CHAPTER XLVII. DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLDS AND THEIR DEMIURGI.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
Argument. Relation of many past and Future Worlds, and of the gods and other beings contained in them.
Ráma said:—O venerable sir, that art acquainted with all religious doctrines and versed in all branches of the Vedas, I am set at perfect ease by thy holy preachings.
2. I am never satiate with hearing your speech, which is equally copious, clear and elegant.
3. You have said sir, of the birth of Brahmá in course of your lecture on the productions of the satva and rájasa qualities. I want you to tell me more on that subject.
4. Vasishtha answered:—There have been many millions of Brahmás and many hundreds of Sivas and Indras, together with thousands of Náráyanas, that have gone by (in the revolution of ages).
5. There have been various kinds of beings also in many other worlds, having their manners and customs widely differing from one another.
6. There will also be many other productions in the worlds, synchronous with others, and many to be born at times remotely distant from one another.
7. Among these, the births of Brahmá and the other gods in the different worlds, are as wonderful as the productions of many things in a magic show.
8. Some creations were made with Brahmá as the first born, others with Vishnu and some with Siva as the next created beings. There were some other (minor productions), having the munis for the patriarchs. (These are the different periods of the formation of the world under the different Demiurgi).
9. One Brahmá was lotus-born, another was produced from the water; and a third was born of an egg, and the fourth was produced in the air. (These are named as the Padmaja, Náráyana, Andaja and Maruta).
10. In one egg the sun was born with all his eyes, and in another Vásava—the Indra; in some one was born the lotus-eyed Vishnu, and in another he with his three eyes as Siva.
11. In one age was born the solid earth, having no holes for the growth of vegetables, in another it was overgrown with verdure; it was again filled with mountains, and at last covered by living creatures.
12. The earth was full of gold in some place, and it was hard ground at others; it was mere mud in many places, and incrusted with copper and other metals in some.
13. There are some wondrous worlds in the universe, and others more wondrous still than they; some of them are luminous and bright, and others whose light have never reached unto us.
14. There are innumerable worlds scattered in the vacuum of Brahma’s essence, and they are all rolling up and down like waves in the ocean. (Here the infinite vacuity, is represented as the body of Brahma, and the sole substance of all other bodies).
15. The splendours of worlds, are seen in the SUPREME like waves in the sea, and as the mirage in the sandy desert; they abide in Him as flowers on the mango tree.
16. It may be possible to count the particles of the solar rays, but not the number of worlds abounding in the Supreme Spirit.
17. These multitudes of worlds rise and fall in the Universal Spirit, like gnats flying and following others in swarms in the rainy season.
18. It is not known since when they have been in existence, and what numbers of them have gone by, and are remaining at the present time.
19. They have been rolling without beginning like the billows of the sea; those that are past and gone had their previous ones, and they their prior ones also.
20. They rise over and over, to sink lower and lower again; just as the waves of the sea, rising aloft and falling low by turns.
21. There are series of mundane worlds like the egg of Brahmá, which pass away by thousands like the hours in course of the year.
22. There are many such bodies revolving at present, in the spacious mind of Brahma; beside the mundane system of Brahmá (Brahmánda).
23. There will grow many more mundane worlds in the infinity of the divine mind, and they will also vanish away in course of time, like the evanescent sounds in the air. (The sounds are never lost, but remain in the air. Sabdonityam).
24. Other worlds will come into existence in the course of other creations, as the pots come to be formed of clay, and the leaves grow from germs in endless succession. (Here Brahma is made the material cause of all).
25. So long doth the glory of the three worlds appear to the sight, as long as it is not seen in the intellect, in the manner as it exists in the divine mind.
26. The rising and falling of worlds are neither true nor wholly false; they are as the fanfaronade of fools, and as orchids of the air.
27. All things are of the manner of sea waves, which vanish no sooner than they appear to view, and they are all of the nature of paintings, which are impressed in the mind.
28. The world is a perspective, and all things are but paintings in it; they are not without the tableau of the mind, and are represented in it as the figures on a canvas.
29. The learned in divine knowledge, consider the creations proceeding from the Spirit of God, as showers of rain falling from the waters contained in the clouds.
30. The visible creation is no more distinct from God, than the sea water exuding from the earth and the earth itself, and the leaves and seeds of the Simul tree from the tree itself.
31. All created things that you see in their gross or subtle forms, have proceeded from the vacuity of the Divine Mind, and are strung together, like a rosary of large and small gems and beads.
32. Sometimes the subtile air is solidified in the form of the atmosphere, and therefrom is produced the great Brahmá, thence called the air-born lord of creatures.
33. Sometimes the atmospheric air is condensed into a solid form, and that gives birth to a Brahmá; under the title of the atmospheric lord of creation.
34. At another time it is light that is thickened to a luminous body, and thence is born another Brahmá, bearing the appellation of the luminous lord of all creatures.
35. Again the water being condensed at another time, produced another Brahmá designated the aqueous lord of creation.
36. Sometimes the particles of earth take a denser form, and produce a Brahmá known as the terrene Brahmá. (Such was Adam made out of the dust of the ground).
37. It is by extraction of the essences of these four Brahmás, that a fifth is formed under the name of the quintuple Brahmá, who is the creation of the present world.
38. It is sometimes by the condensation of water, air or heat, that a being is produced in the form of a male or female.
39. It is sometimes from the speaking mouth of this being, and from his feet and back and the eyes, that different men are produced under the appellations of Bráhmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Súdras. (These Kshatriyas are born from the arms and eyes according to Manu).