CHAPTER XXXVI. HYMN TO THE SOUL.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. Thou art both the existence and absence of all things, that are either present or lost to our view; yet thou art quite apart from all worldly existences, and art aloof from all entities and non-entities in the world.
41. Forsake, O my soul! the pride and anger of thy mind, and all the foulness and wiliness of thy heart; because the highminded never fall into the faults and errors of the common people.
42. Think over and over on the actions of thy past life, and the long series of thy wicked acts; and then with a sigh blush to think upon what thou hadst been before, and cease to do such acts anymore.
43. The bustle of thy life is past, and thy bad days have gone away; when thou wast wrapt in the net of thy tangled thoughts on all sides.
44. Now thou art a monarch in the city of thy body, and hast the desire of thy mind presented before thee; thou art set beyond the reach of pleasure and pain, and art as free as the air which nobody can grasp.
45. As thou hast now subdued the untractable horses of thy bodily organs, and the indomitable elephant of thy mind; and as thou hast crushed thy enemy of worldly enjoyment, so dost thou now reign as the sole sovereign, over the empire of thy body and mind.
46. Thou art now become as the glorious sun, to shine within and without us day by day; and dost traverse the unlimited fields of air, by thy continued rising and setting at every place in our meditation of thee.
47. Thou Lord! art ever asleep, and risest also by thy own power; and then thou lookest on the luxuriant world, as a lover looks on his beloved.
48. These luxuries like honey, are brought from great distances by the bees of the bodily organs; and the spirit tastes the sweets, by looking upon them through the windows of its eyes. (The spirit enjoys the sweets of offerings, by means of its internal senses).
49. The seat of the intellectual world in the cranium is always dark, and a path is made in it by the breathings of inspiration and respiration (pránápána), which lead the soul to the sight of Brahmá (lit.: to the city of Brahmá. This is done by the practice of pránáyáma).
50. Thou Lord! art the odor of this flower-like body of thine, and thou art the nectarious juice of thy moonlike frame, the moisture of this bodily tree, and thou art the coolness of its cold humours: phlegm and cough.
51. Thou art the juice, milk and butter, that support the body, and thou being gone (O soul!), the body is dried up and become as full to feed the fire.
52. Thou art the flavour of fruits, and the light of all luminous bodies; it is thou that perceivest and knowest all things, and givest light to the visual organ of sight.
53. Thou art the vibration of the wind, and the force of our elephantine minds; and so art thou the acuteness of the flame of our intelligence.
54. It is thou that givest us the gift of speech, and dost stop our breath, and makest it break forth again on occasions. (Speech—Vách—vox in the feminine gender, is made Váchá by affix á according to Bhaguri).
55. All these various series of worldly productions, bear the same relation to thee, as the varieties of jewelleries (such as the bracelets and wristlets); are related to the gold (of which they are made).
56. Thou art called by the words I, thou, he &c., and it is thyself that callest thyself such as it pleaseth thee. (The impersonal God is represented in different persons).
57. Thou art seen in the appearances of all the productions of nature, as we see the forms of men, horses and elephants in the clouds, when they glide softly on the wings of the gentle winds. (But as all these forms are unreal, so God has no form in reality).
58. Thou dost invariably show thyself in all thy creatures on earth, the blazing fire presents the figures of horses and elephants in its lambent flames. (Neither has God nor fire any form at all).
59. Thou art the unbroken thread, by which the orbs of worlds are strung together as a rosary of pearls; and thou art the field that growest the harvest of creation, by the moisture of thy intellect. (The divine spirit stretches through all, and contains the pith of creation).
60. Things that were inexistent and unproduced before creation, have come to light from their hidden state of reality by thy agency, as the flavour of meat-food, becomes evident by the process of cooking.[18]
61. The beauties of existences are imperceptible without the soul; as the graces of a beauty are not apparent to one devoid of his eyesight.
62. All substances are nothing whatever without thy inherence in them; as the reflection of the face in the mirror (or a picture in painting), is to no purpose without the real face or figure of the person.
63. Without thee the body is a lifeless mass, like a block of wood or stone; and it is imperceptible without the soul, as the shadow of a tree in absence of the sun.
64. The succession of pain and pleasure, ceases to be felt by one who feels thee within himself; as the shades of darkness, the twinkling of stars, and the coldness of frost, cease to exist in the bright sunlight.
65. It is by a glance of thy eye, that the feelings of pain and pleasure rise in the mind; as it is by the beams of the rising sun, that the sky is tinged with its variegated hues.
66. Living beings perish in a moment, at the privation of thy presence; as the burning lamp is extinguished to darkness, at the extinction of its light. (Light and life are synonymous terms, as death and darkness are homonyms).
67. As the gloom of darkness is conspicuous at the want of light; but coming in contact with light, it vanishes from view.[19]
68. So the appearances of pain and pleasure, present themselves before the mind, during thy absence from it; but they vanish into nothing at the advance of thy light into it.
69. The temporary feelings of pleasure and pain, can find no room in the fulness of heavenly felicity (in the entranced mind); just as a minute moment of time, is of no account in the abyss of eternity.
70. The thoughts of pleasure and pain, are as the short-lived fancies of the fairy land or castles in air; they appear by turns at thy pleasure, but they disappear altogether no sooner thy form is seen in the mind.
71. It is by thy light in our visual organs, that things appear to sight at the moment of our waking, as they are reproduced into being; and it is by thy light also poured into our minds, that they are seen in our dream, as if they are all asleep in death.
72. What good can we derive from these false and transient appearances in nature? No one can string together the seeming lotuses that are formed by the foaming froth of the waves.
73. No substantial good can accrue to us from transitory mortal things; as no body can string together the transient flashes of lightning into a necklace. (This is in refutation of the usefulness of temporary objects maintained by the Saugatas).
74. Should the rationalist take the false ideas of pain and pleasure for sober realities; what distinction then can there be between them and the irrational realists (Buddhists).
75. Should you, like the Nominalist, take everything which bears a name for a real entity; I will tell you no more than that, you are too fond to give to imaginary things a fictitious name at your own will. (Gloss:—according to the ideas and desires of one’s own mind, or giving a name to airy nothing).
76. But the soul is indivisible and without its desire and egoism, and whether it is a real substance or not we know nothing of, yet its agency is acknowledged on all hands in our bodily actions.
77. All joy be thine! that art boundless in thy spiritual body, and ever disposed to tranquility; that art beyond the knowledge of the Vedas, and art yet the theme of all the sástras.
78. All joy to thee! that art both born and unborn with the body, and art decaying undecayed in thy nature; that art the unsubstantial substance of all qualities, and art known and unknown to every body.
79. I exult now and am calm again, I move and am still afterwards; I am victorious and live to win my liberation by thy grace; therefore I hail thee that art myself.