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.

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 2

Chapter 1

 

VAIRAGYA KHANDA

(ON DETACHMENT/ DISPASSION)

 

Most of our readers will have been fully acquainted with the contents of our great Epic poem, the Ramayana.

 

We find therein that Rishi Viswamitra turns upon the stage in the early years of Sri Rama. The Rishi appears before his father, Dasaratha and demands of him his son Rama to war with the Rakshasas interfering with his sacrifice. Just before this time, Rama goes on a pilgrimage to the many sacred places; and having visited the Asramas (hermitages) of the wise, returns to his native place. On his return, he grows quite disgusted with his material life, spurns his wealth and other regal possessions and grows despondent without performing any of his daily duties. 

 

His attendants go and complain to the King his father of the grievous plight of their master. Thereupon the father sends for his son, seats him on his lap and enquires of him his state. But the son evades the question by simply laughing over the affair and gets away. 

 

At this juncture, Muni Viswamitra turns up and the King delighted with the usual arrival of such a distinguished and reverend guest consents to execute any orders of the noble Muni. The Muni demands Rama for his aid at which Dasaratha is panic-struck. Yet rallying himself, he volunteers his own services in lieu of his eldest and dearly beloved boy begotten through dire Tapas.

 

Immediately the Muni begins to curse Dasaratha for his vacillation in the fulfilment of his promises, when Vasistha interposes and pacifies the sage by making the King fulfil his promise. Then Rama is sent for and his servants meanwhile relate to the Rishis the pitiable present plight of their master disdaining to perform such actions as tasting food, drinking water, etc. 

 

At which 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. 

 

On Rama’s arrival at the regal assembly, he is asked by one of the Rishis as to the cause of his present sorrow. At which Rama makes a long tirade against wealth, life, Ahankara, Manas (mind), desires, body and other material things and at last winds up by saying that he will rather expose himself to the torments of hell-fire than undergo the excruciating mental tortures, consuming him little by little through the above mentioned causes.

 

Story on dispassion 

 

One Sutikshna, a Brahmin whose mind was full of questions, went to the hermitage of Agastya and respectfully asked the sage, “O great sage! You are informed in all the ways and truths of virtue, and know all the scriptures with certainty. I am in a great doubt, and I pray you will kindly remove it.  Tell me, in your opinion, whether liberation results from a man’s acts or his knowledge or both?”

 

Agastya replied:— As the birds fly in the air with both wings, so the highest state of emancipation is attained through both knowledge and acts.  Neither our acts nor knowledge alone produces liberation, but both together are the means.  I will recite to you an example from old traditions, a story of a brahmin named Karunya, who was learned in the Vedas in the days of old.

 

Continued…. 

 

 

Love.

 

 

 

 

Stories from Yoga Vasishta - Post 1

 

Origin and Glory

 

The earliest work in Sanskrit on Vedanta of the highest order is the Vasishtha Maha Ramayana or Yoga Vasishtha. This monumental work is one without a second in Sanskrit literature. Vasishtha, the great sage, taught the principles of Vedanta to his royal pupil, Sri Rama, the victor of Ravana and hero of the epic, Ramayana. He narrated beautiful and interesting stories to illustrate the principles. The book is written in the language of Valmiki.

 

The name is derived from the sage Vasishtha. Though the book is called Yoga Vasishtha, it treats of Jnana only. Practical Yoga is dealt with in two stories. The word “Yoga” is used in the title of this work in its generic sense. It is known by the name Jnana Vasishtham also.

 

Rishi Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana, compiled this remarkable book. He related the whole of Yoga Vasishtha to Rishi Bharadwaja as it passed between Sri Rama and sage Vasishtha.

 

Those whose minds are turned from this world, who have become indifferent towards the objects of this world and who are thirsting for liberation, will be really benefited by a study of this precious book. 

 

They will find in this book a vast mine of knowledge and practical spiritual instructions for guidance in their daily life. The Yoga Vasishtha first enunciates a doctrine in its various aspects and then makes it very lucid through interesting stories. This is a book for constant study as many times as possible. It must be read and re-read, studied and mastered.

