Yoga Vasishta - Post 5

 

Story of Sukha - (Mumukshu Khanda- Craving for liberation)

 

After Rama delivered his speech before the assembly, sage Viswamitra, who sat before Rama, tenderly said, “Rama, you are the best of the most intelligent, and you have nothing more to learn that you have not already come to know by your own observation.  You have an understanding clear like a mirror, and your questions serve to polish and reflect your understanding to others. You have a mind like that of Shuka, the son of the great Vyasa, who knowing the knowable by intuition, was yet in need of some teaching to confirm his belief.”

 

Rama said, “How was it that Shuka, son of the great Vyasa, did not at first rest assured of his knowledge of the knowable, but then came to be settled in his belief?”

 

Viswamitra answered, “Hear me relate to you, Rama, the story of Shukadeva, whose case was exactly like yours. The narration of this story prevents future births.”

 

Viswamitra speaks:—

 

Sage vyasa’s son named Shuka was a boy of great learning and wisdom, of a moon-like countenance, with a stature sedate as a sacrificial altar. 

 

Like you, he reflected in his mind on the vanity of worldly affairs and became equally indifferent to all its concerns. It was then that this great minded youth was led by his own discriminative understanding to a long inquiry after what was true, which he found at last by his own investigation. 

 

Having obtained the highest truth, he was still unsettled in his mind, and could not trust his own knowledge. His mind grew indifferent to its perceptions of the transitory enjoyments of the world, and, like chataka cuckoos, thirsted only after the dew drops of heavenly bliss.

 

Once upon a time the clear sighted Shuka finding his father, sage Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa, sitting quietly alone, he reverently asked him, “Tell me, O sage, where does this commotion of the world arise, and how can it subside? What is its cause, how far does it extend, and where is its end?”

 

Sage Vyasa, who knew the nature of the soul, being asked this by his son, explained to him clearly all that was to be said. Shuka thought that he already knew all this by his good understanding and therefore did not think much of his father’s instructions.  

 

Vyasa, understanding the thoughts of his son, replied that he himself knew no better than his son about the true nature of these things, but there was a king in this land named Janaka who well knew the knowledge of the knowable, and from whom Shuka could learn everything.

 

Being thus directed by his father, Shuka went to the city of Videha at the foot of Mount Sumeru, which city was under the rule of Janaka. 

 

The door keeper informed the high minded Janaka of his coming, telling him that Shuka the son of Vyasa was waiting at the gate. Janaka who understood that Shuka had come to learn from him, gave no heed to the news but held his silence for seven days afterwards.

 

The king then ordered Shuka to be brought to the outer compound, where he had to remain irritated in spirit for seven more days. 

 

Shuka was then commanded to enter the inner apartment, where he continued a week more without seeing the king.  Here Janaka entertained the moon-faced Shuka with an abundance of food, perfumes and lusty maidens. 

 

But neither those vexations nor these entertainments could affect the tenor of Shuka’s mind, which remained firm as a rock against the blasts of wind. He remained there like the full moon, tranquil in his desires, silent and contented in his mind.

 

King Janaka, having come to know the dispostion of Shuka’s mind, had him brought to his presence, where seeing the complacency of his soul, he rose up and bowed down to him. 

 

Janaka said, “You have accomplished to the full all your duties in this world, and you have obtained the object of your heart’s desire to its utmost extent. What do you now desire for which you are welcome from me?”

 

Shuka said, “Tell me, my guide, what is the source of all this bustle (of worldly life), and tell me also how it may soon subside.”

 

Being thus asked by Shuka, Janaka told him the same things that he had learned from the great soul that is his father Shuka then said, “All this I have come to know long before by my own intuition, and then from the speech of my father in answer to my question. 

 

You sage, who are the most eloquent of all, have spoken to the same effect, and the same is found to be the true meaning of the scriptures. That the world is a creation of will and loses itself with the absence of our desires, and that it is an accursed and unsubstantial world after all, are the conclusions arrived at by all sages.”

 

“Now tell me truly, O King, so that you may set my mind may be set at rest from its wandering all about the world. What do you think this world to be?”

 

Janaka replied, “There is nothing more certain, O sage, than what you know by yourself and have heard from your father. There is but one undivided intelligent spirit known as the Universal Soul and nothing else. It becomes confined by its desires (mental conditioning) and becomes freed by its lack of them.”

 

“You have truly come to the knowledge of the knowable, whereby your great soul has desisted from attachment to objects of enjoyment and vision.  You must be a hero to have overcome your desires for the lengthening chain of attractive enjoyments while still in your early youth. What more do you want to hear?”

