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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 198 - Excellence of Universal Toleration

Vasistha continued: Hear me Rāma, to tell you again for the perfection of your understanding, ¹; because the repetition of a lesson, serves to impress it the more in the memory of inattentive persons.

Rāma! I have told you before about the existence of the world, after I had related to you in length regarding its creation or production; whereby you have come to know, that both the appearance and subsistence of the world, ², are mere fallacies of our understanding.

I have next explained to you also, in the Upasama-Prakarana or my lecture on Insouciance, of the necessity of observing and maintaining a total indifference in regard to the whole creation; ³.

In my discourse on indifference, I have described to you the different stages of nonchalance; the attainment of the highest pitch of which, will conduce ultimately to you obtaining the blissfulness of the nirvāna numbness, which is treated of in this book on anaesthesia. ⁴

You shall have here to hear ⁵ from me, regarding the manner in which the learned are to conduct themselves in this phenomenal world, after they have learnt and obtained, whatever there is to be known and obtainable herein: ⁶.

A man having received his birth in the world, should habituate himself from his boyhood, to view the phenomenal as they are of themselves, and without any concern with himself; in order to have his security and happiness apart form all others. ⁷

Regard all in the one and same light with yourself, and observe a universal benevolence towards all beings, and then placing your reliance in your own equanimity, conduct yourself safely and securely everywhere.

Know the plan of your even-mindedness, to be productive of the fruits of purest and, most delicious taste; and bearing the blossoms of unbounded prosperity, and the flowers of our unfading good fortune.

Meekness of disposition, yields the fruit of universal benevolence, and makes the prosperity of the whole world wait at its service. ⁸

Neither the possession of a kingdom on earth, nor the enjoyment of the best beauties herein; can yield that undecaying and essential happiness, which is derived from the equanimity of the meek.

The utmost limit of a cool disposition, and the entire want of all anxious cares, are the two antidotes that set at naught the fervour and vapours of sorrow from the human mind.

It is very rare to meet a person, amidst the spheres of all these worlds; who is fraught with the ambrosia of cool insouciance, who is friendly to his enemies and whose enemies are his friends, and who looks on all alike as he does to himself.

The mind of the enlightened man, shines as brightly as the luminous moon; and dazzles with drops of ambrosial dews; the sages all lived to drink the cooling draught of immortality, as you learn from the lives of the royal sage Janaka and others of immortal fame.

The man practising his demureness, has his faults described as his qualities, his sorrows seem as his pleasure, ⁹; and his death is eternal life unto him.

Sāmyam or stoicism is ever accompanied, with a good grace, good lot and placidness; all of which are constant attendants on the stoic sage, as faithful wives fondly cling to the sides of their beloved husband.

Equanimity is the perpetual prosperity of the soul and not the transitory hilarity of the mind; therefore there is no treasure ¹⁰ whatsoever, which is a stranger to the meekness of spirit.

He that is honest in all his dealings, and steady in his own profėssions; and liberal in his minds, ¹¹; are men as valuable as richest gems, and are deemed and desired by all as gods upon earth. ¹²

The even minded man, that is righteous and upright in all his doings and dealings, who is magnanimous in his soul and benevolent in his mind; such a man is neither burnt by fire, nor ever soiled or sullied by water: ¹³.

Who can foil that man that does what is right, and observes thing in their true light; who is not susceptible of joy or grief, ¹⁴.

The righteous and unflinching man, is relied upon and esteemed by all his friends and enemies also; he is honoured by his king and master, and loved by all wise-man with whom he has any dealing.

The wise and even sighted men are of indifferent minds, and do not try to flee from evil, nor rejoice to receive any good; they are content with whatever comes to pass upon them, as aught of good or bad, they care for naught.

These meek minden men are unmindful of any good or desirable thing, which they may happen either to lose or leave from them; because they have to resort to the happy state of their equanimity ¹⁵; of which no calamity or chance can deprive them.

