Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
The YOGA of
Since you have just thought of Arunachala, you now have a guru guide
through these thirty thousand couplets of beautiful Sanskrit.
My own thirty are a shabby try to make them resound in English poetry.
combines the Manual with the Story-Book. The Story-Book is full of Dharanas,
You are invited to join this adventure in translation. This ongoing translation needs your help, as a
Reader or a Scholar.
A Reader might advise if something offended his sensibilities, or did
not sufficiently offend them.
Let me make clear from the beginning, that the central teaching of
this Masterpiece of Philosophical Literature has mainly this to say:
If you are ripe for such lunacy, then you should settle down for a
seven-year journey.
But please remember the Reader's and Scholar's duty to check me when I
do wrong.
COPY EDITORS:
English: Khajala
LINK
In the Files section there, you can download the latest versions of the compiled files of Cantos,
working notes, etc.
Pages are posted similarly to the two-year arrangement of daily readings in the condensed
translation of Swami Venkatesananda. These postings are part of an annotated translation which
will take seven years to complete. The page files will include a glossary based on Monier-Williams,
Huet, and other sources.
[1] iT: The transliterated text in the Harvard-Kyoto, iTrans, and other systems: these files are
being revised.
[2] wn: Working Notes include resolution of Sandhis, extracts from the Commentary of
Anandabodhendra, literal translations of the phrases and compounds, and extracts from Monier-
Williams's Dictionary. When possible, related weblinks are given [hovering the pointer over them
will allow you to Ctl-Click connect.] The WN are intended to be a complete source, by means of
which an Advanced Beginner in Sanskrit can attempt his own translation.
[3] Canto: Files such as Canto 1.005: Shriveled Lotus are from the English Translation, by Errol
Pritchard and jivadas. It is a faithful translation that emulates the poetic forms of the original. [See
Copyright Notice below].
[4] misc.: These include side-trips into the Viveka-chudamani of Shankara, and other diversions.
[5] gl. Glossary files are given for some Cantos. Eventually these will be compiled into a
Glossary-Concordance. Where there is no glossary entry, a link is given to the Koln MW
Dictionary.
Readers are invited to present criticisms, and their own views of this most remarkable Manual of
Nirvana.
[Working Notes with literal translation, and Harvard-Kyoto transliteration of the Sanskrit, with Devanagari
text, can be found in the PAGES section. If no Glossary is appended, an excellent Sanskrit-English
Dictionary is available at http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/ ]
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
All of these files except the Canto files are free to copy by anyone, on condition that they cannot
be sold for money. A reference to this googleGroup would be a kindness.
The Canto files are Copyright © 2007 as an unpublished work, by Errol Pritchard. This copy is
for private circulation only. Publishers may request rights by posting a Discussion.
Of course, the Canto files may be freely downloaded by anyone for their own use, and copies to
their friends; preferably with a referential kindness.
The YOGA of
INVOCATION
1.1.1 To that from which all beings and all things arise, and into which
they finally subsume, to that Self of Suchness, let there be praise!
2 from which come Knower, Knowledge, Known; Perceiver, Perception, the field
of Percepts; Doer, Cause, Action—to that Self of Experience,
let there be praise!
3 from which showers of Joy pour down to earth, each drop
a life, to that Self of the Joy of Brahman The Immense, be praise!
AGNIVESHYA FIREPIT
What is this, son? Why will you not perform the rites of sacrifice?
13 You're not singing your homilies! How do you think you'll be empowered
if you don't do altar service, would you kindly explain me that?
PITIFUL
14 "So long as thou'rt alive, thou shalt perform the Fire Sacrifice, the
Agnihotra": this is Dharma—so say the spoken and written
teachings, both. 1.15 But "Not by riches nor worship nor by progeny
comes Moksha Freedom: only by Detachment do seekers attain
deathlessness"—16 so says the Shruti. Faced with these two teachings, what am
I to do? That’s what I must know.
MOUNTAIN MAN
17 And so, my boy, with these sad words
that young Brahmana Pitiful grew silent. When the guru saw
his son so, he said this to him:
FIREPIT
18 Listen, son, and I will tell you
a story. Take it to heart, think it over carefully; then, son, do
whatever you may wish to do.
Apsara Nymph called Suruchi Sunbeam. One day she flew down to
the highest peak in the Snowy Mountains, where peacocks go to play;
1.20 and where the Kinnara Whatnot boys play around with Whatnot girls,
until the River of Heaven pours down to wash away their sins.
21 She looked up and saw, in the sky, a messenger from the Godking
Indra in his aircar; and that delightful Suruchi Sunbeam,
best of the Apsara Nymphs, said:
SURUCHI SUNBEAM
22 Divine heavenly messenger,
where do you come from, where do you go? I am very curious,
so you must tell me everything!
SUNBEAM
26 And what did you discover there? Do please tell me, most noble sir—
it is not right to keep someone—who's eager to know—in suspense!
MESSENGER
27 Just listen, lovely lady. I'll tell everything!
So, in the woods,
the king was making hard Tapas: he was a serious yogi.
28 Then—(you have such lovely eyebrows!)—the Godking gave me his command:
"Get on your way now, Messenger. Take this mind-controlled aircar; 29 take
along with you some Apsara Nymphets; and take an orchestra;
and some Gandharva choristers; and some Siddha Adepts; and some
elvish Yakshas; and Kinnara Whatnots: a Circus of Wonders!
1.30 Fly to the Mount of Maddening Perfume, and land amongst the palms,
bamboos, and sugarcanes."
He went on, darling, 31 "Then bring me this King
Axlebar back here to Heaven, in this luxurious aircar,
where he can enjoy his reward: the company of Immortals."
AXLEBAR
I have a question, messenger, I hope that you can answer me:
1.35 What are the pros and cons of life in Heaven? What's good? and what's bad?
When I know that, what kind of place it is to live in, then I will
do what seems best. That's my question.
”MESSENGER”
36 Heaven is enjoyed according
to the virtue you bring to it: thus, the highest virtue attains
enjoyment of Highest Heaven; 37 likewise medium virtue wins
Middle Heaven; and of course the least virtuous of all can
attain only to Lower Heaven. 38 But the merits of virtue can
be lost:—by haughtiness toward superiors; by envy of
equals; or by condescension toward those of lesser rank than you.
39 So, when your merits are used up, you're reborn to this mortal world.
These are the pros and cons you will find in heaven, your majesty."
1.40 And so, darling, His Majesty made this reply to my report:
AXLEBAR
Messenger, I want nothing of your triple tit-for-tat heaven!
41 I will continue with the most severe Tapas until I slip
out of this wrinkled flaking skin, shedding it like a senile snake.
Tapas : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas_%28Sanskrit%29
42 Messenger, board your aircar now, and go back home the way you came:
return to your mighty Indra, king of the gods; and fare you well."
MESSENGER
43 So, honeybunch, it was. When I was properly debriefed, I told
it as it had happened, the tale: and everyone was dumbfounded.
44 Then Mighty Indra spoke in his slickest, sweetest, most mellow voice:
KING
1.50 Lord of the Dharma, knower of what's known and to be known, the sight
of you is itself, I would say, my good health and prosperity!
51 Lord, I have a question, which I ask you to answer fully: bound
by suffering in Samsara, how do I find Moksha Freedom?
ANTHILL
52 Listen, King, while I sing to you the whole story of Rama's Way.
When you have heard that, with some work, you can be a Living Freeman.
53 Then I will sing the Dialogue between Rama and Vasishtha
the Supreme, just as I heard it. Listen to that like a wise man.
KING
54 Who was Rama? what sort of man? how was he bound? how was he freed?
You are the wisest of the wise: kindly explain all this to me.
ANTHILL
55 The lord Hari, under the power of a curse, was transformed into
the body of a prince, and he, though wise, fell into ignorance.
KING
56 If Hari was Consciousness-Joy itself, Perfect Awareness in
the flesh, how was he cursed; and who cursed him? Kindly explain me that.
ANTHILL
57 The lustless Sanat-kumara, the Ancient Boy, was visiting
the kingdom of immense Brahma, when Vishnu, lord of the three worlds,
came from his home in Vaikuntha. 58 And he was honored there by all
in Satya-loka the Such-World—except for Kumara the Boy.
So that potent Ishvara said: 59 "Old Boy, Sanat-kumara, you
may be free from desire, but you are full of pride, and arrogant.
Because of this you will take birth as Karttikeya, the Reed-born!"
1.60 And he replied, cursing Vishnu: "For all of your omniscience,
there'll come a time when you become as ignorant as any man!"
61 When Usha, Bhrgu's wife, conspired with the Darklings against Vishnu,
she was beheaded by his Wheel of Fire. Blind with anger, Bhrgu
the Fiery said: "Vishnu, you too will be alone without your wife!"
62 Vrnda the Many cursed Vishnu when his wife cheated on him:
"Soon another will take your own wife by the power of these my words!"
63 The wife of Devadatta the Godgift, standing by Payoshni
River, saw Nrsimha the Man-Lion and was frightened to death.
64 So Devadatta cursed Vishnu to separation from his wife:
"Sudden and soon you also will see what it is to lose your wife!"
1.65 So cursed by Bhrgu and the Boy Kumara, by Devadatta,
and by Vrnda, the lord Vishnu descended into human form.
BHARADVAJA SKYLARK:
Bhagavan, Master of Beings
and Becomings, this favor I would ask from you: a Way that leads
people out of Sorrow, a path for anyone and everyone. 8
BRAHMA:
Get back to the Anthill Ashram and there learn the whole wonderful
greater Ramayana. 9 Hearing it, any man is freed from all
delusion: it is like a bridge over an ocean, it is like
an icon of highest virtue. 10
VALMIKI:
So saying, that Power of Powers,
Maker of All, came along with the clever Bharadvaja, came
straight here to the Anthill Ashram. 11
I made haste to worship the god,
giving him drink, bathing his feet—and then he spoke: the Great Suchness,
friend of all creatures, spoke to me! 12
"Your tale of the adventures of
Rama,—best of munis, do not get tired, but finish it in its
immaculate entirety. 13 It is by means of this work that
the narrow strait of Samsara, this world, can be crossed easily,
as if in a swift clipper ship." 14
And the unborn Brahma went on:
"I have come here to command you to relate this entire Shastra
for the benefit of this world." 15
And then, within less than an hour's
visit, the lord Brahma vanished, to my amazement, like a wave
that softly sinks into the sea. 16
I was totally overcome
by this experience; but then at last came to my senses, and
put this question to young Skylark: 17
"What was it that the Lord Brahma
said to me, Skylark? What did he say?" And the clever Skylark then
told me just what Brahma had said. 18
BHARADVAJA:
The Ramayana that the Lord
Brahma related to you, you are to tell for the benefit
of the whole world of Samsara. 19 So tell me, lord, just how did they
proceed in this Samsara sea—the wise Rama and Bharata
the Bearer, and the Foeslayer Shatrughna; how did Lakshmana
Luckyman, and Sita the Fair, and all their followers and friends? 20
Tell me in plain language how they got free from sorrow, so that I
can do the same, and everyone else of those born into this world. 22
VALMIKI:
So Bharadvaja Skylark gave (with due respect) Brahma's command;
and I proceeded thereupon to do what I was ordered to. 23
I told him, "Listen, Skylark, and I'll tell you what you want to hear;
and hearing it, you will put all bewilderment far behind you!" 24
And when I had sung Rama's Way: "So, wise boy, you should carry on
like lotus-eyed Rama, with a detached Intellect, happily. 25
"Be like Lakshmana Luckyman and Bharata the Bearer and
Shatrughna Foeslayer, his three brothers, all of them great-minded;
be like their mothers, Kausalya and Sumitra, be like Sita
the Fair, and their father, who was the match for any ten chariots,
King Dasharatha Charioteer. 26
"Be like Rama's companions
Krtastra, master of Astra Weapons, and be like Virodha
the Quarrelsome, be like the wise Bodhapara; like Vasishtha
the Supreme; like Vamadeva the Divine; be like the eight great
ministers, 27 Dhrshti the Bold, and Jayanta the Victorious,
Bhasa the Bright, Satya the True, and Vijaya the Victor, be
like the frightful Vibhishana, or Sushena the Sharpshooter, not
to forget jawsome Hanuman! 28
"Those eight great ministers that I
mention were of equable and detached minds; were great souls, Living
Freemen who take the world just as it comes. 29 Be like them in all your
offerings, your charity, your conduct, your remembrance. Then, son,
be free from sorrow in this world. 30
BHARADVAJA SKYLARK:
Brahmana, please explain to me the state of Living Freedom reached
by Rama and his companions, so I can be always happy. 1
This world of delusion, though seen, does not, in fact, arise at all:
it is a rainbow, nothing more. Enquire into this, saintly boy! 5
These Habits are twofold: the pure and the impure. And the impure
are the cause of our being born; the pure cause the end of rebirth. 11
Impure Habituation, as the wise describe it, is a cloud
of ignorance, consisting of congealed Egoity, and is the cause
of being born again. 12 Renounce, and the seed of rebirth will be
as sterile as parched corn: Habit when purified is best for the
embodied. So say those who have known the known and the knowable.
