The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)-3

27. All worldly minded men, are as old birds tied down on

earth by the strong strings of their desires; and their heart moves

about the confines of their bodies, and their heart strings throb

with hopes in the confines of their bodies, as birds in cages in the

hope of getting their release.

28. The lives of living beings are continually dropping

down, like the withered leaves of trees, from the fading arbours

of their decayed bodies, by the incessant breathing of

their breath of life. (The respiration of breath called ajapá,

is said to be the measure of life).

29. The respectable men, that are joyous of their worldly

grandeur for a short time, are entirely forgetful of the severe

torments of hell, awaiting on them afterwards.

30. But the godly people enjoy their heavenly delights as

gods, in the cooling orb of the moon; or range freely under the

azure sky, like heavenly cranes about the limpid lakes.

31. There they taste the sweet fruits of their virtuous deeds

on earth; and inhale the fragrance of their various desires, as the

bees sip the sweetness of the opening lotus.

32. All worldly men are as little fishes (shrimps), swimming

on the surface of this pool of the earth; while the sly and senile

death pounces upon them as a kite, and bears them away as his

prey without any respite or remorse.

33. The changeful events of the world, are passing on every

day, like the gliding waves and the foaming froths of the sea,

and the ever changing digits of the moon.

34. Time like a potter, continually turns his wheel, and

makes an immense number of living beings as his pots; and

breaks them every moment, as the fragile play-things of his own

whim.

[Pg 34]

35. Innumerable kalpa ages have been incessantly rolling

on, over the shady quiescence of eternity; and multitudes of

created worlds have been burnt down, like thick woods and forests,

by the all desolating conflagrations of desolation. (According

to the Hindus the universal destruction, takes place by the

Violent concussion of all the elements, and by the diluvian

floods also).

36. All worldly things are undergoing incessant changes, by

their appearance and disappearance by turns; and the vicissitudes

of our states and circumstances, from these of pleasure and

prosperity to the state of pain and misery and vice versa,

in endless succession. (Pain and pleasure succeed one another).

37. Notwithstanding the instability of nature, the ignorant

are fast bound by the chain of their desire, which is not to be

broken even by the thunder bolt of heaven. (Man dies, but his

desires never die, they keep their company wherever he may fly).

38. Human desire bears the invulnerable body of the

Jove and Indra, which being wounded on all sides by the Titans

of disappointment, resumed fresh vigour at every stroke. (So our

desires grow stronger by their failure, than when they are

allayed by their satisfaction).

39. All created beings are as particles of dust in the air, and

are flying with the currents of wind into the mouth of the dragon-like

death, who draws all things to his bowels by the breath of his

mouth. (Huge snakes are said to live upon air, and whatever

is borne with it into his belly).

40. As all the crudities of the earth, and its raw fruits and

vegetables, together with the froth of the sea and other marine

productions, are carried by the currents to be consumed by the

submarine heat, so all existence is borne to the intestinal fire of

death to be dissolved into nothing.

41. It is by a fortuitous combination of qualities, that all

things present themselves unto us with their various properties;

and it is the nature of these which exhibits them with those

forms as they present to us; as she gives the property of vibration

to the elementary bodies, which show themselves in the forms of

water and air unto us.

[Pg 35]

42. Death like a ferocious lion, devours the mighty and

opulent men; as the lion kills the big elephant with his frontal

pearls.

43. Ambitious men are as greedy birds of air upon earth,

who like the voracious vultures on the tops of high hills, are

born to live and die in their aerial exploits, as on the wings of

clouds in search of their prey.

44. Their minds liken painter's paintings on the canvas of

their intellects, showing all the variegated scenes of the world,

with the various pictures of things perceptible by the five senses

(i.e., the images of all sensible objects are portrayed in the

intellect).

45. But all these moving and changeful scenes, are breaking

up and falling to pieces at every moment; and producing our

vain sorrow and griefs upon their loss, in this passing and aerial

city of the world.

