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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 4: Sthiti-Prakarana (On Ontology or Existence). Chapter 56 - On the Soul and its Inertness

Vasistha continued: Knowing the world as a nihility, you must cease to take any delight in it; for what reasonable being, is there in it that would delight in its unreality.

If you take the phenomenal world for a reality, you may continue to enslave yourself to the unreal material, and lose the spiritual nature of your soul.

Or if you know it to be a temporary existence, why then should you take any interest in what is so frail and unstable, rather than care for your immortal soul?

The world is no substantial existence, nor are you a being of its insubstantiality; it is only a clear reflection of the divine mind, and extending over all infinity. ¹.

The world is neither an agent itself, nor is it the act of any agent at all; it is simply the reflexion of the noumenal, without any agency of its own.

Whether the world is with or without an agent, or has a maker or not, yet you can not tell it as a real substance, except that it appears so to your mind.

The soul is devoid of all organs of action, and with all its activity, it remains motionless and without action, as anything that is inactive and immovable.

The world is the production of a fortuitous chance (Kākatāliya Samyoga), and none but boys place any reliance in it. ²

The world is neither stable nor fragile, but it is mutable from one state to another, as it is known by its repeated reproductions and visibility to us.

It is neither everlasting, nor is it a momenting thing; its constant mutability contradicts its firmness; and its nihility, (as stated before) is opposed to its temporality. ³

If the soul is the active power, without its organs of action, it must be unfailing and entire; because the continuance of its inorganic operations can not weaken its powers. ⁴

Therefore there is an irresistible destiny, which is absolutely overruling; it is existence and in-existence itself, it is sedate and continuous, and all visible perturbations are but false appearances.

The limit of a hundred years of human life, is but a very small portion of unlimited duration; it is therefore very astonishing that, any one shoud be concerned with this small portion of his existence, here ⁵.

Granting the durability of worldly affairs, yet they are not deserving of your reliance; for what faith can you rely on the union of two such opposites as the mind and matter? ⁶

But if the state of worldly things be unsteady and uncertain; it cannot be deserving of your confidence. Say, can you be sorry at the dissolving of the foam and froth of the milk or water, then why should you lament at the loss of the perishable? ⁷

Know, O strong armed Rāma! that reliance on the world, is the fetter of the soul to it; it does not behave any body to join the perishable and imperishable together like the water and its froth. ⁸

Although the soul is the agent (or source) of all actions, yet it remains as no agent at all; it is unconnected with its actions, as the lamp with its light. ⁹

Doing all it does nothing, but like the sun directs the business of the day without doing anything by itself. It moves like the sun without moving from its place, but retains its station in its own orbit. ¹⁰

There is some other hidden cause guiding the course of the world, beside the soul and body; as there is an unknown cause of the course of the Aruna river, notwithstanding its being blocked by stones.

When you have known this for certain, O Rāma by your own proficience, and have well ascertained this truth by its clearest evidence:

You ought no more to place any reliance on material things, which are as false as an ambient flame, or a vision in dream, or as any falsehood whatever.

As a stranger is not to be taken into your friendship, on his first appearance; so you must never trust or rely on anything of this world ,through your ignorance.

Never place your reliance on anything of this world, with that fond desire, as the heated man looks to the moon, the cold stricken to the sun, and the thirsty does to the water in the mirage.

Do you look upon this ideal world ¹¹, as you view a creature of your conception, a vision in your dream, or an apparition or the appearance of two moons in the sky, by your visible deception.

Shun your reliance on the fair creation of your imagination ¹², and without minding what you are, conduct yourself cheerfully in your sphere.

Shun your desires and the thought of your agency, even when you are doing any thing at all. ¹³

It is a general law (niyati or nature of things), that the propinquity of the cause, causes the act, even without the will of the actor; as the presence of the lamp, enlightens the room without the will of the lamp. ¹⁴

Look at the kurci tree blooming and blossoming under the influence of heavy clouds, and not of its own accord. So it is destined for the three worlds to appear to sight, under the influence of the Supreme Being: though he may not will or ordain it so. ¹⁵

As the appearance of the sun in the sky, employs all beings to their diurnal duties without his will or injunction, so the omnipresence of God causes the actions of all beings of their own spontaneity, and without his will, act or fiat. ¹⁶

And as a bright gem reflects its light, without any will on its part; so the mere existence of the Deity, causes the existence of all worlds; ¹⁷.

Thus are causality and its want also both situated in your soul, which is thence called the cause of your actions, because of its presence in the body; and as no cause likewise owing to its want of will, ¹⁸.

The entity of the soul being beyond the perception of sense, it is neither the agent nor recipient of any action; but being confined in the sensible body, it is thought to be both an active and passive agent.

Thus the properties both of causality and its want, reside in the soul; you may take it in any light, you may choose for your purpose, and rest content with your belief.

But by firmly believing yourself to be situated in the body, and your doing of actions without thinking yourself as their author, will save you from the eulpability of all your acts.

The man that does not employ his mind to his actions, becomes indifferent (virāga) to the world; and he is freed from it, who is certain of his being no agent of his actions.

Whether a man is fond of his enjoyments, or forsakes them in disgust; it is all the same of him, if he but think himself to be no actor of them. ¹⁹

But if you wish to remain Rāma, with your high ambition of doing every thing in the world, that is also good, and you may try to do the same.

But if I do not fall to so great an error, as to have this high aspiration of yours, I am never liable to the passions of anger and enmity, and other violent emotions in this world.

The bodies that we bear, are nourished by some and immolated by others; such being the state of our own being; we have no cause for our joy or sorrow in it.

Knowing ourselves to be the authors of our own happiness and misery, and as causes of the rise and dissolution of the world from our view, we have no reason to be joyous or sorry in it.

Then there is an end of the joys and sorrows of our own making, when we have that sweet composure, which is a balm to all the diseases in our soul.

Fellow feeling to all living beings, makes the best state of the mind; and the soul that is so disposed, is not subject to transmigration.

Or make this the best lesson, Rāma! for you conduct in life, that with all your activities, you continue to think yourself as no actor at all. ²⁰

Remain quiet and steady as you are, by resigning all things to themselves; and never think that it is you that does or undoes anything, ²¹.

But if you look to the different modes of your doing one thing or the other, you can have no rest or quiet, but must run in the way leading to the trap of perpetual toil and misery.

The belief of a man's corporeality, that he is a destructible body, and no spiritual being, is to him but a bed of thorns; it must therefore be avoided by all means, in order to evade the danger of his imminent destruction.

Corporeality is to be shunned as a hell-hound feeding on canine meat; and after disappearance of the cloud of corporeity from view, the light of spirituality will appear before the sight.

The pure light of spirituality; presents the appearance of the bright moon-beams of holiness, after dispersion of clouds of corporeal desires; and it is by the help of this light, that the spiritualist is enabled to steer across the ocean of this world.

Do you, O Rāma, remain in that best and blessed state, wherein the wisest, best and holiest of men have found their rest; and it is the constant habit of thinking yourself as nothing nor doing anything; or that you are all thing and doing everything; as the Supreme soul knows itself to be; and that you are some person, having a personality of your own, and yet no body ²²; but a spir­itual and transcendent being.

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