The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)-27

27. There are many instruments of aerostation, such as the

use of Gutika pills, application of collyrium, the wielding of

sword and the like; but all these are attended with many

evils, which are prejudicial to holiness.

28. There are some gems and drugs, as also some mantras

or mystic syllables, and likewise some charms and formulas

prescribed for this purpose; but these being fully explained,

will be found prejudicial to holy yoga. (These magical

practices and artifices are violations of the rules of righteousness).

29. The mount Meru and Himálaya, and some sacred spots

and holy places, are mentioned as the seats of divine inspiration;

but a full description of them, will tend to the violation

of holy meditation or yoga. (Because all these places are full

of false yogis, who practice many fulsome arts for their gain).

30. Therefore hear me now relate unto you, something

regarding the practice of restraining the breath, which is

attended with its consequence of consummation; and is related

with the narrative of Sikhidhwaja, and is the subject of the[Pg 435]

present discourse. (Here Vasishtha treats of the efficacy of

the regulation of breath towards the attaining of consummation

for satisfaction of Ráma, in disregard of false and artificial

practices).

31. It is by driving away all desires from the heart, beside

the only object in view, and by contracting all the orifices of

the body; as also by keeping the stature, the head and neck

erect, that one should attend the practices enjoined by the yoga

sástra (namely: fixing the sight on the top of the nose and

concentrating it between the eye-brows and the like).

32. Moreover it is by the habit of taking pure food and

sitting on clean seats, that one should ponder into the deep

sense and sayings of the sástras, and continue in the course of

good manners and right conduct in the society of the virtues,

by refraining from worldliness and all earthly connections.

33. It is also by refraining from anger and avarice, and

abstaining from improper food and enjoyments, that one must

be accustomed to constrain his breathings in the course of a

long time.

34. The wise man that knows the truth, and has his command

over his triple breathings of inspiration, expiration and

retention (púraka, rechaka and kumbhaka), has all his actions

under his control, as a master has all his servants under his

complete subjection. (because breath is life, and the life has

command over all the bodily actions, as well as mental operations

of a person).

35. Know Ráma, that all the well being of a man being

under the command of his vital breath; it is equally possible

for every one, both to gain his sovereignty on earth, as also

to secure his liberation for the future by means of his breath.

(So says the proverb, "as long as there is breath, there every

hope with it" [Sanskrit: yábat shusah tábat áshah] So in Hindi:—jan hai to

Jehan hai i.e. the life is all in all &c. So it is said in regard

to the kumbhaka or retentive breath, "repress your breath and

you repress all," because every action is done by the repression

of the breath).

[Pg 436]

36. The breath circulates through the inner lung of the

breast, which encircles the entrails (antra) of the whole inner

frame; it supplies all the arteries with life, and is joined to by

all the intestines in the body as if they to that common channel.

37. There is the curved artery resembling the disc at the

top of lute, and the eddy of waters in the sea; it likens the curved

half of the letter Om, and is situated as a cypher or circlet

in the base or lower most gland. (It is called the kundaliní or

kula kundaliní nárhí in the original).

38. It is deep seated at the base of the bodies of the Gods

and demi Gods, of men and beasts, of fishes and fowls, of insects

and worms, and of all aquatic molluscs and animals at large.

39. It continues curved and curbed in the form of a folded

snake in winter, until it unfolds its twisted form under the

summer heat (or the intestinal heat of its hunger Jatharágní),

and lifts its hood likening the disk of the moon. (The moon in

the yoga sástra, means the loti-form gland under the upper

most crown of the head).

40. It extends from the lower base, and passing through the

cavity of the heart, touches the holes between the eye brows;

and remains in its continued vibration by the wind of the

breath.

41. In the midst of that curvilineal artery (kundaliní nárhí),

there dwells a mighty power like the pith within the soft cell

of the plantain tree, which is continually vibrating, like thrilling

wires of the Indian lute (or as the pendulum of a machine).

42. This is called the curvilineal artery (kundaliní) on account

of its curviform shape, and the power residing in it is that

prime mobile force, which sets to motion all the parts and

powers of the animal body.

43. It is incessantly breathing like hissing of an infuriate

snake and with its open mouths, it keeps continually blowing

upwards, in order to give force to all the organs.

