Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (3): Utpatti-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 3: Utpatti-Prakarana (Evolution of the World). Chapter 116 - Birth and Incarnation of Adepts in Yoga

Rāma asked- what evidence is there sir, in proof of Lavana's obtaining the reward of his mental sacrifice of Rājasūya, in his transformation to the state of the Candāla, as it was wrought upon him by the enchantment of the magician?

Vasistha replied- I was myself present in the court-house of king Lavana, at the time when the magician made his appearance there, and I saw all that took place there with my own eyes.

After the magician had gone and done his work, I with the other courtiers, was respectfully requested by the king Lavana, to explain to him the cause (of the dream and its circumstances).

After I had pondered the matter had clearly seen its cause, I expounded the meaning of the magician's spell, in the way as I shall now relate to you, my Rāma!

I remembered that all the performers of Rājasūya sacrifice, were subjected to various painful difficulties and dangers, under which they had to suffer for a full dozen of years.

It was then that Indra, the lord of heaven had compassion for Lavana, and sent his heavenly messenger in the form of the magician to avert his calamity.

He taxed the Rājasūya sacrificer with the inflictment of the very many hardships in his dream, and departed in his aerial journey to the abode of the gods and Siddhas.

(Prose) Thus Rāma! it is quite evident and there is no doubt in it. The mind is the active and passive agent of all kinds of actions and their sequences.

(a). Therefore rub out the dirt of your heart, and polish the gem of your mind; and having melted it down like the particle of an icicle, by the fire of your reason, attain to your chief good summum bonum at last.

(b). Know the mind as self same with ignorance (avidyā), which presents these multitudes of beings before you, and produces the endless varieties of things by its magical power.

(c). There is no difference in the meanings of the words ignorance, mind; understanding and living soul, as in the word tree and all its synonyms.

(d). Knowing this truth, keep a steady mind freed from all its desires; and as the orb of the clear sun of your intellect has its rise, so the darkness of your nolens and volens flies away from, you.

(e). Know also this truth, that there is nothing in the world which is not to be seen by you, and which can not be made your own, or alienated from you. Nothing is there that does not die or what is not your's or others. All things become all at all times. ¹

The multitudes of existent bodies and their known properties, meet together in the substantiality (of the self same Brahmā); as the various kinds of unburnt clay vessels, are melted down in the same watery substance.

Rāma said- You said sir, that it is by weakening the desires of our mind, that we can put an end to our pleasures and pains; but tell me now, how is it possible to stop the course of our naturally fickle minds.

Vasistha replied- Hear, O you bright moon of Raghu's race! the proper course that I will tell you for quieting the restless mind; by knowing this you shall obtain the peace of your mind, and be freed from the actions of your organs of sense.

I have told you before of the triple nature of the production of beings here below, which I believe, you well remember.

Of these the first is that power (Brahmā), who assumed to himself the shape of the Divine Will (Sankalpa), and saw in his presence whatever he wished to produce, and which brought the mundane system into existence.

He thought of many changes in his mind, as those of birth and death, of pleasure and pain, of the course of nature and effect of ignorance and the like; and then having ordained them as he willed, he disappeared of himself as snow before the solar light.

Thus this god, the personification of Will rises and sets repeatedly, as he is prompted from time to time by his inward wish. ²

So there are millions of Brahmās born in this mundane egg, and many that have gone by and are yet to conic, whose number is innumerable ³

So are all living beings in the same predicament with Brahmā, proceeding continually from the entity of God. Now I will tell you the manner in which they live, and are liberated from the bond of life.

The mental power of Brahmā issuing from him, rests on the wide expanse of vacuum which is spread before it; then being joined with the essence of ether, becomes solidified in the shape of desire.

Then finding the miniature of matter spread out before it, becomes the quintessence of the quintuple elements. Having assumed afterwards the inward senses, it becomes a suitable elemen­tary body composed of the finest particles of the five elements. It enters into grains and vegetables, which re-enter into the bowels of animals in the form of food.

The essence of this food in the form of semen, gives birth to living beings to infinity.

The male child betakes himself in his boy­hood, to his tutor for the acquisition of knowledge.

The boy next assumes his wonderous form of youth, which next arrives to the state of manhood.

The man afterwards learns to choose something for himself, and reject others by the clear-sightedness of his internal faculties.

The man that is possessed- of such right discrimination of good and evil, and of right, and wrong, and who is confident of the purity of his own nature, and of his belonging to the best caste (of a Brahmān); attains by degrees the supernatural powers for his own good, as also for the enlightenment of his mind, by means of his knowledge of the seven essential grounds of Yoga meditation.

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