13 They say that the pure Vasana Habits are why the embodied
Living Freemen are free from birth. For their body is illusion,
less real than a wheel of fire. 14 Where Vasana Habits are pure
there is no more useless rebirth: so say the wise Living Freemen
who know the known and knowable. 15
How the wise Rama once attained
the state of Living Freedom—that is my tale, that's a story for
the living and the dying. Listen, 16 Skylark, and hear the history
of the most wise Rama. Knowing it, son, you will know everything
always. Just listen to it now. 17
There came a time when Rama's mind, possessed of every virtue, grew
anxious to visit sacred shrines and ashrams on a pilgrimage. 20
So hoping, the best of the sons of Raghu the Swift approached
his father, like a swan sailing to a lotus, and touched his feet. 21
RAMA:
Daddy, my mind is made up: I must visit sacred grottoes, groves,
the houses of the gods, temples of sacrifice,—to see these things. 22
Whatever people ask of you, you give; so you should grant this to me. It
never happened, that you denied a fair request to anyone. 23
ANTHILL:
And so, after conferring with Vasishtha the Supreme, the King
granted Rama his first request. 24
So one day when the stars were right,
the Scion of Raghu the Swift fared forth, showered with flowers, while
the twiceborn chanted their blessings. 25 Led by Vasishtha the Supreme,
the shastra-erudite twiceborn proceeded, with a few friends who
had been selected by the prince. 26 He was showered with blessings, tugged
and hugged by all his mothers, when [buried in garlands] he set forth
from home to make his pilgrimage. 27
VALMIKI:
The citizens showered Rama with flower-garlands, as the boy
approached the palace, like the son of Indra coming home from war. 1
He honored his father, and his guru Vasishtha the Supreme,
his brothers, cousins, Brahmanas, his clansfolk, when he came back home. 2
And all his friends, his brothers, his father, the twiceborn Brahmanas,
embraced Rama repeatedly. 3
Then, in the palace of the King,
his father Dasharatha, he spoke with his friends, and his voice was
as mellow as a bamboo flute! 4
He spent eight days celebrating
his homecoming with rejoicing people gathered, a happy crowd
from every part of the kingdom. 5
And he spent those first days there in
the Palace with his friends, telling of wonderful places and strange
customs he saw as a pilgrim. 6
And the King ruled in the kingdom like the unvanquished Lord of Worlds. 2
The politic and sagely King Dasharatha Charioteer
met daily with his ministers, about "Getting Brides for his Sons". 3
DASHARATHA CHARIOTEER:
We are as free from trouble, with
the shining sight of you, Sadhu, we are as blessed, as a lotus-
blossom is in the morning sun. 27 Your mere presence, the sight of you
today, brings boundless joy to me, a joy which, once felt, never ends! 28
We must account today to be of all days the most fortunate,
a day of Dharma, of fortune, this day you deign to visit us. 29
VALMIKI:
And so, uttering every sort of praise, the princes and the Great
Rshis came to the Court Chamber, and entered it, and took their seats. 30
Seeing the sage, so garlanded with fortune, the delighted king
proclaimed an offering to him, that foremost of the Great Rshis. 31
Then, the King granting him a proper offering, in keeping with
Shastra and Karma rules, he then circumambulated the sage. 32
Thus duly honored by the king, the smiling sage inquired into
the health and the prosperity of that mighty lord of mankind. 33
And then he met with the supreme Vasishtha, that bull of Munis,
and, smiling paid him due respect, inquiring into his good health. 34
After some further little while of such mutual greeting,
with happy hearts, they all gathered in the palace of the great king. 35
So one by one they took their seats respectively. Respectfully,
one by one, they paid their respects, inquiring into his good health. 36
When the learned sage took his seat, they performed the rites of welcome,
washing his feet, and offering sweet nectar to him, and cattle. 37
Then when these offerings were done keeping to custom, the king bowed
with folded hands to FriendofAll; and began his speech of welcome: 38
DASHARATHA CHARIOTEER:
It is like tasting the Nectar of Immortality; like rain
falling in time of drought; it is like a blind man recovering
his sight: such is your coming here. 39 It's like a childless man getting
a son upon his barren wife; or it is like a beggar's wish
come true: such is your coming here. 40 It's like getting your heart's desire;
like meeting with your beloved; or like recovering a lost
treasure: such is your coming here. 41
It is exalting, like the sight
of a dead friend come back from heaven: such is your coming here, great
Muni, Brahmana! Be welcome! 42 Who would not be happy to dwell
in Brahma's heaven? Truly, great Muni, such is our happiness. 43
Whatever you desire, twiceborn Brahmana, whatever I can
do for you, it is yours by right, who are the foremost of the wise! 44
Formerly you held the title of Royal Rshi; but by your
glorious Tapas, you have won the name of Brahma Rshi, and
by this name I now honor you. 45
You're as refreshing to me as
the holy water of Ganges: such is the sight of you to me,
cooling my spirit inwardly. 46
Brahmana, you're free from desire,
from fear, from anger, from passion, from sickness: it is wonderful
that you would deign to visit me. 47
I feel that I am standing on
holy ground! All of my sinful works are purified, bathed in the
light of your full moon, the wisest of those who know what is to be known. 48
I am in the presence of the Brahman, the vast Immensity,
when you are here. I'm purified, Muni, by your saintly presence. 49
Sadhu, I am overwhelmed by the sanctity of your person.
I think this must be my reward for good deeds in a former birth. 50
When I behold your coming here, and honor you, and sing your praise,
I see you glowing in myself like the moon shining in the sea. 51
Whatever I can do, whatever you may need—it's yours, Muni;
for it is fitting that I do anything that is asked by you. 52
Son of the great owl Kushika, ask what you will: no argument!
There is nothing that you might ask that I would dare deny to you. 53
There is no question in my mind: Dharma dictates my duty to
your grace. Indeed, you are, to me, a species of divinity! 54
VALMIKI:
The king completed this sweet and mellifluous
speech, such a speech as a knower of the Self might make,
and the sage, famous for virtue, firm in virtue,
that bull among Munis, was overcome with delight. 55
Canto 1.007: VISHVAMITRA MAKES A REQUEST
VALMIKI THE ANTHILL:
Hearing the Lion-King proclaim his wonderful and hair-raising
oration, then Vishvamitra, the friend of all, made this reply: 1
Those Demons will take to their heels when they see Rama like a thick-
maned lion tracking-down a deer. 15
No other man can take them on
in battle but the scion of the Bullrider. Who else would dare
do battle with mad elephants? 16
Puffed-up with valor in battle,
those warriors are like the Kalakuta poison that turned Shiva's
throat blue. Led by Khara the Mule and Dushana the Spoiler, they
are fierce like Death, the end of things. 17
Leopard-King, even they cannot
endure the constant shower of Rama's arrows, smothering them
like dust drowned in a thunderstorm. 18
Do not, your majesty, let your
love for your son persuade you to deny me. In this world, there can
not be a limit to a great Mahatma's generosity! 19
I know most certainly that those demonic Rakshasas will be
destroyed. And you know that wise men like us know no uncertainty. 20
If you have any thought for the Dharma, for greatness, or for fame,
this you must do: give me your son. 22
Only ten nights remain for me
to make my sacrifice. Rama will kill those Demons when they try
to violate my sacred work. 23
Led by Vasishtha the Supreme,
let your ministers all give their unanimous consent. And then,
your majesty, give me Rama. 24
Son of the Swift, master of time, may I not have wasted my time
in uncompleted sacrifices. Therefore receive my blessing,
and let your mind be free from grief. 25
However slight, a duty done
in good time is pious service; however great, a duty done
too late is no service at all. 26
VALMIKI:
And with these words, Vishvamitra, the friend of all, soul of Dharma
and Policy alike, the lord of the Munis, ended his speech. 27
I waited for nine thousand long years, scion of Kusha the Owl,
for these boys of mine to be born. 19 And the first of them was Rama,
my Rama of the lotus eyes.
Without him, my three other sons
would not wish to go on living. 20 As for me, if you send Rama
against the Rakshasa Demons, you can be sure that, without my
son, you have left me a dead man. 21
Tell me about these Rakshasas. Whose sons are they? What are they like?
How big are they? (giants, maybe?) Kindly explain all this to me. 24
How can such dirty fighters, such monsters be beaten by Rama,
or all four of my boys; or by myself? 25 Show me, Bhagavan, what
strategy I may use to stand against them in the field of war,
those battle-crazy Rakshasas. 26
The Rakshasa demon they call Ravana the Shrieker is famed
as a warrior. Indeed, he is the brother of the Lord of Wealth,
Kubera*, and the son of Vishravas, the everywhere-renowned. 27
If that foul-minded Ravana has set his mind to spoil your work,
even I cannot undertake to fight him. I'm no match for him. 28
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubera
Not eagles nor serpents, not the Yakshasa* nor Gandharva nor
Danava armies. not the gods themselves dare battle Ravana:
how much less mere human beings! 32
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaksha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandharva
These are indeed strange times, when the best of men are weaklings. Though I'm
sprung from the House of Raghu the Swift, I am nothing but a wretch,
weak and decrepit and senile. 34
If you should tell me that it was
only the Asura Darkling, Lavana* the Salty, the son
of Madhu the Sweet;—if you said he was violating your Rites,
I still could not release my son. 35
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavanasura
If it were only Sunda and
Upasunda, Vaivasvata's two sons, defiling your Rites, still
I could not give you my Rama. 36
So it is, Brahmana. If you are not content with that, you must
kill me. But otherwise I think that you will never have your way. 37
VALMIKI:
So he spoke, in a soft voice, the first of the Raghus.
He was drowned in the wave of the Muni's demand, with
nothing to hold onto, not a moment of rest for
that great soul, floundering, drifting in the great ocean. 38
VALMIKI:
Vishvamitra, the friend of all,
was overcome with anger, and the whole earth shuddered with it, and
the gods themselves trembled with fear. 5 Seeing Vishvamitra, the friend
of the world, stricken with anger, the steadfast, faithful, Vasishtha,
supremely wise, uttered these words: 6
You gave your word. You said, "I will do this thing." King, if you do not
do it, your good works will come to nothing. Therefore, let Rama go. 10
Sir, you are King Dasharatha the Charioteer, born in the House
of Sugarcane! If you don't keep your word, then who else will keep theirs? 11
Your people are inspired by you and men like you in their conduct.
Do not now teach them transgression; do not now forsake the Dharma. 12
VALMIKI:
Thus the king sent his chamberlain to the royal apartments. And
the chamberlain quickly returned and made his report to the king. 3
CHAMBERLAIN:
Lord, your son, the strong-armed Terror of the Enemy, sits in his
apartment, dejected. He is like a bee trapped in a lotus. 4
"I'll be there in a few minutes," he says, and sinks back into one-
pointed meditation. He is miserable. He cannot bear
the presence of anybody. 5
VALMIKI:
The king called for one of Rama's
attendants, reassuring him that he was free to speak, and asked
him about Rama's condition. 6
"What is this miserable state
that Rama's in?" the monarch asked. And the companion of Rama,
in a sad voice, addressed the king: 7
COMPANION:
Lord, we have all become as thin
as sticks, concerned with his sad state. Your son Rama laments, and sits
in misery, and pines away. 8 The lotus-petal-eyed Rama,
since the day he returned from his pilgrimage with the Brahmanas,
is in a sorry state of mind. 9
However much we plead with him
to do his daily duties of Karma, sometimes he does, his face
a dark cloud. Sometimes he doesn't. 10
He will not go to the sacred
bath, nor worship the gods, nor join in feasts. He is so sad sometimes,
that, however much we beg him, he will not even take his meals. 11
He does not catch the buxom girls and swing with them in the courtyard;
nor does Rama delight in dance like the chataka bird in rain. 12
He does not delight in their bracelets and armlets. He's like a god
exiled from the Svarga heaven. 13
The pretty girls make eyes at him,
and the spring breezes smother them: anklets, bracelets tinkle at him;
like vines they twine around the trunk.
And this makes him melancholy! 14
Whoever comes to him,—some sweet, some tender one, the prettiest!—
his eyes are dammed-up tears, and he begins to give vent to the flood. 15
"Who are these harem-girls," he cries, "who come only to dance and tease?
All that they bring is misery." 16
Whether he dines or he reclines
or travels or loafs or goes to the sacred bath, or just sits still,
he becomes a crazy madman who sees the worst of everything. 17
"What good is good luck; or bad luck? what good is a good family?
It is all false!" he says, and then returns to one-pointed silence. 18
He does not laugh, does not pursue pleasure; and he does not perform
his Karmic duties. He just sits and sinks into sorry silence. 19
Not the girls' tossing hair, nor all the sidelong glances of their eyes
please him. Do dancing fawns delight a silent tree in the forest? 20
He thinks of lonely places, faraway places, of great rivers,
of woods and forests; and in such places he's sorry as a slave. 21
He no longer loves fine clothes, nor drink, nor food, nor giving feasts. He
acts like some meditating Sage, some Yogi making fierce Tapas.... 22
"Act like a Prince!" his companions of the court urge him; but he wails
and moans his lamentations like a mad, demon-possessed Muni. 33
No matter what is said, he does not hear; put something before him,
he does not pay attention. He hates everything; no exceptions! 34
Within the forest of the Clan of the Swift, Rama's the Shala
Tree, strongest of them all; but his condition is driving us mad! 40
Great King, we don't know what to do with someone in this state of mind.
Your Majesty, show us the way out of this sad predicament. 41
Princes and Yogis counsel him. He answers with a foolish laugh,
as if he were a fool. He mocks the Royals and the Brahmanas. 42
"Whatever is this universe, wherever it may have come from,
it is not real. I am not real. This is my settled conviction." 43
He does not show respect for friend or foe; not for his brothers, nor
his mother, nor the other queens; not for good fortune, not for bad;
nor for anyone else, my Lord. 44
He is without respect, he is
without desire, without purpose, without a goal. Neither sage nor
fool, he is driving us crazy! 45
"What good is wealth?" he says. "What good
are mothers; what good are all the trappings of royalty; what good
are worldly affairs?" he says. And he wants to give up life itself. 46
The pleasures of life, of royalty, his friends, his own father, his
mother, cause him only distress. He's like the sad Chataka bird
that longs for rain in time of drought. 47
Since things are so, gentlemen of great understanding, send and bring the darling
of the Raghu clan here at once. Lead him as a doe would lead the Chief Stag of the
herd. -1-
The darling of the Raghu clan needs sprinkling with holy water, drops of logical
thought that will asperge him of his delusion, and bring him to This Highest State. -4-
served by Vasishtha the Supreme, and Vishvamitra the Allfriend, and the many
disciples too of those two Shastra masters; and a council of wise ministers. 12
Attractive girls surrounded him, fanning him with their yak’s-tail fans:
and they were all as seductive as goddesses in the temple. -13-
Vasishtha and Vishvamitra and Dasharatha all could see
the Prince approaching from afar, looking like Guha, Shiva’s son. -14-
He was pervaded with pure virtue, as the Snowy Mountain is with coolness; and
everybody sought out his depth and clarity. 15 He was good-looking, equable. His
face was noble, and his mind was nobler still, and deep. His form was beautiful,
peaceful. And he possessed all of the highest skills. 16 Grown-up but blossoming
with youth,
gentle and beautiful, neither anxious nor giddy, he was at that mind-delighting
stage of life. 17
He was a student of this world-journey, possessed of purity. His one greed was
greed for Perfect Truth. Virtue took shelter in him. 18 Within the cavern of himself
excellence overflowed. His thoughts were imperturbable. His eyes sought the sight
that can’t be excelled. 19
His crown jewels were his many virtues, that best of the Swift. Beauty in beauty,
he blossomed like a sun-flower in the springtime sun. 20
When he bowed down before the court, the jewels of his coronet glistened upon
his head, and they tinkled. It was like Mount Meru being shaken by an earthquake!
21
Then the equal-minded Rama (as lovely as Sura the Sun), and all the munis feasted
in the Presence* of Rama’s father. 25
* ||The room where the King holds Court is called the “Presence Chamber”. ||
So Rama touched his father’s feet, and the Earth-Lord embraced his son, kissed
his forehead and stroked his hair, repeatedly caressing him. 26 Likewise the King
embraced the FoeSlayer Shatrughna, and also Lakshmana Luckyman. He was a
swan-king kissing lotuses! 27
“Son, sit on my lap,” the Earth-lord said.
(But Rama chose to sit with
his favorite companions, on a carpet on the palace floor.) 28
“Son, you’re of the age of reason. You have your share of blessings. Don’t
act like a young fool. Don’t give yourself up to feeling miserable.
Learn from your elders, the Twiceborn, the Gurus. Follow their teaching.
Be good, my son, and do not chase after unworthy delusion.
“So long as you do not pursue the vapid course of delusion,
just so long shall your misfortunes be trivial and far from you." 31
VASISHTHA:
Prince Rama, Master of the Bow, you are a Hero! You’ve beaten
an enemy that digs in deep and spreads out fast: the Sense-Objects.
Why act like an ignorant fool sunk in the Sea of Delusion,
drowned in the rolling waves of thought, tossing until the mind grows numb?
33
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphaea_caerulea ||The flower in the illustration is not blue, but the description is
appropriate. Please advise. – jd ||
RAMA:
Lord, since you ask, I will reply accordingly, and totally,—
however foolishly! Who could fail to obey a wise man like you? 2
12.25 O they delude the Thoughts of Mind; they break the Necklace of Virtues,
they spring the Trap of Misery,—all of our disappointing hopes!
