Yoga Vasishta - Post 44

RAMA  asked

When the only reality is the infinite consciousness and its own inherent kinetic power, how does the jiva acquire an apparent reality in the second less unity?

VASISTHA replied:

In the mind of the ignorant alone does this terrible goblin known as jiva arise as a reflected reality or appearance.  No one, not even the men of wisdom or sages can  definitely say what it is: because it is devoid of any indications of its nature.

In the mirror of infinite consciousness countless reflections are seen, which constitute the appearance of the world. These are the jivas. Jiva  is like unto just a little  agitation on the surface of the ocean of Brahman; or just a little movement of the flame of a candle in a windless room. When, in that slight agitation the infinitude of the   infinite consciousness is veiled, limitation of consciousness appears to arise. This too is inherent in that infinite consciousness. And that limitation of consciousness is  known as the jiva.

Just as when a spark from a flame comes into contact with flammable substance it bursts into an independent flame, even so this limitation of consciousness, when it is  fed by latent tendencies and memories, condenses into egotism—'I'­ness. This I­ness is not a solid reality: but the jiva sees it as real, like the blueness of the sky. 

When the egotism begins to entertain its own notions, it gives rise to the mind­stuff, the concept of an independent and separate jiva, mind, Maya or cosmic illusion,  cosmic nature, etc.

Creation (of the mind) is but agitation in consciousness; and the world exists in the mind! It seems to exist because of imperfect vision, imperfect understanding. It is  really not more than a long dream. If this is understood, then all duality will come to an end, and Brahman, jiva, mind, Maya, doer, action, and the world will all be  seen as synonymous with the one non­dual infinite consciousness.

  

The one never became many, O Rama. When many candles are kindled from another, it is the same flame which burns in all candles; even so, the one Brahman  appears to be many. When one contemplates the unreality of this diversity, he is freed from sorrow.

Jiva is nothing more than the limitation of consciousness; when the limitation goes, there is peace—even as for one who wears shoes the whole world is paved with leather. What is this world? Nothing but an appearance, even as a plantain stem is nothing but leaves. 

When the mind perceives duality, then there is both duality and its counterpart which is unity. When the mind drops the perception of duality, there is neither duality nor  unity. When one is firmly established in the oneness of the infinite consciousness, whether he is quiet or actively engaged in work, then he is considered to be at peace  with himself. 

When one is thus established in the supreme state, it is also known as the state of non-­self or the state of know­ ledge of the void or emptiness. On account of the agitation of the mind, consciousness appears to become the object of knowledge! Then there arise in the mind all sorts of false notions like 'I am  born' etc. Such knowledge is not different from the mind. Hence it is known as ignorance or delusion.

When the mind entertains notions of objects, there is agitation or movement in the mind; and when there are no objects or ideas, then there is no movement of thought  in the mind. When there is movement, the world appears to be; when there is no movement, there is cessation of world­ appearance. The movement of thought itself is  called jiva, cause and action; that is the seed for world­ appearance. Then follows the creation of the body.

Continued….

Love.

Yoga Vasishta - Post 43

 

The creation exists in Brahman just as the sprout exists in the seed, liquidity in water, sweetness in milk, and pungency in capsicum; but in ignorance it appears to be  different from and independent of Brahman. 

There is no cause for the world's existence as a pure reflection in the absolute Brahman. When there is notion of creation, the creation seems to be: and when, through self-­effort, there is understanding of non-­creation, there is no world.

Nothing has ever been created anywhere at any time; and nothing comes to an end either. The absolute Brahman is all, the supreme peace, unborn, pure consciousness and permanent. Worlds within worlds appear in every atom. What can be the cause and how do these arise?!

 

As and when one turns away from the notions of 'I' and the 'world', one is liberated: the notion of 'I am this' is the sole bondage here. They who know the infinite consciousness as the nameless, formless substratum of the universe, gain victory over samsara.

RAMA asked:

It is evident that Brahman alone exists, o Holy sage! But, then why do even these sages and men of wisdom exist in this world, as if so ordained by god—and what is god?

