The book “The Supreme Yoga” is the teaching of the sage Vasistha imparted to Sri Rama. It contains true understanding about the creation of the world i.e. the world is nothing but the play of consciousness. the Yoga Vasistha is the greatest help to the spiritual awakening and direct experience of Truth. Vasistha demands direct observation of the mind, its motion, its notions, its reasoning, the assumed cause and the projected result. The book is a translation into English by Swami Venkatesananda of Divine Life Society, Rishikesh India. The article is primarily based on it.
 
In this world whatever is gained is gained only by self-effort; where failure is encountered it is seen that there has been slackness in the effort. Self-effort is that mental, verbal and physical action which is accordance with the instructions of a holy person well versed in the scriptures. It is only by such effort that Indra became the king of heaven, that Brahma became the creator, and the other deities earned their places.
The ​fruit of the endeavours will be commensurate with the intensity of my self-effort and neither fate nor a god can ordain it otherwise. Indeed, such self-effort alone is responsible for whatever man gets here; when he is sunk in unhappiness to console him people suggest that it is his fate. Hence, renounce fatalism and apply yourself to self-effort.
Every Jiva earns its own state by its own deeds. Every zealous effort is always crowned with fruition. Hence, do not abandon right effort. Weigh the worthiness of the end result. You will surely discover that self-knowledge alone is capable of utterly destroying all pain and pleasure.
Self-Effort & Fate -
Self-effort is of two categories: that of past births and that of this birth. The latter effectively counteracts the former. Fate is none other than the self-effort of the past incarnation. There is constant conflict between these two in this incarnation; and that which is more powerful triumphs.
The lazy man is worse than a donkey. One should never yield to laziness but strive to attain liberation, seeing that life is ebbing away every moment. One should not revel in the filth known as sense-pleasure as worm revels in pus.
As is the effort so being fruit. What is called fate or divine will is nothing other than the action or self-effort of the past. The present is infinitely more potent than the past. They indeed are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort and engage themselves in self-effort now.
Righteous Self-Effort -
One should free oneself from likes and dislikes and engage oneself in righteous self-effort and reach the supreme truth, knowing that self-effort alone is another name for divine will. That alone is self-effort which springs from right understanding that manifests in one’s heart which has been exposed to the teachings of the scriptures and the conduct of holy ones. One should, with a body free from illness and mind free from diseases, pursue self-knowledge so that he is not born again here.
Self-effort is based on these three – knowledge of scriptures, instructions of the preceptor and one’s own effort. Fate (or divine dispensation) does not enter here. Hence, he who desires salvation should divert the impure mind to pure endeavour by persistent effort – this is the very essence of scriptures.
Self-Effort & Past Incarnation -
The tendencies brought forward from the past incarnations are of two kinds – pure and impure. The pure ones lead you towards liberation, and the impure ones invite trouble. You are not impelled to action by anything other than yourself. Hence you are free to strengthen the pure latent tendencies in preference to the impure ones.
With a pure heart and a receptive mind and without the veil of doubt and the restlessness of the mind, listen to the exposition of the nature and means of liberation.

Self-Control –
He that is good and auspicious flows from self-control. All evils are dispelled by self-control. No gain, no pleasure in this world or in heaven is comparable to the delight of self-control. The delight one experiences in the presence of the self-controlled is incomparable. Everyone spontaneously trusts him. None (not even demons and goblins) hate him. He who even while hearing, touching, seeing, smelling and tasting what is regarded as pleasant and unpleasant, is neither elated nor depressed – he is self-controlled. He who looks upon all beings with equal vision, having brought under control the sensations of pleasure and pain, is self-controlled. He who, though living amongst all is unaffected by them, neither feels elated nor hates, is self-controlled led.

The book “The Supreme Yoga” is the teaching of the sage Vasistha imparted to Sri Rama. It contains true understanding about the creation of the world i.e. the world is nothing but the play of consciousness. the Yoga Vasistha is the greatest help to the spiritual awakening and direct experience of Truth. Vasistha demands direct observation of the mind, its motion, its notions, its reasoning, the assumed cause and the projected result. The book is a translation into English by Swami Venkatesananda of Divine Life Society, Rishikesh India. The article is primarily based on it.
Only those who strive to gain self-knowledge, are worth gaining in this world, thereby putting an end to future births. To the unwise, knowledge of scriptures is a burden; to one who is full of desires, even wisdom is burden; to one who is restless, his own mind is a burden; and to one who has no self-knowledge the body (the life-span) is a burden. 
When the mind is at peace and the heart leaps to the supreme truth, when all the disturbing thought-waves in the mind-stuff have subsided and there are unbroken flow of peace and the heart is filled with the bliss of the absolute, when thus the truth has been seen in the heart, then this very world becomes an abode of bliss. Such bliss is possible only by self-knowledge not by any other means.
The delusion that veils the self-knowledge is sevenfold: seed state of wakefulness, wakefulness, great wakefulness, wakeful dream, dream, dream wakefulness and sleep.
 
