Marketing Strategy Text and Cases 6th

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Marketing Strategy Text and Cases 6th Edition Ferrell Test Bank

Chapter 2 Strategic Marketing Planning

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Which of the following statements best describes the nature of a marketing plan?
a. It clearly outlines the organization’s mission and vision.
b. It outlines how the organization will raise capital to finance growth.
c. It focuses solely on the internal resources needed to develop a marketing strategy.
d. It clearly outlines the organization’s marketing activities.
e. All of these statements describe a marketing plan.
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

2. Whether at the corporate, business-unit, or functional level, the planning process always begins with
an in-depth:
a. a statement of goals and objectives.
b. a situation analysis.
c. strategy for achieving growth.
d. statement of the organization’s competitive advantages.
e. assessment of the organization’s resources.
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Knowledge

3. When creating a corporate vision statement, organizations are attempting to answer which of the
following questions:
a. What do we want to become?
b. What business are we in?
c. What are our competitive advantages?
d. How can we be the best?
e. Who are we and what do we stand for?
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Comprehension

4. Which of the following is one of the five basic questions that a good mission statement should answer?
a. Who are our competitors? d. What are our opportunities?
b. What is our market position? e. Where have we been?
c. What is our operating philosophy?
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Comprehension

5. Sears at one time lost sight of its mission and jumped into markets such as real estate and financial
services that did not fit its strengths or core operations. This most likely occurred because Sears lacked
a mission statement with the appropriate:
a. focus. d. profitability.
b. strategic fit. e. width.
c. stability.

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 ANS: E DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Application

6. All organizations need a __________, the central scheme for utilizing and integrating resources in the
areas of production, finance, research and development, human resources, and marketing to carry out
the organization’s mission and achieve desired goals and objectives.
a. marketing strategy d. corporate strategy
b. cross-functional strategy e. corporate mission
c. cross-functional goal
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Comprehension

7. When a firm possesses capabilities that allow it to serve customers’ needs better than the competition,
the firm is said to have a:
a. resource advantage. d. marketing advantage.
b. competitive advantage. e. relative advantage.
c. value-based advantage.
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Strategic Planning Process
KEY: Bloom's: Comprehension

8. With respect to developing a marketing plan, what does it mean for a marketing plan outline to be
consistent?
a. The outline should be sufficient to ensure that information is not omitted.
b. The outline should have the ability to be modified to fit the situation.
c. The outline should flow in a logical manner.
d. The outline should have some connection to other functional area plans.
e. The outline should be consistent across firms in the same industry.
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Analysis

9. In a marketing plan, the executive summary should be a complete but concise overview of the entire
marketing plan because:
a. the executive summary is the most important part of the plan.
b. the executive summary is the first part of the marketing plan to be written.
c. most readers of a marketing plan are busy and value condensed information.
d. the executive summary is the least read part of the marketing plan.
e. the executive summary does not provide any quantitative information.
ANS: C DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Analysis

10. In developing a marketing plan, the section on goals and objectives defines the parameters by which
the firm will measure actual performance. In this respect, the goals and objectives section is tied
closely to the __________ section of the marketing plan.
a. SWOT analysis d. marketing implementation
b. evaluation and control e. situation analysis
 c. executive summary
ANS: B DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Analysis

11. Motorola continuously establishes performance standards and assesses actual performance by
comparing it with these standards. Afterwards, Motorola often takes corrective action to reduce any
discrepancies. This process is most likely outlined in the __________ section of Motorola’s marketing
plan.
a. evaluation and control d. SWOT analysis
b. marketing strategy e. goals and objectives
c. marketing implementation
ANS: A DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Application

12. Which of the following IS NOT a purpose of a marketing plan?

a. It explains the present and future situations of the organization.
b. It specifies the expected outcomes of the plan.
c. It describes specific actions that are to take place.
d. It explains how marketing activities mesh with other functional areas.
e. It identifies resources needed to carry out the plan.
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Easy NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Comprehension

13. While all marketing plans face a number of obstacles in development and implementation,
__________ is by far the most commonly occurring obstacle across most firms.
a. failure to see the whole picture d. lack of time for planning
b. inadequate information e. inadequate communication
c. resistance to change
ANS: E DIF: Difficulty: Moderate NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Analysis

