).

18. The quality and stability which abide in a pictured body, are not to be found in the body of the mind; wherefore the living body of flesh, is more insignificant than its semblance in a picture or statue.

19. Think now, O sinless Ráma, what reliance is there in this body of flesh; which is a production of your long fostered desire, and a creature of your brain (Your mind makes it seem as such).

20. This body of flesh is more contemptible than those ideal forms, which our dreams and desires produce in our sleeping and waking states; because the creature of a momentary desire, is never attended with a long or lasting happiness or misery. (Because the products of the variable will, are of short duration, and so are their pains and pleasures also).

21. The bodies that are produced by our long desire, continue for a longer time, and are subjected to a longer series of miseries in this world. (So it is said, a "long life is a long term of woes and calamities").

22. The body is a creature of our fancy, and is neither a reality or unreality in itself; and yet are the ignorant people fondly attached to it, for the prolongation of their misery only.

23. As the destruction of the portrait of a man, does no harm to his person; and as the loss of a fancied city is no loss to the city, so the loss of the much desired body of any one, is no loss to his personality in any wise.

24. Again as the dis-appearance of the secondary moon (halo), is no deprivation of the primary satellite (moon), and as the evanescence of the visionary world, is no annihilation of the external world. (So there is no loss of the soul, as the loss of the shadow, is no loss of the substance).

25. As the dis-appearance of water in the sunny banks of rivers, is no deprivation of the river's water; so the creations of fancy which are not negative in their nature, cannot be destructive of what is positive, nor any damage done to the machine of the body, can ever injure the dis-embodied soul.

26. The body is a piece of work wrought by the architect of the mind, in its dreaming somnambulation over the sleeping world; wherefore its decoration or disfigurement, is of no essential advantage or dis-advantage to inward soul.

27. There is no end of the Intellect in its extent, nor any motion of the soul from its place; there is no change in the Divine spirit of Brahma, nor do any of these decay with the decline of the body.

28. As the inner and smaller wheel, makes the outer and larger wheel to turn about it, so the inner annulus of the mind, sees in its delirium spheres over spheres revolving in empty air.

29. The mind views by its primitive and causeless error, the constant rotation of bodies both in the inside and out side of it; and some as moving forward and others as falling down, and many as dropped below.

30. Seeing the rise and fall of these rotatory bodies, the wise man must rely on the firmness of his mind, and not himself to be led away by these rotations in repeated succession.

31. Fancy forms the body and it is error that makes the unreal appear as real; but the formation of fancy, and the fabrications of untruth, cannot have any truth or reality in them.

32. The unreal body appearing as real, is like the appearance of a snake in a rope; and so are all the affairs of the world quite untrue and false, and appearing as true for the time being.

33. Whatever is done by an insensible being, is never accounted as its action (or doing); hence all what is done by the senseless bodies (of man), is not recounted as done by it. (But by the impulse of the actuating mind).

34. It is the will which is the active agent of its actions, and this being so, neither the inactive body nor the unchanging soul is the actor of any action. (The soul being the witness of the bodily actions done by the impelling mind. gloss).

35. The inert body being without any effort, is never the doer of any act, which is desired by its presiding soul; it is only a viewer of the soul, which witnesses it also. (The body is attendant or dependant to the soul, as the other is a resident in it, they are both devoid of action, and unstained by those done by the will of the mind).

36. As the lamp burns unshaken and with its unflickering flame, in the breathless air and in itself only; so doth the silent and steady soul dwell as a witness, in all things and of all acts existing and going on in the world. (So doth the human soul abide and inflame itself in the body, unless it is shaken and moved by the airy mind).

37. As the celestial and luminous orb of the day, regulates the daily works of the living world from his seat on high, so do you, O Ráma, administer the affairs of thy state from thy elevated seat on the royal throne.

38. The knowledge of one's entity or egoism, in the unsubstantial abode of his body, is like the sight of a spirit by boys in the empty space of a house or in empty air. (The substantiality of the unsubstantial body, is as false as the corporeality of an incorporeal spirit).

39. Whence comes this unsubstantial egoism in the manner of an inane ghost, and takes possession of the inner body under the name of the mind, is what the learned are at a loss to explain.

40. Never enslave yourself, O wise Ráma! to this spectre of your egoism, which like the ignis fatuus leads you with limbo lake or bog of hell. (The sense of one's personality is the cause of his responsibility).

41. The mad and giddy mind, accompanied with its capricious desires and whims, plays its foolish pranks in its abode of the body, like a hideous demon dancing in a dreary desert.

42. The demoniac mind having made its way, into the hollow heart of the human body; plays its fantastic parts in so odd a manner, that wise men shut their eyes against the sight, and sit in their silent contemplation of the secluded soul. (It is good to fly from the fields, where fools make a prominent figure).

43. After the demon of the mind, is driven out of the abode of the body, there is no more any fear for any one to dwell in it in peace; as no body is afraid of living in a deserted and desolate city.

44. It is astonishing that men should place any reliance in their bodies, and consider them as their own, when they had had thousands of such bodies in their repeated births before, and when they were invariably infested by the demon of the mind.

45. They that die in the grasp and under the clutches of the cannibal of the mind, have their minds like those of the pisácha cannibals in their future births, and never of any other kind of being. (The will ever accompanies a man, in all his future states).

46. The body which is taken possession of by the demon of egoism, is being consumed by the burning fires of the triple afflictions; occurring from local, natural and accidental evils, and is not to be relied upon as a safe and lasting abode of any body.

47. Do you therefore desist to dance your attendance on, and follow the dictates of your egoism (or selfishness). Be of an extended and elevated mind, and by forgetting your egotism in your magnanimity, rely only on the supreme spirit.

48. Those hellish people that are seized and possessed by the devils of Egotism, are blinded in their self-delusion and giddiness; and are unbefriended by their fellows and friends, as they are unfriendly to others in this world. (Egotism is explained in its double sense of selfishness and pride, both of which are hated and shunned by men as they hate and shun others).

49. Whatever action is done by one bewitched by egoism in his mind, the same grows up as a poisonous plant, and produces the fatal fruit of death. (The fruits are mutual quarrels, enmity and the like).

50. The ignorant man that is elated by his egoistic pride, is lost both to his reason and patience; and one who is attached to the former by his neglect of the latter, is to be known as approaching fast to his perdition. (Pride goes before destruction).

51. The simpleton that is seized by the devil of Egoism, is made as fuel to the fire of hell (where he is doomed to burn with ceaseless torment).

52. When the snake of Egoism hisses hard in the hollow heart of the tree of the body, it is sure to be cut down by the inexorable hand of death, who fells the noxious tree like a wood cutter to the ground.

53. O Ráma! that are the greatest among the great, never look at the demon of egoism, whether it may reside in your body or not; because the very look of it, is sure to delude any one.

54. If you disregard deride or drive away the demon of egoism, from the recess of your mind, there is no damage or danger, that it can ever bring upon you in any wise.

55. Ráma! what though the demon of Egoism, may play all its freaks in its abode of the body, it can in no way affect the soul which is quite aloof of it. (Egoism contaminates the mind, and cannot touch the soul that contemns it).

56. Egoism brings a great many evils, upon them that have their minds vitiated by its influence, and it requires hundreds of years, to count and recount their baneful effects.

57. Know Ráma, that it is the despotic power of egoism, that makes men to groan under its thraldom, and incessantly uttering the piteous exclamations, "Oh! we are dying and burning and such other bitter cries."

58. The soul is ubiquitous and free to rove every where, without its having any connection with the ego of any body; just as the ubiquity of the all pervading sky, is unconnected with every thing in the world.

59. Whatever is done or taken in by the body, in its connection with the airy thread of life; know Ráma, all this to be the doing of egoism, which empties and impels the body to all its various actions.

60. Know thus quiescent soul impels also, to be the cause of all the exertions of the mind or mental operations, as the inactive vacuum is the material cause of the growth of trees. (i.e. the circumambient air affords room for the expansion of the plant).

61. It is owing to the presence of the soul, that the mind developes itself in the form of the body and all its members; as it is the presence of the light, that makes the room display its contained objects to sight. (The soul is the light of the mind--nous the container of infinite ideas).

62. Think now Ráma, on the relation between the ever unconnected soul and mind, to resemble the irrelation subsisting between the dis-connected earth and sky, and betwixt light and darkness and betwixt the intellect and gross bodies.

