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
16. One who is dormant in his mind and has the seed of his desire lying
latent in his heart, resembles an unmoving tree, bearing the vegetative
seed of future regenerations (transmigrations) within its bosom.
17. All those men are called blocks who liken the blocks of wood and
stone, and to be like brains who lack their brain work, and whose
desires are gone to the rack. These men possessing the property of
dulness as of dull matter, are subject to the pains of repeated births,
recurring like the repetends of their remaining desires. (The doctrine
of transmigration is, that the wish being father to the thought,
every one meets with his lot in his next birth, as it is thought
of or fostered by him in his present life. [Sanskrit: vásaná eva
pratyávrittikáranam]).
18. All stationary and immovable things, which are endowed with the
property of dull matter, are subject to repeated reproductions. (Owing
to the reproductive seed which is inborn in them, like the inbred
desire of living beings), though they may long continue in their
dormant state (like images of saints in their trance).
19. Know O pure hearted Ráma! the seed of desire is as inbred in the
breasts of plants, as the flowers are inborn in the seeds and the
earthenwares are contained in the clay. (The statue says, Aristotle
lies hid in the wood, and the gem in the stone, and require only the
chisel of the carver and statuary to bring them out).
20. The heart that contains the fruitful seed of desire in it, can
never have its rest or consummation even in its dormant state; but this
seed being burnt and fried to its unproductiveness (by means of divine
knowledge), it becomes productive of sanctity, though it may be in its
full activity.
21. The heart that preserves the slightest remnant of any desire in
it, it again filled with its full growth to luxuriance; as the little
remainder of fire or the enemy, and of a debt and disease, and also
of love and hatred, is enough to involve one in his ruin as a single
drop of poison kills a man. (This stanza occurs in Chánakyá's Excerpta
in another form, meaning to say that, "No wise man should leave their
relic, lest they grow as big as before" [Sanskrit: punasva bhavati
tasmádyasmát sesam na kárayet]).
22. He who has burnt away the seed of his desire from any thing,
and looks upon the world with an even eye of indifference, is said
to be perfectly liberated both in his embodied state in this earth,
as also in his disembodied or spiritual form of the next world, and
is no more subjected to any trouble: (Subjection to desire is deadly
pain and freedom from it is perfect bliss. Or as it is said:--Desire
is a disease and its want is ease. [Sanskrit: áshabhai param dukham
nairáshyam paramamsukham]. Again our hopes and fears in constant
strife, are both the bane of pig man life [Sanskrit: bhayáshá
jívapásháh] &c.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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