46. The animal creations and the vegetable world, are

standing as passive spectators, to witness and meditate in

themselves the marvelous acts of time, in sparing them from

among his destruction of others.

47. How these moving creatures are subject every moment,

to the recurrent emotions of passions and affections, and to the

alterations of affluence and want; and how they are incessantly

decaying under age and infirmity, disease and death from which

their souls are entirely free. (Hence the state of torpid immobility

is reckoned as a state of bliss, by the Hindu and Buddhistic

Yogis and ascetics).

48. So the reptiles and insects on the surface of the earth, are

continually subjected to their tortuous motions by their fate,

owing to their want of quiet inaction, of which they are capable

in their subterranean cells. (The Yogis are wont to confine

themselves in their under-ground retreats, in order to conduct

their abstract meditations without disturbance. So Demosthenes

perfected himself in his art of eloquence in his subterrene

cave).

49. But all these living bodies are devoured every moment,

by the all destructive time in the form of death; which like the[Pg 36]

deadly and voracious dragon lies hidden in his dark-some den

(Here the word kála is used in its triple sense of time, death,

and snake all which being equally destructive and hidden in darkness,

it is difficult to distinguish the subject from its comparison.

Hence we may say, time like death and snake or death like time

and snake or the snake like time and death, devours all living

creatures, insects and other reptiles also).

50. The trees however are not affected by any of these accidents,

because they stand firm on their roots, and though suffering

under heat and cold and the blasts of heaven, yet they yield

their sweet fruits and flowers for the supportance and delight

of all living creatures. (So the Yogis stand firm on their legs,

and while they suffer the food and rest privations of life and

the inclemencies of weather, they impart the fruits of divine

knowledge to the rest of mankind, who would otherwise perish

like the insects of the earth, without their knowledge of truth

and hope of future bliss).

51. The meek Yogis that dwell in their secluded and humble

cells, are seen also to move about the earth, and imparting the

fruits of their knowledge to others; as the bees residing in the

cells of lotuses, distribute their stores of honey after the rains

are over. (The Yogis and the bees remain in their cells during

the four months of the rainy season (varshá-chátur másya), after

which they be-take to their peregrinations abroad).

52. They preach about the lectures as the bees chaunt their

rhyme all about, saying; that the earth which is as a big port; it

supplies the wants of the needy, for making them a morsel

in the mouth of the goddess of death (i.e., the earth supports

all beings for their falling into the bowels of death).

53. The dreaded goddess Káli wearing the veil of darkness

over her face, and eying all with her eyeballs, as bright as the

orbs of the sun and moon, gives to all beings all their wants,

in order to grasp and gorge them in herself. (The black goddess

Káli or Hecate, nourishes all as mátriká or matres, and then

devours them as death, like the carnivorous glutton, that fattens

the cattle to feed and feast upon them).

54. Her protuberant and exuberant breasts are as bountiful[Pg 37]

as the bounty of God, to suckle the gods and men and all beings

on earth and hills and in the waters below. (But how can

death be the sustainer of all).

55. It is the energy of the Divine intellect, which is the

mátriká-mater or mother (mater or materia of all, and assumes

the forms of density and tenuity and also of motion and mobility;

the clusters of stars are the rows of her teeth, and the morning

and evening twilights, are the redness of her two lips).

(She is called Ushá and sandhyá or the dawning and evening

lights, because of her existence in the form of the twilights,

before the birth of the solar and lunar lights. The Vedas abound

with hymns to ushá and sandhyá and these form the daily

ritual of the Brahmans to this day under the title of their

Tri-sandyá—the triple litany at sun-rise, sun-set and vertical sun).

56. Her palms are as red as the petals of lotuses, and her

countenance is as bright as the paradise of Indra; she is

decorated with the pearls of all the seas, and clad with an azure

mantle all over her body (Hence the goddess Kálí is represented

as all black from her blue vest).

57. The Jambudwípa or Asia forms her naval or midmost

spot, and the woods and forests form the hairs of her body.