 

VASISTHA replied:

There does exist, O Rama, the power or energy of the infinite consciousness, which is in motion all the time; that alone is the reality of all inevitable futuristic events,  for it penetrates all the epochs in time. It is by that power that the nature of every object in the universe is ordained. That power (cit sakti) is also known as  Mahasatta (the great existence), Mahaciti (the great intelligence), Mahasakti (the great power), Mahadrsti (the great vision), Mahakriya (the great doer or  doing), Mahodbhava (the great becoming), Mahaspanda (the great vibration). 

It is this power that endows everything with its characteristic quality. But this power is not different from or independent of the absolute Brahman: it is as real as a pie in the sky. Sages make a verbal distinction between Brahman and the power and declare that creation is the work of that power.

 

The distinction is verbal, even as one speaks of the body (as a whole) and its parts. The infinite consciousness becomes aware of its inherent power, even as one becomes aware of the limbs of his body: such awareness is known as niyati (the power of the absolute that determines nature). It is also known as daiva or divine dispensation.

That you should ask me these questions is ordained by niyati; And that you should act upon my teaching is also ordained by niyati. If one says, 'The divine will feed me' and remains idle, that also is the work of niyati. This niyati cannot be set aside even by gods like Rudra. 

But, wise men should not give up self­-effort because of this, for niyati functions only as and through self-­effort. This niyati has two aspects, human and superhuman: the former is seen where self-­ effort bears fruit and the latter where it does not.

 

If one remains idle, depending upon niyati to do everything for him, he soon discovers that his life departs—for life is action. He can, by entering into the highest super conscious state, stop the breath and attain liberation: but then that is indeed the greatest self-­effort!

 

The infinite consciousness alone appears as one thing in one place and another in another place. There is no division between that consciousness and its power, as there is no division between wave and water, limbs and the body. Such division is experienced only by the ignorant.

 

Love.

 

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

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 41

VASISTHA continued:

The yogi knows that it is one's own mentality that turns sweet things into bitter things and vice versa, and friends into enemies and vice versa. In the same way, by  changing the angle of vision and by persistent practice one can develop a taste for the study of scriptures and for japa, etc., which were uninteresting earlier. 

For these  qualities are not in the objects but only in one's own thinking: just as a sea­sick man sees the world go round, the ignorant man thinks that these qualities abide in the  objects. A drunken man sees empty space where a wall stands; and a non­existent goblin kills a deluded person.

This world is nothing but a mere vibration of consciousness in space. It seems to exist even as a goblin seems to exist in the eyes of the ignorant. All this is but Maya: for there is no contradiction between the infinite consciousness and the apparent existence of the universe. It is like a marvelous dream of a person who is awake.

O Rama, in the autumn the trees shed their leaves; in springtime the same trees sprout new leaves which were surely within the trees themselves. Even so this creation  exists all the time within the absolute consciousness. It is not seen: even as the liquidity that exists in gold is not always evident. If the creator of one epoch attains  liberation and if the creator in the next epoch projects the new universe from his memory, even that memory is none other than the infinite consciousness.

RAMA asked:

Lord, how is it that the king and also the citizens experienced the same objective facts?

VASISTHA replied:

That is because the intelligence of all the jivas is based upon the one infinite consciousness, O Rama. The citizens, too, thought that he was their king. Thought vibrations are natural and inherent in the infinite consciousness and they are not motivated. Even as it is natural for a diamond to sparkle, the king's intelligence thinks ''I am king Viduratha" and so do all  the beings in the universe. 

If 'one's intelligence is established in this truth concerning the infinite consciousness, it reaches the supreme state of liberation. This depends  upon one's own intensity of self­-effort. A man is pulled in two different directions: towards the realization of Brahman the absolute and towards the ignorant  acceptance of the reality of the world. That which he strives to realize with great intensity wins! Once he overcomes ignorance, the deluded vision of the unreal is for  ever dispelled.

Love.

Yoga Vasishta - Post 39

RAMA  asked: Holy sir, does a yogi's physical body then become an ethereal body?

VASISTHA replied:

The ethereal body alone is: by persistent fancy, it appears to be linked to a physical body. Just as  when an ignorant man (who thinks he is the physical body) dies and the body is cremated, has a subtle body, even so the yogi on being enlightened while living, has an  ethereal body.

