The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
39. The intellect has the living soul for its vehicle, and egoism is
the vehicle of the living principle; the understanding is the car of
egotism and the mind the seat of the understanding.
40. The mind again has the vital breath for its curricle, and the
senses are vehicles of the vital airs; the body is the carriage of the
senses, and the organs of action are the wheels of the body.
41. The motion of these curricles forms the course of this world
(which is hence called _karma_ Kshetra or world of activity); and the
continued rotation of the body (called the cage of bird of life); until
its old age and demise, which is the dispensation of the Almighty
power. (That man must toil and moil till he is worn out and goes to his
grave).
42. The world is shown unto us as a phantasmagoria of the supreme soul,
or as a scene in our dream; it is a pseudoscope and wholly untrue as
the water in a mirage.
43. Know, O sage, that the vital breath is called the vehicle of the
mind by fiction only; because wherever there is the breath of vitality,
there is also the process of thinking carried on along with it.
44. Wherever the breath of life circulates like a thread, and acts
as spring, there the body is made to shake with it; as the forms and
colours of bodies, present themselves to view at the appearance of
light.
45. The mind being employed with its desires, perturbs the vital
breath and body as a tempest shakes the forest; but being confined in
the cavity of the heart, it stops their motion as when the winds are
confined in the upper skies. (The mind being fixed to some particular
object of meditation, stops the course of life and gives longevity to
man).
46. Again the confinement of the vital breath in the vacuity of the
heart, stops the course of the mind (thoughts); as the hiding of a
light, removes the sight of the objects from view. (No thought without
breathing, and no sight without light).
47. As the dusts cease to fly after the winds are over; so the mind
(thought) ceases to move, when the breath is pent up in the heart.
(These are subjects of _Pránáyáma_ or restraint of breath, treated at
large in chapter XXV of this book).
48. As the carriage is driven wherever the driver wishes to drive it;
so the mind being driven by the vital breath, runs from country to
country in a moment.
49. As the stone flung from a fling is lost forever, so the thoughts
of the mind are dispersed in the air, unless they are fixed upon some
object. The thoughts are accompaniments of the mind and vitality, as
fragrance is attendant on flowers and heat upon fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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