Men enjoying the felicity of equanimity, laugh to scorn at the tribulations of the world; and live uninjured under all the varying circumstances of life; they are venerated by the gods also, for the invariable samatā or sameness of their minds, ¹⁶.

If the ¹⁷ course of events, ever happened to unruffle the countenance of the for bearing man; yet the inward equanimity of his mind, serves to shed the ambrosial beams, of a placid moonlight within himself.

Whatever the even minded man acts or does for himself, and whatsoever he says in opprobrium of the misdeeds of others; are all lauded with applause by the majority of men, ¹⁸.

Whatever good or evil is known or seen to be done by the impartial observer, at any time whether past or present; are all approved of by the public, ¹⁹.

The man that sees all things in the same light ²⁰, is never displeased or dejected in his countenance at any calamity or danger, that may betide him at any time.

The prince Śibi of old, is recorded in history to have passed pieces of flesh from his own body, and to have fed a hawk there with, in order to save the life of a captive pigeon from his claws. ²¹

Again mind the impassible prince, who did not sink into despondence seeing his beloved consort to be maltreated before his sight. ²²

Mind also how the king of trigarta, offered his only son who was accomplished and successful in all his desires to the horrible Rāksasa; upon his being vanquished by the fiend, at a certain wager he had lay with him.

Look at the great king Janaka, how he remained undismayed and undejected, at the burning of his well decorated city of Mithilā.

Look at the quiet and submissive prince of Sālvadeśa, how he calmly struck off his head from his body, as if it were the plucking off of a lotus leaf or flower from its stem, inorder to satisfy the demand of a deity for the same.

The Sauvīra sovereign, who had won the big Airavata elephant of the god Indra, in a combat with him; made at last a gift of him to the very god, with as much unconcern, as one offers a heap of white kundu flowers, or huge heaps of rotten straws upon the sacrificial fire.

You have heard how the elephant named kundapa, employed his trunk in sympathy to the Brāhmana's kine, in lifting them from being plunged in the mud; and afterwards devoted his body to the service of the Brāhmana; wherefore he was taken up to heaven in a celestial car.

Let your continued observance of toleration, preserve you from acts of intolerance, which tend at best to the oppression of others; and know that the spirit of intolerance, is as the gob­bling of the kadamba forest, ²³. ²⁴

Remember the young and gentle Jadabharata, who by the natural habitude of his mind, devoured the fire-brand that was thrown into his alms-pot, thinking as a piece of meat, and without any injury to himself; ²⁵.

Think of the sober minded kura, who notwithstanding his following the profession of a hunts-man all his lifetime, was at last translated to heaven, and placed by the souls of the right­eous men after his demise.

Think of the listlessness and want of concupiscence, in the person of the royal sage Kapardana, who being seated in the garden of paradise in his youth, and beset by celestial damsels all about, felt no desire for any of them.

Know how many princes and Lords of peoples have from the unperturbed apathy of their souls, resigned their realms and society of mankind, and betaken themselves to lonely forests and solitary caves of Vindhya Mountains, and there spent their lives in motionless torpidity.

Think of the great sages and saints, and of divine and devoted adepts, who were adored by even the gods, for the steadiness of their holy devotion, that have passed away in the observance of their rigid and unruffled vows of an universal indifference.

Call to your mind the instances of many a monarch of ordinary men and of base and mean hunts-men also, that have been honoured in all ages and countries, for their observance of an unimpressed equality in all states and circumstances of their lives.

All intelligent men strictly observed the rule, of preserving their equanimity in their course through life; whether it be for the achievement of their acts for this life or the next, as also for the success of their understandings of every kind.

They neither long for longivity nor desire their death in difficulties; but live as long as they have to live, and act as they are called to act, without any grudge or murmur.

It is the business of the wise-man, to conduct himself in the career of his life, with a contented mind and placid countenance, both in his favourable and unfavourable circumstances, as well as in the happiness or misery of himself or others.

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