She appears in many shapes and again disappears from view,

and plays her part as the most veteran sorceress in all the

three worlds. (The text calls her an old hag, that often changes

her paints and garments to entice and delude all men to her).

58. She dies repeatedly and is reborn again, and then

passes into endless transformations, she is now immerged in the

great ocean or bosom of Kála or Death her consort, and rises up

to assume other shapes and forms again. (Hence the mother-goddess

is said to be the producer and destroyer of all by their

repeated births and deaths in their everchanging shapes and

forms).

59. The great Kalpa ages are as transitory moments in the

infinite duration of Eternity, and the mundane eggs (or planetary

bodies in the universe); are as passing bubbles upon the unfathomable

ocean of infinity; they rise and last and are lost by

turns.

[Pg 38]

60. It is at the will of God, that the creative powers rise and

fly about as birds in the air; and it is by his will also, that the

uprisen creation becomes extinct like the burning flash of the

lightning. (The flaming worlds shoot forth, and are blown out

as sparks of fire).

61. It is in the sunshine of the divine Intellect, and under

the canopy of everlasting time, that the creations are continually

rising and falling like the fowls of forestlands, flying up and

down under the mist of an all encompassing cloud of ignorance.

62. As the tall palm tree lets to fall its ripened fruits incessantly

upon the ground; so the over topping arbor of time, drops

down the created worlds and the lords of Gods perpetually into

the abyss of perdition. (There is an alliteration and homonym

of the words, tála and páttála meaning both tall and the tála or

palm tree).

63. The gods also are dying away like the twinklings of their

eyes, and old time is wearing away with all its ages, by its perpetual

tickings. (The ever wakeful eyes of gods are said to have

no twinkling; but time is said to be continually twinkling in

its ticking moments).

64. There are many Rudras existing in the essence of Brahma,

and they depend on the twinkling of that Deity for their existence.

(The immortal gods are mortal, before the Eternal God).

65. Such is Brahmá the lord of gods, under whom these

endless acts of evolutions and involutions are for ever taking

place, in the infinite space of his eternal Intellect and omnipotent

will.

66. What wonderous powers are there that cannot possibly

reside in the Supreme spirit, whose undecaying will gives rise

to all positive and possible existences. It is ignorance therefore

to imagine the world as a reality of itself.

67. All these therefore is the display of the deep darkness

of ignorance, that appears to you as the vicissitudes of prosperity

and adversity, and as the changes of childhood, youth,

old-age and death; as also the occurrences of pain and pleasure

and of sorrow and grief. (All of which are unrealities in

their nature).

[Pg 39]

CHAPTER VIII.

Allegory of the Spreading Arbour of Ignorance.

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

VASISHTHA continued. Hear me now relate to you Ráma,

how this poisonous tree of ignorance has come to grow

in this forest of the world, and to be situated by the side of the

intellect, and how and when it came to blossom and bloom. (The

Divine intellect is the stupendous rock, and the creation is the

forest about it, in which there grew the plant of error also).

2. This plant encompasses all the three worlds, and has the

whole creation for its rind, and the mountains for its joints

(Here is a play of the word parva and parvata which are paronymous

terms, signifying a joint and mountain; Hence every

mountain is reckoned as the joint or land-mark of a country

dividing it from another tract of land).

3. It is fraught with its leaves and roots, and its flowers

and fruits, by the continuous births and lives and pleasures and

pains and the knowledge and error of mankind. (All these are

the productions of human ignorance).

4. Prosperity gives rise to our ignorance of desiring to be

more prosperous in this or in our next lives (by means of our

performance of ceremonial rites), which are productive of future

welfare also. So doth adversity lead us to greater error of

practising many malpractices to get rid of it; but which on the

contrary expose us to greater misfortunes. (Hence it is folly

to make choice of either, which is equally pernicious).

