Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c8.9

c8.9

The first song of the Caryā-padas begins with the assertion that our mind (citta) is solely responsible for the creation of the illusory world. "In the unsteady mind"—says Lui-pā in one of his songs,—"enters Time,"¹ i.e., the disturbed mind is the cause of all our spatio-temporal experiences and the disturbance of the mind is due to the defiling principle of nature (prakṛty-ābhāsa-doṣa-vaśāt cāñcalyatayā, etc.—comm.). The notion of difference proceeds from the notion of existence (bhava). It is said, "They are three, they are three—the three are held different;—Kānhu says,—all (differences) are limitations due to the notion of existence."² The world of our experiences is only provisional (saṃvṛti-satya) and the provisional nature of the world is revealed to us when we see that every thing that comes also invariably goes,—there is nothing permanent; all is an eternal flux of coming and going. It is said,—"Whatever came also went away; in this (rotation of) coming and going Kānhu has become convinced (of the unsubstantial nature of the fleeting world)."³ But everything is pure in the ultimate nature. Neither existence nor non-existence is impure in the least; all beings, produced in the six ways (ṣaḍ-gatikā), are pure by their ultimate nature.¹ The empirical world is like a dramatic device (naṭapeḍā, Skt. naṭa-peṭikā = basket for holding dress, etc. for the performance of drama) with nothing real in it,—it is merely an artifice of the mind. By pure knowledge the mind must first be tranquillised and when it becomes perfectly controlled all the forces of the illusory world are subdued.² In that ultimate stage external objects of smell, touch, etc., remain as they were, but the perceptual knowledge of the whole world appears to be just like the perception of objects in a waking dream, *i.e.*, the whole universal process seems to be a great dream, though we remain with our outward eyes open.³ In one song of Bhusuka-pāda, the mind (*citta*) has been compared to a fickle rat and it is said to be closely associated with the vital wind. It is said,—"Dark is the night and the play of the rat begins."⁴ The dark night is the darkness of ignorance in which the function of constructive imagination goes on. It is further said,—"Kill, O Yogin, this rat of the vital wind, whereby you will escape coming and going. The rat causes existence and makes holes; this fickle rat remains inactive only when skilful devices are employed. This rat is Time or death itself (*i.e.*, the fickle mind constructs all temporal existence),—but in it there is no colour. When it rises to the void it moves there and drinks nectar. The rat remains restless (as long as it is not pacified by the instructions of the preceptor); pacify it through the instructions of the wise preceptor. Bhusuka says,—when the activities of the rat will be destroyed, all bondage will also be destroyed."