63. Those that are ignorant of the soul, view the quiet mind as such, after its motion and fluctuation are stopped by the restraint of respiration--Pránáyáma. (This is the doctrine of the Sánkhya and Buddhist, that view the becalmed and quiescent mind as the soul).

64. But the soul is self-luminous and ever lasting, omnipresent and super-eminent, while the mind is deceptive and egoism. It is situated in the heart with too much of its pride and vanity.

65. You are in reality the all-knowing soul, and not the ignorant and deluded mind; therefore drive afar your delusive mind from the seat of the soul, as they can never meet nor agree together.

66. Ráma! the mind has also like a demon, taken possession of the empty house of the body, and has like an evil spirit, silenced and overpowered upon the intangible soul in it.

67. Whatever thou art, remain but quiet in thyself, by driving away the demon of thy mind from thee; because it robs thee of thy best treasure of patience, and loads all kinds of evils upon thee. (i.e. the impatient mind is the source of all evil).

68. The man that is seized by the voracious yaksha of his own mind, has no change of his release from his grasp, either by the lessons of the sástras or by the advice of his friends, relatives and preceptors. (Greediness devours the greedy that desire to glut all things).

69. The man who has appeased the demon of his mind, is capable of being released from its clutches, by means of the dictates of sástras, and the admonitions of his friends, as it is possible to liberate a deer from a shallow quagmire.

70. All things that are seen to be stored in this vacant city, of the vacuous world, are all of them polluted by the lickerishness of the mind, licking at them from inside the house of its body.

71. Say who is not afraid in this dreary wilderness of the world, which is infested in every corner of it by the demoniac mind. (The rapacity of the ambitious, converts the fair creation to a scene of horror).

72. There are some wise men in this city of the world, who enjoy the abodes of their bodies in peace, having tranquilized the demon of their minds in them. (A peaceful mind makes a peaceful abode).

73. Ráma! All the countries that we hear of in any part of the world, are found to be full of senseless bodies, in which the giddy demon of delusion are Raving (and Ranging) as the sepulchral grounds. (The bodies of ignorant people, are as sepulchres of dead bodies. gloss).

74. Let people rely on their patience, and redeem their souls by their own exertions; which are otherwise seen to be wandering about in the forest of this world, like lost and stray boys: (that know not how to return to their homes).

75. Men are wandering in this world, as herds of stags are roving in burning deserts; but take care Ráma, never to live contented with a grazing on the sapless grass, like a young and helpless deer.

76. Foolish men are seen to graze as young stags, in their pastures amidst the wilderness of this world; but you Ráma must stir yourself to kill the great Elephant of Ignorance, and pursue the leonine course of subduing every thing in your way.

77. Do not allow yourself, O Ráma, to ramble about like other men, who wander like senseless beasts in their native forests of the Jambudwípa.

78. Do not plunge yourself like the foolish buffets, in the bog of your relatives and friends; it appears to you as a cold bath for a while, but daubs you with its mud and mire afterwards. (The circle of relatives may appear as a limpid lake at first; but dive in it, and you will be daubed with its dirt afterwards).

79. Drive afar your desire of bodily enjoyments from you, and follow the steps of respectable men; and having well considered thy sole object of the soul (from the great sayings of the sástras), attend to thyself or soul only. (Consider the objective soul in thy subjective self).

80. It is not proper that you should plunge yourself, into a sea of intolerable cares and troubles, for the sake of your impure and frail body, which is but a trifle in comparison with the inestimable soul.

81. The body which is the production of one thing (i.e. the product of past deeds), and is possessed by another (i.e. the demon of egoism); which puts another one (i.e. the mind) to the pain of its supportance, and affords its enjoyment to a fourth one (i.e. the living soul), as a complicate machinery of many powers to the ignorant. (The human frame is a mechanism of the body and mind, its egoism and living principle).

82. As solidity is the only property of the stone, so the soul has the single property of its entity alone; and its existence being common in all objects, it is impossible for any thing else to subsist beside it. (The soul being the only ens, it is of its nature the all in all; the minds etc. being but its attributes).

83. As thickness is the property of stone, so are the mind and others but properties of the soul; and there being nothing which is distinct from the common entity of the soul, it is impossible for any thing to have a separate existence.

84. As density relates to the stone, and dimension bears its relation to the pot; so the mind and other are not distinct from one common existence of the soul: (which pervades and constitutes the whole).

85. Hear now of another view of spiritual light, for dispelling the darkness of delusion; as it was revealed to me of yore, in a cavern of mount Kailása. (The former seat of my devotion).

86. There is a mountain peak, bright as the collected mass of moon-beams, and penetrating the vault of heaven, where the god with the semi-circular moon on his fore-head, delivered this doctrine to me for appeasing the miseries of the world.

87. This mountain peak is famed by the name of Kailása, on which the god Hara--the consort of Gouri, wearing the crescent moon on his head, holds his residence.

88. It was to worship this great god, that I had once dwelt on that mountain long ago; and constructed my hermit-cell on the bank of the holy stream of Ganges. (Which ran down by its side).

89. I remained there in the practice of ascetic austereties, for the performance of my holy devotion; and was beset by bodies of adepts, dis-coursing on subjects of the sacred sástras.

90. I made baskets for filling them with flowers for my worship, and for keeping the collection of my books in them; and was employed in such other sacred tasks, in the forest groves of the Kailása mountain.

91. While thus I had been passing my time, in discharging the austereties of my devotion; it happened to turn out once on the eighth day of the dark side of the moon of the month of srávana.

92. And after its evening twilight was over, and the sun light had faded in the face of the four quarters of the sky, that all objects became invisible to sight, and stood rapt in their saint like silence.

93. It was then after half of the first watch of the night had fled away, there spread a thick darkness over the groves and wood lands, and required a sharp sword to sever it. (Asich' hedyá tami-srá-tenebra ensis encesibelia).

94. My intense meditation was broken at this instant, and my trance gave way to the sight of outward objects, which I kept looking upon for sometime; when I observed a flaming fire suddenly rising in the forest to my view.

95. It was as bright as a big white cloud, and as brilliant as the shining orb of the moon; It illumed the groves on all sides, and struck with amazement at the vision.

96. As I viewed it by the sight of my understanding, or the mental vision which was glowing in my mind; I came to see the god Siva with the crescent of the moon on his fore-head, standing on the table land and manifest to view.

97. With his hand clasping the hand of Gaurí, he was led on ward by his brace attendant Nandí walking before him; when I after informing my pupils about it, proceeded forward with the due honorarium in my hand.

98. Led by the sight, I came to the presence of the god with a gladsome mind; and then I offered handfuls of flowers to the three eyed-god from a distance, in token of my reverence to him.

99. After giving the honor (Arghya), which was worthy of him, I bowed down before the god, and accosted him; when he cast his kind look upon me, from his moon-bright and clear sighted eyes.

100. Being blest by his benign look, which took away all my pain and sin from me; I did my homage to the god that was seated on the flowery level land, and viewed the three worlds lying open before him.

101. Then advancing forward, I offered unto him the honorarium, flowers and water that I had with me, and scattered before him heaps of mandára flowers, that grew there abouts.

102. I then worshipped the god with repeated obeisances and various eulogiums; and next adored the goddess Gaurí with the same kind of homage together with her attendant goddesses and demigods.

103. After my adoration was over, the god having the crescent moon on his head, spoke to me that was seated by him, with his speech as mild as the cooling beams of the full-moon.

104. Say O Bráhman, whether thy affections are at peace within thyself, and have found their rest in supreme spirit, and whether your felicitous feelings are settled in the true object of divine essence.

105. Whether your devotion is spading unobstructed by the demons of your passions, and whether felicity attends on you.

106. Have you obtained the obtainable one, that is alone to be obtained, and are you set above the fears, that incessantly hunt after all mankind?

107. After the Lord of gods and the sole cause of all created beings, had spoken in this manner; I replied to him submissively in the following words.

108. O Lord! there is nothing unattainable, nor is there anything to be feared by any one, who remembers the three eyed god at all times in his mind; and whose hearts are filled with rapture by their constant remembrance of thee.

109. There is no one in the womb of this world, in any country or quarter, or in the mountains or forests, that does not bow down his head before thee.

110. Those whose minds are entirely devoted to their remembrance of thee, get the rewards of the meritorious acts of their past lives; and water the trees of their present lives, in order to produce their manifold fruit in future births and lives.

111. Lord! thy remembrance expands the seed of our desire, thou art the jar of the nectar of our knowledge, and thou art the reservoir of patience, as the moon is the receptacle of cooling beams.