5. One birth gives rise to another and that leads to others

without end; hence it is foolishness in us to wish to be reborn

again. (All births are subject to misery; it is ignorance therefore

to desire a higher or lower one, by performance of páratrika

acts for future lives).

6. Ignorance produces greater ignorance, and brings on[Pg 40]

unconsciousness as its effect: so knowledge leads on to higher

knowledge, and produces self-consciousness as its result. (Good

tends to best, and bad to the worst. Better tends to best, and worse

to the worst).

7. The creeping plant of ignorance, has the passion for its

leaves, and the desires for its odours; and it is continually shaking

and shuffling with the leafy garment on its body.

8. This plant falls sometimes in its course, on the way of the

elephant of Reason; it then shakes with fear, and the dust which

covers its body, is all blown away by the breath of the elephant's

trunk; but yet the creeper continues to creep on by the byways

according to its wont.

9. The days are its blossoms, and the nights are the swarms

of black bees, that overshadow its flowers; and the continued

shaking of its boughs, darts down the dust of living bodies from

it, both by day and night. (i.e., Men that live upon their desires

and hopes, are daily dying away).

10. It is overgrown with its leaves of relatives, and overloaded

with the shooting buds of its offspring; it bears the

blossoms of all seasons, and yields the fruits of all kinds of

flowers.

11. All its joints are full of the reptiles of diseases, and its

stem is perforated by the cormorants of destruction; yet it yields

the luscious juice of delight to those that are bereft of their

reason and good sense.

12. Its flowers are the radiant planets, that shine with the sun

and moon every day in the sky; the vacuum is the medium of

their light, and the rapid winds are vehicles, that bear their rays

as odours unto us. (Vacuity is the receptacle of light, but the

vibrations of air transmit it to our sight).

12a. Ignorance blossoms every day in the clusters of the

bright planetary bodies, that shine with the sun and moon by

day and night; and the winds playing in the air, bear their light

like perfumes to us. (i.e. It is the spirit that glows in the

stars, and breathes in the air, but ignorance attributes these to the

planets and breezes, and worships them as the navagrahas and

marut ganas, both in the vedas and the popular Puranic creeds).

[Pg 41]

12b. Ignorance blossoms in the clusters of stars and planets,

shining about the sun and moon every day; and breathes in the

breezes blowing at random amidst the vacuous firmament.

(Hence the ignorant alone adore the stars and winds in the vedas,

but the sapient know the light of God to glow in the stars, and

his spirit to breathe in the air).

13. These innumerable stars that you see scattered in the

vault of heaven, O son of Raghu's race, are the blooming blossoms

of this arbor of ignorance (i.e. ignorance shows them as twinkling

stars to us, while they are numberless shining worlds in

reality).

14. The beams of the sun and moon, and the flames of fire,

which are scattered about us like the crimson dust of flowers;

resemble the red paint on the fair body of ignorance, with which

this delusive lady attracts our minds to her.

15. The wild elephant of the mind, ranges at large under the

arbour of Ignorance; and the birds of our desires, are continually

hovering and warbling upon it; while the vipers of sensual appetites,

are infesting its stem, and avarice settles as a huge snake at

the root. (The text has the words "and greediness decorates its

bark" which bear no meaning).

16. It stretches with its head to the blue vault of the sky,

forming as a canopy of black arbour of black Tamála trees

over it. The earth supports its trunk, and sky overtops its

top; and it makes a garden of the universe (with its out stretched

arms).

17. It is deeply rooted underneath the ground, and is watered

with milk and curds, in the canals of the milky and other

oceans, which are dug around its trunk.

18. The rituals of the three vedas, are fluttering like the

bees over the tree, blooming with the blossoms of beauteous

women, and shaking with the oscillations of the mind; while it

is corroded in the inside by the cankering worms of cares and

actions. (It means to say, that the vedic rites, the love of women,

the thoughts of the mind and the bodily actions, are all attendants

of ignorance; and he is wise who refrains from them in toto).

