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.