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What is left is deep and static (stimita-gambhira), neither light nor dark- ness, indescribable and unmanifested (anakhyam anabhivyaktam), but a somehow existent entity. This entity manifests itself as another (svayam anya ivollasan) ; and through this dynamic aspect it appears as the ever-active mind (manas)—like moving ripples from the motionless ocean. But in reality whatever appears as the diver- sified universe is altogether non-existent; for, if it was existent, XII] The Ultimate Entity 233 it could not cease under any circumstances!. It does not exist at all. The ultimate indefinite and indescribable entity, which is pure extinction (mrvdna-matra), or pure intelligence (paro bodhah), remains always in itself and does not really suffer any transforma- tions or modifications. Out of the first movement of this entity arises ego (svata), which, in spite of its appearance, is in reality no- thing but the ultimate entity. Gradually, by a series of movements (spanda) like waves in the air, there springs forth the entire world- appearance. The ultimate entity is a mere entity of pure conceiving or imagining (samkalpa-purusa)?. The Muni held that what appears before us is due to the imagination of manas, like dreamland or fairyland (yatha samkalpa-nagaram yatha gandharva-pattanam). There is nothing in essence except that ultimate entity, and whatever else appears does not exist at all—it is all mere mental creations, proceeding out of the substanceless, essenceless mental creations of the ultimate entity. It is only by the realization that this world-appearance has no possibility of existence that the false notion of ourselves as knowers ceases, and, though the false appearance may continue as such, there is emancipation (moksa). This manas, however, by whose mental creations everything springs forth in appearance, has no proper form, it is merely a name, mere nothingness?. It does not exist outside or subjec- tively inside us; it is like the vacuity surrounding us everywhere. That anything has come out of it is merely like the production of a mirage stream. All characteristics of forms and existence are like © momentary imaginations. Whatever appears and seems to have existence is nothing but manas, though this manas itself is merely a hypothetical starting-point, having no actual reality. For the manas is not different from the dreams of appearance and cannot be separated from them, just as one cannot separate liquidity from water or movement from air. Manas is thus nothing but the hypothetical entity from which all the dreams of appearance pro- ceed, though these dreams and manas are merely the same and 1 Yoga-vasistha, Il. 3. 2 sarvesam bhiita-jatanam samsadra-vyavaharindm prathamo ’sau pratispandas citta-dehah svatodayah asmat pirvat pratispandad ananyaitat-svaripini iyam pravisrtd srstih spanda-srstir tvanilat. [ils et4 eS. e ramasya manaso riipam na kimcid api drsyate nama-matrad rte vyomno yatha sanya-jadakrteh. : Ill. 4. 38. 234 The Philosophy of the Yoga-vasistha [cH. it is impossible to distinguish between them!. Avidyd, samsrtt, citta, manas, bandha, mala, tamas are thus but synonyms for the same concept?. It is the perceiver that appears as the perceived, and it is but the perceptions that appear as the perceiver and the perceived. The state of emancipation is the cessation of this world-appearance. There is in reality no perceiver, perceived or perceptions, no vacuity (Sanya), no matter, no spirit or conscious- ness, but pure cessation or pure negation, and this is what we mean by Brahman’. Its nature is that of pure cessation (santa), andit is this that the Samkhyists call purusa, the Vedantins call ‘‘ Brahman,” the idealistic Buddhists call ‘‘ pure idea” (vijfiana-matra) and the nihilists “‘ pure essencelessness” (Sinya)*. It is of the nature of pure annihilation and cessation, pervading the inner and the outer world®. It is described as that essencelessness (sémya) which does not appear to be so, and in which lies the ground and being of the essenceless world-appearance (yasmin Siinyam jagat sthitam), and which, in spite of all creations, is essenceless*. The illusory world- appearance has to be considered as absolutely non-existent, like the water of the mirage or the son of a barren woman. The ultimate entity is thus neither existent nor non-existent and is both statical and dynamical (spandaspandatmaka)’ ; it is indescribable and un- nameable (kimapy avyapadesatma) and neither being nor non- being nor being-non-being, neither statical being nor becoming (na bhavo bhavanam na ca). The similarity of the philosophy of the Yoga-vasistha to the idealistic philosophy of the Lankavatara- siitra is so definite and deep that the subject does not require any elaborate discussion and the readers are referred to the philosophy of the Lankavatara in the first volume of the present work. On Vedanta lines it is very similar to Prakasananda’s interpretation of the Vedanta in later times, called drsti-srsti-vada, which can probably be traced at least as far back as Gaudapada or Mandana. Prakasatman refers to the Yoga-vasistha as one of his main authorities. u piirne purnam prasarati Sante santam vyavasthitam vyomany evoditam vyoma brahmani brahma tisthati na drsyam asti sad-riipam na drasta na ca darsanam na Stinyam na jadam no cic chantam evedam atatam. Ill. 4. 