 

The Yoga Vasishtha deals with the subject of effecting union of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul amidst all the trials and tribulations of life. It prescribes various directions for the union of the Jivatman and Paramatman.

 

Moksha According to Yoga Vasishtha

 

Moksha, according to Yoga Vasishtha, is the attainment of the essence of the bliss of Brahman through knowledge of the Self. It is freedom from births and deaths. It is the immaculate and imperishable seat of Brahman wherein there are neither Sankalpas nor Vasanas. The mind attains its quiescence here. All the pleasures of the whole world are a mere drop when compared to the infinite bliss of Moksha.

 

That which is called Moksha is neither in Devaloka nor in Patala nor on earth. When all desires are destroyed, the extinction of the expansive mind alone is Moksha. Moksha has neither space nor time in itself; nor is there in it any state external or internal. If the illusory idea of “I” or Ahamkara perishes, the end of thoughts (which is Maya) is experienced, and that is Moksha. Extinction of all Vasanas constitutes Moksha. Sankalpa is only Samsara; its annihilation is Moksha. It is only Sankalpa destroyed beyond resurrection that constitutes the immaculate Brahmic seat or Moksha. 

 

Essence of Yoga Vasishtha

 

If you attain knowledge of the Self or Brahma Jnana, you will be freed from the trammels of births and deaths. All your doubts will vanish and all Karmas will perish. It is through one’s own efforts alone that the immortal, all blissful Brahmic seat can be obtained.

 

Persons without Atmic enquiry will see as real this world, which is nothing but of the nature of Sankalpas. The expansion of this mind alone is Sankalpa. Sankalpa, through its power of differentiation, generates this universe. Extinction of Sankalpas alone is Moksha.

 

The enemy of the Atman is this impure mind only which is filled with excessive delusion and hosts of worldly thoughts. There is no vessel on this earth to wade through the ocean of rebirths other than mastery of the antagonistic mind.

 

The original sprout of the painful Ahamkara, with its tender stem of rebirths, at length ramifies itself everywhere with its long branches of “mine” and “thine” and yields its unripe fruits of death, disease, old age and sorrows. This tree can be destroyed to its root only by the fire of Jnana.

 

Dear All,

In the upcoming posts, we will take up some stories from Yoga Vasishta and through those stories, we will try and understand the essence which each story tries to give us.

Please do glide along with the author, in this sacred journey. 

 

Love.

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 61 ( Concluding Post)

Brahman, the Cause of all causes

In fact, Brahman and illusion (maya) have an intimate relationship. Truth, once established and fixed, is ever unaffected. And illusion is not fundamentally true. What is learned by the impact of appearance is pseudo- knowledge (mithya jnana); it is non-knowledge (a-vidya). The illusion (mithya or a-vidya, ignorance) will vanish as soon as the appearance is negated and the truth is grasped. Illusion is neither invalid nor valid.

The universe appears to each in accordance with the point of view or the angle of vision. It has no independent existence, apart from the ideations that are projected by and from the observer. Its support and sustenance is Brahman. Brahman is the unaffected cause. The effect will not have any effect on It. Illusion is the effect that is prone to inevitable change.

Brahman is the one supreme truth, which has assumed the manifoldness of the universe (jagath), consequent on the influence of illusion. When Brahman is cognized as with illusion, It becomes the material cause of the universe. It is in the universe as the universe. Brahman is said to be the instrumental cause of the universe, but illusion is the prompting influence. Brahman is beyond both cause and effect. It cannot be a cause, either instrumental or material.

