On the Unity and Identity of BrahmÁ and the World.

Argument.—He whose essence is the source of all our enjoyments; is ascertained as the SachchidÁnanda or Entity of the Felicitous Intellect or the blissful spirit of God.

VASISHTHA continued:—That which contains this wide extended universe within itself, and without manifesting its form unto us, is very like the egg of the peahen and contains all space and individual bodies in its yolk. (The mind of God contains the mundane egg).

2. That which has nothing in reality in it, appears yet to contain everything in itself; as the spotless mirror reflects the image of the moon, and the hollow egg bears the figure of the future peacock.

3. It is in this manner that the gods and sages, saints and holy-men, the siddhas and great Rishis, meditate on the true and self subsistent form of God, as find themselves seated in their fourth state of bliss above the third heaven.

4. These devout personages sit with their half shut eyes, and without the twinkling of their eyelids; and continue to view in their inward souls, the visible glory of God shining in its full light.

5. Thus enrapt in their conscious presence of God, they are unconscious of any other thought in their minds; though when employed in the acts of life, remain without the respiration of their vital breath.

6. They sit quiet as figures in a painting, without respiration of their breath, and remain as silent as sculptured statues, without the action of their minds. (They forget themselves to stones in their excess of devotion).

7. They remain in their state of holy rapture, without the employment of their minds in their fleeting thoughts, and whenever they have any agitation they can effect anything, as the Lord God works all things at the slightest nod.

8. Even when their minds are employed in meditative thoughts, they are usually attended with a charming gladness, like that of the charming moonbeams falling on and gladding the leafy branches of trees.

9. The soul is as enraptured with the view of the holy light of God, as the mind is delighted at the sight of the cooling moonbeams, emitted afar from the lunar disc. (The gloss explains the distant moonlight to be less dazzling than the bright disc of that luminary).

10. The aspect of pure conscience is as clear, as the fair face of the bright moon; it is neither visible nor in need of admonition, nor is it too near nor far from us. (The gloss is silent on the inappropriateness of the simile).

11. It is by one's self cogitation alone that the pure intellect can be known, and not by the bodily organs, or living spirit or mind, or by our desire of knowing it.

12. It is not the living soul nor its consciousness, nor the vibrations of the body, mind, or breath. It is not the world nor its reality or unreality, or its vacuity or solidity, or the centre of any thing.

13. It is not time or space or any substance at all, nor is it a god or any other being, whatever is quite free from all these and unconfined in the heart or any of the sheaths inside the body.

14. That is called the soul in which all things are moving, and which is neither the beginning nor end of any thing, but exists from eternity to eternity, and is not characterised by any of the elementary bodies of air and the rest.

15. The soul is an entity that is never annihilated in this or the next world, though the sentient bodies may be born and die away a thousand times like earthen pots here below.

16. There is no removal of this vacuous spirit from its seat, both in the inside and outside of every body; for know, O thou best of spiritualists, all bodies to be equally situated in the all pervading spirit.

17. It is the imperfection of our understanding, that creates the difference between the spirit and the body; but it shows the perfection of our judgement, when we believe the universal soul, to be diffused throughout the universe.

18. Though warmly engaged in business, yet remain unaddicted to worldliness by your indifference to the world, and to all moving and unmoving things that there exists on earth.

19. Know all those as the great Brahma—the immaculate soul, that is without the properties and attributes of mortal beings; it is without change and beginning and end, and is always tranquil and in the same state.

20. Now RÁma! as you have known by your spiritual vision (clairvoyance), all things including time and action, and all causality, causation and its effect, together with the production, sustentation and dissolution of all, to be composed of the spirit of God, you are freed from your wanderings in the world in your bodily form.