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
7. Then awhile after, I beheld the lotus born Brahmá; as if I came to
see the object of my dream before me after my waking.
8. I then lost the sight of the deities, assembled in the Brahma-loka or
in the world of Brahmá, as when great minded men, lose the sight of the
most prominent objects of their desire from their minds. Nor did I
perceive the aerial city of my dream before me, upon my waking (from the
trance of my illusion).
9. Then the whole creation, which is but the ectype of the mind of
Brahmá; appeared as void as an empty desert to me; and as the earth
turning to a barrenwaste upon the ruin of its cities.
10. The gods and sages, the angels and all other beings, were no where
to be seen any more; but were all blended in and with the same void
every where.
11. I then seated in my etherial seat, came to know by my percipience,
that all of them have become extinct (lit. obtained their nirvána
extinction, like Brahmá in Brahma himself).
12. It is with the extinction of their desires, that they have become
extinct also; as the sleeping dreamers come to themselves after they are
awakened from their illusive vision. (Coming to one’s self _Swasiarúpa_
one’s own nature or essence, means in vedánta, the holy and pure nature
of the human soul, as an emanation or image of the divine).
13. The body is an aerial nothing, appearing as a substantial something,
from our desire (or imagination of it only), and disappearing with the
privation of our fancy for it, like a dream vanishing from the sight of
a waking man.
14. The aerial body appears as real as any other image in our dream; and
there remains nothing of it, upon our coming to their knowledge of its
unreal nature, and the vanity of our desires.
15. We have no consciousness also, of either our spiritual or corporeal
bodies, when we are fixed in our _samádhi_ or intense meditation in the
state of our waking (from sleep).
16. The notion of a thing seen in our dream, is given here as an
instance (to prove the unreality of our idea of the body); because it is
well known to boys and every body, and adduced to us both in the
_srutis_ and _smritis_ tradition (that the objects of sight, are as
false as those of dreams).
17. Whoever denies the falsity of the notions he has in his dream, and
goes on to support the reality of these as well as other visible sights;
must be a great impostor; and such a one deserves to be shunned, for who
can wake the waking sleeper.
18. What is the cause of the corporeal body? Not the dream; since the
bodies seen in a dream, are invisible (to the naked eye); and this being
true it follows, that there is no solid body in the next world (as it is
expected by means of sacrifices and pious acts).
19. Should there be other bodies after the loss of the present ones (by
death); then there would be no need of repeated creation (of corporeal
bodies by Brahmá); if the pristine bodies were to continue for ever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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