There are seven states or planes of wisdom. Pure wish or intention is the first, enquiry is the second, the third is when the mind becomes subtle, establishment in truth is the fourth, total freedom from attachment or bondage is the fifth, the sixth is cessation of objectivity, and the seventh is beyond all these.
 
Sages are able to cut egotism and cravings with the sward of self-knowledge. Self-enquiry subdues the ego sense.
 
There have been countless beings in this world who have attained self-knowledge and liberation while yet living, like the emperor Janaka. Non-attachment to anything here is known as liberation. By right exertion, and by right self-enquiry strive to reach the perfection of self-knowledge.

Ignorance or Mental Conditioning -
The seed of this world appearance is ignorance. This ignorance or mental conditioning is acquired by man effortlessly and it seems to promote pleasure, but in truth it is the giver of grief. It creates a delusion of pleasure only by the total veiling of self-knowledge. thus, it was able to make the king Lavana experience less than an hour as if it were of several years’ duration.
 
This ignorance or mental conditioning has but a momentary existence: yet, since it flows on. It seems to be permanent like a river. Because it is able to veil the reality. People sitting in a moving boat see the shore moving.
 
The firm conviction the ‘I am not the absolute Brahman’ binds the mind; and the mind is liberated by the firm conviction that ‘everything is the absolute Brahman’. Ideas and thoughts are bondage; and their coming to an end is liberation.
 
Do not let the foolish idea of the existence of ignorance take root in you; for if the consciousness is thus polluted, it invites endless suffering. Give up mental conditioning which alone is responsible for the perception of duality, and remain totally unconditioned. Then, you will attain incomparable pre-eminence over all.
 
When mental conditioning is overcome and the mind is made perfectly tranquil, the illusion that deludes the ignorant comes to an end. In the self there is no desire: the world appears in it without any wish or intention on its part.
 
They who says that this universe exists in a seed-state after cosmic dissolution are those who have firm faith in the reality of this universe! This is pure ignorance. It is appropriate to say that the tree exists in the seed, because both these have appropriate forms. But in that which has no form (Brahman) it is inappropriate to say that this cosmic form of the world exists.
 
Wise man is not upset even when they are offended.

Even as the silkworm weaves its cocoon and thus binds itself, the infinite being fancies this universe and gets caught in it. People pass through countless embodiments and through countless experience of pain and pleasure, wisdom and delusion. Sometimes born as cruel king, a greedy trader and wandering ascetic. But there is no pleasure. Only pure mind experiences liberation.
 
Childhood is wasted in ignorance; youth is wasted in lusting after pleasures and the rest of one’s life is spent in family worries: what does a stupid person achieve in this life.
 
Even if one performs great religious rites, one may go to heaven – nothing more.
Weigh in the balance of your wisdom the sense-pleasures on one side and the bliss of peace on the other.
 
The tree in a seed grows out of it after destroying the seed: but Brahman creates this world without destroying itself.
 
