CHAPTER CI.
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Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
39. We are all doubtful of the happiness, that most await on us hereafter in heaven; and what are our religious acts, but for the purpose of procuring some happiness to those, who are unacquainted with the consummate felicity of their souls, derived from their spiritual knowledge.
40. Let them use their ornaments of brass, who have no gold ornaments for their persons; so let the ignorant adhere to their ritual and not the wise who are quite happy in their knowledge. But you, O prince, have happily come both to your knowledge and happiness in the company of Chúdálá and others.
41. Why therefore are you devoted in vain, to the observance of your austerities; because the mortifications and penance of asceticism, are prescribed for the expiation of the prior misdeeds of men (and neither for their salvation or eternal felicity of the souls).
42. The beginning and end of asceticism are both attended with pain, the middle alone promises a short and temporary happiness; and as mortifications are mere preparatory to the purification of the soul. (it is better to acquire this purity by divine knowledge, than by the painful practices of hermitage).
43. Remain steady in that pure knowledge, which is said to be the result of penitence; and the purity of the soul being had with the clearness of the intellectual sphere, all things and thoughts will be as perspicuous to view as in the clear light of the sky.
44. All things are seen to rise and disappear in the vacuous sphere of the divine intellect, and the thoughts of our good and bad actions, are as the drops of rain which mix with the waters of the immeasurable ocean of the Divine soul.
45. Therefore, O Sikhidhwaja, abandon the barren soil (of rituals), and resort to the abundant field (of divine knowledge); and ask of me to know your best good, as men desire to know of their best friends.
46. As a wife that requires her husband, refrains from asking petty things of him; so should you refrain from asking of trifling blessings from thy God, if thou dost require thy communion with him. And know the objects of thy desire, are not always for thy good. (Therefore let his will be done and not theirs).
47. As no wise man runs to grasp the sun, in his reflexion in the water; so should you never pursue after the pleasures of heaven or felicity of liberation, after thou hast found him in thy own spirit. (Better to posses the whole God than pray for a partial blessing).
48. Forsake what is unstable, though it may appear as stable to thee; and thou always stable, by leaving the unstable to perish by itself. (i.e. All adscititious properties are unstable).
49. Knowing the instability of things, preserve the stability of thy mind, because the motionless mind perceives no fluctuation of its thoughts, nor the changes and motions of things (as in sound sleep).
50. All our evils proceed from the acts of our bodies, as well as from the thoughts and action of our minds; these two are main springs of the miseries of men, in all places and times.
51. Curb the fickleness of your mind, and be ever calm and quiet; if you desire to enjoy the happiness of quiet and rest.
52. Know all motions and its want to dwindle into perfect rest, in the mind of the truly wise men; hold them therefore in equal light and be happy forever.
53. Sikhidhwaja said:—Tell me sir, how can the motion and force of a thing be one and the same with its immobility and rest; and you who are the remover of my doubts, will I dare say quickly clear this point to me.
54. Kumbha replied:—There is one thing only, which also the all and whole of this universe; it is as the water of the sea, and is agitated by its intelligence, as the sea water is agitated into billows.
55. The immensity of Brahma, which is named the only essence and is of the form of the pure intellect; is beheld in the shape of the formal world by the ignorant.
56. The agitation of the intellect is all in all in the world and constitute the moving principle of the universe (or the main spring of the cosmos).
57. The agitation of the intellect being concomitant with the divine spirit, it is alike to its stillness, and the unity of these two forms the spirit of God called Siva or Zeus.
58. The agitation of the divine spirit in the work of creation, vanishes before the sight of perfect understandings; though it appears to be in active operation to the ignorant, who view it as they do a false snake in the rope.
59. The intellect is ever busy and active, from which it derives its name (chit—intellect). But the inactive spirit which is all pervasive, is both inexpressible as well as inconceivable, owing to its devoid of all attributes (turíyátíta).
60. It is by long study of the sástras and association with the wise, as also by continued practice of yoga, that the light of the supreme spirit dawns in the inner soul, like the rising moon with her benign beams.
61. The supreme spirit is only to be perceived by our understanding, from the benign rays which it spreads over it; and this says by the wise to be the light of the holy spirit.
62. You have now known the essence of your soul, which is without its beginning, middle and end, and must for ever continue in it as your real and true state; there is no other distinct form of the great intellectual soul, wherefore know this as yourself, and remain from all sorrow and pain.