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)-39
3. These three virtues were explained long before by the
God Siva, who holds the semi-circular disc of the crescent moon
on his forehead; to the lord of the Bhringis, who was thereby
released from all disease and disquiet. (Were the fair Bhringis
the Fringis or Franks of modern times? If not, then who were
this class of demigods?).
4. The God who has the horn of the moon as a crown on his
head, used to hold his residence of yore, on a northern peak of
the north polar mountain, together with all his family and attendants.
5. It happened that the mighty, but little knowing lord of
the Bhringis, asked him one day, with his folded palms, and his
body lowly bending down in suppliant mood before the godlike
lord of Umá. (Umá is the same in sound and sense with Ushá
the dawn, appearing from the eastern ridge of the northmost
mountain).
6. Bhringi said:—Deign to explain to me, my lord, what
I ask thee to tell for my knowledge; for thou knowest all
things, and art the God of Gods.
7. Lord! I am overwhelmed in sorrow, to see the boisterous[Pg 636]
waves of this deep and dark world in which we have been
buffeting for ever, without finding the calm and quiet harbour
of truth.
8. Tell me, my lord, what is that certain truth and inward
assurance, whereon we may rely with confidence, and whereby
we may find our rest and repose in this our shattered mansion
of this world.
9. The lord replied:—Place always your reliance in your unshaken
patience, and neither care nor fear for anything else, and
ever strive to be foremost in your action and passion and in your
relinquishment of everything (passion and relinquishment
here are used in the senses of passivity and liberality).
10. Bhringi rejoined:—Explain to me fully, my lord, what
is meant by being the greatest in action and passion; and what
are we to understand from the greatest liberality or abandonment
of every thing here.
11. The lord replied:—He is said to be the greatest actor,
who does his deeds as they occur to him, whether of goodness or
of evil, without any fear or desire of fruition. (i.e. Who expects
no reward of his acts of goodness, nor fears for the retribution
of some heinous deed, which he could not avoid to do).
12. He who does his acts of goodness or otherwise, who
gives vent to his hatred and affection and feels both pleasure
and pain, without reference to any person or thing, and without
the expectation of their consequences, is said to be the greatest
actor in the theatre of this world.
13. He is said to act his part well, who does his business
without any ado or anxiety, and maintains his taciturnity and
purity of heart without any taint of egoism or envy.
14. He is said to act his part well, who does not trouble his
mind with the thoughts of actions, that are accounted as auspicious
or inauspicious, or deemed as righteous or unrighteous,
according to common opinion. (i.e. Best is the man that relies
on his own probity, and is not guided by public opinion).
15. He is said to perform well his part, who is not affected
towards any person or thing, but witnesses all objects as a mere[Pg 637]
witness; and goes on doing his business, without his desiring or
deep engagement in it.
16. He is the best actor of his part, who is devoid of care
and delight, and continues in the same tone and tenor of his mind,
and retains the clearness of his understanding at all times, without
feeling any joy or sorrow at anything.
17. He does his duties best, who has the readiness of his
wits at the fittest time of action; and sits unconcerned with it
at other times, as a retired and silent sage or saint (i.e. discharge
your business promptly, but be no slave to service).
18. He who does his works with unconcern and without
assuming to himself the vanity of being the doer of it, is
accounted as the best actor, that acts his part with his body,
but keeps his mind quite unattached to it.
19. He is reckoned as the best actor, who is naturally
quiet in his disposition and never loses the evenness of his
temper; who does good to his friends and evil to his enemies;
without taking them to his heart.
20. He is the greatest actor, who looks at his birth, life
and death, and upon his rising and falling in the same light;
and does not lose the equanimity of his mind under any
circumstance whatever.
21. Again he is said to enjoy himself and his life the best,
who neither envies anybody nor pines for any thing; but
enjoys and acquiesces to whatever is allotted to his lot, with cool
composure and submission of his mind.
22. He also is said to enjoy every thing well, who receives
with his hands what his mind does not perceive; and acts with
his body without being conscious of it and enjoys everything
without taking it to his heart.
23. He is said to enjoy himself best, who looks on at the
conduct and behaviour of mankind, as an unconcerned and
indifferent spectator; and looks upon every thing without craving
anything for himself.
24. He whose mind is not moved with pleasure or pain,
nor elated with success and gain, nor dejected by his failure
and loss; and who remains firm in all his terrible tribulations,[Pg 638]
is the man who is said to be in the perfect enjoyment of
himself.
