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
47. Whatever is sought by the mind, is instantly supplied by the organs
of action; which serve as ministers subservient to the orders of their
king. (The body serves the mind).
48. Hence who so does not attend to the dictates of his mind, in the
pursuit of sensible objects, entertains the tranquility of his inmost
soul, by his diligent application to spirituality.
49. What did not exist at first, has no existence even now (i.e.
material objects); and these that appear as existent, are no other than
the quiescent and immaculate essence—Brahma himself. (The eternal is
ever existent, and the instantaneous are but the phases and fluctuations
of the everlasting).
50. Let no other thought of any person or thing, or of any place or
object employ your mind at any time, except that of the immutable,
everlasting and unlimited spirit of Brahma. (For what faith or reliance
is there in things that are false and fleeting).
51. Rely in the superior powers of your understanding, and exert your
sovran intellect (to know the truth); and root out at once all worldly
desire by enjoyment of the pleasures of your mind.
52. The great ignorance that rises in the mind and raises the desires of
thy heart, has spread the net of thy false hopes for thy ruin, causing
thy death and decrepitude under them.
53. Thy wishes burst out in expressions as these that, “these are my
sons and these my treasures; I am such a one, and these things are
mine.” All this is the effect of a magic spell of ignorance, that binds
thee fast in it.
54. Thy body is a void, wherein thy desires have produced all thy
selfish thoughts; as the empty winds raise the gliding waves on the
surface of the sea (resembling the fleeting moments in the infinity of
the Deity).
55. Learn ye that are seekers of truth, that the words: I, mine and this
and that, are all meaningless in their true sense; and that there is
nothing that may be called real at any time, except the knowledge of the
true self and essence of Brahma.
56. The heavens above and the earth below, with all the ranges of hills
and mountains on earth, and all the lines of its rivers and lakes, are
but the dissolving views of our sight, and are seen in the same or
different lights as they are represented by our ignorance. (This is a
tenet of the _drishtisrishti_ system of philosophy, which maintains
Visual creations or existence of phenomenals, to be dependant upon sight
or visual organs and are _deceptio visus_ or fallacies of vision only).
57. The phenomenals rise to view from our ignorance, and disappear
before the light of knowledge (as the dreams and spectres of the dark,
are put to flight before the rising sun-light). They appear in various
forms in the substratum of the soul, as the fallacy of a snake appearing
in the substance of a rope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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