Reading section 66

41. Things appearing as real, are as unreal as an imaginary city (Utopia), which presents a variety (of forms and colours) to the fancy, without being built or painted by any body. (The phenomenal appearance of the world, is likened to a phantasmagoria).

42. Nothing that is unmade or unthought of, can be real (either in substance or idea); and the gods Brahmá and others, being freed from their avocations at the universal dissolution of existence, could neither resume their functions nor have materials for the same.

43. The self-born Brahmá, having then neither his remembrance of the past, nor any material appliance at hand, could neither form an ideal or material world out of nothing. Therefore production of Brahmá and formation of the universe are alike (chimerical).

44. The earth and all other existences, are but the eternal ideas of the divine mind, and they appear to us as objects of a dream in our waking state: (when they vanish into airy nothing).

45. The divine spirit is known to be vacuum only, and so also is the world ever known to be: (because the like produces the like). So all waters are alike liquid bodies, though they are made to pass under different names.

46. This creation is every where the same in the Supreme Spirit. It is but an evolution of the same (though presenting different aspects to us); and the creator is always and everywhere immutable in his nature.

47. The vacuous universe, under the name of the mundane egg, shines as clearly as the Divine Spirit: it is calm in its appearance, and becomes disturbed by causes born in itself. (Nature is uniform, but ruffled by accidents).

48. It is supported by the supportless supporter of all, who is one and without a second, but devoid of unity in (the variety of his) creation. All this is born in his consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that is produced anew.

49. He, who is of the form of unlimited space, and without any vacuity in it (because nature abhors a vacuum); who is transparent yet teeming with abundance; who is the whole world (God in nature), without any worldliness in him; is verily the substratum of all.

50. He, who is neither the container nor the contained, nor the view of the world; who is neither the world nor its creator (Brahmá), and about whom there can be no dispute nor disputant; is verily the unknown God.

51. He, who is neither the passing world nor any of its passing things; who is quite at rest, yet situated in all things, (whether moving or quiescent); is the only Brahma that shines of himself in himself (as the soul of and all in all).

52. As we form in ourselves the image of a whirlpool, by the idea of the fluidity of water in our minds; so the sight of the world produces the false notion of its reality in the mind.

53. All unrealities become extinct at the end, as we see the death of our frail bodies in dreams. So we find on the contrary the essential part of our soul, to be unscathed by its own nature of indestructibility, and remaining in the form of everlasting consciousness in the atmosphere of our intellects.

54. Brahmá the prime Lord of creatures, is ever manifest by himself in the form of vacuity in the Supreme spirit; and he being of a spiritual form as the mind, has no material body formed of earth as all other corporeal beings; and is therefore both real and unborn (in his essence).

CHAPTER XIV.

ESTABLISHMENT OF BRAHMA.

Vasishtha added:—

In this manner the visible world, myself, thyself and all other things are nothing; all these being unmade and unborn are inexistent: it is the Supreme spirit only that is existent of itself.

2. The primeval vacuous soul is awakened at first of itself, and by its own energy from its quietness, and begins to have a motion in itself like the troubled waters of the deep.

3. It then begins to reflect in itself, as in a dream or in imagination, without changing its vacuous form, which is likened to a rock with the inward faculty of thought.

4. The body of the Great Viráj also, is devoid of any material form, either of earthly or any other elemental shape, (as it is viewed in the Vedas). It is purely a spiritual, intellectual and etherial form, and as transparent as the ether itself.

5. It is undecaying and steady as a rock, and as airy as a city seen in a dream. It is immovable as the line of a regiment represented in a picture.

6. All other souls are as pictures of dolls and puppets, painted and not engraven on the body of Viráj as upon a huge pillar; and he standing as an uncarved column in the empty sphere of Brahmá, represents all souls (and not bodies) as they are mere pictures on it.

7. The prime Lord of creatures is said to be self-born at first, and he is known as the increate (Brahmá), for want of his prior acts to cause his birth. (He is coeternal with the eternal Brahma, and is therefore not subject to birth and death).

8. The primeval patriarchs, who obtain their ultimate liberation at the final dissolution of the world, have no antecedent cause to be reborn as unliberated mortals. (So the emancipate souls of the living and dead, are freed from the doom of regeneration.)

9. Brahma, who is the reflector of all souls, is himself invisible in the inward mirror of other souls: (_i.e._ he reflects all images in himself, but never casts his own reflexion upon any). He is neither the view nor the viewer, and neither the creation nor the creator himself. (These being the functions of the creative and representative powers of Brahmá and Viráj).

10. Though thus negated of all predicates, yet is Brahma the soul of all predicables, that may be affirmed or denied of him (since he is all in all). He is the source of these chains of living beings, as light is the cause of a line of lighted lamps in illuminations.

11. The will of the gods (Brahmá and Viráj), proceeding from the volition of Brahma, is of that spiritual nature as the other; just as one dream rising in another, is equally unsubstantial as the first: (_i.e._ the products of spiritual causes, are also spiritual, by the rule of the homogeneity of the cause and effect).

12. Hence all living souls, which are evolved from the breathing of the Supreme Spirit, are of the same nature as their origin for want of an auxiliary causality. (God made man in his own image, and as perfect as himself: and this _man_ is _manas_ the Brahmá, or as he is named Adam, corresponding with _Adima_ or _Adyam purusham_—the first male or Protogonus).

13. Want of a secondary agency, produces the equality of effects with their cause (as the fruits and flowers of trees, are of the same kind with the parent tree, unless there rises a difference in them by cause of engraftments). Hence the uniformity of created things, proves the conception of their creation by a secondary cause, to be wholly erroneous.