14. In the context of marketing planning, why is it vital that the marketing plan be capable of selling itself
to top management?
a. Because top managers are responsible for executing the marketing plan.
b. Because top managers must be able to evaluate the performance of the marketing program.
c. Because top managers must be able to clearly communicate the strategy to external
stakeholders.
d. Because top managers must decide whether the marketing plan is the best use for the
organization’s scarce resources.
e. Because top managers are compensated on how well the marketing strategy works.
ANS: D DIF: Difficulty: Challenging NAT: BUSPROG: Analytic
STA: DISC: Marketing Plan TOP: A-Head: The Marketing Plan
KEY: Bloom's: Analysis
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Bráhmanical brothers, abandoned his erroneous conception of the
material world, and repaired to the abode of the deceased brethren, that
had been released from the mistake of their mortal bodies.
56. The personated blessing bowed down to the bounteous Brahmá,
and departing from his presence with speed, entered into the parlour of
the eight brother kings, in his eight-fold spiritual personality (called the
ashta siddhi).
57. They beheld the brothers there in their respective residences, each
sitting as the Lord of the earth with its septuple continents, and all of
them employed in the performance of their sacrifices and enjoyment of
their blessings, like the eight Lordly Manus for the whole period of a day
of Brahmá.
58. They were all friendly to each other, though unacquainted with
the respective provinces of one another; each of them was employed in
his concern with the world, without clashing with the authority of
another over it.
59. One of them who was handsome in the bloom of his youth; held
his happy reign over the great city of Ujjain, which was situated in the
precincts of his own house, or rather in the environs of his own mind.
60. Another one of them had his domain over the country of Scythia
(sáka), where he settled himself for his conquest of the Nágas (saccae);
he cruises as a corsair in the wide outlandish seas, for his victory on
every side.
61. Another reigns secure in his capital of Kusadwípa, and confers
perfect security to his subjects from all alarm; and like a hero who has
quelled his enemies, he rests in peace on the bosom of his beloved, after
all his conquest.
62. Some one of them indulges himself to sport, in company with the
celestial Nymphs of Vidyádhara; in skimming over the waters of the
lakes on mountain tops, and in the gushing water falls on their side.
63. Another one is engaged these eight days in conducting his horse
sacrifice in his royal abode at Krauncha dwípa, which he has greatly
aggrandised with his accumulated gold, from the other continents.
64. Another one is employed in waging a battle in the Sálmali
continents, where his war elephants have assembled, and have been
uprooting the boundary mountain from their bases with robust tusks.
 65. The Monarch of the Gomedha continent, who had been the eighth
and last of the Bráhman brothers, was smitten with love for the princess
of the Pushkara dwípa; upon which he mustered a large armament for
ravishing her in warfare.
66. The monarch of the Pushkara continent, who was also the master
of the Mountainous regions of Lokáloka; set out with his deputy to
inspect the land of the gold mines.
67. Thus every one of these brothers, thought himself to be the Lord
of his respective province, as his imagination portrayed unto him in the
region of his mind.
68. The Blessings then, having relinquished their several forms and
personalities, became united and one with the consciousness of the
Bráhmans, and felt and saw whatever passed in them, as if they were
passing in themselves likewise. (The divine blessing on them being no
other than the approbation of their conscience).
69. So these brothers became and found in themselves, what they had
long been longing after, in their respective lordship over the seven
regions of the earth, which they continued to enjoy ever since to their
heart’s content.
70. It was in this manner that these men of enlarged understandings,
obtained what they sought in their minds, by means of their austere
devotion and firm devotedness to their purpose. So it is with the learned
that they find everything beside them, whatever they are intent upon in
their minds, by means of their acting upon the same principle, and using
the proper means conducing to that end.
 CHAPTER CLXXXIV.
AL C
.
Argument:—Nature of the unenlightened soul, to
represent unnumbered worlds within itself.

