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
7. It was this mind which spread out the world with all its contents,
beside which there exists naught but the Supreme Spirit. (The mind is
the container of the archetypes of the ectypal world, or the recording
power of knowledge; but the Supreme Soul is the disembodied
self-consciousness, having the principle of volition or Will; while the
Spirit is the animating faculty of the soul).
8. The soul is beyond every category, it is omnipresent and the
substratum of all existence, and it is by the power of this soul, that
the mind doth move and manifest itself. (The mind is the soul
incorporated with bodies; but the soul is quite apart from these).
9. The Mind is known as the cause of the body, which is work of the
mind; it is born and becomes extinct with the body, which the soul does
not, nor has it any such quality which belongs to the mind.
10. The mind is found by right reasoning to be a perishable object, and
no sooner doth it perish, than the living soul succeeds to obtain its
final liberation. For the desires of the mind are the bondage of its
transmigration, but the dissolution of the mind with its desires,
secures its liberation. (Volition and velleity, are the active and
inactive acts of the mind for its eternal bondage).
11. After decadence of the mental desires there is no more any exertion
for acts. This state is called the liberation of living souls, from
their release from trouble and care; and the mind thus released, never
comes to be born and die again. (Free from desire, is freedom from
deadly sin).
12. Ráma said:—Sir! You have said before, that human nature is
principally of three kinds viz:—the good, the gentle and the base
(_Satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_); and it is owing to the good or bad
nature of their minds, that men differ from one another.
13. Now please tell me, how could the wondrous mind originate from the
pure intellect with its good or bad propensities, which are wanting in
the Divine Intellect.
14. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are three spheres of the
infinite vacuity, at immense distances from one another: and these are
the intellectual, mental, and the physical spheres.
15. These spheres are common to all mankind, and are spread out
everywhere; and they have all sprung and come to being from the essence
of the _Chit_ or Divine Intellect. (The first is the space of Divine
Infinity, the second is the _spatium dunamia_ or potential space and may
be filled by bodies; and the third is the place _energeia_ or actually
occupied by bodies).
16. That space which is both in the inside and outside of everything,
and denotes its occupation or otherwise by some substance or its
absence, and pervades through all nature, is called the inane sphere of
the Intellect.
17. That is called the sphere of the Intellect, which embraces all space
and time which has spread out the other spheres, and which is the
highest and best of all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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