Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.1): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 67 - Unity of God

Dasaratha said- O great sage! let these attendants of mine, repair immediately to the cells of the mendicants, and having roused him from his hypnotism, bring him hither in my presence.

Vasistha replied- Great king! the body of that mendicant, is now lying lifeless on the ground; it is now pale and cold and daubed with dirt, and has no jot of its vitality left in it.

His life has fled from his body, like odour from the lotus of the lake; he is now liberated from the bond of this life, and is no more subject to the cares of this world.

It is now a whole month that his servants have opened the latch of his door, and standing at a distance looking at his emaciated frame.

They will afterwards take out the body and immerse it in water, and then having anointed it, they will place it for their adoration, as they do a defied idol. ¹

The mendicant being in this manner freed from his body, cannot be brought back to his senses, which have entirely quitted their functions in his mortal frame.

It is hard to evade the enchanting delusion of the world, so long as one labours under the darkness of his ignorance; but it is easily avoided by one's knowledge of truth at all times.

The fabrication of the world is untrue, as the making of ornaments from gold; it is the error of taking the form for the substance, that appears as the cause of creation.

This delusion of the world, appears to be so situated in the supreme soul, as the rows of waves are seen to roll upon the surface of the calm waters of the sea. So it is said in the very words of the Vedas, that the moving worlds are as the fluctuation of the Divine Soul.

The intelligent soul, taking the form of the living or human soul, sees the phenomenal world, as one sees one dream after another, but all these vanish away upon his waking to sense and right reason.

As every man of understanding sees the original in its image, so the man of reason views the archetype of the soul in its representation of the creation; while the ignorant man that sees the world as a thorny bush or confused jungle, can have no idea of the all designing framer of his frame work of the universe. ²

The world is represented to the view of every living being, as it was seen in the vision of the dreaming mendicant, in the form of the undulations of the supreme spirit, like the fluctuation of waves on the surface of the sea.

As the world appeared to be presented at first in its visionary form, before the view of the universal or collective mind of the creative Brahmā; so does it rise in its shadowy form in the opacous minds of all individual persons. ³

But to the clear mind this world appears as ari evanescent dream, as it appeared to Brahmā at first; and thė multitudes of worlds that are discovered one after the other, are no more than the successive scenes of passing dreams in the continuous sleep of ignorance.

So do all living beings in their various forms, are subject to the error of believing the unreal world as a reality, though they well know it in their minds, to be no better than a continuous dream or delusion. ⁴

The animal soul, though possessed of intelligent ⁵; is yet liable to transgress from its original nature ⁶; and thereby becomes subject to decay, disease and death and all kinds of own. ⁷

The godly intellect frames the celestial and infernal regions in our dreams, by the slight vibration of the mind at its pleasure; and then takes a delight in rambling over and dwelling in them.

It is this divine intellect, which by its own motion, takes the form of living soul upon itself; and wanders from itself to rummage over the false objects of the deceptive senses.

The mind also is the supreme soul, and if it is not so it is nothing; the living and embodied is likewise a designation of the same, likening to the shadow of the substance.

So the supreme Brahmā is said to reside in the universal Brahmā, according to the distinct view of men, with regard to the one Brahmā, in whom all these attributes unite, like the water with water and the sky with air. ⁸

Men residing in this mundane form of Brahmā, and yet think it otherwise than a reflexion of the deity; just as a child looking at its own shadow in a glass, startles to think it as an apparition standing before it.

It is the wavering understanding that causes these differences, which disappear of themselves, after the mind resumes its steadiness in the unity of the Deity, wherein it is lost at last, as the oblation of butter is consumed in the sacred fire.

Individuated consciousness has its roots in the universal consciousness. In fact, the consciousness or unconsciousness are all imaginary concepts and not the real one.

There is no more any vacillation or dogmatism, nor the unity or duality, after the true knowledge of the deity is gained; when all distinctions are dissolved in an indistinct intellect, which is as it is and all in all.

When it is known from the sum and substance of all reasoning, that it is the one Intellect, which is the subject of all appellations which are applied to it; there remains no more any differ­ence of religious faith in the world. ⁹

Difference of faith, creates difference in men; but want of distinction in creed, destroys all difference, and brings on the union of all to one common faith in the supreme being.

Rāma, you see the variety from your want of understanding, and you will get rid of the same ¹⁰, as you come to your right understanding; ask this of anybody and you will find the truth of what I say and be fearless at any party feeling and enmity. ¹¹

In that states of fearlessness, the Brahmāvādī finds no difference in the states of waking, dreaming, sound sleep or the fourth stage of devotion; nor in his earthly bondage or liberation from it, all which are equal to him. ¹²

Tranquility is another name of the universe, and God has given his peace to everything in the world; therefore all schisms are the false creations of ignorance, as none of them has ever seen the invisible God.

The action of the heart and the motion of the vital air, cannot move the contented mind to action; because the mind which is devoid of its desire, is indifferent about the vibrations of his breath and heart strings.

The intellect which is freed from the dubitation of unity and duality, and got rid of its anxious cares and desires; has approached to a state, which is next to that of the deity.

But the pure desire which subsists in the intellect, like the stain which sticks to the disk of the moon; is no speck upon it, but the coagulation of the condensed intellect. ¹³

Do you, Rāma! ever remain in the state of your collected intellect, because it concentrates ¹⁴ everything ¹⁵ in itself, and leaves nothing ¹⁶ beyond it. This is the most faultless undefective form of faith, that I have abstracted from all religions).

The moon like disk of the intellect, having the mark of inappetency in it, is a vessel of ambrosia, a draught of which drowns the thoughts of all that is and is not ¹⁷ into oblivion. ¹⁸

Refer your thoughts of whatever you hast or wantest, to the province of your intellect; ¹⁹; and taste your inward delight as much as you dost like. ²⁰

Know Rāma, that the words vibration and inaction, desire and inappetency and such others of the theological glossary, serve only to burden and misled the mind to error; do you therefore keep yourself from thinking on these, and betake yourself to your peace and quiet, whether you attain to your perfection or otherwise.

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