An Ananda Kutir Publication 2012 suryadevananda.org
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Essential Yoga Vasistha 3 Dedicated to
Swami Venkatesananda
Essential Yoga Vasistha 4 INTRODUCTION The Yoga Vasistha is a manual for the sincere spiritual seeker. Through the use of stories and illustrations, Vasistha brings out the most subtle points, not for theorizing but for practice. The way of bringing out these points inspires the seeker towards their actualization in practiceboth in life and on the matthese being one and the same. The opening story of the first chapter sets the stage for life, which includes all activity and meditation or practice and leads to the goal like two wings of a bird. Vasistha makes it very clear that the problem is confusion of the real with the unreal, or change, due to the seeming reality of its appearance. Life is the field where this takes place and life must also be the field where this is corrected. Meditation or practice sharpens the instrument which allows for a life where we deal with things as they are, without the interference of thought. This thins the mind and the thinned mind is ready for deeper meditation so one's true nature can be seen. Life or activity and meditation or practice feed on each other in a cycle of ridding the mind of its impurities so one's true nature can be seen. This is the task on hand and this mighty scripture is a blazing light on the path. Last year I completed 'Yoga Vasistha in Poem' based on portions I felt important for the spiritual seeker. This work, 'Essential Yoga Vasistha' is a response to that feelinga fresh work that highlights Vasistha's teachings in a way that talks to the reader instead of indirectly. The framework of stories, characters and situations have been dropped and the important teachings conveyed have been brought out directly. I have tried to bring out those teachings that pertain to understanding, practice and lifethese three being inseparable. Poetry is not bound by the grammatical rules of prose and can cut through and bring out subtle points better. With using selected portions, it is still a lengthy work and I felt another version, a fresh writing from the ground up highlighting the teachings directly may be Essential Yoga Vasistha 5 further useful. I have made some changes in this version to relate to the time we live in. Kings were the authority in the past, today, we can bring authority down further to the employer. I am most thankful to Sivananda-Usha for her masterful and tireless help with editing this work. Life is practice and practice is life. Persevere relentlessly! Swami Suryadevananda 2 February 2013
Essential Yoga Vasistha 6 CONTENTS Introduction .............................................................................................. 4 Prayer Before Reading ................................................................. 9 I. Dealing with Dispassion ............................................................. 10 Life, a field to evolve .................................................................. 10 The seeker .................................................................................. 10 Signs of awakening ..................................................................... 11 Awakened observations ............................................................. 11 II. The Behavior of the Seeker ....................................................... 14 The problem and cure ................................................................ 14 Self-effort ................................................................................... 14 Four gate-keepers to liberation ................................................. 15 Wisdom's rise ............................................................................. 16 III. Dealing with Creation .............................................................. 17 Appearance and reality .............................................................. 17 Consciousness and creation ....................................................... 17 Resolving appearance and reality .............................................. 19 Space .......................................................................................... 20 Practice ...................................................................................... 20 Changing the flow of the mind .................................................. 21 The nature of infinite consciousness ......................................... 21 The relative and the unchanging ............................................... 24 Light on the path ........................................................................ 25 Raise the mind with the mind .................................................... 28 Seven Planes of Wisdom ............................................................ 31 The Infinite ................................................................................. 32 IV. Dealing With Existence ............................................................ 34 'I' is the problem ........................................................................ 34 Lead an awakened life ............................................................... 38 Essential Yoga Vasistha 7 Parents' Duty .............................................................................. 40 Real and Unreal .......................................................................... 40 The Sage's Song .......................................................................... 41 Closing Thoughts ........................................................................ 42 V. Dealing with Dissolution ........................................................... 43 Consciousness and thought ....................................................... 45 The abandonment of conditioning ............................................ 46 Craving ....................................................................................... 47 Living with purpose .................................................................... 47 A Seeker's Prayer ....................................................................... 49 A Seeker's Realization ................................................................ 49 Mastery of one's heart-mind ..................................................... 52 Sages' view ................................................................................. 58 Conditioning ............................................................................... 59 Overcoming the mind ................................................................ 60 VI. Dealing With Liberation, Part I ................................................ 61 Exhortation to practice .............................................................. 63 Truth ........................................................................................... 63 The yoga way ............................................................................. 64 Pranayama and mind control ..................................................... 65 Living without conditioning ....................................................... 66 Supreme meditation .................................................................. 68 Supreme worship ....................................................................... 68 The Supreme .............................................................................. 70 Proper action ............................................................................. 74 Seeing through the illusion ........................................................ 75 Renunciation .............................................................................. 77 Delusion of world-appearance ................................................... 78 Mind itself is self-destruction .................................................... 79 Attain self-knowledge ................................................................ 81
Essential Yoga Vasistha 8 VI. Dealing With Liberation, Part II ............................................... 84 World exists in the meaning of 'ego-sense' ............................... 85 Advice to the seeker .................................................................. 86 How experience arises ............................................................... 89 Seeing through the illusion ........................................................ 93 Stay free of notions .................................................................... 97 Avoid siddhis or psychic powers ................................................ 99 Action is better than inaction .................................................. 100 Awakened realizations ............................................................. 101 Earnest prayers are answered ................................................. 104 Strange and wonderful is this maya......................................... 105 The only means to redemption ................................................ 105 Be established in truth ............................................................. 106 Repeated affirmation makes memory ..................................... 109 Focus of main effort ................................................................. 110 The greatness of freedom ........................................................ 112 Yoga as life ............................................................................... 112 The seeker's awakening ........................................................... 114 Vasistha's final comments ....................................................... 114
Prayer Before Reading Salutations to that supreme reality In which all shine as if independently In which they exist for a short while And into which they merge eventually Salutations to that consciousness Source of apparent threefold division Of knower, knowledge and known Seer, sight and seen; doer, doing and deed Salutations to that bliss-absolute Which is the life of all beings Deriving happiness from the shower Of its ocean of supreme bliss
Essential Yoga Vasistha 10 I. DEALING WITH DISPASSION Life, a field to evolve Life, work and activity Are not different from practice Life is practice and practice is life Together seamlessly they lead to the goal All things are ever changing They are not the problem at all Our reactions to change or 'what is' Is what must be seen and abandoned Though awake, we are mostly asleep Seeing, the mind assigns its own values These have nothing to do with 'what is' These springs of sorrow must be abandoned The seeker When one sees the problem lies within And tries to go beyond habit's grip Wishing to be free but not seeing the way One becomes a seekerworthy of wisdom There must be this inner change of heart Outer change is strugglecosmetic at best Inner change reorganizes the outer naturally It's not even change, just what's natural to it The outer is the visible face of the inner Just like water beginning to boil Heat meeting water is not seen Essential Yoga Vasistha 11 What is seen is water bubbling away All beings have different natures Assigning good and bad doesn't matter Linking present with past doesn't matter Why not deal with each in the moment? Signs of awakening Hopes and desires arise from our values So do desires, attachments and dependency Seeing thisbe ready to go beyond And stay on the path that is freedom itself Awakened observations Happiness cannot be had from things People too are in the realm of change When they change, joy turns to sorrow The cycle of blind pursuit is samsara Learning is a burden to the unwise Wisdom a burden to one with desires Mind is a burden to the restless Life is a burden without self-knowledge Mind is the cause of all objects They are not seen when the mind is absent Or when the mind is distracted elsewhere Though objects be right in front of it Craving increases fear, weakens courage Increases misery and lack of clarity Never allowing one to see 'what is' Insisting on seeing what it wants to see Essential Yoga Vasistha 12 Preoccupation with the body is bondage Bound to the body is bound to the world The body is usefulit is not the problem Self's identification with the body is Childhood is a period of vulnerability Helplessnessunable to be expressed In this background of inner instability Rises craving from latent tendencies Youth is springtime for passion's harvest Suppressing good qualities that do exist Generating climate for wrong perception And wrong action with its consequences Even those who have left world activity Are still subject to delusion's power Leaving things may not be letting go The inner grip is indeed hard to loosen Staying hidden, time overpowers all Reversing the powerful and the weak Juggling wealth, fame and status Letting us believe we do these things Even fools rise to power and affluence These are not accomplishments at all To rise above the mind and senses Is indeed a worthy accomplishment Leading a fully awakened life is necessary To see the inherent defect in things Not that they are good or bad Our values make them appear as such Essential Yoga Vasistha 13 The mind is not capable of handling life It just cannot bring happiness and peace Awaken that which observes the mind Empower the inner intelligence The mind is a powerful bundle of habits Not easy to extricate oneself from its grip Struggle is partly caught, partly freed It is here a reliable guide is most helpful