112. Thy remembrance, Lord! is the gate way to the city of salvation, and it is thy remembrance which I deem as the invaluable gem of my thoughts.

113. O Lord of creation! thy remembrance sets its foot on the head of all our calamities (i.e. tramples over them). (Because Siva is called Sankara for his doing good to all, by removal of their misfortunes).

114. I said thus far, and then bowing down lowly before the complacent deity, I addressed him, O Ráma, in the manner as you shall hear from me.

115. Lord! it is by thy favour that I have the fulness of my heart's content on every side; yet as there is one doubt lurking in my mind, I will request thee to explain it fully to me.

116. Say with your clear understanding, and without hesitation and weariness, regarding the manner of the adoration of gods, which removes all our sins and confers all good unto us. (The query was quite appropriate as the Tantras of Siva treat principally of such formularies).

117. The god replied:--Hear me, O Brahman, that art best acquainted with the knowledge of Brahma; tell you about the best mode of worshipping the gods, and the performance of which is sure to set the worshipper free. (From the bonds of the world all at once).

118. Tell me first, O great armed Brahman, if you know at all who is that god, whom you make the object of your worship, if it be not the lotus-eyed Vishnu or the three-eyed Siva neither.

119. It is not the god born of the lotus Brahmá, nor he who is the lord of the thirteen classes of god--the great Indra himself; it is not the god of winds--Pavana, nor the god of fire, nor the regents of the sun and moon.

120. The Brahman (called an earthly god bhudeva) is no god at all, nor the king called the shadow of god, is any god likewise, neither I or thou--the ego and tu (or the subjective self and objective unself) are gods; nor the body or any embodied being, or the mind or any conception or creation of the mind is the true god also.

121. Neither Laxmí the goddess of fortune, nor Sarasvatí the goddess of intelligence are true goddesses, nor is there any one that may be called a god, except the one unfictitious god, who is without beginning and end, that is the true god. (The Viswasaratantra of Siva treats of the one infinite and eternal God).

122. How can a body measured by a form and its dimensions, or having a definite measure be the immeasurable deity! it is the inartificial and unlimited Intellect, that is known as the Siva or the felicitous one.

123. It is that which is meant by the word God--Deva--Deus, and that is the object of adoration; that is the only ens or on, est or Esteor Esten, out of which all other beings have proceeded, and in which they have their existence, and wherein they subsist with their formal parts.

124. Those unacquainted with the true nature of the felicitous Siva, worship the formal idols and images; as a weary traveller thinks the distance of a mile, to be as long as the length of a league.

125. It is possible to have the reward of one's adoration of the Rudras and other gods; but the reward of the meditation of the true God, is the unbounded felicity of the soul.

126. He who forsakes the reward of true felicity, for that of fictitious pleasures; is like one who quits a garden of mandara flower, and repairs to a furze of thorny karanja plants.

127. The true worshippers know the purely intellectual and felicitous Siva, to be the only adorable god; to whom the understanding and tranquillity and equanimity of the soul are, the most acceptable offerings than wreaths of flowers.

128. Know that to be the true worship of God, when the Deity of the spirit (or spiritual Divinity), is worshipped with the flowers of the understanding and tranquillity of the spirit. (Worship God in spirit and with the contriteness of thy spirit).

129. The soul is of the form of consciousness (and is to be worshipped as such), by forsaking the adoration of idols; Those that are devoted to any form of fictitious cult, are subject to endless misery.

130. Those knowing the knowable one are called as saints; but those who slighting the meditation of the soul, betake themselves to the adoration of idols, are said to liken little boys playing with their dolls.

131. The Lord Siva is the spiritual god, and the supreme cause of all; He is to be worshipped always and without fail, with the understanding only. (So the sruti: The vipras adore him in their knowledge, but others worship him with sacrifices &c.)

132. You should know the soul as the intellectual and living spirit, undecaying as the very nature herself; there is no other that is to be worshipped, the true puja is the worship of the spirit. (God is to be worshipped in spirit only).

133. Vasishtha said:--The soul being of the nature of intellectual void, as this world is an empty void also; please tell me, my lord, how the Intellect could become the living soul etc., as you have declared.

134. The god replied:--There being an only vacuous Intellect in existence, which is beyond all limit; it is impossible for an intelligible object to exist anywhere which may continue to all eternity. (The subjective only is self-existent, and the objective is a nullity; it being impossible for two self-existent things to co-exist together).

135. That which shines of itself, is the self-shining Being; and it is the self or spontaneous agitation of that Being, which has stretched out the universe.

136. Thus the world appears as a city in dream before the intellectual soul, and this soul is only a form of the inane intellect, and this world is but a baseless fabric.

137. It is altogether impossible for aught of the thinkables and visibles, to exist anywhere except in the empty sphere of the intellect, and whatever shone forth in the beginning in the plenitude of the Divine intellect, the same is called its creation or the world from the first.

138. Therefore this world which shows itself in the form of a fairy land in dream, is only an appearance in the empty sphere of the intellect; and cannot be any other in reality.

139. The Intellect is the human speech, and the firmament that supports the world; the intellect becomes the soul and the living principle, and it is this which forms the chain of created beings. (The seeming appearances being null and void; the Intellect is all and everything).

140. Tell me, what other thing is there that could know all things in the beginning and before creation of the universe, except it were the Intellect which saw and exhibited everything, in heaven and earth as contained in itself.

141. The words sky, firmament, and the vacuum of Brahma and the world, are all applicable to the Intellect, as the words arbour and tree are but synonymous expressions for the same thing.

142. And as both our dreams and desires arise in us by our delusion, so it is our illusion only which makes us perceive the existence of the outer world; in the empty space of the intellect.

143. And as it is our empty consciousness, that shows the sight of the external world in our dream; so it is that very thing that shows us the same, in the waking dream of ourselves.

144. As it is not possible for the city in a dream, to be represented any where except in the hollow space of our intellect; so it is impossible for the waking dream of the world, to be shown elsewhere except in the emptiness of the same.

145. As it is not possible for any thing that is thinkable to exist any where except in the thinking mind, so it is impossible for this thinkable world to exist any other place beside the divine mind.

146. The triple world rose of itself at the will and in the empty space of the supreme Intellect, as it was a dream rising and setting in the self same mind, and not as any thing other than it, or a duality beside itself.

147. As one sees the diverse appearances of ghatas and patas, pots and painting in his dream, and all lying within the hollowness of his mind; so the world appears of itself, in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect, at the beginning of creation.

147_a_. As there is no substantiality of anything in the fairy land of one's dream, except his pure consciousness of the objects; so there is no substantiality of the things which are seen in this triple world, except our consciousness of them.

148. What ever is visible to sight, and all that is existent and inexistent, in the three times of the present, past and future; and all space, time and mind, are no other than appearances of vacuous intellect (of Brahma).

149. He is verily the god of whom I have told you, who is supreme in the highest degree (lit. in its transcendental sense). Who is all and unbounded and includes me, thee and the endless world in Himself.

150. The bodies of all created beings, of thine, mine, and others, and of all in this world, are all full with the intellectuality of the supreme soul and no other.

151. As there is nothing, O sage, except the bodies that are produced from the vacuous intellect or intellectual vacuity of Brahma, and resembling the images produced in the fairy land of one's dream; so there is no form or figure in this world, other than what was made in the beginning of creation.

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XXX. INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE INTELLECT

Argument.--Description of the Pervasion and Supervision of the Intellect; and its transformation into the mind in living beings. Or Intellect as universal soul and mind of living beings.

The god said:--Thus the Intellect is all this plenum, it is the sole supreme soul (of all); it is Brahma the Immense and the transcendent vacuum, and it said to be the supreme god.

2. Therefore its worship is of the greatest good, and confers all blessings to men; it is source of creation, and all this world is situated on it. (The Divine Mind or omniscience).

3. It is unmade and increate, and without its beginning and end; it is boundless and without a second, it is to be served without external service (i.e. by spiritual adoration), and all felicity is obtained thereby. (Hence Solomon's choice of Wisdom).

4. You are enlightened, O chief of sages! and there I tell you this; that the worship of gods is not worthy to the wise, and offering of flowers and frankincense is of no use to them.

5. Those who are unlearned, and have their minds as simple as those of boys; are the persons that are mostly addicted to false worship, and devoted to the adoration of gods.

6. These being devoid of the quietness of their understandings, are led to ceremonious observances, and to the false attribution of a soul, to the images of their own making.

