Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.1): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 97 - Enlightenment of the prince in Theosophy

Kumbha continued- Know that nothing is produced from nor destroyed by the ever tranquil spirit of god at any; but everything appears as the panorama of the one all ¹ God; like the various kinds of ornaments made of the same metal of gold.

Brahmā remains forever in his own essence, and never become the seed or cause of any other thing; he is ever of the form of our innate conception of him, and therefore never becomes any other than our simple idea of him.

Sikhidhwaja said- I grant, Oh sagely monitor, that there subsists no separate world nor any other egoism in the one pure Śiva ², except his own essence of omniscience; but please to tell me, what thing is this world and individual egoisms that seem to be infinite in number, and appear as distinct creations of God?

Kumbha replied- The essence of God is without its beginning and end, and extends to infinite space and time.

The same also is this transparent cosmos, and the very same is the body of this world; which is simple of the form of divine intelligence, and neither a void nor any extraneous thing.

The essential property of God being his intelligence, he is said to be of essence of intellect; and as fluidity is the property of water, so is intelligence the essential property of everything; and there is no reason to suppose an unintelligent principle as the prime cause of all.

The Lord is infinite in himself and is so situated in his infinitude forever, without the grossness of the infinitesimals ever attaching to their pure intelligence in the subjective soul.

We cannot attribute the creation of the impure world, to the pure essence of the divine spirit; because the purity of the divine soul, cannot admit the impurity of creation, which would amount to a duality of purity and impurity in the supreme soul: ³.

The Lord can never be supposed as the seed or cause of the universe, since his nature is inscrutable and beyond our conception, and cannot be thought of as the root of anything whatever.

Therefore there is no creation or production of an effect, without its cause or seed; nor does reason point out to us, any other source of creation.

Therefore there is no gross creation whatsoever, except of the form of the intellect itself; and hence all that is visible to us, is no other than the solid intellect itself.

The feeling of egoism and the term world, are meaningless words and mere inventions of men; because nothing whatever can be called an effect or product, which has no cause assigned to it.

The duality of the world appears in the unity of God, in the same manner as a flowers called the sky flower appears in the hollow vacuum of the sky ⁴. And all things being perishable in their nature, exist only in the intellect in which they live and die. ⁵

Destruction is not the giver of life to destruction, nor it is a giver of life to perishable things; hence intellect is the giver of light to all: but you may call whatever you like the best.

What difficulty you have, provided all. things are to be called one, when all have come from the intellect: the duality what you call, that is the mystery of intellect-cit only.

The intellect therefore is the only true entity, which admits no unity 'nor duality in it. And therefore, O prince, you must know the nullity of all other entities beside it.

The feeling of your egoism, is as false as your conception of any other thing; and thus the idea of egoism proving to be false, what else can there be except the only entity of the intellect.

Thus egoism ⁶ no other than a form of the intellect, there is no difference whatever between them; hence the words I, you &c., are mere human inventions to distinguish one from another. ⁷

Whether you remain in your embodied or disembodied state, continue to remain always as firm as a rock; by knowing yourself only as the pure intellect, and the nullity of all things be­sides.

By thinking yourself always as the intellect, you will loose the sense of your egoism and personality; and so will your reflexion on the contexts of the texts of the Vedas, lead you to the same conclusion. ⁸

From all these know yourself as the pure essence, which is uncaused and unmade, and the same with the first and original principle; that you are same with the emancipate and everlasting Brahmā, and multiform in your unity; that you are as void as vacuity, having neither your beginning, middle or end; and that this world is the intellect and that intellect is the very Brahmā himself.

Footnotes

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE