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

Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 6: Nirvāna-Prakarana (On ultimate extinction) - part 2. Chapter 23 - Story of a Pious Brāhmana and his Nirvāna Extinction

Vasistha said: ¹ on dispassionateness, ihappetence and resignation of worldly desires; rise therefore and go beyond the material world after the example of one Manki: ².

There lived once on a time before a Brāhmanes named Manki, who was applauded for his devotion and steadfastness to holy vows.

It happened at one time, that I was coming down from the vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your grandfather Aja on some particular occasion.

As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth, in order to reach at the realm of your grand-sire; I happened to meet before me a vast desert, with the burning sun-shine over it.

It was a dreary waste without its boundary on any side, filled with burning sands and obscured by gray and fly dust over it; and marked by a few scattered hamlets here and there.

The extended waste appeared as the boundlėss and spotless immensity of Brahma, by its unrestricted vacuity, howling winds, burning heat and light, its seeming water in the sand, and untroddening ground resting in peace.

It seemed as delusive as the appearance of avidya or illusion itself; by the deceptive waters of mirage upon the sand, by its dullness and empty space and the mist overhanging on all sides of it.

As I was wandering along this hollow and sandy wilderness, I saw a wayfarer sauntering before me and muttering to himself in the travail of his wearisome journey.

The traveller said: O the powerful sun! That afflicts me with his blazing beams, as much as the company of evil-minded men is for our annoyance.

The sun-beams seen to pour down fire on earth, and melt down the pith and marrow of my body and bones; as they have been drying up the leaves and igniting the forest trees ³.

Therefore it behoves me to repair to yonder hamlet, to allay the weariness of my journey, and recover my strength and spirits for travelling onward. ⁴

So saying, he was about to proceed towards the village, which was an habitation of the low caste Kirātas. ⁵ When I interrupted him by saying:­-

Vasistha said: I had you, O you passenger of the sandy desert, and may all be well with you, that art my fellow traveller on the way, and art so good looking and passionless­-

O traveller of the lower earth! who have long lived in the habitations of men, and have not found your rest, how is it now that you expect to have it, in this solitary abode of this mean people?

You can have no rest at the abode of the vile people in yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pāmarā villains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water. ⁶

These huts and hamlets shelter the cowardly cow-herds (Pallava Gopas) under them, and them that are afraid to walk in the paths of men, as the timid deer are averse to rove beyond their own track. ⁷

They have no stir or agitation of reason, nor any flash of understanding or mental faculties in them; they are not afraid of or averse to base actions, but remain and move on as stone-mills and wheels:-­

Their manliness consists in the emotions of their passions and affections, and in exhibitions of the signs of their cupidity and aversion, and they delight mostly in actions, that appear pleasant at the time being or present moment. ⁸

As there is no appearance of a body of rainy clouds, over the dry and parched lands of the desert, so there is no shadow of pure and cooling knowledge ever stretched out on the minds of these people. ⁹

Rather dwell in a dark cave as a snake, or remain as a blind worm in the bosom of a stone; or limp about as a lame stag in the barren desert, than mix in company of these village of people.

These rude rustics resemble the potions of poison, that are mixed with honey; they are sweet to taste for a moment, but prove deadly at last. ¹⁰

Again these villainous villagers are as rude as the rough winds, which are blowing with gusts of dust amidst the shattered huts, built with grassy turfs and tufts of the dried leaves of trees. ¹¹

Being thus spoken unto by me, the traveller felt himself as glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers.

The passenger said: Who are you sir, with your magnanimous soul, that seems to me to be full and perfect in yourself, and full of Divine spirit in your soul. You look at the bustle of the bustle of the world, as a passer is unconcerned with the commotion of the villages beside his way.

Have you sir, drunk the ambrosial draught of the gods, that gave you your Divine knowledge? and art infused with the spirit of the Sovereign Virāt, that is quite apart from the plenum it fills, and is quite full with its entire voidness: ¹².

I see your soul to be as void and yet as full as his, and as still and yet as moving as the Divine spirit; it is all and not all what exists, and something yet nothing itself.

It is quiet and comely, shining and yet unseen; it is inert and yet full of force and energy, it is inactive with all its activity and action; and such soul is yours. ¹³

Though now journeying on earth, you seem to range far above the skies; you are supportless, though supported on a sound basis ¹⁴. ¹⁵

You are not stretched over the objects, and yet no object subsists without you; your pure mind like the beauteous orb of the moon, is full of the nectarous beams of immortality. ¹⁶

You shinest as the full-moon, without any of her digits or blackish spots in you; you are cooling as the moon-beams, and full of ambrosial juice as the disk of that watery planet.

I see the existence and non-existence of the world, depend upon your will, and your intellect contains in it the revolving world, as the germ of a tree contains within it the would be fruit.

Know me sir, as a Brahmana sprung from the sage Śāndilya's race; my name is Manki and am bent on visiting places of pilgrimage.

I have made very long journeys, and seen many holy places in my peregrinations all about; and have now after long bent my course to revisit my native home. ¹⁷

But my mind is so sick of and averse to the world, that I hesitate to return to my home, after having seen the lives of men passing away as flashes of lightening from this world.

Deign now sir, to give me a true account of yourself, as the minds of holy-men are as deep and clear as limpid lakes.

When great men like yourself show their kindness, to one as mean as myself at the first sight of him, his heart is sure to glow with love and gratitude to them, as the lotus buds are blown ¹⁸, and are led to be hopeful of their favour towards him.

Hence I hope sir, that you will kindly remove the error, which is bred in me my ignorance of the delusions of this tempting world. ¹⁹

Vasistha replied: Know me, O vise man, to be Vasistha-the sage and saint, and an inhabitant of the ethereal region; and am bound to this way, on some errand of the sagely king ²⁰.

I tell you sir, not to be disheartened at your ignorance, as you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very nearly got over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast of tran­scendental knowledge.

I see you have come to the possession of the invaluable treasure, of your indifference to worldly matters; for this kind of speech and sentiments, and the sedateness of disposition which you have displayed, can never proceed from a worldling, and bespeak your high-­mindedness.

Know that as a precious stone is polished, by gentle abrasion of its rubbish; so the mind comes to its reasoning, by the rubbing off of the dross of its prejudice.

Tell me what you desire to know, and how you want to abandon the world; it is in my opinion done by practice of what one is taught by his preceptor, or by interrogatories of what he does not know or understand.

It is said that whosoever has a mind, to go across the doom of future birth or transmigration of his soul, should be possessed of good and pure desires in his mind, and an understanding inclined to reasoning under the direction of his spiritual guide. Such a person is verily entitled to attain to the state, which is free from future sorrow and misery.

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