The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)-24
4. The wood like devotee is that austere ascetic, who is not
meditative in his mind, and is firmly employed in the discharge
of the rigorous rites of religion; he practises the painful
restraints of his bodily organs, and remains speechless as a
wooden statue.
5. The other kind of living liberated Yogi is one, who looks
at the world ever as before (with his usual unconcern); who
delights in his meditation of the soul, and passes as any ordinary
man without any distinctive mark of his religious order
or secular rank.
6. The condition of these two orders of saintly and holy
men, which is the fixedness of their minds and sedateness of
their souls, is what passes under the title of taciturnity and
saintliness (mauna and muni) (who hold their tongue and their
peace, and walk sub silentio and incognito on earth).
7. Thus the taciturn sages reckon four kinds of latitancy,
which they style severally by the names of reservedness in[Pg 381]
speech, restriction of the organs, woodlike speechlessness and
dead like silence as in one's sleep.
8. Oral silence consists in keeping one's mouth and lips
close, and the closeness of the senses implies the keeping of the
members of the body under strict control; the rigorous muteness
means the abandonment of all efforts, and the sleepy silence
is as silent as the grave.
9. There is a fifth kind of dead-like silence, which occurs in
the austere ascetic in his state of insensibility; in the profound
meditation of the dormant Yogi, and in the mental abstraction
of the living liberated.
10. All the three prior states of reticence, occur in the
austere devotee, and the sleepy or dead silence is what betakes
the living liberated only.
11. Though speechlessness is called silence, yet it does not
constitute pure reticence, in as much as the mute tongue may
brood evil thoughts in the mind, which lead to the bondage of
men.
12. The austere devotee continues in his reticence, without
minding his own egoism, or seeing the visibles or listening to
the speech of others; and seeing nothing beside him, he sees
all in himself, like living fire covered under ashes.
13. The mind being busy in these three states of silence, and
indulging its fancies and reveries at liberty; makes munis of
course in outward appearance, but there is no one, who understands
the nature of God.
14. There is nothing of that blessed divine knowledge in
any of these, which is so very desirable to all mankind; I
vouch it freely that they are not knowers of God, be they angry
at it or not as they may. (Vasishtha being a theoretic philosopher,
finds fault with every kind of practical Yoga or pseudo
hypnotism).
15. But this dormant or meditative silent sage, who is liberated
from all bonds and cares in his life time, is never to be
born in any shape in this world, and it is interesting to know
much of them as I will recite to you.
[Pg 382]
16. He does not require to restrain his respiration, nor needs
the triple restraint of his speech; he does not rejoice at his
prosperity, nor is he depressed in adversity, but preserves his
equanimity and the evenness of his sensibility at all times.
(He sticks to what is natural, and does not resort to anything
artificial).
17. His mind is under the guidance of his reason, and is
neither excited by nor restrained from its fancies, it is neither
restless nor dormant, and exists as it is not in existence. (owing
to its even mindedness).
18. His attention is neither divided nor pent up, but
fixed in the infinite and eternal one, and his mind cogitates
unconfined the nature of things. Such a one is said to be the
sleeping silent sage.
19. He who knows the world as it is, and is not led to error
by its deluding varieties, and whoso scans everything as it is
without being led to scepticism, is the man that is styled the
sleeping silent sage.
20. He who relies his faith and trust, on the one endless and
ever felicitous Siva, as the aggregate of all knowledge, and the
displayer of this universe, is the one who is known as the sleeping
silent sage.
21. He who sees the vacuum as the plenum, and views this
all omnium as the null and nullum; and whose mind is even
and tranquil, is the man who is called the sleeping silent sage.
22. Again he who views the universe as neither reality nor
unreality either, but all an empty vacuum and without a substratum,
but full of peace and divine wisdom, is said to be in
the best state of his taciturnity.
23. The mind that is unconscious of the effects, of the
different states of its prosperity and adversity and of its plenty
and wants, is said to rest in its highest state of rest and quiet.
24. That perfect equanimity of the mind and evenness of
temper, which is not liable to change or fluctuation; with a clear
conscience and unflinching self-consciousness, are the source of
an unimpairing reticence.
[Pg 383]
25. The consciousness that I am nothing, nor is there anything
besides; and that the mind and its thoughts, are no other
in reality (than fictions of the intellect); is the real source
of taciturnity.
