Valmiki

“ Ráma said:—Let me ask you, Sir, how could the mind of the sage conceive itself as the Indra and Vidyádhara, whom it had never seen, and how could it have the ideas of the extensive Kailása and of the many ages in its small space of the cell, which is impossible in nature.
23. Vasishtha replied.—The Intellect is all comprehending and all pervading, and wherever it exerts its power in any form, it immediately assumes the same by its own nature. Thus the undivided intellect exhibits itself in various forms throughout the whole creation. ”

“ Our desires with their various wishes, are as the variegated flags of temples, furling and fluttering in all directions, till they are hurled down by the hurricane old age.
28. The world is a long linked chain, lying in the depth of eternity; wherein the rat of death is always busy in gnawing down the knot of life at the root.
29. The stream of life glides muddily on, with the foam and froth of cares and anxieties; there are the whirlpools of repeated transmigrations, and the waves of youthful levities, which are as boisterous as they are dangerous. ”

“ After the fog and frost of ignorance, is dissipated from the atmosphere of the mind; it gains its glaring lustre, as the sky gets the sunshine, after the dispersion of clouds in autumn. (Learning is the light of the lamp of the mind, as sunshine is that of the clear sky) .
21. The soul having its equanimity, is as clear and cheerful and as deep and undisturbed, as the deep and wide ocean, which regains its calm and serenity, after the fury of a storm has passed over it. ”

“ Until we can gain true knowledge, and have the evenness of our minds; and until we can have a full knowledge of things, we can have no rest in us.
13. Without the knowledge of the soul and acquisition of true knowledge, which is the greatest remedy against all diseases of the mind, it is impossible to escape from the pestilence of the world.
14. The poisonous plant of worldliness, sprouts forth in our childhood; it shoots out in its leaves in our youth, it flowers in our old age, and never fructifies before our death. (We live to long after the fruit best never to earn it) . ”

“ The power of the soul known as intellect, is pure and unsullied in its nature; it is devoid of the dirt of thinkable objects, and fills the infinite space with its immense and stupendous figure. (The omniscience of God comprehends the whole universe in itself, and pervades all through it as the subtile air) .
21. The intellect is devoid of all attributes, and pervades all existences in its subtile form; stretches itself from the highest empyrean of heaven to the lowest deep, and is the reservoir of all power. ”

“ The man of great valour, remains coolly dormant in himself, and is as full as the orb of the moon in the fulness of her digits; and has the evenness of his mind, like the steadiness of a hill at all times and seasons.
24. The man of the sedate soul, is pliable in his outer conduct, though he is inflexible in his mind. He resembles a [Pg 1063] mountain, which waves its trees with the breeze, without shaking or being shook by it.
25. The hypnotism of the mind purifies the body of all its impurity; and it is the same whether such a person perishes sooner or later, or lasts forever as a rock. ”

“ After the loss of this heavenly light, his mind turned flighty from the giddiness of his passions (or tama guna) ; and he became as drowsy as the sleeping lotuses at night, and as tipsy as a drunken sot over his cups.
48. But his reason soon returned to him, and made him shake off his sleepiness, as the winds disperse the clouds, and as the snake inhales the air; and as the elephant devours the lotus bush, and the sunlight dispels the darkness of night. ”

“ As things growing apart from one another, come to be joined together for an instant by some accident, like the reeds and rushes borne by the waves of the sea; so are all beings, as men and their bodily senses and mind and the soul, brought to meet together for a time only, in order to be separated for ever. ”

“ The soul in the form of the mind, unites the component parts of the body together; as the sea in the form of its eddies, rolls the reeds and rushes with its whirling waters up and down.
19. The soul being awakened to its knowledge of itself, relinquishes its knowledge of objects, and becomes purely subjective in itself; as the water by its own motion, throws away its dirt and becomes as pure as crystal. ”

“ The mind of the magnanimous sage, is as impregnable as a rock, which baffles the blandishments of youthful damsels, and breaks the darts of love to pieces, and falling down as pulverised atoms of dust and ashes.
61. One knowing his self, is not carried away by his fondness or aversion of any person or thing; because the heart which has no vibration in it, is insensible of all feelings. ”

“ It is then that the deep ocean of the soul boils in its various aspects of the mind, understanding, egoism, sensation and volition; as the sea when moved by the hot winds, bursts in the forms of foaming froths, waves and surges.
5. The duality of the mind and its egoism, is only a verbal distinction and not distinct in reality; for egoism is but a thought chitta, and the thought is no other than the mind or manas. ”

“ The mind is overwhelmed in the whirlpool of its cares; it is sometimes hurled down to the bottom, and at others floating upon and loosened from it like a living fish caught by angling hook.
38. The belief of the external body for the internal self, is the cause of all our woe herein; and so the taking of others as our own is equally for our misery.
39. All mankind placed between their weal and woe in life, are swept away to age and death; as the leaves of trees growing on high hills, are scattered by the high winds of heaven. ”

“ It is in vain for the organs of sense, to display themselves to view, like the twirling of a firebrand and the appearance of a snake in the rope; since they have no essence of their own, and are of no use without the soul. ”

“ Good men are as the flowering Champa trees of the land; their cooling words resemble the shady leaves of the tree, and their gentle smiles its blooming flowers. Let men therefore resort to the umbrage of such champaka bowers.
34. For want of such men, the world is a desert, burning under the darkening heat of ignorance, where no wise man should allow himself to rest in peace and quiet. ”

“ O my honest mind! if thou canst by the purity of thy nature, get thyself freed from the unrealities of the world; and become enlightened with the light of the soul, that fills the whole with its essence, and is the inbeing of all beings, thou shalt verily set me at rest from the uneasiness of my ignorance, and the miseries of this world and this miserable life. ”

