CHAPTER LXXIV. Lecture on Apathy or Stoicism.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument. Error is the cause of the misconception of the World, and Right Reason is the means of deliverance from it.
Vasishtha continued:—It is a pleasure to look at the outer world, and painful to turn the sight to the inner soul; as it is pleasant to see the delightful prospects abroad, and bitterness of the heart to be without them. (All men court pleasure, but fly from pain).
2. It is by the fascination of these delightsome objects, that we are subjected to all our errors and blunders; as the taste of spirituous liquors, fills the brain with giddiness.
3. It is this intoxication, that drives the knowledge of sober truth from our minds, and introduces the delirium of the phenomenal world in its stead; as the heat of the sun (like the heat of the brain), produces the false mirage in the desert.
4. It is then that the deep ocean of the soul boils in its various aspects of the mind, understanding, egoism, sensation and volition; as the sea when moved by the hot winds, bursts in the forms of foaming froths, waves and surges.
5. The duality of the mind and its egoism, is only a verbal distinction and not distinct in reality; for egoism is but a thought chitta, and the thought is no other than the mind or manas.
6. As it is in vain to conceive the snow apart from its whiteness, so it is false to suppose the mind as distinct from egoism (because the ego is a conception of the mind only).
7. There is no difference of the ego from the mind, as the destruction of the one is attended with the loss of the other also; just as the removal of the cloth, is accompanied with the absence of its colour also. (Egoism is said to be the son of the mind, and the one dies without the other).
8. Avoid both your desire of liberation, as also your eagerness for worldly bondage; but strive to enfeeble your mind by lessening its egoism, by the two means of your indifference to and discrimination of worldly objects. (i.e. Neither seek the world nor hate it, but remain as an indifferent spectator of everything).
9. The thought of getting liberation, growing big in the mind, disturbs its peace and rest, and injures the body also (by a rigid observance of the austerities necessary for liberation).
10. The soul being either apart from all things, or intimately connected with all, can neither have its liberation nor bondage also (when it is already so separate from, as well as united with everything in the world).
11. When the air circulates in the body, by its natural property of motion, it gives movement to the members of the body, and moves the voluble tongue, like the flitting leaf of a tree.
12. As the restless wind, gives motion to the leaves and twigs of trees; so the vital airs add their force to the movement of the members of the body.
13. But the soul which pervades the whole, never moveth like the wind, nor is it moved as any part of the body; it does not move of itself, but remains unshaken as a rock at the motion of the winds, and like the Lord of all, it is unmoved by the breeze.
14. The soul shows by its reflexion, all things that are hid in it; as the lamp discovers by its light, whatever lay concealed in the darkness of the room.
15. It being so (but a counterfeit copy), why should you fall into the painful error, of conceiving like the ignorant and senseless men, that these members of your body and these things belong to you?
16. Thus infatuated by ignorance, men think the frail body as lasting, and attribute knowledge and agency of action to it (which in reality belong to the soul).
17. It is gross error only, that makes us believe the body as an automaton, or selfacting machine of its motions, actions and passions; and it is our sanguine wishes only, that present so many false views before us, as the solar heat, raises the mirage of water in the sandy desert.
18. It is this ignorance of truth, which makes the mind to pant after the pleasures of sense; and drags it along like a thirsty doe, to perish in the aqueous mirage of the parching shore.
19. But untruth being detected from truth, it flies from the mind, as a chandála woman when once known she comes to be as such, flies afar from the society of Bráhmans.
20. So when error comes to be found out, it can no more beguile the mind than the mirage (when it is discovered as such) fails to attract the thirsty to it.
21. Ráma! as truth is known and rooted in the mind, the seeds of earthly desires are uprooted from it, as thick darkness is dispelled by the light of a lamp.
22. As the mind arrives to certain truths, by the light of the sástras and reason; so its errors fastly fade away like icicles, melting under the heat of the solar rays.
23. The certainty of the moral truth, that ‘it is useless to foster and fatten this frail frame of the body,’ is as powerful to break down the trammels of worldly desires, as the robust lion is capable to break down the iron grate of his prison.
24. The mind of man being freed from the bonds of its desires, becomes as brilliant as the moonlight night, with the pure beams of disinterested delight.
25. The contented mind gets a coolness like that of a heated rock, after it is washed by a shower of rain; and it finds a satisfaction equal to that of a pauper, by his getting the riches of a king and his whole kingdom.
26. The countenance of the contented man, shines as clear as the face of the autumnal sky; and his soul overflows with delight, like the deluvial waters of the deep.
27. The contented man is as silent, as the mute cloud after the rain; and his soul remains as composed with its consciousness, as the profound sea is tranquil with its fulness.
28. He has his patience and steadiness like those of a rock, and he glistens as quietly in himself, as the glowing fire glitters after its fuel is burnt out.
29. He is extinct in himself as the extinguished lamp; and has his inward satisfaction as one who has feasted on ambrosia.
30. He shines with his inward light like a lantern with its lighted lamp; and as fire with its internal lustre, which can never be put out.
31. He sees his soul, as identic with the universal and all pervading soul; which is the lord and master of all, and which abides in all forms in its formless state.
32. He smiles at every thing, by his setting himself above and beyond all mortal and frail things; his days glide away sweetly and softly with him; and he laughs at those men, whose fickle minds are made the marks of cupid’s arrows.
33. His holy mind is isolated from the society of men, and from all their amusements; and rests secluded from all company and concern, with the fulness of its spiritual bliss within itself.
34. It gets clear of the turbid and turbulent ocean of this world, and is quite cleared of the dirt of worldly desires; it is loosened from the fetters of its error, and set free from the fear of dualism.
35. The man being thus released, attains the highest state of humanity, and rests in that supreme felicity, which is desired by all and found by few, and from which nobody returns to revisit the earth.
36. This height of human ambition being arrived at, there is nothing else to wish for; and this great gratification being once gained, there is no other joy which can delight us more.
37. The self contented man, neither gives to nor receives anything from anybody; he neither praises nor dispraises any one, nor does he rejoice or grieve at anything, nor is he ever elated nor depressed at any occurrence.
38. He is said to be liberated in his life time, for his taking no title on himself, and withholding from all business; as also for his being free from desires (which bind a man fast to this earth).
39. Abstain from wishing any thing in your heart, and hold your tongue in tacit silence; and remain as dumb as a cloud after it has poured down all its waters.