26. The knowledge that the ego pervades this universe,
which is the representation of the "one that is"; and whose
essence is displayed equally in all things, is what is meant by
the state of sleepy silence. (i.e. the man that has known this
grand truth, remains dumb and mute and has nothing to say).
27. Now as it is the consciousness which constitutes all
and everything, how can you conceive your distinction from
others, who are actuated by the same power, dwelling alike in
all? It is this knowledge which is called the ever lasting sleep,
and forms the ground work of every kind of silence.
28. This is the silence of profound sleep, and because it is
an endless sleep in the ever wakeful God, this sleep is alike
to waking. Know this as the fourth stage of Yoga, or rather
a stage above the same.
29. This profound trance is called hypnotism or the fourth
state of entranced meditation; and the tranquillity which is above
this state, is to be had in one's waking state.
30. He that is situated in his fourth stage of yoga, has a
clear conscience and quiet peace attending on him. This is practicable
by the adept even in his waking state, and is obtainable
by the righteous soul, both in its embodied as well as disembodied
states.
31. Yes, O Ráma! Be you desirous to be settled in this
state, and know that neither I or you nor any other person is
any real being in this world, which exists only as a reflexion of
our mind, and therefore the wise man should rely only in the
bosom of the vacuous intellect, which comprehends all things
in it.
[Pg 384]
CHAPTER LXIX.
Union of the mind with the breath of life.
Argument.—Willful existence of the attendants of Rudra, and the
elevation of yogis after their Demise.
RÁMA said:—Tell me, O chief of sages, how the Rudras
came to be a hundred in their number, and whether the
attendants of Rudra, are Rudras also or otherwise.
2. Vasishtha replied:—The mendicant saw himself in a
hundred forms in a hundred dreams, which he dreamt one
after another; these I have told you on the whole before, though
I have not specially mentioned them to you.
3. All the forms that he saw in the dream, became so many
Rudras, and all these hundred Rudras remained as so many
attendants on the principal Rudra.
4. Ráma asked:—But how could the one mind of the
mendicant, be divided into a hundred in so many bodies of
the Rudras; or was it undivided like a lamp, that lightens a
hundred lamps, without any diminution of its own light.
5. Vasishtha answered:—Know Ráma, that disembodied
or spiritual beings of pure natures, are capable of assuming to
themselves any form of their fancy, from the aqueous nature
of their souls (which readily unite with other liquids). (The
Sruti says, "the soul is a fluid"; corresponding with the
psychic fluid of Stahl).
6. The soul being omnipresent and all pervading (like the
all diffusive psychic fluid); takes upon it any form whatever,
and whenever and wherever it likes, by virtue of its intelligence:
(which the ignorant spirit is unable to do).
7. Ráma rejoined:—But tell me Sir, why the Lord
Rudra or Siva wore the string of human skulls about his neck,
daubed his body with ashes, and stark naked; and why he
dwelt in funeral ground, and was libidinous in the greatest
degree.
[Pg 385]
8. Vasishtha replied:—The Gods and perfect beings as
the siddhas &c. are not bound down by the laws, which the
weak and ignorant men have devised for their own convenience.
9. The ignorant cannot go on without the guidance of law,
on account of their ungovernable minds; or else they are subject
to every danger and fear, like poor fishes (which are quite
helpless, and entirely at the mercy of all voracious animals).
10. Intelligent people are not exposed to those evils in life,
as the ignorant people of ungoverned minds and passions, meet
with by their restless and vagrant habits.
11. Wise men discharge their business as they occur to
them at times, and never undertake to do any thing of their
own accord, and are therefore exposed to no danger. (Graha
in the text means a shark and calamities also).
12. It was on the impulse of the occasion that the God
Vishnu, engaged himself in action, and so did the God with
the three eyes (i.e. Siva), as also the God that was born of the
lotus (i.e. The great Brahmá). (All of them took human forms
on them, whenever the Daityas invaded the Bráhmans, and
never of their own will).
13. The acts of wise men are neither to be praised or blamed
nor are they praiseworthy or blameable; because they are
never done from private or public motives (but on the expediency
of the occasion).
14. As light and heat are the natural properties, of fire and
sun shine; so are the actions of Siva and the Gods, ordained as
such from the beginning, as the caste customs of the twice born
dwijas (Aryans).
15. Though the natures of all mankind are the same, as
they are ordained in the beginning; yet the ignorant have
created differences among them, by institution of the distinction
of castes and customs; and as their institutions are of their
own making, they are subjected by them to the evils of future
retribution and transmigration. (Men are bound down by their
own laws, from which the brute creation is entirely free).
