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
28. You must not however allow your mind, become as insensible as a
stone; but remain in your natural state and employ it in the service of
your adorable object, with the best offerings of your reason on all
things about you.
29. Adore the Supreme God of nature; for the enlargement of your
understanding; and He being worshipped with your right reason and good
sense, will soon reward you with the best boon of your transcendent
felicity—_neratisayánanda_.
30. The adoration of Indra, Upendro and the other gods, is as the
worshipping rotten straws with respect to that of the God in spirit; and
the offering of flowers and sacrifices, are nothing in comparison to
your cultivation of reason, and association with wise and learned men.
31. The Supreme God who is the giver of all blessings, being worshipped
in the true light of the spirit in one’s own soul, confers his best
blessing of liberation in an instant.
32. Why does the ignorant man resort to another, when his soul is the
sole lord; Do you associate with the good and have your equanimity and
content, and adore the Supreme soul with your best reason.
33. The worship of idols, pilgrimages and all sorts of devotion,
together with all your charities, are as useless as the offering of
scentless _Sirisha_ flowers, and injurious as fire, poison and the
wounds of weapons are to the body.
34. The actions of mean minded men, are as useless as ashes on account
of their unreasonableness; let them therefore act with reason in order
to render their deeds fruitful.
35. Why therefore don’t you foster your reasoning powers in your mind,
by means of your knowledge of the true natures of things, and the
concentration of your desires in the Supreme spirit.
36. It is by divine grace only, that the reasoning faculty has its
exercise in the mind, therefore the power of reasoning is to be fostered
in the mind, by sprinkling the ambrosial water of equanimity over it.
37. Until the fountain of error in the mind, is dried up by the blaze of
right knowledge, so long the tendency towards the corporeal, continues
to run over it in all directions.
38. Equanimity overcomes the sense of shame, sorrow, fear and envy; as
the conviction of the nihility of the world and all corporeal things,
removes the possibility of their existence at any time. (According to
the dictum—nyáya,—_násato vidyate vába_. _Ex nihilo nihil fit_ nothing
comes from nothing).
39. And if it be the work of a cause, it must be the selfexistent
Brahma that both at once; as the reflexion is alike the reflector, and
the reflected knowledge of a pot or picture is nothing in reality. (The
effect is akin to the cause agreeably to the maxim “similes similibus”).
40. Know this world to be the shadow of the intellect, as one’s feature
is seen within a mirror; but the idea of the shadow of both, vanishes
when one acquainted with the original.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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