Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (3): Utpatti-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 3: Utpatti-Prakarana (Evolution of the World). Chapter 52 - State of Man After Death

Vasistha said : In the meanwhile, O Rāma! Līlā seeing her husband lying insensible before her and about to breath his last, thus spoke to Sarasvatī.

Behold, O mother! my husband is about to shuffle his mortal coil in this perilous war, which has laid waste his whole kingdom.

Sarasvatī replied : This combat that you saw to be fought with such fury, and lasting so long in the field, was neither fought in your kingdom nor in any, part of this earth.

It occurred now here except in the vacant space of the shrine, containing the dead body of the Brāhmana; and where it appeared as the phantom of a dream only (in your imagination).

This land which appeared as the realm of your living lord Vidūratha, was situated with all its territories in the inner apartment of Padma. (The incidents of Vidūratha's life, being but a vision appearing to the departed spirit of Padma).

Again it was the sepulchral tomb of the Brāhmana Vasistha, situated in the hilly village of Vindya, that exhibited these varying scenes of the mortal world within itself. (i.e. As a panorama shows many sights to the eye, and one man playing many parts in the stage).

As the departed soul views the vision of the past world within its narrow tomb; so is the appearance of all worldly accidents unreal in their nature. Gloss- The apparitions appearing before the souls of the dead lying in their tombs, are as false as the appearances presenting themselves before the living souls in their tomb of this world. The souls of the living and the dead are both alike in their nature, and both susceptible of the like dreams and visions.

These objects that we see here as realities, including these bodies of mine and yours and this LīIā's, together with this earth and these waters, are just the same as the phantoms rising in the tomb of the deceased Brāhmana of the hilly region.

It is the soul which presents the images of things, and nothing external which is wholly unreal can cast its reflection on the soul. Therefore know your soul as the true essence which is in create and immortal, and the source of all its creations within itself.¹

The soul reflects on its inborn images without changing itself in any state, and thus it was the nature of the Brāhmana's soul, that displayed these images in itself within the sphere of his tomb.

But the illusion of the world with all its commotion, was viewed in the vacant space of the souls of the Brāhmana and Padma, and not displayed in the empty space of their tombs, where there was no such erroneous reflection of the world.

There is no error or illusion anywhere, except in the misconception of the observer; therefore the removal of the fallacy from the mind of the viewer, leads him to the perception of the light of truth.

Error consists in taking the unreal for the real, and in thinking the viewer and the view or the subjective and objective as different from each other. It is the removal of the distinction of the subjective and objective, that leads us to the knowledge of unity (the on or one or om).

Know the Supreme soul to be free from the acts of production and destruction, and it is his light that displays all things of which He is the source; and learn the whole outer nature as having no existence nor change in itself.

But the souls of other beings, exhibit their own natures in themselves; as those in the sepulchral vault of the Brāhmana, displayed the various dispositions to which they were accustomed. (Thus the one unvaried soul appears as many, according to its particular wont and tendency in different persons).

The soul has no notion of the outer world of any created thing in it; its consciousness of itself as an increate vacuity, comprehends its knowledge of the world in itself. (i.e. the subjective consciousness of the Ego, includes the knowledge of the objective world).

The knowledge of the mountain chains of Meru and others, is included under the knowledge in the vacuity of the soul; there is no substance or solidity in them as in a great city seen in a dream.

The soul views hundreds of mountainous ranges and thousands of solid worlds, drawn in the small compass of the mind, as in its state of dreaming.

Multitudes of worlds, are contained in a grain of the brain of the mind; as the long leaves of the plantain tree, are contained in one of its minute seeds.

All the three worlds are contained in an atom as the intellect, in the same manner as great cities are seen in a dream; and all the particles of intellect within the mind, have each the representation of a world in it.

Now this Līlā your step-dame, has already gone to the world which contains the sepulchre of Padma, before the spirit of Vidūratha could join the same.

The moment when Līlā fell in a swoon in your presence, know her spirit to be immediately conveyed to him and placed by his side.

Līlā asked- Tell me, O goddess! how was this lady endowed here with my form before, and how is she translated to and placed as my step-dame beside my deceased husband?

Tell me in short, in what form she is now viewed by the people in Padma's house, and the manner in which they are talking to her at present.

The goddess replied : Here Līlā, what I will relate to you in brief in answer to your question, regarding the life and death of this Līlā as an image of yourself.