The physical body is only the creation of one's ignorant fancy, and is not real. There is no difference between the body and the ignorance. To think they are two—this  indeed is samsara (repetitive history).

VASISTHA continued:

In the meantime, Sarasvati restrained Viduratha's  jiva  from entering into the body of king Padma.

THE ENLIGHTENED LILA  asked Sarasvati:

O Goddess, from the time I sat here in contemplation till now, how much time has elapsed?

SARASVATI replied:

Dear one, it is a month since you entered into contemplation. During the first fifteen days, your body, on account of the heat generated by pranayama, became  vaporized. Then it became like a dry leaf and fell down. Then it became rigid and cold. The ministers then thought that you had died of your own accord and cremated that body. 

Now, on account of your own wish you appear here in your ethereal body. In you there are no memories of past life nor latent tendencies brought forward from previous incarnation. For when the intelligence is established in the conviction of its ethereal nature, the body is forgotten, even as in youth one forgets life as a  foetus. Today is the thirty­first day and you are here. Come, let us reveal ourselves to this other Lila.

When the second Lila saw them before her, she fell at their feet and worshipped them.

SARASVATI  asked her: Tell us how you came here.

THE SECOND LILA  replied:

When I fainted in the palace of Viduratha, I did not know anything for some time. I then saw that my subtle body rose to the sky and was seated in an aerial vehicle  which brought me here. And, I saw that Viduratha  was lying here asleep in a garden of flowers. I thought he was fatigued from battle and without disturbing him, I fan him.

Sarasvati  immediately let Viduratha's jiva enter the body. The king at once awoke as if from slumber. The two Lilas bowed to him.

The king asked the enlightened Lila, "Who are you, who is she, and from where has she come?"

The enlightened Lila replied: "Lord, I am your wife in your previous incarnation and your constant companion, even as a word and its meaning are. This Lila is your  other wife; she is my own reflection, created by me for your pleasure. And, she who is seated on yonder golden throne is the goddess Sarasvati herself. She is  present here on account of our great good fortune."

Hearing this, the king sat up and saluted Sarasvati*. Sarasvati blessed him with long life, wealth and so on, and enlightenment.

Continued…

Love

Yoga Vasishta - Post 38

Whatever the jiva  sees, that the jiva experiences. For in this empty space of infinite consciousness there is nothing known as time, action, etc. Then the jiva  fancies, 'The god of death has sent me to heaven (or hell)' and 'I have enjoyed (or suffered) the pleasures (or tortures) of heaven (or hell)', and 'I am born as animal,  etc., as ordained by the god of death'.

At that moment, the jiva enters into the body of the male through the food eaten; it is then transferred to the female and delivered into this world, where it undergoes  life again in accordance with the fruition of past actions. There it grows and wanes like the moon. Once again it undergoes senility and death. This goes on again and  again till the jiva is enlightened by self­knowledge.

THE ENLIGHTENED LILA asked:

O Goddess, but please tell me how all this began in the very beginning.

SARASVATI replied:

The mountains, the forests, the earth and the sky—all these are but infinite consciousness. That alone is the very being of all, the reality in all; and hence that pure  infinite consciousness appeared to become whatever form it took whenever it manifested itself. Till now it continues to be so. When the life­breath enters into the  bodies and begins to vibrate the various parts of the bodies, it is said that those bodies are living. Such living bodies existed right in the beginning of creation. 

When  those bodies into which the life­breath had entered did not vibrate, they were known as trees and plants. It is indeed a small part of the infinite consciousness that  becomes the intelligence in these bodies. This intelligence, entering into the bodies, brings into being the different organs like the eyes.

Whatever this consciousness thinks it is, it takes that form. Thus, this self of all exists in all bodies, with motion as the characteristic of moving bodies, immovability as  the characteristic of the immovable bodies. Thus do all these bodies continue to be even now.

SARASVATI continued:

When that intelligence, which is part of the infinite consciousness, fancied itself to be a tree, it became a tree; or a rock, it became a rock; or grass, it became grass. 

