Transcriber’s Notes

Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.

Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations have not been modified.

Angle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate light editing of the text to insert missing words.

On pages 88-89, Section 53 is numbered twice. This has not been modified.

The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.

The Sanskrit words in Devanagari script in footnote 3 are unclear in the original text. They are rendered here as a best guess by the transcriber.

The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of poor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya Publishing House, Delhi 1978.

A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.

The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive classical commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati. (Only available in Sanskrit).

THE YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.

VOL. II (part 1)

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

CHAPTER LI.

CHAPTER LII.

CHAPTER LIII.

CHAPTER LIV.

CHAPTER LV.

CHAPTER LVI.

CHAPTER LVII.

CHAPTER LVIII.

CHAPTER LIX.

CHAPTER LX.

CHAPTER LXI.

CHAPTER LXII.

CHAPTER LXIII.

CHAPTER LXIV.

CHAPTER LXV.

CHAPTER LXVI.

CHAPTER LXVII.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

CHAPTER LXIX.

CHAPTER LXX.

CHAPTER LXXI.

CHAPTER LXXII.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

CHAPTER LXXIV.

CHAPTER LXXV.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

CHAPTER LXXX.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

CHAPTER LXXXII.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

CHAPTER LXXXV.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

CHAPTER LXXXIX.

CHAPTER LXXXX.

CHAPTER LXXXXI.

CHAPTER LXXXXII.

CHAPTER LXXXXIII.

CHAPTER LXXXXIV.

CHAPTER LXXXXV.

CHAPTER LXXXXVI.

CHAPTER LXXXXVII.

CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.

CHAPTER LXXXXIX.

CHAPTER C.

CHAPTER CI.

CHAPTER CII.

CHAPTER CIII.

CHAPTER CIV.

CHAPTER CV.

CHAPTER CVI.

CHAPTER CVII.

CHAPTER CVIII.

CHAPTER CIX.

CHAPTER CX.

CHAPTER CXI.

CHAPTER CXII.

CHAPTER CXIII.

CHAPTER CXIV.

CHAPTER CXV.

CHAPTER CXVI.

CHAPTER CXVII.

CHAPTER CXVIII.

CHAPTER CXIX.

CHAPTER CXX.

CHAPTER CXXI.

CHAPTER CXXII.

CHAPTER LI. Description of Sindhu’s Dominions.

Vasishtha said:—The loud cry that the king was killed in battle by the rival monarch, struck the people with awe, and filled the realm with dismay.

2. Carts loaded with utensils and household articles, were driving through the streets; and women with their loud wailings, were running away amidst the impassable paths of the city.

3. The weeping damsels that were flying for fear, were ravished on the way by their captors; and the inhabitants were in danger of being plundered of their properties by one another.

4. The joyous shouts of the soldiers in the enemy’s camp, resounded with the roarings of loose elephants and neighings of horses, trampling down the men to death on their way.

5. The doors of the royal treasury were broken open by the brave brigands, the valves flew off and the vaults re-echoed to the strokes. The warders were overpowered by numbers, and countless treasures were plundered and carried away.

6. Bandits ripped off the bellies of the royal dames in the palace, and the chandála free-booters hunted about the royal apartments.

7. The hungry rabble robbed the provisions from the royal stores; and the soldiers were snatching the jewels of the weeping children trodden down under their feet.

8. Young and beautiful maidens were dragged by their hair from the seraglio, and the rich gems that fell from the hands of the robbers, glistened all along the way.

29. The chiefs assembled with ardour with their troops of horses, elephants and war-chariots, and announced the installation of Sindhu by his minister.

10. Chief engineers were employed in making the decorations of the city and its halls, and the balconies were filled by the royal party attending at the inauguration.

11. It was then that the coronation of Sindhu’s son, took place amidst the loud acclamations of victory; and titles and dignities, were conferred upon the noblemen on the victor’s side.

12. The royal party were flying for life into the villages, where they were pursued by the victorious soldiers; and a general pillage spread in every town and village throughout the realm.

13. Gangs of robbers thronged about, and blocked the passages for pillage and plunder; and a thick mist darkened the light of the day for want of the magnanimous Vidúratha.