The universe can be conceived as a picture; the plain canvas is Brahman, and the colours spread on it form the universe. The appearances immanent on the canvas, the human figures, are dark. The individual soul (jiva) is the experiencer of pain and grief through involvement with the universe. He is the “seen”, “the observed”. Brah- man is truth; the universe is the play, the pantomime, the sport. It is the manifestation of the will that is latent in Brahman. To recognize the will behind the play is to attain liberation. Four prerequisites for the Vedantic path

Meditation (dhyana), worship (puja), rites and rituals, and other activities are laid down for those too dull to recognize this will. Only those who can renounce triple fruits of worldly endeavor can claim the right to follow the path of wisdom (jnana). Spiritual seekers on the Vedantic path must be equipped with:

(1) discrimination to distinguish the transient from the eternal,

(2) determination to desist from worldly and other-worldly pleasures,

(3) sense control, self control, detachment, fortitude, faith, and equanimity, and 

(4) keen yearning for liberation.

All things have to be viewed as products of the Divine Will and used with the reverence that this knowledge will kindle in the consciousness.

The paths of holy activity (karma) and intellectual discrimination (jnana) are intended for different spiritual seekers. It is not possible to mix the two and follow them together. Righteous living can confer new life; prosperity is the gift of the knowledge of dharma; liberation is the gift of the knowledge of Brahman. 

The awareness of Brahman does not demand for its continuance and constancy the practice of any spiritual practice (sadhana). It does not depend on the performance of any specific duties and chores.

Liberation is of two kinds: immediate and gradual. The first is the result of the attainment of wisdom (jnana). The second is the result of worship (upasana), spiritual study, and spiritual discipline. Wisdom (jnana) is pure, unmixed, monistic experience. Devotion (bhakthi) is of the nature of supreme love, characterized by love for God, for the sake only of the Lord.

 

Love.

 

Thus ends "Sathya Sai Vahini"!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 60

 

Unity of individual and cosmic spirit

 

All sparks are fire. They cannot be declared separate, nor is there a need to assert that they are not separate. So too, people or individualized beings are not separate from the Universal Absolute (Brahman), nor is there a need to assert that they are not separate. There is only one caste, humanity.

 

The relation between Brahman and the individual soul (jiva) is not one of identity or oneness but of cause - effect. Until liberation is attained, the particular is distinct, separate. When liberated, since the cause of individualization is absent, the individual soul (jiva) is one with Brahman. Separation and oneness of the individual soul and Brahman are the consequences of the delusion of bondage and the awareness of freedom.

 

Brahman is self-effulgent, self-illuminating. It is not the “object” of consciousness; It cognizes all objects. All things and beings belong to the category of “seen” or “observed” or “known”. It is the seer, not the seen. When the form is the “seen”, the mind is the “seer”; when the mind and the activities of the intellect are the “seen” or “observed”, then the witnessing consciousness is the “seer”.

 

This witness can be seen by no one. All things cognizable are the body of the Atma, not the Atma. They are name-form combinations like pots and pans of clay, which impinge on the consciousness as “seen” or delude it like the “silver” on “mother of pearl”. The Atma is; It exists by and for Itself. The universe is the “other”, for others; it is “real” and available for others. The universe has no innate reality. It emanates from Brahman, and its reality is based on the reality of Brahman. So, its reality is lower than that of Brahman.

 

The illusion created by a magician for deluding others cannot affect the magician himself. In the same manner, since the universe is contrived by Brahman, it is clear that it cannot affect Brahman Itself.

 

Maya: ideational superimposition of Reality

 

The universe appears to have emanated, as being experienced as such, and as disintegrating. These three are but superimposed ideations upon the One modification-less reality, just like the snake superimposed upon the rope, at dusk. This ideation is illusion (maya), for it hides and reveals at the same time. Illusion cannot be said to be unreal. 

The rope appearing as snake is known again as rope when the snake disappears. But the universe does not disappear in the same manner. Its existence cannot be explained away. It is a unique phenomenon; we cannot compare it with any other. We cannot dismiss it as unreal or accept it as real. It is truth-untruth (sat-asat), not untruth. That is to say, real-unreal, not unreal.

 

It persists for some time and is therefore real. It does not persist for all time and is therefore unreal. A thing can be true only as long as it is not something different; while dealing with it on the temporary practical relative level, the universe remains as universe. It is relatively real. Truth is one, it has one feature only. The universe has manifold features through time, space, and causation, so it is unreal. 

