The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)-13

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).

[Pg 195]

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[Pg 196]

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).

[Pg 197]

CHAPTER 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.

[Pg 198]

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).

[Pg 199]

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[Pg 200]

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.

[Pg 201]

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.

[Pg 202]

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[Pg 203]

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.

[Pg 204]

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Resolution of Duality into Unity.

Argument.—Unity, the source, substance, and ultimum of plurality,

which is resolved to unity. The Doctrine of monotheism. One in all and

all into one.

VASISHTHA said:—Tell me, my lord, that bearest the crescent

of the moon on thy fore-head, how the pure and

simple essence of the intellect, which is an infinite unity and

ever uniform and immutable in its nature, is transmuted to the

finite dualities of the variable and impure soul and mind.

(Moreover the whole equal to a part is quite absurd and impossible).

2. Tell me, O great god! how this uncaused prime cause,

becomes diffused in endless Varieties, and how can we get rid

of the plurality of our creeds by our wisdom, for putting an end

to our miseries. (By means of our belief in the true unity).

3. The god replied—When the omnipotent God (sad), remains

as one unity of immensity (Eka Brahma); it is then of

course absurd, to speak of his duality or plurality, and of the

manifestation of a part or minim of himself. (The whole cannot

be a part).

4. Taking the monad for a duad, is to ascribe duality to

unity; and the imputation of dualism or bipartition to the

simple intellect, is wholly futile from its nature of indivisibility.

(So says the sruti: The one is no dual nor a bipartite

thing. In Him there is no plurality, diversity or any particularity

whatever. [Sanskrit: natu taddvitíyamasti tati-nya hvibhaktam | nanuneha

nánástikincana.])

5. The want of the number one, causes the absence both of

unity, duality; because there can be no dual without the singular,

nor a single one unless there be the number two above it.

(i.e. There can be no duality without the prime and preceding

unity; nor even the unity unless it is followed by duality; because[Pg 205]

the prime number would be indefinite and indetermined

without the succeeding ones).

6. The cause and its effect being of one nature (or essence),

they are both of the same kind, as the fruit and the seed contained

in it. The difference which is attributed to them from

the change of one thing to the other, is a mere fiction of imagination.

7. The mind itself evolves in its thoughts at its own will;

the changes occurring in itself, are no way different from its

own nature; as the mutual productions of seed and fruit, are of

the same nature, the same fruit produces the same seeds, and

these again bring forth the same fruits &c. (So the mind and

its thoughts, are the same things and of the self-same nature).

8. Many modifications incessantly rise in the infinite mind

of the almighty Maker as its eternal will, and these taking place

in actu in positive existences, and substantive forms bear the

relation of causes and their effects in this world.

9. These productions are likened to the waves of waters in

the sea, and mirage to the progeny of a barren woman, and the

horns of a hare—all which are nil and not in being. They are

all as negative as the water on the mountaintop, and as the

barley corn growing on the head of a hare. (In all these

instances the producer or container is a reality; but the produced

or contained waves etc. are false; and so is Brahma the

producer and container of all as positive entity, but the production

of the world is null and void).

10. Herein enquiring into the real truth, we must refrain

from logomachy; and find that though all things tend to stablish

the unity, yet it is difficult even in thought to do away with

the difference of things, as that of words and their senses. (that

is to say, though unity is the result of right reason, yet duality

is inseparable from common sense).

11. The essence of divine omnipotence, is not divisible into

portions or their fractions, like the waves of the sea, that are

broken into bubbles and particles of waters.

12. As the leaves and stalks and branches and flowers of

trees, are no other than the same substance; so unity and duality,[Pg 206]

meity and tuity and the objectivity of the phenomenal world,

are not different from the essence of the subjective intellect,

which contains and puts forth itself in all these forms.

13. All time and place and variety of figures and forms,

being but modifications of the intellect, it is improper for us to

question the reality of those, and assert the certainty of this

intellect.

14. The entities of time and space, and the powers of

action and destiny (divine ordinance), are all derived from and

directed by the intellect and bear their intellectual natures

also.

15. As the power of thinking, the thought and its object,

jointly compose the principle of mind; so the whole universe

and every thing that bears a name, are all included under the

term chit or intellect; as the water and its rise and fall, are all

included under the word wave.

16. The thoughts which continually rise and fall, in the

great ocean of the intellect; are like the waves which heave and

set down, on the surface of the boisterous sea.

17. It is this supreme intellect which is known by the various

appellations of the Lord, God, Truth, Siva and others; as

also by the various names of vacuum, unity and the supreme

spirit.

18. Such is the nature of God, whom no words can express;

and who is styled the Ego or the subjective "I am that I am"

and whom it is beyond the power of speech to describe.

19. All that is seen all around, are but the leaves, fruits,

flowers and branches of the all creeping plant of the intellect;

which being diffused in all, leaves nothing that is different

from it.

20. The divine intellect [Sanskrit: chit] being omniscient [Sanskrit: mahávidyá] has the

great nescience or ignorance [Sanskrit: mahá avidyá] underlying it (as the lighted

lamp is accompanied by the shadow under it); and then

looking at this side of itself it takes the name of the living soul,

and beholds this shadowy world stretched outside the divine

mind, as we see another moon in the reflexion of that luminary,

cast upon a nebular circle beyond it.

[Pg 207]

21. Then thinking itself as another or a living being Jíva,

and other wise than what it is (i.e. the immortal spirit paramátma);

it becomes just of the same nature, as it thinks and forms

itself by its own will.

22. Being thus transformed from its perfect and immaculate

state, to that of an imperfect and impure nature; it is made to

wade amidst the stream of this world, without ever thinking (of

its fall from the state of original purity).