19. The tree of ignorance, blossoming like the flowers of the[Pg 42]

garden of paradise, exhales the sweet odours of pleasure around;

and the serpent of vice twining round it, leads the living souls

perpetually to evil deeds, for the supportance of their lives.

20. It blooms with various flowers, to attract the hearts of

wise; and it is fraught with various fruits, distilling their sweets

all around. (These fruits and flowers are the sensual pleasures,

which allure the ignorant to them).

21. With the aqueducts about, it invites the birds of the

air to drink of them; and being besmeared with the dust of its

flowers, it appears to stand as a rock of red earth or granite to

sight. (The water beds below it, are mistaken for the salsabil

or streams of Paradise, and its rock-like appearance, shows the

grossness of ignorance crasse or tabula rasa).

22. It shoots out with buds of mistakes, and is beset by the

briars of error; it grows luxuriant in hilly districts, with exuberance

of its leafy branches. (Meaning that the hill people are

most ignorant).

23. It grows and dies and grows again, and being cut down

it springs out anon; so there is no end of it. (It is hard to

extirpate ignorance at once).

24. Though past and gone, yet it is present before us, and

though it is all hollow within, it appears as thick and sound to

sight. It is an ever fading and ever green tree, and the more it

is lopped and cropt, the more it grows and expands itself.

25. It is a poisonous tree, whose very touch benumbs the

senses in a moment; but being pressed down by reasoning, it

dies away in a trice.

26. All distinctions of different objects, are dissolved in the

crucible of the reasoning mind; but they remain undissolved in

their crude forms in the minds of the ignorant, who are employed

in differentiating the various natures of men and brutes,

and of terrene and aquatic animals.

27. They distinguish the one as the nether world, and the

other as the upper sky; and make distinctions between the solar

and lunar planets, and the fixed starry bodies. (But there are

no ups and downs, nor any thing as fixed in infinite vacuity).

[Pg 43]

28. Here there is light, and there is darkness on the other

side, and this is empty space and that is the solid ground; these

are the sástras and these are the Vedas, are distinctions unknown

to the wise.

29. It is the same spirit that flies upward in the bodies of

birds, or remains above in the form of gods; the same spirit

remains fixed in the forms of fixed rocks or moves in continued

motion with the flying winds.

30. Sometimes it resides in the infernal regions, and at others

it dwells in the heavens above; sometimes it is exalted to the

dignity of gods, and some where it remains in the state of mean

insects and worms.

31. In one place it appears as glorious as the god Vishnu,

and in another it shows itself in the forms of Brahmá and

Siva. Now it shines in the sun, and then it brightens in the

moon; here it blows in the blowing winds, and there it sways

in the all-subduing yama. (Some Europeans have conjectured and

not without good reason, the relentless god of death the yama of

Hindus, to be same with as the ruthless king Jamshed of prehistoric

Persia. So says Hafiz Ayineye, Sekendar Jame jamast

bingars).

32. Whatever appears as great and glorious, and all that is

seen as mean and ignoble in their form, from the biggest and

bright sun down to the most contemptible grass and straw;

are all pervaded by the universal spirit: it is ignorance that dwells

upon the external forms; but knowledge that looks into the inner

soul, obtains its sight up the present state.

[Pg 44]

CHAPTER IX.

Ascertainment of True Knowledge.

Argument.—Division of the three gunas or qualities. Pure essence

of the Gods Hara and others, nature of knowledge and ignorance, and

other subjects.

RÁMA said, You said sir, that all formal bodies are representations

of illusion or ignorance (Avidyá); but how do you

account for the pure bodies of Hari, Hara and other divinities,

and god-heads who are of pure essence in their embodied forms,

and which cannot be the creation of our error or delusion. Please,

sir, explain these clearly to (spun) me and remove my doubts and

difficulties on the subject (The exhibition of gross bodies is the

deception of our sense, but the appearance of pure spiritual forms,

can not be production of ignorance or sensible deception. We may

ignore the forms of material substances, but not those immaterial

essences which are given in the sástras. gloss).

