Chapter LXI - On birth, death and existence

Argument. The Liberation of the Rajasa-satvika natures, and description of knowledge and Indifference.

Vasishtha continued:—

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Those that are born with the nature of Rajasa-satvika, remain highly pleased in the world, and are as gladsome in their faces, as the face of the sky with the serene light of the moon-beams.

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Their faces are not darkened by melancholy, but are as bright as the face of heaven; they are never exposed to troubles, like the lotus flowers to the frost of night.

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They never deviate from their even nature, but remain unmoved as the immovable bodies; and they persist in their course of beneficence, as the trees yield their fruits to all.

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Rama! the raja and satva natured man, gets his liberation in the same manner, as the disk of the moon receives its ambrosial beams.

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He never forsakes his mildness, even when he is in trouble;but remains as cool as the moon even in her eclipse. He shines with the lovely virtue of fellow-feeling to all.

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Blessed are the righteous, who are always even tempered, gentle and as handsome as the forest trees, beset by creepers with clusters of their blossoms.

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They keep in their bounds, as the sea remains within its boundaries, and are meek like yourself in their even tempers. Hence they never desire nor wish for any thing in the world.

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You must always walk in the way of the godly, and not run to the sea of dangers; thus you should go on without pain or sorrow in your life.

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Your soul will be as elevated as the rajasa and satvika states, by your avoiding the ways of the ungodly, and considering well the teachings of the sastras.

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Consider well in your mind the frail acts, which are attended with various evils; and do those acts which are good for the three worlds, both in their beginning and end, and forever to eternity.

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The intelligent think that as dangerous to them, and not otherwise; by reason of their being freed from narrow views, and the false spectres—the offspring of ignorance.

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You should always consider in yourself for the enlightenment of your understanding, and say: O Lord! what am I, and whence is this multiplicity of worlds?

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By diligently considering these subjects in the society of the wise and righteous, you must neither be engaged in your ceremonial acts, nor continue in your unnecessary practices of the rituals.

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You must look at the disjunction of all things in the world from you (i.e. the temporaneousness of worldly things); and seek to associate with the righteous, as the peacock yearns for the rainy clouds.

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Our inward egoism, outward body and the external world, are the three seas encompassing us one after the other. It is right reasoning only which affords the raft to cross over them, and bring us under the light of truth.

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By refraining to think of the beauty and firmness of your exterior form, you will come to perceive the internal light of your intellect hid under your egoism; as the thin and connecting thread is concealed under a string of pearls. (The hidden thread underlying the links of souls, is termed Sutratma.)

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It is that eternally existent and infinitely extended blessed thread, which connects and stretches through all beings; and as the gems are strung to a string, so are all things linked together by the latent spirit of God.

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The vacuous space of the Divine Intellect, contains the whole universe, as the vacuity of the air, contains the glorious sun; and as the hollow of the earth, contains an emmet.

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As it is the same air which fills the cavity of every pot on earth, so it is the one and the same intellect and spirit of God, which fills, enlivens and sustains all bodies in every place. (The text says, "The Intellect knows no difference of bodies, but pervades alike in all").

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As the ideas of sweet and sour are the same in all men, so is the consciousness of the Intellect alike in all mankind (i.e. we are all equally conscious of our intellectuality, as we are of the sweetness and sourness of things).

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There being but one and only one real substance in existence, it is a palpable error of your ignorant folks to say, "this one exists, and the other perishes or vanishes away". (Nothing is born or extinct, but all exist in God. So is Malebranche's opinion of seeing all things in God).

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There is no such thing, Rama, which being once produced, is resolved into naught at at any time; all these are no realities nor unrealities, but representations or reflections of the Real One.

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Whatever is visible and of temporary existence, is without any perceptible substantiality of its own; it is only an object of our fallacy, beyond which it has no existence. (Hence they are no more than unrealities).

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Why, O Rama! should any body suffer himself to be deluded by these unrealities? All these accompaniments here, being no better than causes of our delusion.

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The accompaniment of unrealities, tends only to our delusion here; and if they are taken for realities, to what good do they tend than to delude us the more. (It is better to let the unreal pass as unreal, than to take them for real, and be utterly deceived at last).