25. He is said to be in the best enjoyment of himself, who
hails with an equal eye of complaisance his decay and demise,
his danger and difficulty, his affluence and poverty, and looks
on their returns and revolutions, with an eye of delight and
cheerfulness.
26. He is called the man of greatest gratification, who
sustains all the ups and downs of fortune with equal fortitude,
as deep sea contains its boisterous waves in its fathomless
depth.
27. He is said to have the highest gratifications who is
possest of the virtues of contentment, equanimity
and benevolence (lit. want of malice); and which always accompany
his person, as the cooling beams cling to the disk of the
moon.
28. He too is greatly gratified in himself, who tastes
the sour and sweet, the bitter and pungent with equal zest; and
relishes a savoury and an unsavoury dish with the same taste.
29. He who tastes the tasteful and juicy, as also the untasteful
and dry food with equal zest, and beholds the pleasant as
well as unpleasant things with equal delight, is the man that is
ever gratified in himself.
30. He to whom salt and sugar are both alike, and to whom
both saline as well as saccharine victuals are equally palatable;
and who remains unaltered both in his happy and adverse circumstances;
is the man who enjoys the best bliss of his life in
this world.
31. He is in the enjoyment of his highest bliss, who makes
no distinction of one kind of his food from another; and who
yearns for nothing that he can hardly earn. (Happy is he, who
does not itch beyond his reach).
32. He enjoys his life best, who braves his misfortune with
calmness, and brooks his good fortune, his joyous days and
better circumstances with moderation and coolness.
33. He is said to have abandoned his all, who has given up[Pg 639]
the thoughts of his life and death, of his pleasure and pain,
and those of his merits and demerits at once from his mind.
34. He who has abandoned all his desires and exertions,
and forsaken all his hopes and fears, and effaced all his determinations
from the tablet of his mind, is said to have relinquished
every thing in this world, and to have freed himself
from all.
35. He who does not take to his mind the pains, which
invade his body, mind and the senses, is said to have cast away
from himself, all the troubles of his mortal state. (Because
the mind only feels the bodily and sensuous pains, and its
unfeelingness of them is its exemption from troubles).
36. He is accounted as the greatest giver (forsaker) of his
all, who gives up the cares of his body and birth (life); and has
abandoned the thoughts of acts, deemed to be proper or improper
for himself. (These are the social, civil, ceremonial and
religious acts, which are binding on worldly people).
37. He is said to have made his greatest sacrifice, who has
sacrificed his mind and all his mental functions and endeavours,
before the shrine of his self-abnegation.
38. He who has given up the sight of the visibles from his
view, and does not allow the sensibles to obtrude upon his senses,
is said to have renounced all and every thing from himself.
39. It was in this manner that the lord of gods Mahádeva,
gave his instructions to the lord of the Bhringis; and it is by
your acting according to these precepts, that you must, O Ráma!
attain to the perfection of your self-abnegation.
40. Meditate always on the everlasting and immaculate
spirit, that is without its beginning and end; which is wholly
this entire immensity and has no part nor partner, nor
representative nor representation of itself. By thinking in
this way you become immaculate yourself, and come to be extinct in
the self-same Brahma, where there is all peace and tranquillity.
41. Know one undecaying Brahma, as the soul and seed of
all various works or productions that are proceeded from him.
It is his immensity which spreads unopened throughout the whole[Pg 640]
existence; as it is the endless sky which comprehends and
manifests all things in itself.
42. It is not possible for anything at all, whether of positive
or potential existence, to subsist without and apart from
this universal essence of all, rely secure with this firm belief in
your mind, and be free from all fears in the world.
43. O most righteous Ráma, look always to the inner soul
within thyself, and perform all thy outward actions with the
outer members of thy body, by forsaking the sense of thy egoism
and personality; and being thereby freed from all care and
sorrow, thou shalt attain to thy supreme felicity.
[Pg 641]
CHAPTER CXVI.
Melting down of the Mind.
Argument.—The Dissolation of the Mind and its Affections, as the
only way for salvation of the soul.
RÁMA said:—O all-knowing sage please to tell me, what becomes
of the essence of the soul after one's egoism is lost
in his mind, and both of them are dissolved into nothing.
2. Vasishtha replied:—However great and predominant is
one's egoism over himself, and how much so ever its concomitant
evils of pride and ignorance, may overpower on man; yet
they can never touch the pure essence of the soul, as the water
of the lake can not come in contact with the lotus-leaf.