 

Sankara proclaimed the universe (jagath) to be unreal. When the highest truth is known, the universe is revealed as but an appearance on the Real and as distinct from the basic Brahman. Since the universe is imposed by the mind on the Brahmic truth, it too is to be treated as a Brahmic phenomenon. “All this is indeed Brahman (Sarvam Khalvidham Brahmam).”

 

Continued...

 

Love.

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 59

Dear All,

This glorious journey of this vahini is coming to an end, as we are starting the last chapter of the vahini today.

 

Chapter XXIV

 

 The Divine Body

 

Fourfold division of mankind 

 

The sociological basis of Indian (Bharathiya) culture has to be clearly understood. Mankind falls into four groups, when innate nature and inclinations are considered. They are named brahmin, warrior (kshatriya), trader (vaisya), and labourer (sudra). 

 

This demarcation is not a selfish, crooked conspiracy designed to make the “superior” trample upon the “inferior”. Nor is it the consequence of an envious plot to obstruct human progress. It is best to judge it as a plan to promote the expansion of human achievement by fostering the trends and traits of each person. 

 

It is the royal road for the attainment of human progress. It works only for the promotion and regulation of human activity in such a manner that harmony and social well-being are ensured. 

 

As readers already know, the teacher of the Gita, Lord Krishna, declared, I created the four castes (varnas), the brahmin, the warrior (kshatriya), the merchant (vaisya), and the laborer (sudra), on the bases of natural disposition and vocation of each. Know Me to be author of these, as also the non-author, the Unchangeable. 

 

Chaathurvarnyam mayaa srishtam, guna karma Vibhaagasah, tasya karthaaramapi maam Viddhi akarthaaram avyayam. The system of caste is thus founded on attributes and activities. 

 

The world was in the very beginning predominantly pure (sathwic) in nature and, as a consequence, all were only brahmins. 

 

Later, through the adoption of various vocations and the development of various inclinations and preferences, types of people got demarcated as castes. 

 

The one and only brahmin class of sages (rishis) had later to be sectionalized, in the interest of social justice and harmony, when qualities of character varied.

 

In the Santhi Parva (Mahabharatha), Sage Bhrigu elaborately answered a question raised about this development by Sage Bharadwaja. 

 

It runs as follows: 

 

“Brahmins who are fond of worldly pleasures, affected by egotism, and subject to anger, lust, and other passions have passionate qualities (rajoguna) mixed with their innate pure (sathwic) nature, so they were classified as warriors (kshatriyas). 

 

In fact, all brahmins cannot be predominantly pure (sathwic) in nature, nor can all of them be devoted to pure ritual activity. 

 

Those who do not adhere to the pure (sathwic) ideal of truth and who evince the qualities of dullness (thamoguna) mixed with passionate (rajasic) traits, those who are mostly both dull (thamasic) and passionate (rajasic), were classed as merchants (vaisyas). 

 

The rest, who spend their lives in occupations involving violence, who don’t practice cleanliness, and who are bogged down in passive (thamasic) means of livelihood were classed as laborours (sudras). 

 

Thus, the brahmins denoted various castes and ensured the safety and security of human society. This is the assertion of the revealed scriptures (sruthis).” 

 

Those endowed with pure (sathwic) characteristics are brahmins. 

 

Those with passionate (rajasic) qualities and, as a result, equipped with courage and heroism, are warriors (kshatriyas), who can protect mankind from harm. 

 

Those who have neither valor nor heroism but who are proficient in persuasive talent and the tactics of commerce and eager to use these skills in proper methods are traders (vaisyas). 

 

In this class, the passionate and passive qualities (rajoguna and thamoguna) are blended. 

 

The others, who have no inclination for undergoing asceticism or acquiring scholarship, who do not practice spiritual discipline (sadhana), who have no physical stamina and mental courage necessary for battle, who do not possess the special skill needed for trade and commerce, are passive (thamasic) in nature and so engage themselves in thamasic professions. These are laborer (sudras). 

