O holy One! I wish to hear about the great Eternal Brahman from whom men of intellect never return. What is it that is called Kshara since this universe dissolves therein (in the Brahman)? What is it that is spoken of as Akshara which is auspicious, conducive to happiness and free from ailment?
Vasistha said:
O Ruler of the earth! Let it be heard how this universe dissolves and perishes, where it dissolves at first, and how long it takes.
A Yuga consists of twelve thousand years. Know that a Kalpa is made up of four Yugas. A cycle of four hundred Kalpas is called a day of Brahma.
O King! The night is also of the same duration at the end of which he wakes up and creates the great element firmament and other creations without end. The self-born lord, devoid of form, and benefactor of the world, creates the universe that has form. It is in the lord that the universe is rooted and has its origin, O excellent King!
(The Supreme Soul) is Isaana, the never-diminishing flame, with the powers of Anima (minuteness), Laghima (lightness) and Prapti (accessibility). It has legs and hands all
around. It has eyes, heads and mouths all around. It has ears all around. It stands enveloping everything in the world. He is Lord Hiranyagarbha and is known as Buddhi
(Cosmic Intellect).
It is called by various names in Saamkhya. In the Yoga system, it is called Mahat and Virinchi.
It has various forms. It is the Soul of the universe. It is known as One and Imperishable. All the three worlds have been held by It as though they form one unit.
In the same manner, It is known as Omni-formed because of its multifarious forms undergoing some physical changes It creates in Itself.
Pradhana is a very great city called so because it is the abode of elements, etc. Ahamkara (Great Ego) has great splendour and it is subdued by Prajapati.
They call the manifestation from the Un-manifest Vidyaasarga. Mahat and Ahamkara constitute Avidyaasarga.
So also from the Eka (Only One) the Achara (immobile) and Chara (mobile) are born. They are known as Vidya and Avidya, and proclaimed so by persons who ponder over
Vedic passages and scriptures. Know that there is a third type of creation, O King, from Ahamkaara, that is, the creation of elements (Bhutasarga), namely, wind, fire,
firmament, water and earth. In Ahamkaara itself, O King, know the fourth creation as Vaikrta (diverse manifestation). The five elements and their particular qualities, namely, sound, touch, colour, taste and smell are produced simultaneously.
Know the fifth type of creation, O great King, to be Bhautika-sarga (the creation of the evolutes of the five elements). They are the organs of sense and action as well as the
mind. Ear, skin, eye, tongue and nose are the five sense-organs. Speech, hands, feet, anus and the regenerative organ are the five karmendriyas (organs of action). These
organs arise simultaneously with the mind. Thus there are twenty-four principles in action in the Creation. By knowing this set of twenty-four principles, the Brahmins cease to be worried. They see the Reality.
Thus the excellent set of the three worlds is produced. It should be known, O excellent One among men! In the whole world, in all the creations, the Atman that pervades is the same whether it is the ocean of hell, the abode of Yakshas, Bhutas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Nagas, Charanas, Pisachas, deities, sages and demons; or whether it is the creation of flies, worms, mosquitoes, worms in the putrid matter, mice, dogs, low caste people who cook dogs, chandalas, pulkasas, eneyas, hunters of deer, horses, elephants, donkeys, tigers, wolves and cows. We have already heard that there is the abode of embodied beings in water, land and air. Certainly, nowhere else!
It is the Soul of all living beings that is known as Imperishable (Akshara). Everyday, the entire universe drops off and perishes. It moves off from the Avyakta (the un-manifest one). Since the universe perishes, it is called (perishable). They say that the universe is conducive to delusion. It is called Vyakta (manifest), and it arises from Avyakta. The Akshara is great and eternal. It avoids Kshara (the perishable). From this no one returns. Thus, O great King, the Akshara has been explained unto you.
The twenty-fifth-principle is Formless. It is eternal and it is real. Intelligent scholars call it Tattva because it depends on sattva.
That which is devoid of form creates the (manifest) and presides thereupon. The manifest is the twenty-fourth principle and the formless is the twenty-fifth one.
It alone abides in the heart of all forms. It is equipped with soul. It is conscious, and it instills consciousness in all objects. It has no form, but it identifies itself with all forms.
It assumes forms of creation and annihilation through the peculiar characteristics of creation and annihilation. Although It is devoid of attributes, It remains within the view.
Although this great Soul undergoes changes continuously owing to trillions of creations and annihilations, It does not absolutely identify Itself with them all.
Owing to Its resorting to unenlightened Jiva, It becomes enveloped with tamas, sattva and rajas and is born in different wombs.
Owing to the residence It takes in the Jiva, It thinks, ‘I am not the other one’, I am this one, and hence not the other one’. Thus, It follows the attributes.
Owing to tamas, It takes up the forms of taamasic nature; owing to rajas It takes up the forms of rajasic nature; and owing to sattva, It takes up the forms of saattvic nature.
The colours are three, namely, white, red and black. Know that all these colours belong to Prakrti.
The persons of taamasic nature fall into hell; persons of raajasic nature become human beings. Persons of saattvic nature go to the heavenly world and enjoy happiness.
Owing to the sins committed in this world, one falls into the womb of the lower animals; if sins and merits are both earned, one takes birth among men; and if merits alone are earned, one takes birth among gods.
Thus the wise persons say that salvation is based on Avyakta. It is the twenty-fifth principle which functions owing to Knowledge.
Vasistha said:
Thus, owing to the state of being unenlightened, the soul, devoid of Knowledge and enlightenment, proceeds from one physical body to thousands of bodies. Therefore, it
does not differ in the course of its transmigration.
On account of its acquisition of penance or decrease of good qualities, the soul sometimes takes up bodies among gods or among lower creatures.
From human birth, it proceeds to heaven, and from god, it becomes a human being. From the state of man, it proceeds to hell, too.
Just as the silk worm wraps itself by its thread-like fibres, so also this soul, though devoid of gunas, wraps itself by means of gunas.
Though the soul is devoid of mutually conflicting pairs of opposites, it is affected by them in different births. At the time when a person suffers from ailments such as
headache, eye-pain, tooth-ache, sore throat, dropsy, diarrhea, gandamaalaa, vicharchikaa, leukoderma, burns, scalds, epileptic fits, etc, the characteristic symptoms of diverse types appear in the bodies of these souls. The individual soul identifies itself in such cases with the body concerned. Similarly, the soul identifies itself with meritorious deeds, too.