26 It's just a source of worry: wealth is no Ananda for me, nor
are children, consorts: they are an excruciating good fortune,
like a wife pregnant in the house!
27
-or-
12.28
Mischiefs, from time to time, at night, looking for someone blinded by Folly,
wander from place to place. Their clever thieving sense-object-army
invade. They're seeking everywhere to capture Viveka Discernment.
On the field, should the best of the great warriors thus abandon the wise?
-or-
They make their mischief at all times, in the dark of our delusion,
everywhere here and there they go, those master thieves the sense-objects,
everywhere round about they lurk, seeking to rob us of our wits;
who is fit to go to war when we have lost our champions?
One who has come to inner coolness and is not overcome with
78
emotion, and not a mere fool,—they call him Shanta the Careful.
79For even at the worst of times,—on Doomsday, say,—on the Big One,—
he does not think he's wasting time. They call him Shanta the Present.
13.80 Do what he will, his mind is like Space. This person's mind does not get
distracted by worldly business. They call him Shanta the Remote.
RAMA:
You may say that the ambient wind is a part of the spacious sky;
and waves, part of the boundless sea;—but do not speak of trust in Life. 5
Drifting like an autumn cloud, sputtering like a spent candle, Life
is soon gone like a bursting wave. 6
A wave, moonlight, a thunderstroke,—
you may speak of them if you will, but do not speak of death-doomed Life. 7
A restless mind, the Void, Life—all these bring us misery within,
like the womb of a sterile mule. 8
In the Samsara-sprung foam of
this sea of creation, the body's a pond-creeper, Brahmana.
Living is no delight to me. 9
The state in which you get just what
you ought to get, the state without grief: that perfect tranquillity
may be correctly called "Living". 10
Plants lead a vegetable life,
and animals an animal life. Man leads a thinking life, but
Living is just a passing thought. 11
or The trees are alive; alive too are
the beasts and birds. The mind itself is alive, but by its mentation
does not live, its passing fancy*. 11
[* See Glossary tuccha.]
RAMA:
I’m scared by this Ahamkara Egoity: it is a fierce
enemy, sprung for nothing from Delusion, whirling worthlessly. 15.1
By means of this Egoity, the whirling Samsara pours out—
from its huge cornucopia—that misery of miseries,
this world’s useless variety. 2
By means of this egoity,—
Apad Misfortune. By means of this Egoity,—bad luck. By
means of it comes Involvement: for this “I”-ness has the virus “my”. 3
*
Many of the Tales in YV involve tribes like the Kirata,
||* A Kirata, a jungle hunter - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirata ||
who are mostly Snare Trappers. You will soon be entering. See the wiki link, but please note:
The wiki entry is dead wrong about the date of YV—about two thousand years dead wrong. The
work before you is dated with the time of Kalidasa. There is only one verse that appears in both
Meghaduta and YV. So the date of this work depends on this question: which was the thief?
Kalidasa the Playwright? or the Valmiki playing the part of Court Guru?
Necessarily, the younger stole from the older. If the Playwright stole from the Guru, then Kalidasa
was younger than the Valmiki. If the Guru paid poetic tribute to the Playwright, then Kalidasa was
older than the Valmiki who compiled this edition. [The book is a Chinese Box of Editions, from
Anonymous back to Bharadvaja back to an archetypal proto-Vasishtha, the <mokS_o_paya mokSa-
upAya> "The Freedom Method". Not "BCE Tenth Century" but rather CE 8-10th Century.
If you know how to correct a Wikipedia entry, I can provide the appropriate citations in an article
on this subject.
Canto 1.016: CONCERNING VAIRAGYA DISPASSION AND CHITTA AFFECTION
RAMA:
Our vices bring decrepitude, unseemliness, and disrespect:
a fierce wind pulling out the feathers from the tail of a peacock! -1-
The mind goes wandering, like a deer, here and there, carelessly, hungry for a taste
of durva grass, and soon stumbles into a hunter's pit. -8-
I cannot anyhow renounce this Chetas, with its ebb and surge of thought-waves in
the thought-ocean. -9- Chetas Awareness, vibrant with Vrtti Thoughts, scurrying
from worry to care,—that is what binds me.
I'm like a lion in a cage. 10
Brahmana, it is hard to break the grasping of the mind: it is hotter than fire, as
difficult to cross as a mountain peak, as adamantine as diamond. 21
This mad world dances as surging waves in the ocean of the mind, where I swim.
Tossed by the breakers, I'm a serpent out of water, a sea-snake thrown to the sand
shore. -23-
Though you may have the power to drink the ocean dry, or to level Mount Meru, or
to feast on fire, the chitta cannot be controlled. -24- This Chitta causes Purposes, and
so these threefold worlds arise; contrariwise we're healed from it by striving to
detach from it. -25-
RAMA:
My strength is sapped by it, like grass drying and withered in the wind.
The Chataka bird pines for rain. Its thirst is not greater than mine. 7
I'm constantly drawn by the thirst for children, friends, and family:
so I am like one of those birds for whom the world sets traps and snares. 15
It is the terror of the brave and wise. It blinds my eyes, this Thirst;
it's like a flying demon overshadowing the spangled sky. 16
Lurking, coiled, it looks tender to the touch, but it's full of poison,
springing to bite when we caress it, this dark serpent of Craving. 17
Its veins are strings, this instrument; but it's out of tune, Brahmana,
and plays a crooked melody, this cranky violin called Thirst. 19
It has long strings like the Katuka vine, that maddens you, that seems
so sweet, but sours your milk (it grows in a cave, this vine of Desire). 20
It gives you no joy, it is empty; full of hope, but bearing no fruit;
it gives no garlands of blessings, this withered bitter vine, Craving. 21
She likes to dance the Tandava, the Doomsday Dance, when she can; but
she dances without any joy, the aging danseuse called Craving. 25
She frolics in the dew of dawn; she sleeps in the light of the sun;
always she goes to some extreme, that fickle peahen we call Care. 26
When her tree has grown bare of fruit, the bird Thirst finds another tree;
and in the same way she flits from cock to cock, that hot hen Craving. 28
Wanting first this, then wanting that; but that never follows from this:
she's always unpredictable, that fickle fateful goddess Thirst. 30
See how she bumbles in a cave, and now soars high, and now soars low,
in heaven or in hell, the bee that browses our heart-lotus, Thirst. 31
Lightning will set the grain on fire in a dry autumn. The flowers
of Samvit Perception grow black with the long visit of Craving. 36
Her party jewels are made of grief for old age, disease and death;
ever caring, ever tormenting, that crazy dancer Craving. 39
Sometimes she's very clear to see, but then she is blinding sometimes;
sometimes bright as the Milky Way, dark as a foggy pit sometimes. 40
Craving can be brought to peace with some exercise of the body.
It's just as when the sun rises, and the night demons run away. 41
When we are fevered in our bed of delirium, in this mad
world, Nurse Thirst purges us with an injection of bacteria. 42
But everybody knows that when our worries end our sorrows end;
and they say that the Mantra* of Vishuchika leads to that end. 43
*[This mantra is taught in y3.069].
The fish that knows thirsty craving overcomes every fear, and snaps
at any bait, a blade of grass, maybe, or even a stick, or a stone. 44
Thirst dances a Death March on you, she leads men on, she heats them deep;
she is like the glare of the sunbeams that smother the lotuses. 45
Craving is a hollow bamboo, knotty and long: along its stem,
hairy prickles and sprouting shoots,—it thinks it is a string of pearls! 46
Craving's a lamp with a black wick and fiery tip. Her oil's our life.
O she is bright and glorious; but touch her once, and O she burns! 49
RAMA:
It's packed with smelly guts and slime-smeared hamstrings; and it struts about,
waddling around this Samsara Universe, looking for trouble. 18.1
It does not know (but seems to know, full of the magic of the Self):
yoked to being (though not being); inert, nevertheless aware. 2
This body leads the confused soul into the Great Delusion, non-
Discernment where it swings between stupidity and mania. 3
It finds its bliss in trivia, and soon sheds its trivial tears.
There's nothing like the body, when you speak of the despicable. 4
It's true it has its classic brow, its flashing teeth, and O its eyes
and lips that bud into a smile!—here today, and gone tomorrow! 18.5
It is a mango tree with arms for branches, where the twiceborn* perch,
where eye-holes feed the bumbling bees; and the head is the bulbous fruit. 6
With ears and teeth and tongue for blossoms, with its limbs, standing within
a dead thicket, it is good for carpenters: no use for birds. 7
* ||Brahmanas; birds; teeth.||
This body is a tree that offers shade to passing travelers:
but who can find it, who wants it, who'd choose to stop in such a place? 8
THE BODY-TREE
An Ape they call Affection plays in the Forest of Samsara.
The trees blossom with all our cares, while the woodlice bore at their trunks. 12
THE BODY-HOUSE
His Goodwife is Craving. She struts about the courtyard. Her limbs
are painted with five shades of lust. I do not like this body-house. 19
It is a cave, a hole built on a framework of bones rubbing together,
tied together with ropes of gut. I do not like this body-house. 18.20
Stretched on a flimsy framework of sinews, plastered with blood and mud,
it's finished with a dry whitewash. I do not like this body-house. 21
The senses, five wild bears, stir up the forest; my cave is just an
empty hole with brown vines: I do not like this body-wilderness. 35
Lord of the Munis, I cannot carry this body. I am like
a starving elephant, stumbled into a sucking sea of mud! 36
What's Fortune to me? or what's Rajaship? — what good's a body? — what
use desires? – Within a number of days, time demolishes all. 37
It's blood and meat, inside, outside, and nothing more, Muni! Its destiny
is doomsday. So please tell me, what's the loveliness of the body? 38
And when the time of death arrives, the Jiva-soul does not follow
the body into such a place. It is no fit place for the wise. 39
The body trembles, like a drop of dew hung from the flapping ears
of a mad elephant. If it won't renounce me, I give it up. 18.40
It breaks wind unexpectedly. Its toes are ticklish to the touch.
It's old and eroding. I do not like its bitter witheredness. 41
It eats its meat, it drinks its booze, for many years, from its tender
youth on. It gets thin without exercise. Then, destruction follows. 42
It looks for happiness to what turns out to be mere misery.
Indeed, the body has no sense of its common vulgarity. 43
It lasts so long, it never stops demanding service, yet it gains
no excellence or endurance. Why waste my time preserving it? 44
In the season of old age, it hobbles into senility;
in the season of dying, likewise it slinks, at last, into death.
And here I see no difference between the rich and the poor man. 18.45
These pithless bodies are like dust blown along by the fickle wind,
following Rajas Road. They don't know if they're coming or going! 18.50
When you know the comings of the body then you will understand
the goings of the wind, light's flickering, and the inconstant mind. 51
As for those bound to this body, bound to this worldly life, dead-drunk
on Delusion, I say to them "Shame on you!" and say it again. 52
"I'm not the body's; and the body is not mine": those who conclude,
with calm Chitta, that "therefore I am not this",— are the best people. 53
Much craving for human respect, much longing for mental delight:
these are the things that bind us to the body, making us mere men. 54
Within this cave there dwells a Pishacha monster with lovely limbs,
and by seductive magic she makes fools of us with her deceit. 18.55
Prajna Wisdom, wretched in her dungeon, weeping, has only the wicked
Rakshasi Demoness Misinformation for a companion. 56
The body blossoms, but its buds wither within a day or two,
and fall in an aging cascade like bubbles in a waterfall. 58
This body's on its way to sure destruction. It's like bubbles in
the whirling sea: wherever they want to go, bubbles burst at last. 59
It is supported by illusion, living in Dream City, doomed
to sudden, sure destruction; and I have no trace of trust in it. 18.60
Who looks for thunder in the dry season, and thinks that the City
of the Sweet Singers is made of stone, let him trust in the body. 61
RAMA:
So we have gotten into works-bearing waves, glittering peaks in
this Sea-of-Samsara universe, where Childhood is misery. 19.1
These children get their start by crawling about like animals. Who
could respect such trivial things? Childhood is worse than death itself! 19.5
Reflected in a cloud of ignorance are the silly notions of
boyhood. In such a messy mind, where is there room for happiness? 6
Boys are like water stirred up by the wind, those babies. They are such
ignorant things, whatever they undertake ends in fear and tears. 7
The sour fruits of his fooling, the foul play, and mischief-making that
a wicked boy is given to, are that boy's final Delusion. 8
A boy's mind is a pendulum that swings from thought to thought, and can't
find a fit one in all Three Worlds: can he ever be satisfied? 12
Muni, whatever there may be, and in whatever state, the mind's
in turmoil. But in boyhood, Sir, it has ten times the turbulence. 13
The mind's as fickle as the wind, but steadier than any boy.
Setting them side by side, what is the difference between the two? 14
The eyes of women, lightning-flashes, flickering flames, ocean waves,—
all of these could take a lesson from a child's fickleness of mind. 19.15
Both Childhood and the Manas Mind seem to me like twin brothers: for
everything that they undertake ends in a state of confusion. 16
All the most wicked beings, in their wicked places, prosper most
especially from a boy, as a pauper prospers from the rich. 17
If a young kid does not get some brand-new game or toy every day,
he'll have a fit, and act as if he ate a dose of arsenic! 18
Little things make him happy, and little things make him sad.
A boy is like a dog who loves best of all eating his own shit. 19
There is a constant flow of tears upon that stupid face, its cheeks
being thus watered into mud, a field of ashes drenched in rain. 19.20
Fear and desire for what boys see (or do not see) lead quickly to
melancholy, a mind that flits from misery to misery. 21
He wants this, and he must have that, and if he does not get just what
he wants, he lets you know his misery: no end to his whining! 22
With wicked tricks he gets his way; but a boy's many crooked paths
lead him to miseries, Muni, that are not fit for anyone. 23
RAMA:
So, having finished with the useless Boyhood, Youth now undertakes
the affliction of Manhood. There, to his ruin, the Boy goes. 20.1
A youth, out of his own conceit, conceives a heat, and that erects
into a fancy: the numbskull leaps from the pan into the fire. 2
A youth is rendered powerless the moment that that cannibal
Desire enters the cave of his Affection, stirring up trouble. 3
A boy's concerns, his fickle thoughts, move to and fro: just like the hips
and buttocks of a courtesan. Such are the foolish thoughts of boys. 4
Vices like those make bad beginnings that grow, according to their
kind, into afflictions. Such, Muni, is the wicked path of youth. 20.5
The seed of the Great Hell grows to blossoming confusion. Those who
are not poisoned by it are not destroyed by anything, such folks! 6
With all its romance, filled with wonderful happenings, in all their
fearfulness—one who passes through Youth is truly called a Hero. 7
Youth is a momentary flash of lightning, rumble of thunder
on the rain-clouded horizon. Youth is not a pleasure to me. 8
Youth is like a new wine, mellow and sweet to the tongue, until time
turns what remains to vinegar. It is not pleasant to be young. 9
A youth has his fantasies, girls with whom he makes love in his dreams;
then quickly he is undeceived. It is not pleasant to be young. 20.10
The lotus with its hairy filaments and gathered petals draws
the bee to enter into it. A youth's desire is such a flower. 24
Heart River is the hunting-ground of two bad birds called Proper and
Improper (some say Calm and Vexation). They nest in the Teen Tree. 20.25
Waves of stupidity, waves beyond counting, waves of bad
behavior, wanton waves: these are the ocean of adolescence. 26
A youth may climb the highest peak and reach the summit. There he'll dance,
always desiring more, dance to and beyond the edge of a cliff. 36
When those Pishacha cannibal demons, Love and Hate, spring to life,
they never go away, but haunt the darkness of the night of youth. 37
For his miserable moments of desolating destruction,
have pity on such a youth, like a father for his dying son. 38
He thinks his ecstasy will last, more than a flash. Big Stupid thinks
so in the wisdom of his youth. He's called Nara-Mrga Man-Beast. 39
Deluded by his vanity, a youth is quickly crazed with lust.