K UNDA-DANTA said:—I then asked <the> devotee sitting beneath

the kadamba tree, to tell me how the seven large continents of the
globe, could be contained within the narrow limits of the abodes of each
of these brothers (which is next to an impossibility).
2. The kadamba devotee replied:—The essence of the intellect
though so very vacuous in itself, is notwithstanding the most capacious
and ubiquious of any thing in existence; and is present in its own nature
with every thing, wherever it is known to exist.
3. The soul sees itself in the form of the triple world, and every thing
besides in its different nature and figure, without changing itself to any
one of them. (i.e. The soul remains unchanged in all the changeful scenes
of nature).
4. Kunda-danta rejoined:—But how do you attribute the quality of
variety or multiplicity, to the purely simple and immutable nature of the
Supreme soul, as you see them appertaining to the intrinsic character of
everything else in nature. (Or as Pope says:—That changed through all,
yet in all the same; great in the earth, as in the etherial frame).
5. The kadamba devotee replied:—The sphere of the intellectual
vacuum, is all quiet and serene, and there is nothing as any variety or
multiformity in it; the changes that are apparent in its face, are no more,
than the waves and eddies, whirling on the surface of the changeless
main.
6. It is in the immensity of intellectual vacuity, that infinite creations
seem to be continually purling about, as the rising waves are seen to be
whirling in the sea; and it is in its fathomless depth that they appear to
sink, like the waters subsiding in the hollow of the deep.
 7. The substantial forms of things, that rise in the unsubstantial
essence of the intellect, are as the various forms of substances, seen in
the dreaming state of the soul, and all which are utterly forgotten in its
state of sound sleep—susupti.
8. As a Hill seen in dream is no hill at all, and as things appearing to
be in motion in dreaming, are found afterwards to be perfectly
motionless; so are all things in nature but mere unrealities, and though as
real from the real nature of soul itself. (i.e. It is the intellect that fashions
everything in its own manner, and its imagination gives a form to an airy
nothing).
9. The intellect is an immaterial substance, and neither creates nor
perceives any thing material by itself; but conceives everything as it is
manifested to it in its idea in the beginning. (i.e. The ideas of things are
inborn in the mind).
10. As the intellect sees a great variety of objects in <its> dream,
which it takes for realities for the time; so its belief in the reality of its
ideas, causes it to conceive them as real entities.
11. The vacuous intellect, which glitters of itself in its own state of
transparence; comes to find the world shinning in the same light within
itself. (i.e. The world is subjective with the intellect, and not a part from
our intellectual light of the same).
12. As we have the consciousness of heat in the fire, even when it is
seen in a dream; so we are conscious of the presence of everything in our
minds, even in the absence of the thing itself from us. (It was thus that
the Bráhman brothers were conscious of their lordship, even in their
want of the realms themselves).
13. And as we have the idea of the solidity of a pillar, from our
dream of it in sleep; so have we the idea of the great variety of things in
existence; although there is no diversity or difference in the nature of the
One unvaried unity that pervades the whole. (And that shows its
unchangeable self, as many and changed through all—Aham-bahusyam).
14. In the beginning all substances were as pure and simple, as the
essence of their maker by and after which they were made; and they still
continue to be in the same state of their ideal purity, as they were
originally made out of that airy entity and unity.
 15. As the tree is diversified in the various forms of its roots and
fruits, and its leaves, flowers and the trunk; so is the Supreme unity
varied in all and everywhere in his self-same and undivided essence.
16. It is in the fathomless ocean of the Supreme essence, that the
immensity of creation is subsisting like the waters of the deep; and it is
in the boundless space of that transcendent vacuum, that the infinity of
the worlds have been rolling on, in their original vacuous and apparently
visible forms.
17. The transcendental and comprehensible i.e. the immaterial soul
and the material world, are but commutual terms as the tree and arbour,
and their difference lies in the intelligibleness of the one and
unintelligibility of the other; but true intelligence leads us to the
unconceivable One, while our ignorance of the same, deludes us to the
knowledge of many, and tends to our distress only. (True happiness in
our reliance on the unknown One only).
18. The mundane and supermundane is surely the One and same
thing, according to the deduction of spiritual philosophy; and the
knowledge of this sublime truth, is sure to lead one to his ultimate
liberation.
19. The world is the product of the will of God, and the will is a
power or faculty appertaining to the personality of the Deity; and the
same being transmuted to the form of the world, it is proved that the
world is the formal part of the Supreme soul. (Whose body nature is, and
God the soul).
20. He whom no words can define, and yet who defines the senses of
words; who is subject to no law or prohibition, or to any state or
condition of being, but appoints them for all sorts of beings, is indeed the
only Lord of all.
21. He that is ever silent but speaks through all, who is inactive as a
rock but acts in all; who is always existent and appears as inexistent, is
the Supreme Lord of all.
22. That subtile essence that constitutes the solidity of all gross
bodies, and remains undecayed in all frail bodies, is the pure Brahma
himself; He has no volition or nolition of creation or destruction, and
there is no possession or want of the property of anything.
 23. It is the one and invariable soul, that rests always in its state of
rest and sleep, and perceives the succession of creation and destruction
of the world, in its alternate states of dream and sound sleep, which