Bondage & Wisdom -
The surest sign of a man of the highest wisdom is that he is unattracted by the pleasures of the world, for in him even the subtle tendencies have ceased when these tendencies are strong, there is bondage; when they have ceased, there is liberation. He is truly a liberated sage who by nature is not swayed by sense-pleasure, without the motivation of fame or other incentives.
In dream, the dream-body appears to be real; but when there is an awakening to the fact of dream, the reality of the body vanishes. Even so, the physical body which is sustained by memory and latent tendencies is seen to be unreal when they are seen to be unreal. At the end of the dream, you become aware of the physical body; at the end of these tendencies, you become aware of the ethereal body. When the dream ends, deep sleep ensues; when the seeds of thought perish, you are liberated. In liberation the seeds of thought do not exist.
World experienced in the waking state is no more real than that experienced during sleep (dream). During sleep, the world does not exist; and during waking state, the dream does not exist. While living, death is non-existent, and in death, life is non-existent. Because, that which holds together either experience is absent in the other.
No time during a dream a whole life’s drama is enacted. In reality, you are unborn and you do not die.
To an immature and childish person who is confirmed in his conviction that this world is real, it continues to be real. The sole reality is infinite consciousness which is omnipresent, pure, tranquil, omnipotent, and whose very body and being is absolute consciousness (therefore not an object, not knowable): wherever this consciousness manifests in whatever manner, it is that. Because the substratum (the infinite consciousness) is real, all that is based on it acquires reality, though the reality is the substratum alone. This universe and all beings in it are a long dream.
By persistent practice egotism is quietened.
When the world-appearance is seen as an appearance it does not produce either elation or sorrow. When a truth that has not been personally experienced is expounded, one does not grasp it except with the help of an illustration.
There are seven states or planes of wisdom. Pure wish or intention is the first, enquiry is the second, the third is when the mind becomes subtle, establishment in truth is the fourth, total freedom from attachment or bondage is the fifth, the sixth is cessation of objectivity, and the seventh is beyond all these.
 

1. “Why do I continue to be a fool? I shall seek holy men and scriptures, having cultivated dispassion” – such a wish is the first state.
2. Thereupon one engages in the practice of enquiry (direct observation).
3. With all these, there arises non-attachment, and the mind becomes subtle and transparent. This is the third state.
4. When these three are practised, there arises in the seeker a natural turning away from sense-pleasures and there is natural dwelling in truth. This is the fourth state.
5. When all these are well practised, there is total non-attachment and at the same time a conviction in the nature of truth. This is fifth state.
6. Then one rejoices in one’s own self, the perception of duality and diversity both within oneself and outside oneself ceases, and the efforts that one made at inspiration of others bear fruition in direct spiritual experience.
7. After this there is no other support, no division, no diversity, and self-knowledge is spontaneous, natural and therefore unbroken. This is seventh, transcendental state.  This is the state of one who is liberated while living here. Beyond this is the state of one who has transcended even the body (turiyatita).

Human Beings Born of Impurity -
Some beings are born pure and enlightened (Satvik). Even in their own previous births they had turned away from the lure of sensual pleasures. But the nature of the others who are born merely to perpetuate the cycle of birth and death, is a mixture of the pure, the impure and the dark. There are others whose nature is pure with just a slight impurity; they are devoted to the truth and are full of noble qualities. Other people are enveloped by the darkness of ignorance and stupidity – they are like rocks and hills.
Those beings in whom purity are preponderant with just a slight impurity (the rajas – Satvik people) are ever happy, enlightened and do not grieve nor despair. They are unselfish like trees, and like them, they live to experience the fruition of past actions without committing new ones. They are desireless. They are at peace without themselves and they do not abandon this peace even in the worst calamities. They love all, and look upon all with equal vision. They do not drown in the ocean of sorrow.
Person who is intelligent, who is good natured and equal visioned, and who sees only what is good, is entitled to the vision of wisdom.
Seemingly unending world-appearance is sustained by impure (rajas) and dull (tamas) beings, even as a superstructure is sustained by pillars. But it is playfully and easily abandoned by those who are of pure nature.

Renunciation of Cravings -
Austerity and penance, charity and the observance of religious vows do not lead to the realisation of the Lord; only the company of the holy men and the study of true scriptures are helpful, as that dispel ignorance and delusion. Even when one is convinced that this alone is real, one goes beyond sorrow, on the path liberation. Austerity or penance is self-inflicted pain. Of what value is charity performed with wealth earned by deceiving others – only they derive the fruits of such charity. Religious observances add to one’s vanity. There is only one remedy for ignorance of the Lord – the firm and decisive renunciation of craving for sense-pleasure.
Craving for heaven and even for liberation arises in one’s heart only as long as the ‘I’ is seen as entity. As long as the ‘I’ thus remains, there is only unhappiness in one’s life.
 
However, the higher form of ‘I-ness’ which gives rise to the feeling ‘I am one with the entire universe, there is nothing apart from me’, is the understanding of the enlightened person. Another type of ‘I-ness’ is when one feels that the ‘I’ is extremely subtle and atomic in nature and therefore different from and independent of everything in this universe: this, too, is unobjectionable, being conducive to liberation. But the ‘I-ness’ that has been described earlier on is one which identifies the self with the body: this is to be abandoned firmly. By the persistent cultivation of the higher form of ‘I-ness’. The lower form is eradicated.
 
