Imatges de pàgina
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All these sects make that spirit which is not spirit: though they pretend to argue from the védů, from the union of spirit and matter, and from inference, yet they are supported by none of these, and they one by one confute each other. atheistical writers affirm, If we err, we err with the védă, as well as with the two other sources of proof. The writer of the védantă says, True, the védă contains all these opinions, but its final decision is, that spirit pervades all bodies: it is not therefore identified with a son. Spirit is not material, but ideal, and therefore is not identified with body. It is unorganized, and cannot therefore be identified with the organs. It is not animal life, and therefore it cannot be identified with breath. It is not intellect, and therefore it cannot be identified with mind. It is not a creator [or governor], and therefore is not to be identified with the vignanů-mŭyǎ-koshů. It is a living principle, and therefore it cannot be identified with illusion or inanimate matter. It is pure life, and therefore is not connected with inanimate matter. It is entity, and therefore must not be identified with vacuum. From hence it appears, that the opinions of these sects are at variance with the védă, and that what they term spirit is not spirit. All inanimate things, from a son to vacuum itself, are indebted to the animating principle for manifestation, and from hence it appears, that they cannot be spirit; and this is still further confirmed by the yogee, the subject matter of whose meditations is, I am Brùmhŭ, simple life.

This then is the exact doctrine of the védantů, that as spirit is the principle which animates a son, &c.; that as it is constantly perfect and free from'illusion; is wisdom, that is, it must be constantly identified with knowledge; is always free, or unconnected with the habits of material things; is eternal and uncreated; and is the all-pervading-it is called atmů.

A cord, though it resemble a snake, is notwithstanding a real cord; the idea that it is a snake, is pure error. In this manner, Brămhü is real entity; and the universe, which appears illusive, is indeed Brumhŭ: in the idea that it is something different from Brămhu, lies the mistake.

From the five primary elements arise all bodies, also that which nourishes all, and

the fourteen worlds. From the five subtile elements, arise the five gross elements and their qualities, and the collected mass of subtile bodies. From the living principle united to illusion, arise the five subtile elements and the three goonus. From the perfect Brumhu, arise illusion, and the animating principle united to illusion.

The author next enters into an explanation of the tenet, that spirit in its separate state, also as united to the mass of illusion, or gross matter, and as incarcerated in separate bodies, is identically the same, and, to the yogee, purified from illusion, is really the same. Such an one thus meditates on spirit: "I am everlasting, perfect, perfect in knowledge, free from change, I am entity, the joyful, the undivided, and the one Brămhă. Day and night thus meditating, the yogee at length loses sight of the body, and destroys all illusion.

The next stage of the yogee is that in which he renounces all assistance from the understanding, and remains without the exercise of thought; in which state every thing attached to mortal [rather intellectual] existence becomes extinct. He is now identified with Brumhu, and remains as the pure glass when the shadow has left it; and thus illustrates that verse of the védŭ, that the mind is both capable and incapable of embracing Brămhă.

The understanding, through the organs, in conceiving of visible objects assumes the forms of these objects, and thus destroys ignorance; after which they become manifested by the rays of spirit. Thus when a light enters a dark room, it first disperses the darkness, and then discovers the objects contained in the room.

Therefore the yogee, until he sees Brămhă, ought to attend to the following duties: 1. Hearing; 2. Meditation; 3. Fixing the mind, and 4. Absorption of mind.

By the first is to be understood, hearing the doctrines of the védŭ explained, all which centre in the one Brumhu. In this exercise, the student must attend to the following things; 1. oopňkrămă, or the beginning of the védantů; 2. oopăsŭnghară, or, the close of the védantă; 3. ubhyasă, or, committing to memory certain portions

of the védantů; 4. ŭpōōrbbŭta, or, gaining from the védantă perfect satisfaction respecting Brůmhă; 5. phŭlă, or the knowledge of that which is to be gained from the védantă; 6. urt❜hů-védă, or, the extolling of the fruits to be obtained from the knowledge of the védantă; oopăpăttee, or the 'certifying absolutely what is Brămhăgnană. The second thing which the student is to practise, is meditation on the one Brumhŭ, agreeably to the rules laid down in the védantŭ and other writings.-His third duty is, uninterrupted reflection on the invisible and only Brumho, according to the ideas contained in the védantă.-The fourth effort of the student is to obtain a perfect idea of Brumhu, who is wisdom in the abstract: at first, his ideas will be imperfect, and he will contemplate himself and Brumhŭ as distinct; just as a person seeing in a horse of clay both the toy and the earth of which it is composed, cannot help retaining an idea of the thing represented by the toy. But at length his mind will become exclusively fixed on the one Brămho, the operations of the understanding being all concentrated in God, as salt when thrown into water loses its own form, and is perceptible only as water.