3. The purity of the soul appears vividly in the bright and
placid countenance of a man, after his egoism and its accompanying
faults are all melted down in his mortified mind.
4. All the ties of our passions and affections are cut asunder
and fall off, upon breaking the string of our desires, our anger
becomes weakened, and our ignorance wears out by degrees (our
desire or greediness being the root of all evils).
5. Our cupidity is weakened and wearied, and our covetousness
flies away far from us; our limbs become slackened, and
our sorrows subside to rest.
6. It is then that our afflictions fail to afflict as our joys
cease to elate us; we have then a calm every where and a coldness
in our heart.
7. Joy and grief now and then overcast his countenance,
(as a cloud and sunbeam hide the face of the sky); but they
cannot over shadow his soul, which is bright as eternal day.
8. The virtuous man becomes a favourite of the Gods, after
his mind is melted down with its passions; and then there
rises the calm evenness of his soul, resembling the cooling
beams of the moon.
9. He bears a calm and quiet disposition, offending and[Pg 642]
opposing to none, and therefore loved and honored by everyone;
he remains retired and assiduous to his task, and enjoys the
serenity of his soul at all times.
10. Neither wealth nor poverty, nor prosperity or adversity,
however opposite they are to one another; can ever affect or
mislead or elate or depress the minds of the virtuous (who
have already melted them down in themselves).
11. Accursed is the man that is drowned in his ignorance,
and does not seek the salvation of his soul, which is easily obtainable
by the light of reason, and which serves to save
him from all the difficulties of this world. (Reliance in
the immortality of the soul, supports a man amidst all earthly
calamities).
12. He that wants to obtain his longed for felicity, by getting
over the waves of his miserable transmigrations in the
vast ocean of this world; must always inquire in himself as
what am I, and what is this world and what am I to be afterwards;
what means this short lived enjoyments here, and what
are the fruitions of my future state. These inquiries are the best
expedients towards the salvation of the soul.
[Pg 643]
CHAPTER CXVII.
Dialogue between Manu and Ikshaku.
Argument:—Manu's Exposition of the Inquiries what am I &c. to
Ikshaku.
VASISHTHA said:—Know Ráma, that the renowned king
Ikshaku was the first founder of your race; and learn O
thou progeny of that monarch, the manner in which he obtained
his liberation.
2. Once on a time when this monarch was reigning over his
kingdom, he came to think upon the state of humanity in one
of his solitary hours.
3. He thought in himself as to, what might be the cause of
the decay, disease, and death, as also of the sorrow, pleasure and
pain, and likewise of the errors to which all living beings are
subject in this mortal world.
4. He pondered long upon these thoughts, but was unable
to find out the cause he so earnestly sought, and happening to
meet the sage Manu one day, coming to him from Brahmá-loka
or the seat of Bráhmans, he proposed the same queries to him.
5. Having honoured the lord of creatures, as he took his seat
in his court; he said to him to be excused for asking him some
questions to which he was impelled by his impatience.
6. It is by thy favour sir, that I take the liberty of asking
thee the question, regarding the origin of this creation, and the
original state in which it was made.
7. Tell me, what is the number of these worlds, and who is
the master and owner thereof; and when and by whom is it
said to be created in the vedas.
8. Tell me, how I may be extricated from my doubts and
erroneous opinions regarding this creation, and how I may be
released from them like a bird from its net.
9. Manu replied:—I see O king, that you have after a long[Pg 644]
time come to exercise of your reasoning, as it is shown by your
proposing to me so important a question as this.
10. All this that you see nothing real (they are merely phenomenal
and unsubstantial); they resemble the fairy castles in
the air, and the water in the mirage of sandy deserts. So also
anything which is not seen in reality, is accounted nothing in
existence.
11. The mind also which lies beyond the six senses, is
reckoned as nothing in reality; but that which is indestructible,
is the only thing that is said to exist, and is called the Tatsat
the only being in reality.
12. All these visible worlds and successive creations, are
but unsubstantial appearances in the mirror of that real
substance.
13. The inherent powers of Brahma, evolve themselves as
shining sparks of fire; and some of these assume the forms of
the luminous worlds; while others appear in the shapes of living
souls.