7. It is for boys only to remain contented with their act of offering flowers and incense to gods, whom they honour in the modes of worship, which they have adopted of their own hobby-choice.

8. It is in vain that men worship the gods for gaining the objects of their desire, for nothing that is false of itself; can ever give the required fruit.

9. Adoration with flowers and incense, is inculcated to childish understandings (and not for the wise). I will tell you now, the worship that is worthy of men enlightened like yourself.

10. Know, O most intelligent sage, that the god whom we adore is the true god, who is the receptacle of the three worlds, the supreme spirit and no other.

11. He is Siva--the felicity, who is above the ranks of all other gods, and beyond all fictions and fictitious images of men; He is accompanied with all desires (will or volition), and is neither the enjoyer of all or any part of the production of his will. He is full with the imaginations of all things, but is neither the all or any one of the objects in his mind.

12. He encompasses all space and time, and is neither divided nor circumscribed by either of them. He is the manifester of all events and things, and is nothing except the image of pure Intellect Himself.

13. He is consciousness without parts, and situated in the heart of every thing. He is the producer of every thing, and their absorber also in himself.

14. Know Brahma to be situated between existence and inexistence and it is He who styled the God, the supreme soul, the transcendental, the Tat sat--Id Est, and the syllable Om--on or ens.

15. By his nature of immensity, he spreads alike in all space, and being the great Intellect himself, he is said to be transcendent and supreme being.

16. He remains as all in all places, as the sap circulates through the bodies of plants; thus the great soul of the supreme being, extends alike as the common entity of all things.

17. It is He who abides in the heart of your spouse Arundhatí as in yours, the same also dwells in the heart of Párvatí as in those of her attendants.

18. That intellection which is one and in every one in all the three worlds is verily the god, by the best knowing among philosophers: (that god is the universal mind).

19. Tell me O Brahman! how they may be called as gods, who having their hands and feet, are yet devoid of their consciousness; which is the pith of the body. (This is said of idols and images).

20. The Intellect is the pith and marrow of the world, and contains the sap which it supplies to every thing in it. It is the one and all--ego-sarvam and therefore all things are obtained from it. (The god Siva is also called the all to pan-sarva and Ego, that is I am the universal ego and giver of all gifts to all).

21. He is not situated at a distance, O Bráhman! nor is He unobtainable by any body; He resides always in all bodies, and abides alike in all places, as also in all empty space and sky. (This omnipresence of the divine spirit, sets aside the belief of a swarga-heaven or bihesht as the special seat of God).

22. He does, he eats, he supports all, and moves every where; He breathes and feels and knows every member of the body. (This is according to the sruti; He fills and directs every part of the body to the end of the nails-ánakhágrat. [Sanskrit: puryyámáste | sa eva pravishta ánakhágrebhyah]).

23. Know him, O chief of sages! to be seated in the city of the body; and directing the various functions that are manifest by it, under his direct appointment.

24. He is the lord of the cavity of the heart, and the several hidden sheaths--Koshas, which are contained within the cavity of the body; which is made by his moving abodes and moves as he pleases to move it.

25. The immaculate soul is beyond the essence and actions of the mind, and the six organs of sense; it is for our use and understanding only, the word chit--intellect is applied to him.

26. That intellectual spirit is too minute and subtile, immaculate and all-pervading; and it is his option and volition, to manifest this visible representation of himself or not.

27. This intellect is too fine and pure, and yet manages the whole machinery for beautifying the world, as the subtle and intelligent season of spring, beautifies the vegetable world with freshness and moisture.

28. The beautiful and wonderous properties that reside in the divine Intellect, are astonishing to behold in their display into the various form as the sky.

29. Some of these take the name of the living soul, and some others assume the title of the mind; some take the general name of space, and others are known as its parts and divisions. (These are but parts of one stupendous whole &c. Popes Moral Essays).

30. Some of these pass under the name of substance, and others of their action; and some under the different categories of mode and condition, genus, species and adjuncts.

31. Some of them shine as light, and others stand as mountains and hills; some brighten as the sun and moon and the gods above, and others are as the dark yakshas below.

32. All these continue in their own states, without any option on their parts; and they evolve of their own nature, and causation of the divine spirit, as the sprouts of trees grow of their own accord, under the influence of the vernal spring (season).

33. It is the intellect alone which extends over all the works of nature, and fills all bodies which overspread the vast ocean of the world, as the aquatic plants swim over the surface of waters.

34. The deluded mind wanders like a roving bee, and collects the sweets of its desire from the lotus of the body, and the intellect sitting as its Mistress, relishes their essence from within. (Spiritual substances can taste the essence of sweets. Milton).

35. The world with all the gods and gandharvas, and the seas and hills that are situated in it; rolls about in the circuit of the Intellect, as the waters whirl in a whirlpool.

36. Human minds resembling the spokes of a wheel, are bound to the axles of their worldly affairs; and turn about in the rotatory wheel of the ever revolving world, within the circumference of the Intellect.

37. It was the Intellect which in the form of the four-armed Vishnu, destroys the whole host of the demoniac asuras; as the rainy season dispels the solar heat, with its thundering clouds and rainbows.

38. It is the Intellect, which in the form of the three-eyed Siva, accompanied by his ensigns of the bull and the crescent of the moon, continues to dote like a fond bee, on the lotus-like lovely face of Gaurí (his consort).

39. It was the intellect which was born as a bee in the lotus-like navel of Vishnu in the form of Brahmá, and was settled in his meditation upon the lotus of the triple vedas; (revealed to the sage afterwards).

40. In this manner the Intellect appears in various forms, like the unnumbered leaves of trees, and the different kind of ornaments made of the same metal of gold.

41. The Intellect assumes of its own pleasure, the paramount dignity of Indra; who is the crown jewel over the three worlds, and whose feet are honoured by the whole body of gods.

42. The Intellect expands, rises and falls, and circulates everywhere in the womb of the triple world; as the waters of the deep overflow and recede and move about in itself.

43. The full moon beams of intellect, scatter their widespread brightness on all sides; and display to the full view the lotus lake of all created beings in the world.

44. The translucent brightness of the mirror of the Intellect, shows the reflexions of the world in it, and receives benignantly the images of all things in its bosom; as if it were pregnant with them.

45. The Intellect gives existence to the circles of the fourteen great regions (of creation) above and below; and it plants them in the watery expanse of the sea on earth, and in the etherial expanse of the waters in heaven. (The fourteen regions are the seven continents--sapta dwípas, beset by the seven watery oceans, sapta-samudras on earth; and the seven planets revolving in the etherial ocean of the skies. Manu says the god Brahmá planted his seed in the waters; and the Bible says--God divided the waters above from the waters below by the midway sky).

46. Intellect spreads itself like a creeper in the vacuous field of air, and became fruitful with multitudes of created beings; it blossomed in the variety of the different peoples; and shooted forth in the leaves of its dense desires.

47. These throngs of living beings are its farina flying about, and their desires are as the juice which gives them their different colours; their understandings are their covering cuticles and the efforts of their minds are buds that unfold with flowers and fruits of their desire.

48. The lightsome pistils of these florets are countless in the three worlds, and their incessant undulation in the air, expressed their gaysome dance with the sweet smiling of the opening buds.

49. It is the Intellect which stretches out all these real and unreal bodies, which expand like the gentle and good looking flowers for a time, but never endure for ever. (The body like a fading flower is soon blown away.)

50. It produces men like moon bright flowers in all places, and these flush and blush, and sing and dance about, deeming themselves as real bodies.

51. It is by the power of this great Intellect, that the sun and other luminous bodies shining over the sky as the two bodies in a couple, are attracted to one another to taste the fruit of their enjoyment as that of gross bodies.

52. All other visible bodies that are seen to move about in this phenomenal world, are as flakes of dust dancing about on eddy. (i.e. All things move about and tend towards their central point the Intellect).

53. The Intellect is like a luminary of the universe, and manifests unto us all the phenomena of the three worlds, as the flame of a lamp shows us the various colours of things: (which are reflected by light on dark and opaque matter).

54. All worldly things exhibit their beauty to our sight, by their being immerged in the light of the Intellect, as the dark spot on the disk of the moon, becomes fully apparent to view by its immersion in the lunar beams. (The black spot on the moon's surface, becomes white by the brightness of the moon-beams, so the dark world becomes illumined by the presence of the Intellect in it).

55. It is by receiving the gilding of the Intellect, that all material bodies are tinctured in their various hues; as the different trees receive their freshness, foliage and fruitage from the influence of the rainy weather.

