The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
63. As the flying dust is allayed by the setting down of the winds, so
doth the dust of the mind subside, by subsidence of the force of our
vital airs and desires. (The two moving forces of the mind).
64. Again it is intelligence or _Samvedya_, which is the seed or root
of both of these; and there being this intelligence within us, we have
both our vitality and our desires also. (The word _Samvedya_ in the
text is explained as _Chaitanya_, which is the same with intelligence).
65. This intelligence springs from _Samvid_ or consciousness; by
forsaking its universality, and retaining its individuality; and then
it becomes the seed both of vitality and velleity. (_Samvid_ the
consciousness of the impersonal self, being vitiated to the knowledge
of one’s personality, produces the mind and its selfish desires).
66. Know then your intelligence as the same with your consciousness,
and resembles the seed of the mind and its desires, both of which
quickly die away with their root, like a rootless or uprooted plant and
tree.
67. The intelligence never exists without consciousness, and is ever
accompanied with it, as the mustard seed and its oil. (Or rather, as
the oil is contained in the mustard seed).
68. The wakeful conscience gets its intelligence from its desire, as
the waking consciousness of men, views their death and departure to
distant lands in dream, from their thoughts of the same.
69. It is owing to our curiosity only, that our consciousness has its
intelligence of the intelligible (God); as it is the desire of knowing
any thing, that leads the conscious soul to the knowledge of it. (It
means simply that, understanding combined with the desire of knowing a
thing, becomes the knowledge itself. Here is a play of the paronyms,
_Samvid_, _Samitti_, _Samvedya_, _Samvedana_ and the like).
70. This world is no more than a net work of our imagination, as the
boys imagine a goblin to be hidden in the dark. (So Bacon: Men fear
death, as children fear to go in the dark (for fear of demons)).
71. It is as the stump of a tree, appearing as a man in the dark; and
like the streaks and particles of sunbeams and moonlight, issuing
through the chink of a window or wall, appear as fire: and so are all
the cognizables of our cognition (but deceptions of our senses).
72. The objects of our knowledge are as deceptive, as the appearance of
a moving mountain, to a passenger in a boat. All appearances are the
presentations of our error or ignorance, and disappear at the sight of
right knowledge.
73. As the fallacy of the snake in the rope, and the appearance of two
moons in the sky, vanish before the keen sightedness of the observer;
so the representation of the triple world, disappears in like manner,
from before the penetrating understanding.
74. The inward certitude of the illusion of the world, is what is
called the perfection of knowledge by the wise; and the knowledge of
all things whether seen before or not, is equally a delusion of the
mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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