44. When the vital breath enters into the heart, and is drawn

in by the curved Kundaliní; it then produces the consciousness

of the mind, which is the ground of the seeds of all its

faculties.

[Pg 437]

45. As the Kundaliní thrills in the body, in the manner

of a bee fluttering over a flower; so doth our consciousness

throb in the mind, and has the perception of the nice and delicate

sensations. (Such as the lungs and arteries receive the

crude food and drink; so doth our consciousness perceive their

various tastes and flavour).

46. The Kundaliní artery stirs as quickly to grasp its gross

objects, as our consciousness is roused at the perception of the

object of the finer senses of sight &c. These come in contact

with one another, as an instrument lays hold of some material.

47. All the veins in the body are connected with this

grand artery, and flow together like so many cellular vessels

into the cavity of the heart, where they rise and fall like rivers

in the sea. (It shows the concentration of blood in the heart

by all the veins and arteries, and its distribution to them in

perpetual succession, to have been long known to the sages of

India, before its discovery by Harvey in Europe).

48. From the continued rise and fall (or heaving and sinking)

of this artery, it is said to be the common root or source

of all the sensations and perceptions in the consciousness. (It

rises and falls with the inhaling and exhaling breaths up to

the pericranium and thence down to the fundament).

49. Ráma regained:—How is it sir, that our consciousness

coming from the infinite intellect at all times and places, is

confined like a minute particle of matter, in the cellular vessel of

the curved Kundaliní artery, and there it rises and falls by turns.

50. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O sinless Ráma, that

consciousness is the property of the infinite intellect, and is

always present in all places and things with the all pervading

intellect; yet it is sometimes compressed in the form of a

minute atom of matter in material and finite bodies.

51. The consciousness of the infinite intellect, is of course

as infinite as infinity itself; but being confined in corporeal

bodies, it is fused as a fluid to diffuse over a small space. So

the sunshine that lightens the universe, appears to flush over a

wall or any circumscribed place. (Such as human consciousness,

which is but a flush of the Divine omniscience).

[Pg 438]

52. In some bodies it is altogether lost, as in mineral substances

which are unconscious of their own existence; and in

others it is fully developed, as in the Gods and human species;

while in some it is imperfectly developed, as in the vegetable

creation, and in others it appears in its perverted form,

as in the inferior animals. So everything is found to have

its consciousness in some form or other.

53. Hear me moreover to explain you, the manner in

which consciousness (or other), appears in its various forms and

degrees, in the different bodies of animated beings.

54. As all cavities and empty spaces are comprised under

the term air, so are all intelligent as well as unintelligent

beings comprehended under the general category of the one

ever existent intellect, which pervades all things in the manner

of vacuum. (Here is another proof of the vacuistic theory of

the theosophy of Vasishtha).

55. The same undecaying and unchanging entity of the

intellect, is situated some where in the manner of pure consciousness,

and elsewhere in the form of the subtile form of the

quintuple elements. (i.e. As the simple soul and the gross body

or the mundane soul. So says Pope: Whose body nature is, and

God the soul).

56. This quintuple element of consciousness is reduplicate

into many other quintuples, as a great many lamps are lighted

from one lamp; these are the five vital airs, the mind and its

five fold faculties of the understanding; the five internal and

the five external senses and their five fold organs, together

with the five elementary bodies; and all having the principles

of their growth, rise and decay, as also their states of waking,

dreaming and sleeping ingrained in them.

57. All these quintuples abide in the different bodies of the

Gods and mortals, according to their respective natures and

inclinations (which are the causes of their past and present

and future lives in different forms).

58. Some taking the forms of places, and others of the

things situated in them; while some take the forms of minerals,

and others of the animals dwelling on earth.

[Pg 439]

59. Thus is this world the production of the action of the

said quintuples, having the principle of intellectual consciousness,

presiding over the whole and every part of it.

60. It is the union of these quintuples in gross bodies, that

gives them their intelligence; hence we see the mobility of

some dull material bodies, as also the immobility of others (as

of mineral and vegetable creations).

61. As the wave of the sea is seen to roll in one place, and

to be dull and at a lull in another; so is this intellectual

power in full force in some bodies, and quite quiescent in

others.

