CHAPTER LXIX.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
39. In this manner, O Ráma, we came to the end of our erroneous knowledge of the world, as it is by means of our reason, that we come to detect our error of the snake in the rope.
40. Learn this one lesson, that the restraining of the mind and suppression of breath, mean the one and same thing; and if you succeed in restraining the one, you succeed in the restraint of other also. (So it is said, that our thoughts and respirations go together).
41. As the waving of the palm leaved fan being stopped, there is a stop of the ventilation of air in the room; so the respiration of the vital breath being put to a stop, there ensues a total stoppage of the succession of our thoughts. (It is believed that our time is measured by succession of our breath and thoughts ajápas, and the more are they suppressed, the greater is the duration of our life prolonged).
42. The body being destroyed, the breath passes into the vacuous air; where it sees everything according to the desires, which it has wafted along with it, from the cells of the heart and mind.
43. As the living souls find the bodies (of various animals) in which they are embodied, and act according to their different natures; so the departed and disembodied spirits—pránas, see many forms and figures presented before them, according to their several desires. They enter into the same, and act agreeably to the nature of that being.
44. As the fragrance of flowers ceases to be diffused in the air, when the breezes have ceased to blow; so the vital breath, ceases to breathe, when the action of the mind is at a stop. (Hence is the concentration of the mind, to one object only strongly enjoyed in the yoga practice).[3]
45. Hence the course of the thoughts, and respiration of all animals, is known too closely united with one another; as the fragrance is inseparable from the flower, and the oil from the oily seeds.
46. The breath is vacillation of the mind, as the mind is the fluctuation of the breath; and these two go together for ever, as the chariot and its charioteer.
47. These perish together without the assemblage of one another, as the container and the contained are both lost at the loss of either (like that of the fire and its heat). Therefore it is better to lose them for the liberation of the soul, than losing the soul for the sake of the body.
48. Keeping only one object or the unity in view will stop the course of the mind; and the mind being stopped, there will follow as a matter of course, an utter suppression of the breath as its consequence.
49. Investigate well into the truth of the immortality of thy soul, and try to assimilate thyself into the eternal spirit of God; and having absorbed thy mind in the divine mind, be one with the same.
50. Distinguish between thy knowledge and ignorance, and lay hold on what is more expedient for you; settle yourself on what remains after disappearance of both, and live while you live relying on the Intellect alone.
51. Continue to meditate on the existence of all things in one firm and ever existent entity alone, until by your constant habit of thinking so, you find all outward existence disappear into non existence (and present the form of the self-existent only to view).
52. The minds of the abstinent are mortified, with their bodies and vitality, for want of food and enjoyments; and then there remains the consciousness of the transcendent one alone.
53. When the mind is of one even tenor, and is habituated to it by its constant practice; it will put an end to the thought of the endless varieties and particulars, which will naturally disappear of themselves.
54. There is an end of our ignorance and delusion (avidyá), as we attempt to the words of wisdom and reason; we gain our best knowledge by learning, but it is by practice alone, that we can have the object of our knowledge.
55. The mirage of the world will cease to exist, after the mind has become calm and quiet in itself; as the darkness of the sky is dispersed, upon disappearance of the raining clouds.
56. Know your mind alone as the cause of your delusion, and strive therefore to weaken its force and action; but you must not Ráma! weaken it so much, as to lose the sight of the supreme spirit, which shines as the soul of the mind.
57. When the mind is settled with the supreme soul for a moment, know that to be the mature state of thy mind, and will soon yield the sweets of its ripeness.
58. Whether you have your tranquillity, by the Sánkhya or Vedánta Yoga; it is both the same if you can reduce yourself to the supreme soul; and by doing so for a moment, you are no more to be reborn in this nether world.
59. The word divine essence, means the mind devoid of its ignorance; and which like a fried seed is unable to reproduce the arbor of the world, and has no interruption in its meditation of God.
60. The mind that is devoid of ignorance, and freed from its desires, and is settled in its pure essence; comes to see in an instant, a full blaze of light filling the sphere of the firmament in which it rests and which absorbs it quite.
61. The mind is said to be its pure essence, which is insensible of itself, and settled in the supreme soul; it never relapses into the foulness of its nature, as the copper which is mixed with gold, never becomes dirty again.