135 - A dialogue belween Vasistha and Janaka (contd.)

Janaka said: 

1. The relationship between the two viz., the Imperishable and (Perishable) is to be wished for. It is essential that there should be a relationship between the two. The relationship between a woman and a man (is described here). 

2. Without a man no woman conceives. Without a woman no man is able to evolve a form. 

3. In all types of living beings the couple (i.e, male and female) evolve a new form by means of mutual contact. The new form evolved will have the features of both - the male and female, 

4-6. For the sake of pleasure, the two will have intimate contact during the prescribed period after menstruation and a new form having the characteristics of those two will be evolved. I shall explain what constitute the characteristic features of the man and what of the woman who becomes the mother. O brahmin, we know that the bone, sinews and the marrow are derived from the father. We have heard that the skin, flesh and blood are acquired from the mother. O excellent brahmin, it is thus that the matter is explained in the Vedas and scriptures. 

7. What is mentioned in the Vedas is authoritative, so also what is mentioned in the scriptures. The Vedas and scriptures are the two eternal authorities. 

8-10. In the same manner (i.e. as in regard to a man and a woman) Prakruti and Puruşa have perpetual contact and hence, O holy Sir, the function of salvation does not exist. Or, should salvation be explained as something that is performed later on? Do mention this to me. You are always sought after by me directly. Desirous of salvation we wish for the soul that is free from ailment, that cannot be conquered, that is free from old age, that is eternal, that is beyond the purview of senseorgans and that has no other overlord. 

Vasistha said: 

11. What Your Highness said, quoting the example from the Vedas and scriptures is quite apt. I shall add that you are a person who understands the real principle. 

12. The texts of both, viz. the Vedas and other scriptures are held by you, O king. Be the person who understands the essence of the texts correctly. 

13. If a person is interested only in holding the texts of the Vedas and other scriptures and he is not conversant with  the real meaning and principles it is in vain that he holds those texts. 

14. He who does not understand the meaning of those texts is merely a carrier of a burden. The acquisition of the texts is not in vain in regard to a person who is conversant with the meaning and principles of the texts. 

15. On being asked, only a man like me is competent to state the meaning of a text. Due to a true understanding, he alone grasps the correct meaning. 

16. If a person of imperfect intellect is not eager to understand the meaning of the texts, how can that person of im perfect knowledge explain the texts with cofindence? 

17. If a person who has not understood the basic principles of a scriptural text begins to explain it out of greed or arrogance, he is a sinner and he will fall into hell. 

18. A person of loopholes (i.e. imperfect knowledge) will never explain the text truthfully and confidently since he is neither self-possessed nor conversant with the meaning and basic principles of the text. 

19. Hence listen, O great king, how this is being viewed actually by the noble-souled followers of Samkhya and Yoga systems. 

20. Whatever the followers of the Yoga system see (and understand), the Sāṁkhyas too follow. He who sees the identity of the Samkhya and Yoga systems is wise. 

21. Skin, flesh, blood, bile, marrow, bone and sinew - O dear one, these can be perceived by the sense-organs, as Your Highness has already told me. 

22. A substance is evolved out of another substance and a sense organ is produced from another sense organ. One attains a body from another body and a seed from another seed. 

23. How will there be Gunas in the great Ātman because it is devoid of Guņas? How can this embodied soul devoid of sense-organs have the Guņas? How can there be Guņa in a seed that is not solid? 

24. Gunas are produced from Gunas and they cease to exist there itself. In the same manner the Gunas arising out of Prakruti are produced from Prakruti but they end therein itself. 

25-28. Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, bone-marrow and sinew-know them to be cight along with semcn that is natural. The symbol of a woman is Prakruti. It is male as well as female. This is called Väyu (Wind), Pumān (Man) and Rasa (Juice). Prakruti is devoid of symbol. It is perceived through the symbols born of itself in the same way at through flowers and fruits; the formless things are perceived among things with form. In the same manner the symbol is perceived through inference. Among the principles the twenty-fifth principle, O dear one, is of fixed nature. 

29. It has neither beginning nor end; it is infinite; it observes everything; but it is isolated. It is due to the identification through the guņas that it is called Guna. 