69, 70. Il. 4. 46. 3 i. 5. 6-7. 4 n@Sa-riipo vinadsatmad. U1. 5. 16. Sl Fee2 STII OLS: 7 AIT 95-49; 2 XII] Origination 235 Origination. The world as such never existed in the past, nor exists now, nor will exist hereafter; so it has no production or destruction in any real sense?. But yet there is the appearance, and its genesis has somehow to be accounted for. The ultimate entity is, of course, of the nature of pure cessation (Santa), as described above. The order of moments leading to the manifestation of the world- appearance can be described in this way: At first there is some- thing like a self-reflecting thought in the ultimate entity, producing some indescribable objectivity which gives rise to an egohood. Thus, on a further movement, which is akin to thought, is produced a state which can be described as a self-thinking entity, which is clear pure intelligence, in which everything may be reflected. It is only this entity that can be called conscious intelligence (cit). As the thought-activity becomes more and more concrete (ghana-samvedana), other conditions of soul (jiva) arise out of it. At this stage it forgets, as it were, its subject-objectless ultimate state, and desires to flow out of itself as a pure essence of creative movement (bhavana-matra-sara). The first objectivity is akasa, manifested as pure vacuity. At this moment arise the ego (ahamta) and time (kala). This creation is, however, in no sense real, and is nothing but the seeming appearances of the self-conscious move- ment (sva-samvedana-matrakam) of the ultimate being. All the network of being is non-existent, and has only an appearance of existing. Thought (samvit), which at this moment is like the akasa and the ego and which is the seed (bija) of all the conceivings of thought (bhadvana), formulates by its movement air®. Again, u bandhya-putra-vyoma-bane yatha na stah kadacana jagad-Gdy akhilam drsyam tatha nasti kaddcana na cotpannam na ca dhvamsi yat kiladau na vidyate utpattih kidrsi tasya nasa-sabdasya ka katha. IIT, TE. 455% 5 manah sampadyate lolam kalana-kalanonmukham ; kalayanti manah saktir ddau bhdvayati ksandat. akasa-bhavanamaccham sabda-bija-rasonmukhim ; tatas tam ghanatam jatam ghana-spanda-kraman manah. IV. 44. 16, 17. A comparison of numerous passages like these shows that each mental creation is the result of a creative thought-movement called bhavand, and each successive movement in the chain of a succession of developing creative move- ments is said to be ghana, or concrete. Ghana has been paraphrased in the Tatparya- prakdsa as accretion (upacaya). Bhavana is the same as spanda; as the result of each thought-movement, there was thought-accretion (ghana), and corresponding “to each ghana there was a semi-statical creation, and following each ghana there was a spanda (ghana-spanda-kramat). 236 The Philosophy of the Yoga-vasistha [cH. following the akasa moment and from it as a more concrete state (ghanibhixya), comes forth the sound-potential (kha-tan-matra). This sound-potential is the root of the production of all the Vedas, with their words, sentences and valid means of proof. Gradually the conceivings of the other tan-mdtras of sparsa, tejas, rasa and gandha follow, and from them the entire objective world, which has no other reality than the fact that they are conceptions of the self-conscious thought}. The stages then are, that in the state of equilibrium (sama) of the ultimate indescribable entity called the Brahman, which, though pure consciousness in essence, is in an un- manifested state, there first arises an objectivity (cetyatva) through its self-directed self-consciousness of the objectivity inherent in it (satas cetyamsa-cetanat); next arises the soul, where there is objective consciousness only through the touch or connection of objectivity (cetya-samyoga-cetanat) instead of the self-directed consciousness of objectivity inherent in itself. Then comes the illusory notion of subjectivity, through which the soul thinks that it is only the conscious subject and as such is different from the object (cetyaika-parata-vasat). This moment naturally leads to the state of the subjective ego, which conceives actively (buddhitvakalanam), and it is this conceiving activity which leads to the objective con- ceptions of the different tan-matras and the world-appearance.