14. The loud lamentations of the friends of the dead, and the bitter cries of the dying, mixed with the clamour raised by the driving cars, elephants and horses, thickened in the air as a solid body of sound (pindagráhya).

15. Loud trumpets proclaimed the victory of Sindhu in every city, and announced his sole sovereignty all over the earth.

16. The high-shouldered Sindhu entered the capital as a second Manu (Noah), for re-peopling it after the all-devastating flood of war was over.

17. Then the tribute of the country poured into the city of Sindhu from all sides; and these loaded on horses and elephants, resembled the rich cargoes borne by ships to the sea.

18. The new king issued forthwith his circulars and royal edicts to all sides, struck coins in his own name, and placed his ministers as commissioners in all provinces.

19. His iron-rod was felt in all districts and cities like the inexorable rod of Yama, and it overawed the living with fear of instant death.

20. All insurrections and tumults in the realm, soon subsided 3to rest under his reign; as the flying dust of the earth and the falling leaves of trees, fall to the ground upon subsidence of a tempest.

21. The whole country on all sides was pacified to rest, like the perturbed sea of milk after it had been churned by the Mandara mountain.

22. Then there blew the gentle breeze of Malaya, unfurling the locks of the lotus-faced damsels of Sindhu’s realm, and wafting the liquid fragrance of their bodies around, and driving away the unwholesome air (of the carnage).

CHAPTER LII. State of Man after Death.

Vasishtha said:—In the meanwhile, O Ráma! Lílá seeing her husband lying insensible before her and about to breathe his last, thus spoke to Sarasvatí:

2. Behold, O mother! my husband is about to shuffle his mortal coil in this perilous war, which has laid waste his whole kingdom.

3. Sarasvatí replied:—This combat that you saw to be fought with such fury, and lasting so long in the field, was neither fought in thy kingdom nor in any part of this earth.

4. It occurred nowhere except in the vacant space of the shrine, containing the dead body of the Bráhman; and where it appeared as the phantom of a dream only (in your imagination).

5. This land which appeared as the realm of thy living lord Vidúratha, was situated with all its territories in the inner apartment of Padma. (The incidents of Vidúratha’s life, being but a vision appearing to the departed spirit of Padma).

6. Again it was the sepulchral tomb of the Bráhman Vasishtha, situated in the hilly village of Vindhyá, that exhibited these varying scenes of the mortal world within itself. (i.e. As a panorama shows many sights to the eye, and one man playing many parts in the stage).

7. As the departed soul views the vision of the past world within its narrow tomb; so is the appearance of all worldly accidents unreal in their nature. Gloss:—The apparitions appearing before the souls of the dead lying in their tombs, are as false as the appearances presenting themselves before the living souls in their tomb of this world. The souls of the living and the dead are both alike in their nature, and both susceptible of the like dreams and visions.

8. These objects that we see here as realities, including 5these bodies of mine and thine and this Lílá’s, together with this earth and these waters, are just the same as the phantoms rising in the tomb of the deceased Bráhman of the hilly region.

9. It is the soul which presents the images of things, and nothing external which is wholly unreal can cast its reflexion on the soul. Therefore know thy soul as the true essence which is increate and immortal, and the source of all its creations within itself. Note:—The subjective is the cause of the objective and not this of that.

10. The soul reflects on its inborn images without changing itself in any state, and thus it was the nature of the Bráhman’s soul, that displayed these images in itself within the sphere of his tomb.

11. But the illusion of the world with all its commotion, was viewed in the vacant space of the souls of the Bráhman and Padma, and not displayed in the empty space of their tombs, where there was no such erroneous reflexion of the world.

12. There is no error or illusion anywhere, except in the misconception of the observer; therefore the removal of the fallacy from the mind of the viewer, leads him to the perception of the light of truth.

13. Error consists in taking the unreal for the real, and in thinking the viewer and the view or the subjective and objective as different from each other. It is the removal of the distinction of the subjective and objective, that leads us to the knowledge of unity (the on or one or om).

14. Know the Supreme soul to be free from the acts of production and destruction, and it is his light that displays all things of which He is the source; and learn the whole outer nature as having no existence nor change in itself.