56. It is the shadow (or absence of intellect), which causes the dullness of an object; and all bodies are inanimate without it, as a house becomes dark in absence of light or a lamp. (Intellect gives life to dull matter).

57. The wondrous powers of the intellect (which gives a shape and form to every thing), are wanting in any thing; it becomes a shapeless thing, and cannot possibly have any form or figure in the world, over its dull materiality. (Even inanimate nature of all forms and kinds, receives its figure from the power of intellect).

58. The intellect is as the skylight, wherein its active power or energy resembling its consort, resides with her offspring of desire in the abode of the body, and is ever restless and busy in her actions. (This active power is personified as the goddess sakti or Energy, and her offspring-desire is the personification of Brahmá).

59. Without the presence of the Intellect, it is no way possible for any one to perceive the taste of any flavour though it is set on the tip of his tongue, or see it with his eyes? (Intellect is the cause of all perception).

60. Hear me and say, how can this arboretum of the body subsist, with its branching arms and hairy filaments, without being supplied with the sap of the intellect.

61. Know hence the intellect to be the cause of all moving and immovable things in nature, by its growing and feeding and supporting them all; and know also that the intellect is the only thing in existence, and all else is inexistent without it.

62. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! after the moon-bright and three-eyed god had spoken to me in his perspicuous speech, I interrogated again the moon-bright god in a clear and audible voice and said.

63. O lord! If the intellect alone is all pervading and the soul of all, then I have not yet been able to know this visible earth in its true light.

64. Say why is it that people call a living person, to be endowed with intellect so long as he is alive, and why they say him to be devoid of intellect, when he is layed down as a dead and lifeless mass.

65. The god replied--Hear me tell you all: O Brahman, about what you have asked me; it is a question of great importance, and requires, O greatest of theists! a long explication.

66. The intellect resides in every body, as also in all things as their inherent soul; the one is viewed (by shallow understandings) as the individual and active spirit, and the other is known (to comprehensive mind) as unchanging and universal soul.

67. The mind that is misled by its desires, views the inward spirit as another or the living soul, as the cupidinous person takes his (or her) consort for another, in the state of sleep or dreaming. (The unsettled mind takes every individual soul for the universal one).

68. And as the same man seems to be changed to another, during his fit of anger; so the sober intellect is transformed to a changeable spirit, by one's mistake of its true nature. (The nirvi kalpa or immutable spirit, is changed to a savi kalpa or mutable one).

69. The intellect being attributed with many variable qualities and desires, is made to lose its state of purity; and by thinking constantly of its gross nature, it is at last converted to the very gross object of thought.

70. Then the subjective intellect chit, becomes itself the chetya or object of thought, and having assumed the subtile form of a minute etherial atom, becomes the element of sound; and is afterwards transformed to the rudimental particle of air vata tan mátra.

71. This aerial particle then bearing relation to the parts of time and place, becomes the vital principle (as existing some where for a certain period of time); which next turns to the understanding and finally to the mind.

72. The intellect being thus transformed into the mind, dwells on its thoughts of the world, and is then amalgamated with it, in the same manner as a Brahman is changed to chandala, by constantly thinking himself as such. (Thus this creation is a display of the divine mind and identic with it).

73. Thus the divine Intellect forgets its universality by its thoughts of particulars; and assumes the gross forms of the objects of its thoughts and desires. (Hence we say a man to be of such and such a mind, according to the thought or desire that he entertains in it, i.e. the whole being taken for a part and the part for the whole).

74. The Intellect being thus replete with its endless thoughts and desires, grows as dull as the gross objects it dwells upon; till at last the subtile intellect grows as stony dull, as the pure water is converted to massive stones and hails.

75. So the stolid intellect takes the names of the mind and sense, and becomes subject to ignorance and illusion; by contracting a gross stolidity restrained from its flight upwards, and have to grovel forever in the regions of sense.

76. Being subjected to ignorance at first, it is fast bound to the fetters of its cupidity afterwards, and then being pinched by its hankerings and angry frettings, it is tormented alike by the pleasure of affluence and the pains of penury.

77. By forsaking the endless felicity (of spirituality), it is subjected to the incessant vicissitudes of mortality, it now sets dejected in despair, and lamenting over its griefs and sorrow, and then burns amidst the conflagration of its woes and misery.

78. See how it is harassed with the vain thought of its personality--that I am such a one; and look at the miseries to which it is exposed, by its reliance on the frail and false body.

79. See how it is worried by its being hushed to and fro, in the alternate swinging beds of prosperity and adversity; and see how it is plunged in the deep and muddy puddle of misery, like a worn out elephant sinking in the mire.

80. Look at this deep and unfordable ocean of the world, all hollow within and rolling with the eventful waves of casualties; it emits the submarine fire from within its bosom, as the human heart flashes forth with its hidden fire of passions and affections.

81. Human heart staggers between hope and fear, like a stray deer in the forest; and is alternately cheered and depressed at the prospects of affluence and want.

82. The mind that is led by its desire, is always apprehensive of disappointment; and it coils back for fear of a reverse, as a timorous girl flies afar from the sight of a spectre.

83. Man encounters all pains for a certain pleasure in prospect, as the camel browses the thorny furze in expectation of honey at a honey comb in it; but happening to slip from his intermediate standpoint, he is hurled headlong to the bottom.

84. One meeting with a reverse falls from one danger to another; and so he meets with fresh calamities, as if one evil invited or was the harbinger of the other.

85. The mind that is captivated by its desires, and led onward by its exertions, meets with one difficulty after another, and has cause to repent and grieve at every step (or is the cause of remorse and grief). (All toil and moil, tend to the vexation of the spirit).

86. As a man advances in life, so he improves in his learning; but alas! all his worldly knowledge serves at best, but to bind down the soul fast to the earth.

87. Cowards are in constant fear of everything, until they die away in their fear; as the little shrimp being afraid of the waterfall, falls on dry land, and there perishes with flouncing.

88. The helplessness of childhood, the anxieties of manhood, the miserableness of old age; are preliminaries to the sad demise of men engaged in busy life. (The last catastrophe of human life).

89. The propensities of past life cause some to be born as celestial nymphs in heaven, and others as venomous serpents in subterranean cells; while some become as fierce demons, and many are reborn as men and women on earth.

90. The past actions of men make to be born again as Rákshas among savages, and others as monkeys in forests; while some become as Kinnaras on mountains, and many as lions on mountain tops. (All these are depraved races of men viz; the anthropophagi cannibals, the pigmy apes--banars, the ugly mountaneers Kinnaras and the leonine men narasinhas).

91. The Vidyádharas of the Devagiri mountains, and the Nagas of the forest caves (are degenerations of men); and so are the fowls of air, the quadrupeds of wood lands, the trees and plants of forests, and the bushes on hills and orchides on trees; (are all but transformation of the perverted intellect).

92. It is self same intellect which causes Náráyana to float on the surface of the sea, and makes the lotus born Brahmá to remain in his meditation; It keeps Hara in the company of his consort Uma, and places Hari over the gods in heaven.

93. It is this which makes the sun to make the day and the clouds to give the rain (or pour in rains); It makes the sea to breathe out in waves, and the volcanic mountains to blow out in fire and flame.

94. It makes the curricle of time to revolve continually in the circle of the seasons; and causes the day and night to rotate in their cycles of light and darkness.

95. Here it causes the seeds to vegetate with the juice contained in them; and there it makes the stones and minerals lie down in mute silence.

96. Some times it blooms in fruits ripened by the solar heat, and at others maturated by the burning fuel; some where it gives us the cold and icy water; and at others the spring water which cannot be lasted.

97. Here it glows in luminous bodies, and there it shows itself of impenetrable thickets and in accessible rocks; It shines as bright and white in one place, and is as dark and blue in another; It sparkles in the fire and dwindles in the earth, it blows in the air and spreads in the water.

98. Being the all-pervading, omnipresent and omnipotent power itself, it is the one in all and the whole plenum. It is therefore more subtile and transparent, than the rarefied and translucent air.

99. As the intellect spreads out and contracts itself, in any manner in any place or time; so it conceives and produces the same within and without itself, as the agitation of waters produces both the little billows and huge surges of the sea. (The intellect is the immanent cause of all phenomena).

100. The intellect stretches itself in the various forms of ducks and geese, of cranes and crows, of storks, wolves and horses also; it becomes the heron and partridge, the parrot, the dog, the stag, the ape and Kinnara likewise.

