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Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 69 - Union of the mind with the breath of life
Rāma said- Tell me, O chief of sages, how the Rudras came to be a hundred in their number, and whether the attendants of Rudra, are Rudras, also or otherwise.
Vasistha replied- The mendicant saw himself in a hundred forms in a hundred dreams, which he dreamt one after another; these I have told you on the whole before, though I have not specially mentioned them to you.
All the forms that he saw in the dream, became so many Rudras, and all these hundred Rudras remained as so many attendants on the principal Rudra.
Rāma asked- But how could the one mind of the mendicant, be divided into a hundred in so many bodies of the Rudras; or was it undivided like a lamp, that lightens a hundred lamps, without any diminution of its own light.
Vasistha answered- Know Rāma, that disembodied or spiritual beings of pure natures, are capable of assuming to themselves any förm of their fancy, from the aqueous nature of their souls 1. 2
The soul being omnipresent and all pervading 3; takes upon it any form whatever, and whenever and wherever it likes, by virtue of its intelligence: 4.
Rāma rejoined- But tell me Sir, why was the Lord Rudra or Śiva wore the string of human skulls about his neck, daubed his body with ashes, and stark naked; and why he dwelt in funeral ground, and was libidinous in the greatest degree.
Vasistha replied- The Gods and perfect beings as the siddhas &c. are not bound down by the laws, which the weak and ignorant men have devised for their own convenience.
The ignorant cannot go on without the guidance of law, on account of their ungovernable minds; or else they are subject to every danger and fear, like poor fishes; 5.
Intelligent people are not exposed to those evils in life, as the ignorant people of ungoverned minds and passions, meet with, by their restless and vagrant habits.
Wise men discharge their business as they occur to them at times, and never undertake to do anything of their own accord, and are therefore exposed to no danger. 6
It was on the impulse of the occasion that the God Visnu, engaged himself in action, and so did the God with the three eyes 7, as also the God that was born of the lotus 8. 9
The acts of wise men are neither to be praised or blamed nor are they praiseworthy or blamable; because they are never done from private or public motives, 10.
As light and heat are the natural properties, of fire and sun shine; so are the actions of Śiva and the Gods, ordained as such from the beginning, as the caste customs of the twice born dwijas (Aryans).
Though the natures of all mankind are the same, as they are ordained in the beginning; yet the ignorant have created differences among them, by institution of the distinction of castes and customs; and as there institutions are of their own making, they are subjected by them to the evils of future retribution and transmigration. 11
I have related to you, Rāma! the quadruple reticence of embodied beings; and have not as yet expounded the nature of the silence of disembodied souls, 12.
Hear now how men are to obtain this chief good 13 of theirs, by their knowledge of the intellectual souls in the clear sphere of their own intellect, which is clearer far than the ethereal sphere of the sky.
It is by the knowledge of all kinds of knowledge, and constant devotion to meditation, and by the study of the numerical philosophy of particulars in the Sānkhya system, that men became renowned as sankhya yogis or categorical philosopher. 14
The yoga consists in the meditation of Yogis, of the form of the eternal and undecaying One; by suppression of their breathing, and union with that state, which presents itself to their mind.
That unfeigned and undisguised state of felicity and tranquility, which is desired as the most desirable thing by all, is obtainable by some by means of the Sānkhya Yoga, and by the jnana Yoga by others.
The result of both these forms of Yoga, is the same, and this is known to anybody that has felt the same; because the state arrived at by the one, is alike to that of the other also.
And this supreme state is one, in which the actions of the mental faculties and vital breath, are altogether imperceptible; and the net work of desires is entirely dispersed.
The desire constitutes the mind, which again is the cause of creation; it is therefore by the destruction of both of these, that one becomes motionless and inactive. 15
The mind forgets its inward soul, and never looks towards it for a moment; it is solely occupied with its body, and looks at the phantom of the body, as a child looks at a ghost. 16
The mind itself is a false apparition, and an unsubstantial appearance of our mistake; and shows itself as the death of some body in his dream, which is found to be false upon his waking.