There is no distinction between the sentient and the insentient, between inert and intelligent: there is no difference at all in the essence of substances, for the infinite  consciousness is present everywhere equally. The differences are only due to the intelligence identifying itself as different substances. The same infinite consciousness is  known by different names in these different substances. In the same way, it is the same infinite consciousness that the intelligence identifies as the worms, ants and  birds. In it there is no comparison, nor a sense of difference: just as the people living in the north pole do not know (and therefore do not contrast themselves with) the people of  the south pole. Each independent substance identified as such by this intelligence exists by itself, without distinction from the other substances. Ascribing distinctions to  them as 'sentient' and 'insentient' is like a frog born in a rock and a frog born outside it considering themselves different, one insentient and the other sentient!

Continued..

Love.

Yoga Vasishta - Post 37

The enlightened Lila said: O Goddess, kindly enlighten me concerning death: is it pleasant or unpleasant, and what happens after death?

 

Sarasvati said: There are three types of human beings, my dear: the fool, one who is practicing concentration and meditation, and the yogi (or intelligent one). The two latter types of human beings abandon the body by the practice 'of the yoga of concentration and meditation and depart at their sweet will and pleasure. 

 

But, the fool who has not practiced concentration or meditation, being at the mercy of forces outside himself, experiences great anguish at the approach of death.

 

He wishes to express his suffering, but is unable to do so. Gradually, his senses lose their power; and he is unable even to think. Therefore he sinks in unwisdom and ignorance.  

 

When there is cessation of the flow of the life­ breath, the consciousness of the individual becomes utterly passive. Please remember, O Lila, that consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite: it does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving creatures, in the sky, on the mountain and in fire and air. 

 

When life­ breath ceases, the body is said to be 'dead' or 'inert'. The life ­breath returns to its source—air—and consciousness freed from memory and tendencies remains as the self.

 

After a momentary lapse of consciousness, the jiva begins to fancy that it sees another body, another world and another life­span.

 

O Lila, there are six categories of such 'departed souls': bad, worse and worst sinners; good, better, best of virtuous ones. Of course, there are sub­divisions among these, too. 

 

(In the case of some of the worst sinners, the momentary lapse of consciousness may last a considerable time.)

 

The worst among the sinners undergo terrible sufferings in hell and then are born in countless living species, before they see the end of their agony. They might even exist as trees for a long time.

 

The middling among sinners also suffer lapse of consciousness for a considerable time; and then are born as worms and animals.

 

The light sinners are soon reborn as human beings.

 

The best among the righteous ascend to heaven and enjoy life there. Later they are born in good and affluent families on earth.

 

The middling among the righteous go to the region of the celestials, and return to the earth as children of brahmanas, etc.

 

Even the righteous among the departed ones, after enjoying such heavenly pleasures, have to pass through the realms of the demigods to suffer the consequences of the iniquities they might have committed.

SARASVATI continued:

All these departed souls experience within themselves the fruition of their own past actions. At first there is the notion 'I am dead', and then 'I am being carried away  by the messengers of the god of death'. 

The righteous among them fancy that they are taken to heaven; and the ordinary sinners fancy that they are standing in the  court of the god of death where, with the help of Chitragupta (the hidden record of one's deeds), they are being tried and judged for their past life. 

Love

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 36

Only one who has arrived at wisdom can ascend to the ethereal realms, O Lila, not others. This Lila does not possess such wisdom; hence, she only fancied that she had reached the city where her husband dwelt.

 

The enlightened Lila said:

 

Let that be as you say, O Goddess. But, please tell me: how did the objects acquire their characteristics—like heat in fire, coolness in ice, solidity of earth? How did  the world order (niyati) first arise, as also birth and death?

 

Sarasvati said:

 

Dear one, during the cosmic dissolution, the entire universe having disappeared, only the infinite Brahman remains in peace. This infinite being of the nature of  consciousness feels 'I am' and then 'I am an atom of light'. 

 

Thus it experiences the truth of that statement within itself. It also fancies the existence within itself of the  diverse creatures: and since its nature is pure and absolute consciousness, that fanciful creation appears to be a real creation, with objects of diverse characteristics in  strict accord with the fancy of the infinite consciousness.

 

Whatever, wherever and however was conceived or fancied by the infinite consciousness during that first creation, all that has remained there and in that manner and  with those characteristics even now. Thus was a definite order brought into being here.

