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
35. There is nothing that is not He, who though one is always all
things in all places; He is in and out of everything, and extends
along the beginning, middle and end of all things. He is eternity and
duration and the three divisions of time also; (_i.e._ the present,
past and future, called the triple time).
36. He is all, and existent in all things, in all places and times; and
yet He is not the All, and neither existing with anything at any time
or place (but is but dimly seen in these His lowest works. Milton).
37. Know now, Ráma, that Brahma being the universal soul, He is all
in all places and times; and because Brahma is the conscious soul, He
exhibits all things to our consciousness, as if they were images in our
dreams or the creatures of our imagination. (_i.e._ A corporeal God
only can form a formal and plastic world; but the intellectual soul of
God, can make only a formless and immaterial creation, as we see in our
dream and phantasies).
38. The maker of the terrene world, must have an earthly body; and the
framer of the woody arbours must have a wooden frame, but the Lord God
of all, has neither a corporeal body nor a material shape. (Thus they
frame a fire, air and water God, but the true God is none of these
elements).
39. Others make a mountain God as the Lord of all; and some even make
and worship a human figure as the supreme God (and so are all the
heathen gods represented in human figures).
40. Some make a picture the Lord and maker of all; and others make some
image as such, and worship it as the great God of all.
41. But there is only one supreme Being, who is the maker, supporter
and the Lord God of all others; He is without beginning and end, and
the Lord Brahma, whose spirit upholds and supports all others.
42. A straw made image or an earthen pot, is attributed with divine
powers, and represented as the Most high; and so the formless God is
shown in frail images, which are made and destroyed by human hands.
43. An outward object is made the actor and enjoyer of acts; but the
wise know intelligence only, as the active and passive agent of all
actions.
44. But the truly wise (_i.e._ the vacuist) acknowledges no active nor
passive agent of creation; although many among the wise (_i.e._ the
Páshupatas) recognize one God alone, as the only actor, and enjoyer of
all.
45. All these views may be probable, and well apply to the most high,
who is the sole object of all these theories; and as there is nothing,
which can be positively affirmed or denied of Him. (Here the vacuist
Vasishtha is a tolerator of all faiths, as suited to the capacities of
the different understanding of men).
46. All these believers look to their desired objects, as manifest to
their view in the vacuous space of their intellects, and by viewing the
whole world in themselves, they remain undecayed at all times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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