62. As the sea is calm and still in one place, and quite

boisterous in another; so is the quintuple body either in

motion or at rest in different places. (Hence rest and motion

are properties of gross bodies and not of the intellectual soul,

which is ever quiescent).

63. The quintuple body is mobile by means of the vital

airs, and the vital life (jíva) is intelligent by cause of its intelligence;

the rocks are devoid of both, but the trees have

their sensibility by reason of their being moved by the breath

of winds; and such is the nature of the triple creation of animals,

minerals and vegetables.

64. Different words are used to denote the different

natures of things (or else the same word is used for things of

the same kind); thus fire is the general name for heat, and

frost is that of coldness in general.

65. (Or if it is not the difference in the disposition of the

quintuple elements in bodies, that causes the difference in their

natures and names). It is the difference in the desires of the

mind, which by being matured in time, dispose the quintuple

elements in the forms of their liking.

66. The various desires of the mind, that run in their

divers directions, are capable of being collected together by

the sapient, and employed in the way of their best advantage

and well being.

67. The desires of men tending either to their good or

evil, are capable of being roused or suppressed, and employed[Pg 440]

to their purposes by turns. (The changeful desires always run

in their several courses).

68. Man must direct his desires to that way, which promises

him the objects of his desires; or else it will be as fruitless,

as his throwing the dust at the face of the sky.

69. The great mountains are but heaps of the pentuples,

hanging on the tender and slender blade of consciousness, and

these moving and unmoving bodies, appear as worms on the

tree of knowledge (i.e. before the intelligent mind).

70. There are some beings with their desires lying dormant

in them, as the unmoving vegetable and mineral productions of

the earth; while there are others with their ever wakeful

desires, as the deities, daityas and men.

71. Some are cloyed with their desires, as the worms and

insects in the dirt; and others are devoid of their desires as

the emancipate yogis, and the heirs of salvation.

72. Now every man is conscious in himself of his having

the mind and understanding, and being joined with his hands,

feet and other members of his body, formed by the assemblage

of the quintuple materials.

73. The inferior animals have other senses, with other members

of their bodies; and so the immoveables also have some

kind of sensibility, with other sorts of their organs. (The

members of brute bodies are, the four feet, horns and tails of

quadrupeds; the birds are biped and have their feathers, bills

and their tails also; the snakes have their hoods and tails; the

worms have their teeth, and the insects their stings &c.

And all these they have agreeably to the peculiar desire of

their particular natures. Gloss).

74. Thus my good Ráma! do these quintuple elements,

display themselves in these different forms in the beginning,

middle and end of all sensible and insensible and moving and

unmoving beings.

75. The slightest desire of any of these, be it as minute as an

atom, becomes the seed of aerial trees producing the fruits of

future births in the forms of the desired objects. (Every one's

desire is the root of his future fate).

[Pg 441]

76. The organs of sense are the flowers of this tree (of the

body), and the sensations of their objects are as the fragrance

of those flowers, our wishes are as the bees fluttering about the

pistils and filaments of our fickle efforts and exertions.

77. The clear heavens are the hairy tufts, resting on the

stalks of the lofty mountains; its leaves are the cerulean

clouds of the sky, and the ten sides of the firmament, are as the

straggling creepers stretching all about it.

78. All beings now in being, and those coming into existence

in future, are innumerable in their number, and are as

the fruits of this tree, growing and blooming and falling off

by turns.

79. The five seeds of these trees, grow and perish of their

own nature and spontaneity, also perish of themselves in their

proper time.

80. They become many from their sameness, and come to

exhaust their powers after long inertness; and then subside to

rest of their own accord like the heaving waves of the ocean.

81. On one side, there swelling as huge surges, and on the

other sinking low below the deep, excited by the heat of the

dullness on the one hand, and hushed by the coolness of reason

on the other (like the puffing and bursting of the waves in the

sea).

82. These multitudes of bodies, that are the toys or play

things of the quintuple essences, are destined to remain and

rove for ever in this world, unless they come under the dominion

of reason, and are freed from further transmigration.

[Pg 442]

CHAPTER LXXXI.

Inquiry into Agni, Soma or fire and moon

Argument:—Investigation into the Kundaliní artery, as the source of

consummation.

