CHAPTER L. INTENTIONS OF RÁMA.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. Continue to cut off the meshes of the net of your internal desires, by the agency of your intellect and its helpmate of patience; and be of the profession of belonging to no profession; (of any particular faith or creed or calling).
41. The sweet taste of trusting in the true faith of consciousness, converts even the poison of false faiths to ambrosia (i.e. belief in soul is the soul of all creeds).
42. It is then only, that the great error of taking the false world for true, prevails over the mind; when it forgets to remember the pure and undivided self-consciousness (and takes the outward forms for true).
43. Again the progress of the great error, of the substantiality of the world, is then put ＜to＞ an end; when the mind relies its trust, in the immaculate and undivided consciousness or intelligence.
44. One who has passed over the great gulf of his desires, and known the true nature of his soul; has his consciousness shining within himself, with the full blaze of the luminous sun.
45. One who knows the nature of his soul, and is settled in the transcendental bliss of knowing the peerless One; finds the most nectarious food as a poison to him. (i.e. The taste of spiritual bliss, is sweeter far than that of the daintiest food).
46. We revere those men, who have known the nature of the soul, and have reached to their spiritual state; and know the rest bearing the name of men, as no better than asses in human shape.
47. Behold the devotees going from hill to hill, and roving like bigbodied elephants, for the performance of their devotions; but they are far below the spiritualist, who sits as high above them as on the top of the mountain.
48. The heavenward sight of consciousness, reaching beyond the limits of all regions to the unseen and invisible God; derives no help from the light of the sun and moon (which can never reach so far, as the highest empyrean).
49. The lights of the luminaries fade away like candle lights, before the sight of consciousness; which sees the great lights of the sun and moon and all, within the compass of its knowledge.
50. He who has known the truth of God, stands highest above the rest of men, by reason of his self-sacrifice, and the greatness of his soul, by means of his practice of yoga; and is distinguished from others by the brightness of his person. (The eternal light shines in the body also).
51. Like Him whose effulgence shines forth unto us, in the lustre of the sun, moon, stars, gems and fire, the pre-eminent among men shine among mankind, in their knowledge of what is knowable, and worthy to be known. (The sapient shine with their knowledge, as luminous bodies before us).
52. Those that are ignorant of truth (or the true natures of things), are known to be viler than the asses, and other brute creatures that live upon the land; and are meaner than the mean insects that dwell in the holes beneath the earth. (Knowledge of truth ennobles man-kind, above their fellow-creatures).
53. So long is an embodied being said to be a devil of darkness, as he is ignorant of spiritual knowledge, but no sooner is he acquainted with his soul, and united with his self in his intellection, than he is recognized as a spiritual being.
54. The unspiritual man is tossed about on earth as a carcass, and is consumed with the fuel of his cares, as a dead body is burnt away by the flames of its funeral fire; but the spiritualist knowing the nature of his soul, is only sensible of his immortality.
55. Spiritualism flies afar from the man, whose heart is hardened in this world; just as the glory of sunshine, is lost under the shadow of the thickening clouds in the sky.
56. Therefore the mind is to be gradually curbed and contracted in itself, by a dislike of all earthly enjoyments; and the knower of his self should try by long practice of abstinence, to desiccate his spirit of its moisture, to the dryness of a faded leaf.
57. The mind is thickened and fattened by consolidating itself with those of others; and staining it with the affections, of wife and those of offspring, relations and friends.
58. The passions and feelings also are often the causes, of the solidity and stolidity of the mind; and these are its egotism and selfishness, gaiety and impurity of thoughts, and its changing tempers and affections. But most of all it is the sense of meity that this is mine, that nourishes it to gross density. (The mind is puffed up with the increase of possessions).
59. The mind is swollen on coming to prosperity, even under the deadly pains of old age and infirmity; as also under the poisonous pangs of penury and miserliness. (Stinginess is a painful pleasure).
60. The mind grows lusty in its expectation of some good in prospect, even under the afflictions of disease and danger. It grows stout with enduring what is intolerable, and doing what ought not to be done.
61. The heart too becomes stout with its affection for others, and also with its desire and gain of riches and jewels; it becomes lusty with its craving after women, and in having whatever is pleasant to it for the moment.
62. The heart like a snake, is big swollen with feeding on false hopes as air; and by breathing the empty air of passing delights and pleasures. It is pampered by drinking the liquor of fleeting hope, and moves about in the course of its endless expectations.