15. But the souls of other beings, exhibit their own natures in themselves; as those in the sepulchral vault of the Bráhman, displayed the various dispositions to which they were accustomed. (Thus the one unvaried soul appears as many, according to its particular wont and tendency in different persons).

16. The soul has no notion of the outer world or any 6created thing in it; its consciousness of itself as an increate vacuity, comprehends its knowledge of the world in itself. (i.e. The subjective consciousness of the Ego, includes the knowledge of the objective world).

17. The knowledge of the mountain chains of Meru and others, is included under the knowledge in the vacuity of the soul; there is no substance or solidity in them as in a great city seen in a dream.

18. The soul views hundreds of mountainous ranges and thousands of solid worlds, drawn in the small compass of the mind, as in its state of dreaming.

19. Multitudes of worlds, are contained in a grain of the brain of the mind; as the long leaves of the plantain tree, are contained in one of its minute seeds.

20. All the three worlds are contained in an atom as the intellect, in the same manner as great cities are seen in a dream; and all the particles of intellect within the mind, have each the representation of a world in it.

21. Now this Lílá thy step-dame, has already gone to the world which contains the sepulchre of Padma, before the spirit of Vidúratha could join the same.

22. The moment when Lílá fell in a swoon in thy presence, know her spirit to be immediately conveyed to him and placed by his side.

23. Lílá asked:—Tell me, O goddess! how was this lady endowed here with my form before, and how is she translated to and placed as my step-dame beside my deceased husband?

24. Tell me in short, in what form she is now viewed by the people in Padma’s house, and the manner in which they are talking to her at present.

25. The goddess replied:—Hear Lílá, what I will relate to thee in brief in answer to thy question, regarding the life and death of this Lílá as an image of thyself.

26. It is thy husband Padma, that beholds these illusions of 7the world spread before him in the same sepulchre in the person of Vidúratha.

27. He fought this battle as thou didst see in his reverie, and this Lílá resembling thyself was likewise a delusion. These his men and enemies were but illusions, and his ultimate death, was as illusory as a phantom of the imagination, like all other things in this world.

28. It was his self delusion, that showed him this Lílá as his wife, and it is the same deceit of a dream, which deludes thee to believe thyself as his consort.

29. As it is a mere dream that makes you both to think yourselves as his wives, so he deems himself as your husband, and so do I rely on my existence (also in a like state of dream).

30. The world with all its beauty, is said to be the spectre of a vision; wherefore knowing it a mere visionary scene, we must refrain from relying any faith in this visible phantasmagoria.

31. Thus this Lílá, yourself and this king Vidúratha, are but phantoms of your fancy: and so am I also, unless I believe to exist in the self-existent spirit.

32. The belief of the existence of this king and his people, and of ourselves as united in this place, proceeds from the fulness of that intellect, which fills the whole plenitude.

33. So this queen Lílá also situated in this place with her youthful beauty, and smiling so charmingly with her blooming face, is but an image of divine beauty.

34. See how gentle and graceful are her manners, and how very sweet is her speech; her voice is as dulcet as the notes of the Kokila, and her motions as slow as those of a lovelorn maiden.

35. Behold her eyelids like the leaves of the blue lotus, and her swollen breasts rounded as a pair of snow-balls; her form is as bright as liquid gold, and her lips as red as a brace of ripe Vimba fruits.

36. This is but a form of thee as thou didst desire to be to please thy husband, and it is the very figure of thy ownself, that thou now beholdest with wonder.

837. After the death of thy husband, his soul caught the same reflexion of thy image, as thou didst desire to be hereafter; and which thou now seest in the person of the young Lílá before thee.

38. Whenever the mind has a notion or sensation or fancy of some material object, the abstract idea of its image is surely imprinted in the intellect.

39. As the mind comes to perceive the unreality of material objects, it thenceforth begins to entertain the ideas of their abstract entities within itself. (Hence the abstract ideas of things are said to accompany the intellectual spirit after its separation from the body).

40. It was the thought of his sure death, and the erroneous conception of the transmigration of his soul in the body of Vidúratha, that represented to Padma thy desired form of the youthful Lílá, which was the idol of his soul. (This passage confutes the doctrine of metempsychosis, and maintains the verity of eternal ideas).

