CHAPTER XLV. Continuation of the Story of the Deerlike Mind.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument:—Description of the happiness, attending upon the access of the mind to the arbour of Godliness.
Vasishtha continued:—O destroyer of enemies! the deerlike mind having found its rest in that sacred bower, remains quite pleased with the same, and never thinks of going to any other arbour.
2. In course of time, the tree of discriminate knowledge, brings forth its fruits; which ripen gradually with the sweet substance of spiritual knowledge in the inside.
3. The deerlike mind sitting under the goodly tree of its meditation, beholds its outstretching branches hanging downward, with loads of the fruits of merit and virtue (meaning its meritoriousness).
4. It sees people climbing in this tree, with great persistence and pains; in order to taste these sweet fruits in preference to all others (because merit is preferable to reward).
5. Worldly peoples decline to ascend the foot of the tree of knowledge, but those who have mounted high upon it, never think of ever coming down from the high position which they have attained.
6. For he who has ascended on the tree of reason or knowledge, in order to taste its delicious fruits, forgets the relish of his habitual food, and forsakes the bondage of his former deserts, as a snake casts aside his slough or skin.
7. The man who has risen to a high station, looks at himself and smiles to think, how miserly he has passed so long a period of his past life.
8. Having then mounted on the branch of fellow feeling, and putting down the snake of selfishness under his feet, he seems to reign in himself, as if he were the sole monarch over all.
9. As the digits of the moon decrease and disappear in the dark fortnight, so the lotuses of his distress are lost in oblivion; and the iron fetters of his thirst after greed are rubbed out day by day (as he advances in his yoga).
10. He heeds not what is unattainable, nor cares about what is not obtained; his mind is as bright as the clear moon light night, and his heart is quite cold, in all its passions and affections.
11. He sits poring upon the sages of the scriptures, and meditates in silence in their profound sense; he observes with extensive view the course of nature, from the highest and greatest objects to the mean and minute.
12. Looking at the aforesaid septuple ground of his past follies, full with thick forests of poisonous fruits and flowers; he sits smiling looking upon them in derision (for having fled from their infection).
13. Having fled from the tree of death, and alighted on that of life, his aspiring mind like a flitting bird, rises by degrees to its higher branches, and there sits delighted as a prince in his elevated station.
14. Thence he looks down upon the family and friends, and upon the wealth and property (he has left behind); as if they were the adjuncts of former life, or as visions in his dream.
15. He views with coldness his passions and feelings, his fears, hopes, his errors and honors, as actors (dramatis personae), acting their several parts in the drama of his life. (The world is a stage, life a play, and the passions are players in it).
16. The course of the world is as that of a rapid river, running onward with its furious and mischievous current; and laughing with its frothy breakers, now swelling highland then sinking at once.
17. He does not feel any craving for wealth, wife or friends in his breast, who lives dead to his feelings as an insensible corpse (or forgets himself to a stone).
18. His sight is fixed only on that single fruit on high, which is the holy and conscious soul or intellect; and with his sole object in his view, he mounts high on the higher branches of this tree of life.
19. He bears in his remembrance, the blessings of the preceding step of his yoga meditation, which is one fraught with the ambrosia of contentment; he remains as content at the loss of his riches, as he felt himself glad at their gain before.
20. In the callings of his life, as also to the calls of his private and public interest; he is as displeased and annoyed, as one who is untimely roused from his wholesome sleep.
21. As a weary traveller fatigued with his long and tiresome journey, longs for his rest from cessation of his labour; so a man tired with his repeated journey through life by cause of his ignorance, requires his respite in nirvána (or extinction of the trouble and transmigration in this troublesome world).
22. As a flame of fire is kindled by the wind of breath and without the help of fuel, so let him kindle the flame of his soul within by the breath of respiration; and be united with the Supreme spirit.
23. Let him check per-force his yearning after anything, which falls of itself before his sight; although he is unable to prevent his wistful eye, from falling upon it. (Look on all things, but long after nothing).
24. Having attained this great dignity, which confers the fruits of best blessings on man, the devotee arrives to the sixth stage of his devotion, whose glory no language can describe.
25. Whenever he happens to meet with some unexpected good, which fortune presents unto him he feels a repugnance to it, as the traveller is loathe to trust the mirage in a barren desert.
26. The silent sage who is full with divine grace within himself, attains to such a state of ineffable felicity; as the weary and exhausted traveller finds in his sweet sleep, over the bustle of the busy world.
27. He—sage having arrived at this stage of his devotion, advances towards this attainment of the fruit of spiritual bliss, as an aerial siddha spirit has on its alighting on the Mount Meru, or a bird of air on its dropping down on the top of a tree.
28. Here he forsakes all his thoughts and desires, and becomes as free as the open air and sky; and then he takes and tastes and eats and satiates himself, with his feeding freely upon this fruit.
29. It is the leaving off of every object of desire day by day, and living the live long day with perfect composure with one’s self; that is termed the attainment of godliness or full perfection in life.
30. The means of attaining to this state of perfection, is the doing away with all distinctions and differentiations, and remaining in perfect union and harmony with all and every thing; this state of the mind is said by the learned, to be the assimilation and approximation to the nature of God, who is ever pure and the one and same in all from eternity to eternity.
31. One disgusted at his desire of the world and its people, and abandoning his desire of wife and family; and forsaking his desire of acquiring riches, can only find his rest in this blissful state.
32. The ultimate union of both the intellect and its true knowledge (i.e. of both the subjective and objective) in the Supreme spirit; serves to melt away all sense of distinction, as the solar heat melts down the frozen snow.
33. The nature of one who has known the truth, is not comparable with the state of a bent bow, which becomes straight after it is loosened; but to that of a curvilinear necklace, which retains its curvature, even after it is let loose on the ground. (i.e. The true convert does not slide back, like the back sliding hypocrite).
34. As a statue is carved in wood or stone, and stands expect to view in bas-relief therein; so is the world manifest in the great pillar of the Supreme spirit, and is neither an entity nor nullity of itself.
35. We cannot form any idea of it in the mind, as to how the material subsists in the immaterial spirit; nor is it proper to entertain the notion, of what is unknowable by our ignorance of the nature of the selfexistent One.
36. Whoso is known to have his utmost indifference to the visibles, is capable of knowing the invisible spirit; but the unenlightened soul, is incapable to forsake and forget the visibles (in order to see the spirit).
37. The knowledge of the phenomenal is utter ignorance, but that which is never lost to our consciousness is what is meant by samádhána, and our reliance in the same, constitutes what is called samádhi. (This passage has a long explanatory note which is here omitted).
38. When the viewer and view (or the subjective and objective), are viewed in the same light of identity, and so relied upon by the mind; it is then called samádhána or the union of both into one, and it is this belief whereupon the yogi places his rest and reliance.
39. He who has known truth, finds a distaste in the visibles of his own natures (i.e. is naturally averse to them); and wise men make use of the word phenomenalism for ignorance of truth.