[Pg 386]
16. I have related to you, Ráma! the quadruple reticence
of embodied beings, and have not as yet expounded the nature
of the silence of disembodied souls (as those of the Gods, siddhas
and departed saints).
17. Hear now how men are to obtain this chief good (summum
bonum) of theirs, by their knowledge of the intellectual
souls in the clear sphere of their own intellect, which is clearer
far than the etherial sphere of the sky.
18. It is by the knowledge of all kinds of knowledge, and
constant devotion to meditation; and by the study of the numerical
philosophy of particulars in the sánkhya system, that
men became renowned as Sánkhya yogis or categorical philosopher.
(The Sánkhya is opposed to the Vedánta, in as much as it
rises from particulars to general truths).
19. The yoga consists in the meditation of Yogis, of the form
of the eternal and undecaying One; by suppression of their
breathings, and union with that state, which presents itself to
their mind.
20. That unfeigned and undisguised state of felicity and
tranquillity, which is desired as the most desirable thing by all,
is obtainable by some by means of the Sánkhya Yoga, and by
the Jnána Yoga by others.
21. The result of both these forms of Yoga, is the same,
and this is known to anybody that has felt the same; because
the state arrived at by the one, is alike to that of the other
also.
22. And this supreme state is one, in which the actions of
the mental faculties and vital breath, are altogether imperceptible;
and the network of desires is entirely dispersed.
23. The desire constitutes the mind, which again is the
cause of creation; it is therefore by the destruction of both of
these, that one becomes motionless and inactive. (Forgets himself
to a stone. Pope).
24. The mind forgets its inward soul, and never looks towards
it for a moment; it is solely occupied with its body, and
looks at the phantom of the body, as a child looks at a ghost.
(Thinking it a reality).
[Pg 387]
25. The mind itself is a false apparition, and an unsubstantial
appearance of our mistake; and shows itself as the death of
some body in his dream, which is found to be false upon his
waking.
26. The world is the production of the mind, else what am
I and who is mine or my offspring; it is custom and our education
that have caused the bugbears of our bondage and
liberation, which are nothing in reality.
27. There is one thing however, on which is based the bias
of both systems; that it is the suppression of breath, and
the restriction of mind, which form the sum and substance of
what they call their liberation.
28. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, if it is suppression which
constitutes the liberation of these men; then I may as well say
that all dead men are liberated, as well as all dead animals also.
29. Vasishtha replied:—Of the three practices of the restriction
of the breath, body and mind, I ween the repression of
the mind and its thoughts to be the best; because it is easily
practicable and I will tell you how it is to be done to our good.
30. When the vital breaths of the liberated souls, quit this
mortal frame; it perceives the same in itself, and flies in the
shape of a particle in the open sky, and mixes at last with
etherial air.
31. The parting soul accompanies with its tanmátras or elementary
principles; which comprise the desires of its mind,
and which are closely united with breath, and nothing besides.
32. As the vital breath quits one body to enter into another,
so it carries with it the desires of the heart, with which it was
in the breast of man, as the winds of the air bear the fragrance
of flowers. These are reproduced in the future body for its
misery only.
33. As a water pot thrown in the sea, does not lose its
water, so the vital breath mixing with the etherial air, does not
lose the desires of the mind, which it bears with it. They are
as closely united with it, as the sun-beams with the sun.
34. The mind cannot be separated from the vital breath
(i.e. the desires are inseparable from life), without the aid of the[Pg 388]
knowledge; and as the bird Titterí cannot be removed from one
nest without an other (so the soul never passes from one body
without finding and entering into another).
35. Knowledge removes the desires, and the disappearance
of desires destroys the mind; this produces the suppression of
breath, and thence proceeds the tranquillity of the soul.
36. Knowledge shows us the unreality of things, and the
vanity of human desires. Hence know O Ráma, that the
extinction of desires, brings on the destruction of both the mind
and vitality.
37. The mind being with its desires, which form its soul
and life, it can no more see the body in which it took so much
delight; and then the tranquil soul attains its holiest state.
38. The mind is another name for desire, and this extirpated
and wanting, the soul comes to the discrimination of truth,
which leads to the knowledge of the supreme.
39. In this manner, O Ráma, we came to the end of our
erroneous knowledge of the world, as it is by means of our
reason, that we come to detect our error of the snake in the
rope.
