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
19. They that are slaves of their desire (of enjoyment in this and next
life), are bound to the thraldom of works ordained by law and sruti; and
thus pass their lives in utter ignorance of truth. (Hence knowledge and
practice are opposed to one another, the one being a state of bondage
for some frail good and gain, and the other of freedom and lasting
bliss).
20. The bodily senses fall upon carnal pleasures, as vultures pounce
upon putrid carrion; curb and retract them therefore with diligence, and
fix thy mind to meditate on the state of Brahma and the soul.
21. Know that Brahma is not without the creation, as no gold is without
its form and reflection; but keep yourself clear from thoughts of
creation and reflexion, and confine your mind to the meditation of
Brahma, which is replete with perfect bliss.
22. Know the nature of Brahma to be as inscrutable, as the face of the
universe is indiscernible, in the darkness of the chaotic state at the
end of a Yuga age; when there was no appearance of anything, nor
distinction of conduct and manners. (See Manu’s institutes I. 2).
23. And the elements of production existing in the consciousness of
divine nature, were in their quiescent agitation in the divine spirit;
as the movements of flimsy vapours amidst the darkness of an immovable
and wide spreading cloud. (So are the fickle thoughts of the firm mind,
and the moving engines of the fixed machine).
24. And as the particles of water are in motion, in a still pond and in
the standing pool; so are the changing thoughts of the changeless soul,
and so the motions of the element bodies in unchanging essence and
nature of God.
25. As the universal and undivided sky and space, take the names of the
different sides of heaven (without having any name or side of its own);
so the undivided and partless Brahma, being one and same with the
creation, is understood as distinct and different from it.
26. The world contains the egoism, as the _ego_ contains the world in
it; they contain the one within the other, as the coats of the plantain
tree contain and are contained under one another.
27. The living soul or _jíva_ being possessed of its egoism, sees its
internal world (which lies in its egoism), through the pores of the
organs of sense, as lying without it; in the same manner, as the
mountains look upon the lakes issuing out of its caverns, as if they
outward things altogether. (So the mental and internal world appears as
a visibly external phenomenon).
28. So when the living soul sees itself by mistake, to any thing in the
world (_i.e._ in the light of an object); it is the same as one takes a
ball or bar of gold, for an ornament which was or is to be made of it.
(So the soul residing in any body at anytime, is not that body itself
but the indwelling power thereof).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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