It is your husband Padma, that beholds these illusions of the world spread before him in the same sepulchre in the person of Vidūratha.

He fought this battle as you did see in his -reverie, and this Līlā, resembling yourself was likewise a delusion. These his men and enemies were but illusions, and his ultimate death, was as illusory as a phantom of the imagination, like all other things in this world.

It was his self delusion, that showed him this Līlā as his wife, and it is the same deceit of a dream, which deludes you to believe yourself as his consort.

As it is a mere dream that makes you both to think yourselves as his wives, so he deems himself as your husband, and so do I rely on my existence (also in al like state of dream).

The world with all its beauty, is said to be the spectre of a vision; wherefore knowing it a mere visionary scene, we must refrain from relying any faith in this visible phantasmagoria.

Thus this Līlā, yourself and this king Vidūratha, are but phantoms of your fancy; and so am I also, unless I believe to exist in the self existent spirit.

The belief of the existence of this king and his people, and of ourselves as united in this place, proceeds from the fullness of that intellect, which fills the whole plenitude.

So this queen Līlā also situated in this place with her youthful beauty, and smiling so charmingly with her blooming face, is but an image of divine beauty.

See how gentle and graceful are her manners, and how very sweet is her speech; her voice is as dulceate as the notes of the Kokila, and her motions as slow as those of a lovelorn maiden.

Behold her eyelids like the leaves of the blue lotus, and her swollen breasts rounded as a pair of snow-balls; her form is a bright as liquid gold, and her lips as red as a brace of ripe Vimba fruits.

This is but a form of you as you did desire to be to please your husband, and it is the very figure of your ownself, that you now behold with wonder.

After the death of your husband, his soul caught the same reflection of your image, as you did desire to be hereafter; and which you now see in the person of the young Līlā before you.

Whenever the mind has a notion or sensation or fancy of some material object, the abstract idea of its image is surely imprinted in the intellect.

As the mind comes to perceive the unreality of material objects, it thenceforth begins to entertain the ideas of their abstract entities within itself. (Hence the abstract ideas of things are said to accompany the intellectual spirit after its separation from the body).

It was the thought of his sure death, and the erroneous conception of the transmigration of his soul in the body of Vidūratha, that represented to Padma your desired form of the youthful Līlā, which was the idol of his soul. (This passage confutes the doctrine of metempsychosis, and maintains the verity of eternal ideas).

It was thus that you was seen by him and he was beheld by you according to your desires; and thus both of you though possess of the same unvaried soul which pervades all space, are made to behold one another in your own ways (agreeably to your desires).

As the spirit of Brahmā is all pervasive, and manifests itself in various ways in all places; it is beheld in different lights, according to the varying fancies (viksepa-śakti); or tendencies (vāsanā-śakti) of men, like the ever-changeful scenes appearing to us in our visions and dreams.

The omnipotent spirit displays its various powers in all places, and these powers exert themselves everywhere, according to the strong force and capability it has infused in them (in their material or immaterial fonns).

When this pair remained in their state of death-like insensibility, they beheld all these phantoms in their inner souls, by virtue of their reminiscence and desires (which are inherent in the soul).

That such and such person were their fathers and such their mothers before, that they lived insuch places, had such properties of theirs, and died such acts erewhile; (are reminiscences of the soul).

That they were joined together in marriage, and the multitude which they saw in their minds, appeared to them as realities for the time in their imagination; (as it was in a magic show).

This is an instance that shows our sensible perceptions, to be no better than our dreams; and it was in this deluded state of Līlā mind, that I was worshipped and prayed by her­-

In order to confer upon her the boon that she might not become a widow; and it was by virtue of this blessing of mine, that this girl had died before her husband's death (to escape the curse of widowhood).

I am the progeny of Brahmā, and the totality of that intelligence of which all beings participate: it is for this reason that I was adored by her as the Kuladevī or tutelar divinity of all living beings.

It was at last that her soul left her body, and fled with her mind in the form of her vital breath, through the orifice of her mouth.

Then after the insensibility attendant upon her death was over, she understood in her intellect her living soul to be placed in the same empty space with the departed spirit of Padma.

Her reminiscence pictured her in her youthful form and she beheld herself as in a dream, to be situated in the same tomb. She was a blooming lotus with her beautiful countenance, and her face was as bright as the orb of the moon ; her eyes were as large as those of an antelope, and she was attended by her graceful blandishments for the gratification of her husband.

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