His intellect swells with desire until he falls into the fire. 20.40
They're to be honored, those great souls, they are truly Human Beings,
who happily have travelled through the dire terrible straits of youth. 41
It's easy to cross an ocean that is thronging with its Monsters;
but not so easy to cross the deadly billow-tossed Sea of Youth. 42
A youth with good manners, who keeps good company,
who is abounding in compassion, and who is
adorned with all the virtues: in this world such a
youth is harder to find than a flying forest. 20.43
RAMA:
Those scented garments once seemed so fair. Those limbs shifting to and fro
attract the hungry eaters of corpses of all embodiments. 4
Those breasts are like snowy twin peaks where Ganga River finds its flow.
The string of pearls upon her breast is like the foam along the shore. 21.5
But in the burning-ground the dogs chew on the breasts of girls, chew on
the penises of men—it is like a breakfast porridge for them! 6
A blood-smeared elephant lost in the woods, nothing but skin and bones—
such are the limbs of your lady-friend. Who would go hunting such a prize? 7
Their hair is dyed, hot to the touch, and o how they delight the eyes,
tossing their fiery braids about! Women burn men like autumn grass. 11
There is a light from a far fire: the fat crackles; the bones crack within:
it's the bonfire of womankind, a fire that's dear and terrible. 12
Her hair tosses about, and her eyes flash like slow-drifting stars, her
face is bright like the full moon: but this lotus is laughable trash. 13
Her playful glances bait a trap that leads us to destruction. She's
confusion to the intellect, a lover of long loving nights. 14
Those breasts are flowers for a hum of bumblebees; they are a feast
of eye-honey; they are a place for the drifting of fingertips! 21.15
But a girl's like a poison vine, with golden filaments for hair,
a vine that grants delirium at first, and leads quickly to death. 16
With a warm breath she gets her way, the girl snake-charmer, drawing you
out, the way a rooting elephant can suck a snake out of its hole. 17
She's like a stable for your horse, a tether for your elephant,
a mantra that puts snakes to sleep: such is a pretty-eyed woman. 21
It smells good, Muni, and various, this Pleasure-Land. It tastes good too.
It is like this, as I believe, a woman's shelter to a man. 22
A woman is a jewel-chest full of magical charms, and they
are always captivating traps. That's sufficient woman for me! 23
What do I do, tell me, with these tits, how do I do these eyes, how
caress these brows, embrace this meat, tell me please what to do with it? 24
A pound of meat, a pint of blood, they flow from the bone, Brahmana,
and every month the body of a woman is thus ripped apart! 21.25
Uncle, look at those gross girls, they are wonders of mankind, indeed they are,
o Muni, with their scattered limbs, dreams dreamed in the Cremation Grounds. 26
RAMA:
Youth swallows helpless babyhood, and is devoured in its turn
by old age. See how mean each is, with insatiable appetite! 22.1
The river bears away a tree from its eroded banks; frost strikes
the lotus; and a cloud is chased by wind. Old Age rots the body. 2
It is a subtle slow poison that streaks the skin and slims the limbs,
slowly deforms the bones, and sinks the brain into senility. 3
He shakes with fear in every limb, that old withered cadaver. Girls
hold just one opinion of him: 'he's like a dying elephant'. 4
Lazy, useless, in the grip of Age, abandoned by reason,
the Old Fool is without respect, disgusting even to his wife. 22.5
The servants, children, womenfolk, inlaws, relatives, and friends too—
behind his back they all snicker at the shaky crazy old man. 6
Lust burns forever in the heart of an old man. Lust is his harsh
companion, and she is the only lover he will ever know. 8
"O what a misery I am! and what shall I do next? and when?
I might as well just sit and fret!" Misery fuddles the old man. 22.10
"What's in it for me? something like sweet, maybe ... a feast from Someone?"
Forever and again burns the Affected Senior Citizen. 11
Desire is there, but there is no delight for him: his heart burns for
what he cannot enjoy. Such is depravity in an Old Fart! 12
O this withered Old Age is like a crane perched on the Body Tree,
croaking in pain and fear as it's attacked by poisonous serpents. 13
It comes upon us in a flash; but where, Muni, does it come from?
How it loves the blinding darkness, this Kaushika, the Owl of Death! 14
When evening comes, the darkness soon runs after it; and when Old Age
is observed in the body , then Death in its turn runs after it. 22.15
The vulture gobbles up its food, coughing because it eats too fast;
and Old Age gobbles up a man quickly in his senility. 18
A lovesick girl sees a night-lotus, seizes it and quickly plucks
its blossom for her hair. And that is how Old Age plucks the body. 19
Leaves seem to hiss as the wind blows and scatters them about the tree;
and the decrepit old man sighs and wanders about pointlessly. 22.20
When the moon shines on a bald head the coughing and the farting winds
wither the lotuses, the white patches of hair that linger there. 22
The Lord of Time, examining the withered pumpkin-head of an
Old Man, gives it a little salt, and eagerly devours it. 23
Old Age the Cat, licking her chops, eats up the mouse of Youth; and then
curls up and waits for the next feast of mouth-watering body-meat. 22.25
Having a staff for a third leg she dances the Danda, coughing,
wheezing, stumbling: such is the last sad performance of Lady Age. 33
When Old Age comes to Body City, shining like the silver moon,
it awakens the white lotus to blossom: the lotus of Death. 23.35
Within the whitened walls of Body Palace, in the harem, three
wives are waiting, called Calamity, Misery and Impotence. 36
Old Age comes first, then non-being follows fast, for everyone grows
old. Then, Muni, what hope is there for a slow-minded man like me? 37
RAMA:
With all our fancy fantasies and clever talk, these distinctions
and quibbles, still we find ourselves lost in the cave of Samsara. 23.1
How can wise people bear to live in this cage of ribs, this body?
Here, we are like children drooling for a fruit seen in a mirror! 2
Whatever happiness we know, whatever vine of pleasure grows
in our garden, the rat called Time comes quickly; quickly chews it up. 3
There's nothing in the world that Time declines to eat, voracious Time:
like the fabled submarine fire, he even eats the ocean waves. 4
Time terrorizes all of us with perfect equanimity:
he is the Lord who gobbles-up everything that seems to be. 23.5
Scratch him, and he does not bleed. Set him on fire, he does not burn. Peek
at him, and you do not see him: Muni, he's the thief's wishing-stone! 16
A leaf of grass, a grain of dust, Indra the Great, King of the gods,
Mount Meru, a leaf, or a wave—Time gobbles all he calls his own. 19
He overflows with cruelty, this burden of desire and greed,
the father of our sorrows, unreliable and hard to bear. 23.20
He who was Rudra the Roarer may also be Indra the King
of the gods, or the Grandfather Brahma, or Shakra the Great, or
Kubera, or Vaishravana; or he may be nothing at all. 24
Time is that mighty mountain tree, the Udumbara, whose fruits are the
Brahmanda Universe, where we gnats and mosquitoes grumbling hum. 27
Time shows no respect nor disdain. He does not come, he does not go,
he does not rise, he does not set, though hundreds of Great Ages pass. 32
By himself he preserves the Self alone, egoless, outspread; he
maintains the playful game of rising worlds as a great cloud of suns. 33
In the lotus-pond of Self, in the course of time, see how the red
day-lotus grows from last night's mud, while clouds of bees bumble about. 34
Under the eye of the sun, in the moments of the day, he cooks
his meal: the World-Guardians that ripen in the woods of this world. 37
Samsara's his dilapidated shack; and here, amongst the mess,
Time hides away the Jewel-Worlds, guarded by Death, his treasurer. 38
He wears the worlds as jewelry, diamonds glinting on his neck;
then, in a fit of passion, breaks the chain, scattering the jewels. 39
RAMA:
These are his travels, filled with sorrows, roaming like a foolish beast,
a Hunter, withered with decrepitude, in the World-jungle-net. 2
The Ocean of the Ages is Time's lotus-pond, where submarine
fires are like underwater flowers, shining radiantly everywhere. 3
A bowl of pungent, bitter, sour curds from the Ocean of Milk, stale
from storing overnight: Time takes his tasty morning breakfast treat. 4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_of_Milk
His mistress Chandi runs about the Forest of Samsara with
her Company of Mothers, fierce as a tigress, murderous everywhere. 24.5
Earth rests in the clasp of his hand: Earth is Time's sable drinking-cup,
overfilled with the Elixir of Life. Earth turns and tosses, like
a wind-blown blue lotus, that is all adorned with a silver net. 6
http://www.princeton.edu/~willman/Earthrise.jpg
Nr-simha Man-lion, for all his horrid roaring, his fierce claws,
is quiet as a cooing lovebird, caught close in the hand of Time. 7
In autumn, Time the Great, beneath the radiant blue sky, picks up
his lute, and strums it playfully, like the song of a cuckoo chick. 8
Like a constant thunderstorm, or an endless spew of vomit, his
Bow of Abhava Unbeing sends arrows flying everywhere. 9
There is, in this world, the prince of wicked players, who does his work,
and eats his fill. They call him Kala Time, or sometimes Daiva Fate. 25.1
Of Time no other form is seen than Consequence, taking the form
of self-vibration. It is neither Causation nor wishfulness. 2
He leads the entire procession of incarnate beings into
nonentity like an ice-garland under the heat of the sun. 3
The world anywhere seen is his playground, his Theater of Dance. 4
The creatures of all of the worlds of the gods are bright jewels that
adorn her limbs; the halo of her hair flows down from heaven to hell. 12
They call her Narakali Hellfire. All our evil works are strung
as bells on her ankles: tinkling she dances in Patala Hell. 13
Her beauty-marks are the letters inscribed by Chitragupta*, Death's
Recorder, in the Doomsday Book that chronicles the deeds of all. 14
*[For the Thai version of Chitragupta see http://www.thailex.info/THAILEX/THAILEXENG/LEXICON/Yama,%20Suwan%20en
%20Suwaan.htm ]
And when the goddess dances Doomsday, directed by her husband,
she shakes the mountains, stirs the clouds, clattering like a thunderstorm. 25.15
At his side, as his triple eyes cause you to gasp, wide, staring
eyes fearful to behold, peacocks roll and sway in the Doomsday Dance. 16
Hara the Destroyer, wears five different heads, whose locks dangle
and toss about, as he whirls round about his golden Gauri the
Goddess, and her long braids adorned with coralFlowers are his fan. 17
The circlet of skulls round her neck is like a garland of white flowers,
bouncing as she cavorts with kicks, doing her dreadful Doomsday Dance. 25.20
Come Doomsday, whirling hurricanes drum like the Damara tambour,
and the Gandharva Singers all flee in fear from the Carnival. 21
Krtanta dances, and the sun and moon are his earrings, and stars
gleam in the moonlit sky, and the sky is a feathery flywhisk!22
On his one ear Snow Mountain shines like an ornament carved in bone;
and on the other ear the great Mount Meru sparkles with its gold. 23
The sun and moon are earrings shining on the glory of his face;
she wears the mountain range surrounding all the world around her waist. 24
Here they come, and there they go in their dance—and lightning flashes from
their bracelets. A drifting cloud, she sways her hips in their pure white cloth. 25.25
When Death appears, he comes with spears, missiles and lances, javelins,
vomiting forth their sharpness, maces clubbing, he destroys the world. 26
The long noose of Samsara hangs down from Time's hand: it is the snake
Shesha—all of our pleasures strung like precious jewels in a chain. 27
Brilliant with Life, sparkling with sea-creatures as jewels scintillate
with light, all Seven Seas circle his arms as his seven bracelets. 28
The curls are customary deeds, the streaks of hair are pleasure and
sorrow, are lightness streaked with dark: such are the hairs on his belly! 29
And then Krtanta Finisher, having thus danced the Doomsday Dance,
withdraws, and lets Maheshvara, the Great Lord, make it all again. 25.30
But now the Lady does her Lasya Dance—it's the Round Dance of Love—
and in this new creation she offers age, grief, sorrow, and shame. 31
RAMA:
Things being as they are with Time and all its vagaries, Muni,
in this Samsara, tell me what hope is there for the likes of me? 26.1
Lord Time has no proper worldly manners, with his gaping gulping
gullet. He likes to throw unarmed people into the Sea of Woe. 3
He burns us with inner despair, this misbehaving deity,
and at the last he burns us up, in the final fire of Doomsday. 4
His fickle Lady Destiny does not respect propriety,
so fickle is her nature. She is known, therefore, as womanly. 26.5
It burns me through and through, Sadhu, the mind with its dancing disease
of passionate attachment; and Dispassion is not to be found. 26.15
Crippled is the red Rajasic Force. Black Tamasic Perception
rules everywhere; nor does Suchness go unto Thatness, far apart. 16
Nothing lasts. The fixed becomes unfixed, what was solid trembles, and
Death draws closer, while we devote our passions to the substanceless. 17
The mind's a mess of slothfulness, the spirit fallen from the One;
senescence blazes in the flesh so it shoots sparks of wickedness. 18
Youth is a trouble to endure; Good Company is hard to find;
the Way is not known anyhow; and nothing's what it seems to be. 19
Mind gets bewildered within. Sympathy flies far away. The warmth
of compassion does not arise. We become lowest of the low. 26.20
Wisdom turns to unwisdom, a stumble brings an awful fall. It's
easy to mix with the wicked; but hard to get good company. 21
The four winds change; countries flourish and disappear. When great mountains
crumble away to dust, what hope can there be for the likes of me? 23
When Satta Suchness eats up the heavens, and gobbles our lives;
when Earth itself is doomed, what hope can there be for the likes of me? 24
The oceans all at last dry out; their waves grow still. Even Siddha
Adepts meet their demise. What hope can there be for the likes of me? 26.25
When the gods are destroyed in war and the pole-star shifts from its place
and the immortals die, what hope can there be for the likes of me? 26
The Soma Moon to emptiness comes away. The DeathEgg Sun gets
snuffed. Agni Fire gets swamped. What hope can there be for the likes of me? 28
The Supreme takes into its state Hari the Unborn; existence
becomes non-existent. What hope can there be for the likes of me? 29
And yet Time accumulates, and Destiny destines, and Space spreads
infinitely outward; what hope can there be for the likes of me? 26.30
Kama Desire, the lord of lust, having once done battle with Lord
Shiva, made bold to fan this world with his wings. How he flutters here! 36
In spring, an elephant goes mad, drunk on his own juices. The skies
are everywhere a rain of flowers, so Awareness goes crazy too. 37
Not even a Great One, rich in Viveka Discernment can quite
resist chasing after the roving eyes of a beautiful girl. 38
Those with concern for others, with their suffering torments—they are
wise and happy because of the gentleness of their inner thought. 39
Rising and falling, stirred by the wind and the submarine fire, by
whom can the many billows in this Ocean of Life be counted? 26.40
All of us humans, bar none, are snared in the snare of the trapper
Moha Illusion. We are like a deer snagged in the underbrush. 41
RAMA:
RAMA:
Where now a city can be seen, bustling with its many trades,
someday hereafter it will be an empty soundless wilderness. 28.5
A human being now, in his glory, rules over a great realm:
but oh Your Majesty, in a few days they call him an ash hill. 6
There are great forests full of fear that in this spacious sky will fly
flurries of banners to announce the presence of a new City. 7
A fearful place of clinging vines once was a playground; but, someday,
after a little while, it will become a barren Sahara. 8
This Manas Mind is like a flag tossed about in the constant wind,
making us many with its Fate and melodramatic moments. 13
Those were the days, with their great people, those were good times, and good
works!—
they're all for the memory-book. Death will soon come: just a moment.... 17
Day by day it runs to ruin, day by day it's born again. But
for the present there is no end to this death-dealing destruction. 18
Playing with his net of rays, night after day, again and again,
Ravi the Sun whiles time away, bound for the Day of Destruction. 28.20
Brahma the Immense, and Vishnu the Pervading, and the Awful
Rudra,—and every sort of being, for that matter,—they all chase
after their own destruction, like water chasing Submarine Fire. 21
Our days on this forgiving Earth, the wind in midair, mountains, streams,
north-south-east-west,—all of these are only the ripe tinder-dry fuel
for Vadava, the Submarine Destructive Phosphorescence. 22
Wise sir, all our experience in this world, all that we enjoy,
is instantly made memory by the demon of destruction. 24
Where's the wise man who is not deceived by this Self-destroying world-
maze of contradictions, where things are never what they seem to be? 26
At one moment the spacious sky appears smeared with tamasic mud;
at one moment it's a gush of golden glowing, so good to see. 27
Here, now, this moment is a cloud-cave covered in blue lotuses;—
one moment blue, it blackens with thunder, then it's silent and free. 28
One moment it is star-spangled, one moment it is bright with sun,
one moment it is all full moon, one moment the world is all dark. 29
RAMA:
Our births are like a leather thong strung with knots—the senses—that bind
us. But the best of us always strive for Vimoksha the Unbinding. 10
* [The guru-bead is the head-bead of a rosary, where the ends of the string get tied].