Essential Yoga Vasistha 14 II. THE BEHAVIOR OF THE SEEKER The problem and cure Mental modifications is diversity The dividing mind projecting on things When the inner intelligence responds to life The mind's foolishness exhausts itself Neither easy nor difficult is this Hopes, desires and craving must be unanswered They are how modifications perpetuate Appeasement solidifies ignorance's grip Unless you are willing to lead an awakened life Rising above hopes, desires and cravings It is deception to indulge in high philosophy Knowing you're tight in foolishness's grip Habit can be overcome by self-effort But first there must be change of heart It is futile to foolishly grind oneself While the heart still finds habit appeasing Change of heart is wisdom's rise This inner change must bring outer change The old can never bring anything new An awakened life brings change of heart Self-effort Non-division is right understanding This is the basis for self-effort
Essential Yoga Vasistha 15 It manifests in heart when one is exposed To the teachings and conduct of holy ones To divert the mind to the pure Towards that which is divisionless Persistently, without letting-up Is the essence of all teachings and scriptures Action is non-different from latent tendencies Latent tendencies are non-different from the mind The mind is non-different from the person Latent tendencies are the springs of action Four gate-keepers to liberation Self-control, spirit of inquiry Contentment and good company These are the four gate-keepers Who guard the gates to liberation When the mind's thought-waves subside There is an unbroken flow of peace within The heart leaps to the supreme truth This very world becomes an abode of peace Living amongst all and everything Unaffected by things in any way Free of likes and dislikes One is said to be self-controlled Self-inquiry is natural to the self-controlled Self-knowledge arises from self-inquiry One discovers great tranquility and peace Understanding and freedom from sorrow Essential Yoga Vasistha 16 Contentment is the supreme gain Satsanga is the best journey's companion Spirit of enquiry is the greatest wisdom Self-control is supreme happiness Wisdom's rise Accept the words of a young boy If he indeed speaks words of wisdom Reject what is not of wisdom Even if they be by the creator Till wisdom arises directly in you Take recourse in the knowledge Transmitted by the great teachers Who've trodden the path themselves
Essential Yoga Vasistha 17 III. DEALING WITH CREATION Appearance and reality Objective perception happens naturally Just as fragrance exists in flowers Let it be, it is not the problem Why act on it and make it real? The liberated one's actions Wisdom's responses to situations Never rising from conditioning Are ever free of karma's grasp All these forms you see Are non-different from that which sees The formless itself freezes into forms Self-forgetfulness makes the unreal seem real Consciousness and creation Neither the objective universe Nor self, perception or void Nor inertness exists Cosmic consciousness alone is From him emerges all and everything As countless rays emerge from the sun As ripples arise from the ocean's surface Rising, subsiding and existing in him as him In it rise the seer, sight and seen Perfectly synthesized as 'seeing' only
Essential Yoga Vasistha 18 Nothing but pure consciousness Knowing this directly is self-realization The infinite emerges from the infinite Existing in it as the infinite only What emerges is the same as its source Creation is just a term, nothing else Causeless is this creation Therefore it has no beginning How can it exist even now? How can it ever be destroyed? Ever changing material appearances Animated by an unchanging reality Linked by infinite consciousness Unchanged and unchangeable it is The elements are creation's seed Consciousness is the element's seed As is the seed, so is the fruit All is Brahman the absolute When the real rests in the unreal Which has the real as its substratum It becomes confused so to say The absolute believes it's an individual But all this only appears to be The one, believing itself to be many All happening within its own bosom The absolute is the only reality
Essential Yoga Vasistha 19 When the knowable is apprehended The knower arises as the individual Instantly it is involved in samsara Till it abandons standing apart completely The false notion of the external knowable Has to be removed, root and branch These notions are the ignorance that binds The infinite only acts as finite individuals Resolving appearance and reality Let the subject-object tangle Be perfectly resolved in you This universe and creation you see Only appears to exist in truth Free yourself of all conditioning Free yourself of latent tendencies Be awake, but not to this world And ever abide in the eternal Self-knowledge arises within naturally When the self shines unhampered within Let this world beit's not the problem Knowing 'world' is a wordself alone is Spiritual practice and disciplined life Can bestow what is possible in the world Physical immortality cannot be attained Strive for the immortal beyond this realm
Essential Yoga Vasistha 20 Space Three types of space there are Psychologicalwhen self is conscious of 'I' Physicalwhen self sees the elements Consciousnesswhen self rests in the self A mountain is seen inside the mirror The mountain is seen outside too Creation too is seen within consciousness And outside too in the same way Memory of the past stays hidden Death wakes you up to new conditions Once again the world and wheel of time Appear very real though imaginary All thought-forms or experience Are infinite consciousness alone Cause and effect are but words The absolute is the only reality Practice Thinking and speaking of that alone Never forgetting 'that' in midst of all Utter dedication to that one alone This is called practice by the wise Let things appear as they do Oceans, mountains and skies above Different appearances are not the truth See no division, as none exists
Essential Yoga Vasistha 21 Changing the flow of the mind They who serve an unrighteous one Whoever takes advantage of others Comes to ruin sooner or later Even if they did not exploit others themselves Understanding is what responds to life As is one's understanding so is one's mind Understanding that is the mind itself Great effort is needed to change its flow He is my father, this is my wealth Here I have done good, there I have sinned I have become a small child, and now a youth All these one sees within one's heart One who has realized the truth That Brahman, the self and everything Is all one infinite consciousness Distinguishes not between family, friend or foe The nature of infinite consciousness In every atom of infinite consciousness Universes come and go endlessly Like particles of dust in a beam of light Shining through a hole in the roof In a space the size of a thumb We imagine worlds and galaxies Stretching million of miles endlessly All in a space the size of a thumb
Essential Yoga Vasistha 22 Due to the nature of infinite consciousness All these arise again and again Then return to tranquility once more Like the spontaneous play of a child Though one sees all of this One does not see anything at all When infinite consciousness alone is Being no otherwho sees what? This universe is but a long dream The ego-sense and all we see The fancy that there are others too All as real as dream-objects Death and life contradict each other While living, death is notin death, life is not That which holds together either experience Is absent in the other's condition We consider fruits a reward for prayer or worship But consciousness alone bestows everything It may appear fruit falls from the sky But, in reality, fruit falls from the tree Just as cities exist within the dreamer Three worlds exist in a small atom There are atoms in those worlds too Each atom also contains the three worlds Infinite consciousness is the substratum There is conviction in the order of creation These two factors make things appear real The underlying reality recognizes itself Essential Yoga Vasistha 23 All that was ever conceived By consciousness during the first creation Has remained there in the same manner With the same characteristics even now Who dies, when and in what way? To whom does consciousness belong and how? Even when millions of bodies die Consciousness exists undiminished That atomic ethereal particle Possessed of memories and tendencies Is what is known as the jiva It remains where the dead body lies The self of all exists in all bodies With motion in moving bodies Immovable as immovable bodies The self alone exists as all The sentient and the insentient The inert and the intelligent No difference between them at all As the essence of all substance is one Faith turns poison into nectar Fancy or the unreal to real substance The subject itself becomes the object If there is intense faith in things Just as one assumes different bodies in dream One can assume different bodies awake Moving from the ethereal in the other body Without abandoning the previous one Essential Yoga Vasistha 24 The relative and the unchanging When the intelligence is well established In the conviction of its ethereal nature The body is forgotten then and there As in youth one forgets life as a fetus A night is an epoch when suffering A night is a moment in revelry In the experience of the dream state A moment and epoch are non-different If one's intelligence is established In the truth concerning consciousness There is no doubt one reaches The supreme state of liberation All things are equally indwelt By the infinite intelligence At all times in every way The uncreated is all, the self of all Nothing's created, nothing ends Anywhere, in any way or at any time The absolute Brahman is allsupreme peace Unborn, pure consciousness and permanent There exists the power of consciousness Which is in motion all of the time The reality of all inevitable events For it penetrates all epochs in time The individual is just a little agitation On the surface of the ocean of Brahman Essential Yoga Vasistha 25 Or just like the little movement of flame Of a candle in a windless room When one is firmly established In the oneness of the infinite consciousness Whether quiet or actively engaged in work He is considered to be at peace with himself Just as the creator was willed into being A worm is brought into being the same way Because the latter is caught up in impurity Its action is trivial and has consequences A selfish person's violent efforts To gain selfish ends often leads to other results Just as a person can't see his face When his own breath mists the mirror The mind that is heading towards calamity First creates delusion and wickedness These themselves later expand Into misfortune and sorrow experienced Only something that does exist Can undergo experiences How can a non-existent body Ever experience satisfaction? Light on the path You can gain direct knowledge Of the supreme causeless cause By your own examination Of the intelligence within Essential Yoga Vasistha 26 The direct enquiry of thought's movement Within one's own consciousness Is the supreme guru or preceptor None else can throw such light on your path If you wish for unalloyed happiness Fame, prosperity and long life By all means honor and worship good men Giving them all they might wish to have Even selfish ends are gained by the wise Using appropriate means, conduct or action After they give up anger and mental agitation And resort to equanimity and a clear mind It is one and yet it is many at once In it millions of universes merge It is not a void or nothingness For it is the self of all and everything As long as one sees the bracelet as bracelet It is not seen as goldwhat it really is When the world is assumed to be real The self is not seen and stays hidden away The self can be attained in many ways Yet, when attained, nothing's been attained For it is the supreme self Yet it is nothing as it alone is Within the atomic space of consciousness All the experiences do exist Even as within a drop of honey Subtle essences of flowers do exist Essential Yoga Vasistha 27 Because of consciousness in the bracelet Gold realizes its goldness The subject manifesting as the object Realizes subjectivitypure consciousness Having the company of the enlightened One does not suffer in this world Even as one holding a lighted candle Does not see darkness anywhere All this discussion and argumentation