14. Others again take many other forms, which compose
this universe; and there is nothing as bondage or liberation
here, except that the undecaying Brahma is all in all; nor is
there any unity or duality in nature, except the diversity displayed
by the Divine Mind, from the essence of his own
consciousness (samvid).
15. As it is the same water of the sea, which itself is in the
various forms of its waves; so doth the Divine Intellect display
itself in every thing, and there is nothing else beside this.
Therefore leave aside your thoughts of bondage and liberation
and rest, secure in this belief from the fears of the world. (This
is pantheistic belief of one God in all).
[Pg 645]
CHAPTER CXVIII.
Continuation of the same.
Argument:—Manu's answers to the other questions of Ikshaku as
"Whence is this creation &c."
MANU continued:—It is by the divine will, that the living
souls of beings are evolved from the original intellect,
(in which they are contained), as the waves rise from the main
body of waters contained in the ocean.
2. These living souls, retain the tendencies of their prior
states in former births, and are thereby led to move in their
course of light or ignorance etc. in this world, and to accordingly
subject either to happiness or misery, which is felt by the mind
and never affects the soul itself.
3. The invisible soul is known in the knowable mind, which
is actuated by it (the soul); as the invisible node of Rahu, becomes
visible to us in the eclipse of the moon (which is affected by it):
(so the mind acting under the impulse of the soul, becomes
liable to pain or pleasure according to its desert).
4. Neither the preceptor of sástras nor the lectures of our
spiritual preceptors, can show the supreme spirit before our
sight; but it is our spirit which shows us the holy spirit, when
our understanding rests in its own true essence (apart from
its egoism and meism).
5. As travellers are seen to be journeying abroad with their
minds, free from all attainment and aversion to any particular
object or spot; so the self-liberated souls are found to sojourn
in this world, quite unconcerned even with their bodies and the
objects of their senses.
6. It is not for good and Godly men either to pamper or
famish their bodies, or quicken or weaken their senses; but to
allow them to be employed with their objects at their own option.
7. Be of an indifferent mind (udásina) with regard to your[Pg 646]
bodies and all external objects; and enjoy the cool composure
of your soul, by betaking yourself entirely to your spirituality.
8. The knowledge that "I am an embodied being" is the
cause of our bondage in this world; and therefore it is never to
be entertained by them, that are seekers of their liberation.
9. But the firm conviction that "I am no other than an intellectual
being, and as rarefied as the pure air"; is the only belief
that is able to extricate our souls from their bondage in this
world.
10. As the light of the sun pierces and shines, both within
and without the surface of a clear sheet of water; so doth the
light of the Holy spirit, penetrate and shine both inside and outside
of the pure souls of men, as well as in everything else.
11. As it is the variety of formation, that makes the various
kinds of ornaments out of the same substance of gold; so it is
the various dispositions of the one soul, that makes the difference
of things in the world. (The same soul exhibiting itself in
sundry forms).
12. The world resembles the vast ocean, and all its created
are like the waves upon its surface; they rise for a moment, only
to be succumbed to the latent flame of their insatiable desires.
13. Know all the worlds to be absorbed in the vast ocean
of the universal soul of God, as all things are devoured by
death or time (Kála), and lie buried like the ocean itself in the
insatiable womb of Agastya or Eternity.
14. Cease to consider the bodies of men as their souls, and to
behold the visibles in a spiritual light; rely solely in thy spiritual
self, and sit retired from all except alone with thyself.
15. Men are seen foolishly to wail for the loss of their souls,
though lying within themselves; as a fond mother moans on
missing her child, forgetful of its sleeping upon her lap. (We
miss our souls though situated within ourselves).
16. Men bewail for themselves as lost upon the loss of their
bodies, and exclaim as it saying "Oh I am dead and gone" and
so on, not knowing that their souls are ever undecaying and
imperishable.
17. As the fluctuation of water shows many forms upon its[Pg 647]
surface, so the will of God exhibits the forms of all things in the
divine Intellect. (Just as the active principle of our imagination,
represents endless varieties of scenes in the mirror of our
minds).
18. Now king, keep the steadiness of your mind, repress thy
imagination and the flights of thy fancy; call thy thoughts
home and confine them to thyself; remain calm and cool and
unperturbed amidst all perturbations, and go and rule thy
realm with thy self possession.
[Pg 648]
CHAPTER CXIX.
The same subject continued.
Argument.—On the Expansion of Divine Powers, and the Perfection
of Human Soul.
