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
53. In this state of spiritual light, the sage loses sight of his egoism
and tuism and all others and beholds the only one unity, in which he is
extinct and absorbed in pure and unsullied felicity.
54. It is the intellection of the intellect, that is said to be
conversant with the intelligibles (or the operation of the subjective
soul on the objective); this is the cause of the creation of the world,
which is the cause of our bondage and continual woes (in our repeated
births and deaths).
55. It is said to be the dormancy or insensibility of intellection, when
it is not employed about the intelligible objects; it is then called the
supremely calm and quiet state of liberation (both for thought and
action); and is free from decay.
56. The soul being in its state of peaceful tranquility, its ideas of
space and time fly from it like clouds in autumn; and then it has no
thought of anything else for want of its power of thinking.
57. When the sight of the soul is turned inwards (_antar mukha_) as in
sleep, it sees the world of its desires rising before its consciousness
in their aerial forms; but O ye princes, the sight of the soul being
directed to the outside (_bahir mukha_), as in its waking state, it
views the inward objects of his desire, presented before its sight in
the gross forms of the outer world. (This passage shows the contrariety
of the spiritual philosophy to the material; the former maintaining the
material world to be a shadow of the ideal, and the latter asserting the
intellectual as a representation of the visible world).
58. The mind, understanding and the other faculties, depend upon the
consciousness of the soul, and are of the same nature as the intellect;
but being considered in their intimate relation with external objects
_bahir-mukhatá_, they are represented as grossly material. (In the
doctrines of materialist—the sánkhya and others).
59. The self-same intellect being spread over our consciousness, of all
internal and external feelings and perceptions; it is in vain to
differentiate this one and undivided power, by the several names (of
spiritual, mental, and bodily faculties).
60. There is nothing which is set apart, from the percipience of the
conscious intellect; which is as pure and all-pervading as the empty
vacuum, and which is said by the learned to be undefinable by words. (So
says the sruti:—No speech can approach to it).
61. Being seen very acutely, the world appears as hazy in the divine
essence, as it were something between a reality and unreality; and
so dost thou appear to sight, as something real and unreal at the
sametime. (All things appear as evanescent shadows in the clear mirror
of the Divine Mind).
62. So am I the empty air, if can be free from desire; and so also art
thou the pure intellect, if thou canst but restrain thy desires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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