Take place only in and because of ignorance When there is knowledge there is no duality When the truth is knownsilence alone remains The mind alone that appears as all this Ceaseless and endless creative activity On account of nescience it deludes one Into thinking that it is real or unreal Wise men do not desire action Seeking to do for some purpose At the same time they do not desire To either avoid or abandon action The mind alone is the world's creator The mind alone is the supreme person What is done by the mind is action What is done by the body is not action Whatever appears in one's consciousness Seems to come into being at once It gets establishedappearing as reality And bears fruits too in due course Essential Yoga Vasistha 28 When potentialities are most subtle It is individualized consciousness or soul When all potentialities within cease That itself shines as the supreme being Raise the mind with the mind Strive wholeheartedly with the mind To make the mind take to the pure path With the self make the self Tread the path of purity This forest known as world-appearance Should be cut down at its very root With the sharp axe of enquiry To be free of it eternally All beings have arisen in the absolute When there was the slightest disturbance Withinin its equilibrium Just as waves rise on the ocean's surface When all selfish action has ended The individual mind ceases to be This is seen in the liberated sage His action becomes no action Concepts have arisen somehow It is accidental coincidence In a moment of self-forgetfulness Consciousness viewed itself as the object When the mind is deeply observed It gets absorbed into its substratum Essential Yoga Vasistha 29 When it is thus absorbed There is supreme felicity Whatever be the mind's origin It matters not really at all Instead direct it towards liberation Through untiring, relentless self-effort Behold the play of ignorance It makes one hurt oneself by oneself Making one run hither and thither In meaningless panic of no importance The instruments of action, action and doer Birth, death, existence and phenomena All this and everything is Brahman Nothing else existseven in imagination This world is nothing more than an idea All the objects seen are ideas too Reject all errors of ideation and be free Remain rooted in truth and attain peace You are ever freeeven right now Why call yourself bound and grieve? The self is infinite and absolute Why, how and by whom is it bound? Depending upon its intensity The size of the object influenced The mind does the needful in time It can do anything and everything
Essential Yoga Vasistha 30 Only those who've not cultivated wisdom Are adversely affected by bad luck and fate But those in whom wisdom has blossomed Are unaffected by adversity and don't panic When evil tendencies bind one tight It shows in one's conduct and words Weeping silently and remorsefully later Does not help till one is ready to change World-appearance is the play of the mind The mind a play of the supreme being Mind is the atmosphere, sky, earth and wind Mind is the whole worldmind is great As one bound to a pillar does not move One bound to reality is fixed in it He alone is a human being Others fall short of the mark When one severs the root of the mind With the weapon of non-conceptualization One reaches the absolute Brahman Omnipresent and supreme peace When the mind is deprived of its restlessness It is referred to as the 'dead' mind That itself is penance or tapas Verification of the scriptures and liberation Do not become inactive What is gained by doing nothing? What has to be done has to be done Rest in the self while being active Essential Yoga Vasistha 31 A life-size painting of a person Is unable to perform his duties Ignorance or mental conditioning Is incapable of intelligent function The firm conviction 'I am this individual' Is the chain that binds the mind The mind is liberated by the firm conviction Everything is Brahmanthe absolute Do not let your mind wander about Dwelling on thoughts and ideas Strive to be conscious of the self If you wish to enjoy lasting peace In all experiences of joy and sorrow In all hallucinations and imaginations It is the mind that does everything The mind experiences allmind is man Sevenfold is the delusion that veils Seed state of wakefulness, wakefulness Great wakefulness, wakeful dream Dream, dream wakefulness and sleep Seven Planes of Wisdom Knowing these seven states of wisdom Not intellectually but in the deepest way You will not be caught in delusion And cross the shores to freedom's banks Pure wish or intention is the first The spirit of inquiry is the second Essential Yoga Vasistha 32 When the mind becomes subtle is the third Establishment in truth is the fourth Total freedom from attachment is the fifth Cessation of objectivity is the sixth A state beyond all these is the seventh Try hard to climb to the uppermost rung The Infinite In the infinite self there is no creator No creation, no worlds, no heaven No humans, no demons, no bodies No elements, no time, no existence, no destruction No 'you', no 'I', no self, no that, no this No truth, no falsehoodnone of these No notion of diversity, no contemplation And there is no enjoyment either The power of nescience is capable Of creating a total confusion Between the real and the unreal Life has to be lived most carefully Nescience and the self are unrelated Only the similar can be related This is obvious in everyone's experience We know this from our daily lives In the middle between sight and seen Is a relationship known as seer Abolish the division between seer, sight and seen That is supreme, the absoluteBrahman Essential Yoga Vasistha 33 As long as this illusion is grasped It generates this great delusion But once it is clearly understood It is seen as the infinite, and source of joy
Essential Yoga Vasistha 34 IV. DEALING WITH EXISTENCE It can be said a tree exists in the seed Because both have appropriate forms But, infinite consciousness is formless How can it be said the cosmic form exists? In the eyes of the enlightened and ignorant The vision does not vanish as such The enlightened see Brahman at all times The ignorant always see the world The mind alone is all this, you see Let it be there, it's not the problem Heal the mind of its sickness The world-appearance will also heal Fire flames upward by its nature Water naturally flows down Food seeks the consumer Created objects seek their end 'I' is the problem What has to be done has to be done This is the view of the wise Remain egoless and unselfish as in sleep Never let this be violated Earthly events are not the problem Our reactions to events surely are We are moved to joy and sorrow by these What we consider good fortune and misfortune Essential Yoga Vasistha 35 There is neither bondage nor liberation Only that infinite being is seen Yet the eternal is veiled by the transient This is a great illusion indeed All beings obtain only those actions Which spring from their own potentialities No one else is responsible for those actions No superhuman being or divinity The very presence of holy ones Destroys delusion of the mind Not destroyed by study or practice By wisdom or even by knowledge Whether one is wise or ignorant The body's functions continue while it lasts So do what is good in each condition Neither attached or unattached The feeling of filial affection Rises even in those with wisdom Natural when there is body-consciousness But it does not have to eclipse wisdom This world is in appearance or imagination Material substances do not change a thing It is like a long dream or juggler's trick A post to which the mind-elephant is tied Inquire into the uncaused cause of all Which is yet beyond all such causation This alone is worth enquiring into Why inquire into the non-essential? Essential Yoga Vasistha 36 When the self is seen as an object The seer is not seen or realized Till the objective universe is perceived One does not realize the self Just as a painted flame is not fire Mere wise words are ignorance, not wisdom Unless they are substantiated By the absence of desire and anger Those devoted to the gods, reach the gods Those who adore other forms, attain to them Those who meditate on the absolute, become Brahman Hence, strive to reach the unlimited, infinite Approaching a lion's empty cage at dark Prompts fear, even though it is empty Even so, one ignorantly believes he is bound Imprisoned in this empty body He sees the truth who sees all things Strung in the self as beads on a thread And knows full well 'I am not the mind' Demonstrating this naturally in his life The ignorant see the body as suffering's source They see it susceptible to a host of ills The enlightened man see it as delight's source As it is the perfect vehicle for liberation In the great empire known as dreadful hell Evil actions roam like mighty elephants in rut The senses responsible are hard to conquer Equipped with a formidable magazine of cravings Essential Yoga Vasistha 37 He who is bound by the ego-sense And by the conditioning of the mind Even if regarded as very learned Can be defeated even by a child As a mirror reflects objects held close The ego-sense reflects in one's consciousness Abandon this ego-sense with all strength within Be established in: "'I' is nothing," and be happy Pure consciousness entertains the impure notion Of 'I am', playfully as it were Without renouncing its essential nature Experiencing the image of itself within itself Noble qualities blossom and attain fruition In one with good and pleasant conduct Devoted to seclusion and free of craving As craving leads to many ills and suffering Every zealous effort meets success And is always crowned with fruition Hence, do not abandon right effort Right effort itself blossoms to the goal When it is not rightly understood The 'I' appears to be an impure notion But, when the 'I' is rightly understood Its meaning is seen as infinite consciousness The conditioning of the mind drops away When the truth is clearly seen and realized And when the conditioning has finally ceased One's consciousness is made supremely peaceful Essential Yoga Vasistha 38 Lead an awakened life Listen to the quintessence of all wisdom Let it perfume your whole life Bondage is the craving for pleasure Its abandonment is liberation Render the intelligence within pure By the destruction of all inner impurities Illumine the heart by the light of self Through relentless self-inquiry You must lead an awakened life To see the worthlessness of birth and death Dwells then without fear or anxiety In the city which is the body Consciousness reflecting in consciousness Shines as consciousness existing in itself The ignorant, considering themselves learned Still see other and not infinite consciousness This self, the supreme Brahman Permeates all and everything It enables you to experience Sound, taste, form and fragrance The mind of the enlightened is neither In a state of bliss nor devoid of bliss In motion, nor static, real nor unreal But between these two propositions Knowledge of Brahmanthe absolute Is never given to the ignorant Essential Yoga Vasistha 39 Or to those who are half-awakened They must awaken and be qualified first Consciousness is Brahman The mind and intellect are Brahman Brahman alone is the substance Brahman is the substratum of all Do not waste your time inquiring 'How has this ignorance arisen?' Inquire instead relentlessly 'How shall I get rid of it?' One not distressed by the impure state of mind Caused by alternating good and evil thoughts Still subjected to old age, death and despair Has not even risen to the human level These deluded ones roam this universe Doing things they consider important Sometimes uplifted, sometimes degraded Death plays with them as with a ball This world-appearance is natural The individual conceives it at all times This duality ceases completely When the individual attains liberation See all as unreal including me And you will be free of sorrow Or see all as real including me And you will be free of sorrow too
Essential Yoga Vasistha 40 Do not desire those experiences Which do not come to you effortlessly Experience those which have arrived Such is the nature of the wise All that has been described so far Is only an illustration of the truth However in this creation There is no order or resemblance Those busy with affairs of this world In pursuit of pleasure and power Do not desire to know the truth Which they obviously do not see Parents' Duty It is the parents' foremost duty to insure Children are instructed in self-knowledge Else, though their children make it in the world Their ignorance and bondage increases Understanding is the start of action And if this constantly misses the mark Though affluence may be attained and lauded The whole life would be lived in vain Real and Unreal The real, unreal and their mixture Are all but notions, nothing else Notions are neither real nor unreal What is then real in this universe?