VASISHTHA continued:—The seeds of these pentuples are

contained in the inside of the great artery, and are

expanding every moment by the vibration of the vital

breath in the beings.

2. The vibration of the Kundaliní being stopped, it roused

the intellect by its touch, and the rising of the intellect is

attended with rising of the intellectual powers as follows.

3. This intellect is the living principle from its vitality, and

the mind from its mental powers; it is the volitive principle

from its volition, and is called the understanding, from its

understanding of all things.

4. It becomes egoism with its octuple properties called the

puryashtakas, and remains as the principle of vitality in the

body in the form of the Kundaliní artery. (The gloss gives no

explanation of the psychological truths).

5. The intellect abides in Kundaliní entrails in the form of

triple winds. Being deposited in the bowels and passing

downwards, it takes the name of the apána wind; moving

about the abdomen it is called the samána wind; and when

seated in the chest it rises upwards, it is known by the name

of the udána wind.

6. The apána wind passing downward evacuates the bowels,

but the samána wind of the abdominal part serves to sustain

the body; and the udána rising upward and being let out,

inflates and invigorates the frame.

7. If after all your efforts, you are unable to repress the

passing off of the downward wind; then the person is sure to meet

his death, by the forcible and irrepressible egress of the apána

wind (this irrepressible egress is called abishtambhá). (The[Pg 443]

translator regrets for his inability to give the English terminology

of these psychological words in the original).

8. And when one with all his attempts, is unable to suppress

his rising breath of life; but it forces of his mouth or

nostrils, it is sure to be followed by his expiration.

9. If one by his continual attention, can succeed to repress

the outward and inward egress of his vital breath, and preserve

calm quiet of his disposition, he is sure to have his longevity

accompanied with his freedom from all diseases.

10. Know that the decomposure of the smaller arteries, is

attended with distempers of the body, but the disturbance of

the greater arteries is followed by serious consequences. (There

are a hundred great arteries, attached to the main conduit of

Kundaliní, besides hundreds of small veins and nerves diverging

from them throughout the body. The yogi has the

power of stopping the current of his breath and blood into

these by his restraint of respiration—pránáyáma).

11. Ráma said:—Tell me, O holy sage! how our health

and sickness connected with the organs and arteries of the

body (rather than with the blood and humours circulating

through them).

12. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that uneasiness and

sickness, are both of them the causes of pain to the body;

their healing by medicine is their remedy, which is attended

with our pleasure; but the killing of them at once by our

liberation (from the sensations of pain and pleasure), is what

conduces to our true felicity. (Because both health and sickness

are attended with but short lived pleasure and pain, and cannot

give us the lasting felicity to our souls).

13. Some times the body is subject both to uneasiness and

sickness also, as the causes of one another; sometimes they

are both alleviated to give us pleasure, and at others they

come upon us by turns to cause our pain only.

14. It is ailing of the body, that we call our sickness, and

it is the trouble of the mind that we term our uneasiness.

Both of them take their rise from our inordinate desires, and

it is our ignorance only of the nature of things, that is the[Pg 444]

source of both. (Our intemperance and covetousness, which

are dispelled by our right knowledge).

15. Without the knowledge of the natures and virtues of

things, and the want of the government of our desires and

appetites, that the heart string loses its tenuity and even

course; and is swollen and hurried on by the impulse of passions

and inordinate desires.

16. The exultation at having obtained something, and

ardour for having more; equally boil the blood of the heart,

and shroud the mind under a shadow of infatuation, as an impervious

cloud in the rainy weather.

17. The ever increasing greediness of the mind, and the

subjection of the intellect under the dominion of foolhardiness,

drives men to distant countries in search of a livelihood.

(One's natal land is enough to supply him with a simple

living).

18. Again the working at improper seasons (as at night

and in rain and heat), and the doing of improper actions; the

company of infamous men, and aptitude to wicked habits and

practices.

19. The weakness and fulness of the intestines caused by

sparing food on the one hand, and its excess on the other,

cause the derangement of the humours and the disorder of the

constitution.

20. It is by cause of this disordered state of the body, that

a great many diseases grow in it, both by reason of the deficit

as well as the excess of its humours; as a river becomes foul

both in its fulness and low water in the rain and summer heat.

