The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 4 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)Valmiki
Religion
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 4 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)
Valmiki
Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800; Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800
70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven
and earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is
placed in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and
west, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the
man of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks
one way or the other (but stands in the middle).
71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone
pervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and
many thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.
72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or
indestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine
intellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream
of the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The
indestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the
destruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).
73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is evident
from the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that
are invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past
lives.
74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt
down to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering
their errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.
75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the
living as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they not
reckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This
argument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of
the reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of
absent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead
at the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).
76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not
be equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of
the idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.
77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the
established and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quite
compatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained
in Indian philosophy.
78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the
sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as
realities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality
in them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks--_kalankas_
though to all appearance they seem as habitable parts--_chandra-loka_).
79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts
of the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being
composed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only,
and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account