Reading section 61

12. How then is this perception to be effaced? How is it possible to have a longing after the unintelligible Intelligence, without suppression of our longing for the visibles? It is only to be effected by avoiding the external perceptions of the mind.

13. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, where and how is that vacuous soul called pasu, by the knowledge of which no one can get rid of his transmigration (_i.e._ the worshippers of the _jívátmá_ or animal soul called _jívavádis_, are not entitled to their final liberation—_mukti_).

14. Tell me also, who is that man, who by his company with the good and study of good works, has gone over the ocean of the world, and beholds the Supreme soul in himself.

15. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever animal souls being cast in the wilderness of this life, long after this intelligent soul (_chetanátman_), they are truly wise, and know him (in themselves).

16. Whoso believes the animal soul as the life of the world (or mundane soul), and thinks (the knowledge of the) Intelligence to be attended with pain only, he can never know Him anywhere (in this world).

17. If the Supreme soul be known to us, O Ráma! the string of our woes is put to an end, like the fatal cholera after termination of its cholic pain or extraction of its poison.

18. Ráma said:—Tell me, O Bráhman! the true form of the Supreme soul, by light of which the mind may escape from all its errors.

19. Vasishtha replied:—The Supreme soul is seen in the same way in ourselves and within our bodies, as we are conscious of our minds to be seated within us, after its flight to distant countries.

20. Our notion of the Supreme spirit is often lost in the depth of our minds, in the same way, as the existence of the outer world (objective knowledge), becomes extinct in our consciousness in yoga meditation.

21. It is He in whose knowledge we lose our sense of the beholder and visibles, and who is an invacuous vacuum or a substantive vacuity himself. (_i.e._ Who being known, we forget our knowledge both of the subjective and objective, and view his unity as the only _to on_ or substratum of all). So Fichte: In thee, the Incomprehensible, does my own existence, and that of the world become comprehensible to me. Lewis. Phil. vol. II. P. 563.

22. He whose substance appears as the vacuum, and in whom subsists the vacuous plenum of the universe; and who appears as vacuity itself, notwithstanding the plenitude of his creation subsisting in him, is verily the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).

23. Who though full of intelligence, appears to stand as an unconscious huge rock before us; and who though quite subtile in his nature, seems as some gross body to our conception: such is the form of the Supreme soul (that you want to know).

24. That which encompasses the inside and outside of every thing, and assumes the name and nature of the very thing to itself, is verily the form of the Supreme (that you want to know).

25. As light is connected with sunshine and vacuity with the firmament and as Omnipresence is present with every thing and every where: such is the form of the Supreme spirit (that you want to know).

26. Ráma asked:—But how are we to understand that He who bears the name and nature of absolute and infinite reality should yet be compressed within any thing visible in the world, which is quite impossible to believe?

27. Vasishtha replied:—The erroneous conception of the creation of the world, resembles the false impression of colours in the clear sky; wherefore it is wrong, O Ráma! to take a thing as real, of which there is an absolute privation in nature.

28. It is the knowledge of Brahma that constitutes his form, or else there is no act of his whereby he may be known to us (the universe being but a development of himself). He is entirely devoid of any visible form, and therefore there is no better course for any one than to know him as truth.

29. After an absolute negation of the visibles comes to be known (_i.e._ after disappearance of the traces of phenomenals from the mind), there remains a pre-eminent object of conception, which is inborn and manifest of itself.

30. This concept (of the Super-eminent) has oftentimes no reflexion, owing to its having no visible appearance; and at others it is not without its reflexion on the mirror of the mind (which has received its image).

31. No body has ever conceived this transcendent verity in himself, who has not at the same time been convinced of the impossibility of the existence of the visible world. (_i.e._ Conviction of the nullity of the phenomenal alone, leads to the perception of the Reality).

32. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O sage! how the existence of so many extensive worlds composing the visible Universe, can be thought of as unreal, or comprised in the _chinmátram_ (or minutiae of the divine mind), as the mount Meru in the sesamum seed.

33. Vasishtha replied:—If you will but stay a few days in the company of holy men, and study the sacred Sástras with a steady mind with me:

34. Then I will purge away this false view of the visibles from your understanding, like the delusive mirage from one’s sight. This absence of the view will extinguish your sense of being the viewer, and restore you to your intelligence alone.

35. When the viewer is united with the view, and the view with the viewer, there then turns out an unity of the duality, and the duality blends into an inseparable unity.

36. Without union of the two there is no success of either; and this union of both the viewer and the view having disappeared at last, there remains an only one unity (which is indissoluble).[2]

37. I will now cleanse away the dross of all your sense of egoism and tuism, with that of the world and all other things from the mirror of your mind, by bringing you to your consciousness of self, and total negation of every thing besides.

