CHAPTER CXXV. On the Living Liberation of the Prince.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. The great man that is liberated in his life time, does not smile though he has a smiling face; nor is he affected by nor angry at any thing, though he seems to be moved by affections and anger. (i.e. His feelings are never lasting).
41. Undeluded he sees the delusions of the world, and unseen by any he sees the failings of others; and all pleasure and pain seem as ideal unto him.
42. Every thing is as nil to the liberate, as flowers growing in the garden of the sky; and the existence of the world is non-existence unto him, who sees the unity alone in all existence. (The One being all and all being one; all others are lost in the only One).
43. The words pleasure and pain, are as aerial flowers to him, who are indifferent to them, who have become victorious over their feelings, by their liberation from all sensations in their life time.
44. They that have known the truth, are unaltered in their natures; as the mouths of Brahmá, are unflinching in the recital of Vedas. (?)
45. And as Siva ripped the upper head of Brahmá, as a bud of lotus, with the nail of his hand; and the god neither resented it, nor grew another head instead, which he was well able to do: so the meek yogi remains unresentful at any harm done to him.
46. Of what use is the upward or sky-looking face to him, whose inner or intellectual eye shows him the voidness of all things around; hence the possession of the external organ of sight, is useless to him, who sees everything within himself.
47. Every one gets as it is allotted to him by his fate, in retribution of his past actions; and his fatality (of retributive justice), does not betide mortals only; but binds the god Siva also to the sweet embraces of Gaurí, as well as to his melancholy contemplation for ever; and so also doth the milky ocean, bear the ambrosial moon in his ample bosom. (An irrevocable binds even Jove himself, as Hara to his nakedness, and Hari to his serpent bed).
48. Good minded men are seldom seen to abandon their passions, though they are capable of doing so in their life time; but they become quite dispassionate upon their death, when the five elemental principles of their bodies, are burnt away upon the funeral pile. (All lie level with the dust in their silent graves).
49. But the living liberated man, gains nothing by his doing anything, nor loses aught by his doing of naught; nor has he any concern with any person, nor interest whatever with anything here on earth.
50. What avails one’s passionateness or dispassionateness in this world; since what is fated in this life, cannot be averted by any means.
51. The god Hari, who is liberated in his life, does not yet cease from his work of slaying the Asuras, or to have them slain by the hands of Indra &c.; he becomes incarnate, to die himself or by hands of demons; and is repeatedly born and grown up, to be extinct at last. (Such is the general doom of all).
52. No one can give up his alternate activity and rest at once, nor is there any good to be reaped by his attachment to the one, or relinquishment of the other.
53. Therefore let a man remain in whatever state he may be, without having any desire of his own; because the god Hari is without any desire in himself, being the form of pure Intellect or Intelligence only. (Desire subsists in the mind, and not in the intellectual soul).
54. The changing time changes and moves the steady soul, like a ball on every side; as it turns about the fixed sun round the world in appearance (and not in reality).
55. The lord of the day, is not able to restrain his body, from its apparent course; though he is seated in his nirvána as he is, without any desire of changing his place.
56. The moon also appears to be waning under her wasting disease, though she remains ever the same in all kalpa ages of the world; so the soul of the liberated person continues the same, though his body is subject to decay by age.
57. The fire too is ever free and liberated in itself, because nothing can extinguish its latent heat at any time; and though it was suppressed by the sacrificial butter of marutta, and the seminal liquid of Siva for a while, yet it revived again as it was before. (Light and heat are coeternal elements).
58. Vrihaspati and Sukra the preceptors of the gods and demigods, were liberated in their life time, and with all their ambitious views of predominance, they ＜appeared＞as dull and miserable persons.
59. The sagely prince Janaka is perfectly liberated in his mind, and yet he is not loathe to rule over his princedom, and to quell his enemies in battle. (Liberation consists in the mind, and not in cessation from action).
60. The great kings Nala, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilípa, Nahusa and others, were all liberated in their lives; and yet they reigned and ruled over their realms, with all the vigilance of sovereigns.
61. A man acting either wisely or foolishly in life, is neither bound to or liberated in this world; but it is his ardent desire of or apathy to worldliness, that constitutes his bondage to or liberation from it.
62. The demoniac princes Vali, Namuchi, Vritra, Andhaka, Mura and others, lived quite liberated in their lives; though they acted as unwisely, as if they were elated by their ambition and passions.
63. Therefore the existence or disappearance of the passions, in the conduct of any body, makes no difference in his spiritual character; but it is the pure vacancy of the human soul and mind, that constitutes his liberation in this world.
64. Being possest of the knowledge of God as pure vacuum, the living liberated person is assimilated to the likeness of vacuity itself; and is freed from the duality of thinking himself otherwise than the divine spirit. (The sense of self personality, is lost in the knowledge of the universality of the divine soul).
65. He is conscious of the fallacy of phenomenal appearances, which he knows to be no more than as the variegated rainbow reflected in empty air (by the ineffable light of the glory of God).
66. As the various colours are seen to shine in the rainbow, in the field of empty air; so these myriads of brilliant worldly bodies, are but vacuous particles appearing in infinite space. (The great worlds are as minute atoms in the sight of great God).
67. This world is an unreality, appearing as a reality in view; it is unborn and increate, and yet it is irresistibly conspicuous to our sight, like the appearance of the sky in the empty firmament.
68. It is without its beginning or end, and yet appearing to have both of these; it is a mere void, and seeming as a real substantiality; it is increate, and yet thought to be a created something; it is indestructible, though thought to be subject to destruction.
69. Its creation and destruction are phenomena occurring in the vacuous essence of God, as the structure of a wooden post and statue, takes place in the substance of the wood. (Here the Divine essence is considered as the material cause of the world, and the one being void the other is considered equally void also).
70. The mind being freed from its imagination, and drowned in deep meditation (samádhi), as in the state of a sleepless sleeper; it comes to the sight of an even intellectual vacuity, engrossing the sights of all the worlds, as if absorbed in it.
71. As a man passing from one place to another, is unmindful of the intermediate scenes; so the attention being directed solely to the sight of the intellectual void, the thought of all the world and other existences is wholly lost in the same. (Such sight of the single point in view is called the sakhá chandra darsana. Nyáya).
72. In this state of intense meditation, the thought of a duality is lost in that of the unity; and this idea of oneness disappears in that of a vast void, which terminates to a state of conscious bliss (which is the summum bonum of yoga philosophy).
73. In this state of insouciance, the duality of the world is lost in the nullity of vacuity; the knowledge of self personality is dwindled to spirituality, and all futurity presents itself clearly to the view of the clairvoyance of the enrapt yogi. (This forms the púrnatá or perfectibility of yoga practice).
74. The perfect yogi remains with his mind, as clear as the vacuous sky, enveloping the phenomenals in its ample sphere; he sits silent and as still and cold as a stone; he views the world in himself, and remains quiet in rapturous amazement at the view.