“ He turns his mind to nothing that is sweet or bitter to taste, but delights in his own thoughts; as the moon sheds her light upon the spreading lotus-bud in the lake.
30. The wise man is indifferent to the attractions of beauties and celestial nymphs; who are as graceful in their stature and attire, like the young shoot of the plantain tree with its spreading foliage. ”

“ The mind being cleared of the foulness of its internal relation with the externals, acquires the pellucidness of the cloudless firmament; and after clearance of all dirt and dross from within, the mind becomes one with the soul; like a bright gem shining with double effulgence with the lustre of a luminary, or like a blue streamlet, receiving the cerulean hue of the azure sky. ”

“ The mind will no longer pant or sorrow, when it comes to have this ecumenical sight in itself; as a child is no more afraid of dark, when it gets the light of a lamp in the room.
3. The discriminating mind of Suraghu found its rest in perfect tranquility; as a fool finds his security by laying hold of a big bundle of straws.
4. Having this holy sight in your view, and by your preaching this light to others, do you continue to enjoy this uniform insouciance (Samádhi) in yourself, and shine forth as a bright gem before the world. ”

“ O, that I am awakened to truth at present, and released from the mirage of my false views long before; I have come to see what is worth seeing, and have found all that is worthy to be had.
32. All these visibles which are seen to be wide spread throughout this universe, are no more than false phantoms, presented or produced by the vibrations of the intellect; and do not last for long. ”

“ When the sweetness of the intellect, is felt within the molasses of the soul; it is relished by the mind with a zest, which makes it forget its egoism in itself.
15. When the bright gem of the soul, shines with the radiance of the intellect in itself; it finds its egoism to be lost altogether, under the brightness of its intellectual light. ”

“ Here the cascades were hurling and gurgling in foaming froths, and there the old bamboos were blowing through their hollow pipes; on one side the winds were howling in the mountain caves, and on another the bees were buzzing on the clustering flowers.
10. The Apsaras were singing in concert on the mountain tops, and the wild beasts were growling in the forests; there the birds were chirping in the groves, and the clouds were roaring on the peaks of mountains, while the birds of the air crying and flying about the sky. ”

“ It is the self that is the true friend to one’s self, therefore support thyself upon thy self only; nor obscure the brightness of thy soul, under thy darkness of the bodily pride, to bury thy life in the slough of ignorance. ”

“ That you are everywhere in all the three worlds together with the soul abiding in them; and that you are no other than the unity itself; nor is there any duality of any body, apart from the unity which pervades the whole. ”

“ Thus the dispassionate and sinless men of great understanding, who have obtained their self-liberation in this life, [Pg 1075] move about as freely, as the waves in the great ocean of the all-comprehending soul.
25. As the waves move freely in the sea, and pour the gems and pearls which they bear over distant shores; so the best of men rove everywhere free of all desire, but enriching mankind with the treasure of their knowledge. ”

“ The body decays as a withered tree, and our relatives flutter as bees over it; old age overtakes us with its blossoming grey hairs, and produces the fruit of death.
16. We have to reap the bitter fruits of our actions of bygone times, which are laid up in store, and fructify in their seasons; and thus years upon years glide upon us, in the same monotonous rotation of business, and the sad tenor of our minds. ”

“ The gifts of nature, which are alloted by fortune to the share of every one, are relished by the wise without their rejoicing or murmur.
65. Neither rejoicing nor bewilderment, can overtake the mind of the way-farer, who well knows his way (and is aware of the states of its stages) ; but he stands firm as the Mandára mountain, amidst the turbulent waves of the sea.
66. He looks indifferently on the pains and pleasures of the world, with his usual patience, taciturnity and want of anxiety; and relies his trust in that spirit, which resides in the interior of every body. ”

“ But the soul which pervades the whole, never moveth like the wind, nor is it moved as any part of the body; it does not move of itself, but remains unshaken as a rock at the motion of the winds, and like the Lord of all, it is unmoved by the breeze. ”

“ Ráma! you have nothing to desire in this world, nor are you led away by worldly desires, like one who is borne in a car, and thinks that his side-views are receding back from him.
53. O intelligent Ráma! why do you fall into the error of ignorant men, by taking this thing to be yours and that as another’s by the delusion of your mind? (For all things are the Lord God’s for ever more, and mortal men are but the poor pensioners of a day) .
54. The whole world is the self-same spirit, and all its variety is in perfect uniformity with the supreme soul ”

“ The mind being disturbed and bewildered, makes the restless feelings and sensations, flow and fall to it, with the fierceness of boisterous rivers falling into the sea, which it breaks out and runs in the form of many a frith and firth into the land. ”

“ Knowing the world to be full of the spirit, and without the matter of ignorance avidyá, close your eyes against its visible phenomena, and remain firm with your spiritual essence.
20. Plurality of things is the creation of imagination, without their existence in reality. It is like the multifarious forms of the waves in the sea, which are in reality its water only. The man therefore, that relies on his firm faith in the unity, is said to be truly liberated and perfect in his knowledge. ”

“ The unreal has no existence, and the existence of the mind, is an unreality as the redness of a crystal. Knowledge, action and passion belong to the soul only, and are not attributable to the mind.
35. If thou beest the eternal Mind, then thou art selfsame with the eternal soul; but the painful mutability of thy nature, bespeaks thee to be not the same (immutable, everlasting and imperishable soul) .
36. Now as thou hast come to be acquainted, with the falsity of thine action and passion; hear now how I am purged of these impressions, by my own reasoning as follows. ”