Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (4): Sthiti-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 4: Sthiti-Prakarana (On Ontology or Existence). Chapter 2 - The Receptacle of the Mundane Egg

Vasistha said: Now Rāma! that best knowest the knowable, I will tell you in disparagement of your belief in the separate existence of the world; that there is one pure and vacuous principle of the Intellect only, above all the false fabrications of men.

If it is granted, that there was the germ of the world in the beginning; still it is a question, what were the accompanying causes of its development.

Without co-operation of the necessary causes, there can be no vegetation of the seed, as no barren, woman is ever known or seen to bring forth an offspring, notwithstanding the seed is contained in the womb.

If it was possible for the seed to grow without the aid of its accompanying causes, then it is useless to believe in the primary cause, when it is possepsed of such power in its own nature.

It is Brahmā himself who abides in his self, in the form of creation at the beginning of the world. This creation is as formless as the creator himself, and there is no relation of cause and effect between them.

To say the earth and other elements, to be the accompanying causes of production, is also wrong; since it is impossible for these elements to exist prior to their creation.

To say the world remained quiescent in its own nature, together with the accompanying causes, is the talk proceeding from the minds (mouths) of boys and not of the wise.

Therefore Rāma! their neither is or was or ever will be a separate world in existence. It is the one intelligence of the Divinity, that displays the creation in itself.

So Rāma! there being an absolute privation of this visible world, it is certain that Brahmā himself is All, throughout the endless space.

The knowledge of the visible world, is destroyed by the destruction of all its causalities; but the causes continuing in the mind, will cause the visibles to appear to the view even after their outward extinction (like objects in the dream).

The absolute privation of the phenomenal, is only effected by the privation of its causes, ¹; but if they are not suppressed in the mind, how can you effect to suppress the sight?

There is no other means of destroying our erroneous conception of the world, except by a total extirpation of the visible from our view.

It is certain that the appearance of the visible world, is no more than our inward conception of it, in the vacuity of the intellect; and the knowledge of I, you and he, are false im­pressions on our minds like figures in paintings.

As these mountains and hills, these lands and seas and these revolutions of days and nights, and months and years and the knowledge that this is a kalpa age, and this is a minute and moment, and this is life and this is death, are all mere conceptions of the mind.

So is the knowledge of the duration and termination of a Kalpa and mahākalpa, ² and that of the creation and its beginning and end, are mere misconceptions of our minds.

It is the mind that conceives millions of Kalpas and billions of worlds, most of which are gone by and many as yet to come. ³

So the fourteen regions of the planetary spheres, and all the divisions of time and place, are contained in the infinite space of the Supreme Intellect.

The universe continues and displays itself as serenely in the Divine mind, as it did from before and throughout all eternity; and it shines with particles of the light of that Intellect, as the firmament in as full with the radiance of solar light.

The ineffable light, which is thrown into the mind by the Divine Intellect, shows itself as the creation, which in reality is a baseless fabric by itself.

It does not come to existence nor dissolves into nothing, nor appears or sets at any time; but resembles a crystal glass with certain marks in it, which can never be effaced.

The creations display of themselves in the clear Intellect of God, as the variegated skies form portions of the indivisible space of endless vacuum.

These are but properties of the Divine Intellect, as fluidity is that of water, motion of the wind, the eddies of the sea, add the qualities of all things. ⁴

This creation is but a compact body of Divine wisdom, and is contained in the Divinity as its component part. Its rising and setting and continuance, are exhibited alike in the tranquil soul.

The world is inane owing to its want of the accompaniment of secondary ⁵ causes and is self born: and to call it as born or produced, is to breathe the breath (of live) like a madman: ⁶.

Rāma! purify your mind from the dross of false representations, and rise from the bed of your doubts and desires; drive away your protracted sleep of ignorance (avidyā), and be freed from the fears of death and disease with every one of your friends in this Court.

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