CHAPTER LXXXII. Investigation into the Nature of the Sensuous Mind.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. He who kills one by the instrumentality of another, is considered the slayer, and not the intermediate means of slaughter; for nobody upbraids the passive sword with guilt, by exculpation of the perpetrator.
41. He who eats and drinks, is said to be the eater and drinker; and not the plate or cup, which hold the eatables or the drinkables.
42. Thou art entirely inactive in thy nature, and art actuated by the All wise Intellect; therefore it is the soul only that perceives everything by itself, and not thou ignorant mind (that assumest the title of the percipient to thee).
43. It is the Supreme Soul, that awakens and informs the mind without intermission; as the ignorant people require to be constantly guided by their superiors by repeated admonitions.
44. The essence of the soul is manifest to all in its form of intelligence, from which the mind derives its power and name for its existence.
45. Thus the ignorant mind is produced by some power of the soul, and remains all along with its ignorance; until it comes to melt away like snow, under the sunshine of its spiritual knowledge.
46. Therefore, O my ignorant mind! that art now dead under the influence of my knowledge of the soul; do not boast any more of thy being a particle of thy spiritual origin for thy sorrow only.
47. The conception of the entity of the unreal mind, is as false as the production of a plant by the light of a magic lantern; there is only that true knowledge which proceeds directly from the Great God. (All else is error and misconception).
48. Know Ráma, these worlds to be no manifestations of Divine power, but as illusive representation of His intellect (chit and máyá), like the glittering waves of waters in the sea.
49. O thou ignorant mind, if thou art full of intelligence as the Intellect, then there would be no difference of thee from the Supreme one, nor wouldst thou have any cause of sorrow. (Hence the human mind is not Divine).
50. The Divine mind is all-knowing and omnipresent and omniform at all times; and by the attainment of which one obtains everything.
51. There is no such thing as thou or he, except the Great Brahma, who is always manifest every where; we have conceptions of ourselves without any exertion on our parts (which proves a Divinity stirring of itself in us).
52. If thou art the soul, then it is the soul that is everywhere here and naught besides; but if thou art anything other than the soul, then thou art nothing, because all nature is the body of the universal soul.
53. The triple world is composed of the Divine soul, beside which there is no existence; therefore if thou art anything thou must be the soul, or otherwise thou art nothing.
54. I am now this (as a boy), and then another (as an old man), and that these things are mine and those another’s, are thoughts that vainly chase upon the mind; for thou art nothing positive here, and positivism is as false a theory as the horns of a hare (or rara avis) on earth.
55. We have no notion of a third thing between the intellect and the body, to which we can refer the mind, as we have no idea of an intermediate state betwixt sunlight and shade (where we may betake us to rest).
56. It is that something then, which we get by our sight of (i.e. by the light of) truth, after the veil of darkness has been removed from our eyes. It is our consciousness (the product of the light of truth), that we term the mind.
57. Hence, O foolish mind! thou art no active nor passive agent of action, but art the sedate self-consciousness of Brahma (knowing only “I am what I am”, “Sohamasmi”). Now therefore cast off thy ignorance, and know thyself as a condition of the very soul.
58. Truly the mind is represented as an organ of the sense of perception and action, and the internal instrument of knowing the soul, and not the soul itself; but this is only by way of explaining the knowable by something familiar and better known to us, and serving as its Synonym. (As to see one’s unlookable face, by the reflexion of the very face in the looking glass; so it is to perceive the invisible soul by its shadow cast upon the mind. This explains the mention of the mind in the Srutis such as in the texts:—“It is by means of the mind alone, that the knowledge of the soul is to be gained.” “It is through the mind only, that the soul is to be seen.” And so many other passages).
59. The mind being an unreal instrumentality (as the sight &c.), can have no existence without its support (as the eyes of the sight); nor can it have any action of its own, without the agency of an actor (as the sword of the swordsman). Hence it is false to attribute activity or sensibility to it.