Self-Knowledge -

1. Cravings destroy wisdom. Lost in satisfying sensual appetites, life ebbs away fast. This body, which is the excellent vehicle to take us to the other shore of self-knowledge, falls into the mire of worldliness.
2. The mind be led along the path of righteousness by the prior study of the scriptures, company of the holy ones and the cultivation of dispassion.
3. How equanimity, purity or dispassion arise in the mind of one who is swayed by thoughts of ‘this is right’, ‘this is wrong’, ‘this is gain’, ‘this is loss’? when there is only one Bhagwan (which is forever one and the many) what can be said to be right and what wrong?
4. Be free of duality; remain firmly established in the self, abandoning even concern for your own welfare. Be at peace within, with a steady mind.
5. He who knows that all the activities merely happen because of the mere existence of the consciousness – even as a crystal reflects the objects around it without intending to do so – is liberated.
6. The reflection of an object in the mirror can be said to be neither real or unreal. It is indescribable. Even so, the body which is reflected in the self is neither real nor unreal, but is indescribable.
7. Mind is false, and world-appearance is also false; hence there is a mysterious relationship between the two – like the relationship between the barren woman and her son.
8. The darkness of ego-sense which veils the self is dispelled by wisdom (inner light). He who seeks to be established in the highest state of consciousness, should first purify his mind by the cultivation of wisdom or the kindling of the inner light.
9. This ocean of worlds-appearance can be crossed only when you are firmly established in supreme wisdom, when you see the self with the self alone and when your intelligence is not diverted or coloured by sense-perception.
10. There is indeed nothing which is worth desiring or renouncing. For as long as these things are seen as objects, they are nothing but concepts, precepts and notions. Good and evil, great and small, worthy or un worthy, are all based on the notion of desirability. When desirability has no meaning, the others do not arise at all. There is truly no essence in all that is seen in this world – the mountains, the oceans, the forests, the men and women and all the objects – hence there is no desire for them. When there is no desire, there is supreme peace at heart.
11. Be firmly established in this wisdom and discard the impure notion of ego-sense from the heart. Thereafter, even if you engage yourself in activity, you are unattached to it and therefore not tainted by it.
12. To the enlightened person this ocean of sorrow is like a little puddle. He views this body as a spectator looks at a distant crowd. Hence, he is not affected by the pains that the body is subjected to.
13. The self is ever untouched by pain and pleasure; but thinking itself to be the body; it undergoes the experiences the body.
14. Intellectual knowledge is not knowledge! unattachment to wife, son and house, equanimity in pleasure and pain, love of solitude, being firmly established in self-knowledge – this is knowledge, all else is ignorance! Only when the ego-sense is thinned out does this self-knowledge arise.

 

The book “The Supreme Yoga” is the teaching of the sage Vasistha imparted to Sri Rama. It contains true understanding about the creation of the world i.e. the world is nothing but the play of consciousness. the Yoga Vasistha is the greatest help to the spiritual awakening and direct experience of Truth. Vasistha demands direct observation of the mind, its motion, its notions, its reasoning, the assumed cause and the projected result. The book is a translation into English by Swami Venkatesananda of Divine Life Society, Rishikesh India. The article is primarily based on it.
 
To the ignorant, the body is the source of suffering’ but to the enlightened man, this body is the source of infinite delight, and when its life-span comes to an end he does not regard it as a loss at all. The body is regarded as a vehicle of wisdom. The body does not subject the wise man to the temptations of lust and greed, nor does it allow ignorance or fear to invade him.
 
The wise man who is rid of all doubts, in whom there is no image of self, reigns supreme in the body. Therefore, one should abandon all cravings for pleasure and attain wisdom. The knower of truth regards even the most beautiful women as a painted image; that is the truth, for both of them are made of the same substance (earth, water etc.). The enlightened sage functions in the world while his consciousness is firmly established in the truth.
 
The truth or existence-consciousness-bliss absolute is beyond thought and understanding, it is supreme peace and omnipresent, it transcends imagination and description. There arises naturally in it the faculty of conceptualization.

