The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
51. Know it for certain that this earth and all other things, are
situated in the mind and not outside of it; as the fruit, flowers and
leaves are all contained in the inside of the seed and not without it.
52. The sight of things present, and the thoughts of the absent past
and unseen future, are all but acts of the mind, as the making and
unmaking of pots, are both of them the doings of the pot maker.
53. Whatever notions there are in the minds of men from their youth to
age are alike to the phantoms of their dream or the deliriums of their
ebriety or some (mental) disease.
54. The settled desires of the mind present a thousand appearances
before its sight, as the rooted plants on earth, abound with fruits and
flowers of various kinds, on the surface of the ground.
55. But the plants being rooted out of the ground, there remains no
vestige of a fruit or flower or leaf upon earth: so the desires being
driven out of the mind, there is no more any trace of anything left
behind them; nor is there any probability of future transmigrations,
when the reminiscence of the past is utterly obliterated from the soul.
56. It is no wonder for the shifting stage of the mind, to present you
the single scene of the Chandála, when it has in store, and can with
equal ease show you an infinity of appearances at its pleasure. (The
drama of life exhibits but a partial scene at a time).
57. It was the impression (_eidolon_) in thy mind, that made thee think
thyself as the Chandála, in the manner of the many phantoms, that rise
before the mind in the delirium of a sickly person.
58. It was the same phrenzy that made thee see the advent of thy
Bráhman guest, and entertain him with board and bed; and all thy
conversation with him, was no other than the phantasies of thy mind.
59. Then the thoughts of thy departure from home, and arrival at the
district of the Bhootas, thy sight of the Bhotias and their villages
and habitations, were but aberrations of thy mind.
60. Next thy sight of the ruins of the former abode of Katanjala, and
the account that thou didst get of him from the mouths of the people,
were all the fumes of thy fancy.
61. Afterwards thy visit to the city of the Kirs, and the tale told
thee of the Chandála’s reign by the people, were the excogitations of
thy own mind.
62. Thus all that thou didst hear and see, was the net-work of thy
imagination, and what thou dost believe as true is as false as a
phantom of thy brain.
63. The mind infatuated by its hopes and desires sees everything before
it, how far soever it may be removed from it; as one dreams of objects
as present before him, which would take a whole year for him to reach
at.
64. There was neither the guest nor the city, nor were there the
Bhotias or the Kiris that thou didst see in reality. It was all a day
dream, that thou didst see with thy mind’s eye.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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