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)-41
46. Or it may be that one happens to be dissatisfied with
the world, by his association with holy men; and the resignation
which springs thereby, becomes the ground of one of the stages
of his yoga.
47. By this means, the man is saved from this miserable
world; because it is the united voice of all the sástras, that an
embodied being is released from death, no sooner he has passed
through any one stage of yoga (or union with his maker).
48. The performance of a part only of some of the stages of
yoga, is enough for the remission of past sins; and for conducting
the expurgated person to the celestial abode in a heavenly
car. (The wicked man turning from his wickedness, and doing
what is right and saveth his soul).
49. He enjoys the Parnassian groves of Sumeru in company
with his beloved, when the weight of his righteous acts, outweighs
those of unrighteousness.
50. The yogi, released from the trap of his temporal enjoyments,
and has passed his allotted period; expires in due time, to
be reborn in the houses of yogis and rich men, or in the private
mansions of learned, good and virtuous people.
51. Being thus born, he betakes himself to the habitual
practice of the yoga of his former birth; and has the wisdom to
begin at once at the stage to which he was practiced, and which was
left unfinished before (hence arises the difference in the capacities of youth).
52. These three stages, Ráma, are designated the waking
state; because the yogi retains in them his perception of the
differences of things, as a waking man perceives the visible to
differ from one another.
53. Men employed in yoga acquire a venerable dignity (in[Pg 674]
their very appearance), which induce the ignorant to wish for
their liberation also (in order to attain to the same rank).
54. He is reckoned a venerable man, who is employed in all
honorable deeds, and refrains from what is dishonourable, who is
steadfast in the discharge of all his social duties, whether they
are of the ordinary kind or occasional ones.
55. He who acts according to customary usage, and the ordinances
of sástras; who act conscientiously and according to his
position; and thus dispenses all his affairs in the world, is verily
called a venerable man.
56. The venerableness of yogis germinates in the first stage,
it blossoms in the second, and becomes fruitful in the third stage
of yoga.
57. The venerable yogi dying in state of yoga, comes first
to enjoy the fruition of good desires for a long time (in his next
birth); and then becomes a yogi again (for the completion of
his yoga).
58. The practice of the parts enjoyed in the three first
stages of yoga, serves to destroy at first the ignorance of the
yogi, and then sheds the light of true knowledge in his mind,
as brightly as the beams of full-moon illume the sky at
night.
59. He who devotes his mind to yoga, with his undivided
attention from first to last, and sees all things in one even and
same light, is said to have arrived to the fourth stage of yoga.
60. As the mistake of duality disappears from sight, and
the knowledge of unity shines supremely bright; the yogi is
said in this state to have reached the fourth stage of yoga,
when he sees the world as a vision in his dream.
61. The first three stages, are represented as the waking
state of the yogi; but the fourth is said to be the state of his
dreaming, when the visibles disappear from his sight; as the
dispersed clouds of autumn gradually vanish from sight, and
as the scenes in a dream recede to nothingness.
62. They are said to be in the fifth stage, who have their
minds lying dormant in them, and insensible of their bodily[Pg 675]
sensations. This is called the sleeping state or hypnotism of
yoga meditation.
63. In this state there is an utter stop of feelings, of the
endless varieties of things and their different species, in the
mind of the yogi, who relies in his consciousness of an undivided
unity only; and whose sense of a duality is entirely
melted down and lost in the cheerfulness of his wakeful mind.
64. The fifth stage is likewise a state of sound sleep, when
the yogi loses all his external perceptions, and sits quiet with
his internal vision within himself.
65. The continued sedateness of his posture, gives him the
appearance of his dormancy, and the yogi continues in this
position, the practice of the mortification of all his desires.
66. This step leads gradually to the sixth stage, which is
a state of insensibility both of the existence and inexistence of
things as also of one's egoism and non-egoism (of his own
entity and non-entity).
67. The yogi remains unmindful of everything, and quite
unconscious of the unity or duality, and by being freed from
every scruple and suspicion in his mind, he arrives to the
dignity of living liberation. (This tetrastich is based on the
sruti which says, [Sanskrit: bhidyate hadayagranyi, chidyate svvammshyayah tasmindvashte parávare]).
