4.6    THE CONCLUSION OF STHITI PRAKARAṆA

Summary. Having shown in the previous chapter that all shines as Brahman, the author summarizes the five previous chapters of Sthiti Prakaraṇa.

“Persons born with rare Sattvaguṇa live on earth with Brahmic effulgence like unto the moon shining in the Ākāśa. They will never groan under the load of pains. Will ever the golden lotus fold its petals with the approach of the night? They will concern themselves with nothing else but their present actions only. They will tread the path of the superb wise men of rare intelligence. With a non-fluctuating mind, their hearts will be full and bent upon noble thoughts. They will rejoice in the possession of amity, grace and other good qualities. Persons of such innate good qualities will be in different to high and low stations of life. They will look with an equal eye upon all and be virtuously disposed. Like the (ordinary) ocean, they will never go beyond their bounds. They will be without delusion and like the sun will never trespass the strict Law.

What is fit to be taken in and acted up to is the quality of the stainless; what should be shunned is the path of the stainful. After having enquired into the nature of the universe, one should consider it as an object of indifference. He should thoroughly sift the nature of ‘I’ through the aid of his Guru and his own intelligence and become clear minded. Utmost pains and efforts should be undergone in the path of knowing Ātma. The mind should be perfectly controlled in the due acting out of worldly affairs. Association should be contracted with the virtuous. The object fit to be gulped out is the idea of ‘I’. That which should be shunned is the delusion caused by this body composed of boney, muscles, etc. But that which should be seen (and worshipped) is Parabrahm which permeates all bodies. From the sun journeying in the car drawn by his green horses down to the vermin of the earth, Jñāna alone shines. Through our own efforts we can acquire different births in which one of the three guṇas, Sattva, Rājas or Tamas predominates. But it is only though Sāttvic actions, that the Supreme Mokṣa is reached.” Thus did Vasiṣṭha address the transcendent Rāmachandra.