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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 3: Utpatti-Prakarana (Evolution of the World). Chapter 95 - Identity of the Actor and his Action
Vasistha said : There is no difference of acts, from the agent, as they have sprung together from the same source of their creator: they are the simultaneous growth of nature like flowers and their odour. 1
When human souls are freed from their desires, they are united with the supreme soul of Brahmā, as the blueness of the sky which appears distinct to the eyes of the ignorant, is found to be joined with the clear firmament. 2
Know, O Rāma! that it is for the understanding of the ignorant, that the living souls are said to have sprung from Brahmā: when they are in reality but shadows of the same.
Wherefore it is not right on the part of the enlightened to say, that such and such things are produced from Brahmā, when there is nothing that exists apart or separate from him: (on account of the unity of all existences and identity of the actor and the act).
It is a mere fiction of speech to speak of the world as creation or production, because it is difficult to explain the subject and object of the lecture, without the use of such fictitious language; (as the actor and act, the creator and the created etc.).
Hence the language of dualists and pluralists is adopted in monotheistic doctrines, as the expressions, this one is Brahmā, or divine soul, and these others arė the living souls, as they are in use in the popular language.
It has been seen (explained), that the concrete world has sprung from the discrete Brahmā; because the production of something is the same with its material cause, though it seems different from it to common understandings.
Multitudes of living being rising like the rocks of Meru and Mandara mountains, are joined with the main range from which they jut out. 3
Thousands and thousands of living beings, are incessantly produced from their common source, like the innumerable sprigs of forest trees, filling the woodland sky with their variegated foliage. 4
An infinity of living beings will continue to spring from the same, like blades of grass sprouting from the earth below; and they will likewise be reduced to the same, like the season plants of spring, dying away in the hot weather of Summer.
There is no counting of the living creatures that exist at any time, and what numbers of them, are being born and dying away at any moment: (and like waves of water are rising and falling at each instant).
Men with their duties proceed from the same divine source, like flowers growing with their fragrance from the same stem; and all these subside in the same receptacle whence they had their rise.
We see the different tribes of demons and brutes, and of men and gods in this world, coming into existence from non-existence, and this is repeated without end.
We see no other cause of their continuous revolution in this manner, except the forgetfulness of their reminiscence, which makes them oblivious of their original state, and conform with every mode of their metempsychosis into new forms. 5
Rāma said : For want of such reminiscence, I think that, obedience to the dictates of the infallible. Śāstras, which have been promulgated by the sages, and based on the authority of the Vedas, is the surest way for the salvation of mankind.
And I reckon those men as holy and perfect, who are posses of the virtues of the great, and have magnanimity and equanimity of their souls, and have received the light of the unknowable Brahmā in them. 6
I reckon two things as the two eyes of the ignorant, for their discernment of the path of salvation. The one is their good conduct, and the other their knowledge of the 3 Śāstras, which follows the former.
Because one who is righteous in his conduct only, without joining his righteousness with his knowledge also, is never taken into account; and is slighted by all to be plunged into insignificance and misery. 7
Again Sir- it is the joint assent of men and the Veda, that acts and their actors come one after the other; and not as you said of their rising simultaneously from their divine origin. 8
It is the act which makes the actor, and the actor who does the work. Thus they follow one another on the analogy of the seed and the tree which produce one another. This mutuality of both is seen in the practice of men and ordinances of the Veda.
Acts are the causes of animal births, as the seed gives birth to the sprouts of plants; and again works proceed from living beings as the sprouts produce the seeds. 9
The desire that prompts a person to his particular pursuit in his prison house of this world, the same yields him the like fruits and no other. 10
Such being the case, how was it sir, that you said of the production of animals from the seed of Brahmā, without the causality of their prior acts, which you say to be simultaneous with the birth of animal beings.
On one hand you have set at naught the law of antecedence and sequence of birth and action to one another, by your position of their simultaneity.
And again to say, that Brahmā is not the origin of actions, and that Brahmā and other living beings are subjected to their several actions, are self contradictory propositions and opposed to common sense. 11
And also to say that living beings are born together with their actions (by predestination), and are bound to them to no purpose, would be to apply to them the analogy of fishes which are caught by the baits they cannot devour, but cause their death. 12
Therefore please to tell me sir, about the nature of acts, for you are best acquainted with the secrets of things, and can well remove my doubts on the subject.
Vasistha replied- You have well asked, my good Rāma! about this intricate subject, which I will now explain to you in a manner that will enlighten your understanding.
It is the activity of the mind which forms its thoughts and intentions, which are the roots or seed of actions; and it is its passivity, which is the recipient of their results. 13
Therefore no sooner did the principle of the mind spring from the essence o Brahmā, than it was accompanied by its thoughts and actions in the bodies, which the living beings assumed, according to their prior deserts and in-born desires.
As there is no difference between the self-same flower and its fragrance; in the same manner there is no distinction of the mind, from its actions which are one and the same thing.
It is the exertion of bodily activity, which we call an action here; but it is well known to the wise to be preceded by a mental action, which is called its thought in the mind: (citta of the cit or the thought of the thinking principle).
It is possible to deny the existence of material objects, of the air and water, the hill and others; but it is impossible to deny the operations of our mental faculties, of which we have subjective evidence in ourselves.
No deliberate action of the present or past life goes for. nothing; all human actions and efforts are attended with their just results, to which they are properly directed. (Sāvadhānam anusthitān).
As the ink ceases to be ink, without its inkyblackness, so the mind ceases to exist, without the action of its mental operations.
Cessation of mental operation, is attended with desinence of thought, and quiescence of the mind, is accompanied with discontinuance of actions. The liberated are free from both of these; but the unemancipate from neither. 14
The mind is ever united with its activity as the fire with its heat, and the want of either of these, is attended to woridings with the extinction or both.
The mind being ever restless in itself, becomes identified with the actions procecding from its activity. The actions also whether good or bad, become identified with the mind, which feels their just rewards and punishments. Hence you see Rāma! The inseparable connection of the mind and acts, in reciprocating their actions and reactions upon each other.
Footnotes
1. The Gitā says : The actor, act and its effect, are naturally united together.
2. The human soul is a shadow of the supreme, as blueness is a shade of vacuity.
3. All are but parts of one undivided whole. Pope
4. So are all creatures but off shoots of the parent tree the Supreme Soul.
5. Otherwise the retention of the knowledge of its original state and former impressions, would keep it alive in the same state of primeval purity, and exempt it from all transmigrations.
6. Such men are exempt from the pain of transmigration.
7. The unlearned virtuous, is as despicable as the learned vicious.
8. That is to say; that the morals established by the wise, and the virtues inculcated by the holy scriptures, are the guides of good acts and their observers, which are not the spontaneous growth of our nature or intention.
9. Thus both are causes and effects of one another by turns, and never grown together.
10. Men get what they have in their hearts and nothing besides.
11. For the acts do not originate from Brahmā, they cannot be binding on others; and if the actions do not proceed from that source, whence do they come to take place. This question upsets the doctrine of Free Will.
12. So men must be bound in vain to the baits of their actions, if they are to go without reaping their fruition.
13. So says the Śrūti-whatever is thought in the mind, the same is expressed in words and done in action.
14. The liberated are devoid of the thoughts and actions, which are con-committants with one another.
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