68. The yogi of this sort though yet inextinct or living,
is said to be extinct or dead to his sensibility; he sits as a
pictured lamp which emits no flame, and remains with a
vacant heart and mind like an empty cloud hanging in the
empty air.
69. He is full within and without him, with and amidst the
fulness of divine ecstasy, like a full pot in a sea; and possest
of some higher power, yet he appears as worthless on the outside.
70. After passing his sixth grade, the yogi is led to the
seventh stage; which is styled a state of disembodied liberation,
from its purely spiritual nature.
71. It is a state of quietude which is unapproachable (i.e.
inexpressible) by words, and extends beyond the limits of this
earth; it is said to resemble the state of Siva by some, and that[Pg 676]
of Brahmá by others. (The two views of the Tántrikas and
Vedántists).
72. By some it is said to be the state of the androgyne
deity, or the indiscriminate of the male and female powers;
while others have given many other denominations to it, according
to their respective fancies. (The other systems have different
appellations to designate this state).
73. The seventh is the state of the eternal and incomprehensible
God, and which no words can express nor explain in any
way. Thus Ráma, have I mentioned to you the seven stages of
yoga (each branding the other in its perfections).
74. By practice of these perfections, one evades the miseries
of this world; and it is by subjection of the indomitably elephantine
senses, that one can arrive to these perfections.
75. Hear me relate to you Ráma, of a furious elephant, which
with its protruded tusks, was ever ready to attack others.
76. And as this elephant was about to kill many men, unless
it could be killed by some one of them; so are the senses of men
like ferocious elephants of destruction to them.
77. Hence every man becomes victorious in all the stages of
yoga, who has the valour of destroying this elephant of its sensuality
the very first step of it.
78. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, who is this victorious hero in
the field of battle, and what is the nature of this elephant that
is his enemy, and what are these grounds of combat where he encounters
him, and the manner how he foils and kills this great
foe of his.
79. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! it is our concupiscence which
has the gigantic figure of this elephant, and which roams at
random in the forest of our bodies, and sports in the demonstrations
of all our passions and feelings.
80. It hides itself in the covert of our hearts, and has our
acts for its great tusks; its fury is our ardent desire of anything,
and our great ambition is its huge body.
81. All the scenes on earth are the fields for its battle, where
men are often foiled in their pursuit of any.
[Pg 677]
82. The elephant of concupiscence kills members of miserly
and covetous men, in the state of their wish or desire, or exertions
and effort, or longing and hankering after anything.
83. In this manner does this fierce greediness, lurk in the
sheath of human breast under the said several names, and it is
only our forbearance from those desires, that serves as the great
weapon of their destruction.
84. This ubiquious desire of our possession of everything in
the world, is conquered by reflection on the ubiquity of the soul
in all of them; and that the unity of my soul, stretches over and
grasps all things that I covet.
85. He is doomed to suffer under the colic pain of this venomous
avarice, who minds to continue in this world, in the manner
as it goes on with the rest of mankind.
86. It is the mitigation of the smart poison of avarice, that
is our highest wisdom, and it is our liberation, when the calm
and cooling countenance of inappetency appears to our sight.
87. Words of advice stick to the sapient mind, as drops of oil
adhere on glass mirror; and that our indifference to the world is
the only preventive of its thorns, and is the best advice to the wise.
88. It is as advisable to destroy a desire by the weapon of
indifference, no sooner it rises in the breast, as it is proper to root
out the sprout of a poisonous plant, before it spreads itself on
the ground.
89. The concupiscent soul, is never freed from its miserliness;
while the mere effort of one's indifference, makes it set quiet in
itself (without cringing at others).
90. It is by your carelessness about everything, and by your
lying down as supine as a dead carcass, that you can kill your
desire by the weapon of your indifference, as they catch and kill
fishes with hooks (by sitting silent beside some pond or lake).
91. Let this be mine or that I may have it, is what is called
desire by the wise; and the want of every desire for wealth
&c., is called resignation by them.
92. Know that the remembrance of some thing, is alike the
desire of having the same in one's possession again; and it
includes both what was enjoyed before or next.
[Pg 678]
93. O high minded Ráma, you must learn to remain as a
block in your mind, by forgetting whatever you think of or
otherwise; all of which must be buried in oblivion, for your
estrangement from the world. (Retire, the world shut out,
imagination's airy wing repress—Young).