2. Vasishtha replied,—The perceptible world represents the

manifestation of the one quiescent and all inherent soul, and exhibits

the glory (ábhásha) of the essential intellect (sach-chit),

which is beyond conception or thought divine.

3. This gives rise to the shape of a partial hypostasis, or

there rises of itself hypostatics ([Sanskrit: kalákalarúpiní]), resembling the rolling

fragment of a cloud appearing as a watery substance or

filled with water. (This original fiction of the glory of God

giving rise to the watery mist like a lighted lamp emitting the

inky smoke, is represented in the common belief of dark ignorance

([Sanskrit: avidyá]) proceeding from the bright light of divine knowledge

([Sanskrit: vidyá]), and exhibited by the allegory of the black goddess

of ignorance and illusion ([Sanskrit: avidyá] and [Sanskrit: máyá]) gushing out of the

white and fair god lying inactive and dormant under her; she

is hence designated by the various epithets of ([Sanskrit: shyámá, kálí, jaladha]

and [Sanskrit: níradavaraná]) and so forth, and this is the whole mystery of the

Sákta faith).

[Pg 45]

4. This hypostatic fragment is also conceived in its three

different lights or phases, of rarity, density and rigidity or grossness,

([Sanskrit: sukhsmá; madhyá, sthúlá]) resembling the twilight, midday

light, and darkness of the solar light. The first of these is

called the mind or creative will, the second styled the Brahmá

Hiranyagarbha or the creative power, and the third is known

as Virát, the framer of the material frame, and as identic with

creation itself.

5. These are again denominated the three qualities (trigunas),

according to their different states, and these are the qualities

of reality, brightness and darkness satva, rajas and tamas,

which are designated also as the triple nature of things or their

swabhávas or prakriti.

6. Know all nature to be characterised by ignorance of the

triple states of the positive and comparative and superlative

degrees; these are inbred in all living beings, except the Being

that is beyond them, and which is the supreme one.

7. Again the three qualities of satva, rajas, and tamas or the

positive, comparative and superlative, which are mentioned in

this place, have each of them its subdivisions also into three

kinds of the same name.

8. Thus the original Ignorance ([Sanskrit: avidyá]), becomes of nine

kinds by difference of its several qualities; and whatever is seen

or known here below, is included under one or of the various

kinds. (Hence the saktas reckon ten different forms of [Sanskrit: mahávidyá],

comprising the primary ignorance and its nine fold divisions).

9. Now Ráma, know the positive or satwika quality of ignorance,

to comprise the several classes of living beings known as

the Rishis, Munis, the Siddhas and Nágas, the Vidyádharas and

Suras. (All of these are marked by the positive quality of goodness

inborn in their nature).

10. Again this quality of positive goodness comprises the

Suras or gods Hara and others of the first class that are purely

and truly good. The sages and Siddhas forming the second

or intermediate class, are endued with a less share of goodness

in them, while Nágas or Vidyádharas making the last class

possess it in the least degree.

[Pg 46]

11. The gods being born with the pure essence of goodness,

and remaining unmixed with the properties of other natures, have

attained the state of purity (Holiness) like the divine Hari Hara

and others. (i.e. So long the divine nature of a god is not

shrouded under the veil of ignorance (avidyá ávarana), he is to

be held in the light of a divinity as a Christ or Buddha); otherwise

rajasha or qualified states of Hari Hara as they are represented

by the vulgar, are neither to be regarded as such.

12. Ráma! whoever is fraught with the quality of goodness

in his nature, and acquainted with divine knowledge in his mind,

such a one is said to be liberated in this life, and freed from

further transmigration.

13. It is for this reason, O high minded Ráma! that the gods

Rudra and others who possess the properties of goodness in

them, are said to continue in their liberated state to the final

end of the world.

(Hence the immortals never die and being released from their

earthly coil, their good spirits rove at large in open air; last and

until the last doomsday rorqucamat or final resurrection of the

dead).

