The Yoga-Vasishtha-Maharamayana of Valmiki · 519 of 665

Book VI: Nirvana Prakarana (Extinction) — Uttarardha: Chapter LXIX: Entrance into the Cosmical Stone of Mundane Egg

Argument:—Creative energy of God is the cause of reminiscence, and reminiscence is the cause of reproduction.

Vasishtha added:—The world is without any figure or substance, though it presents the appearance of such; it is seen in the light of the pure and imperishable essence of God, by the keen sight of transcendental philosophy.

2. It is that quintessence which exhibits in itself the rare show of the cosmorama, and the figures of hills and rivers are seen in it as pictures in a panoroma, or as spectres appearing in the empty air.

3. The nymph then entered that cosmical block by the resistless efforts, and I also penetrated in it after her, with my curiosity (to know the contents thereof).

4. After that indefatiguable lady had made her way into the cosmos of Brahmá, she took her seat before a Bráhmana, and shone supremely bright in his presence.

5. She introduced me to him and said: This is my husband and supporter and with whom I have made my betrothal a long time in my mind.

6. He is now an old man, and I too have attained my old age; and as he has differed his marriage with me till now, I have become utterly indifferent about it at present.

7. He also has grown averse to his marriage at present, and is desirous of attaining to that supreme state, of which there is no view nor viewer, and which is yet no airy vacuity also.

8. The world is now approaching to its dissolution, and he has been sitting in his meditation, in as silent a mood as a stone and as immovable as a rock (in his yoga hypnotism).

9. Therefore do thou please, O lord of saints, to awaken both himself and me also, and enlighten and confirm us in the way of supreme felicity, until the end of this creation and the re-creation of a new one.

10. Having said so to me, she waked her husband and spoke to him saying; Here my lord, is the chief of saints, that has come today to our abode.

11. This sage is the progeny of Brahmá in another apartment of this worldly dome, and deserves to be honoured with the honors worthy of a guest, according to the proper rite of hospitality.

12. Arise and receive the great sage with offering of his honorarium, and the water (for washing his feet); because great persons are deserving of the greatest regards and respects, that one can offer unto them.

13. Being thus addressed by her, the holy devotee awoke from his hypnotism, and his consciousness rose in himself, as a whirlpool rises above the sea.

14. The courteous sage opened his eyes slowly, as flowers open their petals in the vernal season after the autumn is over.

15. His returning senses slowly displayed the power of his limbs, as the returning moisture of plants in spring, puts their new sprouts and branches to shoot forth anew.

16. Immediately there assembled about him the gods, and demigods, siddhas and Gandharvas also from all sides; just as the assemblage of swans and cranes, flock to the limpid lake, blooming with the full-blown lotuses in it.

17. He looked upon all that were standing before him, together with myself and the fair lady (that had brought me thither); and then in the sweet tone of the parnava hymn, he addressed me as the second Brahmá himself.

18. The Bráhmana said:—I welcome thee, O sage, to this place, that dost view the world as in a globe placed in the palm of thy hand; and resemblest the great ocean in the vast extents of thy knowledge. (Lit:—the ambrosial waters of knowledge).

19. You have come a great way, to this far distant place; and as you must have been tired with your long journey, please to sit yourself in this seat.

20. As he said these words, I saluted him saying, I hail thee my lord; and then sat on the jewelled seat, he pointed out to me.

21. And then he was lauded by the assembled gods, and holy spirits standing before him, and received their pújá presents and adorations, according to the rules and rites of courtesy.

22. Then as the praises and prayers of the assembled host, was all at an end in a moment; the venerable bráhmana was accosted and bespoken unto me in the following manner.

23. How is it, O venerable sir, that this nymph has recourse to me, and tells me to enlighten you both with true knowledge, when you are acquainted whatever is past, and all that is to take place in future.

24. You sir, are lord of all, and fully acquainted with all knowledge; what is it then that this silly woman wants to learn from me, and this is what I want to learn from you.

25. Why was she produced by you to become your spouse, and was never taken to spousal by your indifference towards her.

26. The Bráhmana replied:—Hear me saint to tell you, how it came to be so with us; because it is right and fit to acquaint everything in full to the wise and good.

27. There is an unborn and imperishable entity from all eternity, and I am but a spark of that ever sparkling and effulgent intellect.

28. I am of the form of empty air or vacuum, and situated for ever in the supreme spirit; and am called the self-born in all the worlds, that were to be created afterwards.

29. But in reality I am never born, nor do I ever see or do anything in reality; but remain as the vacuous intellect in the intellectual vacuity of the selfsame entity.

30. These our addresses to one another in the first and second persons (lit. as I, thou, mine, thine &c.), are no other than as the sounds of the waves of the same sea dashing against each other.

31. I who was of this nature (of a clear wave in the sea of eternity), became disturbed in time by feeling some desire rising in me, and seeing that maid amidst the blaze of my intellect.

32. I thought her as myself, though she appears as another person to you and others; and though she is manifest before you, yet lies as hidden in me as my veryself.

33. And I find myself as that imperishable entity, which abides in me as I abide in the supreme soul; I find my soul to be imperishable in its nature, and to be delighted in itself as if it were the lord of all.