40. Learn this one lesson, that the restraining of the mind
and suppression of breath, mean the one and same thing; and
if you succeed in restraining the one, you succeed in the restraint
of other also. (So it is said, that our thoughts and
respirations go together).
41. As the waving of the palm leaved fan being stopped,
there is a stop of the ventilation of air in the room; so the
respiration of the vital breath being put to a stop, there ensues
a total stoppage of the succession of our thoughts. (It is believed
that our time is measured by succession of our breath
and thoughts ajápas, and the more are they suppressed, the
greater is the duration of our life prolonged).
42. The body being destroyed, the breath passes into the
vacuous air; where it sees everything according to the desires,
which it has wafted along with it, from the cells of the heart
and mind.
[Pg 389]
43. As the living souls find the bodies (of various animals)
in which they are embodied, and act according to their different
natures; so the departed and disembodied spirits—pránas, see
many forms and figures presented before them, according to
their several desires. They enter into the same, and act agreeably
to the nature of that being.
44. As the fragrance of flowers ceases to be diffused in the
air, when the breezes have ceased to blow; so the vital breath,
ceases to breathe, when the action of the mind is at a stop.
(Hence is the concentration of the mind, to one object only
strongly enjoyed in the yoga practice).[3]
45. Hence the course of the thoughts, and respiration of
all animals, is known too closely united with one another; as
the fragrance is inseparable from the flower, and the oil from
the oily seeds.
46. The breath is vacillation of the mind, as the mind is the
fluctuation of the breath; and these two go together for ever,
as the chariot and its charioteer.
[Pg 390]
47. These perish together without the assemblage of one
another, as the container and the contained are both lost at
the loss of either (like that of the fire and its heat). Therefore
it is better to lose them for the liberation of the soul, than
losing the soul for the sake of the body.
48. Keeping only one object or the unity in view will
stop the course of the mind; and the mind being stopped, there
will follow as a matter of course, an utter suppression of the
breath as its consequence.
49. Investigate well into the truth of the immortality of
thy soul, and try to assimilate thyself into the eternal spirit of
God; and having absorbed thy mind in the divine mind, be
one with the same.
50. Distinguish between thy knowledge and ignorance, and
lay hold on what is more expedient for you; settle yourself on
what remains after disappearance of both, and live while you
live relying on the Intellect alone.
51. Continue to meditate on the existence of all things in
one firm and ever existent entity alone, until by your constant
habit of thinking so, you find all outward existence disappear
into non existence (and present the form of the self-existent
only to view).
52. The minds of the abstinent are mortified, with their
bodies and vitality, for want of food and enjoyments; and then
there remains the consciousness of the transcendent one alone.
53. When the mind is of one even tenor, and is habituated
to it by its constant practice; it will put an end to the thought
of the endless varieties and particulars, which will naturally
disappear of themselves.
54. There is an end of our ignorance and delusion (avidyá),
as we attempt to the words of wisdom and reason; we gain
our best knowledge by learning, but it is by practice alone,
that we can have the object of our knowledge.
55. The mirage of the world will cease to exist, after the
mind has become calm and quiet in itself; as the darkness of
the sky is dispersed, upon disappearance of the raining clouds.
[Pg 391]
56. Know your mind alone as the cause of your delusion,
and strive therefore to weaken its force and action; but you
must not Ráma! weaken it so much, as to lose the sight of
the supreme spirit, which shines as the soul of the mind.
57. When the mind is settled with the supreme soul for a
moment, know that to be the mature state of thy mind, and
will soon yield the sweets of its ripeness.
58. Whether you have your tranquillity, by the Sánkhya or
Vedánta Yoga; it is both the same if you can reduce yourself
to the supreme soul; and by doing so for a moment, you are
no more to be reborn in this nether world.
59. The word divine essence, means the mind devoid of its
ignorance; and which like a fried seed is unable to reproduce
the arbor of the world, and has no interruption in its meditation
of God.
60. The mind that is devoid of ignorance, and freed from
its desires, and is settled in its pure essence; comes to see in an
instant, a full blaze of light filling the sphere of the firmament
in which it rests and which absorbs it quite.
61. The mind is said to be its pure essence, which is insensible
of itself, and settled in the supreme soul; it never
relapses into the foulness of its nature, as the copper which is
mixed with gold, never becomes dirty again.
[Pg 392]
CHAPTER LXX.
Interrogatories of Vetála.
Arguments:—Conversation of a prince and a Vetála, and Dissipation of
Error and manifestation of truth.