38. From nothing never comes a something, nor from something ever proceeds a nothing; and there is no difficulty whatever in removing what does not exist in nature (_i.e._ That a nil is nil is self evident, and no argument is required to prove it so).

39. This world which appears so very vast and extensive, was not in being at the beginning. It resided in the pure spirit of Brahma, and was evolved from the mind (_Chitta_) of Brahmá.

40. The thing called the world was never produced, nor is it in being nor in actual appearance. It is as the form of a bracelet in gold, which it is not difficult to alter and reduce to its gross metallic state.

41. I will explain it fully by other reasons, whereby this truth may appear of itself, and impress irresistibly in your mind.

42. How can that be said to have its being, which was not brought into being before, and how can there be a rivulet in the mirage, or the ring of an eclipse in the moon?

43. As a barren woman has no son nor a mirage any water in it; and as the firmament has no plant growing in it, so there is no such thing which we erroneously call the world.

44. Whatever you see, O Ráma! is the indestructible Brahma himself: this I have many times shown you with good reasons, and not in mere words (as my _ipse dixit_ only).

45. It is unreasonable, O intelligent Ráma! to disregard what a learned man speaks to you with good reasons; because the dull-headed fellow who neglects to listen to the words of reason and wisdom, is deemed as a fool, and is subject to all sorts of difficulties.

CHAPTER VIII.

NATURE OF GOOD SÁSTRAS.

Ráma asked:—How can it be reasonably shewn and established, that there is nothing to be known and seen in this world, although we have evident notions of it supported by sense and right reasoning?

2. Vasishtha answered:—It is from a long time, that this endemic of the fallacious knowledge (of the reality of the world), is prevalent (among mankind); and it is by means of true knowledge only that this wrong application of the word world, can be removed from the mind.

3. I will tell you a story, Ráma! for your success in (the attainment of) this knowledge; if you will but attend to it, you will become both intelligent and emancipate.

4. But if from the impatience of your nature like that of brute creatures, you get up and go away after hearing half of this (narrative), you shall then reap no benefit from it.

5. Whoever seeks some object and strives after it, he of course succeeds in getting the same; but if he become tired of it he fails therein.

6. If you will betake yourself, Ráma! to the company of the good and study of good Sástras, you will surely arrive at your state of perfection in course of a few days or mouths, according to the degree of your diligence.

7. Ráma said:—O you, that are best acquainted with the Sástras, tell me which is the best Sástra for the attainment of spiritual knowledge, and a conversancy with which may release us from the sorrows of this life.

8. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O high minded Ráma! this work (the Vásishtha Sanhitá) to be the best of all others on spiritual knowledge. It is the auspicious Great Rámáyana and the Sástra of sástras.

9. The Rámáyana is the best of histories, and serves to enlighten the understanding. It is known as containing the essence of all histories.

10. But by hearing these doctrines one easily finds his liberation coming of itself to him; wherefore it is reckoned as the most holy record.

11. All the existing scenes of the world will vanish away upon their mature consideration; as the thoughts occurring in a dream, are dispersed upon the knowledge of the dreaming state after waking.

12. Whatever there is in this work, may be found in others also, but what is not found here, cannot be found elsewhere (in other works); and therefore the learned call it the thesaurus (_sanhitá_) or store-house (of philosophy).

13. Whoever attends to these lectures every day, shall have his excellent understanding undoubtedly stored with transcendent knowledge of divinity day by day.

14. He who feels this Sástra disagreeable to his vitiated taste, may take a fancy to the perusal of some other sástra that is more wordy and eloquent.

15. One feels himself liberated in this life by the hearing of these lectures, just as one finds himself healed of a disease by a potion of some efficacious medicine.

16. The attentive hearer of these sermons, perceives their efficacy in himself, in the same way as one feels the effects of the curses or blessings pronounced upon him which never go for nothing (but have their full effects in time).

17. All worldly miseries are at an end with him, who considers well these spiritual lectures within himself, and which is hard to be effected by charities and austerities, or performance of the acts ordained in the _srautá_ or ceremonial vedas, or by hundreds of practices in obedience to the ordinances appointed by them.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE SUPREME CAUSE OF ALL. (PARAMA KÁRANA).

Vasishtha continued:—

They are truly delighted and gratified (in their souls), who are ever devoted with all their hearts and minds in holy conversation among themselves.

2. Those that are devoted to the acquisition of knowledge and investigation of spiritual science, enjoy the same bliss of liberation in their living state, as it is said to attend on disembodied souls.

3. Ráma said:—Tell me O Bráhman! the distinct natures of the living and disembodied liberations, that I may try to learn the same, with an understanding enlightened by the light of Sástras (literally, having the eye-sight of Sástras).

4. Vasishtha said:—Who ever remains as he is (_i.e._ without any perturbation in his worldly course), and continues intact as vacuity amidst society: such a one is called the living liberated (Jívan mukta).