Essential Yoga Vasistha 41 Do not entertain any ideas Including the notion of your existence It is only by holding on to notions That the future comes into being You may feel, 'I am not the doer, I do not exist' Or 'I am the doer, and I am everything' Or inquire into the nature of the self And realize none of this is attributed to me Rest established in the self The highest state of consciousness In which the best among the holy men Who know of this state ever dwell If you seek your self with the self By the dint of your own self-effort Then you will clearly find the answer To the main point of living and existence The Sage's Song What to do, where to go? What to hold, what to renounce? This universe is permeated by the self All is verily my own self Unhappiness or sorrow is the self Happiness is the self as well All desires are but empty void Knowing that all this is the self I am freed from all travail In this body, within and without Essential Yoga Vasistha 42 Above and below and everywhere There is only the self and self alone Nothing and no one is non-self The self alone is everywhere Everything exists as the self All this is truly the self I exist in the self as the self I exist as all this, in all this, everywhere I am the fullness and self-bliss I fill the entire universe Closing Thoughts This unreal world seems so very real Because of dwelling on it endlessly Consciousness alone shines in the sun And dwells as the little worm on the ground Only a truly intelligent person One with good nature and equal vision Is entitled to the words of wisdom That have been described here
Essential Yoga Vasistha 43 V. DEALING WITH DISSOLUTION The wise differentiate between Enjoyment and pursuit of pleasure Pursuit is sorrow that brings more sorrow One can enjoy what comes unsought Time spent in the company of sages Is most fruitful and should be cherished On other days resort to scriptural teachings And your own diligent practice to ascend Ignorance of the self Is the cause of all sorrow Knowledge of the self Leads to delight and tranquility Just as the sky is not affected By dust-particles floating in it The self is never affected By the body it journeys in Enjoy the delight that flows from peace The self-controlled abide in it When the heart is established in peace Bliss of the self rises without delay Those devoted to inaction Those who've suppressed all action Get caught up in themselves And experience sorrow and fear To feel bound without a chord To feel tainted without impurity Essential Yoga Vasistha 44 To feel fallen though always on top Is indeed a great mystery! This world which appears created Is accidental coincidence only Sheer ignorance generates feelings Of wanting and rejecting anything Establish the mind in desirelessness Avoid all seeking and rejecting The body will perform its functions naturally Action and inaction will have the same value The unsteady mind has to see Worldly ways do not bring happiness A state of equanimity must be reached To experience peace, bliss and the truth When the light of self-knowledge Arises and shines in the heart It burns all impurity and sorrow Just as the sun rises on the horizon Through the inner light of wisdom The entire world is clearly seen as it is Neither good fortune nor misfortune Approach one with such clear vision When the limited, conditioned feeling 'I am so-and-so' ceases There arises consciousness Of the all-pervading infinite
Essential Yoga Vasistha 45 One should restrain the mind From its downward flow As the flow of a river is blocked By the construction of a dam Consciousness and thought Consciousness minus conceptualization Is the eternal Brahman the absolute Consciousness plus conceptualization Is what is known as thought Thought only appears to be intelligent It is unable to comprehend anything really Even as the granite figure of a dancer Cannot dance when requested to do so By the control of the life-force The mind is also restrained As the shadow ceases without the object The mind ceases with life-force contained This mind is inert and is not a real entity It is lifelessforever dead Yet, beings are killed by this dead, deadly thing How mysterious is this stupidity! What foolish man will endeavor To show a colorful forest To one who refuses to see Hiding foolishness behind curiosity In the middle between the self As the seer and the world as seen Essential Yoga Vasistha 46 You are the seeingyou are the sight Always remain in this realization Remaining unseen and subtle Craving is yet able to consume The very flesh, bone and blood Of the body that houses it The abandonment of conditioning The abandonment of conditioning Is said to be of two kinds Based on knowledge or direct realization The other is based on contemplation Resort to non-duality For the truth is non-dual Action functions in apparent duality Let your nature partake of both Do not try to understand the way Of fools with uncontrolled minds Those who are immersed in the mire Of sense-pleasure and gratification Who is a relation to whom? Who is an enemy to whom? By the wish of the Lord of all beings All are all to all at all times Why bring sorrow upon yourself? Ignorance is the only cause Of all the sorrow in your life That has plagued you for so long Essential Yoga Vasistha 47 The sages perceive the middle path They see what is at the moment They are at peace and contented Established in witness consciousness Craving Craving is the root of all sorrow The only intelligent way out Is to renounce all cravings completely And never to indulge them again The same disgusting pleasures Are experienced day after day How is it that even a wise man Is not ashamed of this? Only one is there And that is the supreme light Omnipotent, omnipresenthe is all Remaining silent, as if inactive The very best intelligent means By which the mind can be subdued Is complete freedom from all desires In regard to everything at all times Living with purpose When people speak of God They imply what is the inevitable What is beyond their control And the events of natural order
Essential Yoga Vasistha 48 Acquire a little wealth by honest means Seek the company of saints and adore them Dispassion should rise in their company Then begin inquiry for self-knowledge If you are humble and sincere You will gain everything from what is said If not, an attempt at further explanation Will be like pouring oblations on ashes Without notions and any division at all Meditation, meditator and meditated upon Enter the supreme state free of thought Like a lamp in a windless place Nothing needs to be done By what is known as 'me' Then why should I not do Action which is natural to me? Watch the mind's movement See what it tends to sink into Retrieve it by redirection Guiding it towards the truth A timid deer taken to a strange place Is frightened at the sound of a falling leaf Even so one feels anxiety in meditation Perseverethis has to be gone beyond You have to feel one With the deity you adore Or you will not derive any benefit From even the most elaborate ritual Essential Yoga Vasistha 49 It is meaningless and painful to hear A good person has turned bad It is excellent and good to hear One who's erred has turned to good A Seeker's Prayer I take refuge in the Lord Who alone is worth seeking Who is the supreme light Which destroys all darkness Destroyer of ignorance and impurity Refuge of the helpless destitute The unborn, the surest security I take refuge in that Supreme Lord May I be blessed by enquiry's spirit Till I rest in thy infinite Self So all delusions might come to end On attaining to Theethe highest blessing A Seeker's Realization I now recollect the truth That I am the self of all Omnipresent, omnipotent Free of conceptualization As butter exists in milk Liquidity exists in water Energy of consciousness I exist in all that exists
Essential Yoga Vasistha 50 I salute my own self The indweller in all beings Consciousness without objectivity The intelligence in all beings When the apparently transformed Resorts to or rests on that being Which has not undergone any modification The former is freed from sorrow When what is, is seen by what is not Or by the mind free of thought's movement That which is abandons its wickedness And itself shines as the supreme In this creation it exists as if It is an individual entity Appearing to enjoy pleasures Itself expanding as the enjoyed What relationship can exist Between the self and cravings? Cravings spring from notions and sense reports The self is unbound and witness to these The Lord who is the self Has been seen by me By sincere practice and prayer And unwavering disciplined living The distinction between self and me Is like between the word and substance The distinction is unreal and imaginary Like wave and the water in the wave Essential Yoga Vasistha 51 The self destroys and protects Gives, roars and functions here Although completely free from ego-sense All this is indeed a great wonder Expressions as 'This is you' and 'this is I' Are used when you adore yourself Or describe yourself for your own delight They have no corresponding reality They appear in the light of awareness Disappear when they are perceived Non-different from that awareness Who is the perceiver of all this mystery? Though you find yourself in the body You are essentially bodiless You are the observerpure intelligence Unattachedfree from spatial limitation 'This is pleasure', 'this is pain' Or 'this is' and 'this is not' The mind of the ignorant swings like this But never the mind of the wise By the attainment of self-knowledge The deity you adore is also realized By real adoration of the deity Self-realization is also attained Adore the self by the self Worship the self by the self Behold the self by the self Be established by the self in the self Essential Yoga Vasistha 52 This fruition of worship mentioned Is derived from the self alone The worship of the deity Is but an excuse for it Mastery of one's heart-mind This cycle of birth and death Is an interminable one This maya will only cease when There is mastery of one's heart-mind Men of highly evolved consciousness Can attain by appropriate self-effort Whatever they mentally visualize Such is the power of the mind The mental illusions we see sometimes Are also the self onlynaught else But when perceived by the unpurified mind It appears as a sort of illusion At times many people dream the same dream Others experience the same hallucination Oftentimes drunkards commonly experience That the world is spinning round them Live completely in the present With consciousness slightly externalized But without any effort or struggle It must come naturally When the mind stops linking itself To the past and to the future Essential Yoga Vasistha 53 It becomes what is 'no-mind' Soaring through space-time Consciousness free from mind's limitations Is known as the inner intelligence It is the essential nature of no-mind Not tainted by conceptual impurities Abandon craving for pleasures Anything that has been experienced Or those that have not been experienced As disuse gradually weakens the mind A weapon is neutralized by another Tranquilize the mind by itself Abandon every form of mental agitation Remain at peace within, amidst outer noise The quiet mind is tranquility Like a rockit is immovable Wide awake and fully aware of all But free of conditioning's icy grip Beings with just one sense-craving Are pulled to ruin and destruction The mind is victim to five temptations How can it ever deliver happiness? Investigate very carefully yourself From the toes to the top of the head See if you find anything that can say 'This I am'so just who is this 'I'?
Essential Yoga Vasistha 54 The delusion known as ego-sense Is like the blueness of the sky Better not to think about it Best to abandon it ruthlessly When thought and conditioning cease The mind and body cease as well Kill the mind beyond resurrection Or it will continue when the body dies When the inner kundalini awakens You'll go beyond the realm of bliss Gradually attaining perfect quiescence Till you rise above birth and death When all desires and hopes have ceased Concerning any aspect of the world One is free from all fear and sorrow Supreme peace is had when the self rests in itself The sky, the earth, air and space Mountains and the rivers Are all parts of the inner instrument They only appear to be outside The crystal of infinite consciousness Reflects its own light of consciousness Which is present in every atomic particle Being self-consciousness and thinking 'I am' Not till one renounces everything Is self-knowledge gained When all points of view are abandoned What remains is the self Essential Yoga Vasistha 55 What remains is the sentient jiva Involved in subject-object relationship The object of knowledge of comprehension Is not and can never be the self A wise person lives his life masterfully He is compassionate, and not contemptuous Free of the play of opposites and jealousy Without personal motivation but motivated Knowledge of truth is the fire That burns up hopes and desires A desireless mind is samadhi Not simply remaining silent They alone are good company And moments very well spent That generate in one's heart True dispassion and self-knowledge Until all hopes and desires Born of and in the mind Have been destroyed completely Happiness and peace cannot be had The conditioned mind is itself bondage Liberation is freedom from conditioning This inner contact alone is the cause For both bondage and liberation Conditioning is of two kinds Enslaving and useful Enslaving conditioning is seen in fools Useful among those seeking the truth Essential Yoga Vasistha 56 Mental conditioning is burning pain It is attachment to the finite and perishable But infinite expansion is the magic cure It is devotion to the infinite The self is consciousness pure