94. Who will not lift up his arms, and have his hairs standing
at their end, to hear and reflect in himself that, want of
desire is the summum bonum of every one's desire. (Desire
of nothing is the most desirable thing, is a paralogism in
logic).
95. It is by sitting quite silent and quiet, that one attains
to the state of his supreme felicity, a state before which the
sovereignty of the world seems as a straw.
96. As a traveller traverses on foot through many regions,
in order to reach to his destination, so the yogi passes through
all his ordinary acts, to reach his goal of final bliss.
97. What is the good of using many words, when it can be
expressed in a few; that our desire is our strongest bondage,
and its want our complete liberation.
98. Now Ráma, rest quiet in your joy, with knowing that
all this creation is full of the increate, everlasting, undecaying
and tranquil spirit of God; and sit quiet and delighted in yourself
with viewing the visibles in their spiritual sense.
99. Know that it is the ignoring of every thing and the
quiet posture of the yogi, which is called as yoga by the
spiritual; and continue to discharge your duties even in your
yoga state, until you get rid of them by the privation of your
desires.
100. It is also the unconsciousness of one's self, which is
likewise styled yoga by the wise; and it consists of the entire
absorption of one's self in the supreme, by wasting away his
mind and all its operations.
101. Again this self absorption is the conceiving of one's self,
as he is the all pervasive spirit of Siva, which is increate,
self-conscious and ever benevolent to all. This conception of
one's self is tantamount to his renunciation of every thing
besides himself.
[Pg 679]
102. He who has the sense of his egoism and meism (i.e.
that this is I and these are mine), is never released from the
miseries of life; it is the negation of this sensation that produces
our liberation, and therefore it is at the option of every
body, to do either this or that for his bondage or salvation.
[Pg 680]
CHAPTER CXXVII.
Admonition to Bharadwája.
Argument:—Relation of the Quietude of Ráma, and the Queries of
Bharadwája; with further description of states of waking and others, and
of the ultimate turíya condition of the fourth stage of yoga.
BHARADWAJA asked:—Válmíki saying:—Tell me sir,
what did Ráma do after hearing the lecture of the sage;
whether he with his enlightened understanding put any other
question, or remained in his ecstatic quietude with his full knowledge
of yoga and the supreme soul.
2. And what did next that supremely blest yogi (Vasishtha)
do, who is adored by all and honoured even by Gods; who is
a personification of pure understanding, and free from the state
of birth and death; who is fraught with every good quality and
kindly disposed for ever to the welfare and preservation of the
peoples in all the three worlds.
3. Válmíki replied:—After hearing the lecture of Vasishtha,
combining the essence of the vedánta philosophy, the lotus-eyed
Ráma became perfectly acquainted with the full knowledge of
yoga.
4. He felt the failing of his bodily strength, and the falling
of the members of his body, he stared with his glaring eyes, and
his clear intellect was shrouded under a cloud. He awoke in a
moment from his entranced state, and felt a flood of rapturous
joy within himself.
5. He forgot the fashion of putting his questions, and hearing
their answers; his mind was full with the ambrosial draught
of delight, and the hairs of his body stood up like prickles in his
horripilation.
6. An inexpressibly ineffable light overspreads his intellect with
its unusual glare; which cast the bright prospects of the eight
dignities of yoga into utter shade. (The eight dignities—(ashta-siddhis)
are so many perfections arrived at by practice of yoga).
[Pg 681]
7. In this way did Ráma attain the supereminent state of Siva,
in which he sat sedate without uttering a word.
8. Bharadwája said:—Oh! how much I wonder at such a
high dignity, which Ráma had attained; and how much I
regret at the impossibility of its attainment, by a dull and
ignorant sinner as myself.
9. Tell me, O great sage, how it may be possible for me to
attain to that stage of perfection, which it is impossible for
the gods Brahmá and others to arrive at any time; and tell me
likewise, how I may get over the unfordable ocean of earthly
troubles.
10. Válmíki replied:—It is by your perusal of the history
of Ráma from its first to last, and by your following the
dictates of Vasishtha as given in these lectures; as also by
your consideration of their true sense and purport in your
understanding, that you may be able to attain to the state
that you desire. This is all that I can tell you at present.
11. The world is an exhibition of our ignorance, and there
is no truth in aught that we see in it; it is a display of our
error only, wherefore it is entirely disregarded by the wise,
and so much regarded by fools.