63. The heart is stanch in its enjoyment of pleasures, however injurious they are in their nature; and though situated inside the body, yet it is subject to pine in disease and uneasiness, under a variety of pains and changes.
64. There grows in the heart of the body, as in the hollow of a tree, a multitude of thoughts like a clump of orchids; and these bearing the budding blossoms of hope and desire, hung down with the fruits and flowers of death and disease.
65. Delay not to lop off the huge trunk of the poisonous tree of avarice, which has risen as high as a hill in the cavity of thy heart, with the sharp saw of thy reason; nor defer to put off the big branch of thy hope, and prune its leaves of desires, without the least delay.
66. The elephantine heart sits with its infuriate eyes, in the solitary recess of the body; and is equally fond of its ease as of its carnal gratification: it longs to look at the lotus bed of the learned, as also to meet a field of sugarcanes composed of fools and dunces.
67. Ráma! you should, like a lion, the monarch of the forest, destroy your elephantine heart which is seated amidst the wilderness of your body, by the sharp saws of your understanding; and break the protruding tusks of its passions, in the same manner as they break down all big bodies.
68. Drive away the crowlike ravenous heart, from within the nest of your bosom. It is fond of frequenting filthy places, as the ravens hover over funeral grounds, and crows squat in dirty spots, and fatten their bodies by feeding on the flesh of all rotten carcasses. It is cunning in its craft and too cruel in its acts. It uses the lips like the bills of the crow only to hurt others, and is one eyed as the crow, looking only to its own selfish interest; it is black all over its body for its black purposes and deeds.
69. Drive afar your ravenlike heart, sitting heavy on the tree of your soul, intent on its wicked purposes, and grating the ear with its jarring sound. It flutters on all sides at the scent of putrid bodies, to pollute its nest with foul putrescence of evil intents.
70. Again there is the pernicious hideous demon—avarice, roving at large like a goblin, or lurking in ambush in the dark cavity of the heart, as in a dreary desert. It assumes a hundred forms, and appears in a hundred shapes (in repeated births), pursuing their wonted courses in darkness (without any knowledge of themselves and their right course).
71. Unless and until you drive away this wicked goblin of your heart, from the abode of your intelligent soul (i.e. the body) by means of your discrimination and dispassionateness, and your power of mantras and tantras, you cannot expect to be successful (siddha) in your endeavours. (For perfection सिद्धि Siddhi).
72. Moreover there is the serpentine mind, hid under the slough of the body; which with its poisonous thoughts, frothing at the mouth as the destructive venom of mankind, is continually breathing in and out as a pair of bellows, and inhaling and exhaling the air as a snake, for the destruction of all other persons.
73. You must subdue, O Ráma, this great serpent of the mind, lying hid in a cell of the cellular simal tree of your body, by some mantra formula, pronounced by the Garuda of your intelligence; and thus be free from all fear and danger for ever.
74. Repress, O Ráma! thy vulture-like heart, that bears an ominous figure by its insatiate greediness for dead bodies; it flies about on all sides and being annoyed by the hungry crows and kites, it rests in desolate cemeteries. (The greedy mind dwells on the ruin of others).
75. It ransacks all quarters in quest of its meat of living and dead bodies, and lifts its neck to watch for its prey, when it is sitting silently with patience. The vulturous heart flies afar from its resting tree of the body, and requires to be restrained with diligence from its flight.
76. Again the apish mind is wandering through the woods on all sides, and passing fastly beyond the limits of its natal horizon in search of fruits; it outruns the bounds of its native land and country, and thus being bound to nowhere, he derides at the multitude, that are bound to their homely toil, and confined in their native clime and soil.
77. The big monkey of the mind that sports on the tree of the body, with its eyes and nose as the flowers of the tree, and having the arms for its boughs, and the fingers for its leaves, ought to be checked for one’s success in any thing.
78. The illusion of the mind rises like a cloud with the mists of error, for laying waste the good harvest of spiritual knowledge. It flashes forth lightnings from its mouth to burn down every thing and not to give light on the way: its showers are injurious to ripened crops, and it opens the door of desire (to plunge the boat of the body in the whirlpool of the world).
79. Forsake to seek the objects of your desire, which are situated in the airy region of your mind; and exert your energy to drive off the cloud of your mind, in order to obtain the great object of your aim.