 

 

Being thus advised by the magnanimous Janaka, Shuka remained silent with his mind fixed in the purely supreme object. Being devoid of sorrow and fear, and released from all efforts, exertions and doubts, he went to a peaceful summit of Mount Meru to obtain his final absorption. 

 

There he passed ten thousand years in a state of unalterable meditation, until at last he broke his mortal coil, and was extinguished in the Supreme Soul like a lamp without oil.  Thus purified from the stain of rebirth by abstention from earthly desires, the great soul Shuka sank into the holy state of the Supreme Spirit (nirvikalpa samadhi), just like a drop of water mixes with the waters or merges into the depth of the ocean.

 

Viswamitra said:— Rama, now it is appropriate that you have your mind properly purified from its doubts, as it was done with Shuka, the son of Vyasa.

 

You see, O great sages, how perfectly the knowable is known to Rama, whose good understanding has learnt to feel a distaste for worldly enjoyments as if they were diseases to him. You well know that the fixed principle in the mind of one knowing the knowable is to have an aversion to all the enjoyments of life.  The desire of results chains a man to the earth. Knowledge of the frailties here serves to dispel his darkness.

 

Dear Readers,

After reading each story, you have to introspect on the essence of the story and if possible, revert to the author through writing a comment on your absorption or those who have access to the author, they have to communicate to him directly on what they grasped from each story. 

Then only the purpose of this theme, stories from this greatest Advaita treatise, will be served.

 

Love.

 

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 4

Valmiki is well acquainted with every truth. Tell him my errand, which is to instruct the dispassionate king, saying, ‘O great sage! Plead with this king who is humble and dispassionate and dislikes the enjoyments of heaven so that this king, who is aggrieved at the miseries of the world, may gradually come to attain his liberation.’ “

 

I went and explained my mission to the royal hermit, then took him to sage Valmiki. I delivered great Indra’s charge so that the king may practice for his final liberation. Sage Valmiki welcomed the king with gentle inquiries regarding his welfare. 

 

The king replied, “O great sage, you are informed in all the truths of religion. You are the greatest of those who know the knowable. The very sight of you has given me all that I desired, and therein is all my welfare. Great sage, I wish to learn from you how I may escape the miseries that arise from one’s connection with this world. I hope you will reveal this to me without reserve.”

Valmiki said, “Hear me O king! I will relate the entire Ramayana to you. By hearing and understanding you will be saved even while in this life. O great and intelligent king, listen as I repeat the sacred conversation that took place between Rama and Vasishta relating the way of liberation, which, I know from my own knowledge.”

 

We read through the following extracts on Dispassion

1. Rama's dispassion is conveyed in the following text (post 2)

Vasistha remarks that the Vairagya (indifference) of the Prince is not akin to that produced by such momentary accidents as the loss of some dearly beloved relative or wealth but is one which is the premonitory symptom of a spiritual development in him after which development all his duties will be regularly per formed by him. 

 

2. In the story of King Arishtameni (Post 3),  when Indra sends his car with apsaras etc to the King and conveys him through his messenger to come to Indra Loka, the King asks the messenger as to what is special in Indra Loka and after hearing all about Indra Loka, the King replies,

 

"O divine messenger, I do not like heaven that has such conditions. Henceforth I will practice the most austere form of asceticism and abandon this my unhallowed human frame in the same way as a snake abandons his time-worn skin. Be pleased, O messenger of the gods, to return with your heavenly car to the presence of the great Indra from where you came. Travel in good fortune.”

 

Further, Valimki writes in detail on Rama's addressing the august gathering of Dasaratha and Viswamitra where Rama talks in great detail on "Dispassion"

Glimpses of His talk is given below

"Valmiki is narrating / writing about the conversation that takes place in Dasaratha’s court and relevant extract related to “dispassion” is being given in today’s post without getting into detail the situation in which these conversations took place.

Sri Rama speaks

“Wealth taints the heart of even a wise scholar. To the lotus of right action, wealth is the night. To the white lotus of sorrow, it is the moonlight, to the lamp of clear insight, it is the wind, to the wave of enmity, it is the flood, to the cloud of confusion, it is the favorable wind, to the poison of despondency, it is the aggressive agent.

 

It is like the serpent of evil thoughts, and it adds fear to one’s distress, it is the destructive snow fall to the creeper of dispassion. It is the nightfall to the owl of desires, it is the eclipse of the moon of wisdom, in its presence, a person’s good nature shrivels. Indeed, wealth seeks him who has already been chosen by death.

Rama continues..