and eternal Self-luminous and free from change The body is impermanent and impure How can these two be related? The supreme self which is the truth Is in between the inert and intelligent That alone creates diversity And is known by all these names All that is, is but the expansion Of pure experiencing and its experience Self-bliss is pure experiencing itself It is known as Brahman the absolute Adopt either of these two attitudes Both are conducive to liberation 'I am the extremely subtle and transcendent self' The other is 'I am all and everything' If it is realized as an illusion It does not attract the mind Even as mirage does not delude One who knows it to be mirage One who is completely free of desires Treats the world as a calf's footprint This wide space as a small box The three worlds as a blade of grass Essential Yoga Vasistha 57 There are the liberated among worms and insects Stupid fools among the gods and divinities The self is in all, it exists as the all Everywhere, at all times and in all ways Knowing the self directly As infinite consciousness Can bring all these about Taking one beyond all wonder Movement of thought in the mind Arises from pranic movement Pranic movement arises Because of thought's movement They form a cycle of mutual dependence Like waves and ocean currents Pranic control tames the mind The mind can still itself too The heart-mind of the self-realized Is of the nature of pure consciousness It is both inside and outside And neither inside nor outside as well When the mind diesworries die as well Ego-sense dies at the same moment All this is possible in a simple way By direct inquiry into the mantra Inquiry and practice are essential To bring an end to the finite mind On reaching the other shore The boat can be left behind Essential Yoga Vasistha 58 Having been nourished by the senses The mind grasps objects once given up Running like a demented person After the abandoned and restrained What is done with another's intelligence or energy Is considered to be done by the latter The sickle harvests with the farmer's energy Hence the farmer is said to be the harvester Your existence is identical with the self Non-difference promotes happiness Abide in the realization of your non-existence Because it is foolish to neglect happiness Sages' view This world for liberated sages Exists in all its purity and peace They see neither bondage nor liberation Only perfectionBrahman the infinite The body is not worth reviving Nor is it worth abandoning It is the same to the sages Whether abandoned or revived Truth knownerror remains error Knowledge becomes clear knowledge The real and unreal stay as they are Dry impressions stay as such too You've identified with the body long It has helped in understanding transiency Essential Yoga Vasistha 59 Now snap the identification, knowing full well From your experience of self-realization Truth is full and overflowing Consciousness and non-consciousness Can be indicated only by negation He became what is beyond description Those in pursuit of pleasures Acquire powers tainted by ignorance Surely they are full of ignorance too Sages do not adopt such a course Conditioning The very nature of the mind is stupidity When the mind dies, there is no loss Everything is gained as one sees Purity and noble qualities abound The tree known as the mind has two seeds Which carries within it innumerable notions First seed is the movement of prana Second is blind clinging or obstinate fancy When clinging to something obstinately One abandons inquiry into the truth of things Set completely on apprehending the object Such apprehension is known as conditioning Ideas and notions one has about the object Are seeds for pranic movement and obstinacy It is only when desire for experience arises within That pranic movement and conditioning take place Essential Yoga Vasistha 60 This is how one binds oneself Subjecting oneself to great sorrow Attaining liberation in due course Because of the nature of consciousness Overcoming the mind Knowledge of the self and holy company The abandonment of conditioning The restraint of prana or life force These are the means to overcome the mind When inquiry is preceded by dispassion It attains stability by sincere practice All noble qualities arise in one naturally Like a well-fueled fire that burns high Attachment increases one's conditioning Making the mind more and more dense By repeatedly experiencing pleasure and pain In relation to people, objects and conditions
Essential Yoga Vasistha 61 VI. DEALING WITH LIBERATION PART I Though engaged in diverse activities Saturate your intelligence with this truth You will find a way to live unbound Or risk being caught in samsara's wheel As long as one considers the body as 'I' As long as the self is related to what is seen As long as there is hope in objects and longing There will be delusion concerning the mind The state of mind of sages Liberated while still living Is known as transparency They see truth and appearance The real 'I' is infinite consciousness In which universes rise and fall Remaining in a state of total equanimity You are like the infinite space When you are established in the self You will be saturated in bliss-absolute Knowing worlds find refuge in you You alone are all, in all and as all Let's assume the existence of diversity Your consciousness must expand The truth that shall be expounded here Will save even those not fully awakened Essential Yoga Vasistha 62 Infinite consciousness dwells in all But, due to absence of self-knowledge It appears to be ignorant of itself And therefore is limited and finite Birth and childhood lead to youth Youth to old age and to death All these are repeatedly experienced By those who choose to stay ignorant Time is the wheel on which these turn Ignorance leads to death and rebirth One's appetite consumes one's own self Like hunger that feeds on itself This world-appearance is like a little fish Which comes into being in this finite space Soon swallowed by the invincible old vulture Known as the end or conclusion of action Prosperity, adversity and youth Old age, death and suffering Immersion in happiness and unhappiness Are the extensions of dense ignorance Ignorance expands by ignorance Yielding greater ignorance When it sincerely seeks wisdom Wisdom expands into the truth Ignorance rises and falls in the mind Just like ripples in the ocean If awake, wisdom can absorb Ignorance when it rises and falls in it Essential Yoga Vasistha 63 Kaivalya or total freedom Is the attainment of pure being After all conditioning is transcended Consciously after thorough investigation Where the seed of conditioning exists Is like deep sleepnot perfection When all conditioning's springs are destroyed One reaches the fourth state of perfection Exhortation to practice I exhort you again and again For the sake of your spiritual awakening Realization of the self does not happen Without unrelenting spiritual practice Truth The mind, intellect and phenomena Are all Brahman only Pleasure and pain are illusions Words without any substance Those who have realized the truth Know that Brahman alone is Their life is proof of their realization Not knowing directly is ignorance The truth which is omnipresent Pure consciousness, devoid of objectivity Is referred to by many terms And also as pure knowledge
Essential Yoga Vasistha 64 All this is 'I' and all this is 'mine' But I am not and I am not 'other than I' Realizing thislet the illusion be Remain free from the fever of distress The yoga way Yoga is itself freedom A way out of samsara's grip too Utter transcendence of mind Towards self-realization A way of living without hurt or hurting While still engaged in diverse activities Not getting drowned in mental modifications And never losing contact with reality Returning to your original nature Not changing things but changing within A wide view with room for everything That has no problem with things as they are All and everything is subject to change Why react when this happens? Those established in peace in the heart Are not moved by inner and outer change Inner fatigue and tiredness Come from inner conflict only The ego's clash with change's dance Happens when there is inner division
Essential Yoga Vasistha 65 Pranayama and mind control Whether standing, awake or asleep The vital airs are naturally restless These spike mental fluctuations Restrain them by yogic kumbhaka practice When the external darkness dims One is able to see things as they are Darkness of ignorance must drop away For the natural rise of self-knowledge Where the prana goes the mind follows Just as the rider goes where the vehicle does Follow the prana throughout its movement Look where the same prana seems to change See where inhalation is consumed By exhalation as breathing changes course And see where exhalation's course changes By inhalation as breathing changes course yet again When you turn prana or life-force On its source within the heart It makes the mind unimportant Because naturally it is its own object When the prana is busily engaged In its own vigorous movement It stays absorbed in its own movement And is unable to exert in self-knowledge
Essential Yoga Vasistha 66 Living without conditioning Do not contemplate the past Do not think of the future either Constantly direct attention to the present Abandon all unnecessary turmoil We are our own replica, as it were Moving through various experiences You can awaken any time you resolve And return into your essential self This world, this life and this journey Is a long dream, a longstanding hallucination Just like daydreaming or wishful thinking Step out of this illusion courageously The twin forces of attraction and aversion Are the bars of samsara's prison Totally abandon and destroy them By taking refuge in the immovable The hub of the wheel so to say Are thoughts and notions entertained Abandon them ruthlessly by self-effort And resort to wisdom and common sense The inert body is desireless The self is infinite and desireless too So, just who is the doer of these actions? There is only the witnessing intelligence Neither friends nor relations Nor scriptures or even preceptors Essential Yoga Vasistha 67 Can protect one utterly overpowered By the ghost known as the mind God is formless and undivided Majestic splendor which is uncreated Beginningless and endless too Known as Sivapure consciousness That God is not distant from anyone Nor is he difficult to attain He is forever seated within And everywhere too just like space In the body, which is like a lotus The same consciousness does both Imbibe experience like honey gathered By the restless mind buzzing like the bee
The omnipresent consciousness is all in all It exists in this body as the changing And as the unchanging and unmodified None other exists save consciousness As one not dead cries aloud, 'I am dead' As one not lost cries aloud, 'I am lost' On account of perverse understanding Consciousness falsely imagines itself miserable If only pure tendencies fill one's heart Then all conflicts cease You will experience harmony Liberation and longevity
Essential Yoga Vasistha 68 Feeding these thoughts and beliefs Has brought about this sorrow It ends by starving them to death Where is the difficulty in this? The natural order is free from excitement But is not purified of its limitation It is what dances a dance-drama Known as the world-appearance Supreme meditation This is the supreme meditation This is the supreme worship Continuous and unbroken awareness Of the indwelling presence of consciousness It is allsupreme blessedness Peacebeyond expression Purest OMtranscendent It is Sivathe supreme Supreme worship Consciousness alone is fit to be worshipped It is all and needs no invitation It is immediateneeding no intermediary It is the omnipresent self of all I shall now declare to you The internal worship Of selfgreatest among purifiers Which destroys darkness completely
Essential Yoga Vasistha 69 Worship the Lord with everything Obtained without effort Without making the least effort To attain what is not possessed That alone is regarded as worship Performed in a state of equanimity When quiescentfree of thought An effortless absence of perversity Those who are still caught-up In mundane ways of living Are enmeshed in time and space And not able to rise beyond The instructions of a preceptor And all forms of instruction Are not really the means for self-knowledge But have come to be regarded as such Conditioning is itself sorrow Based on thoughts and notions Truth is beyond such experience World is an appearance like a mirage All that comes into being Including deities and divinities The worm too the very same way All within the blink of an eye To come into relationship Is common to all embodied beings But the yogis are forever vigilant Such vigilance is the worship of the self Essential Yoga Vasistha 70 If in the course of time One attains to self-experience Do not store it as a memory To be revived as desire once again The Supreme Though one, it is conceived diversely It is neither one, many, nor even it The one immeasurably great cosmic being Cosmic energythe nature of consciousness The seed contains only seed Flowers and fruits are seed only Substance of the seed and fruit is one So too with self-effort and self-realization Though non-dual it is apparently diverse Like the notions of ocean and waves The notion of Brahman and the world Is therefore both dual and non-dual Such a state of purity of the self The true nature of consciousness Not a visionincapable of being taught It is attained by direct experience alone Both in the beginning and at the end It is unmodified consciousness The momentary and apparent modification Is but a mild disturbance of consciousness This fullness is filled with fullness Fullness effulges from fullness Essential Yoga Vasistha 71 Fullness fills fullness In fullness, fullness abides A gold bracelet has appearance and reality Bracelet the appearance, gold the reality Even so, there is notion of substantiality And the self or pure consciousness The dream of the jiva or individual Is not like the one we're familiar with Which is experienced as the wakeful state That wakeful state is considered a dream The performance of action natural to you Even if it may not be socially laudable Is the best action to do wholeheartedly As a means of self-discovery and transformation In Brahman the formless absolute There is a little manifestation, also Brahman Known as 'I-am-ness' and the 'world' On account of ignorance and delusion There is no such thing as body There is no such thing as pain Existing independent of the self Then what is experienced by whom? Wherever the individual roams It is of the nature of prana or life-force It sees the forms conjured up By its previous vasanas or impressions