present themselves as two pictures before its sight.
24. It is also in the substratum of the intellect, that unnumbered
worlds seem to rise and set in succession; they appear as passing pictures
before the mind, without being rooted or painted therein.
25. As the mixing of one thing with another, produces a different
effect in the mixture; so doth the union of the mind with the organs of
sense, cause a variety of impressions to be imprinted in the intellect. (So
the commixture of curd and sugar creates a different flavour in the
condiment, gloss).
26. All things have their existence in the essence of the intellect only,
without which nothing is knowable to any body; hence there is nothing
anew in nature, except its being but a representation of the original idea
in the mind (and this is evident from the identity and similarity of the
ectypes with its antitypes, gloss).
27. Hence our consciousness of the identity of things with the
essence of our intellect, proves them to be as immaterial and immovable
as their fixed ideas in the mind.
28. Thus the world which is so visible and perceptible to us, is
nothing but a mere nullity in reality; and whatever appears as existing
herein, together with the great gods and angels, are no more than the
false visions in our dream and fancy.
29. We see the various fluctuations and phenomena, rising in the
waters of the vast ocean of the intellect; and appearing in the forms of
our joy and grief, and those of moving and unmoving bodies in creation.
30. O that the nature and course of the world, should so obscure the
bright mirror of the intellect; as to hide it under the dirt of our passions,
and cover it under the clouds and snows of our ignorance.
31. As spectres and dissolving views appear in the air, before the
sight of the dimsighted; so doth this shadow of the world appear as
substance, to the view of the unspiritual myopist.
32. Whatever we imagine, the same we find, and seem to enjoy for
the time; and as we are delighted with the view of our imaginary city, so
do we indulge ourselves in the sight of this air-drawn utopia of the
world.
33. As we seem to enjoy our ecstasy, in the fairy land of our fancy;
so we are betaken by the delusion of this unreal world, under the belief
of its reality.
34. There is one eternal destiny, which ever runs apace in its wonted
course; and destines all beings to continue in their allotted careers as ever
before.
35. It is destiny that produces the moving bodies from living beings,
and the motionless ones from the unmoving; it is that predestination
which has destined the downward course of water and fluids, and the
upward motion of the flames of fire.
36. It is that blind impulse, that impels the members of the body to
their respective actions; and makes the luminous bodies to emit their
light; it causes the winds to wind about in their continuous course, and
makes the mountains to stand unmoved in their proper places.
37. It makes the luminaries of heaven, to roll on in their regular
revolutions, and causes the rains and dews of the sky, to pour down in
their stated seasons; and it is this eternal destiny that directs the courses
of years, ages and cycles, and the whole curricle of time to run its
wonted course.
38. It is the divine ordinance, that has ordained the limits of the earth
and the distant ocean and seas, and has fixed the position of the hills and
rocks in them; it has allotted the natures and powers of all things, and
prescribed the laws of rights and duties for all and every one.
39. Kunda-danta rejoined:—The reminiscence of the scenes of past
life, occurs in the present state of existence, in the forms of our
imagination and of desire for the same; and these inward thoughts
become the gist and marrow to frame our lives in their fashion; but tell
me sir, how could the first created beings in the beginning of creation
have any reminiscence, whereupon their lives and natures were
moulded?
40. The devotee replied:—All these that offer themselves to our
view, are quite unprecedented and without their original patterns in the
mind, and resemble the sight of our own death that we happen to see in a
dream. It is the omniscience of Brahmá, that caused the first creation,
and not his memory of the past as it is with us and other created beings.
41. It is the nature of our intellect, to represent the imaginary city of
the world in its empty vacuity; it is neither a positive reality, nor a
negative unreality either; being now apparent and now lost to sight by
itself.
42. It is the clearness of the intellect, which represents the imaginary
world in the manner of a dream; but the pure vacuous intellect, neither
sees nor bears the remembrance of the world in itself. (It is the sight of a
thing, that leaves its traces in the mind afterwards; but when there is no
sight of a thing, there can be no remembrance of it).
43. The wise that are devoid of joy and grief, and remain unchanged
in prosperity and adversity; are men of right integrity and equanimity in
their nature, and move on as equably as the wheel of fortune leads them
onward.
44. As the intellect retains in it, the remembrance of what it has seen
in its dream; so does it bear in itself the false impression of this triple
world to its end.
45. It is only the reflexion of our consciousness, which passes under
the name of the world; now knowing the nature of your consciousness as
mere vacuousness, you will blot out the impression of the world also.
46. That which is all and everything, and from which all have issued
and in which they exist; know that All as all which fills all space,
wherein all things are situated.
47. I have thus fully explained to you, how you may come to know
this creation as its creator—the Great Brahmá Himself; and have also
expounded to you the means, whereby you may get rid of your
impression of the phenomenal world.
48. Now rise ye Bráhmans and repair to your abodes, as the bees
resort to their cells and calyxes of lotuses at the dusk of the day; go and
perform your evening services, while I remain here in my pensive
meditation, and absorbed in my spiritual ecstasy forever.
 CHAPTER CLXXXV.
A K -
.
Argument:—The return of the interlocutors to the abodes;
Demise of the brothers and enlightenment of Kunda-danta.

