CHAPTER LXXXXII. Means of Obtaining the Divine Presence.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
39. Those who attempt to subdue the mind by bodily contortions, strive as vainly as they, who wish to bind the mad elephant with a rope of grass or straws.
40. Those rules which prescribe bodily practices, instead of mental reasoning and precepts, are known as the patterns of Hatha-Yoga, and misleading men to dangers and difficulties. (Because the mind alone governs the mind, and bodily austerities have ruined many bodies and killed many men also; and the correspondence between the states of the mind and lungs, has not been admitted in science).
41. Wretched men like beasts have no rest from their labour, but wander in dales and woods, in quest of herbs and fruits for their food.
42. Ignorant men who are infatuated in their understandings, are timid cowards like timorous stags; and are both dull-headed and weak-bodied, and languid in their limbs (by incessant toil).
43. They have no place of confidence anywhere, but stagger as the distrustful deer in the village; their minds are ever wavering between hopes and fears, as the sea water rising and falling in waves.
44. They are borne away like leaves fallen from a tree, by the current of the cascade gliding below a water-fall; and pass their time in the errors of sacrificial rites and religious gifts and austerities, and in pilgrimages and adoration of idols.
45. They are subject to continued fears, like the timid deer in the forest, and there are few among them, who happen by chance to come to the knowledge of the soul. (Most men are betaken by the exoteric faith).
46. Being broiled by outward misery and internal passions, they are rarely sensible of their real state; and are subjected to repeated births and deaths, and their temporary habitation in heaven or hell. (There is no everlasting reward or punishment, adjudged to the temporal merit and demerit of human actions).
47. They are tossed up and down like play balls in this world, some rising up to heaven, and others falling to hell-torments while they are even here. (The gloss represents higher births as heaven, and the lower ones as hell-torments; and since the Hindu idea of bliss is idleness, he deems the idle life of the great his heaven. Otia cumdignitate).
48. These men roll on like the incessant waves of the sea; therefore leave off the exterior view of the exoteric, and sink deep into the spiritual knowledge for your everlasting rest. (The Hatha-Yoga is deemed like the other modes of public worship, to belong to the exoteric faith).
49. Remain quiet and sedate, with your firm faith in your inward consciousness; and know that knowledge is power, and the knowing man is the strongest being on earth; therefore be wise in all respects.
50. Ráma! renounce the cognizance of the knowable objects, and depend on the abstract knowledge of all things in thy subjective consciousness; remain firm in full possession of thy inner soul, and think thyself as no actor of thy acts. Then forsaking all inventions of men as falsehoods (kalaná and kalpaná), shine with the effulgence of thy spiritual light.