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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 85 - Relation of Nature and Soul, or the Prime Male and Female Powers

Vasistha continued: Thus the goddess was dancing with her outstretched arms, which with their movements appeared to make a shaking forest of tall pines in the empty sky. ¹

This power of the intellect, which is ignorant of herself and ever prone to action, continued thus to dance about with her decorations of various tools and instruments. ²

She was arrayed with all kinds of weapons in all her thousand arms, such as the bow and arrows, the spear and lance, the mallet and club, and the sword and all sort of missiles. She was conservant with all thing whether in being or not being, and was busy at every moment of passing time. ³

She contained the world in the vibration of her mind, as airy cities and castles consist in the power of imagination; it is she herself that is the world, as the imagination itself is the imaginary city-the utopia.

She is the volition of Śiva, as fluctuation is innate in the air; and as the air is still without its vibration, so Śiva is quite quiet without his will or volition; ⁴.

The formless volition becomes the formal creation in the same manner, as the formless sky produces the wind which vibrates into sound; so does the will of Śiva bring forth the world out of itself.

When this volitive energy of Kālī, dances and sports in the void of the Divine mind; then the world comes out of a sudden, as if it were by union of the active will with the great void of the Supreme Mind.

Being touched by the dark volitive power ⁵, the supreme soul of Śiva is dissolved into water; just as the submarine fire is extinguished by its contact with the water of the sea. ⁶

No sooner did this power come in contact with Śiva-the prime cause of all, the same power of volentia, inclined and turned to assume the shape of nature, and to be converted to some physical form.

Then forsaking her boundless and elemental form, she took upon herself the gross and limited forms of land and hills; and then became of the form of beautiful arbours and trees. ⁷

⁸, she became as the formless void, and became one with the infinite vacuity of Śiva; just as a river with all its impetuous velocity, enters into the immensity of the sea.

She then became as one with Śiva, by giving up her title of śivaship; and this śiva-the female form became the same with Śiva-the prime male, who is of the form of formless void and perfect tranquility ⁹

Rāma rejoined: Tell me sir, how that sovran. Goddess śiva, could obtain her quiet by her coming in contact with the supreme God Śiva; ¹⁰.

Vasistha replied: Know Rāma, the Goddess śiva to be the will of the God Śiva; she is styled as nature, and famed as the great Illusion of the word.

And this great God is said the lord of nature, and the prime male also; he is of the form of air and is represented in the form of Śiva, which is as calm and quiet as the autumnal sky.

The great Goddess is the energy of the Intellect and its will also, and is ever active as force put in motion; she abides in the world in the manner of its nature, and roves all about in the manner of the great delusion: ¹¹.

She ranges through out the world, as long as she is ignorant of her lord Śiva; who is ever satisfied with himself, without decay or disease, and has no beginning or end, nor a second to himself.

But no sooner is this Goddess conscious of herself, as one and same, with the god of self­-consciousness; than she is joined with her lord Śiva, and becomes one with him. ¹²

Nature coming in contact with the spirit, forsakes her character of gross nature; and becomes one with the sole unity, as a river is incorporated in the ocean.

The river falling into the sea, is no more the river but the sea; and its water joining with sea water, becomes the same briny water.

So the mind that is inclined to Śiva, is united with him and finds its rest therein; as the iron becomes sharpened by returning to its quarry, ¹³.

As the shadow of a man entering into a forest, is lost amidst the shade of the wilderness; so the shades of nature ¹⁴, are all absorbed in the umbrage of the Divine spirit. ¹⁵

But the mind that remembers its own nature, and forgets that of the eternal spirit; has to return again to this world, and never attains its spiritual felicity.

An honest man dwells with thieves, so long as he knows them not as such; but no sooner he comes to know them as so, then he sure to shun their company and fly from the spot.

So the mind dwells with unreal dualities, as long as it is ignorant to the transcendent reality; but as it becomes acquainted with the true unity, he is sure to be united with it ¹⁶.

When the ignorant mind, comes to know the supreme felicity, which attends on the state of its self extinction or nirvāna; it is ready to resort to it, as the inland stream runs to join the boundless sea.

So long does the mind roam bewildered, in its repeated births in the tumultuous word; as it does not find its ultimate bliss in the Supreme; unto, whom it may fly like a bee to its honeycomb.

Who is there that would forget his spiritual knowledge, having once known its bliss; and who is there that forsakes the sweat, having had once tasted its flavour. Say Rāma, who would not run to relish the delicious draughts, which pacifies all our woes and pains, and prevents our repeated births and deaths, and puts an end to all our delusions in this dark-some world.

Footnotes

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