K UNDA-DANTA rejoined:—The old sage having said so far, closed

his eyes in meditation; and he became as motionless as a statue or
picture, without any action of his breath and mind.
2. And we prayed him with great fondness and endearment, yet he
uttered not a word unto us; because he seemed to be so rapt in his
abstraction, as to have become utterly insensible of the outer world.
3. We then departed, from that place, with our broken hearts and
dejected countenances; and were received after a few days journey, by
our gladsome friends at home.
4. We live there in joyous festivity, as long as the seven brothers were
living; and passed our time in narrations of our past adventures, and
relations of the old accounts of by gone times.
5. In course of time the eight brothers disappeared (perished) one by
one, like the seven oceans at the end of the world, in the vast ocean of
eternity; and were released like many of my friends also, from their
worldly cares.
6. After sometime, the only friend that I had, sunk also like the
setting sun in darkness; and I was left alone to bewail their loss in sorrow
and misery at their separation.
7. I then repaired in the sorrow of my heart, to the devotee under the
Kadamba tree; in order to derive the benefit of his advice, to dissipate
my dolor.
8. There I waited on him for three months, until he was released from
his meditation, when upon my humble request of him, he deigned to
answer me as follows.
 9. The devotee replied:—I can not pass a moment, without my
employment in meditation; and must without any loss of time, resort to
my wonted devotion again.
10. As for you, you can not derive the benefit of my transcendent
advice to you; unless you engage yourself to practice my precepts with
all diligence.
11. Now I tell you to repair to the city of Ayodhyá (Oudh), where the
king Dasaratha reigns, and remains with his son Ráma (and other
children and members of his royal family).
12. Do you now go to this Ráma, who has been attending on the
lectures of the sage Vasishtha, the preceptor and priest of the royal
family, and delivered before the princes assembled in the imperial court.
13. You will there hear the holy sermon, on the means of attaining
our final emancipation; and will thereby obtain your best bliss in the
divine state like that of mine.
14. Saying so, he was absorbed in the cooling ocean of his
meditation; <after> which I directed my course to this way, and arrived
at last before Ráma and this princely assembly.
15. Here am I, and all these are the incidents of my life, as I have
related herein, regarding all what I have heard and seen, as also all that
has passed on me.
16. Ráma said:—The eloquent Kunda-danta that made this speech to
me, has been ever since sitting by my side in this assembly.
17. This very Brahmin bearing the name of Kunda-danta, that has sat
here all along by me; has heard the whole of the sermon, which has been
delivered by the sage, on the means of obtaining our liberation.
18. Now ask this Kunda-danta, that is sitting here by me at present,
whether he has well understood the context of this lecture, and whether
his doubts are wholly dissipated or not.
19. Vasishtha said:—Upon Ráma saying so to me, I looked upon
Kunda-danta, and made him the following interrogatory, saying:—
20. Tell me, Oh you goodly Bráhman Kunda-danta, what you have
learnt and understood, by your long attendance upon and hearing of my
lecture, calculated to confer liberation on men.
 21. Kunda-danta replied:—Sir, your lecture has wholly removed the
doubts of my mind, and I find myself now as perfect master of myself,
by my victory over all selfish passions, and by my knowledge of the
knowable One.
22. I have known the immaculate One that is to be known, and seen
the undecaying One that is worth our seeing; I have obtained all that is
worth our obtaining, and I have found my repose in the state of
transcendent felicity.
23. I have known this plenum, to be the condensation of that
transcendental essence; and that this world is no other than a
manifestation of this sel-fsame soul.
24. The universal soul being also the soul of every individual, is
likewise the soul inherent in all forms of things; it is only the self-
existent soul, that becomes apparent in all existences and all places.
25. It is possible for the human mind, which is minuter than the
molecule of a mustard seed, to contain the whole world in itself; though
it is naught but a mere zero, before the clear sight of the intelligent.
26. It is possible also for a little room, to contain the seven continents
of the earth (in its map or picture); though the room itself is no more than
a mere empty space.
27. Whatever object is perceptible to us at any time or place, is only
the concrete form of the divine spirit; which is quite apart from every
thing in the discrete.
 CHAPTER CLXXXVI.
D ( )
B .
Argument:—Elucidation of the sacred text that “all is
Brahma”; and the equality of curse.