 

In fact, this order is inherent in infinite consciousness. All these objects and their characteristics were potentially present in it even during the cosmic dissolution: into  what else could they dissolve? 

 

Moreover, how can something become nothing? Gold that appears as bracelet cannot become formless entirely.

 

Thus, although all the elements of this creation are utter emptiness, yet whatever element was conceived of in the beginning with whatever characteristic, such order has  persisted until now. All this is only from the relative point of view: for, the universe has not been created at all, and whatever is, is the infinite consciousness and naught  else. It is the nature of appearance to appear to be real, even though it is unreal.

 

Such is the order (niyati) in the universe, that nothing until now has been able to alter it. It was the infinite consciousness itself that thought of all these elements within itself and it experienced them within itself, and that experience appears to have materialised. 

 

Continued.. 

 

Love

 

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 30

Goddess Saraswati continues...

In reality you were neither born nor dead at anytime or any place, but ever remain as pure consciousness in the tranquility of your own soul. You seem to see all things about you, but you are seeing nothing real in them. Your all-seeing soul sees everything in itself.  

The soul shines by its own light like a brilliant gem. Nothing that appears beside it, whether this earth or yourself or anything else, is a reality.

These hills and cities, these people and things, and ourselves also, are all unreal and mere phantoms, appearing in the hollow vault of the brahmin of the hilly district.  

The kingdom of Leela’s husband was only a picture of this earth, and his palace with all its grandeur is contained within the sphere of the same hollow shrine. The known world is contained within the empty sphere of that shrine, and it is in one corner of this mundane house that all of us here are situated.

The sphere of this vaulted shrine is as clear as emptiness itself, which has no earth or house in it.  

It is without any forest, hill, sea or river, and yet all beings are found to rove about in this empty and homeless abode. Here there are no kings, no royal retinue, and nothing else that kings have on earth.

Viduratha asked, “If it is so, then tell me goddess, how did I happen to have these dependents here? A man is rich in his own mind and spirit. Is it not so ordained by Divine Mind and spirit? 

If not, then the world must appear as a mere dream, and all these men and things are only creatures of our dreams. Tell me goddess, what things are spiritually true and false? How are we to distinguish the one from the other?”

Saraswati answered:— Know prince that those who have known the only knowable One and are assimilated in the nature of pure understanding view nothing as real in the world except the empty consciousness within themselves. 

The misconception of the serpent in a rope being removed, the fallacy of the rope is removed also. The unreality of the world being known, the error of its existence also ceases to exist. Knowing the falsity of water in a mirage, no one thirsts after it anymore. 

Knowing the falsehood of dreams, no one thinks himself dead as he had dreamt. The fear of dreaming death may overtake the dying, but it can never assail the living in his dream.

He whose soul is enlightened with the clear light of his pure consciousness is never misled into believing his own existence, or that of others, by the false application of the terms “I”, “you”, “this” or the like.

Valmiki speaking:—

As the sage was lecturing in this manner, the day departed to its evening service with the setting sun. The assembly broke with mutual greetings to perform their evening rituals, and it met again with the rising sun, after dispersion of the gloom of night.

Love

Yoga Vasishta - Post 29

  

The goddess replied:—Know O king that after the fit of unconsciousness attending your death was over, your soul continued to remain in the emptiness of the same place where you still reside. This royal pavilion, where you think yourself living, is situated in the empty space within the house of the brahmin in that hilly district. 

 

It is inside that house that you see the appearances of your other homes present before you, and it was in that brahmin’s house that you devoted your life to my worship. It is the shrine within that same house and on the same spot that contains the whole world which you are now seeing all about you. This abode of yours is situated in that same place and within the clear firmament of your mind.

 

It is a false notion of your mind, which you have gained by your habitual mode of thinking,that you are born in your present state of the race of Ikshvaku. Mere imagination has made you suppose yourself to be named so and so, and that such and such persons were your ancestors; that you had been a boy of ten years; that your father became an ascetic in the woods and left you governing the realm; that you have subjugated many countries under your dominion and are now reigning as the lord paramount over them; and that you are ruling on earth with these ministers and officers of yours, observing sacrificial rites and justly ruling your subjects.

