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
30. It is this delusive _avidyá_, that shortens the flight of time to
the rich and happy; and prolongs its course, with the poor and
miserable: all of whom are subject to the power of delusion
_vipary’ása_.
31. The power of this delusion is essentially spread over all the works
of creation, as the light of a lamp, is spread over things in its
effulgence and not in substance.
32. As a female form represented in a picture is no woman, and has not
the power of doing any thing; so this _avidyá_ which presents us the
shapes of our desired objects in the picture of the mind, can produce
nothing in reality.
33. The delusion consists in the building of aerial castles in the mind,
without their substance; and though these appear in hundreds and
thousands of shapes, they have no substantiality in them.
34. It deludes the ignorant, as a mirage misleads the deer in a desert;
but it can not deceive the knowing man by its false appearances.
35. These appearances like the foaming waters, are as continuous as they
are evanescent, they are as fleeting as the driving frost, which can not
be held in the hand.
36. This delusion holds the world in its grasp, and flies aloft with it
in the air; it blinds us by the flying dust, which is raised by its
furious blasts. (This is delusion of ambitions).
37. Covered with dust and with heat and sweat of its body, it grasps the
earth and flies all about the world. The deluded man ever toils and
moils, and runs every where after his greed.
38. As the drops of rain water, falling from the clouds, form the great
rivers and seas; and as the scattered straws being tied together, make
the strong rope for the bondage of beasts; so the combination of all the
delusive objects in the world, makes the great delusion of Máyá and
Moha. (‘_Gutta cum gutta facit lacum_’. Drop by drop, makes a lake. Or
by drops the lake is drained. And many a little, makes a mickle).
39. The poets describe the fluctuations of the world as a series of
waves and the world itself, as a bed of lotuses: pleasant to sight, but
floating on the unstable element. But I compare it with the porous stalk
of the lotus, which is full of perforations and foramens inside; and as
a pool of mud and mire, with the filth of our sins. (The world is full
of hidden traps and trapdoors and is a pit of sinfulness).
40. Men think much of their improvement, and of many other things on
earth; but there is no improving in this decaying world; which is as a
tempting cake with a coating of sweets, but full of deadly gall within.
41. It is as an extinguishing lamp, whose flame is lost and fled we know
not where. It is visible as a mist, but try to lay hold on it, and it
proves to be nothing.
42. This earth is a handful of ashes, which being flung aloft flies in
particles of dust; and the upper sky which appears to be blue, has no
blueness in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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