14. Great souls remain liberated, as long as they continue

to live in their mortal bodies; and after the shuffling of their

frail bodies, they become free as their disembodied spirits; and

then reside in the supreme spirit. (i.e. They return to the

source from which they had proceeded).

15. It is the part of ignorance to lead men to the performance

of acts, which after their death, become the roots of producing

other acts also in all successive states of transmigration.

(Ignorance leads one to interminable action in repeated

births, by making the acts of the prior life to become the

source of others in the next, so the acts of ignorance, become

the seeds and fruits of themselves by turns, and there is no cessation

nor liberation from them).

16. Ignorance rises from knowledge, as the hollow bubble

bursts out of the level of liquid water; and it sets and sinks in

knowledge likewise, as the bubble subsides to rest in the same

water. (Ignorance and its action which are causes of creation,[Pg 47]

have both their rise from the omniscience and inaction of God

until they are dissolved at the dissolution of the world. Physical

force rises from and rests in the spiritual. Ignorance—avidyá

being but a negation of knowledge—vidyá, is said to proceed

from:—the negative being but privation of the positive).

17. And as there is no such thing as a wave; but a word

coined to denote the heaving of water; so there is nothing as

ignorance but a word fabricated to express the want of knowledge.

(Hence the believers in ignorance are mistaken in relying

their faith in a power which has no existence whatever).

18. As the water and waves are identic in their true sense,

and there is no material difference between them; so both knowledge

and ignorance relating to the same thing, and expressing

either its presence or absence, there can be no essential difference

in their significance.

19. Leaving aside the sights of knowledge and ignorance,

there remains that which always exists of itself (that is, the self-existent

God exists, beyond both the knowledge and ignorance of

men, or whether they know him or not). It is only the contradiction

of adverse parties ([Sanskrit: pratiyogi byavaccheda]) that has introduced

these words. (i.e., calling the opponents as ignorant and

themselves as the knowing, in their mutual altercation with one

another).

20. The sights of knowledge and ignorance are nothing;

(i.e., they are both blind to the sight of truth): therefore be

firm in what is beyond these, and which can neither be known

nor ignored by imagination of it.

21. There is some thing which is not any thing, except that

it exists in the manner of the intellect and consciousness chit-samvit,

and this again has no representation of it, and therefore

that ens or sat is said to be inevident avidyá the unknowable.

22. That One Sat being known as this or such, is said to be

the destroyer of ignorance; whereas it is want of this knowledge,

that gives rise to the false conception of an Avidyá or ignorance.

(Avidyá, mithyá, kalpaná signifies ignorance to be a false

imagination and personification also, as it is seen in the images

of the ten Avidyás here).

[Pg 48]

23. When knowledge and ignorance are both lost in

oblivion within one in the intellect as when both the sun-shine

and its shadow are lost in shade of night. (i.e., both the

knowledge of the subjective ego and objective non-ego which is

caused by ignorance being concentrated in the consciousness of

the intellect only within one's self).

24. Then there remains the one only that is to be gained

and known, and thus it is, that the loss of ignorance tends to the

dissipation of self-knowledge likewise (which is caused by it);

just as the want of oil extinguishes the lamp. (Egoism and

ignorance being akin to one another, both of them rise and remain

and die together ([Sanskrit: ajnánahámkarayoreko satitayorút pattináshau

yúgavadeba]).)

25. That what remains afterwards, is either nullity or the

whole plenum, in which all these things appear to subsist, or it is

nothing at all. (The one is the view of atheists who deny all

existence, and the other of máyikas who maintain the visible

nature as mere illusion. ([Sanskrit: máyámayamidamakhilam])).

26. As the minute grain of the Indian fig-tree contains

within it the future arbor and its undeveloped state, so the almighty

power of omnipotence is lodged in the minute receptacle

of the spirit before its expansion into immensity. (The developed

and undeveloped states of the supreme power, are called its

vyákrita and avyákrita forces).