Sri Vasista

1. O Rāma, this mutable world is a becoming, an accomplishment.  There is nothing that is not a becoming in that (this is not separately made or structured).  It is a gleaming, glittering flash.  It is void but abides as a luminous response to ideation.

2. Even a little of the time and space continuum is covered by this universe.

3. This world is a more mental fancy like a city-in-dream. It is merely ether wherever it abides.

4. It is a boundless formation and composition.  It is visible.  Even so it is non-existent and unreal.  It is not built or structured.  It is like a strange and wonderful figure in the ether.

5. These bodies (of beings) and the three worlds are (false) inventions of the mind.  The declared reason is that consciousness required eyes to see things.

6. This world, the pots, the clothes, the trees are mere luminous reflections of The Absolute Self.  The cyclical and individual existence of walls etc is not because they are real.

7. This body is invented by mind to house itself according to the vāsanas.  It is like a self made Cocoon of the silk worm.

8. There is nothing that is impossible for the vast mind of great resolutions and determinations.  There is nothing that it cannot do or acquire or attain.

9. What are the powers that even gods possess that are not possible and resident inside the cave of mind?

10. O mighty Rāma, all real and unreal things exist and shine due to the might and prowess of mind.

11. Look at your body Rāma.  This has come to you because of the musing of mind.  And so the inventions and imaginations of mind are very powerful – say the wise.

12. All gods and ‘asuras’ are caused by the Self-resolve of the mind.  They disappear on withdrawal of that resolve (by mind).  It is like a lamp which is deprived of oil.

13. O intelligent Rāma, all is like void of space/sky.  It is only an exuberance of imagination.  Look at this world as product of a long dream.

14. O best of minds, nothing in this world is either born nor is it dying.  From the point of view of the Supreme, all that is visible is unreal.

15. How can something take a shape or form when it neither grows nor declines.  And so where is the question of dividing it?

16. O Rāghava, without seeing the abundance of beings emerging from the body of mind with your trained eye, why are you getting deluded in your heart by false knowledge?

17. The heat/hotness of mirage is a mental determination/image.  In the same way all that is manifest, including Brahma and such, is unreal.

18. The two-moon illusion is seen due to a wish of mind.  All those greats of false knowledge look at everything as dependent on world.

19. Just like the rows which are on the coast line appear as if shaking to a person in a boat, all the shapes and forms are products of unreality.

20. All that is in this world is mere jugglery.  It is a design of the deceitful ‘māya’.  It is structured by mental ideas and thoughts.  Allis neither existence nor non-existent.

21. All is Brahman here.  Where is the question of any other thing?  What else can abide in this?

22. ‘This is a hill.  This is immobile’ – such vain pronouncements arise because of strong mental ideations.  And so the unreal appears real.

23. This world is an intoxicated person’s descent into phenomena.  Give up the thinking associated with desire and agreed.  And think beyond O Rāma.

24. Just as even great initiatives in a dream are mere illusions and not real, this mind-conceived world is also a long dream.  Know this (truth).

25. Cast away this visible exuberance of pleasure, this agreeable looking disagreeable thing, this casket of serpents of desires.

26. All this is unreal and on-existent when realized.  Do not entertain any thoughts about it.  Knowledgeable people do not chase this knowing it is a mere mirage.

27. This is full of self-conceived forms and shapes full of wishful objects.  Those who chase them are foolish and deserve only sorrow.

28. When the real thing does not exist, one can run after anything, even the unreal.  Discarding the real, one who goes after the unreal he gets destroyed.

29. All this is mere delusion of the mind like the rope-serpent illusion.  This world revolves around multitude of funny ideas and musings.

30. Those feelings and dispositions that are born of unreality are unstable like the moon reflected in quivering waters.  Only children are deceived by such things, not intelligent people like you.

31. If a fellow expects happiness from this phlematic formation of qualities, he is like a fool who tries to cure his disease by an imagine fire.

32. This body is completely unreal.  It is like a city structured in heart by mental ideation.

33. This world is born of the mental will.  If this will is absent, the world also disappears.  All that is visible is unreal like a city-in-sky.

34. O Rāma, if this world is destroyed nothing is lost.  Even if this increases, nothing is increased.

35. If a vast city conjured u in the heart by the mind is destroyed what is destroyed  and what is increased? Tell me.

36. This world which is a product of the mind is like something that is playfully active in the heart of a child.

37. If water created by magic disappears no one is affected.  Similarly if this mutable world is shattered/destroyed no one is affected.

38. If what is non-existent is destroyed what is the hurt for anyone?  And so, where is the place for grief and joy in this mutable world?

39. If something is absolutely non-existent (unreal) where is extinction for it?  O mighty intellect, in such a case of absence of extinction why talk about sorrow.

40. What is extinction for something that is absolutely existent?  When all is Brahman, how can sorrow and joy arise (in that)?

41. O Rāma of noble mind, when something is absolutely non-existent, how can that increase of develop?  When growth is absent how can one talk about joy?

42. What is that that can be desired by wise people in a world which is untrue in every aspect and in every element?

43. When all is that Brahman principle, in such universe what is that that is disagreeable to a wise person?

44. All sorrow and joy are due to the non-existent and existent world.  A fool who does not know this grieves when this world is annihilated.

45.  What is not there in the beginning will not be/cannot be there in the present.  O Rāma, whoever desires the unreal, he sees only the unreal.

46. Whatever is true in the beginning, it will be true in the present too.  For whom everything real, he will see only the real.

47. Only children will desire the moon in water while (real) moon is in the sky.  This is due to a delusion in the mind.  Wise people will not be under such delusion.

48. Only fools (and children) will derive joy out of purposeless and useless things.  They give only sorrow and never any joy.

49. And so, O Rāma, do not become a child (ignorant person).  Perceive that imperishable self and abide in that in a settled fashion.

50. All this, including me, unreal/non-existent.  Do not be afflicted by such sorrowful things.  Realise that all is Brahman, including me.  Even so do not become attached to it.

Sri Valmiki

51. As the lord of munis said this, day passed by.  All proceeded to perform their evening ablutions.  They all assembled again the next day.