Yoga Vasishta - Post 16

The goddess continued: — Objects seen in a dream prove to be false on being awaken. Similarly, belief in the reality of the body becomes unfounded upon dissolution of our desires.  As a thing dreamt of disappears upon waking, so does the waking body disappear in sleep, when desires lie dormant in the soul.

 

As our physical bodies awake after dreaming and desiring, so our spiritual bodies awake after we cease to think of our physical states.  In deep sleep we are devoid of desires. Similarly, in the state of renunciation, even though we are awake in our physical bodies, we have the tranquility of liberation. The desire of men liberated while living (jivan mukta) is not properly any desire at all. It is a pure desire relating to universal wellbeing and happiness.

 

The sleep in which the will and wish are dormant is called deep sleep, but the dormancy of desires in the waking state is known as unconsciousness to delusion (moha) or unconsciousness (murchha).  Again the deep sleep that is wholly devoid of desire is called the turiya or the fourth stage of yoga. In the waking state it is called samadhi or union with Supreme.

 

The embodied man whose life is freed from all desires in this world is called the liberated while living (jivan mukta), a state unknown to those who are not liberated.  When the mind becomes a pure essence (as in samadhi) and its desires are weakened, it becomes spiritualized (ativahika) and it glows and flows, like snow melts to water by application of heat. The spiritualized mind, being awakened, mixes with the holy spirits of departed souls in the other world.

 

When your sense of individual ego is moderated by your practice of meditation, then the perception of invisible will rise of itself clearly before your mind.  When spiritual knowledge gains a firm footing in your mind, you will perceive more other worlds than you expect.  Therefore, O blameless lady, try your utmost to deaden your desires. When you have gained sufficient strength in that practice, know yourself to be liberated in this life.

 

When the moon of your intellectual knowledge shines fully with its cooling beams, you shall have to leave your physical body here in order to see the other worlds. Your fleshy body has no tangible connection with one that is without flesh, nor can the intellectual body (lingadeha, astral body) perform any action of the physical system.

 

 I have told you all this according to my best knowledge and the state of things as they are. Even children know that what I say is as effective as the curse or blessing of a god.

 

The habitual reliance of men upon their gross bodies and their fond attachment to them bind their souls down to the earth. The weakening of earthly desires serves to clothe them with spiritual bodies. Nobody believes that he has a spiritual body, even at his death bed, but everyone thinks a dying man is dead with his body forever. This body however, neither dies nor is it alive at any time. Both life and death, in all respects, are mere appearances of aerial dreams and desires. The life and death of beings here below are as false as the appearances and disappearance of people in imagination, or dolls in play or puppet shows.

 

Leela said, “O goddess, the pure knowledge that you have given me has fallen on my ears acts like a healing balm to the pain caused by phenomena. Now tell me the name and nature of the practice for spiritualization. How it is to be perfected and what is the end of such perfection?”

 

The goddess replied:— Whatever a man attempts to do here at anytime, he can hardly ever complete it without painful practice to the utmost of his power. The wise say that practice consists in the association of one thing with another, in understanding it thoroughly, and in devoting oneself solely to his object.

 

Great souls become successful in this world who are disgusted with the world and are moderate in their enjoyments and desires. They do not think about seeking what they lack. Those great minds are said to be best trained who are graced with liberal views, are delighted with the relish of unconcern with the world, and are enraptured with streams of heavenly joy. 

 

Again, they are called the best practiced in divine knowledge who, by the light of reasoning and scripture, are employed preaching the absolute non-existence of any distinction between the knower and what is known in this world. What some call practical knowledge is knowing that nothing was produced in the beginning and nothing that is visible, such as this world or one’s self, is true at any time.

 

The effect of practicing meditation is a strong tendency of the soul towards the spirit of God, which results from an understanding of the nonexistence of the visible world and the subsidence of passions. But mere knowledge of the nonexistence of the world, without subduing passions, is known as knowledge without practice, and is of no value to its possessor.  Consciousness of the nonexistence of the visible world is the true knowledge of the knowable. 