23. The intellectual form being then assimilated with the

elemental (puryashtaka) body, receives its vital or mortal life

and living soul, which lives by reflexion of the essence of the

supreme intellect.

24. The spiritual body is also transformed to the frail living

body, which being joined with quintessence of quintuple elements,

comes to know itself as material substance (dravymas

miti).

25. This substance being next infused with the vital breath,

receives soon after its vigor and strength like the seed of a

plant; and then it feels itself to be endued with life, and to be

conceived in the uterus in its own conception.

26. The same erroneous conception of its gross materiality,

misleads to the belief of its own egoism and personality. It

conceives also its state of a moving or unmoving being, and

this conception of it converts it instantly into the like form.

(We have the forms, as we picture to ourselves in our minds).

27. Again the simultaneous meeting of former reminiscence

with the later desire of a person, changes its former habitual

and meaner form, to that of a larger and grosser kind. (Thus

one that had been a contemptible gnat in its previous state of

existence, is come to a big elephant in its next birth, not from

its remembrance of its former state of life, but from its settled

desire of becoming the would be being in the next. So it is the

will [Sanskrit: vásaná] that supersedes the former impression [Sanskrit: samskára] of what one

had been before, and transforms it to what it wishes to be afterwards.

Hence the will is the parent of thoughts).

28. The difference and duality of one from its identity and

unity, are results of one's thinking himself other wise than what[Pg 208]

he really is; as a man becomes a devil by thinking himself

possessed by a ghost.

29. The thought of the duality of one self-same soul, in its

two aspects of the supreme and human souls; is driven away by

the persuasion that I do nothing, and the agency of all actions

rests in the great God himself.

30. The unity is considered as a duality, by the dualistic

opinions of men; while on the other hand the belief in unity,

destroys the conviction of dualism and plurality from the minds

of men.

31. There is no duality or secondary being in the soul,

which may be regarded as the supreme soul, because there is

but one soul only, which is unchangeable and unperishable at all

times and every where. (All other changing and finite beings,

are but reflexions of the supreme).

32. All works of imagination are dispersed, with the dispersion

of the fumes of fancy; as one's aerial castle and the

fairy city, vanish after the flight of the phrenzy and the visionary

dream.

33. It is painful to raise a fabric of imagination, but there

is no pain whatever in breaking it down; because the chimera

of imagination is well skilled in building the aerial cities, and not

in demolishing them. (Which belongs to the province of reason

only).

34. If the fullness of one's desires and fancies, is fraught

with the pains and troubles of life, it must be the want of

such wishes and views, that will serve to set him free from

these pains for ever.

35. If even a slight desire is enough to expose a man to

many cares in life, then its utter privation must afford him complete

rest and quiet, in his transient state of being.

36. When your mind has got loose, from the manifold folds

of your serpentine desires; you will then come to enjoy the

sweets of the garden of paradise. (Had it not been for the serpent's

insinuation to taste the fatal fruit, our first parents would

be left to enjoy all the sweets of Paradise).

37. Drive away and disperse the clouds of your desire, by[Pg 209]

the breeze of your reason; and come and enjoy your rest, under

the calm and clear autumnal sky of your indifference—nonchalance.

38. Dry the impetuous current of your rapid desires, by the

charms of amulets and mantras; and then restrain yourself from

being borne away by the flood, and restrict your mind to its

dead inaction.

39. Rely thy trust in the intellectual soul chidátmá, seated

in the cavity of thy heart, and look on mankind driven to and

fro by the gusts of their desire, like fragments of straw flying

at random in the perturbed air.

40. Wash out the dirt of thy desires from thy mind, by the

pure water of thy spiritual knowledge; and after securing the

perfect tranquillity of thy soul, continue to enjoy the highest

bliss of a holy life.

41. God is all powerful and omnipresent, and displays himself

in all forms every where (He is seen in the same manner as

one desires to behold him in a temporal or spiritual light.

[Sanskrit: vrashma káranena bhogmakáranena bá yathá bhávayate tatha pashyati]).

42. It is the thought or imagination, that makes the false

world appear as true; and it depends upon the thought also,

that the world vanishes into nothing. (The existence and inexistence

of the world; depend alike on the thoughts of divine and

human minds; the positive and negative are all creations of

the mind).

43. It is the net work of our thoughts and desires, that is

interwoven with the threads of our repeated births; but the

winds of our apathy and indifference blow off this web, and

settle us in the state of supreme felicity.

44. Avarice is a thorny plant, that has taken deep root in

the human heart; it is fostered under the shade of the arbor of

desire, root out this tree of desire, and the thorny bush of avarice

will fade away of itself.

45. The world is a shadow and a pseudoscope, and rises to

view and disappears by turns; it is an error of the brain that

presents the sight of the course of nature (sansriti), like that of

the fairy land presented to us in a dream.

[Pg 210]

46. The king that forgets his nature of the Lord, mistakes

himself for a prince, or that he is born or become the ruler of

the land; this concept of his which springs from ignorance of

his divine nature, vanishes soon after he comes to the real knowledge

of himself.

47. The king in possession of his present royalty, has no

reminiscence of his past and former state; as we do not recollect

the foulness of the past rainy weather, in the serenity of the

present autumn.

48. The thought that is predominant in the mind, naturally

prevails over the fainter and weaker ones, as the highest pitch

in music suppresses the bass tones, and takes possession of the

ear.

49. Think in yourself that you are one (unit or the unity),

and that you are the soul (or supreme soul); keep this single

reflection before you, and holding fast to it, you will become

the object of your meditation. (This is called [Sanskrit: átmapújá] spiritual

adoration, or assimilating one's self to the supreme soul).