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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 60 - Knowledge of the majesty and grandeur of God
Vasistha continued- Such is the first great truth concerning the solidity or of the Divine Intellect, that contains the gigantic forms of Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva in it.
It is by means of the greatness of God, that all people are as gaudy as great princes in their several spheres; and are ever exalting in their power of floating and traversing in the regions of open air. 1. 2
It is by their dwelling in the spirit of God, that the earth born mortals are as happy as the inhabitants of heaven; 3; may they are free from the pain of sorrow and released from the pangs of death, that have come unto the Lord - 4.
Yes, they live in Him that have found him, and are not to be restrained by anybody; provided they have but taken their refuge under the overspreading umbrage of the supreme spirit.
He who meditates for a moment, on the universal essence of all 5; he becomes liberated in an instant, and lives as a liberal minded sage or muni on earth. 6
He does what are his duties in this world, and never grieves in discharging them. Rāma said: How is it possible, Sir, to meditate on the universal soul in all things, when the sage has buried his mind, understanding and his egoism and himself in the unity of god and how can the soul be viewed in the plurality, when all things have been absorbed in the unity?
Vasistha replied- The god that dwells in all bodies, moves them to their actions, and receives their food and drink in himself, that produces all things and annihilates them at last, is of course unknowable to our consciousness 7.
Now it is this indwelling principle in everything, that is without beginning and end, and inherent in the nature of all; is called the common essence of all, because it constitutes the tattwa identity 8 of everything in the world.
It dwells as vacuity in the vacuum, and as sonorousness in sound; it is situated as feeling in whatever is felt, and as action in the objects of touch.
It is the taste of all tastables, and the tasting of the tongue; it is the light of all objects of sight, and vision of the organs of seeing.
It is the sense of smell in the act of smelling, and the odour in all odourous substance; it is the plumpness of the body and the solidity add stability of the earth.
It is the fluidity of liquids and the flatulence of air; it is the flame and flash of fire, and the cogitation of the understanding.
It is the thinking principle of the thoughtful mind, and the ego of our egoism; it is the consciousness of the conscious soul, and the sensible heart.
It is the power of vegetation in vegetables, and the perspective in all pictures and paintings; it is the capacity of all pots and vessels, and the tallness of stately trees.
It is the immobility of immovable, and the mobility of movable bodies; it is the dull insensibility of stones and blocks, and the intelligence of intelligent beings.
It is the immortality and god-head of the immortal gods, and humanity of human beings; it is the cursedness of crooked beasts, and the supine proneness of crawling and creeping insects.
It is the current in the course of time, and the revolution and aspects of the seasons; it is the fugacity of fleeting moments, and the endless duration of eternity.
It is the whiteness of whatever is white, and blackness of all that is black; it is activity in all actions, and it is stern fixity in the doings of destiny.
The supreme spirit is quiescent in all that is sedate, and lasting and evanescent in whatever is passing and perishing; and he shows his productiveness in the production of things.
He is the childhood of children, and the youth of young men; he shows himself as fanning in the decay and decline of beings, and as his extinction in their death and demise.
Thus the all pervading soul, is not apart from anything, as the waves and froths of the foaming sea, are no way distinct from its body of waters.
These multiformities of things are all unrealities, and taken for true in our ignorance of the unity; which multiplies itself in our imagination, as children create and produce false apparitions from their unsound understandings. 9
It is I, says the lord, that am situated everywhere, and it is I that pervade the whole; and fill it with all varieties at pleasure; know therefore, O high minded Rāma ! that all these varieties are but creatures of imagination in the mind of God, and are thence reflected into the mirror of our minds. Knowing this rest in the calm tranquility of your soul, and enjoy the undisturbed solace and happiness of your high mind.
Vālmikī said: As the sage was saying these things, the day passed away under its evening shade; the sun sank down in its evening devotion, and the assembly broke with mutual salutations to the performance of their eventide ablutions, until they reassembled on the next morning.
Footnotes
1. This means both the flight of bird, as well as aerial rambles of Yogis
2. The taitterya upanisad says:- God has filled the world with joy, and the minute insect is as joyous as the victorious prince: meaning hereby, that God has given to every bring its particular share of happiness.
3. That have nothing to desire
4. O death where is your sting, O grave where your victory? Pope
5. as the ensentium
6. The sage that sees his God in all and everywhere through out all nature
7. which is conscious of itself only
8. or essential nature or the abstract property
9. These as they change are not the varied god as it is generally supposed to be, but various workings of the intellect
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