Chapter XXVII - Hebetude of bali

Argument. Bali attains to his state of Ecstacy, by his observance of Sukra's precepts.

Vasishtha said:—

1. [Sanskrit available]
After Sukra, the son of Bhrigu and senior in the assembly of gods and demigods, had made his departure, Bali the best among the intelligent, reflected thus in himself.

2. [Sanskrit available]
Truly has the seer said, that the Intellect composes the three worlds, and that I am this Intellect, and the Intellect fills all the quarters, and shows itself in all our actions.

3. [Sanskrit available]
It is the Intellect which pervades the inside and outside of every thing, and there is nothing anywhere which is without the Intellect.

4. [Sanskrit available]
It is the Intellect that perceives the sunbeams and moonlight, or else there would be no distinction between them and darkness, had not there been this intellectual perception.

5. [Sanskrit available]
If there were no such intellectual perception as this earth is land, then there would be no distinction of earth and water, nor the word earth apply to land.

6. [Sanskrit available]
If the Intellect would not understand the vast space as the quarters of the sky, and the mountains as vast protuberances on earth; then who would call the sides and the mountains by those names?

7. [Sanskrit available]
If the world were not known as the world and the vacuum as vacuity, then who would distinguish them by the names that are in common use?

8. [Sanskrit available]
If this big body was not perceived by the intellect, how proper could the bodies of embodied beings be called by their names?

9. [Sanskrit available]
The Intellect resides in every organ of sense, it dwells in the body, mind and all its desires; the intellect is in the internal and external parts of the body, and the intellect is all that is in existent and non-existent. (Because the intellect has the notions of all these things, which would not come to exist, if they were not in the intellect).

10. [Sanskrit available]
The Intellect forms my whole self, by its feeling and knowing of everything that I feel and know; or else I can neither perceive or conceive nor do anything with my body alone, and without guidance of the intellect.

11. [Sanskrit available]
What avails this body of mine, which is inert and insensible as a block of wood or stone; it is the intellect that makes my self, and it is the intelligent spirit which is the universal Soul.

12. [Sanskrit available]
I am the intellect which resides in the sun and in the sky, and I am the intellect which dwells in the bodies of all beings; I am the same intellect which guides the gods and demigods, and dwells alike in the movables and immovable bodies.

13. [Sanskrit available]
The intellect being the sole existence, it is in vain to suppose aught besides; and their being naught otherwise, there can be no difference of a friend or foe to us.

14. [Sanskrit available]
What is it if I Bali, strike off the head of a person from his body, I can not injure the soul which is everywhere and fills all space.

15. [Sanskrit available]
The feelings of love and enmity are properties of the intellect (Soul), and are not separated from it by its separation from the body. Hence the passions and feelings are inseparable from the Intellect or soul.

16. [Sanskrit available]
There is nothing to be thought of beside the Intellect, and nothing to be obtained anywhere, except from the spacious womb of the Intellect, which comprehends all the three worlds.

17. [Sanskrit available]
But the passions and feelings, the mind and its powers, are mere attributes and not properties of the Intellect; which being altogether a simple and pure essence, is free from every attribute.

The intellect said:—

18. [Sanskrit available]
chit is the Ego, the omnipresent, all pervasive and ever felicitous soul; it is beyond all other attributes, and without a duality or parts.

The term intellect said:—

19. [Sanskrit available]
chit which is applied to the nameless power of intellection—chiti, is but a verbal symbol signifying the omniscient Intelligence, which is manifest in all places. (I.e. the Divine Intellect is both omniscient as well as omnipresent, while human understanding is narrow and circumscribed).

20. [Sanskrit available]
The Ego is the Supreme Lord, that is ever awake and sees all things without manifesting any appearance of himself. He is purely transparent and beyond all visible appearances.

21. [Sanskrit available]
All its attributes are lame, partial and imperfect. Even time which has its phases and parts, is not a proper attribute for it. It is but a glimpse of its light that rises before us, but the eternal and infinite light, is beyond our comprehension.

22. [Sanskrit available]
I must think of it only in the form of light in my own self, and know it apart from all other thinkables and thoughts, and quite aloof from all shades and colours.

23. [Sanskrit available]
I salute his self-same form of Intelligence, and the power of Intellection, unaccompanied by the intelligible, and employed in its proper sphere.

24. [Sanskrit available]
I salute that light of his in me, which represents every thing to me; which is beyond all thought, and is of the form of Intellect, going everywhere and filling all space.

25. [Sanskrit available]
It is the quiet consciousness of all beings, the real Intellect (sach-chit), the Ego and the Great; the Ego which is as infinite as space, and yet minuter than an atom, and spreading in all alike.

26. [Sanskrit available]
I am not subject to the states of pleasure and pain, I am conscious of my self and of no other existence besides myself; and I am Intelligence without the intelligibles spread out before me.

27. [Sanskrit available]
No worldly entity nor non-entity (i.e. neither the gain of any object nor its want), can work any change in me; for the possession of worldly objects would destroy me at once (by their separating my soul from God).

28. [Sanskrit available]
In my opinion there is nothing that is distinct from me, when we know all things as the produce of the same source.

29. [Sanskrit available]
What one gets or loses is no gain or loss to any (i.e. to the gainer or loser), because the same Ego always abides in all, and is the Maker of all and pervading everywhere.

30. [Sanskrit available]
Whether I am any of the thinkable objects or not, it matters me little to know; since the Intellect is always a single thing, though its intelligibles (i.e. its productions or thoughts), are endless.

31. [Sanskrit available]
I am so long in sorrow, as my soul is not united with the Holy spirit. So saying, the most discerning Bali fell to a deep meditation.

32. [Sanskrit available]
He reflected on the half mantra of Om (i.e. the dot only); an emblem of the Infinite God; and sat quietly with all his desires and fancies lying dormant in him.

33. [Sanskrit available]
He sat undaunted, by suppressing his thoughts and his thinking powers within him; and remained with his subdued desires, after having lost the consciousness of his meditation, and of his being the meditator and also of meditated object. (I.e. without knowing himself as the subject or object of his thoughts and acts).

34. [Sanskrit available]
While Bali was entranced in this manner at the window which was decked with gems, he became illumined in his mind as a lighted lamp flaming unshaken by the wind. And he remained long in his steady posture as a statue carved of a stone.

35. [Sanskrit available]
He sat with his mind as clear as the autumnal sky after having cast off all his desires and mental anxieties, and being filled within himself with his spiritual light.