CHAPTER CLXXXVII. Of the Living Creation.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Valmiki and Mitra, Viharilala
40. This living soul embodied in itself the nameless avidyá or ignorance, which shrouded the atmosphere of its intellect, and superceded the title of the pure intelligence. (The living soul jívátmá is involved in ignorance máyá, of its original state of Chiddáta or the intelligent soul).
41. It is then employed in the thoughts, of its bodily conduct and worldly carrier only; and being forgetful of its spiritual nature, is engaged in the discharge of his temporal functions.
42. Being thus forgetful of its nature of vacuum, which possesses the property of conveying the sound, it becomes prepossessed with the error of taking the future material bodies for real, in lieu of the reality of the intellect.
43. It gets next the motion of its egoism, with the idea of time, in its spiritual body; and then these two run together, in quest of the material elements, which are the seeds for the growth of the forth coming world.
44. Then the thinking power of the living soul, begets the sense of consciousness within itself; and produces therein the conviction of the unreal world, as a positive reality.
45. After this the thinking principle or the mind, bursts out like a seed into a hundred sprouts of its wishes; and then by reflecting on its egoism, thinks as a living being at the very moment.
46. Thus the pure spirit passing under the name of living soul, is entangled in the maze of its erroneous and unreal reality, has been rolling like a heaving wave in the depth of the universal spirit. (All living souls of animate beings, are as bursting bubbles in the ocean of the eternal spirit).
47. The mind by constantly reflecting at first on the vacuous nature of the living soul; is stultified at last to think it as solidified into the nature of animal life or the vital air or breath of life.
48. This being became the source of articulate sounds or words, which were expressive of certain meanings, and significant of things, that were to be created afterwards; and were to be embodied in the wording of the Vedas. (The Lord spake and all things came out at his bidding, which were afterwards stated in the Book of Genesis).
49. From him was to issue forth the would be world, by virtue of the words which he spake to denote the things he meant; the words that he invented were fraught with their meanings, and productive of the things which they expressed.
50. The intellect being employed in this manner (in the thoughts of creation), takes upon it the title of a living being; which being garbed in significant words, was productive of all existent entities. (The volitive principle of the divine intellect, takes the name of the living soul or Brahmá the creative agent).
51. It was this self-existent entity that produced the fourteen spheres, which fill the whole space of vacuity; and which give rise to so many worlds that subsist therein.
52. But before this being had the power of his speech, and of the use of his limbs and body, it remained to reflect only on the significations of words, having had his mind alone the only active part of himself. (So the mind alone of a living body, is the only active part of it in its embryonic state, before its attainment of the functions of all its other parts and members).
53. As the air devolopes a seed to a plant, by exhaling on its outer coat, so doth the intellect develope the bodily functions of living beings, by working in its internal parts. (i.e. The mind actuates the action of the body).
54. And as the oscillating intellect or mind, happens to come across the idea of light; it beholds the same appearing to view; as it is conveyed before it by its significant sound (i.e. as meant by the word).
55. Light is only our intellection or notion of it, and nothing without it; as feeling is our consciousness of it, and not the perception derived by means of the touch of anything. (This is theory of Berkeley).
56. So is sound but our consciousness of it, and a subjective conception of our mind; as vacuum is a conception of the vacuous mind, and as the receptacle of sound caused by itself.
57. As in this state of sound it is known to be the product of air in its own vacuity, so everything else is the product of our consciousness, and there nothing as a duality beside it.
58. So the properties of odour and flavour, are as well as the substances of sound and air; and these unrealities seem as real ones, like the dreams that are seen and thought of in our minds.
59. Heat which is the seed or seat of the arbor of light, and evolves itself in the radiance and other luminous bodies; are the forms of the same intellect, that shows itself in all things.
60. So is flavour a mere quality of empty air, is thought of as a reality in every article of our food and drink; and is a mere name without its substance.
61. All other things, which were hereafter to be designated by different names as fragrance &c., are but so many forms of the thoughts and desires existing in the mind of this living being or Brahmá.
62. This being had in his mind the seed of all forms and dimensions, from which was to proceed this terrestrial globe, that was to become afterwards the support of all creatures.
63. All things yet unborn, appeared as already born in this divine mind, which was filled with the models of all future existences of every kind; and all these formless beings had their forms afterwards, as it thought and willed them to be (i.e. The ideal became the real at last).
64. These forms appeared to view as by an act of chance, and the organs whereby they came to be seen, were afterwards called by name of eyes, or the visual organs of sight.
65. The organs which gave the perception of sounds, were named the ears; and those which bore the feeling of touch to the mind, were called the organs of feeling or त्वक्.
66. The organ of perceiving the flavours, was styled the tongue or organ of taste; and that which received the perception of smell, were termed the nose or organ of scent.
67. The living soul being subjected to its corporeal body, has no perception of the distinctions of time and place by means of its bodily organs, which are so imperfect and soulless on the whole. (i.e. He is not thoroughly diffused all over the body, but has its seat in the mind also, which perceives the abstract ideas of time and space and all other abstract natures of things).
68. In this manner are all things but imageries of the soul, and ideals of the intellect, and wholly confined in the soul; they neither appear nor set on the out side of it, but are set as silent engravings in the stony and stiff bosom of the same.