Essential Yoga Vasistha 72 The mind makes a moment seem like an age It makes a little look like a lot It makes the unreal appear real instantly This is how delusion has arisen All exists in Brahman As an image exists in a mirror Seamlessly without division Ever non-different from Brahman What appears to be the world here Is the work of the infinite consciousness Here there is no unity or duality My instructions are of the same nature The words used and preceptor's ability The disciple's effort to grasp the conveyed All these are also the play of the energy Of the infinite consciousness That which is omnipresent Without beginning and end Pure, unmodified and undifferentiated being That is known as existence or reality In the self which is infinite consciousness This creation appears but momentarily In that illusory moment a long duration arises The creation then appears to be solidly real The individual is surrounded By the world that arises from it The unawakened do not see or hear That others are in the same predicament Essential Yoga Vasistha 73 It is by one-pointed contemplation Of 'may I be this or that' That fruition is brought about And one then becomes 'this' or 'that' Infinite consciousness is true self Endowed with omnipotence The individual is essentially non-different But it chooses to face self-limitation Each thing appears as if fragmented Relatively real but not totally unreal Everything manifests in the All The cause remains in the cause This world-appearance or delusion Is of the nature of limited attributes It is impossible to cross it by ignorance It is crossed over by the knowledge of truth That state in which one knows no 'I' Or any other, mind or derivative 'I' but an ideaall really pure existence Is known as the silence of deep sleep The mind of the ignorant is heavily conditioned Best governed by rules of conduct Else chaos and disorder will arise In which the powerful swallow the weak Mind is sum of tendencies and conditioning Free of these it is the supreme state Knowledge is the knowledge of the reality Vichara or enquiry is itself knowledge Essential Yoga Vasistha 74 Moksha or liberation happens When ignorance ceases on self-enquiry When the ego is absorbed in the all And when the mind becomes no-mind Dust-particles in the supreme self Known as time, space, and motion Are movements in and of consciousness And pure infinite intelligence Proper action Proper action is that action Which leads towards liberation Beyond which there is nothing The rest is not worth considering Remain at peace within yourself With a silent mind, free of desires and jealousy Engage yourself in proper action In circumstances just as they arise Some things appear abundantly often Others once seen are not again Newer forms appear as if quite suddenly Others appear after a long interval This object is insentient and unreal The self grooms itself with insentience Having apparently abandoned It's essential nature as consciousness There is neither birth nor death For this consciousness Essential Yoga Vasistha 75 It is not subject to destruction It is of the nature of space Seeing through the illusion You behold with your consciousness The same consciousness in the elements As if seeing another within yourself As with one lamp you see a hundred lamps Physical ailments and diseases Psychological problems and stress Are rooted in ignorance and wickedness Both end when self-knowledge is attained Psychological problems are psychic disturbances They cease when self-knowledge is attained The snake seen in the rope must die When the rope is again seen as rope Consider the self as the moon The prana within as fire The body is made-up of moon and fire Prana fills the entire body's space When the body is considered real It becomes a real physical body When perceived unreal by direct knowledge It is merged into infinite space The instruction of a disciple by a preceptor Is but a tradition that has come to be But the cause of enlightenment Is the disciple's purity of consciousness Essential Yoga Vasistha 76 That action alone is appropriate Which is done at the appropriate time Flowers are appropriate to spring As are fruits appropriate to winter One's life attains its fruition By the worship of the unsolicited guests The worship of such a guest Is superior to worship of gods If the self which is the reality Which is pure and undivided Is forgotten even for a moment The object of experience attains expansion Just relentless yogic practice If done without the spirit of yoga Will not show progress or improvement Will only increase one's sorrow and grief This is why one should not instruct Those asking out of curiosity For if one does not intend to assimilate The teaching becomes instantly fruitless Sufferings calamities, old age and death Are nothing compared to suffering by foolishness In fact foolishness adorns the head Of all sufferings and even calamities Foolishness is bondage and suffering The bound see themselves as somehow free Though all that exists is but the self The foolish experience even more foolishness Essential Yoga Vasistha 77 Renunciation One who has truly renounced Is never agitated by worry If wind can sway the tree's branches It cannot be called immovable Renouncing things is not renunciation Ignorance must be destroyednot wounded By abandonment of the mind Or movement of energy in consciousness Wealth, family, and property All that you own and feel connected to These are not yours to begin with Renouncing them is not renunciation You have something not renounced That is the best part of renunciation It must be utterly abandoned without residue To attain the supreme state free of sorrow When one rests in total renunciation Like the lamp without fuel He shines with supreme brilliance Like a lamp with fuel Its abandonment or renunciation Is easy and easily accomplished More delightful than being a king More beautiful than a fragrant flower
Essential Yoga Vasistha 78 Delusion of world-appearance When the cause is absent or unreal The effect is non-existent The experience of such an effect Is delusionresponsible for all sorrow This delusion of the world-existence Attains expansion by repeated affirmation When water is frozen into a block It serves as a solid seat Consciousness alone is the essence Pervading all and everything Holding everything together In total absence of duality That supreme self alone shines here As Sivathe supreme being Hence questions concerning the world And the ego-sense are inappropriate If such destruction were to be comprehended It would be seen as a trick of consciousness Hence, consciousness alone exists Neither one nor manyis beyond discussion
In this dimension of consciousness Whatever slight appearance appears to be Is the reflection of consciousness in itself There is neither a mind nor the world The notion 'I am' gives rise To bondage and self-destruction Essential Yoga Vasistha 79 The realization "'I' is not" Leads to freedom and purity Mind itself is self-destruction The mind itself is self-destruction Its very nature veils self-knowledge Even if such self-destruction is momentary Damage done can last for a world-cycle When one abandons all conditioning When impurities have been made pure Guru's words can be heard in one's depths Like the arrow entering the stalk of the lotus Brahman is pure consciousness Is itself known as sattva Or indivisible purity The ignorant see it as the world Unseen in one's heart is sattva's trace The cause for revival of body-consciousness It is like the flower and the fruit Both potentially present in the seed When there is neither mind nor sattva Nor even a trace in the body Then, like snow melting in the heat The body dissolves in the elements As long as there is sesame there is oil As long as there is the body there are moods He who rebels against the body's states Will remain in conflict continually Essential Yoga Vasistha 80 If one confides his unhappiness to a friend It can sometimes be ameliorated Even as the heavy and dark cloud Becomes light by shedding rain Do not desire pleasure or fame Nor wealth or affluence Remain where you are Placed by your very nature Do what needs to be done Engage yourself in natural activity Wholeheartedly and without grief Enjoy pleasures that come naturally Relentlessly strive for final liberation They who know the mind Say that the mind is the 'I' The ego-sense that arises Within you is called the mind The ego-sense is unreal Do not trust or abandon it How can what is unreal Be grasped or renounced? Even as beings in day-dreams Create and experience diverse objects This world-appearance is the day-dream Of Brahman the supreme being Abandon doubtsresort to courage Enjoy fully what comes naturally Essential Yoga Vasistha 81 Do everything wholeheartedly And renounce all perfectly Prosperity and adversity Follow each other continually Creating great contradictions But never affecting the holy ones Abandon all impure thoughts and notions Rest in the selffree from it all Though engaged in diverse activities Remain established in perfect peace Attain self-knowledge One who has attained self-knowledge Transcends social customs and traditions Scriptural injunctions and prohibitions too Just as the lion breaks out of its cage The enlightened one is not characterized He is devoid of confusion and delusion Samsara has come to an end Lust, greed, anger, are greatly weakened in him Rest in nirvana without movement of thought With the mind's grip greatly reduced And the intelligence at peace Rest in the self as if deaf, dumb and blind He gathers scriptures whenever Wherever; and earnestly does he study them His constant quest is the crossing Of this dire ocean of samsara Essential Yoga Vasistha 82 If one thinks this scripture not authoritative Because it is of human origin Resort to studying other scriptures Dealing with self-knowledge and final liberation When one realizes the supreme Is the only truth beyond samsara He realizes that 'I am not the doer' God alone does everything This alone is samsara The feeling 'this is' Its cessation is liberation This is the essence of wisdom That Brahman appears as the world Just as rope appears as snake Is meant to entertain the ignorant The enlightened see no difference They who are devoted to the gods To the holy sages and to the guru Who adhere to the scriptural tenets Earn the grace of the supreme Lord That in which this universe rests Is devoid of name and form It is known as prakriti or nature And also as maya or illusion Just as fire thrown into fire Becomes indistinguishably fire This world when offered into consciousness Becomes one with it instantly
Essential Yoga Vasistha 84 VI. DEALING WITH LIBERATION PART II When one has made up his mind To go to a certain place The feet function without mental activity Function like those feet and perform action here The mind continues to exist As long as the body continues to live Whether the embodied person Is enlightened or ignorant When false abandonment Is mistaken for abandonment The deluded are possessed By this goblin of false abandonment Whatever notion arises in you Even as movement arises in wind Realize that 'I am not this' And thus deprive it of support No remedy for sense-craving Other than firm abandonment of desire No medicines, pilgrimage or ritual And no mantras are of any use It is hard indeed to determine Truth about world-appearance Does it arise from ignorance or the other way? They are two aspects of the same thing Essential Yoga Vasistha 85 Brahman has infinite potencies Inertia too manifests in consciousness Existing as a potentiality in Brahman As future waves in the calm ocean There is neither good nor evil Anywhere to anyone at any time Neither adversity nor prosperity No doer, no enjoyer of anything In the company of holy ones Half the ignorance ceases One-quarter by the study of scripture And one-quarter by one's self-effort One's dream is experienced Only by the dreamer This creation too is experienced By the one in whose mind it arises This world-appearance will continue To flow with ever-changing scenes Until the truth is realized Maya will continue to operate World exists in the meaning of 'ego-sense' The world exists in the meaning of 'ego-sense' And the ego-sense in turn exists In the very meaning of the word 'world' Both are thus interdependent The air in the entire space Is filled with the departed ones pranas Essential Yoga Vasistha 86 Mind exists in those pranas And the world exists within the mind Just as a sentient object can visualize within itself The individual experiences many things Including the three worlds within himself Like a delusion or false perception When in the infinite consciousness The individual becomes aware of itself As the object on account of notions entertained It is known as pure consciousness Advice to the seeker Work to earn an honest living Eat to sustain the life-force Sustain life-force for self-knowledge And inquire into that which frees Do not try to find a reason For the appearance of optical illusions It is like riding on the shoulders Of the son of the barren woman There is really no difference Between the ignorant and a knower of truth Except that the latter Is free from the conditioned mind It is better to be a snake in a dark cave It is better to be a worm in a rock It is better to be a lame deer in a mirage Than to remain in the company of fools Essential Yoga Vasistha 87 All the pleasures of the world Inevitably end in sorrow Therefore sorrow is preferable To pleasure which leads to sorrow That there is something known as experiencer Other than this pure consciousness Is ignorance whose expansion Is this samsara or world-appearance Dependence alone is bondage Non-dependence is emancipation He who rests in the 'fullness' Does not desire anything The uprooting of all conditioning Is known as non-attachment or freedom Attain this freedom by any means For in doing so all sorrows cease In sorrow and in calamity Remain free from sorrow within Still behave with local etiquette Seemingly experiencing pleasure and pain There are two types of questioners The enlightened and the ignorant Answer the ignorant from ignorance And the wise from the view of wisdom Just as there is no fear of destruction In the battle painted on canvas The knower of truth is never affected As he is established in inner equanimity Essential Yoga Vasistha 88 The individual personality is conditioning Which disappears upon investigation However, this world-appearance arises In ignorance when not observed Inquire relentlessly till life's end 'Who am I?', 'How did this world arise?' 