RAMA:
For me, the disappointments of this narrow cave the world come by
the hundredfold, and I am sunk in the muddy quagmire of thought. 1
When I ponder about these things, my mind becomes bewildered and
my limbs shiver and tremble like dry leaves upon a dying tree. 2
RAMA:
Swaying her hips, the Goddess dances the Doomsday Dance, with her flock
of greedy peahens, and she slaps her body like a wooden drum. 4
What is the Method? What the Path? What of the trouble? What the help?
It is a dark sunrise that I see in this dark Forest of Life. 6
There is on earth and in the heavens, there among the gods, wisdom
that,—even to trifling questions,—offers beautiful answers. 7
In the mentations of the Mind, out of the Suchness, the Three Worlds
are born. Somewhere, there's no distress without a remedy. Sir, tell
me where is that wonderful place? 16
Those who can carry-on here in
this world and never suffer—Sir, tell me their wonderful teaching. 17
How is it, by what means, what is it, the fruit of highest Chetas
Awareness, where men of old found perfect purified Manas Mind? 18
Tell me. o lord, how you and these other Sadhus have come to know
how to disperse the Illusion, and realize sorrowlessness. 19
* This maxim comes from the young Prince Rama in a court where somebody is plotting to depose him from
succession to the Kingship, which is his right. In fact his Court Title was 'Yuvaraja' <yuva-rAja>, the "Young-King". His
father Dasharatha the Charioteer was the Maharaja <mahA-rAja>, the "Great-King" of Ayodhya. Read the first book of
the Ramayana <rAmÂyaNa> for details of the conspiracy. In such circumstances, only your best brother Lakshmana
<lakSmaNa> Luckyman is to be trusted. Sita <sItA> is far ahead of us at this point in Rama's journey.
Still
as stone statues they attended to each word of Rama's speech, and
they were filled with inner Joy. 4
By
great Vasishtha the Supreme, and
Vishvamitra the Allfriend
and all the Munis seated in the
Assembly;
and by Jayanti Victorious and Dhrshti the Bold
and all the King's Ministers, skilled in the art of Policy; 5
by
the ManLords like Dasharatha Charioteer;
and by all the
people of the city;
by the Outlanders;
by the Princes;
by
the twiceborn Brahmanas and by the Brahmana philosophers; 6
by Vidyadhara Magicians,
and great Mahoraga Belly-
Crawlers;—
his words were heard by all. 11
||*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narada, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimpurusha_Kingdom , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saptarshi ||
Showered
with that peaceful rain of blossoms, the people assembled below
heard these words sung by the army of Siddha Adepts, 23
who sang:
SIDDHAS
"We've wandered the heavens, but have not yet heard anything
like this essence of Scripture! 24
Raghu the Swift himself never gave
so wonderful a speech as this, from the moonlike Prince, born of his
dispassion. 25
Wonderful wonder! such a speech as this, that came from
Rama's lips into our ears, shows Rama's merit. What a delight! 26
¶ ||* Many readers will not know that butter is made by pounding fresh cream with a
perforated rotating paddle, until the Ghee Butterfat congeals into lumps. When the delicious
Butter lumps are removed, the residue is called Buttermilk. On a Canadian farm we would slop
it to the pigs, but save a cup or two for making Sunday pancakes. ¶ In India curds are made by
heating milk with lemon juice until it congeals. The particles of curd float in a pond of whey. ¶
For "orgasmic" see Working Notes. jd||
VALMIKI:
So said that great assembly of the Siddha Adepts. Having sung
the praise of Rama, they came down to earth in a divine parade: 4
Some wore strings of gemstones, some had coats of many colors, they were
like a pearl necklace that sparkles with brilliance. 9
Some were like a shower
of moonbeams, some like radiant suns, or like the moon grown to Fulness. 10
Like a bright raincloud in the net of stars Vyasa shone; like a cool
starbeam in that sea of stars, there Narada shone; 11 Pulastya shone,
a Brightling Lord among the gods; Angiras like the Sun itself
among the gods, shone bright. 12
And then the army of Siddha Adepts
descended from the sky to earth, to that Muni-overflowing
court of King Dasharatha the Charioteer. 13
That amazing mix
of SkyRovers and EarthRovers, that radiant mingling crowd shone in
the ten directions*. 14
*||The four Directions like North; the four intermediate Directions, like North-West; Above; and Below.||
Some held bamboo staffs in one hand, and lovely
lotuses in the other; and their hair was bound with Durva grass,
and adorned with crest-jewels; 15 some with twisted red hair, some with tufts
or topknots, some with bracelets, some with jasmine armlets; 16 some were dressed
in strips of bark, some in silk, wearing garlands, some in shabby grass
skirts, some like tail-spreading peacocks. 17
Vasishtha and Vishvamitra
respectively paid honour to that company of Sky-rovers
with water, words, and footwashing. 18
And the Sky-rovers, with respect,
paid the same honours with water, words, and footwashing, to the wise
Vasishtha and Vishvamitra. 19
With every courtesy the King
honored that cloud of Siddha Adepts, asking after their health, and
the Siddhas paid the same honors to the King. 20
Each to each offered
obeisance, everyone greeted everyone; until at last they
took their seats, those SkyRovers and EarthRovers 21
They sang Rama's praise,
and showered him with flowers, and bowed before the Prince and honored him. 22
Then Rama, blessed by the Goddess, took his seat in the company
of the King's Ministers, beside Vishvamitra and Vasishtha. 23
There were there Narada Mangift, son of Brahma; and Vyasa the
Fulsome, that bull-like Muni; and Marichi the Mirage; and the
naked Durvasas; and likewise the Muni Angirasa. 24
There
were Kratu the Determined; and Pulastya Straighthair; and the
wise Pulaha; Sharaloma Grasshair, that Lord of Munis; and
Vatsyayana the Logician; and Bharadvaja the Skylark;
and Valmiki the Anthill Man (that mighty Muni!); 25
there were there
Uddalaka, and Rcika, and Sharyati, and Chyavana, 26
and every sort of leader of men, masters of the Vedas and
the Vedic Sciences, knowers of what is to be known, Great Souls ... 27
CHORUS OF SAGES:
O truly wonderful are these simple words of the Prince who is
the touchstone of nobility, sprung from his honest Dispassion: 29
words of accomplishment, full of intelligence, fitting, simple,
thrilling, and dear, and worthy of a Prince, proper, and simple. 30
These
words uttered by Prince Rama, are easily understandable,
satisfying and simple—who would not be overcome by them? 31
[Working Notes with literal translation, and Harvard-Kyoto transliteration of the Sanskrit, with Devanagari
text, can be found in the PAGES file. If no Glossary is appended, an excellent Sanskrit-English Dictionary is
available at http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/ ]
You are just like Shuka the Bright, the son of Vyasa the Profuse.
He also knew all worth knowing, and knowing all still sought Repose. 4
RAMA:
How can it be that when the son of Vyasa the Profuse, Shuka
the Bright, first heard the Wisdom Teaching, he found no rest? but only
after further thought, found repose? 5
VISHVAMITRA:
He was just like you, Rama: that
young son of Vyasa also sought the end of this round of births. Just
listen: I'll tell you his story. 6
By himself, Shuka gained a better wisdom, yet could not calm his
mind. Thinking that "This is Reality", he did not know the Self. 11
His Chetas Awareness detached from what is transitory: he
abstained from pleasures with all their many frustrations. He was like
a cuckoo thirsting for the rain. 12
"O yes, I had already worked that out; now you tell me again
what I already know, father!" That brilliant young Shuka did not
think much of his father's teaching. 16
Janaka greeted Shuka thus, quite rudely: "Sit down there!" he said,
and did not speak another word for a full seven days. 21
But then
Janaka let Shuka enter the courtyard, where he had to sit
for seven full days, growing greatly confused and disconsolate. 22
VISHVAMITRA:
But when Shuka put his question to Janaka, that teacher said
exactly what Shuka's father, that Great Soul, had told him before. 30
SHUKA:
I learned this by myself alone through Viveka Discernment; and
when I asked my father, he said exactly the same things to me. 31
What Your Honor has taught to me, in masterful words, can also
be found in the aphorisms of all the Shastra Manuals: 32
that out of our imagining this fiery Universe springs up;
extinguish that Imagining, and (have no doubt!) the Fire goes out. 33
"Tell me the changeless truth: how does this restless Chetas Awareness
find Rest in the world-illusion? 34
[Working Notes with literal translation, and Harvard-Kyoto transliteration of the Sanskrit, with Devanagari
text, can be found in the PAGES file. If no Glossary is appended, an excellent Sanskrit-English Dictionary is
available at http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/ ]
VISHVAMITRA:
As for the story of that son of Vyasa, and the cleansing of
the Mind, Rama,—here is how it relates to you. 1
You Muni-Lords,
Rama understands entirely what is to-be-known. Pleasure does
not please him. Sickness does not please a well person. 2
Now, here's the mark
of those who know the to-be-known: that all the great variety
of pleasures do not pleasure them. 3
Through the enjoyment of pleasures
there rises solid bondage to the unreal, the not-So; but through
Upashanti Peacefulness, this world-bondage is brought to rest. 4
So you
see that the Scion of Raghu is one who understands the to-
be-known, and the pleasures of this world are no pleasures to him. 10
What
Rama knows internally, when he hears it confirmed by you, that
young Muni-lord will bring to Rest his troubled Chitta Affection. 11
Now let the blessed Lord Vasishtha clearly tell whatever brings
to rest the Chitta Affection of that Great Soul, of Raghu's Clan. 13
Vasishtha has forever been the powerful Clan-Guru of
the line of Raghu the Swift. He knows all things, and sees all things with
flawless sight throughout the Three Times. 14
Troubles are no longer for him, this Rama who is free from fault.
Now that the mirror is spotless, the moonlike face shines clear and bright. 19
People like you, free from passion, fear, and anger, drained of all their
wickedness,—when you speak, the thoughts are brought to peace, right here and
now! 22
VALMIKI:
So spoke the son of Gadhi the Owl; and Vyasa and Narada
and all the rest of the Munis sang many choruses of praise. 23
And then rose, at the King's right hand, Vasishtha the Supreme, on fire!
He was the son of Brahma the Immense, born out of the Brahman
Immensity, that Lord Muni! 24
VASISHTHA:
Muni, as you command me, so
I shall unfailingly do. For what wise man worth being called wise
would disobey the order of one so perfectly wise as you? 25
So, then, with Jnana Wisdom I will brighten the darkness of mind
of Rama and the princes, like a lamp lit in the dead of night. 26
I remember everything taught to us then by the Lotus-Born
Brahma, the Jnana Wisdom that pacifies the World-Illusion. 27
VALMIKI:
So saying to the Family and Court, that great,
that fiery orator, Vasishtha the Supreme, then
related this teaching, to quell ignorance, and
for our Awakening unto the One Highest State. 28
Canto 2.003: ON CONTINUOUS CREATION
VASISHTHA:
What I heard long ago, at the Dawn of Creation, from the Lord
Brahma, the Wisdom of the LotusBorn, for bringing peace into
this world, all this I will relate to you. 1
[Vasishtha has scarcely a chance to speak before Rama interrupts him with a question. We must not forget
that Rama is a sassy 15-year-old who just happens to be the Crown Prince of Ayodhya, and who is suffering
from the Serious Blues. jd]
RAMA:
Lord, you will soon enough
relate your Freedom Story.
But I've just been struck with a Great Doubt.
You can resolve it. 2
VASISHTHA:
Within the radiance
of the Supreme Sun, the three worlds are like dust-particles, rising
and setting. Who would care to count them? 4 Who could count the horde of all
those millions of worlds? No-one can number them. 5 They are each all
separate waves in the Supreme Ocean, they rise and fall again
and again. How to count them, I hardly know. 6
[This is a very beautiful answer, but most remote from Rama's question. Vasishtha is also being sassy, in his
own way... jd]
RAMA:
You have talked about
what has been and what will be, in this flood of world-creations; but
what about now, this present time? 7
VASISHTHA:
The animals, human beings,
and gods also, meet their demise; but in a while they're seen again. 8
[He now gives some intimations of what interesting subjects lie ahead for our contemplation. jd]
And there the dead are dying, and they'll die ten times ten thousand times.
Our expectation in this world:—another fitting death, alone. 10
As a whole, sometimes they are just the same, the same sort of mental
attributes; sometimes they are somewhat similar; and sometimes they
are totally different. 20
In this Brahma-Aeon,
this is the thirty-second Treta Age. There has been, and there is, and there
will be another you and I. This I know. 25 Now, in the order
of things, this Muni here, this Vyasa the wonderworker, makes his
tenth incarnation here. 26
VASISHTHA:
Dear boy, the water in the wave is, at last, just water: likewise,
the Freedom of the bodiless Muni is not different from
that of the embodied, 1 because embodied or disembodied,
since Freedom is not in the sense-objects, which give no enjoyment,
what pleasure is there to enjoy? 2
You see before us here the best
of Munis, Vyasa the Fulsome: he is a Living Freeman; he
is without inner attachment. 3
VASISHTHA:
One who proceeds according to the Shastras from the very first:—
his works are wonderfully coloured like the light of a rainbow. 1
Whoever seeks a mental goal by acts that are not in keeping
with the Shastras, attains only his mad delusion, not success. 2
Where differing Personal Goals, one from the past, and one present,
do battle, they are like two rams butting heads. The weaker loses. 5
And so a Human should direct his personal effort in such
a way, in union with the Such*, that present efforts overcome. 6
*[In this translation, the terms <sat> and <tat> are translated as "Such" and "That", in keeping with the
usage of YV in later cantos, where "Being" does not suit the text.]