Prakriti & Ignorance –
The self-understanding is considered to be threefold: subtle, middling and gross. The intellect that comprehends these three regards them as sattva, rajas and tamas. The three together constitute what is known as prakriti or nature. Avidya or ignorance is prakriti or nature and it is threefold. This is the source of all beings; beyond it is the supreme. These three qualities of nature (sattva, rajas and tamas) are subdivided again into three each i.e. subtle, middling and gross of each of these. Thus, you have nine categories. These nine qualities constitute the entire universe.
The sages, the ascetics, the perfected ones, the dwellers of the nether land, the celestials and the gods are the Satvika part of ignorance. Among these, the celestials and the dwellers of the nether land form the gross (tamas), the sages form the middling (rajas) and gods Vishnu, Shiva etc. form the Satvika. They who come under the category of sattva are not born again: hence they are considered liberated. They exist as long as this world lasts. The other (like the sages) who are liberated while living (Jivanmukta), shed their body in course of time, reach the abode of the gods, dwell there during the period of existence of the world and then are liberated. Thus, this part of avidya or ignorance has become vidya or knowledge has become vidya or self-knowledge. Avidya arises in vidya just as ripples arise in the ocean; and avidya dissolves in vidya just as ripples dissolve in water.
 
Knowledge of Truth -

1. One sees the truth who sees the body as a product of deluded understanding and as the fountain source of misfortune, and who knows that the body is not the self.
2. One sees the truth who sees that in the body pleasure and pain are experienced on account of the passage of time and the circumstances in which one is placed, and that they do not pertain to him.
3. One sees the truth who sees that he is omnipresent infinite consciousness which encompasses within itself all that takes place everywhere at all times.
4. One sees the truth who knows that the self, which is as subtle as the millionth part of the tip of a hair divided a million times, pervades everything.
5. One sees the truth who sees that there is no division at all between the self and the other, and that the one infinite light of consciousness exists as the sole reality.
6. One sees the truth who sees that the non-dual consciousness which indwells all beings is omnipotent and omnipresent.
7. One sees the truth who is not deluded into thinking that he is the body which is subject to illness, fear, agitation, old age and death.
8. One sees the truth who sees that all things are strung in the self as beads are strung on a thread, and who knows ‘I am not the mind’.
9. One sees the truth who sees that all this is a Brahman, neither ‘I’ nor ‘the body’.
10. One sees the truth who sees all beings in the three worlds as his own family, deserving of his sympathy and protection.
11. One sees the truth who knows that the self alone exists and that there is no substance in objectivity.
12. One is unaffected who knows that pleasure, pain, birth, death, etc. are all the self only.
13. One is firmly established in the truth who feels:” What should I acquire, what should I renounce, when all this is the one self?”

 
The Man of Truth, Sage -
The sage who has realised the truth and who is liberated from error here and now beholds this world as he would in deep sleep, without the least craving. He does all, yet he does nothing. Inwardly having renounced everything, though outwardly he appears to be busy, he is ever in the state of equilibrium. His actions are entirely non-volitional. The sage is unattached to anything or anybody. He is a child among children, old man among old man, hero among heroes, youth among youth and sorrowing among the sorrowful. He has no longing for pleasure and hence is not tempted by it. He is not attached to bondage or even to liberation. He is not elated when his efforts bear fruit, nor is he worried if they do not.
 
He does not feel any justification for either pity or joy. When all such concepts as pleasure and pain, desirable and undesirable cease, all notions in the mind cease.
 
There are two ways in which this cessation can be achieved: one is the way of yoga which involves the restraint of movement of thought, and the other is the way of knowledge which involves the right knowledge of truth.
 
There are two types of muni (a sage, who observes mouna or silence). One is the rigid ascetic and the other the liberated sage.

1. The former forcibly restrains his senses and engages himself in dry (devoid of wisdom) kriya (activities) with fanaticism.
2. The liberated sage, on the other hand, knows what is what (the truth as truth and the unreal as unreal), he is endowed with self-knowledge and yet he behaves as any ordinary person here. What is regarded as silence or Mouna is based on the nature and the behaviour of this muni.

 
Four types of silence have been described: 1. Silence of speech, 2. Silence of the senses (eyes, etc.), 3. Violent restraint, as also, 4. The silence of deep sleep. There is another known as silence of the mind. However, that is possible only in one who is dead or one who practises the rigid Mouna (kastha Mouna) or the silence of deep sleep (susupti Mouna). Of these the first three involve elements of the rigid Mouna. It is the fourth that is really conducive to liberation. Hence, even at the risk of incurring the displeasure of those who resort to the first three types of Mouna. I say that there is nothing in those three is desirable.
 
