Yoga Vasishta - Post 22

Vasishta speaking:—  Within a moment they passed beyond the regions of the earth, air, fire, water and space and the tracks of the ten planetary spheres.  They reached boundless space from where the universe appears like an egg.  Under its vault they saw millions of luminous particles floating in the air,  like innumerable bubbles floating on the waters of the unlimited ocean of the sphere of Consciousness.  

These different motions were only apparent as they saw them from different sides.  Here there were no ups or downs, no upside or below, and no going forward or backward. There is only one indefinite space in nature, as there is only one consciousness in all beings. Yet everything moves in its own way, just like wayward children take their own course.

Rama said, “Tell me sage, why do we refer to up and down, forward and backward, if there is no such thing in space and nature?”

Vasishta said:— There is only one space enveloping all things. The worlds seen in the infinite and indiscernible womb of emptiness are like worms moving on the surface of water.  All these bodies that move about in the world by their lack of freedom are thought to be up and down relative to our position on earth. 

So when there are ants on an earthen ball, all its sides are reckoned below that are under their feet, and those as above which are over their backs.  Such is this ball of earth in one of these worlds, covered by vegetables and animals moving on it, and by gods, demons and men walking upon it.  It is also covered by cities, towns and mountains and their inhabitants and productions, like a walnut by its shell.

Like elephants appearing as pigmies in the Vindhyan Mountains, these worlds appear as particles in the vast expanse of space. Everything anywhere is produced from and exists in space. It is always all in all things, which are contained like particles in it. Such is the pure empty space of Divine Consciousness which, like an ocean of light, contains these innumerable worlds which are forever revolving in it like the countless waves of the sea.

The world is filled with creatures beyond the conception of even yogis. Even we cannot form even a guess of all the beings that fill infinite space. 

I have told you all about the grandeur of the universe to my best knowledge. I have no knowledge or power to describe anything beyond this.

Vasishta said:— After having seen the worlds in their aerial journey, the ladies arrived on earth and quickly entered King Padma’s inner apartment.  There they saw the king’s dead body lying in state under heaps of flowers, Leela’s spiritual body sitting beside the corpse. It was the dead of night and the residents had fallen into sound sleep one by one. The room was perfumed with the incense of resin, camphor, sandalwood and saffron.

Leela, seeing the house of her late husband and wishing to enter it, came to his tomb in her assumed body.  Then she passed through the fictitious spacious palace of her lord by breaking out of the confines of her body and head, that in yoga terminology, are called earthly and worldly environs. Then with the goddess she went again to the bright and spacious temple of the world and quickly entered. She saw her husband’s imaginary world (that of King Viduratha) like a dirty and mossy pool, just like a lioness beholds a mountain cave covered by darkness and clouds. Then the two goddesses entered that empty world with their airy bodies, like weak ants make their passage through the hard crust of the wood-apple.

During this time they saw a certain prince (the ruler of Sindh), strengthened by other chiefs, making an attack on this land which was the beauty of the world. They saw the air crowded by people of the three worlds who had assembled to see the conflict. 

Rama asked, “Tell me, sage, what sort of a warrior is called a hero and becomes a jewel in heaven, and who is an insurgent?”

Vasishta answered:— He who engages in a lawful warfare and fights for his king, whether he dies or becomes victorious in the field, is called a hero and goes to heaven. Whoever otherwise kills men in war for an unjust cause and dies is called an insurgent and goes to hell. 

Whoever fights for unlawful property and dies in battle becomes subject to everlasting hellfire. Whoever wages a war justified by law and custom, that warrior is called both loyal and heroic in deed. 

The king who is steadfast protecting his subjects and his own country is called just, and those who die in his cause are called brave. 

It was in expectation of seeing such heroes that the maidens of the gods were standing in the air and talking among themselves about becoming the wives of such warriors. 

The air was decorated by an illumination on high, and by rows of beautiful heavenly cars of gods and masters, and by the presence of celestial maidens who sang in sweet notes and decorated their hair with mandara flowers.