VASISHTHA resumed:—Life becomes no life (becomes immortal),
and the mind turns to no mind, immerges in
the soul; no sooner is the cloud of ignorance dispersed by the
bright sun beams of right reason. This is the state which is
termed moksha or liberation (from error) by the wise.
2. The mind and its egoism and tuism (subjectivity and
objectivity), appear as water in the mirage, but all these unrealities
vanish away, no sooner we come to our right reason;
3. Attend now to the queries of a vetála, which I come to
remember at present, concerning our erroneous and dreaming
conception of the phenomenal world, and which will serve to
example by the subject of our last lecture.
4. There lived a gigantic vetála in the vast wilderness of the
Vindhya mountains, who happened to come out on an excursion
to the adjoining districts in search of his prey of human
beings.
5. He used to live before in the neighbourhood of a populous
city, where he lived quite happy and well satisfied with
the victims; which were daily offered to him by the good
citizens.
6. He never killed a human being without some cause or
harm, although he roved through the city, pinched by hunger
and thirst. He walked in the ways of the honest and equitable
men in the place.
7. It came to pass in course of time that he went out of
the city, to reside in his woody retreat; where he never killed
any man, except when pressed by excessive hunger, and when
he thought it was equitable for him to do so.
[Pg 393]
8. He happened to meet there once a ruler of the land,
strolling about in his nightly round; to whom he cried out in a
loud and appalling voice.
9. The vetála exclaimed:—Where goest thou, O prince,
said he, thou art now caught in the clutches of a hideous monster,
thou art now a dead man, and hast become my ration of
this day.
10. The ruler replied:—Beware, O nocturnal fiend! that
I will break thy skull into a thousand pieces, if you will unjustly
attempt to kill me by force at this spot, and make thy
ration of me.
11. The vetála rejoined:—I do not tell thee unjustly, and
speak it rightly unto thee; that as thou art a ruler, it is thy
duty to attend to the petition of every body (wherein if thou
failest, thou surely diest before me).
12. I request thee, O prince! to solve the questions that I
propose to thee; because I believe thou art best able to give a
full and satisfactory answer to every one of them. (These
questions are dark enigmas, which are explained in the next
chapter).
13. Who is that glorious sun, the particles of whose rays,
are seen to glitter in the surrounding worlds: and what is that
wind (or force), which wafts these dusts of stars, in the infinite
space of vacuum.
14. What is that self-same thing, which passes from one
dream to another, and assumes different forms by hundreds
and thousands, and yet does not forsake its original form.
15. Tell me what is that pithy particle in bodies, which
is enveloped under a hundred folds or sheaths, which are laid
over and under one another, like the coats or lamina of a
plantain tree.
16. What is that minute atom which is imperceptible to
the eye, and yet produces this immeasurable universe, with its
stupendous worlds and skies, and the prodigious planets on high
and mountains below, which are the minutest of that minute
particle.
[Pg 394]
17. What is that shapeless and formless thing atom, which
remains as the pith and marrow under the rocks of huge mountains,
and which is the substratum of the triple world (of heaven,
earth and infernal regions).
18. If you, O wicked soul, fail to answer to these queries,
then shalt thou be a killer of thyself, by your being made my
food this moment. And know that at the end, I will devour
all thy people, as the regent of death destroys every body in the
world.
[Pg 395]
CHAPTER LXXI.
The prince's reply to the first question of the Vetála.
Arguments:—Answer to the first question regarding the Prime cause
of all, shows the infinite worlds to be the trees and fruits of that original
root.
VASISHTHA related:—The Rájá smiled at hearing these
questions of the Demon, and as he opened his mouth to
give the reply, the lustre of his pearly teeth, shed a brightness
on the white vault of the sky. (This shows how much the
early Hindus prized their white teeth, though latterly they
tinged them with blue vitriol).
2. This world was at first a rudimentary granule (in the
Divine mind), and was afterwards encrusted by a dozen of elemental
sheaths as its pellicles, skin and bark. (Does it
mean the component elements or layers Bhúta-tatwa or Bhú-tatwa).
3. The tree which bears thousands of such fruits, is very
high also with its equally out stretching branches, and very
long and broad leaves likewise.
4. This great tree is of a huge size and very astounding to
sight; it has thousands of prodigious branches spreading wide
on every side.
5. There are thousands of such trees, and a dense forest of
many other large trees and plants in that person.
6. Thousands of such forests stretch over it, abounding in
thousands of mountains with their elevated peaks.
