English
When I become consci ous say for instance of a book there are two distinct branches into which that consciousness resolves itself. I am conscious of the book and I am conscious of the fact that I am conscious of the book. This latter branch of conscious- ness or reflection, consciousness or self-consciousness is egotism or ahankara. t The qualities are *atra, or pleasure and goodness, /Y//KX piin and passional activity, tamo* inditfer3ee or dullness. In association with these qualities, forming the three classes into which objects are divided, the egotism attains its three conditions. The excess of xafra produces super-human conditions, excess of m/Vs human and excess of tama* sub-human existence. £ Which practical psychology or occultism gives. ( 117 ) 112. Its effects can be destroyed by the realization of the non-dual Brahman, as the illusion of the serpent in the rope is destroyed by the realization of the rope. The qualities of it are called wija*, tama* and sutvu arid these are known by their effects. 118. The power o£mj<i$ is extension (r //.;*// <•_/></) which is the essence of action and from which the pre-existing tendencies to action were produced, and the modifications of the mind known, as attachment and other qualities productive of sorrow are always produced by it. 114. Lust and anger, greed, arrogance, malice, aversion personality, jealousy and envy are the terrible properties of rajas; therefore by this quality is produced inclination to action, for this reason rajas is the cause of bondage. 115. The power of ta-max is called an-ifl (enveloping) bv the force of which one thing appears as another : it is this force which is the ultimate cause of the conditioned existence of the ego and the exciting cause for the operation of the force of extension ( Vikshepa). 110. Even though intelligent, learned, skilful, extremely keen-sighted in self examination and properly instructed in various ways, one cannot exercise discrimination, if enveloped by taruas ; but, on account of ignorance one considers as real that which arises out of error, and depends upon the properties of objects produced by error. Alas ! for him ! great is the enveloping power of ttnna* and irrepressible ! 117. Absence of right perception, contradictory thinking, thinking of possibilities, making unsubstantial things for sub stance, belong to T<IJ<IH. One associated with rajas is perpe tually carried away by its expansive power. 118. Ignorance, laziness, dullness, sleep, delusion, folly and others arc the qualities of hntias. One possessed by those perceives nothing correctly but remains as if asleep or like a post. ( IIS ) 119. Pure Mitvd, even though mixed with these two, in the same way as one kind of water mixes with another,* becomes the means of salvation ; [for] the reflection of the absolute self (supreme spirit), received by wi-tra, sunlike manifests the universe of objects. 120. The properties of mixed ante a are self-respect, self regulation, self-control, and the rest, reverence, regard, desire for liberation, god-like attributes and abstinence from evil. 121. The properties of pure witra. are purity, perception of the atma within us, supreme tranquillity, a sense of content ment, cheerfulness, concentration of mind upon the self by which a taste of eternal bliss is obtained. 122. The unmanifested (avyaktam) indicated by these three qualities is the (cause of) I'oraiM saruu (causal body) of the ego. The state of its manifestation is dreamless slumber, in which the functions of all organs and ofiheBuddki are latent. 123. Dreamless slumber is that state in which all consci ousness is at rest, and intellect (btuhlhi) remains in a latent state ; it is known as a state in which there is no knowledge. 124. The body, organs, vitality, mind (mcwicw), ego and the rest, all differentiations, the objects of sense, enjoyment and the rest, akdsa and other elements composing this endless universe, including the anjaldam (unmanifested), are the not- spirit. 125. Maya all the functions of Maya — from Ma/tatf to the body know to be asat (prakrlti or the unreal objectivity) like the mirage of the desert by reason of their being the non-ego. 12G. Now I shall tell you the essential form (swarupa) of the supreme spirit (PARAMATMA), knowing which, man freed from bondage attains isolation (reality of being). * i.e. undigtingnishably. t Buddhi, the first manifestation of Prakriti. ( 119 ) 127. An eternal somewhat, upon which the conviction relating to the ego rests, exists as itself, being different from the five sheaths and the witness of the three conditions. 128. Who during waking, dreaming, and dreamless slumber knows the mind and its functions which are goodness and its absence — this is the ego. 129. Who by himself sees* everything, who is not seen by any one, who vitalizes biuldltl and the others and who is not vitalized by them — this is fehe at ma. 130. The atiita is that by which this universe is pervaded, which nothing pervades, which causes all things to shine, but which all things cannot make to shine. 131. By reason of its proximity alone the bod}-, the organs, Manas and Btuldhl apply themselves to their proper objects as if applied [by some one else]. 132. By it having the form of eternal consciousness all objects from aJtankam to the body and pleasure and the rest are perceived as a jar [is perceived by us.] 133. This Parn*h., the essential atnta'f' is primeval per petual, unconditioned, absolute happiness, eternally having the same form and being knowledge itself — impelled by whom speech (rack) and the vital airs move. 134. This unmanifestcd spiritual consciousness begins to manifest like the dawn in the pure heart, and shining like the midday sun in the "cave of wisdoms1' (the aijn'n'hakra see " Places of Pilgrimage" October Theosophist) illuminating the whole universe. 135. The kiiower of the modifications (operations) J of the 'iiwnus and ahankriti, of the actions performed by the body, organs and vitality present in them, as the lire is present ill the iron, [heated by tire], does not act nor modify (in the same sense as the above,) nor follow (their actions). * Cognises. t Because it is manifested as itself in the manifested universe, + Viz. Vitality, the organs, etc. ( 120 ) 130. That eternal is not born, does not die, or grow or decay or modify, is not itself dissolved by the dissolution of this body, as space (is not dissolved) by the dissolution of the jar. 137. The supreme spirit ( paramatma ), different from Pra- I'riti arid its modifications, having for its essential characteristic pure consciousness shines equally in, manifests this infinity of reality and unreality, manifests* aham (the root of self) itself in the conditions, waking and the rest, as the witness (or sub ject) of IjuM.hi.. 138. O disciple, with mind under control, directly perceive this, the alma in thyself as — "this Lam" — through the tran- qiiility of btublJd cross the shoreless sea of changeful existence, whose billows are birth and death, and accomplish thy end, resting firmly in the form of Brahma. 139. Bondage is the conviction t of the CT as being related to the non-ego ; from the ignorance (or errorVj; arising out of this springs forth the cause of the birth, death, and suffering of the individual so conditioned. And it is from this (error) alone that (he) nourishes, anoints and preserves this body mistaking * The original word is rilasctfi, plays. I am compelled to socritiee in the translation, the suggestion in the original as to the absence of want and there fore of a motive for action in the absolute ego. t The original word is uuitt which is a synonym for buddhi. Bondage there fore is that condition or modification of buddhi in which it takes the form of the error mentioned in the text. Starting from this initial modification bud d hi secretes, larva-like, the world of objects which it reflects upon the at ma and produces its bondage or illusive conditions. Atina is eternally pure and un conditioned, but through its erroneous identification with bvddhi, secreting the illusion of objects, it becomes bound that is to say the modifications of luntdhi become ascribable to it.