Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.2): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 176 - Brahma Gitā Account of Brahmānda or Mundane System

Rāma rejoined: There innumerable worlds in the universe, many of which have gone before, many are in-existence, and many as yet to be; how then is it sir, that you persuade me to the belief of their nullity.

Vasistha replied: You will know, Rāma, the relation which the world bears to a dream, in that they both mean a passing scene; and this sense of it, can be denied by no one of this audience.

The words which are spoken by the wise, who know their application and sense; are neither understood nor received in the hearts of common people, though they are in common use.

When you will come to know the knowledge One, then you will discern the three times clearly and behold them as present before you.

As it is the intellect alone, that displays itself in the form of the world in our dream; so does the Divine Intellect also, exhibit the worlds in itself, in the beginning of creation; and there is no other cause of their production.

Hence there are innumerable worlds, revolving like atoms in the infinite space of air; and there is no one who can count their number, and descry their modes and natures.

It was of old that my venerable sire-the lotus-­born-Brahma, and all besmeared with the fragrant dust of that flower, has delivered a discourse on this subject, which I will now relate unto you.

It was of old that my sire Brahma, to tell me about the number of worlds, and their respective situations in the heavens, whence they thus appear unto us. To this he said ¹.

Brahmā said: O sage, all this is Brahma, that is manifested as the world; it is infinite entity of the Deity in the abstract essence; but viewed in the concrete, the world is a non-entity.

Attend to this narration of mine, which is the felicitous tot he soul, as it is pleasant to the ear; it is called narrative -of mundane egg, or of the mundane body or mass.

There is in the infinite vacuum, a vacuous substance known as the vacuity of the Intellect, in the form of a minute atom only. ²

It saw as in a dream in itself, of its being as the living soul, resembling the oscillation of the wind in empty air. ³

The Lord thus became the living being, with forsaking its vacuous form; and thought itself to become the ego, in the aeriform form.

He had then his egoism, and egoistic sense in himself; and this was the knowledge of himself as an unit, which is an act of delusion only.

Then he thought himself, as changed to the conditions of the understanding, mind and ego, as in his dream; and was inclined of his own option, to impose mutability upon his immutable nature.

He then saw in his mind as if in dream, the five senses attached to his body; these are as formless as the appearance of a mountain in dream, which the ignorant are apt to take as a solid body. ⁴

Then he beheld in the atom of his intellect, that his mental body ⁵, was comprised of the three worlds; in their aerial or abstract forms, apparent to view, but without their substance or solidity or any basis at all. ⁶

This stupendous form was composed of all beings, whether of the moving or unmoving kinds:-

He beheld all things comprised in himself, as they are seen in dream or reflected in a mirror; and the triple world appeared in his person, as the picture of a city newly printed on a plate.

He saw the three worlds in his heart, as they are seen in a looking glass; together with all things contained therein, in their vivid colours of many kinds. ⁷

He observed minuter atoms subsisting within the minute atoms; and stupendous worlds also on high, clustering together in groups and rings.

These being seen in ignorance, of their natures; appear as gross material bodies; but viewed in the clear light of as their essence, they prove to be the display of the divine mind only.

Thus the viewer who views the world, in the light of Brahma, finds this view of it, as a vision in this dream; and comes to know that there is no real viewer to view of it, nor any cause thereof nor any duality whatsoever.

All these that appear all around us, are quite quiescent in their nature, and in the Divine spirit alone in their main substractum; they are all situated in the universal soul from eternity to eternity.

Myriads of worlds that are situated in the Divine spirit, appear to be settled without the same; just as the waves of the sea, rise above its waters and scatter its salt spray in the air.

Footnotes

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