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The Hastamalaka
Translated by E.B. Cowell
1. 'Who art thou, my child, and whose, and whither goest
thou? What is thy name, and whence art thou come? Tell me all this clearly to
gladden me,--thou fillest my heart with gladness.'
2. 'I am not a man nor a god nor a demi-god, no Brāhman,
Kshatriya, Vaiya, nor ūdra; no student, nor householder, nor anchorite, nor
religious mendicant; innate Knowledge am I.
3. 'That which is the cause of the action of mind, eye, and
the rest, as the sun is the cause of the movements of living beings, but which
itself is void of all conditioning disguises, like the infinite ether,--that
Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.
4. 'That which being itself one, unchangeable, and
essentially eternal knowledge (as fire is essentially heat), is the substratum
which bears, as they act, the mind, eye, and the rest,--which are mere
Ignorance,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.
5. 'The reflection of the face seen in the mirror is nothing
in itself as separated from the face, so is the personal soul in itself nothing,
the reflection of Intelligence on the internal organ,--that Soul, essentially
eternal perception, am I.
6. 'As the reflection vanishes when the mirror is not, and
the face remains alone, apart from all delusion, so that Soul which remains
without a reflection when the understanding is not,--that Soul, essentially
eternal perception, am I.
7. 'That which abiding aloof from mind, eye, and the rest, is
itself mind, eye, and the rest to mind, eye, and the rest, and whose nature
mind, eye, and the rest cannot reach,--that Soul, essentially eternal
perception, am I.
8. 'That which, being one, shines forth self-manifested,
possessing pure intelligence, and itself essential Iight, and which yet appears
as though variously modified in various internal organs, as the one sun shines
reflected in the water of different vessels--that Soul, essentially eternal
perception, am I.
9. 'As the sun, illumining countless eyes, illumines at the
Same moment the object to each, so that Soul, the one intelligence, which
illumines countless internal organs,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception,
am I.
10. 'As the bodily sense illumined by the sun grasps the form
of the object, but when unillumined grasps it not, so that by which the one sun
must be itself illumined to illumine the sense,--that Soul, essentially eternal
perception, am I.
11. 'As the one sun seems many in the agitated waters, and
even when reflected in still waters must be yet recognized as really separate,
so that which, though really one, seems many in the restless internal
organs,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.
12. 'As he whose eye is covered with a cloud thinks in his
delusion that the sun is clouded and has lost its light, so that soul which
seems bound to him whose mind's eye is blind,--that Soul, essentially eternal
perception, am I.
13 'That which being in itself one, is strung through all
things and with which nothing ever yet comes in contact, and which, like the
ether, is always pure and uncontaminated in its nature,--that Soul, essentially
eternal perception, am I.
14. 'As the pure crystals appear different by the presence of
a disguiser, so thou too appearest different by the diversity of individual
minds; as the moonbeams appear to be tremulous in the water, so thou too, O
Vish.nu, appearest to flicker in our world!'
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