Like two rams butting heads they fight, two differing Personal Goals—
your own and somebody else's—and certainly the stronger wins. 7
Where there is Paurusha according to the Shastras, where it is
unfruitful, it's the power of the previous bad Paurusha. 8
To conquer prior Paurusha, grit your teeth: grind impurity
with purity: this is the way present Paurusha overcomes. 9
"My former aspirations bind me to my present condition":—
such thoughts are actually false, things do not follow in this way. 5.10
When good Paurusha is employed as far as possible, with hard
work, the impurities that came from prior effort are subdued. 11
Former transgressions are subdued by present virtues, there's no doubt:
yesterday's faults are amended by the good works we do today. 12
Forget about that nonesuch Fate: but always with uplifted thought
strive to attain the crossing of the Samsara within the Self. 13
One who does not constantly strive is like a human jackass; but
exerting himself, keeping to the Shastras, he wins in both worlds. 14
You must use your energy and personal effort to get free
from this Samsara Cave, just like a captured lion in a cage. 15
Every day you should consider that the body's impermanent.
Don't be a beast, but let your deeds be what a good person should do. 16
Our pleasant tastes for women, food, and drink in our comfortable
home—it's like a fly sucking wounds. All our hard work is burned to ash. 17
VALMIKI:
And so, the Muni having said these words, the day was gone;
and the evening sun, as was its custom, setting, was gone;
and the Assembly, to perform their ablutions, were gone:
darkness devoured everything, when Ravi the Sun was gone. 32
VASISHTHA:
"Fate" is just prior Paurusha—nothing else. Therefore let us, with
good company and the Shastras, forcefully overcome our life. 1
Whatever effort you exert, it produces similar fruit:
and so it is Paurusha that people mistake for Daiva Fate. 2
Out of suffering, in their time of suffering, people cry out
"OMIGOD!"; and the meaning of this word "omigod' is just "Fate". 3
There is nothing but your own prior karma that can be called "Fate".
Such karma can be conquered, just as a grownup controls a child. 4
Just as the wrongs of yesterday can be corrected by today's
good works, so all prior karma is purified by present acts. 5
One who strives for victory but does not curtail his attachments—
he's a pathetic common fool who clings to the Wheel of Fortune! 6
If karma were Fate's Paurusha, it would still be negated by
a more powerful Paurusha. 7
It is as if, of two fruits, one's
grown wild, and hangs hollow within; the other, cultivated, is
lush with the juice of consciousness. 8
Those who wander this world and have
attained the highest, will at last attain—Doomsday (such is the great
Paurusha of the Doomsday-maker)! 9
They're like two rams butting heads,—
two Personal Goals, one on one:—whichever is the stronger, he
quickly conquers the other one. 10
Winner or loser,
if the goal is not won, the good works remain: what is the use of
complaining against all those gods? 21
In such a case, where I can, I
have sorrow. I'm not dead yet, yet death entails my daily weeping. 22
Having obtained a body free from disease, rest within your one
equanimous and thought-free self: so you will not be born again. 1 *
* or
The body, free from disease, gives no further thought to it. Within
the equanimous, thought-free self, there is no cycle of rebirth. 1
||* The shloka is not translatable. It involves two puns, one involving "sama" and "Adhi", and the other
involving some obscure marriage custom. See Page wn.2.007 for a literal translation. Suggestions are
welcome. jd.||
Those who neglect to practice, who are stuck on the Wheel of Fortune,—
who are the enemies of Self,—never reach their Personal Goals*. 3
*[Kama Desire, Artha Power, Dharma Order, and Moksha Freedom].
It is the Samvit Awareness, the Spanda Energy of Mind,
the Energy of the Organs, that bear the fruit of our Personal Goals. 4
According to the perceptions of Chetas Affectivity,
a like energy arises, and so the body stirs, and so
we are the enjoyers of fruit. 5
It's always here under your nose, the spoor of Paurusha. He's like
a traveler who leaves his marks in the forest. He's bearing gifts. 16
The Eater gets full, not the Faster. The Goer gets going, not
the Slacker. The Speaker speaks, not the Silent. Action makes the man. 17
"Fruit that comes from a Personal Goal, at the proper time, in its
proper place, quickly or slowly": that's how I define "Daiva Fate." 21
What others call this Daiva is not perceived by the senses; and
it is not in some other world; it is the karmic fruit to be
eaten in the Svarga Heaven. 22
A person born into this world
grows, and grows up, and then grows old. But our Fate does not grow like that,
through days of Age, Youth, or Childhood. 23
"A concentrated effort to
realize a proper result"—the wise call this "Paurusha". It's
the way of making things happen. 24
Going from place to place, holding
something in hand—that's the business
of the limbs, not an act of Fate. 25
"A concentrated effort to
attain an improper result"—this is the sorry delusion
of a crazy mind. Nothing whatsoever comes to you this way. 26
The action of dharmic Spanda energy, spurred by good
company and the Shastras, will get you the Goal for which you seek. 27
They are our last resort, the Sadhus of the Shastra, for they teach
the highest goal of life, the Joy of boundless Equanimity. 28
The Shastric way attracts the mind; the mind follows the Shastric way:
the lotus beautifies the pond; the pond beautifies the lotus. 29
Someone like you, who from boyhood has heard the teachings of the wise,
applying them personally, is certain to attain his goal. 30
When the Lord Vishnu Pervader conquered the Daitya Demons and
brought order to the three worlds, it was just his Paurusha,—not Fate. 31
VASISHTHA:
If it has no shape, and no karmas, no Spanda energy, no
vitality—what can you say about it, Rama, except that
it is a mistaken notion? 1
Reaping the fruit of their karma,
people proclaim their own result as if it were the power of Fate. 2
Yet for the muddy-minded, there is surely Fate, without a doubt:
just as their misunderstanding takes a rope for a snake. 3
RAMA:
Lord, you're the knower of all things, perfect in your tranquility.
What in the world exactly is this thing that people call Daiva? 1
VASISHTHA:
Rama, it's Paurusha alone that is the doer of action, and the enjoyer of its fruit.
Daiva is not the cause of it. 2
This Fate does nothing: it does not enjoy or know; is neither paid attention to nor
reverenced. It's nothing but imagining. 3
The fruit achieved—whether it is good or bad—comes from your present Paurusha.
It is only that that is denoted by "Daiva". 4 It is the getting of objectives—wished or
not, desired or not, dependent on our Paurusha,—that is denoted by "Daiva". 5
When a being subdues himself in single-minded pursuit of his goal in this world-
struggle, then he wrongfully calls it "Daiva". 6
Consider, Scion of Raghu: this Daiva is like Space, empty
of form. Without reality, it neither does nor does not do. 7
When a personal goal results in happy or unhappy fruit, and people say "So it's
ordained", that's how they talk of Daiva Fate. 8
When people get their karma-fruit, they say, "That's what I had in mind, I knew
that that would come about." That's how they talk of Daiva Fate. 9
Whatever fruit they get, whether good or bad, people say "This is my Fate!"—as if
that were any consolation. Such is "Daiva". 10
RAMA:
Lord, you know everything about the Dharma Way; and you have said about Fate,
'Fate is prior stored karma.' Don't you now contradict yourself?* 11
*||or How can this karma be removed?||
VASISHTHA:
Those Vasana Habits of Mind that long ago sprang up like so many weeds, grow to
seed, through the process of Karma, in a man. 13 A person with this Vasana
Conditioning, Rama, becomes a Doer from it; but without prior karmas, it is not so.
14
Headed for town, you get to town; seeking the city, you get there.
Whatever sort of Vasana it is, that's what it strives to be. 15
Whatever springs up out of the karmas established long ago,—that alone is what is
to be understood by the word 'Daiva'. 16
Thus, by the law of Karma, these Vasana Latencies grow ripe; and Vasanas are of
the Mind; and Mind is Purusha Person. 17
What they call Daiva is these karmas: but karma, Sadhu, is only the mind, and
mind is the person; and there is nothing to be called Fate. 18
The Manas Mind is the person. Whatever good thing it strives for,
that is exactly what it gets: so you yourself are your own Fate. 19
Manas Mind, Citta Affection, Vasana, Karma, and Daiva—Rama, these are
misunderstood, not as they are known to the wise. 20
This is how it happens, Rama: wherever one fixes his thoughts, whatever one
strives for, that is the fruit which he obtains at last. 21
So only from personal work, best of the Raghus, does good come
to you; there is no other way. May your good efforts prosper you! 22
RAMA:
The net of prior Vasana has got me in its hold, Muni.
I come to you like a beggar: tell me what I'm supposed to do! 23
VASISHTHA:
Just so it is, even for you, Rama: your own prosperity
comes from your own effort, from your Paurusha, and not otherwise. 24
There are two sorts of Vasana, the good and bad, pure and impure;
and these again are twofold, the prior and the present kind. 25
If you surrender to the flow of the flood of good Vasana, and follow it, Rama, you
will be led to the eternal state. 26 But then, if your bad inclinations lead you into
parlous straits, such prior effort must, by your hard work, be subdued by Your
Grace*. 27
*[Sometimes Vasishtha refers to the Prince as "My boy"; sometimes as "Raghava, Scion of the Raghu Clan".
Here he uses the courtly (and flattering—Vasishtha often uses this approach to the young Prince) "Your
Grace".]
You're conscient intelligence, not the inconscient body. Will you conceive anything
by another's Chetas Conscience? 28
Will someone else do your practice? Who'll do the same for him? and who will do
his work? So on and on .... 29
Vasana River flows in two branches, one good, the other bad. With personal effort,
the course to be followed is the good one. 30 When taken by bad purposes, overcome
them with better ones: use your own mind for your goals, by your own might, best
of the mighty. 31
A person's Affection is like a child, that must be directed from the bad to the good,
and not the opposite. Thus, certainly,32 Chitta Affection, like a child, is not taught
suddenly, but step by step, gently rebuking it: and that is personal effort. 33
By your past practice, the flood of Vasanas has liquefied—both the good ones and
the bad ones.
Now you must concretize the good. 34
Know this, FoeSlayer: it is from your prior practice that today's good Vasana has
borne its fruit. 35 Right now, sinless boy, Vasana Conditioning is strengthening
through your regular practice.
Therefore make your practice good. 36
A Vasana from the past, when it has not ripened, is stunted through good practice,
so that it will not grow. So be happy, my boy! 37
When in doubt, make your best effort to nourish the good Vasana: for from the
increase of the good no fault whatever can ensue. 38
Be always of good Vasana, subduing the five senses, and relying upon Paurusha,
and you will get empowerment. 40
While the mind is without experience, Your Majesty, while you do not know That,
follow the path set by the gurus and shastras. 41
When the bad Vasanas are thus overcome by the good, through your
understanding, even the good likewise should be renounced by you. 42
I must ask readers to make what Coleridge called "The willing suspension of disbelief that
constitutes Poetic Faith". Let him be the thought-conceived Son of Brahma the Immense. And
you be a child. Just imagine....
This is a marvelous story book that can remind old men of their childhood mind.
VASISHTHA:
The Brahman-Thatness, as it comes to be Satta Suchness, is called
Niyati Destiny. It is the teacherhood of the teacher,
the teacher of the teachable. 1
So have recourse to your own self-
effort, for your own good. Let it be your constant companion, your sole
single-minded Affection.
Now, pay attention to what I say! 2
These words were said in another Age by the Supreme Lord Brahma.
They bring an end to sorrow. They are consolation to your grief. 9
RAMA:
Brahmana, why was this revealed to you by the Selfborn Brahma,
so long ago, and how was it received by your Grace? Tell me that. 10
VASISHTHA:
It is the endlessly playing, everywhere-going, everywhere-
resting Consciousness-Space: the Self, the Primal Light in everyone. 11
From the joining of the vibrant and the still, Vishnu Pervader
was born like a wave arising in the still Ocean of Nectar. 12
From the Heart-Lotus—with Meru its center, the directions for
petals, the stars for filaments--the Most Supreme manifested. 13
Surrounded by the Vedas and the Veda-wise, the gods and Munis, he brought forth
the universe as Manas Mind, the infinite ocean of thought. 14
Here, in a corner of Jambu-dvipa*, the part called Bharata,
he created a flood of beings troubled by pain and disease. 15
*[For the Vedic Universe the Wikipedia article takes one point of
view, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambudvipa and the viSNu-bhaktas
another http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/planetarium/index.htm ]
Now happy, now miserable, they fall, they rise, they fall again,
this mass of various beings with multifarious desires. 16
Seeing these people's suffering the maker of the worlds became
overcome with pity, just like a father when his son is sad. 17
"What can I do for them, who are bereft of hope, who suffer till
they are bereft of life?" He thought briefly but deeply about this. 18
Then having so considered he created the ascetic Fire
of Tapas, and the Dharma, and Honesty, Generosity,
and all the holy shrines also. 19
Yet with this creation, the god
gave further thought to the matter, concluding:
"Not by these means will
the people end their suffering. 20
"Nirvana is supreme delight.
By knowing That, there's no rebirth: you are not born, you do not die. 21
"Just for an hour, my son, let your Chetas Awareness become like
a fidgeting monkey, or like the spotless moon marred by its marks." 29
VASISHTHA:
Now I have told you all about the crossing of Wisdom to Earth,
just as the wish was made in me by the LotusBorn Lord Brahma. 1
It is because of your past works that your Chetas Awareness has
become enamored of this most wonderful wisdom of Jnana. 2
RAMA:
How was it, Brahmana, that this crossing of Wisdom to the world
came as an afterthought to the Supreme, after his creation? 3
VASISHTHA:
Brahma is, of his own nature, the same as Brahman, the Boundless Immensity,
born of it as a vibration or motion, as a wave is born from the ocean. 4
And so the Lord saw the entire suffering course of creation, past, and present, and
future. 5
He saw the decline of Worship at the end of the Golden Age,—
saw the delusion of the world, and was overcome with pity. 6
The Lord, having created me and imbued me with his wisdom, he then released me
to this wide world, where I subdue ignorance. 7
Like me, he sent other teachers,—Sanatkumara the Ancient Boy, and Narada the
Mangift. 8 Teaching ritual worship, and then Jnana Wisdom, we were sent to deliver
the world from its bondage of mental delusion. 9
It was long ago, at the end of the Krta Age that the Great Rshis saw that the
practice of pure ritual was in decline. 10 So in order to oversee the rules of ritual
worship, they created the nations, and made kings to be their Protectors. 11 And
they conceived and dictated scriptures and manuals of Law, Prosperity and Power.