12. There is no entity of anything here, beside that of the
divine Intellect; why then are you deluded by the visibles,
learn their secrets and have a clear understanding. (or have
the clearness of your understanding).
13. The perception of the delusive phenomenals, resembles
the waking dream of day dreamers; and he alone is said to be
waking, who has the lamp of his intellect ever burning within
himself.
14. The world is based on vacuity, and it ends in vacuum
also; its midmost part being vacuous likewise, there is no
reliance placed upon it by the intelligent and wise.
15. Our primeval ignorance (avidyá) being accompanied by
our primordial desires, it presents all what is inexistent as
existing in our presence; just as our fancy paints an Utopia or
fairy city to our view, and as our sleep shows its multifarious
dreams before us.
[Pg 682]
16. Being unpracticed to taste the sweet plantain of your
beneficent intellect, you are deluded greedily to devour the
delirious drug of your desire, and make yourself giddy with
draughts of its poisonous juice.
17. He who lays hold on true knowledge for his support,
never falls down into the pit of ignorance during his wakeful
state; and those who depend on their subjective consciousness
alone (as in the turíya or fourth stage of yoga), stand above
all the other states (of fallibility).
18. So long as the adepts in yoga, do not plunge themselves
(lit.—their souls), in the fresh and sweet waters of the great
fountain of their consciousness; they must be exposed to the
boisterous waves of the dangerous ocean of this world. (Spiritual
knowledge alone saves a man from the troubles of life).
19. That which has no existence before, nor will remain to
exist afterwards (such as all created and perishable things
in the world); must be understood to be inexistent in the
interim also, as our night dreams and fleeting thoughts that
are never in being, and so is this world and whatever is seen in it.
20. All things are born of our ignorance, as the bubbles are
swollen by the air; they glisten and move about for a moment,
and then melt into the sea of our knowledge.
21. Find out the stream of the cooling waters of your consciousness,
and plunge yourself deep into it; and drive out all
external things from you, as they shut out the warm and harmful
sun-beams from their houses.
22. The one ocean of ignorance surrounds and over floods
the world, as the single salt sea girds and washes the whole
island; and the distinctions of ego and tu etc., are the waves
of this salt sea of our erroneousness.
23. The emotions of the mind, and its various feelings and
passions, are the multiform billows of this sea of ignorance;
our egoism or selfishness is the great whirlpool, in which the
self willed man is hurled of his own accord.
24. His love and hatred are the two sharks, that lay hold of
him in their jaws; and drag him at last into the depth (or to his
death), which no body can prevent.
[Pg 683]
25. Go and plunge yourself in the calm and cooling sea of
your solitude, and wash your soul in the nectareous waters of
your ambrosial solity; dive and dive deep in the depth of
unity, and fly from the salt sea of duality, and the brackish
waves of diversities.
26. Who is lasting in this world, and who is passing from
it, who is related to anyone, and what does one derive from
another; why are you drowned in your delusion, rise and be
wakeful (to your spiritual concerns).
27. Know thyself as that one and very soul, which is said
to be diffused all over the world; say what other thing is there
except that and beside thee, that you should regret or lament
for (since the one soul is all and that is thyself, thou hast all
in thee, and there is nothing for thee to regret that thou hast
not or dost require to have).
28. Brahma appears to the ignorant boys, to be diffused
through all the worlds; but the learned always rely on the
undiffused felicitous soul of God.
29. It is the case of unreasonable men, to grieve as well as
to be pleased on a sudden and without cause; but the learned
are always joyous, and it is a sad thing to find them in error.
30. The truth of the nice subtility of the divine soul, is hid
from eyes of the ignorant; and they are as doubtful about its
nature, as men are suspicious of land and water where they are
not. (Water appears as ground in dark, and sand seems as
water in the barren desert).
31. See the great bodies of the earth, air, water and sky,
which are composed of atomic particles, to be so durable as to
last for ever; why then mourn at the loss of anything in the
world (which is never lost at all).
32. From nothing comes nothing, and something cannot
become nothing; it is only the appearance of the form, which
takes place in the substance of things.
33. But it is by virtue of the prior acts in the former births
of men, that they are reborn in different shapes to enjoy or
suffer the results of those acts; adore therefore the lord God and[Pg 684]
author of the worlds, who is always bountiful and bestower
of all blessings.
