Yoga Vasishta - Post 15

The goddess replies to the question which Leela asks:—

 

I tell you lady, Divine Will is an aerial tree and its fruits are as unsubstantial as air, having no figure or form or substance to them. Whatever is formed by the will of God from the pure essence of His intelligent nature is only a likeness of Himself and bears little difference from its original. My body is the same and I need not lay it aside. I find that place with my body like a breeze finds odors.  As water mixes with water, fire with fire, and air with air, so does this spiritual body easily join with any material form that it likes. But a physical body cannot mix with a non-physical substance, nor can a solid rock become the same as the idea of a hill.

 

Your body has its mental and spiritual parts. It has become physical because of its habitual tendency towards the physical. Your physical body becomes spiritual (ativahika) by leaning towards spirituality, as in your sleep, your protracted meditation, and you are unconsciousness to fancies and reveries. Your spiritual nature will return to your body when your earthly desires are lessened and curbed within the mind.

 

Leela said, “Say goddess, what happens to the spiritual body after it has attained its compactness by constant practice of yoga? Does it becomes indestructible or does it perish like all other finite bodies?”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

Anything that exists is perishable and, of course, liable to death. But how can something die that is nothing and is imperishable in its nature? Again, once we realize the mistake of thinking a rope to be a snake, the snake disappears of itself and no one mistakes the rope anymore. Thus, as the true knowledge of the rope removes the false conception of the snake in it, so the recognition of the spiritual body dispels the misconception of its materiality. 

 

We clearly see our bodies as full of the spirit of God. Your gross understanding keeps you from seeing this. In the beginning, when consciousness (chit) is engrossed with the imagination of the mind, it loses sight of the One.

 

Leela asked, “But how can imagination trace out anything in that unity in which the divisions of time and space and all things are lost in an undistinguishable mass?”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

Like the bracelet in gold, waves in water, the show of truth in dreams, and the appearance of castles in the sky all vanish upon an accurate perception, so the imaginary attributes of the unpredictable God are all nothing whatever. Just like there is no dust in the sky, no attribute or partial property can be ascribed to God whose nature is indivisible and unimaginable, who is an unborn unity, tranquil and all-pervading. Whatever shines about us is the pure light of that Being who scatters His luster all around like a transcendental gem.

 

Leela said, “If it is so at all times, then tell me, O goddess, how we happened to fall into the error of attributing duality and diversity to His nature?”

 

The goddess replied:—

It was your ignorance that for so long has led you to error. The natural bane of mankind is the absence of reasoning, and it requires remedying by your attending to reason.

 

When reason takes the place of ignorance, in a moment it introduces the light of knowledge in the soul instead of its former darkness. As reason advances, your ignorance and your bondage to prejudice are put to flight. Then you have an unobstructed liberation and pure understanding in this world. As long as you remained without reasoning on this subject, you were either sleeping or wandering in error.

 

Now your reason and liberation are awakened and the seeds for the suppression of your desires are sown in your heart. At first, the nature of this physical world was neither apparent to you nor you to it. How long will you reside in it and what other desires have you here? Withdraw your mind from its thoughts of the viewer, the visible, and the vision of this world. Settle your mind on the idea of the entire negation of all existence. 

Fix your meditation solely upon the Supreme Being and sit in a state of unalterable unconsciousness. When the seed of renunciation has taken root and germinated in your heart, the sprouts of your likes and dislikes will be destroyed of themselves. 

 

Remaining entranced in your abstract meditation, in process of time you will have a soul as luminous as a star in the clear sky of heaven, free from the links of all causes and their effects for evermore.

 

Love.