'What is jiva or the individual personality and life?' As instructed by the knowers of truth Notions and ideas gradually cease If words are not associated with meaning Whether uttered by others in any context Or if they arise in one's own mind I am Brahman, the world is Brahman There is neither beginning nor ceasing Hence, where is the reason to rejoice? And where is the reason to grieve? Worlds appear to rise in consciousness It remains at peace without intention to create Even as a mirror remains unaffected By the many reflections seen in it Vainly studying the scriptures Hearing the preceptors instructions Will not help one bit without Cessation of all desires Examine if there is a distinction Between gain and its possessor How is an unreal substance gained? Who has obtained a black moon? Essential Yoga Vasistha 89 Injunctions and prohibitions Do not apply to one of self-knowledge Who will wish to give what instruction To one in whom all desires have ceased? Time sets the worlds in motion And in them the fictitious 'I' and the rest arise All in Goduncreated pure consciousness How and in whom does desire arise? How experience arises Since the subject and object Of experience are consciousness The object merges in the subject Like water with water This is how experience arises If this were not to be as such There could be no experience As between two pieces of wood When one is spiritually awakened His wakeful state resembles deep sleep The state in which he is as self-nature Leads one to liberation The self which is the Lord Confers moksha or final liberation When worshipped by self-inquiry With self-control and company of the wise The ignorant regard samsara as real In reality it does not exist at all Essential Yoga Vasistha 90 What exists after this appearance is rejected Is the truthbut it has no name Since the mind of the knower of truth Is freed from attraction and repulsion In equilibrium even when not meditating As pond waters without any outlets On this field known as the mind The seed of turning away from the world Falls of its own accord In the solitude of wisdom's forest At some stage, the deer turns away And seeks the refuge of shade Under the tree of meditation And there it shines radiantly Thus having obtained rest The deer which is the mind Delights in being right there Not seeking to go elsewhere When all divisions are given up The indivisible alone remains Pure, indivisible, beginningless This is known as Brahman The yogi is then seen to be In a state of unbroken meditation Firmly established in steady meditation Samadhi just like a mountain
Essential Yoga Vasistha 91 Wealth is the source of endless misfortune Prosperity is perpetual adversity Enjoyment of pleasure is enduring disease All misunderstood by the deluded Sincere worship of the Lord Bestows viveka or wisdom Holy company and insight to scriptural truth Brings one closer to the state of oneness Lead even the subtle body By persistent right contemplation To its real natural state And then to Brahman The omnipresent is omniscient consciousness Existing everywhere as everything Therefore, we exist as the dream-objects Of the dreams of original dreamers Contrary to popular belief No one creates these bodies at any time And no one deludes beings at any time So why run here and there for help? This illusory apprehension of the objective world Which goes by the name avidya or ignorance Does not in fact exist Without substance are these words The ocean, mountains and clouds Are all the unborn and uncreated This universe exists in Brahman As the Great Silence Essential Yoga Vasistha 92 In the original creation The dream of undivided consciousness Is known as the wakeful state The world which is experienced in it The dream that rises in consciousness Of the individual beings Arising in that ignorance Is what's known as the dream state When one's mind is perfectly concentrated The passage of time is unnoticed Hundreds of years can pass silently As if in the twinkling of an eye It is not difficult to understand The body cannot exist without ego-sense That which needs to be sustained Cannot exist without a support Behold the entire universe As you would behold a dream Composed of endless variety Yet empty though appearing to have form These diverse worlds are unaware Of the notions or creations of others Even as people sleeping in the same room Are unaware of each other's dreams The supreme truth or consciousness Is indestructibleit cannot be destroyed It is not realized by those who do not know it It is realized by those with awakened intelligence Essential Yoga Vasistha 93 The universe is the very heart of this truth It is neither born nor does it die Experience of its existence and non-existence Arises only with the rise and fall of notions Witness all this within the self See it assuming all forms that are seen People within whom are minds In those minds are worlds and people If you are burnt by the fire of desire Even lovely flowers and snowflakes Appear as useless ashes Their beauty never experienced I consider child-widowhood Even death, disease or calamity Preferable to a spouse Whose nature is not after one's own heart This is the only path to salvation Total devotion to realize the self Seek guidance in right effort needed For its attainment without remission In due course of time Those afflicted by extreme delusion Are enlightened or awakened too Because there is nothing but the eternal Seeing through the illusion When you know the seen is an illusion What else can be accepted as real? Essential Yoga Vasistha 94 How can anything be accepted as real Which is established by what is unreal? What is seen here as you and I And this dialogue between us Are like two waves colliding In the ocean and making a splash Time, space, matter, and mind Are parts of consciousness like parts of a rock As the notions in the mind fall away Mountains and oceans too disintegrate When the water got very agitated It exceeded its own natural bounds The oceans transgressed their bounds Overflowing in all directions Compared to the great mountains A subatomic particle is minute Even so with the universe And eternal infinite consciousness The world and the creator Are all figures of speech Mere notions that arise In the pure infinite consciousness While people weep and wail Yogis strive for immortality Let things be as they are Be concerned with pursuing the good
Essential Yoga Vasistha 95 Self-nature knows itself as consciousness On account of its own inherent movement On account of conditioning and tendencies It experiences deluded perception A bracelet of gold will always be gold So also with infinite consciousness Because of this creation made manifest Consciousness can never be other than itself There is a plane which was supreme peace The plane of consciousness itself, known as Siva Inseparable and non-different from him Is his dynamic energytrue nature of the mind Whatever exists and functions here Is real to the self who perceives it Not to another who does not perceive Or who is unaware of it A holy man may live in bad company Until he discovers the truth for himself Once he has directly known by himself He does not relish such company A rock is seen with physical eyes As if it lies at a distance Only the rock is seen But never what's called creation When you enter consciousness of your self Whether in sleep or in the waking state You know that the rock is equally A mass of consciousness Essential Yoga Vasistha 96 When one contemplates notions and experiences That state of being is known as I-ness or ego-sense One becomes what one contemplates deeply While consciousness ever remains unchanged The earth-plane exists everywhere In truth it is pure consciousness Like a dream-city it has never been created Still we see everything as if very real When one's thoughts or notions cease That which thoughts brought ceases as well When my wish for a hermitage ceased It disappearedas if in thin air With advancing age the hairs turn grey Teeth fall and faculties decrease Only craving does not decrease This is indeed a great travesty If ideas of division are deep-rooted You will lack the power to realize your wish The sage has weakened division's perception It is possible for him to realize his wish Sattva or non-division can be increased By sincere practice on the mat and in life Meditation on the mantra is a sure way As is regular worship as adoration Liberation confers lasting peace of mind Bondage promotes psychological distress Knowing this, one does not strive for liberation Most foolish are people who choose bondage! Essential Yoga Vasistha 97 Consciousness has never died Nor has this creation ever been a void It is clear that the innermost being of everyone Is pure consciousnessunchanging Stay free of notions Whatever be one's conviction If one adheres to that conviction One surely reaches the same goal As long as he stays free of notions Ever do people seek their own good As if compelled to, as water flows downwards Understand this now and resort To the company of those wise and enlightened Notions like 'I am this', 'this is mine' Are common to humans and worms With all the implications of such notions Why not rise higher than the lowest rung? Whether consciousness is regarded as real or unreal The person is that which he considers real Since consciousness, the basis for consideration Is real and lends reality to what is considered If one knows self is pure consciousness There is no samsara when death arrives If one's understanding is still not purified It remains with samsara's unreal support May my limbs be pulverized Or become most powerful Essential Yoga Vasistha 98 What is lost and what is increased When it is realized "'I' am consciousness" To such a one even the rocks become friends Trees in the forest are dear relations Even while living in the middle of a forest The very animals become kith and kin Creation is not the action of ignorance But, if it is the action of intelligence Why would an intelligent being Indulge in such futile action? A pot is but clay Without clay there's no pot All objects are pure consciousness If consciousness is not, nothing is seen That nature which exists in plants Growing in their proper seasons Without the feeling of mine-ness Is pure consciousness Hence, though alive Everything is as if dead Even so you and I Are as if dead though alive Space is bright during day Crimson at dawn and dusk Dark at nighttime While devoid of materiality
Essential Yoga Vasistha 99 Free of this burden of substance Hence, regarded as maya Not even the learned and the wise Understand space or its function Space remembers that clouds and rain Fall from it and derive satisfaction When one's heart is fixed in devotion to holy ones Even unpleasant experiences become pleasant Avoid siddhis or psychic powers The inner power is known as kundalini Because it is coiled in appearance It is the supreme power in all beings And the prime mover of all power Yogis can perform actions everywhere Experience all things in all periods of time Though apparently remaining in one place As their consciousness is not localized The deluded pursue psychic powers Towards which the yogi is indifferent As he is intent on self-knowledge For which siddhis are a premature exit The yogis who practice contemplation To attain various psychic powers or boons Are subject to ignorance which is apparent in them They contemplate something quite unreal