41. It was thus that thou wast seen by him and he was beheld by thee according to your desires; and thus both of you though possest of the same unvaried soul which pervades all space, are made to behold one another in your own ways (agreeably to your desires).

42. As the spirit of Brahma is all pervasive, and manifests itself in various ways in all places; it is beheld in different lights, according to the varying fancies (vikshepa sakti); or tendencies (vásaná sakti) of men, like the ever-changeful scenes appearing to us in our visions and dreams.

43. The omnipotent spirit displays its various powers in all places, and these powers exert themselves everywhere, according to the strong force and capability it has infused in them (in their material or immaterial forms).

44. When this pair remained in their state of death-like insensibility, they beheld all these phantoms in their inner souls, by virtue of their reminiscence and desires (which are inherent in the soul).

945. That such and such person were their fathers and such their mothers before, that they lived in such places, had such properties of theirs, and did such acts erewhile (are reminiscences of the soul).

46. That they were joined together in marriage, and the multitude which they saw in their minds, appeared to them as realities for the time in their imagination (as it was in a magic show).

47. This is an instance that shows our sensible perceptions, to be no better than our dreams; and it was in this deluded state of Lílá’s mind, that I was worshipped and prayed by her:—

48. In order to confer upon her the boon that she might not become a widow; and it was by virtue of this blessing of mine, that this girl had died before her husband’s death (to escape the curse of widowhood).

49. I am the progeny of Brahmá, and the totality of that intelligence of which all beings participate: it is for this reason that I was adored by her as the Kula Devi or tutelar divinity of all living beings.

50. It was at last that her soul left her body, and fled with her mind in the form of her vital breath, through the orifice of her mouth.

51. Then after the insensibility attendant upon her death was over, she understood in her intellect her living soul to be placed in the same empty space with the departed spirit of Padma.

52. Her reminiscence pictured her in her youthful form, and she beheld herself as in a dream, to be situated in the same tomb. She was as a blooming lotus with her beautiful countenance, and her face was as bright as the orb of the moon; her eyes were as large as those of an antelope, and she was attended by her graceful blandishments for the gratification of her husband.

CHAPTER LIII. Representations of Reminiscence.

Vasishtha said:—Lílá having obtained the blessing of the goddess, proceeded with her fancied body to meet her royal spouse in heaven beyond the skies.

2. Having assumed her spiritual form which was as light as air, she fled merrily as a bird; and was wafted aloft by the fond desire of joining with her beloved lord.

3. She met before her a damsel sent by the goddess of wisdom, and as issuing out of the best model of her heart’s desire.

4. The damsel said:—I am the daughter of thy friend Sarasvatí, and welcome thee, O beauteous lady in this place. I have been waiting here on thy way through the sky in expectation of thee.

5. Lílá said:—Lead me, O lotus-eyed maid to the side of my husband, as the visit of the good and great never goes for nothing.

6. Vasishtha said:—The damsel replied, come let us go there; and so saying, she stood before her looking forward on her way.

7. Then proceeding onward both together, they came to the door-way of heaven, which was as broad as the open palm of the hand, and marked with lines as those in palmistry. (?).

8. They passed the region of the clouds, and overstepped the tracks of the winds; then passing beyond the orbit of the sun, they reached the stations of the constellations.

9. Thence they passed through the regions of air and water (Indraloka), to the abodes of the gods and saints (Siddhas); 11whence they went across the seats of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva to the great belt—of the universe.

10. Their spiritual bodies pierced through its orifice, as the humidity of ice water passes out of the pores of a tight water-jar.

11. The body of Lílá was of the form of her mind, which was of the nature of its own bent and tenor, and conceived these wanderings within itself (i.e., the peregrinations of Lílá were purely the workings of her own mind and inclination).

12. Having traversed the spheres of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, and crossed the limit of the mundane sphere, and the environs of atmospheric water and air:—

13. They found an empty space as spacious as the scope of the great intellect, and impassable by the swift Garuda (the eagle of Jupiter) even in millions of Kalpa ages. (i.e. The unlimited space of the mind and vacuity).

14. There they beheld an infinity of shapeless and nameless worlds, scattered about as the countless fruits in a great forest. (The Nebulae of unformed worlds).