“I can only compare a tree to the body, with branches for arms, trunk for the torso, holes for the eyes, fruits for the head, leaves for numerous illnesses - it is a resting place for living beings. 

Who can say that it is one’s own?. Hope or despair in relation to it is futile. It is but a boat for one for crossing the ocean of birth and death, but one should not regard it as one’s SELF.

 

Love.

 

 

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 3

Agastya continues with the story of Brahmin named Karunya.

 

Karunya was the son of Agnivesya and accomplished in the Vedas and all their branches. After finishing his studies with his teacher, he returned to his own home. He remained a skeptic at home, reluctant and impassive to do anything. When his father Agnivesya saw his son so slack in his duties, he upbraided him for his good. 

 

Agnivesya said, “My son, why do you not discharge your duties? Why are you not observing the daily rituals and the injunctions of the holy scriptures? 

 

Tell me how can you succeed in anything if you remain inactive? How can you attain salvation? Tell me why you are not doing anything.”

 

Karunya replied, “The offering of daily oblations, and performance of morning and evening devotions during life, are inculcated in the Veda and law as the active duties. But it is neither by acts or riches, nor by means of children that one obtains his liberation. It is solely by self-denial that the great souls taste the ambrosia (of emancipation). 

 

Tell me my father! Which of these rules am I to observe? Doubtful of this I have become indifferent to acts.” After so saying, Karunya held his silence. His father seeing him quiet, continued speaking.

 

Agnivesya said, “Hear me, My Son…” “My Son, Let Me Tell You A Story… When you have fully considered its meaning, you may do as you like…”

 

Agnivesya Started Speaking…:—

 

There was a lady named Suruchi, the best of the apsara nymphs, who was seated on the mountain peak of Himalaya, surrounded by peacocks. Here kinnaras inflamed by love sported with their mates, and the fall of heavenly streams (Ganga and Yamuna) served to cleanse the gravest sins of men. She saw a messenger of Indra making his way through the sky. Then Suruchi, this most fortunate and best of apsaras, addressed the messenger.

 

Suruchi said, “O you messenger of gods, tell me kindly from where you come and what place are you going at present?”

 

The divine messenger replied, “Well have you asked, O pretty browed maid, and I will tell you all as it is. The royal sage, King Arishtanemi, has given his realm to his son, and with religious indifference to the world, has set out to the forest to practice asceticism. He is performing his austerities on the Gandha-madana Mountains. I am now coming from there after discharge of my errand, and returning to Indra’s palace to report the matter.”

 

Suruchi said, “Tell me, my lord, what has taken place there? I am humbly very curious. You should not cause me the pain of anxiety.”

 

The messenger replied:— Hear me, gentle maiden… I will describe everything as it has occurred.

 

On hearing that the king was practicing the utmost rigors of asceticism in that forest, Indra, the lord of gods, asked me to take this heavenly car and proceed at once to the spot. “Take this car,” said Indra, “bearing the apsaras equipped with all their musical instruments, and furnished with a band of gandharvas, siddha spiritual masters, yakshas and kinnaras. Convey them,” said Indra, “with all their string instruments, flutes and drums to the woodland mount of Gandha-madana. There, having placed King Arishtanemi in the car, bring him to the enjoyment of heavenly delight in this city of Amaravati, the seat of immortals.”

 

The messenger added:—

 

Receiving this instruction from Indra and taking the car with all its equipment, I proceeded to that mountain. Having arrived at the mountain and advanced to the king’s hermitage, I delivered the orders of the great Indra to him. Hearing my words, O happy lady, King Arishtanemi reluctantly spoke to me saying, “I wish to ask you something, O messenger, which I hope you will answer. Tell me what good and what evil are in heaven, so that I may decide whether I want to settle there.”

 

I answered, saying, “In heaven there is ample reward for merit, conferring perfect bliss (to all); but it is the degree of merit that leads one to higher heavens.  By moderate virtue, one is certainly entitled to a middle station. Virtue of an inferior order leads a person to a lower position. But one’s virtue is destroyed by impatience at the excellence of his betters, by haughtiness to his equals, and by joy at the inferiority of others. When one’s virtue is thus destroyed, he must enter the abode of mortals. These and the like are the effects of good and evil in heaven.”

 

Hearing this, O good maiden, King Arishtanemi answered, “O divine messenger, I do not like heaven that has such conditions. Henceforth I will practice the most austere form of asceticism and abandon this my unhallowed human frame in the same way as a snake abandons his time-worn skin. Be pleased, O messenger of the gods, to return with your heavenly car to the presence of the great Indra from where you came. Travel in good fortune.”

 

continued...

 

 

Love.