30. The Gunas exist in one with Guņa. How can there be Guņas in one without Gunas? Hence those people who look at Guņas know thus. 

31. When this soul identifies itself with the Gunas belonging to Prakruti it is one with Guņas and it observes the different Gunas. 

32-33. The fact that they call Samkhya and Yoga as existing beyond Intellect explains that it is highly intelligent while knowing; and it is unenlightened while avoiding the enlightened. They call Isvara when it is manifest through its Guņas. They call Ishvara without Guņa, the perpetual presiding deity. 

34. Scholars who are experts in Samkhya and Yoga and who seek the Supreme Soul understand the twenty-five principles consituted by Prakruti and Guņas. 

35. The persons who are unenlightened, do not understand the enlightened and unmanifest one. They understand the manifest identical with the unmanifest. 

36. This principle is perfect but their vision is imperfect. They do not understand the known as separate from the unknown. 

37. This principle of perishable and Imperishable has been mentioned to you. They call Ekatva (unity) Akshara (Imperishable) and Nänātva (diversity) is called Kshara. 

38. This is stationed in the twenty-five principles. They say that it is perfect. Its unity is perceived. So also its diversity. 

39. There is a separate citation of the principle and one who is conversant with the principle. Learned scholars say that the principles are twenty-five in number. 

40. The learned men state that the twenty-fifth principle is devoid of Tattva (? principle). It is the practice that what should be discarded should be discarded. A twenty-fifth is eternal because of its reality. 

Janaka said: 

41. What has been stated by you, O excellent brahmin, viz. diversity and unity is not understood by me) even as I observe it. Their example is in doubt. 

42. Undoubtedly, with the gross intellect I do not see the reality, O sinless one, of that which is being known through Buddha (that which is understood) and Prabuddha (the enlightened). 

43. The explanation too of the perishable and the im- perishable, given by you, O sinless one, has been missed by me due to the unsteadiness of intellect. 

44. Therefore, I wish to hear this, viz. the philosophy of diversity and unity as well as the mutually opposite pairs that are to be understood essentially and unobstructedly. 

45. O holy one, I wish to know separately the distinction between knowledge and ignorance, the Imperishable and the perishable, Samkhya and Yoga entirely, as well as the enlightened and the unenlightened.

Vasistha said: 

46. Oh, I shall narrate unto you what you ask me. O great king, listen separately from me the function of Yoga. 

47. To the followers of Yoga, meditation is a great power. The learned ones say that meditation is of two types. 

48. (1) The concentration of mind, and (2) the control of breath. Praņāyāma is of two types, viz. Saguna and Nirguna. 

The Nirguna is mental. 

49. One should not practise Prāņayama for two units of time, ruler of men, after passing urine, evacuating bowels and taking food. After that he shall do so with eagerness. 

50-53. The devotee observing silence shall mentally turn the sense-organs away from the objects. (The control of breath) may last for ten or twelve (Mātrās). The intelligent devotee shall not induce himself to retain breath for more than twentyfour Mātrās. It is mentioned by scholars that breath control should not be practised while standing. We have heard that the Ātman of the universe should be known always. Indeed yoga can be practised by a person whose mind is not shaky. The person who meditates should be free from all attachments. His diet should be light. He shall control and conquer his senses. He shall fix the mind to the heart either early in the night or in the later half of the night. 

54-55. O king of Mithila, he shall steady the sense-organs by his mind. He shall steady his mind by his intellect. He shall be still like a stone. He should not tremble. He shall be steady like a post and still like a tree. He shall control himself by means of intellect. He shall be conversant with the mode and process of breath control. They call him yukta i.e. one who is in the state of Yoga. 

56-57. He does not hear. He does not smell. He does not see anything. He is not aware of touch. His mind does not think or imagine anything. Like a log he does not know anything. The learned scholars call him Yukta and one who has attained Prakruti or the primordial state. 

58. Just as even when the lamp is not seen the light is seen, so also the soul without Linga shall have the movements below, above and sideways. 

59. Being equipped with that the soul is stationed in the heart. When it is seen thus, O dear one, it is called by people like me Immanent soul, that which should be known, the knower. 