The silence of deep sleep is conducive to liberation. In it the prana or life-force is neither restrained nor promoted, the senses are neither fed nor starved, the perception of diversity is neither expressed nor suppressed, the mind is neither mind nor non-mind. There is no division and hence no effort at abolishing it; it is called the silence of deep sleep, and one who is established in it may or may not meditate.
 
They who are fully awakened, who are constantly engaged in samadhi and who are thoroughly enlightened, are known as Samkhya-yogi. They who have reached the state of bodiless consciousness through pranayama etc., are known as yoga-yogi. Indeed, the two are essentially the same. The cause of this world-appearance and bondage is indeed the mind. Both these paths lead to the cessation of the movement of prana or the cessation of thought, liberation is attained.
 
Impure mind-stuff remains restless as the wind. It is dissatisfied with whatever it gets and grow more and more restless by the day. like the lion in the cage, the mind is ever restless. It is this mind which is the cause of all objects in the world; the three worlds exist because of the mind-stuff. When the mind vanishes, the worlds vanish too.
 
People are righteous because they are afraid of consequences of sin. Abandon joy and sorrow, grief and attachment. The unreal appears to be real and the real appears to be unreal: hence give up hope and hopelessness and equanimity.
 
Distinction between ignorance and knowledge is unreal and verbal. There is neither ignorance here nor even knowledge! When you cease to see knowledge and ignorance as two distinct entities, what exists alone exists. When these two notions are abandoned, what remains is the truth.

The book “The Supreme Yoga” is the teaching of the sage Vasistha imparted to Sri Rama. It contains true understanding about the creation of the world i.e. the world is nothing but the play of consciousness. the Yoga Vasistha is the greatest help to the spiritual awakening and direct experience of Truth. Vasistha demands direct observation of the mind, its motion, its notions, its reasoning, the assumed cause and the projected result. The book is a translation into English by Swami Venkatesananda of Divine Life Society, Rishikesh India. The article is primarily based on it.
 
The body is aggregate of flesh, blood etc., the mind vanishes on enquiry into its nature, self-limitation of consciousness and such other concepts are insentient (non-sense) – what is the ego? The senses exist and are engaged in self-satisfying activity all the time, the substances of the world are the substances of the world – where is the ego?
By engaging oneself in the enquiry into the nature of the self – “who am I?” the enquiry is the fire in which the very seed and roots of the tree known as Chitta (mind) are burnt completely.
The physical body is surely inert and it is certainly not the self. It is experienced only on account of the movement of thought in the mind. The organs of action are but parts of the body and hence they too are inert, being parts of the body which is inert. The sense-organs are inert, too, for they depend upon the mind for their functioning. I consider even the mind to be inert. The mind thinks and entertains notions, but it prompted to do so by the intellect, which is the determining agent. Even this intellect (buddhi) is surely inert, for it is directed by the ego-sense. From this ego-sense is inert, for it is conjured up the Jiva, just as a ghost is conjured up by the ignorant child. The Jiva is but pure consciousness clothed, as it were, by the life force, and it dwells in the heart.
It is the self which is pure consciousness that dwells as the Jiva because the consciousness becomes aware of itself as its own object. Though the self of pure consciousness, it imagines itself to be insentient and unreal on account of its perception of objects.
There is thus nothing which can be called ‘I’ and which undergoes being and non-being.
Abandon vanity, anger, impurity and violence, for great souls are not overcome by such base qualities. Remember past sorrows again and again, and with a cheerful attitude of mind enquire “who am I”?
 
Constantly enquiring into nature of the self, attain peace. This state of consciousness can be attained by the cultivation of dispassion, the study of scriptures, the instructions of a guru and by the persistent practice of enquiry. But, if the awakened intelligence is keen and sharp, you will attain it even without the other aids.
 
Enquiry is the second gate keeper to liberation. Non enquiring fool is really a storehouse of sorrow. The eye of spiritual enquiry does not lose its sight even in the midst of all activities; he who does not have this eye is indeed to be pitied. Knowledge of truth arises from such enquiry; from such knowledge there follows tranquillity in oneself; and then arises the supreme peace that passes understanding and the ending of all sorrow.
The distress of the mind is got rid of by enquiry into the nature of the self. When you have gained self-knowledge and when your consciousness has infinitely expanded, your mind no longer falls into the cesspool of the world.
 
