The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
5. Hear me tell you, said he, how I (the personified mind), awoke at
first on the day of creation in a former kalpa, with my volition to
create (expand) myself. (The volitive mind rose out of the sleeping
intelligence on the dawning day of creation).
6. Erewhile I remained alone, and quietly intent upon the One at the end
of the prior day (or Kalpa), by having compressed the whole creation in
the focus of my mind, and hid it under the gloom of the primeval night.
(Old chaos or darkness that reigned over the surface of the deep before
the dawn of light. _Tama ásit, tamaságúdhamagra._ There was darkness
enveloping all things. Sruti).
7. At the end of the chaotic night I awoke as from a deep sleep; and
performed my matins as it is the general law (of all living beings). I
oped my eyes with a view to create, and fixed my look on the vacuum all
about me.
(When that spirit sleeps it is night, and when it awakes, it is a day of
recreation (resurrection). Manu).
8. As far as I viewed, it was empty space and covered by darkness, and
there was no light of heaven. It was unlimitedly extensive, all void and
without any boundary. (Infinite space existed ere creation came into
existence. Sruti. All was _teom_ and _beom_ or _tama_ and _vyoma_).
9. Being then determined to bring forth the creation, I began to discern
the world in its simple (ideal) form within me, with the acuteness of my
understanding. (_i.e._ I looked into the prototypes or models of things
contained in the Mind).
10. I then beheld in my mind the great cosmos of creation, set
unobstructed and apart from me in the wide extended field of vacuity.
(The archetypes of our ideas, are the things existing out of us. Locke.
Our ideas though seen within us, form no part of ourselves or our
being).
11. Then the rays of my reflexion stretched out over them, from amidst
the lotus-cell of my abode, and sat in the form of ten lotus-born
Brahmás over the ten orbs (planets) of this world; like so many swans
brooding upon their eggs. (The spirit of God that dove-like sat,
brooding over the deep. Milton).
12. Then these separate orbs (mundane eggs), brought forth, to light
multitudes of beings, amidst their transparent aqueous atmospheres. (All
worlds girt by their covereles of watery ether or nebulous clouds,
teemed with productions of every kind).
13. Thence sprang the great rivers and the roaring seas and oceans; and
thence again rose the burning lights and blowing winds of the firmament.
(The atmospheric water is the source of all things).
14. The gods began to sport in the etherial air, and men moved about on
the earth, and demons and serpents were confined in their abodes
underneath the ground. (The gods are called _devas_ from their sporting
in the regions of light—_divideváh divyanti_. Men are _párthivas_ from
_prithví_ the earth, and demons are called infernal from their abode in
the _infrapátála_ or antipodes).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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