Yoga Vasishta - Post 42

RAMA asked:

 

Holy sir, please tell me briefly again: how does the delusion of the notions of 'I' and 'the world' arise in the first place, without any cause?

 

VASISTHA replied:

 

As all things are equally in-dwelt by intelligence, so always in every way the uncreated is all, the self of all. We use the expression 'all things': it is only a figure of speech, for only the infinite consciousness or Brahman exists. Just as there is no division between a bracelet and gold, no division between waves and water, there is no division between the universe and the infinite consciousness. 

 

The latter alone is the universe; the universe as such is not the infinite consciousness, just as the bracelet is made of gold but gold is not made of bracelet. Just as we refer to a man and his limbs as being one and the same, we refer to the presence of the infinite consciousness as all beings, which does not imply a division in it.

 

In that infinite consciousness there is an inherent non­recognition of its infinite nature. That appears to manifest as 'I' and 'the world'. Just as there is an image in a  marble slab, even if it has not been carved, even so this notion of ‘I' and 'the world' exists in the infinite consciousness. Even as in a calm sea the waves exist in their potential state, the world exists in its potential state in the infinite consciousness: and that is known as its creation. 

The word 'creation' has no other connotation. No creation takes place in the Supreme Being or the infinite consciousness; and the infinite consciousness is not involved in the creation. They do not stand in a divided relationship to each other.

This infinite consciousness regards its own intelligence in its own heart, as it were, though it is non-­different from it even as wind is non­-different from its own movement. At that very moment, when there is an unreal division, there arises in that consciousness the notion of space, which, on account of the power of the consciousness, appears as the element known as space or ether. That itself later believes itself to be air and then fire. 

From this notion there arises the appearance of fire and light.  That itself further entertains the notion of water with its inherent faculty of taste; and that itself believes itself to be the earth with its inherent faculty of smell and also its  characteristic of solidity. Thus do the water and the earth elements appear to have manifested themselves.

 

VASISTHA continued:

 

At the same time, the same infinite consciousness held in itself the notion of a unit of time equal to one ­millionth of the twinkling of an eye: and from this evolved the time­scale right up to an epoch consisting of several revolutions of the four ages, which is the life­span of one cosmic creation. The infinite consciousness itself is uninvolved in these: for it is devoid of rising and setting (which are essential to all time­scales), and it is devoid of a beginning, middle and end.

That infinite consciousness alone is the reality, ever awake and enlightened: and with creation also it is the same. That infinite consciousness alone is the unenlightened appearance of this creation: and even after this creation it is the same always. It is ever the same. When one realizes in the self by the self that consciousness is the absolute Brahman, then he experiences it as all—even as the one energy dwelling in all his limbs.

One can say that this world appearance is real only so far as it is the manifestation of consciousness and because of direct experience; and it is unreal when it is  grasped with the mind and the sense ­organs. 

 

Continued 

 

Love