14. Brahma himself is the prime soul of Viráj and self-same with him, and Viráj is the soul of creation and identical with it. He is the vacuous vitality of all; and it is from him that the unreal earth and other things have their rise. (Viráj is the spirit of God diffused in nature).

15. Ráma said:—Tell me, whether the living soul, is a limited thing or an unlimited mass of life; or does the unbounded spirit of God, exist in the shape of a mountainous heap of living souls: (_i.e._ whether it is to be taken in a collective or integral sense, and whether it forms a totality—_samashti_ existent in the Divinity, of which all individual souls are either as parts _vyashti_ or separate existences).

16. Are these living souls like showers of rain-water falling from above, or as the drizzling drops of waves in the vast ocean of creation, or as the sparks of fire struck out of a red-hot iron, and from whence they flow, and by whom they are emitted.

17. Tell me sir, the truth concerning the profusion of living souls, and though I have a partial knowledge of it, I require it to be more fully and clearly explained by you.

18. Vasishtha replied:—There being but one living soul of the universe, you can not call it a multitude. Your question therefore is quite out of place, as the query about the horns of hares (which do not exist in nature).

19. There are no detached living souls, O Ráma, nor are they to be found in multitudes any where, nor was there a mountainous heap of souls known to have existed at any time.

20. Living soul is but a fictitious word, and it is heaped with many fictions, all of which, you must know for certain, do not apply to the soul.

21. There is but one pure and immaculate Brahma, who is mere Intellect (_chinmátram_) and all pervasive. He assumes to himself all attributes by his almighty power. (Here Brahma is represented not only as Omniscient and Omnipotent; but as _saguna_ also by his assumption of all attributes).

22. The living soul is viewed by many to evolve itself from the intellect into many visible and invisible forms (_múrta-mútam_); just as a plant is seen to develope itself into its fruits and flowers.

23. They add to their knowledge of the soul the attributes of the living principle, understanding, action, motion, mind and unity and duality, as if these appertain to its nature.

24. But all this is caused by ignorance, while right understanding assigns them to Brahma. The ignorant are bewildered by these distinct views (of the soul), and will not be awakened to sense.

25. These different believers are lost (in their various views), as the light is lost under darkness. They will never come to the knowledge of truth as it is the case with the ignorant.

26. Know Brahma himself as the living soul without any divisibility or distinction. He is without beginning or end. He is omnipotent, and is of the form of the great Intellect which forms his essence.

27. His want of minuteness (_i.e._ his fulness) in all places, precludes his distinctive appellations every where. Whatever attributes are given him (by fiction), are all to be understood to mean Brahma himself.

28. Ráma asked:—How comes it, O Bráhman? that the totality of the living souls in the world, is guided by the will of one universal soul, which governs the whole, and to which all others are subject.

29. Vasishtha replied:—Brahma the great living soul and Omnipotent power, remained from eternity with his volition (_satya sankalpa_—fixed determination) of creation, without partition or alteration of himself.

30. Whatever is wished by that great soul, comes to take place immediately. The wish it formed in its unity at first, became a positive duality at last. Then its wish “to be many” (_Aham bahu syam_), became the separate existences afterwards.

31. All these dualities of his self-divided powers (the different living souls), had their several routines of action allotted to them, as “this is for that”; meaning “this being is for that duty, and such action is for such end”.

32. Thus though there can be no act without exertion (by the general rule as in the case of mortals), yet the predominant will of Brahmá, is always prevailing without its exertion to action, (as in the case of saints whose wills are effective of their ends without the aid of action).

33. Though they that bear the name of living beings, effect their purposes by exertion of their energies, yet they can effect nothing without acting according to the law appointed by the predominant power.

34. If the law of the predominant power, is effective of its end (_i.e._ the law of action for production of acts); then the exertions of the subordinate powers (the living souls), must also be attended with success: (_i.e._ the attainment of the like result of the like action).

35. Thus Brahma alone is the great living soul that exists for ever and without end; and these millions of living beings are no other in the world (than agents of the divine energies).

36. It is with a consciousness of the intellectual soul (_i.e._ the inward knowledge of the divinity within themselves), that all living souls are born in this world; but losing that consciousness (their knowledge of God) afterwards, they became alienated from him.

37. Hence men of inferior souls, should pursue the course of conduct led by the superior souls, for regaining their spiritual life _átmajívatwam_, as the copper becomes transformed into gold (by chemical process).

38. Thus the whole body of living beings, that had been as inexistent as air before, come into existence, and rise resplendent with the wonderful intellect.

39. Whoso perceives this wondrous intellect in his mind, and gets afterwards a body and the consciousness of his egoism, he is then said to be an embodied living soul.

40. The mind that is gratified with intellectual delights, becomes as expanded as the intellect itself, and thinks those pleasures to constitute the sum total of worldly enjoyments.

41. The Intellect is said to remain unchanged in all its succeeding stages; and though it never changes from that state, yet it wakes (developes) by a power intrinsic in itself.

42. The uninterrupted activity of the Intellect, indulges itself in the amusement of manifesting the intelligibles in the form of the world (_i.e._ Of evolving the knowables from its own knowledge of them. Or it is the pleasure of the intellect to unfold the secrets of nature to view).

43. The extent of the intellectual faculty, is wider and more rarefied than the surrounding air, and yet it perceives its distinct egoism by itself and of its own nature. (The subjective knowledge of ego—self).