34. The worship of this God destroys all our sins, and cuts
off the knots of snares of this world.
35. You may worship Him in some form or other, until
your mind is cleared and your nature is purified; and then
you can resort to the transcendent spirit of the formless Deity.
36. Having overcome the impervious gloom of ignorance,
by force of the purity of thy nature; you may pursue the
course of the yoga, with the contrition of your inner soul, and
belief in the sástras (and in the dictates of your spiritual guide).
37. Then sit a moment in your fixed meditation (samádhi),
and behold the transcendent spirit in thy own spirit; in this
state the dark night of your former ignorance, will break forth
into open and bright daylight.
38. It must be by one's manly exertion or by virtue of the
meritorious acts of former births only, as also by grace of
the great God, that men may obtain the obtainable one. (The
unknown God is said to be knowable and obtainable by
yoga only).
39. It is neither the birth nor character, nor the good
manners nor valour of a man, that ensures him his success in
any undertaking, except it be by the merit of his acts in former
births.
40. Why sit you so sad to think of the events of inscrutable
and unavoidable fate, since there is no power nor that of God
himself to efface what has been already written destined in
the forehead (or luck) of anybody. (Fate overrules even
Jove himself).
41. Where is the expounder of intellectual science, and where
is the pupil that can comprehend it fully; what is this creeping
plant of ignorance, and what is this inscrutable destiny, that
joins two things together, are questions too difficult to be
solved.
42. O Bharadwája! Let your reason assist you to overcome
your illusion, and then you will no doubt gain an uncommon
share of wisdom.
[Pg 685]
43. See how a high mettled hero overpowers on all his
imminent dangers, and stretches his conquest far and wide; and
behold on the other hand, how a mean spirited man is tried and
grieves at the ordinary casualties of life.
44. A good understanding is the result of, and attendant
upon the meritorious deeds of many lives; as it appears in the
acts of wise men, and in the lives of all living liberated persons.
45. Know my son, that the same action is fraught both
with your freedom as well as bondage, accordingly as it
proves favourable or adverse to you. (As true faith is attended
with salvation, but false faith or hypocrisy with damnation).
46. The righteous acts of virtuous men, serve to destroy the
sins of their past lives; as the showers of rain water, extinguish
the flame of a conflagration in the forest.
47. But my friend, I would advise you rather to avoid
your religious acts, and attach your mind to the meditation
of Brahma, if you want to avoid your falling into the deep
eddy of this world. (Because all actions bind a man to the
world over and over again).
48. So long as one is attached to the outer world, being
led to it by his insatiable desires, or so long as one is led by
the insatiable desires of his mind, to attach himself to the outer
world; he is exposed to the contrary wind and waves of the
sea, and has only to find his rest in the calm water of his
loneliness.
49. Why do you lean so much upon your sorrow only to
blind your understanding, rather support yourself on the strong
staff of your good understanding, and it will never break
under you.
50. Those who are reckoned in the number of the great
men, never allow themselves to be altered and moved by their
joy or grief; and to be carried away like straws by the current
of the river.
51. Why do you sorrow, friend, for these people, who are
swinging in the cradle of the circumstance of life in the dark
night of this world, and playing their several parts with giddy
amusement.
[Pg 686]
52. Look at the gamesome time, that sports joyously in
this world, with the slaughter and production of endless beings
by turns.
53. There is no body of any age or sex for his game in particular,
he chases all in general like the all devouring dragon.
54. Why talk of mortal men and other animals, that live to
die in a moment; even the whole body of gods (said to be
immortals), are under the clutches of the remorseless and
relentless death.
55. Why do you dance and make yourself merry in your
amusement, when you are in danger of losing by degrees
the powers of your body and limbs; sit but silently for a
while, and see the drama of the course of this world (combining
its comedy and tragedy together).
56. Seeing the ever varying scenes of this changeful theatre
of the world, the wise spectator, O good Bharadwája, never
shrinks nor shudders for a moment (knowing such to be its
nature).
57. Shun your unwelcomed sorrow, and seek for the favourable
amidst all that is unfavourable; nor sadden the clear and
cheerful countenance of your soul, which is of the nature of the
perfectly blissful intellect of God.