101. It is the abstract quality of the understanding, beauty and modesty, and of love and affections also; it is the power of illusion and the shadow and brightness of night and of moonlight likewise.

102. It stretches itself in these and all other forms of bodies, and is born and reborn in all kinds and species of things. It roves and rolls all about the revolving world, in the manner of a straw whirling in a whirlpool.

103. It is afraid of its own desires, as the she-ass is seen to shudder at its own brayings; and it has no one like itself. ([Sanskrit: mugva bálá-calá-valá]).

104. I have told you already, O great sage! how this principle of the living spirit, becomes vitiated by its animal propensities, and is afterwards debased to the nature and condition of brute creatures.

105. The supreme soul receiving the appellation of the living soul or principle of action, becomes a pitiable object, when it becomes subject to error and illusion, and is subjected to endless pains and miseries.

106. The deluded soul is then overpowered by its connate sin, which causes it to choose the wrong unreality--asat for itself, which being frail and perishable, makes the active soul to perish with itself. (This passage appears to allude to the original sin of man, which became the cause of the death and woes of human life. The connate sin is compared to the husk which is born with the rice, and not coming from without. It is otherwise called the inborn sinfulness or frailty of human nature--Man is to err &c.).

107. The soul being thus degraded from its state of endless felicity, to the miserable condition of mortal life, laments over its fallen state, as a widow wails over her fate.

108. Look on the deplorable condition of intellect--chit; which having forgotten its original state (of purity), is subjected to the impotent Ignorance, which has been casting it to the miseries of degradation, as they cast a bucket in the well by a string, which lowers it lower and lower till it sinks in the bottom of the pit. (This string araghatta is said to be the action of human life, which the more it is lengthened, the more it tends to our degradation, unless we prevent by our good action. So the sruti! [Sanskrit: yathákárí yatháchárí tathá bhalati | sághukárí sádhurbhabati | prápakárí papíbhavati | punyo bai punyema karmmana bhavati | pápah pápereti |]).

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XXXI. IDENTITY OF THE MIND AND LIVING SOUL

Argument--The pure Intellect shown to be without vitality; and the mind to consist in the vital power in connection with the sensations and external Perceptions.

The god continued:--When the intellect collects (takes) the vanities of the world to itself (and relies on them) and thinks to be a miserable being; it is said to have fallen into error, (by forgetting the reality and its true nature); it then resembles a man that is deluded to think himself for another, in his dream or ebriety. (The living soul is forgetful of its spiritual nature).

2. Though immortal yet it is deceived to believe itself as mortal, by its infatuated understanding; as a sick man weeps to think himself dead when he is still alive.

3. As the ignorant man views the revolving spheres to be at a stand still, so the deluded intellect sees the world and thinks its personality as sober realities.

4. The mind alone is said to be the cause of the perception of the exterior world in the intellect; but the mind can be no such cause of it, from the impossibility of its separate existence independent of the intellect. (The intellect is the cause of guiding and informing the mind, and not this of that).

5. Thus there being no causality of the mind, there cannot be its causations of the thinkable world also. Therefore the intellect only is the cause of thought, and neither the mind nor the thinkable world (which produces or impresses the thought). The gloss says that, "the intellect whereby the mind thinks, is not the mind nor its dependant or the objective thinkable world; but it is the pure subjective self-same intellect only."

6. There is no spectacle, spectator (or sight of) of anything anywhere, unless it be a delusion, as that which appears oiliness in a stone; and there is no matter, making or work of any kind; unless it be a mistake like that of blackness in the moon. (The oily glossiness of the marble and the shade in the moon, are no other but the inherent properties of those things).

7. The terms measure, measurer, and measurable are as negative in nature, as the privation of forest plants in the sky; and the words intellect, intellection and intelligible are as meaningless in themselves, as the absence of thorns and thistles in the garden of Paradise. (gloss. The intellect chit is the subjective intellection, chetana is chitta vritti--the property of chit, is the attribute, and the intelligible chetya is the object of thought. The meaning is that, there is no separate subject, object or attribute in nature, but they all blend in the essentiality of God, who is all in all. The words subjective, objective and attributive, are therefore mere human inventions, and so are the words thinker, thinking and the thought ([Sanskrit: mantri, mati, mantavya],) and knower, knowing and knowledge ([Sanskrit: víha, vuhvi, víhavya],) and the ego, egoism and egotist ([Sanskrit: ahamkára, ahamkarttá, ahamkáryya]) all which refer to the same individual soul).

8. The personalities of egoism, tuism and illism; [Sanskrit: ahantvam tvantvam, tatvam], are as false as mountains in the firmament; and the difference of persons (as this is my body and that another's), is as untrue as to find whiteness in ink.

9. The Divine spirit is neither the same nor different in all bodies; because it is as impossible for the universal soul to be confined in any body, as it is impracticable for the mount Meru to be contained in an atom of dust. And it is as impossible to express it in words and their senses as it is incapable for the sandy soil to grow the tender herbs.

10. The dictum netineti.--It is neither this nor any other, is as untrue as the belief of the darkness of night subsisting in company with the day light: and substantiality and unsubstantiality are both as wanting in the supreme spirit, as heat is wanting in ice.

11. It is as wrong to call it either as empty or solid, as it is to say a tree growing in the womb of a stone to call it either the one or the other; is to have it for the infinite vacuum or the full plenum.

12. It is the sole unity that remains in its state of pure transparency forever; and being unborn from the thought or mind of any body, it is not subject to the misrepresentation of any body. (The gloss says: Not being born from the mind of Brahmá as this creation, the Intellect is free from the imperfections of both).

13. It is however imputed with many faults and failings, in the thoughts and opinions of men; but all these imputations and false attributes, vanish before one knowing its true nature.

14. The learned devoid of indifference, are employed in many other thoughts and things; though not a straw of all this vast world, is under the command of any body.

15. It is in the power of every body to get rid of his thoughts, but very difficult to get the object of his thought; How then is it possible for one to have, what it is impracticable for him to try for? (i.e. The full object of desire).

16. The one sole and immutable Intellect which pervades all nature, is the supreme one and without an equal, and is more pellucid than the translucent light of a lamp and all other lights.

17. It is this intellectual light which enlightens every thing, it is ubiquious and ever translucent; it is ever shining without a shade, and immutable in its nature and mind.

18. It is situated every where and in all things, as in pots and pictures, in trees and huts, and houses in quadrupeds, demons and devils, in men and beasts, in the sea, earth and air.

19. It remains as the all witnessing spirit, without any oscillation or motion of its own to any place; and enlightens all objects, without flickering or doing any action by itself.

20. It remains unsullied with by its connection with the impure body, and continues unchangeable in its relation with the changeful mind. It does not become dull by being joined with the dull body, and is never changed to anything by its extension over all things.

21. The extremely minute and immutable intellect, retains its consciousness in itself; and by rolling itself like a rundle of thread, enters the body in the form of a particle of air (or the vital breath or air pránáyáma).

22. It is then accompanied with the powers of vision and reflexion, which are wakeful in the waking state and lie dormant in sleep; whence it is said to be existent and inexistent by turns.

23. The clear and pure intellect, comes then to think of many things in its waking state, and is thus perverted from its purity; as an honest man turns to dishonesty in the company of the dishonest. (The perversion of the intellect is owing to its attachment to the flesh, and its entertaining to worldly thoughts).

24. As the pure gold is converted to copper by its alloy, and is again restored to its purity by removal of the base metal; such is the case of the intellect owing to its contracting and distracting of vicious thoughts.

25. As a good looking glass being cleansed of its dirt, shows the countenance in a clear light; so the intellect being born in the human body, attains its divine nature by means of its good understanding.

26. Its want of the knowledge of itself as the all, presents the sight of the false world to it as a true reality; but upon coming to know its true nature, it attains the divine state.

27. When the mind thinks of itself of its difference (from the intellect), and the existence of the unrealities (in nature), it gets the sense of its egoism, and then it perishes though it originally imperishable in its nature. (The sruti [Sanskrit: tasya bhayam, bhavati], "it then fears to die" because the personal soul is subject to death, and not the impersonal or universal soul which never dies. So the phrase: "Forget yourself and you'll never fear to die").

28. As a slight wind scatters the fruits of trees growing on the sides of mountain, so the consciousness of self, drops down at the gust of a slight disease, like a large tree.

