| Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.1): Nirvāna-Prakarana |
Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 64 - On the attainment of attendant-ship on the God Rudra
Rāma said- Tell me sir, what became of the many forms, which the mendicant saw in his dream; and whether the several forms of Jīvāta, the Brāhman, the gander and others return to themselves, or remained as Rudras forever more.
Vasistha replied- They all remained with Rudra, as parts and compositions of himself; and being enlightened by him, they wandered all about the world, and rested contented with themselves.
They all beheld with Rudra, the magic scenes which were displayed before them; till at last they were dismissed from his company, to return to their own states and places.
Rudra said- Go you now to your own places, and their enjoy your fill with your family; and returned to me after some time, having completed the course of your enjoyments and sufferings in the world.
You will then become as parts of myself, and remain as my attendants to grace my residence; till at last we return to the supreme at the end of time, and be absorbed in last Omega of all.
Vasistha said- So saying, the Lord Rudra vanished from their sight, and mixed in the midst of the Rudras, who viewed all the world in their enlightened intellects. 1
Then did Jīvāta and others return to their respective residences, where they have to share their shares of domestic felicity in the company of their families, during their allotted times.
Having then wasted and shuffled off their mortal coil, at the end of their limited periods, they will be promoted to the rank of Rudras in heaven, and will appear as luminous stars in the firmament.
Rāma rejoined- All those forms of Jīvāta and others, being but creations of the empty imagination of the mendicant; I cannot understand, how they could be beings, as there is no substantiality in imaginary things.
Vasistha replied- The truth of the imagination lies partly in our consciousness, and partly in our representation of the image; though the imagery or giving a false shape to anything, is as untrue as any nihility in nature. But what we are conscious of must be true, because our consciousness comprehends everything in it.
Thus what is seen in the dream, and represented to us by imagination, are all impressed in our consciousness at all times and forever. 2
As a man when going or carried from one country to another, and there again to some other place, has no knowledge of the distance of his journey, unless he is conscious of its length and duration in space and time; so we are ignorant of the duration of our dream, and our passing from one dream to another, without our consciousness of it in our sleeping state.
Therefore it is our consciousness that contains all things, that are represented to it by the intellect; and it is from our intellection that we have the knowledge of everything, because the intellect is full of knowledge and pervades everywhere.
Imagination, desire and dream, are the one and same thing, the one producing the other and all lodged in the cell of the intellect. Their objects are obtained by our intense application to them. Desire produces imagination which is the cause of dream; they are the phenomena of mind, and their objects are the results of deep meditation.
Nothing is to be had without its practice and meditation of it, and men of enlightened minds gain the objects by their Yoga or meditation of them alone. 3
These adepts view the objects of their pursuit in all places, such as the god Śiva and others of the Siddha Yogis, such was my aim and attempt also, but it was not attended with success.
I was unsuccessful in want of my fixed resolveness, but failed in both for my attending to both sides. It is only the firm resolution of one in one point, that gives him success in and undertaking.
As one going in southerly direction, cannot arrive at his house in the north, so it is the case with the pursuers after their aims; which they well know to be unattainable without their firm determination in it.
Whoever is resolved to gain his desired objects, must fix his view on the object before him; the mind being fixed on the object in view, brings the desire into effect. 4
So the mendicant having the demigod Rudra, for the sole object in his view, became assimilated to the very form of his wish; because whosoever is intent on one object, must remove all duality from before him. 5
The other imaginary forms of the mendicant, were all different persons in their different spheres; and had obtained their several forms, according to their respective desires from one state to another 6.
They did not know or look on one another, but had all their thoughts and sights fixed on Rudra alone; because those that are awakened to their spiritual knowledge, have their sight fixed on their final liberation, while the unenlightened mortals are Subjected to repeated births, by the repetition of their wishes 7.
It was accordingly to the will of Rudra, that he took this one form and many others upon him, such as he wills to become a Vidhadhara in one place and a pandit in another.
This instance of Rudra serves for an example, of the efficacy of intense thought and practice of all men; who may become one or another or many more, as also learned or ignorant, agreeably to their thought and conduct. 8
So one has his manhood and Godhead also; 9, by his manly and Godlike actions at different times and places; and to be both at the one and same time, requires much greater ability and energy both of the mind and body: 10.
The living soul being one with the Divine, has all the powers of the same implanted in it; the infinite being in-grafted in the finite, it is of the same nature by innate nature.
The living soul has its expansion and contraction in its life and death, as the Divine soul has its evolution and involution; in the acts of creation and dissolution; but the Divine soul destroys no soul, because it is the soul of souls and the aggregate of all souls; therefore any one that would be godly, must refrain from slaughter.
So the yogis and yoginis continue in the discharge of their sacred rites, as enjoin by law and usage, and either remain in this or rove about in other worlds at large at the free will and liberty.
A yogi is seen in several forms at once, both in this world and in the next, according to his desert and the merit of his actions; as the great yogi and warriors Karta Viryarjuna, became the terror of the world as if he were ubiquitious, while he remained quite at home. 11
So also doth the god Visnu appear in human forms on earth, while he sleeps at ease in the milky ocean; and the yoginis of heaven hover over animal sacrifices on earth, while they reside in their groups in the ethereal sphere.
Indra also appears on earth, to receive the oblations of men, when he is sitting in his heavenly seat on high, and Nārāyana takes the forms of a thousand Rāmās upon him, in his conflict with the myriads of Rakhasa legions.
So did one Krsna become a hundred, to receive the obeisance of his reverential princes; and he appears as a thousand in the company of many thousand monarchs in the Kuru assembly.
So the god become incarnate in many forms, with parts and particles of his own spirit for the preservation of the world; and the one lord became many in the company of his mistresses in a moment. 12
In this manner did the forms of Jīvāta and others, which were the creatures of the mendicant's imagination, retire at the behest of Rudra, to the particular abodes of their own and respective desires.
Their they enjoyed all their delights for a long time, until they entered the abode of Rudra; where they became the attendants of the demigod, and remained in his train for a great length of time.
They remained in the company of Rudra, dwelling in the groves of the evergreen and ever blossoming Kalpa creepers of paradise, blooming with clusters of their gemming florets; and roving at pleasure to different worlds, and to the celestial city of Śiva on the Kailasa mountain, and sporting in the company of heavenly nymps, and bearing the crowns of immortality on their heads. 13
Footnotes
1. These are celestial and angelic beings
2. Therefore neither is our consciousness nor the images we are conscious of are untrue, though the imagery and the work of imagination are utterly false
3. These are the Yoga siddhas or adepts in Yoga as Śiva &c
4. So says hafiz. If you want the presence of the object, never be absent from it
5. So says the mystic sadi: I drove the duality from my door, inorder to have the unity alone before my view
6. as said before
7. to be born in some form or other
8. One to be many, means the versatility of parts, to act as many
9. acts as a man and a God likewise
10. as it is seen in the persons of deified heroes
11. though confined in one place, yet he seemed to be present everywhere
12. This was the company of milk maids in the rāslila sport of Krsna
13. This is the description of the heaven of Hindus
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
