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
11. He sits poring upon the sages of the scriptures, and meditates in
silence in their profound sense; he observes with extensive view the
course of nature, from the highest and greatest objects to the mean and
minute.
12. Looking at the aforesaid septuple ground of his past follies, full
with thick forests of poisonous fruits and flowers; he sits smiling
looking upon them in derision (for having fled from their infection).
13. Having fled from the tree of death, and alighted on that of life,
his aspiring mind like a flitting bird, rises by degrees to its higher
branches, and there sits delighted as a prince in his elevated station.
14. Thence he looks down upon the family and friends, and upon the
wealth and property (he has left behind); as if they were the adjuncts
of former life, or as visions in his dream.
15. He views with coldness his passions and feelings, his fears, hopes,
his errors and honors, as actors (dramatis personae), acting their
several parts in the drama of his life. (The world is a stage, life a
play, and the passions are players in it).
16. The course of the world is as that of a rapid river, running onward
with its furious and mischievous current; and laughing with its frothy
breakers, now swelling highland then sinking at once.
17. He does not feel any craving for wealth, wife or friends in his
breast, who lives dead to his feelings as an insensible corpse (or
forgets himself to a stone).
18. His sight is fixed only on that single fruit on high, which is the
holy and conscious soul or intellect; and with his sole object in his
view, he mounts high on the higher branches of this tree of life.
19. He bears in his remembrance, the blessings of the preceding step of
his yoga meditation, which is one fraught with the ambrosia of
contentment; he remains as content at the loss of his riches, as he felt
himself glad at their gain before.
20. In the callings of his life, as also to the calls of his private and
public interest; he is as displeased and annoyed, as one who is untimely
roused from his wholesome sleep.
21. As a weary traveller fatigued with his long and tiresome journey,
longs for his rest from cessation of his labour; so a man tired with his
repeated journey through life by cause of his ignorance, requires his
respite in _nirvána_ (or extinction of the trouble and transmigration in
this troublesome world).
22. As a flame of fire is kindled by the wind of breath and without the
help of fuel, so let him kindle the flame of his soul within by the
breath of respiration; and be united with the Supreme spirit.
23. Let him check per-force his yearning after anything, which falls of
itself before his sight; although he is unable to prevent his wistful
eye, from falling upon it. (Look on all things, but long after nothing).
24. Having attained this great dignity, which confers the fruits of best
blessings on man, the devotee arrives to the sixth stage of his
devotion, whose glory no language can describe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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