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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 26 - Manki's Attainment of Final Extinction or Nirvāna

Vasistha said: Thus the living soul, being let all in the mazy path of his world, is encompassed by calamities and accident as countless as the animalcules, which are generated in the rainy season.

All these accidents though unconnected with one another, follow yet so fast and closely upon each other, as the detached stone lying scattered and close together in the rocky desert, and linked in a lengthening chain of thought in the mind of man.

The mind blinded of its reason, becomes a wilderness overgrown with the arbor of its calamities, and yet appearing to be smiling as a vernal grove before men, by its feigned merriment and good humour. ¹

O how pitiable are all those beings ! Who being bound to their subjection to hope, are subjected to divers states of pain and pleasure, in their repeated births in various forms on earth.

Alas for those strange and abnormal desires, which subjects the minds of men, to the triple error of taking the non-existent to b actually present before them. ².

Those who have known the truth, are delighted in themselves, they are immortal in their mortal life, and are diffusers of pure light all about them. What then is the difference between the sapient sage who is cold-hearted in all respects, and the cooling moon ³.

And what is difference between a whimsical boy and a covetous fool, who covets anything whatever at hand without any consideration of the past and future ⁴.

What is the difference between the greedy fool and voracious fish or whale, that devour the alluring bait of pleasure or pain; and will not give up the line until they are sure to give up their lives for the same. ⁵

All our earthly possessions whether of our bodies or lives, our wives, friends and properties, are as frail as a brittle plate made of sand, which no sooner it is dried and tried than it spurts and breaks to pieces.

O my soul! You mayst forever wander, in hundred of bodies of various forms in repeated bites; and pass from the heaven of Brahma to the empyrean of Brahma; yet you canst never your tranquility, unless you attainest the even insouciance of your mind. ⁶

The ties and bondage of the world, are dispersed by mature introspection into the nature of things; as the uneven ruggedness of the road, does not retard the course of the wayfarer walking with his open eyes.

The negligent soul becomes a prey to concupiscence and unruly passions, as the heedless passenger in caught in the clutches of demons; but the well-guarded spirit is free from their fright.

As the opening of the eyes, presents the visible to sight; so does the waking consciousness introduce the ego and phenomenal world into the mind. ⁷

And as the shutting of the eye-lids, shuts out the view of the visible objects from sight; so, O destroyer of enemies, the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of all sights and thoughts from your eyes and mind; ⁸.

The sense of the existence of the external world, together with that of one's ego or self- existence, is all unreal and inane, it is consciousness alone that shows everything -in itself and by the fluctuationof its erroneous; as the motion of winds displays the variegated clouds in the empty air. ⁹

It is the divine consciousness only, which exhibits the unreal phenomenal as real in itself, without creating anything apart or separate from its own essence; in the same manner as earth or any metal produces a pot or a jar out of itself, and which is no wise distinct or separate from its substance.

As the sky is only a vacuity, and the wind is a mere fluctuation of air; and as the waves are composed of nothing but water; so the world is no other than a phenomenon of consciousness; ¹⁰.

The world subsists undivided in the bas-relief of consciousness, and without a separate existence of its own apart or disjoined in any part, from its substance or substratum of the conscious soul, which is as calm and clear as the empty air, and the world resembles the shadow of a mountain in the bosom of water, or a surge or wave rising on the surface of the sea.

There rises a calm coolness in the souls of wise and in-excitable sages, when the shining worlds appear as the cooling moon-beams falling on the internal mirror of their minds.

How is it and by what means and in what manner, is this invisible supreme light, produced in the calm and quiet and all pervading auspicious soul, amidst the empty expanse of the universe. ¹¹

That essence which is expressed by the term Brahma, forms the essential nature and form of everything besides; and the same is permeated throughout all nature, except where it is abstracted by some preventive cause or other- ­bādhā.

Anything which presents a hindrance to this, and whatever is preventive of the pervasion of divine essence, is a nullity in nature like a sky flower-ākāśa puspa, which is nothing at all in nubibus.

The wise man sits quietly like a stone, without the action of even his inner and mental faculties; because the lord is without the reflection or sensation of anything, and without birth or decay at anytime. ¹²

He who remains insensible and unconsciousness of every thing, like the empty state of the open sky; arrives by his constant practice to his state of sound sleep or hypnotism without the disturbance of dreams.

But how is it to be known that the world is the mere thought or will of the Divine mind? where to it is said. It is the creative power of Brahma, ¹³, thought of forming the wondrous world in his mind, ¹⁴, without the aid of any tool, or instrument or means or ground for its con­struction; hence ¹⁵, the world is merely ideal and nothing real, nor is there any cause or creator of it whatsoever.

As the lord stretches out the world in his thought, he or it instantly becomes the same; and as the lord is without any visible form, so this seeming world has no visible nor material form whatever; nor is there any framer of what is simply ideal.

So all men are happy or unhappy, as they think themselves to be one or the other in their minds; they all abide in the same universal soul, which is common to all; and yet believe them­selves every one of his own kind in his mind.

Therefore it is as vain to view anything, or any intellectual being, in the light of an earthly substance, as it is false to take the visionary hills of one's dream, in the light of their being real rocks situated on earth.

By assigning egoism to one's self, he becomes subject to error and change; but the want of egoism, places the soul to its invariable identity an tranquility. ¹⁶

As the meaning of the word bracelet, is nothing different from the gold ¹⁷; so the sense of your false egoism, is no other than that of the tranquil soul. ¹⁸

The anaesthetic sage, that is cold-blooded and sober minded as a silent muni, is no voluntary actor of any act, although he may be physically employed in his active duties; and the quiet saint carries with him an empty and careless mind, although it my be full of learning and wisdom. ¹⁹

The wise man manages himself as a mechanical figure or puppet, never moving of its own motion but moving as it is moved, and having no impulse of his desire within him, he sits as quiet as a doll without its mobility.

The wise man that knows the soul, is as quiet as a babe sleeping in a swinging cradle, and which is moved without moving itself; or he moves the members of his body,like a baby, without having any cause for his doing so.

The soul that is intent on the thought of the one ²⁰ only, and is as calm and quiet as the infinite spirit of god; becomes unconscious of itself and all other things, together with all its objects of desire, and expectations of its good and bliss.

He that is not the viewer himself, nor has the view before him, and is exempt from the triple condition (triputi bhāva) of the subjective, objective and action; can have no object in his view; which is concentrated in the vision of the invisible one.

Our view or regard of the world, is our strict bondage, and disregard of it, is our perfect freedom; he who rests therefore in his disregard of ²¹ whatever is expressed by words, has nothing to look after or desire.

Say, what is it that is worth our looking after, or worthy of our regard; when these material bodies of ours, are as evanescent as our dreams, and our self existence is a mere delusion. ²²

Therefore the wise man rests only in his knowledge of the true one, by subjection of all his efforts and desires, and quelling all his curiosity; and being devoid of all knowledge, save that of the knowable one.

Hearing all this, Manki was released from his great error; as a Snake gets loose from its slough by which it had been fast bound.

He retired from there to a mountain, on which he remained in his deep meditation for a century of years; and discharged the duties that occurred to him of their own accord, without his retaining any desire of any; ²³.

He resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakeful with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga contemplation.

Now Rāma, enjoy your peace of mind, by relying in your habit of reasoning and discrimination; do not deprave your under­standing, under the fits of your passion; nor let your mind turn to its levity like a fleeting cloud, in the unrainy season of autumn.

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