60. Without the agency of an actor, the instrument of the mind has no power nor activity of its own; as the passive sickle has no power of cutting the harvest, without the agency of the reaper.
61. The sword has the power of slaying men, but by means of the agency of the swordsman; otherwise the dull instrument has no power in any part of its body, to inflict a wound on another.
62. So my friend, thou hast no power nor agency of thine own, to do thine actions to trouble thyself in vain. It is unworthy of thee to toil for thy worldliness like the base worldling (i.e. worldly goods), unless it were for thy spiritual welfare.
63. The Lord (who works of his free will), is not to be pitied like thee that art subjected to labour, because his works are all as unaccountable as those he has not yet done (but thy acts are brought to account for themselves).
64. Thy boast of serving the soul, proceeds from thy ignorance only and thy fellowship with the insensible organs of sense, is quite unworthy of thee.
65. Thou art wrong to pursue the objects of sense, for the sake of thy maker and master; because the Lord is independent of all desire (of the service of others,) being full and satisfied in himself forever.
66. It is by his self-manifestation, and not by act of his exertion of creation, that the omnipresent and omniscient God, fills the whole with his unity, which admits of no duality even in imagination.
67. The one God that manifests himself as many, and that is all by himself, and that comprises the whole within himself, has nothing to want or seek, beside and apart from himself.
68. All this is the magnificence of God, and yet the foolish mind craves after them in vain; as a miserable man longs to have the princely pomp of another, which is displayed before him.
69. Thou mayst try to derive the divine blessings, by being intimate with the Divine soul; but there will be no more intimacy between the soul and the mind, than there is between the flower and its fruit. (i.e. The fruit which here represents the mind, does not inherit the quality of the flower which is here put for the soul). Gloss.
70. That is called the intimate relation of two things, when the one agrees in all its properties with the other; which is here wanting in the case of the soul and mind; the first being immortal, calm and quiet, and the second a mortal and restless thing.
71. O my mind! thou art not of the same kind with the soul, owing to thy changing appearances and ever changeful occupations, and promptness for multifarious inventions. Thy states of happiness and misery, moreover bespeak thee plainly to be of a different nature (from thy source of the soul thou art derived from).
72. The relationship of the homogeneous (as of the liquid and curdled milk), as well as of the heterogeneous (as between the milk and water), are quite apparent to sight; but there is no relation betwixt the contraries (as it is observed in the antagonism of the soul and mind). Note. The spiritual man represses the sensuous mind, and the sensualistic mind buries the conscious and conscientious soul.
73. It is true that there are many things, having the qualities of other things, or an assemblage of properties common to others; yet everything has a special identity of its own; and therefore I do beseech thee, not to lose the consciousness of thy identity with that of the soul, whereby thou exposest thyself to misery (i.e. keep in mind thy divine nature).
74. Therefore employ thyself with intense application to the meditation of the soul; or else thou art doomed to misery, for thy ruminating on the objects of the visible world, in thy internal recesses.
75. Sliding from consciousness of thyself, and running after the imaginary objects of thy desire, are calculated for thy misery only; therefore forget thyself O man!, to associate with thy mind and the bodily organs, in order to find thy rest in the soul or Samádhi—ecstasy.
76. Whence is this activity (i.e. what is this active principle), since the mind is proved to be a nullity as a skyflower, and to be utterly extinct, with the extinction of its thoughts and desires.
77. The soul also is as void of activity, as the Sky is devoid of its parts. It is only the Divine spirit that exhibits itself in various shapes within itself.
78. It bursts forth in the form of oceans with its own waters, and foams in froths by the billows of its own breathing. It shines in the lustre at all things, by its own light in itself. (So says the Urdu poet: Oleken chamakta hai har rang meh).
79. There is no other active principal anywhere else, as there is no burning fire brand to be found in the sea; and the inert body, mind and soul (as said and seen before), have no active force in any one of them.