34. Though I was thus absorbed in meditation, yet the reminiscence of my former state (as the creative energy of God or Brahmá); produced in me the desire of reproduction, and yonder is the incarnate divinity presiding over my will.

35. She is the presiding divinity over my will, that is standing here manifest before you; she is neither my wife nor have I betrothed her as such.

36. It is from the desire of her heart, that she deems herself the spouse of Brahmá; and it is for that reason that she has undergone troubles, before she got rid of her desires.

Chapter LXX.

THE WORDS OF THE CREATOR OF WORLDS IN THE MUNDANE STONE.

Argument:—Relation of the desire of the Divine of Divinity as the cause of her sorrow.

The Bráhmana related:—Now as the world is approaching to its end, and I am going to take my rest in the formless void of the intellect (after dissolution of the material world); it is for this reason that this divinity of worldly desires, is drowned in deep sorrow.

2. And as I am about to forsake her forever, it is for this very reason, O sage, that she is so very sorry and sick at her heart.

3. Being myself of an aerial form, when I become one with the supreme spirit (after my leaving the mental sphere); then there takes place the great dissolution of the world with the end of all my desire.

4. Hence she with deep sorrow pursues my way, for who is there so senseless, that does not follow after the giver of her being.

5. Now the time is come for the termination of the Kaliyuga, and of the rotation of the four ages; and the dissolution of all living beings, Manus, Indras, and the Gods, is near at hand.

6. Today is the end of the kalpa and great kalpa age, and this day puts an end to my energy and will, and makes me mix with the eternal and infinite vacuity.

7. It is now that this personification of my desire, is about to breathe her last; just as the lake of lotuses being dried, the breath of lotus flowers also is lost in the air.

8. The quiet soul like the calm ocean, is always at a state of rest; unless it is agitated by its fickle desires, as the sea is troubled by its fluctuating waves.

9. The embodied being (which is confined in the prisonhouse of the human body), has naturally a desire to know the soul, and to <be> freed from its dungeon.

10. Thus this lady being fraught with spiritual knowledge, and long practiced in yoga meditation; has seen the world you inhabit, and the four different states of its inhabitants. (The gloss explains the four states to mean the four different pursuits of men expressed by Dharma, Artha, Káma, Moksha).

11. She traversing through the regions of air, has come to the sight of the aforesaid etherial stone above the polar mountain, which is our celestial abode and the pattern of your world.

12. Both that world of yours and this abode of ours, rest on a great mountain, which bears upon it many other worlds (invisible to the naked eye).

13. We also do not see them with our discriminating eye sight, of discerning them separately from one another; but we behold them all commingled in one, in our abstract view of yoga meditation (i.e. The sight of particulars is lost in their abstract meditation).

14. There are numberless worlds of creations, in earth, water and air and in everything under the sky, as if they are compressed or carved in the body of a huge block of stone.

15. What you call the world is a mere fallacy, and resembles your vision of a fairy city in dream; it is a false name applied to an object, existing nowhere beyond the intellect (and in the imagination of the mind).

16. They who have come to know the world, as no other than an airy vision of the mind, are verily called as wise men, and not liable to fall into error.

17. There others who by their application to and practice of yoga contemplation, come to attain their desired object, as this lady has succeeded to gain your company (for her edification).

18. Thus doth the illusory power of the intellect, display these material worlds before us; and thus doth the everlasting Divine omnipotence manifest itself (in all these various forms).

19. There is no action nor any creation, that is ever produced from anything or ever reduced to nothing; but all things and actions are the spontaneous growth of the intellect only; together with our ideas of space and time.

20. Know the ideas of time and space, of substance and action, as well as of the minds and its faculties, are the lasting figures and marks on the stone of the intellect, and are ever salient in it, without their setting or being shaded at anytime.

21. This intellect is the very stone (we have been talking of), and is either at rest or rolling on as roller or wheel; the worlds appertain to it as its appurtenances, and accompany it as motion doth the wind.

22. The soul being replete with its full knowledge of all things, is considered as the solid world itself; and though it is infinite in time and space, yet it is thought as limited, owing to its appearance in the form of the bounded and embodied mind.

23. The unbounded intellect appears as bounded, by its limited knowledge; and although it is formless, yet it appears in the form of the mind, representing the worlds in it.

24. As the mind views itself in the form of aerial city in its dream, so doth it find itself in the form of this stone, with the worlds marked upon it in the daytime. (The world like the dream, is a transformation or representation of the mind itself).

25. There is no rolling of the orbs in this world, nor the running of streams herein, there is no object subsisting in reality any where; but they are all mere representations of the mind in empty air.

26. As there are no kolpa and great kalpa ages in eternity, nor the substantiality of anything in the vacuity of our consciousness; and as there is no difference of the waves and bubbles from the waters of the sea (So there is no difference of the empty thoughts from the vacuous mind; whence they take their rise).

27. The worlds appearing to be in esse, or existent in the mind and before the eyes; are in reality utterly inexistent in the intellect, which spreads alike as the all pervading and empty vacuum every where. And as all empty space in every place is alike and same with the infinite vacuity; so the forms of things appearing to the limited understanding, are all lost in the unlimited intellect.

28. Now Vasishtha, go to your place in your own world; and have your peace and bliss in your own seat of samádhi-devotion. Consign your aerial worlds to empty air, while I myself to the supreme Brahma do repair.