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
8. Tell me, how can we intermingle the impure conception of the
universal or mundane soul representing the _mundees_ or universe,
with the pure idea of the supreme soul, which is ever calm, quiet and
transparent. (The universal soul, is called _viswátmá_, viswarúpa and
viráta, and is opaque with its contents; while the supreme is quite
pure and clear, and untinged with the shade of creation).
9. Kumbha replied:--You have asked well, O prince, and this shows the
clearness of your understanding; and if this is all that you want to
know, hear me then explain it fully to you.
10. Whatever is seen here and every where together, with all the moving
and unmoving beings which it contains, are all of them perishable, and
are extinct at the end of every kalpa age (in which the creator wishes
to create a new world).
11. Then there remains the true and essential reality at the end of the
kalpa age, amidst an obscure chaotic state, which is deprived both of
light and darkness.
12. This essential reality is the divine intellect, which is pure
and quiet and as clear as the transparent air; it is free from all
attributes and imputations, and full of transcendental intelligence.
13. The one that remains at the end of a kalpa, is the supreme soul
which extends over all space, and is purely bright, transparent and
quiet; it is enveloped in light and is pure intelligence.
14. It is inscrutable and unknowable, it is even and quiet, and full
of bliss; it is called Brahma--the great, the final extinction of all
bodies and is full of all knowledge.
15. It is the minutest of the minute, and the largest of whatever is
large in the universe; it is the greatest and greatest of aught that is
great and heavy, and it is the best of whatever is good and excellent.
16. It is so very small, that if you place this sky beside it, the
latter will appear as big as the great mount of Meru by the side of a
small mite.
17. It is again so very big and bulky, that this stupendous world being
placed side by side to it, the latter must appear as an atom before it
or vanish into nothing.
18. This is attributed with the epithet of universal soul, for its
pervading all over the universe and being its intrinsic soul; while
its extrinsic appearance, is called by the title of Virát.
19. There is no difference between this attribute and its attributive,
as there is none between the air and the wind or the air in motion; and
as the sky and vacuum are synonymous words, so the very same intellect
is the phenomenal world, and the same consciousness is manifested in
the forms of egoism and tuism.
20. As the water becomes the wave at a certain time and place, by
cause of the current wind; so the world rises and falls at times in
the supreme soul, without any external cause (except the will of the
supreme spirit).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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