CHAPTER LVI. State of the soul after death.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. Ráma said:—If the desire is raised at its proper time and place, how then could it rise in the beginning when there was no time nor place: (i.e., when all was void and yet Brahma had his desire and will).
41. You say that there are accessory causes, which give rise to the desires, but how could the will rise at first without any accessory cause whatever?
42. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O long-armed Ráma, that there was neither time nor place in the beginning, when the Spirit of God was without its will.
43. And there being no accessory cause, there was not even the idea of the visible world, nor was it created or brought into existence; and it is so even now.
44. The phenomenal world has no existence, and all that is visible, is the manifestation of the Divine Intellect, which is ever lasting and imperishable.
45. This will I explain to you afterwards in a hundred different ways, and it is my main purpose to do so; but hear me now tell you what appertains to the matter under consideration.
46. They having got in that house, saw its inside beautifully decorated with chaplets of flowers as fresh as those of the spring season.
47. The inmates of the palace were quietly employed in their duties, and the corpse of the king was placed upon a bed of mandara and kunda flowers.
48. The sheet over the dead body, was also strewn over with wreaths of the same flowers; and there were the auspicious pots of water placed by the bed side.
49. The doors of the room were closed, and the windows were shut fast with their latchets; the lamps cast a dim light on the white washed walls around, and the corpse was lying as a man in sleep, with the suppressed breathing of his mouth and nostrils.
50. There was the full bright moon, shining with her delightsome lustre, and the beauty of the palace, put to blush the paradise of Indra; it was as charming as the pericarp of the lotus of Brahmá’s birthplace, and it was as silent as dumbness or a dummy itself, and as beautiful as the fair moon in her fulness.