The world is the production of the mind, else what am I and who is mine or my offspring; it is custom and our education that have caused the bug-bears of our bondage and liberation, which are nothing in reality.
There is one thing however, on which is based the bias of both systems; that it is the suppression of, breath, and the restriction of mind, which form the sum and substance of what they call their liberation.
Rāma rejoined- Now sir, if it is suppression which constitutes the liberation of these men; then I may as well say that all dead men are liberated, as well as all dead animals also.
Vasistha replied- Of the three practices of the restriction of the breath, body and mind, I ween the repression of the mind and its thoughts to be the best; because it is easily practicable and I will tell you how it is to be done to our good.
When the vital breaths of the liberated souls, quit this mortal frame; it perceives the same in itself, and flies in the shape of a particle in the open sky, and mixes at last with ethereal air.
The parting soul accompanies with its tanmantras or elementary principles; which comprise the desires of its mind, and which are closely united with breath, and nothing besides.
As the vital breath quits one body to enter into another, so it carries with it the desires of the heart, with which it was in the breast of man, as the winds of the air bear the fragrance of flowers. These are reproduced in the future body for its misery only.
As a water pot thrown in the sea, does not loss its water, so the vital breath mixing with the ethereal air, does not lose the desires of the mind, which it bears with it. They are as closely united with it, as the sun-beams with the sun.
The mind cannot be separated from the vital breath 17, without the aid of the knowledge; and as the bird Titterī cannot be removed from one nest without an other, 18.
Knowledge removes the desires, and the disappearance of desires destroys the mind; this produces the suppression of breath, and thence proceeds the tranquility of the soul.
Knowledge shows us the unreality of things, and the vanity of human desires. Hence know O Rāma, that the extinction of desires, brings on the destruction of both the mind and vitality.
The mind being with its desires, which form its soul and life, it can no more see the body in which it took so much delight; and then the tranquil soul attains its holiest state.
The mind is another name for desire, and this extirpated and wanting, the soul comes to the discrimination of truth, which leads to the knowledge of the supreme.
In this manner, O Rāma, we came to the end of our erroneous knowledge of the world, as it is by means of our reason, that we come to detect our error of the snake in the rope.
Learn this ore lesson, that the restraining of the mind and suppression of breath, mean the one and same thing; and if you succeed in restraining the one, you succeed in the restraint of other also. 19
As the waving of the palm leaved fan being stopped, there is a stop of the ventilation of air in the room; so the respiration of the vital breath being put to a stop, there ensures a total stoppage of the succession of our thoughts. 20
The body being destroyed, the breath passes into the vacuous air; where it sees everything according to the desires, which it has wafted along with it, from the cells of the heart and mind.
As the living souls find the bodies 21 in which they are embodied, and act according to their different natures; so the departed and disembodied spirits-prānas, see many forms and figures presented before them, according to their several desires. They enter into the same, and act agreeably to the nature of that being.
As the fragrance of flowers ceases to be diffused in the air, when the breezes have ceased to blow; so the vital breath ceases to breath, when the action of the mind is at a stop. 22. 23
On the simultaneousness of thought and breath.
Hence the course of the thoughts, and respiration of all animals, is known too closely united with one another; as the fragrance is inseparable from the flower, and the oil from the oily seeds.
The breath is vacillation of the mind, as the mind is the fluctuation of the breath; and these two go together forever, as the chariot and its charioteer.
These perish together without the assemblage of one another, as the container and the contained are both lost at the loss of either 24. Therefore it is better to lose them for the liberation of the soul, than losing the soul for the sake of the body.
Keeping only one object or the unity in view will stop the course of the mind; and the mind being stopped, there will follow as a matter of course, an utter suppression of the breath as its consequence.
Investigate well into the truth of the immortality of your soul, and try to assimilate yourself into the eternal spirit of God; and having absorbed your mind in the divine mind, be one with the same.
Distinguish between your knowledge and ignorance, and lay-hold on what is more expedient for you; settle yourself on what remains after disappearance of both, and live while you live relying on the Intellect alone.
