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
13. As a man roused from his sound sleep, is subject to flimsy dreams;
so the pure soul losing its purity upon its entrance in the gross body,
is subjected to the miseries that are concomitant with it.
14. Then the infinite world; appearing at once and at the same time
(before the view of the mind and outer sight, both in state of dream and
on waking); it is said to be an act of spontaneity by some, and that of
consecution by others. (Some texts say: God willed,) and it was (_so
aikshata_, _fiatet fit_, _kunfa káná_ &c.); while others represent the
world to be not the work of a day, but of many consecutive days. (Such
as _so atapshata_—God laboured and rested from his labour).
15. I conceived the whole (space and time), in the _minutiae_ of my
mind; and being myself as empty air, thought the material world, to be
contained in me in the form of intelligence.
16. As it is the nature of vacuum, to give rise to the current air; so
it is natural to the mind, to assign a form and figure to all its ideas,
by the power of its imagination (whence it is called the creative mind,
or inventive imagination, that gives a shape to airy nothing).
17. Whatever imaginary form, our imagination gives to a thing at first,
there is no power in the mind to remove it any more from it.
18. Hence I believed myself as a minute atom, although I knew my soul to
be beyond all bounds; and because I had the power of thinking, I thought
myself as the thinking mind, and no more. (So one knowing himself as the
body, at once knows him to be a corporeal being only; as the lion
thinking himself as a sheep, bleated and grazed as one of them. So we
forget our higher nature).
19. Then with my subtile body of pure intelligence, I thought myself as
a spark of fire; and by thinking so for a long time, I became at length
of the form of a gross body. (The angels are to be of a bright and fiery
body (_muri_ and _atashi_), and the human body to be of a gross and
earthy substance (_khaki_ and _martya_)).
20. I then felt a desire of seeing all what existed about me, and had
the power of sight immediately supplied to my gross body. (Just as a
child coming out as blind, deaf and dumb from the embryo, has the powers
of seeing and hearing and crying, immediately furnished to it
afterwards) (so says Adam in Milton, “As I came to life, I looked at
this light and beautiful frame”).
21. In this manner I felt other desires, and had their corresponding
senses and organs given to me; and I will tell you now, O race of Raghu,
their names and functions and objects, as they are known amongst you.
22. The two holes of my face through which I began to see, are termed
the two eyes with their function of sight; and having for their objects
the visible phenomena of nature.
23. When I see that I call time, and as I see that is called its manner;
the place where I see an object is simple vacuity, and the duration of
the sight is governed by destiny.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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