Yoga Vasishta - Post 39

RAMA  asked: Holy sir, does a yogi's physical body then become an ethereal body?

VASISTHA replied:

The ethereal body alone is: by persistent fancy, it appears to be linked to a physical body. Just as  when an ignorant man (who thinks he is the physical body) dies and the body is cremated, has a subtle body, even so the yogi on being enlightened while living, has an  ethereal body.

The physical body is only the creation of one's ignorant fancy, and is not real. There is no difference between the body and the ignorance. To think they are two—this  indeed is samsara (repetitive history).

VASISTHA continued:

In the meantime, Sarasvati restrained Viduratha's  jiva  from entering into the body of king Padma.

THE ENLIGHTENED LILA  asked Sarasvati:

O Goddess, from the time I sat here in contemplation till now, how much time has elapsed?

SARASVATI replied:

Dear one, it is a month since you entered into contemplation. During the first fifteen days, your body, on account of the heat generated by pranayama, became  vaporized. Then it became like a dry leaf and fell down. Then it became rigid and cold. The ministers then thought that you had died of your own accord and cremated that body. 

Now, on account of your own wish you appear here in your ethereal body. In you there are no memories of past life nor latent tendencies brought forward from previous incarnation. For when the intelligence is established in the conviction of its ethereal nature, the body is forgotten, even as in youth one forgets life as a  foetus. Today is the thirty­first day and you are here. Come, let us reveal ourselves to this other Lila.

When the second Lila saw them before her, she fell at their feet and worshipped them.

SARASVATI  asked her: Tell us how you came here.

THE SECOND LILA  replied:

When I fainted in the palace of Viduratha, I did not know anything for some time. I then saw that my subtle body rose to the sky and was seated in an aerial vehicle  which brought me here. And, I saw that Viduratha  was lying here asleep in a garden of flowers. I thought he was fatigued from battle and without disturbing him, I fan him.

Sarasvati  immediately let Viduratha's jiva enter the body. The king at once awoke as if from slumber. The two Lilas bowed to him.

The king asked the enlightened Lila, "Who are you, who is she, and from where has she come?"

The enlightened Lila replied: "Lord, I am your wife in your previous incarnation and your constant companion, even as a word and its meaning are. This Lila is your  other wife; she is my own reflection, created by me for your pleasure. And, she who is seated on yonder golden throne is the goddess Sarasvati herself. She is  present here on account of our great good fortune."

Hearing this, the king sat up and saluted Sarasvati*. Sarasvati blessed him with long life, wealth and so on, and enlightenment.

Continued…

Love

Yoga Vasishta - Post 38

Whatever the jiva  sees, that the jiva experiences. For in this empty space of infinite consciousness there is nothing known as time, action, etc. Then the jiva  fancies, 'The god of death has sent me to heaven (or hell)' and 'I have enjoyed (or suffered) the pleasures (or tortures) of heaven (or hell)', and 'I am born as animal,  etc., as ordained by the god of death'.

At that moment, the jiva enters into the body of the male through the food eaten; it is then transferred to the female and delivered into this world, where it undergoes  life again in accordance with the fruition of past actions. There it grows and wanes like the moon. Once again it undergoes senility and death. This goes on again and  again till the jiva is enlightened by self­knowledge.

THE ENLIGHTENED LILA asked:

O Goddess, but please tell me how all this began in the very beginning.

SARASVATI replied:

The mountains, the forests, the earth and the sky—all these are but infinite consciousness. That alone is the very being of all, the reality in all; and hence that pure  infinite consciousness appeared to become whatever form it took whenever it manifested itself. Till now it continues to be so. When the life­breath enters into the  bodies and begins to vibrate the various parts of the bodies, it is said that those bodies are living. Such living bodies existed right in the beginning of creation. 

When  those bodies into which the life­breath had entered did not vibrate, they were known as trees and plants. It is indeed a small part of the infinite consciousness that  becomes the intelligence in these bodies. This intelligence, entering into the bodies, brings into being the different organs like the eyes.

Whatever this consciousness thinks it is, it takes that form. Thus, this self of all exists in all bodies, with motion as the characteristic of moving bodies, immovability as  the characteristic of the immovable bodies. Thus do all these bodies continue to be even now.

SARASVATI continued:

When that intelligence, which is part of the infinite consciousness, fancied itself to be a tree, it became a tree; or a rock, it became a rock; or grass, it became grass. 

There is no distinction between the sentient and the insentient, between inert and intelligent: there is no difference at all in the essence of substances, for the infinite  consciousness is present everywhere equally. The differences are only due to the intelligence identifying itself as different substances. The same infinite consciousness is  known by different names in these different substances. In the same way, it is the same infinite consciousness that the intelligence identifies as the worms, ants and  birds. In it there is no comparison, nor a sense of difference: just as the people living in the north pole do not know (and therefore do not contrast themselves with) the people of  the south pole. Each independent substance identified as such by this intelligence exists by itself, without distinction from the other substances. Ascribing distinctions to  them as 'sentient' and 'insentient' is like a frog born in a rock and a frog born outside it considering themselves different, one insentient and the other sentient!

Continued..

Love.

Yoga Vasishta - Post 37

The enlightened Lila said: O Goddess, kindly enlighten me concerning death: is it pleasant or unpleasant, and what happens after death?

 

Sarasvati said: There are three types of human beings, my dear: the fool, one who is practicing concentration and meditation, and the yogi (or intelligent one). The two latter types of human beings abandon the body by the practice 'of the yoga of concentration and meditation and depart at their sweet will and pleasure. 

 

But, the fool who has not practiced concentration or meditation, being at the mercy of forces outside himself, experiences great anguish at the approach of death.

 

He wishes to express his suffering, but is unable to do so. Gradually, his senses lose their power; and he is unable even to think. Therefore he sinks in unwisdom and ignorance.  

 

When there is cessation of the flow of the life­ breath, the consciousness of the individual becomes utterly passive. Please remember, O Lila, that consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite: it does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving creatures, in the sky, on the mountain and in fire and air. 

 

When life­ breath ceases, the body is said to be 'dead' or 'inert'. The life ­breath returns to its source—air—and consciousness freed from memory and tendencies remains as the self.

 

After a momentary lapse of consciousness, the jiva begins to fancy that it sees another body, another world and another life­span.

 

O Lila, there are six categories of such 'departed souls': bad, worse and worst sinners; good, better, best of virtuous ones. Of course, there are sub­divisions among these, too. 

 

(In the case of some of the worst sinners, the momentary lapse of consciousness may last a considerable time.)

 

The worst among the sinners undergo terrible sufferings in hell and then are born in countless living species, before they see the end of their agony. They might even exist as trees for a long time.

 

The middling among sinners also suffer lapse of consciousness for a considerable time; and then are born as worms and animals.

 

The light sinners are soon reborn as human beings.

 

The best among the righteous ascend to heaven and enjoy life there. Later they are born in good and affluent families on earth.

 

The middling among the righteous go to the region of the celestials, and return to the earth as children of brahmanas, etc.

 

Even the righteous among the departed ones, after enjoying such heavenly pleasures, have to pass through the realms of the demigods to suffer the consequences of the iniquities they might have committed.

SARASVATI continued:

All these departed souls experience within themselves the fruition of their own past actions. At first there is the notion 'I am dead', and then 'I am being carried away  by the messengers of the god of death'. 

The righteous among them fancy that they are taken to heaven; and the ordinary sinners fancy that they are standing in the  court of the god of death where, with the help of Chitragupta (the hidden record of one's deeds), they are being tried and judged for their past life. 

Love