Essential Yoga Vasistha 100 Action is better than inaction The wise see nothing to gain from action Nothing to gain from refraining They do what is natural wisely Without worrying about results This universe which is a cosmic circle Illumined by the sun and stars What is it that is 'above' And what is 'below' in all this? Why waste energy investigating The nature of the world and things All is an effect of a long dream The wise do not waste time or effort in these On one hand are time, place and habit On the other mental conditioning itself Circumstances and conditioning act on each other Whichever is the stronger wins instantly You have to know truth directly Just as you know you have hands That you ever exist in Brahman And Brahman is your own self The way out of this misfortune Is that which was its original cause Any other path is not the right one It will not be productive of happiness The reality or substance of the notion Is the supreme Brahman as well Essential Yoga Vasistha 101 They are both divisionless consciousness Just as between space and emptiness Realizing what's real and what's not After intense inquiry Still the feeling 'this is' persists So abide in your realization From Brahma to a blade of grass All are subject to two forms of birth The first is Brahma's creation The other is illusory creation Waking state itself is twofold The dream of the waking state The waking state of the dream Both non-different from each other When one's slumber has been weakened The world, its suns and moons are seen Within just here, right where one is As if arising suddenly within the heart A shift in the balance of things In adversity, strength and intelligence Adversely affects all somehow, sometime The wise get shaken-up as well Awakened realizations Though surrounded by adversity One would not be unhappy at all To know while dreaming it is dream You are freed from even raging fire Essential Yoga Vasistha 102 Just as persons seen in a dream Have no past karma at all Those that arose in creation's beginning Are karmalesspure consciousness The awareness in the beginning of creation And at the end of one's life-span Continues to exist till liberation is attained And that is known as creation The dead one is not born again But he experiences the notion 'I am here in this manner' and the like Due to conditioning in his consciousness The one pure consciousness Appears as diverse dream-objects All objects appearing in dream Become one again in deep sleep The impressions that arise in dream Were created in the waking state Those that rise in the waking state Were created anew, is the feeling But those who know the truth Declare: this is not the case They were created in a state That appeared to be awake, but wasn't
The ignorant think that Brahman shines Appearing as creation without a cause They are caught up in cause-and-effect Deluded notions that causality is very real Essential Yoga Vasistha 103 When the senses are engaged In the experience of the external world Then the field of internal notions Is vague and unclear To those who know the supreme state The states of waking, dream and sleep Do not exist at all Whatever isis as it is One who has realized that everything Is pure infinite consciousness Is not affected by the apparent duality He remains free, alone and unaffected In the eyes of the ignorant Dreams appear to be true at times But in the eyes of the enlightened They are neither real nor unreal Consciousness bestows reward on one When actions arise from personal notion When freed from such a notion Action is freed of its fruits Let this illusion or ignorance remain It is a vain appearance only What can it possibly do? Once you have given up delusion One's dream becomes fulfilled In the waking state reality All and everything that one sees Are one's own dream objects finally Essential Yoga Vasistha 104 One does not desire death Or cling on to life either When one knows what one is And is free from mental agitation The wisdom that I imparted to you Has remained weak in your heart Like a dormant fire in an old tree-trunk Not able to burn and destroy ignorance Do not avoid the inevitable It cannot be averted by anyone at any time It is not altered by any amount of effort It is foolishness and desperation to try Earnest prayers are answered Whatever is earnestly prayed for Is bestowed at once on all For God is the self of all One experiences fruition of one's prayers Yesterday's evil action is transformed Into good action by today's noble deed Therefore strive to be good And do as much good as you can now The flesh of that corpse Became the earth-element In course of time the world Acquired its present nature
Essential Yoga Vasistha 105 Strange and wonderful is this maya Strange and wonderful is this maya Which gives rise to delusion in the mind In which thesis and antithesis coexist Without conflict or contradiction Every inch of space is filled With the creations of departed ones Countless worlds though unseen Exist without contradiction or conflict Holding on to awareness of ignorance This ignorance seems to be real On account of this delusion The unreal appears to be real Why bind one who is ever free? 'Another' just does not exist Except the one pure and formless Radiant infinite consciousness The only means to redemption If one cannot redeem oneself There are no other means For one is one's own friend And one is one's own enemy The mind is commander-in-chief The senses are the armed forces Control of the mind is control of senses Sense victory is the worst slavery
Essential Yoga Vasistha 106 To the enlightened one The waking, dreaming and sleep states Are turiya onlyfree of ignorance Free of diversity and non-dual The many abandons its diversity When it attains enlightenment When the many is described as the one It has not become something else Knowledge of self and of all things too Are the play of infinite consciousness They are the manifestations Expansions of self-knowledge 'This is the self' and 'this is knowledge' Both false notions that arise within Abandon the words but remain established In the experience of the truth indicated Just as a tree brings forth diverse branches Without mental activity or intention Consciousness gives rise to diverse creation It is like space giving rise to space In the inert and insentient wood The figure emerges when carved Since consciousness is full of consciousness The world-appearance shines within itself Be established in truth He is truly established in truth Who does not see 'the world' Essential Yoga Vasistha 107 Even though his eyes are wide open He enjoys the bliss of deep sleep The wise man by his very nature Enjoys the company of a bosom-friend Along with the latter's consort That friend is known as one's good action This world is the indivisible Brahman To those who are enlightened Though we are highly intelligent We do not know what ignorance is Where shall I go for that which is not Brahman The world is a strange place indeed People regard objects of perception as real Failing to know the omnipresent Experiences arise in consciousness Of their own accord As the very limbs of consciousness Without any causal connection Just as the body identifies itself With teeth and nails and hair The omnipresent self identifies itself With seeming materiality Brahman is like the ocean Creations are like the waves Experiencing is the water Though all are pure unconditioned bliss
Essential Yoga Vasistha 108 At the end of the investigation Utter silence alone remains Though engaged in all activities It remains unaffected like space Ignorance thinks of all this As ignorance and limitless creation When it is realized as Brahman It itself becomes the pure Brahman All this is natural to nature Even if a cause may be assumed Even the word 'nature' used here Is only a figure of speech Just as the blacksmith makes the bellows To expand and contract in this world Consciousness makes all bodies function Everyone lives and functions by it There are no forms, birth or death No reality or unreality either The supreme perceives all this within itself Why create a false notion of creation? Rivers are many, ocean is one Time is one and seasons are few Years may be called by different names The substance stays ever unchanged The content of notions and thoughts Is Brahman, the infinite consciousness Itselfthe content of world-appearance Brahman exists in all and as all Essential Yoga Vasistha 109 Repeated affirmation makes memory Everything is seen and experienced anew As if not seen or experienced before Even as one may dream of one's own death Repeated affirmation makes it memory It is only through delusion That Brahman is seen as the world But that delusion also is Brahman Which is supreme and infinite peace If the infinite consciousness Is compared to the deep sleep state What is comparable to a dream is known as mind It is this mind that binds and liberates all When one indulges in daydreaming One sees images dance as if real Even so this world-appearance Appears in Brahmanthought to be real A momentary movement in consciousness Is understood by it as creation Slight movement of energy within It knows it as epoch or age Just as in one who has limbs and organs There is a constant renewal of cells Even so there's no end to the universes That exist in the supreme being Though all these diverse entities Seem to beit is but an illusion Essential Yoga Vasistha 110 Nothing has really been created All is omnipresent consciousness When there is the notion of reality In unreal phenomenathere is bondage When many such notions arise Then diversity is brought into being Knowledge does not have an object to know Knowledge is independent and eternal Beyond description and definition This direct realization is perfect knowledge This being so, then all of creation Is nothing but pure consciousness If the body is of pure consciousness There can be neither birth nor death Focus of main effort Be not concerned with causes Be concerned instead with awakening By awakening, awakening is attained Attaining awakening dissolves doubts Realizing all objects and substances Exist in consciousness as notions Brings to a close the hold on objects Samsara's wheel stops by and by Consciousness becoming aware of itself As an object is what's known as mind Inquire instead without objectivity By this, does mental conditioning end Essential Yoga Vasistha 111 One consciousness shines as three Subject, object and experience In the beginning appearing as creation Such is its very natureit shines as it shines Why inquire into the unreal Futile it isas it has no being Inquire instead into the real The truth that underlies all Enlightenment is not had by the intellect Nor is it attained by its suppression Enlightenment is not aware of itself For it is not an object of awareness The hall-mark of enlightenment Is cessation of all craving When the latter is absent It is just mental gymnastics That state in which the enlightened one exists As if he lives in the very bowels of a rock Whether alone or engaged in activities That is the state of purity and liberation In very much the same way This world exists in Brahman It is Brahman alone and not world Brahman undergoes no change Going to the forest for firewood Getting the philosopher's stone instead Resorting to scriptures to fulfill desires Often results in attaining the truth Essential Yoga Vasistha 112 Among those who study scriptures Some attain pleasure, wealth and guidance These three are expounded in the scriptures Not the realization of Brahman The greatness of freedom Who can measure the greatness Of one free from exultation and depression Who does what has to be done perfectly And who sees what is to be seen as it is When you abandon all notions Of what is desirable and what is not Engaging in activity or refraining Are both of the same value From this epoch's very beginning We have given and heard numerous talks Those on the means to liberation But never have any been quite like this Yoga as life As long as this body lasts Do what needs to be done naturally Endowed with pure vision Freed from all doubts and delusion What I have said to you What you have studied in the scripture Now bring into harmony With your own direct experience
Essential Yoga Vasistha 113 Teaching what has not been experienced Neither seen nor heard of before The teacher resorts to illustrations The aid by which the truth is grasped People base their understanding On the experience of the moment On account of their perverse understanding They are deluded into materiality's lure Injunctions and prohibitions Preserve the social structure here As these are established in consciousness They are incapable of helping towards freedom The three worlds are illusory products Of delusion's shadow on consciousness But in it there are no divisions or contradictions What is impossible in an illusion? Indivisible consciousness alone exists All that is also this creation All this is the ever peaceful Brahman Consciousness also known as creation Let it all be the way it appears Or let it be quite different from this Confusion cannot reach your heart Once you no longer pursue action's fruit When you are not enlightened And experience awakening by these words You experience apparent duality or diversity In what is in fact non-dual Brahman Essential Yoga Vasistha 114 This does not perish Hence it is said that 'It is not seen' It is said that the unreal has no being And the real has no non-being In each of all these things The Lord himself does and experiences For, everything is verily Brahman Beginningless, endless and the ordainer The seeker's awakening By your grace, O lord among sages My delusion has gone I have attained the supreme state My intelligence is now perfectly clear I am freed of doubts I rest in my natural state as Brahman Or in the knowledge of nirvana I shall do as you have said Even the ignorant ones In whose hearts bondage exists Caused by cravings strong and persistent Can rise beyond the state of division Vasistha's final comments By a study of this scripture Which deals with liberation Even the young become mature And rise to their true heritage
Essential Yoga Vasistha 115 Except through this mighty scripture One cannot ever gain what is good For perfect realization of the supreme truth Fervently investigate this scripture alone
Uncreated Timeless Self of Radiant Emptiness - Onliness Consciousness and Commentaries: Formulations of a Post-Metaphysical Integral Transpersonal Communicology