 

The practice of meditation makes this knowledge a habit in the mind and leads one to his final extinction (nirvana). The practice of meditation prepares the mind and awakens the intelligence which lay dormant in the dark night of this world. Consciousness then sheds its cooling showers of reason, like dew drops in the frosty night of autumn.

 

Valmiki speaking:— As the sage was lecturing in this manner, the day departed for its evening service and led the assembled train to their evening prayers. After the rising beams of the sun dispelled the darkness of night, they met again with mutual greetings.

 

Love.

 

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.

 

 

Yoga Vasishta - Post 14

Leela said, “What a wonderful sight you have shown me, O goddess. It is as auspicious as morning light and as brilliant as lightning. Now goddess, please satisfy my curiosity until I become thoroughly familiar with this knowledge through my intense application and study. Kindly take me to that mountainous place where the brahmin couple, Vasishta and Arundhati, lived and show me their house.”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

If you want to see that sight, you have to be immaculate. You must give up your personality and your ego-sense and attain awareness of the unintelligible Consciousness within the soul. Then you will find yourself in an empty atmosphere situated in the sky that resembles the prospects of earthly men and the apartments of the firmament (i.e., nothing). 

 

In this state we shall be able to see them (the field of another’s imagination) with all their possessions and without any obstruction. Otherwise this body is a great barrier in the way of spiritual vision.

 

Leela said, “Tell me kindly, O goddess, the reason why do we not see the other world with these eyes, or go there with these our bodies.”

 

The goddess replied:—

 

The reason is that you take the true future as false, and you believe the untrue present as true. These worlds that are formless appear to your eyes as having forms, just like you see the form of a ring when its substance is gold. Gold, though fashioned into a circle, has no curve in it. 

 

The spirit of God appearing in the form of the world is not the world itself. The world is an emptiness full with the spirit of God. Whatever is visible is like dust appearing to fly over the sea.

 

The ultimate substance of the world is all a false illusion. The true reality is the subjective Brahma alone.  The believer in Brahma sees Brahma alone and no other anywhere. 

 

He looks to Brahma through Brahma himself, as the creator and preserver of all, and whose nature includes all other attributes in itself. Brahma is known not only as the author of His work of the creation of worlds, but as existent of Himself without any causation or auxiliary causation.

 

The practice of meditation trains you to disregard all duality and variety and to rely only on one unity. Until you are trained through your practice of meditation, you are barred from viewing Brahma in His true light. By constant practice of meditation, we become settled in this belief of unity, and we rest in the Supreme Spirit. 

 

Then we find our bodies to be an aerial substance that mixes with the air, and at last, with these our mortal frames, we are able to come to the sight of Brahma. Being endowed with pure, enlightened and spiritual frames (astral or subtle bodies), like those of Brahma and the gods, the holy saints are placed in some part of the divine essence.

Without the practice of meditation, you cannot approach God with your mortal frame. A soul sullied by physical sensation can never see the image of God. It is impossible for one to arrive at another’s castle in the sky, when he is unable to see the castle in the sky that he himself imagined.

 

Therefore, give up your gross body and assume your light intellectual frame. Immerse yourself in the practice of yoga so that you may see God face to face.  It is possible to labor and build castles in the air. In the same way, it is possible through the practice of yoga, and in no other way, to behold God, either with this body or without it.

 

Ever since the creation of this world (by the will of Brahma), there have been false conceptions of its existence. It has been attributed to an eternal fate, niyati (by fatalists), and to an illusory power, maya shakti (of Maya vadis).

 

Leela asked, “O goddess, you said that we both shall go to the abode of the brahmin couple, but I ask you, how is that possible? I am able to go there with the pure essence of my sentient soul. But tell me, how will you who are pure intellect (chetas) go to that place?”

 

 

Continued…. 

 

 

Love.