V ÁLMÍKI said:—After Kunda-danta had finished his saying in the

said manner, the venerable Vasishtha delivered his edifying speech
on spiritual knowledge and said:
2. Whereas the elevated soul of this person, has found his rest in the
paradise of spiritual philosophy; he will see the world like a globe in his
hand, and glowing with the glory of the great God.
3. The phenomenal world is a false conception, it is verily the
increate Brahma himself shining in this manner; this erroneous
conception is the very Brahma, that is one and ever calm and
undecaying.
4. Whatever thing appears any where, in any state, form or
dimension; it is the very Deity, showing himself in that condition of his
being, form and mode of extension.
5. This unborn or self-existent Deity, is ever auspicious, calm and
quiet; he is undecaying, unperishing and immutable, and extends through
all extent, as the extensive and endless space.
6. Whatever state of things he proposes in his all-knowing intellect,
the same is disposed by him in a thousand ways, like the branching out
of a plant in the rains.
7. The great mundane egg, is situated as a particle in the bosom of
the great intellect of God; and this world of ours is a particle also, being
comprised in a grain of our brains.
8. Know therefore, my good friend, thy intellectual sphere to be
boundless, and without its beginning or end; and being absorbed in the
meditation of thy personal extinction, do thou remain as quiet as thou art
sitting, relying in thy unperturbed and imperishable soul.
 9. Wherever there is anything in any state or condition in any part of
the world, there you will find the presence of the divine spirit in its form
of vacuity; and this without changing its nature of calm serenity, assumes
to itself whatever form or figure it likes (or rather evolves them from
within itself at its free will).
10. The spirit is itself both the view and its viewer; it is equally the
mind and the body, and the subjective and objective alike; It is
something and yet nothing at all, being the great Brahma or universal
soul, that includes and extends throughout the whole.
11. The phenomenal is not to be supposed as a duality of, or any
other than the self-same Brahma; but it is to be known as one and the
same with the divine self, as the visible sky and its vacuity.
12. The visible is the invisible Brahma, and the transcendent One is
manifest in this apparent whole (because the noumenon shows the
phenomenon, as this exhibits the other): therefore it is neither quiescent
nor in motion, and the formal is altogether formless.
13. Like dreams appearing to the understanding, do these visions
present themselves to the view; the forms are all formless conceptions of
the mind, and more intangible ideas of the brain.
14. As conscious beings come to be unconscious of themselves, in
their dormant state of sleep; so have all these living and intelligent
beings, become unconscious and ignorant of themselves and their souls,
and turned to torpid trees that are lost to their sensibility.
15. But the intellect is capable to return to its sensibility, from its
state of vegetable torpidity in time; as the dormant soul turns to see its
dreams in sleep, and then to behold the vivid outer world after its
wakening.
16. Until the living soul is liberated from its charm of self delusion, it
is subjected to view its guileful reveries of elemental bodies, appearing
as a chain of airy dreams, before the mind’s eye in sleep.
17. The mind gathers the dross of dullness about it, as the soul draws
the sheath of sleep upon itself; this dullness or dimness of apprehension
is not intrinsic in the mind, but an extraneous schesis contracted by it
from without.
18. The intellect moulds the form of one, who is conversant with
material and insensible things, into a motionless and torpid body; and it
is the same intellect, which shapes the forms of others, that are conscious
of their intellectual natures, into the bodies of rational and moving being.
(The dull soul is degraded to the state of immovable things and rooted
trees, but intelligent souls, are elevated to the rank of moving men and
other locomotive animals).
19. But all these moving and unmoving beings, are but different
modifications and aspects of the same intellect; as the nails and other
parts of the human body, are but the multifarious modalities of the same
person.
20. The order and nature of things has invariably continued the same,
as they have been ordained by the Divine will ever since its first
formation of the world; and because the creation is a transcript of its
original mould in the Divine mind; it is as ideal as any working of
imagination or a vision in dreaming, both in its states of being and not
being.
21. But the intangible and quiescent Brahma, is ever calm and quiet
in his nature; he is never permeated with the nature of things, nor is he
assimilated with the order of nature.
22. He appears as the beginning and end of creation, or as the cause
of its production and dissolution; but these are the mere dreams of the
Divine intellect, which is always in its state of profound sleep and rest.
23. The world is ever existent in his spiritual nature, and without any
beginning or end of himself; the beginning and end of creation, bear no
relation with his self-existent and eternal nature.
24. There is no reality in the nature of the visible creation, or in its
existence or dissolution; all these are no other than representations
shown in the spirit of God, like figures described in a picture.
25. As a legion drawn in painting, does not differ from its model in
the mind of the painter; so these tangible objects of creation, with all
other endless varieties, are not different from their prototype in the mind
of God.
26. Notwithstanding the want of any difference, between the
noumenal and phenomenal worlds; yet the mind is prone to view the
variance of its subjectivity and objectivity, as it is apt to differentiate its
own doings and dreams, in the states of its sleep and ignorance. It is the
profound sleep and insouciance of the soul, that cause its liberation from
the view, as its sensibility serves to bind it the more to the bondage of the
visibles.
27. It is the reflexion of the invisible soul, that exhibits the visible to
view, just as the subtile sunbeam, displays a thousand solid bodies
glaring in sight; and shows the different phases of creation and
dissolution as in its visions in dreaming.