21. As the good or bad proclivities of men, are the results

of their actions of prior and present births, so the anxieties and

diseases of the present state, are the effects of the good and bad

deeds both of this life as also those of the past.

22. I have told you Ráma, about the growth of the diseases

and anxieties in the quintessential bodies of men; now hear

me tell you the mode of extirpating them from the human constitution.

[Pg 445]

23. There are two sorts of diseases here common to human

nature, namely—the ordinary ones and the essential; the ordinary

ones are the occurrences of daily life, and the essential is

what is inborn in our nature. (The ordinary cares for supplying

our natural wants are of the first sort, and the inbred errors

and affections of the mind are of other kind).

24. The ordinary anxieties are removed by the attainments

of the objects in want; and the diseases growing out of them, are

also removed by the removal of our anxious cares.

25. But the essential infirmities of one's dispositions, being

bred in the blood and bone, cannot be removed from the body,

without the knowledge of the soul; as the error of the snake in

the rope, is removed only by examination of the rope. (So the

affection will be found to rise in the mind and not rooted in the

soul).

26. The erroneous affections of the mind, being known as

the source of the rise of all our anxious cares and maladies; it

is enough to put a stop to this main spring in order to prevent

their outlets, so the stream that breaks its banks in the

rains, carries away the arbours that grew by it in its rapid course.

(The fissures of stopping the source, and breaking out of the

course, are quite opposed to one another).

27. The non-essential or extrinsical diseases that are derived

from without, are capable of being removed by the application

of drugs, the spell of mantras and propitiating as well as obviating

charms; as also by medicaments and treatments, according

to the prescriptions of medical science and the practice of

medical men.

28. You will know Ráma, the efficacy of baths and bathing

in holy rivers, and are acquainted with the expiatory mantras

and prescriptions of experienced practitioners; and as you have

learnt the medical Sástras, I have nothing further to direct

you in this matter.

29. Ráma rejoined:—But tell me sir, how the intrinsic

causes produce the external diseases; and how are they removed

by other remedies than those of medicinal drugs, as the muttering[Pg 446]

of mantra incantations and observance of pious acts and

ceremonies.

30. Vasishtha replied:—The mind being disturbed by anxieties

the body is disordered also in its functions, as the man that

is overtaken by anger, loses the sight of whatever is present

before his eyes.

31. He loses sight of the broad way before him, and takes

a devious course of his own; and like a stag pierced with arrows,

flies from the beaten path and enters himself amidst the

thickest.

32. The spirit being troubled, the vital spirits are disturbed

and breathe out by fits and snatches; as the waters of a river

being disturbed by a body of elephants, rise above its channel

and over flow the banks. (Violent passions raging in the breast

burst out of and break down their bounds).

33. The vital airs breathing irregularly, derange the lungs

and nerves and all the veins and arteries of the body; as the

misrule in the government, puts the laws of the realm into disorder.

34. The breathings being irregular, unsettles the whole

body; by making the blood vessels quite empty and dry in some

parts, and full and stout in others, resembling the empty and

full flowing channels of rivers.

35. The want of free breathing is attended both with indigestion

and bad digestion of the food, and also evaporation of the

chyle and blood that it produces; and these defects in digestion,

bring forth a great many maladies in the system.

36. The vital breaths carry the essence of the food we take

to the inferior organs, as the currents of a river carry the floating

woods down the stream.

37. The crude matter which remains in the intestines, for

want of its assimilation into blood, and circulation in the frame

by restraint of breathing; turn at the end to be sources of

multifarious maladies in the constitution.

38. Thus it is that the perturbed states of the mind and

spirit, produce the diseases of the body, and are avoided and removed[Pg 447]

by want of mental anxiety. Now hear me tell you, how

the mantra-exorcism serve to drive away the diseases of the body.

39. As the karitakí fruit (chebule myrobalan) is purgative

of its own nature, and purges out the crudities from the bodies;

so the headwork into the mysterious meaning of the mantras,

removes the crude diseases from the frame. (Such are the

mystic letters ya, ra, la, va, in the liquids y, r, l, v), signifying

the four elements of earth, water, air and fire; curative of many

diseases by reflection on their hidden meaning.

40. I have told you Ráma, that pious acts, holy service, virtuous

deeds and religious observances, serve also to drive the

diseases from the body; by their purifying the mind from its

impurities, as the gold is depurated by the touch stone.

