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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 3: Utpatti-Prakarana (Evolution of the World). Chapter 93 - A View of the Genesis of the Mind and Body

Vasistha said : I will now tell you Rāma! What I was instructed of yore by lord Brahmā himself. (The prime progenitor of mankind and propounder of the Vedas).

From the unspeakable Brahmā, there sprang all things in their undefinable ideal state, and then the Spirit of God being condensed by His Will, it came to be produced of itself in the form of the Mind. ¹

The Mind formed the notions of the subtile elementary principles in itself, and became a personal agent (with its power of volition or creative will). The same became a luminous body and was known as Brahmā the first Male. ²

Therefore know Rāma, this same Brahmā to be the Paramesthi or situated in the Supreme, and being a personification of the Will of God, is called the Mind.

The Mind therefore known as the Lord Brahmā, is a form of the Divine essence, and being full of desires in itself sees all its wills (in their ideal forms), present before it.

The mind then framed or fell of itself, into the delusion (avidyā), of viewing its ideal images as substantial (as one does in his delirium); and thence the phenomenal world (with whatever it contains), is said to be the work of Brahmā.

Thus the world proceeding in this order from the Supreme essence, is supposed by some to have come into being from another source, of dull material particles. ³

It is from that Brahmā, O Rāma! that all things situated in this concave world, have come to being, in the manner of waves rising on the surface of the deep.

The self existent Brahmā that existed in the form of intellect (cit) before creation, the same assumed the attribute of egoism (ahankāra) afterwards, the became manifest in the person of Brahmā. ⁴

All the other powers of the Intellect, which were concentrated in the personality of the Ego, were tantamount to those of Omnipotence. (The impersonal Intellect and the personal Ego or Brahmā, are both of them equally powerful). ⁵

The world being evolved from the eternal ideas in the Divine Intellect, manifested itself in the mind of the great father of all-Brahmā. (Intellectus noster nihil intelligit sine phantasmata); it is the mind which moves and modifies them, and is the Intelligence (logos-­Word) of the One, and the manifestation of its power.

The Mind thus moving and modelling all things is called the Jīva living soul or Nous. ⁶

These living souls rise and move about in the vacuous sphere of the infinite Intellect (cidākācsa). These are unfolded by the elementary particles of matter, and pass in the open space surrounded by air. They then reside in the fourteen kinds of animated nature, according to the merit and demerit of their prior acts. They enter the bodies through the passage of their vital breath, and become the seeds of moving and immoving beings.

They are then born of the generative organ (foetus), and are met on a sudden by the desires of their previous births (which lay waiting on them). Thus led on by the current of their wishes, they live to reap the reward or retribution of their good or bad acts in the world.

Thus bound fast to action and fettered in the meshes of desire, the living souls enchained in their bodies, continue to rove about or rise and fall in this changeful world by turns.

Their wish is the cause of their weal or woe, says the Śrūti; and which is inseparable from the soul as volition from the mind. (The wish is the inactive desire of the soul, and volition the active will of the mind).

Thousands of living souls, are falling off as fast as the leaves of forest trees; and being borne away by the force of their pursuits, they are rolling about as the fallen leaves wafted by the breeze in the valleys. ⁷

Many are brought down and bound to innumerable births in this earth, by their ignorance of the Cit or Divine Intellect, and are subjected to interminable transmigration in various births.

There are some who having passed many mean births in this earth, have now risen high in the scale of beings, by their devotedness to better acts; (and are likely to have their liberation in the course of their progression to the best).

Same persons acquainted with spirituality, have reached their state of perfection; and have gone to heaven, like particles of sea-water, carried into the air above by the blowing winds.

The production of all beings is from the Supreme Brahmā; but their appearance and disappearance in this frail world, are caused bar their own actions. Hence the actionless Yogī, is free from both these states. ⁸

Our desires are poisonous plants, bearing the fruits of pain and disappointment; and lead us to actions which are fraught with dangers and difficulties. ⁹

These desires drive us to different countries, to distant frills and dales in search of gain. ¹⁰

This world O Rāma! is a jungle of withered trees and brambles; and requires the axe of reason to clear away these drugs and bushes. So are our minds and bodies but plants and trees of our woe, which being rooted out by the axe of reason, will no more come to grow by their transmigration in this earth. ¹¹

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