Continue to meditate on the existence of all things in one firm and ever existent entity alone, until by you constant habit of thinking so, you find all outward existence disappear into nonexistence: 25.
The minds of the abstinent are mortified, with their bodies and vitality, for want of food and enjoyments; and then there remains the consciousness of the transcendent one alone.
When the mind is of one even tenor, and is habituated to it by its constant practice; it will put an end to the thought of the endless varieties and particulars, which will naturally disappear of themselves.
There is an end of our ignorance and delusion (avidyā), as we attempt to the words of wisdom and reason; we gain our best knowledge by learning, but it is by practice alone, that we can have the object of our knowledge.
The mirage of the world will cease to exist, after the mind has become calm and quite in itself; as the darkness of the sky is dispersed, upon disappearance of the raining clouds.
Know your mind alone as the cause of your delusion, and strive therefore to weaken its force and action; but you must not Rāma! weakened it so much, as to lose the sight of the supreme spirit, which shines as the soul of the mind.
When the mind is settled with the supreme soul for a moment, know that to be the mature state of your mind, and will soon yield the sweets of its ripeness.
Whether you have your tranquility, by the Sankhya or Vedanta Yoga; it is both the same if you can reduce yourself to the supreme soul; and by doing so for a moment, you are no more to be reborn in this nether world.
The word divine essence, means the mind devoid of its ignorance; and which like a fried seed is unable to reproduce the arbor of the world, and has no interruption in its meditation of God.
The mind that is devoid of ignorance, and freed from its desires, and is settled in its pure essence; comes to see in an instant, a full blaze of light filling the sphere of the firmament in which it rests and which absorbs it quite.
The mind is said to be its pure essence, which is in sensible of itself, and settled in the supreme soul; it never relapses into the foulness of its nature, as the copper which is mixed with gold, never becomes dirty again.
Footnotes
1. which readily unite with other liquids
2. The Śruti says, "the soul is a fluid"; corresponding with the psychic fluid of Stahl
3. like the all diffusive psychic fluid
4. which the ignorant spirit is unable to do
5. which are quite helpless, and entirely at the mercy of all voracious animals
6. Graha in the text means a shark and calamities also
7. Śiva
8. The great Brahma
9. All of them took human forms on them, whenever the Daityas invaded the Brāhmans, and never of their own will
10. but on the expediency of the occasion
11. Men are bound down by their own laws, from which the brute creation is entirely free
12. as those of the Gods, siddhas and departed saints
13. summum bonum
14. The Sānkhya is opposed to the Vedanta, in as much as it rises from particulars to general truths
15. Forgets himself to a stone. Pope
16. Thinking it a reality
17. the desires are in separable from life
18. so the soul never passes from one body without finding and entering into another
19. So it is said, that our thoughts and respirations go together
20. It is believed that our time is measured by succession of our breath and thoughts ajāpas, and the more are they suppressed, the greater is the duration of our life prolonged
21. of various animals
22. Hence is the concentration of the mind, to one object only strongly enjoyed in the yoga practice
23. Sweden-burg saw the intimate connection between thought and vital life. He says:- Thought commences with respiration. The reader has before attended to the presence of heaving over the body; now let him feel his thoughts, and he will see that they too heave with the mass. When he entertains a long thought, he draws a long breath, when he thinks quickly, his breath vibrates with rapid alternations; when the tempest of anger shakes his mind, his breath is tumultuous; when his soul is deep and tranquil, so is his respiration; when success inflates him, his lungs are as timid as his concepts. Let him make trial of the accuracy, let him endeavour to think in long stretches, at the same time that he breaths in fits, and he will find that it is impossible; that in this case the chopping will needs mince his thoughts. Now this mind dwells in the brains, and it is the brain, therefore, which spares the varying fortunes of the breathing. It is strange that this correspondence between the states of the brain or mind and the lungs has not been admitted in science, for it holds in every case, at every moment. "He says more over- Inward thoughts have inward breaths, and purer spiritual thoughts have spiritual breaths hardly mixed with material."
24. like that of the fire and its heat
25. and present the form of the self existent only to view
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