41. The purity of the mind produces a delight in the body;

as the rising of the full moon, spreads the gentle moonbeams

on earth. (Every good act is attended with a rapture, recompenses

the deed; or as the maxim goes "virtue has its own

reward").

42. The vital airs breathe freely from the purity of the mind,

and these tending to help the culinary process in the stomach,

produce the nutrition of the body, and destroy the germ of its

diseases. (The germs of growth and decay and of life and

death, are both connate in the nature of all living beings; and

the increase of the one, is the cause of the decrease of the

other).

43. I have thus far related to you, Ráma! concerning the

causes of the rise and fall of the diseases and distempers of the

living body, in connection with the subject of the main artery

of Kundaliní; now hear me relate to you regarding the main

point of one's attainment of consummation or siddhi by mean

of his yoga practice.

44. Now know the life of the puryashtaka or octuple human

body, to be confined in the Kundaliní artery, as the fragrance of

the flower is contained in its inner filament.

45. It is when one fills the channel of this great artery with

his inhaling breath, and shuts it at its mouth (called the Kurma

opening), and becomes as sedate as a stone; he is then said to[Pg 448]

have attained his rock like fixity and firmness, and his siddhi

or consummation of garima or inflation.

46. Again when the body is thus filled with the inflated

air, and the wind confined in the Kundaliní artery, is carried

upwards by the vital breath (of respiration), from the base or

fundamental tube at the bottom, to the cell of the cranium in

the head, it touches the consciousness seated in the brain, and

drives away the fatigue of the process. (This is called the

ascent of the vital air in its heavenward journey).

47. Thence the wind rises upward as smoke into the air,

carrying with it the powers of all the arteries attached to it like

creepers clinging to a tree; and then stands as erect as a stick,

with its head lifted upwards like the hood of a snake. (The

art of mounting in the air, is as the act of jumping and leaping

into it).

48. Then this uprising force carries the whole body, filled

with wind from its top to toe into the upper sky; as an aerosol

floats upon the water, or as air balloon rises in the air.

(The early Hindus are thus recorded to have made their aerial

journeys by force of the inflated air, instead of the compressed

gas smoke of modern discovery).

49. It is thus that the yogis make their aerial excursions,

by means of the compression of air in the wind pipes in their

bodies; and are as happy (in their descrying the scattered

worlds all about), as poor people feel themselves at having the

dignity of the king of Gods. (Indra).

50. When the force of the exhaling breath (rechaka prabáha)

of the cranial tube, constrains the power of the Kundaliní, to

stand at the distance of twelve inches in the out side of the

upper valve between eye-brows.

51. And as the same exhaling makes it remain there for a

moment by preventing its entering into any other passage, it is

at that instant that one comes to see the supernatural beings

before his sight. (It is said in phrenology, that fixed attention,

farsightedness and supernatural vision, are seated between the

eye-brows).

[Pg 449]

52. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how we may be able to see

the supernatural siddhas, without feeling them by the rays and

light of our eye sight, and without having any supernatural

organ of perception of our own.

53. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, Ráma, as you say, that

the aerial spirit of siddhas, are invisible to earthly mortals

with the imperfect organs of their bodies, and without the aid

of supernatural organs.

54. It is by means of the clairvoyance obtained by the

practice of yoga, that the aerial and beneficent siddhas became

visible to us like the appearances in our dreams.

55. The sight of the siddhas is like that of persons in our

dream, with this difference only, that the sight of a siddha is

fraught with many real benefits and blessings accruing thereby

unto the beholder.

56. It is by the practice of posting the exhaled breath, at

the distance of twelve inches on the outside of the mouth, that

it may be made to enter into the body of another person.

(This is the practice of imparting one's spirit into the body of

another person, and of enlivening and raising the dead).

57. Ráma said:—But tell me sir, how you maintain the

immutability of nature (when everything is seen to be in

the course of its incessant change at all times). I know you

will not be displeased at this interruption to your discourse,

because good preachers are kindly disposed, to solve even the

intricate of their hearers.

58. Vasishtha replied:—It is certain that the power known

as nature, is manifest in the volition of the spirit, in its acts of

the creation and preservation of the world. (Here nature is

identified with eternal will of God).