7. The wide extended tracts which contain these mountains,
have also very large valleys and dales amidst in them.
8. These wide spread tracts contain also many countries,
with their adjacent islands and lakes and rivers too.
9. These thousands of islands also contain many cities,
with varieties of edifices and works of art.
[Pg 396]
10. These thousands tracts of lands, which are sketched
out as so many continents, are as so many earths and worlds
in their extent.
11. That which contains thousands of such worlds, as the
mundane eggs, is as unlimited as the spacious womb of the
firmament.
12. That which contains thousands of such eggs in its
bosom, bears also many thousands of seas and oceans resting
calmly in its ample breast.
13. That which displays the boisterous waves of seas, is
the sprightly and sportive soul, heaving as the clear waters of
the ocean.
14. That which contains thousands of such oceans, with
all their waters in his unconscious womb, is the God Vishnu
who filled the universal ocean with his all pervasive spirit.
(And the spirit of God floated on the face of the waters, Moses.
The waters were the first abode of Náráyana).
15. That which bears thousands of such Gods, as a string
of pearls about the neck, is the Great God Rudra.
16. That which bears thousands of such Great Gods
Mahádevas, in the manner of the hairs on his person; is the
supreme Lord God of all.
17. He is that great sun that he shines in a hundred such
persons of the Gods, all of whom are but frictions of the rays
of that Great source of light and life.
18. All things in the universe are but particles of that
uncreated sun; and thus have I explained to you that Intellectual
sun, who fills the world with his rays, and shows them
light.
19. The all knowing soul is the supreme sun that enlightens
the world, and fills all things in it with particles of its rays.
(The soul is the sun, whose light of knowledge manifests all
things unto us).
20. It is the Omniscient soul, which is that surpassing sun,
whose rays produce and show everything to light; and
without which as in the absence of the solar light, nothing[Pg 397]
would grow nor be visible in the outer world. (The sun's
heat and light are the life and shower of the sight of the
world).
21. All living beings who have their souls enlightened by
the light of philosophy, behold the sphere of the universe to
be a blaze of the gemming sun of the intellect; and there is
not the least tinge of the erroneous conceptions of the material
world in it. Know this and hold your peace.[4]
[Pg 398]
CHAPTER LXXII.
Answers to the remaining questions.
Argument:—The Rájah's replies to the five remaining questions of the
Demon.
THE Rájah replied:—The essences of time, vacuum and of
force, are all of intellectual origin; it is the pure intellect
which is the source of all, as the air is the receptacle of odours
and dusts. (The mind contains all things).
2. The supreme soul is as the universal air, which breathes
out the particles contained in the intellect; as the etherial air
bears the fragrance from the cells of flowers. (The soul is
called átmá corresponding with the Greek atmos air, in which
sense it is the same with the spirit). (This is the answer to
the second question).
3. The great Brahma of the conscious soul, passing
through the dreaming world (it being but a dream only passes
from one scene to another without changing its form). (The
soul is conscious of the operations of the mind, but never
changes with the mental phenomena).
4. As the stem (stambha) of plantain tree, is a folding of
its pellicles plaited over one another, and having its pith hidden
in the inside; so everything in the world presents its exterior
coats to the view, while its substance of Brahma is deeply hid
in the interior.
5. The words ens, soul and Brahma by which God is designated,
are not significant of his nature, who is devoid of all
designations like the empty void, and indescribable (avyapadesa)
in any word in use. (So the sruti: na tatra vak gachchhate, to
Him no words can approach; i.e. no words can express Him).
6. Whatever essence is perceived by one as the product of
another, is like the upper fold or plait of the plantain tree,
produced by the inner one; and all such coating are but developments
of the Divine Intellect lying at the bottom. (As[Pg 399]
the essence of the cloth is the thread, which is the product of
cotton produced by the pod of the cotton plant, which is
produced from the seed grown by the moisture of the water &c.,
the last of which has the Divine essence for its prime cause and
source.)
7. The supreme soul is said to be a minute atom, on account
of the subtility and imperceptibility of its nature; and it is said
also to be the base of mountains and all other bodies, owing
to the unboundedness of its extent. (This is in answer to the
fifth question).
8. The endless being though likened to a minute atom,
is yet as large as to contain all these worlds as its minutest
particles; which are as evident to us as the very many aerial
scenes appearing in our minds in the state of dreaming. (The
small grain of the soul contains the universe, as the particle
of the mind contains the worlds in it).
