40 - The Yogi’s bliss.

Dattitreya explains to Alarka the ailments that beset a yogi’s soul and mentions their five varieties. He describes the yogi’s duties, the stages by which final enuincipation is attained, the eight permonitory marks of final emancipation, and the results of union with the Supreme Spirit. 

Dattatreya spoke.

1 I will succinctly declare to theo the ailments† that prevail in the soul of a yogi when it is viewed: hearken to me.

† Upa-sarga. 

2 He longs for rites performed with a view to future fruition, and the objects of human desire, for women, the fruits of alms-giving, for science, for supernatural power, for the baser

3 metals and riches, for. heaven, god-head, and supreme god-head, for actions that yield copious supplies of elixir vitae,* for flying on the storm-winds, for sacrifice, and the power of

* Read rasayana.ch’ayáḥ for rasáyana-ch’ayah?

4 inhabiting water and fire, for the fruits of śhráddhas that contain every gift, and religious mortifications. Thus he longs

5 when mentally ailing by reason of fasting, meritorious acts, and worship of the gods, and by reason of those several actions. 

A yogí should strenuously restrain his mind when beset

6 with such thoughts. By making his mind cling to Brahma he is liberated front ailments. When these ailments are overcome

7 other ailments still beset a yogi, arising out of gooduess, passion and ignorance. 

Ailments arising from illusive vision,† from learing, and, from the deity,†† and mental aberration,§ and enthusiasm||

† Prátibha. Prof. Monier-Williams gives the meaning “relating to divination,” but in this place it seems to relate to vision, as the context shows. 

†† Daiva.

§Bhrama.

|| Avarta. Deliberation, rovolving (in the mind), so Prof. Monier-Williams; at it seeing a much stronger word. 

8 these five are roots of bitterness which tend to embarass the religious meditations of yogis. The aiment arising from

9 illusive vision is such to a yogi because in it appear Vedic matters, poetic matters, science and tho mechanical arts with out end. The ailment connected with hearing is so-called

10 because he perceives the meanings of sounds in all their completeness, and he receives sound from thousands of yojanas.

11 The wise call that ailment one from the deity, as in the case of a madman, when like a god he sees all around and in the eight

12 directions. When the yogi’s mind wanders without support through his own fault by reason of his fall from all the rules of

13 good custom¶ -that is well known as mental aberration. When the seething whirl-pool** of knowledge like a whirl-pool of water engulphs the mind - that ailment is called enthusiasm

¶ Achara

** Avarta.

14 All beings of divine origin, when their religious meditation is destroyed by these great and terrible ailments, revolve again and again.

15 Therefore, the yogi, having clad himself with a mental white blanket, should cast his mind prone on supreme Brahma, and meditate on him. A yogi should always be intent on religious meditation, he should eat sparingly, he should subdue

16 his senses. The yogi should contemplate in his head the subtle conditions of the soven objects, viz., earth &c.; he should contemplate the subtle earth, until he comprehends its

17 subtloty.* He deems the earth to be his soul, and he quits  its bonds. Moreover, he quits the subtle taste in water,* and

*For tat-saukhyam read tat-saukshmam; so a MS. in the Sanskrit College.

18 also the form in the fire; and he likewise quits touch in the wind, as he bears tho subtle form in mind; and he quits the

19 subtle activity of the sky, and likewise its sonnd. When he enters with his mind into the mind of all created things, his mind bearing a mental subtle condition of them becomes

20 subtle also. Likewise, the man, conversant with religious devotion, on attaining to the intellect of all creatures, gains and relinquishes the most perfect subtlety of intellect. For

21 the man conversant with religious dovotion, who relinquishes these seven subtle things after haviug thoroughly comprehended

22 them, there is no retrogression, O Alarka! The soulcognisant man, after fully seeing the subtlety of these subtle conditions of the seven objects, then utterly abandoning it

23 may proceed to supreme bliss. And towards whatever creater thing he evinces feeling, O king! to that very thing he becomes

24 attached, and he perishes. Therefore, the corporeal being who after perceiving the mutually-associated subtle things

25 abandons them, may gain supreme bliss. Having coujoine these very soven subtle things, O king! passionlessnes towards created and other things tends to the final emancipation from existence of tho man cognisant of the entities.†

†For atsu read apsu?

††Sad-bháva. 

26 When he becomes attached to perfumes and other delights, he perishes; he again reverts to human nature apart from

27 Brahma. Whatever subtle created thing tho yogí desires, after transcending the subtle conditions of these seven objects,

28 in that very thing he meets his extinction, O king! He meets his extinction in the bodies of gods or Asuras, or of Gandarvas, Nagas, or Rákshasas; nowhere does he gain any attachment.

29 Where minuteness, and lightness, * greatness and the power of obtaining every thing, freedom of will, † and lordship, and

* Laghima.

                  † Prákámya.

30 magical domination and again self-mortification are—one finds these eight sovereign-like qualities fully indicate union with

31 the Supreme Spirit, †† O king. The quality of minuteness is far subtler than the subtle; lightness means swiftness; greatness consists in being universally reverenced; the power of obtaining

                  †† Nir-vana.

32 everything, inasmuch as nothing is impossible of obtainment by him; freedom of will consists in his power of pervading all things; and lordship inasmuch as he is lord; magical

33 domination indeed, the yogi's seventh quality consists in his subjugating things; where the wishes are said to remain stationary, § there|| is self-mortification. By these causes of

§ But better, for apyuktam read santyaktam? “Where the objects of the wishes are renounced.”

|| For yatra read tatra? 

34 sovereignty I have declared O king! in eight points the indicatory marks ¶ of the yogi's final emancipation from existence, and of his sublime union with the Supreme Spirit. Henceforth for him there is no birth, nor growth, nor

¶ Samshuchaka: A word not in the dictionary. 

35 death; he neither decays nor does he alter; neither from Bhúr and the other worlds, nor from the family of created beings, does he experience severance, or moisture, or burning

36 or dryness; nor is he captivated by sounds or other sensual impressions; nor do sounds and other impressions exist for him; one who experiences them is not united with them.

37. For as an impure lump of gold, when its impurities are purged away by fire, unites with another lump into one, and

38 undergoes no difference; even so the ascetic, when his fault is burnt out by the fire of religious devotion, unites with

39 Brahma. As fire when thrown into fire may attain samenes and, bearing the same name and having the same substan

40 may not be perceived by any distinction, even so the yoga when his stains are burnt away, attains to union with supreme Brahma, and never acquires a separate existence, O king

41 As water when thrown into water unites, so the yogi's so attains to sameness in the Supreme Soul.