| Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.1): Nirvāna-Prakarana |
Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 70 - Interrogatories of Vetāla
Vasistha resumed- Life becomes no life 1, and the mind turns to no mind, immerses in the soul; no sooner is the cloud of ignorance dispersed by the bright sun beams of right reason. This is the state which is termed moksa or liberation 2 by the wise.
The mind and its egoism and tuism 3, appear as water in the mirage, but all these unrealities vanish away, so sooner we come to our right reason.
Attend now to the queries of a vetāla, which I come to remember at present, concerning our erroneous and dreaming conception of the phenomenal world, and which will sever to example by the subject of our last lecture.
He lived a gigantic Vetāla in the vast wilderness of the Vindhya mountains, who happened to come out on an excursion to the adjoining districts in search of his prey of human beings.
He used to live before in the neighbourhood of a populous city, where he lived quite happy and well satisfied with the victims; which were daily offered to him by the good citizens.
He never killed a human being without some cause or harm, although he roved through the city, pinched by hunger and thirst. He walked in the ways of the honest and equitable men in the place.
It came to pass in course of time that he went out of the city, to reside in his woody retreat; where he never killed any man, except when pressed by excessive hunger, and when he thought it was equitable for him to do so.
He happened to meet there once a ruler of the land, strolling about in his nightly round; to whom he cried out in a loud and appalling voice.
The Vetāla exclaimed- Where go you, O prince, said he, you are now caught in the clutches of a hideous monster, you are now a dead man, and hast become my ration of this day.
The ruler replied- Beware, O nocturnal fiend! that I will break your skull into a thousand pieces, if you will unjustly attempt to kill me by force at this spot and make your ration of me.
The Vetāla rejoined- I do not tell you unjustly, and speak it rightly unto you; that as you are a ruler, it is your duty to attend to the petition of everybody: 4.
I request you, O prince! to solve the questions that I propose to you; because I, believe you are best able to give a full and satisfactory answer to every one of them. 5
Who is that glorious sun, the particles of whose rays, are seen to glitter in the surrounding worlds; and what is that wind 6, which wafts these dusts of stars, in the infinite space of vacuum.
What is that self-same thing, which passes from one dream to another, and assumes different forms by hundreds and thousands, and yet does not forsake its original form.
Tell me what is that pithy particle in bodies, which is enveloped under a hundred folds or sheaths, which are laid over and under one another, like the coats or lamina of a plantain tree.
What is that minute atom which is imperceptible to the eye, and yet produces this immeasurable universe, with its stupendous worlds and skies, and the prodigious planets on high and mountains below, which are the minutest of that minute particle.
What is that shapeless and formless thing atom, which remains as the pith and marrow under the rocks of huge mountains, and which is the substratum of the triple world 7.
If you, O wicked soul, fail to answer to these queries, then shall you be a killer of yourself, by your being made my food this moment. And know that at the end, I will devour all your people, as the regent of death destroys everybody in the world.
Footnotes
1. becomes immortal
2. from error
3. subjectivity and objectivity
4. wherein if you failest, you surely diest before me
5. There questions are dark enigmas, which are explained in the next chapter
6. or force
7. of heaven, earth and infernal regions
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