29. The existence of the qualities of form and colour and others, is owing to that of intellect; as the position of subalterns--adhyasta is dependent on the station of the superior--adhishthata. And the pure intellect--infinite and indefinite in itself, is designated as a unity, duality and plurality by want of right understanding.

30. It is from the essence of the intellect only, that the mind and senses derive their faculties of thinking and perception; as it is presence of day light, which gives rise to the routine of daily business.

31. It is the action of the vital air, which gives pulsation to the pupils of the eye, and whose light is called the sight, which is the instrument of perceiving the forms and colours of things that are placed without it, but the perception belongs to the power and action of the intellect.

32. The air and skin are both of them contemptible and insensible things, yet their union gives the perception of touch or feeling; the mind becomes conscious of that feeling, but its consciousness is dependent on and caused by the intellect.

33. The particles of scent being carried by the particles of air to the nostrils, give the sense of smelling to the mind; but it is intellect which has the consciousness of smelling.

34. The particles of sound are conveyed by the particles of air to the organ of hearing for the perception of the mind, and the intellect is conscious of this as in its sleep. (And as a silent witness of the same).

35. The mind is the volitive principle of action from some desire or to some end and aim of its own, and the thoughts of the mind are all mixed with foulness, while the nature of the intellectual soul is quite pure and simple. (The difference between the sensuous mind and the conscious intellect, is that the one is the volitive and active agents of its actions, the other is the passive and neutral witness of all and every thing that is and comes to take place, without its interference in any).

36. The intellect is manifest by itself, and is situated of itself in itself; it contains the world within itself, as the crystalline stone retains the images of all things in its bosom. (The subjective soul bears in it the objective world, which is not different but self-same with itself. Hence the nullity of the objective duality, which is identic with the subjective unity).

37. It is the single and sole intellect which contains the whole, without dividing or transforming itself to parts or forms other than itself. It neither rises or sets, nor moves nor grows at any place or time (but occupies all space and time, in its infinity and eternity).

38. It becomes the living soul by fostering its desires, and remains as the pure intellect by forsaking them for ever; and then seated in itself, it reflects on its two gross and pure states. (The two gross states are the gross world, and the gross mind that dwells only on gross bodies of the world).

39. The intellect has the living soul for its vehicle, and egoism is the vehicle of the living principle; the understanding is the car of egotism and the mind the seat of the understanding.

40. The mind again has the vital breath for its curricle, and the senses are vehicles of the vital airs; the body is the carriage of the senses, and the organs of action are the wheels of the body.

41. The motion of these curricles forms the course of this world (which is hence called karma Kshetra or world of activity); and the continued rotation of the body (called the cage of bird of life); until its old age and demise, which is the dispensation of the Almighty power. (That man must toil and moil till he is worn out and goes to his grave).

42. The world is shown unto us as a phantasmagoria of the supreme soul, or as a scene in our dream; it is a pseudoscope and wholly untrue as the water in a mirage.

43. Know, O sage, that the vital breath is called the vehicle of the mind by fiction only; because wherever there is the breath of vitality, there is also the process of thinking carried on along with it.

44. Wherever the breath of life circulates like a thread, and acts as spring, there the body is made to shake with it; as the forms and colours of bodies, present themselves to view at the appearance of light.

45. The mind being employed with its desires, perturbs the vital breath and body as a tempest shakes the forest; but being confined in the cavity of the heart, it stops their motion as when the winds are confined in the upper skies. (The mind being fixed to some particular object of meditation, stops the course of life and gives longevity to man).

46. Again the confinement of the vital breath in the vacuity of the heart, stops the course of the mind (thoughts); as the hiding of a light, removes the sight of the objects from view. (No thought without breathing, and no sight without light).

47. As the dusts cease to fly after the winds are over; so the mind (thought) ceases to move, when the breath is pent up in the heart. (These are subjects of Pránáyáma or restraint of breath, treated at large in chapter XXV of this book).

48. As the carriage is driven wherever the driver wishes to drive it; so the mind being driven by the vital breath, runs from country to country in a moment.

49. As the stone flung from a fling is lost forever, so the thoughts of the mind are dispersed in the air, unless they are fixed upon some object. The thoughts are accompaniments of the mind and vitality, as fragrance is attendant on flowers and heat upon fire.

50. Wherever there is vital breath breathing (in any animal being), there is the principle of the mind with its train of thoughts likewise; as whenever the moon appears to view, it is accompanied with its beams also. Our consciousness is the result of the vibrations of the vital air, like our perception of the perceptibles; and this air is the sustainer of the body also, by supplying the juice of the food to all the nerves and arteries.

51. The mind and consciousness both belong to the body, the one residing in the hollow of the vital air, and the other is as clear as the intellect, and resides alike in all gross and subtile bodies, like the all pervading and transparent vacuum.

52. It remains in the form of conscious self-existence in dull inanimate bodies; and appears to be afraid of the vibrations of animal life (i.e. The vegetables and minerals are conscious of their own existence, without having their vital and animal actions of breathing and locomotion).

53. The dull body being enlivened by the vital breath, is recognized by the mind as belonging to itself; and plays many parts and frolics with it, as in its prior state of existence.

54. The mind vibrates no longer, after the extinction of breathing; and then, O sage! the pure intellect is reflected in the eight fold receptacle of vacuum. (These are termed the puryashtakas and consist of the mind, life, knowledge, the organs of action, illusion, desire, activity and the subtile body).

55. As it is the mirror only that can reflect an image, and no other stone; so it is the mind alone these as their octuple receptacle--puryashtaka, and which is the agent of all actions, and is termed by different names according to the views of different divine teachers.

56. That which gives rise to the net work of our imaginary visible world, and that in which it appears to be situated, and whereby the mind is made to revolve in various bodies, know that supreme substance to be the Immensity of Brahma, and source of all this world (or as diffused as all in all which is thence called the visvam--the all to pan).

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XXXII. ON THE SUSTENTATION AND DISSOLUTION OF THE BODY

Argument.--Exposition of the animation of the complicate Body, and its ultimate decomposition at death.

The god continued:--Hear me, holy sage! now relate to you, how the active and oscillating principle of the intellect, acts on the human body and actuates it to all its actions, whereby it receives the noble title of its active agent. (The disembodied and nameless intellect, gets many appellations in its embodied state, according to its various temporal and spiritual avocations and occupations in life. gloss).

2. But the mind of man which is impelled by its former (or pristine) propensities, prevails over the (good) intellect; and being hardened in its vicious deeds, pursues its changeful wishes and desires. (The former evil propensities refer to those of past lives, and allude to the original depravity of human nature and will).

3. The mind being strengthened by illusion (máyá), the intellect becomes dull and stultified as stone; and this power of delusion growing stronger by divine dispensation, displayed the universe to view. (The máyá is otherwise called Brahma Sakti Divine omnipotence, which overpowers on the omniscience of God in the acts of creation, &c. Hence the neutral omniscience is called the Intellect chit, and the active omnipotence is styled the mind).

4. It is by the good grace of this power, that the intellect is allowed to perceive sometimes, the fallacy of the aerial city of this world, and at others to think it as a reality. (i.e. It comes to detect the fallacy by exercise of its intellection, and thinks it real by its subjection-illusion).

5. The body remains as dumb as stone, without the presence of the intellect, the mind and its egoism in it; and it moves about with their presence in it, as when a stone is flung in the air.

6. As the dull iron is made to move, by its contiguity to or attraction of the loadstone; so doth the living soul jíva act its parts, by the presence of the omnipresent soul in it. (The actions of the living soul are its respirations, and direction of the organs of action to their respective function).

7. It is by the power of the all pervading soul, that the living principle shoots out in infinity forever, as the germs of trees sprout forth the seed in all places. And as the recipient mirror receives the reflexion of objects situated at a distance from it, so the living soul gets the reflex or image of the distant supreme spirit in itself. (God made man in his own image).

8. It is by forgetfulness of its own and real nature, that the living soul contracts its foul gross object, as a legitimate twice-born man mistakes himself for a sudra by forgetting his birth by such error or illusion.

9. It is by unmindfulness of its own essence, that the intellect is transformed to the sensuous mind; as some great souls are deceived to believe their miserableness in the distractedness of their intellect percipience. (Men are often misled to believe themselves otherwise than what they are, as it was the case with the princes Lavana, Gádhi, and Harischandra mentioned before and as it turns out with all miserable mortals, who forget their immortal and celestial natures).

10. It is the intellect which moves the dull and inert body, as the force of the winds shakes the waters of the deep to roll and range about in chains and trains of waves.

