CHAPTER CXXXXIII. Ascertainment of Nirvána or Ultimate Extinction.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewise in the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soul continues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.
41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or the creator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it, then can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and how can this body be what the dead person had before, and as for his intellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body into another.
42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be reborn afterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was so and am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again ＜in＞some form or other.
43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men are impressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasion and scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which is altogether false and fanciful.
44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to the phantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spacious vacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitions in this world.
45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, which is spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoy everything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing.
46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantly rising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomena in its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove to be the display of One all pervading Brahma only.
47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them ever exist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreads undivided through all, and knows all these ＜to be＞ an undivided whole, and yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is full and perfect in each and all of these).
48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another in a common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realities to the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light, they proved to be self-same with the unborn One.
49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knower of the knowable (i.e. to him who knows the truth), and what is understood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is believed to be true by the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both).
50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because they are all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcile these opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universal catholicism (of One, to pan).
51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is real or unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely on its verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothing can upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness).
52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute its dictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference or identity of things, or their unity or duality.
53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to us is right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with his knowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identic with the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge. (i.e. God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God).
54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One is not distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finite understanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, that have no knowledge of the knowable One.
55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge of him; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledge increases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls.
56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real ones before the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight.
57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the one intellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousand shapes to the understanding of gross instincts.
58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as it exhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into one, or the single form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soul appear in one or more forms to our intellects also.
59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appears in various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; and are either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of our imagination.
60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of our minds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of the mind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its pralaya or anaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them.
61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions of the mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought in any manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself in reality before us even then and there.
62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in the forms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and in the beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner of dreams and the phantoms of its imagination.
63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preserved in the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together of themselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view it in our presence.
64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as well as permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, but continues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as our transient lives also.
65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain or go; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards the east or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can never lose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as you proceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, is never effaced from it).
66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced to do or think upon is never effaced from consciousness, unless it be from numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss to realize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them to effect).
67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, and you will find your consciousness to continue ＜the＞ same, and never changing with the change of your place. (So doth one’s consciousness accompany him even after his death).
68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the object or state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrary the unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (i.e. his wished for object together with the consciousness of himself).
69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both states whether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady in himself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and his object). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connections with others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what it wills).
70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven and earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is placed in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and west, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the man of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks one way or the other (but stands in the middle).
71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone pervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and many thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.
72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or indestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine intellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream of the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The indestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the destruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).
73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is evident from the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that are invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past lives.
74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt down to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering their errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.
75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the living as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they not reckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This argument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of the reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of absent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead at the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).
76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not be equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of the idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.
77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the established and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quite compatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained in Indian philosophy.
78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as realities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality in them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks—kalankas though to all appearance they seem as habitable parts—chandra-loka).
79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts of the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being composed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only, and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.