 

You think that you have passed seventy years of your life and that you are now beset by very formidable enemies, and that having waged a furious battle, you have returned to this tent of yours where you are now seated and intend to adore the goddesses who have become your guests here. You are thinking that these goddesses will bless you with your desired object, because one of them has given you the power of recollecting the events of your former births; that these goddesses have opened your understanding like the blossom of a lotus, and that you have the prospect of getting rid of all questions; that you are now at peace and rest, and enjoy the solace of your solitude; and that your long continued error (of this world) is now removed forever.

 

You remember the many acts and pleasures of your past life in the body of King Padma before you were snatched away by the hand of death. You now perceive in your mind that your present life is only a shadow of the former, as it is the same wave that by its rise and fall carries one onward. The constant current of the mind flows like a river and leads a man, like a weed, from one whirlpool to another. The course of life now runs alone as in dreaming, and then accompanied by the body as in the waking state, both of which leave their traces in the mind at the hour of death.

 

The sun of consciousness being hidden under the mist of ignorance, there arises a network of a false world which makes a moment appear like a hundred years. Our lives and deaths are mere phantoms of imagination, just like we imagine houses and towers in aerial castles and icebergs. The world is an illusion, like the delusion of moving banks and trees to a passenger in a vessel on water, or a rapid vehicle on land, or like the trembling of a mountain or quaking of the earth to one affected by a convulsive disease.  As one sees extraordinary things in his dream, such as the decapitation of his own head, so he views the illusions of the world that can hardly be true.

 

Continued….

 

Love.

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 28

Leela & Saraswati enter King Viduratha’s Tent; He Remembers His Past Lives; Everything Is within the Temple of the Mountain Brahmin; Discrimination of Error

 

Vasishta said:—When the ladies entered the tent, it appeared like a bed of lotuses. Its white ceiling seemed as graceful as the vault of heaven with two moons rising at once under it. 

 

The cooling and moon-bright radiance of the ladies roused the king from his sleep as if he had been sprinkled with the juice of ambrosia. He saw the forms of two apsaras sitting on two stools, appearing like two moons risen on two peaks of Mount Meru.  

 

The king saw them with wonder and after composing his mind, he rose up from his bed like God Vishnu rises from his bed of the serpent.  Then advancing respectfully to them, with long strings of flowers in his hands, he made offerings of them to the ladies with handfuls of flowers flung at their feet.

 

Leaving his pillowed sofa in the midst of the hall, he sat with folded legs on the ground. Lowly bending his head, he addressed them saying, “Be victorious, O moon-bright goddesses who by your radiance drive away all the miseries and evils and pains and pangs of life, and who by your sun-like beams dispel all my inward and outward darkness.” 

 

Then the goddess, desiring to reveal the ancestry of the king, inspired his minister, who was lying nearby, to relate it to Leela.  Upon waking, the minister saw the nymphs manifested before him, and advancing humbly before them, threw handfuls of flowers upon their feet. The goddess said, “Let us know, O king, who you are and when and of whom you are born.”

 

Hearing these words of the goddess, the minister spoke saying, “It is by your favor, O gracious goddesses, that I am empowered to relate of my king’s ancestry to your kind graces.”

 

“There was a sovereign born of the imperial line of Ikshvaku named Mukundaratha, who had subjugated the earth under his arms.  He had a moon-faced son by name of Bhadraratha, whose son Viswaratha was father to the renowned prince Brihadratha.  His son Sindhuratha was the father of Sailaratha, and his son Kamaratha was father of Maharatha.  His son Vishnuratha was father of Nabhoratha, who gave birth to this my lord of handsome appearance.”

 

“He is renowned as Viduratha and is born with the great virtues of his sire, as the moon was produced of the Milky Ocean to shed his ambrosial beams over his people. He was begotten by his mother Sumitra like the god Guha of Gauri. He was installed king of the realm in the tenth year of his age, owing to his father taking himself to asceticism. He has been ruling the realm with justice since that time, and your appearance here tonight indicates the blossoming of his good fortune.”

 

“O goddesses, whose presence is hard to be had, even by the merit of long devotion and a hundred austerities, you see here present before you the lord of the earth, famed Viduratha. After saying these words, the minister remained silent with the lord of the earth.

