The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol 4 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol 4 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
10. Neither can these abide together, on account of the repugnance of
their nature; nor can they both be extinct at the same, as we see
the presence of the one and the absence of the other before our eyes. So
there is no _nirvána_ in the living, because the one is a state of rest,
and the other of pain and misery.
11. The phenomenals are fallacies, and afford no real happiness; think
them as unreal, and rely solely in the increate lord, by thy nirvána or
extinction in him (through the medium of thy devout meditation).
12. The pearl-shell looks like a silver, which is not likely to be
realized from it; it is of no use or value, why then do you deceive
yourself, with such like baubles of the world?
13. Therefore their presence or possession is full of misery, as their
want or absence is fraught with felicity; want being had with the
knowledge of the term, proves a substantive good in thy thought
_nididhyásana_ of it. (Want importing the absence both of good and evil,
is a certain blessing. It may mean also want (of riches) with the gain
of knowledge, is a certain good in the province of thought).
14. Why then the vile do not come to perceive their bondage in riches?
and why is it that they slight to layhold on the treasure of their
eternal welfare, which is even now offered before them?
15. Knowing the causes, effects, and states of things, to be full of the
presence of the One only; why do they fail to feel his immediate
presence in their consciousness, which spreads alike through all?
16. Mistaken men like the stray deer, are seeking Brahma in the causes
and states of things; not knowing that the all pervading spirit, spreads
undivided and unspent throughout the whole vacuum of space (or
throughout the infinite vacuity of space).
17. But what is end of the doctrine of causation, unless it to
establish the cause as the primary source of all; but how can force
which is the cause of ventilation, and fluidity the causal principle of
liquid bodies, be accounted as the creator of wind and water? (In this
case every cause becomes a separate Deity which is absurd).
18. It is absurdity to say that, vacuity is the cause of vacuum, and the
creative power is the cause of creation, when One alone, is the cause,
effect, state and all of every thing himself. (One-God is the primary,
formal and final cause of all).
19. It is therefore absurd to attribute the terms, importing causality
and creativeness of creations to Brahma, who is identic with all nature,
is unchangeable in his nature, and derives neither pleasure nor pain
from his act of the creation of worlds. (What changed through all yet in
all the same &c., and without the feelings of pleasure or pain).
20. Brahma being no other than the intellect (or omniscience), can have
no will or volition stirring in his nature; as a doll soldier or painted
army, are no other than the mud or plate and without any motion or
movement of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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