MANU resumed:—The Lord with his creative power exerts his
active energy, and plays the part of a restless boy (in his
formation of the worlds); and again by his power of re-absorption
he engulphs all into himself, and remains in his lonesome
solity.
2. As it is his volition that gives rise to his active energy for
action, so it is his nolition that causes the cessation of his
exertion, and the intromission of the whole creation in himself.
3. As the light of the luminous sun, moon and fire, and
as the lustre of brilliant gems spread themselves on all sides;
and as the leaves of trees put forth of themselves, and as the
waters of a cataract scatter their liquid particles all about.
4. So it is the lustration of divine glory, which displays itself
in the works of creation; which appears to be intolerable to the
ignorant, who know not that it is the self-same god though
appearing to be otherwise.
5. O! it is a wondrous illusion that has deluded the whole
world, which does not perceive the divine spirit, that pervades
every part of the universe.
6. He who looks on the world as a scenery painted in the
tablet of the Divine Intellect, and remains unimpressible and
undesirous of every thing, and quite content in his soul, has put
an invulnerable armour upon himself (which no dart of
error has the power to pierce).
7. How happy is he who having nothing, no wealth nor
support, has yet his all by thinking himself as the all intelligent
soul.
8. The idea that this is pleasurable and the other is painful,
being the sole cause of all pains and anxiety, it is the consuming[Pg 649]
of these feelings by the fire of our indifference to them,
that prevents the access of pain and affliction unto us.
9. Use, Oh King! the weapon of your restless anaesthesia
(samádhi), and cut in twain the feeling of the agreeable
and disagreeable, and pare asunder your sensation of love and
hatred by the sword of your manly equanimity.
10. Clear the entangled jungle of ceremonious rites (karma
kanda), by the tool of your disregard of the merit or demerit
of acts (dharma adharma); and relying in the tenuity of your
soul (as rarer than the rarefied air), shake off all sorrow and
grief from you.
11. Knowing thy soul to be full of all worldly possessions,
and driving all differences from thy mind, bind thyself solely to
reason (viveka) and be free from all fabrications (kalpaná) of
mankind; know the supreme bliss of the soul, and be as perfect
and unfailing as itself, and being embodied in the intellectual
mind, remain quite calm and transparent, and aloof from
all the fears and cares of the world.
[Pg 650]
CHAPTER CXX.
Continuation of the same. On the seven stages
of Edification.
Argument:—The three stages of the seekers of Liberation, and the
three others of the Liberated.
MANU continued:—Enlightenment of the understanding by
the study of the sástras and attendance on holy and wise
men, is said to be the first stage of yoga by yogis. (These
seven stages have been spoken of before in other words in the
Utpatti-prakarana).
2. Discussion and reconsideration of what has been learnt
before, is second stage of yoga; the third is the rumination of the
same in one's self and is known under the name of nididhyásana
or self-communion of meditation. The fourth is silent meditation
in which one loses his desires and darkness in his presence
before the light of God. (This is called the atmásakshyat kara
also; and all these four stages are expressed in the vedic text.
[Sanskrit: átmáváre svítavá mantabá nididhyásitava karttavasveti]).
3. The fifth stage is one of pure consciousness and felicity,
wherein the living-liberated-devotee remains in his partly waking
and partly sleeping state. (This is half hypnotism).
4. The sixth stage in one's consciousness of ineffable bliss,
in which he is absorbed in a state of trance or sound sleep.
(This is known as samádhi or hypnotism).
5. One's resting in the fourth and succeeding stages, is called
his liberation, and then the seventh stage is the state of an even
and transparent light, in which the devotee loses his self consciousness.
6. The state above turya or fourth stage, is called nirvána
or extinction in God; and the seventh stage of perfection relates
to disembodied souls only and not to those of living beings.
7. The first three stages relate to the waking state of man,[Pg 651]
and the fourth stage concerns the sleeping state, in which the
world appears in the manner of a dream.
8. The fifth stage is the stage of sound sleep, in which the
soul is drowned in deep felicity; and the unconsciousness of one's
self in the sixth stage, is also called his turya or fourth state:
(because it is beyond the three states of waking, sleeping or
dreaming and sound sleep [Sanskrit: jagatnidrasusuptáh]).
9. The seventh stage is still above the turya state of self-unconsciousness;
and which is full of divine effulgence, whose excellence
no words can express nor the mind can conceive.
