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
63. The quintuple body is mobile by means of the vital airs, and the
vital life (_jíva_) is intelligent by cause of its intelligence; the
rocks are devoid of both, but the trees have their sensibility by
reason of their being moved by the breath of winds; and such is the
nature of the triple creation of animals, minerals and vegetables.
64. Different words are used to denote the different natures of things
(or else the same word is used for things of the same kind); thus fire
is the general name for heat, and frost is that of coldness in general.
65. (Or if it is not the difference in the disposition of the quintuple
elements in bodies, that causes the difference in their natures and
names). It is the difference in the desires of the mind, which by being
matured in time, dispose the quintuple elements in the forms of their
liking.
66. The various desires of the mind, that run in their divers
directions, are capable of being collected together by the sapient, and
employed in the way of their best advantage and well being.
67. The desires of men tending either to their good or evil, are
capable of being roused or suppressed, and employed to their purposes
by turns. (The changeful desires always run in their several courses).
68. Man must direct his desires to that way, which promises him the
objects of his desires; or else it will be as fruitless, as his
throwing the dust at the face of the sky.
69. The great mountains are but heaps of the pentuples, hanging on
the tender and slender blade of consciousness, and these moving and
unmoving bodies, appear as worms on the tree of knowledge (_i.e._
before the intelligent mind).
70. There are some beings with their desires lying dormant in them,
as the unmoving vegetable and mineral productions of the earth; while
there are others with their ever wakeful desires, as the _deities_,
_daityas_ and _men_.
71. Some are cloyed with their desires, as the worms and insects in the
dirt; and others are devoid of their desires as the emancipate yogis,
and the heirs of salvation.
72. Now every man is conscious in himself of his having the mind and
understanding, and being joined with his hands, feet and other members
of his body, formed by the assemblage of the quintuple materials.
73. The inferior animals have other senses, with other members of their
bodies; and so the immoveables also have some kind of sensibility, with
other sorts of their organs. (The members of brute bodies are, the
four feet, horns and tails of quadrupeds; the birds are biped and have
their feathers, bills and their tails also; the snakes have their hoods
and tails; the worms have their teeth, and the insects their stings
&c. And all these they have agreeably to the peculiar desire of their
particular natures. Gloss).
74. Thus my good Ráma! do these quintuple elements, display themselves
in these different forms in the beginning, middle and end of all
sensible and insensible and moving and unmoving beings.
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