28. The dreaming state of the sleeping intellect is called its ideality,
and the waking state of the self-conscious soul is termed its vitality, as in
the instances of men and gods and other intellectual beings.
29. After passing from these, and knowing the unreality of both these
imaginative and speculative states, the soul falls into its state of profound
sleep or trance, which is believed as the state of liberation by those that
are desirous of their emancipation.
30. Ráma said:—Tell me, O venerable sir, in what proportion doth
the intellect abide in men, gods and demons respectively; how the soul
reflects itself during the dormancy of the intellect in sleep, and in what
manner does it contain the world within its bosom.
31. Vasishtha replied:—Know the intellect to abide alike in gods and
demons, as well as in all men and women; it dwells also in imps and
goblins, and in all beasts and birds, reptiles and insects, including the
vegetables and all immovable things (within its ample sphere).
32. Its dimension is boundless and also as minute as an atom; and it
stretches to the highest heaven, including thousands of worlds within
itself.
33. The capacity that we have of knowing the regions beyond the
solar sphere, and even of penetrating into the darkness of polar circles; is
all the quality of our intellect, which extends all over the boundless
space, and is perfectly pellucid in its form and nature.
34. So very great is the extent of the intellect, that it comprehends the
whole universe in itself; and it is this act of his comprehension of the
whole, that is called the mundane creation, which originates from it.
35. The intellect spreads all around like the current of a river, which
glides all along over the ground both high and low, leaving some parts of
it quite dry, and filling others with its waters. So doth the intellect supply
some bodies with intelligence, while it forsakes others and leaves them
in ignorance.
 36. It is intelligence which constitutes the living soul of the body,
which is otherwise said to be lifeless and insensible; it resides in all
bodies like the air in empty pots, and becomes vivid in some and
imperceptible in others as it likes.
37. It is its knowledge of the soul (i.e. the intellectual belief in its
spiritual), that removes the error of its corporeity; while the ignorance of
its spiritual nature, tends the more to foster the sense of its corporeality,
like one’s erroneous conception of water in the mirage.
38. The mind is as minute as the minutest ray of sunbeams; and this
is verily the living soul, which contains the whole world within it.
39. All this phenomenal world is the phenomenon of the mind, as it
is displayed in its visionary dreams; and the same being the display of
the living soul, there is no difference at all between the noumenal and the
phenomenal.
40. The intellect alone is assimilated into all these substances, which
have substantiality of their own; whatever is seen without it, is like its
visionary dream, or as the forms of jewelleries made of the substance of
gold. (i.e. The intellect is the intrinsic essence of all external substances).
41. As the same water of the one universal ocean, appears different in
different places; and in its multifarious forms of waves and billows; so
doth the divine intellect exhibit the various forms of visibles in itself.
(i.e. Nothing is without or different from the divine essence).
42. As the fluid body of waters, rolls on incessantly in sundry shapes
within the basin of the great deep; so do these multitudes of visible
things, which are inherent in and identic with the divine intellect, glide
on forever in its fathomless bosom.
43. All these worlds are situated as statues, or they are engraved as
sculptures in the aerial column of the divine intellect; and are alike
immovable and without any motion of theirs through all eternity.
44. We see the situation of the world, in the vacuous space of our
consciousness; as we see the appearances of things in our airy dreams.
We find moreover everything transfixed in its own sphere and place, and
continuing in its own state, without any change of its position or any
alteration in its nature. (The invariable course of nature, is not the
fortuitous production of blind chance).
 45. The exact conformity of everything in this world, with its
conception in the mind of man, with respect to their invariable equality
in form and property, proves their identity with one another, or the
relation of one being the container of the other. (i.e. The mind is either
same with or container of the world).
46. There is no difference between the phenomenal and noumenal
worlds, as there <is> none between those in our dream and imagination.
They are in fact, the one and same thing, as the identity of the waters,
contained in tanks, rivers and seas, and between the curse and blessing of
gods.
47. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether a curse or blessing, is the effect
of any prior cause or the causation of subsequent consequences; and
whether it <is> possible for any effect to take place without its adequate
causality. (Here is a long legend of the transformation of Nundi and
Nahusha given in illustration of this passage in the commentary).
48. Vasishtha replied:—It is the manifestation of the clear firmament
of the divine intellect in itself, that is styled as the world; just as the
appearance and motion of waters in the great deep, is termed the ocean
and its current.
49. The revolution of the eternal thoughts of the divine mind,
resembles the rolling waves of the deep; and these are termed by sages,
as the will or volitions of the ever wilful mind of God.
50. The clear minded soul comes in course of time, to regard this
manifestation of the divine will, in its true spiritual light; by means of its
habitual meditation and reasoning, as well as by cause of its natural good
disposition and evenness of mind.
51. The wise man possest of consummate wisdom and learning,
becomes acquainted with the true knowledge of things; his
understanding becomes wholly intellectual, and sees all things in their
abstract and spiritual light; and is freed from the false view of duality (or
materiality).
52. The philosophic intellect, which is unclouded by prejudice, is the
true form of the Great Brahma himself; who shines perspicuous in our
consciousness, and has no other body besides.
53. The enlightened soul sees this whole plenitude of creation, as the
display of the Divine Will alone; and as the exhibition of the tranquil and