12
The wheel of time turns on, and things decay; and the people think only of getting
their rice and eating it. 13 Border disputes arise among the Earth-lords. The people
suffer many punishments. 14
Now the kings can no longer govern the earth without going to war with one
another, and they as well as their people suffer from these things. 15
This Science of the Inner Self, taught to Princes so long ago, is today celebrated
through the world as "The Royal Science." 17 The Royal Science, the Royal Secret,
the perfect Inner-Self Wisdom—o Scion of Raghu, it's by this means that princes
have
come to supreme sorrowlessness. 18
Now all those ancient kings have come and gone, their glories passed away; and
now you're born here, Rama, to Dasharatha the Charioteer. 19 Foeslayer, now in
you there has risen a fire in the mind of disinterested Dispassion. 20
Rama, in each and every Sadhu, though he's a Discerner, though he is filled with
Dispassion, rajasic passion arises. 21 But unexpected, suddenly arisen, the most
wonderful discernment of reality is a pure Sattvic quality that comes from your self-
Discernment. 22
Disgusted with the sense-objects, who would not be dispassionate? With
Discernment, there arises full Dispassion from the Suchness. 23
There are some whose mind is pure, who are totally without motives, in whom
Vairagya Dispassion has arisen. They are the Mighty Ones, they are the Wisdom-
wise. 24
It's hard to understand, Rama, this universe and this body's transmigrations. The
best of men, without Jnana, fail to see it. 35 With Jnana-wisdom some great minds
have even swum this Samsara Ocean, so hard to cross, in a moment, best of the
Raghavas! 36
Let people pay attention to this reasonable Wisdom. With attentive intellect, they
should sink in wisdom, not Samsara. 37 Otherwise, without considered reasoning,
the agitation of worldly sorrows and fears burn long within. 38
And how but by rational Wisdom, Raghava, scion of Raghu, do Sadhus endure the
twofold miseries of burning winds and freezing cold? 39
Now, Craving wears a crown of Fire, that sparks the dry grass into flame, sparks
that burn a foolish fellow blistered by his own sad concerns. 40
When Prajna knowledge is known as it should be known, properly seen, your cares
will not burn you, as fire does not burn a rain-soaked forest. 41
Whirled in the wind of Samsara Desert, the knower of Thatness stands steady as
the Kalpa Tree. 42
To know the Thatness, then, a wise man should approach the wise man of
experience, awake to Self, respectfully seeking advice. 43 Questioning an
experienced teacher of high intelligence, you should soak-up his words, the way a
cloth soaks-up the saffron dye. 44
One who does not know the Thatness, whose words are not conformable
to Truth;—and one who questions such a man:—which is the greater fool? 45
One who does not follow the instruction of an experienced authority, questioning
him, and practising accordingly, he is called an inferior man. 46
The Wisdom or unWisdom of the teacher, judging by his works,—one who resolves
this question is called an intelligent seeker. 47
One who doubts his teacher, one who asks foolish childish questions, he's a poor
enquirer, unworthy of this great truth. 48
When asked by one with a good intellect that is able to reason, a reply may be
given; but not to someone of an animal nature. 49
As for the teacher who does not look into the fitness of mind of the seeker, yet
teaches him—the wise call him a foolish man. 50
Mind purified within the Heart will hear the Song of Perfect Truth. 56
The non-Discerners, the unWise, people who don't pursue the truth,—
keep away from such people, and make the Sadhus your company. 57
Viveka Discernment will always come from keeping company with the wise. And
there are two kinds of fruit on the Viveka Tree, known as Enjoyment, and Freedom.
58
Samsara is a poison tree, the sole abode of misfortune. Ignorance is its fruit, the
death of fools. 69
When a fool dances in his Heart, touched by the serpent of despair the fool recoils,
as if he'd touched a fingertip to a hot stove. 70
When there is this Understanding, the real meaning of the perceived reality shines
like the moon, a cloudless circle in the sky. 71
VASISHTHA:
Scion of Raghu, your overflowing mind is honored among those who ask questions.
You hear and understand what you have heard. And may I say, respectfully, that 1 I
can see in you the very Allness: you are a garland of virtues among Questioners.
And I am not without the virtues of an Orator: may my words be an open treasure-
chest in the murkiness of deep waters. 2
Now let the mind be without the red Rajasic Force, and the black Tamasic too, so
that only clear Sattvic Force remains. With the mind settled in the Self, be still: give
heed to this Jnana Wisdom. 3
When you attain Dispassion, son, Discernment springs from it, just as
the moon draws moisture from moonstone. 4
From childhood on, your long practice has been of Sattvic quality, like a long
spread of lotuses, a mass of white on a blue pond. 5
Now give your close attention to what I tell you, for only you above all others are
worthy to hear it. The pure Kumuda lotus will not blossom until the moon awakens
it. 6
The one who undertakes this path, what he understands will certainly bring
him finally to peace. 7
If some Repose of Understanding does not arise in the happy Chetas Awareness, if
we Sadhus do not cause this to come about, who then is able to bear it, the burden
of stupidity? 8
When the Supreme is gotten, they disappear, all those mentations,—a range of
mountains melting together under the Doomsday Sun. 9
It is hard to bear, Rama, this poison-needle of Samsara. By the fire of the mantra
of
Garuda* it is overcome. 10
*[This may refer to the proper mantra of Garuda, <om pakshi svAhA>, about which little is known; but more probably refers
to the mantra of Vishuchika the Needle, y.3.069.]
Let a seeker join with the wise, and inquire into the Shastra.
This is the means whereby higher Wisdom is surely to be got. 11
**So it is clear that when Enquiry is pursued, it will be found that all sorrows are
thus brought to an end. Those who enquire into their perceptions should not be
regarded with disdain. 12
An enquiring person, faced with this cage of misery, is like a snake just at the
point of shedding. He should slip his skin! He who is not a Unitive Perceiver should
beware the magic of Indra the Godking, and behold the world with Unitive
Perception. Oh, it is beyond sorrow. 13
The terrible disease called Samsara is like a serpent. It stings like a sword, pierces
like a spear, binds like a rope, burns like fire, and it blinds those who are not
already stirred by fear, like a pitch-black night. It leaves them dumb as a stone. It
mars their Prajna Intelligence, ruins their condition, destroys them with Craving.
There is not a single sorrow in Samsara that does not afflict such a person. 14
And the end, alas, is harder: for if the sense-plague of this world is not cured
somehow, the treasures of the cities of hell await him, according to his deeds. 15
There, there is eating of rocks; a hundred swords lightly striking; pelting with
stones; burning with fire; burying in snow; severing of arms and legs; there you
must grind sandalwood paste from trees infested with woodworms, and smear it on
your skin!
All around there is a continuous fire of slicing burning fire-arrows falling, and skull-
splitting swords, as thick as the shower-baths that cool you in the summer palace;
so that you cannot sleep or even breathe in that great disintegration. 16
**[The occasional passages in italics, in this translation, represent passages written in prose form. 99%
percent of YV is written in 16-syllable couplets (shlokas), all of which are translated in 8-syllable segments.
Many of these are set in prose form, while the most interesting are indented in couplet form. The more
complex poetic forms, like those below, are translated in a similar number of syllables. ¶ It should also be
noted that there is considerable irony in Vasishtha's description of "hell", as in his description of woodworms
above. ]
There are a thousand similar miseries here in this Samsara Machine, Raghava,
Scion of Raghu; and they are not to be ignored. They must be considered and
investigated, with inquiry into the Shastras, and Oh at last the best things will
ensue. 17
Otherwise, moon of the Raghu Clan, all these great Munis and great Rshis and
Brahmanas and Princes who have covered their bodies with the armor of Wisdom:—
being sorrow- and grief-free, how could they experience the misery-making, idea-
overflowing entirety of this pointless Samsara, like the foolish-minded? 18
"When a person attains Peace in his Chitta Affection, and the Heart
dances in the Supreme, where all beings enjoy perfect Peace in their
perceptions, then such a one's Inner Doer sees all its enjoyments
equally. Truth is known, and it becomes a pleasure to rove this world." 21
and
"The body's a chariot; the organs of motion are horses, fed with
Prana Airs, whipped by sense-objects; or else its driver is the Primal
Atom. In this body he travels, making his way, to purity.
So mind perceives the Truth, and it becomes a pleasure to rove this world."
22
They do not grieve, do not desire, do not seek out the good or bad.
Whatever they may do, they do not do here anyhow at all. 2
They dwell in purity, they act and move in purity; they are without dichotomies of
good and bad. They are in their ownSelf. 3
They come here and they do not come; they go forth and they do not go;
and though they do they do not do; they do not speak and yet they speak. 4
Whatever undertakings and perceptions are judgmental in nature, they fall away
when that State is attained. 5
Casting aside every wish, his mind is filled with pleasant thought: everything
comes to good, as if silvered by cooling moonlight. 6
Though inattentive to his undertakings, and undisturbed by external events,
in the Self alone and not apart, he drinks immortal nectar. 7
Vrtti-Attitudes like these come from experience of the Self as Thatness, and not
otherwise. 9 And so by Enquiry this very self should be sought, should be studied,
should be known by a person while he lives. There is no other way. 10
When your experience and the shastras and guru all agree,
through constant practice your own Self in its eternity is known. 11
+++
Those who ridicule the Shastras, those who disdain good company,—
there is no equanimity but only sorrow for such fools. 12
The fool who takes the body for himself is ripe for suffering greater than any
sickness or calamity or poison or any misery on this earth. 13
For somewhat more intelligent intellects, reading this Shastra, the Shastra will
eradicate their follies. There's no other way. 14
This is something worth hearing. It's delightful with its beautiful illustrative Tales;
it's easy to study. It is a Shastra for those who love literature. 15
There is more profit in taking a beggar's bowl into the streets of the Shacktown of
the outcastes, than in witless stupidity. 17
Better to live in a pitch-black well, or in rotten holes of trees, a worm in a black
hole, than to be a misery-stricken fool. 18
Sorrows are infinite; pleasures are like dry grass. Therefore do not
let your vision be bound by pleasures which are sorrow's company. 23
But let a person of understanding work hard to attain that endless, easy essence
of power. 24
Only the best of people are deserving of this supreme state, wherein they reach
their highest goal, free of the Samsara fever. 25
Those who dream of sex and banquets and princely comforts—consider them to be
frogs in a dark well. 26
Those who keep company with gallows-bound rogues, such as are inclined to
wicked deeds, those who are foes in the form of friends:—they are like devotees
honouring gluttons. 27 They come from a hard go, to hardship; from sorrow, to
sorrow; from fear, to fear; from hell, to hell,—those delusion-twisted Intellects. 28
+++
When good and bad meet, one destroys the other. There is no lasting happy
condition there. Life is a raging thunderstorm. 29
They are not worth dreaming about, the lying Samsara-illusions. They are a deadly
stupefying poison for the Vivekin Discerner. 32
When they reach it, they do not turn away; when she achieves it, she does not
grieve. That State is Wisdom-gotten. Of this there is no doubt. 34
If That does not arise through your
Enquiry, where's the harm in it?
But if That does arise, you will
have crossed the Ocean of Being. 35
Free from obstacles, free from care, self-reliant, confusion-free:—in the three
worlds such a state is not known without experience of the Kevala Absolute. 37
When That is attained, when the Ultimate is attained, afflictions
don't arise. Against them, wealth is no help, nor friends, nor family. 38
Nor are your hands, nor your feet; nor is roaming the countryside, nor
suffering ascetic pain, nor visiting holy sacred shrines. 39
By sole devotion to the goal, by the constraint of Vasanas,
by absolute That-mindedness,—that is how that state is attained. 40
Sitting in a comfortable
posture, enquiring into That
alone, when that state is attained,
you do not grieve, nor are reborn. 42
What is beyond all pleasure, what the Sadhus know, that high stillness is what they
call Supreme Essence. 43
Experiences fade, whether they are human or heavenly. There is no pleasure that
is not thirsty-deer=water: a mirage. 44
Mind-conquest should be given thought—the practice of Peaceableness, and of
Unbounded Equalness, from which there is Ananda Joy. 45
+++
Let me tell you about the four Doorkeepers of the Freedom Gate.
With adherence to just one of them, the Gate can be entered. 50
The long phase of wicked pleasures, in the vast Samsara Desert, is cooled in a
person by the cooling beams of equanimity. 51
Through peace comes the higher state of which Peace is the perfection. Peace
is the auspicious Shiva; peace is Peace*; peace frees us from folly. 52
*[NOTE: <zama> and <zAnti>
Both these terms are translated as "peace". To distinguish between them, I translate them as
Shama peace and Shanti Peace. Shama peace is the incipient peace that flowers as the Shanti Peace
of the Shanta, the Peaceful one. A similar distinction may be seen in <cetas> Chetas Awareness and
<citta> Chitta Affection. – jd]
Those for whom the full moon of peace is their most beautiful refuge, shining above
the Milk Ocean:—for them is perfect purity. 54
Just as (whether they are naughty or nice) all beings follow their mother trustingly,
so they are with a person of peace. 61
Not by drinking magical potions, not by fortune, not by signs is happiness to be had,
with inner peace of mind. 62
By every grief and misery stirred, hobbled by Craving, your mind is asperged,
Raghava, with the consoling Nectar of Peace. 63
Whatever you do with the coolness of peaceable thought—when you eat, the sweet
is super-sweet, not otherwise, dear boy,—in your mind. 64
The flavor of Peace Nectar is
a wonder; leads the mind to Joy.
O Raghava, it heals all wounds. 65
Not Pishacha Cannibals, nor Rakshasa Monsters, nor Daitya Demons, nor other foes,
neither tigers nor serpents will trouble somebody steeped in peace. 66
With all your limbs armored, protected by the nectar of perfect peace, no sorrow
can pierce you. Can an arrow pierce Diamond Mountain? 67
A king in his palace is not so glorious as an equable pure intellect given to
Tranquillity. 68
The Sadhu who conducts himself in a peaceable way lives here in this world with
praise. 70
When a Sadhu works his karma with a humble mind, at peace, all the creatures in
the world sing his praises. 71
He has a mind as cool as the cold moonshine sparkling on the dawn frost. His mind
is not besieged by death, nor sated by feasting, nor overcome in battle. They call
him Shanta the Comfortable. 75
One who has come to inner coolness and is not overcome with emotion, and not just
a fool,—they call him Shanta the Careful. 78 For even at the worst of times,—on
Doomsday, say,—on that great day,—he does not think he's wasting time. They call
him Shanta the Present. 79
Do what he will, his mind is like Space. This person's mind does not get
distracted by worldly business. They call him Shanta the Remote. 80
When among the ascetic Tapasvis, or great scholars, or ritual worshippers, or royal
Lords of Men, however powerful, however great their virtues, a peaceable person
stands out over all. 81
In great and virtuous minds that adhere to Peace, the Affection becomes a source
of delight, like the cool radiance of the moon. 82
On the borders of Virtueland, Paurusha is the only defender: in danger and in fear,
Peace is the happy victor. 83
VASISHTHA:
For one who clearly understands the Shastra, with pure perfect thought, the
knower of causality,—constant enquiry into self! 1
Through Enquiry, thought becomes sharp: and it beholds the Perfect State.
For the disease of Samsara, Enquiry's the best medicine. 2
Bala Strength, Buddhi Intellect, Tejas Vigor,—these are all the fruit of action; and
they come by the Enquiry of the wise. 6 It is the seeker's light, that shows what is fit
or unfit for him; it is the lighthouse whereby he safely sails the Samsara sea. 7
Even fools in the course of time can gain the Perfect State by means of the
unrivalled expansion of the clear light of Enquiry. 9
Kingdoms, fortunes, great abundance, pleasure, and eternal Freedom:—oh Scion
of Raghu the Swift, the Age-ending Aeon Tree called Enquiry, bears us these sweet
fruits! 10
Blossom-bursting with Viveka, the minds of the great, here and now,
do not drown in misfortune. They're a gourd pot floating on a wave. 11
Enduring great calamities, enquiring into the Suchness, he does not drown in
delusions, radiant in the tamasic dark: 15 in crystalline Mind Lake, his lotus of
Enquiry comes to bloom.
