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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction). Chapter 99 - Remonstration of Sikhidhwaja

Sikhidhwaja said- O sage, it is by the good grace, that I am freed from my ignorance, and brought under the light of truth; my doubts are removed, and I am situated with my tranquility of my spirit.

I have become as one knowing the knowable, and sits taciturn after crossing over the sea of delusion; I am quiet by quitting my egoism, and am set out of all disquiet by my knowledge of true self.

O! how long a time have I wandered, amidst the mazy depths of the world; after which I have now arrived to the safe harbour of my peace and security.

Being so situated, O sage, I perceive neither my egoism, nor the existence of the three worlds; it is ignorance to believe in their existence, but I am taught to believe in Brahmā alone.

Kumbha replied- How is it possible for the egoism, tuism or suism of any body, to exist anywhere; when this universe, this air and sky, have not their existence anywhere.

Sit quiet as usual be calm and as silent as a sage; and remain as still as the calm ocean, without the perturbation of the waves and whirlpools within its bosom.

Such as the quiet and tranquil state of Brahmā, who is always one and the same as he is; and the words I, you, this and that, and the world, are as void of meaning, as the universal vacuity, is devoid of anything.

What you call the world is a thing, having neither its beginning nor its end; it is the wonder of the Intellect, to shine as the clear light, which fills you ethereal firmament.

The changes that appear to take place in the spirit of God, are as extraneous as the different colours that paint the vault of heaven, and the various jewelleries which are wrought upon gold; these have no intrinsic essentiality, and never affect the tranquility of the divine spirit, nor the uniform serenely of the empty sky, nor the nature of the pure metal of gold.

As the Lord is self-born, so is his eternal will inherent in and born with himself; and what we call as free will or fate, depend on the nature of our knowledge of them.

Think yourself as something, and you become a bonds man to your desires; but believe yourself as nothing, and you are as free and enfranchised as free air itself.

It is the certain knowledge or conviction of yourself as a reality, and that you are subject either to bondage or freedom, that constitutes your personality.

It is the privation of the knowledge of yourself or your egoistic personality, that leads you to your consummation; where as your knowledge of your personality exposes you to danger; there­fore think yourself as himself and not yourself, ¹ and you are safe from all calamity. ²

No sooner you get rid of the conviction of yourself, than your soul is enlightened by the light of true knowledge; and you lose the sense of your personality, and become consummated in your knowledge of yourself as one with the Holy spirit.

The inscrutable nature of God admits of no cause, because causality refers only to what is caused and cannot come to existence without a cause, and not to the uncaused cause of all.

As we have no knowledge of an object which is not in existence, so we cease to have any knowledge of our personality, if we but cease to consider ourselves as caused and created beings. ³

What is this world to us if we are unconscious of ourselves and if we are freed from our knowledge of the objective world, we see but the supreme soul remaining after all.

Whatever is manifest here before us, is all situated in the spirit of the lord; all these are transcendent, and are situated as such and same with the full and transcendental spirit of god. ⁴

Therefore all these that protuberant to view, are as figures carved on a rock; and the light that pervades the whole, is but the glory of the great rod.

In absence of this visionary world from view, its light which is more pellucid than that of the transparent firmament will vanish away into nothing.

The insensible world seems to move about as a shadow or phantom in the air, whence it is called jagat or the moving world; but he alone sees it in its true light, who views it as motionless and without its sense of mobility, and as perfectly sedate and stationary in the spirit of God.

When the sight of the visible, together with the sense of sensible and the feelings of the mind, become insipid to the torpid soul that is absorbed in divine meditation; it is then called by the wise as nirvāna absorption or the full light and knowledge of God.

As the breezeless winds sink in the air, and the jewellery melts in its gold; so doth the protruding form of the world, subside in the even spirit of god.

The sight of the world and the perceptions of the mind, which testify the existence of the world unto us, are but the representations of Brahmā; as the false mirage, represents the water in the desert sands.

As when the vast body of water subsists without a wave to ruffle its surface, so doth the spirit of god remain in its state of calmness, when it is free from its operation of creation.

The creation is identic with Brahmā, as the lord is the same with his creation, and this is true from the dictum of the Veda, which says, "All this is Brahmā, and Brahmā is this ⁵".

The meaning of the word Brahmā or immensity, equally establishes the existence of the world; as the signification of the word world or cosmos, establishes the entity of Brahmā.

The meaning of all words taken collectively, expresses a multitude; which is synonymous with Brahmā- the great and immense aggregate of the whole.

And if we reject the sense of the greatness of god and of the world, as they are usually meant to express, yet the little or minuteness of god that remains at last, is so very minute that word cannot express it. ⁶

The lord that remains as the inherent and silent soul of all bodies, is yet one soul in the aggregate; he remains as a huge mountain of his intelligence, as in the form of the whole of this universal cosmos.

Footnotes

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