60. Like fire without smoke, like sun with all its rays, like lightning in the sky, he sees the Atman in the Ātman. 

61. It has no source of origin and it is immortal. Only the learned scholars possessing courage and Brahmins adhering to their dharma can see it. 

62. They call it minuter than the atom, and greater than the greatest. Though it stands firm everywhere in all living beings it is not perceived. 

62. It is the creator of universe by means of intellect that could be observed by the light of the mind. Standing beyond the great Tamas, o dear one, it is (Non-Tāmasa). 

64 Persons who are conversant with truth and who are masters of the Vedic lorc declare that it is far off from darkness. It has various appellations, viz. Vimala (Devoid of impuritics), Vimata (One who is particularly honoured), Virlinga (That which is beyond symbols) and Alinga (That which has no symbols). 

65. Yoga alone is the substance of the worlds. What else can be the characteristic feature of Yoga? One who sees thus perceives the unageing great Ātman. 

66. So far the Yogic school of philosophy has been recounted in essence to you by me. I shall now recount the Samkhya school which is an example of Parisaṁkhyā (Enumeration). 

67. They call the great Prakruti of the soul Avyakta (Un- . manifcst) and Prakhyāna (Proclamation). From it originated the second principle Mahat, О most excellent king. 

68. The Principle originating from Mahat is Ahamkara (Ego). The five elements originated from Ahamkāra. 

69. These cight are Prakrutis. The Vikāras (products) are sixteen in number. Five of them are Višeşas and five are the sense-organs. 

70. Those who are conversant with the arrangement of the followers of the Samkhya school, those who perpetually abide by the path of the Sāmkhyas, those who are learned scholars in the Samkhya school say that the number of principles is only this much. 

71. Everything gets dissolved in its respective source of origin wherefrom it has been produced. These principles get dissolved in the reverse order and they are apprehended by the immanent soul. 

72. The Guņas (i.e. all evolved things get dissolved in Guņas like the waves of ocean. They are produced in the or dinary order and get dissolved in the reverse order.

73. The creation and annihilation of Prakruti, O excellent king, is this much. In the process of creation it has diversity and unity at the time of annihilation. 

74. This is what, O great king, should be understood by the experts. The presiding deity is the unmanifest. 

75. It has unity and diversity in the same manner as in the case of Prakruti. It has unity at the time of annihilation and multiplicity due to activity. 

76. The Ātman shall evolve Prakruti at the time of creation in various ways. The great Ātman, the twenty-fifth principle presides over that group. 

77. It is called the presiding deity by ascetics. It is that because it presides over the group. 

78. It knows the Kșhetra or the Avyakta. Hence it is called Kshetrajña. It lies down in the Pura (city) of Avyakta. Therefore it is called Puruşa. 

79. The Kșhetra is separate from Kşhetrajña. The Kșhetra is called Avyakta and Jñātr (knower) is Puruşa. 

80. Jñana (knowledge) is separate from Jñeya (that which should be known). Jñāna is Avyakta; Jñeya is Puruşa. 

81. The Avyakta is Kșhetra, Sattva etc. Puruşa is Anīśvara (having no other master) and Atattva (devoid of Tattva). 

82. In the school of Samkhya there is no fixed number. The Samkhyā creates and explains Prakruti only. 

83. The number can be forty or twenty-four. After enu- merating factually (the principles are to be understood). The Samkhya has a thousand processes. The twenty-fifth principle is beyond the other principles. 

84. The twenty-fifth principle is mentioned in the Vedas as the Enlightened soul and knowing one. When he realises Ātman he becomes Kevala (The single one). 

85. Thus the Samkhya school of philosophy has been described to you briefly. Those who know thus attain liberation. 

86. What is called perfect knowledge is the perception of Prakruti. It has been already explained how that which possesses Gunas could be produced from Nirguna (that which is devoid of Guņas). 

87-90. There is no return to this world to those who realize this. Nor do they turn to the state of mortality. Those who are non-intelligent do not perceive the distinction between the changeable and the unchangeable. In regard to them the vision is not perfect. O king, they are born again and again. The Avyakta is called "Sarva" (the whole). The twenty-fifth principle is the part thereof. People comprehend Sarva not by Sarva. They comprehend Sarva by following Asarva. Those who know thus have no fear.