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
36. It is neither the silence nor inactivity of a living body, that
amounts to its refraining from action, so long as the mind is busy with
its thoughts; but it is only the unmindfulness of the signification of
the word action, that amounts to one’s forbearance from acts.
37. It is the freedom of one’s volition or choice either to do or not to
do anything that is meant to make one’s action or otherwise; therefore
by avoiding your option in the doing of an act you avoid it altogether;
otherwise there is no other means of avoiding the responsibility of the
agent for his own acts; (except that they were done under the sense of
compulsion and not of free choice. Gloss).
38. Nobody is deemed as the doer of an act, who does not do it by his
deliberate choice; and the knowledge of the unreality of the world,
leads to the ignoring of all action also. (If nothing is real, then our
actions are unreal also).
39. The ignoring of the existence of the world, is what makes the
renunciation of it; and the renunciation of all associations and
connections, is tantamount to one’s liberation from them. The knowledge
of the knowable One, comprehends in it the knowledge of all that is to
be known. (Because the One is all, and all existence is comprised in
that only knowable One).
40. There being no such thing as production, there is no knowledge of
anything whatever that is produced; abandon therefore your eagerness to
know the knowable forms (of things), and have the knowledge of the only
invisible One.
41. But there is no knowing whatever of the nature and actions of the
quiescent spirit of Brahma, its action is its intellection only, which
evolves itself in the form of an infinite vacuum (showing the shapes of
all things as in a mirror).
42. “That utter insensibility is liberation,” is well known to the
learned as the teaching of the Veda; hence no one is exempted from
action, as long as he lives with his sensible body.
43. Those who regard action as their duty, are never released from their
subjection to the root (principle) of action; and this root is the
consciousness of the concupiscent mind of its own actions. (The desire
is the motive of actions, and the consciousness of one’s deeds and
doings, is the bondage of the soul. Or else a workingman is liberated,
provided he is devoid of desire and unmindful of his actions).
44. It is impossible, O Ráma, to destroy this bodiless consciousness,
without the weapon of a good understanding; it lies so very deep in the
mind, that it continually nourishes the roots of action.
45. When by our great effort, we can nourish the seed of conscience, why
then we should not be able to destroy the keen conscience by the same
weapon that is effort.
46. In the same manner, we can destroy also the tree of the world with
its roots and branches.
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