Love.

Yoga Vasishta - Post 21

 Vasishta speaking:—

Then the two goddesses sat on a cooling village seat, much like the two states of joy and liberation meet in the tranquil spirit of the man knowing the Divine Spirit. By this time Leela had become personified to the form of pure consciousness through her knowledge of meditation. She had become a seer of the three times presenting themselves before her.  She remembered the whole course of her past life and derived pleasure relating the events of her former life and death.

Leela said, “By your favor, O goddess, and by sight of this place, I recollect all that I did and thought of in my past life. Here I grew up to old age, and here I withered and become lean and thin as a skeleton.”

“I was a brahmani here and had my body scratched by dried sacrificial grass (kusa). I was the legal wife of my lord and producer of his race. I was employed milking cattle and churning curd. I had been mother of many sons and a kind hostess to my guests. I was devoted to the service of the gods, brahmins and good people, and rubbed my body with cow milk and ghee.”

“I used to pick out worms from the ears of the milk cow, and was prompt to water the garden of greens with watering pots in hand. Every day I used to go to the lake and get fresh green grass to feed my tender calves. I used to wash and clean the house every morning, and paint the doorway with the white tints of pasted and powdered rice (gundi). I had to correct my servants with gentle rebukes and tell them to keep within their bounds like the waves in the rivers.”

“With my infirm body and ears shaking like dried tree leaves, and supporting myself on a stick, I lived here under the dread of old age.”

As she was speaking in this manner and walking with Saraswati about the village in the valley of the mountain, she was astonished to see her former seats of pleasure, and she showed them to the goddess. “This was my flowery tree garden, decorated by these torn patala plants, and this was my garden alcove of flowering asokas. This is the bank of the pond where the calves were loosely tied to the trees. 

“There I see the altar of my house, so beautifully decorated with flowering vines, clusters of fruits and flowers hanging over its windows. Here lived my husband, whose life in its aerial form has fled to the sky and became lord of the earth reaching the surrounding seas. I remember how he had fostered the fond wish of obtaining royal dignity, and how ardently he looked forward to its attainment. I see, O goddess, his royal dignity of eight days, which had seemed to be so long in duration.”

“I see the soul of my husband in the same form as his kingly state residing in the empty space of this house, invisible to all like the air in the sky, and like the odors borne by the winds. It is in this empty space that his soul is contained within the form of a thumb that contains in its bosom the whole extent of my lord’s realm stretching thousands of leagues in its circumference. I also see the spacious kingdom of my lord in the space of my consciousness which, by the miraculous power of God called illusion (maya), makes room for thousands of mountains.”

“O Goddess, now I wish to see the earthly city of my lord again. Let us therefore turn our course that way, as no place is distant to the resolute.”

Vasishta said:—

Having said so, Leela bowed down to Saraswati and entered the shrine. Then, like a bird, she flew into the air with the goddess. It was a region devoid of darkness and as fair as a sea of moonlight. Then it became as blue as the body of Narayana and as bright as the back of a locust. They passed above the regions of the clouds and winds, then beyond the spheres of the orbits of the sun and moon. 

Passing beyond the spheres of embodied living beings and of the bodiless souls of the dead, they proceeded far and farther to the unknown regions of empty space. 

 Vasishta said:—

There is no beginning, middle or end to that infinite space. It produces nothing, like a barren woman of her offspring. It is only an extended expanse, infinite, calm and without beginning, middle or end, situated in the Supreme Spirit.  Its immensity is as immeasurable as a stone flung with full force from its top. It is impossible for a garuda bird, flying with all his might at full speed over the course of an entire kalpa age, to reach from one end to the other.

Love.

Yoga Vasishta - Post 20

Leela’s Vision in Meditation; Description of the Mountain Hamlet

Rama said, “Tell me sage, how did the goddesses break out of the strongholds of their bodies and the prison-house of this world and pass through infinite space and survey the scenes beyond its confines?”