 

They were sitting on the ground with folded legs, clasped hands and downcast looks when the goddess of wisdom, by her inspiration, told the king to remember his former births. So saying, she touched his head with her hand and immediately the dark veil of illusion and oblivion was dispersed from over the lotus of his mind.  It opened like a blossom by the touch of the genius of consciousness and it became bright as the clear sky with the rays of his former memories. 

 

By his intelligence, he remembered his former kingdom, of which he had been the sole lord, and recollected all his past play with Leela.  He was carried away by the thoughts of the events of his past lives, as one is carried away by the current of waves, and reflected in himself that this world is a magic sea of illusion.

 

He said, “I have come to know this by the favor of the goddesses, but how is it that so many events have occurred to me in course of one day after my death? Here I have passed a lifetime full of seventy years and remember having done many works and having seen my grandson. I recollect the bygone days of my boyhood and youth, and I remember well all the friends and relatives and all the clothes and attendants that I had before.”

 

Love

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 25

Vasishta continues..

But the spiritual man soon perceives everything as pure emptiness, and that his own body and this world are only illusions and vain nothings. He perceives the gods, human dwellings, the hills, and the heavens resplendent with sun and stars to be nothing more than homes of disease, debility, decay and ultimate death and destruction. 

He sees nothing but a sad change in the natures of things, and that all that is living or inert, great or small, together with the seas, hills, rivers and peoples of this earth, and the days and nights, are all subject to decay sooner or later.

The knowledge that I am born here of this father and that this is my mother, these are my treasures and such are my hopes and expectations, is as false as empty air. That these are my merits and these my demerits, and these the desires that I had at heart, that I was a boy and am now young, are the airy thoughts of the hollow mind.

This world resembles a forest where every being is like a detached tree. The dark clouds are its leaves and the stars its full blown flowers. Walking men are its restless deer and the aerial gods and demons its birds of the air. Broad daylight is the flying dust of its flowers and the dark night the deep hiding place of its grove. The seas are like its streams and fountains and the eight boundary mountains are its artificial hills. The mind is its great water reservoir containing the weeds and shrubs of human thoughts in abundance.

Wherever a man dies, he is instantly changed to this state, and he views the same things everywhere. Thus everyone rises and falls constantly, like the leaves of trees in this forest of the world.  Millions of Brahmas, Rudras, Indras, Maruts, Vishnus and suns, together with unnumbered mountains, seas, continents and islands have appeared and disappeared in the eternal course of the world. 

No one can count the numbers of beings that have passed away, are passing, and shall have to pass hereafter, or those who are in existence and have to become extinct in the unfathomable eternity of Brahman.

Therefore it is impossible to comprehend the stupendous fabric of the universe in any way except in the mind, which is as spacious as infinite space itself, and is as variable as the course of events in the world. The mind is the empty sphere of consciousness, and the infinite sphere of consciousness is the seat of the Supreme.

Now, know the whirlpools and waves of the sea are of the same element as the sea in which they rise and fall even though, in their impermanence, they are not of the same durable nature as seawater. So the phenomenon is the same as its conception, though none is a reality.

The ethereal sphere of heaven is only a reflection of the intellectual sphere of the Divine Mind, and the bright orbs of the sky are like gems in the bosom of Brahman. Its vault is the cave of the mind of the Eternal One.

The world according to the sense in which I take it, as the seat of God, is highly interesting, but not so in your sense of it being a sober reality. So the meaning of the words “I” and “you” according to me refers to the intellectual spirit, and according to you to the individual soul and body.

Hence Leela and Saraswati, being in their empty astral bodies, were led by the pure desire of their souls to every place without any obstruction or interruption. The spirit of consciousness has the power to present itself wherever it likes, on earth or in the sky, and before objects known or unknown and wished to be known by it. It was by this power that they could enter into the tent of the prince.

Consciousness has its way to all places and things, and over which it exercises its powers of observation, reflection and reasoning to their full extent. This is known as the spiritual and unconfined body (ativahika, the subtle body, astral body, mind body) whose course cannot be obstructed by any restriction whatever.

Love.