58. Bear always your reverence towards the gods, Bráhmans
and your superiors; and be a friend even to irrational animals;
in order to meet with the grace of God, according to the
dicta of the vedas (that the grace is the leader to the light of
truth, and thereby to the way of liberation).
59. Bharadwája rejoined:—I have known by your kindness
all these and much more of such truths, and come to find that,
there is not a greater friend to us than our indifference to the
world, nor a greater enemy than this world itself to us.
60. I want to learn at present the substance of all the
knowledge, which was imparted by the sage Vasishtha, in many
works of great verbosity.
61. Válmíki answered:—Hear now, Bharadwája, of the
highest knowledge (which is taught by that sage) for the salvation[Pg 687]
of mankind; and the hearing of which will save you from
your drowning in the iniquities of the world.
62. First bow down to that supreme being, who is of the
nature of the sole entity combined with intellect and felicity;
(all which are his forms in the abstract), and who is ever existent
with his attributes of creation, sustentation and destruction:
(which are said to be so many states of himself).
63. I will tell you in short, and upon the authority of the
sruti; how you may come to the knowledge of the first principle,
and the manner in which it exhibits itself in the acts of
creation, preservation and destruction of the universe.
64. But tell me first, how you have lost your remembrance
of what I have told you on this subject; since it is possible by
your reconsideration of all that from first to last, to know every
thing from your own memory, as they have a survey of the earth
from a small globe in their hand.
65. Now consider all this in your own mind, and you will
get the truth which will prevent all your sorrows; associate
moreover with the learned and study the best books, which with
the help of your reasoning and resignation, may lead you to endless
felicity.
[Pg 688]
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
Resuscitation of Ráma.
Argument.—Bharadwája's Enlightenment and the duties of the Enlightened.
VÁLMIKI continued:—The yogi should be peaceful and
tranquil, and exempt from all forbidden acts and those
proceeding from a desire of fruition; he must avoid all sensual
gratifications, and have his belief in God and his holy religion
of the vedas.
2. He must rest quiet in his seat, and have his mind and
members of the body under his control; and continue to repeat
the syllable Om, until his mind is cleared (from all its doubts).
3. He must then restrain his respiration, for the purification
of his inner organs (the heart and mind); and then restrict his
senses by degrees, from their respective outward objects.
4. He must think on the natures and causes of its body and
its organs of sense, of his mind and its understanding, as also of
his soul and its consciousness; and repeat the srutis or the holy
texts which relate to these subjects.
5. Let him sit reclined in the meditation of Virát, the God
of visible nature at first, and then in the internal soul of nature;
next to this he must meditate on the formless spirit, as a part
and abstracted from all; and at last fix his mind in the supreme
cause alone. (Rising from the concrete to the discrete deity).
6. Let him cast off in his mind, the earthly substance of his
flesh and bones to the earth; and commit the liquid part of his
blood to the water, and the heat of his body to fire.
7. He is then to consign the airy and vacuous parts of his body
to air and vacuum, and after having thus made over his elemental
parts to the five elements; he shall deliver the organs of his
sense to the particular divinities from whom they are derived.
8. The ears and other organs, which are for the reception of
their respective from all sides, being cast aside on all sides, he[Pg 689]
is to give the skin of his body to electricity (which imparts to it
the sensations of heat and cold by the electric shock).
9. Let him then resign his eye sight to the solar disc, and
his tongue to water, he must next give up his breath to air, his
voice to fire, and his palms to the god Indra (water and fire mean
Varuna and Agni—the regent gods of these elements).
10. He must then offer his feet to the god Vishnu, and his
anus to Mithra; and after giving up his penis to Kasyapa, he
should dedicate his mind to the moon.
11. He must afterwards lay down his understanding to
Brahmá, and the other inward faculties to special divinities, and
at last abdicate his outer senses also to their presiding duties.
12. Having thus resigned his whole body to the gods, he
should think himself as the all comprehending Viráta; and this
he must do in pursuance to the dictates of the veda, and not of
his own will or fabrication.
13. The lord that embodies the whole universe in himself,
in his androgynous form of half-male and half-female, is said
to be the source and support of all sorts of beings.
14. He was born in the form of creation, and it is he that
is settled in everything in the universe; and caused this earth to
appear from the bipartite mundane egg, as also the water which
is twice as much as the land.