Vasishta replied:— Where is the world and where is its support or solidity? They were all situated in the region within the minds of the goddesses.  In their minds they saw the hilly tract where the brahmin Vasishta lived and had his desire for royalty.  They saw his deserted house and in their minds they saw the surface of the earth stretching to the seas.

 

In that imaginary spot of earth they saw the city of the king and the royal palace which he had enjoyed with Arundhati, his wife.  They saw how she was born under the name of Leela and how she worshipped the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati, by whom she was miraculously conveyed to the delightful region of the sky.  It was in the house situated in that hilly village that she saw the world placed within the space of her mind.

 

Having come out of her vision of the world, she found herself sitting in her house, just like one finds himself lying in his own bed after rambling from one dream to another. All that she saw was mere vision and void. There was no world, no earth, no house, and no distance. It was the mind that showed them these images, just like the mind presents the objects of our desire to our view. Otherwise, there is neither world nor earth in actuality.

 

The sphere of consciousness is infinite and without any covering. If agitated by the powers of one’s intellect, it presents all the objects of nature to his view, like the sky when agitated by heat produces the winds. The sphere of consciousness is uncreated. It is ever calm everywhere. Deluded minds suppose the world to exist. He who understands rightly sees the world is as unsubstantial as air. But whoever is misled by wrong judgment takes it to be like a solid mountain.

As a house and city are manifested to us in our dream, so this unreal world is presented as a reality to our understanding. It is like the misconception of water in the mirage and the mistake of gold in a bracelet. All this unreality appears as a reality to the mistaken mind.

 

Discoursing in this manner between themselves, the two charming ladies, walked out of the house with their graceful steps.

 

Being unseen by the village people, they viewed the mountain standing before them, kissing the vault of heaven and touching the orb of the sun with its lofty peaks. It was decorated with flowers of various colors and covered with a variety of trees of various colors. There were waterfalls gushing with their tremendous roaring on one side, and groves resounding with the warbling of birds in another. 

 

Standing on that spot, the ladies saw the hilly hamlet in the grass, like a fragment of heaven had fallen on the ground. There the rippling streams softly glided by, and here the brimming brooks wobbled in the ground. The birds of the air chirped on the sprays, and aquatic fowls flew about the holes of the seashore. 

 

There they saw herds of cattle slowly moving and grazing in the plains, filling the echoing woods with their loud lowing. They saw an open space broken with shady groves and trees and green meadows all about. The cliffs were white with snow, impenetrable by sunbeams. Hill tops were covered with bushy brambles, forming like braids of hair upon their craggy heads.

 

Cascades falling in torrents in the cavities of rocks, scattering their pearly particles afar like the churning of the Milky Ocean by Mandara Mountain. The trees in the glens, loaded as they were with their fruit and flowers, appeared like waiters upon the goddesses, standing to welcome their approach with their rich presents. Shaken by gusts of roaring winds, the forest trees were shedding showers of their honey sweetened flowers as offerings to the woodland gods and people.

 

Every morning flowering plants growing in the caves of the hills and around the house covered the ground heel-deep with heaps of flowers. There were whisk-tailed cattle and antelope grazing in one part of the forest, and tender young deer sleeping on beds of grass under gunja groves. There were young calves lying on their sides shaking their ears to drive away the flies that fluttered around their faces, milk dripping from the sides of their mouths.

 

A grove of green trees cast its cooling and undivided shade upon the ground where dewdrops trembled on blades of grass and glistened like twinkling stars in the blue sky. Trees constantly dropped their ripened fruit, dried flowers and leaves of various sorts, like showers of snow on whitened ground. Some clouds were seen to hang continually over the household compound, like aristocratic girls who never forsake their parents’ home. 

 

The altar here reverberated to the loud roaring of winds confined in the caves of mountains. The temple there was graced by twittering swallows and parrots that perched upon it from their numerous flights. 

 

Pearly dewdrops continually falling on the ground from the leaves of trees and blades of grass, the gleaming beauty of the ever blooming blossoms above, and the other everlasting charms of mountain hamlets baffle the description of poets.

 

Love.