11. The active mind which is always prone to action, leads the machine of the body together, with the passive and helpless living soul at random, as the winds drive about in different directions, together with the inert stones (ballast) contained in it. (i.e. The mind is the mover of both the body and soul, but the intellect is the primum mobile of all).

12. The body is the vehicle, and God has employed the mind and the vital breath, as the two horses or bullocks for driving it. (The mind is said also to be its driver, the soul its rider, and the breaths are its coursers).

13. Others say, that the rarefied intellect assumes a compact form, which becomes the living soul; and this riding on the car of the mind, drives it by the vital airs as its racers. (Hence the course of the mind and its thoughts, are stopped with the stoppage of respiratory breaths).

14. Sometimes the intellect seems as something born and to be in being, as in its state of waking and witnessing the objects all around; at others it seems to be dead and lost as in the state of its profound sleep. Again it appears as many, as in its dreaming state; and at last it comes to know itself as one and a unit, when it comes to the knowledge of truth and of its identity with the sole unity.

15. Sometimes it seems to be of a different form, without forsaking its own nature; as the milk becomes the butter and curd etc. and as the water appears in the shape of a billow or wave or of its foam or froth. (That changed in all, yet in all the same &c. Pope).

16. As all things depend upon light, to show their different forms and colours to view, so the mental powers and faculties, do all of them depend upon the intellectual soul for their several actions. (The intellect in the form of the soul, directs and exhibits the actions of the mind).

17. Again the Supreme Spirit being situated in the mind within the body, the animal soul has its life and action; as all things appear to sight, while the lighted lamp shines inside the room. (As the silent soul directs the mind, so the active mind keeps the soul alive).

18. The ungoverned mind gives rise to all diseases and difficulties, that rise as fastly and thickly, as the perturbed waters rise in waves, which foam out with thickening froth.

19. The living soul dwelling like the bee in the lotus-bed of the body, is also subject to diseases and difficulties as the bee to the rains and flood; and it is as disturbed by the casualties of life, as the calm sea-water are perturbed to waves by the blowing winds.

20. The dubitation that, "the divine soul is omnipotent, and the living soul is impotent and limited in its powers; and therefore the human soul is not the same with the Divine"; is the cause of our woe, and serves to darken the understanding; as the clouds raised by the sunlight, serve to obscure the solar disk (this doubt leading to dualism, cuts us from God and exposes us to all the calamities of life).

21. The sentient soul passes under many transmigrations in its insensibility, and in utter want of its self consciousness; like one subdued to dull obtuseness by some morphia drug, which makes him insensible of the pain inflicted upon his own person, (This drug is some anaesthetic agent as opium, chloroform and the like).

22. But as it comes to know itself afterwards by some means or other, it recovers from its dull insensibility, and regains its state of original purity; as a drunken or deluded person turns to his duty, after he comes to remember himself. (So the lost and stray sheep, returns to its fold and master).

23. The sentient soul that fills the body, and is employed in enlivening all its members, does not strive to know the cause of its consciousness; as a leper never attempts to make use of any part of his body, which he is incapable to raise. (So the soul that is drowned in ignorance and dead in its sin, will never rise to reclaim its redemption by reproving itself).

24. When the soul is devoid of its consciousness, it does not enable the tube of the lotus-like heart to beat and vibrate with the breath of respiration; but makes it as motionless as a sacrificial vessel unhandled by the priest.

25. The action of the lotiform heart having ceased, the motion of the vital breaths is stopped also; as the fanning of the palmleaf fan being over, there is no more the current of the outer air.

26. The cessation of the vital air in the body, and its flight to some other form, sets the life to silence and sink in the original soul; just as the suspension of the blowing winds, sets the flying dusts to rest on the ground.

27. At this time, O sage, the mind alone remains on its unsullied state and without its support; until it gets another body, wherein it rests as the embryonic seed lies in the earth and water.

28. Thus the causes of life being deranged on all sides, and the eight principles of the body inert and extinct (in their actions); the body droops down and becomes defunct and motionless. (The eight principles called the puryashtakas).

29. Forgetfulness of the intellect, the intelligible (truth) and intelligence, produces the desires of them to vibrate; these give to remembrances of the past, and their want buries them to oblivion.

30. The expansion of the lotus-like heart, causes the puryashtaka body to expand also; but when the organ of the heart ceases to blow and breathe, the body ceases to move.

31. As long as the puryashtaka elements remain in the body, so long it lives and breathes; but these elementary powers being quiet and still, the body becomes inert and is said to be dead.

32. When the contrary humours, the feelings and passions and sensible perceptions, and the outward wounds and strokes, cause the inward action of the organic heart to stop:--

33. Then the puryashtaka forces are pent up in the cavity of the heart, as the force of the blowing winds, is lost in the hollow of a pair of blowing bellows.

34. When a living body has its inward consciousness, and becomes inert and motionless in its outer parts and members, it is still alive by the action of breathing in the inner organ of the heart.

35. Those whose pure and holy desires never forsake their hearts, they live in one quiet and even state of life, and are known as the living liberated and long living seers. (The pure desires are free from the influence of passions, and tendency to earthly enjoyments; which cause holy life and give longevity to man). (An unperturbed mind is the best preservative of health).

36. When the action of the lotus like machine of the heart has ceased, and the breath ceases to circulate in the body, it loses its steadiness, and falls unsupported on the ground as a block of wood or stone.

37. As the octuple body mixes with the air in the vacuum of the sky, so is the mind also absorbed in it at the same time.

38. But being accompanied with the thoughts, to which it has been long accustomed, it continues to wander about in the air, and amidst the regions of heaven and hell, which it has long believed to await on its exit from the body.

39. The body becomes a dead corpse, after the mind has fled from it in the air; and it remains as an empty house, after its occupant has departed from it.

40. The all pervading intellect, becomes by its power of intellection both the living soul as well as the mind; and after passing from its embodied form (of puryashtaka), it assumes its spiritual (átiváhika) nature afterwards.

41. It fosters in its bosom the quintessence (pancha tan mátram) of the subtile elemental mind, which assumes a grosser form afterwards, as the thoughts of things appear in dream.

42. Then as the intensity of its thoughts, makes the unreal world and all its unrealities, appear as real before it, it comes to forget and forsake its spiritual nature, and transform itself to a gross body.

43. It thinks by mistake the unreal body as substantial, and believes the unreal as real and the real as unreal. (i.e. It takes the unreal material as real; and the real spiritual as nothing).

44. It is but a particle of the all pervading Intellect, that makes the living soul, which reflects itself afterwards in the form of the intelligent mind. (The understanding is a partial reflection of the Intellect. Gloss). The mind then ascends on the vehicle of the octuple body, and surveys the phenomenal world as a sober reality. (i.e. The senses of the body, represent the universe as real).

45. The intellect is the prime mobile power, that gives force to the octuple material (puryashtaka) body to move itself; and the action of the breath in the heart which is called life, resembles the spiritual force of a ghost raising an inert body. (The power of spirits entering and moving inert bodies, forms a firm belief in India).

46. When the aerial mind flies into the vacuous air, after the material frame is weakened and worn out; then the lifeless body remains as a block of wood or stone, and is called a dead mass by those that are living.

47. As the living soul forgets its spiritual nature, and becomes decayed in course of time and according to the frail nature of material things; so it fades and falls away in the manner of the withered leaves of trees.

48. When the vital power forsakes the body, and the action of the pericardium is stopped; the breath of life becomes extinct, and the animated being is said to die away.

49. As all beings that are born and have come to life, fade away in time like all created things in the world; so do human bodies also fade and fall away in time, like the withered leaves of trees.

50. The bodies of all embodied beings, are equally doomed to be born and die also in their time; as the leaves of trees, are seen to be incessantly growing and falling off at all seasons; why then should we lament at the loss of what is surely to be lost.

51. Look at these chains of living bodies, which are indiscriminately and incessantly rising and falling like bubbles and billows, in the vast ocean of the divine Intellect, and there is no difference of any one of them from another; why then should the wise make any distinction between objects that are equally frail in their nature, and proceed from and return to the same source.

52. The all-pervading intellect reflects itself only in the mind of man, and no where else; as it is the mirror only that receives the reflexions of objects, and no other opaque substance besides.

53. The acts and fates of men are all imprinted in the spacious and clear page of the Divine intellect, and yet are all embodied beings loud in their cries and complaints against the decrees of Heaven which is owing to their ignorance, and tending to their bitter grief and vain lamentation.

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