transparent soul of the Divinity, and naught otherwise.
54. This manifestation of the Divine Will, in the boundless space of
the universe; likens to the aerial castle of our imagination, or the city of
palaces seen in our dream.
55. This all productive will, is selfsame with the Divine Soul; and
produces whatever it likes to do any place or time. (Lit. Whatever it
wills, the same takes place even then and there).
56. As a boy thinks of his flinging stones, at the aerial castle of his
imagination; so the Divine will is at liberty to scatter, myriads of
globular balls, in the open and empty space of boundless vacuity.
57. Thus everything being the manifestation of the Divine will, in all
these three worlds; there is nothing as a blessing or curse (i.e. good or
evil) herein, which is distinct from the Divine Soul.
58. As we can see in our fancy, the gushing out of oil from a sandy
desert; so can we imagine the coming out of the creation, from the
simple will of the Divine Soul.
59. The unenlightened understanding, being never freed from its
knowledge of particulars and their mutual differences: It is impossible
for it to generalize good and evil, under the head of universal good. (“All
partial evil is but universal good”. Pope).
60. Whatever is willed in the beginning, by the omniscience of God;
the same remains unaltered at all times, unless it is altered by the same
omniscient will.
61. The contraries of unity and duality, dwell together in the same
manner in the formless person of Brahma; as the different members of an
embodied being, remain side by side in the same person. (The
knowledge of all contrarieties, blends together in omniscience. Gloss).
62. Ráma said:—Why some ascetics of limited knowledge, are so
very apt to confer their blessings, as also to pour their imprecations on
others; and whether they are attended with their good or bad results or
not.
63. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is disposed in the beginning, by
the Divine will which subsists in Brahma; the very same comes to pass
afterwards, and nothing otherwise. (Lit. there is no other principle
besides).
 64. Brahmá the Lord of creation, knew the Supreme Soul in himself,
and thereby he became the agent of the Divine will; therefore there is no
difference between them (i.e. betwixt Brahmá and Brahma); as there is
none between the water and its fluidity.
65. Whatsoever the Lord of creatures—Brahmá, proposes to do at
first as inspired in him by the Divine will; the same takes place
immediately, and the very same is styled this world.
66. It has no support nor receptacle for itself, but appears as vacuous
bubble in the great vacuity itself; and resembles the chain of pearls,
fleeting before the eyes of purblind men in the open sky.
67. He willed the productions of creatures, and institution of the
qualities of justice, charity and religious austerities; He stablished the
Vedas and sástras, and the five system of philosophical doctrines.
(Namely; the four Vedas and the Smritis, forming the five branches of
sacred knowledge, and the five branches of profane learning—consisting
of the Sánkhya yoga, Pátanjala, Pásupata, and Vaishnava systems.
Gloss).
68. It is also ordained by the same Brahmá, that whatever the
devotees-learned in the Vedas, pronounce in their calmness or dispute,
the same takes place immediately (from their knowledge of the Divine
will).
69. It is he that has formed the chasm of vacuum in the inactive
intellect of Brahma, and filled it with the fleeting winds and heating fire;
together with the liquid water and solid earth.
70. It is the nature of this intellectual principle, to think of everything
in itself; and to conceive the presence of the same within it, whether it be
a thought of thee or me or of anything beside (either in general or
particular).
71. Whatever the vacuous intellect thinks in itself, the same it sees
present before it; as our actual selves come to see, the unreal sights of
things in our dreams.
72. As we see the unreal flight of stones, as realities in our
imagination; so we see the false appearance of the world, as true by the
will of God, and the contrivance of Brahma.
73. Whatever is thought of by the pure intellect, must be likewise of
a purely intellectual nature also; and there is nothing that can do it
otherwise (or convert it to grossness), as they defile the pure metal with
some base alloy.
74. We are apt to have the same conceptions of things in our
consciousness, as we are accustomed to consider them, and not of what
we are little practiced to think upon; hence we conceive all that we see in
our dreams to be true, from our like conceptions of them in our waking
state. (It is thus that we conceive this purely ideal world as a gross body,
from our habit of thinking so at all times).
75. It is by uniting one’s intellectuality, with the universal and divine
intellect, and by the union of the subjective and objective and their
perceptibility in one’s self, by means of the tripúti yoga, that we can see
the world in its true light.
76. One universal and vacuous intellect, being all pervading and
omnipresent, is the all seeing subject and all seen objects by itself; hence
whatever is seen or known to be anywhere, is the very verity of the
intellect and no other.
77. As oscillation is inherent in air, and fluidity is immanent in water;
so is amplitude intrinsical in Brahma, and the plentitude is innate in the
Divine mind.
78. Even I am Brahma also in his self manifest form of Virát, which
embodies the whole world as its body; hence there is no difference of the
world from Brahma, as there is none between air and vacuity.
79. As the drops of water as a cataract, assume many forms and run
their several ways; so the endless works of nature take their various
forms and courses, at different places and times.
80. All beings devoid of their senses and understanding, issue as
waters of the waterfall, from the cascade of the divine mind; and remain
forever in their uniform courses, with the consciousness of their
existence in Brahma.
81. But such as come forth from it, with the possession of their
senses and intellects in their bodies, deviate in different ways like the
liquid waters, in pursuit of their many worldly enjoyments.
82. They are then insensibly led, by their want of good sense, to
regard this world as theirs (i.e. the sphere of their actions, क े );
being ignorant of its identity with the uncreated spirit of God.