10. In this state the mind being withdrawn from its functions,
it is freed from all thoughts of the thinkables, and all its
doubts and cares are drowned in the calm composure of its even
temperament.
11. The mind that remains unmoved amidst its passions
and enjoyments, and is unchanged in prosperity and adversity,
and retains full possession of itself under all circumstances, becomes
of this nature both in its embodied and disembodied states
of life and death.
12. The man that does not think himself to be alive or dead,
or to be a reality or otherwise; but always remains joyous in
himself, is one who is verily called to be liberated in his life
time. (The happy minded are accounted as liberated in life).
13. Whether engaged in business or retired from it, whether
living with a family or leading a single life (i.e. whether
leading a social or solitary mode of life), the man that thinks
himself as naught but the intellect, and has nothing to fear or
care or to be sorry for in this world, is reckoned as liberated in
this life.
14. The man who thinks himself to be unconnected with
any one, and to be free from disease, desire, and affections; and
who believes himself to be a pure aerial substance of the divine
intellect, has no cause to be sorry for anything.
15. He who knows himself to be without beginning and end,
and decay and demise, and to be of the nature of pure intelligence;
remains always quiet and composed in himself, and has
no cause for sorrow at all.
[Pg 652]
16. He that deems himself to belong to that intellect, which
dwells alike in the minute blade of grass, as well as in the infinite
space of the sky, and in the luminous sun, moon and stars,
and as also in the various races of beings, as men, Nágas and
immortals; has no cause whatever for his sorrow.
17. Whoso knows the majesty of the divine intellect, to fill
all the regions both above and below and on all sides of him,
and reflects himself as a display of his endless diversity, how can
he be sorry at all for his decay and decline.
18. The man that is bound to (or enslaved by his desire), is
delighted to have the objects he seeks; but the very things tending
to his pleasure by their gain, prove to be painful to his
heart at their loss. (Hence the wise are never elated or dejected,
at either gain or loss of temporal things, but are ever pleased
and content with their spiritual souls only which they can never
lose).
19. The presence or absence of some thing, is the cause of
the pleasure or pain of men in general; but it is either the curtailment
or want of desires that is practiced by the wise. (The
diminishing of desires is practiced by yogis in the fourth and
its two succeeding stages; but its utter annihilation occurs only
in the seventh and last stage of yoga).
20. No act of ours nor its result (whether good or bad),
conduces either to our joy or grief, which we do with unconcern
or little desire or expectation of its reward.
21. Whatever act is done with ardent employment of the
members of the body, and the application of the whole heart,
mind and soul to it, such an act tends to bind a man;
otherwise an indifferent action like a fried grain, does not germinate
into any effect.
22. The thought that I am the doer and owner of a deed,
overpowers all bodily exertions, and sprouts fourth with results,
that are forever binding on the doer (i.e. an indifferent action
may pass for nothing, but a conscious and meditated act is binding
on the actor).
23. As the moon is cool with her cooling beams; and the sun[Pg 653]
is hot by his burning heat; so a man is either good or bad
according as the work he does.
24. All acts which are done or left undone, are as fugacious
as the flying cotton on cotton trees; they are easily put to flight
by the breath of understanding (Jnána or wisdom). All the acts
of men are lost by discontinuance of their practice (as in Jnána
khanda).
25. The germ of knowledge growing in the mind, increases
itself day by day, as the corn sown in good ground soon shoots
forth into the paddy plant.
26. There is one universal soul, that sparkles through all
things in the world, as it is the same translucent water, that
glistens in lake and large oceans and seas.
27. Withhold sir, your notions of the varieties and multiplicities
of things, and know these as parts of one undivided
whole, which stretches through them as their essence and soul.
[Pg 654]
CHAPTER CXXI.
Continuation of the Same.
Argument.—The causes of the Elevation and degradation of living
being.
MANU continued:—The soul is originally full of bliss by
its nature, but being subject to ignorance, it fosters its
vain desire for temporal enjoyment, whence it has the name of
the living soul (which is subjected to misery). This corresponds
with the scriptural doctrine, that man was originally made
in the image of his Maker (i.e. full of bliss); but being tempted
by delusion to taste the forbidden sweetness, became the
mortal and miserable human soul.
2. But when the desire of pleasure, is lessened by the viveka
or discriminative knowledge of man, he forsakes his nature of a
living and mortal being, and his soul becomes one with the
supreme spirit. (Man by his knowledge retrieves his godly
nature).