Such an enquiring person bursts with blossom, shines like Snow Mountain. 16
Those men who are like sorrow-weeds growing thin within a dark cave: Rama, keep
far away from such undiscerning inferiors. 18
Non-Enquiry is like a lonely tree away from the forest, useless alone. Best of the
Raghu clan, keep far away from it. 20
Someone's discerning mind, free from desire, self-controlled, finds its rest, like
the full moon, within the Self. 21
Under the banner of Highest Meaning, fanned by a fine white fan, a person is cooled
by Enquiry as the night is by the moon. 23
When a boy raises in his mind, at night, the vision of a life-sucking Vetala Zombie, it
will disappear with Enquiry. 25
For human beings, with obsessive conceptions, and some sad woes, the aged
Zombie Sam-sara must be subdued by Vi-chara. 27
Equable, sweet, untroubled, endless, independent, Rama, know this Absolute
Experience as fruit of the Enquiry Tree. 28
Chetas Awareness, settled in that state, immense, splendid, here, does not set nor
does it rise, like the sky in the great expanse within. 31
He does not rest in peace within, not even waking he abides. Karmaless, he does not
outgive; nor is he tangled in karmas. 33
He does not care about past things; does not go after anything. Not troubled and
not untroubled he seems as full as the ocean. 34
And so with a Full Mind these GreatSelfs, the Mahatmas, these oceans, as Living
Freemen travel here: and so the yogis pass their time. 35
In the complex matters of state, Scion of Raghu, a king knows what will be fruitful,
and what not, only by means of Enquiry. 38
From establishment in the teachings of the Vedanta, this state is realized by
Enquiry, as the moon lights the earth at night. 39 It is not blinded by darkness, nor
dazzled by its own brilliance, but sees all with discernment. This Enquiry is a helpful
eye. 40
To be blind to Discernment is
worse than to be blind from birth: bad
from every point of view. But the
Viveka-self wins all he sees. 41
Those for whom Enquiry is dear do not always continually wallow in swamps of
sorrow: those folks have walked the ways of Wisdom. 44
A sick man does not moan his woes so loudly,—not an old man with a hundred
frailties,—as a non-Enquirer ignorantly wails. 45
It is the home of frustration, the terminus of unsuccess, the dread bane of all the
Sadhus. Therefore avoid nonEnquiry. 47
The great Mahatmas constantly practise Enquiry. It's a rope of rescue from the
darkest pit. 48
VASISHTHA:
Such a hero, of quiet mind, is ruled only by Contentment, and all the powers of a
king are only stalks of withered grass. 2
The intellect that is endowed with Santosha Contentment is untroubled by worldly
affairs and misfortunes at any time. 3
For those who drink the nectar of Contentment and come to Shanta satisfaction,
even the greatest wealth is like poison to them. 4 Waves of divine nectar are not
half so sweet as this Contentment, the antidote of all evil. 5
Forsaking his ungotten wish; getting it, grown equanimous—neither pleased not
displeased by it—such a one is called "contented". 6
The self that is not, in itself, contented mentally, is a weed in the cavern of the
mind, that brings distress and misfortune. 7
Take your shelter in the Fullness, by your own self, in your own Self: with Paurusha,
with hard effort, give up all manner of Craving. 14 Someone filled with the nectar of
Contentment, and peaceful, cool thought:—his mind finds its stability, flooded with
moonbeams that endure. 15
When a person is settled, by the Self, in the Self, himself, his troubles are quickly
subdued, just as the rain subdues the dust. 17
He is always cool, Rama. Though spattered with mud, a person of pure thought is
ever-shining with the radiance of the full moon. 18
VASISHTHA:
The good company of Sadhus is a light on the path. Blinding Affections disappear in
the radiance of the Wisdom-sun. 9
When you can bathe in the cool, clear Ganges of good companionship,
what use are charity, or pilgrimage, austerities, or rites? 10
If the Sadhus know the way of dispassion, free from doubt, all knots loosed,—then,
sinless boy, what need for austerities and pilgrimage? 11
Therefore one who wears the crown of Enquiry finds increase of fortune, when he
keeps good company. 14
The That-knowers, who have unravelled the truths of this work, those great sadhus
of renown, by all means should be served, for they are the means to cross this
Ocean of Being. 15
The good are quenching rainclouds, and the rest are hellfire's kindle-grass. 16
These four unsullied paths, these ways of being, when they are practised, become
the means to cross over the troubled Ocean of Being. 20
In this seeding-ground, each and each of these can be attained: resort to one, and
the others follow. 22
Good Company, Contentment, and Enquiry, when enquired into,
all come to the same port of Peace, like three ships on the same ocean. 23
Whichever of these may seem best to you, best of the Raghus, with your Personal
Effort, conquer the Mind: with effort, gain virtue. 27
So long as your mind has not been filled with these virtues, Rama , you must grit
your teeth, with Paurusha. 29
Whether you be god or demon, a human bring or a tree, that in itself, great archer,
is not anyhow a Path for you. 30
When even one fruit-bearing virtue gathers its strength, then are worn
away,—all, indeed, at once,—the sins of a hapless Awareness. 31
When any virtue increases, all the other virtues increase, giving victory over vice;
and when a vice increases, such vices disintegrate virtue. 32
In a mind-deluding forest,
the rushing Vasana River,
that flows between good and evil,
takes many people in its course. 33
Whatever bank you head toward, that is the bank to which it will carry you. So, do
as you wish. 34
VASISHTHA:
In this world, Raghava, he who has inner Discernment is fit to learn this song of
Wisdom—as a Prince studies his Polity. 1
Only the pure, only the noble are worthy of these words, which bestow this highest
realization. It is not to be known in this world by the inferior. 4
As the light of a lamp shines forth upon a waking man, even if he does not wish it,
by means of this work, Nirvana shines forth. 7 Studied alone or heard from someone
else, it calms your confusion, and clarifies what was clouded, like a stream in Svarga
Heaven. 8
First comes "The Book of Dispassion", the Vairagya Prakarana, which nourishes
Dispassion, just as water does a desert tree. 11
From these thousand* verses, when enquired-into in the Heart, the light of Purity
arises, as a gem shines when it is polished.12
*[The estimate is approximate, but close to the actual account. The Introduction will deal
further with this subject.]
Like blueness in the sky, the unSuch is ever arising. Without a foundation or body,
it's an enchanting illusion. 22
Whether you see it in the sky or in a dream, a picture has no painter. It's a fire
that does not burn, a fire in a painting. 23
And so the world is "Jagat", Going into the essential unSuch, seeing the dance of
perception, a chain of blooming lotuses. 24
Our errors, when they are subdued, are like an army in a rout, shattered in a
hundred pieces. 34
This world's like someone else's Samkalpa Conception, as unreal as Shri City: not
to be won, even in the thunder of long war. 35 It is the peaceful mind gone mad, a
crazed, fearsome thunderous cloud; building a city based on the pattern of a
forgotten dream. 36
In that city that's not yet built, in a garden, there's a barren woman, of pure
beauty, whose tongue tells harsh tales about labour pains. 37
It is like a painter who mounts a canvas he has not finished upon the wall, while
forgetting his plan to paint a city there. 38
It is like the interior subsidence of the turbulent waves of Soma River, this next
Book, known as "Nirvana", the sixth. 40
This final book, when followed through, contains the Great Wisdom of That,
in which the Intellect becomes the wonderful Peace of Nirvana. 41
The immeasurable Self, the luminous conceptless Chit Consciousness, the Self of
Vijnana Understanding, embodied as perfect crystalline Space, subdues the
confusions of all beings. 42
Duty, doing, doership, perceptions of right and wrong, are forsaken. Without a body,
he seems to have one; though within the Samsara, he seems without it. 45
Composed of Consciousness, he's like a massive stone without a gap; the darkness
here below is lighted by that sun of Consciousness. 46
Though formed of surpassing illumination, he comes to profound
darkness, the wicked play of Samsara, that hope-destroying plague. 47
When the Vetala Zombie "I" is overcome, the embodied becomes cadaverless. A tip
which of a thousand of its hairs is this Lakshmi-glorious world set, like a bee
somewhere on Mount Meru, nestled in a flower? 48
[Vasishtha explains his method of teaching by means of Exemplary Tales, and how
this method is to be understood.]
VASISHTHA:
Whatever study you undertake will be worth your Effort if it's consistent with the
Shastras. Otherwise even the Rshis are to be avoided. And so should one act who
is right-thinking. 02 *
* > ... nyAyAd anapetam nyAyyam tad eva mukhyam ity anusaratA bhAvyam puruSeNa i.a. | ... ||< Comm
¶ api pauruSam AdeyaM – Even if offered by a Person // Indeed worth the Effort — It will be worth your
Effort — zAstraM ced yukti-yodhakam – if consistent with the Shastra — or the Laws of War — anyat tu
ArSam api tyAjyaM – otherwise even the Rshis are to be forsaken — bhAvyaM nyAyya-eka-sevinA – to
be experienced by the ordinary-One-server — So should act one who is right-thinking —
Knowing the given Datum and Probandum to be proved, always, a man becomes an
Intellectual. He's like a torchbearer at night, he has keen night vision. 9
Greed, delusion, all such evils fade away soon enough. The thoughts
are the ten directions, when the autumn comes and the fog comes clear. 10
When a dirty lamp is cleansed, it shines like a jewel that breaks through the curtain
of darkness. So unobstructed learning allows us to make distinctions of meaning. 13
Though miseries and poverty abound, they're seen as perceptions from within.
Such armor protects the tender parts from sharp arrows. 14
"What would it be like, the Primal Origin? what about births and karmas? or divine
Fate and human Effort?" Many doubts like these bring peace:—before the dawn, the
dark! 16
Always, with all conditions, perfect peace arises, like the moon setting in peace, or
the sun bringing light to the people. 17 Deep as the ocean, sitting firm as a
mountain, and inwardly cool as the moon, rises the Enquirer. -18-
That Living-Freeman-hood of him, by the Bhumika Stages come to maturity,—at
peace with all distinctions of meaning,—he becomes hard for words to describe. -19-
Such a one is all-purpose-cool, pure, intent to serve the Supreme Sun. Thus he
comes to higher illumination under the cool radiance of the autumn moon. -20-
They go to peace, they go to purity, those worthy Brahmanas rest in the Most High.
Though water does not flow they are unthirsting, as in an autumn dressed in
clouds. 22
He has understood this entire Shastra,—has studied it and has discerned its sense
with Viveka,—for this is for experience, not chanting (like a boon or curse). -32-
This work can be understood by himself, by one who knows a thing or two about
words and meanings. And what he does not understand alone, he can learn from a
scholar. -34-
When Scripture is studied and known, what need is there for Sacrifice or Chanting,
when Freedom's attained? -35-
After practising the substance of this Shastra, with long, devoted inquiry, if your
study is not fulfilled, it is a mark of the Chitta Affection. -36-
Just as in an imaginary city the pleasures and pains of a person are not binding,—
it is the same here and now, when the world-mirage is examined. 39
When a picture of a serpent is inspected, it does not arouse any serpent-fear. Thus
the mere perception of the serpent, when inspected, itself offers neither pleasure
nor any pain. 40 By inspection, the serpentness of the image of a serpent is
removed. Likewise, Samsara, though extant, becomes pacified. 41
The branch vibrates, when you pluck-off a leaf; but when thoughts are restrained,
then there can be no limb-trembling. -43-
Whenever it may be, wherever you may be, whatever company you keep, then
happily and deeply make Enquiry, with this Shastra or some other one. 45
Now pay attention. Next after what I have told so far, Scion of Raghu the Swift!, in
this vast expanse of Jnana Wisdom, is the quintessence of Intellect. 48
Now you will hear the Method, hear it as it has been heard, and the manner in which
it is to be studied, and some Definitions. -49-
"Something by means of which, when where there is a lack of experience, there is
a perception useful for understanding, a fruitful help to experience,"—that's how the
wise define an Example — 50
"So, how can the Brahman Immensity, as formless Suchness, be said to have
form?"— in dream there don't arise such fool questions. -56-
By showing that an Example is unproved or contradictory, it is seen that the world,
seen as a dream, does not arise at all. -57-
The insubstantiality of past and future—when discerned in the present—whether
waking or dreaming—we've known since childhood. 58
Whether this world-as-dream meditation be curse or cure is made
clear by means of Examples that show the That-formness of the world. 59
Between the subject of comparison and the object of comparison, there is a single
light, a common dharma, which they share. And this is their agreement, in the
opinion of the wise. -64-
For the purpose of perceiving something, except for the light of a sensible lamp,
indeed, not the lampstand nor the oil nor wick are to be considered at all. 65
Because of their similar grounds, we recognize the Subject of Comparison as a
likeness with the Object compared: e.g., a 'light' that's cast upon a special meaning
of a word, and the luminous glory of this poem. 66
Knowledge of the knowable thing may be grasped by only some special feature of
an Example. This is good when it leads to conviction about some Great Maxim. 67
It avoids false reasoning, which corrupts our understanding with what are
contradictory to what we know, false imaginings. -68-
It is by means of Examples
we come to understanding of
the Self=Wisdom taught by the Great
Maxims*, the Peace called Nirvana. 2
For the sake of understanding, the causeless is compared with the causal, subject
with object, by a likeness on a common ground. -5-
It is by useful similes,
comparison on common ground,
that what is to be known is known.
Bodha-beaking* is not the way. -12-
* <bodha-caJcu>, a difficult term to translate. "Nitpicking" might also serve. It also suggests indiscriminate
reading.
Although by some whatever means
the understandable should be
understood by them, it's not seen
by the bewildered Bodha-beaks. -13-
The basis of every sort of proof—as the sea is the source of the waters—the sole
Pramana Evidence treated here is Pratyaksha Witness, as you shall hear. -16-
The all-seeing essence, the witnessing Percipience, is what the highest thinkers
know; in fact, establishment in that understanding is known as That-witness. -17-
That is Samvit Awareness; that is Puman Humanity; that is the gist of I-ness:—that
understanding by which it arises is called Padartha Meaning. -19-
It comes indeed without any prior cause, from the creative origin by creative play,
emanating causal being as its own witness in the self. -21-
And so the unSuch, in the non-enquiring living Jiva, seems to be Such, and the
world-form assumes materiality. -22-
Having thus made his Enquiry, directing his analysis to the Self, then only the
indescribable supreme remains. -24-
When the mind is dispassionate, at peace, by its own internal instruments no
purpose at all is done–neither indeed is it undone through lack of intention. -25-
VASISHTHA:
By Wisdom and good conduct, thus equally, by the nonDoer in the guise of a Doer,
desirelessly, That State is got. -11-
[Working Notes with literal translation, and Harvard-Kyoto transliteration of the Sanskrit, with Devanagari
text, can be found in the PAGES section. If no Glossary is appended, an excellent Sanskrit-English
Dictionary is available at http://webapps.uni-koeln.de/tamil/ ]
सससससस सससस सससस ससस-ससससस सससस सससस ।
सससससस सससस सससससस ससस सस सससस ससससस [सस]