 

They fulfil themselves by their labor, through which they contribute to world prosperity and peace.

 

Continued...

 

Love.

 

 

Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 58

Atma is eternal

 

One who is born cannot escape death, some time, somewhere. Every moment, many are born and many die. But one has to discover how to “avoid” death. Now, the Atma, which is the core of humanity, is not born; since it does not take birth, it does not meet death. Death happens to the body with which it is associated, with which it mixes. The delusion that the body is the core, that the body is real, that verily is the death. When one believes that the changing body is oneself and starts referring to it as “I”, that “I” dies, but the real “I” is deathless.

 

As intense elevating activity and fearless inquiry into one’s truth are practised more and more, the conscious ness that the “body is oneself” can be overcome and negated. Consider the fruit of the tamarind tree. When unripe, it is not easy to separate the rind, the pulp, and the seed. So too, those who have stuck to sensual desires and to fondling and feeding the body cannot earn the awareness of the Atma. When the tamarind fruit becomes ripe, the rind can be broken off, the pulp detached from the seed, and the seed isolated without effort. Inquiry and unselfish activity ripen the consciousness, and the Atma can be isolated from the body, clear and pure.

 

Five encasements of the body

 

The body has five encasements, which hide the Atma. These are grouped under three categories: the gross, subtle, and causal. The physical case (flesh, blood, bone, etc.) and the vital case (breath) form the gross (sthula) body. When these two sheaths — the gross body — fall or disintegrate, the body also falls and cannot rise.

 

The word sukshma, which is generally translated as “subtle”, means “small” in Sanskrit. But it has another meaning: that which expands. Air expands more than water; space is more expansive than air. Compared with the expanse of the liberated soul, even space has to be considered “gross”! Steam is more expansive (subtle) than water. Although a block of ice and a lump of camphor appear “gross”, they become subtle when heated or lit.

 

The rule of the world is that the seen causes the unseen, the manifested explains the unmanifested. But the rule in the realm of the spirit is different. The latent Atma causes the patent world. Being is behind becoming, and finally, becoming merges in being; the patent is absorbed into the latent. 

 

Like milk from the cow, the power of relativity (maya) flows from the supreme Person as the five-element constituted cosmos, the patent manifestation. The cosmos is cognized as a composite, just as milk is a composite of cream, curd, and butter, which can be got out of it by the action of heat and cold, the addition of sour drops, and the process of churning thereafter. Churning separates the butter from the milk. In the same manner, through cosmic processes and upheavals of heat and cold, the five fundamental elements (earth, water, fire, air, and space) were separated and Earth, this ball of butter, emerged as the product of the churning.

 

Three character traits, five basic elements

 

If a person or thing has one of the three character traits (balanced, passionate, dull) predominant in the make- up, we denote the person as having that trait. So also the element that is predominant in any created entity gives its name to it. This is why the world on which we live is called the Earth (bhumi). The realms in space where the element of water predominates are known as the atmosphere (bhuvarloka) and the celestial plane (swarloka). The materials therein flow in currents and streams.

 

In short, what appears as the five element-constituted cosmos is only the superimposition on God of the non- real individual Self and the five elements. God seen in and through the non-real appears as nature. This is but a distorted picture of Reality, this ever-changing multiplicity. 

 

When God is reflected as nature, the reflection becomes illusion (maya). Just as milk curdles into yogurt, God becomes the world (jagath) of incessant transformation, the image (maya) of the unchanging Divine. His will causes this unreal multiplicity on the One that He is; by His will, He can end it. He is the Master of illusion.

 

God is omnipresent, omnipotent. God has no wants or wishes. He is the fullest and highest attainment. 

 

His words to Arjuna in the Gita are, “I have no duty to discharge, O Partha, in the three worlds.” He has created duties only to foster the consciousness of all living beings. He has no activity and no obligation. He brings about the result of every activity. Without Him, no activity can yield result! He decides which result should accrue from which act.

 

Love.