CHAPTER II.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
On the Perfect Calm and Composure of the Mind.
Argument.—The sages joining the assembly the next morning, and preaching of Divine knowledge to it.
VÁLMIKI related: Then the shade of night, with her face as dark as that of the darkened moon, began to waste and wane away; as the darkness of ignorance and the mists of human wishes, vanish before the light of reason.
2. Now the rising sun showed his crown of golden rays, on the top of the eastern mountain, by leaving his rival darkness to take its rest, beyond the western or his setting mount of astáchala (the two mountains mean the eastern and western horizons).
3. Now the morning breeze began to blow, being moistened by the moon-beams, and bearing the particles of ice, as if to wash the face and eyes of the rising sun.
4. Now rose Ráma and Lakshmana, with their attendants also, from their beds and couches; and after discharging their morning services, they repaired to the holy hermitage of Vasishtha.
5. There they saw the Sage coming out of his closet, after discharge of his morning devotion; and worshipped his feet with offerings of arghya (or flowers and presents worthy of him).
6. In a moment afterwards, the hermitage of the Sage was thronged by munis and Bráhmans, and the other princes and chiefs, whose vehicles and cars and horses and elephants, blocked the pathways altogether.
7. Then the Sage being accompanied by these, and attended by their suite and armies; and followed by Ráma and his brothers, was escorted to the palace of the Sovereign King Dasaratha.
8. The king who had discharged his morning service, hastened to receive the Sage before hand; and walked a great way to welcome him, and do him honour and pay his homage.
9. They entered the court hall, which was adorned with flowers and strings of gems and pearls; and there they seated themselves on the rich sofas and seats, which were set in rows for their reception.
10. In a short time the whole audience of the last day, composed both of the terrestrial men and celestial spirits, were all assembled at the spot, and seated in their respective seats of honor.
11. All these entered that graceful hall, and saluted one another with respect; and then the royal court shone as brilliant as a bed of blooming lotuses, gently moved by the fanning breeze.
12. The mixed assemblage of the munis and rishis or the saints and Sages, and the Vipras and Rájas or the Bráhmans and Kshatriyas, sat in proper order, on seats appropriated for all of them.
13. The soft sounds of their mutual greetings and welcomes, gradually faded away; and the sweet voice of the panegyrists and encomiasts, sitting in a corner of the hall, was all hushed and lulled to silence.
14. The sun-beams appearing through the chinks in the windows, seemed to be waiting in order to join the audience, and to listen to the lectures of the Sage. (Another translation has it thus:—The audience crept in the hall, no sooner the sun-beams peeped through the windows).
15. The jingling sound of bracelets, caused by the shaking of hands of the visitors in the hall; was likely to lull to sleep the hearers of the sage. (It was a custom in olden times, to make a tinkling sound to ear, in order to lull one to sleep, as by a kind of mesmerism).
16. Then as Kumára looked reverently on the countenance of his sire Siva, and as Kacha looked with veneration upon the face of the preceptor of the God or Brihaspati; and as Prahlada gazed upon the face of Shukra—the preceptor of demons, and as Suparna viewed the visage of Krishna.
17. So did Ráma gloat upon the countenance of Vasishtha, and his eye-balls rolled upon it, like the black bees fluttering about a full blown lotus.
18. The sage resumed the link of his last lecture, and delivered his eloquent speech to Ráma, who was well versed in eloquence also.
19. Vasishtha said:—Do you remember Ráma! the lecture that I gave yesterday, which was fraught with deep sense and knowledge of transcendental truth?
20. I will now tell you of some other things for your instruction, and you shall have to hear it with attention, for consummation of your spiritual wisdom.
21. Whereas it is the habit of dispassionateness, and the knowledge of truth; whereby we are enabled to ford over the boisterous ocean of the world, you must learn therefore, O Ráma! to practice and gain these betimes.
22. Your full knowledge of all truth, will drive away your bias in untruth; and your riddance from all desire, will save you from all sorrow. (Desire is a burning fire, but want of yearning is want of pain and sorrowing).
23. There exists but one Brahma, unbounded by space and time; He is never limited by either of them; and is the world himself, though it appears to be a distinct duality beside Him.
24. Brahma abides in all infinity and eternity, and is not limited in any thing; He is tranquil and shines with equal effulgence on all bodies; He cannot be any particular thing, beside his nature of universality.
25. Knowing the nature of Brahma as such, be you freed from the knowledge of your egoism (personality); and knowing yourself as the same with him, think yourself as bodiless and as great as he; and thus enjoy the tranquillity and felicity of your soul.
26. There is neither the mind nor the avidyá (or ignorance), nor the living principle, as distinct things in reality; they are all fictitious terms (for the one and same nameless Brahma himself).
27. It is the self-same Brahma, that exhibits himself in the forms of our enjoyments, in the faculties of enjoying them, in our desires and appetites for the same, and in the mind also for their perception. The great Brahma that is without beginning and end, underlies them all, as the great ocean surrounds the earth (and supplies its moisture to every thing upon it).
28. The same Brahma is seen in the form of his intellect (or wisdom) in heavens, on earth and in the infernal regions, as also in the vegetable and animal creations; and there is nothing else beside him.
29. The same Brahma, who has no beginning nor end, spreads himself like the boundless and unfathomable ocean, under all bodies and things; and in whatever we deem as favourable and unfavourable to us, as our friends and our enemies.
30. The fiction of the mind, like that of a dragon, continues so long, as we are subject to the error and ignorance of taking these words for real things; and are unacquainted with the knowledge of Brahma (as pervading all existence).
31. The error of the mind and its perceptibles, continues as long as one believes his personality to consist in his body; and understands the phenomenal world as a reality; and has the selfishness to think such and such things to be his (since there is nothing which actually belongs to any body, besides its temporary use).
32. So long as you do not raise yourself, by the counsel and in the society of the wise and good; and as long as you do not get rid of your ignorance; you cannot escape from the meanness of your belief in the mind.
33. So long as you do not get loose of your worldly thoughts, and have the light of the universal spirit before your view; you cannot get rid of the contracted thoughts of your mind, yourself and the world.
34. As long as there is the blindness of ignorance, and one's subjection to worldly desires; so long there is the delusion of falsehood also, and the fictions of the fallacious mind.
35. As long as the exhalation of yearnings infest the forest of the heart, the chakora or parrot of reason will never resort to it; but fly far away from the infected air.
36. The errors of thought disappear from that mind, which is unattached to sensual enjoyments; which is cool with its pure inappetency, and which has broken loose from its net of avarice.
37. He who has got rid of his thirst and delusion of wealth, and who is conscious of the inward coolness of his soul, and who possesses the tranquillity of his mind; such a person is said to have fled from the province of his anxious thought.
38. He who looks upon unsubstantial things, as unworthy of his regard and reliance; and who looks upon his body as extraneous to himself; is never misled by the thoughts of his mind.