Those who possess this knowledge of Brůmhă, are in possession of or practise the eight following things, viz. 1. Yămă, i. e. inoffensiveness, truth, honesty, the forsaking of all the evil in the world, and the refusal of gifts except for sacrifice; 2. Nihămă, i. e. purity relative to the use of water after defilement; pleasure in every thing, whether prosperity or adversity; renouncing food when hungry, or keeping under the body: reading the védŭs, and what is called the worship of the mind; 3. Asănă, or the posture of sitting during yogu; 4. Pranayamo, or holding, drawing in, and letting out the breath during the repetition of incantations; 5. Prityaharů, or the power of restraining the members of the body and mind; 6. Dharǎna, or preserving in the mind the knowledge of Brŭmhŭ; 7. Dhyanŭ, meditation; 8. Sŭmadhee, to which there are four enemies, viz. a sleepy heart; attachment to any thing except the one Brămhů; human passions, and a confused mind. When the yogee is delivered from these four enemies, he resembles the unruffled flame of the lamp, and his mind continues invariably fixed in meditation on Brůmhă.

He who is distinguished by liberation in a bodily state is thus described: he pos

sesses the knowledge which identifies him with the undivided Brămbă, by which When this illusion knowledge he destroys the illusion which concealed Brămhů.

is destroyed, the true knowledge of Brumhŭ is manifested; and by this manifestation, illusion and its work are destroyed, so that the free man, absorbed in meditation on Brimhu, is liberated even in a bodily state. Though he is connected with the affairs of life; that is, with affairs belonging to a body containing blood, bones, ordure and urine; to organs which are blind, palsied, and full of incapacity; to a mind, filled with thirst, hunger, sorrow, infatuation; to confirmed habits and to the fruits of birth, still, being freed from illusion, he does not view these things as realities. A person may be a spectator of the artifices of a juggler, without being deceived by them. The yogee, after being liberated in a bodily state, still eats and drinks, but without desire; so likewise is he free from envy, and other evil desires; and in the same manner he is indifferent to every state of the body, and free from every passion. his virtues, and the acts of kindness which he performs, are worn as so many ornaments so we learn from the Geeta. This yogee, liberated in the body, for its preservation, receives aliment, but without desire, let the aliment come in whatever state, or from whatever quarter it may. Brůmhŭ alone is seen in his mind.

All

After this, every thing connected with a bodily state having been renounced, and the body itself having fallen, the yogee is absorbed in the excellent Brămhă; and thus illusion, and its effects, as well as the universe itself, being [to the yogee] dissolved, he becomes identified with freedom, with constant joy, with unchangeableness, and with Brămhŭ himself. This is recorded in the védů. Thus ends the Védantu-Sari.

SECTION XX.

Of the Patunjulu Dŭrshunů.

This school of philosophy was founded, according to the Hindoo history, in the sŭtwŭ yoogu, by the sage Putŭnjulee, who wrote the sootrus known by his name, which are comprized in one hundred and ninety-eight lines, or sentences, and who is honoured as an incarnation of the god Ŭnuntů. The sage Védŭ-vyasů wrote a comment on these sentences, of which Vachŭspŭtee-mishrŭ has given an explanatory treatise. Punchŭ-shikhŭ, another learned Hindoo, has also written remarks, and Bhojů-dévů, king of Dhară, a brief comment, on the sentences of Pătůnjulee. All these works are still extant. Some particulars of this sage, to whom are also ascribed a comment on Paninee's grammar, and a medical work called Rajă-mrigankŭ, will be found in page 228 of this volume.

SECTION XXI.

The doctrines of the Patunjul philosophy.

Translated from a comment on the original Patŭnjúlů, by Bhojŭ-dévů.

The restraining of the mind, and confining it to internal meditations, is called yogů. When the mind is thus confined within, it becomes assimilated to the Being whom it seeks to know; but when the mind is secularized, this Being takes the form of secularity. In the first case, the mind is singly and irrevocably fixed on God. In the second, it is restless, injurious, and voluptuous. In the former state, there is no sorrow; in the latter, there are five kinds of sorrow, arising from the labour of seeking proofs of the reality of things, from error, from the pursuit of shadows, from heavy sleep, and from recollection.

In

The three evils, restlessness, injuriousness, and voluptuousness, may be prevented by fixing God in the mind, and by destroying desire. In the former, the person, into a wellregulated mind, constantly brings the Being upon whom he wishes to meditate. performing the latter, the person, by realizing the unsubstantial nature of every thing included in visible objects and in the ceremonies of the védů, and their connection with

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