Even as there is no oil in a rock, the diversity of sight, seer and scene or of doer, act and action, or knower, knowledge and known, does not exist in pure consciousness. Similarly, the distinction between ‘I’ and ‘You’, between the one and the many, is verbal. On enquiry, all these disappear and only the unmodified pure consciousness remains.
Spiritual Enquiry –
What is it that as ‘I’? I am not the mountain; the mountain is not mine. I am not the hill-tribe, nor the hill-tribe. This is merely called my kingdom: I abandon that notion. Now, the capital city is left. I am not this city nor it mine. That notion, too, is abandoned. Even so I abandon the notions of family relationships – wife, sons, etc.
Let me enquire into this body. I am not the inert substances like flesh and bones – nor am I the blood nor the organs of action. I am not the mind which is the root cause of this ignorant cycle of birth and death, I am not the faculty of discrimination nor am I the ego sense.
Now, what is left? What remains is the sentient Jiva. But it is involved in subject-object relationship. That which is the object of knowledge or comprehension is not the self. Thus, do I abandon that which is knowable – or the object. What now remains is the pure consciousness which is free from the shadow of doubt. I am the infinite self.
By enquiry, we attain to the supreme state of consciousness. Compassionate, yet not un-contemptuous; not avoiding the pairs of opposites and not jealous; neither intelligent nor non-intelligent; neither motivated nor non-motivated – one lives with equal vision and inner calmness.
 
Attaining Stage Beyond Happiness -
By following the attitude – “I am the space, I am the sun. I am the directions, above and below. I am the gods. I am the demons. I am all beings. I am darkness. I am earth, the oceans etc. I am the dust, the wind, the fire and all the world. I am omnipresent. How can there be anything other than me; one gains divine insight and remain firmly established in self-knowledge. By adopting this attitude, you will rise beyond joy and sorrow. 
 
Countless scenes are seen by the eyes in accordance with their natural function; why do you get involved in them? Indeed, it through repeated thinking, that this ignorant relationship is strengthened; but I shall now destroy it through right enquiry.
The mind is dead; all my worries and anxieties are dead; the demon known as ego-sense is dead, too: all this has been brought about through this mantra of enquiry. I am free and happy now.
There is no real duality. The subject exists because of the object, and the object is but a reflection of the subject: duality cannot be if there is no one, and where is the need for the notion of ‘unity’ if one alone exists? When thus real knowledge is gained by means of right enquiry and understanding, only that remains which is not expressible in words.
 
Mind & Tendencies -
The mind punishes itself by its own latent tendencies and restlessly wanders in the world. Sometimes mind experiences an imperfect awakening and it renounces the pleasures of the world without proper understanding – such renunciation itself proves to be a great source of sorrow. But when such renunciation arises out of the fulness of understanding, of wisdom born of enquiry into the nature of mind, the renunciation leads to supreme bliss. An uncontrolled mind is the source of sorrow; when it is thoroughly understood, the sorrow vanishes like mist at sunrise.
 
Delusion, craving, greed and attachment are non-existent; how can they exist when there is no duality? When bondage is non-existent, surely liberation is false, too.
 
Abandon your latent tendencies. Born of ignorance, these tendencies are hard to destroy, and they give birth to endless sorrow. Enquiry into the nature of the self-dispels the ignorance self-limiting tendency. In fact, the very desire to undertake this enquiry is able to bring about a change. Austerities and such other practices are of no use in this. When the mind is purified of its past by arising of wisdom, it abandons its previous tendencies. 
 
How to cultivate Dispassion - 

1. Day by day self-enquiry – generates dispassion.
2. He is disinterested in the activities of the market place but engage himself in meritorious activities. He is afraid of sin. His speech is appropriate to the occasion, soft, truthful and sweet. He gathers scriptures whenever and wherever he finds them and studies them.
3. Then Vicara-enquiry – He eagerly resorts to the company of holy ones who are well versed in the scriptures and in spiritual practices. He abandons evils like vanity, jealousy, delusion and greed. From the preceptors he learns all the secrets of yoga.
4. Next state is Asamsanga – non-attachment or freedom. He roams the forests in seclusion and strives to quieten the mind. Adherence to the scriptures and to virtuous conduct bestows upon him the faculty of seeing the truth. The non-attachment or freedom is of two types, the ordinary and the superior. One who practises the first type of freedom feels, “I am neither the doer, nor the enjoyer. I neither affect others nor an I afflicted by others. All this happens on account of past karma, under this aegis of God. I do nothing whether there is pain or pleasure, good fortune or calamity.