Philosophy and Religion / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (6.2): Nirvāna-Prakarana

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 51 - Admonition to Arrive At the Yoga of Ultimate Best

Rāma said: Tell me sir, what is the cause of mere waking for nothing, and how does a living being proceed from the formless Brahma, which is tantamount to the growth of a tree in empty air.

Vasistha replied: O highly intelligent Rāma, there is no work to be found any where which is without its cause, therefore it is altogether impossible for any body to exist here, that is merely awake for nothing.

Like this, it is equally impossible also for all other kinds of living beings, to exist without a cause.

There is nothing that is produced here, nor anything which is destroyed also; it is only for the instruction and comprehension of pupils, that such words are coined and made use of.

Rāma asked: Who then is it that forms these bodies, together with their minds, understandings and senses; and who is it that deludes all beings into the snares of passions and affections, and into the net of ignorance.

Vasistha replied: There is no body that forms these bodies at any time, nor is there any one who deludes the living beings in a manner at all.

There is alone the self shining soul, residing in his conscious self; which evolves in various shapes, as the water glides on in the shapes of billows and waves. ¹

There is nothing as an external phenomenon, it is the intellect which shows itself as the phenomenal; it rises from the mind ², like a large tree growing out of its seed.

It is in this faculty of the understandings, O you support of Raghu's race, that this universe is situated, just as the images are carved in a stone.

There is but one spiritual soul, which spreads both internally as well as externally, throughout the whole extent of time and space; and know this world as the effluvia of the divine intellect scattered on all sides.

Know this as the next world, by suppressing your desire for a future one; rest calmly in your celestial soul even here, nor let your desires range from here to there.

All space and time, all the worlds and their motions with all our actions, being included under the province of the intellectual soul; the meanings of all these terms are never insignificant and nil.

O Rāghava! It is they only who are well acquainted with the meanings of words ³, and those keen observers who have ceased to look upon the visible, that can comprehend the Supreme soul, and not others ⁴.

Those who are of light minds, and are buried in the depth of egoism; it is impossible for them ever to come to the sight of that light, ⁵.

The wise look upon the fourteen regions of this world, together with multitudes of their inhabitants, as the members of this embodied spirit.

There can be no creation or dissolution without its cause; and the work must be conformable with the skill of its maker.

If the work be accompanied with its cause, and the work alone be perceptible without its accompanying cause, it must be an unreality, owing to our imperception of its constituting cause.

And whereas the product must resemble its producer, as the whiteness of the sea water, produces the white waves and froths, so the productions of the most perfect God, must bear resemblance to his nature in their perfection. But the imperfect world and the mind not being so, they cannot be said to have proceeded from the all perfect One.

⁶. Wherefore all this is the pure spirit of God, and the whole is the great body of Brahma; in the same manner, as one cold of earth, is the cause of many a pot; and one bar of gold, becomes the cause of many a jewel.

As the waking state appears as a dream in dreaming ⁷, on account of the oblivion of the waking state; so the waking state seems as dreaming, even in the waking state of the wise. ⁸

If it is viewed in the light of the mind or a creation of the mind, it proves to be as false as water in the mirage, ⁹. It proves at last to be a waking dream by the right understanding of it.

By right knowledge all material objects, together with the bodies of wise men, dissolve like the bodies of clouds, in their proper season.

As the clouds disappear in the air, after pouring their waters in the rains; so does the world disappear from the sight of men, who have come to the light of truth and knowledge of the soul.

Like the empty clouds of autumn and the water of the mirage, the phenomenal world loses its appearance, no sooner it is viewed by the light of right reason.

As solid gold is melted down to fluidity by hot fire, so the phenomenal all melt away to an aerial nothing, when they are observed by the keen eye of philosophy.

All solid substances in the three worlds, become rarefied air when they put to the test of a rational analysis; just as the stalwart spectre of a demon, vanishes from the sight of the awakened child into nothing.

Conceptions of endless images, rise and fall of themselves in the mind; so the image of the world being but a concept of the mind, there is no reality in it, nor is there anything which has any density or massiveness in it; ¹⁰.

The knowledge and ignorance of the world, consist only in its conception and nescience in the mind; when the knowledge of its existence disappears from the understanding, where is there the idea of its massiveness any more in the mind. ¹¹

The world loses its bulk and solidity, in our knowledge of the state of our waking dream; when its ponderousness turns to rarity, as the gold melts to liquidity when it is put upon fire.

The understanding as it is, ¹², becomes dull and dense by degrees; as the liquid gold when left to itself, is solidified in a short time.

Thus one who in his waking state considers himself to be dreaming, and sees the world in its rarefied state; comes to extenuate himself with all his desires and appetites, as a ponderous cloud is sublimated in autumn.

The wise man seeing all the visible beauties of nature which are set before his face, as extremely rare and of the appearance of dreams, takes no notice of nor relish in them.

Where is this rest of the soul, and where this turmoil of the spirit for wealth; their abiding in the one and same man, is as the meeting of sleep and wakefulness together, and the union of error and truth in the same person, and at the same time; ¹³.

He who remains asleep to ¹⁴ the erroneous imaginations of his mind, acts freed from his false persuasion of the reality of the world.

Who is it, O high minded Rāma, that takes a pleasure in an unreality, or satisfy himself with drinking the false water of the mirage appearing before him.

The saintly sage, who rests in his knowledge of truth; looks upon the world an infinite vacuum, beset with luminaries, which shines forth like the light of a lamps set behind the windows.

The waking man who knows everything as void and blank, and as the vagary of his vagrant mind ceases to long for the enjoyment of it. ¹⁵

There is nothing desirable in that, which is known to be nothing at all; for who runs after the gold, which he has seen in his dream at night?

Everybody desists from desiring that, which he knows to be seen in his dream only; and he is released from the bondage, which binds the beholder to the object of this sight. ¹⁶

He is the most accomplished man, who is not addicted to pleasure, and is of a composed mind and with pride; and he is a man of understanding, who is dispassionate and remains quiet without any care or toil. ¹⁷

Distaste to pleasure, produces the want of desires; just as the flame of fire being gone, there is an end of its light. ¹⁸

The light of knowledge, shows sky as a cloudless and lighted sphere; but the darkness of error, gives the world an appearance of the hazy fairy land.

The wise man neither sees himself, nor the heavens nor anything besides; but his ultimate view is at last fixed upon the glory of god; ¹⁹.

The holy seer ²⁰, sees neither himself nor the sky nor the imaginary worlds about him; he does not see the phantasm of his fancy, but sits quite insensible of all.

The earth and other existences, which are dwelt and gazed upon by the ignorant, are lost in the sight of the sage, who sees the whole as a void, and is insensible of himself. ²¹

Then there comes on a calm composure and grace in the soul, resembling the brightness of the clear firmament; and the yogī sits detached from all, as a nullity in himself.

Unmindful of all, the yogī sits silent in his state of self seclusion and exclusion from all: he is set beyond the ocean of the world, and the bounds of all its duties and action. ²²

That great ignorance ²³, which is the cause of the mind's apprehension of the earth and sky, and the hills and seas and their contents, is utterly dissolved by true knowledge, though these things appear to exist before the ignorant eye.

The sapient sage stands unveiled before his light of naked truth, with his tranquil mind freed from all skeptical doubts; and being nourished with the ambrosia of truth, he is as firm and fixed in himself, as the pithy and sturdy oak.

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